Stay Connected to Jesus | Ramin Razavi

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"Here as in Heaven."

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Intro/Outro: 00:05

Welcome to The Garden Church Podcast.

Ramin Razavi: 00:14

You know, when Darren asked me to preach today, it it was not lost on me that I kind of served as a hinge between the powerful series that Pete Hughes brought about reviving the church and awakening culture, and then our lead pastor is gonna launch into a series out of revelation, about being a people who are faithful in the chaos of empire that we're living in. And so I needed to ask the Lord, what do you want me to say today? And he was so faithful and he was so kind, and believe he gave us a word for today, and it's out of a very familiar passage that many of you know well, John 15, about remaining in the vine, And the word I felt like the Lord gave me for this seat for this day for our church is simply this, stay connected to Jesus. That the invitation of the New Testament is that no matter what the moment is, what the context is, we have the opportunity to live in a perpetual relationship with the son of God himself, living sourced by the very life of God.

Ramin Razavi: 01:21

Stay connected to Jesus. I wanna get started though with a with a short story. I don't know. It's summer. Summer's kinda winding down.

Ramin Razavi: 01:29

Am I allowed to say that? Is it winding down? It's winding down. School's starting again. Oh, no.

Ramin Razavi: 01:34

Summer is in full swing. Months of summer ahead. But summer, one of the defining characteristics of summer is a solid road trip. Did anyone take a great road trip this summer? You don't have to share where you went, but just let's see a show of hands.

Ramin Razavi: 01:51

I mean, that means you packed a cooler. You brought some goods along in the car. You maybe had 2, 3, 4 destinations. Solid road trip. Well, back in 2007, my family and I were living in Boulder, Colorado.

Ramin Razavi: 02:03

We were church planters there, and all of our family at the time lived in Ohio and Indiana, respectively. And our son, Isaiah, who is now about to turn 18, was turning 1 that summer. And the grandparents gave an invitation for us to bring the grandson back, for some birthday parties. And so my wife, Natalie, who's far more emotionally intelligent than I, made the decision that we were gonna do the cross country trek from Boulder, Colorado back to Ohio in Indiana. And so we pulled in to Ohio, had a great time with my family, and then we're packing up to go, but all of a sudden, it just started raining, like, 2, 3 days straight.

Ramin Razavi: 02:42

Anybody know that kinda rain where it's dark gray clouds, and the the color of the clouds matches the color of the concrete on the roads, and it just keeps raining in sheets in the Midwest. So we begin our drive, and we get to a little town called Findlay, Ohio. Somebody knows Findlay. Come on. And and we notice that, like, all of the roads are starting to get inundated by water.

Ramin Razavi: 03:06

And soon, we find ourselves almost like finding an island of concrete. It happened to have a Panera Bread on it, so that's good news. And we pull into the Panera Bread, and this was back in the heyday of Panera Bread. We're talking the cinnamon crunch bagels that were at peak freshness. We're talking about the revelation of hazelnut coffee, all these things that were happening in 2007.

Ramin Razavi: 03:28

And so we pull up, and and as we get there, like, it there's a lot of people packed in there. It's chaotic. I've got maps out. I've got some rudimentary g b GPS devices circa 2007. Just trying to figure out how are we gonna get from where we are through the flooded streets to the to the highway that we needed to get on to get to Indiana.

Ramin Razavi: 03:47

And we are kinda melting down as a family. Isaiah's losing his mind, and that's okay because he's won. I'm losing my mind because I've had 42 cups of the free refill hazelnut coffee, and Natalie's kinda holding the fort down for the family. And out of the periphery vision in my eye, I catch this older gentleman starting to walk towards us. He's wearing one of those driver's caps and a a tweed jacket, and he comes over to me, and, he looks at me and looks at my family, and says, do you need any help?

Ramin Razavi: 04:16

I was, like, I don't know what what turned you onto that? Like, we're all over here in the corner going crazy. He's like, well, I'm from here, and I know my way around. And if you're trying to get to a highway, he's like, I can take you there. You just need to follow me.

Ramin Razavi: 04:28

So we go outside, and I had a 2,000 5 Subaru WRX. So quick little car, and he gets in this Cadillac that I I feel like must have had some kind of supercharged race engine in it because he starts screaming through these streets, and I'm doing everything I can, heel toe shifting, just trying to, like, keep up with them. And eventually, he gets us to highway 224, which goes straight over to Indiana. He says, just stay on this road, and you'll get there safely, and we did. As I sat back from that moment, I realized, like, in that moment, what I needed was not more information.

Ramin Razavi: 04:59

I had plenty information. I didn't need more data. I didn't need a strategy. I didn't even need a set of instructions. What I needed was presence.

Ramin Razavi: 05:08

And this is the same thing that Jesus offers us in this passage we're gonna read in a minute, John 15. He's saying what you need most in this moment is not more information. It's not better strategies. It's my presence. And if you think about it, my friends, we are living in a time where there is global conflict.

Ramin Razavi: 05:29

There are rising political tensions. There's culture and social change accelerating at a rate never seen before, and even in our church family, there has been a ton of transition. I mean, if you think about how many of us have gone through significant transition in the last 18 months, and what Jesus wants to speak into all of these situations is that what you need more than anything else is to remain in my presence, or as Jesus said, to remain in the vine. And what's so beautiful about this teaching that he gives is there's a pickup note to John 14. If you're into music, you know what a pickup note is.

Ramin Razavi: 06:07

It's the note before the real note. I don't I'm not that into music, but I've heard that's what it is. I like listening to music. I don't play music that well, but there's a pickup verse to this because this teaching that Jesus gives about a vine and branches and a gardener and pruning and fruit, it's so much more than a clever illustration. It's the offer of life for us.

Ramin Razavi: 06:30

But the pickup verse is this, it says, Come now, let us leave. This is John 14:31, part B, Come now, let us leave. And where are they leaving? They're leaving that upper room where they had just shared what Darren let us in, The Last Supper. And a lot of times we read this passage thinking, you know, this is Jesus, remain in me, and I will remain in you, and he's wearing, like, white linen pants and drinking a matcha latte, and it's all serenity music in the background.

Ramin Razavi: 07:02

But here's what New Testament scholar, NT Wright, teaches. He says that this teaching that Jesus gives was most likely given as he was hurrying his way through darkened torch lit streets of Jerusalem. And as the disciples are following him there, come now. Let us leave. They're leaving the room where they just shared this meal, where he said, this is gonna be the new covenant of my body and my blood poured out for you, and they're going to a garden called Gethsemane, where Jesus is going to be betrayed into the hands of the authorities.

Ramin Razavi: 07:33

And in the journey, what Jesus thinks is most important for his followers is not some strategy, it's not some new information. What he's saying is, here's what you need to know the most, remain in me, stay connected to me, abide in me, stay close to me. If you disconnect from me, you're not going to bear the fruit of the father. If you stay connected to me, you're going to bear much fruit. You're going to be my disciples.

Ramin Razavi: 07:56

I'm not calling you servants anymore. I'm calling you friends. It's an invitation into communion with him, to union with Jesus, and I think it just gives so much weight to his words to know that Jesus was speaking these words of intimacy, and connection, and relationship, not into some placated moment that looks more like a guru retreat, but into the real grit and seams of the trials of life. He's saying, in those moments, you can choose to remain in me. So let's take a look at this teaching from Jesus, John 15, and as we do it, wanna pay attention to 4 things we're gonna look at today.

Ramin Razavi: 08:34

We wanna see Jesus as the true vine, we wanna learn to remain in him, We wanna consent to the pruning work of the father, and we wanna learn how to participate with Jesus in bringing glory to the father. John 15 verse 1. I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. So remain in me, as I also remain in you.

Ramin Razavi: 09:10

No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Ramin Razavi: 09:25

Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Ramin Razavi: 09:57

And so Jesus begins this by saying, I am the true vine. And all through the story of God, this image of a vine is prevalent, and it what it is, it's a picture of God's people that have been sourced by the things of God in order to live in the ways of God. And the expectation or the hope of God was that his people would grow up to be fruitful. This is what he says to Abraham. I'm gonna bless you so that through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed by you.

Ramin Razavi: 10:32

But if we've read any of the Old Testament at all, we know that it was a real fight, that it was a battle. Because these people who had been given the ways of God to live a counter cultural life that imaged God to the world often found themselves caught up in idolatry, going after other things, rebellion, just kinda rejecting what God had told them, or just distraction, and forgetting their purpose in the world. We see this playing out in the prophet Isaiah. He talks about this, and I think it gives us some context of the distinction Jesus makes by saying, I am the true vine. Isaiah writes, he says, I will sing a song for the one I love, a song about his vineyard.

Ramin Razavi: 11:10

My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut a wine press as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

Ramin Razavi: 11:32

What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? So he's saying I've I've set you up well. Everything was arranged so that you could bear this fruit, this reflection of the ways of God into the world. Turn over to Isaiah or I'm sorry.

Ramin Razavi: 11:52

Psalm 80 is another picture of this reality, but you hear a longing coming up in this. Catch the longing that you hear in the voice of the psalmist. He says, restore us, God almighty. Make your face shine on us that we may be saved. You transplanted a vine from Egypt.

Ramin Razavi: 12:10

He's speaking of God's people. You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root, and it began to fill the land. Down in verse 14. So return to us, God almighty.

Ramin Razavi: 12:22

Look down from heaven and see. Watch over this vine, the root your hand has planted, the son that you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down. It is burned with fire. At your rebuke, your people perish, but let your hand rest on the man at your right hand.

Ramin Razavi: 12:41

The son of man you have raised up for yourself, then we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name. So when Jesus comes on the scene and he gives the 7th I am statement in a row in the gospel of John saying, God has become to you bread. God has become to you light of the world. God has become to you.

Ramin Razavi: 13:02

I am has become to you. That's the name of God, a true vine. He's saying the old way was that the vine was growing up and based on its own efforts had to produce some kind of fruit trying to attain to a picture of a life that God had given us. But he said, now the promise has been fulfilled. I am the true vine, meaning that the life of God is not something that we grasp for externally.

Ramin Razavi: 13:26

It's something that flows effortlessly from within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying that that prophecy you heard long ago, that one day I would not write my law on stone tablets, but I'd write it on the living heart, that's true in me. That prophecy you heard about the breath of God going out over the valley of dry bones and calling the dry bones to life again, that's happening right now in me. That prophecy you heard that the heart of stone would be heart turned into a beating heart of flesh again, that's happening. The true vine is here.

Ramin Razavi: 13:59

And now the life of God is not something that the people of God are asked to grasp for or strive for or produce. It's something that is flowing from within us by the person of the holy spirit. Jesus is the true vine. And maybe today, you're seeing this, your eyes are being opened, and you're realizing, like, I have done this life that I've called a a life of faith or a Christian life. I've done this, and it's felt like a lot of effort.

Ramin Razavi: 14:26

I put in all this effort, and I'm I'm working towards something, and I'm attaining something, and I live in this constant cycle of high goals, miserable failure, despondency, and then more high goals get connected to the vine. He is the one who produces his righteousness in us. He is the one who produces life in us. Paul came around this in Galatians chapter 4, talking about Jesus himself being the true vine. He writes this saying, Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises.

Ramin Razavi: 14:58

I love this verse. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship because you are his sons. God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, Abba father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you're his child, God made you also an heir of his.

Ramin Razavi: 15:31

See the life of God as Paul is teaching here is that it is the spirit of God that lives in our hearts that produces the life of Jesus. It produces the fruit that God desires us to bear in life. And so the question is is are you seeing the vine? Where are you drawing your life from? There are so many counterfeit vines that pros the question to us, will you come to me for life?

Ramin Razavi: 15:59

And Jesus himself today is saying to you, come to me and find life. Let me be the one who sources you. Let me be the one who produces the fruit of the kingdom of God in your life. So this is the first thing we wanna see, Jesus himself is the true vine. The second thing I wanna look at is that we have to learn how to remain in him.

Ramin Razavi: 16:22

You see this throughout the the passage. Right? Remain in me. Some of you've got maybe the ESV, or I think the NASB, and I kinda like that word better, abide. They got the abide going.

Ramin Razavi: 16:35

But remain or abide, it's this Greek word, meno, and it means to dwell. It means to behold. It means to be fascinated by. It means to stay connected with. It means to be at home with.

Ramin Razavi: 16:48

It's not rushing by or or hurrying with. It's a word of rootedness and depth. And Jesus is saying, if you remain in me, catch this promise, I will remain in you. If you remain in me, I will remain in you. The fullness of God will live within you.

Ramin Razavi: 17:07

Jesus teaches this throughout this little discourse here, John 14 through John 16. He says later in John 16, he says, the holy spirit, he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you and everything that belongs to the father is mine. That's really good news. He's saying the father's opened up the treasury of the the the kingdom of heaven to me, and the spirit has translated that, infused that into my life, and now I'm gonna infuse that into your life. And so that's the invitation we have if we remain in the vine, to know the fullness of God.

Ramin Razavi: 17:41

I love the way that Paul talks about this in 1st Corinthians chapter 2. He says this, he's quoting the old testament. He says, however, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. And anyone living pre Jesus would have said amen. Yeah.

Ramin Razavi: 18:01

No. We don't get it. We can't really hear it. We can't really see it, but we're trusting that God has something good prepared for us. I love the next verse.

Ramin Razavi: 18:09

These are the things that God has revealed to us by his spirit. In Colossians, Paul would talk about this. He'd say, at one point, all these mysteries of God, all these beautiful realities of Jesus were hidden for us, and he said the angels long to look into the things that you have open access to. Think about that. He goes on.

Ramin Razavi: 18:29

The spirit searches all the things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. So that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Ramin Razavi: 18:51

So by abiding or remaining in Jesus, staying connected to Jesus, God wants to freely give you the same realities that Jesus experienced while he was here on the Earth. Some of the early church fathers would say it this way. They would say, the son of man has taken on humanity so that the sons of men, men and women, could take on the form of deity. Not become God, but become like God. Peter would talk about this in second Peter 1.

Ramin Razavi: 19:21

He said that we become participants in the divine nature. Come on. I don't know if that's what you heard when you came into life with Jesus, but the expectation of the New Testament is that we actually become participants in the very nature of Jesus. And so we're hearing this, and it's, like, yeah, that sounds fantastic, but I'm trying to deal with the roommate that doesn't do the dishes. So how do I get there?

Ramin Razavi: 19:47

Like, I like the divine nature. I wanna participate in the divine nature, but I'm riddled with anxiety. Love the promise that he's freely given me all the nature the treasures of the kingdom of heaven. Love it, believe it, see it, but I'm stuck right now in a job that seems like an absolute crushing dead end that dulls my spirit, deadens my mind, and makes me want to scream every day. And so how do we access these things?

Ramin Razavi: 20:13

I wanna get really, really practical for a minute about how how do we abide in how do we remain in Jesus? How do we actually do this? I've got a a little slide we've put together here, and this comes from some of the early church in ways they would teach or or catechize is the word they would use, people into the way of Jesus. The first thing that we we do is we invite the Holy Spirit to help us repent. Repent is a New Testament word that means to turn.

Ramin Razavi: 20:40

It doesn't mean to feel bad. You may feel something as a result of repentance, but repentance means to turn. It means to consider the options and say, I see this, but I also see this, and I'm turning from this, and I'm turning towards this. And so we ask the Holy Spirit, help me identify and turn away from any lesser and counterfeit vines that I'm attempting to draw my life from. So we begin there.

Ramin Razavi: 21:04

We say, Lord, reveal to me ways that my heart is being sourced by other things, that I'm allowing other narratives, other than the narrative of Jesus, to shape the way that I think and the way that I live. I wanna turn away from that. The second is to renew. This is so so essential. This is to turn towards Jesus himself.

Ramin Razavi: 21:25

It's to invite the holy spirit to renew my love and my union with Jesus. See, before we go after something specific, characteristic of Jesus that we we are gonna talk about in one second, we first wanna simply just turn to him and say, you are enough for me, lord. We have to live as the people of God with burning hearts. Do you want a burning heart for the lord? The lord makes it really clear in revelation, which pastor Darren's gonna go into.

Ramin Razavi: 21:53

I'm not gonna fully go into, but he talks about this. He says, I don't want you to be lukewarm. If you're lukewarm, I'm I've got a I've got a practice for that. I call I call that spitting that out of my mouth. I'm not looking for lukewarmness.

Ramin Razavi: 22:05

I'm looking for burning hearts. And so as the people of God, especially in this cultural moment, more than anything else, we need burning hearts for Jesus, and we turn to him and say, lord, I wanna be like the psalmist who says, whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing else I desire besides you. My strength and my heart are going to fail, but you are the strength of my heart, and you alone are my portion forever. This is the next step of abiding in Jesus.

Ramin Razavi: 22:35

It's being someone who renews your love for Jesus on a daily basis, who lets the Holy Spirit ignite your heart for him. The next step is to receive. I love this. To ask the Holy Spirit to bring specific characteristics of the life of Jesus into your heart. There there's a slide I'm gonna show in a second, but it there's all these promises in the New Testament that because Jesus is the true vine, we now have access to all of these promises.

Ramin Razavi: 23:03

Jesus said yes and amen to them all for you. So our role is to say, Jesus, I wanna receive from you the life and of the kingdom of heaven. And the final one is to be someone who's who's ready to release. I love this. Living water will always tend to overflow.

Ramin Razavi: 23:19

Pay attention to and yield to the ways God wants to bless others through you. So it's not just that God wants to pour these things into your life, but it's often that through your encounter with Jesus, he's giving you something to go carry to the world around you. So here's here's a picture of this, the next slide. This this gives us a picture of just a few. This is not in any way exhaustive.

Ramin Razavi: 23:44

It's just a few of the ones that the Lord has spoken into my heart over time to help my encounters with him be informed encounters. Encounters that are based in the the narrative of scripture, the reality of scripture of what Jesus has said is possible for someone who chooses to remain in him. Let's just choose one as an example, the peace of God. Think about this. So how does this work?

Ramin Razavi: 24:10

Well, first, I repent. I ask the Holy Spirit, Identify holy spirit in me where I'm trying to source peace from other things. I'm looking for it in the right number in my bank account. I'm looking for it in the security of homeownership.

Intro/Outro: 24:24

This is just me personally. I'm looking for this with clarity as where to send

Ramin Razavi: 24:25

my 18 year old son to call I'm looking for this with clarity as where to send my 18 year old son to college. I'm looking for it in the stability of my marriage. These are all good things, but they're not able to satisfy my need for peace. And so I turn from that, and I say, Jesus, I wanna see you because through your blood,

Intro/Outro: 24:36

you brought peace, and you brought peace, and you brought

Ramin Razavi: 24:36

peace, and you brought I say, Jesus, I wanna see you because through your blood, you brought peace between God and I. You've reconciled me to God. You're also the savior who when the storm and tempest is raging on the Sea of Galilee happens to be taking a snooze while everyone else is freaking out because you can rise up and silence the storm with a mere word. So as long as I'm connected to you, I'm gonna be okay. And now I'm gonna ask you, Lord, because you said them in in John 14, you say my peace I give to you.

Ramin Razavi: 25:07

I don't give like the world gives, which is circumstantial peace based on how things are going. You give me a deeper peace that comes from the reality that you sit on an unassailable throne. So I need that to flood my reality so what's coming up from within me, the life of the vine, is now informing the circumstances instead of the other way around, where the circumstances outside of me are informing the condition of my soul. Do you see how this works? And now I can step into what Jesus said is blessed in the beatitudes.

Ramin Razavi: 25:36

Blessed are the peacemakers. So I can move through the earth, not adding to the chaos, not adding to the tensions, not adding to the rivalries, but bringing the peace and the wholeness of God into the world. This is how this works. It is so true that the transformation you're desperate for in your life, you're longing for in your life, it is possible. I wanna say that to every person in the room today, By the power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that lives within you as a follower of Jesus, transformation for you is possible no matter what the past has looked like, no matter what the condition of your mind and heart is today.

Ramin Razavi: 26:16

Transformation is possible, but it's not inevitable. It will require your participation. It will require you saying yes to remaining in the vine and developing this process of saying, Lord, I wanna take what's true of you and I wanna by faith believe that it can become true of me. That's the promise you've given me. Remain in me, Jesus said, and I will remain in you, and I will produce the life of God in you.

Ramin Razavi: 26:47

So that's what it looks like to remain in him. The next thing I wanna talk about is always one that's a little bit challenging, but it's to consent to the pruning work of the father. Now, I'll be honest, I'm I'm not a great horticulturalist. I think that's someone who grows plants. Right?

Ramin Razavi: 27:08

Horticult is anybody a plant grower? Anybody really good at gardening? Like, very bold to say that. Plants come to our house to die. But I did do some homework on this, to help us out, but I think the most reassuring thing about this part of the passage is that Jesus says, my father is the gardener, which means that it's coming with a heart of goodness.

Ramin Razavi: 27:37

It's coming with a heart of love, of care, and even says it very explicitly. He says, my father, he's gonna prune the vine, the branches so that they can what? Be more fruitful. So there's a good result here. The process may be painful, but the result is good.

Ramin Razavi: 27:56

And in my research of trying to understand how this pruning works, one of the things that I learned is that these kind of vines have to constantly be pruned, or trained is another way to translate this, training the vine. Because what ends up happening if they're left unpruned or untrained is they start growing in directions that ultimately would be completely unproductive. And so the pruning process is one of saying, okay. I'm gonna recognize what's going off course here, and at the earliest possible stage, begin to course correct that. I'm gonna trim it back, and I'm gonna hope that it doesn't keep growing, or I'm gonna keep trimming it back.

Ramin Razavi: 28:36

And the result of a well trained or a well pruned vine is it's really, really fruitful. It produces amazing grapes. It produces the very best vintages of wine, but the pruning process, if we're honest, it hurts. Because what God is so committed to is your your and my purity, and he will relentlessly begin to prune things back that are taking us off course for his best and good intentions for our lives. If you think about it like this, sometimes when resistance comes towards us in life, we automatically think it's something we need power for a breakthrough to overcome.

Ramin Razavi: 29:17

And there are times that that's a 100% true. But what if we started to reshape our thinking, and when resistance came to our life, we began to ask the question of God, is this resistance that I need to overcome, or is the resistance I'm feeling the pruning work of the father? And is what he's trying to do through the what seems like unsufferably long time of waiting, and the seeming dead ends when I'm trying to pursue something, and the lack of clarity on the decision that I've asked for clarity on 3,000 times, but he hasn't given clarity, so I just keep asking for clarity and never take into account that the lack of clarity may be the clarity that he's ask actually giving me. That's just me. Or whatever else it is, but that sometimes what we've ascribed to as just resistance is actually the pruning of the father.

Ramin Razavi: 30:08

And what I found in my life is that he's he's an amazingly gentle gardener. Meaning that when something starts to sprout out that's going in a direction that's not productive, he usually gives me some inclination right away. He tries to prune it right away. And if I submit to that or consent to the work of the father who's pruning me, then that goes away and I start to become more fruitful. I move in a better direction.

Ramin Razavi: 30:32

But he does give us agency in this, and we can choose to resist, not consent the pruning work of the father. And then it goes from something that he can use those little, you know, those little gardening shears that are kinda small and you just and it just starts to grow, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and, eventually, he gets out those lopping shears. You know, those ones that are like this, you can eat a friend over there, and you both push, and and it hurts because he's trimming us back. He's removing from us things that will ultimately cause pain and trauma in our lives and in the lives of others. The other thing I learned about this concept of pruning is that when you look at the very best fruit, the very best grapes that are produced in the vineyard, they are not impressive to look at.

Ramin Razavi: 31:17

If you've ever gone around a vineyard, they're they're smaller than, like, the table grapes that we would buy over at Mother's for a little thing at the, whatever the beach thing is next week. Can't remember the name of it. All church beach day. They're small. They're small grapes.

Ramin Razavi: 31:30

They're not like those big, juicy table grapes, and the the skin is really, really thick, and they're full of seeds a lot of times. But the reason they make the very best wine is that these grapes are what vintners would call potent. They have high potency to them, and guess where the potency comes from? The potency of the fruit comes from the struggle of the vine. When vines are, like, inundated with fertilizer and too much water and all kinds of artificial means of growth.

Ramin Razavi: 32:02

They don't produce good grapes, but the very best vines are allowed to struggle because it's in the struggle that the roots go deep. It's in the struggle that the tissues within them begin to transport things in the way that they are meant to. It's in the struggle that the potency of the grape is formed. That's why James in James chapter 1 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face the trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith, the pruning that God allows in your life, it produces what? Perseverance and perseverance has to finish its work in you so that you will be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Ramin Razavi: 32:42

So in the pruning, in the trial, in the persevering, God is not trying to take something away from you, he's trying to give gifts to you that you would never be able to steward if you hadn't walked with him through the persevering season. This is the way of Jesus. This is how he does his work in us. And it's not just a teaching for him, this is how he lived, how he himself lived. Just before this moment in the gospel of John chapter 12, he tells a story.

Ramin Razavi: 33:14

He says, if a kernel of wheat remains a single seed, that's all it will ever be. But if that kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies and lets itself be buried, it will produce much life. And what did Jesus do? Into the death, into the burial, and life for us all. This is the way of Jesus.

Ramin Razavi: 33:36

And so if we're gonna be people who consent to the work of pruning in our lives, we have to begin to ask those questions. How am I stewarding what might feel like suffering in my life? How am I stewarding it with God? Am I open to the reality? It's not always this way.

Ramin Razavi: 33:55

Sometimes God wants to remove the suffering. Let me say that very clearly. I say that from a place of deep experience, and this is not the sermon for that, but I just wanna honor those who are suffering, and it's not pruning. It's just difficulty, it's hardship, it's the fall, it's sickness, it's disease, and may Jesus heal you in his name. But for for so many of us, we we have to ask the question, God, is is the resistance I'm facing facing, is this you trying to change me?

Ramin Razavi: 34:22

All my prayers have been changed the circumstance, and what you're trying to change is my heart. You're trying to break its addictions to things. You're trying to break my reliance on myself. You're trying to lose the grip of control that I live with. You're trying to transform me.

Ramin Razavi: 34:37

We have to begin to ask that question. God, how are you inviting me to change through the situation and circumstance I'm in? And so, the father wants to prune us and he wants us to become more fruitful as a result of the pruning process. Reality I wanna look at in this text

Intro/Outro: 34:53

is that Jesus

Ramin Razavi: 34:53

invites us, you and me, to participate with him, the son of God, in bringing glory to the father in heaven. Wow. That's an invitation to join Jesus in bringing glory to the father. When I read those last couple verses in the teaching text, remain in me, my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, it'll be done for you, Bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples. I I mean, there's days I can hardly believe that.

Ramin Razavi: 35:21

Right? It's like, really? I get to be a part of this too? And the challenge for a lot of us is there's things that come up in our mind as kinda disqualifying characteristics that keep us from believing this. I know that sitting with this over time, what the Lord has done in my heart is help me see that prayer, this kind of prayer of asking the father for whatever I wish is actually less about me getting what I want from God and more about God getting what he wants from me.

Ramin Razavi: 35:53

It's more about God getting me on his page than me attempting to get God on my page. Because if I'm abiding, remaining, sourcing my life from the life of Jesus himself, and I begin to pray over time into something, asking whatever I wish, and I'm open to the pruning of the father in those very prayers, guess what happens? The arc of my prayer starts to bend to the will of the father. And Jesus is saying, I want you to just enter in. Start with however you need to pray.

Ramin Razavi: 36:22

Pray for whatever you wish, but trust the process that by end of the praying, I'm gonna get you on my page. I'm gonna get your heart aligned with mine. That's why when Jesus taught us to pray, how did he begin the prayer? Our father, who is in heaven, holy be your name. Let your will be done, and your kingdom come on earth because as it is in heaven.

Ramin Razavi: 36:43

We're like 2 thirds of the way through Jesus' prayer, and we're not even in it yet. It's like what you need to have let it let it your your will. Yep. Yep. Okay.

Ramin Razavi: 36:51

And I need my lunch, and protect me and help me be more forgiving. Thank you very much, Jesus. And Those are great things to pray. But what I realized over time is that what Jesus is trying to do is he's trying to get us on his page. It's really hard for us to believe at times that God loves us as much as he says he does.

Ramin Razavi: 37:14

At least it is for me. I think a lot of times, I feel like I have to perform for him. There's something about what I do, and it's not just because I'm a pastor, but just as a human being that makes me more or less valid to God. And I know that when it comes to participating in his life and bringing glory to the father, I mean, those are big words, like, participate in the life of God and bring glory. That's a big theological concept for Sunday morning at lunchtime.

Ramin Razavi: 37:41

Like, come on, man. But I think just to speak to it, honestly, I think that one thing that's hard is is sometimes we just don't feel qualified for this. And we feel like, gosh, I I can see the people that look qualified for this, and my life doesn't currently look a whole lot like their life, and and and maybe God would just use them more, and maybe I'll give some money so that he can use them more at the church, but I I don't know how I would ever be qualified for this. And here's the invitation with God, those who have been broken deeply become the world's greatest healers. Those who've had to trust God through the darkest valleys become the best guides.

Ramin Razavi: 38:18

Those who've been so desperate for love and turn to every other thing before finding their embrace in the arms of a perfect heavenly father, they become the best lovers. See, this is the way of God. He doesn't use human strength like we would. That's why I picked the disciples he did. He he doesn't use the the most powerful things to get his point across.

Ramin Razavi: 38:38

He uses the broken things. That's why the beatitudes start with blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure in heart. God is not looking for your list of qualifications to sign you up for kingdom advancement. He's looking for your heart, and he can do anything through an open and available heart. And the second thing that I think is really important to notice is is that sometimes we don't think we could participate in this life of God because of how ordinary our lives sometimes feel.

Ramin Razavi: 39:10

You know, maybe we work at a retail store right now, which is beautiful. Maybe we're homeschooling right now. Maybe we're trying to figure out what we're supposed to be doing in this class that just doesn't seem to resonate with us if you're a student. But here's the most beautiful thing, is the only place that God can work and transform your life and the life of the people around you is the place you actually are. And God has a great track record of rewarding faithfulness.

Ramin Razavi: 39:38

I I say this to my 18 year old son all the time. I said, how you do anything is how you do everything. So you want to lead or advance or achieve something, make your bed. You want to witness to the world about the power and the love of Jesus? Respect your mom when she asks you to do something.

Ramin Razavi: 39:59

It starts there. And we've lived in a culture that is so built about fruit. Like, our culture is obsessed. Even the Christian culture is worse about it. So obsessed with fruit, and we we publish it, and we promote it, and it gets applauded and liked, and I don't even know what it is on the social media.

Ramin Razavi: 40:16

It's Instagramed and double Instagramed and triple shared on the stories and all the stuff. But guess where God's best work begins? In the mundane quarters of obscurity through servant hearted leadership, sacrificial love, and a pure heart. God will always use that so much more than the hype. Living water doesn't need hype.

Ramin Razavi: 40:38

It produces the life of God. And as we close today, what I wanna draw our attention to most of all is that if you caught the theme of this, Jesus keeps offering himself to us. Says, I'm the true vine so remain in me. Remain in me by letting me prune you, and then remain in me so that you can bear fruit and cooperate with me in bringing my father's good and beautiful kingdom into the world. And he's sharing all these beautiful things.

Ramin Razavi: 41:06

And along the way, we might say, like, yes. I see you, Jesus. You are the true vine. You know what Jesus is saying? I see you as my beloved child, and I have intimacy with you.

Ramin Razavi: 41:17

We might say, like, okay. I'm going through the process of repenting, and I'm renewing my love for you, and I'm receiving the kingdom, and I'm releasing it into the world. I'm a peacemaker like you are, Jesus. And he's, like, that's fantastic. I have your heart.

Ramin Razavi: 41:29

That's what I've always been after. It's your heart. You. It's you that I want. And we say, father, you're pruning me, and you're you're cutting me back, and I'm consenting to it, and I'm being bent and trained towards the ways of your kingdom.

Ramin Razavi: 41:41

And he said, that's fantastic. And I've got your heart, which is what I've always wanted. And that's why later in this passage, Jesus adds this little thought to it, and when I land with this is the band can come up as well is simply this. He says, I no longer call you servants. He says, because a servant doesn't know anything about his master's business, but now, I'm calling you friends.

Ramin Razavi: 42:06

For everything I have received from the father, I have made known to you. Let's stand.

Intro/Outro: 42:18

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