Have you ever gone to your refrigerator, anticipating sinking your teeth into a delicious piece of fruit . . . dreaming of the explosion of great taste and good health in your mouth . . . only to open the door and find the fruit decayed and decomposing? Worse yet, have you ever accidentally taken a great big chomp out of a piece of rotten fruit? How incredibly NASTY was that experience?!
God designed each of us to find our satisfaction only in Him. This world was not created to provide that which only God can give. Living a life of sold-out service to God is the only way to find true fulfillment and satisfaction. All too often, however, we seek the things of this world, which AT BEST provide fleeting pleasure. This may seem to satisfy for a while, just as a fresh piece of chewing gum might taste good for a few moments, but ultimately seeking worldly pleasure will only result in our reaping a harvest of rotten fruit from our self-centered, “little kingdom living.”
Pastor Tullian likes to quote C. S. Lewis, who wrote:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.
We are too easily satisfied by things smaller than God, living lives dominated by the pursuit of the pleasures of the physical creation. I am not necessarily speaking about a life marked by scandalous sins—“drink and sex” and the like. Our rotten fruit can take shape simply by seeking fulfillment beyond the borders of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, we engage in a long list of subtle sins of the heart that reap rotten fruit. We might dig ourselves so deeply into installment debt that we cannot give our tithes and offerings to support the church and the expansion of the Kingdom. We might eat ourselves into an unhealthy condition and ultimately forfeit the physical vitality to rise from our beds with a passion for pursuing God’s perfect plan and purpose for our lives. Our thoughtless words can do irreparable damage to relationships; so can a stubborn unwillingness to forgive those who have wronged us. Oh, what a bitter harvest of rotten fruit we reap when we seek to satisfy ourselves rather than our Savior!
So how do we avoid this miserable outcome? Look to Jesus! Good fruit never comes from bad trees (Matthew 7:18). When we turn our lives in on ourselves we can expect only rotten fruit, because we are, in our hearts, sinful! (See Jeremiah 17:9.) But when we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), God’s grace reaches deep inside of us and draws us out into a place of unimaginable fulfillment and joy! A passage in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians sums this up perfectly:
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:7-9).
You may remember Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylonian king who conquered Israel, plundered her wealth, and carried her citizens off into captivity. But just as Daniel had prophesied, Nebuchadnezzar’s pride led to a catastrophic fall, until he found himself living as an outcast in the wilderness, cropping grass like an ox! Talk about a nasty harvest of rotten fruit! But then, at the lowest point of his life, Nebuchadnezzar learned to look elsewhere. “I . . . raised my eyes toward heaven,” he explained, “and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever” (Daniel 4:34 NIV).
Nebuchadnezzar learned that focusing on himself and his so-called “accomplishments” was a recipe for abject misery. But when he lifted his gaze to heaven, meditating on the majesty of the Giver of every good and perfect gift, he found sanity and lasting happiness. This is the place where our vision is painted by His glory, protected by His love, and perfected by His grace. This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!
Grace for the Race 