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LESSONS FROM CHRIST OUR VINE
This morning we need to do a self-checkup of our spiritual health.
Are you distant these days from God?
Can you hardly remember the last time your life was fruitful?
Do you feel far from joy and peace, victory and blessing?
Do you hope that no one gets too close this morning and asks you personal questions while you are here?
Does your Bible feel as heavy as lead when you pick it up?
Do my challenges for you to jump in to serve and speak up for Christ push you away?
Do you wonder if you’ll get any reward in Heaven?
In fact, do you just hope that you will ever get there?
Has the zeal you once knew dried up, and become a far-off memory?
If these or a myriad of other telltale signs of spiritual listlessness and barrenness have cast their shadows across your path, then Christ’s invitation to His spiritual gardening clinic is for you. Come to the vineyard and learn this morning. Listen to Jesus as He introduces us to God’s vineyard.
Jesus is talking grapes this morning. Nothing was clearer in the 1st Century Judea than vineyards to these men. They lived, walked, slept, and ate often in the very shadow of the vine. The seasons of each Israelite’s life were marked by the heavy clusters of fall grapes and the joys of harvest; the winter pruning of the vines; the first buds of spring; the vigorous growth of summer; and the joys of fall harvest again!
Emblematic of their nation, the grapevine was never far from mind or sight. Sadly we are so distant from the world of the Scriptures. The Land of the Book is a distant and often hazy place in our minds, yet so many of Christ’s lessons to us in His Word are tied to real places, those places supported real people, who lived with real problems. Those real people found real answers in a real place called Israel 2,000 years ago as Jesus walked among them. We can join Him this morning, and listen as He unfolds exactly what His Father wants to be doing in your and my life TODAY!
As you open to John 15 we will soon be listening to the Gardener.
Walk down the rows of vines where He takes listless, sometimes empty branches and brings them back to full spiritual vigor.
Follow His eyes as He examines each branch to see where it is headed, how it is doing, and what needs to be done to improve its fruit-bearing.
Trace His hands as He skillfully and lovingly lifts up branches that have begun to grow along the ground far from the Light of His Presence.
Watch as He inspects the leaves caked with the soil of earth and clips, cuts, and disposes of whatever has been paralyzed; cleanses what is salvageable, and weaves back up again into fruitfulness, the restored and pruned branch.
Then ponder with amazement the huge pile of wilting branches, He cuts away each time He passes down the rows.