LIKE A TREE

Good News Is Good News Every Day For The Comfortable

COLLABORATION

Group projects/shared input toward a common goal.

Social Experiment for Personality Types

Thinkers, Doers, Leaders, etc.

Observers- Not sure what to do, if it’s worth doing, how to, etc.

TRANSITION: OBSERVERS DEFAULT TO WHAT IS COMFORTABLE

[SLIDE] I WILL DO WHAT COMFORTS ME WHEN THE MISSION IS NOT CLEARLY SEEN.

THE GOOD NEWS IS MORE THAN INFORMATION; IT IS TRANSFORMATION.

[SLIDE] WE WERE NOT JUST SAVED FROM GOING TO A PLACE; WE WERE SAVED FOR A PURPOSE.

TRANSITION: THE GOOD NEWS IS FOR THE COMFORTABLE, THE COMPLACENT, AND THE CONFUSED

What does a transformed life look like?

The Bible says it looks like a tree!

READ PSALM 1 CSB

One of my fav Psalms

Wisdom Literature

Compare the two types of trees

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT PSALM 1 IN THE SEPTUAGINT

READ PSALM 1:1-3a SEPTUAGINT

Blessed is the man

Who does not go in the counsel of the ungodly,

and does not stand in the way of sinners,

and does not sit in the seat of evil persons.

But rather his will is focused on the law of the LORD,

and in His law he will meditate day and night,

He will be like the tree

That has been planted along the streams of the rivers...

LIKE THE TREE THAT HAS BEEN PLANTED: TREE OF LIFE

READ GENESIS 2:9-10 CSB

WHY THE TREE OF LIFE?

Since the Fall, we’ve been cut off from the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life:

Source of eternal life

Sustained Life

BIG QUESTION: I KNOW JESUS SAVED ME, BUT WILL HE SUSTAIN ME?

[SLIDE] STRUGGLE IS WHERE WE SEE THE SOURCE OF OUR STRENGTH

READ JEREMIAH 17:5-9 CSB

For Israel, once they were brought into the land, and faced hardship, they became comfortable.

Any place we are most comfortable apart from God will become the place we are most destructive.

[PICTURE] (DEAD SEA PIC) “HE CANNOT SEE WHEN GOOD COMES BUT DWELLS IN PARCHED PLACES...”

AS LONG AS WE FIND OUR STRENGTH IN THINGS OF THIS LIFE WE ARE CHOOSING TO LIVE IN PARCHED PLACES.

FOR ISRAEL, IT WAS IDOLATRY BECAUSE THEY COULDN’T COPE WITH TRUSTING A GOD THEY COULDN’T SEE. IT’S NO DIFFERENT FOR US TODAY.

IDOLATRY FACTS

Asherah: represented by a pole or a tree

“The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life.”

A. H. Sayce, “Asherah,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 269.

When life got desperate, the people turned to what was most convenient and most familiar.

As horrific as idol worship practices were, they all stem from the same question: Will God Provide?

WE MAY NOT WORSHIP ASHERAH, BUT WE CERTAINLY RELY ON OUR HUMAN STRENGTH TO SUSTAIN OUR LIVES. THIS PURSUIT WILL ALWAYS DISAPPOINT US.

TRANSITION:

I HAVE TRIED ON MY OWN STRENGTH TO BE THIS PSALM 1 PERSON BUT I KEEP FAILING.

I NEED GOOD NEWS.

WE NEED GOOD NEWS.

READ PSALM 1:1-3a SEPTUAGINT AGAIN

Blessed is the man

Who does not go in the counsel of the ungodly,

and does not stand in the way of sinners,

and does not sit in the seat of evil persons.

But rather his will is focused on the law of the LORD,

and in His law he will meditate day and night,

He will be like the tree

That has been planted along the streams of the rivers...

OUR GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE MAN IN PSALM 1 IS NOT US, IT’S JESUS!

[SLIDE] JESUS IS THE TREE OF LIFE THAT SUSTAINS US

READ REVELATION 22:1-3 CSB

WHEN WE LOOK AT THE MINISTRY OF JESUS WE SEE HIM AS THE TREE OF LIFE HEALING THE NATIONS AND SUSTAINING US FROM THE CURSE OF DEATH.

READ JAMES 2:14-17 CSB

James 2:14–17 CSB

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

THE GOOD NEWS IS MORE THAN INFORMATION; IT IS TRANSFORMATION.

[SLIDE] WE WERE NOT JUST SAVED FROM GOING TO A PLACE; WE WERE SAVED FOR A PURPOSE.

[KEYS OUT]

THIS IS OUR GOOD NEWS TODAY IF YOU’RE

COMFORTABLE, COMPLACENT, OR CONFUSED:

WE DON’T LIVE OUT THIS GOOD NEWS ON OUR OWN STRENGTH BUT ON HIS!

The Psalm 1 Man meditated on the law (Torah) day and night.

We grow tired, but He doesn’t!

Receive this promise:

READ ROMANS 8:3 CSB

Romans 8:3 CSB

For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,

WE WERE CUT OFF FROM THE TREE OF LIFE, UNDER THE CURSE OF SIN,

AND JESUS BROUGHT THE TREE TO US!

THIS IS WHY JESUS SAID THIS TO HIS DISCIPLES:

READ JOHN 15:5,8 CSB

[SLIDE] WE PARTNER WITH GOD WHEN WE ABIDE IN HIM

CONCLUSION:

INVITE MINISTRY TEAM FORWARD

JESUS HAS MADE US THE BRANCHES THAT REACH OUT IN OUR EVERY DAY NORMAL ACTIVITIES THAT THROUGH HIS STRENGTH WE MIGHT PRODUCE FRUIT THAT BRINGS HEALING AND PROVISION TO THE WORLD.

GOD DOESN’T NEED US BUT HE CHOOSES US TO PARTNER WITH HIM TO BRING ABOUT HIS RENEWAL OF ALL THINGS ON THE EARTH.

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE? GOD WANTS TO PARTNER WITH YOU

ARE YOU COMPLACENT? GOD IS GOING TO PROVIDE, KEEP ABIDING

ARE YOU CONFUSED? GOD DOES BIG THINGS OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME, NOT JUST ALL THE TIME. DON’T MAKE IT WIERD, JUST BE WILLING AND ABIDE IN HIM BECAUSE HE WILL DO IT.

THE GOOD NEWS IS NOT JUST KNOWING WHAT JESUS DID, IT’S SEEKING TO PARTNER WITH HIM EVERYDAY IN WHAT HE IS DOING.

PRAY