Fruit Inspection: Diseased Fruit
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: The fruit of our lives often reveals whether our decisions are Christ-centered or not. If we want the blessings of a Jesus-centered life, change is continually due.
Sweet Tooth
Only One Judge
If the Lord Allows
Sweet Tooth
Our lack of perceived happiness often comes down to chasing the wrong things.
James 4:1-10 ESV
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Has anyone ever had fitness goals before but not wanted to do what it takes to achieve them?
Whether we yet know God or not, we all want the blessings of a Christ-centered life, but don’t want its discipline.
We all want to live in the love, joy, peace, patience, experience the goodness, faithfulness and gentleness that comes from self-control.
Sugar highs feel good in the moment, but are bad for you and bring you crashing down.
When James speaks about friendship with the world, he is not speaking about love for people, but a thirst for things that people put above and before God.
When indulge a taste for the world's values and goals above a pursuit of Jesus and his kingdom, our souls are left unhealthy and full of persistent discontent.
The national fruit and symbol of Jamaica, the ackee contains hypoglycin, the same toxin found in lychee.5 The threats from this native West African fruit are well-known amongst those who eat it and it’s rarely eaten uncooked or before it’s ripe. Unfortunately, not all children are aware of the danger and risk poisoning when they consume unripe ackee.
-https://www.treehugger.com/poisonous-fruits-and-vegetables-avoid-4858734
We don’t involve God in our daily decisions when we simply want to do what we want to do.
We don’t ask God for his involvement because there is a sneaky suspicion that our compass is off, our pursuits have become idols and he would not approve.
This ultimately leads to compromise, sin and a life of which God requires repentance.
Have you ever prayed about something and not gotten what you asked for?
God is a good father.
Do not expect God to give you what he knows will be inevitably harmful to you.
“Whenever you put happiness before righteousness, you will be doomed to misery. That is the great message of the Bible from beginning to end. They alone are truly happy who are seeking to be righteous.”
-Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Where has there been compromise in your life?
In your relationships?
In your entertainment?
In your use of time?
In your use of resources?
Your passions need to be ripened and cooked with the milk of God’s word.
There is no way around it, friendship with the ways of the world, devoid of Christ’s Lordship, is enmity with God, because you will choose the world every time.
Friendship with the world:
It is easier, though in the end it becomes a heavier burden than you want to carry.
It is quicker, though in the end you end up paying for things longer than you would like.
It seems fancier, though it ends up costing more than you were desiring to pay.
It may give you a measure of shallow praise, but not from the one who will be the ultimate, life affirming judge.
God "yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us" because as a good father, he wants to spare us self-inflicted pain so that with clear eyes we can have what leads to actual life and health.
Jesus continually calls us back to his ways by grace that we might reorient ourselves around the rightful, benevolent judge.
“No matter how low down you are; no matter what your disposition has been; you may be low in your thoughts, words, and actions; you may be selfish; your heart may be overflowing with corruption and wickedness; yet Jesus will have compassion upon you. He will speak comforting words to you; not treat you coldly or spurn you, as perhaps those of earth would, but will speak tender words, and words of love and affection and kindness. Just come at once. He is a faithful friend - a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
- Dwight L. Moody
Only One Judge
When Jesus becomes our standard, we are liberated to enjoy the life that is truly life.
James 4:11-12 ESV
“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”
When Jesus lived perfectly, he fulfilled in his life the requirements of the law that we could not fulfill ourselves.
As a loving, good shepherd, he leads us to the cross where he died sacrificially for our sins, that we might also be led to the freedom of his forgiveness and resurrection life.
Our Biblical worship and community is a constant reminder of this truth, so that God’s law might now be a meal plan to our freedom.
“Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.”
- Francis Schaeffer
We are not called to judge, but to fight for one another on that great road to life and freedom.
If the Lord Allows
When Jesus is our Lord, the present becomes a fulfilling Kingdom adventure and the future becomes something to which we look with eternal hope.
James 4:13-17 ESV
“Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
Our focus must be Jesus, to live in him and to love him passionately each day.
We do this by obeying his commands.
As James rightly said, the key to a content, joy-filled life is to draw near to God, humble yourself under his mighty hand and allow him to exalt you in due time as Jesus himself draws near to you.
“Is he trying to secure a happy little life for everyone on the planet? Or is he trying to prepare every human heart and soul for his sudden, surprising return? Only the return of Jesus will bring about the healing of this broken planet.”
-John Eldredge, Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times
Building Fund Opportunity for Marseille Church:
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher