What is True Conversion - Fruit by Carl DeyArmin. (Titus 2:11-15) Will a true conversion produce fruit? What will that fruit look like? How will one's nature change? Can it be done apart from Christ?

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Carl DeArmond with the following message entitled, What is True Conversion? Fruit. It is a distinct privilege to be able to bring this message this morning. It's a distinct privilege to even be here this morning and I'm grateful to Scott Brown and to the NCFIC for graciously allowing me to be here. I'm also very grateful to my beautiful bride, Drea, who agreed to loan me out to North Carolina for a few days.

I'm also grateful to the fine people at North River Community Church who have afforded me the opportunity to be here. We have been exposed to some world-class teaching over these past couple of days and I expect that that it was going to continue after I'm done and so in the meantime you have to deal with me wrestling with this topic. I say wrestling with because this topic is so large, it could be and perhaps should be a conference unto itself and I'm limited by time and so what I'm going to be able to do this morning may not be exhaustive but I will attempt to at least be comprehensive and what we're doing. This week what we've done with the Great Commission has only created more burning and urging in my soul for the Great Commission and one of the great joys that I have in pursuing the Great Commission is what we're doing with Village Mission. Just to give you a brief description, Village Mission specifically goes after rural churches and rural communities for the sake of keeping country churches alive.

And right now Village Mission serves 200 churches throughout North America from isolated logging communities like what I live in to wheat villages in the middle of Kansas like Paul described last night and so it is a great joy to be part of the Great Commission in these rural areas. Now the irony is that I am city boy through and through And so they have taken the city boy and they have thrown him into the country where I've learned how to do things like sort cows and banned cows and if you don't know what that means you can Google it later and you'll be frightened and perhaps you'll come up to me and you will say oh dear brother what happened and I Got the phone calls. Hey Carl, you wanna come help ban cows? Yeah, dropped the phone. My wife said, what are you gonna do?

I said, I'm gonna go ban cows. She said, what does that mean? I said, I don't have a clue. I arrived at my destination and I was handed a little instrument and said, there's the cow, and I said, oh sweet Lord, deliver me now. If you would open your Bibles to Titus 2, We're going to look at this idea, this intersection between conversion and fruit.

And here's what I hope to do over our time this morning. One is to demonstrate that true conversion leads to fruit and that it is necessary for the gospel that fruit be produced. And so I want to spend the balance of our time affirming fruit and the life of a genuine convert to Christ. And then I want to warn us about two particular errors that rise up in our understanding of conversion and in fruit. So if you would Join me in prayer as we seek the Lord's help to understand his precious word.

Father, we do thank you that you have graciously given us this opportunity to be here with you, to be here with your people, to encounter your word in tremendous volume and with tremendous precision. And Lord, I pray this morning that we would be able to do that exact same thing. Lord, give us the grace to be able to read these words, to understand these words. Father, I am acutely aware of my frailty and in my weakness, and so I pray that you would be my strength, that you would be my confidence, that all of my hope would be completely on you. Father, remind us of how great a salvation it is that you have offered so that we not miss this extravagant outlandish offer that you have made.

Not only was it this outlandish extravagant offer but that it changes us for all eternity and we worship you for that. So Lord give us the capacity to understand through the power of your Holy Spirit and we ask this in the precious and powerful name of the one who died for us amen. In Titus 2 when we talk about Titus 2 most of us are very familiar with it from the circles that we run in and we concentrate a lot of times on the first ten verses and I like the first ten verses I promote the first ten verses I teach the first ten verses I advocate for the first ten verses But I like to make the argument that what happens after verse 10 carries more weight than the first 10 verses and well there's a reason why. You're familiar that the first 10 verses give expectations for lifestyle living for older men and women, for younger men and women. But what I'm afraid that happens is we miss something.

Because sometimes we just stop at verse 10 and we immediately go into application but we don't get into verse 11. When we miss verse 11 we miss the entire basis and the reasoning behind what Paul has written to Titus. So with that let me read Titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 15. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age waiting for our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you." So here's why I'm making the argument that the last few verses of Titus 2 carry a little bit larger weight than the first 10 verses and it starts with the first word of verse 11 and that is four.

Don't you just love prepositions? How many of you thoroughly enjoyed your grammar school? I love diagramming sentences. I'm not sure what that was. It just a weird quirk in my in my psyche and my brain that enjoyed diagramming sentences and we get to this preposition and what we're being told is that these first ten verses are totally and completely predicated on what's going to happen in verses 11 through 15.

What we get in verses 11 through 15 is the gospel basis for the first part of Titus 2 but even larger than that for our entire conversation on conversion and the gospel. And the way that this passage is constructed is it confirms that there will be fruit coming out of a true genuine gospel conversion. Now I'm going to make the argument and there are many voices that would chime in that say that there is no fruit without conversion and there is no conversion without fruit. This is a distinctly gospel issue and so it's appropriate that we deal with it during the context of this conference on the Great Commission. And verse 11 is this anchor point between verses 1 and 10 and 12 through 15.

This grace of God that is appearing, It is the message of the cross. It is the message that Jesus Christ died in our place on the cross for our sins. Now that salvation having been offered through this sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness is a supreme act of a gracious God and notice that it is stated as a concrete fact. This is no wishful thinking. This is no let's throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.

This is stated as an absolute fact of what God has accomplished through his son. As we move into verse 12, you have to do this while keeping the gospel in view. Because without the gospel, verse 12 cannot happen. But look at what happens when we receive the gospel, this glorious gospel of Jesus Christ dying in a place for sinners? It says that we renounce ungodliness, we renounce worldly passions and living self-controlled lives.

Our Nature is changed at the moment of conversion. Prior to Christ, we had zero hope of being able to do anything that verse 12 tells us to do. To renounce ungodliness, to renounce worldly passions, to live self-controlled upright. Apart from Christ, you cannot do that. But his grace extends and we are in this transforming process and we who were once enemies with God we've been brought near and we have peace through his blood.

But don't miss this, that what we're being told in this is that this precious gospel conversion so changes us and changes our nature that we begin to bear fruit. As our nature changes, our habits change. And as our habits change, we move from either producing rancid fruit or no fruit at all to producing good fruit. Now why is that true? You're very familiar with 2 Corinthians 5 17.

If anyone, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. This spectacular saving grace of Jesus Christ, it releases us at last to say no to sin, to say no to ungodliness, and to say yes to a life in Christ, to say yes to godliness. And how did it happen?

It happened because of Christ. And this transformative effect of the gospel in our lives brings with it a real and lasting hope. Because we've been transformed by the gospel, if we permit ourselves to continue to be instructed by the gospel and led by the gospel our affections begin to change. They are diverted elsewhere and as we continue on if we persist on this we find ourselves being more and more entranced by the love of this amazing Savior. And He changes us and that's one of the fruits that we're looking for is that there's this change.

One of the first fruits we're looking for when it comes to the gospel is the first fruit of repentance. Because sometimes when we begin this conversation about conversion and fruit, one of the questions that's brought up is, well, what about those deathbed conversions? What kind of fruit did those guys show? The guys that profess Christ And then an hour and a half later they were taken into glory. What fruit did they show?

My response is they showed repentance. Now there's no way that we can know for certain it's not our job to have a hundred percent clarity into the hearts of men. But if there's repentance, that's one of the first fruits. As we're transformed by the gospel, we see that again that our affections are changed and we see that in verse 13. We begin to affix our hope not to the next day, not to some great accomplishment, but we affix it to Christ.

As we hope in Christ, we continue to be transformed. As we abide in Christ, we draw richly from Him. We want to begin to live like him Prior to Christ we don't want to live like him or at least not on his terms We want to live maybe like Christ, but we want to do it in our way. Verse 13 tells us that, well, we can live like Christ, but it goes back to verse 11 because the grace of God has appeared through Christ, making it even possible for us to do that. And the more that we live like Christ, we know and we long for the day that he returns.

We long for home. We long for being in his presence forever. We find ourselves wanting to exhibit even more and more of his holiness, not for our sake, but for his and for communicating the gospel to others. Unconverted people do not have that desire. Those who do not yet know Christ have zero desire to be honoring to Christ or to please Christ and they are dominated and controlled by their own nature and the sad part is is that their own nature will Send them to hell forever.

I would ask you this as just an instructive way of just determining if you are bearing fruit in your life is this. Are you growing in your desire for holiness? Now I'm not asking you to do this perfectly well all the time. We're going to fail And some of us are going to fail miserably over and over and over again. If you don't believe that's true, then you need to come out to the West Coast and you need to spend time with my wife and she will tell you exactly how badly I fail on a regular basis.

I mean, it's just really astounding, my seemingly unlimited capacity to really foul things up. But are you growing in your desire for holiness in the midst of when you do sin are you saying, Lord I don't want to live like this anymore. God changed me. Help me to grow. I want to be careful that we're not offering false assurance, but that would be at least one piece of evidence that you are beginning to bear fruit.

Do you want to be made more and more like Christ? Now look at verse 14. This is a tremendous truth that we're being given. It's this is that One of the purposes for Jesus Christ dying the death that he died on the cross was to make his people holy. Godliness is expected.

It says that we are zealous for good works, that we were saved for good works. We were saved to bear fruit. Ephesians 2 20 tells us this. James 2 tells us this. The gospel both permits us but also requires of us to bear fruit.

If you are genuinely converted, you will bear fruit. If you are genuinely biblically converted, you must bear fruit because your nature has changed. If a person would dare claim to be a follower of Christ, but shows no evidence of any fruit whatsoever, shows no evidence even for a longing for that fruit. There is reason for that person to be frightened. And there's reason to ask some questions, to make some observations into that individual's life to say, there's no fruit here.

We don't say it in a way of condemning them but out of love for them and for the condition of their soul, we say, I see no fruit, I see no change. I think we need to be kind, but I think we need to be confrontational. That individual needs to be instructed to repent and to believe on Christ. Because whatever it is that they're believing in that allows them to arrive at the conclusion they've arrived at is not biblical Christianity and it will doom them to hell forever. So do we expect some fruit to come as a result of conversion?

Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, yes. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones making a comment on this particular issue said this, God have mercy upon us. May he awaken us to these vital principles and enable us to exercise this discrimination with regard to ourselves and with regard to all others who may be a danger to our souls who are grievously misrepresenting the cause of our Lord in this sinful and needy world. Let us concentrate on being certain that we have the divine nature, that we are partakers of it, that the tree is good, because if the tree is good the fruit also must of necessity be good.

So I believe that this is a distinctly gospel issue but there are two dangers that we have. I'll describe to you that we live on or live out in a fairly remote area in western Washington and the road that we live on is well it's an equally remote road and the first time that we drove down the road to figure out where it was that we were going to be moving to I was frightened because on one side of the road there was a well there was a well just a really large ditch on a very narrow road on a curve and then on the other side of the road was no guardrail whatsoever plummeting down 20-30 feet into the river below. Remember I'm from the city and we like sidewalks and curbs because not sidewalks are not designed for people to walk on. Sidewalks are designed so that cars will bounce back into the road and stay where they're supposed to be. So I was a little alarmed at what it was that we were doing and when it comes to this issue of the gospel and fruit, There is a narrow road that we are on and there is a ditch on one side and there is a ravine on the other and I hope to keep us out of both.

Lord help us. One of the questions that perhaps you're asking is why in the world are we even dealing with this topic of conversion and fruit? It's a critical issue that we need to deal with and if we're going to biblically understand and evaluate, if we're going to biblically, If we're going to be biblically accurate in our understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel, then we have to get this particular topic right. There's all manner of ways that this issue of conversion and fruit gets goofed up, they can be generally brought into two categories. So one's the ditch and one's the ravine.

And the ditch, I would say, is this is just to ignore fruit bearing And just to not concern ourselves with it at all. At the heart of it is to say, hey, what we want to do is we want to create converts and then we leave. Or we say, you know what, let's just get people safe, we'll let God do the rest and we don't create a climb of expectation where we want to see fruit we end up saying we're not gonna worry about anything else we'll let this take care of itself and this action this attitude is what underpins decisionism as what underpins hey I prayed a prayer I walked an aisle We try to get people to answer a few questions correctly and if they get the answers to those questions right, these simple questions of yes, no, then we determine for sure that they are saved and we focus on what they have done rather than taking back to promises and what ends up happening more times than not, you've seen it as well as I have, is a decision is made and the decision doesn't last and it raises significant questions if there was a genuine conversion.

We allow people to walk away with some degree of assurance but they are not growing, they are not showing any longing for holiness they're not doing anything that would be consistent with what we would expect out of a genuine new convert to Christ now please note I'm not suggesting that I expect a new convert to Christ to immediately have the same level of maturity or understanding as someone who's walked with Christ for decades. Not at all suggesting that. But there should be something, some flickering of something. We see it imperfectly, but something ought to be there. What happens is a lot of times people that make decisions, they wander away and then they come back and they want to do a Rededication.

Find that word in the Bible for me in the context of the state of somebody's soul. It's not in there. What is in there is repentance. Rededication, you're not going to find that. One of my concerns, and I want to be careful that I don't completely throw out this system, but I'll just say that it's a concern of mine that I have with large evangelistic events like Crusades, or we don't have Crusades anymore, we have festivals, but one of my concerns with them is that they're prone to making this kind of error.

JC Ryle and his work Holiness said this he said, for what of counting the cost hundreds of professed converts under some religious revivals go back to the world after a time and bring disgrace on religion. They begin with a sadly mistaken notion of what is true Christianity. They fancy it consists in nothing more than a so-called coming to Christ and having some strong inward feelings of joy and peace. That was written in 1879. We can go even further back.

The Puritans were very concerned with what they called temporary believers. These were people who showed themselves to be under the influence of the gospel, who said and did all the right things, and perhaps they even appeared to be Christian, but long-term, over the course of time, there was sufficient evidence to believe that they were never generally converted in the first place. If such a concern existed then, and we're talking about the period, like, that's a great time in church. They wrestled with the same issue that we wrestle with today in Wanting to see people develop fruit to show fruit But if it was going on then how much more dire is the concern today in our situation. So that would be the first category of error, just ignoring the fruit.

That is the ditch along this very narrow road. Let's go to the ravine. I think the ravine is even more dangerous than the ditch. The ravine is the exact opposite, whereas the first category of error would be to ignore fruit. The other area is to so over emphasize bearing fruit, to so over emphasize doing good works that we miss the gospel in the process.

And in fact we ignore the gospel and we drift towards strong moralism and wow does my life look good and we neglect the fact that Jesus Christ died so that you could bear fruit so that you could do good works. It does not, it does not, never works in reverse. That we are grossly incapable of doing anything good apart from Christ. What happens when we so over emphasize good works above and beyond the gospel we end up doing is we reduce the gospel to being a story a Bible story about some mean men doing some mean things to a really nice guy. And we missed the fact that it was the will of God to send his son to die in our place.

Many circles, this attitude is called works-based righteousness and there's an entire message on that that we're not going to do but short version that is detestable in God's eyes. He hates it. Read the letter to the Galatians. What it says, Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? And he goes on and he says, If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." Paul's aim in the letter to the Galatians is to get them so far away from the idea that their justification is based on works.

Galatians 2 21 says, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose. Yet we see over and again Christians who are constantly coming back to their works for their justification. They're coming back to their fruit for their justification. And it's so easy to be tempted this way and I say this not out of anger, not out of irritation, but I say it as one who is sympathetic and empathetic because I know my own heart. I know how easy it is to drift and to allow my works to define my justification and not the fact that Christ died on the cross.

What happens is we find ourselves working really hard and showing perceived good fruit and somehow attempting to convince ourselves that this will please God. And we end up developing an attitude that says, God, aren't you so glad you've got somebody like me on your side? Isaiah 64 is 6. We have all become like one who is unclean. All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment or like filthy rags.

And sometimes the question is raised, well, I mean aren't pagan people capable of doing good things? No. Not according to Romans 14. It says whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So even the good stuff that pagan people do, it is sin because they're not doing it in faith.

Apart from Christ, we are incapable of producing any fruit. John 15 5, we're familiar with this, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides me and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." So whatever good works we think it is that we are capable of, Whatever it is that we think we can accomplish, if we are doing it under our own power, we are doing it apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are doing, in effect, absolutely nothing except for exposing our own willfulness and self-righteousness. The irony of that is as the very thing that the gospel came to destroy was our own willfulness and self-righteousness and to rescue from the penalty of sin.

At our current season in history and particularly in church history there's much that is troubling in regards to fruit producing people because they're making either one of those errors. I say fruit producing people rather than converts because consistently making one or both of these errors raises some significant questions about whether there was a true conversion in the first place. That said, I do want to urge caution in dealing with these matters when it comes to the individual souls that God brings to us. I think it's reasonable and wise to ask questions, to make observations, to have some humble and tentative assessments. And even to lovingly confront people who would be exhibiting words or actions or just overall patterns of life that would be inconsistent with what we would see as being a biblically qualified conversion.

But I think we should do so slowly, cautiously, graciously, with our own sin and view, with our own frailty and view as we do that. At the same time I think it's reasonable and wise for us to be vigilant on this issue as well. Churches today tend to take a, or can take a predominant population who drifts to one side or the other. I feel bad for the churches where there's you know one group of people that they make this particular area and there's an equal number where they make this particular area. I pity their pastor like wow what are you gonna do there pastor?

But I think a lot of this has to do though with the rise of some man-centered thinking that exists in the pulpit. And I'd say that trembling as one who stands in the pulpit, dear Lord, free me from man-centered thinking, free me from man-pleasing. Man-centered thinking in the church almost always gives ride to man-centered preaching in the pulpit and then man-centered preaching in the pulpit how could you expect anything different than man-centered living by the people? If it's not obvious to you, let me just state that both of these errors, the ditch and the ravine, either ignoring fruit or overemphasizing fruit above the gospel, that both of these are man-centered views. Yet this is not new.

Not new at all. If you can look at some of the old confessions and creeds and you'll find that a having a biblically correct view of conversion and fruit captured their attention. The Belgic confession, article 24. So then it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful and a human being seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith but what of what Scripture calls faith working through love which leads a man to do by himself the works that God has commanded in his word. The confession thing goes on and continues it says moreover although we do good works we do not base our salvation on them.

For we cannot do any work that is not defiled by our flesh and also worthy of punishment. And even if we could point to one, memory of a single sin is enough for God to reject that work that was written in the 1500s they were wrestling with the same thing we're wrestling with move later on the Heidelberg catechism question 86 since then we are delivered from our misery merely of grace through Christ without any merit of ours why must we still do good works? Here's the answer to that question. Because Christ having redeemed and delivered us by his blood also renews us by his Holy Spirit after his own image that so we may testify by the whole of our conduct Our gratitude to God for his blessings and that he may be praised by us also that everyone may be assured in himself of his faith by the fruits thereof and that by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ. The Second London Confession these good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith And by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glory God whose workmanship they are created in Christ Jesus there unto that that having their fruit unto holiness they may have the end eternal life 1689 now you take all that together here's what you conclude conclude Conversion and fruit are dependent on each other and both speak to the glory of Christ.

If there is no conversion, there is no fruit. Can't do it. If there is no fruit, there is no conversion. This is necessarily a gospel issue. Jesus gives a perfectly clear, perfectly succinct explanation of this relationship of conversion and fruit in John 6.

Jesus is at Capernaum, the crowds followed him, they asked a question that assists us tremendously and it's this. They said to him, John 6 28 and 29, then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Seems like a good question and Jesus changes their focus. Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in whom whom he sent. They want to do good works, they want to please God And Jesus says the only way you're going to do it is by believing on me.

They want to exhibit some degree of fruit. And Jesus tells them your fruit comes from belief. This is a gospel issue. Jesus adds to it in John chapter 15. He says, 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.

Jesus is making it absolutely perfectly crystal clear that bearing fruit is completely contingent on abiding in him and you cannot abide in him unless you've been converted. John 15 5 I'm the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit apart from me you can do nothing." And no, in certain terms, Jesus is saying that fruit bearing is not possible under our own power. That attempts to bear fruit on our own apart from him are of zero effect. This is Jesus's correction to works-based righteousness. You can't do anything.

John 15 eight by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. This is Jesus correction to the error of ignoring post-conversion behavior. It is expected that a new convert will begin to bear fruit and in so doing the Father is glorified. And it also means that the opposite is true that if we are not bearing fruit that the Father is not glorified. If we're not glorifying the Father We should be very wary of our own assessment of our salvation.

So what are we to do with this? If you are a follower of Christ, bear fruit. And what's that first fruit? Repentance. I need to repent every day, every hour.

There's most days where I need to be repenting about every 90 seconds and That is a fruit and that fruit of repentance leads itself to The capacity to do what Galatians 5 tells us this fruit of the Spirit Love joy peace go on down the list. None of that is possible until first I repent and I can't repent until I hear the gospel. So all that goes together. So bear fruit if you're a follower of Christ. Bear fruit.

If you're not a follower of Christ, know this, you can't bear fruit. And God has done so much on your behalf that you might bear fruit. So respond to this call of the gospel. The second thing I would suggest that we do is that we consistently come back to and anchor our fruit bearing in the gospel. And let's remind ourselves that any good work that I am permitted to do, I do not because I'm good, but because Christ is doing something in my life.

And properly position yourself. The greatest cure to selfishness is to look at the cross. Because when I'm looking at the cross, I'm recognizing I am a worthless worm. I was doomed for wrath and destruction and yet Christ lovingly died in my place and so I don't really have the opportunity or reason for arrogance. I might still display it for which I need to go back to number one and repent but I Can't legitimately lay a claim to it So just recognize where our capacity to bear fruit comes from it comes from the gospel The third would be just to be very careful that we avoid the ditch.

We avoid the ditch of ignoring fruit bearing. Let's run away from being satisfied that somebody made a decision. You know, I make lots of decisions every day and a lot of them are just really bad decisions. And so I don't want to trust in my decision. I want to trust in the promises as revealed in Scripture, and so let's not ignore bearing fruit.

Let's don't say that it is a secondary issue. It is not, because our nature has changed. So much so that it should produce fruit. Now we recognize that some fruit takes a while to grow. I mean how many children have been very frustrated that they found some apple seeds and they planted the apple seeds and where's my tree and then a week later where's my tree sometimes it takes a while for the fruit to show And I think we graciously need to offer patience, but let's not ignore the importance of bearing fruit.

And then fourthly is that we avoid the ditch. Let's not think so highly of our good works. They are filthy rags. Our fruit is nothing. If we focus so much on our fruit and on our works and that we ignore the gospel, we, in effect, we're a cult.

I don't want to get into name calling, but there are groups today that operate this way and biblically define their occult because they're focusing on their works, not on the promises of God. Your good works mean nothing, absolutely nothing apart from the Gospel. So please, guard yourselves, guard your families. There are things that we do that in this relationships that we have with each other here, there's practices that we had that distinguish us from others. And I love those distinctions.

I practice those distinctions. I advocate for those distinctions. I expect those distinctions. But that's not what makes me right. It's an effect of my righteousness through Christ but that's not it.

So don't overemphasize the fruit. And lastly it would be this Fall on your face in worship that Jesus Christ died to give you a new nature. And come back to it over and over again. Let it mark your life and your character, this spirit, this attitude of worship for this tremendous work that God has done on our behalf. I think that is appropriate for us to do, not just in the context of a church meeting, not just in the context of a conference like this, but every day of our lives needs to be marked by worship for what it is that God has done, that he would permit us to bear much fruit for his name's sake, that he would continue to be glorified that he would continue to be exalted until every nation and tribe and tongue hears this message let us worship him for what he has accomplished let's pray father we do thank you so very much.

We thank you with all of our lives that you would give us your son and that we who are sinners, we who are far off, that you would send your son to die in our place on the cross for our sins. That he suffered in ways unimaginable on our behalf as an act of love and obedience to your will. We thank you that he has given to us a new nature and that nature permits us to bear fruit and it also requires us to bear fruit. So Lord we thank you that we have any possibility of bearing fruit and of doing well, of doing good works because of the gospel but Lord we also weighed with the responsibility and that you expect of us to bear fruit so would you assist us mightily in that Would you keep our focus and our understanding properly where it is supposed to be of our dependence on you for anything and everything and all things? Lord protect us from the ditch of ignoring bearing fruit.

Protect us from the ravine of overemphasizing fruit. Lord keep us focused on the road that takes us back to the gospel over and over and over again that we would live as gospel informed, passionate believers that are bearing much fruit for your name's sake. And Father, we will be very quick to give you all the praise and the credit and the glory for any and all work that you do for your name's sake. Amen. The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches.

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