In the text we just read, Jesus likens himself and his followers to a vineyard. He called himself the “true vine” or we would say root. He is the life source for all of the saved. He called his followers “branches” because of our connection and dependence on him. Just after he says that he is the true vine, he says “and my Father is the husbandman”. That’s not a term we use today; we would call him the farmer or the gardener. The husbandman owns the land on which he labors, it all belongs to him

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Immediately after the birth of Christ in scripture, the scene shifts to a group of shepherds that were in the same region doing what shepherds do…watching over sheep. The angel of the Lord appears to them and reveals that the greatest event in all of history has just taken place. The angel says the most gracious statement ever heard “for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord”. And over two thousand years later, we comprehend that these are tidings of great joy and they have been to all people. For the crowd that says that the birth of Christ shouldn’t be celebrated…heaven celebrated it!

This is the third message in a series called “For the glory of God”. The phrase “the glory of God” refers to when God can be seen…either his attributes, power or presence. The meaning of life on earth is to glorify God meaning that through our lives, God can be seen. God is glorified in us when are character reflects his character. He is glorified when we do his will – Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. So God can be glorified in both who we are, and what we do. Sometimes God is glorified in our circumstances. The things that happen around us and to us that we have no control over.

When I was young sitting in Sunday school and they would teach the Bible stories about the well-known figures in scripture, I would build up an image of the people used by God as almost superhuman. That they were so far removed from someone like me that I had nothing in common with them. We sometimes think that there was something special about these people that God would call them to work through. But when I got older and studied the Bible through a more mature lens, I realized that that notion was completely wrong. God does the opposite of what we would do.

John 17:1-5
The greatest question that has been put forth, pondered on and philosophized by every generation of mankind is “What is the meaning of life?” There are many widely varied schools of thought on the subject.

Proverbs 30:29-31
These verses are a part of a prophecy spoken by Agur to two men, Ithiel and Ucal. We don’t know who these men are, only that this was spoken by Agur and that it was recorded and preserved by the men of king Hezekiah. The Bible calls this chapter a prophecy, meaning that Agur spoke it by divine influence and all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
There are five lists in the prophecy that start out “there be three things, yea four are…”.

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The Apostle Paul had a very strained relationship with the church at Corith. He loved them greatly, yet they were always going astray with false teachers and Judaizers. These false apostles would sow doubt and discord in the church until people would turn on Paul and question his authority, apostleship and his spirituality. But this church had problems with carnality and strife, splits and divisions, a case of perverse sexual immorality and profaning the Lord’s supper. Paul turns the tables on them in the final chapter of his second letter by challenging them. He presses them to examine themselves on whether they are in the faith. He tells them to prove themselves and to know that Christ is in them.