October 16 2016 Connecting with Jesus - "I am the vine"

Connecting with Jesus - "I am the 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. He prune the branches that do bear fruit, so they will produce even more." "You've 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 severed from the vine. You can not 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 doesn't 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 my words remain in you. You may ask for anything and it will be granted. When you produce fruit you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my father."

FOUR VITAL STEPS TO LOVING JESUS AS OUR VINE

1. I start my connection to Jesus by believing in him.

John 14:6 " I am the way the truth and the life. No one can come to the father except through me.

John 15:16. You didn't choose me. I chose you.

2. I strengthen my connection to Jesus by obeying him.

John 15:10. Jesus says, "When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love. Just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in His love."

John 15:14-15 You are my friends if you do what I command. Underline that. He says, I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now, you are my friends since I have told you everything the Father told me."

John 15:6-7. "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 can ask for anything you want, and it will be granted."

3. I show my connection to Jesus by loving others.

John 15: 12-13. "This is my command. Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

4. I see my connection to Jesus in my joy.

John 15:11. "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

Memory Verse: John 15:5. "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."

October 2 2016 Connecting With The Real Jesus

Connecting With The Real Jesus

John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life."

John 14:1-9 (NLT) “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him! Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am?

How Do We Connect to the Real Jesus?

1. I engage the way of Jesus through prayer.

Question: "How do you know what Jesus would do?"

John 14:13 "You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father."

Matthew 7:7 "Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds and to everyone who knocks the door will be opened."

2. I encounter the truth of Jesus through Bible study.

John 14:9-11 Jesus replied "Philip, don't you even yet know who I am even after all the time I've been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Why are you asking to see Him? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" "The words I say are not my own but my Father who lives in me, does his work through me." "Just believe that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe, because of what you have seen me do."

Question: Have you ever seriously studied who Jesus is?

Common Myths:

• Jesus came to make us more religious.

See Mark 7.

•  Jesus was just a good human.

See John 2.

• Jesus was a good historical figure.

See John 18.

• Jesus will make your life easy

CS Lewis “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

3. I experience the life of Jesus through believing.

Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and you will be saved."

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

Memory Verse: John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."