Episode 04: Fruitfulness
Show Notes
In this episode, I want to revisit one last element of the Parable of the Sower of the seed. The harvest demonstrated in Category 4.
The parable tells us that when a person receives the word and obeys it, they produce a harvest of 30, 60 and a hundred times more than what was first planted. But what exactly is the harvest? What would we be seeing and producing on account of the gospel? What is the fruit of the gospel?
Conceptually, fruit is often assumed to be the outcome or result of the plant. By nature, a plant if it is receiving the right nutrients will produce an associated fruit. When Paul says in Galatians that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness...and so on he is saying that if the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in our lives, these are the kinds of things we would see it producing in us. This is the evidence that He is at work in us. And certainly, in the context of that passage, Paul was establishing a framework for discerning the presence of God in a person's life.
Now, most Christians would agree that this is what is meant by harvest or fruit. Love (for God and people), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But if we were to look only at the culture and therefore values of the Christian world, the fruit of the spirit is not what we think harvest looks like. In fact, people who have these kinds of qualities are rarely praised, affirmed, chosen or elevated in the Christian world on fruit alone. The things that are deemed as fruitfulness are sadly rather similar to that of the world. And they can all be brought under this overall banner called ‘Success’.
Success isn’t wrong. Because sometimes it is just a result of faithfulness. So why would we need to talk about this then? Even if we differ on what we think success is, we all have ideas of what success looks like. And it’s often that image of success that judges the fruit of another person and distracts our own fruit-producing journey. And worse yet, we are often culturally affirming this confusion. Based on what we can see, we have culturally affirmed success as the following:
Being influential, having an impact or making a difference
We are often diminishing or elevating the role of a person based on how prominent they are. We will diminish the mundane and everyday thing, and elevate the loud spectacular thing. I love Hillsong and am grateful for everything they have done for the Body of Christ. And I was genuinely proud when they were able to have the name of Jesus displayed across Times Square in New York. But as a Christian community, we often will presume that that was more impacting than the faithful Christian servant who serves the poor with food every week. Even though, they are probably having as many opportunities to share the gospel as that sign gave for other believers. We see it every day in local churches. Every local church has some form of community arm. But the church gets far more excited about the difference their brand new CD is going to make, than the thousands of people that will come through their community arm literally experiencing Jesus through the volunteers. And that will be reflected in budgets too. The community department is often getting way less air time and exposure and can be limited in funding. But the creative team often has a pretty big budget. I know every leader is going to have some reason they can give me for why that is...but you can’t tell people that the way they spend their money represents their values, and fail to apply that rule to a church budget. We think influence is being WOW, rather than faithful, and consistent in the mundane.
We generally presume that success looks like a person who has it together.
They are focused. Clear, ultra-disciplined and basically control their minds and bodies with precision and consistency. They have mastered themselves, they are effective and efficient. So much so, that we will often shun and exclude the people that are struggling. Which creates a culture where people aren’t always honest about where they are at. Even though one of the biblical favourites David was so disgustingly honest. Do you know how many times he asks God to avenge his enemies? We would feel so BAD if we ever to be so blatantly open with God. Let alone others. Let's face it...we are all pretty messed up. But we all present as sweet as pie because we think successful Christians have it all together.
We have ideas about what successful people wear.
Many of us can pick up very quickly what that group of people believe represents successful Christian living. Sadly the appearance of success can deter those who feel broken, or at least those who feel like their brokenness is more exposed. This gets even more interesting when it comes to women in ministry. I can tell you that in Australia, we usually don’t think of women in ministry as without makeup, terribly unfashionable, and overweight.
We think success looks big.
The bigger the church, the more likely we are to listen to the leader. We don’t just listen to anyone. I really can’t think of any pastors I know of that are on the public scale, that have a small church. We generally think they must be doing something right. Because apparently ‘healthy things grow’. I heard that statement a hundred times when I was a pastor. And it confounded me every time. There are equally as many unhealthy things in this world that grow. Like weeds. They are apparently capable of choking out faith, according to the parable of the sower. What about cancer. Literally, any disease. That statement is used as validation that when you are doing things right, you’ll grow. But I think we may have oversimplified things, don’t you? Okay, I am not against growth. I’m merely pointing out that our behaviours and catchphrases suggest that we think growth equals success. And I am simply saying, that not all growth is good growth. There are some churches out there that are definitely growing, but most of their growth is from unsatisfied believers giving up on churches that were challenging their apathetic ways. Now, why would you celebrate that?
We also think success sounds a certain way.
In charismatic circles, introverts can often feel really out of place. Because a believer that is truly moved by God, and is successfully living by the Spirit of God will have natural authority, they will be passionate, direct and loud. If you don’t believe me, listen to the times when people agree with a yes Lord, or amen, in your next prayer meeting. Consequently, the quiet contemplators in a prayer meeting, have in error been presumed to have some deficit in their faith even when they may be the most fruitful person in the house. It’s alright pentecostal introverts, I’ve heard your cry. In the more conservative circles, that isn’t typical of success. The more conservative style churches like contemplation, wisdom, thoughtfulness, eloquence. The prayers are paced, unrushed, with profound wisdom and discernment.
As you can see we all have an image of what we think a fruitful believer will behave like and it’s got more to do with what we define a successful Christian to be, than the presence of actual fruit.
See the problem with mistaking success as fruit, is that success can change us. I would argue that success is a slipperier slope to sin than failure. Success can make people feel the wrong type of power. Empowerment, the buzzword of the century...is a good type of power. It makes people recognise their choices and responsibilities. On the other hand, the bad kind of power can have you doing some things that you’d thought you’d never do. In my first book, “Ministry Stinks”, I talk about this idea that I termed the “Stewardship of Power''. Basically it is the ability to ensure that you stay humble in the face of power. Why would that even be relevant? Well, the answer to that can be found in 2 Chronicles 26, where the writer presents a character named King Uzziah, who was the king of Judah for about 50 years.
In verse 11, we are getting the rundown of the stats. The number of leaders he had, the number of men. The weaponry. And in verse 15 we are told that the Lord gave him favour and his fame spread far and wide. But then there is this statement that changes the entire flow of the passage. It says:
“But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall”
It was the power, which no doubt had something to do with the success he had attained, that caused King Uzziah to become proud. And the same can happen to us. Because we can start to think that we did something right, and therefore we are special and superior to those around us. Unchecked pride can turn into entitlement. We can start to believe that we deserve special treatment because we are special. We can even begin to demand it. And when we’ve decided that we’re special and by default, everybody else is not, we see fewer concerns with treating others poorly because after all...you deserve it. They don’t. It’s your reward.
Christians are often shocked when they hear about well known and faithful believers, who have entertained these secret lives of sin. We wonder how they are able to compartmentalise the abuse or sin, and still be able to stand up and minister so profoundly. It’s quite simple. Power is not easy to handle. It takes vigilant intentionality to ensure that you don’t get puffed up with pride by what you are doing and achieving. Power can have us doing many things we never thought we were capable of doing. There are more examples of this in scripture too.
Consider David. A man after God's heart. Who writes some of the most poetic psalms in complete surrender to God. When he used Bathsheba, he should have been out with his men. The sentence in 2 Samuel starts with - at the time when kings would go off to war...why wasn’t David off warring? He was a king. Yeah, he was allowed to do as he wished, but not exactly. He still had a role to play as a king and leading his men into the war was a critical component of that role, in that day. We know this because it is mentioned earlier in 1 Samuel 8:19-20 when the Israelites are providing their reasons for wanting a king. Every other king would have been out there with their men. But the King of Israel, the most significant king of all was nowhere to be seen. Power made him think that he could pull a sick day, on the most important task in his job description. Power made him think that he could take a married woman as his own, and he probably didn’t have her consent...a woman who was married to one of his men, who was fighting in a war that David should have been at. And power made him think that he could avoid the consequences of his poor choice, by killing the man.
King Solomon is another character who couldn’t handle power. We call him the wisest man in the world, but He is certainly unwise for the number of times he disobeys God's laws. We have often focused on his ‘straying’ on account of his wayward wives. But he was compromising well before that. Firstly he marries outside of the Israelite community. He marries the Pharaoh’s daughter. Then he re-instigates slave labour. The very reason the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, which God had made very clear was never to happen again. What made him think that he could do that?
The problem with when churches are driven by success, and when success has become their idol...is the outcome. A bunch of leaders who don’t really love their people. I can’t simultaneously love someone, with that agape love, and have an agenda that predominantly benefits me. According to Corinthians, that would fail to be love. And yet love is the primary source from which all service is derived.
You know in contrast real fruit doesn’t actually change us. It can’t. Fruit is the result of the change that is already occurring within us.
So confession time. This is an area that I have struggled in much of my life. Selfish ambition was a real challenge for me prior to really pursuing faith back 20 years ago.
When I was around 18, coming out of school, success was 100% my vision. I was so committed to the list of accolades. I didn’t realise how much this desire had been spurred on by a deeper need for significance and validation. I wanted to know I was good enough. And success was what I decided would confirm that I was. It has taken a long time to redirect these needs toward Jesus. But you know it still rears its ugly head every now and then. Even last week, I found myself getting a bit too consumed with the sales relating to my book. I wrote the last book because I could see that there were believers that were genuinely hurting, and I thought I had some ways to equip them to find healing. But last week, as I saw a few dollars coming into my account, I got a little distracted there for a bit. And I didn’t realise that I was measuring the effectiveness of the message by how well the book was selling. When I realised it, I had to stop and repent. I had to remind myself that the message was far more important than the money. And that this had to be about the message.
If we were to really care about fruit, the real fruit as we have defined it through scripture...not success, but love, joy, peace...and all of those good things that the gospel can produce in us. We would recognise that who we are is of far greater value than any trial or accolade or blessing that could be obtained this side of eternity. We would be like David who at one point says to God, point out anything in me that offends you (Psalm 139). This statement reveals that at least in this moment he is far more concerned about pleasing God, than being wrong. He cares about who he is, and not what he would have to sacrifice were there to be a fault found in him. Or like the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, who has been listing off every attribute and accolade that he had that would give him superior status in the Jewish world...and yet He declares it RUBBISH. Nothing in his past, the good or the bad, was worth more than having gained Christ.
Peter in 1 Peter 1 says that the refining of faith is far more precious than gold. Romans 5:3 says:
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.”
And James 1:2 basically says it is a joyful thing to have an opportunity for hardship.
Here’s the thing. No average human being would ever think that hardship is something to celebrate. Especially not the kind of hardship they were facing in the early church. The only way a human being concludes this insane idea that trials could make them happy is when they understand the value of the fruit. They can see that the fruit is worth it. They can see that who they become because of the challenges is far more precious than gold. And the fruit is worth it friends. Because when you become a more grounded believer, who has more peace, more joy, more love...everything looks better. You interpret the world differently. Imagine how valuable trials are for us then, if they could produce a different ME. A more Christ-like me. Instead of trials being something to avoid, they become a gift.
One last thought: Real fruit points to Jesus. When you can stand up, and say that you had nothing to do with the goodness that now flows through you, you know you have real fruit. Because there is only one type of seed that can produce real fruit like that. The gospel. For instance, I can’t love my enemies without understanding the love of Jesus. I can’t rejoice in the face of persecution without the Holy Spirit that comforts me. I can’t have peace when I have no food, without the God who sustains me. I can’t love someone without an agenda, except for the fact that my needs are being met in the love of Jesus. My nature and your nature doesn’t produce that kind of fruit. Only the gospel produces that kind of fruit, and that’s why only the seed can produce the harvest.