TEXT: JOHN 15:1-8

SERMON OBJECTIVE: To reveal mans need to abide in, stay attached to Christ and to reveal our responsibility to live a righteous and holy life that bears fruit for and glorifies God.

INTRODUCTION:  Let’s paint a picture of this event. Jesus, the Son of God, in demonstrating His love for us came humbly, submissively and willingly to subject Himself to torture and death on a cross. His intent was to pay our sin debt. He who knew no sin became the sacrifice for sin for us. Now here it is just a short time before He is to be betrayed, denied and deserted by those who were closest to Him. As a result of His death the disciples would find themselves without the bodily presence and guidance of Jesus for the first time since their conversion. Notice what Jesus tells them in preparation for this separation. He begins to prepare them for this event by revealing to them three relations that must be understood if they were to overcome and succeed in their Christian walk. He is the vine, God is the vinedresser and we are the branches.

I. CHRIST RELATION TO MAN.

Christ is “the” true vine.

A.) “The”: Meaning He is the definite article

1.) He is the true vine; therefore it is only through an attachment to Him that

·        We exist

·        We are nourished

·        We grow to our intended purpose- to glorify God by bearing much fruit

After revealing His relation to His people Jesus then began to explain Gods relation to He and us.

II. THE FATHERS RELATION TO CHRIST AND MAN.

God is the vinedresser.

A.) He is the One who cares for, looks after, and protects the Vine and the branches.

B.) He is the One who prunes and purges the branches.

III. OUR RELATION TO CHRIST AND THE FATHER.

Jesus reveals we are one of three types of branches and that the branches are all judged on the basis of how they relate to the True Vine.

A.) There is the unfruitful branch, Jesus said the unfruitful branch belongs to Him but it has a problem.

• It bears no fruit
  1. It doesn’t relate to Him enough to draw nourishment from Him.
  2. It isn’t genuine enough in its profession to bear fruit
  3. Unfruitful branches eventually become deserters. (Seedless grapes)
• This is a severe warning to every branch “in” the vine, to make sure his profession is genuine enough to bear fruit.
  1. Every branch is to bear fruit that glorifies God and proves its attachment to the vine.
  2. Fruit that bears seeds and reproduces itself.

B.) There is the unattached branch

• It is not attached its “out” and off by itself; it is not abiding in the Vine.
• It cannot bear any real fruit that is acceptable to God.
• It chooses to be unattached so God lets it wither and dry up.

C.) There is the fruitful branch

1. Fruitful branches are pruned of things in life that must be removed or cleared up.

·        Behaviors

·        Attitudes

·        Motives

2. Fruitful branches are cleansed by His word.

·        “Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11).

·        But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:21-25)

3. Fruitful branches experience answered prayers.

4. Fruitful branches glorify God and prove their profession to be genuine.

PURPOSE: To help Gods people understand how to recognize the source of stress, and the effects of stress within their lives and the church as well as equip them with the tools needed to avoid or deal with stress.

(6:3-5) Introduction: This is a critical passage, one the church must constantly be aware of in order to keep its message and ministry pure and avoid stress in our lives and church. It deals with the true source of stress. According to a study done by Barna research about stress, they defined stress as “the gap between what we say our priority is and what is actually priority.” This scripture and definition of stress unfortunately reveals exactly what goes on many times in the lives of Gods people and His church. This scripture reveals the source of stress as being false teaching and teachers. There have been many godly and good people who have unknowingly and perhaps innocently preached or taught a false gospel simply because they didn’t understand the definition of false. Any thing that misrepresents or distorts truth is false. Failing to understand and recognize that false teaching or false profession is the source of stress makes it impossible to deal with or avoid stress. It was once said that the greatest lesson we will ever teach and the greatest gospel we will ever preach is the one we live. This being said, then what are we teaching, truth or error?

Verse 3 describes the false teacher as one who teaches a different doctrine. What exactly is a different doctrine?

I.  Vs. 3 Bible tells us its any teaching or action that does not agree with the sound teachings of Christ that accord with godliness.

1. It is the person or teaching that does not consent to the teachings of godliness.

A.) It is being committed to the profession of ministry rather than being committed to represent Christ and His Word. 1.  Colossians 2:8 (ESV)   See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit (misrepresentation of truth), according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

a.) It is speaking of those who stand on their profession and views as a way to misrepresent truth and serve themselves and man.

b.)  It speaks of those who use their profession and views as a way of personal gain, rather than to serve Christ and His word.

II. It is that teaching or action that results in pride.

A.) The false teacher marvels and wallows in pride

1. As he rejects everything except his own views and ideas. 

2. As he twists or leaves out certain portions of the Bible in a proud display of intellectual ability.

William Barclay wrote this about false teaching and pride : “His first characteristic is conceit. His first aim is self-display. His desire is not to display Christ, but to display himself. There are still preachers and teachers  who are more concerned to gain a following for themselves than for Jesus Christ. They are more concerned to press their own views upon people than they are to bring to men the word of God. When people meet together for worship they are not concerned to listen to what any man thinks; they are eager to hear what God says. The great preacher and teacher is not a purveyor of his own ideas; he is an echo of God”

III. He has a sick interest in controversial questions (v.4).4.  He has a corrupt mind and is destitute of the truth (v.5).5.  He thinks religion leads to gain (v.5). 

I.

II.

III.

CLOSE:

GOAL OF SERMON: To give us encouragement to become disciplined runners in the Christian race and not careless followers.  

INTRODUCTION: The last week or so we have been watching and hearing about the Olympics and the race for the much coveted “gold medal”. Athletes from all over the world come to compete, some achieve that gold medal performance and some do not. The truth is, regardless of a gold medal performance or not, they are all winners simply because they trained hard and ran their race. As we watched those like Michael Phelps who rose above all the others and won gold medal after gold medal, we see that the same principles which caused them to rise above the others and give a “gold medal” performance are the same principles involved in “goin for the gold” in the Christian race.We see in them…… ·         The inspiration for the race·         The discipline for the race·         The example for the race Today will be the first of three messages about “goin for the gold” in the Christian race. Today we will be looking at  

I. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE RACE (vs.1)A.) Was the inspiration of the race.1.) The gold medal. a.) Something that has only a temporal valueb.) Something that has only a physical valuec.) Something that’s worth nothing unless they sell it.d.) They will never turn loose of it so does it really have any temporary worth to them? 

Scripture reveals the startling truth about those who are inspired to run the Christian race only by the temporal worth of winning.B.) Matthew 19:16-301. He was rich, he had the “Gold Medal life”.a.) He had all the prizes life could offer.2. What he had was a life filled with things that had only a temporal, physical value.3. He had a life filled with things that were worth nothing unless he was willing to sell them. 

C.) This rich man revealed the truth about his life when he asked Jesus “what do I still lack”, and then he went away sad.1. What he lacked was a life that had eternal value.2. What he lacked was the true inspiration for running the Christian race.The true inspiration for the race was found in the “great cloud” of witnesses. 1. Their were the spectators2. Past participants who ran and won themselves 

The greatest inspiration of all for the Christian race comes when we consider Jesus and the race he ran before us.Phil. 3:14, 2 Tim. 4:7, Eph 6:10 

II. THE DISCIPLINES OF THE RACE (vs.1)A.) There are required disciplines of every race especially the Christian race.

1. We must lay aside every weight

a.) All serious athletes train and strain to remove all excess weight.

b.) These are things that may even be legitimate and innocent but they hinder running the race.

1. Recreation is needed, but with most of us we relax and rest far more than we need, and we neglect our fellowship and communion with God others.

2. Seeking possessions and things of this world instead of seeking God.

2. The words “lay aside” mean to take off, strip off, to remove as in taking off clothes.

Matthew 19:21-22:Luke 9:57-62

Anything that does not build us up and make us stronger is excess weight that slows us down. The Christian runner must do exactly what the Olympic runner does: strain to remove all excess weight.

b.  The Christian runner must strip off the sin which so easily trips or besets him. The words “easily besets” (euperistaton ^PWS: 1220) mean the sin which clings, distracts, entangles, and trips up the Christian runner. It is the picture of clothing flapping around a person while he is running: it entangles and trips him and he falls. What is the sin that entangles and trips believers? Various sins have been suggested as common to all believers. However, the exhortation speaks strongly to every believer and to the particular sin that entangles and throws the believer. Each one of us must ask: What is the sin that so easily traps me? Pleasure, indulgence, the tongue, the flesh, pride, possessions, worldly friends, television, sports—what is it that consumes my energy and keeps me from following God fully and wholly—that trips me up far, far too often. We must strip it off or else it will entangle us and trip us up and we will never finish the race.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Cor. 15:34).III. THE EXAMPLE OF THE RACE (vs. 2-4) 

CLOSE:

Please be in prayer about what you feel the Lord would have you give so that others may go and tell the news of Jesus all around the World!

Who was Lottie Moon?     Lottie Moon - the namesake of the international missions offering - has become something of a legend to us. But in her time Lottie was anything but an untouchable hero. In fact, she was like today’s missionaries. She was a hard-working, deep-loving Southern Baptist who labored tirelessly so her people group could know Jesus.

Throughout her career, Lottie Moon wrote numerous letters home, urging Southern Baptists to greater missions involvement and support. One of those letters triggered Southern Baptists’ first Christmas offering for international missions - enough to send three new missionaries to China.