Tree of Life | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Church, can we show some love to our incredible worship team that leads us to worship every single week?

We are so, so thankful for them.

We're so glad that you all are here.

If you're joining us online, welcome.

We're glad you're with us as well.

We pray that you're doing well.

And if you're ever in the Orlando area, um that you come in and join us.

We would love for you to participate with us here in person.

I'm excited about this series that we're jumping into because we're we're kicking into something that um that has really been a lifelong journey for me as I've walked with God and learned to have the language to understand what that walk is and what it requires of me.

And it's a series that we've entitled Flourish.

And ultimately, it's it's built on this idea of getting an image of what God really wants for our lives and what we are now required to do as a result of it.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Genesis, um, chapter one, so nobody should get lost.

It's in the front, so the very front, just very front.

Um, literally the first page, so just Genesis chapter one.

But while you're turning there, I do want to give you a foundational passage um that kind of sets the tone for the series that we're going to be in for the next uh few weeks.

It's found in Psalms uh 92, verses 12 through 14.

So you can write those down, go back and and read it a little bit later, but I think it'll be um really good for you.

But here's what the text says it says, Um, but the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like cedars of Lebanon.

For they are transplanted to the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of God, even in old age, they produce fruit, they will remain vital and green.

I want us to see this connection that scripture is painting for us because what you'll find is that there are over 800.

I believe when I looked at it last 811 to be exact, different passages of scripture that connect mankind to the plant kingdom.

Here's what I mean by that you're gonna flourish, be fruitful.

These are these are connections that God is trying to help us to see because he's using something that we can understand so that we can get a glimpse of what he wants for our lives.

So when he says these words, be fruitful, he's connecting us to the plant kingdom.

So there's over 800 passages that want us to look at the plant kingdom as an indication of what God wants to see for our lives.

And over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be unpacking different aspects of it, but what it requires of us, because here's what we know I am certainly not a person that has a green thumb.

I will kill a plant even if I'm trying.

Um, I'm just being honest with you.

There's in fact a lot of times like, man, just get rid of it.

Not realizing that some things they just need some time to grow.

But watch this.

Here's what I do know.

This is what Google taught me.

Um, that if you do want a beautiful garden, if you do want to see a plant that's going to produce fruit, here's what you can't do: you can't do nothing.

It requires effort.

This is what we call cultivating.

Even if you have an image of wanting to produce something, it requires work.

I know some people that that have gardens, and this work it's getting out there knowing when to plant, knowing when to water, knowing when to do things.

It requires work.

So even though we understand that the Bible paints a picture for our lives that God wants us to have, it requires work.

And there's moments in our lives when we're not seeing what scriptures is painting.

Maybe there's some things that we're not doing, something that we're not cultivating.

And so, what I'm hoping we can do over the next couple of weeks is unpack a little bit of how we can cultivate what God wants to see in our lives.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 28.

Genesis 1:28

This is after God has created man, he then gives man this assignment.

He tells them, he blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it.

Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

This is God giving man his assignment, his mandate.

What I want for you, I want you to be fruitful, I want you to thrive, I want you to multiply.

You could turn a page over and follow with me as we read now in Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And what you'll find here is that Genesis chapter 1 kind of gives you an account of all of creation.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Genesis 2 gives you a little bit of detail of the account from creation.

So Genesis chapter 2, verse number 4 says this This is the account of creation of the heavens and the earth, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth, for the Lord had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.

Underline that if you have your Bibles, no people to cultivate the soil.

Verse number six instead, springs came up from the ground and watered the land.

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, he breathed life into his nostrils, and man became a living person.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man that he had made.

The Lord God made all sorts of trees to grow from the ground, and the trees were beautiful, and they produced delicious fruit in the middle of the garden.

He placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flowed from the land of eating, watering the garden and dividing it into four branches.

Skipping down to verse 15, our final verse for today.

And the Lord placed man in this garden and told him to tend and watch over it.

God created this environment and then placed man in it and said to tend it and watch over it.

Today I want to kind of set the foundation of what we're going to be addressing over the next six weeks in regards to what does it mean to flourish.

And if you're writing this down, and of course we are, because we engage God's word, we engage God's presence.

So you're writing this down.

We know that no-takers go to heaven and have special seats.

I believe that.

Um, this is the subject matter for today.

The tree of life.

The tree of life.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you for your word, we thank you for your presence, and we thank you for moments where we can come together to gather in your name.

So, Lord, we invite you, Holy Spirit, we we ask that you challenge us, you inspire us, God, that you that you lead us into our next steps.

And and Lord, we ask for open eyes that we can see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive what it is that you have for us.

We pray with an expectation in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

You know, I've been pondering uh a lot because of the season that we're in, some some big existential questions.

And and maybe you've processed some of these questions here recently.

Um, that question being like, Why was I created?

I know that's a little bit heavy to think of it that way, but but it's a it's a big question.

And what I've found is that seems to be one of the most frequent questions that you will find in any Google search that people are always asking, like, why am I here?

And what we found specifically since 2020, that that search has increased even more, that people are really just trying to make sense of their lives and understanding why I am here.

Because we understand, like, we if we don't have an understanding of why we're here, if we don't have an understanding of what we're supposed to do with it, it's really hard to govern ourselves accordingly.

So people are really trying to figure out why I was created.

Here's why that's such a big deal, and we found that since 2020, people have really been wrestling with it.

Because people have been mistakenly connecting purpose to calling.

So here's the thing when I'm called to do something, that may be for a season.

And if that season changes, but I thought that was my purpose, now I've lost a sense of who I am.

There's people that honestly believe and say, hey, I'm called to do something.

I'm called to be a pastor.

Yes, that's great.

But in the middle of a pandemic, when everything falls upside down, and we're trying to figure out what that looks like.

If my calling to be a pastor looked a certain way, I lose a sense of who I am because I've lost sight of the purpose.

That happens all the time.

We have people that genuinely felt, I was called to work here.

I was I was created to do these things.

But when the thing that you feel you were created to do, you're no longer able to do, you begin to question your very existence.

Why was I created?

So, what people are turning to now is they're beginning to take a lot of these assessments, these personality assessments.

Maybe you've taken them.

I've taken all them disc profiles, Myers Briggs.

I got a whole, I have a whole encyclopedia on our entire staff, myself included, just on trying to understand these dynamics.

My family, they've they've taken them, and and it helps me to understand the way that they're wired.

Daenerys, she she took her strengths finder, and her number one strength at the time was connectedness.

It helps me to understand how she loves to connect with people and why she's so loyal to her friendships.

Um Caleb just took his because he's he's going off to college soon, so he just took his strength finders assessment, and we found out that his number one strength is competition.

I'm like, how is that even a strength?

Have you been around someone who's ultra competitive for no reason?

Caleb's the poster child for that.

Like, there's nothing we can do in our house that it doesn't turn into a competition.

Who eats the quickest?

Like, we could be sitting in the kitchen and then I'm sitting at the table and he's just shooting shots like that.

I bet you can't make a shot from here.

Like everything turns into a competition.

I'm just trying to eat my burger, man.

Like I'm not even trying to, I'm not even trying to get into this, but everything is a competition for him, and I and I get it.

It's the way, it's the way that God's wired him.

So there's a way to really use that to find a career and something that he can really be successful in.

But here's what I understand: God, you can get these tools to give us insight into the way that we're wired.

We can use these tools to certainly give us a perspective of some things that we can be successful in.

But the truth of the matter is those tools do not reveal the purpose of your existence.

I believe that these tools can help us, but if we don't go back to the source to understand our purpose, when our seasons change and our assignments change and our callings change, we can truly lose a sense of who we are.

And when a person doesn't have purpose, they don't have pursuit.

When a person doesn't have purpose, they stop having focus and moving forward.

And so I believe it's in moments like this that God requires us to go back to the scriptures so that we can understand our purpose, why were we created, and that our calling is the way that we expressed the thing that we were purposed to do.

Looking here in Genesis, I want to highlight a couple things to kind of set the tone so that we can be on this journey together.

Here's the first thing I want to highlight.

The Bible says that God creates this garden and he calls it Eden.

Now, here's what you need to understand about the Garden of Eden.

That when you think of garden, I'm not talking about the one that's in your backyard, the one that's in your neighbor's backyard with a couple of flowers and some cucumbers and some other things.

Like, I want you to envision like a massive, beautiful, luxurious park, like it's a major region of just a lot of space.

It's just wonderful and it's it's glorious.

I want you to think of like, I want you to think of like Central Park.

Well, no, don't think about Central Park because that's a bad example of what God's garden looks like.

But but I want you to think of an area that is just wide and spread out that has all types of vibrancy and life.

This is indeed the garden park vibe that God had created, and it was filled with so much life.

There were there were trees there, there were plants there, it was just filled to be this luxurious place that's filled with life, and it was meant to be the place that God dwelled.

It was meant to be the holy of holies, it was meant to be this sacred place, and there were trees there, there were flowers there, there were plants there.

But then there's another thing that's there that I want to talk about for a moment.

It said that there was this spring of water that was there, and that it would rise up from the surface, and then it flowed out into these four rivers.

This water would rise up and then it would flow out into these four rivers.

And here's what these four rivers ultimately represented.

They they represented blessing, increase, peace, and favor.

These this spring rose up and it represented blessing, increase, peace, and favor.

This was God's original intent when he created this environment that he was going to dwell with man, is that he wanted it to rise up.

But I also want you to see that it came from a single source, and the overflow was blessing, increase, peace, and favor.

The image that I want you to get is when Jesus says to his disciples, out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living water.

The idea that God is trying to get us to get is that he wants us to live a life that is such filled with overflow that the beneficiaries of it become people that aren't even us.

That means that we should live our lives so filled with the Holy Spirit that the overflow becomes blessing, increase, peace, and favor.

This is the image that God has for every single one of our lives.

He wants us to live a life of abundance and overflow.

I'm not talking about prosperity, but what I am talking about is living a life where other people can benefit from what God is doing in your life.

That when you walk into environments, people should benefit from the overflow of peace in your life.

That when you walk into environments, that people should benefit from the overflow of the favor in your life.

That when you walk into environments, that people should benefit from the overflow of joy that's in your life.

This is the image that God was painting for us to understand that there's such an overflow in our life that other people can be nourished by what God is doing in us.

But then the next passage goes on to say that after God creates this environment, that he looks in these seas, that there's no man there to till the ground.

Highlight that.

Write that down, think about it for a moment.

So the next statement is so then he creates man and places him there.

There's no man here that can till the ground.

So I'm going to place man in this environment.

And the tilling the ground, what that ultimately meant is I want someone that can be an extension of me that can cultivate my character and nature.

That is why you were created.

You were created to be an extension of God and to cultivate environments of love, joy, and peace.

That is our assignment.

That is why we're called, that is why we were created.

Our vocation then becomes how do I do that in my school?

How do I do that in my job?

How do I do that with my family?

But I was created to be an extension of God and cultivate his presence here on earth.

The Bible said that God placed man in an environment where there was no one cultivating the ground.

I want you to get this.

What if God placed you in the environment you're in right now so that you can be an extension of him and cultivate his presence on earth?

What if God place you in that job that you hate?

The job that you come home and say, like, man, there's no presence of God there.

I hate that job.

Those people are awful, it's toxic.

God observed that there was no one there to till the ground.

So he placed man in that environment so that he could cultivate it and bring God's presence there.

What if you were the solution of the problems that you complain about?

I mean, they say I got 13 minutes left, but if I'll stay, I'll linger if y'all need to.

I'll I'll linger if y'all, if y'all, if y'all don't talk back to me, I'll keep going.

What if the thing that you're frustrated about that God's saying, yeah, you feel the burden because you're the solution?

I want you to understand I'm looking in this environment where I don't see peace.

I'm looking in this environment and I don't see love.

And so what I need to do is send somebody in there that can cultivate peace, that can cultivate love.

So who can do it?

You can do it because you're filled with my spirit, and the overflow should change the atmosphere.

So I'm placing you in an environment that can benefit from what I'm doing in your life.

This is what God's assignment, he put Adam there so that he can change the atmosphere.

God put you where you are so that you can change the atmosphere.

But then the next thing says that when God is looking around, when he creates man, it says that he created man from the dust of the ground.

That's that's wild to me.

And here's why I say that because God is God.

He can He can create He can create something out of anything, He can create something out of nothing.

Why would He create man from dust?

Now, maybe you don't understand why I'm asking this question, so let me give you context of what dust is.

Do you know that dust is the accumulation of dead skin cells and air particles that settle and sit somewhere?

No one is ever checking for dust.

If you walk into an environment and you see dust, we all feel uncomfortable.

My wife and I, we have a dust, we have a dust out allergies.

And it's it's terrible, specifically in the season where COVID's running rampant, because good Lord, man, when we first started traveling, you know, like the world is shut down in March, and we started traveling, I think, in like um, in like September, going back up to our DC family and serving there.

And so when we went to a hotel, it was our first time going there, and no one had been there in months.

So that no one's been in the room, but the dust had accumulated.

You guys been in, you're like, man, like, hey, our room's like not dirty, but it's also not clean.

Like they haven't, no one's been in here.

So we spend the night, we wake up the next morning, and the dust is all in our eyes, it's in our lungs, like it's just it's awful.

So I walk downstairs, I got my mask on, and I'm and I see somebody up there, like, hey, how was your stay?

And my eyes are watering, and I'm like, my throat's dry.

I I make the cardinal mistake of coughing in a hotel lobby in September of 2020.

Unclean, unclean, unclean.

Like, I mean, people are about to lose their mind.

Like, and so now you learn that you gotta like narrate whenever you have anything, like I got something in my throat, so glad I don't have COVID.

Like, she, oh no, that's my allergies.

Just want to make sure everybody's good.

I don't have COVID.

You're safe.

I'm gonna take my allergy pills right now.

Like that, that's that's the world.

So here's what I'm thinking.

Dust is uncomfortable, dust is dirty, dust represents death, and that is the thing that God chooses to use to create man.

He molds man from the thing that we don't want to have nothing to do with.

He molds man from dead things, he molds man and then breathes the breath of life in it and becomes a living soul.

I'm talking to somebody right now that maybe there's some dust in your life that you've been trying to avoid because you think that it's a dead thing, it makes you uncomfortable.

But what if God is saying, I want to mold that thing into my image and breathe the breath of life in it and use that thing to bring me some glory?

What if the thing that you're avoiding, the thing that makes you uncomfortable, is the very thing you can put into the hands of God and He can use it to mold it for His purpose, for His calling, because dust is never dust when the breath of God gets involved.

Dust is never dust when the hands of God begins to mold it.

We all got dust in our lives, but when we give it to God, he can mold it into something so beautiful that can reproduce his purpose.

It's a beautiful image that God can use anything to create something that's gonna do something so beautiful and powerful.

I want you guys to grab a hold of this.

That God is so powerful that he has the ability to inhale our pollutions and exhale solutions.

I think they like that one, man.

I got bars, y'all.

Y'all better stick with me.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to tell y'all.

He can take the things that we want to discard and he can internalize it and turn it into something so beautiful.

So when we begin to think about what our purpose is, we were created to be an extension of God and to cultivate life that brings him glory.

There's three things I want us to extract from this because what we find is that Jesus then becomes the ultimate example and expression of what we are supposed to do.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that in the center of this garden was the tree of life.

And this tree of life was prominent, it was meant to represent the very essence of God.

It was a tree whose fruit was life.

Jesus says concerning all of us, by their fruit you will know them.

That you should be able to examine someone's life, and that would help you to understand if they really are about the stuff they're talking about.

By their fruit you shall know them.

And so the fruit that came from Jesus was life.

So Jesus now becomes this tree of life that we can learn from, that we can look to for us to grab a hold of what we are supposed to do.

I want you to write down these three things that I believe is going to really help us because ultimately God has called us to be fruitful and to be life-giving.

And here's the three areas I believe he wants us to be life-giving.

Life-giving with our words.

Life-giving with our words.

Jesus was very life-giving.

He spoke words of life with his words.

Everywhere he went, he was speaking words of life.

Proverbs 15, 4 says, The tongue that heals is a tree of life.

But a devious tongue breaks the spirit.

That Jesus is saying that when I speak, it should bring healing.

And the fruit of that, that lets you know that we're speaking words of life.

That when Jesus was doing his sermon on a mount and he was undoing all the bad theology that they heard, he was helping them to understand that my words are life.

You've heard it said this way, but let me tell you what I'm trying to get you to understand.

You are truly blessed where you are.

He was helping to reorient their understanding for them to get a glimpse of the life that God truly has for them.

He spoke words of life.

He taught them how to pray.

He taught them how to think, how to behave, how to love each other, how to steward resources.

Jesus spoke words of life, but him speaking words of life didn't mean that he didn't bring correction.

Jesus brought correction, but he did it in a life-giving way.

Here's the biggest challenge that I think we all have is when we have like this righteousness or when we have this moment where we know that we need to address something and we say things just to get it off of our chest.

But here's the thing: if it doesn't produce life, then it wasn't sent from God.

If it tears somebody down, then it wasn't inspired by God.

By the fruit you shall know it.

So Jesus addressed things, but he did it in a life giving way.

He corrected people, but he did it in a life giving way.

And one of the biggest challenges that I know I have to be cognizant of personally is that when I'm speaking to things, I gotta make sure I gotta.

This is in a life-giving way.

When I'm talking to my son, I gotta say it in a life-giving way because what good is it for me to say what I gotta say, but it doesn't produce life?

It just causes them to shut down.

Jesus shows us this example.

And so for me, I've I've I've come across this thing that I think is gonna help us.

I know now when I want to speak, I need to think.

And let me tell you what think stands for.

T.

Is it true?

Is what I'm about to say, is it truthful?

If it's not truthful, is it gossip?

Because I don't need to say it if it is.

I need to make sure that before I speak, that I'm speaking truth.

Here's another thing.

H, is it helpful?

Is it actually helping someone?

Is it just helping me get something off my chest?

Or is it helpful?

Here's the X one.

I inspiring.

Is it inspiring someone to take a step?

Is it is it an inspiration for someone?

And is it necessary?

Do I do I really need to say this?

Because once again, you know, I mean, if you you know that you're right, you know how you when you got something to say and it's on the tip of your tongue and you're like waiting for that moment to work it into a conversation because you just know you need to say it?

Somebody knows what I'm talking about.

Like I'm just waiting for my window.

It's like double dutch, like, okay, when I can I went like, bro, that ain't got nothing to do with the conversation.

Why'd you even say that?

Because I needed to say it.

Is it necessary?

And here's Kay, is it kind?

Is it kind?

Am I speaking in a way that's kind?

It's the fruit of the spirit.

Again, this is how you know that God has inspired you to speak the words that you're speaking because you know that it's going to help to move people forward.

If I'm speaking in a way that tears people down, if I'm speaking in a way that doesn't uplift, then it's not actually God that inspired my words.

And as husbands, I believe that we have to be mindful of our words.

I say this to every man that I'm marrying, that to his wife.

I say, Man, be mindful of your words.

You know what Adam did after him and Eve had fallen into sin and he was given the authority to speak words?

He didn't, Eve didn't even have a name yet.

He looked at her and he said, I call you Eve.

You know what Eve means?

Mother of living.

Adam, even in the midst of the biggest crisis that he had ever encountered, literally introducing sin and brokenness into the world, when he looks at his wife, he still spoke life.

I believe that we all have the biggest challenge to make sure that even when we're addressing things and correcting things, that we do it in a life-giving way so that it can produce a fruit that helps people to move forward and it doesn't tear them down.

Here's the next thing.

Here's the next thing.

Life-giving in our actions.

Life-giving in our actions.

Proverbs 11, 30 says, The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, but a cunning person takes lives.

The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life.

That means that the fruit of a person who's righteous is life-giving.

It's a tree of life.

But if it's not, it's going to take life.

It's going to take things away.

Jesus lived a life where he constantly performed actions that were meant to create life.

When he went into villages where everybody wanted to have nothing to do with those individuals, Jesus went in there and he provided life.

He did things, he served people.

The people that no one wanted to be around, that's where Jesus was at.

Jesus was constantly doing things and performing actions to ensure that he was bringing life to every environment, even to women who were ostracized at that time, even to the Samaritans who were ostracized at that time.

He was dealing with racial tension.

He's going into these environments and he's bringing life.

Everywhere he went, he was bringing life.

This was the character and nature of Christ that everywhere I go, I want to do things that make people better, to move people forward.

But again, Jesus still had a life-giving way of doing things to address even brokenness and sin.

Maybe you're familiar with the story in the Gospel of John chapter 8, where you know the woman is caught in the act of adultery.

John 8 · chapter mention

Right?

And so they bring her in front of Jesus.

Oddly enough, the husband, the woman, and the man were supposed to be brought in front of Jesus, but they didn't bring the man, they just brought the woman.

That's another conversation for another time.

They were trying to trap Jesus by presenting the scenario that the scriptures say that she should have been killed.

So they say, okay, Jesus, like you're so righteous.

Let me see you wiggle, you wear out of this one.

This woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

What are you gonna do about it?

So Jesus kind of like I just think it's the like he's the con he's like the consummate OG.

Jesus was just brilliant the way that he just flexed on him.

He just said, Okay.

He turned around, he started writing in the ground, and he says, Hey, um, yeah, the law does say she's supposed to die.

So, hey, I'll tell you what, he who was without sin, you cast the first stone.

It was just as quiet as it is right now.

Jesus trapped them in their trap because he said, Don't come to me complaining about somebody that sins differently than you.

Man, they say I got a minute and 30 seconds.

Watch this, watch this.

Isn't it interesting that people got so much energy to talk about people who sin differently than they do, but they don't want to talk about their own sin?

But the Bible says that all sin and fall short of the glory of God.

But man likes to put sin on these pecking order things when you don't see that in scripture.

So Jesus is like, okay, cool, you want me to condemn her?

Then I actually need to condemn you as well.

Because what what scholars believe is that when Jesus turned and started writing in the ground, that was what the priests were supposed to do.

That before they were actually issuing a death sentence, they would turn and write the sin down in the name of the person who sinned to justify and to solidify the death.

What many scholars believe is that when Jesus turned and started writing on the ground, he didn't write her name down, he wrote down the names of the men who wanted to condemn her.

Hey, y'all got hers?

I'll start writing yours down.

He's without sin, cast the first stone.

Jesus, after he has this moment, he looks at the woman and says, Woman, where are your accusers?

Where'd it go?

She's like, Jesus, they dipped.

I don't know where they went.

They were gone.

He's like, All right, cool.

Go and sin no more.

He didn't just bypass her sin, he didn't bypass her brokenness, but he said these words, neither do I condemn you.

This is the beautiful thing about the God that we serve.

He was saying to her in his loving and graceful way, you're living a dangerous lifestyle.

And it's putting you in some situations that can lead to death and pain.

And I love you too much for this.

So here's what I want you to do: go and sin no more.

But he did it in a life-giving way.

I am so grieved when I see that we are trying to rebuke people into them having a relationship with God.

That I can go on a social media rant and that's somehow is gonna bring someone to repentance.

But the Bible I read says it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

Where do we get this theology of tearing people down and somehow building them up?

Jesus did not function that way.

I'm a firm believer that people have a different interpretation of Jesus.

I think there's two Jesus, the one in people's head and the one that's in the Bible, and they always don't correlate with one another.

I want to serve the Jesus that's in the Bible and do my best to serve the way that He did, not the way that culture tells me I'm supposed to.

Jesus did things in a life-giving way.

He didn't bypass sin, but he moved people forward in a life-giving way.

I love you too much, and I hate to see what sin's doing in your life, and it's gonna harm you if you don't make an adjustment.

I need you to make the shift.

Here's the third and final thing that I believe we can look at when examining the life of Jesus is life-giving stewardship.

Life-giving with our words, life-giving with our actions, and life-giving with the way that we steward our resources.

I want to give you guys a glimpse into the brilliance of God.

Watch this.

God is so brilliant that when he created creation, inside of creation, he gave the ability to create.

Yeah, yeah?

Somebody with me?

Somebody with me?

Okay.

When he created creation, he created creation so they could recreate.

That means they called it seed-bearing.

So I'm going to create a tree that produces fruit that has seeds so that those seeds can then be planted and it can produce more trees that can produce even more fruit and more people can benefit from it.

It's brilliant.

It is brilliant that he created a system where I'm putting what's I'm putting in you what I need to get from you so that more people can benefit from it.

That is what we call stewardship.

Stewardship is the idea of how am I utilizing the things that God has given me so it can benefit other people.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is how am I stewarding my time?

What am I doing with my time?

Am I investing my time into people so that they can begin to advance and move forward in God's kingdom?

Am I how am I stewarding how am I stewarding my gifts?

God may have given you an ability to teach, He may have given you the ability to encourage.

I'm not saying that it has to express itself exclusively in church, but but how are you utilizing what God has given you in a kingdom context to help people to move forward?

What about your resources?

Let's not get it twisted.

You can look at our bank statements and see what we prioritize.

What God is simply saying is, are you willing, are you willing to take a fraction of what I've given you to continue to perpetuate the kingdom of God?

He's given us everything that we need as it relates to life and godliness.

And so Jesus lived a life of stewarding his time, his talent, and the treasures.

This is why when he gives the illustration of the parable of the talents, he's meeting with these people, he's like, Okay, I'm gonna give you resources, I want you to go and get busy.

So you know the story, two of them go out and they they get to work and they're able to flip it and they bring more back.

But there's the one who was afraid and he did nothing with it.

So when the master shows up, he says, Okay, man, like what have you done with what I have given you?

Lord, I put it to work.

I flipped it, man.

We got even we got even some more resources.

Man, well done, my good and faithful servant, man.

Come on in here and get some more of this.

What did you do?

Man, I did the same thing.

I didn't get as much as him, but but I put it to work.

Good job, man.

Get in here and celebrate with me.

You, what did you do with what I gave you?

Um, Lord, I was afraid that I wasn't gonna have enough, so I buried it.

He's like, yo, like I didn't I didn't give you what I gave you for you to keep it for yourself.

I gave it to you so that you can invest it in my kingdom.

Man, like you've missed it.

Here's what I've learned when we stand in the presence of God, we will either show him what we've planted or we would tell him what fear has caused us to bury.

When he says, Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into your master's rest.

That's not exclusively just believing in Jesus, it's doing the thing that you were purposed to do.

I created you to be an extension of me and to cultivate my presence.

And the way that you do that is by being a tree of life, by speaking words of life, by committing actions of life, and stewarding your resources in a way that it also reproduces life.

That is what produces well done, my good and faithful servant.

You got to do something with what I gave you.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, we went to the home going services for uh Megan's grandmother and her uncle.

It was a it was a double funeral celebration of life, and while we were there, it was it was epic.

First and foremost, y'all, it was five hours.

It was it was lit.

Like you have not been to a homegoing service until you're at a Jamaican homegoing service, and they go, it's five hours.

I mean, like at any given moment, people break out into musical, interpretive, dance, like it was an it was a movie, it was an experience, it was powerful.

But but while we were there, I'm looking around this room that that probably had like maybe twice as many people that are in here with us right now, and everybody there was there because of the impact of Megan's grandmother and her uncle.

And as you would hear these stories about what they did with their lives, and I'm looking in a room full of people that are there because of them, it was mind-blowing to me.

Like Megan's uncle was the first one that came here from Jamaica, and when he got here, it paved the way for the other um aunts and uncles.

In fact, it was the Megan's mother was the first one to move over here, and they live with their uncle, and and that was what created an environment for people to come over.

And now I'm looking at my children and I'm saying, like, my kids are here because he laid his life down, came over here, sent money back, sent them over here.

My my my mother-in-law was here, she had my wife, and now I have a family as a result of the life that he lived.

I'm I'm looking at the the grandmother and hearing stories about her generosity and how she fed the entire community and how she clothed them.

And I'm like, man, this is amazing.

So, one of the most repeated phrases was, This is a life well lived.

Here's the fruit from their life.

We're telling you at the end of their life, this is what they've done with their life.

This room is full of people because of their sacrifice.

They literally became trees of life, that they use their words, they use their actions, and they use their resources to benefit other people, and there was fruit to show for it.

I walked away feeling so challenged and encouraged that man, am I living my life in such a way that when my time ends and it's time for me to be in the presence of God, will there be a room full of people that will say we were inspired by his words, that we were inspired by his actions, and we were influenced by his generosity, because that's the life that God has created us to live.

That is why you were created to be a person that's an extension of God, that cultivates his presence, and that you become a tree of life.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to pray for us.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you, God, for the assignment.

I thank you for creating us to be an extension of you.

You've called us to eat from the tree of life and then be people that reproduce life with our words, our actions, and uh the way that we steward our resources.

Father, I pray for every single one of us that we can grab a hold of our purpose.

Our purpose is to bring you glory with our lives.

Our purpose is to reproduce life, our purpose is to cultivate your presence in every environment that you've placed us in.

God, I ask for strength, I ask for grace, I ask for capacity, I ask for open doors, I ask for clarity so that we can fulfill our mission, so that when we stand in your presence, we can hear, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

I want you guys to stay in this posture because I want to ask a quick question, then I want to lead us into prayer, and Deneer's gonna come up and dismiss us.

But here's here's my second question.

Also in the Garden of Eden was also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And while time doesn't allow me to fully unpack it into its entirety, here's what I'll tell you that the tree of life was available, but also was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the ability to choose to do things on their own terms.

Unfortunately, that's what Adam has selected.

And as a result, sin was birthed, and we live in this broken world that we are experiencing to this day.

But we're having an Eden moment right now where God is simply saying, You can choose life or you can choose to do things on your own terms.

And I want to say the words to you that Jesus had said to that precious woman, I love you too much for to continue to do things on your own terms, it's only gonna produce death.

There's a better way, choose life.

If you're in here with us today and you know that it's your moment for you to choose life, I just wanna lead you in this moment because I'm telling you, the fruit that comes from doing things your own way is pain, is death, is brokenness.

Want to count a three?

If you know it's time for you to choose life and we'll walk with you through it, I want to pray with you.

One, two, three.

I'm choosing life today.

I'm choosing life today.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Those who are joining us online, God bless you, church.

Can we put our hands together for every single person that is saying yes and that is choosing life?

We're so proud of you.

I want to lead you in a quick prayer, and the Da Niro is gonna come and give you some instructions.

We're gonna get you out of here in the next couple of minutes.

But everybody as a family, can we all pray this prayer together?

Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins.

I believe you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead.

And today I am saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening.

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