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5. Learn from fruitful people.
Mars Hill, what a gift some of the people in this church are. Some of the people in this church are incredibly fruitful, wise, gifted, skilled, talented, competent, and able. There are some amazing people in our church. They have some skills in areas that would tremendously benefit you. This is where community and Community Groups are huge. So here’s what you need to do: Find people who are fruitful where you’re not very fruitful. And don’t call them up and say, "I would like a mentor. Can we meet every Tuesday for the rest of my life?" Because they’ll say, "I’m busy. I’m busy." What you need to do is figure out where you lack fruit, find someone who is fruitful, and then start recording. Maybe they’ve got a great marriage and have been married for years. And you say, "Man, I would like to have a marriage like theirs. I bet you they could teach me a lot. What questions would I ask them? What things in our marriage would I want their perspective on?" They raised amazing kids who totally love them and love Jesus. "How do you do that?" You meet a mom, she’s got her act together. House is organized, everything’s got a system, kids are always wearing pants, it’s amazing. And you say, "How does she do that? How does she keep all of her complex life in order?" You meet someone who’s good with investments and they know how to make it through tough economic times, whatever it is. Somebody who really knows their Bible and is really wise and reads the right books and listens to good teaching and they have lots of biblical wisdom. You say, "Man, if I could get a little time with them, what would I ask them? What would I want to know from them?""One hour with the right person asking the right questions can actually change a whole course of life. So, learn from fruitful people."
See, wisdom is in the Bible first and foremost. It’s also in books. And it’s also in God’s people. So you go to those people and you extract that wisdom as a gift. But to do so, number one, prayerfully consider what questions you’ll ask in advance. Write those questions down. Don’t waste their time; it’s a treasure. Number two, humbly ask them, "Could I get 30 minutes of your time?" "Could I get 60 minutes of your time? I won’t waste it. I’ve got a couple questions I would really like your help on so that I could become more fruitful in my life. And I promise you if you tell me things I’ll do them. I will not be a waste of time." And then, if you ask them, what do you think they will say? "Sure." Fruitful people love to help make other people fruitful. The most fruitful person that I have personally ever met in my life goes to Mars Hill. And a few years ago I hit the wall, I wasn’t doing well, things weren’t working. And I didn’t know how to become more fruitful. And this person who’s very fruitful and very godly and very generous and I really love him, he's more fruitful than I am and more calm and relaxed and easy going and happy. And I thought, "How do you do both?" Because that was a mystery to me. So I met with him and I had a list of questions, and we met for maybe an hour or two. I would take as much time as he would give me. He just told me, "Here’s what I do. Here’s how I think. Here’s what I’ve learned. Here are mistakes I’ve made. Here’s how I put my life together. Here are parts of Scripture that have helped me. Here are books that have helped me. Here are systems." I just took notes, page after page after page. I typed all those notes up. To be honest with you, that’s a file I go back to over and over and over. I have for four or five years. It’s been life-changing. One hour with the right person asking the right questions can actually change a whole course of life. So, learn from fruitful people. Learn from fruitful people.6. Be an activist, not a fatalist.
Some of you have a theology of fatalism. "God’s sovereign! God does whatever he wants! It’s unavoidable, there’s nothing we can do!" And you use that as an excuse to be unfruitful. You’re not trying hard. You’re not doing your best. You’re not making plans. You’re not giving generously. You’re not staying busy. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are like two pedals on a bike, they work together. God initiates, we respond. God gets his work done through his people. He’s sovereign over the ends (what happens) and the means (how it gets done). If you only have one pedal, "It’s all me!" Then you forget about God and you’re starting to act like God. If, "It’s all God!" then you forget the fact that God works through us. Yeah, God’s going to get all his figs. And some of them are going to be on our tree. Don’t have a theology of fatalism. Have a theology of activism. Stay busy, be fruitful, do good works. Make your life count. Don’t waste your days.
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7. Turn your pains into plans.
I am a furious note taker. I always carry a little notepad with me and I try to take notes. And when something doesn’t work or it hurts, I want to make a plan to fix it. Now let me say this, some pain in life you can’t avoid. It is what it is. A lot of pain in life, you can fix it. And so it’s turning your pain into your plan. So for me, when we go on vacation as a family, I’m taking notes. Not continually, but I’ll jot things down. "This really worked! This did not work at all." And I put them together as a file on my laptop under "vacations" so when it comes time to plan a family vacation I pull it up and I’ve got years of learning. Because you know what happens? You go on vacation, something doesn’t work, it’s a total bomb, you forget about it, the next year, oh, you didn’t have the right plan, it’s a bad vacation again. You come home more tired from vacation than before you went. Some of you just came through the holidays and it was painful. It didn’t work. What are you going to do? I’ll tell you what, within two weeks you won’t even remember why it didn’t work. So write it down now."A resolution doesn’t accomplish anything without a plan and the power of the Holy Spirit."
Christmas 2009 didn’t work. My daddy dates with my daughters got rushed. I didn’t get an away night with my wife to really connect with her and make some great memories. We didn’t have our schedule put together and it didn’t really work. And at the end of the holidays I felt like I missed it. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t wonderful. I missed the opportunity to make memories with my wife and kids. And so afterward, I made notes and I made a plan. I put it in my laptop, and this year I pulled it up a couple of months before Christmas. And Grace and I put it all together. And honestly, 2010 was the best Christmas season of my whole life. I got a whole daddy date with Ashley, a whole day, it was fantastic. I got a whole daddy date day with Alexie, it was great. I got guy time with the boys. I got away in the snow with Grace for an overnight. It was amazing. Christmas worked. It wasn’t painful, it was wonderful. I feel encouraged, I feel refreshed, I feel hopeful. So I spent a little time working on my life, not just in it, putting together my schedule for this year, my travel schedule for the next 18 months, my preaching schedule for the next 24 months. Plans for Mars Hill, plans for my family, trying to tee it all up. Yeah, there will be adjustments, nothing’s perfect. I sat down with Grace and we took a whole day, just us, laptops, paperwork, put it all together. What does an ideal week look like? What do you need from me? What’s working? What’s not working? How can we help? How do we need to adjust the kids’ chores? How did the holidays work? What do we need for vacations this year? What are we going to do for the kids’ birthdays? What about sports? You know the complexity of life. And Grace and I spent a whole day putting the year together. We made a plan. And by the grace of God, we’ll take notes along the way and we’ll make adjustments and next year will be better than the year that we’re looking forward to right now, I hope and pray, by the grace of God. Turn your pains into plans. Learn from it, do something different. If your thing’s not working, try something else. We do this with our kids as well. What worked for you on vacation? What are you learning in school? How could we serve you better? Who do we need to serve as a family? We set goals like how much can we give this year, because for 20 years Grace and I have set a goal to give more every year than we did the year before, and God’s always answered that prayer. But you got to have a plan. I didn’t know this for years. It hurt my wife, it hurt my kids, it hurt my health, it hurt our church. All right, I want to be fruitful. I want my family to be fruitful. I want our church to be fruitful. I want you to be fruitful. And one big helpful idea is to turn your pains into plans. This is the time of year to do that. A resolution doesn’t accomplish anything without a plan and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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8. Use your manure.
This is the best point of all. In the analogy and in the parable, Jesus says to get figs, first you need manure. Now if I came to you today and I said, "Would you like some Fig Newtons?" You would say, "Why yes." "Oh, and by the way, it comes with manure." You’d say, "Can I just—can I just get the Fig Newtons? I would like the Fig Newtons without the manure." But here’s the point of the simple analogy and the parable: It takes manure to get a fig. Okay, now let me tell you how this applies to your life. You look at your life right now, where’s the manure?Is it in your marriage? You say, "Yeah, my marriage is a pile. I got a lot of manure there. Yeah." Is it your finances? "Oh, yeah, my finances. I go to the ATM, and I hit the button and manure comes out, not money. That’s all that’s going on." How about your walk with God? You say, "Yeah, this last year, woo-hoo. Yeah, a lot more manure than figs."
All right, and some of you, when you get a lot of manure in your life, and sometimes it’s suffering, it’s hardship, it’s pain, it’s loss, it’s failure, it’s trauma, it’s trial. You know what? It just stinks. And some of you will look at it and you’ll say, "You know what, God? How come you don’t love me? How come you’re not good to me? How come you don’t care about me? How come you’re not helping me? You know, this part of my life, or maybe my whole life, it’s just manure!" God would say, "I love you so much that I gave you that manure. And I’m digging around the roots and I’m putting the manure on your roots because I have a whole lot of figs in your future.""But by the grace of God, you don’t waste your manure. You use your manure and eventually there’s a harvest. There’s fruitfulness."
So it takes a while to go from manure to fruit. Do you know who we have found are the best counselors in Redemption Groups for rape victims? Those who have been raped. Those people who have the best insight to help someone dying of cancer is someone who has battled cancer. Those people who have the greatest insights on marriage are those whose marriage has endured some really rough water. Those people who have tremendous insights, wisdom, gifts to give, generally speaking, it started for them with a lot of manure in their life. Something painful, stinky, hard, difficult, disappointing, maybe even embarrassing. But by the grace of God, you don’t waste your manure. You use your manure and eventually there’s a harvest. There’s fruitfulness.*
I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be hopeful. I want you not to give up. I do want you to turn your pain into plan and I do want you to use your manure. Whatever right now stinks the most in your life could be something that God uses for an enormous harvest. And some of you say, "You have no idea how much manure I have." Well then you have no idea how many figs are going to come. God apparently has a big harvest for you in fruitfulness and righteousness and ministry and testimony and service. He does! He’s not angry and looking at you today saying, "I’m here to cut you down." He’s here to say, "I have great hope for that little tree and what stinks today will be joy tomorrow and fruitfulness if you will use it."
