Keswick at Portstewart - Wednesday 8 July 2026 - Clive Bowsher

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART – WEDNESDAY 8 JULY 2026 – CLIVE BOWSHER

BEING UNITED TO GOD AND FLOURISHING

Yesterday evening we thought about being united to Jesus and our togetherness with him even our oneness with him. And this evening I'd like to talk under the title being united to Jesus and flourishing. Being united to Jesus and flourishing. I want to ask you a question. What is it that makes you feel really alive? You know, what is it that that really gets your heart beating? There are some things that drain us, aren't there? You know, for me, it's stuff like household admin. Does anyone else hate household admin? On the other hand, there are things that really get your heart beating. Apologies if it's admin that gets your heart beating, but not for me. For me, it it's like a fast 5k run. I say a fast 5k run, it's a little bit slower than it was a decade ago in my case but I just love the freedom of it, you know, the sense of freedom as you're running along, you don't really need to think about anything else. In my case, you're gasping for oxygen so much, you can't think about anything else. But a real sense of freedom. What is it that makes you feel alive? We want to feel alive. And I put it to you that if you sort of take notice of what is really motivating you, what is really driving you, what is really motivating and sort of shaping the lives of your friends and your family, right at the heart of it all is some kind of what I'm going to call life project. Right? That thing that at a heart level, sort of a functional level, you're going after because you really think that it's going to secure the good stuff for you. It's going to secure life for you. We not put it that way, but there's a life project kind of underneath the surface that motivates, that drives, that determines. And it might be good or you know it might not be so good for others of us. And I sense that this was relevant as I was preparing this afternoon. It might be that you feel a complete lack of sort of direction life project. It might be that you're feeling a sense of hopelessness, that some of the props that I don't know maybe when we were younger, you know, seem more reliable are kind of being kicked away a little bit. And you're thinking, you know, there are some big realities here that I'm facing. There's some maybe harsh realities that I'm facing. and you're wanting to feel that sense of aliveness rekindled.

The other day someone who's probably here in the tent this evening very kindly gave me a poem by a Welshman called RS Thomas. I loved a couple of lines in in this poem. It's a poem called The Bright Field. It it's about that field where you find the treasure. The pearl of great price. It's a couple of lines that sort of ask the question, what is life? How do you find flourishing? What does it mean to be truly alive?  And the poem goes like this 

Life is not hurrying on to a receding future nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside in the present like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, the burning bush, to a brightness that may have seemed as transitory as your youth wants. Maybe it's a brightness that you, you know, you fear has dimmed. But this brightness which is the presence of Christ himself, the poet says, is the eternity that awaits you. 

We long for life. We sometimes struggle to know just where to look. I think sometimes we go running after it in all sorts of crazy directions, but we long, don't we? For real life, for life that tastes, for that for that bright field, for life that the future can't possibly rob us of. For life that stands up to the disappointments of the past. For life in the present, for the lit bush in the present, for that brightness. And the thing is Jesus, we know, wants that for each and every one of us, too. He tells us that in John 10 in the good shepherd discourse that we looked at earlier in the week. Do you remember he says, "I've come so that you may have life and have it, do you remember? Abundantly." And that word translated abundantly, it kind of means overflowingly, you could even translate it excessively. Jesus overwhelmingly wants you and I to know life in all its fullness who wants us to know abundant life and isn't it the case that it's only one who has life in himself who is able to give that right, these life projects that you and I pursue and I don't know what it might have been for you for me in the past at one time it was career maybe for you it's relationships or family or friendships or sports even or maybe even dipping in the Atlantic. All perfectly good things in and of themselves, but they're no good as life sources, are they? They're no good as life projects. They just quite literally don't have it in them. But we can get incredibly attached to them, can't we? I mean, tape work. I'm guessing if you're still in the sort of working season of life, that you want it to be enjoyable. You want it to be fruitful for the Lord.  But it can't bear the weight of your whole life, right? Just can't stand that pressure. And that's true whether you're doing vocational ministry or you're working for the Lord in in some other setting that the work itself can't be a life source, right? You want the ministry, what you're doing for the Lord to flow out of your relationship with him, right? Or take family and friends. You want to be able to give to them, don't you? You don't want to be kind of always sort of sucking life out of them. You want the life that you receive from Christ to be flowing out to them, don't you? Jesus wants to know an abundance of life that we're receiving from him. So, I've got two headings for you this evening.

The first is works in progress. First is works in progress and the second is heart pattern. And I'll show you how those two things relate. John 15 verses 1-11. 

Jesus says “I'm the true vine and my Father is the vinekeeper or the gardener.” And the vine in the Old Testament is a way of talking about the people of God. And so when Jesus says, "I'm the true vine," he's saying the true people of God are found in me. We heard about that yesterday evening, didn't we? The vine is this - there's this one vine and branches intimately joined together, united, connected. If you've trusted Jesus for everything, if you're relating to him person to person, if you know him, then eternal life, the life of the age to come is already coursing through your veins. You know, the life of the vine is already in you and you already belong fully. You know, if you take a walk, I don't know where the nearest park is to here, but I'm hoping it's full of trees. Maybe it is. And you know, you look up at the trees and it's a green tree. It's  flourishing. It's alive. And the branches are there. The branches are not worried about not belonging in some way, about somehow not being quite up to it, right? They're where they're supposed to be. That's how Jesus sees each one of us. I am the vine. He says, you are the branches. You and I are together one. Do you remember yesterday evening when Jesus was talking about his own relationship with the father, he uses the son in the Father, the Father and the son language. It's equivalent to saying that they're one. We didn't quite say this yesterday evening, but  as believers individually and together, we are one even with Christ. It's not pushing it too far to say that. Not one in substance.  You know, when you get up in the morning, carve out some space to pray, you know, and it's you and the Lord, what's the reality? I'm one with Christ. Fellowship that close. Friendship that close. You fully belong as an alive branch permanently in the vine. And Jesus is pleased to have you there. Isn't that good? It's who we are. Isn't that good? I want us just to picture what this vine looks like. I don't know what comes to mind for you. What kind of vine do you picture when Jesus is talking about this? It occurred to me the other day that the kind of vine that I've always pictured is like a perfect looking one, right? You know, very neat, lots of grapes all over the place. This vine is a little bit different from that. You know, it's green for sure. It's flourishing. It has the life of Christ abiding in it. It's bearing lots of fruit. There's actually some bits associated with this vine that are completely brown and dead because they don't have Christ abiding in them. We're going to come to that a little bit later on. It's what Jesus is talking about in verse two and verse six. But just focus in your mind's eye for a moment on the green part of the vine, the alive part, right? And even this part is not all perfect. How do we know that? Because we're told that the Father is the vine dresser and that the Father prunes every single branch that is bearing even the smallest little sign of fruit. And so nowadays when I picture this vine, I'm not thinking perfect and totally pretty. I'm thinking wonky branches in certain directions. I'm thinking some shoots that are tender and really recent. I'm thinking some branches that are more mature, you know. I'm thinking some branches that have been there and maybe got a little bit mouldy. This is not perfect. This is a vine that is a work in progress under the loving tender care of the Father. Isn't it? Isn't that what Jesus is describing here? And every branch, he says, is in need of pruning. And why does the Father prune? He prunes because he wants every branch to flourish more. Right? Isn't that what it says? That he wants every branch to bear even more fruit- verse two. Absolutely. And by the way, the fruit here is the fruit that is only possible because we're in Christ and he is in us. His life is in us. It's it it's verse 12. This fruit Jesus says, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." In other words, that you love one another with the love that you've already received from me. You see, I think when we read these verses in John 15, they can, if we read them wrong, create a sort of sense of anxiety, can't they? We can find ourselves almost sort of really introspecting about our fruit, you know, I don't know, trying to weigh it or something or count it, I don't know, but like how much is there and is it good enough? And, you know, but here's the thing. The fruit, your fruit is not for you. It's not really about you. It's what Jesus uses and creates in you for mission. That's what he's talking about here. It's what he uses to bless those around you. It's not a life source for you. That's not what it's about. It flows from the life that you already enjoy with Christ. So that's just a side point, but picture this vine. It's a vine that is a work in progress. It's flourishing. There's loads of fruit. There's different kinds of branches. Every branch in need of pruning. And so what is pruning? I don't know how many gardeners here. Maybe it's gardening that gets your heart beating actually. Why do you prune? You prune to strengthen, don't you? You prune. Is that right? I'm not much of a gardener, but I think you prune to strengthen. You prune to shape, don't you? You prune to deal with disease and stuff that isn't quite right. So, I've got a question for you. You think as a Christian, is it okay to be a work in progress? And that's not to sort of lessen sin, is it? It’s to be humble and to say, do you know I need to depend on the Lord and I need his grace every day? Is it okay to be a work in progress? Is it good to be a work in progress? And the reason I ask that is that there are only two kinds of branches here. There's dead brown branches with no fruit at all. See that in verse two? That's the kind of branch that's described there. a branch that bears no fruit at all. And there are branches in the alive part of the vine that is indwelt by Christ, by his Spirit. And they're works in progress. So, is it good to be a work in progress? It's got to be, right? And so, again, just like yesterday evening, doesn't that mean that you can breathe an immense sigh of relief? Doesn't that mean that you can look at your neighbour, I'm not suggesting you do this, although you might want to, and you go, "Hey, do you know I'm a work in progress. You're a work in progress." And that's good. The Lord's at work in us. Isn't that good? We don't need to wear masks. Therefore, we don't need to wear mask with each other. We don't need to wear masks with him. He's already chosen to make himself one with us. This is so good. This is the gospel. It is good to be a work in progress in the vine. And so Jesus says to you verse three “therefore this evening already you are clean”. Because of the gospel word from Jesus in which you've trusted already you are clean and it's really interesting that word clean in the original is very close to the word for pruned. Who are the branches here? Who are the people here who are clean? They're the people who are being pruned. The clean people are the work in progress people. And again, that's tremendously reassuring, isn't it? I tell you, it's reassuring for me. I know I'm just a work in progress. And I'm guessing you do, too. already. Jesus says, with your imperfections, with your need for pruning, with the weaknesses that still remain, already you are cleaned and fully accepted by me. So fully accepted, he says verse 9, that just as the Father has loved me, Jesus, so have I loved you. Now, you can't be loved any more than that, right? How could you possibly be loved any more than the Father eternally loves the son? That's just not possible. And so what that means is as a work in progress, the Father and the son already love you as that as much as they will do on that final day when they finally completed their work in you and glorified you. So as you sit there this evening, you can drink that in. You can know that you are as fully loved as that. Even with the weaknesses that remain, even with the struggles that remain, it's good to be a work in progress. If you're anything like me, you look back at the years that you've been walking with Jesus and you go, “you know, I can see that I'm not yet all that Jesus wants me to be. I'm not yet even all that I want me to be. I'm still being pruned. I'm still being formed into his image, into his likeness.” But I also see as I look back how very changed I am from what I would have been without his love, without knowing him. Just so fundamentally different. And I'm guessing that you would say a very similar thing. It is good to be a work in progress. It is a sign, a sure sign of the work of the Spirit in you. It is a sure sign of being united to Jesus through faith. What that means is that there's really only one thing that can prevent anyone in this tent finding the flourishing life that you ache for. And that is saying no to Jesus. That is saying no to doing life with him. It is saying no to sharing with him. It is saying no to letting him in and relating to him for real, right? I mean, as soon as you say yes to that and welcome him in, Jesus takes care of the rest. There's only one thing that can stand between you and the bright field, between you and life that lasts, between you and the life that you long for. It's making your fundamental life project, if I can put it that way. We started off talking about that, didn't we? Something other than Jesus himself. And the result of saying no is that there's no fruit at all. And verse six tells us that as a result of saying no, that person doesn't abide in Christ. He or she is not in Jesus and Jesus is not in them. And if they stay that way, Jesus says, then they're like a withered branch that eventually is thrown into the fire and burned. You see, the problem is that outside of that oneness with Christ, outside of it, there's just no life. Jesus says, doesn't he? No fruit at all. It's not a question of sort of degrees. It's either or. No fruit at all. But in him, connected to him by the Spirit with the very life of Christ indwelling you, there is fruit guaranteed. Jesus says verse 16, you didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, that it should last. There's two ways. And the thing is Jesus wants us to have the assurance of knowing that we are united to him. That's why he says verse 11, “these things I've spoken to you that that my joy may be in you, that I myself may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Jesus isn't trying to rock our confidence here. He's trying to make sure that each and every one of us has the one thing that really matters. I was really struck when Jonathan Thomas was preaching the other evening about Mary and Martha and  s John said this this word, it kind of, you know, pinged straight towards me where I was sitting. Does that ever happen to you? It kind of hit me between the eyes. And Jesus says to Martha, "Martha, why are you so troubled? Why are you so weighed down by all this stuff? You know, only one thing is needed.” Maybe there are some here this evening going, “you know there's so much to cope with. There is so much going on.  I'm just grasping after life in in all sorts of different places and it just seems to be kind of slipping through my hands.” And Jesus says to you, “there's only one thing that is needed.” And if you say yes to it, it will never ever be taken from you. It is fully secure. And that one thing is that you know me. That one thing is that you turn your face to me and you let me hear your voice and you receive me, Jesus. First heading was works in progress in the vine. That's where we want to be.

The second heading heart rhythm. To be alive biologically, you need the right heart rhythm, right? I can't remember what you call that. What do you call that trace thing? ECG. It needs to show the right rhythm, doesn't it? What kind of heart pattern is life? Because Jesus tells us that here in these verses. What kind of heart pattern is life? How do I know myself in the alive part of the vine? You see verse four, Jesus gives us a command. He urges us to do this. He says this is the most important thing. This is the one thing. This is the heart rhythm that you must have. He says verse four, I want you to be in me and I in you. I want you to abide in me and I in you. I want you to be in me and I in you for keeps. It's all about friendship with me. Jesus says verse 15, “I'm no longer going to call you servants.” You know, the servant doesn't know what his master is doing. He doesn't know what his master is about. It's just all about orders. You know, it’s kind of contractual, isn't it, between a servant and a master. Jesus is saying, "That's not what I want with you." He's saying, "Actually, that's not enough. That is not the one thing." He says, "No, I want friendship with you. I want you to know that you have said yes to intimate friendship with me. Everything that I've heard from my Father, I make known to you.” It's about that that closeness, that sharing. You can't do Christian faith without face to face with Jesus, without relating to him for real. And verse four is really interesting, isn't it? It's a command. But like, how sweet is this? I mean, the one who is, you know, the Lord of everything, the one who is love says, “I want you so close to me that I'm inviting you. I'm saying come and be in me.” The first time you hear that, don't you go, “oh my, can this be real? I mean, you know that that's obviously holy ground, right? Are you really saying that to me, Jesus? Is that really the invitation? You want me to be in you?” You’re opening your heart and your arms and your life and everything to me in that way. As a friend, you're saying, "Be in me." And you're asking me to receive you and to receive your Spirit. Whoa. That sounds incredibly close, incredibly intimate. I mean, that's pretty real. Have you heard that invitation from Christ? He says, "I want you to be in me and to dwell in you." And you say, "That's a pretty big deal, right?" Absolutely. It's the biggest deal. Not deal in that sense, but you know, it it's the biggest thing. That's why it's the only thing that you need. And it's a command. It's urgent, Jesus says. But at the same time, how sweet is that? You know, he say a little bit further down, he talks about this love between the Father and the son. Do you remember that? Christ the son and the Father, Father in him, that oneness, that eternal love. Remember that? And he says, "That's the kind of love that I want you to stand in and receive from me. Abide in my love." And there's something, you know, abide in the love of the Father, for the son. Abiding, being always for keeps, divine love. I mean, if your heart is anything like mine, I have days when I go, ‘I just can't quite wrap my head around the fact that God loves me that way.’ Do you ever feel like that? It’s not just that he kind of tolerates my presence, you know. He positively urges me into the shower of his love and says, "Stand there always. Be in my love eternally. Receive from me." That is good news, right? We can do that whatever is going on. And there is something absolutely radical about this invitation from Jesus. And it's an invitation for everyone whether or not you've said yes to it every day for the last 10 years or however long it is, or this is the first time that you've heard this invitation, Jesus says, "I want you to draw near. I want you to abide in and drink in the love of the Father for the Son in the Spirit." In other words, you get to stand on the most holy ground possible at Christ's own invitation. And so who are we to say, "Oh, I'm not sure that you know you'll really want me to do. I want you to do this. I'm commanding you to do this. Abide in my love." And you know that is a command. It's also a sweet invitation. And it’s not an invitation to do it with bits of yourself. You know, you can you either come or you don't, right? Well, what does that mean? That must mean that if I'm going to come and stand in this love of Christ and receive from him as he just, you know, pours it over me eternally. That means I have to bring everything. The second heading could actually be whole hearts. The heart rhythm that really matters is whole hearts. You know, it's your whole self. And the thing that's completely freeing about this is that you can bring everything, right? The only way to stand here, you know, if I'm going to stand here, you know, I can't send my upper body and not my lower body, right? That's going to look really odd. It's not going to work. It means that you can bring your weaknesses. It means that you can bring those parts of yourself that you know you're uncomfortable with or that you know you wouldn't tell anyone else about. It means that you can you can bring those things that you might be tempted to hide from the Lord. He says, "I want you to step the whole of yourself, the whole of your heart into my love and receive from me." Now remember, this is the love of the Father for the son, that he's getting you to bring each and every part of your life and yourself and your heart into. Isn't that immensely freeing? Absolutely nothing that we need keep hidden from him. Absolutely nothing that he doesn't want to know about. Absolutely nothing that is too  fragile for him because he holds it so tenderly. Nothing too small. Nothing too big. Nothing impossible for him. Martha, why are you so worried? Why are you so troubled? Mary has chosen just that one thing that's needed and it will never be taken from her. Abide in me and I in you. Jesus says it's a command. It's urgent. It's a sweet, sweet invitation. Abide in my love. I think I acknowledged to you yesterday evening I'm not very good in the mornings.  I managed to prove it this morning spectacularly in our sort of little team setting at Rock House because  I was so tired I kind of even slept through breakfast. So it just goes to prove the point. But I'm so bad in the morning that I really need a shower. But the thing about showers is they are massively invigorating, right? They wake you up, you know? They're pretty lifegiving. Showers are great, aren't they? And I had this sort of this this time when I was standing in the shower and God really spoke to me, you know, the water cascading over me and it suddenly clicked with me. You know, this is what God's love is like towards me. It's a cleansing, right? It's lifegiving. It's invigorating. It's energizing and it's not just like, you know, 5 at the start of the day. It's continual. We get to stand in the continual eternal shower of the Father's love. Never turns off. It's always warm. You know, it's constant. He says to you, “you're my beloved son, daughter. You're the apple of my eye. You're as much that now as you will be on the final day. Because I see the whole picture. I know what I have planned for you. I know what you're going to be like on that day. I know. I know what we're working towards together. I know you're a work in progress. It was me who started it. I'm going to finish it. You're the apple of my eye.” Jesus says to the church, "You're my bride." He is not indifferent about us. Precious to him. So precious that he went to the cross for us. He's bound his glory and his future to us. And you know, you not only get to stand in the love of the Father in that way, you get to stand just where Jesus stands in the love of the Father because you're joined to him. Where else could you be? Did you notice verses 7 and 8?  Jesus says, "If then you're someone who is in abiding in me and me in you and so my words abide in you, here's an extravagant invitation. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit.” You see fruit flows from the friendship. That's asking, isn't it? Asking God as a friend. It's asking as a family member. But verse 16 again, just in case we didn't get the idea, you know, Jesus says, "You didn't choose me, but I chose you. I want you. I desire that you be with me where I am and to see my glory on that final day." John 17. This is what he wants. He's not indifferent about us. He wants us with him. You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit. So, it will happen therefore, right? Because fruit flows from this fellowship with Christ as we ask for it. Whatever you ask the Father in my name. It's so extravagant. Whatever you ask the Father, he will give it to you. Do you notice here the one thing that Jesus is saying is be in me and I in you - receive before we do. Friendship before fruit. So when the pressure is really on Jesus says to you “be in me and me in you.” When fear is rising, he says to us “be in me and me in you.” When we feel swamped by our own weaknesses and just how much we're still works in progress, he says it's okay. Abide in my love. It's where you belong. Like the branches in the tree, the branches in the vine. He encourages us to pray from this place of oneness with him. Charles Spurgeon says prayer comes spontaneously. It spills out from those who abide in Jesus. He says just as certain oriental trees even without pressure shed their gums. Prayer comes spontaneously. It's the kind of prayer that the Father delights in. I think it's being with him in the son by the Spirit. Prayer comes spontaneously from those who abide in Jesus, those who are united to him just as trees even without pressure shed their gums. Prayer is the outgushing of a soul in communion with Jesus. Just as the leaves and the fruit come out of the vine branch because of its living union with the stem, so do abiders ask. ‘Would you stand with us?