Pruned for Purpose: Understanding Fruitfulness

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun in practical ways. All right, bring it home,

Chris, we're bringing it here. It is. It's Friday, man.

So I think of I think of like I like growing up, I

used to watch a bunch of black and white movies. Really yeah, yeah,

all the time. But it's just hold you are. My father likes

black white movies. So so anyway, bring it home as always. Uh,

the two people are on stage dancing, right and then home and bring

it home. Then one guys, he just does this, you know,

big, big, big, you know the big show ending or whatever.

You know. It's just really good. There you go. That's it.

That's that's what That's what I was getting at right now, that's where my

mind went, right, that's right. Well, hey, Jeff, today

you usually introduced this. I am very excited because this is everybody's favorite and

it's been a while. It's been it's quite a long time. It's been

like four weeks. I know, so four weeks, man, you should

be ready around to go. I've got so you can't take the full twenty

two minutes. Things that I'm mad about. So it is everybody's favorite segment.

What made Chris mad this past four weeks? No, no, no,

this happened like this week two days ago. Okay, all right,

so it's it's the first thing that came to my mind. So I was

in a restaurant that I frequent often, okay, And I'm not going to

mention the name of the restaurant because that'd be rude. But it was BJ's

and it was right next to Heritage, yes, which if you can give

the initials, I'm going to tell you the names. Okay. So,

so I order an appetizer, and I am very hesitant to place an order

before my appetizer comes because I don't want my food to come out and both

of them be in front of me at the same time. Are you with

me on this? I understand what you're saying. Yes, okay, So

it happens all the time. And and and by the way, I would

argue and say that, you know, a server is one of the hardest

jobs ever, right, it really is, Okay, is important, So

timing is important. So I do I do? Do? I do understand

how difficult that job is. I really do, And especially my son was

a server, and he's like, Dad, you don't understand how hard it

is. Right, However, when you choose to place the order or put

the order in, that's actually simple in concept, right, So you just

you just wait until the person is you know, pretty much done with their

food or or after they've gotten their food or whatever it is, right,

just just you know, that's something you absolutely have to master as a as

a as a server, so that that part is very simple. So violating

that part should not ever happen, in my opinion, violating, Oh yeah,

it was. So. So he comes over and he's like, what

would you like? And I'm like, can I try this cup of soup

whatever? It was actually like a bowl of soup. They don't offer cups,

so it's like a bowl of the soup and uh. And so he's

like okay, And so I'm waiting and then he comes back over and he

goes, you want to place your order? And in my mind I'm thinking

all this, but I'm not going to say it, but I'm like,

ah, and I said, well, I don't I don't want I don't

want to get the food too early. And he goes, no, no,

no, no, I'll make sure, and I go, okay,

fine, I said, well, let me go ahead and you know,

get this order, you know, whatever it is. Uh, I think

I were at a steak actually, so then so anyway, so I'm sitting

there and all of a sudden, I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, and

all of a sudden she brings out my soup and she sets it in front

of me. I'm like, great, you know, and it's like it's

hot, and it's actually, you know, not exactly like too hot,

right, it's like almost it's just right, so it's not too hot.

So I thing, Okay, it's gonna be perfect. And then all of

a sudden two seconds later, and this is the part that gets me.

It's not the it's not my server. It's a runner, right, So

it's almost like that person has no concept of anything else other than hey,

my job is just to bring you this stuff, right, and then sets

it in front of me, and I'm literally taking like my third bite of

soup and and and he goes, you want to cut into that for me?

And I go, well, not really, I didn't say that,

but I'm thinking, I'm like, I don't really want to because get leaven

colder, right, and then and then finally I ended up abandoning the soup

because I'm not gonna let the steak gets cold. So I started eating the

steak. And then he comes back and he goes, don't you like your

soup? And I said, And the person I was with was my wife,

and I said, well, I just had to choose which one I

didn't want to eat cold, so the steak won, So could you go

back and eat this up? And then she's like, you know, you

didn't have to say that. I'm like, I kind of think, I

kind of think I did. Said, yeah, well you have. So

you were gently guiding them on how you prefer to be served. No,

no, no, how your world prefers to exactly because nobody prefers that I

keep forgetting you get upset for the world. It's on behalf of all of

us. Yes, yes, so you are correct on that one, but

you have to gently guide them. Yes, right, make him think about

it next time. Yes, we should have a little bit of a gap.

Offer the appetizer at the exact same time as the entree. The whole

point behind multiple elements of a meal that they're separate right right as opposed to

that should have been a soup entree and a and a steak entre, those

two together because it's in the appetizer section of the menu, should come first,

and earlier, substantially earlier. Yes, yes, I'm not disagreeing with

you on that, Chris. I am in alignment with you on this one.

Yes. Well, I got to tell you, you know, I'm

so upset about it. We should like make make signs and just start marching

out in front of BJ's until they get it, start getting it right.

Yeah, you know, man, how do you what would the sign read?

Would make some slogan? Uh? No, entrees before the app's finished?

Yeah, apps first? Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I

first, I don't yah, yeah, I don't know. We'll figure it

out. Yeah, we'll work on that. That's right. So there,

there you go, buddy. That's what made this week well good. Thank

you man. We appreciate it, and on behalf of all the rest of

the people in the world, we are grateful for your rage. On our

behalf and the server who blew it. His name's Kevin, Kevin. Thanks

Kevin, just kidding. I was like, oh man, you're going for

it today. You were violated. I don't know the server's name. I

don't know the server's name. Okay, that's so funny. That's funny.

I was like, are you serious? Did you just go do this?

Hey? Listen. I always have a slogan, which is, if a

person is not nice to the server, that is generally not a nice person

usually that's right. Yeah, that's right. So I I am always nice

to the server, as nice as I can be. But just because I

happened to mention the fact that, like, hey, I had to decide

which one I didn't want to eat cold, you know, my whole family,

not just my wife, my whole family's like, why are you going

to say things like that? Yeah? I mean because the owner of BJ's

wants me to say that, right, right, the owner of BJ's wants

it to be an appetizer, right as you're about finisher the appetizer your meals,

and so does every human in this restaurant, that's right. And then

so they don't bring you your sit there BJ's. The big dessert is the

pazuki, right, Yeah, well I've had that once. It was marvelous.

Yes, So they don't bring that to you. At the same time,

they brought you your stake, right, because the ice cream and melt.

That's correct. So they need to be thinking appetizers right. End the

appetizer, entre, end the entree dessert. Right, So you need to

think of your appetizer as the dessert before the entree, you the puzuki being

the dessert after the entre. You should coach headquarters. Yes, give somebody

a call on the way, Okay, so we should leave that. Yes,

wasted enough time today, John fifteen, John fifteen, verses one through

seventeen another It's only in the book of John, but fundamental to Christianity is

this passage. So John fourteen, fifteen through one through seventeen says, I

am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off

every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that

do bear fruit so that they will produce even more. You've already been pruned

and purified by the message I've given you. Remember it remain in me,

and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it

is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in

me. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those

who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart

from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me

is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into

a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words

remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will

be granted. When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.

This brings great glory to my father. I have loved you even as the

Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments,

you remain in my love, just as I obey my father's commandments and

remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will

be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. This is

my commandment. Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends. If you do what I comme, I no longer

call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you

are my friends. Since I have told you everything the Father told me.

You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and

produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using

my name. This is my command. Love each other. Wow, love

one another, love each other, and produce much fruit. Right right,

those are the two things he's saying here. Yeah, So who is the

one that wrote that little Who's the one that wrote that little book? Uh?

Come on, it was so famous. It was their second book the

night before Christmas. I don't know on the on John fifteen, on this

Uh it was Oh, I think it might have been Rick Warren. No,

it wasn't him anyway, it's I have it in my office. I

can't think of the author. Anyway. It sounds like it was life changing.

It was. It was this. It really was. Yeah. You

know why because when it says he prunes the branches, that word prunes,

he breaks that down and he actually talks about how there's more than one way

to prune. So prune can mean to cut right to to you know,

to for for for growth, but prune also means to lift up. So

did you know that? So so it's actually it was actually this word that

meant like overall care, and it was, and it was it was the

two It was the two ways to prune a branch, which is to produce,

because it says the ones that produces that he prunes, that makes more

fruit. Right, And he took that word and he said, that's a

different, different word than the previous word, which which is to cut.

And he says that, So so sometimes you cut a branch, which is

you know, either discipline or could could seem like it's it's in the in

the form of commandments and you know, obedience and things like that, he

says. And the other way is to lift up, which is a lot

of times gardeners know and and vineyards, you know, vine gardeners know that

a branch will get grown in the mud and it'll be stagnant, and so

what it'll do is but it'll be a good branch because it's connected to divine

and they'll take it and they'll wash it off, and then they'll put it

up and then and then that branch will produce more fruit. And so so

it was it was both the seemingly more harsh obedience sort of angle and then

more of the gentle guidance and encouragement kind. And he really wrote it from

the perspective of a gardener's point of view, and and it was actually pretty

sweet because it sort of gave you the overall picture of God both challenging us

and encouraging us to obey. So when I was growing up, my mom

and dad bought a homestead. And on the homestead it had everything necessary that

we could provide almost everything for our families. Right, we grew all of

our own food, all that stuff. You said it was like a one

acre garden or something. Yeah, well, just the garden, our table

garden was an acre. But we had we had a small orchard. We

had a bunch of apple trees, We had some pear trees. We had

you know, all the the blueberry bramble and the blackberries and the strawberries and

the raspberries and you know all that stuff. But the big trees. We

had some cherry trees. They never really did produce. Our soil wasn't the

right kind of soil. We had a plum tree that was really great.

We had some a couple of plum trees. We had the pear trees.

And I can remember one my day. Yeah, they are, especially when

you get them just right right. Anyways, my dad would go out in

the spring and trim when he was maintaining these trees, would trim the apple

trees to the point where and I loved climbing the trees. That's always the

climb in all of our trees. We had hundreds of trees on our property.

So I'm always climbing the trees and get up in the tree, eat

your fill, you know. And I can remember watching him trim the trees

and go he just ruined that tree right right, How in the world,

Dad, you just ruined our trees and say no, they'll produce more next

year. And then sure enough, the next season come along and all of

a sudden, this tree that had good apples last year had great apples this

year. Sometimes almost too many apples, right, And it was because he

trimmed it back. He cut it back, he got rid of the other

stuff. So the tree can choose to focus on growing as branches. It

is what it naturally does. It just keeps growing as branches. It keeps

pushing towards the sun, basking in the warmth, putting out more leaves.

That's what puts all its energy. When it puts all its energy and growing

its leaves and growing its branches, it puts less energy into producing its fruit.

Right, But when you trim it back and it doesn't have the ability

to push all of its energy into the branch growing and the leaf producing.

It needs to produce enough leaves, certainly, it needs to have enough branches,

certainly, But if you trim it back to the right size, all

that extra energy will go into producing more fruit. So the tree doesn't want

to be trimmed back. The tree just naturally wants to go right. That's

what it wants to do. But when the guy who's cultivating it trims it

back right to the right place, it'll produce so much more. The apples

will be bigger, the pears will be bigger. And then I also noticed

after my dad trimmed the pear trees, the pears would be sweeter, which

is really neat, you know, So they'd be bigger, there'd be more

of them, and they would be sweeter then. And it's because all that

sap flowing isn't pushing to grow new branches, it's not pushing for new leaves,

that all that good stuff is going into the things so I really view

that as this with Jesus. Now, later on we stopped focusing on the

apples. We eventually just want to let our apple trees go. Now,

my dad cut down the entire apple orchard and built a new house there.

So it's really weird when I pull into my mom and dad's house. Now,

that's where I used to eat my fill and apples and pears, and

they're all gone now. But they built a house in there. But for

a while, we quit maintaining them. And at that point, they just

it got wild. The apples weren't as good. The skin on them was

always you know, it was speckled and kind of rough. It didn't taste

as good. And then it kept the apples kept getting smaller and smaller and

fewer and fewer, and finally we just cut them all down and built the

house there when we quit maintaining them. So we need God to cultivate us.

We need God. And so I look at my life now at you

know, I've been a believer for forty something years, and every once in

a while I start to realize, you know, there hasn't been any pruning

in me lately, Like like I haven't been choosing it myself. We don't

naturally go you know what I need to get rid of in my life,

right, right, But sometimes the difficult things in my life is when God

decides to cut those things out. If I choose not to, God will,

and he'll he'll prune those things. But then you said, the other

side is guiding putting the branches in the right place. So yeah, and

then the other side of that is we need to remain in him. A

vine by itself is dead, won't produce anything, So you know, remain

to me, because apart from me, you can do nothing. So so

not everybody grew up like you, and not everybody even understands. I would

even go as far as to say, and I have no way to quantify

this, but I would go as far as to saying, over ninety percent

of every listener listening today to this podcast did not have your experience growing up.

And so so you're like, oh, yeah, that's really insightful.

I guess that is true, right, because I'm not a farmer, you

know, but think about in the first century, everybody knew exactly what he

was talking about. So when Jesus uses this, you know, illustration,

he says, okay, think about this. And by the way, side,

note this is just came to thought. He leaves the upper room,

and they're heading down down the mountain, you know, through the valley and

then into the garden of Gasemine. Right, they're heading to the mount of

Olives and so and so they're literally stopping in the vineyard on the way there.

So this this actually most scholars believe this is at night, right,

right, So he's stopping at night, and as they're walking through the vineyard,

he pauses and he decides to teach them about what it means to remain

in me. Right, Abide in me. That's the big that's the big

thing over here. Abide in me. And anyway, so not everybody understands

it. Well. I remember being a youth pastor, a pastor of high

school students, and this was in the nineties or you know whatever, and

uh, and I used to do this thing every once in a while called

Destination Unknown. And it was a couple of times a year, three or

four times a year. And I was just I would just have a bus

ready and they'd show up for youth group and I'd be like jumping the bus

and then they warm, we just head down to it. Just this you

know, really cool thing. So anyway, there was this lady who owned

this vineyard and I remember knocking on our door and I forgot to you know,

plan uh and I uh And it was that day. It was that

night, right, it was a Wednesday night, or no, it was

Tuesday night. And I remember knocking on our door like Tuesday like morning or

something like this, maybe afternoon, and she answers the door and I said,

hey, your vineyard is huge. I said, it's beautiful. I

said, would you mind if we bring like sixty or seventy, you know,

high school students to walk through and I can just teach them and then

I would interview you and you would share your knowledge on the vineyard. And

she goes, she said, sir past pastor, she said. She says,

I've just worked eight hours straight, been up since before it was dawn.

And she said, and we have done our yearly pruning. And she

said, and so we have tied and worked all day. And she goes,

I am ready to collapse in this bed and there is no way that

I could survive. And she was a little bit older too, and I

said, please, so be in this young twenties I know, being this

young twenties person, right, I just had no compassion, right, I'm

thinking everybody should have strength in the resilience. And I said please, and

she said okay, And so she went and took a nap, got ready.

That night. I brought these kids over it like whatever. It was

six six thirty and here she comes, you know, like a good sport

outside the house. But I got to tell you, I learned more in

that fifteen minutes about John fifteen that I had previously in any study I've ever

done. Well, she'd just done all the pruning, it wouldn't have looked

like a vineyard, right, right, right, you didn't have the big

leaves, right, because she cut it down to just the smallest version that

it would still stay alive. Yes, well, I gotta tell you there

was. There was. There was plenty of pictures and plenty of things that

she talked about, how many bushels of grapes and what she did with them,

and she made wine and all these different things. And I got to

tell you, like it was just it was amazing. My mom is one

of the best kids workers I've ever known. She's been doing children's ministry for

forty something years, hundreds and hundreds. Many times her children's ministries would be

four or five hundred kids at a time. Just her on stage with four

hundred kids. You can just imagine how crazy was. But she's just riveting

when she teaches. She's amazing. Probably the best children's work I've ever known.

I remember one time we had some roses. We didn't have a lot

of fancy things, but she had a rose bush, and I can remember

so I'd seen Dad trim the trees and stuff. You have to do that,

but my mom was trimming roses, and so the people might not understand.

Trimming apple trees or trimming BlackBerry bushes will do the same thing. You

trim them down small and you get bigger blackberries. But my mom was trimming

rose bushes, and I remember looking at going you just killed them, right,

You just killed others. So anybody who's ever trimmed roses, you trim

it down to where it doesn't look there's nothing left. Right, But if

you don't, eventually that rose bush will go crazy and those roses will get

smaller and smaller and smaller till there's almost no roses. Right. But you

trim that down, and next year it'll come back and they'll be vibrant,

and the roses will be more beautiful. They tend to have less disease,

all those things. And so my mom sat there and she taught me this

passage while she was trimming them. And then later on we went out and

we cut a bunch of those roses, put them on the table, and

my mom retaught that this lesson and it just it's just in me because of

that, right, you can do nothing. And so here's this beautiful rose

that thought it accomplished everything. When we cut it apart, cut it off

the stem and put it in the thing, it died. It died in

a few days. Right, it's completely shriveled up. And that's what happens.

We can think our life is beautiful and incredible. Right now, look

at we're in all of our glory, and if we get cut off right

from the from the vine, we're gonna wither and die. Yeah. So

biden me means means stay in your relationship with Christ. Right, just be

be in prayer and be connected to the Holy Spirit. Stay in the word.

You want to you want to read the Galatians one well, I was

just gonna talk about the fruit right herein this is my Father glorified that we

bear much fruit. And what is that fruit? Galatians chapter five talks about

the fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace and gentleness and patience

and kindness and self control. Uh tewod Peter chapter one talks about similar ideas

being moral excellence and all those kinds of things. But then and Jesus is

tying here both obedience and fruit together. So what are the other great commandments

he gave us Love God, love people. And then he gave us the

commandment at the very end in Matthew chapter twenty eight, go and make disciples

everywhere, baptize them, teach you them to know everything I've commanded you.

Right, So it's in those areas that we should be burying that fruit.

So you want to measure what kind of If you're measuring hatred, If the

fruit in your life is hatred and anxiety and frustration and violence, well then

maybe you're not tapped into the right branch. Right. So there's that the

fruit coming out of our life should be more next year, should have more

love than this year. And so that's why God would go ahead and do

the painful things in our life to trim us back so that we produce more

fruit. And that's okay. And so it's interesting he talks about this thing

right after he talks about God's peace. It's going to be okay. Whatever

he's doing in your life to help you make more fruit is what he's doing.

That's great. Well, hey, that's our I'm and it's been a

good run here this week, and we will see you next week, hopefully

on the Bible guys. H m hm m m mmmmmm.