Pruning for Closeness

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Talk intro:
There is a purpose to everything that God does and that includes the things we don’t understand. It also includes the things we don’t like. When God prunes our life it’s not always pleasant at first, but when we submit ourselves to His skillful hands the result is always beneficial.

There are two primary reasons that God prunes us. The first reason is for spiritual fruitfulness. We need to remember that God’s pruning will prepare us for growth and an abundant life.

Last week we talked about how God prunes our life to make us more fruitful spiritually. It may seem unpleasant for the moment but the apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory, The weight of glory is fruitfulness.

The second reason goes hand in hand with the first. God prunes us for spiritual closeness.

Open your Bible’s to John 15:1-8.

What we saw in our skit was an illustration of this purpose of pruning in our life. I think we can all agree that the more baggage we haul around with us the harder it is to have a close relationship with Jesus and with each other.

Keep in mind that the baggage we carry is often considered ‘bad’ stuff but it can also be what we would consider ‘good’ stuff. We touched on this a little last week but if your ‘success’ in ministry makes you too busy to spend time with Jesus or other people then that good thing is really not so good, right?

In John 15:1-8 there’s a connection between pruning, abiding, and fruitfulness and it’s not a coincidence that abiding is right in the middle of them. Pruning makes it possible for us to abide in Jesus and pruning and abiding makes it possible for us to be fruitful.

Let’s take a closer look at that word ‘abiding’ the Greek word in this context can mean to be held or to remain as one. So when we abide in Jesus we are being held in place and we become one with Him. We also become one with every other branch that’s connected to the vine.

Our spiritual growth depends on abiding in Jesus and is enhanced by abiding with each other. By its very nature abiding with Jesus will place us in relationships where we are abiding with each other. That’s not some afterthought on God’s part by the way. It’s the way He has designed it to work.

In Philemon 1:6 it says I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

When we share our life of faith together it results in a more complete understanding of Christ.

When God prunes us two great things happen, we can draw closer in our relationship with Jesus and it makes more room in our life for each other. When that happens we grow spiritually and more fruitful in God’s kingdom.

I want you to imagine two tomato plants. The first one has one branch on the vine and the second one has several branches on the vine. Which plant will produce more fruit? The one with the most branches will.

Now at the risk of pushing this metaphor too far what do you think will happen if one of the branches on the fruitful tomato plant grows a lot more fruit than all of the others? The farmer will prune that branch so that the other branches can be more productive.

Remember what I said last week:

The Bible tells us that the lack of pruning is a sign of God’s judgment, and….

Success in God’s kingdom isn’t measured by who has the most stuff but by who is pruned the most.

When you feel the sharp, surgical application of God’s pruning hook in your life make sure to remind yourself that what God prunes away will be replaced by a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.