Wake up. There is a world of articles, books, and information out there when it comes to Christianity, but we are mostly stuck with rhetoric and double talk when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, our new identity as believers, and the security and finality of the work of Christ. Are you getting everything you need spiritually from your church? Or do you find yourself feeling hungry for more? Join Lenny as he unpacks what Scripture really taught about our Lord Jesus Christ in context and why this matters to you. Wake up, wake up, wake up to grace.

Welcome back, everyone. Glad to have you back. After the last several messages, we've come to understand that abiding is believing. The first thing that comes to mind with that being said is, that's it, we just believe and go on with our lives? And the answer to this question is absolutely not. To believe such a notion and live by it would be faithlessness. But that would be in terms of our faith, not the faithfulness of Yahweh. We must understand that we can be faithless, at least for a time, and it's not because we're lacking in good deeds, but rather that we're lacking in our dependency on the Lord. We need his guidance in our lives to live abundantly. On the other hand, we must also realize that living the abundant life is not always easy. In our John 15 passage, we read that we are as branches, and when we bear fruit, Yahweh prunes us so that we bear more fruit. The picture of Yahweh pruning for fruit bearing sounds pleasant until we realize that we're the branches. Now it begins to sound like something you'd see in an old horror film like Nightmare on Elm Street. When it comes to our Christian walk, the Lord is pruning for fruit bearing, and we're the branches. I was blessed to learn this lesson firsthand with my raspberry bushes this year. Last year I pruned off some dead branches and left the rest alone. I received a very good harvest. But this year I followed the advice of a vine dresser, so to speak, and I pruned my bushes until there was only a half dozen or so branches left. I mean these things looked bare. There was hardly anything left. I thought I may have made a big mistake, but I kept the faith. What good would worrying do for me anyways? You wouldn't believe the harvest I got from these bushes after that. These things grew like I've never seen. But the most notable thing was the fruit. The quality of the fruit was second to none, and it just kept coming from the spring all the way into the fall. From this I learned several key points that can be applied to our John 15 passage. Pruning is not something we need to be afraid of. The plant which is now bare and weak will come back stronger. The yield of fruit is greatly increased by pruning. When Yahweh is pruning us for fruit bearing, it will likely hurt a bit, maybe even a lot. Do we ever get beyond this point? I don't think so, my friends. But we can learn to embrace it like the apostles embraced it. In Romans 8 35, Paul writes, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Do these things sound like the words of a man that had gotten to a place beyond pruning? No, not at all. But Paul's words of encouragement to others display the fruit that he was bearing from those struggles. When a vine dresser is pruning for fruit bearing, they're going to target all the branches that are not fruit bearing branches. This is a ruthless process. Imagine areas of your life that are not fruitful being cut away in favor of those that are fruitful. What might that look like for us? We have to remember we signed up for this at salvation. We asked for this. We wanted salvation now and forever. We needed Christ in our life. Yet much of the time we're probably complaining when he's at work and don't even realize it. Today's message may sound like a lesson in landscaping. I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds my content when searching for information on pruning fruit bushes. But the thing we have to understand is that the disciples would have been familiar with these things. Israel was an agricultural community. This was by Yahweh's design. We're far out of touch with these skills in our culture today, at least in America. So for those of us that don't know, there's a reason that a vine dresser or gardener prunes for fruit bearing. If all the branches are left alone, the fruit bearing energy of the plant will be weak. It will have to focus its energy across all of the branches, even those that are non-fruit bearing. Non-fruit bearing branches can be older branches or branches that are not matured. They don't have to be dead to be pruned. The vine dresser or gardener will know which branches would be fruit-bearing and keep those branches. These may just get a minor trim. Our father is the vine dresser or gardener here. He loves his plantings. Can you see the beautiful picture we've been given in this? Why does our father prune for fruit bearing? It's about focus. Active belief is the driving force of every element of our Christian being. When non-fruit bearing branches have been pruned off, the full energy of the vine can now focus on those remaining branches. All of its focus can now be in bearing fruit. Our father is perfectly capable of influencing us to do his will. He knows exactly how to get our attention. He knows what's good for us. We may not want to let go of a branch, but he'll take it. Our Lord is pleased with the fruit that comes from his vine. We need to resist the temptation to see pruning as punishment like so many do. This view is worldly at best. You see people struggling in the world and they complain. We all do this at times, but this is not our calling. The rest of the world thinks they deserve something great from God because they're good people. God's not impressed with your behavior. He's pleased when you need him and desire his guidance. He's not impressed with your plans. He's pleased when you desire his plans. And most of all, God is not punishing Christians for their sin. When we adopt this mentality, we wrestle with the gospel of grace. Yahweh does not punish, he prunes for fruit bearing. As we go through trials in our life, we should think back on this analogy that Yeshua left us, and say to ourselves, What might my father be doing here? What might he be teaching me by this? Is my father pruning for fruit bearing? We're called to bear fruit. This is what our passage in John 15 is all about. Our Lord is shaping us for eternity, not just for this life, but for eternity. In John 15, verse 16 we read, You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. Your fruit will abide, our Lord proclaims. What does abide mean? It means to continue in, to remain in for how long? For eternity. We take this with us. In Matthew 6 19, Yeshua says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Our Father's preparing us for the future. Not only the future in our earthly bodies, but a future in the heavenly realms. This is why we can embrace this discipline from our Father. Nothing can take this treasure away from us. It's ours forever, and the more we rely on the spirit that we have in us, the more fruit will bear. We don't have to be the leader in our spiritual journey. We have a better guide. Yeshua led by example. He followed the Father's instructions in all things. We can't become arrogant when we follow the guidance of another. When we rely on another for all things, we're humbled, and we know that our Lord favors the humble. In Matthew 23 12, we read, Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. But before we get too far along, let's look at our passages to freshen up our memory and allow us to really take in what our Lord is saying in John 15, one through six. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. You, my friends, may have some useless limbs on your branch, but you'll never become so useless as to be thrown in the fire to burn. This analogy of branches thrown into the fire is not intended to scare the faithful. It's intended to wake us up. It's intended to remind us of our salvation and why it has been given to us. And as we learned last week, this message from Yeshua was intended to keep them from falling away under persecution and distress. These were words of encouragement, not a warning of punishment. The Christian will never be a useless dead branch in the eyes of our Lord. We were chosen from the beginning of time to be his pleasant planting. We all have what it takes if we only believe this to be true. When we bear fruit is because of our belief in Christ. It is our faith in him that allows us to draw from the vine. While illustrating faith in great detail, the author of Hebrews in chapter 11 writes, And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. That statement sounds a lot like Yeshua in John 15, doesn't it? Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Everything we do in faith as Christians is because we believe that we can draw from the vine, and we can be encouraged about the driving force of our faith in what Paul says to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2.13, Paul writes, If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And in a similar way, we can be encouraged by Yeshua's words in the Gospel of John. John 15 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. Yahweh has promised to remain faithful to us unconditionally. This promise came through the indwelling Holy Spirit that is ours forever. Our Heavenly Father made his dwelling in our inner being and will not deny us, even if we're faithless. To be clear, I'm not saying the Lord has changed his attributes, such as wrath and punishment. I'm saying that we're under a new and better covenant that promises protection from these attributes. And since believing is fruit bearing, and we're told by Yeshua that our fruit will abide, it would follow that all Christians bear at least some fruit in this life. Yeshua seems to make this clear in his parable. Matthew 13, 23 states, As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. Not all Christians will bear a hundredfold of fruit. This is extremely important to realize, but this isn't a call to sit on our hands. We don't see the leaders of the church in the first century displaying or promoting anything close to that. Can you imagine Paul saying, Hey, I don't need to go out and preach today, God's faithful. He's given out a spirit whether I go out or not. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? It's almost as ridiculous as universalism. If everyone is automatically saved without believing, the apostles' suffering was in vain, a complete waste of time. But we know better than that. So how many works do we need then? How do we know our works are enough? If we ask this, it proves that we missed the point. It's about God's work in us. It's about Yahweh pruning for fruit bearing. It's about faith in Him and the fruit that's produced when we do our part. What is our part? Have you ever been so distressed that all you can do is cry out Abba? Sometimes that's all we've got, but in reality, that's going to be enough. Our father, Abba, which is likened to Daddy, is our lifeline. We'll never mature to a point where we need him less. Quite the opposite, maturing in Christianity comes when we need him more. It reminds me of that silly movie Benjamin Button, where the character ages backwards. We end up like old infants, heading back to our Creator and becoming more dependent as we age. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 10, for the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This statement being made after crying out to Yahweh for a thorn to be removed, and getting this response, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And where did the power of Christ come from in Paul's life? From the vine. And how did he bear the fruit of this grace that he had been given? By depending on Christ alone. We make ourselves useless depending on ourselves. Abiding is believing. Some have an issue with this, saying, Why would Yeshua tell a believer to believe? Well he did, so we have to deal with that. And dealing with that is exactly what we've done in this study so far, haven't we? At the cross Yeshua said, It is finished. Do you believe it? Your sin has been forgiven, we're told. Are you still asking God to forgive you more? According to our letter to the Hebrews, a believer should no longer feel guilty before the Lord. Hebrews ten one reads, For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Since the worshippers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sin? Guilt is a feeling. We're told by Christian leaders today to ask for forgiveness for our sins. This causes the followers of this theology to feel better when they do this. It clears their conscience. But can we trust our conscience? No, not if it's based on error. We've been set free from sin. Adopting an attitude of unbelief in this bears no fruit. Our Lord is certainly not pleased when we doubt his work on the cross by asking for more of what we already have. I talk on this more in episode 51 if the topic's of interest to you. If you haven't already done this, I highly recommend it. Thank the Lord for his sacrifice on the cross and the life that he has given us to bear fruit eternally. Tell him you'll never insult him by asking for more of his forgiveness. It's actually quite liberating. When we put this silly habit behind us, we can focus again on fruit bearing with the enthusiasm we had when we first came to Christ, genuinely depending on him and living a life of thanks. It's not that we don't analyze our lives and despise sin. It's that we keep our relationship with the Father in context. Pray for pruning, not for more forgiveness. You already have more forgiveness than you could ever need in the gospel of Christ Yeshua. We're not in and out of fellowship, we're seeking and not seeking his guidance, obeying and not obeying, following or ignoring. Our Lord is always on our side, pruning and trimming. Christ Yeshua said it's finished. Are you living by this reality? The content of this message can be found on my blog post at wakinguptograce.com. 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