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  THE PROBLEM OF NOT BEARING GOOD FRUIT
  by Randy Krahn
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of staying rooted in
faith, avoiding rebellion and pride, and submitting to God's authority.
It warns against selfishness, greed, and rejecting correction,
highlighting the need for humility and obedience to God's word. The
message stresses the consequences of straying from the faith and the
importance of building oneself up in the most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Spirit, and keeping in the love of God.

Topics: "Faithfulness", "Humility and Obedience"
Scripture References: Jude 1:4, Jude 1:11, Jude 1:20, Jude 1:24, Jude 1:25

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of staying rooted in faith,
avoiding rebellion and pride, and submitting to God's authority. It
warns against selfishness, greed, and rejecting correction, highlighting
the need for humility and obedience to God's word. The message stresses
the consequences of straying from the faith and the importance of
building oneself up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
and keeping in the love of God.

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CONTENT
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Lord, just pray it open up our understanding. Receive the things we've
heard already. Be able to receive yet something from your hand, in
Jesus' name.

The Lord had a desire to feed his people with the finest of wheat. And
when he planted a choice vine in his vineyard, the problem wasn't with
the vine. The problem was that when we expected it to bring forth good
fruit, good grapes, it produced worthless grapes.

And in this world, we have many troubles. The cares of life, the
deceitfulness of riches, the desires for pleasure, they can choke the
seed and cause it not to bring fruit to maturity. And so it can happen
that the one that God planted in Jesus, you know, in our hearts, in our
lives, we can still remain sour and bitter.

We can still not bring forth sweeter and better if we don't endure and
overcome. I think of the way of the Lord. The way of the Lord is
opposite the way of the flesh, the way of the spirit.

And they're two forces working against one another. The flesh is hostile
against the spirit, and the spirit is in opposition to the flesh. You
know, and there's a constant battle in the mind.

What should we do? Which way should we go? And so we're relying on
wisdom. But there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it
is destruction. And so we need the wisdom that comes from God, not
wisdom that comes from the flesh, or men of the flesh, or people that
seem to be something in the flesh.

We need to hear from the Holy Spirit, and we need to hear from people
who have wisdom. I think in the Bible there is a time when Jehoshaphat
aligned himself with King Ahab. They were brother and brother-in-law,
and one was king of Judah, one was king in Israel.

And Ahab wanted to go into battle and fight, and he invited Jehoshaphat
to fight with him. And Jehoshaphat said, well, we should hear from the
Lord. Does the Lord want us to go, or does the Lord not want us to go?
It's a very important question in our life.

We should be asking, is the Lord leading me in this direction? Should I
really be going in this way, or does the Lord not want me to go in this
direction? Well, Ahab says, okay, we'll call the prophets. You know,
everybody likes a good prophet. Well, they had like 400 of them, and
they all told Ahab what he wanted to hear.

Oh, you should go into the battle, and you're going to have the victory.
Something didn't sit right in Jehoshaphat's heart. Something was not
sitting right.

He said, don't you have any more prophets here? He's like, well, what
are you talking about, man? We've had 400 of them come, and they've all
given us the green light. We're going to go into this battle, and we're
going to have the victory. He says, there's one more prophet.

His name is Micaiah. He always tells me what I don't want to hear. He
always says the things that are against me.

It's like, I hate that man, is what he said. Jehoshaphat said, you
shouldn't speak that way. This is not good.

So he called, and sure enough, he told him what he wanted to hear. But
he says, don't lie to me. He says, tell me, by the Lord.

And he says, if you go into battle, you're going to die, because the
Lord sought to kill Ahab because he was weak. You know, when he tried to
disguise himself and he tried to save his life, he did go into the
battle. And you know what? A stray arrow struck him, and he did die.

We don't want to hear the truth. We would rather listen to 400 false
prophets who tell us what we want to hear than someone who will tell us
the truth. Because our heart is already made up when we're in the flesh
on what we want to do.

Rather than listening to the Lord and coming under the authority of the
Lord in our life. And this is what can happen to us. When we're young,
we don't learn the discipline that comes from our fathers and from our
mothers.

I'm going to exhort you, dads and moms, that you be consistent in
walking with the Lord and teaching your children to come under the yoke.
It says that it's good that we bear the yoke in our youth. Otherwise,
your children will become like Ahab.

They will hate authority. When God's authority comes in their life, they
will speak against it, and they will come to hate the men of God. We
have a stewardship and responsibility not to allow our children to run
wild and go crazy.

But that they would be in orderly and respectful to others and to us as
parents. Because unless they come to learn that, hard life awaits them.
And it says, if you don't correct your son or your daughter in a proper
way, you hate your son.

These are strong words from Scripture. It doesn't matter the way that we
are brought up. Sometimes we're brought up too strict, and so we go the
opposite direction.

And we say, well, we're going to let them do what they want and leave it
to God. No, my friends. It says, if you spare the rod, you spoil the
child.

And there's many other Scriptures we could read about that. But it is
important for them to bear the yoke in their youth, to learn discipline.
We need to kiss the son lest he be angry with us.

And so this is our duty and responsibility to help nurture them and to
correct them and discipline them in the ways of the Lord. Which son is
there that God does not discipline? Are you without discipline before
God? I would say absolutely not. We heard from Brother Dan that the
worldly people are without discipline.

Their time is always now. But yet our time, it seems as though God is
restraining us from going headlong after the flesh. And he's constantly
correcting us and dealing with us as sons.

Why? Because if he disciplines us as sons, he loves us. And he said,
which father does not discipline or correct their children? You know
what? Now our fathers have disciplined us in ways, and we can all think
back, that are not good. So they maybe let us get away with things for a
while until the anger came, and then they struck us and did things in a
wrong way.

We're not talking about that. We're talking about being consistent,
being around, being a part of the nurturing of those children's lives.
Both father and mother being on the same page to nurture and correct
their children in the way that they should go.

So that they come under that authority to learn that submission to
authority. So when they are older, they do not become brute beasts like
it speaks of in Jude. We have that responsibility.

You know what? I had one brother, and he thought, you know what? He got
into a battle with his son. He just went, I'm going to win this battle.
And I had to talk to him.

Because it's not about one battle. It's about the Lord. You know, just
because you might lose one battle with your son or your daughter, it
doesn't mean that you have to win every single battle.

You know, we allow the Lord. We pray for our children. And we just
continually, through persistence, continue doing the right thing.

And speaking life into them. And sharing the word of God with them. And
correcting them in the best way that God leads us.

That in the end, if you teach your child in the way that they should go,
and do it properly. Then when they are older, they won't depart from it.
But if you teach them that they can be wild and free and unrestrained.

That when they're older, they will become wild, restrained, and
uncontrollable. Not submitting to any authority. We have a window when
our children are growing up.

And every one of them is different. There's not one truth that's all.
Everyone is different.

To bring about a correction. To produce in them humility. To produce in
them a brokenness.

A yielding of the will. And it has to happen. It starts at two years
old.

When they look at you and they know what you're doing. And they take the
food. And they throw it on the floor.

And they laugh at your face. There has to be a correction. And this
correction has to go on until they become teens.

And then the Lord has to take over from there. But we have a
responsibility and a stewardship. Because, you know, there's a way that
seems right to a man.

And some of us think, you know, we're doing our own thing and we're
busy. And we're doing this and we're doing that. But some people only
discipline when they get angry.

You know, those are wrong. Being present. Loving your children.

Teaching them the word of God. And also correcting them according to the
word of God. And if you're not sure how to do it, receive counsel.

Because I've done it wrong. And I've also done it right. And the way
that I used to do it, I was too severe.

But you know what? You can also become too lenient. And so you have to
come up with a way that the Lord leads you and teaches you how to
correct them based on how the Lord has corrected you along the way. And
when you're faithful and consistent and loyal in that regard, then those
scriptures from Psalm 78, that your righteous life will translate to
that next generation and your children will walk in integrity and
uprightness.

You know, I want to share a passage from Luke in chapter 20. Luke in
chapter 20 in verse 9. You see, what happened when Jesus came on the
scene, that the religious leaders who were in charge, the people feared
them. And they also at times feared the people.

You know, they had reputation. And they were doing things what they
thought was according to the word. But they were doing things according
to their interpretation of what they thought the word said.

And what began to manifest is that the Pharisees were lovers of money,
that the Pharisees were proud, that the Pharisees were rebellious. And
when the word of God came, the prophets came and spoke that word, they
had hearts like Ahab. They hated the word of God, even though they said
that they themselves were guides to the blind.

And what you see here in this passage is a manifestation of
unrestrained, unfettered flesh, that these men were rebellious and proud
and would not submit to the authority in their life. They became an
authority. And this is a dangerous place that we can come to when we
start thinking that we have the word of God and we are the final
authority, that we will say things to people, we will treat people in a
certain way, we will respond to people according to pride and
bitterness, anger, and we won't submit to any authority in our life.

And that will bring us to the book of Jude. And this is a very dangerous
place that we as believers can come to if we do not learn to take the
yoke that Jesus says. He says that we ought to take my yoke upon you in
the same way we said that the children should learn to bury their yoke
in their youth.

We have to take the yoke. Jesus calls us to be yoked together with him,
joint heirs with Christ. And he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is
light.

Come to me and learn of me for I am humble and gentle in heart. We have
to not become proud, rebellious, and strong, but to become humble and
gentle in heart. How does that happen? When we learn to take the yoke,
we submit ourselves under the dealings of the Lord, the discipline of
the Lord, and become humble, broken, and contrite.

This is the way that leads to life. This is the way of God. Jesus said,
for I am humble and gentle in heart.

When we take his yoke, you will become humble and gentle in heart. But
the opposite of that is proud, loud, rebellious. This is not the way of
the cross.

This is not the way of the gospel. We have to be careful that we don't
become brute beasts, having resisted the brokenness that comes from the
dealings of God in our life. So he says in Luke, in chapter 20, in verse
9, he says, he began to tell the people a parable.

A certain man planted a vineyard, and he leased that vineyard, this
choice vine that we spoke of earlier, to some vine dressers. He leased
it to them. It wasn't theirs.

It was on loan to them. They had a stewardship. And this is speaking
about those of us who've been called to ministry.

God has entrusted us with a stewardship in the same way you fathers,
you've been trusted with a ministry over your family. We have a
stewardship to deal with this, the vineyard and the vines that are
sprouting around all our tables like olive plants. We have a stewardship
to do things according to the word of God.

And it says that this farmer or this landowner, he went to a far country
for a long time. In verse 10, now a vintage time. He sent a servant to
the vine dressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the
vineyard.

But the vine dressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Now the
servant that went to the vine dressers to go and get some of the fruit
was one of the prophets. This was one of the men of God who came seeking
good fruit from those vines, but they decided that they were going to
keep it for themselves.

And this is something dangerous that can happen. Selfishness, pride,
greed, and you know what? They wanted the glory for themselves. They
didn't want to give the Lord his portion.

They didn't want to give the Lord the firstfruits. They didn't want to
submit themselves to the one who had given them the vineyard to tend.
And so this is what Jesus is speaking in this parable specifically about
he sent his prophets.

And they made fun of them, they beat them, and they sent them away
because they refused to submit to the lordship of God in their life. And
so again he sent another servant, another prophet, and they beat him.
Which of the prophets did they not persecute? They were proud,
rebellious, and unrestrained.

And so they treated this one shamefully, and they sent him away empty-
handed. This fruit that the Lord is looking for in our lives, what is
it? It's the fruit of the spirit, the love, the joy, the peace. There
was no fruit of the spirit to be given back to the Lord, no glory and
honor going to God.

They took everything for themselves. They wanted to receive it for
themselves, the glory. And again he sent a third, they wounded him, they
cast him out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, this is what I shall do. I will
send my beloved son. Jesus was speaking of himself.

He said, I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when
they see him. When Jesus comes on the scene, what do they say? Verse 14,
when the vine dressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying,
this is the heir.

They knew that this was the Christ, yet they refused to receive him. But
as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be children of
God. They said this, come, let us kill him.

Then the inheritance will be ours. You see, it was all about me and
mine. It was all about my glory, my reputation, my name, what I want,
what I think is right.

And they have no problem even killing not just the Lord's prophets, but
killing Jesus himself. This is what happens to rebellious, proud people
who refuse to receive correction, who refuse to become humble and be
broken and allow the Lord to be Lord over their lives. They themselves
rise up and take that authority into their own hands.

This is a dangerous thing. So they cast Jesus out of the vineyard and
they killed him. This is prophesying what was to come.

Jesus is speaking. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to
them? Well, he will come and he will destroy those vine dressers and he
will give the vineyard to others. And when they heard this, they said
absolutely not.

They rejected the teaching of Jesus. This is because they could not
submit themselves to the dealings of the Lord in their life. They did
not submit themselves to the word of God which they preached, and they
would not submit to the words of Jesus.

And so when he looked at them, he said to them, what then is this that
is written? Verse 17, the stone that the builders rejected, being Jesus
Christ, has become the chief cornerstone. Now verse 18 is very
important. He says, whoever falls on that stone will be broken.

But whomever it falls on, that stone will grind them to powder. Whoever
falls on that stone will be broken. But on whomever that stone falls, it
will grind them to powder.

And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands
on Jesus, but they feared the people for they knew that he had spoken
this parable specifically against them. What does that mean? On whomever
it falls, on whomever the stone falls, how are we to fall on the stone
and be broken? We need to allow ourselves to be broken by the word of
God. If we don't come under the authority of the word when it's spoken,
when you read the scriptures and you're reading it, not for your
neighbor, not for your brother, not for your buddy, you're reading it
and it's speaking to you and it's bringing conviction.

You're looking in the mirror and you're seeing what kind of man you are.
You're saying, Lord, I want to be that man. I want to be that woman.

Mold me and shape me after the will. And brokenness will come in your
life as you submit to the discipline, the correction of the word. But if
you refuse to receive the correction of the word and you use this word
like a hammer, use this word to speak and put other people in their
place, or you use this word to your advantage, to gain advantage over
others, then the time is coming when the rock will fall on you and will
crush you into a powder.

There's two options. Either you humble yourself and you bear the yoke,
or you will be kicking against the goats and you will find yourself in a
bad way fighting against God. And when you're fighting against God, you
will not win.

That is 100% for sure. We'll finish in the book of Jude. The book of
Jude is right before Revelation.

That's the last book. Spoken in verse 3, Beloved, while I was very
diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it
necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the
thing which was once for all delivered to the saints. Brother, sister,
if you've come to Christ, you've come because you've had at least a
mustard seed of faith.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You can never be born
again except you believe on the one whom he has sent. And he says, obey
the gospel and believe, keep the commandments of God.

And what are the commandments of God? He says, this is the commandment
of God, that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a
responsibility and a stewardship to just have simple, childlike faith.
But you know, the ones who are proud, who are wise in their own eyes,
who have received knowledge from the wisdom of the father of this age,
Satan himself, their eyes are blinded, their minds are blinded.

They cannot receive the simplicity of the gospel. And when we preach the
cross, it's foolishness because they're perishing. But to us who are
being saved, the message of the cross, about falling on the rock and
being broken, about allowing the Lord to break us, about allowing his
discipline to correct us, about denying ourselves, about dying to what
we're held by, our passions and our desires, our lusts, about putting
off the old man with his lusts and sins, his repenting of sins and
coming to him as a little child, a simple childlike faith, these things
are foolishness to them that perish.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so there is a
reminder in Jude that we have to come to him simply, in childlike faith,
and just believe that he is, that you have to believe that he's for you.
You have to believe that he's going to work all these things together
for your good because you love God.

But having begun in the faith, it can happen that we can forget and we
can go in another direction, away from the faith. And this is why he's
writing this. While I was very diligent to write to you concerning our
common salvation, I found it necessary to exhort you to contend, fight
for the faith.

Don't let it go. Keep going in faith. Keep trusting the Lord.

Don't trust in your righteousness. Don't trust in your wisdom. Don't
trust in all the scripture you already know.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and he'll bring it to pass. So he
says, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. What does that mean, to
creep in unnoticed? Where were they creeping in? These certain men were
creeping in to their church.

These certain men were creeping in to their Bible studies. They were
creeping in to their prayer groups. That's where they were creeping in.

They were trying to get in there, and they had a pretense that they were
of the faith, that they were godly. But what does the fruit begin to
manifest show us? Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago, God
said, were marked out for condemnation. I'm a godly man who turned the
grace of God into a license to sin, into lewdness.

They deny the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind
you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, he saved them out of the land of Egypt. He
brought them into the wilderness.

But what does it say here? Afterwards, the Lord destroyed those who did
not continue in the faith. We have to continue in the faith, to contend
for the faith, to press on in the faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God.

Now he says, the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but they
left their abode, he has reserved under everlasting chains and darkness
for that great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in
the same manner, gave themselves over to sexual immorality, went after a
strange flesh, set up examples of suffering, of vengeance, of eternal
fire. So we can begin in the faith, and then we have another way worked
out. And what manifests? Sin manifests.

And so we become soft on sin, we start holding fast to the promises, we
start telling ourselves we're king's kids, that we're elect, and we're
still living however we please. We don't. We take the yoke off.

We're not humble and gentle and heartening, but we take the yoke off,
and we start becoming unrestrained. And we start leaving the proper
abode, like these angels left their proper domain. And they began to go,
they had another way worked out.

And that led them into a bondage under everlasting darkness and chains
for the judgment of the great day, in the same way Sodom and Gomorrah.
They were given over to sexual immorality. Whenever you get out from
underneath the yoke and you start to walk in your own ways, then sin
manifests, and you have another choice.

You either claim that you're eternally saved while you're practicing
sin, or you have to look in the mirror and you have to say, there's
something wrong with me, rather than stiffen up and become proud and
continue on in rebellion and witchcraft. Likewise, these dreamers, verse
8, these certain men, they defile the flesh, right? They're men of the
flesh. They're fleshly, carnal, worldly, rebellious.

They reject authority. This is the fruit of it. They reject authority.

They won't submit to sound counsel. They do their own thing. That's why
it's good that children, submit yourselves to your parents and the Lord.

This is right. Even though we as parents make mistakes sometimes, but
the scripture also says as parents we're not to be harsh and
disheartened with children. That's an exhortation to us from God.

But we have to submit ourselves and learn this thing. Even if you come
under a harsh boss or you're under a harsh authority figure in your
life, allow the Lord to bring you there. Come under the yoke.

Learn of Him, because the Lord knows exactly where you're at, and He'll
bring good things in your life through it. These who reject authority,
then they also speak evil of dignitaries. They have no problem just
calling out brothers and just putting them in their place and just
making accusations and saying things.

This is very dangerous. When we take the yoke off and we no longer want
to be broken, we no longer want to come under the lordship of the Word
of God, we begin to rise up in pride and rebellion and greed. This is
what it says.

Even Michael the archangel, when he was contending the seat himself over
the body of Moses, he did not say he fouled at all. He did not make
accusations about what he had done and how foolish he was and how wicked
he was and how unclean he is. And we didn't swear at him and put him in
his place.

All he said to him, he said he would not bring a reviling accusation
against him. He wouldn't dare. He just said, the Lord will.

I'm not going to rebuke the Lord. You see, Michael had a fear of God. If
we lose the fear of God, then we begin to just say whatever comes to our
mind.

We'll say anything to anyone at any time just because we can. That is
dangerous, my friends. And we have to be careful that our hearts don't
go there.

He says, these speak evil of whatever they do not know. And whatever
they do not know naturally, whatever they know naturally, like brute
beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them, for they
have gone in the way of Cain.

What did Cain do? Cain brought a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord didn't
accept it. They got angry.

What did Abel do? Abel brought an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. He
was accepted. He was blessed.

And Cain becomes so angry, the only thing that he could do is take out
the competition. And so he slew his brother and the kid. They have gone
the way of Cain.

They have run greedily in the area of Balaam for profit. It will go in
another direction where we'll start loving money. We'll start preaching
the gospel for money.

We'll start doing certain things for money. Everything will be all about
selfishness. What I want, my needs, my desires, my will, my way of life.

And they have perished in the rebellion of Korah. These were men of God.
Korah, he was a Levite.

He had been given a stewardship. They were in charge of the tabernacle.
They had certain service there.

And then Korah challenges Moses' authority. And he says, hey, we are
from God too, who died and made you ruler over us, so to speak. And
Moses fell on his face before God and said, the Lord will judge between
you and me.

And you know what? The Lord dealt with Korah and his family. He dealt
with those rebellious Levites who were set apart for the service of God.
May the Lord help us to get some healthy fear, lest we go outside of
what God has called us to.

And we become proud and rebellious and haughty. We need to be careful in
this regard. I'll skip to verse 16.

It says, they're grumblers and complainers, walking according to their
own lusts. They mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain
advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before
by the Apostle of the Lord Jesus.

How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time, who
would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are soulish
persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. May the Lord help us
not to become like these men, while they feast with you without fear in
the fellowship.

They have no fear of God, because they have another way of working. And
I finish here. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most
holy faith.

We need to strengthen ourselves in the faith. We need to be built up in
the faith. We need to become rooted and established in the faith.

It says, praying in the Holy Spirit. Always meditating on the things of
God. Mindful of His will and His ways.

Keep yourself in the love of God. If you're not kept in the love of God,
then you will not have love for the brothers. If you are not walking in
covenant with God in the right way, you will not have love for the
brothers.

It's that simple. Keep yourself in the love of God. Looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Now on some, we need to have compassion. Making a distinction. Because
sometimes we can become rebellious, and that's when we need to say, Hey,
brother, be careful that you don't go the way of pain here.

Be careful that you don't perish in the rebellion of Korah here. We need
to humble ourselves. We need to continue to maintain the unity of the
Spirit here.

In the bond of peace that we come to unity of the faith. We're all
nobodies. We're here to worship the Lord, and we desire to please Him,
to serve Him.

But save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire, even hating the
garment defiled by the flesh. The flesh is a hostile thing. We need to
reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

To put off the old man and his loss. And we're to put on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Put on tender mercies, kindness and compassion.

It's a decision. When you get up in the morning, you're going to put on
clothes. You're going to put on your grubby clothes, your work clothes.

You're going to put on whatever you're going to put on in the morning.
You're going to put on a clean change of clothes. You know, we can
either put on the flesh and do things according to the flesh.

We can put on kindness and tender mercies and put on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That has to do with renewing the mind, setting our mind on
things above, as Brother Eileen shared. Not on earthly things.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Who is able to keep
you from stumbling? Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is able to keep you
from stumbling.

And to present you faultless and blameless before Him in love. Before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To God our Savior, who
alone is wise.

We need wisdom that comes from above, which is first pure and then
peaceable, gentle. And noble and good report. So God alone is wise.

His word is wisdom. We need the Spirit to understand that word and to
quicken His word to us. To humility.

To God be glory and majesty and dominion and power, now and forever.
Amen. The Lord help us to become like Jesus.

To be conformed into His image. Transformed as stars differing their
brightness from glory to glory. Only He is able to make it happen.

Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/3ojZMPgCcfo.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/randy-krahn/the-problem-of-not-bearing-good-fruit/
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