I am | I am the Vine

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hey if you're new to canvas we encourage you to check out our canvas.church website and our campus church app you can also check out the link that's dropped in the comments section in the group chat this gives you links to give to the ministry of canvas places to serve information on canvas and access to our canvas team during our gathering you can chat with our online host you can express what you're feeling through emojis and you can join us in worship wherever you're watching from if you'd like prayer we have a prayer icon that you can click on and it'll send a prayer request to our team and we'll have that house pray with you right there [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we're about to get started to get the most out of our online experience we encourage you to engage with us today let's get ready for the gathering [Applause] hey good morning everybody who's ready for church come on stand up stand up it's gonna be a great morning guys gonna do some great things in our lives let's be open to him come on let's put our hands together here we go [Music] come on i saw satan fall like i saw darkness run for cover [Music] but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven yes i believe [Music] i have resurrection power still the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven my praise belongs to you forever this is my testimony this is my testimony from death to life cause grace we wrote my story i'm testify by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] bought with blood and washed in water sing the praises of the spirit son and father our god will finish [Music] this is [Music] this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] oh [Music] come on [Music] oh [Music] this is my testimony from death to life cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you jesus all right well welcome to canvas church my name is justin this is kristen she's one of our connect pastors here and we're so excited to have you and we want to welcome everyone that's new to canvas thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us in fact we have a team of people that want to meet you right after this gathering so what we ask that you do is after this gathering is over head out to the main lobby that you came in and head to the info station our people are there they want to shake your hand get to know your name and then also give you a free gift it's just our way of saying thank you for joining us today and if you're new i want to tell you about our connection card here at campus church we believe that truth demands a response and the best way to do that is by filling out the connection card at the end of the gathering so how you can do that is by grabbing a physical copy from the seat back in front of you or fill out a digital copy by scanning the seat back in front of you yeah and that's we we fill that out every single week here you regular attenders you know that we do that all the time so make sure you're filling out that connection card but i want to let you know about a few things that are coming up over the next weeks uh the few weeks to come here and the first thing that i'm actually very excited about myself is men's breakfast is happening this coming saturday at eight o'clock it's been a minute since we had men's breakfast and i am excited it's mostly honestly guys we're just gonna sit around and eat a lot of food together that's pretty much what we're gonna do i think we got some bacon and more bacon and then a side of bacon and then there's bacon for the top as well so it's gonna be a great time we have our other uh connect pastor nate he's gonna be speaking at that so guys ask your wives very politely if it's cool if you go wives please say yes and it's gonna be a great time you don't want to miss men's breakfast this saturday at eight o'clock yeah i'll be sending my husband and enjoying a nice morning of me time so it's gonna be great not only do we have men's breakfast but we have kickoff weekend next week absolutely i'm wearing my seahawks jersey yes i will be coming through in my green bay packers jersey davonte adams you're actually a green bay fan i didn't know they existed they do i promise right here whatever it's great but we're so excited we want everybody here to come in their favorite sports teams jersey and there's going to be an awesome tailgate party tailgate party food food is just a great man right now tailgate party jerseys it's gonna be awesome it's just gonna be a great time to connect yeah and then there's some stuff that's starting the week after that right yep so the week after the kickoff we are going to be launching our men's women's bible study and my husband and i are also launching a young married bible study as well so we want you guys to get signed up for that starting now by scanning the qr code on that seat back in front of you great time excited for kickoff week it's going to be so much fun but what we're going to do right now is continuing worship and as we do that i want to encourage all of us let's just relax in what god wants to do let's encounter him and let's be let's let him move in our hearts and let's settle in the peace that he gives us now let's worship [Music] i don't wanna be afraid every time i face the ways i don't wanna be free [Music] [Music] please please [Music] you are here so it is [Music] well i'm not gonna be afraid [Music] it's a roar oh i'm not gonna feel the storm come on [Music] [Music] peace [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so let me [Music] rise again let faith rise up our heart believe let faith rise up in me come on church rise [Music] up in [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me peace [Music] [Music] [Music] i will trust the voice peace [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come on jesus speaks peace over you today not a peace that this world can give but only a peace that comes from knowing and trusting and understanding jesus has a plan and a will for your life come on let's let's ask faith to rise up come on as we ask jesus he will give it to us this morning let's sing this out together rise up come on oh heart believe let faith rise up in me come on ask him today let faith rise up o heart believe let faith rise up in me come on sing that again let's rise up rise up oh we ask you we seek you god let me [Applause] [Music] peace [Music] peace [Music] church would you pray with me father we need your peace that passes all understanding lord as we walk this earth we walk this life lord we need you more than ever i need your presence upon us working us right now in this moment of worship as we surrender to you lord we need you jesus we need you jesus [Music] from heaven you can hear i know you're drawing near as i worship [Music] held within your love the winding waves will come but i will stay here come on let's lift it up i lift my hands i lift my hands to heaven keep my heart surrendered i tell my soul again you are lord of all and though this is outraging you will speak and tame them and you are found by rest you are in control [Music] is [Music] speak life to me again [Music] i lift my hands to heaven give my heart surrender i'll tell my soul again [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] control i will trust in only you no one can add to your perfection you're the beginning and the end more than i can comprehend there is no one like you know come on let's sing and [Music] you're the [Music] i will trust [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] you are speaking [Music] you are in control [Music] i love the line in that song though the seas are raging you're in control and i don't know about you but man sometimes it feels like the seas are raging all around us with this world that we're living in and what life is bringing us at this moment and i believe that we need to believe in this place that our hope lies in jesus christ and him alone amen and you need to ask that question this morning to yourself where is my hope where does it lie and if it's not jesus christ maybe you're putting your hope into many other different things maybe you need to make a correction this morning put your hope in jesus christ he is our only hope he is our firm foundation do you believe that this morning everybody come on come on jesus is all we need in this last song i encourage you let's worship him his name is greater his name is higher than any other name and he deserving of our worship by our lifting of our hands and singing with our voices so let's worship him [Music] [Music] i have this hope as an anchor for my soul if you every storm i will [Music] away [Music] in everything [Music] and i will trust in you come on there is hope in him there is hope in the promise of the cross you give everything to save the world you [Music] changing [Music] is [Music] there is no [Music] you give everything to save the world [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] his name is greater his name is higher come on let's lift our voices to him he is our everything come on this he is all that we need but let's sing it out your name is [Music] is [Music] you know my hope is [Music] [Music] is [Music] easy [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i love the power of that song you can't you can't create moments like this because i mean you can try to manufacture it and you can try to bring it all together but and the creator is in the room the power of the spirit is working and moving in our hearts i think it'd just be appropriate this time you know we sent our kids all back to school this week and i think all of them will eventually get there from other schools starting all the time delays but i think it'd be appropriate as a church a praying church to pray for our kids that are going to school and praying for yeah praying for teachers they needed probably more than anybody and praying for the administrators i mean they breathe and people get mad at them and so let's just pray you know let's pray for our our students and our teachers you know one of the things i'm thankful for is that we have jesus loving teachers that attend church here and they are a light in a dark world and we pray that their light will shine before men that they see god because you know our kids they need jesus he's the anchor he's the anchor in the storm and we we want to pray we want to pray for our students one other thing you know sometimes when you pray you are the answer sometimes when you pray and you say god i want you to do this god looks at you and goes i will you're the answer and i think we're in a unique spot right now the kalispell school district has reached out to canvas church and said this statement we know you love our schools we would love to start a student support group where just some of your people would sit and listen to kids share what they're going through i mean to qualify for this the training is you have to have ears and breathe i mean it's pretty pretty difficult and um and and maybe when we're praying for our students and we're praying for um our teachers and we're praying for our administrators maybe the lord is going to say you're the answer to to sit and listen to a student share share their heart and share what they're navigating and share what they're going through you know a lot of people have asked me kevin what are we going to do about all these students that are committing suicide here's part of the answer is that we're with them before the process ever comes to be um so if the lord speaks to you in that way use the qr code throughout the message use the qr code right in the seat back in front of you it's it'll pull up a bunch of links it's the third one down fill out that information we'll follow up with you and and help you get ready to set up to do that let's be a church that loves our community let's not talk about it let's do it let's pray father we start where we need to start and that's we left to borrow the students across this valley that are going to school you know what the you know what the school year holds um you know all of the insecurities and as these kids go to try their find their place and their friend group and all the demands that come and the expectations that are put on them father i pray in the midst of all of that may students somehow find you in the mess of it you're the anchor you're the hope father i pray for our teachers as they go back and they're prepared to to leave these classrooms and educate our children i pray first of all i pray for those that are believers in jesus would you let their light shine before students and administrators and other teachers that they see jesus in them while they may not be able to say his name they certainly can show his life so father we pray that you will empower them by the work of the spirit we pray for all the teachers that go back to keep them safe to keep them healthy to keep them creative to keep them patient father we pray for our administrators as they try to navigate all of the confusion through the pandemic and all of that father would you lead them spiritually would you guide them encourage them may they not get depressed or discouraged but maybe raise up other people around them that are believers in jesus to support them and encourage them and just simply love them and then father maybe as we're praying you're speaking that for some of us we're the answer for some of these issues and may we be responsive i pray to go where you call us to go because we want to be a church that not only prays but acts in jesus name everyone said amen amen high five your neighbor everyone go ahead and have a seat well we are in a concluding message of the im series this is the final one we've been taking our time working our way through the seven i am statements that jesus made um and been looking at each one of them this is the final one he says i am the vine and you are the branches this one probably more than any of the others has a connection between you and i in it well while they all do i am the bread of life and and this one talks about the relationship between you and him and we're going to get into that and look at that but before we jump into this final john chapter 15 um text i want to tell you where we're going next week um you know next week's kickoff you're going to be wearing all of your your jerseys if you love jesus it will be a seahawk one but um we're going to be we're going to be having fun we're also kicking off a new um style of series that we're going to be doing it's it's called the jesus story and we're going to take um time to work our way from genesis to revelation i don't know if you know this or not but this is really one it's a collection of stories that tell one story it's the jesus story and so we're going to break this whole book up into a bunch of series over the course of years to come and we're going to be talking about the jesus story how this entire book is really about who jesus is and and we'll break it down into different series to move our way through the book so like next week we're kicking off the jesus story with um really chapter one which we're calling the garden and we're gonna look at creation we're gonna look at all of that and we're gonna tie jesus all the way in throughout the scriptures and we'll take breaks along this journey that we're gonna be going on as a church the the why behind it is because we want to become people who are biblically literate of what we believe um i i think there's a lot of people that are biblically illiterate they don't know what the bible teaches we're going to take our time and and work our way through there we'll take breaks like at christmas time we'll have a christmas series and in the new year i'm doing a vision series for our whole church but then we'll we'll jump back into the the next series of the jesus story and i am i am pumped to go through this very excited to do something i've wanted to do for a long long long time and we're at the premises of it and we'll start it next week bring your friends it'd be a great time to invite a friend to go on this journey with you but that's next week and one of the things i know in fact we were praying about it um all the leaders were praying about it today one of the things i know god is the god of the future but he's also a god of the present and god has a work he wants to do in our hearts today and so lean in prepare your hearts get your mind ready because i believe today's message will will be a catalyst for you to really get everything out of what you're wanting to get next week but it's being a good steward of what god is going to be teaching us today we're we're in this i am serious let me sort of set up the scene of where we're at in the story that we're going to look at today jesus had just got done with the awkward dinner that we talked about last week where um one of the disciples is going to betray him that dude left that was judas and now there's 11 remaining and they're on a walk that's after the meal they're on their walk they're going through palestine they see all of these grapevines that are growing and then jesus begins because he's a master storyteller he begins to use the grapevines as an illustration to illustrate how these disciples are going to have a relationship with him when he is gone and in john chapter 15 1-8 i'm going to break it up into three sections i'm going to talk about the relationship then i'm going to talk about the responsibility and then i'm going to talk about the results that's the message the relationship the responsibility and the results so let's jump into it john chapter 15 verse 1 jesus looks at his 11 disciples and and talking about the relationship and he says i am the true grapevine and my father is the gardener my my my father is the one that's orchestrating this whole thing i am the grapevine now let me break this down for a little bit it's a call to relationship jesus said you're going to have relationship with me and this is how it's going to work but the gardener has has one plant if you're a gardener how many gardeners in the house how many like to garden okay a few of you if you're a gardener you want your garden to produce as much possible produce or fruit as it possibly can i mean nobody goes out and says okay i'm going to plant something and and i it's okay if just a little bit comes out like my wife planted tomatoes this year i have never seen a woman get so passionate about a plant in all my life and we were going on a trip we were heading down to florida for a conference and her whole time she's like i'm not going to be there when they turn red i did all the work and i'm not going to be there and then my kids forgot to water them yeah i hid i wanted to hibernate the um but it'd be why because when you plant something you want it to produce the greatest amount of fruit that it possibly can this is the gardener god wants you and i to produce as much fruit as we possibly can i'm going to use that term fruit a lot today let me describe what it is so you know it's very important the fruit we can find it in galatians chapter five it breaks down what the fruit is here's the fruit that we would be people of love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness and self-control in fact when you look at that list the world could use all of that let me say it again love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control the world could use that we are called to produce that through the power of the spirit in our life and what what jesus is saying to the 11 disciples is here's how it's going to go down if i get this jesus is that night when he shares this that night he will be arrested he will be beaten beyond a recognition his beard is pulled out he's punched in the face he's whipped then he's put on a cross he dies he goes into the grave for three days the boom chocolate comes back out then 40 days he walks around and goes to heaven so he's about to leave he knows this and he's saying guys what i'm about to tell you about the grapevine this is how the relationship is going to work so so pay attention this is how it's going to work which is so critical that he says that because this is where we're at today we can learn a lot from the text that he's sharing here we come to john chapter 15 verse two check out this text this is like right on the nose it says he cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more fruit why because the gardener wants the plant to produce as much fruit as it possibly can you have already been pruned and purified by the message i have given you there there's a there's a lot that you can unpack here i mean who wants to get cut off i mean when you look at that john chapter 15 verse 2 creates so much great debate among the theological world because they're like well you can cut off you can lose your salvation and then the other side over here no you can never lose your salvation so it must mean something else and then you get all this al um calvinism arminism discussion going on here going can you lose it can you not can you lose it can you not i don't care here's what matters produce fruit you don't have to worry about it that's really what 15 2 is saying 15 2 isn't saying getting an argument about what a 52 it says produce that's that's the answer but i want to be a tree that produces as much fruit as i possibly can i want to be a pear tree that's full of pears i'm in the shape of a pear already i i just i'm working on it so here's my point of 15 to produce fruit produce fruit produce fruit i was sitting at my at my din the dining room table and i looked out um to i have eight i was like eight or nine pine trees out in our in our backyard and i was i was sitting at the table i'm on a diet called general mill so i was eating captain crunch and i was i i was looking out at these trees and i noticed five of my branches on one of my pine trees was as brown as could be i don't even know that happened now i'm not an arborist i don't know very much about trees i mean i hug them and chop them down all at the same time but um but i noticed that these five of these branches were as like brown as could be so i i went out after that afternoon and i shook one of the branches and then all the pine needles just fell off and there were there were no there were no pine cones on them and these were as dead as could be they weren't doing anything and they were an eyesore so i took out my saw that i had just recently bought um and i went and i chopped them off all five of them just chopped them off and then i chopped them up into up into little logs and then i put them into my into my log bag that i had and i took them with me to denver to burn them when i made a fire when i'm not in denver but colorado when i was jeeping over my jeep trails and just burned them up they kept me warm why because they were useless to me when they weren't producing fruit and here's the thing that we got to start and that is this produce fruit the relationship is that you produce fruit and then that comes to responsibility so we have the relationship god wants to have a relationship with you but one of the things we have to know is there's a responsibility when it comes to true and that is this relationships require work both sides relationships require work i've never been in a relationship that hasn't required work and if i have it ended why because relationship required work i've been married to my wife for 24 years i'm still working at it just this week i have this issue i have a hole right here and it just gets in trouble all the time and and just this just this week as in like two days ago i got in trouble and um i was out of line and things came out that shouldn't have come out and i had to apologize because relationships require work it requires work on both sides and and here's one of the things that we can know when we look at the relationship and then the responsibility that comes with it jesus takes his responsibility to our relationship very seriously like he is all in for you the bible says there is no greater friend than a friend who lays down their life jesus did that we talked about that when we looked at the i am the resurrection and the life that why we were still sinners jesus moved all the way for us and he and he he died for us he took our sin upon him for whoever believes in him our sin goes upon him on the cross that you no longer have to die a sinner's death when you die if you're a believer in jesus you are transformed you are transformed to live with him forever and we if you missed that message i encourage you to go back and listen to him jesus goes all the way in for you he will do the work and and not only did he do that and call it good no he is continuing to hold up his responsibility by sending us the holy spirit that works in us to form us and shape us to become like him that's how we produce fruit we become like jesus but there's an interesting part of this text because not only does he talk about cutting off limbs that don't that don't produce fruit but then he says that he will prune the branches that do bear fruit pruning is a fascinating idea here that that the holy spirit begins to prune us so that you and i will be ultimate optimal fruit producing and you know we can look at pruning sometimes we get sin in our life that's like a dead branch in our own life and maybe the holy spirit is is speaking to you even throughout this message and he's bringing up a sin that you've been struggling with in your life and he's like you need to cut that off you need to cut that off it's not helping you but the other thing that we got to see here which is fascinating is not only does he produce the negative out of our life sometimes he prunes the good sometimes he prunes to the good sometimes he proves the things that are going well in our life and he's going i'm going to prune that out of your life and you're like what how can that be how can that happen because when you look at grapes and and the vines and how they grow and jesus again is using this illustration with his 11 disciples right there but i read that sometimes they will prune up to 90 of the plant so that it will grow back stronger and bear more fruit remember the whole purpose is that we would maximize our fruit production and sometimes god does a work in your life by pruning even good things out of your life so that you can do great things in your life that's contrary to often how we think because often here you and i we're like busy busy busy going going going doing good here good here good here good here and the holy spirit might come and maybe somebody needs to hear this word today and the holy spirit might say to you i'm going to prune you slow down and you're like slow down that's the devil that ain't the devil sometimes the holy spirit is saying you need to slow down in your life and you need to say no to some good things so you can say yes to the great things it's hard to do personally i struggle with this let me let me articulate it by my life i love people like i love them love them love them love i just i'm an includer if i'm gonna go do something i'm gonna take as many people with me as i possibly can you know so you know i'm gonna say honey you want to go out for a date she's like sure i go great i got some friends coming too sorry happens all the time okay relationships require work my middle name is work for her um it's i like people it gets me in trouble sometimes i like to say yes to everything that comes my way yup yup i'll do it i'll do it i'll make it happen i'll make it happen i'll make it happen i was sitting down one time and i was sitting with my um with my personal assistant tanya and i was going through my all the things that i had coming up and she looked at me and she made a powerful statement she goes do you think you're the messiah and i'm like do you want to work here no i didn't say that relationships require work and um but it was a it was a great snap to my face because you can't say yes to all these things but i want to you say you say yes to everything is good you won't do great and great produces so much more fruit and here's the key the holy spirit wants you god wants you to be the greatest fruit bearer that you possibly can be in fact i want to say this statement because i think it could shift some of your perspective on the way that you view god and that is this god sees you through a lens of fruit production more than sin punishment i'm going to say it again i'm going to say it slow i want it to sit on your heart resonate with your spirit god sees you through a lens of fruit production more than sin punishment and i know that many of us don't have that lens of life here's why you wake up in the morning you throw your blankets off of you and then your goal is i'm going to try to be a good person and not sin today you know what we're not saying when we wake up in the morning i'm going to produce some fruit today it will shift your whole mentality and your whole relationship with jesus if you flip that switch and stop going i'm not gonna sin and i start saying i'm gonna produce fruit because when you start focusing on producing fruit your sin goes away the holy spirit begins to work in you in a powerful way for some of you you have been trying to break a certain sin in your life and your whole attention and focus is on that and you can't break it because you're focusing on the wrong thing just give that to god and start producing fruit and god's going to empower you in ways you never ever could have thought because god is looking at you if you're a christ follower if you're a follower of jesus he is looking at you as a fruit producer it's a it's a different way of thinking it's a different way of looking at your relationship with jesus and then the question that should be formed in your heart is okay how do i do this how does this work what jesus got that all figured out and he comes to reverse four and he says this remain in me remain in me and i will remain in you for a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine if if i cut off that limb that lamb ain't doing nothing anymore why because it's severed from the core remain in me and i will remain in you for a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me here's what jesus is saying to those 11 disciples that are walking on they're like hey guys stay connected to me abide is another word that can be used some of you who grew up in the church you might know this word of um in this verse is abide abide in me that jesus is part of your life that jesus is is all consuming in your life that you're spending time in his presence that you're spending time with him in fact he goes on and he says it he doubles down on the same phrase that he said in the very next verse he says this yes disciples i am the vine and you are the branches those who remain in me and i in them will produce much fruit for apart for me you can do nothing here's what he's saying hey i i am the vine i give you the power i give you the resources i give you the energy if you will remain in me and allow me to prune you and allow your heart to chase after what it means to be like jesus i will take care of you in ways you never could have imagined you live your life like it depends upon it because it does to be connected to the vine the vine is life support to us one of the ways that we remain connected to the vine is we have an active faith what's an act of faith it's we're not just hearers of the word but we're doers of the word we apply that which we are hearing let me make it just real frank since we're having this moment together here right now i work hard every week coming up with the best ways that i possibly can to communicate a truth from the scriptures not that you hear it i'm not up here working sweating stinking i mean you're the last gathering so i sweat a ton and wearing a sweatshirt i'm starting to chafe but i'm working i'm working hard so that you can hear this message and and i got to tell you sometimes when i'm up here i get a little fire in me and i'm like they better do something with this when they leave no i'm not joking can i be that honest with you i'm like they better not just be sitting here looking at me thinking if he'd stop eating captain crunch you wouldn't look like a pear oh i know what you're thinking you know how my heart is can i can just be frank that if you're going to sink here and you're going to listen to this message you better apply it when you leave you better act different when you leave because this is i i have to listen to the message four times this week and i better change me it better to that why because i want you to have an act of faith how do you remain in the vine not by coming here and sitting listening to a message and then go live in the same way you know that's called insanity that we would come here we would hear the truth we'd be challenged by this is what we do in community this is why we're here in this building listening to someone talk about the word of god so we can live differently because we have an act of faith because we are plugging in we are plugging into the truth of god's word and it is life-giving and it empowers our soul and it empowers our mind and it empowers our family to become like jesus and it doesn't come from here it comes from putting it from here to my feet that i live it up it's why we pray god touch our feet that we will live out this truth we want to be people we want to be people that are active let me illustrate it in this way i i started i pick a topic every year and study it i i share that with everybody all the time i love doing it and then i have picked the uh hobby this year of handyman so i'm i had no tools when i started this journey in fact someone asked me um do you have a right-handed hammer or left-handed hammer and i didn't know and um and for some of you they're the exact same thing there is no such thing and in fact on the saturday night gathering i said that someone went oh i didn't make fun of them because i am them you know i'm like i've been there but um so i i started um this year and i had no tools but i was gonna do handyman which was sort of became fun because i got to go buy tools and and go on this journey and i found a place i found a place that's so close to my heart it's like heaven on earth and sometimes i'm gonna be real frank with you i never thought i'd be this person i um sometimes i just go walk through the aisles of this place just looking and i've fallen in love with a place called harbor freight really love it really love it and and i got to tell you when i go in on something i i go all the way in so i even have a hercules bag which is hercules is the best of the best harbor freight brands and um and i'm a real big hercules fan any hercules people here yeah okay sorry you know that's that's one of them one i'm like i'm coming out of the closet i'm hercules you know um there's all different kinds of tools i mean okay let's i'm a hercules i even have hercules underwear i just go all the way i go all the way in i got hercules tools and all this okay let's see how many dewalt fans are in the place yeah you know dewalt fans are always in here yeah you know uh makita fans in the place yeah a couple of you a couple of okay ryobi fans yeah you're cheap okay there you go milwaukee fans yeah yeah you're the rich people okay now for reals how many of you own at least one hercules tool raise your hand okay thank you sir i'm glad you're here to just be you and me okay but the store is still open so and anyways um this is the biggest tool i own yeah i don't know what it's called but seriously it's a replicating or something you put a saw in there what's it called yeah see a whole bunch of different names so who knows you don't know either but this is what i use to chop down those five limbs that were dead on my tree and um so i sleep with this one this is really cool teddy bear okay just joking that's not true um this is fun okay this is my hercules um drill 20 volt battery and you can buy this tool and they'll give you 25 off the battery and a charger this part of the message is brought to you by harbor freight thank you for coming today that's not true if harbor freight knew i was there advertising for them they'd sue me they're like our sales just went down okay uh there is an illustration i want to make here this is a great tool and um and i think this tool represents many of us to be honest it's a good tool it has some power and it runs well and you can do a lot of the jobs and it represents us a lot because this is how we want to do life we want to get a spiritual high charge and then we want to go do our life here's the problem at some point halfway through the job of life this battery's going to run dead and it's going to sound like this nothing why because it's not connected to the vine but we deceive ourselves because we feel like we have a power for a while we're like oh i'm good i'm good until oh i'm not oh no oh god help me and what we do we run back to the charging station and so we live our life going like this with our relationship with god hi dead hi dead it's like we're dieting and it's unhealthy and eventually the battery dies and the tool becomes no good and it cannot produce any fruit because we've been living on spiritual highs and lows and highs and lows and highs and lows energized this isn't good this is the way we're meant to live this is the way we're meant to do relationship with jesus in fact one of the things that i've noticed through the kovitz situation is that a lot of people have have abandoned or left the church thinking i can make it on my own and we know the church closed for a while we never closed we just did it online but they've left community for a season and now they're hurting because the batteries are running low and they don't have the power that they used to let me tell you god doesn't take attendance in church god's not up in heaven go and oh they came today they're going to get a sticker for perfect attendance that's not what god's doing but it was his idea that we would come and we would gather like this that we would be in this place i just talked to someone at the end of this gathering tears filling up in her eyes she goes i've been gone for a long time i didn't know how much i needed this community there's something powerful but when we come into community with one another and i'm not trying to promote church attendance i'm trying for you to be a person that will produce as much fruit as you possibly can for the name of jesus i've run into somebody i've done this a long time i've run into a lot of people where the the they abandoned the church for uh you can i can give you a million reasons how we're not perfect if you ever want to know that we're not we're going to offend you why we're people we're not jesus we're people we offend people we don't do things perfectly and you'll get people they'll leave they'll be upset about something i get that or maybe they're going to go somewhere else for a better preference go somewhere else then i'd love that but they'll stop going to church then they'll come back a couple months three months four months later and they'll be like oh our life is falling apart and the question i can ask is when did you stop going to church oh we've been out for a while of course you're not in community and that's because we want to do this huh sounds good looks good doing good stuff until the battery dies run back to the charging station that's not what god is wanting out of us in fact i have another tool in here this is my first tool like this it was given to me one second i like the color blue too i don't know if you're supposed to pick tools by your color um this is a pneumatic tool i don't know what that means it just says it on it but what it means that i know is it's don't be shaking your head at me i see that you're my friend it's a it's a air tool like you you plug it into an air hose that runs to a compressor and the compressor is plugged into the electricity and there's a constant connection that this tool can run all day and it's not going to die it's going to run all day tomorrow and it's not going to die as long as it's connected to the vine to the wire to the air this thing will run and run and run and there's something else about it the the air tools they got power they got way more power than that that little battery one these things got a punch that are awesome in fact i have to be careful when i'm working on my white my girl my girl my daughters want to work on my daughter's jeep it's a rusty bucket um i can break bolts with it and i did but this thing got this thing that's power um in fact this is why machine shops or tire companies or or um mechanics they they'll use those every once in a while but their love is air tools because they got power right because they're connected they never run dry this is how we're supposed to be you want to produce fruit you got to connect to the vine and don't sever that vine don't sever that connection you keep talking to jesus you keep loving jesus you keep learning more about jesus you wake up in the morning you throw your blankets off and you ask the question how can i produce fruit today stop playing i'm not going to sin game and start playing i'm going to produce game changes the way you live it i'm not demoting sin sin is kill you sin and sin will kill you but you know our mentality is we live in fear of not sinning when we need to live in confidence of producing and when we live in confidence of producing by the power of the holy spirit in us he does a whole bunch more to take away the sin jesus simply says that at the end of the verse apart from me you can do nothing apart from me if you're not with me you will accomplish nothing in fact he doubles down on it in verse six listen to what he says in verse six he says anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers such branches are gathered into a pile taken to colorado to be burned that's a strong statement you cannot put it in context jesus is walking with his eleven and he's saying guys stay connected to me i am the vine and you are the branches remain in me and i will remain in you by the power of the spirit and you will produce my fruit don't sever it don't cut it off it's your responsibility if you want a relationship relationships require work work brings responsibility and the responsibility is you're moving to having a relationship with jesus and then there's results let's look at the results the results come into the last two verses verse seven of the results says this in verse seven but if you remain in me do you are you seeing a theme here but if you remain in me and my words remain in you you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted jesus i'd like a super bowl one by the seahawks now that could come true okay the seahawks have a lot better chance than the broncos this year i know i know i look at your team and i make that same sound okay but that's not what we're talking about here there's a fruit here look at this how this works how this comes together if you remain in me and i remain in you something's happening when you spend time with jesus you become like jesus when you spend time knowing jesus you begin to have a heart like jesus and what's happening here when you're connected to the vine when you're spending time with him the holy spirit is shaping you to become like him that you begin to pray the will of the father your heart becomes to be things that god's heart is after and here's what he's saying when you remain in me when you have relationship with me you will begin to pray according to what my will you will begin to dream according to my will and your prayers will be powerful why because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective it gets things done because god waits to move his hand many times until we pray don't understand why that is don't understand why that is in fact let me break this down i didn't do this in any other gathering i'm going to take time right here and then we're going to get ready to close right now on wednesday we are praying that the lord of the harvest wednesday every wednesday at noon our staff gathers and prays that the lord of the harvest will send laborers to the field nobody wants that harvest to be reaped more than who the harvester or the lord of the harvest and yet he asks us to send laborers when he could just do it he already has them why does he wait for mankind to ask him to send harvesters so the harvesters will come because the man did it ourselves we would want the glory but when we ask god to send him any sins who gets the glory the lord does this is what he's saying to us you ask in my name and i will move in a great powerful way but know my heart know my way know who i am and when you pray i will move in a powerful way in your life i want to pray the will of god get to know him remain in him and he will remain in you and your prayers will be powerful and effective and then it goes on to verse 8 and then i'll get ready to close and verse 8 says this when you produce much fruit you are my true disciples you want to know if your relationship is good with jesus look at your fruit is that interesting don't look at your sin many of you what you do to see if your relationship was good with jesus you look at your sin you got to flip that switch you want to know if you're a true disciple of jesus look at your fruit love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control why because this brings great glory to the father do you know that the fruit is not for the health of the tree it's a powerful thought but for the people around the tree see the fruit contains the seeds and when it falls the tree is multiplied but think about this for a second oh favorite part of the message jesus is looking at 11 people and he says remain in me and i and you and produce much fruit and from these 11 the whole world hears about jesus why because they they spread fruit our world needs some love our world needs some joy peace and patience and kindness goodness faithfulness it needs some gentleness and self-control and how does the world get it by you being fruitful jesus is looking at you and saying produce fruit spread the seed have you ever been sitting in a message and you're wishing oh i know who needs to hear that message you ever been there so many times i'm preaching a message going my wife needs this one okay usually it's my wife wrote this one you listen to a message in two ways you listen to a message saying god what are you saying to me am i producing fruit and then you listen to it in a second way god who are you equipping me to share this message with what's happening right here is you are being equipped to go bear fruit you're being equipped with the knowledge of the truth of the word of god so that you can bear fruit to this community that they can see jesus in you so that you can share the message of jesus out this is what we're doing it's why it's so important you go live this out it's important that i live that's that way so we can bear fruit but i think too often we fall into the trap of what i did several years ago when i was living in and i had i didn't have very much of a yard but i had enough of a yard that i'd have to mow it every week it was i was living in covington and it's my first house that i owned and and i had pine trees in the front of the house and you know pine tree pine needles fall they kill your grass because of the acid in it but i had a little patch that i'd mow it um with my with my push mower and then i had this weed that had grown up over the side by the fence and um and i had a relationship with that weed and that i hated it but it was strong and i i threw illegal chemicals at it i mean i did everything i could to kill that wheat and it was resilient it would not die i spent three years weed whacking that weed and it i hated that weed because it had a thick core to it it would eat all of the string out of my weed whacker and so i was just so ticked at that weed and so my wife said one day starting i was talking to her you know that stupid weed is going to grow again i don't know what to do i don't and i've tried even digging it and it's like really deep and i'm like i don't know what this is why you just let it go this year don't even worry about it you're always frustrated like okay well this weed grew up fast growing weed okay it's not like a weed you could smoke um it's just a weed okay and some of you were gonna ask me that and so i was just gonna say okay um and and it was it was it was growing up fast don't write letters to me please and um and it got really filled out and then poof this beautiful flower grew on the bush it wasn't a weed it was a rhododendron bush the rhododendron is the state flower of washington i had been weed whacking it for three years i had the prettiest bush in the neighborhood people would pull up on my driveway and i'd say wanna see my rhododendron flowers so proud and i think some of you that's what you've done with jesus like i talk about staying connected to the vine and produce much fruit and you're like what i'm weed whacking jesus like i don't know i i don't want it i don't and you just gotta let it grow stop playing this game of coming to church once in a while getting your spiritual charge and then go and run it out connect connect teenagers you listen to me you are at a prime time in your life you're never gonna be here again to connect to jesus in a powerful way and never to let it go i think if most adults were to come back to you and could tell you their story they would say connect to jesus in your in your high school years so you don't live life with all the regrets you're going to make in your college years most of the adults will tell you that and you're going to want to go out and you're going to left my bag you're going to want to go out you're going to go no i got it and someday your battery's gonna die so i say to kids youth and college students there's no better time right now to connect to the vine like jesus be an air tool for god don't play around go all the way in and adults maybe for years you've been stomping out the plant that you know you should let grow in your life here's the thing that i love about a rhododendron bush it never stopped trying to grow and jesus will never stop coming after you [Music] but kevin i don't want to hear about your butt produce fruit i know but produce fruit you want shame to go away in your life stop worrying about what you did and get excited about what you can do produce fruit will you grab that connection card if you're here and you've never given your life to jesus there's no better time to do it than right now maybe you've got a tug on your heart and you give your life to jesus would you just say jesus i give you my life i don't even know what that means but i need to connect to you start there he'll make himself real maybe it's the second one here i feel disconnected from the vine maybe your battery is just running dead and you need to upgrade i need to remain connected to jesus and lastly i'm experiencing the joy of being connected would you stand with me i want to pray over you let's pray with your head bowed and your eye closed i'm going to ask one more question there's a chance to respond here from kids to teenagers to adults i want to ask you a question would you buy your head and close your eyes no one looking around you're here and your battery's running dry you don't have the punch you don't have the power that you should because because you're running on a battery and you need to plug into the vine if that message is for you and you need to make a shift i want you to lift your hand and say yep that's me yeah come on yeah yeah let's pray father you see the hands we want to connect to you we want to remain in you we want to remain in you so that we will produce much fruit and so father we even say in that process and you pray this in your heart prune us get rid of the things that aren't good and even the things that we think might be good but are limiting us would you bring them to our mind we want to fully connect to you i pray for you are the vine and we are the branches and we want to produce fruit in jesus name everybody said come on let's worship him we need jesus come on remember remember mercy christ before me christ behind me your loving [Music] failed me christ before me christ behind me remember love remember mercy [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] mercy christ before [Music] christ before me christ oh jesus [Music] come on jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] thank you canvas for being with us this week make sure you fill out the connection card and respond to one of the four next steps our team reads each of these each week we pray over them as well make sure you check out the app too canvas we love you and we look forward to seeing you next week [Music] you

Channel: Canvas Church

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Id: MHf4MJ2taV0

Length: 83min 47sec (5027 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021