SERMON: BECOMING AN OLIVE TREE

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Psalm 52:7-9

7 “Here now is the man

    who did not make God his stronghold

but trusted in his great wealth

    and grew strong by destroying others!”

8 But I am like an olive tree

    flourishing in the house of God;

I trust in God’s unfailing love

    for ever and ever.

9 For what you have done I will always praise you

    in the presence of your faithful people.

And I will hope in your name,

    for your name is good.

            -- I don’t know if you remember the Veggie Tales cartoon shows or not, but back in the day, I used to really enjoy them -- even before we adopted Brooke, Kim and I would watch these shows -- they were really cutting edge for their time and always had a great message related to God’s word and God’s ways

            -- one of the shows I really liked was the story of Madame Blueberry, who lived in her spacious home, surrounded by her many items of luxury -- but, the thing was, she still was not happy -- she was not content with what she had, but continually compared her belongings and her state of life to those around her

            -- one day, a “Stuff Mart” opens up down the road from her house, and at the prompting of the store’s marketers, she rushes in and begins to buy all that they have -- as her cart fills up with item after item, she reflects on all that she now has and thinks, “This will make me happy”

            -- while all this is going on, Madame Blueberry meets two little children who teach her a valuable lesson -- the first is a little girl who is homeless and living on the street -- it’s her birthday, and all she can afford is a piece of apple pie and oatmeal for her birthday meal, but she is happy with what she has been given

            -- the next is a little boy who thinks he just has to have the newest toy model train in order to be happy and content -- but, his father says they can’t afford that, and gives him just a ball instead -- the little boy doesn’t sulk or throw a tantrum, and after a moment, we see him happily playing with the ball, grateful for what he has been given

            -- seeing them, Madame Blueberry realizes that happiness and contentment don’t come from having more and more things -- but from recognizing God’s grace in giving us what we have -- however, just as she’s coming to this realization, the Stuff Mart workers are delivering all the things she bought to her treehouse, which becomes overloaded and crashes, destroying her home and all that she has just purchased

            -- she is taken in by the little boy and the little girl’s family, and even though she has nothing left to her name, she finally finds the peace and contentment she had been seeking all along

            -- I thought about Madame Blueberry as I went into the stores in town this week and as I saw the pictures being shared on the internet of empty store shelves and of people hoarding hand sanitizer and toilet paper and other items because of the coronavirus scare -- seriously, who needs hundreds of rolls of toilet paper at home to prepare for the coronavirus? -- and what effect is their hoarding going to have on others?

            -- a friend of ours -- a single mother with two kids -- was planning on going to Walmart today to buy the groceries and supplies she needs for the next month -- she always does this when she gets her money on the 15th -- but, now, she’s going to find the shelves bare and basic necessities gone, all because people were thinking of themselves and not others

            -- I think it’s prudent to prepare for an emergency -- the Bible tells us that -- in Proverbs 30:25, it says, “Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer” -- the implication is that we are to work diligently -- to consider the future and to store up our food in the summer for the hard times to come

            -- however, at the same time, the Bible warns in the parable of the rich fool from Luke 12:16-21 that we are not to hoard riches or put our trust and hope in them -- to be greedy in this way keeps us from hearing the needs of those around us and shows a lack of trust in our God who provides

            -- Ephesians 4:28 emphasizes the need to share what we have with those in need -- it says that we “must work, doing something useful with [our] own hands, that [we] may have something to share with those in need.”

            -- so, there is fine balance between being prepared for what might come and sharing our resources with others in need versus being greedy and hoarding riches to the point where our trust is only in our riches and our goal is only to provide for ourselves and not for others

II.  Scripture Lesson (Psalm 52:7-9)

            -- with that in mind, I was led to this passage from Psalm 52 this morning -- it is a reminder to us of what’s important in times like this -- of Who we should be putting our hope and trust in during times of trial and danger

            -- these verses come from a psalm David wrote during the time when King Saul was hunting him in order to take his life -- David had fled from Saul and had gone to the town of Nob, a town populated by the priests of God -- he sought refuge there and went to the priest Ahimelech, asking for food and resources for himself and his men

            -- the priest didn’t have much to offer -- in fact, all he had to give the men to eat was the consecrated bread from the altar, but he gave what he had to David

            -- all this was witnessed by Doeg the Edomite, who reported back to Saul what he had seen -- when Saul learned that the priests and the inhabitants of Nob had helped David, he lost his temper and ordered everyone in the town killed

            -- this Psalm is David’s indictment of Doeg’s evil actions that led to the slaughter and an expression of faith that shows a better way to live

            -- so, we’re going to look at the last three verses in this Psalm and see what we can learn about how to approach times of danger and times when we need help because of emergencies

            -- if you would, join me again in Psalm 52:7

7 “Here now is the man

    who did not make God his stronghold

but trusted in his great wealth

    and grew strong by destroying others!”

            -- Doeg was not an Israelite -- he was from the country of Edom, which bordered Israel to the east, adjacent to the Jordan River -- he had found wealth and power in Saul’s kingdom, rising to a place of honor -- he was the chief herdsman for Saul and had grown rich financially, but not rich morally or spiritually

            -- earlier in this Psalm, David said that Doeg was an evil man and that God would eventually bring him down to everlasting ruin because of what he had done to the people of Nob and to God’s priests

            -- here in verse 7 we see the root of Doeg’s problem -- he didn’t put his faith and trust in God -- instead, he trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others -- it was all about what he could gain for himself -- and he didn’t mind stepping on the toes of others or hurting them if it meant that he could get ahead

            -- that is the picture of so many people in our country today -- that is what was revealed by the extreme hoarding that we saw going on this week as the coronavirus was declared a national emergency -- it shows the state of their heart -- it shows that a lot of people only trust in what they have and what they own and their sole goal is to take care of themselves, even if others get hurt in the process

            -- but this is not what the Bible teaches -- the entire Bible emphasizes our need for community -- our need for each other -- in the Old Testament, God raised up the nation of Israel to be His example to the world of a people who put their hope and trust in Him and who took care of each other’s needs -- and in the New Testament, we see in the church believers coming together as one -- bearing each other’s burdens and sharing their resources with each other so that everyone has what they need

            -- we were just talking about this in our Bible study in 1 Corinthians this week in our discussion of spiritual gifts and how everyone is to use their spiritual gifts to help build up the church and not hoard them for their own personal use

            -- it is a dramatic contrast to Doeg and people like him that accumulate great wealth and hoard it for their own use -- trusting in their own strength and their own riches rather than God -- even to the point of destroying others in the process of gaining riches and power -- this is not the way we are supposed to live -- so, how should we live instead?

            -- verse 8

8 But I am like an olive tree

    flourishing in the house of God;

I trust in God’s unfailing love

    for ever and ever.

            -- David says here that he is like an olive tree, flourishing in the house of God -- other translations say that David is like a green olive tree

            -- the olive tree is a symbol of life in the Bible -- though not very tall or stately, they were very long-lived, even up to a thousand years old -- they were dependable and were one of the most important trees in ancient Israel -- the olives were a source of food for the people, and they could depend on the olives to produce consistently because its roots ran deep and found water even during times of drought -- the olives could be pressed to make oil, which was used in lamps to bring light to home and families throughout the region

            -- so, the olive tree came to be known as a symbol of God and of those who knew and trusted in God -- the oil was used to anoint people for ministry and represented the very presence of the Holy Spirit in that person’s life -- and, of course, we know the olive branch as a symbol of peace -- a symbol of hope -- even in times of trial and trouble

            -- David says here that he is a green olive tree -- he is alive and has found life in the house of God -- by trusting in God’s unfailing love, David is alive and secure forever -- he has nothing to fear -- he has no need to worry or to hoard resources for the future, because God will always provide what is needed

            -- verse 9

9 For what you have done I will always praise you

    in the presence of your faithful people.

And I will hope in your name,

    for your name is good.

            -- rather than praising and trusting in riches, David says that he will praise God forever -- his hope and his trust are in God and God alone

            -- it’s curious that our money has the phrase, “In God we trust,” written on it -- whoever had that phrase included on our currency was trying to make the same point that David is making in this Psalm -- money is not our God -- it is a tool -- it is a resource -- that God has given us

            -- but money cannot save -- money is not something to trust in -- we saw that over the last couple of weeks as the stock market fell significantly -- you can’t depend on money -- it does not deserve our trust or our hope or our praise

            -- instead, it is God that we trust -- and, every time we make a purchase, we should see that phrase and remember that and praise God for the resources He has given and for the opportunity to use those resources wisely

            -- David did not trust in wealth or in power -- instead, his trust was in the Lord, and he praised God forever for what God had done in his life -- for God’s providence and protection in times of need and in times of danger -- David had seen God provide and protect many times in the past, and praised God for His hand in David’s life

            -- remembering God’s mighty work in the past gave David hope for the future -- he says here that he will hope in the Lord’s name -- in other words, because he has seen God move in his life in the past, he can trust and believe that God will do so again -- not because of David -- not because of anything David had done -- but simply because the name of God was good -- and God would take care of His people

            -- David’s life was an example of praise and trust in God rather than in wealth or power

III.  Closing

            -- what do we do when times are bad? -- where do we put our hope and faith and trust?

            -- do we worry just about ourselves? -- do we hoard resources and put our trust in them so that we will survive, even if others suffer?

            -- or do we trust in God and put our hope and faith in Him, even though we do not know the end of the story?

           

            -- I want to close by sharing with you a story from Jeremy Begbie about a worship service he attended in a poor South African township many years ago.  Jeremy writes:

            “I was told, immediately before the service, that a house around the corner had just been burned to the ground because the man who lived there was a suspected thief. A week before that, a tornado had cut through the township, ripping apart fifty homes; five people had been killed. And then I was told that the very night before, a gang hounded down a fourteen-year-old, a member of the church's Sunday school, and stabbed him to death.

            “The pastor began his opening prayer: "Lord, you are the Creator and the Sovereign, but why did the wind come like a snake and tear our roofs off? Why did a mob cut short the life of one of our own children, when he had everything to live for? Over and over again, Lord, we are in the midst of death."

            “As he spoke, the congregation responded with a dreadful sighing and groaning. And then, once he finished his prayer, very slowly, the whole congregation began to sing, at first very quietly, then louder. They sang and they sang, song after song of praise—praise to a God who in Jesus had plunged into the very worst to give us a promise of an ending beyond all imagining. The singing gave the congregation a foretaste of the end.                

            “Christian hope isn't about looking around at the state of things now and trying to imagine where it's all going. It's not about trying to calculate the future from the present. It's about breathing now the fresh air of the ending, tasting the spices and sipping the wine of the feast to come.” [Source: Dallas Willard, editor, A Place for Truth (InterVarsity Press, 2010)]

            -- hope comes when we trust in a God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us on the cross of Calvary -- hope comes when we trust in a God who knows our future, even if we have worries and doubts -- hope comes when we trust in God to provide for us, whether in this life or the next -- hope comes when we trust in God enough to praise Him, even in the storm

            -- I like what Saint Francis of Sales wrote: 

            “Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear; rather look to them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them.

            “He is your Keeper. He has kept you hitherto. Hold fast to his dear hand, and he will lead you safely through all things; and, when you cannot stand, he will bear you in his arms.

            “Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. Our Father will either shield you from suffering, or he will give you strength to bear it.”

            -- and, with that, we will close in prayer, choosing to trust in God and put our hope in Him rather than wealth or power or even hoards of toilet paper

            -- let us pray