1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian LOVE | Seite 3

MONDAY
John 15
Let me begin today by saying that God would want you to believe that YOU ARE SO MUCH
STRONGER THAN WHAT YOU THINK.
If what we said in our introduction is true and that God’s presence in our life by His Holy
Spirit is real, then we have to believe that we all have one hundred per cent potential to
bear one hundred per cent Fruit. According to the analogy Jesus used, in John 15, He
showed us that there are without doubt four levels of fruitfulness. Each one progresses
upon the other, it is the “much-fruit” category that I am now talking about.
Let me paint for you another picture. If your life were like a bucket, God, according to
what we have said so far, fills your bucket to the brim with Himself.The Fruit of His life is
the overflow from the bucket that is seen as He continues to pour His life into yours. He
has, most clearly, done His part. John 15, however, gives us the part that we have to play
by telling us that we need to “abide in the vine” in order to receive the fruit-bearing power
through the vine. The problem, as I seeit, is the bucket that is our lives is all too often full
of holes which drain our fruit-bearing potential and we end up not evidencing the fruit of
Christ in us. There are many Christians whose buckets are so full of holes that they are
pretty much running on empty. Some of the holesin our buckets come in the form of
personal prejudice and that the reason we do not love as we should is as a result of
cultural, racial and/or social prejudices. Another hole in our bucket could be the hole of
un-forgiveness which can drain our lives of all the goodness and love that God would want
to pour in there. Pride could be another hole in the bucket; we tend to think of ourselves
more highly than we should.
These are just a few examples of the things that can drain us and with every hole we
diminishthe potential for bearing fruit. The only answer to this dilemma is that we have to
fix the bucket and the only way we plug these holes is through repentance where we ask
God’s forgiveness for those things that have offended Himand have corrupted the
potential of “Christ in us”.
A great picture of this could be seen in the life of king Saul, when God appointed him to be
the king of Israel he was full of potential and yet as he journeyed through life the holes
began to appear. The hole of arrogance towards God’s law; the hole of jealousy towards
David; the hole of un-forgiveness; the hole of pride where he was embittered by the fact
the people preferred David over him. As a result he lost all his potential and died a
miserable and empty person. How true this is of many who sit in our churches today; they
start off their Christian life so full of potential and yet as a result of the “holes in their
bucket” they never end up fully reaching the potential that God had planned for them.