https://vimeo.com/82312737

I'm Wayne Jacobson and this is Engage. It's wintertime, which means it's time to get after the great vines and prune them up for a new season. And that reminds me of some of the passages that have meant the most to me in this journey, and I hope you find some of those as well for yours. Mine include the Book of Galatians, moving away from a legalistic based life to one inside, believing what you hear and being transformed by love. Romans 5 through 8, another one that talks about how we are so loved, we know that in our heart, and when we know that, we know that nothing in this world can separate us from the Father's affection. To first, John 4, another favorite. Hebrews 8, 9, 10, and 11, another good one that stirs us into having confidence to come before God, having our heart sprinkled clean. But probably my favorite one is John 14, 15, and 16. You've got to throw John 13 into that as well. It's what we call the upper room discourse. It's Jesus with his disciples for the last time explaining to them what this relationship's all about. He talks about love changing the whole world. He talks about Father has a place in Him for us to dwell, which I like the interpretation of that is God wants to be at home in you, and He wants you to be at home in Him. And that's what it means to become part of the divine community. That's what it means to live deeply in all that God is. And Jesus said, the reason I'm telling you these things is so that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full. That's bedrock to the work of Jesus in our lives. I think a lot of people, I used to think that we're basically disgusting human beings that God can barely tolerate and He wants to clean us all up so He'll be comfortable with us. Jesus says the work of God in our lives is so that our joy might be full because His joy dwells in us. And there's that analogy of the vineyard which brings us to this vine this morning. He talks about we're the branches and He's the vine, and if we remain in Him, we'll bear much fruit. And why does God want us to bear fruit? Well, I think He'd come back to so that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full. And then He talks about to make us fruitful. One of the things He does is He prunes us. I've pruned a few thousand grape vines in my life, I'm sure, and we're going to take this one on for just a little bit. The object of trying to prune a grape vine is to find the most fruitful branches to have for the next year. And so you're cutting off everything that's not going to be part of the fruitfulness of the vine next year and get it down to the five or six, hopefully five good canes that will bear lots of fruit and pull the rest of them away. So when Jesus talks about making us clean, this way He's talking about, He says to the disciples, I've already made you clean, I've pruned away all the stuff that keeps us separate from each other so that you can live your life and me and bear fruit. It looks pretty severe on the vine. It looks like a lot of things are getting hurt here. What we're really doing is getting it back to about five good canes that can bear fruit in the year to come. And when you're down to those last five canes, that's what will be fruitful. If you don't prune the vine, you'll get lots of leaves next year. You won't get any grapes. And I hear so many people when we talk about God's affection saying, yeah, I believe in God's affection. I believe He loves us. But what about that passage in Hebrews where it talks about Him disciplining those that He loves? I know about you, but I grew up thinking discipline and punishment was the same thing. So if anything bad was happening in my life, well that's God's punishment because you didn't do good enough. It's strange that we think of discipline as punishment because discipline isn't about punishment. Discipline is about shaping. It's about training. It's about making our lives in a place where we can be pleasing to God and live deeply in His life. So when God trains us, He's just pruning us up so we can be fruitful. And it's that simple. And when He gets it down to the four or five canes, then the other thing He wants to do is wrap those up on a wire. And pretty soon when I get done with this later today, all these canes will be lying along this wire and this vine will be ready to bear fruit next year in the way it can happen. Discipline isn't God punishing you. It's God training you. Why? So that His joy might be in you, that your joy might be full. First Peter 4 says it this way, and I'm going to quote from the message. Gene Peterson says Jesus gets the last word on everything. And I love the idea that Jesus is going to be the last person to go through my life. Just like my dad was his vineyard. Whoever picked grapes, prune vines, tide vines, my dad was the last one to walk through his vineyard, just to make sure everything was arranged as he wanted it to be. And then in 1 Peter 4, Gene Peterson continues this way. Jesus has been through everything you're going through and more. If that doesn't encourage you, I don't know what else does. So he says, learn to think of your sufferings. Whatever pain comes into your life, as a weaning from the old, sinful habit of always having to have your own way. That's how sin works. I want what I want. I want to get what I need. And when God's trying to put His joy in us that our joy might be full, that means we're not doing life the way we think best. We know worst what our own happiness and joy might be. God knows best. Then he says you'll be free to wake up every morning to do what God wants instead of being tyrannized. It's a good word for the flesh to be tyrannized by what we want. The whole process of God training us, pruning us in this season, training us to be on the wire. When you move this cane on to the wire, I just can't move it quickly. It'll break. I've got to take it very slowly and let the vine bend. Because if I break this cane off, all that fruit from this year there will be 10 or 12 bunches on this. We'll be gone. I love the analogy of the vineyard. I grew up in one. I wrote a book called In Season which is all about how we embrace this process of fruitfulness. If you haven't read it, you might want to check it out and I think it will help you understand that God's training in us is not God trying to make us righteous. It's God trying to make us whole and fulfilled and when we're there then we'll know what His righteousness really is. To be at home in God to let His love train us so that we can be His kids in the earth. That's what engaging Him is all about.