As usual, you may read the written transcript of the message below
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Galatians 5:22
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Matthew 7:15-20 GOODNESS IN THIS GROWING SEASON
Weeds are very persistent aren’t they? We plant flowers or vegetables and tend them carefully. Still, weeds grow around them and have to be pulled out again and again. In your experience with gardening, you will know that even when we remove weeds, there are other weeds that come back and need to be dealt with over and over.
This reminds me this week when we are considering, “GOODNESS IN THIS GROWING SEASON” that we have this constant struggle between good and evil. It is an age old struggle that goes back to the Garden of Eden. We as human beings have this knowledge of good and evil and it is only by the grace of God that we can choose good and see goodness grow in us and through us.
Jesus’ words are very direct aren’t they? “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7: 20)
Plain and simple: Good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit. (vs. 17)
People can claim to have good motives or good intentions, but only someone who really has been transformed by the power of God will consistently produce good fruit. Our world needs to be able to rely on those who follow Jesus to display goodness, to produce good fruit. All these fruits of the Spirit that we have been examining are evidence of God’s Spirit working in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and our focus this week goodness… (Galatians 5:22)
If, as Jesus says, we are to be recognized by our fruit then what will the fruit of goodness look like in us in this growing season?
I want to bring a necessary caution to this consideration.
We can always be aware of those we see who are saying and doing things that we would judge are not good. There has been plenty of evidence of this recently every time we turn on the news. The discernment must not stop there. When we identify the bad fruit that is being produced, we need to pray that God will use us to produce good fruit. In order to display goodness and to produce good fruit, we need to be attentive to every thought and word and action that we participate in. Our lives involve every day and every moment choices between good and evil.
This is the same kind of activity that happens in a garden when you are weeding. The good plants are encouraged and watered and fertilized. The bad plants, the weeds, have to be identified and removed with determination. We know, don’t we, that weeds need to be pulled out by the roots. If we only cut them off, the root is still there and they grow back again.
A negative attitude of criticism and judgment toward others is a nasty weed that threatens to choke out the good that should be able to grow in us. We need God’s Spirit to root out that negative attitude of criticism and judgment and to have goodness that God makes possible grow in us.
In recent days, when evidence of the evil root of racism has been displayed, we have again been challenged that this cannot be permitted to grow. That struggle against evil can only be won as God roots out the evil and grows His goodness in each person.
When God’s goodness grows in us, then we need to be available for whenever and however God chooses to use us to resist and to and confront the growth of evil. Often, we feel uncertain how that can happen and we may feel ill equipped to take on evil. Our determination in the issue of racism to be absolutely intolerant of any conversation or attitude that even suggests a racial tone is a way that goodness can gain new growth in this season.
Jesus says, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles”? (vs. 16)
There is no pretending (like a wolf in sheep’s clothing vs. 15)! Who we really are and what we really think will become obvious in our every day living of life.
Since we are to be recognized by our fruit, we will need to ask God to keep pruning us so that good fruit will grow.
Scripture declares the truth, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. “ (Romans 3:23,24)
The bad fruit grows because of sin and sin has infected all of us.
It is only as we claim the redemption that comes through Jesus that we can be made right with God. It would be hopeless if our sin and sinful nature was the end of the story. It would mean that the garden of our lives would be so choked by weeds, so choked by evil, that nothing good could grow there. We have all seen patches of ground that have been left uncared for and the weeds do take over. Jesus wants to reclaim the tangled patches of our lives and to allow goodness to grow and to flourish.
When goodness grows in us
what kind of fruit will be produced?
What can we expect to see and
to taste?
Over time as goodness is growing in us in this growing season:
- our attitudes will be hopeful and will display trusting God and looking for the good that He can bring out of all that is now happening
- our thoughts will not center on ourselves and our well being but will extend to care about others
- the words that we speak will build people up and not tear them down
- we will be actively looking for ways that we can serve others like Jesus did
- we will be grateful to God for what we have
- we will be aware of how much we need Jesus to redeem us and to restore our relationship to God as was intended back in the beginning in the Garden of Eden.
Sin separates us from God and the outcome is bad fruit. Jesus redeems and reunites us with God and prepares us to produce good fruit as He intends.
What needs to happen in the garden of your life in order for good fruit to grow? What weeds have been left to take over and now need to be identified and removed? Jesus wants to see good fruit growing in us that will bless us and those around us. As good fruit is growing, then God’s kingdom is growing stronger and the sin that was introduced in the Garden of Eden is being removed by the roots.
Today, as we participate
together in Communion, we claim the redeeming power of Jesus our
Redeemer to free us from sin so that the fruit that we produce in
this growing season will be good and God pleasing!