Stay in the Vine
Scripture Reading: John 15:1-7
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He
prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the
word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather
them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you.
The time that I’m going to speak of today was an interesting one in my walk with
Messiah. Let me just say that since I accepted Yeshua as my Lord and Savior and
come into to partnership with the Father through tithing, the only financial troubles
I've seen have come when somehow I had come away from God's will. With that in
mind, two years ago I was faced with a financial dilemma. It wasn't anything to
traumatic but I would put it on the level of going into a store knowing you have a
twenty dollar bill in your wallet, getting to the register, opening your wallet, and
finding it empty. It was a bit disturbing but, God be praised, I knew it wasn't cause for
me to panic or anything. When it happened it kind of took me aback. As I began to
analyze the situation I knew that there had to be something amiss in my walk with
God because as I stated before, every time I come to any financial trouble (since
coming to Christ) I'm able to trace it to something spiritual where I was of track. That
being said, let's dive into this passage.
It begins with Jesus stating that He is the vine and His Father the vinedresser. A
vinedresser would be equivalent of a gardener or possibly a horticulturist. I can
remember my son Cameron a few years ago coming in after doing some yard work,
bringing me a very pretty yellow flower. The first thing I said to him was, "Oh no, now
it's going to die." He had, of course, picked it for me so I told him that I really
appreciated the fact that he had thought of me but I explained to him that from the
moment a flower is picked it begins to die. He said, "But we can put it in water,
right?" To which I explained that even if it does go into water, it will still die because
it's no longer on the branch that gives it nourishment. Jesus is tells us that we need
to stay in Him because He is the source of our nourishment, our strength. Without
Him we can do nothing.
He explains that every branch that bears no fruit is cut off and even if it does bears
fruit, it will be pruned so it can bear more fruit. I’m beginning to understand this even
more. There are some branches that are producing well and some that have
nothing. So the useless branches will be taken away and eventually gathered and
cast into the fire, but more importantly for this sermon, the fruitful branches will be
pruned to make them even better. Do you know what it means, to prune? Those
branches will be trimmed; a sharp object will be used to cut pieces off. I haven’t
quite figured out how to do that right with the plants. I read that you’re supposed to
pinch of the sucker branches that basically just suck nutrients from the plant but don’
t produce any fruit. I’ll be playing around with that soon and I’m sure I’ll get
revelation on it. As for the pruning and cutting of branches spiritually, it doesn't
seem to pleasant when you consider that those branches are us. Many believers
think that once they come to Christ their troubles will be over be Jesus says that in
the world we will have tribulation (John 16:33). Some people will think that God is
punishing them or that He has left them when trouble comes but in this passage
Jesus says that the Father is 'pruning' us to make us better, not punishing us. Too
many followers of Christ fall away during this time of pruning because they buy into
the enemy's deception. Making them believe that God is mad at them.
Some people look at people that are not in the branch and think that they are doing
so well. However, just as my son was deceived into thinking that the flowers in water
were doing just fine, so can we be deceived into thinking those not in the vine are
doing fine. Just because flowers look good doesn't mean that they are alive and
flourishing. Florist have all sorts of tricks they use to make a bouquet look better
longer but that bouquet is still dying because it is no longer on the vine. Looks can
be deceiving which is why we are encourage to walk by faith and not by sight (2
Corinthians 5:7).
When we first moved to the house in Plantation, we did all the things someone who's
moving should do. I called all of my utilities that could be transferred and gave them
my new address and the date I'd be moving. I called the new services so they would
be ready when I arrived. And I changed my address with all of my other bills
including my auto insurance company. After I finished updating all my information
with my auto insurance company, the representative informed me that my premium
would be going up about 40%. At the time, I had three vehicles so a 40% rise was
very substantial. When I asked the woman why it was going up so much she
explained that one of the factors they use considers how many accidents happen
within a 5 mile radius of your home and evidently even though I was moving to a
much nicer neighborhood it was also a more accident prone area. After hanging up
with her a hundred things raced through my mind most of which began "It's not
fair...." I decided that since I had already filled out my change of address and new it
to be good for six months, I would go online to change my address back so my
premium wouldn’t go up. I had even decided that after the six months were over, I
would speak to my old neighbor to have my registration and insurance sent to her
house so I could keep the lower rate. I justified this all as being okay because I
wasn't hurting anyone. I'd never had a claim with the company and didn't anticipate
one so I didn't think twice about it.
My Honda broke down about two weeks after we moved. It was the engine so repair
wasn't an option on a car of its age and condition (God was pruning). My daughter,
Kristen, had been driving it back and forth to school. So we decided that we would
go to the auction and get her a car when the first of the month came around. Before
the next auction came, just after the hurricane, my husband's car went down (God
was pruning). It turned out to be the engine that had seized but miraculously a
friend was able to get it to unfreeze (I'd never heard of this before and even he said
it was a very rare occurrence). So we paid him happily for all his work and felt
blessed. I sold the Honda to the junkyard for $125 and we found its replacement at
auction for $150. Not a bad deal, huh? By the way, I used my old address to
register the car. About a month later my mother bought a car at the auction.
Because she was already on my insurance she knew that it would be cheaper to just
add another car to the policy so we put the car in both our names and used my old
address to register it. The car had trouble from the start (more pruning). We
thought it had run out of gas so we pushed it across the street but only a few gallons
would go in. It drove but seemed to have something wrong with the fuel system. My
mother put in quite a bit for repairs but at this point it's still doing the same thing (still
pruning).
A week or so after this my husband Jeff calls to say that something happened on the
way up to work (at the time he was working about eighty mile away). He and a guy
from work were able to see the problem with a seal on his water pump (pruning).
They got the parts but one of the bolts broke off in the housing and they tried
everything but couldn't get it out (pruning). They had rigged it so he believed they
would be able to get home but it would have to be fixed. This was a Friday and for a
change he had some overtime work scheduled for Saturday so he borrowed
Kristen's Cutlass and drove up and back on Saturday. The car wasn’t able to be
fixed over the weekend so he took my daughter's car again on Monday. I got the call
just after waking the kids up for school. Her car had broken down about thirty miles
from home (pruning again). It turned out that says that he had blown her engine.
His car was fixed the next day (more money, of course). So we said we'll go back
and get her another one and the beginning of the month. Jeff came home almost
two weeks later and said that he had to slam on brakes on the highway and
afterward there seemed to be something wrong with his brakes (more pruning).
Turns out that he'd busted his brake line. While repairing that the gas line was also
damaged (pruning again). After quite a bit more money these were both corrected
and his car was back on the road.
We went back to the auction, found a nice little Ford and registered it using, you
guessed it, my old address. The engine sounded great, it drove away from the sale
nicely. After about four miles my husband noticed that it was beginning to heat up.
We figured it probably just need some anti-freeze. After putting it in we went driving
to do a few close errands but when we got back home we notice that there was a
puddle in the driveway. It appeared the car had a leak (pruning once again). We
figured that wouldn't be too much trouble to correct and made arrangements to have
it look into. As it turns out, no hoses were leaking, nor was the radiator. The water
was coming from the engine. It would cost us $500 just to take the engine out to see
if it can be repaired. You'd think I would have noticed by now the obvious pattern
but I still hadn't. It wasn't until the financial hiccup I mentioned earlier. It cried out to
the Father to ask Him to show me what was amiss, and He did! So fast it was almost
spooky. I had chosen to practice deceit. In doing so, I had basically told God that I
didn't trust Him. If my premium went up 40% I should have known that I serve a God
that can handle it. He's promised to supply all my need according to His riches in
glory through Christ Jesus. I knew right away what I needed to do. I had to repent. I
asked God to forgive my transgression and then I went online and changed my
address to my correct address. About two days later I got an email stating that
everything had been updated and I could view the changes online. I wanted to
check how much it had gone up so I could budget. Guess what? It didn't go up. Not
one dime.
I am thoroughly convinced that this was completely the enemy. Maybe the woman
typed in my zip code incorrectly or there was some other error. It made no sense
that an eight mile move would make such a difference but instead of taking the issue
to my Father, I chose to take care of it myself by practicing deceit. When the
thought came into my mind I should have immediately cast it out with the word, Thou
shall not bear false witness. Because I didn't it festered and it grew into something
much larger than I would have imagined. In retrospect I can see the Father's
pruning although, at the time, I assumed it was an attack of the enemy. I had
stepped out of His will. In looking back, He pruned exactly where the problem was,
with the cars. During this time I was writing anointed messages, reading my Bible,
spending time with my Father in prayer and in those areas He was prospering me.
It's like He was trying to tell me, "There's something wrong with the cars." All I could
see was the natural - there's something wrong with the cars. Let's fix them. But that
was not the real problem. It was a spiritual overhaul that was necessary.
When we find that we have fallen short we must get up. As it says in Proverb 24:16,
a righteous man may fall seven times, and arise again. We must not forget to rise
again lest we stay down. When we see that we have stepped out of His will, repent
and He will guide you back to where you belong; in the vine.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: January 13, 2006
Revised: May 18, 2008
Scripture Reading: John 15:1-7
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He
prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the
word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather
them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you.
The time that I’m going to speak of today was an interesting one in my walk with
Messiah. Let me just say that since I accepted Yeshua as my Lord and Savior and
come into to partnership with the Father through tithing, the only financial troubles
I've seen have come when somehow I had come away from God's will. With that in
mind, two years ago I was faced with a financial dilemma. It wasn't anything to
traumatic but I would put it on the level of going into a store knowing you have a
twenty dollar bill in your wallet, getting to the register, opening your wallet, and
finding it empty. It was a bit disturbing but, God be praised, I knew it wasn't cause for
me to panic or anything. When it happened it kind of took me aback. As I began to
analyze the situation I knew that there had to be something amiss in my walk with
God because as I stated before, every time I come to any financial trouble (since
coming to Christ) I'm able to trace it to something spiritual where I was of track. That
being said, let's dive into this passage.
It begins with Jesus stating that He is the vine and His Father the vinedresser. A
vinedresser would be equivalent of a gardener or possibly a horticulturist. I can
remember my son Cameron a few years ago coming in after doing some yard work,
bringing me a very pretty yellow flower. The first thing I said to him was, "Oh no, now
it's going to die." He had, of course, picked it for me so I told him that I really
appreciated the fact that he had thought of me but I explained to him that from the
moment a flower is picked it begins to die. He said, "But we can put it in water,
right?" To which I explained that even if it does go into water, it will still die because
it's no longer on the branch that gives it nourishment. Jesus is tells us that we need
to stay in Him because He is the source of our nourishment, our strength. Without
Him we can do nothing.
He explains that every branch that bears no fruit is cut off and even if it does bears
fruit, it will be pruned so it can bear more fruit. I’m beginning to understand this even
more. There are some branches that are producing well and some that have
nothing. So the useless branches will be taken away and eventually gathered and
cast into the fire, but more importantly for this sermon, the fruitful branches will be
pruned to make them even better. Do you know what it means, to prune? Those
branches will be trimmed; a sharp object will be used to cut pieces off. I haven’t
quite figured out how to do that right with the plants. I read that you’re supposed to
pinch of the sucker branches that basically just suck nutrients from the plant but don’
t produce any fruit. I’ll be playing around with that soon and I’m sure I’ll get
revelation on it. As for the pruning and cutting of branches spiritually, it doesn't
seem to pleasant when you consider that those branches are us. Many believers
think that once they come to Christ their troubles will be over be Jesus says that in
the world we will have tribulation (John 16:33). Some people will think that God is
punishing them or that He has left them when trouble comes but in this passage
Jesus says that the Father is 'pruning' us to make us better, not punishing us. Too
many followers of Christ fall away during this time of pruning because they buy into
the enemy's deception. Making them believe that God is mad at them.
Some people look at people that are not in the branch and think that they are doing
so well. However, just as my son was deceived into thinking that the flowers in water
were doing just fine, so can we be deceived into thinking those not in the vine are
doing fine. Just because flowers look good doesn't mean that they are alive and
flourishing. Florist have all sorts of tricks they use to make a bouquet look better
longer but that bouquet is still dying because it is no longer on the vine. Looks can
be deceiving which is why we are encourage to walk by faith and not by sight (2
Corinthians 5:7).
When we first moved to the house in Plantation, we did all the things someone who's
moving should do. I called all of my utilities that could be transferred and gave them
my new address and the date I'd be moving. I called the new services so they would
be ready when I arrived. And I changed my address with all of my other bills
including my auto insurance company. After I finished updating all my information
with my auto insurance company, the representative informed me that my premium
would be going up about 40%. At the time, I had three vehicles so a 40% rise was
very substantial. When I asked the woman why it was going up so much she
explained that one of the factors they use considers how many accidents happen
within a 5 mile radius of your home and evidently even though I was moving to a
much nicer neighborhood it was also a more accident prone area. After hanging up
with her a hundred things raced through my mind most of which began "It's not
fair...." I decided that since I had already filled out my change of address and new it
to be good for six months, I would go online to change my address back so my
premium wouldn’t go up. I had even decided that after the six months were over, I
would speak to my old neighbor to have my registration and insurance sent to her
house so I could keep the lower rate. I justified this all as being okay because I
wasn't hurting anyone. I'd never had a claim with the company and didn't anticipate
one so I didn't think twice about it.
My Honda broke down about two weeks after we moved. It was the engine so repair
wasn't an option on a car of its age and condition (God was pruning). My daughter,
Kristen, had been driving it back and forth to school. So we decided that we would
go to the auction and get her a car when the first of the month came around. Before
the next auction came, just after the hurricane, my husband's car went down (God
was pruning). It turned out to be the engine that had seized but miraculously a
friend was able to get it to unfreeze (I'd never heard of this before and even he said
it was a very rare occurrence). So we paid him happily for all his work and felt
blessed. I sold the Honda to the junkyard for $125 and we found its replacement at
auction for $150. Not a bad deal, huh? By the way, I used my old address to
register the car. About a month later my mother bought a car at the auction.
Because she was already on my insurance she knew that it would be cheaper to just
add another car to the policy so we put the car in both our names and used my old
address to register it. The car had trouble from the start (more pruning). We
thought it had run out of gas so we pushed it across the street but only a few gallons
would go in. It drove but seemed to have something wrong with the fuel system. My
mother put in quite a bit for repairs but at this point it's still doing the same thing (still
pruning).
A week or so after this my husband Jeff calls to say that something happened on the
way up to work (at the time he was working about eighty mile away). He and a guy
from work were able to see the problem with a seal on his water pump (pruning).
They got the parts but one of the bolts broke off in the housing and they tried
everything but couldn't get it out (pruning). They had rigged it so he believed they
would be able to get home but it would have to be fixed. This was a Friday and for a
change he had some overtime work scheduled for Saturday so he borrowed
Kristen's Cutlass and drove up and back on Saturday. The car wasn’t able to be
fixed over the weekend so he took my daughter's car again on Monday. I got the call
just after waking the kids up for school. Her car had broken down about thirty miles
from home (pruning again). It turned out that says that he had blown her engine.
His car was fixed the next day (more money, of course). So we said we'll go back
and get her another one and the beginning of the month. Jeff came home almost
two weeks later and said that he had to slam on brakes on the highway and
afterward there seemed to be something wrong with his brakes (more pruning).
Turns out that he'd busted his brake line. While repairing that the gas line was also
damaged (pruning again). After quite a bit more money these were both corrected
and his car was back on the road.
We went back to the auction, found a nice little Ford and registered it using, you
guessed it, my old address. The engine sounded great, it drove away from the sale
nicely. After about four miles my husband noticed that it was beginning to heat up.
We figured it probably just need some anti-freeze. After putting it in we went driving
to do a few close errands but when we got back home we notice that there was a
puddle in the driveway. It appeared the car had a leak (pruning once again). We
figured that wouldn't be too much trouble to correct and made arrangements to have
it look into. As it turns out, no hoses were leaking, nor was the radiator. The water
was coming from the engine. It would cost us $500 just to take the engine out to see
if it can be repaired. You'd think I would have noticed by now the obvious pattern
but I still hadn't. It wasn't until the financial hiccup I mentioned earlier. It cried out to
the Father to ask Him to show me what was amiss, and He did! So fast it was almost
spooky. I had chosen to practice deceit. In doing so, I had basically told God that I
didn't trust Him. If my premium went up 40% I should have known that I serve a God
that can handle it. He's promised to supply all my need according to His riches in
glory through Christ Jesus. I knew right away what I needed to do. I had to repent. I
asked God to forgive my transgression and then I went online and changed my
address to my correct address. About two days later I got an email stating that
everything had been updated and I could view the changes online. I wanted to
check how much it had gone up so I could budget. Guess what? It didn't go up. Not
one dime.
I am thoroughly convinced that this was completely the enemy. Maybe the woman
typed in my zip code incorrectly or there was some other error. It made no sense
that an eight mile move would make such a difference but instead of taking the issue
to my Father, I chose to take care of it myself by practicing deceit. When the
thought came into my mind I should have immediately cast it out with the word, Thou
shall not bear false witness. Because I didn't it festered and it grew into something
much larger than I would have imagined. In retrospect I can see the Father's
pruning although, at the time, I assumed it was an attack of the enemy. I had
stepped out of His will. In looking back, He pruned exactly where the problem was,
with the cars. During this time I was writing anointed messages, reading my Bible,
spending time with my Father in prayer and in those areas He was prospering me.
It's like He was trying to tell me, "There's something wrong with the cars." All I could
see was the natural - there's something wrong with the cars. Let's fix them. But that
was not the real problem. It was a spiritual overhaul that was necessary.
When we find that we have fallen short we must get up. As it says in Proverb 24:16,
a righteous man may fall seven times, and arise again. We must not forget to rise
again lest we stay down. When we see that we have stepped out of His will, repent
and He will guide you back to where you belong; in the vine.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: January 13, 2006
Revised: May 18, 2008
