Freed to be fruitful

Happy Independence Weekend.

Man.

God bless America, the greatest nation on planet Earth.

I'm so happy to be a part of it.

I like seeing your patriotism out there.

I see a lot of red, white, and blue.

So, anyhow, I hope not too many of you stayed up way too late last night letting off your fireworks.

Just an update: my dog is okay.

She was pretty shook for a while.

But anyway, a great, great week.

And I don't know if you were watching or paying attention, something we want to celebrate this week.

Supreme Court ruled in favor of Coach Kennedy in Washington State, who was told he could not pray.

So we can give God a hand clap for that.

They said that violates his freedom of speech right.

And I want to say something.

That's not the message, but you cannot stop prayer.

Can I get an amen?

If you can think a thought, you can pray a prayer.

So I've been hearing the devil long, and I was in 17 years in youth mission, and long and for too long has the devil got too much press on how he got prayer and Bible reading out of school.

And by the way, if you don't know and you've just heard that flippantly, any student can pray and read their Bible in school.

Okay?

And so, and just try to stop a teacher from praying.

Okay, so the devil's got a whole lot of press on something that really isn't the way that it's published.

But anyway, and by the way, on God's word, the Bible says in Psalms 119, forever, O Lord, is thy word settled in heaven.

So you're not going to stop his word either.

So let's give him another hand clap this morning.

God's just showing off the past few weeks, and I love it.

So get your Bibles turned to Galatians chapter 5 for the third week in a row.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

I'm trying to get past Galatians 5, but there's so much in it.

So here we go.

Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

This morning's message is free to be fruitful, or you could even write, if uh if you're the note-taking type, the ABCs of fruitfulness.

And I want to read that Galatians 5, 22 through 25 as we open.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law.

And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.

Now I want you to look while you're there to verse number one, which again is the theme verse for Galatians.

And it says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

And so this book is about freedom and how fitting in this series we've had Memorial Day, Independence Day.

It couldn't be tied in any better.

But you have been saved so that you could be free.

You've been given freedom.

Freedom from what?

Number one, throughout this study, we've seen number one, you've been freedom from being your own God.

You don't have to carry that yoke of bondage.

And here's the thing left up to you, if you were trying to find your own fulfillment of yourself, it's impossible.

So that is bondage.

And the second thing that we're saved from that he was pushing is we're saved from empty religion.

Fear-based behavior modification systems.

That's what the Catholicism got into in the 1400s, 1500s, and we saw a revolution from it.

And that's what was happening right here.

He says, the Jewish people were saying, you have to become like us to receive the gospel.

That's fear-based behavior modification.

If you do this, then one day you won't have to suffer through hell.

And so they said you have to be circumcised.

And Paul was pressing, that is not freedom.

He says, freedom is in a faith that works.

I came and brought you a new commandment.

He shared, we talked about it two weeks ago in chapter five.

It was love.

He said, Jesus came, he was the ultimate love sacrifice, it freed us, and law confines us.

So the last two weeks, he says, How can you tell that you're living in this new command, that you're living in this freedom, and the markers of not living in it was last week.

All of the things that we read through, the works of the flesh and what we just read with the markers of someone living in true freedom, it should produce fruit.

Okay?

And we're gonna dig into that this morning.

Father, we ask for you to bring us wisdom, bring us depth, bring us understanding this morning.

God, we have not met here for another tradition or ritual or to sing or anything that's apart from meeting with you.

So, God, I pray that you bring us wisdom, help us to understand your word, and God, let us leave here not being the same as we came in.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And so the first thing this morning is this abiding Christians are productive.

While you're in Galatians 5, I want you to turn over to John 15.

We're gonna be bouncing back and forth between a text there.

But in Galatians 5 is the fruit we've seen.

So abiding Christians are productive.

A marker of living in this freedom is productivity.

There's stories told of a great big lumberjack, Darren, who bought a brand new chainsaw, and he was told it could cut down at least a hundred trees per day.

And so he started on his first day, and he got cutting and going, and for some reason that he couldn't figure out, he was only able to cut 25 trees that day.

So he got back at it.

He started earlier the second day and went full on as hard as he could.

End of the day, 33 trees.

And he just didn't understand.

So he decided he was going all out third day.

He pushed him, pressed him, he cut his lunch break.

But at the end of the day, he only had 48 trees cut.

He took his new chainsaw back to the store manager and he said, Sir, you sold me a piece of junk.

The manager really couldn't understand what had gone wrong.

So he looked at the chainsaw, he grabbed the starter rope, pulled it back, and it roared open, and the guy behind the counter said, Whoa! What is that loud noise?

Clerk scratched his head.

He said, It gets a lot more done when you know how to use it.

We're learning about productivity.

Why don't you turn to John chapter 15?

John 15 · chapter mention

John chapter 15 this morning.

John 15 · chapter mention

Verse 1 says this, I'm the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Once you go to verse 4 and through 6, abide in me.

Listen to this, 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.

I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him bears much.

What's that word?

Fruit.

For without me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and they throw them into a fire, and they are burned.

So we see here what it's talking about abide.

Abiding in that vine.

The Greek word for abide here is menno, and that means to cling.

It's talking about a relationship.

To be a productive, producing fruit Christian, we have to abide in a relationship.

And he says, I am the true vine, and my father, the vine dresser, is talking about the relationship between father and son, God and Jesus Christ.

And so we need to understand a relationship.

Well, to help us with that, I've got a picture I want you to see of the plum tree.

They're gonna throw that up here.

Alright, so this is the picture of the plum tree.

I didn't know this until uh I got really initiated in Google this week about some fruit trees.

And so I'm not saying this is gospel, but this is what I found out.

Plum trees thrive in heat.

They're extremely hardy, they resist insects and disease, and they're good because they have eight to ten feet of clearance.

Alright, so plum trees are a good fruit tree to grow in Alabama.

I know y'all are impressed that you didn't know Pastor Rick was also an arborist.

Okay.

Um this is what I thought about though.

I am a ripe.

My sons, if you've seen them in here, they are of the right vine.

They are connected to their vine, and they can't even help it.

They can't even stop it, they can't get away from it.

They are connected to my vine.

And I thought about I yelled a few weeks ago.

I was in my house and I yelled to my kids, and I thought, after I yelled, when did my dad get in the house?

Where is my dad?

I just heard his voice, but it came out of my lips.

I'm like, what is happening?

You see, the fruit of my vine is that I can't deny who or what I belong to.

I abide in it.

That word means continually remain.

Married people here.

Raise your hand if you're married.

Good?

Look like everyone proudly.

Nobody went like this.

That's good.

So if you're married, this is something that I'm learning.

But after time, do you not begin to somehow think similarly to your spouse?

Anybody like that?

Heather and I will hit a punchline at the same time.

We'll get ready to say something, and it'll just come out of the other person.

Um, we use words that are similar.

We've seen things.

And have you ever gone to call your spouse?

And on the other end of the phone, she said, I was just getting ready to call you.

You even start to think about each other at the same time.

Isn't that interesting?

Why?

Because as a married couple, you're abiding.

You're with one another.

Your marriage is like that.

And I hope that when you look at my marriage to Heather, I hope that from the outside in you look at that and go, man, they're right together.

They're really right.

W-R-I-G-H-T.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know it's past Father's Day, but I still got dad jokes.

Galatians 3 says that we were free to be sons, children, and heirs.

So we're our relationship to that vine is essential.

In Galatians 4, 6, it says that because we have the Spirit of God, we're sons of God, and we cry out.

What do we cry out?

Abba, Daddy.

It's talking about a relationship.

And so all through Scripture talks about a personal relationship.

Psalm 68, 5 says, He is a father to the fatherless.

I want you to know today, church, you might look at this and say, I have a hard time when I think about God as my father because of relationships I had.

I want you to know that Scripture says he'll be a father to you.

Better than the earthly father you could ever have.

Psalms 27, 10 said, Though my mother and father forsake me, God receives me in.

I want to invite you today, as we think about this relationship to the vine and fruitfulness.

If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, it's more than a belief.

It's a relationship.

It's more than just a system.

It's not, and this is what Paul says, it's not rules.

It's not him up in heaven looking down at you and saying, you have to do this.

It's saying, do this with me.

And I'll walk with you and I'll talk with you and I'll encourage you.

It's a relationship.

There's life in the vine.

The gospel in ten words is Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

And he did that so that he could change your vine.

And once you get on that vine, this is what I see.

You'll begin to grow differently.

I want you to look back in John 15, verses 7 through 9.

John 15:7–9

We'll grow differently in that freedom.

Look what he says here.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Don't miss what it's saying here, church.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much, what's that word?

Fruit.

So you will be my disciples.

As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

And so he's talking about abiding in this relationship.

And this is what it says there.

If you abide in me, God will hear the prayers of those who do that.

He says, You'll ask what you desire and it'll be done.

Man, what a promise.

If you ask anything, he says he hears the prayers of the fruit that's abiding in him.

Psalms 37, 4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Now, don't take this out of context and go, oh, that sounds like Jesus is a magic genie in a lamp.

If I just ask whatever my desires are, oh God, I really want a new Lexus, would be nice.

Hear a context here.

Because 1 John 5.14 tells us something that we need to know about.

And again, there's a big if here.

If you abide, if you abide, it's a big conditional if.

If you abide in me and I in you.

But 1 John 5.14 says this.

Now, this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to, hear this, his will, he hears us.

If we abide in him, he in us, then we will produce fruit of the vine.

And when here's the thing with these verses: if you're submitted to God's will and you've changed, and you're walking in him, all of a sudden those desires from Psalms 37 of our heart change.

And if the desires of our heart are in line with God's will in 1 John 5, then what he says, if you ask anything in my will, I'll hear and answer it.

And I pray that often, God, I believe it's in your will that this person be saved.

And I'm asking God and I'm trying to walk in step with you.

And it says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

So I'm trying to abide in him.

But don't miss the big if.

If my desires are aligned with the vine, that's a big if.

But if it is, what a promise, church.

Anything that I pray, he'll hear.

Man.

Now, if my desires are not aligned with Heather's, you know what?

I don't get harmony in my home.

Husbands say amen.

I don't get a paycheck at the end of the week and say, Heather, here's your portion, here's mine, you go your way, I'll go mine.

We'll see if this thing works out.

Right?

We abide in a relationship, and therefore, because of the relationship, our desires are aligned and we have harmony.

Now, I'm not talking about little things.

I'm not like, hey, you want a shirt or you know, coffee or whatever, things like this.

But on big life things, our goals, our directions are aligned.

Our prayers are aligned.

And so hopefully, our marriage produces fruit.

For 17 years we've been in it together.

And I'm so thankful.

And I'm so grateful for the woman God gave me, and that there's a line.

I want you to see something in Matthew 7.

You know, Jesus liked to use this illustration of fruit.

And so there's something to be learned.

Matthew chapter 7, verse 16 through 18.

Matthew 7:16–18

I want you to see what it says.

Here it is.

You will know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes from thornbrushes, bushes, or figs from thistles?

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Makes sense, right?

Apple trees don't produce oranges.

Anybody ever grabbed an apple off of an orange tree?

I didn't think so.

And so what we see is the fruit of our vine, when we abide in him, we should begin to look a little more like Jesus.

Our actions should begin to look a little less like that list from last week and a little more.

I'm not saying we don't have a slip-up, we talked over that.

But we don't have a practice of those sins.

It's not a life practice.

And what we do begin to have a practice of is these fruits of the Spirit.

And I need you to know, we'll talk about it in a minute.

They are plural, but they're singular.

All of the fruits of the Spirit should become a part of the abiding person who's in the vine.

And so, by the way, if you're married today and you're looking at your goals, if you want to be more fruitful in your marriage, then stop being so individual and be more together.

You'll be fruitful that way.

And so God hears the prayers we've seen of those who bear fruit.

Fruit production, as we look through John, there proves discipleship.

And he says this in verse 11.

We don't have to turn back.

He says, I did this in you so that your joy would be full.

He wants you here to be as full as you can be.

Living the Christian life.

If you abide in him in that vine, he says, you will be joyful.

Amen for people that have joy.

Man, it's a world of negativity out there.

I hear people all the time.

I hear people because I don't listen to it anyway, but I can't even watch the news anymore, brother.

I have never watched the news.

I'm just being straight up honest.

Any information I get is from other people.

I do not subject myself to that much negativity.

All right.

Ever since COVID, I've been pretty much Facebook free.

Because when that started, after two days of everybody's stuff, I'm like, oh my, I can't live in this.

The world is about to die.

Like, I'm just gonna be happy and blissful about it.

Blissfully unaware if I gotta be.

Alright?

And so, listen, I understand joyful people, man.

Thank God.

Man, you probably were greeted by somebody this morning.

Man, thank God for joy-filled people.

You know what?

It's a fruit.

And God says, that's what I want to do in you.

If you're having a hard time being that, you better check your relationship in the vine.

Second thing this morning is this budding Christians are pruned.

They're pruned.

I need you to go back to that uh John 15 to see this.

But when you look at that plum tree that I pointed out, um they gave some ideas in case some of you are gonna run out right after this and buy one, um, for pruning.

And it's that you prune them to three to four major branches at a 45-degree angle, and what happens is it allows lots of sunlight and air into the tree.

Um, the best time for it is spring, and what it does, listen to this, I'm getting to a point.

It enables the tree's wounds to heal before disease can strike.

Now look at John 15, verse 2.

John 15:2

Every branch in me, listen to this, that does not bear fruit.

So they're in him, it's talking to Christians, people that know him.

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.

So what's he saying?

Every branch that does not bear fruit, he says he takes away.

Matthew 13, that uses the same illustration, says, Every tree that is in fact in him, but is not in obedience to him, not abiding in the continuance of the Spirit, is hewn down, taken down.

What does that mean?

So it's a Christian in him.

What he's saying, if you don't abide in me, now I want you to abide, because I want you to have joy, and I want you to be fruitful.

But if you don't, this is what we're told, that he'll take it away.

And Barnes' commentary said, how does that happen?

He says a few things can happen.

One, suffering them to fall into the temptation that they're following.

God will allow you for a season to fall away into the thing, maybe that flesh thing that we talked about last week, for a season, suffering you to allowing you to have that fall.

Secondly, by persecution from the world.

And says, if it goes far enough, even death, Barnes said.

So this word here, we're admonished by the Lord in John verse 2.

We're admonishing, and that word is a warning.

It's a word of warning.

Um, I got another picture you need to see.

This picture is of Goldie.

Um, this is not the same, but it's a replica picture of my old van.

Callie, you see that?

Yeah, she she's she didn't like that, okay?

Um this van was necessary.

I never liked it.

Okay.

It was necessary in my life.

This was my ride.

Soccer mom van and all.

We had a little Ford Focus and we had to get places, and that was not working for children.

Okay?

So this was my ride, and it got to a point.

I'd sunk money in it, sunk money, trying to keep it alive.

And it got to the point where things were popping up on the dashboard, and I just ignored it.

That's a light.

What else is new?

We've had light upon light upon light.

It got the teenagers we use this often, and teenagers we had a two-liter bottle they had left in there.

It froze over the winter and exploded, hit the roof, and so it looked like I had a disco ball or ceiling, you know, never, whatever, a mirror broke.

You would get in the car, Joe remembered this, and it would make I would drop off students.

I would have early morning breakfast and then drop them off to school.

And when you went to open the door, the lock system had this loud buzzing noise for whatever reason.

It would go brmm.

So I would like unlock it and lock it while they were walking, trying to embarrass them in front of all their friends.

I'm like, this is, I mean, there were things I loved about it.

Um, but the dashboard looked like lights lit off in Las Vegas.

I'm telling you, like a slot machine something.

And so it got to the point where all the warnings were there, and I was just like, I don't even care.

I'm not gonna spend one more dollar because it takes me seven blocks to work and back.

And so um I was explaining before we came here to this church, I was explaining that to someone, and I said, I really don't know if I know it won't make it here driving.

I said, I'm trying to figure out if I should put it on a trailer and drag.

And the person I talked to said, nah, just leave it, just leave it, we'll figure out something else.

But I remember that warning, right?

I did not heed that warning, and it didn't go very well for me.

I could not depend on that car to go 30 miles.

I could get my seven blocks back and forth, and sometimes that was a stretch.

But here's the thing I did not take heed to the warnings.

Now I want you to know what he's saying here, this admonishment was not talking to the lost yet.

But look at verse 6, because there's a stern warning given in verse 6.

He says, If anyone does not abide in me, does not, he's cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they're burned.

And so the stern warning about anyone who does not, who decides I am not going to enter a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's not gonna be my vine, he says, they're cast out.

Cast into fire, he says, and burn, church.

This is a deeper warning than just fruit people that have issues with being fruitful.

He says, you have no relationship, and no relationship within that vine means hell.

I don't want you to prance through and just overlook the flashing signals on the dashboard.

If you don't belong to the vine today, it's terrifying.

It's a dead branch.

Psalms 127.1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Without Christ, it says they labor in vain.

It's vain.

You know what vain means?

It's pointless, it's useless.

And he says, that branch is cast aside, it's thrown into a fire.

Man, I'm telling you, church, one thing I don't want at the end of my life is that when it's looked back upon, that they say, man, that was useless.

That was worthless, that was empty, valueless.

That person was elevator music to life.

We know they were here, we know they're gone, but they missed God's purpose and plan for their life.

Dead.

Well, he continues on.

The rest of that verse, the assessment of the Lord that we see is this.

He says, He, look at verse 2, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

This is talking about people again in the vine.

He says, He'll take them away, he'll allow them persecution, allow them to suffer, allow them even to death.

But he says, He also prunes every tree that does bear fruit, he prunes.

God is at work, church, of your life and circumstances, refining the person that you are.

I'm sure that as you sit here, you go, I'm not the person that I once was.

And so you can look back and see times of pruning in your life, and I'm not saying all of them felt good.

Pruning does this, it removes dead, damage, or dry materials.

You hearing that?

Think about spiritually so that you can open up to the vine so that you can have sun and water to create new growth.

I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12 for a second.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Turn with me to Hebrews.

New growth.

Hebrews 12.

We're gonna read a few verses here.

Verse 6, that's where we'll start.

Listen to what it says.

For the whom the Lord loves, he chastens.

Underline that word.

He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.

For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

Or think of the word correct.

But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate.

You want to know whether or not you're a Christian or not?

Does God correct your wrong behavior?

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect.

Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of the Spirits and live?

For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, talking about the fathers, but he for our prophet that we may be partakers of his holiness.

Now listen to this.

Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.

Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceful, what's that word?

Fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Okay, he's talking about becoming fruitful.

Nobody goes, man, I've been suffering for three weeks.

I feel empty.

This is awesome.

Right?

I know that James says, count it all joy when I go through various trials.

And I struggle with that, but it's real rare that something goes wrong, or we're having a hard time with the kids, and I go, baby, isn't this great?

I'm counting the joy, aren't you?

High five, another day of treachery.

Amen.

He says, for nobody, for nobody does it seem good during that season.

But chastening, that word in the Greek is padiah.

Okay, and it's subtly different from the word chastise.

Chastising is to inflict pain.

But padiah means to suffer for training, to suffer for instruction and betterment.

And this is what it says in Galatians 5, 24, right after that fruit verse.

It says, they that Christ have crucified in the flesh.

The people that can do this, that can be fruitful in the vine, are they that are crucified in their flesh.

Now that don't miss the word.

The Greek for that crucify there is staru.

That means to extinguish my desires.

I have to suffer this flesh, this man, these wants, so that I can be fruitful.

I have to suffer these desires for advancement.

And this is what Hebrews said.

If I will go through that chastisement, if I will be pruned, I will be open to more sunlight, I will be open to watering of the word, I will be open, and what the change that is created is a better me, a more fruitful me.

So when you have gone through adversity, I know that it's hard, and none of you wakes up and goes, This is awesome.

But I want you to understand, you're corrected, you're chastised because God wants better for you and he believes better can be had in you, just like you are with your children.

I was thinking about, I've been going to teen camp now for 17 years, and uh my very first teen camp, wow, was a learning experience.

We got on the bus, I was pumped, everybody was pumped, we were gonna go, 55 kids, uh, big coach bus, had my CDL, so I was driving part of the time.

Well, we got about an hour and a half down the road, and we had a kid who was diabetic, and her mom forgot to pack the insulin and the machine and all this, and she's over there, I mean, doing things.

I have no idea.

You gotta understand, I'm a 23-year-old youth pastor at the time, and I do not know what to do.

So I'm looking to all these adults who I've known for a month, and I'm like, what do we do?

And so we go off, and this is before GPS and all this.

So we go off somewhere in Kentucky looking for a Walgreens in a coach bus, running the mountains.

And finally, after 40 minutes, we get this thing, and we're I don't even know what all we did.

We get the machine, somebody's dumping Skittles down her throat, you know, like, get healthy again.

So we get past that.

Well, an hour later, the bus broke down.

I'm like, yay, count it all joy.

When the bus broke down, now we didn't know this at the time, but Heather was very early pregnant with Callie.

So she was dealing with stuff.

Y'all women, you know the stuff.

I don't know.

She was dealing with stuff.

So we break down.

There's two windows on this coach bus, okay, that can open.

And the AC went when we broke down.

And we are headed to Jacksonville, Florida, which was supposed to be 16 hours, turned out to be 26.

And so we make our trip, we get down there, and no AC the whole ride, and we're in like 100 and whatever degrees in Florida.

Heather is dying, and I really don't know why.

I'm like, can you get your act together?

Count it all joy.

And so we we get there, and now going through the trip, we left at 12 o'clock on Sunday.

We arrived at like 10 o'clock the next day, Monday.

We've got a full day to go to, get there, and I have not sleeped.

I'm 40 hours without sleep so far.

And and and we're sitting in service, and I had forgotten all about some of my own stuff.

So the Friday before I played softball and I slid and opened up my leg.

I slid a second time because you gotta win in church league softball.

And and and I've been peroxiding it and all this, and just really didn't pay attention, drove a lot of this trip.

We're sitting in service 40 hours without sleep, and my wife points down at a foot, and she's like, Look.

And I'm like, look at that guy's foot.

It looks like the nutty professor's foot.

It's like and she's like, That's your foot, and I'm like, What?

And so we, after 40 hours without sleep, we end up in the Mayo clinic, and they're giving me MRI and x-rays, and I'm like, you can see it's not a bone, it's the skin.

And we spent two, three.

I don't even know.

I don't even know what happened.

It's such a blur.

Okay.

So we finally get back to camp, and and by the end of the week, look, I couldn't get a kid to give a testimony.

I'm like, what did you think about your week?

You don't want to know.

I'm like, okay.

We went to camp this year, let me tell you.

This is how far it's grown.

We get there, and and and our and our thought process for next year is I might bring a mini fridge next year.

We packed three large coolers, have 300 extra wires.

We're on the green team, we've got bandanas and all kinds of green things.

We're very well equipped.

We might bring a microwave because the food is moderately edible at camp.

So we have done so much camp, and here's the thing: we have learned lots of bad lessons.

I've had to experience great distresses so that I could grow.

Are you with me, church?

I know what not to do.

Okay?

I know if a girl is diabetic, we are bringing everything, maybe even a nurse.

I have learned through great distresses.

And here's the deal: in my life, I've learned within this system to develop a deep intimacy to the vine.

Periodically, for me, I require dead, damaged, and dried-up leaves to be cut so I can get a healthy dose of sunlight.

So I can get new perspective.

What returns in me is brighter and stronger and deeper than what was there prior when I've gone through this.

Now I don't love it.

I will say this it's become a proof to me of my dependence upon God.

Because the difference is I used to get really flustered and disconcerted in the situation, and now this is what I know about me.

My composure is a lot healthier.

I don't get all tore up about a bad circumstance.

But praise God, when I think about that, I'm not who I used to be.

God has grown me, even if I didn't like it.

When I'm chastened, I'm okay.

I don't want it, but God knows I need it.

And would you raise your hand if you're like me?

I'm a work in progress.

And I know that.

Lastly, crucifying Christians are pleasing.

Go back to Galatians.

Verse 22 through 25.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there's no law.

And those who are Christ, listen to this.

Those who are Christ, if you are Christ, you have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So if we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.

Now it's important that you understand here that the fruit, I said earlier, plural fruit, look at what it says.

Don't miss it.

But the fruit of the Spirit is.

If you're reading a plural, it should say the fruit of the Spirit are, right?

Fruit is plural here, but it's singular, and he was pointing out this that these are not separate virtues.

You have to staple them together as collective evidence of Christ in you.

So you can't say, well, I'm good on two of them.

But there's another group there that I'm not so good about.

It's collective evidence.

If he's in you, the fruit will all begin to surface on the vine.

Again, in the vine.

Now, sometimes what happens here is people, you know, confuse personality traits to spiritual fruits.

They go, well, that person is kind of like stoic by nature.

Um, and the person might look at them and say, they must be patient.

Like, that's not what we're talking about.

It's not about personality.

Your personality is not what we're talking about.

The type of person that your bent is.

We're talking about the fruit that's produced in you, and it should be all of these fruits.

Okay, we're not talking about a spiritual gift.

A spiritual gift is an area where God has given you that in specific so that you can use that.

We're talking about a fruit, and he's saying a fruit, all of it, for every Christian, we should be fruitful.

Where Jesus Christ is, all fruits grow.

Well, let's quickly look at these fruits.

Okay, there's three groups of them, and we'll run through them.

There's the inwardly pleasing to the Lord, fruits.

There's the outwardly pleasing to the Lord fruits.

And you don't have it in your notes, so I'm sorry, OCD folks, this added later.

There's onwardly pleasing to the Lord fruits.

The inwardly pleasing to the Lord fruits are this love, joy, and peace.

So one of the most difficult texts in all the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, 3, says that you can be burned at the stake, that everything outside of you that you do can be noise, a clanging symbol if it is without love.

It says you can have faith to tell a mountain to move without love, it's nothing.

It says it's the empty noise, it's a banging symbol without love.

And so he says, to start this group of fruits, you have to inwardly be a person that is fruitfully loving.

Without love, they're nullified.

And the word is not arrows, it's not romance, it's not friendship, it's agape, and that is a sacrifice.

And that's what we've been talking about.

To sacrifice in love means I have to put myself behind me and choose to work on the desires of someone else in my life, to esteem others better than myself, scripture says.

It's vital that we understand the paramount need for agape in your life.

It means all the things that you wish to have in this self comes next.

And that's hard.

But to be embodied in the vine, we have to have love.

The second one he says is joy.

And we see in scripture the Bible says, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Listen, I talked about it briefly, but negativity breeds negativity, and if we're pouting and we're crying and we're just looking for another person, you know, and this is what I know pouting isn't fun alone, so it's always only fun if you drag somebody into it, and so you say, You won't believe I was misdone.

And listen, that's not joy.

Scripture says God inhabits the praise of his people, so we rejoice in him.

A Christian without joy to me is an anomaly.

Like, how is that existent?

It's like a southerner without a truck.

Just shouldn't be so, right?

Or a southerner without seven grills, Darren, right?

Just shouldn't be.

It's not right.

And so we need to take seriously what we're portraying.

Seriously.

Negative Nancy's, hear me.

Look, it's okay to bring about the truth, but how you bring about it sometimes just as important.

Man, you can make something happy, seem sad.

What a wonderful day.

You made me want to go jump off a bridge.

Joy! The next one is peace.

Inwardly pleasing to the Lord is peace.

You know, we're born with this flesh and spirit struggle called a war.

And at birth, sin nature declared war against our God instead of a battle.

You know what he sent?

Isaiah 9 6 says he sent one who is called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, Prince of peace.

He sent the Prince of Peace, and that cost of that peace, our peace cost, was the cross of Jesus Christ.

But listen to me, Isaiah 26, 3 says, He whose mind is stayed on thee has perfect peace.

Philippians 4, 6 tells us that we should be anxious in nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication, let our request be made known unto God.

And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

We are promised peace if we will focus on that vine.

Peace.

Psalms 119, 165 says, Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them.

You know some offended people?

Whew getting the word.

It'll be a lot harder to be offended, is what he says.

Peace.

He says that peace transcends earthly matters.

That's the peace that passes all understand.

That is the peace that we can be pruned through and go, I don't understand it, but I know him, and it's gonna be okay.

The fruitful Christian can get through all things because they're fruits of an inner man.

They're marks of abiding in that vine.

Outwardly pleasing to the Lord.

These are them.

Nobody likes this next one.

Patience.

It's hard to like patience.

The KJV translates the word patience, long suffering.

That sounds more apt.

If I'm patient, that's what I'm doing.

I'm just suffering long.

We wish there was a fruit called short suffering, right?

I could get that one.

Give me a few minutes.

A patient person, listen, is able to endure a lot of pain and suffering without complaint.

Man, I'm working on complaints.

I'm in my life, I'm hoping that this fruit will show to my family and people around.

I don't want to be a complainer.

So I hear things a lot of times that'll tempt me, and I have to just bite my tongue.

It starts to come through my brain naturally to complain or to complain along with somebody when they're sharing their complaint, you know, file in their complaint.

I lady tell me, I need to file a complaint, Brother Rick.

And I said, No, you don't.

I said, because Philippians 2 says, do all things without murmuring and complaining.

I'm not gonna help you sin.

I told her that.

She said, okay.

What should I do?

I said, file a solution.

We complain.

The Bible says that we need to be patient without complaint.

Slow to anger as you wait for God to provide comfort.

There's another word that goes along with that patience that I don't like to forbear.

Forbear basically means you gotta put up with stuff.

Anyone gotta put up with stuff?

Anybody got kids?

Anyone got you know some of those weird seconds, you know, the family down the line?

Family, you gotta put up.

You know what forbearing is?

Okay?

It's like wrestling with, dealing with.

You've gotta, it just says as a Christian, one of your fruits should be being able to struggle and be okay.

That's hard.

The next one is kindness, and I'm gonna lump kindness and goodness together, but Swindon's kindness is a fruit that deaf people can hear and blind people can see.

Kindness and goodness is related to selflessly acting on behalf of others in need.

Are you producing fruit of kindness?

Do you see need in your church?

Do you see something and you say, I don't even have to wait a week on the Holy Spirit.

I see it, and the goodness in me says, Go and do meet this need.

And then the last one there is self-control, moderation, constraint, the ability to say no to those old flesh desires.

That's when you see the fruit totally working through you.

When you can say no to those desires, sensual desires, cravings, and appetites, and we say no, we starve those things because what we starve will then produce room for what we can water to grow, and we become more fruitful because we're starving the flesh, and the spirit is growing.

But I gotta tell you, the secret there was contained in verse 24.

I'm about to wrap up.

He said, Spirit living.

Those who are Christ have crucified that word there.

Listen to me.

Crucifies is active and imperative.

It's active, it's not crucified as in I got saved and that was it.

It's crucifies.

And so it's daily, it's hourly, it's inwardly, it's outwardly, it's onwardly.

I'm crucifying this old flesh because the old flesh and Satan, this is what he wants to do.

He wants to dry you up, he wants to discourage you and distract you and deaden the fruits in your life, making room for the previously mentioned sin life.

So we must crucify.

It's active.

The next thought, the next choice, it's active in my life.

I'm crucifying that flesh.

When I want to complain, I say no, no.

When I want to be impatient, I say, I can't do that.

That's not that's not the right fruit.

And so I actively emperor.

It's not that, oh yes, I said I'm a Christian, praise God.

I have arrived, and I'll always be okay as a Christian.

Yes, you are known in that vine, but to produce fruit hourly, daily, I gotta say no to my flesh.

And yes to the spirit.

Spurgeon said this.

Hear this, this is good to write down.

There are no crown wearers in heaven who were not crossbearers here below.

There's not a crown wearer in heaven that wasn't a crossbearer here below.

So, how do you make that practical?

Just a couple of things I thought through.

This is not a text in the Bible, just something God gave me this week.

How do I start my day and become more fruitful, Pastor?

Just five quick things.

One, pray immediately.

When your eye opens up, pray immediately.

I'm not talking about you gotta spend an hour in prayer, but pray immediately.

Because immediately when you awake, that's when Satan is on guard.

And as soon as he can get in that mind, and so you say, God, make my day your day.

God, lead me.

Second thing I wrote down, this may be to me and not all of you, but second thing was this: walk past your phone and walk to the Bible.

Walk to the Bible.

You want peace?

Great peace have they that love thy law.

When you're in that Bible, number three, maybe it's just for me again.

Write down a Bible verse that you read.

Let it be a theme for your day.

Don't just check off a checklist.

People say, well, I got my Bible app in it.

Okay.

But what did you get?

What did you keep?

Keep something every day from his word.

Let that be a theme to you.

Let it speak to you.

Number four, you choose this day.

You choose this day.

And then you need to choose that next hour.

And then you need to choose that next choice.

Constantly choosing to abide in the vine.

And number five is this starve.

Starve all the weakness.

You have to make a choice to starve the things that are tempting you.

You have to say, I'm not gonna look.

I'm not gonna look.

I'm not gonna look at that image.

I'm not going to be an angry person to my children today.

You have to starve all weaknesses.

I'm not gonna entertain that negativity.

You have to starve it by not doing it because if you starve it, you'll leave room for growth in a better way.

There's a true story told of a chicken and pig walking to the grocery store.

It's not really a true story.

And in the window, as they looked up at the grocer, the sign said, Bacon and eggs desperately needed.

Chicken looked at the pig, the pig back at the chicken, and the chicken said to the pig, that grocer needs some bacon and eggs.

I'll give the eggs, you should give the bacon.

The pig looked back at him and said, Are you crazy?

Have you lost your mind?

He said, For you it's a contribution.

For me, it's the whole thing.

Listen, church, God's not looking for an egg here or an egg there, an egg here, and an egg there.

What God wants is a total commitment.

God wants some pork chops and God wants some bacon and God wants some ham.

He wants the whole thing.

He wants total commitment of the man so that through the man his will can be shown.

He can express the fruit of Jesus.

And wherever you go, people are saying, what do they got that I don't got?

I want to get what they got.

Because they are fruitful in their marriage, in their business, in their hobbies.

Whatever you're doing, people are saying something's different.

What God is asking for is a full commitment so He can abide in you in every way, and you and Him.