The Pruning Process
A Morning Lenten Worship Sermon | Week 2: Stripping Away | Day 10
Primary Scripture: John 15:1-2 (KJV) | Complementary Scripture: Hebrews 12:11 (KJV)
INTRODUCTION
Good morning, Church! Good MORNING! Give God a hand clap of praise right where you are!
Amen!
Now, let me tell you something. When I saw you walk through those doors this morning, when I saw you get up before the sun had fully stretched its arms across the sky, when I saw you push past a warm bed and a comfortable pillow to come and seek the face of God — I said to myself, "These are serious people." Can I get an Amen?
Amen!
You didn't have to be here. Nobody forced you. You came because something inside you said, "I need more of God and less of me." And that, beloved, is exactly what Lent is about.
Now, I need somebody to hear me today. Lent is NOT a religious tradition you check off a calendar. Lent is a season of consecration. It is a stripping away. It is a holy, deliberate act of saying, "God, I am going to pull back the layers of my comfort, my habits, my ego, and my flesh, so that I can hear You more clearly." Turn to your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, I am being stripped."
Yes. And some of you felt that stripping this week. You gave up something you love. You cut back on noise. You fasted. You prayed when you didn't feel like it. And I came to tell you this morning — that discomfort you are feeling? That is not punishment. That is process.
Now, before I go any further, let us stand and receive the Word of the living God.
Our primary text this morning is found in the Gospel of John, the fifteenth chapter, reading verses one and two. The Word of God says:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15:1-2 (KJV)
And our complementary text is found in the book of Hebrews, the twelfth chapter, the eleventh verse:
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Hebrews 12:11 (KJV)
You may be seated.
Church, our subject this morning is this: "The Pruning Process."
God is the Master Gardener. Growth requires the shears. And what God cuts away is never wasted and never wrong.
Somebody say, "Prune me, Lord."
Prune me, Lord!
1. SUBMITTING TO THE VINEDRESSER
Isaiah 64:8 & Romans 12:1
I want you to notice something in verse one. Jesus does not say, "I am A vine." He says, "I am THE true vine." The definite article. The one. The original. The source of all life. And then He says something that I want you not to miss.
He says, "My Father is the husbandman."
The word husbandman in your text means the one who tends the garden. The caretaker. The one with the knowledge, the tools, and the authority over the vineyard. And the Greek word used in verse two for "purgeth" — that word is kathairo. Write that down. Kathairo. It means to cleanse. To remove what is unclean, wasteful, or dead. To purge what does not belong.
Church, listen to me today. The Vinedresser is the one doing the pruning. NOT the branch.
A branch cannot prune itself. You hear me? If a branch reaches back and tries to cut away its own growth, it damages its vascular system. It ruins its ability to carry life from the vine. In the same way, when we try to be the author of our own sanctification, when we pick and choose what areas of our life we will surrender and what areas we will protect, we interrupt the very flow of grace that God is sending our way.
Isaiah 64:8 says, "But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." The clay does not tell the potter where to press. The clay yields. The clay surrenders to the pressure of skilled hands.
And Paul writes in Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Your REASONABLE service, Paul says. Not your extreme sacrifice. Not beyond what is expected. This is simply what a surrendered life looks like. It is reasonable. It is logical. It makes sense to give God access to every corner of your life when you consider what He has already done for you.
Self-denial, beloved, begins with a confession. It begins with you saying, "Lord, I do not know what is best for me." Say that with me out loud. "Lord, I do not know what is best for me."
That is the beginning of surrender. Not weakness. Wisdom.
Turn to your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, let God hold the shears."
The Husbandman is gentle. He is deliberate. He does not slip. He does not cut carelessly. Every snip He makes in your life has purpose behind it. Every habit He convicts you of, every relationship He stirs your spirit about, every distraction He quiets during this Lenten season — He knows exactly what He is doing.
Can I get an Amen?
Amen!
POINT TWO: ENDURING THE PAIN OF PRUNING
Psalm 119:67 & Job 5:17-18
Now, Church, I am going to be real with you this morning. I am not going to stand up here and give you a feel-good message that leaves you empty. I love you too much for that.
Pruning hurts.
Say it again with me. Pruning hurts.
“Pruning hurts.”
Hebrews 12:11 does not dance around this. The Word says it "seemeth grievous." It says it does not feel joyous. It feels like loss. And some of you, right now in this Lenten season, are feeling exactly that. You gave up something that brought you comfort. You laid down a habit that felt like a friend. You stepped back from a distraction that helped you cope. And without it, you feel raw. You feel exposed. You feel like something is missing.
Can I talk to somebody honest this morning?
Yes!
That rawness you feel? That is the cut of the shears. That is the Vinedresser working.
Now, listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 119:67. He says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." Before the pain, he was wandering. After the pain, he was walking in the Word. The affliction was the correction. The pruning was the positioning.
And Job 5:17-18 says, "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole."
He wounds AND He heals. He cuts AND He bandages. He removes AND He restores. This is not a God who enjoys our pain. This is a God who sees what our pain produces, and He deems the fruit worth the process.
Let me teach you something about gardening right quick. In a vineyard, there is a thing called sucker growth. A sucker is a shoot that grows up from the base of the vine. Now, from a distance, it looks healthy. It looks green. It looks like it belongs. But a sucker does not produce fruit. What it does is drain energy, moisture, and nutrients from the branches that are actually bearing. A sucker looks like life, but it is stealing life.
Church, God is cutting your suckers this Lenten season.
Amen!
Some of those suckers have names. Some of them look good on the outside. Some of them feel like they are part of you. But they are draining your prayer life. They are draining your focus. They are siphoning off the energy that should be going toward your purpose, your family, your calling.
And the Vinedresser says, "That one has to go."
Now, Hebrews says the wound yields "peaceable fruit of righteousness." Not immediately. The text says "afterward." So if you are in the middle of the cut right now, hold on. The afterward is coming. The wound is not the end of your story. The wound is where the new strength grows from.
Somebody shout, "My wound is my witness!"
“My wound is my witness!”
POINT THREE: ABIDING TO BEAR FRUIT
John 15:4-5 & Galatians 5:22-23
Now, beloved, I want to bring you to the beauty on the other side of the blade. Because pruning is not the point. Fruit is the point.
Jesus says in John 15:4-5, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
I want to park right here for a moment. The branch does not strain to produce fruit. The branch does not grit its teeth and work harder to push out grapes. The branch simply stays connected to the vine, and the sap does the rest. The life of the vine flows through the branch, and the fruit is the natural result of that connection.
Somebody is trying to force fruit in your own strength this morning. Working harder. Doing more. Striving. And you are exhausted. And the fruit still will not come.
Turn to your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, stop straining and start abiding."
Abiding is not passive laziness. Abiding is a sustained, intimate connection. It is continual prayer. It is sitting in the Word not to check a box, but to receive life. It is coming to a morning worship service on a weekday during Lent and saying, "God, I choose You over my schedule." That is abiding.
And what comes from abiding? Galatians 5:22-23 tells us. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." That is the fruit the Vinedresser is after. Not your performance. Not your religious activity. The character of Jesus formed in you.
The goal of the Vinedresser is not the comfort of the branch. The goal is the quality and quantity of the fruit. And fruit does not grow for the branch. It grows for others. It grows so the world around you sees something different. It grows so your family is nourished. Your community is fed. Your testimony points someone else to the Vine.
This Lenten season is not about making you miserable. It is about making you fruitful.
Can I get an Amen?
Amen!
CONCLUSION AND THE INVITATION
Church, let me bring this home.
Pruning is not punishment. It is preparation. Every cut God makes in your life during this season is preparing you for greater usefulness, greater fruitfulness, and greater closeness to Him. The shears in the hand of the Husbandman are shears of love.
You did not come to Lent to suffer. You came to be repositioned. You came to let God do what only He can do, what you cannot do for yourself. You came to say, "Lord, I surrender the controls."
And I believe there are people in this room who have been holding on to something. A sucker branch. Maybe it is pride that has been draining your spirit. Maybe it is a hidden sin you have kept in the dark. Maybe it is a distraction, a habit, an attitude, a bitterness that looks alive but has been stealing your fruit for years.
The Husbandman is standing here this morning with the shears. And He is asking you a question. Not an angry question. A gentle question. He is asking, "Do you trust Me enough to let go?"
Amen!
I want to extend an invitation this morning. If you have never given your life fully to Jesus Christ, the True Vine, there is no connection, no abiding, no fruit possible outside of Him. I am asking you to come to this altar and surrender your life to the one who laid His life down for you.
And for those who know Him, but you have been holding something back, something the Spirit has been convicting you about during these ten days of Lent, I am asking you to come. Come and lay it down. Come and let the Vinedresser do what only He can do.
Do not let pride keep you in your seat. The altar is not a place of shame. It is a place of exchange. You bring your sucker branches, and He gives you new life in return.
Come on, somebody. Come on. The doors of the Church are open. The arms of the Father are wide. The shears are in the hands of One who loves you completely, who sees the fruit you have not yet produced, and who is determined to get you there.
While we make our way to the altar, Church, let us pray.
Father God, we come to You this morning as branches who need the Gardener. We have tried to prune ourselves and failed. We have protected things You told us to release. We have clung to comfort when You called us to consecration.
But today, Lord, we yield. We open our hands. We open our hearts. Take the shears to our pride. Cut away our fear. Remove every sucker, every distraction, every hidden weight that is stealing the life You placed in us.
We trust Your hands, Lord. We trust Your process. And we believe that on the other side of this pruning, there is fruit, there is glory, and there is more of You.
In the name of Jesus, the True Vine, the one who was cut down on Calvary so that we might rise in new life.
All God's people said...
Amen!
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Blessings,
Pastor JM Raja Lawrence
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
email: lawrencejmr@gmail.com
Mobile: +91 9933250072
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