Episode 36 - Deer Pruned My Peach Tree, God Pruned My Heart

We move from a backyard peach tree to the ache of grief, tackling doubt, purpose, and what faithful living looks like when life prunes us down to the branch. Honest stories, scripture, and practical steps point us to a quieter legacy that lasts.

• renewal after pruning as a picture of grace
• honest talk on discouragement and feeling neglected by God
• childhood faith vs being truly reborn and changed
• using scripture, prayer, and community to steady the heart
• engaging skeptics with evidence and personal testimony
• meaning found in glorifying God and making disciples
• stewarding time, motive, and works that endure
• legacy that points to Christ rather than applause
• humility about titles and recognition
• prayer for listeners who carry questions about eternity

If you’re here this Sunday, you’re in Rockdale. I won’t be, but if you’re here, we meet at 10:00 for donuts and coffee and fellowship, and then service starts at 10:30. See you there!!

Transcript

Welcome And Fall Weather Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Red Bell.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters. One that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

All right, welcome into Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church, right here in Rockdale, Texas. I'm Bill Whitmeyer and I'm joined as always by our pastor Ken Ansel. Ken, how are you doing today? Doing great. I mean, it's it's uh starting to get into some of my favorite weather time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

I know you don't. I I think about you when I'm getting up in the morning and I go out to the car and it's like 50 or so, and I've got a little, you know, a little warm-up jacket or something on, and I'm just like, man, that's perfect weather.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Ken's probably freezing, but yeah, I wore shorts yesterday and it was a mistake, you know. I think it was yesterday. It's real cool, right? In the morning.

Deer, A Peach Tree, And Renewal

Common Questions People Ask Christians

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Oh yeah, I love it, man. That's that's my favorite. You know, we lived in Washington State for a long time, and and and when I retired from the Navy, we came back home. And um I remember going to uh baseball games because we we got out in like March, came back, and our oldest Taylor started playing baseball here and and uh went out to some of those March games, and I had a t-shirt and shorts on, and everybody's kind of bundled up at that time of the year. And I'm like, wow, I'm like, this is gonna be weird. I'm so glad I don't I'm not I don't get cold like that anymore. The next the next year though, I was bundled up too. It took a year to get a year to get acclimated, and then I was good. But but it's getting to be that time of the year. Um it's uh I mean you could be listening to this anytime, but we're in early fall, late summer here right now. Um everything's going really good. Uh we're seeing some new people, some reaching out to some different people. Our Bible, our men's Bible study is uh really getting a lot of people in. I've been delinquent the last few weeks because of my job, but um, you know, it's always neat to see who shows up to that and and stuff. So uh to this uh I had an interesting thing happen this week and it reminded me of of uh something we've talked about for a while, you know, how so many people feel like they've done this, they've done that, and and they're unrecoverable. And with the drought we have this summer, early fall, I have a a yearling peach tree out there. It's probably about eight, nine feet in my yard, and uh it was really full of leaves a week ago. And uh the nurse and I started to go to work Monday, I guess, maybe Tuesday. Or maybe no, you know what it was. We got home from church on Sunday and we walked in and she noticed it, and every leaf on that tree was gone. The deer, the deer, it's nothing for the deer to eat right now. They picked everything off. And you know, I thought to myself, well, I don't know if that tree will make it, we'll just have to see, you know. But I went back out this morning and I had two new buds and a whole bunch of little leaves on it and stuff, and it made me think, you know, no matter how messed up we are, how bare we are, it's like we talked about a few weeks ago, you know, you gotta you gotta cut back on that tree, you gotta prune it some. And those deer just pruned it for me. And I was talking to a friend of mine in a in a text message. He's a um oh man, I can't think of what he is. He's a PhD over at Texas AM and he does forestry stuff. And anyway, I I texted him, I said, Look, that deer, he goes, Man, that's gonna be the nicest tree in another year. Yeah, he said it's God's creation. Yeah, he said, just the deer typically will bite everything off that tree that's easily regrown, but everything that might cause serious damage to it, they'll leave it alone. God gave them this sense that eat what you need, but don't eat everything. Now goats are different. I mean, goats will just eat it all, you know. Yeah, they're not Christians. No, they're like cats. Goats and cats. Don't say that too loud. There's a lot of people that got cats who love cats. I've been taking some heat for that lately. My cat phobia is uh, you know, nobody laughed at at the funeral the other day, but I know I mean I got it. There's a couple of people that came up afterwards and said, I know what you mean. And I said, Well then you gotta laugh for a brother in a situation like that. But they didn't. So I I from time to time, and I know this happens to you, what probably more than it happens to me. We get we get folks that ask us questions. And so this week, as I was going through my normal everyday, every week routine, I started thinking about some of those questions. So um last night when I was doing a little studying, I just typed it in, you know, um common questions people ask Christians, and it and it came up with one that was about 40 of them. And as I looked through them, it made me think, you know, these would these are some things that uh would be good for us to, you know, just kind of talk about some. I mean some of them are trivia type, you know, can you name all twelve disciples? Can you can you do this? Can you do that? And those are kind of trivial. But but some of them are questions that I get maybe not the exact question, but things that people ask, um ask me from time to time. And uh, you know, uh I think one of them well, we've we've talked about some, you know. One was uh have you been a Christian your whole life? I have people that ask me that have you have you always had a good walk with Christ? And you know, um the truth is no, no, I haven't. You know, and we've we've talked about it. I I was saved when I was ten years old. I went up front to church just like you do, came back from Highlands Park Baptist camp down to our church at Canyon Lake, and I walked up front to Brother King and and we did everything.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

And I spiked the ball and then I went on and lived my own life. Yeah. And uh so wr yeah, I guess technically, uh by the way the world looks at me, I was a Christian, but I don't consider myself a str I don't want to say strong Christian, although I almost did. But I don't really think I was until probably eight, seven, eight, nine years ago. And then I was actually reborn. I may have been baptized and proclaimed a Christian, but I wasn't really reborn until about seven, eight, well, probably eight or nine years ago now.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah, I hope I hope that's liberating. I I think there's a lot of people like that. Yeah. I really do.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

You say something every now and then in church, and I've heard others say this too. Um, that um there's a lot of people sitting in this church today that aren't going to heaven. And then I always watch, and I used to do this too, then everybody looks around and everybody else, who's he talking about? Oh, George back here, yeah. You're gonna have a hard time. You know, we don't have a George at our church that I know of, so that's why but it's the truth. It's the truth. And uh so have I been a Christian my whole life? No, no. Um was I did I identify one as one? Yeah, ever since I've been ten. But do I feel like I was truly reborn as a Christian who walks with Christ? Not till about eight or nine years ago. No, yeah. I can't on I can't be honest with myself and say that. Yeah. You know, so um here's a tough one, and I've been asked something similar to this, but this one says says it kind of in um I'd have to make it way too long, just like I've already done. But it it said, Have you ever felt neglected by God? And um this is another one where I think people sit in church and they look at certain people in church and they're like, Oh, he's never felt that, or he's never felt that. And I think people would be surprised that we have.

Were You A Christian Your Whole Life

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, well, I mean, I we we taught on Psalm 77, and we're gonna wrap it up this week, that discouragement's normal. Yeah, if that's if you can connect discouragement to feeling neglected. I mean, this the the ASAP in seventy in Psalm 77 says, Man, God, where are you? you know, and and uh Yeah, even though we we know Jesus said, you know, he'll never leave us or forsake us, it it doesn't mean that we don't feel that way sometimes. Yeah. Job said, My Redeemer lives, but he's still like, dude, where you at?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

I remember thinking, you know, uh, years ago that um you know, I would I would ask those questions, really? I'd just say, Really? We're gonna do this again? And at the time, I I wasn't where I should be. I I hadn't really been reborn yet. And and you know, I just why are we going through this again? And now, after, and I sit back and I look at it and I say, I kept having to go through it because I never learned the lesson God was trying to teach me. You know, we ask for strength, we ask for patience, we ask for this, we ask for that. And the way God helps us learn that is by putting us situations where we have to be strong or we in our faith, we have to sure have patience, we have to, you know, those things we ask for. And, you know, back then I would feel that like, oh man, God He must really be mad at me. He just doesn't care about me at all because why does this keep happening? Well, it's keep happening because I didn't get the point. I didn't understand what was going on. I wasn't praying about it, I wasn't trying to learn from it, I wasn't getting into the word and and figuring it out. Yeah. You know, you do have an index in your Bible. So if you feel something, look it up in that index and read some of God's word on what it is.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, I think we'd we'd be more encouraged if we if we had better community within the body of Christ. I mean, when you we show up on Sunday, everybody's in a pretty good mood. You know, we all look good, we're cleaned up. Maybe you got on your Sunday best, and everybody looks like their life is better than yours. And and you know, we all we Jesus said it's hard to follow him and we say that. Every Christian is a struggling Christian, but I but I think we we look around and think everybody else is doing better than me spiritually. They have a better relationship with God than I do when when it's it's uh I think as John Piber said, you know, we're frail and we're fragile. And you know, again, if we can link feeling discouraged to feeling neglected, I mean that you can't deny how you feel. Doesn't mean you need to make decisions based on how you feel, but if you feel like God has neglected you, I mean that's a that's a pretty low. And uh man, I would just encourage people, yeah, like you said, get get in the word, pray, be with some other people, hear their testimony, and be encouraged, you know, allow God to encourage you through that. But again, we we've got to be in vulnerable, we've got to be in community, we've got to be vul uh vulnerable and um yeah.

Feeling Neglected By God

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, it's it's it's um, you know, um man, you mentioned John and it made me think of one of his best books. And I'm gonna kick myself when I leave here because I should know it. But it it it it's it's kind of the book. If you look him up, if you Google John Piper, it'll come up and that's like his biggest book, and I cannot remember. Not Desiring God. Desiring God. It's 40 years old, I think. No, I know. Just rub it in, just rub it in. Um when he wrote that book originally, it didn't have anything in it about suffering. That book had no reference to suffering in it, and since then he's rewritten it with a chapter on suffering. You know, and I always think that's look, this is a guy that a lot of people hold up as you know, just super spiritual, super knowledgeable, and he's and and and to realize that that that book that defines him, desiring God, he never put anything in there about suffering. Then it made me go back to mere Christianity, that's C.S. Lewis. There's nothing about suffering in mere Christianity either. Of course, I recommend you read Desiring God before mere Christianity, because mere Christianity is a can be a tough read. It's very uh it's very thought-provoking, but it's okay, so another one that comes up from time to time is um when someone says to you, I don't believe in God. And how do you answer that?

unknown 12:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

I mean, I'll tell you what I what what I say, and I've learned this over the years, and this is something my grandfather used to tell me was it's hard to talk spiritually with someone that says they don't believe God. So you go factually, and when you go factually, you look at people like Alexander the Great. There's only four manuscripts that even have his name in it, and yet we take it for real that he existed that he existed and he did what he did. And there's four or five other historical people that are like that that we know very little about really, and and the manuscripts that talk about 'em, I mean, we're talking about people that there they might be in ten manuscripts. You know, Alexander the Great's always one that pops right in my head right off the bat. But there's others that are from those time periods. There are over a thousand manuscripts written by different people that aren't even in the Bible that describe Jesus, described his acts, described what he taught. So from from just a factual, what we would consider factual standpoint, there's tons of evidence to show who he is and what he did. You know, and so if if you're going from the factual side and you can't believe based on that, it's gonna get tougher, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

But I I I'm I'm a factual guy, so I usually start from there and then lead into how God has made a difference in my life, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

So personal testimony. What's next?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Well, I have to go to the next one. Um This one is always uh um this is always a difficult one too, because it's um you know, recently we had a minor tragedy or a tragedy in our family, but it makes you ask questions like, you know, this one says, Is there a meaning to life? And if so, what do you think it is? And or or or or a lot of people will ask that question in the form of if I'm doing this and I'm doing this, and in this case we're talking about my younger brother who was pretty dedicated Christian. I mean, he did a lot of he he he was a solid Christian. And uh and he died rather suddenly in the course of just a few weeks from the time we found out he was sick till he died. And it brings you know, one of my children asked that question. You know, why did God let this happen? You know, and so we we we get that those kind of questions in in in things like, is there meaning to life? You know, what is our why do we have life?

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

We're here to to bring God glory and enjoy our relationship with Him, and of course we adopt His Adopt's probably not the best word, but we take on His mission and His purpose, which is to uh share the gospel and make disciples, and what greater meaning to life is there than that.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

And my w one of my favorite questions that kind of goes along with that is is uh, you know, do you think when we when we die and we go to heaven that we'll find out?

Scripture, Community, And Vulnerability

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yeah, there'll be no more to which I was responding, are you even gonna be worried about it? Everything we don't know, yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, there's there's that for sure. I mean, you're you know, these yeah, people that you know, why did my dog get ran over when I was ten? I'm pretty sure that's gonna just get off the room. That's gonna be at the top of the past. You know, the the trouble with I mean, and and your brother passing away is is you know, that's a that's a sad story. I mean, he was a young guy and and then you know went in for one thing and found out there are other things and and that he was really sick. And but we're all um we're on the process, right? I mean, there's no good time to die, right? I mean, I mean I'm not sorting him out, but just in general, like it's not our plan though, either. It's when God wants to our days are numbered by God, and we need to make you know scriptures clear, right? I mean, we make the best use of our days. Jesus said, you know, while it's light, you need to be working for him because there's a time coming. And so, yeah, I mean, w we find out our purpose, we we had uh we we find out our purpose through Christ, and and then we need to get busy about his business, and that brings us great joy and fulfillment. So people that are searching for you know, it's always funny these people that are on a cruise and they book their next cruise while they're still on a cruise, and I'm like, you know, you're you need to find fulfillment in different ways. Like this is temporary. It's obviously it's temporary because you're booking your next cruise already. And if you like cruises, that's great. But you know, get the point that there's something bigger and better and more fulfilling, and you can still go on a cruise, but get your priorities and perspectives accurate. Because one day we're gonna stand before the Lord. And you know, you talk about Piper. I mean, it's that sermon that catapulted so many like Craig Greshel and J.D. Greer in and into the ministry was you know, you're you're don't waste your life. You don't want to show up. Everybody's gonna stand before Jesus, two different judgments. I know that's not what we're talking about, but for the Christian, you know, they're the judge that they're gonna be judged based on were they faithful, what did they do with their days? And a lot of the works that we do are just wood, hay, and stubble. They're gonna get burned up, right? They're gonna go, you know, your motive was wrong, Jesus is gonna say your motive was wrong or whatever. And what's gonna hold up? And so we need to be working towards that. Again, it's not gonna be for the Christian, it's not heaven or hell, right? You're assured of going to heaven, we're assured of our salvation. When we stand before, when you and I stand before Jesus, it's not gonna be like, ooh, is Bill gonna go to hell? Or I'm pretty sure. I mean, you're gonna you're gonna go in before God.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

That line behind me standing, I'm going, What do you think? What do you think his chances are here?

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, I mean, you know, you're in, you know. I'm not, I'm not if I'm behind you in line, I'm not concerned about that. But but each of us ought to be concerned about what do we do with our our days. And uh, well, that really, you know, I was and again, I'm spending too much time on this, but I was just reading yesterday about, you know, the the uh the parable of the talents and a guy that just buried, you know, and I'm like, man, I want to be busy about God's business. Be not because I'm concerned about going to heaven, but because Scripture's clear, like this is what brings me the most joy and satisfaction of serving the Lord. And you know, we ought to go to bed tired because we're serving the Lord, you know, and it can be in your job. You know, do everything if you're doing it for the Lord, you know. I mean, work a hard eight, come home and enjoy some seven bar brisket and you know, 30 minutes of Andy Griffith, and then go to bed and feel good about it.

Responding To “I Don’t Believe In God”

Meaning Of Life And Sudden Loss

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah. No, I somebody asked me a long time ago, and it's and it's stuck in my head because the answer was I gotta admit it was pretty good, I thought, when I answered it. But, you know, somebody asked me um the question of um if I had to give a a one-sentence answer as to what my life was about, what would it be? I said, you know, I want it to be about God and not about me. And I remember here recently in the last few months, we've had two fairly famous people that passed away. And I remember one of them they asked, When you die, how do you want people to remember you? And he said, I want people to remember me in the words I said and how they reflected upon Christ and the fight. Everything that I fought for was for Christ. And the other one said, I want everybody to remember that I fought for the environment and that I was a good actor. And I thought, wow, what a what a what age. I know. That's just like that guy. I like the sign too. I do too. I do too. Great movies. But but it just it just showed you where they were in in their lives. You know, I I think uh not too long ago I was back in my hometown and um I was talking to the city manager in my hometown, and he asked me, he said, you know, I was at church the other day. He goes to the church, he did not go to the church I went to growing up. He went to one of the other churches in town. But he got married, he went to college, he got married, he came back, and he and his wife go to the church where I grew up. And so we know a lot of the well, well, we knew a lot of the same people to begin with. I live in a little town. I grew up in a little town. But um, he came up to me and he's uh he was a mayor years ago. Now he's a city manager. But um, he came up to me and he said, Bill, we'd like to do something for uh your grandfather and and for a couple of the other of the gentlemen that bought that first church church building for the uh first Expandic Baptist church in town. And I said, Well, you know, I'm sure they would uh I'm sure there's a lot of people that would be thankful for that, but I think you just mentioned it. I don't think they would want to mark your, you know, they were very quiet. I said, I could give you a laundry list of the things they did, and you would be really surprised by all the things those four gentlemen did. Probably part of the great greatest generation, right? Yes. Yeah, all of them. And humble people. But not a one of them ever wanted and I mean these were people that were that were business owners, um, educators, elected officials, the four of these gentlemen. And and were fairly I won't say they were rich because they gave away a ton of their money. They bought that building for that first Baptist church and had it moved. It was an old house. The first one, now they've got a new one that they've built since. But the first one 45 years ago now was an old house. It was a big house. And I remember going on Saturdays, I got so tired of that place because for about six months on Saturdays, we went in there and we did all the work to get that set up. We knocked walls out, we repainted and made it into a church. Wow. But and somewhere one of the one of my friends, one of the one the other guys dad uh kids were we went to school together and and he has pictures of it all. And uh it's really pretty amazing. But point being their legacy was to reflect towards God, not themselves. Yeah. Because I as I got to thinking about it, I was just like, you know, we went to look at the new veterans memorial there in my hometown and and all the names that were on it and stuff, and it was really neat. And you know, and a friend of mine, he's walking around it, walking around it, and then the nurse got to walking around it, walking around it, and they both realized my name wasn't on there. I said, Well, if they put my name on there, that's great. If they don't, the guy that was the person in charge of doing that, he now works for me. And he's like, Oh, I don't think your name is on there. I said, Man, it doesn't have to be on there, it's fine, you know. But the people that know, no, it's not about me, it was about serving my country. And for my grandfather and those guys, I look at those and I think, man, can I can I if I can be like that, you know, we were it says in the Bible that we should only really, you know, emulate Jesus. Try to be like Jesus. And I and and and and I fully believe that those guys, that's what they were trying to do too. So when I say I want to be more like them, what I mean is I want to be more like they were and trying to be like Christ. And yeah, I don't always hit that mark. And I think a lot of people think you sit on the second row every Sunday. You're there, you speak before Pastor does, before we sing, every Sunday. How can you not feel like you're there? I think when you begin to feel like you are there, that's where you're in some trouble.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, and now we can't, you know, just circling back to your granddad and you know, a plaque and all that. That's great. I mean, you know, nothing wrong with that. But now we I mean, now we we gotta re I mean, I'll probably make some people mad, but I mean, every school board meeting, you gotta bring kids out and recognize them, right? And we're just constantly recognizing people, recognizing people. And you might not even some people might not even do that today, not your granddad and those other men, but like, oh well, is there gonna be a plaque when this is over? Am I gonna get my name on something?

SPEAKER_02 24:31

No, it it you're exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

It's like yeah, I mean, it's just uh I mean that's your scripture says that's your reward. Hope you enjoyed that because that was it.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

That's not I want my reward to be just like I said the other day in in that funeral, you know, to stand and and and and have Jesus say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Yeah, you know, that that's that's all the reward I need.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

And every day you've talked about how we're we're living these eternal lives now. Like we live with that in mind, again, in a humble way, not in a prideful way, but but like, wow, what could be better than hearing Jesus say, dude, you did it. Man, you did it. You know, not yeah, you just did it. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

And so there's a lot of times when people put such a high um honor, such a high worth on various different earthly things or earthly positions, or this, that, or the other. Um I I get called by my title all the time. I say, I'm I'm Bill, man. I was Bill five years ago, I'll be Bill five years from now. That's the job I do, and I appreciate it, but you know, it's it's the job I do. Um and hopefully I do it well enough that folks will one day might you know say something to the effect of, you know, it was good to have a good Christian man, you know, in that position. Mm-hmm. Right. Right on. And and and I think those are things that because if they're saying that, then you've obviously made an impression on them and and hopefully help them steer their life to where it needs to be too. Because in the end, that's what we're supposed to be doing here, whether we're at work or at play or at church or wherever we are. Yeah. So it's good.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

It's good. Hope we got somewhere today. Hope it encouraged somebody. I do too. I do too.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

All right, it's your turn.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Is it okay? Let's do it. Holy Father, we come praising your name. We are amazed by you. We thank you for Jesus and his death on the cross and that empty grave, Father, and the fact that we've got some great promises whenever it comes time uh that we take our last breath. I want to thank you for uh this time to to come together and to think about you and how we can uh follow you in the best possible way. And we pray for those that are listening, Father. If any of them are concerned about their eternity or or anything, Father, I pray that you'd encourage them. We pray these things in your son's name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

All right. Well, that is, I believe, episode 36 now. We're getting to that closer and closer to that big five, too. Wow. But um, I hope these are helping folks. Um, you know, I I had somebody tell me the other day that somebody led him to listen to him, and and he's listening, he was on like number 18 or 19, and he said, Man, it's made a real big difference in my life. And uh, and that made me feel good, you know. A lot of people say I had a lot of pride in that. I I I never I try never to use that word, that that P word, but um, I was very happy for him because that means he's going where he's going. So if you're here this Sunday, you're in Rockdale. I won't be, but if you're here, uh we uh we meet at 10 for donuts and coffee and fellowship, and then service starts at 11 30. See you there.