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"Make
the Tree Good . . ." November
9, 2003 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower [first section missing from tape] from Psalm 51.
And if we look at Psalm 51, beginning in verse 10, we find these words.
It's a part of a prayer from David and it goes: Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit. And another text, this one from Matthew--from Matthew chapter 12,
beginning with verse 33: Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree
bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
You brood of vipers! How can
you speak good things, when you are evil? For
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil
person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.
I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for
every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by
your words you will be condemned. Now, I want us to . . . think together about our stewardship
testimony that I almost forgot, but I'm looking at Kristen and Mark right now
and they're helping me realize that before I say very much more, I want to
introduce the Blenkos to you thusly: They
are our stewardship testimony people this morning because each week during
stewardship season, we are doing something that we typically have done in the
past, which is invite people to speak to us on the subject of stewardship and
I'm going to let them do that in just a minute.
And, something that we typically have not done, is that we're going to
challenge each of us to pray for four other families in the life of our church.
Just find where your name is on the church directory and pray for the two
families above yours and the two families after yours.
Now, I know some of you are going, "Will!
I forgot! I haven't started
praying yet! Oh, my gosh! I wonder if it's too late."
No, it's never too late. So
we encourage you to join in with us. And
now, Kristen and Mark, I invite you to come forward. [Kristen and Mark presented their stewardship testimony] I want to begin with a story.
Back in 1988 I had the great, great privilege of going to Scotland for 15
days of ministry. A typical day of
each of those 15 days would be just praying for people, morning, and noon, and
night. And then in between, if we
had just a little bit of time for a break, there would be someone from the area
(from the area churches) that would be a host or a hostess and would sort of
take us around and show us just a little bit of the Scottish countryside.
Well, on a particular afternoon, there were several of us Americans who
were jammed into a car that was being driven by a Scottish lass, a lassie, and
she was showing us around the Scottish countryside.
We were driving up a road and we saw a road sign with an arrow.
And the road sign said "Heads of Ayr" and an arrow was pointed
off to the left. And we said,
"Well, what's that?" And
she said, "Well, that's the Heads of Ayr." We're going, "Heads of Ayr . . Heads of Ayr. . . Oh!
Airheads!" So we were saying, "The airheads are over there!
I didn't know where the airheads were!
Well, that's really good!" (And
to this day I have no idea what the "Heads of Ayr" really is!)
But we were all just kind of jabbering about airheads and she said,
"Airheads? Well, what's
that?" She didn't know that
designation. So one of the other guys in our group, he said, "Oh, you know.
Airheads. Like, well, if
you're watching television and it's the Miss America pageant, and one of the
contestants stands up and says, 'I love everybody. . .
And I just think life is beautiful and wonderful . . .
And I just don't have a brain in my head . . .' " And she said, "Oh. We
thought all Americans were like that!" Which is very interesting. I
mean, I want us all to just sort of reflect on why in the world would (assuming
that she was kidding somewhat) why would it be that anyone would think that
there was anything remotely American about that?
And let me submit this to you. I
believe that it's just part of the American view of things that you and I, each
of us, were born pure, and innocent, and good.
Inside, our impulses are always good and righteous.
Our desires, our thoughts, our wishes, are always good ones.
And that if there's evil in the world, it's certainly not because anybody
has bad intentions. It's because, somehow or other, there's something that
frustrates us from being able to follow through on the good impulses that we
have. I think that if you want to know how Americans view things, take
that as just sort of a very central pillar in the American world view.
That is, everybody has good impulses, and good desires, and good wishes,
and if there's ever anything bad that takes place, well, somehow, something
prevented me from following through on all of the good things that I really sort
of wish that I would do. Do you
understand? Now, what's fascinating is that, first of all, not everybody around
the world today looks at life through that American set of spectacles.
And so when people in other nations look at Americans, they see us with
an outlook on life that they don't share. She
would go, "We thought all Americans were like that."
And, even more interesting, is that what the Bible teaches about us is,
at this point, exactly opposite of what all Americans believe.
All Americans believe that, "Hey, our behavior may be bad, it's
true. Maybe I don't kind of live up
to my good intentions. My behavior
may be bad, but if you only knew me, I'm just--heart of gold.
All of my impulses are just, you know, the very, very best." The fascinating thing is the Bible teaches something very, very
different about every one of us. And
that is that, no, it is not the case that our intentions are good.
As a matter of fact, in Scripture, what Scripture teaches, is that's
where the problem starts. The
problem starts with the wishes, the desires, the impulses, the wellsprings of
behavior--is where the problem lies. So in our text from the Psalms where David is saying, "Create
in me a clean heart, O God," why is he saying that?
Because he knows he doesn't have one.
He knows he doesn't have a clean heart.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and a right spirit
in me." He's asking for that
because he knows he doesn't have a right spirit.
He knows that he can get one from God, but that he doesn't have one.
Left to himself, he doesn't have a clean heart.
He doesn't have a right spirit. Over in our Matthew passage--and it's interesting.
The Bible is very consistent on this, you know, all the way from the Old
Testament up through the New Testament--Jesus is talking about having a good
tree. And what's a good tree going
to do? A good tree is going to
produce good fruit and a bad tree is going to produce bad fruit.
You don't want to focus on the fruit, as if you could say to a bad tree,
"Now cut out making that bad fruit. Just
try harder. Bad tree, if you just
try harder, you'll make good fruit." Well,
no. What Jesus says (Matthew
12:33), "Either make the tree good, and it's fruit good; or the tree bad,
and it's fruit bad. For a tree is
known by it's fruit." What He's telling us is the things that you and I do, the behavior
patterns that other people can see, those things are a direct result of the
wishes, the intentions, the impulses of the human heart.
What the Bible teaches is, "No, it is not the case that you and I
have a pure heart. Our hearts are
not pure. No, it is not the case
that we have a right spirit inside. There is not a right spirit." Now, our hearts are redeemable.
Our hearts are fixable. Our
hearts are changeable. God can give
us what we don't have in ourselves. God
can take that dirty heart that I have and turn it into a clean heart.
God can take that wrong spirit that I have and turn it into a right
spirit. But, guess what:
I can't do that myself. It's like you put a potted plant by the window and the leaves turn
toward the light. Well, take that
plant and put it in a closet. The
plant can't do anything in the dark. The
plant can't turn itself. It can't
move itself. It can't change
itself. With the light shining on
it, it can. And the love of God
shining on you and shining on me can change our hearts.
If the light of God doesn't shine on you and on me, it is not the
case--sitting there, little potted plants in the dark in the closet--it is not
the case that our innate goodness is going to cause us to do wonderful things.
No. As a matter of fact,
what the Bible teaches is there's no such thing as innate goodness. Now, a corollary to this. In
the passage that we have in Matthew, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. And
what were the Pharisees all about? They
were very, very much into the externals, the behavior, doing the proper
religious things in the proper religious way.
So, you see, as far as Scripture is concerned, it is not the
case that we are, at basic, people with good wishes who just are unable to sort
of live up to the goodness of our hearts in our external behavior.
No. Actually, as a matter of
fact, hey, we can fake it just fine. That's
what the Bible teaches. We are able
to behave righteously as far as what people can see quite, quite well.
It's just that, unfortunately, if it's a bad tree, the fruit is going to
be bad no matter how it looks, no matter how impressive it is to other people.
God is going to know that's bad fruit because it's coming from a bad
tree. We are redeemable. We
are fixable. We need to be
redeemed. We need to be fixed.
That's very, very different than the typical American view.
If this were a sermon where we wanted to reinforce the typical American
view of things, then I would just say, "OK!
Now you guys know the right thing. Now,
just try harder! You haven't tried
hard enough. I want you to 'go,
fight, win!' Just do it!" But, actually, what we learn in Scripture is, you know what?
You can't do it. Left to yourself, you can't.
You know what? I can't do
it. Left to myself, I can't.
We're not good. But we can be made good. Let
the light shine on you and you'll turn. Pray to God, "Create in me a clean heart," and He
will. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that there are indeed
places where your Word teaches us something very, very different from what we
would otherwise believe. And, Lord,
none of us, no one, wants to hear that our hearts are dirty.
Lord, if it's true, would you seal the truth of this Word to each of our
hearts as a way, Lord, of inducing us to pray, "Create in me a clean heart,
O Lord." And it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen. The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
10:30 a.m. worship service on November 9, 2003.] |
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