John 15; John 16; John 17; John 18
A Very Important Lesson From A Christmas Tree!
Scripture
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.
7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.
Observation
When Kathy and I decided to answer God’s call on our life, I had been working heavy construction and I was at that time making a lot of money for a young guy. But to be able to go to college I had quit working construction and Dr. Waylon B. Moore (Pastor Bruce Moore’s Dad) created a staff position at the church for me, my title was “Associate to Ministries”. The title gives you a clue as to what my job was my job was helping everybody on staff with their ministries. I went from making $400 a week to making $75 a week. This was probably in 1974. My father in law, Clayton Bearden was very upset about my leaving the good paying construction job and going to work for the church part time. He told me that I was going to starve his daughter to death. A few years later my father in law got saved and he understood why we had done what we did and he would send us love gifts while we were in seminary in Ft. Worth.
It was during this season of our life that we learned a very important lesson about Christmas trees. It was Christmas and we hadn’t bought a Christmas tree yet. I don’t think we had money to buy a tree. So some good friends of ours offered their tree to us. They were going to go away during Christmas and they weren’t going to be able to enjoy it. I can remember that we brought the tree over and we set it up. We were very happy to have a free Christmas tree. I don’t know if it was the next morning or a day or two later that Kathy somehow knocked the tree over and when she picked it back up all the needles from the tree stayed on the floor. A Christmas tree without the needles is worse than a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
In John 15 Jesus refers to Himself as the Vine, and He calls those that believe in Him the branches. He says that as long as we remain attached to Him we will bear much fruit, but apart from Him we can do nothing. Apart from Him we are like the needles that fell off of our Christmas tree. We are worthless.
But if we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we can ask for anything that we want and it will be given to us. We will produce a lot of fruit and we will bring great glory to the Father.
Application
I will stay close to Jesus so my life will be fruitful. I will read His word every day. How about you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, my thoughts went back to those days when You first called Kathy and I to serve You. How You blessed us, as we trusted in You. It seemed crazy to do what we did but it was exactly what You wanted us to do. Help Kathy and I to stay close to You so that our lives will be fruitful. We want to bring You glory. I pray for our children and our grand children that as we celebrate Christmas tonight with them that each one of them would understand the true meaning of Christmas. I pray for our Christmas Eve services. I pray that Your hand would be on our church in such a way that hundreds of people would be drawn to a personal relationship with You. I pray that on Christmas Eve people would put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ.
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