Where Are You Rooted? (Luke 6:43-45)

Where Are You Rooted? | Hope Church Cleburne Sermon Podcast

The fruit of your life is never an accident—it always grows from your roots.

In this message from Luke 6:43-45, Pastor Todd explores one of Jesus' most powerful illustrations: a tree is known by its fruit. But before fruit ever appears, something much deeper is happening beneath the surface. The condition of our hearts, the source we draw from, and the stability of our spiritual roots all determine the kind of life we produce.

Are you rooted in God's Word or the opinions of the world? Are you staying planted through difficult seasons, or allowing disappointment and offense to uproot your faith? And when life's storms come, what do they reveal about what's growing inside you?

Through practical illustrations, biblical truth, and encouraging application, this sermon reminds us that God isn't just interested in changing our behavior—He wants to transform our hearts. Healthy roots lead to healthy fruit.

If you've ever felt discouraged in your spiritual growth, struggled to stay grounded, or wondered why certain patterns keep appearing in your life, this message will challenge and encourage you to examine where you're truly rooted.

Because the fruit everyone sees is determined by the roots nobody sees.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So y'all sit back or get on the edge of your chair and give it up for Gwyn as she brings her brother. Good morning. Thank you. So we'll get to the plants. We're gonna learn a lot about plants today, whether you want to or not. Um but yes, that's what we're learning about today. So if you will take out your phone or your Bible, um every time that I'm up here, I try to give you guys something uh that we do in the back with the kids. So one thing that we've been doing the past several months is uh reading along in the Bible with them. I know it's surprising we're teaching them the Bible, but uh we are literally giving them Bibles and saying, let's figure out, let's teach you how to find where we're at in the Bible, and let's read along together. Because we have videos that they can watch, but the Bibles reading along with them has really kept them engaged, and they're really are learning the Bible. So um, if you have your Bible, we're gonna be in Luke, so you can open it to the probably second-ish page, and you can find Luke in there, it's in the New Testament, and find which page that's on, and then you can flip to chapter number six, the big number six. If you don't have your Bible, then you can use your phone too. Um, you can tap the NFC tag on the chair in front of you and pull up the sermon notes. So we're gonna read Luke 6, 43 and uh through 45. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit, for figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from bramble bushes. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So um you can kind of get from those verses why there are so many plants up here, right? Um, so a tree doesn't have to try to reveal its own um what kind of tree it is. Eventually, the fruit tells the story. It eventually an apple tree produces apples, a peach tree produces peaches. You can even break it down even further and say a granny smith apple tree produces granny smith apple trees. It's not gonna produce honey crisp apples, right? We all know at least that much about plants. It's gonna produce its fruit, not a different fruit. Jesus says that is how our lives work too. Our lives work the same way. The fruit of our lives reveals the condition of our hearts and the source of our roots. That's what we're talking about today is where are you rooted? Um, so we're gonna look at where are you rooted because your roots determine how fruitful you become. We do have a big idea. That's something else we do in the back as well. Um I lied to you, Hannah. It is at the beginning too. The big idea. So in the back, we would play a game, and you uh would have to figure out what the big idea is. We're not gonna play a game. We just have a graphic. Uh the big idea is your roots determine your fruit. Um, so that's the main point of today. That's what I want you to take away. Your roots determine your fruit. So, Luke, point number one, the source of your roots. Uh, Luke 6, 44 said, for each tree is its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. Notice Jesus says its own fruit. One tree cannot produce fruit for another tree. This pineapple plant is not gonna produce an avocado. It doesn't work that way. The pineapple plant is gonna produce a pineapple, the avocado tree is gonna produce a pineapple avocado. Okay, so likewise, nobody can produce fruit for you. Nobody can produce, nobody can have faith for you. Your grandmother can pray for you, your parents can teach you, and in Proverbs 22, 6 it says, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. That's something that the Bible tells us as parents to do. We have to teach our children. So your grandparents can pray for you, your parents can teach you, your pastor can encourage you, your small group leader or your friend can tell you that you're making a wrong choice. But at some point, you have to grow your roots in Christ for yourself. It's a decision that you have to make. So I have several plants up here, as you can see. There's two pineapples, two avocados, and an aloe. I almost didn't bring the aloe, um, but I looked at it yesterday and said it needed to come because it was previously in a very small container and it wasn't doing very well. So when I transplanted the pineapples, I put the aloe in here and it started growing a new little sprout here in the middle, if you can't see it. Um, so we'll get to that in a minute, but when you put your roots in the right environment, you begin to blossom. Plants are that way, and we are that way. So let's imagine that we have two trees. Okay, we plant one tree by a landfill, and it's gonna grow, it's gonna pull its nutrition from the pollution, from the waste, and the decay. And then we have another tree that we plant by a flowing river. It pulls its nutrition from clean flowing water, which thank you. Which tree do you think is eventually gonna produce healthier fruit? The one by the river, yeah. So we have to decide where we are drawing our nutrition from. Are we gonna draw it from social media or are we gonna draw it from scripture? Are we gonna draw it from entertainment or are we gonna draw it from worship? Are we gonna draw it from others' opinions? Or are we gonna go to the Word of God? Are we gonna draw it from bitterness or from prayer? I would urge you to take a good look at where you spend your time, who you spend your time with. Are your friends fertilizing your soil or are they polluting your soil? Or are they weeds and taking all of the nutrition out of you? So God's not concerned just with what we do, he's also concerned about how we're connected. He wants our group roots to grow deep into him, deeply connected to him. So, what's the big idea? Somebody said it. I heard it. Amber, was it you? Let's all say it together, okay, on the count of three, because this is kids' church, and you get to be a kid today. Okay, okay, so next gen take take over. One, two, three. Your roots determine your fruit. That was okay, but we can do better. So in the back, we tell the kids to be so loud that they can that they that y'all can hear them, and we're gonna be as loud so that they can hear you, okay? You ready? Prepared? Take a deep breath. One, two, three. Your roots determine your fruit. That was better. Good job. Okay, so Luke 645A. Something else that we've talked to the kids about is when there's an A at the end of the verse, what does that mean? Or a B when there's a letter. That just simply means there's multiple, that's a long verse and we've split it in half. Okay, that's all the A means. So 645A says the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil. So one of the fastest bearing fruits, uh, fruit trees is a papaya tree. You want to guess how long it takes to grow papayas from planting to fruit bearing? Nine to 12 months. You read the notes. You knew it is in the sermon notes, it should be. Uh, nine to twelve months. So, what's it doing during that nine to twelve months? It's preparing its roots, it's gathering nutrition, and it's growing where nobody can see. When you build a house or when you do renovations, the place where you spend your most money is where nobody can see it. Your foundation, your structure, electricity, plumbing, all of those things. Nobody can see it, but that's where you're spending your most money. Sometimes we all have to grow our roots too, but sometimes we get discouraged when we compare ourselves to others. Like they've been a Christian longer than I have, but they seem like they're in a better place than me. Or they're more patient with their kids, or they're able to keep their calm and self-control better than I am. But not every plant, not all of us, grow at the same root rate. Not every believer matures at the same timeline. So I need two volunteers, Maddie and Parker. Maddie, I want you to examine these two pineapple plants and tell me which one you think I planted first. Parker, you're gonna do the same with the avocado plants. The avocado trees. You're gonna look at them and see which one you think I planted first. This one or that one over there. Which one do you think? It is that one. Good job. That one. Why do you think it's that one? It's nicer. It has bigger leaves than the other one. It's probably a little bit taller than the other one, maybe. The trunk is bigger. Actually, I planted this one first. This avocado tree was planted first. But Maddie was right. This pineapple plant was planted first. Good job, Maddie. But this one, you can't see it from here, but this one has a second sprout coming out of it here. This one does not. So we can't judge. Thank you. You don't get chocolate today, but thank you. I'll try and remember next time. So you can't look at these and necessarily be able to say, oh, that one was definitely planted first, or that one was. You can't because all plants grow at their own pace, just like we grow at our own place, our own pace. So one of the pineapple plants, it's um this one right here. I know that because there's a Grinch in here. Um, that's my marker. When I was transplanting it, I ripped all of the roots out. Not on purpose, it was an accident. Um, but now this pineapple plant is gonna take longer to have fruit than this one is because I disturbed its roots. Will it there it is? Um, if it if it does rebuild its roots, then it will have uh it will have fruit. But it's gonna only time will tell if it is able to regrow its roots and then produce fruit. So growth happens below the surface. So give yourself grace, trust the process, and keep drawing from the right source. Make sure you're drawing from your Bible, from the word, from people that you trust that are God-fearing people and worship, not from social media or others' opinions or those things. Okay, so what's the big idea? Good job, Ava. Let's all try it again. What's the big idea?

unknown 13:05

Your roots determine your fruit.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Thank you. Okay, so number three. The strength of your roots. So imagine you plant a tree, and six months later you decide that it's not growing fast enough. So you move it. And then another six months go by, it's still not growing fast enough, you move it again. Another six months goes by, still not growing, you move it again. That tree could survive, but every move disturbs its roots, just like I did to that pineapple plant. Eventually, that tree is going to take longer and longer and longer to get to the point where it can produce fruit. The first time you move it, it could in six months recover. But then you move it again, it's gonna take maybe a year to recover. And then you move it again, it's gonna take maybe a year and a half to recover. The time itself doesn't necessarily matter, but the fact is that it's going to take longer and longer and longer every time you disturb its roots to recover, to be able to produce fruit. We're the same way. But you may ask, why in the world would anyone move a tree that many times? I don't know either. It seems a little silly, but we do the same thing in our lives. Every offense, every disappointment, every difficult season, every church hurt, we uproot ourselves. Sometimes we uproot ourselves with spiritual disciplines. We stop reading our Bibles, we forget to pray, we uproot ourselves. Sometimes it's the church relationships. We just stop coming to church, we stop replying to people who genuinely care and want to check on us. We uproot ourselves. If you're new here, you may not know, but Hope Church is a church plant. We were originally planted by New Hope Church in Abilene, and we are also planting churches. Pastor Todd said it a few minutes ago. We're planting a church in Meridian and now Vareto. Why? Because healthy plants reproduce. But what is required is stability. We have to have stability to be a healthy plant. Dead plants can't produce fruit. They can't re reproduce either. Psalm 1.3 says he is like a tree planted in streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. So, what's the key to stability? Staying planted. The strongest trees aren't the ones that are moved the most, the strongest trees are the ones that stay planted long enough to develop deep roots. So stay planted, stay connected, don't let temporary frustrations uproot you from what God's trying to establish inside of you. Sometimes the breakthrough is waiting for you just on the other side of staying planted. So, what's the big idea? Y'all haven't caught on yet, have you? Let's try it again. One, two, three. I heard that half of the room. I didn't hear this half of the room. So now y'all get to do it by yourselves. You ready? One, two, three. That's much better. Thank you. Okay. When you're in the back, you have to keep the kids entertained and their attention. And sometimes you have to have a competition to do that. So, number four, going very quickly today. But the fruits of your roots. That's what number four is. So you can tell a lot about a tree's root system when a storm arrives. Have any of you had a storm in your life? Probably every single person in here. During a storm, what happens? The wind blows, the rain falls. A tree that has shallow roots or dead roots is going to fall quickly. A tree with deep roots or established roots survives. The same is for us spiritually. When pressure comes, what comes out? When you're hurt, what comes out? When you're disappointed, what comes out? When you're stressed, what comes out? Luke 6.45 B, remember that B is just there because it's the second half of the verse. It says, For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The storm doesn't create the roots, the storm reveals the roots. If your roots are connected to fear, pride, offense, and self-reliance, those things are going to come out in the storm. But if your roots are connected to prayer, worship, God's word, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, guess what comes out? No guesses? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Do y'all remember how to make those evident in your life? You become chocolate milk. I had to top chocolate milk, but I couldn't leave. If our roots are connected to the things of God's word, to the influences in our life that are God-fearing people, we have love, we have joy, we have peace, we have patience, we have kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. The fruit that everyone sees is determined by the roots that nobody sees. The storm doesn't create the roots, the storm reveals the roots. So what's the big idea? Thank you. Okay, let's uh you did. Good job. Um I am almost done, but we do have one thing that uh we also do in the back that is gonna take a minute too. So let's recap. Number one, we need to look at the source of our roots. Where are we drawing our nutrition from? Number two, are your roots growing? Yes. Just don't compare them to other people's roots. Are you staying rooted? Number three, are you staying rooted or are you uprooting yourself with every offense? Number four, what is the storm going to reveal about your roots? So our transformational moments, is that what they're called? Okay, I can never remember. Uh, where are transformational moments? Number one, where are you rooted? So maybe today you're looking at your life and realizing that you've been planted beside a landfill. The good news is that Jesus invites us to be replanted in his living water. Have you ever, uh, number two, have you been uprooting yourself every time a storm comes along? Take this opportunity today to say, no more. Put the shovel down, let God prune you, let him fertilize your soil and allow your deep roots to grow deep. Number three, what are your roots revealing about your fruit? If you don't like the fruit you're seeing, maybe it's time to examine your roots. So every service, we give the opportunity for um those who are in the room who may not know Jesus, may not have asked him to come into their heart to forgive them of their sins. Why is that important? Because we want to give everybody that opportunity. That's literally why we're here. Okay. Jesus came to the earth, he lived a sinless life, and he died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven and so that we could spend eternity in heaven with him. So we're gonna do that right now. I'm gonna give you the opportunity to say a prayer with me. The words that I say don't matter. What matters is your heart. Do you truly believe that God died on the cross for your sins? Okay, so let's go our heads. Close our eyes. We're gonna talk to God. And if you want to say this prayer with me for the first time, repeat after me. It doesn't have to be allowed. Just be in your heart. God, I know I'm a sinner. I know that you have sent your son to die on the cross for my sins. My sins. I know that it was only through his blood that I'm forgiven. Please forgive me of my sins. Come into my life. Make me a new creation. Thank you, Father. Amen. So with every head bowed, all eyes closed, if you said that for the first time, if you'll raise your hand, we have a gift for you. Okay. I have one more thing that I want to go over with you guys. The band can continue playing, it's not that big of a deal. But you we have a graphic. This is something that we use in Kitch Church every week. Because prayer is hard. Knowing where to start can be hard. And it doesn't have to be. So pray is an acronym. The P stands for praise, R stands for repent, A Ask, and Y yield. We walk through this in Kids Church every week. It's something that they were introduced to at Kids Camp last last year. Andrew brought it back to my remembrance. Um, and I just made the graphic. But it is just God, thank you. Praise. You have a million things that you can be thankful for. You made it here safely, you make it to work safely, you have food, you have a roof, you have clothes, shoes, a million things that you can be thankful for. So you just say, God, thank you for fill in the blank. All of us think that we're perfect, but we're not. So we all need to repent. That's what the R is for. God, I'm sorry for, and fill in the blank. I'm sorry for cussing that driver out on the way here. I'm sorry for being impatient with my children. I'm sorry for not putting you first. I'm sorry for not thinking about you before I woke up or before I got out of my bed. And then you can go to ask. This is where you ask God for help, whatever situation you're facing. A diagnosis, a surgery, marriage, relationship with your children, relationship with the friends. God, I am struggling in this area. Please help me in this area. Help me to do better, help me with whatever I'm facing. And then the last one's the hardest. Why is yield? Because we live in a society where it's just go, go, go, go, go. And we have so much noise, pollution, stimulating our brains. And it's so hard to just sit in silence, but it is the most important thing because that's when the Holy Spirit can speak to you. So why? You're just gonna say, God, I'm listening to whatever you want to share with me, how you want me to move forward in the situation, how you want me to stay planted where I'm at, God, I'm listening to you. And then you just sit in silence. Sometimes it might be quick, sometimes it might be longer. You have to form a relationship with God so that you can feel when he's speaking to you or when he's done speaking to you. So we're gonna practice that today, but we'll also have some prayer people up at the front to pray with you. Um, if you have some needs, the altar is always open. The good thing about this is you can do it anywhere. You can do it here at the altar. And I would highly encourage you, if you have not stepped foot in this altar, do it. Take that step out of your chair and do it because things change. Not just physically, but spiritually, things change when you come here and you lay your issues down, your fears, your anxiety, whatever it is, when you lay it down here, things can change. Not just physically, mentally, spiritually, things change. I would encourage you if you haven't, do it. But this can be done anywhere. We can talk to God in our car, in our shower, in our bed, it doesn't matter. We can talk to God anywhere because he's listening. The point is to do it. Stay rooted and stay planted.