In today’s episode, Pastor Jack Hibbs unpacks the important lessons from the Parable of the Barren Tree, revealing God’s desire for us to bear fruit in our spiritual lives. He highlights the mercy of God, who provides opportunities for us to be fruitful and warns against a life devoid of spiritual growth. Listen in as we are encouraged to respond to God’s call for genuine transformation and fruitfulness.
Today on Real Life Radio. Jesus said, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes. That’s called a trial. That it may bear more fruit.
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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.
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So if you haven’t checked it out already, that’s The Real Life Network, streaming the best in Christian and conservative content. Sign up and start streaming today for free at reallifenetwork.com. That’s reallifenetwork.com. 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 us in this parable, everyone who is planted in their faith in Christ still needs to stop and examine themselves to see if they are producing life-giving fruit. God extends the opportunity for growth. We just need to respond to it. Now, with his message called Parable of the Barren Tree, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God have in 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. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Wow. 1 John 3, 7. Thank you, Jesus. The word means practice. They don’t repeat the same sin. For his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Galatians 5, 19. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, which is drug use. The word sorcery is pharmakai, pharmacy, drug use. The word actually means hallucinogenic type of drugs. hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, the word we get orgies from that original word, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I’ve told you before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is fruitlessness. Jude 1, 8, likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, that’s a whole other Bible study. That’s awesome. What a weird trip that was. Dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, this is Michael speaking, the Lord rebuke you. That is, Michael is saying the Lord rebukes Satan. But these speak evil of whatever they do not know and whatever they know naturally like brute beast. In these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them. For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of who? Balaam for profit, using the ministry to make bucks. And perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feast. Notice where you find them. In the church potluck. while they feast with you without fear. They have no godly fear. They have no thinking that they’re gonna be held responsible someday for their actions. Serving only themselves, they are clouds without water. Isn’t that sad? That’s like Southern California. We get clouds, but rarely do they ever have water come out of them. How hopeless is that? Carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, yikes. Man, is that graphic or what? God takes fruit bearing very seriously, church. Listen, verse seven goes on. He’s determined the season. He’s determined the season. When he said, you know, let’s cut it down, basically he’s saying time’s up. There’s gonna be the intercession, and we’ll see this in a moment, of the ground keeper or the keeper of the crop, but God has determined the season. In this case, it’s mentioned here three years. For each and every one of us, God desires you and I to grow, and he’s provided everything for you and I to grow. We live in America. For that matter, it doesn’t matter. We live in the 21st century. I think you could live at the bottom of the South Pole right now and have internet access to the Bible. Listen, even if you’re blind now and you don’t know braille, you can listen to the Bible from Genesis to Revelation audibly now. Well, what, when we say, oh, I don’t have time to read the Bible. I mean, really? Really? Yeah, you do. I don’t have time to do good stuff for God. Really? Yeah, you do. Yes, we do. Fruit-bearing, very serious. What kind of fruit are we talking about in this? So Jackie, okay, what kind of fruit? You just talked about the stuff that we shouldn’t do. Okay, this is great stuff. Are you ready? Write this down. Galatians chapter five, verse 22. And this is fun. But the fruit, not fruits, it’s fruit singular. But the fruit of the Spirit, that’s the Holy Spirit, is what? Love. Singular. That’s it. It goes on. Yes, but watch. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And this is very cool. Out of love, the fruit of the Spirit is love. It’s a God-engineered thing. There’s no way that you and I can love this kind of love. God does this in you. And so when you love with God’s love that he gives you, and look, don’t you ask for it? I ask for it. I don’t have that love all the time. I need it all the time. I don’t have it all the time. But when I do have it, guess what the fruit, okay, the fruit of love, singular, is joy. You can’t be filled with the love of God and not have joy. I’m just full of the love of God, but oh boy, I don’t have any joy. It’s impossible. Peace. You’re going to have peace. Long-suffering. See, I need more love. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. Against such, there is no law. What does that mean? If you and I ask God to instill within us his love, the Spirit of God will pour this stuff out of our lives. And when the law comes by to look at us, it just walks right by us. It can’t accuse us of anything. The law’s gotta keep going. Wow. Third and final point, we’ll end with this tonight. The parable of the barren tree is God’s warning for life. But he that is the innkeeper of the vineyard answered and said to him, sir, let alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it. Notice this intercession. Some have likened it to the ministry of Jesus. And if it bears fruit, well then great. Well, but if not, after that, you can cut it down. He intercedes mercifully. Three things, quickly. Notice this. Mark it down, church, because he’s desiring to do this to us. He extends mercy. Mercy. He’s announcing mercy. It’s fruitless, fruitless, fruitless. Okay. Give every bit of special attention. Is God reaching out to you tonight? Is God speaking to you? Do you know anything that’s going on in your life? And God is saying, fix this. Deal with this. You have not been Christ-like in this situation. You have not been like me in this situation. Fix it. Deal with it. What’s he saying to us? When he does that to us, he’s saying, let me fertilize around you. Let me dig up. What does that mean? Dig it up, dig, dig. Soften the soil so moisture can get down inside. What do we do when we see a plant that’s hurting at home? We go get Miracle-Gro. Right? Right? We do everything we can. You have a prized vine or a special, I have an olive tree in my backyard, and it’s just, every day I look at it, grow, man, grow. I mean, it’s gorgeous. And I give it vitamins. I have to confess, don’t tell anybody this, but I actually, when I plant stuff, I say, God, please bless this thing. May it be amazing. And here’s this tree. We’re funny, you know, in our age. I have an olive tree, but do I eat olives off of it? No, of course not. I hope it doesn’t get any olives because it could mess up stuff, you know. Might stain my furniture or something. We’re so carnal. We want it to look beautiful and we want it to look fruitful as long as it only has leaves on it. No, God’s into fruit. but he extends mercy, and this is a call to repentance. He’s really saying to the nation and to maybe us tonight, you are running pretty low on the fruit department there, so let my word be fertilizer to your roots and to your soul that you might grow. Consume my miracle grow. The word, and you’ll grow. Read your Bible, pray every day. How’s that song go? And doesn’t it somewhere go like, and you’ll grow, grow, grow. Every little kid knows this. The word of God causes us to grow. His mercy is extended.
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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, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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Secondly, he adds opportunities. Until I dig around it and fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, look, he goes, well, oh boy, that’s the hope. He adds opportunities to be fruitful in our lives. This is amazing. God will bring to us knowledge about stuff. Did you know that? Are we all Christians in here tonight? God will reveal to you. You’ll hear about something. Did you hear that? Fred stubbed his toe. What’s that for? Oh, well, tough for Fred. Yeah, that’s a bummer. You’re a Christian. God has called you that when Fred stubs his toe, you say, Fred, do you need your lawn mowed? Oh, no, it’s just a stubbed toe. Let me mow your lawn. When you become aware of something, God is saying to you, that’s for you to act upon. Well, nobody greeted me tonight when I came in here. Are you aware of that? then God wants you to start saying hi to people. You know how it feels, right? So what do you do? I’m just gonna sit on that until I become a old, shriveled up, bitter prune over it. Or you can say, hey, I was overlooked tonight. I’m gonna make sure that nobody else is overlooked. Guess which one’s gonna grow? One is gonna look like a fruit tree with no fruit. The other one is going to be a fruit tree with fruit. Opportunities. John chapter 15 verse one says this. Jesus said, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes. That’s called a trial. That it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I’ve spoken to you. Abide in me. Live, stay, close, don’t leave, make your house in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Isn’t that great? That’s the key. You don’t have to walk around going, okay, I’ve got to love this guy. I’ve got to love this guy. I can’t stand this guy. I’ve got to love this guy. No, if you hang out with Jesus, you’re going to wind up loving that guy that you don’t like. Isn’t it amazing? If anyone, verse 6, does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. They are gathered them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. You did not choose me, verse 16. Go down to verse 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Wow. Third and final thing. We end right here. Verse 9. God’s warning for life is that he gives chances. But if not, after that, you can cut it down. See the mercy in this? The goodness of God? Cut it down. Only after. It’s the last thing. Listen, my dear friend, we’re all done. Here’s the thing. Are you a person who has a form of godliness but has denied the power of the Spirit of God? Are you a religious person but there’s no dynamic relationship working of the Holy Spirit in your life. Take evaluation tonight of yourself. It takes seconds. Are you fruit producing, which honors God? This is who we are. Listen, God is not, he’s not interested in public opinion. He’s interested in truth. Listen, God is not impressed with what we do. Show people. He’s interested in who we really are. He’s interested in our character, not our reputation. Did you hear that? I thought our reputation was fantastic. Listen, reputation is established among men. God’s not swayed or impressed or depressed by reputation. Why? He knows something that precedes reputation. It’s character. Who are we, really? As believers, We are very conscious and very aware of the fact that it’s 24-7 God. And you and I are different. I was reading, oh, what’s his name? Christopher Hitchens, he’s now dead. It’s a horrible thing. I mentioned him a couple weeks ago to you guys, but a famous atheist. But he was challenged about why he didn’t believe in God many times in his life. But one of the challenges is He responded this way, I would never acknowledge a deity that was so insecure that he had to watch my every moment and couldn’t leave me alone. He said, watch. He said, who wants a God that you can’t get away from? Wow. My heart broke. But maybe you’re saying, I don’t want a God who can see me and know my thoughts. Really? You don’t? Do you understand what you’re wishing for here? You don’t want him? You’ve misread him. You think what? You think that he thinks the moment Wilbur steps out of line, I’m going to bust him one. Is that how you think he is? That’s not him. He loves you so much he can’t take his eyes off you. And you know when you go off in some bonehead ditch somewhere on your own making and you’re about ready to perish, got yourself backed into an alley and you can’t get out? He’s there. Isn’t it tragic that if Christopher Hitchens died as he professed, he’s in hell. What makes hell hell? God’s not there. You may be an absolute full-blown unbeliever, atheist, whatever you are tonight. And it’s very funny. Your whole life is an absolute hypocrisy because you’re living off the benefits of God. He’s giving you air. Your heart’s beating. Your brain is working. He’s giving you all of this stuff that makes you you. And there’s no fruit. You have all the leaves. There’s no fruit. And God wants to take your life and he wants to fertilize the roots of your soul and dig it up and get water going in there so that you might produce a whole brand new life. And you can die. Think about dying. Think about, the Bible says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Why? Their lives have been fulfilled. And I thought to reduce this down to the simplest thing, and I have to end. I don’t want to end, but I have to end. Can a Christian be fruitless in life? I do not know the answer to that. I wish I could get an answer. Could a Christian be fruitless and be a Christian? The simplest reduction of this is the thief on the cross. The guy was a believer for what? Maybe a couple hours at the most? And look to this day, the fruit that is to his account. On those deathbed conversions, you quickly turn to the thief on the cross to give people hope. Look at the fruit of that man’s life. Can you be a Christian and not be fruitful? I don’t know the answer to that. And that we should not sleep until we have our own personal answer for that. That we will bear fruit to the glory of God. Father, we thank you for your truth tonight. It is piercing our soul. It is like a light and a lamp to our core. And God, we pray tonight as a church, family, as people who benefit from your goodness, that we would humble our hearts tonight, that we would repent of our self-dependence, and we would cry out to you, God. that you would wash us of our sins, forgive us, God, of the error of our ways, and that you’d make our lives to be fruitful. that by pursuit of god we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in these things father tonight maybe for some maybe for one maybe for many we lord would lay our head down on our pillow tonight and wrestle with the living god and we would pray lord that we would lose our will we would lose our plan that we would lose our pride, we would lose the fight and have all of you. We ask in Jesus’ name, oh God, in his name we pray and all God’s people say, amen.
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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.
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So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you’d like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com slash know God. That’s K-N-O-W God. And there you’ll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you’ll find in knowing God. Don’t miss out. That’s the know God tab at jackhibbs.com.
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Pastor Jack, this month’s featured resource, it’s called When Culture Hates You. It’s written by Natasha Crane. You really like Natasha, right?
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I do, Davey. And the reason is, is Natasha is one of the great defenders of the faith that we have today. She is on a continuous speaking circuit defending the truth from the word of God and into the culture, she’s fearless. In fact, I’ve always often joked with a mutual friend of Natasha, Dr. Frank Turek, and I’ve always told Dr. Frank Turek, if we had more men like Natasha, the church would be a lot better off because she’s fearless and she’s all about truth. And she’s written a tremendous book, When Culture Hates You. I love the title because if we’re gonna be actual followers of Jesus Christ, the culture will hate us. It must hate us. And so it’s a great book. I don’t want anybody to be scared by the title, But you really need to know, in fact, listen to this, persevering for the common good as Christians in a hostile public square. That’s exactly where we live. And her book will help you be equipped to do exactly that.
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So if listeners were to take away just one key point from this book, what would you hope that point would be?
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Yeah, evaluation, self-evaluation. Who am I? Is this really a life that describes me as a believer? Am I hitting those points? the evidences that Jesus talked about whereby I’m actually a real Christian. I have these kinds of friends that are for me, and I have these kinds of enemies who are against me. And that may sound like a strange thing for people to hear, but Jesus said, if you love me, the world’s going to hate you. And so the big question comes to us is, is my witness effective enough to where people love it and people hate it? And that’s an important, very deep probing question that we have to ask ourselves in the 21st century as we name the name of Christ.
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When Culture Hates You, written by Natasha Crane. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. One more time, jackhibbs.com slash real radio. 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.
