Pastor Robert Morris - Root Cause - Roots and Fruit

turn your Bibles to John John 15 John 15 and then if you want to go to another passage you can put a marker at Matthew 21 so we'll beginning John 15 we're going to finish the message in Matthew 21 and if you want to bonus scripture if you're a professional and can do three scriptures in one message we're going to stop at Isaiah 5 in the middle there all right so John 15 the title of this message is roots and fruit roots and fruit and I begin thinking about desiring to bear good fruit in my life that calls me to begin to think about roots because the root bears the free and so the title of the whole series are beginning a new series it's called root cause in other words what is the root cause of what I'm going through or what I'm experiencing whether it's success or failure in an area there are some areas of my life where I see a lot of fruit I mean I just in those areas I seem to be extremely blessed there are other areas of my life and you can probably relate to this where I don't see good fruit sometimes I see bad fruit and so I started thinking I want to produce good fruit and as I begin study just for me personally it took me to the root it's like we focus on the fruit instead of the root it's the root that causes the fruit in John 15 verse 8 says by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so I know God wants me to bear fruit I know it brings glory to God when I bear a good fruit but I think we focus on trying to bear good fruit instead of focusing on the root of the problem or the root cause that is what's producing the effect so let me ask you some questions what's the the root cause of blessings in our lives what's the the root cause of a besetting sin that we have what's a root cause of bondage maybe there's an area of bondage in our lives what's the root cause what's the root cause of losing jobs some people have gone from job to job the job job can't keep a job well what's the root cause instead of focusing on other people let's let's look inwardly what's the root cause of that what's the what's the root cause of bad relationships people go from bad relationship to bad another bad relationship what's the root cause of that what's the root cause of financial success our financial struggle a lot of people have continued financial struggle what's the root cause well what's the you understand I'm saying we could just go on and on and on what's what's the root cause so let me let me talk to you a little bit about roots and fruit and before we go back to some more scriptures in John 15 let me show you a couple of scriptures in Matthew Matthew 7 verses 17 and 18 I saw this in a new light as I was studying a tree last few weeks it says even so every good every every every all of them every good tree and I think the tree has roots okay so every good root bears good fruit but a bad root a bad tree Bears bad fruit a good tree a good root cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree or a bad route bear good fruit it it's just helping me understand if I have a good root in my life that's why I have good free in that area of my life but if I have a bad root it cannot produce good fruit so I need to think about how to tear out the bad roots and how to plant nourish the good roots here's another scripture Matthew 12:33 either make the tree good make the reap good man's fruit will be good or else make the reap bad and it's fruits bad for a tree a ray is known by its roots so I want to talk to you about roots and fruit today and here here's someone tell you three things all right here's here's number one Jesus is the divine I'm using that because John 15 used that language or we're going to read it but when you think about this he's the root I'll actually show you scripture that shows that Jesus is the root but he's the vine and he says it very clearly John 15 verse 5 he says I am the vine no words on the root you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing okay he's the vine that goes beneath the ground that's on the inside he's the root let me show you a few verses that show that Jesus is the root Isaiah is the has the most messianic references in the Old Testament of any of all the Old Testament books in other it's the most prophecies about the Messiah so let me show you a few that are about Jesus obviously the Messiah and declare how he's a root Isaiah 11:1 says there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots I'm the vine you're the branches Isaiah 11:10 and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse referring again to Jesus Isaiah 53 that talks about this crucifixion verse 2 says he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground ground Jesus gonna grow up as a root out of dry ground revelation 5:5 one of the elders said to me do not weep behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals the root of David by the way I like how Rev this verse says that revelation 22:16 says I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches I am the root now watch this and offspring of David the bright morning star how can you be the root and the offspring well here's what he's saying there he's the root because he's God but remember he became a man so as a man he became the offspring of David he's the root and the offspring let me say another way he's the first and the last he's the beginning of the end he's the Alpha and the Omega he's the author and the finisher of our faith so he's the root so you can't bear good fruit without the root you have to know that in Jesus is the root here's the way he said it in the verse we just read verse 5 without me you can do nothing you can do nothing now I like to I like math and English those are the two subjects that I'm strongest in and in math in English you do the same thing to understand that the topic there and that is you break it down in language you break down the phrase or the words and math you break down the numbers on one day on vacation we came in my old they said to Grady my oldest grandson who's about to enter first grade they said tell papaw what you just told us he said 12 plus 12 is 24 and they said aha and how'd you figure that out he said well it's easier to add 10 plus 10 and 2 plus 2 so 10 plus 10 is 20 and 2 plus 2 is 4 and 20 plus 4 is 24 ok that may not be exciting you it's exciting to me because he is gonna be good in math like his grandfather seeing I like that he's breaking it down that's how you do it okay same way with the language you break it down and words I love to break down words for instance the word discouraged what's the root of the word discouraged courage dis when you put this in front of it means take it out or pull it out without that's what it means so when you when you speak discouraged when you discouraged your spouse you're taking courage out of your spouse kind just say that that's not helping your marriage when you discourage your kids you're taking courage out of them so I like to break down words so one of the words I want to break down here is Jesus say without me you can do nothing get your it's real simple nothing is one word but it's made up of two words what are the two words no thing without me you can do nothing here's what we think we will do we think well I'm do some things you said nope no thing no thing Philippians says it this way to remember this will now through me through him we can do I just want you to remember these two truths okay with Jesus all things without Jesus no things why because he's the root so you have to know that he's the root now it says I'm the vine that's where he uses your undivided now you need to know that um this word vine could be translated grapevine I'm the grapevine I don't think it sounds as poetic though I'm the grapevine you know it sounds a little better sake I am the vine you know you have to say it like you're in the Easter production I am the vine but but it means grapevine let me give you the exact definition from a Greek lexicon here's what the exact definition is a vine that produces fruit a fruit producing vine as opposed to a jungle vine that's the definition a fruit producing vine as opposed to a jungle bite and we know it's a fruit producing vine because the many of you've read John 15 before he talks about pre the every branch that bears fruit my father prunes so you don't prune a a non-free producing guy in a jungle by you don't produce it you don't freakin that prune them okay I grew up surveying land surveying for my dad's company my father owned an engineering company and one division of the company was surveying so I started surveying when I was 8 years old he took me on Saturdays and great dad 8 years old gave me a machete taught me how to cut brush I don't know if they allow kids to do that today but it was good for me uh but one of the things I did was I cut vines and branches that were in the lake so we could you know see where the line was but I remember my dad told me to watch out for a certain type of vine and I didn't understand it until I got caught by one I had thorns on it but my dad said to me watch out for the wait a minute vines we never knew what the official name were was but we just that's what he called him here's what would happen you'd be walking along in the vine with gradients they wait a minute that's why we call them wait a minute vines yeah think about it Jesus said I'm the I'm the vine that produces fruit in your life I'm not the jungle vine that grows wild in the world that when you're trying to go somewhere and produce fruit it will reach out and grab you and say wait a minute I'm the fruit producing line so Jesus is the vine here's the second thing we need know from John 15 we are the branches we're the branches John 15 verse 4 says abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you you can't bear fruit by yourself unless you abide in me again like my line of thinking was I want to bear good fruit I thought of Galatians I thought of the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22 and 23 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace longsuffering I won't think things in my life kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control but here's what Jesus said you can't you can't do it without me now I do want you to understand that he uses the word bear the problem is we think he says you can't bear fruit the branch can't bear fruit the problem is that we think the word bear means produce but that's not what it means the word bear actually means to carry like you bear a burden you carry the burden so here's what he's saying you can't carry the free without me now I want you to understand here's what he's saying in this passage also now you I'm the one that produces it so you have to stay connected in vine but if you don't abide in me you can't even display it we we bear our carry fruit for two reasons one is to display God to the world love we display what true love is peace joy long-suffering kindness gentleness that we display that but another reason is it's so that people can eat the fruit in other words when they come in relationship with us they can taste and see that the Lord is good because we're bearing the fruit of the Spirit but the key here is obviously the word abide he said abide in me and you'll bear fruit abide in me okay let me tell you what the definition of this word abide is it means to stay in one place for a long time to stay in one place for a long time and it has the connotation the root of this word to stay through struggle you know if you've ever been any of the vineyards in California they talk to you about that that the the grapes are better produce better wine if they have to struggle if they'll stay through the struggle how long you think about this the people that really bear good fruit are the people that stay in a committed relationship with Christ through the struggle not people to go in and out not the people that serve God when things are good but they don't serve in when things are bad and you can apply this other situations you know if you're a believer and you're married do you stay through the struggle you're believing you're in business do you stay through the financial bad times still still tithe still stay committed during that time do you stay in the word do you're biting in the word you know abiding stay stay you know like you many of us make a commitment to read through the Bible in January how's that working out I don't mean that wrong but I've done it too got all pumped up and then get so far behind just quit think I'll do it again next January are you following stay a bye we went on a vacation and one of the weeks of our time off we have three grown and married children they have children all of them have children we get we take all of the children grandchildren one of the weeks on a vacation somewhere I've selling a guy this while back and he said how in the world do you get all of your grown children get all their schedules together I said well I pay for it so they they work it out they work it out and they're there so so we went to Florida this year we went to a beach and we were staying in this home so we could all stay together we found that's better than separate rooms try to get a house where we go and beautiful beautiful home beautiful home but when we up there the very day we got there the air conditioner on the top floor went out and we were there seven nights if they didn't fix it until the last day two of the bedrooms are upstairs well James and Bridgette stayed upstairs without the air conditioning the whole week never complained Josh and Hannah stayed in this kid's bunk room that they had slept on bunk beds for the whole you know time except for the last night we all were able to move into you know some different rooms and then Ethan and Lane we went deep-sea fishing one day and Elaine got sick and I mean really sick I mean you know throwing up over the boat the side of the boat nearly the whole time then that Ethan's trying to take care of her and he got you know a little queasy then you know and so you know I said to her you know Lane we can go back we can go back you know and I never said this costs me a lot of money he never said that was real sweet I just said we can go if you're not feeling well we know like she said no I won't y'all y'all are catching fish and I want you to I want you to stay and we did we caught a lot of fish of course we thought maybe it was because d'Alene was providing the times I just sorry we did have seafood for lunch so you know you okay so there's a lot of fish around the boat so anyway I'm not horrible uh but my here's my point if a can't you didn't go right you did everything didn't go perfectly you know we had one one kid and one of our kids right so I say kids but they're so old I got kids not to mess with one of our children and his spouse they're sleeping a lot air conditioning one sleeping in bunk beds the others you know gets real sick but they never complain I was just I was proud of it here here's why they that good fruit they displayed kindness and patience and self-control why because they're abiding in the bottle so Jesus is the vine were the branches here's number three the father is the vine dresser the father is the vine dresser verse one says John 15 verse one says I am The True Vine and my father is the vine dresser now I know we might think what does that mean the vine dresser let me tell you what that means it means the owner of the vineyard he's the owner of the vineyard now we're going to get to Matthew 21 in a moment but let me just show you Isaiah 5 I hope one of the fruits of attending gateway is that you fall in love with the Bible that you just fall in love with the Bible and that you fall over the Old Testament also if you don't know the Old Testament is part of the Bible and I love the Old Testament I was telling someone a while back about this and he said you I've never really gotten into the Old Testament I'll just I just read the New Testament I said to him everything that you can show me in the New Testament written the old that's true I mean I can show you I've tried to find things in the New Testament and think now where was that in the Old Testament and and go looking for it to find it even many of the miracles that Jesus did even you know where he multiplied the bread Elisha did that he had 20 loaves of bread and fed a hundred men and there was food left over you know there are so many things like that that it's just cool so we're gonna read something Matthew in a moment but I'm gonna show read something in Isaiah I just want you to watch how unbelievable is done by the way when we read it Matthew what you'll see in the New Testament is the end of the story the rest of the story is Paul Harvey used to say the rest of the story so alright Isaiah 5 verse 1 says now let me sing to my well-beloved this is to the father okay a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard my well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful Hill he dug it up and cleared out its stones and he planted it and I watches carefully with the choicest vine okay let me just ask you who's the vine we just read it Jesus he said I'm the vine he planted it I love this word choicest what the choicest vine the father did this he built a tower in its midst he also made a wine press in it so he expected it to bring forth good grapes are good fruit but he brought forth wild grapes or bad fruit and now o inhabitants of Jerusalem amenable you to judge please between me and my vineyard what more could have been done to my vineyard that I'm not done in it why then when I expected it to bring forth good grapes did it bring forth wild grapes look at verse 5 and now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away its hedge now let's stop just for a moment just want to get and show you how the whole Bible fits together um did you know that you have a hedge of protection around you it's called the Word of God the hedge is the Word of God by the way don't ever pray a hedge of thorns around someone hosea prayed that over go God said that about Gomer when she was away from God foreign drivers at demonic spirits we went through that in the free indeed series so you're not your only prey a heads of thorns means that they'll have trouble so they'll come back so you're praying protection you pray a hedge of the Word of God and just that's free just a little give you a little tidbit there ok but a hedge protection says he put a hedge around it now remember when a Satan came before God in job chapter 1 God said have you considered my servant job who's a blameless and upright man and and and who serves me and and here's what Satan said he said oh yeah he serves you because you have a hedge around him I can't touch him and so God took away the hedge and Satan was able to touch him and job still serve the Lord see alright so notice here any judgment God will take away the hedge we saw that in the free indeed series that God will take away the heads to bring us back to him so here's what he says he said I'm gonna take away its hedge and it shall be burned and break down its wall and it shall be trampled down I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned or dug member if it bears fruit it gets pruned and it shall be trampled down okay but there shall come up briars and thorns there there it is that's the enemy coming in I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on and then it virginity if you don't know who he's telling that it says for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel the house of Israel obviously the Jewish people but it also represents we've been grafted in to the branch and so now we're it's talking about the people of God okay so you had that in the in the Old Testament about the vineyard and I want you to show you how what Jesus says in Matthew 21 verse 33 he says hear another parable a parable again is a story that you tell the represent a tree there was a certain landowner remember he's the land owned he owns at all the earth is the Lord's Nepal nasarah who planted a vineyard set a hedge around it dug a winepress in it and built a tower is that sound familiar Isaiah 5 we just read it and he leased it to vine dressers in other words he gave it to leaders in the church to manage it well and he went into a far country now in vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the vine dresser as that's his profits he sent prophets he sent prophet after prophet to try to get Israel to come back that they might receive its fruit and the vine dressers took his servants the prophets beat one killed one and stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did likewise to them now the story's about to turn a little bit but I want you to just stay with me for a moment I have not been able to read this passage for years without crying and I've wanted to share this four years with you this passage I want you to understand the reason it's difficult for me is because Jesus is telling this story about himself and it's about seven days before he's crucified he's been on the earth for thirty three and a half years he's been in ministry now for a little over three years preaching and teaching and he's entering the last week of his life he's about to be watch what he says in the next verse verse 37 then last of all he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son now we're going to continue in Matthew 21 just a moment but let me read you the same verse in in Luke and in Mark Luke 20 verse 13 says then the owner of the vineyard said what shall I do I will send my beloved son probably and this word means hopefully hopefully they'll respect him when they see him here it is in mark chapter 12 verse 6 therefore still having one son his beloved he also sent him to them last saying they will respect my son I want your thing about Jesus is telling this he's talking about himself he says the owner of the vineyard thought I'm gonna send my one beloved son I he's him he's the beloved son verse 38 of Matthew 21 but when the vine dresser saw the son they said among themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and seize his inheritance so they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him Hebrew says when they crucified Him they took him outside the city because that's where they would kill the scapegoat - Jesus was our scapegoat therefore watch how he brings it around verse 40 Jesus says this therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those vine dressers what's he going to do to the people that don't accept his son now let me say this to you if you're not a Christ follower yet maybe you believe yes I believe Jesus son of God but you're not following let's be honest about it okay don't put up a show are you really following Christ if you're not a Christ follower you have a choice the choice is are you going to accept the vine that the father sent because the bad fruit in your life is because Jesus is not your rate that's why you have bad free but as a believer you have a choice too and that is are you going to abide through the struggle are you going to stay in a committed relationship to Christ no matter what you go through when I this past January I went to the Philippines and when I cow pic tup some sort of a stomach virus there when I came back I was very very sick for three weeks the stomach virus lasted for three weeks and we had to just let it run its course now but then I also got bronchitis and Debby got bronchitis and so she and I went to the doctor we met with him together and I'll never forget he said he took x-rays of her lungs and all and he said to Debbie he said you have bronchitis and he looked at me and he said and you have acute bronchitis and I said there's nothing cute about this I don't know why you call it cute that's not cute um but anyway uh so he gave us some prescriptions and called me and you know and and I went home I took Debbie home and then I waited a few hours and then I called the pharmacy to see you know if they're ready have you ever you ever done this because you know you drive up there they're not ready you know so so I called to make sure they said yes they're ready so I drove up went through the window it's a very nice lady very nice lady and she said I'm sorry but they're not ready now wanted to say I called you know to find out they're ready because I'm sick I don't feel well and I've been out you know uh working for God you know I didn't say any of that huh I just said okay and she said can you you know come back in about 15 minutes so you know you just drive around set in the parking lot you know and so then I went back to the drive-thru I wouldn't let it gave him 20 minutes you know went back to the drive-thru and she said there's a problem with your insurance can you come inside it's like you know the after January something that happened and so I said yes and so I went inside and took about 30 minutes to resolve the problem and um but I was coming I was praying to be kind I really was praying I was plays praying not to cuss but uh that's the same thing don't cuss be kind okay same thing so I was I was kind I was I was glad I was kind through the whole thing but at the end of it when she finished everything she said to me by the way I enjoyed the message a few weeks ago and then she said it was my first time to visit Gateway and I want you to know I'm coming back okay she saw good fruit in my life even through a tough time because I'm abiding in the vine the Lord produced the fruit I didn't produce it I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I reason I asked you to close your eyes and so you just take a few moments and kind of focus on what the Lord saying to you and I want you to let we do this every weekend that is at the end of message we just we ask the Lord that question not out loud but just in our hearts we just say Lord what are you saying to me what he's saying to me I want you think about you probably have some areas in your life where you see good fruit and like I you probably have some areas in your life where you struggle so what's what's the route let's ask the Lord to reveal these roots over the next few weeks and we want to pray for you every campus if you're new here this is the way we we in the service we have one more worship song and during this time we have leaders at the front of every campus in every overflow room and if you have any prayer need you just while we're singing we'll all stand in just a moment you just make your way to the front of the campus or the overflow room where you are and and just tell one of the leaders I need prayer in this area of my life maybe you're going through a struggle in your family your marriage your health your finances your job your relationships your relationship with God maybe it's moment ago I said if you're not a Christ follower yet truly following Christ not just believes they believe but really following him you can do that today you can receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior you could decide to follow Christ today so in just a moment every campus will stay on own I want to say something else too you don't have to be a member of Gateway Church to come for prayer and and don't ever be embarrassed to come ask refer because we all need prayer we all need prayer so you need prayer in any area of your life as soon as we stand up you just stand up step out and come to the front and right Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus that has the need for prayer right now in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you

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Length: 34min 15sec (2055 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 06 2014