I was visiting a friend the other day and this friend is in his 80’s – one of the coolest guys I know. He was talking about the transformation going on in his old body. He compared his old body to an old car.

He made me laugh, he said…. He has gas but he can’t go anywhere, his headlights are on but they’re dim, his front tire is flat, his air filter is clogged, his muffler only works part of the time and his radiator leaks.

Today we’re talking about transformation… not so much about our bodies – new years resolutions can take care of that.

We’re talking about the transformation of who we are – that part of us that determines all of what we do, say and think – that part of us that brings out our best and worst.

We’re always in transformation mode – we’re always becoming… we’re always changing, always transforming… sometimes for the better and sometimes the worse.

Today’s choices are tomorrow’s reality. As a prelude to this talk I’m assuming that in every one of us there is hope for positive transformation.

More specifically, there’s a hope that there’s a diamond underneath our jagged exterior. There’s anticipation for more, for fullness, for completeness. And there’s hope – although sometimes faint - that the things about ourselves that bother us most can be overcome.

Today I’m assuming that alive in every one of us is a hope that there is a secret to this transformation.

My dad is a fan of westerns. So when I was a kid and there was a good western on TV, I often found myself watching with him. And it seemed to be a staple in every western that one of the good guys would get shot and eventually die. You can probably imagine how it went down… he’d get shot in the chest… he’d hold his chest and stumble around for a while… then he’d slowly fall to the ground where he’d calmly lie while a fellow good guy would make his way to his side. And then the cowboy who was dieing would say his dieing words… really quietly and really slowly.

This was crucial in the story. Dieing words always are. The friend of the dieing man would lean in close and listen carefully because of the weight of the words.

And the words that came out were, every time, valuable secrets to life…

Dieing words are powerful. Dieing words are important. Dieing words stick. If you’ve ever had anyone close to you die you’ll likely know that even if their death was unexpected, their last words to you stuck. Even for a guy like me who has a bad memory, I’m amazed at how clearly I recall those kinds of words.

And if their death was expected and they knew it was coming, those words seemed to carry even more weight and clarity.

More weight, because those words were carefully chosen and therefore incredibly precious.

And if you’ve ever thought about dieing you’ve likely gone over in your mind the words you’d leave for the ones you care about most.

Imagine that you have less than 24 hours to live. What would you say? It’s assumed that you love and care for those closest to you… what would you consider most important for them to hear?

What important secrets to life would you share?

Jesus was in this situation – he knew when he was going to die. And when Jesus was one sleepless night away from his death he took his closest friends aside and told them what he considered most important for them to hear… what he considered most important for us to hear.

He waited until these words were dieing words to share with them an answer to life’s biggest questions…

Questions like, “What is my purpose?” “What is the key to living well?”, “How do I become complete?”, “How do I change?”, “What was I made to do?”

With his dieing words, he explained the secret to powerful life transformation. Listen to his dieing words…

Read John 15: 1-5

To reveal this secret to a transformed, powerful and full life, Jesus used the example of a grape vine, its branches, its branches’ fruit and its gardener. It’s generally assumed that he stopped in a vineyard that night on his way to the garden where he was betrayed.

He is the vine, we are the branches and God the Father is the gardener.

With his dieing words, Jesus described the secret to transformation this way…

First, when he said that he was the vine. He was describing himself as the life-source for us, the branches.

Vine (Life source for the branches) = Jesus

Second, as branches we have opportunity to be conduits of the Vine. His life can flow into ours.

Branches (Conduits of the vine) = Jesus’ Followers

Third, the result of the vine’s power results in fruit… a thought, attitude or action stemming from Jesus.

Fruit = A thought, attitude or action rooted in God

Fourth, God the Father is the Vinedresser or Gardener who ensures that the branches fully tap into the vine.

Vinedresser (caretaker of the branches) = God the Father

There a few thoughts that jump out at me from these words of Jesus.

First, Transformation happens through Jesus and in community

For us, this means it is God’s goal to have as much of the life-power of Jesus coming through to us. Better said, the goal is to have Jesus in all of his life-power in us.

This would be a great talk for another time but what is it in Jesus that God the Father wants for us? What in Jesus would we want in us?

Well, Jesus has been called the smartest man who ever lived, the wisest teacher who ever lived. He has been called light and life and truth and love. He has been described as a servant and a king, a rock and a firm foundation. He’s been hailed as sustainer, guide and the gateway to abundance, to life in its fullness.

This life-power comes through Jesus but it happens within community. It talks about branches – plural.

Expert Vinedressers say that when one branch becomes weak and falls to the ground they must lift it up and tie it to the other branches.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We weren’t made to go it alone.

It’s the goal of the gardener to have as much life from the vine go through to the branches.

So, how is the gardener accomplishing this goal of bringing Jesus into us?

It says that he “lifts up” every branch that does not bear fruit and that he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they’ll produce even more.

This means that he is nudging us toward him through the people around us… our circumstances, our accomplishments, and our defeats.

Every now and then he raises his voice so we’ll take notice – he loves us… he doesn’t want us to miss out.

And if we’re still not tapped in to the vine like we could be, every now and then he’ll get right in our face and that usually doesn’t feel good.

This brings me to my second observation about these dieing words of Jesus: Transformation is often painful, not pleasant.

As Rick Warren said,

“The truth will set you free but first it may make you miserable!” - Rick Warren

John Ortberg conducted a survey with thousands of Christ-followers asking what conditions were like for them when they grew the most in Jesus. In other words, “When they were being transformed into the people they wanted to be… what were the conditions?”

The number one answer: pain. Ortberg’s conclusion was that churches should therefore administer more pain… so look for that program to start up soon… No pain, no gain.

CS Lewis said that pain is God’s megaphone. Honestly, this idea frightens me a little… Not a big fan of pain. But it seems to work.

I need to be clear here. Not all pain is from the hand of God but… at the same time he doesn’t let any pain come to us except through his hand.

In other words, some pain may not be a part of God’s program for you but he’ll take advantage of any and all pain, coming near to us in order to move us closer to him.

Nevertheless, God will use pain in the transformation process.

This is why I struggle with people who say that when you meet God, everything is roses and sunshine. Being pruned, a few snips here and a couple wacks there, doesn’t look like sunshine to me.

Why do you prune a plant? - Because something is in the way of potential growth. You cut, snip and hack in order to foster growth.

Chances are that there are a few things in each of our lives that are getting in the way… Things the Vinedresser might be warning us about or getting ready to prune or is maybe getting ready to take it up a notch from pruning sheers to a machete.

Do you have identity issues or self-control issues or power struggles? I do. And I shouldn’t be surprised if some painful pruning happens in those areas of my life.

I don’t know how many of you grew up going to Sunday school. I did. And at my Sunday school we would sing those Sunday school songs of old. There’s one song that has never really sat well with me. It goes something like this…

“Since the Lord saved me I’m as happy as can be… my cup is full and running over.”

I don’t know who wrote that song but I’m assuming they hadn’t been “saved” for more than a day or two. “Since the Lord saved me I’m as happy as can be.”

My wife has officially changed the words to that song in our house – she’ll sing to our kids at times. She changed it to “Since the Lord saved me I have everything I need.” That’s much better – much truer.

For the sake of this message I took the liberty to change it a little more… “Since the Lord saved me he’s pruning me like a tree… his mulcher’s is full and running ooo-ver.”

Rick Warren said:

“When you grasp the eternal consequences of your character development, you’ll pray fewer ‘comfort me’ prayers (help me feel good) and more ‘conform me’ prayers (use this to make me more like you). - Rick Warren

If you ask seasoned Christ-followers they’ll attest to some of the same things.

That God leads us into the desert – into drought conditions - in order to drive our roots down.

That he’ll lead us through a storm so later we can handle a hurricane. This is bad and good news. We don’t exactly desire this kind of discipline – neither do my kids appreciate our discipline in the moment.

But objectively, this can be a comfort for us.

As Darrell Johnson says, the Vinedresser is never closer than when he is pruning with his own hands… a snip here, a cut there, wack – ouch. Tough love. But it is love.

Some of my most intimate moments with my kids come in the middle of disciplining them. They don’t want it and neither do I. It hurts me too but I can’t let it go undone.

The Vinedresser knows what he’s doing… he knows us better than we know ourselves.

Sometimes in order to make something strong you first need to pull it apart. Postmodernists would call this deconstruction – He’s gonna do whatever it takes to get us tapped into the Vine even if it means a painful reassembling process.

My third observation from Jesus’ dieing words is that Transformation is not the goal – it’s the by-product of the goal. The goal is to abide.

I can remember the start of hockey camp in the fall of 1992 – it was dry-land training… no ice, no sticks, no pucks, and no fun. I can remember being out of shape. I can remember wheezing a lot, standing with my hands on my knees a lot, having sore muscles and lungs and coming close to vomiting a lot.

I can remember thinking how great it would be to be in shape… but even better, how great it would be to just get on with playing hockey. I didn’t try out for the team to get into shape. I wanted to play hockey.

After a few weeks dry-land was over and I was on the ice. It was good to be on the ice. I still wheezed and my body still hurt but I was on the ice. That year we had ice-time 5 times a week. And by the end of that year I was almost surprised to find myself in great shape – this healthiness thing had snuck up on me.

I didn’t play hockey to get into shape… getting into shape was the by-product of spending that much time on the ice.

As much as we want to have positive life-change in our lives… as much as we might want to overcome weaknesses or become influential or experience great power for living, we don’t need to aim for those things to have them.

In fact, aiming for those things would be like me using hockey as a tool to get in shape instead of simply enjoying hockey and then experiencing the by-product of being fit.

Aiming to be tapped into the vine will result in overcoming weaknesses, becoming influential and experiencing great power for living.

Aiming at transformation is like growing a tree without roots. But aiming for Jesus will leave us rooted - tapped into power unimaginable and in the hands of the master gardener… the result will be transformation.

A friend of mine said this to me on Friday morning: “The goal isn’t to act like Jesus, the goal is to let Jesus act out in us.” If we abide in him, he will abide in us… and all of who he is will come alive in us.

The goal is to abide…the rest will happen on its own.

E. Stanley Jones said this:

The business of my life… the only business of my life is to abide in Christ… all else follows. - E. Stanley Jones

The business of our life is not to be transformed – to be fruitful or influential or powerful. The business of our life is to abide… and out of abiding we are transformed… we become fruitful and influential and powerful.

Being leads to doing. Being in the Vine leads to a transformed life.

My last observation is that while God initiates our transformation, the choice to abide is ours.

God will never force us into Vine-time. We have to choose how valuable our Vine-time is. If it’s not the most important thing to us, we likely won’t go there and we won’t experience transformation. It has to be most important.

Time management guru Steven Covey tells the story of a time management seminar…

The seminar instructor put a large glass jar on a table and then put a platter of large fist-sized rocks beside it. He then asked the class if they thought he could fit all the rocks into the container – some said yes, some no. After he fit all the rocks into the container he asked the class if it was full. They all agreed that it was.

Then he pulled out a bucket of gravel and began pouring the gravel into the jar, shaking it and moving it around until all the gravel fit between the large rocks. He then asked the class again if they thought the container was full. They were onto him – “probably not” they said.

Then he brought out a jar of sand and began to pour and shake, emptying the jar of sand into the container with the rocks and gravel – filling the empty spaces. He asked his question again - is the glass full? “No!” they shouted.

“Good” said the instructor and then he pulled out about a quart of water and emptied the water into the container, the water filling any remaining cracks.

“What’s the point of this?” he asked the students. One replied that “if we work hard enough we can always fit more into our schedule.” “No”, replied the instructor,

“The point is that if I didn’t put the big rocks in first, they never would have gone in.”

Steven Covey then says this: What does it matter how much we are doing if what we are doing is not what matters most?” – Stephen Covey

What matters most?

In his dieing words, Jesus said what matters most.

Abide in me and I in you… apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus is the big rock that has to go in first - All else follows.

Transformation follows. Purpose follows. A well-lived life follows. Change follows. Power for living follows. Influence follows. Character follows. Joy follows.

Transformation… we’re all being transformed all the time… Who are we becoming?

What matters most?

Rick Warren said,

Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you… We become whatever we are committed to. - Rick Warren

Transformation starts and ends with a person… a personal relationship with a person - A person who has been called the smartest man who ever lived, the wisest teacher who ever lived - brilliant. He has been called light and life and truth and love. He has been described as a servant and a king, a rock and a firm foundation. He’s been hailed as sustainer, the great guide and the gateway to abundance, the way to life in its fullness.

“Abide in me and I in you… apart from me… nothing.” Transformation starts with a person and this is no ordinary person. He lives in us and us in him.

Darrell Johnson said,

“If Jesus is in us, then everything that is in Jesus is in us.” -Darrell Johnson

As he lives in us and us in him his brilliance becomes our brilliance, his light our light, his life our life, his truth our truth, his love our love, his service our service and his leadership our leadership, his stability and strength become our stability and strength, his abundance and fullness of life become our abundance and fullness of life.

The mainbusiness of our life is not to transform - to be fruitful or to be influential or powerful. Our main business is to abide… and out of abiding we are transformed… we become fruitful and influential and powerful.

So how do we abide? What does vine-time look like?

It depends on who you are. It will look different for different people. I know the Bible is key – it is God’s word to us. I know it involves a lot of talking with the Vinedresser. And I know it happens both one on one with the vine as well as in community.

John Ortberg compares the different ways we approach Vine-time to the difference between a motorboat, a raft and a sailboat.

In a motorboat we’re in charge. We determine how fast we’re going and in what direction. We think we can make transformation happen on our own but this usually leads to becoming rigid and legalistic and rule-bound.

Some of us go to the other extreme and minimize our involvement, claiming that God’s grace will take care of it. It’s like we’re floating on a raft, just drifting and not doing anything ourselves… not doing anything to move.

On a sailboat, however, we don’t move without the wind. Our only hope is the wind. We have no control but we do have a role to play. We need to discern and ask where the wind is at work and then move the sails to catch it and proceed in the right direction. In our analogy today, we have to ask what the Master Vinedresser is up to. Why is he lifting a branch or snipping and cutting – what’s he up to and how can we cooperate? He wants us to be tapped into the life of the True Vine – how do we cooperate with Him?

They say it takes 30 days to develop a habit. I believe that after 30 days of regular abiding – whatever that looks like for us – we’ll see life in the vine for what it is and want more.

Remember those big questions? What is my purpose? “What is the key to living well?”, “How do I become complete?”, “How do I change?”, “What was I made to do?”

All of these answers are found on the Vine… the true Vine.

With his dieing words, Jesus explained the secret to powerful life-transformation.

My old friend whose body is ailing is one of the coolest guys I know because he’s one of the closest to Jesus that I know.

And while his body is fading away, he continues to be transformed into an incredibly powerful old man – he’s on the Vine.

Like 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day… So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.”