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DAY 7 | Dream Big Devotional | Mike Pleon · Life Community Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to today's devotional.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to be in the Gospel of John, the 15th chapter.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at primarily verses 1 through 11 about what it is that the Scripture of God is saying to us today, for our lives today.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to read through a first few verses, probably not all 11 right now, and then we'll jump in from there.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes, or that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Abide in me, and I and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, and neither can you unless you abide in me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so this portion of Scripture in John chapter 15, Jesus is really teaching, encouraging, inciting that continual connectivity.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And our connectivity or abiding, the word that is used here, with God resources our lives with strength, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, for everything.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: He is the word.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: His word is a source, it's given unto us so that we can have strength in every aspect of our lives.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: The secular story of today that the culture is trying to tell, or should I say, trying to sell to us, it just isn't working.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're finding so many people that just say, find themselves wanting.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I hear that so much today.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: People are like, there's just something's missing.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what's missing is that connectivity.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just an on-again, off again, it's this continuum, because this word abide means a continual, a continual presence.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk a little bit more about that.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11, kind of gives us a little bit of an insight to this, is that the human heart in which God has put eternity, that's what Ecclesiastes 3 says, God has placed eternity or a desire for eternity or a need for eternity in our hearts.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that that need, that desire is so huge that the world could never come close to bringing fulfillment for that desire that we were created to have, because it's it's only God can fill that to the fullest.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a today we have political systems and our social systems and financial systems, and if you've been around long enough, you realize they fail.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: They've all failed, sad to say.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And no doubt they'll fail again and again and again.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of been the cycle of our history is the systems of man always end up failing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: But people put so much confidence in these systems of the world, but it's it's it doesn't fulfill the longing of our hearts.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so this portion of scripture, uh, Jesus starts talking about the pruning.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a pruning, and so in in John 15, 2, he says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So think about that the pruning and what keeps our lives fruitful.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I I hadn't thought, what about the pruning of our priorities?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's your priorities?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's really where we live our lives from.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: What is our priorities?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you realize it or not, whether it's intentional or unintentional, you have priorities in your life that really mandate how you're going to live your life.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And your priorities are what determine what you will say yes to and what you will say no to.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Recently I read this and I love this.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: It said, let your yes be defended by a thousand no's.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I really love that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because that keeps us in priority.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's one of the things that I think you have to evaluate frequently.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Am I living according to my priorities, my values, and what are those?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um and so uh because of my priorities, it helps me what to say yes to and what to say no to.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality of it, that this is one of my priorities.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not gonna let things come along that are gonna take me away from this, for the word of God, and having that, feeding upon that, abiding in that, having it be an influence of my life, because if this isn't an influence, something else is going to be.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I what I evaluate is if something demand, whether it's through someone else or just things that are happening going on in life, is I'm gonna look at those things and say, can I say yes?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Should I say yes to that?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I say yes to that, am I saying no to this?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a priority.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say yes to this and probably no to some other things.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um we live in a culture that says, focus on your success.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said this, focus on impacting the world.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we live in a culture that says, focus on building a personal empire.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: But but Jesus said this, focus on starting a kingdom movement.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's really what our big dream that we're in the midst of right now, our big dream that we've entered, mission that we've entered into, what is that really about?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's about a kingdom movement more than anything.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's about touching people's lives.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's about inviting people in and helping people connect, become abiding to where they're bearing fruit, fruit that brings fulfillment to their lives.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, again, I'm going to read John 15, verses 1 and 2, from another translation.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This I am the true grapevine, and my father is a gardener.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes branches that do bear fruit, so they will produce even more.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, natural pruning keeps the branch closer to the root system.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it does.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pruning reduces the distance between our hearts and our roots in God.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus was teaching.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Again, plants are pruned for a purpose.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that purpose is to preserve the longevity of stability and fruitfulness.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I had this tree in my backyard, and I had it pruned several years ago.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and the guy that did the tree trimming for me, the pruning for me, said this.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said that in the next two or three years, he said this tree will take off and grow exceptionally fast.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it did.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, you know, a year later or whatever, I could not believe how much that tree had grown.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because that pruning stimulated growth.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so what is it in the in allegorically, you know, here, what Jesus is saying is the pruning of God is God's care or God's love.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: He does it because of love.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Love is God's, always God's motive for what he's doing in our life.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And pruning can make things look worse.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: You notice that the scripture said he prunes those who are bearing fruit.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it seems like, oh God, I've been doing this and doing this, and it seems like this is going on.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because God prunes those that are bearing fruit.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so when they cut that tree back, when he trimmed that tree in my backyard, I was like, oh gosh, that tree looks pretty ugly, looks pretty rough.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But within a year or so, it was like that tree was fuller, uh, more vibrant.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so pruning can make things look worse.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're willing, you'll be stronger, better, more equipped to attain the potential that lies within you.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, pruning always happens, you know, after the fruit.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It always happens after the uh the harvest.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so it looks like, you know, on maybe times in our life we have these very productive times, and it seems like we're going through this challenging season.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: What that is, is God's pruning us.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that we stay fruitful, we keep bearing fruit.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we need to rejoice.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: When we're being pruned, you need to rejoice.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like, thank you, Lord.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: In John 15, 4, um, Jesus said, this, if you remain in me as I also remain in you, no branch can bear fruit by itself.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It must remain in the vine.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or the the the new uh NIV is using the word remain.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, other translations use the word abide, which means, comes from the Greek word that means to stay present.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not again off again, it's not intermittent, it's not if I have time.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, back to your priorities, because what your prior priorities are doing is creating consistency, creating staying present.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what God wants to do.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to stay present in our lives, not just, you know, our lives be on Sunday morning or at church or whatever.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, he wants it to be consistently, he wants it to be a consistent presence in our lives.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was thinking about this recently.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was flying back from a ministry trip, and and um, you know, the pilot comes on and says, you know, we have this system that when the plane is at the terminal, they hook the plane up and all the electrical, everything is the plane is resourced from a stationary uh unit at the at the terminal, and for some reason that wasn't working, which always makes you feel real comfortable, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you're sitting on a plane and the pilot comes on and says, hey, this system's not working, you're like, oh great.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so the pilot says uh in order to start the engines, we have to wait.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: They have to bring what's called a hoffer cart, which is an air starting unit because all jet engines are start on compressed air and all that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I was watching this being done out the the window of the plane, and it made me think of John chapter 15, really, because you know the engines on this plane had potential, right?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: They had great potential.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: They they had enough potential power to get this plane to the destination.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it needed to be connected, or could we say it needed to abide in that Huffer cart that then would uh empower it to be in empower it to engage in its full potential.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, that that's what Jesus is saying here.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus like a you know, Huffer cart, but but Jesus is that that power, that potential, that that life that empowers and releases the potential that was in us.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because each and every one of you have a have a God-given potential.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a spiritual potential that's within you.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just for you.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it's for you, but a lot of it's for other people.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's to touch other people's lives with, it's the wisdom to impart to other people.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the presence to impart to other people.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's the love and the grace and the mercy to touch other people's lives with.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that in that, then they are through the presence of God through you, then the potential that is in them is released.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's see the exponential work of the kingdom of God.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus said.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It all comes back to starting with Him, our consistency in the presence of God.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So abiding empowers us to engage in the full potential God has placed within us.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Again, full potential for others.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I like the full potential that God has for me to engage with Him, to have relationship with Him.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Within us, there's a potential that God wants to be released so that we're in our interaction, relationship, our love connection, or intimacy with Him.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I want to encourage you with today.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to close with this prayer.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my prayer, it's a prayer that I've discovered.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to pray this because I really like this prayer.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to end it with this today.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Pray this prayer.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, I come to you as the vine dresser of my life.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I confess that I cannot bear fruit on my own.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I need to abide in you to thrive.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I submit to your pruning hand.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I ask that you cut away every branch in me that hinders my walk with you, my pride, my selfish ambitions, and my unproductive habits.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Though I know the pruning process may be painful, I trust that you are cutting away only that which is necessary for me to bear more fruit.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Strengthen me in my weakness.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Remind me of your love for me, and help me to trust you in your wisdom for the season, the season of growth.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Cleanse my heart, Lord, and remove anything that draws me away from you.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I desire to reflect your image and to walk in your ways, so that my life may bring glory to yours.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.