Our Purpose

As Christians we struggle in our purpose:

• Why am I here?
• What should I be doing?
• What is God’s will for my life?

John 15:1 “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener…”

God is the master gardener.

Jesus is the vine.

John 15:1-2 “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.”

We don’t liked to be pruned

God may say…

• “Stop doing this”
• “It is time to change your attitude”
• “what used to be okay is not anymore”
• “It is time to grow up and leave those ways”

John 15:4 “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.”

God planted a garden to produce fruit:

• He has the right to plant, prune, and do whatever he wants with it
• HE CREATED IT

Isaiah 5:1-7 “I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
    on a fertile hillside.
² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
    and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
    but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
    than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
    why did it yield only bad?
⁵ Now I will tell you
    what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
    and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
    and it will be trampled.
⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
    neither pruned nor cultivated,
    and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
    not to rain on it.”

⁷ The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
    is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
    for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

God is looking for:

• Righteousness
• Justice
• His love, peace, kindness