As promised, here's my best attempt at transcribing my sermons from June 28th at Bally Mennonite Church and July 5th at Boyertown Mennonite Church. As far as I could tell, it was well received as an attempt at revealing the Truth of the gospel. Judge for yourself...I have no illusions of my abilities so I welcome any and all comments.
A number of years ago (before my time, actually) Walt Disney Studios adapted a movie from Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland". It is one of my daughter's favorites. Here is a clip from that movie.
Now, what makes this scene funny is the ridiculous idea that, to fix the problem of planting the wrong kind of roses, instead of changing the bushes, they slather them with red paint (and themselves in the process).
Before we get too critical of those poor gardeners, we need to recognize that Christians have much the same problem. Frequently in scripture, the behaviors that we exhibit are called "fruit". We are in a constant struggle to make sure that the fruit we produce is the good fruit that we want to produce. So, we need to figure out how that fruit is produced and what determines the quality of that fruit. Let's look at what the Bible has to say about Fruit.
In Galations 5:22-25 we find a passage that, to many Christians, is very familiar. It describes the fruit that we are supposed to exhibit. And we try really hard to do this. However, this passage, in the TNIV translation, begins with the little word "but". And, when we see words like this in Scripture, it is important to look back and see what was said before.
In Galations 5:19-21 we find other fruit. This is the fruit of the sinful nature. Along with the "big" sins such as sexual immorality, drunkeness, and impurity we find things like discord, dissension, factions, and envy. We like to gloss over these but they are characteristics of the sinful nature as much as those other sins. Obviously we don't want any of this fruit, so we want to get good fruit instead. So, how do we do that?
One of the ways we try and get this good fruit is by changing what we do. This sounds good but this can be a pretty big problem. I recently read a book by Paul David Tripp called "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands". I highly recommend this book to anyone. In this book, Tripp describes something he calls "fruit stapling". Consider this: say you have an apple tree that is putting out small, sour, shriveled apples. You want big, gorgeous sweet ones. So, you go to the store, buy a bunch of wonderfully sweet apples, bring them home and, with your staple gun, proceed to staple those big apples on over top of the bad ones. Now your tree looks good.
But this is just as silly as gardeners painting the roses red. Eventually, even those red sweet apples will rot, just like the other ones. This is much like what we try doing with our spiritual fruit. We see a behavior is obviously undesirable so we try and replace it with something that we think is good. We strive with our strength and will power to put out those good fruits. But eventually, that good fruit will sour as well and we'll be back where we started from, maybe even worse.
Here's the point: the problem is not, ultimately, with the fruit. There is something else wrong.
Jesus knows something about this. In Luke 6:43-45 Jesus points out that you cannot get good fruit from bad trees or bad fruit from good trees. Nor can you get fruit at all from plants that don't produce fruit.
And here's that point: The problem is not with the fruit, it is with the tree.
As Jesus points out, you can get bad fruit from fruit trees as well. The problem in those cases is that the trees have problems with their roots. The stuff that the trees are planted in are causing the problems with the fruit. There are a number of Scripture passages that point this out.
In the Parable of the Sower, we hear about seeds that fall on a number of different types of soil. One of those scenes is for seeds that fall on shallow ground. When trouble (the sun) comes along, they wilt and die because they did not have good roots. You cannot get good fruit from dead plants.
In Romans 11, Christians are compared to the branches on a vine. From that vine, they get all that they need to live and produce fruit. And that vine is, ultimately, getting what it needs from the roots. A branch that produces sub-standard fruit is not getting the right stuff because it is not getting properly fed from the roots...something is blocking it.
In Ephesians 3, Paul tells the church there that they are to be rooted and established in love. The implication is that there is something other than love in which they can be rooted. Roots planted somewhere that they shouldn't be will not produce the right kind of fruit.
Psalm 1 also talks about trees that produce. Trees planted by streams of water will never whither and will produce their fruit in season. Trees that aren't... well, they won't. Ultimately, again, it is the roots that are at the core. Those trees are getting fresh water and nutrients because of where they are planted.
We can talk all we want about these roots and fruits and things, but ultimately we want to solve the problem of bad fruit. How do we go about doing that? Obviously, "fruit stapling" is not the answer. For that matter, adding different fruit is not going to fix it, either. Scripture reading, prayer, etc., are all good things. But as the Pharisees in Jesus time found out, simply doing these good things was not enough to make the fruit any better. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a place for these "works", but by themselves, they are just more fruit stapling.
As I pointed out in Idols of the Heart, Ezekiel found out the problem. God is not as much interested in what people are doing as he is in what is in their hearts. While the elders that approached Ezekiel in Ezekiel 14:1-5 probably were doing a lot of good things, God recognized that there was something there that wasn't supposed to be. In fact, there are multiple passages in the Old Testament prophets that point out that these "good" things are in fact unwelcome without the proper heart behind them. Isaiah 1 is especially harsh. In these cases, the fruit was, again, rotten because there was something wrong at the roots: idols of the heart.
An idol is, at it's simplest, an object of love, devotion, and worship. Specifically, it is an object to which we give love, devotion, and worship to that should be given to God. We are told in Deuteronmy 6 that we are to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." Therefore, if we are giving any of that love to something else, we are making that something else into an idol.
What are some of these idols? Here's a short list:
Any one of these things can become something that we spend a lot of time on. We can love family to the extent that we ignore what we're supposed to be doing for the kingdom. For that matter, we can reverse it and work so hard for the church that we ignore our family. Our seeking out of pleasure can bring on addictive behaviour as we look for the next high. Tradition gets in the way of hearing God and seeing his diversity when we complain "That's not the way we've always done it." Even the traditional Mennonite peace position can be a problem when we decide that someone is somehow less of a Christian because they don't believe exactly as we do.
Ultimately, these idols give rise to the fruits that were mentioned in Galations: hatred, dissension, fits of rage, envy, depression, factions, and even apathy.
So how do we change our roots?
There is one answer. It's very simple.
We can't.
Only God can.
There is nothing we can humanly do to knock over those idols and replant our roots. Only God, the being who created our heart has the power to change the heart. By God's grace and mercy, we can receive the transforming power of his Spirit in our lives. We have access to a power we have not had access to before. And that access comes through a relationship with our creator. For our heart idols and our roots to be changed, transplanted, and transformed we need to spend time in that relationship. Just as a husband and a wife find themselves changed by the acts of love they give to each other, so do we find ourselves changed as we relate to God.
So how do we do that? Here is where those other behaviors come in. Again, these are not to replace the "bad" fruit. No fruit stapling allowed. Instead, these are the tools you use to cultivate the soil, the roots, of the tree of your heart. Spend time in conversation with God, asking him to show you those idols and root issues. Read the scriptures, seeking to better understand yourself and your relationship to God. Meditate, listening to God and preparing yourself to hear his word. And spend time with other believers in open relationship and accountability, accepting counsel and help where needed, in fact even seeking it out. A warning comes with this in that these can be idols themselves. Be careful you don't set aside your knowledge of scripture or your excellent prayer life as something that you spend love and devotion on.
This post is not something that I’m writing as if I stand perfectly in the eyes of God. Yes, by grace I’m saved. But the Spirit of God is still working with me to transform my heart and to make me holy. We are told to “Be holy as I am holy.” Many of those idols that I mentioned are ones that I have recognized in myself. I have committed to my wife, to my family, and most importantly, to my God, to no longer worship these idols of the heart. There is a lot of cultivating that I need to do in my life. I’m closely examining my fruits, my behaviors, and looking for why I am doing the things I am doing. Am I doing them out of worship and love of an idol? Or am I doing them out of love for God? Sometimes this is not so clear cut. And that is where I need God’s grace, God’s Spirit, and God’s body to help me to restore my roots by those streams of water so that the fruit that I produce will be that good Spiritual fruit.
What I leave you with is the same question I had to answer. What idols do you have that need to be overturned? I hope that in some way I've helped you have an awareness of your fruits, your roots, and what things in your life may be preventing your roots from drinking deep from those streams of water provided by God.
A number of years ago (before my time, actually) Walt Disney Studios adapted a movie from Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland". It is one of my daughter's favorites. Here is a clip from that movie.
Now, what makes this scene funny is the ridiculous idea that, to fix the problem of planting the wrong kind of roses, instead of changing the bushes, they slather them with red paint (and themselves in the process).
Before we get too critical of those poor gardeners, we need to recognize that Christians have much the same problem. Frequently in scripture, the behaviors that we exhibit are called "fruit". We are in a constant struggle to make sure that the fruit we produce is the good fruit that we want to produce. So, we need to figure out how that fruit is produced and what determines the quality of that fruit. Let's look at what the Bible has to say about Fruit.
In Galations 5:22-25 we find a passage that, to many Christians, is very familiar. It describes the fruit that we are supposed to exhibit. And we try really hard to do this. However, this passage, in the TNIV translation, begins with the little word "but". And, when we see words like this in Scripture, it is important to look back and see what was said before.
In Galations 5:19-21 we find other fruit. This is the fruit of the sinful nature. Along with the "big" sins such as sexual immorality, drunkeness, and impurity we find things like discord, dissension, factions, and envy. We like to gloss over these but they are characteristics of the sinful nature as much as those other sins. Obviously we don't want any of this fruit, so we want to get good fruit instead. So, how do we do that?
One of the ways we try and get this good fruit is by changing what we do. This sounds good but this can be a pretty big problem. I recently read a book by Paul David Tripp called "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands". I highly recommend this book to anyone. In this book, Tripp describes something he calls "fruit stapling". Consider this: say you have an apple tree that is putting out small, sour, shriveled apples. You want big, gorgeous sweet ones. So, you go to the store, buy a bunch of wonderfully sweet apples, bring them home and, with your staple gun, proceed to staple those big apples on over top of the bad ones. Now your tree looks good.
But this is just as silly as gardeners painting the roses red. Eventually, even those red sweet apples will rot, just like the other ones. This is much like what we try doing with our spiritual fruit. We see a behavior is obviously undesirable so we try and replace it with something that we think is good. We strive with our strength and will power to put out those good fruits. But eventually, that good fruit will sour as well and we'll be back where we started from, maybe even worse.
Here's the point: the problem is not, ultimately, with the fruit. There is something else wrong.
Jesus knows something about this. In Luke 6:43-45 Jesus points out that you cannot get good fruit from bad trees or bad fruit from good trees. Nor can you get fruit at all from plants that don't produce fruit.
And here's that point: The problem is not with the fruit, it is with the tree.
As Jesus points out, you can get bad fruit from fruit trees as well. The problem in those cases is that the trees have problems with their roots. The stuff that the trees are planted in are causing the problems with the fruit. There are a number of Scripture passages that point this out.
In the Parable of the Sower, we hear about seeds that fall on a number of different types of soil. One of those scenes is for seeds that fall on shallow ground. When trouble (the sun) comes along, they wilt and die because they did not have good roots. You cannot get good fruit from dead plants.
In Romans 11, Christians are compared to the branches on a vine. From that vine, they get all that they need to live and produce fruit. And that vine is, ultimately, getting what it needs from the roots. A branch that produces sub-standard fruit is not getting the right stuff because it is not getting properly fed from the roots...something is blocking it.
In Ephesians 3, Paul tells the church there that they are to be rooted and established in love. The implication is that there is something other than love in which they can be rooted. Roots planted somewhere that they shouldn't be will not produce the right kind of fruit.
Psalm 1 also talks about trees that produce. Trees planted by streams of water will never whither and will produce their fruit in season. Trees that aren't... well, they won't. Ultimately, again, it is the roots that are at the core. Those trees are getting fresh water and nutrients because of where they are planted.
We can talk all we want about these roots and fruits and things, but ultimately we want to solve the problem of bad fruit. How do we go about doing that? Obviously, "fruit stapling" is not the answer. For that matter, adding different fruit is not going to fix it, either. Scripture reading, prayer, etc., are all good things. But as the Pharisees in Jesus time found out, simply doing these good things was not enough to make the fruit any better. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a place for these "works", but by themselves, they are just more fruit stapling.
As I pointed out in Idols of the Heart, Ezekiel found out the problem. God is not as much interested in what people are doing as he is in what is in their hearts. While the elders that approached Ezekiel in Ezekiel 14:1-5 probably were doing a lot of good things, God recognized that there was something there that wasn't supposed to be. In fact, there are multiple passages in the Old Testament prophets that point out that these "good" things are in fact unwelcome without the proper heart behind them. Isaiah 1 is especially harsh. In these cases, the fruit was, again, rotten because there was something wrong at the roots: idols of the heart.
An idol is, at it's simplest, an object of love, devotion, and worship. Specifically, it is an object to which we give love, devotion, and worship to that should be given to God. We are told in Deuteronmy 6 that we are to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." Therefore, if we are giving any of that love to something else, we are making that something else into an idol.
What are some of these idols? Here's a short list:
- Comfort
- Pleasure
- Control
- Family
- Church
- Peace
- Politics
- Tradition
- Being a Victim
Any one of these things can become something that we spend a lot of time on. We can love family to the extent that we ignore what we're supposed to be doing for the kingdom. For that matter, we can reverse it and work so hard for the church that we ignore our family. Our seeking out of pleasure can bring on addictive behaviour as we look for the next high. Tradition gets in the way of hearing God and seeing his diversity when we complain "That's not the way we've always done it." Even the traditional Mennonite peace position can be a problem when we decide that someone is somehow less of a Christian because they don't believe exactly as we do.
Ultimately, these idols give rise to the fruits that were mentioned in Galations: hatred, dissension, fits of rage, envy, depression, factions, and even apathy.
So how do we change our roots?
There is one answer. It's very simple.
We can't.
Only God can.
There is nothing we can humanly do to knock over those idols and replant our roots. Only God, the being who created our heart has the power to change the heart. By God's grace and mercy, we can receive the transforming power of his Spirit in our lives. We have access to a power we have not had access to before. And that access comes through a relationship with our creator. For our heart idols and our roots to be changed, transplanted, and transformed we need to spend time in that relationship. Just as a husband and a wife find themselves changed by the acts of love they give to each other, so do we find ourselves changed as we relate to God.
So how do we do that? Here is where those other behaviors come in. Again, these are not to replace the "bad" fruit. No fruit stapling allowed. Instead, these are the tools you use to cultivate the soil, the roots, of the tree of your heart. Spend time in conversation with God, asking him to show you those idols and root issues. Read the scriptures, seeking to better understand yourself and your relationship to God. Meditate, listening to God and preparing yourself to hear his word. And spend time with other believers in open relationship and accountability, accepting counsel and help where needed, in fact even seeking it out. A warning comes with this in that these can be idols themselves. Be careful you don't set aside your knowledge of scripture or your excellent prayer life as something that you spend love and devotion on.
This post is not something that I’m writing as if I stand perfectly in the eyes of God. Yes, by grace I’m saved. But the Spirit of God is still working with me to transform my heart and to make me holy. We are told to “Be holy as I am holy.” Many of those idols that I mentioned are ones that I have recognized in myself. I have committed to my wife, to my family, and most importantly, to my God, to no longer worship these idols of the heart. There is a lot of cultivating that I need to do in my life. I’m closely examining my fruits, my behaviors, and looking for why I am doing the things I am doing. Am I doing them out of worship and love of an idol? Or am I doing them out of love for God? Sometimes this is not so clear cut. And that is where I need God’s grace, God’s Spirit, and God’s body to help me to restore my roots by those streams of water so that the fruit that I produce will be that good Spiritual fruit.
What I leave you with is the same question I had to answer. What idols do you have that need to be overturned? I hope that in some way I've helped you have an awareness of your fruits, your roots, and what things in your life may be preventing your roots from drinking deep from those streams of water provided by God.
