An encouraging and challenging message provided by Tammy Olinger on the secret of how to live a fruitful life.
Remaining Connected to Christ Creates within us Christian Character which produces Christian Conduct bearing the fruit of Christian Converts.
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How do you make sense of your life, your meaning, purpose and destiny? Why is the world the way that it is, with all the beauty and goodness, but at the same time all the pain, the decay, the death? Jesus helped us to understand the world by using powerful picture language. He talked about a tree and its branches. He said, I am the vine, you are the branches.
Remain in me and you will bear much fruit. Jesus is saying that our lives are made for a relationship with God, like a branch in a tree. And the way that we can grow and flourish is by staying connected to the vine.
But actually the reality for all of us, if we’re honest, is that we try and cut ourselves off from the vine. It’s as if the branch… I don’t want something else telling me what to do or directing my life. I want to be independent.
I don’t want to depend on that tree. And so it’s as if the branch, in pursuit of freedom, cuts itself off from the tree. And it looks like it’s free and it looks like it’s full of life, but actually, immediately, it’s dead and it can only head in one direction.
And that’s what our lives are like. We can’t get life from anywhere. We try and find meaning and purpose by plugging ourselves into other things, good things, like friends or family, in a career or money or children.
Whatever it might be, but those good things weren’t designed to sustain us. They can’t. And so our 20s turn to our 30s, to our 40s.
We start to experience wilting and decay. And ultimately, as we hit our 60s, 70s, 80s, whatever it might be, we end up on the rubbish dump of history. And that’s the phrase that Jesus used to talk about hell.
Jesus used a very specific word called Gehenna. It was the name of the valley outside of Jerusalem where the rubbish was thrown, where the fire never went out, where the worms were constantly rotting and decaying, whatever was thrown there, the unwanted refuse of society. And Jesus says, don’t go there, don’t end up on the rubbish dump of history.
And he doesn’t preach from a distance like some kind of prophet or guru. No, Jesus made a massive claim about himself. He said, I am the vine, you are the branches.
Jesus claimed to be God, the source of life, and he came down to live the life that we fail to live. And he came specifically to die, so that instead of us, he was cut off, so that he swapped places with us. Because he took the pain and the mess and the evil and the crimes that we commit on himself, and so if we trust in him, he swaps his perfect life for our broken life.
He was cut off instead of us, so that we can be connected back, so that he could pick us up, whether we look good on the outside or whether we look like something that’s totally rotten. He came to pick us up, and as it were, connect us back into the tree, to give us life, life and meaning and purpose here, and then true life for eternity, such that death is not the end, but a doorway to a life that is greater than we could possibly imagine. Don’t you want that? Alright, preachers, that we are, that God is the vine, we are the branches.
This isn’t anything new, but it’s maybe a reminder. A reminder, you know, is that we went through this spring season, and now we’re into the fall season, you know, things are in bloom in the spring, and so pretty and vibrant, new, new blooms on trees. My rhododendron, you know, we cut it way down, and then, my gosh, the blooms are, you know, a foot, you know, up over my windows again, you know, and that’s that newness of life that God gives us, but when it’s detached from that vine, that, you know, the branches don’t survive.
So we’re going to talk about a little bit of that. So if you can picture yourself, God obviously is the vine, and we are these branches, and this is the fruit. You know, what we produce as Christians is, you know, that’s what we’re called to do in this life.
We’re not called in this life to just maintain our own self, and, you know, so many times I think we get into this rut of things of life, and we just maintain ourself, you know. Are we going out there? Are we producing fruit? You know, there’s many people lost in this world, and look at our empty seats, you know, and I’m challenged by this. I used to go to church when this church was open.
We used to be here with four kids in a minivan. We came here on Wednesday night. We taught youth group on Sunday night.
What changed? What is so different nowadays? Just because my kids are older, and I think, wow, we started Wednesday night, and I haven’t made it here once. That was my conviction. Maybe it’s not your conviction.
It’s mine. Because you know what? How we stay in that vine and how we produce fruit is communion with others and fellowship. My kids used to go under the pews.
We went to Church of God for 10 years when we moved to Dayton. We’ve lived here almost 30. You know, people used to just drag their feet back.
There was no condemnation in Christ. Not one person, oh, my gosh, they’re all under kids. You know what? Nope.
They knew we sat in the back, and they knew, you know what? If they got rowdy, we went out the door and cried. But you know what? We took our kids to church, and we need a call back to that because we need to be producing fruit in this life. And if we’re not, then we need, as we’re talking about this today, and I was convicted of this myself, so this isn’t just for maybe you or one of you or 10 of you or zero.
You know, this is what I’ve been. And the thing is is another aspect of that is I was praying, you know, Gabby’s selling her house just to open this up, and she had an offer three weeks. She got a home inspection.
They didn’t really like a couple things on there, didn’t, you know, go back and forth like who wants to fix this or anything like that, just dropped the deal. And I was like, wow, you know? Three weeks not being on the market is a long time, you know? And I kept thinking, okay, when Rob didn’t feel good this week, this is me now. I said, I’ll step in for you.
So when I was praying for her and I thought to myself, how can you ask God and expect him to do things when you are not in the vine, when you don’t have that power, that nourishment of the vine, which is God, which is his word, which is his power, which is his redemption, his salvation. Like if we’re not rooted in this vine, we are dead. We are dead.
So as I was praying and I’m thinking, oh, God, you know, I don’t understand this, but I know you do, and I want to be where you are, you know? And I was praying, and I’m thinking, you know what? We need to be rooted in the vine, which is the Lord and his word, or those things we ask, they fall dead. There’s no power. There’s no life in that.
It’s like an empty prayer. But when we’re rooted in God’s word and we’re nourished by that and encouraged by it, we know we have an expectation, right? When we know God and we know that we’re faithful, there’s an expectation. We expect and we know that God’s going to come through, and it’s going to be greater than the last offer.
It’s going to be greater. And, you know, when we have an expectation and when we pray and expect God to do things, he will come through. But if we’re not rooted, if we’re not nourished with the word, if we’re not sure of God and who he is and what he’s done for us, it falls dead.
It falls void. So just as we’re, you know, getting into this, you know, examine where you’re at. Examine your own life.
You know, if there’s things that need pruning, need cut off, you know, pray about that this morning because we will have prayer at the end and an altar call because I believe that it is a time of salvation. And if you don’t know the Lord, I want you to be powerful, not powerless. Okay? So that’s the first step is to know that the Lord your God, that he went to the cross and he bore it all for you first.
Okay? So just remind yourself of that this morning. But we’re going to talk about it. It’s called The Secret to a Fruitful Life.
There’s four points we’re going to go over. So we’ll just dive right in. We’re going to be in John 15, 1 through 8, if you want to follow along.
So in John 15, 1, 8, it says, Where Jesus describes the relationship that exists between him and his disciples using the analogy of a vine and its branches. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches.
Christ says in John 15, 5. You know, in the New Testament, it defines a nature of a Christian discipleship that we produce fruit. In this passage, Christ tells us what God wants from us, what God does for us, and what he expects of us. So we’re going to go through all those points here.
The first one, Christ tells us what God wants from us. In the word, God wants fruit. How do we bear fruit? We stay in the vine, right? When we cut off, we don’t bear fruit.
Fruit’s mentioned six times in the text, a total of eight times in this whole chapter of John. It says, My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. And that’s, you know, that saying, they will know we are Christians by our love, how we act.
We’re going to go over that in one of the passages here as well. God wants us to bear fruit. What kind of fruit are we all called to bear? We’re called to bear the fruit of Christian character, Christian conduct, and Christian converts.
You know, a Christian convert, you know, would be somebody that obviously converts their life to Christ. That’s the fruit that we’re going to see if you stay connected in the vine. First, God wants us to bear fruit of Christian character.
How many of you know in Galatians 5, 22, 23 describes the fruit produced in us by the spirit Christ gives us? It’s Christian character. It says the fruit of the spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are qualities that a Christian should be evident in your life as you’re talking to people, as you’re going out, as you’re bearing witness for the Lord.
I did want to read. So sometimes I think in your life there may be things that you’re holding on to it so tightly that you won’t let it go. You need to release that so he can actually make those branches grow and flourish.
So if there’s things you’re holding on to this morning, whether it be, I don’t know, abuse, addictiveness, anything that is not glorifying to God, maybe he’s going to do some plucking here this morning and pruning of that. We’re called to bear fruit, bearing the fruit of Christian conduct. In Colossians 1, 10 through 11, it says we’re supposed to lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him as we bear fruit in every good work.
You see, Christian character, it produces that Christian conduct. You know, that just kind of goes with it. That’s the derivative of it.
It’s nothing. If we love the Lord and do his commandments, then we will be that one to help somebody. We will be that one to forgive somebody.
We will be that one to show people that they are loved in the midst of their turmoil instead of being the judgment. You know, we all have things in our lives, and you may have somebody in your family. I think of that and think, you know, it seems like Christians always have the answer.
Well, if you do this and do this and do this, well, if you’d cut that off in your life and not do that, then you wouldn’t reap this repercussion, this consequence. Sin has consequences. That’s just life.
That’s the way it is. But, you know, we need to be in Christ, and we need to love that person right where they’re at, go alongside of them, show them that love and support. They will get there.
It’s not for us to call out everything that’s wrong with their life or their situation or their relationship or their finances. No, it’s to go and guide them and lead them into the truth, into the things of Christ. And, you know, Christ does the work.
We don’t have to do the work. We just have to be available and ready for those opportunities. You know, I mean, there’s lots of times in hospice.
You know, I obviously had some of these situations, but I always am like, okay, God, you know what? He is in control. And a lot of times I offer prayer to those families, and they will accept it. I have no idea what to say, but God always gives you the words to say, and I leave it at that.
I don’t understand either. I don’t understand either why some people go through stuff and some people don’t. But we just need to go alongside of them and lift them up just as Christ lifts us up.
When we’re that sagging tomato on a stake that we stake up, and we’re going to talk about that in a minute, you know, that tomato plant’s hanging on the ground, and it gets buggy and soggy. What’s God do? He lifts us up. Just as we stake it up in the flesh, you know, in the garden, He does the same thing.
So we need to be that person. We need to be that person that comes alongside of those people that are hurting in whatever situation and pull them up, pull them up. Instead of, you know, condemning them and condemning their activity.
Yeah, it’s not of Christ, but you need to pray about it and say, God, how can I help them? Just be a loving friend and just say, you know, I mean, you don’t have to agree with what they’re doing, but you can do it in love. And love conquers and endures all things. So if you do it out of love, God will be in it as well because He is love.
Okay, Christian character produces Christian conduct. If we have the Spirit of Christ living in us, then we’ll produce those things naturally. Finally, in addition to the Christian character and Christian conduct, we should bear the fruit of Christian converts, people who convert to the Christian faith because of the character and conduct they see in us.
So we are going out in the world and they’re looking at us. They’re saying, how are they any different? They’ll know us by our love. They’ll know us by, you know, a giving something that maybe it’s your last hundred dollars and somebody was really struggling and, you know, I mean, they know that we gave that because we love them, that we, you know, God blesses you for blessing others.
And, you know, I was reading an excerpt from Joyce Meyer in a book, Battlefield of the Mind. She said, when you don’t have it, you give it. You give it.
And when you give it and you did it with that heart saying, God, you know what? This is all I got. Guess what? He’s going to bless you in abundance that you don’t even, you might only had a hundred dollars, but now you just got a check in the mail for 500 that week. He is going to bless that and bless it and bless it.
You cannot out give the Lord. So if you, and he sees that willing heart, it may be $2, it may be 10. It doesn’t have to have, I’m just using that as an example.
But they see that and God sees that willingness in your heart. You see on several occasions in the New Testament, Christian converts are described as fruit. You know, obviously we’re, you know, we don’t want a dead tree all the time.
We want to see the fruit of the spirit. You know, we want to see people convert to Christ. We want to see them give their life to Christ.
And that’s how, that’s how everything grows. The church grows, the body grows. You get sanctified and build up by other people, you know, by other people too, as well, and encouraged.
Christian converts are like fruit harvested for God. You see, according to Jesus, God wants us to bear fruit and the fruit he wants is a fruit of a Christian character, Christian conduct, and Christian converts. Jesus not only tells us what God wants from us, he describes what God does for us.
What does God do for us? He grafts us. He does four things to help us produce a harvest for him. He grafts us, he feeds us, he lifts us, and he prunes us.
And we’re going to go over each one of those points today and then you’ll get to see how this kind of all comes together, you know, where we fit in. First of all, the first thing is he grafts us. You know, if you look in the dictionary, the word graft means a shoot or a twig inserted into a trunk.
So it would be something like this inserted to the trunk. It’s kind of grafted, it’s weaved in, and then it’s slid on a trunk or a stem of a living plant from which it receives sap. So we are grafted into the vine.
He grafts us into the vine. You see, no one is connected to Christ by birth or nature. We don’t just, you know, receive Christ just by nature.
We’re these wild shoots here. We’re destined for burning. So we must be grafted into the vine of Christ through faith in Christ that we have the hope of being spared.
Paul makes this point using a similar analogy, analogy of the olive tree. Many of you know and heard, you know, this over and over. Romans chapter 11, Paul describes how most God’s chosen people were rejected by God and broke off like worthless branches from an old olive tree because they rejected Jesus.
On the other hand, Gentiles who never counted among God’s people were grafted into the tree because of their faith. This is how Paul puts it. If some of the branches were broken off and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches.
They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So that’s accepting the Lord as your Lord and Savior, being grafted into that vine, which is life. You see, none of us are connected by Christ by birth or nature.
We’re all, oh, we already did that one. I’m sorry, I’m back. I can’t read.
So anyways, he makes us his own, and that comes through faith. Number two, next God feeds us, right? We need nutrients in that soil that constantly nourishes that vine, and so it gets out to the branches. He says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
He pumps spiritual life and vitality into us. So there’s the rich nourishment in the soil that comes up the vine and gives us that spiritual life and vitality. In John 15, it says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do what? Nothing, exactly. You see, the vine grows the nourishment from that root and pumps that nourishment up the vine. And then to the branches so they can bear the fruit.
This means that the spiritual life is not our work, and the fruit we bear is not ours either. It’s God’s work in us, through us, to produce the fruit. He feeds us with all we need, so as long as we abide in him, we will produce fruit.
Number three, God lifts us up. He lifts us when we’re drooping, when we’re drooping so that we can bear fruit for his glory. In John 15, 1 and 2, it says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine grower.
That’s the Lord, he’s the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. You know, if you think about it, in the natural, you go and you prune your bushes, and they usually come back fuller, right? You cut those old dead shoots off, and they come up taller, wider.
But those little shoots that go out from the ground, sometimes those things in our life, they suck out the nutrients, those little things that are going to produce the little buds and the little fruit. Once we cut those off, we just got that nourishment from the vine to grow big, beautiful fruit. So some of those things that we’re kind of dealing with and we’re kind of holding on to, we need to kind of prune those off so that we can have the fullness.
So we need to think of that too. So if there’s anything, you know, that God’s putting a finger on today, it’s not to call you out. It’s because God has something planned for you to do bigger, bigger and better for your life, and for the people that you influence.
That’s people all around you. So those things that maybe you think, oh, that’s not holding me back, those things are holding you back from producing the fruit that God wants you to produce, okay? All right, so God lifts us. So when we’re drooping, he picks us up.
Some believe that this removal refers to the removal and burning of fruitless members in our church. You know, you’ve been in churches where people leave, they’re not happy with this or that, which I’m not here to say anything really on that because sometimes that happens. And it may be the case that some believe a different meaning.
Instead of translating the verse to say, he removes every branch in me, a literal translation might read, my father lifts up every branch in me that bears no fruit. Why does he lift them up? He lifts them up to help them grow some fruit. And, you know, we don’t grow fruit and tell people about the Lord for our glory.
It’s all for his glory. And we need to realize that in life, that our reward is never going to be here on earth. And he tells us that it’ll be riches and glory in heaven.
And we need to remind ourselves of that, that this isn’t for, we’re commanded to do this. This isn’t my idea of going out and preaching the gospel. You know, he says to do that.
It doesn’t mean that you’re standing there preaching to a bunch of people. It means that you may be one-on-one with somebody. You may be saying, hey, you know, I know life’s tough, but I know my Lord can help you.
I know that, you know what, you may not believe that, but give it a try. I’ll tell you, I gave it a try, and I’ll tell you what, I ain’t going back. I don’t care what the enemy throws at me because my God’s bigger than that enemy.
So we will take that. We will continue to walk in that. So when you have that tomato plant, if you think about that, I know he used a grapevine, but grapevines usually are staked up and they’re high.
You know, if you get the analogy of a tomato plant, you know, it’s kind of flopping over, and you’re staking it up, you know, and then it kind of gets buggy and just soft and mushy. You know, God wants to pluck those things off, but he’s one that comes alongside of us and props us up. You know, he takes those things that are rooted, but they need help to keep us off from the ground.
Let me just see here. Let me turn my page. Okay, whoops.
That’s the way the Father is. He isn’t quick to condemn us, the fruitless branch. Rather, he’s patient.
He’s patient with us and does everything he can do to help us bear some fruit for him. Remember, it’s not all about you. It’s never about you.
But God uses people that are willing. That’s all you have to do is be willing. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar.
You don’t have to. All you’ve got to know that, honestly, that Jesus died for you and, you know what, that you have that opportunity of eternal life. You know, that he bore your sins and sickness on that cross.
He paid the ultimate price. I mean, I honestly, if you had one verse that you knew would be John 3, 16, honestly, that’s the only verse that you really need to know. I mean, you need to know them all, but I’m just saying to lead someone to Christ, you know, it’s not hard.
It’s not hard. Invite someone to church. You know, I think of Regis back there.
You know, Lisa and I, we used to work with her, and I’ll tell you the last time was at DeMeo’s parking lot. I think we asked her seven or eight times, the last time was at DeMeo’s parking lot. Here we are again, Lisa and I, hey, coming to church, you know.
But we used to work with her, and, yeah, and then she came. But something changed in her life. Did her problems go away? No.
Did her turmoil go away? No. And she’ll tell you every time, but without Christ, you know what? She has no hope. And Regis, I mean, you can stand up and testify.
I mean, but it’s awesome to see the change in your life. And I know things aren’t always good. They’re not always good in everyone’s life.
When you accept Christ, look out. The enemy’s coming to get you. He said he’s come to steal, kill, and destroy.
And you know what? But my God is greater. You’re going to come out of it, and you’re going to have life and have it more abundantly. Amen? Amen.
And we need to get that. We need to get that. You know, not everything as a Christian is going to be rosy.
It’s not. But you know what? You have an army. You have a God that loves you and a God that cares and a God that’s going to pick that drooping branch up and say, you know what, I can do something with this.
You know? So we need to wake up. Wake up. You know, and I say that to myself.
This is not any judgment on anyone, man, because I’m like, I need to wake up sometimes. I get comfortable. We get comfortable where we’re at.
We need to quit getting so comfortable. You know, we need to share what God has done for our lives, what he can do for their lives as well. So what does God do for us? He grafts us, okay? We went over what that was.
He grafts us into the vine. He lifts us. He lifts us when we’re drooping so we can bear some fruit for him.
He prunes us so we can bear even more fruit for his glory. In John 15, too, Jesus says every branch that bears fruit, he, the vine grower, which is the Lord, prunes it to bear more fruit. Again, I don’t, I mean, a lot of times they use, obviously, that grape vine, and we talked about the tomato plant just because everybody, you know, but if you, like I said, if you pluck these branches down here, you know, and you’re a part of that vine, you’re going to have the power of the kingdom of the Lord, the abundance of life, the provisions, and you don’t want to end up like this guy.
He was disconnected from the vine.
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