Scripture referenced 18 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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2 Corinthians 4:6 opening verse read to lead into worship, about God making light shine in our hearts so we can know the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus
6 seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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Keep this verse
John 15:1-8
broad text read aloud covering the vine and branches, abiding in Christ, and bearing fruit
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
8 “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.
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John 14:6
cited as Jesus claiming to be the only path to the Father
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
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John 14:12
cited as Jesus saying believers will do greater works than he did
12 Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.
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John 14:15
cited as Jesus saying those who love him will keep his commandments
15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
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John 14:26
cited as Jesus promising the Holy Spirit as helper and teacher
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
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Genesis 2:15
quoted to show God placed man in the garden to work and care for it, establishing God as creator and sustainer
15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
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Psalm 16
referenced as David saying the boundary lines are set in pleasant places, used to encourage trust in God
1 Preserve me, God, for in you do I take refuge.
2 My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips.
5 Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7 I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
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Romans 10:9
quoted directly to explain what it means to be saved, declaring Jesus is Lord and believing God raised him from the dead
9 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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James 2
referenced to show that faith without deeds is empty, contrasting claimed faith with demonstrated faith
1 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in;
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place”; and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”;
4 haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
7 Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
8 However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.
13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith.
25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
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James 3:1
quoted as a weight on the speaker about teachers being judged more strictly
1 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
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Romans 11
referenced as Paul using the word grafted to describe the church being connected to God's plan of salvation
1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”
4 But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
8 According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
9 David says, “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always.”
11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree;
18 don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”
20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;
21 for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
22 See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
26 and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
27 This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
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1 Corinthians 16
referenced as Paul saying stand firm in the faith, used to illustrate the active nature of abiding
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I commanded the assemblies of Galatia, you do likewise.
2 On the first day of the week, let each one of you save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
3 When I arrive, I will send whoever you approve with letters to carry your gracious gift to Jerusalem.
4 If it is appropriate for me to go also, they will go with me.
5 But I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia.
6 But with you it may be that I will stay, or even winter, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go.
7 For I do not wish to see you now in passing, but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits.
8 But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost,
9 for a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
10 Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.
11 Therefore let no one despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brothers.
12 Now concerning Apollos, the brother, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers; and it was not at all his desire to come now; but he will come when he has an opportunity.
13 Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
15 Now I beg you, brothers (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to serve the saints),
16 that you also be in subjection to such, and to everyone who helps in the work and labors.
17 I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus; for that which was lacking on your part, they supplied.
18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge those who are like that.
19 The assemblies of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you much in the Lord, together with the assembly that is in their house.
20 All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
21 This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand.
22 If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord!
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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Galatians 5:22
cited and recited together as the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
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1 Corinthians 11
referenced as Paul saying to become imitators of him as he imitates Christ
1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.
6 For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man;
9 for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man.
10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.
12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?
14 Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?
15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.
17 But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.
18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.
19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.
20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.
22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
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Galatians 2:20
quoted as Paul saying he has been crucified with Christ and it is no longer he who lives but Christ who lives in him
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
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Revelation 2
referenced as Jesus telling the church they have abandoned their first love and calling them to repent and do the works they did at first
1 “To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things:
2 “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.
3 You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
4 But I have this against you, that you left your first love.
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.
6 But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.
8 “To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: “The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:
9 “I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10 Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.
12 “To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:
13 “I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
15 So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans likewise.
16 Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
18 “To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
19 “I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
22 Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.
23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
24 But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you.
25 Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come.
26 He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.
27 He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father:
28 and I will give him the morning star.
29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
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Romans 8:1
quoted as a closing word of grace: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brad Yates brought the message this Sunday, teaching from John 15:5 while Ray was away. He focused on what it means for Jesus to be the vine and for us to be the branches, and what it looks like to actually live that out rather than hold back from it.
What was said
Brad opened by setting the scene in John 13-17, the farewell discourse where Jesus is gathered with his disciples at the last supper. Before arriving at the vine and branches passage, he pointed to four statements Jesus makes in chapter 14: that he is the only way to the Father, that believers will do the works he did, that loving him means keeping his commandments, and that the Holy Spirit will be sent to help. The vine and branches passage, Brad said, is Jesus expanding on those four claims in more detail.
The first point was simply that Jesus is the vine, not us. Brad used Genesis to establish that God is the creator and sustainer of everything, and that we were made by him and for him. The problem is that we do what Adam did. We claim the name of Jesus but hold back a percentage of our lives, whether that looks like attending church while hiding sin, staying quiet about faith to avoid being judged, managing money the world's way, or deciding to go it alone without the local church.
He tied that human tendency toward self-reliance to William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus and its famous line, "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." Brad noted that sociological research consistently identifies the modern Western United States as the most individualistic culture that has ever existed, and pointed to rising drug use, antidepressant use, and deaths of despair as some of the fruit that individualism is producing. He also raised the church's temptation to drift toward culture in the name of love and acceptance, and said the church cannot compromise truth and call it kindness.
On abiding, Brad drew on the Greek meaning of the word, which he described as continuing to dwell, to remain, to stand, an active waiting rather than a passive one. He was honest about his own tendency to rush his quiet times, to feel like he has too much to do to be still. He said that when he does root himself in the word and in prayer before diving into work or ministry, he gets just as much done, and does it with joy and for God rather than for himself. He named reading, prayer, worship, confession, discussion, and meditation as disciplines of desire, borrowing a phrase from Tim Keller, and described them as anything that increases your view of God and decreases your view of yourself.
Bearing fruit followed naturally from abiding, Brad said. As we become more like Christ through those disciplines, the natural outpouring is Christ-likeness. He used Paul's list from Galatians 5 to name the fruit of the Spirit, and then pointed to 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul calls believers to imitate him as he imitates Christ. He was clear that bearing fruit is not what saves us, but that a healthy branch cannot help but produce it. A Christian who has been walking with Jesus for a while and has no mechanism for actively bearing fruit, he said, may have forgotten how radical the gospel is and what they were saved from.
Brad closed by returning to the focus verse. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. The line of thought ran all the way through: Jesus is the vine, we abide in him, our hearts are changed, and then we go and do the work of the gospel. He reminded the room of Romans 8:1, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, so that the message would land as an invitation rather than a weight.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brad described ways we hold back a percentage of our lives from God, like staying quiet about our faith or managing our money on our own terms rather than God's. Where do you find yourself holding back, and what does that cost you?
- Brad said he grew up in Texas going to church the same way he went to Friday night football games, and it had about the same effect on his soul. What was the moment, or the season, when the gospel stopped being background noise and started making a real claim on your life?
and 3 more questions in the guide
