AUG 25 2019 | Dive Into Life S1E2 | Good Tree, Good Fruit.

Sea Change Church · Dive Into Life · "Good Tree, Good Fruit." Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · August 25, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hello, grown-ups. My name is Kim Phillips, and I direct Cove Kids, which is infants through fifth grade. And also now in the fall, here's a little preview for the women's Bible study people. There's going to be a Proverbs study in the discipleship area, and so look for it. Hope I see you there. Today's scripture is from Luke chapter 6, verse 43 through 45. No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.

People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. That's it. I'll take it. Good. That's the special sauce. It's good to have Kim in the adult service. You doing two in a row?

Catching up. I was saying, how many years has it been since you've been in the adult service? Been a lot of years. So let's welcome Mrs. Kim in with the big church. I think we call it big church, as I remember back in the day. I caused some turmoil at Trader Joe's this week in the line. And the reason I did that is because I like to test my sermon on Uber drivers, pizza carriers, Trader Joe's people. And we were talking.

I remember I walked around the corner after getting some dog food up at the La Jolla Village one. And around, I don't know if you've noticed it, but around 3 to 5 p.m. in the afternoon, the lighting is just gorgeous in there. And I'm glad I'm at a space in my life where I notice little things like, is someone behind me? Oh, hi, Olin. What's up, buddy? I heard a little mouse back there. I'm glad I'm at a place in my life where, like, I walk around a corner in Trader Joe's, and the brilliance of the light coming in on the cashier is just like, wow, I can see it.

There's been so many times in my life where I can't see things like that. I'm too busy. Something's annoying me. Or I'm annoying myself, which is a regular thing that happens to me. And I got into the line, and I was talking, and the guy said, I said, how are you doing? He said, I'm living life. And it's interesting because my sermon series is about life, and we're talking about it. And I said, I'm speaking about that very thing this Sunday.

He goes, oh, what are you talking about? And I said, I'm going to try to focus on living beyond biology. And he was like, er, he's all, man, I really love when people come in and say something that I've never heard before. He goes, talk to me about that. Now, this time, we got two, three, four people. They got watermelons that are holding behind me and everything. And I didn't care. I'm like deep into the point we're talking.

We began to talk about this idea of what it means to live beyond biology. And in our world today, which is desperately seeking life, they're seeking something to tell them that they are alive. Obviously, with the suicide rates that we see in our country and different things, it doesn't seem to be working. Because at the end of the road, people are not finding life. And they are being told that life is a series of events.

If you look at the influences of our day, that's what they call kids usually on YouTube. They are the influencers, unfortunately. I'd rather have like 70-year-olds influence me, kind of the old school way, because you have a little bit of life in them. But nonetheless, as you look what they're doing, they're traveling. They have, you know, they're making fake, you know, stories about their lives. It really didn't happen.

There was a gal this week who staged, maybe you saw it. You know, there was an article, I think, in Vanity Fair, which I'm a big Vanity Fair guy, obviously. And she staged a motorcycle accident. Now, she's saying that she didn't, but she had perfect hair, makeup. The water that is her sponsor was neatly placed in the picture. And she was defending herself about this, because she'd had this experience. And they're actually getting to the point where they're having to make things up in order to let you think that they're living this fabulous life.

It's interesting what it means to be alive and what our world sees as alive. And how, back to talking to the Trader Joe's guy, how do you know that you're alive? And is life more than just a series of things that cause your biology to come alive? With, you know, some drink or some trip or the feeling of a new relationship, does that mean you're alive? And if that is our matrix for life, then how do you know you're alive when you get a report from the doctor that doesn't match with your life's plan?

How do you, you know, when your kids go a different direction, when something doesn't work out, when the business you started fails, when all the prophetic things that you thought were spoken over your life don't work out, can you still be alive when your biology is not pinging with dopamine hits and all these things? Jesus, and the scripture particularly, talks about how to be alive beyond your biology, and how do you know that you're alive?

And one of the things we really want to do here, we want to be one of the most practical churches in the world, if not the most practical church. I've actually never heard a church say they want to be the most practical church, so that's kind of why I want to go for it, because I don't feel like, you know, it's like, we're going to be the biggest, we're going to have the best, you know, best-looking people on stage, or these, you know, whatever this thing is.

But it is true, right, Chris? She said that's already true. Well done. Touche. But we can be practical. And I love being minimal, and I like being practical. And I want every week's sermon to give you handholds to make your life better, to make your life in Christ better. Now, what we said last week is the Bible offers you life beyond biology. But it also says that that life is offered at a price, and there's a bargain that the scripture makes with you, that says you have to give up your life, and you have to accept life in God.

Because life can only be found in God, and God is the author of all life. And anything that you pursue outside of God, whether it, you know, gives you a momentary sensation of jumping out of a plane or whatever, is actually not life unless it is made in God. And this is one of the difficult things that people have with scripture. The scripture offers life, but it offers it conditionally. It says that life has to be offered in God.

And I would say even God's love, the Bible is conditional. People say God's love is unconditional. I have not found that to be true. I have found the scripture to say that you have to be willing to accept God's love, and that is a condition. God offers you love, but we have to be willing to do things like self-control, like crucifying yourself. What the world wants is life with no restrictions. And what the Bible says is if you want to live with me, I know the best practices because I am your creator.

And are you willing to draw back on these things so you can fully experience life? Now, my question to you as we look at life and this analogy of a tree and filling up life as an agrarian topic, like Christ talked about it throughout the scripture, is are you alive? And how do you know you're alive? The main point of today in the Bible talks about that one of the ways that you know practically you're alive is by the production of fruit that you have coming from your life.

And is that fruit getting to market? Now, who's market? The market is the people that surround you on that third corner. We have four corners at this church. One of them is your heart. One of them is this corner of this church, your fellowship that you believe in and want to be a part of. One is the home that you live in, and the other is the four corners of the earth. Is the fruit of your life making it to the other corners, to those markets?

And I don't want to use a business analogy, but just for the sake of understanding, something like we have up here at the farmer's market, do you have a market for the fruit of your life to get to? And do you have a way that you are getting that fruit there? One of the ways to know you're alive is that your fruit is getting to market, people are consuming the fruit of your life, and you are sustaining other people. No fruit grows inside of the bark of a tree.

I saw a tree come down this week, and inside there was no fruit inside the stump. The fruit is an external thing that is brought out that others can get to. And what I think a lot of the world, not all of the world, but much of the culture, when it talks about this feeling of being alive, and a lot of the commercials you'll see are about being able to feel alive, is all about your ability to experience something within yourself.

The scripture talks about fruit being an external thing, and that you feel alive by giving your life away. How did Jesus give eternal life? By denying himself, by being crucified, and that opened up all of us for eternal life. The more self-sacrifice we have in order to sustain other people, the more life we will feel. So the question is this. Do you have fruit in your life, and where is your market for that fruit? And do you see other people coming to the tree of your life, as we'll see a moment in the scripture here, that are coming to your tree for sustenance?

In the Revelations 22, it says that the tree of life has leaves on it. We talked about that last week. And that leaves act as shade for all the nations bringing peace to the nations. Do people come to you and do they experience peace? Do people come to you and ask for advice? Do people come to you and find sustenance as we look at the scriptures? So as we look at your notes right now, the Bible says that how do you measure life, and how do you know about you're alive?

Well, it's all about the fruit. One of the best ways to know is about fruit. There's two scriptures Jesus speaks about, and Matthew speaks to the Jew, who are, the Jews are really into this idea of a metaphor of the tree of life. It's in Genesis, and it is a, you know, they have the term l'chaim, which means to life, and they are all about life. I was just in Israel, and I saw them dancing and yelling l'chaim on the streets, and l'chaim is how, I think it's how you say it actually.

And it's all about the fruit. It's all about the fruit. And Jesus is talking to an Israeli nation that is basic, and he's saying to them and to the people, to a lot of them, at least in half these sentences, you can either have fruit, or you can dry up and wither and be cast away. Here's the first verse. As Matthew writing to Jews, and if you want to do a Google search on verses on trees and fruit in the book of Matthew, just Google that.

You will find, you know, more scriptures than you can chew on in a day. Matthew 13, 8. Jesus talking about being able to produce, says, still other seeds fell on good soil. We talked about that last week. Where are you planting yourself? You are one of those trees, like in the Lord of the Rings, that has the ability to walk around, and you can decide where you plant yourself. Where are you planting yourself? The fact that you have planted yourself in this pew today is a good, you know, measure that you want life, that you want to be around people that are going after good things.

It says, still fell on good soil where it produced a crop. I love it. Do you have crops? Or a measly little piece of fruit. Crops. 160 or 30 times which was sown. This is one of the miracles that we see in Scripture and in creation. In Romans chapter 2, it says that you can learn a little something about God in all of creation. It says that the invisible quality, in creation, the invisible qualities of God and His divine nature can be what?

Clearly seen. When you walk out, we walked out this week, we had a little, Harry did a, Pastor Harry did a worship experience, and we walked kids through, down trails and paths, and we had different leaders there that they would experience this, and we walked out once into a clearing. We started and we put a blindfold on them, and two of the counselors led them down this path, and then we opened their eyes up, and a clearing in the trees was the constellation of the Big Dipper.

And as we walked out, one of the kids in particular, as we stood there, as soon as we took the blindfold off, a massive shooting star came across that clearing in the trees. It was just so amazing to see how God wanted to speak specifically to that one kid. It just felt like it was so of the Lord, and I saw the glory of creation. Romans also goes on to say that people will see that, and they will see God in it, but they will not recognize God and begin to worship the creation and miss God in the peace.

When you start to experience life, you will, and I'll know, hey, look, I know when I'm feeding on life and when I'm feeding on death. And when I'm feeding on life, I turn around in a Trader Joe's and the sun coming into a store, and it goes, wow, God's amazing. And when I'm feeding on myself and my own worries and my own doubts, I don't see that sun. I see the three people in line in front of me. I think I'm going to be here way too long.

I wish I could go faster. Why is that person taking it? That's not 15 items. That's 22 items. I love the news. There's one store I went to the day that said 15 items or so or something like that, like pretty much 15 items. I'm like, oh, can't stick to the letter of the law that way. And so Jesus says that you have the ability to produce massive amounts of fruit. How's your fruit production? When I want to know, because it's easy to look at all your doubts and fears and worries and concerns, but when I look out at you and I look around this congregation and see you and see the fruit of your lives and the changing of your life, that is probably one of the measures where I tell myself, I know I'm in the right place at the right time for such a time as this.

Because I can easily build a wall around myself of self-doubt and worry in comparison to somebody else or some other thing, just like you can do. But when you look around and you see yourself surrounded by people that are producing fruit, you know you're in the right place. And I tell you what, I want to be in an orchard. I don't want to be a little tree all by myself somewhere, just producing fruit of my own, being a little influencer, you know.

I want to be in an orchard. And I got to say, you know, in this community right now, just looking out. I told Pastor Harry this on Wednesday when we were talking about our church, I could sit down and write a hundred names of people in this congregation right now that are massive fruit producers. Where I just see fruit. I want to be in an orchard where the fruit is just even falling to the ground there so much. And the poor used to come and they would glean.

You weren't allowed if fruit fell to the ground. In the Jewish culture, you weren't allowed to pick that fruit up. It was meant for the poor to come and to live on the abundance. This is, I believe it's Ruth in the scripture who goes and she gleans from the wheat that had been on the ground. That's the kind of church we want to be. That's the kind of people I want to be surrounded by. And one of the ways to know, am I alive is I look around at where I'm planted and I see life around me.

And when I look around here and see you, I see life everywhere. And so many of you are getting your life to market and you're getting your fruit to market and Jesus talks about that. Do you want to have massive fruit production? Next thing we see is Jesus has a hard statement. Basically, he says, if you don't produce fruit or if you produce bad fruit, then you will, in the end, that will prove that you never knew me and you will be cast into hell.

This is what he meant by this. Very hard statement. Like I said last week, you don't have to be a stumbling block to people. Christians don't have to go out and be, you know, put, you know, things in people's faces that cause them to run away from the gospel. Jesus is a big enough of a stumbling block on his own without your help being a jerk as you try to evangelize people. We want to be kind. Even Jesus didn't come to judge.

Why? Because God had already judged. We'll talk about judgment and fruit production in a moment. But our job is not to judge. Others, ours is to accept the judgments of God like Jesus did and to bring a word of life. But Jesus says stuff like this. The axe is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and what? Thrown into the fire. And that's not what you want. And one of the questions you have to ask is am I producing fruit?

And if you see fruit around your life then you're going to experience life around your life. Jesus talks about fruit production. How's your fruit production? Now one of the things in the scripture that we want to be very careful about is this idea of judging. So about 10 years ago do you remember the whole don't judge thing was happening? There was like everywhere you saw don't judge, don't judge. That is such a lie.

Everybody judges. Don't tell me one person who put that on YouTube or Facebook or whatever you know would let somebody live in their house. Whoever shows up and say you know I'm renting a room out and the guy you know some guy shows up disheveled you know just out of prison for stealing you know whatever has like you know weapons on him I'm just going to move into your room yeah no problem no judgment just get in there dude I got the room all ready for you.

Everybody judges. Everybody makes judgments. So what is the Bible talking about when it says don't judge? I just want to give you a little understanding of scripture. First of all we never judge because judgment puts us in the place of God but what we do is we accept God's judgments. God is the ultimate judge and it is our job to know what those judgments are and to act according to those judgments. When people say well aren't Christians judgmental the answer is well some might be but the answer is you know if you know the scripture the answer is no.

Do Christians understand the judgments of God? What he says yes to? What he says no to? and are willing to sacrifice our lives in order to live according to God's judgments? Yes. This is why we can this is why we can make we can agree with God's judgments. So when we look at fruit as you'll see here in the scripture it says if you go down to verse 44 when we judge fruit each tree is what? Recognized by its fruit. We can all recognize.

You're not when you recognize something are you making a judgment about it? You're recognizing it is what it is. I want to say when you walk into places people recognize the fruit in your life. How are you being recognized? Do you know that person in your neighborhood that you just love seeing coming down the street? And then there's that other person in the neighborhood maybe that you don't enjoy coming down the street because what they're constantly producing is bad fruit or maybe that person is you.

How do we understand and know what God calls us to do? If you want to know about fruit Galatians talks about it right? Now yesterday I was slangry okay? Anybody been slangry? Now there's hangry you know what hangry is right? Haven't eaten and you're angry. Yesterday I'd spent a week with a bunch of 12 year olds and by the end even though I have a gift for it they'd gotten to me they'd gotten under the skin I was I was I was feeling I was twitching you know I'd dressed up like in a sombrero and done the Mexican hat dance I'd worn the dinosaur outfit I'd worn the caveman outfit done it all we had gone back in time it was a great camp rode jet skis jumped off rocks it was amazing but I was tired and then we had a 8 a.m. security training for the whole campus so we are doing some really a lot in regard to securing this campus making sure it's a safe and welcoming place for you so I was here at 8 and it was amazing but it was at 8 o'clock and we were here until 3 and I was slangry and I was I was just not in it and then we had a I knew I had to come back for the talent show which was by the way great job Chris amazing you just crushed it yay yay for that so stop please and I went home and I thought and I started going over my scriptures a little bit and I thought you know what I want to do what I actually preach and I have a prayer partner that I've been praying with and we've been trying to meditate on scripture so I started just chewing on this verse about fruit started chewing and thinking you know the fruit of the spirit is what love joy peace patience self-control that's one the world won't give you you know and all these I began to think about for 15-20 minutes it was interesting that my personality not my identity but my personality completely changed after meditating on the word of God for 20 minutes all of a sudden I had margin all of a sudden I was like I can't wait to get back to church to see the acts tonight to welcome everybody all of a sudden I had margin that I didn't have all of a sudden I was happier than I had been because I was meditating on the word of God all of a sudden the fruit was evident in my life this is a prescription if you want to change your week take this scripture out of Galatians and meditate on the fruit of the spirit you know what's cool about fruit production that it's not your fruit you don't even have to produce fruit it is the fruit of whom the spirit all you have to do is plant yourself in front of the spirit you make a decision a conscious effort to plant yourself and all of a sudden you're going to see fruit in your life abundant fruit now the next question is how do you get that fruit to market the Bible says here in verse 44 of the scripture we looked at people do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars I want to say this tells you that people pick fruit from your life Jesus is saying that you are a tree but he also is saying that it is the nature of people to be attracted to fruit it is the nature of people to be attracted to people who produce fruit and people will come to you when they see that you have an abundance of fruit in your life it is very easy to get into a pattern of living to survive just getting enough little sips of air before you go back under the water again constantly focusing on yourself constantly focusing on your own worries on your own fears and not living an outward life once again fruit is an outward thing and people will be attracted to it one of the best ways to know you're alive is ask yourself do people come to me to have life you know look when I was producing bad fruit and I was a drug dealer and I was selling crystal meth down at PB High back in the 1980s I had a bunch of you know I was 18 I had just graduated I'd pull into the parking lot with crystal meth and kids would come out of the high school and I would sell meth to them in the parking lot they were attracted to some really bad fruit that fruit was leading me to hell even though I knew Christ at the time people came to me and they'll come for bad fruit but you know what I've also found people want some good fruit too and people when they get addicted to the fruit of life and you can be a fruit producer of life because you are tapped in to the vine the true vine all of a sudden you start changing the world that's when you start changing the world in your marketplace you have seven places you probably go during a week right you have your same Rubio's you go to we have like seven places I go to the same Trader Joe's I go to the same gym I come to church go to Windensee I have a few places most of us have about seven places and in that place is where we want to see the fruit of the spirit come alive but in order to do that sometimes we've got to switch over to a different kind of vine that is sustaining us Proverbs when it talks about generous fruit go to verse 45 here in your notes now this can be male or female here the usage of this word because in the Jewish text back then they said a good man but the scripture says a good man brings good things out of the good stored where where is goodness stored goodness is stored in your heart as we'll see in a moment in Proverbs everything you do comes from your heart your heart is a silo think of a wheat silo in Iowa or somewhere in the Midwest your heart is a silo and what you allow into your mind and what you accept as a yes and what you edit out and the things you say no to well actually it is impossible not to have the things you accept or reject filter into your heart this is how God made us how God created us if you cast your eyes upon things that are unholy things that are filthy if you use your distraction time and watch things that have filth in them and you expect that you can watch filth and not have it affect your heart you are utterly wrong the scripture is clear that whatever you are in agreement with will go into the silo of your heart I believe for people it is impossible to be in the world of pornography without it affecting how you treat other people's human dignity and not seeing people as object it is impossible to think that you can compartmentalize things like hate like anger like fear and allow those things in your mind this is why we want to have the mind of Christ the mind of Christ that is a filter as the scripture says it says we take every thought what?

captive we make every every thought the good ones and the bad ones every thought captive making it obedient to whom? to Christ so for actually the pulling down of what? strongholds when you do that you will start pulling down strongholds in your life and that is why it is so important what you allow people say well that's kind of prudish yes it is it is a little bit prudish and I don't care because I don't want my mind and my heart filled with those things that's why I'm very careful now what I allow in even too much news too much media you know whatever it is whatever you are filling yourself with the mouth will speak we'll look at that in just a moment what are you fertilizing your crops with?

your heart is a silo whatever you let into your mind whatever you accept that person is a no good loser they are whatever you think if you accept that thought it will go in it will check into your heart and it will affect every action you do you might not think it does you might think that you can hate somebody compartmentally and it won't affect the rest of your life the scripture is is clear that that is not the case you want your heart to be full of goodness and out of the goodness of your heart you will bring fruit that's why you cannot compartmentalize sin compartmentalize attitudes compartmentalize all these things because it blends into either a beautiful or a foul poultice in your heart which will be the very fertilizer and sustenance that you bring the fruit of your life out we want good fruit Proverbs 4.23 I give you a little spoiler alert on this one above all else what?

guard your heart how do you guard your heart? you guard your mind you guard your eyes you guard your ears you guard your thoughts thoughts start in the mind they don't start you know they don't start in the heart often although our heart does have the ability to think as the scripture says but guard your heart for everything circle everything not some things the scripture says everything you do flows from it do you know when good fruit is flowing from your life and when bad is I do it is very easy for me to determine when I have margin peace joy happiness all those things and maybe some of you haven't experienced that for years you know what's so interesting about the fruit of the spirit all of them can be fruiting at the same time now it is seasonal so if you have some things that have stopped in your life sometimes there is a seasonal thing but the fruit of the spirit it isn't like you just produce one crop at a time the cool thing about the fruit of the spirit is God can give you all of those at once and then you can walk with a tree that is producing hundreds of different types of fruit the spirit of God is unlimited in what it can do and I have found that sometimes I just want peace and I'm happy with just having some peace but I give up thanksgiving I give up joy just because I want one thing the fruit of the spirit if you expose yourself meditate on the word of God plant yourself in the right places these things that we're talking about all of a sudden you'll start seeing all types of fruit come off of your of your life and off your body that'll sustain your children that'll sustain your your spouse your boyfriend your parents your whole family the world around you the marketplace of your joy where you are coming out and experiencing these things the spirit of God can produce fruit guard your heart for everything you do flows from it and then it says talking about a word of generosity in this I love this is about what it means to bring your fruit to market it says the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart brings good things this means that you're not just sitting with your fruit you are you are actively seeking to bring good things to other people unity for orphans here has a table in the back where they are taking backpacks and school supplies they are actually have a marketplace it is an orphanage two of them or three of them all over down in South America excuse me Central America and Mexico and they have a plan to market the fruit of their life do you have a plan to market the fruit of your life a lot of believers don't they think it just happens and it does sometimes but I want to encourage you to have a plan where are you producing fruit and are you it says here that the good person brings that is an act of the will you have decided to bring it forth from your heart what's in your heart what's in your heart to do do you want to see people saved Sam I love Sam he's in our middle school program he's speaking right now to the kids he started telling the kids about what breaks his heart and he started talking about PB and he started he goes I never cry except when I talk and then he started crying he says people in PB don't know the Lord they need to know Jesus my friends don't know Jesus and it was like two minutes before he got his he got his you know act back together I don't want to say back together but before he collected himself I thought that's the kind of people I need to surround me because I'm a church builder and I'm a discipler I'm not an evangelist like that I want to be an evangelist I pray to be an evangelist I think I do okay at it but I'm I love building believers that's just what God's called me to and sometimes I err on evangelism and something I want to get better at but I thought to myself when he was there I need to surround I want to be in that orchard as long as I'm in that orchard and we got a section of the orchard that's all evangelist and I'm part of that you know deal and I take what you give me and we you know we help get those fruit to market and that then I'll work my place but are you bringing do you have a plan to bring that fruit and what's in your heart what's in your heart to do when was the last time you had something in your heart to do that didn't have to do with you seriously the next trip you're going to plan the remodel of your home all this when was the last time you actually maybe even sacrificed and thought I want to do this and I'm willing to sacrifice to make it happen I love unity for orphans I love our missionaries these missionaries are sacrificing I gotta tell you it's not just for missionaries it's for you but you gotta have something good in your heart to bring good out cause you can't bring out good from a heart that isn't good and a heart that needs to be changed and maybe it's time to pull up the root and plant new crops and if you want that it's available for you there's a quick matrix of fruit production here as you see it begins in the mind which I've said it's stored in the heart comes out of the mouth you are what you think my dad read a book back in the day one of his favorite books Think it was called Think and what?

Grow Rich Think and Grow Rich I think it's probably more true because not everybody that read that book grew rich that you can think about money and grow obsessed with money but you might not grow rich but you are what you think what you are thinking about on a regular basis flows from the heart it's what you have accepted and it goes out and then it comes out in your actions where is your mind meditating upon? Psalm 1 as I mentioned earlier says that the person who meditates on the law will be like what?

A tree planted by waters that is nourished by the stream that gives its fruit in season that same tree is seen as a tree of life in Revelations that is watered by God brings shade to the nation and peace it actually says shade and peace to the nations they are peace bringers you are what you think what are you ruminating on on a regular basis? I know it's hard but you have control about what you think about even if it's a massive battle because when you're trying to change your thought patterns you're going to have to go to war some of you are going to have to change tapes you're going to have to change the way you think about yourself and begin to say I take that thought captive I remember when I was struggling with anxiety and I was in I had chronic anxiety which meant I could see that you I remember one time I walked outside when you've had bad anxiety and it gets into a place where it's chronic I walked outside and my neighbor hasn't mowed hadn't mowed his lawn and I got stressed about the neighbor I actually felt anxiety that he hadn't mowed his lawn that it just felt overwhelming to me like seriously now if you're an anxiety person then you know what I'm if you've gone that deep and I hope you never do that's not a good place to be where every thought knocks you off and you have no ability to control the thoughts of your mind actually I did and I began I took a walk I was in Australia one day and I was having thoughts like that and I took a walk and I was an hour and a half it was just negative thought after negative thought and I'd say no in the name of Jesus I take control of that I take you captive I saw myself in my mind I tied the thought up I gave it to Jesus I didn't feel any better it was an hour and a half and when I got done with the walk I didn't feel any better that time but I began to say that I am going to steward the thoughts of my mind and I am not going to let my mind or my emotions which is the culture now whatever you feel is true not true whatever you feel is not true emotions are tyrannical emotions are awesome thank you for them but they are not even in the top five of the way I make decisions anymore I definitely look at my emotions but I try to use the word of God I try to use wisdom I try to use counsel and we see a world right now as if you feel it it is real if you want it it is real it is truth as a believer I want to use my emotions but are we taking captive you are what you think so it goes from your mind into your heart we're coming in for a landing now Psalm 1-2 I just said this a moment ago it says blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord I got pulled over in Big Bear this week again I have been pulled over probably six to eight times in the last ten years and only in Big Bear never gotten a ticket they just loved to pull me over in Big Bear I got there I am like dude really?

here you go I actually wasn't like that I was like I have been pulled over this many times nonetheless he let me go no fix-it ticket no nothing just wanted to pull me over and check my smile I guess or whatever so they let me up in Big Bear but it says whose delight is in the law do you delight in the law? it was interesting as he pulled me over I was late it was 11.30 and I just said you know God thank you that we have people that are willing to put their life on the wrist to keep me safe and thanks for the badge I appreciate the badge God as long as you know as they're not over superseding their responsibility and being corrupt thank you for it and I just thank God for getting pulled over those are the kind of things that I knew that if I think that it'll go into my heart if I start thinking I'm late what are you pulling it dude I wasn't speeding you know but going to that pretty soon the guy's like cool go take it easy I think his name was Joel so bless him but blessed is the one who's delight do you delight in the law of the Lord?

why do we delight in the law? because it's good for you you know it's good for you you know I have to say not ever sometimes God just says no and we accept no somebody asked me the other day well what about this do you guys allow this do you allow that and I said no why not sometimes I said you know without going through the whole thing I just said because we believe God said no and sometimes God just says no well shouldn't everybody get to be happy I said I don't know I said I don't think everyone gets a happy ending of their own you know self-determination I think the Bible says self-sacrifice not self-determination that we are not called to self-determine ourselves that we are called to have self-control and agree with the laws of God or not agree and you don't have to agree with the laws of God but here it says a person that delights in the laws of God knows that God built the handbook for this creation and by doing so that we will have life we finish the scripture that person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season whose leaf does not wither says that in Revelations whatever they do will prosper might not look like the world prospers but whatever you do will prosper Luke 6 45 good man as we saw brings out the good things stored up and the evil man brings out the evil things stored up we already talked about that and then the final thing that I want to read today is a quote from C.S. Lewis and I want to give you a challenge this week to get away and think about the tree of your heart think about the tree of your life and is it producing fruit and is that fruit have a marketplace and are you marketing the fruit of the gospel is your life experiencing those things because this is life the Bible says that this is the model of life and it's all a model of giving yourself away it's all a model of caring for other people it's all a model of being someone who has a heart for others and people are coming to you not for bad fruit people will come to you for bad fruit if you offer them bad fruit they will come to you and like I was peddling meth in a parking lot they were showing up in droves but then I began to get tapped into something else and peddle something else it was the love of God and what I have seen is that people are more attracted actually to life and it begins to grow what are you selling?

where is your marketplace? where are you making a difference? is it all about you and are you expecting fruit to grow with inside of the stump of your life? I mean this is a week as we talk about life and as we move now because I believe that this fall is going to be a tremendous season of harvest for people I feel like God has said for our congregation I don't know what it's going to look like but we are moving into the fall and in the fall we actually don't even produce the fruit we harvest the fruit and you can easily switch in to changing your crops into a new place and a new revelation that God has for you so this week take some time C.S. Lewis says when asked is Christianity hard or easy he says give me your all I don't want so much of your time so much of your talent and money so much of all your work I want you all of you I've not come to torment or frustrate the natural self but to kill it no half measures will do I don't want to only prune a branch here and a branch there rather I want the whole tree out hand it over to me the whole outfit all of your desires and all of your wants and wishes and dreams turn them all over to me give me yourself and I will make for you a new self in my image give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself my will shall become your will my heart shall become your heart it is time to look at your crops it is time to look at where you're planted and decide am I even do I even have a market am I even alive because one of the measures of life is that you are producing fruit and if you are not producing fruit it is time to restructure the orchard of your life and to begin to say God I want that because that will bring you life you will never experience life in the same way until you become a fruit producer amen let's stand and we got some prayer I want to bless you are you going to you going to all right let's do it Chris was going to jump out to go to a wedding she is going to do a final song and I want to get a chance if I don't often do this but I'm going to give you a chance to respond today and in a moment I'm going to ask everyone just kind of close their eyes bow their heads just give a place of sanctity and any of you that need a new tree and you look at your crop you can pull that tree out now and say I want God I want your tree I want to live in an orchard I want to plant myself in those places I want to be by streams of healthy water and living where there's no toxicity in the soil the air is pure I'm going to give you a moment there but Chris is going to sing through this and if you want to plant yourself you want a new tree we're going to give you an opportunity for a decision today in the name of Jesus Chris lead us and if you want to help you're going to add to the heart of people you're going to help you're going to put you're going to put you're going to call we're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call you're going to call