Pruned for Purpose: Understanding Fruitfulness

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. All right, bring it home, Chris, we're bringing it here. It is. It's Friday, man. So I think of I think of like I like growing up, I used to watch a bunch of black and white movies. Really yeah, yeah, all the time. But it's just hold you are. My father likes black white movies. So so anyway, bring it home as always. Uh, the two people are on stage dancing, right and then home and bring it home. Then one guys, he just does this, you know, big, big, big, you know the big show ending or whatever. You know. It's just really good. There you go. That's it. That's that's what That's what I was getting at right now, that's where my mind went, right, that's right. Well, hey, Jeff, today you usually introduced this. I am very excited because this is everybody's favorite and it's been a while. It's been it's quite a long time. It's been like four weeks. I know, so four weeks, man, you should be ready around to go. I've got so you can't take the full twenty two minutes. Things that I'm mad about. So it is everybody's favorite segment. What made Chris mad this past four weeks? No, no, no, this happened like this week two days ago. Okay, all right, so it's it's the first thing that came to my mind. So I was in a restaurant that I frequent often, okay, And I'm not going to mention the name of the restaurant because that'd be rude. But it was BJ's and it was right next to Heritage, yes, which if you can give the initials, I'm going to tell you the names. Okay. So, so I order an appetizer, and I am very hesitant to place an order before my appetizer comes because I don't want my food to come out and both of them be in front of me at the same time. Are you with me on this? I understand what you're saying. Yes, okay, So it happens all the time. And and and by the way, I would argue and say that, you know, a server is one of the hardest jobs ever, right, it really is, Okay, is important, So timing is important. So I do I do? Do? I do understand how difficult that job is. I really do, And especially my son was a server, and he's like, Dad, you don't understand how hard it is. Right, However, when you choose to place the order or put the order in, that's actually simple in concept, right, So you just you just wait until the person is you know, pretty much done with their food or or after they've gotten their food or whatever it is, right, just just you know, that's something you absolutely have to master as a as a as a server, so that that part is very simple. So violating that part should not ever happen, in my opinion, violating, Oh yeah, it was. So. So he comes over and he's like, what would you like? And I'm like, can I try this cup of soup whatever? It was actually like a bowl of soup. They don't offer cups, so it's like a bowl of the soup and uh. And so he's like okay, And so I'm waiting and then he comes back over and he goes, you want to place your order? And in my mind I'm thinking all this, but I'm not going to say it, but I'm like, ah, and I said, well, I don't I don't want I don't want to get the food too early. And he goes, no, no, no, no, I'll make sure, and I go, okay, fine, I said, well, let me go ahead and you know, get this order, you know, whatever it is. Uh, I think I were at a steak actually, so then so anyway, so I'm sitting there and all of a sudden, I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, and all of a sudden she brings out my soup and she sets it in front of me. I'm like, great, you know, and it's like it's hot, and it's actually, you know, not exactly like too hot, right, it's like almost it's just right, so it's not too hot. So I thing, Okay, it's gonna be perfect. And then all of a sudden two seconds later, and this is the part that gets me. It's not the it's not my server. It's a runner, right, So it's almost like that person has no concept of anything else other than hey, my job is just to bring you this stuff, right, and then sets it in front of me, and I'm literally taking like my third bite of soup and and and he goes, you want to cut into that for me? And I go, well, not really, I didn't say that, but I'm thinking, I'm like, I don't really want to because get leaven colder, right, and then and then finally I ended up abandoning the soup because I'm not gonna let the steak gets cold. So I started eating the steak. And then he comes back and he goes, don't you like your soup? And I said, And the person I was with was my wife, and I said, well, I just had to choose which one I didn't want to eat cold, so the steak won, So could you go back and eat this up? And then she's like, you know, you didn't have to say that. I'm like, I kind of think, I kind of think I did. Said, yeah, well you have. So you were gently guiding them on how you prefer to be served. No, no, no, how your world prefers to exactly because nobody prefers that I keep forgetting you get upset for the world. It's on behalf of all of us. Yes, yes, so you are correct on that one, but you have to gently guide them. Yes, right, make him think about it next time. Yes, we should have a little bit of a gap. Offer the appetizer at the exact same time as the entree. The whole point behind multiple elements of a meal that they're separate right right as opposed to that should have been a soup entree and a and a steak entre, those two together because it's in the appetizer section of the menu, should come first, and earlier, substantially earlier. Yes, yes, I'm not disagreeing with you on that, Chris. I am in alignment with you on this one. Yes. Well, I got to tell you, you know, I'm so upset about it. We should like make make signs and just start marching out in front of BJ's until they get it, start getting it right. Yeah, you know, man, how do you what would the sign read? Would make some slogan? Uh? No, entrees before the app's finished? Yeah, apps first? Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I first, I don't yah, yeah, I don't know. We'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll work on that. That's right. So there, there you go, buddy. That's what made this week well good. Thank you man. We appreciate it, and on behalf of all the rest of the people in the world, we are grateful for your rage. On our behalf and the server who blew it. His name's Kevin, Kevin. Thanks Kevin, just kidding. I was like, oh man, you're going for it today. You were violated. I don't know the server's name. I don't know the server's name. Okay, that's so funny. That's funny. I was like, are you serious? Did you just go do this? Hey? Listen. I always have a slogan, which is, if a person is not nice to the server, that is generally not a nice person usually that's right. Yeah, that's right. So I I am always nice to the server, as nice as I can be. But just because I happened to mention the fact that, like, hey, I had to decide which one I didn't want to eat cold, you know, my whole family, not just my wife, my whole family's like, why are you going to say things like that? Yeah? I mean because the owner of BJ's wants me to say that, right, right, the owner of BJ's wants it to be an appetizer, right as you're about finisher the appetizer your meals, and so does every human in this restaurant, that's right. And then so they don't bring you your sit there BJ's. The big dessert is the pazuki, right, Yeah, well I've had that once. It was marvelous. Yes, So they don't bring that to you. At the same time, they brought you your stake, right, because the ice cream and melt. That's correct. So they need to be thinking appetizers right. End the appetizer, entre, end the entree dessert. Right, So you need to think of your appetizer as the dessert before the entree, you the puzuki being the dessert after the entre. You should coach headquarters. Yes, give somebody a call on the way, Okay, so we should leave that. Yes, wasted enough time today, John fifteen, John fifteen, verses one through seventeen another It's only in the book of John, but fundamental to Christianity is this passage. So John fourteen, fifteen through one through seventeen says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more. You've already been pruned and purified by the message I've given you. Remember it remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted. When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my father. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. This is my commandment. Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends. If you do what I comme, I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends. Since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. This is my command. Love each other. Wow, love one another, love each other, and produce much fruit. Right right, those are the two things he's saying here. Yeah, So who is the one that wrote that little Who's the one that wrote that little book? Uh? Come on, it was so famous. It was their second book the night before Christmas. I don't know on the on John fifteen, on this Uh it was Oh, I think it might have been Rick Warren. No, it wasn't him anyway, it's I have it in my office. I can't think of the author. Anyway. It sounds like it was life changing. It was. It was this. It really was. Yeah. You know why because when it says he prunes the branches, that word prunes, he breaks that down and he actually talks about how there's more than one way to prune. So prune can mean to cut right to to you know, to for for for growth, but prune also means to lift up. So did you know that? So so it's actually it was actually this word that meant like overall care, and it was, and it was it was the two It was the two ways to prune a branch, which is to produce, because it says the ones that produces that he prunes, that makes more fruit. Right, And he took that word and he said, that's a different, different word than the previous word, which which is to cut. And he says that, So so sometimes you cut a branch, which is you know, either discipline or could could seem like it's it's in the in the form of commandments and you know, obedience and things like that, he says. And the other way is to lift up, which is a lot of times gardeners know and and vineyards, you know, vine gardeners know that a branch will get grown in the mud and it'll be stagnant, and so what it'll do is but it'll be a good branch because it's connected to divine and they'll take it and they'll wash it off, and then they'll put it up and then and then that branch will produce more fruit. And so so it was it was both the seemingly more harsh obedience sort of angle and then more of the gentle guidance and encouragement kind. And he really wrote it from the perspective of a gardener's point of view, and and it was actually pretty sweet because it sort of gave you the overall picture of God both challenging us and encouraging us to obey. So when I was growing up, my mom and dad bought a homestead. And on the homestead it had everything necessary that we could provide almost everything for our families. Right, we grew all of our own food, all that stuff. You said it was like a one acre garden or something. Yeah, well, just the garden, our table garden was an acre. But we had we had a small orchard. We had a bunch of apple trees, We had some pear trees. We had you know, all the the blueberry bramble and the blackberries and the strawberries and the raspberries and you know all that stuff. But the big trees. We had some cherry trees. They never really did produce. Our soil wasn't the right kind of soil. We had a plum tree that was really great. We had some a couple of plum trees. We had the pear trees. And I can remember one my day. Yeah, they are, especially when you get them just right right. Anyways, my dad would go out in the spring and trim when he was maintaining these trees, would trim the apple trees to the point where and I loved climbing the trees. That's always the climb in all of our trees. We had hundreds of trees on our property. So I'm always climbing the trees and get up in the tree, eat your fill, you know. And I can remember watching him trim the trees and go he just ruined that tree right right, How in the world, Dad, you just ruined our trees and say no, they'll produce more next year. And then sure enough, the next season come along and all of a sudden, this tree that had good apples last year had great apples this year. Sometimes almost too many apples, right, And it was because he trimmed it back. He cut it back, he got rid of the other stuff. So the tree can choose to focus on growing as branches. It is what it naturally does. It just keeps growing as branches. It keeps pushing towards the sun, basking in the warmth, putting out more leaves. That's what puts all its energy. When it puts all its energy and growing its leaves and growing its branches, it puts less energy into producing its fruit. Right, But when you trim it back and it doesn't have the ability to push all of its energy into the branch growing and the leaf producing. It needs to produce enough leaves, certainly, it needs to have enough branches, certainly, But if you trim it back to the right size, all that extra energy will go into producing more fruit. So the tree doesn't want to be trimmed back. The tree just naturally wants to go right. That's what it wants to do. But when the guy who's cultivating it trims it back right to the right place, it'll produce so much more. The apples will be bigger, the pears will be bigger. And then I also noticed after my dad trimmed the pear trees, the pears would be sweeter, which is really neat, you know, So they'd be bigger, there'd be more of them, and they would be sweeter then. And it's because all that sap flowing isn't pushing to grow new branches, it's not pushing for new leaves, that all that good stuff is going into the things so I really view that as this with Jesus. Now, later on we stopped focusing on the apples. We eventually just want to let our apple trees go. Now, my dad cut down the entire apple orchard and built a new house there. So it's really weird when I pull into my mom and dad's house. Now, that's where I used to eat my fill and apples and pears, and they're all gone now. But they built a house in there. But for a while, we quit maintaining them. And at that point, they just it got wild. The apples weren't as good. The skin on them was always you know, it was speckled and kind of rough. It didn't taste as good. And then it kept the apples kept getting smaller and smaller and fewer and fewer, and finally we just cut them all down and built the house there when we quit maintaining them. So we need God to cultivate us. We need God. And so I look at my life now at you know, I've been a believer for forty something years, and every once in a while I start to realize, you know, there hasn't been any pruning in me lately, Like like I haven't been choosing it myself. We don't naturally go you know what I need to get rid of in my life, right, right, But sometimes the difficult things in my life is when God decides to cut those things out. If I choose not to, God will, and he'll he'll prune those things. But then you said, the other side is guiding putting the branches in the right place. So yeah, and then the other side of that is we need to remain in him. A vine by itself is dead, won't produce anything, So you know, remain to me, because apart from me, you can do nothing. So so not everybody grew up like you, and not everybody even understands. I would even go as far as to say, and I have no way to quantify this, but I would go as far as to saying, over ninety percent of every listener listening today to this podcast did not have your experience growing up. And so so you're like, oh, yeah, that's really insightful. I guess that is true, right, because I'm not a farmer, you know, but think about in the first century, everybody knew exactly what he was talking about. So when Jesus uses this, you know, illustration, he says, okay, think about this. And by the way, side, note this is just came to thought. He leaves the upper room, and they're heading down down the mountain, you know, through the valley and then into the garden of Gasemine. Right, they're heading to the mount of Olives and so and so they're literally stopping in the vineyard on the way there. So this this actually most scholars believe this is at night, right, right, So he's stopping at night, and as they're walking through the vineyard, he pauses and he decides to teach them about what it means to remain in me. Right, Abide in me. That's the big that's the big thing over here. Abide in me. And anyway, so not everybody understands it. Well. I remember being a youth pastor, a pastor of high school students, and this was in the nineties or you know whatever, and uh, and I used to do this thing every once in a while called Destination Unknown. And it was a couple of times a year, three or four times a year. And I was just I would just have a bus ready and they'd show up for youth group and I'd be like jumping the bus and then they warm, we just head down to it. Just this you know, really cool thing. So anyway, there was this lady who owned this vineyard and I remember knocking on our door and I forgot to you know, plan uh and I uh And it was that day. It was that night, right, it was a Wednesday night, or no, it was Tuesday night. And I remember knocking on our door like Tuesday like morning or something like this, maybe afternoon, and she answers the door and I said, hey, your vineyard is huge. I said, it's beautiful. I said, would you mind if we bring like sixty or seventy, you know, high school students to walk through and I can just teach them and then I would interview you and you would share your knowledge on the vineyard. And she goes, she said, sir past pastor, she said. She says, I've just worked eight hours straight, been up since before it was dawn. And she said, and we have done our yearly pruning. And she said, and so we have tied and worked all day. And she goes, I am ready to collapse in this bed and there is no way that I could survive. And she was a little bit older too, and I said, please, so be in this young twenties I know, being this young twenties person, right, I just had no compassion, right, I'm thinking everybody should have strength in the resilience. And I said please, and she said okay, And so she went and took a nap, got ready. That night. I brought these kids over it like whatever. It was six six thirty and here she comes, you know, like a good sport outside the house. But I got to tell you, I learned more in that fifteen minutes about John fifteen that I had previously in any study I've ever done. Well, she'd just done all the pruning, it wouldn't have looked like a vineyard, right, right, right, you didn't have the big leaves, right, because she cut it down to just the smallest version that it would still stay alive. Yes, well, I gotta tell you there was. There was. There was plenty of pictures and plenty of things that she talked about, how many bushels of grapes and what she did with them, and she made wine and all these different things. And I got to tell you, like it was just it was amazing. My mom is one of the best kids workers I've ever known. She's been doing children's ministry for forty something years, hundreds and hundreds. Many times her children's ministries would be four or five hundred kids at a time. Just her on stage with four hundred kids. You can just imagine how crazy was. But she's just riveting when she teaches. She's amazing. Probably the best children's work I've ever known. I remember one time we had some roses. We didn't have a lot of fancy things, but she had a rose bush, and I can remember so I'd seen Dad trim the trees and stuff. You have to do that, but my mom was trimming roses, and so the people might not understand. Trimming apple trees or trimming BlackBerry bushes will do the same thing. You trim them down small and you get bigger blackberries. But my mom was trimming rose bushes, and I remember looking at going you just killed them, right, You just killed others. So anybody who's ever trimmed roses, you trim it down to where it doesn't look there's nothing left. Right, But if you don't, eventually that rose bush will go crazy and those roses will get smaller and smaller and smaller till there's almost no roses. Right. But you trim that down, and next year it'll come back and they'll be vibrant, and the roses will be more beautiful. They tend to have less disease, all those things. And so my mom sat there and she taught me this passage while she was trimming them. And then later on we went out and we cut a bunch of those roses, put them on the table, and my mom retaught that this lesson and it just it's just in me because of that, right, you can do nothing. And so here's this beautiful rose that thought it accomplished everything. When we cut it apart, cut it off the stem and put it in the thing, it died. It died in a few days. Right, it's completely shriveled up. And that's what happens. We can think our life is beautiful and incredible. Right now, look at we're in all of our glory, and if we get cut off right from the from the vine, we're gonna wither and die. Yeah. So biden me means means stay in your relationship with Christ. Right, just be be in prayer and be connected to the Holy Spirit. Stay in the word. You want to you want to read the Galatians one well, I was just gonna talk about the fruit right herein this is my Father glorified that we bear much fruit. And what is that fruit? Galatians chapter five talks about the fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace and gentleness and patience and kindness and self control. Uh tewod Peter chapter one talks about similar ideas being moral excellence and all those kinds of things. But then and Jesus is tying here both obedience and fruit together. So what are the other great commandments he gave us Love God, love people. And then he gave us the commandment at the very end in Matthew chapter twenty eight, go and make disciples everywhere, baptize them, teach you them to know everything I've commanded you. Right, So it's in those areas that we should be burying that fruit. So you want to measure what kind of If you're measuring hatred, If the fruit in your life is hatred and anxiety and frustration and violence, well then maybe you're not tapped into the right branch. Right. So there's that the fruit coming out of our life should be more next year, should have more love than this year. And so that's why God would go ahead and do the painful things in our life to trim us back so that we produce more fruit. And that's okay. And so it's interesting he talks about this thing right after he talks about God's peace. It's going to be okay. Whatever he's doing in your life to help you make more fruit is what he's doing. That's great. Well, hey, that's our I'm and it's been a good run here this week, and we will see you next week, hopefully on the Bible guys. H m hm m m mmmmmm.