The Pruning Process (John 15:1-5) Series

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.