Trust The Gardener

I know that Mother's Day brings a lot of emotions to the surface. Sister Stacy, you said that so beautifully a few minutes ago. you know, when motherhood is a good journey, then this day is extra sweet. But if motherhood has been a difficult journey or a painful journey, then this day is extra difficult. And so I just want to remind you, echo what Sister Stacy said that honestly you are loved and valued no matter where you are in this season. And I do know this that God loves to not only celebrate his children, but he loves to comfort them as well. And sometimes he does it at the same time. And that's okay. And I'm so so so grateful for that. So I'm going to speak for just a few minutes. we make it out of here early. I don't know. if we don't, sorry. But before I launch in, I want to say today what I'm going to speak about isn't really about motherhood. It's not really about being a mom. it can apply to motherhood. I hope that it applies to all of us today. I hope we all can take something away from the word of God. But I want to start by saying a few thank yous just because I need to and I want to and I have the microphone today. So, first of all, my own mom. God has placed incredible mothers in my life.

And there is no one like my mama. Beverly, she's right there. If you don't know her, you should. If you do know her, then I know that you love her. those Centerpoint babies love her. I've got a picture actually if they would put it on the wall. I was born to a very young mom. when I came along, we didn't have very much. we didn't have much at all from what I hear. Don't really remember, but I do know that my parents loved me very much. And I've watched them through the years serve the Lord faithfully. They have always done the next right thing. and they have been an example and a model to me and I'm so grateful for that. And the blessings that the Lord has brought into our family, they're just more than I could ever count. I mean, mom feels like you've got like 50 grandkids now or something. I don't know. There's like always always love and laughter and sometimes crying at Mimi's house, but that's okay. God has blessed us with that. He's blessed our family, and so I thank you. I also have so many other maternal influences. I'm looking at my beautiful mother-in-law, Joyce. Thank you for giving me my beautiful, wonderful husband. You've been a good mama to him and I honor you for that today. I honor you. My aunts, I've got aunts here. My grandmothers, they're no longer here with me, but they shaped my life for good.

And I just don't want to go today without telling you just how grateful I am for that. I really am. And then finally, and she's been mentioned, but I miss my sister to priest. Her influence in my life cannot be measured. And I know she's not here today. She is blessing other people because that's what she does. She is a blessing. and she's been a blessing to me. So, thank you. And then to Centerpoint, y'all always honor me. Make me feel all kinds of uncomfortable, but I appreciate it. And I don't want it to seem like I'm being dismissive. I'm just that's just kind of what happens whenever I get a little uncomfortable. I get a little I kind of go inward. But I appreciate the honor and everything that you have given to me and how you support us all the time. So I'm going to get started. A little bit about me. I was raised in this church practically. My family and I, we moved here when I was six years old. and Center Point or Tapom or back then we just called it Church on Spring Street. You know, that's been my life. That's been my life. This church is part of the fabric of my DNA. And I don't know where I would be without this church. I had two loving, wonderful pastors, Brother Marvin Tedric and then Pastor now Bishop Brother Dri.

both were pastors to me and here in this place I have been raised, I've been loved, I've been corrected, I have been taught, I've been supported, and I've been discipled here. But as I've grown up and I look back, I see some things that I wish had been different in my life. And as a child, I was a very worried child. You know, I was just one of those kids that just tended to fret about everything. You know, if there was going to be something major happening, I was the one with the belly ache, you know, beforehand. I just it was just I don't know what made me that way, but I remember being kind of a worrier. And I compared myself a lot to others, you know, and we all know comparison is just it's no good. When you compare yourself to one another, it creates and fosters insecurities. And so as I grew in my teenage years and I I'm you know wrestling with insecurities that had come to be part of my normal way of thinking. You know I realized that I had kind of developed this mindset that some would call like a scarcity mindset. You know that like if I give something away I may never get it back kind of thinking. And you know that followed me into adulthood because I never really gave it much thought. It was just kind of the way I processed the world, my perspective.

And rather than operating in the abundance of a loving and heavenly father that I had had and I had known, I tended to overthink. I tended to hide in the background. I tended to only do what I was comfortable doing. And I don't know if any of you relate to that, but it always seemed like there was somebody who had a bigger personality, someone who shone a little brighter, someone who always had the right thing to say, someone who could talk publicly without their palms being sweaty. There was always that person to look to. And I started thinking that I had to be like that if I was going to be successful at life. And then as I grew, I thought I needed to be like that if I was going to be a successful mom, if I was going to be successful in ministry, a successful pastor's wife. And when I realized that I couldn't always force those traits, I felt like a failure. I felt less than. And I felt like something something's wrong with me. And it took years and a few of those mama voices that I mentioned earlier for me to realize that God had uniquely designed me with specific gifts and talents that didn't look like all the people that I just kept comparing myself to. And then it took a few more years to realize that, hey, the Lord, he was trying to actually teach me a little lesson about generosity.

and how to have a generous spirit and how to change my way of thinking because generosity is about so much more than money. You know, tithes and offerings, they're important. The Lord loves a cheerful giver as word says he does. But monetary giving was never my problem. I was faithful to give to the Lord in that way. But my point of need came within my heart. I needed a more generous spirit. And that meant I had to learn how to trust. I would talk about how I trusted a lot. But then I kind of stayed in the comfort zone. I'll tell you, I'm out of that comfort zone right now. Bless God. But here I am. Scarcity says, "But it's all I have. If I give this away, what am I gonna have left? I think about the one with the parable of the talents and the one that he buried. I mean, I kind of get that. And I'm not proud of that because obviously that's not that's not a good way to be, but I thought, well, I've got it. Let me just keep it because there's risk involved when we give something away, when we put ourselves out there. So scarcity says it's all I have, but generosity says my father's supply never ever runs out. He's faithful to give consistently and continually. So when I realized this, I started to pray because I always want to be teachable.

I want the Lord to teach me. You have never arrived. There is always something that God can work on within your heart. And so this has kind of been my journey. I started to pray about it because, you know, I told the Lord, I don't just want to bear the good fruit. I want to freely give the good fruit and I don't want to be selective with it. I want to give I want to give everything that I'm able to produce and what he created me to produce. So today, this lesson, it's going to really parallel practical and spiritual. I'm going to talk about something that I absolutely love, which is gardening. So, if that doesn't interest you, sorry. But I will say there are gardening examples all throughout the word of God. So, if you don't like it for my sake, like it because it's in the word. But I hopefully will encourage us today with the help of the Lord to have a more generous spirit when it comes to the spiritual fruit he's asked us to produce. So, I'm just a hobby gardener. I have dreams one day to become a master gardener. I know some of those. They're really smart people, but I'm not one of those yet. But I have learned an awful lot about plants and caring for plants and growing plants just by simple trial and error. Looking at something and say, "Well, that looks pretty or that looks interesting.

I think I'm going to put that in the ground and let's see what happens." And sometimes that works out fantastically and I post it on Instagram. And then sometimes it fails miserably and I just act like it never happened. I would like to think I got a little bit of my gardening love from my great-g grandandmother, which I have a couple of photos that they're also going to share. This photo my mom actually had restored couple years ago maybe. And that's my great-grandmother who I never got to meet, but wow, she could grow some flowers. And if you'll move on to the next picture, that's my great-grandfather and a picture again of their garden. you can see in the background they were a little poor. That house is not it's not something you would get on Zillow today and be like, "Yeah, that one that one that's our new home, babe. That's our starter home." it's up on rocks if you can see in the background. they didn't have much, but she made a lot and created a lot out of what she had. Those flowers in that garden, they didn't just show up one day. It took a lot of work. It took some maintenance and it took some intentionality. Scripture uses all sorts of examples. Gardens, vines, branches, trees, fruit. There's always some application that we can draw from that. In my garden, I try lots of stuff.

I do love flowers, but I also have some vegetables and I have a couple of fruit shrubs bushes. I have a blackberry bush and then I have some blueberry bushes. And what I'm about to share with you is not mind-blowing. You don't have to be an expert gardener to comprehend what I'm about to say. As a matter of fact, you really don't even have to be a gardener at all to know that a blackberry bush, no matter how much you want it to, will not produce a blueberry. It just won't. It doesn't matter if you plant it in a row with other blueberry bushes. You can go out there and you can hold its branches and you can look at it real sweetly and say, "You're going to be a blueberry." And it's not. You can't mask it. You can't hide it. You can't force a blackberry into becoming a blueberry. And you want to know why? Because God created unique blackberry DNA in every tiny little seed. For the purpose of a specific type of nourishment and really for his good pleasure. He made it that way because he wanted to and because it was good. And this is the same principle with the blueberry. It's the same principle with countless other varieties of plants and fruit life. And so with all of that being said, I have a few points that I'm going to talk about today.

And the first one is obviously we're created to bear fruit. I think we all know that if you've read the word at all. But it is his design for his people to bear good fruit. And fruit begins as a flower and it needs pollinators. And y'all, we need each other. We got to be connected in community. I would like to think that centerpoint is your community. If it's not, I hope you make it your community. But as each member of the church community, we all have unique like plants growing habits. What that means is some of us, we may grow low and slow. We may be a creeper. We may just That's creeper. That sounds weird if I say it that way. If you're a gardener, you know what I mean, right? Not creeper in a weird way. Creeper as in you grow low to the ground. You your branches may not reach high to the sky, but you're low and you just kind of keep to yourselves. you have a lower profile. I think some of us probably identify with that introverts in the room. You just kind of want to stay in your lane. You don't really want to, you know, go anywhere else. But then there are some plants that are so vigorous and wild that they can hardly be contained and they just require lots of space. And sometimes there's a warning before you plant them.

You might read this is an invasive species. That's what it says. That means that it's going to pop up where you want it and where you don't. It's going to show up if it's invited or if it's not. And some of you may identify with this type. Each personality is different, but each personality is God designed and each personality serves a purpose within the kingdom of God. John 15:55 Jesus is speaking to his disciples here. He says,"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing." And then when we move on to verses seven and eight, it says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you," lost my place. "You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples. He designed us to bear fruit in our own unique way and we can trust the gardener. The gardener is the master gardener. Okay, we can trust him. I want to share this verse with you. Genesis 2:8. It's such a pivotal verse for me and I love what it tells us. It reads, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." I don't know if you noticed this one word, but it says God planted a garden.

We're in Genesis, the book of beginnings. If you read about this, he had spoken all of this other stuff into existence. He had spoken the earth. He had he had just his words. But then it says he planted a garden. I don't know about you, but that really speaks to me that of his intentionality. He had a very specific interest in where he wanted each plant, what he wanted it to look like. And sometimes I just sit and think about it. I'm like, "Wow, I bet that garden was incredible. I bet it was just layers and scents and textures and peaceful and it didn't have an irrigation system per se. It had a natural one, but there was no rain to come. He just created a mist to come up out of the earth and keep it green and keep it beautiful and all the things that go with that. And I just I sit there and think, wow, just to be able to visit that would be incredible to me. The Hebrew word for planted in this verse is pronounced nata and it means to plant, to fix or to establish. So it literally means that the Lord God went to Eden and he planted this garden. Gives me hope. Gives me hope that he has intentionality for where he's placed me, where he's placed you. It's not haphazard. It's not an accident where you are.

Then he gave us the example of work by planting it. And he intended for man to work the garden by maintaining it. Wherever you are, whatever relationship you're in, whatever season you're in, he put you there. And it's intentional. Remember, he knows you better than you know yourself. We can trust the gardener. The next point, he transplants us sometimes. And it's for his glory. We just sang he's the king of glory and he is and I'm thankful. But everything that we do is also for his glory. Sometimes he'll move us not because we're failing, not because we're doing something wrong, but sometimes it's for greater fruitfulness. Maybe he sees that your potential is just not doing what it should. And he knows if he moves you over here, then he's going to see a little more come out of you. And sometimes it's just for his good pleasure. As a gardener myself, whenever I go into my home and my backyard and I'm looking all around, sometimes I just look at something and I say, "Nope, you know what? I don't think I like you there anymore. I think I'm going to go get a shovel and I'm going to move you over here." Sometimes it's because you haven't given me a single bloom all summer and I know you can do better. Sometimes it's because when I'm sitting on the patio in the evening and I want to look at your beauty, you're hidden around a corner.

The master gardener knows and we are here for his good pleasure and sometimes he just knows what's best. I've moved those rose bushes and said produce more. You have more sunlight. This is your this is your season. This is your time. I have transplanted a finicky lilac just trying to get any bloom at all. And sometimes, well, every year really, I bring in that lemon tree that my husband hates that has now developed thorns. But I bring it in every winter because survival, if I don't, it dies. So, if you are being transplanted or you feel like you're being turned over a little bit, trust the gardener because he's got your best interest in mind. Ecclesiastes 3:2, it talks about there being a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. We have to trust the gardener. Fruit has a purpose. All of it has a purpose, right? We like to enjoy it most of the time. If we don't like the fruit itself, we like fruit flavored things. that's another sermon probably for counterfeit, not real, fake. But all fruit has a purpose. Sometimes it's nourishment. Sometimes it's beauty. Sometimes it's the fragrance. Said lemon tree. You can't argue when it puts those blooms on. It smells amazing. There's nothing like it. Genesis 2:9 says, I think the Lord kind of had that in mind, too, because he says, "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and in good for the nourishment.

He liked looking at it. He liked beautiful things. Senses are important." And so, you know, think if it's good enough for the Lord, I mean, it's good enough for us, right? That lemon tree is a blessing, babe. It's a blessing. I like having the microphone once a year. There's more. Fruit is meant to be consumed. It's meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be given. It's not meant to be hoarded on the branch. And it's not meant to be left there to rot. When we have a fear of waste or fear of being taken for granted, we can be really reluctant to give freely. I mean, our flesh says this and if you have never thought this, I don't believe you. But you know, usually it's really good to give and easy to give when someone's nice and kind to us back or if they're appreciative of what we have given them. But if they're not nice to me, flesh self-centerness, it says, "Well, I'm not going to be good to them. They haven't been good to me. I mean, what's the point?" Well, I'll tell you the point. The apple tree doesn't produce the apple for the tree. The apple tree produces the apple so that whatever comes along and needs to enjoy it or needs its nourishment or needs its encouragement or needs hope that hey, I'm in a desert, but I see something branched out over here with leaves and fruit, and I know that there's hope.

There's water over there. There's living water over there. The tree doesn't produce for itself. So, let's just have a reminder what the fruit of the spirit is, right? I'm not It's not a pop quiz. I am going to read it, but if you don't know it, you don't have it memorized, this would be a good thing to memorize. Okay? Galatians 5 22 through 23. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. This is spiritual fruit. Now, I'm not saying you got to pick one of those because you're a blueberry bush and you can only produce longsuffering. That that's not what I'm saying. The fruit, it's not it's not plural in the scripture, okay? It's not fruits. It says fruit. Okay? But we're all going to produce that fruit in a different way because he's uniquely designed and gifted each and every person in this room with the ability to produce in a way that it's going to meet the needs of those around us and those that need it. So we can't be selective with who receives the fruit of our life. We can't be selective with who receives the fruit of the spirit. God knows how your fruit will be most productive. and we trust the gardener. Generosity may cost you a little bit. Again, that scarcity mindset, the accuser, he just yaps.

He yaps all the time. He's been in my ear all week. I am so done with that. God is the source of my abundance. Period. God is the source of everything I need. Amen. He is all that I need. He never runs out. He is faithful. He is good. Goodness and mercy. They follow us around everywhere we go. They're right up here with me. I was like, Lord, I can't go without him today. They give me confidence to do what he's asked me to do. One more picture they're going to put up. I have a favorite flower to grow. I have lots of favorite flowers, but one of my favorite flowers is the zenya. And aren't they beautiful? Oh, I just love them. I grow those things because let me tell you, they can take some Tennessee heat. They don't love the humidity, but they'll deal with it. And one of the things I love most is that when you read a seed packet, you might go to the store and pick one up and say, "I'm going to scatter these around." On that seed packet, it says, "Cut and come again variety." Well, yes and amen. Put that in the cart because that's going to give me my money's worth. What that means is no matter how many times I cut those things, once it's their season and they start producing, they're going to dig deep every time I cut one of those beautiful blooms off and they're going to produce again.

And then they're going to produce again. And then they're going to produce again. Why? Because that's the way God created them to be. And they will bloom until I mean, they will stretch out their growing season. Let me tell you, I've cut some zenyas before in November. Now, they looked a little scraggly, but that's okay. I still got some joy out of it. They still went on my kitchen table. The more we are shared in God's economy, the more we will produce. The more that we give of ourselves and we give of ourselves and we give of ourselves, the more if we stay in him, remember, we have to abide in him. We have to abide in that vine and he in us. But if we abide in him, he will continue to give us strength to produce and to give and to bless and to give that beauty and to give that hope. Luke 6:38 says, "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." That's the word. And he says it so we can believe it. Good measure. Same measure that you use. Measured back to you. It can be scary to put yourself out there. Give it anyway. And just go ahead and say this with me.

Okay. We can trust the gardener. We can trust the gardener. Sometimes the gardener comes in and decides, "Things are getting a little wild and crazy out here. Here come the pruners." Nobody likes this part. It doesn't matter how good I tell you it is for said plant. If you're putting yourself in this story, nobody likes this part. It's not enjoyable. And I'll sometimes you remember when your parents would say before you're going to get a spanking or in trouble and they would say this hurts me more than it hurts you. Please. It really doesn't. But I will say as the gardener sometimes I do go out there and I'm like, "Oh, I don't want to cut that bloom. I don't want to cut I don't want to cut that off because it's getting ready to be beautiful." But as I've learned in my garden, what I know is, if I take off the one, I might get five, six in its place. But if I just let that one go, it's going to have its moment and then it's going to be done for the rest of the season. And God wants more from you. He wants more from me. He doesn't want this to be one moment and then you're done. He knows what we need. my blueberry bushes. Y'all are probably sick and tired of hearing me talk about my garden, but sorry, that's what I got for you today.

My blueberry shrubs, sometimes those branches, they like to grow inward. You know, they're putting on growth, but they're just growing in towards themselves. And sometimes I have to go in there and I have to remove those things. And again, maybe this is about the introverts in the room. I don't know. You're putting out growth, but you're not necessarily going out. you're going in. And God says, "The more you get full of yourself, whether it's good growth or not, it just creates an environment where my light can't get to you again. It creates hiding places where disease can set up. If there's a wound or an injury in there, if there's no light, if there's no air to filter through, then it's just going to fester and it's going to get worse and worse. And so I take my pruners and I go in and I cut, cut, cut, cut because I need the sunlight to get in there. I need it to do what it was made to do. Same with those extroverted plants. They take over. Sometimes we are pruned to get out of our own way. And sometimes we're pruned to get out of the way of others. And either way, the pruning is good and the pruning is right. Even if decayed or dropped fruit is left. Okay, we talked about that a little bit ago. It's not We don't want to hoard the fruit.

It's not meant to stay there. But say the fruit gets overlooked. Sometimes that happens, right? We're doing good things. We're trying to do good to those around us. And sometimes they can walk right past us and not see this beautiful display of spiritual fruit that I have. That hurts. It hurts your feelings. But you know what? that nothing's wasted in God's economy. Cuz when that fruit drops to the ground, it's still got these seeds in there and it'll just go back into the dirt. It may reproduce itself or if it doesn't, it's just going to amend the soil around it and it's going to produce good things in the long run. It's not wasted. It's not wasted. The gardener sees and he knows. No one enjoys the pruning process. Sometimes wounds come, but let's say it together. But we can trust the gardener. But we can trust the gardener. Comparison kills fruitfulness. I've just got a little bit more. Comparison will kill the fruitfulness. I'm not going to stay on this a real long time, but y'all, trying to be someone else, first of all, is just exhausting. It's exhausting. It will hinder church growth quicker than just about anything else. You can't compare yourself to others. He made you to be who you are. Romans 12 4-6 says, "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

and having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. And then Paul goes on to talk about how those gifts are used and what they are, what they look like. So look around. We can trust the gardener. And then finally, we've got to give without seeking affirmation or praise for what we've done because then it becomes about us and not about the Lord. You know, if it were me and I was a splendid fruit tree, I would want one of my favorite gardeners to come and admire what I had produced. And I would want them to take that fruit and maybe, I don't know, maybe it was Martha Stewart. She, you know, I don't say be like her, but she knows how to garden. She knows how to cook. She knows how to do a lot of things. But I would love it if she would come and just carefully select something that I had worked really hard to produce and give and then she just turned around and made something stunningly beautiful with it. Maybe it's a beautiful dessert or a jam. Or maybe she just cut my branches and used them in this unbelievable floral arrangement. I don't know. I wouldn't care. It's Martha Stewart. She could do what she wanted and it would look great and she'd make a gazillion dollars off of it. But God determines who gets to use our fruit.

And that's hard sometimes because sometimes a pest will come before Martha gets to my garden gate. And those pests are awful. They're just awful. Sometimes they will they'll end up a bug or a bird or a rabbit or my personal nemesis, the squirrel. Can't stand those things. They just get in there and get after everything I've worked so hard to grow. And they go in there and they won't just consume all of it. You know, I think I would feel better about it if they just go ahead and make a meal out of it. But they don't. They just take a little bite here and a little bite there. Enough to ruin it. Enough so nobody else wants it. And then they're on their merry way. But sometimes God will allow the pest to come. Sometimes it's one, maybe two, maybe three or 10 or 20. It may be one season. It may be several growing seasons. We don't know. But we can trust him because remember, we serve at the gardener's good pleasure because he's good and because he had planted the original garden himself and he knew exactly where each plant needed to go. Our purpose is in his glory and his alone. And I'm winding down. I'm about to close. But through this, I have really prayed for the Lord to help me. And I've also prayed for you to have a more generous spirit, to help me to be generous to those that my fruit will nurture as well as to those who will not appreciate it or who will take it for granted.

The taking of the fruit isn't mine to negotiate. He has simply told me to produce it. The fruit I bear with his help is for the nourishment, the edica edification, the beautifification of the body and of his church. It's to show those who don't know him how good he is and to show them that there's hope of what's to come. Nothing is wasted in his kingdom. If what I have to give is decimated by pests, I will remember that a new growing season is on the way. With each growing season, I'm determined. I'm determined. I'm determined to fertilize my life with the word, with his word, with his wisdom, so that I can produce more and more. Not for myself, not for bragging rights, but for his glory, and to bless those around me that may need it. So on this Mother's Day beyond, I just want you to remember you were created and planted with a purpose. You were called to bear that fruit for others. And our gardener, the Lord, he knows best where and how to use his fruit. I want us to reject comparison. I want us to reject scarcity and selective generosity. I want us to be willing to just pass that fruit on and let it feed and nourish and bless. Whether it's seen or unseen, whether it's recognized and praised, or whether it is just stolen in the night and no one ever knows, because he has our best interest in mind always.

And I've asked my husband to close this out because I didn't really feel or know where to go with this. But I'm so thankful that the Lord speaks. He speaks to us. He uses the physical, the natural as well as spiritual things. And I'm just so grateful. And I hope that this has been a blessing to you as well. God is really good. I wonder could we stand? You know those thoughts just when we were talking about it a few weeks ago this the principle that is there about the fruit we bear I think it's a human natural reaction that when we feel like our fruit is being wasted we get frustrated. No one wants to waste that, especially when we've worked hard to produce the fruit. And for a pest to come in and take it away or rob it or take portion of it and allow it to not become what we think it should become, there in lies the problem. But we trust the gardener and we have to trust what the gardener sends our way. To the moms that are in the room, I know that there's seasons of motherhood. For some of you in the room, you're in the throws of little ones and you probably could just use a nap today. That would be a godsend. Just six straight hours of sleep, nobody bothered you. You would feel like a whole new woman.

And you're wondering where your fruits going. I promise you it's going somewhere good. For those that your kids are a little older, a little bit more independent, you wonder what happened when they got that sassy mouth and they're back talking to you or they refuse to live by the rules of the house or their room looks like a bomb went off all the time and you wonder why they can't just pick it up. I just want you to know there's seasons, there's fruit. Just keep bearing the fruit. For some moms in the room, you know, your children are adults and they're grown and they're coming back to you because they realize how smart you are now and they're really desiring that fruit in this moment. They want to so we don't know. But I feel like for the mothers here today, we trust the gardener. We have to trust the seasons that we're in and then trust that the fruit we do produce that he he's sending things our way on purpose for all of us in the room. We trust the gardener. Now, for some, I just feel this in my spirit today that maybe that word trust is hard for you. It's hard because you feel like the gardener hasn't always shown himself to be faithful. So, let me let me speak to that for just a minute. We get shortsighted because we only see from the point of where we are.

And I feel like for many of us in the room who are, you know, lived more than half your life already, we have the we have the luxury of looking backwards in our life and seeing that there were seasons and times when we felt abandoned or alone or misunderstood or that God wasn't there. But we realized that he was actually there the whole time. He was working things out of our life. He was pruning us in the process. You know, the story that I was wondering if she was going to tell is we were just recently pruning some vines on our front porch. And in the middle of pruning, the enemy showed up. And what I mean by that is I was on the ladder pruning the ivy that was on the front. As I come down, all of a sudden, my wife, she turned on her outside prayer voice. People three streets over heard the name of Jesus being proclaimed in our front yard because there was a snake in the vine. Yeah. Sometimes pruning reveals things that you didn't know was there. You didn't know was there. So before you go writing everything off, what if you give the gardener another chance? What if you trusted him today? Because sometimes what we think is harm from the gardener is a gardener actually revealing some things that you needed to deal with and you could have never seen it because of the growth that was there.

So, as I end this today, I want to do this. It's hard for me to ever to ever dismiss a service without giving opportunity for somebody to get a right relationship with God. So, if you're comfortable, I just want us to close our eyes today, bow our heads, and I'm going to pray. And if you feel God moving or tugging at you or if you feel you need to maybe work on that relationship with him, I invite you to come down to the altar today. Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you for the good word that we heard today. Thank you, Lord, for a reminder that we need to trust you. That we need to have a generous spirit inside ourselves. That we should not always determine who and when our fruit should be given or who it should be given to, but that we trust that God our job is to bear the fruit. And you'll send who needs to come and partake. I pray Lord for all the moms in the room today. Lord, for the seasons that they're in, that they could trust, that you're going to continue to walk them through the process of motherhood, that you won't leave them or forsake them, and that God, you'll give them the wisdom and knowledge they need to navigate these waters. I pray for those that are hurt in this room today. There's many reasons why there's hurt, but God, I know I feel hurt present in the room today.

And I pray that we could have courage to trust in you, to trust in you, to trust in you. God, I pray that you would do what you do best. take the brokenness of our life and make it beautiful. In Jesus name we pray and amen. I wonder if there's anybody that would like to maybe pray for a little while today. I do have something one more thing in just a minute I want to do, but I want to give an opportunity today for an altar time. So it's prayer time. They're going to sing. If you feel to pray, you can come. I'm going to pray with you and we'll be back in just a minute.