John Chapter 15:1-8

This is awesome because, see, there's actually a sequence in here, four stages, if you will, of fruit development. The first is no fruit. There's no fruit. The second is bearing fruit. The third is more fruitful. The fourth is much fruit. Much fruit. It's a pleasure to see some of you folks and see their lives and to see how much fruit your life is bearing now that you're following Jesus.

It's an amazing thing. Family members begin to come. Other people are coming to Jesus because you are bearing fruit. You're abiding in Jesus. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we're blessed to have one of David McGee's associate pastors here with us. Pastor DA, what does God do in our lives to help produce more fruit? Bob, God places the desires in us to tell others about Him and love them just like He loves us.

He wants to help us every step of the way. Today, Pastor David McGee explains how this works as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 15. Now here's David McGee with part two of the teaching Spiritual Fruit. John chapter 15 verse 1 says, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away.

And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Again, we're continuing with really what is some fairly difficult teachings of Jesus. These words are pretty in your face, up front, and bold, so we're going to kind of take our time with these and look at what Jesus is saying.

Now, and keep in mind, if you've been here for very long, you've probably heard me talk about serving, you've heard me talk about putting wheels on your face, you've heard me talk about these things, and perhaps even some of you thought, you talk about that too much. But wait a minute, look at what Jesus is saying here. Look what Jesus is talking about and the terms and the words that He uses.

These are some pretty bold words. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit.

Now, I want you to keep something in mind because as we look through this, well, to be honest, I used to have a fairly twisted notion of this passage. You know, I used to see, I don't know, you know, when it talked about pruning, I just kind of saw, you know, some maniacal gardener, you know, running through the garden. You know, or maybe the chainsaw gardener or something, you know, running through the garden and doing that. But at this point in my life, I've pruned roses and I've also pruned fruit trees.

We have fruit trees where we live. And I don't ever prune anything because I'm mad at it. I'm pruning it for its benefit, not because I'm mad at it. See, some of us think, well, yeah, he gets mad and then he prunes us. Oh, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no. See, because if I'm mad at the apple tree, I'm not going to go prune it. I'm going to let it alone.

I'm going to leave it there. So pruning doesn't mean the gardener is mad. As a matter of fact, I watched an elderly person one day prune in roses and I was just amazed at the care and the attention of where to cut and how to cut and even the angle to cut on the branches. And I thought, what a beautiful picture of the Heavenly Father as He carefully and tenderly prunes our lives to put more energy into the places that are bearing fruit. Now, verse 3 says, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Already clean because of the word.

Now, this concept is not just here. It's all over the Bible. Psalm 119, verse 9, it says, How can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? Ephesians chapter 5, verses 25 and 26, Husbands love your wives and elbows are flying, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanser with the washing of water by the word, by the word. Understand, this is part of what God uses to cleanse us and for us to bear fruit is the word of God, is the word of God. Now, we obviously hold the word in a great importance here.

Why? Because Jesus has used this word to change us over and over and over and over again, to cleanse us, to cleanse us. Now, the New Living Translation here in verse 3 is interesting, so let me share that. It says in John 15, 3 in the New Living Translation, You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. So again, Jesus is speaking to us and let me ask you this, have you ever been in a Bible study, either just reading the Bible or maybe sitting in a study, maybe even today, you're sitting there and you're hearing God's word and all of a sudden you're like, there went a branch.

I just got pruned. Praise God. Well, didn't need that branch anyway. I mean, this is what God's word does. It's the proper function of God's word.

Now, you can dig your heels in when you hear a teaching. Oh, that's not right. I'm not believing that. I know He said it. I know it's in the Bible, but I'm not buying that.

That's an option. It's not a good one. It's not a good one. Because God desires to prune us through His word. And we often ask ourselves, are you in the word? When somebody says that, what they're saying is, are you in the Bible? Are you reading the Bible? Are you in Bible study? Are you in the word?

But there's another good question that's kind of like that. Is the word in you? Is the word in you? Is it having a place of authority in your life?

Is it having a place of prominence in your life? I sure hope so. I sure hope so. Now, the next life lesson there is the Bible washes us, prunes us, and helps us to bear good fruit. Verse 4 says, 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.

There's an interesting concept here because any fruit that we bear is because of our relationship with Jesus. Now, there's a whole lot of people who say, yeah, I believe. You say, hey, do you believe in Jesus? Yeah, I believe in Jesus. Well, you know, do you go to church? No, I don't go to church. Well, do you read your Bible? No, I don't really read my Bible. I watch Christian television sometimes.

Christian television is great. Well, some of it is. But understand that there's more to it than that. And from what Jesus is saying, if nobody, if somebody doesn't have any fruits, you should be concerned.

You should be concerned. And in love and honesty, you should say, you know what, if you believe in Jesus, I don't see the fruits. I don't see the fruits of belief and walking. Again, we should all be bearing fruit according to this passage. The last thing I want somebody to be that really believes in Jesus, the last thing I want them to do is be living a life that's not bearing any fruit. I've seen fruitless believers and how tragic that is because there is so much to do to serve God and to love the world and to invite them into a relationship with Jesus.

And I hope, I hope that nobody in here, nobody listening this morning or on TV, radio, the Internet, whatever, will be happy with a fruitless life because God has so much more planned for you. Matthew chapter 21 verse 33 says, Hear another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower, and he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir.

Come let us kill him and seize his inheritance. Verse 39, So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? And they said to him, He will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers, who will render to him the fruits in their seasons. Verse 42, Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking of them.

But when they saw the laid hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a profit. So let's go back to John. Now this lets us in that there's something deeper going on. What we see right here really is Jesus is saying, You know what? I am the vine.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Old Testament, there was a picture of Israel being the vine. And Jesus is saying, You know what? This is a season now where you can be grafted in. And what an amazing thing that now we're grafted in and it took and we're bearing fruit. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment. But I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's Word to him. Every day we're presenting God's Word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on Submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor D.A.

Brown. I want to pray for seven cities in our listening audience. Port Allen, Louisiana, Fruitland, and St. Mary City, Maryland, Scituate, Massachusetts, Baldwin, Benton Harbor, and Vassar, Michigan. Lord, thank you for these cities.

Thank you that we get to broadcast in these cities. And Lord, thank you for everyone listening. I pray that you would encourage them right now. Help them in these last days to keep their mind and their eyes, their heart focused on you. Help them to be in your Word every day, Lord, for encouragement. God, I pray that you would remind them that you have a good plan. You're going to take care of them, and they don't have to fear. And Lord, for anyone listening who doesn't yet know you, I pray today that they would put their trust in you, Jesus.

Simply receive the gift that you paid a high price for them to have just by trusting in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse five, I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Jesus is saying when our relationship is right with him, the natural occurrence will again be that we're bearing fruit. That we're bearing fruit. Now, Jesus says, without me you can do nothing.

And he's saying, you know what, nothing of meaning, nothing that's important, nothing that will last. Now, you may have done nice things outside of Jesus. Certainly, there's organizations that do nice things outside of Jesus. But you know what, Jesus says here, in the final result, it's not worth anything in an eternal nature. Now, that's really important for us to understand.

Here's one. And there's a cute little thing, and I think it's cute, gives you a little warm, fuzzy, practice random acts of kindness. Doesn't that sound nice?

You probably just got a little warm, fuzzy just now, didn't you? But that's not what we do. We don't practice random acts of kindness. We should be practicing, you know, meaningful acts of kindness.

And using that opportunity to talk to people about the Lord. That's why if somebody comes to us for food, we give them food. But we also give them Jesus. If somebody comes here for clothing, we give them clothing. And we also give them Jesus. Why?

Because that's kind of, that's the real, that's the real deal. Verse six. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and as withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Let me encourage you again to bear fruit.

What are some fruits? Galatians chapter five, verse 22 goes through some of the fruits of the Spirit. This is in part what Jesus is talking about, but he's talking about other things too. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. And actually you can go to Galatians five and read more. And Paul, who, Paul was rather forceful at times, encouraging people to what? To bear fruit. Why did he do that? Well, maybe he was just, you know, had a bad day and trying to irritate them.

No, that's not it at all. The Philippians 4 17 says, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. See, when you bear fruit, according to that verse, it abounds to your account. Jesus sees. Jesus looks down and goes, ah, they're bearing fruit. Praise God. Praise God.

Next life lesson. Jesus said we should bear spiritual fruit, not be spiritual fruits. Somehow the church has gotten sold on this. You know, if it's weird, it's good.

And if it's weirder, it's better. You don't find that in scripture. I've met some people, to be honest, in the church that were, well, to be honest, nutty as a fruitcake. And somehow they blamed it on God. You know, God had me do this and God had me do that. And God, you know, and it's like, whoa, wait a minute. Where do you see that in scripture? Well, it's not in there. OK, we're pretty much finished talking.

Don't be afraid. I call it chapter and verse people. When people start talking about, there is so much weirdness, I hate to even hit the highlights. But when people begin to start talking about gold dust falling down from the ceiling and people start talking about fillings in their mouths turning to gold, the best thing you can do is show me in the Bible where it talks about anything like that. Because if it's not in here, I'm not buying it.

I'm not buying it. And what happens is so many times those people that get into those excesses aren't bearing spiritual fruit. They're being spiritual fruits. Amen or all me? See, some of you are going, I can't believe somebody is actually saying this, something I've thought for a long time. Well, somebody's got to speak to this stuff.

Amen? And how do you tell if it's real fruit or not? You got to look at it. You got to look at it.

I got some fruit up here. Now, the guys in the front row, the girls in the front row, they probably can look at this and kind of tell. But in the back, you don't know, do you? You can't tell what's real and what's not real. Some of it is real. Some of it's not real.

See, and actually I had to backstage, I had to kind of go through it and go, is that real? Is that real? Is this real? That's not real. And then, see, is that real? No, that's not real.

Is this real? Yeah. What am I doing? I'm inspecting the fruit.

You understand we're supposed to be doing this? Why? Have you ever, I'm not saying I ever did this, but as a little kid, did you ever pick up a fake piece of fruit and try to bite it? It's not good. It's bad. I mean, and then you were like suspect of fruit for a long time, weren't you? I don't know if it's real or not.

Do you understand that is some people's experience with a church? They go, oh, okay, I'm hoping this is real. I really need to eat.

I'm really hungry. And then they bite into it and it's plastic and it's not real and they go, ugh. And then they get angry.

And then they start writing editorials and they start writing magazine articles and they start picketing against the church. Why? Because they found fake fruit. We don't want fake fruit around here. And leadership and myself, sometimes we have to inspect the fruit to see if it's real. I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to be used by Jesus and the word of God to help prune.

But that's an important thing. Now, verse seven says, if you abide in me, what's a big if? 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. Now, this is awesome. This is awesome because, see, there's actually a sequence in here, four stages, if you will, of fruit development. The first is no fruit. There's no fruit. The second is bearing fruit. The third is more fruitful. The fourth is much fruit. Much fruit. It's a pleasure to see some of you folks and see their lives and to see how much fruit your life is bearing now that you're following Jesus. It's an amazing thing.

Family members begin to come. Other people are coming to Jesus because you are bearing fruit. You're abiding in Jesus. You're abiding in Jesus. And again, abiding in the word, too. John chapter 8 verse 31 says, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. How many times we often quote the last part of this verse, And the truth shall make you free. That's not accurate.

Many people around the tribe this morning, they have Bibles in their house. They have the truth in their house, but they're not free. Why not?

Because they haven't done the other things. Perhaps there's even some people in here this morning who have been disappointed because they're thinking, Okay, well, I thought the truth, well, it was supposed to make you free. Oh, it will.

I guarantee it. But according to this verse, you need to abide in the word, Be his disciples, know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Verse 8 points a picture that says, This is the way my Father, God the Father, is glorified, that you bear fruit. That you bear fruit. So the question is, are you bearing fruit? Out of those four things that we just listed, no fruit, bearing fruit, more fruitful, much fruit, which one do you want in your life? Yeah, much fruit. That's what I desire for my life. Well, then the Lord is going to need to do a work through you, in you, and He's probably going to use people to do it and His word to do it so that you would bear more fruit.

But be encouraged. Guys, it's not the case, again, of the maniacal gardener running through the garden with a chainsaw. It's the lovingly tender Heavenly Father strategically making cuts, prunes, so that you can bear more fruit. God is interested in you bearing fruit.

Why? To give glory to God the Father. God is into numbers.

Do you realize that? It talks about 3,000 people getting saved in the book of Acts. It talks about 5,000 people getting fed fish and bread. He's interested in multiplication because, understand, one of the main differences in the fake fruit and the real fruit, this doesn't have any seeds in it. Inside of this fruit is the possibility of multiplication, of many more plants, trees, and fruit coming from this. If you know Jesus here this morning, you have this potential. You have this possibility if you allow the Lord to have His way in you and through you. Now, keep in mind, there is fruit that you can look at.

I mean, it looks good, right? But it's empty. No seeds. See, maybe this is like religion, morality. Those things aren't real fruit, religion. Being religious, being moral, in and of itself, no seeds. Some of you have mistakenly thought that a Christian is a whole list of do's and don'ts. You've mistakenly thought that Christianity is a way to die. Christianity is a way to live. And it's not just about doing good. We look at David.

David who orchestrated a murder, who was an adulterer. And God said, there's a man after my own heart. This chair, this chair will never smoke pot. It will never drink.

It will never cuss anybody out. It's always in church. But this chair is not a Christian. It takes a personal decision and a personal relationship to follow Jesus. All of us have a scorecard that before we come to the Lord, come to Jesus, our bad outweighs our good.

Because the Word says if we've broken it in one place, we've broken it in every place. And we stand condemned before a holy and righteous God. That's the bad news. The good news is that Jesus wants to adopt you. If you'll come to Him, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, ask Him to give you the power to follow Him, He will do just that. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven, you've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness.

Those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free, so folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.