Growing with Joy

Church of the Rock 100 attendees Bronx Park
Graham Hunt
Growth takes time and effort.
Work smarter not harder. Why do people go to the gym? Went to try one of the machines. A muscle man came by and said he was doing it all wrong.
How can we make sure we are doing the Christian life right.
Jesus said I'm the vine you're the branches.
http://bible.com/314/jhn.15.1-6.TLV "I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.

Jesus brought a new standard. Jesus is doing what we can't do ourselves. We keep falling.
It's about relationship not results.
Some people think that they should have an easy Christian love. But we have not perfected God's love in us. Jesus said we'll get pruned. Not just blessed.
We love entertainment. We get tangled with technology. Netflix lost the rights to the show. God is saying be pruned and grow. Abide in the vine. Let Jesus cut away. Grow fruit love joy peace.
Got caught cheating in math class. Then that made you show the process to get the answer.
Jesus wants us to bear fruit that lasts. Not just stapled to the branch.
You don't want Jesus to say I never knew you.
Body Soul Spirit
Eternal versus temporal realm. We waver between bad and good. We try to nail ourselves to the good side. Or do we live by the Spirit?
God does not send us to hell because of our mistakes. We need to go to Jesus and ask him to hold us so we can abide with him.
We run away from God. We tend to avoid him. We isolate ourselves from God instead of running to him.
God calls us his sons and daughters.
The apostle Peter always stuck his foot in his mouth.
He denied Jesus 3 times.
They went fishing but caught nothing. We get nothing when we do things in our own strength.
When they recognized Jesus on shore Peter pursued him right away.
We need to pursue him and abide with Jesus in relationship.