Bear Fruit

Bear Fruit

Confirmation 2022

John 14:4-8

Confirmation Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship, those of you here in the building as well as those of you joining us online. We are here today celebrating the rains falling outside! Amen?

But, we are also here celebrating the Confirmation of these amazing young people. Today’s service is 100% for you. We are here to worship our risen Lord, and we are here to celebrate you and your decision to follow Christ.

In fact, I’m really just talking to you this morning, but I’m going to let all these other people listen in.

The decision you are making today is huge. We’ve talked about this some already, up to this point your parents and grandparents have made decisions for you; but, now you are getting old enough to start making your own decision on a lot of things. No, you can’t make the decision to drive for yourself yet, but that day will come. You can’t make the decision to go to school or not, but in just a few years you will be able to make that decision. Your parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all those who are pouring into you are still making decisions for you… but, you are making more and more decisions for yourself.

If you have a phone, you make the decision to be on it or not… to use it for gossip or for good.

You are starting to make the decision about what classes you will take next year.

And today, you are making the decision to follow Jesus as your Savior and Lord or not.

You are making the decision to be a part of the Methodist movement or not.

And I want you to know, I am so proud of you for being here today. You do realize that you are becoming the exception rather than the rule. More and more of your peers are making the decision not to be a follower of Jesus. They are turning from Christianity to other religions. They are abandoning religion all together. Or, they are saying they are a Christian but not living the life God has called us to live. So, you are special!

Now, as we wrap up the Confirmation Classes and prepare for the rest of this day, I want to just touch on a few of the things we covered over the past 2 months.

1) Sin… Sin isn’t just about doing something bad or wrong. Sin is about missing the mark, like an archer missing the bulls-eye. We miss the mark all the time, we don’t live up to who God created us to be. Sin is about keeping to the path. You remember the little video… Sin is from the Hebrew word Khata – It means to miss the mark, or to fail to reach your destination, like when you travel and don’t use Google or a map, you are likely to Khata you way, or fail to reach your destination. – So, we have Sin.

2) Another thing we talked about was creation. We talked about the fact that the Bible isn’t a science book. We don’t find the scientific method of creation in Genesis. But, I find it amazing that the order of life that you are taught through evolution… matches almost exactly with what you find in Genesis. I’m not saying Evolution is fact, but what I am saying is that it does not disprove the story of God creating the heaven’s and the earth. Our God is a creator God.

3) We talked about creation, but you also talked about God’s new creation. Whether it is after the great flood, or the return of the Israelites from Exile, or Jesus rising from the grave, God is all about creating, recreating, and creating in the future. The church today is part of the new creation. The Holy Spirit living in you is a part of the new creation. And as you accept Christ, you are becoming a new creation, even as you are part of making all things new.

4) Then Alex talked about the Sacraments. You learned that the Sacraments we celebrate here in the Methodist church are Communion and Baptism. These are the sacred moments that Jesus participated in himself. Now, that doesn’t mean that Confirmation, Marriage, Anointing of the Sick, and Ordination aren’t important. They are extremely important, we consider these sacred moments, but they aren’t Sacraments.

These Sacraments and Sacred Moments are some of the important ways that we experience God’s Grace.

5) We talked about how important it is to live a life of Devotion to God. That can’t be done alone, we need one another, we need a community around us as we live our lives for God. Some of our time needs to be in private prayer and reading of the Scripture… but we also need to gather together in worship, we need to gather together to study the Bible together and share each other’s burdens.

6) Finally, we talked about what it means to be Methodist. We looked at the history of the Methodist movement and we realized that it was never about being a denomination. John Wesley never intended the people called Methodist to be a denomination. It was a movement then and should be today.

In a few minutes, we are going to take some time to remember some of this as we read and recite together. We are going to take the vows of membership: that we will pray for one another and this church, that we will be present – that we will show up for worship and study, that we will support the church with our gifts – financially, that we will support the church with our service, and we will be a witness for the God in the world. And that last thing is what we are going to spend the rest of our time focusing on. We will support the church with our witness.

To get started turn with me in your Bible’s to John 15:4-9.

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.

<Prayer>

Grapevines

Some of you know that I dabble in growing grapes. It started with an illustration, I bought a couple of grapevines to illustrate this passage, then I planted them, and then I bought a few more, and a few more, and now I have about 15 grapevines growing at the parsonage and it looks like I will have a pretty good crop for the few vines I have. But What I have here is one branch of that vine. This vine is designed to bear fruit. It’s only purpose is to bear fruit. The only problem? It has been separated from the vine. This fruit, these leaves, will wither and die now because they can not draw nutrients from the vine.

I once heard a story of a preacher going to visit a church member who never came to church. It was a cold night so the member had a fire going in the fireplace when the pastor arrived. They talked a bit, shared a cup of coffee, then the pastor asked why the member hadn’t been coming to church. He told the pastor, “I don’t really see the need, I can read the Bible myself, I can study, I can pray, I can even sing if I want. Why do I need the church?” The pastor didn’t respond verbally, he simply got up, took the fire tongs, removed a red hot glowing ember from the fire and laid it on the bricks in front of the fire. He watched as the fire left the ember and it slowly turned from red to black. He then picked it up and placed it back in the fire and it was immediately restored to it’s red hot status. The church member said, “I see your point. I’ll be there Sunday.”

The ember couldn’t maintain it’s heat alone, it became cold and dark… but within the fire, it became hot and gave warmth.

You and I are meant to be together. We are meant to gather together as the Body of Christ, as the group of believers. We come together to give support and to encourage. We gather to learn and grow. We need one another… and we need the source of our fire, the source of our nutrients.

We need to remain connected to Jesus. Just like the ember needs the fire, and just like the branch needs the vine, we need to be connected to Jesus… and when we are connected to Jesus we bear fruit.

Now, there are two kinds of fruit that we bear when we are connected to Jesus:

1) The Fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 reminds us that:

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

When we remain connected to Christ it changes how we live, we become love, we become joy, we become peace and patience, we are live a life of kindness and goodness. We exemplify faithfulness, gentleness and self control. As we live a life of devotion, as we remain in Christ and he in us, we are changed for the better, we begin to become who and what we were created to be. So that’s the first kind of fruit that is developed in us. The second is this,

2) Fruit to share. What does the scripture say, “if we remain in Christ we will bear a little fruit?” NO, “Bear some fruit?” NO.

Jesus tells us in John 15:5

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit…”

We will produce much fruit, a lot of fruit, more fruit than one person needs. When we live our lives connected to the source, connected to Christ, we live a life that is meant to be given away. We live a life of sharing our witness for Christ, helping others to find what we have found.

Sometimes we forget that we are to be supporting our church with our witness. Sometimes we forget that we are to be sharing the fruit God has given us. Sometimes we just don’t give our faith away… so, I have a gift for you, and for everyone here at the church. Just a little conversation starter and something to remind you to “Bear Fruit”

Bear Fruit

Thank you to ASAP and Jonathan for making this little sticker happen. It’s just a little fun way to start a conversation or remind each of us to bear fruit as followers of Jesus. When you leave today you can grab one, and for those of you online, if you would like one, let us know and we will mail you one.

Once again, I am so proud of the three of you and the decision you have made to be a follower of Jesus. The rest of this service will be about your baptisms and confirmation of the faith you have accepted. Don’t let this day be the end of your spiritual journey… this is just the beginning. Today is the first step with God, God does have a wonderful plan for you life, it is your plan, it is the life you were created for… so stay connected to God through Jesus Christ. Let this church and the ministries we share together help you grow and become all that God created you to be.

<Prayer>