 Hey everyone, welcome back. Right, so we've been discussing about the vine and the branches from chapter 16. The other aspect of the local church is that we are called to be the vine and the branches. And we've just read from John chapter 15 verse 1 to 8. It starts off by saying, I am the true vine and my father is the wine dresser. So there are a lot of things that you all shared takeaways from that beautiful passage. And yeah, I think being fruitful I think is one of the most resonating one from that scripture, from the passage of scriptures, being fruitful. And God desires us for us to be fruitful. And one of the synonym word with being fruitful is growth, growing, right? Because everything God does is about growth, right? You know, a plant grows, a shrub grows to a tree, right? A seed to a plant, to a tree. We grow, right? Physically we grow from, you know, from the time we are in our mother's womb. We are evolving, we are growing, right? And then from a baby to a toddler to a teenager, right? And an adult. So there is growth that is happening, isn't it? And most of the time we always use this, the only word, the words that we use from Genesis, most of the times when it comes to being fruitful is be fruitful and multiply. That means, hey, grow your family kind of things, you know, is what we say. And what do we say a family that is fruitful is that, you know, hey, I see that your family is growing, isn't it? And so being fruitful is a sign of growth, right? It shows that you are growing, right? So that's what it is. So God desires for us to be fruitful as a church. So to be fruitful is to manifest or express the life of the vine, right? As it says in the notes, to be fruitful, it simply means to manifest, to demonstrate, right? It's real to show or to express the life of the vine, right? And that can only happen if you are connected with the vine, right? As a branch, we as branches, are you connected with the vine? Who is it? Jesus, right? Are you, you know, in connection with him? We are to manifest who Jesus is and what he does. All of us are to manifest love, joy, peace, a long-suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, as mentioned in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22-23, which really are an expression of the life of Christ in us. And so when you say that I am in Christ, I abide in him and he abides in me, everything is gauged and measured by the fruits, right? Most of the time what we, we try to discern another person's character, not judge. So I'm using the word discern is by their fruits, isn't it? And so how are they manifesting or are they demonstrating these fruits? And we see that we can, we show that we are growing and that we are in him and he is in us, right? Because fruitfulness is birthed out of abiding in him, right? And his word abiding in us, right? We are abiding in him and his word abiding in us and simply that is a result of intimacy, right? And broken this word down many times before intimacy simply means into me you see, right? Because I show you, right? And so being fruitful is a result of being intimate in our relationship and our walk with Jesus, it all comes down to that, right? So the reward of being fruitful is purging or cleansing or purifying. Just check that out. The reward of being fruitful is purging. So let's go back to the verse two over there. It says in John 15 verse two, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. That means it's going to be taken away. But every branch that bears fruit, he proves that it may bear more fruit, right? I know one person who's into full plants and all. Is there anybody else who's into gardening and planting stuff? John is very much into it. There'll be like a mini forest area. So we know what pruning does, right? And I've seen my mother-in-law who loves gardening. It's a general thing, isn't it? You want the plant to grow a little better. You keep pruning it. You keep cutting off its edges, its dry leaves and all of that. So it kind of grows more. It grows better and healthier and whatnot, right? And it says what Jesus does is when we bear fruit, he wants us to get better. And it's like, okay, hey, you can do better. You know, you can grow better. You can be more fruitful. And so he prunes us, right? And that's so beautiful, isn't it? That means in another language that he cleanses us. He's purifying us. He's sanctifying us so that we can become even more fruitful, right? So 2 Peter 1 verse 5 and 8 says, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, okay? Look at the words. If these things are yours, that means those are your fruits. If those are your fruits and abounding, that means it's only growing and increasing, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so faith, virtue or character, knowledge of who Jesus is and are you growing in it? Self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly love, brotherly kindness, love. These are the seven areas in which we need to keep on growing to be fruitful. Can we go through that list one more time? Faith, character, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, love. These are the seven areas in which we need to keep on growing to be fruitful. That means you can't say that I am an absolute expert and I have arrived, godliness, brotherly kindness. I am an expert in kindness. I know everything there is to be of kindness. Those are areas that we are constantly, we are called to constantly grow. The minute I think that I am absolutely kind and I have absolute control over myself and whatnot, there is a kind of sense of a lack of humility there. Let's suggest it. And so God's dealing with us in purging and cleansing us often addresses growth in one or more of these seven areas. The way he cleanses us, the way he sanctifies us, the way he prunes us often addresses growth in one of these seven areas. Your faith will be tested because he wants you to grow your character, your knowledge, all of that. That's chapter 16. The local church is the vine and the branches. We are called to grow in intimacy and everything that we do, we are called to live out of our intimate relationship with God. So practical ways a local church can implement this. As a local church, we need to emphasize and focus on intimacy with him. Everything must be birthed out of abiding in him and he and us. Everything must be birthed out of that relationship. Everything that you want to do in ministry that you are doing in ministry. And I can share this from experience is if you try to do public ministry, whatever that may be worship ministry, children ministry, youth ministry, pastoral ministry, evangelical ministry, teaching ministry, apostolic ministry, doesn't matter. And if it is not birthed out of from a place of intimate relationship with Jesus, you are just doing stuff and you'll be burnt out and whatnot. As a local church, we need to check upon the fruitfulness the same way he checks up on us. We should not get busy with activity. The Lord is not measuring our activity. Can someone say an amen? The Lord is not measuring our activity, but he is looking for fruit, right? And fruit is again, as mentioned, is as a result of being intimate with him, isn't it? And I'm just again reminded of that passage from the Gospels, where we go before him and say, Lord, I did this, this, all of this in your name. Don't you remember me? And Jesus will simply, very clearly, crystal clearly say, I don't know you. I don't know you. And so I don't think that we can have enough of such reminders, isn't it? Every day of our lives, we need to have that remind ourselves that we don't get too busy with activity and then put that priority over our personal relationship and walk with God. Just look at the point again. As local church, we need to check upon the fruitfulness, check upon the fruitfulness of your volunteer, your team leaders. And under the fruitfulness, all of these virtues that we just mentioned comes through, right? Are they growing in faith? Are they growing in character? Are they growing in knowledge? Are they going in self-control? You know, perseverance, et cetera, et cetera. So as leaders, it again comes down to you, isn't it? We need to encourage every branch person to be fruitful. As a local church, we need to go through seasons of cleansing and purging so that we can move into greater fruitfulness, right? We need to go through seasons. And I think we need to ask God to help us discern the changes in different seasons, right? For us to identify and discern, okay, in this season, this is what God wants to do in me and the congregation. We need to be able to identify those seasons. We need to be sensitive to know which season we are in because God functions that way. Sometimes God will lead you as pastor to preach each and minister along certain lines to deal with certain areas of pruning and cleansing and that he desires to bring to the local church, right? It's very much like Paul addressing different issues with different churches that he writes, that, you know, he wrote the Epistles too, right? So a church in Ephesus was going through a different season from a church in Corinth and Galatians, right? And so again, once again, it comes down to us as leaders, as pastors to be sensitive to what God wants to address in this season is very important, right? So those are some of the practical ways a local church can implement what we've discussed about the vine and the branches, right? And some of the challenges that you can be prepared for is learning to abide in him. Focusing on intimacy is never easy, especially for those who are action-oriented, right? You understand the story of Mary and Martha in Luke chapter 10, right? Jesus says she has chosen the right thing, a good thing, where Mary just sits at his feet and, you know, Martha doing what Martha does. Again, you know, we shouldn't misunderstand that passage isn't saying that we need Martha's as well in the kingdom of God, right? We need Martha's who will sow, who will work, who will do. I think that passage is all about understanding a priority. When the king is there, it's just stop everything and just, you know, go to his feet and just receive what he has to say, you know. And that's the beauty of it in the tabernacle of Moses as well, is in the outer courts, there are priests running about doing all sorts of things, like, you know, performing sacrifices, cleaning, washing their hands, making sure that the water is always there in, you know, in the bronze laver, that the fire is there on the altar and you go into the holy place, making sure that there's always bread and the table of show bread. The lamps are always burning. So you're doing things. There's a lot of activity happening in the outer courts and the inner courts. And then you go to the holy of holies. It's just you and him. There is no activity, right? It's just you're before him face to face. So we need to be mindful of that, right? Not get too caught. And again, I'm reminded of this line that my friend made. Again, sorry if I mentioned this before. He said, with intimacy, God will use you without intimacy. You will be using God. And I'll say that again with intimacy. God will use me without intimacy. I will be using God. An example as a worship leader, you know, this whole week Monday to Saturday, you know, I've had this walked and had developed this intimate relationship with Jesus. And so on a Sunday morning when I lead worship, he's using me to move through me as his vessel, right? It's not me taking any credit for that, but then he just chooses to move and use me. Without intimacy, I will be using God. How? And I can have, I would have lived a life of sin Monday to Saturday, Sunday to go to church, pick up the guitar, start leading worship without having any intimate relationship with God this whole week, not having read his word, not having spent time and prayer, etc. and lead worship in the congregation. God will still show up. God will still touch people. Why? Not because of me, because he is good. He loves people. So he will show up to touch people. So what's happened there is that I've used God's goodness, you know, and so that's never a pleasant place to be in, isn't it? So everything that we do ought to do from a place of intimacy. The second point challenges there is it is easy for an individual or a local church body to become satisfied with the measure of fruitfulness we already have. It's satisfied is something that will kill your spirit. Being satisfied with where we are, it's a very dangerous, dangerous place to be in your spiritual walk with God. Because there is so much of him, he is eternity, guys. He is eternity. There is no end for him. We cannot come to a point, a place and say, I know everything that there is to be known about this God. Bobby Connor, he says, we've become all too familiar with the God. We hardly know. So don't be satisfied. Keep pressing in for more because there is more. And finally, some may not like the purging, pruning and cleansing process needed to go to new levels. There will be resistance and hence there will be resistance. In some cases, they cease being fruitful. It means they stop growing in faith. They stop growing in character, self-control, perseverance, godliness and kindness. They stop growing and may wish to move away. We must be prepared to let go and keep journeying forward. Okay. Those are all very real challenges that you can be ready to expect. All right. You guys still good? So that's the story of the local church as the vine and the branches. Okay. And so this is the final aspect of the local church in chapter 17. It's the local church as the lamp stand. The local church as the lamp stand, the golden lamp stand. So we all know where the golden lamp stand was placed in the tabernacle of Moses in the temple of Solomon, right? Everybody is aware of that? Yes. No. Maybe. Okay. The Hebrew name for the golden lamp stand was menorah. Okay. So and we know that God tells Moses to build this tabernacle and it was a shadow or a copy of the tabernacle in heaven. And you can read all about it in the book of Hebrews chapter eight was one to five. Right. The only difference and I'll just say it off right away between the tabernacle that is mentioned in the book of Hebrews and in the tabernacle in Exodus is that in the book of Hebrews, there is no veil between the holy place and the holy of holies. Okay. But again, hey, you can read all about it. We all know the layout of the tabernacle guys, you know, the outer courts. Actually, we don't talk about this thing enough is the gates of the tabernacle. Right. It's as important as every other, you know, aspect of the local of the tabernacle of Moses. The gates were made of four different colors and all of them symbolize and is significant of different things. And we read about it in Exodus chapter 25. Isn't it is bring me scarlet blue and all of that God is so specific, fine linen white. And so gates are important. So I will enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. So you enter the tabernacle through the gate. Right. And so imagine with me or something's happening. Okay. Sorry. So the tabernacle was was placed in the middle. Right. And there were tribes of Israel all around the tabernacle like a lot of people. Okay. If they wanted to come in, there was only one gate. Okay. They couldn't enter in whichever side they wanted to come in. The tabernacle had one gate. Right. We'll talk more about it next semester. A little bit in detail about the tabernacle. And Jesus is that gate. Right. So you come through the gate. There's the outer courts, everything, you know, everything that is happening. And there's the Holy, the most holy place in the holy place. As soon as you enter the holy place to your left, to your left. Okay. Will be the golden lampstand to your right will be the table of showbread. It was also known as the table of the presence or the bread of the presence was kept. Right. So and then right in front, just before the veil will be the altar of incense. Right. And which represented prayer and worship. We studied about that in a couple of chapters ago. Okay. So there are a lot of scriptures mentioned in your notes guys and I would encourage you to go through all of that. And so this light in the holy place, right, the lampstand, it was made up of one single piece, you know, it was molded with one single piece of gold. It was, it's just, it's a beautiful piece. And then it would, and it'll have seven branches. Again, we've seen all of that. Right. So three the side, three the side, one in the middle. And that lampstand, the priests were to have to make sure that there was oil always in the lampstand and that the lamp was always burning. Okay. So it was always burning and it looked like the almond, the branches of an almond tree like almond branches, you know, the budding and the blossom everything. Why almond tree, you know, you can ask that question. It's important to ask those questions. Because the almond tree was a symbol of, it was, it was a tree, the first tree to bud and blossom when a new season, a springtime begins. So it was, it was a symbol of new beginning. And that if you, if you read the book of Jeremiah in the beginning, God says, like, okay, Jeremiah, what are you seeing? I'm, I see an almond tree. And then God immediately goes on to say, behold, I'm going to do a new thing. So if you don't understand this geographical thing, it's not going to make sense. It's like, okay, Jeremiah, what do you see almond tree? You know, it's like, okay. It's like saying, yeah, mango tree or just be another tree. But then as soon as you understand that, and this is how God communicates, he speaks, right, without speaking, right? It's not always necessarily verbal, right? It's like, and God is like a genius at this. As in, you know, Bethlehem is, you know, it simply means a house of bread, right? And Jesus says, I am the bread of life. The bread of life being just coming out of, you know, the house of bread. Bethlehem is like a play of words. It's like, you know, all these sneaky things that he does, only he can do things like this. And he expects us to see all of these things. And so, yeah, that's something beautiful. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, you see the golden lamp stand look like an almond tree is that he's always doing something new. And the lamp stand, the light that shined, that came out, that was the only source of light in the holy place, right? You guys are still alive, no? Because I see it feels like I'm just ramming my way through. This is talking and talking. So, yeah, I hope you're still with me. So, in the outer courts, there was natural light, sunlight. Okay, the daylight, the light of the sun, the light of the moon, right? As soon as you step into the holy place, the inner courts, there was artificial light. The light that was produced by the lamp stand. And the holy of holies, there was divine light, glory of God. Okay, so there was no piece of furniture, like a lamp stand, in the holy of holies, nothing. It was bright because of God's glory, was the divine light, right? And in the holy place, the inner courts was the light that was produced by the lamp stand. And that was enough for the priest to see where the table of shoe bread is, where the altar of incense is, so they can work their way around inside. So, the lamp provided the necessary light. So, and the table of shoe bread, also known as the table of the presence, represented the Word of God, right? And communion with the Lord and the altar of incense represented prayer and worship of God, you know that. So, the lamp stand represents illumination, right? That enables receiving words of God, right? There's a sense of revelation, right? That's what a light does, isn't it? You put on the light, it reveals things of what is in the room, right? So, the light that's shown over the Word of God is saying, there's a revelation of God's Word, which enables us to pray and worship, right? And so, for us to worship, do we need to have a revelation of worship from the Word of God, right? So, Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, he has a revelation. There's an encounter that he sees, the seraphim, worshiping him. And that leads to Isaiah bowing down and worshiping, right? So, that's what the lamp stand does. Now, in our context, in the New Covenant, the church is called to be the lamp stand to the Word, right? We are to help bring about this revelation of who this God is. It's there in Scriptures, Revelation chapter 1, verse 12, 13 and 20. John is writing, Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. And in the midst of the seven lamp stands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with the garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. Verse 20. The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of seven churches. And the seven lamp stands, which you saw are the seven churches. Okay. Once again, it's mentioned in Revelation chapter 2, verse 1 and 5, is to the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? These things says he who holds seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stand. He walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do this first works. Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. Right? And so the local church, the local church is God's lamp stand set before him in heaven, bringing his light and revelation into the earth. Right? So the local church, as we as a local church as lamp stand, we are to be the light in this world, just like how the lamp stand illuminates the holy place and helps us see the table of showbread, which represents the word of God and the altar of incense, which represents praise and worship. We are to be the light in this world, illuminating in hearts and minds so that they can come into a place of understanding or revelation of God's word and come to a place of prayer and worship. Right? And so we see that in multiple scriptures. Jesus says that he is the light of the world in John chapter 8 verse 12 and John chapter 12 verse 46. And that same mission is also being entrusted to us. We are called to be the light in the darkness. Right? So once again, our light must shine so that people see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Right? Some of the ways or the practical ways the local church can implement this if we come down to page 117 is maintain our first love so that our lamp stand is burning strong in his presence. We then have the power to influence a world with his light. The local church must provide illumination for God's people so that they can be in a place of understanding God's word. Again, question comes back to us or you can ask yourself, are you being that light in where God, wherever God has placed you? Are you helping people see? Are you representing Jesus through you? Or are people around you seeing Jesus in you? Do they see him in you? Because that's our responsibility, isn't it? As an individual and as a collective, you know, are you representing Jesus as well? Encourage believers to live lives and to do good works that will point people to Lord and expose what is of darkness. Some of the challenges that you can be prepared for as believers engaging in good works more as form of a social service without revealing and pointing people to Jesus Christ. Anybody can do good work, isn't it? That's why we have so many NGOs. Anybody can do good work. I think we are all capable of doing something good because we are made in the image of God and God is good. But that alone is enough if we don't reveal who Jesus is. If we don't do that, it will just become a form of social service. So doing good without revealing who Jesus is or without pointing them to Jesus it just becomes a social service and that is a challenge. We then become no different from the unsaved doing good works. And that's often the question out there, isn't it? What about these people who did so much good to their community? And I think you'll learn more about it when you're studying the book of Romans next year is doing good works enough. Okay. Believers forgetting to focus on their first love to be the light in this world. And that kind of concludes the 10 aspects of the local church. Everything that we looked at from being the body of Christ to the temple of God to His bright army and His chosen people, the vine and the branches. This is God's blueprint. And this is what he's talking about. And the next chapter actually is just a summary of everything that we've covered. So let's just look at it in chapter 18. And page 118 is a big glance at it. So this is God's design. What we've covered so far is as the body of Christ, they represented Christ powerfully. So this is talking about the early church, isn't it? Our starting point. As the body of Christ, they represented Christ powerfully in their world as His hands and feet. As the family of God, they shared all things and supported one another. As the pillar of truth, they stood against the pressures of opposing traditions, philosophies and false religion. As the army of God, they advanced forcefully and overthrew the works of darkness and released people and regions from the demonic domination. As the bride of Christ, they were deeply in love with their bride group to the point that they were willing to die for His cause. And as a house of prayer and worship, they devoted themselves to prayer, their powerful prayer, worship and intercession always. As the temple of God, they saw God's presence and glory manifested. As the people of God, they lived radically different from the world around them. As branches on the true wine, they walked in intimacy and fruitfulness. And finally, as the lamp stand set by God, they let their light shine in the midst of the darkness. Again, I just want to leave this session with the question to you. Are you as an individual or as a collective or as a leader of your church, where are you in this journey? Where are you? In the next page, page 119, at the bottom of it, it says, these 10 areas give a perfect balance of an upward focus on the Lord, inward strengthening of the believer and outward reach into the world. So beautifully put there is, these 10 areas gives a perfect balance of upward focus on the Lord. That's the priority and inward strengthening of the believer and outward reach into the world. So I would encourage you to just re-meditate on everything that we shared about the 10 aspects of the local church in the following week before we continue. Okay. Any thoughts, guys? Any thoughts or questions? All right then. Any questions? Well, thanks, guys. Thanks for joining in. I'll see you all next week. Have a blessed weekend. God bless you.