More Than Looks - Bear Fruit

Memory Verse: Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law”

Isn’t it interesting that the beautiful snow, so prized by skiers and snowmobile riders can also be so very deadly? We have to look at things deeper than just the surface. On the surface, snow looks beautiful and is fun to play in, but if you look deeper you can see that snow can also be dangerous to travelers and possibly even deadly. You have to look deeper than just on the surface.

You all know people who are beautiful and wear really nice clothes but there is no substance or depth to them. They have no purpose in life, or they are morally bankrupt, or they have no character. They are like the fig tree that had no fruit.

On the surface, the fig tree in Matthew Chapter 21 was a beautiful and healthy tree and should have had some fruit but when Jesus went up to it to pick some of its fruit, there was not a single fig on it. It had lots of beautiful leaves but absolutely no fruit. What does this tell you? It was beautiful to look at on the outside but it was not living up to its purpose of providing fruit. Since it was not living up to that purpose, Jesus saw no reason for it to continue to exist. It was just taking up space that could be better used by a tree that would provide fruit.

Matthew 21:18-22 18 "In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, 19 and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up. 20 The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” 21 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. 22 You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

Jesus cursed the tree because it was unproductive and was not living up to the purpose for which He created it, and so it withered and died.

Does that say anything to you? Was Jesus being mean to the tree or was He trying to give a message to His disciples? What message was He trying to convey to them?

He was telling them and also telling you that your Christian life will also wither and die if you do not take care of it. If you do not spend time with God, praying, reading your Bible, studying God’s Word, and living up to the purpose for which He created you – your relationship with Him and with the Father will also wither and die.

Matthew 7:16-20 16 "You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”

Part of the purpose He created You was to bear fruit for others to enjoy. The fruit is not for the tree to enjoy – you are the tree. The fruit is for others to enjoy.

What fruits are you to bear for others? God’s nature in you – love, joy, peace, patience or longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self- control are the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit. As you grow in your relationship with God, these fruits will begin to be apparent to others. They can go to you and enjoy these fruits that you are developing through your relationship to God and your through your relationships with others.

How do you bear these fruits of the Holy Spirit? Read the story of Jesus’ life in the four Gospels. His example is the clearest expression of love for God and love for others you can find in the Bible. Paul also talks of this love, but Jesus lived it as an example for you to follow.

God loves all people and is kind to all people whether they love Him or not. His salvation and forgiveness of sins is available to everybody.

Matthew 5:43-48 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

2Corinthians 5:18-21 18 "And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’ s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

Doing good for others is always right.

1Corinthians 13:-13 1 "If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."

You must be willing to help others as you are able when you see their need and you can provide that help.

James 2:14-17 14" What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless."

You are to live your lives as Jesus did.

IJohn 2:3-6 3"And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did."

You are to live your lives as Jesus did – obeying God and His laws, showing love to one another and spending time in prayer. If you do these things, good works will follow. You will be living up to the purpose for which you were created and called to be His. You will be a fruitful tree providing all sorts of wonderful fruits for others to enjoy -- for others to use as they need those fruits in their lives. Some of your fruits will encourage, some will heal, some will energize others to serve God, some will lead others to come to Him.

Think about ways that you can serve God by serving others. Look around you for ways to serve others without them knowing about it so that only you and God know so your reward will not come from the pats on the back from others, but from God Himself.

Matthew 7:21-23 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’"

You may know a lot ABOUT God’s Word, but are you living it? Living it is the important part. All of you know people who talk a lot about God and know a lot about the Word of God and may even teach others about the Word of God but they do not live it in their everyday lives with their families, friends, neighbors and others with whom they come in contact. Words are cheap; it is what we do with those words that is important. Don’t be like the tree that looked good but offered no fruit. Be fruitful, serve God and other people with the fruits that you bear in your life.

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