Join us on a transformative journey as Pastor Jack guides us through Jesus’ teachings on the importance of growth and maturity in our Christian lives. Against the backdrop of a culture often hostile to faith, he emphasizes how consistent spiritual investment leads to real fruitfulness. Reflect on whether we are living lives true to God’s expectations and learn how to avoid the deception of merely appearing faithful. This enlightening episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to deepen their faith and understand God’s purpose in our lives.
When should God be able to call upon the Christian to preach the Word of God to anybody? In season and out of season. Because even if it’s out of season, you’ll still have fruit. Why? Because you have leaves.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. You ever feel like your Christian values are under constant assault? In a world where biblical truth is often labeled hateful or backward, how do we stand firm without becoming combative or isolated? Pastor Jack Hibbs wants to help you find answers with this month’s featured resource, When Culture Hates You. It’s written by Natasha Crane. And in this straight talking book, you’ll discover how to tackle tough conversations, maintain biblical convictions, and respond to cultural hostility with both grace and truth. Now, think of it as your essential guide for navigating a world that often views faith as the enemy. You’ll learn how to speak confidently on issues of morality, identity, and belief without losing sight of God’s love, because sometimes the strongest stance is one that balances conviction with compassion. Now, if you’re ready to stand strong in an ever-shifting culture, look no further. When culture hates you, it’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. One more time, jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Barren Tree. You see, whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke to them using relatable stories with common everyday themes that the Bible calls parables. Now, in this parable, Jesus is teaching us about the importance of Christian growth. You see, like a fig tree ripe with fruit, growth and fruitfulness is a very serious thing to God, and so to us. We can’t be a light to the world and a witness to our salvation without growing and maturing in the faith. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that like the tree barren of fruit, our lives can be disappointing, misleading, and our witness will lack the truth of God’s Word. In Christianity, there’s no place for stagnation, and God’s patience and mercy will only last for so long. Now, with his message called Parable of the Barren Tree, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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It was a Chick-fil-A thing outside Atlanta, Georgia. And let me tell you something. Have you ever been to Georgia? I’d never been before. I landed, got in a car, drove to this location. There’s a church on every corner. Everywhere. And I’m wondering, you literally pull up to a four-way intersection and there’s a church on each corner and you’re wondering, how does this work? But you’re wondering if the word of God is presented even in a community, little community where there’s four churches on each corner, guess what? If God is at work, there’ll be somebody from the community that will go to that church, somebody from the community that will go to this other church. Why? Have you ever gone out on a Friday night to go get something to eat? Is Carl’s Jr. packed? Is Chick-fil-A packed? Is In-N-Out Burger packed? Is And of course, Wahoo’s is packed, because Jesus is there eating, you know. But what’s the deal? God is reaching his people in the community that they’re at. They’re coming to feed upon the word of God, just like people in the community. You would not think that these places would be packed out, but yet they have a different diet. They’re getting food, they’re getting fed, different diet. Why? Strength. Spiritually, God wants his people to grow, and he provides. God radically provides. Thirdly, God’s purpose for life is his return. And I’m not talking about the rapture or the second coming. I’m talking about the dividends. In other words, this is like an investment statement in verse six. He’s looking at what comes back to him for his return. Provision and for his expectation, there’s a return. And it says at the latter end of verse six, he came seeking fruit on it and found none. You can almost see a chagrin, a frown on his face. He came seeking. The seeking speaks about an expectation, speaks about a hope. He’s provided everything and he comes to see what’s his. And imagine Jesus Christ is coming back and he’s coming back for what’s his. And the amazing thing about this reality is if you believe Jesus is coming soon, now watch this. This is kind of a trick set up here on you. Are you with me? If you believe Jesus is coming back soon, you’re gonna wanna be very busy about what God has given you to do for his glory and for his honor because he’s coming back soon. If you don’t believe that, you’re gonna see God soon anyway because you could drop dead next week. Well, what kind of positive word is that? Very positive. You may have a different view as a Christian of when the Lord’s coming back. Look, whatever your view is, you’re gonna see him. And are you investing your life to bring about a return for the king? Jesus is gonna come to me someday. He’s gonna come to you someday. And he’s gonna see if there’s any fruit under our leaves. Amen. And there’ll be no excuses. There will be no, well, you know, there’ll be none. He’s gonna say, I gave you life. What did you do with it? There’ll be no excuses acceptable to him. He’s coming to receive his investment return. He came seeking fruit on it and found none. Now, of course, in the context of this, Jesus, and by the way, the religious leaders are understanding exactly, the fig tree was synonymous with the nation of Israel. They knew that. And Jesus is saying, there’s an owner, and he came, He had planted a fig tree and time came to when he wanted to see his return and he came and there was nothing on it. They knew exactly what he was talking about. Jesus was speaking against the blindness of the nation. But it certainly applies to anyone who in life has been given life. John, again, chapter one tells us that Jesus is the one that gives life and light unto men. The second thing is God’s investment in life is this regarding this parable. God’s investment in life, verse seven, is that he has invested grace. He’s invested grace. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the grounds? Wow, this is interesting. Let me tell you. Some, and I don’t wanna stretch this too far, you should never, by the way, in biblical study, you are never to stretch a parable or an illustration too far. You can go crazy with this stuff. It’s one of the laws of biblical interpretation. But this is kinda cool, what I’m gonna share with you. Some scholars believe that when Jesus said, look, for three years I have come seeking fruit, he’s speaking none other than himself. How long was Jesus’ earthly ministry? Three years, technically three and a half years. Interesting. Could it be that the audience who were listening, they were listening to him, but they didn’t like him. They weren’t receiving his message. They knew how long he had been publicly preaching. Now it’s starting to become more than just a story, you see. Hmm, three years. He’s been, we’ve been nervous since this guy started talking. How long’s that been? Hey. Elisha, how long has it been? It’s been about three years now. Could that be what Jesus is referring to? Possibly. We don’t know. The Holy Spirit and the authorship of the Word of God points out three years. Don’t want to take it any further than that? It may mean nothing. Or it could be this. That in the mouth of two or three witnesses, the truth shall be established. Is that what it means? That Jesus is announcing that this guy came three consecutive years in a row and has found no fruit where there should have been fruit. Don’t say anything out loud, but how long have you been a Christian? And you have your years. Yes. And so, let’s say it’s 10. I’ve been a Christian 10 years. Okay, great, listen, here’s the next question that is all important regarding growth. Do you have 10 years of experiential growth with Christ, or do you have 10 years of one year growth? In other words, over the course of 10 years, you’ve never really grown more than about one year’s experience with Jesus. That would be terrifying. Do you guys hear me? That would be terrifying. That would be stunted. You don’t want to have that happen in your life. If tonight God is speaking to us and God is saying, listen to this because I want to do so much more with your life. Listen to him and obey him. But if you’re now 35 years as a Christian and you’ve got three years of Spiritual experience over 35 years? Jesus wants to do more than that. Psalm chapter one, verse one says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. You don’t get counseling from ungodly people. In other words, verse 2, there’s no substitute for not being in the word. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. Isn’t that awesome? Man, that’s a great verse for a business, huh? Great verse to like just have posted, tattooed on your dog kind of a thing or whatever, you know. Now, listen, turn in your Bibles or mark it down. The account in Mark chapter 11, Mark 11, 12. You guys all know it, it’s very, very famous. And I think it’s applicable to what we’re talking about. It’s a good illustration for us. This is a miraculous moment. Mark 11, verse 12, the Bible says there, now the next day when he, Jesus, had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, are you guys listening? This gets real cool. He went to see if perhaps he would find something on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves. Watch. For it was not the season for figs. In response, Jesus said to it, let no one eat fruit from you ever again. And his disciples heard it. You know the story. One of the gospel accounts said that the next day they came out from town and that fig tree was completely destroyed from the roots up. What took a whole summer to burn it, Jesus’ curse killed it from the roots up like that. You say, okay, I have a problem with this miracle. Did you catch it in here? I wonder if you caught it. Jesus sees a fig tree from afar off, right? It’s got leaves on it, right? He comes up to it, supposing to get some food from it. He’s radically hopeful to get food from it. He looks, there’s no food. There’s no figs. And the verse says, it wasn’t the season for figs. So you might And as a quick rethink, what’s Jesus doing? He’s God. He should have known when the season for figs was. And this was not the time of the season to go shopping for figs. Listen, this is cool. If you’ve ever had a fig tree or if you know about a fig tree, even here in California, a fig tree has its leaves on almost most of the year until the frost comes. And multiple times during the year, the tree will produce figs. It has numerous blossoming seasons. In Israel, there are fig trees, and I’m not talking a few. Many fig trees in Israel have been known to produce figs 10 months out of 12. But here’s the thing. When the leaves are gone off the tree, there’s no figs. But when it’s blooming season, the figs will often appear while the leaves are very tender and the leaves grow very fast and big. Jesus sees from afar a fig tree with leaves, meaning, isn’t this awesome? Wow, it’s not even official fig season. And that tree is telling me it’s got figs. It’s not even season. What a fruitful tree that is. Do you see what I’m saying? Do you see how this goes? He walks over to the tree. He looks at the leaves and there’s no fruit. Shock. So what you thought was a contradiction is an amazing revelation of Jesus coming to something that completely deceives the eye. Look at how beautiful I am. This fig tree blown in the wind. That’s what I’m, I’m a fig tree blown in the wind. And I’m announcing by my full foliage, come to me, I’ve got fruit. And somebody might step back and say, but it’s officially not fruit season. It’s not fig season. That’s okay. I’m an Israeli fig tree. We can produce 10 months out of the year. We almost always have fruit. And by the way, not to worry, whenever we have leaves, you can count on having fruit. So Jesus walks up and looks, and there’s nothing to eat. Translation, what a deceptive, hypocritical, fake tree. You’re masquerading as a fruitful tree, and you’re not, and Jesus cursed it.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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In 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. 2 Timothy 4, 2 says, preach the word. Watch. Preach the word. You guys all know this. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. What does that mean? Be fruitful in all times. More than 10 months out of the year. More than that. Isn’t that amazing? It’s a direct correlation to the fig tree thing. Exactly. When should a Christian, when should God be able to call upon the Christian to preach the word of God to anybody? Amen. In season and out of season. Because even if it’s out of season, you’ll still have fruit. Why? Because you have leaves. How? You’re like a tree planted by the waters. Living water, mind you. Do you get that? Ooh, ah, that’s really neat. It’s a bummer when you enjoy things on your own. It’s kind of empty, you know. Anyway, God’s investment in life, secondly in verse seven, is that he has patiently waited. He’s telling us that he’s patiently waited. Then he said to the keeper, look for these three years I’ve come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I have found none. Cut it down. Cut it down. Listen to this. The second declaration is even scarier. Why does it use up the ground? Listen, it’s bad enough to live your life without God. Your life has no meaning, your life has no purpose, you’re aimlessly living for all the gusto you can grab, you’re trying to think that your life was given to you so you can be a pleasure seeker. And if you go for that and you just go for it, guess what happens? You wind up being broke, burned out, tired, you look thrashed, beat up, pooped out, and you’re no happier. In fact, you’re worse off because you’ve tried all this stuff and nothing’s worked, so now what do you do? Well, you were designed for something much better, and that is a relationship with God, and your life without God, think of it, your life, what if the angels, I mean, imagine, the Bible calls angels in the Old Testament the watchers. Isn’t that kind of creepy? They’re watchers. Where were you recently alone? You were not alone. No, I was pretty much alone. You are not alone. God has his watchers that watch over mankind. Yikes. You’re never alone. And I wonder if they might talk to one another. Why doesn’t he cut this person down? Why does he allow them to even take up air? What do angels talk about? Imagine like a child molester and angels are there. Do you remember Balaam and his donkey? You know the story? God tells Balaam to do something and Balaam’s totally not obeying and over and over again he’s disobeying God and he gets on his donkey and he’s riding his donkey and he’s riding his donkey up against what probably was an actual property line, vineyard line, it’d be a stone wall. And he’s riding on the property line and the Bible says an angel appears but Balaam can’t see the angel. But the donkey sees the angel. The animal sees the angel. Does that mean animals see angels or can? According to the Bible, the donkey saw the angel and the donkey freaked and jumped back and pinned Balaam’s leg against the wall and Balaam starts beating the snot out of his donkey. This is a great story. The donkey says, the donkey says, what are you doing? Have I not served you all my life faithfully? And then Balaam can see, all of a sudden now, Balaam can see the angel standing there. And the angel says, you know what? If this donkey wouldn’t have moved out of the side, I would have cut you in half if it wasn’t for this donkey. The angel was gonna kill him.
SPEAKER 1 :
Wow.
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Think of the watchers who must assess human life and say, what, how is it that God allows this human to live on. Isn’t it amazing? I bet you they’re in awe of his mercy.
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Wow.
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In Isaiah chapter five, verse one, listen, Isaiah five, one, listen to God’s heart in this. Now let me sing my well beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in the midst, and he also made a winepress in it, so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between me and my vineyard, this is God speaking, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth grapes, good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? You hear his heart? He wants fruit from our lives. Before we get in and before we enumerate what the fruit is, I want you to jot this down. What are the hindrances to fruit? What keeps fruit from growing? Are you ready? We’re going to blast through this. Okay? 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. We’re living in those days now. For men will be lovers of themselves. Is that true or false? Lovers of money. True or false? True. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness. They’ve got leaves. They’ve got a form of religiosity. but deny its power. They’ve never been changed. There’s no biblical fruit in their lives, but all of this flesh. And from such people turn away.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Barren Tree. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series highlighting the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack, we heard from Gunia and Robert. They’re in Sweden, so I hope I got that name right. Gunia and Robert, a couple in Sweden. She says, hello, we live in Sweden, one of the most atheistic and secularized countries in the world. She said, it’s been very difficult to be a Christian here in such a woke culture with all the woke churches. We want to express our gratitude as we listen to Jack on the internet, and we pray that he’ll continue his very important work. She says regards from Gunia and Robert in Sweden.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Want to say hi to those folks?
SPEAKER 01 :
I do want to say hi to both of you. My goodness. But, you know, isn’t it amazing, though? I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your country. I’m becoming sorry for my country. My country, America, is not as close to God as it used to be. But that said, we’ve got the Word of God. We’ve got the foundation of God. And here’s what’s amazing to the two of you. God has provided the technologies by which in these last days we can connect around his truth through the technologies that he has redeemed for the advancement of his gospel. Think about that. It’s these microphones and cameras and speakers and wires and the cloud, all of these things for what? Ultimately, of course, so that we can connect by spirit around the word of God, even though we are many thousands of miles apart And, you know, to the two of you, I’m reminded right now of Colossians 2, verse 5. It says that though we be separated in flesh, yet we are united in spirit as I rejoice in beholding your steadfast faith. So to the two of you, keep the faith, trust Christ, and we’ll see you soon in heaven above.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, you know, if you’d like to drop a note of encouragement to Pastor Jack, that’d be awesome. He’d really love to see what you have to say about him and how his ministry’s affected your life. So please do that. Go to the Connect tab at jackhibbs.com. That’s the tab labeled Connect at jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
Join us on a transformative journey as Pastor Jack guides us through Jesus’ teachings on the importance of growth and maturity in our Christian lives. Against the backdrop of a culture often hostile to faith, he emphasizes how consistent spiritual investment leads to real fruitfulness. Reflect on whether we are living lives true to God’s expectations and learn how to avoid the deception of merely appearing faithful. This enlightening episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to deepen their faith and understand God’s purpose in our lives.
