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Daniel Vis

The Root and the Fruit

I want to talk about a problem that I see in Christianity.

And not just in Christianity in general, but I see it in our own denomination.

And probably it's right here in our own church.

If you've been here long enough, I imagine you've seen this problem.

Now this is just my observation that I'm going to be sharing today, I suppose, but I think it's a very real problem.

And in fact, it's something that troubles me.

And I don't want to step on anyone's toes today, but this is a real issue that I think we need to talk about.

So, to make sure that I'm careful with what I say, I want to pray.

So I invite you just to bow your heads with me.

Father in Heaven, we come to You this morning because I recognize my need for the Holy Spirit to guide my words that I can say just the right things in just the right way to communicate Your message and not my own opinions or thoughts, Lord, please speak through me and help every heart to be open and receptive to this still, small voice of the Holy Spirit as You speak to them.

May they hear Your voice, not mine, I pray.

Please, bless our time together, we ask now in Jesus' name.

People don't really seem to change all that much when they become Christians.

Yes, we know there's kind of the superficial outward changes that people make, but I'm talking about the deep, inward character changes, personality changes that you would kind of expect would be a part of becoming a Christian and living the Christian life.

I've known a number of people, I could probably count them on my fingers, that I've known over a period of time, and you just see dramatic change in their whole personality, their whole temperament, their whole outlook on life.

There's like radical change, but it's rare.

Most of the time what I see, and I've been a Christian for 40 years now, so I've had time to see people develop over time.

Most of the time, it seems like people are still struggling with the very same character flaws, the very same character issues they had when they became a Christian 20, 30, 40 years later.

And it just kind of bothers me a little bit.

I mean, there should be like real tangible change when the Spirit of God comes into our life, and yet many times we just keep on keeping on with the same old, same old problems, and there's not that change that we would expect.

Because you would think that the fruit of the Spirit, which is kind of what I'm talking about this morning.

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, all those things.

You would think that like any other kind of fruit, they just grow naturally.

And if you become a Christian, you're going to start to see those things.

But based on my observation all these years, many times, sometimes it does, but many times it doesn't happen.

Now if you think about it for a moment, you'll realize it's not really that hard of a problem.

You remember in John 15, you know the passage where Jesus is talking about the branches and the vine.

And He makes it clear that If we're going to bear fruit, we have to do what?

So if we're not abiding in the vine, we're not going to bear fruit.

Jesus said, abide in Me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can you and no more can we bear fruit except we abide in Him, Christ.

And by the way, I should point out that if we fail to bear fruit, you're looking a little later in verse 6, it says those branches are cut off from the vine, they are withered, and they're gathered into piles to be burned.

I do not want to be 1 of those branches that does not bear fruit, amen?

In other words, this character transformation that we're looking at this morning is not an inconsequential thing.

Why so few Christians seem to change over time?

I mean, if some people change, but a lot of people don't really change, then maybe only some people are abiding, and maybe a lot of people are not actually abiding, even though they may think they are.

Well, I'd like to suggest another passage of Scripture that just comes to my mind.

But in Psalms 1, there's another very familiar passage that I believe kind of fills in some of the missing pieces for this metaphor, and it says basically that if we delight in the law of the Lord and we meditate in that law day and night, right?

Then we're gonna be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and we will bring forth our fruit in its season.

I mean, it's gonna be guaranteed that if we're meditating on the Word of God, we're constantly reflecting on His law day and night, kinda trying to internalize the principles of Scripture in our heart, we will bear fruit.

But if we're not doing that, then maybe that fruit won't appear.

By the way, there's other promises there.

It also says our leaf's not going to wither.

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's easy to get discouraged, overwhelmed, but you're not going to wither if you're abiding in Christ and you're meditating on His Word day and night.

In fact, that verse goes on to say that you'll prosper in whatever you do.

You'll have success in whatever you attempt to do, because the principles of success are all found in the Word of God.

And if we'll just set down roots into Scripture, it's going to bless every facet of our life.

So in other words, the key to bearing fruit, it seems to me, is to be able to meditate on God's Word, to put down deep roots into its principles, and then when we're rooted into its principles, then it results in fruit in the life.

And when those roots are not formed, then it leads to a fruitless life where there's not change.

Or to put it more bluntly, if we want the fruit of the Spirit in our life, then that is going to be proportional or contingent or related in some way to how thoroughly we are internalizing Scripture.

But I'd like to suggest that there are specific truths in the Bible that lead to specific character qualities.

In other words, if you have this specific principle rooted in your heart, you're rooted into this principle, it's gonna yield a specific character trait, a specific fruit.

And if you have the wrong root, then you have the wrong fruit.

The right root, then you have the right fruit.

And in fact, if you could go through each of those 9 character qualities in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, generous, all those, I would argue that every 1 of those can be traced back to some biblical principle.

When that principle is rooted in the heart, it results in that character quality, and there's connections.

Specific principles lead to specific character qualities.

Now, we don't have time to go into all 9 of them by any means, but I want to give you just an example of 1 of them.

Just 1 character quality, and the root principle that results in that character fruit, so to speak.

So the 1 I want to talk about today is love.

You know, it's tempting to think that just because we become a Christian, we're all naturally going to become more loving.

But the reality is, there are a lot of unfriendly churches in this world.

And there are Christians who do a lot of unloving things.

It's not natural or automatic or guaranteed that just because you invite Christ into your life, you're suddenly going to become loving.

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The Root and the Fruit

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