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Are You Fruitful? · Enjoying the Journey

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  The Book of Ruth begins in dark days, but even
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  in the darkness, God was at work. Through loss,
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  uncertainty, and unexpected turns, we discover
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  a beautiful story of grace, redemption,
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  and hope. Join Scott Pauley for this new study, The Gospel
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  According to Ruth. Light for Dark Days.
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  Are you bearing fruit? Are you a fruitful Christian?
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  I alluded the other day to John chapter 15 where the Lord Jesus
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  talked to His disciples about Him being the vine and us being the
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  branches and God the Father making it so that we would bear fruit,
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  more fruit, much fruit, and fruit that remains for the
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  glory of God. I want to tell you that you don't plant
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  fruit trees just so they look pretty. You want fruit. And you don't plant a
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  garden just so it looks nice. You want fruit.
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  Don't you think that if the Lord has worked in our life to plant us
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  and to put into us certain things, that he should expect to
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  find fruit when he comes inspecting our lives?
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  Don't you think that the fruitfulness of our lives should point
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  other people to the God of all fruitfulness? The answer to
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  that is absolutely. And so we return today to Ruth chapter number 4,
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  to this amazing prayer, a prayer
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  of blessing on the union of Boaz and Ruth,
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  a prayer that God answered in a mighty way. But at the heart of
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  the prayer is this idea of fruitfulness.
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  Listen to it again, verse 11. Now the people pray this: The
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  Lord make the woman that has come into thine house
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  like Rachel and like Leah, which 2
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  did build the house of Israel. Now let's pause there
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  for just a moment. What, what are they praying? Rachel and Leah?
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  Well, if you go back in your mind, you remember that Rachel and Leah were
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  literally the mothers of Israel, that they had 13 children
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  between them, and it was their offspring that
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  would become the tribes of the entire
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  nation of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel. And so this
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  is very, very important because what they're saying is, let's go back
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  to the beginning. In the beginning, it was God who made us fruitful.
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  Watch this. And now here we are in the period of the Judges,
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  in a season of darkness, in a time of difficulty.
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  Who can make us fruitful again? Only God
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  can. Would you go back to the beginning in your mind and remember how
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  God made you fruitful? Would you remember how the Lord
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  worked so that you would bear fruit?
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  And perhaps in the early days as a young Christian, you really were bearing fruit.
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  You didn't realize it, but the fruit of the Spirit was being produced in your
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  life— love and joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness
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  and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance. And the fruit of a Christian—
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  you were reproducing other believers. You were witnessing and sharing your faith and and others
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  were coming to know Christ. The fruit of the righteous is a
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  tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Or let me ask you,
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  are you fruitful now? Do you bear the fruit
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  of the Holy Spirit's work? Are you becoming more like
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  the Lord Jesus? Is there more love and joy and
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  peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance, or less?
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  Are you bearing more fruit in bringing souls to Christ,
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  or are you bearing less? Remember when Jesus walked
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  past that fig tree that day? It was representative in
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  his parabolic teaching of the nation of Israel. He found no fruit on it,
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  he cursed it. By the next day, it withered up. He was teaching a
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  lesson, because if, if something is not going to bear fruit,
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  then it's going to be rejected. It cannot be used. May I say
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  to you, I don't want to be one of the Christians
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  that gets set on the shelf, cannot be used. I want to be one of
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  those that is bearing fruit for the Lord. And I really believe this. I believe
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  God will continue to tend the trees in
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  the vineyard, in the orchard, that are bearing fruit for the glory
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  of God. Are you fruitful? Let's make
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  this our prayer. Lord, make us fruitful like we were in the early days.
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  Give us a passion for God like we had in the early days. Let us
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  get back to our first love and the first principles and do the first works.
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  Lord, we want the, the fruitfulness, uh, the,
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  the freshness that we knew in the very beginning.
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  And then the prayer continues in verse number 12: And let thy
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  house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar
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  bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord
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  shall give thee of this young woman. Now, what is this a reference to?
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  Well, this is a reference to Genesis chapter number 38. You remember
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  in Genesis chapter number 38 that there is a
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  moment here where children are being born and there's great travail.
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  Listen to verse number 27 of Genesis 38. It came to pass
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  in the time of her travail that behold, twins were in her womb.
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  And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out
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  his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand
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  a scarlet thread, saying, this came out first. And it came to pass, as he
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  drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. And she said, how hast
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  thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee. Therefore his name was
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  called Perez. And afterward came out his brother that
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  had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
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  And so here we have 2 brothers being born,
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  and it is quite a travail, quite a, a difficult delivery,
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  if you will. And yet it was through that delivery
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  and through the line of Perez that blessing would come.
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  Can I just say to you that fruitfulness will cost you? There will be travail,
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  there'll be difficulty. If you see someone
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  bearing fruit, know this: they've experienced death.
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  They've experienced travail. A life always comes out of death.
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  When a— when an expectant mother goes to, to give birth to a
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  child, they literally go to the, to the jaws of death,
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  if you will, to bring new life into the world. It is always
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  through travail that triumph comes. It is always through
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  the cross that resurrection power is known.
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  See, lots of people want the product without the process. They want to be fruitful
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  but they're not willing to die. They're not willing to come to the end of
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  themselves and travail with the Lord. You know,
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  the old-timers used to talk about praying through,
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  and while that term can be misinterpreted,
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  misapplied, and can be misused,
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  I do believe there's something to pressing in in prayer
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  and pressing on in obedience, even through the difficulty,
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  even when it doesn't feel good, even when it is hard.
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  Because on the other side of that, let me tell you what there is— there
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  is greater fruitfulness. And I'm just testifying
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  to you today, I want to be a more fruitful Christian. I want
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  to bear fruit to the glory of God. Ruth became a
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  fruitful woman. By the way, some of
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  you may be listening right now and you may be thinking I'm speaking only of
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  having children. Certainly I believe that children are heritage of the
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  Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. That is part of
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  the fruitfulness God gives to a family. And the,
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  the psalmist talked about your wife being like a,
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  a vine and growing up and the, and the tree bearing
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  fruit. Spurgeon had a wonderful remark on that. He said
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  there are some families that cannot have children. Some of
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  our dearest friends could not have children of their own, but Spurgeon made this observation
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  He said if a woman is bearing the fruit of Christ and the fruit of
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  the Spirit, then she is not unfruitful. I love that because the greatest fruit
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  is never physical, it is always spiritual. And may
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  I point out, it is also the fruit that you can have all of your
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  life. There is a, a childbearing age when it comes to
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  a mother, but friend, you can bear fruit in any season
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  of your life, which means right where you are However old you are,
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  whatever your circumstances may be, if you'll be willing to go
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  back to the beginning and die to self,
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  you can be made a fruitful believer. Think about this.
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  This book opens with a funeral but closes with a wedding and
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  children. It begins with death and ends with life.
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  A baby comes, a family comes, a future comes. We'll see
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  that shortly. That is all the Lord's doing.
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  God himself can make you fruitful if you will put yourself
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  in the place where he can work in and through your life.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's study. If you've enjoyed
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  this journey through Ruth, visit us at etj.bible
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  and explore our Journey Through Scripture section,
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  where you'll find overviews, Bible teaching, and preaching for
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  every book the Bible. Enjoying the Journey
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  is made possible through the generous support of listeners just like
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  Until next time, keep following God's Word and finding
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  Christ's joy.