I'm Growing Out!
Notes
Transcript
I’m Growing Out
I’m Growing Out
Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Intro:
Our Growth depends on the promises of God.
Physical growth relies on the creative sciences of God’s design
Our bodies mature because of God’s mind.
So for me it is unimaginable that we would expect to mature in our lives without trusting and relying on God.
(pause)
And I believe that.....
.....all of life has to get its orders from the promises of God!
(pause)
This week we are going to look at the third phase of the plant life cycle.....
....and this particular phase is the “seedling phase”
(pause)
This “Seedling phase” develops out of a plant embryo from a seed. It starts with the germination of the seed that we discussed on last week.
......and remember we talked about how unless that seed dies, we can’t even discuss maturing to this next level of seedling.
And.....
It is in this phase that the roots develop and spread out..
.....and when these roots spread out, a boost of quickly absorbed well balanced nutrients fuels the rapid growth from a skinny seedling to a healthy plant.
(pause)
And.....
As I thought about this to myself I visualized our lives and how much absorbtion and placement matter.....
And so....
1. What have you been absorbing lately? (Expound)
2. What are our roots being planted in? (Expound)
(pause)
And.....
....the litmus test boils down to one simple question,
“What has God promised to us regarding this phase or season experienced in our lives?
(pause)
Look at the text......
Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
According to the text,
God is saying,
“I completely dissaprove of anybody who sets their confidence, or rely on humanity.”
.....anybody who depends on people for help instead of putting their trust in God.
(pause)
And so if this is the level of importance that God places on what i call our “Trust Distribution”
Maybe we ought to be doing a “Trust assesment”
Because.....
…the last thing we want to hear God say is,
“I dissaprove completely on where you place your confidence.”
(pause)
And sometimes if we are not careful.....
.......when a death experience happens in our lives we can become vulnerable
.....when a specific part of our human experience goes through that germination phase
....it causes our reality to include the chaos of growth!
(pause)
And that’s why it’s good to test our “Trust Distribution”
and ask the question,
“What/Who am I trusting in, as I am going through this?”
(pause)
Look at the text.....
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
The prophet says,
The results of “Trust Distribution” will look like verse 6 if there are failing results....
Because the text says.....
“They shall be like a shrub in the desert”
Here’s what that looks like....
The shrub in this text looks like a barren bush
Meaning......
This bush is unproductive or unable to show any type of growth....
And it’s placement according to the text.....
Is in the desert which is described as a sterile region
(pause)
The text also says,
This shrub will not see any good come towards it.....
And it adds another description to its placement by saying.....
It will exist in parched places......
......or among the rocks of the wilderness
And it goes even further to pain the picture of being alone when it says,
“It shall live in an uninhabited salt land.” or an unproductive place where it has no company.....
(pause)
And so basically what the text is saying is that,
This life that fails to meet God’s approval in the area of trust is that life that does not really live and grow.
But instead....
This is the type of life that barely survives.
(pause and expound)
And the reason is because of trust distribution......
And so.....
.......if we are trusting in anything that is other than God we don’t get the type of return on investment that matures our life.
(pause)
And I don’t know about you,
.....but I refuse to live my life barely surviving!
(pause)
And in verses 5 and 6.....
In my spiritual imagination I hear God saying,
“I promise you that trusting in anything other than me, aint never your best life!”
(pause and expound)
Look at the text....
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
The text gives us this contrast starting in verse 7 that suggests an entirely different picture....
Jeremiah says,
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord”
In other words.....
Those who trust in God will be filled with strength......
And so....
Everybody who puts their confidence in God
Everybody who relies on God
.....shall be filled with strength!
(pause and expound)
Now verse 8 is about to give us the full details of this strength....
....but when I visualize this “Strength filling” I am convinced that God is not giving out “Strength dosages”
.......that we feel, but don’t use!
(pause - Preach Baker)
I don’t believe that God is Blessing us to Anesthisize us
but I believe that God Strengthens us to get to the next level of Production!
And so.....
.....when you distribute your trust to God
....and God blesses you
......when the Power hits your life
.......its not for you to sit still in the POWER, but to use it for its Purpose towards our lives!
Watch this.....
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
The Prophet is gifting us with this psalm and he says,
“They shall be like a tree planted by water”
And the one word that stands out to me mostly in that sentence is “PLANTED”
And because of the placement described related to this tree it tells me that,
......the emphasis here is to show us that this tree is positioned for Growth!
(pause - Open expound as the Holy Spirit leads)
Watch this......
In my spiritual imagination I see our thinking as the “Tree” that is planted for growth.
And when we put our Trust in God.....
Our minds are properly positioned....
Because wherever we plant our minds, is where our roots start growing and spreading!
(pause)
And God says,
Those who put their trust in me are positioning themselves for extraordinary growth!
Barrel:
I was watching a old interview of the late Rev. C.T. Vivian as he was reflecting on the late Congressman John Lewis, and he said,
“John had a way of just being greater.......
.....and he had a way of tapping into his Spiritual Power!”
(pause)
And what I have learned is that,
Whenever we put our trust in the promises of God.....
We are sending out our roots to streams of water!
(pause)
And watch this.....
Because remember,
That skinny seedling is counting on its roots to bring in nutrients and resources that are necessary for the growth....
(slight pause)
And so.....
Our roots must be properly positioned!
And here’s how you know if your roots are properly placed:
Jeremiah says in the latter part of verse 8 that when our roots are properly placed....
We.......
Shall not fear when heat comes
....because when the heat comes it dries up the plant, and beats it down
Barrel:
This 90 degree weather has been beating up our vegetable plants....
And what First lady and I discovered is that we have to water them more frequently to get them through the heat!
But just imagine if they were “PLANTED” in streams of water!
And so....
....becuase God is FAITHFUL
....because God is CONSISTENT
We don’t have to wait to get what we need!!
See if we are depending on PEOPLE to come and water us.......
....we got to wait our turn
(slight pause)
But when GOD is our WATERING SOURCE
We don’t have to FEAR when the HEAT comes.....
(pause and expound on our lives planted in waters)
Watch this.....
....there’s more,
2. their leaves shall stay green
......when temperatures change and the length of daylight is shortened the chlorophyll breaks down, and the leaves stop their food making process.
....and when this happens the green color starts to disappear.
And so let’s flip this.....
....when our lives don’t have proper root placement and we experience darkness in our lives
......we are cutting off our food making process.
(pause)
Because......
Whenever there is a breakdown in trusting God.
Whenever our thinking disconnects and loses focus for whatever reason.
(slight pause)
We start changing based on our darkness experience
versus
Growing based on promise
Because.....
The Promise of God says,
“Even the darkness is not dark to God, but the night is as bright as the day!”
(pause)
Jeremiah says not only that but,
3. Drought seasons don’t make us anxious when we have proper root placement.
Those drier than normal conditions that lead to water supply problems.......
He says,
Hot temperatures lead to soil issues......
.....that lead to plant issues
and,
over several years the flow of rivers, and streams decrease
....and lakes and reservoirs fall into a shortage
But Jeremiah says,
When the powerful reality of droughts or dry seasons happen
This tree is not anxious......
.....because it’s connected to something that’s even more powerful
......at the ROOT!!
(pause)
And the last thing Jeremiah says is that,
4. This tree does not cease to bear fruit
And in my spiritual imagination I hear God saying,
I know you feel like this is a season where you’re trying to survive.....
But.....
when you are PROMISE DRIVEN
you don’t just barely survive,
But......
because you are Promise Driven
You are Planted to be PRODUCTIVE and GROW OUT!
GROW OUT.......
of INJUSTICES
of POVERTY
of SMALL MENTALITIES
(pause)
PRODUCE
JUSTICE
PROSPEROUS lifestyles
FREEDOM MINDSETS
And that’s what makes the devil real mad......
Because he keeps throwing us in bad condition after bad condition......
But Freedom.......
We just keep on GROWING!!
We just keep on bearing FRUIT!!
Because....
Condition......is never greater than.......Covenant!
(pause)
And that’s what the devil cant understand about your life......
How in the world is a SKINNY SEEDLING.....
PRODUCING in these conditions.....
Baby it aint what’s GROWING UP....
......It’s what’s GROWING OUT
Your ROOTS are in the right place!
We’re TRUSTING GOD!!!!
.............I’m Growing Out!............. (REPEAT and CLose)