Faithful = Fruitful

Luke 16:¹⁰ “If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things” (Voice).

Fruitfulness is a big deal with God. If as a Christian, you do not bear fruit, Jesus says, there is a question mark somewhere. The challenge I have seen with Church folk is people want to be fruitful in their minds, that is, people have a mental ascent. They agree to fruitfulness, they like to be fruitful, but people do not commit to fruitfulness or commit to do the things that God requires for us to be fruitful. And the key to fruitfulness is faithfulness; when you are faithful in little, much more will be committed to you. As a Christian, you cannot be fruitful if you are not faithful because that is how it works.

I was listening to Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle; they are doing amazing things for God – a great church. He was sharing about his conversation with a younger Pastor. And the younger Pastor was talking down to his people like trash, using words like useless people and such. So, Pastor Cymbala warned him about talking about his people like that. Guess what the younger Pastor tried to do? He tried to convince Pastor Cymbala of how useless his congregation was, and they are just a handful of non-committal, useless people and he wanted to know how he could get a church like Brooklyn Tabernacle. Pastor Cymbala told him that he has to be faithful to the people God has given him. If you are faithful with little, God will multiply it.

The Bible described the people that came to David when he was running from Saul as people that were in debt, vagabonds, people that were depressed, people that were rejects [1 Sam.22:2, please read]. But those were David’s men when they started. By the time they ended, the Bible described them as mighty men of war [2 Sam.23:8-39, please read]. David changed their lives; they became great and God promoted David. You have to be faithful; love your Life Group, love your fellowship, love the people you are leading – love them! John 15:¹⁷ “This is my command: Love each other.” ‘Pastor you do not understand, these people are incorrigible.’ Love them. Love them, serve them, and be faithful. The Vinedresser is actively involved with His Church. That is what Jesus is teaching us in John 15. So do not think that God is aloof.

God is actually actively involved, watching out for the branch that is bearing fruit. He prunes it so that it can bear more fruit. He is cutting off the unfruitful [useless] branches. God will bring the fruitfulness by His Spirit. However, you cannot be fruitful if you are not faithful. When it comes to areas of fruitfulness, some people have seven areas, some have twenty-one and some have five. But we have distilled it down to three, which we will distill further to just one. But these three are like the bedrock. The other seven, twenty-one and so on. A lot of them are foundations for fruitfulness. Tomorrow, we will get into the three areas of fruitfulness.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, I yield my life to You, help me to be faithful and committed to all that God has entrusted into my hands, cause me to be fruitful, in Jesus Name. Amen!