GRAPE EXPECTATIONS part 2
Last week we started learning about
the "cultivation of grapes." In order to have a maximum yield, grape vines need lots of sunlight, just the right amount of rain, and pruning at the right time. If a branch is bearing no fruit, the vinedresser picks it up off the ground, cleans it off and puts it back on the arbor. If the branch is bearing some fruit, the gardener prunes it, so it will bear more fruit. If the branch is bearing fruit, it must stay closely attached to the vine, so it can bear much fruit.
In this agricultural illustration, God the Father is the Vinedresser, Jesus is the Vine, we believers are the branches, and the Holy Spirit (by implication) is the Sap flowing from the Vine into the branches.
If you have been going through a period of spiritual "fruitlessness," the chances are that sin has broken your fellowship with God, so the Spirit cannot flow. Because He loves you and wants you to have an abundant life, God will continue to discipline you until you repent (confess, forsake and replace your sin with righteous living). When you repent, God will lift you up, clean you off, and put you back in the sunlight of His grace.
If some evidence of spiritual fruit can be seen in our lives, God will prune us so we can become even more like Christ. This pruning involves the removal of anything (even good things) which are holding us back from spiritual maturity. It is the Father’s desire to bring us to a place where we trust less in ourselves, and more in Him, where Christ is the center of our lives and everything else revolves around Him.
Since chastening and pruning are both painful, how can we distinguish between them?
-1. Acknowledge that God is trying to get your attention.
-2. Trust that God wants you to know if He is chastening or pruning.
-3. Ask God: "Is there a major sin in my life that is causing You to discipline me?"
-4. Pray: "Lord, if you don’t reveal any reason for discipline, I’m going to assume You are pruning me."
-5. If you can conclude you’re being disciplined, REPENT!
-6. If you conclude you’re being pruned, RELEASE completely to God, anything He wants you to let go of.
Jesus said: "I have come that they might have life and that more abundantly."
What is the secret of abundant fruit-bearing?
In John 15, Jesus answers eight times: "Abide in Me." To abide means to continue, dwell, or remain - to continue daily in our personal fellowship with Christ, to dwell in His presence continually, to remain steadfast in our close relationship with Him. So, abiding in Christ is not ritual, it’s relationship. It’s developing an ever-deepening intimate relationship with a real person, Jesus, our Savior and our Spouse.
What can we do to help develop this close friendship with Jesus?
(A-B-I-D-E)
(Have someone read John 15:7-14)
-A - Always read and meditate on God’s Word (7a)
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you..."
Not only do we have to get into God’s Word, but God’s Word has to get into us. That means every day we’ve got to spend time reading the Bible, meditating on what we’ve read, and then seek to apply it to the situations in which we find ourselves. One way to make this personal is to write down each day, one thing God says to you in His Word, then think about that word throughout the day.
-B - Bow before the Lord daily in prayer and worship (7b&8)
"...you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
Again, this doesn’t mean just rushing through a list of prayer requests, asking God to be your personal "genie." But rather, praising and worshipping Jesus for all He is and has done, speaking openly and honestly with Him about our needs, listening to Him respond to our questions by His Spirit in our hearts. Truly fellowship with Jesus in prayer (Rev. 3:20) "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
-I - Imitate His love (9+12)
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love….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."
Another way we stay close to Jesus is by seeking to be like Him in our relationships with others. It is allowing the love we experience in our quiet times with Jesus to spill over to people all around us. How does Jesus love us? He loves warmly, passionately, fully, sacrificially. Jesus commanded: "As I have loved you, so love one another." (John 13:34)
-D - Do what He says (10+14)
"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...You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."
It is not enough to just listen to the voice of Jesus, we must believe what He says and act upon it. We know we are walking in harmony with Christ when He says, "Do this," and we do it! When He says, "Don’t do that" and we don’t do it. And when we mess up, we ask His forgiveness and the enabling power to do it right the next time.
-E - Ever praise Him (11)
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
If you’re really close to someone, you can’t help but compliment them, praise them and magnify them to others. When our hearts are full of the joy of our relationship with Jesus, it can’t help but spill out of us in joyous praise. That is why our worship time at the beginning of the service isn’t just "a few songs to warm up for the preaching"- it is the time when we get close to the Lord in praise - God says that He "inhabits the praise of His people" (Ps. 22:3) Without the presence of God, there is no point in preaching His Word!
This Thanksgiving week, get in the habit of "EVER PRAISING HIM." That’s our part - passionately, wholeheartedly seeking the presence of God in His Word, prayer, love, obedience and praise. What is Jesus’ part? Just being there! "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." (James 4:8) "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." (v. 4).
One final question: "What are the benefits of abiding in the Vine?" What will happen if we stay close to Jesus? (even in times of discipline and pruning - especially in times of discipline and pruning). Four wonderful benefits:
(V-I-N-E) "Grape Expections"
-V- VITALITY (v. 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."
The branch cannot live unless it is attached to the vine. Even so, we cannot live spiritually unless we are permanently attached to Jesus by faith.
1 John 5:12 "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
-I - INCREASE (v. 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."
It is absolutely impossible for a branch to bear fruit apart from the vine. But when it is attached, the vine provides all the nutrients necessary for that branch to produce an abundant harvest. Even so, as we stay close to Jesus, He gives us the ability to bear more spiritual fruit. Some plant, others water, but God gives the increase!
-N - NOURISHMENT (v. 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."
The branches cannot nourish themselves, instead the nourishment comes through the vine.. Even so, we get all the spiritual nourishment we need through our daily fellowship with Christ. Everything we need is available to us through Him (Rom.8:32) "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
-E - ENERGY (v. 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."
Even the energy and power we need to live our lives for God comes through our relationship with Jesus. It is His Spirit living inside us that gives us the energy and strength we need to live in a way that is pleasing to the Father. And if our lives are not all they should be, the Father lifts us up through chastening or removes obstacles through pruning; so that we’ll have even more energy to bear more spiritual fruit.
I’m sure every believer here this morning desires these blessed benefits in our lives - we long for greater vitality, increase, nourishment and energy. Then what must we do?
- If the Father’s hand of chastening is upon you, REPENT - get rid of the sin that is hindering your ability to bear fruit.
-If the Father is pruning you, RELEASE- let go of anything that is holding you back from producing more fruit!
-If the Father has been producing Christ-like fruit in you, REMAIN- stay close to Christ, continue developing your intimate relationship with Him - abide in Christ and bear MUCH fruit!
TWO CLOSING OBSERVATIONS:
1. Fruit is not to be admired, it is to be eaten.
The purpose of fruit-bearing is not for our own benefit, but to touch the lives of others. Let your love, joy and peace overflow to the people around you; treat your neighbors with patience, kindness and goodness; let your relationships be characterized by faithfulness, meekness and self-control. It is through our likeness to Christ, that others will be drawn to Him! May we say with David: "O taste and see that he Lord is good, blessed is the one who trusts in Him." (Ps. 34:8)
2. Fruit brings glory to the gardener, not the fruit.
Don’t take credit for the Christ-like qualities being cultivated in your life. Instead, point to One who produced them - God, the Gardener.
John 15:8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
Mt. 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
"Let your big, juicy grapes be seen of all men, so that they may glorify the Gardener by coming to know Him as you do!."
~Pastor Jim Westervelt http://LovingGrace.net
gracefellowship3@earthlink.net
