Releasing to Grow
John 15:1-5, 8 (CEB) · Tending the Soul
A note for readers: I preached this manuscript at the 10:15 AM service. Pastor Chantel Makarawa, our Associate Pastor, preached her own message at the 8:30 AM service on the same scripture. Sharing this version here for subscribers who want to read along with the series.
“The release is not punishment. It is preparation.”
Week three of Tending the Soul closes the series with John 15 and Jesus’ image of the true vine and the vineyard keeper. The sermon asks the third and hardest of the Grace Group questions: what challenge are you giving to God? Underneath that question sits a quieter one this manuscript names directly. What are you willing to release, not because it failed, but because something better is trying to grow in its place?
In the manuscript below:
The Kansas autumn just ahead, and what the falling leaves are getting ready for.
Why Jesus uses the word fruit five times in eight verses and never once defines it.
What John Wesley meant by Christian perfection, and why “being made perfect in love” is a different promise than the one we usually hear.
The three movements of grace, prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying, and where the pruning of a good thing fits.
