Rooted

My name is Kati and I'm so glad that you decided to tune in with us today. If you ever find yourself in the central Florida area, come visit us! We want to see you face to face, but until then feel free to visit our website, freelifechapel.org to find out more about what's happening at your church. There's an amazing message in store just for you. I hope you're encouraged. This past week I was in Montana, I don't know if anybody is from Montana, Bend to Montana, especially the northwest corner of Montana, where the Rocky Mountains are rocky. I grew up in Virginia, so I grew up around mountains, I ain't seen mountains like this. Like God was showing off a little bit out in Montana, all right? These mountains, when you go up these mountains, they're not 45 degree, they're 60 degree. The climb is so crazy steep. I had never envisioned doing that, but now that I'm here, what do you do? You follow the guide up the mountain. I had on a backpack loaded with my rain gear, other clothes, food, water. I had on a binocular harness and some other equipment and gear there. I had my bow thrown across my shoulder, and we started walking on one morning, we left the vehicle, left the truck at 5.30 in the morning to start the ascent, and we reached our destination at 10.18 that morning. It was so straight uphill in the dark, not a trail, not a path. We had a GPS marker that we wanted to go to, and so we're making our way up the mountain through woods, past, we're literally having to grab trees and pull ourself up to ascend the mountain. It was, how do I see this? Nuts? Like what in the world are we doing? Once we got there, it was amazing, but it was crazy. And then we had to go around the edge, the lip of this canyon. It was 600 yards around it. And the only way to get from this part of the canyon to that part of the canyon is you're

literally holding tree limbs and swinging out to get to the other side, coming around the lip and the edge, and my guide told me, he said, "Really, this isn't a dangerous canyon because it's only 400 feet down." It's not as bad as I like, "I don't plan on going to heaven today. That's not the goal, right?" If one of those branches had let loose, if one of those trees had said, "You know what? You're too heavy." Boom. I'm out. I'll see you some other time. I put so much dependence on those trees holding me that it got a little bit sketchy. What was it that was holding the trees? It wasn't the part that you could see, it was the part you couldn't see. It was the roots. The roots are what made the tree hold. It was the root system that was so deep and broad that no matter what pulling I did or what storm blew in on the mountains, the trees stood because they had a root system that was actually holding them. You know what roots are about. You have a family tree. You've got roots in your family tree. Now, if you're like me, you're like, "Yeah, there's a few branches we need to cut off our family tree." Because there's some crazy branches out there, and some of you all are the crazy branches on your family tree. You understand that? It's okay. I've got some knots in my family tree, and we like to cut those things out, but we can't because it happens to be me, and so I get all that. But there's a root system.

In other words, you didn't get where you are today without somebody else paying a price before you got there. You have family. You have grandparents. You have moms and dads, aunts and uncles that went ahead of us and provided to bring your family to the level where you are, and it's not just looking backwards, but we also understand, and now it's our responsibility, according to God's Word, to think about the next generations coming after us. I don't make this life all about me. I'm considering who's coming after me. Now my grandkids, and the kids after that, I want to keep planning for and lifting the next generation as well. We all have roots in our family, and they matter. I want you to know that there's another tree that has roots, and it's God's family tree. God has a family tree that has a root system to it as well, and that tree, if I could just go here, it's made up of both Jews and Christians, bear with me, I want to show you something here, and that the roots of that tree are Jewish roots, not Christian roots. Today I want to take you a 30,000 foot view and look over the landscape of what the Bible says about who you and I are as Christians. And what does that mean? What's the purpose? What should be our takeaway? you can't appreciate where you are or where you're going. It gives you context for now what? Why am I sucking air? Why do I have a pulse? What's God's plan for my life? What's His purpose in my life right now? And we glean all of that from this picture. The roots of Christian faith are Jewish.

It's important to look at this. Isaiah chapter 49 verse six, it says this. She's speaking to the Jewish people, "I will make you a light to the Gentiles, "and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." God literally told Israel, I have a purpose for you in the economy of what I'm gonna do in the world. And here's what it is, I want you to take my word, my truth, and I want you to take salvation and I want you to give it to the world. In other words, Israel is the vehicle that God chose to deliver all that you and I hold dear in our faith. It came through the vehicle of Judaism. Do you understand that your Bible is a Jewish Bible? - It's right. - Oh, yes it is. Not one Baptist writer in it. - All right. - No Episcopalians, no Catholics. It's all written by Jews, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were not from California. No, they were not, they were over in the middle, you understand, like these are our root system. The covenants that you and I love, the covenant of salvation, if you claim to be a Christ follower and you've been saved, that's a Jewish covenant that was given to Abraham. If your life has changed, you don't live

the way you used to. You're taking steps higher, God is working on you and doing some cleansing in your life. That's called sanctification, that's the Mosaic covenant. I can take and show you back in Exodus. It didn't all start in the second half of the book. No, God started this in the beginning of the book. So the covenants are there as well. The promises, the promises to bless us and to advance our life, to protect us, to be with us and never forsake us. All of those promises are coming out of the roots of our faith. And so we can hold onto those and we live by those and we profess and claim those and celebrate them. And we should, but we need to understand where they started. Things like tithing, communion, baptism. Today we've got 218 people pre-register for baptism. 218 people, that's next level. Baptism is not a Christian idea, it's a Jewish idea. This may going on since the beginning, fasting, worship, church, it's in a discipleship. All of these are Jewish ideas that we stand on it, not any of it being Christian. Christians have continued with it, but it started in those roots. And Paul, the writer of two thirds of the New Testament, gives us an illustrated message, a picture of what this looks like and why it should matter to all of us,

basically reminding Christians where their faith came from. So let me give you a little bit of a context to this story. Sometimes we read books of the Bible and don't really understand what they mean and think they're just a bunch of disjointed books, but when you understand the context for when the book was written, who was written to, what it was written for, the problem that it was addressing, then it gives you some, oh, okay, I see that. This book of Romans, Paul wrote this book of Romans and Paul was addressing a specific issue. So check this, Jesus lives, died, buried, resurrected, goes to heaven, oh, okay, there he is, right? So now he's in heaven. And then after that is the day of Pentecost and now Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of believers. Well, the first believers were Jewish believers. Very first Christians were Jewish. Well, these Jews who said yes to Jesus, they saw Jesus as the Messiah. They gave him their lives. Now many of them are living in Rome. Check this, check this. They're living in Rome and they're still preaching this good news of Jesus that he loves everybody and he's faithful and he's good and you can have a right standing with God and everyone is beginning to buy into the message, not just other Jews, but non-Jews.

And these non-Jews who were involved in all kinds of paganism, they were involved in all kinds of outer worship and crazy stuff. Kind of like 2025. And they were involved in some crazy stuff. They begin to leave that lifestyle and step into and they were going to synagogue and they're hearing the Jews talk about Jesus in the context of their Jewish scriptures and they're basing their life on it and they're serving Jesus in this context and it was Jew and Gentile together. It's like free life chapel, red, yellow, black and white, air by oppression in the site. We all grow in together in this because Jesus was the unifying banner over different people, but they came together under the name of Jesus. Beautiful picture going on in Rome. I'm concerned for what it's going to do to Rome and he kicked all the Jews out of Rome. Well all the Jews had to go back, they had to leave Rome, go to Israel. When they're going back, there was this vacuum, this emptiness that's in the synagogue, so all of the non-Jewish worshipers that love Jesus, they stepped in and they took over all of those leadership positions inside of that church that was once Jewish believers, now they're going, now Gentiles, non-Jews are there. Here's the challenge, the guys who took over those roles were still coming out of their pagan mindset, had a little bit of idol worship still going on, breaking that out, so they start teaching some of the stuff that they learned from the Jewish worshipers of Jesus, but they also started bringing some of that paganism with them and now they got this mixed message of this and that

and it was sloppy, it wasn't pure anymore, so this is what's now growing in Rome. A new emperor comes in seven years later and let's all the Jews back into Rome, the Jews come in, we're back, we're back, we're going back to Cali, they come back in and now here they are in Rome and when they come back, the Gentile leaders in that church, they were not happy. I have had this position for six years and you think you can just come back up in here and take my position, don't you know I got a title, they call me bishop, they call me apostle, they come and they love and now they're afraid they're going to lose their position and their clout, so they started opposing and pushing against the Jews and wouldn't let them back in and we got a clash, we got in this corner wing two hundred and thirty, like it is on, it's a fight and Paul steps in, this is why the book of Romans was written, he said y'all are whack, whack a doodle do, y'all are a mess right now, pride and arrogance and infighting and and in jockeying for position and title and I don't like them and they don't like me, all this bunch of junk going on and Paul writes to level the playing field for everybody, this is the context of Romans being written, this is what he's addressing and so the church that was there in Rome, they took on the mindset that God was finished with the Jews, now all the promises that God made of the Jews belonged to us, to the church, to the non-Jews, they God threw them away, many of the Jews didn't accept Jesus as Messiah, so they out, we in, the whole book is ours, all the promises are ours, that was the mindset and Paul comes in in Romans chapter 11 verse 1 and here's what he writes, check this, he goes to the heart, that Paul was not trying to win friends and influence people, he just spoke the truth and here's what he said, I asked then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Read this, of course not, that's Greek for kiss my grits, has God phoned them away? Is he done with them? And he says of course not, even though Israel has rejected Jesus as the Messiah in big part, it doesn't mean that God has rejected them, why? Because God made an eternal promise to them, that I will love you and I will be with you and I will pursue you and the promises are solid and they're good and when God makes a promise he doesn't break it. Jeremiah 31, God says I will never abandon that my people or my nation Israel, Israel to this day is still in God's plan and because they rejected Jesus, the Bible begins to tell us I'm going to show you this where God says then I'm not going to open up and I'll make room for non-Jews to also know who I am and join the family tree and it's in this concept where Paul begins to write and he uses an illustrated message and I want to show you today how this lays out because Paul starts talking about this olive tree and he says the first thing you

didn't understand is every olive tree has roots and the root system of that olive tree are the covenants that God gave Israel. What is a covenant? Covenant is a promise that God made to Israel based on God's faithfulness, not the people's faithfulness. God said I'm going to make these, so the salvation covenant that he made with Abraham. All of that is a part of the root system, the mosaic, all the covenants that you and I celebrate, saved, sanctified, holy spirit, that spirit led life, the Davidic covenant with the authority that God gives us to live our lives strong. All of that is in the root system. The Bible says that all of those things come from the Jewish people. Jesus said in John chapter 4, salvation is of the Jews. So we're drawing from those roots and that's what stabilizes the entire tree. But when you go from the roots up to the trunk, now the trunk is Jesus. You go from the roots to the tree. This was When you go from the roots to the trunk, now this is where things begin to change because those roots are pouring into the trunk and this trunk being Jesus, that's where the sap flows, that gives life to the tree. When that sap comes up that tree, then whatever that is connected to that tree, that sap goes to and it feeds the branches, it feeds the leaves, it begins to produce fruit because of what's flowing through it. This trunk, if you were gonna have her to look at that trunk, it's not just, it's the spirit life, but it's also the Word of God. All of that that comes through Christ. When you're connected to Christ, you've got greater things flowing in you as Caleb was talking about earlier, that you can do better than what you think you can. Why? It's not because of what's going on outside of you,

but what's going on inside of you. When you're connected to Christ, you have a hope that is strong. You have a peace that gets you through. You should have lost your mind a long time ago with some of the stuff you've been through, but you're still here right now. And most of us in our right mind are still here, but I'm just saying that you've come through some things that should have canceled you out, but you're still here and you can't take any credit for it. It had to be Jesus that was working in you and through you and pouring his life into you. And that's why you're still here right now. That's what the Word is telling us. God says, I know who they are and I'm not gonna abandon them. I wanna live, do things in them that's gonna feed their life. And it's whoever is connected to the tree, which leads us then to the branches of the tree. And the branches of the tree are all those who have put their faith in Jesus. Those who've said yes to Jesus, those who were getting baptized today are going public with their faith in saying, I said yes to Jesus, I am connected to the tree. I'm a branch on God's family tree, and I'm being fed by the promises, by the hope that comes through him because of Jesus, the truth of God's Word, from the covenants, the original promises God made, it's all flowing up

to feed me in my life. These are the branches and how the whole tree comes together. But Paul says something really interesting. He says this, he said, but I need all the non-Jews to understand who you are. Paul said, y'all weren't even in the orchard. Y'all, he calls us a wild branch. Some of y'all a little bit more wild than others, but he calls us a wild branch. And this branch, that looks dead, because if you're not connected to Christ, you're dead. There's nothing feeding your life. Oh, you can throw a filter on it and Instagram it with a smile, but it don't mean it's still alive, do you understand? Now we are really good at blowing stuff up and making, man, maybe my best life, yeah, but if you're not connected to Christ, there's no life flowing in and through you. And the Bible says, Paul says in Romans 11 that you were a wild branch and God stepped out of what was good, stepped into what was dead, broke off a wild branch and brought it back in and said, I'm gonna put you in my tree and grafted us into the tree, put a cut in the tree and grafted the dead branch into the tree and when the dead branch got connected to the tree, you and me, dead in our life, got connected to the life of Jesus that is being fed by the roots of the patriarchs

of our faith, the sap, the life, the word, the hope of Jesus flowing up, touched our life. I got connected and I went from just being a dead branch to being a live branch. And now I'm connected and I'm a part of the tree and I'm producing it in my life too. This is what Paul is saying, like, it's crazy, y'all. Like, you don't, I don't even belong on the tree. I am not the tree. The church is not the tree. We're just a branch hanging on the tree. You and I have no room to brag, to boast, to think we're all that. No, God hasn't changed his plan. Israel is still his plan. We're just a branch connected. I'm just glad to be hanging on the trees what I'm trying to tell you right now. I'm so glad that I got connected from there to there and now there's something being produced in my life. He also goes on to say that because of some of the Jews' disbelief, they were broken off and laid down beside the tree because of disbelief. Well, that sounds cruel. I thought, I thought God was faithful. Oh, he is, because Paul goes on to write in this chapter. You have to read him and get home. He goes on to write, he goes, but when he broke them off, he made room for the non-Jews to be grafted in. He says, if they're rigid,

How much greater is it going to be when God picks them back up and regrafts them back into the tree again? Hang on there. Don't mess up my message. You understand? He said, "This is what's going to happen. That there'll be a regrafting." And he says, "In the end," check this, Romans 11, "all of Israel will be saved." God's working a plan. We can get so stuck on looking immediate right here right now that we don't see beyond what he's doing in the next season. And if we're not careful, we will make this all so much about us, my feelings, what I like, what I don't like, what I want, what I don't want. We become so childish and immature in making sure that I'm comfortable with what God's Word says, that I begin to change God's Word to fit my comfort instead of me growing into the tree and letting his Word, his love, his promises feed me and bring out of me what he wants. You see, here's the thing. Once the branch is connected, you know that it's really connected because then the branches start to produce fruit. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen an apple tree eat an apple? Have you ever seen a peach tree eat a peach? Let me help you, no. Do you know why? Because the tree doesn't produce fruit for itself. The fruit is always produced to feed somebody else. So we have the roots that are coming up into the trunk of Jesus, the revelation of Jesus, the roots were all pointed to Jesus, Jesus becomes that stalk with the life-giving Word, the hope, the promises coming out of all that, that whoever's plugged into him, that life

hits them, brings them fully alive, but not only fully alive and strong, standing through every storm. Now we're producing fruit that wherever we go, we bring that hope, that joy, that strength. I addressed this last week when I talked about the difficulties in our nation going on all this week right now as well. And we need to stand with hope and strength with all those around us in our workplace, in the school, with our family, with our friends that I love you and I'm here to help you. And the promise that Jesus gave me is the one that I can assure you that he's good and he's by your side and he can bring a peace. That's what the fruit of our life is, the fruit of the spirit. We're not here to just produce for ourselves. I'm here to live my life for somebody else. It's not about me. Get over you. I've got to get over me. We've got to get our eyes and our mind back on Jesus and what his plan is for our life. And that's what the fruit is all about. That's just how we live our lives out loud moving towards him. And so here's the bottom line, I'm going to wrap it with this. What's the message about our root system? Where do we get? What message do we take away knowing that Paul is addressing this and putting the church in order and reminding him, do not be arrogant. Do not think this is all about you, that God's still working with his people. I want to give you three things. Number one, I would just say this. This is a message of grace. Romans chapter 11 verse 11, listen to what Paul said, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery, read this with me, not at all. Did Israel screw up so bad that God said you're out of here?

He said not at all. Now then why are we bringing this up? Because there is a mantra, there is a message all over social media today that is trying to tell you that God is finished with Israel and the nation of Israel is not who they used to be in the Bible. And I'm sorry Mr. Carlson and I'm sorry Mrs. Owens. Y'all are as messed up as a three dollar bill. That's not what the Bible says. You might be a podcaster, it doesn't make you a theologian and you need to understand what God's word says and write and divide the word of truth. That's why you need to know and believe that God is staying faithful to Israel. Do you know why? Because watch this. God made an eternal promise to Abraham when he was birthing the nation of Israel. He said this, I will bless you, I'll make your name great, I'll make your people great. I bless those who bless you, I'll curse those who curse you and through you all the families of the world will be blessed. This is the promise God makes to Israel. Watch this. That means if God has broken and decided that Israel is no more than that means if God is a covenant breaker and he's not true to Israel then you have no right to even believe you're going to be okay either. If God would lie to Israel, he would lie to you. If God's not faithful to Israel, he's not going to be faithful to you have nothing to build. You can't put your weight on it. It's the chair that you're not sure is going to hold you or not. That means when we see God stand with Israel, it should bring a heart. He does not change. And can I remind you, this is why Israel has had enemies from the very beginning of time.

When they were in Egypt, Pharaoh tried to kill him, Pharaoh drowned, but Israel still lives. You have the Assyrians and the Babylonian Empire that tried to destroy Israel. Israel came out after decades, and they're still here, but the Babylonians and the Assyrians are gone. The Spanish inquisitions and the crusades all gone, they tried to destroy Israel. Israel still stands today. What about the Greek and the Roman Empire that tried to oppress them and destroy them? Israel still stands today. There was a holocaust that took place in the 40s, and 6 million Jews were killed, exterminated by Hitler. But Israel still stands today, and Hitler is gone in the dust bend of time. Why is that? It's not because Israel is that great, it's not because they're high in mighty, it's because God is faithful to his word, and if God makes a promise, he knows how to keep a promise. And if he did it for Israel, he'll do it for you. This is the assurance, this is the picture that Paul is giving us. Don't throw them away and realize that it's a message that will encourage your faith and lift your heart in difficult times, not because you got it all together, but grace, grace, 1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 22 says this, "The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name." I want you to understand what we're seeing today. God says in the book of Jeremiah that I'm going to bring Israel back, I'm going to bless Israel, I'm going to clean her up, restore her, I want to make her righteous, and the only reason I'm doing it is for my name's sake, they don't deserve it. Well, then why would he do it? Because he made a promise. And he says they've acted a fool and they've messed up, just like all of us. Has anybody ever had a bad weekend? You're claiming Jesus, but you had a bad weekend.

You screwed this thing up bad, and you're embarrassed, like man, I'm sure lightning bolt, go to church on Sunday, lightning bolt is going to strike me right now. We've all been to that, and I want you to understand, it's not based on how faithful you are to God, it's how faithful God is to you. That's why the Bible says where sin does abound, grace does that much more abound. You can't out-sin God's grace. Well, as long as you're coming after him, there's always going to be more forgiveness than there is failure. He's always going to be for you. And we take joy from that, but I want you to understand why we're facing this today from social media people, and in the news, and around the world, conspiracy theories trying to damage and to delegitimize Israel, because if we can get God's word, God's promises separated from Israel, then you don't just hurt the nation of Israel, but you destroy the Word of God. Because if God is not true to His Word, then all of it is a lie. And here's the challenge with that. God's Word is what's opposing and pushing back on evil in our culture today. It is an authority and a standard of truth, will the people want to buy into it or not? It is the ultimate truth that is guiding and leading and holding the wheels on this vehicle today. And if you can break this word, then you can nullify God. You can nullify His covenants. And now the church has nothing to stand on. That's why God's never going to let Israel go. That's why He's never going to let you go. Never going to let me go, because it's His name that's on the reputation. It's His name that's on the line. I'm not saying we worship Israel. No, we don't worship Israel. I don't worship America.

I love America. I'm grateful for our country, but we can still question our leaders. I love Israel, but I don't worship Israel. We can still question the leadership and the decisions that they make. That's okay. But what I am saying is we honor the root system that God is here. And I'm not confused. Watch this. Judaism can explain its existence without Christians. Christians cannot explain her existence without Judaism. Don't forget the roots of your faith. That speaks to all of our hearts. And we have to live our lives by that because it's by grace. The Bible says in Romans 11, 26, "All Israel will be saved." In other words, God is welcoming the whole family together. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just so grateful for His grace. I don't deserve what I have. You don't deserve what you have. Anybody glad for what you did not get caught doing? There you go. There you go. Pastor George leads our prison ministry, all my folks here are brothers right there. We all together. Listen, there's a reason why you didn't get the promotion. Because God knew the promotion would have destroyed you. Who would you connect with? What would you be responsible of doing? It could have destroyed your family. No, the fact you didn't get the promotion was a blessing. Thank God for who walked away from you who did not stay in your life.

You cried over. You were upset. You blamed God. But God said it's for you good. I see a little bit higher. I see a little bit further. I'm working all things together for you good. Ladies and gentlemen, we weren't even on the tree. We were this wild dying out here, we were a shrub. I wasn't even a tree lamp, I was a shrub. And he brought us in and connected us to his promises, connected us to his covenants. And when you're connected to that, that means every promise he made to Israel, it belongs to you too. So I stand with the hope and the life that God pours into Israel. I live with that joy and that hope as well. I've not replaced Israel, but I get to partake of what God promised them. So I thank God for Israel and I pray for Israel. And I ask God to do what only he can do because he still calls him the apple of his eye. Mess with Israel, you poke God in the eye, you'll get his attention. I'll bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you. I believe with all my heart, America is blessed today. The greatest blessed nation in the world because we have kept Israel as an ally. And if that's not political, that's biblical,

that's Genesis chapter two, verse three, we're believing the word and we're living it and God has been true to his word. We need to understand the root system of our faith and what it means to us today. After the grace that we walk in, the second thing we take away from this tree is now I live grateful. You know, am I just grateful for God's activity in your life, for where you're not, where you used to be and where you are right now? I mean, think about that. Think about where you could be, where you should be, where we were. Gratitude is so crazy important. You know why? When you and I live grateful, I don't have time to judge anybody else. Gratitude is proof that you recognize how much of your life is God and how much of your life is not you. Everything I have is, I've been a recipient. I've done, God has been good to me. And when I'm living with extreme, watch this, when I'm living with extreme gratitude, I don't have time to point fingers and judge and hate, even if the hate comes at me on social media. I'm able to see beyond it. And I recognize that the people that are complaining are image bearers of Jesus.

His image and his plan is on them as well. And so I have the ability to love my neighbors and those who persecute, those who wanna speak out, because I'm living in such gratitude. I'm not here throwing elbows. You see, here's what happens. When we stop living with gratitude, we start comparing ourselves to others instead of Jesus. And so what I do now is I'm competing with you. That's why I start to judge you. Whenever I start competing, well, at least I can live better than you and I give myself an elevation. That's called religion, ladies and gentlemen. We're not in competition with each other. Our goal is to look more like Jesus, not compete with each other. So if I keep my eyes on him, I live grateful every day and knowing that if God before me, who can be against me? I don't deserve the life that I have. I'm saved, I'm going to heaven. Like I was totally jacked up. Now I'm just a little bit jacked up, but I'm getting better all the time. Life is good when I live in gratitude. And the final piece is this. I live by grace because I don't even be a long desert to be on the tree. He left in 99 to go find the one.

I'm now just grateful to be here. I'm not trying to take over the tree. I'm just glad that I'm hanging right here. And I want him to produce fruit in my life. And that's where the third part is. We now have purpose. There's a purpose that we have according to God's word and it is this, he says that I will use your life to make others jealous towards me. In other words, they're going to see who I am in you. And they're going to say, I don't know what you're smoking, but I need some. (congregation laughing) I don't know what that, what's that's all about, but that joy and that strength that you have. I know you a little bit crazy 'cause I'm around you, but you got something I don't have. And I'm a trick. And here's how Jesus put it in Matthew chapter five, that others will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The fruit coming off of our life, that love, that joy, that peace, that hope, that strength. And we invade culture with it. We invade social media with it. We smile, we respond in a way that pleases God. And then we attract others to that same hope that is in us. This is the picture, this is the message of the tree that you and I are to have take away Romans chapter 11. We've not replaced Israel, we've been grafted in.

God's been faithful to her, he's gonna be faithful to us. Why? Not based on how good they are, they don't have to deserve it. God decided this is on my faithfulness, not theirs. And Scott, it's not based on your faithfulness, it's on mine to you as well. So you're grafted in every promise I made to Israel, you've got a right to it. Every covenant, it is yours. Enjoying on the tree, but I need you to hang and long enough to produce some fruit, Scott. I wanna feed others through. muck. It's going to go crazy and people aren't going to understand, but keep the fruit coming and feeding them with it. And if you'll do that, then you're living on the purpose that I have for you that your walk and your talk are aligned with me. And I get glory for your life. Would you stand to your feet, please? I was flying back from Missoula. I had to go through Chicago, Chicago to Orlando on Friday night and landed in Chicago, taken off from there. And I was sitting at my seat and this sweet little Asian lady was sitting on the seat beside me. So I got up and let her be seated and I sat back down. And the seat on the aisle across from me, an Asian man, was there and I start to recognize that they're together. And so I got his attention. I said, "Would you like to sit here next to your wife?" "Please, please. That'd be great." I said, "Cool." So people have done that for Cindy and I. And so I got up and I moved over. And they're like, "Thank you so much." I said, "No problem. Buy me a drink." He used to go, "No, no, no, no, no. I did not. No, no. My drinks come free. It's all good. It's all good." And so they were so sweet. They thanked me two or three times a night. It was so sweet. So I sit down and I'm the kind of guy that if I'm going to sit beside you in the airplane, I can't just sit beside you and act like you're not there. I gotta at least say hello. I mean, I don't want to hold a conversation all night. I'm not that guy. But while I'm sitting down and getting my stuff arranged, "Hey, how you doing? Good. Good. Going home. Going away. What's that look like? Oh, cool, cool." And you know, I'm buckling in and getting my laptop out and

everything else. It was a young lady that was sitting next to me. And so just small talk to kind of break the ice, kind of buckle down and boom, we take off. As soon as we take off, man, I got my laptop out, earbuds in, and I'm working. And all of a sudden, man starts to run through me, pray for her, pray for her, pray for her. And I'm like, "When? Why? Why now? Pray for her, pray for her." So I said, "While I'm working, God, whatever this lady is going through, just touch her and help her and strengthen her and just be by her side. I didn't, I'm just praying the best way I knew how. I mean, it was all night, all night, all night." And then we're getting ready to land the announcing ding, ding, ding, put everything away. We're getting ready to come in. Okay, great. And then Holy Spirit shifted. I said, "Talk to her, talk to her." No, God, we'll just stay with pray for her. Like, I think I've ever felt that inside and you're like, "Would you leave me alone right now?" Because I'm trying to, like, this is what, I'm gonna be weird. I don't wear you the weird guy on the plane. Like, "Oh my God, this guy." And like, seriously, like, talk to her. Like, but I knew that voice. I knew that voice. And there was no way I was getting off this plane and going home with him telling me to do something and I disobeyed because it would have haunted me. So the plane is coming in and she's watching a movie on her phone. She got her earbuds in. I'm like, "See, Lord, it's not a good time." You know, she's in a movie. I hate to disrupt that. Long story short, we're about to land and man, my heart's starting to beat out on my chest like, "You gotta go. We gotta go. We gotta go." And I said, "Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm sorry." "Oh, yeah." So she's turning her phone off and taking her earbuds out. I'm like, "Oh my God, I'm stopping all this stuff." I said, "Listen, I just want you. I'm a Christ follower." And I said, "I just want you to know that while I've been doing work tonight, God's really laid on my heart, be praying for you tonight and the whole flat I've been praying for you. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what the difficulty is." She went, "Now what? Now what? Help me?" She loses it. Loses it. Ugly face. I mean, just and now I'm like, put the tears back in. We're getting ready to land. And she looked over, she called her breath and she said, "My best friend just died unexpectedly and I'm flying to her land to meet with my two girlfriends so we can just get through this together for a few days." She was, she was a wreck. And I just began to tell her, I said, "Listen, I don't know if you have a relationship with Jesus or not, but I want you to know something. He loves you supremely and he didn't tell me to pray for you for my good. He did it because he loves

you. And so I just want you to know that he's there and available. And if you'll talk to him, he'll bring a peace, he'll help heal your heart. He'll walk you through this season. That's horrible. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. But my wife and I will be praying for you." Oh yeah, I'm mentioning the wife for sure because I'm like, "Okay, this weird guy would, no, no, no, my wife and I and our church will be praying for you. Her name is Maureen." By the way, And then, so she's like, you never know what this means. Thank you so much. I'm not believing you're saying this. You don't understand. Oh my God. (screaming) So here she goes again, facing the window, trying to get it together. And then we get off the plane and we're walking out and she waited on me. She said, listen, seriously, thank you so much. You just don't know what to do. So she goes in the ladies' bathroom. I'm like, okay, let's just go in, right? Let's get on the other room. I'm just saying that there's times that the fruit in your life, God wants to use it to feed others that are so hungry and they're desperate and they're lost and they're hopeless. I didn't do anything crazy. I just expressed concern that we'd be praying for her and it touched her heart in a way that I don't know how God's gonna continue to use that over the next several days, weeks and months in her life. I had a feeling, I had a feeling

that I was gonna start a conversation that he was gonna continue through somebody else. And I was excited to watch that happen. All I'm saying is this, being open to letting God use our life is what, that's what the goal is behind all this. God has a plan for your life. Paul gives us a picture of the tree. We're grafted in. Everyone say grace. Everyone say gratitude. Everyone say purpose. Grace, gratitude and purpose is what we take away and that's how we live our lives as believers. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that challenges us and leads us and gives us a picture as to what your plan is for our life. We can so screw this up and make it about us. But today God, we wanna keep your agenda in order. We wanna keep your purpose in our mind. And I'm asking you today God to continue to guide and lead us and thank you that your word shows us the proper perspective that we're to have regarding our place and our position in you. Jesus, thank you that we have been grafted in that we are a part of the family tree of God. But Lord, I thank you that you're continuing your work through Israel because it shows us your faithfulness to them and it proves your faithfulness to us.

God, we do pray that you continue to bless the nation of Israel, guide and lead her and reveal yourself to her, I pray Jesus, expose your heart to them that God, they will turn their hearts towards you. But Lord, I pray for us here at Free Life that we would continue to live as one of those branches producing healthy fruit that we can share with everybody around us, the hope, love, life, joy, forgiveness that others can have because if you did it for us you can do it for them. Today we push back on all the rhetoric that's trying to delegitimize your word. We stand strong on what we know based on your truth and we thank you that your promises are yes and amen. If you said it, you will do it. So we thank you for that today. We bless you and honor you. And God, collectively we pray for Marine today that whatever it is that she's going through today and whatever conversation she happening, I pray God that you would get her attention, speak to her heart, heal her, draw her. And Lord, use that one conversation and these prayers to continue your work inside of her. We thank you for it today in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. If you love Jesus, would you put those hands together today? - I told you the message, but encourage you. For more encouraging messages, feel free to visit our website, relaxchapel.org.

Until then, I hope you have an amazing day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)