The title of the message is Have
Faith in God. And as usual, Mike asks what
the title is in scripture, and then he picks out his songs.
After that special, I don't even need to preach now. You said
everything I want to say. That was good, Mike. Very good. If you would, turn with me to
Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11 Before we get
going too far and I forget I had a little trouble with my computer
this morning at home Microsoft I don't know what was happening,
but I couldn't get the bulletins and Hope we get them next week
Now, here in Mark chapter 11, look down here at verse 12. Jesus
is going to curse a fig tree. It says in Mark 11 verse 12,
and on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was
hungry. Lord Jesus Christ is he. And
seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came. If happily,
he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus
answered and said unto it, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter
forever. The Lord cursed this tree because
it didn't have any fruit. Now to set this up, the Lord with his disciples had
been staying, I'm not sure how long, but they had been staying
in Bethany at night, and every morning they would get up and
they would walk to Jerusalem. And on this morning, he's walking
to Jerusalem, and they come upon this tree, a fig tree, and it's
got all of its leaves on it. And one would think, since it
was full grown, it would have leaves. Now, this tree wasn't
the only fig tree there. What they did, they started off
in Bethany, and then they would go through this little town called
Bethphagee, if I'm saying it right, on their way to Jerusalem.
From Bethany to Jerusalem, only a mile or two walk, as they did
every morning. Now Bethphagee, means the fig
tree. This area was famous for its
fig trees. This wasn't the only fig tree
there. And the next interesting thing
about this tree was that it had its leaves on. Full bloom, full
leaves, but none of the others had their leaves on. It wasn't
time for it. When a fig tree in the spring
a fig tree will start growing its leaves. It also grows its
fruit at the same time. And as this tree grows throughout
the year, the fruit grows and it ripens on the vine, on the
branch. And as these leaves grow, they
shield this fig fruit from the sun. The rest of these trees didn't
have their leaves on. This one did. This tree is making a profession
that it has fruit. But upon closer inspection, there's
no fruit. No fruit on this tree. So the
Lord curses it. Now the Lord's teaching a lesson.
to his disciples here, and that's definitely my goal here this
morning, to teach what this is about. A couple times in scripture,
we're gonna cover it today, the Lord talks about fig trees, and
then he tells us that the lesson is basically if you, when you
pray, believe that God's gonna answer your prayers. All week long, I've been scratching
my head thinking, how do these two things connect? It just doesn't
seem right. But I'd like to get into this
a little farther. Why does he have us to be fruitful? In John 15, we read, herein is
my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. Our being fruitful glorifies
God. What do you have to give God
for your salvation? All the money in the world is
His. The cows on a thousand hills are His. All we can give Him
is praise, honor Him, and glory in His name. And that's what
He wants. He gives us fruit, and then He
comes looking for that fruit. It pleases Him. Now, one of the things here that
I want to point out is what this fruit is. Turn with me to Galatians
chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Paul's writing this epistle to
the Galatians, and he gives us a little positive and negative.
He's going to give us the negative and, oh, I'm in the wrong chapter
there. Verse 19, the works of the flesh,
this is the negative, and the fruit of the spirit is the positive.
Verse 19 says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like, of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But, on the other
side, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, against
such There is no law. So the fruit that our Lord was
looking for will be the fruit of the Spirit. These nine graces
that come by the fruit of the Spirit. Now, why does God want these
things from us? Why does he require this fruit?
I got thinking on that, and I thought, you know, when you start looking
at the first love, joy, peace, stillness, he calls us his little
children, and he refers to himself as our father. And if you get
that mind frame, look at your children. I've got three children. Nothing makes me feel better
than to see them loving each other. If one of them is feeling down,
And the other one comes along and does something nice for him,
a show of love. That makes me feel good to see
my kids do that. When one of them so good happens
to them, and the others rejoice with them, that pleases me, doesn't
it? It's a father that pleases me.
And all these fruits are in the same manner as that, a father
loving his children. It pleases him to see that his
children are fruitful. How do you get this fruit? This
fruit is a gift of God. We know that faith is a gift
of God. We find that in Ephesians chapter
2. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. All nine
of these graces. It's called graces because it's
a gift. God gives these. God gives these. God gives these graces to us
and we're to have faith, have faith in God. How do you know if you have these
fruits? Well, it depends on who's doing
the planting, all right? Sometimes Satan Plants a tree
turn with me to Matthew chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13 Starting at verse 24 Here's another
parable the Lord uses a parable the weeds and Verse 24 says,
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom
of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his
field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. And
when the blade sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared
the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy hath
done this. The servants said unto him, wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, nay, lest
while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with
them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together. First, the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into
my barn. Now skip on down here to verse
37. He's gonna explain what we just
read. The Lord answered, verse 37,
and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. But the tares are the children
of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world. And the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall
it be at the end of the world. Son of man shall send forth his
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the son of the kingdom of their father, who hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Satan can plant trees with no
fruit. In God's garden. In God's garden. Look over here at Luke 13. We'll
keep it close right here. Luke chapter 13. Verses 6 through
9. All right. Here's a parable of
a barren fig tree. He spake also this parable. A
certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came
and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto
the dresser of his vineyard, behold, these three years I come
seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down. Why
come with it the ground? And he answering said unto him,
Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about
it and dung it. And if they bear fruit, what?
And if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. Now this certain
man is God the Father. And the dresser of these trees
is our Lord Jesus Christ. And God's looking for fruit,
and there is none. And he says to cut it down. But
the dresser makes an intercession on behalf of this tree. That's
our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, don't cut it down just
yet. Give me a little more time. Let me till the ground. Let me
put the fertilizer in that soil. Let me work on their heart. Let
me put the word into their hearts. Let them see me and understand
what they're doing. Open their eyes, Father. Make
them to grow. Bless them. Make them fruitful. We don't create this fruit. The
old nature that we have ain't got nothing to do with love.
He is a hateful guy. He doesn't even like himself,
but yet he loves himself. But the Lord makes intercession
for his people. And he says to his father, let
me have him a little while and let me do this. and if fruit
if they're fruitful then good that's what we wanted but if
not cut it down take the ax put it to the root and end it and
that's what the lord did back in matthew i'm sorry mark chapter
11 where we started when he cursed that tree it did not have the
fruit where do you get this fruit god now the fruit of the spirit
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. Do any of us have this by nature?
Any of those things? No. Only God gives these. And it's for God's use. It glorifies
Him. If you love someone and you pray
for them, like we prayed for our sister, We're going through
a hard time right now. God wants us to pray. He loves
to hear your prayers. When the priests in the tabernacle
would burn incense, God said it was a sweet smelling savor
to his nose. The incense is a picture of our
prayers going up to heaven. It pleases God. Do you not like
to hear from your children? Do you not like to hear from
them? God loves to hear from you. And if you're not praying,
God has some ways that are not our ways. He knows how to bring
you to your knees. He knows how to get you to call
on him. Those are hard times to go through,
but boy, we're stubborn as can be, aren't we? Just cannot get
it. We cannot just submit to God. We cannot have faith. in God,
like He tells us to, in our flesh. This has to be a gift from God. He's giving you something and
He's requiring it of you. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Have faith in God. There is no
way that you can be fruitful on your own. You cannot produce
this fruit. It's not in you. God puts it
in you. And he says, believe me. He's gonna give you faith, and
then he's gonna test your faith. He's gonna see that fruit. When
he purges those branches, that's what he's doing. He's cleansing
you. Sometimes he cleanses us with
fire. I had to think about two of my
kids. Two of them, Zeb and my daughter,
Mallory, both had lost a baby during pregnancy. And boy, I
tell you, that's something you can really lose faith in, if
you got any at all. Because if you listen to this
world, they're going to misguide you. They're going to tell you,
like Job's friends, You did something wrong to deserve this. God is sovereign. Never forget that. God decides
when he's gonna create life and when he's gonna take it. And
we bless God for that, don't we? But me and Allison, I'm saying
this is why God answered our prayers, because we prayed. But
I know she poured her heart out for our kids just like I did.
Lord, bless them with a child. And he did. He answered that
prayer. Heartbroken as we were, he answered
the prayer and we got these special little babies. We love them so
much. What a gift from God. He answers
prayer. And when you pray, know full
well, expect Him to answer these prayers. Paul tells us if you
don't get your prayer answered, it's because you prayed amiss.
You're not praying for the right things. The Jews had a problem
with that. God gave them fasting. During
fasting, you're to have to think about poor folks that are in
need. That's what fasting was. To have
compassion on your fellow man that's less off than you are. But the Jews tried to take the
fasting to get a leverage with God. They were praying for everything
under the sun. Lord, help me get the money back
from the people that owe me money. Lord, do this for me. Lord, give
me this. Give me... He's like, this is
not what that's for. You're praying amiss. Right? This isn't what you're praying
for. You pray to love others. That's a good word. Love is a
good word. Pray to rejoice with others.
Be peaceful with your brothers. I'm talking about your enemies.
We're to love our enemies as ourselves. If you see your enemy in need,
according to the word of God, you're to pray for him, you're
to love him, and you're to help him. That's being fruitful, is
it not? Believe God. Look to God only
for all of your needs. Get off a little bit there. All
right. Now we have Satan can plant these
trees that have no fruit. Sometimes preachers can plant
these trees that bear no fruit. When they get hurried to get
a profession out of someone, That's not helping anybody. Let
God, just wait on God. He'll save people. The preacher
sometimes forces a profession, and there's no fruit. And sometimes
men, by their own free will that they think they have, stand up
and try to tell you, just like that fig tree, look at me, I
got all my leaves, I'm fruitful. Look at me, I'm such a Christian.
And then you go find out they have no idea what they're saying. They have no idea who they are. God plants the tree. Turn with me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah
61. Isaiah 61 verse 3 says, to appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, that they might be called the trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Why? That he might
be glorified. Believing God, having faith in
God, glorifies God. Loving one another, loving God.
What do you love? The fact that God chose a sinner
like you. There's seven billion people
on this planet. Who knows how many have been
here since Adam? And he chose little old you? I'm less than nobody. How does
he even know my name? And yet, he saves a sinner like
me. I love that. God is love, and
he loves his children. And God plants these trees, the
fruitful trees. This is God's work, and he'll
see to it. The Lord Jesus Christ is gonna
till the ground and fertilize the soil. God sends the sunshine
and the fruit grows. And the Holy Spirit is the rain
that falls upon this fruit and helps it to be fruitful with
the Spirit. Love, joy, those nine graces
that we spoke of, the fruit and the Spirit. So then, back to Mark chapter
11, and we'll close. Mark chapter 11. Look at verse 20 now I skipped
we had the Word of the Lord cursed the tree up to verse 14 and then
verses 15 through 19 he went on into Jerusalem that day and
that's the day he overturned the money changers in the temple
and kicked them out and Now, they went back home that day.
Now look down here at verse 20. And in the morning, as they passed
by, the next day they saw this fig tree, and it was dried up
from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance,
said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree was not cursed,
it's withered away. He's amazed at just how fast
Here this tree was full grown yesterday with all of its leaves,
and today there's no leaves. The sap has dried up in it. It's
withered. How fast. And the Lord tells
him in verse 22, have faith in God. You see, all things are
possible with God. Are you praying? that God will
give you the fruits of the Spirit. Are you praying? Expect Him to
do that to you. Expect Him to give you love.
Went to Bruce Crabtree's funeral here, wife's funeral a couple
years ago. And Bruce brought the message,
and I don't know how he done it, but boy he brought a message.
And in that message he mentioned that When him and his wife were
young, I forget how old they were when they met, they prayed
that God would give him love for his wife. And that struck
me, and I thought, wow, you big dummy, I ain't never prayed for
that. I think I love her. She might doubt it sometimes. But I need that. I need God to
give me love for my own wife, for my own kids. I need God to
give me love for Him. And if I ask Him, He's telling
me right here, if you ask, you're going to get that answered. Ask
for the fruits of the Spirit. Ask. The Lord will answer your
prayer. Have faith in God. Do not have faith in yourself.
You can't do anything. God can do all things. Have faith
in God. All right, David, what's your
latest?