Rev. David Holwick L
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 23, 2006
John 15:1-6
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I. The eternal rollercoaster.
A. I felt good after our Easter services.
1) Each service one was packed and we even had to put out
extra chairs. Baptist preachers like that!
2) Very positive feedback to my message.
3) How long can this last??
B. Ongoing success is the American dream.
1) But it cannot be the reality all the time.
2) Barrenness comes into every life.
Perhaps you have been there.
Maybe you have lived for a while behind closed doors.
Many good people have.
I was reading recently about a young lawyer who descended
into the valley of despond, as John Bunyan called it.
Things were going so poorly for him that his friends
kept all knives and razors away from him for fear of a
suicide attempt.
In fact, during this time he wrote in his memoirs, "I am
now the most miserable man living.
Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell.
I fear I shall not."
The young lawyer who revealed these desperate feelings of
utter hopelessness?
His name was Abraham Lincoln.
#12852
C. A lesson from fruit trees.
1) In John 15, Jesus says his followers (branches) should be
fruitful and productive.
This time of year our area is filled with gorgeous flowering
trees.
Many of them are ornamental fruit trees.
This means they have showy flowers, but produce no fruit.
Could this describe you?
Everyone thinks you are a Christian, a decent person, but
deep inside you know it is just show.
2) Barrenness is unsettling. What does it mean?
a) Something is wrong with us or our actions.
b) Something is wrong with God?
c) Something in-between...
II. Barrenness can be our fault.
A. Running on fumes.
Luis Palau tells about an Air Canada flight that ran into
trouble one fateful Monday.
Passengers were enjoying a movie on a Boeing 767 when the
jumbo jet's massive engines abruptly stopped.
Only those without earphones noticed at first.
Then came a break in the movie.
The pilot announced that Flight 143 would be making an
emergency landing.
Sixty-nine people were trapped in an agonizingly slow but
inescapable descent to earth.
For several minutes, a desperate silence hung over the cabin.
Then fear gave way to screams as the landing neared.
All the latest technology couldn't keep the jumbo jet in the
air another second.
What had happened was this:
The electronic digital fuel gauge was out of order.
The flight crew depended on figures given by the refueling
crew before takeoff.
But someone on the refueling crew confused pounds for
kilograms.
Thus, eight hundred miles short of its destination, the jet
had run out of fuel.
Fortunately, the captain and the co-captain were able to glide
Flight 143 some 100 miles to a former military airfield.
A dramatic crash-landing heavily damaged the jumbo jet's
landing gear, but, by the grace of God, no one on board was
hurt.
An impressive craft - headed in the right direction - but
running out of fuel.
That's happening to a lot of people today.
They have a high sense of self-esteem.
They are motivated by a sense of purpose.
But one day they wake up disillusioned and disheartened.
The fuel has all been spent.
Where does the fuel we need for life come from?
It comes from God's in-dwelling Spirit. #3011
B. Harboring secret sin.
1) If God seems far away, we are ones who probably moved.
2) When Israel entered the Promised Land under Joshua, the
whole invasion faltered because of the sin of one man,
Achan.
3) Unconfessed sin can rob you of spiritual peace and
effectiveness.
C. Excusing mediocrity.
1) Perhaps our barrenness is not due to bad things we do,
but good things we don't do, or do halfway.
2) When we are fruitless, we should examine ourselves.
a) Investigate possible reasons for your feelings.
b) An ineffective Christian life is not normal.
c) Fruitlessness is not a stage in life, not a matter
of being too old or too young for God's work.
3) Is God trying to get our attention?
a) Even his punishment has a positive intent.
III. It is possible to be fruitless but faithful.
A. A failed missionary.
Robert Morrison was born in 1782 to a stern Presbyterian family.
As a young man he read missionary stories in a church magazine
and it whetted his interest in foreign missions.
But his mother was appalled and said it would be over her dead
body.
A few years later she died, and in his early twenties Morrison
began his training to be a missionary.
Morrison was accepted into the London Missionary Society.
While he waited to find a male colleague to go with him to
China, he studied the Chinese language for one year.
When no partner was forthcoming, Morrison left for China alone.
He was forced to go through the United States, since the East
India Company wouldn't let him take a British ship to China.
The East India Company didn't like missionaries because they
thought Christians would upset the Chinese.
Nothing would be allowed to get in the way of profits.
But they found that Morrison was so good with the language they
hired him as a translator.
Even so, they forbid him to do Christian work.
For example, in 1815 the company threatened to fire him when
it learned that he had secretly translated the New Testament.
Robert Morrison worked in China for 27 years.
His first wife died.
He sent his children to England and saw them once after that.
By the time he died, he had baptized 10 Chinese.
Only 10.
That's not a lot of fruit.
To be honest, many would see him as a total failure.
But if Morrison died discouraged, his work of translating the
Bible and making dictionaries laid a foundation for others.
Christians in China now number in the tens of millions.
When as a young man Morrison had first sailed to China, he was
asked,
"Do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of
the great Chinese empire?"
In reply, Morrison spoke more prophetically than he knew:
"No, sir, but I expect God will."
#4010
B. Losers in the Bible.
1) Jeremiah preached for 41 years with little results.
2) God told Ezekiel that the nation wouldn't listen to him. 3:7
a) God even predicted a fruitless ministry for him.
b) Yet Ezekiel was faithful to God.
C. God values faithfulness over results.
1) Moses had success with water from rock, but was unfaithful
in how he did it, so God punished him. Num 20
2) God's person, doing God's will, God's way, will receive
God's blessing.
IV. God brings the growth.
A. Fruit is God's responsibility.
1) God opened Lydia's heart to the gospel. Acts 16:14
2) Different Christians contribute separately to God's
work, but God is one who makes it grow. 1 Cor 3:6
B. Outcomes hinge more on God's sovereignty than our abilities.
1) Jonah (very successful, but bad attitude) vs. Jeremiah.
2) Don't compare yourself to others.
3) Paradox of the situation.
a) Our preoccupation must be on abiding in the Vine. 15:4
b) We should be motivated to pray more.
c) Greater fruitfulness comes when we acknowledge our
limitations.
C. A long-range view.
1) We cannot accurately gauge our current effectiveness.
a) Pastor's curse saves a boy - 85 years later.
Charles Spurgeon wrote about a 15-year-old boy who heard a
message with an unconventional ending.
Instead of pronouncing the usual benediction at the end of
the service, the pastor said,
"How can I dismiss you with a blessing, for many of you
are cursed because you love not the Lord Jesus Christ."
Eight-five years later, when that boy was an old man of 100,
he remembered the curse that had substituted for a
benediction.
His recollection spurred him to give his life to Christ.
And he demonstrated a positive testimony until his death
three years later.
We cannot accurately gauge the fruitfulness of what you are
doing for God right now.
What looks unproductive may yield eternal dividends later
on.
#30945
b) Seeds can take a long time to grow.
1> Keep sowing, keep watering, keep waiting.
2) Long-range promises in the Bible.
a) "Your work for God is not in vain." 1 Cor 15:58
b) "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the
proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
give up." Galatians 6:9
c) Even Jeremiah and Ezekiel bore fruit eventually.
V. Blessings of barrenness.
A. Barrenness can produce its own fruit.
1) Pain isn't as bad when it appears to serve a purpose.
2) God is still at work in barren times.
B. God uses disappointments for our development.
1) Biblical examples.
a) Abraham's struggle with waiting for his promised son.
b) David's struggle with Saul.
c) Joseph's imprisonment in Egypt.
2) Their waiting wasn't wasted.
a) Barrenness refines us, focuses us on God, exposes
our pride.
C. Jesus is enough.
1) Do we perform Christian work for selfish reasons?
a) Barrenness weans us from relying on our own
accomplishments.
b) "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but
rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Luke 10:20
Do not rejoice in spiritual accomplishments,
but in your relationship to God.
2) We can still honor God during times of barrenness.
a) We can be faithful to him.
b) God can produce results that we cannot.
c) We can focus on eternal rewards rather than immediate
gratification.
d) Delays discipline us.
e) Our significance does not depend on our achievements.
D. Keep your focus on him.
Steve Brown related the story of a British soldier in the First
World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted.
Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he
ended up wandering in the pitch-black night, hopelessly lost.
In the darkness he came across what he thought was a signpost.
It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could
read it.
As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and
found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ.
He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had
climbed a roadside crucifix.
Brown explained, "Then he remembered the One who had died for
him -- who had endured -- who had never turned back.
The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches."
When you are tired, afraid and discouraged, the best way I know
to get back into the battle of life is to strike a match in
the darkness and to look on the face of Jesus Christ.
#10833
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon is adapted from the article "When the Branches Are Bare," by
Terry Powell, Discipleship Journal #147, May/June 2005, page 47.
# 3011 "The Peace That Christ Gives," Dynamic Preaching (www.sermons.com),
Spring 1992 "A", May 1992. Illustration is taken from "Say Yes!"
By Luis Palau (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah, 1991).
# 4010 "I Expect God Will," by Kevin Miller, Online Christian History, #52:
Gritty Pioneers: Six Missionaries Whose Tenacity Changed Missions,
November 1996, page 34.
#10833 "Look Into The Face of Jesus," Leadership Magazine: To Illustrate,
January/February 1989. Fredericksburg Illustration Collection.
#12852 "The Most Miserable Man Living," Fredericksburg Illustration
Collection.
#30945 "A Pastor's Effective Curse," from article "When The Branches Are
Bare," by Terry Powell, Discipleship Journal #147; May-June 2005,
pages 49-50.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
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