Welcome to the daily disciple podcast where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus our teacher Good morning everyone and welcome to the together on mission podcast And it's a new day your friends that are friends of Jesus and so we're gonna start our day as friends that are friends of Jesus Do we're gonna read a gospel passage and chat and pray and meditate and then as friends that are friends of Jesus We're just gonna connect and enjoy Jesus throughout the day And so the title of the podcast this morning is remain in me and that is a quote from Jesus of Nazareth in one of his most famous Teachings that we find in John chapter 15 remain in me I think this is a pretty good place to start this morning this week this new year because the reality is we are not yet What we want to be right? We're not yet formed in ways that we want to be formed their patterns in our life That we want to set aside there are ways that we respond But we don't want to respond that way especially the people that we love there are things that we think and feel and do that We don't really want to do there are ways in which we want to be different there are things We want to stop doing because we know they're not under life and there are things that we want to start doing because they know They are that they are unto life and you know on and on and on it goes And maybe you could think for just a moment in the presence of Jesus what that would be for you What would come to mind there and and you know in this incredible passage Jesus Doesn't talk like a normal self-help guru He doesn't encourage us to kind of hit those things head on like okay Then do it and and plan for it and strategize it and write it down and organize it be intentional He doesn't talk about change by hitting the change head on he has a different strategy and And he actually puts it this way in one of his most famous teachings John 15 verse one He says I am the true vine and my father is the gardener He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful you are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you so remain in me as I remain in you no branch can bear fruit by itself It must remain in the vine neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me I am the vine you are the branches if you remain in me and I and you you you will bear much fruit apart from me though You can do nothing if you do not remain in me You'll be like a branch of this thrown away and whether such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned But if you remain in me and my words remain and you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciple and so it's a very well It's an amazing passage. It's one of Jesus's most brilliant and rightly famous teachings and Jesus is talking about change He's talking about becoming the kind of people that were created but he's not talking about you know Going after it head-on. He's not talking about there's power in of ourselves to become this or do that or stop this or whatever He's he's not a typical self-help guru He says actually remain in me and he uses this first century agricultural image as well as Old Testament prophetic images to share This profound and central teaching as he has a rabbi teaches his disciples about what it looks like to actually enter into life And he says here's here's the thing my father is this gardener Jesus is I'm the vine my father is this gardener and my father the gardener as you remain in me is Cultivating is creating is making you into something that is incredibly beautiful and stunning and powerful and honestly just like him And he he will prune he will change he will transform He will do it and he will deal with the stuff in my life in your life that is not lead to life or beauty or color or the kind of relationships that we that we want and in this idea of pruning we kind of draw back initially because there've been people in our lives that have Tried to prune us and they were thinking more about themselves and they were about us they were pushing they were pulling they didn't handle our hearts Well, and so we're a bit on guard when it comes to any pruning at all even from God our gardener But God must prune I mean we need to be pruned and maybe you're aware this morning of how or where you need to be pruned And we can just hold that area with with open hands and participate with with God the gardener But the chances are there are areas in my life in your life that we know not of that we could never come up with and And God as Jesus puts it the the father the gardener loves us enough to prune us Because we're bound by so many things.
You know, I need to win. I need to accomplish. I need to be right I need to you know be better. I need to be seen I need to be you know fill in the blank I need to have this, you know, I I I and you know those things I just mentioned and however you would fill in the blank They're probably not bad things in and of themselves unless we need them to be okay Because part of what Jesus is saying in this passage, you know remain in me Part of what he's saying in this passage is that all that you need is me That's that's part of the point to to abide in me and and I'm realizing as I'm just talking with you guys that The people that we do life closely with have a much better grasp of what we need to be pruned of than we do and that can be a little bit scary But that also means that the the best way to to love those that we do life with is to partner with the father as he is the gardener prunes us And the result will actually be the fruit will actually be loving the people around us in the way that we actually want to And again, what we do what I do.
I know I do I probably have some company as we we try to just change whatever we want to change Well, I'm not gonna act like that. I'm not gonna think like that. I'm gonna do this I'm gonna stop that I'm gonna start that but Jesus is wait a minute wait a minute that would lead to legalism it won't work That's what all the self-help gurus will tell you but what I'm telling you is abide in me And then as a byproduct of abiding in me you will bear fruit and that fruit will show up as love for those that you deeply want to love And I love and I take so much comfort in verse three. Jesus says you're already clean I love that because no matter how much pruning I need and hello I need a lot of pruning ask anybody that does life closely with me and you need a lot of pruning as well But in the midst of the process, we're already clean We're already beautiful And and so what god is doing the gardener our father the gardener is he is seeking to make us actually in our lives what we already are in christ And there is the commission to abide to practice abiding to focus to take it seriously to sideline Distractions, you know to put all of our energy toward abiding in Jesus as the main goal of our life today and tomorrow and the next day And again, that's the strategy that that Jesus offers So that we can Have the fruit of eliminating from our lives and our relationships and our hearts and our minds and things that don't lead to life and Entering into the things that do but not as a self-help guru would Encourage us or teach us not by hitting them head on and I can do this and I'm gonna strategize it and I'm gonna be intentional No, he says abide in me and you will find that naturally automatically Our lives will become more and more beautiful And it's almost a passive growing where god the gardener Does the real transformative work?
And you know, this is a bit autobiographical, but I know you can relate pruning doesn't always feel pleasant in fact It hardly ever feels pleasant, but god is tender god is patient And my experience and your experience is that when we want god to go fast he goes slow and we want the gardener to go slow He goes fast, but but underneath this passage is Jesus's view of his father this good gardener is tender gardener he is the vine the father is the gardener and They together by the power of the spirit are the only community that can bring true fruit into our lives And the teaching ends in verse eight where it says this will show that you're a disciple abiding in the vine is the essential reality of being a disciple of Jesus and apprentice of Jesus remaining in the vine remaining in the vine and getting to know god the father the the gardener And so today as we begin to pray and meditate just a little bit Let's practice the prayer of abiding and the prayer of abiding is simply practicing the awareness of god Being you know plugged in if you will to the father and the son by the spirit throughout the day Just being aware of his presence moment by moment action by action thought by thought a great saint in history The church brother Lawrence called this practicing the presence of god It's the prayer of abiding and we let god do the work We let god do the pruning we let god the father be the gardener as we simply abide and enjoy Jesus and we will talk tomorrow Thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast We truly hope that you were encouraged by today Now if you would like to support or if you have any questions about the daily disciple podcast Feel free to contact us through our inland vineyard church app It will give you information on our ministries and our sunday services and you can find us in the apple and google play app scores And we also have our social media pages Which you can find with the tag at inland vineyard to see what's going on with our community Our church events and our other ministries as well as our revival youth group and our children's ministry Or you can just check us out on our website at inland vineyard.org