Can you count on the salvation results later we can calculate it?
Alright good morning everybody and we're here in Psalm chapter 92 and some people
actually came to our church plant in Pampanga yesterday so you're gonna hear
basically the same sermon it's gonna be a bit longer of a sermon but every time we
hear the Word of God it's good you know get edified and learn more hear things
again hear it a second time if you were here on Wednesday night you heard
the sermon about the cedar tree and I was trying to think about a second
sermon to preach and I was like well it mentions the palm tree I don't
know anything about palm trees so I guess I'll spend some time and study it out
so we're gonna be looking at the palm tree here today now notice what it says
in verse number 12 to start off it says the righteous shall flourish like the
palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still
bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing so there's
no question that when you're looking here at Psalm chapter 92 there is a
direct connection between the palm tree the cedar tree and being a soul
winner until the day you die what that's showing us is the way that the palm
tree was created by God the way the cedar tree was created by God you're
actually teaching spiritual truths that we can apply to our lives but if
you're like me the only thing I know about palm trees growing up is
during hurricane season down in Florida you see those palm trees that are just
kind of swaying back and forth I don't know if anybody in this room grew up
in in Florida or down in that area but in West Virginia that's all you
see you just see hurricane season and you see this palm tree that bends all
the way over it doesn't break for whatever reason which we'll talk about
but it's bending going back and forth in hurricane season other than
that I really didn't know a whole lot about palm trees right so I think
there's a lot we can learn here today now go to Exodus chapter 3 Exodus
chapter 3 Exodus 3
when it comes to the palm tree there's actually thousands of different types
or variants or kinds of palm trees but when the Bible is mentioning the
palm tree what it's referring to is the date palm tree so if you've ever
had the fruit it's known as like the the candy of God's creation or
whatever it's like the sweetest fruit in the world the date fruit that is
what it's referring to in fact the ten shekel coin in Israel has a palm tree on it you say
why because although cedar trees are native to Lebanon and not to Israel the palm tree is
actually very native to Israel it's very common in that part of the world so what
it's actually referring to is the date palm tree okay now when it comes to countries by
date production number one is Egypt number two is Saudi Arabia number three is Iran number
four is Algeria number five is Iraq and then there is a big drop-off so you're looking at
the Middle Eastern part of the world primarily now what's interesting about that the date palm
tree is that people used to mock the Bible because after the 1400s they didn't see any palm
trees in Israel and they became extinct for probably one of two reasons either the seven-year
war from 66 AD to 73 AD or they had you know a lot of wars and climate change in the
1400s they say and so people used to mock the Bible if you look at very old commentaries or
people commenting on the Bible and then a lot of modern-day archaeology proves that actually
the palm tree was very prevalent the palm trees that are in Israel today have actually been
replanted and brought back to Israel although until just in recent years they didn't have
any remains they did find one recently a seed from a very old palm tree from before but I
want you to notice what it says here and actually let me read you from this article it says
cultivated date palms in modern Israel were mostly brought from North Africa or Iraq in
the 1950s by the 19th century there were only a few date palms around Jericho in the Dead Sea
producing mostly small dates of visitors that time wrote were fit only for animals and so the
modern-day palm trees they were actually brought back because for whatever reason they
became out of existence basically extinct in that part of the world now notice what it
says though in Exodus chapter 3 verse 8 and says here and I am come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land onto a good
land in a large onto a land flowing with milk and honey on to the place of the Canaanites and
the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites when God
was delivering his people out of Egypt into the Promised Land he said I'm bringing you to
a good land now remember Egypt is the land as I just read was number one in the world
for producing the date palm tree and God says I'm gonna take you from that land of
Egypt I'm gonna bring you a good land a land flowing with milk and honey but of course milk
and honey are very precious commodities I mean you can buy milk at a store it's not that
expensive but actually getting proper and correct and all-natural milk is actually pretty
expensive even today's world right and I personally I love honey I am not a low-carb
person at all I'm very actually not into low-carb diet at all I love honey but but here's the
thing I don't eat honey that much you know why because one spoonful I'm just like oh it
hurts my wallet that's like $20 per spoonful it's so expensive and see when God was bringing
his people out of Egypt he didn't say I'm gonna bring you from this land that's very prosperous
to a horrible land to a bad land you go to the promised land you're gonna hate your life
it's gonna be miserable every second of the way no what he said is I'm gonna bring you to a
good land now look I don't believe in a health wealth and prosperity gospel but we can go to the
other extreme as well and think that God wants us to have a miserable life and that's not
true if you serve God you will have a nice life maybe you won't be rich but you'll have
a nice life you'll have a blessed life and God says if ye seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness all these things shall be added on to you I do not regret serving
God with my life my only regrets for the last 20 years of my life or I did not read
the Bible enough I didn't go soul winning enough I wasn't as zealous as I should have been I do
not regret giving up the worldly music and the movies and the TV shows and everything the world
has to offer look you are not missing a whole lot because you don't wake up in your own vomit
in the morning man I'm really missing out on what the wicked people have just go and
fornicate with a bunch of people wake up in your own vomit wow that sounds like a great
life it actually leads to a miserable life it leads to a depressed life Solomon had everything
the world had to offer and what did he say I hated life leads to misery but see if you
serve God you can actually have a blessed and a very happy life the problem was in the
wilderness too many people are looking back to what Egypt had to offer without realizing hey
we're able to freely serve God God is blessing us and it's our own fault what we
haven't entered in the promised land yet already but he said I'm gonna take you from a good land
and a land flowing with milk and honey is where you're gonna go there is the religion called the
Rastafarians and you know they're the ones that believe in like jaw you know they're it's like
the Bob Marley religion right where they believe like high lace the lastly if I'm
pronouncing that correct was like the modern day you know Jesus and they believe they have
a promised land in Ethiopia called I think it's Shasha mean if I'm pronouncing this correctly
go to Quora go to Google and ask people about that land and a lot of people that are Rastafarian
they move there it's the promised land designed for them and they're like it's not as good as I
expected it it's actually pretty miserable here it's not actually a good land at all see
even though they did not want to enter the promised lands when they sent out the
spies they admitted it's a great land everything God said is true they just didn't believe
that they could conquer it but it was a good land that God was bringing them in a land flowing
with milk and honey and they would have been financially blessed if they had gone in and
done what God said now turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 34 Deuteronomy chapter 34 Deuteronomy
chapter 34 now when they finally enter into the promised land they had a lot of battles they
had to fight to get the land didn't they God gave them a nice land but they didn't just go in and
that was it there was a lot of battles that they had to fight they had to remove a lot of the
enemies people that were the heathen and the ungodly because it was a land that had a lot
of enemies and a lot of people with false gods false religions wicked people so there's people
that they had to remove now the first real battle they fought was the Battle of Jericho
right the walls of Jericho they marched around Jericho Rahab the harlot was in Jericho in the
Bible what is Jericho known as Deuteronomy 34 verse 3 and the south in the plain of the
valley of Jericho the city of palm trees on to Zohar Jericho in the Bible is called the city
of palm trees you say why obviously there are a lot of palm trees in Jericho right going your
Bible to 2nd Chronicles 28 let me show you another example this 2nd Chronicles chapter 28
so what I'm saying is God was giving them a nice land and the first area they're going the
first land they conquer Jericho was filled full of the palm tree that alone should tell you that
actually the palm tree is probably pretty valuable it's probably a pretty nice tree
whether you know a lot about the palm tree or not you could probably say hey you know it
actually it's probably a pretty good tree right there's a few references in the book of
judges we're not going to look at where it does not directly mention Jericho but it says
city of palm trees it is referencing Jericho it just doesn't mention Jericho in that verse
but 2nd Chronicles 28 verse 15 2nd Chronicles 28 verse 15 the Bible reads and the men
which were expressed by name rose up and took the captives and with the spoiled clothes all
that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eat and to drink
and anointed them and carried all the feeble of them upon asses and brought them to Jericho
the city of palm trees to their brethren then they returned to Samaria so we looked at
multiple references in the Word of God where Jericho was known as the city of palm trees
God said I'm gonna give you a nice land a land flown with milk and honey they go in
they conquer Jericho number one and guess what it's a land that's filled with palm trees
turn your Bible to 1st Kings chapter 6 1st Kings 6 1st Kings chapter 6
when when you're reading the Bible there are three trees that are really mentioned
that are used as examples of basically serving God your whole life and bringing forth fruits
your whole life and of course we talked about the cedar tree on Wednesday we're talking
about the palm tree today the other tree you see pop up in Scripture is the olive tree
and it's like the most indestructible tree I mean when the worldwide flood took
place and Noah sends out the dove what does the dove bring back it brings back part
of an olive tree it's like it survived I mean that the olive tree literally survived
the worldwide flood right that's a pretty indestructible tree you can understand that
example here in 1st Kings chapter 6 we're going to see both the olive tree and the palm tree
mentioned 1st Kings 6 this is in reference to building the temple of the Lord 1st Kings
6 verse 1 and it came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come
up out of the will come out of the land of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign
over Israel in the month zip which is the second month that he began to build the house
of the Lord the context here is building God's house drop down to verse number 32
verse number 32 and it says the two doors also were of olive tree and he carved upon
them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers and overlaid them with gold
and spread gold upon the cherubims and upon the palm trees and I'm just trying to show you
in as an introduction that the Bible is showing the palm tree is actually a pretty significant
tree right you know you've heard of Palm Sunday it's not referring to the palm of
your hand right or for example go to Revelation chapter 7 let me show you another reference
Revelation chapter 7 Revelation 7 verse 9 and notice what it says here Revelation 7
verse 9 after this I beheld in law a great multitude which no man can number of all
nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb
clothed with white robes and palms in their hands right we're seeing the palm tree is mentioned
it's very significant in the Word of God basically ushering in the king you've got the
palm tree mentioned go to Ezekiel 41 we'll look at one more place as introduction before
we really get into the sermon Ezekiel 41 Ezekiel chapter 41 and Ezekiel 41 we're looking at
the future temple that's being built and I personally I love sermons like this I'm not
sure if this is everyone's style of sermon to write or preach or hear whatever one thing
I love about this though is we're looking at a lot of passages and chapters that you
kind of read and it's like oh this is boring right it was this many cubits it
was this color and yet it brings excitement to some of these places that we just kind
of read over because honestly when I'm normally in my Ezekiel 41 Bible reading
it's kind of hard to pay 100% attention but you're actually seeing the entire Word
of God actually has a lot of great information for us to learn Ezekiel 41 verse 18 and it
was made with cherubim and palm trees so that a palm tree is between a cherub
and a cherub and every cherub had two faces so the face of a man was toward the palm
tree on the one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other
side it was made through all the house roundabout from the ground on to above the door where
cherubims and palm trees made and on the wall of the temple so we're seeing that in
the future temple guess what it also mentions the palm tree okay now turn in your
Bible to John 15 we'll kind of get into our three points here John chapter 15 and
look during the sermon you know it won't distract me you know you're welcome if you
need to use the restroom I'm sweating all over my notes right now if you need to get
water you know go ahead it's not going to bother me this is the Red Op preaching conference
as I said right it's very hot right I'm already sweating all over the place but point number
one when you think about the palm tree first thing I want to mention is the palm
tree is a very useful tree it is a very useful tree you say what do you mean by
being a useful tree let me read you from this article here it says the palm tree
is perhaps the most useful of all trees not only producing dates but also
sugar wine honey oil resin rope thread tannin and dye stuff mean it is
the land flowing with milk and honey and actually honey you can actually get
from the palm tree according to this article and it says here all parts of
the date palm yield products of economic value it's trunk furnishes timber the
midribs of the leaves supply material for crates and furniture the
leaflets for basketry the leaf bases for fuel the fruit stocks for rope and
fuel the fiber for cordage and packing material and the seeds are
sometimes ground and used as stock feed syrup alcohol vinegar and a strong
liquor are derived from the fruit the SAP is also used as a beverage
either fresh or fermented but because the method of extraction seriously enters
the palm only those trees that produce little fruit are used for SAP
when a palm is cut down the tender terminal bud is eaten as a salad so
according to this article and of course I have no knowledge of palm
trees outside of what I studied for this sermon this was not my area of
study in college or my background but according to this article every single
bit of the palm tree is financially valuable if you've ever had a tree
in your backyard and you have to cut down the branches it's kind of
a pain to throw away all those branches they don't easily fit
inside a small little trash can and you know it's not easy always to
find a place to dump them when we lived in Sacramento it would drive
me crazy because I would climb up my tree and I had a machete and I
was like chopping off branches and then you know you get all these
branches on the ground it's like what am I going to do with them now and
then you got to find a place and you carry them there but see with
the palm tree every bit of it is financially valuable there is
not a single part of that tree that you would get and say I want to
throw this away because all of it has a financial value according to
this article you say what's the application us God wants you to be
useful you say what do you mean I mean whatever abilities and
talents God has given you use them if you are naturally
musically gifted I'm not a musically gifted person you
know I'm I'm okay at song leading I can get by but there
are men at our church there are ladies at our church they
are musically gifted they have and of course you have to
develop that talent but there are people that naturally have
a gift of things and people that do not have a gift of
things and look no matter who you are you have some gifts
given to you by God whatever gifts that God has given you
use them don't just be given a talent by God and say
I'm just going to lay it down in the sand to do nothing with it
no use it for God just like every bit of that palm tree is useful
now of course we're here at a missions trip at at you know preaching the
word of God but mainly going out soul winning
and so we're thinking about soul winning here's the thing when it comes
to the use in reference to soul winning
if you have a mouth that can speak words out of it
and you have feet that can walk and God has blessed you with the health
and ability because I understand not everyone's in the same situation
obviously as you get older health problems come but if you have the
ability to preach the gospel use it
don't just waste what God has given you and I kind of mean this as a joke but
it's not really a joke to me the greatest life or health insurance you
can have is making sure you're useful for God
because if you're useful for God God's going to be like
I need brother so and so I need sister so and so
because they're doing something for me it's not like there's an endless
amount of people serving God in this world and so what I would say is
no matter who you are in this room the talents and abilities that you've
been given use them and don't waste them
John 15 notice what it says in verse one I am the true vine and my father is the
husbandmen every branch in me that beareth not
fruity taketh away and every branch that beareth fruity purgeth it that it
may bring forth more fruit the purging is the idea that you
start serving God and God's like well I actually want to
make some more changes to get you to draw closer to me
right you start going to a good church and you think you're already right with
God and then all of a sudden the pastor is ripping on your music
and your tv shows and you're like man and some people they quit church because
they're mad but if you're trying to serve God
you know what you do you hear the word of God it hurts but
you say you know what I'm gonna make the change
because the word of God it's like when when a sermon's preached
I liken it to spiritual surgery you say why spiritual surgery because it's a
sword that gets thrown inside your body and when that
sword gets in there guess what it hurts
look I've been in church many times and the pastor's preaching and I'm just like
ouch please stop that saying reproaches me
also right but you have the choice am I
going to make the change or am I going to reject it and
pretend like everything's okay look you are a fool if you hear the
word of God you realize you need to make changes and you're just like wow
pastor shouldn't have said that I'm better than most Christians or
whatever no when the sword comes in make the
changes and the bible is saying that God is going to purge you you say why
because God wants you to be more fruitful he doesn't just want you to
be a tree that just occasionally produces fruit no God wants
you to be very fruitful it says here in verse three
now you're clean through the word which I've spoken on to you
by the way everybody gets saved by the word of God
you don't get saved without the word of God you're clean through the word
which I've spoken on you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except that abide in the vine no more can
you accept ye abide in me I am the vine here the branches he
that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit
for without me he can do nothing so I was speaking about bearing fruit
getting people saved and notice verse six
if a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is
withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they
are burned now he says he is cast forth as a branch
and what Jesus is doing is giving an example
there are people that will take verse six and say we'll see
if you're not bringing forth fruit you're going to be cast into hell
who's there heard that before I've heard many people say that
now there are some examples and stories in the bible that I read and I don't
really understand what God's trying to say because I'm not familiar
but with this example I immediately the first time I read this
I completely understood because when I was a kid we would visit my
grandfather's house and he had several acres of land and he
had a lot of trees and as he got older he wasn't able to
take care of the land so my dad and I would come there and
we would trim the trees you'd have all these leaves and branches on the
ground and what do you do they all go to
the ground you put them in a wheelbarrow
and then you bring them to the burn pile and you spend
hours and hours and hours collecting all of the branches
and at one time you burn the branches it would not make sense for you to take
a branch that you just cut down let me burn this one
then I'll get the next branch that'd be stupid it would take you forever
what you do is you gather them into one spot just like it says and you
burn them you say well what's your point
here's my point when someone dies unsafe do they so sleep till everybody else
that is unsafe is gathered together and thrown in the fire
no you go to hell immediately and so if this is referring to going to hell
why is it that when someone would die unsaved do they wait
because the rich man in luke 16 doesn't seem like he waited
it seems like he dies and in hell immediately
he's there because god does not let you soul sleep and wait for every
unsaved person to die and then gather them together
and throw them in the fire no this is an example about being someone who's
saved but not useful you're not a fruit-bearing tree you say
well what what exactly is it trying to say well think about this
if you have branches that don't produce fruit on a tree
they take up the nutrients from the rest of the tree it's not just that
they just take up space no they steal the nutrients from the rest of the
tree look i'm sure most of us have
probably been members of baptist churches where
you've got like five percent are soul winners
and 95 are not or 10 are soul winners and 90 are not
it's not just that you have 90 of people not going soul winning
but they tend to criticize those going so winning
they tend to look down on you for trying to do something for god it's not
just that they're there but usually they're attacking those
that are doing the work and it's like if you're not going to
do the work why are you attacking us when we are doing the work right and
what god's saying is hey i want everyone to be a
fruit bearing tree if they have the ability
and the ability is not a natural ability i'm saying you have the physical
ability to do it you have the health that's permitted
to go out and do the work of god and see god says hey i want you to be
a fruit bearing tree and once you start bearing fruit
i'm going to start purging you to help you make some changes
look i haven't really asked our church members but i'm sure many church
members would would say if you ask them privately
yeah i remember the early days of this church and pastor sucky was preaching
sermons and it's pretty rough he was preaching
against you know my tv shows and my movies and all these things
but you know people have the choice of sticking with it
and learning and making changes or just growing bitter at the word of god
notice what it says here in verse 7 if you abide in me and my words abide
in you you shall ask what you will and it should be done on you
herein is my father glorified that ye bear
much fruit so shall ye be my disciples not even that you just bear
fruit because i i would say that you know
most people here you participate in the missions trip
you can just retire if it's just bearing fruit
but it's not just bearing fruit it's bearing much fruit
and why stop at the bare minimum of what much is
if the bare minimum is a hundred i want to go way past that
i don't want it to be in the gray i want to be a tree where you can look
at the fruit and it's be like there is no question that pastor sucky
brings forth fruit there is no question that brother so and so brings
forth fruit there's no question that sister so and so brings forth fruit
you are glorifying god when you bear
much fruit and that makes you useful just like the palm tree go to john 12
john 12 john chapter 12
and it's your turn to john 12 let me just read you the bible says the fruit
of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win its souls is wise
yeah pastor sucky why do you want to win souls because i i don't want to
be bobo because if winning souls make you
wise that means not winning souls makes you the opposite
and the wise person is going to devote their life to the cause of christ
rather than living for themselves you say
say why is that well notice what it says in john 12 verse 23
and jesus answered them saying the hours come that the son of man should
be glorified barely barely i say and you accept the
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone
but if it die it bringeth forth much fruits
he that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal you know the average person in this
world what they want out of life is
money and happiness and to most people those two things are
intrinsically linked together right money and happiness they search
they spend their entire lives for money so they can have fancy
vacations and i'm not against going on vacation
i'm not against you making money that's that's not a sin it's the love of
money that is a sin what i'm saying is if that's what you
make your life about you're gonna lose your life
what do you mean you you're living for happiness
and you're gonna end up miserable you see
people probably wonder so i'm sure some of you have had relatives or
family members or co-workers ask you so what are you doing in the
philippines for vacation you're you're you're approaching random
strangers and telling them i mean don't you think your jesus thing is a
little bit overboard don't you think that you can calm
down a little bit like you're going to a random country
i mean does anyone regret going out and bringing in the sheaves and getting a
lot of people saved look i enjoy my life i enjoy going out
and preaching the gospel and getting people safe
and sometimes when you're preaching the gospel it gets tiring sometimes you
want to rest but when you get to the end of the
day you're like praise god for every bit of work that i did
and look i would say that if you came here on vacation
you spent a thousand plus dollars or whatever to come here
and you're spending all of your vacation time i mean you're making a
bit of a sacrifice it's choosing to lose some things in
your life things that the world would say
are so great but yet you're not depressed
you say why is that because the bible says if you know these things
happy are ye if you do them and when you know god's will and you
do god's will and you become a servant and minister
unto others instead of seeking just the fame of this life you
know what happens it makes you happy when i first
started to serve god i was not trying to serve god because
i was like this is going to make me happy
i did it because i felt obligated because i was like i believe in hell
people are going there i don't really want to go soul winning
i'm afraid to talk to random people it's not my personality
i'm not outgoing every excuse that you also gave before you started going soul
winning i did it out of obligation i wasn't
seeking after happiness and yet on the other
side you know what i found it makes you happy
makes you content it makes you have a fulfilled life
but that's not what most christians are doing in 2024
they're living for themselves they're they're they're inundating their bodies
with everything the world has to offer
and you know what's going to be at the end of that misery
depression now they might not admit that to you publicly but i promise you
this is the happiest group of people you're going to find here and
we're actually not in metro manila right now in the province of resolve
okay we cross the border even though we're very near our church but in this
part of luzone let's say in this major island group that we have
this is the happiest group of people you say well how do you know that
because when you're serving god it makes you happy
you know what people do they they they stop
serving god and they start checking out what the world has to offer
and then they think because they're too zealous serving god that's why
they start to become miserable no no no it's because you're half in and
half out if you would go all the way in you
wouldn't be miserable and see the bible says that if you
lose your life in this life you're actually going to keep it you're
actually going to find happiness and you're going to bring forth much
fruit as the bible says in john 12 turn your bible to jeremiah 10
jeremiah chapter 10 jeremiah 10
so
and it's it's kind of an interesting thing i noticed uh just when we were
doing a series on false philosophies that
every false philosophy we covered they seek
after something and they always get the opposites
always the opposite for example think of like the evolutionists their big
thing is they're like the wisest and smartest people
what they believe is the dumbest thing you could possibly believe
or you look at the buddhist what's the big thing about the buddhist let's
remove all suffering and yet all of them live in
communist countries and go through more suffering and misery than any other
group of people or or hinduism you look at they are
the religion the religion of hinduism is about searching for
the wisdom and it's like can you really think of a dumb
dumber religion than hinduism it's like every philosophy we covered they
literally get the opposite and yet here's what's interesting
when you decide to serve god you're not serving god because hey this
is what's going to make me happy you're doing it because it's the right
thing to do and yet god gives you all of these
other things that you weren't asking for you
weren't expecting you have a content life all of a
sudden the things of earth grow strangely dim don't they all the
things that you thought were important now all of a sudden it just doesn't
matter to you that much what because when you're serving god it
makes you content it makes you happy isn't it interesting sometimes
everything in your life is going perfectly
in terms of financially and health but you're not really
on fire for god you're a bit you've lost your zeal a little bit and you
find yourself depressed and then there's other times everything
is falling apart in your life i mean
everything people would look out from the outside and say man it's a mess it's
horrible and they're like joseph why are you
smiling you're in prison and joseph's like well
why are you looking so sadly today like what's so bad
right he still looked at his life and realized hey actually i am blessed in
many ways right point number one about the palm
tree is it's a very useful trait point number two when you think about
the palm tree the thing highlighting scripture is it's upright notice what
it says in jeremiah 10 verse 5 they are upright as the palm tree
now the context here of jeremiah 10 is referring to idols that have been
made with wood but when you think about the palm
tree which it uses as an example it says
these idols they're upright like a palm tree is upright
when i think of a palm tree i think of a very tall
and thin tree it doesn't really branch out to the sides very much does
it is very much upright tall and thin right and the bible is saying hey they
are upright as the palm tree go to song of
solomon chapter 7 verse 7 song of solomon chapter 7 verse 7
song of solomon chapter 7 verse 7
and it says in song of solomon chapter 7
verse 7 this thy stature is like to a palm tree
and so it's referring to basically being tall and thin
is is the reference that's being made there in the word of god and so the
palm tree is known as being a very upright tree the
picture you have in your head if you're familiar with palm trees
is a very tall and thin tree because i always wondered as a kid
during hurricane season how does this tree stay in the ground
i mean it's not like the cedar tree you see it's very durable
and thick and strong and powerful and the palm tree
it looks very flimsy it's upright but it doesn't have a low center of
gravity because it's tall and thin right the palm tree is a very upright
tree now go to first kings three first kings three
now in the bible when you're looking at the word upright
what is upright linked with it's linked with being a godly
and holy person if you say somebody's an upright person
you're saying that there's someone who's really serving god
someone that's living a separated life someone that's trying to serve god
and do right you say that's an upright young man you'd say he's a man
of good character right that's an upright young woman you say
she's a woman that's mature that's godly right that's what the word
upright means in scripture first kings three verse six
and solomon said thou has showed unto thy servant david my father great mercy
according as he walked before thee in truth and in a righteousness
and in uprightness of heart with thee and thou has kept for him this great
kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his throne
as it is this day bible refers to uprightness of heart
being a godly person and what the bible is saying is we ought to be
people that are godly if you want to be the tree that
brings forth fruit in old age you better make sure
you're an upright person you better make sure you're obeying
god's commandments you better make sure you're doing what god says
i mean if you're someone who says hey i'm going to serve god till the day i
but you're half in the world and half serving god you know what takes place
you're going to fade out into the world one day
you're going to fade all of the way out
but if you're someone who sets in your heart like daniel hey i'm going to
be an upright person i'm going to do right
whether it's popular or not popular i'm going to obey god's commandments
even if nobody else does because it's easy for any one of us
to say well i'm comfortable i'm already better
than 99 of christians right it's very easy to get that attitude i
mean if you've been here you're soul winning you're already doing more than
most people have you've already finished the bible
cover to cover that's more than most
it's very easy for us to just kind of give up because we're comparing
ourselves to other people but the bible says hey you want to
compare yourself to someone look at a picture of a palm tree and be upright
like that and when you think about the palm
tree another example the bible is trying to give you is
it's a tree that's basically going straight up to god and not getting
caught up in the things to decide it just grows straight up
and when we're growing spiritually we need to be growing up straight up to
god and not just be like well let me just
check out you know what this new movie or new music has to offer
or what this i mean that's the way most people live their lives but god
says the way i want you to live your life is you're just steadily going
straight up and growing straight up to god upright
like the palm tree go to john 15 john 15
john 15
you know as i'm quoting from solomon a couple times i wish solomon was here
because he was an expert at all this stuff right
solomon solomon would probably be here he's like you know that was a nice
sermon but you missed like this this this this and this right the bible says
he's like an expert at all of these things
but notice what it says here in john 15 i want to show you there is a
connection between bearing fruit as we already
saw and being upright there is a strong
connection found throughout the bible where those that bring forth fruit are
also those that are upright and godly people
you are not going to find zealous soul winners that are very worldly and
sinful it does not work that way notice what
it says here and by the way that is why you need churches that preach hard on
sin well pastor if you didn't preach so hard
on sin and just focused on soul winning or whatever it'd be better no
no because if you're going to be a successful
soul winner and bear a lot of fruit you have to be an upright person
which means you need sermons that are constantly trying to motivate you
and reprove you when necessary as well says in john 15 verse 8
herein is my father glorified that he bear much fruit
so shall you be my disciples if we want to glorify god we need to bring forth
fruit we need to get a lot of people saved
as the father hath loved me so have i loved you continue in my love
if he keep my commandments he shall abide in my love even as i kept my
father's commandments and abide in his love
so we see a connection between bringing forth fruit in verse 8
keeping his commandments and verse 10 but the connection grows deeper notice
verse 11 these things have i spoken on you that
my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full here's
the thing if you are not keeping god's
commandments guess what you lose you lose your
joy so bring forth fruit in verse 8 keep
god's commandments verse 10 and you will keep the joy
you say well pastor you know i i think that i would be happier
if i just kind of got a little bit less else no no no
according to the bible the more you're serving god the happier you are
if you keep god's commandments it's gonna keep joy inside of you
notice what it says here in verse 12 this is my commandment that you love
one another as i have loved you greater love hath no man than this
that a man laid down his life for his friends
you're my friends if you do whatsoever i command you henceforth i call you not
servants for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth but i have called
you friends for all things that i've heard of my father i have made
known onto you verse 16 you have not chosen me but i have chosen you and
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever you shall ask of the father
in my name he may give it you in verse number 11 it talked about
your joy remaining right meaning your whole life you're
having joy you're keeping god's commandments and
you will keep your joy and then in verse 16 it talks about
your fruit remaining so what are we saying
it's saying that every year you're still going out preaching the gospel and
getting people saved and see it's intrinsically linked
with obeying god's commandments obey god's commandments you keep the
joy and guess what you're still bringing forth fruits
you say why because here's the thing you came to this missions trip because
you wanted to right you might go
soul winning out of obligation for a time period but if you do not enjoy
soul winning you will quit the things we do in our lives are the
things that we enjoy
there are things that you know i would like to start doing
but i really don't enjoy them and it's really hard to force myself to do
them right you know i i love to work out
but one thing i do not enjoy doing is swimming and i have tried to convince
myself for a very long time to become a very active swimmer because i
think it's a great exercise but you know what
as much as i try to motivate myself on december 31st every year
it just doesn't happen i mean i like doing push-ups chin-ups running you
know any sort of work but swimming it's like as much as i think it's a
great exercise i hate swimming i know how to swim i
just i just don't enjoy it so guess what i don't do i don't swim
because i really don't enjoy it right for example you know you
think of new year's resolutions with trying to eat like a healthy diet
there's a lot of people that say hey i want to start eating salads more often
because i need more fruits and vegetables in my diet
but you don't do it because you don't like salad
the things we do in life are the things that we enjoy
the things that we like and if you don't like something you're not going to
do it if you hate reading the bible and hate going to church
and hate going soul winning guess what you're going to fade out pretty quickly
and here's what i'm saying if your goal is that your fruit remains and
you're still a soul winner in five years in 10 years in 20 years in 30
years you better make sure that you're being
an upright person because your desire to go soul winning
is going to fade out very quickly if you're not an
upright individual why the bible said in verse 10 keep the commandments
verse 11 you have joy what's the result your fruit also
remains just like your joy remains as well turn your bible
choose psalm 51 psalm 51
psalm 51
it's part of the purging thing that we talked about earlier in john 15
where god's trying to purge you and and help make changes in your life
where basically you start serving god but there's other
areas in your life that you know you don't necessarily realize
hey i need to get more on fire for god or this is not right
and see all things that are approved or made manifest by the light
according to ephesians right so as you draw close to the light
what happens when the light is shining bright
you see all the problems that exist you go home tonight and it's dark and
you turn on the light and then all of a sudden all these bugs
will start like running away all of a sudden you see like you know i
don't know the the spaghetti that your child spilled this morning that
you didn't have time to clean up or whatever it's like oh i still have to
clean the floor the light reveals the problems
and see as you draw close to god and you keep drawing closer and draw night
what's going to happen you're going to see more things
that god has to purge you right and look i i hope that none of us
feel like we're finished products i mean i've been saved for over 20
years but you know if god blesses me with a long life that's only a small
percentage of my my life as a saved person and i hope
over the next 20 30 40 50 years that god's going to reveal more things
where it's like i know you've been a pastor for 10 years now pastor stuckey
but actually as you've gotten a little bit closer you
got to cut this out too right and look don't be mad when god
is trying to help you make changes because look you have to realize your
life is not about you but what we saw is if you make your
life about you it makes you miserable and yet if you make your life about god
and being a servant it's actually going to bring you
happiness it's going to make you content psalm 51 verse 10 and psalm 51
this is when david's kind of writing after
he's been rebuked by nathan the prophet and we're seeing his words
here in psalm 51 verse 10 creating me a clean heart o god and
renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy holy spirit from me a lot of people could get confused by
verse 11 and be like well wait a minute is
david worried he's gonna you know lose his
salvation well in the old testament people were not
indwelled with the holy ghost and so when david's saying take not thy
holy spirit from me look they weren't in dwell with the
holy ghost but what he's referring to is being spirit filled
being filled with the spirit of god the spirit of the lord coming upon
him being right with god and what he's saying is hey i've sinned
i've messed up but i want you to bless my life god please come back
please let your holy spirit be here upon my life
now in our modern day post-resurrection
we do get indwelled with the holy ghost but
we can also get filled with the spirits
i mean i'm sure there's been times you've gone out soul winning and you
are just excited and filled with the spirit
and man you're motivated and then there's other times you go out soul
winning maybe you're not as excited maybe you're not a spirit filled
and it's it's a lot harder i admit as the pastor of this church
you know leading this church for over five years now yeah there's sometimes i
go out soul winning and it's it's it's completely spirit-filled and then
there's other times where it's like i feel like it's in my flesh and it's
very difficult and you know obviously we have ups
and downs in life and there's many factors but one of the big factors is
just being upright being godly and as david committed
great sins obviously he's not going to be spirit
filled and it says here in verse 12 restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit he
doesn't say restore to me my salvation he says the
joy of thy salvation what david said is i've lost my joy
because there's nothing more miserable than having a guilty conscience as a
saved person not being right with god as a saved
person anyway you can even get right with
god and say you're sorry and yet it still kind of sticks with you for a
while i think of the story of joseph and his brothers were even after
you know jacob has died they still have that guilty conscience they're still like
i still don't know if joseph has forgiven
because when you do something that's wrong it often sticks with you
it's often like a wound that is really hard to fully even let yourself
forgive yourself for it and move on and he said man restore to me the joy
of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit
and he lived in sin he lost his joy but notice verse 13
when he gets his joy back then will i teach transgressors thy ways
and sinners shall be converted onto thee what's he referring to in verse 13
he's referring to bringing in the sheaves
bringing in the sheaves he's referring to soul winning
and what he says is once i get my joy back
i'm going to be a soul winner again look soul winning is not
an invention by jesus starting two thousand years ago
they went out with the book of the law in the old testament
preaching the gospel the bible speaks about shining as the brightness of the
firmament as the stars in the book of daniel in daniel chapter 12
and so soul winning is not some new thing i mean we saw the fruit of the
righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise
that's old testament but what i can tell you is that over the course of
that year where david was in very grievous and wicked sin where he's
lucky that god did not take him out of this world
he wasn't getting anybody saved according to his words
but it kind of makes sense when you have a major unconfessed sin like that
you're not going to be a soul winner
and see you need your joy if you're going to keep doing the work of god
because the work of god is hard it's difficult
and the only way to keep doing it is to have joy
but the way to keep the joy is obeying god's commandments
and if you don't obey god's commandments you're going to lose
your joy go on your bible luke eights luke chapter eight
luke eight
luke chapter eight this is a famous uh parable of the sower in luke eight
and this is mentioned several times in scripture but
luke eight's my favorite we'll look at a a passage later on
um that's also linked to the parable of the sower parallel passage but notice
luke eight verse 11 now the parable is this
the seed is the word of god those by the wayside are they that hear
then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts
lest they should believe and be saved these are people that
they hear the god that they hear the word of god but they don't believe
right they're not sure about it maybe they're confused i mean of course
as many people as we get saved and as many people as we have counted as
salvations here this week there's also a lot of
people that we talked to that didn't get saved
i talked to plenty of people this week that didn't get saved
they got to the end and and they were either like you know well i'm not
sure i just need some time to think about
it or some people i started giving the
gospel to and they just didn't believe it
it's like no you have to live a good life right some people they hear
the word of god they don't get saved then it says here in verse number 13
they and the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy
so these are people that they receive the word of god they receive salvation as
many as received them to them give you power to become the sons of god
they not only receive him they receive him with joy
kind of like gladly receiving the word of god in acts 2
what happens to those that gladly receive the word of god they get
baptized but do you have to gladly receive
the word of god to be saved no you don't as many as received him
doesn't say you have to gladly receive him
see there's a lot of people who get saved they don't get baptized
they're not that excited about they're not that thankful for it
right they just don't have enough gratitude in their heart they're
they're happy to be saved but they don't have that much joy in their heart
well these are people that gladly receive the word of god we're going to
talk about verse 13 later on but verse 14 and that which fell
among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are
choked with cares and riches and pleasure of this life and bring no
fruit to perfection so this is the person that is
trying to grow upright toward god but then all of a sudden there's the cares
over here the riches over here the pleasures
over here and they focus so much growing in this
way in this way in this way in this way that they stop growing this way
and in fact unfortunately usually as they're growing this way this way in
this way they start to just kind of shrink
instead of drawing close to god now all of a sudden they're falling back
verse 15 but that on the good grounds are they which in an honest and good
heart having heard the word keep it and bring
forth fruit with patience see verses 13 and 14 are referring to
save people that for various reasons just
don't go all out serving god they start they receive the word of god with
joy they're happy they come to church for three months
they're on fire for god they're zealous and then all of a sudden
what happened to brother so-and-so what happened to sister so-and-so it's
like they just fade out of church i mean look if you come from an on
fire for god church you've seen these
people they start coming to your church
they're zealous for the things of god they're excited they seem to bleed
everything just as strongly as you for a time period
and they just fade out but see that on the good ground are they which in
honest and good heart having heard the word so
every time they hear the word of god preached and they read the bible they
have an honest and a good heart to the reaction to it
they're honest with themselves and they have a good heart meaning they do
the works honest and good heart having heard
the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience
look if you want to be a palm tree or a cedar tree that
is still in old age bringing forth fruit takes patience
you say why because the storms are coming
the difficulties come it's not always easy and of course if you're serving
god yea and all that will of godly in christ jesus shall suffer
persecution so you're going to have the good
times and the bad times sometimes it's easy to serve god
sometimes it's not easy to serve god you say what do you do
you bring forth fruit with patience because you don't want to reach a
point in your life where you get comfortable or it gets too hard and
you just throw in the towel right turn your bible to first peter two
first peter chapter two
first peter chapter two verse two the bible reads
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow thereby so the bible likens people that are you know baby
christians it says desire the milk of the word just as a baby when it's born
it needs you know it's mom's milk they drink
milk they don't drink they don't eat
meat and other things they need milk that's the way that babies are
designed well for us whether you're a baby
christian you've been saved for a long time
the way we grow is by the word of god
so of course you're in church and you're hearing the word of god but as
much as is possible in your free time you want to grow on monday
you want to grow on tuesday you want to grow on wednesday you say well how
do i do that you do that by spending time in god's
word but it's kind of interesting when you think about babies
how do babies express their desire for milk
i mean it's like the end of the world to them it's like the worst
thing ever it's like they're just like a little bit hungry it's like the
biggest thing in the world to them it's like what happened is there a
robin i mean are you hurt are you injured
they're just hungry but see that's that's the kind of
analogy god's trying to give us that's the sort of desire that we have we
feel like i cannot live without the word of god i've
esteemed the word of god more than my necessary food i hope if
you're a grown adult and you get a bit hungry i hope
nobody during the service you get a bit hungry
it's like i want to be fed where's the pizza
but but that's the way we ought to feel about the word of god that's the
analogy that god is trying to give us just like babies cry out as they
desire to be fed we ought to feel the same way you
wake up in the morning it's like where's my bible i want to
spend time with god it's like man i woke up late an hour
till i go to work i better make sure i spend time with god now
that's the way that we ought to feel not that it's a chore to read the
word of god but that it's a blessing that you cry out
and desire god's word turn your bible to second peter three
second peter three and as you're turning there i'm just going to read
you where the bible says if then if ye then be risen with
christ seek those things which are above where christ sitteth
on the right hand of god set your affection on things above
not on things on the earth so what's the bible saying the bible is saying
you look toward god you look toward the heavenly things
you set your affection up there and what direction do you grow
straight up to god you care more about soul winning every day
you care more about reading the bible you care more about obeying god's
commandments you say man it's not just that i want to be an
upright person i learned something new from the bible i need to do i want to
apply it to my life now you say what because i want to draw closer to
god right it says in second peter three
verse 18 but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior
jesus christ to him be glory both now and forever amen
the bible tells us that we should be growing in grace in knowledge
this is a constant thing in your life to grow and when you're growing what
i'm trying to tell you is you got to set your affection affection
above and just look straight up and just grow in that direction and
be upright like the palm tree and not just go out in this direction in
this direction but let me just check out what you know the the nba finals is
going on and the music i mean the grammy awards the oscars
look some things in life are are not necessarily
sinful but it doesn't mean you're going to draw close to god by spending
your time on it and it's like you know our affection
the main part and focus of our lives ought to be on the things that are
above the things of god rather than the things
of this life turn in your bible to luke chapter eight luke eight
luke chapter eight
i i don't have a clock in front of me i usually do when i preach i i
promised you it's gonna be one sermon but i said it's gonna be a long sermon
right and so uh we're through two points now
we got our last point here point number one that we ought to be useful
when you think about the palm tree as i read every single bit of a palm tree
has financial value there's not a single part of a palm
tree that just gets cast out because it's in the way you just
burn it up no every part of a palm tree actually has
financial value that you would want to use
point number two we need to be upright we need to be godly people
focused on the things above and not on the things of the earth
but point number three we need to be unbreakable and when i think of palm
trees as i said you see that palm tree during hurricane
season it's swaying in every direction and it's like how does it not snap in
half what is keeping that thing together the
bible saying that as christians you can go through the storms of life
and the difficulties and be like that palm tree not just topple over but
actually last and endure that's what it says here in luke 8
verse 13 it says they and the rock are they
which when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root which
for a while believe in a time of temptation fall away
and what this verse is saying is people they receive the word of god with joy
that right there is proof that they're saved
because the bible says as many as received him to them gave me power to
become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name
they receive the word of god they not only receive the word of god they
receive it with joy so these are people that are not just they get saved
hey would you like to come to church on sunday no
thank you but that's it it always blows my mind sometimes you get somebody
saved the door and then like maybe it's a husband and
you see his wife like walking around the background you're like
hey you know do you think your wife would be free to listen to this as
well and they're like ah you know it's like they just got
saved and they don't even care about their relative getting saved
but i see that all the time because i will often say hey you know i saw
you know is that your son in there you know you think he'd be
interested in listening and oftentimes people they just have so
little love and thankfulness in their heart
that they're just like no you know i don't know i i think they're busy
or whatever right it doesn't make sense to me because when i first got
saved the first thought in my mind was like
what about my family and friends do they know this
i mean it's a thought that came over my head right after i got saved i was
like wait a minute if this is true which i know it is
and my parents never taught me this why wouldn't they have taught me this if
they believe this i mean i called my parents the next day
and i was asking them and talking about what they believe i mean i was
worried because it's like what about you know what about my
sister what about my cousin what about my aunts and uncles i mean do
they believe this but there's a lot of people and
here's what you have to understand just because you react a certain way
does not mean everybody does because sometimes you might think well
when i got saved i immediately was really zealous to try to get my family
saved that doesn't mean that it's a
requirement to feel that zeal to be saved or to
prove you're saved that just means that you did that when i
got saved i felt very guilty and very very sorry for my sins
i'm sure a lot of people also felt that way but is that a requirement
no it's not there might be people in this room that when you got saved i've
seen people cry when they get saved i didn't cry when i
got saved does that mean i'm not saved just
because you experienced something doesn't mean everybody does and for me
it blows my mind because we're here at this this uh
soul winning event and obviously you're making changes for god
you're trying to serve god and in our heads we might think everybody
should be like this but they're not because they have free will and there
are people that get saved at the door and they have no interest in going to
church they have so little thankfulness inside
of their heart that they are happy to get the what is
it the get out of jail free card the monopoly card right
it's like i got the get out of jail free card it's like well the rest of
the people i know they can figure it out on their own
it doesn't make sense to me because that's not the way i felt
but a lot of people feel that way when they get saved they don't really
care that much but the bible says about these people they receive the word
with joy they actually do receive they have some gratitude
but here's the problem these have no root which for a while believe in in
time of temptation fall away i want you to notice does this verse
say which for a while believe the gospel
nope who said that's about the gospel
you notice there's a semicolon after the word joy yeah the first part of
the christian life is you get saved and now it's on the rest of the
christian life you never have to worry about
salvation again it's not saying which for a while
believe the gospel i'm going to prove this to you here in a second
this is what it's referring to though when you start coming to a church like
this all of a sudden you start making a
lot of changes in your standards and your beliefs
all of a sudden music that you never thought was wrong all of a sudden
you're like i shouldn't listen to this
i shouldn't watch this tv show all of a sudden you know
your opinion of the lgbt it grows more fierce and angry toward him every day
but here's also the reality if you fade out of our church during times of
persecution you know what's going to take place
the standards that you developed here at this church
well you believed them for a while while you're here but you're going to
stop believing them that's what it's referring to i
remember during the the protest in sacramento california
we had a lot of people at our church i mean our church was we were
reminiscing this this trip with those from sacramento that were there during
those days and we were growing and growing and
and then all of a sudden we have the protests
now had pastor meneses preaching changed
specifically on that sunday not at all same preaching i've been preaching for
years i mean the sermons are preached i'm
saying sure your church is awesome people talk about the sermons like man
that was great and you're talking about things that
are going on in the world everybody agreed with it
then all of a sudden when the persecution comes
all of a sudden people just leave well i never really believed to
reprobate doctrine anyway how convenient that you believed it for
years and then during the persecution i never
really believed it i always thought the pastor so and so
was too harsh on the lgbt this is reality this is the way
people are and look i'm not just stating about
that about people that have left any single person that leaves a good church
you know what you're going to find all of a sudden you start growing to
the things of this world you're further away from god and when
you get further away from god a lot of your standards are going to
start to change a lot of things you started to believe when you came to a
church like this all of a sudden you believe them for
a while but in time of temptation i never really believed to reprobate
doctrine anyway go to matthew chapter 13
and i'll show you it's more clear i believe in matthew 13 this is what
it's referring to it's not referring to which for a while believe the
gospel because when you get saved you're
indwelled with the spirit of truth that's what the bible says and you've
said to your seal that god is true according to john 3 and if you set your
seal that god is true according to john 3
that means you're never going to call god a liar and of course in first john
5 if you're denying the record god gave
his son you're calling god a liar and so after you get saved guess what
you always believe jesus is the only way to heaven it's not by works and
it is eternal life you're not going to just well i
believe the gospel but now all of a sudden i believe in muhammad
you were never saved my friend you do not get saved and all of a sudden just
completely reject your beliefs now you can go back and
live in major sin but you're not gonna all of a sudden
well i got saved when i was a kid but i don't believe in god anymore
doesn't really sound like the spirit of truth is dwelling inside of there
does it when you get saved it is eternal
like the bible says and it's the spirit of truth that indwells you
bible says matthew 13 verse 18 it says he hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth
it not then cometh the wicked one and
catcheth the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which
receives seed by the wayside but he that received the seed into
stony places the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy
receiveth it he receives the message of salvation
yet hath he not rooted in himself but dureth for a while
he lasts for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the word by and by he is offended so basically
your family members say hey you know that verde baptist church is a hate
church and all of a sudden you just quit
church you endure for a while you believe for a while you're on fire
for god for a while it just kind of fades out when the
persecution comes and look make no mistake about it
people that have left your church in times of persecution
they're not on fire for god like they used to be
they believe for a while but now they've just faded out they're not
going to believe the exact same things anymore they're going to think you're
too harsh that you're too over the top look if
you're going to believe these things because we get brainwashed by the world
you need to constantly be reading them and hearing them preached
otherwise you're going to get brainwashed by the world
turn your bible to matthew seven matthew seven we'll look at a couple
more places matthew seven matthew seven matthew chapter seven
matthew seven verse 24 therefore whosoever heareth these sayings in mind
and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a
rock the rain descended and the floods came
and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not
for it was founded upon a rock and everyone here with these sayings in
mind and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house
upon the sand the rain descended and the floods came
and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell
and great was the fall of it we have this passage here we looked at
this on wednesday of two types of people those that are
doing what jesus says and those that are not doing what
jesus says for each of them the floods come the rains descend and the
winds blow and beat upon that house and one thing that teaches us is
that when you go through storms of life they come from above
the rain they come from the sides the winds and they come from below the
floods when it rains guess what it pours
because usually when you have a very windy day
you also have rain and floods they go hand in hand
i mean when you're going through a tough time in life they come from
every direction and when it rains it pours
that is a biblical statement you see that with joe you see that here in
matthew chapter seven the difference is what you're founded
now we're looking at a house here but i want you to put inside your head the
palm tree okay during hurricane season i mean if
you know what i'm if you know what i'm talking about if you're familiar
you'd see it on the news you see that palm tree just swing how
is it the palm tree does not just fly up out of the ground it
doesn't have a high center of gravity i mean a low center of gravity
it must have a very strong root system it's the only logical explanation right
why else would it just stay in the ground its roots must be very very
strong and of course that is that is the exactly the case here's what it
says from the article how deep are the roots of a palm tree
the roots of a palm tree generally extend horizontally
near the surface of the soil rather than growing deep they spread out
widely to provide stability and gather water from a larger area
though how deep the roots will eventually grow strongly depends on the
palm species it says here from this article also
palm trees have a dense and extensive root system while the
roots are not deep they spread out widely near the
surface of the soil allowing the tree to gather water and provide
stability the way the palm tree was created
it's not that it just goes straight into the ground
it goes down and then it roots out okay now go to colossians chapter two
but it gets very rooted into the ground
colossians chapter two
well the bible says this in colossians 2 verse 6 as he have therefore
received christ jesus the lord so walk ye in him
because you can receive christ jesus and not walk in his commandments
you can walk in the flesh or walk in the spirits we don't believe that
salvation automatically produces good works
that's not what the bible teaches you can receive salvation
and still walk in the flesh and of course all of us
are walking at least some in the flesh nobody is 100 just walking in
the spirit obviously all of us are walking some
in the flesh but the bible says here
you receive the lord jesus but also walk in him then it says
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as he had
been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving
a lot of people they get saved but they're not really
rooted and grounded and planted in the things of god
they believe things they're excited about it but they're not firmly rooted
in and remember the bible spoke about the persecution would bring people
away i mean imagine that storm comes the
hurricane comes the tornado comes or whatever
and all of a sudden the tree just flies out but wasn't rooted in the
ground strongly enough that's why it came out
the bible saying that we need to be ready for the storms of life we better
get rooted and grounded in the things of
god so look don't just hear sermons at a church like this
and say hey that was interesting that was great actually make sure
sure you're going home and reading the bible and say i want to make sure
it just didn't sound interesting but i believe it inside my heart
i am established in the faith i'm rooted and grounded where if a storm
i'm ready for it you do not know how on fire for god you
are until the storm comes i i mean i don't think that i would
fade out during a storm but nobody knows until that storm comes
i mean all of us ought to be be humble in heart and and realize that
hey since we don't know we ought to live our lives in a way
where we're growing upright we're obeying god's commandments we're
doing what's right because you never know
right go to psalm 92 psalm 92 we'll look at two more places psalm 92
so if you want to make sure you're unbreakable then you better make sure
that you get rooted and grounded in the things that you believe
right said rooted established in the faith psalm 92 this is what it said in
verse 12 the righteous shall flourish like the
palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in lebanon
those that be planted in the house of the lord
shall flourish in the courts of our god you're not going to see people
flourishing in the courts of god if they're not rooted and
grounded in church so you know you go soul winning and
you talk to people and they say well i just do church at home
oh really well how many thousands of people have you gotten saved in your
life just sitting down doing church at home
the only people that actually do something big for god is those that
actually get planted and rooted in church
and of course go to the right church that is preaching the truth and you
get more rooted and grounded established in the faith
but you got to be planted in church and here's the thing if you do that
the bible says they shall still bring forth fruit in old age
they shall be fat and flourishing i hope that's your goal
i hope your goal is that not just in 2024
but in 2034 and 2044 2054 as health permits that you're still
going out and getting people saved go to james one we're going to close
up here james one james one
but you know what's interesting to me about the palm tree of the things
that i studied the most interesting part is what i'm
about to to to say now not only does the palm tree have a
very unique way of lasting through a storm when it
doesn't look that it will the way the palm tree is designed is
that as it goes through a storm it gets more rooted
it gets stronger through a storm it doesn't just
last any storm it gets stronger through a storm and honestly that makes
sense because isn't that what the bible says when we go through storms of
life that we can not only last but it can
actually help us build our faith and become
stronger this is what it says here in james or
let me just read you from this article it says the palm tree's flexible
almost elastic structure allows it to bend with the force of
the winds and sway right back into place once the winds pass
the palm tree further explained that its roots get stronger with
every storm it endures now look i i don't desire to go
through a major storm starting tomorrow i don't desire to go through a lot of
problems and i'm sure nobody does we don't really want to go through
the major storms in life but but instead of having this
attitude of being miserable in my life is horrible
the bible actually says that if we endure through the storm
we can grow stronger on the other side it says here in james one verse
one james a servant of god and of the
lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad
my brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations
knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience
but let patience have her perfect work they may be perfect and entire
wanting nothing see the bible says that when you go through trials
and you go through difficulties even though you don't enjoy it
even though you don't want to go through it if you let patience have
her perfect or complete or entire work it can
actually make you much stronger i mean look nobody would want to change
places with joe with what he went through
but wouldn't you say that on the other side of that the the trials and
the persecution the tribulation that he went through that he was a lot
stronger and in my life i've never gone through
anything like that but you know i think all of us have gone through
storms and problems before and isn't it true
that if you last through it and endure and don't have a bitter and bad
attitude you can walk out on the other side
stronger more rooted deeper in the things of god more established
in the faith this is what a palm tree does a palm
tree goes through a storm and then the roots just get
really really really deep as it goes through the storm just deeper and deeper
and deeper with each and every storm that it goes through it's kind of
like the roots feel the storm and it's
like all right i'm gonna dig in deeper because you're not gonna take me
out that ought to be the way that we are
as bible believing christians we said number one that we need to be useful
every part of a palm tree has value and and i mean it has financial value
like real value that people will pay for we need to be
useful we also need to be upright you look at the palm tree and it's
essentially just growing straight up straight up to god not
caught up in the things of the world this direction or this direction
but just upright and not only should it be useful and upright
the bible also shows us about the palm tree it's unbreakable
it lasts through storms and look make no mistake about this
as excited as you are now and as much of a great time as you're having now
you will go through persecution life is not always a bed of roses life is
not always easy life is difficult life is
stressful you need to have the attitude
hey i am gonna be like that cedar tree i'm gonna be like that palm tree
you say why because your goal ought to be that you're still bringing forth
fruit in old age let's close in a word of
prayer your heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here
today and ask you to help all of us and
including myself my family and help us to apply these things to our lives
god help us to be like the palm tree
help us to be very useful with all the talents you've given us
help us to make sure that we are unbreakable and help us to grow
upright and not get caught up with the things of this world god ask you to
help just uh you know bless the
sermon or years help us to apply it also ask you to bless time of fellowship
and also the soul winning later in jesus name we pray amen i'm gonna
have a brother marlin come up here and then after that we're gonna
all come up after the song to bring up the salvation total so brother marlin
come up here now
all right
oh we get this i don't know brother
is the pizza's on its way
let me just give you the money now
oh