Latest / The Daily Word / September 30 – Give It Another Year
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, hello and happy September thirtieth. It's Pastor Jenny here, and we are in Luke chapter thirteen as we continue through the year in our life journal reading plan. So I have just a few scriptures I'm gonna share with you today out of Luke chapter thirteen, verses six through nine. It says this, and he talking about Jesus, told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, Look for look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he, the vine dresser, answered him Sir, let it alone just let it alone this year or Also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well then good. But if not, you can cut it down. So this parable. What do we do with this short little tiny parable? Now, maybe some of you are doing some farming. Probably not farming as much as maybe you do a little bit of gardening. Planting some things, maybe some flowers, maybe do a few vegetables, a little vegetable garden here and there. But whether you do any gardening or no gardening, it can't be too difficult to jump into this parable. The whole point is here, this guy walks up and he's like, Look, there is no fruit growing on this tree. And for three years. It's taken a long time. So after three years, this thing should be producing something. My kids in our neighborhood, we take walks and there's an apple tree in our neighborhood, and they love to look for the time of year when the apples are growing on this apple tree. Now, some of you may have already done some of your fall going to the apple orchards. We were driving by recently, and kids are like, What is what's happening on that farm? What's going on over there? They saw people and I'm like, they're picking apples. this particular apple tree, it actually blooms in the summer. So they get to enjoy the apples during the summer. But I can tell you what, if that apple tree was not producing any fruit one summer, my kids would definitely have something to say about it. And that's what this man was going on. He was letting his worker know, hey, there this thing is just taking up space. And I think we can all relate Not necessarily to like I said, the physical tree, but maybe there's areas, things in our life that we see going on that's like, okay, I really thought this investment, this thing, this area of my life, I was going to be, I was pouring into this area of serving, maybe this investment financially, maybe this job, this career, this kid's sports team, you know, you name it. Whatever it is. Maybe it was something you chose to invest in. Maybe it's someone you are choosing to disciple, pour into personally, spending time with. And you look on the outside and it's like there is just no evidence of fruit on the outside. And you are just ready to give up. Like nothing is happening. But I love the response of the vine dresser. Now remember, the vine dresser is the person who is actually responsible for this tree. And he says, Well, hold on, hold on. I know that all these trees, technically all this land belongs to you, belongs to the guy. But he says, I'm gonna take care of this one. Just give me one more year. I want to invest some time. I want to put some more into this. And then let's see if it produces some fruit. And so we don't really see the end of this story, but what can we pull away? From this story. Well, I love the fact that he says, let me dig around it and let me put some manure on it. And other la words, let me put some poop on it, let me put some junk on it. Let me put for lack of a better word, some crap on it. and I really want to use that language because I think sometimes we go through life and we see something. Or someone that's worth investing in that others may look at and say, Why would you want to invest in that? When others look on the outside and see there is nothing good coming of that. There is no evidence of any fruit on the outside. Again, maybe this is a person, maybe this is a thing or an activity or a a venture that you are you're pouring into. but you feel that it's You believe that it's something the Lord has invited you into and asked you to pour into. So when we identify these things that God is asking us to pour into and give ourselves over to, sometime what looks to others like, wow, what wasted time, what wasted energy, what wasted resources that can what looks like one man's to others, it's like, wow, that looks like a load of crap. Like what why would you put that on there? Our time, our energy, our effort is actually the investment, the resource. That's actually the very thing that is needed to fertilize and invest in, to build up and create it it's it's tenderizing that ground, it's pouring into that individual, it's pouring into whatever that is needed in order to produce the fruit that is coming. So I I love this parable. I love that Jesus. shows us that things that are are barren, that look barren, that we can give them a second look and we can say, Lord, is there something else? Now, there are other parables where Jesus himself says, He's gonna cut off, he's gonna prune that which isn't producing fruit. So we have to hold all of scripture in tension. We don't take everything that's not producing fruit and say, well no, no, no, we can bring that back to life. We have to constantly make sure we're leaning in to the voice of the Holy Spirit and we don't just take it upon ourselves to assume. We should never ever assume what we think God is saying, but we should always be daily, regularly, moment by moment, leaning into the Lord. Now, does that mean we have to constantly question God? Or is that really what you said, God? Is that really what you're doing? Did you really ask me to do this? Because it it's it gets hard. Farming is hard. Investing in people is hard. Investing in the job is hard. Doing the volunteer work week after week is hard. But notice what this guy did. He said, Give me a year. He put a timeline on it. It's okay to ask God for timelines. It's okay to look to him and say, Lord, is there a certain amount of time you want me to do this for? Or that I should look to do this. It's okay to look for measurements. So his measurement, he had a timeline of one year and he had an expectation of after one year there should be fruit. And if there isn't fruit, then we can cut it down. And so we should look for and have expectations and have markers that we're setting in place. Again, I believe that those would be markers that the Lord helps us to cultivate. We don't do those in and of our own strength. But I think these are some good things that we can learn and take from this parable that Jesus was speaking. Isn't it amazing? What God can speak to us in just three simple verses that He can give to us from a scripture, we make an observation, He gives us an application. And so let's bring this to Him in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it speaks to us for today, that it's living, breathing, and active. God, I pray that if there's any areas of my life. Of the in the lives of those who are listening. Lord, if there's something barren, something that needs to be brought back to life, Holy Spirit, would you reveal that to us? Would you show us the thing or the things that we need to pour into, that we need to dig around, to dig into, and then we need to pour on that fertilizer that we need to pour over with prayer, with words of life, and give of our time. effort and energy and Lord would you help us to know what the timelines are help us to know what the measurements are what are we looking for what is the fruit that we should be looking for in the thing and God would you give us the courage to recognize if the fruit is not there to cut down every branch that is not producing fruit just as you said you would prune would you prune in us Lord all that Which is not producing fruit. Thank you, Jesus, that you're regularly shaping and forming and transforming us into your image day by day, moment by moment. We submit our lives to you and all that we do. In Jesus' name. Amen.