NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Matthew 7:17

Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk
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📖Matthew 7:17 (ESV)
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

📘Pastor's Note:
Here, Jesus is teaching against false prophets. He’s teaching against ravenous wolves. Those who say they are believers but are not. He illustrates His point by using a good tree and a bad tree. His point is that something CANNOT produce fruit that violates their identity. A good tree will produce good fruit. A bad tree will produce bad fruit. I think where people get this wrong is that sometimes, people want to look at counterfeit fruit and claim it to be good. I’ve been looking closely at Andy Stanley, who claims to be a good tree. He thinks he is a good tree. He thinks he is producing good fruit. Unfortunately, many people are deceived in believing he is a good tree. Both he and many that follow him are deceived. Really sad. If you look closely, he is a very bad tree producing really bad fruit. He is a counterfeit, a child of Satan deceiving those that follow him. If he doesn’t repent and believe the Gospel, the Gospel that Paul preached, one day he will stand before God and be justly judged, cut off, and thrown into the lake of fire. That will happen because his true identity is that he is a bad tree. And let’s all be truthful. We were born with a sinful nature. Meaning we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are bad trees by nature. Yet Jesus is willing and absolutely able to make us new! He can change us from a bad tree to a good tree. He does that at salvation. When we hear the Gospel, repent, and believe in Him alone, He changes a stone heart to a heart of flesh. He makes us a new creation in Christ, He gives us a new heart, and He transforms us from a bad tree to a good tree!! How glorious is our Savior? How deep, how wide, how vast are His ways!! Have you done this? How about those in your circle of influence? Here’s where I hope we are. That we, who were once bad trees but now are good trees, live to share the transforming, life giving, heart changing message of the Gospel with bad trees in hope that they too will have their identity forever changed in Christ Jesus our Lord!

🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️

Pastor Jamie
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Read the Chapter:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207&version=ESV​
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