Fruit Of Living For Christ

Life Link

10/14/2007

Fruit of Living for Christ

John 15:1-8 ( The Vine and the Branches )

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. 2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.

Video Illustration:

Plot Outline: Based on true events, We Are Marshall tells an inspiring story of how a small town in West Virginia, steeped in the rich tradition of college football, struggled to restore their community after one of the worst disasters in the history of American sports. For this team and this community, Marshall football was more than just a sport, it was a way of life. But on a fateful night in 1970, while traveling back to Huntington after a game in North Carolina, 37 members of Marshall’s football team, plus coaching staff and team boosters, were killed in a plane crash. As those left behind tried to cope with the loss of their loved ones, they found hope and strength in the leadership of Jack Lengyel, a young coach who was determined to rebuild Marshall’s football program and in the process help to heal a community.

1. Fruitlessness

John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

Matthew 3:10 Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 15:13 13 He replied, "Every plant that My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.

Illustration: Useless branches! -- In the natural world branches of the vine which are not good for that to which they were specially ordained, viz., for the bearing of fruit, are good for nothing. There are trees which may be turned to secondary uses, if they fail to fulfil their primary. Not so the vine. As timber it is utterly valueless (Ezek 15:3,4). It is with it exactly as with the saltless salt, which, having lost its savour, is fit only to be east out of doors; both of them being meet emblems of the spiritual man who is not spiritual, who is good neither for the work of this world nor of a higher.

(from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright (c) 2002 AGES and Biblesoft, Inc.)

• Looking Like a Christian is not the same as bearing fruit:

Note: A tree still looks like a tree, but the type of fruit it bears tell what kind of tree it is.

Matthew 21:19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And He said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" At once the fig tree withered.

Luke 8:13 And the seeds on the rock are those who, when they hear, welcome the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and depart in a time of testing.

Luke 13:7-9 He told the vineyard worker, ’Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’ 8 "But he replied to him, ’Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’"

John 17:12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love,

I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.