Bearing fruit!

How do we bear fruit?

John 15:1-17; Romans 8:29-33; Gal 5:22-23; Mark 11:12-25

First a bit of business, I would like to standardize the way you all get messages from me about what we will be studying Sundays. Some folks don’t get or check emails, but I think everyone gets texts. I would like to start sending a text message out to everyone that will show what we will be looking at.

I am writing this up to allow discussion about what Adams brought to us on New Years Eve. I want us to start out this year properly. There is only one way to do that. But I also dug deeper into what it means to bear fruit, and what it means to not bear fruit.

The Bible is clear on this subject.

Now don’t misunderstand me, Adams did a great job on this message. He made it deeply personal and it is. Bearing fruit isn’t something you have control over. It is a logical extension of being Christlike. We do not see the results of this. Other then how our fruit feeds those around us.

What does it mean to bear fruit?

What is the effect our fruit has on those we interact with?

Why does it matter if we bear fruit or not?

Lets talk about this for a moment. (read Mark 11:12-25) Why did Jesus curse this poor little fig tree? There are three reasons He did this.

It was an early bloomer full of leaves, but no fruit.

He was showing the power of prayer.

Finally, and most important of all. Because it bore no fruit, it was worthless.

So, we do not wish to bear no fruit in our walk with Jesus. There are a lot of parables in regards to this. We just don’t have time to get into all of them. Suffice it to say, if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from the family of God. I don’t know about you, but I do NOT wish this to be the case. I have a desire to equip, not only myself, but everyone who hears this message to be ready to prove that you bear fruit. Adams made his message deeply personal, to admit in front of people that he always felt his fruit was only as good as or less than others.

We have all heard the saying, Keeping up with the Jones. Our walk is not like that. We are each going to bear fruit based on our spiritual gifts. Just like the body of Christ, no two believers have the exact same gifts, they are varied so that we can help each other grow. The Body of Christ is meant to be a living, breathing extension of Christ who is the head of the church.

So when Jesus says we are to bear fruit, please keep in mind that this is a work of the Holy Spirit within us. Nothing we can do but turn our lives over to His control. Which is what we are supposed to do. It is my job, (which I take very seriously) to equip you and myself to be a FORCE of Christ. Now, what do I mean by a force? I mean this, we as christians aren’t meant to go out and physically fight others because of our beliefs. Nor are we meant to beat Christ into someone. We must be gentle and loving in our faith. By this, we heap coals on the enemies of the faith.

We do not try to get our way. We do not try to force our beliefs on anyone. No one comes to the saving knowledge of Christ at someones fists, but at their moment of most profound weakness. When we realize this, then we can truly serve and bear fruit as we were meant too.