Oct. 06, 2024

Background:

• From Part 1:

1.   Praying according to the will of God
2. Praying in the name of Jesus
3. Praying in faith, not wavering

• From Part 2:

  4. Persistence in prayer

  5. Being specific in prayer

  6. Praying in humility

• From Part 3:

  7. Praying in the Spirit

  8. Praying for others

  9. Waiting on God

• Jesus is the True Vine
• I AM identifies with God
• Israel was depicted as a vine plant, but the nation proved to be unfit, unfaithful, and unfruitful...now Jesus presents himself as the True Vine
• It is important for us to understand that Jesus always used agriculture because the people understood agriculture
• God's goal for every Christian is to increase/multiply
• The progression is from no fruit to some fruit to more fruit to much fruit
• We are positioned in the Kingdom, but we still have more work
• Our walk should be no fruit to some fruit to more fruit to much fruit...we need to produce

Key Sermon Points:

10. Abiding in Christ

• To abide means to remain
• In our daily walk, we must stay in an intimate fellowship with the Lord
• A branch abides in the vine by drawing all of its nutrients from the vine
• Our nutrients can only come from Christ by spending time with him in prayer and in his Word
• We must ask: Am I studying God's Word, praying, and being obedient to God's Word
• Through his Word we get to know him
• Through prayer we get to talk to him
• None of us is an island by ourselves...we need fellowship
• Abiding is the secret of a successful prayer life
• The closer we get to the Lord, the more we will learn to think and speak like him...and not to be critical of others or talk about others...but encourage others
• We will get to know his will through his Word
• There is always a blessing in reading God's Word
• God wants us to produce much fruit by abiding in Christ
• We need Christ in us
• Jesus gives as a means of getting our prayers answered:
  • We must abide in Him
  • We must let his Word abide in us
• The character of a fruit tree is that it produces fruit...not only for itself, but for others
• When we abide in Christ, we will care about others
• Without Christ, we can do nothing

11. Thankful and praise

• We ought to have the attitude of gratitude and be thankful
• Obedience to the Word brings blessings
• Sometimes we miss our blessings because we try to question what he says
• Two elements of effective prayer life:
  • Thanksgiving: lifts us up out of the despair of darkness and discouragement
  • Praise: focus our hearts on God
• Too often we don't cry out to God
• Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World
• The key to come out of things is to praise
• God is still keeping us no matter what is going on around us
• One of the ways to reject God is to forget to praise God
• We need to thank God for everything even if He didn't bless us
• Only one of the lepers turned around to thank Christ for what he did for him: He said thank you to the Master
• He was the only foreigner among the Jews that said Thank You...the rest were unthankful
• Whatever God does (and what he doesn't do), he deserves our thanks
• We must come with the attitude of gratitude
• Praise leads us from individual worship to corporate worship
• We must appreciate ALL that God is and ALL that he has and will do for us
• We need to anticipate the blessings