THE RISE AND FALL - Clover Sites



STAYING ALIVE

John 15:1-11

Abiding in Christ brings abundant life.

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

August 1, 2010

FTT. Have you ever seen those initials? They’re not one of the kids’ abbreviations in text messaging—at least I don’t think so. FTT. If you’re a pediatrician or a nurse in a pediatric ward or in a neonatal ICU, you probably have. FTT stands for “Failure to Thrive.” It is put on a child’s chart when the baby for some reason is unable to gain weight or grow. Sometimes it has to do with the environment the baby lives in. The parent or caregiver suffers from depression, and it seems somehow to get passed on to the infant. Or maybe there was a prenatal condition, like drug or alcohol use, that causes a failure to thrive. Or sometimes something is just wrong with the baby’s metabolism and the normal growth of life just doesn’t happen. It is a diagnosis that sounds like an explanation, but it explains nothing. “Failure to thrive” is a sad situation, but with the proper care, it can be reversed, and the child can be healthy.

“Failure to thrive” is also part of the human condition. God’s plan and desire for our lives is to thrive—not just to survive, but to thrive. Thriving is life in all its abundance. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”[i] That’s thriving. It means living life to the fullest, having a meaning and a purpose, a reason to get out of bed in the morning, living life with joy and enthusiasm.

We have a failure to thrive sometimes, don’t we? We get depressed; we let our problems get us down. Sins, failures, regrets, and defeats won’t stay out of our thoughts. Griefs and tragedies break our hearts. We cannot see a way out of our difficulties, and we feel like the weight of the world is sitting squarely on our shoulders.[ii]

But like the childhood medical condition, spiritual failure to thrive is treatable. With the proper care, we can be healthy, happy, and whole again.

Jesus used an image with his disciples that was very familiar to them. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”[iii] A little later he said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”[iv] Everyone in that day and time had seen grapevines. Most of us have, too. The vine is rooted in the ground; the vine carries nutrients to the branches, where the fruit grows. The vinegrower carefully waters, fertilizes, and prunes the vine to get the best fruit possible. This is an image of life, a sign of thriving. I want to take three words out of this passage to help us get at its meaning today.

The first word is ABIDE. Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”[v] Ten times in our text, he uses the word “abide.” Again, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”[vi] Abide simply means “stay.” Remember, Jesus is speaking to the disciples; so these are men that are already in relationship with him. They are already made clean, Jesus said, by the word he had spoken to them. Now he is telling them to stay in relationship, to remain in the covenant of love with God. Remember Wesley’s three rules we talked about last week? Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God. This is what we mean by “abide.”

Stuart Briscoe, author and long-time pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, was preaching in Poland during the Cold War years. One night his sponsors drove him under cover of darkness to a dilapidated building in the middle of nowhere. Inside that building were about a hundred young people waiting to hear the word.

Through an interpreter, Stuart preached from John 15 on abiding in Christ. About ten minutes into the sermon, the lights went out. The interpreter urged Briscoe to keep preaching, which he did, not being able to see his notes or his Bible. After preaching for about twenty minutes in the dark, the lights flickered back on, and Briscoe was surprised to see that the young people were all on their knees. They stayed there through the rest of the message.

The next day, Stuart commented on the knee thing to one of his sponsors, and the sponsor told him, “After you left, we stayed on our knees most of the night. Your teaching was new to us. We wanted to make sure we were abiding in Christ."[vii] Are you sure you’re abiding in Christ?

When we abide in Christ, we receive the promise of power. Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”[viii] Those are bold words. I keep waiting for Jesus to qualify his statement: “Ask, and it will be done, unless of course, you’re too tired, or too old, or have kids to raise, or unless you don’t have a good education or a certain level of income… Ask, and it will be done, realizing, of course, that this is a rhetorical exaggeration intended to grab your attention, but not to be taken at face value.” But he doesn’t do that! “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you”—that’s the only qualification—“ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” That’s an amazing promise of power. Do you suppose it’s true?

In 1986, the world was crashing in around David Green. The bank was about to foreclose on Hobby Lobby, the company he founded in 1973. The oil boom in Oklahoma—where Hobby Lobby is headquartered—had gone bust; banks were scrambling to survive; and businesses were going bankrupt right and left.

But David Green and his family chose to see that crisis as a defining moment in their business. They were Christians, and they had prayed before, but now they were about to get serious. David Green began to use the space beneath his desk as a prayer closet. He would crawl under his desk in his corporate office and seek God's help. And God gave it. It was God's response to those prayers for their business that the family believes pulled the company out from under looming bankruptcy and set it on its feet again.

Today Hobby Lobby has 342 stores in 38 states, doing about $1.5 billion in business per year. David Green is on Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. And the purpose statement of Hobby Lobby still says in part, “We believe that it is by God's grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in the past, we trust Him for our future.”[ix]

We abide so we can bear FRUIT. Jesus mentions fruit six times in these 11 verses. He says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, … My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”[x] The relationship of love with God carries expectations. Abiding entails some responsibility. We can’t just keep our relationship with God on the inside. We have to share the love. We have to engage in ministry. Disciples of Jesus Christ make a difference with their lives. The Christian faith is an active faith.

Pastor Bryan Wilkerson tells a story in a sermon about an antique sterling silver tea service that was given to him by a family member. It is a beautiful piece of work, and the Wilkersons display it proudly. But they can’t use it. Before she gave it to them, the family member had the silver chemically treated so it wouldn’t tarnish. Hot water will ruin the finish.

Wilkerson says, “God's not looking for sterling silver tea sets. He's looking for rough-and-tumble clay pots—the kind that can be used everyday. He's looking for the kind of pots that don't need to be tucked away in a china closet, but can be sent out into a crash-bang world, carrying within them the life of Christ. The church was never meant to be a china cabinet, where precious pieces could be safely stowed out of harm's way. The church was meant to be a working kitchen, where well-worn pots are filled again and again to dispense their life-giving contents to a thirsty world.”[xi] That’s bearing fruit.

The final word of abundant life today is JOY. What’s the point of all this? Jesus said, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”[xii] It’s all about the joy. It’s all about living well. It’s all about the full, abundant, thriving life we have in Christ.

Remember the context of these remarks by Jesus. This is part of his final teaching to his disciples after the Last Supper. He is hours away from being arrested, beaten, crucified, and dying. How can he talk about joy?

How is it that we find joy in some of the people who have no right to be happy? A terminal cancer patient, a man who lost his job, a woman who lost her husband, a mother with a chronically ill child—you’ve seen them, full of joy and life and hope and peace. Where do they get that?

On the other hand, some of the most miserable people that we know have everything going for them. They can have material wealth, a good job, good health, family, a nice place to live, yet they complain about everything. Nothing is ever right or good enough. Where is the joy?

I believe the difference is in the focus of your life. If your focus is on yourself, you are bound to be unhappy, because there are always problems; there are always difficulties; there are always things that could be better. But if you can take your focus off self-preoccupation and practice self-forgetfulness, joy will come to you as a gift. If your focus is on your abiding relationship with God, and if you focus your energies on bearing fruit for the Kingdom, the problems and difficulties will become minor notes in the great symphony of life. You’ll get the joy.

Allen Walworth is a pastor who remembers struggling with his Easter sermon several years ago. He was really taking this sermon seriously, because Easter is a big day, lots of heathens in church, and all that. But he took a break on Saturday afternoon to take a walk in the neighborhood with his children. He was still walking very seriously, thinking about his sermon. But his children were flitting around like butterflies, full of joy and life. Suddenly one of them asked, “Hey, Dad, can you do this?” The kids were skipping down the street.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Allen replied.

“No, Dad, can you really do it, right now? We’ve never seen you.”

“Well, of course I can. Everybody can skip,” he said.

Then the challenge: “Show us, Dad.”

Allen really didn’t want to skip. He had a lot on his mind. Besides, he was a grown-up, a preacher, the pastor of First Church with an earned doctorate. But he didn’t want to be shown up by his kids. Then one of them said, “Betcha can’t do it. Na-na-na-na-na.” So Allen looked around to see if there were any neighbors out in their yards, and off he went, skipping down the street. Do you know what he discovered? It was fun! Suddenly Allen found he understood the Easter message he had to preach. It was all about joy.

This analogy is so old that I hesitate to use it, but it still works. When you focus on abiding in Christ, that puts Jesus first—J. Bearing fruit is all about others—O. Then you put yourself—Y—last, and what does that spell? J—O—Y. Just because it’s been around a while doesn’t mean it’s not true. Jesus first, others second, yourself last—that spells joy.

Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic statement as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." But few know about the first meal eaten on the moon.

Buzz Aldrin had brought along a tiny Communion kit provided by his church. Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of that day and give thanks.

Then the radio went dead for a few moments to give Aldrin some privacy. He pulled out the communion set and read the words, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Then he gave thanks and took Communion on the moon.[xiii]

As you come to the Lord’s Table today, it won’t be that long of a trip. But as you taste the fruit of the vine, remember that Christ is the true vine, and you are the branches. Abide in him. Bear fruit in the world. And you will find joy. Live in Christ, and you will stay alive. You will never fail to thrive. Amen!

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[i] John 10:10.

[ii] John Ortberg, "Ministry and FTT," (June 2008)

[iii] John 15:1.

[iv] John 15:5.

[v] John 15:4.

[vi] John 15:9.

[vii] Marshall Shelley, Changing Lives Through Preaching and Worship (New York: Random House, 1995), 147.

[viii] John 15:7.

[ix] Suzanne Jordan Brown, "Prayer-Driven Enterprise," Pray! (July/August 2006), p. 26, and .

[x] John 15:5, 8.

[xi] Bryan Wilkerson, "Unbreakable?" .

[xii] John 15:11.

[xiii] Dennis Fisher, "Communion on the Moon," Our Daily Bread (June/July/August 2007).

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