Have You Produced Anything Lately?

Matthew 21:18-20

18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

A sure way to keep your place on the team or your job in an organization is to make sure you are productive. It's important to make sure you are adding value to the team. Nobody can argue about your value you bring when everybody can see your fruit. In fact you don't even have to argue with people when you are producing. Jesus said, "you will know a tree by the fruit it bears." Have you produced anything lately that proves that you still belong where you are?

It's not enough to hold a position if you are not producing fruit. What you produced last year is not going to keep you next year. Jesus said that every branch that bears fruit the father prunes so that it can produce even more fruit. God expects us to produce more not less.

Jesus was hungry one day and walked up to a fig tree, looking for fruit but he found nothing but leaves. From a distance it looked like it had the potential to bear fruit but upon closer inspection there were only leaves. Jesus is hungry for his followers to produce but on closer inspection we are just leafy. There are too many churches full of leafy Christians who look the part but they don't have any fruit to go with it. They have a form of godliness but no power to go with it.

God made us to be productive. We are supposed to be fruitful. This is how we need to be productive:

1. We need to show the fruits of repentance. When we tell God that we are sorry for our sins, our lives should show that we are heading in a New Direction. It's not so much what you don't do anymore than it is what you do accomplish now that you've been forgiven.

2. There should be other people who come to Christ as a result of our influence. How many people have you brought to Christ? How many people have you brought to church so they can know more about Jesus?

3. We should give God a share of the crop at harvest time. God supplies us with a harvest and all he asks for is a tenth so that he can make sure there is meat in the house of Worship to feed his people.

4. We should bear fruit that nourishes the body of Christ. The gifts and talents that we have only work when they serve the body. We have something inside of us that God has planted that when produced will make the body of Christ better.

We should have the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Dear God,

Please don't dig me up yet but give me more time to produce more fruit for you. Prune me so that I can give you more than I gave you last year. Thank you for giving me more time to be more productive. Use my fruit to feed your body. May the mediation of my heart, the words of my mouth, and the work of my hands be pleasing and acceptable to you.

In Jesus Name,

Amen