October 10, 2010
Morning Service
Text: Colossians 1:10; John 15:1-8
Subject: What God Wants
Title: Living a Life that Pleases God
We continue this morning with our series, “What God Wants”. As I told you last week that this is not about what God wants from you, but what He wants for you, even though the two are closely related.
What is it that God wants for you? Whatever it is we know that it will be what is best for you. Last week we learned that God wants you to know that you can know His will for your life. Today we want to show you that God desires that you live a life that is pleasing to Him. I want you to keep an open mind in this because there may be something said today that will open your eyes to see a different plan for your life than what you have always thought.
When I say that God wants you to live a life that pleases Him what is the first thought that comes to mind? I’m sure that most would say that God wants us to live a life of holiness – following the commandments – just being a good person. And that is true. God expects that from the life of a Christian. But that is what you think that He wants from you. How does living a life that is pleasing to Him relate to what He wants for you?
Going back to our original text from the first message in this series, let’s look at Colossians 1:10, 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…
The first thing that we see in that passage is that in order to live a life that pleases Him we must be fruit bearers. The second thing is that we must grow in the knowledge of God. Tonight we will focus on knowledge. For today we want to share with you the concept of bearing fruit.
There was a pastor in a small town who was asked to preach the funeral of one of his church members. He was an older pastor of an older congregation and as he began to preach he had one of those senior moments and he forgot the name of the man who had passed on. But undaunted by his failing memory he moved to the front of the casket, looked down and said, “This corpse has been a member of this church for 25 years.”
That is a funny but sad tribute to what the church or individuals can become if they do not become fruit bearers.
I want you to think about that as we study today. Read John 15:1-8
Lord, I pray today for Your anointing to speak the words You desire and also that the anointing of the Holy Spirit would be the teacher for this congregation that Your word says He will be.
I. THE PROCESS OF BECOMING FRUITFUL… 1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes… what does God want for your life? He wants you to be fruitful. He wants you to bear fruit and in order for you to do so He is willing to take the time to do whatever it takes to enable you to be the best branch that you can be. Becoming fruitful is not an automatic when you accept Jesus into your life. Now when we talk about bearing fruit what does that mean to you? When I think about it I see two different things. 1) The idea of becoming an active participant in the fruit of the Spirit. These are the things that are mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 and it is what every Christian can experience. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now, can you see that in this passage we see what God expects from us as well as what He wants for us. The fruit of the Spirit is not for His benefit, but for ours. Did you ever notice that the scripture says that collectively these are known as the fruit of the Spirit and not the fruits of the Spirit? That’s because once you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you through faith in Christ these character traits should be seen in everyone. So God, by His Spirit, will enable you to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind… I know many of you can look at one of those and say, I really need to work in that area”. The truth is that we should never focus on just one but on all the character traits that are mentioned. We have the Spirit of the Living God in us. Should we be lacking in any of these areas? Never! 2) Bearing fruit means seeing the result of your personal faith come to pass. If you are a Christian then the seed of your life that is planted should result in producing more Christians. The seed of the faith you plant in ministry should result in the promises of God becoming reality in the lives of those around you. That is what God wants for you. He wants you to be an effective branch. That is why…2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes… The branches that bear no fruit may remain a branch but it is cut away from the vine. But every branch that does bear fruit will be pruned so it comes back healthier and stronger in every season. Jesus said in Luke 19:26, “I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing even what he has will be taken away.” That constant pruning is the working of the Holy Spirit in your life that changes you so that you are being transformed into His image from glory to glory. I want you to look at fruit this way. Nothing grows unless there has been a seed planted. God has given you a measure of faith. His promises are seeds. What you choose to do with that seed will determine whether you bear fruit or not. You can allow the seed to be planted in the fertile fields of faith in your spirit man, and then cultivate it with the word of God, prayer, and listening to the Rhema (spoken word) of the Holy Spirit within you. Or, you can cultivate that same seed in the natural man by confessing doubt and negative thoughts, thereby hindering the work of God that He wants for your life. If you will allow Him to God will, by His Spirit, continue to teach, guide, enlighten and convict (that’s pruning) and, He will nurture, and water and strengthen that seed by the same Spirit so that you can become fruit bearers.
II. THE SOURCE FOR REMAINING FRUITFUL…When Jesus said, 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you,” He is obviously speaking of the gospel message. He preached the good news. The good news cleanses you but the gospel does not chain you. The gospel brings freedom. The good news is the seed that is planted but it is not guaranteed to grow in you unless you remain in Him. No one can produce lasting change in their lives in their own power. Oh, I could quit smoking if I wanted to. I could get off these drugs any time I want. I can stop drinking, gossiping, lusting, lying any time I feel like I need to. Now, everyone who says those things is not telling the whole truth, because if you could take care of all those problem areas in your life on your own, don’t you think you would have already? It’s not what God wants from you but what He wants to do for you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I need to ask a question. What doe it mean to you to remain “In Him”? Does that just mean trying to live your life so you don’t lose your salvation? I’m going stay a Christian as long as I can… I’ll hold on for dear life if I have to… In order for us to understand what God wants for us here we must understand what it means to be “in Him”. If you were to go through the Epistles (the letters written to believers) and highlight every time you see expressions such as “in Him, in Christ, in whom, through whom, you would find over 140 places where there is such a reference. Now some of those do not tell you that you have something “In Christ”. But many of them will tell you exactly who you are or what you are or what you have in Christ. Besides that, there are many other such references that tell you those same things. So in order for you to remain in Christ you have to understand who you are in Him. Once you understand who you are or what you have in him then the way to remain in Him is to make that reality your possession. This word of God is a legal document sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. However, just as a will is not put into effect unless it is read and then appropriated to your life, the word of God remains just words unless you begin to confess who you are in Him and lay claim to what is legally yours. Let me ask you another question. When were you saved? If I were to share my testimony I would tell you that is was February of 1988 when I was saved. The truth is I was saved over 2000 years ago. It just took me until 1988 to appropriate it to my life. When I confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior what He did 2000 years ago became my possession. Romans 10:9-10, 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Now listen to this to see how the appropriation of that salvation takes place. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As it is with salvation it is with all the other promises of God and with who you are IN HIM! Once you understand that you are seated with Him right now in the heavenly realms… once you see that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us…once we take hold of the fact that Jesus intends for us to continue to do the same things that He did when He walked the earth… as soon as you realize that you are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ and therefore recipients of all the promises of God… and then begin to confess those things out loud what happens? When you confess with your mouth the things that have already been done for you – salvation. deliverance, victory, healing, provision, power, authority – you call those things that are not as though they are – they become your reality. That is when you remain “IN HIM”. You are in continual agreement with what He has already done for you. The word translated “remain” means, 1. to remain 2. (in a place) to abide, to stay 3. (of expectancy) to await 4. (in a state) to continue 5. (in a task) to endure 6. (of a relationship) to exist permanently in, inseparably united (inhere, adhere). All of those together give a good sense of what God wants for your life. Even if you don’t see the physical manifestation of a promise that you are confessing remain in him – keep confessing it. When a stone mason hammers away at a chisel on a piece of stone to cut that piece away he may hammer a hundred times in the same place and nothing happens. But on number 101 a portion is cut away it wasn’t because of the last one. It was the persistence of the hundred before that brought it about. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Remain “IN HIM” because He is your source.
III. THE RESULT OF BEING FRUITUL… 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. Do you see the connection that Jesus is making here? Remain in Him. That takes persistence and faith. Stand up for who you are “In HIM”. Confess it until you believe it – faith comes by hearing… As I said earlier, even when you don’t see the manifestation of the promise immediately, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a reality. Isn’t that what the writer of Hebrews said that faith is? Hebrews 11:1, 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. So we are connecting the faith you have to remain… with the words of Jesus or the scriptures. Did you ever notice that Jesus never said anything contrary to the OT scriptures? He just clarified the meaning. He is saying the same thing that the Lord said to Joshua in Joshua 1:8, 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Wow! Line that up with what we just read about what Jesus said. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. It’s the same principle. Be consistent. Don’t back down. Stay “IN HIM”. The really great thing about remaining “IN HIM” is that the longer you remain in him the more consistent with His promises you will be in your prayer. You will know that when you pray according to His will (from His word) you can ask and Jesus said, “it will be given you…” Now there is another result of your fruitfulness. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. The disciples of Christ will bear much fruit for the glory of God. You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again. When we abide in him and confess His promises until we receive them, He gets the glory. We receive the benefit but God is glorified. J.S. Bach said, "All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hub-bub."
He headed his compositions: "J.J." "Jesus Juva" which means "Jesus help me."
He ended them "S.D.G." "Soli Dei gratia" which means "To God alone the praise."
Kingdom Conflict, J. Stowell, Victor, 1985, p. 77ff.
Are you willing to go through whatever process it takes to become fruitful? Willing to be pruned if necessary? As the Lord prunes you and cuts away the junk in your life – everything that hinders you from being fruitful, will you see it as a process or will you get mad at God and run away?
Will you commit yourself to knowing who you are “In HIM” and then begin to confess those things into your life? You are a child of the living God. Isn’t it time to start bearing fruit like you are?
Are you willing to remain “In Him” until you begin to see the manifestations of His word come to pass through the prayers you offer up? Are you ready to glorify the Father by bearing fruit?
Maybe you have lived your life consistent with what the word has told us today. Maybe you are ready for signs and wonders and all the many promises of the Father to be manifested right here and right now.
If so then I invite you to come and put your faith into action and allow the fruit to come.
That is a life that pleases God.
