Mt Deliverance Worship Center sermon. These past couple weeks I have been reflecting on the peach tree I wrote about in Trump and the Budding Rod of Leadership. The ending was not what I hoped for. I diligently covered the tree and successfully protected from the big threats. Squirrels and birds were unable to pick the branches clean like they have every other year. And then the peaches started turning black. Almost the entire crop was rotting away and I picked what was left early to save them. Where I hoped I would be able to donate the first fruits to the church, I only had enough to give the six members of my family and my visiting parents one bite each.

When I looked at the tree closer, I saw crystals hanging from every rotten peach and small holes. Slowly and methodically, tiny ants had almost ruined the entire crop, working together as one unit, biting each fruit until it bled sugar and that sugar became a hanging crystal on the bottom. And I couldn’t help but realize this was exactly what was happening in this hour. All of Trump’s fruits, all his accomplishments, are being whittled away by the methodical and mass organized destruction of others. Done in silence and secret. And those crystals scream a witchcraft element to me. Church, we are netting and praying against the big threats we can readily see, but I believe we are failing on the spiritual front. We are failing to protect from the small armies of evil that don’t grace the news. No attention is paid to them. Our walls of prayer need to block out every work of evil, and I believe the church needs to pray God’s insecticide on all the hidden and tiny works of the enemy, and to destroy all the crystals of witchcraft.

I also want to offer encouragement because we have not failed. Though it was just a bite, my family tasted of our peach tree for the first time since planting it 5 years ago. I was strongly led to share the fruit, so even our meager portion was shared to our parents. God also led me to my other trees. Four new peach trees were planted this year. We sow and reap in seasons and there is a great increase coming. Your prayers are not void or not being answered just because you don’t see the effects in your spot of focus. God moves in incredible ways in the spiritual land around you. Look up. Look around. Ask Him to reveal the great and mighty things He is doing and growing in this hour.

God also reminded me of A Melody in the Storm. As I looked to the trees that He said represented the church, I was delighted to see them filled and prospering. My pear trees have never been so filled with abundance. The fruit has never looked so big and healthy. That apple trees are also full and healthy. While the enemy has single-mindedly attacked one area, the church has GROWN. The flowers that persevered through the last storm of closures, standing fast in the Word of God, have prospered. They have become mighty and fruitful. Again, focus on God and what He is doing. Not the enemy. When we zero in on what is being attacked and lost, we do not see what is growing in abundance.

Typed notes:

We must be spiritually alert and constantly in the Word so we have something to stand on. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. He shall bear fruit in the drought. Jeremiah 17:8

Jeremiah 39:10 – God will certainly rescue you, you shall not fall by the sword.

We need to be rooted in Jesus, so when the storms come, we are not blown over. Like the large and strong cedars of Lebanon. Beautiful at every stage. Able to bear fruit no matter the age or physical limitations.

We face the same culture as the apostle’s day. A culture that trusts education and science for all their problems, one that deifies self, one that man, not God, is central. God’s moral absolute standards are abandoned for situation ethics, where evil is allowed considering the situation.

When the grape vine is dormant, it seems dead, but it still lives and and grows and prepares to produce.So we should be through the trials we face. Rooted in Jesus. Still strong and pulling from the living water.

Paul warned us that we would see the deterioration of society, misplaced love, disobedient, unforgiving, brutal, and lovers of pleasure rather than God. 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Our love of self is to be tied to the love of our neighbor, not focused inward. Growing your love to spread outward.