Series: The Sweet Life
Message: The Source of the Sweet Life
Text: John 15:1-11; Galatians 5:22-23
Every spring when we lived out west we would get in the car and drive about forty-five minutes east to a place called Brentwood. It is an agricultural town with all kinds of orchards and farms.
Our destination was a strawberry farm. Getting out of the car we would arm ourselves with baskets and head for the rows of plants that were pregnant with big beautiful strawberries all red and ready for us to pick.
It never took long to fill several large baskets full of berries; in a matter of minutes we had enough to take home and more to share with our friends and neighbors.
As we headed back to the car our hands were stained with strawberry sweetness and our lips were red with the nectar from the occasional berry that just had to be tasted.
There’s just something exciting and rewarding when you hold in your hands a delicious piece of fruit that is waiting to burst forth with a sweet taste that you expect to tickle your senses!
As we start this series on The Sweet Life I couldn’t help but think of those strawberries, in fact I even have some here that I want to share with you, big red delicious mouthwatering strawberries…
(Cut some strawberries up and pass them out to people near the front)
Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?
Does your life resemble a delicious ripe strawberry? Would people say that you’re life is attractive, inspiring, encouraging and a delight to be around?
Let’s find out. Turn with me to Galatians 5:22. Let’s read it together….
Galatians 5:22-23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Let’s take an inventory:
1. Would others say that your life is typified by selflessness?
2. Would others describe you as exuberant about life?
3. Do you project serenity even in difficulty?
4. Are you able to wait without complaining?
5. Are you known for compassion, a good heart and the ability to stick with things?
6. Are you tender towards others?
7. Would you be described as a person who has his passions bridled?
If answering positively to those questions is the test of living the sweet life what would you say is your sweetness factor?
I have to confess this morning that my sweetness factor could use some help.
How about yours?
Has the sweetness gone out of your marriage because it has gone out of your life? Have you become just as callous and complaining as the people you work or go to school with? Has sarcasm and obnoxiousness replaced the sweet nectar of encouragement and helpfulness?
Imagine what your life and relationships could be like if you recovered or discovered the sweet life? Imagine how you could change the world around you if you truly became known as a person who exhibited love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control?
Would you like that to happen in your life, or in your relationships?
I would! But where do we start?
Let’s start by:
Discovering the Source of Sweetness In Your Life.
John 15:1-11….
John 15:1-11(NIV): 1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also 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.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Who is the source of the Sweet life?
Jesus is!
He says I am the true vine. Actually in the original language it reads, “I am the vine, the true!”
Why?
Remember Jesus came as a Jew to the Jewish people who in passages like Psalm 80, Isaiah 5 and Hosea 10 were known as God’s vine; but when Jesus came He took their place as God’s true vine and only those who are engrafted into Him whether Jew or non - Jews have eternal life.
So in verse 5 Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. In other words Jesus is saying that it is humanly impossible for us to live the sweet life to have real love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. apart from His indwelling presence in us.
Let me show you how this works. Let me cut open this cantaloupe. What are these things called? SEEDS! What kind of seeds are these? That’s right they’re cantaloupe seeds. Cantaloupe seeds produce cantaloupes. In the same way you and I cannot produce the supernatural fruit of Jesus with out the SEED of His presence who is the Holy Spirit living in us!
If you are a follower of Jesus this morning you have all the potential to live and produce the sweet life of Jesus living in you.
Listen to this mystery, what you and I see in Jesus as we read the New Testament is a picture of who we can be! Can you imagine what would happen in this world if those who profess to be followers of Jesus actually demonstrated the character, behavior and power of Jesus?
What’s the problem? We’re not practicing!
2. Practicing the art of abiding in the Source of Sweetness.
Jesus said in John 15:4(NIV) “Remain in me, as I also 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.”
Jesus says that experiencing and producing His presence in and through our lives comes down to one simple act:
ABIDING!
What does it mean to abide?
Take a look at this beautiful bunch of grapes that are just ready to explode with flavor to refresh your taste buds! Originally they were attached to a vine before someone cut them off for us to enjoy.
Let me ask you, did this branch full of grapes have to strain and work to be connected to the vine?
No! Why? Because they were an outgrowth of the vine!
When you and I receive the Lord Jesus into our lives we become engrafted into His presence; we become attached to Him.
But here’s the problem, we don’t know how to abide in Him. Instead we work at trying to be attached to Him and that is why a lot of us get weary, discouraged and defeated.
Let me demonstrate to you what I mean. I need a volunteer who can come up here and hang on to this pull up bar.
(Have them pull their chin up to the bar and hang talking to them about how it feels)
What happened? Too hard to hang on, even the best most fit athletes will eventually let go because it’s too hard to hang on indefinitely. The same thing is true in our lives; even as mature Christians if we try to work at abiding in Christ we are going to eventually lose our grip!
So what does it mean to abide? It means to rest! That is so different isn’t it? Instead of hanging on we learn to let God hang on to us and guess what? He never grows week or lets go.
So how do you allow God to hang on to you? I was meditating on this and two thoughts came to mind:
1. In order to abide in Christ we need to practice giving up all control! It’s our desire to be in control of everything and each other that wears us out! We fight and wrestle with God rather than handing situations and people over to Him and trusting His power. Who or what are you trying to control right now? Can you just give him, her, them or it up to God? Can you let Him have control?
2. In order to abide in Christ we need to simply focus on keeping His word through His grace and power. When we venture outside of God’s will and spend our energy sinning against Him or trying to do life by our own methods and madness we expend energy that wears us out and creates spiritual frustration.
Look at Galatians 5:19…
Do you hear what Paul is saying, “The acts or as the KJV puts it better, “the works” of the flesh are…” The word is ergo or ergon from which we get energy. It takes energy to sin, it takes effort to manipulate, connive, plan and plot. I was just in a car getting a ride home from the airport and there was another passenger on his cell phone. I learned by listening that he is an attorney who is defending clients against the government. He spoke so loudly that his conversation was unavoidable so I figured he wanted me to hear it and I obliged. As I listened to the complications and twists and turns of his cases I thought to myself, “It really does take a lot of work to try to get around the law!”
What if we just did life according to God’s Word, even if we are in a secular environment, what if for our part we handled relationships according to God’s word, what if we did business by God’s word we’d probably have much less stress if we just learned to abide in Him.
Dallas Willard in his book, Hearing God, tells the story of a businessman:
Listen:
Robert C. McFarlane was a well-known businessman in the Los Angeles area. He moved to California from Oklahoma in 1970, and within just a few days of his arrival—due to a disastrous misunderstanding with a close friend—he had to take control of an insurance agency. He did not want it, but he had to make it succeed in order to save the large amount of money he had invested in it.
By the spring of 1973, he was in the third straight year of constant strain and stress in the operation of the business. He had recently been converted through the ministry of the Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Southern California in answer to the prayers of his wife, Betty, and her many Christian friends.
One day that spring, the continual danger of defeat, the dark hours of effort, the frustration at every turn, and the hardened memories of the cause of his financial difficulties came upon him with special force. As he drove toward his office, he suddenly was filled with a frantic urge to turn left onto the road out of town and just disappear. But into the midst of his inner turmoil there came a command: "Pull over to the curb."
As he relates it, it was as if the words were written on the windshield. After he pulled over, there came to him, as though from someone with him in the car, these words: "My Son had strains that you will never know, and when he had those strains, he turned to me, and that’s what you should do."
After hearing these words, Robert sat at the wheel for a long time, sobbing aloud. He then drove on to his Long Beach office, where he faced 22 major, outstanding problems. All the most significant problems—whether they concerned company disagreements, clients deciding to remain with his agency, payments by clients of late premiums, or whatever—were substantially resolved by that day’s end.
God’s way is so much better don’t you think?
Are you abiding in Christ right now? Are you resting? Trusting? Obeying?
If you are then you are set to begin living the Sweet life; the nectar of the Holy Spirit can begin to flow into your life and be released to those around you.
3. Releasing the flow of sweetness through your life.
What is the essence of the spiritual sweetness that God wants you to enjoy and vicariously for others to enjoy through you?
John 15:9-10(NIV) 9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
Gal. 5:22(NIV) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love….”
The fruit of the Spirit’s presence in and through our lives is summed up in one word LOVE! All the other fruit mentioned in verse 22 are simply attributes or facets of love.
One of the distinguishing features of our life should be that we love! It doesn’t matter what your personality traits are, or how you were brought up, or what your gender is; if you have had a real encounter with Jesus Christ you cannot help but be loving, because God in essence is Love.
What kind of love are we talking about here?
Paul uses the word Agape! It is the highest word for love! It’s distinguishing characteristic is that it is completely unselfish. Agape love looks at others and values them for who they are regardless of whether they ever return love back. Agape love knows no limits in how far, how wide or how deep it will go to express itself.
Does that describe your love?
Our culture throws the word love around so loosely but it really isn’t love because it comes with an expectation. I feel so sorry for the girls and women in our culture who are so desperate for a sense of security that they give up their bodies to some guy who says he loves them. If he really loves you he will never make a demand!
Is your love demanding? If it is then it really isn’t love at all!
How can you and I love others with such abandon? How can we look at a complete stranger or an enemy and hold love in our hearts for them?
We can’t! Humanly speaking we cannot manufacture unselfish love! We just have to get out of the way and let Him release the flow of His love through us.
I think one of the reasons it is so hard for us to love is because we may have never allowed God to love us. Somebody has convinced us that He doesn’t love us; the resident Pharisee in us has persuaded us that we have to earn His love; or we’re too bad to be loved. Those are all lies straight from hell.
I’m here to tell you that God loves you unconditionally and even if you refuse his love and His grace He will love you all the way to hell!
As we begin this series this weekend I want to invite you to resign as the CEO of your life. I want to encourage you to join me in asking the Holy Spirit to fill us to a full and overflowing experience of His presence and power. Only as we determine to abide in His presence; the presence of Christ are we able to live and produce the Sweet Life!
(Prayer and invitation to commit to yielding to the Spirit’s presence in order to produce His fruit.)
