Speaker 1: no-transcript.
Speaker 1: I'll be reading verse 1 to verse 8.
Speaker 1: And then, in a moment, we are going to receive the word of God.
Speaker 1: The word of God is coming your direction.
Speaker 1: Open your heart to receive it In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: The Bible says I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Speaker 1: Remain in me, as I also remain in you.
Speaker 1: No branch can bear fruit by itself.
Speaker 1: It must remain in the vine.
Speaker 1: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Speaker 1: I am the vine, you are the branches.
Speaker 1: If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
Speaker 1: If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away, and with us, such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Speaker 1: Verse 7, let's read this one together If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
Speaker 1: And verse 8, this is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Speaker 1: Let's take that again, verse 7, with conviction, 7 and 8.
Speaker 1: Again, let's go together, father.
Speaker 1: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
Speaker 1: This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Speaker 1: This is the word of God and we all say kindly welcome the person next to you to sit next to you as we receive the word of God.
Speaker 1: And we all say kindly welcome the person next to you to sit next to you as we receive the word of God.
Speaker 1: Amen, tell them to keep you company as we receive this word this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: We continue this month with our theme of the impartation of uncommon zo life, spirit-led rebirth, and last Sunday our senior pastor started us off and clearly breaking down what this Zoe life is.
Speaker 1: Were you blessed by last Sunday's sermon?
Speaker 1: Did you catch this Zoe life?
Speaker 1: So I will not repeat the Zoe life.
Speaker 1: I will move with it.
Speaker 1: Nina songa na yo.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And if you did not catch last Sunday's sermon, please go to our YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: That sermon is there.
Speaker 1: Connect with it, listen to it, receive it and allow it to continue functioning in your life.
Speaker 1: This afternoon I want to share with us briefly on the subject the match fruit zoe life, the match fruit zoe life.
Speaker 1: You know zoe life.
Speaker 1: As we've already defined, it is eternal life.
Speaker 1: It is not just life, it is eternal life.
Speaker 1: It is the life that we receive when we invite the Lord, jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior in our lives.
Speaker 1: And many times, when we talk about eternal life, many people think in terms of the future.
Speaker 1: In fact, many people think in terms of when somebody dies.
Speaker 1: That that is when we start eternal life and that's why people will say, when somebody has died, they will say rest in peace eternally.
Speaker 1: But I am here to remind you that the zoe life is lived in the now.
Speaker 1: It is not a futuristic life that we are waiting for.
Speaker 1: It is the life that we receive and we start living it out the moment we invite Christ into our lives and therefore, the moment you invited Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior into your life, you started living out the zoe life.
Speaker 1: God is glorified when the recipients of his zoe life are bearing much fruit.
Speaker 1: Therefore, we are not just receiving zoe life so that we can escape hell.
Speaker 1: We do not just receive this zoe life so that we can receive God's blessings.
Speaker 1: We do not just receive this zoe life so that, simply, our sins are forgiven.
Speaker 1: While all those things are very important and we for sure receive them, much more when we receive the zoe life is that God is glorified when this zoe life bears much fruit, much fruit in personal life.
Speaker 1: You may ask what is this much fruit, much fruit in personal life, that our lives change and they become more Christ like, because Christ has given us this Zoy life.
Speaker 1: Remember, zoy life is God life.
Speaker 1: Those who are born of the flesh live according to the flesh.
Speaker 1: Those who are born of God, they start living like those of God.
Speaker 1: Much fruit in evangelism, much fruit in inviting others, much fruit in drawing others so that they can come close to this zoe life.
Speaker 1: And therefore, since you got born again, since you received this zoe life, one of the questions that you need to ask yourself is how many people have I drawn so that they can come also and be recipients of this Zoy Life?
Speaker 1: But not only is it much fruit in personal life, much fruit in evangelism, but also much fruit in the world, that we influence the world as salt and light that, by the virtue of having received this zoe life, we bring tests to the world, we bring light to the world, we bring healing to the world.
Speaker 1: We bring hope to the world.
Speaker 1: We bring healing to the world.
Speaker 1: We bring hope to the world.
Speaker 1: Much fruit is born as we influence the world that is around us.
Speaker 1: Much fruit, brothers and sisters, is the evidence Of zoe life.
Speaker 1: Has somebody received this zoe life?
Speaker 1: Then the evidence Is that they will start bearing fruit and as they bear fruit, they will move and bear much fruit, and that is the desire and the design of God.
Speaker 1: The passage that is before us this afternoon brings us a very beautiful collaboration between the father, the son and the disciples when it comes to the results of much fruit.
Speaker 1: The collaboration between the father and the son and his disciples amount to much fruit, and that's why, then, jesus opens up this passage as he speaks to his disciples and tells them I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
Speaker 1: Three things that I want to bring to our attention this afternoon that enable much fruit is that?
Speaker 1: Number one, the father's pruning enables much fruit.
Speaker 1: Number two, the son's nourishment enables much fruit.
Speaker 1: And number three, the disciples abiding enables much fruit.
Speaker 1: And we are not talking about one or the other.
Speaker 1: We are talking about the collaboration between the father, the son, the father in pruning, the son in nourishing and the disciples in abiding.
Speaker 1: There is no such a colabo that can beat this colabo when it comes to much fruit.
Speaker 1: And therefore, number one, the father who is pruning.
Speaker 1: Jesus says I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
Speaker 1: And in verse two he says he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes.
Speaker 1: And why does he prune?
Speaker 1: So that it will bear more fruit.
Speaker 1: Let's leave out the one that is cut out.
Speaker 1: Let's focus on this one that is still connected to the vine, on this one that is still connected to the vine.
Speaker 1: You know, pruning is a life-giving process.
Speaker 1: It is painful, but it is a life-giving process and the father has been a life-giver from the beginning, so it is not beginning.
Speaker 1: In the book of John From Genesis, god has been a life giver.
Speaker 1: Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7,.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible tells us about our father, about God.
Speaker 1: It says that then the Lord, god, formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Speaker 1: And what happened to the man?
Speaker 1: He became a living being.
Speaker 1: Our God is a life-giving God, but the life he gives, he gives it with the intention that it bears much fruit.
Speaker 1: He does not just give life, but he gives life with the intention that its result is much fruit.
Speaker 1: And that's why Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28,.
Speaker 1: We will see the language of much fruit coming all the way from God.
Speaker 1: Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28.
Speaker 1: And then God blessed them.
Speaker 1: Blessing is the language of march fruit.
Speaker 1: And he said to them be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
Speaker 1: You are blessed and not cursed, because our God has the intention of that which he has deposited in your life as zoilife that it will result to much fruit.
Speaker 1: Blessings is the language of much fruit.
Speaker 1: You cannot multiply.
Speaker 1: There can be no multiplication without much fruit.
Speaker 1: There can be no fruitfulness.
Speaker 1: Without seeing abundance of fruit, there can be no filling the earth.
Speaker 1: You cannot fill the earth with one, you cannot fill the earth with two.
Speaker 1: You fill the earth With much Subdue, rule over the fish of the sea.
Speaker 1: All these words Are words Of much fruit and that is what God is saying concerning you that you are going to be fruitful, you are going to multiply, you are going to fill the earth, you are going to subdue, you are going to rule.
Speaker 1: You are blessed for much fruit, in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: You know, pruning takes different shapes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it is through discipline, sometimes it is through discipline, sometimes it is through waiting.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it is through some rough patches of life that we have to go through as believers.
Speaker 1: God is molding something in our lives.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it is through the removal of some things that we may hold so dear in our lives, but God has to remove them.
Speaker 1: I may disappoint some of you by saying that there are some people that God must remove from your life so that you can become fruitful.
Speaker 1: There are some places that God must remove you, pluck you out of those places so that you can be fruitful.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, when the Lord is trying to pluck you out of those places, you are resisting.
Speaker 1: Mimisitoki hapa and our senior pastor last Sunday talked about the 10 by 10.
Speaker 1: God wants to remove you from that 10 by 10 mentality, but you are saying no, I am not going, I am not moving.
Speaker 1: There are places that you will never experience much fruit unless you come out of them.
Speaker 1: God had to remove Abraham from the land of the Chaldeans and his people they were worshipers of other gods and take him to another land where he's able to start seeing God in a different way.
Speaker 1: Where he was, he didn't have his people.
Speaker 1: He didn't have his people to turn to.
Speaker 1: He had God, only to turn to Buona, esua, sifuwe.
Speaker 1: And you know, as parents, if our children are going to amount to something, not only should we give them hugs, but we should also prune them.
Speaker 1: And so sometimes in my house you know I have four ladies in my house, so the amount of love in that house is serious love, I'm telling you, it is serious love.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it is serious love.
Speaker 1: A hug here, a chum here, daddy, what do you want?
Speaker 1: Can I serve you?
Speaker 1: Even my nails are done sometimes.
Speaker 1: Can you see all that love?
Speaker 1: I am surrounded by love.
Speaker 1: But there are times the atmosphere changes because the father removes his belt and something just changes.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because if I don't do that, my children will not just amount to something through hugging, they also will amount to something through pruning.
Speaker 1: God is not only hugging you, but once in a while he has to pinch you.
Speaker 1: He has to get something out of you so that pruning can happen.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine, they moved to the US.
Speaker 1: It's a family of a bishop friend of mine.
Speaker 1: They moved to the US and when they go to the US, as they were unpacking their stuff and they're excited about being in the US.
Speaker 1: As they were unpacking their stuff and they're excited about being in the US, as they were unpacking, you know, in one of the suitcase the father's suitcase as they were unpacking, they found that spanking rod all the way from Kenya carried to the US.
Speaker 1: And what will happen?
Speaker 1: Sometimes the spanking will happen If they are in public places, the spanking will happen in the toilet and then you are told to wash your face.
Speaker 1: Look like somebody who has received a gift, not like somebody who has received a beating.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters, I invite you, let our attitude towards the Lord's pruning be one of joy, be one of you know humility, so that, as he does that in our lives, the result will be much fruit.
Speaker 1: Buona esua sifiwe, be much fruit.
Speaker 1: Buona esua sifiwe.
Speaker 1: You know the other very exciting point that we need to know is that, even though this bishop carried a spanking rod with him to the US, he really loved his children very much.
Speaker 1: Our father loves us.
Speaker 1: Even when he has to spank us, he does it out of love, he does it in an environment of love.
Speaker 1: What does pruning do?
Speaker 1: Pruning gives room for much fruit.
Speaker 1: Pruning builds capacity.
Speaker 1: Pruning builds endurance.
Speaker 1: Pruning builds maturity.
Speaker 1: When God is pruning us, pruning develops discipline and therefore, when you see some children looking very disciplined and you're asking yourself, kwani, what happened to my children?
Speaker 1: No, it is not what happened to my children.
Speaker 1: If you investigate carefully, you will find that there is a loving pruning that is happening.
Speaker 1: It develops discipline.
Speaker 1: Pruning unlocks potential.
Speaker 1: Pruning is what the Father does to thrust us into much fruit, the realm of much fruit.
Speaker 1: And this realm of much fruit is the realm of the uncommon.
Speaker 1: Let me just give an illustration.
Speaker 1: If I can have my brother, eric Eric come and Deacon Martin kindly come.
Speaker 1: Let me just give an illustration.
Speaker 1: If I can have my brother, eric Eric come, and Deacon Martin Kindly come.
Speaker 1: Let me just give an illustration.
Speaker 1: What is our watchword this year?
Speaker 1: Our watchword is Our watchword is Pruning stretches us.
Speaker 1: It has to build capacity.
Speaker 1: Just stand here, here, my brother Eric, how are you?
Speaker 1: You are doing well, good to see you.
Speaker 1: You are good friends.
Speaker 1: Deacon Martin, I want you to hold this man looks very humble.
Speaker 1: Just hold his hand.
Speaker 1: Now, when there is no stretching, when there is no pruning, when capacity has not been enhanced, this is the match, the circumference of your influence.
Speaker 1: Go around, go around the other side, go around.
Speaker 1: Can you see how much this man is influencing?
Speaker 1: Now we are talking about circumference, circumference, the whole whatever of a circle, isn't it?
Speaker 1: The whole whatever of a circle?
Speaker 1: That is circumference, because radius is here.
Speaker 1: So circumference is like parameters the whole circle.
Speaker 1: This is the much this man is influencing.
Speaker 1: But when God starts to stretch him, pull him.
Speaker 1: When God starts to stretch him, and then we still go around, look at the circumference of his influence, pull him, pull this gentleman, pull him, pull this gentleman, pull him.
Speaker 1: Look at that stretching, don't resist, pull him.
Speaker 1: Go around.
Speaker 1: Can you see the capacity?
Speaker 1: Look at his face.
Speaker 1: He's really trying to smile, but we are stretching him.
Speaker 1: Can you see what we are doing?
Speaker 1: But can you see in as much as he's being stretched, in as much as he's being pulled across as he's being pulled.
Speaker 1: Capacity is increasing and influence is growing.
Speaker 1: The circumference is becoming bigger.
Speaker 1: As this man, you cannot grow to the next level unless you allow pruning in your life Stretching.
Speaker 1: Let's appreciate this, brethren.
Speaker 1: So without pruning, ladies and gentlemen, without pruning you remain in the realm of common.
Speaker 1: But with pruning, capacity is enhanced and you start making a difference.
Speaker 1: You know, I am here to speak to somebody.
Speaker 1: You may have lost that job and you thought it is over.
Speaker 1: I am here to tell you it's a season of pruning.
Speaker 1: Find out what the Lord is saying.
Speaker 1: You may have lost that contract.
Speaker 1: It's a season of pruning.
Speaker 1: Find out what the Lord wants you to grow.
Speaker 1: In which area does he want you to grow in?
Speaker 1: Because as he builds that capacity, then you will have more influence and much fruit.
Speaker 1: But secondly, the son's nourishing.
Speaker 1: Jesus says I am the true vine, I am the true vine, I am the true vine.
Speaker 1: And Jesus repeats this again and again to the disciples Says I am the true vine, I am the vine, I am the vine.
Speaker 1: That is a phrase that you will find a number of times repeated in this and basically, jesus is not simply talking about I am the true vine versus the false vine.
Speaker 1: No, he's going further than that.
Speaker 1: He's saying I am the dependable vine.
Speaker 1: There are many other vines that can produce some fruit, that can take you for some distance, but he's saying I am the vine that is forever dependable.
Speaker 1: He's also saying that he is the only vine that is a zoe life giving vine.
Speaker 1: There is no other vine that gives this zoe life.
Speaker 1: It is only this vine that is called Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And that's why Jesus tells his disciples in John, chapter 14, verse 6 to 7.
Speaker 1: What does he tell them?
Speaker 1: He tells them, he tells them I am the way and the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: No one comes to the Father except through me.
Speaker 1: And then he says in verse 7, if you really know me, you will know my Father as well.
Speaker 1: From now on, you do know him and have seen him, because if you have seen the Son, if you have seen the son, you have seen the father.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the only vine that plants us into the father's garden.
Speaker 1: Every other vine can plant us everywhere else, but the only vine that gives us access to the father's garden, where the father is the gardener, is this vine called Jesus.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is saying to his disciples in verse 3,.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible says in chapter 15, verse 3.
Speaker 1: He talks to his disciples and he tells them you are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Speaker 1: And then, in verse 7, he tells them let my word remain.
Speaker 1: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish.
Speaker 1: And so nourishing happens through the cleansing of the word.
Speaker 1: Jesus himself is the word, and the moment we come into contact with Jesus, something starts changing in our lives.
Speaker 1: The word cleanses our thoughts, gives us new way of thinking.
Speaker 1: The word cleanses our beliefs, new way of thinking.
Speaker 1: The word cleanses our beliefs, the things that we believed.
Speaker 1: When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, she believed in the well that belonged to her ancestors, but when she encountered Jesus, she went out calling out to the people and saying I went to the well of our ancestors, but at the well I met the living well.
Speaker 1: This well has changed what I believe in.
Speaker 1: This cleansing of the word cleanses our past, and that's why the Bible tells us that anyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creation.
Speaker 1: The past is gone and behold, the new has come and therefore, when we come into contact with this Jesus, we no longer continue carrying the burden of the past.
Speaker 1: We start walking in the newness of life, because he cleanses us.
Speaker 1: But it also cleanses speech.
Speaker 1: It cleanses the old ways of living and once we have come into contact with Jesus, we no longer speak the same way we used to speak.
Speaker 1: Paul calls it the foolish speech.
Speaker 1: We turn into speech, that is, the speech of wisdom, the heavenly language.
Speaker 1: We turn from the speech of impossibilities to the speech of divine possibilities.
Speaker 1: Something shifts.
Speaker 1: We change from hate speech to love speech.
Speaker 1: Our old ways are changed when the word of God starts flowing in the veins of our lives.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters, I submit to us that we can never be the same again.
Speaker 1: Show me a man who has come into contact with Jesus Christ and I will show you a man or a woman whose life will never be the same again because the word of God is active.
Speaker 1: This word takes away our fears and replaces them with faith.
Speaker 1: It takes away our worries and replaces them with God's peace.
Speaker 1: It takes away our burdens and replaces them with rest.
Speaker 1: It takes away our sadness and replaces it with joy.
Speaker 1: It takes away our ashes and replaces them with beauty.
Speaker 1: It takes away our weaknesses and replaces them with strength and might.
Speaker 1: It takes away our poverty and replaces it with abundance.
Speaker 1: It takes away our darkness and replaces it with abundance.
Speaker 1: It takes away our darkness and replaces it with light.
Speaker 1: It takes away our blindness and replaces it with sight.
Speaker 1: It takes away our mourning and replaces it with dancing.
Speaker 1: It takes away our hopelessness and replaces it with God's promises.
Speaker 1: It takes away our barrenness and replaces it with the fruitfulness.
Speaker 1: This word takes away our chains and replaces it with the freedom.
Speaker 1: This word takes away our deadness and it replaces it with the zoe life.
Speaker 1: And this is the life that leads to much fruit.
Speaker 1: What an investment from Jesus and therefore nourishing Jesus.
Speaker 1: Through his nourishing, he enables us to bear match fruit.
Speaker 1: We can only bear match fruit.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters, there is a gospel that suggests that you only have to be good.
Speaker 1: There is a gospel that suggests that you only have to be good.
Speaker 1: There is a gospel that is suggesting today that you only have to be religious, that you only need to do good.
Speaker 1: There is even a gospel that is suggesting that we don't do church nowadays.
Speaker 1: We will not do church.
Speaker 1: In fact.
Speaker 1: There is a gospel that is very bold, that is, suggesting that church is a scam.
Speaker 1: Church is not a scam because Jesus said upon this rock I will establish my church and the gates of Hades.
Speaker 1: Yes, a few people may have been, may have, may have, may have been what May have scammed us in the name of church.
Speaker 1: But oh, let me tell you, my brother, the Bible tells us discern every spirit.
Speaker 1: That's what the Bible tells us.
Speaker 1: Therefore, we are going to discern every spirit and the spirit that is not in line with God.
Speaker 1: We know that, though they seem to have come from us, they are not for us, and so you cannot bear fruit.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying.
Speaker 1: He's emphasizing again that a branch that is not connected to Jesus will not bear fruit.
Speaker 1: You will not bear fruit by giving Giving is good.
Speaker 1: You will not bear fruit, much fruit, by coming to church.
Speaker 1: You will not even bear much fruit through baptism.
Speaker 1: Next Sunday we are going to have Holy Communion and, senior pastor, last Sunday, you are on our case because we do not use that kind of thing thing.
Speaker 1: You know that thing for Holy Communion, when you take one you can see how the world is working we will still use juice.
Speaker 1: But I am here to tell you, brothers and sisters, even if we were to use that thing, you know the thing I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Eh, it is until you are connected to Jesus that you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: And part of that much fruit is participating in communion.
Speaker 1: It is being baptized, it is evangelism, it is giving, it is all these other things that we can talk about.
Speaker 1: It is coming to be part of the fellowship of believers.
Speaker 1: Then fruit begins to be born.
Speaker 1: But also, this nourishing is through answered prayers.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying in verse 7, verse 7, he says to the disciples if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be given unto you.
Speaker 1: One way that Jesus enables us to bear much fruit is by answering our prayers.
Speaker 1: And therefore Jesus is answering and waiting to answer that prayer, because we are going to ask him according to the fullness of his word in our hearts.
Speaker 1: That's why he's saying if you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you ask whatever.
Speaker 1: That's the condition.
Speaker 1: You ask whatever that's the condition, ask whatever.
Speaker 1: Now, what happens when the word richly dwells in you?
Speaker 1: You get to know the mind of God and with the mind of God, you ask according to the will of God.
Speaker 1: And whatever we ask according to the will of God and whatever we ask according to the will of God, we receive.
Speaker 1: This much fruit is enabled by the pruning of the father, it is enabled by the nourishing of the son, but it is also enabled by the disciples abiding.
Speaker 1: Number three disciples abiding, and part of abiding brothers and sisters, is what Jesus begins with.
Speaker 1: At the beginning he says that I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
Speaker 1: And then he says and this father 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.
Speaker 1: Part of abiding in Jesus is accepting the pruning of the father.
Speaker 1: I think it is in Hebrews, chapter 10, where the Bible says that those who do not accept the discipline of the Lord are illegitimate children.
Speaker 1: And you know sometimes when we fall short, sometimes when we sin.
Speaker 1: Many people, and especially in town, it is very easy All you need to do Is change church.
Speaker 1: When brothers want to restore you, all you need to do is do what you change your church, some of us.
Speaker 1: When things happen at the workplace and God is supposed to be pruning us.
Speaker 1: What do we do?
Speaker 1: We resign, we just escape.
Speaker 1: You know, in the village, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: We are here with you.
Speaker 1: So when those things happen, you cannot move.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you, brothers and sisters, even when we fall in sin, god is inviting us back so that he can forgive us, he can cleanse us, he can restore us and when that happens, we result to much fruit.
Speaker 1: Now, when you run away, nothing has changed.
Speaker 1: You continue in that trajectory.
Speaker 1: The only difference is that you are in a place where nobody knows you.
Speaker 1: That's the only difference.
Speaker 1: Of course, there is also the challenge that we have in church that when a brother falls into sin, those of us who are righteous, instead of restoring them with love, what do we do?
Speaker 1: We jump on them.
Speaker 1: To namaliza kabisa, god is calling us so that we can embrace one another, and when God starts pruning us, we stay there until he is done with us and the result is much fruit.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus, in verse four and verse five, he tells them remain in me.
Speaker 1: How do we abide?
Speaker 1: We abide by remaining in Jesus.
Speaker 1: How do we remain in Jesus?
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by following Jesus.
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by obeying Jesus.
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by loving Jesus.
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by taking our cross for Jesus and carrying it every day.
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by fully trusting in him.
Speaker 1: We remain in Jesus by everything in Jesus for Jesus, that everything I do, I am not doing for myself.
Speaker 1: When I come to church, it's for Jesus.
Speaker 1: When I am at home, it is for Jesus.
Speaker 1: When I am in the village, it is for Jesus.
Speaker 1: When I am in the office, it is for Jesus.
Speaker 1: Even when I am at the parking at Parklands Baptist Church, it is for Jesus when I am in the office, it is for Jesus.
Speaker 1: Even when I am at the parking at Parklands Baptist Church, it is for Jesus, so that we can bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus is calling, the primary calling to his disciples is that they must bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: Two characteristics of this fruit.
Speaker 1: The first one is the quality of the fruit.
Speaker 1: What is the quality of this fruit that Jesus wants us to bear?
Speaker 1: And I go back to the statement earlier that I said has been repeated a number of times in this passage.
Speaker 1: Jesus has said I am the true vine.
Speaker 1: He has said I am the vine, abide in me, stay in me, remain in me.
Speaker 1: I am the true vine.
Speaker 1: He has said I am the vine.
Speaker 1: Abide in me, stay in me, remain in me.
Speaker 1: I am the vine.
Speaker 1: Without me you cannot bear any fruit.
Speaker 1: And therefore it follows that if we, we can only but bear grapes, because Jesus is a vine, isn't it?
Speaker 1: So what do you get from vines?
Speaker 1: What do you get?
Speaker 1: The fruit you get, okay, it seems like he fruits that we do is common.
Speaker 1: It's an uncommon one.
Speaker 1: Let me use a common one.
Speaker 1: So if Jesus was to say I am the orange tree, the true orange tree, orange.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's try avocado.
Speaker 1: If Jesus was to say I am the true avocado tree, you are the branches.
Speaker 1: Any branch that abides in me bears much fruit.
Speaker 1: Which fruit?
Speaker 1: Avocado.
Speaker 1: But now let me take you to the uncommon.
Speaker 1: We have to get there together.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying I am the vine, you are the branches.
Speaker 1: Every branch that abides in me bears what Bears what?
Speaker 1: Please, can you say it with conviction?
Speaker 1: Bears what Much fruit, which is Grapes.
Speaker 1: Now I want to encourage you today, please, on your way home, get into a supermarket somewhere, buy some grapes, go with them home, look at them.
Speaker 1: Tell them I am also a grape, I am also much grape.
Speaker 1: Then I want you to wash them nicely and eat them.
Speaker 1: I pray they will be sweet grapes.
Speaker 1: Then you will know the kind of fruit that Jesus wants you and I to be.
Speaker 1: Therefore, jesus is calling us to bear grapefruits, to be grapes and to be grapes in plenty.
Speaker 1: Now, when I look at you, when people come to church, they really look like grapes.
Speaker 1: They are grape-like.
Speaker 1: Just look at the person seated next to you.
Speaker 1: None of you looks like a wild fruit.
Speaker 1: They are grape-like.
Speaker 1: Just look at the person sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: None of you looks like a wild fruit.
Speaker 1: None of you looks like a malenga, a pumpkin.
Speaker 1: You all look like grapes, and that's why our senior pastor, he, reminds us you are looking, oh, I'm telling you, grapes.
Speaker 1: You are looking good, better than yesterday and tomorrow.
Speaker 1: What Then, then?
Speaker 1: So that when people look at you, what do they do Now?
Speaker 1: Now, brothers and sisters, what happens on Monday?
Speaker 1: Why do you become a lemon on Monday?
Speaker 1: Why do you become a wild fruit on Monday?
Speaker 1: What happens when you get to the house?
Speaker 1: Why do you become?
Speaker 1: Which fruit?
Speaker 1: A wild fruit?
Speaker 1: Some of you people, when we are waiting you here, oh, senior pastor, they look grapes.
Speaker 1: I will receive you grapes.
Speaker 1: What happens when the marriage begins?
Speaker 1: Why do you start becoming lemons and bitter ones?
Speaker 1: I'm using lemons not because they are not fruit, but because they are bitter.
Speaker 1: You don't take a lemon while smiling.
Speaker 1: You take a lemon with a lemon face, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Now also another fruit I want you to buy as you go home.
Speaker 1: Buy grapes, but also just buy you to buy as you go home.
Speaker 1: Buy grapes, but also just buy one lemon, one, just one.
Speaker 1: Then, after enjoying part of the grapes don't eat all of them Cut the lemon and squeeze it into your mouth, and if you have somebody close to you, let them take you a photo and, once you're done, continue with your grapes and also take a photo.
Speaker 1: I hope we are going to fill our Paki page with photos of lemons and photos of grapes.
Speaker 1: Let those two pictures remind you that this is what Jesus wants me to be on Monday and on Tuesday, and on Wednesday and on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 1: And you tell Jesus, I will not be a lemon.
Speaker 1: When we are giving you a job, you come for an interview.
Speaker 1: You are all great, we look at you and we are so convinced, as a panel, that this is the man, this is the woman.
Speaker 1: Wait until we give you the job.
Speaker 1: Oh, we start discovering this thing is bitter, it is not sweet.
Speaker 1: Lemon, lemon.
Speaker 1: We have very good politicians in this country and we appreciate them, but there are some who come to us during election and how do they look?
Speaker 1: They look, they look.
Speaker 1: When we start leading, what happens?
Speaker 1: We start having feelings of lemons.
Speaker 1: If we fill our parliament with grapes, even as a country, we shall start experiencing what the Bible says you know vines that you did not plant, a land that is flowing with milk and honey.
Speaker 1: If we fill our parliament with lemons.
Speaker 1: What do we expect?
Speaker 1: Lemons, it will be bitter.
Speaker 1: May the Lord help us.
Speaker 1: And if there are some grapes here that you feel, yes, I am a grape and I can make a difference, 2027 is coming, show up.
Speaker 1: Don't just sit there and complain.
Speaker 1: Show up and say I am bringing grapes to parliament.
Speaker 1: Don't just sit there and complain.
Speaker 1: Show up and say I am bringing grapes to parliament so that Kenyans can start enjoying the grape juice.
Speaker 1: So what is the quality?
Speaker 1: Connected to Jesus and therefore we produce grapes.
Speaker 1: I came across a clip this week Somebody just shared somewhere in a group that I am in and the chairman of the ESCC ESCC, what is it?
Speaker 1: Ethics, anti-corruption and he's done a press briefing and he was saying one of the challenges we are having in our country is that corruption is so sophisticated because it is aided by professionals.
Speaker 1: Now, if you are here and you are a professional and you are born again, stand up.
Speaker 1: You are here, you are a professional and you are born again, stand up.
Speaker 1: You are here, you are a professional and you are born again A professional and you are born again, stand up.
Speaker 1: There are people now who are saying I'm not a professional, me, I think the last time I checked I was not a professional.
Speaker 1: You are here and you are a professional In the pavilion.
Speaker 1: I hope you are standing Now.
Speaker 1: If you are at home and you are a professional In the pavilion, I hope you are standing Now.
Speaker 1: If you are at home and you are seated and you are a professional, stand up.
Speaker 1: We can see you.
Speaker 1: Well, you can see yourself.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: Senior pastor.
Speaker 1: Behold grapes, behold grapes in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: Look at the grapes that you have.
Speaker 1: Senior pastor, look at all these grapes.
Speaker 1: These are grapes, these are grapes.
Speaker 1: These are grapes in our country, some in the public sector, some in government.
Speaker 1: What can't we do with these grapes in our system?
Speaker 1: In our country, all you need to do as grapes, is start producing grape juice where you are.
Speaker 1: When they come with a big car, you say I am a grape.
Speaker 1: Remain as a grape.
Speaker 1: When they increase your salary, remain as a grape.
Speaker 1: When all these goodies are coming your way, remain as a grape, because that is the only way we are going to turn and influence our country.
Speaker 1: When grapes start producing grape juice in the marketplace, we need some grape juice in church, but we need more grape juice in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: So, senior pastor here and myself, we are going to produce the grape juice that you need in church and the rest of the pastors we will produce that one.
Speaker 1: You go and produce what is needed in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: That's what you are being commissioned for today that as we produce grape juice that you need in church, when we release you into the marketplace then the entire marketplace is drunk of grape juice, not bitter with lemon juice.
Speaker 1: If you believe you are a grape juice, give the Lord a mighty hand clap.
Speaker 1: I want you to lift up your hand and say this week I am committed to produce grape juice, that wherever I go and where the Lord has planted me, I am going to produce much fruit because I am connected to the vine, the true vine, and I am pruned by the Father In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Receive that grace.
Speaker 1: You may have your seats.
Speaker 1: Kindly Receive that grace.
Speaker 1: In may have your seats.
Speaker 1: Kindly Receive that grace in Jesus' mighty name.
Speaker 1: But how about the quantity?
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying not only are we going to produce much fruit, but the quantity of our fruit must be Christ-like progression.
Speaker 1: The quality is Christ-like, the quantity is Christ-like progression.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us in Luke, chapter 2, verse 52, that Jesus grew in stature Are you growing?
Speaker 1: Because the process begins by you being connected to the vine, being pruned, being prepared, and then you start bearing fruit.
Speaker 1: And as you bear fruit, it tells us in verse 4, you start bearing fruit, and then in verse 2, it reminds us that you will bear more fruit.
Speaker 1: And then it reminds us the Bible in verse 5, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: And then in verse 16, it says you will bear fruit that will last.
Speaker 1: You may not believe me, but I am a farmer.
Speaker 1: I wanted that to sink Because I see you don't believe me and for the last several years I have been doing farming.
Speaker 1: Before I started doing farming I was not bothered about rain, but when I started farming I got very concerned about rain and getting to know the seasons and all that.
Speaker 1: Now I started planting.
Speaker 1: I have planted some fruit trees somewhere, and I think we are now on the third or so year or the fourth year.
Speaker 1: And what have I done?
Speaker 1: First of all, I bought the land, then I prepared the land, then I bought the seedlings, then I planted the seedlings.
Speaker 1: Some of them started know growing, others died.
Speaker 1: I replaced them.
Speaker 1: They have continued to grow.
Speaker 1: There was no, the rains failed for quite a while and I started watering them and I will give money so that water can be bought.
Speaker 1: And I'm watering them year one, year two, year three.
Speaker 1: I have bought manure, I have bought pesticides, I have bought pesticides.
Speaker 1: I know these things.
Speaker 1: Am I not a farmer, can't you see?
Speaker 1: I am a farmer.
Speaker 1: I have even invited the agriculture people to come and look at how my shamba is doing.
Speaker 1: A serious farmer, so that when I finish shepherding I will go into farming.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you, brothers and sisters, year one, year two, year three, I think now we are in year four.
Speaker 1: With all the money that I have put there, I am yet to see fruit.
Speaker 1: Does it mean I have failed?
Speaker 1: No no.
Speaker 1: The fruit that I have planted takes a number of years before it can start producing fruit.
Speaker 1: Now, just the other day, the person who checks on our garden called me and said oh, pastor, there is one of the trees that now has three fruits.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you, in the next two years, if the Lord permits, I will come and tell you.
Speaker 1: Now there is much fruit Because it begins with planting, it begins with pruning, it begins with watering the Lord.
Speaker 1: For some of you, the Lord is still watering you.
Speaker 1: For some of you, one fruit has started showing, two fruits have started showing.
Speaker 1: For some of you, you are already at the realm of abundance Much fruit.
Speaker 1: For some of you, you are at the level of fruits that last.
Speaker 1: But the point is progress, progress, keep growing.
Speaker 1: Point is Progress, progress, keep growing, step by step.
Speaker 1: You can't be married five years and you're still struggling with the first thing that you struggled with when you got married.
Speaker 1: Something is not happening.
Speaker 1: Fifteen years and you're still struggling with the same thing At fifteen.
Speaker 1: Start struggling with the new things that 15, start struggling with the new things that are age 15.
Speaker 1: Are you getting the point?
Speaker 1: Because pruning has happened and growth has taken place At your place of work.
Speaker 1: Are you growing?
Speaker 1: You want a promotion?
Speaker 1: Yes, a promotion will come, but where you know the boss is looking at you and trying to land a promotion on you, even forcing it.
Speaker 1: But because growth has not taken place, capacity has not developed.
Speaker 1: I want to finish with this, and I shared this on Wednesday, when I got my first salary.
Speaker 1: When I got my first salary, I was still in college.
Speaker 1: Then I was pursuing accounts and I got a job as an accountant somewhere.
Speaker 1: And when I got my first salary, I looked at my college, looked at the gate and the building and told the college why was I coming to you every day and toiling?
Speaker 1: It was so that I can get a job.
Speaker 1: Now that I have gotten a job and I have my first salary, do I really need you?
Speaker 1: And the college and I at least, I think we agreed that I no longer need you, and so I continued enjoying my first salary and college.
Speaker 1: I said bye-bye.
Speaker 1: Then, after some few months of working or a year, I can't remember there was an opening in the same office that I was and I knew who else.
Speaker 1: Who else in this office can get this job if it is not yours truly and in me I thought thought we should not even advertise.
Speaker 1: They should come and tell me, brother Kiniti, behold the job.
Speaker 1: But guess what?
Speaker 1: They advertised it.
Speaker 1: And when they published the qualifications, brothers and sisters, I was only one level below the qualification, the level that I said bye at college.
Speaker 1: So I actually applied for the job, but of course I was not even shortlisted.
Speaker 1: I had prayed, brothers, I prayed seriously, I prayed.
Speaker 1: I invited friends to help me pray, because there is an open door here for the Lord to do something.
Speaker 1: Friends, I was not even shortlisted because I stopped bearing fruit and growing and building capacity.
Speaker 1: When I discovered that, I went back to college and asked college, what did we agree the other time?
Speaker 1: I am back Today.
Speaker 1: If they advertise for that job, I will not apply because I am overqualified.
Speaker 1: I need something different.
Speaker 1: I want you to grow because there are things that are not happening in your life because you are not growing, not because the door is not open, not because opportunities are not there, but you are here and the opportunity is right there.
Speaker 1: All you need to do is start building capacity, moving one step after another, bearing fruit, bearing more fruit, bearing much fruit.
Speaker 1: Until you get to that capacity, the Lord will release the opportunity to you, and so Jesus is inviting us To progress In our growth.
Speaker 1: Have you been stagnant in your life?
Speaker 1: Jesus is inviting you To grow Because as you grow, you expand capacity, and as you grow, you expand capacity.
Speaker 1: And as you expand capacity, much fruit is the result of that Media.
Speaker 1: If you could get this short as we come to a conclusion, we want to invite you to grow and we have a number of materials.
Speaker 1: Jesus said if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever, ask whatever.
Speaker 1: And some of us have never grown in reading, personal reading of the word of God, personal devotion.
Speaker 1: And we're inviting you, after the service, walk to our connect tent, get one book for yourself and start a journey of growing towards much fruit.
Speaker 1: And as you do that, your mind will start also opening so that you can build capacity, you can start developing yourself, you can start investing in yourself.
Speaker 1: And as you do that, much fruit, much fruit, much fruit until it is fruit that will last.
Speaker 1: Let me request us to be up on our feet.
Speaker 2: Ebuana u ni inu e kwa imani ni simame ni pandemi li ma yote.
Speaker 2: Let us pray.
Speaker 2: Choir singing In a moment.
Speaker 2: I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: But I'm inviting someone this afternoon.
Speaker 1: You have never connected to the true vine, you have never given to the true vine, you have never given your life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You cannot bear fruit unless you are in Jesus.
Speaker 1: So I'll be inviting the pastors and deacons who are here.
Speaker 1: Just come to the front.
Speaker 1: If you are the person I'm talking about and you have heard this word, do not live the same way you came.
Speaker 1: I believe we have a deacon at the pavilion.
Speaker 1: Please, if you are the person I am talking about, I want you to know that Jesus is inviting you today so that you can receive him as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: And so I've invited these deacons and pastors who are here, and so, as we sing one more time, I want you to walk to somebody.
Speaker 1: Walk to a deacon, a pastor who is before you and you want to give your life to Christ.
Speaker 1: Del, deliver yourself into the hands of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Connect to this true vine so that you can get into the trajectory of bearing much fruit.
Speaker 1: But also, you're here and you've not been bearing fruit and you're saying I want to connect to this Jesus, I want to agree with someone in prayer.
Speaker 1: Again, you're the person I'm calling.
Speaker 1: Just come to the front, agree with someone in prayer.
Speaker 1: In a moment I will be praying and releasing the rest of the congregation.
Speaker 1: As you walk out, get study material for yourself, and then this man and woman will remain here so that they can pray with you.
Speaker 1: If we have any of the deacons pastors, spouses, please, and you're in the sanctuary just step forward so that you can also be available to pray in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: So this is your moment now.
Speaker 1: As we sing, one more time, come to the front in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3: I want to thank you Nisimahe nipandemi Nima yote ebwana u mitadishe.
Speaker 3: I pray that, in the name of Jesus every chain be broken.
Speaker 3: Everything be set loose right now, in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3: As you release your power and your grace, then you are good.
Speaker 3: Be kind to me.
Speaker 3: I know when these are in Jesus' name and they share our destiny.
Speaker 3: We can move in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3: Jesus, let me see you.
Speaker 3: I'm just in me, I'm just in me, I'm just in me.
Speaker 3: I'm just in me.
Speaker 3: Jesus, my God, I'm just in me, I'm just in me.
Speaker 3: I'm just in me.
Speaker 2: I'm just in me, I'm just in me, I'm just in me, I'm just in me, I'm just in me.
Speaker 2: I'm just in me.
Speaker 1: I'm just in me, father, I release your people into your hands.
Speaker 1: These are grips.
Speaker 1: This week week, lord, I pray that you will squeeze the grape in them so that it can bear fruit and match fruit, that, wherever they go, they will be agents of the zoe life, bearing match fruit in their families.
Speaker 1: They will be agents of the Zoe life Bearing much fruit In their families, in their personal lives, in their businesses, in their spheres of influence.
Speaker 1: I commit them to you, father.
Speaker 1: Use them, and I pray that throughout this week we shall come back with testimonies of much fruit, of increase, of what the Lord has done.
Speaker 1: I pray that you will give each one of them a personal testimony of what you are doing in their lives.
Speaker 1: And so they are committed into your hands, lord.
Speaker 1: Use them as you desire, any challenges that may come in the course of the week.
Speaker 1: The Father is there, the Son is there.
Speaker 1: Lord, may they just abide and stay in you and see you doing great and mighty things in their lives.
Speaker 1: And so I declare victory over their lives.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, I declare fruitfulness.
Speaker 1: In Jesus name, I declare multiplication.
Speaker 1: In Jesus name, I declare, oh God, that they will fill and occupy spaces.
Speaker 1: In Jesus name, I pray and declare dominion, that wherever they are going, they will dominate for the kingdom.
Speaker 1: In Jesus mighty name, let them be an influence, because you have released them with your word.
Speaker 1: And now may the Lord bless you.
Speaker 1: May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you.
Speaker 1: May the Lord give you grace.
Speaker 1: May the Lord cause an increase in your life.
Speaker 1: On Monday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Friday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: On Friday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: Indeed, on Saturday, you will bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: And on Sunday, we shall gather here to celebrate the week of much fruit.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' mighty name, you are blessed to be a blessing as you are released in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and God's people say Amen.
Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 1: May the grace of our Lord, jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with us now and forevermore.
Speaker 1: Amen.