Are you a fruitful disciple? | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

All right, Allow me now to bring you the Word

of God this morning. And we are still on the

series of Disciple first. That's our team for this year.

And as I told you two weeks ago when I

took the poor bit, I'm just looking the scriptures right

now and just looking for every scripture that talks about

the disciples of Jesus. Okay, and in this case, in

our modern times, you and I we are disciples of Jesus.

Somebody say, amen, okay, so we should turn with me

to your bibles to John chapter fifteen, verse.

One to eight.

Okay, John chapter fifteen, verse one to eight. Okay, John

chapter fifteen. And the title my message today is are

you a fruitful disciple?

Okay? Or the slide can?

And the slide will say, Jesus is the vine, We

are the branches.

Okay.

That's what this passage of the scripture the Bible talks about.

John chapter fifteen, verse one. If you're there, say yeah, okay,

when did this?

I say yeah? Once again? If you're there, say yeah, okay.

Right, So I encourage you to just bring your I

encourage you to bring your bibles to church, so that

we can turn and fip the pages and read the

word of God to get there. Okay, so John chapter fifteen,

verse one, here we go. I am the true vine.

This is Jesus himself speaking in my Bible. The words

are in red. Okay, so Jesus himself speaking. I am

the true vine, and my father is the vine vessel.

Every brunch in me that that's not bear fruit, he

takes away, and every brunch that bears fruit he prunes

that it 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 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 fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If

anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out

as a branch and is with it, and 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's glorified that you

bear much fruit, so you will be my disciple. Somebody say, Amen,

blessed reading of his word. And so you can see

that in this portion of curture, this passage, the word

abides comes out many many times, I think nine times

at least, and if you continue reading this chapter, about

eleven times. So God is very serious about us abiding

in him.

And so.

This culture starts off by saying, I am the true

vine and my father is a vine dresser. So uh,

let's get let me give you some background of the story.

Okay.

So in this uh story, of course that it is

teaching that Jesus was speaking to the disciples, Uh, there

is a setup or there's a there's a backdrop okay.

And so imagine ourselves being in a vinyard.

Okay.

If I say vinyard, maybe some worse me thing was

that you know, the it's a vignyard is the one

that goes grows grape, grape vines okay, or grapes. Okay,

in simple terms you wanna understand, understanding today's modern terms,

just thing for garden, okay, just for simplicity, okay, But

you're basically in the vineyard, okay. And there are three

characters in this portion. I'll start with three first because

later on. So the three characters in this in this

scripture is that God the Father is the fine dresser,

the simple terms, is the gardener, okay, and Jesus is

the vine okay, or if you can think of it

as the tree the trunk.

Okay, here is the vine, and.

You and I the disciples, or believe us, we are

the brunches.

Very good, you're listening, okay.

So there are three characters in this portion right now, Father,

God the Father is a gardener. Jesus is the vine,

the tree. You and I, as believers and disciples, we

are the brunch. And so Jesus used this illustration because

in those days, right, many of them were farmers.

Okay, how many of you here are farmers today? Okay? Yeah,

since actually one of them. She's very good.

You know, with the farming, maybe I say farmer, you

won't raise your heller, but you are at least a gardener.

Okay.

You have a garden, you know, some of us have

landed houses, and you plant trees and vegetables and whatever

you know, flowers in your in your garden, right, so

in one way another you are gardener.

Okay.

So so Jesus used this illustration or this you know, correlation,

because back in those days many of them were farmers, okay.

The occupations tend to be around fishing, tend to be

around tank making, around carpentry, and farming was one of them, okay.

And so they could relate to this story or this

analogy or this illustration that Jesus is trying to use

something related to agriculture, okay. And so the Bible tells

us that Jesus he said I am the vine. Jesus,

I am the vine, and you are the branches. So

we are the branches. And so it starts off by

saying that Jesus says I am the true vine. Why

didn't he just say I'm the vine?

Okay?

So I want to say it the words first, there's

a there is such thing, such a thing as called

the true vine, because today you can find that they

are also false teachings or false perfets, or you know,

people who appear in sheep skin. You know, Bible tells

us they appear in sheep clothing, but they will give

you astray. They will you know, the c you So

we've gotta be careful. We know for sure that Jesus

is the true vine. Somebody say, amen, and we are

the branches. So number one, it's important to know who

is the true vine, and that is Jesus. And so

the vine is the source of life that produces, you know,

and feeds the branches. And the branch is connected to

the vine. Okay, But oftentimes when we look at the vine,

we only think of you know, we only think of

the branches. When you see the fruits, right, the fruits

are hanging from the brunch, never from the tree. Right,

So when we look at the tree, we tend to

appreciate the branches more because the fruits are hanging on it.

But how many you know, without the tree or without

the vine, there will be there will be no brunch,

there will be no value of it, there will.

Be no source of life to begin with.

Right, And the moment the branch is separated from the vine,

it is dead.

It's of no use.

There is no more source of life, no more supply

of nutrients, and it's of no use. It's useless. Even die,

you're wed, and even die. And that is a simple

understanding of being plucked to the sauce or the giver

of life. And all of us actually understand this. I

give you a simple example. None of us here we'll

ever forget to charge your phone at night. If that's

you say, give me a nod. If that's you, I

like that, or some of us like you do. You

don't mind having a phone not charge a night because personally,

for me, if I wake up and my phone it's

at ten percent for the day, I wouldn't make it

for to day. You know, my phone will not make it.

And it's hard for us to survive. Why because we

use everything with our phone today. We call each other,

we message each other. In fact, we make payments with

our phone. So sometimes I don't bring cash. I don't

bring physical cash with me, you know, quite embarrassing sometimes,

So now I try to carry a little bit because

sometimes the coffee shop don't take don't take a QR,

you know. So we understand that, we understand what it

means to be plucked into the sauce and to be charged,

to be recharged. Give it another simple analogy, like when

you're driving a car, you know how to recharge your car, right,

you go to a peture station to fuel or guests

depends which country.

Are They call it guests. Here we call it as patrol.

Right, So we never forget that. We understand that if

we are not plucked into the sauce and we are

not charged daily. That's why we charge our phones daily.

We know that, right.

And if you are cut off from the sauce, we

will not We're not go far. You don't want to survive,

That's what the Bible says. Without me, you can do nothing.

So if we are cut off from the sauce, we

will not be able to grow. And likewise you and

I also need the word of God.

They leave.

Somebody say amen, so let me continue reading Verse two.

He says, every brunch in me that does not bare

fruit he takes away, and every brunch that bears fruit,

he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are

already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you.

Now let's go deeper. What does this word prune mean? Okay?

So this word prune, the Bible says that he prunes

a brunch that already bears fruit. Okay, then means the

brunch to begin with already has fruit, starting the bad fruit,

but yet he was still prune. So this word prune

is katariro okay, in Greek is catairo. It means to

clans of field and impurity. That's what this word prune means.

Right.

Oh, I thought I thought it was like some cutting things,

you know. But actually, if you're gonna read, you're gonna

study the original word. It actually means to clans of

field and impurity.

Okay.

All in other words, it was says to prune trees

and vines from useless shoots out. That's what it means. Okay,

you're gonna study the root word. And so God the

Father is the gardener, or is the vine dresser, and

he prunes. Who would say prune? What does it prune?

He prunes us? You and I we are the brunch.

Amen.

So let me begin to give you my first point,

pete purpose? What is the purpose of pruning?

Now?

It says very clearly that when we already bear fruit,

he prunes so that we may bear more fruit. So

clearly we know that the purpose of the pruning is

so that we will continue to bear more fruit. Okay,

Because if you understand how they prune, and why they prune,

They basically cut off brunches they are in the way

that are useless, which was the meaning just now the

useless brunches or shoots, so that you will give more light,

you know, more access to the sun to those brunches

that are already having fruit. That's why it says you

will bear more fruit. You're already having fruit, but you

will become even more fruit fruit than before. Okay, so

the purpose is that we would bear more fruit. And

how many of you know as believer us and as

disciples of Christ, we are called to be fruitful.

You will find it all over.

The Bible that He causes us to be fruitful. If not,

we will be cut off and phone in the fire.

And we don't want to be dead. We want to

be fruitful because we are called to be fruitful. In

men and in our homes.

We studied.

You know, if you've been to homes this week, you

know they have We studyed on works and talks about

good works. We are not saved by good works. We

are saved for good works which the Lord has be

paid for us. That's the big difference. Get that right.

We are not saved by good works. We are saved

for good works that the Lord has prepared for us

and man, so we are called to be fruitful. I

wouldn't go too too much into that, because we studied

in our homes already. And the second purpose that God

loves us, and because he loves us, he wants only

the best for us. And because he wants the best

for us, he needs to run us. Another word for

that is discipline. Somebody say out, we don't like the world,

don't we. Well, let me point you to the scripture.

He rules chapter twelve, verse three to eleven. Okay, it

is quite long, so I want you to encourage you

to turn out your bibles. He bruised Chapter twelve, verse

three to eleven. This is the purpose of fruiting. This

is the purpose of discipline, because God loves us. Verse

three says, for consider him who endured such hostile hostility

from sinners against himself. Less you become weary and discouraged

in your souls, you have not yet resisted to bloodshed

striving against sin. You have forgotten the exportation which speaks

to you as to sons, my son, do not despise

the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged. When the

Lord when you, so when you are rebuilt by him.

For when the Lord, for whom the Lord loves, he

chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you

and ther chestening, God deals with you as with sons.

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

But if you are without chastening, of which all have

become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 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 spirits and life? For they, indeed,

for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them.

But he for our profit, that we may be partakers

of His holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful

for the present.

Listen to this.

No chestening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless,

afterward yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who

have been trained by it. So it's very particular it

says that even our earthly fathers discipline us. Right, you

and I know that, And in the moment when we

are being disciplined. We may not understand, we may not

fully agree, we may not see the full picture. Yet

I still remember when I was growing up, my parents

used to force me to learn a musical insument. Of course,

actually I picked another issuement which they didn't allow me,

but they forced me to learn one particular insument, which

is called a piano. Okay, And in particular they forced

me to learn music theory. Music theory sounds boring, but

I tell you, music theory is the foundation of music.

You can't get the theory right, you're not gonna go far.

So I hated it. I think I quite before I

go to the class, I don't want to go, you know.

And I just endured somehow, I somehow, and the ady

I took the past. The exam faced a lot. So

I have to set now music here. Grade five, Yes,

just as far as I go. Some of you have

great it, I think, yeah, I think something you have

great area.

I think when do you forget it from? Okay? Very good? Yeah?

And I think some of you even maybe vert them

maybe yeah. So so I already survived until grade five.

But I want to tell you, in that moment, I

couldn't see the benefit. All I knew was it was

suffering and painful, and I didn't want to do it.

But today, when I look back twenty years or thirty

years later, I thank my parents for forcing me. I

give you another example. My dad forced me to learn

Chinese when I was young. I hated it seriously. I

went to the so I grew up in an all

boys school. There's a government school and not in Chinese school.

So we speak English and Malay in school, right, and

I went for this extra class called Chinese.

I went for it. I hated it.

I couldn't understand a single thing. I couldn't write my

name in Chinese. And I dropped up from the class

and I got beaten by the teacher because I skipped

the class. And I cried after my father take me

up on this class. And today I regret how many

of you are like me, you know, so in the

moment you may not understand. Now when I'm going out

and I'm gonna be a you know, look looking towards

being a partner, right, I'm thinking to myself, I've got

to send my kids to Chinese school. No, because I

don't want them to go to the same regret that

I'm going to today, So I have to learn today, now,

you know.

So, yeah, in the moment, you may not understand.

It's painful, right, we may not fully understand, but we

must allow the work to be complete. It will yield

a peaceable fruit. Of course, in this verse, it's talking

about fruit of righteousness. It's talking about the price that

Jesus paid so that you and I can be back

concerted with him and the fruit of righteousness. But we

can relate to our modern day and our context today.

And so God loves us. That's the purpose of pruning.

Because God loves us and he wants the best for us.

He wants us to grow and to be more like him.

He wants us to be fruitful. Somebody say amen. And

so the process of pruning is never easy. It's uncomfortable,

it is difficult, and oftentimes it is painful. I can

imagine when you're prune right, the brunches are shouting out right,

it is painful. And so but even even though the

process is painful, we know that you will have benefits. Right,

And so the vine dresser in those days when you know,

sometimes it's winter time and there's no there's no fruits

that there's no I mean, it's not bearing fruit. They

were prune right, And sometimes they will be days in

our life that we go through the pruning process. And

there's a second piece for your process. We go through

the pruning process, and we can be dormant for a

little while, we can be stuck for a little while.

But I want to encourage you today that after the

prulling process, we know that you will bear fruit and

bear much more fruit. So if you feel stuck, if

you feel your like you're dormant, like you're in this

place for a long time, you have not seen the results,

I'll encourage you. Don't give up, don't throw in the towel,

don't say never, don't stop, never stop believing, because although

it's painful, we know that we will bare fruit after that.

The farmer knows clearly what.

Comes after the pruning, and he all he needs to

do is to trust the process.

Right, Ask every gardener who does it. They know.

So when I was going up, my mom would would

call me to come and do guarding together with her.

And one of the things I learned was that, uh,

you know, in in our garden, we have this thing

called weeds.

Right.

Uh, And weeds are not helpful for your plans why

because they fight for nutrients, they fight for sun, they

fight for water, have everything right, but we don't want

to beats there? And when when when I and when

I learned how to pull weeds in my mom, I

would just plug the top. You hear a sound, Yeah,

I think some of you know why where I'm going at?

Right?

Then my MoMA told me, no, that's not the way

to do it. You need to go deep in pull

until you get all the roots out.

Friends.

That is how the prulling process of God works in

our lives.

Because the pulling.

Process says, if it moves field field and you know,

rubbish or anything in our lives, right, and if you

want to get rid of it, you got to go

straight to the root of it, the source of it.

If you pull a weed right at the tip, it's

not gonna get I'm not gonna help because it's only

gonna grow stronger and even more because the rules are

still still are still connected. And likewise in our life,

that's why the pudding process is never easy and it's

painful because you've got to go to the source of

it and you've gotta go deep to plug out what

is not healthy or what's not good in our lives.

And sometimes I catch myself doing that. I mean that

process way by. I don't know about you, but I

find that social media as a huge distraction for me today.

I'm always on YouTube, on Instagram, on this platform called

x or Twitter, you know, and it's really a distraction.

I will confess to you. Uh, you know, maybe some

of you when you're studying, you also like that. I

still remember when I was studying. Sometimes we sit down

to study for five hours. Two hours is YouTube. You

know what I mean. You know what I'm talking about.

You know the distraction. And that's why sometimes we have

in our lives something called prayer and fasting, because prayer

and fast thing helps us to remove these distractions so

that we can focus on the Lord. And when it

comes to praying first thing, I always fast this social

media stuff and every moment I want to pick out

the phone and watch social media.

Read the Word of God in state.

I can tell you why you're finished reading the New

Testament at least maybe maybe you're finished reading the whole

Bible and cover to cover, because that tells us how

much distraction we have in our lives and maybe actually

plug it out. We have a lot of time for

the Lord. And so there's what appulling process does. And

so you and I real need to be prone and

cleanse daily.

This is what you know.

John fifteen says you are already clean because of the

word which I have spoken to you.

So let me show it to you. Second tim d.

Three sixteen or seventeen says, all scriptures given by inspiration

of God. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reprove, for correction,

for instruction, righteousness, that a man of God may be

complete or another version is mature, timely equipped for every

good work.

So the word of God washes us.

It's profitable for us, it's good for us, it cleanses us.

In fact, the Bible tells us to not be conformed

to the patternalty of this world, but be transformed in

our minds, be transformed bynwing of our minds. Amen, there's

the word of God. That's how we be transformed daily.

Let me show you.

Another scripture that talks about husbands and wives and God

and the church Ephesians five twenty five to twenty seven.

Maybe actually you can help me with this. Ephesian Chapter five,

verse twenty five to twenty seven. Now it says, husbands

love your wives, just as I also loved the Church

and gave himself for her, that he might scentify and

cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,

that he might present her to himself a glorious church,

not having spot or wrinkle or any or any such thing,

but that she should be holy and without blemish. So

the word of God washes us clean. That's why we

need the word of God daily.

Amen.

The word of God cleanses us. That's what the Bible

tells us. And so I encourage us. Read your Bible.

I remember this song when I was going up in

Sunday school. Read read your Bible and pray every day.

Read your Bible, pray every day. Pray every day. Pray

every day. Men, read your Bible, pray every day, because

that is our daily brain. And we will be cleansed

by the word.

Amen.

And so back to the pruding process. I thought you

was never easy. It's tough, it's challenging, it can be painful.

And in days that we feel like giving up, that

is where verse four really comes into play.

Verse forces 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 abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.

For without me you can do nothing. If anyone does

not abiding me, he is cast out as a brunch,

and it's weed, and they gather them and throw them

into the fire and they are burnt.

So he says, abiding me.

Friends, when you go through the process of pulling, all

we need to do is to abide.

Is that simple?

Think of a tree, right, the brunch is there, and

the brunch literally does not do anything. All he needs

to do is stay connected to the to the tree,

to the trunk, or to the vine.

That's all he needs to do. And that's what the

Bible tells us to do.

Abide in me and I in you, and abide appears

so many times in this culture. And a bide just missed.

The word is meno, and it just basically means to

continue to dwell, to endure, to be present, to remain.

That's what we're called to do, to remain in him,

to abide in him to continue to be in him.

But the beautiful picture.

Is that God does not only call us to abide

in him, he actually promises that he will abide in us.

You see that.

That's why you've heard us say many times before. The

Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship. It's a relationship.

And you can find many times in the Bible that

we have a two way connection. You know, God is

not somewhere out there in the heavens telling us this

is my command. Do this, do there, do this and

do that you shall you shall do it as I.

Say, not go away. I tell you not to go.

But this, you know, it's a two waiting.

God or Jesus himself actually tells us abide in me

and I in you. There's a beautiful picture of a

two way relationship relationship. Let me give you two other examples.

In James four eight, he says, draw near to God,

and I would draw near to you. Do you see

that there's a correlation, right, God is a relation of God.

An I don't wonder. I really didn't love this.

It's found many times in the Old Testament, but I

chose one of it. It's Jeremiah thirty twenty two. He says,

you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

You see that.

It appears many times in Old Testament, just in a

slightly different way of writing it, but the same context.

You shall be my people and I will be your God.

That is how amazing and how good God is to us.

Because he is a relation of God. We have a

two way relationship. And the Holy Spirit is living in us.

A body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. He's living in us.

That's why he's abiding in you and in me, and

all we need to do is to continue to abide

in him.

Amen.

Let me come to the last let Verse seven says,

if you're abiding me and my words abiding you, you

will ask what you desire, and he shall be done

for you. By this, My father's glorified that you bear

much fruit, so you will be my disciples. Now, Verse

seven says, if you abide in me and my words

abide in you. Did you catch that, if you abide

in me and my words abide.

In you, this word.

This word words here, okay, actually is if you study

the root word, it's actually radma radma word. Now, if

you're actually going in how to put this, English is

actually very limited in his language. If you actually study

the original word in the Bible, which I've written in Hebrew, Greek,

and so on and so forth, you will find a

lot of richness in the world.

Okay.

And this word word in Old Testament is the bar

New Testament because it's in Greek, it comes out in

logos and rama.

Okay. So this particular word is rama. Okay.

And so the word says, if you're buiding me and

my words, but you will ask what you desire, and

he shall be done to you. So when I was

growing up as a believer, right, I've always been sent

to pret this verse. I always thinking to myself a God,

I asked, anything I desire, you'll give you to me.

How many of you I mean you're growing up as

a small but as a young believer, I have said

this before. God you said, ask anything I desire, you

give it to me. How come I asked, I did

happen to I wonder how many of you growing up

you thought of that before? I think for twenty years

of my life I thought of it that way.

You know.

When I'm growing up, God, you say, I asked what

I desire. But if you read the context of the verse,

it says if you, if you abide in me and

my words abide in you, then you.

Will asked why you desire, and you shall be done.

So here's how.

I understanding today. When God gives us a radma word

and raandma is basically God's revelation of word, a specific

word for the season. And if God has given you

a word for the season, looke linus. God has called

you to do this, let's say. And as you are

doing it, you encounter a problem you know, or maybe

not an issue, but for whatever reason, and you say, God,

by your word, you say, you've given this to me.

So why now I claim it in Jesus and he

shall be done?

Why?

Because God has already given you that word for the season,

And as you pray according to dead word of the season,

you will ask what you desire and he shall be done.

And when you see the corelation. So today my understanding

of this scripture has changed. When I was a new believer,

in growing young young Christian, I thought of it differently.

But today I now understand that we need to be

pluck into the sauce. We need to hear the word

from him, instruction from him. And when we hear it,

when we pray the accordance to his will, his perfect way,

and his purpose, and the word that he has already

given to you, you were actually praying back the word

to him. You know that he gave to you. Do

you think you'll come to pass? I guarantee you will

come to pass, not my words.

That's what the Bible says.

Isaiah fifty five eleven says, So shall my word that

goes forth from my mouth from God's Mother, from my mouth,

it shall not return to me void, But each will

accomplished what I please. And it's possible in the thing

which I sent it.

Amen. And so.

Let me quickly wrap up with time. Let me give

you a big picture sort of. So we started off

by saying that we are in a vineyard, were in

a garden, and we may wonder where does the holy

spirit come into play? Because God is God, a father,

got a son, got the Holy Spirit. Where does the

old spit come into play? When you look at the

tree or the or the vineyard, you will notice that

there is a trunk right, a main tree, and they

are the branches right. So we now know that God

the Father is the vine dress sir, he's a gardener.

Jesus is the vine or the tree. We are the branches, right,

And so I look at it as the Holy Spirit

is the nutrients, the sun, the water, the rain. They

get absorbed into the tree and is supplied to the branches.

And this is why I call us the work of

the Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit is involved

in the whole picture, hence you and I ought to

produce fruits of the spirit. You see the correlation. And

that's why he talks about the fruit of the spirit.

That's my third p for you today. Product. And so

after we go through, after we understand the purpose of pruning,

we go through the process of puning, we now see

the product of pruning. And the Bible tells us that

the Spirit dwells in us. Romans eight eleven says, but

if the spirit is in Him who raised Jesus from

the day, jewels in you, He who raised Christ from

the day will also give life to your motive bodies

through his Spirit who dwells in you. And so all

of us ought to produce the fruit of the spirit,

Amen full of the spirit, founding Realationischapter five, verse twenty

two to twenty six.

So you can just put a slide of the fruit

of the spirit.

So this is the fruit of the spirit. Some of

us would be very familiar with it is. You may

have learned it inside the school you know, or you

may have learned it by reading. And so we ought

to produce the fruit of the spirit. And have you

ever wondered why it's called the fruit of the spirit?

Why not fruits of the spirit? You were wondered, is

there a typo? Okay, I hope they try to shine

some light today. Okay, It's called the fruit of the

spirit because there is unity in the fruit. Okay, there

is different expressions of a single unified fruit. You cannot

have one without the other. That is why it's called

fruit of the spirit. Let me give you another example,

and you make sense. Light has multiple spectrums. Why do

we never call it lights?

Right?

Because they have multiple spectrum but we call it light.

And I just thought of another example. Right, God is

one in three persons, and yet we call him God

and not God's You don't have the s behind okay,

And so it's very clear, actually, if you continue reading,

I didn't I didn't tend to share this, but if

you continue studying, Actually, the Bible tells us that the

works of the flesh, the karner works of the flesh,

has an as works by the fruit of the spirit.

Singular works of the flesh, many fruit of the spirit,

singular word. So if you study the original word, actually

it actually means corpos. Corpos actually is a singular word.

That's what it means. Different expression of a singer, unified fruit.

They must all come together. So love, joy, piece, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, genten,

and self control. I won't go into all of it,

but I just want to touch on one, which is

the first one called love.

This love. If you study the root word of it again.

The word lover has multiper different expressions of love in

the Bible. Go and study it. Okay, I give you

some hints. There's something called era's love. There's something called

philia all love, or actually it's called philia, but we

are more familiar affiliate or the action of it. And

this is called a gapey love, the unconditional love of God,

a gape. So if you go and study the original word,

this word love actually is a gape.

So love appears first. And I believe that of all.

The fruits, so I shouldn't say fruits again. You see,

like you slip our tongue. Of all the fruit of

the spirit, love covers all of it. And it starts

with love. And love covers all of it because faith, hope,

and love. But the greatest of this is love, the

Bible tells us. So love appears us first. It's a

deep sense of care and affection we stow towards upon

a person who thoughts all deeds love clearly reflects the

character of God, because God is love.

Amen.

And so as disciples, as believe us, we ought to

bear the fruit of the spirit. And let me just

read the verse to you, okay, relations Chapter five twenty

two make a point. Relationshap to five, verse twenty two.

He says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,

long suffering. My Bible version uses long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control. Against such there is no law. So I

read that, I'm like, wow, against such there is no low?

What does that actually really mean? Because there is no

law against all of this? Why because it's good. Not

only is it good, it.

Is of God. So there is no law against it.

In fact, I would suggest that if you have all

of this fruit of the spirit, you don't really need

the law because you would have fulfilled it. You get

where I'm coming from. So that's why it say it's

against these.

There are no law.

There is no law against this. There is no law.

So as I close, I want to encourage us. The

Bible actually reminds us time and time again that we

ought to be fruitful. Collos, chapter one, verse ten. This

is my second last scripture, and I'm closing already the

way she didn't cant be better to come up Colosure

chapter one, verse ten. That you may walk worthy of

the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work,

and increasing in the knowledge of God. So, friends, if

you and I want to fully please God, we ought

to be fruitful, the Bible reminds us. And so as

I was preparing this message, I was somehow drawn to

a portion of scripture that talks about the mustard seed.

Found a Matthew chapter thirteen. Okay, the parable of the

mustard Seed. And I find that this portion of scripture

is so powerful because he talks about the seed, it

talks about the tree, It talks about the brunches. So

allow me to read it to you, Matthew, Chapter thirteen,

verse thirty one to thirty two. So another parable he

put forth to them.

This is Jesus.

He put forth to them, saying, the Kingdom of Heaven

is like a mustard seed which a man took and

sold in his field, which indeed is the lead least

of all seeds. Some other versions will say it is

the smallest of all seeds. When it is grown, it

is greater than the herbs, okay, greater than the herbs,

or in some version uses garden plants, it's greater than

the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the births

of the air come and nests in its branches.

So I thought to myself, Wow.

Sometimes you and I can feel so small and so

insecure that we feel we are we don't have anything

to offer. I want to let you know, even as

small as a mustard seed, the Bible says it's the

least of all seeds. Another version says it's the smallest

of all seeds. And even with a small mustard seed,

it can grow into a tree greater than the garden plants.

So big is the tree it can grow and you

will have branches. Will you have branches, You will have

birds that will come and nest on his branches.

So this is how this is how I look at it.

We may feel small, we can feel so small and

so insignificant, like the mustard seed, But when planted in

the hand hands of God, and when we are plucked

into the sauce, which is the tree or the vine

Jesus Christ, we will be branches that were bare fruit.

Not only will we bear fruit, but birds will come

and nest in the branches, which is us. So my

understanding of this is that sometimes he just takes a

little faith to be used by God. And when God

uses you and I and grows us to become branches,

the birds represent other people who will come alongside and

who will eat the fruit of your labor, who will

be blessed because of your growth, because of your obedience,

and because of who God has made us to be.

And that's why the scripture says God gets all the

glory at the end of the day. God is glorify

a man, God is glorify. So I want to end

with this very practical step. If you want to experience

true growth, if you want to be fruitful, May I

suggest to you.

Just say yes to God. It's as simple as that.

When God calls, just say yes to Him. Because I

shared you many times, and I'll say it again. I

stand you, I stand before you today. All I remembered

was I said yes to God time and time and

time again. Has the journey been easy?

No?

Has God proved me yes many many, many times. When

I was growing out as a student, I learned how

to go through the pulling hand of God. I learned

how the Lord expands my capacity for more. I learned

how He stretches me. And all I needed to say

was yes to God, time after time after time and again.

And the greater our suffering, the greater our insecurity, the

greater weakness, the greater of disability, the more we feel

smre and insignificant, the greater the glory that God gets

at the end of the day. Because the friends, God

gets all the glory.

You and I. We just need to be obedient.

We just need to say yes, Lord, if we can

use anything, if we can use anyone, use me. And remember,

in the pulling process, all we need to do is

to abide, abide in Him, and He will abide in you.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless