During these Sundays we are talking about 7 Practices for a Winning Life. I have titled the series "Spring Training" as a way to remind us that in baseball there are basics that must be practiced for a successful season. In the same way there are practices that a Christian needs that will allow us to live a winning life, a life that effectively pleases God and gives us joy. Last week we said that answering Jesus call to follow him fully marked the beginning of a winning life. We also said that a practice is any activity that we can do that will help us gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled. This morning we come to our second practice for a winning life and that is what we are calling "abiding in Christ". In baseball terms it means that we, "Listen to the Coach".

In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager. This individual controls matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Depending on the size of the team or club there may be several coaches for a team. The manager sets the line-up and starting pitcher before each game as well as making substitutions throughout the game. How much control a manager takes in player strategy varies from one manager to another. The important thing is that the manager and coaches are there to ensure one thing: scoring runs by getting a runner across home plate. Having a player listen to the coaches’ instruction and strategy is essential for accomplishing that goal.

Listening to a coach is essential for winning at any sport but listening to God is essential for winning in life. How do you listen to God? The best way is through what Jesus called "remaining" or "abiding" in him. What does this mean? Remaining or abiding with Jesus means maintaining a life giving, intimate connection to Jesus Christ at the interior level of our lives.

That’s what Jesus explains to his disciples in our text for this morning. He tells his disciples in John 15:5, "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." While their personal physical relationship was going to change when he went to the cross, he wanted them to know that there was an interior relationship with him available within each of them that would not change and was essential for their effectiveness. This interior relationship with him was so important that he uses one word, "remain" or "abide," eight times in verses 1-16 and only two more times in the rest of the book. That word pictured the connection that the disciples were to have with Jesus.

There are three very key ideas that I want to focus on: first, what is a life giving, intimate connection to Jesus Christ and how do you maintain that connection; second, how do you maintain that connection; and, third, why this practice is important. So what does it mean to maintain a life giving, intimate connection to Jesus Christ at the interior level of our lives? Our Lord uses the word "abide," or "remain" repeatedly as an analogy of the relationship of a grape vine has with a branch that would bear the bunch of grapes. A branch from a grape vine is connected to the vine in such a way that it draws the necessary nutrition from the vine in order to produce the grapes. The branch has only one key function and that is to bear the fruit that the vine produces. So like a branch is connected to a vine so we are to understand that we are to maintain a life giving connection to Jesus Christ.

Because all of us are not familiar with the farming analogy Jesus uses, you might want to think of remaining or abiding like you would a connection of electricity to your house, the connection of a battery to your car or the connection of your computer to the Internet. We have grown dependent on those connections for our modern life. With those connections we receive energy to live in our homes, drive our cars and receive e-mail from someone in Nigeria desperate to give us a million dollars!

I need you to understand that Jesus is describing the connection we have with him at what I am calling the interior level of our lives. It is vital that we get this. I am afraid far too many believers imagine that Christianity is really just about our outward behavior. In other words if I do good things-give my money, go to church, help people and am generally in a good humor then that is what makes a person Christian. Those are the same qualities that are needed for a good member of a civic club in our community.

While outward behavior is important it is to be the reflection of what has taken place with in us because of our connection to Jesus Christ. Somewhere in your life there is to be a personal inner spiritual experience with the person of Jesus Christ where you became connected to him. That happens initially when we become a Christian. Once we accept Christ as our only way to be forgiven for our sins, we are connected to Him as our source for life. I know that is hard to define and describe but either you have that connection or you don’t. When or how you became connected is not what is important. That you are connected is what is essential.

We said this connection is a "life-giving connection". It is "life-giving" because he is the source of our life—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. That’s what he means when he says, "I am the vine…." He is the one true source for all life. Now you can look to other sources, if you choose, for something to give you fulfillment in life and they will give you some measure of accomplishment. Yet, Jesus said that he is the genuine, real, true source of life. So if I am not maintaining an intimate life-giving connection to Jesus Christ, then any hope I have of living a life that effectively pleases God and gives me joy will be impossible. Again Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." He did not say some things or other things, but nothing!

So how do we maintain an intimate connection to Jesus Christ? Jesus commanded these disciples and ultimately us to maintain our connection with him. That tells us we have a responsibility to maintain that connection. We maintain that connection by practicing an ongoing personal relationship where we listen to God and we, in response, talk to him. The key way that we secure that ongoing personal relationship is through our time alone with Him, reading His word and praying. That is why I used the word intimate. I need you to understand that this isn’t all that is needed to maintain that connection but it is the place where our body, mind and inner-self or spirit recognizes that we are dependent on our connection to him

Why do I say that? Because that’s what Jesus did to stay connected to God. Listen to what Jesus did:

Mark 1:35: "And in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there."

Luke 5:16: "But He himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray."

Luke 6:12: "And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God."

Luke 9:18: "And it came about that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, ‘Who do the multitudes say that I am?’"

Luke 9:28: "And some eight days after these sayings, it came about that He took along Peter and John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray."

The question to ask is if that is how Jesus, God’s Son, maintained his connection with God, his father, are we any better than Jesus? How do we think we can get by without the same connection? If Jesus, whose life was just as demanding as ours and more so needed that time then how much more do we?

Maintaining this connection to Jesus Christ is not an issue of emotion based on what "I feel". It is a matter of my obedience. In John 15:4 Jesus said, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me." Maintaining a connection with Jesus is a discipline before it is an emotion. It is a practice. It is a physical action that we do that places us in a position to realize our interior connection to him.

It’s like this: For sometime I have felt the need to reconnect closely with my father’s family. With my parents both deceased and Kathy’s extended family small I just wanted to have that connection as family. I have two aunts and one uncle on my father’s side that I really enjoy. Two of those are not shy about reminding me that we are family. (Such as my uncle sending me a letter with a picture of him and his wife that said, "This is a picture of your last living uncle.") So a week ago while I was in Little Rock I had some time and went by to see both of them. I had a great visit with all of them and when I left I felt good because I had connected with family. I could have wished for a connection, thought about a connection but it wasn’t until I did something to see them face to face that the connection was secured. I felt the connection because I had made the effort to stay connected! Don’t depend upon whether you feel connected to Jesus. As you maintain your connection with him daily through personal time alone with him you will be aware when that connection is disrupted regardless of how you feel.

Now the third idea is this: Why is this connection so important? Jesus said that the purpose for this connection was to produce results. He said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit…." He will say in verse 8, "My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father." What Jesus is saying is this: It is God’s intention that because of our connection to him he will use us so successfully that everyone will know who he is and everyone will know we are his. That is a winning life, a life that effectively pleases God and brings me joy. A life where my connection with Jesus is so strong that he is free to use my life so that it brings glory to him and people know I’m his disciple. Whatever I have or don’t have, go or don’t go, do or don’t do, achieve or don’t achieve, lose or don’t lose—I’m winning because I’m so connected to Jesus Christ. He’s free to use my life to honor his name and the world knows I’m his!

Curt Schilling, who has pitched for several Major League teams, has a unique way of staying connected with his father. Whenever he pitches, he writes his dad’s name on the free-ticket list for that game. It’s a practice he started in 1988, and he says it will continue as long as he plays the game. This wouldn’t be all that unusual except that a few months before Curt’s major league debut in 1988 his dad died of cancer. Putting his father’s name on that list is an ongoing tribute to the man who for 22 years gave him guidance, instruction, encouragement, and inspiration. Curt Schilling lets everyone know his relationship to his father is special and that he is his father’s son. God’s intention is that every one of his children stay so connected to Jesus Christ that he’s free to use our life to glorify his name and let others know we are his!

When we do that then there are three results that occur in our life: First, as a result of staying connected to Jesus we live lives that are truly useful. He said that by our connection we "will produce much fruit". Jesus describes our relationship to him as the source for our being useful or productive in our lives. God wants our lives to be useful for Him. If they are not, then He’s going to do what is needed to make sure they are useful. Yet our usefulness is only as successful as our connection to Him.

Second, as a result of staying connected to Jesus we will be truly effective. Beyond what he says in verse 5 he says that our connection to him brings effectiveness in prayer. "But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! (Jn. 15:7). Our connection to Him is so crucial that Jesus says that if we are not connected to Him we will not be able to accomplish anything. His desire is not for us to live mediocre lives but lives that are highly productive and effective. If we then live so closely connected to Christ, when we pray we will see the effectiveness of that relationship.

Finally, as a result of staying connected to Jesus we discover what it means to be truly fulfilled. Remember I said that a winning life is one that effectively pleases God but that it also brings us joy. Jesus said in verse 11 this very thing, "I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" Jesus tells us to that maintaining our connection to him has the result that our lives are filled with joy, his joy. His joy fills us and our joy just overflows. We discover what true fulfillment is by maintaining our connection to Jesus Christ so that his joy just flows through us, fills us and surrounds us.

So here it is again: Remaining or abiding with Jesus means maintaining a life giving, intimate connection to Jesus Christ at the interior level of our lives. That connection results in a life that is effectively pleasing God and bringing us joy. God uses my life to be useful, effective and fulfilled. The question then is obvious: Is that the kind of life we are living? If not then maybe you need to check the connection.

Some years ago I had one of my typical nights when I didn’t sleep well. I woke up about 3:30 and tried my usual remedies but none of them worked. So about 4:15 I just got up and made coffee. I read the Bible and wrote in my journal for about an hour and finally dozed off to sleep. While asleep I had a dream. I dreamed that I suddenly discovered a whole other part to our house that I didn’t even know was there. There was one room with big overstuffed chairs fully furnished with the lamps on just inviting someone to sit down. There was a yard out in front that was neatly kept. Another room had a stairway that led to a room somewhat like a game room. I opened another door and there was a walk-in freezer with food stacked deep and high. All I can remember thinking was, "This is all mine and I didn’t even know it was here." I woke up when I heard Kathy and the girls getting up for school. I usually don’t think about my dreams but this one stayed on my mind. Later in the day the meaning hit me. It was as if God were saying to me, "Bruce, there is more for your life than you ever know is there and my supply for your life will never run out. With me there is always more."

What I realized was that I won’t know all that is there unless I’m maintaining a life giving, intimate connection to Jesus Christ at the interior level of my life. What was a dream then is still reality today. I cannot know a winning life without that connection. Listening to the coach is vital to a winning season in baseball. Maintaining our connection to God by listening to him is a practice we can’t live without.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org