UNCOMMON Series: Uncommon Trees

Uncommon Trees: Fat, Green and Sappy

Mark 8:22-24: 22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” NIV

Ps 92:12-15. 12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the Lord,

they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” NIV

GET SAPPY

Introduction:  I’ve mentioned before that as a family growing up, we always had a small garden…about an acre or so…One year, I helped my grandfather build a hot house…he was tired of buying little tomato plants to plant in our garden so he felt he could grow his own from seed.  And we did…it was so cool to see that work…but every few says we’d have to go into he hot-house and pick weeds…I was so surprised…I asked my grandfather…where in the world did the weeds come from…he told me…the soil…the soil has weeds in it…and in this hot-house environment you have to be more diligent in weeding the beds…

  • The House of God is a Hot-House…Your life is a Hot-house…but make no mistake…there are some weed seed in here and in you and me…
    • We have to tend to the Hot-house…because it is going to grow…and worse…left unattended to…it will produce fruit.
    • If mediocrity is planted, mediocrity will grow.
    • If complacency is planted, complacency will grow.
    • If rejection is planted, rejection will grow.
    • But if faith is planted, baby faith will grow…
    • If love and acceptance is planted…it will grow.
    • If you and I are planted in God’s House…
      • We will be Green.
      • We will flourish.
      • We will be Sappy…
  1. Seed
    1. Everything in God’s House Begins as Seed
      1. Now here is the deal…”I can count how many seeds are in an orange, but I cannot count how many oranges are in a Seed.”
      2. If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed…SPREAD OUT SOME MUSTARD SEEDS
        1. That will eventually grow into a tree big enough for a bird to build a nest. Luke 17:6
  • Just like Faith is a seed there are other seeds in this house…right now…
    1. This message for someone is a seed of salvation.
    2. Others the testimony I have shared so far…is a seed of faith.
    3. Love is a seed.
    4. Hope is a seed.
    5. Joy is a seed.
    6. Doubt is a seed.
    7. Fear is a seed.
    8. Your offering of Tithe and KB was seed this morning…
    9. Your Worship was Seed to Your Breakthrough
  1. Thoughts

2 Cor 10:3-5 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. NIV

  1. The most powerful seed that is planted in the Life of a Person…is a Thought!
  2. *Stronghold: In Freedom Ministry, a stronghold is a fortified way of thinking that prevents us from seeing or understanding God’s truth. It is usually constructed through trauma or pain as a defense mechanism and is created when we rely on any source other than God.
  3. *Arguments: The KJV uses the word ‘imaginations’ and it has to do with our human reasoning, apart from spiritual understanding. It’s what happens when we feel forced to come to our own conclusion on a matter without all the information. It’s similar to what happens in a court of law when all they have is circumstantial evidence. A jury is forced to come to a conclusion without having the full picture or all the facts. Another translation uses the word ‘speculations’, which is a really good way to define this, because a jury has to speculate in order to reach a conclusion. Sometimes an argument may involve a degree of truth, but it is absent of divine revelation.
  4. *High thoughts: The Greek here means—an elevated place or thing, but it also means ‘barrier’. So it pretty much relates to the thoughts that originate from the sinful nature believing we don’t need God. The NLT does a great job of describing high thoughts—it says, “We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.” A high thought is an obstacle rooted in pride that acts as a barrier to knowing God.
  5. *Thoughts: The Greek word means—perception and has to do with the intellect. I think this describes the carnal way of thinking in general. It’s kind of like the ‘operating system’ already built into our minds that then processes the information we receive. Before we come to God we are in rebellion, so every thought we have is contrary to God’s word. The rest of the passage says, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” So it’s capturing every rebellious way of thinking and making it bow to or surrender to Christ. Again, the NLT is great: “We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.”
  • Type of Thoughts
    1. Perceptions – to perceive
      1. Thoughts that are not true, but we perceive them to be true
      2. Example: Whether so in so likes me…
  • Perceiving God is angry and mad at you…
  1. When Perceptions stay in the thought stage…it destroys you, it tears away at faith, it builds walls between people…but the problem is…our thoughts are like seeds…so they may be dormant for a while…but sooner or later they will spring up.
  1. Offenses
    1. Stumbling block, occasion for unbelief
    2. Wounded feelings, chip on your shoulder
  • Hurt people, hurt people and are easily hurt.
  1. Hebrews 12:15 challenges us to deal with this…”Lest any root of bitterness spring up causing trouble, and by this many become defiled.”
  2. According to Jeremiah 2:21 “offenses produce an alien vine and alien fruit…” in other words our lives are producing things it was never intended to produce.
  1. Feelings
    1. Hurts
    2. Discouragement
  • Mediocrity
  1. Rejection
  2. Example: Our feelings are like glasses, if they are the right prescription they can bring clarity, but if they are not the proper prescription…my feelings will blur the whole picture of situations, people, God and Life.
  1. Temptations
    1. There are tons of temptations…but they are begin with a thought!
    2. We are tempted to quit.
      1. Quit the relationship.
      2. Quit the marriage!
      3. Quit on Jesus
      4. Quit the Church
  • Tempted to Start some destructive habit…and then after a while wonder…how did I get here…it was a thought unchecked.

Transition:  All temptation starts as a thought, then develops into something we focus on a high thought, then we can argue about it…defending it….then a stronghold has developed producing poison ivy.

  1. Trees
    1. Enough of That…let’s get to the good stuff and then wrap up…

Ps 92:12-15 12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” NIV

  1. Five Blessings of The Righteous in Psalm 92
  2. They shall flourish like a palm tree (Ps 92:12).
    1. In barren soil it is watered deep at the roots.
    2. The fruit of the palm provides a great part of the diet of the East.
    3. the leaves are made into baskets;
    4. the strong leaves (6 to 8 feet long) are used to make fences;
    5. the juice makes a tasty drink
    6. the threads of the leaves make ropes
    7. and the wood makes building material or firewood.
  3. IF God is comparing us to this…no wonder Romans would say, “He is making all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are the called according to His Purpose.”

  1. Tell Three People: God won’t waste it.

  1. They shall grow like the cedars of Lebanon, which live an extremely long time. Some are supposed to be 1,000 years old. They grow 80 to 100 feet tall and are 40 feet around the trunk.
  • They express the ideas of majesty, durability, incorruptibility, and stability.
  • That is what the Psalmist is declaring our lives should be…
  1. They shall flourish in the courts of God (Ps 92:13).
  2. They will still bring forth fruit in old age (Ps 92:14).
  3. They shall be fat and flourishing.
  4. Blind Man
    1. I read to you scripture about a Blind man in Mark 8…and this man, after Jesus prayed for him, saw men as trees…
      1. the backdrop of this story is comical in my opinion…
      2. Jesus had recently fed 5,000 men+ with 5 loaves and 2 fish…he had just finished feeding 4,000 men+ with 7 loaves…and the Pharasees say, “Show us a sign…” dear gravy.
    2. Jesus says to his disciples “do you not have ears to hear, or eyes to see…do you guys on understand…”
    3. Immediately, they get to shore and this man comes up to them…
    4. Blind…and Jesus prays for him…and He sees men as Trees…
      1. And theologians and would be scholars have taught some interesting stuff from this text…
      2. Even some saying…this proves Jesus’ humanity and has to pray more than once…
  • But I’d present that Jesus, did exactly what he wanted to do…and orchestrated the conversation precisely how He wanted…
  1. The man saw people as living, moving, walking about Trees….
    1. Flourishing
    2. Full of Sap
    3. Green
    4. Producing Fruit…
    5. I would submit to you that if our spiritual eyes were truly opened…
      1. We would see people…as trees producing or the lack there of…
      2. Knowing that no Man can live knowing the true fruitfulness of another person’s life…Jesus prayed again and he saw people like everyone else sees people…
    6. Closing
      1. See it isn’t how we see others that matter…how are you seeing yourself…are you a planted tree…in everything in your life producing some useable for the Kingdom of God…
      2. Maybe you have some thoughts that need to be dealt with….
      3. Could it be we need to do some weeding in our lives…

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