Disciple: Proof of Life - Pastor Joseph Pringle

There should be proof in your life that Jesus is living in you. Abiding in Christ takes intention, not striving. Build a life that remains connected to the vine, protect that connection, and let His life produce the fruit that Jesus actually counts as something. Scriptures: John 15:4-5, John 15:7-8

Show Notes

There should be proof in your life that Jesus is living in you. That is what John 15 is about, and it is what this whole message is built around.

Pastor Joseph opens in John 15:4-5 and John 15:7-8, and he makes the case that abiding in Christ is not accidental. It takes intention. And the fruit that comes from it is the only fruit Jesus actually counts as something. The world has its own scoreboard, and it will call a lot of things fruit. But fruit defined by the Word of God is different. It is your character. It is what is produced when His life flows through yours.

From there, the message moves through three main areas:

Build a life that remains. Abiding does not happen by accident. There is intention behind it, and that means organizing your atmosphere, cutting off old connections, and staying committed even when it gets hard. The branch does not have to decide to die. It just has to disconnect.

Protect the connection. Every wound you pick up in this life needs to go back to Christ. His wounds are still open. When your wound meets His, there is healing. Surround yourself with people who point you to the vine.

Let His life produce the fruit. You do not have to force it. You just have to remain. When you stay connected, His desires begin to reshape yours, and that is the greatest fruit there is.

We would love to have you join us at C3 Church Orange County any Sunday.

Scriptures: John 15:4-5, John 15:7-8

What is C3OC Church?

We are a local Church in Orange County California who are passionate to witness lives being renewed in Christ, strengthened through discipleship, and to thrive in the fullness of living for Christ.
Get connected to us by visiting www.c3oc.com or emailing us at [e-mail]

as Brittany was saying, we've been going through this series' disciple and we are committed as a church to seeing you and, you know, when you say things like this, sometimes they can get misconstrued, but there is a limitless potential in your life that God has reserved for you. And we are devoted to seeing you fully transformed by the gospel and seeing this growing orchard of fruit within your life, of the promises coming to pass in your life and the oil of God flowing through every area. We want to see not just Christians and people saved. We want to see the saints equipped That's what the call of the church is if it's put down to a base level the purpose of the church is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and Sometimes, you know, we can get caught up and and and and this is this is great But the church is actually not the evangelistic vehicle You are and and yes, you are the church But these gatherings in the display of the word of God is so that we would be equipped So that we would be encouraged so that we would be corrected and so that we would be trained in righteousness to live out as a disciple of Christ and And so we've been going through this series Called the cycle and talking about these these attributes that make up living the life of a disciple And the more that you begin to step into this the more you actually begin to understand the heart the will the purpose in the Mission that Christ has set us apart for and so we teach the the word of God here we want us to be filled with not just hot air or inspiration. I'm not a TED Talk kind of guy, but I can assure you of this. I seek for the truth of the word that it would come alive in our own lives and that we would see the fruit of the spirit produced in our life. And so for one of those great steps that we can take is actually learning to abide in Christ, learning to remain connected to the vine. And thank you, Brittany, for the introduction to my message earlier. I think that was awesome. And in doing so, what happens is, is that there is Proof of life that is displayed from our own lives. So today's title is Proof of Life. I think I was talking with my dad yesterday, and he said, ah, it's a great movie. Is Proof of Life a movie, is that? No one knows, okay. Anyway, and he actually mentioned, he said, if there was one passage that I could read and study for the rest of my life, it would be John 15. There is so much that is wrapped up in here. We could spend a year on packaging just this chapter alone. But today we want to attempt to look at just a few of these key areas so that we learn to be people who remain. We learn to be people who abide in the true vine. And so in John 15, four to five, says this, Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me And I in him, he, it is that bear's much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And he goes on and he talks about the promise, the promise of our abiding. He says in verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you, crazy, right? Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. God, I thank you for your presence here today. I pray that our hearts are open and ready to receive. God, oh God, if there is any of me in this, put me to the side. Speak today to your people, that we would be grown, that we would be encouraged, that we would receive your word well here today, that there would be fruits for a great harvest in our lives. In your mighty name, we all said, amen, amen. There should be proof in our life that Jesus is living in us. There should be this, this fruit that abounds a difference in our life because we are connected to the vine. This is not a confusion with striving. This is not a proving to get salvation. But there should be elemental, foundational, external changes within our life that say, Jesus has touched this life. This life is connected to a source far greater than anything this world could provide. And I think in actually understanding that, We got to understand the wise. The why is it so important to abide? Why is it so important to remain? Why is it so important that I go deeper with my relationship with Christ? And Jesus, he makes a super bold statement. He says, apart from me, you can do. Apart from me, you can do. And instantly, we kind of have a bit of an issue with this, right? There's a little bit of an issue that comes up, because we say, hey, man, apart from me, you can do nothing, but I got friends that without Jesus, they made Buku bucks, they've gone on with their life, and they've got these big careers, and they've done something with their life. They've got a life, they've got a house, they've got, maybe it's not just these grand successes, but they're just good people, and have done it without Jesus. And so we kind of have to come to this recognition within our lives that Jesus counts something as nothing. And we wanna be so hungry and intentional within our life to understand and begin counting in our own lives what Jesus produces counts as something that we are in pursuit of. because we don't want to just live our lives producing. And at the end of it, we come to Jesus and He says, but I count that as nothing. We count that as nothing. And instead, I wanna come to Him and He goes, man, you lay down the things I count as nothing and you start pursuing what I actually do count as something. And this is the pursuit of our life because man, the world has its own scoreboard, right? And it will call it fruit. Christian secularism will even call particular things in success or in this field or that field. They'll actually have these measurables and call it fruit, but fruit defined by the word of God is really different. It's really different, it's our character. And sure, all of these things, I'm not saying like this is wrong and this is bad. It's great to have these pursuits, but the first priority in our life is that the source of all our identity, the source of all our connection is to Jesus Christ. Our first allegiance is to Him alone. To actually understand it all, we need to look at the context. And if you were here last week, we talked about this. We have to receive full counsel from His word, right? We can't just pull a scripture on its own, but we have to look at the full counsel of God. And so in John 15, four to five, again, he says, abide in me and I in you, is the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I in the vine, you are the branches, whoever, I mean, what an invitation. What an invitation, whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. The question isn't, can I produce anything without Jesus? The answer to that is yes, Jeeves, yes, you can, like, you can produce within this life. I think the better question for us to ask, and I want us to assess our lives and have a hanging over this whole message is does Jesus count what I am producing as something? Is there fruit that I am pursuing within my life while sacrificing, while pruning off other areas? Am I in pursuit of the fruit of the spirit, of the fruit of his word coming to pass within my life? Am I just loving the word, but not living it out within my world, because if not, we'll start labeling things that do not count as fruit within our worlds. And we don't want to get to the end of our life only to discover that we produced very little of what Jesus called fruit. Now, it's a heavy opener, right? That feels like, oh, wow, yeah, this is, But I want to encourage you that there is always a way, there is always a truth, and there is always a life. And it's found when we stay connected to Christ. We should all want a life that is devoted to producing fruit, that Jesus counts as something, amen? It's not our preference, I know. It seems like they take precedence. Even sometimes we come to Scripture from the season that we are in, And it marks itself as something in our lives. But I'm telling you, when you actually receive the word, in its full truth, when you receive the truth and you begin to remain in the vine, there is fruit that is produced. That's why he says abide in me. From the vine comes our total source, our total life, our total fruit is stemming from the source and into the branch. So for you and I, it's super important, very important that we build a life that remains. We build a life that remains connected to Jesus. There's massive intentionality in this. Abiding, it doesn't happen accidentally, okay? I don't accidentally, I'm not married to my wife. There was intention behind this. There is intention with getting to the place where we're walking down the aisle and there is intention in staying healthy within our marriage. It's not an occasional thing that I include within my, well, well, I guess I'm married today, so I probably should abide in the, no, no, no. I am continually staying connected to my wife. I'm continually wanting to remain, amen? And so for us as believers, man, we have to build a life that remains. And that's gonna take some organization of our atmospheres. It's gonna take maybe the cutting off of some old contacts that we have lingering in the back of our phone. It's gonna take unsubscribing to a few things over here. It's gonna take maybe canceling some credit cards and cutting them out of your life. There is practical steps that we have to take to literally build a life that remains. November 9th this year, I will have been sober for 11 years, okay? Which is great, okay? But I wanna tell you something, that there was massive intentionality behind that. There was a cutting off of an old life and that can be painful. there was an organizing of a new atmosphere, instead of it being one that self-sabotages and I'm a victim to things that happened to me at childhood and I have every excuse to stay depressed. I have every excuse to lean on these crutches that I've had for my entire life. I could use all of that to cut off the old and say, Christ, you have a new life for me. I am redeemed by the blood of Christ. I've already been set free, so I need to live free now. And I do that by building a life that remains connected to Christ. It's not a central command. Jesus does not, there's not one central command within this that says produce. He doesn't say at all, produce fruit. He says remain connected, abide in the vine, and the fruit will actually just happen. If you abide and you remain, then there will be an outcome in your life. That word abide is actually meno. It means remain, stay, continue, dwell, and take up residence. And I love that because he does say abide in me and I in you. Love that he is willing to take up residence in the mess of my internal house. You know, you come over to my house for dinner or whatever, where, you know, we greet you at the door and we kind of try and do like a sound of music greeting where we're all standing at the door and we're like, welcome. You come into the house and you sit down and you're eating, you're welcomed into that environment. There's a bathroom that we've cleaned for you and there's a smell of cookies after dinner, and it's fantastic, it's lovely. But you don't have license to go through my drawers. You don't have the license to go upstairs and start going through my child's wardrobe. Go into my office and start looking through the files, go through my safe, right? Because you're a visitor. You're not a resident of that house. And it's not because I got really anything to hide, but it's just you are not the owner of that house. And I think sometimes we say, Jesus, come into my life. Oh, yes, you have total dominion over our life, but we treat him like a visitor when he wants to take up residence. And we say that drawer of unforgiveness, do not open that one. That closet that I've hit all those magazines in and those websites, no, you're not allowed in there. That bathroom of sexual immorality, oh, don't touch that one. The causation of these things is that we say, you have full license, but we treat him like a visitor. I've got the HOA rules. Jesus, you cannot paint my house, whatever color you want, don't change the roof. But he is saying, man, when it's in the abiding, it's not just you in him, it's him in you. Oh, and that gets deeply personal within our lives. And we can become defensive at those points. We can become a little, oh, pensive at those points. But that's where we have to understand that his love is far greater. His love far surpasses any of the uncomfortability that we might have. And the reason that he would press on something or open a drawer is not to say, ha ha ha, check out Wes's drawer, look what he's got in there, and air out the dirty laundry. It's not for that reason. Nor should it be any of our reasons. When someone comes to us and says, man, I've got this in my drawer. But we walk and lead them to Jesus with the same grace, mercy, introduction to justice and showing them the love of God surpasses all our understanding. This is why it's important that we build this life that remains in Him. Amen? We don't just want to come to Him when we're in chaos. Earlier this year, there was a flood in our kitchen, okay? And there was the little pinhole leaks and it went through all of our kitchen and everything had to be torn out and we contacted our insurance company at that point because there was a chaos happening. God is not my insurance policy for life, okay? He is my father. He is my friend. He is my lord. He is my savior. He is my redeemer. I don't just want to call him and be like, yeah, there's a flood in the kitchen mate. Yeah, can you get over here and help me move a couple of items. I know you go to truck Jesus. So yeah, can I borrow it? Don't just run to him because life is chaotic. Build a life that remains. He's so good in the good times. He's so good in the boring times. He's so good in the waiting times that when you abide in him, when you remain in him, there is this power that begins to source the fruit that counts in your life. There will be a thousand things in your life that will try to pull you away from the vine. I'm about to launch into that where we have to protect our connection. But there will be moments when following Jesus becomes difficult. And I'm so sorry if there have been preachers that have told you over and over that it's real easy to follow Jesus. It is the best decision of your life but do not do not like put to the side that there is an enemy who wants to pull you apart from the vine that you will go through difficult seasons and it's for our benefit it's for the building up of us it's a tough fight it's a it's a war and it's a spiritual war and I'm I'm pleading with you as your pastor to remain faithful to remain committed that when things are being pulled apart, you do not grow spiritually passive, which is a, oh man, it's a, it's a cancer to our faith. It's a, it's, it grows ever so slowly within us and begins to eat away piece by piece that we just become a little too passive. I, I, I, you know, prayer is just kind of optional now. It's my chaotic response. My, my word life is, man, I just need to get on the Bible street because I've got three friends following me on the Bible app and I need to keep this or, you know, this is my duty so I'm gonna look through and so all of a sudden we just become a little limp in our faith. There's a famous, very famous painting that Michelangelo did on the Sistine Chapel and we have a picture of this, I remembered this last night and so I've walked through this and I've seen this and the person who was walking us through. I've never noticed this, okay? First, who was walking us through is, she said, look at the intention of God's finger, reaching to man, wanting him to just reach back. The reason this top part is like this is because the relaxed posture of a man is just kind of like, Oh yeah, you do it all, God. But if we just had intention that pointed our finger and pointed our life and started really building, which takes sweat sometimes, it takes intention, it's sometimes painful to build. But we stretch our hand and we say, not on my watch, will I remain back-footed, but I will be front-footed in my faith. I will extend my finger and I tell you when you do and you remain connected to the vine, there is so much blessing that comes from it. Don't take it as an optional measure within your life. Optional fasting, optional word, optional church and community and being attached to the body. Cause here's the thing about being a branch. The branch doesn't have to decide to die. It just has to disconnect. I think that's why Jesus uses that word over and over. He says abide, remain, stay, and continue, because he knows it's going to be challenged. He knows that it's gonna be, there's gonna be pressure to pull apart that connection. So once again, just as your pastor, as someone who is encouraging you in your faith, Be staunch in your belief. Be staunch in your decision and say, I will remain because it's the call of God in my life and there is a promise attached to it. Point number two here today is protect the connection. The branch lives when it's connected to the vine, amen? as branches connected to the vine and it's so important that we have a protective measure around our connection. Paul would say in Romans 11-ish, I believe, he would talk about the grafting in of Gentiles, which is us here today, the Gentiles into the family of God. It's another horticultural term, right? Grafting in. And so I did a study on grafting as well. I'm just telling you, if a plant comes into our home, the Pringle household, it screams, because there is not an ounce of green on these thumbs. They go, oh, no. So grafting is actually, it's violent by nature at first. There are two cuts that are made. There is the cut on the receiving, and there is a cut on the branch that is being attached. And so there's an initial wounding. Here's the beauty of it. Jesus's wounds are still open for you and I. He was wounded on the cross, and still there are the holes within his hand. There are the holes within his feet. His wound never closes. And there is a cutting off of this branch, and I love, He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. Don't get it twisted. They're getting it twisted up. I am cutting off from an old life and I am attaching to this new source of life. Both have to be wounded and the new connection requires this cut and the critical moment is when these wounds have to meet one another. And so there's the initial, this saying, Jesus, you are my Lord. I receive you within my heart here today. And there is this cutting off of an old life and the receiving of a new life, right? But I've also seen people, and I have been one of these, where there have been wounded in life. And like I said before, even Jesus says, it is impossible to go through this life without being offended, wounded, hurt. That there is going to be these offenses that do come up. And I've seen people begin to abide in their wound to a different dead source. And so every wound that we get within this life, we have to protect the connection. We have got to take it back to Christ. We've got to remain in this. When we're not hearing from God, or there are these moments of indecision, or we start doubting particular things, and there is someone in the church who has hurt us, and we feel that there is an injustice. There is a way to begin moving forward. And there is a wound within our life. Oh, man, I've abided in so many different things that suck the life out of me. There is nothing that it gives to me. It presents itself like a political campaign video. It's promising the world and delivering nothing. But when I stay connected to Christ, all beyond all measures and it's been a fight some days, all the wound is open. But when you attach your wound to his, the healing properties that had it written down somewhere, It's like the cannabis layer begins to send the xylem out. I can't remember at all. Some horticulturalist is going to pull me up on it. But they connect and the healing properties come from the vine and begin healing and attaching to itself. Oh, it's such a beautiful image. Because there are people in this room who were wounded. You might have thought, oh man, if I just abide in alcohol, if I just abide in this human relationship. If I just abide in all money or success or if I just abide in isolation, if I just abide in counsel that gets me nowhere but it confirms and affirms who I'm not in reality. It confirms and affirms I'm a victim. Man, Jesus calls you more, way more than a victim. He calls you triumphant and an overcomer. So I want to attach every wound I have to Him. And at that moment, that meeting point, there is so much healing. Take your wounds to the Word. Take your wound to worship. Take your wound to Jesus. Take your wound to the people around you who would point you to the vine. Protect your connection. surround yourself because in the initial grafting that connection point is fragile. It needs support, it needs to be bound up and wrapped up. That's everyone who is standing around you, wrapping their arms around you, praying with you. That is our worship, that is tables, that is prayer in the morning, that is you seeking the Word of God throughout the week. and I'm not just going to read four chapters. No, I'm going to read two verses and see what God says to me. I'm going to meditate on this. Do I need it to speak to me? I need it to to encounter me. I need it to confront me. I need it to heal me. Remaining connected to Christ. not to the opinions of a world that calls nothing fruit, abide in me, abide in me. The last point here today is let his life produce the fruit. I love that it doesn't say try and produce the fruit, this is where we can get caught up in striving within our life. Doesn't say try harder to produce fruit. I've never seen an apple tree down in, has anyone ever been a Julian? You've got all the apple orchards and everything and Have you ever been on a farm? Have you ever heard the trees going, pop and then an apple pops out? No. Never seen it. Wizard of Oz, okay. But when you remain connected, when you stay in the source of all life, fruit begins to pop out. When you remain, man, when all the questions come up and you just stay, faithfulness is such a big thing in the kingdom that I feel like has been lost today. When we get to the end of it all, the words that we want to hear is well done good and faithful not good producing not well successful and numbers and figures and influence wow look at it no he says faithful like remained you abided you you took a hold of it and in the hardest of seasons oh my gosh I can imagine just the angels and Jesus and they're standing there and they go come on buddy it's It's just on the other side, you're gonna make it, he's gonna make it right, and you stand faithful in those times. I mean, you get to the end and you stand there and you hear those words, well done good and faithful. Server, that you would remain attached to him and fruit begins to abound in your life. This is incredible to me. And this has been the greatest fruit that I have received in my life. The promise is this, if you abide in me and my words abide in me, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, bless you, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. It's outrageous that he says whatever you wish. But we've got to look at the order here. Let's put that back up. Seven to eight. Sorry. If you abide in me, so here is the abiding. If the will to choose is such a blessing, it is so hard to battle against some things. Man, I want to answer the if with a yes. If you abide, I wish I could, but I can't. I can't abide for you. I can encourage you, I can push you, but you gotta make a choice. I will remain. I will stay. I will be faithful. I'm going to keep my life connected to Christ. If you abide in me first and my words abide in you, this is the preface to what he's about to say that sounds so outrageous. And the reason that we can ask whatever we wish from that point is that because of my abiding in him, Am I abiding, and him abiding within my life, his words at work within my life? I'm telling you this, the wishes, the will, the desires of your life begin to be reshaped. And that is the greatest fruit that I have got. The desire of the kingdom, the fruit of eternity that is living within me. The purpose is so much larger. They're just, ah, let me build up my possessions And let me have this kind of influence. No, it's a fruit that says there is something larger than the years that I will spend on this earth. And I would labor and I laid down my life. I sacrifice it. I crucify my flesh that I no longer live, but Christ is alive in me because there is a world that is suffering and I have lived in that suffering world. And I know you've lived in that world too. Maybe you feel like there are some pieces that are just still stuck. Cut it away. Be wounded. I'm telling you, his wounds are still open for your healing, for your restoration, for your reconciliation, for your redemption, for your regeneration, for a renewed purpose, for a renewed life. It's endless. Oh man, it's the greatest fruit that we can ever taste. His will and his desire, it's not hidden my friend, it's not hidden away in some back pocket, it's written out for us in living and active words. Oh man, his will and desire is that we would be shining lights for him. On his behalf here in this world that we would put nothing over him, that we're not just praying because we have a prayer list, we're not just praying because finally we've got requests but we're praying because we love his presence so much we love to commune with him we want to abide we want to him to remain in us we want him to reorder our house we want to read the word and it offends us it offends us that we would say oh not my will but your will father in heaven I lay it down I as inappropriate as something like this can say man I'm a dead man walking. I don't want my flesh to rule over my life. I struggle with depression. I struggle with anxiety. I get overwhelmed with stress. I have all of these battles. But man, I nail it to the cross every time. Depression, you will not beat me down. So I grabbed that black dog by the ears and I say not today. Get up. I stomp on his head like he's a snake. You will submit Whatever it is in your life, there is an authority. It's not by my authority It's not by my willpower and the YouTube video that I saw a guy get up at 3.30 and splash ice water in his face Then he created 17 businesses before 6.30 and then he went out and and he bought 42 houses before 11.30 It's not bad. It's not by this self-will or this video that I watch. It's a power that is running within me because I will not allow myself to be disconnected. That's available for whoever. You don't have to clean yourself up. And this is not a demand for perfection. You don't have to redress yourself? Get my Christian culture on? Oh, yes. Now I can say words like sanctified. Sanctification. What's your eschatology? You know, like, we don't have to step into just this Christian premise. God created you uniquely for perfect purpose that he has. And when we remain connected, this fruit begins to boil up. So funny people will ask, and I've asked many people, we're asking a really, you know, powerful minister that I looked up to, so integrous, and I was like, you know, what's the secret to all of this? and his response was is that my personal life remains connected to Christ. Just because he was a pastor and a minister, that wasn't his license to be like, oh yeah, my life's all connected, my life is devotion and there's no, he's still remain connected.