Facing Up

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.

--Elvis Presley

INTRO - In our first visit to the fig tree we recall that the tree just appeared to be healthy.

However, we learned that the tree was just pretending to be a fruit bearing tree.

Last week we discussed Jesus’ cleansing at the Temple.

Today we continue with the second half of the lesson of the fruitless fig tree.

We will see how the fruitlessness of the fig tree angers God.

TRANS - Let’s sit in with the disciples and learn from Jesus a most important lesson about faith. Let’s anticipate Jesus urging us to understand what God says about the true faith He expects from professed believer. And, let’s seek to do everything we must to conduct our lives differently from people who only pretend to be Christians but fail to produce fruit.

What does it say?

Mark 11:20–24 ESV

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

What does it mean?

Facing Truth of God

What does the withered fig tree likely represent?

The teaching is obvious.

The practiced system of religion was full of leaves, yet offered no fruit.

The system “looked” good because people tithed, prayed, and fasted.

They practiced purity keeping out lepers, the blind, and demon possessed.

Just as the fruitless tree offered Jesus nothing to satisfy his appetite, the religious system did not satisfy the people’s spiritual need.

Facing the truth is not always such an easy thing, yet:

The truth will set you free:

free to confess

free to change

free to be challenged

ILL - Do you know that most churches think they are doing the right thing yet most churches are dying?

Here’s one thing I do know, most churches say they are friendly.

However, according to Gary McIntosh’s research, 97% of church visitors say they don’t feel welcomed!

FBCM might ask, “What have we studied, books we’ve read, internet blogs we visit, or how many of our visitors that never came back have changed how we treat them?”

The religious leaders thought they were right!

Yet, they were failing to reach the nations, to bear fruit.

I believe there are strong correlations between practicing “pretend” religion and churches that are more like country clubs of close members then a flock of sheep following a shepherd.

“Truly I say to you” is a way of stressing the importance of what Jesus is about to say.

“says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,”

Jesus was standing on the Mt. of Olives where, on a clear day, you can see the Dead Sea; perhaps he was making a reference?

Jesus is uses the mountain to represent a great difficuulty.

Jesus says that our biggest problems can be taken away when we have faith.

But, we must be without doubt; we must believe.

James 1:6 ESV

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

ILL - Both Jennifer and I prayed God would help us find the right person. Later, after getting to know one another, we discussed how we prayed for God to lead us to the right person. We discovered that we both started praying the same thing at the same time! In some way, for us, it seems God was there all along waiting to put us together.

We were given the opportunity to respond to God’s answer to our prayers. Because we did, today we have a great marriage.

Today we celebrate how God answered our prayers and led us to His best match for each of us.

Man says, “Seeing is believing.” God says, “Believing is seeing.”

It’s Father’s Day today and I’m so blessed to have my Dad. At one time we were close to thinking we might loose Dad. However, that wasn’t what my Dad was thinking. As a matter of fact, he was telling people how he was gonna be around for a while. Even more, he was praying for another fellow who was about to get an operation. Dad’s faith was, and continues to be, a strong example of the sort of faith Jesus teaches he wants from believers.

But what if we said, “No, I have a better plan?”

Crazy, stupid, and yet we do it so often?

Our plan can assume several faces, for example:

Don’t worry, yep still do that.

Use my power to share faith, nope too afraid.

Use your gift, what gift?

Here, doing it their way, is happening with the religious leaders.

They spoke to God and God answered.

Then, they went on to do things they way they thought was right.

What is more, they continued even when given the chance to change.

Faith is the person stepping out into the unknown, obeying God’s commands.

Church people must start learning what they need to do and stop doing what they “think” is the right thing to accomplish, then we will see God take his blessing from one after another.

In our church, we’ve attend training, we know our mission, and we seriously consider everything the Bible teaches.

However, we must always remember Jesus’ teaches we can fall into the sort of trap these religious leaders found themselves.

Each of us must know and expect that Jesus is judging us our works done in faith.

Facing Transformation by God

Was “removing mountains” a cultural proverb in Jesus’ day?

We know of Jewish writings that talk of removing mountains as a virtually impossible task.

Only the most pious were able to do things considered humanly impossible.

Yet, Jesus says that nothing is too hard for the person of faith.

In the OT we have an image of God’s Spirit knocking down a mountain before the faithful anointed king.

Zechariah 4:6–7 ESV

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”

This was more than a saying.

The people heard “removing mountains” and associated it with people of great faith.

The transforming power of God continues to be a force that moves mountains.

ILL - Today we find ourselves in a nation where same-sex marriage is practice, where babies are killed for connivance, and where the very culture of Christian faith that formed and led this country for year is a source of contention rather than one of comfort.

Yet, do you know one of God’s own names tells us God is bigger than all that?

You see, El Shaddia is one of God’s names.

It literally says God Almighty or God of the Mountains.

Now, the OT usually uses mountains to notate nations.

Do you see it? God is God of the nations.

El Shaddia is sovereign over all nations, in fact over the universe!

That includes the USA and all that is happening today.

APP - So, when you pray, remember that God Almighty knows these things and ask, “What will you have me do?”

In this illustration, be a registered voter, go the polls, and write or call on our leaders to do your bidding.

Then, don’t start gossiping about them like the news media does.

Or, complain like a little child.

Get actvive in every area of life and set the sort of example Christ would have you set.

I believe that unless you are part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Unless you do something besides gossiping about national problems, you are a loud noise.

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Faith Is the Victory

A nationwide poll was taken in the United States on religious questions. When asked whether they believed in God, 95 percent of those polled answered “yes.” When asked whether religion in any way affected their politics and their business, 54 percent said “no.” They had a belief, but they did not have a directing faith. Faith is action. Faith encompasses the entire spectrum of life’s encounters and experiences.

The transformation God seeks is bigger than changes in our government.

Yet, even among Christians I hear more people upset over government than I do over lost people, immature saints, and fruitless churches.

APP - Let me ask you directly, are you troubled more often about what you see in the news or Christians who seem so little involved in making disciples?

I believe we know where Jesus would have our greater concerns.

Focused Talking to God

How do we explain unanswered prayers in light of Mark 11:24?

Note the first word, “therefore.”

It says that if v.23 is true, then v.24 must be true.

Note how the two sound similar.

Mark 11:23–24 ESV

23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

In one way, v.24 seems a bit stronger.

v.23 says “what he says will come to pass,” and

v.24 says “believe that you have recieved it”

Now, “whatever you ask” means pray, continue to pray, ask, or continue to ask.

If the promise seems almost hard to believe, please note such praying must be in harmony with true biblical praying.

According to the Bible it must be:

humble with childlike trust

from a sincere heart and mind

willingness to persevere

with a love for all concerned

and in submission to God’s sovereign will

In addition, it must be in Christ’s name meaning in harmony with everything that Jesus taught.

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 823: Breaking Wishbone Faith

BREAKING WISHBONE FAITH

Topics: Belief; Christianity; Faith; Loyalty; Support; Trust; Unbelief

References: 2 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:23, 35–39; 11

Alumni and fans made UCLA football coach Pepper Rodgers’s life miserable the year his Bruins got off to a horrible start. Nobody in Southern California would hang out with him. “My dog was my only true friend,” Rodgers said.

“I told my wife that every man needs at least two good friends. She bought me another dog.”

Rodgers is tough in the face of adversity, however. When his players at UCLA were having difficulty adapting to the wishbone offense he’d installed and the school’s alumni demanded that he adopt another system, Rodgers didn’t budge. “The wishbone is like Christianity,” he said. “If you believe in it only until something goes wrong, you didn’t believe in it in the first place.”

—“A Look at Our Legacy,” coachwyatt.com (August 29, 2003)

What do I do with this?

Jesus’ cure for fruitlessness is faith.

With faith in God, we will see Him working and using us to bear fruit.

Do you look for God to work through your life?

What would it look like if today you expect to see God at work and to expect to see Him using you all day to reach others?

Now that, puts hot sauce on my burrito!

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