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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 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