In the Bible Christian Ministry
Sunday 6-14-26 (Fruit Takes Time, Part 4)
  • Lord I Lift Your Name on High
  • Days of Elijah
  • Every Praise
  • For Your Glory
  • Sermon Title: The Fruit of the Vine: Ending the Performance Trap
    Series: Fruit Takes Time (Week 4: Finale)
    Primary Text: John 15:1–8; Psalm 1:3; Galatians 5:22–23
    John 15:1–8 NIV
    1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
    I. The Harvest Trap (The "Used Up" Believer)
    We want to produce fruit and we want to provide a bountiful harvest.
    We feel that God will be more pleased with us the more Fruit we produce
    The world will be more pleased with us the more fruit we produce
    We live in an EXTRACTION Culture.
    —-Basically the World we live in likes to TAKE!!!! WE don’t Give.
    The World's Way: We expect the land (the branch) to provide the harvest (the fruit) without ever enriching the soil or replenishing the nutrients.
    We look to our friend with truck, our friend with this, that, etc.
    If you have a field, you take, you take, you take, until the soil is nothing but dust.
    We even take from our own selves without replenishing what we remove. We don’t fertilize we don’t put back.
    And we do whatever it takes to put out what we feel in necessary for us to look our absolute best.
    We do the same thing in our faith. We believe that if we want "fruit"—joy, peace, patience—we have to manufacture it.
    The "Performance" Burnout: We manufacture "Christian-like" fruit—joy, patience, kindness—using our own emotional willpower. We think, "If I just smile more, I’m being patient," or "If I just suppress my anger, I’m being peaceful."
    People get used to the synthetic. But it’s never like the real thing.
    We eat what’s at the grocery store, its easy, its quick. Charge more.....
    We strive, we stress, and we "try" to look "Christian." We push ourselves to perform, to act the part, to keep up appearances.
    The Result: Eventually, we are "used up." We become like a branch that is brittle, dry, and snapped because we have been trying to sustain a harvest we were never designed to produce on our own. TAPE FRUIT TO OUR BRANCHES THAT LOOK THE PART
    Fatal flaw in the performance model: Performance fruit is synthetic (man made through some process or pattern).
    It looks like the real thing, but it’s brittle.
    It doesn't nourish, and it spoils the moment you hit a real crisis.
    IT looks good in regular times
    When you are generating your own joy to impress the neighbors,
    or forcing your own patience to keep the marriage quiet, you are "pumping air." You are working, but you are not producing.
    Eventually, you run dry.
    You are "used up" because you were never designed to be the source of the fruit; you were designed to be the branch.
    Jeremiah 17:5–6 NIV
    5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
    Dependence on self doesn’t work:
    Hosea 10:13 NIV
    13 But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,

    Confronting Spiritual and Political Decay

    Hosea’s ministry occurred during a time of outward economic prosperity but severe internal corruption and political instability. His specific charges against the nation included:
    Israel was giving credit to pagan gods for their agricultural harvests and blessings rather than Yahweh.
    Crime, deception, and violence were rampant.
    Instead of relying on God for security, Israel's leaders constantly shifted political alliances, fluctuating between paying tribute to Assyria and seeking treaties with Egypt.
    Military Pride: They built up their own cavalry, fortifications, and "mighty men," believing their army could protect them.
    Political Schemes: They relied on "their own way"—playing foreign superpowers against each other, striking secret backroom deals with Egypt, and paying off Assyria.
    Everything LOOKED good. Money, Prosperity, Peace, Deals, MEANT NOTHING WITHOUT GOD!!!!!
    When we generate our own fake, synthetic "Christian-like" fruit, we are eating the fruit of deception—basing our peace on our own strength rather than the Vine.
    Christianity is more than about looking good:
    Matthew 23:27 NIV
    27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.
    The Contrast: God doesn’t just demand fruit; He provides the Sap. He replenishes the life-force. You don't need a "recharge" if you are permanently plugged into the Vine.
    II. The Simplicity of the Branch
    The Mechanical Error: We often treat faith like a machine: Input (Bible reading, prayer) = Output (Success, peace). But a branch isn't a machine; it's a living conduit.
    The branch has only one job: Abide/Remain). It doesn't strain.
    It doesn't analyze the soil.
    It doesn't worry about the market price of grapes.
    It simply stays connected. If the Vine says "lean," the branch leans. If He says "grow here," the branch grows there.
    The Branch's Role: It is purely receptive. The branch’s "work" is not the production of the fruit; its "work" is the surrender of its posture.
    Isaiah 30:15 NIV
    15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
    The work of the branch is to settle into quietness, rest, and trust. Our strength doesn't come from a frantic hustle; it comes from a deep, remaining posture.
    What happens when you stay/abide in God
    Psalm 92:13–14 NIV
    13 planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
    Notice the passive placement. They don't plant themselves; they are planted. Because of their connection to the source, their sap never runs dry—they stay fresh and green.

    Connecting to the Sap

    Humans have a heart to pump blood but a plant doesn’t have a heart. So how does this SAP or it’s life source get to the entire plant?
    SAP cannot move upward without the chain reaction of cohesion. It works through a vacuum. It’s so connected that the vacuum of the plant. As water evaporates and pull from the plant the root systems feeds what is needed so it’s basically a never ending cycle.
    It doesn’t just give just to give. As substance is removed the roots and vine work to replenish immediately. So the branch has a never ending supply it just has to stay connected
    BUT If a branch snaps or becomes cracked, air enters the pipeline (like a hole in a straw) , breaking the molecular chain. The pull stops, the sap drops, and the branch dries out.
    Preaching Point: When you fracture your connection to Christ through independent performance, you introduce air into your spiritual pipeline. You stop receiving the raw nutrients of grace because you broke the chain of abiding.
    The Flow is Driven by Evaporation: Sap only rises because the leaf is actively giving water away to the atmosphere through transpiration. If a leaf seals itself up completely to hoard its water, the pull stops and the sap stagnates.
    Preaching Point: Spiritual sap only flows into your life when you are actively pouring yourself out for others. Hoarding God's goodness stalls the vascular flow of the Spirit; you have to breathe out so the Vine can pump more in.
    The Sap Precedes the Fruit: A grape doesn't create its own sugar; the sap under immense hydraulic pressure forces the sugar into the cluster from the inside out. And once there all these nutrients are turned into fruit.
    Preaching Point: Stop trying to manipulate the exterior appearance of your fruit. The Vinedresser isn't looking for a branch that is manually gluing grapes to its bark;
    He is looking for a branch whose internal vascular network is so saturated with the Sap of the Spirit that fruit becomes an inevitable, structural byproduct.
    He knows real from fake
    BASIC POINT!!!!! This is the "simplicity of the branch." When we stop trying to be the Vinedresser of our own lives, we stop the performance. We stop leaning into our own understanding and start leaning into the Vine. That isn't a struggle; it is a rest. You don't have to "generate" love; you simply receive the life that flows from the Vine and let it spill over into your actions.
    III. The Unexpected Utility of God’s Fruit
    We have a narrow view of fruit. We think fruit is just "me having a good attitude." But look at what a Vinedresser does with a harvest. He doesn't just put it on display; he uses it.
    Your peace is a tonic for the anxious.
    Your joy is a dessert for the weary.
    Your patience is an extract that heals a broken relationship.
    God is the Chef; you are the kitchen. He decides how your fruit is used to feed others. You may never see how your "peace on a Tuesday" stabilized a coworker, or how your "patience in a grocery line" convicted a stranger, but that is the Vine's fruit being used for His kingdom. It doesn't spoil because it isn't yours.
    The Hidden Impact: You may think your "fruit" is just a character trait you have to manage, but God is using it to feed, heal, and flavor the lives of people you haven't even met yet. Your life of abiding is actually a "gourmet meal" God is serving to those starving in the world.
    Colossians 2:6–7 NIV
    6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
    You need to stay plugged in because the world is looking to use what you produce:
    Matthew 5:13 NIV
    13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
    IV. The Durability of Divine Fruit
    Spoilage Check: Compare human fruit (temporary, self-seeking, high-maintenance) to God’s fruit (eternal, self-replenishing).
    The "Deep Well" Metaphor:
    Imagine a hand-pump at a well. You can pull the handle as hard as you want, but if the water table has dropped below the pipe, you are just pumping air. The "performance" Christian is pumping hard and getting nothing. Abiding is digging the well deeper until you hit the underground river that is constantly being replenished by God.
    Pump air with a little water.
    You can work all you want but if you aren’t linked to anything you get NO results
    John 4:14 NIV
    14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
    IV. The Eternal Replenishment
    The world tries to take the fruit without nourishing the plant. God is the Vinedresser who always replenishes the sap. You don’t need a "recharge" if you are permanently plugged into the Vine. His fruit is eternal. It is the only thing you produce that will actually last. Stop trying to showcase yourself. Let God showcase Himself through you.
    Jeremiah 17:7–8 NIV
    7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
    The Closing Appeal: Stop trying to be the "producer" of your own righteousness. Stop the frantic "doing" and start the radical "being."

      • John 15:1–8NIV2011

      • Jeremiah 17:5–6NIV2011

      • Hosea 10:13NIV2011

      • Matthew 23:27NIV2011

      • Isaiah 30:15NIV2011

      • Psalm 92:13–14NIV2011

      • Colossians 2:6–7NIV2011

      • Matthew 5:13NIV2011

      • John 4:14NIV2011

      • Jeremiah 17:7–8NIV2011

In the Bible Christian Ministry
404-622-1202
https://www.itbcministry.org/
4 members • 4 followers