4 TREES and 4 MEN
1. 21 miles northwest of Odessa, TX, in west central Ector County on Highway 302, you come to the small town of NOTREES. The town was given its name by the Grocer Charlie Brown, who opened his store in 1946 and also became the Postmaster that year. The town used to have just one native tree until the construction of a large Shell gas plant forced its removal. That event also effectively ended any hopes for a logging industry in the area.
2. I don’t think I could survive in a town, a city, an area without trees. Their beauty, their shade, their use as windbreaks, their help in preventing soil erosion, their removal of pollutants from the air, their production of fruit, of healing oils, of timber for our homes, of warmth in winter, of paper – well, we could go on and on enumerating all the many benefits that have and continue to come to us through God’s gift of trees.
3. Many of you made your living - and some still are - from the logging industry in this area. Trees are part of the “lifeblood” of this community and we celebrate this weekend the significant contribution that Loggers have made in and around Morton for at least the past 63 or more years.
4. To keep with the theme of trees that is on everybody’s mind, I want us to look at 4 trees and 4 men and see what lessons God might teach us from each of the stories:
• A man behind a tree
• A man in a tree
• A man under a tree and
• A man on a tree
A. A MAN BEHIND A TREE
1. In Genesis 2:9 we read that in the beginning “the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were two trees - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
• And you know the story of how God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to work it and take care of it and how they were told they could eat from any of the trees except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil – they were not to touch it for if they did they would surely die.
• But instead of listening to and obeying God, they allowed themselves to be tempted, duped and seduced by the Serpent into believing that God was trying to keep something really good from them. And if they would just follow their desires and taste of the fruit, their understanding and insight would expand dramatically and they would become just like God – being able to make their own decisions about what was right and wrong, what was good and evil.
2. And because they gave the Deceiver the time of day, listened to his lie and swallowed his line, their eyes were indeed opened – not to being more God-like – but to their own nakedness and fear and shame flooded their minds and hearts for the very first time.
• At the sound of God’s voice they ran for cover and tried to hide behind a tree.
3. Isn’t it crazy that puny humans think they can hide from the presence and knowledge of the Almighty! Though the Scripture has God calling out to the man, “Adam, where are you?” it is not that God had no idea of where they were hiding – but that their sin had cut them off from the intimacy and closeness they had previously enjoyed.
• It is the saddened and wounded heart of God that comes through that call – “You’ve alienated yourself from me and I miss you!”
• It’s our God who initiates the search – what incredible evidence of His love!
• And it is our God, who in spite of having to follow through with the sentence on their sin and disobedience, provides them with animal skins to cover their nakedness. A life was laid down on their behalf.
4. Where are you today in your relationship with God? Are you trying to hide behind a tree? Are you living with a sense of shame because of things you have done or said that have alienated you from God and from others?
• Are you trying to hide behind your work, your busyness (even in the church), your various responsibilities, your ailments, your entertainment – anything that might divert your attention away from God, silence your conscience and make you believe that you never heard His voice calling “Where are you?”
• What is the tree behind which you are trying to hide?
5. David writes in Psalm 139: 7-12 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you”.
6. Whatever the tree might be behind which you are trying to hide – the Lord already knows where you are and His call for you to come out from hiding is His call of love to have intimacy and communion with you restored.
• And He has already made complete provision for the covering of your nakedness.
B. A MAN IN A TREE
1. I imagine that most all of us have at some point heard the story of or sung the children’s Sunday School song about the crooked and despised tax collector Zacchaeus who was “a very little man, and a very little man was he. He climbed up in the Sycamore tree for the Savior he wanted to see.”
• And as Jesus arrives in Jericho and the crowds are encircling him, He stops at the foot of the tree, looks up and tells Zacchaeus to come on down because He has just invited Himself to Zach’s home as his guest.
• Zach shimmies down immediately and is so taken aback that this revered Rabbi would even dare talk to him, let alone agree to set foot in his home and sit down at table with him – a sign of complete acceptance - that his immediate response is to commit to giving half of all he owns to the poor and paying back four times as much as he had stolen! Now that’s salvation!! A 180 degree about face.
2. How might you identify with Zacchaeus? Have you ever felt that you were one of the “little people”, irrespective of your size or your height – one of the people on the fringes of everything – who never quite fit in with others – a loner who always seems to be on the outside looking in. That was Zacchaeus.
• Of course, in his case, his behavior and treatment of others greatly aggravated his isolation and exclusion – nobody wanted to have him around.
• And the more he was despised and rejected, the more he took it out on them in the best way that a little guy could – in additional taxes. And he had the might of Rome to back up and bolster his crooked character.
3. But I believe that deep down Zacchaeus hated what he had become and desperately wanted to change but didn’t know how nor where to begin. Who would have believed him or taken him seriously anyway?
4. This story illustrates for us the Good News that Jesus actively and deliberately seeks out the lonely and the lost. He doesn’t wait for us to take the initiative – instead He graciously invites us into restored relationship with Himself – and Zacchaeus didn’t need a second invitation.
5. How about you? Are you ready to climb down out of your tree and take Jesus with you into your home? Jesus has issued the invitation and He’s waiting for you.
C. A MAN UNDER A TREE
1. In 1 Kings 19 we have the story of the prophet Elijah fleeing from the wrath of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, after Elijah had killed the 450 prophets of Baal. One moment he had been so bold for the Lord, now he is running for his life from her threats of revenge.
• As he arrives in Beersheba he collapses under the shade of a broom tree and just wants to die. He’s had it with the people’s obstinacy, their stubborn disobedience, and just the hard slog of having to proclaim God’s message without seeing positive and life changing results – in fact he is now seeing the very opposite. A hornet’s nest has been disturbed and they are after him!
• “I’ve had it Lord”, he complains, “just take my life – there’s little point going on”.
2. Being God’s servant and doing God’s work is never easy. It’s tough – it’s not for sissies, it’s not for wimps. It can sometimes be a very lonely road – especially when you get attacked and harassed and criticized by the very ones you are seeking to help.
• But though he ran away, he could not run from God. The Lord met him there under the tree and provided the sustenance he needed to journey a further 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb – the mountain of God – where the Lord met him and revealed Himself to him, not in earthquake, wind or fire, but through a still, small voice.
• And there the Lord also encouraged him by letting him know that he was not alone, but that God had preserved 7,000 other souls from bowing their knees to the false god Baal.
3. Are you feeling whacked and worn out by the demands and costs of the Christian life? Have you tried to run away and call it quits under the shade of your solace tree?
• You’ve given and you’ve served and you feel like you’ve done way more than your fair share. You’re feeling like all the responsibility always falls on your shoulders. You’ve looked for others to help and they’ve all made their various good excuses as to why they cannot help out.
• If you would just stop fussing for a moment, you’ll feel the angel of God even now nudging you and showing you the sustenance God has already provided right there before you.
• In John 4 we read that Jesus and His disciples arrived at a well in Samaria at midday – it was hot and they were tired and worn out. He sent His disciples in to the village to go get something to eat. While they were gone a Samaritan woman came to draw water and through His conversation with her Jesus was revived and energized, so that when the disciples returned they wondered who had given Him something to eat and drink. Jesus replied, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food – that which nourishes and revitalizes me - is doing the will of my Father.”
• Jesus is your living Bread – He’s your Life-giving Water – whoever eats and drinks from Him will never hunger nor thirst.
4. Come on, eat and drink and then get up from under your tree because God’s getting ready to reveal Himself to you in a whole new way.
D. A MAN ON A TREE
1. In Mark 15, and parallel passages in the Gospels, we read these words: “They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 24And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. 25It was the third hour when they crucified him. 26The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30come down from the cross and save yourself!" 31In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can’t save himself! 32Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe."
• Here we see three men on three trees – rough hewn wooden crosses.
• Each undergoing much the same intense physical and emotional trauma, agony and suffering – but there is all the world of difference between the psychological and spiritual burden weighing down on the man in the middle compared to that on the other two.
• In that event Jesus was taking upon Himself the guilt and the shame, the rebellion and disobedience, the violence and brutality, the lies and deceit, the hypocrisy and insincerity of every human being from the days of Adam – including you and me - till the last human to be born before God wraps up this episode of earth’s sad and sorry story.
• Each one of us should have been up on that tree – that’s OUR TREE He climbed on
• The Pure and Holy Lamb of God became the Snake on the pole - He became SIN for us – and the Father passed the sentence of death and hell on Him.
• No wonder He cried out in anguish from the cross - “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?!”
2. In Deuteronomy 21:23 we read that “anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse”. Jesus bore God’s curse on sin so that you and I could be set free from all its consequences.
3. We owe Him our life, our existence and everything we ever could be and posses.
4. Have you come to the place of accepting that cross as your tree – the one on which He took your place?
• If you have, then you have already come to know the joy of God dealing in your life with the results of your eating the poisoned fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
• And the anticipation God has put within your spirit of one day eating the blessed fruit from the tree of life.
5. If you have not yet come to the place of accepting the cross as YOUR TREE, then the opportunity is given to you now to respond as we stand and sing the hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.
AMEN
