The Secret of Productive Life- Rick Warren

hi everybody welcome to Saddleback before I teach you today from God's Word I want to make a couple of personal comments first thank you for your prayers during my two months of not preaching while the doctors have been trying to figure out how to manage my lifelong brain disorder it's not life-threatening in any way but it does make public speaking very painful and over thirty years I've been to the best doctors Mayo Clinic everywhere they've all given me different meds over the years that have helped me manage it but those meds stopped working in December and the side effects increased and so for the past few months they asked me to take some time off for two months and I tried ten different new medications in the last two months now the result is we know what doesn't work yes none of them really worked but they're gonna keep looking and I and they're gonna keep working on that but I'm gonna be back to the Lake Forest campus starting next week with the new summer series and I'll be talking about that second I want to say thanks to the 10 different teachers on our staff and in our church who helped me teach this series on margin you know I taught the first two weeks and I'm teaching this last message this weekend and I heard every message on margin that those ten people that I picked to teach a taught and then last weekend I actually sat down with a notepad and I watched all seven previous messages again I want to urge you to do the same thing because by watching them back-to-back it was like a seminar on on living with margin if you missed any of them you can go online just like I did and I literally watched all seven messages back-to-back and Wow one of the things that taught me showed me is the bench strength that we have on our preaching and teaching team is pretty deep for a church to have this many great Bible teachers and we didn't even use everybody in our in our a team in one church was amazing and I relax knowing that you're being well fed when I was working on these health issues third I want to say thanks to you thank you for your faithfulness to attend worship while I've been out says a lot about your maturity you're an amazing group of people your commitment is the Word of God into this family this is not a personality driven Church it's a Purpose Driven Church finally I want to ask you to pray for me this week I'm actually gonna be teaching some during the week I'm going to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan who leads all of the Catholics of the state of New York heard my classic seminar called how to maintain moral integrity in your ministry I've been teaching it for 30 years and he heard it and he said Rick I need you to come and do a retreat for all the Catholic priests of New York and come and teach on how to maintain moral integrity in your ministry these are the guidelines the biblical guidelines that we use on staff at Saddleback now every church is going to have problems with staff because we're all sinners but we have minimized this at Saddleback and had very few incidents over nearly 40 years because of the Saddleback standards and the staff guidelines and our covenants that we keep and I'm going to be teaching that to all of the Catholic priests of New York this week in a two-day retreat on moral integrity so pray for me now today I want to wrap up our series on living with a margin by looking at the secrets of a productive life you know that's the goal for living with margin is we we want to do to be more effective with less stress and less pressure and so take out your message notes get out your outline right now that says the secrets of a productive life you know I have traveled all around the world training leaders you know in every country that I've had the privilege of visiting and in training those leaders I've noticed that there is a universal desire for productivity most people really want their lives to count we want our lives to matter we want to feel useful we want to make a difference we we don't want to waste our lives instead we want our lives to be productive and you know the people who are productive are the happiest when they're actually being productive you're more happy when you are being more productive now the Bible word for this using what God has given to you is called stewardship productivity is always about making the most of what you've been given God is responsible for what he gives you but you're responsible for what you do with it now making the most of what you've been given is called productivity now we're the past 40 years hundreds maybe thousands of books have been published about how to increase your personal productivity in your life in your career you know even in your hobbies and it's no exaggeration to say a lot of people around the world are obsessed with being more productive how do I get more done really it's not how much you get done it's are you doing the right thing you know there's seminars there classes of courses you can take to be more productive but it may surprise you that the Bible the Bible as actually the most to say about how to live a productive life now here's the key the Bible doesn't use the word productivity so much it's in there that words there but depending on the translation that doesn't use the word productivity as much as it uses another word for productivity it's an organic word it's a biblical word and that word is fruitfulness fruitfulness or bearing fruit is the biblical way of talking about you living a productive life the Bible is very clear that God wants you to be fruitful or productive that he made you to be fruitful he has shaped you to be fruitful he expects you to be fruitful he wants you to live a productive life fruitfulness is a major theme of Jesus life in fact at the very end of his life right before he died on the cross one of the last things Jesus emphasized of all the things he could have talked about with his closest followers the disciples those that expected them to now go out and to be productive he expected them to bear fruit and at the very end the very you know last word is important right before Jesus goes to the cross the very last thing he talks about as he gives an entire chapter John chapter 15 to the subject of being fruitful being productive we're gonna look at several verses from that passage today now the Bible tells us that God wants to see fruit in our lives and and in our ministry we're going to look at some of the principles that produce productivity in your life in your ministry in your family in your career whatever let me just start by asking this what do you want with your life let me think about that really what what what do you really want to accomplish with your life because if you don't know there's no use talking about productivity I have to say that that at the end of my life more than anything else I want to be able to say that I led a productive a fruitful a Purpose Driven Life now then the question becomes well how does God measure productivity in other words what does God consider to be real fruit now the word fruit in the Bible is the Greek word Karpos speak word and it's used 66 times in the New Testament so fruits a big theme in the Bible so let's go back to John 5th chapter 15 look at verse 8 there on your outline where Jesus makes this important statement he says this this is to my father's glory in other words this is how you bring glory to God that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples now this is an incredibly important verse for your life because it teaches three things about productivity and fruit first it tells us that fruit brings glory to God bringing bearing fruit brings glory to God write that down bearing fruit brings glory to God the Bible says that the goal of our lives is to bring glory to God and so how do we do that well whatever fruitfulness is whatever productivity is it brings glory to God so we certainly want to learn how to be productive because that brings honor to our Heavenly Father second thing write this down bearing fruit shows that I'm a disciple it's the proof that you're in God's family the Bible says it's the proof that I really know the Lord by this you show you're my disciples if I don't have any fruit in my life how can I claim to be a disciple a follower of Christ a Christian in the family of God he says fruit is the proof that you're a follower of Christ number three write this down God wants me to bear much fruit circle the word much God wants me to bear much fruit I want you to notice this in John chapter 15 verse 16 there on your outline Jesus says you did not choose me but I chose you you did not choose me but I chose you to go and what bear much fruit and that fruit will last now again that's an incredibly important verse so I want you to write down two important truths first write this down bearing fruit is the purpose of my salvation jesus said I chose you to bear fruit to bear much fruit he said I didn't save you just so you could go to heaven I didn't save you so you could sit and soak and sour I saved you to serve to bear fruit so that you could live a productive life for me God has made an investment in your life through salvation what kind of investment Jesus gave his life for you he died on the cross for you he created you he saved you he puts his spirit in you he's made an investment at you and one day he's gonna do an audit of your life and mine and he's gonna say what did you do with what you were given I came and died on the cross for you did you live a fruitful life did you live a productive life that's what the parable of the talents is all about an important parable that Jesus told in the Bible bearing fruit is the purpose of your salvation second truth this is really important write it down a truly productive life is one where the fruit lasts circled the word lasts you know there's a big difference between fruit blossoms and then immediately rots and vanishes and fruit that lasts over the long time in my life one of the values that I've always held most dearly is consistency over the long haul there there are a lot of people who are flash-in-the-pan successes their overnight successes their ministries just start off great and and their life start up greatly skyrocket and they're well known and they're successful and they have a lot of impact and a lot everybody knows what's going on their life but then they fizzle out in a few years and you go where are those people today ok one minute they're the hero the next minute they're zero I'm not interested in that I've always been interested in consistent plotting day-in day-out growth progress development becoming more like Christ what I'm interested is consistency over the long haul you know I've been walking with Jesus now over 50 years then I've been serving him full time over 45 years I want to be able to at the end of my life to hear those words where God says well done well done good and faithful servant you were you were faithful to the end you completed your assignment you finished the race you completed the course the Bible says that real life and real fruitfulness and real productivity will not be judged on how much you accomplished in life or how big an impact you made but the real question of fruit is not how big the fruit is but did it last did the fruit last and the whole reason that I wanted to do this margin series with you is because you cannot stay productive over the long haul you can't short-term but you can't over the long haul without margin in your life where you make space to slow the pace of your life our best requires rest so important God put it in the 10 commandments the Sabbath every six days you take a day off that involves making space to slow the pace you rock if you don't have margin you're not gonna make it a finish line I wouldn't have made it you know coming up on you know 39 years here at Saddleback Church if I hadn't learned how to pace myself now I need to explain to you as we begin talking about how to live a productive life which is the result of margin is understanding there are many different definitions of the words fruit in Scripture so let me just give you four real quick okay can you write these down fast there when people talk about fruit well what kind of fruit do you talk about well they're at least four kinds of fruit talked about in the New Testament first write this down there's the fruit of repentance sometimes when the Bible uses the word fruit it's literally talking about turn away from your self-centeredness and turn to God focus turn turn to God that's what John the Baptist talked about when John the Baptist said bring forth fruit of repentance he's talking to the religious leaders like the Pharisees he goes you guys aren't showing any fruit you don't have any change your heart I don't see any fruit I don't see any fruit of the Spirit I don't see any fruit of repentance I don't see a change of mine a change of heart so repentance is is the first kind of fruitfulness and if you've never repented it simply means to say I'm turning from my control of life to God's control of my life alright now number two another form of fruit is let us call the fruit of the Spirit that's a specific list in Galatians 5:22 and 23 at least 9 carrots qualities the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience a gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness and self-control that is the fruit of character and so sometimes in the Bible's talking about fruit it's talking about the character of our lives and that's another kind of fruit that God wants you to be fruitful in he wants you to grow more and more like Christ number three a third way the word fruit used in the Bible is it's the fruit of another Christian in other words when you bring somebody to the Lord when you help somebody else into the kingdom of God when you help somebody else be born again when you share your faith you bring them to church or whatever you know just like a baby kangaroo produces baby kangaroos and and an elephant produces baby elephants people produce baby humans the fruit of a Christian is another Christian and God wants you to bear fruit God wants you to reproduce he wants us somehow to tell other people about him somebody told you you are somebody else's fruit do you realize that you're the fruit of somebody else's effort of telling you about the Lord you know they're only two things you can't do in heaven I told you this before but you might have forgotten it only two things you can't do in heaven you can sing in heaven you can worship in heaven you can fellowship in heaven you can read the Bible in heaven you can pray you can eat you can relax you can have fun in heaven all those things that we do here on earth you do those enough they're only two things you can't do in heaven number one is sin there's no sin in heaven and number two you can't tell an unbeliever the good news you can't witness you can't share your faith you can't share your open why because there's no unbelievers in heaven now of those two things sin and tell other people the good news which one do you think God leaves you here on earth to do not to sin and if you're not gonna tell anybody else why didn't God just kill you and take you on to heaven anyway the fruit of a Christian should be another Christian just like an apple tree bears apples and so that's the third way fruit is used it refers to repentance it refers to character like the fruit of spirit it refute it refers to other people coming to Christ but there's a fourth way that the word fruit is used in in in the Bible and it's actually the fruit of ministry and what this means is being involved in serving God the way God shaped you using your gifts your heart your abilities your personality your experiences you know we have a class on this class 301 discovering your shape for ministry I wrote that class many years ago and literally thousands and thousands of people have gone through to Saddleback and tens of thousands of people all around the world taking class 301 which is a class designed to help you discover how to be the most fruitful based on your shape all the things that God made you to shape you to become the minister the servant of God that he wants you to be and every Christian is a minister you know that not every Christian is a pastor but every Christian is a minister and he wants us to show fruit or be productive now Jesus took this issue of bearing fruit very very seriously at one time he's walking into the city of Jerusalem and the Bible says he saw a tree and it was fruit tree that had not borne any fruit as all leaves plenty of leaves on it but no fruit at all now the purpose of a fruit tree is to bear fruit not just to have leaves and the Bible says and Jesus never does anything by accident Jesus looks at this barren fruit tree no fruit on it and the Bible says he did some very serious he cursed the tree that seems very harsh he cursed it the disciples are amazed that he would do it it hadn't morning he just cursed the fruit tree does and borne fruit later when they're walking back out of town they come back by that tree and it had withered and died now that was not a parable just our miracles show off it was to teach a lesson about the seriousness of not bearing fruit he says I've been coming to look for fruit on this tree but I haven't found any so cut it down why should it use up the soil in other words why should it take up space now in that parable Jesus is talking about particularly the fruitfulness of Israel the nation of Israel and how he had been walking around that country for three years and hadn't seen really any fruit but the principle here is this if it doesn't bear fruit Jesus says it deserves to be cut down he makes this point over and over and over again friends not just in one place but in place after place in scripture John 15 to Matthew 3:10 look at this verse Matthew 3:10 Jesus says every fruit every fruit tree that doesn't bear fruit will be cut down so what we're talking about here is extremely important you know you've heard probably people say the phrase this is a Christian cliche well God doesn't expect us to be successful just faithful you ever heard that one God doesn't expect you to be successful just faithful well you know what it's only half true of course God wants us to be faithful but God also expects us to be fruitful so I would start by asking you what's your definition of success God doesn't want you to be successful according to the world's standards how do you define success think about that if I say what is success to you because you can't define productivity or fruitfulness if you you can't even define what you consider to be a successful life when we read the scripture God's definition of a successful productive life it's extremely clear to God success is fruitfulness success is productivity so all those things repentance character bringing other people Lord and fulfilling my shape in serving God by serving others ministry just having a lot of leaves in my life it's not enough looking good it's not enough having a great image is not the same thing activity being busy it is that same thing as fruitfulness activity and productivity are not the same thing you can be active and not productive so what is it that produces a productive life why is it some people grow and develop and are productive and others don't I want you to be productive as your pastor I love you I care for you I pray for you and I want you to be successful in every of your life I want you to be productive and I want you be fruitful in every airline I spent a lot of my time studying this and I've learned that there are four conditions for fruitfulness you know we're sitting here it was actually some fruit trees behind me and and they don't all bear fruit every year but they all do bear fruit or they'd get cut down and there are four conditions for fruitfulness that are essential for your life your family your ministry and I want to conclude this series on living of the margin by quickly giving you these four things because this is kind of the action steps of everything you've heard for the past seven other messages okay write these down four conditions for fruitfulness first if I want my life to bear fruit I must cultivate some roots I must cultivate deep deep roots that's the starting point of a fruitful life you have no fruit without the root the root produces the fruit look at this first Jeremiah 17 blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose confidence is in him he will be like a tree here's the here's the metaphor he'll be like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream it doesn't fear when the Heat's on do you figure when the Heat's on it doesn't fear when the Heat's on its leaves always green it has no worries in a year a drought it never fails to bear fruit now I want you to notice that God is saying that roots are the key to fruits that we need roots to make it through the all the tough times and in this verse did you notice that they're two different kinds of tough times that you're going to go through in life and you're not going to bear fruit in those tough times unless you have roots now first he says we have to have roots write this down during the time when the Heat's on he says when the Heat's on you got to have roots out when it's just hot they have to have those deep roots in order to pull the water out of the brown what is the heat on in your life it's the pressures it's the stretches it's when life comes in on you and you don't have the ability to handle it yourself you have to have the spiritual roots are you just still gonna dry up you panic otherwise you know I grew up in Northern California in the giant sequoia redwoods area at a little town called Redwood Valley and if you've ever been through of the redwoods you know that these giant trees can withstand enormous things like a forest fire forest fire can come through and burn part of a tree until it'll grow for hundreds of more years sometimes a redwood tree will go through a fire and half the trunk will be burned away but the tree keeps on growing to hundreds of years and hundreds of feet tall the reason why can withstand that partial loss due to the heat is because of its root system here's an interesting thing you may not know the roots of a redwood tree are not particularly deep they're not really deep but what they do is redwoods always grow in groves they grow together and so what they do is their roots go down moderately deep but then they go out and they criss cross between each other and the trees in a grove of redwoods form a pattern of support and a network that will hold each other up when the Heat's on when the fire comes you need a small group you need a church family you need to join Saddleback if you're not a part of a church family get involved there get your roots not just deep but get them intertwined with other people you know if you were to look at oak trees and you dig up the roots you'd find that the combined length of the roots of a large oak tree actually goes several hundred miles that's why oak trees grow so solid and steady when they can handle all different kinds of seasons and difficult times of life you know and there's another tree I've done a lot of study on this in the tropics banana trees by the way are practically indestructible did you know this because of their roots you can burn them down you can chop them up you can bulldoze over them they'll come back the only way to get rid of a banana tree is actually to uproot it you've got to have roots now notice the Bible says in Proverbs 12 3 the righteous cannot be uprooted can you what does it take you to not to knock you off kilter for starting point in life to be fruitful to be productive you're gonna have to have some roots when the Heat's on then notice it also says we have to have roots when our resources are limited when our resources are limited that's when the time of drought comes along now you know what a drought is it's a long period of doing without rain and and we've in California we just went through a period where we had like a seven-year drought and you know what it did to a lot of things but if you have roots then you're gonna keep on going now a drought in your life's when you don't have what you need at that particular moment some of you are probably going through a drought right now you don't have the money you need you don't have the energy you need you don't have the support the relational support the emotional support that you need right now and you're going through a time of a drought in your life you just don't have what you need the energy the knowledge the the connections whatever of course the times in life you're gonna go through time so you have to do without we heard about that in the cirrie and the message on contentment in this series and the things that you normally depend on for comfort and strength and support and happiness you can lose your job you can lose your health you can lose a dear friend the emotional support you counted on isn't there but how do you get by on those limited resources in a drought having deep roots see the issues how do you handle these losses in your life do you do you wilt you dry up you blow away when the Heat's off or the droughts on you know I read a survey once said that an average pastor leaves a church because of five people who are critical if you don't have roots you're gonna be blown away by what other people say about you on social media and like that you know I call a plant without a root it's called a tumbleweed and if you've seen them they have no roots they dry up and they blow around aimlessly some people are tumbleweeds they live a tumbleweed life it is going from church to church from place to place job the job life the light but you know out there in that desert not only are there tumbleweeds you can also find the cigar el cactus they're beautiful and this the barrel cactus could produce beautiful fruit even in the middle of a hostile desert it can go months and months and months without water and the secret is its root system did you know the cigarro cactus root will often go 50 feet out in diameter now notice this verse in Jeremiah it said when the year of drought comes anybody can survive a day of drought anybody survive a week of drought maybe you can even survive a month a drought but to make it over the long haul during a year a drought when the times are tough in your life you're gonna have to have roots now here's the question how do I grow deep roots well I suggest you memorize this next verse Psalm one two and three you might write it down in a pardon memorized it it says this it says they find their joy and obeying the law of the Lord as they study it day and night they're like trees that grow beside a stream that bear fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not dry up they succeed in everything they do what a promise did you did you underline that they succeed in everything they do are you kidding me what's the key to succeeding and everything you do meditating on the Word of God memorizing the Word of God filling your mind with the Word of God thinking about the Word of God as we stay in God's Word on a consistent basis day after day after day we did a whole session on this in this series on how to have a quiet time you have a quiet time then you're developing the kind of roots that give you the strength to handle the tough times in life let me give you one other verse Colossians 2 6 and 7 since you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord live in union with him keep your roots deep in him build your lives on him and become stronger in your faith as you were taught so here's the first thing if we just stopped the message right there that would be enough start getting into the word every day as you get into this every time you read study memorize meditate think about this book you're building roots in your life but that's not all the rest of fruitfulness you know I'm a gardener last year I grew 56 kinds of vegetables and 17 kinds of fruit so I know this stuff let me give you the second key I don't spend as much time on this but it's important I have to eliminate the weeds in my life if you're gonna be fruitful if you're gonna be productive and I don't have to deepen the roots you gotta eliminate the weeds and this is what margin is all about now Jesus Illustrated this so clearly in the parable of the sower and the seed he talked about the guy the farmer goes out to sow seed and as it as he spreads a seed it lands on four different kinds of soil and he says these four kinds of soil represents four different responses to God's Word in other words it's four different kinds of heart conditions and there's the hard heart there's the impulsive heart there's the crowded heart and there's the good heart that's the best response it's all in in Luke chapter 8 in fact the stories actually told in Matthew Mark Luke and John so important it's told forced times in the Bible the seed is the word of God and the seed falls among different kinds of soil and one of the kinds of soil is called the soil that has weeds in it and it says the seed falls among the weeds and it stands for those who hear the word of God but when the seed starts to sprout it says the weeds of the worries of this life and the cares of this life and materialism the riches of this life and pleasures and hobbies and that what the crowd thinks that all these things are weeds that choke them and the fruit never ripens what are the weeds in your life the weeds in your life or anything that hinder or limit or choke your growth that choke your relationship to Christ that choke you from continuing to develop it's interesting that Jesus mentioned three varieties of wheats he says there's the cares and concerns that choke your life that's worries he says there and they get you uptight that's Bill's finances health whatever what are you worried about and then he says riches is actually money can be a weed greed can be a weed green can consume your life and choke out the desire you're so busy making money so busy trying to make a living you don't make a life I've seen people once they've taste a little bit of money they forget their life they forget their relationships they forget their spouse the kids and they taste it not and all of a sudden it's it's a real problem for many people it's a materialistic motive now the Bible says in the book of Peter that we're not to live our lives for what the Bible calls in King James filthy lucre he says because not for what we can get out of it we don't we serve the Lord because we love the Lord and if I didn't get anything more from God in my life than he's already given me I own the rest of my life he's already done more for me than I could ever do so don't be greedy greed is a weed then notice it says the third weed is pleasure the pleasure in life can crowd out that's chasing the good life when you're always looking for fun experience and that's anything you know recreation can become a weed in your life but we're gonna go to the river this weekend and we're not going to worship a thousands of people don't come to church every weekend around the world millions of people because they're out recreative they're erecting creation in recreation now question how much effort does it take to grow weeds zero you know I'm doing it to grow weeds in your life there weeds are always a sign of neglect hearing me leaves are always a sign of neglect you're not to cultivate them in fact that's the difference with a weed and a vegetable vegetable you have to feed cultivate you work on it and still nice but a weed you don't pay anything you do and it grows weeds just signed him to collect when I neglect my quiet time when I neglect the things that keep me balanced in my life and my relationships the weeds are choking out my productivity so in Luke 14 Jesus gives us the parable the great feast he says there once was a man who was given a great feast and he invited many people and but it's time for the feast he said to his servants to tell us guests come everything's ready but they all all the guests began to make one excuse after another the first one told the servant I bought a field I got to go look after it and please accept my apology and another one said I've bought five pairs of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out please accept my apology can't come to the party and a third guy goes I've just gotten married and for that reason I can't come to your banquet the servant goes back and he tells his master the Masters furious and he says to the servant well then just blot on the street in the alleys and the towns and just bring back everybody poor crippled blind homeless the lame sassoon the servant said you know your orders been carried out but there's room for more and the master says to the servant we'll go out into the country roads and the lanes and make people come in so that my house will be full you know Jesus has given an example in his story he says we have three different excuses they're gonna be weeds in our lives first guy goes I bought a field we got a look at it it represents the guy who lets his investments choke out the productivity is life is that you I got so much going on I got so many irons in fire so much happening with my investments I gotta watch my wealth and after I've reached a certain place in my life certain financial security then I'll start serving the Lord you know what I've discovered is people who wait to retirement start serving the Lord when they get to retirement they're not worth much you have to have a lifetime of spending serving the Lord to be effective second guy says I bought a pair of oxen think about this I'm on my way to try them out now in those days oxen were the primary way you build your business so he's basically saying my work my career comes first can't serve the Lord right now because of my job and the third guy says you know I've just gotten married and for that reason I can't come he said their relationships are holding me back any of these three investments career relationships can keep me from being in the will of God can keep me from being productive can keep me from being fruitful so there comes along the third key factor for being effective and productive write this down I have to not only do develop deep roots okay I have to weed my garden number three I have to cooperate with God's pruning in my life pruning John 15:1 and to Jesus says I am The True Vine and my father is the gardener he lops off every branch that doesn't produce and the prune and prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops that's pruning well in pruning you're actually cutting off not only dead branches but you're actually cutting off living branches to improve the shape and stimulate growth of whatever your pruning and let me tell you something as a gardener as a farmer I know this pruning is absolutely essential for increased productivity as a CEO as a mom as a teacher as a business owner as a student it's not optional if you're gonna be productive in your life you're going to have to go through pruning over and over and over many many times of pruning in your life you know I learned this actually from my elderly Jew neighbor named Ezra Ezra used to live right across the street from me and he had the finest roses in our neighborhood and he's a professional Rose grower so I asked him one day why his roses were so productive and he says because I pruned them ruthlessly so I asked him one day if he'd come over and prune my roses and teach me how to do it and when this guy came over and he's Pro and he was a wonder to watch and I stood back and I just watched it as he began working on my roses I was absolutely shocked and what he did I thought he's just gonna cut off like a little dead here little dead there and all that shape it up he's going after life stuff two branches full of leaves full of flowers blues that haven't even bloomed he's cutting it all back and he's ruthless and I asked him what's the problem with most people in pruning he says they're too timid to cut back what really needs to be cut back in their lives Wow I'm giving an awful lot to think about in this message what do you need to cut back in your life here's the lesson that I think is very important God says I prune you for effectiveness and in your life it's not only the deadwood that I'm going to cut off but sometimes I'm gonna cut off areas of success areas that are being wonderfully fruitful right now and even things that haven't even produced yet but you know they're going to produce and he's cutting it off he's preparing you for even greater productivity so in the prime of successful life you have a health problem or in the prime of successful life something goes wrong and you find yourself on the shelf for a while or you may be feeling out of it for a while and you're in a period of pruning the purpose is for even more fruitfulness that's the goal when you're going through pruning it's never fun when you're going through pruning it's often confusing but the key is to remember it's gonna produce greater fruitfulness greater productivity there's a benefit to you you know I was watching TV one night and it said that you should talk to your plants if you talk to your plants they would grow better well you know I've never tried that but I've often thought that when you're pruning what you say when you're pruning a plant might make a difference you know I I'm often but you know as I'm pruning my roses now you'll thank me for this later or this hurts me more than it hurts you and the roses go not a chance I can't imagine a plant saying back to me you know I thought you loved me you're a loving gardener and yet you're cutting me all off that is so typical when God puts us through the pruning process you say don't you love me God aren't you angry with me why are you setting me on the Shelf like this why are you doing this to me why did you bring this health problem why'd you bring this delay it is a huge mistake when we think of pruning as punishment don't ever confuse punishment with pruning they're two very very different things pruning is for the future punishment for the fast past God doesn't punish you because Jesus took all your punishment pruning is positive punishment is negative in fact you should take it as a compliment when you go through a pruning period because what God is saying is I see in you the potential for even greater fruit I see in you the potential for even a more effective life I see in you the potential for maximum productivity so if you've ever lost a job guess what God's got a better idea now how does God prune what does he use well he uses a lot of different things but generally he uses three categories problems pressures and people now when I'm talking about other people I'm talking about critics people who attack you misunderstand you misjudge you the truth is there's no circumstance in your life that God cannot use to help you grow there is no circumstance in your life that God cannot use to develop you if you'll just learn the right response in fact even the problems that we bring on ourselves by our own stupidity by your own sinfulness by our own bad bad attitudes mistakes ignorance God can use all that stuff to those crushing disappointments you've had that financial reversal that unexpected illness that job loss being asked to leave a job or walk out of something that you loved even the breakup of a marriage or a rebellious child or the death of a loved one God can and God will use all these things in your life even when we brought them on ourselves it doesn't matter the source of your problems always trying to figure out what caused it doesn't matter the source your problems as much as how you choose to respond to them now why does God prunus Hebrews 12:11 look at this first one your outline no discipline seems Pleasant for the time it's painful later on not now later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who've been trained by it notice it's for our benefit Circle the words no discipline seems Pleasant I don't have to tell you that you already know it it's unpleasant you ever looked over to a prune tree or prune bush they're very unattractive they're very ugly and I'm sure it's very unpleasant for the for the plant you know years ago Kay and I lived in a house that at a front yard that had 12 very tall eucalyptus trees right in the very front yard and and they were about 80 feet tall they were enormous way out of proportion to this little tiny house we lived in and they weren't very sturdy and they weren't very strong and you know anytime a wind came through a branch would break off it was pretty dangerous in fact one of them broke my windshield on my car so I had a tree company come out and top these trees and they literally just cut them all off so I had these twelve about 15-foot totem poles in my front yard with no branches no leaves just love the you know it looked very ugly kind of looked like a Stonehenge or some alien being had planted twelve giant toothpicks in my front yard as time went on those ugly unsightly sticks blossomed and blossomed and produced full of growth and in fact there are more leaves than they ever had before on those trees I remember back in 1985 when Kay went through a very time of pruning she was bedridden and she went through a difficult time she didn't understand why God would put her on the Shelf for about four months she was pregnant with Matthew and while she was pregnant she developed a very rare complication and couldn't get out of bed for about four months at that time she was teaching our weekly Bible study to hundreds of women that Saddleback Church and being ret bedridden all of those activities came to speeching halt we just didn't figure out why that was happening at the time but during that time of rest and that recuperation when she's flat on her back forced to look up to God she said God taught her truths and principles that build her character that prepared her for the great fruitfulness that she asked today now here's my question can God's pruning fail yes it can God's pruning and your like to fail if we don't cooperate with it see our tendency when God prunes us is we want to resist we want to rebel what a question doubt right we want to become impatient but God says you know what if you'll respond by trusting me if it's responded by giving thanks in every situation because this is the will of God for you know that I'm working all things together for good you're gonna see increased fruitfulness and productivity in your life now there's one last condition there's a secret fruitfulness that I'll go quick on this but I want to live a productive life I have lived a productive life and I want you my friends our family to live a productive life here's the fourth key get your roots down okay you know get your roots down and then dig out the weeds and then do the pruning here's the fourth thing I must patiently wait I must patiently wait for and expect a harvest growing fruit takes time you don't put a seed in the ground the next day you got a fruit tree or apples or tomatoes you don't plant a seed and it harvest the next day now John 12:24 says this truly truly I say to you Jesus is talking unless the grain of wheat falls in the ground and it dies it'll remain alone but if it dies it bears much fruit and he who loves his life will lose it growing fruit takes time you have to go through the waiting process and nothing is more uncomfortable than when you're sitting in the waiting room of God when you're in a hurry and God's not you know I remember I bought my wife some seeds a couple years ago she likes them and we were gonna plant him out on the slope but two years from the time we still had no flowers you know why because the packets still in the garage in an envelope plants have to be planted you can't buy the seeds and hoping just grow you got to cover them up with dirt and then you wait and you pray and expect just as the seed creates new life out of death for you to be more effective in your life there's got to be a dying to your old nature there's got to be a dying to your old desires your old plants a dying to your old ambitions during the waiting process are you hearing me I'm talking to you this is God talking to you right now through me growth takes time and it there's a dying process during that waiting period while you're waiting for the fruitfulness that you dream of for the productivity to dream up it takes time but don't give up stay plugged in to Jesus Christ you may be saying you know I know where my life needs to go I know where my life needs to ahead I just don't see any changes that hang on Jesus said I'm the vine you are the branches if you remain circle this word ray look at this verse if you remain in me connected to me and I knew then you're gonna bear much fruit it's inevitable for apart from me you can do nothing I've given you a lot to think about this weekend let me lead you in a prayer would you bow your heads Heavenly Father I hope that some of these things that we've looked at today from your word will sink in and will transform our lives we want our lives to count we want our lives to matter we don't waste our lives we want to make a difference a difference with our lives we don't want to just live shallow lives we want to be productive we want to be fruitful we want to hear you say well done good and faithful servant so help us to take these 4 steps from your word to cultivate deep roots just pray this say God helped me to start developing deeper roots and you know how to do it daily time in the Word of God help me to read your word every day and to think about it and talk to you about it cultivate deep roots deep into the soil of God's love and then say God give me the courage to eliminate the weeds the stuff that's choking out my relationship to you and my productivity help me to recognize what's a weed and what's not and then say lord help me to cooperate with your pruning you may be in it right now you may be going into season 2 pruning I don't know but there will be times in your life where God will cut things back if you don't sometimes God makes you laid down in green pastures to force you to look up say god I want to cooperate with whatever you want to cut out of my life maybe it's a it's a wrong relationship maybe it's a wrong goal the wrong value or on dream and say Lord I want to patiently wait for a harvest I want to expect the harvest in faith to help me to cooperate with the principles of spiritual gardening father I pray that this series on margin will will be life-changing for many people for those of the messages we've missed maybe we go back and listen them and maybe even go and review the whole thing again that we may build deep roots in you in your love and that we may eliminate the weeds and prune off the unnecessary stuff and wait for the harvest I pray Lord that you will make men and women in Saddleback Church the most productive people in our area the most fruitful people in our area and may we grow in the fruit of character and the fruit of repentance and the fruit of bringing others to you and in the fruit of being effective in our lives for Jesus sake I pray a blessing on all of our people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen

Channel: Saddleback Church Hong Kong

Views: 22,751

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Id: UI1ZfHKLoR8

Length: 54min 30sec (3270 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 19 2018