The Failure of Me, Myself, and I

INTRODUCTION

Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here.

Growing up in school you get shown a lot of graphs and charts, but one of the graphs I remember most from my schooling days was this one:

(Individualism Graph)

This plots some of the countries of the world on how individualistic they are.

Countries farther to the left are what are called, “Collectivist” cultures.

Meaning they emphasize the group over the individual.

Not only does the “group” come first, but a person’s meaning and worth is often found through the group they are a part of.

But the good ol’ US of A is as far to the right on the individualism spectrum as you can get…

And as high up (that’s an indicator of how much you express it…how much it comes out in your culture”

The truth is, here in America, we LOVE…ourselves

And we find meaning in ourselves.

And we believe we can do anything ourselves.

And we believe we should be able to do everything ourselves…so don’t tell me what to do!

That! All of that, is individualism.

And some of it’s good, and some of it is…not.

And this “over-indulgence on the individual” has been our way in America for quite some time

A couple of months ago, I saw Author Shane Pruitt describe the past 45 years of American culture this way, and I thought this was very insightful:

1980’s: Self-Esteem Movement

1990’s: Self-Made Movement

2000’s: Self-Help Movement

2010’s: Believe in Yourself Movement

2020’s: Self-Love Movement

It’s all the same.

It’s just humanism with a different mask every decade.

It’s the false idea that all you need is yourself.

And honestly, I think this ideology is starting to break.

You can almost see it breaking down across the decades.

We’re becoming more and more fragile, depressed, and broken.

Trying to hold on in our delicate state…

Life’s getting hard, but we’re hoping that self-love will guide us back to fulfillment and meaning.

But it won’t.

This movement of focusing me, myself, and I is failing in front of our eyes.

The only answer is Jesus Christ.

NO BRANCH CAN BEAR FRUIT BY ITSELF (WE CAN’T CHANGE OURSELVES)

Let me show you this in His Word

John 15:1-8

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We are in week 2 of our 4-week series on The Vine…where we are teaching verse-by-verse through John Chapter 15 of the Bible.

Last week we talked about how God sometimes prunes our branches so that we can grow even more fruit.

And today we’re going to learn even more about the vine.

I want to start again at verse 1, to make sure we all get the metaphor, but we’ll eventually get all the way through verse 8 today.

Impressive, I know 😊

(John 15:1-4) – NIV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

(The Failure of Me, Myself, and I)

Okay, keep that open because we’re going to keep walking through it.

But I want to make sure firstly that everyone understands the metaphor.

Jesus is the vine

We see that right in the beginning of verse 1

God the Father is the gardener

He is the one who tends to vineyard

People are the branches

Fruit is the product of a Godly life

As we said last week, Fruit is character-change in your life.

The Bible describes this as you becoming more loving, joyful, patient, kind, having more self-control, etc.

It’s you becoming a different, more Godly person.

(The Failure of Me, Myself, and I)

Last week we finished on verse 3, so let’s zoom in on verse 4.

Jesus says:  4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

And what I want to do this morning is compare how the Bible looks at your life, and how our current secular (that just means non-religious) culture looks at your life:

(Chart 1 – No Branch can bear fruit by itself)

Now, remember, in this context, when Jesus is talking about fruit, he’s talking about your character…who you are, who you’re becoming.

So when we’re talking about how this first row…

Jesus is saying that the only way to deeply change who you are, is to abide deeply in Him.

No person (no branch) can bear fruit by itself.

We can’t change without Him, the vine.

Nothing else will work.

No self-help book.

No Meditation technique from your smartwatch

No level of mindfulness

No daily gratitude routines.

Those things in the end, are unable to truly change who you are, because unlike the Vine of Jesus, they are empty of power.

But the secular culture of our day is different.

(Chart 2 – Become who you want to be)

They say that you have the power within you to become whoever you want to be.

For example, to prove this point, I took the liberty this week of asking Google’s AI (Gemini), “How do I become a better person”

I’m asking this question of row 1: “How does character change actually happen?”

This is actually one of the deepest questions of life.

Schools & Educators think deeply about this question

How do we do character formation

Authors write about this constantly

And AI, after searching what our best secular minds had to say, told me that if I want to change my character…

…I just need to focus more on self-care, practicing kindness, practicing mindfulness, and supporting others.

And you can try that, but I’ll save you the heartache because it will eventually leave you frustrated and hopeless.

Because, you can’t will yourself into deep character change.

You can’t say, “Be more kind, be more kind, be more kind, be more kind”…

Anymore than a branch can say: “Grow more grapes, grow more grapes, grow more grapes!”

But if you remain in Him… (or often that word “remain” is translated as abide).

If your branch, rests deeply in his vine….

…all of that character-changing sap from his stem will start flowing into your branch, your life.

But truly remaining, abiding, resting in Christ is not easy.

It doesn’t feel very intuitive to a lot of us.

In our task-driven culture, most of us would rather just get out there and do something, rather than just abiding in the vine.

That feels…kind of like a waste of time.

But think about when Jesus goes to see the sisters Mary & Martha in Luke 10.

Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and just listens to Him, while Martha runs around the kitchen accomplishing tasks for Jesus.

And when Martha says, “Jesus, don’t you care that Mary is making me do all the work!?!

Jesus says:

(Luke 10:41-42) – NIV

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

(Chart 2 – Become who you want to be)

And so if life-change does indeed start with abiding in the vine…

Then many of us need to rethink how we’re connecting with Jesus, the Vine.

Let me ask you: are you truly abiding, deeply, in Jesus?

Or, have you stopped meeting with Him?

Or, do you meet with Him, but it’s more like, “I got my 5 minutes of quiet time in, CHECK, now on with the real part of my day!”

The Word of God says, “You cannot bear fruit (deep change in your life) unless you remain and abide in Him”

What would it look like this week to deepen the quality of your time with God?

Maybe you add in a time of worship?

Maybe you lengthen your time?

Maybe you just stop and listen for a while.

Maybe you fast a day this week?

Maybe you start to try and ENJOY God again, rather than going through a list of requests

OR, What would it look like to try and abide in God and seek His presence more consistently throughout the day?

These are actually incredibly important questions because this is the only pathway to growing real decades long lasting fruit in your life.

Jesus doesn't say, "I am a vine," He says, "I am the vine.

He’s the only way…because he’s DEE-vine!

And if we don’t get this priority of abiding in Christ first, what will eventually happen to you…

…(it might take a year, or maybe 10 years)…

But without abiding in Christ, you will eventually whither under the pressure of trying to do it yourself.

(The Failure of Me, Myself, and I)

So start seeking after God more deeply again.

But don’t rush it.

Please don’t expect fruit to grow immediately because for one week you got up 5 minutes earlier to pray

That’s great!

And quite frankly, that’s a good start!

But think about this, when a planter actually plants a vineyard for the first time…the first year…all they work on is getting stronger vines

Then the planter prunes them back…and another year will pass

After the third year…finally (after the 3rd year!!) a cluster of grapes will appear.

But even then, most don’t actually reap a harvest of good fruit, until the fourth year.

If they’re growing it for wine…they’ll bottle it…but often won’t taste that wine until year 7 or 8…or later.

In fact, many of the vineyards in Napa Valley, don’t grow enough fruit to even reach a breakeven point for their investment until year fifteen of beyond.

That is the rhythm and the pace of fruit-growing.

And that’s true for Christians, with probably the exception of the very beginning of your walk with God.

As a Christian, what will typically happen is you will grow A LOT in the first 6 months or so of your new faith.

New fruit will just POP!

And then, things will settle down, and most likely some pruning will happen.

Maybe some valleys…

Maybe even a dark night of the soul.

We actually did a really helpful series about this whole process years ago (which you can find on our website)..

(Stages of Faith)

…called Stages of Faith.

And we looked at the 4 different stages of Faith Christians often go through.

But once you get past that initial burst of change…God grows the fruit in you, by teaching you dependence.

Long-term dependence.

This is the fruit he grows slowly in you…more like over a decade

And He does it slowly because what He wants is not just fruit out of you, He wants the relationship along the way.

It’s not transactional

He’s not just thinking, “Abide in me, so my factory can grow fruit out of you”

It’s not transactional, it’s relational.

He says “remain in me, as I remain in you”

Wow!

And so the process is slow.

Just like you can’t SEE grapes growing, often you can’t see the character change happening in front of your own eyes.

But if you’re in the vine, it IS happening!

But fruit-growing is not for anyone looking for instant-change.

And I think that’s why so many Americans Christians don’t continue pursuing this Biblical path of abiding…

We don’t have the patience for it!

So instead, we turn to the culture’s quick-fix ideas for change.

But look at me, those other ideas will not work.

They’re like biting into one of those hollow chocolate Easter Eggs that you think is solid!

Looks great at first, but you only end up frustrated.

Remain in Him, and He will remain in you, and you will bear fruit.

Trust the Word!

APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING (WE CAN’T CHANGE THE WORLD BY OURSELVES)

Let’s keep reading our passage now.

John 15:5-6

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(John 15:5-6) – NIV

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

(Chart 3 – Apart from Jesus you can do nothing)

And here we see another important truth, but this time about what we can do, what we can accomplish

And apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.

Now, that doesn’t mean that someone can’t accomplish anything without being in Jesus, but they can’t accomplish the deep things, the things that will have significance in eternity.

We can’t do those sorts of things in our own strength.

But secular culture disagrees. And it says, “NO! Actually:

(Chart 4 – You can do anything!)

Just believe in yourself!

“you can do anything you set your mind to.”

I always think about that when I watch the Olympics.

Listen, I love the Olympics, but sometimes during the Olympics my eyes hurt from rolling so much

Because the Athletes (right after they win the gold medal) love to look in the camera and say, “I just want all the kids to know, you can do anything you set your mind to”

And I always think, “Oh, was that what happened to the other 30 runners who lost? Oh man, if they only just would’ve known they just had set their mind to it, they could’ve won!”

But for every Olympian still peddling this stuff out to us, I’m starting to hear many people questioning it.

Our culture is beginning to awaken to the failure of me, myself, and I.

The failure of self-dependence for self-change and world-change.

And I think this is in part, why we’re starting to see a resurgence of, especially young people, coming to Christ

Sure, many people are just going to go deeper into the insane lie that all we need is ourselves.

But plenty of people are waking up.

And they’re saying,

“Wait, what if it’s not all about me?”

“What if I don’t have the power to change myself?”

“what if I don’t have the power to accomplish what needs to be accomplished?”

So what is it that you want to see changed around you right now?

Maybe you want to see God really work in your, marriage/family

Maybe you want to see the culture change at your work

Maybe you want to see a ton of people in your school accepting Christ

The power to do those sorts of things is not in you, it’s in Christ! It’s in The vine!

Get in the vine!

You and I…are just weak branches.

And what can a branch do without a vine?

(pick up branch)

I mean think about this:

I could wave this branch around all I want.

I could hug it

I could speak nice words to it

I could tell it do some meditative breathing exercises.

But the only way it’s going to grow the type of fruit that’s going to beautify the world around it, is if it’s connected to the vine!

And the same is true with you…

Get in the vine!

The principles of the vine are so important

That’s why I wanted to do this series.

If you don’t get the priority in abiding in Christ FIRST, you’re going to whither as a Christian.

You’re going to be trying SO hard to be a better parent, better friend, better evangelist, a better person…

…but you’ll only be frustrated.

There’s a reason why Jesus teaches that the Greatest Commandment is FIRST Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and THEN love Your Neighbor.

Everything starts with abiding in the vine, and deeply falling in love with Jesus.

FOR MY FATHER’S GLORY

Let’s keep reading.

John 15:7-8

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And now we’ll see what results

(John 15:7-8) – NIV

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Here Jesus tells us that if we abide in Him, and in His Word, that we can even pray bold prayers, and He’ll answer them.

John the disciple, who wrote this Book, also said the following in his letter in 1st John, and I think this provides a bit more context to this same principle

(1 John 5:14) – NIV

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

So what the Bible is saying is this:

If you are the type of person who is deeply seeking God, and you’re letting His Words dwell richly in you (as Colossians 3:16 says), you’re going to know more of the Will of God.

And when you pray in the WILL of God, God answers those prayers.

But the point is when we deeply abide in Him, God can move greatly.

Let’s look at the results:

(Chart 5 – You can bear much fruit)

You can bear much fruit……..when you get in the vine!

This is verse 8.

Look at it again.

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

He’s saying, if you seek me out daily, often, and abide, dwell in me, I will start to grow real fruit on your lives.

People will then look at you, and say, “What’s going on here?” What is this change. I see something different!!?”

And then they will want to know more about God!

And God, the Father, (as Jesus says) will get the glory!

We’ve literally seen this exact verse playing out in our church recently.

Probably 3 times in just the last 5 or 6 weeks, I’ve heard one of our new believers say to me, “The reason I’m up here giving my life to Christ is because my mom recently did, or my co-worker did, etc., and I am in awe of the change in their life.”

And who gets the glory for the fruit??

God gets the glory!

Just like Jesus says!

And here’s the thing: sometimes these are people that have been trying to get their life together for years, but nothing has worked.

But before that…

(Chart 6 – Frustration, Exhaustion, Hopelessness)

People were only trying the methods of me, myself, and I.

But the efforts of them trying to change themselves has only resulted in frustration, exhaustion, and hopelessness.

And in many cases, I find that people are legitimately trying to figure life out.

They’re trying to become better, trying to improve their lives.

But the only way they know how are the secular principles of me, myself, and I

Self-love, self-care, self-talk, self-help

But in many cases, it’s only led to self-hate, self-medicating, and even self-harm.

The only answer is Jesus.

He’s the way we change.

He’s the way we impact the people around us.

He is the answer for your life.

He is the vine.

Abide deeply in Him this week.

Amen.