Good Morning Beloved Family,
Heavenly Father,
Today we gather in Your name
we lift up our voices, our eyes, our hearts,
our lives to You in praise
in the busyness of our lives
help us to focus upon You, and You alone,
to hear Your voice, that still small voice within
there are so many other voices, so many distractions
that continue to command our attention
we realize that we cannot tend to them without You
O Lord, how we need You, oh how we need You
Father, I pray Your Spirit, Your voice speaks through me today
guide me as I inhale Your grace
How much higher are Your ways, than ours
teach us Your ways
In Jesus' name
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 soprove 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 Eight
Last time we gathered together, still in our study of John chapter 15, verses 1-11, we were discussing salvation, eternal life, the bearing fruit. I pray that each of you have had the opportunity to find some time of your own, to read and study the first eleven verses in the passage. Increasing your knowledge of Christ.
Now, there's a third and very important aspect of fruit; turn quickly with me to the 13th chapter of Hebrews, just for a moment; Hebrews, chapter 13, now let's look at verse 15. Here are instructions that, Through Him: that is through Christ. Without Whom, we can do nothing, isn't that right? Again, it’s, "Through Him." "Through Christ, continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ." He is mentioned in verse 12 as "the one who sanctified His people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate." Through Him, who lives in us, the true vine from which we draw our life. Through Him then, let us, once in awhile, very now and then every Sunday..... continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
Beloved, that’s worship. Plain and simple. That Is Worship. And that is, by the way, language that is taken from the 14th chapter of the prophecy of Hosea. Hosea says, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord." Go back to the Lord and be ready to talk, be ready to speak. Be ready to say to Him, "Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously." Those are the words of repentance! That is the language of salvation. This is looking to Israel’s future conversion. And then in doing so, you "present the fruit of our lips" And "Take away our sin, receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips."
Repentance. Salvation. Can you see that?
The bottom line is you can’t worship until you’ve been redeemed. You can’t worship until you’ve repented and been saved. That’s what Hosea’s saying. A time in the future is going to come when Israel’s going to come repent. They’re going to take words back to God. God doesn’t want to hear those words as sounding brass, or the clanging cymbals of praise and worship and adoration unless there has been true repentance and true salvation. True Repentance. True Salvation. Otherwise, its useless noise to God.
"Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name." That’s probably not the greatest translation of the Greek homologe. Logeó is a Greek verb meaning "to speak" or "to say," from which we get the word logos. Homo, in the English language, as most of you know, means "the same," Homo means the same. Homogeneous, the same.
So what it’s saying is this,
"Offer God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that save the same, to His name." What does that mean? What do we do in worship? We give back to God the very same things that He has reveals to us about Himself. This is what worship is. It is saying back to God everything that He has revealed to us as being true about Himself. All of that is in Scripture.
When you read through the psalms, you read things like, "You are the God who...." You give back to God, in praise, what He has revealed about His nature, and what He’s revealed about His works.
Beloved, we don’t just make up things. That's ridiculous, utter ridiculous. True praise then is saying back to God all His attributes as revealed in Scripture. You go through the Scriptures from beginning to the end, the attributes of God are scattered all across the pages of Holy Scripture. The more you know the Bible, the more you know about the nature and character and essential being of God. The more you know who He is and what His attributes are, the more you can say back to Him, "God, you are the Creator, You are the Sustainer, You are the Redeemer. You are all-wise, all-knowing, all-sufficient, all-powerful. You are unchanging. You are gracious, loving, kind. You are just, holy, pure. You are our God, and we are Your people" That is what you say back. Its really not complicated, it really isn't. Everything is already spelled out for you, if you'd just read it, read the Bible. Read it, its all there.
What is worship? Again, it is saying the same things back to God that He has said that are true about Him; and that is the only worship that God accepts. He doesn’t want you inventing Him, recreating Him, coming up with your own notions of God, He's already provided us with all we need, He revealed what He would rather we say back to Him, what is true about Him as revealed by Him. You worship God with a grateful, thankful heart, all that God has revealed He is and all that He’s revealed, all He has done, that’s how you praise God. So your praise is essentially confined by the divine revelation. The more you know about the Word of God, the more you know about God and what He’s done. And the more you know about what He is and what He’s done, the purer your praise is. That’s fruit. That’s the fruit of your lips true worship.
We let Scripture interpret Scripture.
What then is the fruit in your life as a believer, that manifests the Trinity is in you? It is continual repentance. Continual repentance. It is character and attitudes that are Christ-like, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. And it is praise that gives back to God a true representation of who He is as the God revealed in both the Old and New Testament, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit revealed, the triune God. It is praising Him and thanking Him and glorifying Him for all that He is and all that He has done.
How do we prove we are disciples? How do we reveal that to ourselves and others, to God? By our pure behavior, our pure conduct, our contributions of love to the people in need, our communication that blesses others, by living a life of righteous behavior and conduct. And by bringing others to Christ, That’s fruit, that’s fruit. This is what the fruit in your life is.
In Closing....
Christ often told people to count the cost and understand exactly what they were really signing up for. And then He actually told His own disciples how difficult it is to become a true follower. It’s difficult because it’s the end of you must "Deny yourself." Something that is, needless to say, difficult for most today, as we're living in an age of self-entitlement, narcissistic generation. And it could cost you your life: "Take up your cross." It’s a life of obedience, true obedience. "Follow Me." But nonetheless, there were always, and still are, people who attach themselves to Jesus in some sort of superficial way.
Judas is their archetype, their example. He’s sort of the principal figure, the principal model, the example of a false Christian, a false believer and follower of Christ. No one since then could be as close to Jesus as he was since He’s not here anymore. For three years, he followed Christ. And then, as we read chapter 13, verse 30, he went away, he went out, and he went out to perpetrate the most heinous crime in human history, the betrayal of the Son of God, leading to His execution, His crucifixion. That, rather than Jesus Christ, is the example many follow today.
Beloved, He is worthy of all this and more. And More!
Just read the Bible from beginning to end. Look at Who He is, what He has done.
And what's astonishing to me, is He wants us, He desires us, wretched, broken, and unworthy
as we are to be with Him. But He cannot allow us to be in His presence, unless we repent! Abandon our sin. We must stop disillusioning ourselves, as the religious leaders in Christs' day did, believing that the darkness in us is light. We are all a mess, trust me, we all have the need to repent every day. Judgement, an impure thought, impure speech, the list goes on and on.. We are not perfect! We are not holy. We are not righteous! But He has made a way for us to be with Him. Oh beloved, how He deserves all the praise and worship we can muster..
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