Jn 15:3-10 One Shot
Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world by the time he was 33 years old, and then he died.
Mother Theresa won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work among the poor before dying at the age of 87.
Abraham Lincoln failed many times as a businessman and politician before becoming the 16th president of the United States. He goes down in history as the man who issued the Emancipation Proclamation. He died at the age of 56.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39, but not before becoming known as perhaps the greatest crusader for human rights.
No one really knows how old the Apostle Paul was when he died, but he is remembered as the greatest missionary ever.
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Do you know what these folks have in common?
• Other than the obvious fact that all these people are dead
• Each of them used the one life they were given
• To accomplish great things and leave an incredible mark on history.
Each of us here today have been given the same thing as these great people
• Each one of us have been give one life;
• We’ve been given one shot to do something great.
• Now Maybe we aren’t called to go down as anything special in the history books,
• But greatness isn’t necessarily measured by what people know
or what they remember.
Jesus tells us in Jn 15:8 My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father..”
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I can’t imagine anything greater happening in my life
• Than knowing that God is being glorified by the fruit that I bear.
• By what I do , By how I act
• But at the same time I’m ashamed to admit that a lot of the pages in the book of my life
• Are filled with sin that dishonors Him.
• Many of the pages record nothing more than the routine of my religion.
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But the part that is hardest to accept
• Is there’s no way of erasing what’s been written. Of What I’ve already done
If I could go back and erase every sinful thing I’ve done - I would do it.
• If I could go back and give meaning to the ruts of Christianity
• That I’ve often gotten stuck in, I wouldn’t hesitate to do that either.
If I could, I’d make sure that every page in my book of life
• Showed me bearing fruit to God’s glory. But I can’t.
• But, at the same time I know that there is at least one blank page left in my book.
• It’s up to me to decide what’s going to be written on that page
• I alone have the power to decide what kind of fruit I bear.
• So what it comes down to is “What will I write in my book?”
• And starting today “What will you write in your book?”
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Today we’re going to look at John 15:3-10
• And I want to talk about using our one shot
• And I want to do is talk about 5 different questions that I hope
• Will stimulate our minds
• And get us thinking about what we’re going to do with this one shot:
1 Am I Living my life Like I’m Changed? ---Read JN 15:3
Each one of us here today at one time was capable of producing nothing but sin
• Nothing but selfishness.
• But now we’ve been given the opportunity to produce fruit that has eternal value!
But the problem is that most Christians haven’t changed;
• Maybe they’ve changed their Language, / Friends, / Practices / Actions
• But Spiritually they aren’t bearing eternal fruit.
• What are we doing in our lives?
• That will produce the most fruit possible for His glory?
2. Which leads to Am I Living Like I’m Clean? (:3)
We just read in John 15:3 that we are already clean
• One of the things that can really bog a Christian down
• And keep him from producing fruit is their past.
• We’ve all got a little history; / Skeletons in our closets.
• But whatever it is, the first thing we have to understand
• Is that God has completely forgiven you.
One of the most amazing things about the gospel—
• Is that it’s all done through God’s power,
• We don’t have to do anything
• We don’t have to Order it / Subscribe to it / Pay for it / Beg for it
• It’s all done by God’s power, ---- And God’s power is complete.
When Jacob was about to die he brought all of his sons before him so he could bless them
And listen to what he says about his son, Levi:
Genesis 49:5-7
Ge 49:5 “Simeon and Levi are two of a kind— men of violence. Ge 49:6 O my soul, stay away from them.
May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered men,
and they crippled oxen just for sport.
Ge 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout the nation of Israel.
Levi’s had a past and it wasn’t a good one.
• He had committed cruel and senseless violence.
• But if we fast forward about 400 years,
• We see Moses coming down from Sinai with the Ten Commandments
• Only to find the people in sexual immorality:
Ex 32:25 When Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control—and much to the amusement of their enemies—
Ex 32:26 he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come over here and join me.” And all the Levites came.
Ex 32:27 He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.”
Ex 32:28 The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day.
Ex 32:29 Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing.”
Part of confessing our sin is giving it over to God
• And letting Him deal with it
• But the most important part of this process is once we give up those sins
• We let them go / It’s over / There gone once and for all
• And we should never think of them again
3 Now that we have determined that we are living clean
We have to ask Am I Living Like I Am Confident? (READ 15:4-7)
Other versions of verse 4 say
JN 15:4 “ Abide in Me, and I in you.
• To abide means that a person is completely dependant.
Some people have a hard time actually trusting God for everything they need.
• That’s why we spend so much time
• Trying to produce spiritual fruit.
• But Look at what Jesus says:
• He tells us that a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
We can’t bear fruit on our own.
• We have to learn to trust God and rely on Him.
• I think we can see this most in our prayer life.
• When was the last time you acknowledged
• That you can’t do ANYTHING for yourself? (ELAB)
4. Now that we have acknowledged that we cant do it on our own
We have to ask Am I Living Like God Is Central? (:8)
John 15:8 says, “My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.
“Years ago a Russian scholar wrote, ‘Life in time remains without meaning if it does not receive its meaning from eternity.’
Since we only have one life,
• It’s important that we make the right decision on how we use it.
• If we dedicate our lives to things that don’t mean anything in eternity,
• Then all we are doing is wasting our lives
• The philosopher William James said it best when he said,
• ‘The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.’”
And while you’re at it Consider this also:
• Are you simply participating in life,
• Or are you producing eternal fruit for God’s glory?
5. This leads us to our 5th and final question Am I Living Like I Am Controlled? (READ 15:9-10)
Ro 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Ro 6:9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
Ro 6:10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Ro 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It has been said that we may be the only Bible that some people ever see
• That’s why it is so important that when it comes to writing the final page in our book
• We do it so that what we stand for is what will be remembered
Ro 6:10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So today AWGRTC What we nheed to understand is that
• Since we have been forgiven for our sins
• And since we have been made clean
• We can live confidently
• We can live confidently because we are putting God where He belongs / in the center of our lives
• And letting Him control Us
So today are we willing to use our one shot to live our lives for God
