Producing fruit

Bearing fruit in abundance

How many of us in life desire increase?
The desire for Increase is something which God has planted in the heart of every human.
Genesis 1:22 
When this desire is lived out by the average unbeliever, It becomes greed, and selfish ambition.

When The same desire for increase is aligned with truth it produces increase in the life of the Christ follower, producing more and more fruit, because the heart of the believer is not selfish but ready to share.

Jesus teaches us principles of bearing fruit in abundance
Thank you Michelle and Castle for reading to us
John 15 v 1-17
Lets dig into the passage of scripture together
First of all the context
John 15:9


The main principle :
Just as I have loved you. love others, this is the context of the passage.

Secondary principle : teaching us the principles for increase.
Notice the progression

God the father, loves the son (Jesus), The son loves the 12 disciples, the twelve love the 3000, the 3000 love the next………

One of the biggest struggles we as human beings have, is to truly love others, loving people who love me, sometimes a challenge, loving people who hate me, almost impossible, loving myself sometimes even more difficult.

Understanding love is of course the biggest challenge.
Christian love is about sacrifice,
Christian love is about giving.
Loving others is also about caring for others, giving into the needs of others.

Love reveals itself in many ways
Soft side and hard side love
We all really enjoy soft side love, which is very necessary of course,
Examples of soft side love
Wrap us up in a warm blanket on a cold night when we feel cold and alone.
Provide a nourishing meal for the hungry
Glass of refreshing water for the thirsty
Comfort when we are in pain or mourning
Counsel when we are in need
Deliverance to those who are bound

Hard side love is also a very necessary love for our development.
Discipline is love, correction is love, rebuking is love.

Loving ourselves is not vanity, Loving ourselves has nothing to do with how beautiful we are, being consumed with self.

Loving ourselves means we are completely satisfied with who we are.

When we are able to look at ourselves in the mirror, and celebrate what I see, that’s loving who I am, knowing that God created me to look like I am, to be who I am.

Many of us have struggles in life with low self worth, low confidence, rejection, abandonment, bitterness hatred, anger, etc.
These issues of life slow our progress down and limit us from reaching our full potential.

God is a loving God who knows all of this about us, his desire is for us to be free so that we can reach our full potential.

He has put a great strategy in place to help us achieve that fullness
Lets look at Jesus teaching
John 15:1-2

Jesus himself is the True Vine
God is the Vinedresser.
The branches are Christians, born again believers, us.

Often the Bible refers to us humans as trees, or branches, etc

The teaching here is about the Branches bearing fruit,

Every Christians life should be increasing by bearing fruit more and more.
Three types of branches in this passage
One that bears no fruit
One that bears some fruit.
The branch that does not abide.

The Vinedresser expresses love for these branches according to the need so that the branches can yield more fruit.
So the first one
The branch that bears no fruit he takes away.
Some have argued that this means he removes them from the vine.
Lets look a little closer

Notice Jesus says at the beginning : The branch in him which bears no fruit. So this branch is a believer, but is not bearing fruit.

So what does it mean when Jesus says he takes away?
A better translation would mean
He lifts up, the Vinedresser gets under it to support it so that it will begin to bear fruit.
Example : A person who does not love themselves does’nt bear fruit
So the Vinedresser lifts them up, he loves them extravagantly with soft side love that lifts them up.

The second branch which bears some fruit, He prunes it
What does that mean
He cleans away all those things which are limiting growth.
Sometimes this can be a really painful process
That”s why he uses the word Prune

Pruning takes place by cutting away, saws, with knives, shears, etc.
Often when we are going through a pruning process, we feel that pain, our emotions reveal the condition of our hearts during the pruning process.

low self worth, lack of confidence, rejection, abandonment, bitterness hatred, anger, false doctrine, wrong beliefs, self hatred, Dogmas, etc.
Are pruned away in this time. The end result after pruning:
More fruit.

The third branch
John 15 : 6 says
The branch that does not abide is cast out.

Again some would interpret this as being thrown into hell.
Is that what a loving father does, throw those not abiding into hell?
We know at judgement day that will happen.
But how about the fire they are thrown into in this day?
It is a fire of adversity, difficulty, pain etc.
The purpose of this is a redeeming fire to bring about change.
Example
Certain plant types are stimulated to grow better when they are burnt wil fire
Jesus encouragement to all
John 15:4

Abide : Be continuously present connected to the vine
How do we do this?
1.Living in truth of Gods word
The beauty of this
As we abide in him
He abides in us
The Holy Spirit empowers us to live out the word,


2.Loving God and his ways
Loving ourselves
Loving others
Loving our enemies.

This is a principle for increase

This passage focus is on love
The principle applies to every area of life.

John 15:7

As we abide in the vine
Increase will come to every area of life
Whatever we ask it shall be done for you
The context of the verse

Not about asking God for things which are not his will for you
But when his word abides in us, which is his will for our lives

We ask in accordance with his will.
He gives out of his abundance.

I said when we started
When The same desire for increase is aligned with truth it produces increase in the life of the Christ follower, producing more and more fruit, because the heart of the believer is not selfish but ready to share.

Perhaps you have felt the Father lifting you up
Perhaps you have experienced some pain from pruning
Perhaps you feel like you have been in the fire

Rejoice and be Glad
The Vine dresser is working in you, his desire for you is more fruit.

Ezekiel gives us a prophetic picture and the purpose for the fruit
Ezekiel 47:12 

Being connected to the vine is the same prophetic language as a tree being planted by the edge of the river

It will always be green
Its fruit will not come to an end
The fruit is will be for food
Leaves will be for healing
Our fruit will continue to grow
The fruit is not for us alone
It is for others to pick the fruit from your tree.

We are blessed to be a blessing