Fruit - Fulfilling God's Purpose

[00:00:00] You're with us. The message that I want to share this morning is a message that's been on my heart for quite some time. I thought about speaking about this several times already and hadn't done it yet. First of all, I've got some pretty pictures if Ray lets them come up. And I want you to, while I'm looking at these, I want you to think about what these pictures are And notice, oh, back to the beginning, Ray. [00:00:40] Way back. Keep going. You get to look at them backwards there. There we go. All of those pictures were pictures of fruit. [00:01:25] Or trees, leaves. Some of the trees, the last picture there, that's of course in the wintertime, you don't expect to find fruit or leaves at that time of the year. But I want us to think this morning about fruit fulfilling God's purpose for my life. That's been our theme for this year. And as I look at that, I'm amazed how many things come under that category of fulfilling God's purpose for my life. [00:02:02] What is there about fruit, other than the fact that we like to eat different kinds of fruit, and they're beautiful when they're on the tree? What is there that's very special? Something about fruit. How does it fulfill a purpose? Anybody? Okay, it's healthy. Somebody? Seed. A fruit always has a seed, right? [00:02:38] And so the purpose of a fruit, and we'll look at this as we go through this, but the purpose of the fruit is not the beauty of it. The real purpose of it is not the blessing of food, even though that is a blessing and it is a purpose, but the real purpose of a fruit is reproduction, a seed. And if you take that seed and plant it, you get more of the same fruit, right? [00:03:11] Now, let's ask ourselves some questions about this whole thing before we get started. What is a fruit? And we've talked about this a little bit already. What's the purpose of it? What's the meaning? What does it do? What does it mean to be fruitful? If you go through the Scriptures, you find a lot, and we'll see some of them in a little bit. A lot of scripture that talks about being fruitful. God's desire for my life, for your life is, that we are fruitful. [00:03:45] So what does it mean to be fruitful? If you go to a tree and you see that it has a lot of leaves, is it a fruitful tree? I'll tell you one kind of tree that's been really fruitful this year is the maple trees. There are little, I almost took a picture of it for this morning. We've got a little square yard right there by our garage door. And there were maple trees coming up there everywhere in that grass. [00:04:22] That is fruitfulness. What's the purpose of fruit? We talked about this a little bit already too. What is it for? For reproduction, for fruit, the purpose, and by the way, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, we don't think of it as fruit particularly, but weeds. You take dandelions, or you take, I can't think of the other kind of weed that I was thinking of. [00:04:56] You watch, when you spray those things, or you do something to try to kill them, they put every last effort they have into making seeds. Into making sure that they are carried on. How can I bear fruit? How can my life be fruitful? What is there that I can do to fulfill God's purpose in my life for being fruitful? [00:05:34] And then another question that goes along with that, what about fruit that remains? And this will make a little more sense here in a little bit. But I want us to think about this, because we're talking about something that, you know, there's really not a lot of purpose in a fruit that just lays there and rots and the seeds die and don't amount to anything. We want fruit that remains. What kind of fruit can I bear? You know, what is coming out of my life? What is happening with me? [00:06:11] What's a fruit inspector? I've heard all of my life that we're to be fruit inspectors. But you know what? I was thinking about this a little bit. You know what most of us are that call ourselves fruit inspectors? We're leaf inspectors. You stop and think about that. We want to talk about all kinds of things about what the tree has on. or what's happening with the tree, fruit inspectors have to do with the fruit, the seed. [00:06:52] Maybe we ought to think about that a little bit. Alright, in the Old Testament, we have the King James using a number of words. And those words are translated bear, to bring forth, to bring forth fruit, To cause to be fruitful, to make fruitful, to grow, to increase And I'd just like for us to notice several things here First of all, in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 God blessed them, this is talking about Adam and Eve [00:07:26] God blessed them And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply What was God telling Adam and Eve? Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and so on. God also said that same thing to Noah, said it to Abraham, said it to Jacob, and to a number of others. Fruitfulness is God's plan for man from the very beginning. Now, what was God telling Adam and Eve when He said, Be fruitful? [00:08:04] What was He telling them to do? Have children. Have offspring. Have seed that carries on. And so God's plan of fruitfulness was focused at that point on reproduction. That there wouldn't just be Adam and Eve on the earth for the whole time, but there would be other human beings. And so God's plan for man from the beginning is fruitfulness. [00:08:39] Now, we know right away without even looking at it that that plan expands as much more than that. God isn't just calling for us to be here and reproduce ourselves and be gone in the physical sense. Fruitfulness did occur occasionally under the Old Testament there in Exodus chapter 1 verse 7. The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them. [00:09:17] This is the land of Egypt. The children of Israel were fruitful. It wasn't always that way with the children of Israel. Now, it wasn't that they didn't have children, but they were not fruitful in the spiritual sense of bringing forth fruit unto God. God's desire, God's longing was part of His plan from the beginning. His desire was for the children of Israel to be fruitful spiritually, just like His desire is for us. [00:09:52] Psalm 105 refers to this. He increased His people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies. Why did God do that? What was His purpose in having the children of Israel become strong in the land of Egypt and multiply greatly? What was His plan? His plan was for them to move to their land and on the way to lift His name up, To exalt Him and to allow the people of the land to see what a great God He was. [00:10:28] And while this was happening, His plan was then for them to bring those people in to the family of Israel. To be part of His people. Fruitfulness is still God's plan for His people. Jeremiah 23.3 I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and I will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. [00:11:01] Now, you answer the question in your mind, is God only speaking about physical reproduction, or does he have a bigger picture in mind? Let's go to the New Testament. I want to read over and turn with me to John chapter 15 and this is something really interesting. John chapter 15 verses 2 through 8. It starts in verse 1, I'm the true vine, my father is the husbandman. [00:11:34] Now notice in here this matter of fruitfulness. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. If there's no fruit, he's going to cut it off. Okay? So it starts with no fruit. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in me, and I abide in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. [00:12:11] Pay attention to that. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide in me. You take and separate a limb from the tree, and it's not going to bear fruit. Jesus is saying, look, you cannot bear fruit of yourself. The only way that we can bear fruit is if we are directly in relationship with Jesus Christ. [00:12:47] It's the only way. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. You see what's happening here? He starts out and he says, If you're not bearing fruit, you're going to be cut off. No fruit means you get disconnected. You get thrown in the trash and burned. [00:13:22] His purpose is for us to bring forth more fruit. His purpose is to help us to see that we cannot bear fruit by ourselves. And when we are in relationship, close relationship with Jesus Christ, we will bring forth much fruit. If a man abide not in me, verse 6, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. Men gather them, cast them into the fire, and they are burned. [00:13:53] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. We often take this verse out of context and try to make it fit what we want. What he's saying here is in relation to fruit bearing. Okay? Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. Wait a minute. How is God glorified? If what? [00:14:30] If we what? Bear much fruit. Here's how God is glorified in our lives. If we bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue me in my love. Now, go down to verse 16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. [00:15:05] Now, would you say that's God's purpose for my life? I don't know how else you could say it, is there? God says it. Jesus, out of Jesus' own mouth, these words were spoken. I have ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Wow! That's pretty incredible. God's purpose, God's plan for my life is that I should bring forth fruit and that that fruit should remain. [00:15:47] That it wouldn't just lay there and die, but that it would bring forth more fruit. That's how fruit remains, right? And for a tree, a peach tree, to bear peaches, and for that fruit to remain, it has to die and live again. That's the only way it remains. And so that's important for our lives. [00:16:18] Now, let's look at some lessons in all of this from the scripture. First of all, good fruit is one of God's purposes for my life. Matthew chapter 3 verse 10 and 12, 33 Now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. [00:16:54] Now, here's another place where we often get mixed up. We often say the tree is known by his fruit, but most of the time what we're saying is the tree is known by his leaves. Leaves are important. It takes leaves on a tree to produce fruit. You strip all the leaves off a tree, it's not going to produce fruit. We know that. But the end result, the purpose, the focal point is the fruit. And he says, good fruit is one of God's purposes for my life. [00:17:30] If we don't produce good fruit, then God has to deal with us. He has to work with us. Leaves are necessary, but they don't produce new life, only fruit can. We've got to remember that. He saw Jesus, this is a story of Jesus in Matthew 21, when he came by this fig tree. He and his disciples were out walking and he saw this beautiful fig tree. And he walked over it and he thought he'd pull some figs and eat. But he got there and all it was was leaves. [00:18:01] And Jesus said to the tree, let no fruit grow on you henceforth, forever. And the fig tree withered away. Why did the fig tree wither away? Why didn't he just let it grow there, a beautiful fig tree with leaves? It was not fulfilling the purpose that God intended it to be there. Fruit is always intended to be an increasing proposition, but not an immediate proposition. [00:18:38] You don't just walk out, you know, as soon as the leaves start coming out on your grapes at home, you don't walk out there and say, come on, where's the grapes at? No, you know that fruit is something that takes time, Mark chapter 4. So the other fell on good ground to yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. When you read it there at first reading, it says it sprang up and it grew. [00:19:09] But we know that grain as it grows up takes time to produce the fruit. And then he also says it sprang up and increased. One of the things that is very interesting, and China has learned a lot about this in a physical way, because they've tried to control reproduction. And all of a sudden, now in China, there's a lot more men than women. A lot more. Because for a long time, they said you could have two children, and people didn't want a girl because a girl was a curse. [00:19:47] and so they got rid of the girls and all of a sudden they're running into problems. Their population is going to start declining because they're not able to increase. He's talking about increase. God desires increase from my life. Now think about this. Just think about this with me a little bit. Fruit is always intended to be an increasing proposition. [00:20:24] If I don't lead anyone to Christ in my life, I have not only not increased, I have not brought forth any fruit. If I only lead one person to Christ in my life, I have not increased, but I have brought forth fruit. [00:21:01] Fruit will be harvested. Mark chapter 4 verse 29 When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. You know, we don't think of fruit so much in the grain sense, but grain is fruit in the biblical sense. I remember a few years back when I was farming that we had a real dry year. And one of the men, neighbors, said he doubled his money. [00:21:34] He planted two bushels of beans and he got four. He had an increase. Grain, fruit will be harvested. Now, the fruit declares the tree. It's not the other way around. The tree doesn't declare the fruit. The fruit declares the tree. If you're having a discussion, you look at a certain tree and you say, well, I wonder what kind of tree that is. What's the best way to decide what kind of a tree it is? [00:22:06] We might look at the leaves, we might look at the bark, we might look at a lot of things, but what is the most accurate way to decide what kind of a tree it is? Look at the fruit, right? It doesn't lie. We might, you know, some leaves look very similar and so on. Luke chapter 6 verse 44 to 46 Every tree is known by his own fruit For of thorns men do not gather figs [00:22:37] Nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes A good man out of the good treasure of his heart Brings forth that which is good And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart Brings forth that which is evil For of the abundance of his heart the mouth speaketh. Whatever is inside is going to come out. That's why Jesus said it's so important to abide in him so that we can be fruitful. [00:23:09] Because if it's all me and my and mine, the fruit that comes out of there is going to be stinky, smelly, awful stuff, not fit to eat. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Now, fruit has no value or little value till it matures. In other words, it doesn't fulfill its purpose until, if you go out and you pick an apple, right after it starts to form, what happens? [00:23:47] Nothing. The value is not there. Fruit has to mature in order for the seed to be valuable, right? Luke chapter 8 verse 14 and 15 That which fell among thorns are they which when they heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasure of this life Now pay attention to these words and bring no fruit to perfection. [00:24:22] This is the parable where Jesus is talking about the seed that was planted and on some of the ground the seed was choked out. Now, it doesn't say that it didn't produce a beautiful plant. It said it doesn't bring fruit to perfection. In other words, to maturity. It doesn't bring a seed to the place where it can grow. What happened that caused that? Cares of this life, riches, pleasures of this life. [00:24:58] But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. You see the difference? On the one hand, there was no fruit brought to perfection. Some things choked and hindered. There wasn't enough life there, enough nourishment there to produce fruit. On the other hand, it brought forth fruit with patience. [00:25:32] There was a continual process going on until fruit came to maturity. Fruit can't produce more fruit without death. I referred to this already. Jesus said it this way in John chapter 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat or a seed of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. One kernel of wheat might bring forth a hundred kernels of wheat. [00:26:08] But it has to die first. He that loveth his life shall lose it. He's giving us a lesson that we can understand to help us to look at our own lives. He that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me. Where I am, there shall my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor. So he's saying, look, if we are going to bring forth fruit unto God, if we're going to fulfill the purpose that God has for us, we have to die, our life has to be hid with Christ in God. [00:26:54] We have to abide in Him, He has to abide in us, and then we can bring forth much fruit. And he talks about that. Not everybody does the same. Not everybody has the same work. Some brings forth sixty, some brings forth thirty, some brings forth a hundredfold. But there's always an increase expected. It's a natural part of fruit. Fruit is a reward to the farmer who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof. [00:27:28] We expect, as farmers, we expect that we will be able to receive from the seed we plant. What happens if the seed only gives back itself? If you plant two bushels of soybeans and you harvest two bushels of soybeans, what happens? You go hungry, right? You get another job. It doesn't work. The farmer gets his reward from the fruit. And God says, I'm the husbandman. I'm the farmer. I'm expecting the reward. I put you here for a purpose. My purpose is for you to be fruitful. [00:28:13] Fruit is a natural result of the gospel, Colossians 1.6, which is come unto you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day ye heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth. I want to tell you something. One of the things that I enjoy about going to other countries and seeing the Christians there is they are excited about bearing fruit. We get so wrapped up in doing church, we forget what church is about. [00:28:51] Listen, we're not here to enjoy each other and just have all the good things that we can have together. Our purpose in being here as a church is to bring forth fruit. Our purpose as individuals is that, and collectively it's that. And as you go and you see these new believers, they're so into bringing forth fruit. And think about your own life. [00:29:23] You know, when I was a Christian, first became a Christian, is that same desire still in my heart to see others come to Jesus? Galatians chapter 4, verse 19. Oops. I missed one, oh okay. I want you to look at this section here because there's a whole section of verses that says the fruit of the Christian's life is Christ. [00:29:54] Now, you say, well, you've been saying that the fruit of the Christian's life is other Christians. That's exactly what I'm saying. Jesus Christ needs to be reproduced in us, through us, in the form of his life, in the form of others coming to Christ, and so on. Let's just look at a number of scriptures. Galatians chapter 4, 19. My little children, this is the Apostle Paul, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. [00:30:29] Paul is saying, look, I am longing for fruit. I want Christ to be formed in you so that you will be fruitful. So that seed will grow in you. Romans chapter 6, verse 22. Being now made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. God is longing for us to reproduce His life. [00:31:02] Romans chapter 7, there verses 4 and 5, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. The purpose for us being joined with Christ is so that we can bring forth offspring, fruit unto God. When we were in flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. [00:31:40] We are bringing forth fruit, every one of us. We're either bringing forth fruit unto death or fruit unto life, fruit unto Christ. Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit. And I want you to think about this because we often think about this in a wrong context. What he's talking about as the fruit of the Spirit is Christ's character reproduced in us. [00:32:13] The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's the fruit of the Spirit. Do you see what I'm saying? Those are the character of Jesus Christ. And as we join with Him, the offspring, the production, the fruit of that is His character, His life reproduced in us. [00:32:47] Philippians chapter 1 verse 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Filled with the fruits of righteousness which come from Jesus Christ Colossians 1.10 Listen to this That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing What's he saying? [00:33:18] He's saying, look As a Christian, our goal should be to be worthy of what God has done for us. And part of how we do that is to continually seek to please God. Now, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. [00:33:52] Being fruitful in every good work doesn't mean that we're focusing on the good works. The result of good works is what? What did Jesus say is the result of good works? That they may see your good works and glorify your Father. See, what we've done? When we've lived in Christ and we've produced good works, Then we've reproduced Christ because others are saying, what an awesome God. [00:34:28] And so just because we decide we have good works doesn't mean that we have good works that are fruitful. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 9 The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. You see, the seed of the fruit tree is in something, right? It's in the fruit. He said, okay, the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. [00:35:07] One of the things that happens with fruit is, birds, animals, insects, whatever, creatures, see the fruit. It looks good to them, or people, they take the fruit, maybe they carry it halfway around the world, and they eat the fruit, and they throw the seed out, and the seed grows. How did that being, how was that being attracted to the fruit, to the seed? [00:35:43] By what it saw, and that's what he's saying. The fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth. Our lives are to have within us the seed of Christ and what we live, how we live is to be that attraction that makes people want that. Not that they want our goodness and our righteousness but they need to want Jesus Christ. [00:36:13] The seed, the fruit itself Now Hebrews chapter 12 No chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby God is at work in our lives to make us fruitful Do we see it that way? [00:36:46] Or do we see bad things happening that get in the way of what we want to do? What does he do with a tree that's bringing forth fruit? He prunes it so that it brings forth more fruit. And sometimes He has to discipline us so that we bring forth fruit. Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Chapter 13, verse 15, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, [00:37:20] that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. The fruit of our lips. It comes from the presence of Christ within our heart. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bring forth much fruit. Quote, maybe we have to stop and ask ourselves, maybe he's not abiding and I'm not abiding very well at all because the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name should be happening pretty regularly if he's there. [00:38:09] James chapter 3 verse 17 This is the last verse that I want to give us today The wisdom that is from above is first pure Then peaceable Gentle And easy to be entreated Full of mercy and good fruits The wisdom from above is full of good fruits [00:38:39] Without partiality, without hypocrisy And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Peace has a lot to do with fruit You know, a tree that lives in a very good environment produces a lot better than a tree that lives in a very harsh environment. [00:39:14] Both can produce, but there's something there that he's telling us. Produced by the peaceable fruit of righteousness Produced in peace of them, sown in peace of them that make peace Maybe there's an answer there of why we don't do so well with fruit bearing is sown in peace of them that make peace. [00:39:54] Strife destroys spiritual fruit. Let's stand together for prayer. God, I know you really spoke to me As I look through your word and saw how your purpose for my life involves fruitfulness, I realize, Lord, that I often haven't seen that, often haven't been that, and I confess that to you this morning. [00:40:38] I repent of it dear father. I pray that your spirit take this message to each of our hearts. Lord that we might see how our purpose here on this earth, our purpose in life as you see it involves fruitfulness. You didn't ask us to be a beautiful leafy tree, but you did ask us and do plan for us, do desire for us to bring forth fruit unto God. [00:41:20] Much fruit, more fruit, fruit that remains. and God there's there's a lot there so much there and I just pray that your spirit just guide us into all truth open our understanding give us courage and strength Lord to be strong and bold for you help us Father to [00:41:51] to live the kind of life to be led of your spirit so that our life becomes an attraction so that men see our good works and they want to glorify you. They're drawn to the seed which is life eternal in Jesus Christ. Speak to our hearts, Lord, according to our needs. We'll give you the glory. Dismiss us now with your blessing. Guide us and lead us, Lord, we pray in your precious name. Amen.