This message uses the parable of the non-fruit-producing fig tree to challenge believers to acknowledge times when in their lives there is no fruit being produced, when there is no growth, or when less-than-perfect performance--based on what we think is the ideal standard--results in anger, guilt, and shame. As with the fig tree that the vineyard worker wanted to try to strengthen with a little more tending, we need an advocate to stand with us in determining from God's truth what it is we need to work on. And we need to allow the nutrients of God's grace to permeate our souls for the things that we need to grow that we on our own can't produce.