MK040 Sermons
How to Assess your Fruit (Audio)
well it is great to be back here with you it seems like it's been a little while since we've all been together between the weather and the time change and bein at reamstown last week so it is good to be back here with you this morning and as that song close as said i remind myself of all that you've done and we're gonna take a few minutes to remind ourselves of what jesus has done for us in the way that we do that here at ccc is through something that jesus invited followers to do several thousand years ago and that's to take something very simple bread a couple of juice and remind them of not only that jesus body that was about to be broken for them but his blood that was about to be shed as johnnie said in just a few few weeks will be celebrating easter and if you think back several thousand years ago when this was taking place uh... jesus knew this was coming you know we tend to know certain things are coming like uh... your birthdays coming or you know of trip is coming or vacation is coming so we look forward to those exciting things that are coming down the pike and but we don't usually no too much in advance sometimes in difficult or painful things are coming like you know when uh... we face a loss or uh... or an accident happens or tragedy occurs i mean sometimes we might know surgery might be coming so we know that that is coming there some people in our church that are just navigated that this last weekend so please as you have opportunity thank you for reaching out to them and showing concern and care for them but jesus knew this was coming and he knew that he knew what god's plan was for him and it makes a little more sense when you read when he's in the garden of of gesemini surely before the crucifixion and he says in this prayer to god that's recorded for us he says father if there's any other way to take this cover this suffering from the i'll choose plan b or plans if you've got it available and then he says but not my will but your will so as we come to this table we do so with a special significance of remembering that this is right around the time when jesus literally did give his life when he was crucified on the cross the hands of the roman soldiers when his hands and his feet were pierced and his blood was shed on that cross and a spear stabbed into his side so this morning we're going to take this to remind ourselves of what jesus is done and and if you have a personal relationship with jesus if you've said to him i want you to be the one in charge of my life we'd love to invite you to this table just to join us and you're still trying to put those pieces together and not quite sure what this whole following jesus thing is all about we just write you to listen to the songs and just quietly reflect on who jesus is and what he has done for each person who's here today see being a christian being a christ followers not just about knowing information cognitively that i know about god i believe in god i know about jesus and who he is but there's a relationship side of that there's a personal side in which i'm willing to say i know i'm not doing a good job of being in charge of my life i've kind of made a few mistakes along the way but i'm willing to turn it over to someone who's doing a better job than that and that's got himself and i'm willing to acknowledge that i haven't been perfect i've made some mistakes along the way i've sinned i'll be the first to admit that but i haven't everyone in the truth is we all have that sin is what keeps us from god it's that barrier between us and god and says i don't want that i want you to have a relationship with me so i want to move that off the table and the only way i can move that off the table is for someone to give their life to pay for your sins like you would ultimately have to do jesus said i'll be willing to do that for you i'll be willing to take your place and if you've invited him into your life to do that to take your place we'd love to have you join us and maybe not maybe just this morning is the time for you to sit quietly and reflect and think about what jesus has done for you as the guys passed the bread we'd just ask that you would hold that and um well i'll take of that together in just a moment that you he's not this boy tell his grace is greater still than all of your own choices here is the mutation his arms are a bone wide you can't come as you lie with all your broken pieces all your shameful scars thank you for holding your heart bring it on to jesus you can come as you are louder than your voice that whispers your unworthy hear the sound in love the tells a different story shattering your darkness and pushing through the light how tenderly he calls you his arms are a bone wide you can't come as you lie with all your broken pieces all your shameful scars to paint you holding your heart you bring it on to jesus but you can come as you are you can't come as you are as the song says jesus invites you to come as you are this is you don't have to clean everything up before you come because i spread my arms wide on the cross welcome you in so as we take this bread we remind ourselves what jesus did for us let's do it together jesus blood being shed for us is something that he was going to face from the crown of thorns that were pressed in on his head to the physical almost inhumane beating that he took to his hands and his feet being pierced when he was hung on the cross to a sword thrust into his side for centuries the israelites had had to sacrifice a lamb and to slit the throat of that lamb and blood put on altar for their sins to be taken care of for the guilt to be gone the bible says that jesus came as the perfect lamb of god to take away the sins of mankind and so as the guys pass this cup of juice it's just a reminder of jesus incredible sacrifice and the credible transforming saving power that is there in the blood of jesus so as they pass that we ask that you would just hold that and reflect on that looks like a river washing over me found top heaven love of Christ over the love in me thank you jesus you sent me to me Christ my savior you rescued me take this life deliver a vessel of your love holding out devoted to see your kingdom come thank you jesus set me free Christ my savior you rescued me thank you jesus send me free Christ my savior you rescued me so you you've given me life you've opened my eyes i love you Lord you've been to my heart you've sent me a part i love you Lord i love you Lord you've given me life you opened my eyes i love you Lord i love you Lord you've been to my heart you've sent me a part i love you Lord i love you Lord jesus has saved me he's rescued me and his blood has set me free let's drink of that together God maybe never become weary of remembering what you've done your incredible sacrifice your amazing love we come to you today guide with humble and grateful hearts and with this amazing gift this amazing treasure that you have given to us may we not just hold tightly to that ourselves but God may the the fruit of our lives be evidence that offers that and what's that be seen by others in your name we pray our guys are going to come and collect the cups from you and this summer when i was home this past summer when i was home during my sabbatical i would spend most mornings out in our backyard just reading reflecting and and we had a bird feeder out there and so there were often made birds at this bird feeder i don't know much about birds except the birds come and i like when the birds come but um every once in a while i'll see a cardinal okay i can't it's red i know that's a cardinal you know and every once in a while i'll see the blue jay come and they chases all the other birds away you know the nasty blue jays you know so i know that much about that's about all i know not much else but so i was wondered about these birds i thought how can i how can i identify these birds how can i identify these birds and so as i was um a scrounging around the internet for it i came across this app and it's called the cornel lab merlin bird app and so i got this bird app and you just hit the button it tells you your current location so i tap my current location the date so this is the date um what size bird am i looking for it's okay it's a sparrow size or smaller so that's about the right size and what colors well they're black a little brown a little grayish so i'll go with those colors where were they at they were at the feeder it gives you a bunch of options and then um surprising gives you this whole list of bird options well it could be this bird could be that bird well they're kind of small and they flutter and then they're gone how in the world am i going to identify what bird is the right bird well the cool thing about this app is when you and when you go there you can not only look at the picture but you can click this little thing it looks like a speaker and listen to the sound okay well yeah i heard one like that um and then oh they're all now this one the field spry but yeah that's what it is and oh there's that sound some of you hear that this morning maybe you know and without this i'm kind of helpless to know what in the world is that thing flying around in my yard other than the fact it's a bird um but my bird app helps me to identify the birds and know not only what kind of bird is but actually what it is a little bit of characteristics about it and um my son makes fun of me he doesn't like my bird app but i like my bird app so um but um um this morning we're going to talk about how do you identify things in your life and not know exactly what they are but whether no whether it's good or bad i mean when someone says i got a good deal for you how do we find out today whether it's a good or bad deal where do we what do we do to find that out we do what we google it right and then we go online and we search for it someone says hey where where are we going to go to eat let's look at some places to eat and it's place you never been for what do you do you go online you find it and then you decide is that a place we're going to eat well this morning we're going to look at a passage in the bible where jesus tells us how to identify some things that are good and bad and they didn't have the luxury of an app or they didn't have the luxury of google to be able to identify those things and so we're going to look at his direction on how to identify some things that are good and bad and for those of you this morning that are you know christ followers you're going to be encouraged because jesus is going to point out some ways for you to identify some things and for those of you are kind of searching you're kind of sorting out the whole faith thing um i think you might be surprised what jesus has to say this morning because for you you can sort some things out about people of faith you can see the ones that are real and the ones that are fake and um others can't and that's exactly what jesus is going to talk about you haven't been here with us we've been in a series of studies on the sermon on the mount uh... from jesus when jesus was here on the earth his most famous sermon that he presented at the very beginning of the three years he was here is called the sermon on the mount and over the next three years he would talk about this occasionally bits and pieces of it but this is kind of a summary of all of those and in the beginning of that sermon on the mount he makes this statement that we've been talking we've been referencing nearly every week and that statement is repent for the kingdom of heaven is what near near and jesus doesn't just say i've got some more things for you to do he says i want you to repent they talk about good people religious people not really bad people that would be obvious to tell them to repent but not the good people says i want you to repent i want you to turn away from the way you've been living in turn in a different direction and so each week as we've been looking at these passages of scripture these words of jesus my challenge has been not for you to do something more this week but for you to stop doing something and turn your attention to something that he's calling us to do whether it's in relationships with one another whether it's in relationship with god whether it's relationship with your spouse whether it's dealing with anger whether it's judging others whatever those things are he says i want you to turn away from this and i want you to move towards this and he's going to give us another one this morning if you were here this last week we looked at the subject that jesus presented to us of two different doors and as we came into the gym at reamstown last week there was a wide door and it was the door that nearly everybody was going through it was a easy to access door there wasn't anything in your way of getting through the door nearly everybody was filing through this very wide door but next to that wide door there was also a very narrow door and you haven't looked real closely to pay attention to the narrow door and if you didn't look real close you would miss the narrow door and the narrow door was not as wide and so depending on how wide you are you might not be able to fit through the narrow door after turn sideways to get through the narrow door you know is that tiny you know to squeeze inside of it but on the other side of each of those doors jesus says there's a path the wide door has a wide path it's easy to follow it's obvious there's not anything in your way and there's a lot of people on the wide path but jesus said that wide path doesn't lead you to happiness doesn't lead you to peace it doesn't lead you to contentment or joy he said that wide path leads you to destruction but then there's a narrow path that's along the way here that if you go through the narrow gate it's not as obvious that someone might have to point it out to you you actually might miss it someone doesn't tell you about that narrow path and it's going to be a little bumpy and there's trees hanging over and there's brush you're going to have to push your way past and you might get lost on that path from time to time because it's not as clear and not as visible but jesus says the end of that path leads you to life and then a little bit later jesus said i am the way the truth and anybody know what he said i am the life and so that narrow path leads to jesus leads to a relationship with him well this week we're going to take another look at one of the last sections in this sermon that jesus has to speak about so if you have a bible if you turn to Matthew chapter seven Matthew chapter seven that's where we're going to be out this morning Matthew chapter seven if you don't have a bible our guys have some of those in the they'll pass them around to you Matthew chapter seven and as you're turning there i just want to read these verses for you and then we'll spend some time looking at what they have to say verse 15 it says watch out for false prophets they come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves by their fruit you'll recognize them do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles like every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire thus by their fruit you'll recognize them not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven many will say to me on that day lord lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles then i will tell them plainly i never knew you away from me you evil doers jesus really issues two warnings in this section of scripture this is a warning for those who are leading any issues a warning for those who are following and ultimately what he says is god is not impressed with your words it's not impressed with your words he wants to see your actions and he provides such a very strong warning because he's not going to be here very long and you're going to have to decide at some point who you're going to follow he begins with a warning there about false prophets and in the religious and the jewish community there were four different groups of individuals that oversaw the jewish community especially historically in the old testament there was the king and they were they were the ones that were over all the people they were god's representative over all the people and then there was the priest they would god would speak to the priest for the people and then there was the prophet or excuse me i got that backwards the prophet god would speak to the the prophet for the people and the people would speak to the priest and he would communicate that back to god and the sage was the one who observed the realities of life considered the wise man and so the prophet is the one who stood between god and the people so who is a false prophet a false prophet is someone who claimed to be speaking for god was not truly appointed by god and did not follow jesus and he goes on a say in that verse verse 15 as he said they come to you in sheep's clothing he said they really look like sheep they might even sound like sheep they might even act like sheep and it might be hard to pick them out from the sheep in this picture but ultimately you look at it as you pay attention real closely you discover they're not all sheep there's actually a wolf in the midst but upon glancing at initially it looks just like them it's got wool just like them it's got a long snout just like them it's got ears that point up in a different direction but there's still years there and then he goes on to say what the sheep is what the wolf is designed to do it said inwardly they are ferocious wolves the wolf is not in the flock of sheep to have a party to make friends to just check on how they're doing the wolf is there for one reason and one reason only to get dinner that is the only reason that wolf is there to meet their needs and Jesus says you need to watch out you need to pay attention because they're individuals who are going to say they're speaking for God and they are only out for themselves you're like yeah i know i've heard a few of them i've crossed paths with a few of them i've seen a few of them and so then you say you ask yourself how do i know how do i know if it's a sheep or not a sheep how do i know and Jesus says he says by their fruit you will recognize them by their fruit you will recognize them now i've got a fruit basket here and um matt can you see this fruit basket and kind of see it you think there's any real fruit in there probably not okay that's a good guess or he's right there's no fruit in there um the real fruit's back here the real fruit's back here but if you were to look at this basket from back there and you were looking and this and say wow that that kind of looks like a peach doesn't it that's actually a pretty authentic peach and and wow that's that could be a grainy smith right there and yeah that one's what do you think that's pretty realistic lemon in the you know well that's I don't know that pomegranate i think i broke that piece off so it doesn't look real anymore but um you know Jesus said you're gonna have to you're gonna have to determine by their fruit whether they're real or whether they're fake they're real whether fake you say well how do i know how do i know if it's real or if it's fake because they sound right they look right they act right how do i know he goes on to talk about some things that they would have understand he says do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles you know when we think of grapes we think of a grape like grapes like this that we you know that we buy a oyster at you know redner's or green dragon or weavers i mean that's what we think and we think of grapes but for them grapes or something a little bit like this he's talking about grapes and if you can look real close you can see there's actually real big thistles there and what happens when you have a grape vine and you have these thistles that would grow up underneath of the grape vine is they would steal the nutrients from the soil and they would not be as prosperous he's basically saying that there's things that are going to look good and look enticing and look beneficial to you but are not going to be the case look what he goes on to say in verse 17 he says likewise every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit now let me ask you this question if you were looking at orchard of trees and there was no fruit on those trees would you know if any of those trees were bad trees probably not right what are you going to have to see on those trees to determine whether the tree is a good tree or a bad tree what do you have to see on that tree fruit right does that have good fruit or is that a bad fruit and you know what that's going to take some time isn't it you won't know that right away by looking at it unless you're a farmer who farms that particular type of fruit you might be able to see that tree and know that there's something not healthy about that tree but what Jesus is saying here is he's saying you may not know who that wolf is in sheep's clothing right away and for some of you that's a little disconcerting because some of you are like you mean someone could deceive me and the truth is absolutely yes they could good but Jesus says if you watch them over time you're going to be able to discover whether they are fake or they are real whether they're fake whether they're real now some of you god has blessed with this amazing sense of perception that you seem to know this stuff almost instantaneously and you tell other people like how do you know i don't know i just know now you don't and eventually you're right you know so some of you guys kind of uniquely blessed but for most of us we don't have that sense of knowing whether something is real or something is fake and it's disconcerting because none of us want to be fooled none of us want to be tricked but Jesus says what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to watch this over time to see if the fruit that they produce is real or is fake and another way of putting is to see if their words match their actions if their words match their actions now this is incredibly difficult for our culture today it was much easier when Jesus lived you say why is that well they did not um when you spent time with someone you would be around their family you would be around their acquaintances you would probably work with them you would know what this person was like pretty quickly in his day in our day we don't we don't i mean this past week i was just at this concert and heard some great bands rent collective in 10th avenue north and had a chance to hear chris timeland great night of worship and you know love their music and and and their great performers and great you know great artists but i don't know a thing about any of these people i don't know anything about them i know what they look good and how they sound on stage and that was really enjoyable i don't know anything about the fruit of their lives i don't i can go online and i can download a podcast or watch a message from from guys speaking all over the country and all over the world but i don't know anything about the fruit of their lives you can you can download music you can listen to artists you love the sound you love the rhythm you love the music but not know a thing about the fruit of their lives and so can you see how much more how we are much more likely to be deceived by wolf and sheep's clothing than it was even in jesus day it's much more difficult for us to be aware of this than it ever was in his day some of you may have heard of a guy by the name of um mark driscoll well-known pastor out on the west coast led a ministry for 16 years called mars hill and started multiple churches multiple site thousands of people go into these churches and um back last fall there was some things that had been raised about questions raised about his style of leadership and his handling of situations with people and he was asked to take a short break a short leave while they evaluated what he should do and came back with some recommendations and because of the public firestorm about this um he felt like the best thing for him to do was to step away from that position of leadership and um all those churches were closed now i don't know mark personally but i've listened to his podcast for years i've read his books i think he's a man with a heart for god but there was some things about his character the fruit didn't match it didn't match and ultimately what he had established he had hope for the glory of god was completely washed away and so jesus says the way you're going to know who these individuals are and if there's any substance to their lives and if what they say is true is by the fruit and it's going to take you some time to look at the fruit of their lives look what jesus goes on to say in verse 19 he said every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire thus by their fruit you will recognize them by their fruit you will recognize them and this is not just true of people who are prophets this is true for everybody everybody you see we all follow somebody we all follow somebody who who do you read who do you listen to his music do you enjoy what sports figures do you follow we all have somebody we follow and the question is what's the fruit of their lives look like what does it look like and the question for each of us to ask ourselves is what is the fruit of my life look like what is the fruit of my life look like you say well john i you know i'm uh i'm a christian i you know prayed this prayer when i was a little kid and i've been you know going to church and you know doing the church thing and i i think i don't know what the fruit of my life looks like and jesus says before you go pointing the finger and looking at other people let's take a real close look at your heart look at the next verse what he has to say verse 21 he says not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will my father is in heaven jesus turns the attention from the false prophet the one who's the upfront persona the communicator the musician the artist the the person that everybody looks to and is enamored by and he turns the attention directly to you and me not everyone says lord lord is going to come into my kingdom not everyone who prays a prayer it's going to come into my kingdom what he goes on to say in the next verse many will say to me on that day lord lord didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and your name performed miracle god we we did a lot of good things you know we served and we gave and we participated we did all these good things and you're scratching your head thinking well wait a minute jesus just said that by their fruit you will know them and john you were saying their words and their actions well wait a minute here's someone who's saying lord lord and and yet their actions is i'm a bit confused by this because now you're saying their words have to match their actions this appears to be the case in this person's life but what could jesus says in the next verse he says i'll tell them play that i never knew you sobering thoughts sobering words they're jesus say i never knew you so who are the individuals who are the people that jesus says are going to be welcomed in his kingdom go back to verse 21 and look what he says back in verse 21 he says only the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven not someone who prays a prayer not someone who can do a bunch of good stuff it's not what jesus says he says the only one is the one who does the will of my father the one only one whose heart is moved to say i want to do whatever it is that god wants me to do in every aspect of my life it's the student who says god i want to do what you want me to do with my classmates and in my relationship with my parents and and in dating relationships and on the sports field and in jobs and when i'm thinking about career i want it to be what you want me to do not what i want to do in the office in the factory on the shop floor when you're out with customers wherever it is it's god i want to do what you want me to do when i'm with family that are difficult to get along with and hard to love it's god i want to do what you want me to do someone who says the will of god the desire of god his plan for my life is what my whole life is all about not just a prayer i prayed when i was a little kid not what i show up and do on sunday morning but is my whole life about following jesus so what's the fruit of your life look like is it just something that looks good from a distance and nobody would really know or is there something real and authentic to it you see jesus is not just inviting us and helping us to be cautious about individuals out there that might have the potential to deceive you but he's challenging every person sitting in this room to turn the mirror and and shine it right into your own heart and say is that true of my heart not is it something that i've done but is it true of the way my heart is and the way i want to live my life because jesus is that's what matters to me that's what matters on that day when life on this earth comes to an end and i stand face to face with the god of the heavens whether he welcomes me and says well done my good and faithful servant or leave i have no idea who you are it's a sobering thought it's hard for us to swallow because we want assurances we're gonna say but i did this and so i know you say but john doesn't the bible say that salvation is by faith alone in jesus it does but james also says faith without works to match your life is dead say john was that prayer i prayed was that something real and true i don't know only god knows that before you with you but the question is if you did that what is your life look like now what does it look like now is my confidence and my hope resting on something i did a long time ago is it on the actions of my life that demonstrate a heart devoted to jesus you see jesus is telling his followers this is how you're going to know who you should listen to and this is how you're going to know who you should hang out with because there's going to be a lot of people who you're going to rub shoulders with who are going to look pretty real but be pretty fake and i'm not going to have anything to do with so as you think about your life and you think about the fruit of your life what does it look like today students what does it look like what's it look like when you're not around mom and dad or you're not around your church friends what's the fruit of your life look like then is it real or is it fake what's it like adults when you're in your jobs when you're with your family when you're by yourself is the fruit of your life look like does it look like you say john you've talked about this fruit you've talked about this fruit what would be some examples of that some examples of that would be a compassion for the poor would be serving others in need would be engaging in in your family and your children in your spouse would be treating others in the way that you want to be treated would not be judging others but giving them grace and the benefit of the doubt all the things that jesus has been talking about week after week after week i hope this morning you walk away a little unsettled when i spent time thinking about the first part of this about those that speak for god two people it's a role that i am privileged and honored to serve in most weeks it's very sobering to ask myself the question what's the fruit of my life look like what am i like when you don't see me when only my family sees me only god sees me but the challenge is not just for those individuals in positions like mine to look hard in the mirror but for all of us to do that so my prayer is that you would walk away this morning i want to give you a few minutes before we leave to just look hard on the inside and so i'm going to ask if you would bow your heads in prayer just take a couple minutes to talk to god and maybe god's pointed something out it's really fake on the inside excuse me on the outside and parents don't know about it spouse doesn't know about it it's your heart willing to do the will of god in every part of your life you god these are some hard words to come to this close of this message with it would have been a lot easier just to have you say go and do these things and instead you hold this mirror up in front of us and say which path are you on who you're listening to are you willing to follow me in every part of your life god help us to be willing to face this honestly not ignore the things that you're stirring up in our hearts and our lives the things you're calling us to say i there's some things here that need to change and i want you to walk into that I'd help us to face the truth of not only who you are but the relationship you invite us to have with you and you may be proud of it too