Pretty Leaves

We can come together, shake hands, hug necks and put on pretty leaves like we really love one another, but if it isn’t real, it won’t be long until the truth shines forth.

After the fig tree was “found out and cursed”, the disciples were amazed at how fast it died.

Let me tell you that I have seen this happen in the church and so have you. Once the pretty leaves are pushed back and we see the emptiness on the inside, it doesn’t take long for us to “cast aside” those who are not what they appear to be. No one likes a liar. No one wants to hang around someone who pretends to be something he is not.

It’s no wonder that so many of our churches aren’t filled and growing. When was the last time a soul was saved because we went out and evangelized the world? Most of our Pentecostal churches are growing, not from adding new fruit, but from trading figs from one tree to the next. That gives us a false belief that we are bearing the fruit that Jesus is looking for. I’m not talking about pruning the branches that are there already, or dressing them to make them grow better, or fertilizing the figs that are growing. I’m talking about getting a new fig on the branch that has never been a fig before -a New Convert, saved and born again.

Our problem is that we have become comfortable with just having the pretty leaves. In fact, I sometimes wonder if we really believe that there are lost souls out there who we can win to the Lord. Would we be in this nice setting called a “Fellowship Meeting"? If we really believed that Jesus was coming tomorrow, where would we be and what would we be doing right now? Meeting” among other Christians, looking like a bunch of pretty leaves, or would we be knocking down the door of our unsaved loved ones and friends, begging them to accept Jesus? What do we really believe? Do we really have the faith we claim to have, or is that too, just another pretty leaf? Are we filled with Holy Ghost and fire, or are those just pretty leaves too?

I don’t think its wrong to have Fellowship Meetings or any other kind of meetings. We need to come together and exhort one another. My point is – Where is the fruit? Where are the new figs that we should be bearing? Forget the pretty leaves – let’s bear some fruit!

Look at what Jesus says next in Matthew 21:21-22, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

I believe that one of the greatest mountains that all of us must overcome is that mountain of fear and doubt when it comes to winning the lost for Jesus.

We doubt that we can do a good job at witnessing.

We doubt that anyone will hear.

We doubt that they will come to OUR CHURCH, even if we do win them to Christ – as if that part mattered at all!

We become comfortable with the faithful few, and then we try to make it all sound so righteous by saying, “Well, if God wants people in this church – He will send them.”