Fruit Meet for Repentance

Fruit Meet for Repentance

March 14, 2010

II Kings 6:11 - 14

Last week we were talking about how the circumstances of this life have the potential to shake your faith to the point that you take your eyes off of the Lord. When you are surrounded by the enemy through circumstances and trials, it is easy to concentrate on what you see around you rather than what you know God is capable of doing. Satan likes to use emotion to control your responses.

Fretting and worrying; panic and fear will consume your thoughts, eat up your spiritual energy, and redirect your thoughts from faith to doom and gloom.

Satan’s strategy at every level is the same. He wants to shatter the faith connection and move it from from faith to fear. II Timothy 1:7 clearly tells us that “God has not given us the Spirit of Fear. God responds to faith, and “without faith it is impossible to please God”. When you are walking in faith, and responding in faith, God will move on your behalf.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” As soon as your response is one of faith, the good testimony is obtained, and the answers to your life situations are released.

Matthew 3:1 – 12

As John the Baptists instructed those who came to hear his message and be baptized, he instructed them to bear fruit that is worthy of repentance. Then, he warned them that any tree that does NOT bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

In Matthew 21:18, Jesus was returning to the city, and He was hungry. “And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.”

At some point, the Lord will pass by you to inspect the fruit that you have produced. You can produce:

·  Immature fruit – knotty little green apples.

·  Mature fruit – good to eat and nourish the body.

·  Rotten fruit – this fruit is cast off from the tree before it has the opportunity to mature, and rots on the ground. (Not willing or able to bring to a mature state.)

·  Worm or bug-infested fruit – fruit that did not receive the proper care, and was overthrown by pestilence.

There is only one answer that is acceptable to the Lord, and that is the “mature fruit”. So, now that I am growing in the Lord, I recognize that I am not bearing fruit the way I should. What do I need to do? The answer is clearly laid out in Luke 13:6 – 9:

1.  Take a year to pull yourself aside, and seriously work on bearing fruit.

2.  Dig around the ground to soften it up – this will help to develop a better root system. Too many times Christians sit in the church and grow bitter instead of getting better through trials and tribulations. Hosea, the prophet told the men of Israel to “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” You have plowed wickedness; You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, Because you trusted I your own way.”

3.  Fertilizer – The best fertilizer is manure. People start taking offense when a little manure gets thrown on them. But the Holy Ghost allows this to make you rich in the Lord. Not to make you stink!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 – 2 says that there are 2 seasons:

1.  A time to plant.

1. First you have to cultivate the soil to make it ready to receive the seed.
2. Then you plant the seed. – This is represented by the Word of God being sown into your spirit. You will bear fruit from whatever has been sown – good or bad!
3. Water, sunshine, protection from the elements are the next phase of a successful fruit tree. You may have to fertilize again!
4. Protection from pestilence.

2.  A time to pluck up or harvest that which was planted.

1. When the fruit is mature, you have to harvest it, use it, store it, or it will rot and be of no use.

Your key to success is all about bearing fruit. The fruit that you bear has to be mature fruit that others can receive strength from when they consume it. Bearing fruit is the first key to success, and then you have to become a serious fruit inspector – of your own fruit.

Do you recognize what season you are in? Are you bearing spiritual fruit that will nourish others? Or, have you sown only to your own need? Have you neglected the crop once you sowed the seed? You need to reclaim your field and take inventory as to where you are in bringing forth a harvest.

You need to pull yourself aside and spend time with the Lord through fasting, prayer and bible reading. You need to be in the fellowship of believers that are talking about the Lord, His Word, and how to bear fruit and work in ministry.

Overall, the field in the world is ready to be harvested. Do you have spiritual fruit to feed those who will die and go to hell without the message of Christ being sown into their life? God is calling you out today to sow seed in the life of others. Be a sincere laborer in bringing in the harvest for the kingdom of God.

In John 4:35 Jesus said, “The fields are white, and ready to harvest. Pray for workers in the field.” I am praying for you to come and work for the kingdom of God AND I am praying for you to bring forth fruit meet for repentance in your life.

1 | Page