What Type of Branch Are You?

Introduction

Bring a branch

Y’all know Jesus is da-Vine right? And we are the branches.

This branch, will it ever grow leaves, or fruit? No. This limb is going to decay and if I want to it is going to burn.

Now if it was on a tree still, it could grow leaves and fruit. How do you get trees to be more fruitful, prune them.

Branch Connected to the Vine

So most important part of this is we got to be connected. Connected is a relationship. Salvation is what gives us this connection. We are grafted in (Romans 11:17-18) Now we will be reflecting on our life and seeing if their is evidence of being a living branch.

Evidence #1: Pruning

What is pruning? Oxford defines it as:

trim by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to increase fruitfulness and growth:

cut away (a branch or stem)

reduce the extent of (something) by removing superfluous or unwanted parts

How does this show salvation? Who has seen a fig tree pruned? It would appear that you are killing it, but in the spring it comes back lush and fruitful.

Pruning in our lives is trials and storms. God uses these things to cut out unwanted areas in our life and dead parts of our life. Purging needs done in our life.

Spiritual trials are beneficial for you and are needed. Their are parts of our lives that hinder growth and the only way to grow is to have those parts removed.

Jonah tried running from God because of some type of impurity in his life. Ran from the call to Nineveh and slept through what appeared to be the sailors last chance to hear the Gospel. God put him threw that storm and in the belly of a fish and that pruned him. he went to Nineveh and preached.

Job lost it all, had it all cut away, but look at the spiritual fruit that came from the storm.

Evidence #2: Bearing Fruit

Love: How do you treat believers? How do you treat classmates? How do you treat those different than you? Is love evident in all relationships?

Joy: Do you live with hope? Is hope based off of heart condition or external conditions? No matter how bad things get do you still feel hope?

Peace: Are you able to find spiritual rest?

Patience: Are you able to show extra grace in situations? Do you show more grace than people are owed?

Kindness: Are you able to treat people with respect regardless of their character? Do you have a desire to treat people with good acts?

Goodness: Does generosity characterize your life? Are you know for being a giving person? Do you sacrificially give of your time?

Faithfulness: Do you show reliance on God? Do you trust God with your situations?

Gentleness: Do you handle situations with humility? Do you handle situations with patience? Do you handle situations gently? (Matthew 10:16)

Self-Control: Do you die to self? Do you tell sin no? Do you think through the consequences of your actions?

Evidence #3: Discipleship

Do you have a desire to be discipled? Do you have a desire to help others grow? Do you feel convicted walking by your Bible sometimes?

We should have a desire to get into the word. We should have a desire to grow. We should have a desire to be in the word.

Tony Evans Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More Than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking Bible, Neglect Of

THE PREACHER came to have dinner with one of the families in his congregation. The woman of the house was very pleased to have the minister in her home and wanted to impress him. She wanted the preacher to read something to the family after dinner. She asked one of her daughters, “Darling, please go and get the good book. Go and get the book we love. Go get the book we read every day.”

The girl came back with the Sears catalog.29

Better yet what app do we go to? What does our screen time reveal about our priorities? Read your results.

Evidence #4: A desire for God to be glorified.

You want to live a life that honors him. You are willing to say no to stuff for God’s glory. You are willing to make changes for God’s glory.

Broken Branch

So we have came to a picture of what a saved branch looks like, so now let us look at what a broken branch looks like?

Evidence #1: Withered

When a limb is not connected to a branch the leaves wither, the branch decays. Death is in it. No longer able to grow into purpose, just destined for destruction. Their will always be a new want to replace wants that are met. You are stuck in an endless game of seeking purpose in things. What is the end game? Happiness is fleeting.

Evidence #2: Burnt/Rotten Fruit

A broken branch not in the vine is only destined to burn. To face wrath.

Sexual immorality- Our culture is over ran with sexual sin? You struggle with these? Is your identity found in sexuality?

Impurity- Is your life characterized by sinful acts? Does sin define you?

Idolatry- Do you look for ultimate value in things other than God? Do things stand between you and your relationship with God? What is over God?

Sorcery- Does superstition control your life? Do you mess with the satanic? Do you make a deal with the devil?

Enmity- Do you find yourself naturally hostile to people? Do you seek aggression with others? Do you stay looking for a fight/argument?

Strife- Do you stay bitter and in conflict constantly with people?

Jealousy- Do you find yourself in a constant comparison game? Do you find yourself being possessive? Do you feel like things are always a competition?

Fits of Anger- Does your anger take control over you? Does anger have the reigns? Quick tempered? Is anger a go to solution?

Divisions- Is life characterized by causing discord? Do you constantly cause pointless division?

Envy- Do you find your value by how you compare to someone else? If so you always gonna find someone better off.

Drunkenness- Do you go to addictions to numb yourself? Are addictions your solution to problems? Addictions only way to clear your mind?

Evidence #3: Opposite of love…hate

Godly love will not be evident in your life. Instead you will be characterized with hate. Are more set on staying angry at the world rather than speaking life into it?

Evidence #4: Opposite of joy…misery/despair

Always seeing everything as negative. Always poor pitiful me. A life with no hope in it. This is as good as it is going to get.

These last two evidence i think are very evident in Breaking Benjamin’s Dear Agony album (If time permits read lyrics from Fade Away).