JUL 5 2026 | Rooted In The Spirit S1E2 | The Epistles: Fruits and Gifts

Sea Change Church · Rooted In The Spirit · "The Epistles: Fruits and Gifts" Pastor Joshua Pigg · July 5, 2026
John 15:1-17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Well, good morning church and happy day after 4th of July. Man, I hope y'all guys had a great time. I don't know if y'all guys are doing well, but we had a good time at the beach, went on base, and had the kids run around and play all of the games. And the great thing about it all is that we beat traffic. I was determined not to be in that 4th of July traffic. Man, it would be stressing me out.

Last year, it took us about an hour and a half to get home, and I was not having it this 4th of July. So, I'm fired up right now, you have no idea. idea. But I am Pastor Joshua. I am the campus pastor here at C Change Church. We're so grateful if you're new here or just kind of visiting, checking out a church. We're so grateful that you're here and please come and talk to me afterwards. Definitely want to get to know you, say hey to you, all that fun and stuff. But today's scripture reading is going to come from John 15. And we are a Bible holding church. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open that up to John 15. We have a long piece of scripture we're going to read today, verses 1 through 17. And I'm going to go through this verse right now, this scripture right now. So here we go. Verse 15, verse 1 I meant. I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him. He it is that bears much fruit from apart from me you can do nothing. Everyone say nothing. There we go. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Someone say full. There we go. Continue reading. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I call you friends for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another.

Amen. Thanks God for the reading the word. That was a lot and I chose that. I don't know why I should have cut it up or something like that, but such a powerful piece of scripture. I love it a lot. And when I was reading this, one thing that came to my mind as I was going through it, I asked myself, am I qualified to bear fruit? Am I qualified to bear fruit? And I hope that you would ask the same question, are you qualified to bear fruit? Are you qualified to bear fruit? Now, this may be a strange question, but most of us understand what it looks like to qualify for something, right? Maybe we have a job, we have an occupation, there's certain qualification that goes into that. And as we celebrate these 250 years as a country, I thought it just very, just good to talk about me trying to join the Navy. Why I did join the Navy, let me say that first.

Going through the process of joining the Navy. Now, I thought when I went down to the recruiting office that I would just have to sign and good to go and that was pretty much it, done deal. But I had to take a test and then I had to do some medical stuff and I get medical evaluated and I had to do all these different things and show up and ask all these questions, looking at my background. It was like this long, drawn out process. And this was only to qualify you for a boot camp.

This is not even to join the Navy. Like you literally get a recruit ball cap once you go to boot camp. And you still have to go through a whole another two-month process of making sure you're qualified, of doing firefighter training, of doing, of shooting a gun, of these different inspections to where you have to make sure you have a uniform on and you have to, it's so detailed that you have to make sure your shoelaces go a certain direction through your shoes. Like it's the amount of detail.

I'm like, who cares about where your shoelaces goes? Like it's crazy. Like it was so, it was so stressful, right? As you go through these different inspections, they will come to your, your, where you live in at, your quarters. And you would have to have your rack, like every single thing folded a certain way, placed in a certain direction. You have to have your stencil on it with your name facing a certain direction. Like it was very detailed. It was so detailed and I was so stressed out about it.

And I think our whole compartment was, because we would wake up early in the morning, 2 a.m. in the morning and iron our drawers to make sure they were flat. Like it was like, it was, you were stressed out just to pass these inspections. And I felt like my RDCs, the people who was in charge of me, would pick on me because almost every, maybe once a week, my rack is completely destroyed because someone goes and just mess everything up. And it was, oh, it made me so mad. But it was a part of being qualified to say that I am a Navy sailor. It was going through this process that you had a certain level of pride about what you're doing. But not only that, when we went through all these different types of inspections, it's to help you to pay attention to the details.

And the reason why you pay attention to the details, because by you not paying attention to the details, you can actually harm yourself, kill yourself or kill someone else because you didn't pay attention to the details. And I've seen this happen in the military where the details actually had someone to lose their life. So the details matter a whole lot. So we understand this. And most of life works like this where we have to pay attention to the details. We have to get qualified for certain things for a job or maybe trying to get a degree. There's certain things that has to be in place so that you can be qualified. So when we got to, when we get to John 15, it was natural for me to ask the question, am I qualified to bear fruit? Am I qualified to bear fruit? And I love the fact that Jesus, he answers this question for us. He doesn't say that we need to be educated. He doesn't say we need to have a certain level of experience. He doesn't care about your talents.

He doesn't care about what you achieve, how much money you have in the bank. The one thing that he says qualifies you is being connected to him. Being connected to him. In John 15, if you may not know this, but this is part of the farewell discourse for John 13 through 17. So this is right before, you know, Jesus sits down and he washes the disciples' feet. This is right before Judas has already kind of left the scene and going and doing what he was going to do as far as betraying Jesus.

And this is right before the hour, the few hours right before Jesus is arrested. He's tried and he's crucified on the cross for all of our sins. So these are some very important teachings that he is trying to teach his disciples right then and there. So the main idea I want us to really kind of grasp and really truly think about is this right here. The only qualification for being spiritual, look, the only qualification for bearing fruit or spiritual fruit is that we abide in Jesus Christ.

I'm going to say that one more time because I jacked it up the first couple of times. The only qualification for bearing spiritual fruit is abiding in Jesus Christ. So my first point is this right here, right? The first point, your qualification is your connection. My qualification, your qualification is your connection as a branch is being connected to the vine. In verse number two, if you have your Bible, verse number two says this right here.

It says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away in every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You see, the branch must be connected in order to produce. Now, what happens to a branch that is disconnected? What happens? It dies. Exactly. The branch has no life in itself at all whatsoever. And the father in this particular story is the gardener, right? He prunes and gives attention to every single branch that is connected.

Now, this does not mean that Jesus does not care about those who are lost. But in this particular verse, we are talking about those who are disciples, who are Christians. So he's making this very distinction as we read the scripture. And God is actively involved in every single believer's life, including mine. He's actively involved in our lives. And he will not allow us to fail unless we decide to be disconnected from him.

In verse two, there's a Greek word that talks about takes away. This has been translated takes away. And that Greek word is aero. And it's translated to me to live up, to rise up or to take away. Now, the translation here is correct. And it's a picture of a branch that does not bear fruit. Right. And it is removed from the vine. And Jesus kind of talks about this little father when he goes to verse six. And he says that this branch is thrown away.

It withers and it is burned. And many understand this to represent a person who outwardly looks like they're connected. But the truth of it is that they don't possess genuine saving faith. So they look good on the outside, like we do the religious things and and all of that. But we are truly not connected. So it's this picture of that. But a lot of scholars like to translate this takes away a little differently. And it means to lift up.

And it kind of gives you this picture of, let's say, a branch that's lying on the ground, that's collecting a lot of dirt and it's receiving very little sunlight. And rather than cutting this branch off immediately, a good vine dresser would gently lift it up, clean it and tie it back until the trellis so that it could become fruitful. And this is there's a verse that kind of attached to it. Psalms 145 14. It says this right here.

It says the Lord upholds all who are falling and rise up all who are bowed down. And this interpretation, it actually highlights God's grace and his restoring work toward those who are struggling believers. Now, I don't know about you guys, right? But there's been times in my life where I have been struggling. There's been times in ministry where I felt like I wasn't producing much fruit at all whatsoever. I questioned whether I was good enough.

I questioned whether I was saying the right things or doing the right things. And I remember thinking to myself, am I actually qualified to be here? And looking back on this, I realized that God wasn't pushing me away, but he was actually actually drawing me closer to himself. He was teaching me that fruit, that true fruit. It is not produced by what I do. It's not produced by what I say, but it's produced by who I'm connected to.

And sometimes God has to slow each and every one of us down, like pump your brakes, humble yourself and understand this, that outside of Christ, we can do nothing. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't go and build a successful business, successful company, raise a good family. That's not what I'm saying at all whatsoever. What I'm saying is the fruit that the Bible talks about, you cannot produce that. You may be able to produce a counterfeit, but the true fruit that gives life, it takes you being connected to Jesus Christ, not your works, not your gifts, but the fruits, which we're going to talk about here shortly.

You see, understanding this, that the branch cannot live independently, right? The branch cannot survive alone. It cannot grow alone, nor can it produce alone. It has to be connected to the vine. It has to stay connected to the source. And how do we stay connected as believers? Like how do we as Christians stay connected? This kind of looks like prayer. It's kind of like being in a small group. We have so many different opportunities for us to stay together.

The Bible studies, the Freedom in Christ series we're doing right now, the women's event that's coming around. These are all things that keep us connected. Now, I know some of us may have busy lives, but when you have the opportunity, if you're a college student going to Pastor Joe's college, like that's how you stay connected. That's how you remain in the vine. And that's what the church is all about, is making sure that we are able to produce fruit.

Because God never designed Christians to flourish disconnected from Christ. The Bible talks about drawing nigh unto God, and he would draw nigh unto us. And you've never seen a branch on its own. And if you ever did see a branch on its own, it had no life. So we have to make sure that we stay connected. So the first qualification was, your qualification is in your connection. And the second point that I want us to understand is this right here.

Your strength comes from your dependence. Your strength, my strength, it comes from our dependence on Christ. In verse 5 and 6, it says this right here. If you have your Bibles, turn to me really quick. It says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. From apart from me, you can do nothing. Somebody say nothing. There we go. So if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

You see, branches have one job. One job, and that's to hang on. Hang on. That's it. That's all you. Look, just hang on. Stay in the fight. Some of us make this harder than what Jesus even made it. You know, like we think we have to do all these different things, and he is reminding us to stay connected. Stay connected to the vine. Don't be deceived when this world tries to come and bring you different avenues or different things that could help you or satisfy you.

Like, it only lasts for a short time. Stay connected to the vine. And one of the things we have to know is we have to know who Jesus is. You see, Jesus, he established our identity before he gives us our responsibility. You see this throughout the Bible. You see this with Peter. He called Peter before he made him a preacher. Matthew. He called Matthew while he was still in a tax booth. The disciples were chosen before they were sent.

We see Paul remind believers that they are children of God before telling them how to live. Like, we are not the vine. Like, no one in here is the vine. We are the branches. And if we are branches, we are designed to depend on Christ, not to produce life on our own. It's always to stay connected to the source. A branch has no independence at all whatsoever. He is the branch. We are always reminded that we have to stay plugged and we have to stay connected.

Because outside of that, the Bible says that we can't produce no fruit. We cannot produce no fruit. You have to know who you are. Like, the Bible says that our identity is hid in Christ. The Bible says that God has made us the head and not the tail to make us to live above and not beneath. Like, he has called us a royal priesthood, a chosen generation. It's like, that's who God has identified us as. So we have to operate in that.

Because when you don't, you start to go to a world that can make things look appeasing, that make things look like it's glitter, that make things look like it's gold when it's fool's gold. So we have to know who we are. We have to understand that our identity comes before our activity. Like, God has chosen you, first and foremost, and he will produce the fruit that is needed to accomplish what he has already installed in you.

Now, that doesn't mean you guys sit around here and be a couch potato either. Like, but God will bring forth what he has spoken. You also have to know what happens without him. The Bible says that apart from me, you could do nothing. You could start a business. You could get an education. You could do real estate. You can invest in different things. You can invent different things. You could raise a great family. You could create great memories for 4th of July.

But you can't produce fruit without Christ. And the fruit looks like this in Galatians 5, 22 and 23. It says this. But the fruit of the spirit is love, is joy, is patience, is kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And it says against such things there is no law. Andrew Murray, he said this right here. He said abiding in Christ is not a matter of doing more, but of depending more. So the last two points, right?

The first point was your qualification is in your connection. The second point was your strength comes from your dependence. And the third thing I want us to understand and realize is that your fruit reveals your relationship. Your fruit reveals your relationship. In verses 16 through 17, it says this right here. In verse 16, it says, When I read this verse and I saw the conclusion, I understood that fruit looks like love.

Fruit, it looks like love. It looks like it's sacrificial. Love is obedience. You see, the greatest evidence of someone who is abiding isn't simple biblical knowledge. It is Christ-like love. And this is something that you can only create by staying connected to the vine. But so often we try to do things outside of Christ when God says, Look, I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to do exactly what I said I would do.

You can trust me. You can trust in my word. I have never failed at creating fruit in anyone. But so often we try to do things on our own. We try to seek out people to make us feel good about ourselves. We try to accomplish great things to make us feel better of who we are. And the truth of it is that God is saying, Look, abide in me and I in you, and you will produce fruit. God didn't save us just to be imputes. He saved us to make disciples, to glorify him and to be fruitful disciples.

So I want you to ask yourself this right here. Ask yourself this. What is God trying to remove from my life so I can become more like Christ? What is God trying to take away or to separate from you right now so that you can look more like him? So coming in for Atlanta, our practical takeaways is very simple. The first one is stay connected to Jesus every day. You have to make the word of God your daily bread. Like we don't go a couple of days without eating unless you just, you know, doing a fast, right?

Like every day. It doesn't take a lot of time to get into the word of God. Two to three minutes to read a scripture and let that scripture just go through your mind and meditate on it. The last two weeks, one scripture that I have been meditating on is Matthew 633 that says, Seek first the kingdom of God. And I just been letting that just rotate through me. I wake up thinking about that, thinking about it. It causes you to look at life a lot differently.

Because all this is going to be going eventually. So do something every day, whether that's prayer, whether that's reading your word, whether that's being kind to someone. Like show Christ in every single area that you are placed in. Second thing, let God prune what does not belong. Now, a lot of us don't like this. A lot of us don't like correction. A lot of us don't like to be disciplined at all whatsoever. But if you are truly wanting to produce that fruit, you have to allow God to correct you.

You have to let the word of God cut some things off in your life that you know that you should not be doing. That's why we have the word of God is to bring correction. God corrects those whom he love. So we got to allow the word of God to do exactly that. The third thing, don't do life alone. We have so many different things going on at church. Matter of fact, so many things going on in the body of Christ to where you could attend or be a part of so that you stay connected, so that you are reminded of how good God has given things to us.

It's to keep us connected to the source. So don't try to walk this life out alone by yourself because it's truly the word of God tells you that it's not good for man to be alone. Because when man is alone, he's easily deceived. That's why it's good to be around brothers and sisters of Christ so that we can always stay connected, so that we could produce fruit that is pleasing unto him. And the last thing is this right here.

Love like Jesus loves you. Love like Jesus loved you. It's not hard. Maybe it is for you, but it's not hard to be kind. It's not hard to be gentle. You just do it. It's really just a choice. Sometimes we try to make things harder than what they need to be. No, it's literally a choice to be kind. It's literally a choice to be kind in our marriages, to be kind to our kids, to be kind when we're out in public. It's a choice.

And you just got to choose that every single day. Not saying that you're not going to fail at some point or some times in your life, but to choose to live the way that Christ would have us to. It takes an everyday living sacrifice of yourself to obey and follow his word. God has so many things in store for those who have put their trust in him, who would not trust in what the world can give, but trust in what he has done across for our sins, because eventually all this will be done with.

But God has promised us glory. At the end of this, the victory has belonged to those who put their trust in Christ. So we no longer have to work at things. All we have to do is stay connected to the vine. So the question I have again, are you qualified to bear fruit? Are you qualified to bear fruit? And that qualification looks like being connected to the vine. Pin your trust in Jesus Christ and letting him bring forth the fruit that is pleasing to him.

Amen. At this time, I'm bringing Pastor Joe up to lead us into communion.