Psalm 1:1-3 “The Bonsai Church”

Psalm 1:1-3  “The Bonsai Church”

The promise of Psalm 1 sounds so good, so vital. Yet the reality is that many of us and many churches feel like the withered fig tree of Mark 11:13 & 14. So how do we become the tree planted by the river that is strong big and bearing fruit for God? That is a series of sermons about possibilities, discovering bearers and taking them down. But I will start with a story of trees.

My first Bonsai trees
I bought my first little sequoia tree in California and brought it to Indiana as a children’s sermon many years ago. I showed the children a seed the size of a pencil eraser and thin as a sheet of paper. Then showing them the little tree and finally a picture of General Sherman tree, the world’s largest tree and the largest living thing on earth. I tell them how they may seem little and small yet with Jesus’ help they can do great things. Then I set the pot on the edge of my desk and kept it for years.

I never thought of them as Bonsai trees, I thought of them as giant Sequoias and dreamed of seeing a grove of them in Indiana, and then Wisconsin. I would keep them until a family vacation or other event caused them to die. I did plant several outside but they never made it through the winter.

A Giant Sequoia can reach 270ft, growing at the incredible rate of 10 feet a year. The same tree can be kept in a pot on a desk and never get over a foot tall.

Then one year our son Jeremy sent Kathy a Bonsai Bougainvillea. It was amazing with its little leaves and tiny pink paper like flowers. It lasted for years before I lost the fight to keep it alive yet small.

What keeps a powerful sequoia tree small? What steals it’s potential to be the largest thing on earth and forces it to be content living in a pot on a desk? My mind wanders to the church and each person in it. What keeps us small, what steals our potential and leaves us content to live the barely alive Christian life? We all would say we want to be the vibrant tree of Psalm 1, so what holds us back.

In the coming weeks I will share how Bonsai trees are kept and how it relates to our lives in Christ.

1.       Bonsai Trees are made
a. intentional choice
b. accidental Bonsai
c. zero growth
d. not natural
e. they fight everything that God has put in them.

2.       Understanding Gods’ intention for your life and for the church.
a. bear fruit
b. Mark 11:13&14
c. God wants fruit not green leaves.
d. John 15:16 (to bear fruit.

3.       Making a choice
a. Move a Bonsai tree outside with room to grow, soil, sun, and water it will grow.
b. our present condition is not permeant.
c. the choice is not safe, there unpredictable things.
d. become more than you have dreamed.
e. be the tree planted by the river.