Episode 1432: We Bear Fruit

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1432 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Helen Muller: I'm Helen Muller. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time. Your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, knowing who and what you are and being able to live from that knowing is key to living a fulfilled life.

[00:00:26] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to today's show. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:35] Scott Maderer: Our connection only. We're not looking at any of the fruit. saying, how are they're doing? We're not looking at any of the fruits saying that one is connected better than I am or worse than I am. Instead, we're simply focusing on our connection, our connection to Christ and [00:01:00] letting ourselves hopefully get a little bit more connected each and every day.

[00:01:06] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you

[00:01:38] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 15 verses 1 8. I share what it means for us to be the branches and not the vine. I also share why we need to stay connected to the vine, not out of fear, but out of love. John 15 verses 1 8 says, I [00:02:00] am the true vine and my father is the vine grower.

[00:02:03] He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

[00:02:28] I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

[00:02:54] My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.[00:03:00]

[00:03:03] Buying presents for others is difficult, at least it is for me. Around this time of the year with Mother's Day coming up and then in April there's birthdays in our family, I've always got this feeling of I should be buying something special for my wife, my mother, my son, other people that have events during this time.

[00:03:27] But I struggle with the idea of what to buy. Don't get me wrong. There's tons of advertisements just on Mother's Day alone by jewelry, by flyers, flowers, by technology, by a new car, whatever. There's all of this marketing out there about all of the things that you should buy for those people that you love and that somehow or another buying one of these gifts will magically let them know that you love them.

[00:03:56] But somewhere along the line, I figured out that it's really [00:04:00] not about giving someone else what I want to give them or what the world seems to suggest that they want, but instead it's about giving what they want to receive. Pretty simple idea, but not always easy to do. And it takes us a while to get there where we figure out that the gift giving is about giving something that can be received, not with a little bit of grace and a gratitude, but it really didn't fit the person.

[00:04:29] But instead, it's about getting to know the person well and have a relationship where you could either ask them. or discern what would make them happy, what would please them, what would give them joy, and give that gift. It may seem like a weird way to start a message about a vine, and fruit, and all of the things that are in the passage this morning, but it is connected in some way, because there is a message about how we bear [00:05:00] fruit for one another, how we love one another, how we're connected to one another.

[00:05:06] Backing up a little bit, this analogy of the vine had been referenced by rabbis and prophets, but it usually was used to represent Israel. For instance, Israel is a luxurious vine in Hosea that yields its fruit. Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel all use the image of the vine to describe the people of God in Israel.

[00:05:31] Jeremiah talks about a vine that was planted to produce good fruit and now has gone wild, producing fruit unfit for nourishment. The vine has a long history of being some sort of connection to the mindset of the people of God. But here in this passage, Jesus takes that image that everyone would have been familiar with of the vine But [00:06:00] instead of using Israel as the vine, instead of the people of God planted intended by God, Jesus says, I am the vine.

[00:06:10] More than that, he goes on and says, I am the vine and you are the branches. Now this is a hierarchical statement. The vine is connected directly to God and we're connected to the vine. It can be seen as a description of the roles and the functions. It can be seen as an analogy of connecting to Jesus as the source of substance the food that feeds us, because the vine is connected to the root system, but the branches is, have a job of producing fruit.

[00:06:42] The vine has the job of not producing the fruit, but rather feeding the fruit. All of these are valid interpretations. It's not like one of these is wrong and the others are right. They're all valid. But there's other advice. in these eight [00:07:00] verses. One of the most obvious ones, and I think the one that we usually jump to and call out, and it's definitely one of the most important ones, is stay connected.

[00:07:09] Stay connected to the vine. Stay connected to the source. Without that, there will be no fruit. Secondly, there's a warning in here. Watch out for the pruning. Not because of being cut off so much as for being left out. We read this as a judgment, and it is a judgment. But the real power of the image here is that what is pruned misses out on the connection to the vine.

[00:07:36] You miss out on the life offered. You miss out on the strengthening and the connection and the sustenance and the glory and the life. I think it's also important to recognize that The fruit isn't doing the pruning. The branches is aren't doing the pruning. It's not like the branches look at another branch and say, oh, pruner, you need to cut that branch off.

[00:07:58] There's no sense of [00:08:00] judgment coming from within the fruit and the branches and the vine. Instead, it's coming from God. It's coming from the shepherd. It's coming from the person tending the vine, which is not our job. And in that one that is tending may cut off of a piece of the branch that isn't producing good fruit, but we're not the ones doing that.

[00:08:26] It's a responsibility to produce fruit. That's our job. That's our responsibility. That's our reason for being, but it's also our joy, our fulfillment, our connection, our opportunity, our hope. It's the way we have of responding to the one we love. It's the way we have of giving a gift back to someone we love, a gift that they truly want.

[00:08:56] It's a chance to express love, to return love, to [00:09:00] claim love. It's an opportunity to do something not for ourselves, but for one who loves us. And again, I think a lot of times our inclination is to try to find something that we like something that says something about us For the one that we love but what the one that we love is asking for is something that they want Something that connects us to them It is our joy as the branches of the vine to bring glory to God We're there to give glory to God by producing the kind of fruit that says more about who God is and less about who we are.

[00:09:45] It's not about holding up that we follow all the rules, we do it all right we're the in group, you're the out group. Instead, it's about simply loving others the way God loves us. We have to [00:10:00] know who God is and what God wants before we can bring the fruit that gives glory to God. And we find that out, we discover that by abiding in the vine, by dwelling on the words of Jesus until the words of Jesus become our words, until we discern His will, until we're so attached to the vine that it is like His blood courses through our veins.

[00:10:28] And I think that's hard to do because the focus there is on our connection only. We're not looking at any of the fruit saying how are they're doing. We're not looking at any of the fruit saying that one is connected better than I am or worse than I am. Instead, we're simply focusing on our connection, our connection to Christ and letting ourselves hopefully get a little bit more connected each and every day.

[00:10:56] Thanks for listening.[00:11:00]

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[00:11:26] stewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the [00:12:00] world.