sermonette: The Man Like a Tree

What Is Your Source?
Bill Cherry
Given 17-May-03; Sermon #612s; 12 minutes

Greetings to you all. Please turn to Jeremiah 17, verse 7

Jeremiah 17:7-8 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree. . .

God says in these two verses, the man that trusts in God, and hopes in God, is like a tree. So how is a man like a tree? Well, that is the purpose of this sermonette—to show you what it means to be a man like a tree.

Now this tree is not just any tree, it has special privileges; it has been planted in a special way. So as we continue the verse:

Jeremiah 17:8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

So this tree is going to flourish in heat, it flourishes in drought, because it is planted by the waters and it has its roots spreading out receiving water.

Now, I want to give you a few facts from World Book Encyclopedia 2002. Trees are the largest plants living, and some are over 30 stories high. They have a very long lifespan, some over 1,000 years. They are very useful to us on Planet Earth.

And you see how many trees we have here, as you as you look out; they prevent the soil from eroding away by their root system.

They also produce oxygen. They take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which keeps the balance of the atmosphere as close as possible to what we need.

They also produce many products. They produce building materials; they produce materials for tools; they give us a way to heat our homes; many yield food—apples, pears, oranges, bananas, coconuts, and dates. There are a lot of things that trees do. And this is just a starter, because trees are very important to our system, to our environment, and for the way we live.

Now, water makes a tremendous difference. I was amazed at this little personal experience that I had. I wanted to plant some tomatoes, so I went to the store and bought a six pack—and I was not going to drink it. It was a six-count pack of tomato plants. You know what I am talking about—they have six little tomato plants, and they are about around the size of your thumb, or a little bit larger. The soil is right there connected with each plant; their little roots are right in there.

Now, they keep the plants at that store well-watered. Naturally I bought the ones that stood up straight and tall and had these green leaves. I picked the best six-pack that I could find. And I took them home. I put them in the shade. But I neglected those poor little tomato plants. After two days to my dismay they looked like little shoestrings that are draping over the edge of the shoebox. The stems were there, but the leaves were withered like tiny little dish rags.

But I said, “Well, I bought them, I will plant them, and I do not care what they look like, I will plant them.” So I took them and I tried to restore them by soaking them in water. And I left them overnight. And much to my amazement, they stood up straight and tall, the leaves were filled out and they were green, and it looked almost as good as when I bought them at the store. They revived! Well, I filled the hole with plenty of water and plenty of dirt and the tomato plant, and they lived happily ever after.

But the point is that water makes a tremendous difference. This tree in Jeremiah 17 stands by the rivers of waters, and it gets plenty of nourishment.

Now, we are going to read about another tree in Psalm 1. A man who is like a tree, and these trees have such similarities, they sound like the same tree. Both of them are planted by water. They have green leaves; they yield fruit; they seem to be the same tree. So let us read starting at verse 1.

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

This shows me this man has looked at the way that people live, the society governed by men, and men's ideas and men's way of doing things, human goodness and the customs and fashions of this world, and said, “I will reject all of this because it is not godly.” That does not mean it is wicked and sinful, as much as it is not godly. They have no thought of God. It does not say wicked, it says they have no thought of God. So, it does not seem to be so bad. But he says, “No, I won’t have any part of it.” And, like a tree would say, “I’m not going to stick my roots in that dirty polluted water,” and so he totally rejects the customs of men.

Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD [it makes him happy; it thrills him], and in His law he meditates day and night.

When it says, “the law of the Lord,” it is not merely talking about the written Word of God that we have. It includes talking about the total way of life, the way of life that God is teaching us that we are striving to understand and learn.

He delights in it because he sees what happens when he deals with other people in his human relations; when he applies love and service, and the things that God is teaching us that we should incorporate in our character—the heart and mind of God. He sees what happens in his dealings in the way that he uses his time, and the way that he works with physical possessions. These things give him a delight to understand how beautiful it is, how wonderful it is to live a life where you are using the understanding, the wisdom that God gives us and lives by it. And so he delights in God's law.

But I want you to read the next verse:

Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither [and I love the last part; a promise from God]; and whatever he does shall prosper.

If we try to be like this man who is like a tree, whatever he does shall prosper. I have looked at this, and I have used it to pray. I said, “Well God, I’m trying to do it. Please help me to prosper.” And if we get our minds and hearts straight with God, and on the right track in what we do, we will prosper.

Let us look at our personal situations. Every one of us has access to God's Word. It is there, right there before us. We have access to spoken and written instructions in the form of tapes and literature, and the other things that we can get from the Internet from ministers who are trying to give us as much as they can; an application—the way we can apply God's words to our lives.

So, we have an understanding that the work of God is to prepare us for the Kingdom of God, that we should look at our own hearts, and our own minds, and we should use the material, we should use God's Word to correct and change our lives so we can be like Him, and take away the stony heart, put in the soft, fleshy heart of love, and the heart of God.

We understand that Christ is preparing us. When we have situations that come, we know that God is sovereign. He looks at us. He knows what is happening. He has not forsaken us. We need to learn to obey God, and try to live and be like this man—like a tree.

So what does that tell us? Let your roots go into the living waters. Put your roots there. It is there. We are planted by the rivers of waters. We have it. It is not like we do not have access to it. We have full access to it. We are just like that tree, planted by the rivers of waters, so we can drink deep.

There is almost no end to what we can absorb (except our own personal limitations), so we can understand how we can live this life, and serve other people, and be a blessing to them; learning how we can serve God in the future Kingdom of God. And if we do, we have the promise of God: Whatever we do will prosper.