Facing the Reality of Fruitless Worship: Drawing Parallels from the Fig Tree Parable | Matthew 21:12-22

The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky.

We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message from Pastor Chris.

May you have your Bibles.

Would you go with me to the book of Matthew we're continuing our verse by verse journey and if you would stand for the reading of God's word, the text that I'm going to deal with, the first part of that passage Pastor Ben actually preached last week, but so I'm going to overlap him just a bit for two reasons.

Number one the passage for today, which is verses 18 through 22, that's where we're at really makes no sense without the context of the previous passage, namely verses 12 through 17.

So we're going to, in a moment, start with verse 12.

So that's one reason.

Number two the reason I'm backtracking a bit is because I sense that the Lord has given me a word for you.

I really believe that man.

I feel strongly, strongly, and this has been for the last three weeks, shared a little bit Wednesday night, but I just think the Lord's saying something to our church and you can, when I share it, you can weigh it for yourself.

So for those reasons, I'm going to overlap just a bit what Pastor Ben preached.

But here we go, matthew 21, beginning in verse 12.

The word of the Lord says this and Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it into a den of robbers.

And the blind of the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.

When the chief priest and scribe saw the wonderful things he did and the children crying out in the temple, hosanna, son of David, they were indignant and they said to him do you hear what they're saying?

And Jesus said to them yes, you have read out of the mouth of infants and nursing baby.

You have prepared pray.

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there Verse 18,.

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it, but only leave.

And he said to it may no fruit ever come from you again.

And the fig tree withered at once.

When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying how did the fig tree wither at once?

Jesus answered them.

Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree.

But even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith, the word of the Lord and you may be seated.

Well, I grew up, thankfully, in a strong Christian family.

Seven years old, I received Jesus Christ in Sunday school.

I received him as my personal Lord and Savior.

I was at the same wonderful Baptist church for 20 years in Winchester.

I sat under several knowledgeable, god fearing pastors.

I was part of a strong youth group of about 75 to 100 strong.

I learned a lot about the Bible in that time.

I served in many ways and I experienced God in many different ways.

Soon after those years at my church, I felt a call to vocational ministry and I've now been serving as a pastor for over two decades.

And while I'm grateful for all of this what the Lord's done in my life, I'm grateful that I grew up cutting my teeth on the church pews, so to speak.

Sometimes I fear that my familiarity with God, with church, with ministry, with the Bible, with singing, I feel like and I fear at times that it breeds almost a laxness in my worship.

I think sometimes I forget the weight of what it means when we personally just call out to the Lord in prayer, open the Bible.

I forget the weight and the glory and the majesty of God at times, because I'm so familiar, I've called upon him so many times, and I forget the beauty and the seriousness and the weight of what we do when we gather together every Lord's day.

You know this is the Lord's day, it's Resurrection Sunday.

I know that every day is the Lord's day, but this is the day, historically and biblically, when the church has come together to worship our great God.

Well, I assume that I'm not alone in this.

At times, numbness to worship to God, where we just kind of go through the motions.

You ever been there, those of you that grew up in church, if you ever just like we know how to just play church, don't we?

We know how to act spiritual, we know the Christian language, we can quote the verses, we know how to sing the songs and engage with lifted hands.

But you know, could it be that at times that we're singing those songs with hearts that are not right before our God, that we're singing songs and listening to preaching and praying without zeal and fervency for our great God.

Well, I think the text today can help awaken our hearts to the beauty and the glory of God, the weightiness of Sunday worship, the gift, the prayer.

So in our text, the first part that Pastor Ben talked about last week it takes place in the temple in the first century and the temple is the center point.

It is where Jewish life and worship happens.

And in the beginning of chapter one, what we find is that Jesus, the Messiah King, he rides in as Israel's King, he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey's coal, he rides in as the humble and meek savior, and the people are shouting Hosanna, oh, save us, son of David.

And it's interesting that meek and mild Jesus goes from that parade right into the temple where he starts turning over money tables and confronting the leadership.

So you have meek and mild Jesus, which a lot of people love, but then you have confronting Jesus, right, and sometimes we like one side of Jesus but we'd rather not think too much about the other side.

But to serve Jesus is to get the whole package, amen.

So to feel the weight of what Jesus is doing here, that the closest illustration I could give you is this would be like somebody asserting themselves as King in our country and walking into the White House and they just start to assume authority.

That probably would not go well for them.

It's not the first time that Jesus has encountered the chief priests and the leadership of Israel, but this, this is the apex confrontation.

This is where things come to a head.

Why does Jesus do this in the temple?

I'll tell you why.

Because it's Israel's Messiah.

He is indignant about the irreverent and heartless worship that is going on in the temple, and there are at least two issues that he addresses here, and because Pastor Ben preached on this part of the text, I'm not going to unpack every verse, but I want to point out two issues that were happening in the temple, and the first is simply this distracted, irreverent worship.

Look at verses 12 and 13.

And Jesus entered the temple and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and he said to them it is written my house should be called a house of what prayer?

But he charges the religious establishment with turning God's most holy temple into a den of robber, for your translation might say thieves.

So what's going on here?

Well, the temple.

I wish I had a picture to show you this morning.

The temple is a magnificent building, and it is split into six sections.

And the Gentiles non Jews.

They were allowed to worship God Yahweh, but they could only worship in the outer court.

Matter of fact, if they went past the outer courts, it was punishable by death, and so when Jesus turns over the money tables, he's not knocking the money changing system.

This is Passover week.

Jewish pilgrims are coming in from all over the place, and they need to buy their animals to sacrifice, and so money change.

They have all kinds of different currencies.

Money kind of exchange was absolutely necessary Because it's Passover week.

Listen, there could have been, scholars say, hundreds of thousands more Jews in Jerusalem and going in and out of the temple than normal.

Think about that.

Imagine this morning if hundreds of thousands of people started coming in and out of here.

God help us.

That'd be awesome though, wouldn't it?

Jesus is not knocking here the exchange system, the buying and selling.

Notice what he does here.

He doesn't just move out the sellers, he drives out the buyers and the sellers.

Here's what's going on.

This exchange would be happening outside of the temple.

But you know where it's at here.

It's in the temple and it's in the outer court of the Gentile.

Now imagine this morning if you come in and you're trying to worship and we have like a commerce table and people are going in and out and buying or selling.

Our bookstore might be right here.

How distracting would that be.

But you know what?

The leadership of the temple do not care.

They just do not care.

They don't care if the Gentiles can worship or not.

They've allowed worship to become distracted and irreverent.

And so I told you that I'm backtracking an overlapping Ben's message because I sense that the Lord has given me a word for our church.

And again, I shared a bit of this on Wednesday.

Could it be that we have become distracted in our worship?

Could it be that we have come become somewhat irreverent in our worship, meaning that we've become lax and we've treated God perhaps as common?

Listen what we do again, sunday after Sunday.

It's weighty.

Do you realize the gift that we are partaking in this morning?

Do you realize we're beseeching the presence of God?

This is serious business, and so I've had this conviction to be more serious and to lead our church to be more serious about what's happening here Now.

I love to joke.

If you know me, I love to joke, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I think humor is a good thing.

There's a time and place for it, and sometimes I've since the Lord telling me I've been talking to our elders about this for a long time that sometimes we joke a little too much in service, and so I've had to sell my heart for three weeks.

And then I get in here last week and I open service.

I'm doing the call and worship, I open service with a joke about spicy chicken wing and I sit down.

Don't laugh at me, shake your finger, I sit down and my heart just sinks.

I realize that I've done the opposite of what God has asked me to do.

So I've been wrestling with this and saying God, is this of you?

And then I've had in the last two weeks two confirmations.

I was at a conference with some of our leadership in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago and across from the conference center.

I've been to this conference center about three or four times and there's this beautiful historic Catholic church right across the street and I've always wondered what it looked like and I just always honestly wanted to go in and just check it out.

And so this a couple of weeks ago, I'm there and I'm walking back from lunch, I'm by myself and I walk by and I see that the church is open and the doors kind of crack.

I said I'm going in.

I'm going in, I have no idea what to expect.

And I walk in and the sanctuary is just cathedral, whatever is just unbelievable.

I mean, it's just beautiful.

Every piece of furniture is symbolic of something.

It's just very, very purposeful.

And the interesting thing is there were no signs up that I saw like do not talk, do not eat and drink, these kind of things.

But there was.

There are a few people praying throughout.

Mass wasn't going on or anything, but there was just this reverence in there.

It was so peaceful and I noticed a lot of us from this Protestant conference this was a pastor's conference were walking around, but I noticed some Catholics come in and they were going to come in and pray.

And here's what struck me as they entered the sanctuary they stopped at the back pew and, before they would go any further, they knelt down.

And I just thought I'm not suggesting that we have to kneel down when we walk in, but I thought you know what they're taking, what they're doing way more seriously than I feel like we do some.

And I was convicted.

The next thing hear me out, please.

The next thing confirmation that I received came in the form of a tweet by John Piper.

That made, by the way, national news.

Here's the question that he poses on Twitter.

Now, what is it?

X?

He asked.

And please hear me out.

I hate even mentioning this, but it's it is important.

So no judgment here, but here's the question Can we reassess whether Sunday coffee sipping in the sanctuary fit?

And he added Hebrews 12, 28, which states let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and all.

Before I say what I want to say, let me start with this I have no idea who does and who does not drink coffee.

This is not a passive, aggressive way to call you out.

Okay, this is not about coffee.

I've come up here with hot tea because my throat has been sore and I don't think it's any difference between tea and coffee.

I have a water this morning, so I'm not being legalistic saying, well, you can only have clear liquids.

It's not what this is about.

Please understand me.

Here's the point.

When I first started ministry over 20 years ago and even growing up in church those of you who have grown up in church, think 20 years back.

Would you ever have even considered bringing coffee and donuts into the sanctuary?

It was never even a thought.

It was never even a thought.

But you know what?

There's this secret, sensitive movement that came on the scene a couple of decades ago and they told us hey, times have changed and if you want to reach people, you've got to become more lax.

You got to have sanctuaries that don't look like sanctuary.

Some of them have literally cup holders in their seat.

You need to encourage people to eat and drink or you'll lose them.

I think they lost faith in the Word of God and I think many of us followed suit.

The question is should we lighten up?

Isn't this an extremely reverent time?

And here's the question Again.

I don't think it's just about coffee, but here's what Piper is posing Can we not focus on the Lord for two hours, an hour and a half, without a cup of Joe or a donut?

And here's what I started thinking about.

Here's what I feel the Lord wants to say to us.

Again, this has very little to do with coffee, by the way.

Let me just pause here.

When I first came here, the first thing you saw when you walked in door was a sign that said no food or drink in sanctuary.

I took it down immediately because I don't want the first thing you see when you walk in to be a rule.

Legalism is this it's making my extra biblical conviction somebody else's obligation.

So we are not forbidding coffee and I'm not judging you for drinking coffee.

You're welcome.

But here's the question I want you to consider.

All right, are you listening, because this is important.

I feel like this is God's word for us.

Do we approach God in worship like a king?

We don't, do we.

Let me just start with the coffee and donut thing.

If you were asked to be in a meeting not a dinner, but a meeting with a king would you twice talk and be like hang on.

I got to get a swear again like man, this donut's good.

I would shake your hand, but sticky fingers, you know, kind of thing.

Now, maybe you I'm going to give caveats in each one of these Maybe you work third shift and coffee's the only thing that's keeping you away.

I watch some of you sleep every Sunday.

I just say maybe you need to drink more coffee.

I do judge you for that.

No, let me ask you this I'm in good company, though, when Paul was preaching.

Wasn't it, paul, that somebody fell out the window, right?

Let me ask you this let's move past coffee.

Would you be late for a meeting with the king?

Now, caveat, you're a single mom and it's everything you can do to get here.

I don't care if you walk in 30 minutes late.

Come in, come in.

And, by the way, if you're hungry you haven't eaten for three days bring a sandwich in here and eat.

Just come in.

Maybe you have someone who is ill in your family and it takes them extra time to get ready and you're going to be late.

Don't feel bad, come in.

I'm not talking about exceptions.

I'm talking about the flipping attitude that people just don't care.

Matter of fact, even when they're here and you didn't do this today and I'm grateful even when you're here, sometimes we have to drag you in.

I have to have Christie or Hunter or somebody to go out and scare you to come into the sanctuary.

We've got to beg you when that clock, that countdown, stops.

You know, man, we're worshiping our great God and instead of being late walking into sanctuary, what if we were early and praying and seeking and saying oh God, do something today.

Would you ever be late for a meeting with the king?

Why are we so flipping about it?

We call this real life, real late church sometimes.

Number three would we sing songs to a king that misrepresent him?

Talk about music for a minute.

You know, music often has become more about genre and showmanship than about the words that we sing in the heart with which we sing.

Then the Bible say God wants to be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

Would you ever, you know, write a song for a king that misrepresented him?

Oh, let me sing this song about you, and it's totally off from his character in being and heart.

But here's the attitude in the contemporary church.

Words don't really matter as long as I feel something.

I came into worship practice a few years ago and two people they were rehearsing and two people it wasn't Bob, so I'm not calling him out, but two individuals were singing like a duet.

They each had a verse and man they I had never heard the song.

And man, they had their eyes closed.

And man, they were singing with all their heart, praise God.

And I started listening to the words and I thought I have no idea what this song is about.

So I thought, well, they do.

It's really moving them.

So I asked both of them.

I said, hey, what's this song about?

And they like turn, why does you know?

Why does the ghost?

And they look at one another and they go look back at me.

We have no idea, but that's.

That might be an extreme example, but that's the modern church.

We want to sing truth.

And then let me take music one step further.

Let me just say this we want to sing.

Would you ever let's say you're an aquire and you're standing before the king Singing some celebratory song.

Would you stand like this?

Well, pastor, I just can't sing.

The Bible says make a joyful noise, brothers and sisters, he's worthy of it.

Listen, bob can well, but I just imagine no, no knock to you that the worship that God has in heaven is way better than Bob's wonderful voice and magnificent guitar skills.

Why do we do this?

Because he's worthy.

Oh, fathers, let me just encourage you, step out, let your children see you sing and engage in church.

Why?

Because he's worth and we want to treat him like king.

Would we take lightly the words of a king If you were speaking with a king.

He was speaking to you.

Would you not listen intently, try to take in what he's saying?

Beloved, when we open God's word, the king is speaking to us.

It is the God-breathed word that we open.

Every week A lot of churches say listen, you don't use a lot of scripture, you're going to lose people.

Why do we preach verse by verse?

Because I believe that you need to hear the word of God more than you need to hear some motivational speech.

Now we want to give you application.

But you know what?

My heart over the last couple of months has kind of sunk because I've been in Matthew preaching about the kingdom of God.

I won't even say for how long, but it's been a long time and I've asked around different people of different age groups.

I said, hey, tell me what the kingdom of God is.

And it's a blank there.

Maybe it is that I'm a really bad teacher.

I hope that's not the case.

Maybe it is that we're distracted.

You know we read our Bibles on the phone and if you do, praise God, you're reading your Bible.

But I've had many of you say to me man, it's tempting, I just find myself on Facebook while you're preaching.

They've been honest and said that why?

Because the phone's a distraction.

Maybe bring your paper Bible.

If it's not a distraction for you, listen, use your phone.

How would you prepare for a meeting with the king, bob, you and I?

You were telling me when we were meeting about music several weeks ago.

Bob said, listen, we've got to sing at least 25, 30 minutes of music.

And I said, bob, why do you think that I didn't say that anywhere in the Bible?

He said because it takes our people what?

Three songs, at least three songs to actually start engaging.

I started thinking about that.

You know what I think it is?

I think it's that we don't hardly even think about worship until we get here, so our hearts are not prepared.

Listen, if I was going to meet with the king and I'd pick out my clothes, I'd go to bed early on the night before With church.

When we come to meet with the king, what do we do?

We stay out late Saturday night.

We don't pray and study all week, but we just show up.

And that's why Bob has to sing.

You happy.

That's why, listen, some of you, you know it's like well, I just don't feel anything at church.

Is that my fault?

Is that Bob's fault or is it your lack of preparation?

Because I'm telling you I could go to a Presbyterian church.

I did it several months ago.

It was classical style music, the pastor was monotone, but it preached the word of God and all I've met with Jesus I could go to about any gospel preaching church and if I'm prepared, if I'm prepared, god's going to touch my heart.

Would you bother showing up for a meeting with the king?

35% of our church is out on any given week.

Here's the caveat People travel, I get it.

Some of you work, you have no option, but you know we have many nurses here that have to work weekends.

There's illness, obviously, but most of the excuses I hear where were you?

Oh, I just stayed out late.

Here's the one.

That's funny.

I hear this all the time.

I had company.

Bring them or tell them hey, have a pop tart, I'm going to church, don't have pop tarts in your house.

Listen, you see my point, not about cough.

Just want you to ask today, how can I take worship, particularly corporate worship, more serious?

That's issue one.

That was the bulk of what I want to say.

Issue two not just is not just your reverent worship, but it's fruitless worship.

Look now at this very obscure passage versus 18 and 19.

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leave.

And he said to it may no fruit ever come from you again.

The fig tree withered at once.

So Jesus, disciples they're actually the next day, they're returning to the temple.

Jesus is bold to go back, but he's hungry and he spots this fig tree and it's sprouting leaves, which is a promise of fruit.

He's like oh fruit, I'm hungry, this is going to work out great.

But when he approaches the fig tree, he discovers the tree is actually barren, got the appearance of fruit, the leaves are there but no fruit.

So consequently, he just he curses the fig tree and it just withers away, never to bear fruit again.

Why is he doing this?

Let me ask you this If you're married or you have children, have you ever been hungry?

And you go to the pantry and let's say you want to bowl a cereal and you see the cereal box and you go oh man, that sounds good right now.

So you get your bowl out, you get the milk out, you get the spoon out and you go to pour the applejacks.

You go to pour the fruity pebbles and there's two pebbles in there that are microscopic.

Now Jesus may have emptied the cereal box so you're not eating fruity pebbles, but normally that's not the case.

Your kids ate the last bowl and they don't want to bother throwing the box away, breaking it down, throwing it away, so they purposely leave two little pebbles.

So if you call them out, they're like well, there were some left.

And they want to be wasteful.

And it's not just your children, ladies, your husbands do it too, don't they?

Is that frustrating?

You're hangry?

Listen, that's not what's going on here.

Jesus is not hangry, nor does he hate trees.

That's not what's happening.

Why does he curse the fig tree?

You know what he's doing.

He's using.

Somebody took her bottle.

She had a bottle and it was empty.

Who did it?

You're cursed.

Why did Jesus curse the fig tree?

He uses the fig tree to illustrate Israel.

Remember, in verse 13 he says it's written my house should be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers.

You know what Israel has done.

They followed their own plan and mission, not God's mission.

They've gone their own way.

Now, this is interesting, I'm almost done.

Listen to me real quick.

Along with the other theologians, many other theologians, greek scholar NT Wright.

Here's what he says he argues that the Greek word that we translate, robbers or thieves, isn't what we would think of when we think of robbers or thieves.

The word is actually best translated as brig and or revolutionary.

These are revolutionaries.

You made it a house of revolutionary.

These are people who want to take the kingdom by force.

Jesus didn't come to do that.

He came to give his life, not take lives.

The Jews, they're looking for a Messiah king who would overthrow Rome, save them from Rome by force.

They're not looking for someone who will save them from their sin.

Jesus did not come, I'll say it again, to take lives.

What did he do?

He came to give his life as ransom for many.

So here's what the leaves represent on the fig tree.

They represent Israel's good works.

See, they look like they have it all together, but Jesus knows they have no fruit.

How many know?

We know how to act good on the outside, but our hearts be far from God.

Their agenda, listen, it's not about God's agenda.

They have a political agenda.

That's why they don't care about impeding on the Gentiles worship.

It's about it's nationalism.

It's about Israel, and I wonder this morning how many churches across America are more concerned with some political agenda than they are about the kingdom of God.

Their aim is to bring the kingdom through violence and by force, not through self sacrifice.

The religious leaders are not about the mission of God and thus they reject the Messiah sent by God.

Numbers 14 through 16, the summary is this that Jesus heals the blind and the lame, that the religious leaders have just kind of tossed them by the wayside.

But Jesus always goes to the poor and marginalized.

And what's he do?

He heals them.

And the people are like cheering out again.

They're saying Hosanna, son of David, children are crying out.

And here's what it says.

The religious leaders you know how they respond to this.

They're indignant, they're mad that Jesus is healing people.

These are crazy, crazy people.

They're like Jesus.

Do you not hear what they're saying?

They are indignant, it's that they have rejected their Messiah.

And so then more obscurity.

Jesus says there you go.

Disciples like why did you do this?

And he says, truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only be able to do what's been done to the fig tree.

But if you say to this mountain, be taken up, thrown into the sea, it will happen.

Whatever you ask in prayer, you'll receive it if you have faith.

What's this have to do with the fig tree?

Here it is.

You might have come up on, here it is.

When they are at this fig tree, they are looking at Temple Mount, temple Mount.

And Jesus is saying if you say into this mountain, be thou removed, be cast into the sea, it will be done.

This is a prophecy about what will happen to the temple in 70 AD.

See, the religious leaders never repented.

They kept wanting to take the kingdom by violence.

You know what happened.

They picked the fight with the wrong people and they didn't have the blessing of the Lord, because it's not what God called them to do.

And they stood up against Rome.

And Rome came in and destroyed the temple, the center of Jewish life, culture, worship, and the people were scattered.

So when Jesus is cursing, the fig tree says you're no longer gonna bear fruit.

Here's what he's saying.

Israel, I came for them.

They're God's people that they have rejected me.

They've rejected God's mission.

They're going in a different direction.

They're not bearing spiritual fruit.

They've got the leaves.

They look spiritual, but I know their hearts.

They're useless to the kingdom because they're not bearing, so they're gonna wither.

They're gonna wither.

That's what happened.

So Jesus says if you pray, pray whatever.

You ask in prayer, you'll receive it.

Now, this is not just a blank chat for anything you want.

Remember what Jesus said in the temple this is supposed to be a house of prayer, but you've made it into a den of robbers or revolutionary.

Why were the?

Why was the Jewish leadership going in a different direction than God?

Because they were prayerless.

When we pray, you know what we pray, what Jesus teaches Lord, not my will, but yours, be done.

And so when you pray, when you commit to pray in a God honoring way, you're saying Lord, I'm gonna pray for your will, I'm gonna pray for your will, and when you do, when you do that in faith, it'll happen.

That's what John clarifies, this in one of his epistles.

He says if you ask anything according to his will, he shall do it.

He hears you Listen.

Here's the point, and we need to know.

This is church.

God will not allow anything, even the temple, even the most religious people.

He'll allow nothing to impede his redemptive plan.

That's it.

Nothing in that good news.

So what do we do with it?

Stand with me on a personal level.

We've already talked about the church level.

Here it is.

I'll ask are we bearing spiritual fruit?

Are you bearing spiritual fruit in your personal lives?

How much do you pray?

I think that's a great revelation of how much fruit we're bearing.

And if we're about God's will or our own, do you approach worship with reverence and all in your prayer life?

When you come in here, do you approach worship and reverence and all?

Let me ask you this does Sunday worship lead to Monday through Saturday through in good works?

Okay, just something worth thinking about.

Many people hear message like this who are religious and they think well, here's what I got to do, here's, here's what I hear, because this is every other religion.

I need to learn to bear fruit and then God will accept me.

I need to go out and do good works, then God will let me into his kingdom.

No, no, here's what Jesus says in John 15 5 I'm the vine, you're the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing, and that means nothing of eternal value.

The only way to God is to recognize this morning that you're just like the victory you're bearing.

You have nothing apart from Jesus to bring to the table and you can never bear fruit in and of yourself.

But if you'll come to Jesus this morning, you can escape the fate of the tree, because the tree was cursed and you and I, because of our sin, we are destined to die, never to live again.

We are, we are under the curse, but how many know that Jesus died and rose again to reverse the curse, hallelujah?

So that he took the curse of sin upon himself.

He bore our sin, he bore our grief, he bore our shame, and so that when we come to him in our barrenness, in our brokenness, we come to him and say, god, I have nothing to bring to the table, but, jesus, I trust you, I take your righteousness, I take your spiritual fruit and I take it upon myself by faith.

And when you do that, here's what he does.

You're this barren tree.

All the sudden he starts to breathe life into you.

He takes you out of darkness into light, from death into light, from hopelessness in the whole.

He does it this morning.

If you don't know him, please come to him.

Come to him.

I know I preach long today, but listen, I hope you heard my heart and I hope you heard what I believe the Lord has said to me.

Please don't take the word lightly.

How can you, how can I be more reverent in worship?

We're gonna just sing something and for just a moment and here's what I want you to just want to stay in your seat right now.

If you want to come down for prayer, we're gonna do that at the end, because I'm gonna dismiss you to get your kids as soon as we do communion.

I want you just to ask God.

Lord, reveal to me anything, and I'll just pray this right now Lord, reveal to us anything that's not pleasing to you.

Forgive us for not preparing our hearts.

Give us for not preparing our hearts.

May we again, by your spirit, may your spirit arise enough.

May the, the love that you have for us be known.

May the love that we have for you be stirred.

May our zeal for worship return.

That we be reverent anytime we come to you in prayer, anytime we open your word, and especially when we come together in corporate work.

They pray these things in Jesus amen.

Thank you for listening.

If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at info at myrealchurchorg.

Real life community church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, kentucky.

We invite you to join us for worship Sunday at 10 45 am or Wednesday at 7 pm.

Visit us online at myrealchurchorg.