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Fruit is the part of a plant that produces food and seed.
1. Food symbolizing the sweet flavor of a changed personality, conformed into Christ’s image. (Galatians 5:22,23)
2. Seed symbolizing an effort to share God’s message and life to a lost and hopeless world. (Matthew 13:1-23)
Food
The Fruits of the Spirit, which show a changed personality are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
These fruits, when being expressed in the life of a believer, give us what we need to be able to scatter seed. It also makes us resemble Christ’s character and is good for us and others.
Seed
Matthew 13:1-23
The success of the sower in this parable is based completely on the condition of the hearer’s heart.
Path – Lack Understanding
Rocky Soil – People receive the Word with joy but when testing comes they fall away.
Thorns – Worries and anxieties of life, deceitfulness of wealth, choke out the Word
Good Soil – This person hears and understands producing a crop 30 60 or 100 x’s what was sown.
Here success is attributed to the wise
Proverbs 11:30 (Amplified)
Outline
I. Fruit production is very important to God
II. Fruit production for the believer begins with personal holiness.
III. Abiding in Christ is a key to fruit production
IV. Two ways you’ll know you are fruitful
II. Fruit Production for the believer begins with personal holiness.
A. What is holiness?
B. Holiness, the fruit of the faith walk
C. Self righteousness = No grace
D. Grace is for the humble
E. Repentance is the foundation for the Kingdom to be fruitful.
1. Godly Sorrow
F. Instruments for special purposes
G. Walk in the Spirit
A. What is Holiness?
Holiness- Being set apart from the World, The Enemy, and the Flesh and being set apart to the Lord.
So when we’re talking about holiness we’re talking about being set apart from something and then being set toward something else.
B. Holiness, the Fruit of the Faith Walk
I believe it’s impossible for a Christian person to be set apart from sin w/o being set in faith to the Lord.
The Lord has available for the believer the grace and power to overcome the sinful nature.
Discipline can’t do it alone, determination can’t do it alone, devotion can’t do it alone. (Colossians 2:23) It requires surrender (humility) to the Lord allowing his grace to flow.
C. Self righteousness = No Grace
Amazing as it may sound sometimes our effort to be holy can frustrate God’s grace.
Galatians 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (NIV)
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (KJV)
Mercy forgives after the infraction and places the person back on track.
Grace empowers the believer to not sin in the first place keeping them on the right track.
Colossians 2:6
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
The same faith that saves you is the same faith that sanctifies you.
We get into trouble as Christians when we in our hearts tell God, “I’ll take it from here.” the clock starts ticking on a moral failure when we take over our own sanctification. The decision to do this is rooted in pride.
D. Grace is for the Humble
James 4:6b-7
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”(Pr. 3:34)7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Titus 2:11,12
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
E. Repentance is the foundation for the Kingdom to be fruitful.
Matthew 3:1-3
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
What prepares the way for the Lord is a repentant heart. A holy heart can receive the kingdom. This kingdom get’s established in the hearts of men. A heart filled with corruption will fight against the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
- 1. Godly Sorrow - The first step to receiving the kingdom of heaven is feeling sorry for sin. This Godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10) leads to repentance which ultimately provides a fertile place for the seed of God’s word to grow and develop in the heart of a Christian.
F. Instruments for special purposes.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
The large house symbolizes the size of the human soul. Large with many compartments and rooms. The soulish realm of a human consists of his/her
- Mind
- Will
- Emotions
The articles in the house have two different purposes.
- Special Purposes
- Common Use
The passage says that if a man will cleanse himself of the latter. Meaning if a man will remove from his/her soulish realm the things that are common, earthly, and sinful, he’ll be ready for special purposes, special missions and special works.
This cleansing of the latter things, (wood and clay) will make a believer an instrument for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
You can’t read your Bible enough, pray enough or do enough good works to “stay holy”. These disciplines are great if there’s a flow of God in them. However if you are doing them under the law their will be little if any flow of God empowering you to live according to God's moral law.
G. Walk in the Spirit
Galatians 5:16-18
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
When we walk in the spirit, we’re walking in faith receiving a flow of power from heaven to think differently, have a heavenly attitude and behave differently. We must humbly receive God’s grace if we’re to walk in true holiness. Obeying God’s moral law but not coming under the yolk of trying to obey His law by the law. We obey by the spirit.
Conclusion:
Philippians 3:16
16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
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Jubilee Family Church
45 Thunderbird Dr.
Batesville, AR 72501
(870) 793-9124
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