Introduction

Take the potted plant you’ve been using throughout the series, hopefully it’s still alive, and get a good pair of garden clippers/snips. To introduce the sermon, which is about pruning, cut off part of the plant. Talk through the process, try to bring the illustration to life by talking about how hard it might be for the plant to lose a part of itself. Highlight the point that as the gardener, you can see the bigger picture and you know that the part you cut off needed to go.

Last week we talked about growth and how it is God who brings growth and how we can all play a part in the process. This week we will be talking about another aspect of growth called pruning. Pruning is defined as, “to trim (a tree, shrub, or bush) by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to increase fruitfulness and growth.”

Like many aspects of our faith journey, pruning isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary in order for healthy new growth to occur.

Pruning is defined as, “to trim (a tree, shrub, or bush) by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to increase fruitfulness and growth.”

Main Teaching/Body

To frame our time today we will be drawing from Jesus’ words found in John 15:1-5; “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 have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will 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 a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

God’s Got a Green Thumb - John 15:1 Two things are communicated in the first verse of chapter 15 ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium