Heavenly Father we're thankful for um we're thankful for the opportunity to gather together as your church to not just be a bunch of individuals in the room but to be a family to be a congregation bought by your blood Lord we are made um we are made new by what you have done for us on the cross Lord this morning um we pray that you would be that you would be with us that you would be giving us a sense of your presence Among Us and Lord we ask that you would be making your self known as Pastor Cameron uh seeks to give the message that you have have laid upon his heart I ask that you would uh fill him with the words that you would ask him that you want him to share and that you would give us a spirit of receptivity to hear your words and to know uh what it is that you have for each and every one of us Lord I pray that we would see you active in our lives today in a way that we haven't seen before in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you Pastor Luke good morning conduit my name is Cameron I'm one of the pastors here uh last week we spent some time uh talking about what kind of the north star of ministry at conduit Pastor Luke mentioned it uh and talked about it a couple times today and we're going to talk about it a little bit more today uh which is our goal and our hope as a community is for each and every one of us to grow in our um in our the term we use or the the word that's used a lot is our relationship with Jesus and sometimes that can be a little bit confusing about what that means right what what do you mean a relationship with Jesus if we're not familiar with that but what I what I what I believe what we believe is that when when we get close to Jesus and when we enter into the presence of Jesus and when we are in close proximity to Jesus that Jesus the presence of Jesus the ministry of Jesus the spirit of Jesus by faith in us begins to transform our lives or at least as we are surrendering ourselves to him right we are and can be transformed right there certainly is we certainly do have opportunity and freedom to be in the presence of Jesus as many were in his ministry to be in the presence of of Jesus and to reject the minist his Ministry to transform us to say to say Jesus yeah I want to be close to you in physical proximity but I have no desire for you to transform me from the root of who I am inwardly so that the fruit of my life is bearing witness to the fact that you have worked in me and are working in me this is one of the ways that we talk about um about transformation and today I at the end of service last week if you were here I encourage you to read John 15 veres 1-1 17 we're are going to get to that um this morning uh because what we shared last week at the end is that it is impossible for us to experience experience transformation from the roots of our lives out into the fruit of Our Lives if we are living a disconnected life from Jesus and the term that Jesus uses in John chapter 15 um is for us as proverbial branches in the world to abide or remain connected to him who is the true vine and true source of

life so that if we try as branches to grow and produce fruit out in our lives but we are unconnected or disconnected or cut off from the vine or the source of life that is Jesus Jus Christ himself we should not be we should not be confused we should not be we should not be wondering why our lives are not producing fruit or why our lives are being perennially

untransformed when we are not abiding in relationship with Jesus it's a question I get as a pastor probably more than any other else or and and and sometimes it's it's a question that people don't even know exactly how to ask or what the question actually is but why why year after year week after week I'm coming to church I'm trying to be good trying to be a better person but my inwardly life life is remaining untransformed like I'm not nothing is really changing I'm striving really hard and I'm working really hard and I'm doing all of the the the things that people tell me I should be doing or that I think I should be doing I'm listening to all the podcasts I'm reading all the books I'm hanging I'm going to church every Sunday but just life is just not life is not changing at all so in order to help us to be clear about something I Want U want to make sure that we're we understand the terms that we're we're using one of the ways that we talk about the the visible life of transformation you know when you see when you see someone in your life or when you yourself experience a a significant transformation where once I was blind and now what and now I can see or I was dead in my sin Romans chapter 6 and now I am alive through faith in Jesus Christ right that that there was that there was a significant period and time of dark in my life but now it is unexplainably or not unexplainably but inexplicably so obvious that the light of God has transformed who I am there has been a radical radical transformation and everyone can see it that there that that that that transformation that my transformation is not a secret to the world it's very clear it's very obvious right so one of the ways that we talk about the the visible life of transformation is is we say things like that our lives are now displaying the fruit of a life that has been surrendered by God surrendered to God and therefore Changed by him I've been transformed and now my my life my life is it it it displays the visible fruit of a decision to surrender my life to God and he has changed me but I want to be clear about something um because this I believe is is one of the reasons that many of us do not often experience um experience true transformation is that um transformation transformation in our lives is not primarily

outward or at the very least we could say is that transformation in our lives does not start with the

fruit that transformation um outwardly is a byproduct of the type of transformation that God normally starts with when he goes and grabs a hold of a person and begins to reorient the trajectory of their lives see because much of much of what I'll call cultural Christianity sees or desires transformation in your life to Simply Be the modification of of your poor Behavior right we want to change the outside we want to make you a nice guy we want to make you a sweet girl we want to spit and polish that image right but it lacks inward depth and substance to change to use the language of scripture we're going to be looking at this morning cult cultural Christianity is concerned about the branches of your life having shiny fruit but is not at all concerned with the root that produces ultimately the

fruit and so when we pursue transformation in our lives we have to understand that Jesus is primarily concerned about starting at the root of your life rather than starting at the fruit of your

life this is in fact the major problem that Jesus had with the Pharisees and the Sadducees is that they were primarily concerned with the what the fruit of their life and ignored the work that God desired to do inwardly in at the root of their life in fact if we read Matthew chapter 23 this is just a small little snippet of a whole tirade that Jesus goes

on but he says

this woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence BL BL Pharisee first clean the inside first first clean the inside of the cup and the dish and then the outside will also be clean woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you Hypocrites you are like white washed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean in the same way on the outside you appear to people as rightous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness so that even Jesus concern in dealing with the Pharisees and the and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law is that there that there be uh that there be a focus on the inward life the intimacy the abiding connection between God and the individual so that what we see on the outside the fruit now becomes uh now becomes an honest reflection of the inner work that God is doing in my heart the inner work that God is doing in our lives I um I I didn't just by blind luck or God's Providence um I stumbled upon um this little snippet from a uh an author a pastor many of you might recognize the name his name is Paul trip he um he writes on the spiritual life and on discipleship and about parenting and marriage and about life in Christ and he uh wrote these words I stumbled upon him this week it's an interesting little story it kind of explain it kind of illustrates the point let's say I have an apple tree in my backyard each year its apples are dry wrinkled browned and pulpy and after several seasons my wife says it doesn't make any sense to have this huge tree and never be able to eat any apples can't you do something about

it call Vince

right one day my wife looks out the window and sees me in the yard and I'm carrying Branch Cutters an industrial grade staple gun a ladder and two bushels of very beautiful apples I climbed the ladder cut off all the pulpy apples and proceed to staple all the shiny red apples by their stems onto every single branch of the tree now from a distance our tree looks like it is full of a beautiful Harvest but if you were my wife what would you be thinking of me at this moment if a tree produces bad apples year after year after year there is something drastically wrong with its system down to its very Roots I will not solve the problem by simply stapling new apples onto the branches they also will rot because they are not attached to a lifegiving root system and next spring I will have the same problem again I will not see a new crop of healthy Apples because my solution has not gone to the part of the problem if the trees Roots remain unchanged it will never produce Good

Apples the point is that much of what we do to produce growth and change ourselves and in others is little more than simply fruit stapling on our

lives it attempts to exchange apples for apples without examining the heart and the root behind our behaviors this is of course the very thing for which Christ criticized the Pharisees change that ignores the heart will seldom transform the life for a while it might seem like the real thing but it will prove only to be temporary and

cosmetic transformation through life in Jesus Christ is not about simply modifying the outward behaviors so that we look to the whole world like we have shiny fruit stapled onto our branches transformation through life in Christ is about being honest enough with the Lord and honest enough with ourselves to say father I Surrender every part of who I am to you that you may fully examine what is inside of me that you may root it out that you might till up the soil Lord and that if it Be Your Will that you may cut off everything on the branches of my life that does not bear fruit so that I may bear fruit into the future now the question here is like okay we're talking all about this root system of our lives but is that to say say that the fruit that fruit is bad that we don't want to pursue the bearing of fruit the outward the the outward manifestation of a healthy Inward and spiritual life and and the qu the answer to that question is absolutely not we absolutely do want to pursue the bearing of fruit in fact in our scripture that we're going to read this morning from John chapter 15 Jesus says um that that it is to the glory of the father that we bear fruit this is to my father's Glory John 15:8 this is to my father's Glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my

disciples it's to the glory of the father that we bear fruit and not just a little fruit but much of it a lot of it that that that God desires for us to bear fruit that God desires for us to display the fruit of a life that follows Jesus that is a disciple of

Jesus later in John chapter 15 Jesus says that he chose us and appointed us specifically to go and bear fruit he says this in 1516 you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will last what is fruit that lasts well it's fruit that's connected to a lifegiving source in The Roots right fruit that is stapled onto the tree does not last why because it's not connected to the source of life it's not connected to the root system but Jesus has chosen us and appointed us to go and bear fruit that

lasts so fruit is not only the evidence of our discipleship to Jesus fruit is not only something that we produce to the glory of the father but but the Apostle Paul says that fruit is the evidence of a life that is full of the spirit spirit of

God that fruit is fruit is absolutely something that we should pursue because when fruit appears it is evidence that the holy spirit of God is within us Galatians chapter 5 Paul speaks to this if you grew up in the 90s the 80s and the 90s in youth group like I did you probably learned a song about the fruits of the spirit my wife is going to come up and sing it for

us small attempt

yeah but uh Galatians chapter 5 starting at verse 16 Paul says this so I say live by the spirit okay so understand listen to what Paul all the things that Paul says leading up to his words about the fruit that comes from it okay so remember fruit is NE fruit is always the byproduct it's always the byproduct right it's never the it is maybe in a roundabout way the goal but if you skip over if you skip over the root in order to get to the fruit you'll never actually get to the fruit does that make sense so listen to how Paul talks about how you get to the fruit because he essentially tells you how to deal with the root I know there's a lot of alliteration this morning all right listen verse 16 in Galatians chapter 5 so I say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature they are they are in conflict with one another so that you do not do what you want but if you are led by the spirit you're not under the law verse 19 the acts of the sinful nature are obvious sexual immorality impurity and debauchery idolatry and witchcraft hatred Discord jealousy fits of Rage selfish ambition dissensions factions and envy drunkenness and orgies and the like I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God talking about the root

right but but the fruit of the Spirit but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires and since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit

so so Jesus tells us about the importance that he has appointed us to go and bear fruit to the glory of the father right um we uh we know that Jesus uh that it's to the glory of the father that we are to bear fruit that he has appointed us to go and bear fruit that last and the the Apostle Paul here is saying that the when you deal with the root and when you allow God when you surrender to God and allow him to crucify the sinful nature that exists at the root of our lives at the bottom of our soul then it produces the fruit of a life that the holy spirit is full of that in order for the fruit of the spirit to be evident in our lives we must first have the sinful nature within us crucified by God through Jesus

Christ

those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires it's what eliminates the sinful nature and what allows the holy spirit of God to now start at the root of our lives and produce a fruit that bears glory to the father as Jesus said in um John chapter 15 so then the question then becomes how do we pursue transformation in The Roots so that the fruit is fruit that lasts from one season to the

next listen this is the whole this is the whole point okay I said all that to say this right here every bit of transformation that you are seeking is found in your connection to the source of Life who is Jesus Christ every bit of transformation that you are seeking is found in your connection to Jesus Christ who is the source of

Life Jesus tells his disciples his followers his apprentices both then and now in John chapter 15 he says this he says I am am the vine you are the branches if a person remains in me and I in them they will bear much fruit but apart from me you can do nothing that every bit of transformation that you are seeking every bit of transformation from your roots out into your fruit that is necessary for your life that you are pursuing in your life is is in inextricably connected to and and comes from the source of life that is Jesus Christ meaning that if you seek transformation or fruit bearing in any other way through any other means through any other relationship other than through your intimate connection with Jesus you will be a branch that Withers up and dies for lack of spiritual

nourishment there's going to be two main points right that we're going to move on with and then I'm going to we're going to read John chapter 15 1-8 and it's these two points all right um and we're going to come back to them number one is that pruning pruning is a non-negotiable process of bearing fruit in your life life pruning is a non-negotiable process of fruit bearing if you want to bear fruit you must be willing to be pruned okay number two Jesus promises to remain connected to

you if you desire to remain connected connected to

him remain in me Jesus says in John chapter 15 hey if you remain in me I will remain in you apart from me you can do nothing though okay so we're gonna we're going to come back to both of those in just a moment let's go to John chapter 15 and read the first eight verses in John 15

these are all the words of Jesus here he is um speaking to or addressing his

disciples I am the True

Vine and my father is the gardener 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 you are already pruned because of the word that I have spoken to you 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 I am the vine and you are the branches if a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit but apart from me you can do nothing if anyone does not remain in me is like a branch that is thrown away and Withers such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned if you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you this is to my father's Glory that you bear bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my

disciples okay let's look at a few things from this um from these pass from these verses number one going back to our our point from just a few minutes ago pruning is a non-negotiable process of fruit bearing do you want to bear fruit maybe another way of asking the question is do you want God to begin a process of transformation through your relationship with Jesus

Christ and this is an important question question not one that you should answer lightly right sometimes we answer we ask questions like that that seem rather rhetorical but we don't stop to consider um actually what our honest answer is in them do you want God to transform your

life sometimes the answer is um well can you give me a little bit more

information about the process by which that transformation will occur right because I'm all about this miraculous downloading of spiritual transformation that requires nothing of me other than Jesus just like splashing down on me with his spirit and then all of a sudden I'm walking away in Victory of all the UNT transformed parts of my lives before I'll take that every day of the week yeah give me the transformation that requires no surrender of my life give me the transformation that requires no repentance give me the transformation that requires that nothing be cut off of me that is dead and producing no life give me a transformation that doesn't act actually require that I transform it only makes me feel different and have the circumstances of my life change I don't want it to require anything but I definitely want the fruit of the transformed life and so the question of do you want God to transform your life is not just a rhetorical one where we say well yeah of course I do it's one that re requires an honest assessment of what you are willing to allow the Lord to press into your life so that you can experience the transformation that he desires for

you how willing are you to allow him to cut and chop at the branches of your life in order to cut away everything that is not producing fruit that

lasts this is an important question one that we should not take lightly or gloss over because the the implications and the consequences of our answers they matter you see one of the things that were we we may have lost in like the um in the distance between our culture cultural context and Jesus cultural context is the um is the I will say the relative violence that the act of pruning actually

is now it might not be it might not be so out of your mind if you're an arborist like Vince is or if you live out in Westfield and have grapes or if you prune your own fruit trees to understand well like pruning that sounds just kind of like a oh yeah I go out into my garden and I kind of you know prune a couple little little stems off my tomato plants and it's really simple and it makes them look so much more clean and beautiful and doesn't really it's very easy and gentle right pruning does seem like a very gentle word but have you ever gone by have you ever gone by or have you ever gone driven through Westfield or Ripley or Silver Creek or even fonia after they have trimmed the um the grape Vines at the end of the season in the middle of the winter and what do they look like like you might as well have just chopped them off at the ground there is nothing left right and I of course I've driven by uh driven by places where where pruning has been done on the or pruning has been done on a tree and you look at it and you are like tell me how life will ever come from that thing again

there's not a whole lot of great pictures to illustrate this and if I would have thought ahead enough I would have maybe had Vince come up and actually prune an apple tree on stage for us to show us what it's like but as a little bit of a little bit of a picture here of like what happens you know we have all of these like these water spout branches that are going straight to the straight up into the air right and pruning comes and chops off all of the branches that we know are going to take nourishment and life from the TR from the branches that actually will bear healthy fruit but you're left with something that looks pretty

ugly doesn't look like much of a tree and you end up asking yourself the question um how long exactly am I going to have to wait until that thing produces fruit any long because it looks pretty

destitute see there are other metaphors in scripture to describe the same type of work that pruning seeks to accomplish in our lives to get the same results they're a little bit more they they they they paint a really good picture for us one is the the um the image of or the words about refining right that our souls in um I think it's Isaiah chapter 48 are are refined by what fire and what does fire do in the refining process it takes everything that is a part of that substance and it superheats it so that everything that is impure in that substance either melts away or can be drawn off the top and discarded and so that what is left is the most pure form of the original sub but the fire must be applied in extraordinary measure so much so that the molecular substance even breaks

down another similar another similar metaphor in scripture we talked about this yesterday at Men's breakfast is from Proverbs chap 27 verse 17 right it's a very famous verse as iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another right and the process of sharpening seems like oh yeah sharpen I just it just makes the edge nice and sharp again well the process of sharpening is actually the process of cutting material

away you take a file to a doll Hatchet and once you take it from a blunt instrument to a very sharp razor edge what you see left on your workbench is a pile of metal shavings because in the act of sharpening the sharpener has taken Material off it has stripped it away it has cut away the thing that prevented it from being sharp it is a process of loss so that it may be used in its original purpose you see the difficulty in this word for us this morning is that for so so many of us we have gone to Great Lengths to believe that the difficult circumstances experiences relationships and seasons of our life can only be evidence that God has abandoned us and is punishing us and so we look up to the sky and we shake our fists and we ring our hands wondering why God could be so horribly unfair to put us through hardship for no redeemable reason

whatsoever now to be sure we've talked about this before we'll talk about it again sometime it's beyond the scope of our what we're doing this morning to be sure though not all difficult circumstances are created equal some some things that we go through are consequences of our actions or others actions around us some are consequences of the general sin and Brokenness of the world and still other difficult things that we go through are are those that God has purposed for our temporary discomfort but for our ultimate

good there are circumstances that are just consequences of our own action for sure right there are circumstances that are that that are just conse quences of the general sin and Brokenness of our of our world and of our lives and then there are circumstances that we go through that God has purposed for our lives to cause us temporary discomfort for our ultimate and eternal good we have to have a mindset and a perspective to understand that all of those exist and can exist at the same time and intention with one another they are not all one or the other but to the untrained eye to the perspective that sees all negative or horrible circumstances as God's punishment in our lives pruning can look like utter destruction why are you doing this to me God why are you destroying me like this why are you cutting all of this stuff away from my life but listen the expert Gardener knows exactly what and how much to cut away in order to encourage New Growth without killing the

tree and what Jesus says what Jesus says here is like my father is the

gardener my father is the gardener and he knows with absolute precision what must be cut away from our lives so that fruit can be borne into the future so that transformation can happen and he will not cut one leaf or one branch or one single one one one cimeter of your life away that is not necessary for your ultimate good he does not prune to punish he prunes to produce

fruit well that will be very painful

though

correct correct if someone listen I'll say it like this if someone lied to you to tell you that the Christian Life of following Jesus the life of discipleship to Jesus is a life without pain and without sorrow and without hardship and is just 100% inexplicable joy and happiness from now until Heaven I am sorry I am I truly I am sorry that you have been lied to in that way but listen if Jesus our savior did not if he did not escape the pain of hardship neither will

we you're right it will be painful to your flesh it will be painful to have that pruning happen but until the flesh is put to death there can be no Resurrection to new and transformed life in Jesus that's essentially what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 that that our sinful life must be crucified crucifixion is not just a spiritual term term right it is a term of death there are things that must be put to death in our lives if we desire to see transformation and fruit bearing

occur a few questions maybe to guide our work in the next few

days have you been curious enough with God to ask him what situations in your life are his pruning work which he's meaning to produce increased fruit in your

life because many of us just roll on in life just assuming that we know what is h what this situation is all about what's going on but have you have you stopped right have you stopped for a moment to inquire with the Lord what is your purpose in this season in this trial in this experience in this circumstance Lord are you meaning to prune something out of my life so that I may bear fruit into the future Lord is this a consequence of something that of a decision or an action that I have made father is there something that I need to repent of in this situation or Lord is this just you refining and burning out the impurity of my life so that more fruit May grow Lord give me wisdom to see what it is you are doing in my life in this situation it is such an obvious question that we some we most of the times we fail to ask it right I don't know what's going on I don't know what God is doing in my

life have you considered possibly going before the throne of grace boldly and with confidence to request wisdom from the one who knows what he's

doing or do we just look at every situation are we committed how about this are we committed to just looking at every situation with the untrained eye of someone who simply says God is just out to create pain in my

life another question to ask what is the thing what are the things that in my life sit up this is an important one also another don't ask this rhetorically you better mean it when you ask it because he's he's um he'd probably answer it right what are the things in my life that I'm holding on to trying to breathe my own life into but are obviously dead branches that have not yielded fruit in years and are not and that are not producing transformation through Jesus and will I allow God to cut them out of my life what are the things that I am just hold I am white knuckling on to I am holding on to so so tight trying to be the source of light life that produces fruit in these things and God is just so desperately trying to let us get us to take our hands off them so he can cut them out of our our lives and produce fruit from their

death will you allow God to cut them out of your

life Point number two Jesus will remain connected to you if you remain connected to

him in verse four of John chapter 15 Jesus says remain in me and I will remain in you interesting here that Jesus does not say this in Reverse right I will remain in you I will remain in you so remain in me what we must understand this Dynamic and think carefully and clearly about it because the rest of the verse helps to bring Clarity to this right Jesus says in four John 15:4 no Branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me what's the implication here the implication here is that Jesus will not force you to draw upon him as the source of your life and

transformation he tells you he tells us remain in me stay connected to me stay connected to the vine if you remain connected to me guess what the source of I I am the source of life you will never lack for anything you will have everything that you need you will never wither right you will produce fruit remain in me and guess what you can count on me to remain in you Jesus words here in uh John 15:4 his words here are an invitation to intimate connection and a promise to be the source of your life and transformation if you remain connected to him but you have the freedom to

choose most of us don't like that most of us wish that God would force that connection

right because in sin it takes the responsibility away from us to actually say oh wait there is something required of me in this you mean God you don't just serve me as my own personal life coach that makes everything better all of the time that I am actually required to do some transformation of myself and remain in Connected intimate relationship with you yes that's exactly what I'm saying Cameron remain in me and I will remain in you we have the freedom to choose and with the freedom to choose we must make the intentional decision to be in relationship with Jesus because many of us believe that simply associating ourselves as Christians presupposes that over the course of time we will naturally just kind of drift towards transformation just drift towards fruit FR bearing just drift towards spiritual maturity but the reality is is that the opposite is actually true without intentionality we naturally drift towards disease not

Health it takes intentional effort to be healthy it takes intentional decision to be healthy a tree does not Dr drift into tremendous fruit bearing it takes intentional decisions of the gardener to prune branches that do not bear fruit so That Others May bear fruit in excess and we know that this is true we know that this this intentional decision of intimate relationship is true in our human relationships don't we me like well why do I have to make an intentional decision to H if I want to have a close and intimate relationship with Jesus that seems

weird mik d can you still hear me in won't be able to talk later

but second thing how do we create intimate connection with the Lord how do we create intimacy with the Lord right we talked about the first one like how how can I how am I going to create intimate connection with my wife I'm going to block out that time what's the next thing how about this how about I'm going to take interest in the things that the Lord takes interest

in I I am I'm going to I'm going to transform my heart to love the things that the lord loves and to detest the things that the Lord detests in a similar fashion to how we would do it in Intimate relationship here on the human in the human plane right the horizontal sphere if I don't take interest in the things that my wife takes interest in if she doesn't take interest in the things that I take interest in right there is a there is a connection and and a um and a familiality to knowing that the things that I am passionate about she is also passionate about now how in the world where do we get that from scripture here well look at what Jesus himself says in John 15 starting at verse

9 as the father has loved me so have I Loved You Now remain in my love listen how do we what are the things that Jesus Takes interest in and how do we create intimate connection with him 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 I have told you this so that my joy may be complete and that your joy may be complete my command is this love each other as I have loved you greater love has no one than this than he lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what I command

you are my friends if you do what I command if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father's commands or remain in his love right the building of intimate connection and relationship with God through Jesus Christ is also about actually obeying his

commands all of these these things again back distilled down to the moment of personal choice and responsibility of saying yes Lord the things that are important to you I will make them important to me I I will I will love others in Greater capacity I will serve others in Greater capacity I will I will seek and Grant forgiveness I will be more merciful and gentle I will be generous with my I will obey your commands because that is the center of your heart and I want to make it the center of my heart and as the center of the Heart of Jesus becomes the center of the heart of Cameron transformation begins to occur because I am no longer my own but I am now him who lives in

me can't Jesus just trans form me and I live my life as I have been the answer unequivocally without a doubt 100 day 100% 365 days of the year is no absolutely not we cannot be transformed and remain

untransformed to love the Lord is to obey his commands

and it requires surrender and it requires pruning and it requires

change let me pray for us as the worship team comes back

up Heavenly Father we

pray

that

um we pray Lord first that you would help us to see the things in our lives that we are holding on to the dead branches that that we've not allowed you to prune but that Lord have produced no fruit for our transformation in Jesus Maybe

ever Lord we pray that you would reveal to our hearts this morning the the the the things maybe the relationships maybe the habits maybe the places maybe the jobs maybe the people that have become for us dead and withered branches that need pruning Lord and we pray that you would prune those things from our lives so that fruit that lasts may be

produced father we thank you for an opportunity to be moved and transformed by the work of the

spirit father make these moments make this week moments and a week like there has not been before where we maybe for the first time experience transformation in a place in our lives where we have only experienced

defeat Lord you in Jesus Christ are the source of our life all other places that we have gone for life have left us um in

want May the life of Jesus Christ through faith in him and the power of the Holy Spirit bring life into the branches that you desire to produce fruit in Jesus name amen Lord you are King we give you Lord highest praise for you are worthy above all and

overall brothers and sisters go from this place knowing that you are chosen and the Lord has appointed you to bear fruit that lasts to the glory of the father amen conduit you are loved where is Larry Larry barmore we're going to pray for Larry before he leaves so if you can stick around and join us back there to pray for Larry and join us back there in 2 3 minutes uh for the rest of you we will see you next

week