Live Free with Josh Howerton - How Pruning Transforms Lives • Pastor Steve Stroope | Ep. 131 | Monday, August 7, 2023

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Why does God prune us? Today, we're taking a stroll through the garden of life, exploring the concept of pruning, both in horticulture and our spiritual journey. Join us as we explore how gardening principles can guide us toward spiritual growth and a fruitful life. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hi, this is Pastor Steve and welcome to the Daily Drive. You know, this time of year we all find ourselves spending a little more time outdoors, working in the garden or working in the yard.

Many, many years ago, I learned something about pruning. In fact, the Bible tells us about pruning. In John the 15th chapter, verse 1, it says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it that it might bear more fruit. You don't prune a tree to kill the tree. You prune the tree so that it might bear more fruit if it's a fruit tree.

There is a fellow by the name of Neil Speary who lived in this part of North Texas for many, many years, and he wrote a book that became the Bible of gardening for those of us who worked outdoors. And I had the opportunity one day to have lunch with him, and I said, Neil, talk to me about why we pruned. what reason would you want to prune and how could you prune in a way that won't hurt the plant? And he said that day, he said, Steve, there are three reasons that you would prune a plant. Number one is if it's growing in the wrong direction. We have a magnolia tree just outside of our bedroom window,

and every few years that magnolia tree will pull back into the window, and if the wind is blowing, it'll wake us up at night. And Marsha will say, hey, you need to prune that tree back, and I'll go back and I'll prune that tree. I'll cut it back, not because I'm trying to hurt the tree, but because it's growing in a direction that's causing problems for us. In the same way, God prunes in our life sometimes when we head the wrong direction. He cuts on us.

He speaks to us. He does surgery on us so that we won't go the wrong direction. Neil said the second reason you would prune a tree is because it has a disease in it. In fact, he talks about how you need to cut and prune, and then you need to clean your tools so that you don't spread that disease to other plants that you might be pruning with that same saw. And in the same way, many times we have the cancer of sin in our life, and God wants to cut that out because he knows that left unchecked, it will do damage not only to that part of our life, but all of our life, and it will affect those people that we love the most. And sometimes he has to do that surgery, and it's painful, but it's better than the consequence of leaving that disease in our life.

And then Neil said the third reason you would prune a tree, and I thought this was the most interesting reason, is he said so that it truly might bear more fruit, especially if you have a vegetable plant, and you'll snip off what they call sucker branches. These are branches that are sucking up nutrition, they're sucking up fertilizer, they're sucking up water, but they're not producing anything. And many times in our life, we have something in our life, and it's there because we're trying to please somebody other than God, or we're chasing after it because everybody, else is chasing after it or sometimes we're just afraid to say no because we have that fear of missing out but the truth is it's not a part of God's essential will for our life and every time we say yes to something we're saying no to something else and many times the things that we're saying no to are the very things that God wants us to be involved in more is not always better sometimes less is better sometimes less produces more fruit one of the lessons that I'm learning especially in this season of my life is to do less and to walk through rooms slowly. And I'm finding myself doing less and enjoying it more and producing more for the kingdom of

heaven. Sometimes we ask the wrong question. We say, well, what's wrong with it? That's not the question. The question should be, is this God's perfect will for my life? And will this produce a fruit that will bless other people and bless God's kingdom? Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time.

Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com. dot church slash daily drive.