You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
Join us.
If you would please turn with me to one verse.
Proverbs chapter 1130.
It's also before you there.
And the page number.
Before I read, I'd like to pray.
For it is more of a privilege to have God's Word than any of us fully grasp.
So let's pray that Spirit of God might heighten our sensibility.
Let's pray.
Lord, I remember my first conversation with my now bride.
God, she spoke to me.
The first phone call when she said my name.
Each of us can remember the moments when it felt so privileged that someone would know us and speak to us.
Our children, our parents, our siblings.
Picking up someone at the airport who's so famous and they say,
Are you Joe?
And I couldn't believe my name was on their lips.
And our hearts are in your hands and you are speaking to us by your Word.
So thank you.
Before we read, we ask now for each one of ourselves.
What we need.
So we tell you in quiet.
And with expectancy.
We look forward to see how you'll answer these prayers.
In the matchless name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
One verse.
Brief.
But ever so glorious.
Proverbs 11.30.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
And whoever captures souls is wise.
As I'm about to open this,
I want you to know that this is a passage that's addressed to followers of the living God already.
And if that's not you,
I hope you'll begin to understand who he wants us to be to you.
This may make far more clear how far we've got to improve in following him to serve you correctly.
And if you're going to be to you.
And if you are his,
I hope you'll begin to remember who you really are.
One of the greatest privileges of my entire ministry,
maybe my life,
I'd say my life,
it is,
was to be the pastor of a man named Albert McMenkin.
We had a class in the church where I was serving,
where new attendees who were interested in the church would come.
And I would always ask them to introduce themselves briefly by something unique about themselves,
whether it was their favorite football team or pizza topping or anything they chose.
And I came to this older gentleman.
It was Albert.
And he said,
I'm the man who took Billy Graham to the Mordecai Ham Crusade where he became a Christian.
And I have to confess,
when he said that inside myself,
I was thinking,
no, you're not.
So when the class was over,
I made a beeline for his daughter and granddaughter
and said,
is your father and grandfather
the fuller brush salesman
that I've read about in church history all these years
with Billy Graham?
He's the guy.
I had the privilege
of spending time with a man
who mentored and discipled the man
who has arguably spoken to more human beings about Jesus
than anyone in history.
The things I saw in him and learned from him
were absolutely priceless.
And then there came a day
when he got dementia.
And if any of you are facing this right now,
I just do not want in any way to appear to be minimizing.
But it was so difficult
when he forgot who I was
when I would visit him.
It was even harder
when he didn't know who his own family was.
It just broke my heart.
But in all honesty,
my heart was most broken
when he forgot who he was.
Because now he was in the room,
but he was gone.
Arguably one of the most influential men
in the history of our planet
was gone.
But he was right there.
I begin with that Christian
follower of the Most High God
because that could be you.
I'm going to argue it's likely it's you
when you see the content of this text.
I fear we've forgotten who we are,
who we're supposed to be
to one another
and to those who just
aren't sure God's there.
That's what this passage talks about.
I want you to see your stunning identity.
I want you to see
what causes that identity
and I want you to see
the kind of behavior
that should emanate from us.
So,
let's dig in.
The fruit
of the righteous
is a tree of life.
There's the identity.
Tree of life.
Solomon,
the author of the majority,
not all,
the Proverbs,
is apparently playing with words.
The fruit
is the tree.
He wants you to see something
when he goes even further
and says,
the tree
of life.
Okay,
now he's not just playing with words.
He's blowing them up.
Because this is the tree
to end all trees.
This is the ultimate tree.
This is the tree
in downtown Eden.
This is the tree
that arguably,
though no one had,
if eaten,
you would eternally
have been
who we would have been
before sin
ever hit.
Always alive.
No more death.
Perfectly loving.
Well, what's that like?
Absolutely noble.
Full of service.
Joy
that was not
assailable.
it would always
be present.
A desire
for the good
of everyone
and everything
that was around you.
The tree
of life.
And we say,
well, you know,
we know what this means,
Joe,
we think.
And I gotta just say,
we don't.
Because you can only
know something
to which you can
compare it
that you already know.
It's called
analogic thinking
and it's a big idea
in epistemology
and I'm not gonna
try and unpack it.
But you don't know
anything that's
perfectly good.
We would have been
what God called
good.
Not relatively good,
better than you.
Good.
Through and through.
When the Bible
tries to get us
to understand this
and I say try
because the authors
who write about
this goodness
when it's brought back
because it's coming back.
God's going to make
a new heaven
and a new earth.
It's coming
for all who trust him.
When it comes,
they break into poetry
because
to what do we compare it?
So they say things
like in Isaiah,
the trees
will clap
and the mountains
will sing.
Isaiah 55, 12.
Now look,
I don't know
what that exactly means
but it at least
means this.
Outside of these windows,
what you see
is nothing compared
to what's going
to be here.
It will reanimate
in ways
that if you were
to take the most
beautiful sunrise,
improve it by glory,
stretch it out
over eternity,
you're starting
to get in the ballpark.
That's the kind
of good
that was there.
The most beautiful
Appalachian spring,
the most vital life,
the most robust joy,
the most melt-in-the-mouth
goodness,
refreshing,
renewing reality
would have been there.
Full stop.
God is saying
through Solomon
to meet a true follower
of the living God.
One drawn by Jesus
is to step back
into Eden.
Just let it settle.
I mean,
that's just stunning.
But it gets
even more stunning.
Do you remember
what happened
after sin hit
with the tree?
Listen to this.
Genesis 3,
23 to 24.
The Lord God
banished him,
that's Adam,
from the Garden of Eden.
Verse 24.
He drove him out,
the man and the woman,
to the east
of the Garden of Eden.
And he placed,
listen,
the cherubim
and a flaming sword
that turned
every way
to guard the way
to the tree of life.
Now,
some scholars think
there was one sword
and it took
multiple angels
because cherubim
is plural
for angels.
It doesn't mean
little flying babies.
Others think
every one of them
had a flaming sword.
In either case,
what is happening here
is God is preventing
access now
because of sin
to this tree
by virtue of
angel war.
You don't want to fight
with an angel.
So,
is Solomon saying
that if someone
can get near
to a real follower
of God,
one of these
righteous ones,
listen to me,
they reach
the otherwise
unreachable.
They find
the otherwise
unfindable.
unobtainable.
They can obtain
the otherwise
unobtainable.
If they sit
at your table,
if they shoot
around a golf
with you,
if they play
pickleball
with you,
this is,
this is stunning.
They can find
what they could find
nowhere else
because God
forbids
that it be found
anywhere else.
It reminds me
of the line
in the
Peter Jackson
take
on the Lord
of the Rings
when Gandalf
says
of the hobbits,
all our hopes
now lie
with two
little hobbits
somewhere
in the wilderness.
God
has rested
that hope
in measure
would be
with us.
I doubt
very much
you think
like this
about you.
I don't.
But it is
what he's saying.
But it gets
even more
stunning.
if you go
to the end
of the Bible
and look
at the tree
of life
and I grant
you Solomon
wouldn't have
known about
the end
of the Bible
but the God
who inspired
Solomon to
write this
verse knew
about the
end of the
Bible.
And this
is what the
end of the
Bible says.
Revelation
22 verses
2 to 3.
on each
side of the
river
of life
stood the
tree
of life
bearing
twelve
crops
of fruit
yielding
its fruit
every month
and the
leaves
of the
tree
are for
the healing
of the
nations.
No longer
will there
be any
curse.
is God
saying
that if
people can
get near
us
the curse
will begin
to reverse.
If they
can get
near us
just the
leaves of
our lives
a simple
conversation
a passing
they will
bump into
life.
I think
that's what
he's saying.
They will
meet a
fall
pusher
backer.
A person
who will
prop
themselves
up
against
the ruin
of the
fallen
world
and the
people we
meet
and say
in our
souls
we're not
going to
let you
go down
not on
my watch.
is that
what he's
saying?
Is that
who we
remember
that we
are?
You are
God's
life
bringers.
You don't
relate to
people as
either a
vehicle or
an obstacle
to your
agenda as
Paul Tripp
says.
They're not
vehicles or
obstacles to
you.
They're
miracles
of his
creation
in his
image
whether
they know
him
or not.
And
beyond this
what you
bring is
life in
every
direction.
The book
of Romans
chapter 8
at verse
20 and
21 and
22
describes
what happened
when the
fall hit
because of
the curse
it says
the created
order was
subjected to
futility.
the creation
waits to be
set free
from the
bondage to
decay.
The whole
creation is
groaning.
What that
means is
when sin
hit the
world it
didn't just
mean that we
were going
to die
physically.
We died
familially,
relationally,
ecologically,
community-wise.
Death went in
every direction.
You can feel
it.
Life feels
like two
steps forward,
three steps
back,
everywhere.
But finally
there's supposed
to be someone
who says
okay,
four steps
forward
and three
back.
Take my
arm.
We're going
to push
back on
what's wrong
in this
business,
on what's
wrong in
our neighborhood.
We're going
to run to
the holes in
the heart
of our
community
and fill
them with
good.
Can I give
you an
example?
Because it
doesn't matter
your age.
There was
a dear
lady that
I deeply
respected who
was in a
nursing facility.
She had a
disease called
polymyositis.
If any of you
had it,
my profoundest
sympathy.
All the
collagen and
flexibility in
her body was
breaking down
and rigidifying.
A young man
had come to
the office to
see me as a
pastor and he
was suicidal
because he
had just
had the
woman he
loved and
hoped to
marry, leave
him and
say, I'm
not going to
marry you.
He wanted to
hurt himself.
I was not
any help to
him and when
we bowed our
heads to pray,
I'm just saying,
Jesus, please
help him.
And the thought
came to my
mind, the
greatest praying
Christian I know
is this dear
woman in the
nursing home
with polymyositis,
Marion.
So when we
said amen, I
looked up at
him and said,
you know what,
I want to
introduce you to
a woman.
He went, I
don't need
another woman.
And I said,
you need this
woman.
And I put
him in the
car and we
drove to the
nursing facility
and walked in
and I said to
him, now listen,
this is my
friend Marion.
She likes
cheeseburgers from
Armando's.
So every Friday
and night I want
you to bring
them because I
now know your
Friday and Saturday
nights are free.
And listen,
Marion, you
know Jesus
better than
anybody I
know.
Teach him
everything you
know.
Okay?
I came back a
month, and this
is not preacher
hyperbole, later.
Coming down the
hall, I could see
nurses standing
outside the room
looking in.
When I got to
the room, the
room was filled
with 80 and 90
year olds in
wheelchairs and
walkers and
20 and 18 and
19 year olds all
with their
Bibles open.
You know what I
saw in that
room?
Life.
They were all
vitally alive
before the word
of God.
And that dear
boy asked
Marion when he
met another
girl, would you
please be in the
wedding party in
your wheelchair?
And she
couldn't do it,
couldn't even
manage the
wheelchair by that
time.
I'm wanting you
to see what it
means in pushing
back against
every mark of
the fall.
So, let's go
to the next
point.
What's the
cause of this
identity?
the fruit of
the righteous,
well there it
is, is a tree
of life.
This thing
righteous is what
makes a human a
tree of life.
What is
righteousness?
Well, it's
important that we
ask that question,
what would Solomon
have known
righteousness to
be?
It's very
important we
don't take the
whole New
Testament here and
dump it in because
Solomon would not
have known of it.
we know
explicitly what
he would have
thought righteousness
was because as a
king in Israel,
Deuteronomy 17,
18 says that
every king had
to write a copy
of the first five
books of the
Bible by hand
and then read
it every day.
That's Deuteronomy
17, 18.
You can look at it
later.
So, he would have
written these words
in Deuteronomy 6.
The Lord commanded
us to obey all
these decrees so
that we might
always be kept
alive as is the
case today.
And if we are
careful to obey
all the law before
the Lord our God
that he has
commanded us,
that will be
our righteousness.
So, there it
is.
Okay, let's break
it down.
If we are careful,
the scripture says.
In other words,
nobody does this
by mistake.
You don't wake
up one morning
and go,
look at that,
I'm righteous.
to obey,
not talk about,
not speak sermons
about,
not discuss,
not admire,
obey.
All the law.
Let me just tell you,
listen carefully.
Inside of this book,
there is social law,
military law,
sexual law,
economic law,
medical law,
familial,
ecological law,
penal law,
parental law,
architectural law,
horticultural law,
agricultural law,
hygienic law,
city planning law,
spiritual law,
educational law,
geriatric law.
I am just warming up.
Are you kidding?
Before the Lord our God,
it says.
In other words,
not in front of each other
and at least I'm doing
better than you are.
No.
It's before him.
As the Lord commanded.
So in other words,
it's not a box check.
You keep it all the way
down to your heart.
Now,
if you're listening carefully,
who can do that?
In fact,
Solomon would even write
in Ecclesiastes,
assuming he's its author,
at verse 20
of chapter 1,
3,
forgive me,
there is no one righteous.
No one who does only good
in all the earth.
And then his daddy,
David,
wrote in Psalm 14,
Psalm 53,
God looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there's anyone
who understands,
anyone who seeks God.
Everyone's turned aside.
They together
have begun corrupt.
So what is this,
hyperbole?
I mean,
where is it possible
to be righteous
if this is true?
And in fact,
Isaiah 64,
6 says that
our most righteous deeds,
our most righteous deeds
are a toilet rag.
How's that for graphic?
I think they're starting
to have trouble financially,
but do you remember
Kirkland gift shops
in the malls?
Remember you walk in there
and you get a headache
in two seconds
from the potpourri
in the air?
I promise you,
this actually happened.
I went into a Kirkland's
and was just looking around
and on the wall
there was a shelf
filled with what were
called poopettes.
I went,
no.
And I picked them up
and they were little turtles
and little rabbits.
And I looked at the list
of what was in them.
Manure,
cow manure,
$3.29.
I pictured some guys
in Iowa going,
hey Mort,
I got an idea.
I'll bet you
if we mold this stuff,
send it back to the east,
those folks will buy it.
You'd put them
in your garden,
the rain would fall,
you know,
and they'd dissipate
and fertilize.
What Isaiah says
is the best sermon
I've ever preached
is a pupette.
So how can you be righteous?
Because Solomon
would have also
written this verse,
Genesis 15.6.
Abram believed God
and it was credited
to him
as righteousness.
Listen,
not cash.
He wasn't
humanly speaking
fully righteous,
but
when Abram
trusted God,
believed,
relied on him,
God gave him
credit
of righteousness.
This is what it means
in 2 Corinthians 5.21
when it says
God made him,
that's Jesus,
who knew no sin
to be sin
for us
that we might become
the righteousness
of Adam.
No.
The righteousness
of God.
No illustration
is adequate for that.
It's not actually me,
but it's credited to me.
I can only get
in the suburbs of it,
but when I was much younger,
I played football
in school.
And when I was
in middle school,
I was not very good,
but we had this guy
on our team
named John Thomas.
Now remember,
I'm in middle school.
John Thomas was 6'3
and weighed 230 pounds
in middle school.
You know,
we should have just said,
give the ball to John.
And little kids
would be going
all over the place.
But in the 35 blast,
which was my play
where they'd give me
the ball,
John Thomas would go
through the hole
before me.
And I promise,
if I just held
the back of his pants
and he fell forward,
I got almost
three,
four,
five yards.
My stats were incredible.
It had nothing
to do with me.
It was John.
I was in John.
I was behind John.
You're in Jesus
and you're behind Jesus.
That's what he's saying.
When one human
gets this gift
of being accepted
as if they'd never sinned,
by God,
they start to become
this bringer of life
that they've received
to the other people
around them.
Okay,
we got to close.
So let's look at the behavior
that it produces.
This identity
produces
and motivates,
jumpstarts,
propels
stunning behavior.
The fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life
and he who captures
souls
is wise.
Some of you,
if you have a different
translation,
the King James,
I think the old NIV
says,
wins souls.
Some translations
say get.
What does it mean?
Well,
the word
technically
is a word
that is learned
or defined
more by its context.
Literally,
the word means
to take
intentionally
to oneself.
to take
deliberately,
to get
by effort.
When it's used
in marriage,
the same Hebrew word
is used
to take a mate
intentionally,
deliberately.
But,
when it's used
in a negative context
like a battle
or conflict
or difficulty
or opposition,
it's used
for rescue,
deliver,
like a Navy SEAL.
or special forces.
And if you look
at the context
of 11, 30,
29, and 31,
it's difficulty.
It's not a positive one.
So,
what it's saying here
is that this person
who is righteous
and now is a tree of life,
finally,
will be willing
to fight
for the well-being
of what's deeper
than people's DNA,
their souls.
Someone who would care
enough about you
for the things
that they can't even perceive
matter to them.
and they'd be willing
to take enemy fire.
They'd be willing
to take friendly fire.
They'd be willing
to lose.
In my neighborhood
where I'm living now,
this man has become famous
because he lived near us,
wasn't born there,
but his name
was Desmond Doss
and he became famous
in the movie
Hacksaw Ridge.
Everybody mocked Desmond
during his time of service,
getting ready
for going to battle
in World War II
because he was
a conscientious objector
to holding a gun
or killing
because he felt
that was right
as a follower of Jesus.
And they mocked him.
The movie shows
some of what he went through,
but his own testimony was
the movie wasn't even
in the ballpark
for how badly
he was beaten
and treated
until.
May 6, 1945,
the United States Army
on Iwo Jima
went after
what was called
the Medea Escarpment
or Hacksaw Ridge.
The Americans called it
a 400-foot-high cliff.
They had to scale
by hanging cargo ropes
on the side of it.
And when they got
to the top,
the network of caves
which hid the enemy
were unknown to them
and they were assailed
in huge numbers.
And a man without a gun
named Desmond Doss
ran right into enemy fire
grabbing soldier
after soldier.
And before that first battle
was done,
he single-handedly
dragged, carried,
tied on ropes
and lowered
400 feet
75 men.
they didn't beat him
up anymore
because they finally
met somebody
who said,
I'm willing to lose
for you
what we studied
as officers.
I'm willing to be
disadvantaged
for your advantage.
That's what it produces.
If you're not
a follower of Jesus,
do you see how far
we gotta go
to be a help
to you?
And if you are,
you see who you should be.
I close.
One of my favorite books
ever read
is a little book
called Small Miracles
that eventually
became a series.
Small Miracles 1,
2,
3,
4,
they were started
in 1997.
These are books
written by the
children of
Holocaust victims
and survivors
from World War II.
And they're little stories.
They're one or two pages long.
And in them
are really celebrations
of what they often
call coincidences.
But they're not
coincidences.
Someone has said
a coincidence
is a miracle of God
about which he chooses
to remain anonymous.
Since God's
over everything,
what they're writing about
is called providence
when God works
through everyday life.
Here's my favorite story
and I close with this.
A man is in his 50s.
He's coming home
from working
as he did for years
in a factory
carrying a lunch pail.
Remember those?
It's at night.
It's in the winter.
He's walking
through the park
that he would cut through
for shortcuts
in the winter
in order to get home.
more quickly.
It's pitch black.
He's making his way
through the park
and the bushes
on either side of him
all of a sudden
catches attention
when he hears
the sound of a woman
being accosted.
He can just hear
and he stops
and this all happened
in seconds.
But the story
he writes
says,
I thought,
okay,
I got to help her.
I'm out of shape.
I could get killed.
I can call the cops.
I can get a cop.
By the time I do,
she could be dead.
I got to help.
He parts the bushes
in the dark
and jumps on the back
of a man
who's obviously
accosting a woman.
To the woman
in the dark,
all she knows
is that there are now
two attackers.
And the man
who is doing
the attacking
is so terrified
he throws
this factory worker
off his back,
runs away,
and the woman
backs against the tree
screaming,
get away from me!
Get away from me!
And he says,
lady, lady, lady!
It's all right.
You're okay.
I'm here to help.
And then he hears this.
Daddy?
Is that you?
He rescued his daughter.
Here's why I tell you that.
What will it take
to get you,
follower of Jesus,
to jump in the bush?
You're here to be
the tree of life
for everything
outside this building,
the people sitting
next to you.
Remember who you are.
Remember who made you this
and what he was willing
to lose
to make you like this.
And let's pray
for the grace
to jump in the bush.
Let's pray.
Now, Holy Spirit,
give us the grace
to jump
and run toward
the hole in the heart
of our community,
our neighborhood,
our friend,
our brother,
our sister,
our member of this church.
We can't do this
unless you
who lost so much
to give us so much.
Help us by your grace
to remember
who we are,
whose we are.
Thank you, Holy Spirit,
for your word
and for the way you talk.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
For more information,
visit us online
at southwood.org.
you