Rootedness | My Job Depends on Ag

Using agriculture as a metaphor for spiritual growth, this sermon focuses on the importance of cultivating a "root system" by keeping our hearts. Just as trees need roots to bear fruit, we must tend to our inner life to produce lasting spiritual fruit. We often prioritize the external—our "branches" of doing and achieving—while neglecting the hidden life of the heart.

Scripture References

• Genesis 2:4-9: God plants a garden and forms man from the dust (humus), reminding us of our humble origins.
• John 15:1-8: Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. The command is to "remain" or "abide," focusing on the connection (root) rather than striving for fruit.
• Mark 7:14-23: Jesus teaches that defilement comes from within the heart, not from outside circumstances.
• Proverbs 4:23: "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."
• 1 Samuel 16:7: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
• Ezekiel 36:26-27: The New Covenant promise: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you."

Key Points

1. Prioritize the Root Over the Fruit At the start of a new year, we naturally focus on external results (fruit). However, Jesus consistently points us to the unseen, hidden life (root). If we focus on remaining in Him, the fruit will take care of itself. We must resist the pressure to let our public persona outgrow our private character.
2. Keep Your Heart with All Vigilance The heart is not just emotions; it is the center of our being—mind, will, and desires. Like a musical instrument, it naturally goes out of tune and must be constantly tended. Proverbs 4:23 commands us to guard it above all else because everything in life flows from it. While the world (bosses, teachers, etc.) may only care about our production, God cares deeply about the condition of our hearts.
3. Stop Blaming and Start Investigating We often blame external circumstances or people for our reactions ("Look what you made me do"). But Jesus teaches that what comes out of us (anger, lust, pride) reveals what was already in us. Instead of blaming others for shaking the bottle, we should investigate what's inside.

Conclusion

Spiritual growth isn't just behavior modification; it's heart transformation. We cannot change our own hearts, but God can. The promise of the New Covenant is that God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Our job is to tend the soil, stay connected to the Vine, and let His grace do the deep work of change.

Calls to Action

1. Invest in Your Marriage: Sign up for the marriage workshop on January 31st to intentionally shape your relationship.
2. Tend to Your Heart: Don't neglect your inner life for the sake of outer performance. Take time to stop and ask, "How is my heart doing?"
3. Journal Your Emotions: Use the simple exercise of writing down what you are Mad, Sad, Afraid, and Excited about to uncover what is truly going on inside you.
4. Stop Blaming: When negative reactions spill out, resist the urge to blame others. Ask God to show you the root of that reaction in your own heart.

Transcript

Hey, last week, if you were here, we talked about how this year you are going to be shaped. You are going to be formed this year. And that's either going to be by accident or by intention. So we were inviting you to be intentional about how you were shaped and, and invest in the things that form you and shape you.

And so, those classes are definitely a part of having your heart and your life shaped and formed by God. But we also want to set aside some time to invest in our, marriages. And so on Saturday, January 30th, I believe it's January 30th, 31st. So on January 31st, from nine to noon, we're going to have a time, where we pour into marriages here in the church.

And we just want to invite you to be a part of that. My friend Dan, Jarrod is coming from Alaska, to be with us. He's one of my professors from Western Seminary, and he's making the track, and he used to do a lot of speaking for family life today. And he sent me his notes for the sessions he'll do that morning.

And it's going to be incredible. He'll talk first about what threatens marriage, and then second, he'll talk about what we're going to do about that. And there's some assignments, some questions, some conversations. You'll get to have some time, with your spouse to, I'm sure work through whatever it is that comes up that day. But let's take that step and invest in that way.

Sound good? Hey, so we're in a series as a church called My Job Depends on AGG, and it's based on the sticker that I wish I had on my vehicle. And this is a slogan for the Central Valley. This is a mantra for us. And I also believe that it should be a slogan for life in Christ because as a follower of Jesus, I believe that your job depends on AGG, meaning that the Christian life is more like AGG than it is like technology, and you're more like a farm in your production than a factory.

So we get in trouble when we forget farming and forget these analogies and illustrations that Jesus used. And so we're looking at agriculture, something we know well to gain insights into how we change and how we grow in the new year. Because I'm guessing everybody here wants to make some progress in 2026. Everybody wants to grow, everyone wants to mature.

I said this last week, I don't need to cross the finish line this year, but I want to show signs of growth. I want to mature. I don't I don't want to be wrestling with all the same things and all the same ways. And I certainly would rather not go backwards. Can I get an amen? Let's not go backwards.

So we're looking at agriculture. We're gaining insight into how all of this works. This is actually very easy to do because the Bible is full of agriculture. In fact, I found myself thinking, I wonder if there's one page in your Bible that doesn't have a reference to agriculture in it. I was looking just at the first page of your Bible, Genesis chapter two, verse four.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up. For the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground. But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Then the. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed, and the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

That's your first page. And remember, God is creating through spoken word. And then when it comes to making you, he gets down in the dirt and does a little manual labor, and he forms you and he shapes you, and he plants a garden. And he places us in that garden to work. That garden. Eugene Peterson says this. The Latin words humus, soil, earth and homo human being have a common root from which we also get our word humble.

This is the Genesis origin of who we are. Dust, dust that the Lord God used to make us a human being. If we cultivate a lively sense of our origin and nurture, nurture a sense of our continuity with it, who knows? We may also acquire humility. Humility starts with knowing that we're created. We're not the creator. We're created.

We've been formed from the dust of the earth. And this is where humility starts. God plants a garden, puts us in the garden to flourish. This is page one. I was thinking about Jesus's most famous illustrations and was thinking about, Jesus referring to himself as the vine. And we as his people are the branches. This is a part of Jesus's farewell speech to his disciples.

He's about to ascend into heaven. He's about to send the Holy Spirit. And these disciples are about to lead the church. And this is what he says in John 15 to them, I'm the true, I'm the true vine, and my father is the gardener. 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.

You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me as I 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. 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 if you do not remain in me. You're like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

If you read this chapter, and I'm sure maybe you have, Jesus hits one note over and over again. Remain in me. Or if you read the NIV, Abide in Me. In fact, he says over and over again, don't worry about the fruit. Don't worry about the fruit. Don't worry about what's seen. Worry about what's unseen. Worry about the root.

And I don't know about you guys, but every time the beginning of the year starts, I'm like fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit. And then I sit before God and he's like roots, roots, roots, grass roots. And I'm like, what scene, what scene, what scene, what scene? And he's like, what's unseen. What's unseen, what's unseen. It's it's every, every first of the year so predictable.

And what is said in this passage is, is so profound to me. What's not said in this passage is also so profound. On day one, the church these guys lead is about to become 3000 people.

There's a lot of missing details. There's a lot I would have so much of a thirst of how Jesus, how are we going to bring this to pass? I would want to know. I mean, if I was Thomas and I was headed to India after this, I would want to know Jesus, what am I going to do there?

I'd have so many questions and Jesus keeps saying the same thing. Just remain in me, remain in me. Stay vitally connected to me as your source. The fruit will take care of itself. You don't got to worry about the details. This is a description from John 15, but this is also a description of how the beginning of our year works.

It's so much easier to think about, to focus on, to talk about what scene, to talk about what's above ground. And it's so easy to neglect what is unseen. Our hidden life. So easy to prioritize our public persona over private disciplines. Right? I know that you guys have had this experience right where I'm looking at life for God.

And it's about this big, and this is what I need to do. The only problem is this is my life with God.

Quite a bit smaller. I think every one of us knows the reality of having an outer life that looks like this, and an inner life that looks like this. I think every one of us knows what it's like to feel like our gifting is much bigger than our character, and you feel like you're going to tip over that.

Our being with God is being eclipsed by our doing, and you feel like you're running on empty. I know that for me or my public life is so much bigger sometimes than my private disciplines, and I know that can be true for you as well. People's perception of you is is larger than what's actually real, and this leads to us being a tree that's got some really large branches but a really small root system.

So I want to talk today about rooting yourself. And in particular, I want to talk about keeping your heart, because it's the easy thing to neglect. We had a day of reflection on Wednesday, and it was a a day set up for, for worship. And Monica had arranged two worshipers each hour, and Tiffany had created a guide. And I was supposed to reflect on my year, think about the highs and lows kind of account for where I had been, and probably check in with where my heart is that going into the new year.

Guess what else I had to do? A sermon, this sermon. And I was sitting there, just so torn, thinking I probably do need to tend to my heart. I probably do need to pay attention to what's going on in here. But I've got a sermon coming on Sunday, so I'm going back and forth between reflecting on what happened in September of 2025 and then going, what the heck am I going to say on Sunday?

And I found myself thinking, well, God will understand God all under. God understands this situation I'm in. These people won't. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to punt. The time of reflection. I'm going to neglect my heart because I've got things to do. I'm going to move past being with God, because I've got things to do for God.

And I know as a pastor, I'm not the only one doing this. So I know that you also feel like, hey, God will understand, but my kids will not.

God will understand, but my students will not. God will understand, but my parents will not. God will understand. But certainly my boss will not. There is no time to tend to our interior when there's so much pressure on the exterior to perform. So the message is simple this morning. It's just a reminder to me and to you that you should keep your heart with vigilance.

You should prioritize it over all else, for from it flow this the springs of life. Jesus in Mark 21, says this. Sorry he didn't say this yet, the gospel writer says, and he called the people to him again and said to them, now this is Jesus. Hear me, all of you, and understand there's nothing outside of person that by going into him can defile him.

But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, because this is this is a pretty wild thing. And he said to them, then you're also without understanding. Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?

Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him from, for, from within, out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and they defile a person. The reason they were struggling to understand this is the same reason we would struggle to understand this right?

Jesus was addressing a group of people not unlike us, who felt like my problem is actually out there. It's actually not in here. It's them. It's not me. Look what you made me do. And Jesus famously says, it's not what comes into a man. That is the problem. It's what comes out of a man. That is the problem.

Jesus is famous for making everything an issue of the heart and saying that essentially everything is an inside job. Everything is an inside job. For from within. Out of the heart of a man comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and they defile a person Jesus would later say will store up goods so that it's good that comes out of your heart.

In these moments. It's funny because I think we often feel, and I'm sure this is why the disciples were struggling to understand this, but I think I've often felt like I'd be good if it weren't for them. That because they keep bumping into me, this is what comes out of me. But what if it's actually that? That's what's in you and that's why it comes out of you when they bump into you?

What if you were already harboring it? What if you were already holding it and they're just the person that pushes your buttons? I was really struck by this charge, and I just want to pass it on to you right now. But before I read it, I want you to know the context. This is a father speaking to a son, and this is about wisdom being passed down.

This is a father saying, after a lot of years, after a lot of years of neglecting my heart, I want to say something to you, son, here. Oh, sons of fathers, instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Some of your translations say guard or watch your heart and you get the idea. The original text actually says this more than all vigilance, more than all guarding. Guard your heart more than all keeping. Keep your heart, guard your heart. Most watch your heart most. Don't neglect your heart. Make the condition of your heart. Most important. Make it a priority.

Keep your heart more than all keeping. Keep your heart. Hear it from the Word of God because you're not going to hear it from your boss right? Hear it from the Word of God, because you're not probably going to hear it from your spouse. You're not going to hear from your teachers, and you're not going to hear it from your students.

More than all keeping, keep your heart more than keeping your boss happy. Keep your heart more than keeping your job. Keep your heart. And I think you'll end up keeping your job. Keep your heart more than you. Keep your kids safe. Keep your heart more than you. Keep the faith. And I think you'll end up keeping the faith.

More than you keep the house clean. Keep your heart more than you. Keep your facial hair out of the sink. Keep your heart more than you. Keep your mouth shut. Keep your heart. And then I think you'll keep your mouth shut. More than keeping calm and carrying on. Keep your heart like ten. Address the worry inside of you more than keeping your teeth white.

Keep your heart more than keeping your weight down. Keep your heart more than keeping your face wrinkle free. Keep your heart more than you have to. Keep your grades up. Keep your heart more than you need to. Keep your account from being overdrawn. And keep the minivan running. Keep your heart more than all. Keeping. Keep your heart guard your heart.

This is what's most important in life, says the Book of Wisdom. What is the heart? What exactly are we guarding? What are we keeping? What are we protecting? When we protect the heart? When we think of the heart in our culture, we think of emotions and we think of affections, and we think of feelings, emotions, affections, feelings. In the Bible's definition of the the heart includes this, but it's much broader than these things.

When the Bible refers to the heart, it's referring to your deepest moral and spiritual convictions along with your feelings and emotions. When the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about what's really going on deep inside of you. What makes you you. It's the center of your being. It's who you are. It is your essence, your heart is not just your emotions, it's your essence.

And so the Bible refers to the heart 900 times in the book of Proverbs alone, 77 times it refers to the heart. The heart actually includes your mind. You're reading the scriptures, the thoughts of your heart. The heart includes your will and the choices that you make. The heart includes our emotions, the thing, the things that we feel and desire.

And long for. The heart includes our personality. It's the sum total of who we are, but it's referring to the interior. Proverbs 2719 says, as a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects a real person. That's who you are, is who you are in your heart. So our heart is like a musical instrument. I've noticed this.

It's tendency is towards going out of tune. I've never bumped my guitar into tune. I've never let my guitar sit and come back to it and going, wow, it's in tune. That rarely happens. The default of our hearts is to stray, and Christian maturity is learning how to tune it, learning what's out of tune, coming back to it and go, oh, that these a little sharp and not getting defensive when you get that feedback.

No no no no no. It's in tune you know. And everyone's like.

Sure.

How how how does anyone keep their heart. How do we stay in tune. What do we do here. And to this I would just ask the question, how do you keep anything?

This is what I'm trying to say. You know exactly how to keep what you care about. What you don't know is how to keep something you don't care about.

How do you keep anything? How are you going to keep those white shoes white? I was so glad when the white shoe fad is over. I'm so tired of buying my kids white shoes that are not white in a day. It's like red. How are you going to keep them white? And how are you going to keep them from not creasing?

How would you keep anything? How are you going to keep your weight down? How are you going to keep your lawn? How are you going to keep it green? The question is not how. The question is, do you value your heart? Do you care about it? Because I know how to keep things that I care about.

We packed up Christmas yesterday and when we did, a lot of things get put away and some things get like a proper burial. Why? Why do they get wrapped? Why? What is certain? Ornaments. Some I'm like if that breaks I do not care. There are ornaments on our tree that are like if that breaks there will be no Christmas.

And what do those get wrapped in newspaper, right? They get the special. They get it. There's a spot for those because we care about them. We've moved a number of times as a family. Where does the stuff you care about right in the car? Where does the stuff right that you hope flies out on your way to the next house on the roof?

Right. I promise you, you know how to do this. You just don't know that your heart is valuable because I'm not sure if the people around you have really valued it. I'm not sure that your parents cared how you felt about it or what was going on inside of you. I know that your boss doesn't. I can almost guarantee you.

And if you're here and you're like, no, I have a boss who actually cares about what's going on inside of me, then pray for us, the rest of us, at the end of the service, right?

I'm not sure that the people around us are actually that interested in what's going on in the inside, and I'm not sure that we're that interested because we don't know how to how to control and fix that stuff. So we'd rather just not tend to what we feel like we can't control. The point of this passage that I want to throw out today is that your heart should ride in the cabin.

And I think that's what the, the, the writer of Proverbs is trying to say. If you're going to keep something, if you're going to tend to something, tend to your heart, don't neglect it.

And I want to encourage you because your heart, the condition of your heart, might not matter to you. I know sometimes Tiffany will be like, how are you doing? And I'm like, doesn't matter. It doesn't. I have things that I have to do, and talking about how I'm doing is just getting in the way of what I'm doing.

I'd rather not talk about how I'm doing. I want to get done what I need to get done. So how you're doing might not matter to you. How you're doing might not matter to your boss. How you're doing is certainly doesn't matter to your kids. See, I got one kid who asked me how I'm doing, and she's my favorite kid who who will remain unnamed.

So again, I'm going to pay for that one.

Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. You will be found out. You know, what's kind of tough is maybe this doesn't even matter to your spouse.

And again, I don't think it matters to your teachers. They they want to know that you got done what was assigned to you. And I just want to say, just hear me really loud and clear, because you haven't heard it in a long time. The state of your heart matters to God.

It matters to him. He's not asking you just to suck it up and push through. He's not over you like a taskmaster saying do, do, do. And I do not care what's going on inside. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. It's what he's looking for.

He's not looking on the outside. He's looking at your heart. And that's both terrifying. And then kind of encouraging because the fruits not great from our lives. God searches the heart. God tests the heart. God will reveal himself to those who are pure in heart. I was thinking about this, that Saul was king over Israel and he lost his job to David, and he lost his job not because he wasn't performing, he lost his job because he wasn't a man after God's own heart.

David got the job from Saul, and David got the job because the best thing on his reference for him was his heart for God. He didn't have anything else to show for it. Well, I was a shepherd. I was running for my life for ten years, and I refused to repay evil for evil. Great. I'll take it. When the Lord God chose David, this is what he said.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord. He looks on the heart. The second thing you need to know, those of us who think like maybe what's going on in the interior doesn't matter, is that your heart is a spring of life.

What flows in your life flows from your heart. From it are the outgoings and the outflow of your life. What is in you will flow out of you and it will impact and touch others. It is not private. It will in time leak out and become public. So you got to guard your heart because your life will flow from it.

I just want to give you one exercise. I've read a lot of books and I've thought a lot about this. And I just want to give you one exercise that stuck with me. That's just handles for me and that is that I sit down not as often as I should, and I just begin to journal what I'm mad about.

I put mad at the top of one page. I put sat at the top of one page. I put a frayed at the top of one page, and I put excited at the top of one page. And then I sit there and this is how it starts. I don't think I'm mad about anything. Then I start writing and I can't stop.

And then by the end of the page, I realize I don't think I'm mad. I think I'm really sad. And I go to page two and I start writing, and there's a number of things that I'm really sad about. Then I get to the bottom of the page, and I started on what I'm afraid of, and I'm like, I'm not afraid of nothing.

And then it just starts pouring out. Then I get to the place where I'm like, yeah, I am kind of excited about this, and I write about it, and often I don't have any answers for the things I'm mad, sad or afraid about. But I found myself, like, at least aware of what's going on and what's flowing from my life and touching the people around me.

As we respond this morning, I just want to say, because I think it it's what Jesus was saying in Mark seven, I think you should stop blaming they, them, whoever they are, and you should start investigating what's going on in here. What if it were impossible for something to come out of you if it wasn't already in you?

What if it were impossible for anger to come out of you if it weren't already in you? What if it were impossible for lust to come out of you if it weren't already in you? What if it were impossible for bitterness and rage to come out of you, if it weren't already in you? I remember. I wish that I had it because it's such a good illustration, but I remember where I was when I was listening to Paul Tripp speak once, and he took a water bottle and the lid was off it because he was the speaker, and he had a water bottle, and he shook it.

And then he was like, why did water come out of this? And I was like, because you shook it. And he was like, no, because there's water in it. If there was something else in it that would have come out of it. What if you have it? What if you is it already? And it's not the liberal progressives who are making you angry, or the Christian nationalists who are giving Christ a bad name?

What if it's not them? What if it's not her low cut shirt that makes you to lust? Or that he cut you off that makes you angry? Stop blaming and start investigating what's going on in the deepest places of me. It's hard work. It's easier just to blame people. It's really easy. I've never done a teaching on blaming, and that's never been one of my points.

Like this is how to blame others for what's going south in your life. It's like that comes really naturally to us all. As we look to the new year and we look to grow and we look to mature and we look to bear fruit.

Our invitation to you is to keep your heart with all vigilance. Roots, roots, roots, roots, roots. And the fruit will come. You don't gotta worry about it. Root yourself in him. Remain in him. Abide in him. Remain in his love, and the fruit will come. Would you stand in worship team? Would you guys come?

Before we come to the table and respond together in worship, I just want to remind you that change, the change that the Lord's desiring is not simply behavior modification.

Like to change your behavior. He's actually looking to change your heart.

He wants to go to the root of the problem.

And he wants to provide for us. And I want to read this passage to you. And then we're just going to spend some time, because this may be the only time you have this week. And this may be the only place this week that cares about how your heart is doing. So please don't rush off to what you need to do.

There will be plenty of that this week. Please come to the table and receive the mercy and grace of Jesus, which is not just enough to cover our outer sins, but it's enough to change our hearts. The grace of God is enough for your interior, not just to wash your exterior. This is the promise of our new covenant, which we remember as we come to the table.

Ezekiel 36 I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers.

You shall be my people. I will be your God.

God understands. He's not looking for you to change your own heart. He understands that you're incapable. He understands that you're even struggling to obey his laws. So he's not lording over you, saying, get it together, but he is lording over you, saying, I can change your heart.

Hebrews 1022.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from all evil conscience, from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.