BIBLE STUDIES ARCHIVE.....The Vinedresser Looks for Fruit

God's Purpose:  "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength."  Dt. 6:5
    This can be considered the depth of the love relationship we build with the Lord our God.
God's Plan:  "...that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word."  Eph. 5:26
    The Gospel presented to us is an instrument used for salvation.  In John 15:3, Jesus told the disciples, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."  The disciples heard the word, they believed it, they obeyed it, and were washed, cleansed and purified.  The Lord desires the same for us today, that we might:
HEAR THE WORD
BELIEVE THE WORD
OBEY THE WORD
BE WASHED BY THE WATER OF THE WORD
BE CLEANSED AND PURIFIED BY THE BLOOD
God's Provision:  The text from John 15:1-11 reveals His provision for His plan, according to His purpose.  Some key points we can draw from the Scripture include:
The Vinedresser looks for fruit.  The word instructs us that to develop fruit, we are to:
--Abide in Christ: love Him with all that Deuteronomy 6:5 requires of us
--Bear fruit: develop the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22
--Be pruned: enter a season of testing, being trimmed and prepared
--Bear more fruit: develop the fruit of good works
 
He is our Savior AND He is our Lord:  we are saved AND we are submitted to His Lordship in our lives.
If we keep His commandments, we will abide in His love.
His love is the softening of the soil in our hearts as He prepares our hearts to receive the seeds He plants within us.  One of those seeds is joy.
John 15:11 - "...that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be complete."