Authentic Faith: Transforming Hearts and Bearing Fruit

"Here were people gathering at baptism. Everybody that was in there talking, the tax collectors, the soldiers, all gathered at baptism. And baptism had become a great thing. John the Baptist was the baptizer, the one baptizing the people of God, the believer of God. And he was baptizing. And there were crowds gathering to see the baptism. I believe that in this text, by this time in Scripture, baptism had become a bit of a spectacle. A bit of a show. And everybody wanted to see what was going on with it. Everybody wanted to understand or see what was happening. And everybody wanted to get in line to be baptized. It was, everybody was watching and they would go down in the water and get up and they would look like everybody was free of sin and cleansed. John the Baptist had to let them know in this text. He let them know that this is not just a show." [00:50:04] (73 seconds)


"Because what's happening here is many of you are coming in and being baptized but still not bearing good fruit. Y 'all read that in the text with me, right? Y 'all read it in the text with me. Because he talks about you're bearing fruit. Uh -huh. But you're bearing fruit of repentance. Fruit that you need to repent from. Uh -huh. Tell your neighbor, say, neighbor, all fruit is not good fruit. All fruit is not good fruit. There's some stuff you don't want to eat. Some stuff that comes off the vine and it's still not good. Everything ain't ready to be eaten. Everything is not good. Everything is not good for you. Even though it's fruit and it looks like it comes, I know we had the scriptures where Jesus talks about the fig tree and the fig tree didn't bear any fruit and they cut it down. Uh -huh. But this is a different situation. This tree is bearing fruit. But the fruit isn't good. This fruit is coming to church. This fruit is showing up for baptism. This fruit is showing up for worship. But it's still not good fruit. Uh -huh. Uh -huh. This fruit got people in the pews and the churches packed. People showing up to see the show." [00:51:19] (96 seconds)


"Ask your neighbor, say, neighbor, what does your fruit look like? Well, neighbor, what does your fruit look like? What kind of fruit are you bearing? Is somebody getting blessed by the words that you say or is somebody going into depression off of the words that you say? Uh -huh. Is somebody getting healed off of the words that you say or is somebody getting hurt by the words that you say? Come on, we got to ask ourselves this. We got to ask ourselves. That lets us know what our tree looks like. Is somebody getting hurt by the words that you say or is somebody receiving love off of what we do or is somebody in pain and anguish off of what we do? I know y 'all, I know y 'all don't like it. I know y 'all don't like it, but I'm just telling y 'all what the word says. This is the word. It talks about the tree and the fruit that it bears and it says this, that the ax is at the root of the tree. The ax is already laying. It's just laying there waiting to be cut." [00:54:28] (65 seconds)


"The ax is already laying there waiting to cut it down, but it's all talking about the fruit that it's bearing. What are we doing? What are we looking like? What are we producing that's causing bad fruit? You got to look at what we are doing. How, how, how is the things that we say and do? I know we come to church and we got many people. Y 'all know the people. I ain't going to say it's somebody in here, but y 'all know those people that come to church. Look like church, act like church, but then on Monday and Tuesday, they quick to cuss you out. Come on, come on. Let's talk about it. Come on. And such were some of us, not last year, like last month, but last week. Come on. But such were some of us. God, help us to bear. I want to be able to bear good fruit. I want to be able to bear. I don't want to be the one that's poisoning my neighbor, my sister, my brother with my. Because my fruit is poisonous. We're passing it on." [00:55:08] (65 seconds)


"Listen, then, then in the text, I'm going to move. I'm going to move because I know we started late, so I don't want to be here. Y 'all were here way before I was. Let me, let me move. Let me move. And he talks about the fruit and those who are gathered there calling themselves children of Abraham. He says to them, listen, God will raise up something and raise up something for the people of Abraham. Don't think because of where you came from or who you are or what your name is or what your background is or who you got. I got saved under Bishop Radford. I got saved under this one. I came out of this church. I came out of that church. None of that matters. God will raise up something. Don't try to put your name in it and say just because of where I came from or who I am, this is why I deserve to have this or deserve to walk in this. God is saying, I'll raise up something for the people of Abraham. I'm going to by, I'll raise up a stone." [00:56:37] (57 seconds)


"I'll raise up a stone. He don't really need you. He don't need me. It's an honor and a privilege for us to be in this present. It is simply by the grace of God that we're able to stand here, able to do. what we do able to play drums able to sit on an organ able to lift our hands able to lift our voice able to cry out to him we don't deserve to be able to open our mouth it's but but for the grace of god somebody just said but for his grace whoo i wanted to i wanted to read that i wanted to read that in the in the in the message version before i go too far before i go too far in the crowds of people are coming in and they're coming in and they're coming in and they're coming in and they're coming in and they're coming in and they're coming in when the crowds of people came from the baptism it was here this is what we were talking about it was in the message version it says this when the crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do" [00:57:11] (83 seconds)


"here's the truth john is trying to help you this water really ain't going to change you this water is just an outward expression of an inward confession what happens in the water is just what we're doing outward to go along with what's in your heart but if your heart never changed then we got a problem this ain't not you ain't doing nothing but getting wet if you're not wet if you can go get some blood you are not going to change shit if you got go down in this water you can come back up in the same way if your heart never changed you can come in this store and go back out but if your heart heart never changed it don't make you no more of a christian than the man on the moon that doesn't do nothing for you somebody said it's gotta be my heart that changes uh -huh that's why we were singing my heart my mind my soul belongs to you huh those ones we were singing that's why we the songs we were singing unto God and giving him yes so we could have a confession down on the inside of us somebody say change my confession oh God whoo change my confession oh God it's your life they're three and eight in the message version says it's your life that must change not your skin and don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as a father and being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there children of Abraham are a dime a dozen God can make children from stones if he wants he made man from the dust he can make children from the stones he can do that same thing" [01:01:33] (99 seconds)


"trying to claim where you came from or who you with or your background or your heritage don't make you no more a Christian than anything else. It's your heart that has to change. Somebody just put your hand on your chest and say, God, change my heart. Come on, do it again. Say, change my heart. Change my heart, oh God. I hope this is helping somebody. I know it's helping me. If it ain't helping nobody else, it's helping me. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's dead wood, it's going to the fire. It goes on to fire. Here's the next part. Here's the next part. They were listening, and this kind of got me a little tickle. They were listening, and they start calling out. Tax collectors calling out. Teacher, what should we do? What should we do? Because I think in their minds, they thought, because they were tax collectors, they were above everybody else. So we really don't have it. I think they were kind of asking a rhetorical question because they thought they were good. They was thinking, yeah, we don't do anything wrong. We good. We the upper class in society." [01:02:54] (83 seconds)


"We take the taxes from the people. We're subject to the king. We go in and out of the king's courts anytime we want to. They asked, now, what should we do? And he had a response for them. Stop gathering too much. Stop collecting too much. Here's the problem. And then, and I'm going to move. Let me move quickly. Then the soldiers asked, what should we do? And they said, stop blackmailing people. Stop extorting them. Stop blackmailing them. Stop extorting them. Everybody, here's the thing. Everybody thinks it's problems with everybody else, but there ain't no problems with them. Somebody said, Lord, help us. Uh -huh. Because we started looking at everybody else got an issue, but us. Everybody else got problems, but us. Everybody else need to be saved, but us. Everybody else need to be delivered, but us. That's why everybody was down there and being baptized was now the popular thing to do. Everybody else thought they were good. John the Baptist had to let them know that, no, none of us are good. All of us are bearing this bad fruit, and all of us need to get changed in our hearts." [01:04:26] (78 seconds)