Discerning the Trees

*Discerning the Trees By Pastor Rich Miller July 25, 2020 Intro: As I prayed and prepared for this message, I felt lead by the Spirit to speak on being careful who you walk with and more specifically who you allow to pour into you. You see we are living in an age of constant noise and chatter. And while it is a good thing that because of technology anyone can express their thoughts and ideas to the world in an instant, the downside is that it has become increasingly difficult for people to know what is actually truth and what is just someone else's opinions or agendas. In addition, due to social distancing and isolation many people are lacking the balance of what they are being presented with and the real life experience and interaction that comes from an open and diverse society working together, so they become more engrained in a set state of mind and quite frankly more easily influenced by the powers that be. For many they see this confusion and misinformation as a new concept based on our modern times and while in some cases that can be true but overall the issue of noise, chatter and conflicting information has been around throughout the history of mankind in one way or another. We can see from the beginning of the Bible in Genesis that the serpent, the devil has been trying to convince and entice mankind to not trust God but rather to do what is right in their own eyes and be their own gods instead. Unfortunately, most of the time people take the bait and fall victim to this original sin which is still as prevalent today as it has ever been even though the outcome and consequence of our rebellion does not change. There is an old saying which states is it stupidity or only plain insanity to do the same things over and over and expect a different outcome. Listen to this Pastor this today and do not take the bait but give your life to the Lord Jesus and submit to His ways and you will be richly blessed. Furthermore, those of us who are Christians also know that Jesus is in fact the rock of our salvation and the only path we are to follow as He taught us in: *John 14:6 New Living Translation 6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. And as believers we also can have confidence in the Bible as the very word of God or God's letter to His people. You see, if we desire to hear from God, then it's in the Bible. If we have a question on morality, its in the Bible. If we need an answer to the questions or issues of our day, then its in the Bible. In fact, the word of God will stand forever as we can see in: *Isaiah 40:8 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever." We also know that as believers in Christ that He then puts His Holy Spirit in us to bless, guide and empower us in our lives. *John 14:15-17 Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit 15 "If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him because it isn't looking for Him and doesn't recognize Him. But you know Him because He lives with you now and later will be in you. I am declaring to you today that Jesus Christ is the truth and by putting your faith in Him, your sins are forgiven, and heaven will be your home. Also, that His word which is the Bible has and will be there for us throughout the ages to teach us and guide our lives. Furthermore, that the Holy Spirit wants to dwell in us so that we may be healed, comforted, and empowered to have victory not only in our lives but in the lives of others. So now that these things have been established the next logical question becomes how do we as humans determine if the people or groups influencing us do line up with God's ways or if they are instead lead by the ways of man. Scripture Reference Matthew 7:15-20 New Living Translation (NLT) The Tree and Its Fruit 15 "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. *Beware of false prophets There is much wisdom to be had in this passage of Scripture and beginning in verse 15, the Lord tells us to beware of false prophets that will come disguised as harmless sheep but are really ravenous wolves. To be clear a false prophet is someone whose teaching contradicts the teaching of Jesus. We know this is true because Jesus is God, and no one can speak for God but God Himself. Today there are many so called experts on spiritual matters who will teach a false doctrine and lead many astray. Make no doubt about it this is in fact the influence of the devil and his demons in the supernatural trying influence people in the natural. *Revelation 12:7-9 New Living Translation (NLT) 7 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. 8 And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. 9 This great dragon-the ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, the one deceiving the whole world-was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Yes, there is a war in the supernatural a war which we win by our faith in Jesus Christ but that the world does not even know they are a part of. The Apostle Paul writes in *Ephesians 6:12 New Living Translation (NLT) 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. What the Bible is teaching us is that many people and systems of this world are not only separated from God by their sin and rebellion but are in fact being manipulated by forces of evil in the supernatural and do not even know it or accept it. There are many examples of false teachings but for the sake of time I will just briefly touch on a couple of them. First off there is the false teaching of science. Listen carefully, I am not anti-science because science and logic itself are good tools which the Lord allows us to use to solve problems and understand the world around us. For me personally the more I know about the complexity of biology or chemistry for example the more I am in absolute awe of the greatness and intellectually superior ways of God. But what I mean by the false teaching of science is that since the 1800s there has been a push by many in the scientific community to replace God and the observations of God's design with their own theories and calculations to remove the Lord from the equation. Others will take credit for discovering things which the Lord placed in the created world. The agenda here is clear which is for mankind to do what is right in their own eyes and rule themselves without submitting to the authority of God. This is once again the original sin from the garden which we spoke about earlier. Also, this age of science without God has been taught in our schools since I can remember and that has been a long time so that now we have entire generations of people who not only do not believe that God created life but will mock and ridicule those who do. However, an intelligent and reasonable person does not need to look far to see the glorious works of God's hands in the world around us. From a mountain view to a beautiful sunset or even the smile of a child the majesty and creative order of God's hand is all around us plain to see. In addition, the Bible teaches us about the creation of the earth, the heavens and mankind in Genesis Chapters 1. You see, even a skeptical person must admit that either there are a countless number of variables which seamlessly and perfectly come together at the exact right time from the beginning of time until this very moment or there is an intelligent divine creator who has created life to seamlessly work in harmony despite mankind's destructive tendencies. So here is my point, Jesus tells us that He is the truth and that His word is true and we can see through His life, death on the cross and resurrection from the grave that He is in fact trustworthy and true so therefore we must not allow ourselves or the next generation to be deceived but rather rejoice in the good news that Jesus loves them and created them in His own image to share His light to a lost and dying world. Another popular false doctrine today is that all religions worship the same god or that there is more than one path to heaven. This could not be further from the truth and is easily debunked because if a person takes even a very little bit of time and starts to compare the major religions of the world you will quickly see that they are not at all the same. As we discussed earlier, Jesus tells us in *John 14:6 New Living Translation 6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. That is the most direct statement that can be made to the fact that Jesus is the only path to God. Christianity is also different because we do not reach a relationship with God based on how good we are or if we made all the right choices. On the contrary we know that our salvation only comes through or faith in Jesus Christ and that this grace is a free gift of God which makes heaven attainable for all people regardless of socioeconomic class, background, race, gender or past mistakes. Romans 3:24 New Living Translation (NLT) 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. So, it is plain to see that God loves all people and wants all people to be with Him in heaven and made it so easy to do so that anyone could receive His free gift. John 3:16-17 New Living Translation (NLT) 16 "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. Amen and amen you see Christianity is not like any other teaching but is completely unique and completely true based on the love of God making a path for mankind to turn from their selfish and wicked ways to spend eternity in paradise with Him. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing So now that we have confirmed that a false prophet is someone who teaches something different than the teachings of Jesus its time to go further into the warning Jesus gives us and how we are to identify the godly and the ungodly people. The first thing that to understand is that there will be many ungodly people who will appear as sheep. What this means is that these people will seem not to present any danger whatsoever, but their true character is to be vicious like wolves. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have had people who I thought were my friends or that really cared about me only to find out either directly or indirectly that they were really trying to harm me, use me or slander my name. This is something as Christians that can be difficult to see because a core component of being Christlike is to treat other people as you would like to be treated. We also forgive people and love people and serve people sacrificially. Unfortunately, to some people who have the wrong mindset that makes us vulnerable for mistreatment. But while we do forgive people, we do not need to associate with those who mistreat us and continue to be mistreated. Instead leave the situation or ask the other people to leave or work towards change in the environment. In our present age for example, there will be those who hate us just because we are Christians. To some this may sound extreme, but it is a truth statement. Jesus Himself tells us this very thing in: John 15:18-19 The World's Hatred 18 "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Jesus is warning us so that we can be prepared. And as I stated earlier unfortunately while some people will be direct in their opposition others will be the ones which you thought were harmless which have the vicious nature. There is a saying among Pastors which is that sheep bite and I can tell you that it is absolutely true, and it will be the same for you as fellow believers. You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit Jesus has warned us about false prophets and those people in the world who wish to harm us but how do we tell who it is before we get hurt. Verse 16 provides the answer when Jesus declares that you can identify them by their fruit or the way they act. Furthermore, He explains that a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree bad fruit and that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. So, let's hear that again replacing the word tree with person and the word fruit with actions. A good person produces good actions and a bad person produces bad actions because a good person cannot produce bad actions and a bad person cannot produce good actions. Said simply and directly observe the way people act more than you observe what they say, and you will be able to tell who a good person is and who has bad intentions. I can testify that of all the people who have wronged me there were red flags and signs along the way which I ignored to avoid conflict or because I didn't want to believe the warning signs. Taking these warnings seriously and avoiding toxic people is not easy for anyone and can be exceedingly difficult for young people because social acceptance is generally more important to young people than mature adults. If even they don't always admit it to some people feeling accepted by their peers is deeply impactful to their emotional state of being and they are targets to be influenced by others to act in ways that are not their normal character just to be accepted. For me personally when I was younger, I made poor choices regarding drugs, alcohol, and sexual promiscuity in part because of negative influences around me. Then before very long I found a people group that accepted me and being the party guy became part of my personal identity. And while most of the people I was hanging around were in the same situation as myself being young and making bad choices there were always another group of older people who knew better but instead of trying to help us they joined us and bought the alcohol and sold us the drugs and worse. Looking back on it while they acted like they were our friends they were actually wicked people who were taking advantage of us to fund the party or give them rides. I am just thankful that even in those days the Lord had His hands of protection on me and saved me from that lifestyle and lead me back to His loving arms. Praise Jesus. Closing In closing today, I want to implore you to watch who you walk with. A good friend of mine always says show me your friends and I'll show you your future. The Bible teaches us in: Proverbs 13:20 New Living Translation (NLT) 20 Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. This means we need to use wisdom in our choices and associate with others that do the same. I tell my kids all the time that it is better to be alone with Jesus than to be surrounded by bad influences. 1 Corinthians 15:33 New Living Translation (NLT) 33 Don't be fooled by those who say such things, for "bad company corrupts good character." This means that your good character most of the time will not make other people change their character but rather by hanging around people with bad character your good character is likely to be corrupted. Listen to the advise of Jesus and evaluate a person by the way that they act not only by what they say and it will help to protect you from those who do not have your best interests at heart. And above all of this know that God loves you. He loves you so much that He came and suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins so that heaven can be your home. He will never leave you or forsake you and He is closer than a friend. And although there will be those false prophets and ungodly people around, the Lord has provided His Spirit, His word and the millions of people who are your family in Christ to love you and pour good things into your life. So please be careful who you let influence you and choose Jesus to have your best life now and in heaven. God loves you and so do I. Have a great day.