Good Morning Friends,
Today we make the connections between the Covenant of Abraham and the Covenant of Christ. Today we look at the choices of Abraham and how impatience creates a faith struggle. Today we look at the promises of God and how God provides for our spiritual tune ups in dreams. Today we look at how faith is key to our salvation and how trust strengthens us. Friends, trusting is the root and what we do in faith as a witness to our belief in God is the fruit. Are You Producing Good Fruit?
Scripture: After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 (NRSV)
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NRSV)
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (NRSV)
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.
Luke 13:6-8 (NRSV)
Message: All of us, if we are honest, struggle with our faith at times. Our faith is weak. Only Christ’s faith is strong. During the living of our life, we wonder where God is and how God is going to work in our circumstances to produce a good fruit in us. We like Abraham want to take control of fruit production but that is not the way it works spiritually. Sure, we have some responsibility to walk in the steps and infinite power of a faith, but we need to expect God to save us eventually. That is what Abraham eventually did and that is what faith can do for us too. When we believe, it is to be counted as righteousness. But like Abraham we still have nightmares that we are not worthy of the covenant God has imposed on us. That is why God takes responsibility for both sides of the agreement. In today’s text, we see the image of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passes between the animals, representing God’s presence. Normally, both parties of the agreement would pass between the animals but only God does here. God takes responsibility for both parties of the covenant. If either party breaks the covenant God will pay the price, which is what Jesus, as God incarnate, does on the cross. Christ became a man and walked between death as a sacrifice and took the curse of the broken covenant for us all. Jesus paid the price and in so doing, he established a New Covenant, fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant so that all who put their faith in Christ become sons of Abraham and heirs of the blessings. We can have confidence in our struggle of faith because God is faithful to his promise to produce fruit in those that believe. And here is where we tie things together for Jesus said that we would know people by their fruits. He also said that we should be producing plenty of good fruit in our own lives. The problem is that some people produce a lot of foliage and no fruit, and some produce a lot of fruit in their lives, but most of it is bad fruit. They get results, but not the kind we really want. We may find ourselves making excuses for the lack of good fruit in our lives. Or maybe we think we are incapable of producing the good fruit that is needed in our lives. Instead of doing God’s will and pursuing whatever it takes to help us grow, we come up with loopholes to avoid the responsibility of growing fruit in our lives. But we must have the fruit of Christ in our lives so we can make a positive impact on the world, and so we can please our Creator. Friends, God’s people in community are called to be fruit producers. Jesus made it clear: only good trees bear good fruit, and bad trees bear bad fruit. People will know what kind of tree we are by the fruit they see in our lives. Our identity is revealed by what is seen in our lives.
And So, here is the main idea. Friends, Jesus established a New Covenant that fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant and sets the stage for us to produce good fruit because of the faith in what Jesus did on a tree at Calvary planted in us. And we too are to produce fruit by stepping out in faith, as heirs to the promise, and to live a life that pleases God and helps others. And as we grow into this reality God might well dig around our roots to stimulate growth. Maybe God is in the process of pruning the extra branches from your life. This too is painful but must be done. If you will cooperate with God and let His work take effect in your heart, you will begin producing more fruit than you ever thought possible. God wants to give the increase! But unless the Lord plants the tree, it can bear no good fruit.
Pray we realize that the Christian life must be rooted in faith. Pray we realize that outward acts of kindness differentiate the sheep from the goats and the good trees from the bad. Pray we have an inspired intuition of God’s profound truth that our faith and fruits are connected. Pray we have no illusion of self-importance but still do what is responsible. Pray we embrace a Gospel of hope but also recognize the signs of danger and God’s guidance helping us navigate the pitfalls of life. Pray we realize that we are weak when we stop trusting God. Pray God bring forth the changes in our lives so we might bear good fruit. Pray we realize that only a tree of righteousness can bear the fruit of righteousness…. that only good trees acting in love and in concert with God can bear good fruit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 