Introduce People To God For Salvation

I. The vineyard belongs to God

John chapter 4

34   Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. 35   Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.

36   Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37   For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38   I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

There is no mistaking this principle. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” … At the very beginning of the passage, he says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” My Father is the vine dresser. He is the owner of the vineyard.

Illustration

It seems all of us are born with selfish instincts. It doesn’t take long for a toddler to learn a couple of powerful, one-word sentences.

“NO!” “MINE!”

Have you been amazed at the feelings of ownership a toddler can have? If he gets his grubby little hands on an empty, plastic butter dish, it won’t matter what Mom intended for the dish. “MINE!!!” screams the selfish little man, and the battle is on. It wouldn’t matter if the object were a piece of trash, or a priceless work of art. Once his hands are on it, it’s “MINE!”

How ridiculous. Little children can’t comprehend the value of things, or that someone worked hard to buy a work of art. Children can’t understand responsibility, time, earnings, or value. But they immediately understand the concept of possessions.

We don’t grow out of it just because we have a third birthday. By the time a person is 30, or 50, or 70, he has usually had a chance to look up to the heavens, curl his grubby little fingers into a tiny fist, and say, “But God, it was MINE!”

“But God, that was my good health. It was mine. I want it back. I don’t want the disease. I’m tired of the way I feel. I’m scared of the surgery. I’m sick of the treatments. It’s not fair that it costs this much. God it was my health … it was MINE!”

“But God, I earned that money … why did the stock market have to do that, now? That was my retirement … It was MINE!”

“But God,” says the man by the fresh grave … “she was mine.”

“But God,” says the mother staring at the empty room of her 18-year-old son. “He was just a little boy, and I liked him that way … he was mine.”

“But God,” says the young adult, “this was my future. I planned it. I worked for it. I went to school for it. I’ve made the promotions. This was all mine. I don’t want to change in midstream.”

“But God,” says the church member, “I gave years of my time to that church. I gave thousands of dollars, and more sweat than I could count. Now it’s changing. It’s not what it was. God, this was my church, and I want it back.”

“No,” says God to the 2-year-old in all of us, “it wasn’t yours at all. She wasn’t. He wasn’t. The church wasn’t yours. You’re not even yours! It all belongs to me, for I am God.”

From the moment God issued the first of his Ten Commandments, he told us that he was a jealous God, that he would tolerate no other gods, that he would never relinquish his right to be God. In the vineyard, we find another opportunity to realize that God is in control, God is in charge, and we are not. We cannot find our purpose without realizing our place.

Obviously, in a garden, the branch doesn’t tell the vine what to do. On a farm, the plants don’t tell the farmer how to get the job done. Can you imagine a plant telling the gardener, “NO! I’ll do it my way!” No, the gardener knows best for the plants, and cultivates, works, cuts, removes, fertilizes, waters, covers, sprays … for very good reasons. And a good plant simply trusts the gardener.

There may be no harder principle to put into practice for many believers than this first one. We all tend to be control freaks. We feel better if we’re in control. If four adults are in the car, usually at least three people are thinking: “I should be driving.”

When it comes to this spiritual notion of bearing fruit, the bad news is that the Lord demands that you release control. There is no option. You and I have no more right to tell God how to do His business than a plant has a right to give us instructions. It just doesn’t work that way. So that’s the bad news. You have to give up control.

The good news? That means you don’t have to carry the weight of being in control! You don’t have to carry the weight of the branch! Your only job is to bear fruit.