Keion Henderson - I Am The True Vine

I want to take you to the book of John, chapter 15. I'm going to read verse 1 and a few of the following verses, and then we'll get right into the Word of God. John chapter 15, beginning at verse number 1, and here's what the Word says: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Now, when I read that, I was like, "Okay, well if I don't bear fruit , you take me away, and if I do, then you cut me." Doesn 't that seem strange? It seems like if you bear fruit, you ought to be left alone. He says that if you bear fruit, then He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit. Now, you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me. I'm going to talk about the purpose of pruning. Every one of us will experience some cuts. In the next few moments, I'm going to talk to you about why. Give your neighbor a high-five on your way to your seat and say, "The purpose of pruning." You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Contrary to popular belief, I am not one who subscribes to the mindset that people are connected through pleasurable experiences. Typically, when we're looking for relationships or friends, we connect around what we have in common. If you like this and they like that, then there is a place for friendship. If you like to do this and they like to do that, then you find yourselves hanging out, going to the same places, liking the same people, and enjoying the same music and movies . But I really believe that people are not connected holistically and eternally because of pleasure. I think what really connects people is pain. If you're going to have anything solid in the realm of love, whether it be storge or agape, it's built on the connectivity of pain.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a group of mothers who would have never known each other, would have probably never come in contact with one another, but they are now inextricably connected because either their son or daughter has died in a car accident as a result of a drunk driver. Now, these people know each other for life . They don't all have the same economic status; they don't all live in the same neighborhoods; but they're connected for life because of a tragedy. Some people find their best friends in AA meetings because perhaps alcohol has ripped the very fiber and fabric of their family away. They get in a room and discuss their miseries and their sorrows , and they are connected by their pain. If you've been paying attention over the last few years , it seems that the African American male has been overly exposed to murder at the hands of officers. Whether there's exposure to it or not, if you watch TV, you see the mothers of all these young African American men sitting on stages together talking about violence and police brutality. They would not have known each other otherwise - whether it be the mother from Minnesota or the mother from Florida or the mother from California. They would have never met. They don't have anything in common; they didn't go to school together; they didn't graduate together; they didn't come from the same fraternity or sorority. They are inextricably connected because they have lost something that only another person who has lost the same will understand because pain typically brings us together more than pleasure. That 's why the Bible says, "After you have suffered a while, then God will establish you." You see, the establishment comes after the suffering. God does not establish a thing that hasn't suffered. What you are going through right now is the payment for the establishment. Before God will ever lift you to the levels of hope, the level of purpose, the level of dream , God says, "The first thing I have to do is let you suffer." And it's not going to be forever. Listen to what I said: I said, "After you have suffered a while." It may last for a while, but it won't last forever. Touch somebody and say, "It's going to last a while, but it won't last forever." At some point in all of our lives, everyone in here has been hurt; everyone in here has been betrayed; everyone in here has been taken advantage of. That 's the suffering. Everybody say "suffering." But John 15 describes the moment when your suffering is no longer the birth child of your relationships. John introduces us to a new dimension: what do you do when God initiates the suffering? I could understand suffering when I've made the bad choice because I am aware of the consequences. I can understand running out of gas and having to walk home because I knew I should have filled the tank up. I can understand the heartburn of eating food that I shouldn't eat at the wrong hour. Are you with me so far ? There are some consequences that you understand because while you're doing that, you're praying that the consequences don't happen. Oh, y'all aren't going to say "Amen." You know good and well you don't have any business eating that hot food, and while you're eating it, you're like, "Okay, Lord, just not today." Right? You start taking medicine before you eat. That 's how you know you don't have any business eating it.