I love fruit! When it comes to trying food, for me it can be scary, but when it comes to fruit I never shy away, except for tomatoes (HA!) In Matthew 7:15-20; fruit is mentioned 9 times! I really don’t know what the significance was for Jesus to use fruit as a symbol in His talk, but to me I can easily picture what He is trying to tell us.
For me, it is Jesus telling us that our Heavenly Father first wants to get on our level and share with us through a tangible means and point us to the Spiritual fruit He desires for us to have in abundance.
Paul wrote and described this Spiritual fruit that God gives us when He wrote to the Galatians.
Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
How can we eat that? (HA!) Funny you ask - we don’t! He gives it to us freely! Yeah, freely! All we have to do is receive it! How? That’s where the fun comes in. That’s between you and Him. He will meet you, He will listen to you, and guess what? He wants you! He is the only one you will ever meet who wants you with NO strings attached.
Jesus also mentions in today’s Bible passage that we need to watch for things and people in the world who try to lead us astray or lead us down a path with unseen complications that hurt us not help us.
He uses the term false prophets. To simply define it, false prophets receive or take part in false truths that are teaching us to minimize Christ. God is seeking us and pleading with us to choose Him so that He can connect with us, and we can experience the best life.
God doesn’t promise that we won’t experience heartbreak, face the loss of a loved one, get a terrible health diagnosis, or experience fear or doubt. What He does promise is His presence and, yes, you guessed it, He will give you the fruit we mentioned above so that you can thrive in the face of calamity. He also designed us for community, and He knows we are better together. When we think our cup is running out and we gather with fellow believers, they share their cup of joy, peace, kindness, love, gentleness, and goodness.
I leave you with this thought, because I know we all struggle with this. What do I do with all the bad fruit? Let me encourage you and point you to a person who can relate as well as share with us what to do with the bad as well as good fruit.
Jesus tells us to give it to God, to allow Him access into the innermost parts of you, and surrender yourself to Him. When we do that, I fully believe we are truly following Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1

Reflections:

• Did you catch that? All we do is give ourselves completely to Him; our good, our not-so-good, and let Him do a work in us and through us!!! When we remain in Him the enemy will try and trip us up, because He doesn’t like it when we make much of Jesus Christ, but Jesus knows this and knows how to help.
• Who in your circle needs some of your Spiritual Fruit? Do you know someone who needs a laugh or a listening ear? Who needs a helping hand?
• Do you need Jesus? Are you ready to speak with someone? We would love to speak with you and listen to how God is moving in your life. Contact us at hello@venturechurch.org
• Prayer: God, we love You, and we are thankful both that You have thought of everything and You desire to relate with us for the sake of loving us. Please God, help us to discern your ways and not be tripped up by the one who wants us to trip. Help us to have a posture of submission when it comes to giving our lives to You. Search us, Lord, to reveal any part of our life that is not bearing fruit and take it out of us, and God please prune any fruit in our lives that You want to see multiplied. In Jesus' Name!
  
  

  Family Application: Good Fruit

  Author: Nichole McCardle
• Do you remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood? In this story, the Big Bad Wolf wanted to eat poor Little Red Riding Hood. He tried to trick her by dressing up like her grandmother. When Little Red Riding Hood arrived at her grandmother’s house, she saw what appeared to be a similar version of her grandmother, but noticed something was not quite right. She noticed that her “grandmother” had very large arms, a deep voice, big ears, big eyes, and sharp teeth! She realized that this was not her grandmother at all, but actually the Big Bad Wolf! Although Little Red Riding Hood is only just a fairy tale, we can compare this to the lesson that Jesus is teaching us in Matthew 7:15-20. The Big Bad Wolf is a lot like the false teachers who Jesus warns us about. Unfortunately, there are people in this world who want to teach wrong things about Jesus. Sometimes, it may even be hard to tell that someone is a false teacher, because just like the Big Bad Wolf, they are pretty good at pretending to be someone that they are not. Jesus says we have to pay attention to their “fruit” to recognize who is a good, true teacher. Just like Little Red Riding Hood paid attention to the details of her “grandmother,” we should pay attention to the qualities of those who influence us.
• In verse 17, Jesus says, “Every good tree bears good fruit.” The “good trees” Jesus is talking about are the people who know, love, and follow Him. The “good fruit” Jesus is talking about are the actions, words, and behaviors that are shown by the people who know, love, and follow Him. Do you think that you are producing good fruit? How can you make your fruit even better this week?
• We all have someone in our life who is a “good tree that bears good fruit.” This could be a family member, a teacher at school, a neighbor, or a KXP leader. Pray to God and thank Him for putting that person in your life. This week, take the time to tell that person “thank you” for being a good influence and a good teacher to you.
• Prayer: God, You are amazing and mighty! Thank You for putting wonderful people in my life who can help me grow closer to You. Help me always follow You and point others to You. Amen.