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Don’t Force Fruitfulness · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, welcome back to Bible Tract Echoes.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike McCurrier, host.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for joining me once again this week on the broadcast.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: All last week we've been in Psalm one and we're continuing that series today.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had the opportunity to preach short series.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe three messages at my home church.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thankful for my home church, but I got to speak there.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Three different occasions on Psalm one.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's some folks that were very kind to say it was a blessing to them.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I wanted to share it with our radio audience as well.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're jumping right now straight into the middle of this series.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We began last week now.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you said, I missed last week.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's all right.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't go anywhere.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen today.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't don't tune out.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen right now.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if you'd like to
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can listen to the podcast Bible Trek that goes on demand.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's on radio a hundred and something radio stations worldwide.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you can also listen on demand, YouTube Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that just search for Bible Trek echoes.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're starting a complete thought here.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're starting what you're going to hear today.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to worry about thinking I have to go back and catch all last week.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you'd like to do that, but we're talking today about this thought.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't force fruitfulness.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't force fruitfulness.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: As you listen, as I speak to you for just a moment here, I pray it's a blessing.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: My voice, as you're gonna hear in just a moment was just a little bit fraughty.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you would, do me the privilege of listening intently, I think you'll be able to understand.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen now.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: God blesses those that love his book.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Blessed is the man that doesn't do these things.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, death he meditate day and night, in verse number three of Psalm one, we're back there for just a moment, and he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fruitfulness followed in the fervor.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: That bring a fourth, like a verse number three, he should be like a tree playing about the rivers of water, that bring a fourth his fruit in his season.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad to tell you because oftentimes I feel like I should be doing more.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You ever been there before?
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: You look back on the day, you look back on the week and you think, what have I been doing?
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why is there nothing to show for it?
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Fruitfulness is not instant, it's seasonal.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes, we feel like we're laboring, and we are just absolutely slaving away, whether it's with your children, whether it's related to your bus route, whether it's with work, your church, whatever it may be, and you're wondering, God, what is going on here?
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if a farmer threw his hands up every day of the year that it wasn't harvest time, he'd be throwing his hands up from most of the year, wouldn't he?
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not a harvest time every day.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a whole lot of planting and watering.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Miss Hillary, you're not going to go back out to the garden tomorrow and expect onions.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not how it works.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bring it forth as fruit in his season.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when you have discipline, that's the word, that bring it forth as fruit in his season, you'll understand that spiritual maturity takes time, care, and consistency.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is not about results on demand.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But rewards through discipline, Galatians, chapter six, and verse nine says, in due season, we shall reap if we faint not in John fifteen five.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He that abideeth in me, and I in him, the same, bringeth fourth much fruit.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fruit, understand the fruit might be for others, but you should contend yourself with your walk with God, because you're planning by the river's water.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We want the fruit all the time.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: We want to enjoy the fruit.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, enjoy the fact that you're by the rivers of water constantly.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: God's Creek is never going to dry.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: His river has never gone, had it dry out.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's always there.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So continue self with that.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I understand what I found.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll get to, I don't think we'll get there tonight, but verse number four of the ungodly are not so, but I like the shaft, which the wind drive the way.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: For me, in my life, I have found it doesn't matter
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: What I'm out of balance in, I'm out of balance.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm out of balance.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've known people, I know man, who split his church.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's Heather and Mr. and Cindy, you sign for the death of times and things.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this gentleman split his church pastor, split his own church because his people, you wouldn't know who he is, but because in his mind, his people didn't love deaf people enough.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he split his church at a thriving ministry, took all the deaf people across town and started a church for them because the hearing people just didn't care enough about the deaf folks.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, did we serve a whosoever God?
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Whosoever will may come.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But can I tell you, that man, he had great love for the deaf people.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Praise God for it.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think you can imagine he was out of balance a little bit, wasn't he?
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: He took it a step or five too far.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when I found in my life, when I get over anxious, I will force, when I say fruit, I'm not saying it's a God-given fruit, but I will force a season of what I think is fruitfulness, but it's not God-given fruitfulness.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll reap a harvest later on.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I realize I didn't really want.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I will force things to happen on my timetable.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: When if I would just wait,
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing how God will give you the desires of your heart.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when you delight in His Word, you desire His Word.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing how the discipline to wait on will God has for you comes.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Her to man ask, a man in the audience asked a wise man to be behind the pulpit.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So most certainly it wasn't me.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: He asked him, I read the Bible and there are so many things that I just cannot seem to, I cannot seem to grasp all at once.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: and the man behind the pulpit said, have you ever thought it's because God doesn't think you're ready for him yet?
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe because you're not putting into practice all the stuff you do understand.
• 6:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, the book of Ezekiel is not the easiest thing in the world to unpack, surprise, surprise.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But instead of worrying about the fact that you can't understand the tail end of Ezekiel and all the prophecies in there, maybe you should worry about like me tonight, delighting yourself in his word.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's amazing how he'll open up the rest of it when we get there.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to require discipline.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: First number three, and he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring it forth his fruit in his season.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: His leaf also shall not weather.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it seems to be that the Lord is saying that there is going to be some durability.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: When the word is your delight, when it's your meditation, you don't dry out when trials come.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Isaiah forty verse eight promises and says, the grass withereth, the flower fateeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: You never have to worry about this going out of season.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Fashions come and go.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can buy a new car and find out the next one's coming out next month.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this word, it doesn't as, but the read preached Sunday night, past, you don't need a new addition.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's perfect the way it is.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: This has durability, but it's an amazing thing that it gives durability to those that read it.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: His leaf also shall not wither.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You think about it, if you give a tree enough time, it will crack concrete.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we want the roadblock move now, don't we?
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: The durability comes when you delight, when you meditate, when you desire.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Next, the Bible says, and whatsoever he do with shall prosper.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is not speaking about necessarily worldly riches.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You think of Ezra, he didn't seek blessings.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: He sought the book and the blessings followed.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: As I mentioned, the preference of the leader, the prosperity from the Lord all came about because of his proficiency and preparation with the law of God.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one twenty eight verse one, would you turn there with me for just a moment?
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hold your place and Psalm one will come back there for just a moment.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one twenty eight verse number one, the Bible says this.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one twenty eight one blessed.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's that word again.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: is I told you that what blessed is or blessed are in various ways that appears about seventy times in Scripture.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's another one of them.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Blessed is every one that fear the Lord that walketh in his ways.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking for that discipline, you're looking for that delight.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you find those things, then there will be divine prosperity.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Go back to Psalm one.
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bless is everyone that fear the Lord.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then, look at verse number four.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to spend a lot of time here, but just by way of conclusion, Psalm one, verse four, the ungodly are not so.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned maybe on Sunday night that this passage is a studying contrasts you have.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: the man who'll say no to these ungodly, to the sinners, to the scornful.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: But his delight is in the law of Lord.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then in verse four, all these amazing things.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Blessed is the man that walk of not in the counsel of the ungod, let's a smart thing, or stand it in the way of sinners, or sit at the seat of the scornful.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And in his law, to the meditate,
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: day and night.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a beautiful scene, isn't it?
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: His leaf also shall not weather and whatsoever he do with shall cross the amazing promises.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: The ungodly are not so.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: All those great things that were just promised, the ungodly don't get them.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that raises a question.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: if you walk with young godly, and you stand with sinners, and you sit with a scornful, and you don't delight with the law of the Lord.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It sure seems like verse four applies to you.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Young Godly are not so.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: As we conclude today's broadcast, I've got to ask.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: as verse four says, the ungodly are not so, does that apply to you?
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or does verse three, and he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bring forth his fruit in his season.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: His leaf also shall not, whether in whatsoever he do with shall prosper, which is more appropriately applied to your life.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you're not trying to force fruitfulness.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we can fake it.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Whole fake it till you make it.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it doesn't work, so we're all spiritually speaking.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen a lot of lives go up in a clouded dust.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: because people are fake in it.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Didn't have a real relationship with God.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I pray that's not the case for you.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow on the broadcast, we are going to ask this question.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is the Bible the most important book ever written?
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: What it is?
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: What a powerful question that is.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder how you could answer that for your own life.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, as we conclude broadcasts a data name, courage and tune to mark the Bible track deckers have a great day for his glory and will plan on talking to you soon.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 13:13
  [UNKNOWN]: you
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:24
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• 13:28
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• 13:32
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• 13:35
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• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for him.