03/14/10 - Treehuggers PT1 - Pastor Tony Ashmore

Pastor Tony Ashmore begins a new series entitled "Treehuggers" in this Sunday service.

Treehuggers Part 1
Pastor Tony Ashmore
Sunday, March 14, 2010

www.churchatmirrorlake.com


Sermon Notes:

Life-Giving:

The Big Idea: Jesus is our Tree of Life and in Him we find God-focused life built on relationships and innocence restored

Genesis 2:9 “The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Living in the Tree of Life: Innocence and Freedom

- an easiness even though there is work to be done (Adam cared for the garden)
- an eager expectation of good instead of worry, dread and fear (innocence instead of cynicism)
- a life of responsibility—I take responsibility for my actions and life and I find more opportunities for greater responsibility—makes us Response-able: able to respond to God
- built on strength of relationships rather than abilities and knowledge
- an “acceptance environment” instead of a “comparative environment”—It is not competition that drives us, it is love that keeps calling us higher in every area of our life. Therefore the eternal always takes pre-eminence over the temporal.
- Failure is not final and does not define me
- Tree of Life people have found grace—the ability to follow the Truth because He lives in them and they are “being” instead of “becoming”.
- Read the Bible to find Jesus not to fulfill an obligation or finish a task. When we meet others who are not reading their Bible, we don’t proudly and arrogantly tell them they should be. We are broken for them because they are missing out on something great. (Magnum Ice Cream)
- Pray to commune and converse with God rather than appease or meet a requirement.
- Live righteously because they have been made right with God rather than living righteously to be right with God.
- Our greatest reward is not recognition of people but relationship with God. I don’t pray, fast, give to make myself or anyone else think better of me. I pray, fast and give because that is the nature of God and I have been made like Him. In those actions I find partnership with Him and intimacy grows.
- Revelation 22:2 “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

When we live a grace-filled life in the Tree of Life, it has an impact on others. Those around us will find healing—hope for the hopeless, acceptance for the rejected, cleansing for the filthy, restoration for the broken—the ultimate healing: reconciliation with their Heavenly Father.

How do I live in the Tree of Life:

- Change my view of my Heavenly Father. Eve was deceived through a desire to please God. She was already pleasing to God. Through Jesus, we are all pleasing to God. He wants children, not slaves.
- Approach Him through relationship, not rules. We do not have to earn an audience with Him, nor can we. We have been given our right standing as a gift of love.
- Practice responding to Him, to His presence. Re-sensitize yourself to Him. Actively recognize and honor Him.
- Respond to sin with life. Jesus did not come to make us sorry. He came to fix our broken lives. When we, or others, sin, respond with innocence and freedom rather than shame and blame. Instead of hiding and covering, run to the mercy seat and find the grace you need to win. (Hebrews 4:16) Isaiah 30:21 CEV “If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the right way. You should go this way."