Fruitfulness

You're listening to an ex church podcast. We hope this message will light up

your day. Let's turn to the word of God this morning, and I

pray that you will be encouraged and greatly blessed. Turn with me, please

to John chapter fifteen, and we're going to read the Word of God together.

John chapter fifteen. Want to eat. Let's read the Word of God.

I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every

branch that bears fruit he prudes that he may bear more fruit. You are

already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in

me and I in you. As a 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 fruit. For without me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a

branch, and it's with it. And then they gather them and throw them

into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and

my words abide in you. 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. Thank you for reading

it with me. Fruitfulness. God's interested in the fruitfulness of his people,

his children, his sons, and his daughters. If you never knew what

the purpose of your life is about, I give you a word from Scripture.

Your life and my life is meant to be lived in the most fruitful

way unto God and his glory. Can I hear? Good? Amen?

Fruitfulness is what you and I are called to do and to live by.

All right, Let's look at three points very quickly about how important fruitfulness is.

Number One, it can grow, all right. And the goal of

fruitfulness is not just more fruit, but much fruit. Number two, much

fruit glorifies God. So wherever, at whatever stage we are in, know

this that even though we might feel that we have borne fruit in our lives,

God wants more fruit, and indeed, at the end of the day,

much fruit, because as it says here in the Word of God,

John fifteen, verse eight, we're ready earlier. By this, my Father

is glorified that you bear much fruit. So he is glorified where we bear

much fruit, not just fruit, not just more fruit, but much fruit.

So all of us have got something that we can take to heart this

morning. Can I hear good Amen? Because we just want to glorify our

father. We want him to be glorified. But number three, fruitfulness or

much fruit show that we are his disciples or have become his disciples. So

again John fifteen, verse eight, By this, my Father is glorified that

you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. The next light

says this, and this is a hard word, but I pray that you

take it to heart. Not just one who says he or she follows the

Lord is a disciple, but one who has the fruits to show if we

are truly following the Lord as his disciple, we should also be bearing not

just fruit, but much fruit. So this is a good asset test for

all of us as we grow. And you know, love the Lord and

live for God and follow him. I think it's important to not have a

definition or an asset test that we ourselves put on ourselves. How does fruitfulness

happen? Three points? And let's get into the message now. Number one,

the Bible says clean. You need to be clean. So let's read

again John chapter fifteen, Verse two. Every branch in me that does not

bear fruit, he takes away. I'm going to tell you what takes away

mean. And every branch that bears fruit he prunes. So that's the second

point that he may bear more fruit. Now. Verse three goes on to

say, you are already clean because of the word. This is what the

loving wine dresser does. And I want all of you to be so encouraged

today because he's the god of second chances. He's a good, good god.

He just wants your fruitfulness. He knew that he made you not for

nothing. He made you for something, and he cares for each and every

one of you in this room. And so he comes and he takes away.

The Bible says he takes away means he lives up. You know.

Of course, sometimes he has stuff with him. You know. He asked

one of the stuff, Hey, please please lift this one up. This

one needs lifting up. Casey is really growing in the mud, Caseye is

crawling, is choking, can't help itself, can't help yourself up? Come

hey, please lift lift it up for me and the other guy. You

with the bucket and of water. Can you please make sure it's washed clean?

And so it's being lift up. Someone is washing it, cleaning it,

cleaning the mud of it. And then he says, hey, it's

been the mud and in the darkness too long. Now lift it up so

that it gets hit by the sun. S O and son, the son

of God. So so you you, He lifts you, He cleans you.

You chok no more, and he puts you up, and he says,

now live again, now grow again, now be fruitful again. Everybody

say, okay, this is a beautiful picture. And so now you are

no longer in darkness, and you're no longer in the mud, and you're

no longer choking because you don't have to. And he lifts you up.

Someone in this room may need a lifting from the Lord. He loves you.

He loves you, and I just see him lifting you up, my

dear brother and my dear sister lifting you up. It will not be by

your strength. I know that often we don't have the strength to lift ourselves

up. Just like the vine, God is for you, not against you.

He wants you to be fruitful. Amen. So this is how he's

done. He cleans you, and so please don't ever come into a place

of uncleanness. What's your attitude, what's your mindset? Don't come to place

because the only thing that can stop us from growing or producing fruit is having

something uncleanliness. So stay away from unclean things and unclean thoughts and unclean attitude,

everybody. Okay. Second one is prune. Prune. So most of

you here here know how pruning works. You've done it before, maybe even

in your house with your trees. Okay, I borrow this drumstick. I

illustrate to you right now, my dear brothers and sisters, that we know

what pruning is for and God, that's pruning. But pruning is painful,

and that's why a lot of us don't like it. It's painful, you

know. You know what I learned from the lot. There is only two

problems to discipleship. Two problems on me. Everything else is happy. There's

only two problems. One is no. You see here, as a Christian,

we don't like to hear no yes because they are nos. No you

cannot, no, you should not. No, you cannot go out with

this girl because you're married. No, you cannot use your money this way.

No, you cannot drink alcohol that way. No, you cannot smoke.

You understand without no, there's no problem in this ypig because the ybiage

is always yes no, it's very painful. The other one is go.

Go is very paid for go and praise the gospel, amire. I'm the

shy type, you know. So without these two words, decipleship is the

easiest thing on the earth. You don't even have to be a Christian.

Okay, So let me show you how he's done. Number one, you

got to be clean. He lifts you up and he says, come on,

you know the sun is shining on you. Be fruitful. Amen.

But the second thing he does is he prudes. Watch it, watch it.

This is the branch and he's putting the scissors or the sheer. And

I just wanted you to see something. When he prunes you and me,

you have a choice, you know, to be either on this side of

the branch for me, is the left side for you the right side right

for me, I have a right side and you have a left side.

So here we go. I am in the middle and I'm about to prune.

I'm asking that all of us go through God's pruning and remain in the

vine. But a lot of us have a choice whereby when he prunes,

we decide to be on this side where it falls off. You're still one

branch. See, you're still You're still part of the branch. So when

God cuts, it's painful, right, So she said, God, why

are you doing this to me? I hate you. I don't like this.

You're not fair, all right, And if you can't deal with it,

you become It's still the same branch. It's still one branch. But

now he cuts, and we choose to be the branch that falls down.

And the Bible says, the branch that falls away, someone will come and

pick it up and throw it into the fire and it would be burnt.

Then you screen your head. What brunches is talking about? What bruanches talking

about the branch that fell away? But where did the branch fall away from?

It fell while the pruning process happened. I don't say where do you

think the brands fail from? It fell when he prune. But just like

you prune your tree, one part will fall to the ground. And many

Christians, without accepting what the Lord is doing in their lives, embracing the

pain, listen God only has one reason why he's pruding, and that is

to make you more fruitful. There is no personve and debta, can I

hear? Amen? There is no hatred. Yeah. I don't like kennec

Chin's face. Okay. I don't like the way you come in, you

know, and worship me only with one hand up. I don't like the

way you sing like you know. I don't like your language. I don't

like yours. No, no, no, no. God, our father

who loves us so much, only has one thought in his mind. I

love you and I want you to bear much more fruit. So we gotta

choose when I cut, do I be on the side of the branch that

falls down to the ground, or do I be on the side of the

one that remains in the vine. It's painful, God, but I trust

you. I don't know whether this is gonna work God, but I know

you love me. God. This is really tough to take, but I

know you are good and you also to me. Or it's I don't like

the way God do it by right, And sometimes it could be leaving things

you shouldn't leave, leaving places you shouldn't leave, and we think that you

know it's gonna be okay, but it's not. And listen because I love

you as our church, as people of our church. Here I want to

tell you this is very, very important. You actually have a choice which

side of the branch you want to be. You accept God's reel, you

remain in him. You don't accept God's reel, you fall away from him.

And you might think you're still Christian for many more years, but you

know you're not seeing the fruits of it. So God will prun. Someone

say amen. And it's painful, but the pain can be turned to gain

if you trust in the Lord. However, you know that trusting in the

Lord itself is painful because you never use the word trusting the lot in good

times, h Holley, when times are very good and you trust the Lord,

it's like given. You only use the word trust the Lord when it's

tough. I've never seen someone being very well. He trusts a lot load

I've never seen or heard is always in tougher times. But okay, So

the Lord is pruding, and there's a purpose to prune. He wants only

your fruitfulness and my fruitfulness. Okay, now abie third one a bye?

So was the three things three ways to be fruitful. Number one, clean,

He will do that. You can't really clean yourself, you know you

can't. God has got to do it, clean you inside out. To

prude painful, But I pray you say, God, help me, help

me to go through this pruding, because all you want is that I go

from two fruit to four, five fruit to ten, ten fruit to twenty.

God, just once you know you're good and my good. You know

he's not out to bring us down. Prude. Number three, abide,

Stay with me, say the Lord. Stay. The other word for abide

is to remain. Another word is stick with me. Stay with me,

abide with me? Okay. The slide. The next slide says without me,

you can do nothing. I wonder whether you're meditated on this word before,

because some of you, if you think hard enough, I mean,

it's a very nice word Jesus say is you can do you can do nothing?

It's very all Jesus here. But if you think about it, I'm

more you might get upset. No, what you mean, Lord? What

you mean? I can do nothing without you? Hello? You know whatever?

When I think about big names are like elone Mass he can do nothing

without Christ. Well he looks like he's done a lot. Robert Corp.

You know, I was reading his book to day a lot and yet God

says nothing. So ladies and gentlemen, brands, sisters is not my definition.

It's God's. God is defining that we cannot do anything without Him.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. If you're keen to get the

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week is going to be a good week ahead for you. God bless