Amen. So there in John chapter 15, I want to begin reading in verse 16 where he says,
He have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father
in my name, He may give it you. So we see here in this verse that God's desire
for our lives is that we bloom, basically. He wants us to be fruitful. He wants us to
have fruit and fruit that remains. And the title of the sermon this morning is Bloom
Where You're Planted. Bloom where you're planted. Now, we talked about that. That's a common
saying you might have heard, bloom where you're planted. And really that concept or that idea
of blooming is likened unto the Bible as in being fruitful. You think the fruit of a flower
would be its bloom, right? It would blossom, right? Well, in the Bible, we should bloom
in the same way, except in the sense that we should be fruitful. We should be reproducing
as far as having not only physical children, but also spiritual children. We should be
out preaching the gospel and being fruitful in every good work. And God here is showing
us Jesus is saying that that is God's desire for our life, that we wouldn't just live kind
of wishy-washy, half in, half out, just kind of making it by, just kind of white-knuckle
Christianity where we're just getting by the skin of our teeth. But He actually wants us
to be fruitful. He actually wants us to excel in the Christian life. And the reason why
that is is because when we do that, when we are fruitful, when we bloom, when we're planted,
it brings glory to God. It says in John 15, look at verse 8, Jesus said, Herein is my
Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so ye shall be my disciples. When we bring
forth fruit in our life, that brings glory to God. And the reason why that is is because
of the fact that it requires God's Spirit to be fruitful. You know, we could talk about
being fruitful in a lot of different areas of life, and one area in particular that we
could mention is the area of soul winning, where we go out and we bear other spiritual
fruit, where other people, we preach them the Gospel, they get saved. You know, that
is a spiritual child that we have helped be born unto God. And that requires the Spirit
of God. And when that happens, God is glorified through that. And not only that, but God is
glorified when we're fruitful in any area of our life, because we're doing it through
his Spirit and to his glory. Look there in verse 4 of John chapter 15, he said, Abide
in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine. You know, you're not going to live a fruitful Christian life outside of Christ.
If you're not walking in his commandments, if you're not living for him, you know, you're
not going to bear the fruit that God desires for you to bear. You're not going to bloom
where you're planted. So in order to bloom where we planted, we have to abide in the
vine. And, you know, this abiding in the vine, that kind of speaks to that, you know,
the idea of being planted or being rooted. You know, bloom where you're planted, abide
in the vine. So we have to abide in the vine, we have to be rooted, we have to be established
if we're going to be fruitful as God's children. Now, if you would, turn to Psalms chapter
1, Psalms chapter 1. I'll begin reading in Psalm chapter 1, we're probably all familiar
with this chapter. Psalm chapter 1 and verse 1, the Bible reads, Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law
doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
that bringeth forth fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. Now we're going to see here, and we have already that, you know,
this idea of blooming where you planted is something that's kind of expressed in scripture.
You know, he likens it unto us being a tree here, a tree planted by the rivers of water.
And what is it that plants us there? Well, if you look at verse 2, our delight is in
the law of the Lord. In his law he doth meditate day and night. That's what's going to make
you like a tree planted by the rivers of water. It's the same concept of you abiding in the
vine, you dwelling on the things of Christ, letting the words of Christ dwell in you richly.
That's how you're going to live a fruitful life, is when you're going to be abiding in
the vine, when you're meditating day and night. Then you're going to be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. And that's how you're going to bloom where you're planted. That's
how you're going to live that fruitful life. That's how you're going to grow a strong healthy
root system spiritually. And the deeper our roots go, obviously, the greater our ability
to weather the storms of life. You say, why is it so important to bloom where I planted?
Why is it so important to be, to abide in the vine? Why is it so important that we be
like this tree? Why should we meditate day and night? Why should we dwell on the things
of God? Because of the fact that life is going to, you know, it has storms that come. Life
has trials and tribulations and difficulties. That's just the nature of life itself. Now
add on to that the fact that you have a spiritual enemy, the devil, you have an enemy in the
world, that you have the enemy in your own flesh that's trying to counteract everything
that Christ is doing in your life. You have resistance. You have a storm that's brewing.
You know, now you can begin to see why it's important that we as Christians have a root
system that goes down deep. That we're not just these shallow Christians who are just
easily blown over every time there's any kind of a difficulty or struggle or circumstance
in our life that we just blow over. The devil can just tip us over. And we, you know, if
you've ever done any, spent any time in the woods, you know, you learn to identify those
types of plants or those types of trees when you're a kid. You look at, you know, or you
get, even as adults, okay, let's admit it. You get a little older, you say, man, I bet
I could pull that little tree over. You see those ones, you know, and you go and you can
just, because they're dead and they're rotting, you could tell, and it's, there's something
fun about knocking trees over, right? That's fun, you know, when we go out hiking, but
we don't want to live a life like that. We don't want the devil to go walking through
the woods of the world and see us, these, you know, weak, shallow Christians that he
can go, I bet I can knock that tree over. I bet if I start to rock it a little bit,
it won't be long before it just tips right over. We don't want to be that. We're going
to see what kind of tree we want to be like. Well, we want to be this tree that's planted
by the rivers of water that's going, has its roots going down deep. And people, you know,
Christians, we fail to do this sometimes. People will live their whole Christian life,
in fact, and they'll never establish a deep root system spiritually. They'll never go
down deep in the word of God. They'll never stay in there and get a strong root system.
And that happens when they are distracted. That's because the world can distract us.
We get distracted with the things of life and making plans. And really, that's probably
one of the bigger distractions that people make, is they let other priorities come in
and take precedence in their life. You know, we get distracted by the future, right? We
get distracted, but we're always making plans about, we're going to go here, we're going
to do this, one day I'll do that. And you know, whether it's in terms of where we're
going to live or what our job's going to be or how, what we're going to do for fun
or what are some hobby, there's all these things that will keep our minds distracted
from the present. And what happens is we don't get a deep root system. And if you would turn
over to James chapter four, James chapter four. People fail to grow deep roots spiritually
when they are always being distracted by the world, always thinking about the future, always
thinking about when they're going to this city or that city and do this or do that,
they're never taking the time to consider where they are right now and what they need
to do today in order to develop as a Christian. He says there in James four, look at verse
13, he said, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and
continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what you'll
be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little
time and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and
do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings and all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. You know, sometimes it's not necessarily
the things that we are doing that are sinful. It's the things that we're not doing. And
when we get distracted and we start thinking about all the things that we're going to do
in the future, you know, and those things begin to take pride in our life, you know,
we don't develop spiritually. We are sitting because we're not putting the priority in
our life where it needs to be. And one of those areas we're going to talk about, obviously,
you know, there's several of them, but you know, one area is church attendance. That's
a major part of the Christian life. And I want to get too ahead of myself here, but
that is an element of it. People can say, well, I'm going to go here. I'm going to go
there. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And they get so distracted in everything
else that's going on in life that they fail to even cover the basics of the Christian
life, their Bible reading, their church attendance, their soul winning, these simple things. Go
ahead and turn over to Matthew chapter six. Actually, you know what, go to, go to, go
to Mark, Mark 10, Mark 10. You know, Jesus warned us and the Bible warns us elsewhere
that we should not get so, you know, forward in our thinking that we fail to recognize
where we're at and to grow where we're at and to develop where we're at. He says in
Proverbs 27, boast not thyself of the tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring
forth. Why should we develop a strong Christian life? Why should we have a spiritual root
system? Why should we bloom where we're planted and dig in deep and get in there is because
of the fact we don't know what's going to come tomorrow. You never know when that storm's
going to come. And that's why you need to not be so distracted about, you know, what
you're going to do down the road and just worry about today. Jesus said, sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. You know, there's enough to worry about today, enough
things that we need to deal with today in our lives that we, you know, we don't need
to sit there and worry about what's going to happen down the road. We don't have to
sit here and wonder about if things could be better somewhere else. And because there's
a thing people start to think, well, the grass is always greener on the other side. And this
can be a mentality that people get into. Like, well, it could always be better here. You
know, they could always be better this way or that way. But here's the thing. Have you
ever turned grass over? It's not green. It's brown, right? And you think it's green over
on the other side. When you get there, it's not. It's the same grass. You know, and maybe
it's green for the wrong reasons. You know, as Pastor Perry famously said, it could be
because it's grown over a septic tank. You know, that's why it's so green. But we always
get this mentality that it's always better somewhere else. We always think that things
are better in somebody else's marriage or some other church or in some other town or
some other job. And we think it's greener over there. And we get so distracted by what's
out there that we don't even take time to account for the present. And we don't take
time to account for the fact that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We're not
content with the things that we have. And we have to take account of this. We have to
understand that we need to bloom where we're planted. That where we are is where we need
to be. And we need to dig in and get our roots and get established in life and in our Christian
walk. And, you know, because it affects all our areas of life. Now, what are some areas
of life that we must be rooted in in order to succeed? You know, there's some areas that
we have to establish these roots. Well, one, I would say a big one is probably marriage.
And is that not one that we see people are always trading up spouses and saying, oh,
it's, you know, this spouse will be better. This isn't working out the way I want it.
And they're just uprooting their life. They're not digging in deep, you know, and they need
to be rooted in your marriage today. You know, your marriage is going to succeed when
you determine that, you know, till death do you part. You know, when you put that stipulation
on it, it's amazing how quickly people start to make things work. You know, and if we've
made the mistake of getting divorced and, you know, then let's not, you know, let's
not compound sin upon sin, you know, and I'm not here to beat you up. But here's the thing.
There's people in this room that haven't made this mistake, you know, and I don't want them
to make that mistake. I want them to have marriages that succeed. You know, that's what
I want for myself. It's what I want for my children. And that's why we have to understand
that the Bible teaches that we are not to put away our spouses. Are you there in Mark
10? Did I have you turn there? Look at verse 11. He saith unto them, whosoever shall put
away his wife and marry another, commit adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away
her husband and be married to another, she committed adultery. I mean, the Bible couldn't
be more crystal clear about it. You know, this is this. That's what the Bible says that
if you get divorced and remarried, you've committed adultery in the eyes of God. Now,
if you've done that, you know, I'm not that, you know, confess it, forsake it and move
on with your life. And, you know, get rooted in the marriage that you're in right now and
determine not to make that mistake again. But if you know, for anybody that's married
or anybody that's contemplating marriage, you know, which is probably the vast majority
of everybody in this room at some point in their life, is that you need to go into marriage
understanding that you're going to be rooted in that marriage, that you're going to put
roots down in that marriage, that you're going to establish that marriage, that it's going
to be strong. That you're not going to just let the devil come and blow that marriage
over and destroy it. And again, when people, when you go into it with that mentality, you'll
find a way to make it work. Because that's the problem with a lot of marriages is they
go into it saying, well, if this doesn't work out, I'll just, we'll just try it with somebody
else. Well, how much incentive do you have to make it work at that point? That's not,
that's not very much of incentive at all. So that's one area that people need to go
into and establish strong roots is in their marriages. And you, you know, it's probably
one of the saddest things you'll hear about, you know, divorce at any time, of course,
is unfortunate. It's sad. It's a sin. It's not what we desire for our lives. But what
about you find people that have been married for decades, and then they get a divorce?
I've never, I've always just, you know, scratched my head about that. I can't understand how
people could live together for, you know, decades going, you know, for years and years
and years, and then they get a divorce. You know, one, you're, you know, you're not any
younger, right? And the pool of candidates is probably, you know, considerably less when
you're, when you get up in years, you know, but people do this all the time. And, you
know, were they growing roots in their Christian or in their marriage? No, they weren't. They
were probably just counting down until the kids left. Just saying, well, once the kids
are out of the house, then, then, then you know what, we can split up as if it's not
going to have any, you know, detriment effects at that point either. But, you know, instead
of spending that time just counting down the days until, you know, you can get, you can
feel less guilty about getting married, why not actually just try to make that thing work?
Why not actually try to grow some roots in that marriage and make it withstand the storms
of life that are going to come at it? You know, another area that people need to get
established in and have roots is this area of child rearing. You know, we need to, we
need to get in the Bible and figure out what the Bible says about raising children and
do it and, and, and be established in that. We need to, to bloom in this area. You know,
we shouldn't just wing it, you know, like in child rearing. It's not something you just
want to give it a try. And so let's see if this works. You know, the Bible, and again,
every one of these topics is a whole sermon in and of itself, you know, and, and you know,
there probably will be one coming down the pike at some point, but you know, the Bible
has a prescription for child rearing. Raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. You know, chase a nice son while there is yet hope. The Bible gives very specific
clear instructions on how to raise children. And of course, there's always areas where
we have to kind of use discernment and things like that, but what we don't want to do in
our child rearing is just wing it and just say, well, I'm going to try this, you know,
and see if it works. Do you really want to roll the dice on your kids like that? Do you
really want to see if that's going to turn out a good godly people or, you know, even
worse perhaps would be doing what's trendy, you know, doing what all the other trendy
parents are doing with, you know, the time outs and the, you know, whatever else they
do or the, the, you know, just tell them that you love them, you know, when they're, when
they're being obnoxious, spoiled brats. I love you. You know, I've heard that. I've
heard that out of parents' mouths. The kid is just, you know, going off on mom and dad
and they're just, well, you know, I love you. As if that, you know, they're going to win
them over to behave. You know, kids, kids, you know, like all of us are sinners. We're
selfish. We're self-centered and get bad attitudes that need to be corrected. So, you know, this
is another area. You could see why there's so many, you know, there's so many areas in
life that we need to be established and understand what the Bible says about these things, about
marriage, about divorce, or about divorce, yes, and about child rearing. What's another
area that we need to learn how to be established where the only way you're going to be fruitful,
the only way you're going to bloom is if you're planted there, if you are established
in it. How about in employment? You know, we as men, you know, who are out working and
providing for a family, we need to, we need to pick a trade and stick with it, you know,
and that's, that's how you're going to get better at it. If we're a person that's always
just hopping from this trade to this trade, trust me, I'm speaking from experience. When
people start to talk to me and they're like, man, you've done a little bit of everything.
Yeah, and I don't know that I got real good at any of them, you know, except for maybe
locksmithing, you know, but we need to pick a trade and stick with it. That's how you're
going to get good at what you do. And that's how you're going to make more money down the
road by saying, this is what I'm going to do and understand something that that's not,
that your job does not define you as an, as a person. Yes, men get, that's a big sense
of their identity, but as a Christian, you know, that's just a means to an end. That's
now, our life is not all about just making money, but we all do need to decide to pick
a trade, to stick with it, to get established in it, to get rooted in it, to bloom where
we're planted when it comes to this area of employment. You know, learning the trade and
getting good at it and being more valuable because, you know, a lot of trades, you know,
these skills are developed over time. This isn't something you're just going to, you
know, go to job one day and, and wake up the next and be a master at it and have it all
figured out. You're going to have to, you know, probably apprentice with somebody. You're
going to have to be taught these things. Then you're going to have to go out and try and
do it on your own. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have to, you know, learn how
to do it the right way. And, and it's a process that we go through. And here's, you know,
if you really want to succeed in your employment, in your employment, in your job, you need
to, you need to get rooted. You need to get established. You need to bloom where you're
planted because, you know, companies, they invest in loyal employees. They're not going
to invest in the guy whom they're not sure about. You know, he may, he might stick around.
He might not. And I understand that sometimes we need to change employers, that sometimes
we need to find a better job. But, you know, a lot of, you know, when we do that, we should
probably be staying within the same trade. You know, when you're younger, you have a
little bit more liberty with this. You know, when you're in your 20s, you can try this,
you can try that. You get in your 30s, you should probably have a little bit better idea
what it is that you want to do. You know, and then as you, especially as your family
begins to grow and stuff like that, you know, you can't be switching up your entire career,
you know, every, you know, every decade of your life trying something new. Because when
you do that, you always got to start out the bottom rung and work your way up. So if we
have to move to another job, you know, we should probably try and stay in the same job
because companies are going to invest in loyal employees. They're going to be, they're going
to see the guy that's rooted, the guy that's established, the guy that's there, the guy
that's loyal. And they're going to say, well, let's invest in him. Let's make him a better
employee. Let's teach him, let's teach him the skills of the trade more so that he can
be even more valuable. So there's all these areas in life where we have to be rooted.
There's all these areas in life where we have to be established in order to bloom, that
we have to get our roots down deep and dug in so that we can begin to be fruitful. And
you know, one area is church. You know, I kind of alluded to earlier, but church is
a big area in the Christian life where we need to get established in church. And what
I, you know, not just, you know, that's twofold. One, get in a good church, right? You know,
find a good church to go to. Whether it's this church or another church, you know, people
need to make, that's a big decision in your life, in your Christian life. You know, it's,
it's quite frankly, it's like baby step number one or two in the Christian life, going to
church. And it's probably one of the easiest things in the Christian life is just to go
to church. I mean, I'm looking out there right now. I don't see anyone breaking any sweats.
No one's breathing heavy. You know, no one's, you know, keeled over in pain because this
is so difficult. You know, maybe a little bit of yawning, but that's understandable,
right? We didn't make the coffee. Okay. I understand some sermons aren't always the
most entertaining of sermons, but it's all good. It's all important if it's the word
of God. And you know, just going to church is probably the easiest thing in the Christian
life there is. You got to get up and get ready and go to church. And it's not that hard to
do. But here's the thing, if you don't do it, if you don't get established in church,
if you don't get regular in church, you're not going to bloom. You're not going to blossom
spiritually because you're not going to be there to learn the things of God. You're not
going to be there to be taught and instructed of the word of God. You're not going to learn
what it is you ought to be doing in the other areas of your life because you're just not
there. Look at there and go to Psalm chapter 92, Psalm chapter 92. You know, and this would
even involve, you know, there's several families here, self included, that have even gone to
the great lengths of moving across the country or from another state to be in a good church.
It's that important. Some people understand it's that important. Everything in your Christian
life is hinging on that, whether or not you're in church. You want to say how important is
it? Oh, I don't know, Christ died for the church? Seems pretty important to me. If Jesus
came and shed his blood for the local church, I'd say it's pretty important. You know, he
left heaven and came down here and lived amongst man and lived a perfect life in a body like
you and I. He was tempted in all points like as we are, without sin. He did all that and
then, you know, suffered and died so that we could be saved and have a local assembly,
so that we could have a church. You know, and then, you know, so when we consider that,
then we have to ask ourselves, is it really that big of a deal for us to go to church?
You know, we have a hard time going across town to go to church. Well, he left heaven.
You know, oh, I don't know if I could move to go to be in a good church. Well, you know,
Jesus left heaven. I don't know what else to tell you. You know, he's the one who left
heaven, came down here and did all that. And for you to just have to pick up and move to
another area, that's not that big of a deal. Look there in Psalm 92, verse 12. The Bible
says, the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. So again, he's likening them to
a plant, like a tree, like being rooted, right? These things have roots. He shall grow like
a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in
the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.
Now most of us are already, well, not most of us, some of us, I should say, are already
kind of resembling that latter half, right? But here's the thing, you know, he's likening
us unto trees. He's likening us unto, you know, things that are planted, things that
are rooted, things that are established. He says, those that are planted in the house
of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. And he says there, they shall be
like a palm tree. Now, I don't think God just decided to pick out any old tree just for,
you know, drew the name out of a hat and said, yeah, that'll do. I believe he, you know,
he picks these things because there's a lot of symbolism in it. And there's a lot of,
we can get meaning out of it. I mean, you think about palm trees. I think one way he's
talking about is the fact that there's going to be a lot of them. The righteous shall flourish
like a palm tree. You know, palm trees are a tree that you can plant a lot of. You can
have a lot of them grow up in one place, you know, but more than that, I think we as individuals
could be likened under these trees. Now what's, what's one thing, some characteristics about
a palm tree that makes it worthy of being mentioned in this verse? Well, the fact that
it can, it's able to withstand high winds. You ever see these palm trees and these hurricanes
that are just bent right over? You know, they're just 90 degree angle. Practically
the winds are a hundred plus miles an hour and those trees are just sitting there in
it. They don't even lose the palms. They hang on. That's impressive that there's a tree
like that. You know, I, I grew up in Northern Michigan and tell you, there's some trees
I couldn't do that. You know, every time there was a windstorm up there, you know, there
would be trees just blown over. Big, huge trees. You'd look at them and think, man,
these trees are going to stand for forever. They're never going to get blown over. And
they just get blown over in these high winds and you know, pine trees and things like that.
They're not like the palm tree. The palm tree is something that can withstand resistance.
And that's how we have to be in a Christian life. You know, we're going to come against
that resistance. We're going to have the storms of life come work. You know, the devil's going
to come and huff and puff and try to blow your house down, you know, and it's, it's
going to be some high gusts coming at you in the Christian life. And if you're like
this palm tree, you're going to be able to withstand the high winds. You're going to
be able to, instead of, instead of breaking and falling over, you're going to be able
to bend and withstand that storm. But that's only going to happen if you're planted in
the house of the Lord. It's not going to happen if you're not, if church is just something
you do every once in a while. You know, here's the thing, you know, being in church once
a week is not a big ask. And I think it's something that, and here's the thing, you
say, well, you're just saying that because you're the deacon, because you're the preacher
and you need somebody to preach to you. It's not it. That's not it at all. You need to
be in the house of God for you. This church is here for you to benefit from it. You know,
I'll preach to one person just as much as I'll preach to a hundred. And I'll, you know,
some of you already know this to be true. Some of you have been here on a Thursday night
when it's been three or four people and said, are we still going to have church? Yes. You
know, I, I've preached to one person, you know, I've led the singing when nobody was
in there and have one guy come in halfway through a song and give me a weird look because
it did look weird in there singing by yourself, but he sat down and you know what, and you
got to preach to now he didn't come back, but Hey, you know, I don't think that was
my fault. So here's the thing, you know, we need to be established in the house of Lord
for our own sakes, you know, and I, and this is something, you know, I practiced this long
before I'm getting up and preaching it. I, you know, I've been doing that for, you know,
the vast majority of my Christian life, which is over 17 years, you know, that they've been
in church, you know, three times a week. Now here's the thing, if you're not in church
three times a week, are you in sin? No, I don't think that's, you know, and some people
will say, yes, you are, you know, you need to be there every time the church doors open.
Now I would encourage that, you know, I'm not trying to discourage people from coming
to church, but you know, coming out to church once a week is a good start, you know, and
you think about the early church in the book of Acts, what did they do? They met daily
in the temple, you know, they were, they were gathering together daily and, you know, Bible
says that we should be gathered so much the more so as we see the day approaching. We
should not be those that have the manner of forsaking the assembly as the Bible says.
So you know, we want to be like the palm tree. We want to be established. We want to be rooted.
We want to be able to withstand the storms in life, but are you putting your roots down?
Are you being established in the local church? Because that's where you're going to get
built up. That's where you're going to get the nourishment that you need. That's where
you're going to get the, you know, the, this is kind of a bad way to put it, but the spiritual
fertilizer maybe I could say, you know, that he's going to come and put it around the tree
and help it grow, give it the nutrients that it needs out of the word of God. That's where
we're going to get these things. Now, you know, we're like the palm tree because we're
able to withstand the high winds, right? That's one attribute that we would love to have in
our Christian life. But also think about this, a palm tree can grow in multiple climates.
You'll find palm trees in tropical areas. You'll find them in the, you know, in the,
in the deserts. They can grow in all kinds of different areas, you know, and that's the
way it should be in our Christian life as well. You know, whether we're, wherever we
find ourselves in life, we should be able to get rooted and get established, whether
it's, you know, here in this church or it's in another church. And that's what people,
you know, a lot of online listeners, you know, cause we have a big online following
and we get emails from them all the time saying, hey, should I go to this church? Because,
you know, I'm not sure because they don't believe exactly like you guys. I say, yeah,
you should go to that church. You know, you should go to the best church you can find
and get established, you know, and maybe they're not right on every doctrine, but you know,
as long as it's not a deal breaker, you know, if they're King James only, if they preach
grace, salvation by grace through faith, you know, you got, you got something going
a lot of people don't have, and that shouldn't be taken for granted and people should go
in there and at any kind of the best church they can find and get established, they should
be able to like that palm tree and grow in any climate because as long as there's somewhere
where the word of God is being preached, they're going to get the nourishment that they need.
They're going to get the established, established, like they need to be established. And then
they're going to be able to be fruitful and bloom where they're planted. Now he says there
in verse 13, those that be planted, excuse me, verse 12, they shall flourish like the
palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. So there's two different types of trees that
he's saying the righteous shall be like. Now a cedar and a palm tree, you could tell those
two apart fairly easy. You know, even, even those of us that are not arborists, we could
figure that out pretty quick. What a palm tree is and what a cedar tree is. I mean,
one has that skinny trunk and no branches and just some palms at the top, right? And
then you have the cedar tree, which is a very robust tree. It's very big. It's very round,
has many branches. There's a lot more mass to it. And you know, he's likening us under
these trees for a reason. He's likening people that are planted in the house of God that
are righteous on these trees because it symbolizes something. We saw the palm tree, but what
about the, what about the cedar tree? Well, you think about it, a cedar tree is hard to
bring down. I mean, it might be, you might, you know, you get it in a big enough windstorm
and if its roots aren't deep enough, yeah, it might blow over. But if, you know, if you're
going to, if you're going to chop down a cedar tree, that's going to take some work. I mean,
you think, I mean, even with the advent of the chainsaw and all these other devices that
man has made, it's still a lot of work and it's very dangerous to go out and, and, and
hew down these giant cedar trees. And, you know, we're, we should be like that in our
Christian life. And here's the thing, you know, the devil's got an ax and he's swinging
and he wants to bring some people down. He's looking for a harvest. And, you know, if we're
just this skinny little sapling in our Christian life, if we don't have any roots going down,
if we're not established, it's going to be real easy. He might not even need the ax.
He could just snap some of us and bring us down real quick. Unless we're like this cedar
tree, you know, it would take a lot of swinging. You know, he might get through the bark. We
might have some, some scars here and there, but he never was able to bring us down. Why?
Because we were established because we were flourishing in the, in the house and the courts
of our God. And not only that, but think about this, a cedar tree is also very useful. You
know, no one, no one mills the palm tree for its wood. You know, you'll never find, you
know, a fine palm furniture anywhere. At least I don't think so. I've never seen any, you
know, you're not going to, no one's going to walk, walk into someone's house and have
tongue and groove in their ceiling and say, it's, it's palm tree. You know, it's usually
oak, you know, that you make the nice, the furniture out of. You had the cedar tiling
and stuff like that. And in fact, in the Bible, when they built the temple, you recall that
they used the cedars of Lebanon, that that's what the house of God was built out of. So
cedar is also very useful. You know, that's how we should be in our Christian life. We
should be useful to the house of God. We should be able to go to a church and be, get rooted,
get established and help build that church, spiritually speaking, and be, you know, be
a pillar in the church, be one of those big beams in the church that they're going to
offer support, you know, be, be, you know, be a, you know, the, the sheathing on the
roof spiritually, it's going to help block out the weather. You know, maybe you could
be the, the part of the church that was the door, you know, maybe we could, you're that
cedar tree and you know, we, you got, got saved and God, you know, fashioned you and
put you like the door in the temple. You know, you're there and you can welcome people in,
you can say hello, you can get to know folks, you know, there's all these different areas
in the church that we need people to fulfill certain roles. And that's how we should desire
to be in our Christian life. Be like that cedar tree, be something that's useful. We
can make something out of it. You know, it's not just something to look at, but it's actually
something that could be put to use in the service of God. So we see how we want to be
like these trees. We want to be rooted. We want to be established. You want to be like
the palm tree. You want, you know, you want to be able to establish yourself and be able
to withstand those high winds. You want to be able to grow and to blossom, no matter
what climate that you're in. You want to be like that cedar tree. You want to be hard
to bring down. You know, you want to be useful in the house of God, but none of that's going
to happen if you're not planted in church. Okay. That's what he says there. They, that
those that be planted in the house of the Lord, you know, established, you think of
something being planted. That's like a permanent thing. That's not something you're just going
to come by and just yank out of the ground and walk away with. Now that thing's planted.
It's like it's there permanently. We need to be planted in the church in order to flourish
in the church. I mean, that only makes sense, right? Because I used to read that and think
he's talking about two different places. You know, there's the house of our God, and then
there's the course of our God. When I was reading it again, I thought, you know, I think
he's talking about the same place because of the fact that, you know, it only makes
sense that in order to flourish, you have to be planted. In order to bloom, you have
to be planted. You know, you can't, you can't go buy a packet of seeds for some flower and
just take the packet and set it on the kitchen counter and expect, you know, whatever flower
to grow out of it. You got to take it out. You got to put it in the soil. You got to
water it. You got to put it in the sun. You got to help it grow. And it's the same way
with us. If we want to be like these trees, if we want to be established, if we want these
attributes, we have to be planted in the house of our God. If we want to flourish in
the courts of our God, we have to be established in his house. Because it only makes sense
you can't flourish where you aren't planted. And that's a big admonition to get in church
and to be regular in church. And he says there, you know, they shall, verse 14, they shall
bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. And what I love about
that verse is it shows us that you can't outgrow being used by God. You know, you're never
going to get to a point in your life where God just says, I'm too old. I can't use you.
There's always going to be something for you to do for God. There's always going to be
people that you can reach with the gospel. There's always, you know, he's not here this
morning. I think of, you know, and I hope I'm not coming across as picking on him. And
I probably should have asked him beforehand, but brother Eddie, everyone who knows brother
Eddie, he's not an old man, but he's not exactly a young man either. Is he? But you know what?
That guy's here on Thursday to go out and do what he can, soul winning. And you know
what? Just having him along, being that encouragement, being a blessing, being somebody who has a
burden to see others saved, you know, that's him being used in his old age. He hasn't outgrown
that. And that goes for every single one of us. We should never get to this point in our
life where, well, you know, I'm over the hill and God's done with me. You know, the Christian
life is a young man's game. It's not true friend. That's what it says right here. They
shall bring forth fruit in old age. You know, even as a, as an older person, you can still
go out and preach the gospel to somebody, you know, whether in your personal life or
coming out with us and learning how to do it, you know, and it shows us that church
is for all ages, that everybody has something to contribute in the house of God that we
could all be established. So the Bible addresses all these areas that we need to be established
in, right? We looked at, you know, we just touched on them and there's many more that
we could talk about. There's many more other areas of life that we need to establish some
things that we need to be rooted about some things that we need to have nailed down in
our lives. And the Bible addresses all these areas, but here's the thing. Church is where
we learn about it. Church is where we're going to learn about those things. Now, could you
learn those things on your own? Yes, you could, but what's the likelihood if you can't
even get out to church? Are you really going to be disciplined enough to read your Bible
like you should and study it like you should? Because if you did, if you did read your Bible
and you did study like you should, it wouldn't be long when you found out you're supposed
to be in church, right? So the Bible addresses all these areas and church is where we learn
about it. Go ahead and turn over to Proverbs chapter four, Proverbs chapter four. He says
in verse 20, my son, attend unto my words, incline thine ears unto my sayings, let them
not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart for they are life unto
those that find them and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence for
out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips
but far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight ahead.
Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right
hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. So he's showing us here that, you know,
we need to attend unto his words. You know, we need to be in the Bible. We need to be
in church. We need to incline our ears unto the sayings and the teachings of scripture
and not to let our eyes, not to let them depart from our eyes. And that when we do that, you
know, we should ponder the path of our feet. You know, we should be more concerned about,
you know, that next step than we are some distant goal, some, you know, pipe dream that
we have for our life. You know, well, what about the next step that you're about to take
in your life? Have you considered that, you know, where the path you're on is leading
you to? Is it actually leading to where you need to be? If you would turn to one more
place and we'll close here. Turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. So the topic tonight
or this morning is to bloom where you're planted. You know, and God wants us to be fruitful.
God wants us to excel spiritually. And in order to do that, in order to bloom, you have
to be established. You have to be rooted. You have to get some things nailed down in
your life. And the thing that prevents people from doing that is when they don't, they stop
looking here and they're looking way down the road. You know, God doesn't show us way
down the road. You know, He does in some instances. We know about heaven, some things about heaven.
We know about, you know, about the future events. But in our life, God doesn't always
doesn't paint some picture and show us, here, this is where I want you. Look at Psalm 119
verse 105. Verse 105. He says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. He didn't say thy word
is a spotlight which illuminates the entire path before me. You know, thy word is a row
of street lights that guides me along the way. You know, thy word is the track lighting
that's going to keep me from wandering off. He says thy word is a lamp unto my feet. You
know where God lights the lamp? It's right here in front of your foot. He lets you see
this far in your Christian life. And He says a light unto my path. He doesn't illuminate
the whole thing at once. And if we're going to bloom, if we're going to be established,
if we're going to end up where God wants us to be, we have to start paying attention
more to where we're at right now and what our next step is, and not worry so much about
what could be or what might be and down the road. Because when we start to do that, that's
when we're going to start to wander. We're going to get distracted. We're not going to
be where we need to be. We're not going to be found in the courts of our God and being
established here. And then if we don't do that, we're not going to flourish. So, you
know, it's kind of a shorter sermon this morning, but it's one I've been wanting to
preach and I just felt like this was the time to do it. To encourage us to not get so distracted
about what's down the road, but consider where we're at right now and take inventory of our
lives where we're at right now spiritually and ask ourselves, are we headed down the
right path? Are we establishing our roots? Are we allowing ourselves, our roots to go
down deep? Are we putting ourselves in the position to where we can be established in
the Christian life? Well, we're not just going to be Christians that blow over one
day, but we're actually going to be able to be in this thing for years to come. You know,
the Christian life is measured in decades. It's not measured in a year or two. It's not
measured in months. And here's the thing, we can get real excited about a new church
when it starts, you know, and we should be. But after a year or two, you know, and then
it starts to get, well, now it's just going to church, we can forget, it can get a little
lackluster if we're not careful. We can lose our first love, we can lose that zeal that
we once had, that excitement, and we can start to, you know, just take it for granted. You
know, and I don't, again, I don't think that's happening, but you know, sermons like this
are meant to prevent that type of thing from happening. So let's be in the house of God,
let's get established in these areas, and all of these areas of our life, we'll learn
about these areas as we continue to come and learn and grow and we will bloom where we're
planted. Let's go ahead and pray.