"Roots" - Pt.3

Hi, this is John O'Danting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

All right, so we've been um talking through what does it mean to develop a deep spiritual root system.

Two weeks ago, we uh we talked through how having deep spiritual roots is giving care and attention to the hidden and to the unseen things in our life.

And in particular, just being aware that even if you can't see on the outside what you're what you're believing God for, that God's still at work.

God's still at work in your life, even if you can't see it with your natural eyes, it just might be beneath the surface, helping you develop stronger roots.

And we said that uh a fact about tree roots, that most tree roots are located in the top six to twenty four inches of the soil, and they occupy an area two to four times the diameter of the crown or the canopy of the tree.

And so we asked the question: do you spend two to four times the amount of things on the stuff in your life that nobody sees?

The hidden, personal character, integrity development, the things that nobody can see.

Do you spend two to four times developing those things as opposed to the things that people can see in our life?

And are you allowing time for God to develop the hidden?

Last week we talked about how having deep spiritual roots is doing what's in front of you and doing it well.

We talked about stewardship in the context of trusting God.

We talked about trusting God in the context of every part of our life, and then specifically we leaned in and I gave you all homework last week.

Go home.

If you're married, talk to your spouse.

If you're single, grab a group of friends and simply discuss how do I trust God with my money.

And six months in, we had a bit of a money talk last week because it's an important area.

If our marriages are imploding because of financial things or sexual things, then as Jesus' church, we need to talk about money and sex.

Um we'll talk about sex some other time.

Not today.

Oh, I know you're disappointed, but some other time.

Psalm chapter 1, verse 1 to 3, it says, What delight comes to the one who follows God's ways?

Psalms 1:1–3

He won't walk and step with the wicked, nor share the sinner's way, nor be found sitting in the scorner's seat.

However, his pleasure or her pleasure and her passion is remaining true to the word of I Am, meditating day and night in the true revelation of light.

They will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God's design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of their life.

They are never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.

I don't know about you, but I want to stand firm in my life like a flourishing tree, bearing fruit in every season.

And I hope you feel the same way.

I hope that despite the season that you're in, even if it's a dry season or a difficult season or a frustrating season or a disappointing season, if our root system goes deep and if it's healthy and strong, God says you can flourish today, despite what's going on around you.

So in our third and final talk, I want to ask this question or make this statement.

Having deep spiritual roots is caring for the forest and not just the tree.

Having deep spiritual roots is caring for the forest and not just the tree.

Here's another fact about tree roots.

Did you know that to avoid root disease, you need to maintain a healthy and vigorous environment around a tree?

Are there any horticulturalists in the room?

Any people passionate about gardening or planting trees?

Anybody passionate about painting trees?

Thank you, Giselle.

You know, to avoid root disease, you have to pay attention to the environment around the roots.

Because once a root system is severely affected, the tree usually has to be removed or cut down or thrown into the fire.

You're like, that's sounding a little harsh, dude.

I'm like, here's the takeaway.

The environment, you're in the room, wherever you're at in this season of your life, you've made a decision either to lean in and ask, what does it mean for me to trust and follow Jesus?

Or you're like all in, God, I want to follow you with every part of my life.

The environment in which you surrender your life will either help you grow and strengthen you, or it will bring you dis-ease.

The environment in which you plant your life will either help you grow, will help you to flourish, help you to bear fruit in every season, or it will bring you dis-ease.

Leslie Stokes, an English Baptist minister, told this parable years ago.

Once upon a time, there was a tree.

And it was a lovely-looking tree, shapely, strong, and stately.

But appearances are not always to be trusted.

And they were not, in this case.

For the tree knew inwardly that its massive strength was beginning to wane.

And when the wind was strong, it had felt itself shaking ominously, and it heard suspicious creaks.

So wisely, it took itself in hand, with much effort, it grew another branch or two, and then looked stronger and safer than ever before.

But when the next gale blew, there was a terrific snapping of roots, and but for the support of a friendly neighbor tree, it would have been flat on the ground.

When the tree just recovered from this shock, it looked at its neighbor curiously and said, Tell me, how is it that you have not only stood your ground, but are even able to help me also?

Oh, replied the neighboring tree.

That's easy.

When you were busy growing new branches, I was strengthening my roots.

Which tree are you in this parable?

How do you see yourself playing out in this story?

Are you the tree that's so focused on external things?

On how do you appear?

Appear to your parent that you're trying to please, spouse that you're trying to make happy, boss that you desperately would just want to get off your back.

Are you so focused on the external things, pushing out a new branch?

And you're well aware of the uh the swaying, the creaking, the strength that's failing.

You're so aware of it.

Because I bet most of us here I probably identify with the first tree.

And you probably think I don't deserve, who am I to think I could be a strong tree with healthy roots that when someone around me fails, I can I can actually help support them, help lift them up.

Because I'm such a hot mess myself.

I need all the help I can get.

That's the lie that we need to address in the room today.

That's the lie that we want to debunk.

It's not that we don't want to be the second tree, we just lack the vision and the faith to see ourselves as that strong, healthy, deep-rooted tree doing the holding up.

Tell me, it asked, how is it that you not have only stood your ground but are even able to help me?

That's easy.

When you were busy growing new branches, I was strengthening my roots.

You know, appearances can't always be trusted.

I think we know that intuitively, as a as a human being, I'm aware that we shouldn't judge books by their cover, that appearances can't always be trusted.

But yet we believe the lie.

Everybody measures their life by how well things are going on the outside, so I probably should as well.

That person that I've known a long time appears to be more successful than I am, or more, whatever, fill in the blank.

More happy, more fulfilled, more whatever.

So we believe the lie that somehow the external things matter more.

But having deep spiritual roots is caring for the forest and not just my own tree.

Because caring for the forest and not just the tree is about how strong, not about how strong and effective you appear to be on the outside.

It's about how you help love and care for others whose roots are shallow.

That's the win.

And I think if there's one thing the presence of God in this room wants us to leave, all of us wants us to leave with today, is that because of Jesus, I acknowledge I don't have it all together, but I don't need to in order to be strength for someone else.

Because the best faith journey is lived out in the context of family and community, not in isolation.

And the lie that says everybody else measures by their external successes, and so should I, that lie does one thing.

It drives us into isolation.

I have to do this on my own, I have to do this by myself, I have to prove myself to somebody somewhere along the way.

But the family, the spiritual family that we call the church, even just this beautiful tribe in the room today, those of you that have been hanging out with Nicole and I since the summer, and those of you that are brand new for the first time today, the expression of having healthy roots and being willing to trust that God could use you to help lift up somebody else is best played out in the context of church.

Has anybody heard of the Pando clone?

A photo of a beautiful forest.

Um they're gonna put that up on the screen.

Look at that lovely grove of aspen trees.

Couldn't you just sit by that still water and maybe cross your legs in the lotus position and hum for a while?

Doesn't it just look beautiful and serene?

This is a photo of the Fish Lake National Forest in central Utah.

The pando clone, also known as the Trembling Giant, is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen tree, determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers.

This is actually one tree.

Its entire root system you can't see.

But this grove of aspen trees, look it up, P-A-N-D-O, Pando clone in Utah, covers 106 acres, over 50,000 individual tree trunks, and the claim is that this is the largest living organism in the world that's been DNA tested.

They've tested this pando clone, and it is one tree across 106 acres, 50,000 individual expressions, new growth coming up all the time, with one massive underground interconnected root system.

Pando, do you know what it means?

It's Latin for I spread out.

Everybody say with me, I spread out.

One, two, three.

But you gotta say it like I did.

I spread out.

One, two, three.

Beautiful.

Is that how you live your life?

Do you spread out?

Are you like me, my four, no more?

I've been friends with this girl like since high school.

We're really close, and so there really isn't room for me to connect with somebody else.

I know my neighbor just lost her mom.

She's probably hurting.

I'll pray for her.

I'm gonna pray.

No, no.

I spread out.

I spread out.

Yeah, but I'm having a difficult week.

And if I go there, it's gonna require energy and mental capacity and emotional support, and I just don't have what it takes right now.

But you're a part of Pando.

We spread out, we expand our tent pegs.

You know, my father-in-law, um, his name is Dave.

And if you've met Dave Broadfoot, he's he's a fascinating human being.

Uh, he's I love him to bits.

And and from the time Nicole and I were first married, almost 19 years ago, my father-in-law always said, do this.

Always expand your tent pegs, John.

Always make room for more people at the table.

Spread out.

He lives his life that way, and he's been an inspiration to me.

But spiritually speaking, when we believe the lie that I have to focus on my own tree, focus on my own external, please, something, somebody, somewhere along the way, we disqualify ourselves from being a part of the beautiful gift of church, of Jesus' family.

And I think it's not so much about my individual tree and my healthy roots, but maybe the fact that I stand on acres and acres and acres of planet Earth with thousands and thousands and thousands of other people committed to having healthy, deep spiritual roots, and our roots interconnect, and that when one of us is hurting, there are strong, deeply rooted trees around them to help support.

And and we're all living in this tension of I don't have what it takes, but that's okay.

God can still make my life count for something and use me to help support and bring strength to somebody else.

What if we're meant to live with more care and attention on how we're spreading down and out?

I spread out.

Rather than just up pushing my things, my branches, what do I look like?

How do I appear?

As long as I look strong, as long as I look healthy.

We are much more connected than we ever dare to remember.

We are much more connected as human beings than I think we are intuitively think through.

It's every single human being that has been designed to live in a meaningful, interwoven, and entwined relationship with other human beings, with Jesus as our soil, Jesus as where we put down our roots.

And whether you are following Jesus today or whether you are not, you've still been designed to be a part of something that's beautiful and sacred and brings strength in our weakest moments.

But still we spend more time and energy focused on how my tree's doing instead of how the forest is flourishing.

Let's look at Colossians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7.

Colossians 2:6

In the Passion Translation, it says this in the same way that you received Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, continue your journey of faith, progressing further into your union with him.

Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way.

For you are established in the faith and have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him.

I love those same two verses in the message translation.

It says, My counsel for you is simple and straightforward.

Just go ahead with what you've been given.

You received Jesus Christ, the Master.

Now live Him.

Notice it doesn't say live in Him or live by Him or live through Him.

It simply says, live Him.

Live Jesus.

You're deeply rooted in Jesus.

You're well constructed upon Jesus.

You know your way around the faith.

Now do what you've been taught.

School's out.

Quit studying.

Start living.

And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

In both of these translations, I want to point out, can you put the Passion translation back up for me, please, Emily?

Thank you.

In the same way you, everybody say you, receive Jesus our Lord and Messiah.

Continue your, say your.

Progressing further into your, say your.

Your spiritual spiritual roots, say your.

Go deeply into his life as you say you.

You, your, your, you.

Here's the danger.

We read this passage and we go, okay, yeah, this is good.

I am supposed to remember that I have my roots in Jesus and I'm supposed to start living it.

But when Paul in the first century took the time to wrote, write this letter, he wasn't writing it to a single person.

He was writing it to a community.

And so you can't read Colossians in a singular personal perspective.

You have to read it from the context of the community of faith that we're a part of.

And so you might read it that in the same way that all of us receive Jesus, we all have to continue our journey of faith.

We all have to progress further into our combined union with Jesus.

Because all of our deep spiritual roots in his life, as we're all continually infused with strength, and we're all encouraged in every way, for we are all established in faith that we have all absorbed and we've all been enriched by all of our devotion.

Are you with me?

Are you with me?

This is not an internal navel-gazing portion of first century Bible.

This is a who am I standing in a healthy grove, flourishing with, paying more attention to the forest and not just my own stuff?

It's easy to read this and personalize it, but we're not meant to.

Because having deep spiritual roots is caring for the forest, not just the tree.

So how?

How do we do that?

How do we walk it out?

This sounds great in theory.

I'm feeling a little inspired.

You seem particularly energized today, Pastor Giano.

But how?

How do I do this?

Well, let's look at Romans 15, verses 1 through 6 as we close up.

Romans 15:1–6

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter.

And not just do what's most convenient for us.

Strength is for service, not status.

Strength is for service of others who are faltering, not status.

Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, how can I help?

How can I serve?

Because that's exactly what Jesus did.

The inference here is we've chosen to trust and follow Jesus with every part of our life, and how he lived was simply to serve others, and so should we.

That's exactly what Jesus did.

He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but he waited right in and he helped out.

I took on the troubles of the troubled, is the way that Scripture puts it about Jesus.

And even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for you and I hear us today.

God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next.

And may our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with all of us.

Even my crusty neighbor?

Yeah, even my crusty neighbor.

Because then we'll be a choir.

Not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to God.

Anybody in the room ever sung in a choir before?

I've done a lot of choral singing in my short 42 years on planet Earth.

Not that short, thank you, Kathy.

Just need a minute.

She just called me old in front of everybody.

I've done a lot of choral singing, and when I was first dating Nicole, we'd actually known each other for like seven months.

I had an opportunity to sing in this choir.

Can you find me?

I'm six foot six, so they always stick me in the back.

That's me in the middle with the glasses.

Yeah, there I am.

That's 21-year-old John.

Everybody say, Hey kid.

So this is the uh Canadian National Youth Choir.

Young adults from all across the nation of Canada, uh auditioned, handpicked, to fly to a specific place and rehearse together for a week and then travel around doing concerts.

And so the year that I had the opportunity to sing with the Canadian National Youth Choir, the tour took place on the east coast of Canada.

So we we met in uh Tatamagush, no uh PEI.

Tatamagush, no, Nova Scotia, sorry, Tatamagush.

There's a Tim Hortons camp there, and we converged on this camp for a week, had meals together, rehearsed every day, all day for six days straight, hopped on a bus, and then we toured around Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, and did concerts, uh, choral music.

And it was a great opportunity.

You know what I love about Singing in choirs, it's the strength of the whole rather than the strength of the individual.

The goal of singing in a choir is not for your voice to stand out, it's for your voice to blend and be unified with the voices of others.

Even in the midst of uh the sopranos doing their thing and the altos doing their thing and the tenors and the bear tones and the bass section, singing their individual parts and harmonizing together as a bear tone.

My goal wasn't to have my voice stand out in context, it was to blend my voice with the voices of those singing with me.

I wasn't the best singer in the room, and I wasn't the worst singer in the room.

It wasn't about that.

It was about what we collectively submitted and surrendered to.

We collectively surrendered and submitted to the sheet music and to the direction of the conductor.

We allowed him to lead us with his conducting.

It was about how we worked and how we blended to create one beautiful, unified sound.

To have deep, healthy spiritual roots is to pay more attention to the forest than the tree.

May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in us so that we get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with all of us.

Because then we'll be a choir, not our voices only, but our very lives, singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the to God the Father and to our Master Jesus.

A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell.

This is a story.

And God said, I'll show you hell.

And so they went into a room which had a large pot of stew in the middle of the room.

And the smell was delicious.

And it filled the room.

And around this pot of stew sat people who were visibly famished and desperate.

And all of them were holding very long spoons longer than their arms.

Long handles which reached the pot.

But because these spoons were longer than their arms, they couldn't physically get the stew into their own mouths.

Their suffering was terrible.

And the Lord said, I'm going to show you heaven.

And they went into an identical room.

There was a similar pot of stew, and the smell was delicious, and the people were sitting around it, and they had the same long spoons in their hands, longer than their arms.

But they were all well-nourished.

They were talking, they were laughing, they looked vibrant, they were happy.

And the man looked at the Lord and said, I'm so confused right now.

And God said, Well, it's simple.

You see, they've learned to feed each other.

It's the only difference.

Same stews, same spoons.

They've just learned to reach across and feed each other.

Caring for the forest and not just the tree is about how strong and not about how strong and effective that you appear to be on the outside.

It's about how you help to love and care for, how you help feed others whose roots are shallow.

What delight comes to the one who follows God's way.

They won't walk and step with the wicked.

They won't share the sinner with his way.

They won't be found sitting in this corner seat.

Their pleasure and their passion will be to remain true to the word of God, to meditate day and night in the true revelation of light.

And then they will be standing firm like flourishing trees planted by God's design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season, never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.

I don't know about you, but I want to stand firm in my life.

I want to have roots that make a difference, that keep me strong.

And even in seasons where I can hear my own strength failing, and I can hear the creaks of what's going on on the inside of me, people around me offering strength and support because they're committed to having deep spiritual roots.

But we need to remember that none of us have ever seen a flourishing apple tree open up its trunk, pull in a branch close, and eat its own apples.

The fruit that we bear in every season isn't for us.

It's for others.

And so to have deep spiritual roots means that we care for the forest and not just the tree.

So practically speaking, to begin to move forward in learning how to love and care for others, whether you're following Jesus or not, there are ways you can do that.

For some of you, it might mean that you just hit reset on everything you've believed about being a Christian and give God one more opportunity to work in you and through your life.

I know that there are people in this room that have been burned by religion.

I know that even when I say the word church to some people, they shudder with disgust.

It's a true statement.

And I want to tell you, Edmontonians, there are hundreds, over 300,000 people that live in our city, that probably that defines them.

You say church and they're like.

That could be a great group for you to join.

Coffee with the boys every other Thursday morning.

A bunch of guys get together and do life.

And I've loved the opportunity to sit with men consistently and grow in friendship and trust with those men.

That might be the next step for you.

The next step for you might be to come to our next steps class, which starts again next week's Sunday.

Just like, what does it actually mean for me to call Evolved Church home?

And who are you guys and where have you come from?

And what's your story?

And how do I fit?

And what do you believe?

And is there a place for me here?

Come out to Next Steps now.

It might mean that you just join our dream team and start volunteering.

That you've got an opportunity to love on kids or help with worship or serve.

And I don't know.

These are really practical next steps for somebody in the room, but take a next step.

Don't just settle for focusing on your tree.

Because to have deep, healthy spiritual roots is the goal.

Not to stand alone, isolated.

But as a community, today we say, God, we want to have deep spiritual roots that give care and attention to the hidden and to the unseen.

We want to have deep spiritual roots that require stewardship of us.

Whatever's before us, we don't just do it, but we do it well with a sense of your kingdom in mind.

And having deep spiritual roots is caring for the forest, not just the tree.

Because caring for the forest is not about how strong and effective you appear to be on the outside.

It's about how you help love and care for, how you help feed others whose roots are creaky and shallow.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's pray.

God, thank you so much for the opportunity to look at this collection of letters that were written and inspired by your life.

Not just your life, but your your tragic death at the hand of Romans and your beautiful resurrection to life, witnessed by hundreds and thousands of people.

And the fact that some of those people took time to write down their eyewitness account of how you changed them.

We get to read through that and allow it to speak to us.

And in this room, God, there's there's no heavy guilt and there's no there's no weight of condemnation.

Because that's not who you are.

That's not how you work.

That's not your MO.

Your heart beats to the rhythm of grace and to the BPMs of love.

That's it.

Your heart for us today by your spirit wants to just remind us that because of Jesus, we're enough.

We're good before you.

And we can finally, maybe even for the first time, we can just bury all the striving and all the thinking we have to please you somehow, and all the hustle and the work to try and be spiritual.

But rather just rest in the awareness that because of Jesus, because of what he modeled for us, and how we choose to come under and surrender and give our lives fully to you, you're already doing more in us and through us than we could ever ask or hope or imagine.

But you want to do that in the context of forest, not just our individual life.

And so today, help us to remember that to put down deep spiritual roots means that we're connected.

We're a part of something greater than just our own life or our own family.

And when one of us hurts, we all hurt.

But there's strength to help lift.

And when one of us is discouraged, we we can experience that together.

But we don't have to stay there.

We can lean into the love and care and support of others.

Because we're part of a forest.

We're not just individual trees.

So remind us this week of how to continue to push down our roots into the soil, the rich, beautiful soil of Jesus, roots that are deep and spiritual and healthy, that allow us to flourish and be strong in every season, to bear fruit not for ourselves, but for others in every season.

God, we love you.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, hop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.

We hope to see you.