Intro: many people who have worked at a plant know the word production. You may get paid by the amount of production credited you for a certain day. You may lose your job for not meeting production for an extended period of time. At a plant you are there to produce. In God’s kingdom, we are planted in Christ to produce a great harvest. John 15:1-11 gives the details on how important spiritual productivity is to God.
Community: Producing For God
An overview of these verses gives us one important point. It is God’s desire that our lives produce for Him. No one is called just to exist. No one is called to live independent of Jesus Christ in life. One other thing, no matter how well you are doing, God will work in your life to produce more.
I. Planted to Produce–v.8–the first amazing part of this picture is that we are all called to produce fruit. No one is exempt from the spiritual production line.
a. God is glorified in our spiritual production. As we produce for His kingdom, He is glorified.
b. The more fruit you produce, the more glory is given to God.
c. discipleship–as you follow Christ, your life becomes spiritually productive. The more your grow in Christ, the more is produced through you.
II. Danger of being Disconnected–v.6 if someone chooses not to produce for God, they become worthless. When you walk outside of the will of God your life stops producing good fruit.
a. don’t get disconnected–if you disconnect from the vine, Jesus Christ, your life stops producing fruit. If you remain in the state of not producing fruit, you become worthless to God.
b. producing fruit is essential to spiritual life. If you lose your passion for God, your passion for souls and stop producing fruit, you will begin to spiritually wither away. You will dry up.
c. the danger: if your life becomes worthless, if you don’t produce for Christ, you will be gathered up with those who will be burned.
III. Connection to Christ–v.4,5,7 abiding
Producing fruit in our own efforts is impossible. Only as we stay connected to Jesus in our every day life, can we produce much fruit.
a. His Word in our life is essential to producing fruit. If you want to be an influence, salt and light, you must be able to share God’s Word. If my words abide in you.
You can’t be effective in sharing Christ, if you can’t share His Word.
b. His power must flow throw us as the branch receives the power from the vine. For us to be productive we need the power of Jesus flowing through us every day.
IV. Producing More–v.2 here is a key to spiritual vitality. No matter how much you produce, there is always room for more spiritual growth. We never arrive, we are never satisfied, we always want to grow more.
ill) in this church we have people that grow gardens every year. Some use special fertilizer, some use old fashioned manure, others use clippings, cut up grass. They all desire to produce a bumper crop. In our spiritual lives, we must desire to grow, to produce more for God.
a. the pruning process never stops. God is always working to produce more of Jesus Christ in our lives by cutting away anything that doesn’t look like Him.
b. the ultimate goal is that we produce large amounts of spiritual fruit in our lives. Today, that is the goal for everyone, that Jesus Christ produces fruit in us.
close: the last verse talks about joy. There is no greater joy in this world than knowing your life is producing spiritual fruit. The joy of seeing your life count for God is the greatest joy of all.
Ill) every town has places where men gather in the morning to drink a cup or two of coffee. Over the years sitting with other men you realize that every life has a story to tell. Most tell of their successes in life, games they won, trophies they received. Many tell about their children’s accomplishments. In most of the discussions everything is what their life produced from the natural world. But if we understand the Word of God, the only thing that will remain in eternity is spiritual fruit. What we accomplished for Christ is the only thing that will not be burned up in the fire. That is why it is so essential to see life through spiritual eyes. Everyday is important. Every day is Spiritual. Today, produce for God. Fruit, a lot of fruit, so that God may be glorified in you.
