Have you ever noticed that many Christians know little about what the Bible calls "abundant life?" Or what about resurrection life? Victorious life? Many who name Jesus as Savior are lonely, discouraged and bleak on the inside.

Why? There are some qualities and functions that are absolutely essential. Most Christians are staying away from these qualities and functions.

Read Luke 13:6-9.

The goal of the Christian life is to be like Jesus. To think like Him. To act like Him.

There is, in each of us, a giant mountain that stands in the way. This mountain can be defined through four problems.
1. The disconnected heart.
2. The selfish pursuit of the ideal self
3. The lack of proper boundaries
4. Taking the path of the fool

These all lead to no FRUIT. He looked and there was no fruit. So, Jesus spoke this parable. He set the stage. He describes the ingredients essential for the production of fruit. He was talking about life - using a tree to describe it. He draws two pictures.

I. First, there is the universal experience of bad times…we looked for fruit; we found none.

You've had bad times. I've had bad time. And the worse times are not found in outward circumstances. The bad times are inside of us. These are the worst.

- For three years now, I've been a critical person.
- For three years now, my thinking patterns have been unclean.
- For three years now, I've been feeling sorry for myself.
- For three years now, my attitude has been rotten.

It can be many things. No fruit. No joy. No peace. No patience.
Maybe it's three months, or three years, or ten years.

The reality for many is that life is not changing in the right direction. Not growing in Christ-likeness.

- I looked for fruit. I found some leaves…some form - but no fruit.

Question: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
That's the question of this parable.

There are two possible responses. One emerges from our fallen nature. It is promoted by the devil.

The other response emerges from the heart of God and explains His Divine will in us and in His church.

One is effective - it works.
One is ineffective - it destroys.

A. Here is the ineffective response. It is the legal response -- CUT IT DOWN. Trash it. Why even let it take up soil?

- James "The law judges us mercilessly." "You failed." You're through! You'll never make it.

None of us are strangers to this. Why? Because we were born under the law of sin and death. It is in our spiritual DNA. This is why Paul wrote, "Crucify the reign of the law in your lives."

The law condemns. It's easy. When we fail, the first response of many is to condemn. Blame. "I'm failing. Somebody hates me. God has abandoned me."

The law is our closest relative. In bad times. Times of no fruit. The law comes in and says, "CUT IT DOWN."
"How can you call yourself a Christian?"
"You did what?"
"How many times do you think you can mess up?"
"God is a God of wrath, you know."

We have this "cut it down" experience. And if you do not have this king of thought, stick around. Someone else will provide it for you. Legal people love the wrath of God passages. Legal people love to find ways to point fingers, find flaws, condemn. And when a brother or sister messes up, inside legal people smile.

Use of guilt is their favorite tool. Guilt is used to get us to serve. Guilt is used to get us to change. Amazingly, some people get trapped in this legal approach to life.

"Oh," they say to the preacher, "that was such a good sermon!" How do you know? "It made me feel so awful."

But, Jesus says there is another possible response to lack of growth in our lives. It is the effective response.

ENTER THE ADVOCATE…ENTER JESUS.

B. "Leave it alone, sir." (You can be fixed.)

He speaks to the law…"leave him alone - leave her alone for his or her character problems." "Get off their case."

"The Son of Man did not come to condemn the world but to save the world…."

God has carved out this transitional space. It's called GRACE. It's unmerited favor.

Ah! We should be cut down. But there's GRACE and He says, "They don't have to be beat up…they don't have to be torn down…they don't have to be killed…they don't have to be trashed."

Jesus steps into our self-loathing, our self-condemning and says leave him along…leave her alone…I came for something better. I came to solve the problem, to left from the pit of sin and despair and defeat.

In effect, God has said, "I love a failure…I love a problem."

"I have come," said Jesus, "to seek and to save that which is lost."
- To bind up the broken.
- To preach good news to the poor.
- To proclaim freedom for prisoners.
- To proclaim recovery of sight for the blind.
- To release the oppressed.
- To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
"A broken and contrite heart I will not despise," says the Lord.

There is GRACE…
- Don't cut it down - but, there's more.

He says, "I'm going to do some digging around." What is this?

B. TRUTH
We're going to do surgery. We're going to find out the cause for no fruit. We're going to apply the sword. Get a reality check, get some feedback.

There are four ways truth comes to us:
1. There is the Word of God. It's like a mirror. If you aren't into the Word, you haven't seen yourself yet. Lacking fruit? Unhappy with your interior life? Go to the Scriptures - check your behavior in relation to the Word.

2. There is the Holy Spirit. He teaches us. He tells us what needs to change. I've counseled a lot of people. Usually, I listen, then ask them what they believe the solution to their fruitlessness to be. Almost always, they pinpoint the answer. God talks to us. He lets us know. He is our teacher.

3. Truth comes through other people. Galatians 6:1. "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourselves…."

4. The fourth source of truth is seen in the Fruit of our lives. Is our relationship with God growing? With others? Am I productive in the use of my God-given gifts in ministry?

So, Jesus says, "I'm going to dig around - I'm going to make you see this stuff. I want my Word to measure where you are on the inside in addition to changing your behavior."

David wrote, "God wants truth in the innermost being." And so, he prayed, "God, search me and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me." Psalm 139:23-24

And Jesus goes a step further. He not only speaks to the law and says, "leave him alone - leave her alone" thus carving out this place of grace; He not only digs around to reveal truth.

C. He says, "I'm also going to fertilize. I'm going to give you nutrients. I'm going to add vitamins to your life, like love, like meekness and gentleness; like self control; like joy and peace and so on."

He started with grace; he digs around for truth; then comes in again with grace - the spiritual nutrients.

Grace - an undeserved, unearned free gift is perfectly blended with truth. We desperately need to know the truth. But we don't need to get it in a mugging. We need to get it in a soft place where people love us and where we know people love us and where we know people are for us.

So, there is truth and grace - these are essentials. The interior decorating of our life cannot occur effectively without these. "We beheld His glory," wrote John, "full of grace and truth." But, there is a third essential.

D. TIME "Give it a year," he says. We'll dig around it and fertilize it, and give it a year. For a fig tree, a year is two or three complete growth cycles. Grace and truth will not work without time.

Many of the sins that so easily keep us from being fruitful represent habits or a lifetime. We may be forgiven now, but there needs to be some digging to get to the root…to get to truth.

We may discover the truth, but nutrients - grace is needed to enable us to face the truth about ourselves and to begin to deal with it.

So, truth and grace over time will produce a beautiful interior.

But, where does this occur?

It occurs in the vineyard. It occurs in community. James wrote "…confess your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you may be healed" 5:16.

"…if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins" 5:19-20.

Truth and grace over time…in community. "Confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other, that you may be healed."

My friends, you cannot get beautiful on the inside of your life unless you are in relationship with Jesus and in relationship with one or more other people who will, along with you, exercise truth and grace over time. Nearly all of our life change occurs in small groups.

Grace over time won't work. Groups of that nature become complaint groups. No truth. The complainers get consoled and empathized with. Gossip abounds in such groups. No one ever looks you in the eye and says, "Look friend, you're half the jerk in this problem."

Truth over time doesn't work either because after getting beaten up over and over - in the absence of grace and love - people leave.

All ingredients are needed: Grace + Truth + Time in Community = Fruit.

The next meeting on my schedule is a two-day meeting with my three accountability partners. We meet for two days every month for sharing, study, prayer, equipping and preparation, and accountability. We examine one another calendars. We look at each others prayer journals. We have told each other: ask any question you want to ask about our relationships, attitudes and behaviors.

This is - flat out - the most important and significant engagement of my life other than my daily appointment with God and my partnership with Janet. My wife and one other friends knows my password for my computer and are welcome to enter any time they wish.

Every two months, I spend an afternoon with another friend where we focus on three subjects: our relationship to God, our relationship to our family, and our professional development. The central function of that meeting is prayer.

What about you? Are you in a system which examines truth over time in an atmosphere of grace? You need others. Others need you.

Are you leaving a legacy? Or are you just hoping to make it, somehow, without indictment?

Right now, God has carved out time period of grace. Sir, leave her alone, leave him alone for a time. I'll come in and dig around. I'll put some nutrients in there. We'll give her time to start producing fruit. We'll give him time to face the truth in a healthy environment.

But, if there is no response…then it will be cut down. "Any branch in me that does not bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire."
Today…the throne of grace.
Tomorrow…the thrown of judgment.

It's your choice.