Back in 1927, there was a man by the name of Paul Mazur working on a complicated problem in the U.S. The complicated problem? Americans weren’t buying enough stuff and Paul and other businessmen were concerned the frugality of Americans would slow the economy down. Paul wondered: what if we can stop people from knowing how to fix their clothes and instead convince them they need to buy new ones if a button falls off? Paul helped articulate the changes in a Harvard Business Review article:  

“We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man's desires must overshadow his needs.”

This marked the beginning of a new chapter in advertising with a single goal: sell you more stuff. This year, advertisers will spend at least $500 billion dollars to show you content that is meant to form you into a type of person. Each swipe of your news feed shapes you, each podcast forms your mind and heart, and each TV show reinforces a narrative. And can I let you in on a secret?

These things are destructive to our souls. We live in a culture constantly training us to desire more, compare more, and strive more. And while many things contribute to rising anxiety and depression, it’s hard to believe this constant pressure leaves our souls untouched. We’ve become connected to things that cause us and those around us great harm. But, what if there was another option? What if the thing we’re connected to brings us good fruit? That’s what Jesus offers us today as we abide, remain, or make ourselves at home in him.

We’re in the final week of our I AM series in the Gospel of John. This series is based on the most important question Jesus ever asked—and still asks us today which is “Who do you say I am?” As we look to answer that, we can find ourselves in the Gospel According to John. One unique feature of John’s Gospel is the seven ‘I AM’ statements—where Jesus reveals that he is God in the flesh. We’re going to focus on the seventh and final I AM statement today – I am the true vine.

Will you stand if you’re able as we read John 15:1-9?

The Failure of the First Vine

Before we get into the goodness of this passage, we need to first understand why Jesus says “I am the TRUE Vine.” That means there was such a thing as a false vine or a vine that may have produced bad fruit. So, what is Jesus getting at?

There are two Old Testament references (written a few hundred years before Jesus arrived on-scene) we need to understand: Isaiah 5 and Psalm 80. Isaiah 5. In both passages, we learn that God calls Israel his vine. When they stayed connected to him, they were to produce good fruit for the gardener. God shares that he brought them out of Egypt, he protects his vine, and lovingly cares for his vine. But, what does he get in return? Isaiah 5:7 says this:

“The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

Despite God’s faithfulness, he gets bloodshed from his people. Does that sound like Israel is bearing good fruit for God? No. Psalm 80 is a lament and a plea from the people of Israel for God to remember his promises to them. Asaph, the Psalmist, pleads with God to suspend his judgement on the people, forgive them for their failures, and to watch over the vine once more. Psalm 80 pleads with God in a striking foreshadowing of what’s to come:

“Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son (some translations use branch) you have raised for yourself. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O LORD God Almighty, make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.”

In light of the resurrection of Jesus, Psalm 80 can take on a whole new meaning. Jesus is the Son, he called himself the Son of Man. Psalm 80 is lamenting over the fact that Israel cannot be the vine God wants them to be. The Psalm anticipates a faithful Son who will succeed where Israel failed, that’s why Jesus says: “I am the True Vine.”

But, it begs the question: how did Israel end up failing? If they were the vine connected to God and meant to bear good fruit, what happened to them?

Two Sources of Bad Fruit

They had two core issues that caused them to wither and lose their connection to God. There are two issues (amongst many) we can see in Exodus:

1.     Forgetting what God has done.

Before they left Egypt, they saw the wondrous power of God through his plagues and his covenantal love to his people. But when they got to the Red Sea, did they believe God’s power and love would bring them through? No, they said it would have been better to live as slaves in Egypt than die in the desert. God ends up parting the Red Sea and saving his people once again. Shortly after that, Israel began to grumble about food. They said: “In Egypt, while we were slaves, we could eat all we wanted!” God ends up sending Manna in the morning and Quail in the evening. I wish I could say they stopped doubting God and complaining but they didn’t. 

Rather than abiding in God and trusting in his faithfulness, they doubted God could do it again. They had forgotten his past faithfulness so they had given up on his future faithfulness. That takes us to the second issue they faced in Exodus…

2.    Failing to wait on God.

After Moses had been up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, the people of Israel got tired of waiting for him to come back down. They didn’t think that God was going to show up for them so they strove by taking matters into their own hands. They didn’t believe that God, who rescued them from slavery, could give them the fruit they needed so they decided to try to bear fruit themselves. They did this by asking Aaron to create for them a golden calf who could be their God. Despite everything that God did for them, how they all saw his power, and experienced his loving kindness towards them in the past– they abandon the LORD because they’re tired of waiting for him to show up.

Moses finds out about this and fiercely rebukes them, he intercedes on behalf of the people and you know what God does? He forgives the people again. Time and time again, God has proven that he is worthy of their trust and shown that he can help them. Does Israel learn its lesson? No – they continue to doubt all throughout their journey to the promised land and when they finally get there, they don’t trust that God will give them a victory.

Why do they keep struggling with these issues? Israel doubted that God truly loved them. When they faced challenges in the present moment, they believed God had abandoned them despite his past history. When they grew tired of waiting, they didn’t trust in God’s love and took matters into their own hands.

And when they doubt God’s love, they severed the connection between them and God. Did they get good fruit or bad fruit? They got bad fruit – loss, judgement, and pain. God wants his people to bear good fruit but they need to want that for themselves.

If we’re not careful, we can read the Old Testament with a sense of superiority.

How easy is it for us to forget how God has been faithful in the past? When you’re faced a hardship or are walking through a struggle, it becomes hard to see how God is going to bring you through it but he will and he will work all things for good for those who love him and are called for his purpose. If you’re forgetful of what God’s done for you in the past, I’d encourage you to take the time to write down 1 thing you’re thankful for each day or share that at your dinner table. If you fill up a notebook with things you’re thankful for, I believe you will begin to see more clearly how God has been faithful to you.

And when we don’t trust him the way we should, we strive to take matters into our own hands. We may not build a golden calf but we’ll put our trust in something else. If there’s economic uncertainty, some of you may be tempted to put your trust in gold bars or what you have in savings but you won’t bother to trust in God. If there’s hardship in our lives, we won’t ask: God, what do you want to teach me in this season? We’ll do whatever we can to make life easier. We bear good fruit by trusting God even in hard times. And if you have a hard time trusting God, bring those doubts to God – Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, had no problem airing his doubt. God can handle yours too, name it, and see how God answers you.

That’s why Jesus says “I Am the True Vine” to demonstrate that he is finally doing what Israel could never accomplish – he is the means through which God will cause good fruit to bear amongst his people. Jesus will always do the Father’s will unlike Israel. Jesus will always remember God’s faithfulness and trust him completely. Why does Jesus do that? Because he deeply loves his Father and he deeply loves you. He is the one who has authority to forgive sin – against God and neighbors alike. He is the one who can give you new life if you turn to him in faith. And when we turn to him in faith, we find that abiding in Jesus is what we were made for. But how do we actually do that?

How do we abide?

I want you to zero in on verse 9 of our passage for the day. What does it say? It says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love.”

How does the Father love Jesus? Matthew 3:17 tells us: The NLT puts it this way: “This is my dearly loved child, who brings me great joy.”

Then, what does Jesus say in John 15? He says he loves us the way the father loves him. Jesus views us the way that we just read. Brothers & Sisters: do you believe that deep in your bones? That God delights in you? Not just the perfect you - the one who spends hours reading the bible, never getting angry with others, serving all the time, or in constant fellowship with God.

No, God delights in you - the real you. The you who cries at the end of a long day because you just feel like life can’t get any harder. The you who can’t sleep so you stare at the ceiling paralyzed by anxiety and poor choices in the past. The you who has a messy prayer life, who struggles to read the bible but does it anyways, and the you who wants to believe that God delights in you but has some challenges with accepting it. In this rush to meet our self-imposed spiritual quotas or guidelines, we miss the beauty of the present moment with Jesus. We forget that our relationship with Him isn’t based on a checklist or a timer. It’s based on our ability to abide in him.

You may be thinking to yourself: yes, that sounds nice, Anthony. But right now, I feel like God is putting me through so many trials and things feel so hard. My friends: that may very well be evidence of God’s love for you. What does Jesus say? He says that the gardener prunes the one he loves and the ones who are bearing fruit. Alternatively, you may be thinking to yourself: Anthony, you have no idea about that one thing I did and I just know God can’t love me because of it. My dear friend: you cannot out-sin the grace of God. Jesus Christ knew exactly what he was doing when he went to the cross.

As a Father to three kids, I want my kids to abide or remain in my love for them too. I want them to know I delight in them – from taking an interest in my daughter’s dollhouse, to playing this little sleeping game with my oldest son every morning, or to giving my youngest son lots of ticklish kisses. I want them to know that they are my pride and joy. Since they’re my pride and joy, that means I care about the people that they are becoming which means I prune them or discipline them. I don’t do that because I’m cruel. I do it because I want my kids to exhibit self-control, respect for others, kindness, and love. But, they don’t get there automatically – it takes correction or pruning. When we set them in time-out, the first thing we say to them is: “Do you know that mommy and daddy love you, no matter what you do?” Then, we go into pruning or discipline mode.

And that’s what God does with us. He assures us of his love for us no matter what but that also means he’s shaping us into people who bear fruit for his glory. So as we continue to abide and rest in our identity as God’s dearly loved children, our lives will begin to change and start to look different than others. So…

What does a life of abiding look like?

As Jesus is describing what it means to bear fruit, there are multiple ways we could go. For today’s purposes, I want to give two examples of what a life of abiding looks like based on Jesus’ words in John 15:

1.      Joy despite your circumstances. In Acts 5, there’s this strange little story. Peter and the rest of the apostles are brought into the Sanhedrin which is a high council of the Jewish people. The Sanhedrin are upset because Peter and the apostles are continuing to teach that Jesus is King and that he is alive. Peter and the apostles tell the Sanhedrin that they need to obey God rather than man. The Sanhedrin don’t have reason to criminally charge Peter and his friends so they instead whip them and then release them. And you know what Acts 5:41-42 says?

⁴¹ The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. ⁴² Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Why in the world would they be rejoicing? Because their joy wasn’t rooted in something temporary like comfort, success, or other people’s approval. No, their joy was rooted in Jesus. They were connected to him and knew they were deeply known and loved. They knew that injustice would not have the final word and that even suffering could not separate them from Christ. Their suffering was real but what was more real was their connection to the true vine.

But like their teacher, they can’t just be people who love God and move to a monastery. No, they’re loved by God and because of that, abiding leads to…

2.    Love for your neighbor.

This is what Jesus says later on in verse 12. He tells us that when we abide in him, we will bear good fruit. An example of that good fruit is how we love our neighbor. This is the fundamental reality of the Christian faith: Love God and love your neighbor. Sure, there’s other things going on but Jesus said those two things are the most important. We need discernment in this day and age because this command is often ignored. It is biblically inconsistent to say that you love God then spew hatred or cause harm to your neighbor. These are all signs of bad fruit and a sign that you’re not connected to the true vine.

But when you are connected to the true vine, love for your neighbor is one of the clearest indicators of good fruit in your life. And that good fruit is never so that you’ll look extra special or really good but rather, the good fruit is so that the world will know that you are a disciple of Christ and they will give glory to God. Keep that theme in mind as I share this story and I did get permission from the Hoffmans and Tammy to share this as well.

This past Monday as most of you should know by now, Tammy’s mother suddenly died. That night, we were wrapping up a connect group meeting at our home when Tammy got the call from her dad that he thinks Shirley is dead. Obviously, Tammy became distraught and was crying. She tells her dad to call 911 and she’s hurriedly packing her things up to get to her parent’s house. After she gets off the phone, Sue and Dave Hoffman are immediately by her side. They tell Tammy she’s not going alone and that we’ll be going with her. So, Sue and Tammy head out in one car with Dave and me in the other. Sue continued to comfort Tammy on the hard drive over. When we got there, it was a tough scene but Sue and Dave calmly stayed present with Tammy and suggested we head to the back of the house with Skip (Tammy’s dad) so the EMTs could have space. Even though it was a hard situation, Dave and Sue continued to show love and compassion for their neighbors by sitting with Skip, giving hugs to Tammy, and more. After we had left Tammy’s parents house, the Hoffmans went over to Tammy’s home to take care of her dogs so she had one less thing to worry about.

Why would Sue and Dave do that? They could have easily said: “It’s really late” or “there’s plenty of help with the EMTs” or “This isn’t our job, it’s Anthony’s job.” They didn’t say any of that, they just loved their neighbor, Tammy. Why? The Hoffmans are followers of Jesus who abide in the love of Christ. They know that Christ has loved them through his life, death, and resurrection. They know they are now called to love and sacrifice just like Jesus did.

And when I asked the Hoffmans if it’s okay to share this, they were both insistent that this isn’t about them. It’s about the glory of God and a simple way to be present and love their neighbor. But, you don’t get to abide in the love of Jesus by accident or chance, it takes practice.

So, after today, what should you do differently with your life? As I shared at the beginning of our time together, we live in a world that is constantly trying to form and shape us into a certain type of person. People are constantly trying to form you into the mentality of: “You need to strive more so you can get a higher paying job, reach a more peaceful place, get that perfect house, go on that perfect trip, etc.” But, my invitation to you and Jesus’ in this passage is this: Don’t strive, just abide. Abiding isn’t inactivity — it’s learning to live from God’s love rather than for God’s love.

This week, I want you to start or end your day with a simple practice. I want you to kneel or sit in a spot with your eyes closed. I want you to just slow your breathing and pray through Matthew 3:17 that says: “This is my dearly loved child, who brings me great joy.” That’s what God the Father says to Jesus. But in light of what Christ has done for you if you receive him by faith, that’s what God says over you now. So, you can pray the following: “I am your dearly loved child, God. Thank you for that gift!” Repeat it as needed, put it on your bathroom mirror, whatever!

This week, you’re going to face lots of pressure to abide or rest in other things. You’re going to be told to strive more and when you feel that temptation, just take a deep breath and say the prayer. Through the slow work of the Spirit, I believe you will begin to abide deeper into the love of Christ and be transformed. That’s your challenge for this week.

As we close our time together, I’m going to invite you to stand and if you need prayer…