Well, hey, everyone family. Happy last weekend of the year 2025. If we have another name, it's Carlos and a service part of the pastoral team here at Lake Point. And I'm grateful today we get to gather online, worship together and open up the word of God together from different homes, neighborhoods, city, states and countries. And let me start by sharing this story with you. I grew up playing all kinds of sports in my life, but a while back, a friend of mine invited me to play this sport that I've actually never played before, like ever. And he said, would you like to go play pickleball? And I said, one, that's a funny name for a sport I've never heard of. And two, I've obviously never played before, but I'm always happy to learn something new. And I find that, if you don't know, this sport is like if tennis and ping pong had a baby, that's pickleball. And when you play it, you find out quickly, looks can be deceiving. Like in my first couple of games, I played against this sweet lady who is more advanced in years than I am. And on the outside, she seemed very friendly and kind, but on the inside, she turned out to be a pickleball monster, who just wanted to crush me. And she absolutely did. And you know, I'm there. I'm learning all the rules. How do you keep score? And I can't tell if people are going easy on me, out of pity. I'm not sure. And I'm basically losing all my first few games. And so here's what you need to know about me. I'm actually a very competitive person. I don't just like to play for fun. I actually like to play to win. And so some people get discouraged when they lose that game, so that they just started learning. But I don't get discouraged. I get motivated. And so I'm like, let's go. I'm here to learn. I'm asking, what do I need to do to get better? I'm thinking I'm new to this game. I am aware. I'm not there yet. I'm not at the level of these professional, pickable, Olympic champions that look like normal people. I'm not there yet, but I can get there. And so here's what I'm asking. What do I need to do differently to get to where I want to get? And I start there because we're about to enter a new year, a new season. And what most of us are thinking about is change. There is a destination that I want to get to. There are new targets. I want to hit. There are areas in my life that I know I need to grow in. And so we look ahead and we say things like, I want to have a new year, new me, new habits. I want to see change in my life. And we do this because we all feel this gap between who we are today and who we want to become tomorrow. And today, what we're going to do is we're going to hear from Jesus and how do you get there? How do you actually see real change in your life? How do you move towards becoming the person God wants you to become? And Jesus is about to tell us how. And if you do what he says, you can actually have, listen to this, your most fruitful year of your life yet. And so if you got your Bible, it's got a John chapter 15. Let me give you a little context before we dive in. Just like you and I are lightly having meals with family for the holidays. Jesus just had his last supper with his disciples. He has not been arrested yet, but he is on his way towards the garden and I've got so many. And some scholars actually believe Jesus is literally walking through an area filled with grapevines, something like this. And Jesus, as the master teacher that he is, he takes advantage of his surroundings to teach his disciples a lesson before he's arrested and taken through the cross. And because Jesus is about to be taken, he wants to equip his disciples for this new season. And I believe this is what Jesus wants us to know in this moment to prepare us for this new season as we start a new year. John chapter 15, verse one through four, this is what he says. I am the true vine. And my father is the vindresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. And so we'll briefly unpack this text and we'll learn two lessons from Jesus. Here's the first one. In this new season, make sure you pick the right vine for your life. Many people don't know this, but at the time of Jesus, the temple in Jerusalem had a massive golden vine carved above the entrance to the holy place. Now we don't have an actual photo, unfortunately, but here's what it could have looked like. And the reason they had this is it reminded everybody that the temple was where the presence of God was. That was the source of life, power, blessing for God's chosen people. But here comes Jesus and he doesn't say, I am a vine, Jesus says, I am the true vine. In other words, he was selling his disciples the place where you thought you would find your identity, your power, your joy, your blessing. You thought it was the temple, but it's not. It's actually in me. Now this would have been extremely radical claim made by Jesus. And so let me ask you this, what is your functional vine in your life in this season? What's that thing that you draw identity from? You rely on it as a source of meaning, stability, hope. You see, what happens is whatever our vine is, we give our devotion to it because we think that if we abide or remain in it, then it will give us the fruit we want. For example, some people, they might see work and career and success as their vine. And so they'll think if only I abide or remain in my work, if only my business took off or if my ministry finally grew to what I wanted to be, then I will see the fruit of self-worth validation and fulfillment in my life. Other people might see relationships as their vine. And so those say, man, if my children finally behave, the way I want them to behave, or if only my spouse would become who I want them to become, or if other people just perceived me, the way I want them to perceive me, then I might be able to see the fruit of acceptance and love and stability in my life. And we could say the same about the vine of control, the vine of pleasure, the vine of recognition and more. And so the question this year is not whether you will remain or abide in the vine, but the question is, which vine are you going to abide in? Jesus says, I am the true vine. And only I can give you the identity, the meaning, the joy, the hope, and the life you ultimately want. So that's this first lesson and make sure you pick the right vine. And so here's the second one. Let's keep reading, John chapter 15 verse five. This is what he says, I am the vine. You are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And so here's the second lesson from Jesus. He is saying, hey, to bear fruit in your life, you don't need to strive, you need to abide. Jesus uses this word abide 11 times here, and it's his word for intimacy. And friendship. I have this branch here. And so this is what Jesus is saying. He's saying, this right here is you. And a new year is coming and we're all in some ways, trying to figure out different ways we can bear fruit through our own effort and strategy and our own capacity. And so to be fruitful, to see change, to see growth in our lives, we say, man, I'm gonna try really hard in this season to change. And so what we do is we try to basically manufacture the fruit in our lives. And so we say, man, this year, if only I, if only I fill my schedule with more activities because I think busyness equals faithfulness, maybe I can bear some fruit, or maybe if I look a certain way, or if I follow a certain diet, or maybe if only I follow that influencer, I might be able to bear fruit. And if I do all the Christian things apart from the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, then maybe I will be able to bear fruit. And hey, if we're honest, we try to do this. And at first, it might seem like it works. We'll say, look, I'm bearing fruit. It's working, but the reality is that's not bearing fruit because one, that's not how fruit works. And two, this fruit right here will not last. Like if I just leave this fruit here on this branch, that is not really connected to the tree. The fruit will eventually rot, the branch will rot, which is what happens when we try to force or our fruit in our life in our own effort apart from God. And so here's what you need to know. God is not interested in superficial fruit in your life. He is interested in supernatural fruit in your life. This is why Jesus says plainly, he says, if you are not connected to me, we simply will bear no fruit. You have to be connected to Jesus. You have to stay connected to the vine. And so Jesus says that again in John chapter 15, verse eight, here's what he says, By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples. And if you think about how fruit works, it's honestly, it's just amazing. In our culture, we value efficiency, speed, technique, we want things here now. We like Amazon Prime, St. David, delivery. But when it comes to fruit, you can't just make this happen. We don't think about this because we get our fruit from Aldi or Kruger, or if you don't mind spending a little extra at Whole Foods, also known as Whole Paychecks. And if we run out of fruit at home, where we just go back to the store, we pick it up and we're good. But in reality, for this fruit to exist, it was not forced or hacked, all it had to do to just appear was literally stay connected to the branch. And that's it. As long as it's connected to the right branch, fruit just naturally happens. And so Jesus here tells us that the way to fill the gap between who we are and who God has called us to be, the way to grow in our character, to be effective in our calling, to be impactful with our lives, is simply to remain connected to Him. And so we said two lessons from Jesus for us today. Number one, pick the right vine. And number two, to bear fruit, you don't need to strive, you need to abide. Okay, great. And if you're here and you're asking me, oh, but how, how do I abide in Christ in this new season? Let me share with you three brief things that you must have on a day-to-day basis to abide in Christ. And if you can write these down, if you're taking notes, you need the principles of God, the presence of God and the people of God. Let me say a quick word on these. First thing, you need the principles of God in your life. And you find those in scripture. Psalm chapter one says this, verse one says, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. Listen, he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not weather in all he does, he prospers. You cannot bear the fruit of God and have a life devoid of the word of God. And we need the word every single day. One thing that's helpful to me in this area is that I choose scripture before screens every single day. And so before I text, before I jump on emails, before I go on social media every morning, I want the first thing I feed my mind to be the word of God. Now, we're actually currently working with our creative teams to refresh our Lake Point mobile app and launch very soon a daily Bible reading plan. So that as a church, we can be reading the same thing every single day. So stay tuned for that. And in the meantime, if you haven't downloaded our Lake Point app, you can text a word app to 20411 to be the first ones to get access to the new Bible reading plan coming soon once it's available. Second thing, we not only need the principles of God, we also need the presence of God. That's prayer. This is finding and prioritizing time every day to be alone with God in prayer. I love what Pastor John Piper said about prayer once. He said prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. Lake Point family, you and I are in the middle of a war. And you are part of the mission of God against the powers of darkness and unbelief. And God has plans and purposes for our church and for your life. And I don't want you to miss out or be unprepared. Now more than ever, we need to be people of prayer. In fact, in January, what we are doing as a church is we are devoting this first month of the year to be a season of prayer where we pray for the Spirit of God daily to be poured upon our church. And on January 21st, we'll gather collectively as a church to pray, to worship and invite the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And by the way, we're expecting this gathering to be a night of healing, power, and breakthrough for literally thousands of people. And so we need the principles of God. And we also need the presence of God and third. We also need the people of God. That's our community. When you read the New Testament, there is not one example of an isolated Christian. And the way we grow in our discipleship is through relationships. This is very practical. We want to help you with this. The best way to find your community here at Lake Point is through what we call root it. And root it is our 10 week discipleship experience designed to help you get connected with other believers, dive into the Bible and practice spiritual rhythms like prayer, generosity, service, and more. And our next session is launching this winter. And so to join, text the word root it to 20411. Now, we said we need the principles of God. That's the word. We need the presence of God. That's prayer. And then we also need the people of God. And that's community. Here's how I want you to see those things as we move into a new season. Let me explain it this way. Some years ago, I started getting into the habit of drinking tea. And in this season, I'm OK with less caffeine in my body. And tea actually has a decent amount of health benefits. So all in on tea, let me tell you how tea does not work. And so I got some hot water here. I'm going to pour it. Here's how tea does not work. I cannot say, if I were to ask you, would you like some tea? What I can't do is say, OK, dip it one time. And then say, here you go. This is not how tea works. Just because I dipped it once or even twice, it doesn't mean I'm going to fully get the change that I want to get in this beverage. This isn't tea yet. But if we're honest, this is exactly what we want to do with our relationship with God. We want to dip in the church once in a while and check the box and say, I'm good now. We want to dip in prayer for some minutes in the morning, maybe if at all, and calling good. We want to dip in and go to God only when we need Him to do something for us, or we wait until we feel like we're not busy enough to get in community. And if not, we're good. But if you really want this water to be transformed and to change, you can't dip the bag. Instead, you need to let it stay there. It needs to remain there. And then what happens is the flavor starts to change. And then a new color starts to emerge. And then the nutrients actually start to penetrate the water. And then in due time, this is no longer just water. But this right here is a very different type of beverage. And so listen, when you commit your life to remaining in Christ, to abide in Him, to keep the principles of God in the Word, to dwell in the presence of God in prayer, to stay surrounded by the people of God in community. Your life will absolutely change. And Jesus guarantees you will bear much, much fruit for the glory of God, for others good, and for your joy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you because you're inviting every single one of us to abide in you in this new season. Today I pray that as we move towards a new year, in this new season, we may bear more supernatural fruit than we've ever seen as a church in our lives, in our family, in our work, in our nation, and in everything that we do. May you have your way in us. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
