What About A Tree?

You're listening to an ex church podcast. We hope this message will light up

your day and to me when I look at it, God is a very

good God. And sometimes you look like you're at the end of your wits.

You're the at the end of your hope. And yet God says,

don't take everything away, leave the stump, leave the roots, because I

have a plan to bring life back to this tree. So God is a

good God. And it looks like if it's stump and roots are still intact,

and the soil is good, there is still hope. Somebody say amen,

But the soil must also be good. The Bible speaks about good seed

good soil, and when the good seed is sown in good soil, you

will have thirty four sixty four one hundred fold. You remember that verse.

God is not just saying good seed. He wants us to make sure that

we have good soil, because the good seed is from God. The good

seed is his word. But God is always looking for good soil. Do

we have good soil this morning? I pray we do a good soil of

our hearts. You can hear a good word this morning. And if our

hearts are not good, you know you will find like the Bible said,

the birds of the air will come because the seed fell by the wayside.

Or maybe your heart is a stony heart where you rejoice for a while,

but you know there's no root in you. There's no root. That's right.

That's why I'm saying that the root is very important. There's no root.

Or maybe your heart is full of cares of this world that it chokes

the word and you know, just kills it. Okay, so the word

of God is good, but the soil must be good, and let's move

on. God's intention wasn't to remove the king. Somebody say, Amen,

his intention wasn't. So some of you are going to tough times and you

think that God doesn't care, he doesn't see he wants to destroy you.

No, his intention wasn't to remove the king, but to replant him.

You know that you can replant a tree. You can because God is interested

in the soil. All of our lives right here, right now is like

a tree. Are you with me? Is like a tree. And sometimes

when we don't see the cowd fruits we want to see, you don't just

check the tree. You got to check the soil, and you got to

check whether your roots are firmly rooted in the good soil of God's word.

So the Lord wanted to replant from the place where Nebukneza was planted in his

own glory, in his own ways and kingdom, in his own pride,

in his own strength. So therefore he achieved whatever it is that he achieved.

But God said, although I'm going to cut you down, I'm going

to show you who you really are and who I really am, that I

rule not you, that I'm God not you, that Heaven rules not you.

Are you with me? So you got to understand this all stay,

you understand this, then you be restored back to you. Okay. So

this is nebu planted in his own strength. And the Lord says, leave

the stump, leave the roots, because I'm about to replant Nebuza into a

soil that is not his strength. But mine is not his power. But

mine is not his glory, but mine is not his ways, but mine

same roots, you know, same roots, same stump. What do you

think will be different the soil, the ground? Is it God's way or

his way? So God didn't want to remove him, but replant him.

And I want to speak that to every one of you in this room.

God wants to replant you this year. All right. If you're not bearing

fruit, if you praise the Lord, he just will water you and put

fertilizer on you and so that you can bear much more fruit. But if

you are not in that place, the Lord loves you and he wants to

replant. But it's after had acknowledged the King. He is the King of

kings, and that had to submit to God's way, it's not his own.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you something here that we say

in ext church now and then we probably should say more, but it can

be taken negatively about I will remind you what we say. See, because

many of us like to find out about our mission in life. So it's

our mission in life, what's our purpose? And we like to go for

mission, We like to do mission, we like to give to missions.

We like to go here or there for missions. And so we think like

that, right, and and and and yet the Lord spoke to me many

years ago and said, Kenneth, the greatest mission in lif it's submission that

is the hardest to do. You can go to Africa or even Timbaktu,

spend all the money, you know, give your life even for missions you

can. You know, you can give to the poor. You know the

Bible speaks about this right that you can do all these things and yet miss

out because God is not after number one. Our eyes on the mission feel

that's important, but that's not number one to him. The number one goal

that God wants to get all of us to is a heart and a spirit

of submission to Him. And after you have submission, it doesn't matter whether

it's Timbuktu or Jalankabun. Amen, doesn't matter anymore because I'm submitted. It's

not always overseas, it can be just my neighbor. I want to obey

the Lord. I want to do his will. I want to please his

heart. Amen, this is important. Genesis to nine. You know,

it's amazing though. When I said, Lord, what do I speak to

our people about this morning? He said, tell them about a tree,

and how important trees are in my will. Okay, I say, okay,

God, here we go Genesis to nine. Right there at the beginning

and all out of the ground, the Lord God made every tree grow that

is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Again, the second time

we mentioned that trees are meant for food. How are the people around you

being fed by your life? Are you being nourishment? Are you bring encouragement?

Are you being a blessing to the people around you or only to yourself?

Because the alarming thought is that you would be cut down if you're not

the fruit or being food to the people around you. So we don't want

to be cut down. That's why your pastor shares with you this morning with

out of love and humility, because I want you to really do well this

year. But this is God's real, this God's way. He made us

all into trees and use enough analogies in the Bible about trees, you know,

and about us. I'll give you more, but you here we go.

The tree of Life was also in the in the midst of the garden,

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, two trees were

specifically mentioned. And then in the next scripture, and the Lord God commanded

the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat,

meaning that even the tree of life you can eat. But of the tree

of the Knowledge of Good and you will evil, you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

So there's death that also comes when we eat out of the wrong tree.

And yet God also gave us a choice that's also a tree of life.

Tree can bring you death, and tree can bring you life. Isn't that

quite similar to human beings can build you or can kill you. Words that

come off your mouth can either be pleasant or very very disappointing. That's why

the Bible says, from the same spring doesn't come out bitter waters and sweet.

It cannot be right. It has to be only one kind of source.

And so the Bible teaches us not to allow, you know, bad

words, discouraging words, words that bring people down, to come out of

our mouths. What kind of a tree are we this morning? A man?

Okay, let's move on Revelations twenty two too. Let's look at more

trees now. So in the middle of the street, these revelations are.

So, this is the this is beyond us. This is where we are

going to, and we're going to find the same tree that was found in

the garden of Eden here. For in the middle of the street in heaven

and on the on either side of the river was the tree of life.

So the Tree of life was taken out of the garden of Eden and put

into heaven and we will see it one day. So God didn't remove the

tree. I seemed like he didn't cut it down, take it away,

causing to disappear. Is still there. And I love the part that says

the leaves of the tree were the healing of the nations. The leaves itself

of this tree can heal you. I love it that if we were the

trees of God, we can also heal people just our leaves. Haven't even

talked about our fruits yet. You with me? This is this is,

this is amazing. Let's move on. Let's talk about more trees. Now.

Did you know there were so many trees in the Bible. Okay,

so we didn't choose the tree of life. Thank God. The tree of

life is Jesus. So we don't have to wait until revelations to eat of

his fruit because Jesus is the tree of life. Somebody say, amen,

Jesus is the tree of life, and he's available for all of us who

will believe. Somebody say, amen, eat of that tree, the tree

of life. Now for the sin of taking the tree or from the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil. For that sin of actually is not

the tree that we sin. It's not the eating or from that tree.

It is the disobedience knowing that God says, don't eat, and we eat.

It's sin, and it broke God's heart. It almost destroyed God's plan.

I say almost, because nothing can really destroy God's plan. His will

shall be done. But you know God's you know, beautiful picture of how

he painted it all together. We destroyed it by sin, and God had

to send a savior. Do you know where your savior hung on m Relatians

treat the tin Wow? Did you know that even when he died for us,

he died on a tree. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of

the law having become a curse for us, For it is written, cursed

is everyone who hangs on a tree. And of course you, some of

you probably think he really hang on a tree. Where he hung on the

cross, the wood from the cross was made out of a tree, made

from a tree. So it all began with a tree. And we ate

of a tree that we shouldn't have eaten. And for that purpose our savior

had to hang on a tree. Now, I'm going to reveal to you

another scripture here that's going to probably blow your mind. Here we go Fetpeter

two twenty four. I love this scripture. I quote it a lot because

at the end of this scripture it says by whose stripes you will healed?

And so every time I want to pray for people's healing or my own healing,

I caught first bit of two twenty four. But tell me, what

do you think amaze me? When I was looking at this scripture? Can

anyone guess what my focus is on? But my focus was on the word

before tree because it's not a tree. Have you ever read that it's a

specific tree that he had to be on because it was a specific tree that

we ate from. Now, trees can last a long time, when hundreds

and hundreds, thousands and thousands of years trees. I don't know whether this

is true, but could I suggest you, could it be actually from the

tree of the Knowledge of good or evil that this cross was made out from.

It blows my mind that the same tree. Probably I'm not saying I'm

right. I'm not saying that I've done a research, but I don't know.

Maybe that tree of the Knowledge of good or evil was still there somewhere,

and they cut down that tree and made it into a cross, because

it's not just a tree that he died on, his d tree. That

blows my mind. If that's really true, they saved that tree that that

you know, was the center of man's sin and made it years later into

two pieces of wood that will make up the cross where Jesus hung because he

wasn't satisfied that it would be any tree but the tree. And it just

the way got plans. If it's really true that this happened, then the

way God plans is amazing. And and he you know, it's he pays

the price for which our debt has come. You also mean, I know,

I know it's quiet now because you're thinking, oh it's past. Uh

theologically right on this, Well I might not be, but just think about

it. It's not a tree, is the tree and he pays for that,

you know. Just He didn't come to just pay any debt. He

paid the exact debt that we had. So God remembered man's disobedience for centuries.

And could it be that God preserved that tree because nobody knows. We

only know what happened to the tree of life. It was brought to heaven,

right, because the Tree of life was found in revelations. But we

don't know what happened to the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

All right, everybody, okay, oh silent now, everybody, all right,

okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Psalms one, tree

talking about you and me as a tree. Here we go. Some of

you know this by heart. He shall be like a tree planted by the

rivers of water. You know how Psalms Chapter one starts. It starts by

saying, blessed, blessed you see, blessed to the man who walks not

in the council of the ungodly. And you can read on and on and

on, and then he goes on to say, he shall be like a

tree. Everyone in this room, you and I can be like trees.

Somebody say, Amen, planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit.

So fruit is important? Why because you and I are supposed to be

food for the people around us. But who's the leaf. Remember the leaf

of the Tree of Life brought healing to nations, and so your leaf,

whatever that you produce out of this tree, that God has given you because

you're planted in Him, planted in His word, planted by the river.

Or I love that this one says, that says whatever he does shall prosper

Amen. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down. Oh

so we heard this from Daniel, right. This being comes down from heaven

and says you are that tree. Cut you down. But thank God the

stump and the root, because God knows if I can keep the root,

I might change the fruit. So you might be cut down. God is

going to preserve your roots. And what are you going to do? Your

roots? You better get replanted this year into a place where you are going

to grow again and be fruitful and multiply and be blessed and be a blessing.

But again, I want to say, you don't have to take care

of your fruits. You take care of your roots and you will bear because

a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. We hope you've been blessed by this

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good week ahead for you. God bless