In today’s message, our guest speaker, Andy, shares a powerful and practical word about growth, love, and what it looks like to be a flourishing church community right here in our estate.

Using a personal story about his attempt to grow a “beautiful manicured hedge”, Andy draws a vivid analogy for our life as a church. He shares how his hedge was attacked by caterpillars that began to destroy the plants. The only solution was to prune them back severely—a process that looked like a “genuine massacre” but was essential for saving the plant and allowing new, healthy life to emerge.

Andy connects this to God’s plan for our church. God, the master gardener , wants us to be a vibrant, fruit-bearing expression of His kingdom here in Jordanthorpe. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. Just as Andy had to remove the pests from his hedge, the Father sometimes needs to prune our lives and our church.This “pruning” can feel like a painful loss or a difficult change, but it’s His way of dealing with the “caterpillars” of unforgiveness, jealousy, or unresolved hurt to bring about healthier and more fruitful growth.

The key to navigating this process is found in Jesus’s repeated command to “love one another”. This love is the glue that holds us together through change. Andy challenges us to ensure our connection to Jesus, the vine, is a vital, love-based relationship, not one based on duty. When we are truly connected to Him, His life flows through us, and we can’t help but bear fruit together.

This encouraging message calls us to see change not as something to fear, but as a good thing from the ultimate gardener. It’s a call to allow Him to work in our hearts, to submit to His pruning, and to commit to loving each other, so that we can become the healthy, thriving church He has planned for us to be.

Bible References from Today’s Talk:

• John 15:1-13 
• John 15:16-17 
• Philippians 2:7-8 
• Hebrews 2:10 
• Hebrews 12:2