Gospel Fluency - Week 4

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- Once upon a time there was a family who had an old fruit tree that was right beside their house.

- But it hadn’t produced any fruit for years.

- So, one day, the father went to his son and said “This weekend, I’m going to need your help”

- “We are going to chop down this old tree, because it’s not giving us any fruit.”

- But, this presented a problem for the son.

- Because, you see, the tree grew outside the son’s window, and the son (particularly when he was in trouble and told to stay in his room), would often open his window and climb down the tree to escape his punishment.

- And so the son came up with a plan to save the old fruit tree.

- While his dad was at work, the son went to the store and bought a bag of apples, and then, later that night, he carefully tied the apples to the branches of the old tree.

- The next morning, the father could not believe his eyes, and he said to his wife “Honey, I can’t believe it!”

- “That old tree hasn’t produced any fruit for years, and now it’s covered in apples!”

- “And, the most amazing thing, is that it’s a pear tree!”

- And so we’re in week 4 of our series “Gospel Fluency” where we are learning and growing in our ability to speak the Truth of Jesus into the everyday stuff of life.

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- And last week we talked about taking our thoughts captive (making our thoughts Gospel fluent).

- And I hope we all spent at least a bit of time this past week paying attention to what we are thinking about (and how we are feeling about what we are thinking about), and asking “is this true about God, is this true about what He’s done through Jesus, and is this true about what He says about me?”

- And so last week, just like a good doctor, our goal was to examine the symptoms, and come up with a diagnosis.

- But this week is designed to help us use Gospel fluency to actually treat the issue.

- To not only take our thoughts captive, but to teach them to obey Jesus.

- What we talked about last week was more about recognizing the fruit, and whether it was good or bad, whether it’s an apple or a pear, and being more aware of it.

- This week is about getting down to the roots of the tree, getting down to the core of what is producing that fruit.

- Once we start paying attention to the fruit of our lives, then we can get down to the root and make changes and adjustments as necessary (by God’s power).

- Check out these words of Jesus as recorded by Luke.

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- Luke 6:43-45

o A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.

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o A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

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- The idea here is that the fruit of our life comes from the roots of our faith.

- The roots of an apple tree will produce apples.

- The roots of a pear tree will produce pears.

- The roots of our life will produce the fruit of our life.

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- But, we could take this a step further, because not only does the fruit of our life come from the roots of our faith, but the fruit of our life reveals the roots of our faith.

- Think about it this way.

- When you see apples growing on a tree, you probably don’t need to dig down and examine the roots to determine what kind of tree it is.

- Seeing the fruit tells you enough on its own.

- Similarly, what we treasure, trust in, and believe produces the life that we see (and that others around us can see).

- The things we do, the thoughts we experience, the words we say, are all indicators of where our faith lies.

- They show what “story” we are trusting (what chair we are putting all of our weight into and trusting it to hold us up).

- As Jesus says, what we say flows from what is in our hearts.

- What we do comes from where our roots of faith and belief are.

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- Galatians 5:16-25

o So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

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o But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

o When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties,

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o and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

o But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

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o Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

- We’ve already considered this earlier in this series, but one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to direct us to the Truth of Jesus (to move us from unbelief to belief).

- And by doing that, He also grows in us the fruit in our lives that resembles the life of Jesus.

- Some of you know this, but I have a daily alarm each morning at 7:30 that reminds me to pray for myself and my family to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that He can grow His fruit in our lives.

- And I name them (Ardynn has even memorized them and sometimes says them with me, when she did it for the first time this past summer it melted Chantelle and my hearts).

- God, as you fill me with Your Spirit, I need You to grow in me: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

- When my roots are in Him, these will be the fruit of my life.

- Not that it’s always easy, not that we’re perfect, not that we don’t have issues and struggles and doubts (because we do).

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- But, when it comes right down to it, those who walk with the Holy Spirit experience the fruit of the Spirit.

- Which means that when I am not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit (when my life is not resembling the life of Jesus), then clearly I am not walking with the Spirit in that area of my life at that current moment.

- When the fruit of my life is immorality, selfish desires, division, envy, or anything that is not from the Holy Spirit, then this reveals areas and ways where I am not submitted to Jesus.

- The fruit of my life reveals the roots of my faith.

- Because whatever is submitted to Jesus, begins to look like Jesus and the fruit of His Spirit.

- And so, an important part of Gospel fluency is paying attention to the fruit of our lives, and then understanding what that fruit reveals about where our roots are.

- We look at the fruit of our lives, and that fruit can show us what we are believing and trusting in at any given moment.

- And, this process can be done by considering the fruit of our lives and asking four big questions.

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- 1) Who is God?

- 2) What has God done? (especially through Jesus)

- 3) Who am I? (in light of what God has done)

- 4) How do I live as a result?

- These four questions can help us be formed by the story of the Gospel, and also help us be used by God to form others with the story of the Gospel.

- A quick and easy example would be like this:

- 1) Who is God? Jesus’ friend John believed (and wrote) that God is love.

- 2) What has God done (in other words, how do I know that He is love)? He sent His Son to die for me while I was still a sinner.

- 3) Who am I (in light of God’s work of sending His Son to die for me)? I am a loved child of God.

- 4) How should I live (as a result of who I am in Jesus)? I should love others as Jesus has loved me.

- The roots of our faith produce the fruit of our lives.

- The root of belief that God is love, when applied correctly, should result in the fruit of love pouring through us into the lives of others.

- Now, when we want to look at other areas, maybe areas of struggle, sin, temptation, guilt, shame, fear, condemnation, or whatever the case may be, but when it comes to these negative areas (areas of unbelief in the Gospel story, where we are listening to a different story instead of Jesus’ story), then what we can do is reverse the order of these questions.

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- We look at the fruit of our lives, and by reversing the order of these questions we can trace the fruit down to the root.

- When I read Jeff Vanderstelt’s book “Gospel Fluency” this was one section that really hit me hard.

- I remember thinking at the time “This is life-changing” and I have shared it with several people over the years.

- And I am excited to be able to share it with all of you, and I hope you get as much out of it as I have.

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- Because if you remember nothing else from today, I hope you’ll remember this process, called “Fruit to Root”

- Where we look at the fruit of our lives, and trace them back to the root of our faith.

- So let’s consider an example that some of us may be able to relate to.

- Let’s imagine we are (or we are talking to) an anxious parent.

- A parent who doesn’t feel they are doing a good enough job of raising their kids.

- A parent who worries about the future for their kids.

- So, here’s how this process might work.

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- We start with question number 4

- 4) How do we live? What are we experiencing?

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- We might say (or hear) things like fear, worry, anxiety

- This is the fruit that is being experienced in this situation.

- So then, we keep working backwards.

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- 3) Who am I?

- What does this fruit say about what we are believing about who we are?

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- Maybe for this person they would say that they are feeling this way because they feel powerless.

- They feel like things are just out of control.

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- Now, we keep moving and ask “What has God done?”

- What do these feelings reveal about what we are believing about what God has done?

- Now, this is where it takes some honesty, it takes some vulnerability (especially if you’re someone who wants everyone to think you are a perfect Christian who doesn’t have any problems).

- But, may I also suggest that this is good to not just “think about”, but this is good and important and helpful to actually verbalize.

- To speak out loud, no matter how brutal it may seem.

- So, for the parent who feels as though they are powerless and out of control, perhaps if pressed they might say something that these feelings come from the belief that they are alone.

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- They may feel as though God has abandoned them.

- Maybe it feels like He doesn’t care about what we’re going through – like He’s stopped loving us.

- Maybe it feels like even God isn’t in control, like even He can’t help us (this belief is maybe why we believe we need to be in control and experience anxiety when we feel things aren’t under control).

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- This leads backwards all the way to question number 1.

- Who is God?

- What does this fruit reveal about what we believe about who God is?

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- And again, if pressed, maybe we might say that the fruit reveals that we believe God is distant, unloving, and powerless.

- This is not an easy process, this is not a quick process.

- And it may lead to a really negative place like this.

- However, when we do something like this, and are brutally honest about what we are feeling and believing about God, we are in good company.

- Because the ancient Jewish book of songs (the Psalms) are filled with honest laments and crying out to God (and even crying out against God).

- In fact, even beyond the Psalms we see time and time again, as followers of God (and followers of Jesus) struggle and are painfully honest about how they are feeling in those low moments.

- Make no mistake about it, if we want to be Gospel fluent, we don’t just have to smile all the time and only be happy and the life of the party.

- In order to be truly Gospel fluent, in order to be able to speak (and experience) the Truth of Jesus in the everyday stuff of life, then we need to stop pretending, and grow in the ability to be honest with God (and with others).

- We need to stop deceiving ourselves, stop living in denial, and get real.

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- Because this is where true repentance takes place.

- Repentance means we turn from one direction, to go in an entirely different direction.

- We turn from a false belief, to embrace the Truth of Jesus.

- We turn from bad roots and bad fruit, to grow good roots and good fruit.

- Because it’s only when we’ve gone from fruit to root, that we can now uproot the problem, so that good roots (and good fruit) can grow in its place.

- Because we may go through a process like this, and we see that our fear and worry and anxiety are actually based in a false belief that God is distant, uncaring, and powerless.

- And when we see that, we may react and think “But I don’t actually believe that!”

- “I don’t actually want to make that my story!”

- “I don’t want to put my faith, my trust, my belief in these lies any longer!”

- “The fruit of my life is revealing a root that I know isn’t true – it isn’t what I want”

- When we are brave enough to be honest, when we are brave enough to confess with our mouths what we are actually believing and trusting in, then the Holy Spirit is with us to help us.

- The Holy Spirit can convict us, can redirect us, and can tell us the truth about who God really is and what He’s done for us through Jesus.

- Because whether this particular parenting example is (or ever has been) true for you or not, we could put any number of things in here.

- But when we believe a lie about God, it leads to us believing lies about ourselves.

- If we believe God is unloving, then we in turn become unlovable.

- If we believe God is not our Saviour, then we in turn need to become the saviour for our family and our friends.

- We believe that by worrying more it will help us solve all of our problems, but all of that worry and desire for control only creates more problems.

- And this process is helpful, because oftentimes when it comes to repentance and confession, we focus just on our actions.

- We don’t go down to repent of the root, we just repent of the fruit.

- “I admit that I did this.” “I’m sorry for doing that.” “I repent that I got caught with this.” (and I’ll try better to not get caught next time)

- But confession and repentance can’t just be about our behaviours, they also have to be about our beliefs.

- They have to go down to the roots underneath the surface. The roots that are motivating, influencing, and producing our behaviours.

- Repentance, when done properly (when done in a Gospel fluent way) isn’t just behaviour modification, it is turning away from false beliefs to instead believe the Truth of Jesus.

- The problem, when we are experiencing fruit in our lives that doesn’t look anything like the fruit of the Spirit, so often we just tell people (or tell ourselves) that we need to stop doing one thing and start doing another thing.

- We try to fix the root of our problem with behaviour modification rather than true repentance.

- We try to put some sugar on the rotten fruit, rather than rip up the rotten roots at the core.

- But repentance isn’t a change of behaviour. It’s a change of belief.

- Think about this example we’ve just gone through here.

- The answer to give to an anxious parent isn’t “Stop worrying about it and just be happier!”

- The answer is “Pay attention to why you are worrying, and what that says about what you believe about yourself and about God.”

- Then, once that can be understood and articulated, it can be dealt with more completely and fully, in a way that “just stop worrying and be happier” can never do.

- And so, after we’ve gone “Fruit to Root”, and when we are faced with a repentance moment of “I don’t want to believe these false truths anymore, I don’t want to continue trusting in things that I know are lies”.

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- Then, we need to work the process back, going from “Root to Fruit” to replace the root, and watch the fruit change as a result.

- So we come back to our first question.

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- “Who is God?”

- What do we know to be true about God?

- We are invited to confess – not confess our unbelief, but confess with our mouths our belief in who we know God to be (based on how He’s revealed Himself through His Word).

- So, the fruit of our lives may be showing that God feels unloving, distant, and powerless.

- But the message of Jesus is actually the opposite.

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- The Gospel message has the boldness to proclaim (in spite of what we are going through) that God is in fact loving.

- God is present.

- God is powerful (and God is in control).

- Then we move back up the tree to our second question.

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- What has God done?

- Specifically, how do we know these things about God?

- Why do we believe that He is loving, present, and powerful?

- For some followers of Jesus, we struggle with Gospel fluency because we think about the Gospel in far too broad and general ways.

- And we can’t get specific

- So maybe we want to encourage someone else and we say to them “Don’t worry, God loves you!”

- But how do we actually know that?

- You see, Christianity is unique in that we don’t just claim to have the “right answers” about what God is like, but we actually have the “right Person” who perfectly displayed what God is like.

- Jesus said “if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9)

- Paul wrote that “In Jesus lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” (Colossians 2:9)

- Jesus is more than just the “right answer”, He is the right person.

- So, how do we know that God is loving, present, and powerful?

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- Because Jesus died for my sins and rose to conquer death, and He fills me with His Spirit so that I can live for Him and He can live through me.

- The time in history where it looked like God was most out of control (as the creation murdered their Creator and it looked like the enemy had won), God was actually completely in control.

- Paul says it this way.

- Romans 5:8

o But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

- So now, let’s go a little further up the tree.

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- Question 3 “Who am I?”

- So, in light of all of that, because of everything we’ve just confessed about what we believe and what God has done that gives us reason to believe it, then who are we as a result?

- Who are we in Jesus?

- Maybe that worried, anxious parent (or whatever our situation) might come to say something like:

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- I am loved.

- I am more than a conqueror.

- I am with God and He is with me.

- I am not alone.

- So then, we reach the top of the tree, we reach the fruit.

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- How do we live as a result of who we are in Jesus?

- How are we feeling now?

- What kind of fruit are we experiencing right now as we think about this?

- And again, this process isn’t always quick and easy, so it might not happen in a single sitting or a quick lunchtime conversation.

- But, when done correctly, when we go fruit to root, to repentance and confession, and then back up from root to fruit.

- When that is done, then maybe this question of “How do I live now? What do I feel now?” might be answered with something that sounds like this:

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- Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

- And so, as we consider this, and maybe you even begin to think about a specific issue, area, struggle, temptation, or fruit that you aren’t happy with.

- I want us to pause at this moment and turn to communion together.

- Because all of this is possible, bad roots can be uprooted and replaced with good ones, because of Jesus.

- Because He lived the perfect life.

- Because He died in our place.

- Because He rose again to forever conquer sin and death.

- We are able to ask Him to help us with this process.

- We are able to come (for the first time, for the hundredth time), and say “I am not happy with how my life is going.”

- “Please help me.”

- And He will.

- And communion is where we take some time to remember that His body (broken for us) and His blood (shed for us) is what makes us right with God.

- If we had the best week ever, we didn’t make ourselves right with God.

- If we had the worst week ever, we didn’t lose our right standing with God.

- Jesus does that.

- He has done that.

- He is still doing that.

- He will keep doing that.

- So that we can come before God, and experience the roots of freedom (and the fruit of the Spirit) that only He can give.

- ***Take communion

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- And so consider this process, how we start by realizing there is a fruit of our lives that isn’t what God wants for us.

- We trace that back to the root.

- We come to a place of repentance.

- And then we replace the bad root with the good root Truth of Jesus.

- And we allow that root to grow good fruit in our lives.

- This works with any fruit we are learning to recognize in our lives.

- This works with any thought that we have taken captive (as we talked about last week).

- This works with anything that someone we care about is going through when they are open to wanting to replace the bad roots with good roots.

- I encourage you, this week, take this process and work through it in an area or issue you are facing.

- We need to pay close attention to the fruit of our lives, and trace them back to their roots.

- However, even with all of this said, we need to also understand that this isn’t a self-help project.

- This isn’t something that we do on our own, this isn’t something where the pressure is all on us to get this done.

- This is done through the power, authority, and filling of God’s Holy Spirit.

- This is what Paul writes in the words we read earlier this morning.

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- “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.”

- He grows His fruit within us.

- He reveals areas of sin and unbelief.

- He lives within us, and He lives through us.

- But we can be absolutely certain, that if we are not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit, then the roots of our faith are in the wrong place, and we need to figure out where we’ve gone wrong, and allow God to make things right and bring us to true belief in who He actually is and what He’s actually done.

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- And so, this week, is there someone you can practice this with?

- Is there someone you can help believe truth – to help replace some bad roots?

- And furthermore, is there someone who can help you?

- Repent, believe, and experience the fruit of the Spirit.

- Because when we experience this ourselves, and when we help others experience this, it will change us.

- And, the more the Gospel changes us, the more we will want to talk about it.

- And, the more we talk about it, the more fluent we will become.

- Close in prayer

- (*) Now What?

- Benediction:

- John 15:5,7-8

o Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

o But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

Scripture:

- John 15:1-17

- Luke 6:43-49

- Galatians 5:13-26

- Romans 5:3-11

Pray:

- Pray for God to help make you more aware of the “fruit” that is being produced in your life. Pray for a soft heart and the ability to slow down and truly examine your particular fruit to be able to trace it back to its root.

- Pray that your life would produce the fruit of the Spirit as God continually fills (and overflows) you with His Holy Spirit. Take time to name the fruit you want God to grow in your life (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).

Discussion:

- Do you agree that the fruit of your life “reveals” the roots of your faith? Why or why not? What do you think about the idea that someone could observe how you live, and determine where you are putting the weight of your life?

- How easy or difficult do you find it to experience the fruit of the Spirit (in the Galatians 5 passage above)? What does that tell you about the current state of your walk with Jesus?

- The Holy Spirit will “produce” His fruit in our lives. Are you in the habit of asking Him for help in the everyday stuff of life? Why or why not? What might you be able to do today to be a little more dependent on Him?

- How might you be able to help someone uproot a bad root in their life and replace it with the Truth of Jesus? How might you be able to allow someone to help you do the same?

Now What Next Step:

- This week, go through the “Fruit to Root” and “Root to Fruit” process.

- Consider a fruit of your life, one that isn’t what you want, and walk through these questions:

- 1) Who is God?

- 2) What has God done?

- 3) Who am I?

- 4) How do I live?

- You may find it helpful to write things down as you go through this personally. You may also find it helpful to speak out loud (even if it’s just to yourself). If you find it particularly difficult, you may want someone to help you navigate these questions to get down to the root.

- After you are done, get together with someone you trust and talk about the process and how it went.