Bearing Fruit

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. God bless you, everyone reading this program! Today we’re going to talk about Bearing Fruit. It’s for His glory! Let’s turn to Mark 4:1-20, And again He began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching: Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. And He said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear! But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them. And He said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the Word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the Word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the Word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the Word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the Word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Here Jesus spoke about four different kinds of hearts. All of them received the Word into their hearts. It was the condition of each one’s heart that determined the effect that the Word had in their life. The only ones that brought forth fruit were the good ground: the ones that heard the Word and received it and brought forth fruit according to their ability. Luke 8:15 says, But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. “Patience”, there, is hopeful endurance, or continuance. So, as Jesus said, If you continue in My Word, you will be My disciple indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. You will be delivered from the things that have you bound and prevent you from bearing fruit to God’s glory. Whatever the condition of your heart, if you will come to the Lord, in true humility and honesty, and ask Him to change your heart, He can do it!, if you are sincere; if you will continue with Him, even when it gets hard. It most likely will involve enduring some difficult times and circumstances; remaining faithful to Him; repenting and yielding to His correction in your life, for your heart to be changed. You have to want this!

Let’s turn to John 15:1-17, I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. Verse 8, By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As we continue in the love of God, keeping His Words; abiding in Him and in His love, His Word will bear fruit through us as He leads us by His Holy Spirit to do His will, loving Him; abiding in Him, and He in us, leading us in loving others and doing the will of the Father in their lives; speaking His Word to them by the Holy Spirit, and doing His works, seeking to glorify the Father with all our hearts, even as Jesus did, and even as Moses. Moses cared for the Father’s name and for His honor. When he interceded on behalf of Israel, his concern was that the Father’s name would not be dishonored.

Let’s turn to John 12:23-26,  But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. John 7:18, Jesus said, He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the edification of the Body of Christ. They are operated as the Father wills, for His glory; for His Holy Name’s sake, by the Holy Spirit, through yielded vessels that are seeking to honor Him, not through self-loving, pleasure-loving, money-loving people who are seeking their own glory.  In Acts, chapter 3, we read where the Lord healed the lame man who was begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, through Peter and John. Verses 11-16, Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. 

So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. I’m reminded of what Peter wrote in his epistle, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives, that God, in all things, may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever, Amen! Again, in John 15:16, Jesus said, You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  That the Father may be glorified through the Son, John 14, let’s go there, verses 12-14, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. Is that your desire? Do you desire that the Father may be glorified through Jesus Christ, through your ministry, through your service? Verses 20&21, At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. In verse 31, Jesus said, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Jesus went to the Cross and died for our sins and rose again because He loved the Father and He loved us. It was the love of God in Him that caused Him to lay down His life for us. He said, Greater love has no man that this: than to lay down one’s life for his friends. He spoke of how the seed must die and be buried, and then it will bring forth much fruit. Look at the fruit that has come from Jesus’ love and obedience to the Father, seeking to honor Him in laying down His life for us! So it will be for us if we will love the Father, and love His Son, and serve them, yielding to the Holy Spirit to lay down our lives, our self-love, our desires, our very lives, to serve Him and  labor in His fields. As He dwells in us, and we dwell and abide in Him, trusting Him and following Him, His Word will bring forth fruit by the Holy Spirit through our lives, as we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him every day. Not my will, but yours be done Father! For whatsoever we ask the Father, in prayer, believing, in Jesus’ name, for His glory, that will He do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son! Ask, and you shall receive, that the Father may be glorified in the Son! Through believing prayer, laboring in prayer and in the Word of God, we will bring forth fruit with patience; with continuance,  being married to Jesus; bearing fruit unto God- married to Him in love! That love relationship produces fruit. Rom 7:4-6, Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Serving God, in the newness of the Spirit!

Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Delighting in the Word of God, with the Holy Spirit guiding us and teaching us, we will be bearing fruit in it’s season.