Much Fruit 1976

It's amazing how often this happens. I want to read two verses from John 15, and it's interesting that Brother John read these verses during the pleniture class this morning, saying basically a lot of the things that I just want to share on. John 15, 7 and 8. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so, prove to be my disciples. Most of us are aware of the fact, I'm sure, that our lives are measured not on the basis of how much we're accomplishing or think we're accomplishing, but their value is simply because God has made us His. We're His children.

Who of us as parents would feel right about valuing our children on the basis of how much they can do for us? Is he a good athlete, or can he make money for me somehow, or is she pretty, or is she this, or is she that? We love them because they're our kids. And if you should happen to have a child who's handicapped in any way, you probably love that one even more. Just because, I mean, almost you'd make up for that.

And how much more is this the case with God? Rejoice not that spirits are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven. You belong to God. And yet, God has placed in each of us a desire to accomplish something, to bear fruit.

How would you feel if you go on through life, year after year after year, and find that everything you try becomes a flop? Your plant seeds, they never grow. Your buildings, they crumble down. Every boat you step into is sinked.

Even when you try to fly a kite, as soon as you grab hold of the string, down it goes. And yet, this is how many of us really feel, secretly inside. We feel like a bunch of secret failures.

Nobody realizes how much of a failure many of us feel like underneath the surface, in spite of whatever front we may present to the world. And it just seems like nothing works out. Everything we try ends up in a mess.

And so many times we think, now I've got hold of something that's really going to amount to something. This is going to work this time. And then that falls apart.

Or we fall apart before we fulfill whatever has to be fulfilled. Against the background of this sense of failure that many of us experience, if not all of us here, comes this promise that we're going to bear much fruit. And when Jesus talks about much fruit in this particular passage, he's not talking about the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, and so forth.

But he's talking about results. Getting something done. Accomplishing something.

In that sense, that your life will be the means by which some other human beings are going to find their way into the kingdom. Lives are going to be touched and changed as a result of your ministry, your work. That's the promise he gives us.

And not only that, once in a while, some little seed that you plant is going to grow, but that you're going to bear much fruit. And even if it doesn't look like very much to the world, that doesn't matter. You know, nobody writes a book about your life.

They don't make a movie of you. That's not going to bother you in the least as long as you see this fruit that is being borne through your hands in the name of the Lord standing there. John the Baptist looked at Jesus while John's sitting in jail and wonders, what's this guy up to? Is he the one who is good to come, or do we look for another? But when he sends that message to Jesus and says, are you the one? Jesus doesn't get depressed over that because Jesus knows that this is what he's here to do.

The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor hear the good news. And it doesn't matter whether Caesar is still on the throne or whether the structures of Roman society haven't been changed one bit yet. He knows that there's fruit there.

Now for us, the promise of much fruit, bringing it down to our own circumstances, where we are right now, means at least a few things that we can think of right off. For instance, when we think in terms of the many people who are being drawn toward us individually and corporately who are in trouble, whose lives are broken and who are in great need. Much fruit, the promise of much fruit obviously is that these people who are being drawn to us are coming not so that we can sit there and hold hands with them and sympathize with them for ten years or babysit, but so that these people might be drawn out of whatever bondage they're in and that they may take their place along our side with us in a ministry.

You know, that there are going to be real and wonderful and radical, dramatic changes in the lives of many of the broken lives that have come toward us just as our own lives were changed one day when they were so broken. In terms of our families, when we think of our families, the promise of much fruit, meaning, obviously, that in spite of the fact that Jesus said, you know, there's going to be division, two against three, three against two, and so forth, nevertheless, our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our uncles and aunts and cousins are going to experience the influence of God's Spirit through us and that there will be results. People will find their way into a new experience of God as a result of our ministry, as a result of our prayer.

Or when we think of the church, the body of Christ, and other places beyond us, much fruit does not mean that we're going to go around and pick at every other fellowship, this is what's wrong with you guys, and if you only understood this, you'd get all right, but it means that we're going to be able, by God's grace, to bring encouragement. That's all. You know, the person who's ready to throw in the towel receives, once again, some encouragement that he can keep going, that she's able to keep moving.

Or when we think in terms of our emerging ministries, you know, and honestly, the longer I live, the more I'm convinced that we, in our fellowships, and this one, and other ones that may be represented here, these fellowships are not meant to exist just for themselves as ingrown communities that you commit yourself to Messiah, for life, but rather, you know, they become kind of a training ground and many, many of us are being sent forth or will be sent forth to ministry in other places as our ministries emerge. You know, we're not going to try to hang on to everybody and remind them that they signed a dotted line and they can never leave us, but you will find yourself shortly, many of us, in other places, ministering, and the promise of much fruit is that when you go, it's not going to be a story of continuous failure, but that people will experience the reality of God and their eyes will be open to the mercy of God and they will be touched by that mercy in spite of the fact that we will suffer and we will be misunderstood and we will be maligned and so forth. Nevertheless, we will have the joy of knowing that God is at work putting it another way, when God promises this flock here, much fruit, this doesn't mean that the fruit is going to take place, all this is going to happen inside the walls of this building.

I believe that God gathers us together in order that we might have a taste of heaven every time we come and that we might be refreshed and sometimes, perhaps, corrected, but basically, we are gathered here so that God may anoint us with the spirit that we may go outside these walls to bear the fruit. That's where it happens. I praise God for what happened here Wednesday night with Brother Groves and I praise God for whatever may take place in this room today with anybody who has come here with a need, but whatever changes may take place in our lives inside these walls is a minor hint, you know, a foretaste, a sample of the marvelous results that will take place as we go outside these walls and in the places where we find ourselves, wherever that is, on our jobs or in our neighborhoods or when we write letters or make phone calls, work the streets, whatever we're doing, that we will see results.

We will see people brought from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and when this is going on, we will never have to worry about experiencing God's presence here, having an anointing of God's spirit on us as we gather here. It doesn't matter whether we have robes or t-shirts or liturgies or no liturgies, music or silence, that's neither here nor there. What matters is that if we're ministering effectively and obediently and fruitfully outside these walls, whenever we come here, God will be in our midst and the Lord will be renewing us so that we can go out and get more done.

And the promise that we will bear much fruit is not based on how skillful we are or what a winsome personality we have or how many years we went to Bobbyville College or seminary. The promise of much fruit is that God is based purely on our relationship with Jesus Christ. And underneath this, then, is the implication that there is for most of us, if not all of us, a relationship with Jesus far, far, far more rewarding, satisfying, rich, and quickening than we've known so far.

And many of us are beginning to taste that. And if we are, then what we need to do is pursue it. And as we do this, we will begin to see the fruit coming.

Now, it's not a matter of taking a seminar on fruit bearing or learn more and more and more, infinitely more, about the gifts, but it's a matter of drawing near to Jesus. According to the words of those verses, let me read them again. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Three very simple things there. First of all, you abide in me.

To abide in him means that there's a consciousness of Jesus going on all through the day in our lives. I'm the vine, you're the branches, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me.

And it doesn't matter. See, what we so often do is allow circumstances to get in the way of our relationship with Jesus. And we say, well, I would have a sense of his presence if this doesn't happen, or if that guy hadn't messed me up, or if this person hadn't hurt my feelings, or if this one hadn't misled me for three years, or if I hadn't dropped that pot on my toe this morning.

But the truth of the matter is that every single circumstance that comes our way becomes a means of a relationship with Jesus in one of three areas. Every circumstance either becomes a means of knowing Jesus in the power of his resurrection, or knowing Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings, or knowing Jesus in the likeness of his death. One of those three things in every circumstance that comes.

For instance, we're walking down the street, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and we feel great. So we commune with Jesus in the power of his resurrection. We're sitting down in a meal with friends.

It doesn't matter whether they're believers or unbelievers. That's where we belong, with these friends. And we know the Lord is there, so we thank him in our hearts while that's going on.

Or we're faced, let's say, with circumstances which seem utterly impossible, and yet we know in our hearts that God is saying, go right through that. And so again, we have fellowship with Jesus in the power of his resurrection as we, you know, burst right through that thing, whatever it is. And we command that door to open and we know it's going to be.

Or you're standing in line waiting for the bus. Or you're sitting in the lobby of a broken down hotel. Any number of things, you can know Jesus in the power of his resurrection.

Somebody comes to you with a problem. But then there are times in our lives, many of us experience this almost every day, when things go wrong. Now I'm beginning to experience him in the fellowship of his suffering.

I'm experiencing pain. There are people in this room right now who are knowing what pain is. Maybe mental, maybe physical.

And so I use the pain then as a means of tasting what my Lord tasted for me. Also a comfort to know that he went through this and he knows what it's all about. Or we're experiencing rejection by the very people we love most.

And they just don't seem to understand, they don't want us around. Pain. We again experience Jesus in the fellowship of his suffering.

Or everything seems to go haywire and we just don't know which way to turn and we feel so totally inadequate and we blew it again. All this anguish becomes a means of fellowship with the suffering of the Lord. But then there's something even worse than that.

Not to be morbid but to face reality. And that is when we run into circumstances as we often do where our will is constantly negated, frustrated. We need this and boom, we don't get it.

We long for this and it's just people turn away from us. My desires are thwarted left and right. I'm expecting to be able to go on a trip and then they turn me down at the last minute.

Now I begin to experience, if I want to see, fellowship with Jesus in his death. Maybe you want to go north and your wife wants to go south. Now you deny yourself and you go south.

I say, well she always gets her way. You know, that's, you know, asserting self. But if I give in the name of the Lord, I'm then experiencing fellowship with Jesus in his death.

You know, you do some wonderful thing and lo and behold, Sister Sue gets the credit instead of you. You know, and you're boiling mad and you're hurt and you're angry and why can't people see that you are the one who did that? And then suddenly you're reminded, deny yourself. Thank you for this opportunity once again to know your Lord and become like you in your death.

You know, and man, we need this. We need it. It's the only hope we got until finally it becomes our second nature to die with the Lord every five minutes until we're dead.

And we're not totally dead. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you're dead with Christ and you don't have to worry about a thing anymore. You're dead with Christ but you have to continuously die as the Lord.

And when Jesus says, abide in me, he's not talking about some impersonal thing. He's talking about your heart. Literally, resting in him like a little branch rests in the vine.

You're resting not in some principle, not in some religious idea, but in the person of Jesus. And I believe that this takes an act of the will constantly until it becomes my second nature to abide in him. If you abide in me, secondly, and my words abide in you.

And how can the words of Jesus abide in us except as we take those words and turn them into reality in our living? Some of us can spout the scripture to other people and tell them, you know, it's like we're going through the whole Bible. We know all the religious principles, we know watchmany inside out and upside down, but we're not taking any of this and making it real. Better that we should throw all that stuff out and start with the simple commands that are wonderful and light of our Lord and begin to apply them.

For instance, our Lord's command to forgive. You know, how does that become, how does his word abide in me except as I take that and I say, Lord, I can't do it. I don't know how, but with your help.

Come on. I need your help. I want to do it.

I don't want to, but I'm willing for you to help me. And then I begin to, you know, with an effort on my own part, turn myself over to him and yield to his command to forgive. Acknowledging that I'm tempted to hold a grudge for the rest of my life.

You know, I don't want to. This guy really did it to me. I ain't going to, I'm not going to let him off.

And the Lord says, come on, forgive. For your own good, forgive. And as I begin to apply that, I begin to experience a fellowship with Jesus that's impossible in any other way.

Or when Jesus says, go learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, quoting Hosea 6. You know, we can talk about mercy, but we've got to learn what this means by applying it. And our tendency, our temptation is to be unmerciful and to be, you know, disinterested and distant from people, you know, and thoughtless of them and indifferent to what their problems are.

Go and learn what this means. Lord, help me. Teach me what this means.

Or when he's talking about lust, or when he's talking about covetousness. These are things that are common to every human being, every one of us in this room. You know, and we admit our need and all the temptations we're going through.

We bring these things to him and say, Lord, help me. And as we apply this and turn these things into reality in our lives, wonderful things begin to happen. Or when he says, be not anxious, judge not.

He's going to help us. What changes take place in us when instead of measuring our brothers and sisters against the word of God, we begin taking the word of God and with fear and trembling applying it to our own hearts and putting it to work in our own lives and get off our brother's back and get off our sister's neck and get off and just take care of this one. Then our eyes open and things begin to look different.

And now I begin to pray for things that I never dreamed of praying for before. And that brings us to the third thing. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done for you.

That's it. You know, that's a strong promise. But he keeps that promise.

And when I begin to concentrate on our relationship with Jesus, I begin now to begin to understand what prayer is all about. I begin to understand. And now prayer, instead of being the little formality that we talk about so much and do so little, becomes, prayer becomes, the basic, the major activity of our lives.

The major thing. And now we're saying, Lord, open that door for me. Lord, pour out this blessing.

Lord, I need bread to feed these hungry ones that are coming to me. Lord, help me to see what I have to see. Lord, soften my heart of stone.

And we begin to find ourselves almost like naturally now, supernaturally indeed. But it becomes our nature now to pray. Morning, noon, and night, all the time, all the time, underneath, prayer is going on.

And at some time during each day, we're doing nothing but praying. And as this happens, our prayers begin to get more and more specific. And to our amazement, we pray for things and boom, here they are.

Lord, give us somebody from our street work. You know, let us bring somebody back with us today. Bingo, there he comes.

You know, now Lord, we want to see somebody coming into the kingdom. Lord, we need a little encouragement. Could we see somebody come into the kingdom today? Bang, there it is.

Really? Lord, bring that brother back to us again and bring that sister home again. You know, help us Lord or take this sick area in my life and heal it. And we find as we pray these things, deafness, specific things, people we're praying for now by name.

And the more we do this, the more we will find ourselves praying for each other by name, covering the whole shop. You know, I used to say, and I don't believe it anymore, you can't pray for 100 people or 200 people. You can only handle maybe 7 or 5 or so.

And there's a text in which our ministry is limited maybe to 5 or 6 people. But I believe God would have us be praying for many, many people. Many, you know, people who are here and people who are far beyond.

But we will find prayer consuming our lives. And when prayer becomes the major activity of our lives, our days of feeling useless will be gone forever. We will see, absolutely, we will see fruit.

We will know in our inmost hearts that God's redemptive will is being accomplished in spite of how crummy we still are. And we will have joy if you abide in me and my words abide in you. Ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Lord, we're just asking that the Spirit will bring to everyone of us here a fresh measure of encouragement and that whatever wall, whatever barrier stands in the way of our seeing your mercy right now may, by your mercy, Lord God, come down and that we may give up all the grudges we've been nursing and all the fears we've been nursing and all the distractions we've been playing with and just behold your goodness that we may be satisfied in our inmost hearts with your peace this day and go forth to live in that peace in the days ahead. We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.