Sermon Central
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Growing In Fruitfulness.
Contributed by Christopher Holdsworth on Jan 21, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: The privilege and responsibility of being friends of Jesus.
GROWING IN FRUITFULNESS.
When we abide in Jesus, His words abide in us. We are nourished by His Word, and cultivate our relationship with Him through prayer (John 15:7). Thus our wills become conformed to His will, and our prayers are found to be in perfect harmony with the mind of God. This is the secret of answered prayer.
The proof of our Christianity is found not in our smart words, nor in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but in our possession of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). When we are spiritually fruitful, God the Father is glorified, and even unbelievers recognise that we have been with Jesus (John 15:8).
When a Christian is going through trials it may not be some temporal judgment for some particular sin, but rather that the Lord is testing them for their own improvement (cf. Romans 5:3-5). Maybe what is so uncomfortable to us is just another part of the pruning process. Will we keep His commandments in the face of trials, and go on abiding in His love, or not (John 15:9-10; John 15:14)?
When we abide in Jesus the true vine, not only do we dwell in His love, but we also partake of His joy (John 15:11). Jesus has a special joy in the redemption of His people (cf. Hebrews 12:2), and we are privileged to share in that joy. We have such a special joy in His goodness to us that we hardly need to look for reasons to keep the Apostolic precept to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (cf. Philippians 4:4).
Yet we should not be so insular as to make our receipt of Jesus’ love an end in itself. We should also love His people, sacrificially, as He first loved us (John 15:12-13). This is the love whereby the husband must love his own wife (cf. Ephesians 5:25), and whereby we must love the brethren (cf. 1 John 3:16).
It is a wonderful privilege to be called “friends” by Jesus (John 15:14). He has given us His word because we are His friends (John 15:15). But that friendship, if we consider it real, carries such responsibilities as culminate in His commandment to love (John 15:14; John 15:17).
The Lord exhorts us to “abide” in the vine, yet it is the Lord who first placed us there (John 15:16). It is He who first chose us, and not we Him, and who put us into the situation where we might bear fruit (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10). It is our responsibility to go forward in our Christian lives, growing in fruitfulness, yet always dependent upon the one who hears and answers our prayers.
