Nothing But Leaves

****Sermon Outline****

Nothing But Leaves...

I. Introducton...

a) Read:

Mar 11:11 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

Mar 11:12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:

Mar 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

Mar 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it.

b) Be Fruitful...

How many came in here expecting something this morning?

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How many in here this morning knows that

Jesus requires (expects) us to be fruitful?

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Since the beginning of time He’s commanded

man to be fruitful.

It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of

Eden when He commanded them to "be fruitful

and multiply".

He commanded them to be fruitful by increasing

in number.

He wanted them to populate the Earth with other

people just like them.

He was saying my desire is for you to bear fruit.

II. Two-fold Fruit of the Church...

How many knows that the Church is called to be

fruitful and multiply?

Now I’m not talking about the same kind of

multiplying as Adam and Eve in the Garden,

But I’m talking about a two-fold fruitfulness that

should be evident in the life of every believer.

1. See, first God has called us bear the fruit of the Spirit.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

We should constantly be growing in spiritual

things and bearing spiritual fruit. Amen?

2. And that also means that as we grow and bear

fruit we will also bear fruit through our ministry.

We will grow in number because we will sew the

seeds of our spiritual fruit into the hearts of men.

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We will fulfil our commission,

And through our ministry, just like Adam and

Eve were to populate this Earth with other humans,

We are to populate this earth with other fruitful

Christians.

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See, the early church knew how to be fruitful and

multiply.

Act 16:5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

How many knows that we need to get back to

that old time religion?

I’m not talking about grandma’s way, etc

I’m talking about God’s way.

We need to be fruitful and get back to the way it

was when God’s word says...

"the Lord added to the church daily such as

should be saved."

III. Professing or Possessing...

The problem today is that there’s too many

professing Christians and not enough possessing

Christians.

They’re claiming to be fruitful but there’s no fruit

on their branches.

Instead of the fruit of the Spirit being evident in

their lives there’s nothing but leaves.

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Many Christians today even use the excuse that

their fruit hasn’t manifested yet.

They’re still growing.

They’re trying to make it by with their bumper

sticker that says I’m not perfect just forgiven. (Cop Out)

Looking back at our scripture this morning the

Bible says that Jesus was hungry:

Mar 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

Scripture says that it wasn’t fig season yet

But Jesus cursed the tree for not bearing fruit.

Why did Jesus come expecting figs even though

they were out of season?

And why when He found only leaves did He

curse the tree knowing that it wasn’t time for

fruit?

To know the answer to that question you have to

know a little bit about the fig tree.

See the fig tree always bears fruit first and then

leaves.

In some cases the leaves accompany the fruit but

they never precede it.

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So when the scripture says that Jesus saw the

leaves from afar off,

What it’s saying is that He heard the profession

of that tree.

It was saying I am fruitful because I have leaves,

And Jesus knew that leaves came after the fruit.

It was making a loud profession with it’s leaves

but there was no possession.

Alot of people today are professing Christ but

they aren’t possessing Christ.

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IV. Conclusion...

Iwant to encourage you this morning to inspect

your fruit.

Tend to your garden.

Dig out the weeds and only sew good seed that you