Sermon Tone Analysis

Truth is like the sun.

You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.

--Elvis Presley

INTRO - In our first visit to the fig tree we recall that the tree just appeared to be healthy.

However, we learned that the tree was just pretending to be a fruit bearing tree.

Last week we discussed Jesus’ cleansing at the Temple.

Today we continue with the second half of the lesson of the fruitless fig tree.

We will see how the fruitlessness of the fig tree angers God.

TRANS - Let’s sit in with the disciples and learn from Jesus a most important lesson about faith.

Let’s anticipate Jesus urging us to understand what God says about the true faith He expects from professed believer.

And, let’s seek to do everything we must to conduct our lives differently from people who only pretend to be Christians but fail to produce fruit.

What does it say?

What does it mean?

Facing Truth of God

What does the withered fig tree likely represent?

The teaching is obvious.

The practiced system of religion was full of leaves, yet offered no fruit.

The system “looked” good because people tithed, prayed, and fasted.

They practiced purity keeping out lepers, the blind, and demon possessed.

Just as the fruitless tree offered Jesus nothing to satisfy his appetite, the religious system did not satisfy the people’s spiritual need.

Facing the truth is not always such an easy thing, yet:

The truth will set you free:

free to confess

free to change

free to be challenged

ILL - Do you know that most churches think they are doing the right thing yet most churches are dying?

Here’s one thing I do know, most churches say they are friendly.

However, according to Gary McIntosh’s research, 97% of church visitors say they don’t feel welcomed!

FBCM might ask, “What have we studied, books we’ve read, internet blogs we visit, or how many of our visitors that never came back have changed how we treat them?”

The religious leaders thought they were right!

Yet, they were failing to reach the nations, to bear fruit.

I believe there are strong correlations between practicing “pretend” religion and churches that are more like country clubs of close members then a flock of sheep following a shepherd.

“Truly I say to you” is a way of stressing the importance of what Jesus is about to say.

“says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,”

Jesus was standing on the Mt. of Olives where, on a clear day, you can see the Dead Sea; perhaps he was making a reference?

Jesus is uses the mountain to represent a great difficuulty.

Jesus says that our biggest problems can be taken away when we have faith.

But, we must be without doubt; we must believe.

ILL - Both Jennifer and I prayed God would help us find the right person.

Later, after getting to know one another, we discussed how we prayed for God to lead us to the right person.

We discovered that we both started praying the same thing at the same time!

In some way, for us, it seems God was there all along waiting to put us together.

We were given the opportunity to respond to God’s answer to our prayers.

Because we did, today we have a great marriage.

Today we celebrate how God answered our prayers and led us to His best match for each of us.

Man says, “Seeing is believing.”

God says, “Believing is seeing.”

It’s Father’s Day today and I’m so blessed to have my Dad.

At one time we were close to thinking we might loose Dad.

However, that wasn’t what my Dad was thinking.

As a matter of fact, he was telling people how he was gonna be around for a while.

Even more, he was praying for another fellow who was about to get an operation.

Dad’s faith was, and continues to be, a strong example of the sort of faith Jesus teaches he wants from believers.

But what if we said, “No, I have a better plan?”

Crazy, stupid, and yet we do it so often?

Our plan can assume several faces, for example:

Don’t worry, yep still do that.

Use my power to share faith, nope too afraid.

Use your gift, what gift?

Here, doing it their way, is happening with the religious leaders.

They spoke to God and God answered.

Then, they went on to do things they way they thought was right.

What is more, they continued even when given the chance to change.

Faith is the person stepping out into the unknown, obeying God’s commands.

Church people must start learning what they need to do and stop doing what they “think” is the right thing to accomplish, then we will see God take his blessing from one after another.

In our church, we’ve attend training, we know our mission, and we seriously consider everything the Bible teaches.

However, we must always remember Jesus’ teaches we can fall into the sort of trap these religious leaders found themselves.

Each of us must know and expect that Jesus is judging us our works done in faith.

Facing Transformation by God

Was “removing mountains” a cultural proverb in Jesus’ day?

We know of Jewish writings that talk of removing mountains as a virtually impossible task.

Only the most pious were able to do things considered humanly impossible.

Yet, Jesus says that nothing is too hard for the person of faith.

In the OT we have an image of God’s Spirit knocking down a mountain before the faithful anointed king.

This was more than a saying.

The people heard “removing mountains” and associated it with people of great faith.

The transforming power of God continues to be a force that moves mountains.

ILL - Today we find ourselves in a nation where same-sex marriage is practice, where babies are killed for connivance, and where the very culture of Christian faith that formed and led this country for year is a source of contention rather than one of comfort.

Yet, do you know one of God’s own names tells us God is bigger than all that?

You see, El Shaddia is one of God’s names.

It literally says God Almighty or God of the Mountains.

Now, the OT usually uses mountains to notate nations.

Do you see it?

God is God of the nations.

El Shaddia is sovereign over all nations, in fact over the universe!

That includes the USA and all that is happening today.

APP - So, when you pray, remember that God Almighty knows these things and ask, “What will you have me do?”

In this illustration, be a registered voter, go the polls, and write or call on our leaders to do your bidding.

Then, don’t start gossiping about them like the news media does.

Or, complain like a little child.

Get actvive in every area of life and set the sort of example Christ would have you set.

I believe that unless you are part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Unless you do something besides gossiping about national problems, you are a loud noise.

A nationwide poll was taken in the United States on religious questions.

When asked whether they believed in God, 95 percent of those polled answered “yes.”

When asked whether religion in any way affected their politics and their business, 54 percent said “no.”

They had a belief, but they did not have a directing faith.

Faith is action.

Faith encompasses the entire spectrum of life’s encounters and experiences.

The transformation God seeks is bigger than changes in our government.