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God who Wants Good Grapes

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[Isaiah 5:2]

He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

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There was someone who had vineyard in a rich hill.
This person wanted to harvest good grapes.
So he worked hard on his vineyard.

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He even used the finest seeds. He made a watchtower at the center of his vineyard.
He made a fence so the wild animals couldn't come inside and ruin the vineyard.

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The farmer tried his best. He did everything to harvest the good grapes.

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And at last the harvesting season came for the grapes.
The farmer went to the vineyard with good expectations.
And he took one fruit that looked the best.

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And he started to eat that grape.
Will the grape taste as good as he expected?

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The face of the farmer who ate the grape turned ugly. The grape that looked so delicious was a bitter tasting wild grape. The farmer spit out the grape that he was eating. He could not understand why wild grapes grew there.

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The angry farmer said like this.
"This vineyard has no importance to me. I will break down all of the fences around this vineyard so the animals can come and ruin it.

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The watchtower was destroyed and the fences were cleared.
The vineyard that could not bear good fruit started to turn into a wasteland.
The wild animals came and ruined all of the grapes.

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This story is written in the book of Isaiah from the Bible.
This story is about the Israelites who were protected by God just like this vineyard was today.

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God expected the best fruit to bear from the Israelites, too.
God protected them with love and led them to win many wars, they were granted with the best things because God expected them to bear good fruit.

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However, the Israelites did not act like God expected. The people in high positions harassed the others with their power. The religious leaders who should have loved God the most loved money more.

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They did not bear the beautiful fruit God wanted. They bore the fruit that was so bitter that God could not eat. So God said he would not protect Israel anymore.

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Because God did not protect Israel they were overrun by other countries.
It all happened because they did not bear the fruit God wanted.

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We are also the same as this vineyard. Because God loved us he sent his one and only son to us and he died on the cross because of our sins. God protected us like the vineyard so we can bear the good fruit God wants.

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However, we could also bear the bitter and bad fruit God does not want. We who believe Jesus Christ should always seek for help from God so that we would not fall to the lifestyle that God does not want. I hope we all will become the good fruit God wants.

(You can change the conclusion of this sermon best suiting to your listeners of this sermon. We want to make it clear that the provided conclusion is only a sample conclusion provided by CTM.)