Matthew 3:1-11

Filled with the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruit of repentance. Matthew 3:1-11 1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' " 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. This is the same scripture that we studied last week. I spoke to you about repentance. After repentance there must be a life that bears the fruit of repentance. This must start with in each of us and in our families. Between husband and wives, between parents and children. Have you resolved the issues within your families this past week? I would like for you to take the time to examine and see if you are truly committed to living a life of repentance and bearing the fruit of it within yourselves and your family. At times I use examples from my life. As you know, we have a garden in our back yard. In order to have this garden, we had to get rid of the weeds. Are there only vegetables that grow or are there also weeds? There are weeds. In order to make it easier to walk through the garden I had made a path with steppingstones, first pulling up the weeds then covering it with the material that prevents the weeds from growing up and covering that with the stones. The weeds continue to grow up through the material and in between the stones. What I want you to understand is though I may think I had pulled out all the weeds, I was not able to do so. As I dig up the weeds at times part of the roots that I miss will be put back in the dirt and these roots will grow deep into the soil. In order to prepare for the coming season, I started to remove the stones to get rid of some of the weeds beneath it. What I thought would be simple work, just to pull the weeds out, turns out to be much more difficult than I had thought. Do you know why? The weeds that are sitting on top that pierced through the material are rooted deep in the soil. All the weeds are now connected to each other. Unless I remove the covering material it will be impossible to remove the weeds. And because the weeds are all coming up through the material in different areas it is not easy to remove. The work is extremely difficult. Without the stones and the covering material it would be easy to just uproot the weed. But now with all the covering material and the stones, in order to remove the weeds, it takes much more work because everything is all connected. What I thought would take me a couple of hours has taken me three days. I give you this example because though you say that you have repented, you may have simply covered it up with something else and that sin has taken root deep within you. Though you may have covered it up with the appearance of Jesus, will that sin stop growing? It grows like the weeds. If the root of sin is within you it will continue to grow slowly, and when you try to uproot it later it will be much more difficult then had you started in the beginning. I am reminded of this again this week. We easily open our mouths in repentance and say that we have turned from our sin, that we have thrown away our old lives. We also put on an appearance of change. Unless we have truly been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit repentance will be difficult. If I reflect back on my life and see that I have not truly repented from sin, and that the roots of sin are still sprouting weeds, then it will be much more difficult to repent today than when I first sought repentance. Repentance becomes more difficult as time passes on. You must know this and then make your decision. When you choose to turn your life over to God does the road before you become easy? I am sure that you know that it does not get easy. The weather is good so that we continue to grow vegetables year round. As I care for the garden there are times when I notice that there are different plants growing where we did not plant those seeds. What did Jesus say in the parable about the owner and the weeds? When the workers asked if they should remove the weeds the owner told the workers to leave them alone. I also notice weeds in with the vegetables I leave them alone. When something else is growing besides that which you have planted, that means then those seeds have been planted in that place. Though I may think that I have planted the word of God in my heart, but rather than obedience, if I live in fear, anxiety, doubt, anger and all my old habits of sin then I have either failed to truly repent of my sin, or something that I have seen and heard from television, Internet or people around me has planted itself in me and this is slowly coming out of me. If I meet someone today and I allow them to influence me, though I may seem that I am well, it is possible that I have allowed them to plant evil in me and tempt me to fall into sin. Though I may seem that I am living according to the word of God, if anger, discontent, complaining and frustration come out of me then the seeds of sin are planted in me and growing. I must live a life where I deal with this sin, but because of laziness we wait, but until when? It will be the harvest. What happens to you in the end when you know that sin is growing within you through your thoughts, speech, and action? You will be held accountable for your actions before the Lord, but we fail to realize this. We think it is as easy as picking up something and throwing it away in the garbage. All the seeds that we continue to plant our lives will be brought forth in judgment before our Lord. We do not realize this and this is why we do not repent. We ask ourselves what's wrong with a little bit of sin? What's wrong with watching TV? You can watch it. What's wrong with playing games? You can play games. Maybe you get a little bit angry or frustrated, things like this happen. When these things add up, the entire direction of my life will have been changed. We know that when we shoot at a target, if we are off just a little bit from the starting point then we will miss what we aim for. Currently North Korea is trying to launch a rocket. If there is even a little problem with one of its parts, will that rocket launch properly? It will not. Last time they tried, soon after the launch the rocket exploded. They lack the technology. It is not the lack of funds. Because other people succeed does not guarantee that you will succeed as well. Unless you attain what those who have succeeded have, it will be a waste of time, money, and you will be embarrassed. You have confessed to God that you will obey, but if there is a little problem, will you be able to launch out properly? That means though you confessed to God that you will obey you will not be able to live the life of obedience. The moment you start out you will catch on fire and burn. To explode while you are trying to live a life of obedience means that it is not Jesus who is reflected in your life but it is the sin. Not only will I be ridiculed but I will not shine forth the glory of God in my life. We do not think about this. Rather we make excuses for our sin. When a nation launches a rocket and fails, it is not only embarrassing to those who built the rocket but it also affects the image of the country. Though the Bible teaches us to live a life that gives glory to God, if I do not live this life, then I am a sinner who fails to reflect God's glory. Yet we think it is alright to get angry, to get frustrated, to speak evil once in a while, but it is the culmination of these moments that hinder us from finishing the job completely. Rather than tighten the bolts, they remain loose which eventually means accidents will happen. You will end up being a sinner if your old self continues to live rather then Jesus in you. Is it repentance if your sin continues to be? Are you repenting? You did not repent. You get angry, you complain. When I get angry, my wife lets me know, but rather than humbling myself and stopping the anger, I get angry to the maximum, and then it is too late. It is easier to squash your anger when it starts. Though you may think you can resolve the issue after your anger has exploded by that time it is too late, because the poison has already entered your body. Why is repentance difficult? Repentance must bear fruit. Though we call upon the Lord we do not bear fruit and this is our problem. If there are bad seeds that have been planted in our hearts through the things we see, think, hear and by the people around us, then what should we plant in our hearts? I must plant the things that will bear good fruit. Just as the teacher of the law replied to Jesus it is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and to love your neighbors as yourself. If we live the life of sowing the seeds of love by planting the word of God in my heart then there will be harvest of love, and though there may be some weeds that grow we can overcome them with the abundance harvest of love. We put much effort in listening to the advice of the world. But when it comes to obeying the word of God we assume that we know but there is no obedience to it. Why do we not obey? A pastor had shared his story recently. He was not well, so he was given advice to exercise. He decided to play ping-pong. After a few months he became confident. He asked this coach "with this much skill am I not good enough?" The coach said he did not know. Why? The reason being that though you have practiced the technique, when you go out in competition that is when you will truly be tested. In practice you are taught that when someone hits a ball a certain way it will come in a certain direction then you can get it back a certain way. But in the competition does the opponent hit the ball slowly to give you time to think about what you are going to do? The ping-pong ball is fast. When will you have time to look at the ball to think and decide what you are going to do? Does the ball wait for you? It does not. The moment you see the ball come your muscle reacts. It is not a question of seeing, thinking and doing, but it is more of a muscle reaction to the ball through practice. A boxer must act to his opponent. All teams and coaches respond to the movements of the opponent. If I decide today to follow Jesus and obey, you do not have time to think about the passage of scripture, the verse that tells you how to deal with anger when someone is trying to get you to be angry. Rather you must have sown the seeds of love within your heart so that when someone tries to get you to be angry you respond with love. This is the life of a Christian that others must see. Though we have knowledge of the Bible, we lack the application of it in our lives. Therefore when someone tempts us we fall into it. When someone comes to tempt us we fall into it an end up taking pleasure in it. Why? My muscles, my heart, have not been disciplined to deny sin in my life. The time it takes to recognize sin and decide what to do about it the seeds are being planted and show up in my life. We do not realize the same in our lives. We must discipline ourselves to immediately recognize sin, say no to it, and live a life that denies it. You must have this discipline so that no matter what temptation you are faced with in life you can overcome and be victorious. As you sit at home watching TV and thinking your own thoughts have you not already imagined everything? If you are going to meet someone later in the day, have you not already thought about what you are going to say and what they are going to say? If you are having good thoughts the conversation with yourself ends up where? If you are having bad thoughts where does that conversation take you? For example, you think that your child did something wrong. It would be fine if you would just stop after addressing the issue, but you go and add the next thing and the next thing, and then you get excited and decide to take action. What does that mean? You are taking the place of God and trying to lead the child to where you want them to go. You are standing in God's place, but you do not think so. You do not see where God is leading the child, but you have decided in your mind what you will do and are trying to lead that child into the path you choose. Who is the one in control? It is God. But if I decide what the result is to be and lead someone to my choosing, then I sit in the highest seat of pride. You make excuses saying that you a worried and anxious. It is because you fail to surrender it all to God. You are slowly going down the path of sin. When you have a job to do you think about everything. And you decide what you want the result to be so you do whatever it takes to achieve it. Have you surrendered your work to the One who is in control? You did not. Where is God who is supposed to be your Master? You meet people, have customers and see patients. You do not heal these patients. Having faith to surrender to God who is the One who heals, allows God to use you for His work. This must be the attitude in our hearts so that others may see the fragrance of Jesus Christ in our lives, but is it so? Whether it is an athlete, business person, a person who is skilled or knowledgeable, they all want to reveal the talent they posses. With the passing of time, the greatest athlete in the world will lose their place to someone else. The smartest person will be replaced by the next smartest person. The best doctor, the best dealing business person will be replaced by someone else. Even if I want myself to be revealed, eventually someone who is better will replace me. If I live a life that is surrendered to God, a life that is in complete obedience, this life will be one that is not surpassed by others. If I am unable to fulfill that which has been given to me, then someone else must be raised up to fulfill the demand. Then there will have to be someone who must surpass me. If I am to save ten souls but I do not, then in order to save those, someone else must be raised up to save them. But if I live in complete obedience in saving the ten souls, then I have done what I was given and have fulfilled God's purpose and no one can take that from my life. Then when I stand before God having done what I was given completely, I will be rewarded and live a joyful life eternally with my Lord. We do not understand this concept. We think a life filled with the Holy Spirit is making lots of money, having power when we call upon the Lord, having our prayers answered, seeing visions and because you walk with the Lord, everything in your life is to be well and think that it is all God's will. Is this truly how it is? Is this the life that the Bible teaches us is the life filled with the Holy Spirit? To have visions when we close our eyes, having all our prayers answered, is this the life filled with the Holy Spirit? Is it correct? Besides Jesus who lived the life that was most filled with Holy Spirit? Stephen? No, he heard the gospel and as filled with the spirit but there was one who was filled with the Spirit in their mother's womb. It is John the Baptist. Today if a parent doesn't want to keep their baby they go and abort the child which is not even given a chance to be born, but in the womb of his mother John was filled with the Spirit that he danced in the womb when he met Jesus who was also in His mother' womb. Who has ever been more filled with the Spirit? Is this life that John the Baptist lived a life of wealth? Did he sit in a position of status? Was he educated in their schools? What did he do? He was filled with the Spirit and lived in the desert. It was not even a life in the city. If you we're asked to live a life of the Spirit in this manner, would you? We think that being filled with the Spirit is about having power, having prayers answered, casting out demons, healing the sick. The life of the Spirit that John the Baptist lives was not one that was a part of the world. He scolded the most educated teachers of the Law who are the Pharisees and Saducees. If I am filled with the Spirit and I see that the pastor is wrong, then I must be able to go to the pastor and have the ability to point it out. But if you think that you do not have the right to do that because someone is a pastor then you are not filled with the Spirit. But to be able to be filled with the Spirit and stand before someone and point out their mistake means that I must be able to reflect on my life and see that I am living completely in obedience to the Word. By living in obedience to the Word I am able to preach it in confidence. By not being stained by the world I am able to have the power to judge the world. A king married someone he should not have. He was scolded. Later he was killed because of it. 35:23? The life of the Spirit is not worried about life or death. But we are concerned about life and death. We worry about our status, our appearance to others. We think that these are the things of the Spirit but this is not right. We mentioned Stephen earlier. Stephen was filled with the Spirit gave one sermon and then he died. If you were told to receive this type of Spirit would you want to? Will you say amen to it? We do not want to. Truthfully, we would rather do a little less but live a bit longer. Then is what we speak and our actions one? We are living a life that does not follow the faith we confess. We sit here and readily accept what is being said and think nothing of it because we do not repent from the sin that is being shown to us by the Spirit according to the Word. We must resolve these things in our lives so that we can live a life as true Christians bearing the fruit of repentance. These are some of the reasons why we must repent. In the Bible we can see that there are even those who were very well disciplined but when they were not alert had fallen into sin. One who stands out is David. Was there any one more disciplined than him? He refused to kill his enemy even though he had the chance because he refused to kill one who had been anointed by God. He put the life and death of an individual in the hand of God. Even when Saul tried to kill him, David always stood on God's sides till the end. You are all aware of the disciplined life of David. He was always awake during the most difficult times in war and when he was being chased. But he fell into sin after he awoke from a nap. If it is easy to fall into sin the moment you let down your guard, are you as disciplined as King David? Is your life truly disciplined? It is not. Your training is not over because you see visions, have spiritual power, and because your prayers are being answered. Even David who was trained through the most difficult of circumstances fell into sin the moment he let down his guard. Then how must we live? Though he repented God took the child and never was the sword to leave the house of David. You must remember this. All you remember may be that God had forgiven him and everything was alright. But in the life of his family there was to be war. To allow the sword to remain in the family signifies that God punishes for sin. This is what you must remember when you decide to repent. Saul was humble before he was king. But after he became king, out of pride he made many mistakes. He forgot about his country. Then he died. When we remember King Saul how do we remember him? David cried and cried and repented and through his family God would send an eternal savior. But Saul was discarded by God. If we see this. If we humble ourselves before God today and he raises us up, shows us visions, blesses us, but we get greedy and desire to maintain that which has been given to us, then those who come after me will forget about me and my name will be erased from the book of life. How foolish it would be to be this person? In the New Testament we are told about Ananias and Sapphira. Though they did not give a sermon nor testimony they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with a desire that moved them to sell all their possessions, but in a brief moment they were filled with doubt and worry and deceived the Spirit. If we see this, then we must know that what is important is not to see if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, nor is it important to simply humble ourselves before God, nor is it important to have much training like David, but what is truly important is to always be awake until we are called to stand before God so that we do not fall into the path of sin. It is an incredible training. Every day, every hour, each moment is a battlefield for us. This is the life of a Christian. If you are obedient 99%, it is the one percent of disobedience that plants the seed of sin in your heart and then like David, Saul, and Ananias and Sapphira you fall into the path of sin, then must we be awake or are you satisfied the way you are? The devil will allow us the 99% but it is the 1% that he uses against us. It is the 1% which causes you to fall into sin. Though God will use our 99% if I let go of his hand then it will be my fault. God is not the one who lets go of us. God is the one who fills me with his Spirit and gives me all that I need, I am the one who fails in keeping what he has entrusted to me. Why? It is the years of life in which I store up my own wisdom, experiences, stubbornness. I refuse to let go of myself. We do not understand the ways of God because it does not fit into our mind frame. Our thoughts get in the way. We want to try and do things our way. Because you have lived your life, you try to instill what you have learned into your child and this worries you. Parents who say they are concerned for their children are the ones who have a hard time letting go of them. They are the ones who have a tight grip on their child. I used to be this way. I understand. When God is guiding your child but you hold onto that child by 1% then God will let you do as you wish with the child and he will let go. Whether you hold on to 1% or refuse to let go of 99% it is the same. It is better to surrender completely, or grab a hold of it 100%. But if you understand that it does not work because you hold onto it 100%, then surrender yourself before God, as we see in the lives of those who have gone before us, not only must we see how they were successful, we must see their mistakes and decide not to make the same mistakes. This will speed up the learning process. But rather than learning from their mistakes and waking up to truth, we look at the blessings that they have received and desire for these blessings. If we look and compare, the results of sin are more profound than the effects of blessings. I'm not sure if it is good to use Abraham as an example, but we can see that the child he received for his faith is the country of Israel which is a small country. Is that not so? But his seed of the flesh is an entire Arab nation. Which is greater? Which is the greater blessing? What is the greater problem? Does not what the Arab nations have in terms of power and treasure something desirable? In today's time all countries and nations are having to appease this power. Is this God's way? If we look at the things of this world and desire treasures and power then we may be envious of these things. But if we look to God in obedience and realize that this is not the way, then what must I decide and how am I to give my life over to God? When we say we are giving our lives to God and living for him and then it is not about living in the desert and being in lonely places like John the Baptist, nor is it about having wealth or lacking it, nor is it about achieving status or being humble. It is being led by the Holy Spirit, though no one gives me recognition, and living according to the Word. This is the life of obedience. What does it mean to have content life? Can you answer this question? What is the most content life? I am asking from a worldly view. Is it having a bigger house, a nice car, a good salary, is this happiness? Happiness is not measured by houses for money. It is fundamentally the sense of being satisfied. Though I have less money if I am content then I am happy. Though my house maybe small if I am content and then I am happy. Though I may have less of an education if I am confident in what I know then I am happy. Though others may look at me and say that I am lacking, if I am content in what I eat and drink and what I do, then I am happy. Though my children may not meet my expectations if I am able to see them and take pleasure in them simply because they are my children then I can be happy. This is the standard of life. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It is being filled with the Holy Spirit, living the life that God has granted me, living in obedience to the Spirit, living a life to give glory to God, and being content in God. This is like John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, Living in the desert though nobody gave him any recognition, and living a life believing in truth, and proclaiming the truth and boldness, not being concerned with what he ate drink or wore. If you realize that to live in the Spirit means to be content, then in order to live this life, there must be true repentance that removes the roots of sin in my life, so that I am able to live this life. Although we have lived our lives with our thoughts, habits and experiences, the reason we continue to worry and be anxious is because we do not truly repent. We have not given our lives to God. We give him lip service. But if we realize that we are not giving truly of our lives, we must truly repent in order to be victorious. In order to be victorious through repentance we must remove all the roots of sin. Not a repentance that only scratches the surface. Newtons third law of motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Just like these laws describe the rules of nature when we see sin we must oppose it. I must have trained myself to be able to do this, so that I may live a life in victory. In order to live this life we must continually plan the word of God in our hearts, and continually plant the love of Jesus in our hearts, so that we may allow the love to grow in our hearts, and reap a harvest of love and the word and bear the fruit of true repentance. We have an obligation to live our lives and give glory to God and that is through the life of repentance. We have been commanded to give glory to God. In order to live this life I am asking that you search your hearts on the spirit of repentance. As we bring 2012 to a close, may you get everything in order, and with a clean heart and may you turn to God and give him glory through your life that bears the fruit of repentance. May God answer this request.