Alex Huggett: I'm not much of a gardener, but I've dabbled at different times, and I once tried growing zikinis, and we had a great harvest.
Alex Huggett: It was so bountiful I thought I'll do it again.
Alex Huggett: But when I tried again, no such luck.
Alex Huggett: I tried everything I fertilized, I watered, I even hand pollinated the flowers, but nothing, and so in the end I had to pull up the plants.
Alex Huggett: n our reading today, jesus said I appointed you to go and produce fruit, and in fact, being fruitful is so important to God that he said every branch in me that does not produce fruit, the Father removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.
Alex Huggett: Jesus wants us to be fruitful Christians, but what does it mean?
Alex Huggett: What does it mean to be fruitful in the kingdom of God?
Alex Huggett: What sort of fruit are we meant to bear?
Alex Huggett: What does that look like?
Alex Huggett: What do you think?
Alex Huggett: Well, fortunately, the New Testament has a thing or two to say about fruit and bearing fruit, and there are four types of fruit that Jesus is seeking in us.
Alex Huggett: But before we look at them, let's just take a moment to pray.
Alex Huggett: So, father, as we've heard your word this morning and as we come to just reflect on it now.
Alex Huggett: I pray that you will guide my words, open our hearts to receive your word, and, father, may our lives be transformed by it and may we bear fruit as your people, In Jesus' name, amen.
Alex Huggett: Well, when you think of bearing fruit, maybe, like me, your mind goes to Galatians 5, verse 22.
Alex Huggett: And I do need to apologize I had slides for this morning but we had some technical issues.
Alex Huggett: But Galatians 5, 22,.
Alex Huggett: Don't worry about going there now We'll be looking at a number of verses, but there Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit and he calls these love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Alex Huggett: So what are the fruits of the Spirit?
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is the product of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts, changing our lives.
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence that God is in dwelling us through His Spirit, living within us and changing our hearts.
Alex Huggett: I didn't need to apologize, thank you.
Alex Huggett: Fruit of the Spirit the work of God in our lives.
Alex Huggett: Now, this isn't the only place we read about this sort of fruit, the fruit of a certain character and disposition.
Alex Huggett: In Romans 6, chapter 6, verse 22,.
Alex Huggett: Paul says we gain the fruit of sanctification, or holiness, when we're set free from sin and become servants of God.
Alex Huggett: But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification and the outcome is eternal life.
Alex Huggett: Now, whenever we read that we're sanctified, which just means we're made holy, there are two aspects to this, and one is that we're set apart for God.
Alex Huggett: We are holy because we belong to a holy God.
Alex Huggett: It's as simple as that.
Alex Huggett: That's regardless of anything we do.
Alex Huggett: If you are a Christian here today, you belong to God and you are holy before Him.
Alex Huggett: But being holy brings a certain responsibility, also brings again a certain transformation, that we are bearing the fruit of sanctification and so we start to act in holy ways.
Alex Huggett: That fruit putting off sin and putting on righteousness, and then righteousness itself is another fruit that God desires.
Alex Huggett: Philippians 1, verses 9 to 11, and I pray this that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Alex Huggett: Well, what is the fruit of righteousness?
Alex Huggett: Well, it's everything we've been looking at, but Paul particularly says knowledge of discernment to approve the things that are superior, the things that lead to purity and blamelessness before Christ.
Alex Huggett: And this is what, in Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 8 to 10, paul calls the fruit of light, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Alex Huggett: Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth, testing what is pleasing to the Lord.
Alex Huggett: And so do you see how this works.
Alex Huggett: You are light, and so the way you live should shine.
Alex Huggett: Lifestyle, the way we live, flows from our identity in Christ, and so we see these cluster of fruits which all sort of point back to the same thing the fruit of the Spirit, the work of God in our lives, the fruit of sanctification, which is really the work of God in our lives, the fruit of righteousness and the fruit of the light.
Alex Huggett: It's all God working in our lives, isn't it?
Alex Huggett: But God in us, changing us and so that our life becomes consistent with His.
Alex Huggett: And we might call this cluster of fruit, although it's the work of God in our lives, first and last, it actually results in good character, the way we act, the way we speak and conduct ourselves, and it's something God does in us, changes our hearts so that it affects the way we live.
Alex Huggett: And so the first question this morning, as we consider bearing good fruit, is this how is your character before God?
Alex Huggett: Are you bearing the good fruit of Godly character, of the Spirit, of sanctification, of righteousness, of the light?
Alex Huggett: Well, a very closely related fruit to the fruit of good character and we've sort of been alluding to this is what John the Baptist called the fruit of repentance in Luke, chapter 3, verse 8.
Alex Huggett: And in this he gives this an ominous warning produce fruit consistent with repentance.
Alex Huggett: The act is already at the root of the trees.
Alex Huggett: Therefore, every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire, similar to what Jesus said.
Alex Huggett: What, then, should we do?
Alex Huggett: The crowds were asking him, and he replied to them the one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.
Alex Huggett: Now, notice here that John doesn't only tell people to stop doing things, he will tell people to stop doing things.
Alex Huggett: I left those verses out because I want to make this point here.
Alex Huggett: But he also tells them to start doing things, and in this case it's notably sharing.
Alex Huggett: Sometimes, as Christians, it's really easy for us to focus on the things we should not do and a Christian is someone who doesn't do bad things, and that is actually true.
Alex Huggett: But we shouldn't and we shouldn't sin.
Alex Huggett: We shouldn't sleep around, we shouldn't steal or cheat or lie, because sin leads to death and we are people of life.
Alex Huggett: But Jesus didn't simply say don't sin.
Alex Huggett: The fruit he seeks is the fruit of doing good.
Alex Huggett: It's the fruit of good works, as Paul calls it in Colossians, chapter one, verse 10, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
Alex Huggett: And so, as we, the fruit we've been looking at has a very practical outcome.
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is love, and what are we commanded to do?
Alex Huggett: We are commanded to love one another.
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is peace, and Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers.
Alex Huggett: And don't we need peacemakers in our world today?
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is patience, and the Scriptures tell us to be patient with those who are weak.
Alex Huggett: The fruit of the Spirit is kindness, and Jesus said blessed are the merciful.
Alex Huggett: And Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, says For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared ahead of us to do.
Alex Huggett: So God has good works for you to do, good things he wants you to do.
Alex Huggett: Do you know what they are?
Alex Huggett: Are you bearing the fruit of good works?
Alex Huggett: Well, very briefly, there's two more sorts of good works I want to talk about, slightly different, because godly character and good works aren't the only kinds of fruit that Jesus seeks.
Alex Huggett: And in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 6, paul says the Gospel is bearing fruit.
Alex Huggett: All over the world People are becoming followers of Jesus.
Alex Huggett: And in John, chapter 4, verses 34 to 36, jesus said to his disciples my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.
Alex Huggett: Don't you say there are still four more months and then comes the harvest.
Alex Huggett: Listen to what I'm telling you.
Alex Huggett: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.
Alex Huggett: The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper can rejoice together.
Alex Huggett: Harvest fields are so ready.
Alex Huggett: Jesus said that the reapers and the sowers can barely keep up with one another.
Alex Huggett: And Jesus' great joy is to see the fruit of the Gospel being harvested, to see people won for the kingdom of God, souls being saved for eternal life.
Alex Huggett: And Francis leaves us with a very potent but very simple challenge Are we bearing the fruit of the Gospel?
Alex Huggett: Are we telling people the good news about Jesus and the kingdom of God, and are we seeing people become followers of Jesus?
Alex Huggett: Are we seeing souls won for the kingdom of God?
Alex Huggett: Are we bearing the fruit of the Gospel?
Alex Huggett: Well, there's one final kind of fruit that the New Testament talks about Hebrews, chapter 13, verses 14 to 15, says we do not have an enduring city here.
Alex Huggett: Instead, we seek the one that is to come.
Alex Huggett: Therefore, through Him, let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise.
Alex Huggett: That is the fruit of lips that confesses name.
Alex Huggett: So the fruit of praise is the response of the Christian who has their hope fixed on that eternal city, the New Jerusalem, where God dwells with His people.
Alex Huggett: We live in troubled times, don't we?
Alex Huggett: And some of you have first hand experience of that trouble.
Alex Huggett: I grew up during the Cold War, when people thought we were on the brink of World War III and nuclear annihilation.
Alex Huggett: Let me tell you, this year feels far more of a danger of that than it did in the 1980s when I was growing up.
Alex Huggett: But Christians are a people who seek the good of this world, and that's true.
Alex Huggett: We seek good now, but our hope is not now.
Alex Huggett: Our hope is the life to come, and that's where our hearts are set.
Alex Huggett: We look to the world to come as our final home.
Alex Huggett: We work for world peace, but our hope is not in world peace now, but in the Prince of peace for all eternity.
Alex Huggett: And as we bear the fruit of Godly character and good works and the gospel, so the fruit of praise to our awesome God increases.
Alex Huggett: Friends, do your lives reflect this?
Alex Huggett: Do your lives bear the fruit of praise?
Alex Huggett: Praise a feature of your life as you pray and meditate on the things of God.
Alex Huggett: And, of course, if you come to church, we praise God when we're here.
Alex Huggett: But praising God isn't just the music we sing or the prayers we pray in church.
Alex Huggett: It's a disposition, a sort of a leaning into God and the way we live once again.
Alex Huggett: So Jesus is looking for fruit from His people, the fruit of the Spirit and Godly character, the fruit of good works, the fruit of the Gospel, the fruit of praise, and say how are you doing?
Alex Huggett: Are you bearing good fruit?
Alex Huggett: And maybe you're thinking actually, tick, tick, tick, tick, I'm doing pretty good, just remembering that if you are, that's the work of God in you, it's not you doing it, it's the overflow, and that's great.
Alex Huggett: But maybe, like me, you probably feel a bit more mixed.
Alex Huggett: You know, sometimes the fruit looks OK, sometimes I'm not so sure.
Alex Huggett: So the question is, how do we become more fruitful then?
Alex Huggett: How do we bear better fruit?
Alex Huggett: Well, one of the things I've noticed about gardening is that my plants really don't have a choice in what sort of fruit they bear.
Alex Huggett: My bad zucchini is not withstanding Plants just sort of grow and, depending where they are, decides what sort of fruit they bear.
Alex Huggett: It's the conditions.
Alex Huggett: My zucchini plants can't decide to be fruitful, it just happens when usually they have fertile soil, sunshine, water and the right pollinators, when the conditions are right.
Alex Huggett: And it's the same for us.
Alex Huggett: But we're not quite as passive as my zucchini plants, because Jesus says there is something we can do to be more fruitful, and it's not to try harder to be more fruitful, it's to put ourselves in the right place where we can bear fruit.
Alex Huggett: So let's read John, chapter 15 again, just verses 4 to 8.
Alex Huggett: He says remain in me and I in you, just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine.
Alex Huggett: Neither can you, unless you remain in me.
Alex Huggett: I am the vine, you are the branches.
Alex Huggett: The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
Alex Huggett: If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.
Alex Huggett: They gather them, throw them into the fire and they're burned.
Alex Huggett: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
Alex Huggett: My Father is glorified by this that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
Alex Huggett: What word pops up again and again and again remain in me.
Alex Huggett: Maybe some of the other translations have a bide in me.
Alex Huggett: When we abide in Christ, we will abound in fruitfulness, and so if you don't feel like you're abounding in good fruit, as Christ wants to, you wants you to be, here's the key and the question for us Really not.
Alex Huggett: Are you bearing fruit?
Alex Huggett: That's a symptom.
Alex Huggett: Are you abiding in Christ?
Alex Huggett: Have you created space in your life, your time and your attention for Christ to remain in you?
Alex Huggett: And he says, for my word, his teaching, his gospel to remain in me?
Alex Huggett: Is your heart prepared like the good soil that Jesus talks about in the parable of the flower, the four different kinds of soil where some produces a pretty pathetic crop but some produces a fruitful crop?
Alex Huggett: Or are your roots planted, in his word, like a tree besides streams of water, like he talks about in Psalm 1?
Alex Huggett: Remain in Christ and let him dwell in you, and you will bear fruit.
Alex Huggett: Jesus has appointed us to bear fruit, so let's be a people who abide in him, so that we may abound in fruitfulness.
Alex Huggett: Let's pray, and then I'm going to invite you, ahi, to come and just give a summary of that, if he's brave enough to do so In Korean.
Alex Huggett: Father, we thank you that you have called us to a very simple process of being fruitful.
Alex Huggett: Lord, I pray that you will just challenge us in the coming week to take stock of our lives and where we have perhaps gotten so busy or distracted that we don't have time for you.
Alex Huggett: Lord, help us to repent and create that space so that we can abide in you and you in us.
Alex Huggett: So where we've become disappointed, perhaps just tired, please help us to find our rest in you, because in resting in you that's where we abide, in you and, lord, you do the work in us to make our lives fruitful.
Alex Huggett: We pray in Jesus' name, amen.