Anb54 Be Perfect 2

ANB 54, be perfect part 2 First of all let me say ‘my bad’ for sending ANB 53 out twice. I just recently hooked up a computer back to the internet and it shot out a bunch of emails I had already sent out on another computer. I know that doesn’t make perfect sense, but we won’t get into it. Anyway, sorry about that. I guess God just wanted you all to read it twice. Back to our subject of holiness before God, let’s turn to the Word. Job 28:9 says, “He puts forth his hand upon the rock; he overturns the mountains by the roots.” What a powerful statement, we see that the way to turn mountains over is by the roots. If we look in Mark 11, one of the greatest passages about faith, we see that when Jesus spoke to the fig tree it “dried up from the roots.” Consequently, I believe that when we have major issues in our lives we must get to their roots if we are to deal with them. Romans 11:16 says that ‘if the roots are holy so are the branches.” So that tells us that if our roots our holy our entire lives will be holy. Praise God. We can clearly see that we need to deal with our roots. So how can our roots be holy? First of all, what are our roots anyway? Let’s think of this issue for just a second. If I will ever truly be holy before God the battle against fleshy desires must end. Let’s say, for example, I have a drug addiction. Now I can battle this addiction and stay clean for a long time even of my own power. But you know what they say, once an addict always an addict. Most addicts who don’t use their drug are still addicts, they just deny the craving. If I remain in this condition then I remain at war with myself and the sinful cravings at war within me. This will by no means help me in my quest to be holy before God. In fact, I must change. My desires must change. I literally have to change. I have to be totally clean and delivered from this addiction, so that I no longer crave it. Many will say such a transformation is impossible, but with God all things are possible. I was absolutely delivered from a craving for alcohol or any other drug. Praise God. Now can’t I be delivered from a desire to get angry, lose my patience, lust, covet or commit any other sin? If all of our branches are to be holy, our roots must be holy. We must attack our roots. I have heard great sermons on how we must get to the root of sin to beat it. Those sermons have helped me greatly. However, it only helps me to know my enemy better so that I can defeat him easier and more consistently. I win battles but the war rages on. And the individual battles remain. I refuse to continue in this fashion. I will not battle anger every time I encounter an unpleasant person or any other sin when a possible temptation arises. I must be changed so that I no longer feel the pressure. Can this even happen? Honestly, I was totally going to go to the root of sin issue when I sat down here, but God’s Spirit has sent me to the true root issue. I don’t have to deal with the root of sin. I have to deal with the root of me. Now a “root,” says the Oxford English Dictionary, is ‘a part of a plant normally below ground, which acts as a support and collects water and nourishment.’ The roots collect food and water. Two other definitions are, ‘the embedded part of a bodily organ or structure such as hair’ and ‘the basic cause, source or origin.’

Today let’s focus on the first definition, our roots being the part of us that collects substances. It’s very possible that many of you have never heard about the metaphor of trees representing people in the Bible. This appears consistently, especially when looking at the prophetic books like Ezekiel and Isaiah. We won’t delve into this in detail, but Isaiah 61 contains a significant prophecy about Jesus. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted . . .that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.” Jesus read this passage in a synagogue and then said these scriptures were fulfilled that day. He meant this was talking about Him. So Jesus has come to make us trees of righteousness, or righteous people. Now we know that we are righteous trees before God not because of our works, but because of our Faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 1-5). So we are these righteous trees, but will we have righteous branches, or will we have righteous fruit? Without righteous branches you can never bear righteous fruit? A quick recap: we are trees, we are righteous (or holy) trees because of our Faith in Jesus Christ. If we want to bear good (or holy) fruit we must have holy branches, if we want holy branches we must have holy roots. If I will be perfect, or if I will be holy, I must have holy roots. Now the root is the part of you that draws both food and water. The root draws substances. If the root draws a pesticide or other poison the tree will die. If the root draws good water and nourishment the tree will thrive. I suppose some people joke that if you eat enough hamburgers you will turn into one. It’s the classic expression, ‘you are what you eat.’ We know that is just humor. But think of a lawyer, if he eats enough strife and argument, he will certainly begin to be walking strife and argument. Think of what you surround yourself with and how much this shows itself in your life. If you surround yourself with sin you will sin, if you surround yourself with God and God’s Word your life will reflect this. Now Jesus told us clearly, thinking about the relationship between what we eat and our holiness level, that what goes into a man does not defile him, but what comes out of a man does (Matthew 15:11). But we also know that we must ‘guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life.’ (Proverbs 4:23) When you were reborn you were given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:36). This new heart and spirit are perfect before God. These are the very core of our being. So, if you think about it, there is clearly a relationship here. You have a new heart given you by God. You must guard it, however, because if you put the wrong things into yourself the wrong things will start coming out and this will defile your entire life. If you put the right things in then the right things will come out and this will nourish your life. Even born again Christians can put so much filth in their lives that they continue to walk in it. Christians can also put so much of God’s Word in them that they begin to walk in that. The choice is individual. So this takes us back to the root concept. What are you drawing? Are you drawing nourishment? Are you drinking the water of the Holy Spirit which flows freely in your spirit, and are you eating of God’s Word and the Bread of Life. If you are correctly nourishing yourself, keeping the part of you that draws and nourishes your life holy, then what will flow out

of you will be holy. You must guard your heart, for the issues of life will flow out of it. Holy heart holy issues = holy root holy branches. Praise God. So we must learn where to place our roots, the part of us that draws towards us. Short answer: God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Long answer: read the next ANB.