#021 - Jesus Wants 3 Kinds of Fruit in Your Life

Hello friends, Wayne Stiles here.

You know the only thing harder than waiting on God?

It's wishing you had.

Well that's why I'm excited to host a Bible conference next year

on the topic of waiting on God from the life of Joseph in Genesis.

The dates will be June 12-15, 2025

and the conference will be at the beautiful Glen Eyrie Conference Center in Colorado Springs.

And joining me to lead in worship and to give a concert one evening will be my friend, Fernando Ortega.

Give me Jesus.

You can have all this world.

Give me Jesus.

I hope you'll join me, my wife Kathy, and my team for a wonderful weekend together.

Space is very limited, so take a moment before you listen to the podcast and go to events.waynestyles.com.

That's events.waynestyles.com.

Most Christians don't know the amazing benefits

experiencing the Bible lands can have on their walk with God.

So I created an online resource that helps anyone

get the most from a Holy Land tour,

whether they travel there physically

or experience it virtually through our videos.

Check it out at walkingthebiblelands.com.

Hello and welcome to Live the Bible.

My name is Wayne Stiles and this is the weekly podcast that helps you connect the Bible to your life.

In this episode, we're going to see the triumphal entry of Jesus as He begins the Passion Week,

and we'll see that Jesus wants to find three kinds of fruit in your life.

As Christians who believe in Jesus Christ, bearing fruit for God is essential, and Jesus

is going to show us how.

I'll be back in a bit with more, but for now, let's hear this week's podcast.

none of us had perfect parents including our children

which makes it so hard to try to buy greeting cards

have you ever been to the store when and you're trying to buy a greeting card

and you know for a mother's day or father's day or a birthday or

something like that. And it's just none of them work. You read through the cards and you think,

where's the section on dysfunctional families?

They all say, you know, to the best mother, you know, you're my best friend, and well,

what if she wasn't?

What if she wasn't?

It's tough.

So that's when you buy a blank card and you just kind of do your best to fill it in.

But the truth is we all deserve to receive dysfunctional cards because we all contribute

to the difficulty of our families.

Well, in Mark chapter 11, it sounds a bit twisted to say that the application goes right to our family,

but you'll see toward the end of it where it exactly does.

The whole ministry of Christ has led up to this moment.

As we've made our way through the Gospel of Mark,

we see Jesus presenting himself to Israel as the Messiah.

The long-awaited Messiah.

He has presented himself through miracles.

miracles, through teaching. He has provided convincing proof that he is exactly who he

says he is, and he has proved it by doing miracles. And he says, you know, repent for

the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If Israel will repent and will change their way of thinking

from the way they are to following Jesus of Nazareth, then Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the

son of David, will actually provide the kingdom of God, the long-awaited kingdom of God.

Well, time went on, and Jesus began to realize, or it began to be evident, that Israel wasn't

going to accept him, in spite of the miracles.

In fact, they attributed the miracles that he was doing to Satan, to the power of the

devil, as opposed to the power of the Holy Spirit.

and Jesus began to withdraw his public offer of the kingdom of God to Israel

and began to train his disciples for plan B.

which was really plan A all along, but it was a mystery, the Apostle Paul tells us,

that it was a mystery in the Old Testament, not revealed prior to this time.

Jesus took the disciples up to Caesarea Philippi and said,

I'm going to start something called my church,

and even the gates of Hades will not be able to stand against it.

Well, the apostles wanted nothing to do with this.

They didn't understand it. They didn't want Jesus to die.

He revealed to them several times, we've seen in Mark chapter 8 through 10,

that he's going to go to the cross and that he's going to rise again.

But they rejected that.

And instead, they began to push the kingdom, and not only the kingdom,

but their significant places in the kingdom, which is really what they were interested in.

In fact, they were so interested in it, they began arguing with one another about who's the greatest.

So Jesus, each time, would take them aside and began to teach them

that the way up is down.

If you really want to be

great, then you become a servant. And it's very easy to see where this now translates into the

home, because greatness in the home is not in position, but it's in servanthood.

Mark chapter 11, they get to Jerusalem. So all up to this point has been leading

to the beginning of the Passion Week, and now it begins. Verse 1,

As they approached Jerusalem at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives,

he sent two of his disciples and said to them,

Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it,

you will find a colt tied there on which no one yet has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this?

You say, The Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it back here.

They went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street, and they untied it.

Some of the bystanders were saying to them,

What are you doing untying the colt?

They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission.

They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it, and he sat on it.

And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches,

which they had cut from the fields.

And those who went in front and those who followed were shouting,

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.

Hosanna in the highest.

You know, we said last week that Bartimaeus was the last miracle

in the book of Mark prior to the resurrection.

I guess you could sort of count this event of going and untying this stranger's coat.

as a miracle.