Rooted and Rising (Vision Sunday) | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Man, I feel like we need to go back into worship or something.

We're gonna bring them back in in just a few moments.

In just a few moments.

Um, I want to do two things before you guys uh take your seats.

First, I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss our our middle and high school student.

We have an amazing middle and high school um service that takes place for our middle and high school.

They're great that would love to connect with you.

You can go on out uh the back doors that way.

Um and for the remaining of us, I would love for you to remain standing, but go ahead and grab your Bibles if you if you brought one with you.

Um you can grab your your glowing Bible if that's what you're using.

Um that's what I'm using, so that's quite okay.

Um but whatever it is that you use to engage God's word, I would love to uh invite you to grab that um at this moment.

It will come up on the screen in just a moment.

Um, so it's perfectly okay if you do not have your Bible with you.

As it was mentioned earlier, today is Vision Sunday for us here at Celebration Orlando.

And and the way that, just to give you kind of like a little bit of a spoiler, the way that we approach vision, or at least the way that I approach vision, is different than what you may experience when you're looking at corporations and other things, because I truly I believe that God has given us the mission and God has given us the vision.

So I don't get to change what God has already ordained the assignment of the church to be.

What the church's responsibility is, is to take the Great Commission that Matthew 28, 19 and 20 is to take that great commission, turn it into actual items that we then can rally around, and that often becomes our themes for the year.

So last year, our our theme, our approach to ministry was my life, God's way, our story.

And the emphasis was on spiritual disciplines and discipleship, and and we don't go away with that.

You're gonna still hear me talk about that because I don't think that that's a seasonal thing, I think it's a lifestyle thing.

But today we're gonna unpack our next layer that we want to add to that as a community and as a family.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Colossians chapter chapter number two is where we're gonna be spending our time.

I should have told you guys that while I was rambling.

Um, but Colossians chapter number two is where we're going to be um setting up today's time together.

I'm gonna jump to a couple other passages in just a moment.

But Colossians number two, ultimately, this is Paul writing.

He's writing it from prison, and he's writing it to the church of Colossae.

And here's the context of why he's writing it.

Each of the writings of Paul specifically, they have a theme, there's a motivation behind why he's writing them.

There's a church there, and ultimately they're wrestling with heresy.

That's false doctrine.

And their false doctrine that they had there was that Jesus wasn't good enough.

Now, when we hear that, that sounds harsh for us in our modern context.

We hear somebody say Jesus isn't good enough and we we kind of have a reaction to it.

Because the way that it expressed itself was like, yeah, Jesus is cool, but you still have to do these things.

Jesus is good, but you still gotta give.

Jesus is good, but you still gotta make sure you show up at church.

Jesus is Jesus is great, but you gotta still do these things, and that was considered heresy.

So I would venture to say that with that definition, many of us still wrestle with that tension ourselves that Jesus isn't good enough.

We believe that, man, Jesus is good, but but I gotta give more.

Jesus is good, but but I gotta serve more.

Jesus is good, but I gotta show up to church more.

Now, now here's the beauty of it.

Jesus is good, and because he's good, we do get to serve more.

Because he is good, we do get to, we do get to give more, we do get to do these things.

But when we put those things in front of the cross, we've complicated and we've reduced the sacrifice of Christ to something that needs to be earned.

So Paul is writing to try to reorient their theology around that Jesus is sufficient.

Getting into chapter number two, verse number six, I want to read this into our hearing.

It says, So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, that's with grace, continue to walk in him.

Verse number seven, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

If you are one, which this is how I am, I like to highlight and underline certain emphasis and certain passages so they can draw my attention when I go back and look at those passages again.

I want us to highlight and underline, make a reference to rooted and built up in him, established in our faith.

Today, as we talk about the vision that God has for us as a community, I want that to be the prevailing thought in the back of our minds that we're rooted and built up in Him.

Let's pray and let's see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you for your presence.

We thank you for um giving us an opportunity to come and to worship and gather in your name.

Lord, I pray over the next few moments that you just give us clarity of thought, that you remove every distraction, that we can be fully present in this moment, fully engaged, listening to what it is that you want to speak to us, to begin to visualize the vision that you have for us.

Holy Spirit, you're welcome, and I pray that you challenge us, that you inspire us, that you encourage us, that you build us up, and that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive and be transformed by what it is you want to do with us today.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You can go ahead and take your seats at this time.

Thank you for indulging me by standing in agreement as we are looking over God's word.

I've been thinking a lot now that we're a full month into the new year, pretty much every year, Megan and I have a moment where we kind of say, like, hey, what are some things that we want to see and what are some things we want to do this year?

And a lot of times it's like, okay, what are some goals?

And I wouldn't say that we're super rigid with goals, but we have general ideas that can kind of serve as kind of like guardrails so that we know how we're gonna move in in unison.

And so a lot of times when it comes to talking about vacations or places that we want to visit, we we we often talk about like, oh, let's go to Cancun, we love Cancun, let's get on a cruise, we love cruises.

Like, get me somewhere and I love it.

So you guys are seeing a theme here.

But what I began to kind of reflect on, we've been talking about this quite a bit.

Um, more recently, we've been saying, like, man, like there's some cool spots in our country that we still need to go and check out.

Like, I love going overseas.

I love when I get a chance to absorb and observe other cultures.

That's like one of our favorite things, but but I also realize there's a lot of cool stuff that we just haven't done here as of yet.

So I I now have added to our list of things that we want to do.

We probably won't do it this year, but it's it's it's on it's on the forefront.

Is I want to do like one of those coastal trips.

Like go over on the west coast, get like a rental car, um, convertible is mandatory, and just drive down the coast and like play Beach Boys music.

I don't know.

I feel like I need to play Tupac California love.

Like, I feel like you just gotta, I just wanna be all in the characteristic of everything on the West Coast.

Like, I feel like that's something that we absolutely need to do.

Um, and and that's something that we're we're going to do.

And one of the things that I'm looking forward to doing the most on that journey is oddly enough, is I want to stop at the Redwood Forest.

Anybody ever been to the Redwood Forest that's in here?

We got a few people in here.

It is it is amazing.

I'm so like nine o'clock, they don't travel enough.

But the 1030, like y'all, like y'all, we get here late.

You're lucky I'm here today, Keith.

I get it.

I get it, I get it.

The the the the the 1030, they out they out in these streets.

So, so what I what I what I love about the Redwood Forest, okay, focus up, focus up.

Okay.

What I love about the Redwood Forest is that if you are not familiar with it, Google it.

Not right now, pay attention to my message, but later on, go back and Google it and look it up.

This is an amazing forest with trees that grow as tall as 350 feet.

It's like these sentinels that stretch up as almost as far as the eyes can see.

Like it's it's almost hard to even grasp the enormity of these trees.

They're literally the biggest trees in the entire world.

And they've they've endured thousands of years.

Like they were here before America was even a concept, all the things that they've seen and endured.

It's just like this majesty of like God's creation.

And so I want to be more at one with nature personally.

I feel like I need to get back in touch with my roots.

But but like, I mean, it's gotta have like a nice hotel there.

Like, I'm not gonna sleep out in the streets, like, let's not get crazy.

But I want to be out there, observe it, take a picture, then I'm gonna go back to the rich.

Anyway, but when I look at these trees, when I look at the enormity of them, when I look at just the the idea of what God has done with these trees, I can't help but to think that they all started off as a seed at one point.

Just a seed.

A seed that had the potential to grow into being one of the largest trees in the world.

A seed, something that had on the inside the capacity that if it was placed in the right environment, that if it was, if it was nurtured the right way, if it was, if it was watered, if it was exposed to the right amount of light, if it was in the perfect conditions, that it could blossom and become something that we're talking about literally decades and centuries later.

It's the potential that is found within a seed.

I see an interesting parallel when I think about that's on the inside of this seed is the potential to grow to something that can literally shift the atmosphere.

But would you be surprised if I told you that that same thing exists within you?

The Bible says this about us.

It says, Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

The Bible tells us that God puts a seed of purpose on the inside of all of us.

And what ends up happening, our life circumstances, our situations, but if we plant them in the right environments, they have the ability to grow, to flourish, and to blossom and to do some incredible things, but there's a part that we're supposed to play with it.

Something so small, something so seemingly little, has the ability of growing and being something of such significance.

And I often think that when we consider this for just a moment, we often say to ourselves, like, but do I do I really have what it takes?

What steps do I need to take?

But but God's word reminds us even in this, in Zechariah 4.10, where it says, Don't despise small beginnings.

The small things that we do, the little actions that we take, the little nudges that we respond to, that those small things have the ability to be seeds that we're planting that have the ability to transform our entire lives.

See, when I look at scripture, I see over and over again that God paints this picture of what he expects and what he imparted into every single one of us.

We're familiar with Genesis chapter 1, 28, when God creates man in his own image and then he blesses them and then he gives them this incredible assignment.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Be fruitful and what?

Multiply.

Come on, 1030.

Y'all still on top of 9 o'clock at this point.

Be fruitful and multiply.

Be fruitful and multiply.

Here's the thing that we often miss fruitful is our part.

Multiplying is his part.

I'm not sure if you caught that.

Fruitful is the things that I am doing.

It's being productive, it's making sure that I'm cultivating, it's making sure that I'm planting, it's making sure that I'm watering, it's making sure I'm doing my part, and then God will multiply.

Paul beautifully says this this way.

He says, one plants, another water, but God's the one who adds the increase.

So what we do is we do our part, we plant, we we we water it, we we're faithful to what God's word says, and we watch God bring the multiplication.

We see that God's intention from the very beginning was to be fruitful and what?

Come on, Vinny, there with me.

Be fruitful and multiply.

But this idea of multiplying God's image was very, very detrimental to the enemy strategy for us.

So he comes in and he wants to disrupt this plan.

He sows seeds of discord, and now we find ourselves separated from God.

You guys may be familiar with the story when God tells that Adam and Eve that they're now removed from the Garden of Eden, this perfect, utopic place where they now were going to be removed from it.

This veil, these angels were there that are keeping them from experiencing the presence of God.

But thanks be to God for Christ Jesus.

Because of his sacrifice, and this is helping us to understand the significance of that sacrifice, that the barrier of sin that separated us from God was removed.

So when it says that the veil of the temple was ripped in half, that means that once again Eden has now been reestablished for us.

That no longer our sin separates us from God.

So now, guess what?

We have access to those words that God repeated after he did every creative day where he said, It's good.

God just wants to get back to a place.

Your life is good.

But here's the thing that we have to understand that even though Jesus restored it and he restored our place, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, 16, that because of Jesus, that he has given us an upgrade and we're seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Talk about upgrade.

Somebody sound upgrade.

God gave us an upgrade with Christ Jesus, that now we have access to the groan of the throne of grace, and Eden is now restored to us, but the reality of it is we still live in a damaged ecosystem where sin is very much still prevalent.

Jesus reminds us of this in the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, where he says these words In this world, you will have trouble.

John 16:33

In this world, you will have trouble.

Let me let me let me let me bring it to our level.

In this world, you're gonna have job loss.

In this world, you're gonna have sickness.

In this world, you're gonna have disagreements with family members.

In this world, you're gonna have chaos.

You can fill in a blank with any reality that you're currently going through, things that you see on the news, in this world, those things are still going to exist.

But then there's a second part of that when Jesus says, But take heart.

I have overcome the world.

Be of good courage.

Even though we're watching some things on the news, don't lose our sense of hope.

Don't lose sight of who you are and whose you are.

I have overcome the word.

That world, that word overcome means conquered, overpowered.

It's literally the Greek word Nikeo, which is where we get the word Nike from.

Did you guys know that?

That Nike literally translates to victory.

Now I feel so fulfilled in understanding why I have so many Nikes in my closet right now.

It all makes so much sense to me that I didn't realize that every time I bought a pair of shoes, that I was investing in victory.

So when I wear my Nikes, I'm walking in victory in Christ Jesus.

Y'all gotta help me here.

I'm trying to buy some new shoes next week.

I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to invest in my victory.

But that's where the word comes from.

That Jesus says they take heart because I have given you Nikao, I've given you Nikes, I've given you victory.

I've given you victory.

That victory is available for you even in the midst of chaos.

That peace that's available to you even when there's setbacks.

These are things that are made available to us, but we have a part that we must play and seeing it.

We have a part to play in which we must experience it.

Jesus tells us in John 10, 10 that I want you to have life and life to its fullest.

But I think the best expression of it is found, in my opinion, in 3 John 2.

This is the Apostle John.

This is not a secondhand account.

This is the man who walked with Jesus from the very beginning.

He was the last man standing with Jesus when he was crucified.

That when Jesus was going away, he passed the assignment of caring for his mother.

Like, so John is that guy.

He's been with Jesus through thick and thin.

So he's aware of all the miracles.

He understands Jesus' teachings.

And when he's writing this letter to the church, he's writing it to a church that is being persecuted.

He's writing it to a church that is being attacked for their faith in Christ.

And he writes these words to them.

He says, Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health, just as your whole life is going well.

So him being fully aware, being doctrinally accurate, being theologically founded, he still comes to the conclusion, in the midst of persecution, I pray this over you, church family.

I pray that you are prospering.

I pray that you're doing well.

I pray that you're advancing.

That word prospering, it has a bunch of different renderings.

It means advancing, it means moving forward.

But I think my favorite definition of it is where it says cutting through.

Watch this.

In spite of the chaos that's going on in your life, I pray that you can cut through it.

In spite of the job loss that you're experiencing, I pray that your life can be one that can cut through it.

In spite of all the challenges, I pray that your life is one that you can cut through it.

In spite of the challenge, it's possible to be a person who is in the world but not of the world.

It's possible to be a person that's surrounded by chaos but yet still have peace on the inside of us.

That is God's vision for his people.

This past summer, when Megan and I went to Greece, we spent three weeks in Greece, and it was an amazing trip where we got a chance to visit some incredible historic sites.

And there was this one moment that I was looking forward to, probably more than any of the other ones.

And I love Greek mythology, but I was actually looking forward to going to this place called Meteora.

And Meteora is this place where they have all these ancient monuments and nunneries that have been there for literally thousands of years.

Like just beautiful, beautiful places that have been built up over the years where saints would go as retreats to get away from the world, so to speak, to go up on mountains and to be secluded with God.

And so through the generations, we now get a chance to visit it.

And so when I walk in, I just felt this rich tapestry of faith that had gone on centuries before us.

The prayers, you could feel it almost just hanging off of the walls.

It was powerful and it was intimate.

But when we were going to this, I was like, Lord, I'm I'm believing in the same way that when Moses ascended the mountain, you came down and had a meeting with him, and you gave him your word and you gave him a revelation of your vision for your people.

I'm praying that for our church.

So as I got onto the top of this mountain that was literally built around this rock, this strong foundation, the metaphors just kept coming.

And I said, Lord, I just I just what's your vision for your church?

I have ideas, I have ambition, but but I'm much like Joshua.

Lord, if you're not going, then we're not going.

So what is it that you want and what is it that you see for your church?

And it is in this moment that I believe that God had begun to give me this download, some of which I just shared with you.

This download of saying, I wish my people could see the potential that exists on the inside of them.

I wish my people could just see the power that's available to them.

I wish my people knew the influence that they actually have.

I wish my people understood that they don't have to be afraid of the world and they don't have to be afraid of elections because I am still on the throne.

I wish my people could see the vision that I have for their lives so they can walk with clarity and peace and conviction and not becoming people who are molded to the image of the world because fear has gotten a hold of them.

He began to share with me these declarations that I believe is my responsibility to speak to you.

Celebration Orlando, I believe that we stand on a threshold of a divine fulfillment, believing that Eden has been restored to us.

That in Christ Jesus that we can celebrate unbroken fellowship with God in communion with him, marked by peace, provision, and his presence.

I declare over our church that we are experiencing a season of a hope in heaven that is available to us, a realm of endless possibilities where God's blessings will pour out in abundance upon us, where his voice is clear and his guidance is ever so evident.

I declare over our church that this is a year of breakthrough for us, a year where barriers are broken down and God's power is manifested in our lives like we've never seen it before.

I am saying in the name of Jesus that this is a year of growth, where our roots shall stretch deep into God's soil and his word, and it's going to reach upwards, where we're going to have an impact on the entire globe.

This is a year of increase where what we have sown in tears will be reaped in joy, where the investments of our faith, love, and service will yield exponential results.

This is a year of harvest in the name of Jesus.

Do you believe that, church?

It's a year of harvest.

But here's the thing about the harvest this is where we have to see if the applause is going to still remain.

Harvest is a promise, but it's also a process.

Where's the applause?

Here we go.

It's a promise, but it's also a process.

We know that the harvest comes on the back end of sowing.

The harvest is on the back end of cultivating.

The harvest is on the back end of replanting and reorienting.

The harvest is on the back end of some diligent work that we do, but we recognize that in due seasons we shall reap if we faint not.

I believe that one of the challenges that the church faces nowadays is that I've seen the pendulum swing from one side to the other.

You often will find that people land in one of two theological camps when it comes to this subject.

You have one that says that God is a God of prosperity and abundance, which is true.

But then that can lead us into a space of what we call naming and claiming.

That I could just name whatever's in the Bible, I can claim it for myself, and it requires nothing of me.

So you see that.

So the counteract to that often became: no, we live in a life of total brokenness and depravity, and that all of the promises that you see in God's word are only available to you when you get on the other side of heaven.

Both of them are extremes that I believe are incredibly dangerous.

Not because they lead to heaven or hell, but it leaves us at a place where we missed in opportunities that God truly has for us.

I truly believe that if we can have a healthy balance of understanding, there's a part that I play that even though we're in this broken world, but I truly believe that God's word and his promises are for me and for my family and for a thousand generations and for our church, it will often adjust the way that I live my life.

And I begin to look at things through the lens of legacy, recognizing that my life that I live is no longer just my own, but I'm living my life for my family.

I'm living my life for my church, I'm living my life for my so the fullness of God's promises may be experienced through my children, it may be experienced through my great grandchildren, but I've played a part, which is why he says I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It went through the entire generation before the fullness became manifested.

And if we can get out of the individualistic mindset of saying that if it starts with me, it finishes with me, I believe that we can begin to live life of legacy with a harvest mindset.

So for me, whether your harvest, the thing that you're looking for, is something in an area of personal growth, God, I want to see some increase in this area of my life.

Whether it's deeper faith, Lord, I want to be drawn closer to you.

Maybe it's communal with relationships.

I believe that what we do will play a part in what we see.

So I want to share three simple points with us that I think can give us some next steps as we begin to move forward.

The first thing we need to do is we need to make a decision.

Just make a decision.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

Like a farmer who is going to plant seed, at some point he makes a decision on what seed he is going to plant.

A farmer doesn't say, I'm going to take an apple seed and hope that it produces grapes.

What a farmer does is he recognizes the ground that he's on and what it can yield, and then he plants seeds accordingly.

What I think we can often do in our own life, if I can be completely honest, is I think that we can plant a seed in the world and expect God to bring a harvest out of it.

I think that we can do something in our behavior, and then we want God to come in and clean it up for us.

But I believe that Paul tells us in Romans 12 2, he says that we are not to be conformed into the image of the world, but to be transformed, and it starts with our mind.

Transformed.

The words that Paul are using is like he's speaking about a template, like the the model.

He says, Don't be conformed into the image of the world, but be transformed.

Here's what Paul is saying, and I want y'all to buckle up and say it.

You are being conformed into the image of something.

Either it's going to be of the world or it's going to be of Jesus.

No decision is still a decision.

Because the reality of it is, nobody wakes up and instinctively says, I'm going to be more like Jesus today.

Let's be honest.

I've been walking with God for a long time.

And it's so easy.

You ever notice when you're like riding down the street, especially if you're on I-4, how quickly, how quickly.

Things that are in you that have been laying dormant for years.

I'm a whole pastor of a church.

And people cut me off.

I'm like, I will meet you off at this exit right now, Flan.

Like, it's up to you.

Like, how where does that come from?

Because it's deep in our core.

So we have to make choices every day to try to make sure that we suppress it and get victory over it.

But what Paul is saying to us is that we have to make a decision on what area I am choosing to sow into.

What we end up finding out is when we have a hard time making a decision, the Bible says that we end up becoming double-minded.

James says it this way a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

He's losing stability because I'm trying to live for God in one area and I'm trying to live for the world in another area.

Why do we do that?

Because we live in a world of both.

And I love both.

I am a both person.

Our staff knows that I am a both, I'm a both person.

Like if you ask me a question with options and both options seem amazing, it's always both.

Let me give you an example.

Hey Keith, hey, do you want the new Xbox or do you want the PlayStation?

Both.

Why do I gotta choose both?

Megan and I talking, like, hey, what do we want to do this year?

Do we want to go on vacation or do we want to save her for our dream house?

Both.

We're gonna go and we're gonna figure out how to save.

It's both.

I've always been a person that appreciates both, but guess what?

You get to a point where both just isn't sufficient.

You get to a point where I want to do both, but the reality of it is I can't.

So watch this.

Going back to the garden, God says this to Adam and Eve: You can either trust me and eat from the tree of life, or you can figure it out on your own and take the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

There is no both.

Choose today which direction you want to go.

Which one do you want?

Jesus tells the church in Revelation, he's like, Man, I really just wish y'all would have made a choice.

Because what I see right now is I see a lukewarm church.

One foot in, one foot out.

I would much rather you make a choice.

That way you can be great in whatever you're gonna do.

If you're gonna be a sinner, be great at it.

But if you're gonna live for me, be great at it.

But don't live in this world where you're trying to live for me and live for the world at the same time, we have to make a choice.

The Bible says this.

He says, Don't be deceived in Galatians 7.

God is not mocked.

For whatever a person sows is what they will reap.

This is not God's judgment, this is not God's wrath, it's the ecosystem that we live in.

Watch this.

That whatever I sow into, it will produce a harvest.

So watch this.

If I sow kind words into my wife, if I sow generosity into my wife, if I sow patience into my wife, it will reap a harvest.

But the other side is true as well.

If I if I sow impatience, if I sow anger, if I sow disrespect, it's gonna create an atmosphere where that's our reality and I'm gonna reap a harvest from it.

What if we stopped expecting God to bless behavior that doesn't look like God?

This is Vision Sunday.

All right, Vinny, we're gonna move on.

I think I think we're gonna move on.

Okay, point point number two.

Point number two.

We gotta make a decision.

Here's what I'm saying: make a decision on what you want to see in your life.

And then you steward your life according to those decisions.

Here's point number two.

The next thing we gotta do is fully engage.

Somebody shout fully engage.

We have to be fully engaged.

Here's what I mean by that.

I I remember when I was learning how to drive a stick shift that when I was going from second to third, that was an area that I struggled with, and I don't understand why at the time.

Reason being is because going from first to second was so easy because it was a single motion.

Put your foot on the clutch from first to second, it's great.

But going from second to third required me to bring it up, slide it over a little bit, and go into third.

And so somehow in my mind, my muscle memory didn't allow me to keep my foot on the clutch when I was bringing it up.

So when I would come up into neutral, I would take my foot off the clutch, I would move it over into third, the gears are grinding, and I would ultimately end up stalling out because I didn't keep the clutch fully engaged.

So the instructor said, Hey, listen, if you are looking to shift gears, you're going to have to stay fully engaged.

Because if you come up off of it, you're going to grind gears, you're going to cause damage to the car, and then you're also going to ultimately end up stalling out.

You're going to have to be fully engaged in this.

You can't halfway do this.

You're going to have to make sure that you stay engaged through the entire motion.

I think so often for some of us that there's times when we want to make a shift in our lives, but we don't stay fully engaged long enough to see it actualized as a part of our reality.

We can get into neutral and we find ourselves grinding gears and wondering why we're not getting any traction.

Maybe it's possible there's areas of our lives that we stop engaging in the presence of God.

I believe that the story of Naaman beautifully illustrates this.

If if I wish I had time to unpack it, this will be its own sermon on its own if we if we had the time to.

But let me give you the highlight, real.

And in 2 Kings chapter 5, go back and read it.

2 Kings 5 · chapter mention

It's amazing.

But here's the highlight: there's a man called Naaman.

And Naaman has a lot of influence.

He has a lot of power, he has a lot of, he just has a lot of impact.

And the Bible says that he has all this influence, but he comes down with leprosy, this skin disease.

And so scripture says that he finds out that there's a man named Elisha who's able to heal people.

He gets permission from the king, he gets a letter from the king.

He pulls up at Elisha's house.

It's like, yo, my man.

Again, this is the Keith translation of the Bible.

I don't know what yours says.

It's okay.

This is mine.

Keith.

My man.

He's like, Elijah.

Like, yo, what's up?

Hey, um, I'm here because I heard that, yo, I heard that you can heal people.

Watch what Elisha does, which I think is the dopest flex I've ever seen in scripture.

He doesn't even come downstairs and meet this guy.

He sends his servant down there.

His servant says, Oh, cool, cool, cool, man.

I'm glad you're here.

Hey, here's what um Elisha told me to tell you.

Go out to the Jordan River, dip yourself in the river seven times, and when you come up, man, you're gonna be brand new like a newborn baby.

Naaman is like, bro, do you are you kidding me?

Do you not know who I am?

Do you not know the influence that I have?

And this is verbatim.

I at least would have thought that the prophet would have come downstairs and spoke a word and waved his hand and I would have been healed.

Let me step over here now.

How many of us have a faith that says, Lord, I'm a busy man, I'm a busy woman, I don't have time to get involved in groups, I don't got time to get involved to, I don't have time to go to get counseling, I don't got time for any of that.

But I'm gonna show up on Sunday and I'm expecting someone to speak a word and wave their hand over my situation and it's gonna matter.

Okay, let me go over here and talk to somebody.

I think that sometimes, I think that sometimes that that we believe that that if I could just show up just a little bit, that God will just wave his hand over a situation that I've been struggling with my entire life and I'm expecting there to be a breakthrough.

But then his his his prophet said to him, Listen, but if you can listen to what God's word says, dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times.

I need you to be just as committed to this healing as God is to healing you.

The Jordan River represents freedom, it represents breakthrough.

And if you really want to experience the breakthrough in your life, you're gonna have to be fully engaged in it.

You're gonna have to go to counseling, you're gonna have to get involved in a group, you're gonna have to show up faithfully because it's in that space that God is able to meet us and bring restoration and healing to our bodies, but we gotta be fully engaged.

He's telling us that we need to be fully engaged.

Here's the last thing, and I'm gonna wrap up.

I'm gonna wrap up.

The the last and third thing is this United we grow.

United.

I truly believe that the number one tool that the enemy uses on the people of God is to turn us into a person of God.

To turn me from caring about others and to focus on us four and no more.

If I can be completely transparent, what breaks my heart more than anything when I look at our world and our political landscape is Christians that have bought into this nationalistic thought, watch this, that God isn't big enough for all of us.

So if God blesses you, then that means that it's less for me.

But if God is the creator of the universe, why couldn't He help you the same way that He has blessed me?

Maybe I was planted in an environment that allowed me to flourish a little bit quicker and better than you.

But if we could somehow figure out a way to come alongside each other the way that we see in the church, the way that we see in the Bible, what would that do to society?

The thing that I love about the Redwoods, that's so fascinating about the Redwoods, is yes, the height, 350 feet in the air, that's all inspiring for sure.

But what I find to be so fascinating about it is its root system.

Because its height, you would think it would require that its roots go down a hundred, maybe two hundred feet, which is what you will often see in large trees.

But what's fascinating about the redwood system is that their roots only go down about 12 feet deep, but they spread out about a hundred feet wide in each direction.

So now this tree shares the same root system with that tree, which shares the same root system with that tree.

And all of the roots are intertwined together and they're all growing together.

There is not just one person who's growing, all of us are growing.

There's not just one person who's thriving, all of us are thriving.

I think that there is a reason why the Bible used agricultural references more than any other thing in scripture, because God is asking us to have a mindset that when a seed is on the inside of you, and then you're planted in the right environments, and you stay rooted and you stay interconnected with others, we can all grow together.

That's what God is ultimately inspiring us to do.

So as we bring this to a close, I realize that I could have taken this vision Sunday and use it as an opportunity to share the initiatives that God has placed on my heart.

And guess what?

We're gonna do that.

We're absolutely gonna invest more in mental health and establishing scholarships for people who want to get mental health but they don't have um insurance or don't have the resources to do it.

You're gonna hear about that.

We're absolutely gonna come alongside marriages at a more intimate level beyond just our marriage groups, so we're gonna have a marriage conference.

We're also going to have um marriage groups.

We're not, in addition to that, we're also gonna have our our professors are gonna come in and talk to us about healthy marriage in a kingdom context, and we're gonna also come alongside people who are early in their marriages and give them marriage mentors.

Absolutely, we're gonna do all those things.

We're gonna invest in the next generation because the next generation is the now generation, and we need to make sure that we're developing them and imparting it to them, and so we have resources that we're diverting to make sure that they have everything they need so they can thrive in the world that they live in instead of expecting them to adapt to the world that we came from that no longer exists.

The biggest mistake that the church has made is that we continue to have a ministry in the model of Blockbuster, but we're living in a Netflix world.

We gotta adapt, we gotta adapt and we have to evolve.

So, yes, we have plans and all of those things, and here's the thing: I could have done a whole service just on all those things that are on my heart.

It would have got us really excited and motivated.

We'd have been clapping, I wouldn't have challenged a single soul.

But we will never do those things if we don't first get the vision that God has for us first.

This vision of us understanding that God's just getting started, that God's idea of life is one that we can have abundance and impact if we are doing it his way.

So, so what is it that I'm trying to say in a way that I think we can walk away with that understands this idea of harvest and investing and planting seeds?

This year, our theme, our focal point, the way that we're gonna do ministry, the sermons we're gonna preach, the way that we're gonna disciple our church is through this idea that this is a year that we're gonna be rooted and rising, rooted in the things of God and rising up into everything that he has for us.

This year, I declare for our church that we're gonna be rooted in Christ and rising in joy, we're gonna be rooted in faith and rising in hope, we're gonna be rooted in love and rising in service, rooted in truth and rising in wisdom, rooted in peace and rising in strength, rooted in grace and rising in compassion, rooted in humility and rising up in leadership, rooted in prayer, rooted in prayer, rooted in prayer, rooted in prayer and rising up in power, rooted in community, knowing that we can't do this on our own, but we're gonna stay connected to one another because when we're communicating and we're connected to one another, we're gonna rise up in unity, and that's how we have revivals, that's how we take over cities, that's how we begin to see God moving in every area of our lives.

We're gonna be rooted in commitment and rising in impact.

We're gonna be rooted in generosity and we're gonna rise in abundance, we're gonna be rooted in purpose and rise in fulfillment, we're gonna be rooted in forgiveness because of some things that we're generating, some areas of our lives that we're not free, so we're gonna be rooted in forgiveness so we can rise up in freedom.

We're gonna be rooted in worship and be saturated and rise up in his glory.

We're gonna be rooted in his word, and we're gonna rise up in understanding with understanding unto the church, that this is a year, that we're gonna see the promises of God come alive.

If you believe in stand on your feet and give God some praise.

We're rooted and rising.

We're rooted and rising.

We're gonna root ourselves in the things of God and we're gonna see the fruit of our investment.

We're gonna go into a time of worship.

And what I want us to do in this moment is we're gonna be rooted in worship and rising in the presence of his glories.

Maybe there's some areas of your life that when you heard me go off on this list, that I want to I want to rise more in freedom.

I need to rise more in compassion.

I need to I need to rise more in my knowledge of God's word.

We all have things that we can anchor ourselves in and see that we need more of in our life.

I need to see the harvest in that area of my life.

What I'm asking you to do is in this time of worship, in this time of reflection, let's lean into this moment knowing that my worship is a sign of surrender, but it's also an invitation for God to move because God has some incredible things in store for us.

Maybe there's some among us that you have engaged in one season, but right now you feel like you're in neutral.

I believe that this is the moment where we can get things into gear and we can activate the power that God has over our lives.

Can I get a good amen to that church?

Let me pray for us as we go into worship.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you, Father, for giving us this, what I truly believe, this prophetic word of what it means to be rooted in you and having a harvest because of you.

So, Father, as we lean into this moment, as we reflect on the reality of what this means for us as individuals, but also for us as a church, I pray that your spirit descends upon us right now, that you ignite something on the inside of us, reveal to us the areas of our lives where you have a harvest available for us if we can just root ourselves in the right thing.

Speak to us, minister to us, and reach us where we are in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship together, church.

Thanks again for listening.

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