Abounding Grace

Scene in between 1:41 to 2:49, 3:32 to 4:50, 5:08 to 5:46 and more is from the same speaker, Pastor Ed Taylor. His speech is broken into paragraphs for readability.

Pastor Ed Taylor: The place of fruitfulness, which is God's will for your life and mine, is in the vine, where the Father takes care of you. He knows what he's doing with your life. He knows the why and the how and the when and the what. The way that you have a peace that passes all understanding and enjoy life is to obediently abide in Christ.

Guest (Male): Welcome to another week of Abounding Grace online at aboundinggraceradio.com. Join us as we study through the Bible and learn of God's abounding grace. Right now we're enjoying a topical series from Pastor Ed Taylor called Greater. God is looking for greater things in your life in 2026. Part of that involves a greater abiding relationship with him. Here's Pastor Ed to tell us more from John chapter 15.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. We're in the middle of our series for the new year that we've entitled Greater. It's the Greek word megas, or where we get our English word mega. As we look into a new year, God is looking for greater, bigger, mega things in your life.

As I was praying, putting these studies together, we started out the first week with the title of the message, Greater Little by Little. It's counter-intuitive, I'm learning with this series of the topics that God has given me because we think, "Oh, greater, bigger, it's going to be amazing," but often the work of God is little by little, like with the children of Israel.

He didn't give them the land right away. He told them straight up, "I'm not giving it to you right away. You can't handle it. I'm going to prepare you for the work I have prepared for you." And as we enter into a new year in anticipating great things, we also need to remember it's God's timing, it's God's will, God's way.

Then we learned in our last study that God is going to lead us into greater faith. Why? Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. We studied through chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, the Hall of Fame. And I encouraged you, because we just read through it, but I encouraged you if you want greater faith, when we study through Hebrews, I took each individual in that chapter and we studied their life and how faith affected their life.

It will build you because what does the Bible say? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You'll never go wrong reading and studying the Bible. Today our topic is Greater Abiding. Greater Abiding. We're not going after and chasing greater things.

We're waiting on the Lord, renewing our strength, allowing him to do what he desires to do in our lives, staying put, which is what Jesus was teaching the disciples here in John 15. They're in between the upper room here on their way into the Garden of Gethsemane. If you'll go, if you're going to Israel with us at the end of the year, one of our stops is the Garden of Gethsemane.

There's actually two parts to it. There's the more public, busy part where you go in and see the church they built there and walk through a small little garden, but then we rent the private garden which is across the street. It's walled and very, very quiet considering how loud Jerusalem is. You have time to pray in the garden to seek the Lord.

They don't know how important the Garden of Gethsemane is yet. On their way to the garden, Jesus takes the opportunity while they're walking those dusty roads to teach them about the importance of abiding. Notice with me in John 15, in verse one he says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."

Verse five, "I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing." This part of instruction of Jesus, he uses very familiar language and pictures. He uses the vine. He declares himself to be the vine.

For the mind of the Jewish believer in the first century, they know exactly what he's talking about because often the Bible uses vine to describe the nation of Israel. If you're taking notes you can just jot it down, it's used in Isaiah chapter 5, it's used in Hosea chapter 10. Let me read to you in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 21.

It says, "Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of the highest quality. How then have you turned before me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?" God says through the prophet Jeremiah to the nation of Israel. God's desire for Israel is that they be fruitful. That was his desire.

That they bear much fruit that glorifies him, but instead over and over again we read of Israel forsaking God, jumping headlong into idolatry and rebellion. And with that in mind, Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, "I am the true vine." A very strong statement. "I'm the vine."

Notice what he says, he says, "I'm the true vine." You can circle that word and write next to it "real" or "authentic." In contrast to the nation of Israel, who was fruitless, rebellious, and empty, Jesus says once again, "I'm the true vine. I'm the fulfillment of the perfection God requires. I will be the one that is obedient, fruitful, and full of the will of God."

He's instructing his disciples at the same time not to trust in their heritage. Just because you're from Israel doesn't mean you're going to be fruitful. Not to trust in their religion as over and over again, Jesus says what? "You have heard it said, but I say to you. You have heard it said, but I say to you."

Can't you hear now in the 21st century that you can't trust in your heritage? You can't trust in the Christian heritage that's been handed down to you or your religious experience or even the works that you offer to God. You have to be in the vine. That's key. He says not only is he the true vine, but then he introduces us to the vinedresser.

He says, "My Father, my Dad, my Abba," the Hebrew, "is the vinedresser." Now we don't use the word vinedresser very much. Let me give you a word that will be very familiar to you. The NLT, the New Living Translation, translates this, "My Father is the gardener." It's like, oh, now I get it, gardener.

All you gardeners in the house are like, "Finally he's going to talk about what I'm into." Yes, you gardeners there. Our Father is the gardener. The Message paraphrase refers to him as the farmer, the tender of the land. Jesus is saying, "I'm the vine, and my Father, my Abba, is the one that takes care of me."

"My Abba is the one that tends the vine and cultivates the vineyard. He is the Father, my sufficiency. I am in him. He takes care of me. I'm the vine, and my Father makes sure everything is there for me to bear much fruit." Now these are difficult words to receive in a world that we live in that's filled with self-sufficiency, maybe even in your own heart, self-sufficient, taking great pride in all of your accomplishments and all that you've done, to hear that you need someone to take care of you, that you have someone to take care of you.

As we'll see in a moment, we have the vine, we have the vinedresser, but then we're introduced to the branches. He says in verse two, he says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he, the Father, takes away. But every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

The branch. Now we have the vine, Jesus, the gardener, the vinedresser, the Father. Who is the branch? You and me. It's a beautiful picture of a real relationship. Really we could say today that following Jesus into the new year is a lot like a garden. Left untended and uncared for, plants begin to die and weeds start to sprout.

The weeds, you don't need to cultivate them, you don't need to feed them, you don't even need to take care of them. Weeds have a tendency to grow by themselves with no care at all. They're just there and they take over. When springtime comes, I already know there's going to be a Saturday morning, Saturday morning, it's my day off.

There's going to be a Saturday morning when I hear the beautiful voice of Marie through the house and it sounds something like this, "Ed! It's time to go take up the weeds." And that's why I hide in the basement. It's much harder to hear her down in the basement. And that's what we're going to do most of all day Saturday before I come into service.

We're going to go out, we're going to get that little thing that's soft you can put your knees on. She's going to... we don't have a very big yard, but it always gets overtaken with weeds. She's going to start on one side, I'm going to start on the other, and after a few hours we're going to meet in the middle and I'm going to hate every single second of it because the weeds just...

And you know what's going to happen two weeks later? I'm going to hear that same beautiful voice say that they're back. They're back, because weeds don't need anything. They come all by themselves. I always think like, why can't plants be like weeds? Because plants need all this attention and all this care to get them to grow and nothing seems to grow very well in Colorado. It's so hard.

Why can't plants be like weeds? But that's not how it works. The weeds come, the weeds come, and they're part of the curse, you know. It's very, very challenging. The plants, well the plants need a lot of care, a lot of concern. Marie's got these plants all over the house now too, and she's rehabbing.

Everybody's given her all their plants to rehab and there was one day not too long ago there was one upstairs right by the... right upstairs right by the stairs and I heard Marie walking by and she stopped and started talking to the plant. "You're doing so good," or something, I don't remember what she said but I'll just think about it.

"You're doing so good, you're so beautiful," whatever. Right after she went downstairs I walked behind her and I went to that plant, I said, "I hate you." I don't know what I said but I said, "I don't know what's your problem, you're getting all my attention, all of my attention from my wife," or whatever, whatever.

But I don't know, you know how they do those experiments, you talk to plants, you guys know that right? It's like, I'm not mean to plants, I'm not a plant hater. But it's a beautiful picture, truly. Jesus taught in such a way where you could understand. He's the vine, you're the branch in the vine, and you don't need to worry about anything.

Your Father's going to take care of you. He's got it all covered. He's going to take care of every aspect of your life. All you need to do is stay in the vine. That's all you need to do, just stay put. Notice in verse four, "Abide in me." You can circle that word abide. It means to stay put.

If you need a word, the Greek word to help you remember abide, it's the Greek word meno, M-E-N-O. It means what it says: stay put, don't move. Don't move. Abide in the true vine. Here's what's happening today though, there are many believers wandering around tasting different vines, trying to plug into different...

You know there's some new thing on YouTube, oh great, and there's some new thing in some new book and some new pamphlet and something, something new. And you have left the true vine for someone's interpretation of the vine or somebody's new idea or something. Before you know it, you're going here, here, here, here, here, and you're just sapped of your energy.

You're not bearing fruit anymore. You're pretty good at moving around and running around, but you're not doing very well staying put. This is what Jesus said: stay in me. Don't move. Stay in me and I in you. And we go, well why? And he says, because the branch, that's you and me, we cannot bear fruit of itself.

Only if you abide in the vine. And then he says that illustration, neither can you, unless you abide in me. The place of fruitfulness, which is God's will for your life and mine, is in the vine, where the Father takes care of you. He knows what he's doing with your life. He knows the why and the how and the when and the what.

The way that you have a peace that passes all understanding and enjoy life is to obediently abide in Christ. Did you notice he says there's two types of branches? There are branches that bear fruit and there are branches that do not bear fruit. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on getting into the theological issues about branches that don't bear fruit.

I did that when we were studying through this verse by verse. You can go and listen to that Bible study if you'd like. But I do want to emphasize today that there are branches that bear fruit and there are those that don't. And those that don't are taken away. They are no longer in the vine.

That could be the Father, that could be you wandering away, but they're taken away. They're not bearing fruit, they're not going to bear fruit because they're not abiding in Christ. However, what I want to emphasize for the new year are the branches that do bear fruit.

Because the branches that do bear fruit, you know what happens in their lives? You know what the gardener does? He sees that and he says, "Oh, I think this branch can even do more." And what does he do? He prunes, which can be painful. I see that with some of the plants that Marie's rehabbing, especially that one that's upstairs.

She cut that thing down to nothing when she first got it. And now it is tall and got these leaves and it is exactly what it needed. But I'm sure if it could talk and you were walking up with sheer pruning shears, "Please, no, no, no, no, don't cut me. No, no, no. I can't take pain. I don't... I'll be fine, I'll be fine. I'll do good for you. I'll work hard for you."

Of course no plant does that. But I've heard many believers say that. "No, no, no, no pain, no difficulty, no hardship. God, I'll do good for you. I'll work hard for you." You might find yourself in a pinch today and you go, "Well you know God, if you get me out of this, if you get... I'll give you my life."

No, you have to let the Father do what he wants to do with the life that you've already given him. He doesn't need you making deals with him. He's already made the deal. He sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for you. And as we remembered in communion today, his blood was shed so that you and I could come into a full...

So we as branches, we can become branches in the vine taken care of by our Abba. One of the evidences of a Christian is that you have fruit flowing through your life. I know that many among us doubt whether they're saved at various times in their lives. It is a very popular question we get on the radio.

Just uncertain and it usually surrounds a failure, a stumbling, a difficulty. Then you begin to assess as the enemy of our souls, the accuser of the brethren, shoots lies at us, "What kind of believer you are? What do you think you do? You call yourself a Christian."

And then you begin to think, well maybe I'm not a Christian. Let me remind you today, believers bear fruit. And you can look for that in your life. Believers, true believers, one mark of a real Christian is that they bear fruit. Now you might be new to the Bible and you're like, "What do you mean, branch, fruit? What are you talking about?"

Well, the picture, it's like if you planted an apple tree in your backyard and you take care of it and you weed it, what do you expect from the tree? Apples. You're looking for apples. You go out, it might take a couple years for it to get rooted or whatever, however that all works, but you're going out in your backyard and you're like, "I want some apples."

A healthy tree is going to... a healthy apple tree is going to give you apples. And a healthy Christian is going to bear fruit and the Bible actually uses that. If you were with us maybe a few weeks ago, a few months ago, we were studying through verse by verse the book of Galatians.

Galatians chapter 5, we learned what the Bible teaches just a few of the fruit of the Spirit. Things that God produces in us. You remember them, you may have even memorized them: love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

You can look for those in your life. Not the type of things that you do, so, "Well, you know Ed, I have become a much more moral person." I'm glad that you're a much more moral person, but did that come from your relationship with the vine? Is that where it came from?

For example, you might say, "Well you know Ed, I think I'm a much better person these days." Well, what does that mean exactly? "Well, you know I'm just choosing to be more kind." Well, you know we've always wanted you to be kind, but not because you've chosen it, but because God has made you more kind.

I'll give you an example. Some of you before you were saved, before you were born again, were a very harsh and nasty person. That's just how people knew you. You were very caustic and upset and situations just lit you... you had a short fuse and you were just very caustic.

But now you respond to those situations with a gentleness. Think about that. You used to be harsh, but now you're gentle. And then you're thinking, gentle? I don't... you have to look at it, "Was that me? Was I really gentle?" And you know you were, and you know you were because God has been working on that in your life.

You are a different person today. They don't know you, people that knew you before are shocked that you're not so nasty anymore. And you go, "Well, I mean, I'm shocked too, but I'm happy about it. I'm happy that God is moving in my life through gentleness even though my natural response is to be upset."

I think of, you know, being called into the... being called into, you know, Monday. It's Monday morning, you know you got a meeting at 11:00 AM. You know it's probably going to be, you made a mistake and your boss, you know your boss might be upset about it. So this gentleness doesn't come on Monday morning when you wake up and go, "Okay, I know I got a hard meeting.

I really don't like my boss. God, I'm just going to be gentle today. That's what I am, I'm going to be gentle, I'm going to be gentle." You're not even gentle talking about it. But when you wake up in the morning and you say, "Lord, you know I've got this hard meeting.

I don't know what's going to happen. You know I made the mistake and I really need this job and I really want... so God, just go before me in that office and you know my boss and you know how many hardships... you know how many difficulties, you know they don't like..." And you just lay the situation before the Lord.

When you show up into the office, guess what? You're gentle. God gives you what you need in the... you don't even know what you need. You might need gentleness, you might need self-control. That's what you might need. You don't even know what to pray for.

And so what do you do? You pray and ask the Lord to go before you. And then you survive. You try to do it in your own strength, it's less than 50/50, really. It's less than 50/50 because there's going to be something the enemy uses in that meeting to trip you up.

But when you ask the Lord to do that work, the fruit of the Spirit, when you walk in as a spiritual woman, as a spiritual man, the fruit of the Spirit comes, and then you walk out and go, "Wow. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness."

Guest (Male): Gentleness. God works that in and through our lives as we're abiding in the vine. This is Abounding Grace, and what you heard today is a message from Pastor Ed Taylor called Greater Abiding. Hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also get our app, it's available on all platforms. This is another way to hear Pastor Ed's teachings. Search for Ed Taylor in your favorite app store. Well each month, we like to suggest a book that will encourage you in the Lord. And this month, it's *Just Do Something* by Kevin DeYoung.

Maybe you've been on a search to find God's will and you're stuck or frustrated, waiting for clear and unmistakable direction. In this helpful book, you'll learn that God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him, obey his word, and after that, to do what we like.

He says, no need for hocus pocus, no reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something. We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Please remember, it is through your support that we're able to present this radio program on stations all across the nation.

Thank you for standing with us. Call 877-30-GRACE and we can help you with the ordering details, or go to our online store at calvaryco.store. We'll hear more about Greater Abiding tomorrow on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. See you then.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado and online at aboundinggraceradio.com.