Speaker 1: 0:00

Good morning, all right, I sure thought I just had a moment ago when he was doing the offering he asked me to. Jacob asked me to talk about oaks of righteousness. I love trees and one of the things I'm going to touch on is the fruit. I'm going to talk about trees and the growing of trees and how you know the seed, the soil, the roots, the growth that comes about being fruitfulness, the fruit of the Spirit, which I'll get on in a couple of moments. One of them is goodness. But Fruit of the Spirit, which I'll get on in a couple moments. One of them is goodness. But I have heard recently that that goodness would be better translated generosity. So you know, this is a generous church, and not just with your money but with your time. That's fruit, that's fruitfulness.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Now let's get back on to the tree thing. I love trees. I've always loved trees. I grew up in Arizona and I'll show you an Arizona tree. If we have a picture, that is an Arizona tree. So when you're raised with trees like that, you look for real trees. You spend the rest of your life that's my life looking for real trees. That's a real tree.

Speaker 1: 1:01

That is in Tennessee, and I'll tell you a couple things about trees that I learned out in the desert. One under that shadow, the shadow of the most high. There it's cool, it's cool. And at nighttime, when it gets cold, those lower branches, you can snap those puppies off and make a fire. So, you know, when I look at trees I think of the 91st Psalm. You know, he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I think of those people in Exodus wandering around in the wilderness, following a cloud by day and a fire by night. That cloud, it was shade, and out there in the wilderness, I bet you, they were all kind of gathering on the shady side, you know. And then I don't know if there'd be a shady side. I mean, it's bright light, it is a bright light, and then at night they had heat and light. I always thought about that, you know.

Speaker 1: 2:02

But even as big as that tree is, I want to show you another tree. You know, this is what I would call a tree. This thing is what they call an American chestnut. Now, I don't know how many of you heard about this. I'm surprised more people haven't heard about American chestnuts. They were what's called the Redwood of the East. They were what's called the Redwood of the East and around up until about 1910, there was, they estimate, about 4 billion of them between Maine and Mississippi. These are humongous bigger than any other tree on the East Coast by far. And there's another picture. Show this next picture.

Speaker 1: 2:41

These chestnuts were like they were nutritious. People would gather at this time of year when they're ready, and they would throw rocks into this tree to knock these chestnuts out. Poor people would gather them because they would take the nuts out and make them over, take the nuts and make a powder. The Indians lived off of this stuff for centuries probably, and this picture is just it's an old picture obviously of people gathering chestnuts. It used to be a community thing. They would go out and gather and get their nutrition off these huge trees.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Now, unfortunately, what happened with them is in around. I guess it's around 1910 or so. There was a virus they call it blight from I think it was China came into New York and infected these trees and within 20 or 30 years they were all gone, killed them all off. They say it was the greatest ecological disaster on record. When you think about how big that tree is how much wood. I mean you build a whole building off of one tree easily and why we don't hear about that more often, I don't know. But it's just and this really has nothing to do with my message, but it is interesting and it's something I think we should think about. And here's what's interesting about it and this will kind of tie in with the messages is the roots of the American chestnuts are still alive. The blight has not killed the roots, but the problem is, as soon as something sprouts and gets about three or four feet tall, it dies, so they don't grow to become those mammoth trees.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I don't want to talk about trees, I want to talk about you know the seed, you know the first part, then the soil it gets planted in, then the growth in the fruit. So when Jacob asked me to preach this message, you know I don't really remember Oaks of Righteousness' message. I think I remember vaguely a youth telling me about it afterwards. You remember the Oaks message. I think Matt did that. But I've preached a lot about trees because, like I say, I'm kind of fascinated by them and there's so much in Scripture about trees. They're in Genesis, they're in Revelation and they're all through it. You know.

Speaker 1: 4:57

But I'm going to point out some things that I think are kind of interesting and are helpful, hopefully, for each and every one of us regarding trees. And it's starting with a scripture that comes out of 1 Peter 1.23. And it is you have been regenerated. This is about I'm talking about the seed. Now you have been regenerated, not from a mortal origin, seed or sperm, which is interesting, but from one that is immortal by the ever-living and lasting word of God. It's like, in a sense, we're almost like Mary, you know, receiving the sperm of the Holy Spirit in us. There's like that seed of God that we receive. It's such, you know, that's kind of profound when you think about it. And there's some things that you know happen with seeds and nature that I want to mention here and kind of tie in with this One. And they tell us in the scripture that there's going to be a lot of verses that I'm not up here, I got a whole bunch of different verses in there but they tell us in scripture that a seed has to fall and die, it changes.

Speaker 1: 6:03

And scripture also talks about good soil, the hundredfold soil. Jesus tells us this parable of, you know, hard soil and rocky soil and stony soil and the good soil. Now, until you know past day or two, I never thought of something about the good soil that I think is important, about where that seed falls. Good soil is dead. There's a lot of death in it, but there's also a lot of life in it. Good soil is crawling with bacteria and organisms and it's all eating up stuff that has fallen and died in it. It's like when that seed of God falls into good soil where there's a lot of death around it, things start to grow and this is almost like a picture of the church.

Speaker 1: 6:48

If you, if everybody in here, if we, you know when we start dying to sin, there's some death taking place in our lives and you know Scripture talks about the power of death and the resurrection. You know that old seed when it dies it's because we're kind of taking up our cross and resurrection power starts to grow in us If we are surrounded in good soil by people that have kind of death operating in their lives on a regular basis. They are dying to the temptations and the sin that are coming up. They are fertile soil for that seed to grow. That seed will grow quicker. So you know the soil is, you know, critical to the growth of that seed of God that falls into us.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Going on a little bit further here, you know, what is also essential is the roots, the connection between that seed that used to be, and is now being transformed into something totally new. You know, old has died, the new has come is those roots are just kind of spreading and growing. But what you got to watch out for is what the author of Hebrews talks about as the root of bitterness. Because you know, if we have like bitterness in our hearts, if we're upset with somebody and we haven't forgiven them and we're bitter against them, that's not good soil, that's not good root. You know that's not going to be really fruitful for the kingdom of God. It might be fruitful for the kingdom of darkness, but it's not fruitful for the kingdom of God. You know we need to be careful about how we send out our roots.

Speaker 1: 8:24

Now Scripture talks about in Ephesians 3,. There's a beautiful poem and a lot of these. I'm going to just pray this over the church, because this is beautiful, it's a poem, but it's actually a prayer. It's Ephesians 3, 14, and it basically is a prayer over this church and over our lives. For this reason, I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, from whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named, that he might grant us, according to his riches and glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in our inner man. That christ might dwell in our hearts through faith and that we, being rooted and grounded in love, might be able to comprehend what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, the love of christ, and to be filled with the fullness of god. None to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, that we're able to ask or think to him. Be glory in this church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. It's a beautiful prayer, you know. That's why I've memorized it, but the key thing to it all is being rooted and grounded in love. You know that is the critical point there.

Speaker 1: 9:29

So we're talking about roots and one thing here's another random story about roots the biggest organism in the world. I spoke a message. We go to Mazatlan with our church and I got to preach to Mazatlan, like 15 years ago, and at that time the biggest organism on this planet was a tree, but it wasn't one tree, it was a grove of trees. It was a bunch of trees. They actually named this grove Pando P-A-N-D-O. It was an aspen grove in Colorado. All these aspen trees white aspen trees are beautiful. I love them. They're white, their leaves rustle in the wind. They're just cool trees. They're all related. All had the same DNA. Their roots were like all connected. Isn't that a picture of how the church should be? Your roots, each and every one of you, are connected with the local, with Jacob, with the leaderships, with all the different small groups. With each other. There is like a connection.

Speaker 1: 10:30

People have been studying and learning that trees actually communicate with each other. There is like a connection. People have been studying and learning that trees actually communicate with each other. I don't know if you ever heard this, but through their roots they kind of like there's like big mother trees and they see little sprouts coming up, little trees. If they know they like need magnesium or zinc or something, they somehow get it that way and they have. You know, they buy the isotope tracing and all these kinds of weird science they have. They realize that trees, actually their roots, communicate. Isn't that amazing? I think that's kind of a good picture of what happens in our church.

Speaker 1: 11:02

So, moving right along, talked about the seeds, how the seeds die, how they got to have good growth, how they got to have good roots shooting out. They got to be rooted and grounded in love. When you have all those things going forth, start to grow. Now there's a couple of psalms I want to throw out here about growth. The first one, psalm 1, is one of my favorites.

Speaker 1: 11:23

I'll go ahead and quote it for you too, but it talks about trees, and that's why I'm bringing it here today. Let's see if I can remember how it says Blessed is a man I'm going to paraphrase a little or woman or child who listens not to the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his or their delight is in the law of the Lord, and in it they meditate day and night. And so be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and its leaves also shall not wither, but it goes on to talk With the ungodly. That's not so. They're like the chaff which the wind blows away. They shall not stand in a judgment, but God knows the ways of the righteous and the ways of the ungodly shall perish.

Speaker 1: 12:06

That's kind of a scary scripture, the scary parts of it. But being rooted and grounded, connected in the river, being fruitful in season. It's a beautiful psalm, 92nd Psalm. There's another line which I've been thinking a lot about lately. This one I'm just kind of learning.

Speaker 1: 12:22

I don't know the whole psalm by any means, but there's like four verses and I don't even know the exact address, but I know it's in the 92nd Psalm. It says the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. They shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age, hopefully, lord. And they shall bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord, he is our God. There is no unrighteousness in him. He is our rock.

Speaker 1: 12:59

I messed that last verse up a little bit, but you get the gist. So there's just like a fruitfulness and a growth that is going on there. Another passage, it kind of goes on with growth. There's a couple more. We're going to touch on this. It's Isaiah 55, and it talks about basically the word, and this is a chapter I've memorized, but I don't think I'll quote the whole thing because for time constraints. But from about verse 10 on it says as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and water the earth and make it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth, for it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I have sent it. And you shall go out with joy and you should be led out with peace, and all the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the last half of Isaiah 55. And because of my fascination with trees, I kind of looked up myrtle and cypress trees to kind of see what they're used for. And then back in those days, the cypress tree, the wood, was used to panel the tabernacle and the temple, but it was also used to make instruments like the lyre and the lute, the things they would play. And the myrtle, I can't. I'm not sure about this, but I think it is what myrrh is made from, like frankincense and myrrh the incense. So basically, you know, these trees will grow up and they'll be instruments of worship. You know of incense, like to let incense arise, like we just sang, and that's, you know, from trees of righteousness, and we grow into that. Hopefully we become instruments of worship. You know Sweet incense, like we were just singing. Let incense arise from you at all times. That's Isaiah 55.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Isaiah 61. This is where this whole topic came from, really Oaks of Righteousness, and this is one I've learned. I'm not going to go through a chapter again. It says 61, 1 through 4. And I love to pray for pastors, I love to pray for people. Period. I love to pray, period. I just I love God's presence and if you don't pray for people on a normal basis, you know, I would encourage you to start doing it, because God will move through you and if you love his presence, you want him moving through you. Start praying for him.

Speaker 1: 15:34

That's one of the reasons I learned scriptures, you know, so I can speak God's word, I can declare his word. You know there's one psalm this is going off a tangent, but the latest psalm I'm learning is the 34th psalm and it goes something like this I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord, and the humble shall hear of it and be glad. That's just like the first two verses, but there's like power in that. I mean I went to like a men's retreat. I got away, we had some free time and I went into like their auditorium, like this, and I was running around in there. I will bless the Lord at all times and it's like I can feel the presence of God. I think angels were applauding and demons were trembling, I don't know. But I felt good and I would encourage you. You know, write the word on your heart and declare it, even if nobody's around. You know, declare it. There's power in that and it's just that's why I'm learning.

Speaker 1: 16:31

But also in prayer, you know, I ask people to Casey, pray for me just a minute ago, pray for me right, quick. And I do that all the time and I pray for people. I used to be really bad about it. I mean I would grab somebody at Walmart or you know wherever you know, say, can I pray for you? You know, I could tell some stories about that. We didn't have time for that.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Okay, isaiah 61, verses 1 through 4. I learned this so I could pray it over my pastor, andy, fluently, and it's basically this. I'm going to change it a little bit. This is the same passage that Jesus used when he came out of the wilderness and he started his ministry. And he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, I'm going, says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I'm going to say the Spirit of the Lord is upon you. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to proclaim new, to proclaim healing to the poor.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Let me start over in this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to proclaim Okay, let me do it the other way. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of prison doors to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of our God's vengeance, to comfort those who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, oil of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be oaks of righteousness. The planting of our Lord that he might be glorified.

Speaker 1: 17:59

Beautiful passage. It might be oaks of righteousness. Now, technically the word is trees of righteousness. I changed it to oaks because I thought it just sounded more powerful. But that's before I saw these American chestnuts and I don't know how well that. That's before I saw these American chestnuts and I don't know how well that works. They might be American chestnuts of righteousness. Yeah, never mind, I don't think that flies, okay. So anyways, you know it's the growth and the anointing that kind of gets you to that place where we become fruitful and the Spirit of the Lord is upon us. You know where we're rooted and grounded in love, by the rivers and waters. It's kind of like the rivers flow out of Ezekiel's temple and moving right along Galatians 5.22, which I touched a little bit on.

Speaker 1: 18:41

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, long-suffering and self-control. And, as I mentioned a couple minutes ago, I heard just recently, and I haven't searched it out, but I think that goodness is really the same as generous, generosity, being generous. I think when you're generous it glorifies God out of love. Love gives. You know when we give out of love, not out of you know, like trying to gain something. Not out of. You know. You know some people say well, if I love, then I'll receive, if I give I'll receive. That's the wrong motive. But when you give out of compassion and love and caring, I think that's fruitfulness for God, that's fruit for God.

Speaker 1: 19:35

And one other passage kind of talks about being fruitful and about the love of God is in John, chapter 15, where Jesus not talking about a tree, he's talking about a vine. He says I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me will be fruitful. And then he goes on to say whoever abides in my love will be fruitful. You know, so it's like this picture of trees, it's like being rooted and grounded in God and in his word and in love and letting that just rise up through us to where we can be fruitful. Now Jesus also says something at that point which is I'm going to kind of transition that was basically the first part of the message the fruits, the roots, the growth, the fruit. You know I want to talk a little bit about the environment that those trees grow in. And you know what Jesus said at that point. He says if you're not fruitful, I'll prune you. You know what Jesus said at that point. He says if you're not fruitful, I'll prune you, cut you back. And even when you are fruitful, he says he'll cut you back, prune you.

Speaker 1: 20:39

You know so pruning, yeah, I got this tree in my front yard that I pruned last year and it's got these obnoxious little red berries that I hate. And this thing is like you might remember, this tree it's right and kind of right by my front porch. You know the sidewalk and the front porch and the tree with all the red berries falling on the sidewalk and the front porch and tracking into where my new carpet is that's what's new 10 years ago Drives me nuts every year. So and I pruned it back a couple years ago I didn't think much about it. That tree has more berries than ever around it. It has gone crazy. You know I did learn firsthand what pruning can do. Yeah, now I've actually went and bought this is going on tangent again bought a net that goes underneath it that they use for olives olive trees to collect olives. Haven't gotten to putting it up there yet, but I got the net in the garage. But that's a whole, nother story.

Speaker 1: 21:30

But so part of our environment is being pruned. You know Other things. You know we go through different seasons and this is kind of critical to know, because you know, springtime is when we're fruitful and everything is good. Fall things kind of dry up. There's not as much fresh water, fresh rain coming into our lives, coming into our, coming on to us. Fall it's kind of colorful, that's kind of like I don't know it's. Things are starting to get old and things are starting to come back. The fluids are kind of draining down. You know things are, leaves are falling. You know winter it's cold like nothing, it's like dead. You know, waiting for spring to roll around again.

Speaker 1: 22:16

And if you've been with the Lord for a long time, you know that there are spiritual seasons we go through. You know, and if you want to grow strong in the Lord, you just got to go through the winters. You got to go through you know the falls. And I would go farther Even in the wintertime you need to be praising and rejoicing in faith that spring is coming, that dawn is coming, morning's coming, the sun's going to come up, it's going to warm up. This too will pass. You just got to bear with it and go through it.

Speaker 1: 22:54

And there's other factors, you know there's all the different seasons you got to think about. But there's also the whole issue of droughts and floods and wind hurricanes. I was, you know, a few years ago I think it was Hurricane Isaac that came through down in Hampton Roads, where we were at, and it just dumped rain. I mean it rained like crazy and saturated the ground before the hurricane came. So when the hurricane came, all this ground was totally saturated and more rain came down. All these huge trees all over Hampton Roads, big, huge mammoth trees, were falling down Because their roots, what they were rooted into before, was just saturated, you know, so soaked that it wasn't good solid ground. So too much and I'm an RN actually, but I was retired RN now Water can be toxic, you know we need water.

Speaker 1: 23:54

We're like 70, 80, depending on how old you are. If you're six months old you're like 90%. If you're 90 years old you're like 40% water. But you need water. But you can get too much and spiritually you can just get too comfortable. You can get too much just overfed to where, if you're not careful, you're going to fall out.

Speaker 1: 24:16

We need those times of drought. In those times of drought where nothing's going on, our roots go deep, they anchor us better. We need that balance. We need to be aware of the seasons. Unfortunately, we are going to get pruned, especially if we the seasons. Unfortunately we are going to get pruned. Especially if we're fruitful we're going to get pruned. That's what jesus said. We need to be pressing through the droughts, but careful when the rains are too, too intense.

Speaker 1: 24:45

And I guess if you're on American chestnut need to be worried about blight. It's hard to believe that something as small as like a virus or a fungus I'm not even sure what it was could take out something as big as those trees were. Something that little it's like a little lie maybe could come and wipe out a whole forest, a whole east coast of beautiful trees. It's amazing, you know, something that small can do that much damage. So I think we've got to really be careful. I think you know I hadn't thought about that blight as a lie until just now. I'd like to learn from God how to guard our tongues, our mouths, our words are so powerful. We have no idea. Be careful, just, you know, speak truth and honestly and lovingly.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Having talked all about these trees and, as I mentioned before, there's trees in Genesis and there's trees in Revelation Well, there was two trees in the garden. It's kind of funny because when we came up here I asked my wife to make a reservation. We came up last night so she came and told me we got a reservation, a double tree and I'm thinking you're kidding, but there's two trees in the garden. I got to speak yesterday morning. We have like a pray first and I was praying and there's something that's been on my heart and a lot of it comes from, like I just said, the 34th Psalm, which is what I'm learning right now I will bless the Lord at all times. There's something powerful when you make that declaration I will. So I started doing a study on the word will W-I-L-L.

Speaker 1: 26:39

Through scripture, and you know, in Isaiah, chapter 14, lucifer in heaven says I will be like the most high. Not a good thing to do. That's where the fall came, most high. Not a good thing to do. That's where the fall came. Then he goes and tells adam and eve you will be like god if you eat this, so to eat this stuff. And then we know the story from then on.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Paul in romans 7, this mighty man of god who's written half the New Testament, excuse me, he talks about what I will to do, I will not do, and what I will not to do, I will do. What is going on with this? You know how wretched man that I am. I thank God for Jesus Christ and I thank God for Jesus Christ. It's will that we all battle with Jesus. He goes to the garden and he's praying, and it says it's in Luke 22 40-46. He prays in agony to the point where actually the blood flows. He starts to sweat, blood Sweat, big drops of blood. You know it makes me.

Speaker 1: 28:00

You know, the author of Hebrews tells us Jesus was tempted in every way, like we were, and he had to battle his will and God's will. That battle going on that we, each and every one of us, are facing on a regular basis, and he did it to. It's interesting that that's the first place you kind of hear of the blood of the Lamb of Christ flowing Makes you wonder if there's a connection there. You know, because we know he did the right thing. He chose God's will to a very big cost for him. So there's two trees in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

Speaker 1: 28:41

You know, lucifer is telling Eve you know, eat from this and you will be like God, you will know right from wrong. You will know good from bad. Basically, tell him you will be a know-it-all, he'll know it all. How many of us have that attitude? I do. I don't need that, I know better. And God's saying that's not how it's done. He says my tree, the tree of life, and I thought about this. You know it's like. The will of God is what flows up through our roots, up through our lives, in our hearts, in our minds. That's what I want flowing up through me. But so often I eat from the wrong tree. I think I can figure this one out. I know better. And there's two trees. But a good way to look at it is looking at like there's two wells. You know W E L L and we can draw water from his trees the well of the life, the tree of life, or the well of our knowledge of good and evil.

Speaker 1: 30:07

Trust jesus. It's really the bottom line of that is we choose to trust god. It's really the bottom line of that. We choose to trust God. And at the very beginning, when that seed gets dropped into us from God, it's so hard to comprehend because we know it all. I'm not ready, I'm not good enough. I've got to take care of this. I don't have time for that. We've got all these things going on. I don't have time for that. We got all these things going on. Instead of just realizing, your will be done. You know, I don't care if it even means death to this seed. Your will be done If we're surrounded in good soil by people that are saying your will be done. God, I'm dying to this selflessness. I'm dying to my own will. I'm dying to think I know it all. I'm trusting you, god. You will be done. When we're surrounded people with that mentality, when we're rooted and grounded in love, we are like that aspen grove, just growing and fruitful. The question is whose will have you chosen?

Speaker 1: 31:21

Now, I'm guessing pretty much everybody here has chosen or is seriously considering choosing to drink, to eat, to be nourished from the tree of life, because I believe what happens is we can become the tree of life. We can bear fruit which brings Him glory. You know, the seeds that fall into that ground come from us. The seed is hidden in the fruit. When we show love when it's not expected, when we show joy when there shouldn't be any joy, when we have peace in the midst of a storm. We have love, joy, peace, patience and kindness and goodness, generosity. We have long-suffering faithfulness, all the fruit of the Spirit. People see that around us, and especially when it's like not expected, because when we're showing that it's not expected, death is at work there. So is resurrection power, and people eat of those seeds and we spread his seed when we're fruitful.

Speaker 1: 32:48

But to be fruitful we need to choose the tree of life, because it is God moving through us. It's not for us to figure it out, it's not for us to figure out the right way or the wrong way. It's for us to just God. Your will be done. I give you my life, I'm yours, I'm yours.

Speaker 1: 33:17

One last thought about will I love Romans, chapter 12, and in it the first two verses. It says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your regional back to service. That you be not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I read something in a commentary on that recently that I've been thinking a lot about the only way you will prove the will of God is by experiencing it. The only way you will prove the will of God is by going through it and doing it.

Speaker 1: 34:13

There's a story in the Old Testament about Moses saying show me your glory, lord. And Moses tells him no, nobody can see me coming, but you can see me going when I've passed by. Then you'll see my glory. We have to step out in faith, trusting God, you know, and we will see his good and perfect will done, and that's what we want. That's a fruit we want. Jacob, you can come up and pretty much finish up here. Thank you for the privilege of this.

Speaker 2: 34:48

Put up for Pete man. What a message. What a message. Hey, you can stay on the stage with me, but let's go ahead and pray, and this is getting a posture. Let's posture our hearts for the Lord.

Speaker 2: 35:00

As Pete was preaching, man, I just really felt the Holy Spirit very strong on that virus, that fungus, whatever it was, that knocked out those big trees with a little thing that knocked out those big trees with a little thing that knocked out a big thing. And I just feel like the Holy Spirit is saying there's some people here you have believed a little lie for way too long. There's been a lie that you have believed for way too long and there's been a and there's. There could be generational consequences if you keep accepting that lie as truth. So, holy Spirit, we say your truth, your truth.

Speaker 2: 35:38

Lord, I even feel like there's someone who wants to give up on counseling. It's been hard, some of the stuff that you've been walking through. Also, I feel like there's someone who they're hesitant on starting counseling because they don't want to walk through it, and I feel like that's what the Lord wants to prune. He wants to prune some things For the person that's struggling in it. Lord, we pray a brave heart, courage to keep going to that place, and we pray freedom and victory. And for the person that's been hesitant on going to start talking about some things that are hurtful, we pray a brave heart in Jesus' name, courage, a brave heart in Jesus' name, courage. And we say enough is enough. The enemy will not have another day of victory. In Jesus' name and Lord, I just feel the Holy Spirit, just that root of bitterness, bitterness towards a spouse, bitterness towards a parent. It is producing fruit that you do not want. So, lord, we pray healing over that root of bitterness. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. And we say thank you, jesus, that you went to the cross for us, that you loved us so much that you thought about us while you were on that cross, for the joy set before you. You endured the cross. That joy was us, lord. So we thank you, lord.

Speaker 2: 37:39

You may be in here today. You're like that sounds good, jacob, and that sounds like a good message, but I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, maybe for the first time, or maybe you want to recommit your life back to Jesus. If that's you. I want to pray with you. I'm going to ask you to take a step of faith. I'm going to have you come up front, nothing like that, but right where you are, in your chair, if you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life. On three, I just want you to toss your hand up in the air so I can see who I'm praying for. One, two, three, amen, amen, all across this room, amen, just right where you are. You can pray this prayer with me. You can say it out loud or you can say it in your heart. Say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust in you. Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.