WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.799 Okay, this morning we're going to look back at the passage that Mary read for us in Jeremiah, 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:12.240 Jeremiah chapter 17, and one section of that chapter, I'll say a little bit more about 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.160 that in a moment. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:19.080 But I guess in a sense the question that I would like us all to ask ourselves this morning, 00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:23.800 it's a very basic question, is who are you? 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:24.800 Who am I? 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:26.320 Okay, it's deep. 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:31.000 A philosophical question maybe for a Sunday morning. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:40.560 But I just wonder about that, it's a really important question that we need to ask ourselves, 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:47.120 because I would ask a secondary question to that is, what's your public profile? 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:49.640 What's your persona? 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:53.000 And the two can be different, you know? 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:59.679 And maybe that particularly is a very relevant question too, if you're a young person, if 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:04.200 you're a fresher, if you're coming down, leaving home for the first time, and you're finding 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:11.120 yourself in a completely new circle of friends, maybe you're here for work, it may not be 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.960 that you are, and obviously a lot of you aren't. 00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:18.680 But nonetheless, it's a good question for us all to ask, you know, what is our public 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:19.680 persona? 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.200 What are we like in public with other people? 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:28.360 And yet, who are we ultimately, what are we like in and of ourselves? 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:34.880 You know, if you're coming into a new community at any level, it's tough, and it's tough being 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:37.760 a Christian particularly, I think. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:48.520 It's not particularly populist to be a Christian, and or a significant life choice as it were. 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:53.799 So sometimes we can have a public persona that hides that, because we may be a little 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:55.599 bit embarrassed about it all. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:01.280 But even church can be a difficult place for us, not just for the first time, but maybe 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.799 for the hundred and fourth time in church. 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:04.799 It can be a tough place. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:07.679 Church can be a place with a lot of judgment going on. 00:02:07.679 --> 00:02:13.240 It can be a place where it's easy to cover up what we're really like or what we really 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:19.000 feel, it can be a place where we try to impress a lot of the time. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.400 And so it might be our public persona in church. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.719 It's very different from what we are with others or indeed privately in our own lives. 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:32.360 And the thing is that God isn't interested in that at all, really. 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:36.200 He's not interested in our public persona as our identity. 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:45.280 He's much, much more significantly interested in our character, in what we are on the inside, 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.919 as it were, what we are in our hearts. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:54.079 And that really brings us to a key truth of the Christian gospel in chapter 17 of this 00:02:54.079 --> 00:02:59.359 chapter in verse 9, the summary God makes of the heart. 00:02:59.359 --> 00:03:01.839 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. 00:03:01.839 --> 00:03:04.280 Who can understand it? 00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:09.680 And so the key to the Christian message is recognizing the need of our heart, becoming 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:16.920 whole and recognizing that instead of just dying inside, which ultimately we all are 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:22.199 without Jesus Christ, it's about living in from the inside out, which is the message 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:24.719 of the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ. 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:29.439 Who comes to make us new from the inside out, it doesn't work from the outside in, which 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.240 is so often how we work. 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:35.320 We work from the outside thinking it might be able to change us in the inside. 00:03:35.320 --> 00:03:39.120 God acts differently and that's the key to life. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:43.560 So what we're going to do over the next number of weeks on a Sunday morning is to begin a 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:52.439 series on discipleship, really getting to the heart of your matter, okay? 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:57.160 Knowing, looking at and thinking about where our priorities should lie, because there are 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:04.800 many, many competing priorities in our lives and our responsibility as a church is to focus 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:09.800 your heart on Jesus Christ and on the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and discipling 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:16.319 one another and encouraging one another along that way because we're prone to wander. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:20.920 And so discipleship, there's a discipleship team within the church who are helping to 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:28.680 develop and encourage a clear vision for church involvement in discipleship through city groups, 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:32.840 through one to one, through being rooted and living in Christ. 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:36.480 Now they're going to have a booklet which will help with that and the front of that 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:40.000 will look something like what's coming up on the screen hopefully. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.240 Yes, there you go, rooted and living in Christ. 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:48.960 And that's that we've got a picture there of the visual picture of the verbal picture 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:52.479 that you're giving in Jeremiah 17. 00:04:52.479 --> 00:04:58.039 Keep that in your mind, even if you're not an imaginative person, it's a great picture 00:04:58.039 --> 00:05:00.199 to keep in your mind. 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:05.879 So what we have in the Old Testament context here in Jeremiah 17 is the Old Testament people 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:14.159 of God having turned away from their relationship with God because they relegated God and the 00:05:14.159 --> 00:05:15.719 significance of God in their lives. 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:20.160 They said that God didn't matter and they started trusting in themselves. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:24.680 God was insignificant, became insignificant to them even though they were the people of 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:31.540 God and they wandered, they drifted far from God as a result. 00:05:31.540 --> 00:05:38.600 They became exiled from Him physically, geographically, been taken out of the Promised Land and ending 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:39.600 up in Babylon. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.640 They'd got it all wrong. 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:46.680 And what we have here is God reminding them a fantastic picture of reminding them what 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:51.919 it means to trust in God, what true following God looks like and what discipleship looks 00:05:51.919 --> 00:05:53.039 like. 00:05:53.039 --> 00:05:58.159 And so in this picture which we're going to look at today, it speaks about what God, it 00:05:58.159 --> 00:06:04.360 gives us a picture of God Himself and it gives us a picture of us and what healthy faith 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:05.919 in Him looks like. 00:06:05.919 --> 00:06:09.800 And that's what we're going to look at as a way of introduction to this discipleship series 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:10.879 this morning. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:16.560 Two pictures then that were given, one of us and one of God. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.879 And the one of God is that He is like living water. 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:24.600 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, verse 7, who trusts in the Lord. 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:30.000 He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.279 Water is the vital source of life, isn't it? 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:41.239 And the Bible uses the image and the illustration of water a lot in throughout its pages and 00:06:41.239 --> 00:06:45.559 it's simply a fundamental part of life. 00:06:45.559 --> 00:06:51.159 I think over 60% of the body is made up of water. 00:06:51.159 --> 00:06:54.719 Its life's great ingredient. 00:06:54.719 --> 00:06:56.159 Water's hugely significant. 00:06:56.159 --> 00:07:02.199 No water, no life to change the kind of image of the Bob Marley song. 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:05.159 No water, no life. 00:07:05.159 --> 00:07:09.319 It's something we don't value terribly much, I don't think, to the same degree in the 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:13.959 West because it runs so freely and we can get out of our taps. 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:18.079 It's cheap and plentiful and it's a bit boring and dull. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:23.079 We would maybe far rather Coke Zero than water. 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:28.480 But it's only when it's scarce that we truly value. 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:34.000 Even in our country, we see occasions when water becomes scarce and how quickly life 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.400 becomes problematic and difficult for us. 00:07:37.400 --> 00:07:42.800 And in the desert, in the type of community and the type of geographical landscape that 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:49.360 the people of God were used to, it was absolutely, clearly a matter of life and death. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:55.120 And so water is used as an illustration of the character of God as the source of life, 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:00.720 as the wellspring of life, as the one who nourishes, who's active, who's powerful, mysterious, 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:04.000 gentle, sweet and satisfying. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.319 And that's the picture, that's the image we're given of who God is, the source of life. 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:16.759 We know Jesus took on that image and that picture himself when he spoke to the Samaritan 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:18.639 woman in John 4.30. 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:21.800 I'm not sure if I've got a… did I put that up? 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:22.800 Yeah. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:27.879 In John 4, verse 13, Jesus said, "'There are everyone who drinks of this water will 00:08:27.879 --> 00:08:28.879 be thirsty again.'" 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.960 That's actually probably the wrong… it should be, but he who drinks the water that 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:38.279 I give him will live… will live for eternal life. 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:43.879 And so there's that reality that Jesus was speaking of himself as the one who is living 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:45.039 water. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:53.039 And then on the… what I read at the beginning of the service as they call to worship, spoke 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:58.279 about Jesus who on that last and great day of the feast spoke about himself, "'If anyone 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:01.399 is thirsty, come to me and drink.' 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:06.199 And he takes on that great image of being living water. 00:09:06.199 --> 00:09:11.120 Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from him." 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:18.080 And of course, he goes on to explain that that is also the Holy Spirit living in us. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:24.360 And the Bible ends with Revelation 22, which is the city with the river of life flowing 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:29.799 from it and the picture of God being at the center of this new heavens and new earth. 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:34.039 So we have a picture of God as living water, okay? 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:39.159 And then we have a picture of this God who is living water offering us blessing. 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:43.399 Blessed is the man, blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord. 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:53.799 And blessing, biblically, is simply a word which speaks about abundant life and the favor 00:09:53.799 --> 00:10:00.159 of God, well-being from God, God's shalom, God's peace. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:06.360 And it is always related to what it means to be fully human, to be fully human is to 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:11.519 be known by God and loved by Him and to be found in Him. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:13.000 That's where the blessing comes. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.200 That's where abundant life comes. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:23.279 That is where our whole well-being as a human person comes from. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:29.519 And the challenge is we often look for blessing in different places to God. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:37.480 We look for wholeness and we look for meaning and direction and ultimate satisfaction in 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:44.319 different things, whether it be in pleasure or in relationships with friends or lovers. 00:10:44.319 --> 00:10:51.879 If it's in family or career or wealth or, I say, politics, that's your hope, you're 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:55.759 currently in deep trouble, the way things are. 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:02.240 Or in a cause for which to live, and none of these things are insignificant, but none 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:09.000 of them can deliver what God promises in His desire to bless us. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:15.279 He says, only in Him can we find this satisfaction and peace, well-being and His shalom through 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.639 Jesus Christ. 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:21.559 Everything else goes away in the end, okay? 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:28.359 So there's my quote from Nine Inches Nails, the song that Johnny Cash made probably popularized, 00:11:28.359 --> 00:11:31.919 what have I become my sweetest friend? 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:37.559 Everyone I know goes away in the end, or everything I know goes away in the end. 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:45.319 And there's this place where the promise is shattered ultimately and where the hope in 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:54.160 which we have put all our energies and trust fails to provide what we're looking for. 00:11:54.160 --> 00:11:59.160 And God is saying, the only place of shalom, the only place of blessing for us as human 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:06.400 beings is in Him, as we trust in the Lord. 00:12:06.400 --> 00:12:13.240 And that's the challenge of the gospel, that's the offer that goes out from Jesus Christ, 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:18.919 that being in the Lord is the only place of ultimate blessing and of ultimate wholeness 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:21.879 and peace in this life and life to come. 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:30.000 So God is illustrated here as living water as a stream, as water. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:31.240 What about us? 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:35.120 And the picture here is of the person who trusts in the Lord. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.399 And the picture is that we are a tree, okay? 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:41.759 He is living water and we are a tree. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:49.600 And there's various aspects of that illustration that apply to us in our lives as Christians, 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.600 which I want to focus on for a few minutes. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:54.720 The first is that we are planted, okay? 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:59.600 We are planted, verse 8 says, is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:01.000 in the stream. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:09.319 And that planting is just a great picture of solidity, of being focused in trusting our 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.440 lives and then trusting our lives into Him. 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:17.640 Being trusting, and twice it says, in one sentence, and always when God repeats Himself, 00:13:17.640 --> 00:13:22.120 it's important, He says, bless it is the man who trusts in the Lord, who trusts in the 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:23.120 Lord. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:32.240 And that's really what, that's the verbal truth of the picture of being planted. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:37.180 It's a fixed mindset that He's looking for the believer to have. 00:13:37.179 --> 00:13:45.079 This is where I stand, I can do no other, the famous words of Luther and a diet of worms 00:13:45.079 --> 00:13:48.079 in Germany. 00:13:48.079 --> 00:13:53.959 That He needed, He couldn't do anything else but stick with the God in whom He trusts. 00:13:53.959 --> 00:13:58.120 It's a life or death matter. 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:00.519 It was so significant for Him. 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:02.879 There was nothing else for it. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:07.399 You know, Joshua said, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:09.360 It didn't matter what was going on around Him. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:14.360 There was this, He was planted in the Lord and in trusting in the Lord. 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:17.559 And there's that security of being in one place. 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:21.759 You know, you know if you get, I think I've probably said this picture, used this before, 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:27.679 but sometimes when you go to a place and there's a scenery and then you go back to a place 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:31.279 10 years later and lots of things have changed. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:34.600 But maybe there's a tree in that picture that hasn't moved at all. 00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:37.799 And you know, lots of buildings might have gone around about it, but there's a tree that's 00:14:37.799 --> 00:14:42.799 just there and it hasn't changed that much, a big mature oak tree or something. 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:45.839 And there's this picture of it being, plant, you know, the trees. 00:14:45.839 --> 00:14:47.959 Trees don't, they don't move location. 00:14:47.959 --> 00:14:52.480 You know, they don't grab up the roots and head off somewhere else. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.360 There's this something about security about planting. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:00.279 You know, as a kid, you love climbing trees because they were secure and it's great fun 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:02.399 to climb trees. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:08.360 And there's a security there in the midst of whatever's happening around about planted. 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:13.559 And that picture is that God is our foundation and God is the one in whom we trust. 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:20.480 And our mindset is always fixed on our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ because we know Him 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.759 and we love Him and we recognize what He's done. 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:29.839 Colossians 3 verses 2 and 3 says, set your mind on things that are above, non-things 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:30.960 that are there for you. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.440 You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.040 It's a mindset. 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:40.160 It's a decision that we are planted and that is where we will be. 00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:41.960 It doesn't mean we have all the answers. 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:44.960 It doesn't mean that things are going to go swimmingly for us. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:49.200 It doesn't mean things are easy, but we know He is good. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:53.399 We have experienced His grace and we have nowhere else to go. 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:57.560 We have nowhere else to go because He is dependable and strong. 00:15:57.560 --> 00:15:59.400 We are not for moving. 00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:04.879 We are planted in that position of trusting in the Lord. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.559 We're planted. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:12.919 We also have strong roots and it's a really important reality for us. 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:18.399 He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots to the stream. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:23.000 And that's a really great picture that I hope you can keep in your mind for what it means 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:26.360 to be in relationship with Jesus Christ as a Christian. 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:29.960 In other words, it's the unseen part of our lives. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:34.320 I started by talking about our persona and what we are in private. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:36.279 This is what we are in private. 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:38.399 This is what happens under the ground. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:46.800 You don't see the direction and the roots heading towards the living water, but there's 00:16:46.800 --> 00:16:52.000 this great intentionality for the tree and heading towards the water. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:58.759 And this is a great picture of who we are and what we are in private as Christians. 00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:04.759 What our heart is like, what direction we're in, what our character is, not what we look 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:11.839 like to other people, not what we are in public, not our profile, but rather where our hearts 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.960 lie, what direction our hearts are in, where we are sending our hearts for nourishment, 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:20.240 for energy and for beauty. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:25.440 In verse 10, there's this linking of the heart and the mind. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.000 So it's what we're thinking. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:32.400 It's what inhabits our thought life and what direction our thought life is and what is 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.200 it that energizes us. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:38.799 You know, if you're struggling today with your faith, if you're struggling with your 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:42.920 Christian walk with God, you have to ask that question, what are you like, what am I like 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:43.920 in private? 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:46.599 What am I like when I'm not in church? 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:51.439 What direction is the unseen part of my life heading in? 00:17:51.439 --> 00:17:56.480 To whom do I go for, for nourishment and energy and beauty? 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.839 What grips you inside that nobody else sees? 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:05.480 What is not your profile, but what are you in your heart? 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:08.879 It's about character, not about gifting. 00:18:08.879 --> 00:18:14.439 It's about what you are inside that nobody else necessarily knows. 00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:20.200 So very often, we're wanting to get to the top of the tree. 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:25.880 God is interested in the roots of our lives, what we're like underneath the profile we 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:27.840 have. 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:37.039 And that drives us again towards the Lord God because we can't change what we are inside 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:38.519 in and of ourselves. 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:42.799 We can't act on the outside and think, well, I can just change on the inside because God 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.319 says the heart is deceitful above all things and we can't do it. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:52.559 We have in the energy, we have in the ability, we have in the quality to do that. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:57.839 We can't deal ultimately with the hatred or the anger, the self-obsessions, the insecurities, 00:18:57.839 --> 00:18:59.159 the motives and the idols. 00:18:59.159 --> 00:19:00.639 We can't do it. 00:19:00.639 --> 00:19:03.079 We can't be free. 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:06.519 And Jesus says, without me, you can't do nothing. 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:12.240 You know, we have that on one of the notice boards down in the office in the church. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:17.839 We can't, you know, I am the vine, you are the branches, without me, you can't do nothing. 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:25.359 And there's that, that's hugely significant that in our lives we recognize where we are 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:34.920 getting our energy and strength and direction and thoughts and character from at our roots 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:38.160 intentionally reaching out to the living water. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:42.600 In other words, are we in constant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? 00:19:42.600 --> 00:19:43.600 Nobody else sees us. 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:45.519 It's not about coming to church at this point. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.440 It's not about just what we are on the outside. 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:56.320 It's about that character formation that nobody sees because we can't go anywhere else to 00:19:56.320 --> 00:20:03.279 find what He alone gives us, the living water and the Spirit of God to change us. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:06.560 So planted strong roots, evergreen. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:13.879 He speaks about that, doesn't fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green. 00:20:13.879 --> 00:20:17.440 And that's a great picture again. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:22.839 The picture in the Bible is of the heat and the drought being circumstances that are difficult 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:24.519 and bad, trouble. 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:31.039 When trouble comes in our lives, in relationships, or in church, or in our health, or whatever 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:37.839 happens, that is when where our roots are is exposed. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:38.839 That's when it matters. 00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:40.920 It's not really when things are great. 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:44.279 It's when drought comes. 00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:48.639 The tree that's planted by the root whose roots are intentionally going to living water will 00:20:48.639 --> 00:20:53.839 be evergreen because it's receiving life from the water, even in drought. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:58.839 And that's a huge and significant reality for us in our Christian lives. 00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:03.959 When drought comes in our Christian lives, where are our roots? 00:21:03.959 --> 00:21:06.519 Where are we finding our life and our energy? 00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:08.079 Where are we finding our relationship? 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:09.359 Is it in Christ? 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:14.439 Or is it when drought comes, we blame Christ and we blame God. 00:21:14.439 --> 00:21:20.279 It gives it often we'll reveal where our roots lie and where our nourishment and our energy 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:22.919 and our relationship comes from. 00:21:22.919 --> 00:21:27.199 It reveals whether we understand the cross and why Jesus died. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:33.480 It reveals whether we understand grace and our hearts and suffering and hope because 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:41.559 as we come to know Him through our roots, being energized in relationship with Him in 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:46.559 the privacy of prayer and Bible reading in our own lives, then we hear Him and we know 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:48.559 Him and He says, don't be afraid. 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:49.559 I love you. 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:50.559 I'm with you. 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:55.400 You might not understand, but these things will expose and deepen your faith and trust 00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.759 if you allow them in times of drought, evergreen. 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:04.440 The fourth thing is fruitful. 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:08.600 Leaves will remain and these two are kind of linked again, I guess, does not and in 00:22:08.600 --> 00:22:12.480 times of drought for it doesn't cease to bear fruit. 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:18.240 So the picture of the Christian and it's used throughout the Bible, whose roots, what 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.519 they're like in private, what they're like in relationship with the living God who roots 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:30.400 are intentionally finding their energy and life from Jesus Christ in prayer and in the 00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:36.200 Word is fruitful, whatever the circumstances. 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:42.160 Now there's an interesting paradox here because you might think so far that I'm talking about 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:46.400 a private personal Christian walk and that's all that matters. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:50.759 All that matters is what you are under the surface, that your roots are in the right 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:56.039 place all about a personal relationship with God and it's all about knowing Him, you know, 00:22:56.039 --> 00:22:58.759 no matter what is happening on the outside. 00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:08.640 But paradoxically, while that is true, it doesn't lead to an insular private or individualistic 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:10.599 Christian life. 00:23:10.599 --> 00:23:19.480 It's outward looking because we're fruit bearing, okay? 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:23.920 And fruit bearing is all about sharing what we are with others, isn't it? 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:24.920 A fruit tree. 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:27.799 A fruit tree is the most selfless organism in the world. 00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:30.599 It doesn't eat its own fruit. 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:35.960 It exists to be beautiful and nourishing for others. 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:41.039 But it's selfish in terms of its roots, where it gets its nourishment and where it gets 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:42.279 its life. 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:47.599 But as it gets its life in Christ, it bears fruit even in drought. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:52.559 And that therefore makes the Christian useful to everyone else. 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:55.839 I spoke about the human body being about 50% water. 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:01.919 Well, I think most fruit are actually 80 to 90% water. 00:24:01.919 --> 00:24:08.639 So where the roots of the tree are, receiving water, is passed into the fruit. 00:24:08.639 --> 00:24:11.480 So it becomes refreshing and nourishing for those who eat it. 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:17.920 And that's a great picture of the Christian life, as we are rooted and established in Jesus, 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:24.440 we bear fruit which is good for other people because we are taking the life of the Holy 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:27.120 Spirit in us and we are sharing it with others. 00:24:27.120 --> 00:24:29.599 So there's two things about this fruit. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:31.599 It's spiritually beautiful. 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:34.920 We should be spiritually beautiful as Christians, okay? 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:42.600 We should be great, and I don't mean this in terms of our looks, but in terms of our 00:24:42.600 --> 00:24:48.960 character, we should be beautiful to look at and we should smell good, okay? 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.480 We should have a pleasing aroma about us. 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:58.600 Now, I'm not talking about the condition of our body or our ugly visage, which you might 00:24:58.600 --> 00:25:01.800 have if you're a preacher here. 00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:08.919 I'm talking about a spiritual beauty, a beauty of character. 00:25:08.919 --> 00:25:10.599 It should be a lovely aroma. 00:25:10.599 --> 00:25:21.919 But I remember 40 years ago, okay, 40 years ago, 39 years ago I was 15, okay? 00:25:21.919 --> 00:25:26.799 39 years ago I was 16, sorry. 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:34.159 And we went on holiday to Canada and at one point we drove towards Niagara Falls from 00:25:34.159 --> 00:25:40.599 the north and we passed through a little village called Niagara by the lake. 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:44.399 Absolutely a dillock little place, full of peach and apple orchards. 00:25:44.399 --> 00:25:49.039 I can still smell them when I think about that place. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:55.759 I can still smell that unbelievable, beautiful smell going through Niagara by the lake. 00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:58.519 40 years on. 00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:07.240 There's a powerful aroma that lingers with us and being rooted in Christ will make our 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:12.079 character memorable for the gospel. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:15.559 Not about show, it's not about impressing, it's not about deceiving. 00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:20.119 You know, there's nothing worse than going into a place and there's a fruit ball there 00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:27.319 and a beautiful looking apple and you go for it and take a big bite and it's wax. 00:26:27.319 --> 00:26:31.319 You don't get that so much now, but you used to get sort of bowls of false fruit. 00:26:31.319 --> 00:26:34.000 Why I'm not sure, I didn't have real fruit. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:39.359 But you know, it's not about a show, it's not about looking good on the outside. 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:43.959 It's the great, what, God talks about the great fruit of the Spirit, doesn't He in Galatians 00:26:43.959 --> 00:26:44.959 5? 00:26:44.959 --> 00:26:45.959 What are they? 00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:50.680 They love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:58.880 They're impossible to know and to show from the inside out unless we are rooted and dependent 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:04.079 on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit because we are spiritually dead without Him 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:09.600 and we need to be beautiful, we need Him. 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:16.119 And then we will see that as we are rooted in Christ in our lives day to day, in the 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:24.839 privacy and in the mind, in the mind map that is ours and in what makes us us, we will then 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:29.319 become nourishing for others. 00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:35.919 We become fruitful and nourish others because interestingly the gospel, the core of the 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:43.960 gospel and the core of living as a Christian is being rooted in God, that is loving God 00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:46.920 and loving one another, that is fruit, that's the fruit. 00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:49.519 So it's the both ends of the tree. 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:53.440 So the Ten Commandments are summarized loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:56.160 and your neighbour as yourself, it's the tree. 00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:02.759 It's the root, it's going to Christ for salvation and it's the fruit which is loving others. 00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:12.559 Now, I've got, when I left my previous congregation nearly 20 years ago, a lady in the congregation 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:18.200 had embroidered, I tried to get it on the screens in a photograph but it didn't work, 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:21.359 embroidered the one and others of the New Testament, okay? 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:25.440 You can't really see, you can look at it later if you want. 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:26.440 Embroidered is that right word? 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:29.400 No, can't remember, whatever that is. 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:38.200 She did it with needle and thread, all the one and others in the New Testament and that 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:46.759 really is what the fruit bearing is all about, it's the, look at them. 00:28:46.759 --> 00:28:50.759 Be devoted, honour one another, live in harmony, stop passing judgment, accept one another, 00:28:50.759 --> 00:28:54.680 instruct one another, serve one another, don't bite and devour, don't provoke one another, 00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:58.720 don't envy, carry one another's burdens, be kind and compassionate, forgive one another, 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:03.519 submit, encourage, spur on, offer hospitality, don't slander, don't grumble, confess your 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:07.680 sins, pray for, fellowship with, wash one another's feet, encourage one another, greet 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:10.799 one another with a holy kiss, okay? 00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:16.360 We might not do the holy kiss but we'll do this what it means. 00:29:16.360 --> 00:29:18.039 It's a giving and loving of one another. 00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:23.480 That's the fruit of the Spirit, that is the giving of one another and that's what we're 00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:33.799 encouraged to be and to do as we bear fruit within the gospel, bearing fruit. 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:38.120 And that is not something we just do with our friends, okay? 00:29:38.120 --> 00:29:42.680 It's something we do in the context of the body of Christ, in the context of the church 00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:45.160 and beyond. 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:48.360 And I know it's so easy to want to give up on the church. 00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:53.519 I know that absolutely and I'm pleading with you not to. 00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:54.519 Why? 00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:56.519 Because it's so great? 00:29:56.519 --> 00:29:58.019 No. 00:29:58.019 --> 00:30:00.519 But because you need it. 00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:08.959 It's God's appointed means of you being nourished, of you belonging and of family and of receiving 00:30:08.959 --> 00:30:13.079 the fruit and being nourished by the beauty and the fruit of other Christians in their 00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:14.559 lives. 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:18.839 But also because we need you, we in the church need you. 00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:25.159 You know, we live in a generation where the church doesn't matter and we buy into that. 00:30:25.159 --> 00:30:31.839 But Jesus says, you need the church and the church says we need you. 00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:36.759 And that's really the core of all the discipleship that we're hoping to do, is that we support 00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:38.079 one another. 00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:40.359 We bear fruit for one another. 00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:48.599 We encourage one another because we encourage all of us to be rooted in Christ and accountable 00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:52.240 to one another spiritually for that. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:57.599 So in St. Columbus, I think the core of what, very often people will come to a church and 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:00.439 a new church and they'll say, what can I do? 00:31:00.439 --> 00:31:03.679 You know, how can you use my gifts? 00:31:03.679 --> 00:31:06.519 And that's an absolutely legitimate question. 00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:11.960 But our fundamental and primary question is that we would rather you ask is, who can 00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:15.160 I be, rather than what can I do? 00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:17.839 Because the first is based on your gifts, which are from God. 00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:20.440 The second is based on your character. 00:31:20.440 --> 00:31:24.799 And your character is much more important, is much more fundamental. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:28.480 The gifts will look after themselves if your character is in the right place. 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:33.160 And so it's not about a persona, it's not about our gifts primarily. 00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:37.960 It's about our godly character, and godly character comes from being rooted in Jesus 00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:43.240 Christ underground, which no one else sees, that private devotional walk with God that 00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:44.240 you must have. 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:50.360 Don't just depend on the one hour on a Sunday, it's not of value on its own. 00:31:50.360 --> 00:31:51.680 So we're a tree. 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:57.720 Lastly, very briefly, there's an alternative isn't there in verses five and six. 00:31:57.720 --> 00:32:01.519 Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart turns away 00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:03.759 from the Lord, he's like a shrub in the desert. 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:09.960 The alternative to being a tree is to being tumbleweed, spiritually tumbleweed, shrub 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:10.960 in the desert. 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:12.480 You know the tumbleweed moment? 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:18.920 The wind comes in the western, and the tumbleweed rolls like kind of round thing, and it rolls 00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:19.920 for ages. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:24.200 It's starved of life, of goodness and fruitfulness, it's just full of thorns. 00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:28.039 It doesn't get down to the living water, it hasn't any deep roots, so what happens is 00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:33.879 the tumbleweed just breaks off in the wind because it's rootless, and it's sharp and 00:32:33.879 --> 00:32:39.879 thorny, and what it does is it spreads its seeds that way as it drifts, it's unstable. 00:32:39.879 --> 00:32:45.519 That's a great picture of us if we're not rooted in Christ. 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:51.240 We're never really static enough to allow God to search our hearts. 00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:56.960 We're not really solid enough to reveal our true self or to be accountable. 00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:01.480 We're drifting, we're always running, we've no time to stop, we're not sending our roots 00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:02.480 out to Christ. 00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:12.519 At best we've got a nodding acquaintance with Him, and we're sowing discontent and disharmony 00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:15.960 in a way through what we do. 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:22.880 So when the drought comes in life, and drought always comes to us, always does, how do you 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:23.880 respond? 00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:26.720 Do we respond with fruit or with thorns? 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:29.759 Do we turn away from the Lord or do we turn to Him? 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:36.240 Do you rely on your own inner strength or on human wisdom, or do you therefore blame 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:41.440 God or give up or despair or grumble and badmouth God and others? 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:50.319 Or do you find even in times of drought, your roots are firmly established in Jesus Christ? 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:55.480 So there are a thousand competing voices for you today, most of them come from within, 00:33:55.480 --> 00:33:58.680 but where are you going to stand? 00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:04.599 And will you let us as a church help equip you and disciple you towards Christ? 00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:11.240 I think today might be for you the most important day of your life, because the decision you 00:34:11.240 --> 00:34:18.000 will make from here moving forward, to whom will you entrust your life and your heart 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:20.159 and your future? 00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:25.639 No one else can promise what Jesus Christ promises, peace, shalom, forgiveness, eternal 00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:30.679 life and fruitfulness even in times of drought. 00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:34.719 And as a Christian, I would encourage you just to engrave that picture of the tree in 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:42.039 your mind and that your spiritual beauty comes from what you are in private with the Lord, 00:34:42.039 --> 00:34:46.199 where the roots of your life are, the bits of your life and mind and thoughts that nobody 00:34:46.199 --> 00:34:53.879 else sees in Christ alone, you'll be able to nourish others and your character will be 00:34:53.879 --> 00:34:58.919 beautiful and refreshing for others. 00:34:58.919 --> 00:35:04.759 Even in all our failings and faults, can I encourage you to commit to giving your life 00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:16.720 to being one that loves God, where our roots are, and serving others with our fruitfulness. 00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:37.239 Amen.