Sermon Notes

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Today I’d like to provide for you some direction in pointing you to the very best booth material money CAN’T buy.

This festival of the seventh month was called the Festival of Booths, to celebrate the final harvest of the people of Israel’s growing season. It was a seven day celebration that included the building of temporary shelters in which the folks dwelt. It was one of seven yearly celebrations meant to be a joyous time of thanksgiving to God for His blessings and faithfulness. It had not been observed for over 1000 years, but the people in Nehemiah’s day, in response to the reading of God’s Word and their desire to honor Him in all they did, determined to resume the celebration with all of their hearts.

So, they went out to get the materials listed in Nehemiah 8:15 to make these temporary shelters.

“Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

This temple, this body in which we dwell, is temporary. Our bodies were not made to live forever. One day we will die. This flesh and blood is temporary, but our soul will live forever.

But while we are here dwelling on this earth, it would be wise to make sure this “booth” we are in is constructed with the proper materials for us to have the most successful, fruitful, blessed life possible. Wouldn’t you agree? How many would like to live a life that that?

Today I want to give you four materials for you to construct as a temporary dwelling in which you can live until Jesus comes back to get you. This material can be found in our text today. It’s four wood products, all of which have symbolic meaning in our walk with Christ.

I’m not a cabinet or furniture maker, but I do know that they prefer certain types of wood depending on what they will be creating. Pine, Oak, Cedar, Hickory, Walnut, all have their best applications in certain pieces. The same goes with these dwellings we are going to construct today.

So with that in mind, we are going to pull from our forest stockyard the branches of the Olive Tree, Pine Tree, Myrtle Tree, and Palm Tree and see what Carpenter Jesus would have us do with them.

First, let’s look at the Olive Tree.

The Olive Tree in the Bible is most always used as a symbol of abundance & blessing.

How many would like to live a life of abundance and blessing? All of us!

3 John 1:2, “I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”

We all love this verse, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be blessed. But do you see the correlation here? John ties our physical prosperity with our spiritual prosperity.

He’s saying, “I wish that at whatever level you focus on and pursue your creature comforts and your wealth and your physical strength and appearance and your careers and titles and such, that you would take that same effort and passion and make sure your soul is doing at least equally well.”

To add to our construction materials the Olive Tree is to say, “I want to cover myself with God’s abundance. I want to surround myself with God’s blessing. I want to undergird myself with His prosperity, that my soul would prosper as I walk in obedience to His Word and pursue relationship with Him.”

As I seek Him first and His righteousness, then these other things will be added unto me!

Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and the words spoken to the children of Israel just before they were to enter their Promised Land. This is a promise we can claim for us!

Regardless of how it has been in the past for you, if going forward we include the Olive Tree, the tree of abundance and blessing that’s directly connected with walking in obedience to His Word, as part of the materials of our temporary shelter, we can be assured of God’s prosperity in every area of lives as our souls prosper in Him!

Amen!

The second material we see in our text today is the Pine Tree.

One of the main components of pine is it’s pleasant, aromatic fragrance. We just came out of a season where many of us had live pine trees in our homes, emitting the wonderful fragrance that so symbolizes the Christmas season.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

The Pine Tree in this way is a symbol of our fragrant witness of Christ.

We can tell when we are passing by a pine tree. It’s fragrance is undeniable. We just inhale and enjoy the refreshing scent and are invigorated.

So let me ask you this. When others get around you, do you put off the sweet fragrance of the witness of Christ? Do people smell His love, His compassion, His tenderness, His goodness, His forgiveness, and all the rest of His characteristics coming out of you?

Are they refreshed or repulsed?

And we all know some repulsive smells we produce. We won’t even go there!

The Pine Tree represents in our lives the sweet fragrance of our witness of Christ. Jesus commanded us to go tell everyone everywhere about this good news the angels proclaimed at His birth of great joy which shall be to all people!

The Pine Tree is our fragrant witness of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. May it always be a sweet, life-giving, refreshing fragrance to a lost and dying world.

So we have the Olive Tree, which represents God’s blessings and abundance, and we have the Pine Tree, which represents the sweet fragrance of our witness of Jesus emanating out from us to others.

Next we have the Myrtle Tree.

The Myrtle Tree has large, low lying, expansive branches that provide shade from the heat of the day.

In this context, the Myrtle Tree is a symbol of God keeping us through the Holy Spirit.

We are living in times of danger and uncertainty. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but God has promised this in Deuteronomy 31:8, “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

These words were spoken to Joshua as he was taking the leadership reigns from Moses. God was assuring him of His constant watch care. He would go before him. He would never leave him.

Jesus said the same thing when He was speaking to His disciples just before the Crucifixion. John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit is our Comforter, our Keeper, our Protector, our Guide, our Helper, our Teacher, among so many other things. Do you see how imperative it is to have this building material as part of our temporary shelter until Jesus returns for us?

Jesus gave us His Spirit to keep us until He returns. Without the Holy Spirit we are vulnerable to all kinds of attacks from the evil spiritual elements. The large, low-lying, expansive branches of the Holy Spirit provide shelter and shade from the withering heat of the noon day attacks.

He is our refreshing. He is our cool in the midsummer noon day sun.

Psalm 91:1-7 says it best, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”

The Olive Tree of God’s abundance and blessing, the Pine Tree of our fragrant witness of Christ to others, and the Myrtle Tree of God’s keeping us through His Holy Spirit…

Which bring us to our fourth and final tree, the Palm Tree.

We all know what a Palm Tree looks like, very distinct in its appearance. One large towering post, maybe 40-50 feet high, with a beautiful spray of large palms emanating from the top and drooping down. What a display!

The Palm Tree has many symbolisms in the Bible, but in this context it represents our long term commitment to serve God.

Listen to Psalm 92:12-15, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him.”

Palm trunks were used as posts for the temporary dwellings during these festival, which symbolizes our need for a long term, standing firm in the Faith.

In our walk with Christ, along the way there will be opportunities to stray, temptations to veer from the path, times that we’ll just want to park at a roadside rest stop and just never get back in the car.

The Palm Tree material will keep us from that. As we construct our lives with the determination to serve Christ no matter what, and to not shrink back, give in, or give up, we will be, as the Psalm says, “a flourishing tree still bearing fruit in our old age”. But make sure you read it again carefully. It says we must be “planted in the House of the Lord”. Only then will we flourish. Only then will we continue to be fruitful.

I see so many people throughout the years of my ministry come and go from church. When things are going well, they fade away. When there’s an urgency, they run back to church.

How sad that we treat God like some sort of emotionless sugar daddy, not considering His feelings and only running to Him when we need something.

As I studied about the Palm Tree, I discovered something very interesting. It was of great abundance in Biblical days, and it was a tree that actually helped the people in that part of the world to survive. But today, the Palm Tree in the Middle East has become more neglected and scarce. The Palm Trees are disappearing where they used to be abundant.

I find that correlation not coincidental. How many times do Christians start off strong, being completely sold out to Christ, serving Him wholeheartedly, Him being their very life and breath, only for that passion and commitment to fade as the circumstances and temptations of daily life lure them away and other things take His place.

The relationship becomes neglected, passionless, and cold. And the fruit withers. And the tree dies.

The Palm Tree symbolizes our desire to serve God long term. We stand firm in our commitment to serving Him, and we are fruitful throughout our lives as we are planted and continue to dwell in the house of the Lord.

Let’s add this material along with the Olive Tree of God’s abundance and blessing, the Pine Tree of our witness of Christ to others, and the Myrtle Tree of God’s keeping us through His Holy Spirit.

God’s blessings, our witness of Christ, the Holy Spirit’s keeping, and our long term commitment.

Blessings, witness, keeping, commitment.

I hope that as we recalibrate our lives back to God’s Word in 2015 that you’ll look at the building materials with which you’ve chosen to build your life, replacing the materials that won’t help you with the materials that WILL.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, “For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

With Jesus as our solid foundation, let’s take the material of the Olive Tree, which represents God’s blessings and abundance that’s directly tied to our obedience to His Word, the material of the Pine Tree, which represents our fragrant witness of Jesus to others, the material of the Myrtle Tree, which represent the Holy Spirit’s keeping of us until Jesus returns, and the material of the Palm Tree, which represents our commitment to serve God long term, consistently, throughout our lives, dwelling in His House, and remain fruitful all of our days on this earth for His glory!

In this temporary shelter of our time on earth, we would be wise to include these materials as we recalibrate our lives back to God’s Word as the people did in the days of Nehemiah.

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Nehemiah 8:13, “On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the teacher to give attention to the words of the Law.”

Calibration. We put our faith in it every day.

Calibration is a comparison between weights and measurements, one of known correctness made with one device against another measurement made with a second device. The device with the known correctness is called the standard. The other is the test unit.

If the test unit doesn’t measure accurately, then we recalibrate it to make sure it eventually lines up with the standard. This keeps everything running evenly, correctly, and with integrity.

We rely on calibration more often than we know. Did you get some gas this week? Shop for new clothes? Buy some groceries? All of these required inspection and analyzation of weights and measurements. How many gallons of gas? What size outfit? How heavy of a container of goods?

We trust that what we purchased were true weights and measurements and that we were getting the correct value for our money.

I know many of us as we pondered a New Year’s resolution of weight loss probably looked down at the scale we stood upon and said to ourselves, “Surely this scale is off! It needs recalibrating!”

Many scales haves dials you can adjust, but pushing it back to negative 10 to get the scale to tell you you weigh 200 when you step on it won’t change the fact that you still weigh 210!

A yard stick (inches), a weight scale (pounds) and a gas pump (gallons), all require calibrations.

But where did these measurements come from?

We all know a yard stick to be 36″ long. No debate. No argument. It’s a fact. We put our faith in and use it every day. What size clothes do you wear? You can rattle off the measurements in inches without thinking twice.

But who made an inch an inch and a foot a foot and a yard a yard? Where did this come from?

The fact is, the precise origin of the yard measure is not definitely known. There are many speculations. Some believe it derived from the doubling of the cubit. Others believe it came from the length of a stride or pace. Others say it was derived from the girth of a person’s waist, while another claim held that the measure was invented by Henry I of England, who reigned in the 1100’s, as being the distance between the tip of his nose and the end of his thumb.

Yet today we take it as fact and in faith and non-negotiable that a yard is a yard.

And who said a pound was a particular weight? Who started this?

There were many definitions of pounds throughout the centuries, depending in which country you lived, and, again, there’s no definite date you can say, “There’s where it began”. It just evolved over the centuries.

Merchants used scales to weigh their items against an individual, calibrated standard, much like a balance scale. In fact, lady justice is shown blindfolded and holding a balance scale to represent impartial fairness in court proceedings.

But since July 1, 1959, the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. The international pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg and the yard was legally defined to be exactly 0.9144 meters.

Did you know that? So, we put our faith in a pound being a certain weight. It’s, in spite of what our mind says when we look at our bathroom scales, non-negotiable.

Who created a “gallon”?

This seems to be derived way back in old European days in the northern part of France, where they used jugs to measure out wine for sale. I imagine one day they were trying to figure out how to conveniently get their product from where it was produced to the customers homes when they searched around their house and found a jug large enough to hold a good supply, but small enough to carry without it being too cumbersome. And the gallon was invented!

Some clueless pottery maker, just trying to make a living, invented the perfect size container which became the standard measurement throughout Europe and America and which we now know as the “gallon”.

Gasoline pumps from the early days actually had a see through widow because customers wanted to see the product they were buying measured out as they were purchasing it.

It’s interesting that all of these measurements had sketchy, vague, and undetermined origins. Yet we accept these measurements in faith today as non-negotiable facts and absolutes. A pound is a pound, a gallon is a gallon, a yard is a yard.

Granted, there is such a thing as weight and length and mass. God created these things. But we’ve chosen to embrace the pound, the yard, and the gallon as our calibrators for what is true and accurate to determine the weight, length, and mass of items.

We hold up our test items that need measuring to the known and agreed upon standard of pound, yard, and gallon, and determine the veracity of their claims by them.

If they don’t measure up, we adjust the test items to match the standard. We never change the standard to match the test items.

If we were to take a yard, a gallon, and a pound and each of us were to say, “No, I think a yard should be this long and a gallon should be this much and a pound should weigh this much”, our economy and our society would be in mass confusion.

What if a football player had a different definition of a yard than the referee? What if your idea of a gallon of gasoline was different than the BP station? Ladies, what if you arbitrarily decided you were a size 2 regardless of what the tags said on the rack?

The score would be in question, the gas would be much cheaper, and the clothes, most likely, wouldn’t fit! All these measurements would be skewed to our benefit.

If we all base our measurements on what our individual interpretation of them should be the foundational, non-negotiable standard is lost.

The test becomes the standard and everything falls apart.

Morally, this is what we see happening in our world today.

Truth is subjective. Truth is relative. There is no absolute truth. It’s too confining, too restricting, too narrow for our modern, liberal, anything goes generation.

It’s called “moral relativism”, and it’s eroding the very foundation of God’s solid, unchanging, dependable moral foundation based on His Word upon which our society was built.

What may be good for you maybe isn’t so good for me. They say, “Hey, I can believe whatever I want to believe as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody.”

But it IS hurting somebody. First, it’s hurting YOU! And Jesus loves you and cares for your soul! Why trade a life of joy and peace and love in the Lord for the empty, unsatisfying trash the world has to offer that will eventually destroy you?!

And, second, it’s collectively hurting our children, our families, our institutions of education and government, and society at large as individual sin and compromise infect the larger culture with its selfishness and filth.

Why is it we accept by faith the standard measurements of yard, pound, and gallon as absolute and non-negotiable, even though they were created by man, but when it comes to the absolute truth of God’s Word, all of a sudden it becomes relative and optional?

Why can’t truth be absolute? Isn’t a lie a lie? Isn’t stealing stealing? Isn’t cheating cheating?

No matter how you dress up a pig, isn’t it, underneath all the disguise, still a pig?

Yet we live in a world that justifies actions and decisions and choices and lifestyles.

“I was born that way”, or, “It was just a little white lie”, or, “I did it for the common good”, or, “Everyone is doing it.”

2 Cor. 10:12, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

The test (Moral Relativism) has become the standard and our society, including our churches, are in chaos, because you can’t have a million or two million or one hundred million standards! You can only have one standard!

And that standard is God’s Holy Word!

Jeremiah 50:2, “Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; Proclaim—do not conceal it.”

Not standards, but A STANDARD. God’s Standard found in His Word for us!

It’s time to recalibrate.

The standard of gallon, yard, and pound, were created to prevent fraud in the marketplace.

For thousands of years merchants seeking to defraud customers and line their pockets with greater profits, operated with uneven scales or inaccurate weights or both.

The uniform standard created truth, veracity, and a solid foundation in which to live our lives.

The people of Israel had just come out of years and years of slavery, exile, and suffering as a result of their rejection of God’s Standard, His Law, His Word.

They chose to live life apart from the absolute standards and rules God had established for their good and well being and live a life based on subjective truth.

They thought they knew better than God and thought they were immune to any punishment or reaping of any bad seeds sown, so they went their own way and did what seemed right to them.

But you always will reap what you sow, in kind and in greater proportion to what was sown.

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death & destruction.”

It may SEEM right, it may APPEAR correct, based on our analyzation of things it may LOOK like a good way to go, but if we are comparing our lives to others and feeling like we’re doing pretty good in comparison, and we’re not holding up that “way” we’ve chosen to God’s Standard, we are simply taking a stab in the dark and taking a real risk of some pretty terrible things happening in our lives.

On the second day of the month the heads of the households gathered around the Word of God and gave It, His Word, their undivided attention.

God has given us His Word as the Standard by which to live our lives. It’s dependable, unchanging, and as we take it in faith, non-negotiable. We just believe it and embrace it as so.

I can’t think of a better way to begin the new year on this fourth day of the month than to recommit to God’s Word as THE Standard for our lives in 2015. It’s time to recalibrate.

Let’s commit to giving Him our undivided attention. Let’s laser focus on His Word as our Standard for living. Let’s gather around it as individuals, families, and churches and see what it has to say for our every day lives. Let’s recalibrate.

Got questions? Find the answers in His Word. Got hurts? Find solace in His Word. Got confusion? Find direction in His Word. Got weariness? Find rest in His Word.

His Word is not just a truth, It’s THE Truth. His Word is not just a way, It’s THE Way.

Let’s determine at the first part of this new year, IN FAITH, to recalibrate our lives to God’s Word, not the other way around.

Listen to Wikipedia’s write up of measurements, “Materials traded in the marketplace are quantified according to accepted units and standards in order to avoid fraud. The standards themselves are legally defined so as to facilitate the resolution of disputes brought to the courts; only legally defined measures will be recognized by the courts. Quantifying devices used by traders are subject to official inspection, and penalties apply if they are fraudulent.

What needs to be officially inspected in your life today? What means of measurement have you allowed to be set in place as the standard in your life and the life of your family?

Has the test become the standard?

Have you taken God’s Word and tried to adjust it to your lifestyle, or have you taken your lifestyle and held it to the standard of God’s Word?

The measurements of pound, yard, and gallon are man-made yet we embrace them as absolute. God’s Standards are Holy Spirit written yet we treat them as optional, outdated, and changeable. His truths and standards are unchanging and unchangeable, regardless of what a culture or people may say otherwise.

We would be wise to do as the people of Israel did on that day and not only give careful attention to His Word, but respond with actions of obedience and reverence and repentance in EVERY area we have made the test the standard.

If you were to try and draw a line freehand from top to bottom on a piece of paper, it would be crooked at some point, no matter how hard you try, no matter how careful you are, guaranteed.

But then if you take a ruler and use it to draw a line, it’ll be straight.

We can’t be straight in our lives, no matter how we try or how good we are, without a ruler, and God’s ruler is the Word of God. It’s our plumb line, our true north compass.

God’s Word is the only standard that will enable us to draw a straight line in our personal life, in our family life, in the church, and in society. There’s only one King in this Kingdom, His name is Jesus Christ, and He has a ruler called His Word.

That’s our Standard.

In 2015, let’s consistently hold up in faith the Standard of God’s Word to test our lives, and then make the adjustments and recalibrate back to the Standard where we need to.

We would be wise to recalibrate our lives to His unchangeable, life giving, dependable, strengthening, helpful, all powerful, wise, guiding, protecting, correcting, saving Word.

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WHAT DO YOU HUNGER FOR? – Nehemiah 8:1-3

We just got finished with Thanksgiving. The anticipation of the once-a-year Thanksgiving meal with all the special trimmings has come and gone. But the anticipation we had of that meal doesn’t have to stop! It doesn’t just have to be for one meal one time a year!

The people of Jerusalem were hungry, but not for physical food. They knew something was missing. The walls were rebuilt and the leaders were set in place, but yet a nagging hunger for something still remained that no government could satisfy.

We saw this past Sunday in Nehemiah 8:1-3 that the people gathered as one on the first day of the seventh month at the Water Gate and insisted Ezra, the High Priest, read to them the Word of God. They leaned in and for 6 whole hours listened attentively, eagerly, hungrily, to the words Ezra read and taught to them.

There’s 4 things we can learn from this.

One, When?

They met on the first day of the seventh month, which was the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, their New Year’s Day, a day of Thanksgiving and praise to God.

Two, Who?

They called on Pastor Ezra to teach them the Word of God they had neglected for far too long.

Three, Where?

They met at the Water Gate. Remember, water represents the washing of God’s Word, so they met in close proximity to God’s Word where they could be cleansed from the world’s filth of sin.

And Four, How?

They listened attentively, eagerly, hungrily, with anticipation of what God wanted to say to them.

Without going into a deep teaching on this, I’m going to direct you to the Podcast on our website to listen to this Sunday’s message, “What Do You Hunger For?” Just click on the link below and it’ll direct you to it.

Please take the time to listen. It’ll challenge you and strengthen you as you go though this week.

Have a blessed week in Jesus as we gear up for the celebration of His birthday in a few weeks!