BEARING FRUIT

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me, you can do nothing. – JOHN 15:5

CMBC is focused on taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the marketplace and helping people become faithful and productive disciples of Jesus. We do this by sharing our lives with others through man-on-man discipleship and service. Giving ourselves away is our fruit, but this generous gift is meaningless unless it is for deeper, eternal purposes – purposes that go beyond us to the very essence of why we were created.

Shortly before Jesus left this earth, He sat down with his disciples and encouraged them with the words recorded for us in John 15. What His disciples heard might have had even more meaning than what we think about when Jesus talks about “bearing much fruit.” When Jesus tells them over and over to bear much fruit, their thoughts would have naturally gone to their direct experiences with Jesus. They served the multitudes with Him, went out in teams to heal the sick, cast out demons, prayed for people, loved people, gave their lives away for them, and learned to trust God every step of the way. All these experiences of serving others were only possible because of their relationship with Jesus day in and day out. He was their source of strength and power, and only God was the why behind it all. They saw this modeled by the Master and He empowered them to give themselves away so that others might know Christ and glorify God.

Serving others is always a good thing, but when we are compelled to serve out of a natural overflow of the life of Christ being reproduced in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, serving is eternally good and we are eternally blessed as our joy and our Father’s joy is made complete.

Think and Pray
Are you bearing fruit the way God intended for you to, or have you just been going through the motions?

Heavenly Father, Help me to daily abide in you so that I can bear much fruit for Your kingdom. All for Your glory and in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Marty Hepp is Chairman of CEC Corporation, a civil engineering firm headquartered in Oklahoma City. Marty writes marketplace devotionals for CBMC while also leading a weekly CBMC Connect3 team and facilitating a Young Professionals group as well. Marty serves on the Area Leadership Team for CBMC in Oklahoma and the National Board for CBMC-USA. His passion is developing leaders who disciple men to maturity in Christ.