“The
Work of the Lord (Part II)
Our
Fruit Remains”
By
Jesse Rairdon
September
20th, 2009
Click
here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
Jesse
started out with a review from Part I, the message which Parrish Lee
brought
two weeks ago: Abraham
and Lot faced
battles; we have to contend for the faith;
sometimes you feel lonely, but God gives us victory through Christ;
battles
happen because there is darkness and unrighteousness in the world. Psalms
34:17 tells us that God delivers the righteous.
John
15:16 I have chosen you …
that your fruit should remain.
This
message has three parts: (based
on the
definition of the word “fruit.”)
I
Supporting the Seed
II
Being Useful
III
Producing Pleasant Results
Supporting the Seed
Luke
8:11-15
The explanation of the parable of the sower.
The
seed is the Word of God. There
are a lot
of different reasons that people don’t let the Word take root in their
hearts given
in the parable. One
in particular: The
people represented by thorny ground let
the cares of this life distract them from the Word; but we are
commanded to
cast our cares upon Him, for He careth for us.
Philippians
1:3-11 … being filled with
the fruits of righteousness.
Being Useful
John
15:1-9 the parable of the
vine and the branches
You
can’t bear fruit unless you abide in Jesus.
You don’t see branches lying on the ground
bearing fruit, do you?
Jesse
shared that one of the hardest times in his life was going with his
sister to
bury their brother. Jesse’s
siblings
were in a car accident many years ago, but his brother suffered brain
damage
which very slowly killed him. Even
as
hard as that was, though, he still recognized that he needed to be that
light,
that testimony, of God’s love.
Psalms
1:2-3 … And he
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
forth his
fruit in his season …
This passage also
talks
about sitting in the seat of the scornful.
The scornful person is always complaining,
always knows a better way to
do things, but never offers to actually help.
The righteous says, “Here am I, send me.”
Producing Pleasant
Results
Isaiah
5:1-4 God expects
pleasant results from us. He
has given
us a fruitful hill (in this ministry); He fenced it (He protects us);
He took
out the stones (so that our hearts would not be the stony ground in the
parable
of the sower); He planted the choicest vine (He gave us great seed); He
built a
winepress (that doesn’t sound like it would feel good, but it’s
necessary);
and, after all that, He got wild grapes.
What do you suppose wild grapes taste like? Bitter?
Maybe frustrated?
Jeremiah
17:7-8 more about the tree
planted by the water, that shall not cease yielding fruit (as opposed
to the
tree in Matthew
21:29, that looked like it
was
fruitful, but it wasn’t. Don’t
just look
like a Christian, be a Christian).
Galatians
5:22-23 the fruits of the
Spirit
Keep
in mind that love is an action. You
can
tell somebody that you love them as often as you like, but if there are
no
actions to go with what you say, eventually they are going to realize
that you
don’t mean it. When
it talks about peace
as being a fruit of the Spirit, it isn’t talking about peace
as the world gives. Sometimes
is can
be tempting to just stamp out a problem, but there may be a tender
plant close
to that problem that will get stamped out, too.
John
15:16 I have chosen you …
that your fruit should remain.
Jesse also
gave
us some homework: To
go to the
International website and look over the sermon notes for “The
Lord Is My Shepherd” by General Pastor Peter F. Paine from
August 2nd,
2009, and “He
Cares for You” by Pastor Hubert Ulysse the previous week,
July 26th,
2009.
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd
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