Luke 6:43

For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?... He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock... But he who heard and did nothing is like the man who built a house on the earth without a foundation... and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:43-49)

A tree is known by its fruit, and your life is known by its foundation—which the storm will surely reveal.

A Detour That Builds on 1 Timothy

If you're visiting with us this morning, I am not the usual teaching pastor. Pastor Miles is our senior teaching pastor, and I've learned a lot from him over the nearly four and a half years I've been on the staff team. Miles has been teaching through 1 Timothy, and my heart this morning wasn't to take us on a complete detour but to build upon what he has been teaching us as a church.

In 1 Timothy, Paul charges young Pastor Timothy to follow his example—in doctrine, in exhortation, and in reading. He also charges Timothy to meditate on these things. When you dive into meditating on the Word of God like this, you have to realize that when you submerge and then come up, you come up differently. You become a different person. Change happens in your life. As I was meditating on these things, my mind went to Luke 6:43, because it fits so well: a tree is known by its fruit.

The Context: Look at Yourself First

Right before this passage, Jesus was talking about judging others. He uses a humorous picture: a man with a beam in his own eye trying to help his buddy get a speck out of his eye. I picture this huge beam sticking out, and he's saying, "Let me help you with that speck!" Jesus's whole point was that we have to look at ourselves first, Church. We have to pull the beam out of our own eye in order to see and be a benefit to someone else.

Known by Our Fruit

I was fortunate enough to grow up on a 10-acre avocado farm. We didn't just have avocados—we had oranges, limes, lemons, sometimes peaches, and apples. Growing up, I got really good at telling which kind of tree was which. How? By tasting the fruit. I also got good at telling which trees were thriving and producing good fruit, and which trees were dying and needed attention.

It was funny—yesterday morning I was out on the property cutting down avocado trees with a chainsaw while thinking about this very passage. When a tree is dead, it's not producing fruit, so you cut it down. It's good for nothing but firewood. It just sits there, dead.

The picture behind me is a banyan tree, which actually produces figs. I saw one of these in Maui, and it serves as a good picture this morning. Jesus loves to use these analogies to describe us. This time I'm thankful we're not sheep—usually Jesus relates us to sheep, those pitiful animals, a sheep without a shepherd. This time we're a tree, and I'm okay being a tree.

This wasn't a new concept to these people. Psalm 1 says:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He is 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. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Point One: Our Heart and Character Are Revealed by What We Do

Just as we can identify a tree by its fruit, we can identify a person by their actions. Our whole society is built on this. When someone proclaims to be one thing but gets caught doing something completely different, we call them a hypocrite. They're one thing on the outside but completely different on the inside.

This morning we're going to dive deep into the inside—something invisible in our lives, our heart. It might hurt. It might make you think we need to change, and that's good. We have to inspect the fruit of our lives. What is our heart producing? What kind of fruit are we bearing? Are we bearing fruit at all? If not, why? You have to have a changed heart to have a changed behavior. God is at work molding our hearts to match our character to our calling.

Why should we strive to change? Because we have to grow. The way we are today is not the person we want to be tomorrow. Nobody wants to look at an infant and seriously say, "I hope you never grow up," because nobody wants to be around a grown-up baby. The same applies to us as Christians. We are always growing.

I've noticed teaching the young adults, ages 18 to 25, that there's a real theme. They start getting experience in the world beyond school, they get a taste of it, and they don't like what they taste. So they have this innate, God-given desire to change the world, to make it a better place. It's God-given because we're created in the image of God, so we have some of His characteristics. But unfortunately, a lot of people have this desire without Christ, so even after they try to change the world, they still have a gaping hole in their hearts.

The Heart Is a Treasury

Jesus says, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." There's a lot more going on in our being than we can see, but Jesus gives us this picture so we can grip it. Our heart is essentially a treasury. What's stored up in our heart ultimately comes out in our actions and our words. You can see what's going on deep in someone's life by how they react to things.

Miles talked last week about being pure, which means unmixed—unmixed from sin, unmixed from the world. The truth, and I thank God for it, is that it's not what comes into us that defiles us; it's what comes out. In this fallen world, we're affected by sin and the consequences of sin every single day, no matter what job we have or what friends we have. It saturates our being.

We're like sponges. We soak up what's around us—the people, the things. But with a sponge, you can get everything out that's been soaked up. That's why God sends His helper, the Holy Spirit, into our lives. When we put our trust in Him, we become a tree planted by streams of living water that bears fruit. The Spirit gets the sin nature out of our hearts so we can live righteously and holy, like Jesus did. He sees the bad coming in and says, "We're not going to store this in your treasury today."

A Heart Problem

Look around our society—there's a lot of hurt, pain, and suffering. Even recently with the school shootings, it's a tragedy, but the ultimate issue isn't with law enforcement or politics. It's with the heart. As a Western culture, we've neglected caring for our hearts. We've neglected putting up the safety walls that protect us against bad doctrine, bad teaching, and immoral behavior, and we've become desensitized to it.

So if your reaction to something automatically isn't what you want it to be, there's something deeper going on. We have to dive in, look at it, and invite the Holy Spirit to change it—to pull that out, to say, "I don't want that in the treasury of my heart." Some of us need to seriously consider this morning: what do we have treasured up in our hearts? Our hearts need to be radically changed by Jesus. That's the only way we are capable of following Him. His calling isn't easy—it doesn't mean we avoid suffering—but it means we have Him as our substance and our shelter.

Point Two: The Hidden Foundation of Your Life Will Always Be Revealed in the Storm

Jesus asks, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?" People can come to church every Sunday for their hour of religious service, calling out "Lord, Lord" in worship, and then not do what He says throughout the week. That could be any of us—we've all fallen short. Thank God for His grace, which is constantly growing us. A tree always needs to be growing, and if it's done growing, it needs to be producing fruit.

So Jesus gives us a picture. The one who hears His sayings and does them is like a man who dug deep and laid his foundation on the rock; when the flood came and the stream beat against that house, it could not shake it. But the one who heard and did nothing built a house on the earth without a foundation, and when the stream beat against it, immediately it fell, and great was its ruin.

The foundation of a house isn't visible for very long—it's only exposed while they're building on it. I remember riding my scooter through the foundation of my parents' house up in Ramona. They spent a lot of time making sure that foundation was stable, digging deep and pouring a lot of concrete. A lot of work goes into a foundation.

This isn't a new idea to these people either. Proverbs says:

When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation. (Proverbs 10:25)

Digging Deep

Those who lay up a solid foundation put in hard work. Miles talked about working out our salvation last week. What does that look like? It means digging deep. The first man had to dig down to the rock. We have to dig into our own lives to hit that foundation—to clear away all the sand that will wash away and reach the solid rock of Christ so we can lay the foundation deep.

I've spent a lot of time digging, living on 10 acres—digging irrigation trenches, digging bike jumps. It's hard work. You get blisters, your back hurts, you get sweaty. It's not enjoyable until you're done. But it's a worthwhile effort, because the people who dig deep and lay their foundation on the rock of Christ are ready for the worst the world can throw at them.

This is the only foundation that will last an eternity. Every other foundation—even the one we stand on here at the church—is temporary and will go away. But the foundation we lay in our hearts, the rock of Christ, isn't going anywhere. These people keep their integrity when tempted and persecuted; they keep their peace and joy in the midst of great troubles. Some of you are going through great chaos right now. Things aren't working out the way you envisioned. But if you have that foundation of Christ, you realize the world hasn't moved you much. You've been stable through it.

Two Houses That Looked the Same

Notice that both houses looked the same on the outside. So if you've built your foundation on something else—a relationship, your money, your job, your circumstances, or your plans—let me tell you, none of that will work. It will get washed away when the right storm comes, and it will come toppling down. Maybe that's where you are this morning, your whole life caving in because you built on something that wasn't Christ. And maybe this morning you realize you need this foundation, this stability.

Both men had the same-looking house. One stood and the other didn't, because one was built on Him and had the dwelling of Jesus in it, and the other didn't. No matter how beautiful a house we build on the outside, no matter how great we act at church, if we don't have the foundation of Christ, we'll get washed away.

The chaos and effect of sin on our lives is ordinary—it's a normal occurrence in a fallen world. If you're going through suffering and pain, it's not unusual; it's common. That's exactly why we need this foundation, because only then can we be unshakable.

Point Three: We Must Do the Sayings of Christ, Not Just Hear Them

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:5-6)

I love how the Bible builds upon itself. We must live as Jesus did. Jesus knew the Father, knew His commands, knew His heart, and was driven to do the Father's will. Does that describe our lives today? Do we know the Father's heart and will, and are we striving to do it?

Miles taught that we are aiming at being holy because God is holy. But here's something I've learned about aim: you can only see what you aim at. I've shot rifles my whole life and looked at the stars through binoculars—when you aim at something, you narrow your vision and magnify it. It's tunnel vision. The same is true spiritually. If we aim at the world, we'll only see the world. If we aim at Christ, we'll see His characteristics in our lives.

If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:13)

James isn't afraid to call out the church, and this morning I'm going to call you out: prove it. We want to see it. As your pastors, we want to prove to you that our lives exemplify Christ in us. That's why we strive every day to live holy as He is holy, to follow God's example in every action and reaction—just like Paul told Timothy, "Follow my example."

Love, Sacrifice, and the Cross

We have a tendency to shake our fist at God and say, "Why don't You do something about what's broken in the world?" And I think He would honestly look at us and say, "Didn't I create you?" Can one person have a significant impact? Yes—if they have this foundation, if they are this tree planted by the river of living water whose leaves never wither, that person can change the world.

A clear marker that someone is doing the work of God is love in their life. Jesus had a lot of love. And real, pure, godly, biblical love always involves sacrifice. Sacrifice is uncomfortable, just like change is uncomfortable. It means giving up something without knowing the outcome. We have to be willing to take that risk, because our reward isn't earthly—it isn't health or wealth or prosperity, but an eternal one found at the cross.

The cross is a point of intersection between the finite and the infinite, between us who are mortal and God who is immortal, between sinners and the righteous, the just and the unjust. God creates this perfect place where we can meet Him. That's why Jesus says, "You must carry your cross and follow me." It's where you meet Him—often a place of suffering. But you can only handle the suffering of this world if you have this foundation in your life.

Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth World

How do we know if we're producing good fruit? It tastes good. It builds us up. It's enjoyable. Bad fruit makes people sick. If your words and actions are making people sick of you, that's not good. But if you are a benefit to people, you know you're producing good fruit. And maybe you think, "I've done such a bad job for so long." Thank God for His grace—whatever fruit you've produced, even if you've been a dead tree, He can make you alive. You just have to put your trust and hope in Him.

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Galatians 4:16)

When we tell people the truth, we can become their enemy, because a lot of people don't want to hear the truth—they want to hear what's good for them. We live in what many are calling a post-fact, post-truth world, and that's why we have fake news. I've seen it firsthand on high school and college campuses, where it's starting at a very young age. But Jesus is the absolute truth. He's the only foundation that will get you through life and make you unshakable. When we tell the truth of Jesus, people may get offended, and we have to be willing to accept that—because we are always offended when we're told to change. But if we let ourselves go through that process with the Holy Spirit, we come out a better person.

One Person Can Change the World

This banyan tree gets this big because birds eat the little figs it produces, drop the seeds, and more trees sprout up. It grows exponentially. When you stand under one, it's an incredible sight. I want to be that tree. I want you to be that tree.

Have you ever dropped a rock into a pond? No matter how big the rock, the ripples go throughout the whole thing. Our influence in this world is much greater than we can see. Imagine you have 10 friends and you influence them. Those 10 friends each have 10 friends, and it just keeps going. Do you understand what the influence of your life can be on the world today? It's a big deal.

Closing Prayer

If you've been challenged this morning and realize your foundation hasn't been Christ, I want to give you the opportunity to accept Him—to invest your life fully in Him and become that tree that produces good fruit. And if you're a believer who's been challenged by this message, I want you to look in and ask what is stored up in the treasury of your heart. It's as simple as putting our trust and hope in Christ, believing in Him for who the Bible says He is—the risen Son of God.

Lord, we admit that we are sinners. Lord, we admit that we have built foundations that haven't been on You. Lord, we admit that we've failed and produced bad fruit, or maybe we've just grown dry in our lives. Lord, You don't want us to be that way. You want us to live a life that is good, that is refreshing, that is full of You. We thank You so much for what You've done for us on the cross. Lord, would You come into our lives this morning, and would You invade our inner treasury, our heart, and store up there good works? Would You store up in there Your word? I pray these things in Jesus' name, and we all said, amen.