5/10 John 15 – Mothers Day, Jesus is the Vine—we are the Branches, God is the Gardener (Mothers garden us)
Welcome Calvary family to Mother's Day
Worship. We're back in a vineyard again, at Sharon Forden’s. She and her son Ken and I
talked about some aspects of the vineyard and I want to relate some of these aspects to Mother's
We know that within scriptures were told in John chapter 15 Jesus says,
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, 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.
5 "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.
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is 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 given 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 obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed 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.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Friends, there's a few things that I want to share---a few highlights that I want to talk about out here in the vineyard.
You know we live in an area Texas Corners area where there are a lot of vineyards, but most of us myself included had never really understood how they grow ---how the grapevine works--- how it produces fruit.
Well I am going to bring up just a couple of different ideas today.
The first is the protection --protection of God is the gardener. Jesus says he is the vine he is the vine and the health of the vine has to start in the ground--- with the soil ---with the nutrients. So if you look around us--- the Skyline
Farm --- they keep off the grass cut down - and they get rid of the weeds---SO ALL all the nutrients need to go into the vine… so that the vine can grow strong and healthy.
What are we called to do with our lives-- we are called to have our lives rooted in the scripture ----what our moms --what our parents
try to teach us ---our mothers in particular and our grandmothers---they desire to raise us up and to root us into scripture--- to root us into a
relationship with Jesus Christ and there's the protection there that that a parent / a mother wants to have. Protection--Christ wants to have with us.
Look at this vine ---see the vine rows are long and the vine needs to have a support system. When you look at a vineyard ---the vineyards are nice and straight and the vineyards have poles which keep the vines up and every so far there's a new vine that comes up and the branches split out between the different vines.
The support system ---I love the fact that that Jesus says that we need to remain in him
because we get our nourishment through the vine comes out through the support system. And it's interesting that in the in the springtime you can see these little branches--- or they're also
called canes these little branches will grow and as they grow, they tend to like to curl around anything that they can curl around. The owner of the vineyard will put the wires up here, so that they can direct the Canes ---direct the branches into growing close to the Vine.
Structure ---I don't know about you, but I know for myself--- sometimes we can get a little frustrated with what God calls for structure within our life. And yet really within that structure when we that way we are the most joy filled.
I know mom's …I used to get really frustrated with my mom when I was a little kid because she wanted to have structure in my life and yet she knew the nourishment that she was giving me needed structure within my life so that
I would do that grow up to become that nourishing adult that she and my dad
desired me to be.
We also know that that the vines life is so important. Right now, there are no leaves out here yet shortly ---in another month or so the leaves will start to sprout. The leaves are needed for photosynthesis so that the grapes are able to take in that sweetness from the sunlight and the
right amount of rain needs to fall. There ends up being what Sharon and Ken Forden told me a canapé I love that word a canopy of protection.
A canopy of protection. Think about it-- within your life how God gives us a canopy of protection. He folds us within our lives from all different sides. Scripture talks about the fact that God folds us in ----think about the fact of your mother if you are a mother how you want to give that protection to your child. As they grow up when we have our grandkids over--- on the side of our house we have a little road that goes nowhere. We have a pickleball court that's been painted and a basketball hoop and neighbor kids like to come and play, but when our youngest
grandchildren come we will put the pickleball net at the end of the road to keep the kids out of going onto the Street.
We as grandparents want to protect the
Kids--- so much more does not God want to do that canopy a protection over us. The leaves are protections for the grapes ---the protection. There is also the protection out here of the the fact that that with the raising / work in the vineyards there are bugs---they have mildew
they have infection that can come into
the vineyard----and the gardener has to make
sure, that there is nothing that's going to hinder the production of the fruit.
It is all about the fruit ---it's all about producing the fruit. God says to us that he desires we should produce that fruit in our lives.
Our parents---- Mother’s Day --think about
your mom ---if you had a godly mom what was her desire? Her desire was to give you a protection so that those things in life that wanna hinder your growing ---moms want to remove and offer protection. Protection for the vineyard
There's also the whole idea of pruning Many times in Scripture it talks about the fact that at in the vineyard the gardener has to prune the branches---- prune the vines to get rid of the branches that bear no fruit. Pruning, it's the cutting and it is not an easy thing to choose so
The Forden family and those that would come out here and work they have to decide ---are they gonna prune this branch or cane or are they gonna prune this one off. Which branch or cane will they cut off? Pruning is often done when you can not see if there will be fruit of not on the branch----so the Gardner has to make a choice. The gardeners has to make a choice---- a strategic choice---to say I'm going to save this one--- and I'm going to cut this one off.
This is a hard concept within our lives is not it? God being the gardener within our lives ---and when we feel like there's something in our life that God has cut off He's pruned out of our lives and yet friends God knows the best with in your life with in my life. God knows what will produce the most fruit within our lives. We don't want to have branches that grow--- but don't produce fruit. So Jesus will cut that off---prune our lives.
It's also interesting that the vine grows up, and as it grows out----you want to keep the branches or the canes as close to the vine as possible. Because that's where you will get the
best fruit, close to the VINE. Now you can have a vine that could go for a mile long, but it's not
going to produce the healthy fruit down the way. the closer it is to the root system the healthier and more fruit it can produce, so it's pruned back so that so that the branches are close to the vine, to the nourishment.
Friend Jesus says if we he is the vine, we are the branches--- if we abide in him we will bear fruit. You know this time---- time within our
life a lot of us we have not been able to gather together for worship. We have been doing video TV worshipping. I've talked to somebody in some people and they've have felt closer to God at this time because this has drawn them closer to God--- this has drawn them into reading the word for themself versus just coming to church.
For others they backed away and they've gotten away from the true source the vine--- the vine of Jesus Christ. My prayer for you----- a mother's prayer would be that we would grow closer in relationship to the true vine. And then
that fruit within our lives would grow stronger and it would go deeper.
I find this is really interesting and if you can just turn over this way just with the camera the new shoot you see (camera went to a shoot growing out an old Vine) how the new shoot is coming out of the stump.
Isaiah talks about the fact out of the stump of Jesse, a shoot will come-- Jesse the father King David in the line of the Messiah Jesus Christ. See all of these other branches that were cut, and at one time at one time this vine had a pretty good-sized branch growing and it had another one that wasn't that large and now the Forden and family is starting a new Vine / Shoot out of the stump….to bring the vine up to the wire and then to have it grow both ways.
We also have within the process--we have
the whole idea of harvesting the fruit. The harvesting will take place (and there goes some of the Ford and family workers right now) ---- the harvest scene takes place in due season when the vine produces---- what the branches produces the fruit ----fruit is mature and it has to be picked. Fruit that is picked too soon will be too sour---fruit that waits too long it comes dehydrated.
In John 15 please, I encourage you to read John 15 at home…John 15 there are five times that Jesus uses the word if---- if you remain in me ----if you love me if you do this you will produce much fruit to produce the fruit. And how do we produce the fruit? Again, friends we produce the fruit---- not on our own ---if we try to produce it we get nowhere. We only produce the fruit--- we are only over able to share the love of Jesus Christ into other people's lives when we are close to the vine. When our lives are connected to Jesus Christ.
There's a couple of little ending points I want to just make this morning. A couple of little simple ideas ------ it is a little windy out here, so my notes are going all over ----
And my last thoughts are with pruning
protection and the harvests
-pruning some branches are cut off others are
--protected he realized that if God's called you within his family and if God's working on you… there's going to be pruning that takes place but He's doing that so that you can grow in relationship to Jesus Christ and have
---fruit that is healthy fruit for other people. Sometimes within our lives there's things that need to be snipped off…it's not easy I know that for myself---- it has not been easy when there's
things in my life that need to stop because it's not in line with what God is calling---- me with in
my life.
And we are a branch that has been chosen by Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about that when Jesus says that the Father is the gardener and He prunes----- He chose us to be part of his family and we can have an intimate
Knowledge----- an intimate… an intimate relationship with the vine, Jesus Christ.
We must be close---we got to stay close to the vine in order to produce good fruit.
And the protection the leaves--- protect the fruit the leaves have to receive, or the fruit has to receive the Sun and the rain but also protection.
We need the nourishment of the body of Christ…. we need the nourishment of our parents… of our mothers today for Mother's Day we celebrate all the moms who are faith-filled moms. Those of you that are moms--- give the nourishment to your children to grow and you know that that nourishment will produce fruit ---it
produces fruit.
See friends there's a beauty--- there is a beauty about these vineyards. I don't know how old this vine is it could be 30 40 years old---but it's still producing fruit through the branches.
I want to say thank you to all the moms out there--- to say thank you to my mom/// my mom in law for producing fruit in my life and wife's life and our grandchildren's lives and kids’ lives.
But I also want to encourage all of you----
to especially for you moms---to nurture----to put into your children that love of Jesus Christ.
And friends we are blessed that we can be pruned by God to grow fruit for his family.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit---- may the Lord bless you and keep you may he lift up his grace in his face upon you and give you grace as together we seek to grow fruit for Jesus Christ, Amen.
