*So I was asked to do the ladies Bible class this weekend at my church's annual fall retreat at Camp Tahkodah. The theme for the weekend was My Task? Here's my lesson, I hope you guys enjoy it! I know it is quite lengthy, but its a pretty good point.
As you all know our theme for this weekend is my task? While preparing for this lesson I kept asking myself this question. The main answer I kept coming up with was: To be a good grad student/student clinician. Although this answer is correct I think there is a better answer to this question and the answer I came up with involved a tree.
-Like everything in God’s creation there are no 2 trees that are the same.
-Some are straight and tall while some are short and snarled.
-No matter the different no tree is better than the other
-They may have different purposes, but they’re all useful for the environment.
-Trees have their God given purpose in nature, and all are useful and valuable.
-The same can be said about us as Christians.
-No matter how different we are, we’re all useful and valuable in our own way.
-We all are called to serve our own God given purpose and usefulness in the Lord’s work.
-It takes a lot of different kinds of trees to make a good, healthy forest and likewise it takes a lot of different kinds of believers with different talents to make up a good healthy church.
-Now lets consider the different parts of a tree
-1. First we want to look at the roots.
-Roots serve at least two functions in the life and growth of a tree.
-Roots give a tree the support it needs to stand upright while absorbing water and nutrients from the soil that a tree uses for food.
-Likewise roots can represent God and the soil represents the Bible.
-We must be rooted in God to live the right way and we must read His word to absorb the nutrients we need to be a good Christian.
-2. Next we want to discuss the trunk of the tree.
-The trunk holds up all the branches of the tree high above the ground to make them useful to the world.
-The trunk represents Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They hold us Christians up to make us useful to the world.
-3. A tree trunk is made up of rings representing the age of the tree as well as hard years for it. If a tree is damaged by drought or fire the ring will forever show the scar and in a sense it changes the tree.
-The rings represent our life in Christ.
-We grow spiritually bigger each year, but sometimes bad things happen that damage us and rattle our lives.
-For me personally, my damaged rings would be represented by breaking my leg twice, not getting into the grad school I wanted, letting other people’s opinion of God ruin my own, or dating the wrong guys.
-Although these situations may damage us for quite some time, we will slowly repair close to what we were before, but always changed a little.
-But the question remains: What heals the tree?
-Well a damaged tree is repaired by the sap.
-This sap represents grace.
-Each time I was damaged I doubted and questioned God. I found myself behaving rebelliously, but thankfully through grace God forgave the damaged and healed me.
-4. We must also discuss the bark of the tree.
-Surprisingly there are two layers of bark.
-The outside bark is thick and protects the tree from the weather.
-This would be our saving faith that keeps us sane during the bad times.
-It could also be seen as hope or confidence.
-Next is the thinner inner bark that takes all the good stuff (nutrients) to the top of the tree.
-This is our living faith or works.
-It is how we show our faith to others.
-5. Then we must think about the branches of a tree.
-They support the leaves and fruit of the tree.
-This represents the various branches of our lives: school, work, friends, etc.
-No matter which branch we might be on at a certain moment we must have God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in us to be a good Christian.
-6. Finally we must think about the fruit/seeds.
-Some trees bear fruit, which contain seeds to make more trees.
-As Christians we need to produce seeds by teaching others about God so once they fall off the tree and are planted they too can become a tree.
-Luke 6: 43-44:
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.
-So what does all of this have to do with my task?
-Well who know the story of Zacchaeus?
-What can you tell me about him?
-Luke 19:1-10:
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
-Many times we focus on how Zacchaeus was a wee little man that climbed a tree to see Jesus.
-Well have you ever wondered why he had to climb the tree?
-Yes, he was supposedly small, but also because the believers were so crowded around Jesus that he couldn’t see.
-The people were so focused on seeing/hearing for themselves that they were in a sense keeping others from Jesus.
-The tree enabled Zacchaeus to see Jesus, which in turn changed his life completely.
-So now the question remains are you so focused in the betterment of yourself that you keep others from seeing Jesus or are you the tree?
-When examining My Task? I now know I am called to Be The Tree!
