I have always wanted to raise my children in the house of God to use their gifts and talents for Christ.
My wife and I have taught them the ways of God.
We have worked hard to teach them how to be respectful and disciplined.
We want them to grow up and be the best version of themselves by showing the world Jesus through them.
I have found out that no matter how many things we teach our children, ultimately, in the end, they have to decide what to do for themselves.
To me, that is scary, but it is true.
It's the same way with us and God.
God tries to teach us right, but we decide if we will do right or not.
It's up to me, and "It's Up to You."
It's Up to You
Psalm 92:12–14 (KJV)
12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be fat and flourishing;
Now we should be growing as individuals and as a church.
But ultimately, the growth is up to us.
Let me show you why I say that.
So, spiritual growth is up to you.
Look at somebody and tell them, "It's Up to You.
You see, there is something that makes a plant grow.
I'm not a botanist, but if you look it up, there's something in every plant life, whether it's a tree, a flower, or a bush.
It has something called meristem.
The meristem, or the meristem line, 's where the plant takes in a specific spot on that plant where all the nutrients the plant takes in.
When it breaks out of the seed and comes up above the earth.
The meristem line on every living tree or plant is at the base of that tree, where it goes into the ground.
It receives the nutrients, divides parts of those nutrients, and causes part of the tree to grow up.
I don't know how it does it, but during the growth season, if you look well enough, you can see it.
Sometimes, it looks like a knot.
Sometimes, it's a different color in the tree; if you cut it down and look at the bark, you will see this colored line that goes through it.
It's where a decision is made.
The particular spot in the plant, where the plant takes what it's given, determines that I'm going to use this that I'm being given to cause this to go down or go up.
To cause you to go high or go low.
But the decision is made at the meristem line.
What's interesting about it is it's similar to cells in our body.
The body makes decisions from the cells and the nutrients it receives from its mother.
Coming to the infant's body, a decision is made.
You would make a suitable heart cell.
You would make a suitable eye cell at the body's stem cell line.
You would make a suitable ear cell.
They said that the cells that don't get identified can become dangerous cells, and unidentified cells can sometimes multiply into bad cells.
What's coming in can cause cancer if it's not sent and put in the right place.
So what I want you to understand is simply this, it's how the body handles what it's given.
It's how the plant handles what it's given that determines if it's good or if it's terrible.
There is a decision that is made.
It doesn't have much to say about what nutrients it's given, but it decides.
You would make, you would do good, I'm going to let you take me up, or I'm going to let you go down.
I will let you take me high, or I will let you take me low.
The tree makes that decision at the meristem line.
The body makes that decision at the stem cell line.
And when you think about it, 2 Corinthians 2:16 says that the preached gospel is a saver of life unto some and a saver of death unto others.
In other words, some people can hear the gospel and take in life, and their family is blessed, and they grow, and they get strong in the Lord, and there are people under the sound of my voice this morning who will hear the same gospel, and it does nothing for them.
There may be people going through challenging circumstances right now, some grieving over the loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or some tragedy that happens.
They go through challenging circumstances, and it is impressive that some people get bitter, and some get better.
It's all according to what they do with what they take in.
You can't choose everything life will give you, but know it's s not what happens to you; it's what happens in you that makes the difference.
You're going to do something with the trials you're going through, and they can either take you up or they can take you down.
They can either cause you to bear fruit upward, as Isaiah said, or they can cause you to have downward roots and Hebrews 12 talks about the root of bitterness.
What I have found out is a lot of people, when something happens in their life, instead of letting it take them upward and bear fruit, they let it bring them down.
Even though you wouldn't choose the trial, even though God is allowing it, you have to decide on the spiritual meristem line of your soul.
It would be best if you decided I would let this take me up or down.
It's either going to make me better, or it's going to make me bitter, and I make the choice.
Not God. I do.
Problems are going to come.
It's what your attitude is.
What are you going to do with what life gives you?
Many people attend church, but that doesn't mean you'll get anything from it.
What are you going to do with what life gives you?
Where are you going to send it?
Will you let it make you better, or will it make you worse?
You'll have 10,000 chances to get bitter in life.
Somebody will hurt you.
Something will happen.
Some disappointment will take place.
Some injustice.
Something will happen in your life, and you either, at that moment, at the spiritual meristem line of your soul, you make a decision.
I am not going to let this grow a root of bitterness, and Hebrews said, by the way, that out of that root of bitterness, you defile many.
It doesn't just affect you when you get bitter, not just at people, but at God.
There are some people when something happens, a car wreck or some tragedy, and someone is taken or bad, it's easy to let in a root of bitterness, and it can take you down.
Then other people go through almost the same thing, and instead of taking them down into roots of bitterness, they bear fruit upward.
They grow more.
They go deeper into God.
Will you let it become a lousy cancer cell to your soul, or can you take that exact circumstance and say, "You'd make a mighty good heart cell"?
You decide if it becomes a suitable heart or spiritual cancer cell for your soul. You decide.
I'm saying to you today that God said to the tribe of Judah the Assyrians were coming.
He said you will see them decimate My people and this nation.
He said there would be a remnant, and out of that remnant, in Isaiah 34, the fruit will take you upward, and roots will take you downward.
There is a place in our soul, a spiritual meristem line, that whatever's going on, you can use it to cause you to grow bitter or produce the fruits of the Spirit.
In Galatians 5:22, He said. Fruit that grows upward bears fruit upward, Galatians 5:22.
What fruit is that?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
God says if you will allow the trials if you will allow what life gives you, I will not let you go through it and gain nothing from it.
But out of it will you will bear the fruit of the Spirit.
If you let it, it'll take you up.
Instead of getting bitter, hateful, cynical, and offended, let it take you up and produce love.
The fruits of the Spirit.
Joy, peace, kindness.
I shouldn't bless you because you said something that hurt me, but I'm not going to let it take me down; I'm going to let it take me up.
I'm going to produce the fruits of the Spirit.
There's a place in God where we're supposed to do that.
What you see above the ground is what we love, but what happens underneath the ground determines what happens above the ground.
If your root system is going down, it's a matter of time before your fruit system starts bearing fruit.
Do you know it takes 1,000 hours of cold weather for a peach tree to bear fruit?
Bearing fruit can be cold and lonely sometimes.
Knowing that, let me ask you, Are you still interested in bearing fruit?
Then the Holy Spirit comes along and says, "Then there are going to have to be some cold days."
It's not enough just to come to church and have a blessing, blessing, blessing.
But God will allow you into your life on cold days, too.
But it's out of the cold days that we bear fruit upward.
Psalm 92 says they planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God, and they'll be like one of the cedars of Lebanon.
This speaks of your relationship with God.
You got born again; I'm so glad you did.
But this is not the end of your Christian walk.
Jesus didn't bleed and die so that you could just be saved, never produce fruit, and never have roots of prayer, and it's the unseen part of our life that produces the outward fruit of our life.
Do you have a prayer life?
Do you have a word for life?
Do you have something in you that's going when we're not together that's not seen?
The secret to a tall tree is the unseen roots.
He said, "Judah, you're going to go through something."
When life gives you trouble and trials, you can either let it drive you down or take you up and bear fruit.
It's not God's decision; it's yours.
I wish you wouldn't have gotten the report.
I wish it wouldn't have happened to your family.
But the question is, what will you do with it since that's part of life?
You have to say, "I'm not going to grow roots of bitterness, but out of this, God's going to make me more like Jesus 'cause Jesus is the epitome of the fruits of the Spirit."
When they beat And attacked Him, He turned around and said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do".
The devil's got a lot of shears.
He's got a lot of scissors.
He wants to cut you down and stop you from growing and bearing fruit upward.
He wants to cut you off from your roots.
Whatever life sends you, when it arrives at your spiritual meristem line, somewhere deep inside of your soul, when something happens that you weren't planning on, you have to make a decision.
It would be best if you decided it is not taking me down.
I'll go through it.
God allowed it.
As I go through it, I'll let the Holy Spirit take it and produce in me, through the cold days, fruit that I can't get any other way.
I will let it develop me.
I will let it cause me to grow and bear fruit!
I will become stronger.
I will not get offended.
I will grow through this!
I'm saying to you that it's all in how you respond.
There are two marks of a great person, always.
Two marks of a great person.
Number one, they give.
They're givers.
I've never met a great person who was not a giver.
They're just a giver.
They give love; they give kindness; they just give resources.
They're a giver.
If you want to be great, there are two marks of a great person.
They give, and then they forgive.
The only way you'll reach greatness in the kingdom is if you give and you give, not just to the people who do you good, but even to your enemies, even to those you could crush; you give, then you forgive.
That's the mark of greatness.
It's my attitude.
Not the achievements that give me happiness.
It's my attitude.
I can take the same sun that melts butter and hardens clay.
I can either get hardened, or I can get softened, tender, and bear fruit.
Love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, and long-suffering.
Or I can get offended, mean, angry, and mad and go around like a victim all the time, and it's the same thing.
Two people go through the same thing; one gets better, and one gets bitter.
It all happens at that spiritual meristem line, where somebody says, "I didn't ask for this."
But I like what Paul said.
He said, "But these light afflictions are but for a moment.
They work in us an exceeding, far, great, and eternal weight of glory".
Let me finish this message, but listen. Ephesians 3:17-20
Ephesians 3:17–20mESV
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
To that person, Ephesians 3:20 says: "Now unto Him who can do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think, according to the power that works in you."
God's exceeding power awaits my decision at my spiritual meristem line.
And when I decide with the right attitude, what I'm going through will not take me down; it will take me up.
I'm not going to grow roots of rejection and offense and roots of, you know, just upset and roots that make me hate God and bitter against God.
A root of bitterness.
I'm not going to be bitter against people, but I'm going to bear fruit upward.
He says, "I'll do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think, according to the power that works in you."
What you're going through will either take you up or down.
And God's word to you today is you're not going to grow if you allow the enemy to do what he wants through your trials, but when you submit to God and say, "Lord, I'm Yours."
He said you will grow roots downward, like the tree planted by the rivers of water.
It will not be moved, and you'll bear fruit upward. And I thought about the family tree. What's your family tree of faith like? The enemy wants you to be saved and none of your children to be connected to your salvation. But when you allow it, Jesus will take your roots downward and your fruit upward. And when He does, it will not just affect one generation, but it will affect your children, and your children's children, and your children's children. Hallelujah.
How many of you believe that?
Right now, before we do anything else, I want you to lift both hands toward heaven, and I want you to say, "Lord, the stuff that's coming at me, I'm going to make a decision.
I'm going to have this attitude that it won't take me down.
I'm going to bear fruit upward.
It's going to cause me to go higher.
If I've deep roots, it's only because I'm going higher, and I will bear fruit".
In Jesus' name.
There is no doubt that I'm talking to people right now that you never dreamed you would be where you are, going through what you're going through.
But it would help if you did not allow what you are going through take you to a place of bitterness or anger.
Instead, be better and bear fruit.
It's up to you!
