Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of over 100 books, booklets & Bible studies. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 1,300 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries.
when God wanted to use a word to explain
what knowing him would produce in the
lives of Christians he used the word
fruit fruit is God’s spiritual reference
to what our lives produce out of our
experience with him and God is concerned
that what we produce is in keeping with
who he is so that the product of our
lives
fruit is consistent with our experience
with God God wants us to be fruity
Christians he talked about that but he’s
talking about fruity in the sense of
being fruitful highly productive in the
Bible when the word fruit is used in a
number of ways to speak of our
productivity a woman for example who is
pregnant the Bible will talk about the
fruit of her womb it’s talking about the
production or the producing of life that
is developing inside of her when the
Bible talks about productive work and
employment it talks about the fruit of
the labor of your hands it’s talking
about what your work has produced when
the Bible talks about our praise to God
it will often speak of the fruit of our
lips it’s talking about what our worship
is expressing so fruit has to do with
what is being produced we’ve already
seen that the law you experience God the
more power you will have to override the
circumstances in your life but the
greater our experience with God the more
wisdom we have in making the right
choices and right decisions in life
today Paul wants to raise the issue of
experiencing fruitfulness in life many
of us
when we look over our lives here Otton
fruit what we produce we’re not happy
with what’s coming out of us is not what
we want and we want better fruit we want
our lives to produce better results
fruit has three characteristics the
first characteristic is fruit is always
visible you’ve never seen invisible
fruit you’ve never gone shopping for
invisible fruit fruit is something you
can see you see an orange an apple a
pear banana you see fruit many of us say
we love Jesus but nothing to see no such
thing as invisible fruit if your
relationship to Christ is invisible or
only visible to you there’s not much of
a relationship because fruit is always
visible let me ask you if you are
accused of being a Christian would there
be enough evidence to convict you or
would you be innocent of all charges
so the first characteristic of fruit is
its visibility fruit is not just visible
fruit always bears the character of the
tree of which it is apart you won’t find
pears on apple trees you won’t find
oranges on pear trees because that’s not
the nature of the trees the nature of
the tree will define the definition of
the fruit orange tree oranges
apple tree apples pea tree pears so on
and so forth so if we’re experiencing
God then what should be coming out of
our lives that is the visible ought to
be godlike it ought to look like the
tree of which we are apart you see the
reason why a lot of stuff that is
visible that if coming out doesn’t look
like God is because we’re not
experiencing God as he wishes to be
experienced so the fruit doesn’t look
like him
in walk talk actions it doesn’t reflect
the character of the tree of which we
are saying we are part so
fruit is always visible fruit reflects
the character of the tree of which it is
a part and thirdly fruit never exists
for itself the only fruit you see eating
itself is rotten fruit see when a fruit
is eaten the fruit that means something
wrong with the fruit fruit exists so
somebody else can bite it so if nobody
wants to take a bite out of your life
because of how fruity you are how
fruitful you are if nobody wants to be
like you because they see God’s
relationship to you or me then something
is wrong in other words if I’m happy
with me but nobody else wants to bite
out of me it may be because I’m eating
me and that’s rotten fruit Paul says in
Colossians chapter 1 verse 10 in the
middle of the verse bearing fruit in
every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God please notice he
connects knowing God with bearing fruit
or bearing fruit with knowing God
remember I word for knowing God is epic
enosis say epignosis now you can tell
all your friends are no a Greek word if
epignosis epignosis means full knowledge
or experience or knowledge epignosis is
not informational knowledge alone it
doesn’t mean I just have content that
I’ve memorized verses that I’ve read my
Bible a day I’ve read a verse a day to
keep the devil away that’s not epignosis
epignosis has to do with entering into
an experience Adam knew Eve and she
conceived it doesn’t mean he had
information about it
means he slept with her in other words
there was intimacy that produced fruit
in life so when he talked about the full
dollars of God the epignosis he’s
talking about entering into an
experiential connection with God a
intimate tie with God that must produced
life it loved Friedan’s fruit the
problem is that so many of us as
Christians we want to go to heaven we
don’t care about being fruitful on earth
I get really nervous about couples who
get married who say we don’t want to
have children who can’t have children
but they simply say we don’t want to
have children one because that means
that they don’t understand one of the
reasons for marriage which is the
procreation of the human race in the
image of God so they’ll understand that
too it usually means they are
self-centered we don’t want anybody
interrupting my flow because if I have
children and they’re going to distract
from my money my time my energy my
efforts my it’s inconceivable in a
biblical worldview that a couple would
get married and not want to have
children
the only two reasons why a couple
shouldn’t have children one they can’t
or two there’s some unique calling of
God on their lives so that they
shouldn’t there’s some couples I know
who go to dangerous mission fields and
they conclude that it’s not in God’s
will for them to have children because
of the nature of the mission field well
that was a unique calling but that’s not
the normative operation of children but
my point is that that the relationship
is to produce a product fruit Paul says
that this fruitfulness is tied to the
knowledge of God he starts off in verse
9 with the knowledge of his will he then
goes to wisdom he then goes in verse 10
to the walk he then goes and being a
hence to the work he’s got the will the
wisdom to walk and work all of that is
affected or producing a product and this
product is called fruitfulness when God
is producing something in the life that
is beautiful and enjoyable and edible a
product of impact and of usefulness what
God is after is that our experience with
him will give birth to some luscious
fruit character conduct and contribution
fruit of character fruit of conduct and
fruit of benefit to others or
contribution now most of us if we were
asked do you want based on this
definition your life to be fruitful do
you want to be a visible representative
of God do you want to reflect his
character do you want other folk to want
to bite out of your life because it’s so
rich and thick and vibrant and so yeah
that’s kind of life I want I don’t want
a life with bad fruit rotten fruit I
don’t want to be anybody in here no any
rotten Christians this right love Jesus
and right we got rotten language right
attitudes you know rotten dispositions
writing yes none of us is perfect
I’m not discussing perfection here I’m
talking about what’s normative I’m
talking about the way we flow I’m
talking about how we we operate
something is wrong something is wrong
and we know it’s wrong because we look
at the number of divorces among
Christians look at the number of
addictions that go on year after year
decade after decade by people who go to
church look at people who bless the Lord
on Sunday and cuss like a sailor or
Monday and Tuesday Wednesday and
Thursday and Friday Inventor
but then they’ll bless the Lord again on
Sunday what is the problem we’re not
experiencing God we’re hearing about him
we’re hearing his name we’re carrying
his book around under our arms we’re in
the right location but we’re not
experiencing no woman gets pregnant by
having a discussion about sex around the
breakfast table she can talk about it he
can talk about it they can talk about it
for years
and at nobody getting pregnant because
discussion about the subject and
knowledge of the subject doesn’t give
you the product from the discussion
there must be a hookup I mean there’s
got to be intimacy experiential intimacy
in order to produce fruit Paul says I
want you to bear fruit I want your
experience with God to be so rich so
deep so thick that you are fruitful so
that raises the question on the floor
today okay how do I get it how do I get
this thing so that I got big luscious
fruit in attitudes and actions character
and conduct just rolling out of my life
how do I get it okay I’m gonna make this
real uncomplicated this is this is going
to be kindergarten so important was
fruit that virtually a whole chapter in
the Bible was given to it and I want you
to turn there with me John chapter 15
st. John 15 I am The True Vine my father
is the vine dresser Jesus is now going
to paint the picture of experiencing God
and producing
it has played away as you will find in
the scriptures I am The True Vine that
means the original that means the real
deal
anything else is a cheap imitation Jesus
says I’m the real deal I am The True
Vine my father is the vine dresser or
the gardener the job of the garden is to
take care of the vine I am the vine
Jesus is the vine
my father God the Father is the gardener
of the vine and I am the vine then he
says every branch in me well that refers
to you and me Christians Christians are
the branches so here’s the picture there
is a vine that is a great vineyard grape
vine there is a gardener who’s taking
care of the vine then they’re branches
that are hooked into the vine every
branch in me every saved person every
person that’s trusted Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of their sins and
receive the gift of eternal life you are
a branch in the vine now notice what he
says he says that does not bear fruit so
we got a no fruit branch he takes up and
every branch that bears fruit now we got
a fruit bearing branch he prunes it so
that it may bear more fruit so we got a
lawful branch many verse 5 I am the vine
you are the branches he who abides in me
and I in him he bears much fruit so we
got a much fruit branch verse 16 you did
not choose me but I chose you and
appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit and that your fruit would remain
so let me go relating fruit all right so
watch where we went we went from no
fruit to fruit to war fruit too much
fruit two remaining fruit so this fruit
getting bigger as we go along we started
with a branch producing nothing tell a
branch producing something now our
branch is producing more than just
something now it’s producing much more
than law and now the stuff
we’ll go away his remaining fruit he
says when you bear no fruit verse 2 when
you’re saved because you’re a branch in
me but there is nothing to speak of
coming out of your life that reflects
the fact you are a Christian he takes
away verse 2 says he takes away takes
away from what is the question one time
in my life I have been to Napa Valley
Napa Valley California are where most of
the grapes are grown that are used in
this country that are produced in this
country in Napa Valley Northern
California number of years ago in Napa
Valley there was the sight of miles and
miles and miles and miles of great
vineyards people come from all over
America and all around the world to do
wine testing I vividly the vineyards I
did not taste the wine but miles and
miles of vineyards one thing you will
always see in a grape vineyard no matter
where you go you’ll always see this the
branches are hoisted up and tied to post
their posts every so many feet and the
branches from the vine ahoy stood up and
tied on wire that goes from post to post
so that they don’t drag on the ground
because if they drag on the ground
they’ll never grow the grapes won’t grow
so when you get bunches of grapes on a
vine they will drag the branch down and
it will be stuck in the dirt and when
it’s stuck in the dirt it can’t absorb
the sunlight because it’s got too much
dirt it’s not that the light isn’t
trying to shine on it it’s just it’s in
the dirt so they gotta lift it up or
take it away from the ground to get it
up out
dirt so they can tie it on the post so
it can receive from there the benefit
that should happen down here but if it’s
hanging out in the dirt
it’ll never benefit from what avail
wants to do down here to produce
something one reason why we’re not
producing fruit is we’re hanging too
much in the dirt that’s why if you want
to be a fruitful Christian you must be
willing to address unaddressed sin in
your life he’s got to be free to take
you up out of the dirt to take away you
hanging in the dirt because he wants you
to benefit from the Sun and you can’t do
that in the dirt see a lot of us are
saying God make me fruitful but we want
we don’t want to be taken away from the
dirt that’s a contradiction you can’t
hang out in the dirt and get the Sun
it’s a contradiction you got to give God
freedom to take you away from the dirt
to elevate you above the dirt so that
means you’ve got to walk for fun more
than the dirt now you can have the dirt
just no you won’t get the benefit of the
Sun and stay in the dirt he says the one
who bears no fruit he takes away and now
they’re bearing some fruit once you
start bearing a little fruit he now
prunes you the in diverse file says so
that you can bear even more fruit
pruning is cutting away that wood
siphons off life they are called
sucker shoots sucker shoots are little
branches that show up on the vine that
take away some of the nutrients designed
to get to the fruit to make the fruit
bigger and more or less
but they are siphoning it off and so
they create their whole little diversion
a shoot is a diversion it sucks
the nutrients designed for the fruit as
it’s flowing up it sucks it off and
takes it now issues don’t produce
anything but they like the nutrients so
what they do is they hang out to get the
nutrients with no intention of producing
anything so they take from you what
belongs to you for you to get what you
were designed to have that’s a
shoot so you care people in your life
that’ll shoes anybody have any
suckers in their life that is somebody
who is diverting away from you that
which is needed for you to become all
that God wants you to be they’re
siphoning off in other words they are
taking away from you that which was to
keep you flowing Godward they’re pulling
you in the wrong direction are we all
concerned about that with our kids we
don’t want them hanging out with soccer
shoes we raised them this way but some
sucker comes along and start siphoning
off that away for where we’ve raised
them and now we’re concerned because
they’re not becoming what we raised them
to be cuz they didn’t got some sucker
shoots hanging out in their lives things
can become sucker shoots things that are
not wrong in themselves but they divert
us from receiving all that God has for
us like television can be a sucker shoot
over all the television something’s good
but it can become a sucker shoot if it
robs you of spiritual intimacy if it’s
siphoning off time and energy that ought
to be given to God it now becomes a
sucker shoot even though there’s nothing
technically wrong with it in and of
itself
hobbies can become soccer shoes nothing
wrong with a hobby but if it’s diverting
your fruitfulness he says I want you to
produce more fruit
I want that fruit to be big and luscious
I want the bananas to be big I want the
watermelons to be big I want the
cantaloupe to be big I want what’s
coming out of your life to be huge have
you gone to the grocery store you see
the fruit you said sure that’s too small
but haven’t you seen some big fruit you
say whoa look at the size of that that’s
huge
God says I want a movie from no fruit –
fruit – more fruit too much fruit you
say ok ok I got it I got it I got it but
how do I get it how do I get it I won’t
I want fruit I coming out of my life
that’s rich and vibrant and exciting and
meaningful and I don’t want any more
rotten this one word you get this one
word I’m gonna give you one word one
word one word if you understand this one
word capture this one word act on this
one word you will begin to experience
God and proof that you experiencing him
is the fruit what begins to grow out of
your life it’s the word abide in eleven
verses he says the word ten times verse
four abide in me middle of verse four it
abides in the vine into verse 4 you
abide in me beginning of verse five he
who abides in me beginning of verse 6 if
anyone does not abide in me beginning of
verse 7 if you abide in me and my words
abide in you the end of verse nine I
have also loved you abide in my love the
middle of verse ten you will abide in my
love the end of verse ten abide in his
love anybody get a bada bada bada
bada bada bada badda bodda so evidently
he really wants you to know about this
he says if you get abide you get the
branch and the branch is well taken care
of by the god the garden has got the
vine covered the job of the vine is to
keep it flowing to the branch the job of
the branch is to abide the Greek word
abide is minnow say minnow now you got
two Greek words meu no it means to stay
hang out or loiter you and I have seen
signs no loitering
that means don’t hang out here don’t
hang out to abide is to hang out where
you hang out is way you buy he says if
you abide in me you will increase your
fruitfulness if you abide in me you will
increase your fruitfulness abiding means
staying intimately connected when a
woman gets pregnant there is an
umbilical cord that connects the baby
with the mother and guess what the baby
does face it off for mama mama eats the
baby faison’s off nutrients from the
food and because there is no break in
the connection baby grows baby gets
bigger mother’s belly gets larger Y
because of the faith Learning due to the
connection if there was a breach in the
umbilical cord there would be the
shrinking of life it is the ongoing
connection with the mother that keeps
the baby growing and makes the baby more
fruitful minnow abiding is
you hang out most of the couples who are
married here got married after you hung
out you are dated and you know you were
abiding because even when there was no
physical presence there was a telephone
so is you talking even you’re not
talking you looking at the phone even
though it didn’t ring to see whether you
missed a call anywhere you weren’t
talking you think about whether the next
time we gonna be talking because you’ve
got this a bite do you not see the other
person let’s say you date them once a
week once a week there’s a date
just once a week that is a physical
sighting there’s a physical sighting but
between days there is ongoing interface
conversations prospective mindset
sometimes it lasts five seconds other
times as I may last twenty five minutes
but there’s this ongoing connection
there may be only a physical sight once
a week but we have abided all week
because we’ve stayed in contact
that’s abiding on the other hand you
have married people who live in the same
house but who don’t abide there in the
same Road than in the same building but
there’s no ongoing connection or
communication so they’ve lost abiding in
fact you’ve heard me say this many times
in the Bible you didn’t get to marry
that’s a that’s a Western that’s really
a foreign concept to God’s perspective
that people would date to marry in the
Bible you marry today
in fact this is sort of a side note but
it really don’t take that long
it really doesn’t take that long
obviously if dating was the solution
then all these folks spent years dating
shouldn’t be getting divorced
if Dayton was the solution that’s not
the problem see the problem is that the
purpose for marriage is not being
realized it’s being realized before
marriage but not after marriage
so I mean there take a lot AIESEC so
Isaac so Rebekah the Bible says and said
uh-huh he said that’s what I’m talking
about the Bible says Isaac saw Rebecca
and married her on the spot the first
time he saw say he saw that’s it thank
you Lord for answering my prayer let’s
get married why because when you’re
experiencing God God can cut short your
time that you’ve been spinning bouncing
around the 50 different people getting
used up in 50 different ways getting
heartbroken getting my messed up getting
you know all that stuff God wants to
save them all that stuff because in the
Bible that is a foreign concept that’s
America but that’s not that’s not a
biblical worldview so you don’t by the
way you don’t raise your children to
date a bunch of people do you find the
right one that’s not what you do does
that means particularly for girls they
go get messed up by a bunch of different
people you don’t do that
he says if you will hang out with me if
you will abide so let’s say you you see
each other once a week but you’re
abiding all week long that makes when
you do come together that more dynamic
because now you have sight see a lot of
us date God once a week we dated at
10:50 on Sunday morning on Sunday
morning I say god I got a date I got a
date with y’all on Sunday morning you
and I gonna get together and we’re gonna
hook up and we got this to our day going
on and we’re going to get together and
it’s going to be a good date because we
gonna talk about you for two straight
hours two straight hours as always we we
will sing some songs with our children
we go ahead some people talk about
Cheerilee for two straight hours it’s
gonna be
and you then the benediction is given
and the dates over see you next week
10:54 the next day now make all your
wins tonight for a quick on
that’s not abiding that’s visiting most
of us visit God we don’t abide with him
we visited we may visit him with a quick
prayer in the morning we may visit him
we may read a verse a day to keep the
devil away we may go to church on Sunday
morning but we will visit him when a
branch is cut off from the vine it
shrivels Jesus says don’t disconnect
from me
don’t disconnect from me don’t just give
me my time and segregate that I want to
thread through all of your life all day
long now some of that thread will be
formal will actually get on our knees
and pray or will actually sit and read
the Bible that’s the formal time some of
it will be informal why are you walking
and why you’re driving them well why
you’re thinking you’re just gonna you’re
just gonna veer my way and you’re gonna
ask me God what do you think about that
before I make that decision see
sometimes it’s gonna be a five-second
prayer next minute might be a
five-minute prayer other times it may be
a concentrated 30 minute prayer but you
are threading me through all your
activities and what you’re doing whether
you eat or drink or whatever you do you
are bringing me to bail on everything
now you’re staying tucked in see what we
do is we go to church plug in then
disconnect and then we plug in when next
time we show up that’s being in the same
house for does not abiding this is
really convicting because this explains
a lot of our problems and our defeats so
here’s what people want they want a
microwave experience with God when God
is offering a crock-pot experience with
him
see we want to go in and we want to push
a worship button boom I give you this
many minutes god to set me on fire and
so we push the microwave button and we
get excited and we shout and we’re happy
and it looks like God is all over me and
it looks like eating microwave me on
fire but we all know something about
microwave food you can get it real hot
real quick but it’ll get real cold real
quick so we can we can we on Sunday
morning you know you can microwave you
only watch you cold by the time you get
your car and we know you’re cold cuz you
ain’t talking out there like you were
talking in here you didn’t got cold that
quick
that’s a microwave experience God is
interested in a crock-pot man crock-pot
is slow you believe a crock pot on all
night long am I saying this right
I don’t know much mothers but you put on
the crock-pot in the crock-pot be going
all night long but when but when you
wake up the next day that thing has gone
all through that food and it’s taking it
over and it’s it’s well prepared God is
not interested in microwaving your
experience with him he wants to
crock-pot it with you he wants it to be
an ongoing slow steaming rich
environment that doesn’t become
disconnected one of the things that I do
not do around my house is wash dishes
I’m a confess publicly to you now that
probably wash dishes twice and I stand
convicted but washing dishes that’s just
not something I’ve done you know a wife
two girls and explains it but
brothers you don’t need to be saying
Amen right now that would not be wise
but one of the things I don’t get is
wash dishes but what I have done is so
come
of sultan when the dishes get dirty and
they have been a dirty for an extended
period of time you have to go to work to
clean them if you are just going to
clean them as they are you got to take
your coffin you got to use your arm and
you got to try to scrub it clean you
kind of try to force it off you gotta
gotta make it like you want it to be you
gotta you gotta go over and over and I’m
trying I’m trying and I’m trying to make
it better
and clean but if you soak them just let
him abide in hot water with sons just
let it abide just let it hang out in the
hot water and thirst you let it hang out
there for a while what you were trying
to force now slide he lot of us are
trying to change it I am going to make
myself a strong that a spiritual
Christian no matter if it kills me
or not I’m gonna try and Jesus is saying
so kid brother soaked in a by this is
just hangout abiding is David’s word for
ting the Old Testament meditation he
kept rolling stuff around he wouldn’t
let it go he rolled it around he says on
my night bed I rolled it around I rolled
it around I rolled it around and he
found out that when that thing takes
root see what we don’t allow is Jesus
Christ to take root see when you hear it
it hasn’t taken root that’s why you can
forget it because it hasn’t taken root
the idea is that get to the heart so
when it gets to the heart because it’s
taking root in the transformation then
fruit is being born and you wonder boy
I’m changing I’m not talking like it
used to talk I’m an acting like I used
to act and stuff I used to want I don’t
even want it like I used to brew it and
you wonder where that came from it
didn’t come because you scrub it came
because you abided you hung out I shared
this with you before but but it’s such a
great
raishin of abiding the two types of tea
drinkers there are dippers they take the
teabag go up and down up and down up and
down up and down up and down that
dippers now if your dipper that’s a lot
of work you got to do the arm thing you
got to go to gone exercise up and up and
up and they got to get a spoon with the
other hand and he got to put it under
the bag he got wrapped the string around
it you gotta take your finger and press
down on it to get all the juice out of
the bag into the water you know it’s a
lot of work I’m not a Dipper I’m in a
biter
I just dropped my tea bag in the water
and leave it alone I let it hang out
there I just let it hang out I was
drinking tea with a guy one day and he
was a Dipper he was the Dipper he was
going up and down and up and down and up
and down and up and down and up and down
I just put my bag in the water and just
let it hang out he going up and down
going up and don’t even look him in he
says I can’t do what you just did I said
why can’t you do that
he said because if I do what you just
did my tea will get too strong see a lot
of us dipping on Sunday morning then we
dip back out we made it back in on
Wednesday then we dip back out
we may even dip in in the morning and
give God a verse and we get back out and
we wonder why we got week key God is
saying I want you to abide I want us to
hang out I want us to hang out I want I
want to be your your running buddy I
want to be included on all your
decisions I want to be interacted with
yeah you know I want I want you to think
thoughts about me every time you get a
break I want to be consumed by you and
watch what I produce in your life in
your attitude in your mindset in your
patterns in fact back in Colossians
chapter 1 he says in verse 11 and 12 he
says and you will have endurance he says
when the knowledge of God produces
fruitfulness with it it will produce
endure
and you know it’s spiritual endurance
because he says it will be joyous now
whenever the Bible talks about endurance
it’s talking about your enduring
something that’s not the most pleasant
scenario right now you’re in a situation
that’s not your preference but he says
the reason you know God is at work is
you’re hanging in there joyfully before
you were in there and hated every moment
of it
now you’re in there God hasn’t give you
an exit from there but you’re full of
joy why are you in there
that’s because God has produced
something in you that wasn’t your normal
disposition because he said that the
other verse 12
you’ve been qualified to receive an
inheritance boy I wish we could all
understand this I got someone to go in
the mail from one of these credit-card
companies they told me I had been
pre-qualified have you gotten it
pre-qualified I didn’t apply for it I
didn’t ask for it
they sent me and tell me they have
already qualified me and they gave me
this ridiculous limit of debt that they
wanted me to get in they gave me this
ridiculous limit and told me I don’t
have to ask for I’ve already been
pre-qualified for he says at the end of
12 you have been qualified to receive an
inheritance when you accepted Jesus
Christ you got pre-qualified for
whatever God wants to produce in your
life it’s already been you already
qualify for it he just wants you to hang
out with him as simply as I can put it
for me for you for us if you want to
experience God for real and if you want
to see that produce stuff in your life
beyond what you could dream of fruit
that is enormous he says I buy hang out
with me sometimes that’ll be a little
bit here a little bit there sometime to
be long as I’m talking shorter but don’t
disconnect from me don’t pull the socket
out of the wall the food will go bad the
light will go
don’t pull the it out and let me
keep it fresh for you