Tree Of Life: Of God

Well, good morning again.

If you've been with us for the last four weeks or so, we've been talking about trees.

That's that's all we've talked about this entire year, 2019, trees.

And that's because for us, trees have always been this unofficial symbol of who we are as a church.

So if you walk our hallways, you'll see all these paintings of trees.

And if you go to our youngest kids' area, that's the garden.

And then when they get from the garden, like Noah's age, the young boy that was baptized, they go to the grove.

And then when they're done with the grove, they go to the tree house.

And maybe you're here and you're going, I thought this place is called His Hands.

What's with all the trees?

And the reason is that from the very beginning of our church, there's this one tree that's found early in the story of the Bible, and it shows up again at the very end.

And it's always been a symbol for who we want to be as a church and the kind of relationship we believe God wants us to have with him.

And it's it's this tree called the tree of life.

It's a tree that symbolizes an approach to God, a relationship with God that unfortunately very few people, even people that claim to follow Jesus, ever really seem to get a hold of.

And it's a relationship that's that's not about rules, regulations, and performance.

It's not a relationship where God's feelings about you today are based on how well you've done in the last 24 hours, the last week, the last month, the last year.

It's a relationship that's truly defined by love and by freedom and by grace.

There's this other tree early in the story of the Bible, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it represents religion and just this obsession with knowing the rules and doing the right thing and not the wrong thing, and trying our best to navigate what's going to please God, what's going to make God angry.

God never wanted us to go to that tree.

In fact, he forbids in the early story in Genesis.

He says, do not eat from that tree.

But we do it anyway.

What he wants for us is to have this tree of life relationship with him.

And we've actually gone in detail about that the last few weeks, so that's a really, really short summary of that.

Feel free to listen to the messages and the weeks following if that seems kind of puzzling to you.

But we just we want to have a tree of life relationship with God.

We want to know what it's like to know him.

We don't want to be people who stop short at belief.

There's no reason to settle for believing in God, just believing he exists and that he loves you.

No, no, you can know him, you can hear him speak to you, you can experience God.

And so that's what we want to be as a tree of life church.

And this year we've just decided to take the tree of life and shift it from being our unofficial symbol to our official symbol.

And so we had some artists make up this graphic, and we have t-shirts, and it's gonna be all over the place.

You'll see it, and just know that when you see those hands with that tree growing up, we are his hands, a tree of life church.

Now, if you say that to someone, tell me about your church.

Oh, it's a tree of life church.

They're gonna go, oh, I don't know what that means, right?

What in the world?

And so it's helpful when something gets gets practical for us, and I'm so grateful for God because he's so good to break things down for us, at least for me.

I'm I'm the kind of person that needs things broken down.

And late, I think middle of last year, June or so, I was reading my Bible, uh, which is a good thing to do, and I'm reading Isaiah, and Isaiah's prophesying about the people of God, and at this point in history, it's this nation of Judah, and they've been they've been uh under siege.

They've actually been conquered.

And he writes this in Isaiah chapter 37, verses 31 and 32.

Isaiah 37:31

He says, You who are left in Judah, who've escaped the ravages of the siege, you will put roots down in your own soil and grow up and flourish.

For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven's armies will make this happen.

And what Isaiah is doing here is with his words, he's painting a picture of a tree.

He says, You'll put roots down, you will grow up and flourish, you will spread out.

We might say reach out.

Think about the branches of a tree.

And so for us, practically, what does it what does it look like to have a tree of life relationship with God?

It means you're rooted down in your faith.

You're rooted in the love of God, you're rooted in the truth of God.

It means that you're growing up, you're maturing.

Some translations say you will grow up and produce fruit, that there is a result, that your life is actually changing and developing, and finally that you will reach out because there's no such thing as a tree that grows fruit for its own consumption.

That you'll take what God has given you and you will give it away, that you will impact the world around you.

We are a tree of life church.

We want to help every person here, every person in our community get rooted down in their faith, in a real relationship with Jesus, grow up and mature, and reach out.

And so we've been talking about those three things for the last few weeks.

And today we're gonna we're gonna land the plane, so to speak, before we move on to something new next week.

By the way, next week is, I don't do this very often, but it's a Sunday that we're asking anyone who considers his hands their church, be here next Sunday.

We're having a really important conversation.

The week after that, we're jumping back into Ephesians.

We spent almost all of last year just going through the book of Ephesians.

We're gonna jump back into that, and we're at this awesome place where it talks about family relationships, marriage, um, yay, and parenting and children, like all the hard stuff.

We're gonna go through that.

It's gonna be awesome.

But today we're gonna land the plane with this whole tree thing.

And what I want to do is just really focus on the very end of that scripture in Isaiah.

The very end of that scripture that if you read it really fast, it's kind of like this real quick thing that's thrown in there.

But I think it's so important.

We've touched on this every week, but I think it's important for us to really focus on it today.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven's armies will make this happen.

The passionate commitment of God, it's what it's what's gonna make things happen.

As I was praying about this week and thinking about it, I was thinking about my tendency as a person to strive.

And sometimes, like, I'll hear a pastor give a message.

I have a lot of pastors that I like to listen to, and I'll hear a message, and I'm like, yeah, that's right, I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna do this, right?

I'm gonna make this happen.

I'm gonna commit, I'm gonna dig deep, I'm gonna change some things, I'm gonna do some things, I'm gonna make this happen.

And I try in my own strength to make it happen.

But what this what this little piece reminds us of, what it's trying to say, is we're not the ones that make it happen.

God's the one who makes it happen.

Our challenge as followers of God is to let it happen.

It's to actually let God do the work that He wants to do within us.

See, see, to have a tree of life relationship with God, if that's the kind of relationship you want, if you want to exchange religion, striving, performance, you want to have an actual relationship with God, it's not gonna be dependent on you ultimately.

It's not gonna be all the things that you do.

It's not gonna be your ability to get it right that's gonna ultimately determine who you become.

It's actually gonna be the work that God wants to do in you.

We're not the ones who make it happen.

And and that shouldn't discourage us, that should free us.

And then frighten us a little bit.

Because what does that mean?

What does that look like?

How is how is that practical?

But at the end of the day, I want us to hear this together.

We're not the ones who make this happen.

We're not the ones who cause the growth in our lives, we're not the ones who generate all the change that needs to take place in our hearts and in our minds.

It's not on us, it's God, it's a God thing.

God is the one who makes it happen.

We're the ones that have to learn to let it happen to us.

We have to learn to do that.

So all this growth, all this change, all the things that God promises, things like 2 Corinthians 5.7, right?

2 Corinthians 5.17, rather.

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, the old life is gone, a new life has begun.

That's the promise that we've been made by God, not to have our lives improved, but to have our lives transformed.

Not to have your life repaired, but to have your life actually replaced, to become a new person.

Jeremiah chapter 17, this is a promise that we have.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and their confidence, and then it goes into a tree metaphor, because those are all through the Bible.

So trees are a good symbol for us.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

We have all these promises in scripture of the life that God wants to give us, and it's an amazing life.

Some of us are here today and we're like, I'm not who I want to be.

Is anyone here willing to raise your hand and say, I'm not who I want to be?

Anyone at all?

I'm not who I want to be.

And I'm not talking about my circumstances, I'm not talking about how I'd like to have another zero at the end of my bank account before the decimal point.

And I'm not talking about like, I'm not talking about how I'd like to have, you know, better physical health and all that stuff, sure, but but I'm saying that in my heart of hearts, I'm not who I want to be.

When I look in the mirror, I don't go, you're amazing, you know?

Man, you killed it yesterday, Justin.

You killed it.

I'm not who I want to be.

And what I'm trying to learn is to stop trying to be who I think I should be.

And and trade in my dreams for who I'm supposed to be for God's plan.

Because ultimately it's not about who I want to become, it's it's who does God say I am?

Who does God want me to be?

Who did God create me to be?

Never settle for your own dreams.

Do not settle for for the dreams you have have dreamt for your life.

Exchange those every moment you can for the dreams that God has dreamed for you.

Be the person that God has created you to be.

Be like that tree planted by a stream.

And it's got deep roots, and it always has what it needs.

And it doesn't matter what the circumstances are, if there's heat, if there's a storm, it doesn't matter if there's a drought, that tree is healthy because that tree is rooted and growing in God, but it's God that's doing it.

This change that He promises us, this life change to be a new person, completely changed, it's it's a God thing.

We've used a phrase that we're gonna keep using to describe this.

When we live at the tree of life, we're not living for God, we're living of God.

The tree of life is not you doing things for God, it's it's you doing things of God.

It's God working in you and through you.

Because He's the one who makes it grow.

It's interesting as people, we can do some really good things for God.

Like, like, think about the history of the world.

Think about how many people have done really good things for God.

Like, in order to please God, I'm gonna do this and it's gonna be good.

And there have been people who've been fed, and there have been like huge movements that have happened, and people have been really blessed because someone was doing something for God.

At the same time, there's been a lot of like messed up stuff that people have done for God.

And God's like, Oh, I didn't tell you to do that.

You know, like, whoa, like God, this is for you.

And he's like, What no?

Why?

I remember when I was a kid, we got a dog, um, a collie, and this was like he lived outside.

He was an animal, you know, like an actual animal.

You know how some of us have pets and we pretend that they're humans and we talk to them like they can understand half of what we're saying, and they're like, No, my dog can.

No, your dog can't.

Your dog just wants you to feed it.

So, like, um this dog lived outside.

I'm offending, every time I talk about dogs, it offends people.

I'm sorry.

Um, but cats are worse.

So we had this dog.

Whoa, whoa.

Cats are dumb.

People.

Are the okay, hold up.

Are there anyone here like you're a cat person?

You do realize if your cat was bigger than you, it would eat you like tomorrow.

It has, it's like that's the only reason you're alive, is that it's small.

Because if it was a bigger cat like a tiger, it'd just be like dead food.

Like that's come on.

So we had a dog, and and one day we open up our door, and there's a dead rabbit on our like on our doorstep, and there's our dog, and he's like, you know, I got this for you.

And we're like, no, we don't, like, thank you, but we didn't ask for this.

People do that all the time with God, like, hey God, look what I did for you, and he's like, ah, no, please, no.

We actually see that in Jesus' story.

There's this one moment that I love in the story of Jesus.

He has these two disciples, James and John, they're brothers, and they are intense dudes.

Jesus actually gives them the nickname, the Sons of Thunder.

One day, this awesome thing happens.

It's in Luke chapter 9, verse 51.

Luke 9:51

We'll start there.

As time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

And he sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem.

Um, the Samaritans and the Jews didn't get along, so the fact that they find out Jesus is not going to Samaria but to Jerusalem, it offends them.

They didn't realize he's just going there to die.

Like they shouldn't have been mad.

It says, um, when James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?

You know?

That's like the rabbit on the doorstep.

Hey, I got an idea.

Let's kill him.

Would that make you happy?

Would that please you, Jesus?

And we don't know what he says, but Jesus turned and rebuked them.

So they went on to another village.

And you gotta admire the faith of James and John.

They're like, if we call down fire from heaven, it'll happen.

They have that much faith.

And look, there's like a precedent for it.

There's stories in the Old Testament of that kind of stuff happening, crazy stuff.

And some people read that and they're like, ah, that makes me uncomfortable.

And I'm cool with the fact that God is God and He's in charge and he's in control and what he says goes.

I had a young guy years ago that was starting to read the Bible, and he read this section about this prophet Elisha.

And Elisha was hanging out one day and a bunch of young people came and made fun of him.

Like they were like super making fun of this guy, and he's a prophet, he's God's representative on the earth.

And then it says that a bunch of bears come and kill the young people.

And this dude texts me because he's having like a crisis, like, ah, this doesn't mesh with my understanding of God.

Like, he literally says, What do I do with that?

And I'm like, Don't make fun of prophets.

It's super easy.

That's a great, that's the easiest takeaway I can give you there.

Like, God is God, He's in charge.

Be his friend, be his friend, you know?

And so they have a precedent for this, but they clearly don't understand the heart of Jesus.

That that it would it would break his heart.

Like he's he's about to go die, he's about to go to Jerusalem to die for these people, and they're like, Jesus, you want us to kill him.

He's like, No.

My point is this: when we think we know what we should do for God, we're often misguided.

And if we just if we decide to live our lives for God, sometimes we're gonna do some really good things, other times we're gonna be way off base, but it's not about living for God.

It's about living of God.

It's about letting God work in you, through you.

It's God doing the work.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven's armies will be the one that makes the, it'll be the thing that makes this happen.

And this isn't like some obscure reading in scripture.

This is all over the place.

Let's let's look at some scriptures real quick.

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance the race got a step before us.

Now you read it up to this point, you're like, hey, this sounds like for God business.

Let's strip off sin, let's run the race, let's have endurance.

It seems like this is us doing a lot of things for God.

But then that last part that we see in this section of verses, verse 2, I say last part, it's like the beginning of a chapter, but whatever.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Who's the one who initiates our faith?

Jesus.

Who's the one who completes it?

Jesus.

So he's like, hey, let's let's get rid of sin in our lives and let's run the race before us, and how do we do this?

Jesus.

It's not for God, it's of God.

It's it's allowing Jesus and the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you.

Galatians 5, 16.

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.

Who's the one guiding?

Holy Spirit.

Some of you are like, should we answer?

I don't know if he wants us to talk.

It's totally cool if you talk.

Like, who's the one doing the guiding?

The Holy Spirit, right?

What do we do?

Let.

Let the Holy Spirit guide you.

Psalm 51, 10, create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a loyal spirit in me.

Who's the one creating?

It's God.

Who's the one renewing?

It's God.

We're the vessel, but He's the one that's doing the work.

One of my favorites, Proverbs 16, 3.

Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.

Now we like, we like verses like this.

And this again reads like it's on us.

Commit your actions to the Lord.

We read that going, like, commit, dig deep.

Commit, like do something.

But there's a couple different ways to interpret the word commit, right?

We use it in some different ways in English.

One kind of commitment is for you just to make a decision and stick with it, like, come on, do your thing.

But we also say someone gets committed to a hospital, meaning that now they're in the care of someone else and it's up to them.

The Hebrew word that we translate commit in Proverbs 16, 3 is a word galal, and it actually means to roll away.

It was something that they would use when they would roll something heavy onto a cart.

You would roll it away, and now that cart is carrying the burden.

So when it says commit your actions to the Lord, it's saying give it to God.

Get rid of it, roll it away, and then it will succeed.

So who's the one making it happen?

It's God.

All through scripture, all through scripture, God is the one.

He's the primary agent, he's the one that's doing things.

We just get so twisted, we get that mixed up.

We see that happen in church culture all the time.

We get we get infatuated with pastors and teachers and leaders, and they're just people.

And if we get infatuated with them, they'll remind us that they're just people.

Like, and by the way, I appreciate this.

I'm not saying don't compliment me.

It's nice, it feels good.

So by all means, compliment me.

Um thank you so much.

Appreciate that.

I need it, I needed that.

Um but you know, sometimes people will come up to me and talk to me after service, and they'll say, Hey, what you said, it was like God was talking to me.

And I'm like, that's because God was talking to you.

Do you realize how bad I am at saying the right thing?

Like, ask my wife.

Like, my wife has never said to me at home, not one time in the 13, 14 years we've been married.

Um, it's going on 14, I know how long I've been married.

So in the 13, going on 14 years, Megan has not once said to me when I've said something at home, wow, it is like God is talking to me through you.

Like what you said, it was just thank you for what she tells me to shut up a lot.

If you could be a fly on the wall of my house, the number of times I'm going around the house and be like, ah, what'd I say?

I'm sorry.

When I said, baby, I was trying to say, like, one time she she put on an outfit and she said, How does it make me look?

I said, You look really athletic.

And she was like, That's a compliment.

That's a compliment.

You look strong and like, God! Like if Megan looked at me and said, You look athletic, I'd be like, Well, thank you very much.

She's like, You think I'm fat?

I didn't say that.

I didn't say fat, I said athletic.

Come on, you know, like that's what happens at home.

Not one time, not one time do I say something at home and Megan's like, wow, it's like the Lord is just, you know, speaking to me.

And so the only reason that happens here is because God has grace.

And for some reason, when I'm at church and I say, Lord, like maybe I should just pray at home, Lord, speak through me to my wife.

I haven't done that.

I should do that.

But uh, but I do that here, and sometimes God speaks.

But here's what's so cool about that.

If I say something that is like perfect for what you need in life right now, that's not me.

I probably barely know you or don't even know you at all.

And I wasn't thinking about you when I wrote the message, but God was.

So hear that.

God wants to speak to you, He cares about you, He's listening to your thoughts, He knows your needs, and He wants to talk to you.

It's not us, it's not church leadership.

You know, there was a pastor recently, a really prominent pastor, that had to step away from his church because of some stuff going on in his life.

And it was hard for the church, as you can imagine, because this guy was like a rock star to them.

That's why we shouldn't make pastors rock stars.

And this one person said in defense of this guy, you know, the phrase was, he does great things through God.

And it's like, no, you got it backwards.

God does great things and just so happens to use him from time to time.

Like that's it's God who makes it work.

We just have to get our minds wrapped around this.

In your life, the person that you need to become, you can't make it happen.

You can't, you cannot become the person God created you to be on your own strength.

You can't do it, but God can, and he wants to.

We just have to let him.

And that that's hard for us.

It's hard to actually let God work.

Because in order to let God work, there's some things that we have to change in terms of how we think, in terms of how we operate.

Number one, we we like to fight.

Like we're Americans, we're fighters.

You know?

Amen?

Any of us?

Like we we like to fight?

There's a famous speech given by General Patton, who was a World War II veteran and then one of our main generals in World War II.

And I can't read the speech for you because it's colorful.

Um, but it's a speech that he gave to the army at the beginning of World War II.

And the knock on us going into World War II is that all this conflict was happening in Europe and we just didn't want to get involved.

All this conflict was happening on the other side of the world, and we're like, ah, I'm not sure if we're gonna get involved or not.

And so people were saying overseas, Americans don't want to fight.

And Patton begins the speech by saying, that's crazy.

Americans love to fight.

That's like what we love the most.

We love fighting.

We can't get along with anybody, you know?

That's why we that's why our country started.

Like, we just don't like anyone.

We'll we'll make our own country.

So, like, we love to fight, and we don't tolerate losing.

We don't tolerate losing.

Like, if it's the Olympics, like we don't no one here cares about swimming until the Olympics.

No one here cares about half the sports, but if like if there's a medal on the line and America can win, we're like, yeah, you know, because we love to win, we love to fight.

And the opposite of fighting is surrendering.

And in order to live the life that God has for you, in order to be the person God created you to be, to become that person, to grow into that person, you have to surrender to God.

And this is where I get in trouble.

I I would, to be honest with you, rather fight for God than to surrender to God.

Like so often, I would much rather fight for God than surrender to God.

But I don't believe you can actually fight for God until you've surrendered to Him.

And if you really want to fight the good fight, you want to be that person, you have to daily surrender to God.

That's why Jesus said, anyone who wants to be my disciple must take up his cross daily, like die to yourself every day.

Surrender to God.

But we don't like to surrender.

We like to fight.

I fight every day.

I have four children, I fight every day.

Every day is a fight.

It's a fight about everything.

Any parents in here with young kids, or you've had young kids, like you fight so often about the smallest things.

Like, all of my kids have TV shows that they love to watch, and I hate them.

I hate half the shows they watch, they're horrible.

And there's some shows that really bother me.

And I don't want my kids to watch that show.

But they want to.

And it's like a fight because they're gonna ask like 40, 50,000 times.

My oldest, when he was like two or three, it was the show Yogabba Gabba.

Anyone ever seen Yogabba Gabba?

Okay, so hear me out on this.

I uh I've been really honest about things I've struggled with in the past.

You guys, if you've been here long, you know about some issues I've had.

I've talked, I talk about it, like I'm not ashamed of that.

However, I want you to know I've never done drugs in my life, ever.

I've never been high.

But I okay, yeah, don't do drugs.

But I'm pretty sure I know what it's like to be high because I've watched Yo Gabba Gabba.

And it's super weird.

Like, I don't, I'm like, watch, search Yo Gabba Gabba if you never seen it, and then go like, I wonder if the people who made this show did drugs.

Yes, they did drugs while they were doing the show.

There's no question.

Because when when Liam would watch the show at two or three, it would like turn on, and I would just sit down and like start watching it and space out.

And 30 minutes later, I'm like, what, what just happened?

Where have I been?

What's going on?

I think this is what drugs feel like.

And so I don't want, I didn't want Liam to watch this show because I it's just it's weird and trippy, and I can't, like it's just DJ Lance in the left corner.

I don't I can't, ah, it just bothers me.

And that stupid green guy, Broby or whatever is horror.

It's so weird.

I don't want to watch this show ever again, and I hope none of my kids do.

But Liam would ask over and over and over again, and eventually I'd just surrender and be like, fine, watch the show.

You know, Judah, my my soon-to-be three-year-old, he's got the show he watches right now.

It's on YouTube.

It's this guy named Blippy.

Have you guys seen Blippy?

Okay, how many of you who know who Blippy is?

Small number.

So most of us don't.

Praise the Lord for you.

Um, but all so your only context is that picture.

Do you want to punch him just looking at that picture?

Like, are you with me?

Even if you've never seen the show, like, how many of you are like, that is a punchable dude?

Like he, and he is.

It's horrible.

It's just a guy who has a friend with a camera and he just puts on like suspenders and a bow tie and a hat and he goes to random places and just makes weird noises and it acts like they act like it's educational.

It's not.

There was an episode called Crush, where he walks up to a car, picks up a hammer, and starts hitting the car with a hammer, and it wasn't like a Pee-wee Herman thing, like it was intentional and kind of like satirical and funny.

It's just dumb.

And I'm like, my son's gonna hit my car with a hammer.

You jerk.

And it's awful, and it bothers me that he makes a ton of money being blippy, and blippy's dumb.

If someone came to me and said, Justin, I'll give you a choice.

I'll give you a million dollars, you can donate to the charity of your of your choice, or you get to punch Blippy.

Right?

I'll tell you exactly what I'd do.

It's it's creative.

I would I would have a fundraiser where people pay money to punch Blippy, and we would raise so much more than a million dollars.

We would raise like 10, 20, 30 million dollars.

All the parents who've ever seen it.

Like, how many of you have seen Blippy, parents?

Would you pay money to punch him?

You should.

You should.

He's horrible.

Right now, my daughter, who turns five today, by the way, Lily's five today, my one girl, I got all these boys.

Her favorite show is Ryan's Toy Review.

Okay?

You talk about fighting, this is the worst.

This is the worst.

Let me explain the concept here.

How many of you know about Ryan and his toys?

Okay, so this is a show.

It's a YouTube show where uh where kids watch Ryan play with his toys.

Now they don't, people are leaving, I'm offending you, I'm sorry.

Um, but Ryan's, I'm I'm alright with that.

Ryan's the worst.

So it's not Ryan, it's his parents.

Like, I seriously I'm praying for him because here's the deal kids watch Ryan play with toys.

They don't play with their own toys.

They watch a show where a kid plays with his toys.

And before we judge that, like how many of us have spent time watching shows where adults clean their houses and organize things?

We're like, man, they really got that place clean.

Wish we had time to do that.

Oh, you know?

It's like, we gotta find a few hours a day to do this.

I don't know.

Let's watch the next episode and see how they do it, you know?

It's the same thing.

It's the same thing.

But here's what's crazy.

Last year, I looked this up.

Last year, Ryan and his family made$22 million off this show.

And all they do is they film him playing with toys.

Um, so what happened was it started to gain traction, and more and more people are watching it.

And and all of a sudden that's turning into advertising money, right?

And if you want to be a YouTube star, you have to film like every day.

You have to put something out every day.

So every day, Ryan, Ryan, play with your toys.

Ryan, hey, Ryan, be happy.

Okay, hey, we're gonna play with these toys.

In some episodes, you're like, today, Ryan gets to open a hundred presents, and he's open all these, oh, I love it.

And then toy companies start seeing that Ryan has influence with kids, and if he'll play with their toys, kids will buy those toys.

So now toy companies are paying their family money for Ryan to play with the toys, and then they film that.

And I'm thinking about the long-term effects of this.

Like, I've put serious thought into this.

Like, what's gonna happen in Ryan's life when he realizes that his playtime, his time as a child to play, was actually his parents' source of income?

Like, what happens on a day when Ryan's like, hey, mom and dad, I don't really want to play with any toys today?

They're like, You're playing with toys, Ryan.

You're playing with your toys and you're gonna enjoy it.

What happens if Mattel sends Ryan a toy and he doesn't really like it?

They're like, no, no, no, Ryan, you love that toy.

Play with the toy.

I'm just concerned for Ryan for the long-term effects of this, and I don't want to watch a show called Ryan's Rehab Review 10 years from now.

That's the whole thing.

I just don't want to watch that show.

I mean, I probably would watch it, but I don't want to.

Does that make sense?

And so Lily wants to watch Ryan all the time, like every day.

Can we watch Ryan?

Can I watch Ryan, Ryan, Ryan?

And I'm like, no, no, no, fine.

That's how every day goes.

Because eventually we surrender.

See, we we we fight.

We are fighters.

And we oftentimes fight battles we don't need to fight.

Sometimes we fight God.

And we we fight the work that God wants to do because we'd rather fight for God than surrender to God.

But the work that God wants to do in your life is good.

It is good, it's so good.

And there's there's no such thing, we've been using trees as a metaphor, there's no such thing as a tree that fights its own growth.

But yet we do that with God all the time.

We fight.

He's the one who does the work, he's the one who changes things, he's the one who makes things grow.

We just have to surrender to him and surrender to the work that he wants to do.

It's hard for us.

I think it's hard for us not only because we're fighters, it's hard for us because what we're talking about, guys, it's spiritual.

It is spiritual.

And I was having a conversation with a friend of mine earlier this week, and we were talking about this, that what we've done in American churches, we've divided the spiritual from the practical.

And we've decided that what is spiritual isn't really that practical.

You know, what's spiritual, like, hey, just pray and ask God to speak to you and be filled with the Holy Spirit, that doesn't sell books.

What does sell books is us taking the Bible, boiling it down into a bunch of life hacks, and selling books called the five golden keys to success.

Like there, there are you go in a Christian bookstore and you'll see all kinds of pastors who have the five keys, the seven keys, the four keys, the three keys.

It's like, how many keys are there?

There's one guy that's written at least a dozen books that each have five or six keys apiece, and I don't know if if it's just the same five or six keys, or if I have to have 40 keys, because I don't want a keychain with 40 keys on it.

Jesus, he gave me two.

Love God, love people.

Those were his two keys.

And I'd like those, but we get 40, you know?

And I'm not saying that the Bible doesn't have good advice, it does, but at its core, the Bible is not a self-help book.

Because you're actually not supposed to help yourself.

It's like a God help book.

Like if you if you read scripture and you close it and be like, you know what, I'm gonna do some things different and be a better person.

You have not, you've missed the point.

But if you close the book and be like, I really need God to do some stuff in me, you you you nailed it.

In fact, once there's a story where Jesus goes, it's a parable, and he says that in the temple this one day, there's this guy who's praying.

He's a tax collector, and tax collectors were like the worst people to them.

And this guy's praying, like, Lord, I'm so sorry, I'm so broken, I'm I'm so upset at the life that I live, and Lord, forgive me and give me grace.

And he's just pouring his heart out to God.

And then this man comes in, he's a Pharisee, he's a religious leader.

And the Pharisee's like, God, thank you so much that I'm not like him.

You know, I know how to live right, I know all the right things to do.

Thank you, Lord.

And Jesus goes, Which one is God pleased with?

And the answer is the the broken dude.

Because it's not about us taking his word and going, like, huh, I am now 3% better.

I now have the the keys to live a slightly improved life.

God does not want to improve your life.

He wants to change it.

God does not want to repair you, like repair your heart, your mind, he wants to replace it.

He's not in the business of life improvement.

That's not what he does.

He transforms us, he makes us new people.

He says, I'll give you a new spirit, I'll give you a new heart.

He makes us a new person.

And that is a spiritual experience.

And it's it's it's something that for us, it's it's hard to see as practical.

But that's because we have divided the practical from the spiritual.

And so we we hear this stuff like, oh, God's gonna do a work inside of me.

What does that mean?

And we're so tempted just to settle for the rules, but that's that's the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life is a God thing.

It's God working in you, of you, of God.

Tree of knowledge of good and evil, it's you figuring it out.

You you you figuring out the way to make it all happen.

And it's it's why this conversation is so missing from the church today.

So many people in our country are gonna go to church today and walk out with a list of tips and tricks and ways to do it better.

And sometimes we'll walk out of here with that, but if we walk out of here believing that it's on us, we're gonna fail.

And we're gonna we're gonna be led to despair.

Because it's just not gonna last.

Jesus would tell us that what is spiritual is the most practical.

In fact, one time, and we're almost done, I promise, but one time Jesus said to someone, What good is it if you gain the world but lose your soul?

We divide the spiritual and the practical, and Jesus puts it together and says, the spiritual is the most important.

In Revelation, Jesus is actually talking to a church, and this church is full of people who are very well off.

And because they're circumstantially so blessed, practically speaking, they've got it all together, they don't really think they they need much.

And Jesus says something really intense to them in Revelation chapter 3, it's in verse 17.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

You say, I'm rich, I have everything I want, I don't need a thing, and you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

When Jesus throws a punch, he like he connects.

This is Jesus saying, You guys are spiritually dead.

You're spiritually broken, just completely broken, but you don't see it because you think you think it's about these practical circumstances in your life.

The reason I'm saying this is because if we're gonna experience God doing the work inside of us, it's a spiritual experience.

It is the Holy Spirit.

And I cannot stand up on this stage and tell you how that works.

I can't.

One of my favorite pastors to listen to is given a message on the Holy Spirit.

And he's like, I don't know how it works.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit's in you in the Bible, sometimes he's on you, sometimes he's around you, sometimes he's working through you, sometimes like, I don't know.

But he's real.

And and what I will say is that if you hunger for the Spirit of God, if you hunger for the Spirit of God in your life and you ask and you make room for the Holy Spirit, and you just say, Lord, fill me.

Fill me with your spirit.

If that is your heart, you will experience God.

But I can't tell you on what timetable, and I can't tell you on like the five things to do to make it happen.

I just know that if you hunger for God and you ask, Jesus says, anyone who seeks will find.

So do you seek?

Just open yourself to God.

If we're gonna be a tree of life church, if you're gonna have a tree of life relationship with God, it's it's it's of God, not for God.

And so for those of you who are Christians, you're Jesus followers already, I just want to I want to implore you to keep your eyes on Jesus.

Don't shift and try to go the whole for God route.

Catch yourself when you do.

All of a sudden you're at home and you're stressed out and you're trying to make things happen, you feel like it's all on you.

Catch yourself and go, oh, I'm I'm living in for God territory.

Lord, what do you want to do?

What do you want to do?

Because it's easy for us to get it's easy for us to get onto that path.

That's why it says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 3, how foolish can you be after starting your life, your new lives in the spirit?

Galatians 3:3

Why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Don't do that.

Don't let God get you started and be like, cool, God, I got it from here.

Don't do that.

It'd be so easy for us to take these these words, like rooted down, growing up, reaching out, and be like, yeah, we're gonna do this.

No, we're not.

He is.

We're gonna be like trees, just letting it happen.

Growing because it's what God is doing inside of us.

It's a spiritual experience.

The only way to have that happen is to surrender to God.

And so I challenge you, those of you who belong to Jesus, surrender to God every day this week.

What that means is just do what he says.

Like I was thinking, like, well, what do I do?

Whatever he says.

Live in constant surrender to God.

What does God want you to do today?

In this season of your life?

What does God want for this season?

Is this season about you, you know, checking off a bunch of accomplishments, or is this season about you putting down roots?

Trees just do what they're supposed to do in every season.

There's no tree that it falls, like, no, I'm keeping my leaves.

I like these leaves.

These are my best leaves.

They like my friends.

I don't want to be naked.

Like, there's no tree that does that.

They just release when they're supposed to release and bloom when they're supposed to bloom, and we're actually supposed to be like that with God.

But it requires surrender.

So Jesus followers surrender every day.

And when you find yourself stressed out, it probably means you're in that for God territory.

Catch yourself and surrender.

If you're not a Jesus follower, you should be.

And not like it's not guilt.

That came out wrong.

See?

Ah! It's like I'm home.

Jesus is real.

And I don't have to look very hard at the world around me to figure out that no one knows what they're doing.

Like, nobody knows what they're doing.

Politicians, poor people, pray for them.

They're lost.

They don't have a clue.

Like every day it's just a politician saying something, and the next day being like, I didn't say that.

And like, yeah, you did.

Well, I didn't mean that.

Well, you should have said it.

But I get that, because at home, you know?

I know how you feel.

Like the world around us, all the world gives us is religion.

Like, even politics is just religion.

It's just here's the values you must have.

And if you hold these values, we like you.

And if you don't, you're evil and horrible and bad.

And each side just has different values.

So each side is evil to the other.

It's just religion.

What I'm saying is that the world doesn't know what to do, but Jesus does.

And maybe you're here this morning and you're not a Jesus follower.

Maybe you're here because someone invited you.

By the way, if that's if that's a friend of yours, they love you.

Maybe you're here because you're trying something new.

I don't know, and you want to see what works.

I'm telling you.

Take this the right way.

You can't do it on your own, but you're not meant to.

What you're meant to do is surrender to Jesus.

Jesus says it so well.

I'll just let him talk.

Matthew 11, 28 through 30.

Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you.

Let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle at heart.

You will find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Jesus is saying, Come to me, I'll take the burden, I'll take the weight, I will give you rest.

It's spiritual.

You are a spiritual person, and God has created you to be known by him.

He's created you for you to know his love.

So give your life to him.

It's not complicated, it's just a step of faith.

You say to yourself, all it is is saying in your heart, Jesus, I believe in you.

Maybe you're here this morning and you feel something.

You feel something stirring inside of you.

That is the Holy Spirit drawing you to himself because he loves you.

And so say yes to that.

And go sign up and be baptized.

Go to the main lobby, sign up to be baptized today.

Do not hesitate.

Go all in with Jesus because he's all in with you.

And what you're going to experience is God fulfilling that promise.

He's going to come into your life.

He's going to start renewing you, making you into the person he created you to be.

You're going to become a new person.

It's going to be beautiful, but it starts with a moment of surrender.

So to sum all this up, we're a tree of life church.

We're his hands.

We're a tree of life church.

We are rooted down.

We are growing up.

We are reaching out.

But we have to remember it's not us that's doing it.

It's God.

So don't fight for him, surrender to him every day, for the first time, for the thousandth time, and watch what he does.

Because guys, I'm telling you, he's going to do something.

I believe he's doing it now and he's going to keep doing it.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, thank you so much for this day.

I prayed too early, Lord.

I apologize.

There was clapping.

Lord, thank you for this day.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for everything that you're doing.

Thank you so much, God, for the 10 people that went all in with you today and the work that you're doing in their lives.

Lord, we're so excited for them, God.

We can't wait to see that keep happening.

We can't wait for next week as more people give their lives to you, Jesus, as they actually follow through on that commitment.

They've already done it, but they get to celebrate that with us.

Lord, I pray that you would fill us with your spirit this week.

That we would surrender to you.

Lord, every day that we would all surrender to you.

Father, if there's one person here that hasn't surrendered to you yet, maybe they're fighting that right now, I pray that they let go and they just give their lives to you, Jesus.

I pray that in your name.

And Father God, for all of us who already have done that, I pray that every day this week we surrender and we open ourselves to your spirit doing the work inside of us.

We want to see what you'll do.

We want to stop being people, Lord, who try to convince you to get involved with what we're doing.

We want to be people who get involved with what you're doing.

So do your work in us, Lord.

We trust that.

We yield to that.

We love you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.