Well as promised, we’re just navigating our way through the 9 Attributes of a Man of God. Today we are on the topic of deliberately producing growth in our life. Attribute number 7. And as agreed, I promised that I was going to deliver a verse to you every time on one thing that Jesus did, and one thing that Jesus commanded us to do as the ultimate man of God himself.
Turning to Luke 2:52 – it reads – and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Now, these words give us insight into some years of Jesus’s life that we’re not going to see. Course, these words appear soon after Jesus is found in the temple by his parents after they have – quote, unquote – lost him. And he is right there doing what we’d anticipate Jesus, God in the flesh is doing. He’s spending time with his father.
Now Jesus – from this moment on, about the age of 13 – till the age we see him next, as a fully grown adult. Is going to continue to grow, and this here – the writer perceives, and I believe his parents as well – perceive him to be growing in wisdom and stature. Both in his vertical relationship with God, but also his horizontal relationship with men.
Next John 15:8. These are some of the final words of Jesus to his disciples. It reads, “By this my father has glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” I love this challenge by Jesus. Because not only is he actually producing growth in his own life, he’s going to command us as men to do the same. Our responsibility is to bear fruit or produce growth in our life. Because of out of it, we prove to be followers of him. We prove to be followers of God.
This leads us to attribute 7, which is this. A man produces growth. Here’s how I define it. A man will never selfishly devour resources. But rather understands that resources flow from Christ through him. Therefore he perceives himself to be a conduit of resources, and does everything he can to remain connected to them through obedience – that is pure in motivation while holding to his identity in Christ. He will welcome the activities of pruning and connecting as central growth activities that benefit him and the kingdom.
This raises the obvious question, which is – do you feel in your life, like you are producing spiritual results? I mean do you feel that way? I think most of us on some days feel stronger than others. And if we were to run just simply on our feelings, we would never get to the fact of the situation – that Jesus Christ has called us to produce real results in life.
I think there’s a lot of issues that prohibit us from actually producing results. Maybe we were just far too busy? Busy – not just with bad things, but with many good things. Good activities that just take up too much of our time, and therefore get in our way of producing effective spiritual results. Maybe it’s fear? Maybe for you, fear is the thing that prohibits producing results in your life, and you just have too many anxieties and fears that keep you from really getting out of the boat.
Maybe it’s simply lack of discipline or failure to execute? Maybe we just don’t take the right next step that would really help us in our relationship with Jesus Christ to produce results? Maybe for too long, we have gone alone. We’ve gone life alone. And because of it we have this protective barrier around us, that prohibits us from being transparent and opening up and sharing our challenges with one another? Or maybe lastly, it’s just we have no sense of urgency to address the issues? Life as we know it is simple enough. We feel we’re effective enough, and we lack that sense of urgency that needs to be given to the spiritual life, in lieu of the brevity of life that we have.
I don’t know what it might be for you that prohibits you from producing results. But I can tell you this, Jesus Christ has called us to do it – and it was important to him. Let me read to you from John 15, verses 1 through 8. Profound words. They’re some of the greatest imagery that Jesus Christ ever gives us. It’s a picture of a vine. And a vinedresser, and some responsibility that we have in relationship to this vine. Powerful words here.
Now know that these words come at the – toward the very end of Jesus’ life. And when we see Jesus at the beginning, we see him concealing his identity. But here toward the close of his life, it’s as if he’s disclosing all of who he is, and all that he wants us to know – to his men, and he gives them wisdom that we don’t see him readily give at the beginning. Here are his words in John 15, verses 1 through 8.
He says, “I am the vine. I am the true vine. And my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes – that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself – unless it abides in the vine.”
“Neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him – he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burn. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.”
Wow, these are great words. Great words from Jesus, and a powerful metaphor. I remember when I was a young man. My grandmother and grandfather used to give me a pair of pruning shears and told me to go out in front and prune my grandmother’s prize rose bushes. There were a few right out in the front yard. And they were beautiful. Every year they would produce the most incredible roses.
And my grandmother gave me a responsibility. I was called to go out, and I was called to prune these rose bushes. And she gave me a few instructions. The first thing that she would have me prune was the dead branches. The dead branches that were attached to the rose bush. To break those off, to clean cut them. The next responsibility she gave me was to prune off the life that looked like it was leaving the rose bush. So branches that looked like they might be dying. Just to prune them off. And the final responsibility was to prune off the excess buds on some of the branches.
Now see, these were extremely healthy rose bushes, because of the California soil, and the way that she cared for them. And she knew that if she didn’t cut off some of those extra buds off the rose bushes – that what would happen is – the roses would become too plentiful. It would bear down the roses, and bear down the nutrients. And it would leave the plant in danger of breaking as they blossomed. Because they would become so heavy and so full of life, that it would weigh down the branches.
I always thought it was interesting that you wanted to prune healthy branches and healthy buds. But my grandmother taught me a valuable lesson about how to guide the nutrients in the rose bush. Because what I was really doing there with those pruning shears, was I was guiding and directing nutrients through the branches. That’s what she was teaching me. And I believed that that’s exactly what Jesus is teaching us here through this metaphor.
Except, you have to remember that Jesus is not giving us a lesson in how to take care of a grapevine. That’s not what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to give us a lesson on how to produce fruit in our spiritual lives so that our lives can be effective for the kingdom. He’s trying to teach us how to direct the nutrients of his life through us as we become a conduit. See, we are not the vinedresser. God is the vinedresser in this text. And we are not actually just the vine. Jesus is the vine. What we are is a grafted in a branch that needs to remain connected in the vine.
And the nutrients of that vine are this. They are the words of Jesus Christ. Verse 7. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you – my nutrients abide in you – ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” I love those words. And why does Jesus promise to ask for whatever we wish, and it will be done for you? Well because when I become 1 with the vine, my will becomes synonymous with his will. And what am I asking for? I am asking for only what Jesus Christ wants in my life. And therefore it will be done for me.
This is the promise of producing growth in our own life. And what does it do? What does it do? By this – verse 8, “My father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples.” You know what Jesus’ wish here? Is that we as men would produce growth in our life. That we would not grow stagnant. That we’d find ourselves connected to God, and because of that we would produce results.
You know what God wants us to do? He wants us to graft properly. And here’s how we graft into the vine properly. 2 activities – cutting and connecting. Cutting and connecting. Connecting and cutting, cutting and connecting. That’s it. These are the activities of these words. First, we are called to cut. They will always be some form of pruning pain in our life, right? Which will involve difficulty in letting go of some things in our life, regardless of the type of pruning – whether it be dead stuff in our life, dying stuff – or even good branches?
Pruning every single time will result in growth. Pain is momentary. Pain is momentary gentlemen. But growth will produce incredible results. The second activity is connecting. Really what we’re trying to connect to is the nutrients found in the vine. Jesus is the source of life. Therefore we need to connect by how? Abiding in his words. Through this, we become grafted or connected. And in this, we become synonymous with him and our will becomes his. So how do we do it? The question is, how do we do it?
Well, we need to connect and cut. Cut and connect. That’s how we do it. So guys, since we’re not talking about a vine today, we’re talking about you. The question becomes what in your own life do you need to cut so that you can connect better to the vine. So that you can produce results. So that God can be glorified. So that you can prove to be His disciple.
