GO DEEP- GROW STRONG-BEAR FRUIT
Passage:-Psalm 1:3, Psalm 92;12 John 15:4
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to talk to you today about a subject called GO DEEP-GROW STRONG- BEAR FRUIT
GD-GS-BF
Take a seed the size of a freckle. Put it under several inches of dirt. Give it enough water, light, and fertilizer. And get ready. A mountain will be moved. It doesn’t matter that the ground is a zillion times the weight of the seed. The seed will push it back
Never underestimate the power of a seed.
It amazes me that Nonliving seed when it burried on the ground ,it breaks out and will have a new life, and it grows and becoming a fruit bearing tree, or giving beautiful flowers. It’s a miracle
• A seed is a gods answer to our needs
• When you say, I have a need, God says I have a seed and this will meet your needs
When we look at an apple, wee see how many seeds are there, but When Gods looks at, he sees how many apples are there In the seed
Gods way of seeing things are diffrerent.
In a tiny seed , god has written somany mysterious cods
some of the chords like growth cods, you cannot seet it thorugh micorscope. But God has written mysterious cods on a seed
• Color cods
• Flovour cods
• Smell cods
• Order cods
• Size cods
• Time cods
• Generational feature cods
• Specious cods
• Life span cods
Everything is written in a mysterious way on a tiny seed
Seeds can be carried by wind, animals, or water to where they will eventually grow. Once the seed finds the perfect place to start the growing process, it relies heavily on the nutrients it has brought with it from the parent tree. The right mix of water, light, warmth, soil, and nutrients the seed will sprout, and send its first stem up and its first root down—becoming a seedling.
According to the latest statics there are over 3 trillion trees growing all over the world. That means that there are 422 trees for every person currently living on our planet. The Four largest countries with trees are:
• Russia – with 642 billion trees (146 million – 4,397 trees per person)
• 2. Canada with 318 billion trees (38 million – 10, 027 trees per person)
• 3. Brazil with 302 billion trees (213 million – 1,418 trees per person)
• 4. USA with 228 billion trees (331 million – 689 trees per person)
I think it is easy to say that God loves trees. Why else would there be over 3 trillion trees growing around our planet.
The Bible is full of passages that speak about trees. More than 35 different trees are specifically mentioned in the Bible.
Trees appear in the first chapter of the book of Genesis and in the last chapter of the book of Revelation. And we all know about some very important trees:
A. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 2:17
B. The Tree of Life – Revelation 22:14
MANY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE HAVE INVOLVED TREES.
• Sin originated from eating the fruit of the Forbidden Tree.
• The first clothes “or covering” were leaves from a fig tree.
• God promised Abraham a son, under an oak tree.
• Elijah was depressed and suicidal, under a juniper tree.
• Aaron’s rod of an almond tree, budded & produced fruit.
• The Ark of the Covenant was made from an acacia tree.
• Absolem got caught hanging by a tree
I. GO DEEP
Root is a vital part of a tree
If we want to grow healthy, we need to plant ourselves in the right spot; in the right environment
As long as the roots are healthy, the trees also healthy. But an uprooted tree was a dead tree.
We need to be grounded in deep values and ethics if our society is to survive.
We need deep roots
Root-The part of a plant buried in and gaining nourishment through the ground.
I. Deep roots in the right place
Before President Garfield was elected our 20th President, he was a professor and president of Hiram College in Ohio. One day he was approached by a parent who wanted to know if there was any way the course of study could be simplified so that his son might be able to go through by a shorter route.
“Certainly.” Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, He takes a hundred years. When He wants to make a squash he requires only two months.”
I. To have a deep rooted relationship with Jesus we need to learn to live in union with Him.
II. The second thing we need to do is to keep our roots deeply rooted in Jesus
A. A tree depends on its roots.
1. The roots draw life from the soil.
2. The roots give stability to the tree.
A tree is know by it’s fruit and to grow good fruit a tree needs good roots.
3. To get good roots though you have to feed them.
B. We, as spiritual trees, need good roots in Jesus.
1. We must be buried into the soil of God’s word
Buried – It’s more then partly covered.
a. Mark 4:15 – 17 = Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
Three levels of God’s soil
• Upper level of soil – Initial experience
• Shallow level of soil – Some commitment
• Being buried or rooted in the good deep soil of God – Prepared for the storm and is producing fruit.
The storms are coming! Where are our roots?
2. Working through the clay
a. Before any great victory there will be a wall to climb.
i. Noah had to go through a flood.
ii. Joseph had to concur the pit.
iii. David had to fight the giant.
iv. Job had to deal with losses and sickness.
v. Jesus had to suffer the cross.
When your roots go down deep, you're not moved by what doesn't go your way. You live from a place of peace. The winds may blow, the storms may come, but you know when it's all said and done, you'll still be standing, you'll still be praising, you'll still be smiling, the scripture tells us here, "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord".
GO DEEP
GO DEEP INTO GOD’S LOVE
GO DEEP INTO GOD’S WORD:
GO DEEP INTO OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONE ANOTHER:
Facts about the tree
Ø They grow best in deep soil on slopes facing the sea. The trees require a lot of light and about 40 inches of rain a year.
Ø The cedars can grow 80 feet (20 m) tall and spread out from 30-50 feet (9-15 m). They grow very slowly. The oldest tree is more than 1000 years old.
There are over 300 species of Palm trees growing from 3 to 100 feet tall with over 3,000 species.
1. The date palm produces over 300 pounds of dates annually.
2. The African oil palm, very widely cultivated in the tropics, gives a higher oil yield per hectare than any other oil plant. It produces two quite different types of oil, and that from palm kernels, used for making margarine and soap, and that from the fleshy part of the fruit, used more widely for industrial processes. This is one of the most rapidly expanding plantation crops today.
Historically the palm tree has been called the representative tree of Palestine.
It has stood through the years as a symbol of the land of our Lord. In the Middle Ages, large groups of people made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The name Palmer was given to these pilgrims. At the triumphal entry when Jesus made His entry into the city of Jerusalem before His death, the people broke off palm branches and waved them in front of Him.
When a picture of the victorious children of God is given by John in the 7th chapter and the 9th verse of the Revelation, he says, among other things, that they were "clothed with white robes and palms in their hands" (Gray 2).
The Bible says in Psalm 92:12, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." The palm tree has several characteristics about it that picture the life of the Christian.
I. THE PALM TREE BREAKS THE BANDS
A. Other trees do not break the bands put around them. As the tree grows, the bands dig into the wood. Many of us have seen an old clothesline wire sunk deep into the trunk of a tree.
B. The palm tree breaks the bands as it grows.
C. The child of God can claim and have the victory through Christ.
1. We do not have to continue in sin: Romans 6:1-2,6,11-14.
2. I Corinthians 15:57: "But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory ..."
3. Romans 8:37: "...In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
II. THE PALM TREE WILL BEND BUT NOT BREAK.
A. The strong winds of storms uproot and break ordinary trees.
1. In 1979, Hurricane Frederick’s winds broke thousands of pine trees in the South.
2. The storms of life cause many disasters for those not serving God.
B. The palm tree will bend, but it does not break.
III. THE PALM TREE NOT ONLY SURVIVES BUT FLOURISHES IN THE DESERT.
A. The palm tree does not simply grow in the desert; it flourishes. We can make it in this desert world.
1. The roots of the palm tree go deep below the burning sands and find moisture down deep below the surface.
2. The Christian must go deep with God if he is going to flourish.
a. To go deep, we must live the Christ life (Galatians 2:20).
b. To go deep, we must be prayer warriors. I Thessalonians 5:17 says; "Pray without ceasing." Not theology, not psychology, but kneeology.
B. Many Christians are not flourishing because they are seeking nourishment on the surface. They are running their roots of life out laterally.
1. Shallow Christians look to the world for refreshment and come away thirst. The world will never satisfy. NEHI
2. The fashion, literature, and entertainment of the world are shallow and unfruitful.
C.
Child of God, send your taproot deep in the Word of God and prayer.
IV. A GROUP OF PALM TREES FORMS AN OASIS.
A. One palm tree standing alone will not provide much shade from the burning sun.
B. A group of palm trees forms an oasis. Stay together and stand as Christians. Get in and stay in the N.T. church.
1. The oasis provides shade for the weary traveler.
2. Often in the desert, you will find orange and lemon trees growing beneath the shade of the palms grouped together.
When we group ourselves together in the church, we provide shade for those weaker than ourselves. This is why Hebrews 10:25 is so important to us. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together..."
V. THE PALM TREE CAN WITHSTAND ABUSE.
A. The heart of the ordinary tree is dead. The vulnerable area of an ordinary tree is the outside. Hollow, empty-- weed eater.
B. The heart of the palm tree is alive.
1. The life of the palm tree is on the inside.
2. Outward abuse does not affect the life or quality of the palm tree.
3. Because we have life deep within, in our hearts, we are free from sin (Romans 6:17-18). "You hath He quickened..."
C. The life of the child of God is within. II Corinthians 4:16 says, Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day."
VI. THE OLDER THE PALM TREE THE SWEETER THE FRUIT (PSALM 92:14).
A. As a palm tree grows older, its fruit grows sweeter.
B. As Christians grow older, they should grow sweeter.
C. They say the older trees with scarred trunks produce the sweetest fruit.
1. The scars of life produce the fruit of holiness.
2. The trials of life conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-29).
VII. THE PALM TREE CANNOT BE GRAFTED.
A. Horticulturists say that to graft a palm tree is to kill it.
1. The palm tree is distinctive and unusual.
2. This is why grafting kills it.
B. To graft a Christian into the world is to kill his testimony and influence.
1. The Christian is to be distinctive, easily distinguished from the world.
2. Romans 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore brethren...."
3. When a Christian hooks up with the world, he injures his service for Christ.
VIII. THE PALM TREE WILL NOT BURN.
A. Folks do not use the palm tree for firewood because it refuses to burn as ordinary wood.
B. The child of God will never, not even for a moment, suffer the fires of hell. He will never burn; he is a palm tree.
C. The lost 1. Matthew 25:41,46.
2. Revelations 20:14-15
IX. THE PALM TREE IS AN EVERGREEN.
A. The evergreen is a symbol of immortality.
B. The child of God will never die; he has everlasting life (John 3:16, 18, 36).
II. GROW STRONG
To grow strong we need to build your life on Christ.
I. THE CHRISTIAN'S STRENGTH COMES FROM CHRIST - 6:10; Phil. 4:13; Rom. 8:37 (through faith & obedience to Him).
A. What Do I Need The Strength To Overcome?
1. Sin & temptations - 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 4:14-16.
2. Trials of life - cf. Rom. 8:35-39.
a. Tribulation ("pressed down," affliction) - External presses.
b. Distress (narrowness of place; anxiety) - Internal stress.
c. Persecution (put to flight) - Threats, etc.
d. Famine, nakedness, peril (dangers), sword (death threats).
B. We Must Be Humble Enough To Accept His Strength! - 2 Cor. 12:7-10.
II. WHY WE MUST RELY UPON HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING - 6:11-12.
A. Our Adversary Is The Devil - 1 Pet. 5:8; 2 Cor. 2:11.
B. Our Battleground Is In The Spiritual Realm - cf. 2 Cor. 10:3-4.
-(The battle ground is over our souls, & the effects are seen in how we live in the flesh! - cf. Rom. 6:12-14).
BEAR FRUIT
Story
Two young boys were using a fruit tree to climb out of their second-story bedroom window and go to the swimming hole without their parents' permission. One day they heard their father say he was going to cut the tree down because it was dead. Fearing they would lose their escape route, they went to the store and bought artificial apples, which they tied to the branches of the dead tree. The next morning their father expressed amazement that apples seemed to have grown overnight, especially since the tree was a pear tree!
Do you like fruit?
The fruits reveal the root
Bible says:- "A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit." Luke 6:43-44 (NLT)
Jesus said, "A tree is identified by its fruit. A good person produces good things from a good heart, but an evil person will produce bad things from an evil heart. What kind of fruit tree do you want to be? A good tree producing good fruit, or an evil tree producing evil fruit?
We are Chosen and ordained to bear fruit
Fruit bearing is a cardinal principle of our lives as believers,
A FRUITFULNESS IN OUR THINKING OR MIND
Philippians 4:8-9 and Romans 12:2 tell us the things to occupy our minds with, which are things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, virtuous and praise worthy and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
A FRUITFUL SOUL
Galatians 5:22-23, manifesting the virtues of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: there is no law against such things. Those who belong to Jesus Christ crucify the passions, appetites, and desires of the flesh.
FRUITFULNESS IN SPEECH
Ephesians 4:29 (AMP) Speaking only such as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others.
Colossians 3:9, James 3:9-12
FRUITFULNESS IN DEEDS
Colossians 1:10 and 2nd Peter 1:10 -11 encourage us to be more eager to make our call and election sure, so that we will never fall, we will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. James 2: 17, 24
GOD’S WORKMANSHIP
Ephesians 2:8-10. Every believer is described as God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus (recreated when you gave your life to him)unto good works which God predestined or planned before hand for you to walk in or taking paths which God had prepared ahead for you to live the life he had pre arranged for you to live.
Why are we here? (Gen 1:27-28)
o To express His image (Romans 8:29, Hebrews 1:13, Hebrews 3:14a)
o To enjoy fellowship with Him (John 4:24)
o To dominate the earth for Him (Psalm 8:5-6)
o To bear fruit of His nature (John 15:8,16a)and reproduce one’s self (it’s a life of influence)
From the above, God created us is to bear fruit in expressing His image, enjoying fellowship with Him, colonizing the earth on His behalf, and reproducing His nature in ourselves through procreation, and leadership influence.
• When God plants, He expects to receive a harvest.
• When God saves, He
Application
We needs to be grounded in deep values and ethics if our society is to survive.
TREES GROW BEST TOGETHER
TREES ARE GIVING
By taking in toxins and giving back oxygen, trees are always contributing to life. They also give seeds, shade and cool. They give energy. They give life. Even after dead they contribute generously to many industries, to art, and to comfort. You should serve and give. Don’t just take and hoard. Even if your own plans “died,” many time they can serve as the seed for other ideas that will work even better.
REMEMBER. . .
Be grounded like a tree, yet stand tall to look out as a visionary. Be strong like a trunk, yet bend with flexibility. Be willing to stand alone if needed, but collaborate with those around you to become stronger together. Welcome challenges and people, growing stronger with the different experiences. Above all, serve others and give the best of yourself, and you will contribute to the health of your organization, your family, and your country.
