John 15 tonight. John chapter number 15. Find your place there in the pages of God's Word. I sure have enjoyed the music today. What about you? My heart's been blessed and encouraged. When you come to John 15, it's the last night of the Lord's life. They have left the upper room. They're crossing. across the Brook Kedron over into the Garden of Gethsemane where the Lord would be betrayed. He would be arrested. Then He would be tried more than once. He would be tried on six different occasions before He would be crucified. He was giving what we understand as the upper room discourse and then the Garden of Gethsemane discourse. And He's making His way through the vineyards. And he begins to talk to them on what we know as the parable of the vine and the branches. Let's pick up in verse number 1. He said, I am the true vine, and my father is the husband. You know there's a people that are connected to a whole lot of things. They are. They're connected to them. But they're not true. They're counterfeit. They think it'll bring priests. They think it'll bring hope. They think it'll guide them for the future. Whatever it might be, there's many religions. Many things that people in a religious way can attach themselves to. But the Lord is saying this, I am the true vine. There's no one else but Me. And My Father's the husband. He's the caretaker of the vine. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth, he pruneth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. That's very clear, isn't it? He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." I remind you, as we look at this parable, the components of it. The vine is the Lord Jesus. The husband, the divine caretaker, is God the Father. The branches within this particular parable are believers. and branch wood, vine wood, branches, have but one purpose, one reason to exist, and that is to bear fruit. That's something the disciples would know as a given. They lived in an agricultural society. They were around vineyards all the time, and no doubt they had seen them caring for the vines, and here it is in the time that they're actually in the early spring of the year, late winter, early spring, and they've been pruning these vines, and the smoke, the smoldering of the clippings, they can see that in a very vivid illustration and way of what the Lord is saying. Success in the Christian life is measured by fruitfulness. We remind you that he talks so much about fruit in these verses. He talks about fruit, more fruit, much fruit. Come down to verse 16, it's remaining fruit, fruit that remains. He says that, and that your fruit should remain, and so it's lasting fruit. And so we realize that in the Christian life, success is measured in my fruitfulness for God. And we talked about the different kinds of fruit that we bear, that we're to bear as believers, that we bear for the glory of God. But then we notice in our passage in verse number 2 that there is a particular branch that the Lord addresses. Notice what He says in the first part. He said, fruit. Here the Lord sets before us two kinds of branches. There is what we would understand as a fruitful branch. He's going to mention in the middle part every branch that beareth fruit. They're connected. They're productive. It is and it's doing and being what a branch is supposed to be and do. It's bearing fruit. as a result of drawing from the life-giving strength of the sap that flows through the vine out into the branches. Recognize that it's not the branch's fruit, it's actually the vine's fruit, that it bears through the branches. Remind us that you and I cannot manufacture fruit for God. Oh no, what it is is we're connected, we're abiding in Him. The life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit flows through our lives and enables us. to bear fruit to the glory of God. That's why abiding is so important. You cannot be a rooted Christian if you're not an abiding Christian. And if you're not an abiding Christian, you will not be a fruitful Christian. God desires every one of us to be a fruitful branch. But now He addresses the next branch, and that is a fruitless branch. We see that in verse 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit. It's unproductive. It's unfruitful. It's not being and doing what a branch is supposed to be and do. It is what you and I would call a fruitless branch. Tonight I want to preach to us a very sobering message on the tragedy of a fruitless life. Let's pray together and ask God to help us. Lord, we thank You for Your truth. And Lord, while many times we go into the Scriptures and we look at subject matter that rejoices us and blesses us, and Lord, we go away with a happy spirit in our heart, Lord, there are times that You address areas of our life that are sobering. that are challenging. Lord, I believe tonight is the case. That's what is in the thought, the subject matter before us. Lord, that every Christian, every believer in this room will be one of two kinds of branches. We'll either be fruitful or we will be fruitless. And Lord, the sobering part is that a fruitful branch today can be fruitless tomorrow. And I pray, Lord, that You would speak to us tonight on the threshold of this new year that we would be fruitful for You. That we would be and do what branches are to be and do. And we'll thank You for it, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, we look into this passage and the Lord talks about a branch in Him that beareth not fruit. And He's using the analogy of a branch that is, what you and I would say, not doing what a branch is designed and created to be and do. And the reality of it is, Christian, that there can be times in our life, and there can even be Christian lives that are not what God designed and created them to be. And we see that in the tragedy of a fruitless branch. And so what is it, preacher, that God is seeking to us to challenge us about as we think about this matter of being a fruitless branch? And the first truth that I learned as it relates to a branch, and a fruitless branch in particular, is that it is a blighted branch. It is a blighted branch. The branch is infected with some type of parasite or disease that prevents its growth. It's this Christian that's failing to abide in Christ. And as we do so, we become blighted. And blight, when it is in a branch, will prevent its growth. It will hinder its fruitfulness. It will eventually destroy it altogether. And you're going to find that a fruitless Christian is a blighted, Christian. I think there is a picture in the graph. There it is. That's a picture of a blighted grapevine. And where these branches should be green and live and vibrant and the grapes juicy and plump and ready to be plucked and eaten. This vine, this particular branch. is brown and withered and dead and the fruit is barren and tasteless and useless. It's a blighted branch. And the sad fact is that many a Christian is a blighted Christian. Blight hardens the bark of the branch, preventing the life-giving sap of the vine to flow into it and fill it with vitality and vigor to bring forth fruit. And that sap is a picture of the Holy Spirit who flows from Christ into our lives, and we possess Him, and He possesses us, and He fills us as we abide in the Lord. He fills us, fills the life of the Christian with the vigor and the vitality necessary to bear fruit for the caretaker, the heavenly caretaker, God the Father, and it's heartbreaking. that in a congregation that there are Christians, there are believers who were one time healthy and they were growing and were fruitful with the joy of the Lord being evident in their life and now they are blighted and withered and they are fruitless. All of us know Christians that at one time were vibrantly serving God alongside of us and their life was vibrant and growing and blessed and fruitful and now they're not even in church. Their life resembles nothing of what it one time did. I'm reminded recently of a man that used to serve in our church. I'm not going to call his name. He got away from God. His life went down a road that was unbelievable. He died in the flower of His age. And when I walked by the receiving line and I looked over into the casket and I saw Him, I thought, this resembles nothing of the brother that I prayed with and served with and loved with. And one of His children was standing there and said, it's not Dad, is it? And I said, no, I just choose to remember the good things of what used to be. Here's the sad fact. You can be vibrant and growing and fruitful today and be blighted tomorrow. That's reality. An abiding branch is a fruitful branch. An unabiding, if I could use that terminology, a branch that fails to abide becomes blighted and withered and fruitless. What happened, preacher? Let me just go ahead and say that oftentimes we're blighted by the parasite of sin. Do you know nothing will stop the flow of the Holy Spirit's working in our lives quicker than sin? sin that's allowed to remain in our lives undealt with and unconfessed. In Ephesians, let's hold our place and look over at Ephesians chapter number 4. Would you turn there with me for just a moment and find, if you would please, verse number 30. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 30. And we come there and the Lord is going to talk about the real possibility of a believer living in such a manner that their life grieves the Spirit of God. Now, here's the good news. I may grieve Him, but He will never leave me. But that does not mean that I cannot hinder the flow of His working in my life. And exactly what happens, sin will sever, it will hinder the vitality of the Holy Spirit in our lives quicker than anything. Notice he says in Ephesians 4.30, "...and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." That word grieve is a love word. You cannot grieve someone that does not love you. The reality of it is that God, listen to me young man, young lady, young Christian, wherever we're at, God, God desires more for you than you'll ever desire for yourself. God has desires for your life. that are greater than anything you can imagine. And just as God has a wonderful, blessed plan for your life, Satan has a wicked plan for your life. And he's going to do everything he can to take you down that path and blight you so that you can never bring forth fruit for God. That's true for any of us tonight. And we find that we grieve Him. It means to cause sorrow or pain. He's grieved, sorrowed, pained by our sin, our sin that is allowed to go undealt with in our lives. It's interesting when you look at the context of Ephesians 4, the entire chapter, and we won't do that, you're going to find sins like fornication and adultery and drunkenness and murder, all kinds of things. in the passage, and you would think you would find these listings like fornication, adultery, and drunkenness, and murder, but you don't. That's not what you find in the passage. No, He doesn't deal with outward sins, but the inward secret sins that you can't see. like dishonesty in v. 25, anger in v. 26, stealing in v. 28, sinful speech in v. 9, what the Bible says in v. 29, corrupt communication. That's not necessarily cursing. Preacher, I don't curse. I know, but do you gossip and tear down and slander? Do you criticize unjustly? talks about bitterness in verse 29, and wrath, and clamor, and evil speaking, injurious or cutting remarks, and malice. You know what? We may not have any murderers in the room tonight, or adulterers, or fornicators, or drunkards in the service tonight, but I'm here to tell you this, and I want you to listen closely. If you're harboring sins of deception, and dishonesty, and anger, and bitterness, and gossip, and wrath, and jealousy, and malice, and covetousness, you're blighted. That's the reality. You will become a blighted, withered, fruitless Christian. That vine that you saw didn't get that way overnight. No. It's progress. The blight is much like cancer. It starts small, but it grows. until eventually it consumes the entire branch. And so, a person who starts off down the road may not all at once become fruitless, but yet there's the beginnings of something in their life that will eventually consume them, such as bitterness, or anger, or jealousness, or whatever it might be, until eventually it consumes them. and their life is no longer productive and fruitful for God. They're blighted. They're fruitless. Oh, they may go to church. They may go to church every service. They may go through the motions. They may sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, serve in places of leadership. They can stand in pulpits, but they're blighted. Blighted and unfruitful. Not only can we be blighted by sin, but the reality of it is you and I can be blighted by self. This is where it's at. Living for self rather than the Savior. So many Christians are caught up with an I disease. Not of the physical I, but the letter I. They're caught up with themselves. They're selfish, self-centered, self-serving, self-gratifying, self-glorying. They're not concerned about the glory of God. It's all about them. It's what pleases me, what makes me happy, what's convenient for me, what's in it for me mentality. A branch doesn't bear fruit for itself. God didn't design us as branches to bear fruit so that we could glory in it, so that we could be proud about it, so that we could tell others about it, so that we could show it off, No, we bear fruit for the divine caretaker, the husbandman, that he might rejoice in the fruit of the vine. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time you saw an apple tree eating an apple? Or you saw a grape vine eating grapes? Or a cherry tree eating cherries? No, the fruit is for others. And the same is true of a Christian. Our lives are to be lived for the glory of God and not the glory of self. We can be blighted by self. I think it's good every once in a while to take a self-test. What about you? You want to take one real quick? What's your motive for what you do for the Lord? Why do you do it? Why do you do what you do? Do you get mad, hurt, jealous, or puffed up if someone doesn't shake your hand, speak to you, or you don't get the recognition you thought you should? Do you find yourself bringing attention to all that you do in church and reminding people of all you have done in church? Can you rejoice in someone else's success and blessing? Can you rejoice when God blesses them but maybe you don't feel at that moment blessed? how important such questions are. Because if we're not careful, it will become about us and not Him. And if we're not careful, not only will we become blighted by sin, but we'll become blighted by self. You see, a blighted branch is not only a fruitless branch, a blighted branch, but I want you to notice, secondly, it is a barren branch. A barren branch. Look back with me, if you would, please, in John 15. I told you it's a very sobering message. God's spoken to me in so many ways from the passage. Notice verse 6, "'If a man abide not in Me, That means he's failing to abide and we learn that that key word abide means to remain in fellowship with the Lord. He is cast forth as a branch and is withered. We're going to come to that second part in a moment. That word withered means to be dried up. Did you notice how that grapevine that was blighted was all withered and dried up and lifeless? You know what? There's entire churches that are just filled with blighted, barren Christians. It's lifeless. You walk in the door and there's no life. It's just dead. I don't know about you. I don't want to be a part of anything like that. Do you? But do you realize that can be Calvary Baptist Church? How do we keep it from being dried up and withered, preacher, by being vibrant, abiding Christians? That's how. The bark of the branch becomes hard, it turns black, its leaves wither and turn brown, its fruit, if it has any, is small, hard, knotty, spotted with rot, and no real lasting fruit." You see, when you look at the barren branch, there's two truths that just jump right out at me. You say, preacher, what is it? First of all, there is a loss of fellowship. Look if you would. You see, first of all, it's blighted by sin or self, or both. They're no longer abiding. They're failing to take the time. And abide in our passage is a verb. It is not a noun. It is not a state of being. It is a state of doing. I have a responsibility as a Christian, just like the word rooted is a verb. verb. I'm rooted in Him. I'm rooting myself. That's the word here. I am to abide. It is a responsibility that God has given me. The moment He saved me to abide in Him. To dwell and be in fellowship with Him. It carries the idea of being closer, connected to. Let me just say something. Every one of us are as close to Jesus as we want to be. I'm as close to Him as I want to be. You're as close to Him as you want to be. Every one of us are as connected to Him as we want to be. And a fruitful branch is a connected branch. A fruitless branch is a disconnected branch. Oh, it may still be attached to the vine, but it's not in close connection to the vine, and therefore it does not draw any sustenance or strength from the vine, and it withers and dries up and dies. And the same is true of the child of God. You can walk to the apple trees. You can walk to a grapevine. Within that, if it's not well taken care of, it's not well cultivated, you will find within it dead branches. Branches that no longer bear fruit. They're blighted. They're dead. They're withered. They're there. They're there in every tree. And that tree's cultivated and they're removed. Because to allow them to remain is to cause the tree itself to lose its fruit-bearing strength and suddenly the blighted branch affects all the other branches. And so the caretaker removes them. Now, this does not describe a loss of relationship to Jesus, but a loss of fellowship. You see, notice every branch, no matter whether it's fruitless or fruitful, is in Him. That means that at one time, that branch was in a living, vital union with the Lord. Once we're in Christ, we cannot be taken out of Christ. We can have a relationship to Jesus and not be in fellowship with Jesus. I'm going to ask you a question on this second Sunday night in 2022. How's your fellowship? How's your walk with God? Where are you in your walk with Him? What kind of branch are you and what kind of branch do you desire to become? Oh, those are important questions. Look if you would please again in verse number 6. If a man abide not in Me, that means he chooses not to remain in fellowship with the Lord, daily spending time in His presence, daily walking with Him, daily depending upon Him, dealing with the sin and self of our lives, and if we don't, we fail to do that, we become as a fruitless branch that withers and we dry up and we die spiritually and we lose our vitality and we experience the tragedy of a fruitless branch. The life of the branch is in the vine and the life of a Christian is in Christ. Just as a branch apart from the life of the vine will wither and die, so a Christian apart from the life of the Lord Jesus daily flowing through their spiritual lives in a fresh way will wither and eventually die spiritually. There's a loss of fellowship. Jot this one down. There's a loss of fruitfulness. Verse number 4. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. What's this next phrase? No more can ye except ye abide in me. How is my abiding life? Am I daily abiding in the Lord? Am I making it my business to become an abiding Christian? If not, eventually what happens is that blight begins to take hold in our life. Sin becomes to take hold in our lives. Self becomes to take hold in our lives. And before we know it, we've went from fruitful to fruitless. Vine wood that doesn't bear fruit is useless so far as the vine is concerned. And just as the branch cannot bear fruit without the vine, so the Christian cannot bear fruit apart from Christ. A blighted branch is a barren branch. Now we're going to come to probably some of the most crucial verses and thoughts in the passage. Is everybody still with me? Because a fruitless branch is a blighted branch, it's a barren branch, and it is a burned branch. Look at verse number 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. It's an interesting passage, interesting verse. We want to look at it within its context. And we find that at this moment there are clippings from the vines that the disciples are looking at that's smoldering in those late night hours that have been burned during the day. Very vivid illustration of what could happen to their lives if they fail to abide in the Lord. Notice, what does it mean, preacher, to be burned? There's some troubling statements here. We want to deal with them. Look over at verse 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. You come to verse 6. Men cast them forth into the fire, and they are burned. So the question comes, who or what is taken away and who or what is burned? There are three different interpretations of the passage. I'm going to give them to you, and then I'm going to drive home the point that I believe the Lord is making in the passage. The first one is that these would be people that were at one time saved, but now they've lost it. They believe that those who teach that believe this passage is describing a person who one time knew the Lord, and now for whatever reason, because of sin, self, whatever, they have now lost their salvation. If that is true, then according to this passage, they can never be saved again because they're severed from the vine and they're burned. But no one who teaches that doctrine believes that. To the contrary, they get saved, re-saved and re-saved and re-saved again. That's not in keeping with the whole tenor of Scripture because the Lord has taught us in other places that the moment that we enter into a living union with Him, we can never be severed from Him. We saw that in Ephesians 4.30 that the moment the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, He seals us into the day of redemption. So it cannot mean that a person has lost their salvation. The second teaching, and this is very prominent even among preachers in our own groups, is that this passage describes a professing Christian. They profess, but they do not possess. They profess to be saved, but their lives prove differently. They would be what they would call a false branch who've tied on a little plastic fruit that gives the semblance of being a true branch, and they go through the motions, but there's no real fruit. And if that person is saved, there will be that evidence. That's what they're going to teach. There's a sense in which there is validity there. For six years of my life, I had an outward profession with no inward possession. For six years of my life, if you asked me if I was going to heaven, I would say yes. From eleven years old to seventeen, I went forward in a church. I couldn't tell you what I did. I couldn't tell you what happened. I couldn't tell you anything. I just know I cried some tears. That's all I know. Life was the same. Nothing different. And I went that way for the next six years. At 17, I knew something wasn't right in my life and I didn't even know what it was really. I just knew that something was radically wrong. That my life wasn't what it should be. And I knew one of the one thing which were either I was so backslidden, I didn't even know what was going on or I wasn't saved. And that night I said, Lord, I sure don't want to die. I'm not sure I'm saved. And I went forward that night and I asked the Lord to save me and immediately my life began to change. But I don't believe that's the thrust of this passage. I believe that's a reality. I believe many people probably in this room have a very similar testimony. That maybe there was a time that you made a profession or went through some motions, but there was no inward reality and somewhere down the road you had doubts or you weren't sure about that and you got it settled. Listen, there's nothing like getting something like that settled in our lives. You say, well, what if you did get saved when you was eleven? What if I did? I just know at 17 I did. That's what matters. Being sure. But here's what I do believe he's talking about. I believe he's describing the loss of a believer's life. The tragedy of a fruitless branch. Context matters. Please, I'm teaching tonight. Okay? I'm teaching tonight. So, I'm preaching a little differently. I believe the thrust of the passage is not salvation. Salvation is not in view in John chapter 15. That's already been settled in the lives of these men. Judas, the false professor, is already gone. He's dealing with the eleven as they go into the Garden of Gethsemane. And He begins to talk to them about the fruitfulness or the fruitlessness of their lives. You see, I just believe that context matters. And the thrust of the passage is fruit and fruitfulness in the life of a Christian. And here's what I believe the Lord is teaching us. I believe this is the crux of the matter. Here's where the challenge is. That it is possible for our lives as believers to be fruitless as far as heaven is concerned. It is possible for our testimony and all that we live for since we've been saved to be fit for nothing than fuel for the fire. You see, fine wood is only good for two things. You can't build furniture out of it. You can't build houses out of it. You can't even hang a picture on it in a house. It's fit for two things. Bearing fruit or being burned. That's it. And that's exactly what the Lord was saying to these men in a very real way. That's what He's saying to us tonight. I want you to hold your place here. Actually, we're not going to come back here. We may. If we do, we'll come back. Alright, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We have clarity. When you and I deal with troubling passages or difficult passages in the Bible, it's very important that you always interpret the obscure in the light of the simple. When something seems to be difficult and it doesn't fit with other Scriptures, then you just keep reading until the Bible commentates upon itself and teaches us exactly what God is helping us to understand. And I believe we find it in 1 Corinthians 3. He talks about in verse 11, another foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of every believer's life, and every Christian is building a life upon that foundation. When you come to verse 12, He's going to give you two categories of building material. Now if any man build upon this foundation, this is your life. We've moved from the imagery of fruit bearing to building. And he gives us three, six different kinds of building materials that fall in two categories. He talks about gold, silver, precious stones, and then he talks about wood, hay, stubble. One is consumable, wood, hay, stubble. The other is not consumable. Gold, silver, precious stones. Come to verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest. That means it's going to be revealed. There's going to be a day. Here's two days that are important in the life of every Christian preacher. What are they? That's today and that day when we stand before God. Every one of us will give an account to the Lord for how we've lived our lives as a Christian. Young person, you will give an account for your life. Older Christian, doesn't matter how far we are down the road, there's no stopping place. There's no place we've arrived. We're to be continually bearing fruit until the day the Lord takes us home. So there's two important days in our life. Today, this day, and the day I stand before God. at the judgment seat of Christ. That's not a judgment seat of eternity of whether or not we're saved or lost. It is a judgment seat to determine the fruitfulness of our life and whether it's worthy of reward or not reward. Notice, if you would please, verse 13. Every man's work, how he's lived his life, shall be made manifest. It'll be revealed. You see, it's interesting that we may not see every man's life. Somebody may seem to be very fruitful, but they're not. The quality of their life in that day will be revealed. Watch this. You can do the right thing with the wrong motive and it burns. Notice he says, For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by what? Fire. and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide..." Did you notice that's the word we've been talking about? Remains. We need to remain in fellowship with Him so that our fruit, our works remain when we stand before Him. Fruit that remains. Do you see how it's coming together? And the fire shall try every man's work, his life work, his fruit, however you want to say it, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, remains which is built thereupon, he shall receive what, church? A reward. God's going to reward us. Isn't it amazing? We can't do anything without Him, but yet when we do something with Him, He's going to reward us for it. Isn't that amazing? But then we move to verse 15. If any man's work shall be... what church? Burned. Fuel for the fire, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be... what church? Saved. Yet so is by what? Fire. Salvation is not dependent on what I do or don't do. That's dependent upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Fruitfulness is dependent upon my abiding life, what I do in and through Him. And one day, we're going to all stand before Him, and the blazing gaze of the Son of God is going to burn through the fruitless, blotted works of our lives. And that which remains will be rewarded, and that which burns will be forever lost. But the person's saved. Because salvation is not based on what we do, but who we believed. I want you to get this and maybe even jot it down. It is possible to have a saved soul, but a lost life. It is possible to have a saved soul, but a lost life. There are Christians who will meet the Lord and their entire life will go up in smoke. Can you imagine that? There was a man, and we'll learn about him more when we move into this study and the Lord's timing. There was a man who left Ur of the Chaldees with his uncle. His uncle's name was Abraham. The man's name was Lot. He was a genuinely saved man. There's not a person many times in this room, if you read Lot's life, If you read it in Genesis, and that's all you had, you would not give one cent that Lot was in heaven. He's lived in the gate of Sodom. His children are immersed in Sodom. His wife is immersed in Sodom, a very wicked and vile city. He's actually moved up the ranks. He sits in the gate because he's on the city council. No pun intended, Brother Lane. He's a man of reputable stature in the city. He's wealthy. And he's lived his life for himself in a world of sin. angels that visit Lot, and the immoral men in that city are breaking and beating on the door trying to get in to get to those angels to do ungodly things to them. Lot offers those men his daughters. Can you imagine that? Later, after Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, he goes up into the mountains and there both his daughters get drunk and they have children by their father. Both his daughters get him drunk. Did I say that correctly? And they have children by their father. Two peoples that will forever be a thorn in the side of the nation of Israel, the Moabites and the Ammonites, came from lots incestuous relationships with his two daughters in a mountain cave. You say, preacher, this is terrible, disgusting. You're absolutely right. But Peter tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that that man had a righteous soul. The Bible said he vexed his righteous soul. That's what the Bible says. He was a man that at some point had placed his faith in Jehovah God for salvation. But He chose a path, and I want you to listen to me, He chose a path that led to complete destruction of His life and His family. And there was a day that He was walking out of the city and everything that He lived for and everything that is loved went up in smoke. It was gone. a fruitless branch. The tragedy. The tragedy. I don't believe that God placed a lot in the Bible just for us to be amused by or to read about His life, but to learn from Him. And that you and I can be a lot. There was a day that Lot made a decision in his life that he stopped abiding. I'm going to say a couple of things and I'm going to give an illustration and then I'm going to close. You're going to read something when we study Abraham's life that's very prominent in his life. You know what it is? It's called an altar. He went into the land of Canaan and the first acts that he did is he pitched a tent and he built an altar. You'll find that Lot had a tent. But he didn't have an altar. I'm just going to ask you, where's your altar? There was a pastor who took his seven-year-old daughter on an unusual daddy-daughter date. They went to the town landfill, what we call back in Lenore, the dump. That's what we called it. I don't know what you call it down here. We called it the dump. Where are you going? I'm taking my trash to the dump. That's what we called it. He backed his Oldsmobile up against the mound of refuse and he placed his daughter on the roof of the car. And together with pencil and paper in hand, they began to list all the things they could identify in the trash heap. There was a plastic swimming pool. There was a barbecue grill. There were several lawn chairs. There were Barbie dolls. bicycle frames and skateboards and play refrigerators and stoves and record players. Of course, I know millennial, anybody under the age of 30 probably even knows what a record player is, but that's okay. I have discs, but I don't have anything to play it on. TVs, everything that a little girl would dream of and more. They're returning home, and as they did so, there was a double-trailer truck with a double-trailer hitch to it piled with hunks of scrap that were cars that had been crushed. And he leaned over and reminded his daughter that the beautiful car they were riding in would one day end up on the scrap heap like those cars and riding on the back of a truck. He later wrote in his journal, that was a day she and I will never forget. It was a powerful reminder that someday everything we own will be junk. In city dumps, the things that have captivated our attention and dominated our lives will smolder beneath a simmering flame amidst stinking mounds of rotting garbage. Fruitful, fruitless. Abiding, not abiding. Altar, no altar. Reward, smoke. That's the course of our lives. That's exactly the principle that the Lord teaches about the fruitless branch of John 15. That's not the main part of the discussion of the discourse. The main part of the discourse is the fruitful branch and the fruit that's fruit, more fruit, much fruit, remaining fruit. That's the thrust. That's the desire. But the Lord did not leave out the possibility that that same branch, same branch, that could be so fruitful and such a blessing and bring joy to the heart of the heavenly caretaker, become disappointing and fruitless and barren and blighted and burned. Not the person, but the life they lived. It's powerful, isn't it? as Christians. And on the threshold of 2022, you and I will determine this year what kind of branch we will be and whether 2022 will be fruitful when we stand before God or it'll go up in smoke. There's going to come a day I'm going to stand before the Lord and you're going to stand before the Lord. There's a part of me that relishes that day and there's a part of me that dreads that day. There's a part of me that wants to be before Him confident, honoring Him, loving Him, living for Him, fruitful for Him. But there's a part of me that looks back over wasted times, wasted life, sinful times, blighted times, barren times. Times that are barren. Oh, I might have been doing all the wrong things, but I was doing it for my glory rather than God's. Doing it for self rather than the Savior. Or maybe we boasted about all that we've done or all that we are. Remember what Jesus said of the hypocrites? They have their what church? Reward. I'm just going to ask you tonight and I'm going to give an invitation. What world are you living for? The one that's lasting or the one that's passing? What's your passion for this coming year? Do you want to be fruitful or fruitless? Barren or blessed? That's our choice. And the sad part is that if you had told Lot when he left the Chaldees with Abraham, with all kinds of excitement and joy, entering the land of Canaan with his uncle, and all the prospects before him of being a godly man, If you'd have told him, here's what's going to happen to you one day, and you'd have written his story, he would have told you it'd never happen. But yet I can take you to Christian, after Christian, after Christian, and preacher, after preacher, after preacher, that if you told them the story of their life that they would write, they would laugh at you. They'd say, no way. But yet there was a point in their life they went from fruitful to fruitless. And they started down a road that ended in loss. And it can happen to me and it can happen to you. And that's why we must be a rooted, abiding Christian. Young people, live your life for God and live all of your life for God. Don't have the regrets that many of us have in this room tonight. And those of us that are farther down the road, we have some regrets, don't we? Let's not repeat the sins and the mistakes of the past. Let's continue to move forward in our walk with God in the coming year that we might be a fruitful branch. Let's bow our heads in prayer and stand to our feet.