Here’s the Tree

Psalm 1:3 | January 26, 2020

Have you ever had a Stromboli?

A Stromboli is kind of like a turnover made with Italian bread dough and filled with cheese and Italian meats.

The word “Stromboli” just sounds like some rich, fun word from the beginnings of the ancient Roman empire, right?

You can just hear Julius Caesar calling to his servant, “Giuseppe, have Domitzio make me a Stromboli for lunch.”

It sounds great – but that wouldn’t be accurate.

Stromboli was never an ancient food of Rome.

In fact, it seems the first time the word appeared as a food was in 1950 and it didn’t appear in Italy – it appeared in Philadelphia.

In the April 10, 1950, edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, there was a column of random sentences noting information about things in and around Philly.

The article was called “It’s Happening Here” and it was written by Frank Brookhouser and down in the middle of all of the random information was the following phrase:

Frank Brookhouser

…In South Philadelphia, the hogie sandwich is now called Stromboli…

That was it – no other commentary.

Perhaps Brookhouser overheard that word at Nat Romano’s pizzeria where a few months earlier in January Nat was experimenting and someone called his experiment Stromboli.

Romano’s pizzeria was in Essington in Delaware County just outside Philadelphia proper and that location was strategic to the reason for why any of us know what a Stromboli is.

Joseph Gambardello of The Philadelphia Inquirer puts it this way:

Joseph Gambardello

Thanks to visiting flight crews from nearby Philadelphia International Airport who stayed at a hotel in Essington or shared “crash pads” in the waterfront town, the Stromboli spread far beyond its Delco roots…

70 years later Romano’s Pizzeria is still going strong and it is estimated that they sell 25,000 to 30,000 Strombolis a year.

The family tree of Stromboli has grown some serious branches over the last 70 years – from a little pizza joint in Essington that now feeds at least 30,000 stomachs a year to the menus of countless restaurants all over the nation.

How did it do that?

Stromboli has good roots – good dough, good cheese, good meats – or to steal the popular slogan:

Better ingredients, better Stromboli!

What about you?

• What are your ingredients?
• What are you made of?
• What makes you tick?
• What makes you grow?
• What makes your life have meaning and purpose?

Or put another way:

What are your roots?

And why do your roots matter?

Let’s find out.

Listen to Psalm 1, verse 3:

3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Who is “he”?

In the previous sentence, the psalmist is describing one of the most defining characteristics of a person who is truly blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied and content.

What is that characteristic?

Psalm 1:2

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

So, if you delight in the truth of God that is contained in the Bible – if you read the Bible and think about what you read in the Bible and memorize and meditate and marinate on the truths found in the Bible you will position your heart and mind and soul to be blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied and content.

And the Psalmist adds another description:

If you delight in the Word of God, you will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.

So, here’s a question for your heart:

Are you a tree like that?

Are you firmly planted by streams of water?

Or to put it more practically:

• Are you reading the Bible?
• Are you engaged with the Bible?
• Are you memorizing portions of the Bible?
• Are you meditating and marinating on the truths of the Bible?

Someone might be thinking:

• “Great – that’s all I need!”
• “Some religious guilt trip about what I’m not doing.”
• “I’ve got a Bible, but it’s boring and hard to read.”
• “Besides, it’s not very relevant to my life or things in 2020.”  

Let me assure you, I have no desire to give you a guilt trip.

I am no different than any of you:

I don’t like when people give me a guilt trip about what I’m not doing or what I haven’t done or what they don’t like about what I am doing.

I don’t like hearing guilt trips and I don’t like giving guilt trips.

I try super hard to avoid giving them, but my kids and the church staff might tell you that I don’t try hard enough.

Here’s why I don’t like guilt trips – they are like law with no grace.

What does that mean?

John 1:17

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

How are the law of Moses and the grace of Jesus different?

James Boice

Under the law, God demands righteousness from His people; under grace, He gives it to people.

James Boice

Under the law, righteousness is based on Moses and good works; under grace, it is based on Christ and Christ’s character.

James Boice

Under law, blessings accompany obedience; under grace, God bestows his blessings as a free gift.

James Boice

The law is powerless to secure righteousness and life for a sinful race.

In other words:

You will never get to heaven by keeping the 10 commandments.

Why?

Because you can’t do it!

No matter how hard you may try, you will eventually break one.

But grace writes a different story!

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…

If you have been saved – if you have repented of your sin and turned to Jesus – then it is by grace you have been saved.

You have not been saved by law – because you cannot be saved by law.

You have been saved by grace because there is no other way to be saved.

It is by grace, by grace, by grace.

Now, what does that all of that law and grace have to do with a tree being planted by streams of water?

I was listening to a sermon this week and the pastor unfolded it something like this:

If you grew up in church or even just kind of around church over the last 80 years more than likely you have been trying to plant your tree by streams of law instead of by streams of grace.

What does that look like?

Well, if you are a senior adult, the events and the activities might have different names, but the principle is still the same and it goes something like this:

You go to camp and camp is great and the music is great and the games are great and the food is not so great but the speaker is super great and his messages every night are tugging on your heart like crazy and every night you keep thinking “I’m not doing right and I’m not living right and I need to change how I’m living.”

Why do you think that?

Because many of those messages were a little bit of grace mixed in with a lot of law.

So, what happens?

You get convicted and you cry and you go down to the front on the last night and you make some kind of decision and then you go home and the church announces your decision along with all the other young people and people clap and you go home and you are excited and you are reading your Bible and meditating and marinating on the truths of the Bible and things are super great and super good.

And then school starts, and you are back in gear with some friends who weren’t at camp and before long your Bible reading begins to slack off and before long you have lost those feelings for God you had at camp.

But don’t worry – the fall retreat is right around the corner!

And the retreat weekend is great and the music is great and the games are great and the food is a lot better and the speaker is great and you get recharged and you come away from the retreat and you start reading your Bible again and you start meditating and marinating again and things are super good.

But then the holidays kick in and you are way too busy to read your Bible and before long, you have lost those feelings you had for God at the retreat.

But don’t worry – Disciple Now is right around the corner!

And D-Now is great and the games are great and the food is great because you are staying at someone’s home and the house leader is great and their little sermonettes are great and you leave D-Now weekend and you are back in the game.

But then Spring Break hits and those feelings you had for God are fading.

But don’t worry – camp is right around the corner!

And we ride that roller coaster over and over again and then we go off to college and maybe we attend some Christian events from time to time but not a whole lot and we get out of college and we start working and we keep doing our thing because we are young and we want to have fun and then we have a kid and we start thinking that maybe we need to get them in church so we find a good church with a good children’s program and things are going great for about 5-10 years but then we get the lake house or we start travel ball or we just want to relax and have brunch.

And we get bitter at the church for expecting us to be there all the time because we just don’t want to abide by all of their laws when the reality is all we have done is create our own set of sports and hobbies and vacation laws that we are worshipping and obeying.

And all of this time what are we really doing?

We are deconstructing our souls away from grace.

How?

Because happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the man or woman or boy or girl that wakes up every morning and whispers to their souls again:

“By grace I have been saved – by grace I have been saved!”

And they grab their Bibles not because they have to but because they get to because they remember every morning that they were dead in their sins but now God has made them alive.

Before their coffee they percolate their mind with this reality:

“I once was lost, but now I’m found!”

A religious system that is defined by going from one event to the next or even from one Sunday to the next can stress your life out and create guilt and bitterness and frustration that can wear you slap out.

Now, does that mean camp and retreats and D-Now and Sunday church are bad things – not at all!

One of the only reasons I am your pastor is because of how God used those things in my life.

But those things need to be initiators and boosters and refreshers not definers of faith.

It sounds like this:

“Well, if we can just get them to go to camp or if we can just get them to go to the retreat or if we can just get them to go to church on Sunday I know something will happen.”

But here is what the word of God says:

Happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content and saved is the person who every day is like a tree planted by streams of water.

Why?

Because the streams of water are constantly feeding our souls.

Why did God design the Bible – His book – to be such a powerful, wonderful, fantastic rescuer and challenger and booster and sustainer to our souls?

I don’t know – but I am so, so, so thankful he did because I have found – as many of you have – that it truly is sweeter than honey and finer than gold.

But we don’t always believe that, do we.

Some days we live like Adam and Eve.

We find ourselves in a situation and we start thinking:

• Did God really say I couldn’t do this?
• Did God really say I couldn’t watch this?
• Did God really say I shouldn’t pay this?
• Did God really say I shouldn’t say this?

What we are doing is trying to convince ourselves that what we want to do and what we feel like doing or “our law” is okay, and God’s law doesn’t really apply to us.

That’s when things get really sad and messy.

Hayden Nesbit

After sin entered the world, Adam and Eve’s response to hearing God’s voice in the garden was to hide. The beauty of words – and the glory of hearing God speak – was twisted and marred.

Hayden Nesbit

We’re afraid of the Bible because of our sin. We live with guilt and shame over our shortcomings, and the one voice that can speak peace into our condemnation remains unopened and unheard. We run from our Bibles.

For the sake of Pete and the good of your own soul, don’t run from the Bible.

The story is told of an operation being performed.

The experienced surgeon asked a young intern, “Who is the most important person in this operating room?”

The intern didn’t feel like the surgeon was trying to arrogantly bring glory to himself, so he said, “I suppose that it would be these nurses who assist you in such an efficient manner.”

The surgeon shook his head and said, “No, the most important individual in this room is the patient.”

If you are a Christian, the most important individual resource in your life is the Bible.

If you are not a Christian, the most important individual resource in your life is the Bible.

If you are not a Christian, pick up a Bible and test that reality for yourself – plant yourself, so to speak, by streams of water.

Start with the book of John and see the signs that point to Jesus.

Or read the Psalms and discover how contagious it is to take your sorrows to the Living God and find hope.

What happens to a tree that is planted by water?

What happens to a person who learns to delight in God’s Word more than just once a day?

3 Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither;

In our area of the world we can usually get peaches off the trees from May to August and apples off the trees from August to November.

We know what it means to get fruit at different seasons of the year, but this says that the leaf does not whither.

My mind’s eye sees that more like riding by a Christmas Tree farm any time of the year – they always look like Christmas trees – their leaf does not whither.

But maybe a better picture here is that just because the peach tree doesn’t have peaches and the apple tree doesn’t have apples it doesn’t mean those trees are dead.

And the same is true for the person who reads and memorizes and meditates on and marinates on the Bible.

There will be times in life when it feels like we have no fruit or that our tree is withering, but if we are in Christ that can never be true.

Sara Hagerty is a wife and mom to six kiddos and she’s written two books – Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet and Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed.

She wrote an article a couple of years ago titled, “How to Survive a Spiritual Winter”.

She wrote:

Sara Hagerty

A tree doesn’t survive the winter without healthy roots. Neither do we.

That isn’t a catchy soundbite for Twitter – that is a truth she learned through extremely hard times.

I think the story of her hard times can help you today.

Help you either with some type of situation you might be facing right now or one of the many difficult situations in life that we will all face.

So, I want us to listen in on her story for a little bit.

She and her husband had moved into the basement of her mom and dad’s house.

Her dad had been diagnosed with a fast-moving brain cancer and they moved there to help.

Sara Hagerty

I couldn’t escape this season. I had entered into a spiritual winter.

Sara Hagerty

What I didn’t know then was that this was a holy winter. God was doing something underground that I couldn’t see.

Sara Hagerty

In our early thirties, our friends were taking active steps towards impacting the world for God:

Sara Hagerty

sharing the gospel with neighbors over shared meals, moving into impoverished parts of a city with their hammers and prayers, and starting foundations to release women from bondage.

Sara Hagerty

This, while I was cooking tomato soup and playing euchre in my parents’ kitchen, watching my once-strong daddy die. It all seemed so unfair.

Sara Hagerty

…in my prime, I was unable to alleviate the pain for the man who’d raised his little girl to believe that life had no limits. My offering was now a cup of soup.

Sara Hagerty

Yet it was in the dark basement of my parents’ home, listening to my dad restlessly putter upstairs through the dark night, that I started to see winter as holy.

Sara Hagerty

Psalm 1 talks about the man who meditates day and night on the Lord…This tree is disrobed in winter, but not dead. Motionless, with roots resting and waiting, it ever so slowly grows.

Sara Hagerty

The tree prospers in winter, fulfilling its God-intended purpose. Though, to the unknowing eye, it sure looks barren.

Sara Hagerty

We see a prospering life in God akin to the opulent tree in early spring, with leaves and fruit intertwined. We forget that this blooming comes forth because of the preparation that winter provides.

In other words, there are times of the year when the peach trees and the apple trees look dead and barren and useless, but they aren’t.

Sara Hagerty

That holy winter – when I felt hidden, unseen by friends who weren’t familiar with long hours of care-giving, passing my days without visible accomplishments and apparent fruit –

Sara Hagerty

I started to see that I could cultivate an unseen, private life in God. My roots were still alive…In the basement, underground seasons of my life, his word and his whisper became fresh to me.

Sara Hagerty

I wanted it, not so that I could teach it or share it or sermonize it, but because I was thirsty. So thirsty.

Sara Hagerty

During my daddy’s restless nights, I needed God to highlight a phrase from his word to sustain my little-girl heart. I wasn’t changing the world; I was changing my parent’s laundry. But through it, God was changing me.

Sara Hagerty

Meditating on God’s word – singing it, crying over the pages, taking my angry heart to his word for answers and asking for a surprise rush of his Spirit’s lifting – took on new meaning when I was winterized.

Sara Hagerty

In the winter, I fell in love.

And what does that love produce?

Listen to what the Psalmist says next about the person planted by streams of water:

3 And in whatever he does, he prospers.

There you have it, folks!

Read the Bible and you will make lots of money.

No, what the Psalmist is saying is this:

If your heart is right with God your soul will prosper.

Keith Getty/Stuart Townend

No guilt in life,

no fear in death

This is the pow'r

of Christ in me

Keith Getty/Stuart Townend

From life's first cry

to final breath

Jesus commands

my destiny

Keith Getty/Stuart Townend

No pow'r of hell,

no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me

from His hand

Keith Getty/Stuart Townend

'Til He returns

or calls me home

Here in the pow'r

of Christ I'll stand

Sara Hagerty had a verse from the Bible that she wrote on a notecard and kept propped up behind the kitchen sink:

 

Isaiah 45:3

I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.

Sara Hagerty

Now…I see that it all proved true. He cultivated my roots in winter and gave me treasures that are still producing fruit within me. And it wouldn’t have happened without my winters.

The words of the psalmist:

Psalm 1:3

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Message by Dow Welsh |

January 26, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-survive-a-spiritual-winter

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Bitter-Thing-Sweet-Goodness/dp/1491547901?tag=desigod06-20

https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Being-Hidden-World-Noticed/dp/0310339979?tag=desigod06-20

 

So have you ever had any Stromboli already? Stromboli is kind of like a little, uh, turnover. It's made out of Italian bread dough and it's got cheese and meat in it. Great word. Stromboli. The words just sounds like some fantastic word from ancient Rome. Right? You can just hear Julius Caesar calls little servant over just after Meet CEO. Make me a stromboli for lunch today. It's just a word that kind of rolls off the lips, but that would be historically inaccurate because of Stromboli is not a food from ancient Rome. The first time that we see the word Stromboli is not in Italy. And it wasn't until 1950 and it was in Philadelphia, of all places, April 10th 1950 in The Philadelphia Inquirer. There was a column of of Random Senate's, his random phrases just kind of describing some things that were happening in and around the Philly area. The name of the column was called It's Happening Here. It was written by Frank Brooke Hauser, and down in the middle of his little paragraph of things happening in and around Philly was this phrase in South Philadelphia. The hoagie sandwiches now called Stromboli. Is it No other commentary. Just this this little random sentence. Now it is possible that a few months earlier that Frank Brick Hauser could have been in Nat Romanos pizzeria because that was over there trying to experiment with some food. And and he came up with this new experiment and somebody came in. Is that how you got a call? That thing? Stromboli. And so they did. Romanos Pizzeria was An S Sington and Delaware County, just outside of Philadelphia proper. And the Onley reason that we know what Stromboli is is because of where that place was located. One journalist of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Joseph Game Bordello, puts it this way. Thanks to visiting flight crews from nearby Philadelphia International Airport who stayed at a hotel in S Sington or shared crash pads in the waterfront town, the Stromboli spread far beyond its Delko Delaware County roots. This is cool. I know this to be true because our own Rick, right when he is out flying places, he's telling me and texted me where he is eaten and I've been to some of those places Easy pilots, nowhere to eat. It's a good thing I like it and I keep up. And so these pilots airport was just down the road from Romanos, and so they would go. They get the strong bowlers, and then they started telling everybody about the strong boys. 70 years later, Mona's Pizzeria is still going strong. It is estimated that they sell between 25,000 and 30,000 strong bullies a year. That is a lot of strong boats, so it's over. This time, the Stromboli has has put out some pretty significant branches out into the world. It's gone from just one pizzeria outside of Philly to feeding 25 to 30,000 people a year. And beyond that, the Stromboli is on all kinds of menus, of all kind of restaurants all over the country and maybe even beyond. Now, how in the world did the Stromboli do all that? Well, it's because the Stromboli has good roots. It's got good bread. It's got good Jesus. It's got good meat. Or, as one slogan that I would still could say better ingredients better. Stromboli, right? The Stromboli had had roots, and so it has grown. It has made its presence all over our country. What about you. What are your ingredients? What? What are you made off? What makes you tick? What? What gives your life meaning and purpose. Or, put another way. What are your roots? What do your roots and why do your roots matter? Why does it matter what kind of roots you have? Let's see if we can find out someone. Verse three. Osama says this. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. So who is he? Does he will be like a tree. So who is this heat? Well, the he is describing the type of man or woman who is happy, blessed, fortunate, satisfied and content. You know there's things that none of us really won't in our lives. But that's the description that he's given. So what kind of person is happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content? He just told us in the previous verse, Listen to adverse to. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. So if you delight in the truth of God has found in the Bible, if you delight in that, if you read the Bible, and you think about the Bible if you meditate on the things you read in the Bible, if you marinate on the things that you read in the Bible, if you memorize the things that you read in the Bible, you are positioning your life to be happy and blessed and fortunate and content and satisfied. And then Islamist takes it just a step more, and he gives a little more description, he says. You would be like a tree planted by streams of water. So here's a question for your heart. Are you a tree like that? Are you a tree like that? Are you planted by streams of water? Maybe you put more practically, or you're reading the Bible. Do you engage with the Bible? Do you memorize portions of the Bible? Do you meditate and and marinate on? The Bible is a Bible part of your life. You might be thinking great. I came to church and that's all I need is a guilt trip about reading my Bob. Yeah, I got a Bible. I try to read it, but you know it's hard and it's just kind of boring, and I can't binge watch it So you know, it's just it's just not a thing I could get into. And truthfully, I mean, I got things happening in my life right now that I don't know how that old book is really going to help me. It's 2020. How? How can the Bible really help? Well, I can promise you one thing I don't want to do is give you a guilt trip. No, I'm unlike any of you. I highly dislike guilt trips I don't like to be told are being given a guilt trip for what I'm not doing or what I should be doing or what I'm doing that you don't like. You know, I don't like this guilt trips. And you know what? Neither do you. We don't like guilt trips. I try really hard not to give guilt trips Now my kids and the church staff, they may say, I'm not trying hard enough. I don't know, but But you know, I don't like him. And here's why. Guilt trips are a lot of law and very little grace. What does that mean? John, Chapter one, Verse 17 says this for the law was given through Moses gration. Truth were realized through Jesus Christ, Show the law of Moses and have the grace and truth of Jesus. How are those things? Different. James Boys put it this way. Under the law, God demands righteousness from his people under grace. He gives it to people under the law. Righteousness is based on Moses and good works under grace. It is based on Christ and Christ. Character under law, blessings, a company, obedience under grace. God bastos his blessings as a free gift. And he says this. The law is powerless to secure righteousness and life for a sinful race Numbers. The human race cannot be saved by law, but you cannot be saved by keeping the 10 Commandments. You can't. You know why? Because you can't keep them, no matter how hard you try. Eventually you're going to break one. You see, Grace has this completely different story. Listen to it is Paul told the folks deficits visions to four and five. But God being rich and mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ bike race. You have been saved. If you are a Christian if you have been saved, If you've turned from your sin, you've turned to Jesus. You did that by grace. You didn't do it by law because law cannot save you. Law can never save. If you are safe, you are saved on Lee. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved by grace because there is no other way to be saved except by grace By grace. Bye, Grace. Onley by grace. Now, what is all of this long grace have to do with a tree being planted by streams of water? Well, I was listen to a sermon this past week, and and one pastor kind of unfolded it in a similar way to how I'm going to share it now. If you grew up in church over the last 80 years, then more than likely you have been trying to plant your tree by streams of law instead of streams of grace, streams of law instead of streams of grace. What does that mean? What is that about? Well, if you're senior adult, the names of the events and activities may be different, but the principles that I'm about to share are exactly the same. And it goes something like this. So you go to camp and cant is great and the music is great and the games are great and the food is not so great. But the speaker is super great and his messages every night or just tugging on your heart and you begin to think that I'm not living right. I'm I'm not doing right. There needs to be a change and so on that last night you you go forward and you make a decision and you come home from camp and that this decision is announced to the church and church collapse and you're excited. And then you start reading your bible and you start digging in and you are full gear for God and then school starts and you're back around Some of those friends that were not at camp and this new schedule of life gets you out of gear. And you kind of quit reading your bible like you were during the summer and your love for God. It begins to fade pretty fast. But don't don't worry. Don't worry. Because the fall retreat is right around the corner in the fall or treated scraped. The music's great. The games are great that the speakers great the food a little better. You know, it's fantastic this great retreat weekend and you get close to God again and and you leave and that retreat is fed you and you're fired up and you're ready to go and you get back home and you're right back in the game. And then the holidays come and you're just too busy to read the Bible. You're just too busy with somebody. You're too busy sometimes even make it to church And that love for guy that that fire you had forgot it. It begins to fade, but But it's okay. Don't worry. Disciple now is right around the corner. D now is great. And Amanda, the food is great cause you're staying in somebody's home. It's fantastic and and and the people are grading your leader. Your house leader is fantastic and they have things great message in. And you're really listening to those little sermon. It's all weekend long and and pull. You are fired up and you're back in the game. You can't wait. Then you leave me now and you're ready to go. And then spring break. It's and you know you're not at school and you go out of town with your friends and then all of a sudden, just in one week's time, you're at a gear again and that love for the Bible that love for God's word. It begins to fade. But don't worry, can't his right around the corner. And we do this over and over and over again. We stay on that roller coaster, we ride it and we ride it and we ride it and then we go off to college and maybe we go to a few Christian events here or there. But But maybe we don't And then we get out of college and and, you know, we get married and we're still young and and when we do our own thing because it's just we want to have fun, you know? We don't want to live, you know, by all the rules of the church, we're going to do our own thing, and then you have a kid, and it's like, Ah, you know what? Maybe maybe we should get a church. Let's go find it. You find a good church with a good Children's program and everything's fantastic for 567 or eight years. And then you know, you get the vacation house with Lake or at the beach or in the mountains and then travel ball starts and sometimes you just want to stay at home and just relax and have brunch. And then we get bitter at the church for expecting us to always be there. I have to be a being church to be a Christian, and we get bitter at all the expectations that are supposed to go along with what it means to be a Christian. And we don't like the laws of the church. We don't We don't like that the church expects us to be involved in, to be apart or or to tie their or to do anything. We just don't like all those laws. But what we're actually doing is we created a whole new set of laws the laws of sports, the laws of hobbies, the laws of brunch, the laws of leisure, the laws of vacation and we worship those loans and we reject the laws of God because they just don't apply and they just don't matter in my life today and you know what we're really doing? All that time we are deconstructing our souls away from grace, that the thing that are so longs for the most that grace we're deconstructing our life away from grace. How do we do that? Because here's the thing. Happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied. And content is the man or the woman or the boy or girl that wakes up every morning and whispers to their soul again. By grace, I have been saved by grace. I have been saved, happy and content, and fortunate and satisfied is the man or woman or the boy and girl that that wakes up every morning and they get their Bible and they plugged their life into a local church not because they have to, but because they get to because they wake up in the morning every day. And remember, I was dead in my sins. But God made me alive. And before they even get their coffee there, their minds are percolating with these words. I once was lost, but now I'm found a religious system that is defined by going from one event to the next, or even from one Sunday to the next is a system that by design, will create stress and aggravation and bitterness and frustration that will wear your soul. Slap out? No. Does that mean camps and retreats? Indian? Our bad new part of the reason that I'm your pastor is because of how God reached my life there can't and how you reached my life through disciple Now through how you reached my life through fall retreats and enter Sunday to Sunday. Those things aren't bad, but those things are not designed to be the Onley definitions of our faith. They're really designed to be boosters or initiators or refreshers of our faith. See, every one of those things that I ever went to was boosting me toward the Lord boosted me toward the next day of of wanting to follow the Lord. I wasn't hanging my whole life just on those moments. They were part of the picture of what God was doing. But those things need to be initiators and boosters, because otherwise we will set ourselves up for failure. It usually sound. Here's how we say if we could just get him to come on Sunday morning, if we could just get him to come to camp If we could just get him to come to the retreat, if we could just get him to come to disciple now that I know something will happen. But here's what the word of God says. Blessed and happy and content and satisfied is the man or woman or the board of the girl that every day their life is planted by streams of water. In other words, what we most want to do is not trained anyone to desperately need Sunday morning or to desperately need camp. We want them to desperately need this beautiful, mighty powerful God that we call the great I am. We want to help people delight in the Lord and that he would be where they're lifeless planet. Why has God designed the Bible? His book? To be the most powerful way to rescue and reach and challenge and encourage and comfort and sustain people I don't know. I don't know that I know why God did it that way, but I know he did. And I'm so glad he did. Because like many of you, I have learned in my life that his truth, his word it is sweeter than honey. It is finer, the gold. But we don't always believe that, do you? Some days we got a little Adam and even its right. Some days we're not really convinced of truth. And we start thinking, How did God really say I couldn't do this? That God really say I couldn't go there or watch this, that God really say that I shouldn't pay this or say this mean that God really say that What we're doing is we're trying to convince ourselves that what we want to do and our feelings, our law is okay and God's laws not necessary and listen. That's when things get sad and messy. Hate Nesbitt works with campus outreach in Lexington, Kentucky. He said this After Sin entered the world, Adam and Eve's response to hearing God's voice in the Garden was to hide the beauty of words and the glory of hearing God speak was twisted. And Martin such a sad picture like that. The beauty of being in communication and conversation with God after Sam was, you know, I want to stay away from God, he goes on. We're afraid of the Bible because of our sin. We live with guilt and shame over our shortcomings. And the one voice that can speak peace into our condemnation remains unopened and unheard. We run from our Bibles for the sake of Pete. Don't run from your body for the sake of your own soul, for the sake of your your family and your friends, for the sake of your fellow church members. And lost people in this community and in the world don't run from your Bible stories. Told of a operation that was occurring in the experience surgeon, he turned to one of the medical interns and he said, Who is the most important person in the operating room? The intern kind of looked at him and look call off guard. He's thinking, Well, I mean he is, but I don't think he wants me to say that. So he kind of scoured the room and decided to play it safe. He said, The nurses that help you, you know, with all of the surgery certain, shook his head and he said, No. The most important person in the operation room is the patient. When your patient and the most important individual resource in your life is the Bible. If you're a Christian, the most important individual resource in your life is the Bible. If you're not a Christian, the most important individual resource in your life is the Bible testes on that. You know, if you don't have a Bible, feel free to take one from here today, or come find me after we will get you one. Just just testes on that in some way. Plant yourself by the streams of God's truth and just see if you don't discover the reality of God's book in your life. If you're not a Christian, you decide to read the Bible. Start the Book of John. You can look and see all these different signs that reporting to Jesus If you're not a Christian, you decide to start reading the Bible than read through the Psalms and discover how contagious it is to take your sorrow to the one true living God and find hope so psalmist it over and over and over again. So what happens when the tree is planted by water? What what happens when a person begins to delight themselves in the truth of God's word? That's what Mama says. He goes on to say, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not with her and I hear the world, we we know that we can get peaches off peach trees from made August from apple trees when get apples from August to November somewhere. And we, well, you understand what it means to get fruit off of trees in their season. But notice it says here in its leaf does not wither. My fault was like riding by Christmas Tree Farm, right? You ride by Christmas Tree Farm any time of the year. They always look like Christmas trees, you know, I mean it always. There's always a little lethal in there. It looks like a Christmas tree there. Leaf doesn't wither, so to speak. But maybe a better way to understand this, is, is if you're riding through different parts of our state, not our from here, or maybe in parts of Georgia and up in Nashville area Henderson, Miller and you and you ride by these these peach farms you ride by these apple trees and there's no fruit on them. Do not assume that those trees air dead because they're not, and the same is true for a person who was planting their life by the truth of God's word. See, sometimes you're going to feel like there's no fruit in your life, and sometimes you're going to feel like, spiritually, you are just withering away. But if you are in Christ, that is impossible. It's impossible. Sarah Haggerty is a wife and mom to six kiddos. She's written two books. I Love the titles of her books. The 1st 1 is this. Every bitter Thing is Sweet. Her second book is called Unseen. The Gift of Being hidden in a world that loves to be noticed. I haven't read either one, but I think I want to. She ran article a couple of years ago. The title of the article was How they're Survive a Spiritual Winter. It's winter as much as winter can be in Colombia. It's winter right now, and some of you maybe are in a winter time of life, your heart, your mind and your solar or living in a bit of ah, winter. This is what she wrote. A tree doesn't survive the winter without healthy roots. Neither do we. That's not just a catchy sound bite she put out on Twitter. It's something that she learned from extremely difficult moments in life. Now I think her life can help you this morning help you with the situation you're in right now or help you with one of the difficulties that all of us will face in life. And so we're going to step into Sarah's story just just for a few moments and and listen in tow how she can help us and her husband had moved to her parent's house in Ohio. They were living in the basement. Her father had developed a a brain disease. It was rapidly moving and and he didn't have too long to live. And so they went to help out. And this is what she writes. I couldn't escape. This season, I had entered into a spiritual winter. What I didn't know then was that this was, Ah, Holy winter. God was doing something underground that I couldn't see in our early thirties are friends were taking active steps towards impacting the world for God, sharing the gospel with neighbors over shared meals, moving into impoverished parts of a city with their hammers and their prayers, and starting foundations to release women from bondage their friends were doing some major things, and she said this this while I was cooking tomato soup and playing. I think it's you CRA. I never played it. So if I'm saying it wrong Sorry. Playing Ukra in my parent's kitchen, watching my once strong daddy die. It all seemed so unfair in my prime. I was unable to alleviate the pain for the man who'd raised his little girl to believe that life had new limits. My offering was now a cup of soup, yet it was in the dark basement of my parent's home, listening to my dad restlessly putter upstairs through the dark night that I started to see Winter as holy, she says this someone talks about the man who meditates day and night on the Lord. This tree is disrobed in winter, the tree of the man who is meditating, who's planted himself that that tree. It's disrobed in winter, but it's not dead. Motionless with roots resting and waiting, it ever so slowly grows, the tree prospers and winter, fulfilling its God intended purpose, though to the unknowing I, it sure looks barren. We see a prospering in life and God akin to the opulent tree in early spring, with leaves and fruit intertwined, we forget that this blooming comes forth because of the preparation that winner provides again. Just because you don't see the apples on the tree doesn't mean that tree is dead. She goes on that holy winter, when I felt hidden unseen by friends who weren't familiar with long hours of caregiving, passing my days without visible accomplishments and apparent fruit by there this morning, I started to see that I could cultivate an unseen private life and God, my roots were still alive in the basement underground seasons of my life, God's word, and his whisper became fresh to me. I wanted it not so that I could teach it or share it or sermonize it, but because I was thirsty, so thirsty during my daddy's restless nights, I needed God to highlight a phrase from his word to sustain my little girl heart. I wasn't changing the world. I was changing my parents laundry, but through it, God was changing, May meditating on God's word, singing it, crying over the pages, taking my angry heart to his word for answers and asking for a surprise rush of his spirits lifting took all new meaning when I was winterized. And then she says this in the winter. I fell in love In the winter. She fell deeper in love with God. She didn't decide to quit going to church. She didn't check out on her Bible because there was difficulty all the Maur like the psalmist. She took her sorrow and she ran to God. She ran to him. What is that? Love and God produce. Listen to the last thing the psalmist says here and in whatever he does, he prospers. They had folks. If you will read your Bible, you'll get rich. You get lots of money. That's what that means. No, it's not what it means at all that this is what it means. Don't miss the simplicity of this. For your soul, to prosper means that your soul is right with God. And if your soul is right with God, it does not matter what else happens in the world for your sold. Sure, it matters. We have to deal with it. We have to go to the hospital. We have to go to work. We have to deal with a difficult spouse or rebellious child. We have to care for those aging parents. We have to sort through the chaos that happens in our government. But when it comes to our soul, our soul is safe. It is always prospering because it is in Christ. But that's prospering. Whatever notion you have of prospering that's outside of that will create stress in your life. If you're on Lee, concept of prospering is making sure that you get a good education and a good job. With good benefits and a good retirement, you will get stressed out. I'm confessing for all of us there. But if your definition of prospering is my soul is right with the living God, then, my friend, in all seriousness, you will have what you need most in this world. I'm so thankful for Keith. Get Ian Stewart town and we sing this often. I think the I think is the fourth or third verse of this. Him, to me says beautiful reality about what it means to prosper. This is what song says no guilt in life. Okay, No fear and death. This is the power of Christ in me. This is This is why I prosper from lives first cry to final breath. Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell. No scheme of man can ever plucked me from his hand until he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ, I'll stand that is prospering. That is what it means to prosper, that on any given moment, no matter what you read on social media, no matter what email you get, no matter what your spouse or your child or your boss or anyone else says to you, you can stand on the sidewalk, you can stand in the kitchen, you can stand on the campus and you can say, no Power of hell can pluck me from God that is prospering. That's what it means to prosper with Wiseman and the wives woman. They take God's word and they go plant themselves by that stream, and they say, God bless me with this truth because my life is hard and I need to know that something is prospering. Sierra Road on Little card, A little note card, a Bible verse, and she stuck it on the kitchen sink. It stayed there before her dad died, and long after her dad died. it was the verse that she used the most. It's Isaiah 45 3 She had it written from the King James New King James version. So I'm going to read it from there. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that I, the Lord who call you by your name and the God of Israel in the winter, in the basement underground I will keep telling you, I am your God. This is what she says Now I see. That all proved true. He cultivated my roots and winter and gave me treasures that are still producing fruit within me. And it wouldn't have happened without my winters. It wouldn't happen without the basement. It wouldn't have happened, except for that time that felt like everything was falling apart. That, my friend, that is what gods were can do for your heart. I can't do it. Your Sunday school teacher can't do it. Deacon's can't do it. Your parents, your grandparents, nobody can do it. But nobody can do anything for you Like what God's word can do for your heart. It's the most important individual resource in your life, don't run from it, but rather be like the man who is full of delight and blessing and happiness and plant your life by the streams of God's living water. Because on Lee there can you discover that your heart is prospering and because your heart is in Christ, you will prosper forever.