Fruit of the Spirit: John 15

Good morning. Hey, Pat yourself on the back. We're past the holidays. We've survived snowpocalypse. We're already in 2025, and some of you have correctly written that date somewhere, and you should celebrate that.

Hey, if we've never met, my name is Josh. If you're a guest here, if you've been here for a long, long time, I'm so glad that you're here today. It's a good day to be together. We have thawed out a little bit from the snow, so I'm thankful for that. If you are a guest and you decide today that you'd like to connect with Whitewater any further, we'll ask you to do one thing.

It's the best first step you can take, which is to go out these doors into the foyer after the service and go to the information desk. We'll. We have a team of volunteers there that would love to meet you, answer any questions you have, help you get connected, help find a place that you can use your gifts to bless this family here. But I'll also warn you, if you're a guest, you walked into a room full of sinners, broken people who are desperately in need of a savior. Keep your expectations low, okay?

No. But we also desperately love Jesus. And we love you, too. And so we're glad you're here.

I do need to give a quick update. Last week, I shared something that I need to take back. Cause it's not. It wasn't exactly true. So that's a good reason to take something back, right?

We talked about the Christmas Eve offering last week, and I said that the Christmas eve offering was $84,000. And that sounded good. That wasn't exactly true. It's actually $109,000. $109,000.

And for those of you who don't know, that is all money committed to leave this place and go into our community and across the globe. Like, that's fantastic. So I was talking to our finance director, and she was dropping off a big load of money and checks to the bank. And the guy at the bank said, what did you do? And she said, what's cool is it's going outside of our church.

So it's awesome. We cannot wait to discern what God wants us to do with this extra. It's gonna be beautiful. And I just cannot thank you enough for being so generous to give towards this. I just wanna take a minute to thank God for providing.

So will you pray with me? Hey, God, thank you so, so much. Thank you for calling your people to generosity. And I know it's dollars, and that sounds wonderful, and I know it's $109,000 and that sounds amazing, but I know that you could bury us in money if you wanted to. And so I love that it was given in worship.

I love that it was given to go outside of this place. And I pray that you will guide us so that every penny honors you. And I pray that you will take these dollars and you will plant them as seeds for your kingdom, to expand your kingdom and to have your way in this place, outside of this place and across the globe.

Thank you Lord, for entrusting this to us. Help us to be faithful as we use it to glorify you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, most of you will remember, or at least I hope that you remember, that back in September we Talked about our 36 month vision for the kind of church and community that we want to become over the next three years. And if you missed that or you're brand new around here, I really want to encourage you to get on our YouTube channel and search Vision Sunday and go listen to that.

Because that was kind of our stake in the ground. This is who we are becoming over the next three years. And there's a lot in there. But one of the things that's in there is that we said we want to be a church that is led by the Holy Spirit and actually truly embodies what Galatians 5 calls the fruit of the Spirit, that we're living that out in our lives. Now, if you've been around the church world for very long, you've heard of the Fruit of the Spirit, you might even have that goofy little song in your head.

I don't know anybody else. All the little chuckles in the room, it is constantly playing in my head every time I list out the Holy Spirit. If you did kids ministry for any length of time, you know what I'm talking about. I will spare you from singing it this morning, but I have to admit that I think we can have a cute little song in our head and lose sight of some of the impact and the seriousness of the Fruit of the Spirit. Because the aim of this series is not just to cognitively better understand what is happening in Galatians 5.

The aim of this series is that we feel the weight and the significance of what's at stake and that we understand that this, what this fruit is and that we actually practice it in our lives, that it's actually embodied in our lives. Now we're introduced to The Fruit of the Spirit by Paul in Galatians 5. But this is not the first time that we hear about it. This idea, this picture of God's people producing fruit, it is on repeat all through scripture from COVID to cover. Galatians isn't where we're going to start today.

Actually, I want to start with what Jesus had to say about us producing fruit. And this comes from John chapter 15. So John chapter 15 is in the middle of four chapters that are an account of the final hours of Jesus life before, like the day and night before he would be crucified the next day. And I think it's important as we read this, that it's in that context, this immediate context, because Jesus knows that these are the final hours of his life. He knows this.

He knows that what he says now will be the last things that he will get to say to his disciples before he's killed. And so we could imagine, if we knew today was the last chapter, that we might get to speak to our loved ones or speak to our kids, or speak to our co workers or best friends or the people that we do life with, we would be very thoughtful of the last things that we would say to them, wouldn't we? And I believe Jesus, knowing this, chose these words very specifically. And I think they're some of the most significant words that Jesus has. And so it's after this famous Last Supper scene.

They have shared a meal together. Jesus has famously washed their feet and he has instituted communion for the very first time. And he says, hey guys, let's get out of here. And he takes them on a walk. And as they're on a walk on the way to the garden of Gethsemane, where he knows he is going to be arrested, he tells them what's in John chapter 15.

And as they would walk to Gethsemane, if you know the area, he inevitably would have passed grape vineyards on his way, which is significant for what we're going to talk about. John 15, starting in verse one. I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser or the gardener. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit already you are clean or pruned because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. And then he repeats again, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and don't miss this and so prove to be my disciples. Notice that Jesus put some very serious terms onto this.

He says, those who miss this will wither and be carried away and burned in the fire. And those who don't miss this will produce much fruit. And that much fruit will prove that they are his disciples. And it's significant that he says this face to face with the guys that we call the disciples. Jesus is explaining to them what has to be in place for them to be considered true disciples.

Because as Christians, our number one aim is to be disciples of Jesus. And Jesus says the proof is in the fruit. And how do we bear much fruit? He says, by remaining in him the true vine and being cared for by the vinedresser. We'll get more into that part here in a minute.

So let's work through this together. First, what is good fruit? Well, the easy and obvious answer to this is the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians, chapter 5. We'll read that together, starting in verse 22.

Paul says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Now I'm going to read those again, and as I do, consider if these are notable characteristics in your life, characteristics that are obvious to the people around you, to your co workers, to the person you're dating, to your parents, to the cashier at Kroger, to your spouse, your kids, to your obnoxious neighbor, to your son in law, to the people sitting around you on the sideline at your kid's sports game. Are these notable characteristics in your life? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This, Jesus says, is the mark of one who is abiding in the true vine.

And it is God's intention that we would be producing all of these things abundantly and in every ever increasing measure in our lives. In fact, note that it is the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits of the Spirit. It's singular. This is significant. John MacArthur, he's a great preacher and theologian.

He says that the fruit of the Spirit is a whole bouquet that comes as one. You can't piece it out. You don't get to choose all the parts. It's not a bunch of individual pieces that we can pick and choose. It's it is the fruit singular of the spirit.

So let me ask, what does your bouquet look like? The whole bouquet, not I'm crushing it in gentleness. What does your bouquet look like? We're all producing some kind of fruit. And the substance and the quality and the quantity of our fruit is the indicator or the proof the vine we're connected to.

But we as humans have a battle raging in us for fruit production. Paul says that that battle is between the spirit and the flesh. We read in Galatians 5, starting in verse 16. So I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They're in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. He uses this language of the flesh and the spirit lots of times actually in the New Testament he says, when we walk in the spirit, we produce the fruit of the spirit. And when we walk in the flesh, we produce bad fruit or the fruit of the flesh. Interesting too, that unlike the bouquet of the fruit of the spirit, the fruits of the flesh are individual things that we can pick and choose and add them to our menu in our lives when we like. So what are.

What is the fruit of the flesh? Well, Galatians 5, 1921. Paul says the acts of the flesh are obvious. His first one, sexual immorality, which includes every sexual act that is outside of God's design in Scripture, which is sex between a man and a woman inside of marriage. This is his design for this impurity and debauchery.

These are just shameless and blatant immoral acts, idolatry and witchcraft, which interestingly, that word witchcraft is where we get our word pharmaceutical. It has a tie to mind altering drugs, actually. Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like, he says, and the like to show that this is not an exhaustive list. He's saying. And other stuff, just like this is his point.

And he closes with, I warn you, as I did before, these are heavy words. These are from the Bible. These are not from Josh, these are from the Bible, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so we take this stark turn from if you produce good fruit, you prove to be my disciples. From that to, if you produce this other fruit, you are not inheriting the kingdom of heaven.

But why not? Because God is some really mean, aggressive, angry God that's just trying to slap our wrist. It's because God knows that there is only one way to salvation. It is through Jesus Christ. It is through the true vine.

This is what the Bible repeats over and over. It's not because he's angry and mean. It's because there is a path, and that path is through the true vine. And those who are living in the flesh are not attached to the true vine. This is what Paul is saying.

Now, I want to address two things here before we move on. First, Paul's point and the Bible's point isn't that if you're a Christian, that you will never again give into the flesh, or that you will never take part in any of the acts of the flesh, or that you will never desire any of the acts of the flesh. The Bible never once promises that once we're baptized, we will never sin again. The Bible promises that once we are Christians, the war against the flesh has started. That's what the Bible promises.

And through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we overcome the flesh. This process is called sanctification. It's just a big word that means that the Holy Spirit is using his power to help form us and reform us more and more and more into the likeness of Jesus. As he does this work, the fruit of the flesh shrivels more and more and dies, and the fruit of the Spirit grows and expands more and more. This is how it works.

One of the evidences that we have the Holy Spirit is that there is growing conflict in us against the flesh. I would argue that if the Spirit were completely absent from us, we would have no issue doing the fleshly things. We would not fight against them at all. We would only surrender and obey sin. It sounds crazy, but the fact that we struggle with our struggle is the very evidence that the Holy Spirit is in us doing his work.

Paul himself had this struggle. Paul's a superstar in the Bible. He says somehow he can say in 1 Corinthians 11, he's so bold to say, follow my example, as I follow Christ's example. But he also says in Romans 7:18, for I know that good itself does not dwell in me. That is in my simple nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out, for I do not do the good. I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. This I keep doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it. It is the sin living in me that does it.

And then he flips back the other way in Galatians 2:20. And he says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul has this inner battle inside of him between the spirit and the flesh.

Here's the point. Even for those of us who have the Holy Spirit in us, as long as we are breathing in this body on this earth, the battle between the spirit and the flesh is raging as long as we're here. And I'll warn us that if they. The battle suddenly seems to get pretty quiet, we better start paying attention. Because Satan is the great deceiver.

And he has an incredible ability to salve our conscience by getting us to believe that good activity is good fruit.

See, Satan's a master at producing rubber grapes and wooden apples and wax bananas, fruit that looks like good fruit but isn't the real thing. He even produces nice little wire hooks so that we can take that fruit and hang it all over our branches as badges of honor and show everyone how great we are. And while we might have the people around us fooled, we do not have God fooled. It's just like that self righteousness costume we talked about in the Armor of God series. That is a cheap, plastic fake version of the true breastplate of righteousness.

Now, I'm not saying that good activity isn't good, but I am saying that good activity, not empowered or activated by the Holy Spirit, is just a really palatable version of walking in the flesh. It's just a really comfortable version of walking in the flesh. It's hypocrisy at the end of the day, it's self righteousness. It's not the real fruit. And as Paul says, always be alert because church Satan can convince us to abide in a vine of activity and hang some plastic ornaments on us that look like good fruit and keep us thinking that we're abiding in Jesus.

And all the while we're walking in the flesh and our branches are withering and dying.

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is talking about false disciples who believe that they have produced good fruit, but come to find out it was false fruit all along. And he says some things here that should just cause us to gasp. He says something that should suck the wind out of us and really make us examine our heart, our fruit and our lives. He says Matthew 7:22. Many will say to me on that day, what day?

The day of judgment, when he returns, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and and in your name perform many miracles? That sounds like awesome fruit. Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evildoers. Jesus is not fooled by our fake fruit. And don't forget, when Jesus came, the people he clashed with the very most were church folks.

Us. The ones following all the rules, giving a perfect tithe, praying out loud in the synagogue. The ones who showed up to church each week and lifted their hands in worship and gave of their income and volunteered in kids ministry and said all the right things. Jesus compared them to a cup that was beautiful and clean on the outside, but that was filled with filthy on the inside.

Even though their actions looked like good fruit, their hearts showed the truth that they were walking in the flesh. Real fruit does result in good activity, but not all good activity is real fruit.

So Jesus is the true vine, and he says his father is the vinedresser or the gardener. And one of the key things that Jesus says the vinedresser does is to properly prune the vine. This is one of his primary responsibilities. I'll tell you a story of how I learned the significance of pruning. More than 20 years ago, Heidi and I bought our first home.

And with our home, we inherited this small fruit tree orchard in the backyard. Three of those trees were Asian pear trees. And they were beautiful, big, tall, beautiful trees. They had leaves all over them. And the first spring that we were there, they were absolutely loaded with, with blooms.

And you probably know this, all those little blooms are the start of a piece of fruit. And so we are already counting our eggs before they've been hatched, so to speak. We're eating the fruit before it's even grown. We're pumped because these trees look amazing and they're loaded with blooms. And then fast forward, all the blooms fall off and 0,0 fruit off of these trees.

0. And this is on repeat for the next five or six years. Loaded with blossoms and no fruit, loaded. And so we fertilize them, we spray them for pests. We're like, maybe the bugs got to them.

They have no disease. Beautiful long branches reaching up into the sky. And I just cannot figure out why these trees will not produce. And so I do A bunch of research. I talk to people who also have fruit trees.

And the thing on repeat that everyone keeps telling me is you have to prune the trees. You got to cut them way back, way back. Because all that long, beautiful growth is keeping the trees from growing fruit. So that winter I obey the rules and I mean, I butcher these trees. They looked sad.

When I was done. I was thankful that trees cannot bleed or cry because it would have been a mess. They looked so pitiful. And I thought, man, I have killed them. I have destroyed these trees.

Come spring, the leaves popped on them. I was like, okay, I didn't kill them. Then the blossoms came on. And would you believe those trees were absolutely loaded with pears? Like so many pears that they're like touching the ground, the branches that are there.

We went out for days and days, five gallon buckets full of Asian pears. They're delicious and sweet. We ate them until we couldn't eat them anymore. Then we made pear butter out of them and canned as much as we could for years. Then we gave them away.

We had so many pieces of fruit off of these three trees. We left good fruit on the ground. Cause we were sick of picking it up and it rotted there. That's how many fruit pieces came off of these trees. That's amazing.

And here we are. You see where I'm going? Here we are looking at these giant long branches reaching out to the sky going, look at that. Look how beautiful that is. Look, look at that activity.

Look at that growth. Look how impressive this is. And all the while it was robbing everything that the tree needed to actually grow fruit. Pruning was required. And some of us are sitting in this room today.

And while we may have tapped into the true vine at one point to receive salvation, and we might have beautiful long branches that are reaching out in every direction. We are not producing fruit because we're not daily abiding in Jesus and letting the vinedresser do his work. And if this is true, it's God's desire to come in and cut out some superfluous energy, sucking branches from our lives.

Because that's what's keeping us from producing good fruit. I think these branches are otherwise really good things. Things that look really good, but they're sucking the energy and life away from the blooms. Maybe it's something that we're spending all of our money on. That is a really valid reason for why we cannot be generous to the kingdom.

Maybe it's a job or a hobby that's this constant excuse for why we don't have time to invest in the kingdom. Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a boat, maybe it's year round travel, sports, maybe it's something way less nefarious than you might imagine it is. But it is the thing that is robbing the energy of away from producing fruit. And none of these things are sin in and of themselves. None of them are bad in and of themselves, but otherwise good things.

And they're things that God wants to cut out of our lives to make us able to produce fruit. And if you look at your life today and you're longing to have the kind of fruit that you might see in in other people or the kind of fruit that's described in the scriptures, then maybe today's the day that we need to address that God wants to cut these things out of our lives. Because if something is robbing you of the resources, energy and power to produce this fruit, it's time to let the vinedresser do his work.

Now, this heavy pruning isn't the only type of pruning that Jesus talks about. Here. Next, Jesus says that every branch that does bear fruit also gets pruned so that it will be even more fruitful. This does not sound fair to me. Even those of us who are in the true vine, we are actually producing fruit.

Even we get cut. Yeah, this is how this works. Because as long as you are breathing, he's not done pruning. That's how this works. As long as we are breathing, the vinedresser is not done pruning.

That is if we allow him to do his work. Because nearly always God will not prune in us what we do not hold out to him to be cut off. I'll say that again. Nearly always God will not prune in us what we do not hold out to him to be cut from us. So what does it look like to allow him to put those branches out so that he can do his work of pruning?

Well, the analogy here is Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches. The Father is the vinedresser. But what's the knife? What's the tool in the vinedresser's hand that does the cutting?

Well, we'll go back to verse 3 where Jesus describes this to the disciples. He says, you, the disciples are already clean or pruned because of the word I have spoken to you. The knife is the word. Charles Spurgeon put it this way. He says it is the word that prunes the Christian.

It is the Truth that purges him. The Scripture, made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit, effectually cleanses the Christian. The true prune is the Word in the hand of the great vinedresser. Hebrews 4:12 says, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart church. It is the Word that cuts. It is the Word that instructs and convicts and guides. And if we are not in the Word and the Word is not in us, then we will not be able to see that the branches that need to be held out to the gardener to allow him to cut them. And this is not a fun process.

This is no fun at all. And it will again make us face this nasty reality that our modern world has no interest in, which is God is calling for less and less of us so that there will be more and more of Him. This is his plan. The great work of pruning. The whole point of it is to remove everything in us that is hindering the growth of fruit.

The aim of pruning is that we become more and more like Jesus. And so the vinedresser does the work of cutting out everything in us that is not Jesus. That's a lot of stuff for me, probably not for you, but it's definitely a lot of stuff for me that the vinedresser has to prune on a regular basis.

The Word is what holds up the standard of Jesus Christ in full, plain, clear view for us and at the same time operates as a beautifully perfectly clean mirror that we get to look at ourselves in and realize that one of these things is not yet like the other other, that's what the Word does.

Now, as much as we would like for this fruit bearing thing to be this kind of up and to the right constantly forward moving, positive equation, the truth is that just like with actual vines and actual trees, there are growing seasons and there are pruning seasons, and there are late frosts sometimes that take out the fruit and there are pests and there are diseases that need to be dealt with. But as long as we remain in the vine and as long as we allow the vinedresser to do his work, here is the promise that in his time he will provide everything that we need and cut off all the things that we don't need so that he can produce the kind of fruit in our lives that he wants to see. And that fruit proves that we are his disciples. But before we get into the Next several weeks of picking up each piece of fruit and looking at all of it and seeing what the Bible has to say about it and practically doing something about it. First we have to be pruned.

See, the upside down way that we produce fruit is through what looks like death.

Some of us are currently attached to a false vine altogether. We are fully walking in the flesh. We have never tapped into the true vine today. And if that's you, the Bible says that what needs to happen is you need to be cut off from, from that vine, which hurts, and you need to be grafted in to the true vine. And if that's you today and you want to ask hard questions about that, or you want to talk about that, or you're ready for that, or you just want to pray about that, I know you have difficulty understanding that there's a blindness that's in you because the Holy Spirit is not yet in you.

We would love to help you walk through that or work through that, even if it's just a small step. Today we're going to have some folks down here at the end of the ramp after the service. They would love to talk to you about that and help you work through that. And then there are those of us who are in the true vine, but we're not producing any fruit. We've got all of these beautiful branches hanging out in all these directions.

And, and we have either been unknowing or unwilling to allow the vinedresser to do his work. And then for those of us who are in the true vine producing good fruit, he still wants more from us today. And all of us need to be cut. Each layer requires cutting and pain and self denial and what looks like and feels like it must be death, but it's actually more abundant life than we've ever tasted before. Now, one more thing about fruit before we close today.

Did you ever take the time to think about the fact that, that the fruit that a tree or a vine produces isn't for itself? Like you've never seen an apple tree reach out and grab an apple and polish it off and take a bite, Right? Because the fruit that is produced is not of primary benefit to the tree or the vine. The fruit that is produced is of primary benefit to others. This is the upside down kingdom economics at play here.

And what's further and even more beautiful is that the seeds inside of that fruit are capable of growing new vines and new trees and new plants that also produce more fruit that is of benefit to others and not the plant itself. So that long after the tree or the vine or the plant is long dead and gone, it is still multiplying fruit. This is God's model. This is what he wants for us today.

Jesus says, I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. And as we head into this journey of going through the fruit of the Spirit, my hope for us today is that all of us walk out a little, little bit sore today and all of us walk out of here begging the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the parts of us that need to be held out so that he can do his work, so that beautiful, abundant fruit not for us is produced in us. So that's what I'm going to pray for right now.

Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we, we're here today to pursue you in some way. And so I pray that whatever layer of this journey we're on today, that we would be willing to take a step towards you. That we would be willing maybe to be cut off completely from the vine of the flesh. That maybe we would be willing to, to do this brutal, painful, massive pruning today.

Or maybe we would just show up again and hold out one more thing for you to cut off. But I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal to us today in a powerful and potent and really an aggressive way that you will show us today, convict us deeply on what needs to be cut out. And that we would trust you enough to let you do your work so that you can do the beautiful work of death, to life, of pain, to glory and goodness, of nothing, to fruit.

Yes, for our sake, yes, for this church's sake, yes, for this community's sake. But for long, long, long after we are gone, for the sake of your kingdom in this world.

So break through whatever you need to break through today that we might be willing to do it.

Thank you. That you would allow us to be in you at all and that you would use us at all to produce fruit, let alone beautiful, abundant, life giving fruit. Thank you. In Jesus name, amen.