Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Let's read together. John 15:1, 2. I am the true vine. This is Jesus speaking, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Let's pray together. Father. I pray for your strength, Lord, to deliver this message this morning. I pray, Lord, that as I speak, Lord, your words would go into our hearts. Father, we thank you for your word that it's a firm foundation we can build our life upon. And Father, as we speak about the fruit that you want to produce in our lives, Father, I pray we would be open to the full process.
[00:00:44] Lord, we love it when everything's going well. We love it when the production level seems high. But God, would we even begin to love it, Lord? And that place of pruning or preparation that, Lord, as we consider our own lives and the season we might find ourselves in, that you would speak to us about what our response needs to be In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:09] How many people are gardeners like you love to be out in the garden? Give us a good, good, good, good wave. All right. How many people think that a garden is a good place for a big concrete pad?
[00:01:22] Okay, we're about. We're about half and half there.
[00:01:26] Okay. That used to be me. That used to be it. Oh, thank you, darling. Thank you.
[00:01:44] Don't try to drink the microphone when you go into a nice garden. I went into one the other day. It was beautiful. Manicured lawn, just a small garden, but beautiful flowers. And all the weeds were gone. It was lovely, but it wasn't a garden that looked like it was there by chance.
[00:02:04] A lot of intention and purpose was put into it. There are other gardens.
[00:02:10] Maybe your garden, maybe my garden.
[00:02:14] It's got a lot of green growth, right?
[00:02:18] But we're talking more weeds than we are plants and fruit things grow, but not all the good things that we want to grow grow. Often we have weeds that grow alongside us. And so as we're talking about growth today, I'm not talking about the growth of weeds, I'm talking about fruit. I'm talking about something that is of lasting and of good value.
[00:02:45] Growth of great value or fruit of great value and worth requires special attention.
[00:02:53] And I believe in our spiritual life as well, that is the same.
[00:02:57] Growth is a mark of life.
[00:03:00] Growth is a mark of health. Growth is a mark of God's presence on our life. And as a church, we want to make sure that we continue to grow and, and remain healthy.
[00:03:10] And we're committed to being a church that Jesus would say, well done, well done, good and faithful servants. We want to be that church.
[00:03:21] And so we are undertaking something called the Pulse. We are taking a pulse of the church over the next eight days. And at the end of the message, there's going to be a QR code that's going to go up on the screen and there'll be an email sent with all the details that'll go out a little bit later this afternoon.
[00:03:39] I won't put it up on the screen now because you'll all click on it and start and not listen to me. I would do the same. So you probably do the same. So I'm going to leave you in suspense and you can grab it at the end. The QR code, what is the purpose behind it? We want to find out where things are going well, but then also find out where things aren't going so well.
[00:04:01] In reality, we've been in a season of transition.
[00:04:05] A leader who'd been here for 10 years moved on to a national position. Amy and I have come in and been significant changes within leadership. And so we want to find out how we're doing in five particular areas.
[00:04:18] Yeah, I know. A little bit scary, isn't it?
[00:04:21] I'm putting my neck on the chopping block and please chop away. We just want the truth, right? We just want to make sure that we are moving forward and we are healthy. These are the five areas.
[00:04:31] How healthy are we in the area of discipleship?
[00:04:34] Secondly, an authentic worship. So when we come together and we worship, what does it feel like? What do we experience?
[00:04:42] What are we like as a family? Do we feel like a church that's a family?
[00:04:47] What about our outreach? When we are reaching out and we are reaching into the areas around us, into our friendships, into our relationships, what's our outreach like? And then lastly, what's our servanthood like? What are we like as a group of people who love to serve as Jesus served? Now, the survey will take about 12 minutes. Just 12 minutes.
[00:05:07] And it's anonymous, so you can be as honest as you can be. And I would rather it that way. Don't tell us we're doing great when we're doing bad, because that's not helpful.
[00:05:17] Tell us what you think we need to know.
[00:05:20] And the great thing, too is if you come across a question that you're not so sure on, just don't answer it. So real. It's just take it nice and easy and simple. Take about 12 minutes, work through the more we get in.
[00:05:33] The more accurate the result is, the easier it is for us to say these are the areas where we need to improve and we need to grow in. And so we can begin as a whole church family to improve in those spaces. So we'll be completing the survey over the next eight days. We'll close at 8pm at the end of next Sunday night. And so if you can complete it before then, that would be amazing. And as I said, I won't give you the survey now because I would lose you for the next 20 minutes or 12 minutes as you complete it.
[00:06:04] But here's some key truths that I want to look at today.
[00:06:08] I want to talk about from seed to fruit. Healthy things grow. But growth doesn't always look like we expect.
[00:06:17] How many people like it when the miracle happens? Immediately. I'm a fan of the immediate.
[00:06:24] You know, you just. God says it's going to happen and it does, right? Then how many people have experienced that in their life?
[00:06:32] How many have experienced the other? When God says, I'm going to do something in your life, but then he doesn't tell you when it's going to happen?
[00:06:40] Yeah, that's the greater majority of us. Right?
[00:06:43] And there's reasons for it. As we're going to talk about this morning, there's reasons why we don't always see the immediate.
[00:06:52] Let's begin at the very beginning. Because growth is God's design. Genesis 1:28. It says, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. The first command given to Adam and Eve is to be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and increase.
[00:07:09] Fill the earth, subdue it. Be good stewards of what we have been given.
[00:07:14] Yet from the first command God gave humanity, growth has been central to his plan. God didn't create Adam and Eve and give them a little space in the garden and say, just look after your little plot, your little 150 square meters of garden. He says, go out. Go out and create. Go out and initiate growth. And take what I have and go further.
[00:07:39] I love the fact that God loves a big family.
[00:07:43] God's got a big, big family.
[00:07:46] And the great thing is the love that he has for his family will never run out.
[00:07:51] You're not going to find God getting to 10 billion portions of love and say, I'm all out of love.
[00:07:58] There is enough love for everyone. And God wants us to continue to multiply, continue to grow, continue to do more and more, to bring more people into his family.
[00:08:11] I love in Colossians 2:6,7. So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in Him. Would we stay grounded in Him? Would we allow the roots to go deep into who God is? When we are rooted in Jesus, we will grow in Him.
[00:08:34] And we don't strive for growth. We stay connected and we walk in obedience. And when we do that growth takes care of itself. I love 1 Corinthians 3, 6, 7. Paul says, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
[00:08:52] We've got a part to play, planting, watering, but we don't need to worry about the growth.
[00:08:58] Yeah, I remember as a child just trying to grow more. I was short and I still am. It didn't really change. The harder I tried to grow. I just didn't grow. I was the one at the end of all the photos sitting down.
[00:09:12] I was the shortest kid sitting there, just wanting to grow. I stretched. I did everything I could to grow, but I couldn't because what was in me is now.
[00:09:23] Yeah, that height.
[00:09:27] But so often we can kind of strive for growth.
[00:09:31] But if we're connected to Jesus and if we are, our roots are down deep in him, the growth that's in us will take place. And others may water us and others may encourage us and others may speak into our lives. But at the end of the day, God will do the growth.
[00:09:48] As a child, I remember, I remember my mum gave me a seed to plant and we put it in the ground and it was gonna produce some kind of fruit or vegetable, probably a vegetable.
[00:10:02] And so we planted it and we dug the hole and we put the seed in and we put the soil back over and we poured some water over it. And I'm looking at it as a three or four year old going, right, where's the plant? It's like we planted the seed. So mum said, it's gonna take some time.
[00:10:20] So we went to sleep that night and that's enough time for me, right? So I came out the next day, no plant, it wasn't there.
[00:10:29] So I did what every good 3 and 4 year old would do and I dug the seed up to see what was happening.
[00:10:35] But in reality, sometimes we can begin to dig up what God is growing.
[00:10:41] We can go, this hasn't happened at the speed that I wanted. It hasn't happened like I, I planned it would.
[00:10:48] And God's saying, don't worry, the growth is taking place. I don't know if you've ever seen some of those videos of the time. Lapse, where there's a seed up against the glass and you can see it just sitting there. And then there's a little root that will go down, a little shoot will go. Normally it shoots down first.
[00:11:07] Gotta find something to grab onto. Gotta get some roots in order to be able to handle when the growth goes up.
[00:11:13] And so often we want to force the growth, but a seed doesn't grow because it tries harder.
[00:11:21] We don't grow because we try harder.
[00:11:24] It grows when the soil is right and the light and the water, and ultimately in the timing of God.
[00:11:33] Likewise, when our lives are planted in God's word, surrounded by his people, open to his spirit, grace growth will happen.
[00:11:41] Sometimes we pray, believing for a miracle. Many people received a miracle last week. Praise the Lord. It's amazing. But maybe some of us were here saying, I didn't get my miracle.
[00:11:51] Can I tell you, it's probably not because you don't have enough faith or you didn't believe enough.
[00:11:58] The reality is it may be a timing issue.
[00:12:02] We don't know when God is going to do what he will do best, and we can trust him in that. And yes, we pray. Yes, we believe for the miraculous. Every time you get an opportunity to pray for somebody, for a miracle, do that, take the opportunity to pray.
[00:12:19] I believe in the prayer of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who in the fire, they were saying, I know my God can save me. I know my God will save me.
[00:12:29] But even if he doesn't, we're not gonna bow down. The same could be said, God, I know, God, you can heal me. God, I know you will heal me. And even if you don't, in my. And when I would like it to happen, I will still trust, I will still press in, and I will still continue to believe.
[00:12:44] God wants to do a work in our lives. Let's not dig the seed up too quickly. Let's not give our faith away and say, well, God, you didn't answer when we wanted.
[00:12:54] Amy and I, we went through the journey as we've shared a little bit about our infertility.
[00:12:59] We thought we'd have kids just like everybody else did. All of our friends, they got married, they had kids, and we just thought that would be our journey. It wasn't.
[00:13:09] For 10 years, we went through a journey of infertility, waiting, hoping, praying. And I can tell you, I got so low in my relationship with God at moments where I couldn't understand why he didn't answer my prayer.
[00:13:27] What I didn't know is that that miracle wasn't about me.
[00:13:33] And unfortunately, so often we make it about us because we want it for us.
[00:13:41] God was doing something we could never have imagined.
[00:13:44] As we were waiting, as we were praying, as we were seeking God, as we went through medical treatment in order to have our own children and then by some miracle, be able to conceive without medical help, we just couldn't understand that. And all of a sudden we had these three beautiful embryos that we could donate to an amazing family who could not medically have children.
[00:14:08] Now we had no idea when we started the journey of what we would have to go through in order for the right timing for somebody else's miracle in our biggest women's magazine. I had to Google women's magazines in the uk. So the equivalent of hello, right? The equivalent of hello, I think. I don't know. I never read women's magazines. However, the equivalent of that has just published our story back in New Zealand about a family who needed another family and their generosity effectively to be able to see their miracle. A message of hope, but a message that didn't happen with a click of a finger over God's timing.
[00:14:59] Right soil.
[00:15:01] And in his moment, guess what? God's getting all the glory.
[00:15:07] He gets glorified. And if we can hold on, I just. Can we just pause, just for a minute, because I believe there's some people here today, you've asked your questions, you've even shaken your fist at God, saying, God, I haven't got it. Like you said.
[00:15:26] Can I encourage you today to take your focus off the outcome of the miracle and to put your eyes on Jesus? Would you be like the woman with the issue of blood who said, if I can just grab ahold of the hem of his garment, I'll get my miracle? Would you position yourself daily in that space?
[00:15:49] Not for the sake of the miracle. I'm not saying don't forget it, don't keep asking for it, but don't focus on the outcome, but say, God, would you be glorified in my life as I live and as I walk towards what that miracle might be? God, I pray for courage and strength. Because it is so hard, Lord, when we find ourselves in these spaces where we know, Lord, you've shown us, you've given us the word. Even that declares a victory, declares a breakthrough. But, Lord, in the waiting, Lord, would we be patient? I pray for strength in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Would you receive that today? If that's you, would you receive that in your heart and begin to walk back into relationships. I think some people have pulled away from relationships because it's too hard.
[00:16:34] Would you, in faith, step back into those relationships again and begin to speak, begin to pour into, begin to sow? And maybe you're gonna water somebody else's seed so that they could see their miracle.
[00:16:47] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:16:50] So if you're not seeing growth, don't assume it's not happening. Don't assume it's a you problem or even a God problem.
[00:16:57] It may just be a timing that God is wanting to do.
[00:17:02] Second thought this morning. Growth requires seasons.
[00:17:10] Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.
[00:17:19] A season based on my mathematical calculations is 13 weeks.
[00:17:26] I heard people say it's just a busy season. I said, how long has that busy season been?
[00:17:31] About three years, four years?
[00:17:34] I'll be saying, yeah, probably not a season.
[00:17:39] But, you know, seasons are so important, so necessary. Psalm 1:3 describes it right, Just like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season.
[00:17:50] See, growth isn't constant.
[00:17:52] When you look at a fruit tree, it doesn't produce fruit all year round.
[00:17:57] You don't harvest in winter, you don't plant in autumn.
[00:18:01] So growth takes place over time and in the right time.
[00:18:06] Some seasons are about planting, some are about waiting, some are about pruning.
[00:18:11] How many people love the pruning seasons? So good.
[00:18:17] And others are about harvest.
[00:18:21] Often we say, I can't wait for the harvest, but can I tell you, the harvest is such a busy time.
[00:18:28] You ever harvested hay?
[00:18:30] It's a. It's a really, really busy time. It's like, yay, the harvest. But that's back breaking work. Yes, we should pray for the harvest, but we should be prepared to work in the harvest because we need all the labourers at that point.
[00:18:48] Some seasons are about planting, waiting, others pruning, others about harvest. Can I encourage us? Don't resent the season we're in.
[00:18:57] I think the biggest problem I think we have as humans is we would much rather be somewhere else than where we are now.
[00:19:07] I've always thought about it. The grass was always greener on the other fence. On the other side of the fence, you know what produces greener grass, right? You seen those patches in the field that are just longer than others? You know what happened there? Right now, I'm not going to take it to a crass level, but fertilizer happens, right?
[00:19:30] So we look at somebody else's life and we go, I'd quite like to be in their Season, their time of life.
[00:19:37] But you know what they've walked through? Do you know what they've had to endure in order to find themselves in that place?
[00:19:44] Come on, we've got to plant ourselves and stay. I'll tell you what. Every time you plant, pick a plant up and you move it somewhere else.
[00:19:52] You have people say, it's not working the way I thought it would. I'm going to get up and I'm going to go. I'm going to move city. I'm going to move church. I'm going to move life group. I'm going to move from place to place to place. Can I tell you? Plant yourself until God says move. If God doesn't say move, you stay.
[00:20:11] You stay. Stay planted. Because planted trees will produce fruit in the right season.
[00:20:19] Apple tree doesn't bear fruit every day, but that doesn't mean it's not alive. In winter, it's storing up strength. In spring, it's budding. In summer, it's thriving. And in autumn, we receive and enjoy the harvest. God uses seasons to prepare us, to shape us, to position us for future fruit.
[00:20:40] You know, in my own personal journey of leadership, I. I spent 10 years before we moved here learning what it means to be in a number two role, serving somebody else's vision, but also contending with that sense that I'm leading, but I'm also serving.
[00:20:55] I'm so thankful for those 10 years to understand what it means to sit under somebody else's vision, but also hold that contentment and that dreaming within my own spirit of the things that God is doing in my life and in our life.
[00:21:09] I'm so thankful for that place of growth and that time of growth for me in my life.
[00:21:15] And sometimes the greatest question we can find an answer to is, God, what season am I in right now?
[00:21:22] Because sometimes we can misinterpret a season, too.
[00:21:25] And we can get frustrated because we think we're in another season. But actually, maybe God's got us in a particular place that we need to be okay with.
[00:21:35] Are you in a season of preparation?
[00:21:38] Are you in a painful season of pruning?
[00:21:41] Are you in a fruitful season of harvest?
[00:21:45] Or maybe you're in a dry season that's calling for deeper, deeper roots.
[00:21:51] Would you trust God that he knows the season you're in and that the season will last as long as it needs to?
[00:21:58] The great thing is, seasons change.
[00:22:01] We could be absolutely certain of that.
[00:22:04] Third thought is, growth requires pruning.
[00:22:08] In the second verse of John, chapter 15, we read earlier, every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes so that it will become even more fruitful.
[00:22:18] This is counterintuitive.
[00:22:20] It feels that way, doesn't it?
[00:22:22] Chop back the thing that's grown in order to see greater growth.
[00:22:28] I wonder who did that for the first time. It's like, hey, there's a really big fruit tree. Let's cut it back.
[00:22:34] That must have been wisdom from God for Adam and Eve.
[00:22:39] But often we can look at it and we say, it's going well, producing fruit. It's good.
[00:22:45] You know, earlier I asked how many people think a concrete slab is a good idea for a garden? That was me going back about probably 10 years.
[00:22:55] When we sold our house, we downsized our mortgage because we wanted to do this book series and we bought an older home. When I say older home, it's a New Zealand older home. So it was like the 80s. It wasn't like. Not like the 1600s, just 1980.
[00:23:14] But it had the most beautiful gardens. The guy who was in there before us was called the rose man. So he was known for all of these incredible rose bushes. And so we had, I think, 25 to 30 rose bushes. You know, Amy said, I don't buy her enough flowers. So I bought her a house with roses that she could pick any day she wanted.
[00:23:36] Apparently, that wasn't as romantic as I thought it was.
[00:23:40] Apparently she still needed me to pick the roses to give to her.
[00:23:45] I'll go on.
[00:23:50] But on the site, there were the most amazing fruit trees.
[00:23:55] We had 20 plus fruit trees, mandarins, oranges, apples, nectarines, peaches. We had grapevines, we planted berry bushes. I could eat a piece of fruit from my garden every single day of the year.
[00:24:09] That's how good it was. I miss our garden a little bit. I'll just say that we have a big slab of dirt right now that needs to become grass. And I've got some planter boxes that we're planning and prepping to put in. But there were two trees when we arrived.
[00:24:28] I thought, great, we'll see some fruit next season. And so we looked for the season.
[00:24:34] Season came where the nectarines and the peaches should have come in. Nothing came in.
[00:24:40] And I realized that no one had pruned those two trees over the last couple of years.
[00:24:46] So there were lots of branches, but there were lots of dead branches. And it was like all of the energy was being pushed into these dead branches, but not producing anything.
[00:24:54] So I did a bit of research and talked to a couple of people who knew what they were doing. I didn't just take the chainsaw at it. And I followed their advice and I lopped off all the branches, the big branches, right down to the point where it was dividing.
[00:25:10] And I just hacked it right back and. And I looked at it and went, what have I done?
[00:25:15] I was really nervous for two weeks. Nothing happened. And I was looking at that going, I have killed the tree. This beautiful nectarine and peach tree. I've killed them.
[00:25:26] But then spring starts to come and all of a sudden it just took off. These branches began to grow and these buds. And all of a sudden, over the space of about three or four months, the trees just full with all these buds. And over summer, we have fruit. We had lovely, healthy fruit. But it was a cutting back of that process that needed to take place in order for that growth to come in our lives as a church. God doesn't want just more fruit.
[00:26:00] God wants healthy fruit.
[00:26:02] You know, we could look at a gathering of this size and we could say, this is a healthy church.
[00:26:09] It's just numbers, if I'm really honest, what's actually inside of us as individuals and corporately, as a family, that's the health that we need to be more interested in.
[00:26:22] This is why we're going to do the pulse. This is why I want you to tell us where we're failing.
[00:26:27] I'd rather know than not know. And I've got an inkling there's a few areas I know we're not doing as well, and I'll put my hand up for some of those and say, I would have loved to have done more. But where we're at right now, and together, if we can grow together, we're going to be a healthy, healthy church. And here's why. Because the fourth thought is that growth bears fruit for others.
[00:26:55] See, this isn't for me.
[00:26:57] The growth in my life, the fruit that's produced in my life is not for me, it's for others. And if the team would like to join me, we're going to continue to worship.
[00:27:08] You know, Hebrews 12:11, no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness.
[00:27:18] And I think God is wanting us to cut back some things in our life. Relationships that are distracting, habits that limit our productivity, opportunities that look good but maybe aren't God, maybe a busy schedule so that we can be more productive. Why?
[00:27:35] Because growth bears fruit for others.
[00:27:39] This is where I want to land this morning. I want us to understand that so often we live in a society that is obsessed with self fulfillment.
[00:27:50] Reading a book at the moment, that is just opening my eyes to how much we think that life is about us and me.
[00:28:02] That if I can just do more, I can achieve more.
[00:28:09] I don't think that's God's heart.
[00:28:13] His body is connected and should be connected with different parts, unique, so needed, so important.
[00:28:26] And if I'm the little pinky finger on the body of Christ, I want to make sure that I do my job right.
[00:28:32] Come on, when I'm drinking a cup of tea, that pinky finger, it's got to do its thing, right?
[00:28:39] But if I can live my life knowing that it's not for me, but for others, it's a game changer.
[00:28:47] It truly is.
[00:28:50] I open my eyes in the morning and rather than thinking about myself, I begin to think about who God might bring across my path to bless.
[00:29:01] Even as a church, we can find ourselves coming in and going, well, you know what?
[00:29:06] I didn't enjoy the worship quite as much or didn't really get as much out of that. I know that. I didn't need to hear that.
[00:29:14] I know that already.
[00:29:15] I've heard this preached three times before.
[00:29:18] Great.
[00:29:20] Take that into conversation. When this finishes, find someone, pray for them, minister to them.
[00:29:26] What if we came in every single Sunday thinking, God, who are you going to set me up with, with a conversation? What would that look like?
[00:29:35] When we finish, we sing our final song and then it's a chance to go and connect and have a cup of tea and a coffee and gather together. What would that look like?
[00:29:45] If we've already come saying, God, would you give me a word for somebody? Would you give me a scripture? And you don't even know who it's for until all of a sudden you're sitting alongside them and you go, God told me about you this morning.
[00:29:58] Do we come ready like that this morning?
[00:30:03] Come on, will we come prepared, ready for those moments? Because we just don't know what God might do if we say yes to him. See, the growth is not just for me, it's for others.
[00:30:17] Fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. We talked about that glass of fruit juice spilling over, sloshing over into other people's lives?
[00:30:30] What would it look like if I walked through today with the fruit of the spirit sploshing out from my life and into others?
[00:30:41] Notice apple trees don't tend to eat their own apples.
[00:30:46] Come on. We don't eat the fruit that God produces in our life, but other people do.
[00:30:53] Same way healthy believers feed others through love, through kindness, through service, wisdom through our witness.
[00:31:02] When everybody else in your company is melting down and getting angry and frustrated, you bring peace and patience and wisdom. And they go, what is that?
[00:31:11] What is that response?
[00:31:13] Just trying to live like Jesus.
[00:31:17] Matthew 7:16.
[00:31:20] By their fruit you will recognize them. That's what Jesus said.
[00:31:25] By the fruit, we're going to be recognized.
[00:31:31] Maybe we just close our eyes just for a moment.
[00:31:34] Would you just consider the fruit that God is producing in your life?
[00:31:46] Maybe you're trying to look for a big watermelon and God says, I've given you a guava.
[00:31:52] That's sufficient.
[00:31:56] I think often we can again compare ourselves to others.
[00:32:03] But the grace that is upon your life, that apostolic grace, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, teaching, but then all the gifts that also God gives us of hospitality and giving and faith, miracles.
[00:32:27] Lord, how could we use that fruit to bless others this week?
[00:32:33] Would you ask God, God, what would it look like for me to put that out on display?
[00:32:41] Not to show off, not to be proud and arrogant, but just simply to say I can bless you with what God has done in my life.
[00:32:50] Lord, speak to our hearts right now. I pray.
[00:32:54] Thank you, Jesus.
