This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Dr. Pete Owlinson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is by Dr. Steve Brown, and it's titled When The Fig Tree Dies. It's taken from Mark XI to XII to XIV. Now here's Steve with today's message. Father, this is your book. Come now and may we hear the soft sound of sandal feet. Apply to our minds that we may not be superficial, and to our hearts that we may not be reformed Calvinistic, mean spirited, hard people, and then father to our hands and our feet, that we might live it, and that the world would hear the laughter of the redeemed. Father, forgive the one who teaches his sins, they are many. We would see Jesus and Him only, and we pray in Jesus' name. In this church, we're reformed, and that's cool. That means that we bring the head each side of the Christian faith to the entire body of Christ. It means we study the Bible, organize it systematically, create confessions and doctrines, and offer that as a gift to the others. If you're not familiar with what it means to be reformed, it means that we really believe that God's in charge of this mess. We believe that God knows what He's doing, that there's no perspiration on His upper lip, that God does everything that is done, and He does it quite well. That's good. But there's a danger in what we believe and who we are, and that danger is that we can become philosophical determinists. You're going through a divorce deal with it. God is the great poker dealer in the sky, and those are your guards. You've got cancer, deal with it. You lost your job, deal with it. Having financial problems, deal with it. That's the sovereignty of God. Philosophical determinism. Our grandchildren are here this week. Chaos looking for a place to happen. And I hate chaos. Confusion, I confusion, noise. I wanted to be quiet, but there's so much laughter in our home with those little girls that it makes up for the rest. I was thinking two or three years ago, we were out in Disney at one of the character dinners, and my wife and daughter left me alone with those little girls. And a character dinners were the Mickey Shows, or, you know, the other people. My grandchildren went wild. They were throwing food at him and jumping in his arms. And running up and down the odds. And right at that time, the waitress came and took the drink order, and I ordered a coke. And she looked at me and said, sir, I don't want to be presumptuous, but you could handle this better drunk. I was in Atlanta not too long ago, and I was saying, because there's some idiots that say that if you're a Christian, you can't ever have emotional problems, that's nonsense. Stick you with a pen, you bleed like everybody else. And I said that I believe that some of the medications we've been given were gift of God, in particular circumstances, in a highly pressurized society. And a man came up to me and said, I really appreciated what you said. She said, I'm going to send you a mug. I've sent to all my friends about something that really helped me, and I expected something spiritual when I got the mug. It's sitting by my desk, and it says, prosack until Jesus returns. You know, if you're a reformed, that's all you got, man. You got the cards, they've been dealt to you and you deal with them and play the hand as best you can. But this morning, I'm going to teach you something that's really, really good. And I've got to confess before we get into it that I struggle with this. You know, sometimes my prayers are powerful, and sometimes I should go have a beer. And I don't drink. Sometimes, sometimes I believe all of this. And at other times, I think this is crazy. But I want you to know, I've walked it enough to teach it to you. And I'm old as dirt. I'm more religious than you are. And I know more than you do, so listen up. Turn if you will to Mark if you've got a Bible. For the less spiritual, we put it on the screen. I'm going to start at the 12th verse of the 11th chapter of Mark. And I'm going to skip some places in the middle of it, because that's a different thing, and we'll follow along. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, Jesus was hungry, and seeing in the distance of fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, and made no one ever eat fruit from you again, and his disciples heard it. And then Jesus went into Jerusalem, and this is the place where he kicked the posterior of the con artist in the temple. When he was after them, and threw them out. And then the disciples are leaving Jerusalem, and Mark continues with the story at the 20th verse. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots, and Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered, and Jesus answered them, have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in this heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer believes that you have received, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying for give, if you have anything against anyone, so that your father, also who is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses. Now, before we get down, I'm going to go down a couple of side roads. First, I'm going to show you a couple of criticisms that are offered about this particular text. Some people say this is beneath the Son of God. It is very self-serving. Jesus wouldn't do anything like this. Jesus would not curse a fig tree because it didn't meet his hunger. That's because they don't understand Jesus. We in the evangelical branch of the Christian Church believe in the incarnation, but we have trouble in believing that it was more than a game. When God entered time and space, he really did. He became like you. He was afraid, the way you're afraid. He was lonely, the way you're lonely. He died, the way you're going to have to die. So that when we ran to him, he could say, I know, child, it was real. It wasn't a game. I went time setting a conference that Jesus blew his nose the same way you blow your nose. And a lady came up to me, livid, and said, how could you say that? And I said, because it's true, that's how I could say it. And she said, well, I know it's true, but you didn't have to put it that way. Oh, yes, I did. Because if you don't put it that way, those of us who believe in the Bible will miss the reality of the end. Was Jesus hungry? Yeah. Hungry just the way you're hungry. And then secondly, there are those who point out in the text that it wasn't the fig season. What's with that? It was at Passover, and nobody... By the way, if the sun shines on you while you're sitting here, you get three free sins. You can do that. So don't look pained, be glad that we just have a skylight and a church that I served. And it was like a spotlight that moved around the congregation. And I said that one Sunday morning, and people were moving so they could get under the spotlight. What was I saying before I so rudely interrupted myself? Oh, I was talking about figs. There are two kinds of figs. There's a prefig season where there are nots of fruit on a fig tree. They're called tush. And it fed the peasants. And if there was a good crop of those, there were a good crop of figs. And so Jesus went to see about that prefig fruit, and there wasn't any there. And that meant that the tree wasn't going to have figs later on, so he cursed it. And then one other thing before we get down, and that is I want you to note how we do exegesis by neuroses. I've taught this, so I'm not throwing rocks at other people, but this is a grand text. And you can use it to beat people over the head. You can say this text is teaching that if you don't bear fruit, you're going to wither. If you don't bear fruit, God's going to cut your legs off. If you're not good and pure and righteous and lead people to Jesus, then you could lose yourself as you go wither and die. That's not what this text is saying. And it's not saying that in the synoptic parallel to this text in Matthew. Jesus gives his own commentary, and it's not that. Our sickness reads that. God's not angry. He loves us. He's responsible for the fruit. We're not. He's talking about faith. And he says some very amazing things. This text is really colorful when you think about it. They've seen the victory in Jesus' curse as it. And then they go into Jerusalem, and Jesus does this thing. Man the Messiah has come. The man is here. He starts kicking all these people out of the temple and the anger, the righteous and the good nation is something. And they are scared to death. And the disciples are saying, you go, Jesus, that's cool. You go, man. And then they're walking out of Jerusalem, giving each other a high five. Five and saying, isn't that... Wasn't he something? That's our Messiah. That's the King. And Peter's going, yeah. And then he notices the victory, and he goes, ooh, son of a gun. That victory withered. What was the last time you were astonished by God? I want to talk to you about that. Because you've got victories. Victory may be your husband. Do you wake up grumpy? No, sometimes I let him sleep. Maybe your victory is abuse in your background. Maybe it's financial. Maybe it's your marriage that's in serious trouble. Maybe you smile when you come to church, so nobody will know. Maybe you've got cancer. Maybe you've got a kid who's sick. You don't know what to do about it. Maybe you lost your job. You know, this goes on and on and on. Maybe you've got a victory that needs to wither. Let me show you something that is so good. First, if you will, look at the amazing invitation of Jesus. It's the 22nd verse. In fact, it's right through the text. Jesus saying, have faith. In other words, have faith and need stuff is going to happen. He said, you pray and ask for these things. We're not sure about that as reformed people. I mean, we're supposed to deal. I remember in a church that I served in, we had public healing services every quarter. God told me to do it. I thought. And I thought, yeah, sure. When you say it in Hebrew and write it in the sky in purple. And he said, it's Stephen. And I said, okay, I'll do it. But I don't like it. We press veterinarians always anoint with oil for the sick in the study that lets God off the hook if he doesn't do anything. But God wanted me to do it publicly. And just as an aside, you do it with oil. And we had teams of three elders that would go around to people that had needs and wanted prayer. And they're a bit teaching. And then we had communion. And then we would do that. And I knew I had to have a vow for the oil for the teams to carry with them. I didn't know where I was going to get them or what I should use. So I went to Vernon's drug store. And Vernon was our village agnostic atheist. And I said, I need some little files to put liquid in. And he said, what do you need it for? And I said, you wouldn't understand. And he said, no, what would you need it for? I said, trust me. You wouldn't. He said, tell me what you need it for. And I said, all right, it's a ritual, okay? It's a liturgy in a church. The book of James says, if you anoint people with oil, they get better. And I need something to put the oil in, okay? And he said, I got just the thing, but you won't use it. And I said, what you got? He said, I got urine sample bottles and they're wonderful. And they were perfect. I never told the elders. George, I don't know if you ever knew you were carrying around a urine sample. You know, during those healing services, I had to keep my mind focused because if I looked at those elders walking around with those bottles, I would lose it. And God did astounding things. But you know the hardest part was telling people that God liked them. We had some people who had been hurting our church. And God doesn't say, yes, to everything. Are you out of your mind? You don't say that to your children. And sometimes we're called to go through really hard stuff. And we had people in the church that had got into that name, that claim it, that it's yours thing, that God always wants you wealthy. And if you got sickness, you have the right faith principles. And if you do it right, then everything's going to be fine. And you'll tiptoe through the tulips with Jesus. And I said, that comes from the pit of hell. It smells like smoke. And I hammered it all the time. And then all of a sudden Jesus gets this kinky idea of having public healing services. And I've got a problem. And so for 13 weeks, I taught those people. And I said, I said, I know what I told you. But Jesus likes to do neat stuff. The Bible says, all the promises of God find their yes in him. And over, I had to redirect some of the things that I said so that people wouldn't be so darned reformed. Listen, I don't know how God can be sovereign and our prayers be effective. That's way above my pay level. I can't even fix the toaster. I don't understand that. But Jesus told us to do it. And he said, and it's lavish. He said, go to your father and ask. And then secondly, not only the amazing invitation, look at the incredible work of astonishment. It's great. It's in that we've already seen. Peter said, whoa! Son of a gun. That fig tree withered. What a coincidence. That you happen to do that at that time. And they must have been a lightning bolt or something that hit it. What a coincidence that would wither right after what you said, didn't it? Let me tell you something. All of life illustrates Bible doctrine. God is speaking to you right now. He's in every... Dan Allender in his wonderful book on our story says, you got to look at your story. Because that's where God does neat stuff. Write your biography. You're the only one who's done that for. And you can hear his voice and see his actions and see his work in your life. Anlamat, who's a friend of mine. She... I don't like her language. I don't like her politics. I don't like her looks. But she loves Jesus and it's so real. She said she believes in three kinds of prayer. The first is, help me now, right now, God. And the second form of prayer is, wow! And the third form of prayer is, thank you, God. And so you look at your life. And I'm going to give you a principle. When you see God doing stuff, he gives you the opportunity to call it whatever you want. When you call it coincidence, he still loves you. He's not angry at you. You won't wither, but your faith will get less. And if you see it no matter how small it is, and say, God, wow! Thank you! Then your faith grows. I speak at a number of churches. Most of them have multiple services like ours. Some of you know I go over to an orphan on occasion and they have seven services. Man, if the sermon's bad, the first time around, you're going to have a bad weekend. I mean, it's just going to be awful. But if it's okay, by the time you get to the seventh one, you sound like Spurgeon. And you've just gone over it and over and over. And frankly, it's boring. I mean, I can understand you going to sleep in my sermon. But it's not cool for me to go to sleep in my sermon. And so you do things to kind of keep awake during your own sermon. And so always change things a little bit from one service to another. And one time, in one service, I got off on the church and had nothing to do with the text. And I said, some of you are here and they're healed marks between where you were to year. And you think this is a place of hypocrites. You don't know nothing. I can tell you stories that would curl your toes. Of course, we're crazy hypocrites. If you think we're proclaiming to the world that we're good, we're not. We're needy, we're screwed up, and that's why we're here. And if you're not, go to the Rotary Club. Don't come to church because the church is a place where bad people come. Who know they're bad and want to be better. And when I'm saying it, I'm thinking, where did that come from? And it was off point. And I didn't know. And after the service, my friend came up to me and said, wow, I can't believe what you did. Said, I brought my friend, he didn't want to come. And he hates the church, says it's filled with hypocrites and people who pretend to be good. He said, you got him right between the eyes. Man, that is so cool. And I said, well, isn't that a wonderful coincidence? That I would be bored in my sermon. And I should say something like, no, I said, wow, and my faith grew. And by the time I got to the seventh service, I was the new Billy Graham of Central. When God does something in your life, even if it's little, go, wow, thank you Lord. Every blessing, I love that opening song. I'll turn back to praise. If you do that, you'll grow. And then thirdly, I want you to see, not only the amazing invitation of Jesus, the incredible work of astonishment, and then the absolute necessity of faith. Look at what the text says, it's verse 22 and verse 24. If you have faith, you say to this mountain, sure. And the mountain will be gone. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Where does that kind of faith come from? Well, you've got to work at it. There are five ways you can get that. No, I don't know. You know how you get that faith? You ask him for it. And you know it's his will because he told you about it. And so you say, your first prayer is God. I don't believe this stuff. When I was a kid, my mother made a Superman uniform. And a cape, and I jumped off the garage and almost broke my leg. A lot of people's Christian faith is that way. They think, well, I know I can't fly, but shoot, I'm going to jump anyway. And God will... And I can... No, it's not believing what you patently know is untrue. It's going to God and saying, I believe, help my unbelief. I don't have very much faith. I have enough faith, or wouldn't be here. Would you increase my faith? Would you allow me to have faith to pray the prayers that are in the context of your will, where supernatural things happen in my life. Faith is a gift. You get it from him. You don't work it up. It's not a false that you turn. You can't say, I'm going to believe. I promise I'm going to believe. I'm going to believe even if it kills me. It will. Because that's not what faith is. It's a gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And then fourthly, I want you to note, not only the amazing invitation, the incredible work, the absolute necessity of faith. Please note if you will, the explosive power of forgiveness. It's the 25th verse. And whenever you stand praying, forgive. If you have anything against anyone, so that your father, also who is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses. I don't know. You know, I've been teaching the Bible longer than a lot of you have been alive. And Jesus is always doing this. I think sometimes he got the notes and his sermon mixed up. He's talking about victories and faith. He's not talking about forgiveness. Where does that come from? It doesn't have a thing to, he's off point. Now, I've done that. Before I can understand how, wait, that's Jesus. He's not off point. He's got a point that is very important and it's this. You cannot go before a holy God and ask anything of him unless you're holy, unless you're perfect, unless you're, I used to, since the table at communion and say, you can't do this unless you're perfect. There are two ways you can try. One is you can say, I'm going to be good and pure and honest and sweet. If it kills me and you're going to hit a wall and God's going to show you what you're really like, or you can know already what you're really like, that you're needy, that you're sinful, that you have secrets and run to him with that. And God will imbue you, endow you, close you with the righteousness of Christ and you will stand before him perfect. Stand before him perfect. So, and you say, prove it. Well, look at that. The 18th chapter of Luke is wonderful. You remember the Pharisee and the tax collector. Pharisee said, oh, gold. I think that I'm not like. I tithe, I share the four Jewish laws. I give to the poor, I obey your law. And he did. That's the crazy thing. He did. And the tax collector newly was standing before a holy God and was scared to death. He thought God was going to kill him. He wouldn't even look up. He said, oh, God. Whoa! Be right to me. Be, be, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said that good guy didn't go away justified. The bad guy did. That's astounding. That's the gospel. And unless you know your bad, go someplace else. You're not supposed to be here. And you can't forgive until you've been forgiven. And then you can only forgive to the degree to which you have been forgiven. And so, you go to God as needy, as sinful, with secret. You can't share with anybody else. And then you get forgiven. And then Jesus said you got to forgive other people. That's the way you do it. And not only that, you become holy. And that makes for powerful prayers. That's all I know. I'm finished. Well, I got a story. But I'm finished. If the worship team are going to do that, I'm going to do that in the middle of a sermon sometime. The story of the story. The story of my days about a Chinese missionary. And it's true. I think it's true. I know the person who said he heard it from the person to whom it happened at a Wheaton College Chapel years ago. There was this missionary. In all of her life, she wanted to go on the mission for you. She had this idea of being on the cutting edge. And she finally got accepted by a major mission agency. And you know what they did? They sent her to be the housemother of mission kids. But she was a servant, and she accepted it. And she prayed for the other missionaries all over China. And she walked over her brood of mission kids. But once a year, they had a mission conference. And missionaries from all over China would come to that mission conference. And she looked forward to it. And on the night before she went to one of these mission conferences, the kids and the missionary mother studied the text we studied this morning. And they had a mountain out behind the mission house that blocked the view of the ocean. And so when she went off to the mission conference, the kids got together and said, let's, we love her. And she gets her, let's give her a gift. Jesus said, we could pray that mountain unto the sea. So we're going to do it. So they got on the knees and they prayed. And the next day they looked out the window. And it's still there. But what do kids know? They got talking and they said, you know, we didn't have much faith. We went right to the window. So they prayed again. The next morning, they got didn't even look. They had breakfast. And then they casually ambled to the window, looked out. And it's still there. But they persevered on the day before she came back. A man and army boots, the army core of engineers came and asked permission to bulldoge the mountain out into the ocean for a landing strip. And when she came back, the kids said, this is so, we got something so good for you. And they grabbed her by then. And she thought they'd wash the dishes in your dreams. They brought her in and showed her the ocean. And said, we prayed that mountain into the sea. And that missionary mother and those children prayed for missionaries all over China. Whenever they would pray for a missionary, God would purify spirit out and revive all would take place. Is that cool? Now, if you listened to what I taught you this morning and you applied to your life, I fully expect that you're going to be saying in the not-too-distant future. Son of a God. That victory withered. You think about that. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org. And our phone number is 407-699-82-11.