WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.360 Good morning, everybody. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:08.880 Let's look at our Bibles to Matthew chapter 21, verses 12 through 22. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.599 Matthew 21, 12 through 22. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:18.480 Jesus has ridden into town on a donkey. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:27.359 The people have cut palm branches and laid them and their cloaks on the ground as he rides into Jerusalem for his final week. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:30.800 And as soon as he does, he enters into the temple. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:38.719 And we have our passage, which is one of my very favorite passages in all of Scripture because there are very some very curious things going on. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:48.560 You've got the sick and the lame and the broken who are made healthy. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:54.960 And you've got a healthy seeming fig tree that is made to be broken. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:03.920 You've got the children and the uneducated getting it right, and the religious professionals getting it all wrong. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.840 And we meet all kinds of various people. 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:14.959 We meet, we encounter Jesus, of course, the religious professionals, the chief priests, scribes, and even the disciples. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.120 We'll lump them into that category. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:21.280 We meet the children who are calling out praise the Lord. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:23.280 We meet the lame and the blind. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:28.400 We meet a fig tree, and we learn lots of different things. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:38.239 The passage uses all these different characters in order to shape for us a narrative and a story whose main plot is this. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:42.799 The belief that we need is a gift from God. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.519 It's not something that we earn through doing right things. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:50.400 It's not something that we can get through being really good. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:53.280 We're keeping rules or anything like that. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:55.359 The belief that we need is a gift. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:01.840 So let's look together at God's word, Matthew chapter 21, verses 12 through 22. 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:12.879 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:23.120 He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:27.520 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:37.599 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:42.400 And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:44.560 Jesus said to them, Yes. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:49.280 Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:54.560 And leaving them he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:00.800 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:06.879 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:11.039 And he said to it, May no fruit ever come from you again. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:13.680 And the fig tree withered at once. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:18.400 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once? 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:31.199 And Jesus answered them, Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:36.719 Whatever ask in prayer you'll receive if you have faith. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.560 God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:43.840 Let's pray together. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:04:01.439 King Jesus, we celebrate this day that you rode into Jerusalem knowing that in a few days' time you would be crucified. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:03.759 For our sake. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:11.919 We celebrate that because there's no greater demonstration of love. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:16.560 And that we can know you because of it. 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:32.399 So we pray today that as we think about all the different ways that we make a mess of things in our lives, but the way that you delight to take our messes and make them beautiful, expressions of your mercy and love. 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:36.160 We pray that we would hear what your word would have us say. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:39.920 We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:54.959 Well, the story is told of a young girl whose mother dies very early on in her life, and so she develops a beautiful relationship with her father. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:59.360 They enjoy doing all kinds of things together. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:08.160 They are together at every possible moment and as a result form this really sweet and intimate bond. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:17.439 Until the day comes where the father marries another woman who has two daughters of her own. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:27.600 And the day happens when the father passes away, leaving the daughter under the care of her stepmother, who turns out to be a very wicked person. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:35.040 And the sisters, the stepsisters, turn out to be very wicked people too. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:44.639 And no matter how many right things the daughter does, she's treated as a slave of the house. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:47.920 She's treated very poorly. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:56.800 And no matter how many, how much kindness she pours upon these imposters, they don't show kindness in return. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:01.839 No amount of good things win their favor. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:06.399 Of course, the name of the story is Cinderella. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:20.560 And I think many times we think about our efforts to be good, like the story of Cinderella. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:39.680 I think many times, many people in this room, in this city, believe that if we are kind enough and if we are good enough, then maybe we'll be able to win God's approval. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:07:05.040 That if we keep the rules just right, if we do just enough good, if we are right most of the time, then maybe, just maybe, the great ogre in the sky who's terribly upset with us because of sin will look on us and approve of all the work we've done and so be happy with us. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:08.319 Of course, that's not true. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:12.800 Because that's not how our relationship with God works at all. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:19.600 Our relationship with God isn't based on all the right things that we do piled up on this side. 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:32.959 So if all the right things that we do piled up on this side will outweigh all the bad things that we've done over here, so maybe hope upon hope that at the end of the day, at the end of our years, God will see those good things and be happy with us. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:34.800 No, that's not the story at all. 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:40.480 Because if we believe that that's how God relates to us, then we have a real problem when we read this passage. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:49.600 Because this passage, neon light blinks to us that the belief that we need isn't something that we can earn. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:54.079 It's a gift entirely given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:07:54.879 --> 00:08:01.759 But see, the problem is that we often are really good at making terrible messes of our lives. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:07.920 We're really good at taking the good gifts that God's given us and making a terrible mess. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:16.879 And the messes that are made by the people in this passage are really descriptive about the kinds of messes that we make in our own lives. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:24.319 Let's listen to the uh to the first mess that's made in verse 12, the mess of keeping rules. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:28.959 Now, all the rule followers in the room will bristle a little bit by me saying that. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:35.279 But so I'll just go ahead and tell you what I mean by keeping rules is at the expense of righteousness. 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.120 Okay, so you can feel better. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.799 Okay, verse 12. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:47.360 As Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seeds of those who sold pigeons. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:51.120 Now, it's not looking good for Jesus right now. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:09:08.639 He's he's he's lived three years publicly talking about his impending death on and off, and now he's come into this, come into the temple, and he's taken his anger and wrath out of everybody who seems to be keeping all the right rules. 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:17.120 If we've read the Old Testament at all, we understand that God requires tremendous sacrifice in order to have fellowship with him. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:29.840 Daily sacrifice, weekly sacrifice, monthly sacrifice, seasonal sacrifice, annual sacrifice, over and over and over and over, God was requiring sacrifices. 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:35.120 And so, where were you to get the uh get the animals to sacrifice? 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:36.720 Around the temple. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.519 So technically, these people weren't doing anything terribly wrong. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.759 They were keeping the rules. 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:50.399 But then Jesus, what he says next, uh uh gives us a clue as to what's going on. 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:55.600 He says, My house is to be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:10:02.639 Now we need to understand something about Israel's purpose and the construction of the temple in order to make sense of what he says. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:22.960 Do you remember Israel's purpose, the way that God, the reason God saved Israel, he says, I'm gonna bless you to be a blessing, so that in you all the nations of the world would be blessed, so that he strategically placed them at the geographical crossroads where they were, which is why they still fight over that land mass today. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:30.720 Strategically placed them at this crossroads so that as people would come through that were from other nations, they would see, my, how these people are different. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:34.320 Their God must be different and come to know and love him. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:45.679 And in order to support that, God instructed the people of Israel to build the temple with an outer court for the Gentiles to come and pray. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:51.279 This outer court was the largest space of the temple by far. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:57.200 And it's where everybody from all the nations could come and pray to God. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:16.080 Now, this week that Jesus comes into Jerusalem is Passover, and Jewish historians would estimate that at the time of Passover, around 250,000 lambs were sold in this court alone. 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:20.000 Not to mention the pigeons that are talked about in this passage. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:27.039 Think about the zoo-like conditions in this court. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:32.320 How is anyone able to pray? 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.559 And they say, well, it's not our fault that they can't pray. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:40.720 We're keeping the rules. 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:42.720 That's their problem. 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:48.960 And yet what they're doing is that they're keeping the rules at the expense of righteousness. 00:11:51.120 --> 00:12:01.120 Anybody who is away from us today, and there's a lot of folks of us on spring break have taken a road trip, know exactly what I'm talking about, and I bet everybody else in this room does too. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:02.720 Do you remember when you were little? 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:20.960 Perhaps you had a sibling, or perhaps you've experienced this in your adulthood, and uh you went on a road trip with your family, and in the back seat you sat with your brother or sister, or brothers or sisters, or whoever it was, and about seven minutes into the road trip, you uh you began to fight, and you hear this in the front seat. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:24.960 You hear this, stop touching me! No, quit getting on my side. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:27.759 And so, what did your parent do? 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:29.919 See, this is the benefit of not going on spring break. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:31.440 You don't have to put up with this. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:32.720 It's the only one. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:34.559 And so, what do your parents do? 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:37.600 Your parents turn around and say, now you listen here. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.600 Do you see that line right there? 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:45.360 That's where your seat starts, stops, and your sister's seat starts. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.399 Don't you cross that line. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:49.519 Okay. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.159 Everybody knows the rules. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:53.759 Turn back around. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:55.360 17 seconds later. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:57.120 Quit touching me. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:12:59.200 He's on my side. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:02.879 And you turn around, you whip your head around, and you see that I'm not on the side. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:06.799 See, look, I have my hand right up to the line. 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:12.879 You kept the rule, but you missed the intent. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:20.720 They're keeping the rules, but they're missing the heart behind it, behind the righteousness behind it. 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:22.480 And we can do the same thing. 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:24.480 It's not our problem that they can't worship. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.639 It's not our problem that our neighbors behave this way. 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.519 It's not our problem that they struggle when we behave this way. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:32.399 It's not our problem that we cause a brother to stumble. 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:34.559 We're keeping the rules. 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:40.879 We can also make a mess of things by being right. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:44.879 Listen to what happens next. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.639 The blind, verse 14, and the lame come to him in the temple, and he healed them. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:06.240 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:12.559 And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:14.960 And Jesus said, Yes. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:19.279 Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you prepared praise? 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:21.200 And so he leaves. 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:26.000 Now we need to understand something about the chief priests and the scribes. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:37.519 They were part of a very particular class of people who spoke God's word on God's behalf to God's people. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:42.720 And so they were looked at with great reverence and they had great authority. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:51.919 And they had very particular ideas about who the promised Messiah was and what he was to look like and how he was to come and what that was to mean for the people of Israel. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:15:07.360 And so when Jesus comes, and he's not the guy that they think he ought to be, and the text says when they saw him doing the wonderful things that he did, they became indignant. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:08.559 You know what that word means? 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.639 They were personally affronted. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:14.879 Why'd they get so personally affronted? 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:19.120 Because they're used to being right. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:24.559 And sometimes being right gets in the way of righteousness. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:33.440 And we can also make a mess of things by being really good. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:36.000 You say, well, hang on a second. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.759 How can you make a mess out of things by doing good things? 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:46.000 Well, Jesus tells us by introducing us to a poor fig tree. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:51.519 In verse 18, in the morning as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.480 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but leaves. 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:03.440 Now, in other books of the Bible, other gospel accounts, it gives us another added little phrase there, especially in the book of Mark. 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:06.960 It says, Because it was not the season for figs. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:14.159 And he said to the fig tree, May no fruit ever come from you again. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.039 And the fig tree withered at once. 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:19.919 Now it's really looking bad for Jesus. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:25.440 We can understand him getting upset with people and overturning tables, but a poor fig tree? 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:26.720 Like, what's going on? 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:29.279 Especially it's not even the season for figs. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.399 It seems like you're being a little bit of a religious fanatic. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:33.360 What's happening? 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:42.639 Well, we need to understand that the fig tree serves as an illustration for all that's happening in the temple. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.720 We have fig trees around Birmingham, you know what they look like. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:53.840 In the springtime, they start to leaf out, and they also produce the little nodules that will eventually become figs. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:17:00.159 And they grow and grow and grow, and around the middle of July, late July, they become ripe. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:02.960 Same sort of idea here. 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:22.720 But as Jesus passes by it, and all the leaf and show of the tree, but no little fruit nodules on it indicating show good things outside, but no real fruit developing inside, he curses it. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:24.400 Why? 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:27.119 Well, because it's just like the temple. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:38.720 A lot of really good things happening, a lot of show, a lot of really good rules being kept, a lot of people doing, keep being right, doing really right things, but no fruit. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:42.559 No real heart change. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:49.680 And Jesus says, no, being good isn't enough. 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:55.359 And that's what's scary, because being good's pretty easy. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:56.880 It really is. 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:58.160 Think about it. 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.880 It's easy not to overdrink too often. 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:07.279 It's easy not to conduct your business unethically. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.240 It's easy to be mostly kind most of the time. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:16.720 I mean, I know most of you, and so I know that you're mostly kind most of the time. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:25.599 You know, it's easy to sort of behave and do good, and then it's easy to begin to think that because we do all those things, that God's gonna have to accept us. 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:36.799 But the problem with being good, if we think that's what's gonna save us, is that we never do it to benefit God or for other people. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:38.640 It's always for ourselves. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:43.680 Because we begin to think that I'm the kind of person that helps the proverbial little old lady across the street. 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:50.559 And if I'm the kind of person that helps the little proverbial little old lady across the street, then I must be very good and God must accept me. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:19:00.720 But the problem is being good and even being really good is never good enough. 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:08.960 This week I saw an article on ESPN about LeBron James and all the accomplishments he had. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:20.640 And the reason the article caught my eye is that it said something the title was something like MBA experts weigh in on how he can what it'll take for him to be the best player of all time. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:22.400 I thought, well, this will be interesting. 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:23.920 So I wrote the list down. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:28.880 Actually, I took a picture of the page, and I thought I'd just read some of the things that it said. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:34.720 Keep in mind, two-time NBA champ, three-time NBA final MVP, 14-time All-Star. 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:36.720 This is what else he needs to do. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:39.839 One guy says he needs more titles. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:44.880 Another person says, put together three straight championships. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:49.359 Another person, he needs at least one more title while winning finals MVP. 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:51.839 That plus an MVP might get him there. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:53.839 100 points a game. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.440 Pass Kareem Abdul Jabbar in scoring and win three more titles. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:19:59.519 Win more MBA championships. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:01.359 Win another title for Cleveland. 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:02.480 Shoot threes. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.599 NBA's all-time leading scorer in two more titles. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:08.079 Rings strengthened the general public perception. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.960 So every ring he can help helps his case. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:12.799 Beat the Warriors. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:17.680 Multiple championships or show he can win a title without an elite supporting cast. 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:20.880 Really show he can elevate his teammates, not just carry them. 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:26.880 Win one more championship with the Cavs and win championships with three teams, play at a high level until 40. 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:29.119 That's ridiculous. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:34.240 It's like that's a stupid article. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:34.880 Who? 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:37.279 I mean, it's never enough. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.680 No, it's never gonna be enough. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:43.279 And some of us, and many of us in our city live our lives this way. 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:57.680 We think if we can just do enough, if we can just be kind, if we can just give enough away, if we can be just generous enough with our time, if we can just be whatever, a good enough member at our church, then surely that counts for something, God. 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:02.640 No, it doesn't. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:06.799 And that's the good news. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:13.279 The good news is that the belief that we need is a free gift of God. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.599 And we learn it in the disciples' question. 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:21.599 Listen to what they say. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:27.200 When the disciples saw it, that is the fig tree withered, they marveled. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:28.559 Well, of course, you would too. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:29.680 We would too. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.880 How did the fig tree wither at once? 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:47.519 And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:53.839 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:59.440 The belief that we need is both simultaneously free and costly. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:11.680 It is free in the sense that in the sense that Jesus provides what we cannot provide for ourselves. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:19.680 The disciples, when they ask the question, how did that fig tree wither at once? 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:22.000 They're asking a really good question. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:30.400 And then Jesus seems to take them off this really obscure path, but we won't be confused by it, because it makes sense once you think about it. 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:40.319 He begins to talk about faith and mountains and uprooting mountains and casting them into sea and whatever you ask in prayer, what does that have to do with a fig tree? 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.440 Jesus is saying this. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:54.720 The man who just entered into the temple and threatened all the religious leaders that if they don't bear fruit in keeping with repentance, they're in danger of losing their life. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:57.119 What Jesus is meaning is this. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:29.200 If you see that your life is like this fig tree, and it's not bearing any spiritual fruit, then you can pray and God will remove whatever obstacle it is in your life that keeps you from bearing spiritual fruit, even if it's as large as a mountain, and you will bear fruit. 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:36.240 Many people have wrongly used this passage to prove physical healing. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.519 This passage is not about physical healing. 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:43.440 There are other passages in Scripture about physical healing. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.720 This passage is about spiritual healing. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:24:15.680 Jesus is saying if you are fearful that your life looks dangerously like this fig tree or like the people in the temple, always getting all the rules right, always doing the right things, always being really good, but no real heart change, then you can pray to God, and he will remove whatever it is in your heart that keeps you from bearing fruit. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:18.960 And he is faithful to do it. 00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:20.559 That's what it says. 00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:23.359 The last verse. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:28.960 Whatever you ask in prayer, you'll receive it if you have faith. 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:38.720 Now, when he says, whatever you ask in prayer, you've got to remember, it's like when you go to a restaurant, and the server comes up to you and says, How was everything? 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:44.880 They don't mean the drive over the parking lot lighting and everything else like that. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:48.160 They mean your food at the restaurant. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:50.880 How was everything here? 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.039 That's what Jesus is saying. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:59.920 Whatever, in the context of spiritual healing, you ask in prayer, in faith, you will receive. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:04.079 But it's it's free in that sense. 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:06.720 But it's also very costly. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:10.400 It's costly both to you and to God. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:16.160 It's costly to you because you're going to have to give up every remnant of your former aspect of life. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:25.359 It's going to ripping a mountain out so that it leaves a cavity and the roots of the mountain are ripped out would leave a tremendous void. 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:32.799 It's going to be painful to rip out the things in your life that are preventing you from bearing spiritual fruit. 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:34.720 It will hurt. 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:45.039 But God promises, even in this passage, that he will not waste that hurt and that he's good for his word. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:54.160 Because when the disciples said, My, look how the fig tree withered, they said something far more profound than they could possibly imagine. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:20.240 Because Jesus, by cursing the fig tree, is showing that those who do not bear fruit bear the curse of God, is providing a foreshadowing of what will happen to him in just five days' time, when he will be cursed by God for our lack of bearing fruit. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:32.480 And when we begin to see that cost, then we begin to realize we don't have to keep the rules. 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:34.880 We don't have to do right things. 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:38.079 We don't have to be right for God to love us. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:40.160 It's not, it doesn't work that way. 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:44.240 The belief that we need is a gift. 00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:49.759 And the beautiful thing is God delights to take our mess and make beauty out of it. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:57.119 I've told this before, but when I was young, I made, I took a piece of sandstone about this big. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:26:59.599 And it was black and tan. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.039 And I took a piece of sandpaper in art class. 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:04.960 I don't remember what grade I was in. 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:10.400 And I just sort of rubbed it around over the rock, and then I bored a hole into it. 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:17.200 And so I fashioned it into well, a rock with a hole into it. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:21.920 And I gave it to my grandmother. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:30.240 And she put it on her entry hall table and kept it there until she passed away. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:34.319 It was a rock. 00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:35.680 It was worthless. 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:36.720 It meant nothing. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:38.160 It was a mess. 00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:44.400 But because she was beautiful, she made it beautiful. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:46.640 And that's what happens with our Lord. 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:55.599 You see, the real beauty of the story of Cinderella isn't the altruistic efforts of this poor little girl, although it's admirable. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:02.319 The real beauty isn't the love that the father shares with his daughter, although it's lovely. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:16.480 It's the love of the prince. 00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:20.880 Well, the second half of the love of the prince. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:31.759 When he pursues one that does not belong, and he clothes her in royal gowns, and he makes her his own. 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:41.680 So we can stop trying to make peace with God by being right or by keeping the rules or by being really good. 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:44.880 And you can lay it all down at the foot of the cross. 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:50.960 Because Jesus has already done it for you and received the gift of God in him.