Matthew Pt. 79 - Judgement & Faith

Thank you brother Matthew 21. We're in verses 19 or sorry, 18

through 22. In the morning he was returning

to the city, and he became hungry, and seeing a fig tree by

the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it, but only

leaves. 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

marvelled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once?

And 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.

Or whatever you ask in prayer. If you whatever you ask for in

prayer, you will receive if you have faith.

God, thank you for your powerful promise here and thank you for

your example. Thank you for the wisdom of

Jesus in all things at all times.

Or this is the moment that we pray.

You would just continue to sink your word more deeply into US.

Make U.S. Open, make us hungry, make us

humble. Lord, if we've read it before,

if we've seen it before, I pray you would still shine fresh

light and bring fresh revelation, fresh manna for

today. Today's bread that we need, the

daily bread that we prayed for. We receive it by faith,

gratitude, and we commit not to just conviction, but to

obedience in Jesus name, Amen. So in this in this quick short

passage here, we have the same account given by Mark.

I just want to clarify because if this could, if you were to

read them separately, you could be confused, but wait a second

to the fig tree wither right in that moment or to the fig tree

wither the next day. So I'm going to give you a quick

timeline and a quick explanation just so you're not stumped by

anything you see or read in your Bible.

What you'll notice a lot of times in Matthew is Matthew is

emphasizing something in particular.

The Holy Spirit is having Matthew prioritize the themes of

who Christ is. So the Holy Spirit does not have

Matthew agonize over the details of the chronology.

What is the order of in which the things happen?

That's not Matthew's point of writing to the Jews that he's

writing the the Gospel of the Kingdom about Mark.

However, Mark is much more detailed and precise in his

timeline and putting things in chronological order.

So if you read both of their accounts, whenever you read

Matthew, it says, hey, curse the fig tree and the fig tree

Withers up immediately and then you know, they move.

They move on to the rest of the teaching.

Mark reveals that he cursed the fig tree on his way in to

Jerusalem. So the timeline looks something

looks not something look timeline.

Actually what actually happened looks like this Sunday, Jesus

that morning, triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Jesus

goes into the temple. He doesn't overturn everything

yet he looks around, he observes, he makes note.

Then he leaves, returns to Bethany for the night.

He probably went to Bethany all week at night.

Monday, he's on his way into Jerusalem.

He condemns the fig tree on his way into Jerusalem.

Then he goes into the temple. He condemns the false worship in

the temple. He cleanses the temple.

Then Tuesday Mark reveals the disciples see the fig tree

withered and then Jesus teaches on faith and prayer.

So again, the point is Matthew shows it withering immediately

because he's emphasizing the power of Jesus words.

I think if you cursed A fig tree today, if you cursed the palm

tree right outside there, if you cursed it today and tomorrow it

was dead. That's immediately like you

cursed a tree and it died like 24 hours later.

Like Oh my goodness, that tree you spoke to yesterday, Jesus

said no one will ever eat fruit from you again.

They thought, I guess that tree will never bear fruit.

But no, it had withered up from the roots and shriveled up and

died in a 24 hour period. So it immediately happened.

Matthew wasn't confused. The Bible was super strong.

This isn't some argument to get stumped on.

Just want to give you that quick clarification in case anybody's

like really particular people get stumped on some silly things

sometimes and sometimes they think like this has somehow

become the great undoing of all of God's scripture and it is in

no way no how anything close to it.

So there's no contradiction, just two explanations.

Mark giving the actual time fuller timeline, whereas

Matthew's giving the thematic idea what's going on here?

But what's again now? Now that we can get past that,

what's actually taking place with this fig tree Is Jesus just

in a bad mood and he takes it out on a fig tree?

Man, I was hungry. I thought I could get some

breakfast. I'm sick of this.

And now you have to die. Why?

Because I'm God and I can just ZAP stuff with lightning

whenever I feel like it. That's not at all what's taking

place. There's something profound

that's taking place here. And in fact, Jesus is

pronouncing judgment on Israel by condemning the fig tree, and

I'm going to show it to you. All throughout the Old

Testament, Israel's referred to as a fig tree.

So the fig tree is referencing Israel.

I could take time. I thought about it, but it's

like I'm not going to walk them all over the place.

Go look it up for yourself. You'll find it out really

quickly, very truthfully. So here we have Monday morning.

It's all about to go down. Jesus is going into the temple.

Remember, He's already overthrown things in the temple

at the beginning of his ministry three years ago.

And now he comes back again to look things over, to inspect

things again, to look for fruit, and he's getting ready to go and

he knows there's not fruit. He was there last night.

He looked around the whole temple.

He saw everything. He was disgusted.

There's a gate behind the temple.

People were using that. Instead of using the propagate,

they're walking through the temple courtyards.

The Gentiles who were supposed to be able to come to the temple

courtyards to be able to worship, they can't because

there's all this chaos, because the Jews have made the Gentile

courtyard just full of merchandise and full of business

dealings and full of extortion of the poor and everything else

that's going on. Like I told you before, if you

were poor, you could sacrifice a dove.

Oh, the priest says your dove's not good enough that you brought

for 2 pennies. You have to buy our dove.

Now here in the courtyard we have doves that are pre

qualified. They're only $4.00.

So what? We're going to give you a great

deal. Like I said, it's like going

through TSA and buying a bottle of water.

You had to pour yours out. But ours is good.

Ours is safe to fly all over the nation.

But the water you brought in very dangerous water.

So the Pharisees are doing this, the Jews are doing this.

Jesus hates it all. He he's before he goes in,

though, he makes an object lesson.

He makes a parable out of this tree that he walks into.

So the fig tree of Israel is where he goes and he finds

leaves on it, but he finds no fruit.

So here's another thing you need to understand about fig trees.

Fig trees will give off their fruit before they give off

leaves. It's an interesting fact.

So whenever you if you're in the distance and you see a fig tree

with leaves on it, yes, you know already that it has figs because

it was it was in spring. It would have been an early

fruit, fruit bearing for the fig tree.

That's why Mark also tells us because it wasn't the season for

figs. Like Jesus, why are you cursing

a tree? It doesn't have figs on it, but

it's not the season to have figs on it because it already had

leaves. So the fact that it had leaves

indicated, hey, I bought it early this year, which means my

fruit has been here for a couple weeks.

It's going to be small, but it's going to be edible.

And Jesus, who is hungry because he is fully God and fully man,

He wants breakfast, He wants something to eat.

So he goes up to it expecting to find fruit.

Why? Because leaves indicate fruit is

already present on a fig tree. He goes, there's only leaves

here. This is a malfunctioning tree

and it's almost as if as Jesus is right there, it's almost as

if he it's not almost as if it's what he does.

He connects the whole thing to Israel as if to say, like Israel

you have leaves and you present to have fruit, but upon close

inspection you have no fruit. I know what I'm about to do in

about 30 minutes when I get into the temple.

I'm doing the same thing to you right now.

May no one ever eat fruit from you ever again.

And he curses the fig tree just like he's about to go in and do

in the temple. Look at all of our leaves.

Look at all of our religion. Look at all of our Jewishness.

Look at all of our whatever. And Jesus goes.

It's disgusting, it's filthy, and I'm overturning the whole

thing. The fig tree is a parable of

Israel and judgment has fully come on to Israel.

Christ, he judged, he corrected, he's come back again to say,

have you cleaned things up? Have you surrendered?

Have you obeyed? And he goes to the temple and

finds, no, they haven't. So the fig tree event really

happened. And it's also a parable like

many things were against Israel. Go in your Bible to Luke chapter

Luke 13 · chapter mention

13. Luke chapter 13 verses 6 through

Luke 13:6–9

9. This is another parable that he

tells. This is a parable about

repentance. You can read before to see more

about that. But in in verse 6 of chapter 13

of Luke, and he told this parable, a man had a fig tree

planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and

found none. And he said to the vine dresser,

So this guy, he owns all this property, but he's got the guy

who manages the the orchards and the vineyards.

He has looked for three years. I've been coming seeking fruit

on this fig tree and I find none.

Go ahead, cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?

And he answered him, Sir, leave it alone this year also until I

dig around it and put on some manure, some fertilizer.

And then if it should bear fruit next year, then that's well and

good. But if not, then you can cut it

down. So, and the owner says, man,

this tree's been three years and we haven't got nothing from it.

Cut the thing down. He's like, hey, hey, let me, let

me have one more year. Let me try and get some fruit.

So he's he's he's pleading with the master.

He said, let's be compassionate. Who's that Reminds you of?

Of course, reminds us. My mind goes to Moses pleading

for the Israelites. God's like, I'm going to kill

everybody. And Moses like, hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey, don't kill everybody. Hey, you don't, you wouldn't.

That's not really what you want to do.

And he's interceding on behalf of the people.

He's why? Because the Lord is testing

Moses. He's testing his shepherd.

He's testing his man. The Lord is compassionate.

Moses doesn't love the people more than God loves the people.

But he's testing his man, Moses, and he's getting to intercede.

He does the same thing before he destroys Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abraham intercedes. He goes, hey, hey, would you

really destroy the whole city? What if there's somebody

righteous in it? What if there's 50 righteous?

The Lord goes, there's 50 righteous people.

I won't destroy it. So he he negotiates with him.

When you see that compassion taking place here as well.

But what's the point? The Lord is expecting fruit.

The Master expects fruit. Is he patient?

Yeah. Will prayer increase his

patience? It sure can.

Compassion of his people to plead with the Lord for mercy

like Jesus did on the cross. Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

Father, they don't know what they're doing.

They don't know who I really am. We've told them and we've shown

them, and still they don't know. Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

But still there comes a limit and there comes a time.

So let me fertilize it more. It's three years and no fruit

for this particular fig tree. Well, Jesus's ministry has been

three years and still there hasn't been fruit.

Jesus is very fruitful, but there hasn't been fruit in

Israel. There hasn't been the turning

that there should have been, as is evidence from the Sunday

triumphal entry to the Friday cries to crucify him.

They wanted a different leader than the true leader of Israel,

the true king of Israel, who Jesus really is.

So Israel is the fig tree. God is patient.

He gives it years, but there does come a time to cut it down

and plant something better in its place.

And that's what Jesus is coming and doing when he goes into the

temple. I am cutting this down, and I'm

putting something better in its place.

Now, let me clarify a point with that.

That is not to say if Israel had just been good boys and good

girls, Judaism would have somehow continued parallel with

Christianity. Absolutely not.

That's not the point. The Church is not a Gentile

substitute for a failed Israel. That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not saying that God cut down Judaism and said we're getting

rid of that religion. That one didn't work.

Let's just start a new thing up. We'll call it Christianity.

No, no, no, no, God is God. He's always been God.

His truth has always been the truth.

And you could follow God and walk along with his truth and in

any given moment, step outside of it.

You can walk away just like a Christian can walk away from the

faith. Are they, are they always a

Christian? The way you got saved is the way

you stay saved by God's grace through your faith.

So can can I lose my salvation? Well, do you believe in God?

Are you trusting in Jesus any longer?

Well, no. Well, then you're obviously not

a child of God. So what we're saying is that

God's truth has always been God's truth and he's always been

walking out his story and everything's always been

pointing to Jesus and the past was pointing to Jesus.

The future has been pointing to Jesus and it all culminated with

Christ. So what we're saying the church

is not a Gentile substitute for a failed Israel.

The church is the true Israel. That's what the New Testament

teaches. The church has genetic

descendants of Abraham, historically known as the Jewish

people. So if if you can trace your

bloodline all the way up through Abraham, you would say, well,

I'm a Jew ethnically. OK, so genetic Jews are a part

of the body of Christ, not because they're genetic Jews,

but because they have faith in the blood of Jesus and Gentiles

like you and I, who, as far as I know, I don't know, maybe some

of your genetic descendants of Abraham, but if you're a genetic

descendant of Abraham, you're not automatically a part of the

church or the true Israel. You have to come under the blood

of Jesus. And if you're just a Gentile,

like probably most of us are, you also have to come under the

blood of Jesus. So the church, the true Israel

is the church, the genetic descendants of Abraham and

Gentiles united in Christ as true Jews.

The Lord is judging. The Lord is setting his church

up and he is transitioning things and he is judging Israel.

That's what's going on with the fig tree.

You thought Jesus was just grumpy, in a bad mood and he

wanted breakfast. That's not what was going on.

He's going, this is just like Israel, full of leaves.

Look at all of my presentation. Look at from a distance.

I can deceive you from a distance.

I would like the picture of health, but upon closer

inspection, it's not that at all.

The same thing applies for us and Luke 13 as well.

So we were applying it to Israel.

Let's apply Luke 13 to us. A man planted A fig tree in his

vineyard. He came seeking fruit on it and

found none. He said to the vine dresser.

For three years now I've come seeking fruit on this tree and I

find none. Cut it down.

Why should it use up the ground, Sir?

Leave it, Leave it alone. One more year.

Let me dig around it. Put in fertilizer, manure, then

it should bear fruit next year. That's well and good.

If not, you can cut it down. There's a season, there's a

patience, but but ultimately, after you've had time to bear

fruit, eventually there is a limit.

Who knows when that is? Only God does, and this should

fill us with humility. The Master expects fruit from

all of his people, not just leaves.

There are people who have leaves on their life.

The picture. What do leaves represent?

The leaves represent the pictures of of religion, the

presentation of religion. I know what to say.

I know how to look, I know how to act.

Now, if you got close and inspected, you would see

something quite different. But the leaves of the

presentation, I can, I can present for a while, and as long

as you don't get too close, I can keep the storyline going.

We're not told what comes next in that particular parable, and

we're not told what comes next in our stories either.

Does that tree come around? Does it eventually bear fruit?

We don't know. The good news is you get to

decide what you're going to do. We can surrender and life will

flow through us so that we do bear fruit.

Go back to Matthew 21. I don't want to hit it while

it's on the podium. I don't want you to hit it while

it's on the podium either. You can just sit tight.

I got it back in Chapter 21 of Matthew and verse 19.

May no one ever, may no fruit ever come from you again.

So here we see the only destructive miracle in the

Gospels. This is why we should be able to

rebuke the flies this morning. Just like I'd like to see you

just has the most faith. Just start cursing flies.

May you never fly again. They just drop.

Yeah, maybe 24 hours. The only destructive miracle in

the Gospels. Contrary to what many Christian

theologians would teach, all throughout the Gospels, we've

seen it over and over and over. Healing and blessing, Healing

and blessing. Those are the nature of the

miracles of Jesus. Healing and blessing, healing

and blessing. But here he destroys and he

kills. So we've said before, Jesus has

different gears. He's the right thing at the

right time. He's not stuck in one gear.

He always does what's best and He always does what's right.

There's been a time and a season for patience, and now He's

showing that this judgment comes.

But when does this kind of judgment come?

This kind of judgment comes when there has been a persistent

refusal to produce what God has patiently waited for.

And this is the warning of our particular moment.

It's just so beautiful. The sovereignty of God is as

He's brought us to where He's brought us in the Scriptures, as

the words have come from the Holy Spirit through different

believers over these past few weeks.

It's so. I mean, it should just be very

humbling. It should be very alarming and

it should be very exciting. It should just be exciting

because we just go, I'm making the switch, I'm making the move.

I'm making the change that the Lord is calling for me to make.

And therefore that brings breakthrough and blessing.

When does this kind of judgment come?

This doesn't come because you had a bad day.

This doesn't become come because you send this.

Come because this comes because you kept choosing sin.

And the Lord said, can I have that?

Yeah. He's like be patient.

And then he asked again and he asked again and he asked again,

and I don't want to give you a false comfort and extend

something, create some timeline that he doesn't create because

I'm not in charge of it. He is.

But the point is, with the Lord has asked for it, you better

give it. If the Lord has told you to do

it, you better do it because it's connected to something as

well. It's connected to a blessing,

but it's probably also connected to a curse.

It's probably also connected to a consequence.

So eventually that leads to something The Lord's kindness is

what leads us to repentance. But ultimately, if we don't

respond to His kindness, what's left?

Go to Hebrews chapter 10. What's left if we don't respond

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

to what the Lord has done, to what the Lord has provided, to

what the Lord has shown? Hebrews 10, verse 26.

Hebrews 10:26

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the

knowledge of the truth. There no longer remains A

sacrifice for sins. I'm going to read that again.

If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of

the truth, there no longer remains A sacrifice for sins,

but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that

will consume the adversaries. Anyone who set aside the Law of

Moses dies on the dies without mercy on the evidence of two or

three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you

think will be deserved by one who's who has trampled under

foot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the

covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the

spirit of grace? For we know him who said

vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge

his people. It is a fearful thing to fall

into the hands of the living God.

So I have to make sure that you remember that I'm not pulling

something out of context here or reference in Jesus's judgment of

the fig tree. Jesus is coming to judge the

living and the dead. He's coming to judge everything

and everybody. And he's not looking for leaves,

He's looking for fruit. So what could leaves be?

Well, leaves could be any number of dead things.

Leaves could be church attendance.

Leaves could be Bible reading, leaves could even be prayer.

Fruit is fruit, and fruit can't be faked when somebody's up

close in your life. Fruit can't be faked when you're

up close in anybody's life. Fruit.

I can't fake fruit when you're up close in my life.

Now, generally, generally when you keep people in a distance,

you can keep them fake, which, you know, here's a life hack for

Christians. You should always have a pastor

who you can get close to his life.

And if you can't get close to his life and if you can't get in

his living room and if you can't see his family, then you can't

know him. That doesn't mean he's an evil

villain. The point is, my only point is

you can't really inspect his fruit.

You might hope that it. Well, I like this guy.

I think he's a great minister. I hope so too.

I'm not a cynic and I'm not suspicious of everybody.

I'm just saying you don't know unless you actually know, and

then you know everything else is.

I hope he is what he presents to be.

Look at the fruit of the ministry.

Well, that's that's a place a lot of Christians get confused.

The Lord will always bless his word and he will always bless

the body of Christ. And that guy was in a scandal

for 30 years and nobody ever knew it.

How could that happen? Because God is good to his

church and God is good on his word.

And if you had been up close in that guy's life, you would have

seen that known that. Yikes.

These are some red flags. I think I'm going to distance

myself with it. But Christians are too often

impressed by leaves. Christians will follow after

leaves like it's nothing. You'll follow leaves and reels.

You'll follow leaves and books. You'll follow leaves on

television. You'll follow leaves on YouTube.

Like I like their preaching. Like I like preaching too.

But we don't know anything unless we actually know

something. And the only way to know is with

close inspection. Jesus thought that tree was

fruitful. Jesus went up and found you're

not. These are just leaves.

Fruit is what the Lord is after in the believer's life.

Fruits, what the Lord is after in everybody's life.

But if we reject Christ after knowing the truth, there is no

Plan B to save us. I've described it this way

before. If you're driving towards a

Cliff, there's one thing between you and the Cliff and it's

Jesus. And if you run him over with

your car, there's nothing else. There's nobody else.

He doesn't climb up and get up and run around again and catch

up to your car and allow you to run him over and over.

That's what Hebrews 10 just told you anyway.

Once you've trampled Christ and you say no, no, no, no, no.

Well, and no one's ever dumb enough typically to say I hate

Jesus and I reject him as Lord. I've never known anybody that

stupid, and I doubt you have either.

Maybe you have. Can they be saved?

Yes, through repentance. But the dangerous thing is those

who continually through a life of sin keep rejecting, keep

rejecting, and through the false comfort of leaves, because

leaves bring shade. Leaves aren't evil.

Leaves aren't wrongdoing, but they're false without fruits.

So we just have leaves in our life, but not fruit that can be

inspected and say that tastes good, that tastes sweet, that

tastes like Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Those are the fruits that need to be growing on our trees.

But when those things are absent and we only have leaves like

Israel, then all that's obviously left is judgement.

The fig tree is a picture of a heart that keeps saying no until

the window of mercy closes. That's the picture of the fig

tree. Leaves can deceive.

You've got to get really close, and that's the only way you can

really know. That's the danger of having some

appearance. Wow, they're so spiritual, are

they? Wow, they're so holy, are they?

Wow, they're so mature. Well, you should be talking

about fruit specific biblical, godly, New Testament fruit.

If those are the kind of compliments you want to give to

somebody, give them. Be generous.

Let's be quick to bless and compliment and encourage, But

we're assessing fruit. We're not assessing

presentation. Man, Joe Michael can preach.

That's not a New Testament fruit.

That's not a fruit. Well, I'm edified by it.

Good. I'm glad you.

I'm glad you're blessed by, but that's not the same thing as the

fruits of the spirit in my life. What if God and his goodness and

graciousness to you has anointed me for your sake and I'm still a

mess and I'm still a wreck? That's not the same thing.

So that's why I should never be on a pedestal.

It's why no minister should ever be on a pedestal.

Only Jesus goes on the pedestal and all the rest of us just get,

just continue to say, let's glorify him.

Let's praise him. They're so this, they're so

that. Maybe they are, maybe they're

not. Have you been close enough to

inspect fruit, though? That's the ultimate test.

Look at their family, look at their marriage, look at their

kids. These things communicate

something. These things tell us more about

fruit And we go, hey, I can start to connect the dots.

The younger I was in the Lord I was in, I was so much more

impressed with leaves. It didn't, you know, it didn't

take much. If somebody could talk the talk,

I would be impressed with leaves.

And I was like, man, that guy knows the word or that woman

knows the word and I'd be impressed with knowledge.

They know this. They can quote this, they can

quote that. I remember, but as a young man

being so impressed with that. And then but I would see

something in their life not even with clothes, fruit inspection.

I'm not even talking like living room quality time.

I'm just talking like, man, it's kind of a weird situation with

that. Oh well.

And I would dismiss the fruit because I was so infatuated with

the leaves. I'm like, the guy knows the

Bible better than anybody I've ever seen in my entire life.

That fruit is just, I don't understand that fruit.

And I would dismiss the fruit and I would dismiss fruit and

dismiss fruit. Dismiss fruit, dismiss fruit.

And I'll just go look at these leaves.

I don't know what's up with this bad fruit.

And foolishly, I would dismiss it.

And it should have been the exact opposite.

It should have been. The leaves are pointless.

I'm glad he's memorized his Bible.

All the Pharisees had done the same thing.

Jesus is unimpressed with their presentation, but the fruit is

what the Lord is after. So instead I'm going look at

this person like he didn't know anything.

He hadn't been around too long, but I'm seeing some good fruit

here. That's a blessing.

And what do you do for the person who has fruit, who has

leaves without fruit? Well, you're praying for them.

You're not condemning them. I'm not Jesus, I'm not the one

who condemns it says time's up, fig tree.

That's the Lord's doing. So whenever I see that, that's

when I'm praying even more so I'm like, oh Lord, help them to

bear fruit, not just bear leaves.

The the Psalm we read, we're supposed to have both.

We're supposed to have fruit in season and leaves.

Our leave never Withers, but we're supposed to have the fruit

at the right time. Leaves can deceive.

Leaves without fruit means that the tree is a hypocrite.

Leaves are the outward signs of religious vitality, but they

lack the substance thereof. Leaves are a person who will

profess Christ but not have the fruits of repentance.

Leaves make promises, but fruit reveals reality.

And the fig tree? It's just all throughout the

scriptures. What was it that Adam and Eve

sought to cover their sin with? Fig leaves.

That was their covering, fig leaves, nothing to do with any

fruit. They just said the fig leaf,

it's big, it's useful. This is how we'll cover

ourselves. Adam goes to a fig tree to be

covered by its leaves. Jesus, the second Adam comes to

the fig tree and he demands fruit from it, he will not

accept a covering. He wants the real substance.

And like I said, this church environment is a fertilizer for

you. A healthy church is a fertilizer

for the Saints. You go, man.

Like sometimes I'm struggling to produce fruit.

Hey, we'll keep getting around the rest of the body.

This is a fertilizing soil. This will bless you.

This will help you. This will encourage you.

This will raise you up, not condemn you.

When you got something new to surrender.

People go, aha, I knew it. They go.

Give it to the Lord. Give it to the Lord.

Be free. Receive breakthrough, receive

blessing. So if you miss out on going into

the new season that the Lord has prepared for salt, there's no

other reason, then it's because you chose to not surrender to

it. You chose to not submit and you

chose to not obey the Lord. God wants to bless you.

I can say with confidence right now as the pastor, the door is

open as of July 26th, 7th. I can say for sure right now the

door is open for this next season and this new season.

But to walk through, you must surrender more deeply.

Our Father is saying, hey, we're moving to a new house, but you

can't bring all your old stuff to it.

We're going to a better house, a bigger house, a more beautiful

house, all the things. What is it exactly, pastor?

I don't know. That's not my jurisdiction.

The Lord has all that covered. It's probably going to be some

things for individuals. There's already a big thing

that's happening for our church. That's the good news I'll be

sharing with you sometime soon. There's already going to be

breakthrough. Some of you are already

experiencing breakthrough in your lives because of the depth

of surrender that you've already going into.

So I don't, I don't make all the promises and guarantees for what

the new season holds. I just know that's what

surrender is about. Surrender says I surrender, I

surrender, not I negotiate, I surrender.

Negotiation is I'll give this up Lord, if you he says, I'm not

telling you everything that's coming.

I'm just saying surrender. That's it.

He didn't tell Abraham kill Isaac and I'll raise him from

the dead. He didn't.

He didn't tell Abraham kill Isaac.

Just kidding. I'm not going to let you kill

him. I'll stop you right before he

just said your. Your job is the full obedience

and surrender. Saints.

I've become more and more convinced as I've meditated on

this and prayed on this. This is the blockage.

This is the blockage in the Christian life.

It's a lack of surrender. This is the thing.

Why don't we see this in the church?

Why don't we see that in the church?

Why don't we see this in my life?

I've been praying this thing for years.

I'm more and more and more convinced because we haven't

surrendered, we don't qualify. I don't qualify for the thing

because I haven't get taken myself to the place he's called

for. I still haven't obeyed the last

obedience he's called me to from three years ago.

And but I'm like, I'm so hardened to that thing he's

asked for of me. I'm so far past obeying it.

There's so not a chance of me obeying it anymore.

Then I don't even think about it anymore and I'm so far past it

that I'm frustrated that my prayers aren't answered over

here and my prayers aren't answered over there, or I'm not

seeing this in my life or that in my life, and he just feels

distant. I'm like, I don't know what's up

with God. And then I walk away from the

Lord and it's like, buddy, buddy, if we could rewind the

clock, you stop following. No, I didn't.

I kept reading my Bible. I kept going to church.

I kept playing worship music. Buddy, buddy. 2015 January.

He asked you for this thing, and you were like, yeah, and you

were a little bit tender about it.

And you have hardened and doubled down and tripled down

and quadrupled down, and now you have a hard heart.

And you thought your Bible reading and Holy Spirit, all the

things that the Pharisees thought we tithe, we do this.

The Lord said, of course you should do those things.

Do you want a Gold Star? But I asked for the greater

thing. I'm asking if you'll love me.

I'm just convinced. I'm convinced in my own life and

your life and every human in everybody's life, surrender is

the key to the next thing. And it's so good.

It's so perfect because it opposes the proud surrender.

Like you can't be prideful and surrender.

You can't keep up the facade and surrender.

That's the whole point. It exposes and then it elevates,

but not in the way that I want to elevate myself.

I want to elevate myself. Look at me, go from strength to

strength to strength. Everybody and everybody goes,

he's amazing. Then you can know something's

wrong unless there is humility in getting lower and lower and

more childlike. The Lord is calling you into it.

But man, that's really where the rubber meets the road.

That's like, I've just been so convicted.

Like I said, it's so easy to talk about.

Take up your cross and follow Him and everybody go.

Amen. That is a good word.

But then when you get specific about what that might look like,

go. How do I interpret it?

The same way I trust the Holy Spirit in you church, I can tell

you that for sure. I trust the Holy Spirit in you.

You can trust the Holy Spirit in you as well.

God is judging Israel. God judges people who

continually harden present leaves without fruit keep going.

Our third and final point now is we're looking at this faith that

Jesus says moves mountains. So we're in Matthew 21 still

verse 20. When the disciples saw it, they

marveled. So we know chronologically,

according to Mark, we know that this is actually the next

morning. So he's cursed.

It goes into the temple upheaval.

Hundreds of thousands of people, Massive, massive, massive

crowds. He's tearing up the place,

stopping everything. He's a man of power.

He's a man of actual physical strength.

They're scared to even stop him. He's in charge of this temple

right now, and nobody's like grabbing him.

The temple guard isn't grabbing him and stopping him.

They're not arresting him. This is some dude causing a

scene. No one grabs him.

It's one man mighty in power overturns everything goes back

to Bethany that night comes back Tuesday morning might get my

timeline right Tuesday morning and now they're coming to go

master that fig tree. This is that moment.

How did the fig tree wither at once?

And Jesus answered them truly. I say to you, if you have faith

and do not doubt, you'll not only do what has been done to

the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, so he's

referencing the mountain that they're climbing down, you can

say to this mountain or the one they just climbed down.

You can say to this mountain. He's pointing at it actually be

taken up and thrown into the sea and it will happen.

And whatever you ask in prayer you will receive if you have

faith. What a mighty promise.

What a powerful, powerful promise from the Lord.

How did the fig tree wither? Jesus didn't say because I'm God

and I can do anything. Don't try this at home.

But that is what most Christian theology would teach you

Functionally, they would never undo the words of the actual

scripture. But surprise, surprise, in my

preparation this week as I listen to many faithful men

cover this passage, they focused on the judgment part of the fig

tree, appropriately so. And they just completely ignored

Jesus's promise of you will do this, you will say this, you

will pray this. Or they just said like a little

tagline at the end of their sermon, like you got to have

faith when you pray. Is that the point that he was

making? It's like, I think he undersold

it a bit. I think there's a bit more here.

And again, this isn't isolated, this isn't the only place.

So Jesus didn't say I can do that because I'm God, I can do

anything, duh, I'm the Son of God, don't try this at home.

He did say truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not

doubt, you're not going to do with sun for the fig tree.

So they're impressed by the fig tree.

He didn't say, boys, boys, y'all can do that too.

He doubled down and said, boys, you could do that, boys, you

could tell the mountain to be picked up and thrown into the

sea. One of those is bigger than the

other, right? So he's not just saying, guys,

you're right. You should be impressed by that.

Hey, someday if you really grow up into big boy faith, you'll be

able to do that kind of thing. He tells them, guys, if you will

just believe when you pray, you could tell the mountain be

thrown into the sea. It will happen.

Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.

Everybody say if so, that's not an absolute guarantee going to

happen no matter what. Just like going into this next

season, Just like walking into the promised land.

I thought it was promised. It's promised with conditions.

If you do these things, you'll walk into the promised land and

be victorious. If you don't, you won't.

If you pray in faith, you'll receive this kind of thing.

If you don't, you won't. This is not a new teaching.

This is not an isolated event. He's been teaching this all

along the way. Let me remind you in Chapter 7

of Matthew, he taught us to ask, to seek and to knock.

And he said if we did, we would receive, then we would find and

the door would be opened. And in Matthew chapter 8,

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

remember the Roman centurion, his servant was sick.

Jesus said I'll come to your house and he goes, no, don't

come to my house, Lord, I wasn't.

You thought I was asking you to come all the way to my place.

No, just say it and it'll be done.

Bro, really you're just making stuff up and telling Jesus what

to do now. Says who?

Says who? Roman Centurion.

Where did you get that? What verse do you have that

you're standing on for that dude?

You're just making stuff up now and telling Jesus to do it.

And Jesus rebuked him, right? No, he didn't.

Jesus was impressed and Jesus held him up in front of all the

Jews who were following around Jesus.

And Jesus goes, I like this guy and they're like, yuck, we hate

Romans and Jesus going this guy right here legit to rub their

noses in it. Jesus like, oh, the Romans are

really. I haven't found faith like this

even in Israel. That is a sick burn, as they

would say, and he's doing it on purpose.

Just speak the word and Jesus marvels at this guy's faith.

Bro just making stuff up. Hey Jesus just do this and it'll

happen. Jesus like done and his servant

was healed at that very hour. Then the same thing in Chapter 9

a woman said if I could just touch his clothes and be healed.

Says who lady, where'd you get that from?

Got a verse for that sister. She knows the nature and

character of God and God says I love it, I love it.

Jesus isn't even aware of it. How's that handle?

How to use your theology? Handle that.

I'd like to know who touched me, Who touched me?

Lord, everybody's touching you. No, no, no, no, no.

Somebody touched me and power went out of me.

He wasn't drained like a battery, but he sensed the

movement of the Holy Spirit. He's going, oh, somebody

received. Everybody wants to touch a

celebrity. He's a celebrity somebody,

actually. But somebody came to receive and

there was a difference. Jesus told her your faith has

made you. Well, he didn't say, of course

my clothes healed you. They're son of God clothes.

I you can only buy them in heaven.

Anyone who touches these clothes is healed.

Now everybody's touching his clothes.

Nobody else was having these crazy testimonies.

She had attached her faith to something.

Where'd it come from? The nature and character of God,

knowing who he is, knowing his nature and character, not even

having a this is the verse I'm standing on.

By the way, Church, I want you to stand on verses.

Your pastor's not minimizing you standing on verses.

I'm maximizing you standing on verses, but stand on other

verses too. They would say in a sense you

can write your own script. Let's put the disclaimer on it

when it is in the will of God. So healing always.

Yes, Lamborghini, in Jesus name. No, you weren't promised that.

Well, I think the Lord might bless.

OK, well, you can work hard and you can earn things and I'm not

opposed to any of that. And Julia Lamborghini, I'd like

to ride in it when you get it. I'd like to drive it, if you

don't mind. Faith that moves mountains is

not a new concept. The Lord has been teaching it.

He's been revealing it. He has been rewarding it.

In chapter 17, a man comes kneeling and begging for Jesus

to drive a demon out of his son. Jesus comes down from the

mountain. Your disciples haven't been able

to drive this demon out of my son.

If you can do anything, Jesus, stop right there.

You just said if I can do anything, if you can believe,

all things are possible for those who believe Jesus.

That is not nice. That's not a nice way to talk.

This poor guy. Don't you think this guy's

prayed before? Does anyone think this guy's

ever prayed for his son to be delivered from demons before?

I bet he had. I bet he had.

But Jesus is saying there's a problem with him if you can

believe. And then he told his disciples,

if you were praying and fasting. But all this was connected to

faith. But it's not a formula.

You can't just make up formulas of faith.

I was taught as a young believer that I could make up formulas to

faith. No one said it to me that

plainly, but that was the lesson that I understood.

In my ignorance. I thought that if I just said

this thing, if I just did this thing, then God was obligated

like if I just said it. And I thought it was like a

mathematical formula that he was locked into instead of

understanding. Heart faith has some mystery to

it. Heart faith is a living thing.

It's not a mathematical formula. Mathematical formula and a

textbook. I do this and God must do that.

Well, as long as we're talking about I really believe with the

heart, then yes, God will move. But we can't minimize it and

say, I heard one time so and so received from the Lord by doing

XYZ, therefore I'm going to go to XYZ.

No, no, that's not a living faith.

You're trying to eat somebody else's meal.

That meal's already been eaten. It actually requires you to walk

with the Lord. It actually requires you to know

Him and to pay attention to what He wants.

Your pastor's not complicating faith for you right now.

He's simplifying it. I am simplifying it and telling

you that it is something that happens in the heart and it

comes from God's Word and it is real and it can grow and you

should normalize whatever level you're at in your life.

Maybe you're not. Clearly none of us are to the

place yet where we can rebuke flies and they drop dead.

Obviously they've still been buzzing around.

We got a flyswatter. That's all the faith we have

today is faith for a flyswatter. So.

So maybe you're not at a place to move at a literal mountain

yet. Thankfully, you probably don't

need to move one, right? That'd be quite a tidal wave you

would create, throwing it into the sea.

Lots of consequences. But wherever you are in your

life, what do you have need of? Get familiar with God's word and

get familiar with believing God for that thing.

Don't compare yourself to somebody else who you're

impressed by by their leaves or by their fruit.

Just say, Lord, help me to believe you, help me to trust

you. Help me to actually walk by

faith in this thing. Lay your faith wherever you can.

Lay your faith with whatever measure of faith you have.

Well, I've got very little faith.

Well, again, Jesus emphasizes it's not the size of the faith.

He emphasizes that it's just pure faith itself. faith in God

will do a ridiculous thing. Seems ridiculous to us.

It's all easy for him. Whatever you ask for, you will

receive if you have faith. Not just believing God exists,

but believing He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Faith in who He is, knowing His nature, knowing His character.

The point I want to make is that your faith matters.

Your faith actually matters in your Christian walk.

Is God sovereign? Absolutely.

Our God is sovereign. Is He ruling and reigning over

all? Absolutely.

He's ruling and reigning over all, but He is not by his own

choosing. He is not in control of every

single thing that always happens.

Could he be if he chose to be? Of course He's chosen not to be,

though. I got to choose to do this with

my hands right here. I'm choosing to do that.

You can't convince me, and you won't be able to do it

biblically, that the Lord preordained that I would do this

right now with my hands or that these flies would have been

landing around these different places today?

I don't believe it, and I don't think you can show it to me from

the Word. And if you could, I would

absolutely say then I believe it, but I've read too much Bible

and I've seen too much of the Lord's judgment, which is just

an illogical argument, right? To judge and condemn people who

you have already preset to behave the way that they're

behaving anyway. So your faith matters in your

walk. That's the simple point.

Your faith actually matters. It actually bears weight.

And what's going on? Your unbelief actually has

weight. It actually has consequence.

This isn't to condemn you, man. I think it.

I think I haven't received this saying because of my own

weakness, my own faith, and my own, hey, welcome to being

human. I too am a human.

I too have many unanswered prayers.

I too have seen many things that didn't go the way that I believe

God wanted them to go even though I prayed.

But I don't think I prayed in faith.

And I think I can accept that. So often church, we reverse

engineer our beliefs about the Bible based on what we've seen

or what we haven't seen in life. That's how most theology is

formed around faith. The scriptures say some like

really on the nose kind of stuff that's hard to get away from,

but it's so it's so easy and tempting for me to reverse

engineer my theology based upon what I've experienced and what

I've personally seen. Well, I've seen this and I've

seen this and I've seen this and I've seen this.

We lower our faith to match our disappointments.

We let our unanswered prayers rewrite the Scripture instead of

letting Scripture rewrite us. But Jesus doesn't tell us to

believe what we've seen. He tells us to believe so that

we will see. Faith does not flow from what

we've experienced. Faith flows from who God is and

what He has said. Man, that brings me back into

accountability. I know, I know.

Lord, help me. Help me to walk with you.

Help me to know you, Help me to love you.

Help me to trust you, Help me to enjoy you.

Help me to believe you. And we're closing now.

I want to pray over you. I want to bless you.

I want to encourage you. We're in this moment, this new

season. Jesus is still inspecting for

fruit, not just leaves. And you and I in Salt Church,

He's looking for surrendered people.

His warnings are real, and his judgment comes when people

continue to say no to him. But the invitation is just as

real. Set the invitations, surrender,

and then freedom will flow through you.

Faith will rise up within you. A freshness, a new life, a new,

a new power in your prayer life, a new enjoyment in your prayer

time. I know I'm not the only person

who gets stale, right? We still love the Lord, but

you're like, man, I'm just stale.

I love you, Lord, but I'm blah. I'm blah in my spirit.

I'm blah in my walk this new season.

And again with the word that again came this morning about

refreshments and from the Scriptures about a tree that

bears leaves but doesn't bear fruit when it should be bearing

fruit as well. The encouragement to walk in a

big faith that actually serves others in ministry, not just for

myself, not just a Christianity that's staring in the mirror.

What about me? What's my next blessing?

Or what's my next breakthrough? But one that gets me past the

place where I'm like, ma'am, wouldn't it be nice to live in a

place where I don't need a breakthrough constantly?

Wouldn't that be the ideal to be man?

Look what the Lord has done. He is, He has strengthened me.

He's equipped me who I am like focused on the outside, I'm

focused on others. I want to act.

I have something worth exporting now.

Lord, I pray for your people that they would feel the

refreshment that you have intended for them today and that

if they feel any blockage or hesitation that you would just

point out the area of surrender that's needed.

Nothing will separate them from your love, Lord.

Your love for them is constant. It's kind, it's gracious, and

it's patient, but I pray that if there's any blockage, you would

reveal the needed surrender to accompany it, to free that thing

up so that that water can flow. Lord, like you were prophesying

to us that water would flow and that we would be just flowing

like water. Just wherever the river's taking

us. You're in control, not us.

We don't have a paddle, we don't have a sail.

It's all up to you. We're not swimming, we're just

resting. Will bring breakthrough to your

people.