Sunday Sermon Service John 15:1-8
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning and welcome to First Community Church of Milton Freewater, OR church at home.
We are so glad that you decided to join us today to worship God is Spirit and in Truth, One verse at a time.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day or otherwise known as decoration day.
The first national celebration of Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day) took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Originally Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day, meant to honor the Union and the Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War. By the 1900s it had become a day to celebrate all American soldiers who died while serving in the military. It wasn't until 1967 that it was legally named Memorial Day.
For those of you that are listening that have served our great country, FCC says thank you, thank you, and thank you!
Thank you for serving!
Prayer
Lord, we pause at this moment to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy every day, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please hold our servicemen and women in your strong arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and your presence as they stand in the gap for our protection. We also remember the families of our troops. We ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes, and we pray your peace, provision, and strength will fill their lives. May the members of our armed forces be supplied with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord's mighty power to accomplish each task.
Now Lord, as we open your Word we ask that you would speak to us individually as well as corporately. And for the listener that is struggling at this moment, we ask that you Heavenly Father, would life them up, that you would encourage them and impart grace to see them through. Lord we desire to know you deeply, so send your holy Spirit now and nourish our souls. Prepare our hearts to receive with meekness your implanted Word which is able to save our souls. Teach us Lord over the next few weeks what it really means to abide. Many listening today are struggling to abide Father, so please God lift them up. Lord pour into us and fill us to overflowing so we can all say, “The joy of the Lord is our strength!” In Jesus Name
Review
The last few weeks we were in John 7 and learned that Jesus is always inviting us to come to him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
We see invitations all over the Word
But invitations are useless unless you respond .
We have all gotten wedding or birthday invitations and were asked to RSVP. WHY RSVP?
The invitation signals an important event that the host wants someone to know about.
In addition it includes RSVP information so that the sender of the invitation can know exactly who and how many will be attending.
It is so they can be prepared.
If nobody responded, would there still be a party? Or event?
Do you think the host would be let down?
Imagine how Jesus feels when he gives us an invitation to come to Him, but we do not respond?? We just blow Him off.
Praise God Jesus is not like us fickle and resentful humans that might say, “They did not respond, therefore, I will not send them another invitation!”
Praise God, for his mercy, grace, and forgiveness!
He will not stop inviting you to come to Him because that what love, true agape love does.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Church, the Lord loves you with an unstoppable love
Today, we are going to talk about another invitation. The invitation to abide.
If you study the Word you will see invitation after invitation after invitation.
You will also see responses, some good, some not so good.
The sad thing about not responding when Jesus calls, when Jesus invites is that :
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
James poses the question what is your life?
He rhetorically answers by saying: it is even a vapor that appears fro a little time and then vanishes away.
We are not promised tomorrow church, so let us respond appropriately to the invitations as The Father sends them our way.
Have you ever thought about why you continue to struggle in a certain area of life?
Have you tried overcoming some sin in your own strength, only to find out you can not do it?
Have you found yourself isolating, staying away from people that can help you?
I would pose that you and I are not responding to the invitations that God has sent our way.
When I look back over my walk with the Lord, I can say that my walk for many years was mediocre at best. I was a spectator, so I thought until I found out being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not a spectator sport. I was a CARNAL CHRISTIAN AT BEST.
What is a carnal christian?
Lets look at what the Bible says:
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Carnal- sarkinos- worldly ⇔ fleshy adjs. — characteristic of this world and its attributes and concerns as opposed to the supernatural; Governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God. Having the nature of flesh, i.e. under the control of the animal appetites.
The Corinthians are part of the family of God (he calls them brethren), and that is the problem. Though they have the Holy Spirit (unlike the natural man of 1 Corinthians 2:14), they are not behaving like spiritual people, but like carnal – that is, fleshly -people, like immature Christians (babes in Christ).
These Christians, to some extent, are thinking and acting according to the flesh, not the Spirit.
Of course, the flesh does not dominate every aspect of their life, or they would then have no evidence of being born again.
But Paul is addressing issues where they clearly are thinking and acting in a carnal – that is, in a fleshly – manner.
To live carnally satisfies the flesh rather than pleasing and honoring God. A carnal Christian may have accepted the gift of salvation, but not the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and transformation of their inner man.
Carnal Christians are still entertaining the things of this world.
They want their cake and eat it to.
They go to church on Sunday and play with the world the rest of the week.
And sadly, they wonder why they struggle?
Why do you think they struggle?
You are right! Its because they are not responding to the invitation God is giving them. They quench the Holy Spirit and give in to the lust of the flesh.
I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Carnal Christians are not doing this:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The flesh, the world, and the devil is working them over.
Can you identify with this?
See church, In remained a carnal christian until I completely surrendered my life to the Lordship of jesus Christ.
I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was a spectator, I could talk the christian talk, but I had NO FRUIT in my life.
Carnal Christians cannot produce fruit in their lives.
“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.
You can do nothing, absolutely nothing apart for Jesus Christ. The only thing you will do is feed your fleshly appetites. Your animalistic desires take over and now you are in the driver seat and guess where this drive is going to take you?
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Church, we are living in difficult times and have been for a long while.
Have you ever notice that we all make time for what is most important in our lives?
Over the last few years we have given invitations to come to grow groups, to come to prayer meetings, to come to Bible study, to serve in the kids ministry, to join the worship team, to disciple someone, to call someone, to walk alongside someone, to potlucks, to mens and women's meetings, to help out at the ministries we support like Danner Farms, Christian Aid Center, and the list goes on and on.
Many of you have showed up, but many have not.
Church, the truth is we give these invitations so we can get to know Jesus and one another.
We give these invitations So we do not fall away or backslide, so we can stay connected to the Vine and produce fruit for God’s Kingdom.
The quickest way to become carnal is to disconnect from the Vine!
The quickest way to become carnal is to stop going to church, to stop reading your Bible, to stop praying, to stop serving, to stop getting involved with one another, to stop fellowshipping with your brothers and sisters.
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Church, we can fall away, the Word teaches the elect can be deceived.
When the prodigal son left home, he spent all he had and hung out with the pigs just like Peter said:
But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
When we leave home, the church home, when we stop spending time with the Lord and our brothers and sisters in Christ, when we stop serving others and start serving self, when we leave our first love, we will always return to the pigpen
The issue is we are not abiding, but sliding.
We are not sliding forward, but backward.
Read John 15:1-8
For the next few weeks we are going to talk about about in the VINE
My heart is that we all will abide
My heart is that we move from the milk of the Word to the meat.
Are you abiding in Jesus today?
Or are you backsliding?
Jesus says it like this:
“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Jesus is calling us to repent and return unto Him.
Do you see the invitation?
Prayer,
Lord heavenly Father thank you for speaking to us a message of great encouragement and conviction. We are guilty Lord! We have all fallen short of your glory and confess that we have quenched your Holy Spirit, we have not responded to your invitations, and become carnal. Father please forgive us and empower us through the indwelling Holy Spirit to be overcomers. Teach us over the next few weeks how to truly abide in the Vine so we will not give into the desires of the flesh, but walk in the Spirit. Lord make us overcomers. Help us all return to our first love and not miss another invitation. God thank you your mercies are new every morning and your compassions fail not. Please draw near to the suffering and broken. And please Father touch the orphan and the widow this day. As we close, we think of the Gospel, we think of how Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world. He died upon a cross for you and for me and was buried and on the third day he rose again. The grave is empty and Jesus is alive. For the listener today, for the back slidden today, for the person that needs to surrender once again in holy commitment we pray: Lord Jesus I know that you are Lord and Savior, you are the God of the Old testament and the New. I ask you to have mercy upon me a sinner .
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
I believe, we believe. Please come into our hearts, fill us with your Holy Spirit and give us the power to overcome.
In Jesus Name
Announcements
Hopefully this week the devotion will be back up and running.
We are closely monitoring the Covid situation and will let you know when we will begin opening the church at our physical address again.
Please reach out to each other this next week. And please pray for Cathy and Gary Hendricks and their new home etc..
Guess what? Please be checking your email this week as an invitation to pray will becoming soon.
Benediction
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ”
The Lord Bless you!
Your Mission starts now!