Covenant Baptist Church
Sermon Guide for July 20, 2019
Would you say you are coming to know and enjoy the presence of Jesus more and more in your life?
Why do you do the “spiritual disciplines” that you do? (Reading the Bible, praying, worship etc…)
If you could be totally honest (and you can!), with regard to your life with God so far, do you feel…
· Frustrated?
· Disappointed?
· Confused?
· Bored?
Or do you, more and more, feel…
· Perfectly loved?
· Joyful?
· Hopeful?
· Peace?
· Content?
John 15:1-8 ESV
I. What is this fruit? Car-pas’
Car-pas’ is any kind of good that is produced by God in us or in our lives.
II. Do I really want to bear this fruit? (Is this really the kind of life I would enjoy living?)
If, right now, we could easily and clearly see the difference between a life marked by the kind of fruit God produces and the life marked by the fruit we can produce ourselves we would undoubtedly choose the life God produces in us.
Ephesians 5:8-10 NIV
Galatians 5:22-23 ESV
We cannot imagine a more attractive, more desirable kind of life than this.
III. How do we bear this fruit? (How do we get this kind of life?)
We become bearers of this fruit and live the kind of life we are all dying to live by learning to
abide in Jesus.
To remain in Jesus means we are learning to be…
· Increasingly aware of Jesus with us
· Increasingly interactive/relational with Jesus
· Increasingly obedient to/trusting of Jesus
The With God Life is the life every person deeply desires but. most often, we try to gain it without God.
The With God Life is the life Jesus speaks of in John 10:10 when He says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 15:4-5 NASB1995
Matthew 11:28-30 NASB1995
John 15:8 NASB1995
We have largely lost the power of the witness of a With God Life on display for the world to see.
The good news today is that turning that around only requires us to accept Jesus invitation to stop trying on our own and come to Him and let Him do this in us and through us.