Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning!

Well it’s good to be back with you after our week of travels… to Chicago… We got to attend the EFCA One conference…

Which was by the way was the best attended conference so far.... with over 1500 in attendance…

We got to see some of our missionaries Sharleen Ortland, Mark Halstrom…go to visit with some of our local pastors and make new friends.

What is great about attending One Conference is that it is reminder that we are part of something bigger than the local church…and added support and resources…

The Free Church is a disciple making movement... Who believe that it’s the Churches mission to multiply Disciples…and we can all collaborate together in order to do this more effectively...

Pam and I attended Discipleship learning Track for a few days… Then on the last day....

I got to do a guided/learning tour of the Compass Churches and its three satellite campuses .…Spent

time with their leadership team...It was great learning experience...

We have come back pumped up with…lots to think about and unpack in the coming months.

Well this morning..

I’m exited about this new Series entitled, 9 flavors 1 fruit…Sound like some sort of Smoothie right!

But what we are talking bout is the Fruit of the Spirit…Galatians 5:22-23…

The subject of Fruitfulness was a major focus in the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus uses the word Fruit about 40 times in His teachings… He made it clear that our spiritual identity is determined not so much by our words but rather through our actions… Faith and Fruit should never part company…they always go together..

Jesus taught that Fruitfulness is the Proof of Faith…

Jesus said in John 15:8

Jesus also said..

Fruit is really one of the only Signs that we have that someone is in a vital ....LIFE giving relationship with Jesus CHRIST … You might have great Speaker, visionary, prophets, even miracle workers…but without the Fruit of the Spirit its all nothing… there is no proof of genuine faith..

Fruit is the evidence that true transformation has taken place in a believers life...

Fruit is one of the ways we will can distinguish between true and false teachers..

Fruitfulness always brings Glory to God.

When we heading out for our trip to Chicago we stopped at the fruit stand just outside of Gridley...

The owner of this stand was on his game… He was slicing and dicing and giving out samples… He was cutting up pears, peaches, watermelon and handing out walnuts… Who doesn’t love free samples…

This is a great time of the year to be buying fruit...…fruit just bursting with juice and flavor…

We enjoyed the fruit so much that on the way back we made another stop and picked up more fruit.

There is something attractional about Good Fruit...

-- it doesn’t take much motivation for return visits…

On the other hand we have all gone to the grocery store and brought fruit home and have been disappointed ---What it promised was underwhelming… because it was tasteless and lacking in flavor…

Now, from the outside the fruit from the Fruit Stand and the fruit from the Grocery Store both looked exactly the same…But the difference was the Flavor…

Here is the thing is that everyone bears fruit…THEY are either fruit of the flesh or fruit of the Spirit…

Jesus tells us we will know the difference through inspecting the Fruit...…

Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 5:13 that they are the the salt of the earth..

The message bible paraphrases it like this..

The ESV says, “You are the salt of the earth”

The message says,.“Let

me tell you why you are here!

How many of us have wrestled with the question of our purpose in the is life?

Why am I here?What is the point?

That is the big question of the meaning or life…

Well Jesus answer to that question!!

“You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”

The reason you are here is that you are seasoning — you are the spice — Seasoning is all about the flavor…

Seasoning is not the main attraction on the dish…but it makes what on your plate more appealing…

This has a wide range of application..

What is my purpose in my marriage?

My purpose is to be the seasoning that brings out God flavors in the Relationship…

What is my purpose as a Parent?

Seasoning that brings about God’s flavor into our Home..

My purpose in the work place…is that I brings out God’s flavors to those whom my life intersects.

Not only Does Salt brings out God’s Flavor --- It also changes the conditions of the Soil.

The purpose of salt in ancient agriculture was to make barren soil easier to TIL ..and also facilitated the absorption of vital nutrients to enhance its fertilizing capacity…

Salt prepares the ground to receive the seed

.In the parable of the Sower (matt 13) .... Jesus spoke about different soil.

There was The pathway — hard ground --- The stoney Ground… the thorny ground --- and the good Ground.. Different soils had different response to the Word of God… seed could only take root in the good ground…

When Jesus calls us the Salt of the Earth… It is reminder that we are sometimes called to the hard Soil… because salts going to breakdown the properties in the soil..

There are places in our world that are dead, barren, or rotting because Christians are not there.

God called us to Fruitfulness so that we have great impact… Our concern should not be where we are called but our Saltiness… if we loose our flavor

What good are we if we loose our saltiness…we go from being God’s saving agents… materials that are only good to be used for footpaths..

T/S What are the Markers of a Fruitful life?

1. Fruitfulness begins With Good Character.

One the famous sermons that Jesus preached is the sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5 --- There is another account of that sermon found in Luke 6 — Which is called the Sermon on the plains… they are very similar sermons and have few difference…

Luke tells us that a crowd had gathered around Jesus — Jesus had been in prayer and comes down stood with his disciples and spoke to the multitude on a level place.-

People travelled from Judea and Jerusalem… then there were Gentiles that came from the far north of the Mediterranean sea…many of them just seeking a miracle...

When you consider this audience?

What Subject would Jesus choose to preach on?

Jesus Preaches on the Character of a Disciple....

Jesus taught the beatitudes.. these are eight qualities that marked the follows of Jesus..Jesus teaches on how to deal with Conflict - loving your enemies and praying for those who abuse you.

He talks about Judging others… and forgiveness… before taking the speck out of your brothers eye first remove the plank out of your own eye.

Then Jesus deals with Character of his disciples

Sometimes the teaching of Jesus is so simple that we miss how profound his words are.

Jesus turns to the fruit tree --- to give us a lesson on character

This illustration is so simple: You don’t get oranges from apple trees.

Fruit always bears according to its kind.

You don’t go to a fig tree and expect grapes…

So why would we expect anything different of human character?

We hear something like this and it makes total logical sense...--- but in practice it becomes a little more muddled… let me explain..

If you were to ask people today if they believed that people were basically good or basically evil?

Well majority of us would answer that basically people are good…even though people sin and that there is wickedness and evil in our world.. nobody is perfect.... but basically at the core of man there is goodness…

The Philosopher Socrates taught this same sort of thing - that the idea of evil was simply a matter of ignorance and with greater knowledge would come goodness and the end of Evil… sin is a mater of making mistakes that we don’t know better.

Jesus taught the exact opposite...

A healthy tree can not produce bad fruit, and likewise, a unhealthy tree can’t produce good fruit.

RC Sproul talks about this phenomenon called Statistical morality… that often determines what is right and wrong in society… Sproul tells us..

In our culture we often define good and evil by statistical analysis of behavioral pattern of people… We are easily swayed by the majority… If 100 people say something is good and 5 people disagree we will go with the majority....

Statistical morality says that..

If hundred people are practicing a certain thing — then the statistical evidence persuades us that this is normal, it is human, if it is human, it is good..

So good is determined by what we considered Normal..

Jesus taught quite the opposite when it comes to truth… You got to back to the source of truth — go back to the tree… If the tree is bad the fruit is going to be rotten…

Jesus taught the our Character Matters..

Jesus was concerned about the moral influence that would be exercised by those who chose to follow him.

He knew that their real authority and magnetism would depend on the kind of people they were.

The message and life of a good person will eventually come to the surface, and the same is true of bad things emerging from an evil person.

You can fool people for a while but not over the long haul, and you can never hide what you are from God.

Jesus proclaimed a profound truth:

‘The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth what is evil.’

The contents of a persons heart /character is revealed through our speech..

Often, we will find out what we are made of by what comes out of our mouths in both good and bad circumstances

A little boy went over to a pastor's house, where the pastor was doing some carpentry in his garage.

The boy simply stood there and watched him for quite a long time.

The preacher wondered why this boy was watching him and was finally so curious that he stopped and said, "Son, are you trying to pick up some pointers on how to build something?"