The Fruit of Connection: Staying Rooted in the Source of Life

Dr. Brandon Rix: All right. Good morning. How are we doing today? Getting the opportunity to speak in chapel is always so much fun.
I don't know if you guys know it or not, but the people that say yes to coming up here and talking to you guys,
we just care so much about you and just want to pour into you. So, so happy to be up here today.
As most of you know, I'm a practicing physical therapist and also kind of a lot of a nerd.
So let me give you a quick fun fact about the human body. Did you know that sitting in your chair right now,
if you look down at your cell phone, your head is exerting nine times its normal weight on the cervical discs in your neck.
So whether you pay attention to me today or not is no problem to me, but your neck will thank you if you look up here.
So I got you now. All right. Here we go. All right.
My scientific interests lie.
My scientific interests lie within the human body. And that's pretty much it. Besides creation science.
Thank you, Dr. Martin, if you're in here. I'll be honest with you.
Learning about plant biology never lit me up like like at all. Not even a little flicker.
It was it was kind of hard for me to grasp just because I was not interested in it at all.
So you can imagine my surprise when hearing that God wanted me to talk to you today about a tree.
I mean, come on. There's so many things we can do.
We just had an election. People in France are like openly mocking the Lord's Supper.
And don't even get me started about all the upside down things that seem to be happening in our world today.
But still, when I asked Lord, what do you want me to talk about?
He keeps saying, just tell him about the tree. OK, so here we go.
All right. So to start, let's go to the next slide, please.
To start, I'm going to give you some quick, fun facts about trees or they may not be fun to you.
They're just facts. But if you don't get anything, you'll get some.
Some trivia questions. Right. So over 60,000 different types of trees across the globe.
That's kind of a lot. I thought that was pretty interesting. All right.
On to the next one. One tree produces about 260 pounds of oxygen every year.
OK, so if you double that weight set right there, that's 260 pounds.
Take your hands like this. Lift them up. Congratulations.
You just lifted air. Only about 20 percent of that is oxygen. So you can imagine that's a lot.
OK.
All right. Let's move to the next one.
The world's tallest tree is a coast redwood tree in California.
It's actually named Hyperion. And it's actually grown a little bit since this picture.
That picture says 379 feet. It's 380.4 feet tall.
That is about 80 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
It's about 60 feet taller than Big Ben in London.
And if you were to go to Lubbock Christian High School,
football field and tilt it up to where it's standing straight up in the air,
it'd still be 20 feet taller than that from the back of the end zone to the back of another end zone.
So pretty cool. Also pretty cool. Let's go to the next one.
All right. The oldest known living organism on the planet is a bristlecone pine tree,
also in California, named Methuselah. Very fitting.
If you don't understand why it's fitting, go back to Intro to Old Testament.
You'll figure it out. All right. It's estimated that it's about 4,800.
It's about 1,800 years old, where if you paid attention in Dr. Martin's creation science class,
that's not too far off, only about 1,000 years, maybe a little over.
How old do we think the world actually is?
All right. Let's go to the next one, please.
Okay. Now to the important part. Let's talk about this apple tree for our example.
Did you know that if this tree, while it's growing, is strained,
the fruit that comes off of it is not going to be as high quality as it should be?
Okay. It may not even.
It may not even produce fruit at all.
Okay. In other words, the apple tree doesn't sit there and just go,
oh, I got to grow apples. I got to grow apples.
Because if it does that, it's not going to work too well.
Okay. A healthy apple tree that produces good, juicy apples is firmly rooted.
It takes in all the nutrients from the water and the ground, and it just sits in the sunshine.
Okay. In other words, its growth comes from simply being connected to its life source.
All right. Let's go to the next one.
Let's look at an example of one of Jesus' interactions with a tree.
In Matthew 21, we see the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree.
This is what it says.
In the morning, Jesus was returning to Jerusalem.
He was very hungry. It's important.
He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves.
Then he said to it, may you never bear fruit again, and immediately the fig tree withered up.
Now, if you keep reading, there's a whole lot of other messages about faith here,
but I just want to talk about this.
This right here.
Notice what it says.
Jesus was hungry when he approached the tree, and when he saw there was no fruit, he cursed the tree.
Okay.
I'd like to propose to you today that some of the biggest opponents to the church
and what we do here on campus are people that at one point in their lives
were either hurting or very hungry for a touch from heaven when encountering one of God's priests
or someone from the big C church.
And they encountered an empty tree, a fruitless tree.
Okay.
They encountered someone that accused them with the stone in their hand
or someone that lived in hypocrisy, always judging others,
but not taking notice of the log in their own eye.
Maybe someone that lied to them.
The list goes on and on and on.
All these things are what we get the term church hurt from.
Okay.
I think Jesus gave us this story.
This story to show us just how unsettling and damaging it can be to encounter a tree with no fruit.
Okay.
Now, I can tell by the look in all of your eyes that you're very, very, very encouraged right now.
So, let's move on.
Let's look at the solution to this.
Spoiler alert.
It's written in red.
Okay.
In John 15, 5.
Let's go to the next one.
Very good.
John 15, 5.
Jesus says,
I am the vine.
You are the branches.
Remain in me and I in you, and you will produce much fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing.
What's he telling us?
It's like he's saying, look guys, it was never my design for you to do the work of the kingdom alone without me.
In fact, I'd go as far to say that church hurt is most likely a symptom that a person doing the wounding has forgotten the meaning of this verse
and has become disconnected and somewhat self-sufficient in his or her dealings with other people.
One translation of this verse even says,
Abide in me.
He wants us to live from a place of complete dependence on him.
All right.
Very good.
So, now, I know you're thinking, cool, I get that I'm supposed to do life with Jesus, but what does the fruit actually look like?
Well, thank you all for being so studious and asking that question.
I'm going to give you the answer.
All right.
In Galatians 5.22, it says,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.
It's kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
Think of it.
Let's move to the next one real quick.
Next slide.
There we go.
Think of it like this apple.
Okay.
It's red.
It's kind of round.
It looks like it's got some condensation on it.
It looks like it might taste pretty sweet.
Okay.
It might be a pretty good apple.
This is all descriptions of one apple on the screen.
Okay.
This is all a description of this apple being right there.
Now, when we go back, let's go back to the last slide, please.
So this list right here in Galatians 5.22,
this speaks to the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in any moment of our lives.
This list is what shows up, is what comes out of you when the Holy Spirit comes on the scene,
when you invite Him in.
Okay.
Okay.
, so what does it say?
It says, okay, if we invite Him in, this is what it looks like.
And why do I say every single decision?
It's because three verses later in verse 25, we're told, if we live by the Spirit, let
us also keep in step with the Spirit.
This tells us that it's His very presence that keeps me alive.
Okay.
And walking in step with Him means in any moment, I'm very sensitive to what He has
to say.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter who I'm interacting with.
It doesn't matter what I'm doing.
If there's a piece of trash outside and you feel a tug in you to go pick it up, that's
actually not coming from yourself.
That's the Holy Spirit saying, hey, let's be excellent around this place.
Let's make it look good.
Okay.
It's that kind of thing.
I'd like to propose to you that any situation or interaction in our lives that doesn't look
like this list, that doesn't actually bear the fruit of this list, will mean that we
are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
We are not going to be able to do that.
I'll just say me.
I haven't fully submitted whatever it is to the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.
It's a simple concept with big implications.
Let me also just say this because it bears mentioning.
If you look at your giftings as something that you've earned instead of something that
God has enabled you to do through the abundant grace and power of His Holy Spirit, let's
say something that we all get caught up in a lot, like work ethic, that means that you're
actually caught up in a lot of work ethic.
You're actually caught up in pride.
If you say, oh, I'm a hard worker, but you don't believe that you're a hard worker because
God graced you to do that, then you're actually caught up in pride.
And pride is a sneaky, stinky thing.
There's a reason why God lists that first in Proverbs when He lists the seven things
that He hates.
It's because it keeps you from remembering that apart from Him, we can do nothing.
All right.
Here's another one.
This is a big one.
And we're all victim to this one.
Comparison isn't on this list either.
We just got done with Russian social club weeks.
And if you're comparing yourselves to others because of what did or didn't happen to you,
you're falling into a lie from the enemy about yourself that actually keeps you from walking
in your God-given identity and destiny.
Man, that's a big one.
All right.
All right.
We're told.
Oh.
Sorry.
Where are we at?
Okay.
Now, before you think that I'm a pro at all this and I have it all together all the time,
know that I'm speaking to myself just as much, if not more, than I'm talking to you guys.
Here's the kicker, though.
We have a perfect example.
The perfect example that we have is Jesus walking this earth.
In Philippians, we're told that He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
This means that Jesus walked the earth just like you and me, fully human.
But He was the perfect example of what it looks like when every single aspect of your life bears this fruit
of submitting to the Holy Spirit.
Okay?
And that actually fires me up.
Because if Jesus walked the earth as a man like me, technically, and this is not heresy to say
because it's in the Bible.
We're literally told in Philippians.
I should be able to potentially believe that I could do the things that He did while He was here.
He wouldn't have told the disciples, you can do greater things than these when talking about the miracles
and why they believe in Him if it wasn't something for us.
So, I'm hungry to see here look like there.
And I truly believe that submitting every part of ourselves to the Holy Spirit is what it's supposed to look like
when we believe in Him.
And I truly believe for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And not just scroll over it like it's a four second clip in a prayer that we say every day.
So, if I can encourage you, let us learn this lesson from the tree.
In every day, in every moment, stay connected to your life source.
He is so good, so much better.
All of these things here, I promise you,
are so, when they show up in your life,
you won't want anything else.
You'll be more hungry in the kingdom.
Can I just say, in the kingdom,
you actually get hungry by eating more.
And when you take of this fruit more and more and more,
it becomes something that you can't do without.
And so, if I can just encourage you,
God made you perfect.
And He made you to actually be in communion with Him every single moment of every single day.
That's what He wants.
That's what He's looking for.
And that's what He actually delights in.
And when I get to heaven, I want Him to say,
"Job well done, my son, who I am well pleased."
Alright.
Alright.
But if we stay connected, maybe, just maybe,
we'll start to see more of what will make this place look a little more like heaven on earth.
Alright, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I just thank you for everyone in this room today.
I just ask that you give them an extra helping of all of the things
on this list today.
Galatians 5:22, you give us that for a reason,
because this is what you want it to look like in our dealings with other people in the world around us.
Because we are hooked up with you.
We humbly come to you and say, "Holy Spirit, just fill us up even more."
Father, I just ask that you build up every single person as they leave this building today.
When they walk out the doors, I just pray that they feel and act a little bit different
because they've got the joy of you.
You inside them.
Father, we love you and we praise you and it's in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You are dismissed.
Thank you.