Yesterday, we discussed an economist’s observation that employment is up and productivity is down. This is probably the state of many churches (some don’t even have increasing membership), but we don’t know since we don’t normally measure “productivity” or, we could say, “fruit.” But we should, but Jesus is clear that fruit is important:

And he 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 vinedresser, ‘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 answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13.6 – 9, ESV)

Here are some simple observations:

• Fruit is important. A tree with no fruit is unacceptable.
• Fruit cannot be tacked on. It has to come from within. Hence, a bunch of sermons telling you what to do without telling you how to build-in those behaviors doesn’t work.
• The vinedresser must be intentional about helping the fig tree bear fruit. Fertilize it! That’s one of the reasons I write often about our daily time with God. Fertilizer is food for trees – the Word is food for followers of Jesus.
• We don’t know if this fig tree responded to the treatment.  

This is too important to rush through…more tomorrow.

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. (Isaiah 27.6, ESV)

And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37.31, ESV)