A Plentiful Harvest!

This message was delivered by Sheila Schuller Coleman from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 2 October 2011.

We are continuing in our message series on the “I Am’s” of Jesus Christ. “I Am,” Jesus said, “I Am.” There is no excuse for not knowing who Jesus is because He said, “This is who I Am...” It didn’t say in the Bible, “I was.” It doesn’t say, “I will be.” It says, “I Am. I Am the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I Am. I Am.

And it harkens back to when Jesus says, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I am just a good man.” I dare say that if you took a poll of everybody in the world, most everybody would say they admired Jesus Christ, the man who walked the earth. I admire Him. However, Jesus was much more than that. Jesus was God incarnate. That’s what He is saying with the “I Am’s,” And when we see the I Am’s earlier in Exodus, as was when Moses stood at that burning bush that didn’t burn up, out of there came the voice of God who said, “I Am who I Am.”

That is what Jesus is referring back to each time He says, "I Am." It’s the very same. “I Am Yahweh,” Jesus is saying, which might be a little abstract. So I’m going to present some concrete metaphors so that you and I can know that “I Am the Messiah,” “I Am God incarnate,” “I Am more than a teacher,” “I Am more than a healer,” “I Am more than a prophet,” “I Am the I Am.”

“And this is who I Am. I Am the true light of the world. I will give you true absolute, absolute truth. I Am absolute truth,” Jesus said. So, you don’t need to wander in the darkness and try to find out what is truth. Jesus said, “I Am truth. I Am truth. I Am truly light. I Am truly the door, the Shepherd. I will provide and I will protect you from everything.”

Jesus said, “I Am truly the bread of life. I Am truly life.” Jesus, at the Last Supper, picked up bread, and He said, “My body will be broken like this bread. My body will be broken so that you can have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus is true life. He is the bread of life.

And today we are on “I Am the vine.” “I Am the true vine,” Jesus said. “I Am the true vine and My Father is the vine dresser.” In John 15, verse 1, starting in the beginning, “I Am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away and every branch that bears fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit.”

So let’s just say you’re a gardener and you go out and you’re pruning your trees. In fact, I have a lemon tree that I planted because Dad told the world I make great lemon meringue pies. So, to live up to his compliment, I went out and bought a lemon tree. I figured I’m going to need a lot of lemon pies, right? I planted this lemon tree in the backyard and it hasn’t born that much fruit, probably because I haven’t been pruning it and I probably should prune it. And let’s see what God says. The actual word “prune” in Greek is “catharoe,” which means to clean, to cleanse, to purge. That’s what that means. You and I are branches - Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches - and if we’re bearing fruit, Jesus wants us to bear even more fruit. So, if you feel like He’s pruning you, if you feel like He’s cleansing you, that’s a compliment. Take the compliment realizing that God is bearing fruit through you and wants you to bear even more fruit. Accept the pruning that God is doing in your life. Accept the cleansing that God is doing in you life. That’s a good thing.

Let’s continue. He says, “I will prune the ones that are bearing fruit so they will bare more fruit.” In verse four, Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Verse five continues, “I,” Jesus said, “I Am the vine. You are the branches. You abide in Me, I in you. You will bear much fruit. But without Me, you can do nothing.”

So this morning I went out to my poor little lemon tree. I was actually quite surprised with the amount of fruit hanging from its branches. I thought, “Well, you go, girl.” This tree’s finally starting to produce some fruit after about three years, so it was a little hard for me to take the pruning shears to it. I didn’t want to cut a branch off this poor tree that I’ve been nursing along for all these years. But here it is. I did it. I made the sacrifice. I cut this branch off from my lemon tree.

I want to ask you how much more fruit is this branch going to bear? Will it ever bear any more fruit? No, because I have severed it from the tree. It is no longer connected. It no longer has the sap flowing from the roots through the trunk into this branch. This branch is worthless. This branch can sit here. I can actually take it and stick it in a pot of soil, right? And it could say to itself, “Bear lemons, bear lemons. I’m going to push lemons out of this branch.” However, it will never, ever, ever happen. This branch is good for nothing but to be tossed away. That’s it. I’ll take it home today and put it in the trash because it’s good for nothing.

That may sound harsh, but it’s actually good news because Jesus goes on to say that all we need to do is “abide.” We’re not the vine; we’re just the branch. Jesus is the vine. He determines what kind of fruit we’ll bear. He determines if we’re going to bear grapes. He determines if we’re going to bear lemons. He determines whatever kind of fruit it is we’re going to bear - just Him - only Jesus determines if we’re going to grow this way or grow that way. All we have to do is be a branch. Isn’t that a big relief?

When I read that it’s all up to Jesus, I thought, “Whew. Hey, great. I just have to be a branch. I don’t have to worry about all that other stuff. I just have to stay connected. I have to stay grafted. I have to make sure that I don’t become severed from Jesus. That’s all I have to do, period, to bear fruit.

And, boy, this whole section in John 15, this entire passage is about the fact that “He (Jesus) is the true vine.” The two words you’ll see the most - if you did a word count in this passage - are “abide” and “love.” Abide and love. Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you. Abide in My word. Let My word abide in you. Abide in My love. Let My love abide in you.” Think about that word “abide.” Think of an abode. We’re building homes, physical abodes for people who need them, in Mexico.

However, if our heart is Christ’s abode, if He dwells there, He’s a permanent resident. We’re not saying to Him, “Oh Lord, just come in and visit for a few minutes and then good-bye; it’s nice having You here for a few minutes.” No, we say, "Lord, come in and live. I’m going to abide in you. My heart will be your abode. You will dwell within Me as a permanent resident.” And then we bear fruit. We bear a plentiful harvest. It’s that simple.

So, how do we abide? You ask, “What does that look like, Sheila? What does that look like to abide?” Well, I’m just going to take you through a day where I’ve learned how to abide in Jesus. And it’s not that hard, it really isn’t. It begins with a Bible verse, taking God’s Word and meditating on it, and having a verse for the day.

And it doesn’t have to be a new verse every day. I’m going to get very practical with you today. Because we all need this reminder. What I do is to take my chosen scripture, I take this Bible verse and put it on a little sticky note. Most of us have these little sticky notes at home. You write out whatever verse you’ve chosen. For example, “Be faithful in prayer, joyful in affliction.” Whatever it is, once you’ve written it down, you stick it where you’re going to look at it the most. Maybe it’s your fridge. Maybe it’s the mirror in your bathroom. Maybe it’s at your computer at work or at home. Put it somewhere so it’s right in front of you. You take it, you see it, and it becomes a part of you. You see it in the morning; you re-read it as you’re getting ready for the day. I’m brushing my teeth - there’s that Bible verse. “Oh that’s right! Meditate on the Lord today, Sheila. There’s my Bible verse.” And it goes into me.

So, what happens is, as I’m working in the kitchen, maybe the phone rings, maybe my son comes in to say, “Good morning, Mom.”

And I can say to him, “Wait, I’ve got that Bible verse. Jason, today when you’re at work, remember this, remember God’s Word today. Take it with you.” That’s abiding in Jesus and that’s bearing fruit. It’s really that simple.

Then, as I’m driving in my car and I’m stuck in traffic, I’m thinking about that Bible verse some more. I’m praying and I’m saying, “Lord, use me today. What are You up to today? I want to be a part of it.” That’s a prayer Dad taught me to pray. “What are You up to today? I want to be a part of it, Lord.” Then I start thinking about people who need prayer and I pray for them by name while I’m driving my car. So, I’m abiding in Jesus. Jesus’ love is abiding in me and I’m bearing fruit while I’m driving my car.

Now, you may do this one day, you may not do it the next day, but it’s something to aspire to. This is the way we will bear the most fruit. To have a plentiful harvest is to abide in Jesus and for His love to abide in us.

As I abide in Jesus, maybe I get to work, and I find out, oh my goodness, a colleague had a major stroke last night. They don’t know if she’s going to live. Well, I can pick up the phone and I can call her husband. I can even go down to the hospital at lunchtime and say, “Can I have a prayer with you?” People, always when they’re hurting, want somebody to say to them, “I will pray for you.” They always want to hear those words: “I will pray for you.”

Then, maybe I’m driving home from work and I stop to run into the grocery store because I don’t have enough food for dinner that night. I have my cart and I’m running out to the car late, of course, and someone comes up to me and says, “Ma’am, can you spare a dime? Can you spare a dollar?”

Well, I don’t generally give money to people because it's not always clear what they’ll do with it, but it’s tempting just to dismiss this person totally. It’s tempting just to say, “Well, you know we serve a hot meal on Mondays.” It’s tempting not to even make eye contact because I’m in a hurry. But, instead, I stop and realize that Jesus is going to abide in me, right? That’s our goal: To have Jesus and the love of God abiding in us. Wait a minute. I’m going to stop, look in my grocery bags. “I don’t need this, this box of protein bars” (or whatever); “I don’t need this.” Then I hand it to the person and say, “Here - God loves you. God loves you.” People love to hear that, “God loves you. God loves you and so do I.” I don’t have to say the “and so do I’” if I’m not comfortable with that. I can just say, “God loves you.” And, by handing them the box, they hear the “and so do I’” in a tangible way.

So, that’s a typical day of abiding, being a branch, just resting in the Lord, just letting His love flow through you and me, and bearing fruit. That’s all it is. That’s all it takes.

We followers of Christ have a tendency to think a plentiful harvest is something like Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade. A plentiful harvest is something like what Billy Graham does at his crusades. A plentiful harvest is like something Dr. Schuller does. And, yes, they are plentiful harvests. But, you and I also can be plentiful harvesters and produce wonderful, beautiful fruit. In fact, that’s what Jesus says. He encourages you and me to do that. It says in John 8:31, “If you abide in my Word” …if you bear this fruit of love… “then you truly are My disciples.” You truly are my friends.

So what is fruit? How do we know that we’ve born fruit? It’s simply this: We spread the following message through our words and our works: God loves you and so do I! It’s that simple.

People often ask me, “Sheila, what’s your vision for the Crystal Cathedral?” “Where do you see it going?” “What is the future there?” “What are you doing as our leader?” All good questions.

Well, first of all, my goal, my God-given call is to continue this ministry to the next generation, and the next - to our children’s generation, and the generation of our children’s children. To continue this message that Dad has proclaimed… “God loves you and so do I” …this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ through a positive frame that that not die, but that will continue for generation to generation to generation. That’s number one. Dad has taught us to do, to live, to preach, and to practice that message: God loves you and so do I.

“But, how does that look, Sheila?” You say, “I want to see what that actually looks like.” Well, that looks like continuing and expanding the Hour of Power, because that’s where the message gets to the most people the quickest.

It’s also by continuing and expanding our wonderful ministry of New Hope where people, who are desperate, come to us for a crisis conference call. They can call in and have a live counselor, a live beating heat at the end of the phone line, and the listening ear of a loving person saying, “God loves you, and so do I.”

It’s continuing and expanding our humanitarian efforts here on our campus - our Monday meals. Our volunteer chef, Hilda, prepares the meals with so much love. And she has a wonderful team around her that helps her to feed the people, give them bread, and thereby introduce them to the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. It’s continuing Monday Meals and expanding it into our Hope Center Orange County - that’s what God has said He wants to see happen right here on our campus. We’ve already begun the Hope Center on a small scale through our Monday Meals, but soon we’ll not just give them a meal, but give our guests a haircut, a place to take a shower, skills to get a job, a clean suit to wear to a job interview. People don’t need just a meal - they need a job, they need work, and we can help them do that. We can help them practice interviewing for a job. We can show them how to fill out a resume. We can help them go online and find a job. And there are people who need jobs, and I’m not talking about just homeless today. One of the main prayer requests I get is, “Sheila, I need a job.” And so we can do that at Hope Center Orange County right here at Crystal Cathedral.

We’ll expand and continue our humanitarian efforts around the globe through our international ministry platform. What a wonderful platform. We have offices around the world. This week I’m going to our office in Canada and it’s a wonderful way for us to use that platform that dad built with blood, sweat, and tears - that international platform. I can see us using it, in one way, to do Possibility Places around the world, an afterschool tutoring program for children. These places would be school plants in pockets of illiteracy and poverty in global areas where education is lacking. And what will we teach them? How to read and write, how to do math. But most of all, we’re going to teach the children and the children’s children, and the children’s, children’s children, that all things are possible through Jesus Christ who strengthens each one of us. That’s what we will teach them.

So, we need you to pray for us. We need you to help us like Hilda does, like many of you are doing, we need you to help us. The harvest is plentiful. The amount of people out there who are hurting is plentiful. The laborers are few. So, who will go? Who will go? Who will sow those seeds of faith that Jim Penner had you take away with you last week? Who will go, who will sow? Who will go, who will sow? Who is willing to stand up and say, “Here am I, Lord! Send me! Here am I, Lord! Send me! Here am I, Lord! Send me!”

Lord Jesus Christ, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. Thank You, thank You, for what You have done through my father and this beautiful Crystal Cathedral Ministries. Thank You for the call that You put on his heart. Thank You for entrusting me to move it forward to the future generations, oh Lord. We are here, Lord, we are here. Send us. Send us. Amen.