Bear Much Fruit

And when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, what are we supposed to do with it? I've got it! I'm going to hold on to this. My brother bought a very fine watch in England at a very, I thought it was expensive price, but now it's worth about, what, 100 times, 10 times more than that now. But he can't wear it in public for a long time, because in California they cut your arm off to get a watch like that. They will grab you and cut your arm so they can slide the watch off easily. Cut your hand. Take the watch. So he'd have to put his watch in a safe, safe deposit box and wear a fake watch. Fake, whatever, Casio or some smaller, less expensive watch, because he didn't want anybody to take it. So he had this valuable item, but he had to lock it up. The God's Holy Spirit is the most precious gift we could ever receive. But God's Holy Spirit, coming into our lives, begs us to use it. It is described not as a stagnant pool, not as a stagnant lake, but as rivers of living water. It flows. And we, as individuals, must also be growing. We must be using that Spirit, not bottling it up. And what it asks us to do is bear much fruit. Excuse me for a moment. I'll put it back here a little bit so I can see most of you. I asked my daughter to please buy a tomato plant. Unfortunately, it's the end of the season, and this one looks like it really needs a lot of help. And in fact, when it came, it came into little tiny things. This plant, if I were just to bring what it originally came in, it would have toppled over. So I replanted it yesterday. Gave it some water. Here, these are withering a little bit. But it does have a couple of little small tomatoes, and then this larger tomato didn't come from it. But it did come from another plant. And I'll use that in a moment. And I'd like you to think of this tomato plant. This being the vine, of course the soil, and these are the branches that bring forth fruit. And I'd like you to think about that and look at it every so often as we go through and talk about, How may we bear much fruit? Because God isn't satisfied for you just to say, I've got the Spirit! I've got it! God wants us to be bearing much fruit. Notice John 15 and verse 16. John 15 and verse 16. If I had picked it out, I probably would have picked that one with a little more foilage on it. But I think it's toward the end of the planting season. She was able to get this one at Meijer. And it definitely is a tomato plant, but it's lost a lot of its foilage, as you could see. It needs to be growing. John 15 and 16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit.

God wants us to bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. Then in verse 8 we read this, Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall you be My disciples. If we're going to be the disciples of Jesus Christ and God the Father, we must be bearing fruit. Just like this plant, if it didn't have these on it, it wouldn't be very attractive. Now, if you let it go for a while, it's going to, it would probably still bring some tomatoes. This is the most popular vegetable plant, and it's easy to plant, and it's easy to grow. But you still have to be aware of it. You have to take good care of it.

And what I'd like to share with you today is how we as individuals may bear fruit as Christians. What are some of the areas that we need to be aware of as we think of the tomato plant? First of all, we're going to assume you are planted, this plant is made, you as a person are a part of it, through faith, repentance, baptism, and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit. So you have a start here. Okay, so perhaps you're this little branch coming out, and there's the fruit on it.

So he says, I'm going to use this analogy as we go through this. We are a new person in Christ, so you see some new little tomatoes coming up. There are seven areas that I'd like to focus on of how you may bear much fruit and what are essential to bearing much fruit. The first one is, you've got to remain attached. If I take a scissors or take a little pair of snips and snip this off, there's no more branch, and the fruit is gone. If I were to snip all these off, you'd just see a little pole.

And if you keep snipping too many of them off, it'll die, because it does need these leaves in order for it to thrive. So the first one is, you must remain attached. If you bump against it, if you brush against it, if fierce wind comes or rain, it can knock some of those off.

You must remain attached. That's the first symbol, the first area that we need to be aware of. If you're going to grow as a Christian, you must remain attached to the vine. We know the vine is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12 tells us by one Spirit. Look at the spiritual side of it now. 1 Corinthians 12, 12, As the body is one, has many members, all the members of that one body, one tomato plant, being many are one body, so also is Christ.

And the plant is called, the church is called the body of Christ. So you've got to remain attached. He was on to say in verse 13, For by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink of that one Spirit.

So we must remain attached. If you cut this off, they'll die. They'll wither up and die. They will no longer be growing. So they need to be attached to the vine. You need to stay attached. Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7. Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7. He says, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.

You must stay attached. He says, Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you've been taught and abounding therein with thanksgiving. You must stay attached to the vine. You must stay attached to Jesus Christ. If you walk away from Him, if you try to do it on your own, you're not going to be able to bear much fruit. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10. Does God want us to be snipping off ourselves? 1 Corinthians 1.10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

If you are cut off from here, you know, no more fruit. You're gone. And there's no fruit. So we cut this little branch off. No fruit. So the first key, hang in there. Hang in there. Keep yourself stable and strong and rooted. Don't let something take you off. Don't let something take you away. Don't divide. Don't separate. Don't move away from Jesus Christ. Step number two, if you want to bear much fruit, you must receive nourishment.

You must receive nourishment. And of course, soil and air. And certainly we'll see other things that bring it, but the soil, let's say, is a main section. I want to read to you a comment that I picked up from How to Grow Tomatoes, www.growtomatoes.com.

Here's what I said. There are 16 elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, M-O, zinc, that have all been identified as being essential for normal growth and development of all plants. Three of those elements, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, are classified as structural elements. The remaining are the mineral elements.

But notice what it says about the mineral elements. These mineral elements, 13 in number, are absorbed through the roots in either their cationic and anionic form and from the solution in the rooting media. So, again, they take up through the roots the nourishment from the ground, from the soil, and take it in so that this can grow. You need to have nourishment in order to grow, in order to produce, in order to bear fruit. Just like we do spiritually, Matthew 4, Matthew 4, one of the prime means of nourishment that we all have is Bible study.

Bible study, where we drink in of the Word of God, where we imbibe of it. Matthew 4, 4, Jesus Christ answered when He was being tempted. He said, by Satan the devil, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So in order for us to grow as Christians and to bear much fruit, we must have that nourishment that comes from the Word of God. Now, you can mix with that fasting.

You can mix with that prayer. You can mix with that meditation. But we need that nourishment that comes from God. Matthew 5 and verse 6. Jesus Christ gave this blessing. He said, Matthew 5, 6, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Did you ever see a tomato plant that hasn't had much water? And you put water on it, and it comes to life.

It comes up. Whoa! Thank you! This one had too much water, I think, before. So I didn't give much water to it. But it has this little tiny pot, little tiny container. The poor thing was struggling. So I took it out of there and put in more, gave it a little more soil to grow in. But it had a lot of water. So I didn't put any more water on today.

Just put a little bit after I planted it. But it's had a lot of water. It doesn't need that much, little tiny container. It's causing the roots not to have too much water. We'll talk about water in a moment as well. But nourishment, good soil, air, and God is the one that provides it for us, just like the soil provides it for the plant. Matthew 5 and verse 6, he says, hunger and thirst, these plants want that. They long for that.

They need it in order to survive. I won't go through all the other sections of that particular write-up, but it does talk about all the nutrients and how they get it. And it gives a description of what each one is and what it does for the plant. John 4, verse 34. John chapter 4 and verse 34. We read this. Jesus said to them, my meat, my food, my nourishment, is to do the will of him who sent me, following God, doing God's will, gives us spiritual nourishment, and to finish the work.

Being involved in doing God's work, being involved in wanting to see it go forward, being involved in wanting to see new people come to services, being involved in welcoming new people when they come to services is all a part of you personally growing. Because he says here, my meat, my food, my job, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

So plants, in order to bear much fruit, and for you to bear much fruit, you must have the proper nourishment. Bible study, sermons, personal study, discussions about the Bible, putting it into practice in your life, doing good for other people, doing good deeds and good works, all of that will contribute to growth and to bearing much fruit. So that's the second one, receive nourishment. Thirdly, in order for this to bear much fruit, it must take in water. It must take in water. And I looked up from tomatodirt.com, giving them credit, tomatodirt.com. Tomato dirt has a lot of nice things. I don't even have illustrations and all the rest. Tomatodirt.com says, what are some basics I need to know about watering tomato plants? When you understand what tomatoes use water for, then it's setting up a schedule for watering tomato plants makes sense. It says, why tomatoes need water in plain English. Here's plain English. Tomatoes are fast-growing, heavy-producing plants. They make a lot of food sugars in order to grow blossoms. They develop fruit and put out branches. It takes a considerable amount of water to convert sunlight into energy for a tomato's many branches and blossoms. So the water is essential. We'll see the sunlight in a moment. And it goes on to say, here's a quick review from high school biology class, which I forgot, about what happens with water in a tomato plant. You can see why it's incredibly important to growing healthy tomatoes. If you want to be a healthy tomato to God, not a hot tomato, a healthy tomato, you must have plenty of water. And you know, scripturally, what does the Bible liken water to? The Holy Spirit. In order to bear much fruit, you must have the Holy Spirit in your life in full supply. Here's what it says. Plants absorb water through their roots. Water finds its way up to the plant, up the plant to the leaves. This one is not too much. Thirdly, some water is used in the leaves to make food or sugars for the plant. This process is called photosynthesis, and it's responsible for converting sunlight into energy for your tomato plant. Finally, some water is released through the leaves to cool them. This process is called transpiration. Remember, we do perspiration. This is called transpiration. And it is based on the same principles, perspiration, in people. Water is essential for this plant to grow. Without it, it'll die. And without God's water in our lives, we will die spiritually. John 4, verse 6.

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus was waiting while his disciples went into town. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey. You know, Jesus got tired. He got tired doing the work sometimes. He sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. So he was thirsty. And there comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give me water! Give me the drink! And for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy some food.

Then Jesus said the woman of Samaria to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me? Which I am a woman of Samaria. And you know the Jews don't have anything to do with any dealings with the Samaritans. And Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, If you only knew... What is the gift of God? The Holy Spirit. Right? Repent, be baptized. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of God.

The Holy Spirit, which shed... Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. That's a gift. So he says, If you only knew the gift that I had, and who it is that says to you, Give me the drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. Living water. The woman said, Sir, do you know a better well around here? You don't have anything to draw it out of? This well is deep. How are you going to get this water? Verse 12. Are you greater than our Father Jacob, which gave us this well and drank from it?

And his children, his cattle, Jesus answered and said to him, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But verse 14, Whoever drinks of the water that I'll give him, shall never thirst. So the water of the Holy Spirit, but the water that I shall give him, shall be a well of water springing up to eternal life. Of course, he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, which many times is likened to water.

John 7, verses 38 and 39. John 7, verses 38 and 39. Here's what he said, speaking at the last day or the great day of the feast. He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said, John 7, 38. As the Scripture has said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. God's Spirit comes into us from God. God is the one who has the hose. He's the one who does the sprinkling. But we must go to him. We must let him come to us, or we must go to him, make ourselves available to him in order for it to come.

And they give various things on how to water, how often you should water, and so on. I'll read this in a moment. But he goes on to say, But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for as yet the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So he spoke of the Spirit of God being those rivers of living water. We need that watering from God regularly.

That's through prayer and study and drawing closer to him, through talking to him in prayer, through absorbing the way he is. We need that help from God in order to do it. The Apostle Paul spoke about a supply of the Holy Spirit in Philippians 1.19. I know that God will give me a supply of the Spirit. So we need that water, we need that spiritual water coming into us.

So another article, this comes from gardeningknowhow.com. Am I doing okay by mentioning the names, the word that comes from? Yes, gardening knowhow. We're going out over the Internet, so I want to give proper credit. Watering regularly. How often should you water tomato plants? There's no hard and fast rule to this. It depends on how hot it is. So when things get hot in your life, you need more water. When things aren't so hot in your life, you don't need as much.

And the plant is actively growing. A good rule of thumb is supply water once every two to three days at the height of summer. Remember that water supplied by Mother Nature counts toward watering tomato plants in the garden. Once the weather cools and the fruit has set, scale back the watering to once a week. But we need water, and we need it regularly from God, and we need it daily. We need it daily. Tomato plants only need it two to three times a week.

They may only need it once a week. We need the water from God daily to give us a full supply in order to be able to bear much fruit.

So the third way to grow is to take in water. Let God's Spirit flow into you from God. He is the fountain of living waters, and let it flow out in good works and deeds. Number four. How to grow. Number four. We need to absorb the sunshine. Absorb the sunshine. I don't mean get a tan. We do need to absorb the sunshine. Plants need sun. Let me read to you. This one comes from ehow.com, and it's about sunlight affecting plants. But ehow.com. My question was, how does sunlight affect plant growth? Answer. Light from any source is a form of energy. Many or most of the living things we call plants rely on light to provide the energy they need to do the necessary work of life. This general process goes by the name of photosynthesis. Remember we said the water comes up, but has to interact with the sun, causing it to form sugars so that it has the nourishment to be able to produce fruit.

Which means the making by light. Photosynthesis means making by light. The energy carried by light is used to make possible reactions that make sugar, which is then used to make other materials in the plant. So we need that sun. We need that sun. Spiritually, we need that sun as well. We need that light. We need to bask in the light. John, the Gospel of John, not first John, the Gospel of John 1, verse 3.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John, and the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light. To tell the people, you want to be near the light? You want to have light in your life? You need to be near Jesus Christ. You need to be near God. And so it needs sunlight and light from God. He says, he came to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light. John wasn't, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Verse 9. That was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world did not know him.

Jesus Christ is the light. God is the light. We have to stay close to them. Walking with them, asking ourselves what would he do? In this case, how would he do that? Staying close to him, absorbing the sunshine. 1 John 1, verses 5 to 7. This then is the message which you've heard of him, and I declare to you that God is light, and in him there's no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Brethren, did you ever go to another church? I've gone to other churches in the past before I came to this church. And for me, church was once a week, one hour, maybe one and a half hours, sometimes difficulty to endure it, but one and a half hours. And I came out of their feeling, I gave myself to God, and that was my connection with God all week long. And next week, I'd roll out of bed Sunday morning, take my shower, get dressed, comb my hair, put on my shave, whatever whiskers I had, and put on my sport coat, my orange-colored sport coat, because my mother went out and got a good deal on it. Went to church with my orange sport coat, salmon-colored sport coat, sat there for an hour and a half, and came back. And I felt churched. You cannot do that with true Christianity. True Christianity must be everything that you are. It must involve you. You must be involved in it.

It must be what you think about regularly. It's in your thoughts. I wonder how the work is doing. I wonder how that TV station is doing. I wonder how that person is doing. I wonder how this camp is doing. I wonder how that's going on. I wonder how this lady is who's been sick. I wonder how that man is who's been sick. I wonder how that woman is coming along who lost her husband last week.

In your heart, in your mind, you're staying close to God. You're doing the godly things. You're absorbing the light. As you absorb the light, you will be able to bear much fruit. And in fact, walking with God is so key. Look at Malachi 4, verse 2. One of the names of God is Son, S-U-N. The people worship the Son. It's not that son. Malachi 4, verse 2.

If you stay close to the Son, S-U-N, of righteousness, who is God, God is called the Son. We need to be basking in the sunlight. We need to be absorbing that sun so that we may then be able to have our actions produce good fruit.

So that's point number four. Absorb sunshine. Number five is we need to be fertilized. Number five, we need to be fertilized. Sometimes the ground does not have in it the nutrients that are needed. Sometimes you have to add a little bit of fertilizer to give it a little more of the nutrients that are needed to make that plant grow. So you put some tomato miracle grow. I have some of that there. I'll probably put some on here a little bit. Spruce this plant up. One person said just take sugar and water, put sugar and water and spray it on the leaves, and you'll see it grow. It takes fertilizer. Now, I could say manure, but I don't want to be known as a manure spreader because ministers who teach you are teaching you the way of God. They're fertilizing you. They're giving you encouragement. They're giving you instruction. They're giving you help. So it's being taught. It's being visited. It's being encouraged. It's being given Bible studies. It's being given sermons. It's being given sermonettes. It's being given instruction. It's singing together. That's giving you nourishment to be fertilized. Rather, it's adding that extra nourishment you're getting already from the soil.

Look at Ephesians 4. Some of these are interfacing with each other. Ephesians 4 and verse 11. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, to help the saints become able to be used in the ministry, for the building up, the edifying of the body of Christ, to help give you that extra shot you need, that little bit of micro, that little bit of plant fertilizer that you need. He says, "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, a complete man, till you get to be a nice tomato." Now, this is a smaller tomato, intended to be smaller. It's not that way because it's stunted. That's the type of tomato it is. It's delicious. It's from the vine. "...till you get to be this nice tomato, that you are taught so you could become a perfect man or mature, to the measure, the stature, and the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind a doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up." That we may grow. That we may yield the beautiful fruit that God is looking for. "...grow up to him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." So you need tomato fertilizer if you're going to grow. You need fertilizer. You need to be inspired. You need to be visited. You need to be encouraged. You need to have... And that encouragement doesn't always have to come from the ministry. It could come from each other. It could come from the deacons. It could come from the elders. It could come from the deaconesses. It can come from each other. But we need that fertilizer to give us that extra little spark. Luke 13, verses 6-9. Luke 13, verses 6-9 on point number 5, be fertilized. Luke 13, verses 6-9. He spoke a parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and it came and... He came and he sought fruit there on it, and he didn't find any. He saw this fig tree growing, saw the leaves on it, figured it should have fruit. Then he said to the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why does it come to the ground? And he answered, and he said to him, Lord, let it alone this year, also, till I dig around it and dung it. Let me put some fertilizer on it to see if that will help before you chop it down.

And if it bear fruit well, and if it does not after that, then cut it down. So we need that fertilizer sometimes to give us that spark and that growth. I know in Texas I could grow really nice tomatoes. The ground down there in a big sandy area was really good for tomatoes. The only thing I couldn't control were the squirrels, who basically rolled all of my tomatoes, green tomatoes, down. I saw them taking them down there. I tried to get them out of there, but I didn't want to shoot them. So they were taking my tomatoes away. I went away on vacation. They were looking beautiful, came back, and almost everyone was gone. And then my garden here, a little tiny garden behind my house, I had tomatoes, and the deer loved them so much. They'd jump over the fence, eat my tomatoes, bed down in my yard in safety, because I had fence all around, and they knew I wasn't going to shoot them. And so they said, hey, he gives us a meal. He gives us free lodging. Why not? We'll talk about deer and pests in a moment, but be fertilized. They have to be fertilized in order to grow. And the ground down there was so beautiful, it was already really yielded it well. It had to do hardly anything except water. And I got lots of, I would have had lots of produce. The only ones that grew well were the ones really close to the house and my cherry tomatoes, and they were coming up like, coming out like everything. So again, you need to have fertilizer from time to time to give it that extra nourishment that it's missing in the ground. Number six, number six, is to be pruned. Now, not all tomato plants have to be pruned, but if you want them to grow nice, this one's been pruned, oh, this one could be pruned. See right here? This little sucker right in the middle here? If you take that off, it saves the energy from going to that and sends it to the fruit. So if you take that off, that little in between here, if I snip it off, it'll make the rest of the plant grow better. And if you have lots of those suckers in between, they will take away the nourishment from the main plant. So you're better off to take them off. Now, you don't have to. If you leave it on, it'll grow and become a branch. But while it's growing to become a branch, it's taking energy away from the tomatoes that are there. So usually they'll say, this is what the article says, and this comes from organicgardeningabout.com. Organic gardening about, this is about pruning. Pruning tomato plants is really a very simple thing to do. But there are cases in which you don't want to prune your tomato plant. And for those who don't want to bother pruning your tomatoes, guess what? You don't really have to. But listen, the main reason to prune tomato plants is that it helps your plant direct its energy toward producing better fruit, rather than producing more foliage. This one needs more foliage, so I'm not going to take it off. The excess foliage will eventually grow into new branches that will form fruit, but most experienced growers advise that tomatoes should be pruned to not only produce larger fruit earlier in the season, but to also guard against pest and disease problems. So they would recommend you do it. You don't have to. When a tomato plant is pruned properly, all the foliage receives adequate sunlight, and the plant is able to photosynthesize and therefore produce more fruit. So if I were going to do it, I'd take this little one up in here. There's a little tiny thing growing out of here that comes right in between. Take those off. My dad always did that. He always had wonderful tomato plants and lots of good harvest. So you want to prune. Take off those suckers. Jeremiah 10, verse 23.

In a Christian's life, this is correction. How hard is it for us to ask God for correction? Very hard. How many of us like to say, Hey, God, correct me today! I need a little beating today, God. Can you give me a little beating today? I need a little trouble. I need more trials today. Can you give me more trials today? Most of us don't ask for trials. Jeremiah 10, 23, Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his step. Verse 24, Oh, Lord, correct me. Correct me, but with judgment, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. Be gentle when you take those suckers out of my life. So sometimes we have problems and we have difficulties, and we need to ask God for the help to get it out of our life so that we may grow. When you run into a problem, what do you tend to turn? Your focus turns on the problem. It doesn't turn on growth. It turns on the problem. How can I get this problem off of me? You're not thinking forward. You're thinking immediate. You're thinking, how can I beat this down? You're not thinking, how can I go forward? You're thinking, how can I shed this problem? And so, again, you need to have those problems out so you can bear much fruit. Hebrews 12, verses 5 and 6. And God will prune us, if we ask Him, if we want Him, and if we realize the value of that pruning. Hebrews 12, verses 5 and 6. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as two children. My son, don't despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him.

Verse 6, For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. So, God, if He loves you, He's pruning you. That hurts. They've actually attached little feelingful sensors to plants. And even in pruning them, you're doing a nice job. I'm just going to prune you a little bit here, a little plant, and you talk to them. I'm just going to prune you, and as soon as it cuts, they have this meter. The feeling meter, sensing. The needle is right in the middle. And as soon as they cut the plant, it goes, pfft, drops right down.

So it does feel it. You hurt this plant. You cut off part of me. But then, you do it for good, then it's going to start to grow again. Isn't that amazing? They do feel. Don't feel it. When you take it off, it'll feel it.

But again, you're not doing it to ruin it. God says, I know this guy hurt for a little bit. And He goes on to say in verse 11, Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby. Those who want to be righteous, those who are practicing righteousness, it'll help them be more righteous if they have been chastened by the Lord and understand the purpose and meaning for that chastening.

So we want to be pruned. We want God to take those suckers off of us out of our lives, those problems, those difficulties, so that we can move forward and grow. Take the edges off. Help us to grow. Give us correction. Help us to grow so that we can be better at Christianity. And number seven, number seven, is to remain for a plant to grow and bear fruit.

It must remain free of pests. Birds, squirrels, tomato bugs, deer, rowdy kids running around kicking soccer balls in your yard right near your garden, kicking them into your garden. I call those pests, right? They're pests. Let me read to you. This comes from Tomato Dirt once again. TomatoDirt.com. I had some good ideas, Tomato Dirt. Let me read this to you. How to identify tomato pests and control them. Left unchecked, tomato pests can inflict lots of damage to your tomato plants and even destroy them. But there's good news.

If you keep close watch, you can identify pests as soon as they begin their dirty work and treat them with the things before things get out of hand. So it gives you common symptoms in some of the pests. Chewed stem, probably a tomato cutworm. De-foilation, probably tomato hornworm or tobacco hornworm. Holes in the leaves, flea beetles. Yellowing, curled leaves, aphids. Purpleing veins in the leaves, probably silids.

Tunnels or zigzag patterns in the leaves. Leaf miners. Then you have the stock boar who gets into the stem. And you have aphids and white flies that cause it problems. And then finally spider mites webbing on the leaves and underside. I had this beautiful plant in Canada. No, yeah, in Canada and in Texas. And I thought it was growing really nicely. I was really happy about it. It was a nice tomato plant. Very pleased. All of a sudden I noticed it wasn't growing very much. I was noticing it was getting fewer and having fewer and fewer leaves on it.

What's going on here? I couldn't see anything. Finally I looked real closely and something moved. And it looked just like a tomato plant. Actually it looked like a tomato plant, but it was an ugly looking thing that was going through and devouring my plant.

And I took that off and threw it down on the ground and stepped on it. And all types of tomatoes squished out of it. And it was devouring my plant, literally. Again, you want to watch out for pests. If you don't control them, they will cause you problems.

Matthew 13, verses 3-8. Matthew 13, verses 3-8. We see an example here. Jesus Christ said, if you want to grow, you've got to watch out for those pests. Because there will be pests that come around. Matthew 13, 3. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. When He sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and fowls came and devoured them up.

So you have some pests. Some fell by on stony places, where they had not much earth, and before they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth, the sun was up. They were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Some fell by among the thorns, and the thorns choked them. There were weeds that choked them, too. Weeds are also pests. In fact, in Texas, Gary Richards and I decided to plant a garden. Out there, where it looked like we saw Mr. Torrance had this wonderful garden, and Dr. Ward had this wonderful garden.

There was a plot there that we could use. Oh, okay, we'll try it. They borrowed this, what is it that you call, the cultivator. Okay, let's plant these things in there. We planted them. I went on vacation. I sort of looked after it. I went on vacation. I think we both were gone. We came back. We looked. We couldn't tell what was the plant and what was the weed.

The weeds had become so much like the plant, that we couldn't tell the difference. I thought, we planted this in here, but I can't tell. Which one is which? And they choked out the produce. They choked out the growth. And they choked out the fruit that would have been born by those particular rows of vegetables. So again, you want to be careful. The weeds can do it or the thorns could do it. Verse 8, Others fell on good ground and brought forth fruit, some hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

Verses 19 to 23 puts it this way. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, now he's bringing it spiritually, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in the heart, and he which has received the seed by the wayside. So as soon as it comes in and it snatches away the truth. He that received the seed in stony places is the same as he that receives the word and at once receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, endures for a while, then persecution, tribulation, troubles come.

Because of the word by and by he is offended. He can't, doesn't have a real good root. He also that received among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the care of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. So pests can also be not literally anything, but situations, circumstances, the world, the old self, the glitter, the glamour that this world has to offer. So we want to be careful about that. And then verse 23, he says, He that receives the seed in good ground, see that hears the word, understands it, which also bears fruit and brings forth some 100, some 60, and some 30.

The Apostle Paul warned against pests spiritually, 2 Corinthians 11. He warned against those who would come and try to deceive. He warned against people who would try to take you away from real Christianity, who would try to disturb your faith and disrupt it. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3, I fear that someone's trying to tamper with you. Verse 13, They're trying to pretend to be good, but are they?

The Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 that you need to be careful of pests. Acts 20.

Acts 20 and notice verse 28. Acts 20 verse 28. And Paul's talking to elders who were in good standing. He says, The Bible does talk about wolves in sheep's clothing. This is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. This is a wolf in pastor's clothing.

And verse 30, Therefore watch, and remember it says you don't have to worry about pests, if you're alert to them, therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one of you day and night with tears. So God does not want to see people divided. He does not want to see people separated. He does not want to see people confused. He does not want to see people pulled away. You must beware of pests if you're going to bear much fruit. Now, there are some factors regarding bearing fruit that I want to wrap this up now. First of all, God says you've got to do with what you have to do with.

I can't expect a cherry tomato plant to be bearing steak tomatoes. Not going to happen. No matter how much water, how much nourishment, how much I dung it, and how much I take to keep it free from pests, how much I keep it in the sunlight, water it, it's not going to bear steak tomatoes. A cherry tomato plant is only going to produce cherry tomatoes. So if you're a cherry tomato plant, don't be sad that you can't produce steak tomatoes or Roma tomatoes. That's not you. Right? God will judge us on what we do with what we have to do with. He's not going to judge you on what somebody else can do. He's going to judge you on what you can do.

In Mark 12, verses 41-44, Mark 12, verses 41-44, this is a factor in it. Two more scriptures. Three more scriptures. Sorry. Mark 12, verses 41-44.

Jesus sat over against the treasury, and behold, he said, how the people cast money to look and to see how people cast money into the treasury. And many that were rich cast in much, probably with a trumpet sound before. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. Not very much, right? Was a farthing one eighth of a cent. One mite is a quarter of a farthing, so this was a, a, a, or an eighth of a cent. So this is probably a quarter of a penny she threw in. And he called to him his disciples, and he said to them, do you see that woman? That poor widow is cast in more than all the others, because they took from their treasury and gave what they wanted to give. And she gave everything she had.

He says, for they all did cast in of their abundance, but she cast in, she did in all that she had, cast in even all her living.

The example of the parable of the pounds and the parable of the talents, where each one, according to its several ability, is given a certain amount.

Each one produces a certain amount. The key is they were all producing. So you don't want to be comparing yourself among yourselves and saying, well, I only have charmarete tomatoes, and you have steak tomatoes. Or you've got romas, and I only have this other kind.

So how come I'm not doing what you... Because each one of us has to bear the fruit that we can.

So in conclusion, we have to remain attached if we're going to bear much fruit. We have to have nourishment. We have to have water. We have to have sunshine. We have to have fertilizer. We have to be pruned. And we have to stay free from pests.

1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 6 and 7.

1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 6 and 7, my last scripture.

How will you really grow spiritually? Who's going to really make you bear beautiful fruit? 1 Corinthians 3 verses 6 and 7. Paul said this, I have planted a pollace watered, but God gave the increase.

I can do what I can do. I can spread the manure. I can spread the dung. I can spread the fertilizer. I can try to give you encouragement.

But really, others can water, but it's God who does the increase. God is the one who gives the increase. Verse 7, so then neither is he that plants anything, neither is he that waters, but God gives the increase. So we will be able to bear much fruit if we stay close to God.

We will be able to bear much fruit if we remain rooted in Him, if we remain attached to the vine. Then we will bear much fruit, and we will bear much fruit and glorify our heavenly Father. So let's use God's Spirit, which we pictured receiving on Pentecost, to bear much fruit, and thereby glorify and honor our great God in heaven.