PRAY
Heavenly Father,
open our eyes so we can see Your truth.
Open our ears so w can hear Your voice.
Open our mind so we can understand Your Word.
And open our heart so we may receive all that You want me to receive. AMEN
Have you ever noticed that when you plant something in the ground it grows where you planted it?
Once a seed is planted in good soil you water it and allow it to be nurtured by the sun that seed begins to grow. It grows out from the ground and it is cared for by continued water and nurturing from the sun and other things.
Eventually that seed that grows into the plant it was meant to be.
Whenever you take a seed and plant it in the ground, given the correct conditions it will grow.
It is an amazing truth of God's plan for everything and here is the cool part; we are the same.
We are meant to grow where God plants us.
Why is it that so many Christians fail to flourish in life?
Life, with all of its ups and downs does not have to keep us down spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
The Word of God clearly tell us the way we can flourish both now on the earth and in the future in heaven in Psalm 92:13.
“Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.”
John Bevere writes in his book, “Honor’s Reward, “When we are planted in the local church we will flourish in life, both now and at the judgment seat of Christ.”
Now let’s take a look at that Scripture again. What does it say?
Those who attend the house of the Lord?
Those who visit the house of the Lord?
No, those who are planted in the house of the Lord.
Anyone can just visit a church and not be planted there.
Anyone can just attend a church and not be planted there.
Being planted means that you are laying down your life to serve God.
Being planted in a church means that you tithe to that church, you serve at that church, you help others in the church, you listen to the spiritual leaders of the church.
Being planted in a church means you value the church, the pastors, the leaders, and each other just as a plant values the ground, the oxygen, the sun, and the water.
It means faithfulness and loyalty to God and to His church.
To be faithful to something means to be steadfast in affection and allegiance. To be loyal to something implies a firm resistance to any temptation to desert or betray that thing you are loyal to.
In Proverbs 28:20 it says, “A faithful man will abound in blessings.”
Loyalty and faithfulness imply a steady unwavering course in love and allegiance coupled with a firm and deep conviction to support that thing. It is a steadfastness in God and the church that always results in God’s blessings in the lives of those who practice this.
And why are we being loyal and faithful? Because God loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us and thus rescue us from the punishment of sin.
He rescued us and gave us the Holy Spirit and gave us the church. The church is not a social meeting place rather it is a place for you to go so you can grow and build the kingdom of God.
And God in His infinite wisdom plants us in His church. That means if God planted you here, you are going to want to be loyal and faithful to God and for the reasons He has planted you here.
If you are planted here then you need to bloom where you are planted.
When you plant a seed, if it has all the right ingredients, it is going to grow and bloom.
I do not think anyone attends PFC on a regular basis.
Debbie and I and our family are here for a reason.
Pastor Joe and Megan are not here by accident.
And none of you are here by accident either…
I believe God has planted us all here and I also believe that if God has planted us here, then we need to bloom where we are planted.
Debbie and I have planted a few gardens before in our life together and we understand that there are times when seeds that are planted become disturbed.
When a seed becomes disturbed it fails to grow correctly.
Seeds can be disturbed by the wind, by birds coming and eating the seed, the rain can wash the seed away, the sun can burn the seed up.
But if the seed is properly put in the ground and is properly cared for then it is going to grow and it is going to bloom.
If you are properly planted in a church and are properly feed the Word of God, you will grow and if you grow you will bloom where you are planted.
There is an urgency to this message today. Especially as we begin a new season at PFC and especially as we understand that our time on earth is but a breath that could be taken away at any moment.
It is time for the people of PFC to find their place in the kingdom of God, become faithful and loyal to God and to the church and its mission and begin to grow and begin to bloom and begin to yield fruit for the Kingdom of God.
There is an urgency to this message. We need to understand that nothing in this life is guaranteed except this, God loves us, Jesus died for us, the Holy Spirit helps us, the church prepares us and Jesus will come back for us!
As we begin to bloom where we are planted we then begin to find our place and purpose in the Kingdom and we then become fruitful and productive.
Sadly in the church in America there are millions of people who call themselves Christians all the whole while they are failing to bloom.
They just visit church, they just attend and they are not committed physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
They attend church because their parents did or because mammy and papa did. They attend because of tradition. They attend because it makes them look good in the community. Or they do so because they can ease their conscience of any and all religious obligations.
The reasons they should be attending the church is to deepen their relationship with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit.
They should be attending so that they will be ready to minister to the sick, the poor, the hungry.
They should be attending so that they can use their gifts and their talents to build the kingdom of God.
Can you imagine what our cities, states, and our country would look like if all of the people who attended local churches began to bloom where they were planted and began to use their gifts and talents to build the kingdom of God?
We could feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, comfort the grieving, see healing for the sick and injured. There would be no need for the government to help the poor. The church would be taking care of business.
If people would begin to bloom in the churches they are planted, the church could accomplish what it is called to do.
When a plant begins to bloom it fulfills the purpose for which it was created.
A flower blooms and we enjoy its beauty.
A vegetable blooms and begins to yield food to eat.
A fruit tree or vine blooms and it begins to offer us the sweet, satisfying fruit it bears.
When God’s children begin to bloom where they are planted they begin to yield a fruit that comes from their loyalty and faithfulness to God.
In return of their loyalty and faithfulness God provides a way for the fruit to be displayed. It is displayed through the gifts and talents that God enables all of His children with.
If you are a born again believer and if you have been planted in a local church and if you are blooming where you are planted then you have something to offer the Kingdom of God.
You have been given gifts and talents from God to use to build His Kingdom and glorify His name.
There is no exception to this rule.
1 Peter 4:10.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received (knowing that the gift is from God and it is a particular spiritual talent that was given to you be a divine endowment.) to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10
Everyone has something to offer the church they are in. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Sadly there are so many in our churches today across this city, across this state, across this nation who feel they have nothing to offer and instead of blooming, they just lay there in the soil, never blooming into what God intends them to be.
If you are a child of God, washed by the blood of Jesus you have something to offer, something unique, something special; God has given it to you and you should be using it!
1 Peter 4:10 takes away all the excuses.
When people within in the church are not willing to release their gifts and talents to God, the local church ceases to function and if the local church ceases to function people are not trained to build the kingdom and the Gospel message does not get shared.
When people within the church are not willing to release their gifts and talents to God, pastors and spiritual leaders begin to burn out and they become ineffective to do what God has place them there to do.
The church needs a break through. The church needs to begin to bloom. We need to begin to bloom where we are planted and allow our gifts and talents from God to flow into the community.
I have asked my wife to come and share a few thoughts on this.
Jesus said something very important about blooming in John 15.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:1-8 NIV
We have many different opportunities to minister in our church and in our community.
There are many different ways we can help build the Kingdom of God. But what good is it to have all these opportunities and fail to bloom and fail to release our gifts and talents to God?
It really comes down to one thing, it comes down to our relationship with God.
If our relationship with God is where it should be then we will bloom where we are planted and we will release our fruit into the world which we live.
We all have different amounts of spiritual health within us and we are all at different growth levels in God. Those things grow and expand as we spend more time with Him personally and corporately, that is within the church.
The more time we spend with God, the more we grow, the more we are strengthened and the more we are encouraged.
It is like a whole life insurance policy that you take out on yourself. You continue to put into it and the investment continues to grow bigger and bigger.
I want you to think for a moment today about the gifts and talents you have received from God.
Maybe you have not even recognized yours yet. Remember we all have them. The Bible tells us so.
God has place you here for a reason and He has enabled you for a purpose.
You must be willing to grow and you must be willing to bloom where God has planted you. In order to do this you must be fine tuned with God’s heart.
How do we fine tune our hearts with God’s heart?
I want to illustrate how by reading a little story called “The Gardner’s Love.”
ME...
We need to bloom where we are planted. No one is here by accident. God has place you here for a reason and we need to begin to use that which God has given us to fulfill His plans.
He has given us all gifts.
The gifts are not what fine tunes us. They are the tools. Christ and the Holy Spirit does the work of fine tuning us.
As we allow them to work in our lives, then we begin to bloom, then we begin to realize those gifts and talents, the fruit that comes from our repentance.
When we repent of our sins and begin that relationship with God, He will always plant us in a local church for this is why He created the church.
I will disagree with anyone who tells me they don’t need the local church, every time.
As we enter that relationship we become planted and we are nurtured and we begin to grow we begin to realize the we are a part of a bigger picture and the gifts and talents (those fruitful things in our lives) are there for a purpose.
My friends, we must bloom where we are planted so that we can release these fruits into the world and build the Kingdom of God.
This is our hour, this is our time, this is our purpose.
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