Serve One Another

This is the sixth and final sermon in a series examining our purpose statement: Gather. Grow. Serve. Last week we learned about serving the Lord, already we’ve learned a lot about serving one another.

That this sermon coincided with DRS Sunday is awesome. We’ve heard and seen how God has worked in and through his people in order to serve others. God’s plan all along was for his people to reflect his character, his image in the world. When sin came into the world through disobedience, that image, that reflection was marred. Christ came to restore all things. In Christ, we can reflect God’s image.

That’s the key, whether we are serving others on DRS projects, visiting people in hospital, bringing meals to others, giving our time, talents and treasures, we must be in Christ. To underscore this necessity, this reality, Jesus the analogy of a grape vine. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.

The branches receive the power, nutrients, strength, health and vitality from the vine. A branch cannot disconnect itself from the vine and hope to be able to grow and produce fruit. You cannot do anything apart from Christ. You must remain connected to him. From him, we receive our purpose: compassion for lost and broken people, desire to teach them the truth and help others by serving one another.

We cannot sit around and do nothing. God the father is the gardener who prunes the vine so that it produces fruit. Some people grow vines for decorative purposes. That’s not what Jesus is describing here. The church is not a decorative vine. God created the church to bear fruit. The gardener expects a harvest. Out of repentance comes fruit, Jesus says in . Repentance is a turning away from deeds of darkness and destruction and turning to Christ, drawing health, vitality and power from Christ to bear fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. If we do not bear fruit, God will cut us off.

What this means is God will remove from the vine, the branches that looked healthy and good, but are nothing more than fruitless branches. In cutting them off and removing them, God is revealing that they were not truly part of the vine to begin with.

God also prunes branches in order that we may bear even more fruit. God does this by putting us in the reality of the world we are in. There is brokenness, hardship, pain and suffering. Do not think that suffering is a condemnation. Suffering, is first, a sharing in Christ, who suffered God’s wrath so that we do not have to experience it. Jesus’ brother James says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds—for they are evidence of God’s attentiveness to us—pruning us to produce more fruit.

Now, some fruit is highly visible for all to see. We’ve witnessed many stories, from members of many congregations—all branches of the same vine—but the fruit isn’t only in the people visible on the screen. There is fruit, produced by a ripple effect, that we cannot see. The one who received help tells others, who tell others, who tell others, who tells someone whose heart is moved to faith, because that person sees God at work in his world, through his people.

We see people serve one another, not only on work sites, but also right here, in praying for the volunteers, for the work being done, for the gospel proclamation. Someone may seem to be less actively involved than others are, but are nevertheless quietly serving the Lord through prayer, through giving, through letters and notes of encouragement.

The fruit is seen in sharing Biblical knowledge through discipleship, through training and correcting in righteousness.

It strikes me as important to recognise that we don’t cause one another to grow, rather Christ does. As branches, we don’t necessarily see the fruit in others, but Christ does. The gardener, the Father, knows which parts of the vine are producing and which are not.

Ask yourself, honestly, am I producing fruit? God created us for that purpose. He redeemed us for the purpose of serving one another: inside and outside Christ’s body. We serve people in the world—through activities like DRS, home and world missions, food banks, community meals, etc. We serve one another, through encouragement, care, love, hope, joy and peace! Examine yourself, ask God to show if you are or are not producing fruit. To change the analogy, are you burying your talent, or are you risking it all by investing it in others?

But let us always encourage one another to remain connected to Christ, to produce a harvest of marvellous fruit. This gathering of people from many churches is awesome. We don’t often get to see fruit from other branches! It is encouraging! But please, please understand, DRS work, while extremely important and valuable is not the only work God calls us to do. It is good and right that we thank God for the work he has done and is doing through his servants. Let it stir our hearts all the more to see opportunity after opportunity to serve one another! Amen.