The Vine, the Gate and the Good Shepherd

Written by young adults of World Revival Church-

Going into Young Adults at World Revival Church this past Wednesday night, you could feel a difference in the atmosphere. We had all heard sermons this past weekend of revival about narrowing down, running and hungering after God.

We are feeling the push of what it means to give God your all, and not backing down when voices of fear rise up in front of you.

As we began to worship, many of us fell on our knees. You could hear people telling God how much they wanted him, a true heart cry. I could hear Mr. Lohman, our Young Adults leader, singing right beside us.

In that moment it didn’t matter who you were or how long you’d been at World Revival Church. We were all hungry for more of God and nothing was going to stop us from drawing nearer to him.

We continued speaking this week about Jesus as the gate, the good shepherd or the vine. One person explained that sheep have a flight distance system. The flight distance is how close they will get to you, how much they trust you.

She mentioned that when we chose to question what Jesus is telling us to do, we are showing him that we don’t trust him. We are saying we see him as a threat.

Another young adult talked about Jesus as the vine, emphasizing John 15:2 where Jesus talks about pruning. The purpose of pruning is to help with the health of the plant, maturing it so there can be an increase in the production of fruit.

It means to cut off excess garbage: anything that is hindering the vine from producing fruit. In the same way, we can’t live a lifestyle that is profitable to Jesus if we are still carrying our baggage of the past or of dead religion!

After this past weekend, I think all of the young adults are realizing we have a responsibility to carry revival! We have to lay down our own agendas and dreams to be who we need to be for the other sheep.

As we narrow down, it will be hard, and you’ll want to question, but Jesus is standing right there, saying, “I’ve got it all under control, just trust me.”