[2015.11.17] Staff Lab: Pulling Out Potential (#6)
Steven Furtick uses Jesus' fig tree parable to explain how leaders convert potential into results. He argues you must own growth, confront unproductive people, and take concrete steps like setting deadlines and removing obstacles. The tension between mercy and accountability determines whether potential actually produces fruit.
Chapters
That was fun. That was a good time, huh? Lord, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your favor on our church, on our lives, on the staff. We thank you for your favor on our families. We thank you for friends that we have in this room. We thank you for the bond that we have, the unity that we have. We thank you for the weapon of worship that you've given us, that anytime we feel pressed, we can sing out and sing to the Lord. A new song or an old song. 1984, 2015, 1917. Whatever it is, we'll throw it all at the devil in an attempt to keep you high and elevated in our perspectives, in our lives. In Jesus name. Oh, and Father, we thank you that hearers in heaven is going around the world to touch lives. We thank you that every song that is meant to be sung will find the exact lodging that it is meant to have. And we pray that it will bless millions. Millions. Everybody. Shout millions. Shout millions. Come on, get it in your mouth. Say millions. How many albums, Sol? How many. How many people reached? How many dollars raised? Come on, clap your hands for millions. Amen. Let's see if we can squeeze a little seminar in. I have something that I pray will be edifying to your soul. Did you bring a Bible, iPad, iPhone, something that you can locate your scripture? Luke, chapter 13. Nobody greater than you. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Not even Ferris. Not even Nick Dooley. Nobody greater than Jesus. Not even Holly. Hey, she's close. Ladies first tonight. Come on up, babe. Give us a preview. Sneak preview. What are we doing? It's ladies night. What's going to happen? What's going on? We're going to transform this room. It's going to be beautiful. We're going to have dinner family style. Lots of lights everywhere. And I'm going to talk about a bird. Is that all you want? You want more? That's all. That's good. Okay, ladies, black and white. Don't forget to wear your black and white. And if a Michael Jackson song doesn't show up on the playlist to that same theme, I would be disappointed. How many of y' all don't know what I'm talking about? All right, that's Sad. Luke, chapter 13. Then Jesus told this parable. A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. There it is. I forgot we had the screen. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard for three years now, I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree, and having found it and he cut it down, why should it use up the soil, sir? To the man replied, leave it alone for one more year and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down. Repeat after me, it's got to grow or it's got to go, oh, all right. Touch somebody next to you, tell them it's got to grow or it's got to go. Turn to the person on the other side of you and say, if it doesn't grow, it must go. Absolutely. How many believe that? I want to speak to you from a topic of pulling out potential. This is a phrase that we've certainly used a lot in the church, almost to the point that it's been stripped of its meaning a little bit. We just want to pull out potential. But it is kind of the essence of ministry, isn't it, to pull out the potential of Christ in somebody, of the Spirit in somebody. I want to get into that a little bit today. This parable arrested my attention recently. I couldn't figure out why or what it was for a few weeks ago and just kind of kept waiting for God to tell me what the what to do with it and just some insights that I was seeing in it. I felt like it was for us today to just look at this parable. Parables are the most. I won't say the most. There's some pretty difficult stuff to interpret in the Bible. But as far as people spiritualizing different texts and being able to make it mean whatever you want it to mean, the parables are really good for that. You can kind of do just about anything you want with it. It's never my goal to take something and abuse the purpose for which it was put in the Bible. I think you know that. So I don't try to impose my opinion or my philosophy on the text. I try to let the text teach me. But instead of being exegetical today with this text, I will point out a few context issues. But I thought maybe could we look at it as an analogy, this agricultural analogy of a tree that won't grow for the disappointing places in our lives and the unproductive areas of our ministry that we all know we have. How many of you have at least one? Could be 100. 100. Between 1 and 100 areas of your life that are not producing like you believe they're supposed to right now or within the ministry. So, yeah, every hand goes Up. I say that to make a point. We have all been this tree described in this parable at different points along the way in our journey. Thank God for His patience. How many are grateful as much as anything that God is just patient with you? How many of you? If God had the same amount of patience with you that you have with others, you would be out of the ministry. How many of you? If God had the same amount of patience with you that you have with others, you would be off the planet. How many of you? If God had the same amount of patience with you that you have with you, you'd be done by. As a highly impatient person. This parable got my attention because it gives, I guess we could say, a contrast, using the owner of the vineyard and the manager of the vineyard, between urgency and patience. Urgency and patience. It illustrates a type of patient urgency that I believe is essential to fulfill purpose. Speaking of the word potential, I almost titled this message the Problem with Potential. The problem with potential is that if it stays in potential form, it will eventually become procrastination. If you've had potential in an area for five years, that potential is no longer a good thing. If potential is not produced into a purpose that you fulfill, it becomes procrastination. It starts to make you sick when there's something you know you're supposed to do or something you know you're supposed to manifest, or something you know you're supposed to mature in and you're not doing it. There's no worse feeling in the world than unfruitfulness, which is why I preached before to our church that the frustration of a fight is much greater than the frustration of fruitlessness. To be unfruitful is the greatest frustration. To know that there's something that should be on my branches that's not there, or to know that there's something more that could be accomplished in an area that I'm overseeing but I can't make it grow. I kind of came at the parable today from the idea, what do you do when it won't grow? I thought that you could substitute whatever you raised your hand about for it. I thought that the tree could represent a number of things. It could represent a person you're trying to lead and they're not producing. It could represent an area of your life where you're trying to see a certain level of victory or progress and you're not seeing. Could represent an idea you have that you don't know what to do with, a restlessness, just anything in your life that is not producing. Kind of moving around the text. I may even preach this again this weekend, just from a totally different angle. We'll see how it feels today, but I want to give you a few ideas about action you can take when you feel like there is potential in you or someone or something God has placed you over that is not producing. Are you ready? We'll go quickly. I started with 10, but I think we'll just hit the top five here. Number one, it is important that if God has entrusted you in any area, you have to own the growth. No points coming up on the screen. Just listen. Own the growth. I see in this passage a contrast between the attitude of the guy who was managing the field, the vineyard, and the guy who owned the vineyard. There is a very different mindset between someone who is thinking like a manager and someone who is thinking like an owner. Touch somebody, say, own it. Own it. Whatever it is God has put you over that is supposed to grow. Own the growth of that thing. I can tell really quickly whether somebody has an ownership mentality on our staff or whether they're just more of a hireling who's doing a job, as to whether or not they see a direct connection between their contribution and our growth. If they see themselves as a manager, they just take care of their responsibilities and compartmentalize those responsibilities. They never stop to ask the question, is this contributing to the overall growth of our church? But when you see somebody and our staff is full of these types of people who think less like managers and more like owners, growth is possible. Own the growth. I wonder, do you own the growth of the area of ministry you've been entrusted to, or are you measuring your success by maintenance? The vineyard manager was maintaining all of the other trees. Only an owner would walk past all the trees that are doing well and go straight to the one that isn't working and say, no, what about this one? See, because every one of those trees that is in the vineyard represents a price he paid to put it there and a price he's paying to keep it up. He knows there is a price for unfulfilled potential. In the English standard version, it says, this tree was planted in the vineyard, but it wasn't producing. I like things that start with the same letter. So I think there is a lot in our church, and possibly in your life too, that is planted but not yet producing. So what you have to do. Yeah, it is lb. Let me tell you something about lb. He's the kind of guy who owns whatever you give him to oversee. He will Own it. He will run you over because he owns it. Some people don't like a strong personality like that. From time to time, yes, I've had to put LB in a cage. Yes, from time to time, I've had to put him in a rubber room. Yes, from time to time, I've had to sequester him so he doesn't kill anybody or completely deplete the 2K2 pool. But there's something about a guy who says, if you give me something to oversee, I'm going to own it. If you have to rein me in, then rein me in. But I'm owning this. Own it. Own it. That's what I told you guys before Time Warner this year. I said, own this moment. Own the moment. Typically, you would hear excuses from the manager of the vineyard about why this one tree wasn't growing, but I love his attitude. If we're just looking at this parable from a principal standpoint, not so much a theological standpoint, which we could, and maybe I will this weekend, but we're just looking for principles today, for leadership, I believe that's a correct application of it because the manager and the owner both take responsibility at their level. When the manager is confronted with the fact that something isn't growing, instead of saying, it's a bad tree, there must be something wrong with the tree, he points to the fact that maybe he hasn't done all that he can do to make it grow yet. Can I show you this? Look at verse eight, sir. Leave it alone for one more year and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. What's he doing? He is owning the issue. I'll dig around it, I'll fertilize it. He doesn't say, it isn't a good tree. And here's how you know it's not the vineyard's fault. Because if you look around the vineyard, there's only one tree that's not producing. Sometimes we get into the situation where we want to blame the ground we're planted in for what's not growing on our tree. Then we want to transplant from one job to another job, or from one marriage to another marriage, or from one friendship to another, always blaming the ground, never owning our own growth and saying, well, you know what? There's an apple tree over here and there's an orange tree. I know these all wouldn't be in the same vineyard, but I'm not a horticulturist, so just go with me. I'm a theologian. But to walk around the vineyard and say, well, it must not be the vineyard's fault. It might not be my boss's fault because there are other people that work under my boss who are producing. There are other people who are in the same system as me and are seeing more success. So I can't blame the ground. I have to own my own growth. On a personal level, I wonder, do you own your growth? Do you dig around at things and fertilize things that are supposed to grow in your life? Do you take personal responsibility for becoming more skilled at the thing God has entrusted you to do? What are you reading? What are you listening to? Who are you talking to? How do you push yourself? The digging process to me represents that there's cultivating work to be done. That there's cultivating work to be done. So he's willing to get his hands dirty to get in there and. And own his growth. Touch somebody again, say, own your growth, quit complaining about the development you're not getting and start digging in the field. You've been assigned to own the growth and then guard the ground. Guard the ground. Then he told this parable. A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, for three years now, I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. That's mean. Cut it down. Well, that's kind of drastic, don't you think? No, it is out of his concern for all the other trees that he has to cut down the one that isn't doing what it's supposed to do. I wonder what things in your life are taking up good ground. He said, why should it use up the soil? Why should it? Remember I said, we all have an it. Why should it use up the soil? Which means that the nutrients in the soil are a limited resource. It means that when you leave a tree there and refuse to deal with dysfunction in an area, it depletes other areas of your life that could be growing because you won't deal with the dysfunction that's there. I guess this is why I never feel bad if we have to let somebody go from a staff position. I would not sacrifice the 20,000 because of one person who is not in an area of their gifting, or for the one person who doesn't want to step up, or for the one person who can't get past the personal issue, or for the one person who will not produce according to purpose. That's why I don't have a real problem with, I guess you could say, making hard decisions. It's still hard. I still hate to let people go, but I'm kind of in a position where I think to let all the other trees suffer in a vineyard because you don't want to dig out one of them. It's a misappropriation of leadership. Yet we do it all the time. Now, the context here, Jesus is disappointed and to a degree, running out of patience with the leaders in the nation of Israel. When you read through Scripture, the vineyard always represents the nation of Israel, the whole nation. The vineyard represents the nation. The vineyard owner is always God. You can see this in Isaiah, chapter five, if you want to look it up later. The vineyard represents the nation. The owner of the vineyard represents God. Yet in this parable, Jesus doesn't condemn the whole vineyard, just one tree in the vineyard. It's a fig tree. It's a fig tree. The fig tree is the first fruit tree that appears in the Bible. In Genesis, chapter three, you will remember that it was the fig tree that Adam snatched the leaf off of to try to cover himself when he realized he was naked. It was the fig tree that covered his nakedness. It was the leaders that were supposed to cover the people. It was the priests that were supposed to cover the people. That's what the fig tree represents. It represents peace. It represents prosperity. It represents covering. When the vineyard owner walks through the vineyard, it is no coincidence that he walks up to a fig tree, the tree that should be producing cover to represent the leaders of the nation in the vineyard that should have been covering the people, that should have been protecting the people, that should have been a source of peace and prosperity for the people. But the leaders weren't doing what they were supposed to do. So God says, I will not leave a lazy leader in the soil depleting the resources that are supposed to bless my people. I will not do it. I'd rather pull this tree up by the roots than allow all these other trees to go dry. Because this tree doesn't want to take what it's given and produce something. So a principle of this for us, there are several. Might be that just in your own life. Think of it. Think of it on multiple levels. Here's one way to read the Bible. One way to read the Bible. Do it like you're looking at a panoramic picture and do it like you're looking at one face and then look at that face and then zoom Out. Then if I was looking at LD's face, but then I zoomed out and saw Shell and Angel, I might think they're at lunch. But then if I zoomed out all the way, I would see we're in a staff meeting. I would zoom out and that would give me some context. Ld. Beautiful, charming, lovely, all of that. Then there's three beautiful, charming, lovely girls. But what are they doing? When I zoom out all the way? Now I see. Oh, it's in the context of the world's greatest staff getting together to learn and be instructed by a teacher of the word who is solid, who is fired up, who is passionate. You see the whole thing. If we zoom out all the way on this passage, we might start with the tree in a very small state and say, what's taking up good ground in your life? That might be the first way we look at it. What is taking up good ground in your life? There will just be a way to zoom in, right? What are the activities? What are the conversations? What are the. What are the things that keep draining or depleting the soil in your life? Then you might zoom out again and say, okay, on our team, I want to be nice. Who are the people we keep having to have the same conversation with over and over and over again? And they don't seem to want to get it that I've been coming for three years to get fruit off this tree and I haven't found any. The vineyard owner didn't cut it down the first time he came out to get fruit, and there wasn't any, by the way. He said, I've been out here three years and every time I come, there's nothing. At some point, there has to be a deadline to deal with dysfunction. So can I encourage you to put a deadline on that dysfunction in your life or on your team and say, by this, we're going to set a performance goal. And by this time, you can do this as a supervisor. You can sit down with somebody and say, here's what I need to see. Change. If by January these changes aren't made, this is the shift we're going to have to make. Campus pastors. We're going to need to see this level of growth at your campus within the context of what you've been given. Some can grow more than others. See, he didn't walk up to a fig tree asking it for apples. He didn't walk up to an apple tree asking it for figs. God only expects from you what he put the potential in you to produce so he comes, he goes, wait, you're a fig tree. You're supposed to have figs. So I'm not expecting from you what you cannot give. I'm expecting from you what you will not give. If you will not give it, by this point, I'm going to give it some time. But if you will not give it, I can't let it take up the ground any longer. To many, this sounds like a lack of mercy. But I would ask you a question. Is it really just an unwillingness to confront that often keeps us from uprooting the stuff in our lives that is draining the soil? We call it patience, but often, really, it's procrastination. So here it is. Confront the unproductive. Confront the unproductive in your life, on your team, in this church, confront what is unproductive. By the way, something that was productive in one season is not necessarily guaranteed to be productive in the next. I was thinking recently about David, a lesson I've taught from David's life a lot. It's a good lesson. It's not a full lesson. When he was about to fight Goliath, I shared this with a few 2k2 the other day, walking through the office. I may share it at inside elevation because it's very powerful if you think of it in context of a growing church, a growing ministry. David, when he was going to fight Goliath, was fitted with the king's armor. Do you remember this? Do you remember that? He refused to wear it. He said, I can't go in these. I'm not used to them. I'm not used to them. I'm 17. I'm used to my slingshot. So I have to use in this season what I'm used to. I have to use in this season what I'm used to now. I've used that to teach before that. Hey, you can't be somebody you're not. David can't wear Saul's suit. You have to embrace your uniqueness. I've taught that up one side and down the other. And I'm not the only one. It's a common point people make from the story, yet it leaves out an important fact. Zoom out, zoom out. Look at David's life 13 years later when he's over the United Kingdom, when he's over north and South. Now he has to lead the whole kingdom into war. The very armor he couldn't wear at 17 is now the armor he must wear at 30. Wisdom is knowing which weapon to use when. If David had put on Saul's suit. As a boy, he would have gotten killed in the battle. But if he would have continued to use his slingshot as a king, he would have put the whole nation at risk. We are in a season as a church where we're having to switch some strategies. Here's the way God spoke it to me in a prayer time I had the other day. He said, it's the same war, but it's different weapons. It's the same war, but it's different weapons. Meaning I still want you to have your eyes on people who are outside, but the way you're going to reach them might look a little different from this season. Now you have to learn how to go on tv, and now you've got to learn how to not just get people to tune into the network, but engage and create a relationship with the church. Now you have to not just do stuff and put content out, but actually learn the channels by which people can access it. Now you have to not just write songs, but figure out how touring plays into getting the songs out. Now you have to invite people into inside elevation to see how to introduce them to this movement in a way that can have benefits that will help them and help you. You got to put your slingshot. If you keep fighting with your slingshot while you're sitting on the throne, you put all the troops at risk. So confronting what's unproductive in your life might mean that a tree that was bearing fruit in one season isn't anymore, and now you've got to deal with that. Does this still belong here? Is this still the best way to do it? Okay, what's an example of that that we're working on right now? Somebody. Next level egroups. Next level egroups. There's the one I was looking for. Series. Series. I noticed that from my perspective, doing a series and then another series and then another series and then another series and then another series and then another series and then another series and then another series had us talking more about the next series in our worship experience than our values. I desired to put down the slingshot of just, we're doing another series. Here's another series. Here's another card. Here's another video. Here's another series, then another series. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. That was awesome. For 10 years. We may pick that up again for a certain season. But that tree wasn't producing, from my perspective, a deep way, a connected way of thinking about how we position the church. It had just become robotic. I was going to the Ceres Tree to get some fruit. I felt like, hey, I can't really see numerically. I can't really see creatively where we're taking any steps forward. So what did we do? We uprooted that way of doing things. This past week, I sat in a meeting that we call Flying V now. The meeting formerly known as Heyday. The meeting formerly known as Preview. The meeting formerly known as Big Picture. I saw some of the most creative, not flashy, but some of the most creative videos with great storytelling values. Front and center, subtle, not so over the head. Just a translation of this new season that I want us to go into. But if I had not confronted the thing I had on the inside of me that I know that's all we know how to do. And it's going to be kind of weird. And the campus pastors and creative are going to have to learn how to realign. That's all going to be a part of it. Because when you uproot something, you pull it up by the roots, not just trim it back. You pull it up by the roots, it leaves an empty space. But I believe that if we'll leave an empty space there, we can grow something better back. And why don't we do that? Why don't we do that? We do that because we're lazy. We do that because we're fearful. We do that because we're uncertain. And we do that because we'd rather look at a barren tree than a blank space. All right, so you confront it. And how do you confront it? You confront that individual issue. He didn't shut down the whole vineyard over one tree. Don't get discouraged about your whole life over one area. It was one tree. This is what me and Chunks learned during the media. We knew this, but we learned it at a new level. People are saying means three at most. People are saying who? People? How many? Lots of names, please. That's Tom. Just Tom? Yeah. He said he thought some people were going to be saying it soon, too. Can I tell you what your mind is doing that's working against you? Trying to make you think that the whole vineyard is unfruitful just because one tree is trying to get you to close down the whole vineyard over one tree. It is wisdom not only to know which weapon to use when, but it is wisdom to know which tree needs to be addressed. Sometimes that's just a matter of asking God to get to the root issues of your life. Sometimes it's just one conversation you needed to have. Sometimes it's just one sequence. That you needed to flip. You'd be surprised how little changes can make a big difference. You'd be surprised how one tree can be affecting everything else. Because by this time, there may have been indications on the other trees that, you know what, these are starting to suffer a little bit because of this one. But we don't cut them all down. How many of you lead a meeting in the church, Any kind of meeting, volunteer or staff? Stop fussing at the whole group over something one person did. Stop fussing at the whole group over something that 20% of people did. If it was straw up, pull straw up in the office and beat him up. Good. Unless you can teach the rest something over what happened. But stop going in frustrated with everybody when you're really just being passive about dealing with one person. So I don't do this preaching. I can't bring my anger issues up into the pulpit and punish the whole church over something I'm dealing with that I could have dealt with on Tuesday. I spoke to some pastors recently, and I said, our problem is we're often tough where we should be tender and tender where we should be tough. That is, we're tough in the pulpit. Unbelievable, Heather. But we're tender in the office. We won't confront anything when we should be tough about the issues we need to confront in the organization so we can get up and be tender to the people. Who came needing a word from God? Who came needing to be covered? Who came needing to be healed? Who came needing a fig leaf? Who came needing peace? Who came needing prosperity? If you don't deal with the tree, you'll end up poisoning the whole vineyard. Is this all right? So I would get you to look around your vineyard today, look around those spheres of influence where God has placed you, and look at the potential God has planted in you. Ask yourself the question, what is unproductive that I have been unwilling to confront? You confront where you care. You confront where you care. How many of you have children? How many of you have children that are school age? How many of you, if you had an abusive teacher that was treating your child unfairly, would be right there at the school for a meeting after school because you care? It wouldn't take you 24 hours. What if a schoolteacher put his or her hand on your child? Kid comes home upset, a black eye, handprint across the left cheek. What happened today? Ms. Jones said I need to shut up. How quick would you be at the school? No, I'm asking how quick would you be at this school? Because that came from inside of you because you own it. You will always care the most about what you own and you will always confront in an area you care about. It's a protective instinct of a parent and it should be the protective instinct of anybody who is serious about their potential. I care about this. I care about this. I care about the way we do it. That's why I'm having this conversation with you. I care about the way our first time guests feel. That's why I'm having this conversation. I care about how our department functions. I care about the fact that we haven't been producing fruit here. I care about this. So I'm confronting because I care. The more I care, the more quickly I will confront. Yet when he confronts, he does it in such a way that there's still an opportunity for improvement. This is where grace comes in. One theologian I really respect, especially concerning parables, he had an interpretation of this that has me spinning. He says that what we see here contrasted in the parable is not God the Father and Jesus the Son arguing about whether or not to nuke the world. There's a temple system that's corrupt. So God the Father is like, I'm going to uproot this tree. And Jesus is like, no, one more year. Because Jesus is love and the Father is lightning bolts. But we don't believe in a bifurcated God. Jesus said, if you see me seeing the Father, that doesn't work. What he says, and I think he's probably right, is that what we're seeing in this passage is an altercation or confrontation between justice and mercy. Justice is saying, if it doesn't grow, it has to go. And mercy is saying, give it one more chance. That's what I want to preach about this weekend, if I get into it, is how just when justice has said, you've had all the time, you're going to get all the chances you're going to get. That's where Grace comes in. Grace says, let me work on it a little while. Let me see if I can dig around it a little bit. Instead of digging it up, let me see if I can dig around that heart. Let me see if I can dig around that situation. So justice says, something has to be done. Grace says, I know, but let me do it. Grace says, let me have a chance to do what the law couldn't do. Grace says, let me have an opportunity to grow what the system couldn't grow. Grace says, let me have an opportunity to act upon them. Maybe if I can get my hands on this, maybe this tree can grow. So we want to grow in grace. Touch somebody and say, grow in grace. Grow in grace. I'm tired of people making growth and grace opposites. Growth and grace are not opposed. I'm almost finished, but I want to explain. Some people think that you're either focused on growth or. Or you're focused on grace. I say, when you're focused on grace, it produces the greatest growth. I was talking to one friend about standards who pastors a church. He said, we don't really have a lot of standards. We're more about grace. I said, but what do you do if an area is not growing? He said, it's okay. We're all about grace. I said, well, what do you do if something isn't producing? Well, it's okay. We're all about grace. He said it a lot of different ways, but that's what he kept saying. But grace will always grow. Whatever is planted in its soil, grace will always grow. Whatever is truly planted in its soil, grace will always grow your life. More than any human motivation, he says, I need just one more year. Just one more year. Just one more chance. I love about God that he's the God of another chance, of another chance. This time he says, I want to dig around it. I want to fertilize it. There has been some stuff missing that I believe could have made it grow. I want to dig out some things for whatever discussion you have today at your table. In just a moment, I want you to talk about where you need to be digging, where you need to be digging. Because here's the deal. You either dig around it or you've got to dig it out. It's going to get dug either way. Do you understand what I'm saying? You're either going to deal with the issue and dig around it and figure out what's going on here, or it's going to get dug out. But either way, you've got to deal with it. Wouldn't you rather deal with it by grace and let me fertilize it? Let me throw some manure on it? This is one of those times where the King James version actually has the preferable translation because he says, let me dig it and let me dung it. Let me dung it sometimes. Listen, I want to encourage you. You have an area of your life ministry, not growing right now. Sometimes what God will do is he'll start digging at it. He's digging at it. Why is he digging at it? Because he doesn't want it to have to be uprooted. So he's digging in Mercy so that you can stay planted. He doesn't want to have to dig you out. He doesn't want to have to take you out of the vineyard. He doesn't want to have to replace you. He would prefer that you allow him to dig around it and to dung it. To dung it. Failure is fertilizer. Criticism is fertilizer. Hurt feelings is fertilizer. Frustration is fertilizer. So you've been wondering, haven't you? Why am I so frustrated? Why am I so God? Don't you care about me anymore? Yeah, I care. I care so much that I'm willing to confront the unused potential in your life, because if I don't put some fertilizer on this, I'm going to have to pull it out. When I said pulling out potential, you thought I was talking about how if you have potential, I'm going to pull it out of you. I'm talking about how if something in your life stays in potential form long enough without producing, God has to pull it out because it's taking up space. This is staff lab, right? Potential energy, Kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is when the energy gets in motion. These chairs aren't going to restack themselves for ladies first because of potential energy is going to be kinetic energy. The connection in the text is the kinetic energy of the man saying, let me do something. When stuff starts moving in your life, what is your assumption when things start shifting, when the ground starts shifting in your life, is your assumption that in that frustration that God is digging at me and allowing this to be thrown on me because he's done with me, because I'm not useful to him? Or is it that I'm so useful to him that the manager of the vineyard took up for the tree and said, let me work on this. I'm very, very glad that Jesus is my advocate who says, let me work on them a little bit. Let me work on them and let me dig and let me dung it and let me throw some stuff on their life that they're not going to want, but they're going to be glad they got it when they see what it produces. So they can have some figs on the tree, look beneath the leaves, look beneath the leaves. It doesn't say that the tree didn't have any leaves. It said that it didn't have any fruit. Look beneath the appearance of things and dig around it at the root and ask God to show you what's really producing in your life and what's really costing look beneath the leaves and God will show you. He'll show you what tree to work on. He will. He's done it for me for 10 years now. When the church is starting to feel like I'm the guy, man, I'm going, ah, the vineyard is broken. No, no, no, no, no. It's that tree. It's that tree. Roll up your sleeves, get down in the dirt, dig around it, be patient. But don't let your patience become an excuse for procrastination. And dig it out and dung it and deal with the failure and deal with the frustration and confront the dysfunction. The only thing I don't like about the parable, it never tells us what happened to the tree. It stops right there. And you're reading, you're like, maybe Luke 14, we found out about the tree. We don't know. We don't know. That's because blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the council of wicked, stand away with sinners, sit in the seat of mockery, his delight in the law, the Lord not his law, and meditates day, night. He is like a tree. That's because the story of this tree is still waiting to be told through you. The nation is still waiting to see, will we be a productive church? The tree is still. I'm going to leave it alone because I want you to understand something right now. The world on many levels is watching the church right now. I mean, we're in a political cycle. We're in all kinds of upheaval. And God needs fruitful churches, grace oriented churches, churches with healing in their leaves, churches that will cover. I think God wants us to be one of the leading churches. So it's more important than ever that we dig and figure out what are the areas of this church. I'm going to leave that to you to have about 15 minutes in your groups and the discussion. I want to revolve around this idea of what is the tree, how can we dig? What is the tree? How can we dig? What is the tree? How can we dig? What is the tree? How can we dig? What are we going to do about it? The man said, I'm going to put a year on it, I'm going to fertilize it, I'm going to dig around it. And then when you come back, you can inspect it again. They say that you should inspect what you expect. So what are we expecting that's not happening? And how will you inspect that process? What is the tree? Is it something you need to get help with that you haven't gotten help with what is the tree and how will you dig? What is the tree and how will you dig? The good news is we're coming off of a record breaking weekend in church. I'm going to let y' all put your pen down and clap for that. It's a record breaking weekend in church. Thank you, Jesus. It was thanks to good campus leadership. Those guys got up there last weekend on Labor Day and preached on sit with me and other various themes that were loosely related to sit with me in some cases and got up there and challenged the people to bring. What's that? That's digging. That's saying there's empty seats, that's saying there's barren leaves, that's saying there's missing figs. So what are we going to do? We're going to dig around it. We're going to fertilize it. We're going to dig around it, we're going to fertilize it. We're going to have 1,700 people at Gaston because we dig around it and we fertilize it. Let me rewind. We're going to have 1,700 people at Gast because I'm going to start a Sunday night because we have to grow. If it doesn't grow, it has to go. So I'm going to put a deadline on this. We've got to grow this now. We've got to grow it now. We've got to get to work now. We've got to dig now. We've got to grow it now. We have to get to work now. We have to dig. It's not enough to just identify the dysfunction. You begin to dig around it and address solutions. What is the tree and how do we dig? What are your tools? What are your shovels? What is your dung? What is the tree specific now? And how will we dig? As we dig, we know that our ministry is grounded in grace and that's what's going to make it grow. It's good soil. Grace is good soil. We have a good vineyard to work with. God has planted us in a prosperous place. God has planted us in a productive place. We could not fail to bear fruit and blame it on God when we've been planted in such a pleasant place. So what is the tree and how do we dig? It's that simple. When you do it, the potential that was hiding down in the roots is going to start getting out through the branches. It's going to take up that nutrient in the soil and it's going to start producing in a way like never before. Rock Hill is going to have 1,600 people. University City. What was that? An 8 million dollar tree. 8,900. What was it? 5.1 million dollar tree. It better grow. It better grow. So how are we going to dig? Let's have some movies, let's knock some doors. Let's go old school. What else are we going to do? How are we going to dig? How are we going to dig? How are we going to dig? Okay. Our storytelling has become predictable. It's not producing like it should. How are we going to dig? How are we going to dig? We're not producing leaders like we should. We're not promoting. You know, you can do it. You can do it. You can do it. But all you have to do is look at the tree that you. You are. You don't have to make apples, you don't have to make oranges, but you do have to produce figs. You're a fig tree. It's time to be fruitful. What's the tree? How do we dig? Get in your groups. Figure it out. 15 minutes and then you can leave. What is the tree? How do we dig? Get in your groups. What is the tree? How do we dig? What is the tree? How do we dig? What are the questions? What is the tree? No break, just straight to groups. What is the tree? How do we dig? Say it again. What is the tree? How do we dig? All right, let's do it.
