February 9 2014 Living A Productive Life
/Living A Productive Life
Three Kinds of Fruit:
- Natural fruit.
- Biological fruit.
- Spiritual fruit.
John 15:8 – This is my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Verse 16 – I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last.
Four Steps to Productivity:
1. Establish some roots.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 – Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes. It’s leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
Proverbs 12:3 – The righteous cannot be uprooted.
Psalm 1:2-3 – But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.
2. Eliminate the weeds.
Luke 8:11-14 –The seed is the Word of God, and the seed that falls among weeds stands for those who hear the Word, but the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life crowd in and choke their lives and their fruit never ripens.
Types of Weeds:
- Weeds of worry.
- Weeds of riches.
- Weeds of pleasure.
3. Cooperate with God.
John 15:1-2 – Jesus said, I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce and He prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops.
Hebrews 12:11 – No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained in it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances
4. Wait for the harvest.
John 12:24 – Jesus said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
