Sermon Central
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Nothing But Leaves
Contributed by Scott Sutton on Mar 20, 2024 (message contributor)
Summary: Intro: The miracle that we are going to look at today is the second to last miracle Jesus performed before His crucifixion. What's unique about this miracle is instead of Jesus healing something or making something whole, in this miracle Jesus curses something.
When Jesus saw this tree it reminded Him of Christians who simply refuse to bear fruit and it really disappointed Him!
1) So He cursed it! To make it an example to the Jews, and to show us how important it is to live for Him and share His love and truth with the world.
2) Jesus died on the cross for all people and He wants everyone to hear that Gospel and have the opportunity to be saved
Scripture: Il Peter 3:9 says *13th SLIDE "The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Number 3 if we have "Nothing but Leaves" as a Christian we may have…
III. Misrepresenting The Savior *14th SLIDE Now, most Christian don’t intentionally set out to misrepresent God, or have bad testimony for Him. But, sometimes the way we live our lives becomes a stumbling block to those around us that are weaker Christians or maybe someone who doesn't know Jesus at all. I Corinthians 8:9 says; *15th SLIDE “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”
Think about this…Everything we do is either leading people closer to Christ or further away from the truth of His Word. *16th SLIDE Wow! What an awesome responsibility that is!
Illus: Talking with people about the Lord that I've worked with over the years, I have noticed a common theme. A lot of the people that I would talk to about the Lord with would say I tried church for a while but everyone there I knew that were Christians would act a certain way at church but lived the same way I do the rest of the week. So I soon gave up going to church because I saw no real difference between them or myself. How sad of a testimony that truly was. But do you realize what those coworkers of mine were actually saying to me? They were saying those people “They are "Nothing but Leaves" there’s no real difference between them or anyone else! That is a misrepresentation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1) How sad! This people may have never gone back to church again! They may never trusted Christ as their Savior and die and go to hell. I don’t know…
2) Simply because some of the people in churches are a poor testimony for Jesus Christ and it affected their opinion of God!
That is why your testimony is so very important! There is an old saying but it's very true; "You're the only Bible some people may ever read!” Think about that for a minute!
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Illus: I read a story the other day of a father who was going to the mall to shop for a new saw for his tool shop. He had his two kids with him, his little daughter Emily who was 8 years old, and her brother Tommy, his 5 year-old son. This particular mall had a petting zoo (this was years ago) *17th SLIDE as you entered. The kids could go to the petting zoo while the parents went shopping for what they needed and they could pick the children up when they were leaving. He handed Emily the money and started to walk on to the Sears tool dept., within a few moments though he realized that Emily was walking along beside him in the mall. He couldn't imagine why she wouldn't have stayed at the petting zoo with all the furry animals and with her brother Tommy. After a few moments he asked Emily why didn't you go to the petting zoo? Emily said Daddy there was only enough money for one of us to go so I gave my money to Tommy so he could go. You see they were a Christian family and their family motto was ‘Love is sacrifice in action’. It was a truth that Dad and Mom had been trying to instill in their children. Emily's dad had enough money to pay for her to go as well and he was very tempted to just give her the extra money and tell her to go, but instead of paying for her to go he allowed her to do the right thing and sacrifice her pleasure and enjoyment so that her brother could go. You see dad knew that the lesson she would learn was far more valuable than getting to spend a few minutes petting the animals. As they went back to pick up Tommy they sat and watched him for a few moments as he petted the animals, then Dad called him over & they went home. Emily learned that day what it meant to sacrifice in just a small way. Just thinking about the sacrifice Jesus made for us! Love is sacrifice in action. Jesus gave it all, it's the least we can do to live for Him.
