Cedar Trees
Keith Harms
livingWORD Assembly of God
Psalm 1:3 reads,
"He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season."
People who don’t want to wait 4 decades for a globe Norway maple to grow in their front yard can buy a 30-foot specimen form a New York nursery for $42,000. A 50-foot European beech is a bargain for only $20,000. In spite of the prices, the country’s leading nurseries report soaring sales of mature trees.
As one customer put it: "I can’t wait for a banana to ripen. I only buy them bright yellow. There’s no patience for watching a tree grow."
We humans are always in a hurry, looking for shortcuts to skirt the process and grasp the product. And sometimes we expect instant maturity in our Christian walk and growth in faith. What a contrast to the enormous leisure of God in His dealings with us!
The psalmist affirmed God’s promise that the person who delights in His Word will "be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season." A growing Christian whether a new believer or a seasoned saint is like a healthy tree – planted, nourished and fruitful.
If our roots are in God’s Word and our hearts are drawing sustenance from Him, we will flourish. And growth toward maturity brings joy to the God of patience.
Today I want us to look at four trees all from the same family. They are Cedar trees. You might want to call them cypress trees or more commonly, fir trees.
The Cedar tree is an evergreen tree that sometimes grows more than 100 feet tall with a trunk of 40 to 50 feet. It’s a fragrant wood that is rot-resistant and knot-free, making it ideal for building, shipbuilding, and crafting idols.
There are numerous biblical references to these cedar trees. The Israelites valued the timber of these trees and they are used symbolically to describe the blessings of God for his people.
The four types of Cedars I want to discuss today are the Small Cedars, The Humming Cedars, the Fire Cedars and the Tall Cedars. We’ll only take a quick view at each tree so let’s begin.
First there’s the Small Cedar.
When you cut down a bunch of small cedars and throw them on the truck, you barely need to tie them down. All the little limbs begin to lock on to each other until they form one big bundle.
They remind me of the children’s game – Red Rover – you remember, you lock hands with your team mates and sang, Red rover red rover send Suzy right over.
Locked together they remind us of the word – unity. As a church we need unity. Understand that unity doesn’t mean we all act and think the same, nor do we all agree on everything. But it does mean we agree to fellowship one with another and lock arms with each other in love.
The shepherd uses small cedars like hedges to keep the sheep in the fold at night. Small trees, branches entwined, formed a wall the sheep could not escape from. Small cedars kept the sheep safe – the sheep couldn’t wander out, and the wolf couldn’t make his way through the branches.
Small cedars are use to make wall studs. They really tell us a great story about some of the people in church. I can think of so many people who ministered in areas that never get much recognition, but just like the wall studs of this building are a necessity, they are vital to the church.
The next tree is the Humming Cedar.
The humming cedar grows where nothing else will grow. This cedar loves the wind. The more the wind blows the more the humming cedar hums. The humming noise quiets the sheep.
The humming cedars are important to the church as well. They are people who help bring calm into chaotic circumstances. They remind us to focus on God’s face and give ourselves over to him. They are the people that will recite Footprints in the Sand whenever we think God has somehow forgotten us.
The third cedar is the Fire Cedar
Every pastor wants fire cedars at his church. They’re the kind of tree that catches fire with the littlest of sparks. I know church folk that won’t catch on fire if you blow torch ‘em, but the fire cedar catches fire quickly.
The amazing thing about the fire cedar is its ability to burn. Even in a rainy downpour the fire cedar keeps on burning. It’s full of sappy oil that burns and burns and burns.
It’s the kind of wood you want to burn when camping
out and wanting to keep the wolves away. Not only will the fire keep the wolves at bay, but also it helps keep the shepherd warm at night.
The last cedar is the Tall Cedar – the best of the tall cedars can grow to 300 feet. That’s a pretty amazing tree. But more amazing still is it’s tap root. The tall cedar’s taproot is just as big going down and the tree is tall going up!
I noticed some correlation’s between tall cedars and our lives. Tall cedars grow more in the dark and in the cold. Oh, it grows in the sunlight, but most of its growth occurs in the dark. I know in my life, I’ve found myself growing closer to God in the dark, difficult times more often than in the good times. It seems to be human nature to grow closer to God during "experience 101". Our times of failure and struggle – that’s when God reveals himself to us in a new way and we grow closer to him.
Tall Cedars give off a sweet aroma. I’m not going to suggest that Christians smell different, but I’ve noticed that Christians do have that different something. It’s a special glow, aroma, whatever you might want to call it – people of the world can sense it, smell it if you will and it affects their lives as well.
My wife has a cedar chest. Maybe you have one, or maybe you have cedar-lined closets. It’s where you put valuable things you don’t want little critters to get at. That’s because parasites can’t kill tall cedars. Nothing bugs them! They have the same oil that the fire cedar has and bugs and moths can’t stand them.
I mentioned the tree’s taproot. Without that root, the tree would be out of balanced and would fall over at the slightest breeze. We too must be rooted. Rooted in church, rooted in ministry. Rooted in God’s word so we will be unmovable in times of trial and temptation.
At our home in Kankakee there was a small evergreen tree in the front yard. Our first summer there we planted a pretty big garden. One thing we planted was Zucchini. It seemed we had no longer planted the seed and we were harvesting squash. We froze so much Zucchini we finally threw it away years later. In the time the Zucchini was planted, grew and was harvested and then died, the evergreen in the front didn’t seem to grow an inch. In fact we lived at that house for seven plus years and it didn’t seem to grow at all!
If you want to be a squash for Jesus, you can accomplish it in about three weeks – but if you want to be a tall cedar for Jesus it takes years. God requires a long series of obedience to become a tall cedar. But if you’ll be obedient to God he will use you much the same way the Israelites use these mighty trees. You see the tall cedars were the pillars for the house of God.
Four cedars. Can you see yourself as one of these trees? How good a tree are you? Are you wilted and unproductive? Are you thinking, I may not be a cedar now, but with God’s help I’m gonna get growing.
Maybe you see yourself as one of these trees. If so, great! They’re all needed in the church. The great thing is we can actually be more than one tree at a time. We may excel at one thing, our gifting, but we can all function in each area.
There is one type of tree I hesitate to mention. It’s the horizontal tree. It’s the tree that plops in the pew each week and that’s it.
One of the things I want to do as your pastor is show love. I believe Jannette and I are People, people. We love people. But I do our friendships a disservice if I don’t tell you that simply coming to church without doing ministry of some sort is not God’s plan. If you want to become a cedar tree, you must plan on being used. It’s God’s plan for your life. Vow today to never be a horizontal tree again!
