How to Bear Fruit | Crossroads Church

You know, there's a lot of opinions, assumptions, and ideas out there about who Jesus is. Culture has opinions, religion has opinions, even people who don't follow him usually still have some kind of perspective on him. My name is Miko, the prison director here at Crossroads Church, and over the next several weeks we're going to take a deeper look at the I am statements of Jesus, the moments where Jesus, out of his own mouth, tells us exactly who he is. And I'm going to be up front with you, he said what he said. These aren't just inspirational sayings or vague religious metaphors, these are bold, personal, and at times controversial claims about the identity of Jesus and the kind of life he's inviting us into. People hearing him at the time, they understood the weight of what he was claiming. Some were drawn in, others were offended by it, some were just confused, some worshipped him because of it, others wanted him killed because of it. No matter where you're coming from spiritually, our hope is that you wouldn't just react to these statements, that you actually wrestle with them, sit with them, ask honest questions about them, because the truth of the matter is, his words are not without consequence for any of us. Whether you believe Jesus was the son of God, a wise teacher, a prophet, or you're still just figuring it out, there's no denying that his words have shaped human history unlike anyone else's in the world, and continue to confront, challenge, and draw people in today. Why? Maybe there's a deeper question. Maybe the question isn't, what did Jesus say? Maybe, it's what did Jesus mean by what he said? What did the people, the culture of his time understand him to mean? Does that still mean who you are today? Let's log in. Where are we in the Bible? We're in the New Testament, in the gospel according to John. This is a first-hand biography of Jesus by one of his closest friends.

In it, John records seven iconic I am statements that Jesus made, seven metaphors, seven self-portraits of the living God. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you could do nothing. Well, that's where we are headed today. Good morning. I'm Greg. We've never met before. If you're watching online, I'm Greg, and I'm actually the community pastor here in Oakley. And I also lead all of our sites. I have the privilege of leading our community pastors. And if you're in this room, you love me because you know that all good things come in moderation. And so you love me doing announcements three minutes at a time. And that's about all you can handle. So buckle up, because today we're together the whole time. And it's actually a little bit of a misnomer, because you're not just going to hear from me today. I'm going to lead you through something different. In fact, I hope way more than you hear my voice today or Cash's voice today. I hope that you actually hear the voice of the one who made you today. We're going to be leading us through a prayer experience with a lot of music, a lot of prompts. And it's different than what we usually do. So if you've ever been here before, this tends to be a little bit more of a sit and get.

You come in, you get some great worship. You sit, depending on the communicator, you get anywhere from a 30 to an hour-long message. And then maybe you have some time to think about it on your way out. That's different today. That's very different today. Today we've created something for you to sit and have a conversation with Jesus through multiple phases in the hopes that you can hear from him. Now, if you've never done something like this before, I just want to give you some rails. I want to give you some rails. Maybe you've experienced something like this with some headphones in your ears and going through prompts. We're doing that live. But I've just got to tell you right off the bat, expect distractions. Expect distractions. Every single morning, I try to start my time of the day, before I do anything else, I try to start my time with God. Maybe that's reading scripture. Maybe that's praying. And especially on our Crossroads app. I love it because it's easy and also, oh, let's see who sent me a snap. I'm posing. I actually don't have to. Snapchat. Let's see who wrote on my Facebook wall. I'm trying to be young for the youth. I'm praying. Yes, God, thank you. Thank you for my wife. Bless her today. Thank you for all the things she does to serve us, like make amazing dinners. And I do wonder what we're having tonight for dinner. Guys, just come back. Come back. So when you get to a point where you're distracted, it's okay. It's normal. Come back. The second thing is maybe a little bit harder for you. The second thing, whether you've been around crossroads or whether you've been trying to follow Jesus for a long time, or maybe you just stumbled in today and this is going to stretch you. From now on, you need to believe that God loves you. You need to believe that he loves you because if you're going to hear his voice, you've got to know that he loves you. And not only that, he likes you. He's not mad at you. He didn't watch you come in the doors today and go, I can't believe they came to church today. Did you see what their life is? That is not him.

That's not him. So I got to tell you right out the gate, expect distraction and go into this believing that God is for you, that he loves you. In fact, Jesus has an invitation. He says, hey, anyone who is weary, heavy laden, is that you today? Did you come in here a little tired, a little weary, not sure if you could make it through? His promise is that if you come to him, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He wants to bear the load for you. In fact, he wants to exchange it for something good. And the way that Jesus says we're to connect to get that kind of life, that kind of rest, that kind of restoration is to be connected to the vine. That's what we're going to be looking at today. How if we're connected to the vine, we actually have the opportunity to bear fruit. I would love to say that I've been to Napa or wine country. Maybe some of you in the room have. I have never been. I've never been to wine country. The only place I've been close was my wife took me close to where she grew up to a vineyard in Coleraine Township. And the only mountains in sight were Mount Rumpke. So I'm borrowing on what it's like to have been to a vineyard, but Jesus actually unpacks a lot of us. So if you've been to a vineyard or not, I think most of us have a basic elementary level of science and understanding how not just vines, but all plants work. They've got to first receive nutrients, right? They've got to receive something from the soil, fertilizer, water, sunlight. They've got to receive. And as they grow, there's going to be sometimes a lot of growth, so much growth that it needs to be cut back. It's got to be trained. It's got to be put in the right direction. And when those two things happen, the process yields what we're after. It yields fruit. It yields blooms. It yields fruit season upon season upon season. That's what we're headed towards today. And the operative word in this metaphor, when Jesus says, I am the vine, is the word abide. Abide. Look at what it says in John 15, 4. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. Today, I want you to think of the word abide as simply staying. Staying. Remaining. Being connected in his love. If you're around this place, you're probably someone who is more prone to do. And so your question is, well, how do I do abiding? And the answer is, you don't do abiding, you just be. Abiding is a state of being. Maybe it would help you to be in a state of being if you imagined yourself sitting somewhere like this. Would you close your eyes? Whether you're at home, maybe you're already on a sofa on your couch. If you're in a site and you're sitting in a movie theater chair, I want you to use your imagination to the best of your ability to take you somewhere a little bit wider. Maybe

it's the couch in your living room, maybe it's a porch swing on your back deck. Because I want you to imagine that Jesus is sitting next to you. I want you to imagine he's saying, stay with me. Relax. Sit back. I've got so much more I want to show you and give you. What if you took the time to stay beside Jesus today? What if the two of you ended up having a back and forth conversation? Conversation. What if you gave yourself the permission to listen instead of running away to the next important thing? Scoot a little closer. I gotta tell you, he wants to know you, but not the church version of you, not the protected version of you, the real you. Flaws and hangups intact. Things you're ashamed to show him sitting on the couch, but he invites you to say, you don't need to be perfect. You can relax. I want you to be the most real version of you right now. So here's how this is gonna work today. I'm gonna take us through a series of prompts, the process that a vine and that we will go through if we want to bear fruit. The band's gonna have some moments where they sing and it's meant to be sung over you. You don't need to stand and sing along. You just remain. You just stay. First part of our experience is to receive, to receive. You got a card and a pen. Hopefully when you came in, if you didn't,

we'll have some folks walking around and giving them to you. Just like we talked, every plant, if it's gonna bear fruit, it's first got to receive the nutrients and everything that it needs. And so I just wonder at the top of your page, if you just write the word receive. Jesus says in John 15, seven, "'If you abide in me and my words abide in you, "'ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.'" Remember that word abide, stay, remain. "'If you remain in me and my words stay with you, "'ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.'" Jesus says that he's the true vine and those of us who want to be connected to him, we are the branches that bear fruit. And so your first prompt is just to write down what do you need to receive from Jesus right now? What do you need? What do you want? What do you desire? Maybe you need some help. We've got a list that's gonna show up on your screen and here in the room of all sorts of options. You can choose one, you can choose five. What do you wanna receive? What do you need? I got a vacation coming this week that feels like it can't come soon enough and yet I know I'm not good at resting. I sometimes come back more exhausted

and so I'm gonna ask God for rest. Amen. And now I want you to turn it into a prayer. Remember you're on the couch, Jesus is next to you. I don't want you to just look at him and say something like this, Jesus, I need rest, I can't give it to myself. Would you give it to me? Talk to him. Amen. ♪ Wondrous eyes, addicts who are one day one. ♪ ♪ Come all cheaters, liars and proud, secretly ♪ ♪ Trick keepers bottomed out. ♪ If you've found the end of your rope If your pockets are empty and so is your hope If you're burdened and lost and want to be free Then there is a God who you'll want to meet Come all broken, ravaged hearts Daughters told they're not enough Come all sentenced, those in wait Who carry guilt in pardon's wake If you've found the end of your rope If your pockets are empty and so is your hope If you're burdened and lost and want to be free Then there is a God who you'll want to meet You know, as I hear the words of that song, it actually speaks to a lot of people who may feel unworthy of asking God for anything. And I would just imagine in a room this big, there are some of us who were here

and we're not quite sure we can ask God for anything. Like maybe if you have a rift with someone or you owe them something and you see them in public and you sort of just turn the other way because it's going to be awkward. And maybe your card is still blank because I'm not in a position to ask, I owe. You need to know that is not the way Jesus is looking at you today. He's not looking at you, holding an eye on you. He's looking at you, waiting for you to fix your eyes on him so he can give you good fruit. In fact, he doesn't just suggest to ask, he tells you to, he tells you to. So lean in, what do you need to receive from him today? And when you know what it is, ask him for it. Let's pray. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, knock on the door and answer ♪ ♪ There's no need for Sunday best ♪ ♪ Just a beating heart inside your chest ♪ ♪ The hands you use to clench in fear ♪ ♪ Can open up because God is near, yeah ♪ ♪ Can open up because God is here ♪ Thank you. I'm gonna flip into a mode right now that's not meant to be an announcement, but I just gotta tell you, our team wrote that song and we released it this week. So if you want that tune, go wherever you get music and get it

because you can have this moment wherever you go, wherever you go. Marissa sounds incredible on it. But that part, that part where we're receiving, you may be here the rest of our time and that's okay. That's okay. But I'm gonna move us on to the next part of our conversation. That's okay. But I'm gonna move us on to the next part of the process. And it is a process. And this one is where we're gonna look at pruning. Pruning. And if you're anything like me, you automatically put this word into the negative column. You would say that pruning is painful. And I just, I have to ask us to suspend our disbelief for a moment and know that the pruning is actually the thing that might allow us to produce fruit. You actually prune. You prune. You prune in your life. You may not even know that's what you're doing. I'll give you a really lighthearted example of when I have to prune. Sometimes Abel asks me, hey, will you run to Sam's Club? I wish we had a Costco. It's a Sam's Club. Will you go to Sam's Club and buy toilet paper?

And then she'll double down and go, only toilet paper. So I'll go, I'll show him my card. You know, the carts are gigantic. And so I get the toilet paper and I'm walking to the checkout and then I see something that I need, like the Jumbo Juice. a jar of peanut butter filled pretzels. Like, oh, oh, only $17 for that jumbo jar. And you know, you get to the checkout and you've got way more in your cart that you went in for. And there's, what happens? Some pruning, some pruning that has to happen. Some good things that actually have to be removed. That's what the invitation for Jesus is when he has the shears. To prune, some things that maybe need to be cut off, but other things that actually need to be pruned back for growth. It's a gardening term. It's a gardening term. If you've been to a vineyard before, maybe you've seen photos. When the vine gets cut back, it's not a gentle trimming. Like, sometimes 80 to 90% of the vine goes away. It almost looks dead at the end. And yet this is the process that allows it to bear the best fruit. Such a severe pruning was such a beautiful result. John 15, two, Jesus says,

every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. He cuts it off. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. Why? That it may bear more fruit. God is the one, this is important to remember. God's the one with the pruning shears. It's not our job to take them. It's not our job to start cutting. He's the one who offers to gently remove the things that will allow fruit to bear in our lives. If you're new around here, maybe the receive was a good first step, but we're about to do something maybe a little more edgy. We're about to ask Jesus to cut some things out of our life. And if you're gonna do that, you've gotta remember what I said at the very beginning. Jesus loves you. He's not mad at you, he's for you. And he doesn't have these looking to do damage, he has them looking to do good. So I'm gonna read this verse again. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Anytime Jesus says something this radical, it's usually followed up with something amazing, amazing. The idea that something might have to be cut out of our lives or pruned back is only paired with the promise of bearing something

that we could never do in and of our own self. The fruit that you and I can produce with every bit of effort is nothing compared to the fruit that Jesus can grow on us if we're connected to the vine. He's got fruit that blows away your wildest imaginations, but to get it, something might have to go. Let's go back to the shopping analogy. What if I'm at the checkout and my cart is full of junk, but a worker comes up and goes, we just wanna thank you for your membership, your 10-year member, and if we could just remove some of this from your cart, we've got a 70-inch LCD flat screen we're gonna put right in your cart. I would get rid of everything in the cart immediately. I'd say, we can do without toilet paper for a while. Give me the TV. That's a really dumb example. Why is it dumb? Because it feels like something that would never happen. It feels like no one's just gonna get rid of the pretzels and put in a flat screen. But honestly, I think that's the way that some of us view God right now. We don't believe that by Him taking the good things out of our life, He's actually capable of replacing them with something so much better, but that's what He wants to do. I've got a dangerous prayer that you can agree with, maybe pray with me.

Examine my heart, God. What needs to be cut off? What needs to be pruned? What good things need strengthened? What needs my attention? What needs to be emptied? What needs to be filled? I want you to look back at what you said you needed to receive. And I wonder if there's anything that needs to go before you have room to receive. Receive that thing. As God brings thoughts to your mind, I want you to write down what needs to be cut off. Strip away those crooked lines. I've believed a thousand times. Oh, you know I've gone everywhere else. Now I'm saying that I need your help. Lend to me. Break my bones. Burn my throat. If that's what I need, come surrender me. Hold me. Let my life testify your everything. Trade my pride till I'm coming up empty. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. There's a freedom flowing in my veins. There's a wonder that I can't contain.

Lost the world, but I got my soul. Small price to pay, but it ain't fool's gold. Lend to me. Break my bones. Burn my throat. If that's what I need, I'm surrendering. Hold me. Let my life testify your everything. Trade my pride till I'm coming up empty. Break my bones. Burn my throat. If that's what I need, I'm surrendering. Hold me. Let my life testify your everything. Trade my pride till I'm coming up empty. We're going to go back to that chorus in just a minute. My list of things that need to be cut off completely, there's a couple of things, but there's not as many as the things that Jesus is bringing to my mind that just need to be pruned back, pruned back. I have the blessing of loving, loving, loving what I do. I love my job, and I love the people I work with. And I also know that sometimes it is not contained. If you want to see Ab really mad, watch me reply to a text or email at the dinner table. That is no bueno. And I know that needs to go. That needs to be pruned back a little bit. So maybe you've got a list of things that Jesus is saying, hey, that's got to go.

It's got to get cut off. But I'd also invite you, are there good things in your life that need to be put back in their rightful position, maybe the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, your relationships, the number of social media platforms you try to keep up on, good things that have just grown a little bit too large that don't need cut out, but they do need pruned? Write that down. If you can set your card on your lap, I want you to take your hands and just place them out. Remember, you're not alone. Jesus is next to you. And in your hands, I want you to imagine those things that you feel like he's asking you to cut out or to prune. I want you to hold them. Some of us are open-handed, ready for it to go. Others, maybe. Maybe we're holding it covered because we're ashamed of this thing. We've tried to cut it out before, but no luck. So we're hiding it. Maybe some of our hands are in like fists because we know this thing needs prune, but we do not want to let it go. Jesus is with you. He's got a gentle look in his eye. And you can just look back at him and when you're ready, say, Jesus, these are yours.

Empty me. ♪ Empty me ♪ ♪ Break my bone, burn my throne, and that's what I need ♪ ♪ Surrendering all of me to you ♪ ♪ All of me, let my life testify your everything ♪ ♪ Drink my pride till I'm coming up ♪ ♪ Empty me, break my bones, burn my throne, and that's what I need ♪ ♪ Surrendering all of me, let my life testify your everything ♪ ♪ Testify your everything ♪ ♪ Drink my pride till I'm coming up, empty me ♪ You can stay receiving. You can stay wrestling with the things that he might want to prune, but I'm gonna move us to our aim for today. The reason why we would abide, why we would receive, why we would prune for the purpose of bearing fruit. See, fruit isn't just a theme in John 15, it's a theme all throughout scripture. Look at just a couple of places, like in Leviticus chapter 26, verse nine says, "'I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.'" Or in the very first Psalm, verse three, where it says, "'He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither, and all he does, he prospers.'" Remember the way to bear fruit is never on our own, it is only in abiding, staying with Jesus, remaining in him,

being connected to his love is the only way that we can bear this kind of fruit. Now, we've been going through a lot of metaphors in this series, and so this fruit is not like what Kyle talked about last week with daily bread, where it's our provision, our sustenance. This fruit isn't primarily to benefit us, this fruit is meant to benefit others, and not just others, not just the people to your right or your left, not just your family. This fruit, when it bears in our life with the intent that Jesus made us for, it can have a generational impact. This fruit has eternal consequences. This fruit is the way that Jesus's heaven comes to earth, is when we align with him and we receive from him, and he allows good things to come out of us. Amazing fruit like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, things that we can't create on our own, but it's an offer from him. This type of generational fruit can actually be hard to wrap our heads around, because it's not productive type of fruit, it's kingdom fruit. And maybe in the very beginning, why it was difficult for you to ask God for something good because you feel unworthy or like you don't deserve it, or you ask him of things all the time,

this one might be a stretch as well for you to imagine your life capable of producing something that could have an impact on eternity. But that's the type of fruit that he made you to bear. What I love about a room with this many of us or as many of us watching online is we don't bear identical fruit. Yes, we are a vineyard. Yes, we are an orchard, but he made every one of us uniquely to bear a certain kind of fruit that only you can bear if you're connected to the vine. So your last prompt, I just want you to write the word fruit. And you're still with Jesus. He's still beside you. And this time you're asking him for an answer because you're saying, Jesus, what kind of fruit did you make me to bear? What does the fruit of my life look like when I'm connected to you? And maybe he gives you a word, maybe a phrase, maybe he gives you a picture that you can sketch. But whatever it is, I want you to write it down. We're gonna sit here for a minute. We're not gonna sing immediately. God, show us the type of fruit that you made us to bear. One. A water. By.

This. In. Another? Show us your hands. One. Dear. It. Was. The fruit is. The fruit is. This. One. Everything within. Everything! Hush. One two three four. Bless. You. God bless you. Thank you Lord bless you. Thank you Lord bless you. For every fruit is good and every fruit is perfect. Precious to you. Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you. Be gracious to you. Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Starting my morning with trying to read scripture and prayer and prayer is not my strongest so I've got a little widget on my phone a little reminder and I pray for the same three

things every morning pray for my wife last one's pray for crossroads the middle one is I pray for my daughters by name and I've got a line under there I ask God to prepare godly husbands for them and as I think about generational fruit I got God took that a step further because I don't I don't come from families where we have a lot of strong marriage there's a lot of divorce in my family and I thought man wouldn't it be amazing if they not only had godly husbands but if they stayed married their entire life that feels like fruit that I'm incapable of bearing maybe maybe you hear that and and you feel like well that ship's already sailed for me that is that is not true for what God can do through you and your generations and the people that you impact he has that type of fruit available to you maybe this part for you is a stretch because this is this is a difficult prompt you've still got a blank page we actually created a tool to help you hear from Jesus if you want a word specifically a scripture our team has pulled a lot of verses and we've put them into a random generator so if you go to crossroads.net slash verse you're going to get a unique verse just for you and maybe it's the one that helps connect these dots of what Jesus wants you to receive what he wants to prune and now where he wants to bear fruit so if you want that whether you're in the room or online crossroads.net slash verse you keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you face in each of God's ways. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen, amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen ♪

Listen, I hope this message has blessed you. I hope it's challenged you. I hope it's helped you to grow deeper in your faith and closer in your relationship with Jesus. I want to encourage everybody, everybody watching on Pando, don't just passively listen to this message. Wrestle with it. Sit with it. Open the scriptures for yourself. Have the conversations. Ask the hard questions. Because if Jesus really is who he says he is, that changes everything. We genuinely love to hear from God. If there's topics you'd like me to cover on future episodes of Mornings with Miko or questions you're wrestling with, content you'd like to see more of, a prayer request, or even feedback on this I Am message today, write us, let us know. What's been standing out to you? What's God been revealing to you? What is he pressed on your heart? The testimonies are coming out of this season. What are you wrestling with right now? Write us at prisonsatcrossroad.net. One of the things we love most about this community is hearing how God is moving in your lives from all across the country. So hear me when I say this.

Please, reach out to us. We genuinely want to hear from y'all. We love y'all. We pray for y'all. And I'll see y'all next week on Mornings with Miko. Bye.