“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush. A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
In preparation for today’s sermon, read this devotional from Kraig McNutt, M.Div.
Storing Up Fruit
based on Luke 6:43-49
“A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart." —Luke 6:45
Have you seen the streaming social media videos of the father and his sons who walk up to total strangers who need their lawns mowed and they offer to do it . . . free? These lawns often haven’t been mowed or tended to in months.
The next several seconds are a fast-paced, time-lapsed video that shows the father-son team mowing, trimming, removing brush, and grooming every inch of the property.
The results are always astounding. The property itself has been transformed, but so has the neighbor! And that is the point.
Luke 6:43-49 is not sophisticated. It is clear and simple. Good deeds or acts come from a heart of goodness. In Acts 10:38, Peter says Jesus “went about doing good.” Let’s not forget that among many other virtues, kindness and goodness are the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
I was once part of a small team of relief workers that took some medical supplies into a very remote African village. The head spearmaster—now in his 70s—remembered being told by his father more than 50 years ago, that when white people come to the village, they bring medicine.
Word got out in the village that we were arriving soon. The spearmaster went to church—for the first time ever—to learn for himself why white people were coming “to do good.” As a result, he heard the gospel for the first time and gave his life to Christ.
When it comes to doing good, I have learned a simple principle: transformed people…transform people.
Think about it. Many things stored up, especially fruit, eventually spoil. One can store up anger, fear, wrath, unforgiveness, spite, and a myriad of other poisons of the soul that can explode upon people in very ugly ways. That kind of fruit wounds people, at times, irreparably.
Transformed people are people who store up goodness in their own hearts (Luke 6:45). Stored up goodness—a fruit of the Spirit—will burst forth in random acts of kindness and goodness, like a spring that can’t be capped.
What kind of fruit are you storing up in your heart?
Ask God for opportunities to connect with with new people attending your campus, using your words, deeds, and presence to model Christ and invite them into a shared life of obedience.
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.