Living In The Light

1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.

In our previous post we looked at the fact that Jesus really was "God With Us" and that is the only reason why we are still celebrating His arrival two thousand years later. In the verses that we are looking at today our focus changes from who Jesus is to who God is and how that should affect the way we live.

John tells us that God is light, most religions can agree with that statement, if you believe in God then you probably agree that He is pure and holy. There isn't any darkness at all in God, He is one hundred percent pure light, he is holy, pure and righteous. Besides being light God also gives us the light, He reveals the light of truth to us, and He gives us the light of salvation.

Does the fact that God is light have any implications for me?

Does it really matter how I live? When Jesus told his followers "You are my friends if you do what I command" He made it clear that there has to be some changes in the way that I live and that obedience is a necessary part of a relationship with Him. (John 15:14)

Romans 6:16-18 Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

We all have to decide who is going to be in control. We don't like the idea of being a slave but that's what the apostle Paul tells us we are. We don't get to change the fact that we are slaves but we do get to choose who we will be enslaved to.

Fellowship with God and living to please him is always characterized by walking in the light. We know that we have been saved for all of eternity but we can choose to step away from the light and stumble around in the dark when we refuse to live by God's Word.

I cannot live in the dark and expect it to be beneficial to me and I should not expect to enjoy God's company. I need to decide that my morals, my attitudes and my convictions are all going to be dictated by God's Word.

Branches On The Vine

Our God loves to create, out of nothing He likes to make the most elaborate and complex, out of the dirt He likes to make something that is clean, and out of the old He likes to make things new. Maybe that is why I like yard work, I get to do my part to create something beautiful, it is a partnership with God to get things to grow.

In the Bible our Creator is portrayed as someone who has planted and cultivated a vineyard. In the Old Testament God prepared the soil for His vineyard, He built up walls to keep out the wild animals and to keep people from stealing the fruit, He took great care of it so that it had every advantage and it should have been the most productive and prosperous vine.

But instead of being a beautiful vine that attracted the neighboring nations to God they had become ugly and God was not being glorified by the mess that they had become. After a lot of patient gardening Israel forfeited its right to be the vine, the New Testament message is of God planting a new vine, Jesus comes along and says that He is the True Vine.

John 15:1-8 "I am the true grapevine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn't produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me.

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father.

God is the Master Gardner that tends to the vine, He is looking for two different types of branches, the ones that bear fruit and those that don't, both types of branches are going to get the knife:

He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn't produce fruit

Bible theologian John MacArthur says that the first branch that didn't bear fruit was Judas. He was close to Jesus and he played along like he was a fruitful branch but he proved to be a phony. The branches that are being cut and thrown into the fire were never Christ followers.

John 13:10-11 “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Anybody can put some effort into changing the outside and fool their friends just like Judas' eleven friends that were clueless about his true character. I can follow the rules and do what is expected of a Christ follower for long enough to fool anybody, but real transformation comes from the heart where your friends have a hard time seeing.

Eventually the fruitless branches are identified, they cannot hide forever before they are found out and they are removed. God doesn't allow these branches to keep hanging around because they destroy the reputation of the church and they take away from His glory.

He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more

The last words you want to hear from the doctor is "we need to operate." That is the news that the Great Physician has for you, He wants to improve your fruit production. In order for us to operate at maximum fruit-bearing capacity God needs to cut off our sins, our habits and attitudes that slow down the production of fruit.

Hebrews 12:10-11 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

God's discipline is to bring us along a little at a time toward being holy. Sanctification is the church word for the process of being made holy and set apart for God. To live attached to the vine is a life of dependence, exercising faith and becoming more like Jesus, His nature will grow in us and take over the controls.

Jesus is our only connection with God, the only means that we are saved and the only hope we have of living eternally with God. When we are joined to the vine, we are united with Jesus in all our interests, we have common desires, we are delighted in the things that He loves and we hate the things that He hates, we are willing to endure the same trials, contempt and persecution that He bore.

When you produce much fruit you are My true disciples

Every believer bears fruit but not all of them bear "much fruit." Some branches have a relationship with Jesus and they are a part of the true vine but they are not know by their abundance of fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is in short supply and production needs to be increased.

GOD'S PRUNING TOOL

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

God never changes, He is still using the same tool that He has always used to prune His vine, He uses the knife of His Word to get rid of the impurities that will hold up fruit production. He takes off the old blooms, the shoots that are going the wrong way and the parasites.

The Gardner's knife causes us much pain, sometimes we wonder why some things have to be cut away and we resist, we don't like it or understand everything that the Gardner cuts off. Sometimes I have to wonder if I really need so much attention from the Gardener and if He really knows what He is doing.

I must trust that He has great things in store and He wants me to be the most productive and beautiful branch that I can be so that He will be glorified. The beauty of His Vine will attract the neighbors and bring much glory to Him.

The world has some interesting vines that can get me tangled up. Their vine may be their bank account, their education, fame, talents or relationships. Many people plant a vine of religion and rules, but none of these can bear fruit, the True Vine is Jesus and you need to be attached.

Unstuck

Why does regret tend to paralyze us? We look back at a time, a decision, a series of choices that if we had the power to change it we would. The pain, the brokenness, the desire to make things right again seems to be as possible as counting grains of sand on a seashore. The result is a life that seems stuck. We are ready to move on but we would love to go back. This tension is one that many live in and many don’t know what to do.

So what do we do? We can’t stay stuck yet we aren’t sure how to move on? Lets take a walk to the cross where our Savior took all my regret, my pain, and the brokenness of all my choices upon Him. He knew the power of regret and the hold it can have on a life caught between what it could be and what it really is. He took the beating. He took insults. He took the pain and agony associated with the cruelty of the crucifixion and He died for me.

A sinless man, a Holy God did for me what I could never do for myself. He set me free not only from the penalty of my sin but showed me a path out. A life free from regret and living stuck. A life whose slate has been wiped clean by God’s amazing forgiving grace.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

-Colossians 2:13-14

Here is my choice today in light of this amazing truth. I am going to live UNSTUCK. Knowing and believing that God has willingly cancelled everything that REGRET urges me to hold on to…wanting and wishing to change…I am letting it go. I am going to quit punishing myself for debts that God has already canceled! FREEDOM is waiting at the foot of the cross.

Jesus Disciples Are Not Working Alone

The Holy Spirit changes us and gives us power to live for God.

Matthew 28:20  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

John 14:16-18  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn't looking for Him and doesn't recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you.

Yes we live in a gospel community doing life together and helping each other but I want to talk about a much better helper that we cannot be without if we are going to grow as a disciple or if we are going to make new disciples.

The work of the Holy Spirit is a part of the process of becoming more like Jesus, his work starts with giving us life when we were spiritually dead and he helps us to move through all of the stages of spiritual growth from infants all the way to a spiritual adult.

Of all the gifts given to man by God, there is none greater than the presence of the Holy Spirit, He has many functions, roles, and activities so we will only take a look at a few of them:

The Holy Spirit guarantees my salvation.

Ephesians 1:13-14 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

God grants to us His Holy Spirit as the certain pledge that we are His forever and shall be saved in the last day. He has saved us and given us His Spirit to renew us and cleanse us from the desires of the flesh. He produces in our hearts the evidence that we are accepted by God, that we are regarded as His adopted children, that our hope is genuine and that our salvation is sure.

The Holy Spirit gives me power to live for God.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

The proof of the Spirit’s presence is the work that He is doing in my heart. The cold indifferent and unloving heart will become tender and compassionate and we will respond to God's commands and conform to His will for our lives.

My character will look a lot more like God's character. (Ephesians 4:21-24, John 16:7-11) The power that He provides will help me to live with the fruit of the Spirit. My life will have "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Holy Spirit helps me tell my story to people that don't know the gospel.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus disciples were appointed to tell what they had seen and what they had heard. They saw his life, his character, his suffering and his teaching. They saw His life, death and resurrection and they were about to see him ascend to heaven. Jesus had changed their lives dramatically and he wanted them to tell their story. (Acts 4:33)

Jesus also wants us to tell our story and he has given us the Holy Spirit to help us have the words, the timing for our words and the power to go and share the good news. The more we tell our story and talk about how God has intervened in our life, the more people will begin to realize that God is for real, miracles do happen, and they will see that He can change their life too.

I am not able to live the life that God wants me to live without the Holy Spirit's power, I need to remember that I don't have to be more like Jesus in my own strength, the power to be who he wants me to be can only come from Him.

Help me Lord to be serious about my mission here on earth and help me to rely on the Holy Spirit to change me and then help me spread the good news about what you have done.