I am Part of the True Vine:

The Giver of Life

John 15:1, 5

“‘I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener…Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.’”

I am a Child of God. What an amazing, wonderful statement. My status as a Child of God had nothing to do with how good I was, my nationality, race, creed, nor status in life. I am a Child of God because He loves me. 2 Timothy 1:9 says, “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time--to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.”

Our Heavenly Father, before the beginning of time, knew we would fail Him, yet He still created us. He knew we would rebel against Him, yet He sent His Son to die for us. No greater love. Our Heavenly Father didn’t stop working after He created us. He has and will continue working in our lives, desiring the intimate relationship He created us for.

Our Heavenly Father is the gardener in our lives. He prepares, grafts, and harvests our mission in life. As a loving gardener, He waters our lives with the Living Water, Himself (John 4:14). He gives us all of the nutrients we need in our lives to glorify Him as we remain in His Son.

Jesus is the True Vine. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, God the Father has grafted you into Jesus. You are now part of His Son. Think about it for a moment. You are one with the Giver of Life. You are no longer alone in your struggles. You are no longer alone as you serve the Creator of the Universe. He will never leave you nor forsake you. You are part of the Son. You are one with Jesus Christ.

Jesus proclaimed, “‘Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).’” It is not about my ability, but my availability. My mission in life, my purpose in life, is to remain in the Son. Jesus is the One who will be doing the work in my life, reflecting His love to the world around me. I only need to remain in Him. It’s all about having an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. When my focus is on Jesus, I will glorify the Father. Why? Because the fruit I will produce is Jesus, Himself. I will be the Light of the World. I will reflect the Fruit of the Spirit in my life.

The sap that flows through The Vine is the Holy Spirit, Himself. Earlier in the same conversation, Jesus promised His disciples, and He promises us as well, that He will ask our Heavenly Father to indwell us with the Holy Spirit. John 14:15-17a: “‘If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.’”

When our desire is to have an intimate relationship with our Savior, the Holy Spirit will flow through our lives, producing His Fruit for all to see. Andrew Murray once said that the Fruit of the Spirit is the Nine-Fold-Excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Fruit of the Spirit is the characteristics of Jesus. You cannot take any of them away, and Jesus still be God. You cannot add any to the Fruit of the Spirit, and Jesus still be God. The Fruit of the Spirit is the perfect reflection of Jesus.

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

Jesus called us to be His Light. He called us to be His reflection to the world. We will accomplish that when Jesus is the One people see in our lives. We will accomplish that when we are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The Father has prepared and is sustaining us. He has grafted us into His Son. The Holy Spirit is flowing through our lives, producing fruit that reflects the Son of God to those around us. We are only asked to remain in Jesus. We are to become one with our Savior. We are to become a reflection of the True Vine so others may see The Giver of Life in our lives.

Meditate on This Truth

2 Corinthians 3:18

“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like [Jesus] as we are changed into his glorious image.”

John 1:12

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Yesterday, I brought up the fact that most of us who are followers of Jesus Christ live our lives as if Jesus hasn’t done anything since the Cross of Calvary. We would never admit this. We would quote chapter and verse of the many passages showing that Jesus is actively involved in our lives. However, when it comes to the way we live our lives, we are telling the world (and ourselves) a different story.

         I want us to go back to the basics of Christianity. Instead of majoring on the minor doctrines of the Bible, let us instead focus on what is important to God. God did not write a love letter to us (Bible) where only the educated seminarians can understand. He wrote His letter to all of us. He wants us all to understand how much He loves us. He wants us to understand that there is freedom in the Cross of Calvary. Jesus came to set us free from the penalty of sin. He came to offer us hope, forgiveness, and freedom. He came to restore the relationship mankind had with Him before The Fall.

         Jesus told His disciples, and He’s telling us today, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:1-4, NLT).

         This is the passage that led me to salvation. When we read this passage, we tend to focus primarily on the fact that Jesus is preparing a place for us in Heaven. However, what opened my heart to God thirty-one years ago was when Jesus said, “I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am…” Jesus wants to have an intimate relationship with us. He died on the cross to restore the relationship that was destroyed in the Garden of Eden. The Creator of the Universe loved us so much that He died so that we can be with Him for all of eternity.

         John 1:12 tells us that if we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we will become a child of God. “But to all who believed [Jesus] and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” The moment you gave your life to Jesus, the Creator of the Universe called you His child. As a father, I would die for my children. God did just that for you and me. He died to set us free. For this reason, if He loved us so much that He was willing to die for us, how much more will He take care of us?

Meditate on This Truth

Matthew 5:25-33)

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

         Rest in God’s promises, for you are His child. He promised that He will take care of His children, and His promises are always true.

Jesus:

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Ephesians 4:21-24

I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Throughout my years, I knew my parents loved me, but they never said it. When I was a teenager, I searched for love in all the wrong places (I know that was a song). At the age of thirteen, I experienced everything that I was not supposed to experience. Drugs, alcohol, and so much more became part of my teenage life.

No matter what I tried to do to be happy in my life, I failed. My life was a disaster, but I did not know what else to do. When I was nineteen, my parents moved me to Dallas, Texas; because there were no jobs available up north during the Carter administration. Yes, I’m that old.

I got a job at a box company on the third day there. Billy Rose was the operator of the machine I worked on. For a full year, he pestered me about my relationship with Christ. I told him I believed Jesus was God, died on the cross for my sins, and rose from the grave. I knew all of that, but he told me that head knowledge was not what God was desiring. He wanted a relationship with me, instead.

I blew him off for the whole year. During that year, he went through situations in his life that would have made me give up, but he continued to have joy in his life. One day I finally told him I wanted what he had. Instead of leading me in a prayer of salvation, he told me to go home and read the book of John.

That seemed kind of strange, but I did. I went home that night and read the book of John. I read the book of John every night for several nights, until one day; it was like a light finally turned on. Jesus told His disciples He was preparing a place for them because He wanted them with Him for eternity.

I finally understood what Jesus wanted. He didn’t want head knowledge of who He was. He wanted to have a relationship with me. He wanted to be with ME for eternity. Wow! That blew me away. That night I asked Jesus to forgive me for all the things I had done in my life, and to please save me from myself.

  

The next day I told Billy what I did and we rejoiced together. I did ask him why he did not share with me how to be saved. His answer has stuck with me all of my life. He told me he did not want anyone to say I was saved because of a Baptist or any other denomination. He wanted my testimony to be about what God said in His Word. I was saved through the testimony of God’s Word.

I wish I could tell you that my walk with Christ has only brought happiness in my life, but I can’t. I have experienced my share of valleys. But, when I look back at those valleys, what I have realized is that Jesus was always there, carrying me along the way. I am never alone!

For the next several weeks, I will like to share with you how God has changed my life. At the age of twenty-one, I became a child of God. My security and destiny were settled that day. However, four years ago I walked away from the Do’s and Don’ts of Christianity. I had lived under the law for the first twenty-seven years as a Believer. I knew I was saved by grace. Grace was a word I used and understood, but never applied in my daily walk with Jesus.

I spent a year going through the Bible, studying who God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was. I also focused on who we were as His creation, and for those of us who have given our lives to Jesus, His child. Though I had pastored two churches in the past and had taught thousands of Sunday School lessons and home Bible studies, I had found myself empty inside. Traditionalism, Legalism, and Denominationalism had kept me from enjoying the salvation I had experienced. However, that has all changed. I am now on a quest for God’s own heart. I am living my life for Jesus Christ, remaining in His love.

I want to share with you who we are in Jesus Christ. We are not just sinners saved by grace. We are so much more in our Heavenly Father’s eyes. That is why I called this lesson series: Jesus, What Have You Done for Me Lately? We live our lives as if Jesus isn't doing anything, anymore. We act as if He stopped working after the Cross of Calvary.
 
Jesus, however, is actively desiring to have an intimate relationship with us. He has come to set us free, not only from our sins, but from the struggles we face in life. We just have to seek Him.
 
Open your heart to Him as you join me on our quest. Jeremiah 29:11-14, God told His children who were enslaved in Babylon:

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,’ says the Lord. ‘I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.’”

          In America, we are not enslaved by another nation. However, many of God’s children today are enslaved by Traditionalism, Legalism, and Denominationalism. Too many of God’s children are living the Do’s and Don’ts of Christianity instead of enjoying the life He offers. Call out to our Heavenly Father, and He will answer you. He will lead you to your destiny. He will lead you to His heart.

Meditate on This Truth

Ephesians 4:21-24 (NLT)

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”