 That's pretty sweet looks like one of my wife's purses. There's something up there at that That's really cool. I love that man. Hey, welcome to ready church everybody I haven't seen you in a couple weeks for those of you who have not met I'm pastor Lee Cummings. I'm the senior pastor and Pastor John did a phenomenal job hold it down the last couple of week ends loved his messages. They were awesome And Jane and I were in India had a great time Being over there. We did some new things that we've not been able to do before while we were there, but Regardless, brother Abraham who is our missionary there? Leads a family of churches of about 6,000 churches there and orphanages and schools We were able to see the school that one of the schools that we built us together and the students are beautiful and Flourishing and brother Abraham just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your prayers for your love for your commitment to what God is doing in the nation of India and He will be here on Father's Day again this year with us So mark your calendars do not miss Father's Day because Father Abraham who has many sons Many sons has Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you actually his brother Abraham But it's the same kind of thing so he's going to be here on Father's Day and One of the things that we wanted you to be aware of Is India is undergoing an intense amount of persecution and pressure? You may have heard last year that compassion international that supports many different orphanages over there was ejected from India The orphanages were shut down and that same level of persecution and pressure is actually taking place right now And it is affecting Abraham and their ministry. It's just tightening of constraints tightening of pressure Limitations for example one of the things in India and many of the states of India. They just passed a non-conversion law So basically if you were born a Hindu and you want to convert and declare that Jesus is Lord of your life Abraham or the pastor or the leader that leads you to the Lord has to go before a magistrate Improved that they did not coerce you and to doing that and get a judge to sign off before you can be baptized If you don't you can actually be thrown in jail and a pastor can be thrown in jail for leading somebody to Christ and Orphanages are being pressured and as a result of that money has been very tight for Abraham And one of the things that he does is of his 6000 pastors He gives most of them or a lot of them a stipend a financial stipend to help them Because they're out in remote villages and so the stipend that he gives to them on a monthly basis helps Just make sure that those pastors and their families have a bicycle and one meal a day And that their families have clothes on her back and so over 5000 pastors received that and because money was cut off and constrained They he had his first month in 33 years that he was not able to do that So these pastors didn't receive any financial support for the month of January And when I was with Abraham, you guys have been around him. He's just always happy. He was just so sad He's just like it just breaks my heart. I just prayed God you've got to help me do that and It just so happened that we had about $40,000 left over from the big give And I asked him how much it cost to do that to take care of a pastor for one month And he said about $40,000 a month and so on your behalf I just went ahead and made sure that come the month of March those pastors are gonna be taken care of at least for one month So thank you Brother Abraham was like president Lee you've done it again. I cannot thank you enough so he just wants to tell you he's just so grateful and Thank you. You guys are changing the world whether you know it or not So thank you for your faithfulness and giving Weekend and week out and we're glad to be back So the work in India is going very very well and excited to be back this morning and begin a brand new series called Flourish if you have your Bibles open them with me to Psalm 92 Psalm 92 and you guys came to the 11 o'clock, but in the 9 o'clock. I gave away a Bible so Darn you were in the wrong service. I mean it was a really nice Bible Because I want to encourage you to bring your Bibles to church There's something about looking at it holding it underlining it Marking things that God speaks to you if you don't have a Bible. Let us know we'd love to get you one And get into the habit of bringing God's word with you to church today we're gonna be opening this brand new series entitled flourish and The next four weeks. We're gonna be digging into God's purpose in his plan for the church Why the church is significant? Why it in our day and age when there's a lot of skepticism a lot of cynicism a lot of misunderstanding about the church why it's more important now than ever before that you and I not only Understand God's purpose and agenda for the church, but how the church impacts you and I Flourishing and thriving in our God-given callings in destiny and the title of my message this weekend is entitled this God is an environmentalist God is an environmentalist because God understands that the environments of our life affect the way we live our lives and so Psalm chapter 92 we're gonna turn there in just a moment, but Before we get there I want to talk to you about the power of environment and why why I believe that God is an environmentalist When you start at the very beginning of the Bible Genesis chapter 1 when God created the heavens and the earth What you find right from the get is that God was very intentional about what he created and how he created it Have you noticed that if has anybody read Genesis chapter 1 before read raise your hand You know everybody has read Genesis chapter 1 because if everybody is like oh, I want to read the Bible So you start in Genesis chapter 1. That's the beginning. How many know you don't get hung up till Leviticus Most time you make it through but in Genesis chapter 1 what you realize is verse first says God created the heavens and the earth So we understand God's a creator We understand everything that's in this world is his creation and everything that God created It says that after he did it after he created it in the six days of creation He stepped back from it and he looked at what he created and how he created it and he said it is good In other words, it's right. It's good in everything that God created in the beginning What we find was flourishing it was alive and the reason why it was alive and flourishing and multiplying and God would declare it to be Good is because for everything that God created. He also created a corresponding environment You think about this in verse 11 and 12 of Genesis 1 it says God said let the earth bring forth grass The herbs that yield seed and the fruit trees that yield fruit according to its kind whose seed is in itself on the earth And it was so and the earth brought forth grass the herbs that yield seed according to its kind and the tree That yields fruit whose seed is in itself according to its kind and God said that it was good This is just talking about the plant life, but it says that God actually created an environment the soil So that the seed that was within the plant would actually reproduce and release The potential that was within it once it was in the right environment so everybody knows seeds you can look at a seed today and you can call it a seed or you can realize that the seed is a package of potential and That that seed will only release the potential of multiplication and Reproduction that's locked within it when it is placed in the right environment So for everything that God created he also created a corresponding environment for it think about all the things that God created We talked about plants. Well the environment that God created for plants to flourish was soil God created the soil Think about the other things that God created God created the fish. It says he created the fish of the sea and He also put them in the environment in which they would flourish. So the what's the environment for a fish? It's Come on. Help me out this morning. All right, great. So fish are in water and they flourish The only water that they're not flourishing in is the lakes that my grandfather took me to fish in because we never Caught anything so they weren't flourishing there so then God created the birds of the of the heavens and and He made them to flourish by putting in them into the environment of the what and the air Okay, and even think about this even the stars and the moon in the sky He created the firmament and he created the heavens the universe the galaxies so that when you and I look at the galaxies through Telescopes millions and millions and millions of light years away There's these stars and galaxies and beautiful displays of light that you and I look at that are in the right environment Meteor meteors and meteorites and comets in the right environment are beautiful and flourish They're accomplishing what God created them to accomplish Genesis chapter 1 says that the stars and the moon were put into the heavens For signs and for seasons for you and I so we would look there and and we would have a calendar So all those things were created to flourish when God created a woman He put them in the environment in which they would flourish the mall. I mean women You want to see a woman flourish watch her go to the mall Guys are dying. They're just like are we done yet? No. No, we got to go here forever 21 is purgatory for men I swear it's because of all of our sins God created forever 21 and you go into forever 21 and you will be there forever As they look through 21 different racks piece by piece and you know, so but women flourishing that When God created his crowning achievement of creation mankind and Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 God did something unique think about this it says and God said let us Make man in our image according to our likeness So God speaking to himself father son and holy spirit with intranety Saying now we're gonna create mankind and he's going to be like us and he's going to bear our image in the earth And we want them to be fruitful. We want them to multiply We want them to subdue and have dominion over the birds of the air the fish of the sea Over every creeping thing that's on the earth. I want them to have dominion over everything And we're gonna we're gonna build them. We're gonna design him to have our image and our likeness And then God took the man that he created and he put him in an environment in which he would flourish the garden And in the garden God would come down the father would come down in the cool of the day after he created adam and eve And he would walk and he would talk with adam and eve and as a friend speaks to a friend as a father speaks to his children And there and god's word in god's presence in god's proper environment caused Adam and eve to flourish We don't know how long they were in the garden. We don't have any idea But here's what we know while they were in the garden. There was no death While they were in the garden. There was no disease While they were in the garden. There was no lack while they were in the garden. There was no marriage problems While they were in the problem. There wasn't any family dysfunction. It was perfect shalom because god had created this environment in the garden, which is God's presence because that's where god met with them this designated place But everything went wrong when god pointed out a tree and he said you see that tree It's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil You can eat of any tree that you want to in this garden. I've given it to you But that tree is mine. Don't eat it And we know the serpent came in deceived eve eve passed along to adam and together They went to the tree and they ate the fruit that god said not to and that fruit What what it really stands for is it's standing for man's free will To choose to submit their life to god or to take matters into their own hands and be their own master To be the definer of their own good and evil to put our word above god's word to put our opinions Above god's opinions and when they ate of that fruit, that's basically what they did and immediately genesis chapter three Said that they were aware they were aware of their sin and here was the repercussions It says that when god came down in the cool of day and was Going to talk to adam and eve and relate to them as a family again in the environment that he created for them Their choice to reject god and rebel and to take matters into their own hands Put them into a position where now death division shame Was all introduced to the human experience and god removed them the bible says in genesis three God removed them from the garden and now immediately they had to toil and strive and work Outside of god's presence outside of god's house And there was marital problems Cain kills able murders introduced and they began to die and deteriorate where they were flourishing in god's presence Now they're deteriorating without it Perhaps the greatest parable that jesus taught is the parable the prodigal son And I believe that the prodigal Prodigal son parable is jesus's way of telling us what went wrong with humanity It says that there was a father who had a son and one day the son comes to the father and says i want my inheritance Now i don't want to wait till you die. I don't want to wait for your timing I want what's coming to me now and it says he took the inheritance and it says he left the father's house And as soon as he left the father's house with his inheritance immediately Instead of flourishing which he was in the father's house. He began to experience the dregs of life away from god now all that's to say That originally when god created everything he created a corresponding environment for which it would flourish including you You were created By god to be an image bearer of who god is to the rest of the world And you were created that you would flourish and thrive in god's presence in god's family in god's community We call that the church the church the local church or the house of god is a spiritual environment It's not just a physical building. Listen, we got to get way past that It's a spiritual environment that god has given to humanity Especially those of us who are in christ jesus who've made jesus the lord of our lives You were created to flourish you were created to thrive But it's only going to happen when you are planted in the right soil Now look with me at psalm chapter 92. This is such a powerful Scripture and it's going to be the basis of this series in verse number 12. It says the righteous That's those who have been made right with god Shall flourish like the palm tree And grow like a cedar in lebanon. They are planted in the house of the lord They flourish in the courts of our god They shall still bear fruit in old age and they shall be fresh And flourishing to declare that the lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him You know what i've discovered is that even the idea that god cares About you flourishing is sometimes a very foreign idea for people when it comes to their understanding of god But you see god loves you so much That he didn't just send his son jesus into the world to save you from your sins And give you some magic eraser to erase your mistakes until you get to heaven and everything's good But god went a step further god's god created you on purpose god wired you it's in your genetic code And in your spiritual genetic code for you to accomplish a purpose for which god originally created you He had a purpose in mind for your life But so many people never flourish and never grow into that instead what happens is like the prodigal son We choose to live outside of god's presence outside of god's word and outside of god's house And we take matters into our own hands trying to become successful trying to make something of ourselves trying to Feel satisfaction and fulfillment in our life But yet all the while god's like no you don't understand i'm not mad at you i'm not angry i'm your father And what i want is i want you like the prodigal son to come back to the father's house So i can put a robe and a ring and sandals on your feet so you can thrive and you can flourish I don't want to punish you i actually want to Inspire you and i want to motivate you and i want to infuse you so that what i've put on the inside Of you will actually come out listen. There is something significant that the world Desperately needs from god that god's answer to that cry and that need was put on the inside of you And once you begin to flourish and are planted in the right environment It will come out of you like fruit on a tree and begin to solve The problems and answer the questions of a lost and dying world I believe that with all in my heart, but God wants you to flourish They put up on the screen here a definition of flourish so that we're all on the same page A biblical definition of flourish is to grow achieve succeed prosper for which whatever it is was created To reach a height of development or influence When we say that the righteous shall flourish That's what we're talking about god's desires for you that you'd prosper succeed and achieve And achieve and the very thing you were created for So some of you in this room, you're very artistic You're very creative you look at flowers up on a screen and go Wow, I just like the color scale on that and the depth and the movement and the whole thing The rest of us are looking at that gone. It's really cool. Looks like wallpaper But you're artistic and you think in terms of colors and creativity and stories Do you know that god wired you you didn't just come up with that on your own God wired you that way some of you were builders and you think You walk into a room like this and you're looking around looking at I wonder how much that steel can hold and You know and and I wonder what's the angle of the floor and you might drive through downtown and and shake your head at the Civil engineers who design kalamazoo and it's like why in the world you put gold road right in the middle of a Cerebral at the bottom of the universe so that it floods like this So people are driving around on cedars downtown on a major road. It's just come on McFly anybody home God wired you like that Some of you are mathematicians and you're doing math some of you are a wordsmith and you're thinking like that some some of you Are very athletically gifted some of you have patience that none of us will have the only a mother can have in training Your kids that was a seed that god put on the inside of you But seeds only Release what's inside of them when they are in the right environments And psalm 92 says that for you and I the environment that god has created in which you and I will flourish in It's a house of god And it says some things about how we'll flourish it says number one You'll be like a palm tree understand why it uses that illustration a palm tree can grow to 100 feet tall Doesn't have very deep root systems But what it does is it intertwines its root systems with the next palm tree and the next palm tree And they create a network of roots that give it anchor and hold that it would never have on its own That's a picture of a believer in the community of faith that you and I need each other We're not strong enough to face the storms that are going to come against us But we're stronger together than we are apart and like a palm tree a palm tree can endure storms that come against it Because it's ultimately it's flexible It doesn't break it does it just bows it's able to flex and bend He says you'll be you'll flourish like a palm tree number two He says a cedar of lebanon Why is that significant because the cedars that grow in lebanon in biblical times even to this day They grow at high elevation above 3000 feet above sea level and you were created to not live in the valleys You were created to live at high elevation See cedar trees in lebanon can grow to be a thousand years old And the most significant part of why people love to build like salamence temple was built with cedar from lebanon Is because cedar does not decay It can be bombarded with elements with wind with rain with moisture with humidity with even insect infestation And it will not destroy or decay The cedar that's why we line things with cedar because it's able to resist the elements that are around it And that's all god wants you to be not impacted in living a life Where everything that comes against you causes your faith to decay causes you to be weak No, god says i want you to flourish even in your old age You know when i when we started this church i was 25 years old i thought 50 was old I remember thinking man, we've got some 50 year old people coming to church We probably should start like a senior's ministry So we started something called the 50 something's group You know it was basically it's like oh i gotta do something with the old people in church Can i tell you i'm two and i'm three years away from joining the 50 something group and 58 old I just met with a pastor who's 75 years old and i'm like man i want to be like you when i'm 75 years old I am not ready to cash out and take up shuffleboard and move to the villages I am not ready. I'm not ready to take up shuffleboard or curling Anybody watch that on the olympics by the way How did russia have a doping incident when it comes to curling Right, okay, just just bonus information Now Maybe i want to be flourishing when i'm a hundred years old I'm i'm living for the day when willard scott calls my name on my 100th birthday And you see my face smack dab on a smucker's jar on the today's show at 8 a.m And they say lee comings of richland michigan A hundred years old today still preaches three four services a weekend chases jane around the house And he looks good baby. That's what i'm living for i want to flourish I'm not ready to get my walker out at 48 years old and be like i'm done Retire me. I ain't got anything left. Listen We got but the only thing that will help us to flourish is when we have vision And when we are planted in the right environments Got to be planted in the house of the lord so that we're fresh And flourishing that we can declare that the lord is upright that he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him Spiritually flourishing See there's something about the soil The writer of psalms understood this he said it's It's like the palm tree that's flourishing You see up on the stage. We have a palm tree. How many know these don't grow in michigan They grow in the villages So, you know florida you got palm trees everywhere in michigan. You get pine pine trees We get oak trees maple trees big hardy trees that can endure the seasons Why because that's the environment that they flourish in But a palm tree flourishes in hot and humid and tropical environments a palm tree can grow up to 100 feet tall But here's the thing is we got this palm tree and it was hard to find this one Because what I said is I want like a six or seven foot tall tree and it's very difficult to find them Because this palm is potted and not planted And there's a vast difference between potted and planted Has everything to do with the soil There's actually a palm tree that's pretty interesting to read about it. It's called a chandelier palm tree Chandelier palm tree is it's nothing special. It's not even beautiful It's actually a they call it a scrub palm tree and it's in kind of the saharan mid african area over in africa They just find all kinds of them, but they find them in clusters And the reason why they're significant to understand is up until very recently nobody gave any secondary any any cursory thought about a chandelier palm tree until Geologists began to put a correlation together They began to realize that When you see these chandelier palm trees clustered together they grow uniquely In soil that on the surface doesn't look like much but underneath There are these ancient cones from old volcanoes old volcanoes that have have any erupted in thousands of years, but At the core of the earth there were these subterranean volcanic tubes That shot all the way up to the surface That are filled with this rich volcanic soil And so they found a correlation between chandelier Trees that grow And the fact that they grow in clusters over the top of these volcanic tubes That have all this volcanic matter in it and here's why that's important to them It's because in those volcanic tubes when they erupted last They shifted a lot of diamonds from the core of the earth up into these tubes going towards the surface of the earth See in in diamond Uh in diamond mining in africa It was pretty much by by luck that you would find a large concentrations of diamonds now What they do because they've discovered the correlation of the volcanic tubes pushing up diamonds chandelier trees on the surface Is now they fly drones over africa Looking for clusters of chandelier palms That on the surface nobody wants a chandelier palm. Nobody wants it's not it's not this pretty Nobody goes. Oh, look at that chandelier palm. It's just amazing. It's beautiful. Let's put it in our living room No, but a gemologist looks at a palm tree and says That indicates to me that there's something below the surface and the soil that is that is worth a lot of money And you know in the church there are a lot of we're palm trees a lot of people might look at your life and say well You're just an average person living an average life going to a You know going to church and following jesus and you've got your job But what they don't realize is that when you're flourishing on the surface It's because your roots are tapped into something below the surface in the soil that is rich Invaluable and filled with the treasures of heaven. That's not immediately obvious to the naked eye But nonetheless it is there but here's what I know is when other people look at somebody who's flourishing And they dig a little bit below the surface What you will always find is that the believer that is flourishing is somebody that has made a decision I'm not just going to be potted in the house of god I'm going to be planted in the house of god because there's something in the soil that makes all the difference I mean, let me tell you not every palm tree is planted. Some of them are potted And when a palm tree is potted like this one This is as tall as it's going to grow Because it's locked and limited by the size of the pot that it's in But if you were to take a palm tree that's in a pot and take it out of the pot and into the right soil the right environment As soon as its roots touch the soil It activates and initiates something in its In its dna that god wrote in its molecular structure that it's time to grow and it will begin to put down its roots It will begin to reach up to the sun It will begin to receive water and the nutrients from the environment and giving it enough time and enough Resources and enough life. What's going to happen is that thing is going to begin to grow and it's going to surpass What it could ever accomplish in the pot The difference is the soil and and just like a palm tree can be potted or planted a christian can be potted or planted See, I can take this this potted palm and I can go and you tell me hey Let's put this in the back of a van. Let's take a road trip to florida. All right. Whoo. Here we go drive down I-75 get down to florida where it's 95 degrees and the soil is is rich and there's palm trees 100 foot tall I can take this potted palm and I can go and set it On top of the soil right next to other palm trees that are flourishing and guess what it won't change that palm And then you'll say well you get more sun over here So you pick it up which i'm not going to try because it's really heavy And you plop it over here on the sunny side of the peninsula and wait and stand back and it will have Palm trees on either side of it that are flourishing But it it won't grow any further than it is right now why it's because one inch of a pot That separates the roots of the palm From the soil that it needs becomes a barrier to keep it a limit a lid to keep it from reaching its maximum capacity And here's why that's important is not every palm tree is planted some of them are potted and in the church There are a lot of christians that god loves God died for jesus saves that have been put on this earth and created with a destiny and a calling and gifts But they will never flourish Because they're in the church, but they're not planted They're potted And they're even sitting on top of the soil. Why is it that you know one christian You know comes to church and just seems like their life is growing exponentially and the other one You know just there's no growth. They kind of fall off after a period of time has everything to do with the mentality In our understanding of the significance of church because listen It goes right along with an epidemic that's happening in our culture all around us You and I are part of it and we're infected by it and here's what it is. We're consumers You and I are consumers We're used to being sold And we like it because we like to buy things anybody like to buy things Like four of you just raise your hands Let me rephrase the question the question. How many of you have bought something in the last 24 hours? Raise your hands Tell me you don't like to buy so oh no not me pastor. I don't like to buy anything. I just I'm just sacred I just take whatever comes my way. No, baby. You're like And then you jump on here. It's like oh amazon bang bang bang bang bam one click buy now one click prime We're consumers and in a consumer mentality. Let me tell you what happens is we especially with technology And a consumer mentality and a consumer culture is listening. We're connected to everything But we're committed to nothing We're connected to everything, you know, you know the downside of living in a Technologically connected world like you and I are parents is you can't lie to our kids anymore Our kids fact check us I was trying to like my son was a teenager I'm like son if you spend too much time playing video games It's gonna it's gonna affect the algorithms of your brain and it's gonna and he's just like No, actually, that's not true dad. I'm like what? What good is it to be a parent if you can't lie to them anymore to control their lives and shape them? How in the world are you supposed to parent anybody anymore? We're connected to everything. We fact check things some of you right now are looking up chandelier tree Let's find out a pastor leaves making that up or if he's lying Look at me like that. I know all about you But because we're connected to everything There's also this tendency for us to feel like we have so many options and we don't come We're not committing to anything because I'm a consumer. It's kind of what's best for me today May not be what's best for me tomorrow and I want to keep my options open Let me give you a prime example of it. I have two wallets One wallet that I carry around with me. It's got my driver's license my debit card a credit card and that's about it And then I have what's called my second wallet and my second wallet. I keep in the console of my of my truck And in that wallet the reason why I have it is because it holds all of my membership cards Almost every store you go to would you like to sign up for our rewards membership? Sure. Oh, I'll give you a card Then you go over here to gnc. Would you like to be a gold member? You just spent $50 you get 10% off Sure. I'll take that card got a gym membership Got this department stores card that card you got a membership for this and coffee punch card for this and pretty soon your wallet's this thick So here's what you have to do. You have to realize what's my priority What's going to affect my life every single day and you take those things put it in your wallet And then that's why I have a second wallet I put all the other things in my second wallet and I keep it on my truck and that way it's around It's close by if I need it, but I don't carry it with me every day. It doesn't impact my everyday life But yet if you just took that I probably have 30 cards in that wallet. I'm a member of 30 organizations But if you were to ask me Hey, are you really committed to gnc? No I haven't been to gnc in four years I don't take vitamins I ain't that healthy. I definitely am not eating protein shakes. I mean look at me I'm eating sweet waters. That's what's going down And I do have a punch card and I do keep that with me It comes down to priorities Because you can say you're a member of something But that doesn't mean it's a priority in your life and sometimes church Actually ends up in our second wallet And yet it's the one environment that God says It's the environment that I've created for the righteous so that they will flourish in You know flourish like the palm tree like the cedar you're going to be Fresh and flourishing in your old age still bearing through It's in the house of the lord in the presence of God in the courts of our god That's speaking of royalty that you're part of a royal family. You've been invited behind the scenes. It's a royal family It's the courts of our god But it has everything to do with being in the right environment and not every christian is planted A lot of times we're living our life potted and here's the deal with that Is if you ever get the palm tree out of the pot And put it into the soil It's dirty work But it's work that holds a promise Of prosperity of flourishing of thriving and a blessing Now I know a lot of you are like, oh, of course you think that because you're a pastor You lead a church. So of course you want everybody plugged into the church Of course you you need volunteers. We get that or you need money. We get that and you know, so, you know Dispere survival at us. Don't talk to us about you know, putting our roots down because obviously you're into that You're a pastor. No, you've got it backwards. I'm not passionate about the church because I'm a pastor I am a pastor because I'm passionate about the church It's the opposite if I wasn't passionate about church. Let me tell you I go do something else I would there are a lot of things that interest me. I'm a curious person. I'm a builder I would love to I mean if if the church was just kind of arbitrary and didn't matter and it was kind of optional I would go do something else. But listen, I have I have experienced in my own life That the growth the maturity the family the fulfillment the encounters of the lord the gifts of god That I have experienced that have caused me to flourish in my life Have everything to do with the fact that I have plugged my life into the environment that god has created for me To flourish and called the local church and it just got obsessive or one day I just like I want to do this with my whole life And so I became a pastor and now listen the people that are closest to are people that are in the church People I count as family people in the church the hardest days of my life I'll never forget when jane's dad died Many of you don't remember Don John and jane's dad, but He passed away and he was a larger than life voice in our church everybody loved him and and he died very unexpectedly and it just rocked us And we took the weekend off and we had a guest speaker that came in and You know we cried our eyes out Just what are we going to do? We came back and our church at that time was 500 people probably And we came back and I had a box with 500 cards from every person in the church I can't tell you what that meant to me And it's like man, this is this is the way god designed us. We need one another We need some people getting in our world But we also need some people inspiring us when we worship together Sometimes we come from the outside in and we worship together and it's it's the draft that we need to just pull us up God's equipped us all differently. He's equipped us uniquely Not everybody gets everything first Corinthians chapter 12 says the eye doesn't say to the hand. I don't need you But every part of the body Is called and needed we need one another and here's what happens not only are we needed But when we respond to the call of god to the need when we plant our lives into it and say god I'm going all in I'm making it a priority. I'm raising my kids I'm making it a priority in my schedule. I'm making it a priority of my finances I'm using my gifts and my talents. I want to leave a legacy to somebody I've never known when you begin to do that and get out of the pot and plant your life into the soil Not only do other people Get impacted by that but you get impacted by that All of a sudden you begin to see growth and flourishing take place on the inside of you That you never knew was on the inside of you And it will change your life End with this this morning. I I think it's I think it is so interesting to me that in the day that we're living in the church is under such attack Well, we don't need church. That's an antiquated idea You know church is just full of hypocrites. How many have ever heard that one church is just full of hypocrites Of course it is Of course it is. What'd you think you were going to show up and I love to tell the story I've got all my ducks in a row and my life is perfect hallelujah. Praise the lord. Glory to the lamb of god I've not sinned in 27 years Now we need each other. We're stronger together than we are by ourselves What I say to somebody who says to me. Well, I don't go to church anymore because it's full of hypocrites As I say come on in we got room for one more There's there's a seat for you There's a seat for you Well, I don't like organized religion. Well, what's so great about disorganized religion I like things organized And how many know you can say well, I don't need leaders I don't I don't need leaders in my life. You have leaders in your life whether they have a title leader in your life or not The people on the media will lead you hollywood will lead you music will lead you Your own flesh will lead you the devil will lead you. We are coming under the influence We just have the opportunity to select who's going to lead us And who we're going to follow. Well, I choose my building based on the architecture and listen. There are some beautiful churches But if you think church is just what's on the outside Then you have missed it because there is way more to it than that You can have a beautiful church on the outside that is full of death on the inside full of heresy on the inside Full of people who are twisting and perverting god's word And you're going all the way back to genesis and listening to the voice of the serpent all over again just in a really nice package The most powerful church service i've ever been in is on the island of cuba in a man's backyard under a blue tarp sitting on a white lawn chair And knowing at any minute the government could come and bulldoze his house because he's having a legal church in his backyard Worship leader was no kory asbury. Trust me. I don't know if kory's up here, but he was no kory asbury He had he had 15 year old rusty guitar strings Because that's all he had But the presence of god met us in that place There's more than meets the eye. It's not about the building. It's not about the hypocrites. Not about anybody else. It's about him It's about the place where he's chosen to make his name abide a spiritual environment because there's something in the soil When god's people gather together when imperfect people from different backgrounds and different races and different social economic Statuses and even different languages different political opinions gather together around one name God himself shows up and there's something in the soil that when we walk out we walk out different than we came in We begin to flourish in our next couple weeks As we dig deeper into the series my prayer is that god Would not just give us information, but he would give us revelation about the soil of the church and about how It can affect and impact the rest of our lives Did you stand up with me? see some of us We've been potted for a long time Some of you right now are going pot man. I like that. Whoa What'd you talk about in church? Pastor's talking about getting potted whoa Talking about every herb of the ground not talking about that pot talking about planting our lives in an environment to flourish and i'm praying that god would give us a revelation Because listen, there's something on the inside of you that this world needs There's a purpose for which you were created There's something in you that we need That we all benefit from But I also know this I know that sometimes we we we don't allow our lives to get out of the pot and get planted because we're afraid We're afraid of what happens if we commit to something where We refuse to get out of the pot because we've been wounded We've been hurt and I get that I've been hurt in church I've had people say things about me that are just utter lies Maybe that's happened to you. Maybe you've been gossiped about maybe you've been hurt Maybe somebody's rejected you in church and you've just made a vow in your heart You just said you know what? I'm never I'm not letting that happen. I'll go to church, but I'm not getting involved Listen, I understand the pain of that But it's not a final answer Because it's not optional My prayer is that beyond our fears and beyond our pain and and maybe maybe to a certain degree our apathy Because it's just easy to observe And not participate I'm praying that god by his holy spirit will dig below the surface of our heart and begin to speak To the destiny that he's put in each side of each of us and call that out and give us a spirit of revelation To see the beauty the power the elegance Of this thing called the house of the lord Is that all right? Can we pray over that just by your heads with me all over the stream? I want to invite our prayer ministry team Be on standby in just a moment Lord, I pray that Over the next couple of weeks lord, you would just open our eyes to your purposes in your plan Lord that you would open our eyes to Your wisdom your manifold wisdom Open our eyes to our need of community To the gifts and the callings that are on the inside of us and and the inheritance in the riches that is waiting for us And lord help us to be people that are planted in your presence planted in your house Pray this today in the name of jesus Amen and amen