Yeah, amen. Mercy Hill Church, that is just one of many, many stories of the Lord's faithfulness to you and your faithfulness to getting the gospel to more places from here in the triad across the world. My name is Seth. I pastor Perkinsville Church. It's in the mountains of North Carolina, just about one mile from Appalachian State University.
And we are a church. I am a pastor. I'm a leader who has been blessed and is blessed by your generosity, by your partnership, by your mission, by your commitment. I know you've already heard a couple of ways in which I have benefited in our church, but really our community has benefited from your generosity and your commitment to go. Hurricane Helene mentioned one of you, man.
You all sent some high-speed teams to the mountains of North Carolina to go in places at the point in which they came up that hadn't been reached yet, literally by people. They went in neighborhoods that had seen no one since the floods. And then, secondly, by the Mercy Hill Collaborative, a collaborative of churches with a common goal to plant churches together so that the gospel can get to more places together. I want to thank you for your generosity, for your commitment to the mission. And I got to say, I love Mercy Hill.
I love your leaders, your pastors, and everyone I've met here. An awesome place to be. And it is a privilege to open the word today with you. We're going to be in Luke chapter 6, but I can't, listen, I can't preach without making some connection, right? I've got to have, I've got to share a little bit about me so you know I'm just a regular guy with regular stuff, but I also kind of my ulterior motive here is to show off my family in a photo because they're cooler than I am anyway, and I want to show them off everywhere I go.
So I think it's important. Right there in the middle, this is our beach trip not long ago. We found a boat and actually some people thought that we bought that boat. We did not buy that boat. I wouldn't buy a fishing boat, at least for the ocean.
I'd get a big bass boat if it were up to me. But right there in the middle is my wife, Stacey. Of course, you see me there. Our daughters, Aaliyah and Lila, our sons, Will and Parker, and the caboose of our family, Sayla Claire in the middle.
Now, just our kids, really just treasures to us, but I want to show this photo for a reason because it's important for some context about one of the things that we did. Deeply appreciate in our house, and it's the Minnesota Vikings. Listen, I'm from North Carolina. I don't know why, other than the Lord saw fit to make us Vikings fans in our house, and so we are. But my boys love Justin Jefferson.
They love the team for a number of reasons. I love the Vikings for a completely different reason. Oh, and by the way, this is football starts at the end of this month with preseason.
So if you're amped, you love Jesus too. Say amen, right? There we go. There we go. Will Parker loves the play on the field, and I do too.
But man, what's happening with the Minnesota Vikings? One of the reasons that I love them is what's happening in the culture in that program. Kevin O'Connell, he's the head coach, and you may know that. Anyway, what he's done in just a few short years is really cool to watch. Just last year, he took a backup QB.
And it really helped lead that leader to a 14-3 season. I mean, nobody thought that was going to happen. 14-3 is really good, especially in the NFL. But here's why. Here's why I think why, and here's why I'm fascinated by them.
Just a few years ago, when Coach O'Connell was brought into the program and at his opening press conference, he really let us in to how the man ticks and what he's about as a head coach. Because every coach better understand play calling and better understand the right talent, the right positions, understand the opponent, all those things. But O'Connell at his press conference talks a little bit about that, but he's quoted as saying, when the owners got to talking, when we got to talking together, we talked a lot of football, but then we started talking deeper and we started talking about a shared core vision. What's inside? See, and that right there is not something he says.
Man, he talks the talk. But it's proof ever since then he walks the walk. Like this thing, you've got to have all the stuff. You've got to do the right things when it matters most. But you better have something deeper to move from a good program to a great program, from like playoff contender to Super Bowl champion.
And I'm convinced the Vikings are going to do that this year. When it happens, you can email me, text me, say, Seth, you're right. That's what I'm hoping for. Pray with me for that as well, right? Um It really is what makes the difference between good and great.
What's inside? Culture, values. You know, the stuff we get at a deeper, the heart-level stuff. The stuff that you can't necessarily teach. The stuff that you can hope to pass on, but when it clicks, it clicks.
Because ultimately, what O'Connell gets is something that a lot of coaches have gotten before, but not everybody. It's not just about what you do. It's not about the performance or the preparation and the stuff. It's more about who you are. It's not just what you do, it's about who you are inside.
And see, if you've already gotten into the Gospel of Luke chapter 6, we're going to read just a few verses, but this passage is about good and bad fruit. And to really understand what Jesus is getting at in these few short verses, you need to backtrack this a little bit and look at the context of what's happening in the Sermon on the Plain. Very similar teaching, a little bit longer in the Sermon on the Mount. That's in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. But I'll just give you kind of a Cliff's notes or a Cess Notes version, it's even shorter than Cliff, of what's happening so far in the Gospel of Luke.
So Jesus lays it out in the sermon. He says, Here's what it's going to look like to be a follower of Christ. Here's what it's going to look like to follow me. You're going to live in an upside-down kind of way from the rest of the world.
So much so that he says, Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the grieving, blessed are those who are hated for my name.
Now, conversely, hated are the rich. Woe to the rich, woe to the well-fed, woe to those who laugh now. And Jesus is using shocking language to say the values of the kingdom of man stand in sharp contrast to the values of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is upside down. The rich are poor, the poor are rich, the weak are strong, and the strong are weak.
He continues by saying Here's a radical countercultural notion. If you're a follower of me, you're going to love your enemies. You're going to love your neighbors. You're going to pray for those who mistreat you. And also you're going to hold back from judging others.
If you're anything like me. And this is where I'm going to really drive home today. Is the human element to this? What humans tend to do when we hear a list of behaviors? When we hear a list of traits and qualities, when we kind of hear the playbook and know what plays we're supposed to run, we increase and enhance our skills, we want to do right, we want to do better.
And the tendency is going to be, if we're not careful, to start doing all that stuff. But then we get to this passage and Jesus says There's a problem with that. There's a problem with pursuing that fruit. for the sake of fruit. There's a problem with pursuing fruit.
on your own strength. And so he shocks the hearers, and he shocks us today by saying in verse 43 of Luke chapter 6 that no good tree bears bad fruit. Nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble-bush.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. And the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Hmm. If you are attempting to do that, you can do it.
to do all the good stuff. and have all the good fruit. From an outward position. Let me do that because that's right. Let me get this done.
Let me be better. Let me go pluck all this good fruit. You're missing the point of the gospel. And Jesus is always going to point us to the gospel. And the point of this, and the point that I want to drive home in the next few minutes.
Is that the gospel, and you need to get this, the gospel changes us from us? from the inside out. Let me say that again. The gospel changes you, changes me, and us from the inside out. And I will caution you many times today.
There are people who hear this, whether you're here at The Ridge or other campus or watching online later, who have lived your whole life and maybe even living your life today, seeking an outward change to hopefully transform what's happening on the inside. It's not the way it works. In fact, Jesus says that's actually impossible. Jesus builds this whole idea through agricultural language, as he does plenty of times in Scripture. But essentially, in my paraphrase of this powerful passage, Jesus is saying, it's just not in the cards for a good tree to produce bad fruit.
Likewise, it's not in the cards for a bad tree to produce good fruit. You would never walk up to a thornbush expecting to pick fruit. It just, it's not in the cards. Because if you stop looking at all the fruit for just a minute, if you stop looking at all the stuff we do, if we stop looking at all the external things that we are obsessed with as people, you're going to see behind the fruit is a branch. Behind the branch, right, is the trunk.
And below the trunk is what? It's the root. And that's where Jesus is driving this whole sermon on the plane through this passage. The root produces the fruit, and you better understand that before you continue on hearing the words of Jesus. This is not a fruit issue primarily.
This is a root issue. I mean, just think about hearing what I just described for you thus far in the Sermon on the Plain. I'm going to love my enemies. I'm actually going to bless those who curse me. I'm going to live in a way that is not natural to my human tendency.
And you get to this point, if you leave it to yourself, you're just going to start modifying your behavior.
Well, you wanna do it. You Read the words of Jesus, and perhaps you grew up in the South, like many of us have grown up in the South, and we have great respect for the words of Jesus, and we have great respect for things of Christianity.
So we say we want to do what Jesus does, we say we want to love what Jesus loves. But Jesus is going to confront you as he confronts all of us today. By saying that you may want to do things differently, but unless there is a deeper change within the heart. a deeper change within the human soul. Nothing really changes.
Nothing changes because a bad tree does not have the capacity to produce good fruit. A bad heart, to use Jesus' language elsewhere. does not have the capacity to produce good things. I'm going to do a little time out here, kind of like to look at a word that's really important from a language perspective. Because immediately, I hope at least you were challenged or challenged the text a little bit.
By saying, well, I mean, I see that Jesus is saying that, but experientially... I've seen lots of bad people do good things. And I've seen good people do bad things. That's probably the most common. And so, kind of, maybe there's a conflict within, like, you trust the word as we ought to, and we know it's true and without error.
But experience tells us that we've seen some pretty bad people. Do good things from time to time.
Well, let's just think about the word good. And this is where our language in 2025 has its limitations. I mean, you may be familiar with the word love. We have one word for love, and Scripture has plenty of words for love that demonstrates different aspects of that beautiful word. But what about good?
I mean, think about how loosely we use the word good. I had a steak the other night, and that steak was... Good. I strove. In school, I wasn't the A kid, but when I got a B, that was.
Good. So there's no way that Jesus is using a word that I can equate with like... Good works as he's describing them and stake and grades. This word has to mean more, doesn't it? And it does.
And so to push back on that conflict that we run into, bad people doing good things and good people doing bad things, let me just offer some. Alternative words in our language that might get to the heart of what Jesus is really saying. Think about the word good meaning right or beautiful, commendable. Excellent, virtuous. Acceptable.
Here's one. Righteous. No.
Now we can dig and say Huh. No unrighteous tree. Bears righteous fruit. No unacceptable tree bears acceptable fruit. And we can kind of leave that world of the confusing word good for just a moment.
And really, at least for me, hone in into really the heart of Jesus' message here. It is not in the cards. For something that is inherently unrighteous to produce a righteous outcome. Because the root produces the fruit. And it's really not a fruit issue.
That's the thing. We although we May act though it's a fruit issue, like 95% of what we see or all that we see and Most of how we respond as people is to fruit, but it's not a fruit issue.
Some of you may be familiar with this really peculiar and pesky tree called the Manchineel tree. It's not here, it's in the Caribbean. Other Other climates like the Caribbean. This manchineal tree, it's pretty. It's fascinating because it actually bears fruit, like small little apples.
You know, in the mountains and elsewhere, we have crab apples, and crab apples just are really sour. And when we were young, we go eat a lot of crab apples. I remember just it's not the best fruit, but not like this fruit. Um The Spanish explorers realized that this was not just normal fruit. Those who taste it describe it as sweet like a green apple.
But the Spanish explorers tasted this fruit and it got a new name in Spanish, but in English it's death apple. Because when you eat the fruit from the manchine tree, the problem is this, initially it tastes sweet, but shortly after ingesting the first bite of the manchineel fruit, you feel a scratchiness in your throat that then progresses to a burning sensation in your throat, that then progresses to your throat closing in on itself. And then if you survive that, if your throat doesn't close entirely, you get to experience the joys of extreme vomiting and nausea, and ultimately, as those Spanish explorers learned, death for some. If you ever see a mansion hill tree in real life, you will likely even see a sign that says, do not stand under this tree when it rains. Because the fruit's not the real problem with that tree.
It's that if you stand under that tree when it rains, the sap that's in the leaves and the branches and the fruit and yes, the roots. Even the rainwater pouring the sap off will cause your skin to respond and become inflamed, and you begin itching and burning just from the rainwater.
So let's just take this as a spiritual exercise and test what Jesus is saying to us. If Jesus is essentially saying it's not a fruit issue, it's a root issue. And so we're people and we like to push back and we like to be rebellious, right?
So we're like, well, Jesus, we're going to show you what's up. We're going to go, we're going to prove you wrong, Jesus. And so we go pluck all the fruit off the manchineal tree. And we wait patiently. We sit there under the tree.
Acting like Jonah when God covered him with the with the with the bush. And then fruit begins to emerge, and then we're so proud. We're saying, see, Jesus, what we did was we just harvested or we destroyed all the poisonous fruit, and then the new fruit emerges, and we go up and we're just certain that this fruit is going to be good. We make a big basket out of it, we chop it up, we put an apple pie, and we give it to our best friend. Do you think the fruit has changed at all?
Of course not. Because the issue is not with the fruit. The issue is with a poisonous sap that runs in every square inch of this tree. The root produces the fruit. And that's what Jesus is getting at.
You can pluck all the fruit off the tree, but until you transform something deeper than the fruit itself, nothing really changes. And that's why the gospel isn't just like a quick fix for this piece or that piece. The gospel doesn't fix the fruit primarily or initially. The gospel transforms the whole darn thing. The gospel transforms the tree.
Huh. And I promise you, man, when I speak of this aspect, I'll tell you in a little while, you'll see in a little while. why I am I am like brought to the edge uh of r the rawness and realness and tears. When I talk about the idea of people of followers of Christ, and yes, even those outside the church. who spend their life attempting to fix the fruit.
To clean up our acts. Hmm. I think what what he's trying to get us to see here is that um that I or you can spend your whole life serving in the church. You can get the perfect attendance if there ever was a thing they're still doing like that. Every Sunday.
Every Thursday. You can spend your whole life working in homeless shelters and giving to the needy and Serving in the name of Jesus. You can spend your whole life doing all of that stuff. But without true gospel transformation, you are fabricating the fruit. You are doing things for the sake of doing things.
I I don't know if we know. and realize that this is one of the greatest schemes of hell. To keep us so busy. To make us feel as though our righteousness comes from the fruit. And in the next passage of this same gospel, same story, Jesus confronts that by saying, build your house on a solid foundation, because not everyone who just does what I do or hears me in obedience knows me by name.
He says it more sharply in Matthew 7. Look at these words with me in Matthew 7. He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. I mean, that's sharp, that's hard, that ought to catch you. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day, Jesus says, Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not do all the stuff we were supposed to do? Lord, Lord, did we not give all the time we were supposed to give? Did we not give all the sacrifice we were supposed to sacrifice? Did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then Jesus will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. This is dangerous territory to be living a life. Pursuing the fruit for the sake of fruit. This is dangerous to be pursuing a life On your own strength. or for your own affirmation.
Sure, you did some stuff, but the root was bad. That's the problem. That's what they hear in Matthew 7, that's what they hear in Luke 6 in the following passage. And I can do nothing more beautiful. Then remind you of the gospel.
Because I think this is yet another. Anytime Jesus says something so extreme, he says elsewhere to be perfect. And we're like, oh my goodness, that would be so awesome, but how? Right? I need something more.
Because I am left hopeless here. And there's a powerful way in which Jesus gets us there. Coming to the end of ourself. is where he meets us with his grace. Coming to the end of ourself.
However that happens. Whatever in life gets us there. Jesus is not asking us to come to him loud and proud and saying, Jesus, save me. He is asking us to come with knees bowed. Hearts crushed.
and to receive his grace right there in that moment at the end of ourselves. Let me just remove agricultural language for a minute and tell you, say it like this. Real change. Real change, church. Does not start on the surface.
It starts in the soul. Real change does not start in the surface. It starts in the soul. Always, every single time. And this is the power of the gospel.
This is the power of the gospel where the Bible says that it is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead that is given to the believer who confesses and follows Christ by faith. This gospel, this gospel that Jesus is claiming and proclaiming in the gospel that saves us and keeps us, this isn't just like some little self-help gospel. The gospel has been peddled as just this partial fix for things, right? It's almost like you hear so often in our culture today, like if you want this aspect of your life to get better or if you're having a hard time here, come to Jesus and he'll fix this little aspect of your issue. We treat the gospel so often in modern culture like we go to the doctor and we get blood work.
and they're sitting down looking at our labs and they say, well, you got a little vitamin D deficiency, take this pill and it'll help. No, the gospel tells us and reveals us in that scenario that it's like getting our blood work, the doctor pulling it out and saying, by all these metrics, you should be dead. You need a complete. Transfusion. The gospel is not some Partial.
I mean, have we not heard already in the video testimony of complete transformation in the gospel? Jesus is not asking us. For this, just this. this slow, parceled out, cherry-picking kind of gospel change. Jesus is crying out from the gospels that this is complete transformation.
In John 3, there's a familiar story that really drives this point home.
Some of you may be familiar with it. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews. And he came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answers him, like, this would, by the way, this would be really hard.
Like, it's really not a cool response. I don't know that any of us would be particularly thrilled with the way Jesus responds to us. We're like, hey, Jesus, you're doing some really awesome stuff. He's like, truly, truly. I'm like, why are you so serious all the time, right?
Because what does he say? It's not like, hey man, thanks for your encouragement. That was really cool to me. Like, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. I'm like, whoa.
Yeah. That was abrupt. And rightly so, Nicodemus is like, well, that's the most confusing and kind of nasty thing I've ever heard because how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? He's like, really, Jesus?
Yeah. And Jesus says, no, you don't get it, Nicodemus. I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born to the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Here's the point: you have been born physically, now you must be born spiritually.
This is just not a partial change. This is just not a small, gradual change. You need an entirely new spirit. The Bible describes the gospel of Jesus Christ not as a pick and choose or partial transformation. It says that in the gospel of Christ, we are moved from death to life in Ephesians chapter 2, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh in Ezekiel, from an enemy of God to a friend of God, Romans 5, from a child of the devil to a child of God, the gospel of John.
We are a new creation. It couldn't be clearer. 2 Corinthians 5: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has what? It's not just taking a break, it's not hanging out on the sideline.
The old self is not sitting out there waiting to reoccupy your body, y'all. Hear me say that. The old self is not hanging out after you respond to the gospel and Jesus saves you, waiting to take you back over. You have been made new. The old has passed away and the new has come.
What is Jesus doing with such a powerful passage in Luke chapter 6? He is reminding us of the desperate need. The only way to bear truly good fruit. It is to see an inward change of the soul. And the only way to experience and see a true inward transformation of the soul.
It's through the power. of the gospel of Jesus Christ. By confessing to him. That you recognize you do not have the capacity on your own to produce truly good fruit. And by faith, the Bible couldn't be clearer.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, there's no maybe, there's no perhaps, there's no qualification. It says you will be saved. Romans 10. Sir, are you telling me, Seth, that this passage is? All about Jesus.
Yes. I'm telling you, it's all about Jesus. To the extent that we get our eyes off of ourselves and what we bring to the table, real change isn't something that we clean up. It's not something that we make ready, right? It is something that starts in the soul.
The gospel changes our soul, and the fruit follows. The gospel starts in our heart, but it never stays there. It never stays there. I've heard it said it beautifully, and it's one of my favorite expressions: the gospel came to you on its way to someone else. Like like Jesus uses fruit why because what does the fruit hold it carries the seed and what does the seed do it makes more trees It's a multiple.
It's a gospel of multiplication It's a gospel of advancement. The good produces good. I'd say it this way: the good multiplies good. When you stop just trying to be good and you acknowledge and just confess the goodness of Christ. Watch a transformative life experience begin.
Stop looking outward. Start looking inward. And this fruit, this transformative power of the gospel that never stays there. I mean, sure, we use words like missions and evangelism and church planting, but all that is. is what happens to a person.
when his heart, when his soul, is transformed by the gospel. In fact, This is God's plan A for getting the gospel to neighbors and nations. It is. To see the gospel change you and change me from the inside out and the outward expression is that that same good news may be proclaimed to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Until the return of Lord Jesus.
Wow. That's cool. That's good news. That's Rebecca.
So, um So a little bit of time left and I want to Close this with some spiritual application. Um Two different types of folks. First, and I say this, I should qualify this: like, here's just something very sweet, Mercy Hill, that I want you to know I always think about. when I'm with believers in other local churches. Speaking or preaching is that I won't get to meet all of you.
I would love to. or the Ridge or online or any other campus, but Like, there is a very real possibility the next time, if you're in Christ, the next time we will greet and meet one another, we'll be in the glory of heaven. And it'll be awesome to see you.
So what are the last things that I would say? Like that's that's a thing to consider in your life when you only have a few minutes with folks, what do you want to leave them with? Because the probability is you won't see a lot of folks again, just people you meet in the midst of your day. Whew, so loaded question. Loaded answer.
Um There are people Hear and will hear this who are searching and seeking and still yet skeptical. And when you first read this passage. You immediately think, well... Without context and without some of the things we've talked about, when you read passages like this and others, and you find yourself getting to this place where you say, well, that's impossible. Like how will I ever measure up to that.
Seems like it's impossible. And I think that's the point. Cheers. Saying it is. On your own.
That's the thing. This is impossible on your own. But you can keep searching. And you can keep seeking if that answer does not satisfy the longing of your soul, and I think it's the only thing that satisfies the longing of your soul, but if it doesn't, Go ask every other religion and go ask every other philosophy, literally, every other religion. every other philosophy in the history of creation.
How do I produce good fruit? And they're going to tell you this. They're gladly going to tell you. Go do better. Do better five times a day.
Go do this, go do that. Just be nicer. What does that mean? How hopeless is that? Be nicer.
Be cooler, be more awesome, be more kind, whatever. They're just going to tell you to go do stuff. And it's going to feel good when you have those small victories. You're like, yeah, I was really nice today. Or I ate better today.
I mean, look at how we diet as a culture. Like day one, we're like, Yes. And day 10. Like, well, that was not so cool. And you're going to live your spiritual life just like that.
That's what every other religion and every other philosophy in the history of creation will inevitably tell you. The gospel is this. It is finished. And that The great exchange of the cross is this, is that on the cross Jesus became Your sin. Suffered and died.
for your sin and my sin and our sin. But the part we often leave off that the Bible is so clear on. Is it so that we might become the righteousness of God? You know where good fruit exists? It exists in Jesus.
Where true righteousness comes from, in Jesus. Where does every good thing come from? In Jesus. And the great exchange of the cross is when you confess and believe Jesus. He takes your sin.
and in exchange gives you back righteousness. And it ain't nothing to do with you. Let me say that again in mountain style. It ain't nothing to do with you.
So you can spend your life chasing philosophy and religion. Or you can spend your life living the adventure of a time of a lifetime. and trusting Jesus for your righteousness and your fruit. And so the whole thing I'd say to the believers. It's about the same thing.
Because what we tend to do... Is fully believe that Jesus has saved us, but fail to believe that Jesus is saving us. Every day. He is keeping us. That's the great promise of the gospel.
That he is going to prepare a place for us and he says, literally, I'm not going to lie to you. You can trust me for this.
So the whole point here for the church Stop living. Like it's all on you. Stop trying on your own strength. 2020 was the worst year of my life and had nothing to do with the global pandemic. I've been pastoring for eight years.
I went on an emergency sabbatical two weeks before the world shut down because I was empty. I was so empty that I wanted everything, including my life, to end. Everything, including my life to end, I saw it as the only way out of this machine that I had bought into that was built upon my ability. my skills, my character, my competence, my availability to other people. I had built this life serving in the name of Jesus, failing to meet with Jesus regularly.
And so I was confronted and I was. kicked in the face by the goodness of God? And I was reminded that if I live in this world pursuing outward change for the sake of outward change, going around plucking fruit and trying to be good fruit and failing to see what the Lord has done in me, I will never, never. ever see truly lasting transformative fruit in my life.
So the call for the believer is to treasure Christ more holy. and proclaim Christ more fully. The more you know Jesus, the more you want to know about Jesus. The more you want to know. And the last thing I want to say is never forsake or forget the mission of God.
Mercial Church, you are a missional people. You believe that the most important thing the church can be doing is getting the gospel. to every tribe, tongue, and nation, and generation. And so let me just give you a missional encouragement from this passage as we... as we close.
Or to quote Abba. one pastor's desire And he says, I don't want a big tree. I don't want a small treat. He said, I want an orchard. And that's the missional call of this passage.
So be encouraged, Mercy Help. Look to the treasure of your heart. and its fruit will follow. Because the gospel is today. And for the rest of your days.
transforming you from the inside out. Amen. Let's pray.
So, God, your grace, your mercy, it's unspeakably good. It is with us and for us. There is not a uh it is limitless. We feel undeserving, and we are, and that's what makes it grace. And so, Lord, I pray your protection first of all.
Over uh Your church here. Over those who hear. Hear these words. Maybe even days, weeks. From today online.
Would you free us? from the endless pursuit of chasing fruit. And may we just celebrate and worship your faithfulness. and the fruit that you produce. For those who are seeking and searching and still yet skeptical of the claims of Jesus.
Where would you rescue them? from themselves and the things in this world and the pressures and the expectations that are inevitably crushing. remind us that. Your son was crushed.
so that we might have life.
So that Not just a surface change might occur that we might smile more often or whatever that is. but so that our hearts that were once dead may be made alive. And where we find the end of ourselves is where we find the beginning of eternity. There's a power of the blood of Christ, the power of the Gospel. May we march forward.
with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. and the power of the gospel before us. Transform us, Father. Every single day. In Jesus' name and for Jesus' fame, I pray.
Okay.
