From Our Hearts
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thorn bushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
A few thoughts...
#1: A tree is identified by its fruit. What the tree brings forth lets us know what type of tree it is. A good tree can’t bring forth bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t bring forth good fruit.
#2 Because we now know this, we will never find good fruit from a bad tree. So why are we still looking there? You will not find figs in thorn bushes, and grapes do not come from bramble bushes. So what are we doing in the thorn and bramble bushes?
#3: The tree is an analogy for us. A good person produces good things from the treasury if his heart, and a evil person produces evil things from the treasury of evil in his heart. In other words...you produce what is stored in your heart.
#4: “The words that you say flows from what is in your heart.” So just like you can tell a tree by its fruit, you can tell what is stored up (what’s inside) in a persons heart by that which they speak.
Another translation says it like this, “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
These verses and what I’m about to say has been on my heart for well over a year now. During this time what I am going to comment on has really frustrated me and grieved my heart. It’s an issue that I have struggled with and have had many conversations with God on. I have struggled with this because the issue is focused on the people of God. (Those who say they follow Him). I was specific about the verse because it is the one that came to mind when having those conversations with God. “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Yet I want to change the wording a little to address the issue...
“Out of the abundance of the heart his Facebook speaks.”
The good man from the good in his heart speaks good. The evil man from the evil in his heart speaks evil. Once again what you say gives us an image of your heart. And to go with the quote above, what your Facebook (or any of your social media posts) gives us an image of what is stored in your heart. And this is where the issue arises...
Over the last year we walked through a pandemic, election, and saw protests and riots due to the death of George Floyd. (His death just being the final straw for many after the deaths of so many African Americans at the hands of police) Not to mention today we sit almost two weeks into Israel and Hamas firing missiles at each other and each side seeing causalities. Each of these subjects are powder kegs waiting to explode the moment people bring them up. And blow up they do...
In a quarantined country, social media became the water cooler that our country talked around. Instead of having to look someone with opposing views in the eyes, people hid behind their keyboards and phones hurling venomous comments at each other.
Once again...if what comes out of our mouths, or fingertips, give us an image of our hearts...then...there are some hearts not filled with the right things. Honestly this should be expected from some. Those who are lost in darkness won’t produce light. Their hearts are far from God, and they don't know Him. But those who are in the light should produce light, from their mouths should come good things of Christ! Their hearts are His, they know Him! Simple Right!? But this isn’t what was seen.
The hearts of many were exposed over this past year, and the images that were seen were not good...and ultimately were not God.
This is where the issue really hit home for me. I saw Christians spending more time and effort trying to convince others about accepting their views or proving themselves right than sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Many people campaigned harder for Trump or against him than they have ever campaigned for those to know Jesus. Trump isn’t your savior! Yet by the amount of posts seen, it would seem that way. Why did Trump have more room in your heart than God? Trump isn’t satan either. Yet by the amount of posts seen, it would seem Trumps plans seem more threatening to us than satan’s to kill, steal, and destroy.
Pandemic and Social Issues as well! People know more about the complexities of your ideologies on No Mask/Mask and All/Black Lives Matter than your theology! Shame on us! We call ourselves Followers of Jesus, yet look more like followers of different movements!
The scariest thing is this...we think it is ok. We share our posts and argue in the comments and believe we are doing the work of the Lord.
What image does your Facebook paint of your heart? What do your words reveal about what is stored inside your heart? Is it more on the things of this world or of the things of God?
I’m not saying that these issues aren’t important and apart of our daily lives. But when you spend more time reading, posting, and talking about worldly issues than you do about your Savior...its time to check what is stored up in our hearts.
If we are honest with ourselves, this message is for all of us. Some post or share non-stop, but there are those of us to type out paragraphs and never hit send. It might be silent, but our fingers are still putting out the words that have found a home in our hearts.
This isn’t what God wants for His people...His desire is for those who have drank from the cup of salvation to have streams of Living Water flowing from their hearts! (John 7:38) He wants the Spirit to be the one that has residence inside of your heart. For if He is there, from your mouth, and your Facebook, would come an image of Him!
I leave you with these questions...
#1: When is the last time you personally posted on Facebook about how good God is? And I don’t mean sharing someone else’s post. Your own words.
#2: When is the last time you publicly shared the goodness of God with a friend or co-worker, if ever?
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