This morning Ricky brought the fourth instalment of our Next Steps series – and if you’ve been feeling quietly overwhelmed by the idea of “doing more” as a disciple, this was probably the sermon you needed to hear. Ricky called the message “The Content” – not a list of activities, but the actual daily shape of what it looks like to follow Jesus. He opened with an honest observation: most of us have made some kind of decision about Jesus, but far fewer of us have worked out what to do the day after. And in that gap, many of us end up exhausted – not from following Jesus, but from performing for him.
The anchor for the whole sermon was John 15:1-17, and the image at its heart: a vine and its branches. Ricky pointed out that Jesus doesn’t reach for a ladder, a race, or a training programme to describe the Christian life – he reaches for a vine. Branches don’t produce fruit by effort. They produce fruit by remaining connected. The Greek word meno – abide, stay, remain – appears ten times in those seventeen verses, six of them in the opening six alone. Ricky was direct: the problem many of us face isn’t that we’re not trying hard enough. It might be that we’re trying instead of remaining. And there’s a world of difference between the two.
Ricky also didn’t shy away from the harder parts of the passage – the pruning. Even branches that are bearing fruit get cut back, and that cutting is painful. But Jesus frames it not as punishment, but as the very mechanism of growth. The practices Ricky pointed us toward – being shaped by God’s word, praying from within his agenda rather than our own, and loving one another in ways that cost us something – aren’t a new performance checklist. They’re means of staying connected to the vine. Because a branch that stays attached, even a pruned and stripped-back one, is never without hope.
Bible References
- John 15:1-17
Key Teaching Points
1. The real crisis of discipleship is exhaustion from performing, not following
Many of us feel the gap between who we are and who we think we should be – and our instinct is to work harder, pray longer, serve more. Ricky named this honestly as the experience of a lot of people in the room, including himself. But the crisis isn’t a lack of desire to follow Jesus. It’s the weight of feeling like we have to produce something for him rather than receive life from him.
“We’re not tired of Jesus. We’re tired of pretending we’re better at this than we are.”
2. Jesus calls us to remain, not to try harder
The vine-and-branch image is deliberate. A branch doesn’t strain to produce grapes – it stays connected, and fruit follows. Ricky noted that the word “try” doesn’t appear once in John 15. The call from Jesus, repeated insistently throughout the passage, is to remain in him. Fruitfulness is the overflow of connection, not the reward for effort.
“You can’t produce what only the vine can grow.”
3. Pruning is painful, but it is not punishment
Jesus tells us the Father prunes every branch that bears fruit so it will bear more. That means no fruitful disciple escapes the gardener’s attention – and the discomfort we sometimes feel may not be a sign that something has gone wrong. It may be the very process that produces the growth we’re longing for. Ricky pushed this gently but honestly: the pain we’re trying to escape might be doing something important in us.
“Pruning is not punishment. But it is painful. And most of us, when we feel the pain, assume we’ve done something wrong. Jesus says the opposite may be true.”
4. Abiding has a shape – word, prayer, and costly love
Remaining in Jesus isn’t passive and it isn’t vague. Ricky drew out three practices from the passage itself. First, letting Jesus’ words actually shape how we think and act – not Bible trivia, but the voice of the vine moving through the branch. Second, prayer that comes from within Jesus’ agenda rather than our own shopping list. And third, love for one another that costs something – the kind Jesus describes as laying down your life for your friends. Discipleship, Ricky said, is a relational journey toward Jesus, his word, and other people.
5. Starting new things without stopping old things is part of why life feels overwhelming
Before pointing people toward practical next steps, Ricky made a clarifying observation that will have landed for a lot of people: adding something new to an already full life without putting something else down is a recipe for burnout. If remaining in Jesus is going to be more than a good intention, it will probably require some honest decisions about what we’re carrying that we shouldn’t be.
Going Deeper
Take some time this week to reflect on these questions:
- Where in your Christian life have you been trying harder rather than remaining more closely connected to Jesus? What does that pattern look like in practice?
- Jesus says his word should remain in us – not just be read by us. Is what Jesus has said actually shaping how you think and act this week? What would it look like if it were?
- Is there pain or difficulty in your life right now that you’ve been assuming is a sign something has gone wrong? How does the image of pruning in John 15 change how you might see that?
- Ricky described prayer that transforms as a conversation, not a shopping list. How would you honestly describe your own prayer life at the moment? What might need to change?
- What is one thing you might need to put down in order to make space for something that keeps you more connected to Jesus? What’s making it hard to let that go?
Lord, thank you that the fruit is your work, not ours – and that our part is simply to stay close to you. Help us to remain in you this week, not out of duty, but because you are the source of everything we actually need.
