In the Bible Christian Ministry
Sunday 6-7-26 (Fruit Takes Time, Part 3)
  • We Sing Hallelujah
  • Awesome God - Tammi & Gerald Haddon
  • I Am Not Forgotten
  • Mention
  • Let It Rise
  • You're the One
  • In Spite of Me
  • I'll Just Say Yes
  • Worthy of My Praise
  • Victory Chant
  • This is How We Overcome
  • Fill Me Up / Overflow
  • What a Mighty God We Serve
  • Happy
  • Father, Jesus, Spirit
  • I Give Myself Away
  • Shabach
  • We've Come to Worship
  • One Thing Remains
  • I'm Yours
  • You Are Good
  • I Am a Friend of God
  • In the Room
  • I Am Not Alone
  • He Is
  • Freedom
  • I Know Who I Am
  • Trust In God
  • Welcome Holy Spirit
  • Worthy of My Praise
  • Lord I Love You - Todd Galberth
  • My Worship - Phil Thompson
  • Lord I Lift Your Name on High
  • Joy To The World
  • O Come All Ye Faithful
  • Excellent
  • Father, Jesus, Spirit
  • Closer / Wrap Me In Your Arms
  • Lord, I Love You (TGalberth)
  • Lord You're Mighty
  • He is Exalted / Give Him Praise
  • Sing a New Song
  • My Worship
  • Just a Closer Walk with Thee
  • Fire
  • We Believe
  • Holy Forever

  • Sermon Manuscript: Deep Roots, Heavy Storms

    Series: Fruit Takes Time (Week 3)
    Primary Text: Psalm 1:1–3; 1 Peter 1:6–7, 5:10; Luke 16:10

    I. God’s Preparation: Supporting our Fruit

    Everyone wants to look like what they desire to be.
    When you think of your dream position. Whether its a job or a position you see yourself in life you imagine what you will look like doing that.
    And our Christian walk is no different. We believe there will come a day when we will look like this, we will act like this, we will live like this.
    And many times we rush into a position that we may not be ready for.
    Galatians 5:22–23 NIV
    22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
    We want this Fruit!!!
    This fruit makes like easier, decisions come better.
    But we have to be strong enough to support the fruit.
    Many times we think we need to act like we are not.
    Many of us are broken but acting like we have joy, acting like we have peace and we feel that that is what God wants us to do.
    Not to say you shouldn’t desire this or put into action those things that will get the desired effect but God didn’t not tell you to FAKE it.
    We must let the Gardner prepare us for our fruit.
    Here is the thing when we fake the fruit. We break ourselves further.
    When you fake peace. Those who are there to help you think that you are ok and then when they find out you are broken you are so broken they have a hard time understanding.
    When you fake joy. you basically are saying God I’m ok. No help needed. It’s hard to get fixed when you are pretending you are already together.
    Putting yourself in places that’s going to test your self control knowing you don’t have it
    It means you go to God and say God… I need you more.
    Now some can just go. Doesn’t bother them. Not you!!!!
    Then when you are required to act in a way of someone who is fixed. You break.
    You see a tree that looks healthy and strong.
    So you decide put a swing in the tree only to have the branch break and the whole tree falls down hurting everyone around it.
    But the tree looked healthy, but it actuality it was only healthy enough to look healthy. It wasn’t healthy enough to be healthy
    It wasn’t healthy enough to produce
    It wasn’t healthy enough to give because it had nothing to give
    God starts us small just like plants.
    Paul says
    1 Corinthians 3:2 NIV
    2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

    The Sanctuary (The Starter Cup)

    When I began my seedlings for my garden this year I start my plants inside as seedlings.  In there I have grow lights, I got watering schedule.  There are no bugs, no weeds, no wind, just nice soil and a schedule to keep it growing.  And the plants grow fast.  They get plenty of attention.
    Just like how God starts us: Inside the nursery, the grow lights are perfect, the water is on a timer, there is no wind to knock you over, and the temperature is constant. It is comfortable, it is protected, and we grow fast.
    Then as it grows. I take the shelter off off, because it is is in a dome I remove that so it can stretch.  Then if needed I may put it in a cup something bigger so it’s roots can stretch.  The plant is doing well.
    Now I don’t intend to leave it in the cup. Just as God never intended for the seedling to live in the starter cup forever.
    But We often get frustrated when God begins to lift the dome or move us away from the familiar because we mistake security for maturity.
    You have to realize that the "Safe Cup" is a season of hidden preparation. God is testing the integrity of your roots while no one is looking. If you aren't faithful in the "little things"—the mundane, unseen rhythm of your daily walk—you will shatter the moment you hit the open air.

    II. The Winds of Exposure (Direction 1: Hardening Off)

    [Proclaim Slide: The Hardening Wind]
    The moment you see the wind blowing, your natural instinct is to put the dome back on. You want to hide. But the wind is not your enemy—it is your structural validator.
    In the garden, I use a fan to blow low, steady streams of air across my seedlings. That movement signals the plant to pump lignin—a structural fiber—into its cell walls. It’s hardening the stem.
    When God allows the "winds" of workplace tension, family friction, or financial strain to blow on you, He isn't trying to knock you down. He is trying to harden your stalk. A plant that has never felt the wind is soft, water-logged, and will snap the first time it faces the reality of the open field.
    Now what starts pumping through your spirit is that Holy Ghost Power. And what the Spirit provided he doesn’t take away.
    See when I look at my plants that are now outside their stalk looks a lot different than when it was inside.
    It’s a little woodier, it has some stretch marks, it has some scaring, it’s battle tested for the OUTSIDE environment.
    Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:6–7 that the "fiery trial" is not something strange; it is a Docimion—a metallurgical test. It is blowing on your faith to see if it is made of gold or just painted wood. Don't run from the wind; let it make you steady.
    1 Peter 1:6–7 NIV
    6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
    James 1:2–4 NIV
    2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
    Plant doesn’t know where it’s going. And it’s thinking I’m good. I’m good for where I am. I’m READY. Look at how I look compared to others
    Look how good I am
    But it’s looking at today. I’m preparing it for tomorrow.

    III. The Pain of the Pinch (Direction 2: Pruning the Ambition)

    Now this plant sees where it’s going and it feels good so Now, imagine the plant reaches the deck. It feels strong. It starts pushing out huge, beautiful clusters of fruit. It wants to show off. But the Vinedresser walks out with a pair of shears and does something that looks like an act of cruelty: He pinches off those fruit buds.
    He kills the success before it starts. Why?
    Because the plant’s infrastructure—the stalk and the roots—cannot handle the weight of that fruit yet. If He lets that plant keep the fruit, it will collapse under the mass of your own success and break it’s stalk—it’s life source.
    This is the tempering cycle. Like a blacksmith alternates the fire of the forge with the shock of cold water, God alternates the heat of our desires with the cold cut of pruning. He is stripping your brittleness away, not to stop your progress, but to ensure your roots go ten feet deep before the harvest arrives. If you are angry at God because He keeps "pinching" your opportunities, realize He is protecting your future from your present lack of capacity.
    1 Peter 5:10 NIV
    10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
    See a boxer that’s never been punched in training going to have a hard time in a match. (headgear)
    Fight people that can’t fight for a reason...step you up
    I learned a new move and the manager show you something else and knocks you down using your new move.
    After the prepping my plants inside They feel good. I’m great I’m perfect LOOK AT ME
    Then I move them.....T hey are now ready for the next level
    And guess what I’m going to be there the whole time watching you grow and the fruit you produce I’m going to use that for other purposes.

    IV. Open Landscape Placement (Direction 3: The Plain)

    [Proclaim Slide: Psalm 1:3 – The Transplanted Life]
    Then when the plant is placed in the garden.
    I still put a trelis there or a post so it can have stability in it’s life.
    See God isn’t preparing you for the weight of your fruit. He is preparing you for the weight of your destination.
    You are praying for a bigger fruit so you can look good, but God is focused on a stronger stalk so you can hold up. He knows exactly where you are going, and He knows you aren't ready to carry the weight of that destination yet.
    Finally, the Vinedresser transplants you into the open orchard. The walls are gone. The dome is gone. The ecosystem is live.
    And now the Destinations demands payment.
    See every where you go there is a price to pay.
    I want to be famous. People want access
    I want to be rich. World demands you to be a certain way
    Destinations demand payment:
    The ground demands seed, the travelers demand shade, and the Master demands a harvest on His lease.
    This is the place God has been preparing you for all along. You aren't "doing life" anymore; you are living it. When the expectations of your calling, your family, or your community feel too heavy, you don't panic. You don't try to manufacture counterfeit fruit to look like you're succeeding.
    Psalm 1:1–3 NIV
    1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
    You are Šātûl (שָׁתוּל)—a tree deliberately transplanted. You are standing by the river. You can fulfill what the people need from you and meet what God requires of you because you are no longer drawing from the limited supply of a small starter cup—you are drawing from an unshakeable, subterranean reservoir of grace. You are finally ready to stand, because you were patient enough to be prepared.
    Look at Peter:
    We spoke about him last week. He denied Jesus 3 times in John 18:15
    After he said he he would “lay down his life” in John 13
    Jesus restores him in John 21
    and Peter stands up tall in Acts 4 Fearless
    And then we see later Peter standing up to those same men PREACHING to the elders who had his friend killed and who he knew could kill him.  He stood there in that spot and tole them about the risen Christ. 
    He was READY.
    See some of us do the same.
    We put joy out there when we really don’t have it
    I’ll do anything for you—we really won’t
    I’m praying for you—we really not
    I got you – we really don’t
    You can depend on me—I really can’t
    And then when people come to use that you said you had.  You don’t have what you promised and you BREAK.
    Peter promised his life, but when he thought they wanted what he promised he BROKE
    But if we wait.  I’m not saying tell people I’m not there for you.  But be honest with folks, be honest with yourself. 
    And let God trim away the dead
    Let Him prune away the not needed
    Let Him blow a little air over your small leaves
    Let him get rid of the weeds
    Let him dispose of insects and parasites
    Let him shine a little light
    Let him provide the life water
    God transplants you to be among others who help you to achieve what you need to be.
    Now we READY. JUST LIKE PETER
    But now you strong enough that you are operating in abundance to where every branch has fruit.
    Every leaf is broad
    Every flower is sweet
    And people can depend on you without snapping you in half.
    Put your mask on first
    Analogy:
    Giant Sequoias are among the largest and oldest living things on Earth, yet they have surprisingly shallow root systems. They don't grow deep—they grow wide. They survive the massive storms of the Sierra Nevada mountains because their roots interlock with the roots of the trees surrounding them.
    God is preparing this congregation for the "open landscape" of their purpose. They think they need a bigger individual root system (more talent, more money, more platform), but God is actually trying to get them to interlock their roots with the community. You can’t be planted by the "rivers of water" (Psalm 1:3) if you are trying to be a solo tree.
    "God isn't making you shallow; He's making you connected. You’re not meant to survive the heavy storms as a solo tree; you’re meant to stand as a forest. If your roots are interlocking, the wind that tries to knock you down actually binds you closer to your neighbor."

      • Galatians 5:22–23NIV2011

      • 1 Corinthians 3:2NIV2011

      • 1 Peter 1:6–7NIV2011

      • James 1:2–4NIV2011

      • 1 Peter 5:10NIV2011

      • Psalm 1:1–3NIV2011

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