How NOT to Grow Fruit

Date: 2021-11-07

Audience: Grass Valley Corps

Title: How NOT to Grow Fruit

Text: Galatians 5:19-21

Proposition: Selfishness grows when you don’t cultivate your spiritual garden

Purpose: Live by the Spirit

Grace and peace

In Mt 7, Jesus said:

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. [1]

20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. [2]

If we are recognized by our fruit, what does that mean?

Catechism of Catholic Church describes Fruit of the Spirit as “Perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of glory.” Or, to put it a little more simply, it’s what we produce as we begin to become who and what we were made to be.

Jesus used analogy of our lives producing fruit an several occasions to really bring home to those who follow him what he expects from us.

From John 15:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.[3]

Warning too:

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.[4]

Complete picture:

God as gardener, working to produce fruit to help sustain the world.

Jesus is the vine, established by the gardener to bring forth fruit.

The Holy Spirit is the lifeblood running from the vine into its branches, fiving them life and health so that they can bud, bloom, and grow the most and best fruit possible.

We are the branches, then, and the way we stay productive is to stay connected to the vine.

What happens to a branch that breaks away from the vine?

Dead or useless branches are pruned away, destined to be bundled and burned or put through the chipper.

Sounds like we really need to know: How do we know if we are producing good fruit or if we are dying and decaying apart from the vine?

Paul takes this metaphor up in his letter to the Galatians to explain exactly that. Head over to Galatians 5.

Paul is going to use a contrast to explain fruit. If the Spirit is life, then the things which block that or cause us to disconnect from the Spirit lead to death, don’t they? He refers to those things as things of flesh.

Not saying physical things are bad! Uses term Flesh as something that is different from Spirit. When people think of Spirit, they think of how things live. When they think of flesh, they think of how things die and decay. Paul lays these ideas side by side in Gal 5:13-15:

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. [5]

v. 13: Selfishness or Service, indulgence, or love. These are sides being defined as flesh or Spirit!

Key to understanding which side you are on – NOT the one you THINK you are on, but the one you are REALLY ON, is knowing that the Law of God is entirely fulfilled by keeping the command to love your neighbor as yourself.

Many people want to qualify or add to this law. Some want to deny that it’s even a thing! We need to start by setting up that this is what our Gardener wants.

Which is easy to do since he spelled it out for his people WAY back in Leviticus 19:18.

18 “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. [6]

Jesus not only confirmed this, but showed that it was broader than people had thought it was. (Matthew 5:43-47)

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor z and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?[7]

When asked who we should consider our neighbor, Jesus told a story about how one man acted like a neighbor towards someone their culture said was okay to hate.

He leaves no wiggle room, makes no exceptions!

Says this to his closest disciples: (Jn 15:12-13)

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.[8]

Follows up with this (v.17):

17 This is my command: Love each other. [9]

Gardener says, “This is what I want: a crop of Love.”

Vine says to branches, “Grow love!”

Lifeblood moving from the vine to the branches is working to encourage the growth of love!

Look back to Galatians 5:14-15:

14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. [10]

Either love, as encouraged by the gardener, the vine, and the lifeforce which is connecting you to them, or don’t. But watch out, because if you don’t, the end result is destruction.

Look a few pages to the right and you’ll find Ephesians 5, starting at verse 8, where Paul explains how to walk in love the way Jesus did:

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.[11]

As followers of Jesus, then, we are light, and a light that produces fruit. And if we slide over to work with darkness, what fruit do we produce? NONE! The deeds of darkness are FRUITLESS.

Which brings us back one last time this morning to Galatians 5.

Darkness, the things of the world, the things of the flesh, these are all ways to talk about stuff that doesn’t produce fruit. Fruit is good, lifegiving, sweet, energizing, and healthy. What could keep us from growing fruit?

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.[12]

Notice anything about what’s on this list?

All self-directed. All about taking. All self-seeking, self-serving. Not building. Not loving. All disconnected from the things of God.

What happens to the branch that pulls itself away from the vine?

That disconnects itself from the flow of life?

That doesn’t produce fruit for the Gardener?

Paul says: Not going to inherit the Kingdom of God.

Jesus says (Jn 15:6):

6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.[13]

What we’re being given here is a choice.

Same choice since the beginning.

We were created to live in community.

We can choose to reject that which sustains our life.

We can accept the life offered to us by our Creator, the life we were made to live, a life in service to unity and support for one another.

Or we can choose to live for ourselves alone, taking what we want without caring what others need.

We can live with Jesus, trying to learn the unforced rhythm of grace he showed us, growing the fruit we were designed to produce.

Or we can walk away.

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at the fruit that God is asking us to produce. What it is and how it grows in our lives. If you’re having trouble deciding between living as light or dying in darkness, maybe knowing the blessing that fruit can be in and from you will give you some direction.

I hope so. Because you are each a beloved child of God, and our vine will be less than it could be without you connected.

Let’s close in prayer.

[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 7:15–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [2] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 7:20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [3] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [4] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:5–6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [5] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:13–15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [6] The New International Version. (2011). (Le 19:18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [7] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 5:43–47). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [8] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:12–13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [9] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [10] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:14–15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [11] The New International Version. (2011). (Eph 5:8–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [12] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:19–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [13] The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:5–6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.