We Are Branches

As he read verse 1, Pastor Brady asked the church to catch the distinction between what Jesus is and what the Father is: "This is trinitarian theology at work here." They are both at work doing two different things for our benefit.

He called verse 2 a big challenge: "That should immediately get your attention because he just said that Jesus and the father are looking for fruitful branches to bless and he's looking for branches that are not producing fruit to prune." "Now, he's talking about he's not talking about death here, okay?" He said, "He's talking about discipline. He's talking about conviction."

At verse 4 he stopped to name a lie, a tormenting thought the enemy brings to every believer, especially after we mess up. When he asked who in the room had messed up, he said, "The rest of you're lying." Then he added, "So, we're all messed up."

The enemy says that when you mess up, God turns his back on you, but Pastor Brady said that is not what Jesus is saying. In Jesus' words as he put them: "When you mess up, just remember I'm with you." And, "I'm never going to detach myself from you. I'm never going to walk away from you."

At verse 5 Pastor Brady said, "Let's get that clear right away." The source is God and we are the recipients of his blessings. "In other words, God wants to bless you." God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness, and he wants us to stay connected.

He said that if you were the enemy and wanted to separate fruitfulness from the kingdom of heaven, the first thing you would do is put a separation between you and God. When he reached verse 7 he pointed out how many times Jesus had already said remain: "It's almost like we're prone to wandering." He asked, "Do we have any wandering souls in the room today?"

He talked about how often we have to discipline our minds and emotions to stay focused on what Jesus is doing in our lives. "Think about the number of distractions we have on that little evil device we all carry in our pockets, right?" There are 10,000 distractions, 10 million distractions, things that get our eyes off the Lord.

Jesus has said remain seven or eight times already, Pastor Brady said. "He's yelling at us. Okay? If God yells, this is him yelling."

Pastor Brady pictured Jesus with his 12 men, maybe around a fire. Jesus knew he was about to leave them; he had told them, but they did not believe it.

He returned to the picture of driving away after settling a child into an apartment, which he called one of the most epic parenting moments. "I remember uh that didn't really happen for us with Abram and Cali in college because they stayed here in town and went to UCCCs, but it happened when I dropped Cali off in Baton Rouge for the very first time." He described his daughter as very private and a woman of few words. After three days helping her settle in, he walked her to the parking lot and told her, "Hey, Callie, dad's got to go to the airport and it's a thousand miles away." It was one of the most powerful moments between them, because she was about to be really independent and he could not just drive a few miles to check on her.

Pastor Brady said that is the emotion Jesus had: he was about to drop his disciples off at school and go away, and they would not have the benefit of walking and talking with him every day. "He's like, I hope these guys get it right." What he was really saying was, "You are plan A and there is no plan B."

Over The Village Church he said, "God has put all of his authority and power and spirit on the local church for us to go and be salt and light in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our world." Gathering, singing, praying, and hearing the Scriptures together is what causes us to bear fruit. There will be days when we do not see visible fruit, but Jesus says to stay close and draw near on those dark days: "You're designed to bear fruit."

Pastor Brady said he believes we are in a season where the church needs to be fruitful, wake up, and seize the moment. "And it's more than just a political season we're living in." He said the church needs to be fully alert, fully empowered, fully discipled: "We need to be fully connected right now because the world needs what we're carrying."

With elections on Tuesday and early voting already underway, he told a story about a friend who owns a home in Colorado but whose residency and voting are in Texas. Last week there were ballots in that friend's mailbox even though he is not registered to vote here. Pastor Brady told him, "Well, I guess we all get to vote more often now." Then he told the church, "That was a joke. Okay. I did not create a federal crime." He added, "But it it made me realize there it's there's fraud everywhere."

He asked the church to pray for fair elections and against fraud: "Let's pray that if there is fraud, it'll be exposed and caught on both sides, by the way." Then, "That's right, everybody. Rs and D's are both fraudulent." After the response he said, "I should have got a better amen than that."

Pastor Brady prayed: "Father in heaven, we thank you for these words, these scriptures out of John 15. We thank you that you are calling us into a season of fruitfulness. You're calling us into a season of of of difficulty, but Lord, you're with us. And Father, we pray over not only our local elections, our state elections, but over our federal elections. Lord, we pray that Lord, we pray for uh integrity to win the day. We pray against any fraud. We pray against uh anyone that would uh cause these elections to be turned in one favor. I pray you that the scales of justice would be evened out by the Holy Spirit. that you Lord would uh everything that's been in the dark would be brought into the light. Everything that's being done would be exposed. So we pray for people of integrity to count the votes. We pray for the outcome of the election Lord to be led by integrous counting and we thank you for that. And we pray Lord that you put your people in places of power. We pray that you would put men and women of righteous reputation in places that make political difference. Father, we we believe that, we trust that, we ask that in Jesus name. Amen."

Pastor Brady's first point, which he called the most obvious thing he would say: "We're supposed to bear fruit." He said he was not there to meddle or pry, but asked, "Are you do you feel like your life is fruitful, though?" He recently asked a man, "Tell me, who are you discipling?" He said, "Because about the last thing Jesus said for us, the last thing he said before he ascended, 'Go and make disciples.'" And that was not just for pastors but for believers.

If you are a parent, that is your kids; if you are a grandparent, your grandkids; and if not, who are you walking alongside? He said that at the core of The Village Church's DNA is the desire to live life together and help each other make disciples, and invited anyone who wants to grow to ask him for coffee with somebody. He recently asked a man almost 80 years old what he wanted in this stage of life, and the man said, "I want to grow." Pastor Brady said, "And I just thought whether you're eight years old or 80 years old, that should be a desire that we grow."

Reading verse 2 again, he clarified that this is not about losing our salvation: "You are saved by grace and kept by grace." "If you were saved by works, you would lose it by your works." Because some days we are more faithful than others, he said, "So, if our salvation was based on how faithful we were on from day to day, what what an evil way for God to set up salvation? I mean, that that's just unfair. It'd be unfair to all of us." We would never know, and we would be uncertain and unclear about our salvation.

This passage is about fruitfulness, maturity, and growing up: "He will confront the areas of our lives that are dead and fruitless." He asked the church to give the Holy Spirit permission to confront the areas of life that are a waste of time. Then he said, "I didn't expect this to be a shoutout message, by the way. You are super quiet." When Pam asked him that morning how he felt about the message, he told her it was hard; some sermons he can't wait to bring, and some are tough topics. "And we've got to hear it, though."

Pastor Brady turned to Matthew 7, where Jesus says the same thing in another gospel. While reading he asked, "So, how do you know if you're hanging out under the right tree?" His answer: if it is bearing good fruit. At the end of the passage he paused and asked the church to finish the line, "Thus by their fruit you will what?"

He asked the church to think about the five people outside their family circle they choose to be around. "Family family gets a pass on this one. Okay. You can't choose your family. You have to choose your friends." "You're stuck with your family." But of the people you choose, are they bearing good fruit, growing, reading, praying, and pressing into God with you? Do they talk about Jesus when you are around them?

He has a group of men who have been his friends for a long time, where he can just be the real Brady. They are all Jesus followers, but he realized it had been a long time since any of them wanted to talk about Jesus. "And that was a red flag to me." "I'm just saying the people you hang around should be in love with Jesus."

He wants the church to hang around unbelievers and lost neighbors and to be a witness. But the friends we invite into our lives should be Jesus followers with us.

Pastor Brady gave two big questions to ask on the way home and before bed. "I asked myself these questions early this morning because I'm never going to ask you to do something and I didn't do." He was up very early: "I did not get my extra hour sleep by the way, Lindsay." The first question: "What am I not doing right now that I should be doing?" In other words, what is the call of God on your life that you have been neglecting?

"This past year has been a bit of a reset for Pam and I not to be, you know, it's pretty obvious, but I before all this happened with me, I was a witness to people." "I'm a soul winner." His witness was relational, not methodical or clinical, but this past year he had not done it as much. That morning the Lord told him, "I'm going to send you lost people and I want you to show them the gospel." He said yes and prayed, "Father in heaven, would you make give me eyes to see like I used to have? Would you give me a sensitivity to the spirit when I'm around people that are far from you? Can I be the conduit? Can I be the witness that they need to find you to come back into your kingdom?"

"Listen, we're about to have a wave of people come to Christ at the Village Church." He said the Marriott has an indoor pool: "They have a built-in baptismal tank." He and Pastor Joseph did a little hallelujah over baptisms this week. "And I might stay for an hour or so in the hot tub afterwards."

The second, bigger question: "What am I doing right now that you should stop?" He described it as misappropriated energy and misguided strength: all of us are anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit, but we may be using that strength in the wrong place. "It's possible that many of us need to do less in order to be more fruitful." Paring down the day leaves room to drive someone to the doctor or take care of a neighbor. "In order to be more fruitful we need to be less busy."

Pastor Brady opened his second point with, "Number two. This this is going to get better, okay? I promise." The point: "were perfectly connected to a perfect vine tended by a perfect gardener." He grew up in the sandy soils of North Louisiana, ideal soil for watermelons: "Watermelons that will save your soul that are amazing." A family up the street had about 200 acres of watermelons, and his family had a two-acre garden of cantaloupe and watermelons, ripe around late July through September.

He grew up poor and bought his school clothes by selling watermelons and cantaloupe, including Sears blue jeans. He asked, "How many of you grew up with Sears blue jeans?" Then, "How many of you were slims? And how many of you were Huskys? Don't you don't have to answer that." There were really only two sizes, slims and Huskys. "I was a slim, believe it or not, and my brother had to wear the Huskys."

What they worried about was not the melons but the vines. "The watermelons and cantaloupe were guaranteed to grow if there were no damage to the vines." With cattle and dogs tromping through the garden, they went out every afternoon to make sure the vines were not damaged. "You're guaranteed to be productive if you stay connected to the vine."

He said he was trying to take the pressure off performing: this is not about doing more or working harder. "I'm not here to be the moral police of your life." Jesus is saying, "I am the one doing the work." From one tiny seed come pounds and pounds of watermelons, because God designed the seed to produce the miracle of growth: "And you now are the seed." "And you're going to look up one day and fruit will be all around you and you're going to have all the Sears blue jeans you want."

"The vine has everything the branch needs." Pastor Brady asked the church to write that down. The vine's roots are already in the soil: Jesus has already done the heavy lifting by going to the cross, our sins are forgiven, and he was resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit is now at work in us, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

There is no pressure on us as branches. You don't see watermelons lifting weights to get bigger. "They just lay there and get fat." They grow because they are connected to something powerful. This is about belonging, drawing near, and prioritizing our energy and focus so we are in his presence more often.

"Branches do not have roots." They cannot get to the source without the vine, and they are not responsible for gathering the nutrients. "You're not the vine. You're the branch." Branches must only stay connected and receive in order to produce fruit.

Pastor Brady's third point: our responsibility is to stay connected, and that is more difficult than it seems because of how much divisiveness is in our world. He asked how many had lost a friend in the last two years whom they expected to have for life, and said he had lost dozens. "Honestly, dozens." These were people whose weddings, funerals, and baptisms he had done, people he had been with in hospitals and at their darkest moments.

He said the enemy's number one weapon is division. "And this is why Paul said, 'Warn a divisive person once and then a second time and then have nothing to do with them.'" Staying connected will be the fight of our lives, because we are working against the great divider, who separates us through gossip and slander. He pointed to the repeated word in verses 4, 5, and 7: remain. In the Greek it is pronounced Meinee, and it means to steadfastly and continually abide: "Rooted, unmoving, and stable."

That means reading your Bible, being with God's people, and making the gathering a priority. "I want you to come to church 40 times a year." "Never will I ever make anyone feel bad for doing fun things on the weekend." But stability takes a habit: "I am going to habitually gather with God's people whether I like them or not." He said, "Do you know that church chooses you?" Ask the Lord where he has brought you, "Because if God put you in a place, you won't bolt and move once it aggravates you."

He told Pam on the drive in, "this is the first time I've gone to church in 20 years where everyone in the room was not mad at me." He told the church, "I mean, every half the place was mad at me for 18 years over something all the time. You should see the emails. I got the emails. I can tell you every Sunday, every Monday, I would get a little collection of emails about something I did to aggravate somebody." He said he hopes it stays like this for as long as possible, because this is what God wants for his people right now.

Pastor Brady said the promise in verse 7 follows remaining: if your focus is on the Lord, you will ask for things that honor the Lord. Jesus is not saying he will spoil us like a child. When our motives and ambitions are under the authority of the Holy Spirit, with a kingdom mind, heart, and ambitions, he says to start asking. "Start asking for big things."

This week he has been asking for a permanent location: "I want a permanent location for our church." He wants a building they don't have to set up and tear down. "I want God's family to have God's house." He said being at the Marriott until the summer is a blessing of the Lord, but he wants property and a building. "Pray with me about that."

"If our hearts are completely committed to him and his word abides and remains in us, we will begin to pray powerful, effective prayers." Something happens to the interior of our hearts: our motivations and ambitions become holy, and out of that come holy prayers and holy petitions.

As he began verse 8, he joked, "I thought the rapture had just happened right there." Then he saw Tony was still there: "So I knew we were all safe." "Tony's not gone. We're good." Bringing God glory is why we are here: "That's why we worship. That's why we pray. That's why we witness." "And he deserves all our glory, all of our worship."

Pastor Brady asked the church to stand and take the cup and the bread, joking, "Take the cup with me in preparation for the rapture." He asked everyone to break the bread and hold it up, and led them: "Can we just uh take a moment right now? We've talked about focus. Let's just keep our let's put our focus on the Lord right now. You just set your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of all of our faith. And just in your own way, just tell Jesus you're thankful. Tell him, 'Jesus, you are enough. And Jesus, you've been faithful to me. You've been faithful to my family. You've been faithful to the village church. You've been faithful to us right here in this room since March. The Lord has just done miracle after miracle in this room. And now our whole family is about to move to another location. You know what? He's going to be faithful wherever we are because he goes with us, right? He goes with us. As we hold up that bread this morning, we thank you for his broken body, for the sacrifices that he gave so that we could be healed and whole. and we receive his healing. We receive his redemption in Jesus name. Would you take that bread with me?"

Pastor Brady prayed over the cup: "Hold up the cup. It represents grace, salvation, forgiveness. And I need that today. Do you need that today with me? So, Father, we thank you for your your blood that was spilled, for your perfect sacrifice. Evil tried to snuff you out, but you overcame. And you were resurrected, and you're alive today, and you've already made up your mind to forgive us. And for that, we are very grateful. Would you take the cup with me?"

He asked, "Are you glad you came to church today to hear strong message." He announced that next Sunday The Village Church will meet at the Marriott, the one visible from the freeway on Rockrimmon, a big building on the right. "Church starts at 9:30. The service starts at 10:00."

Pastor Brady prayed the blessing: "So, Father in heaven, I send them out today. bless them and strengthen them and fill them with the Holy Spirit. May your face shine upon them. May May their countenance be full of grace and joy as they leave. And we bless them in Jesus name. Amen and amen." He closed, "God bless you. Have a good Sunday. Come say hi if you want."