Good Morning Beloved Family,
I am so thankful for each of you here
every one of you matter!
Heavenly Father,
Lord, as I pray with confidence and great expectation,
I anticipate your gracious answers to my prayers.
When I remember your faithfulness to all generations,
excitement and eagerness replace concern and discouragement.
I realize that having faith doesn't mean there won't be setbacks or difficult times, but if I'm going to enlist your mighty powers, then I must prayerfully trust that Your will is done on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for a miracle of Your design.
Your answer isn't always what I want to hear, or the option I was hoping for, but whatever it is I will give you the glory because regardless of the outcome my eternity is with you.
Thank you Lord, for Your Son, Jesus Christ, enduring the brutal cross for victory over our sins and sicknesses. I claim that victory in my life and for my loved ones.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
All praise and glory is Yours
Now and forever
Amen
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."
John 15:1-11
Today's Message: Jesus Christ The Indispensable God - Part Four
If you’re a true believer, the first benefit of staying the course, is everlasting salvation. You’re on your way to heaven. I don’t know about you, but I certainly do not want to go through life wondering and worrying about whether I’m saved and going to heaven. And I can’t necessarily get that confidence on my own. Some of that confidence comes from reading Scripture, which tells me that a true faith is a lasting faith. Scripture assures us that, "If you abide in Me, I abide in you." So, what exactly does that mean? God lives in me. Father, Son, Holy Spirit live in me, not only in me, but also in you. And in every other Christian, who has been saved by faith in Jesus Christ. But, the truine God lives in me, yes, personally, in me. This is just beyond comprehension. That's so rich.
So, we know that if you’re an abiding branch, then Christ is in you. He is in you. He indwells in you, He lives in you, and the result of that indwelling, is manifest fruit. When Christ lives in you, you will bear fruit. John 15:2, says you will bear more fruit when you are pruned. I've often been asked, "What does that mean?" Providential trials, troubles, tribulations that we talked about. You will bear fruit. You will bear more fruit. In verse 5, you will bear “much fruit.” And then in verse 8, "The Father is glorified when you bear much fruit," and look at verse 8, "and prove to be My disciples." So, what’s the proof that you’re a true branch? Fruit. You will bear fruit. And when you bear much fruit, the Father is glorified. And part of that fruit is the fruit of endurance, patience through trials.
Then, we find that there’s a negative in verse 4, "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me." That’s about as direct as it gets! Unless, you abide in Christ, and He abides in you, you cannot bear fruit. That's stating it negatively. Then it’s stated positively, the same thing, in verse 5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit," and then back to the negative as a warning, "apart from Me you can do," "nothing, zero, zilch, nada." Because it is impossible, literally out of the question to accomplish the work of God in our human strength. The weapons in our spiritual arsenal of our warfare are not fleshly.
The apostle Paul, coveys this same concept, in Romans chapter 7, verses 4-6. "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."
So, the bottom line is this, if you are in Christ, you bear fruit for God. If you’re not in Christ, you bear dead fruit! Fruitless, lifeless, and useless. Fruit is everywhere in the Bible. So what is fruit? It’s righteousness. Fruit is righteousness. Paul, in Philippians 1:9-11, gives us a pretty clear summary, "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
Beloved, you can’t do that apart from the presence of God. You can do no good thing, apart from God. Not one. Even our righteousness is "filthy rags!" So we know that fruit is righteousness; and when the Trinity takes up residence in us, necessarily fruit will be produced. Righteousness will manifest itself because righteousness has seized control of you from the inside. Our Lord said a good tree doesn’t bring bad fruit. A bad tree doesn’t bring good fruit.
Now let's move that idea of abiding in Christ, staying in Christ, remaining in Christ, enduring in Christ, from the stand point salvation into sanctification for just a moment, and let me just kind of unpack that just a little bit. If you are a Christian, you are, as a matter of reality, abiding in Christ and He is in you. But if we go just a little deeper into that relationship from a sanctifying aspect, the more you abide in the presence of and the knowledge of and the love of and the obedience to Christ, the more fruitful you become. The more fruit you bear, bearing "much fruit." the more you glorify the Father. And we know, that the Trinity lives in you. You therefore, possess the life of God, and God manifestly demonstrates the fruit of His righteousness. And that would be true of every one of us, but not to the same degree.
That is why there are so many commands in the Bible, because there is the assumption is that we can disobey. We can cease to keep the Word, cease to love the Lord, cease to honor the Lord, cease to do His will at points in our lives that restrict our fruit bearing. Yes, we all bear the fruits of righteousness, but we don’t all have much fruit, and let me assure each and every one of you, we all need to have more fruit, much much more fruit. Not a single one of us, bear the amount of fruit that would qualify as sufficient. We all need much more fruit. We simply are unable to accomplish this by a matter of human effort. It's above our pay grade. It's about Christ, it’s all about abiding in Christ.
In closing....
Living a life focus that is focused on Christ is the answer. It's a pretty simple formula really, the more you are focused on Christ, the more fruitful you become. The more you are focused on yourself, the less fruitful you become.
So beloved, lose yourself in the glory of Christ!
We’re all on our way to somewhere, we'll all going to spend eternity somewhere.
Can you say with all certainty, you will spend yours in heaven?
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries