{"id":2800,"date":"2022-03-15T10:16:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T17:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=2800"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:01:57","slug":"connected-to-christ-sermon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2022\/03\/15\/connected-to-christ-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"Connected to Christ sermon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear friends,<\/p>\n<p>This past Sunday I preached at our home church, Littlerock Community Fellowship, and if you are interested, I wanted to invite you to that message (video and audio versions are available below.) The focus was John 15:1-11 &#8211; Connected to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time, God has been nudging me with the need to clarify what is to be at the center of our attention as Christians. This is a point of confusion in America and globally. As Holly and I have been raising our kids into adulthood, we\u2019ve tried to help them wrestle thru what it means to be healthy, productive, God-glorifying Christians. What is the Christian life all about? Many say: Rules, do\u2019s &amp; don\u2019ts, doing right more than wrong. We set ourselves, our kids, and others up for defeat and failure instead of success if we focus on living a certain way, winning more than losing in the Christian battle. \u201cDo my devotions, serve at church, share my faith, avoid lust, anger, greed, coveting, bad language. If I obey God\u2019s rules, He will accept and bless me, but if I break them, judgment is coming my way.\u201d This is how much of the world, including those in churches, understand and communicate Christianity. If we look at Israel in OT we see how living under Law worked for them \u2013 they, and we, fail miserably.<\/p>\n<p>In John 15, Jesus explains how to live the Christian life joyfully and victoriously. It\u2019s not about our performance, but it\u2019s all about being connected to Christ: drawing near to him, abiding in him, living our lives with Christ at the center, so we become more like Him and less like us. The natural result of abiding in Christ and Him in us is that we bear fruit, such as love for others and obedience to God, living full of joy, all of which glorifies God. This truth is so freeing and empowering for our kids, for us, for everyone! Abide in Christ and experience His joy filling you as He bears amazing fruit through you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Main Point<\/strong> \u2013 As Christians we are to abide in Christ which will bear God-glorifying fruit through joy-filled lives.<\/p>\n<p>Click the video below, or you can follow the link after to just listen to the audio.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2022-03-13 Sunday Morning Worship Service\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6z7gU2hs8wc?start=1927&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Click below for the sermon audio:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2800-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Belz-2022-03-13-john_15_1-11-connected_to_christ.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Belz-2022-03-13-john_15_1-11-connected_to_christ.mp3\">http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Belz-2022-03-13-john_15_1-11-connected_to_christ.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>I offer a final appeal from John 15:\u00a0Brothers and sisters, cling desperately to the Vine: Jesus is our life, our love, our joy. Anything that would separate us from Christ is viewed as a mortal enemy and must be ruthlessly eradicated (sin, flesh, world, forces of evil, distractions, entanglements). Jesus gives our lives meaning and purpose (branch without vine can do nothing.) We are spiritually nourished by Him, and find our complete joy and satisfaction in Christ. Fruit bearing naturally flows from Christ as we keep at the center.<\/p>\n<p>When I focus on Lord and not me and my performance, my successes and failure, there is more joy, better fruit, lasting fruit, less pressure, more freedom, and God is glorified because it is all tied to Christ, not me. This is how we live the victorious Christian life, connected with Christ.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear friends, This past Sunday I preached at our home church, Littlerock Community Fellowship, and if you are interested, I wanted to invite you to that message (video and audio versions are available below.) The focus was John 15:1-11 &#8211; Connected to Christ. For a long time, God has been nudging me with the need &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2022\/03\/15\/connected-to-christ-sermon\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Connected to Christ sermon<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages-and-presentations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2800"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}