Gardening | Rodrigo Vargas

We are walking in the cool of the presence of God. Amen. It's so good to be in church Hey, listen, if this is your first time with us We we want to say that you aren't just a very special guest to us, which you are You are actually an answered prayer. We pray that you meet us and that you would come and We want you to know that you know here at Union Houston We believe in connecting people to God and that is with the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ And that gospel says that doesn't matter what your past looks like Doesn't matter what your present struggles are and it doesn't matter what doubts may weigh in your heart Jesus Loves you right where you're sitting right there And he also loves you too much to leave you where you are So if you're in a difficult season if you're going through some challenges, can I tell you he's moving you today? And you know, I love this because this promises it includes every person every man and woman that is incarcerated Union, can you help me? Welcome all of our brothers and sisters at the Union prison campus. Come on. We can do better than that Yes, we may not be able to see you But you're never out of our thoughts and out of our hearts and we can't wait for the day that you join us We've been in this sermon series called rooted. We just started It takes us on a on a journey of becoming Established followers of Jesus and I do believe that this is one of the things that's sometimes missing in the Western churches We need to establish the roots in God's Word in a relationship With God so that we can withstand any storm any trouble and anything the culture pressures us with This is what's needed because Of Jesus's resurrection We are no longer who we used to be You can't remain the same now some of you Some of us understand this and are pursuing a life of becoming someone different This is the goal of a believer to become something different

Something that looks like Jesus and some of us don't quite grasp it yet However, whether we do or not Jesus is risen and reigning in power and if we believe in him, we must become rooted Paul says this in Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 through 7 Just as you receive Christ Jesus our Lord And and and and here's what he's saying is oftentimes we receive the Lord when we are at a lowest at the end of ourselves But he's encouraging us today. He is exhorting to us today to continue to live lives in him Rooted and built up in him strengthened in the faith as You were taught and last week he taught us how to bloom in him the parable of the farmer Today we go back into the parables For more spiritual revelation, and I'm having a ton of fun doing this because I love the parables I get to good to put use a book that I read a couple of years ago that Describes the parable their description of the kingdom of God Because here's what I've learned for for any fruit to bloom like we talked about last week for any fruit to bloom in our lives Can I tell you what's always needed Gardening Gardening in our souls. In fact, we are going to read Historically the very first parable Jesus ever taught It's the very now. I'm not saying this is the only time he said it What I'm trying to tell you is this is the very first parable he ever taught After this parable he gave us a bunch of other parables and it's called the parable of the sower Now clue he is the sower Okay, and the seed the word would you stand with me as we read six verses from Matthew chapter 13? verses 3 through 9

And this is how we get The clue that this is the very first parable because Matthew dictates and details Then he told them many things in parables. In other words, there was a shift. I want to prepare your hearts because Jesus had already been teaching catch that he'd already been teaching he'd been teaching What the kingdom of God was the sermon of the bond has gone forth. He's taught them lessons He taught them about the Word of God. He's taught them about who he is But you know what happened They weren't getting it Like Justin Bieber says it's not clocking to you yet. It wasn't clocking to them yet You feel me? It wasn't clicking so He told them many things in parables a parable is a story that was very common back then that was told to teach a very deep spiritual truth and he says a Farmer went out to sow his seed and as he was scattering the seed some fell along the path and The birds came and ate it up But did I have a revelation on that we're gonna dive into that Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil So it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow But when the Sun came up the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root no root system Other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants Still other seed fell on good soil where it was produced a crop 160 or 30 times what was some And then Jesus says something that I pray for us Whoever has ears Let them

hear Father God, we thank you for today Jesus we lift high your name and we honor we ask in your name Jesus That the Holy Spirit blow on us and that it opens our spiritual ear to hear What you want for our lives what you want from us what you want to do in us and through us Holy Spirit soften hearts prepare the soil in which the seed is going forth Lord comfort those that are in pain ease the anxiety of those with supernatural peace Silence the voices that come to disturb us while we hear your word So that we God We love you and we ask you through the Holy Spirit to do a work in us Help me deliver this word That you have put in me and I pray this in Jesus mighty name and the people of God said Amen, amen. Amen. You may be seated. I I Want to talk to you today about gardening now I Want to be clear the emphasis of this parable is the seed it is the seed and we will learn in a few weeks a little bit more about that, but Today I want to focus in on the gardening Last spring I wanted to Put a paved pathway in my backyard It bucks up right to butts up right up to the turf that we installed But hiring someone getting someone else to do the work was gonna cost me a little over three thousand dollars That that is not money your pastor has Diligently available to himself see the way my bank account is set up is my savings is connected to my investments in my retirement

Okay, you feel me? So so I did a little research, right? I put on my pastor Sarah thinking cap and did a little research and I realized that I could do the same thing for less than $350 now Pastor can handle $350. You know what I'm saying? So guess what I did What any Mexican would do? No, I didn't I did not Because I asked Johnny who's Mexican and he didn't know I Actually use chat GBT To calculate the measurements the materials I needed. I mean this was amazing. I got everything even down to An itemized list of where the material was what all it was at my local Home Depot I'm telling you chap GBT can be used for some good things. You hear me? Save me a whole bunch of time going back and forth in the store everything So listen, I had an itemized list where the word things were I had a plan had a blueprint I had everything I needed. This is easy. You know what I said, I've got this baby I figured I'd start early on Saturday morning 8 a.m. and I'd be done by lunchtime Until I started Until I started the work Can I tell you what I learned Gardening is hard work, baby Whoo, I began digging up all the grass And I mean that in alone gave me calluses in my hands and immediately, you know what I hit I hit roots The worst part is these roots were not from trees. I planted Trying to give you a word here

These roots were planted roots from a tree that not not just my previous owner Planted it was from my neighbor's yard Been there for years I Began to dig up rocks that I didn't place there I began to dig up cement that was left behind from when the construction was made hours went by and guess what I was still Digging I felt like Elijah digging trenches You know And you know what I realized I knew a whole lot I had a clear plan I know how to I Knew how much I had a plan But here's what I learned, but I had not counted the cost of Unearthing what I didn't see man. I got a word for y'all today Here's what Jesus says about this Suppose one of you wants to build a tower Once you first sat down Use chapati chachi BT Okay estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it Jesus is pointing to a deeper spiritual truth And what he is saying is this before we decide to garden our lives. We must count the cost Before we take up the cross and deny ourselves and follow we must count the cost We know we got to know what we're getting about. I didn't you know what I didn't see I didn't see the unknowns. I Didn't see I didn't catch you Petita can help you with a lot of things, but it cannot tell you what it does not know It can't tell you what is underneath the obstacles the tools I needed as a matter of fact to the things I found underneath everything hidden underneath the soil Can I tell you unearthing things is messy? painful hard work And once I dug it up The real work began I Began to work I cracked seven pavers

You know why? Because by this time I was tired hot and I was rushing To get the finished product. I Believe this is where many of you are today Tired Now I know you come to church. Yeah, actually how you doing you tell me all great. It's been blessed week. I'm blessed I Want you to know a little secret nine times out of ten what someone tells me a blessed is BS They don't want to tell me because I Don't know Religion shame pain they're not ready So I don't say anything, but I do pray for them We get tired Some of you are walking around like you got it together and that is tiring you some of you walking around Like you're filled with the spirit, but you're really frustrated Filled with the devil you're rushing around to see a finished product instead of embracing the process We are talking about embracing the right the greatest thing you can do is embrace The process it's okay not to be okay, it's okay not okay to stay not okay And can I tell you what happens when you get tired of the fake stuff You know what happens when you're frustrated with the the religion you've adopted You know what happens when you're exhausted and you begin to rush to see the finished Saint product you have it in your mind. You start to crack many things that are meant to stay whole in your life So you got a great prayer language and you got a great prayer ministry and you got a great worship environment and you got all The great memory verses and you watch all the podcasts and you read all the books But you F you your wife or your husband when you get into a fight You're cracking meant things that are meant to stay whole. I finally finished around 6 p.m in time for dinner. That's when I finished, not as I planned. Can I tell you your discipleship, the sanctification of your life will not go as you planned. It is as he determines. Someone needs to hear this today because you've been rushing because some prophet told you, you call to the nations, you're going to do this,

you're going to do that. But you know what? He is a voice of God, not the voice of God. And you've got to get in here and start getting into the word and saying, God, what do you need me to garden in my soul? Because gardening is hard work, but I'm going to tell you something, it's also beautifying work. And this is what it looked like when I finished. Look at that, your boy right there. That's my favorite gardening hat, by the way. This is my favorite gardening hat right there. Look at that. Show them the one with all the lights, everything I've done. Look at this, look at this. This is beautiful. I send them more pictures. They take a long time. Look at that. Look at that. It's got the, my dog has knocked all those down by the way. And the little one, he poops on the pavers. Goes to show you that the garden never finishes. Even with the finished product, you got to go back and do some cleaning. Man. And that's not in my notes. That came to me in the spirit. Amen. Let me tell you some unearthing. Our souls isn't easy work. It's ugly. It's messy. It's painful, but it's the purifying work that God has called us to. This parable is loaded with truth. It's about the kingdom of God, but we will never understand the depths unless we embrace the cost of the gardening. We must do Jesus prepares us. He's about to explain to us what this parable means. He's, he doesn't leave us hanging with these allegorical things. He says those who want to hear, and let me, he goes further and says, and apply this truth will be blessed with abundance. And then he explains by saying, listen, then to what the parable of the solar means one, when someone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, they don't ask the question. I, Hey, I didn't understand that parable. I don't understand that truth. I don't understand why God doesn't allow these things that I like to do. Right? The evil one, Satan, the devil, right? The enemy of your soul comes and snatches away. This is what the birds come and do. What was sown in their hearts. That is the scene along the seat, along the path to the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and receives it with joy. I'm saved. I'm getting baptized. But three weeks later, they're back in sin. They last only a short time when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, because of him, because he told you to stop doing that, because he told you to stop getting mad at something you shouldn't be getting mad at because he's told you to stop looking at things you shouldn't be looking at because he told you to stop talking to Susie Joe at your work.

They quickly fall away. Notice how it says they quickly fall away. It took them a while to get to this place and all of a sudden quickly fall away. The third, the seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word. And this is where most of y'all are, no matter some of y'all in our forest soils, but this one is the most prevalent in the Western American spoiled brat privileged, entitled Christians that are yourselves. But when the worries of this life, how am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to get it done this week? I forgot to pick up my dry cleaners. While you're hearing the word of God, you just remember, you forgot to make that Amazon order. And instead of taking notes, you're ordering on Amazon. I'm telling you the truth and the deceitfulness of wealth. Don't know pastor. You don't understand. I'm trying to make money so that my check is bigger. Go sell that story to someone else. We want wealth. The key is the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word, making it unfruitful, but the seed falling on good soul refers to someone who hears the word, understands it. This is the one who produces a crop yielding 160 and 30 times what was sown. Can I tell you something? Different souls produce different fruit results. The soil in this parable is our hearts. The seed is the word of God, okay? But the gardening is our work. Before you can bloom, you're going to have to deal with your dirt. Literally, like there's a double entendre on that one, okay? Like you're going to have to deal with the dirt of your life. You're going to have to be okay unearthing the dirt of your life. I'm encouraging you that those who grow the most are the ones that can unearth the dirt of their lives before other people, and they have no shame because they know that God has

redeemed their lives. Harvest always depends on the soil. Harvest, you can get the best seed in the world, but it's about the dirt. It's about the soil. The quality of the soil determine the quality of the fruit. But I want you to remember that the seed last week we talked about has the unstoppable power of God. Let me show you an illustration of this. Watermelon seed has the entire organized reality, point, blueprint, DNA, whatever you want to call it, to become an award-winning, juicy, sweet watermelon. But where it is planted determines its destiny. Your lives are no different where you are rooted determine your destiny. The entire organized reality to live in the kingdom life, which is your goal as a son or a daughter of God. Now that statement alone should rattle you a little bit. And if you don't see yourself as a son of God or a daughter of God, and let me say this to highlight it, a son or daughter of the most high God, you still have some gardening to do in your life. You are not an addict. You're a recovering addict son of God. You are not a felon. You are a redeemed human being, returning citizen into the kingdom of God. That's what you are. The seed must be rooted in fertile soil. If it will be fruitful, Jesus is teaching us about four. So can I tell you what this is? Four types of hearts. And I've given you, there are four conditions into which the seed is sown. The first one I want to talk about is the heart and heart. We are talking about a heart and heart, a heart and heart happens when we have been

through pain. And I don't want to minimize that, but that's why your heart is heart trauma, abuse experiences. The word is heard, but never rooted. It bounces right off. It hears that God is merciful. It hears that God is graceful. It hears that God is faithful and loving, but it, the heart says, well, what, where was he when uncle Joey did that to me? This is truth. And the hard truth is this. There's an enemy that is watching Satan and he sends birds of prey to come snatch the word of God before it can even germinate in the ground. Doesn't even get a chance. That's his strategy to find ways that be this, how you can tell, can you want to know how you can tell if the, your heart is hardened towards certain things. He finds strategies in ways to keep the word of God out of your mind, uh, by making you think about politics, by making you shout about politics, but by, by troubling your mind with the troubles of the world, but by, by, by troubling you and bothering you and snatching the word of God that says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. So when you stand in front of the mirror, all you see is fat rolls, moles where they shouldn't be stretch marks where once they weren't wrinkles, gray hair. You know, you know how you can tell I'm getting old? I get ear in my hair like every week. Can I pluck it out while I'm watching Netflix? Yeah, ear in your hair. Did I, what did I say? Backwards? Man, I'm thinking in Spanish again. There you go. That's how you know I'm an immigrant. I be thinking in Spanish. Yeah, I got hair in my ear, bro. Plucking it out. You know, we look for flaws in ourselves. The enemy comes and snatches away by taking our mind off of the goodness of God and getting us to focus on material wants.

Y'all seen the meme of where the guy walks into the other room. He's like, hey babe, look at the hat I found. And his wife throws him like 35 caps. That's my wife. But then there's one of the, of the wives. She comes in, oh, I found this pretty sandals and I throw my wife all the sandals she has. Right? Sometimes, and I'm, yep. There's nothing wrong with wanting nice things. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is instead of focusing and thinking about God's word, what should I be applying? What should I be working towards? What areas in my life am I being unfaithful? You're being unfaithful to something, to God. You are. Listen, don't come up in here and say, God, I'm straight. No, no, you're straight. You believe in him. He lives in you. He loves you. He knows you. But there are things. You haven't made it to Eden yet. And so material wants. Money. Money. It's money, money, money, money, money, money. You want more. You need more. You invest more.

You track the more. Right? You're not worried about the people, the Christians in Iran that are dying. You're worried about gas prices going up and complain that you had to pay $80 for a tank full of gas. That's what we're worried about. We're not worried about the Christians in Nigeria that are dying. Because of their faith, because Huckleberry, Barbara, Baraka, Ram, whatever the hell their name is, is killing them because they love Jesus and they will not shut up about Jesus. Get here. We are in America. They tell us of this virus going to kill everybody and we stop going to church. We we are worried about the wrong things. Success. For those of you, I'm about to stomp on your feet a little bit. For those of you chasing success, chasing the promotions, chasing the more, chasing the limelight, chasing to be seen, chasing to be noticed, chasing to be number one in your company, on your team. I don't know, in your family, whatever it may be. Can I tell you? You have the wrong idea of success. Or maybe. Sometimes. This is where this is where sometimes the enemy gets me. I got better things to do. And we become like the Christian, the religious people in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where we pass by, where the important things are right in front of us because we got better things to do. The heart is so trafficked with other things that the seed doesn't penetrate it and it ever grows. The problem is not to see the problem is the heart. It's the condition of the soul of your heart. Unforgiveness. Resentment. An unrepentant heart. Unconfessed sin. A hardened heart.

You want to know how I can tell a man is hiding some kind of sin? Is they have a hard heart. Can I summarize this? You know, a heart is a heart. Sin. Number two, an unrooted heart. This is this is a heart that has no root system into the heart of God that has no foundation in the word of God. This this heart is just simply not rooted in God. Why? Just like I had to dig up roots from my neighbor's tree. Many of you have roots. From experiences with your families. You love them. We have traumatic. History with them. Roots. Of how your parents parented you. Or lack thereof. We have roots of our upbringing. Of how we were raised. Of how we were raised. We have roots. Of how we were raised. We have roots. Listen, some of y'all are more faithful to heritage and tradition than to the law that is written for us to navigate in life in the kingdom of God. It's not where you come from, it's where you're headed. And so we have these root systems and so our heart never gets rooted in the truth of God. It's rooted. It's we watched the word of God over our family history, our parenting, our upbringing, right?

You know what? Some people call this generational curses. And I do believe some of that, especially if your tribal, your indigenous background is goes back to tribal, that there, there are roots. Okay. Listen, some of y'all have roots in your fraternity or sorority. You can't serve God and bail fraternities, sororities, their worship of bail. It's the occult. I had roots in the masons. That's demonic. Still cool. And listen, I know I have family members that get upset when I talk about this stuff because someone we loved used to be a Mason and it went from generation to generation. But Romans one 16, I shall not be ashamed of the gospel. I don't need that in my life. That brings forth the wrong roots. We are rooted in simply the wrong things. And I'm here to propose that sometimes you can't cast out generational curses. You're going to have to garden those out because the root determines the fruit. And if you're rooted in what your pappy or your mammy told you or how they were and their financial problems and, and their abusive ways and their manipulation, listen, you need to uproot yourself from that and get yourself rooted into what the word of God says for you. Which side of the resurrection are you living? We have to choose. I say that all the time, but you have to choose. You have to choose what side of the resurrection because you have power in the risen and reigning Christ. And so you got to cut off those roots today forever, forever. There's pieces of cement from your previous relationships, decisions that don't allow

the word of God to take root. So it's received with great emotional response, but without depth, you know what that's called? It's called without obedience. We get excited when we hear the word of God, but unless those notes on your notepad transition to the tablets of your heart, it's just, this is without obedience. There's an initial joy, but there's no root system. And when trouble comes, they stumble and fall. Everything we do. I'm going to tell you here. Here's the good. Everything we do here at Union Houston is designed to help you grow deep roots into the heart of Christ Jesus, everything. Number one today, pastor Susan shared it. Meet the team. It's not a program. It's my invitation to you. Okay. If you haven't been, I invite you today. Connect groups. Connect groups. Isn't just a church activity. It's a place. It's a safe place to grow, to pull out the roots, to pull out rocks, to put down deep roots into the word of God. We don't have connect groups that go bowling together. We have connect groups that teach you and explore the word of God. That's what we do here. This is not a community center. This is a place where disciples are made. Now you've been in that place where these things got snatched away and you stumbled

and fell. Can I tell you something today? You came to the right place today because this place is saturated with grace because he graces like a fertilizer to the soil of your heart and you cannot have fruit if you do not have roots. So today you get to decide, you know what? I will accept that grace and let it germinate that seed and I'm going to plant deep roots into the heart of God. See the choking heart. The choking heart is one filled with thorns and sizzles and I want to remind you that it was the curse of sin that brought forth thorns and thistles into the world. After Adam and Eve sinned us, the world filled with competing things with God. Sometimes those things up, take up residence in our own hearts and I want to remind you there was a Garden that that Adam gardened before sin that did not have thorns and sissles and there was a garden after That had thorns and sissles, but we got to remember that we live on this side of the cross The word here is received but strangled by competing loyalties Riches wealth money the cares of the world these create an illusion of power security Let me say that again because we love to say oh, I'm not materialistic some of you crave Security you want to have six months of salary saved up. You need to have 1.5 million dollars for retirement And what you need is Christ Jesus in your heart Some of us want significance If I have the bigger house that have the house in Cinco Ranch, I don't know why y'all want to live out there for the life of me The yuppies in the younger does I want to live in the Heights Good luck. Hope you got an engineering job The None of this is really all bad. It's the deceitfulness of them the problem goals we make

And then we don't achieve them We blame God Come on now we in church or what? Chase success and when it doesn't come to you in your timeline You get frustrated with God The cares of the world the keeping up with the Joneses is she got a minivan. I need a minivan He got a motorcycle. I need a motorcycle. Oh The Lord is working on the new thing in my life Susie Joe Has that why don't I These things don't suddenly attack They slowly crowd your life Now here's the issue Remember, I told you that the soul is fertile, right? Well, if you plant the wrong things in fertile soil, you know what they grow too and they cause Chaos confusion and so we got we we got to remove the weeds And you know what? I had to do when I did my backyard I had to lay down a blackening mat so that no weeds gonna you got to lay down a mat That's called the truth of God over your heart Realigning our hearts with God desires and not your desires It's not that your desires are bad The problem is that the desires are of the world and not of God Lastly there's a tender heart. The tender heart is the goal fertile hearts to get there though Do you know what you need to do? You need to shoo away the birds You need to shoo away the birds that are trying to snatch your seed You need to shoo them away. Shoo away the vultures. I call it You got to soften the calluses in your heart. You know where you have calluses Okay, you know your mom hit you too much with that wooden spoon and you got some calluses Okay, and so now you want a gentle parent and create little turds that run around

Screaming at the restaurant with pastor. I was trying to eat sushi Have some resentments from last night's dinner Unruly kid just yelling in my ear Soften the calluses of our hearts Remove the rocks of your life You don't need that Remove and pull The roots that don't belong Pull out the thorns pull out the thistles and most importantly pull out the weeds Lay down the truth of God so they never grow again So fertile soil can produce a harvest in the tender heart. The word is truly received. This means it's heard It's held on to It's acted upon It's responded to obedience comes forth we join our will with the word and Then the live in the kingdom reality that God has prepared for us That's for you This is not a passive work. This is an active work It's an active alignment of the will with the Word of God, but you must decide here's why Nobody nobody can garden your heart, but you nobody You must decide to disturb the soul you sow it. Now, time out. Listen, spouses, he's not talking for you to prepare the soul on your spouse's heart. You need to determine the soul in your heart. You can't depend on your grandma's praying faith to determine the soul of your heart. This is your responsibility. And what we've done is we've abdicated. Let me take it a step further. It ain't my responsibility to prepare your soul. I'm giving you the tools to garden it in your own soil. Okay? People sometimes think that I got a magic word for them. Look, I got the Word of God. It ain't magic. It's the Word of God. You can get it for yourself. You must

decide. This is what I needed. The decision is ours. God gives us free will in the Garden of Eden. Let me tell you, in Genesis 1, he says he created us in his likeness, in his image. And God had free will, so he gave us that image of free will. But his will is righteous. His will is pure. His will is loving. His will is merciful and graceful. It's holy. It's not of this world. He's not really concerned about how much money you want to save. He's not really... Listen to me. He's not concerned whether you get that promotion or not. He's not concerned whether your business grows. He is not concerned. He is not concerned whatsoever. One bit. How big your family gets. How many cars you got. How big... He is not concerned. He's concerned about you. He's concerned of your soul. And if you align... Watch how this happens. But if you align, if you sow into good soil, if you work on the soil of your heart and you sow the good seed, all those things I just mentioned will just slowly start to come into alignment and be fruitful in your life. See, but why do we use that free will for the wrong things? Because y'all do. We all do. Right? It's exactly what Adam and Eve did. They had everything. The whole garden to tend to. He told them, hey, garden this. It's beautiful. It's got everything. You eat of every tree to enjoy, but please stay off limits of this one tree. And they couldn't. So we have to use our free will to apply the Word of God the way he asked us to. Not the way our politics ask us to. Not the way we think our theology that you got taught in school and you get in arguments about who's Israel and where's Israel and who's got a protection, who's going to get blessed. You don't need to argue with anyone when you know the Word of God and you've been through Galatians 3, 4, Romans 9 through 11. You know who the seed of Abraham is. You know who the chosen people of God is. You know who we have to reach. Because if you try to make a path for a people that don't believe, that don't bow down, that don't praise the name of Jesus, you're falling flat on your feet and don't know the will of God for your life. And so we use our free will. This is how we get sidetracked into these ridiculous conversations, right? Our free will is where our decisions are made, and it's attached to what God says that he gave us in Genesis 1, 26 through 28.

You know what it's called? Dominion. Go and rule. Dominate. But you need to understand why we have dominion, because God has dominion. And so he gave it to us. Dominion means God entrusted us the stewardship of his creation, and that also includes your soul, your own heart, the soil of it, what you sow in it. This is not about how many books you've read. This is not about how well you study the Bible. This is not about how well you take notes. This is about how you'll pay the word into your life. You are applying what you've heard. The power of the word of God, I'm going to tell you something will not cease. It is eternal. It is infallible. It will not be stopped. It will not be choked out. It will not wither. It is everlasting. It is the only thing that is certain in all of the universe. The word of God. What is it? 64,000 interconnections between all these authors across the thousands of years and four different continents. Come on now. It is certain, but we have to decide that it's the power Supreme to anything else in our lives. It must be Supreme. Here's what you need to know. God gave you free will, but he also gave you the word. Those two things together mean you are not. You are without excuse, which brings us to the only thing left. He gave, he gave. You must decide that the power of the word of God is over everything in your life. Not just listen, but respond.

Here's what Jesus prayed all the time. The shame are here. Oh, Israel. The word here in Hebrew means to respond. Oh, people of God respond is what he's saying. Jesus is teaching us the decision to respond and what he is teaching, correcting, establishing, or removing from our lives must be responded to. I want you to think about my backyard for a second. The task would have taken me even longer, maybe even weeks had I not responded to every obstacle. It didn't matter what I needed to get it done quick or by lunchtime. What I needed to do was respond. When I needed a new tool, when I needed more pavers, when I came into an obstacle, I ran back to get what I needed. It didn't matter what came up as long as I responded to what was in front of me. The finished product was seen and some of you are rushing to see the finished product instead of embracing the process and that's making things worse in your life. So I tell you, get rooted, not rushed. Decide today to garden, not run from it. Get rooted. Don't run. You may know, you know what else I realized? Waiting for someone else to do what only I can do is one of the most expensive decision you'll ever make in your life. Because if I would have paid someone else to do what I did, it cost me 10 times more. Now, last point, the gardener made you a gardener. Rooted people know that gardening is our primary goal in our lives. I want it as a spiritual life, but the reality is if you don't have a spiritual life, you don't have a life. God revealed something to me in this test that I studied and it's amazing, but when

we are rooted in the kingdom, gardening of our souls becomes our primary objective. Not just for ourselves, but to the people around us in the West, there is this obsession with getting something for nothing. With getting something for nothing. My right. We getting something for nothing. Me and Fabian and John, we give our, our, our pastor Jeff a hard time. He loves free stuff. He's probably watching. Oh, that's not true. He does free stuff, bro. You know, we get a new t-shirts. Oh, when do I get my package? He jokes, but he really wants a free t-shirt. Yeah, I don't know Jeff like I do. Okay. Okay. But we all sometimes want something for nothing. You know, it's interesting. There's a difference between seeds and weeds. They both grow on fertile ground. You know that a seed produces fruit and a weed produces nothing. It takes the same nutrients. It takes the same things. This is how you can tell whether you have a seed or a weed, because if you're applying what God is telling you, you're producing fruit. But if you got a weed, it's draining from your time. It's draining from your peace. It's draining from your love. It's draining you of your family.

It's draining you of you coming to church. It's draining you of you praying, worshiping, reading the Bible, and it's producing nothing in your life. so pull them out that might be a relationship hey listen I'm sure you get you maybe you came to church together but it might be the one you came with if you're not married I got to deliver it the way it comes y'all so maybe maybe don't get offended man but align today and say like I'm no longer gonna be a weed in your life I'm gonna be a strong man I'm gonna be a kind man I'm gonna be a loving man I'm gonna be a providing man I'm gonna be a protection man I'm gonna be a man's man I'm not gonna be a whip I'm gonna be a praying man I'm gonna be the one that worships all abandoned in the sanctuary you don't need to pray for me I'm gonna pray for us we're gonna pray together we're gonna read the Bible I'm gonna lead this family I've heard a Habs tell me you don't understand my wife is more spiritual she knows more than me boy if you don't a habit if you don't shut your mouth up and grow your pair okay and lead your family like you're supposed to we get obsessed with our our job striving hustling we grind and pass we grind and we we all I'm invested look look look I got more money the oils crashing you were right I invested in the right things I'm making money we win in trying to get ahead and don't get me wrong I like winning especially my sports teams boy the Lakers put it on them Rockets last night whoo I like winning and I like talking noise too when I win I get it we all want something better let's be honest we want something how many of y'all want something better for your families come on man we want better for our kids for our friends for our future for our communities for a church it's beautiful we want to retire I want you to retire too but some of y'all want to retire from the kingdom responsibilities too and that's a problem that's a problem I'm telling you right now all these people right if there's one thing I learned from my father-in-law who worked all his life to 65 he became extremely wealthy independent he had all this retirement died six months after he retired I don't want that y'all want

that start living today and stop forgetting about retirement but here's the reality God ingrained in our DNA of our souls our spirits they need to be workers the very first thing he told Adam he needed to do was to work garden to garden Eden watch this Genesis 2 15 the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it before the fall before sin before the thorns and the sizzles Adam's vocation was gardening not a boardroom not a throne room a card the Hebrew word for work used here is a bot and a bot is the same word for worship it to work is an act of worship right to 10 what God has made is to participate in the creative abad work of God we all have different jobs we have different roles but as followers of Jesus we have all been called to follow him be transformed by him and go and make disciples baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that he taught us this is gardening y'all this is the vocation of gardening this is what I've been trying to tell you that we here at Union Houston our sons and daughters of the Most High God called to garden in the kingdom of God watch this just as God told Adam to garden Eden today Eden lives in our hearts it's the reality of the kingdom of God that we produce when we follow Christ and this is where Jesus drops a bombshell in my study Jesus after he was crucified for our sins he was taken down from the cross after he died and said it is finished he was put into a tomb and three on third day he was risen it wasn't Peter that ran to go look at him it wasn't James or John as a matter of fact it wasn't any man it was Mary Jesus appeared to Mary first after the resurrection thinking he was the gardener where's my first thing you see that Thinking he was the gardener. She said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. Mary stood outside of a tomb. Watch this. Her heart was hardened by pain, choked by grief. She could not resurrect, recognize the resurrected Christ because of the condition of her heart was in the way she thought he was a gardener, but I came here to tell you that the Lord told me, well, she wasn't wrong about what she saw.

She was just wrong about which gardener she was talking about. You see, Jesus is the gardener of our soul. He was the gardener walking through eaten in the cool of the day. He is the garden gardener standing at the empty tomb at the dawn of a new creation. And he is the gardener that is still walking in this place, tending our hearts, cultivating our soil, pulling up the thorns, softening our hardened places in our hearts so that we may recognize them in our lives. Then Jesus said one word to her, Mary. And she turned to him and said, Ravoni, my teacher, my master, this is exactly what Jesus is doing today in this place. He stands here resurrected and reigning in power. But he's calling you by name and he's asking you to turn to him and say, Lord, you are my master. How would you have me garden today in Genesis chapter 15, 11, Abraham set up a sacrifice to God and he had a drive. Away the vultures from the sacrificial animals he lied, laid out while waiting on God. See, a lot of us have laid out a sacrifice of serving on Sunday, of leading connect groups, on leading your teams, on leading and worship, on leading other disciples. And can I tell you that sacrifice is not going unnoticed and your job is to wait on what God is. But, but, but just like Abraham, it means that we have to guard the seed as it lays there on the heart and hearts. Those of us that have gone further down the path, the reason you get frustrated, you get trapped in the same spiritual cycles is because you know the word. Those of us that are growing in Christ, you're called to be vigilant. You're called to drive away the purge of prey that come to eat the seed of God is sowing in the heart and hearts. Every Sunday, every connect group at every session you have, our vocation is to help pull up the thorns and the thistles in each other's lives. Listen, to speak truth to where there is shame, to pull away the lies about people's identities. The lies about sin, the lies about the future you created in your mind and to replace them with the word of God. That's that's our role. This is if you're not actively participating in pulling thorns and thistles and rocks and uprooting wrong thinking, you're not gardening. I sit with people all the time and almost always the frustrations they carry are worldly frustrations. Let me say money, marriage, anxiety, depression. A choking heart rarely sees the suffering, the loss, the broken because it's drowning in a world full of their own thorns and thistles. And it's our job to pull those lies out and replace them with the truth of God. Our role as a church is to garden the kingdom of God, that that's our role and that looks like making disciples. We make disciples and making disciples begins with a relationship. You know, Jesus says, come follow me. He invited them into a relationship and I will make you.

That took a long time that there's a process for that. And before you leave today, can I tell you, I don't want you to rush away. Don't don't look lunch will be there. And chicken wings will be there, trust me. OK, don't rush. Don't rush like I did my project. Slow down, meet someone new, even if you have to do it like Chloe does, Chloe walks up to people, what's your name? If she does that to you, she's not mad, she really wants to know who you are, she's interested in getting to know, she wants to be your friend, she's just, her social skills are a little from the hood, you know what I'm saying, what's your name, you know? Invite someone to coffee, okay, it's ten bucks, I don't got ten bucks, we'll give you a Starbucks card, how's that? Invite someone to coffee, get their number, invite them to meet the team, be like, hey, have you been to meet the team, I'm gonna go sit with you. Invite them to your connect group, be like, hey, come be a part of my group, to be a part of my group, sit with them, that's it, that's the word, that's the word. Matthew 4, 19, he says, come follow me and I will make you into fishers of people. He gave us the end in mind, fishers of people, did you see that? That's the goal, but he said he will make you, there's a process and it all hangs on having a rooted relationship. I believe this is what this parable is calling us to something higher today, just as God gave us a job in the garden, gave Adam a job, the garden is still at work in us. The gardener who rose from the dead, the gardener who called Mary by name, the gardener who is calling you by name today is calling us higher, I leave you with a question, how would you have him garden your life today? Would you stand with me? We got prayer partners up at the front, they're here to pray for you if you have any prayer needs, if you've heard from God.