He Is the Vine

"Remain in me and I will remain in you." When Pastor Brady Boyd read John 15:4, he stopped the reading to name a lie. "Here's a lie, a tormenting thought that the enemy brings to every believer in the room," he said, especially when you mess up. He asked who in the room had messed up and joked that anyone who didn't own it was lying: "So, we're all messed up."

The lie goes like this: "When you mess up, God turns his back on you." Pastor Brady said that is not what Jesus is saying. "He said, 'I'm never going to detach myself from you. I'm never going to walk away from you.'"

Verse 1 reads, "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener." Then there is verse 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." On the first line, he said, "I want you to catch that, okay? Because he gives a distinction. This is trinitarian theology at work here. Okay? There's a distinction here about what Jesus is and what his father is. So they're both at work doing two different things for the benefit of us."

"That's a big challenge," Pastor Brady said of the rest of the verse. "When I read this, I knew exactly what some of you were going to ask."

Saved by Grace and Kept by Grace

His answer: "This is not talking about losing our salvation." Jesus is not talking about death here, he said, but about discipline and conviction. In the next breath Jesus tells his disciples, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."

You are saved by grace and kept by grace.

"If you were saved by works, you would lose it by your works," Pastor Brady said. Some days we're more faithful than other days, and if salvation were based on how faithful we were from day to day, "what an evil way for God to set up salvation." We would never know, he said, and we would be uncertain and unclear about our salvation. "I have confessed and I've asked Christ to be Lord of my life. Therefore, if I'm saved by grace, not by works, lest any man boast, I am kept by his grace."

So verse 2 is about fruitfulness, maturity, and growing up. "He will confront the areas of our lives that are dead and fruitless," he said. Then he asked, "Will you give him permission to confront the areas of your life that are a waste of time?"

"I didn't expect this to be a shoutown message, by the way. You are super quiet. And I get it." That morning Pam asked how he felt about the message, and he told her, "It's hard." Some sermons he can't wait to share, he said, and some topics are tough and difficult. "We've got to hear it, though. And I'm trying to be as nice as I can about it, but this is hard stuff to listen to."

You Are Plan A, and There Is No Plan B

Pastor Brady explained that John 15, 16, and 17 are considered a long last conversation Jesus has with his disciples, the men he was going to entrust the kingdom of God with. Jesus covers the Holy Spirit, unity, prayer, and a lot of other things. Pastor Brady compared it to a parent's panic during a child's senior year of high school, cramming everything in before they leave: "Hey, by the way, this is how you change attire," "you should pay taxes at some point," and you "should plan not to live with me forever."

Jesus knew the end was near, and he knew he was about to leave them. Pastor Brady thought of the day he dropped his daughter, Callie, off in Baton Rouge for the very first time. That moment didn't really happen with Abram and her in college, because they stayed in town and went to UCCS. After three days helping her get settled, he walked out to the parking lot with her and told her he was flying back to Colorado, a thousand miles away.

"She's very private," he said. "She doesn't share a lot of emotions. She's a woman of few words." But it was one of the most powerful moments between them, because she was about to be really independent. "Jesus realizes he's about to drop them off at school and he's about to go away." "He's like, I hope these guys get it right."

I need you to produce fruit. You are plan A and there is no plan B.

Pastor Brady said this over the Village Church: God has put all of his authority and power and spirit on the local church for us to go and be salt and light in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our world. Gathering together, singing together, praying together, and hearing the Scriptures together is what causes us to bear fruit. There will be days when you don't see visible fruit, he said, but Jesus says, "Stay close to me. Draw near to me on those dark days. You're designed to bear fruit."

He believes we're in a season where the church needs to wake up and seize the moment. "It's more than just a political season we're living in. It's a spiritual season that we're living in right now in the world where the church needs to be activated."

"We need to be fully alert. We need to be fully empowered. We need to be fully discipled. We need to be fully connected right now because the world needs what we're carrying."

With elections on Tuesday and early voting already underway, he stopped to pray. First he told of a friend who owns a home in Colorado but whose residency and voting are in Texas, yet he found a couple of ballots in his mailbox. "I guess we all get to vote more often now," Pastor Brady told him. "That was a joke. Okay. I did not create a federal crime."

"But it made me realize there's fraud everywhere," he said. He asked the church to pray that if there is fraud, it will be exposed and caught "on both sides, by the way. That's right, everybody. Rs and D's are both fraudulent." When the response was light, he added, "I should have got a better amen than that."

Pastor Brady prayed:

We're Supposed to Bear Fruit

"Number one, and this is the most obvious thing I'm going to say today. We're supposed to bear fruit." Pastor Brady said he wasn't there to meddle or pry, but he asked, "Do you feel like your life is fruitful, though?" He recently asked a man, "Tell me, who are you discipling?"

About the last thing Jesus said before he ascended was "Go and make disciples," and that wasn't just for pastors. If you're a parent, it's your kids, and if you're a grandparent, it's your grandkids. If not, who are you walking alongside? He said at the core of the Village Church's DNA is a desire to live life together and help each other make disciples, and anyone who wants to have coffee with somebody and grow in their faith can ask.

He recently met with a man almost 80 years old and asked what he wanted in this stage of his life. The man said he wanted to grow. "And I just thought whether you're eight years old or 80 years old, that should be a desire that we grow."

He also pointed to Matthew 7:17: "Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." It continues, "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them."

So he asked about the five people outside your family circle you choose to hang around. "Family family gets a pass on this one. Okay. You can't choose your family. You have to choose your friends. You're stuck with your family." Are your friends bearing good fruit, reading, thinking, praying, pressing into God with you, and do they talk about Jesus when you're around them?

Pastor Brady described a group of men who have been his friends for a long time, all Jesus followers, who let him be "the real Brady." He realized it had been a long time since any of them wanted to talk about Jesus, "and that was a red flag to me." He wants the church to hang around unbelievers and lost neighbors and be a witness. "But the friends that you invite into your life should be Jesus followers with you."

Then he gave two big questions he had asked himself early that morning, because he won't ask the church to do something he hasn't done. He was up very early and said, "I did not get my extra hour sleep by the way, Lindsay." Question one: "What am I not doing right now that I should be doing?" In other words, what are you neglecting?

For Pastor Brady, the answer was witnessing. This past year has been a bit of a reset for him and Pam, and before all this happened with him, he said, "I'm a soul winner. I go after lost people." It was never methodical or clinical but relational, and this past year he has not done that as much.

"One of the things the Lord said to me this morning, I'm going to send you lost people and I want you to show them the gospel." He said yes, asking the Father for eyes to see like he used to have and a sensitivity to the Spirit around people who are far from God. "Can I be the witness that they need to find you to come back into your kingdom?"

"Listen, we're about to have a wave of people come to Christ at the Village Church," he said. What he loves about the Marriott is its indoor pool: "They have a built-in baptismal tank." He and Joseph "did a little Hallelujah this week," and he joked he might stay for an hour or so in the hot tub afterwards, "just to celebrate of course."

Question two is bigger: "What am I doing right now that you should stop?" It may be a waste of time, misappropriated energy, or misguided strength. All of you are anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit, he said, but you may be using that strength in the wrong place.

It's possible that many of us need to do less in order to be more fruitful.

Maybe what you're doing during the day needs to be pared down, so that when opportunities come to be a witness, to be a blessing, to drive someone to the doctor, or to take care of a neighbor, you can respond. "In order to be more fruitful we need to be less busy."

A Perfect Vine Tended by a Perfect Gardener

"This is going to get better, okay? I promise," Pastor Brady said. Point two: we're "perfectly connected to a perfect vine tended by a perfect gardener."

He grew up in the sandy soils of North Louisiana, ideal soil for massive watermelons "that will save your soul." A family up the street had about 200 acres of watermelons, and his family had a two-acre garden of cantaloupe and watermelons. "I grew up poor," he said, and the melons he sold paid for his school clothes, blue jeans from Sears.

He asked who grew up with Sears blue jeans, then who were slims and who were Huskys. "I was a slim, believe it or not, and my brother had to wear the Huskys."

But the family was not concerned about the melons. They were concerned about the vines, because cattle and dogs would tromp through the garden, so they checked every afternoon for damage. "The watermelons and cantaloupe were guaranteed to grow if there were no damage to the vines."

"You're guaranteed to be productive if you stay connected to the vine," he said. John 15:5 says, "I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit."

When he first read verse 5, he said, "So the source is God and we are the recipients of those blessings. In other words, God wants to bless you. Do you know that? You know that God wants to give you everything you need for life and godliness. He's already given you all that you need and he wants you to stay connected."

"I'm trying to take the pressure off of your performing," Pastor Brady said. "I'm not here to be the moral police of your life." If you stay close to the Lord on a daily basis, you're guaranteed to grow and produce the fruit Jesus is talking about. In Jesus' words, as Pastor Brady put it: "Would you take the pressure off yourself? I am the one doing the work. I just need you to stay close."

Water and nutrients flow through the vine, and a miracle happens: pounds and pounds of watermelons from one tiny seed. "And you now are the seed," he said. "And you are that miracle right now." Stay close, and one day fruit will be all around you, "and you're going to have all the Sears blue jeans you want."

"The vine has everything the branch needs. Please write that down." The vine's roots are already in the soil, and Jesus has already done all the heavy lifting. He went to the cross, your sins have been forgiven, and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is now in you.

"You don't go out to the garden and see watermelons lifting weights to get bigger," he said. "They just lay there and get fat. Why? Because they're connected to something that's powerful."

"So, this is not about doing more. This is about belonging, drawing near, prioritizing your energies, prioritizing your focus so that you're with him more." Branches do not have roots, and they cannot get to the source without the vine. "You're not the vine. You're the branch."

Branches must only stay connected and receive in order to produce fruit.

Remain: Rooted, Unmoving, and Stable

Point three: "Your responsibility is to stay connected. Now, that's more difficult than it seems." He asked how many had lost a friend in the last two years that three years ago they thought they would have for the rest of their life. "I've lost dozens. Honestly, dozens." These were people whose weddings, funerals, and baptisms he had done, people he had been with in hospitals and at their darkest moments.

The enemy's number one weapon, he said, is division. That is why Paul said, "Warn a divisive person once and then a second time and then have nothing to do with them." Staying connected "will be the fight of your life," because we are working against the great divider, with gossip and slander that come against us.

Earlier, reading verse 5, he had put it this way: "So what if you were the enemy and you had a design to separate fruitfulness from the kingdom of heaven, the first thing you would do is separate. You get put a separation between you and God."

Jesus repeats one word in verses 4, 5, and 7: remain. Earlier Pastor Brady said Jesus says it seven or eight times, "It's almost like we're prone to wandering," with 10 million distractions on "that little evil device we all carry in our pockets." "If God yells, this is him yelling." In the Greek, he said, the word is pronounced Meinee, and it means "to steadfastly and continually abide in me. Rooted, unmoving, and stable."

"I'm going to be pastor just for a moment," he said. "I want you to come to church 40 times a year." He will never make anyone feel bad for vacations or doing fun things on the weekend, but staying connected takes habits: "I am going to habitually gather with God's people whether I like them or not."

"Do you know that church chooses you?" he asked. The question to ask is, "Lord, what church do you have for me?" Because if God put you in a place, "you won't bolt and move once it aggravates you."

Right now, he said, "this is all honeymoon in here." He told Pam on the drive in, "this is the first time I've gone to church in 20 years where everyone in the room was not mad at me."

"I mean, every half the place was mad at me for 18 years over something all the time. You should see the emails. I got the emails. I can tell you every Sunday, every Monday, I would get a little collection of emails about something I did to aggravate somebody. I said, I'm just got to hope this I hope this stays like this for as long as possible." Rooted, unmoving, and stable means reading your Bible, being with God's people, and making the gathering a priority.

Then comes the promise of John 15:7: "If you remain in me, my words remain in you. Ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you." "He didn't say, 'Hey, ask whatever you want. I'm going to spoil you like a child,'" Pastor Brady said. If you're close to the Lord, "you're going to ask for things that honor the Lord," out of a kingdom mind, a kingdom heart, and kingdom ambitions. "Start asking for big things."

This week he has been asking for a permanent location for the church. "I want a building that's ours that we don't have to set up and tear down. I want God's family to have God's house." He doesn't mind being at the Marriott until the summer, but he asked, "Pray with me about that."

"If our hearts are completely committed to him and his word abides and remains in us, we will begin to pray powerful, effective prayers," he said. Something happens to the interior of the heart. Motivations and ambitions become holy, and out of that come holy prayers and holy petitions.

He ended with John 15:8. Partway into the verse, he stopped and joked, "I thought the rapture had just happened right there," until he saw Tony "and he's still here. So I knew we were all safe." "Tony's not gone. We're good. John 15:8. I can't even read this anymore."

"This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples." "That's why we worship. That's why we pray. That's why we witness," Pastor Brady said. When you have drawn near and are remaining in him, bearing fruit for him, you are bringing him glory, "and he deserves all our glory, all of our worship."

He invited the church to stand and take the cup and the bread "in preparation for the rapture." He asked everyone to set their eyes on Jesus, "the author and the perfector of all of our faith," and tell him, "Jesus, you are enough. And Jesus, you've been faithful to me. You've been faithful to my family. You've been faithful to the Village Church. You've been faithful to us right here in this room since March." The Lord has done miracle after miracle in that room, he said, and as the church moves to another location, "He's going to be faithful wherever we are because he goes with us."

Over the bread, Pastor Brady prayed:

Holding up the cup, he said, "It represents grace, salvation, forgiveness. And I need that today."

Over the cup, he prayed:

He reminded everyone that next Sunday the church will meet at the Marriott, the one you can see from the freeway on Rockrimmon. Church starts at 9:30 and the service starts at 10:00.

Pastor Brady closed the service with a blessing:

Questions for the Week

1. Pastor Brady said verse 2 is about discipline and fruitfulness, not losing our salvation. What dead or fruitless areas of your life will you give God permission to confront?
2. Who are you discipling, or who are you intentionally walking alongside to help them grow in their faith?
3. Are the people you choose to hang around bearing good fruit, and do they talk about Jesus when you're with them?
4. What am I not doing right now that I should be doing?
5. What am I doing right now that I should stop?
6. Where are you carrying pressure to perform instead of simply staying connected to the vine?
7. What habits will help you remain rooted, unmoving, and stable, including gathering with God's people?
8. If your heart is close to the Lord, what big thing will you start asking him for?

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