Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. We’re getting geared up in about two weeks for the 2018 Thee Generation Youth Summit, also known as the Cola Clash.
I’m very excited, as you can tell. I’ve mentioned it on about every podcast I’ve talked in these last few weeks, and I want to encourage you: if you’re at all thinking and considering coming, head to theegeneration.org, go to the Youth Summit page, and let us know you’re coming through the registration process. Our registration is already way ahead of schedule.
We’ve got a lot coming already; it’s actually at an unprecedented level in many ways. So we’re very excited about the group that God is assembling. I’ve talked in previous podcasts about some of the new things we’re doing this year.
I want to encourage you: this Youth Summit is the hub where we really communicate the next step for Thee Generation. If you want to be on the cutting edge of seeing what God is doing, come and join us October 17, 18, and 19 for the 2018 Thee Generation Youth Summit. You can head to theegeneration.org and go to the Youth Summit page for more information.
As far as our podcast today, I’m very glad to have joining us John Pound. You’ve heard John’s testimony and even a couple of challenges along the way from him on the podcast. Today he has something on his heart that I know will be a blessing to you.
John, why don’t you take it away?
John Pound: Thanks so much, Bobby. This week we’re going to look at the fruit-bearing life, and the topic that I want to discuss today is “The Secret of the Source: John 15.” The Bible says this: Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” In this passage, Jesus describes bearing fruit, which every Christian ought to do, as a relationship between a vine and a branch. What we understand from this passage is that Jesus sets Himself up as the vine.
He says that we’re the branches. As Christians, we ought to be always bearing spiritual fruit, whether that’s in our personal life, whether that’s in our time with God, whether that’s in our relationships with others, but specifically in our witness. I want to deal here with the subject of the secret of the source.
Really, if I could put it this way, the secret of the source for a fruit-bearing life for any Christian is simply the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the life that He gives. The Bible talks about here: Jesus says, “I am the true vine; ye are the branches.” When I was younger, my father and I lived on a farm, and just outside of the house there we had an apple tree.
It was about four years old, and I remember walking outside one day and looking at all the apples. They were different colors. They were green; some were turning red.
I walked over to one of the low-hanging branches. A little kid, I just grabbed an apple and ripped it right off. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
At the time, I didn’t really like to eat apples, so for me it was great to just play baseball with. I took that apple, left it out on the front porch for a little while, and I remember coming back maybe two weeks later. That apple that was green and had some red into it and was full of life now was sitting there on our front porch, rotten, nasty, felt squishy.
I looked at the apples on the tree. All of them were fully red; they were ripening. I remember looking at my dad and asking him the question: “What made the difference?” As a little kid, I couldn’t understand why the apples on the tree were doing so well and the apple that was sitting on my front porch was doing so poorly.
He explained to me the difference was that when I pulled the apple off the tree, I took away its source of life. When I removed it from the tree, it no longer had anything that was giving it that life that was causing it to be ripe, and it died. Can I tell you, as a Christian, Jesus makes it very clear to us: He’s the source of our fruit; He’s the source of our spiritual life.
If we try to bear fruit in our own strength, really all we’re doing is taking ourselves as a branch and pulling ourselves away from the vine. The only thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to wither and die. But if we choose to stay connected to the vine, if we choose to stay connected to Christ, the Bible says later in this passage we can bear much fruit because that’s God’s will for us.
As you go about your life this week, as you go about seeking to obey what God has laid in your heart, seeking to live by faith, specifically in this area of witnessing, seeking to share the gospel and have fruit that remains, the only way you can do that is by staying connected to the branch. One man put it to me this way one time: a lot of us think of ourselves as cell phones. Cell phones have batteries.
Every night we charge them up. We take them out, and when they’re at 100 percent, we go about the day. We usually don’t even think about having to recharge them.
The battery life can last for several hours. At the end of the night, we plug them back in. But that’s not how the Christian life is.
The Christian life is more like a vacuum. You take a vacuum and pull out the plug from the wall; the vacuum immediately dies because the vacuum can only work if it’s plugged into the power source. My friends, the Christian life can only work if you stay plugged in to Jesus.
The secret of the source of our life is the life of Christ Himself. So then, how do we tap into that source? How do we stay connected?
Really, it’s the theme of Thee Generation: total surrender, total dependence. How do you stay connected to the vine this week? Surrender your will to God’s and depend on His life to live through you.
Amen.
Bobby Bosler: John, I love that. That is so good. Just like you said, that is exactly what we are at Thee Generation.
In fact, as I was listening to you, I couldn’t help but think about that story when you were talking about your interaction with the apple and your conversation and all of that. I was thinking, as you were talking about that, that when we get away from Jesus as Christians, we become rotten, nasty, and squishy Christians. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
But honestly, it’s not funny. Just like you said, total surrender, total dependence. That’s not just the rallying cry of Thee Generation; that’s what every believer needs in order to be a fruit-bearing Christian.
That’s what we’re all about here at Thee Generation. It’s our desire that God would, through our lives, raise up a generation of young people who are committed to total surrender to God and total dependence on His power to turn the world upside down with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.
