Bloom | Rodrigo Vargas

Great is our God, who restores, who redeems, who rescues, who makes all exude. Great is the God that reigned, was risen from the dead, resurrected, and now reigns in all who are raised to new life. Can we give King Jesus a big old shout of praise? So good. You may be seated. What's good, Houston, Texas? Thank God. It's the week after resurrection, and I think, you know, even though we're excited and the house of God is full, we need to make a shift. We need to move from a resurrection experience to what it means to live in a rooted life in Jesus Christ. But first, if this is your first time with us, we want to say that you're not merely a guest, you're actually an answered prayer. And that Union Houston exists to connect people to God with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that gospel says that it doesn't matter what your past looks like, what your struggles may be, or even your doubts. Jesus died on that cross to love you right where you are, but he was risen to life. And because he was risen to life, he loves you enough not to leave you where you are. So if you came in the house today or you're watching online and you're looking forward today, some areas of your life are going to be risen to life. Amen. Now, this promise includes every man and woman that is incarcerated and watching right now through the Pando app. Union, can you help me welcome our Union prison campus? We love you. We can't see you, but you're never out of our hearts, not ever out of our thoughts. And we can't wait for the day that you join us here. We're starting a new series called Rooted. Let me explain to you what this is. The resurrection has taken place. And if we intend to live the resurrected life, we will have to be grounded. We must be rooted so that we can bear fruit so that growth can go forward. However, we do live in a culture that is obsessed with growth, but not death. Listen, we want things now, don't you? Is the reason why there's a buy now button on your Amazon account. We celebrate the results, but we never celebrate the process. We never embrace the process. We want harvest, but we don't want to lay down roots. And Ephesians chapter three, verses 16 and 17. Paul exhorts to us that I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his Holy Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts.

As you trust in him, are rooted in him, your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. Greater, which we began this year, that's our word for the year, is sustained through roots. We are on a journey of becoming deeply established in Jesus Christ, rooted in his love, grounded in faith and in the truth of God, strengthened by his spirit. And we're not shaken by storms, seasons, seduced by culture, the media, and our seasons don't dry up. Now, let's shift now to Jesus. Jesus wasn't a pretentious teacher. I see that a lot online. You see that a lot online. The Instagram accounts and the YouTube accounts and you got a pretentious pompous teacher who knows all things and they have the authority. They say things like I read the Bible front and front and back. I know the whole word of God. You don't argue with me. This is pretentious. Jesus wasn't like that. He wasn't a teacher that took great pride in his piety or his pompous theology, even though he was. was and is the living word he was confident in what he was saying and here's here's what i want to tell you with the holy spirit along with the living word we have living water that's what jesus told us jesus met people right where they were and he spoke to them as to relate to them not speak down on them so that they may relate to the truth that is being revealed so that they may watch this receive the seed of heaven that he was sowing into human hearts jesus is in this room right now the spirit of god is in this room the presence of god is in this room across the airwaves and he is sowing heavenly seed in human hearts jesus taught a lot with what's called parables parables were stories of their days that communicated a much deeper meaning or spiritual truth and many of these stories dealt with jesus chose to teach with agriculture seeds farming shepherding goats so we are going to take a few weeks to receive from jesus these seeds he gives us and we're gonna sow them in our resurrected hearts amen today we're gonna start off this series by reading one such parable that caught my attention and i thought this is exactly where people are especially after easter i believe this is where a lot of people are now i'm gonna jump around from topic to topic that has to deal with the root being rooted but i believe this is a place where all of us in this room may be in some area in our lives so it speaks to everyone so we're all

in this together i want you to stand with me and turn to mark chapter four as i read the word of god and we're beginning at verse 26 and we're only going through verse 29 but in those three verses there is so much truth to unpack amen here we go he also said this is what the kingdom of god is like it's like a man that scatters seeds on the ground night and day whether he sleeps or gets up the seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how all by itself the soil produces grain first the stock then the head then the full kernel in the head and as soon as the grain is ripe he puts the sequel to it because the harvest has come let's pray father god we thank you for today lord thank you for those that have taken they have decided to move forward into the resurrected life lord we we bless them lord we ask you to keep them lord we ask you to guard them we ask you that the seeds of heaven that have been sown into them that have made moved them to take in this obedient step of baptism will flourish in years to come lord jesus we ask you to send your holy spirit in the mighty name of jesus into moving this room to be our teacher to be our counselor to be the one that edifies us and establishes us in the truth of god holy spirit i ask you to move and open our hearts to receive soften seal the souls of our heart so that the seed of heaven may be sown deep into our hearts and we may begin to grow deep roots lord open our spiritual eyes to see the things that we've missed because we're blinded to it because of life because of pride because of selfish ambition but also lord help us to to hear block out the cares of the world block out the anxieties block out the worries of the world then let us hear the whisper of heaven help me holy spirit to deliver this message that you have deposited to my spirit and i pray this in jesus mighty name and the church said amen amen amen you may be seated you may be seated i want to talk to you today what it means to have resurrected hearts bloom when they are rooted in christ Jesus is describing something that happens underground, under the soil, something that happens in the dark, something that grows but is not instantly seen. It's done in the hidden places. It's hidden in the soil, in the root system, in the slow and unseen work of God. That's what we're talking about. It's going to bloom, but we've got to concentrate and work on that unseen work of God.

A great theologian, Scottish theologian, calls this the parable of unseen growth with a certain end. In other words, there will be an end to this. This is a word of encouragement and sobriety. And from this text, I want to pull three revelatory truths for us today so that we may bloom. I want to show you something today. This in my hand is called a Jericho rose. Some call this in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, a resurrection rose. It's a desert plant, and it is one of the most remarkable living things on the face of this planet. It can survive the harshest, driest, most brutal conditions imaginable for years on end. How long this has been dried up and shriveled without a single drop of water. When it has no water, it looks dead. It looks finished, doesn't it? It looks dried up. It just looks like a small little tumbleweed here like we do in Texas, right? It's done. It looks like there's nothing left of life. I wonder how many of us walked in the church this way, feeling like this resurrection, this Jericho rose. But see, the moment you drop it into the water, right, the moment you drop it, and I mean in the very moment you drop it into water, it begins to do something incredible. It begins to open up. You can already see that it's starting to soak up the water like sponge. It begins to breathe again. It begins to come back to life, bloom. Church, I believe that right now in this room, there are people sitting, watching, listening, whether on their PandaWaps or here live or on their YouTube screens that look like this Jericho rose or are living, their souls look like this.

But see, in America, we can put a shine to things that are dead. We can look real good in the clothes that look real good, right? The car is real nice, the house is, you're, listen, you sound impressive. Your social media is on point. But on the outside, in your soul, you're dried up, you're withered. Parts of your soul feel like this rose before I dropped it in water. Brittle, closed, barely breathing, barely living. Now, we can hide, listen, we can hide behind clothes, homes, cars, children, careers. You can hide behind the deceptive false gospels of money, savings, investments, power, and titles. But you cannot manufacture the beauty that God has hardwired into your soul. He's written it according to Psalms 139. Because if you're not rooted, if you're not rooted in the living water, in the living word and in the living water, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, you will never bloom kingdom beauty in your life. That's what Jesus is teaching. Today's message is for the dried up rose in this room. I'm praying and believing that today you will bloom in this season. Now let's step into this because this is a powerful parable. I want to sow what the Lord has given me. But to do that, we have to have a moment of honesty in the house of God. Every single soul in this room has at least one area in their lives, if not your whole entire life, that was like that dried up Jericho rose. And it needs Jesus. You think you need more patience. You think you need more faith. You think you need more peace. You think you need better relationships. You think you need to resolve the problem in your marriage. And can I tell you I'm here to tell you what you need is Jesus. What you need is a vibrant living relationship with the Lord. One where when you get angry he steps in and smacks you upside your head say sorry Lord. If he's not stepping in and smacking you upside your head when you're about to go off on someone you don't have the relationship you thought

you had with him. Let me take it a step further. Men in this room if lust is the problem let me tell you the solution is this you do not have the relationship you think you have with the Lord. Because when you do you won't lust. Because when he's your best friend you will remember that he answered the one that gives you lust. It is written. This is the problem. We're not rooted. And the answer to this is Jesus. Now you've heard me for weeks on end we're on this side of the resurrection. You got to remember you're on this side of the resurrection. You're on this. But here's what is really important. Jesus has to step in. The resurrected reigning Christ needs to step into that area of your life whatever it may be so that it can bloom again. We must approach this as a holy moment and with reverence with honesty and humility. And you got to cry out to him. Like the old street proverb says closed mouths don't get fed. Okay. The first thing Jesus is teaching people is they would have understood this. Can I tell you they would have understood this clearly. They knew. They didn't have an HEB. Okay. Right. For you frugal frannies. They didn't have all of these. You feel me. Right. Yeah. Got to have them frugal frannies in the room. Listen. They understood that the only way to grow crop is to enter into the helpless place of waiting for the harvest. They were helpless to it. They were helpless. They understood the helplessness of the farmer. The farmer did his work. Some of you have done the work. Some of you have prayed the prayer. I'm trying to preach to you today. Some of you have tied the tide. Some of you have been serving faithfully. But until you find yourself helpless before the Lord he's not gonna move. See they understood that the helplessness of the farmer his part was the soil tilling it. See sometimes we don't till our hearts. Can anybody guess why we don't till our hearts? Because it hurts and it hurts our pride. We don't want to be told no you're wrong. No you need to change that. It's easier to point the finger at someone else or something else or our past. But I thought we were on this side of the resurrection. I'm trying to guide you to tell you that until you till that soil in your heart sowing seeds are just gonna bounce right off of it. I am gonna touch a little bit on that. We're gonna spend some time in

seeds including the summertime. But there is a lot to unpack when it comes to the hardness of where we plant our seeds. But after you sow it after you've tilled it after you've sown the seed the rest is up to the Lord. See I want to tell you that the first thing I realized in this passage is helplessness is just the beginning. Your helplessness is just the beginning. It is not the state you stay in but it is the beginning. A person at the end of themselves is at the beginning stages of walking in the kingdom of God. You remember last week at Easter I talked about the centurion at the cross. He was at the end of himself when he began to walk in the kingdom of God. This is why we know longinus went on and preached Jesus and followed Jesus because he was so impacted by what he had seen. He was at the end of himself. So he had that, what have I done moment? And we, until we come to that place, the mercy of God will never enter into your life. Helpless people are at the mercy of the Lord of the harvest. You know what Jesus says? Jesus says, the harvest full is plenty, but the workers are few. But everybody misses this part. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest. We've got to open our mouths and tell the Lord, hey, I am helpless in this situation. I am gonna need you to work in this place. I can't do it on my own. I've read your word. I've done the things you asked me to do. I've sown the seed and now I am helpless before you. There is no greater place to receive the mercy of God when you are helpless. I would like to propose that there is no better place

to be in your faith than in a helpless state. If you don't believe me, just ask the people that have received miracles in this room. Just ask the people that have had relatives receive miracles in this room. When you are in a helpless state, you are at the mercy of the power of God. And this is what Jesus is communicating. For you to be rooted, you got to enter into the helpless state where only God can do what he can do. The former doesn't make the seed grow. He can't make the seed grow. He scatters it and he goes to sleep. He wakes up, he eats breakfast. Can I tell you what happens? Life happens. Life happens just like yours. I know you get stirred on Sunday. I know you come in here and you get stirred and I hoot and holler and yell at you and stomp all over your toes and you're like, man, I was convicted today, pastor. And you write it down in your journal. But I'm gonna tell you, tomorrow you're gonna have that same problem you were dealing with when you were convicted on Sunday morning. You're gonna have that same problem. That coworker's gonna get on your nerves. Your boss is gonna give you a hard time.

You're gonna get that bill you didn't expect. The IRS is gonna tell you you miscalculated your taxes. You actually owe $3,500 instead of getting a $2,500 refund. You feel what I'm saying? Anybody been there? That happened to us this year. Welcome to adult. We were all saying, we are empty nesters until we got that IRS bill. Man, we need to have some more children. We need to be like Abraham and Sarah. Let's try to have some children here. Unfortunately, our young people here are taking care of that. They're having children's left and right. I got a plan. The Lord gave me a vision. We need to start a daycare, Christian daycare. Listen, he goes to sleep, he wakes up, he eats breakfast, he pays his bills, right? He goes to the temple, he pays his tithes, he prays his prayers, just like me and you. Life happens, but the seed is still growing. That's what I'm trying to encourage you today. The seed is growing, not by his effort, but by something greater working that is unseen. Listen, we love to sing it. Even if I don't feel you, even if I don't see you. I'm gonna tell you something, it's more than a song. It's a state of faith.

There is something profoundly counter-cultural about this, and the gospel is counter-cultural. It does not, it rubs against. It is in conflict with the culture. We live in a world that is obsessed and glorifies the grind. All right, man, come on now. How many of you are grinders, hustlers? I go out there and get it, right? I do like, I do like that mentality, but don't let it get to your heart. Because hustle culture, grind culture, says if you're not getting results, you're not working hard enough. But Jesus says the farmer doesn't even know how it grows. The growth is not the farmer's genius. It is God's faithfulness. See, God uses helpless people who seek him first. Before you open up your mouth to answer your spouse, seek him first. Before you call that customer back, seek him first. Before you respond to Patrick, the Pharisee, who didn't like our Friday night, good Friday, good Friday, good Friday, good Friday, good Friday, good Friday, The worship set, seek the Lord first. You know what happens when you seek the Lord first? The Lord says, I want to take care of that. And by the way, I'm giving you a genius idea. Make that an ad to invite more people to church

because we welcome people in shores, banties, tattoos, sin, shame. Come on, you got the doubts, you come on in. Thank you, Patrick the Pharisee. May God bless you. May God squeeze your heart because we got to seek the first kingdom. Jesus says himself, seek first the kingdom of God. See, you've been asking the Lord, right? To change your situation. You've been asking the Lord to change your child's life. You've been asking the Lord to change your career path. You've been asking the Lord to give you more income. You've been asking the Lord to cancel that debt. You've been asking the Lord to heal you of that problem. But I cannot tell you until you seek him first, no things will be added on you. But when you seek him first, when you begin your day with praise God, I'm going to go to my Bible. When you wake up and worship music comes on, right? Seek him first. The Bible is full of stories of people that sought him first. Right? In the Old Testament, we have Hannah, she was barren. You know what she did? She sought the Lord and gave everything to the Lord. And the Lord gave her the great prophet Samuel. Abraham and Sarah were old and decrepit. They sought the Lord.

And by the way, when they didn't, they ended up with an Ishmael. And by the way, God didn't take away Ishmael. So listen, I want to tell you something, something you need to hear. There are decisions you made years ago that are carrying consequences in your life. The Lord is not going to remove the consequences. He's going to give you strength to live through those consequences. Abraham and Sarah sought the Lord and the Lord gave him Isaac and the strength to deal with Ishmael. David was a little shepherd boy, the smallest of his brothers, playing with the sheeps and the goats. He became the greatest king Israel has ever seen. Moses was a murdering fugitive with a stutter. And he became the deliverer of slaves. Now that's the Old Testament. But let's just look at the people Jesus healed where they're unnamed. That's what I love about the gospels because in the Old Testament, everyone has like a prominent name and some great story. In the gospels, it's everyday people, they're unnamed. The woman with the bleeding disease, we don't know her name. She spent every dollar on doctors and witch doctors and all this other stuff.

She was broke, desperate, and completely out of options, but she sought the Lord. The lame man at the pool of Shiloh, he couldn't get up to the healing waters. No one would help him until the Lord, he sought the Lord and he got healed and walked away. Blind Bartimaeus, and you might be thinking, oh, wait, that's his name. No, that's not his name. That is a description because Bar means son. He is the son of Timothy. That's not his name. It's a description. This man was so irrelevant that they didn't even give him a name. They just knew him as the blind guy, son of Timothy. He's sitting on the side of the road and humility, you know, humiliated and overlooked, but humility and honesty. And he said, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus healed all of them. And these are just a very small sample of what happens when you approach Jesus in a helpless situation. God doesn't meet us at the height of your strength. God is not going to be with you when you get that bonus check, right? God is not going to just eat, like he's not, that's not where he meets us. That is the fruit of being with him

when we weren't in strength. I have found, Paul, that in my weakness, I have his strength. This is the gospel. He is not going to meet you at the height of your success, of your striving, of your hustle, of your grinding. On the contrary, he meets us when we are in the most helpless of situation, at the bottom of our helplessness. Not because he enjoys our suffering. No, it's because helplessness is what clears the room of our self-reliance and pride, making space for faith. Not faith in money, not. Faith in knowledge, not faith in anointing, not faith in anything other than in the mighty name of Jesus. Helplessness produces the necessary humility to grow and bloom in the kingdom of God. This is what you need. You need to embrace it. Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to those who are poor in spirit. Didn't he say that? Those who know they have nothing to offer him. Humility is not just a nice virtue to have. Oh, that's a nice character trait that they have. No, in the kingdom of God, humility is the nourishment. It is like fertilizer to that seed. It is how you faithfully invest in your discipleship and in your faith to bloom in the kingdom of God. You cannot hustle your way into rootedness. You cannot, you cannot work your way into rootedness. You cannot read enough into rooted. No, you can only surrender yourself into rootedness. All you can do is put the seed in the ground, watch this, and stay rooted. Oh my God, I think he said in John 15, abide in me and I will abide in you. This is about abiding. It is about dwelling in the very spirit and the word of God. This means that I am going to be immersed in his spirit. I'm going to be immersed in his word so that when that time comes where the fiery arrows of the devil come, I have the shield of faith, which is the word of God. And I pause there, not today, Satan. Some of you are walking around and tomorrow morning or afternoon, you're going to have a problem. You're going to be like, yes, yes, Satan, more, more Satan.

We grab our phone, we go to that vault. Yeah, y'all know, right? We go home, go to grab a drink. We vape on the way home because I deserved it. I was very stressed out today. Yes, yes, Satan. Instead of not today, Satan. No, no. When you dwell, when you're, when you are abiding in Jesus, the growth is his job. Your duty is dwelling in him. The harvest is his job. Your job is to put down roots and stay faithful. Even when you don't feel it, even when you don't see it, even when it hurts, even when it's uncomfortable, even when it's challenging. Abide. Stay. Maybe some of you have been striving so hard that spiritually, relationally, professionally, psychologically, you're exhausted. Am I talking to anyone today? You have nothing left. Can I tell you, you got the right place. The exhaustion, the end of yourself feeling that is not the end of your story. It's the beginning of God stepping into your story. See, rooted people are positioned for God's unstoppable power. See, God will not be stopped. If we stay rooted and we allow him to work, God has unstoppable power, unlimited power. When we are rooted, we are in position for God's unstoppable power to produce what human strength cannot control. Now, right before this parable, he said 30, 60, and a hundred times. Whatever it is that you were thinking you needed, if you stay rooted 30, 60, or a hundred times, Jesus is describing the unstoppable power of heaven, the unstoppable power of God, the father, a seed contains, did you know this? A seed, think about this. Theoretically, a seed contains an entire forest. If that seed goes into the ground and you stay rooted long enough, if it is nourished, if we wait for, how can I say this? Abide in God, it is going to do what cannot be stopped. God's love is the force behind it. If there is no curse, there is no demon. There is no angel. There is no hell. Listen, nothing that can stop God's love from blooming in your hearts. There is no trouble. There is no calamity. There is no persecution. There is no hunger, no danger. No threat. Romans 8. A tree. I mean if y'all have a house that's like built in the 80s or 70s and your tree has already cracked the sidewalk. I got a whole driveway. Got these big old oak trees. Squirrels all over them. Tree rats all over them. I told Pastor Sarah I'm gonna start shooting them. There's too many of them. There's too many. There's too many. There's too many. They're in my attic. They're getting into my stuff.

I got a lot of shoe boxes up there that are valuable. I listen. I'm gonna shoot them. Just letting you know right now. Vermin. But hey listen. These trees are so big that they crack the sidewalk. They crack our driveway. A tree can split the pavement with the power it possesses. A weed. Have you ever seen a weed grow through the sidewalk? It grows through asphalt. Nothing can stop growth. No concrete. No asphalt. Not your past. Not your trauma. Not the enemy's assignment against you. It cannot stop it. When? When that seed is rooted. And I mean truly rooted. Truly abiding. The environment does not determine or dictate. Valka. You know what does? The root system. The root system. The tree doesn't ask the concrete for permission. It just grows. The concrete has no choice. Watch this. But they're great. When you are rooted. Let me tell you something. There ain't a stronghold in hell that can withstand the growth of God. There ain't an addiction that can stand the power of God. There ain't a curse. There ain't problem. There ain't a mindset. There ain't something your mommy or your daddy passed down to you that can withstand the power of almighty God. But you gotta stay rooted. So maybe today you may be saying I'm rooted but I'm still sick. I'm still broke. I'm still in marital problems. Big trouble. What are you really rooted to? Because maybe you're rooted to your blessings and not the blessor. That that's a problem. We worship what God blesses. God's a good father. And when he sees you loving him and worshiping him and praying for him and doing what's right with your money, he he blesses you. But then the enemy steps in be like you see how you see how much money is in your savings? You see how much your stock's going up? Right? You see you see you see how good you look? You've been on them semi-glute ties losing weight, taking pictures at the gym. Y'all know I'm proud of y'all. Y'all took your health serious. Hey look ain't no shame in that. But sometimes we take pride in that versus what he's doing in here. I'm more proud of what he's doing in here. You know what I'm saying? When we are patient, abiding, God can do things we never dreamed of or imagined ever. By the way that's what the verse says. That's what that Ephesian verse says. Jesus is teaching a summons to faith and patience. We are creatures of the moment of the now. We want it now. We want it fast. We want it visible. We want it measurable. If we don't have it our way, we throw a hissy fit like a little girl.

Right? Yeah you know what I'm talking about. But God has eternity to work in. There are things that need to be worked out in your life that you created in a moment. The Jericho rose didn't bloom in the desert. It didn't bloom in the drought. It waited. It was conserved. Did you catch that? It conserves its energy. Right? It was still living. It's still living. had created beauty until the water came in and then it bloomed without apology, without reservation, without hesitation. Some of you have been waiting a long time. You've been praying the same prayer. Don't give up. Some of you have been faithful in the same season. Don't give up. Some of you are believing for big things. Don't give up. Stay rooted. But nothing seems to be happening. I'm here to tell you something is happening where you cannot see it, you cannot feel it, but you got to stay faithful to Jesus. You got to be rooted. It's in the root system. It's in the root system. It's in the hidden work. It's in the secret place of your reading your Bible every day. It's in the secret place of studying what that passage said. It's in the secret place that you shut off the radio and you pray on your way to work and home from work. What was that scripture all about Lord? Why is it bothering me? Why do when I understand it? I'm gonna tell you something last night. True story. I'm laying in bed. Pastor Sarah's already snoring. She's got a little bonnet on. And I started talking to the Lord and I said, Lord, I need a fresh word from you. Fresh word. Just give me fresh man. Like I know kind of what I want to preach not this week, but next week, right? Next Sunday. But I'm about to get on a plane on Monday morning and I'm gonna spend some time with some pastors, disconnecting, deep sea fishing and having a great time. I need to have a fresh word so I can ruminate while I'm on the open water. Ruminate that while I'm trying to catch fish like the way you catch fish. This is exactly what I was telling them. And this morning when I woke up, he gave me a word, one single word, one single word. I opened up my Bible to read my devotional and that word was repeated four times in my devotional. You think God, you think God answered me, but it was in my secret place that it happened. You got to stay in a secret place of prayer. Don't give up. He answers prayers to those that seek them and are helpless. You got to stay connected in your connect groups. If you're not in a connect group, you got to get in a connect group. They have some that still go on the discovery Bible studies. You got to get in a connect group. You got to try to come on. Timothy says, if you intend on growing your Christ like character, see a lot of people want to grow. They think they need spiritual

fueling, but I give it and they don't come. I can't make you come. I can't force you to come. All I can do is prepare the table. You got to come and eat. Listen, make a priority to your first Tuesday teaching. I go deep. I press in. We do spiritual warfare. I've been on a tangent of spiritual warfare for months now. That's where you stay rooted. I'm not telling you, you have to. I'm telling you, these are tools we give you because we love you to stay rooted. It's up to you to use them. I know you're tired. I know you worked a lot. Where's my boy at? Johnny, I know you work every, every week. He raises the amount of hours he works. You're like, well, the first week is 10 hours. The second we got 12 hours. If you know Johnny, he twists when he wants to exaggerate, bro. Last week was 14 hours. My man, what are you working on the Artemis? Installing lights on the Artemis three. My goodness, there he is. He's always tired. I told him, look, man, y'all know, y'all know how I be. Yeah, bro. You know, you're tired, bro. I'll tell him how you always tired. I told him, I said, Hey man, don't come up here with all that tire stuff. That's effeminate. I didn't really say that. I said something four words, but, but, but you know, you know, I said, I get it. Everybody gets tired. We're human beings, but if we want to stay rooted, we got to remember that crossway, 315 pounds and he got whooped organs were hanging out and he carried that thing for you. I think I'm a little back pain, a little foot pain, a little tiredness. You won't be all right. You won't be all right. If you want to abide, it's in the quiet place that we abide. It's in obscurity where God does his best work. That's That that's where those who are faithful to them produce the crop the the process produces fruit that nothing can stop That's what I'm trying to tell you. Nothing's gonna stop it If you just stay rooted in spite of our rebellion and our disobedience God's work goes on and nothing in the end can stop the purposes of God nothing When your roots go down into Christ into his love into his word into his spirit you become storm resistant You become problem like Problem overcomer

Right you you become more than a conqueror Don't wear that t-shirt if you got a little problem conquering you you know I'm saying Culture can shift seasons can change let here people will disappoint you Even those that you love dearly they'll disappoint you I'm here to tell you but the rooted person doesn't wither doesn't dry up They produce fruit in season out of season because the source never runs dry for them It's Jesus Now what if they root it you remember that little ball I put in here Now this is just a little while this is 20 30 minutes has been sitting in here, and it's already Blooming I want you to look at this rose right now nobody nobody in this room made this happen It's responding to what it was a response Designed to respond to water This is what happens when you stay rooted in the living water in the living word Life begins to come back to places. I felt dead beauty returns To what once looked finished Resurrected hearts bloom The final thing I realized in this passage is the harvest is inevitable There will always be a harvest Whether we know it or not We're sowing seeds, and there will be a harvest now before you celebrate. I got to tell you This is also what Jesus is teaching said there is a certainty of Consummation of a harvest the harvest is coming. It's not optional. It's not up for debate The farmer doesn't decide if there will be a harvest. Oh, there's gonna be a harvest The farmer decides what seed he puts in the ground Every person in this room is sewing Some of you are sowing intentionally Some of you don't even realize what you're planting Hear me out, but that this is the law of harvest Jesus said you reap what you sow

You will not reap what someone else planted for you I? Can sit with you I can give you the best of my time hear me out I can give you the best of my time I can sit with you. I can hear you out I can deposit to you from my mantle my spirit But unless you plant it into your heart it will never grow anything You reap what you sow Galatians 6 7 so flesh reap flesh verse 9 do not give up sowing good 2nd Corinthians 9 16 Don't give up sowing good at the proper time you will reap Job Proverbs Hosea all say that if you sow evil trouble weakness and calamity will be harvested So you got to decide what you're what you're sowing bitterness offense pride selfishness Because good fruit comes from good seed planted on and rooted in good soil The question is not whether there will be a harvest the question is what kind of harvest will you have? Jesus says the grain is gathered. I didn't go into it. I may go into our later weeks, but notice he also gave the process first the sprout Right then this then the food head colonel Some of us want the full head colonel, and you just popped out of the ground I'll let's say that two plants He gives another one he gives another he gives another parable that we will talk about because it's important to the culture of our church that talks about that all of it is gathered But he says that both wheat and tares are gathered together two plants same field two plants same Sun two plants same rain Two plants different root systems different harvests you get to that There are people in this room that have been here for a long time or years or months and you've been sowing the wrong thing and your friend that you came with is all of a sudden growing the full head of kernel

and you're wondering what am I doing wrong and it's just that you've been sowing the wrong. You haven't been doing anything wrong than sowing the wrong thing. You've been rooted in the wrong system. So just shift because good fruit does not come from good intentions. What's the saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Good fruit comes from good seed. That's the word of God. Planted on the right soil that is a surrendered heart and rooted in the right place, the love of Christ. What I'm about to say is tough. Maybe it wasn't the enemy. Maybe it wasn't trauma. Maybe it wasn't your past. Maybe it was what you did with the seed he gave you. This is where we have to get honest. And I know some of you have blamed the enemy for your lack of fruit or for your production of bad fruit. Some of you have blamed your past, your childhood, your parents, your trauma, your sin. And I'm not dismissing that that happened to you. Those things are real and they must be talked about. They must be acknowledged and they must be brought to light. But Jesus gave you something the moment you said yes to him. And that was a seed into your hands to deposit into your heart. Whether it was his word, his spirit, his grace.

And the question you need to sit with is, what did you do with it? What did you do? Did you plant it? Did you water it? Did you remain faithful to the system that he put you in? Did you put roots down so that the roots can grow down deep and your life can become storm resistant? Or did the seed just sit in your hand and that's just called knowledge? Oh, I know what Jesus did for me. He's a good guy. He's a good guy, he's a swell guy. He's the savior of the world. Did you leave it here at church? And you come and you pick it up at the same seat every Sunday? Because this is where you left your seed? Did you leave it in a song, in a moment, in an experience you had where you nodded and you said, praise God, thank you pastor, that's good word. But you did nothing with it. The harvest is inevitable, it's coming, it's coming. The quality of harvest is not, that part's up to you. So what do you need to do with your seed today? Because this rose, now I'm gonna show you the one that's been seeping 24 hours. It's supposed to bloom like this. This is your life. It's hardwired to bloom like this.

And without the living water, without the word of God, beauty will never be visible. This was never dead, it was just disconnected from the source that gave it life. Isaiah 43, 19 prophesied the living waters were coming 700 years before Jesus came to earth. And he said, see, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams out of wasteland. You may be a Jericho rose, but that doesn't mean you're dead. It just means you need to go and be rooted in the living water. Wastelands, deserts, withered is not God's design for you. You were created not to be dried up, not to be closed off, not to be shriveled up, but to be blooming from the inside out. You were created to be rooted, rooted and grounded in love so that you would have the power, so that you would be fruitful, 30, 60, 100, so that you would have a testimony so that you would bloom. But you have to get in the water. You can't dip your toes into it. You gotta dive head first. You gotta go all in. And you gotta put your roots out. Hey, listen, I know it's new for you. It's hard. You've never done this before.

this is all new pastor kind of looks at me but this is all weird i know i was there too but you know why i'm up here because i went all in and i stayed rooted i stayed there even though i didn't understand the pastor told me you got to go to a small group and i thought it was going to be some weird room i mind you it's a church with a whole bunch of white people that i'm going to go to a person's house and they're not going to be wearing shoes and we're going to sing kumbaya together it's ignorance i didn't know that no it was dudes like me we met at a water burger no one had their shoes off that's what i'm trying to tell you don't let your thoughts don't overthink it don't just show up on sunday don't just listen to the sermon get rooted in this word the most precious thing you can do the greatest hallelujah is that you get rooted in this word that you get rooted in the community that god has given us through connect groups i invite you if you haven't been we have meet the team i believe it's next week am i right next week next week meet the team you'll meet everyone you've learned about our vision how we started get rooted in prayer get rooted in worship because what isn't rooted won't last now i'll talk a little bit about that when i talk about those seeds if there's a dried up place in your life today that needs the living word the living water today is the perfect opportunity to invite him in and let him have it go all in so that you can be like the blooming jericho rose and not the dried up jericho rose would you stand with me we have prayer partners up here at the front and uh they're here to minister to you maybe you want to come and release that season that part of your life here i encourage you to come i encourage you to come and pray bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment there's there's someone here today that like the song says it's time to move forward what does that mean i want to move forward by living for christ and christ in me and all that takes is it's not a religious right it's not some kind of thing i'm going to make you do it's very simple i want you to make a decision of your heart that jesus is the son of god that he lived suffered and died for our sins for our shame for our past for all our mistakes for all the filth that we did for all the wickedness that we think sometimes and he was buried but on the third day he rose again so that we can live a new raised life and if that's you and you want to make that decision in your heart do me a favor shoot your hand up so i can pray for you just shoot your hand up so i can pray for you

there you go thank you god father god we thank you lord jesus thank you that you are faithful now that you're moving us forward lord thank you for the amazing service we've had with all the people being baptized the hands that were raised that are giving their lives to christ right now in this moment lord bless them and keep them lord jesus for every person that comes up here to get be with them give them a word manna from god