Scripture: Luke 13:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8 (Call to Worship)
Theme: Lent/Growth
Title: Spiritual Manure – It Helps a Body Grow
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father, Son and Holy Spring.
You can tell that it is getting closer to Spring Time – you can smell it in the air. You can smell the newness of life. You can see the beautiful flowers, you can see that some of trees are starting to bloom and of course it won’t be long before you can smell the mulch/fertilizer that people will use in their gardens, yards and in their flowerbeds.
Our daughter who lives in Louisiana recently shared that they had already put out 10 bags of mulch in their flowerbeds and have about five more to put down. Pretty soon when you walk by a store or a restaurant you will smell that black or brown mulch that they put down around their buildings. At times the smell of some mulch can be overwhelming. It is unmistakable. It smells bad. It is a smell that can stop you in your tracks.
But if you have worked with mulch; then you know what an amazing product it can be. It may stink for a while, but it is incredible stuff. One of the main reasons mulch stinks so much is that one of its main ingredients is manure. Right alongside all that bark and other things is some good old fashion manure. That is right – M A N U R E.
We don’t talk about manure much these days. Manure is a word that is no longer trendy. We are much too sophisticated to use such down to earth language. Today, we would much rather label it as organic fertilizer, compost material or humus. Whatever we call it the fact remains that it stinks.
In Jesus’ day they just called it manure or dung. It was earthy and it smelled bad. What we call fertilizer or organic fertilizer they called manure. Most of their manure came from the waste material provided by their sheep, cows, chicken and horses.
Perhaps this morning you can even begin to smell the aroma. Manure is one of those products that you can truthfully advertise as something that is natural and that comes with very little “artificial additives or flavors”.
And while it may stink it provides the power (the nutrients) for things to get to the next level. It provides the means for things to experience abundant life. Without some extra nutrients from that manure, or other fertilizers our grass would be less healthy, our flowers would have smaller or no blooms at all, our trees would bear little, or no fruit and our gardens would grow but provide no harvest.
The tree written about in our passage was one that was growing. From a distance it looked good and healthy. But when you reached out your hand to pick a fig off you were greatly disappointed. For while the tree had a trunk, all kinds of limbs and leaves it had no figs. It was a great ornamental tree to look at and probably provided some shade but as far as providing figs it was a bust.
Today, we have Bradford pears trees that are little like what this tree was in Jesus’ time. Bradford pears do not bear pears, they are grown for ornamental use. They look pretty and they grow fast. But if you want a nice juicy pear you don’t grow a Bradford Pear Tree. The most you normally get is this small thing that looks like it wants to grow into a pear but doesn’t. As far as a bearing pear tree you would never choose to plant a Bradford Pear tree.
However, the fig tree in our story is one that should be bearing fruit. The owner took the time to plant it, care for it and he expected to be able to come up to it at the right time of the year and harvest figs from it. He wasn’t into ornamental fig trees. He wanted a fig tree that would do its job. He wanted a fig tree that would do what fig trees are supposed to do.
We get the idea in verse seven that the owner was ready to throw in the towel with this tree. If it wouldn’t grow figs, then it would become fire wood. At least that way it would be useful. For the tree it was either bear fruit or perish time.
Verse eight tells us that the vinedresser intervened. He didn’t want the fig tree to be cut down. He too had invested his life into this tree and he still believed in it. He asks the owner to give him another year. A year in which he would dig around the tree, loosen up the soil and put manure around it. He wanted to put some stinky stuff around it. He knew if he did that there was a good chance that the tree might start producing fruit it had some stinky stuff around it.
That is what I want to talk today – allowing God to use the stinky stuff that comes in our lives. Allowing God to use that stinky stuff to help us grow. I believe that God can take the stinking stuff in our lives and transform it to be the very ingredients we need to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. God can take our stinky stuff and transform it into life giving fertilizer.
I. We all have stinky stuff in our lives
The ancient world was very used to seeing stinky stuff all around them. There were not a great many popper scoopers in that day. If you had a field that had cattle or sheep on them then you just learned how to watch your step. If you traveled down the road ways where horse, camels and donkeys traveled then you also had to learn how to watch your step.
I remember years ago our High School Band along with some other bands found ourselves behind this troop of riding horses. They were all decked out and looked amazing. And while they were beautiful, they were also free to leave behind a trail of manure/organic fertilizer. We had to play the best that we could while at the same time making sure that we stepped around all the “organic gifts” that the horses left behind. It was an interesting parade to march in to say the least.
In the same way we live in a world with a lot of stinky stuff. A lot of things that just don’t smell good. A lot of things that just goes splat in our lives. A lot of things that just get plopped into our little worlds.
Stinky things like cars that quit working and must be repaired. Washers and dryers that tear up. Basements and houses that get flooded. Children and grandchildren that get sick or get into serious trouble at school. Doctor’s reports that come back with disturbing news. Offices that begin to have that stinky smell of gossip and mal content. Finances that turn upside down and family members and friends that suddenly pass away.
None of us sign up for those things. None of us sign up for all the stinky stuff that can find its way in our lives. However, we all know that at times stinky things happen to us and before we know it our lives smell very much like a manure pile. It’s like we are lying in the middle of a pile of compost/mulch/manure.
At times stinky stuff happens to us like it did for Joseph by your family turning against you. Joseph went from smelling pretty good in that coat of many colors to smelling like a pile manure when his brothers sold him into slavery to the Midianites. Joseph knew what it meant when your life turns into a pile of manure.
At times it happens when those over you throw you into the stinky stuff. That is what happened to the Prophet Jeremiah. He was doing precisely what God wanted him to do. He was being God’s mouthpiece. He was doing his best to preach the truth to God’s people.
But those around him, the king and the officials in control did not care for his preaching and they threw him in a pit that was full of muddy and murky water. In a matter of hours, he found himself waist deep in filth and sludge. Jeremiah really was in the stinky stuff; emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The Bible tells us that in the Book of Ruth, Naomi and Ruth found themselves in the stinky stuff. There was no way that they planned on their husbands dying. They didn’t plan on coming back to Israel only to discover that they were going to have to live hand to mouth either.
Ruth didn’t plan on having to scrap by on her hands and knees picking up the scraps left behind by the harvesters. She didn’t plan to spend most of her time making sure her and Naomi had a roof over their heads and some food in their stomachs. It didn’t take Ruth nor Naomi very long to understand that life can bring a lot of stinky stuff.
The same could be said for other people we meet in the Bible like Job, David, Daniel, the 3 Hebrew Children and the Apostle Paul. None of them signed up for their “stinky mulch manure life moments”. I have a real good feeling this morning that none of us sign up for them either.
The reality is we all go through things in life that stink. We don’t like it and we don’t think that it is fair. We don’t always know why family or friends can cause so much trouble and be little stinkers. We don’t know why at times it smells like manure at the office, at work or at school. We don’t know why we get sick, why this person died, why this had to break down or why this bad thing had to happen. The fact is sometimes we cause the manure to fall into our lives and other times it is because someone else brought a ton of it to dump in our lives.
So, what do we do about it?
II. We can allow the manure, the stinky stuff to promote us
The Bible is full of stories that tell us that God uses the stinky stuff in our lives like we use mulch or manure in our yards, our flower beds and in our gardens. Manure may stink and for a while may be messy, but it also can make our tomatoes, our flowers and our grass reach their highest potential. Fertilizer can pave the way to things becoming greater than we ever could imagine or think.
Instead of being discouraged about the stinky stuff in our lives and complain the Bible tells us that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY can take all that stinky stuff and makes something good. He can do the same thing with all our stinky stuff that this vinedresser did – He can use it to make our lives bear abundant fruit.
Ruth knew her life had plenty of stinky stuff. She knew it because every day she had to wake up and break her back bending over and picking up the scraps that the harvesters left behind. Then she had to take the grain home, separate the chaff and grind up what was left until it became a type of flour. Then she could bake bread so that her and Naomi would have something to eat. It was stinking work from start to finish. All of this forced her to be around some very unpleasant people; labors who would if they got the chance would molest the widows and helpless women who were forced to pick up scraps.
And yet, the Bible says that each day for weeks on end that is what Ruth did. She got stinky. She worked with stinky. She smelled stinky. All because she wanted to survive, and she wanted her mother in law to survive.
But that stinky did not stop her. She used that stinky like the Apostle Paul would use the stinky in his life – to produce perseverance, character and hope.
Romans 5:3-5 New International Version (NIV)
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY used that stinky stuff to promote her. God used that stinky stuff to help her accomplish things she could have never accomplished on her own. God used that stinky stuff, those manure like circumstances as fertilizer that helped her become the great grandmother of King David. God used that stinky stuff and made it possible for her to bloom.
Boaz would have never met Ruth had it not been for the stinky stuff. But when Boaz saw her, he did not see all the stinky. Instead, the LORD enabled him to see a woman whose beauty outshone all those around her. When Boaz saw Ruth, he did not see or smell the stinky, he saw a woman who knew how to love sacrificially. When Boaz saw Ruth, he did not see or smell the stinky, he saw a woman who was committed to her faith and to her family.
The Bible tells us that Ruth did not run away from her stinky. Instead, she allowed the stinky parts of her life to propel her to be the woman God wanted her to become. It was like she said –
“God, I know this stinky is to be like fertilizer in my life. All around me smells. I smell. But I also know that just because it stinks now doesn’t mean that it will stink forever. I am in your hands, Lord God Almighty. I believe in You. I believe that in just a little while I know that the stink will be gone and everything around me will be in bloom.”
If we look back over our lives deep enough, we will notice something amazing. We all want easy times. We all want things to go smoothly, smell nice and be successful. But a lot of times we don’t grow during those times. We enjoy them but we don’t grow richer and deeper.
So many times, we grow the most during our times of adversity. We grow when we find ourselves knee deep in the stinky. We grow when we find ourselves feeling like life has plopped us down in a big pile of life manure.
The Apostle Peter understood this reality. Listen to his words in 1 Peter 1:6 -7
1 Peter 1:6-7 New Living Translation (NLT)
6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
The Apostle James knew this, listen to his words in James 1:2 – 4
“Count it all joy, my brothers (and sisters), when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness had its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.”
If I hear those words correctly both Apostles are telling us in effect that if we go through the trials, through the testings – in other words the STINKY – if we go through all that stuff and hold ourselves up high – we stand fast and we allow God to work in our lives that in the end we will be more genuine, we will be more perfect and we will more like Jesus.
I mean who had to endure more stinky in this life than our Savior and Lord – Jesus Christ?
+Born in a stable – that had to smell – that is a bunch of stinky
+First visitors being the Shepherds – I wonder when the last time they had a bath?
+The stink of the wilderness and having to deal with Satan and all those temptations
+The stink of having to deal with lepers, the demon possessed and those whose had cancerous type diseases
+The stink of having to deal with the Pharisees and Sadducees whose mission was to destroy Jesus
+The stink of His Trial and the beatings
+The stink of the Crucifixion – there never was a more stinky place than Jesus’ Crucifixion – not just the blood and gore but the fact that Jesus was taking on all the sin of the world
+The stink of His death and burial
But all that stink did not destroy Jesus. Jesus treated it like fertilizer. Jesus allowed it to work in His life like the vinedresser wanted his fertilizer to work in the life of the fig tree. It may stink on Friday and even on Saturday but by Sunday – The Resurrection Opens up a Whole New World. Everything smelled like Heaven on Resurrection Sunday!
The next time something happens that stinks take a moment and reflect –
+It may stink now, but God has a way of making this blossom.
The next time a family member, a person over you or even someone who doesn’t like you does their best to push you into one of life’s manure pits – don’t get mad and try to get even. Don’t go around rehearsing your gripes and complaints. In your heart smile and say to yourself – “They are just being my fertilizer”. God is going to use them and this situation to make me grow. God is going to all of this stinky stuff to help me bear better, bigger, more wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit. God is going to help me become the person that I need to become.
III. We need to be ready for God to take the Stinky Stuff and Bring About New Life
We will be amazed at what God can bring in our lives in the strangest of ways.
I recently came across a story written about a little corgi, named Meya. Her owner, Alexandra Gleber, shared this wonderful story about Meya. It all happened around the end of October one year. Meya decided that she would help herself to some of the family’s fall decoration. She loved the taste of pumpkins and so when no one was looking she helped herself to one.
Alexandra had no idea that dogs even liked pumpkins. She was nervous at first, but then she found out that it was okay for dogs to eat pumpkins. But she wasn’t ready for what happened in the next few months.
You see, a couple of days after the event, Alexandra was outside taking care of her backyard. She was getting rid of the dog mess. She noticed that in one area Meya had been digging so she had this great idea. Since Meya had already dug a hole she would use the hole to bury all the waste. She smiled and thought that while Meya thought she was having fun she was really helping her owner.
What no one knew was that all those pumpkin seeds in Meya had not been fully digested. Some of the seeds passed through her and were now in place with all that organic fertilizer and when the weather got warm the family found quite a surprise in their backyard.
Meya’s owner explained it this way:
"I live in Southern California, and we'd been in a drought. But in January and February, it rained a ton, and then this pumpkin plant suddenly sprouted like crazy!" said Gleber. "I can't grow anything, but of course when Meya plants something, it grows like crazy. She gave it some good fertilizer, I guess!"
Meya knew how to make something stinky bring forth new life.
That is what Ruth did. That is what Jeremiah did. That is what the Apostle Peter was able to do.
By the time we get past the Resurrection we find the Apostle Peter being drawn back to living as a fisherman. Only Judas had messed up worse that Peter. He hade his high moments like on the Mount of Transfiguration, but he also had plenty of low moments like sinking into the water and denying Jesus three times. And yet, as you read his story you get this idea that each time he ended up in the stinky or had a lot of stinky on him the LORD was able to take that stinky and use to as fertilizer to help Simon Peter grow.
The man who denied Jesus three times is also the man that preached at Pentecost and who led Cornelius to the LORD JESUS CHRIST. God was able to take all that went wrong in Peter’s life and transform it into something beautiful.
The same thing happened to a man named “Big John”.
‘Big John’ had been living on the streets of London for over ten years1. Before that he had spent over nine years in prison. Most of his teeth were missing. He was addicted to methadone. On the streets of London, he picked up the name ‘Big John’ because he was a big guy who had once boxed for the British Army.
One-night Big John walked into a London shelter run by the Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church. He came with his friend who was called ‘Little John’. They made quite the pair.
Before he knew it, ‘Big John’ fell in love with the Church and appreciated all the young people who cared for him. They invested their time and their lives into ‘Big John’. They did their best to share Jesus with him. In time, ‘Big John’ gave his life to Jesus and was filled with God’s Holy Spirit. He came off the drugs. God turned his life right around – from despair to joy. God took all the stinky and helped Big John grow in grace.
‘Big John’ started telling his friends on the streets about Jesus. Each week he would turn up at church with more friends. His nickname, on the streets, changed from ‘Big John’ to ‘John the Baptist’!
People started noticing the transformation that was happening in John’s life and wanted to be a part of that transformation. He met a man who was in the property business and in no time, John had a place to stay instead of living on the streets. A dentist noticed John and volunteered to replace all his missing teeth.
Since then John has been reconciled with his mother and his daughter. He now enjoys a wonderful relationship with his grandchildren, whom he had never met before.
God was able to take all the stinky that John had caused in his life and use it as fertilizer to help him find Jesus, be filled with the Holy Spirit and turn his life around. John discovered that following Jesus is life changing. John found that God can take the stinky, whether it comes from a person’s own mistakes or from other people and use it to bring forth new life.
This morning, life sometimes stinks. Sometimes it stinks because of our sin(s). Sometimes it stinks because of other people’s sins. Sometimes it stinks because the Devil is doing his best to stop us from growing.
But just because we have stinky times and stinky messes doesn’t mean that we must throw in the towel. It doesn’t mean that we must abandon our dreams or that we must stop believing that God will work with us and through us. Like the tree in our passage we can allow all the stinky stuff to help us to grow. The LORD can use the stinky to help us develop a stronger spirit, a deeper character and become an overcomer.
The Apostle Paul reminds us:
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 New International Version (NIV)
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Romans 8:38-39
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This morning, no obstacle or enemy can stop us. Nothing – no matter how stinky it is can stop us from blooming and flourishing for the LORD. Whatever it is that is stinky in your life – let’s give that to God. And God can take all the stinky stuff and make it into fertilizer that will enable us to grow, mature and shine for Him today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. God can take all those things and help us grow deeper, richer in Him.
This morning, do you feel like at times that you are in the stinky stuff? That life is stinky? That nothing is going your way? That like this tree you are not growing and bearing the fruit you need to bear? That people have just been piling all kinds of stinky stuff on you?
It’s time to let God have all the stinky stuff. I don’t know how God does it but He is able to take all the stinky stuff and turn it around so that it brings us strength, vitality – God is able to take all the stinky stuff and make it into fertilizer – Holy Spirit Fertilizer.
Closing Song – Take My Life and Let It Be (Traditional)
“I LOOK TO YOU” – Selah
1 Story found on this website: www.bibleinoneyear.org/bioy/commentary/2468
