Live Lessons from Grape-Growers - Part 2 - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. All that comes with that package, their eyes are so wide, their skin is so soft, they make such endearing little noises for the most part. But we do love all of that simply because we don't expect them to stay that way. We expect them to grow up. So we'll put up with their demanding cries, and we'll put up with their selfish impulses, and we'll put up with their messes because we know they're going to grow. So connect with somebody once said, a baby is a digestive apparatus with a loud noise at one end and no responsibility at the other.

But that's okay because, once again, we don't expect them to stay that way. And if you can just think back, moms and dads, some of you don't have to think back very far. Some of us have to think back far to those first sounds that your child made and how stoked you were when you heard dada, mama. Even, oh, it's like, wow. But I guarantee you, if your 25-year-old came home and said, dada, you'd go, oh my, you'd be appalled because you don't expect them to stay babies.

You expect them to grow up. In John chapter 15, a passage we have studied last week and now again this week, it's all about growth. Jesus uses this metaphor, this extended metaphor in the better part of the first half of chapter 15 about a farmer growing grapes. Jesus says he's the vine, we're the branches, and fruit comes out of that. So he speaks about, he describes the relationship of growth that we have as Christians.

He described that relationship. Number one, we're connected to Christ. Number two, we're cared for by the Father.

And number three, we're consistent over time. Those things describe Christian growth and the normal Christian life. This morning, I want to give you three demonstrations of growth.

They're outlined in your bulletin. A person who exhibits those first three marks will then demonstrate it by three other things. In this week's study, go hand in hand. We will be fruitful in life. We will be powerful in prayer. We will be joyful in spirit.

Those are the things we'll look at as we conclude the study on the vine and the branches. But since the whole thing is about spiritual growth, let me just give you some groundwork, some general observations about spiritual growth. First of all, spiritual growth should happen.

It should happen. Just as we can expect babies to grow up into adults, we should be able to expect Christians to grow up into being mature believers. Second Peter, chapter three, verse 18, Peter writes, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it was just a beautiful setting.

And one person in the tourist group yelled out at the old man leaning on the fence post. He said, excuse me, were any great men born here? And the old man said, nope, just babies. It's actually a profound truth. There are no instant heroes, right? We all begin as babies and we grow into men and women and some are great.

It should happen. Spiritual growth should happen. And the Christian life is far more than obstetrics.

It's far more than an altar call. People coming forward, it's pediatrics and emergency room services and geriatrics. There's a progression that goes all through life. So growth should happen.

A second general observation. Spiritual growth has nothing to do with physical age. You know, there are some people who are older people, but immature believers. And there are some people that I have met, not always, but sometimes, where they're very, very young, but they exhibit a depth of maturity and wisdom and spiritual growth that is staggering. Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes, in the Church of God, there are children who are 70 years old.

Yes, little children displaying all of the infirmities of declining years. I would not like to say of a man of 80 that he has scarcely cut his wisdom teeth, and yet there are such. On the other hand, there are fathers in the Church of God, wise and stable, instructed, who are comparatively young men. The Lord can cause his people to grow rapidly and far outstrip their years. Here's a third general observation about spiritual growth. You can grow as much as you want to. All of the resources for that are given to us, and you can take them or leave them.

You can employ them or let them lie dormant. The control lies with us. Again, Peter writes in 2 Peter 1 that God has given us all things that pertain to life, that is spiritual life, and godliness to the knowledge of Him who called us.

All things. Then it goes, therefore, add to your faith virtue. And to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge self-control.

And a list of additives are given. And then he sums it up by saying, if these things are in you and abound, you will never be unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. So, those three things sort of form the general observations about spiritual growth. Now we'll get into the demonstration of that in this text. This week, how the relationship is demonstrated.

Here's the first demonstration. You'll have fruitfulness in life. You'll have fruitfulness in life. Now let's go back over our verses and read a little bit further.

And you'll notice a word that keeps coming over and over again. It's the word fruit. Verse 1, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. He bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered.

And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples. As the father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I kept my father's commandments and abide in my love. Abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you that your joy may be full. So you notice over and over again this whole mention of the idea of fruit and if you look carefully you notice there's a progression beginning in verse two. First of all there is no fruit and a branch that has no fruit is cut off. But those that bear fruit bear fruit and then more fruit in verse two and then in verse five much fruit also in verse eight, much fruit. Fruit, more fruit and much fruit. So here is Jesus using the analogy of fruit growing on a branch, a grapevine, as an analogy of Christian growth and the demonstration of Christian growth. Now there's a few obvious things we can say about fruit. First of all fruit is noticeable. If you were to walk by a grapevine and not know it was a grapevine, you could tell it was a grapevine if it had a bunch of what? Grapes. You know grapes don't come with little signs on them that say I am a vitus riparia. So you could be a very common person like myself, have no advanced degree in botany or you're not a viticulturist, a grape grower, professional, but you can walk by because there's something notable noticeable, visible that says I'm a grapevine and that is the grapes, the fruit. And so it is spiritually. You don't have to guess if a person's a believer or not.

None of this, well I think they are way deep down inside. That's the whole point of the passage. You don't have to go way deep down inside of a grape bush to find out if it's a grape. Typically you just walk by and if there's grapes on it you go grape vine.

I get it. It's something that is obvious and visible. Something is going to be produced. Now I'll be quick to say that not everybody's output of fruit is the same. Jesus even said some will bear 30 fold, some 60, and some 100 fold. And though the output of fruit from person to person will vary, there's got to be something at some point at some time that gives it away. That that is a believer, some kind of fruit. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. What is the fruit that Jesus is speaking about that would be able to be noticed?

Now you know the answer to that. Paul writes in Galatians chapter 5 some familiar words. He says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, long suffering. That's the fruit of the spirit.

And that little section of descriptive verses are a beautiful picture of the character of Jesus Christ. So you go, well, do I have love? Do I have peace?

Do I have joy? Yeah, a lot of these things mark your lives as followers of Christ. Well, that's the fruit. That's the fruit of the spirit. But then there are other things, did you know, that the Bible speaks about as being fruit, some visible manifestation of the life of Christ in you, beside that little list in Galatians?

I'll give you a few. Number one, people that you win to Christ are considered fruit. You win them to Christ, you have some input in their lives to disciple them in Christ, that's fruit. Romans chapter 1 verse 13, Paul writes, I often plan to come to you that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among other Gentiles. He was going to go to Rome and he was going to win many of these Gentiles to Christ and help them grow. Number two, holy living, a holy lifestyle is considered fruit.

In Romans chapter 6 verse 22, he writes, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. So, winning people to Christ, holy, godly living. Here's the third, giving, financially giving, supporting God's work. When Paul was taking a collection, this is in Romans 15 now, of all the Gentile churches and bringing that money to Jerusalem to help out with the work there. Paul wrote to them and said, you're offering to the Christians in Jerusalem, he called it this fruit. This is your fruit that I'm harvesting and bringing to the saints in Jerusalem. Here's the fourth, praise, the fruit of your own lips, worship, when you sing, when you ascribe praise to God, Romans chapter 13 verse 15, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

So, all of those things are visible manifestations, demonstrations that there's growth taking place. Now, let me add something that I think is very important. A spiritual person will be known more by spiritual fruit than by spiritual gifts.

I need to say that and I need to explain it. A spiritual person is known more by spiritual fruit than by spiritual gifts. A lot of people think, well, if you exhibit certain gifts of the spirit, certain charismatic gifts, then that proves you're more spiritual.

No, it doesn't. And here's how I can prove that. Paul wrote a letter to a group called the Corinthians, remember them? And he writes in chapter one, you Corinthians come behind in no charisma, no spiritual gift.

They were speaking in tongues, they were doing everything. The next chapter, Paul says, I couldn't write to you as spiritual people, but as carnal people, babies in Christ. So, here's a group exhibiting spiritual gifts, coming behind in no spiritual gifts, but they lacked fruit and Paul calls them babies, carnal, unspiritual. And the whole litany of that letter is you got this problem and that problem and that problem and no love and no joy and no peace, et cetera. So, it is by fruit and not by gifts.

John Stott put it beautifully. He said, the Christian life should resemble a fruit tree, not a Christmas tree. For the gaudy decorations of a Christmas tree are only tied on, whereas fruit grows on a fruit tree. So, fruit is noticeable. Second, fruit is natural. A fruit tree doesn't have to work hard to produce fruit. It's just the natural unfolding of life. All you need is a root system in the ground, a trunk tied to the root system, branches connected to that main stem, and fruit will happen. It is the normal, natural unfolding of life.

It's the product of a connection. Have you ever seen a fruit tree sweat? Have you ever seen an apple tree like out there going... Ooh, apple. That was hard. Man.

No. What does a branch need to do to produce fruit? Just hang in there. Just hang in there.

What do you need to do to produce fruit? Just hang in there. Abide in Christ. Abide in Christ.

It's not like you say, okay, I've got to take Galatians 5, 22, the fruit of the Spirit, and I'm going to work on each one. Okay, first of all, love. I'm going to be all about loving people.

Love, love, love. Okay, got that one down. Now, peace. I'll work on peace and joy. I'll be joyful. I'll smile. I'm going to work my way down the list. By the time you're done with that list, you're not going to have any peace and you're not going to love anybody. It's nothing you have to work or strive for. You just need to hang in there, and the natural result of being connected to Christ will be fruit. As you keep in close contact with Him, as you hang out with Him, as you seek Him, that will happen. I found something I wanted to share with you this morning.

I think you'll enjoy it. It's Associated Press. They released a study done by an agricultural school in Iowa.

Listen to these results. 100 bushels of corn from one acre requires 4 million pounds of water, 6,800 pounds of oxygen, 5,200 pounds of carbon, 160 pounds of nitrogen, 125 pounds of potassium, 75 pounds of yellow sulfur and other elements. In addition to these things, which no man can produce, rain and sunshine at the right time are critical.

It is estimated that only 5% of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts of man. Now, I would take that template and put it over spiritual growth, and I would say that's exactly the same truth in spiritual growth. It's not like that branch has to really, really work. Yeah, we cooperate with Christ. Yeah, we abide, but as we abide, we're not really doing much but hanging close to Him, and the natural result is growth and fruit.

It is noticeable. It is natural. And something else about fruit that is pretty obvious, it's nourishing.

Right? Fruit trees don't produce fruit for themselves. You ever see an apple tree eating an apple or a grape vine eating grapes?

No. The whole point is it is produced to nourish and bless other people. There's a very profound truth there. If the life of God is flowing in you, then the life of God will flow from you, through you. Now, this is where life will get excited. In fact, dare I say, some of you have gotten bored in your Christian experience.

And I would venture to say that's because it's all been inward up to this point. The real excitement is when you start looking outward and seeing that what you produce through your life, or what Christ produces through your life, can actually nourish other people. True story, a man was driving his car from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Tampa, Florida, and the thing that he noticed more than anything else were orange trees everywhere, as far as the eye could see. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands and millions of oranges everywhere. So he stops into a restaurant, orders bacon and eggs, and a glass of orange juice with his meal. And the waitress says, I'm sorry, we don't have any orange juice. And then she explains, our machine is broken.

And he just stopped right there and he thought about that statement. He's thinking, here we are surrounded by millions of oranges. Thousands of gallons of orange juice are in these fields. And I know you have oranges in that kitchen because there are slices of oranges on my plate. And you're telling me you have no orange juice because the machine is broken?

What's the problem? They've become dependent on the machine. All you've got to do is get an orange, cut it up, and go pfft and get orange juice.

I'm sorry, we don't have any orange juice. The machine is broken. They became so dependent on the machine, and here's my point. We can become so dependent on the machine. We're surrounded by Bibles. I bet you have more than one in your house. They're everywhere. We're surrounded by Bible teachers on the radio. But we're so accustomed to the machine kicking out spiritual nourishment for us to consume.

And that's the machine. We want to go somewhere and hear something or tune something on and we get fed and we get nourished and we consume. Rather than, okay, that's good.

But with that, I'm going to make my own orange juice. I am going to turn my focus on others around me and with the truth that I have learned, I'm going to give it out. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Jeremiah Johnston's powerful book, Unleashing Peace, to guide you into the peace that passes all understanding. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.