Bearing Much Fruit
The American church today has allowed mediocrity to creep in.
Everyday 10 churches go under in the United States
Everyday 7 new churches are started that’s a loss of 3 churches everyday.
In the last 10 years the church attendance has remained, on average, the same in churches across America.
It is reported that in churches today 90% of the work is performed by 10% of the members.
Christians have come to the conclusion that it is alright to be a Christian and not bear fruit.
A secular study projected by the year 2050 that Christianity will be so obscure that it will have absolutely no effect on the moral and ethical condition of our country.
John 15:1-17
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
Jesus is the vine, He is our source.
Before we can bear fruit we need to understand where our source is.
He is the true vine.
Any other source is not true and has no everlasting power. It is an imitation and counterfeit.
Worldly Knowledge, Careers, Physical Appearances, Drugs and Alcohol, Relationships…
We are the branches
A branch has no life by itself.
The branches are many, growing all over the place but all connected to the same vine.
He is the center of our unity.
The Father is the vinedresser, (husbandman) [georgos – the landworker]
Though the Earth is the Lord’s, it bears no fruit unless He works it.
God not only has the propriety but also the care of the vine and branches.
His eye is upon every branch.
He watches over them that nothing will harm them.
He prunes them.
Never was a vinedresser so watchful of His field as the Lord does the church.
This is why we must prosper.
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.
We must bear fruit – It is not optional.
As we expect grapes from a vine, so does Jesus expect spiritual fruit from a Christian.
Fruit is pleasant food for the vinedresser.
Fruit provides food for a seed to grow.
Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
The Lord is watching to make sure each branch is bearing fruit. 2 Chr 16:9 "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…
If a branch does not bear fruit, it is removed.
The branches that do bear fruit are pruned.
He works with us even more.
He increases our anointing
3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
In chapter 13 Judas was sent on his mission.
Only the real branches were left, those who abided in Him.
The Word of the Lord is a distinguishing word.
It separates pure from impure.
On that day the Word will separate the living branches from the dead.
The Word also sanctifies us.
There is a cleansing from the word. (Eph 5:26)
The Word is like a refiners fire separating the pure gold from the dross.
It works our corruption.
There is illusion to the vineyards of Canaan. (Lev. 19) Wait 3 years after planting a vineyard then the fruit is holy.
4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
To remain fruitful in our lives we must remain in union with Christ by faith.
We must have our complete dependency on Him.
If we abide in Him, He will always abide in us. He will never fail on His side of the relationship.
(James 4) Draw near - He always waits on us!
The branch is fused to the vine and the branch draws its sap from the vine.
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Without being connected to Christ by the Spirit we can do nothing of any spiritual value – heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons…
We cannot have any real satisfaction in our lives.
Daily communion with Christ is absolutely necessary.
If we do, we will bear much fruit.
Our life is a success before God.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Real branches bear fruit.
(Matt 7) Many will say on that day.
This is where the message gets uncomfortable.
Prov 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
Here’s the good news.
When we abide in Him, remain in Him, dwell in Him we can ask whatever we want and it will be done.
When we abide in Him, we have the mind of Christ.
We no longer live by the flesh.
Ps 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
When we bear much fruit, God is glorified.
When we remain “hooked up” to the vine.
When we draw our life source from Christ.
When we make ourselves totally dependent on Christ.
When we take on Christ’s characteristics.
God is glorified because we are known by the fruit that we bear.
9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
14 "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Jesus appointed us to go and bear fruit.
He called us and we have the option to be hooked up to the vine or not.
We can bear fruit that will remain.
Works that will not be burned up.
We become so intimate with Jesus that whatever we ask, we ask according to His will.
I Jn 5:14-15
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
17 "These things I command you, that you love one another.
All that I have taught you is so that you love one another.
Real fruit is produced out of love.
Herein lies the key to bearing much fruit. (some say faith, some say knowledge of the word)
1 Cor 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.
God has called us to bear fruit not just feed off the vine.
Luke 13:6-9
6 He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
7 "Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ’Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’
8 "But he answered and said to him, ’Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.
9 ’And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ "
Matt 3:10 "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
