Sermon on Stuff That Make You Grow

Text:
6He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.7Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?8And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:9And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Subject: “The Ish… (stuff) that makes us Grow!
Church I must say today everyday of my life has truly been interesting, challenging, and a blessing. Also as I stand hear today as a husband, a father, a son, a friend, a youth minister, a follower of Christ, a leader, and as a follower; I testify that life is no easy journey. Life is filled with influences, voices, messages, distractions, blessings, cursings, and more that compete for our time, resources, and focus. The theme for Vacation bible school last week was JesusTruth Seekers. We talked about various principles that we should seek for in our every day lives in order that we may find, and aquire Christ. In the teen class we had great discussions around forgiving, obeying, building, and …. Well in one class we began to talk about music and talked about the messages that were being brought forth and how they address the life or culture that we live in today. Well I must say the list was long, and while many of the songs were no more than a rant or advertisement for sex, partying, drugs, and money; there were actually a couple of artists who actually had something to say. These songs lifted up some real situations that really cause us to think and challenge us at our very core of being.
The first song is by Rhianna. Our young people know who she is, and many of the rest of us may not have known her if it were not for her altercation with r&b artist Chris Brown. In her song and video, Rhianna tackles the theme of domestic violence framed by a story of a pretty girl who is raped by a total stranger, and therefore the girl, takes justice into her own hands and takes the life of her attacker. As a result she is thrown further into a state of misery and confusion.

The song starts as such: didn't mean to end his life
I know it wasn't right
I can't even sleep at night
Can't get it off my mind
I need to get out of sight
Before I end up behind bars

What started out as a simple altercation
Turned into a real sticky situation
Me just thinking on the time that I'm facing
Makes me wanna cry

Now, that she has done it her way, she is in a far worse state than she was when she first started. I can think of many times in my life when I did it my way and just made the situation worse.

Now to another song called How to Love, by Lil Wayne.
He writes a song that’s starts as such:

You had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart
Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out
How to love
How to love

You had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever
Now you in this corner tryna put it together
How to love
How to love
While done in a very different way lil Wayne also looks at the state of uncertainty that life can leave us in due to a certain event, person, situation, issue, failure or even victory. And its these these things that I would like to call the “ish” or stuff that makes us grow.

In our passage today we have the story of a fig tree that is discovered without fruit. Barren. Useless. The fig tree was often used to symbolize God’s chosen people, Israel, but in this instance it is symbolic of the entire people of God without respect of person, nationality, economoic status, or gender. Young people here we have a tree in the vineyard, surrounded by life, flourishing foliage, luscious greens, plentiful fruit trees ripe with fruit, and green green grass. A man is walking with the vineyard owner and he stops at this tree and says hey man, what you got going on here is really great but tell me, seriously, whats up with this tree right here, I mean if that’s what it really is. I mean seriously why is it here. You don’t need it, you cant use it if you wanted to, so why don’t you just cut it down (Jason Translation). Man why you hang out with him/her? I mean every time I come here nothing, the first few times I aint say nothing but this is ridiculous. So lets put this another way. Here I am Jason Prince, here you are my brother and sister growing up in one of the best economies in the world, loving family, caring church family, and you cant for some reason get yourself together. Young people, here you are or you have this one friend that cannot seem to fit into the group to save they life. Well I want to take this moment and be the tree. I can remember countless times in life where it felt like everyone around me had it all and nothing good was happening for me. I felt like I was without purpose. Fruitless. In high school everyone else had a lot of friends and I didn’t. I was not the coolest person. Was not the most popular. Didn’t have money for fancy clothes, cars, or stuff. My parents worked hard to provide for me to give me what I needed, and I still always remained special and not always in a good way. Like this tree I did not stand out because of what I did have, it was what I didn’t have that made me stand out. At least when it came to me trying to fit in and create a life for myself as a youth. I remember being rejected by females. I was that guy who every female in school said, “oh hes just a nice guy, a good friend”. That’s the worse thing you can tell a guy in high school or middle school. Translation, he is cool to talk to but I would never date him.lol. I can say that now, at 30, but then I couldn’t except it. So guys let me help you out, if all she wanna do is talk about her problems to you, I am sorry but she most likely is not gonna date you. Just saying what I am saying, we can discuss that later. Now back to the story, the visitor suggests to the man, cut it down man. Church family this is where we gotta increase our awareness, because the government is making this statement all around us. Detroit just closed 20 plus schools. Locally educational programs, after school programs, museums, libraries and such are all being cut down. We don’t even have to go that far, increasingly Hard EOGs, testings, and more or cutting our children down. Some of you us in this sanctuary are taking it upon ourselves to cut down our young people and one another. Young people are cutting eachother down. There were two shootings last week in Durham Freeway, 147. The black male is being cut down. There are more black men in jail at any time than on campuses of higher learing. This is why parents, if there was ever a time, the time is now to take “parenting” to another level. Our children are out here in the vineyard trying to grow, and stand out. Some of them are not up to par, and instead of using our creativity, advocacy, wiosdom, and strength to stand with them to support; we stand ready with the axx to criticize. I participated in a mentorship exercise where we brought parents and children in the room together and had them talk to one another about there successes, failures, and questions. The children had plenty to say about being a youth, and growing up in their house. They had plenty of good and bad to say about their parents. When the parents started talking they were armed heavily with criticism but many were silent when it came to uplifting and highlighting the good in there children. My heart was sad, and so were the children. Well church, I come to say the same holds true right now. Some of your children come home every day day looking for love from there parents that’s in a language they want and understand. The same is true in our relationships, and marriages. For some reason life causes us to tear down eachother instead of help build. Parents today I want you to look your child in the eyes and tell them how special they are. Tell them the vision you have for them. And don’t lie. If you don’t have one, then be humble and just say you vow to support them. We forget that though they are our children, they did not choose you, rather you chose them. Some of you are shaking your head, but you the one that laid down, not the child. Truth be told. So don’t treat them like whites treated blacks. Whites brought us over here, made life hell for us, and then when we wanted a life for ourselves, when we wanted to explore, when we wanted to thrive, they created Jim Crow, segregation, and forced us to fight. Children will be children and will mess up, but don’t make them have to fight so hard, rather help them fight to be grown men and women of God. We want to rely on systems to do what you are supposed to do. If the schools don’t teach them to read, we need to do it, and do it together. If they are failing, don’t fight the teachers, fight the habbitts that are being formed at home. I have heard countless teachers who try to get parents involved in their childrens education, and they are bing told, “they are not my problem, u deal with it” (told to the teacher.) Children you have the right to be supported, loved, and taught by everyone and anyone in here. And adults you have the mandate, the charge, the responsibility to teach someone other than yourself. Today I come to tell you all that you are valuable and your value is made greater and when you share it with someone else. You were created to be fruitful and not barren. You were created for life and not death. The fact that this tree has grown to a point where can even be called a dead tree lets me know that at one time it was full of life, it just could not produce fruit. All of its substance had gone to maintain life, but it had not come to a point where it could sustain life for another. Ah that’s a revelation right there. In other words the true had grown up, but it was not yet grown. Young people, you may think you are grown with all the things that you have, all the phones, the cars, the clothes, and even th jobs. But to answer the question that was brought up in class, you are not grown until you can help and reach beyond your own life and sustain life for another. Having a baby doesn’t make you a mother/father, but raising one does. Young people you might can consider yourself grown when you can look beyond your own existence and become aware or comprehend the things and forces that exist beyond you. In other words when you realize that it all about you. When I realized that it wont about me, I began to understand what it meant to “put away childish things”.
In order for the growth to happen we must be rooted, as stated byt our theme for youth month, and Colossians 2:6-7. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

To fully live this thing out your beliefs and your understandings must run deep and wide. Who in here understands the concept of roots. Does anyone know about root formation. Trees in particular have very deep roots, as well as very wide roots. In other words the spread out wide and run deep. The depth is for nutrition, trees cant move, and they need a lot of water, therefore they must reach way down to permanent water sources deep under ground in order to sustain life. Much in the way that when you find yourself doing stupid stuff like Rhianna, or in s state of heartbrake like Lil Wayne, we must dig deap in times of draught and despair in order to find a glimmer of life and hope. And that digging deap comes with prayer, discipline, and maturity. At one time in my life I used to react to everything off the cuff, now I can chill and process, patiently.

Now that we have depth, that not all we need. Anyone ever noticed how hard it is to knock a tree down. They can handle all sorts of storms, attacks, and they can even hold massive amounts of weight. Well that comes from roots that run wide. They create stability. Balance. They create a base. This balance in life comes through our sharing and relationships. Its relationships that allow us to move laterally through life. Good relationships help us establish jobs, careers, education, families, organizations, etc. This is the fellowship.

Now moving through the text, after the visitor asks that the tree be cut down, the vineyard owner looks at him and says. After the teacher says, your child cannot meet the requirements to advance, the mother looks up and says, after the doctor says there is nothing we can, the patient looks up and says, give me some more time and let me dig around it and dung it and we will see what happens. Let me go take some child with my child, and we will see what happens. Doc I hear you so, let me go take some time to pray and hear from the Lord and we will see what happens.

Yall the owner didn’t say let me move it. He didn’t say let me pray for it. He didn’t say let me… He said let me put some ish around it and see if it grows. I don’t know how you take that, but if someone came to me in the midst of the worst moment of my life and said let me add some more stuff around you and see what happens. Well this is exactly what happened. Well let me tell you God truly specializes in turning bad situations into better ones. I can honestly stand here today and say personally this has been the most trying, frustrating, and overwhelming year of my life. But it has also yielded the most growth in my life. Let me tell you, there are many people in your life right now that want to see you fail. They are walking through your life right now, disguised as family members, friends, associates, co-workers, believers, and what have you. And if they are not telling you themselves, they are telling someone else to cut you down. I told my VBS class and I say it again, you are lucky in life to have one good friend or person who truly cares for you and blessed if you have two. I stand by that today. But looking back, I see where God allowed me to be in bad, or less than desireable situations to help make me a better person today. God took the ish in my life to make me a better person. He took all those bad relationships, stuff, and showed me what a good one looks like. He took all those haters, stuff, and helped me understand and appreciate my own value. He took all that heart break and allowed me to minister and connect with others who are in a constant state of pain. He took my failures, stuff, and created perseverance. You see the tree had tapped out on the soil that it was rooted in. The tree could not relocate, but the vine dressor, the curator, the master, the father brought nutrients to it. He broke the ground around it, and poured into it death with resurrected as life. Ah did you get that. He took something that was dead, and placed it on the ground, and it became a source of life. Life is all about death and resurrection. Let me help you. In order for a seed to produce life, a ripe fruit has to die, fall to the ground, decompose, expose the seed, and then bring forth life. And then the cycle is repeated. Many of us, were alive and created in sin, we fell, died to ourselves, and were resurrected in Christ.

All this was made possible when Christ who was fullof life, marched up the road…and was hung on a cross. Died. Gave of his blood, dropped from the cross, buried and was resurrected.

It was his blood that was shed as a sacrifice of grace
His blood was not shed for you to have friends. It was not shed for you to have a car. It was not shed for you to have a house. You didn’t need his blood for that. But you needed it to make you who you are today. You needed it to breathe life into your dying soul. We needed his blood to transforming our dying situations. We needed his stuff, to make us fruitful. He had to shed his blood to make me love right. To make me walk right. And if you don’t know you betta ask somebody. Young people he even died for you. You are valuable and worth it. So if anyone questions your worth you better let them know that you are valuable. And if they don’t know tell em to ask Jesus. Cause when you know who you are, you don’t take mess from anyone less. Tell the haters in your life, tell that boy in your life, tell that girl in your life, that you aint coming down for no body, you aint changing for no body. They can bring that ish around but it aint gonna do nothing but make you better. Cause you know who you are. And when you know who you are church you can tell the devil to get out of your life, you can tell bring it on, come what may because I will serve the Lord…I will come out on top. Going back in the text, the tree really had it made because of who it belonged to…its creator had the remedy for its situation. Open your mind today church so that you know of the exceeding greatness of the whose power, the creator, open your heart so that you may understand what is the hope of his calling, open your mind that you may understand the your inheritance.

Young people you don’t beling to your haters
Church you don’t belong to the doubters
Family you don’t belong to the nay sayers
You don’t belong to the strangers

So when they all start bringing that ish in your life, tell em “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect.”

The only one who has the right to find fault in you is the one who created you…

The only one who has the right to tear you down is the one who is gonnna build you up…

Cause while they bringin on the ish by talking junk about you and saying you are no good , the creator is wiping you down

While the ish is coming that you aint nothing, the creator of fixing you up and turning you around

Tell them haters I am what I am by the grace of God… I am what I am by the grace of God…
And for those of you that say I am not where I wanna be, but thank god not what I used to be…

Well maybe God has you there for a reason…
You are being kept in the situation by the grace of God…
So stop wanted more and thank him for where you are…
Tell the devil I am what I am by the grace of God

He is using your situation to take you somewhere else and if you didn’t have this stuff right now you couldn’t make it through the stuff tomorrow

I am so glad today that I may be broke right now but I am who and what I am by the grace of God

I may be broken but I am what I am by the grace of God

I may have lost my job but I am what I am by the grace of God…

Tell ya neighbor I am going to be all god has called me to be

And I am so glad that I am what I am by the grace of God…
I been surrounded by stuff but I am what I am

I am going to be all that God plans for me to be because the creator is over the created

Nothing about the created is so crazy that the creator cant make saine

Nothing about the created is so sick that the creator cant heal

Nothing about the created is so broke that the whose cant make wealthy

Nothing about the created is so broken that the creator cant mend…

Nothing about the created is so sinful that the creator cant make holy

Nothing about the created is so awaful that the creator cant touch..

Despite the ish around me, I am who I am by the grace of God…

So if you wanna hate, go head, cause I am who I am…
You cant change me, cause I am who I am

You are Gods man…
You are Gods women
You are gods child
You are gods created…
And cant no body take that away
Tell the devil you are off limits… You are….