Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Chaj podcast.
[00:00:08] Good, right? Well, we've been. We've been talking about sowing and reaping, and we're just going to carry on. But the thing is about sowing and reaping a harvest is any farmer will tell you that when you sow to get a harvest, you're at the mercy of the weather.
[00:00:32] Okay? If the weather's bad, you don't get a good harvest. If the weather's good, you get a great harvest.
[00:00:40] And I used to work on farms. I grew up out in the country.
[00:00:46] And I remember when haymaking season would be on and it would be towards the end of August normally, and the grass had grown all the corn, if it was wheat for straw, and the farmer would be looking at the weather forecast, and we didn't have apps or anything like that. And I think then we just had to watch what was on TV at the Met Office or something like that.
[00:01:12] But the key was that we needed the sun and the rain, and then we just needed the sun to shine so the harvest could be cut. It then needed to be turned so it could dry out, and then it needed to be baled. And all this had to be done really quick, otherwise it would be ruined.
[00:01:35] And I remember and I worked for a Christian farmer and we would pray, lord, give us the good weather. And he'd be watching the signs in the sky and go, now. And we would. When harvest time came, we would work from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. And it was everything to get the harvest in because we were at the mercy of the weather.
[00:02:01] Well, the thing is, when we sow and reap, we're not at the mercy of the weather. We're at the mercy of a loving God who loves to bless us.
[00:02:11] So we come before him when we sow and reap, saying, lord, would you stretch out your hand and would you bless your people and would you make us fruitful? So if you've got a bible, find Matthew 21 and we're going to read from verse 12. So why don't you stand when we read?
[00:02:40] Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the temple of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
[00:02:53] And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.
[00:03:02] Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
[00:03:07] But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did. And the children crying out in the temple, saying hosanna to the son of dav.
[00:03:16] They were indignant and said to him, do you hear what these are saying?
[00:03:21] And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants? You have perfected praise.
[00:03:30] Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany. And he lodged there.
[00:03:35] Now, in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry and seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves and, and said to it, let no fruit grow on you ever again.
[00:03:48] Immediately the fig tree withered away.
[00:03:52] And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how did this fig tree wither away so soon? And Jesus answered and said to them, assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, be moved and cast into the sea, it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing you will receive.
[00:04:23] Amen. Take a seat.
[00:04:31] I want to talk about the fig tree today and being fruitful.
[00:04:38] You see, this seems one of the strangest stories in the Gospels, but I believe it could be one of the most profound.
[00:04:46] You know, even last week somebody just asked me in between services, they said, is it possible for you to lose your faith?
[00:04:56] And you know, and I understood what they're talking about.
[00:05:00] You know, you're living life, you're trying to follow Jesus, and you come into a difficulty, you know, a mountain, a situation that just feels way too big.
[00:05:12] Can you lose your faith?
[00:05:15] Can the mountain be so great that you just suddenly lose your faith? And my answer is, absolutely not.
[00:05:23] You cannot lose your faith. Like you lose your keys, you know, I mean, how many of you lose your car keys or you're door key? I don't know where I put them. Faith isn't like that.
[00:05:32] You cannot lose your faith by misplacing it.
[00:05:37] That doesn't happen. However, I do believe that if you try hard enough, you can give your faith away.
[00:05:46] That if you walk away constantly from the Lord, you can walk away from him.
[00:05:54] But you can't wake up one morning and go, oh my goodness, where's my faith?
[00:05:59] It is a decision. And the mere fact of asking, can I lose my faith? Means you can't. Because there is that worry, you know, there is that desire to have faith in God.
[00:06:12] But you can find yourself in a place of unfruitfulness.
[00:06:18] We did, Juliet, if You were here last week. Juliet tells some of the story. If you weren't, you can watch it on YouTube or podcast or whatever.
[00:06:27] You know, the Lord's love for us hadn't changed, but we had.
[00:06:32] And we needed to repent. We needed to change direction, and we needed to come home. And that's part of our journey and part of where we see some of the fruit in, you know, the worship and the music right now.
[00:06:46] So this story, Jesus is out walking, and the story comes immediately after the triumphant entry, Palm Sunday.
[00:06:58] He's cleansed the temple out, and he's driven out all the money changes. And the next morning, he's out walking and he's hungry.
[00:07:07] And the first thing I want to say is Jesus was fully man.
[00:07:11] When Jesus came to Earth, he became a man. He was fully God, but he was also fully man. He had all the same temptations. Hebrews says, he was just like you and I, yet he didn't sin again. So he's hungry, and he sees a fig tree. It looks really good, covered in leaves, you know. So he assumes there's fruit there to eat. So he goes to pick some of the fruit, but there isn't any.
[00:07:40] And he says to the fruit tree, let no fruit ever grow on you again. And immediately the fig tree just withers where there's a way. Doesn't sound like Jesus, does it?
[00:07:53] You know, you would expect that Jesus would walk up to it and there's no fruit, and he would speak, and oranges and lemons and bananas or even figs would grow onto it. But that's not what he does.
[00:08:07] He curses it.
[00:08:09] So what is going on?
[00:08:12] What is the story here? Well, firstly, trees often symbolize things in the stories of the Bible. So when the Bible talks about a tree, there's a reason why. And the fig tree often symbolizes Israel.
[00:08:27] And this fig tree has lots of leaves. So it looked good. It had the appearance of fruitfulness, but no fruit.
[00:08:37] And as I said, the story is based around the triumphant entry, the cleansing the temple. Everything looked splendid, but it had become spiritually barren.
[00:08:50] You see, this is a prophetic declaration that the temple was no more.
[00:08:57] And Jesus is saying, enough, there is no fruit here.
[00:09:05] And we're going to see later that we become the temple. But when Jesus curses the fig tree, it's a prophetic declaration that there is no fruit in the temple anymore. And then he makes this amazing statement.
[00:09:23] He says, assuredly, I say to you, and some translations say, truly, truly, it's not that Jesus isn't telling the truth. What it is, it's like he's taking a highlighter and marking it. Listen to these words because they're really important.
[00:09:38] Assuredly. I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to this fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain. And I can imagine him pointing to the Mount of Olives, if you say to this mountain, be moved and cast into the sea. It will be done, he says, and whatever you ask for in prayer, believing you will receive.
[00:10:07] So this is why it's really important that when we sow, we're talking about sowing, that we pray over what we sow.
[00:10:16] You see, the Holy Spirit wants to teach us about prayer.
[00:10:21] And Jesus is saying, it doesn't matter how good you look, without faith in God, you have no real fruit.
[00:10:29] The real spiritual fruit of, I think he's saying, comes from four things. And look, I'm a really simple person.
[00:10:38] So when I read the Bible, I treat this book as a manual. It's a manual of life.
[00:10:44] So when Jesus does something like cleanse the temple, he's normally giving us instructions. And I want to give you four keys to fruitfulness, not fruitlessness.
[00:10:58] So if you take notes, the first one's prayer.
[00:11:00] Jesus says, my house shall be called a house of prayer. If you want fruit in your life, and if you want a real spiritual harvest in your life, learn to pray.
[00:11:14] You've sown seed and now pray over it. You know, two weeks ago, I think we all got cups of seed. Yep. And we took them home. Have some of you sown them. Come on, own up, four of you, you're going to be in trouble.
[00:11:28] Not the four that sewn it. The rest of you, you should. Ah, you're owning up. Oh, no, I did it. I did it. Well, you see, one of the great things about, you know, being in charge, I got everything that was left over.
[00:11:39] So there was. We did it last week on Sunday night. So I took the. I took the sack that was left, and there was quite a lot in the bottom. You should have just taken more. Some of you were really polite English people. You just took a little bit of seed. Thank you, God.
[00:11:51] Yeah, I took the rest of the sack. I just threw it over my garden.
[00:11:56] And then the next morning, there was a bit of a frost and I'm like, oh, no, my seed. So I'm praying over it outside because I always walk through to get to my car and I'm praying, God, protect my seed, make my seed grow. Lord, don't let it get cold. Let it get heated up. Do something, Lord.
[00:12:21] And because I've sown and I want to get a harvest. So my first thought is to pray that God would protect my seed.
[00:12:31] Does this make sense?
[00:12:35] You know, I know it seems great, yeah, But, Steve, it was just seed.
[00:12:39] But seed becomes a harvest, and it's so important to learn to pray over it. You've bought your petition to the Lord.
[00:12:47] Lord, I need you to do this in my life now. Pray over it every day. Steve, I don't want to be greedy. I don't want to bother God. That's not the point.
[00:12:58] Pray over it. If you want God to move in your life, pray. Pray. Don't give him any peace. I remember when we did the declarations. I remember someone getting very upset. I think it was the one we just did this morning. And he said, the.
[00:13:16] The problem I've got with these declarations is if God blesses me, what if he hasn't got enough for someone else?
[00:13:22] And I'm like, what?
[00:13:25] Did you just hear what you said?
[00:13:28] Well, he said, well, yes, I don't want to be greedy. I want him to bless somebody else. What if he hasn't got enough?
[00:13:33] You don't know God.
[00:13:37] You don't know the God we're worshipping.
[00:13:42] He doesn't. He doesn't run out.
[00:13:46] Remember the rich ruler that comes to Jesus and his daughter has died.
[00:13:52] Remember that story? And he says, if you'll come and pray, she'll be well. So Jesus is in the disciples, off they go. They're off to this ruler's house to pray. But on the way, a woman who has the issue of blood in all the crowd touches him and he stops and he says, power just left me.
[00:14:12] And the disciples are going, jesus, there's people all around you. Of course, you know they're touching you. He said, no power has left me. Don't you think that the ruler is just going, oh, no, Jesus is low on power.
[00:14:27] I need him to raise my daughter.
[00:14:30] What if he doesn't have enough power now?
[00:14:34] And Jesus stops and he calls the woman out and he heals her and he restores her when he's meant to be healing and raising a dead girl. I mean, surely that would take way more power to raise a dead girl than to help a woman who's got, as we Julia said earlier, women's problems.
[00:14:56] Much more power to raise a dead person.
[00:14:59] So anyway, this lady sorted out. So then Jesus heads on to the ruler's house, and I love the story because he gets There.
[00:15:07] And he says, oh, don't worry, she's just asleep. And they mock him.
[00:15:13] They mock Jesus as he walks in. You know, you fool, what do you know? The fall was on them because she might just as well have been asleep for Jesus. And it's really interesting story because it doesn't even say he prayed over her. It's just Matthew just says he just took a hand and she got up power, the same power that left him to heal the woman has just raised a dead girl and he presents her back to the family.
[00:15:49] Jesus has more than enough, but his more than enough is accessed through prayer.
[00:16:00] He wants us to learn about prayer.
[00:16:06] I believe Tuesday nights we do prayer, revival, prayer. I believe it's the powerhouse of this church.
[00:16:14] I just want to encourage you. I mean, last week, if you'd have come on Tuesday, you wouldn't have got in. It was so busy because we had lots of worship leaders from all over there. But again, because of what God is doing here, we had about 70 worship leaders from all over the United Kingdom come from a mentoring day. And it was wonderful. But we gather and we pray and we worship and we come into the presence of God. Nothing happens here that doesn't happen here.
[00:16:42] Praying.
[00:16:43] God wants to teach us about prayer. Oh, my goodness. Number two, healing.
[00:16:47] Okay, let's be clear. What's real spiritual fruit?
[00:16:51] The next thing that happens when Jesus is clearing out the temple is the blind and the lame come to him and healed them.
[00:17:00] Why is it so important, this story of healing in the temple? Why is it so important that we heal the sick? Because we can't heal the sick. That's why it's so important.
[00:17:13] Why is it so important that we heal the sick? We cannot heal the sick. Only he can heal the sick.
[00:17:20] So when we gather around the prince, look, we can make noise, we can make really nice music, we can organize church, but we cannot heal the sick.
[00:17:36] And the healing of the sick is the sign that the kingdom is amongst you. And you know, churches can easily become like the fig tree, looking good, but no fruit whatsoever.
[00:17:49] And every time that we call the sick forward and we pray, we're falling on the mercy of the Lord.
[00:17:57] We're saying, lord, if you don't come, there's nothing we can do.
[00:18:01] And as he walks amongst us and touches lives, you see, our dependence must be on him, not on us.
[00:18:11] Jesus command to the disciples was heal the sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you.
[00:18:19] So wherever there's healing, the kingdom is close. And the church must Take back the healing ministry of Jesus to be fruitful.
[00:18:32] Number three, really quick praise. And the children crying out in the temple and saying hosanna to the Son of David.
[00:18:40] Look, you might be here this morning and you might be feeling a little weak or insignificant, but Jesus says strength is perfected in praise.
[00:18:51] When we declare the glory of God, when we dance in his presence declaring his goodness, he inhabits our praises. Psalm 22.
[00:19:02] Spiritual fruit is always found in the presence of God. He is in us, but he manifests his person in our praises.
[00:19:14] You know, through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.
[00:19:23] You know one of the interesting things that happened as we started gathering around the presence of God was joy.
[00:19:30] Joy would well up in people praises. People would shout their praises, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. And as we would pray, as we would declare the goodness of God, his presence would would manifest. You see, praise makes mountains smaller because God becomes larger.
[00:19:53] Let me say that again. Praise makes mountains smaller because God becomes larger. Mountains are not big to God because He is in the heavens.
[00:20:04] He looks down. They don't look like mountains to him. They're only large to people who are in the valleys. We sang the song this morning.
[00:20:13] So what Jesus is saying is become a person of heaven. Instead of being in the valley.
[00:20:19] Look at the mountain from heaven's perspective. Look. We can quickly spiral, you know. Well, Steve, it's been a bit of a week.
[00:20:30] My car broke down, then the washing machine emptied out over the floor. Little Tommy is sick. My mother in law still won't go home.
[00:20:41] They're threatening redundancy at work.
[00:20:44] My husband has a bad stomach. It could be cancer.
[00:20:48] And your words start creating a mountain because you're telling the wrong story.
[00:20:56] But when we start to praise, our perspective starts to change. The issues may stay the same, but the solution now becomes a heaven solution.
[00:21:08] A stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and avenger. Our praise brings deliverance.
[00:21:18] This is why praise has been so important on our journey. Because it breaks the yoke and it changes our thinking and it brings glory to God and releases his presence into our circumstances. And we have so many testimonies of that now.
[00:21:36] But if we want to stay fruitful, we need to stay in that place. And the last one is faith.
[00:21:44] And two quick stories, one of too much and one of not enough. Gideon, the Midianites are attacking.
[00:21:56] We're in the time of the judges and they're raiding Israel.
[00:22:01] And the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon under the terebinth tree, another tree. And this, this tree signifies encounter. You encounter God. And the. The angel of the Lord says, he says, the Lord is with you, a mighty man of valor. And Gideon's like, who?
[00:22:22] And he looks around, he said, you must. You've mistaken me for some. I'm. I'm.
[00:22:28] I'm not that man.
[00:22:30] And the story, if you know the story of Gideon's. He lays some fleeces and finally starts to believe that the Lord is going to do what he says and he's going to use him to defeat the Midianites. So he gathers an army together and they just get him ready to fight against the Midianites. And the Lord goes, hold on, there's too many here.
[00:22:55] There's too many. You've got too many people. And Gideon's like, this is a big army. And the Lord says, tell anyone who's fearful or scared to go back.
[00:23:08] So he tells them, 22,000 leave him.
[00:23:16] We had a few hundred leave us, and we were like, oh, God, what are we going to do?
[00:23:24] Gideon, 22,000 leave. And the Lord. And he's like, I know what it's like as a leader when people leave. And he's like, lord, we've got an army. Fight. And the Lord goes, nah, still too many.
[00:23:37] He says, go and get them a drink. And all the ones that lap like a dog. And look, I'm sure that there is some deep spiritual significance of this, but I don't know what it is. I can do the trees lapping like a dog, I don't know. But he says, anybody that laps like a dog, separate them.
[00:23:55] So 300 lap like a dog. And the Lord says, get rid of the others, Send them all off. So Gideon is left with 300 men. And the Lord says, by the 300 men who have lapped, I will save you.
[00:24:12] Don't you love God?
[00:24:14] I often think, with God as my friend, I don't need an enemy.
[00:24:19] Lord, this is.
[00:24:23] And the Midianites, they have a dream about Gideon defeating them. Gideon hears the dream and he worships the Lord.
[00:24:33] And they surround the camp with 300 men, a trumpet in one hand and a torch in another.
[00:24:44] And they shout, the sword of the Lord and Gideon.
[00:24:51] And the Midianites panic and turn in on themselves. And the battle is won.
[00:24:59] The battle is won through praise the sword of the Lord in Gideon.
[00:25:04] And they just defeat themselves feeding the 5,000. The opposite problem.
[00:25:14] We don't have enough to feed all these people. The disciples come to Jesus and Jesus just says, to the disciples. What do you have?
[00:25:22] Well, we got a few fish and a couple of loaves.
[00:25:26] And he says, tell everyone to sit into groups. And he takes the loaves and the fish and he blesses them. He looks up to heaven and he blesses. And that word blessed means to praise.
[00:25:42] And he takes what they've sown. Remember we said, you just what we have, we sow. And the Lord multiplies it. He takes the bread, he looks up to heaven. He says, thank you, Father.
[00:25:54] And as he tears the bread, as he gives thanks, as he hands it out to them, I don't know when it starts to multiply, but they feed 5,000 men and children, and then they pick up all the baskets that are left, and there's 12 baskets.
[00:26:11] You see? What am I trying to say? Jesus is saying that true spiritual fruit comes from our faith in God, not how good we look.
[00:26:23] I find it interesting that the one question Jesus asks about what he will find when he returns to earth is not holiness. Jesus doesn't say, oh, when I return, will I find holiness?
[00:26:36] Will I find how big your church is? Will I even find how many you've got saved? He says this. He says, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on earth?
[00:26:46] What is Jesus coming back for? He's coming back for a faithful people, a people that believe him. The story of the fig tree is about spiritual fruitfulness.
[00:26:57] It's not about a church that looks good, but rather a people who have put their trust in God through prayer.
[00:27:04] A prayer for people who call out to him day and night, healing that they understand we are totally dependent on him. Jehovah. Rapha. I am the Lord who heals you.
[00:27:18] Celebration.
[00:27:19] God is good. We declare his praises and faith. We put our trust in God. You see, one word from Jesus and the fig tree was no more.
[00:27:33] But if we receive his words into our lives, we will become fruitful.
[00:27:39] Do you ever know that Jesus was always chatting to his disciples? He was always talking to them about something. Peter, come follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. And I will build my church on this rock.
[00:27:52] Or to James and John, you're going to drink my cup.
[00:27:57] Prepare yourself.
[00:27:59] Thomas.
[00:28:00] Tom, stop doubting and believe.
[00:28:05] Philip. Philip, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
[00:28:11] Levi, just leave the bank vault open and come follow me.
[00:28:17] And Nathanael, I saw you under the fig tree and I'm telling you, you're going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
[00:28:32] See? Just two victories.
[00:28:34] One is unfruitful and withers away. One becomes a follower of Jesus and his life is never the same again.
[00:28:45] What's the invitation to us Church be fruitful.
[00:28:53] It's not about how good we look.
[00:28:56] It's not about how we sing in tune, how much we, you know, we build big buildings, have big gatherings.
[00:29:09] It's about will we trust God, Will we pray, Will we heal the sick, Will we praise and dance in his presence? And will we believe he is able? And then we'll have real fruit, spiritual fruit. And there will be the harvest so big we can't even imagine. That's the move of God that's happening around the world right now. I'm down running. Stand up.
[00:29:38] Thanks for listening to the Coma Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
