What Does It Mean To Bear Fruit?
Pastor Jim Lowe III
Sunday Morning,
3/05/22 (1st Sunday Message)
{All scriptures are NIV84 unless stated}
Today’s Title:
What Does It Mean To Bear Fruit?
In recent weeks we’ve talked about how much action is important to being a believer.
John 14:15 (MSG)
“If you love me, show it by
Christ says if we love…
We have to show it by doing what he told us.
In the WORDS of Christ…
“If We Love Him, We Are To
more simply:
“If We Love…We Must Show It”
even simpler:
“What You Do Proves Who
If I say I am a believer,
I should be doing believer things.
The things I show prove who I am.
Jesus says it himself…
Your love isn’t proven by what you say, but by what you do.
Luke 6:43
43
A good tree will bear good fruit.
A bad tree will bear bad fruit.
The Tree Is Determined By The Fruit That Comes From It!
God gives life lessons in the simplest of ways.
Apple trees will give you apples.
Orange trees will give you oranges.
Strawberry trees will give you Strawberries.
No matter what a tree will tell you…
The ACTION is what we use to identify things!
It’s Not What You Say, It’s What You Do!
Even in relationships…
people will tell you they love you.
That’s one of the easiest lies you hear!
but what do they show you?
Their actions show who they are.
Quote from Maya Angelou:
“When People
~ Maya Angelou
It says show.
We don’t believe people till they show us 100 times.
Another saying,
“Am I going to believe you or my lying eyes?”
No Matter What Someone Tells You, What Does Their Fruit Show?
This is the same way God looks at us.
If we are in him…connected in the right way.
We will bear fruit.
John 15:5
5
Christ is the vine.
We are the branches.
If a man remains in him, and him in us…
he will bear much fruit.
Separated from the vine we can’t do anything.
If we are in him and him in us…
We WILL
It is OUR job to bear fruit.
{repeat}
“As A Believer, I Should Be Producing Fruit!”
John 15:8
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
This is bigger than us.
Jesus is saying
It is for HIS glory.
And God HOLDS us accountable also!
John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Jesus is speaking.
He is the true vine.
God the father is the gardener.
Verse 2 gives us two things God (the gardener) does.
1. He Cuts Off Every Branch In Him That Bears No Fruit??
He cuts off
“He cuts off” {NIV}
“He cuts off” {MSG}
“He takes away” {ESV}
“He cuts away (trims off, takes away) {AMP}
If he cuts you off…are you “losing” your Christian-ness?
When you read this…on the surface it seems like
You’re thrown away.
But the power is supposed to come from the vine?
it flows THOUGH the branches…
SO if we don’t produce fruit as well as others or very little at all…
we just get thrown away?
What if
What if you’re a NEW branch (just learning about God)?
What if you’ve been damaged and hurt?
from life…trials…whatever…
What if you’re tired?
Do we just get “cut off?”
“But I thought we serve a forgiving
We do!
The NKJV gives another thought.
John 15:1 (NKJV)
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
This says he “takes it away.”
Takes it away from where?
There’s a footnote here that leads into a word study.
The greek word this comes from can be translated as:
John 15:1 (“cuts off”) Translated As:
Cuts Off
Remove
Takes Away
This is why the other translations use this.
But the ORIGINAL word also can be translated as something else:
John 15:1 (“cuts off”) Is Also Translated As:
Lifts Up
Raises Up
Supports
This makes sense when we read how gardeners work:
Those who work on vines would sometimes have to “lift up” the branches to cause them to produce fruit.
The branches need to be lifted in a way to expose them to more sunlight.
Being in the shade slows fruit production.
Being in the shade also helps disease to form.
So in THIS context…it could read:
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He
Our God is a master gardener.
He doesn’t throw us away…
He forgives and helps us grow.
He helps us to be the best version of ourselves.
He HELPS us to be more fruitful.
God…the GOOD Shepherd…the GREAT GOD
Loves you that much!
AGAIN!
John 15:8
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
It’s not to the Father’s glory to throw you out with the trash.
It’s to HIS glory to do what’s necessary to see that you BEAR FRUIT!
If you are having problems…
God will HELP you!
We can’t do anything on our own power.
John 15:5
5
It’s not on our own power.
Apart from God…we can do nothing.
Any
It is God who helps us!
Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
He is the connecting piece!
We don’t have to MAKE ourselves do anything…
It’s not
The problems we have…
The things we go through…
The stuff that prevents us from bearing fruit when we want to…
God Will Help You If You Stay Connected To Him!
So John 15:2 tells us two things:
So the 1st thing is he helps the branches
The 2nd:
2. Every Branch That Does Bear Fruit He Prunes
Prunes also means cleans.
Why do you do this?
So it may be even more fruitful.
This means that God, your Gardner will take care to give you what you need.
You
If you’re producing fruit…
He’ll clean you up so you can produce more.
He’ll remove things off of you so you can produce more.
He’ll remove people from your life that are holding you back so you can produce more.
God Wants To Continue The Work He Started In You!
Proverbs 4:18
18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
Our path is like the first gleam of dawn.
Shining brighter…
Growing more…
Getting stronger…
Philippians 1:4-6
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the
We can be confident that because we are connected to him…
He will CONTINUE to make us better!
So let’s talk about this fruit!
What Type Of Fruit Should We Be Producing?
When it comes to this fruit…where should we start?
Galatians
It is written to encourage us not to live by the sinful nature…
But it details how we can live by the Spirit and what it looks like.
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Let’s put these up on a list:
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control
We will spend the next few weeks talking about
{recap}
It is our duty to bear fruit.
If we are believers in Christ…we WILL be bearing fruit.
But the pressure isn’t on us to make it happen.
The only thing we need to do is to make sure we’re connected to Christ.
His power brings the fruit out of us.
That’s because it’s for HIS glory that we do all of this.
We are to be here for each other.
But WE alone can’t do anything.
It’s God who does it all.
We just have to make sure we’re tapped into him.
Focus on
And LET HIM WORK!
