Called to bear fruit

I want to share with you a couple of Scripture texts that teach us about the importance, I would say about the inevitability of bearing fruit if one is a member of the Kingdom of God. And I am not going to say it as an obligation because that word is very sterile and very, I don't know, but it is an inherent part of the identity of a child of God, bearing fruit. You cannot be a fruit tree and not bear fruit, it is a contradiction, and you cannot be an anointed believer filled with the Holy Spirit if you are not bearing fruit for the glory of God and for the advancement of His Kingdom.

Let's come to Matthew 21, verses 18 and 19, a very significant event, easy to miss in the whole course of things that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ in all His earthly Ministry, but very eloquent when we examine it in the light of all that The Word says about bearing fruit and producing works that redound to the benefit of the Kingdom of God.

It says in verse 18 chapter 21, Matthew: "In the morning, returning to the city" Jesus, "was hungry, and seeing a fig tree near the road he came to it, and found nothing on it" there is the key. It is a fig tree, it is supposed to have figs, but when the Lord came to the tree, he found nothing. I imagine that the Lord was hungry, he was digging up the very leafy fig tree, full of leaves, very promising, those leaves as if they supposedly expressed life, abundance. However, when the Lord puts his hand in, I imagine among the leaves and begins to tempt like this in different parts of the branches there was not a single fig, there was no fruit; its leafiness was an illusion.

And I believe that the Lord caught at that moment the symbolic character of what He was doing. The Lord was an accomplished Teacher and wasted no opportunity to illustrate something, plus He knew that His actions, used by the Holy Spirit would be recorded and used by us throughout the centuries, His Church, to extract truth and teaching. for the church. Therefore, the Lord was very aware of what he was doing at that moment.

I think He knew that at some point in the 21st century, a Latino Pastor somewhere in Roxbury was going to be preaching about that time. And then when He goes, and finds that there was no fruit on the fig tree but only leaves, He said: "Never again shall fruit be born of you." In another passage he says that he cursed the fig tree, a very severe word, but consigned it to perpetual sterility. "And then the fig tree withered up."

In another passage there is a further illustration of this moment where when He curses her it does not dry up immediately but it dried up at the root and the curse of the Lord and the lack of life began to manifest when they returned to the rest of the day, here I believe that we are given a summary report of what happened. When they returned at the end of the day from their trip, they found that the fig tree had withered. But here it simply says, compressing the narrative that the fig tree dried up.

"And when the disciples saw this, they said with wonder: how is it that the fig tree withered quickly? Answering Jesus said to them: Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do this to the fig tree, but if you say to this mountain Take off and throw yourself into the sea, it will be done, and whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive it."

I am not so interested in that second part of the event, I am interested in the first part where we see a tree made to bear fruit that violates its identity by not bearing fruit and the Lord Jesus Christ considers that a serious offense, and a symbol of all the children of God including Israel, which the Bible says is like a barren fig tree that bears no fruit. The Lord took all that symbology and that is why He reacted that way, because He also reminded this very promising people that Israel is His people, and that it does not bear fruit for His Kingdom, and He cursed the fig tree, He reacted severely with respect to that, and the fig tree was consigned to be barren forever. Because what does not bear fruit, simple: the potential blessing that is in him or her dries up.

Now let's quickly go to Luke chapter 13 because this is not an isolated theme but rather a theme of all Scripture, and I hope to underpin many of the things that I am saying with other biblical references that teach us this, and that is: bear fruit It is not an option. If you enter the Kingdom of God, uh, you can't assume that: ah, I can simply afford to come to Church, sit on the bench, sing some praises, listen to a sermon, and I go home, and my Life does not have any resonance or any type, it represents any type of advantage or gain for the Kingdom of God. It is not like this.

Every man, every woman who enters the Kingdom of God from the beginning must be restless and ask themselves: Lord, what am I doing to advance the interests of Your Kingdom? how is it being used to further Your purposes? In what way, even minimal, is my life serving to please You and to advance the interests of Your Kingdom?

All of Scripture teaches us over and over again that we enter the Kingdom of God to become Christ-following disciples and His instruments. The identity of a child of God is summed up in being a servant of the Lord, amen? How many can say amen to that? and in being useful, being an instrument so that the grace of God runs through you and you become the hands, the feet, the mouth, the brain of Christ Jesus. All your interventions, all your experience has to be penetrated by your identity as a servant, an instrument of the Kingdom of God.

Here in Luke chapter 13 verses 6 to 9 the Lord utters a parable, he says that: "He also said this parable: A man had a fig tree" interestingly the Lord uses a fig tree again, "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and came to seek fruit in it" why? because a fig tree exists to bear fruit, what justifies the life of a fig tree and that it occupies land is that it bears fruit, figs; a fig tree does not have many decorative virtues.

Notice that this man plants a fig tree and he assumes that the fig tree is going to bear fruit, he does not come saying: wow, I hope that this fig tree turns out well for me and that it bears fruit, no. He comes waiting for the fig tree to bear fruit, he came to look for fruit on it. I wonder how many times the Lord comes into my life, inquires and says: Son, where are the fruits of justice? How are you using the gift of God that is within you? How are you redeeming the talents that I have placed in your life? how are you using the energy of My Spirit to do something in favor of My Kingdom? how am I taking advantage of the investment of My Spirit, My gifts, My Power in your life, My blessing in your life? The Lord comes into our life, the Holy Spirit is continually inquiring in your life, in mine, what fruit are you bearing for My glory, for My honor, for My progress?

So this man comes looking for fruit on the fig tree and he did not find it. How many children of God consign their Christian career to a mere religiosity? Unfortunately the first culprit for a majority of fruitless men and women in the Kingdom of God are the Pastors, we are the Pastors and the churches, do you know why? because we do not instruct the people of God. We lull them to sleep believing that the Christian life is a merely formulaic matter where people come, cross themselves or genuflect there or go through some Pentecostal rites and we do not see that the main thing is that there are actual fruits, observable in the lives of the people. children of God, that there be interventions on our part in expression of what God has placed in us. The Lord will always come and ask you, and he will look for fruit within you, and if he does not find it, the consequences as you will see.

Notice that in the two illustrations we have here the reaction is the same. When this owner of the vineyard or land said to the vinedresser, the person in charge of taking care of the land on a daily basis, foreman, whatever his name is: "He said to the vinedresser: Behold, three years ago I came looking for fruit on this fig tree and I can't find it. ." How many of us have spent a long time in the ways of God, years receiving, receiving, eating, asking the Lord: deliver me from this, do me that, bless me in this, provide me with that, we thank the Lord, we see the benefits of the Christian life And by the way I say that we don't see enough, because part of the benefits of the Christian life come in reaction and as a product of our service to the Lord. Do you understand what I'm saying, amen? but we do not bear fruit, we do not do our part.

And incidentally in parentheses, at the risk of losing the thread here. You remember that this series of sermons that I have been preaching lately is partly in reaction to what I believe to be a sin of the modern Church, especially in the West and much in Latin America, in Africa, here in the United States, this Gospel that we call prosperity that is not a Word, because I believe that God certainly prospers His children, and heals, and blesses.

But when we consign the Gospel only to prosperity, blessing, receiving from God, to an easy Gospel, a treacherous Gospel in the last instance and we lull people to the idea that you only come to the Kingdom for God to bless you; come to the Kingdom and you will be blessed, come to the Kingdom and God will give you money, come to the Kingdom and God will give you a house, come to the Kingdom and God will give you a better job, but we do not present the other side of the Kingdom that is: come to the Kingdom to serve the Lord and bear fruit for the Lord, and bear fruits of justice, and show that the Spirit that God has placed in you is a Spirit that shares, that gives life, that also suffers for the Kingdom of God and who is willing to pay the price of discipleship. And those two sides of the Gospel have to go together to really have meaning.

If you consign the Gospel only to work, work, work, you are like Martha: busy and religious, and a legalistic Gospel that does not show us that being in the Lord is also resting and in grace. By the way, an illustration at the risk of losing even more. This morning I was praying in the living room of my house as I do early, and suddenly I opened my eyes for a moment, and through the window there was a pink color, it was the dawn that I had never seen before through that window. All the sky that I could see from the window was tinted with a slight pink color, it was like a pastel color, a little pink; the sisters know, I already saw a couple of sisters saying: pastel color, men are rough in that and we don't know what it is, pastel! hmm good where is it? let's eat it No.

The fact is that such a light color, dedicated and all, I don't know if I'm mystical or what, but seeing that delicate color was like the Lord was ministering peace to my spirit. Sometimes one has loads and things, and with this mess, my mind gets a little complicated. But when I contemplated that color I felt like God was saying to me: look at that color. And the truth is that this color, I think that is why God also put the rainbow as a sign, and there is no rainbow that you see that does not make you smile because it is like, God's smile is a rainbow.

And when I saw that rainbow it was like God was saying to me: Rest in Me. Learn to live your ministry in peace, do not worry. Move in My Grace, don't spend so much energy sometimes worrying and getting anxious about things. And I know that God has called me to that because when God demands so much from one, it will be better for one to learn to run with very efficient fuel, and for the engine not to use up a lot of energy, otherwise you will end up in the middle of the street quickly.

So I contemplated that color for a while and decided to receive it as a prophetic Word from God so that I could move in the Grace of the Lord, and learn to minister and manage my difficult and demanding situations in my life, and rest in the Lord, and not spend so much energy because I believe that most of the energy that we expend is not because the event demands it, but because there is nervous energy, worry, and alertness, and all this that wastes you. Well, my sister knows because I was talking about neurology and all that, the brain spends energy like no other organ in the body, and many times anxiety and eagerness and all this consume more energy than what the situation itself demands.

If we learn to be in the grace of God. All this to tell you, and God ministered to me by the way. While I was there contemplating that light I decided that until it left I was not going to stop praying and receiving from it. I spent about seven minutes receiving that light until I think late morning came and then it vanished, but I think I have it within my spirit and I receive it like this, I will remember it from now on.

What I want to say is that, no: God calls us to enjoy His Grace, His goodness, we enter the Kingdom of God to be free, to be blessed but, but, we have to bear fruit. We have to use the Grace of God, the Power of God, the blessing of God, the prosperity of God to be useful to the Kingdom of God. And the thing is that the more you give to the Lord, the more you receive, that is the key. While you use the gifts of God in your life that you have received, the blessing, the salvation, then God channels more works for you, more blessing, more growth. The more you serve the more you serve, the more you give the more you receive, the more you invest the more you earn, the more you spend for the Lord God renews you and the more you grow, that is the key to prosperity and blessing.

The more you give to the Lord in Jesus' Name and in faith for the advancement of His Kingdom, God connects you with an inexhaustible tube of blessing that runs through your life to make it more of a blessing. That is the key, that is why God blesses us and provides for us, because we share these buildings, we share places, we give to the community, we give to the Kingdom. The more you give, the more you receive, because what happens? If you fill up and don't give, God says: No, you already have enough, why am I going to give you more? So that's the key, because then what you have is always fresh, always new, not something old and old, and already dry because you're not using it.

So this man, I haven't forgotten, comes to the vineyard, comes looking for fruit and says: "I've been looking for fruit for three years and I can't find it. Cut it down." In other cases the Lord curses the fig tree, in this case he says: Cut it down. It is the same fig tree, death.

When you do not serve the Lord, when you do not bear fruit, the inevitable interruption of the Grace of God and the favor of God running in your life comes. Mysterious because salvation says it is not by works and that is the great tension of the theological Gospel, it is not by works, but it is for works and if there are no works there is ultimately no faith, is what Santiago says. There is the tension of the Christian life, we are going to see that a little bit and we have a couple more minutes.

"I can't find it. Cut it off. Why render the earth useless, too?" If you do not serve the Lord, if you do not bear fruit, you are an impediment, brothers, it is what the Bible says, I am not saying it. That sounds very severe, but there are many Christians who are rather an impediment to the Work of God.

Fruitless Christians set a bad example. Unfruitful Christians do not receive the illumination of the Holy Spirit and therefore many times they will be a stumbling block. Christians who do not bear fruit are going to be generally sterile who do not express dynamics, abundance, rivers of living water, which are what make us intrigued by the world and say: why is there this life in this person? why is there this joy? Why is there this persistence in the midst of tragedy and trial and loss? Why does this person, the waves come and he stands his ground or he just gets on his board and rides the wave, and comes out stronger than ever? for he is drinking from the undercurrents of God's Grace and using it. It's a channel.

Grace comes, comes in, channels it, and more grace comes in, and that person is tremendously attractive to the world. While the sterile, consuming person what it reflects is the lack of vitality of the Kingdom of God. I hope this is a challenge for your life and that the Lord worries you. I do not want to be a hammer that hits you and that you leave here beaten this morning, I want to be an encouragement for you, an encouragement so that you do not lose the true sense of your identity, the call of God in your life. God has called you to be a channel of His Grace and His Power.

"Cut it down. Why render the earth useless, too?" He then, the vinedresser who is a figure of Jesus Christ, I would say of the Holy Spirit as well, "He then answered and said to him: Lord, leave it still this year until I dig around it and fertilize it." Do you know that the Grace of the Lord is inexhaustible? The Lord will always give you a second, third and fourth chance but He asks you not to waste it, not to abuse His Grace and His mercy.

The Lord wants, at some point you are going to have to make a decision, are you going to live as a consumer or are you going to live as a producer? Are you going to live like someone just squatting on land or are you going to live like someone who bears fruit and brings delight to the eyes of its owner?

And then the Holy Spirit is working in your life, He wants to work so that you bear fruit and here is a very important principle that we have already alluded to. It says: "Until I dig." That word is a very strong word, because you know? my brother, my sister, if you are going to bear fruit in the vineyard of the Lord God, you will have to dig in your life. So again, we cannot assume that we only come to Church to have pleasant and pleasant experiences. A part of the Christian life and experience is when God digs into our lives.

I have always said that if the earth could speak every time the farmer puts a sickle or threshing machine into it, or puts in a machine that crushes and tears it deeply, the earth would scream because it is receiving violence. Every time a tree is pruned and its leafy branches are cut, one leaves it reduced to a minimum so that the life and sap within it, of that tree, is distributed in a more effective way and then that tree can bear more fruit the tree would scream if it had to, it is losing its beauty and you are doing violence to it but it is for its own good.

And the only way that God can take you to the level that He needs from you, and even for your own benefit as well, because there are things that you need to experience the joy of the Lord in your life, God is going to have to cut things in your life You know? it is for your own benefit. God does not do things in a utilitarian way, God also does things to bless us, and the truth is that there are many things that God has to cut out of our lives. And it's going to impoverish us, and we're going to look like little ones there, all cut, like a bird without feathers many times, or a cat without hair. Have you ever seen a cat without hair? This is how God has to treat us sometimes.

But God says: No, that is for you to grow, for you to become bigger, for you to become deeper, for you to be more useful and for you to experience My Glory and My joy, hallelujah. The apostle Paul says that: "I want to know Christ in His Power and in His sufferings" many of us want to know Him only in His Power but what about His sufferings?

When you go through the vinedresser's trail and God digs around you, always remember two things: it is to bless you and so that you bear fruit. Those are the negative experiences of our life. The confrontations that we have, the defeats and failures of life, the troubles and the obstacles is to dig around you so that you bear fruit, so that you are a blessing. And many of us when the vinedresser comes to cut and shows us the shears we say: no, no, no, no, stay away. We hide it, we play crazy goats, we go around pretending we didn't see it, thinking that if we pretend he's going to think we didn't see it. He knows, that's called grieving the Holy Spirit. And then the fruit will stay within us.

I'm going to dig, the Lord wants to dig. Until I dig around it, fertilize it, the Holy Spirit is always digging and fertilizing around our life, what happens is that we don't perceive it that way. We come with a superficial mentality of what the Gospel is, that is why we Pastors sin, it is a sin today to tell people: come to the Gospel to have a good time; you're stealing from people, that's what you're doing. Come to experience the glory of God and to suffer like your Lord, and to be a brawny hero because God has subjected you to His training, for both.

And in the Gospel one experiences glory and sublime moments, and also moments of sadness and suffering because a tree has to experience, a hero has to live like a hero. "Until I dig around it and fertilize it, and if it bears good fruit, otherwise you will cut it down later." Otherwise, you will cut it later.

Time is up and I just want to leave you with one last of many things that we could be here talking about but remember that: God calls you to be useful, God calls you to bear fruit, God calls you to experience His Glory, God calls you to experience your true identity, your true calling as a child of God. If you do not live as a joyful giver, as a producer of life and a channel of God's glory, you are violating your identity, you are not being authentic, you are not being legitimate. We are fakers. We do not have the identity of a servant of God, of a child of God, we are something else. A churchgoer, a seeker, someone who has sympathy like Nicodemus but we are not a disciple of Christ, we are not disciples. We must show that God has worked in us.

There is a passage that I want to leave with you, it is Mark chapter 3 that for me reflects the balance of the Christian life and that we have to preach both. I hope that this series of sermons confronts your life in your identity and also encourages you to seek more of that balance that God wants for your diva.

Chapter 10 Mark, verse 18: "Then Peter began to say to him: Behold, Lord, we have left everything and we have followed you" looking for profit, right? Long story but says: Lord look, this rich young man did not want to enter Your Kingdom and did not want to pay the price but we did, we have left everything and we have paid the price, and we have followed You.

"And Jesus answered and said: Truly, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left home, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My sake and for the Gospel's sake. "That is to say, look: there is no one who sacrifices for Christ and who assumes the identity of a disciple and a pilgrim, and who assumes his true identity as a son of God who has to leave many things, and abandon many things, and pay the price, and being an imitator of his Lord, there is none who has done this, verse 30: "That he may not receive a hundred times as much now at this time."

There is the Gospel of prosperity and blessing that I believe in it, when one gives to the Lord expect a blessing because brother is coming, do not come to the Gospel just to suffer, come to celebrate, come to dance, come to rejoice. "May he not receive a hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and lands" and here he is "with persecutions."

Please put that verse 30 on the slides, "that I may not receive a hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and lands" glory to God, glory to God, everyone says: glory to God to that, right? "with persecutions." I discern here the irony of the Lord, the irony because He kind of inserted that and it's easy to pass it by. "With persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life."

That is, we are fully covered. In this world we receive blessings, God's provision and also persecutions, there are struggles. The cross is with us and if we live the Gospel the cross will come, and the Lord did not want to simply leave it but inserted that part there, and God wants that balance to be part of the proclamation of the Gospel of His Church and of our identity as Children of God.

Let's come to a heroic life, a life of great heroism and drama where there are all the elements of a great novel, a great narrative. There is glory, there is blessing, there is joy, there are great triumphs and also the hero, the heroine suffers and suffers, and fights, and that makes their victory sweeter and more sublime. Why don't you assume and embrace that identity this morning?

Let's stand up for a second. Please mark that on your heart. You come to serve, you come to give to the Lord, you come to experience great things and you cannot predict what it will be but I know that what God has for you will be glorious if you live life as Christ calls you to live it .

Embrace your identity right now, don't leave, some brothers are. Wait a moment, before leaving, celebrate that identity there for a moment, receive from the Lord, absorb, ingest what I am saying and seal it in your spirit. Father help me to be a bearer of fruit, help me to be a servant, help me to be your servant. I recognize that perhaps I have not been all that I should be, Lord, and I embrace my identity this morning, and I beg You to fill me with Your Spirit and let me bear fruit for the glory of Your Name. I renounce any easy interpretation of the Gospel to which You have called me to live and I embrace the life of a disciple, a disciple of Christ Jesus.

Lord, may this Church be useful to you, be a fruitful Church for the glory of Your holy Name. Thank you Jesus, in Your Name we pray, amen, amen, amen. Glory to the Name of the Lord, glory to the Name of Jesus, amen, amen. May that be the Word that you carry in your heart this morning. We encourage you brothers to go there, our sister Virginia has some materials, go there, look for them and support this ministry. Parents especially, if you know a child and they come to this class that she is going to give next Sunday. I bless you in the Name of the Lord, the Grace of God be with you. God bless you my brothers.