Leaves, But No Fruit:God is Looking for Fruit

Scripture

Luke 13:6–9 NASB95

6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ 8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ ”

Luke 13:

You may be seated.

This text takes the form of a parable. A parable is a earthly story with a heavenly meaning or a spiritual truth. It’s like using a metaphor or an analogy. And when Jesus gives this parable, it is directed towards the Jewish nation. It echoes an Old Testament passage found in , where the prophet Isaiah writes about his Beloved, who is God, that had vineyard (the children of Israel) that he planted on a rich and fertile hill. He planted it with choice vines and cleared it of it’s stones. He placed a watch tower in the midst of the vineyard to keep watch and protect it. And because he did all of that, he expected the children of Israel to produce good grapes, but he got wild grapes.

Some of you parents been there before. You tried to raise your child in a decent neighborhood. You made sure they went to church and Bible study. You protected them from hanging out with certain friends. You sent them to good schools. You did everything in your power in order for your child to come out good so you expected a good child, but you got a wild one. Anybody been there before?

So this parable found in our text this morning serves as somewhat of a indictment on the Jewish nation because they have the law and they hold to a lot of religious practices and they have a lot of nice Annual Days on the calendar, but they’re not producing fruit. They are unrepentant and unfaithful.

And so even though this parable was directed towards the Jewish nation, I believe it has something to say to us as individuals and us as a church.

And so I want us to read the parable two times, but in very specific ways. In our first re-reading of, I want you substitute the man in the story for God, make the vinedresser, keeper, vineyard-keeper, gardener (depending on your translation)…make that Jesus, and substitute the fig tree with your name.

vinedresser, keeper, vineyard-keeper, gardener

It would read like this:

6 And He began telling this parable: “God had Brandon who had been planted in South Central Los Angeles; and God came looking for fruit on Brandon and did not find any. 7 “And God said to Jesus, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on Brandon without finding any. Cut him down! Why does Brandon even use up the ground?’ 8 “And Jesus answered and said to God, ‘Let Brandon alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around him and put in fertilizer; 9 and if Brandon bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut him down.’ ”

Now that we have read it in a personal way, let’s read corporately. So instead of substituting fig tree with your name, now substitute with Park Windsor.

It would read like this:

6 And He began telling this parable: “God had Park Windsor who had been planted on 108th and Manhattan Place; and God came looking for fruit on Park Windsor and did not find any. 7 “And God said to Jesus, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on Park Windsor without finding any. Cut it down! Why does Park Windsor even use up the ground?’ 8 “And Jesus answered and said to God, ‘Let Park Windsor alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if Park Windsor bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ ”

skapto - to turnover

Introduction

Today, I want to talk to you on the subject, “Leaves, But No Fruit.” With a subtitle “You Were Planted to Produce Fruit”

I want you to imagine if you were planting some type of fruit tree. You have paid for a gardener to upkeep it. Your water bill has increased because of watering it. You researched the proper placement so that it may grow well. You spent time and energy trying to grow this fruit tree, but when it came time to collect, you found leaves, but no fruit. So then you thought to yourself “Well maybe the tree has not grown enough yet to produce fruit. So I’ll give the tree another year.” So you give the tree another year of paying the gardener. Another year of water bill payments. Another year of your time and energy. But when that year was up and it came time to collect, again you found leaves, but no fruit. So again you thought to yourself “Well maybe the tree still has not grown enough yet to produce fruit. So I’ll give the tree another year.” So you give the tree another year of paying the gardener. Another year of water bill payments. Another year of your time and energy. But when that third year was up and it came time to collect, again you found leaves, but no fruit.

In our text Jesus tells a parable. A parable is a earthly story with a heavenly meaning or a spiritual truth. The parable is about a man who has a fig tree in his vineyard that a gardener watches over. For three years, the man continually goes to the fig tree looking for fruit, but every time he went, he found leaves, but no fruit. So rightfully so, the man gets frustrated with the fruitless tree that he eventually tells his gardener to cut it down. But then the gardener tells the man to give him one more year to dig around it and put in fertilizer. And if at the end of that year the fig tree produces fruit then let it alone, but if it doesn’t, cut it down..

Let’s call the man God, the fig tree us, and the gardener/vineyard-keeper Jesus. It would then read like this....

I want you to imagine if you were planting some type of fruit tree. You have paid for a gardener to upkeep it. Your water bill has increased because of watering it. You researched the proper placement so that it may grow well. You spent time and energy trying to grow this fruit tree, but when it came time to collect, you found leaves, but no fruit. So then you thought to yourself “Well maybe the tree has not grown enough yet to produce fruit. So I’ll give the tree another year.” So you give the tree another year of paying the gardener. Another year of water bill payments. Another year of your time and energy. But when that year was up and it came time to collect, again you found leaves, but no fruit. So again you thought to yourself “Well maybe the tree still has not grown enough yet to produce fruit. So I’ll give the tree another year.” So you give the tree another year of paying the gardener. Another year of water bill payments. Another year of your time and energy. But when that third year was up and it came time to collect, again you found leaves, but no fruit.

I’m sure you could appreciate how beautiful the tree still looks with how many green leaves that are on it, but I don’t know about you, but like God, I would be frustrated and disappointed. Not because you have anything against leaves, but because when I planted the tree, I did not plant it just so that it can look leafy and pretty and take up space, but I planted to produce fruit. I had plans to make some fruit pies, and some fruit cakes, and some fruit turnovers, and some peach cobblers and some banana pudding. I had plans for the fruit that tree was supposed to have produced. But each year when you went to go collect, I found leaves, but no fruit.

And what I’m trying to say to you is that God has plans for the fruit that is suppose to come out of your life and out of this church. So when God planted you in Compton, or in Inglewood, or in LA, or in whatever city you live in. …When God planted this church on 108th and Manhattan Place he did not plant you or us just so that we pretty and leafy and take up space, but he planted us to produce fruit.

Explaining “Leaves, But No Fruit”

I have entitled this message “Leaves, But No Fruit” because that’s exactly what you would see on a fruit tree with no fruit.

To illustrate, I have brought a leaf and a fruit.

Leaves

I am not an agriculturalist, but I have done some research. And I found that fruit trees need leaves in order to produce fruit. Leaves receive sunlight and are flat enough to catch water, and they use these things to help the tree go through a process called photosynthesis which creates the food and nourishment that the tree needs to produce fruit. In other words, the leaves operate as receiving agents for the tree. They help the tree to receive the sunlight and to receive the water, in order to produce fruit.

But it becomes problematic when a tree receives what it needs, but it’s not producing fruit. Something must be deeply and internally wrong, for a fruit tree to receive THE SUNlight and THE water and not produce any fruit.

Let me put it to this way. In order for any person or church to produce fruit, it needs leaves. In other words, it needs to receive the S-O-Nlight and the LIVING water (which is Jesus) in order to produce fruit. But something must be deeply and internally wrong for a person or a church to receive Jesus, to receive his salvation, to receive his grace, to receive his mercy, to receive his blessings, and everything you need, and not produce any fruit.

I wish I was preaching to somebody or to a church that would be bold enough to say, that today, I will no longer be just a leafy Christian or a leafy church. I would no longer sit on God’s grace. I will no longer sit on God’s mercy. I will no longer sit on my salvation. I will no longer sit on God’s blessing, but today I decided that I am going to be fruitful.

Fruit

All throughout Scripture, fruit is used as a metaphor or an analogy for what God expects and desires from his creation. In the beginning, God took dust from the ground, spat in it, formed it, breathed into it and made Adam. He then put Adam to sleep, took a rib out of him and made Eve. And in God’s infinite power, God could have just repeated the process. He could have just took some more dust from the ground, spat in it, molded it, breathed into it, made another man, put that man to sleep, take a rib out of him, make another woman, and repeat.

But when God creates, he creates his creations with the ability to be fruitful and to multiply. Even the food that God gave Adam and Eve were designed to be fruitful. God told them I have given you every seed-bearing plant for food. In other words, I have created the plants once, but I won’t have to again, because I have placed some seeds on the inside. So once you have eaten those plants, take the seeds, plant them in the ground and when the seeds receive my SONlight and they receive my Living Water, they shall bring forth fruit with more seeds. And once that fruit has passed on and those seeds are planted in the ground, and they receive my Sonlight and my Living Water, then they will bring more more fruit with more seeds. You get the point. When God creates, God creates its creations with the ability to be fruitful.

Knowing that, let’s create A measuring stick on how to test fruitfulness.

What makes this apple (in my hand) fruitful, is not how good and sweet it is in the present, but it is its ability to create future apple trees even after it’s long gone.

Likewise, what makes a person or a church fruitful, is not how good you or it looks in the present, but it is your and its ability to impact the future.

What moves are you making right now that will impact future generations long after you are gone?

Do you all know that we are fruit of a 75 year-old man who let go of his comfort, who let go of his preferences and went into a foreign country so that future generations would be blessed. I believe you all know him as Abraham. Abraham’s life was fruitful because he was bold enough to make a faith move that would impact the future. And because a 75 year old man named Abraham was willing to make moves for the future, 42 generations later we get Jesus.

And so I’m praying that God raises up some 75 year old’s in the church…I’m praying that God raises up some elderly folk with a Abraham spirit. A fruitful spirit. A spirit that says I’m not afraid to let go of my comfort. I’m not afraid to let go of my preferences. I’m not afraid to walk into foreign territory. I want to be fruitful so I want to make some faith moves that will impact the future. if you want to be fruitful say “AMEN.”

Okay, so Brandon you have encouraged me by letting me know that God has plans for my fruit. Then you pushed me to not be comfortable with being a leafy Christian and a leafy church, where I am just receiving Jesus and his grace, but not producing fruit, to now embrace the idea of being fruitful. Then you talked about the measure of fruitfulness and how what makes fruit fruitful is not what it looks like in the present, but its ability to impact the future.

What does t mean to be fruitful

But HOW do you become fruitful so I won’t be like the fig tree in the parable that is cut down? That’s a good question, and I believe this parable can give us insight to three ways a person and a church can become fruitful but before we do that I want to invite you to think about what it means to be cut down in God’s vineyard.

Depending on what you believe will determine how you read it. Cut down could mean you no longer get to go to Heaven, it could means spiritual death, it could mean you just lose some joy and some peace or it could mean you lose some rewards that you would have gotten had you been fruitful. But no matter what you believe, I’m sure we can all agree that being cut down in God’s vineyard is not a good thing. So whatever it means, how do we stop that?

Allow God to Define Who You Are

The parable tells us that God has a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. So we see two things here: The type of tree has been defined (it’s a fig tree) and the location of the tree has been defined (it’s been planted in God’s vineyard).

And it’s difficult to produce fruit if you do not know who you are and whose you are? You are a fruit tree that has been planted in God’s vineyard for his purposes. In other words, you are God’s property, you are his beautiful creation, you are his masterpiece, his workmanship, and his handiwork created in Christ to do good works. That is who you are.

But sadly, many people will spend most of their lives wasting unnecessary time, energy and money trying to find who they are outside of God’s vineyard. But when you give your life to Jesus, and you come to church regularly, and you read your Bible, and go to Sunday School, and you go to Bible study, and you join a small group, the more you begin to understand that you are a fruit tree that has been planted in the vineyard of God for his purposes.

If you want to produce fruit, you must allow God to define who you are.

Live With a Sense of Urgency

Urgency

The parable gives us a picture of a man that goes to his fig tree for three years and finds no fruit. So the question is “What in the world is taking the fig tree so long to produce fruit?” What’s taking you or me so long to produce fruit? What’s taking the church so long to produce fruit?

Could it be that there is a lack of urgency?

In chapter 12, the previous chapter of our text, Jesus tells his disciples to stay ready and to be dressed for his second coming because no man knows the day nor the hour when the son of man is coming back. In other words, live with a sense of urgency.

Urgency is not to be confused with hastiness. Hastiness is to move quickly without God. While urgency is to move quickly with God. Hastiness is moving without knowing what God wants you to do. Urgency is moving because you know what God wants you to do.

And there is nothing more dangerous than a person or a church that knows what it should be doing, but drags it feet doing it.

(Excited) There is nothing more dangerous than a person or a church that knows they need to be more loving, that knows that it needs to be more unified, but drags its feet.

And it’s dangerous because people are watching and future generations are depending on you and this church to produce fruit.

But I do have some good news, when we find ourselves in a season where we are not producing fruit, even though we deserve to be cut down, we have a gardener named Jesus that comes in and says just give me one more year. Give me one more year to work on Brandon. Give me one more year to work on the church. Give me one more year to help them to become more unified. Give me one more year to make them more loving.

And I don’t know about you, but when I have been unfruitful, I thank God for more year. I deserve to be cut down, but thank you Jesus for more year.

But watch what he says. He says after the year is up, IF there is fruit, IF there is love, IF there is unity, IF it produces fruit, then leave it alone. But if there is no fruit, cut it down. This tells us that grace has an expiration date. The one year represents life, but the problem is that I don’t know when Jesus is coming back or when I die or when you are going to die so I can’t tell you when grace expires, but it will.

But let’s say grace was one year from now. If you knew you had one year to become the type of person that God has created you to be and for us to become the type of church that God wants us to be, I’m sure there would be a sense of urgency.

But it is that same urgency that Jesus demands of us individually and corporately when it comes to producing fruit.

Embrace the Time of Digging and Stinky Manure

Fertilizer and Manure

Lastly, if you are going to produce fruit, then you must embrace the seasons of digging and stinky manure.

Thankful that Jesus said give me one more year

All throughout Scripture, fruit is used as a metaphor to explain very deep spiritual truths.

Lastly, if you are going to produce fruit, then you must embrace the seasons of digging and stinky manure.

Our gardener Jesus says give me one more year, not just so the fig tree can have more time, but give me one more year to dig around it and put manure on it.

Outline of Luke and where the parable falls.

Dig

That word “dig” comes from the Greek word “skapto.” Skapto means to turnover.

Pharisees and Jewish leaders.

You see over time, the soil would become so hard that it would be difficult for fresh air and fresh water to penetrate deeply into the soil. So the gardener has to come to skapto or to turnover the soil.

what the scripture is sandwiched between

Likewise, as we go through life, over time, the soil of our hearts become hardened by our bad experiences, our concerns, our worries, our anxieties, the things that keep us up at night. So when we come to church, we walk out the same way we came in because God’s fresh air and living water cannot deeply penetrate our hardened hearts.

So if you want to produce fruit, you have to allow Jesus to skapto, to turnover, to dig into the dark places of your life. He wants you to invite him into your anxiety about the future, the resentment you have about your absentee father, and the bitterness caused by a hurtful past. If you want to be fruitful you have to allow Jesus to dig.

Likewise, Park Windsor is getting ready to turn 108 years old. And though that is a beautiful thing, that also means that it will have had 108 years of developing systems and laws, both culturally and written. It will have had 108 years to develop a certain mindset and way of doing things. It will have had 108 years of both good and bad experiences. It will have had 108 years of business meetings and voting. Park Windsor is very structured, which is a good thing, but it also makes us more prone to hard soil where God’s fresh air and Living water can penetrate. Our greatest strength can become our greatest weakness.

And if we want to produce fruit for the next generation, we have to allow the gardener Jesus to skapto, to turnover, to dig into the places that may have become hardened. We have to allow Jesus to turnover ministries, to turnover choirs, to turnover the bylaws, to turnover leadership so that God can breathe fresh air and pour in Living Water.

Manure

If you want to be fruitful you must:

Know Who You Are

Live With a Sense of Urgency

Embrace the Season of Digging and Stinky Manure

Adam and Eve, used fig leaves to cover up as soon as sinned.

Not only must we embrace the digging, but we must embrace the stinky manure. Manure is basically made up of dung. And I don’t know about you and your nose, but I do not like the smell of dung. I’m repelled by it and I don’t want to be around it. Manure stinks... yet so many people use it to help their gardens grow. Why? Because no matter how stinky manure is, the benefits outweigh the smell.

Not only must we embrace the digging, but we must embrace the stinky manure. Manure is basically made up of dung. And I don’t know about you and your nose, but I do not like the smell of dung. I’m repelled by it and I don’t want to be around it. Manure stinks... yet so many people use it to help their gardens grow. Why? Because no matter how stinky manure is, the benefits outweigh the smell.

Sometimes God gives us what we need in smelly packages.

Sometimes God will send a spouse or a close friend to tell you about yourself and how prideful you are and how you got a bad attitude and how you rub people the wrong way. Sometimes God will give a preacher a message just for you when you may not want to hear it.

That’s fertilizer, it may come off smelly, but you need it. And you got two options, either you are going repel the message and resist it or you are going embrace the message and allow it to change you.

If you want to be fruitful you must:

Know Who You Are

Live With a Sense of Urgency

Embrace the Season of Digging and Stinky Manure

season of digging and stinky manure. You need somebody to et on your nerves in order to produce temperance.

2) Embrace the season of digging and stinky manure. You need somebody to et on your nerves in order to produce temperance.

3)Live with a sense of urgency - Don’t abuse God’s grace.

3)

Why wouldn’t the digging and fertilizer work

skapto - to turnover

God did not bless you with another day just so that you can do what you have been doing. And God did bless Park Windsor with almost 108 years just so that we can do what we been doing. But God blessed with another year to be fruitful