Ron Dunn Podcast - Campus Crusade Training - Three Characteristics of a Branch

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Ron leads a training for Campus Crusade staff and preaches out of John on the vine and the branches, showing us who the source is in our life.

Jesus says to his disciples and to you and to me, as I am the vine, 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. Now ye are purged through the word which I have spoken unto you. 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. And the way Jesus repeats that, and if you're reading, you'll notice that the word

are is in italics, which means it's not a part of the Greek text. Jesus says, I am the vine, you branch. He says that twice. I think what Jesus is saying is, listen, I'm the vine. I'm the life. I'm the source. I'm the producer. You're just I'm the producer you're just a branch you stick to your business let me stick to mine remember I am the vine and you are the branch and the responsibility

is upon me you remember that I am the vine ye branches he that abideth in me, and I in him the same, bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so shall you prove yourselves to be my disciples. Now there are three basic invitations that Jesus gives to every man. I'm confident that everyone in this building this morning has heard and heeded the first two invitations. It may be that we have not heard and heeded the third invitation. The first invitation that Jesus gives to a man is, come unto me for pardon, for peace, for rest, for salvation. Come unto me. Then there's a second invitation when he says, follow me. After we have come to Jesus, we are to follow Him. To follow Him in service, to follow Him bearing our cross,

to follow Him in discipleship. Come unto me, follow me. And as I said, I'm certain that most of us, if not all of us here, have answered those first two invitations. The third invitation is, abide in me. And really, when you take those three invitations, you have there the entire scope of the Christian life. Come unto me. Follow me.

Abide in me. Each one grows out of the previous. Each one indicating a deeper and more intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus. The deepest, the climax of it all is the last one, abide in me. The words he spoke to his disciples just before going to the cross, abide in me. Now there is a sense in which every person already is abiding in Jesus, just as there is a sense in which every person has already found the Lord and yet he is still the seeking. Just as every Christian already knows the Lord Jesus,

but still he is learning to knowing. And there is that truth and that sense that all of us positionally, theologically, doctrinally are in Christ Jesus and He is in us. But Jesus is speaking to people who already are in Christ, who already have come to Him. He is saying to them, abide in Me. Abide in Me. Now notice He doesn't say abide with Me. It's not a matter of coming to me for companionship and walking with

me and letting me walk with you. It's not a matter of companionship. Jesus is saying, live in me. Live in me. For instance, Colossians 2, 6 and 7 says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. If you go back to the Old Testament, you'll find it was walking with the Lord. New Testament, it's walking in the Lord. And there's a lot of difference. Well, that's a strange phrase. Who ever heard about walking in somebody?

You can walk with somebody. You can walk over somebody. But who ever heard of walking in somebody? What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying, I want you to be totally immersed in me. I want to be your total environment. I want to be the air that you breathe, the world that you live in. I want you to find from me everything you need.

I want you to live in me as a fish lives in water. I want you to live in me. I want you to find everything you need and everything you are in me. I am to be your world. I am to be the atmosphere. I'm to be the ocean into which you're immersed. I'm to be the air that you breathe. Live in me. Come unto me. Follow me. Stay with me. Live in me. Jesus isn't saying that we're to come to him, you know, for a fill up and an injection of new strength so we can go out and serve him. That's not what he's saying at all. And I think this is the way that we have thought of Jesus so often. We recognize, every one of us this morning recognizes that we need the Lord Jesus if we're

going to minister. Lord, I can't do it without you. But the trouble is that we somehow have the idea that we come to the Lord Jesus as you'll drive into a filling station and say, Lord, fill it up or give me a dollar's worth, all depending upon the magnitude of the task that you're facing. And then, okay, Lord, thank you for that new charge. Thank you for that new shot. Thank you for that new fill up. And here I go out to serve you, Lord. And when I run out and run dry, I'll be back. Many times when it speaks about the power of the Lord that worketh in us, that word is dunamis, as you know. And you've heard people say we get our word dynamite from that.

You know, the gospel is dynamite and the Lord is dynamite. Well, actually, I think most of us have experienced that dynamite and the Lord is dynamite? Well, actually, I think most of us have experienced that dynamite. You know what dynamite does, don't you? Makes a lot of noise, stirs up a lot of dust, and it's over in just a minute. And I think so many of our Christian lives, both in full-time service and out of full-time service, are typified by dynamite Christian. Man, they make a lot of noise. It's a loud explosion. They raise a lot of dust, and it's over in a little bit, and it's pretty hard to find the pieces. We not only get the word dynamite from that Greek word, we get another word. It's

dynamo, and that is a continual source of energy. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's not a stick of dynamite that gives you a charge once in a while and does a little blasting here and there. He is a dynamo. He is a continual source of energy. And so Jesus said, I want you to abide in me. I want you to live in me. I want you to live the life of a branch.

You know, I was thinking yesterday, that must be a pretty good deal. I took a poll of branches not long ago, interviewed as many as I could. I discovered something. Of all the branches that I interviewed, I found not a one had an ulcer. Not a one of them was on tranquilizers. Not a one of them was uptight and apprehensive. Not a one of them was physically worn out and mentally fatigued. Not a one of them was contemplating giving up the vineyard. I said to these branches, I said, man, what is the secret? What is the secret?

They said, we've just learned to abide. As I said yesterday and labored the point, and I want to labor it again, you know, most preaching really is telling people what they already know, but haven't done anything about. The tremendous truth that Jesus is illustrating in this passage is that the responsibility of production, of fruitfulness is upon Him. Have you ever seen a branch struggle and sweat and strain and complain and worry and get uptight? Not at all.

Because He understands the responsibility of production, of results, of success is upon the vine. And he simply does what? He simply abides. He just is there. You say, well, now, Ron, you're talking about passivity. You're talking about just sitting down, doing nothing and saying the Lord is going to do it all.

And this concept of the Christian life, and please don't call this a concept of the Christian life. It's not a concept. It is the Christian life. This isn't an aside. This isn't an emphasis. This is the Christian life. The Christian life is simply Christ living his life through you.

But you say, if I come to this and what you're advocating, this is going to make a pacifist out of people. It's going to make them where they're never going to work, never going to serve. They're just going to sit around and say, I'm abiding. Well, now, if you think that, then you haven't yet seen the truth that I'm trying to preach to you. Jesus Christ said, I do nothing of myself. It's the Father that does it in me. Jesus simply abode in the Father. He lived in the Father. But I don't know of a man who was more busy than Jesus was.

The Apostle Paul understood this. But I don't know of anybody that was busier than the Apostle Paul was. No, I tell you what abiding does, it gives you rest. It's not inactivity. If you'll check out those words that are translated rest in the New Testament that speaks about the rest that the Lord gives us, you'll find that it never means idleness. It never means inactivity.

You know what the word means? It is a Greek word that was used of releasing a tight bowstring. It means the releasing of tension. Now that's rest. And a man can work and work and work physically and wear himself out physically and be exhausted physically and still be at rest.

Why? There's no tension. There's no tautness. There's no uptightness. He doesn't move into panic palace when an interview fails or something goes wrong. Why? Because he's abiding in the vine. And more than anything else this morning, you and I must learn how to abide, how to

live the life of a branch. And it starts with a decision to do it. Say, all right, Lord, I see this is the truth. I'm going to do it. And then we spend the rest of our lives learning how. It's a gradual process of just learning. I want to share with you this morning what I consider to be the three characteristics of a branch. If we're going to live the life of a branch, if we're going to learn to abide in Jesus, I think there are three essential qualifications or characteristics of it. And it just occurred to me

yesterday afternoon as I was studying that these same characteristics of a branch abiding in the vine are the very same three characteristics that Jesus had towards his heavenly father. Yesterday when I shared with you the idea of the principle by which Jesus lived and by which he ministered, his relationship to the father, the same three characteristics that were in Jesus' life as he lived by this principle are the same three characteristics of living a life of a branch or abiding in Jesus. The first one is this. There must be a confession of our own inadequacy, a confession of our own inadequacy. A confession of our own inadequacy. A confession of our inability. A confession of our weakness.

Jesus says in the fourth verse, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more, 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, you can't do much. That's not what it says. Jesus doesn't say, without me, you can't do much. Jesus doesn't say, without me, you can do a little bit, but you really can't do a whole lot. Jesus says, without me, ye can do nothing. You know what nothing is? That's a zero with the rim kicked off. He says without me, you can do nothing. Jesus lived by the same principle. The beginning of his power and of his fruitfulness was this confession before the Father.

He said, I can of myself do nothing. Now, with Jesus, it was voluntary. With us, it isn't. Ye can do nothing. Nothing. But I hear somebody say, oh, I have done something. Listen, please. I didn't say, and Jesus doesn't say that unless you abide in Him, you can't have decisions.

He didn't say that. He said you can't have fruit. And please do not mistake work for fruit. You see, work is something that man produces. Only God can produce fruit. It's interesting to note that in Galatians chapter 5, it speaks of works as a product of the flesh, but it speaks of fruit as a product of the Spirit. There can be much work and much activity, but no fruit. Jesus said, without me, ye can do nothing.

Now, it may look like something in your eyes or in the eyes of the world, but Jesus says, unless it is really my producing, unless it is really my work through your human availability, He said, you can do nothing without me. Absolutely nothing. I want to share with you a passage of Scripture that you're familiar with in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I think you have a tremendous picture of the Christian life here again in this third chapter of 1 Corinthians.

Let me pick up at verse 10. Paul says, According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Now, Paul is saying this is what it's like. When a man is saved, God lays a foundation. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

Now, the foundation isn't the whole building. If you're going to build a house, and you contract a man to build a house, and he starts on Monday, and on Friday he comes in, he says, Hey, I'm through with your house, pay me. And you say, man, that's quick. I mean, look at it. You go out there and you don't see anything. All you see is a foundation. And you say to him, listen, sir, I don't mean to tell you your business. I know I'm preaching and preachers are supposed to stick to their own business, but really I don't see a house there. All I see is a foundation. He says, well, that's all there is to a house is just a foundation. Once you've laid the foundation, you've laid it all. No, that's not so. Listen, once you lay the foundation, the foundation is just to enable

you to build a house and you can't stop once the foundation is laid and walk off from it and say it's done. And yet I know many Christians who feel like the foundation, that's it, that's the whole thing. They walk off from it. Paul says God lays the foundation. Now notice this, God lays the foundation, but you build. And you better watch out how you build. He says take heed. Take heed.

It is your responsibility to upon that foundation of Jesus Christ to erect a superstructure of Christian living. But you'd better watch out how you build. He goes on in the 11th verse and says, For another foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, or stubble. Now, there are two qualities, two kinds of materials available to us in building our Christian life. One is described by gold, silver, and precious stone. That's one kind of building material.

The other kind of building material is that second triplet, which is designated as wood, hay, and stubble. Now, he says, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what size it is. If it... wait. No, I'm sorry, I read that wrong. He doesn't say he'll try every man's work of what size it is. He says he'll try every man's work of what sort it is. Huh. I certainly

would have thought that the Lord would have been interested in the size of my work. I wonder what that means in the Greek. I'll tell you what it means in the Greek. It means the same thing. New American Standard translates it like this, of the quality. Hey, how about that? Did you know that in heaven's scales, sore outweighs size, quality outweighs quantity? Have you ever considered the fact that you can't impress God with size? I mean, the Lord who made this expanding universe, you couldn't even begin to count the numbers of stars in the skies. That'd been impossibility. Can you think that you can impress God with size?

There's only one thing God is impressed with, and that's not size, that's sort, quality, the kind. Now he says, if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall what? Suffer loss. His salvation will be reduced to a minimum. He shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

Saved but singed. And of course the picture that the Apostle Paul is painting here is a fellow who's in his house, and suddenly the house bursts into flames, and somebody beats on the door and wakes him up, and he wraps the sheet around him, jumps out of bed, runs out of the house. He stands there. He himself is saved.

His life is spared, but he watches while his total life's work and accumulation goes up in smoke. Paul says, that's what I'm talking about. And you know the one thing that scares me more than anything else? I'd say the one most terrifying thought of a ministry. You know, I imagine sometimes I'm at this judgment seat. I want to take a little liberty here. I want to pretend that Alan Nagel and I are at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, I started preaching when I was 15. I pastored my first church when I was 17.

And Alan, you know, Johnny come lately, you know. I mean, he hasn't been in the work nearly as long as I have so I'm standing there at the judgment seat and Alan's standing beside me and you know man I can hardly wait to get up there to the Lord have him read out my works you know and reward me and I'm looking around for my stack of works and I go there, there it is

man you talk about a Mount Ephesus man I knew I had done a lot for the Lord, but I didn't know I'd done that much. Good night. I wish I could cut in front of somebody. I'm so anxious to get up there. I'm so anxious to get up there and have the Lord read out my name

and read out all those works. I turned to Alan and I said, Hey, Alan, there's my stack of works. Where's yours? Hmm? Oh, yeah. Yeah, your name card almost hides it. Well, you know, the main thing is that you made it, boy. I mean, you know, that's the main thing. I mean, you're saved, and that's the main thing. Boy, the line begins to diminish, and I get closer and closer to that judgment seat, and finally, boy, it's time for me to appear before the Lord at the bema.

But the closer I get, I begin to notice something. I begin to notice that that's a big haystack. And it's made up of wood, hay, and stubble. And I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, Now, I want to test your work to see of what sort it is. I said, Lord, how about size? I mean, you know, he said, I'm not interested in size. I'm interested in sort.

And he takes a match and strikes it on the rock of omnipotence, and it comes to fire. And he says, now, we'll test your work of the quality. Fellas, you know what happens when you put fire to a haystack? And all you have left is ashes. Now I want to tell you something. I know, surely as I'm standing here this morning, that someday when I stand before the beam, that a large part of my ministry

will go up in smoke. You say, what about the people that were saved through that ministry? That's beside the point. They're saved. He's speaking here about my own reward, about my own well-done, good and faithful servant. Because, you see, so much of my ministry has been in the energy of the flesh, what I could do.

And that's what Paul is contrasting, by the way, in 1 Corinthians 3. He's contrasting that Christian who works and lives in the power of the Spirit and that one who works and lives in the power of the flesh. And I tell you something, everything that you do without abiding in Jesus, everything that Jesus does not do through you constitutes wood, hay, and stubble. And I tell you something, fellows, some churches that are being built today are nothing more than haystacks. And there is an all probability that some of us may have our entire ministry go up in smoke when we stand at the beamer. You see, there are only two kinds of energy, only two kinds of good, human good and divine good. And God must reject all human good because the Bible says,

The flesh cannot please God. The flesh is unprofitable Bible says that in the flesh cannot please God. The flesh is unprofitable. The flesh is an enmity with God. God cannot accept anything, anything that man does, or else he would not have sent Jesus Christ to save you. That's what grace is all about. And you're not only saved by grace, you live by grace. And everything that you and I have done in the energy of the flesh,

it has been human good, it has been good, no doubt about it, it has been work, it has been successful, but it has been done in the energy of the flesh without that constant abiding dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll go up in smoke on the day of judgment. And when we come to Alan's little stack, it's small, but I noticed something, it's a little stack of gold and silver and precious stones. And you know what happens when you put fire to that? Just makes it better.

That's how you make it. That's how you refine it. That's how you purify it with fire. Fire cannot destroy it. He shall be saved, yet so is by fire. You see, what Jesus is saying is this. He said, without me, you can do nothing, and I mean nothing. It's nothing.

He said, now, when you go out and I am producing and you're the branch, your fruit will what? Remain. It'll be permanent when you meet it again at the judgment seat of Christ. It'll be permanent. It'll remain. Now, let me just hasten to say, this doesn't mean that you ought not to try to improve yourself. This doesn't mean that the branch ought not to be made healthy

and strong and attractive. It doesn't mean that you ought not to prepare yourself and to study and to improve yourself everywhere you can. But remember, once you've done that, all that you've done, you're still just a branch. You're nothing more than a branch. You can take a branch, you can educate it, you can enlighten it, you can sophisticate it, you can put anything on it, you can paint it different colors, you can improve it every way, but it's still just a branch. And unless it has a vital, consistent abiding in the vine, it can do nothing. So the first thing must be a confession of our own inability, of our own inadequacy. All right, the second thing that is necessary to living the life of a branch is not only a confession, but also communication or communion.

It is necessary, it is necessary for that branch to stay in constant contact with the vine. The lines of communication must be, must be kept open. You remember what we read yesterday in John chapter 5, verses 19 and 20? Jesus said, and to me this is a tremendous revelation of the principle by which Jesus lived. He said, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees his father do. And he says, I look into heaven, and when I see what my father's doing, then I can do it. I speak nothing of myself, but the words that I speak, they're from the father. The father speaks, and I speak.

And by the way, that's the way the Holy Spirit operates. Jesus said in John chapter 16, the Holy Spirit shall not speak out of himself, but what he shall overhear, that shall he speak. There's a beautiful unity in the Godhead, all of them living in dependence upon each other. Jesus said, I see what my father's doing first, and then I do it. I must keep the lines of communication open. That's why Jesus spent so much, so much, so much time in prayer. You say, I don't have time. Can you imagine a branch that's too busy bearing fruit to have time to swim with the vine? Now listen, it is the life that you do not see that determines the life that you do see. The foundation of a building determines how high that building can go and how stable it is. What you do not see is the strength of that building. What is invisible is the real strength of that building.

Most of us would like to be that man in Psalm 1. In the third verse it says, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringeth forth his fruit in this season, his leaves shall not wither, and get this. And whatever he does, he'll be successful at it. But you can't start at verse 3. You've got to back up.

The preceding verse says, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth He meditate day and night. There's the root. There's the roots. You see, I stand outside, and I look at this beautiful, beautiful tree, this strong, beautiful, fruitful tree, and I say, where does it get its strength?

It gets its strength in private in hidden. That which you do not see is where its strength is. Underground the hidden life, the roots, the nourishment the amount of fruitfulness that a vine is able to bear

is dependent upon what you cannot see the hidden life. It's union with the vine and that invisible sap flowing through it. And I tell you, fellows, the success of your life and fruitfulness is going to depend upon what we do not see. Never judge a man's spirituality by what you see of him. You judge it also by what you do not see of him because Robert Murray McShane said what a man is in his prayer closet is what he is. And you're no more closer to the Lord Jesus Christ in public than you are in prayer.

The secret and the source of all strength is simply this, that we recognize it is the hidden life, the underground life that produces the fruit. And so there must be constant abiding, constant communion. I must keep the lines of communication and communion open. This means that I must take regular time every day to get along with God.

Now, I want to stop preaching for a minute and just instruct, all right? I want to share with you, and several have asked, a suggestion about how this communion is and how we seek the Lord in prayer. And I'll just share with you the way I do it. It may not be the way you can do it. God will show you your own way, but it may be helpful to you.

But let me just share with you the way that I do it. And when I spoke the other morning on seeking the Lord and staying with the Lord until you meet Him, somebody said, how do you know when you've met Him? Well, that's a good question. It is. And I want to share with you how I know when I've met God, when God has met me. Now, I think you need to have a set time if possible. I think the early morning time is best, but some of us are sluggish until about three o'clock in the afternoon, whenever you're most alert. But you make certain that there is a time every day, there is a time every day that you get along with God.

Here's the way I usually start. I'm constantly reading through a book of the Bible or reading through the Bible itself. Right now, I've started again reading through the New Testament and I'm at about Matthew chapter 14, I believe. Matthew chapter 14 is where I am. All right, I come in the morning and I shut the door and I tell my secretary,

I don't want to be disturbed, and if any calls come in, I'll answer them at 12 o'clock. I begin like this. I just get down on my knees. I take a little stenographer's pad like this. I have on the front of it here, October the 1st, 1973 through, and then when I fill this up, I'll get another one. And so I usually begin maybe by reading a psalm or two, the 46th psalm or the 37th psalm or the 34th psalm or Isaiah 40, something that deals with the majesty and the power of God. And I usually begin just by getting

my heart in a frame of mind to worship and praise the Lord. Now, a lot of times my mind wanders out and goes over to the next street and my emotions go back home and go to bed. But I just have to keep constantly bringing them back. And my mind wanders, but I bring it back. And I bring it back. And I just begin to praise the Lord and thank Him. And I'll usually read through one of those Psalms out loud and just read it back to the Lord as a prayer.

And then I'll open to where I'm reading in my daily reading, and I'll take one chapter, and if it's a long chapter, just half a chapter. But I'll take that one chapter, and I'll read it through once, twice, two or three times, just to get the meaning, just to get the drift, just to get the feel of it. And then I pray, and I say, dear Lord, I want you just to open my eyes to this scripture and speak to me. You see, God speaks to us through his word. And then I begin to read and a thought comes to me. And I know I've met God when this happens. Suddenly there's conviction. And I'll write down immediately what it is God has dealt with me about.

Then there'll be illumination. I'll see a truth there I've not seen before. I'll write that down. There'll be some insight as to some act of obedience I ought to do, and I'll write that down. I know I'm meeting God then. When God begins to speak to me through His Word, when there's conviction of sin,

when there's illumination, when there's conviction of sin, when there's illumination, when there's new interpretation, when there is inspiration to obey, I know then that I'm meeting the Lord. And all of those things that He gives to me, I write down. And then after I feel like I've met God, and God has met me,

and I've gotten my mind and my emotion and my will and we're tracking, then I just begin to pray and intercede and go through whatever ideas I'm going to pray for that day and that morning. That's basically how I do it. It's just very simple. You'll find some of the greatest insights you ever get from the Word of God, from the Scripture, you'll get right there during that time alone with the Lord. Let me give you six or seven suggestions about Bible study just real quickly. First of all, you ought to study the Bible systematically.

I'm amazed at some people. They get a letter in the mail, they pick it up and start with page one, paragraph one, sentence one, word one. They'll go and buy a novel, they'll pick it up and they'll open to page 1, paragraph 1, sentence 1, word 1. They'll go and buy a novel, they'll pick it up, and they'll open to page 1, start with paragraph 1, sentence 1, word 1. They'll open the Bible to the book of Philippians, they'll start with page 4, paragraph 3, sentence 2, and word 1. And then they'll understand why they can't understand the Bible. I think you ought to study the Bible systematically. Start at the first of a book and go through. There are letters written.

Study the Bible systematically. Number two, study the Bible regularly. You have a regular time. Don't let anything deprive you of that. Do not let anything deprive you of that. Now listen, you're going to have to learn to say no if you're going to have time. Number three, study the Bible with variety. Use different translations. I've found I'll be reading one translation and it just won't break through. I just can't really grasp what the author is saying. I can pick up another two translations and they'll just be the way they word it and suddenly the light will shine and it'll just open up to me. Read it with variety. Number four, read the Bible alertly. I've already alluded to this. Most people I know, they wait until just before they're ready to go to bed to read the Bible. And I know some that go to sleep while they're reading. Read the Bible

alertly. Whenever you're the most alert. If you're most alert in the morning, read it in the morning. If you're most alert at noon, read it then. Find the time. Some of us, I like myself, I'm most alert. And by the way, I want you to know that there is no place on this campus where you can buy a coat between the hours of 2 and 4 a.m. in the morning. Because I tried. I sometimes am most alert between the hours of two and four. I just, you know, can't sleep a lot of times. And man, my mind just going in every which direction. And I do some of my best studying and praying between the hours of two and four. Whenever you're most alert, alertly. All right. Read the Bible prayerfully. Always pray that God will illuminate your heart and mind through the Word that day. Read the Bible expectantly.

Expect God to give you something to live by that day. You know, I find the Lord seldom disappoints me. He usually gives me exactly what I'm looking for. And number seven, I believe it is, read the Bible obediently. And that is the most important because if there is a point at which when you're reading the Bible, God says, I want you to do this, you fail to obey. That's when your fellowship with God stops. All right, let me finish this.

I'm going to run over just a minute, but let me finish this. If I'm going to learn over just a minute, but let me finish this. If I'm going to learn to abide in Jesus Christ, there must first of all be a confession of my own inability. Secondly, there must be a communication, constant communication. The third thing is there must be a commitment, or we might call it the branch must be available. I mentioned yesterday we talked about the responsibility of the vine.

The responsibility of the vine, I repeat again and again, is to do the producing. The sole, the sole responsibility of the branch is to be available. To simply be available. To place itself at the disposal of that vine and say, I have no other reason to live except to let you bear your fruit through me. And I want to tell you something. If you and I will learn how to make that confession,

and we will learn how to communicate and commune with the Lord, and learn how daily to make ourselves available to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will see to it that you're fruitful. And I'm going to use a phrase that I have studied much about, and I'm still going to use it, but when a man or a woman is abiding in Jesus Christ, there will be spontaneous fruit. And the emphasis is on spontaneous, spontaneous, spontaneous. It is my firm conviction that God meant for our fruitfulness to come without sweat. And I'm not talking now about working hard, but I'm saying that there will be an effortless bearing of fruit. There will be spontaneous fruit.

As a good friend of mine says, if you are abiding in Jesus Christ, you'll have to backslide on God to keep from winning people to Jesus. And if you and I ever really learn how to abide, we won't have to worry about whether or not we're going to be fruitful. There will be spontaneous fruit. And I simply must say this morning that if there is not spontaneous fruit in your life, if there is not that spontaneity of fruitfulness in your life, it is a good indication you have not yet learned how to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Up until a few years ago, I used to worry about whether or not I had done enough for the Lord. I would come at the end of the day, and maybe I'd had one of those days, you know, the pastor's

run from and finally catches up with you when you have to do all of that non-spiritual stuff, you know, answering letters and administrating and stamping letters and all of that. And I remember many a time coming to bed at night and lying there and saying, Lord, I haven't even witnessed a single person today. I just was so busy doing these other things. And I used to wonder if I'd done enough for the Lord. And I used to worry about having not done enough for the Lord. When I came to MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in 1966,

it was a growing church in a growing town. The first six months I was there, I never took a day off. It was too much work to do, too much work to do, too much work to do. We'd have 40, 50, 60 people, new people visit on Sunday morning. I hadn't even seen everybody that visited last Sunday morning. And so I lived in a constant sweat, a constant rush. I've got to get it done. I've got to get it done. Folks, I want to tell you something.

God is not your responsibility. I wish I had time to go to Isaiah 46. We'll do that another time. But anyway, I used to worry whether or not I'd done enough for the Lord. I never had any time with my family. I just gave them the dregs of the cup. I gave them the smoke after the candle had burned up. I just never had time with wine.

The ministry, after all, God's called me to preach. And God comes first. And the ministry comes second. And whatever I have left over is yours. That's heresy. One night, I was laying in bed worrying because I was so far behind, hadn't done enough for the Lord. The next day I got up and I walked into the kitchen.

As I walked into the kitchen, I noticed the water faucet was looking a little bit sad, downcast and discouraged. Well, it had a defeated look on it. I stopped and I said, water faucet, what's the matter with you? And the water faucet said, well, I'm down. I'm really down because I know I failed you today, Master. I said, oh? He said, yes, sir. He said, I haven't washed your hands once.

I haven't quenched your thirst once. I haven't turned on for you once. I haven't done anything for you. And I know I've failed you. I said, I tried to turn on a couple of times and squeeze out a couple of drops, but it wasn't enough to mount anything. And I'm just downcast and discouraged and defeated because I've not done anything for you. And I know you're displeased with me.

I looked at that water faucet and I said, you dumb water faucet. I said, I've passed by you a hundred times today. If I wanted you to quench my thirst, I would have turned you on. If I had wanted you to wash my hands, I would have turned you on. Water faucet, I don't want you turning your cell phone. You'll just make a mess and waste a lot of water if I want you to turn it on I will turn you on

and I said water faucet I passed by here a hundred times a day and I've known you were there and I've known that if I had wanted you to quench my thirst all I had to do was touch and you'd respond if I had wanted you to quench my thirst, all I had to do was touch and you'd respond. If I had wanted you to wash my hands, all I had to do was touch and you'd respond. I said, Water Faucet, you have been a pleasure to me today because you have been available.

I just want you to be available. I do not measure your faithfulness by how much water you pour out in a day. I measure your faithfulness by your availability. You don't know what that did for me. I can come to the end of the day now, and I can say, Lord, I didn't do such and so today, but Lord, you know I was available. If you'd have wanted to use me in that way, you could have.

I'll tell you, such a peace, such a release. You know what I did? I took off a day. I came to that great discovery that no matter how much I work, I'm never going to catch up. I'll always be behind, so why worry about it? God is not my responsibility.

I'm God's responsibility. It's His work. It's His ministry. It is not God responsibility. I'm God's responsibility. It's His work. It's His ministry. It is not God first, the ministry second, and the family third. It is God first, the family second. Sometimes when they'll schedule a finance committee meeting, I say, I can't come. I'm promised this night to my family.

My primary responsibility after God is not to my church, it is to my family. Before I'm a preacher, I'm a husband. My first field of ministry is not the loss of Irving or the saints at MacArthur Boulevard, it's my wife and my three children. God first, the family second.

You will sin a great sin against God if you sacrifice your family on the altar of your ministry. Oh, it just released me and liberated me. Lord, here I am. I'm yours. I'm available. I'm committed to do one thing, and that's your will. Whatever you want to do with me today, you can. Anybody you want to bring my way, anybody you want to lead me to witness to, anybody you want to help me to get an appointment with, Lord, I'm yours. I'm available. I'm just a branch abiding in the vine.