John 11:1-44 “Come Out”

John 11:1-44 “Come Out”

We go through many things in life, some of them not fun at all. We have so many questions. Why why why. Wars are going on or getting ready to start. Christians are dying for their faith. Strangely this passage tells our story and how Jesus fits into it.

1.       Lazarus dies

a.       Jesus could have left right away but he stays 2 days longer. Vs. 6

b.      The disciples don’t want to go there. Vs. 8

c.       Lazarus is dead vs 14

d.      Martha runs to Jesus vs. 20

e.      Mary remains seated.

f.        Mary and Martha say If you had only been here vs 21&32

g.       Jesus weeps. Vs 35

2.       You could have stopped my pain

a.       He could have stopped their pain from happening

b.      He could have stopped His own pain

c.       He could have avoided the disciples fears

d.      Instead He weeps with us, mourning with us.

3.       New life will come

a.       Our death is not final

b.      Wrapped in grave cloths

1.       Fears

2.       Compromises

3.       Family

4.       Debts

5.       Jobs

6.       Doubts

7.       Past sins

8.       Present sins

9.       Physical disabilities

10.   Mental hang-ups

11.   Addictions

12.   Bad attitudes

c.       So is the church

d.      Jesus calls us to life

e.      To take off the grave cloths and live again

f.        2 cor 5:17 a new creation

g.       Matt 9:17 new wineskins

h.      Rev 2:17 a new name

The time for mourning is past it is time to cut off the grave cloths and live!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 “not alone”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12  “not alone”

We have just a couple of things left to learn about the Bonsai Christian Life and the Bonsai church. One of the characteristics of a Bonsai church is that it is alone. A lone tree shown in a pot all by itself. This is the exact opposite of what the church is supposed to be. We are called to be in fellowship with each other.

1.      Not Alone
a. Ecc 4:9-12 Better results in ministry, helping each other up, encouragement and power.

b. Ecc invests in friends because you will need them.

c. Gal 6:1 Carry each other’s burdens

d. Romans 12:1-8 given gifts to serve the body

e. Eph 4:1-13 So that we may grow

f. Hebrews 10:23-25 meeting together for encouragement

2. Growing apart
            a. Build exclusive friendships (clique)
            b. lack of forgiveness and grace
            c, shame
            d. old age
            e. conflicting priorities in life
            f. work schedules

3. Growing together
            a. purposefully schedule time with others
            b. invest in a circle of friends
            c. purposefully invite people out or over for dinner
            d. Visit and pray for people who are sick or homebound
            e. Make a deliberate practice of inviting new people

It is the natural habit of churches to grow apart, if we are going to overcome the Bonsai Christian Life and the Bonsai church, we must invest in others. We must build new ways to be together. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

Cutting the Tap John 14:25&26

Cutting the Tap John 14:25&26

I have been using the Bonsai tree to talk about how our life in Christ and our church is kept small. One of the most critical parts of the Bonsai process is cutting the tap root. The tap root is the long main root that brings most of the water to the tree. It also serves as the anchor to keep the tree upright. Once the tap root is cut the little Bonsai tree will need to be watered often, sometimes every day. The tree also has to be wired into the pot or tray to keep it upright. Cutting the Tap root removes the trees main source of life and stability.

As we will see today, the Holy Spirit is meant to be our main source of stability and life in Christ. Gen 1 tells us the Holy Spirit was involved in creation. Throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit brings prophecies and revelations to the people of God. Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit to live within us. Yet The Holy Spirit is the neglected part of God.

Imagine you and two of your friends go to a party; everyone talks to your two friends but hardly acknowledges your presence let alone shows any interest in you. We sing hymns to and pray to our Father in Heaven. We pray to and worship Jesus. We talk about the Father our creator and Jesus our savior. The Holy Spirit? Not so much. So how can we avoid cutting off our main source of stability and life.

1.       What the Holy Spirit is intended to do.

a.       John 14:24 teach you all things.

b.      John 16:12 He will guide you into all truth.

c.       1 Cor 2:14 Only those with the Holy Spirit can understand God.

d.      Romans 8:26-27 the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.

e.      Romans 12:3-8 The Holy Spirit empowers us with gifts to be used in the church.

f.        1 Cor 12:1-11 says they are to be used for the common good

2.       Cutting the tap

a.       Eph 4:30 teaches us that we can grieve the Holy Spirit.

b.      You grieve the Holy Spirit neglecting Him, or not listening to Him.

c.       1 Thes 5:19 warns us to not quench the Holy Spirit

3.       Restoring the tap root

a.       Once cut the tap root is gone forever on a tree but not so with us.

b.      Romans 8:5-7 Focus our minds on the things of the Spirit.

c.       Using our gifts, allowing the Spirit to intercede for us, look to the Spirit to teach us.

d.      Pray to the Spirit for understanding and power. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

e.      Focus your mind on attaining the fruit of the Spirit Gal 5:16-26

f.        Driving with the rearview mirror. Focused on you mistakes and sin.

Focus on the things of the Holy Spirit, Live in the Holy Spirit, don’t quench or grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is your source of life in Christ and your source of stability. Don’t cut your Tap Root of life.

Mark 1:35 “Trimming The Roots 2” “Nourishing Prayer”

Mark 1:35 “Trimming The Roots 2” “Nourishing Prayer”

As I mentioned before trimming the roots limits the nourishment of the tree. Prayer is meant to be nourishment for the tree. By having a limited view of prayer our personal life and our church becomes limited, under-nourished.

1.       Prayer as usual
a. Phil 4:6&7 be anxious…

b. James 5:16 prayer for healing

c. John 15:16 Ask whatever you will

d. 1 Chron 4:9&10 the prayer of Jabez

e. Matthew 7:7-11 Give good gifts

f. James 1:17 every good and Perfect

g. up prayers

2. Prayer as nourishment
                a. Mark 1:35 Jesus went to a solitary or desolate place to pray
                b. Why would Jesus need to pray?
                c. Why go where He goes?
                d. Mark 9:29 “This kind can only come out”

3. Prayer as listening and receiving
                a. practicing the presence
                b. Prayer as receiving
                c. Prayer as nourishment
                d. Psalm 37:7 Be still
                e. devote as much time as you speak, to listening
                f. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you

If we will go to the solitary place the lonely place and make listening prayer part of our life, we will find that prayer about the list will be more effective.

Psalm 1:1-3 “trimming the roots 1” The Bonsai Church

Psalm 1:1-3 “trimming the roots 1” The Bonsai Church

One part of the Bonsai process is to trim the roots, which starves the tree of vital nutrients needed for growth. The tree becomes completely dependent on the caregiver for the things needed for growth. This can be said of many a stunted Christian and Church, they are totally dependent on the two or three sentences of the Bible read and expounded on by the pastor each week. But if we are going to be like the tree of Psalm 1, planted by the river and yielding fruit, we need our roots.

For many people talking about reading the Bible brings pictures of a forbidding book (hold up a giant Bible). It-th is-th written-th in-th a-th langue-th we-th can-th read-th. On top of that it has names we can’t even pronounce. Yet Gods’ word is so vital to our growth personally and as a church. Yet most Christians have a love hate relationship with their Bible. They read it as a new year’s resolution, they read it because they are told to, it’s a duty, a requirement, they have a Bible reading plan in their Bible and want to show their friends it’s checked off. They study their Bible because they want to be part of the group. Some other Christians do not read their Bible because they just don’t like what it says.

1.       What the Bible says about it’s self

a.       Psalm 119:6-16

b.      Psalm 119: 105

c.       2 Tim 3:16 &17

d.      Josh 1:8

e.      James 1:22-25

f.        Matthew 4:4

g.       Hebrews 4:12

2.       Sink your roots deep in the Words of God.

a.       To avoid the Bonsai life and church

b.      Sink your roots deep into all the Bible

c.       Learn to drink it in like a sponge

d.      Wrap it around you like a blanket on a cold winters evening

e.      Use it as a healing balm on your battered soul and heart

f.        Drink it in like a cup of hot coffee on a cool morning

If you will do these things the Bible will help make you become the tree of Psalm 1, growing and fruitful. Not just surviving but thriving.

Mark 6: 7-12 Breaking the Pot

Mark 6: 7-12 Breaking the Pot

Bonsai trees are kept in small trays or pots. These pots make it easier to control growth, as well as add to the look of the tree. The pot is the place where the tree lives and it’s life is limited to the pot. Churches and Christians are limited in their life because of the ever shrinking pot in which they live.

In this passage of scripture Jesus expands His area of influence by sending out the 12 to minister in communities they would not normally travel through. Jesus was helping the disciples expand the pot. Jesus spent most of His time in the same communities and walking the same roads. By sending out the twelve He expands the number of people who will hear His teaching.

1.       The reality of the pot

a.       Personal pot

b.      The ever narrowing pot

c.       Job, family, routine, time, and age

d.      After a while you associate with and know few non-Christians

e.      Thicker walls

f.        The midlife crisis

g.       Boring and unfruitful life

2.       The Bonsai Church

a.       Victims of the narrowing pot

b.      Stronger friendships

c.       Control

d.      Age

e.      The ever narrowing pot

f.        Friendships, power, programs, and routine

g.       Limited growth and no fruit

3.       Breaking free of the pot

a.       Driving a new way home

b.      A new hobby

c.       Volunteer some of your time where you will meet new people

d.      Choose to venture outside the pot.

e.      Chuck Swindall, Bill Hybles

f.        Be willing to spend time and energy

g.       The Prayer of Jabez  1 chronicles 4:10

Jesus’ intension was not to have a limited life or a limited church. Today when you go home draw a circle and put your life in it. What you do where you go. Then ask yourself how you can expand or reach past your circle. Do not settle for life in the pot.

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.