Idk2024-02-21- The Example In The Tree

The speaker starts by expressing a burden for a soul and turning to Psalm 52. They discuss the wickedness of a man named Doeg and how God will destroy him. They then shift to talking about the example of the olive tree, which represents trust in God's mercy. They explain the characteristics of the olive tree and how believers are like it, flourishing in God's house. They contrast this with the evil example of Doeg. The speaker emphasizes their own transformation and the importance of following God's will. I'm burdened tonight. Burdened for a soul. It's as simple as that. If you want to stand with me as we turn to Psalms, chapter number 52. Psalms, chapter number 52. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue diviseth mischiefs like a sharp razor. Working deceitfully, thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than speak righteousness. Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. Verse number 8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercies of God forever and ever. I will praise thee forever, because thou hast done it. And I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints. Father God, we ask you, Lord Jesus, to bring down the anointing, God. I pray, Lord Father, God, would you anoint this preacher as I stand up here and bring your word. God, I ask you, Lord Jesus, anoint these altars, Lord Father, God, anoint the ears to hear, God. Oh, let us keep our focus on you, God, as we go through this word of yours, God, and we use it as an example for us in this life. Lord God, bring us soul, God, I pray, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' holy name, I'll give you the glory and all the honor. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. May the honor be God's. Lord Jesus. I'm going to come with you for a title today, a very simple thought of the example is in the tree. The example is in the tree. Verse number eight, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. The writer of Psalms here, he was just talking to a man by the name of, I'll see, I'll turn to it so I can look at it and pronounce it correctly, D-O-E-G. So I'm going to say D-O-E-G, yeah, D-O-E-G. Thank you, Brother Tim. So I'm turning over to 1 Samuel, chapter number 22, verse number nine, then answered D-O-E-G, the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahithub, and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliath and the Philistine. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahithub, and his father's son, the priest that were in Nob, and they came, all of them, to the king. And Saul said, Here now, thou son of Ahithub, and he answered, Here am I, my lord. And if you can go down here to verse number 16, he said, And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn and slay the priest of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priest of the Lord. And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priest, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons, that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priest, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses, and sheep with the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahithub, named Barthah, escaped and fled after David." Note this part here. I'm going to read down to the end of the chapter. And Abhathar shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David said unto Abathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. So, verse number 23, abide with me, fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life. But with me thou shalt be in safeguard. But with me thou shalt be in safeguard. I'm going to go back over here to Psalms chapter number 52, and I'm going to focus mostly around number, verse number 8 and verse number 9. But the message that I'm coming to you guys with today is more or less of two worlds. And we see here and we read of Doeg, I think I'm pronouncing that right, here I am again. But he was an evil man. He was a wicked man, Brother Anthony. And he had evil in his heart. It says here, thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than speak righteousness is a sea law. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. Isn't it awful how a tongue can turn, a tongue can be used wrongfully? A person in themself, Brother Camden, that has no God, that has no grace, that has no Savior, that they have nothing, literally their tongue can be used for evil. They're lying. It says here, the lying, the deceitfulness. God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living. And the righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in the wickedness. I'm coming to you today with a thought. I was put onto this scripture, this text here about two or three weeks ago, and I've been just really pondering on it, and the Lord's been working with me on this. And verse number eight is where I lay to it at, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and forever. I got to looking into olive trees, saints, and olive tree is quite a peculiar tree. It's rather, I got lost in the details of it. It's one of the, and I wrote some of the stuff down here, and the olive tree itself is quite, it can live for a long time. Some say that it can live up to 500 to 1,500 years. There's some that say that there's still some in Greece that are 2,000 years old. They say that the tree is still living, and I'm not sure about that, but the scholars and the commentaries, they lay on that tree as in it's the longest living or one of the longest living trees that, I mean, if you take care of it and you groom it, and you take care of it, it lasts forever. I'm looking at this tree, and the tree, if you look at the tree, it's got, in my research with it, the tree itself has the long little green leaves on it, and the cool part about this tree is it has the green leaves year around. They don't lose the leaves. It's in climates like in Greece and places like that, it can be grown in California where the climate stays warm. They say that you can pretty much talk that, grow that tree pretty much anywhere as long as you keep it in a warm climate, but where it comes from, it is a tree that, and a lot of times, Brother Camden, they said that the bark twists the tree, the trunk of the tree is a little twisted, and as it's older, or as the tree is young, it's smooth barked, and as it matures, Brother Jameson, the bark dries out, it cracks the tree. It depends on how it's been taken care of, Brother Camden, and the older that tree gets, the leaves still stay green, but that tree and that trunk, it tells the story of the tree, so it's in the tree itself, and I'm coming to you guys today with a thought in my mind that that's us as a spiritual. We are the trees. We are the trees. We are the olive tree, Brother Camden. It says here, but I am like the green olive tree, and I'm going to turn down to Psalms chapter number 93, or 92, and verse number 13. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing, to shew that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. I'm going to take us to a thought there. The olive tree, as we read here in verse number 8 of 52, the olive tree, I am like an olive tree in the house of God, and we look down here in later on in Psalms, and we see that there's more examples there of a tree. You go up above verse number 13, and it talks a little bit more. My eyes also shall see my desire on my enemies, and my ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in the Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. What do we thrive on? What's our relationship in Christ thriving on? It's thriving on us, Brother Quentin, to thrive towards. We're looking for certain things. We're looking for strength from God. He gives us that faith to move on. He gives us that courage, that strength, but I'm here to tell you today that we read in the very first part of this message and this text that I read from, we read in the very first part of chapter number 52 of how there's a man, and his name is Doab, and he is a evil man. He is a wicked man, and he has evil in his heart, and that is an option that I could have had. It's exactly who I was, Brother Camden. I was a person that had a lying tongue. I had a deceitful heart. I had all those things, but there was a mercy that come in. God come in, and he saved me by his grace, and I'm here to tell you tonight that you have two examples here. One is evil. One that ends in evil. The commentaries said that Doab died when he was 34 years old, and some say it's a little mixed up, so I didn't find it in the Bible. That's one of my big things is I'll use commentaries, but if I can't find it in the scripture, then I don't like to exactly example it, but they say that his years were around 34 years of age, and he didn't live that long, and we know the story of David and how David was a man after God's own heart and how he thrived after following the will of God, Brother Anthony, and he was a man after God's own heart, like I said, and we example here, and I'm here to tell you tonight, guys. Listen to me all across this house. If you've got ears to hear, listen. We have a choice in this life. We might be young, and we might be old, but I'm an example on this tree here. What are we doing? What are we doing with our lives? Are we exampling as a green olive tree? Is the tree that we stand in, is it an example of God? Is it an example of the mercy of God? What are we doing with our lives here? Are we just living life in our own self-will? Are we moving on through the power and the riches of God, through the mercy that God has bestowed upon us? Verse 9 says, I will praise thee forever, because thou hast done it, and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy face. There's one thing God gives you, saints, and that is courage to move on. He gives you strength to move on. And I'm going back over here to 1 Samuel, chapter number 23, abide thou with me. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life. But with me thou shalt be in safeguard. Where's David out here? David's running. David's on the run from Saul. He's worried for his life. He doesn't know if he's going to get caught up with Saul, and Saul kills him. He's trusting in God. And he's moving on. And here he is telling this person that just witnessed all this travesty that just happened with the priest of the church, of the village, the knob, all the priests that got killed. This man escaped. And David says, abide thou with me. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life also seeketh thy life. What else in the Bible does it talk about what we can example for us as Christians? In John, chapter number 15, verse number 5, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. Men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burnt. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. Even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus is talking here, and he's talking about, I am the vine. We are to depend on Jesus. He is our support. He is our vine for the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him. When I was a young man, I used to get on, and I don't know many that hadn't when I was growing up, maybe, I don't know, Quentin, I'm sure you did too, probably with me as well. We'd go out in the woods, and we'd look up, Brother Camden, and we'd see a vine, and we'd cut it loose, and it was going to the trunk of the tree, and it was coming from the top of the branches, and it would go down. I don't know how many of you fell off the vine, but if you found the wrong vine, it wasn't good. But we'd find those vines in the woods, and we would cut them loose from the trunk of the tree where it was wrapped up in the roots, and we would swing out over a ravine and come back. And there was every once in a while where he'd let go and let you down. But those trees, the example that I'm using today is those trees, that vine was entangled around those branches, holding those branches. You might say that it was giving strength to those branches. And that's what I want to example today with the, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Jesus is our strength. He is our power. And if we don't have that, we're that person that don't have that mercy that we can lean on, that we know God's there, but we don't have that faith to reach out and say, God, you have my circumstance. There might be somebody, there might be something. The devil is after me. I don't have any kind of safeguard. I testified the other day, Brother Austin, you may remember, I testified the other day, and I talked about going down and sleeping at night, and how I don't worry about that now. And you talked tonight in your testimony about how you, yourself, had to call people from the church to pray with you. And I'm here to tell you tonight, if you are getting dealt with by the Lord, you are not going to run from that. That is not going away. That is going to be continually on your heart. You can't run from it, Brother Anthony. God, when he gets his sights on you, and you start getting in conviction for the sin that you've committed, or that you haven't committed, but you just know that I am not saved. I need salvation. I need to be that green olive tree, Brother Jameson. I need to be that example for the church. I need to be planted. I need to be somebody that somebody can look from a distance and see, that right there, I want to be like that person. How many people would see a green tree in the middle of winter, in these dark days of winter, when everything's bare? And you see that tree out there, and it's along the riverbank, or it's in the sand where these olive trees grow from, an example, as of tonight, but the olive tree, it grows in dry climates. If you look out there and you've seen that, that tree is there, and it's green, and it looks so plenteous. The fruit that comes from it is good to eat. I love olives. I'm sure there's a lot in here that don't, but the fruit that comes from that tree, Brother Quentin, it's nourishing. It's good. It's good to eat. We as Christians are exampling as a tree, Brother Jameson. We are looked upon by all those around us, and they're exampling us as, I want to be just like that. I want that in my yard. I want that in my house. What are we doing today that's exampling the tree? As we all stand to our feet tonight, I'm not tearing very long. I want to bring this to an altar pretty quickly. I don't want to lose the concentration of the saints and my mumbling and jabbering, but I feel like the Lord's with me tonight. I feel like He's here with us, and I want to example this as verse number eight again. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise Thee forever because Thou hast done it, and I will wait on Thy name, for it is good before Thy saints. Ford as a Christian, Brother Anthony, is awesome, but as a person that needs to be saved. It's a life of misery. I got saved when I was ten years old in Indianapolis, Indiana, well, it was more or less Franklin, Indiana, at Brother Walter Fletcher's church, and that was, I wish I'd have never went out and backslid. Brother Camden, the best thing that we can do is when we get saved in the house of God, and we are that example. I've got, my tree, it's got scars. I've had to have grooming from my Savior, and He has had to coach me and keep me, and the things that have come up in my past, that have been in my mind, that troubled me, Brother Quentin, things that I've done, that come back in my mind, I'm reminded that the Lord doesn't remember those things. I do, for example, to never go back that direction. The saints, I'm here to tell you tonight, there is, you can go the way of the first of this chapter where we are selfish, we are liars, we have deceitful hearts, or you can go to the latter end of this chapter where there's grace, there's an example, and I want to bring us to mind tonight as we're getting us a song, I want to bring tonight the example of the tree, the example in the tree is what my title is tonight, and if you are here and you are not saved, I know you know the name of Jesus. The example is in that tree, Brother Anthony. Jesus hung on a cross between three trees. As you might remember, one said, remember me when you come into heaven, and there was grace for him, and on the other one, we had one that mocked. So we're standing up here today telling you that there's an option. You have an option today. The Lord is dealing with you, I know he is. I know he is, this message wouldn't have been laid on me in such a strong way if it was just my own thoughts, Brother Anthony. I'm standing up here tonight, humble, because I've been there. I've been there without the grace of God. I've been there without that knowing where I'm going. We can example the cross tonight. That green tree is something that you can become. You might, he could have exampled any tree, but the example is in the tree. You can go, you can nitpick the whole thing, you can tear it apart, you can talk about the bark, you can talk about the trunk, the roots, how far the roots go down, but here tonight we know that we don't have to know about all that. God knows about all that, Brother Anthony. That's his problem. He's just there to save us. To save us from hell and the scars that we have from the past, the stuff that's in the trunk of the tree that's going to literally be trimmed out by the groomer of the tree, which is Christ. Our creator, the one that plants the garden, each year, hopefully more in the future, we'll plant a garden in our home, Brother Camden, and it's going to take a lot of diligence going out and pulling the weeds, grooming it, Brother Austin, grooming up that garden, and we're going to benefit from the fruits of that garden. We are in this church, and we are the green olive tree, and Christ is grooming us each and every day, the sanctification that he gives us, the continual growing that he does for us. He doesn't have to, Brother Camden. We're in debt to God. We're in debt to Christ, and let us come forward today. If you're not saved today, know that there is Christ, and Christ can live within you. He can wash your sins away. I love how the Bible examples things like trees, and then it takes Christ, and Christ goes on a cross and dies for us, and his blood can wash us white as snow. He doesn't even know. After we get saved, our sins are in the depths of the sea. You can become that person that is an example for Christ. If you need to be saved tonight, come to this altar. Come to this altar and ask God, Lord, come into my heart. Oh, God. Oh, God, I know that you're there for me. I know that you can make me an example. I can be that person that is comfortable with life. I know what my future holds, and it's in Christ. I'm not worried about tomorrow no more. I'm not worried about where I wake up in the morning, because I know that my trust is in Christ. And there's saints here that if you need Christ, you come to this altar and you pray, we can pray with you. We can be right there beside you. You need to come to this altar. I'm opening this altar up for those that might need it, and saints, let's bind together and pray. Oh, God. Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.