Soil Spirituality
Friend Day
Sept. 10, 2006
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
I want to begin by welcoming all our guests this morning. At 10:30 on a Sunday morning, especially as summer wraps up and we look toward fall, there are ten-thousand other things you could be doing at this moment, yet you have chosen to spend this time here with us and we are glad to have you. I want to reiterate what we have already made clear, which is that we want you to be able to relax today. Wildwind started with a team of about 30 people four years ago, so with the exception of those 30 people, every one of us here today has had the experience of setting the alarm and getting up to come to a place on Sunday where you may not know that many people and where, frankly, you might be a little nervous or uncomfortable. Almost all of us have been there, and we want to make today as easy on you as possible! So please know that today, as with every week here at Wildwind, our guests are a priority for us.
You know every Sunday we have people here from all walks of life. We have people who became Christ-followers when they were four and five years old. We have people who have decided in recent months and years to make that commitment and are in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. We have people who still have not made that commitment but continue to come weekly because they have questions and this is an important part of their spiritual journey. And then I suppose we probably have a few people who come occasionally because they feel guilty if they don’t come, although guilt isn’t really the business we are in. Maybe some people even come because it’s a habit. The point is that people are in all different places, and that’s the way it should be. We’re not all the same age. We’re not all the same gender (although I admit that there’s a bit less variety in that category). We’re not the same height or weight or shoe size or hair color. And we are all in different places spiritually. That is just as it should be, and there’s no reason that anybody should ever come into a church and feel guilty because they’re not farther along than they are. So this morning I don’t care what past you come from. I don’t care what hang-ups you brought in here with you. I don’t care that your life isn’t as perfect as you’d like it to be. I don’t care what you’re wearing or what kind of music you like or what kinds of liquids you keep in your refrigerator. I don’t care if you’re introverted or extraverted, if you have a cushy office job or sweat every minute of every day to earn a living. I don’t care if you are known for your flowery speech or for cussing like a sailor. I don’t care if you could hardly wait to get here, or if you came only because a friend invited you and you wouldn’t have come for any other reason. I mean, I care on the level that these may be concerns of yours at this time, but none of those things should be a barrier for you in sitting back and being open to the possibility this morning that perhaps God might have something to say to you. What I really care most about this morning is that every one of us, guest, old-timer, whatever – can just be a little open to the possibility that we are more than our stock market value, more than our bank account, more than what we own, even more than the legacy we are leaving to our children – that we are eternal souls created on purpose by a God who loves us, wants to know us, and has a plan for our lives and desires that we live in relationship to Him.
We believe that is true, and that nothing should keep us from pursuing that truth as far as it leads. So the real question at this moment is what about now? I have a few moments to speak to you today and I thought long and hard about what I would say. I mean, let’s face it. For some of you, this is my one shot! You may not come back after this week. Hmm…what do I do with this? Do I “nail you” while I’ve got a captive audience, with the fire and brimstone stuff? I guess I could. Heaven knows my heart’s desire is to see every person in this room living in daily relationship to God, having given their life to Christ and decided to ditch their own agendas for their lives and embrace God’s agenda.
But do you know a desire I have for you that is even deeper than that? I desire that each of you would come to be part of a church family that cares about you, loves you for who you are, and welcomes you in. So that, if and when the day comes that you make that decision to follow Christ with your whole heart (if you have not already), it will come not because I pounded it into you on Friend Day but because you saw by looking around you, by knowing some Christ-followers personally, that this whole thing is true and came to personally desire this relationship with God because of who God is and the difference that can make in your life moment by moment.
So that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. Because we are all in different places spiritually, I can’t preach any one sermon that exactly gets to the root of every issue every person is having. But I can speak to the one thing we all have in common right now at this exact moment. Context. We are all at Wildwind Community Church right now. Other churches are in session all over America, but we are here. And I think “here” means a lot. I think the place where you choose to plant yourself, the place where you choose to worship, the church you call “home” has a huge impact on what faith looks like to you, and how (or whether!) you live it out in your everyday life. I have chosen this topic not just because it’s Friend Day today and there are people here perhaps for the first time. I have chosen this topic because it’s a view of the church that I want everyone here today to hear. It’s just as important for our “old-timers” as for our guests.
Let me set this up for you.
1 Corinthians 12:25-27 (MSG)
25 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t,
26 the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.
Here we have the Apostle Paul illustrating how the church is supposed to work. Paul was Christianity’s greatest theologian, pastor, and missionary and he gives us this brilliant comparison of the church to a body. He says that the church is, in fact, Christ’s living body on earth, and that we find our place, our true identity, within that body.
Now I want you to think about your body for a moment. Your body is you. You are your body. The two are inseparable, at least for now! You do not have the option of staying home and watching TV and just sending your body to a meeting you don’t want to go to. Nor can you actually be with someone “in spirit.” When you say to somebody, “I’ll be with you in Spirit,” what you are really saying is two things. First, I care about you and really wish I could be there. Second, I definitely will not be there. Because if your body isn’t there, you aren’t there, right?! You can dream and think of things outside your body, but all dreaming, all thinking, all wishing, all hoping, all loving, all remembering, everything you do happens within your body – your body is where the person who is ‘you’ is physically located.
Paul says the church is Christ’s body. In other words, the church is where Christ is physically located. Now because God is spirit, God can be everywhere at any time, but as you are located in your physical body even though you are a great deal more than physical, Christ can be located in the church, even though he is a great deal more than physical. I bring this up today because I want to talk to you about gardening.
Did I lose you there? I mean, what on earth do the church and Christ’s body have to do with gardening? I’m glad you asked, because the church is the context for God’s presence, like soil is the context for a plant. Plants are rooted in soil. Humans are rooted in bodies. Plants and people don’t just float in the air, they are rooted somewhere specific, through their bodies, or the soil they are planted in. So the church is not simply the place where you come once in a while to feel good. It’s not just the place where you can get pumped up to face another week. The church is your soil. It’s your context for growing spiritually. It’s where you will encounter God and others will encounter God through you, as you take your place in Christ’s body. So the church is your growth environment, it is your soil! It is the context for living a life that is increasingly God-soaked, God-saturated, God-sustained, God-centered.
Okay, I have welcomed you this morning. I have told you up front that my desire for every person who walks in our doors is that they find a place that nurtures them, loves them, cares for them, and becomes their growth context. In other words, my desire is to see people planted in this soil! Some of you have been attending a while but have never really put roots down. I would love to see you do that. Some of you are new here today for the first time, and I hope you’ll consider putting roots down, planting yourself in this soil. I want to make four observations about soil and how it’s connected to the church before we wrap up this morning.
First, lest you remain unconvinced of the importance of soil, of context, in your spiritual life taking root and growing into something meaningful, let’s hear straight from Jesus.
Matthew 13:1-8 (NIV)
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.
2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.
3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Matthew 13:18-23 (NIV)
18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:
19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
See? There can be no question that it’s not simply whether you receive the “seed” (the word of God, good preaching, etc.), but that the conditions of the soil make a huge difference in what actually happens next. Soil, your growth context, in other words, your local church, makes a huge difference! Now Jesus here was specifically talking about conditions in the heart of each individual person, but I want to talk about soil in terms of your overall growth context – where you plant yourself as part of the body of Christ. So let’s look at the church as the body of Christ – the place where you are invited to “plant” yourself so that you have a growth context – a place where conditions are such that growth will be the likely result.
First is that the soil does not nourish the plant. Here I am saying the soil makes all the difference, but the soil does not actually nourish the plant, does it? The soil is just a channel (or container) for minerals that do the nourishing. So the church does not actually nourish you spiritually, but the local church is a channel (or container) for the living presence of God that flows through and between the people – for God’s Holy Spirit, just like your body is a channel or container for your spirit. Some people in our society have said, “I don’t need the church in order to know God.” But if Paul was right, and the church is the body of Christ, then we are either part of the body or we are not – we are either planted in that soil or we are not.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (MSG)
7 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.
Inside of everyday, ordinary lives, God chooses to dwell with all his glory. That’s a mystery! As we plant ourselves in the soil of a local church, God works and lives in us.
Philippians 2:13 (HCSB)
13 For it is God who is working in you, [enabling you] both to will and to act for His good purpose.
Second is that the soil (the minerals, but we’ll keep saying the soil!) actually determines whether or not the plant grows! Whether, how quickly, how strongly, and how high the plant can grow are all determined in large part by the soil, because the soil carries the nutrients, right? In the same way, the church actually determines whether a person grows in Christ, as well as how quickly, how strongly, and how high, because the church is the soil, it is Christ’s body where his presence is made real as we encounter God in real human beings life by life. We saw in the parable that Jesus told that the soil makes a huge difference – if the soil isn’t right, the seed will not grow, or it will grow lamely. The church doesn’t determine this intentionally. Like we don’t have a growth board that decides that certain people can grow and certain people cannot. Remember, churches are like soil – they have specific environments and cultures, so some people will thrive in certain churches and others will not. Which leads to my next point.
Different plants require different soil conditions in order to grow optimally, so a plant that languishes in one soil might flourish in another. Likewise, different people require different churches in order to grow optimally, so a person who languishes in one church might flourish in another. Desert soil is okay if you’re a cactus, but not if you are a rose. Wildwind isn’t for everybody. No one church is. We encourage you to find a church where you can be excited and jump into the body and flourish, because the particular local church where you choose to worship will make a bigger difference than you could imagine.
Fourth and last this morning, when a plant is not doing well, we are wise to consider the soil in which it is planted, and not to immediately conclude there’s something wrong with the plant. So when a person is not doing well spiritually, we are wise to consider the church they attend, and not to immediately conclude there’s something wrong with the individual. Yes, we should look inside also, at the individual, but the church you attend should fire you up. You should feel excited about it. You should find yourself wanting to be there. You should desire to build relationships with the people there. You should find yourself thinking about the sermons during the week and humming or singing the music because you can’t get it out of your head. If guitars and drums do that for you, great. If not, maybe you need organs and pianos. But when God is moving in your life, you will feel the stirrings! You will sense it as excitement, as passion, as enthusiasm, as desire to learn more, or desire to not leave church or to go back Monday morning, or something! You will sense a connection to that place.
I do not know what you have sensed today. My goal was not to talk our guests into staying at Wildwind (though we’d love to see you back and you are always welcome). My goal was not to beat you over the head with a Bible and shove something down your throat. My goal was to talk to you about how the local church is the soil, the context, for a God-centered life. If on any level you desire to have a God-centered life, either now or in the future, as a guest or regular attender today, I urge you to get connected to a local church that excites you and inspires you, because the church is Christ’s body. It is through the church and its people that you will experience God’s grace, God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s acceptance. And believe me, when you experience those things in church, instead of judgment and guilt and alienation, you will be inspired and find yourself coming to love that place.
