Let's look at verse number 13 where the Bible read,
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.
And the title of my morning sermon is, The Most Loving Thing That You Can Do.
The most loving thing that you can do.
And in John chapter number 15, it's a very famous portion of scripture, but it helps
us understand God's love.
It helps us understand how we can do things that are loving and basically the purpose
of our lives.
But let's go back to verse number 1 and let's build a context before we really understand
verse number 13.
But it says in verse number 1, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, throughout his ministry, throughout his teaching, he gave
us a lot of earthly examples, a lot of carnal examples to basically expound unto us and
to teach us the spiritual truths of God.
And so here we have an example of a plant and throughout the Bible, plants are used
consistently and often to illustrate things of God, things that are very important.
But I figured it would be beneficial to maybe draw a few of these things.
But verse number 1 is pretty profound, it has a lot of great information.
But it's telling us that there's a vine, essentially, and it's saying this vine, at the top we
would have the husbandman, which would be the person who takes care of the vine, who's
basically who planted the vine.
This is God the Father.
He's saying God the Father is the husbandman.
And we have this, you know, vine that's growing.
And he says the vine, the true vine, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we're going to put him here, and you say, why is this important?
Well, God gives us these carnal truths so that we can understand spiritual truths better.
And he's making it very clear that there's a true vine.
That would also imply that there's vines that are not true, that there's bad vines.
And throughout the Bible, these would be called the wild vine, okay?
So I'm just going to go ahead and draw that.
It's not really spelled out here, the wild vine, in this portion of the scripture, but
we can find other portions of the scripture where it would be.
But we can see through the true vine, we would also have bad vines, okay?
So we're going to have a bad vine growing here.
And this bad vine, its husbandman is the devil.
The Bible talks about there being wheat and tares sewn together, and it says that the
tares are sewn by the devil.
So this is our bad vine.
Let's read verse number two.
The Bible says,
Now there's a lot of doctrinal evidence here that suggests the fact that, you know, it's
important for us to bear fruit.
Now some people will falsely claim that you must bear fruit in order to be saved.
But we can clearly see that even the branches that are not bearing fruit, they're still
in that vine.
And the only thing you need to do to be saved is to be in this vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As soon as someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, they are now a vine in, or they
become a branch off of this vine.
So we're going to draw some branches here, and it describes several different branches.
Some branches have fruit.
Some branches have no fruit.
So we're going to kind of draw a little bit here, draw some leaves.
And you know, some of these branches would branch off even further.
They would have their own little branches.
But essentially when you look at this vine, the purpose of it is to have some fruit.
So there's going to be some branches that have a lot of fruit growing on them.
It doesn't really say what kind of vine this is, but I like grapes.
So you know, we'll put some grapes on here, alright?
So this vine, this branch, it's doing really good.
It's got a lot of grapes growing on it.
This one looks really healthy.
You know, it's got some grapes going on.
This one, it's just kind of blooming.
So we kind of look at this vine.
You know, this branch looks really good.
I mean, it's got a lot of fruit growing on it.
This one, it's doing pretty good.
This one's just starting out.
But what about these other branches?
They don't have any fruit.
The important thing is, when we talk about salvation, is you've got to be in this vine.
Now there's also going to be branches over here.
These branches are damned.
These branches are not saved.
These branches, they don't have any good fruit coming off of them.
Now here's the thing.
They can still produce fruit.
They just don't produce good fruit.
They produce naughty figs, is what the Bible would say.
So this is what their fruit looks like.
And spare me a little bit of time.
I want to draw this so we can build off of it, okay?
But I think when we draw this illustration, it'll really help us understand these scriptures.
Let's read verse 2 again, okay?
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So what is the Bible teaching us?
The Bible is teaching us that essentially the kingdom of God would be illustrated by
a vine.
The vine is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The branches are us.
We are the branches in this illustration.
And he's saying, when he looks at a branch that looks like this one, he says, you
know what?
I want to take this one away so that this branch can produce more fruit.
And you say, why?
And look, I'm not an expert in farming or agriculture, but it's a pretty simple concept.
Basically this vine only has so much water coming into it.
And it divides that water to each branch.
And if a branch is not producing fruit, then why would this vine want to keep using resources
on a branch that's not doing anything?
It's going to end up dividing more water to this particular branch so that it can bring
forth a few more grapes.
Because by destroying that one, now all of a sudden we get some more grapes populated.
Why?
Because the point of having the vine is to produce fruit.
That's the whole point.
That's what God is wanting is to produce fruit.
So if he sees one of these branches not producing fruit, he'll just take it away.
Now what does that mean?
Does that mean that these people are over here now?
No.
In the illustration it would be very clear that what it's saying is he's going to take
away your physical life.
This represents your carnal life.
Your flesh.
As soon as he takes that away, you know where you are?
You're with God the Father in Heaven.
So you can't lose your salvation.
You can't go to hell, but the point of your life on this earth is to produce fruit.
And if you're not going to produce fruit, he'll just take it away now.
He would rather that you produce a whole bunch of fruit and then finally harvest it
at the end of your life, and then you get to rejoice with all the fruit that you were
able to bear.
Okay, so that's how we understand the first part of verse number two.
And then it says, additionally, in the latter part, he purges it, he says, in every
branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So what is he saying here?
Well imagine we have this one.
It's bringing forth fruit, but it doesn't really look like this one, does it?
It doesn't quite have as much fruit growing on.
And if we looked at this one, if we inspected a little bit more, it kind of has some offshoots
on here, but these offshoots aren't really doing much.
And you know what, it's the same concept.
He wants to purge some of these worthless branches.
He wants to take them off, because they're not really producing any of the fruit, and
he wants to focus on this one, so now all of a sudden, oh man, it's starting to produce
even more fruit.
Now we're really doing good.
You say, what is that?
That's all the sin in your life, and that's all the distractions in your life that are
stopping you from producing fruit.
God wants to purge you of those things, so that you can then produce more fruit.
So we're kind of using this board to kind of slowly build.
Keep your finger, but go to Revelation chapter number two now.
Revelation chapter number two.
Let's look at verse number one.
Revelation chapter two, verse number one.
He says this, under the angel of the church of Ephesus is right, these things saith he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walk in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found
them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored
and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works,
or else I would come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its
place, except thou repent.
So in Revelation chapter two, we get an illustration here.
He's looking at this branch, and he's saying, hey, if you don't start producing this fruit,
I will take you away.
You're going to be gone.
You can't just sit here in the vine doing nothing and thinking that God isn't going
to deal with you.
God is going to deal with every single one of these vines, because you know who
the husband of men is?
God the Father.
God the Father is looking at this vine, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's saying,
you know what?
I want you to produce fruit, and when you just refuse to produce fruit, this is what
God the Father does.
Bye.
Oh, you, okay, see you.
He's not a respected person.
That's what the Bible is clearly teaching us.
So it's important for us to produce fruit so that God the Father won't take us off
of the vine.
He won't destroy you off the vine.
Let me give you more proof of this.
Go to Luke chapter number 13.
Luke chapter number 13.
You say, that seems pretty hardcore.
Well, let me be honest with you, it is, but you know what?
I just believe the Bible, and I like the Bible, and when we get through with this
sermon, we'll see, since the point of our Christian life is to produce fruit, you don't
have to worry about that when you are producing fruit.
You should worry if you're not producing fruit.
If you're sitting here thinking, I don't have any grapes, get nervous, because God
the Father makes it very clear, he's just going to get rid of you.
Now, the thing is, a lot of people don't produce fruit right away.
A lot of people take a lot of time.
People are ignorant.
People don't understand these things.
And God is long-suffering.
God is merciful.
But there comes a point when God looks at you, and he says, you're still not producing
fruit?
Well, let me try and help you.
Oh, you're still not producing fruit?
Well, let me warn you.
Oh, you're still not producing fruit?
Then he's going to take you away.
The Bible says in Luke chapter number 13, look at verse 6.
He spake also this parable.
A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit
thereon and found none.
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard.
Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down.
Why comereth it the ground?
And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig
about it and dung it.
And if it bear fruit, well.
And if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it down.
That's hardcore.
Now, this church, we're getting close to our five-year anniversary.
So that would make me nervous if somebody had been coming to this church for over three
years and they're still not bearing fruit.
Now here they have, according to the Bible, they would have another year.
Now I'm not saying in this parable everybody has three years, but I'm just saying in
this illustration, we see God was long suffering with the unfruitful vine for three
years, wasn't he?
He's just allowing them to just be ignorant, just doing whatever they want, whatever.
But then there comes a point.
He says, you know what?
I'm just ready to destroy it.
Just get rid of it.
But someone makes up the hedge, someone makes up the gap and says, wait, let me
dung it.
And you say, what's dung?
Dung's not that pleasant.
It smells bad.
It's not that fun.
It's kind of like hard preaching, okay?
You know, you don't really enjoy it.
It's coming.
It stinks.
But you know what?
It's going to do.
It's going to try and motivate you.
It's going to fertilize you to try and produce fruit.
And if you won't respond to the dung, you won't respond to anything.
You need some good dung in your life to wake you up.
You know the false prophets, whenever they had their bad feasts, you know, the prophet
said he was going to spread dung in their faces, you know?
It's like the hard preaching, you know, being put right in their face, and they still
won't comply.
Then what does the Bible say?
Well, it's okay.
Nope.
In verse 9, if it bare fruit, well, and if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it
down.
So the Bible's really clear.
Now, why would God give us all these verses and all these parables and all these illustrations
and all these clear statements if he didn't really mean it?
I'm worried for the branches in this vine that do not produce fruit.
You must produce fruit or God will take you away.
What is this, you know, illustration?
Well, first of all, it's the fact that he could just end your personal life.
Now, I think God could end us in other ways.
Maybe he would just devastate you financially or devastate you with health issues or devastate
all kinds of other things.
Maybe your marriage would implode, and basically you would just be worthless at that point.
You'd have nothing going for you, but you'd better be sure that God is not mocked.
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap, and if you're not bearing fruit,
God could take you away.
But then he talks to another group of people.
He's talking to these people that are doing pretty good.
You know, look at this guy.
He just started going soul wedding, he's doing pretty good.
He's got a little bit of fruit.
But man, this guy has got some issues.
I mean, he's got some other branches over here.
He's got branches with branches.
I mean, it's just going on.
So it looks pretty good he's got a little bit of fruit here, but he's got a lot of
issues.
He's got a lot of things.
He only comes to church on Easter.
Well God's like, we need to prune that one.
There's three services a week, okay buddy?
This guy, you know, he still thinks that alcohol is a good option.
He still likes to go out and drink behind closed doors.
He still likes to mess around with booze and drugs and all these other things.
That one was a big one.
He was like, wow, we need to purge all of that.
Because you know what comes with drunkenness?
Being stupid and idiotic and foolish and committing all kinds of other sins.
Whenever you drink that kind of liquor, the Bible says, thine eyes shall behold strange
women.
Committing all kinds of other lusts and evil, wicked sins.
So God, when he looks at somebody producing fruit, he says, you know what, I want to
purge you of all the sin in your life so you can produce more fruit.
And some people, they have this weird idea.
They think that somebody that would be involved in that kind of sin would never go out soul
winning.
Look, I guarantee if we were to examine all the people that go out soul winning,
they've got plenty of sin.
They've got plenty of issues in their life.
Look, you ought not ever let sin stop you from going out soul winning.
I've ever heard one guy, he felt like he was a little backslidden.
He's like, well, I can't go soul winning because I'm backslidden.
You go soul winning.
You want to fix being backslidden?
You go back out there and you preach the gospel.
Now here's the thing.
If you've got all these branches coming in, you know, over here, like drunkenness
and whatever.
I mean, obviously if you're drunk you'll be thrown out of the church.
I'm just saying like if you're dabbling in sin, you're doing these things, it's
going to start choking this fruitful vine.
You've got to start purging it and making room for more fruit in your life.
Like going out to the soul winning time.
Like showing up.
Like reading your Bible.
Like memorizing the verses.
Look, there's people, they go out, they don't know any of the verses by heart.
They stumble through their gospel presentation.
They're backslidden.
They don't go to church much and they can still get someone saved.
You know why?
Because of the power of the gospel.
The power of the word of God.
But you know what?
The guy that's going to church three times a week, he's got his gospel presentation
memorized by heart, he goes out and entreats people with meekness and humbleness and
he's praying and he's seeking the Lord and he's singing psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs in his heart and he's filled with the Spirit, he's going to get much fruit
when he goes out preaching the gospel.
So that's why it's important for us to prune ourselves and to get better and
to learn more and to grow and to get the sin out of our life and to be filled with
the Spirit and to learn the Bible so that we can bear much fruit when we go out.
Some people look like this.
And unfortunately, there's a lot of people looking like this, too.
Here's my question.
You know, there's actually probably a couple of people who look like this here, too.
Say, ah, I don't think that would happen.
I'm sure it is, okay?
So we got all of the spectrum, right?
We got this one, this one, this one, this one, this one.
Where are you?
If you're here, just go jump into the lake, all right?
We don't want you.
But where are you on the scale?
Be honest with yourself.
I'm not going to sit here and judge every single person.
You judge yourself.
But if you're here, I'm warning you, you're in danger.
You can't stay here forever.
If you're here, God's saying, look, I want to purge you.
I want you to produce more fruit.
And even this guy, I guarantee we have some things going on here, too.
We can all work on stuff.
Nobody's arrived.
We all have things that we can be purged.
Maybe this one branch has got a little thorn here that you can purge, and then it's going
to start producing fruit off of this one, too.
We can always produce more fruit.
So we ought to look at ourselves and think about this illustration.
Go back to John, chapter number 15.
I like this picture because when we look at this picture, first of all, it illustrates
everyone.
Everyone's somewhere on this picture.
Additionally, it helps give a good imagery to understand what the Bible's teaching us.
Look at verse number 3.
The Bible says,
So what is the Bible saying?
Well, we're all clean in the sense that anybody that's coming off this branch, it's
the true vine.
You've been cleaned by the Word of God.
You're righteous in God's sight.
We're all saved.
But he also says, the only way you're going to ever produce fruit is when you're
abiding in this vine.
Meaning what?
Well, if there's just a branch out here, just hanging out, and it's not connected
to the vine, it's never going to produce fruit.
Never.
The only way to produce fruit is to be connected to this vine.
Maybe they're connected to this thing called the NIV.
This is the fruit of the NIV.
Maybe they're connected to the ESV, the extremely strange version.
No fruit.
The only thing these things can, these actually start intertwining with this one and start
producing bad fruit.
But look, even if you're just outside of those, you have to abide in the true vine
to produce fruit.
Now, there's a lot of ways that we could apply this.
First of all, we have to have the word of God.
Without the King James Bible, we can do nothing.
We have no power.
That's why all the churches today, so-called, that are meeting and they don't have a King
James Bible, they have no power.
They can produce no fruit.
They're doing nothing for the Lord.
It's carnal.
It's just for the things of the flesh.
It's temporal.
They're not doing anything.
The only way that you could ever produce fruit is from being connected to the true
vine.
Additional way we could look at this is you have to be saved.
Some people have this weird idea that this branch can somehow get someone saved.
Well, what if they were quoting King James Bible verses?
Can't get them saved.
Creflo Dollar only uses the King James Bible.
Let me tell you how many people he's gotten saved in his life, zero.
Even the infiltrator.
Look, the infiltrator, he'll kind of grow and he'll look really weird.
He'll kind of be coming over here and he'll get intermingled and they'll be like,
look, I saw him produce some fruit.
Yeah, it's black.
It's not blue.
Now, from really far away, you might look and you go, oh, it kind of looks the same.
Yeah, but if you really trace that, it's coming from this vine.
You have to be connected to the vine of the Lord Jesus Christ to bear good fruit.
That is the only way to bear good fruit.
So you have to be saved.
We have to be using the King James Bible.
Those are some great illustrations.
But additionally, he says that we need to abide in him, not just be connected.
We need to abide in him, meaning what?
We need to get all of our resources from him.
Go to 1 John, chapter number two, 1 John, chapter number two.
Afterwards, someone's going to look at this board and have no idea what we're talking about.
1 John, chapter number two, look at verse number three.
And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth
is not in him.
But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected, hereby know
we that we are in him.
So what is he saying?
In order to say that you know God, you must be keeping his commandments.
If you're not keeping his commandments, you're a liar.
Look at verse number six.
He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
So there's people going around saying, hey, I'm abiding in Christ.
But are they walking the way they ought to?
Are they keeping the commandments the way they ought to?
Because if they're not, then they're not really abiding in him.
Meaning what?
If they're not getting all their resources from here, sometimes these weird branches
they'll come off and they'll kind of connect themselves with NIV.
And they're getting their resources from the NIV.
Look, you can be saved and using an NIV Bible.
You're not abiding in Christ at that point.
Hey, you can go off and get the booze bottle and you can be abiding in that spirit,
in liquor, or whatever, and not in the Holy Ghost.
You're not going to be bearing much fruit.
You're not going to be doing things for God.
So it's important that not only are you coming off of this branch, but that's your
only source of life.
This is where you're getting fed.
This is where you're getting your resources.
It's from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now what's the Lord Jesus Christ?
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word is with God and the Word was God.
Say, how do I abide in Christ?
By keeping His commandments.
By reading the Bible.
By studying the Bible.
By getting the Bible into your heart.
That's how we abide in Christ.
Here's how you don't abide in Christ.
Well, I go to church once every, you know, month.
I don't read my Bible.
Sometimes I watch sermons on Facebook.
You're not abiding in Christ at that point.
You're abiding somewhere else.
Where are you getting fed, spiritually?
Oh, I got this commentary book.
I just read all the notes from the commentary.
Hey, I'm reading the NIV.
Hey, sometimes I watch Joyce Meyer online.
Look, that's not abiding in Christ.
We must be getting our source of information from the King James Bible, from the Word
of God.
You must read your Bible every day.
You must memorize the Scriptures every day.
You must go to church faithfully.
Otherwise you're not going to be abiding in Him.
Let me give you a secret.
You know the people that look like this?
They read their Bible every day.
They pray.
They sing psalms.
They go to church.
You don't look like this on accident.
They're abiding in the vine.
You know how you look like this?
You're reading the NIV.
Or maybe it's just ESPN.
Or maybe it's just good housekeeping.
Or maybe you just go shopping.
Or maybe you just do whatever.
Or you just have friends and party and just do fun.
And look, fellowship's important to church.
You know what?
You're not going to get any rewards in heaven for how great of a fellowship you are.
We threw the best parties.
We had the most friends.
Everybody really liked us in church.
Well, how does God think about you?
Maybe God wants to take away some of those things from you so you can produce more
fruit.
Now look, I'm not trying to discourage you from being friendly.
Be friendly.
Have fun.
Have good fellowship.
I'm just saying we ought to look at our lives and say, is what I'm doing bearing
fruit?
Why?
Well, let's keep reading in John chapter 15.
Go back.
Wait.
Keep reading here.
Sorry.
Look at verse number 9.
Let's get a little more context.
He that saith these in the light and hated his brother is in darkness even until now.
Verse 10.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
Notice dwelling in the light is the same as abiding in the light.
Now the word abide, it can mean a couple of different things.
It can mean where you dwell, like where are you living at, where's your habitation,
where's your current status, hey, I'm abiding at this place, but it could also mean
to comply with, obey, follow or keep.
The word abide means to obey, but we see here in this context that it's talking about
your dwelling place and it's saying he that loveth his brother abideth in the light.
Look, when you're loving your brother, you're abiding in this vine.
Whenever you're not loving your brother, you're abiding over here somewhere.
You're abiding in darkness.
What is loving your brother?
You know what?
Doing good to your brother when he doesn't deserve it.
Hey, this person lied about me.
Well, love him.
This person tail-bared about me.
Love him.
This person gave me a bad look.
Love him.
Love is not when you reciprocate good feelings.
Love is when you reciprocate good feelings for bad ones.
Hey, Christ loved us when we were sinners.
What did we do to God?
Oh, we rebelled against you.
We did everything wrong.
Oh, but you loved us anyways.
You did good unto us anyways.
That's what we ought to do to every person in this church, loving every person in this
church.
You know what's not loving is talking about your brother behind their back and using
this garbage guise of, we need to be praying for so-and-so.
Have you seen how horrible their outfits are?
I mean, they're so hideous.
We need to pray that they get some good taste.
We need to pray for so-and-so.
They just don't seem so spiritual.
They just don't seem as spiritual to the rest of us.
We need to be praying for so-and-so.
I mean, I didn't see them at so-and-so when I went.
Look, that's garbage.
If you actually feel that way, why don't you encourage that person and love that person
and go to that person and say, hey, I bought you a new outfit.
Hey, I'm going to go sewing at 2 p.m. today.
Will you be my partner?
This is how you love people.
This is how you do good unto people.
The bad person goes up to you and says, hey, I'm just really concerned about so-and-so.
Did you see what they did, x, y, and z?
That's garbage.
That person doesn't actually love them, anyways.
They don't really care for them.
Look at verse 24.
The Bible says, Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.
If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue
in the Son and in the Father, and this is the promise they did promise us, even
eternal life.
These things that are written unto you concerning them that seduce you, but the anointing
which ye have received of them, abideth in you.
And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of
all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall
abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, that when ye shall appear, we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is
born of him.
So notice that we have a connection with abiding in him, with doing righteousness,
with obeying God's Word.
You say, who is the person that's abiding in Christ the most?
It's the person that's following God's commandments the most.
Now, some people would look at our church, or they would attack somebody in this church
and they would say, y'all are a bunch of legalists.
Y'all just try to follow everything the Bible says, and you just care about all
the commandments.
Yeah, I want to abide in Christ.
If I don't care about the commandments, I can't abide in Christ.
If I'm not obeying and following and dwelling in the light of the commandments, then
I cannot abide in him.
And I want to bear much fruit.
I don't want to get too far ahead of my sermon, but let me help you out.
You know what's the most loving thing you can do?
Producing fruit.
So you know why I abide in the commandments?
So that I can produce more fruit, because I actually have love in my heart.
Now some people, these ones over here, the only reason they try to abide by the commandments
is so as not to get caught for being a wicked false prophet.
They don't actually love the Lord, they don't actually love people.
Their motivation is not to bear fruit.
Their motivation is a wicked agenda.
So they just try to put on a show just to make it seem like they're righteous,
and often times they build all kinds of extra commandments on top of these ones just
to try and appear righteous.
They're called the Pharisees.
The Pharisees made all these extra rules.
Like, you can't even heal on the Sabbath.
That was a Pharisaical rule.
That was not a rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ looked at them and said, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?
And they were all silent.
He was angry with them.
Of course it was good to do things on the Sabbath.
Right things.
Helping people.
Healing people.
But the Pharisees made all kinds of, you can't even eat unless you wash your hands.
What if you have nowhere to wash your hands at?
What if you're out in the wilderness and you're starving?
Well, better not eat that.
You better wash your hands.
Look, the Pharisees make all these extra rules up.
And look, I've been around people all the time.
You better wear a hijab in church or you're naked.
You better cover your elbows, men, or you're naked.
Because they want to appear so righteous and so modest.
They make up all these extra rules and they go above and beyond what the Bible says.
Oh, you're wearing a shirt with a triangle on it?
Did you know that a triangle, if you put it with another triangle, kind of looks like
the Star of Rimfan, which is like the Jews.
And the Jews are behind all the sin and the wickedness in the entire world.
You're basically supporting the anti-Christ.
You have a triangle on your shirt.
You're like, what in the world, buddy?
Why?
Because they want to appear righteous.
But they're not doing that because they want to produce fruit.
They're doing it so they want to get caught.
So we have to be careful of these overly spiritual, over-righteous people that are going around
pushing their personal preferences and their personal convictions on you.
You know what people should push on you?
God's Word.
And it's not grievous.
But you know what is grievous?
Man's commandments.
Man's personal opinion.
So you've got to be aware of those type of people.
But you know what?
I love following God's commandments.
They're not grievous to me.
So you know what?
You can't push those on me too much.
You can't come at me with God's Word too much.
I love it.
That's not being legalistic.
That's not like being the Pharisees.
Being the Pharisees is when I start pushing my personal preferences on you.
Well, you've got to come to church at this specific time and you've got to wear these
specific clothing and you've got to stand up this tall and you've got to say these
exact words.
If I go around and start policing people's personal lives, you're eating that?
How come you're eating that?
You have that poster in your house?
What's going on with this little dog statue you've got over here on the cabinet?
What do you got with that one?
I'm not going to go around.
Did you just turn on the TV?
That's policing people's personal lives.
That's not what a pastor should do.
That's not what we should do.
That's not abiding in Christ.
Abiding in Christ is following God's commandments and guess what?
Loving your neighbor.
You ought to be strict with yourself and you ought to be gracious and long suffering
with others and loving towards others.
So I'm all for abiding in Christ, keeping his commandments, following and obeying his
commandments but you know what?
You should really just be looking in the mirror the most.
Looking at the mirror and seeing where you are.
When we're looking at this illustration, don't be thinking about your spouse.
Don't be thinking about the person sitting right in front of you.
Don't be thinking about the person sitting behind you, annoying you.
Think about yourself.
Where am I at?
Look at the mirror and start evaluating yourself.
Go back to John chapter number 15.
Why?
Because everything that we're learning in this chapter is going to help us to do the
most loving thing that we can do.
It's all about love.
Look at verse number 5.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
Ye that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me ye can do nothing.
What a great verse kind of actually teaching us what I've been showing so far.
We're the branches.
When we abide in Christ, what is the purpose of abiding in Christ, Pastor Shelley, to bear
much fruit?
Why do you read the King James Bible, Pastor Shelley, to produce fruit?
Why do you give up drinking and drugs and the television and all the fun things in
this world so I can bear much fruit?
Why do you get up and scream the Bible so that you'll do the same thing so that
you can bear much fruit?
Why do we have multiple soul-winning times in our bulletin so that we can bear much fruit
as a church?
Why do we sing the hymns so we can be filled with the Spirit so that when we go out,
we can preach the gospel with power and bear much fruit?
I'm not going to get filled with the Spirit.
Ahhh, Jesus, love, yeah.
That's not filling me with the Spirit.
I'm going to actually sing the songs and the spiritual songs, even the ones that talk
about hating the wicked.
You know what?
Hating the wicked, when I hate every false way, it makes me want to go out and preach
the gospel more and get more people saved and pull them out of the fire.
You know what?
When I sing about these fake love ballads that are sensual of the devil, it does
not produce any fruit.
I don't produce fruit from abiding in this vine.
From abiding in this vine.
I produce fruit by abiding in this vine.
By doing what the Bible says.
That's why we try to be fundamental, independent, separated from the world so we can bear much
fruit.
Why?
It's loving.
And without Christ, we can do nothing.
I never see anybody that looks like this, that doesn't go to a good church.
Some people think that they can be these lone rangers.
I don't need to go to a church.
I can just bear lots of fruit on my own, liar.
You find that person for me.
I'd love to meet him.
I'd love to meet this lone ranger that's just doing great exploits for the Lord without
church.
Without church involved in any way.
It doesn't happen.
And we have to abide in Christ.
Christ is the head of the church.
You know, we gather here, Christ is with us.
Christ is guiding us.
Christ wants to feed you through the preaching of God's word.
When you get here, you open your ears and you get fed with God's word so you can bear
much fruit.
When the pastor gets up and screams about how wicked fornication is, it's so that you'll
stop doing wicked sins and you can bear much fruit.
You know what fornication will do?
It'll stop you from bearing fruit.
You know what alcohol will do?
It'll stop you from bearing fruit.
You know what the false Bibles will do?
It'll stop you from bearing good fruit.
You know what gossip and tale-bearing will do?
It'll destroy your church, it'll stop people from coming to church and bearing
much fruit.
Why get up and scream about those things?
Not because I want to appear so righteous before you all, because I want us to produce
much fruit, to bear much fruit.
Go to Proverbs chapter number 11, Proverbs chapter number 11, a very famous verse for
many people in this church, but it's good to read it again.
Get some eyes on it.
Because he that readeth, say, why do you only use the King James Bible?
Because I only want to produce fruit and I want it to be good grapes, not the naughty
figs.
Why is the first mention there built in the soul winning?
Again I mention, what's the first works?
Soul winning.
Why do you preach on 1 Corinthians 5, Pastor Shelley?
Why on Wednesdays are we going through 1 Corinthians?
Well, I want to get all the bad things out of the church.
I want to prune the church so that we can bear more fruit.
You say, oh, throwing people out, isn't that going to hurt the soul winning effort?
No.
Getting all the bad, wicked people out of the church is actually going to do more
for the church.
We can put more resources in the good places that are producing the most fruit and
get more fruit out of them.
You know, it's a lot harder to get a branch that's doing nothing to start producing
fruit than to get one of these branches to start producing more, to start getting
more grapes, more fruit on their account.
Proverbs 11, verse 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that
win his souls is wise, is what the Bible says.
It's a wise thing.
Why does the Bible keep giving all these analogies about producing fruit?
Oh yeah, because it's the main point.
The main point is for us to produce fruit.
Now, for you on a personal level, the most important decision you can make is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
You know what?
That happens in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
You're quickened.
Your spirit is quickened.
You can be made alive.
You have the new man.
Now why would God give us the new man if there was no point with it?
The point is to walk in the new man so that you can produce fruit, so you can love
more people.
What's the most loving thing that you can do, Pastor Shelley?
Produce fruit.
Win souls.
Get people saved.
Preach the gospel.
Go back to John chapter number 15.
Why do you emphasize, you know, the Spanish, Pastor Shelley, because I want to produce
more fruit?
You know, there's a lot of fruit out there that we can't get saved unless we can preach
them the gospel in Spanish.
I'm not trying to do Spanish just to see how cool we can look.
You know, most people actually detest Mexico.
Have you ever met our president?
He wants to build an entire wall separating us from them.
He wants them to all be deported.
He despises them.
And many Americans agree.
Many Americans despise Mexico.
They would be fine if we could just nuke like the whole border and just create like
a moat away from Mexico.
I want to learn Spanish so I can go across and reach those people with the gospel.
Go over there where it is dirty and poor and whatever.
You know what?
It's receptive to the gospel.
You know what?
Even in these areas.
You say, what's some of the most receptive areas?
The areas where they speak the most Spanish.
You know, some of the most receptive people I've ever preached the gospel to, they only
spoke Spanish.
There's all this fruit out there and you know what?
What's our goal?
Oh yeah, to produce fruit.
So why not emphasize Spanish?
We're not here emphasizing how to learn Latin.
We're not going to have Latin courses.
Let's see how smart we can be with Latin.
I don't even speak any Latin.
I don't care to learn Latin unless a huge portion of the world starts only speaking
Latin.
Then at that point I'll care.
But until then, don't care.
You know what?
There's a lot of people that live very close to us that speak Spanish.
That's why we have that.
Why do we have so many marathons?
So you can produce much fruit.
You know, obviously on a Sunday we only go out for an hour or two hours or whatever
throughout the week.
But at a so many marathon you get to go out for four hours, five hours.
Why?
So we can produce much fruit.
Not to see, oh, we just went out there for eight hours.
We're so spiritual.
We're so good.
We're so wonderful.
No, the goal is to produce fruit.
To get much fruit.
To labor much.
Why dress like men and women?
To produce fruit.
To produce much fruit.
See, I don't think that's related.
I do.
It's all related.
When we abide in Christ, when He purges us of all the wickedness and the worldliness
and the things of this world, we can produce much fruit.
John chapter number 15, let's look at verse number 6.
The Bible says, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered
and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Why do you keep emphasizing this, Pastor Shelley?
Because I know what lies ahead for all the people in our church to look like this.
And throughout the analogy it hasn't been perfect because I only took it away.
But this is what happens.
You get taken away and then cast in the fire.
Now here's the thing.
Just because the word fire is used in your Bible does not always equal hell.
Some people have this weird idea, they think the word fire just instantly means hell
for some reason.
Now obviously hell is described as fire.
Obviously hell is fire.
It's eternal fire.
But you can burn your physical life away.
You can get burnt to a crisp in your physical life.
And you can be destroyed.
Let me show you lots of verses on this.
And the verses that teach this is where you get all your false doctrine for work
salvation or the fact that you could lose your salvation.
The Bible is crystal clear that you could never lose your salvation.
Once you're in his hand, no man can pluck you out, the Bible says.
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this.
He gives you eternal life.
Not temporary.
Not conditional.
But you know what?
Your flesh is going to die.
Your flesh is going to be destroyed.
The question is when.
And when you're not producing fruit, God says, well, we might as well just throw
in the fire now.
We might as well just get it over with now so that this branch can start producing
more fruit.
Let's look at a lot of verses here because I want to make sure you understand this point.
Go to Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter number 5.
We're going to blow through some of these but I want to get some eyes on them real quick.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 13.
Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt of loss is savour, wherewith shall
it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under
foot of men.
Now, he's saying all of us are salt.
But what good is salt if it does not have any saltness is what the Bible says.
If it's just basically like sugar pills, if it's just like dust.
Nobody wants to sprinkle dust on their food.
They sprinkle salt because it has a little bite to it, right?
It has a good savour to it.
You like the taste of it.
But if it's tasteless, if it doesn't have any grit to it, it's like the NIV Christian
who goes out and just loves everything and loves everybody.
You know what?
I like my salt to have a little billboard out there that says he wants all the LGBT
put to death.
I like that savour.
It tastes good.
Yeah.
But you know what?
It's not flavourless.
It's not tasteless.
It has a little...
And sometimes it irritates some people, right?
I put it on my food.
I enjoy it.
But if we sprinkle it in your eye, it hurts.
We sprinkle it in your wound, it hurts.
All your little sin wounds, the salt starts to hurt it, doesn't it?
My analogy might not be perfect, but I like it.
Go to verse 14.
You're the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Verse 15.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and
it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
The Bible teaches us that we're supposed to go out and let our light shine.
So that we can bear much fruit.
Go to chapter number 15.
Matthew 15.
Quickly, Matthew chapter 15, look at verse number 13.
Matthew 15, verse 13.
But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up.
Let them alone may be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both
of them shall fall into the ditch.
So basically he's talking about these branches over here.
The ones that are not planted by God the Father, he's going to throw them in the
fire.
But sometimes these ones are going to be cast in that same physical fire, the destruction
of the flesh.
Now go, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter number 5, flip forward.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians.
Chapter number 5.
So we've seen one example of the salt being cast out and trodden underfoot of men.
And we have other examples of bad branches, the wicked, they're destroyed.
But we can't just say because someone's destroyed, they're of God or they're not of God.
In the flesh, both can be destroyed.
You say, I don't think that would ever happen.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 5, look at verse 5.
To deliver, session 1, unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Oh, this guy's unsaved.
He's been delivered unto Satan.
Well, let's keep reading the rest of that verse though.
What does he say?
That the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So notice, your flesh can be destroyed by Satan as a saved believer.
You say, how would that happen, Pastor Shelley?
You look like this.
You're not bearing fruit.
You can be destroyed by Satan.
Now go, if you would, to Hebrews chapter number 10.
Hebrews, a little bit further, past all the Ts, 1st, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st, 2nd
Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and then you have the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews, look at chapter number 10, Hebrews chapter number 10, look at verse 26, the
Bible says, for if we sin willfully, after that we receive the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
Now what is he saying, sin willfully?
With the unsaved, they sin no matter what.
They can't do anything but sin.
They're sinning constantly.
And as a Christian, once you get saved, we don't cease from sinning.
We also still sin.
But the Bible warns that whenever you sin willfully, what's willfully?
You know that it's wrong.
You heard the preacher get up and say that's wicked, and he showed you Bible verses from
God's Word showing you that it's wicked, and you say, you know what, I'm going to do it anyways.
Yeah, fornication, I heard it, yeah, it's bad, whatever.
I'm going to do it anyways.
People do that.
Oh, whatever, if a little alcohol's not going to hurt anybody, I'm so sorry, guys.
You get in your car and you die, and you hurt other people too.
Or worse, in my opinion, is that you kill other people and then you go to jail for
the rest of your life, grieving the fact that you killed some innocent person.
I'd rather just die myself.
Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse 26 again, for if we sin willfully, after that we receive
the knowledge of the truth.
There remaineth no more sacrifice or sins, look at verse 27, but a certain fearful
looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
That sounds like fire, fiery.
Yeah, because guess what, when you're not producing fruit, he'll take you out from
that vine and he'll burn you up with fire.
Let's keep reading a little bit more of this because I like this.
Look at verse 28, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses.
Man, that Old Testament law, that was where it was really strict.
It was strict.
It was pretty intense, but let's keep reading.
29, of how much sore punishment suppose ye, shall ye be thought worthy who hath trodden
underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith
ye was sanctified in unholy things, and hath done despite in the spirit of grace.
We know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me.
I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God.
The heathen ought to fear God, but you know who also ought to fear God?
God's people.
He said, you know what, we lifted the Old Testament, oh, that was scary.
I would have followed God's commands back then.
He says it's a sore punishment in the New Testament.
And he's saying, as much as we could look at the Old Covenant and say how great it
was, can't we look at the New Covenant and say it's even greater?
It's called the Better Testament.
It's called grace.
And we look at that, and he's saying, if you wouldn't have obeyed that first covenant,
and then you still don't do the second covenant, I mean the second covenant is even better!
And you're still not obeying, you're still sinning willfully, you're still not bearing fruit.
Be warned that God will judge his people.
And he warned with fiery indignation.
Go to chapter 12, just flip the page, chapter 12, look at verse 28.
Wherefore when he receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
We ought to fear him.
Look at verse 29, for our God is a consuming fire.
The Bible makes it clear that fire cannot just be interpreted as hell, it can be interpreted
in many other ways.
And even saved believers can experience the punishment of fire.
In what sense?
You losing your physical life.
You being destroyed in this physical world.
Now go back to John chapter 15, let's finish this portion of scripture.
Because the title of the sermon is the most loving thing you can do.
You keep talking about us not sinning and all this other stuff.
Yeah, because it's going to help you do the most loving thing.
People don't get hard preaching because they don't get the most important thing.
When you understand the most important thing is producing fruit, and the only way
you're going to produce that fruit and bear much fruit is if you're abiding in Christ,
then you want to know God's commandments.
Then you want to know how to get purged.
Then you want to know the status of your life.
These branches over here that look like this, they look at you and they get mad at you.
They start saying, oh man, you just think you're better because you got all that fruit.
Well, I don't think I'm better necessarily, but I at least know that I'm not about
to be cast out in the fire, and I don't want you to go that way either, so that's
why I'm warning you.
But look at verse 7, if you abide in me, my words abide in you, ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
So what's the benefits of following God's commandments?
What's the benefit of doing all these things?
Well, your prayers are answered.
That was a good one.
Verse 8, here it is, my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be
to my disciples.
Let me help you out.
If you don't bear any fruit, you're not God's disciple.
You are not a disciple of Christ.
All these people want to talk about how they're a follower of Jesus, you know, I'm
a disciple, man.
Where is your fruit?
Their fruit is tolerating sin.
Their fruit is looking like a queer hippie.
That's not the fruit of the Bible.
The fruit of the Bible is winning souls.
That's the fruit of the righteous.
Look at verse number 9, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue in my love, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.
Ah, you're all about the commandments, yeah.
I'm all about the love of Jesus.
If you don't preach the commandments, you're not preaching the love of Jesus Christ.
What is the love of Jesus Christ, keeping his commandments?
He says, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
What was the purpose of Jesus keeping God the Father's commandments, to bear much
fruit?
Look at verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full.
Verse 12, this is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
So you see, the greatest picture of love is told us, a man laying down his life for
his friends.
Self-sacrifice for his friends.
That reminds me of Jesus Christ.
What did Jesus Christ do?
He laid down his life to give us life.
Now, for us, can we go die on a cross and help other people with their sins?
If I go nail myself to some tree and die on that tree, am I going to get anybody
into heaven?
I'm probably going to pull a lot of people away from the faith.
My family will be destroyed.
Look, there's people that actually go crucify themselves, partially or whatever.
Weird Catholics and all this kind of stuff.
But look, we can't do some kind of a physical death that's going to bear any kind of life
unto others.
But you know what you can die to is yourself, to your flesh, and when you die to yourself,
when you pick up your cross daily and you die to that flesh, you know what you can
do?
You can give a lot of life to other people.
By crucifying my personal life, by crucifying my personal wants and desires, by purging
myself of all the sin in my life, you know what I can do?
I can end up giving life unto other people.
That's the importance.
Go to Matthew chapter number 10, Matthew chapter number 10, because he says lay down
your life.
This is talking about the greatest love.
What's the greatest thing that you can do?
The greatest thing that you can do today is whatever you had planned for your personal
satisfaction at 2 p.m., you give that up, you lay that down, and you go out
and you preach the gospel.
You know what?
There's so many people today.
They're going to walk out of church, and you know what they're going to do?
Produce no fruit.
They're going to walk out of the liberal fund center.
They're going to walk out of all these lame Baptist churches, and they're going to
produce no fruit, and they're going to look at our church and say, they're so
unloving.
Did you hear them preach on all the commandments?
They're so legalistic.
They're singing the hymns only.
Why didn't they get the rock and roll?
Whoo!
Why didn't they have so much fun and love like we do, and do all the cool, fun stuff?
You know why?
Because we want to produce fruit, because we love people, because we have the love
of Christ in our hearts.
Look at Matthew chapter number 10, very powerful scripture.
Matthew chapter number 10, we're going to look at verse number 39.
Verse number 39, the Bible says, he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he
that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him, that sent
me.
According to the Bible, we're supposed to lose our life.
Now, this is not talking about physical death, this is talking about losing your own personal
desires.
Hey, I could go out and I could try to be a professional golfer for the rest of
my life.
I mean, I had that desire at one point in my life.
For many years, for decades, I would go to the golf course for eight hours a day or
longer.
I practiced.
I hit golf balls.
I'd hit hundreds of golf balls.
I'd play two rounds of golf.
I would chip and putt every day, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday.
Guess what?
I'm doing Sunday, playing more golf, traveling, playing all these tournaments.
You know what I couldn't do if I was doing that?
Go to church.
You know when you play golf tournaments?
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
You know what I couldn't be doing?
I can't be going soul-witting when I'm on the golf course by myself, practicing.
I'm not spending all that time reading my Bible.
I'm not going to become a pastor.
I can't go out and do great exploits for the Lord.
So what do you know I should do?
Maybe I should lay that down.
Maybe I should lose that life so I can find another life.
I can find a life in Christ.
Oh, I want to have this really cool traveling job where I can never be in church and I can
never have a family, but I'll make lots of money.
Maybe you should lose that life and find a different one.
You know what?
Whenever you find the life of Christ, I don't look back with regret.
I could go win the Masters tomorrow and I'd be less happy than the life I have now, preaching
the Gospel.
We have the greatest joy by serving others, by loving others, by just going out into
some poor ghetto and finding someone that only speaks Spanish and me stumbling and stuttering
and stammering and saying things in past tense or that are supposed to be in present tense.
You know what?
They understand the Gospel and they call upon the name of the Lord and they get
saved because that's the most loving thing that I can do.
Not going to one of these fake churches and criticizing our church and saying,
Oh, you heard yourself though, I hate.
Did you see the billboards?
Yeah, I did.
I love your children.
That's why I hate pedophiles.
That's why I hate all these LGBT freaks.
You know what?
I hate every false way, so I love the Bible.
I love you, so I try to warn you so that you won't be one of these branches.
You say, that'll never happen.
It's already happened for thousands of years and it's going to continue happening and
you ought not think you're the exception.
You are not the exception.
I'm not the exception.
If we stop abiding in Christ and we stop bearing fruit as a church, as an individual,
God will be done with us.
God will destroy us.
That's a healthy fear, but guess what?
Whenever you bear fruit, it's all blessing.
It's all positive when you bear fruit.
It's all negative when you don't.
You know what the goal is?
Bear fruit.
Why?
It's the most loving thing that we can do.
Go to 1 John chapter 4.
Last place I want to have you turn.
1 John chapter 4.
Now he emphasizes loving one another, does he not?
And it's important to love one another.
It's how we show our love towards God.
And also, obviously when we go out and preach the gospel, that's loving the lost,
that's loving the unsaved, but we also need to love one another.
We need to love the saved.
We need to love the brethren.
Bible says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God
and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
Everybody wants to tell you what love is.
They have their own version of love.
They want to define love for you, tell you what love is.
Love to many people is infatuation.
They look at something, they think it's really attractive, and they like it.
When you first start dating someone and you're both really attracted to each other,
some people think that's love.
That's not love.
It's easy to love things that are pleasing to your sight, pleasing to your eyes,
things that are fun and enjoyable.
That's not love.
You know what love is?
Being married for 50 years.
Not being so infatuated that you commit fornication on the first date.
That is not love.
You know what's not loving?
Never preaching the gospel.
There's a lot of people, they go to church, they've never preached the gospel to one person,
and they'll criticize our soul-winning program.
You go out to people and you try to ask them questions about if they're saved or not.
Yeah, I'm trying to see what a vine they're abiding in.
I'm just asking them to see, hey, which vine are you in, buddy?
When you're in this vine, I walk away.
When you're in this vine, I try to get you into this vine.
When I say, oh, you know, I think we have to repent of our sins.
Sounds like you're in the NLT camp.
We need to move you into King James camp, all right?
We need to abide in Jesus Christ.
When you say, I'm a faggot, well, you're over here, so I'm not interested in talking to you.
But God is love.
God teaches us what love is.
And we notice through the Bible, God hates things.
True love hates things.
True love hates this vine and everything about it and all the fruit that it produces.
That's what true love is.
But the most important thing that we learn about true love is it's sacrificial.
If you don't sacrifice, you don't have love.
What's the greatest thing you can do?
Lay down your life so that you can give life to other people.
What's more important?
You just get all the things that you wanted in your personal life to cross off all
your bucket list or to give other people life?
Well, what did God think?
Okay.
Look at verse number 8.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.
Verse 9.
And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.
So we see the ultimate picture of love.
Was God willing to sacrifice his own son for us?
Not to just get all of his accolades or do things for him?
Jesus didn't want to come down here and to suffer in the flesh, and to suffer on
the cross, despising the shame.
You really think the creator likes to come down and be mocked of his own creation, and
rejected of all men, and to hang on the cross, and to bear our sins, and to go
down into hell for three days and three nights?
You think he wanted to do that?
You think he desired that?
No, but he did it because he loved you.
He endured the cross, despising the shame, so that he could call us brethren.
He esteems us the same.
Your creator, your Lord and Savior, who did everything for you, he wants to call
you a brother.
That's why you ought to call everybody and hear a brother and a sister.
You ought to have respect for your brethren and your sisters.
You're not the Lord Jesus Christ.
You didn't die on the cross for them.
You didn't go to hell for them.
You know what?
When we stop loving each other, we're going to stop producing fruit.
Whenever this bad vine, before it gets cut off and tossed in the fire, sometimes what
this vine tries to do is it starts growing this way, and it starts trying to get in
here, and it starts withering some of this fruit, and coming over here, and starts
spreading lies and gossip about this one, and starts spreading false rumor, and attacking
this vine.
You know what that's going to do?
It's going to stop us from producing fruit.
When you don't love your brother, when you don't encourage your brother, when you
don't support your brother, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to stop us from producing fruit.
What's the greatest thing that you can do?
Produce fruit.
You know how we get there?
By loving our brother, by encouraging our brother.
When our brother decides to get out of church, now he's not producing any fruit, because
without Christ, you can do nothing.
Whenever you start attacking him, now he's distracted with all these attacks.
What if every branch was just growing over here together?
We're just all over here.
There's no branches over here.
We're not going to do great.
We need to be separate, and supporting one another, and loving one another, and be
kind unto our brethren.
That's why it's so important not to have gossip, and tail-bearing, and look, we ought
not be a respecter of persons.
If it's your best friend coming up to you to spread gossip, you ought to look them
straight in the face, and say, I don't want to hear it.
Not interested.
You know why?
Because I want to bear much fruit.
I want our church to bear much fruit.
I don't want our church to be destroyed.
You say, why are you preaching this, Pastor Shelly?
Because it affects every single church.
Every single church has this problem.
That's why Christ gives us so many commandments.
We need to love the brethren, and encourage the brethren, and support the brethren, and
pray for the brethren.
Why?
It's the most loving thing we can do.
It'll help us go out and preach the gospel, when we're in unity.
How am I supposed to go out and preach the gospel when I don't have any sowing partners?
When everybody doesn't like me?
When everybody's spreading gossip about me?
When everybody's spreading rumor about me?
When they all think they're better than me?
Are you better than all your brethren?
I wish everybody was just like me.
Then we'd do so great.
Well, why don't you start encouraging your brethren and help them?
The most important thing is that we're just producing fruit.
If there's more fruit being produced on all the branches besides you, that's great.
Why can't you be excited for your brethren?
Why can't you be excited when they do something good?
I went to a retreat this week, and my kids were playing on the swing set.
My oldest son, he does not like to go down the slide correctly.
He likes to go up the slide.
He likes to try and climb up it or whatever.
He was trying to climb up the slide, but it was kind of difficult.
He was slipping.
I could see his younger brother, Jackson, he was looking at him, and he's struggling.
He's trying to get up there.
He doesn't know if he's going to get up there.
I could tell that Jackson was looking at Clayton, and he's really anticipating his moves.
I couldn't really tell what Jackson's feelings were, what he wanted to happen in the situation.
That's kind of like us.
You see your brother struggling.
Here's my question.
What are you wanting that outcome to be?
That he wanted his brother to just fall off the slide and bust on his face so he could
laugh at him?
Because a lot of people feel that way.
You know what?
I saw Clayton.
He's struggling.
He's trying to get there.
He finally gets up there, and this is what Jackson does.
Yes!
Go, Clayton!
And it was so sweet.
It was so endearing that he could see his brethren succeed, and he was excited for him.
Whenever you go out soul winning, it's your goal to just say, hey, I don't want you
to talk.
Let me get the door.
I'm better than you at preaching to God.
Let me get this person saved.
Let me show you how to get it done, or would it be to take someone that's new to soul
winning and encourage them and exhort them and help them to produce the fruit and then get
excited when they produce the fruit?
What's the most loving thing that you can do?
I mean, if your goal is to produce as much fruit as possible, then you know what you
want?
You want every single branch to produce fruit.
Not just you.
Not just all about what you're doing.
We need to be focused on the producing fruit because that's the true love.
And you know what?
I think that our church is some of the most loving people that I know.
Why?
Because you go out and produce fruit.
Because you go out and preach the gospel.
The unloving church doesn't have a soul winning time.
The unloving church, they don't do anything to reach people with the gospel.
The unloving church, they criticize and attack the brethren that are actually producing
fruit.
They're the ones that are not loving.
The true loving one would be excited.
You know, if we see a church that gets more people saved than us, we should be excited
for them.
We should encourage them.
Why?
Because they're laying down their lives to give life unto others.
That's what Christ did.
The most loving thing that you can do.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Father so much for your word.
Thank you for the sacrifice of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray that we would appreciate the love that you have towards us more every day
so that you could increase our love for others.
Love for the lost, love for the unsaved, and also love for the brethren.
That we'd see the importance of our life is to produce fruit.
And I pray that those, Lord, that are not producing fruit, that you could use your word
to motivate them, to dung them, to help them to start producing fruit.
Those that are producing a little bit of fruit, I pray, Father, that you would purge
us so that we could produce more fruit.
And I pray those that are producing lots of fruit, that they could encourage and
exhort the brethren to produce fruit with them.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.