Planted

Well, who said today they were glad they came to the house of the Lord?

Now, I do want to acknowledge that I think Noah, I think he mistakenly prayed for a good sermon.

He was asking for a short sermon.

Can't promise that.

Y'all know me.

But kids, you're dismissed.

I see.

I was getting to that.

I promise I was getting there.

So I have a couple things business-wise to do, right?

Pastor Aaron always leaves me at least one little or two little things to cover.

So maybe you have Facebook.

You already saw, hopefully, our little advertisement for the marriage conference.

It was awesome last year.

It really was good.

You know, I've been married a long time.

Not as long as some of you, but some of you have been married a lot longer than.

And I'll tell you, I learned a lot that that weekend.

It's stuff that actually Heidi and I still take with us.

You know, one of the things they gave us was these little cards.

Do you remember that, Steve?

They gave us these cards of the fishbowl.

And it gave you something you were supposed to talk about with your spouse and talk about them and their characteristics and what you we actually took that with us on vacation this last year.

And we actually took not the fishbowl because we didn't want to break it, but we took some of the cards with us.

And we've taken them in the car before, just to have a moment to talk.

And I will tell you, 30 years of marriage almost, and we're you know, we're still learning about each other, and we're still learning about what it takes to make a good marriage.

And you know, anybody who tells you that marriage is easy is a liar, right?

It is, it is, it's hard, it can be hard, right?

You got all these exterior things pushing in and out, and I'll tell you, I tell you, one day a year, it's not a bad thing to take a few moments and and really invest in your marriage.

I really mean that if you're getting married, I highly suggest you do this.

Get yourself on a great foundation to start off.

It is really, really good.

So there's my plug.

Everybody can acknowledge that I have plugged that.

Next week, I'm gonna actually ask one of the couples who were here to get up and talk about it for a few minutes because we want to go forward into that, into this.

So there's my public of service announcement for that one.

You you can see on Facebook if you'd like to.

The next thing I Pastor Aaron and I wanted to kind of start talking about is how many of you look at the calendar that we put out on social media every every month that shows everything.

How many of you had a panic attack when you saw some of it?

Diana.

Sorry.

So, one of the things I wanted to talk about on that calendar, right, is is you might have seen September 27th and you went, what is that?

Small group Sunday.

You are going to hear us all month begin to get our hearts ready for small groups.

Some of you have heard about things like the middles, the swag.

I won't call it that because Aaron's not here and it doesn't get, I don't get any effect for teasing him about it.

So there's nothing, no, no joy for me in that.

We have our young adults, right?

Where we're gonna be kicking off even more small groups.

And so September 27th, you don't want to miss that day.

We are going to really kick off small groups.

We're gonna be introducing small groups that you don't even know about yet, that'll be exciting, that meet a lot of different needs.

And so be here September 27th.

It'll be a fun service, I promise.

It's gonna be a lot of people up here, not just Aaron or myself talking.

You're gonna get to hear from a lot of people throughout that are helping out with small groups and our hearts for what we want to do to connect ourselves together, right?

And we want to connect ourselves with God.

So that's in the future here, September 27th.

Everybody say it with me.

September 27th.

Try it again.

Small groups, September 27th.

All right, I'm excited.

Wow, you guys are rough this morning.

All right, well, many of you know.

We've got a picture here.

Pastor Aaron is on sabbatical here.

Looks like he's roughing it right now.

He and Josh hanging out.

Really, does anybody know what sabbatical really is?

What it is, an opportunity to get away, right?

We disconnect.

We we we've given Pastor Aaron the freedom to disconnect and say, hey, you go get refreshed, hear from the Lord.

Sometimes it takes getting in the mountains where nobody can get to you.

And so this next week I'm gonna ask you guys a fair favor.

He has not asked me to do this, but I would ask that unless it's an emergency, let him alone.

Let him alone this week.

Let him get hit and hear from God, let him get that fresh vision, let him let him kind of renew and restore.

If you've got something, you've got me.

I'm here, I'm in town.

I've got our board members.

Jamie, where are you at?

Jamie, Bill, Ted's around here.

Josh is not here.

So don't bother Josh.

But you can get a hold of any one of us.

Let them, let them get restored.

Let him come back with fresh vision, fresh fire.

It's important.

And and and and it can be.

Seems like pastoring's easy.

It's not, they bear a lot of weight.

And so give him that that room that he needs to just kind of refresh.

And that's that's a public service announcement from me.

So who's ready to hear for the word of the Lord?

How many of you are just wishing I'd get off the stage?

Sorry for you.

I I get to do something I don't normally get to do today.

I get to just free, I get to throw out my own sermon.

I don't have to preach on a series today.

So I got to pull from my own heart what God is speaking to me, what God has been doing in my life, where where he's been leading me.

And I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I actually got the opportunity to deliver a version of this message a few weeks ago to another church.

And I thought, well, this will be easy, right?

And then as I began to pray about it this week, God began to just add more things and and began to pour into it.

And so it's called planted.

And for those of you who don't know, Jeremiah 17, 8 and 9 is my life verse.

And we'll read it here in a minute.

But this to me came, God like brought this verse to me in a time where, man, I gotta tell you, I was going through drought.

My life for blight, lack of a better word, it sucked.

I wasn't a very happy camper.

And God brought this verse on me, and he began to just he began to speak it over me.

And it changed my perspective, and it changed how I think.

And and and I there's so many things that you can bring from that, but this has become my life verse.

But it wouldn't be a Kelly sermon, Steve, without me telling a story, would it?

So, how many of you know that gardening is not a genetic gift?

It is not a genetic gift.

My parents, they've been gardeners their whole lives, and I gotta tell you, they're awesome.

They're really good at it, actually.

Whether it was when we had a garden when I was growing up to now their yard, my mom still calls me with all of the advice.

She likes shows up at my house and replants my flowers, trims my trees, and I love her for it.

But as a kid, it really made it possible for us to eat.

There was some lean times, and there were some days that's all we ate was out of the garden.

And so I'm really thankful for that.

But my gardening skills and loving, love of gardening were not passed down.

That's a whole nother story.

I'll tell you guys some other day.

Gardening, not my thing.

But while Heidi and I lived in Waterloo, she begged me, she said, Kelly, plant me a garden.

No, not want to plant you a garden.

But as things work, sometimes we give in.

And so I began to plant a build a little raised area in our backyard.

And you know, it was honestly, she wanted sweet corn, right?

And she's like, Kelly, you work in agriculture for Pete's sakes, surely you can do this.

And I was like, uh so I did the whole thing, right?

I did her little raised garden.

I got some soil from the local compost site because it was free.

That's the best kind of soil, right?

It's free.

And I did this whole little number.

I threw out some seeds, right?

In our backyard, and I was like, okay, this is whatever.

And I can tell you now, the soil wasn't super deep.

I didn't for sure work the ground under it.

I didn't water it probably like I should.

Guess what?

The corn sprouted through, it grew about two feet, and died.

Just enough to get Heidi's hopes up.

It died.

So guess what?

No corn.

Sad wife, sad Heidi, and Kelly who just didn't care.

Truthfully.

Right?

And I began to think about this this week.

What did I do wrong?

Well, the first thing I didn't do is I didn't look at the ground.

I didn't work the ground, right?

I didn't plant the seed in the right kind of soil.

I literally got it at the free compost site in Waterloo, Iowa.

There's a reason we call it the Dirty Lou.

Right?

And I can say that because I live there.

I didn't weed the ground.

I didn't plant it near a water source.

I didn't take care of it.

It wasn't the seed that didn't grow.

It was me.

It was me.

And I thought, wow.

Our lives are much like the story of my gardening experience.

We just show up here at church, right?

How many of you just showed up this morning?

Don't raise your hand.

Don't raise your hand.

You just showed up at church and you expect everything in your life to grow.

You fall expect your life to fall in line and prosper.

Yet we don't know how to or give the kind of care needed that seed needs to grow.

Today we're going to look at what the Bible says a little bit about our lives and how we are planted and how we care for the land.

Because it's really important.

Because I can assure you guys right now, right here, right in this place today, that the seed is good.

The genetics are good.

The stock from which it comes from is good.

It's good.

Because I'll assure you that if the seed is good, it's really about how we care for the ground that it's planted in.

If you want to harvest the ground, who who loves the harvest?

I love the harvest.

Right?

You have to make the ground ready to grow.

A farmer prior to planting works the ground.

They treat the ground.

They get it ready.

Then they can expect a harvest.

If you will take care of the ground of your heart, I promise you this things will grow and you will have a harvest.

So turn your Bibles with me today.

Who's got their Bible?

Shake it around.

Come on, wave it around.

Come on.

You guys are waiting.

This is Labor Day.

Come on, wake up.

Wake up.

Turn it into Jeremiah chapter 17.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

Now, I will tell you guys I didn't wear my hearing aids today.

And I did it on purpose because I need you guys to respond and be loud today.

Okay.

Oh, dear Lord.

Gonna be a long Sunday service for all of you.

Haydn, what do you think?

It's gonna be a long, oh, I got the curry up.

Let's move it along.

All right.

Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 7 and 8.

Jeremiah 17:7

Says they are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and never stop producing.

Did we get something different?

Oh, well, you know, some people and their children.

I can't blame anybody else.

I blame the proofreader.

Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 8 and 9.

Jeremiah 17:8

All right, you guys ready?

You want me to read it again, Steve?

Is that what you need me to do?

Okay.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing.

That's good, isn't it?

But I've missed the first part, and I did kind of kind of intentionally, because I want you to I want you to hear the first part.

The second part.

And then I want you to hear the first part.

It says, But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and made their Lord made the Lord their hope and confidence.

See, there's before you can produce, before you can stay green, you gotta plant.

You gotta put that trust and that hope and that confidence in there.

Too many people we want the harvest, we want the fruit, but we don't want to do the work.

Right?

Can I say something that might hurt your feelings?

Sure, I can.

I'm the associate pastor.

I do whatever I want, right?

Say what I want because you guys, this might always I always think this might be my last Sunday.

Who knows?

That could be my last Sunday to preach, Wendy.

Who knows?

Right?

Sometimes we're lazy Christians.

Just like I was a lazy gardener, we're lazy Christians.

We're lazy Christians.

Nobody likes to hear the word lazy.

I hate that word, but it's the truth, isn't it?

We're lazy Christians.

And that's really what we're gonna talk about today as we as we begin to look at at this sermon today.

So I'm gonna pray.

Father, I just thank you for this time.

God, you are worthy of the work that we need to put in.

Lord, you are worthy of everything.

Lord, I pray today that as as I preach this message, as I speak it out, Father, that it would be your words and your words only.

God, that I just be an empty vessel that you pour out.

Lord, that you would pour out whatever you've put into me.

Lord, these words that you spoke this week, God, would come out and they would produce a great harvest in our lives.

Father, I just thank you for each and every person here.

I pray that their heart today would be would be tilled up and ready to receive the seed that you have put out there today.

I thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

The soil you plant yourself in determines your growth and how much fruit you will produce.

I want you to hear me again.

I'm gonna speak that.

I said it very slowly on purpose because this is important.

Too many of you don't care about the soil, you just want to eat the sweet corn.

Right?

But the soil you plant yourself in determines your growth and how much fruit you will produce.

Now, Jesus, he has some words about that because the soil that you plant yourself in matters.

It absolutely matters.

In Matthew chapter 13, verses 3 through 9, he he tells this parable.

Matthew 13:3–9

He tells he tells them, he tells this great parable about soil.

And most people, here's the thing, they kind of get caught, kind of get fixated on the farmer, right?

The guy who's throwing out the seed, but really it's all about the soil.

It's all about the soil.

So I'm gonna read it to you today.

It's up here if you want to.

Uh Matthew chapter 13, verses 3 through 9.

Matthew 13:3–9

And he says, He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one.

Listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds.

And as he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.

Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock.

The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow, but the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died.

Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.

Still other seeds fell in fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was 30, 60, and even a hundred times as much has been planted.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

Man, this is one of the most impactful parables.

He's directly speaking to us about the condition of our hearts.

Now, when I think about agriculture, because you guys know I work in agriculture outside of the church, but the soil that you are planted in determines, excuse me, the soil you are in determines how much nutrients you get.

So where you're planted depends on how much you're going to get from the soil.

In Iowa, we're really fortunate, right?

We we have really good soil here in Iowa.

We get lots of black dirt, lots of nutrients.

And farmers go around, though, even here in Iowa, and we put nutrients into the soil.

Now, I don't want to get into all the politics of all that, but they have to put nutrients into the soil, right?

So that they can get the best harvest out of it.

So if your soil doesn't have nutrients, guess what happens?

Y plant doesn't grow.

If you plant corn in sand, guess what it doesn't do?

It doesn't grow.

Why would it?

Where's the nutrients in sand?

Come on.

Some of you kids out there ate sand at once or twice in your life, right?

Nicole, you ate a little sand, right?

Yeah.

You probably did more making people eat sand, but but we've all done it, right?

There's no nutrients in it.

There's nothing in it.

It leaves you hungry.

But your soil quality is the key element that will help you to grow.

I want you to hear that, right?

Your soil quality is the key element of what will help you grow.

Farmer can throw out seeds all day long.

Throw them out.

Just like I did in Waterloo, right?

Throwing, just throwing out my man, just wherever.

But if the ground isn't right, the ground is that that ground will never produce seed.

It never has a chance from the get-go if you don't have good soil.

Right?

Because the truth of it is, let me let me help you before I read this next statement.

You might not be the seed thrower outer.

You may not be the planter, but you own the ground.

You are the ground owner.

I work in agriculture, right?

I told you guys that, right?

I deal a lot with folks who who they rent the ground from people.

They the but the owner is the one responsible for it.

They share the responsibility with the guy who's going to plant it.

They share the cost, they share the work.

And that makes this next statement.

Maybe something you should take note of.

You are responsible for the condition of the ground that your life grows in.

You are responsible.

It's not the pastor.

So many of you want to make it the pastor's responsibility.

The board member, your mama, your daddy, whoever you are responsible for it.

You determine how deep you want to be planted.

You own that.

Now, Jesus talked about four types of seed or four types of ground.

And what does that ground of your heart look like when the seed is planted?

And Jesus gives us these four great examples of what the ground looks like.

And I think it's really apropos that we can look at that and go, oh, wow.

Hopefully you're going to fall into the fourth one.

But some of you might look at that and go, oh, I'm number one, two, or three.

And I tell you, if you're one, two, or three, we got a little bit of work here to do, but that's okay.

So let's talk about the first one.

That very first one out of Matthew 13 says, some are planted on a footpath.

And you think about what is a footpath?

What is a footpath?

It's solid, it's hard, right?

Nobody wants to walk on an even ground.

You ever, a few years ago, more than a few years ago now, I got the opportunity to go out and hand fertilize five acres of test plot.

It sucks.

It does.

It's bad.

Right.

I had this little hand pusher and I'm pushing out the fertilizer, right?

You know how hard it was to walk my boots, my pants, everything were covered.

I went in that day expecting to work in the office.

That is not what happened.

And it was it was miserable.

It's the opposite of that.

If the footpath is hard, it means nothing penetrates.

I look, I compare it to a sidewalk.

That's what I looked at.

It was like a sidewalk, it's solid.

And what happens there?

When a person gets that, it's it's it's ground that's not plowed up.

There's no work that's been done to it.

It's hard.

You ever watch you ever walk through a field when it's hard?

It's almost like cement, right?

It's almost like cement.

So as you think, imagine here we are, we're out here throwing seed today.

What happens to that seed?

It just sits on top, right?

Birds eat it, the wind blows it.

Opportunity for it to take take hold does absolutely nothing.

Nothing will grow there.

So I want you to think about your heart.

What is your heart like today?

Is it a footpath?

Does nothing grow in your heart?

You come in here week after week after week after week, and yet nothing changes.

Nothing changes because we're out here throwing the we're out here throwing the seed, right?

We're out here planting the seed.

And yet nothing's happening.

That's that's a footpath art.

It usually means for us as people, we have no commitment.

As soon as the wind blows in a good direction, guess what happens?

We're moving on and we never actually do anything.

There's no there's no roots to grab hold.

It's barren ground.

It gets no water.

It gets no seed because it's so hard.

It's here today, gone tomorrow.

No growth happens.

That doesn't feel like a very cared for ground, does it?

You might get a little growth, maybe some weeds.

Nobody wants weeds.

But it's barren ground.

There's no harvest on that land.

Then Jesus talks about the next type of soil of our heart.

It's the shallow and the rocky soil.

This soil looks good on top.

It looks good.

But underneath it's hard and it's full of rocks, and it leaves no room for any kind of growth that goes on in there.

You can plant stuff in this soil.

Take you back to my Waterloo experiment.

You can plant it there, but it'll never grow beyond that initial stage.

Because the roots can never really take hold.

A good plant root is deep, but here there's nothing it can do.

So what happens when there's no root to grab hold?

Anyone know what happens when a group when there's no root to grab hold?

It dies.

It withers.

It doesn't just die, it withers.

Withering's really a rough thing to watch, right?

It's slow and it just dies.

This is the person who does just enough to look good.

They show up, but their heart's somewhere else.

And though they can let the seed take hold on Sunday morning, by afternoon of Sunday, they are on to the rest of their life.

The seed's already died.

What needs to happen is they need to plow up the ground of their heart, right?

And begin picking out all the rocks that are there.

Because that's what a farmer does.

When they first do a plow and they're ready to work new land, you know what they do?

They take the plow, they run it through.

They don't just plant right away.

Then they go through and they find the rock.

And then they begin to get out there and they get the rock out.

And they begin to take out the things that would stop growth.

And that's really what we need to do here.

Some of you are wondering why I'm struggling, why things just aren't going the way it should be.

It's because our roots aren't taking place.

They're not, they're not grabbing hold because they have nothing to be planted in, because we haven't done the work to fix our ground of our hearts.

We've left all the rocks, we've left all the things that would impede, and we wither and we die.

That seed, every week you get it.

It's not that it's not good seed.

Some of you are saying, man, the seed quality is bad.

No germination.

But the reality is the seed is good.

It's the ground that's bad because you haven't cleaned up the ground yet.

Then thirdly, Jesus talks about thorny soil.

This is interesting.

Again, this is soil that looks good.

It's got the potential for growth.

It's got a lot of potential.

But because the soil was not properly protected and cared for, weeds begin to grow up and they begin to choke out the life of the plant.

It can't produce any fruit because it's being choked to death.

This is the person who maybe puts in some effort.

You might show up on Sunday, maybe, maybe, maybe even, maybe, maybe even came on Wednesday night.

God forbid, but somebody comes on Wednesday night, right?

Maybe you come on Wednesday night.

But they just let everything stay bad because they're not willing to do the work.

They're not willing to go in there and lay before the Lord and say, Show me, Lord, the things that offend you.

Show me the things that keep me from you.

They're the ones who don't want to put any kind of work into that.

They can't let go of their sin.

The things that keep them from growing in Christ, they can't let it go.

They got to hold on.

Maybe it's sin, maybe it's people.

Activities.

So every time the seed takes hold and it begins, you begin to, oh man, I'm I'm fired up.

I'm walking.

You got to Monday even.

Come on, how many of you remember the message on Monday?

Right?

We get to Monday, man.

We're ready, we're fired up.

And then by Monday afternoon, ouch.

It just begins to get choked out.

Begin to get suffocated.

The growth will never come naturally to maturity again because of the exterior factors that were left unchecked instead of treating them.

We're really content to come on Sundays, but to do the work, to lay out the protectant, to get the Roundup.

You know, I started agriculture when Roundup didn't was everything.

This is the Roundup.

Right?

This is the Roundup right here.

And then we can truly go to work.

We can truly begin to see growth.

And then Jesus mentions the fourth soil, and that's the fertile soil, right?

That's that's that soil that that when the seed is planted, it grows, it nurtures it.

It grows to full maturity.

How many of y'all are watching the corn right now?

And there's some good-looking corn out there.

Soybeans looking good, right?

It grows up to the full maturity, produces fruit, produces a harvest beyond all expectations.

The ground is cared for.

The owner, notice what I said, the owner takes great responsibility in making sure that the ground will grow seed.

This is the person who's actively discipling their life.

They're spending time with God, they're listening to Him, they're engaged, they're planted in their churches.

Maybe a small group, even.

They're planted.

They are looking for every opportunity to give that seed more chance to grow.

They've surrounded themselves with all the nutrients.

They've surrounded themselves with the protectants, and now they're ready to grow.

They're active.

They understand that their life reflects God's work in them.

They understand that how they care for the ground reflects God's growth in them.

Now I want to be really careful here because some of you are like, oh man, fertile ground, that sounds really good to me.

Because they're all in, you know.

I can do that, right?

I want you to hear this though.

This person isn't perfect, but they are caring for the soil constantly.

Doesn't mean they don't make mistakes.

Doesn't mean they don't have problems.

But they're constantly asking God to point it out, show them, give them the things, the tools to take care of that soil, to take care of their life so that they can grow.

This is where God is working.

Doesn't mean drought isn't coming because remember our scripture today says, even when drought comes, they continue to produce fruit.

Drought comes, guys.

This is life.

I'm talking about soil, but I'm talking about life now.

Drought comes.

Sometimes the Doratio comes through and wants to knock us down.

Sometimes the hail batters us.

Sometimes there's not enough water, it feels like.

Because they're doing the work.

Right?

They're doing the work.

Now, the second part of this piece, when you're growing, when you're when you're having this healthy peace where you're planted, is you have to be planted near a water source.

Now, this is really awesome.

Jesus has so much to say today about being planted.

John chapter 7, verses 37 through 38.

John 7:37–38

He makes a statement about that.

It says, on the last day of the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, Anyone who is thirsty, come to me.

Anyone who believes in me, come and drink.

For the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart.

Oh man.

I want to read you the verse eight again of Jeremiah 17.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that run deep and reach deep into the water.

Come on, Jesus is the living water.

Come on, he wants you to be planted next to him.

He's assuring growth in this.

Because right there and there, he declares, I am the living source of water.

There's nowhere else on earth that declares they're the living water.

Because you can have good soil, but if you don't have water, you're not growing.

I'm no agronomic genius, by the way, but I can tell you from an agronomic side that if there is no water, there is no growth, there is no harvest.

And Jesus tells us right here that he is that source of life and water.

The world, they're gonna try to tell you, they're gonna try to sell you on all other forms of living water, exercise, yuck, knowledge, work, relationships, hobbies, right?

They are nothing but a fake substitute for Jesus Christ.

There is no life-giving authority other than Jesus.

That's it.

That is the only form of living water.

That is the only life source you want to grow, you want to harvest, you want your soil to be properly cared for.

It has to have living water.

Jesus is the only one that can cause our life to flourish.

He is the only one.

And we have to immerse ourselves in that living water.

It's a choice.

Remember what I said we care for the we're the ground owner.

You have to do the work.

The riverbank is there, but if you never get in, it doesn't matter.

You can stand there and think it looks pretty all day.

But if you don't get in it, you'll never receive the nutrients from it.

We can't move away from that living water.

That's what happens so often in life.

We begin to move away from it.

It's easy, right?

We got things going on.

How many of you got things going on right now?

Sometimes it's easy to begin to walk away.

But I'm so busy, God.

I'm working so many hours.

You understand if I don't do any care for the ground today, because I'm I'm just I've just worked so hard.

Oh, but God, there's it is football season.

Forgive me.

The cowboys do play at noon, Lord.

Right?

I need to get I need to get to the game.

Right?

We just kind of keep sidestepping a little bit.

And the growth begins to wither.

You begin to wither, and you begin to wonder, where are you, Lord?

I spent six months of my life asking, God, where are you?

Where are you?

He says, right here.

Just step in, knucklehead.

I thought that was kind of an interesting piece when he he spoke.

Just step in.

But I will tell you that moving away from the water source, that living water, is gradual.

And so we have to be diligent.

It's easy to move away.

You guys ever notice that's easy to move away from Jesus?

That life source?

It's really easy.

You just kind of, oh man, I'm busy, or oh, I got this to do today, or oh, that you know what?

I'll read in a little bit.

I'll pray in just a tad bit.

I'm guilty.

I've done that.

And then we just keep this gradual peace until we, before we know it, the river's a mile away.

What was a step or two yesterday?

All of a sudden felt like we're a mile away today.

That's because we didn't do the work, guys.

We weren't diligent.

It's kind of like my corn out in the backyard.

I never went out and checked to see if it had enough water.

If I felt like watering it, maybe I would.

I really don't like putting the hose away.

Any of us not like putting the hose away?

I hate putting the hose away.

Right?

So I'm like, oh if the hose is already out there, I guess I'll water it, but maybe not.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Maybe that'll get it.

Right?

Maybe pastor will give me some good stuff and that'll water the ground tomorrow.

Quit depending on the pastor to do ever do the work.

Pastor's not lazy.

We are the lazy ones.

You are responsible to stay near the water source because it's so gradual.

It's so, so gradual.

This is my last point, believe it or not.

I'm talking to all of you now because I'm talking as a church family, I'm talking as a as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles.

I want you to hear this part because you have a responsibility.

We must plant our families in the river, the in the river of living water.

We have to make a declaration today.

Many of you have heard me over the years, the five years I've been here.

It's been five years today.

Like Labor Day, five years, right?

Five years.

You've heard me say you have to make a declaration with your life.

Come on, how many of you have heard me say I got to make a declaration, right?

I think it's important.

Make a declaration over your family, where you're going to plant your family at.

You're going to take some ownership here.

Those children are yours.

You own the soil.

There's a story in the Bible in the book of Joshua.

And I love this story.

It's one of my favorite verses.

Joshua 24, verses 14 through 15.

Joshua 24:14–15

He says, So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly.

Put away forever your idols your ancestor worshipped when they were beyond the Euphrates River in Egypt.

Serve the Lord alone.

This is Joshua talking.

But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve.

Would you prefer the gods of your ancestors serve beyond the Euphrates, or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose lands you now live?

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

So as one of your shepherds here, I declare today, as for this house, we will serve the Lord.

Right?

We will be planted, we will water the soil, we will do what needs to be done.

But Joshua here, what he's doing is he's declaring prophetically, he's he's talking over his family, over the nation of Israel.

It's an act of faith that we have to have.

It's love, it's maybe the greatest love for his family that he could ever have, is that he says, I will make sure the ground is ready.

We will stay near the water source.

He's he's speaking this so much.

He's speaking it so prophetically, but so lovingly over them.

He knew he was planting them in good soil because he was cultivating that.

He was working it, he was making sure that it was weeded.

He was Joshua's a bad dude, by the way.

He was a good him, he was he was serious.

He was a serious man who took the responsibility for leading Israel into the promised land.

And he said, I will own every bit of that.

I will do what I need to do because the Lord spoke to him.

As family leaders were prepared, or we have a job to prepare.

Nate, as a young father, you have a job to prepare the soil for your children.

You own that.

Grandparents, Steve, Diana, you own that soil.

That's yours.

We're to ensure that they're near the water source.

We're we're to ensure that the ground is tilled up, their hearts are soft.

We're our job is to start removing the rocks.

Start the process so they know what to do.

Make sure that they're ready for the seed that's coming.

You are the gardeners for your family's spiritual lives.

You are that gardener.

You have responsibility in that.

It's your job to make sure that your family can be planted.

He understood this importance Joshua did, the importance of leading his family both physically and spiritually.

And it starts really with the story of in Joshua 1.

So I started you with the end.

Now I'm going to take you to the to the to the first part of it.

And God challenges Joshua because Moses has died and says, Hey, you're going to lead these people.

You're going to lead your family into the promised land.

And he tells him not to deviate.

And he tells him to be courageous and bold.

Speak prophetically over your family.

Plant them in the right spots.

Make sure their hearts are prepared for what's coming in the promised land.

And then that Joshua then responds that he will lead these people.

He won't deviate from the course that God set in front of him.

God's challenging him to be planted in the living water of him today.

That doesn't mean, guys, there's not setbacks.

There are.

But looking through this story, there's success.

There's success.

Because we're called to be the examples for our family.

We're to be God's reflection when our families see us.

When the people of Israel answered the charge of Joshua, they weren't just answering Joshua's charge, they were answering God's charge for their lives.

And Joshua knew that his leadership would reflect God's face.

So when your children see you, Don, they should see the face of the Lord.

They should see the Father's face.

What does your family see when they look at you?

Do they see a lazy gardener?

Or do they look at someone who worked the soil, who got it ready for seed, and who's now ready for harvest?

As we wrap this up, I just want to go over a couple of things with you.

Kind of a different lesson, I know, but I think it matters.

Because before we can do anything else, we have to get planted.

We gotta get planted.

This can't be a casual thing.

This can't be I'll be gone tomorrow.

I'll forget in 30 minutes.

Some of you will.

But I hope that you hear this.

Because where you are planted matters.

It's not, it sets the course of not just your life today, but your life for eternity.

Some of you think in worldly terms and you're thinking about just today.

How many of you are already thinking about lunch, right?

But this, where you're planted at, what we're doing right now, sets your pace for eternity.

It sets the harvest that will come.

It sets the place of your life to go.

And so I think it's really, really important that we ask ourselves this question how do we garden our hearts today?

How do we Care for our hearts today.

Because the condition of our hearts matter.

And I want to remind you of the four types of soil that the Bible compared it to.

We can have the heart that's like a sidewalk or a footpath.

No matter how good the seed goes is, it will always bounce off.

Because there's nowhere for it to grab hold of.

Jesus said there's a second kind of.

So it's a heart that's full of rocks that won't allow the seed to grow because there's no depth.

No work has been done to clear away the obstacles that would keep us from growing.

Thirdly, we're gonna have a heart that's full of weeds.

Maybe that's the worst part.

Because it chokes out the harvest.

Because we can't get past all the things that we allow to stay in our lives and allow it to come up beside us, and yes, there's some things going good.

And then it just sucks the life out of us.

Because it has to share the water, has to share the nutrients, and those weeds are tough.

And thirdly, or fourthly, we can have the fertile soil.

A heart that's worked constantly, examined on a daily basis for things that would keep us from growing.

It's the it's that garden that's been working.

It's like my parents, they they were out there, you know.

The slave laborer was out there hoeing the weeds, right?

My dad dragging out the hose every night to make sure it got watered.

It was him staying up at night to make sure the coons couldn't eat the corn.

Right?

It's that fertile soil that's been protected and worked and protected.

But it's also the soil where growth happens and harvest and great fruits show up.

Then we have to be planted near that water source.

Because even in dry times, if you're planted near the water source, if you're planted near Jesus, guess what?

You're still gonna grow.

You're still gonna produce fruit even when you don't feel like it.

Even when the times are tough.

Even when everything else looks like a drought out there, your tree stays green because you're near the water source.

And then you have to plant your families.

You have to take some responsibility, guys.

I told you this is more about the story of the lazy, the lazy gardener.

We have to take some responsibility for our families, making sure that they have a place to grow, a place just like this, where we are set up to grow.

We have to have a place where they're watered, their homes should be a place of where they can get access to the living water.

And then they can begin to produce the harvest.

Jeremiah chapter 17 sounds so simple, doesn't it?

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

It does.

But there's work in there.

It's just like any garden.

There has to be attention that has to be paid to it.

There are times we're gonna pull our attention away.

It's gonna send us to other water sources.

I'm gonna tell you the truth, it happens.

But I'm here to tell you today that there is only one source.

One source of living water.

All other rivers will dry up and will die.

You might find those quick sustaining fixes, but unless you are planted near and right at the bank of the living water of Jesus, you will wither and die.

That's what it means to be planted.

Some of you need to take roots today.

Maybe this is the seed that needs to take roots.

Maybe some of you need to take some time and plow up the ground this morning.

Maybe that's you.

And you're saying, Well, Kelly, you're just talking about all these planting and things.

Well, let's let's let's let the rubber meet the road.

What does that mean?

Some of you may need to ask Jesus into your heart for the first time.

Some of you may need to say, Man, I have screwed up, walked away from the living water.

I have gotten so far away, I can't even see the river anymore.

Some of you may be halfway to not being able to see the river anymore.

But you need to plant yourself there.

Maybe you're just feeling spiritually dry right now because it's one of the dry seasons, and you just need to be reminded that you are planted and that your roots go deep.

Maybe.

So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask everybody to stand up with me.

Bow your heads.

If today you heard this message and you said, My heart is like the footpath, and I need to start that work by accepting Jesus into my life today.

If that's you, raise your hand.

I see those hands.

I see all of them.

I see those.

Yeah.

Well, let's let's start there today.

Let's start there.

I'm gonna ask you to just pray along with me here today.

Just repeat after me.

Maybe everybody will do that.

Maybe nobody will be embarrassed today.

Dear Jesus, Lord, I no longer want to have a hardened heart.

Lord, help me to toil to till up the sea, the ground of my heart today.

Lord, I invite you into my life.

I'm asking you to be my Lord and my savior.

Lord, pointing out the things in my life that offend you.

Lord, I pray that I'm asking that my heart would produce fruit today.

And that you would be my savior from here through eternity.

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, secondly, I want to ask you just really quickly.

Maybe some of you just feel dry today.

And you say, man, it feels like it's a drought season.

Mine was during COVID.

There was nowhere to go.

Oh, it's miserable.

No one to surround me.

No one to pray over me.

I just languished for a while.

That if today you were saying, that's me, raise your hand.

I just feel dry.

I'm just in a drought spot today.

Just in a drought.

I get it.

Don't be ashamed.

It's okay if you're in a drought today.

Now, this is where the bold part comes.

Would you come forward this morning and let some of the others who maybe have been through the drought begin to pray with you?

Would you do that?

Be bold?

You gotta be bold.

You gotta be bold.

Get it?

Come on, don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

I saw more hands than this.

I'm gonna ask a few of my prayer team members just to come and pray with these young ladies here.

If you just surround them, just surround them this morning.

And I'm gonna begin to pray.

Father, I just thank you this morning.

God, I thank you for hearts that are honest this morning.

God, Lord, that that people who feel that they've either stepped away from the living water, God, or they just know that this is a dry season, that this is a hard season.

God, I pray that you would begin to remind them of who they are.

Lord, that you would remind them that they are children of the Most High, that they are planted near a living water, that they can continue to grow today, God.

Lord, I pray that they would begin to just be nourished in this time.

Lord, that they would begin to be, that they would begin to flourish and that they would begin to bear fruit.

God, as they they commit their lives to you, Lord, as they they open their hearts in honesty to you today, saying that here I am, God.

You know the condition.

You know how I feel.

God, but Lord, today I pray that they would not be driven by feelings, Lord, that they would begin to know that they are that they are that they are children of you.

Lord, that they can trust you, Lord, that they can continue on because of you, the living water, today.

Lord, I just thank you for your goodness today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.