Bobby Bosler: I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Maple Shade, New Jersey. And this week we have on the podcast, uh, John Pound. As many of you are probably aware, John’s been working through a series out of John chapter fifteen where he’s talking about the fruit-bearing life.

And, you know, this Christmas holiday, New Year season, I think it’s very important for us to be considering whether our life is, in fact, fruitful. And here in this final part of his series, he’s going to be challenging with something that’s very convicting. You know, if you’ve had any kind of success in bearing fruit, sometimes the question can get asked, well, where are they?

Well, here this week, John is going to be sharing with us the key to remaining fruit. So, John, why don’t you share what God has put in your heart here today?

John Pound: Thanks, Bobby. Today, as we conclude our series on the fruit-bearing life, I want to deal with the subject of fruit that remains. Last time we looked at John fifteen sixteen, we really focused on the first part of the verse.

Today, I want to take you back to that same passage, and I want to focus on the last part of the verse. Listen to what Jesus says, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit. And here’s the key words, and that your fruit should remain.

Growing up on my father’s farm, we often planted a lot of different things. I remember one season in particular, he decided that he was going to plant a field of corn. We really had never planted corn before.

We weren’t really looking to build a big cornfield. It wasn’t anything like that. But we got out there with the rototiller and we broke up all the ground and made rows in the dirt there.

We took corn seeds and went out and planted them down into the dirt. We watered and I watched as a little boy as this corn grew larger and larger and larger, until eventually it was almost ready to harvest. And then one fateful day, a storm rolled in.

It was a pretty bad one. The winds were high. Basically, when we came out that evening, we saw that the field of corn, not quite ready for harvest yet, had been completely blown down.

It was unbelievable. We lost all of it. Satan would love it if, just as we begin to see God yielding fruit in our life, specifically in our witness, he would come at that last minute and knock it down.

Satan’s desire is to destroy our life. The Bible says, the thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus Christ wants you to bear fruit. Jesus Christ wants you to bear abundant fruit. In fact, Jesus Christ wants you to bear fruit.

How many ministries have existed to only one day later fall? How many times have we gotten an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody and begin to build a relationship and feel like we’re making progress, to simply have it fall apart? Last time we dealt with faith for fruit and with you depending on God’s promise and depending on His Spirit to help you.

I want to talk to you about a very practical issue on how to have fruit that remains, and that’s simply this: the area of follow-up. Far too often when we see God opening a door and we begin to take that first step of faith and begin to see fruit forming, we fail to follow up, and thus we lose the fruit.

There’s a man in our church who went out and decided that he was going to go knock on some doors one day, and as he was knocking, he met this couple. Nice couple, great people, good spirit. He realized that they weren’t saved.

He began to share the gospel with them and talk to them about the church and invite them out to the special Sunday they were having. You know what happened? They didn’t come.

So the next Saturday, a week later, he went back, knocked on their door, invited them again, and they promised they’d come. They said, hey, we’ll be there, we promise. Sunday came around, weren’t there.

This man continued to follow up on them in some form or another every week. He decided he just wasn’t going to give up on them. Sometimes he’d stop by and leave notes.

Sometimes he’d come by and leave a flyer, and he followed up on these people. He didn’t give up on them. He didn’t give up.

On the fifth time he went to their door, he didn’t give up. On the sixth time, he went to their door; on the tenth time, on the twentieth time, on the thirtieth time, on the fortieth time, not even on the fiftieth time. This man followed up on this couple for fifty-two Saturdays in a row, an entire year.

Every week they said, we’ll be there. And every week they let him down. And finally, on the fifty-second week, they came to church.

They heard the gospel. They accepted Christ as their Savior. And today they’re wonderfully plugged into that ministry, serving the Lord faithfully with their family.

You know why that happened? It happened because there was a man in that community who had made a decision that he wasn’t going to give up on the door for fruit that God had opened for him. He had made a decision that by faith, he was going to continue to go back and continue to follow up.

Do you have somebody you need to follow up on this week? Is there someone in your life that you’ve given up on? Let me tell you, if you decide to trust God and you continue to be faithful to what he’s called you to do, continue to be faithful to go back to those people again and again as often as the Lord leads you, I guarantee you you’ll see fruit that remains.

Jesus said, I’ve ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Let’s strive to have remaining fruit. Remember, total surrender.

Total dependence. That’s the key.

Bobby Bosler: Thank you so much for that, John. That’s a blessing. You know what, young people, as you’re taking a look at this new year coming up and assessing your life and looking forward to the goals you’re going to set, may it be said of each of us that we not only know how to turn the world upside down with the gospel, to see people saved, but that we also manifest what he talked about today.

That faithfulness and faith, fullness that grabs a hold of what God is doing and doesn’t let go until it’s completely and totally carried out. And really, the only way we’re going to be able to do that is, as he shared in the previous sessions of that series. It’s faith for fruit.

But you know what? It’s also faith that brings remaining fruit. So, hey, let’s surrender to the will of God, and let’s depend upon his power to see people saved who will remain, and they themselves will turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening and happy New Year.