Series: Prayers in Psalms-A Prayer for Growth

A Prayer for Growth

Psalm 92 (KJV)

A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.

1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, And to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, And thy faithfulness every night,

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; Upon the harp with a solemn sound.

4 For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

5 O Lord, how great are thy works! And thy thoughts are very deep.

6 A brutish man knoweth not; Neither doth a fool understand this.

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; It is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

8 But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.

9 For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, For, lo, thine enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

11 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

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;

15 To shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Today, we're going to talk about something that is just really important for us as individuals, especially in being a part of this church.

Collectively, we have this mission to seek the lost, to disciple the found, to make room for God in others, and to meet me, to meet needs.

But then there's also some individual steps that we need to take and some things that we need to make sure that we're intentional about.

And that's what we're going to talk about this morning, kind of on a personal level.

Psalm 92:12–14 (CSB)

12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.

13 Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green,

Some really great promises within this text.

We're going to talk about how that we can see those promises made manifest in our life.

When you look at the Bible you will find that there are some types and shadows that begin to point to the fact that God has no problem identifying as a gardener.

For instance, when you look at the Garden of Eden, it is in a garden that God shows up to walk with his creation.

Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, when a man ultimately makes a mistake and is exiled because of sin from the garden.

Eventually there becomes a moment of wilderness wandering as they're trying to make their way into this promised land that God has given them.

And there there is a tabernacle of Moses that becomes established as the place where God would commune with humanity.

Interestingly, it was made out of badger skin.

It was a series of curtains.

The inside of those curtains were or were adorned with a garden like images, flowers and trees.

Some time would pass, and ultimately the Hebrew people would make it into their promised land.

The nation of Israel, the land of Israel.

They would establish a temple there.

Probably the most prominent temple in all of scripture is Solomon's Temple.

They say that by today's standards it would cost somewhere around $1,000,000,000 to build, and yet on the inside it was adorned with flowers and trees.

This garden like imagery, even when you come into the New Testament and Jesus begins to teach and preach about His heavenly Father, one of the most profound parables is John 15.

In fact, theologians have written numerous books just on that one chapter, and it is the chapter that reveals the Heavenly Father as a vine dresser in a vineyard attempting to create fruit through the branches which are us connected to the vine, which is the Son Jesus.

Even Jesus, in another parable talks about the fact that our heart is like soil and his word is like seed, and that we must properly cultivate that soil and protect that soil in order for it to produce a harvest.

When you go into the Pauline epistles and the Apostle Paul starts talking about the church and how that it will be established on earth, he says some will plant, others will water, and yet God will give the increase again.

The theme of gardening.

You look at Galatians Chapter five, Paul talks about the Holy Spirit and what God wants to do in the life of a believer through the Holy Spirit.

And He said, God wants to bring fruit of the Holy Spirit into the life of a believer.

And so again and again, this typology occurs to the point, even when you get to the end time, it is likened unto a harvest of souls.

So God has no problem identifying as a spiritual gardener.

And so then what we have to do is we have to make sure that we are allow allowing him to have his way in the garden of our life.

We need to make sure that we're allowing him to plant the right seeds and pull the wrong weeds.

So when you look at the Book of Psalms and you see David's spin on this whole thing, the way that he says it is Psalm 92:13 is that we are planted in the House of the Lord.

He says, we will flourish in the courts of our God, planted in the House of the Lord.

Now, I assume I'm talking to a lot of people this morning that would like to flourish.

I feel like I am talking to some folks this morning that would like to live a of significance.

I feel like I may be talking to some folks that that would want to attain levels of spiritual success.

Is there anyone here this morning that wants to be someone that flourishes.

Do you want to be people that lives life more abundantly, above all that you could ask or think according to the power that God deposits into you?

Let me say this, we should want to flourish.

That's something that we long for.

It's something that we desire, something that hopefully we're exercising faith towards.

But but what this passage points out is that there's something that we must be intentional about before we experience flourishing.

What it says is you must be planted in the House of the Lord in order to flourish in the courts of the Lord.

So if you're going to experience flourishing, you must first choose to be planted.

It’s time we get planted!

You know, when you look at that Hebrew word for planted, what it actually implies is that something that is picked up from one place and then securely placed in another place.

It would seem to imply that we are picked up out of the world and then we are planted in the thing that God has for us so that we can begin the process of moving towards flourishing.

When you think about something being planted, what it means is that once it is firmly established, once it is firmly planted, it's not moving around anymore.

It's not being drug from here to there, and it's not you're going to put it here one day and you're going to put it there the next day is saying like it's going to dwell there.

Something you need to understand is that God affirms dwelling throughout the entirety of the Bible, in fact, not Psalm 91 says, if you will just choose to dwell in the presence of God, you will abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

A thousand will fall by our side and 10,000 will fall at our right hand and we will still be standing because you chose to dwell in God.

And so what I've noticed about our society and our culture is that we're not very good at dwelling.

We're not very good at staying planted.

It seems like we just very easily move or are just pulled out of one relationship and thrown into another, pulled out of one career path and thrown into another, pulled out of one church experience and kind of thrown into another.

What happens is we're not intentional about the benefits that come with choosing to be planted.

Now, what happens is when something gets planted, it starts to take root.

It takes root.

Tell somebody to take root.

When we start thinking about taking root, I need to ask you a question.

Do you want to be a bonsai tree or do you want to be a redwood tree?

Now, maybe you're familiar with those; maybe you're not.

A bonsai tree is an extremely small tree.

We know that a redwood tree can grow to be up to 300 feet tall.

Now, the difference in those trees is directly connected to what happens with the root systems.

For instance, the way that a bonsai tree is treated is that it will start out in the open and then someone will come and they will pluck it out.

Then they will cut the taproot.

They'll then place it in an extremely small pot.

What happens is, not only has the root system been affected by this cutting of the taproot, but now because it's not allowed any depth, it's only allowed a shallow, superficial experience, its roots keep it from growing tall and strong.

What happens is this tree that if it were just left alone to stay planted and take root, it would grow to be several feet tall.

But because of what happens to it in its infancy, it actually sometimes is no more than an inch tall and can maybe get to be 24 inches tall.

What could grow to be several feet, winds of only being a few inches because of what happens to its root system.

You need to understand something, the enemy does not want you to take root. He wants to keep you in a shallow experience that limits your ability to grow into everything that God wants you to be.

So you can choose to be a bonsai or you can choose to be the example of a redwood tree.

The redwood trees, I've already mentioned can grow to be 300 feet tall.

They're actually pictures of redwood trees that are still growing, that have had the centers carved out of them, that cars and SUVs, can drive through their massive trees.

These are forests of redwood trees and that's actually what allows the singular tree to grow to that level.

It's not just that the redwood tree takes its root system downward, as that would be to be expected; that would be something that we would anticipate.

If you're going to grow tall, you must also have roots that go down deep.

The real secret to the redwood being able to withstand the storms and the wind.

The real secrete to the redwood being able to grow for hundreds of years and hundreds of feet tall, is the fact it is part of a forest with other redwood trees.

The roots begin to reach out to the root systems of its neighboring trees.

What happens is the roots start locking together.

It's not just one tree connected to another tree, but it can be up to hundreds of trees connected to one another to one another in its root system.

Then when the wind starts blowing and the struggle in the challenge starts, it can't move because those roots are tied together.

It's an incredible example to you and me of what God wants to do in our life.

But He not only wants you to have a deep spiritual experience individually, but he wants us to experience his presence together when we worship.

If you were to walk into your workplace and you stand up in the middle of everybody start singing praises to Jesus, folks may look at you like you are crazy.

When you're in this environment, surrounded by so many other worshipers, it is easy to stand up against life and say, I'm going to sing praises to my God, I know I'm not alone in this thing.

You realize that God’s got you!

Don't allow the enemy to turn you into a spiritual bonsai tree when God has intended for you to be a redwood tree.

Don't allow the enemy to put into a little shallow pot where you never really experience growth.

If you do that you will never have deep roots or be connected together.

God wants his church to have a root system that is tied together

It’s time to take root!

Our scriptures say that the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.

They will grow growth as expected. Growth is essential to arriving at the experience of flourishing that if you don't grow, you're never going to flourish.

Growth is required.

Growth is expected.

Most of us have some kind of an experience with our children or that we walk them up to the door facing and we measure their height and they come back a few months or a year later and we measure them again.

And what we expect to see is growth.

If we do not see that, we know something is wrong, you are a child of God and growth is to be expected.

The growth that is likened here is the Cedars of Lebanon.

The Cedars of Lebanon were the closest thing that Israel would have to a redwood.

They were something that maybe could be 12 to 15 feet wide.

They were something that could grow hundreds well over a hundred feet tall.

But they were known to be in groves, and those groves would sometimes cover hundreds of acres.

They were known for just being incredibly beautiful.

They had this majestic look to them that in fact, they became famed over the known part of the world.

The Cedars of Lebanon just stood majestically and strong, and that what God intends for you to become.

You maybe been through some challenges and you've been through some difficulty but you're still growing.

You are stronger today more you were yesterday.

Second Peter Chapter three, verse 18 says Grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter also said, Grow up in Jesus Christ,

Look at somebody and tell them, Grow up!

Are you growing?

When is the last time you memorized the Scripture?

When is the last time that you prayed outside of a church facility?

Are you growing?

When's the last time that your your heart was set ablaze with a subject in Scripture and you thought, I want to study this, I want to know more about this.

Are you growing?

But when's the last time that you chose to be a contributor rather than just a consumer?

When's the last time that you chose to serve someone else rather than just being served?

Look, like all of these things are characteristics and attributes of growing.

Are you growing?

If you are planted, you need to grow!

Let’s stop allowing the enemy to pull us up and pluck us up.

We need to stop allowing him to put us here and then put us there.

When we are planted, we need to take root, and we need to experience growth!

When we experience growth we start producing fruit.

Psalm 92:13–14 (ESV)

13 They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,

It said that they will bear fruit in their old age.

Can I get an amen from an elder somewhere they will still bear fruit.

God says the latter house will be greater than the former house.

God says he'll take you from Faith to Faith and from glory to glory.

You're not going to burn out and your best days are not behind you they are ahead of you because God has called you to be a part of his plan for the Earth and his plan for the church.

You may have some age on you and you've reached a place of spiritual maturity, now God's calling you to be a fatherly and motherly figure in his church.

It doesn’t matter you age, young or old, if you are planted, and rooted, you will grow and start bearing fruit.

When you start thinking about God telling us to bear fruit, the best definition biblically that I can find is that fruit is the excess of life.

A tree that is planted, rooted, it begins to grow.

As it grows, it produces fruit and it will get to a place where it can’t hold all of the fruit.

When that happens it will have to let it go.

There's so much life inside of me that I got to get it out of me.

It’s gardening season and if you have ever been in a garden after the planting season, you may see a tomato vine, with nothing on it but leaves.

But then you go back the next day or a day after, and what you discover is there may be the beginning of a tomato.

It’s the fruit of that vine.

It was just one moment, there's not fruit and the next minute there is fruit.

So the point is this fruit is excess life.

God says, according to Galatians chapter five, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love and peace and gentleness and kindness and long suffering and self-control.

God wants to give you an experience with his spirit on the inside of you that you begin to produce life.

God's life flowing through you because you are planted, rooted, and growing!

When people interact with you, they're experiencing love, they're experiencing peace, they're experiencing long suffering, they're experiencing gentleness.

They're experiencing because you've got life on the inside of you.

If you are growing you will love more you to exemplify peace, Lord.

You will be more long suffering.

If you are growing you will bear fruit and it will show by the residual effects you have on people.

Sure, there's going to be moments where it's difficult, but you begin to have a relationship with God, you will realize his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

As I close today, I want you to realize that God is inviting you to manifest your gifts and your talents by yielding His fruit to the world.

Think of it like this that Jesus is the vine and you are the branchHis Spirit is flowing through that relationship and fruit shows up in your life.

When you start thinking about your life, are you making fruit?

Is fruit being produced?

God is so interested in your fruitfulness that in John 15, he says that he's not afraid to prune the branches to produce more fruit until it winds up as much fruit.

Sometimes God's even going to have to cut on us a little bit and take away some things to make sure that we continue to make fruit.

It’s time we get planted, take root, grow, make fruit.

That leads us to flourishing.

Psalm 92:12 (ESV)

12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Are you planted? Or are you going to keep just bouncing around, keep playing it?

Are you going to are you willing to take root to pursue depth and community and the inner weaving of relationship to grow?

Are you willing to say I want to be intentional about yielding to the Holy Spirit.

When people interact with me, their experiencing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not my bad attitude or my latest rant or me projecting on them or whatever it is that happened this week that I didn't like.

Sometimes I wonder if we were to interview the people that know you best, would they say interaction with you is pleasant and full or love?

Would they say that you are a person of peace when nobody's around and nobody's looking?

Would they say that you are a person of self-control?

Do you have the ability to tell yourself No when it's something your flesh wants?

Now my questions aren’t meant to make you feel condemned.

It is, however, very much meant to make you feel convicted.

If you feel convicted, you need to repent and that repentance will bring a refreshing.

Do you need to be refreshed? Would you look at this verse since the last portion of that verse we read the very beginning, Psalm 92:14.

Psalm 92:14 (ESV)

14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,

They will stay fresh and green, in other words, you can live a refreshed lifestyle.

And I, I find myself about once a week, sometimes more.

Reflecting on this passage in the Book of Acts 3:19

Acts 3:19–20 (ESV)

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,

It says, If you will repent, there will be times of refreshing.

I think we need to take some time today and seek the Lord.

I want to invite you to come around this altar to take time to search your heart and begin to let God refresh you.

Maybe we need to take some time and repent for resisting to be planted.

Maybe we need to repent for not taking root.

Maybe we need to repent for not growing.

Through our repentance, we can experience the flow of His spirit and be refreshed.