Four Trees, One Undeniable Hope

wow can we give it up for that worship team for just some good Christmas music today and we're not finished yet I want to not just thank this worship team but there are so many people that just make Journey Church happen there are people behind the scenes and production we've got security all over the place we've got the most amazing parking team greeters ushers hospitality and probably the ones that we we should praise the most and thank them our journey kids superheroes come on somebody can you just thank all the people that help make this church happen hey if we've not had the privilege to meet my name is Keith I'm the lead and founding Pastor here and I want to just say it's a serious honor that you would spend a part of your Christmas Eve with us we don't take it lightly and it's in this moment I I pray that God would speak to your heart that you would know how much God loves you he's got a purpose and a plan for your

life and that you would see that not just now but there would be a hope that carries with you it would inspire you to get into his word that is the Bible to get to know him even greater I want to rec recognize that some of us have come in here with hurts or hiccups or some of us are confused where God is in our lives right now have you ever noticed that sometimes your expectations fail that certain seasons in life just aren't what you expected them to be do you know what I mean by that what I mean by that is like you might be a child and you're expecting to have a happy childhood and then when your parents get divorced it's like your life crumbles and falls apart or you enter into marriage because you expect to happily ever after but instead you find yourself in divorce court it can happen to any of us at any time it

might be a doctor's diagnosis it could be a car crash there's just some Seasons that just aren't the way they ought to be and it will happen to all of us at some point in our lives this month of December has been just an unorthodox out of rhythm for me because I've been sick most of the month and it came to a point where I recognized that Christmas was just less than a week away and I had not purchased even one single gift instead I was at home just asking for pity parties nobody came over for the party and so I did what I've done in years past I went to Amazon I loaded up my cart with gifts for everyone and then at the very end when I'm checking out the date said that these gifts would

come long after Christmas and I realized that I cannot purchase a single gift on Amazon so I started to yell at Alexa I told her she used to be faster she used to work better and and I just wondered what am I even paying you for for this Prime Membership that's not prime any longer and she just gave me the silent treatment so then on Saturday I went downtown and I went to from one store to another the first store I went to I was looking for one thing they didn't have it I went to the next store and they were out of it and I was just it was a miserable day on Saturday trying to find gifts for my family so I've just determined this year that you know those coupon gifts that kids make for the their parents I'm making those for my kids this year I mean there's going to be coupons for free hugs there's going to be coupons for

free lectures full of wisdom and knowledge just turn that in anytime there's even a coupon for a roof over your head so we've all got something to be grateful for am I right I actually I I truly actually do have so much to celebrate this Christmas season my my oldest daughter who you saw up here she was the one singing Noel if you notice the way she was worshiping with her hand out she actually got engaged this week everybody so I'm so excited I want to congratulate Landon Stringham her new fiance and McKenna and uh we're so blessed and grateful we we always got something to be thankful for the Book of Proverbs 13:12 in wisdom God wants us to know that hope deferred makes the heart sick but a desire

fulfilled is a tree of life could you read that with me just all of us out loud together hope deferred makes the heart sick but a desire for filled is a tree of life here's what the Bible is saying to each and every one of our hearts and that is that hope brings healing go God does not want us to wander or to be weary in our hearts rather with the hope of Jesus Christ something happens inside of us that you're you're more like a tree of life I want you for just a moment with your imagination to to picture two trees the type of tree you're imagining says much about you do you have leaves pine needles or palm branches come on somebody I want you to imagine two trees and in these two trees one of the trees

is tall it's strong and it's vibrantly green whether it's leaves pine needles or palm branches it is alive the second tree is dead half of the leaves pine needles or palm branches are off the tree I I want you to visualize for just a moment that instead of being green they're brown symbolizing death now the one that is alive didn't do this alone it it's clear that there was some refreshing life given to this tree with water or whatever nutrients and son is needed but the one that is dead could have died for a myriad of reasons maybe it's without the source of Life

water could it be disease that killed that tree maybe it was the environment there wasn't enough room for the roots to grow but I want you to see the symbol today that the Book of Proverbs tells us that if you do not have hope you're sick and sickness leads to death but when you have hope it's in something you don't have yet and when you get it you're like a tree of life and I want you to imagine today that each and every one of us has a tree inside of us is your tree alive or is it dead maybe your tree was once alive but is dying and today I want to point you to four trees so that you would see that God wants you to have hope that is healing that you would come alive because when you have hope in Jesus here's what you're going to constantly

find the more you mature in your faith you will find these coincidences of God where he surprises you with his love you hope in him all of a sudden your desires will be fulfilled not because of the things that you do but because of what God does for you we have a value here at Journey Church we call Guerilla love we St a principle of warfare Guerilla War where an army surprises their enemy when they least expect it and we've taken that principle and we've simply said that's how God loves us he loves us when we least expect it when we least deserve it gorilla love simply says I'm going to love you not because you've done anything or not because of anything you will do but it just simply says I'm going to surprise you with love that's

the kind of God we have Christmas is the ultimate gorilla Love Story God at just the right time stepped into the human story so that we'd had the solution to our sins that we would not only be saved given the gift of eternal life having the hope of Salvation How Great Is Our God the great gorilla lover can I just give an example of gorilla love you guys cool with that this is going to be particip participatory but here's how it's going to work we have another core value here at Journey Church which is to be relentlessly real we recognize that it's too easy in church to wear a mask and look like everything's going okay you know with God you never have to fake it to make it so our core value of being relentlessly real is to Simply say God loves you not because you go fix your life right first not because of the good things you've done God loves you because

God is love so I'm just going to ask for just a moment it's going to get a little uncomfortable and and and if you would just stretch yourself here I believe someone's going to get blessed today so I'm just going to ask that You' get vulnerable you'd get relentlessly real so that we can just see an example of Just The Coincidence of God's gorilla love in our lives I'm going to ask in just a moment for you to raise your hands for those who are struggling financially and this financial struggle can come in many different ways it could be loans it could be credit card debt it could be mistakes that you've made it could be the evil that someone else has done to you it could be medical bills it could be the uncertainty of your financial future it could be simply inflation today but if you are struggling in any way financially if if any way there's uncertainty and I realize this is vulnerable and I realize

at church it ought to look like you have your life figured out but I'm just going to ask if that's you if there's one place or another that you might be financially struggling somewhere in your life that you would slip your hand up and keep your hand up just right right where you are just SL be now and now I need you to look around the room with your hands up look around the room I want to prophesy over you who's got your hands up keep your hands up if that's you we believe here at joury church There's Hope for everyone furthermore the Bible says that my God shall supply all of your needs according to His glory now with your hands up I'm just going to get really really vulnerable I've never done anything like this before so you're going to have to stick with me here all right be relentlessly real if it's your first time ever at Journey Church you walked through the doors today for the first time you've never been at Journey before would you keep your hand up if you've been at Journey go go ahead and put your hand down if it's your first time at Journey Church today your first

time at Journey Church I see some hands there I see some hands there I see some hands there okay I'm going to call on you is that all right I'm going to just ask that you'd even get more uncomfortable than you are right now would would you mind just making it over the over to these steps over here and just come on up here and join me on the stage come on can you give her a hand for coming up here you see here's the amazing thing about Hope is God's requiring us to put our faith into practice and so just so everyone knows this was not pre-planned we did not talk about this in advance in fact we've never met before have we uh so what's your name Destiny this is Destiny everyone can you just think Destiny for taking a chance Destiny I don't even need to you to share any of your story I don't need you to share anything but what I do want to do today is let you know how Loved

You Are by God I want you to know that God has always seen you he knows everything about you what you're going through and God's going to continue to surprise you with his love and today on behalf of Journey Church to show you that hope that he has we just have a gift of $1,000 cash for you so this is for you we want you to know take this please this is not from us it's a gift from God we want you to know your love so Destiny thank you very much go you could use it however you want to see fit God bless you Merry Christmas yay thank you yes come on thank you I tell you isn't gorilla love fun but I I also tell you it's a little uncomfortable and

someone's got to take a step of Faith uh Destiny did not have to raise her hand but God knew exactly in this moment that she would be the one that God had a plan for I need you to know today deep in your heart that you have something in you that you're not even certain of I'm talking about a seed that is so powerful that if you would allow it to multiply this is a tree of life Jesus in teaching us to pray in Matthew chapter 7 he asks us to be a Praying people he asks us not that you'd go get your life right first and then you come to God but would you take God so seriously you would actually ask him to provide for your needs and then he says this statement in Matthew 7:11 if you then Jesus says who are evil what he's implying is you're born in sin you have mistakes if you know how to give

good good gifts to your children isn't that what happens at Christmas I we've got proof we know how to give good gifts and Jesus says this how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him it's time for you to start asking of God he doesn't want your heart to be sick he doesn't want you to stay in the place where you are he wants you to have hope that will not only heal your heart you're going to not just survive in this life you're going to thr Drive you're going to be a tree of life have you ever noticed how trees are such a symbol of the Christmas tradition for us we normally go spend $5 on a tree permit and go cut our own tree down it's been a tradition for us for years we do it right after Thanksgiving we go cut our tree down you bring it in

your house and here's the great thing about this it's only five bucks and if it looks bad it's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree which is pretty much every tree we've ever cut down it looks sickly all you got to say is it's character it's personality you only spent five bucks I wonder just with a quick survey I'm not going to give you a thousand bucks for this but how many of you have a fake Christmas tree I mean it's it's convenient it's consistent you know it's going to look good come on that says a lot about your personality you can put your hands down how many you are like me you want to be a lumberjack but it's only five bucks you go cut your own tree down come on all right boy we're about even in this survey how many of you you you dig into your life savings and you go to one of those Christmas tree lots come on somebody all right that happened to us this year it was after after Thanksgiving my kids were like can we go

cut the tree down I'm like no I'm sick I'm not feeling good the next week can we go cut the tree down I'm like no I'm still not feeling good guys I'm sick is the next week and the kids are like Christmas Is Almost Here can we please get a Christmas tree I'm like no I'm sick So eventually I just handed them my credit card and I said you go to the Teen Challenge Christmas tree lot and get us a Christmas tree I didn't know it would take half of my life savings for that little six foot Christmas tree but it's beautiful I did a little digging into Christmas trees of of where this started and i' I've heard this before but uh now that I looked on the internet I could see that it's true uh some people have a problem with Christmas trees because the roots go to to ancient Pagan roots and this is true if you just Google this or go to chat GPT AI will tell you the story of this that that actually the roots go all the way back to to Pagan times even preist with the Romans and the Egyptians

where they would actually take the Evergreen in the middle of winter and they would celebrate the evergreen tree as a symbol to false gods so they would sacrifice this Evergreen as a symbol of Life of strength and endurance getting through a dark cold winter then later you fast forward to the med Medieval Times in Europe and during that medieval time they would take pine trees and they would put apples on the pine trees as a representation of the story of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil fast forward to the uh 16th Century in Germany and all of a sudden the Germans are are bringing Christians Christian Germans are bringing the trees into their homes as a celebration of the Christmas story then Martin Luther the great reformer who reminds us that we're saved not by religion or any rituals or

by things we can do but he reminds us that we're saved by grace through faith he decides to take a candle and put it on the Christmas tree and then he fills the Christmas tree with candles as a repes representation of the stars in the sky the Book of James tells us that our God who is The Giver of good gifts is the father of Lights it's a direct reference to the one that put the stars in the sky he's a good Gift Giver fast forward to the 18th century when immigrants from Germany are coming to America they bring that tradition with them other Christians from other countries are looking at these German Christians and they're calling them crazy until about one generation later all sorts of people were bringing trees

into their home and then Thomas Edison invented this absolutely wild invention called the light bulb which made it way more safe and clean than the wax on the candles to put on your Christmas tree today all sorts of people not from one particular place of Faith bring in a tree Adorn it with lights they decorate it some unknowingly pointing us to the person of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world and today I want to tell you about trees so that you would understand the significance and someone might even be here on Christmas and saying man why is the preacher going to talk about trees shouldn't there be Shepherds and a baby born in a manger why would we want to even talk about these things well I'll tell you you can't understand the power of Jesus story until you understand the power of a tree there is a power in a tree and I'm

going to get to that in just a moment the Bible says in Psalm 1 that you can be a blessed person who is like a tree bless blessed it says in Psalm 1:1 blessed is a man who walks not in the counsil of the wicked nor stands in the way of Sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers but the blessed person his Delight is in the law of the Lord that's referring to God's word the Bible and his law he meditates on a day and night this blessed person verse three says he is like a tree someone shout tree like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its Leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers that's the blessed person he prospers the wicked are not so but are

like shaft that the wind drives away so we have here the visualization of a person that's blessed and right with God is going to thrive like a tree planted by streams of water in the abundance of the endless supply of refreshing nourishment so what's the significance of trees Paul writes to the Galatians in chapter 3: 13 Christ which is what we celebrate Christmas christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written in Deuteronomy chapter 21 it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree there's a Divine curse that if you break the law there's a punishment for it Jesus in dying on the cross and this

is a Jewish term for crucifixion he hung on a tree he took our curse on a tree Jesus willingly he who was out sin took our sin to substitute your sins he had no sin but he willingly died on the cross to take your sins Peter when he preached in Acts 5:30 says the god of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree later in Acts 10:39 it says they put him to death by hanging him on a tree you see here's the concept in the Bible a tree either represents cursing and death or a tree represents blessing and life so inside

of you you will either have blessing and life which we learn now is found in Jesus Christ or there's cursing and death some of you can't even put your finger on it why do you feel the way you feel why do you keep coming back to the place you are and the Bible would simply say you've got to receive the grace of Jesus and when you do he reverses the curse from the very beginning a tree played a central role in God's story and the human story Genesis chapter 2 only two chapters into the Bible here's what the Lord God said the Lord God commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every someone shout every every tree of the garden you can eat of but of the

tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat for in that day you shall in that for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die super clear instructions we have a great God of abundance he doesn't limit Adam and say well you can have these three trees and no more instead he's the god of abundance that says you can eat of everyone except for this one and with that free will we see that God has given humankind from the beginning the ability to obey him or ignore him and it doesn't take long it's the next chapter that Adam and Eve both eat from that tree they rebel against God's instructions they do their own thing and we see the we see this the the the place

in the human heart that instead of obeying God's word it was the Lord God that instructed us there will be a consequence if you choose to disobey me and that's when sin entered the human story it started with the tree the Tree of Life the tree of knowledge the tree of Good and Evil so we see the tree in the beginning we see the tree that Jesus was hung on I want to tell you about two more trees the third tree I want to tell you about is the family tree of Jesus Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3 both tell us about the genealogy of the life of Jesus the unique perspective from the life of Mary and the life of Joseph we can go back to the very beginning now why would the genealogy of Jesus be important I'll tell you that family tree is important so that you

would see God knew exactly what he was doing from the beginning even in the garden starting with that tree Genesis 3:15 God tells the serpent Satan after he had tempted mankind to sin that he would provide a solution it's exactly what the devil's doing today tempting us to go against God's word and the Lord said to Satan I will put enmity between you and the woman so God's going to use someone born of a woman we now know that's Jesus born from the Virgin Mary and between your Offspring and her Offspring there's going to be a war between good and evil and he we now know is Jesus shall bruise your head and you we know as Satan shall bruise his heel and the good old King James version The

Old English says I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed we're going to see which tree is going to survive and I'm betting on Jesus isn't it amazing that God knew in the garden exactly what he would do Jesus was not plan B Jesus was not man's idea Jesus is fully God who became fully man to give us eternal life through the free gift of Grace someone should shout hallelujah hallelujah from the tree in the garden to the family tree to the tree that Jesus was crucified on we see a god that gives us hope so that you would not be like a dying tree that you would not just survive in this life but you would Thrive finally I want to point

out one last tree in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible John the Apostle the disciple of Jesus Christ was given the revelation of Jesus it's the title of the last book of the Bible and he tells us in this Final Chapter then the angel showed me the river of the Water of Life bright as the crystal flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the Tree of Life with his 12 kinds of fruit meaning it's complete in his fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the Nations no longer will there be anything accursed but the Throne of God and the lamb will be in it

and his servants will worship him see John uses this apocalyptic language meaning this heavy use of imagery to point us forward towards eternity that by believing in Jesus one day there'll be a tree of life that is such a source that no matter how broken you are now no matter what nation you come from this tree of life will bring healing this tree of life will bring hope this tree of life shows us points us to the person of Jesus who's described here as the lamb four times we're told in the Book of Revelation about the tree of life it is so significant that God does not want you to be left out of what's to come in Revelation Chapter 2 Jesus is speaking to the church and he says he who has an

ear let him hear and so I ask you today would you hear the words of Jesus let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers Jesus says I will Grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God who is the one that conquers Romans chapter 8 says that it's the one who has Jesus you are more than a conqueror which means it's not about you or what you could do it's about what was done for you by Jesus Christ on the cross he took your sin so that you would know you're forgiven he took your sin so that you would be justified and made right with God you are no longer a sinner with Jesus you are a saint and not only are you a saint you're given the gift of of eternal life you get access to the tree of life and now you can start living like it don't disobey God's word go to

God's word so that you could be the one that conquers and receives it you see the warning from Jesus is just this The Book of Revelation tells us that not everyone will get to enjoy this tree of life someday there are some that reject the Lord Jesus there are some that refuse to accept their need for God's grace see the Bible says hope to F makes the heart sick sickness does not lead to life sickness leads to death and I would tell you there's a fragility in this life that all of us are going to die and there's a warning in our own hearts that if you don't take care of the sickness in your heart it will lead to death and I've got the antidote to sickness today and his name is Jesus there's a tree inside of you

that's not meant to die it's meant to be alive and maybe right now you feel dead maybe right now you've gone through some struggles I'm here to tell you Jesus is in the business of making dead things come alive Jesus doesn't leave you in your struggles he promises I'll never leave you and I will never forsake you in fact he claimed of himself I am the resurrection and the life so if you today like Psalm 1 tells us you want to be like a tree planted by streams of Living Water would you receive the invitation of Jesus in John chap chapter 4 Jesus was talking to a woman who was all alone at a well getting water she had been used she had been abused she had been married five times she was living with a man who was her H husband and Jesus was willing to engage with her

in a conversation and in this conversation Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water referring to Earthly water Earthly things will be thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life God does not want you to be dry in your life you have a well that will never run dry in Jesus this is spiritually speaking that you wouldn't seek the things of this world to satisfy you but when you seek Jesus he can satisfy you he later says in John 7:38 whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of Living Water and when you have that water you

thrive you have those leaves in fact you have more than just leaves you have seeds inside of you so that you would multiply that hope in others as was shared on Sunday that you would abound in hope you would overflow in Hope Jesus warns us in Matthew 7 verse1 17 so every healthy tree that bears good fruit every healthy tree Bears good fruit but the diseased tree Bears Bad fruit a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit some of you are looking for good fruit in your life right now not realizing that it might be the tree that's the problem see the Bible tells us in the book of Jeremiah that by believing in the Lord that is yah wayway he actually takes Your Heart of Stone and replaces it with a heart of Flesh he doesn't just

give you a better tree you're born again you're a new creation you have a new tree inside of you I want to close with Galatians chapter 4 when Paul's writing to the churches of this region he says but when the fullness of time had come I like how the New Living Translation says at just the right time God knew exactly what he was doing at just the right time God sent forth his son that's Jesus born of a woman woman that's Mary born under the law he could have sinned but he didn't do it he was born at this time to redeem it says in verse 5 those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as Sons praise be to God today

I point you to the person Jesus Christ that will change everything if if you feel more like a dead tree I want you to know that you can have Living Hope in Jesus it is so simple you don't have to go get your life right first you don't have to have it all figured out but you do have to have faith and when you put your faith in Jesus he changes everything everything and tonight or today if you're here and you're wondering why you're here and maybe you came with someone maybe you mustered up the courage to come here I will say God brought you here at this moment so that you would know you're saved to take you from just surviving in this life to thrive you it doesn't matter where you've come from it doesn't matter where you've been doesn't matter what you've done I want you to know that God's love is greater there's no sin so great that he won't forgive and today by

believing in him he will forgive you of everything every single sin not some the ones you've done the ones you're presently doing even the ones you will do so that by God's grace you don't keep going back to sin the Bible refers to it in the Book of Proverbs as vomit like a dog returns to his vomit why would you do that it's time for you to make a decision today I want the streams of Living Water the water that will never run dry the water that I was created for so that I would be a tree of life today if you feel like your heart's sick because you don't have Jesus right now is your moment to change everything it's so simple the Bible says if you would believe in your heart Jesus died on the cross and if you would confess it with your mouth that he rose from the grave you are saved that's

it I can't save you but Jesus can a prayer can't save you but Jesus can going to church doesn't save you but Jesus does you're never too young you're never too old you've never made so many mistakes that he won't give you his grace today the Bible says he's rich in Grace so I speak to you today would this be your day of salvation and from this day forward You' keep coming back it's the greatest gift you could receive this Christmas can we just make this a serious moment just close your eyes right where you are without anyone looking around the room this is your moment between you and God may I just ask you do you know for certain what happens when you die the Bible says hell is real and Heaven is real God does not send anyone to

hell it's reserved for those that reject his love and his grace it's it's a separation from God it's called the second death in the Bible but the Bible says by believing in Jesus you're given the free gift of eternal life if you want that gift today and you want to be saved forgiven would you just raise your hand right where you are saying that's me I want to make that decision today right where I am praise God anyone else yes praise God praise God oh come on praise God yes I see you anyone else praise God yes anyone else right where you are just raise your hand nice and high this is a

celebration moment I ask people to close their eyes so that this would be real between you and God I ask you to raise your hand that you would do something on the outside is there anyone else here today that you say yes that's me I don't want you to miss this opportunity praise God I love that I want to make sure today you understand life is short I don't want to scare anyone into heaven but we know not the hour young people die middle-aged people die and old people die we know not the hour but we can know today how to live so if that's you and you raised your hand and even if there's a moment right now that you didn't do it but you want to I want to just tell you it's not too late if that's you I'm just going to

pray a prayer with you prayer is talking with god it's listening to God it's it's being one with God would you pray this prayer with me I'm going to say this in short phrases and anyone who's ever believed in Jesus before would you pray it out loud with those doing it for the first time I just want to make sure that you know the hope that you can have in Jesus out loud just say this Lord Jesus Lord Jesus I believe in you I believe in forgive me of my sins me of I receive eternal life reive I receive the Holy Spirit reive make me Thrive give me life give me life help me to follow you me to follow you thank you for Hope thank you for Hope in Jesus name amen amen can someone celebrate the Lord today

if you made that decision today it is by far the most important decision you can make make sure you tell somebody we're going to end our time today with a symbol and a recognition of the hope that we have in Jesus you see it doesn't stop today with a Christmas Eve service it starts let God's Hope come alive in you Satan's going to try to squash it but Jesus is the Living Water that will never never run dry Jesus is the light of the world that will never go dark so it's in this moment we want to remember and celebrate Jesus and what he's done for you get out your candles now as we just prepare for this moment in this candle lighting it will go dark just real quick instruction if you want your candle lit

you put your unlit candle on the flame so as to not drip wax on the next person all right hope is here amen praise be to God Jesus is our undeniable hope praise God May the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace amen Jesus said I am the light of the world now Journey you are a light in the world walk as children of light the light shines in the Darkness in the darkness has not overcome it by the power of the Holy Spirit may

you abound in Hope come on we hope in his word and we rejoice in his name come on