Epiphany 6 February
11, 2007
“Life with Deep Roots”
Jeremiah 17:5-8
5 This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed
is the one who trusts in man; who depends on flesh for his strength and whose
heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He
will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it
comes. He will dwell in the parched
places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”
7
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in
him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by
the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves
are always green. It has no worries in a
year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
When settlers from the East moved
out to settle the southwest deserts of
How can Bermuda grass and
mulberry trees survive the hot desert sun?
It’s their root system. Both
plants have a root system that goes down some and stretches out a lot. They send out their tendrils into all
directions, gathering every last drop of nutrition and moisture to be
found. During hot, drought-stricken
summers, many plants wither but Bermuda grass and mulberry trees survive. And not only do they survive; they also stick
around for awhile. Once you plant
Bermuda grass or mulberry trees, I hope you like them, because that same
spreading, stretching, get-into-everything root system has another feature:
once these plants are in the ground, they are very, very difficult to uproot.
That’s a picture of the Christian
who is deeply rooted in God’s Word. This
person soaks up every drop of God’s Word he can find. Difficult droughts of life come; but their
faith in God is difficult to uproot even as others wither and die.
Would you like to be a
Christian with deep roots? Then listen
to the Scripture verses today from Jeremiah that contrast the life of a deeply
rooted believer with the life of an unbeliever.
But before he talks about the deeply rooted Christian, he first talks
about the person who goes through life without the LORD. He says, “This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the
one who trusts in man; who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart
turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be
like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the
desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”
There isn’t much middle
ground there, is there? CURSED is the
one who trusts in flesh. What does it
mean to depend on flesh for strength? It
means to live for me, myself and I. It’s
the exact opposite of what God wants from us when he says, “Love God above all
things; love others next; love yourself last.”
Instead, for the person without God, the meaning of life is, “Love
myself above all things, for he who dies with the most toys wins. What do I need God for?” Think of all the luxuries that person piles
up during life. Think of how he is the
envy of everyone on the street. And
think of how that all comes crashing down in the end. When you are flat on your back, struggling to
breathe and about to meet the God whom you have spurned and rejected your
entire life, who cares how high your money pile is? Who cares how many promotions
you’ve received, or how much prestige you’ve earned? It’s all going to be forgotten soon if it
hasn’t been already. The LORD you
thought you’d never need…well, now you realize how wrong you have been the entire
time. Life without the Lord is a
wasteland.
What kind of wasteland picture
is the prophet painting here? He’s
painting a picture of a small, scraggly, destitute tree out in the middle of
the hot, dry valley, very close to the
But wait – can it really be
that bad? Sometimes it seems as if the
person without God has it all. They seem
to have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything. Prosperity, prestige, health, bigger house,
newer cars, faster promotions…how can the Scriptures say their lives are
desolate? If we didn’t have God’s Word
to enlighten us we might think that life without God is the better way to
go. But the truth is life without God is
a wasteland.
And let’s remember that God
isn’t only talking to unbelievers here.
He’s also warning believers against shallow thinking. We all have a natural, automatic pull to
thirst for more toys and more money instead of thirsting for the deep truths of
God in more Bible study. We have a
strong desire to rely on me, myself and I to feel good about ourselves rather
than repent, deny ourselves and lean on the LORD above all things. Here’s one way to put it: even though we have
the eternal Word and enjoy a lush, wonderful life in Christ and his
forgiveness…we want to be the scraggly tree in the desert and push Jesus away.
Let’s deepen our roots. Let’s spread them out to soak in every drop
of the Scriptures. When we start
searching the Scriptures, we realize that all is not well with our hearts. We have a deadly serious problem of wanting
to live our lives without God. That
coldness toward God, that rebellion, that shallow attitude of
“who-needs-the-Word-when-I’ve-got-so-much-to-do” have earned God’s wrath. In the Scriptures we find that God is angry
with our indifference to his Word. He promises to punish every last sin by
banishing us to eternal hellfire. That’s
scary.
But that’s not all. In the Scriptures we also find that God has
punished every one of our sins already – not by banishing us to hell but by
banishing Jesus instead. Jesus gave up
his life and took the holy wrath of God in our place. And because God has already punished Jesus
for our sins, he will not punish us. We
have been forgiven from it all.
That’s where life with deep
roots starts. But that’s not where it
ends. Life with deep roots means we send
out our tendrils to find every drop of Bible study and personal devotion and
can’t get enough. Life with deep roots
means we admit the amazing depth of our sin and cherish the amazing depth of divine
forgiveness. Life with deep roots means
we begin to understand how committed God has always been to us even as we were
uncommitted to him. Life with deep roots
means we regularly ponder Christ’s urgency and love that simply wouldn’t rest
until all of our sin had been washed away and drowned for good. Life with deep roots means we go to sleep
every night not afraid of God but thankful for Him. Life with deep roots means we fight the pull
of pride; rather we only desire to work and pray and leave the details up to
God.
Listen to how Jeremiah
describes life with deep roots: 7
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and
never fails to bear fruit.”
Notice that life with deep
roots never fails to bear fruit. It
doesn’t matter if there are good times or bad.
When things go well, we gladly deflect any praise for our names and say,
“He must become greater and I must become less.” When we suffer losses of money, health,
security, cars, homes, reputation - even if we lose our family members…even if
we are faced with losing our own life…life with deep roots says, “If I lose
everything and all I have is God, (or, more accurately, God has me) then that
is enough.” God has me cradled in his
arms today and for eternity. Everything
else is uprooted but my relationship with God is not. We respond to losses in life not with despair
or volatility or anger or blame…but with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
We all would like life with
deep roots. Let’s keep encouraging one
another to be mulberry trees, shall we? The
times of drought are coming. Difficult
attacks on our faith are on the way, for you and for me and for all of us. The most difficult one is yet to come. Actively send out your roots to soak in God’s Word, keeping your faith
strong and alive and growing. You will
not fear when the heat is on. You will
not freak out when awful problems come to the surface. You will not worry when someone blindsides
you. And even under the most difficult
of circumstances, you will be loving and patient and kind. Life with deep roots is awesome! Amen.