I'm Here To Thrive Not Just Survive
I'm Here To Thrive Not Just Survive
In “I’m Here to Thrive, Not Just Survive,” Ps Fua unpacks the message of Jeremiah 17:5–8, urging believers to cultivate deep, enduring trust in God rather than relying on human strength. He illustrates the difference between fake plants—shiny and unchanging on the surface—and real plants, which endure storms through deep roots. In the same way, our spiritual resilience is not found in appearance but in our connection to Christ.
The sermon outlines three key truths: trust in God over the world, trust in the process God is taking us through, and bear fruit consistently—even in drought or difficulty. Ps Fua encourages the church not to rush the journey or resent the struggle, but to see it as a place where God grows and forms us. Referencing Jesus' life, the parable of the wheat and weeds, and personal testimony, he reminds us that fruitful lives often emerge from hard seasons.
Ultimately, thriving means allowing God to work in us, through pain and waiting, so that our lives become a quiet but powerful witness. Fruitfulness is not loud performance—it is lasting influence. Our roots in Christ make us unshakeable, and our lives speak volumes when we remain steady, faithful, and Spirit-filled.
-
Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Finding Strength in God's Promises
In a world filled with pressure and struggles, we often find ourselves merely surviving rather than truly thriving. The difference between these two states isn't about avoiding difficulties, but about where we plant our roots during challenging seasons.
What Does It Mean to Trust God vs. Trusting the World?
Jeremiah 15:5-8 presents us with both a warning and a promise:
"Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They're like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited, salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made their Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. The leaves stay green and never stop producing fruit."
This passage doesn't promise a life without heat or drought. Instead, it promises stability, growth, and faithfulness even in the midst of challenges. Your future in dry seasons, your strength under pressure, and your hope in the heat all depend on your roots.
Think about the difference between fake plants and real plants. Fake plants look perfect on the surface - they're bright, shiny, and never change. But they have no roots, no essence, no core, and no growth. When broken, they can't heal themselves.
Real plants, however, might not always look perfect on the surface. They go through storms, lose leaves, and wither - yet they remain standing because they have deep roots connected to a source that continually fills them.
How Did Jesus Handle Suffering and Growth?
Jesus didn't grow up in ease and comfort. He suffered, was shamed, raised in obscurity, misunderstood, and eventually rejected. Yet He never stopped growing.
Luke 2:52 tells us: "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man."
Hebrews 5:8 adds: "Even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered."
Jesus was formed in the fire, not outside of it. For us to last through seasons of hardship and pain, our roots need to be deep in the things of God.
Why Shouldn't We Rush God's Process in Our Lives?
Many of us trust God but don't trust the path He has us on. We trust the Lord but don't trust the process. We want the fruit without the fight, the growth without the grit, the clarity without the waiting.
In Matthew's parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus tells of a farmer who sows good seed, but an enemy plants weeds among the wheat. When the workers ask if they should pull out the weeds, the farmer replies: "No, you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest."
God isn't in a rush to remove all the evil around us. When we're crying out for the Lord to take away our struggles, perhaps we should instead be praying: "Lord, guide me through this, show me through this, help me get through this."
If there's nothing pushing against us and no tension, how do we grow? We need challenges to help us develop, learn different things about ourselves, and identify areas where we need to grow.
Romans 5:3-4 illustrates this layered process: "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials. For we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character. And character strengthens our confident hope."
If you try to rush the journey that the Lord has you on, you'll miss the goal He's trying to help you reach. You'll miss certain things He wants to plant in your life, relationships you're supposed to journey with, and people who are meant to intercede for you. Every step has a purpose and a place.
What Does a Fruitful Life Look Like in All Seasons?
Jeremiah 17:8 describes the result of deep trust: "Such trees are not bothered by heat or worried by long months of drought. The leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit."
A fruitful life isn't bothered by heat, struggle, or pain. This doesn't mean we don't care about difficulties or acknowledge them - we know they're there, but we continue to grow despite them.
A fruitful life shines even in the darkest places. It stands out from all the weeds. People with fruitful lives have deeply planted themselves in Christ and are continually fed by the Holy Spirit. When you see them, you immediately recognize a fruitful life - they're not bothered by circumstances.
Philippians 2:13-16 encourages us: "Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God, without faults in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life."
That is our calling - to shine when no one else does, to be an example when no one else will, to step into situations when no one else is there. Our shine isn't loud; it's lasting.
How Does Shame Prevent Us From Thriving?
One of the greatest challenges many of us face is shame. We might look the part on the surface - like fake plants - but shame keeps our roots shallow. We say all the right things, but shame hinders our roots from reaching the water.
When we rush through our spiritual journey, memorizing scriptures but forgetting Jesus Himself, we miss the point. A fruitful life comes from seeking the Lord consistently, with roots in Christ so deep that we never buckle under pressure.
Life Application
This week, I challenge you to identify where your trust truly lies. When difficulties arise, do you immediately ask God to remove them, or do you ask Him to guide you through them? Consider these questions:
What areas of your life are you rushing through instead of allowing God to develop deep roots?
Who has been refreshed, helped, and pointed to Jesus through your life?
What does fruitfulness look like in your current season of life?
Are there "weeds" in your life that God might be using to strengthen your faith?
Remember, Jesus doesn't just want to pull you out of the desert - He wants to teach you how to grow in it. Don't be like a fake plant that looks good on the surface but has no depth. Instead, be like a tree planted by water, with roots that reach deep, unaffected by heat or drought, always bearing fruit.
God has called you not just to survive but to thrive - even in the most challenging seasons of life.
-
A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
-
Morning.
All right, he's ready for the word. Gonna get right into it. I'm fired up by this one. Who's fired up this morning, who woke up this morning said, I'm going to go hear pastor for preach, or who woke up this morning said, I'm going to go and find the Lord for myself. Is that you?
Amen. All right. Jeremiah 15, verses 5 to 8. Here's what it says. It's what the Lord says.
Curse are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They're like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited, salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made their Lord their hope and Confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. The leaves stay green and never stop producing fruit. What a powerful passage, eh? We live in a world, Church. It's getting hot out there.
Pressure. It's real. The struggles. They're real. And what we see in this passage is a warning and a promise.
And this morning, church, I've titled my message. I'm here to thrive, not just to survive. Are you here to thrive? Just to make it through? Love this idea of fake plants versus real plants.
Fake plant. People. Who loves fake plants, raise your hand. It's just this area here. Who loves a real plant?
Amen. Amen. Here's the thing about fake plants. You'll see them all over this church. Right?
That's not a problem. It's a good thing. It's beautiful.
They look good. They're shiny. They never change. Doesn't matter what time of the week you walk into this church, that fake plant will always look that way. Look at me, right?
That's what the fake plant is. Look at me. I'm bright. I'm shiny. You're looking at me.
I've got everything together on the surface. Problem is, they're not real. There's no roots. There's no essence. There's no core.
There's no growth. If I go up there right now and I snap it in half, it's not going to grow back, right? But when our hearts are growing deep into the word of God, in the spirit, we're like real plants, right? We don't look great on the surface. We look like we just woke up.
We look grumpy. A lot of my family goes foy. You never smile. You're always grumpy. Yeah, sometimes.
But they grow. They last a hard season, right? Doesn't matter what leaves fall off them or whatever, they stay planted in the soil.
The real plants, they go through storms. They don't lose leaves. They wither and they're still standing. Why? Because they have deep roots.
Deep roots into the soil, into a source that continues to fill them. So on the surface, they are strong. They don't just look the part. They are the part. In this passage.
It doesn't promise a life without heat or drought. It promises stability, growth and faithfulness, even in the middle of it. Your future in dry seasons, your strength under pressure, your hope in the heat, it all depends on your roots. So the real question isn't how dry the land is. It's how do we keep our roots deep, even in the dry land, even in your struggles, your pain, your suffering, how do we continue to dig our deeps, dig our roots deep enough so we're filled with the Holy Spirit?
If you look at the life of Jesus, Jesus didn't grow up in ease and comfort. He suffered, he was shamed. He was raised in obscurity, misunderstood, eventually rejected, and yet he never stopped growing. Luke 2:52. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man.
Hebrews 5:8. Even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. Jesus was formed in the fire, not outside of the it. And for us to last through these seasons of hardships and pain in that, and to thrive through those seasons, our roots need to be deep in the things of God. Amen.
So when I ask you this morning, how does this scripture teach us to thrive even in hard places, to bear fruit, not shrivel up and just survive? Here's the thing it teaches us. The first thing is this. Put your trust in God and not the world. How many of us here have put trust in themselves?
Raise your hands. How many of us put trust in our circle of friends? How many of us have put trust in our managers and our colleagues at work?
And what happens, fails? That's right, I get a thumbs down from the brother at the back there, right?
And here's the thing about this passage. It starts with the warning, cursed. Pretty heavy. Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future.
That's the warning. If your trust is not in Christ, your path could look very different. And we say trust the Lord, right? It rolls off the tongue quite easy because we say it quite easily. When life is going good, you got a full time job, kids are doing well, your marriage is great.
And we say, trust the Lord. Easy, easy. There's no tension, there's no grind, there's no pushback. Easy. What happens when your marriage is about to fall apart?
What happens when your kids have chosen a different path?
What happens when things look very different from what they were before? Where is your trust? Where is your trust this morning?
That's why life becomes. When we rely on human strength or our own understanding, it might look stable for a while, right? For a while you're going to look like you're doing okay. You're going to look like the part. For a portion of Your life, you're going to look like there's fake plants.
Big, strong, shiny.
But when the weather hits hard, when the dry seasons come, where is your trust then?
Here's the good news, Church. God doesn't just want to pull you out of the desert. He's not going to pull you out of it, right? He wants to teach you how to grow in it, right? So when we trust the Lord and when we go through things, all types of things, man, Pain, brokenness, whatever it may be, Many of us here have spent time speaking to God and we say this.
I've said this many times. Take this from me right now. It hurts. Take it away from me. I don't want it.
I never asked for this. But hold on. I thought. I thought that if I turned up to church on time every single week and I serve on the worship team every single week, that I'm good. I'm not going to have any problems.
Smooth sailing.
God allows you to go through those things because he wants to do a work in you through those things. He wants to develop you. He wants to show you something, right? He wants you to grow alongside them, Right? Trust the Lord.
Stay planted even among the weeds. Jesus speaks of a parable in Matthew, a parable about a farmer who sows good seed. Not just seed, good seed, but the enemy comes and plants weeds among the wheat. The workers panic. That's what we do.
We panic, right? We panic, man. We stress out and go, man, Lord, I can't do this, man. What are you doing to me, man? I'm going through all of this, and baby number three is about to come and all this thing.
Alex is on my back about this and that, and it's too much. Take it away from me. Nah. The Lord's going, nah, I'm going to keep you here so you can grow with it, right? You're not going to see anything in the beginning, right?
You're going to grow with it. And I'm going to share with you later on the purpose of why I let you grow with it, right? The parable goes, here is another story Jesus told. The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night, as the worker slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat.
They slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. The farmer's workers went to him and said, sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds. Where did they come from? Enemy has done this.
The farmer exclaimed, should we pull out the Weeds? They asked. No, he replied, you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let's both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, burn them and put the weed in the barn.
Let them grow together.
Not your job to what gets pulled out of your life or not. Don't trust your own thinking. I don't. It took me ages to get dressed this morning and then my wife and my kids helped me out. I don't trust anything I say.
I don't trust anything anyone else says. I trust God. And if God says let both grow, I'm not going to pull the struggle out right now that you grow with it. I'm going to show you later on what that means.
He's not in a rush to remove all the evil around us. When you're crying out for the Lord, take this from me. Take this from me. Maybe the question is, is that the prayer you should be praying, shouldn't. The prayer that you'll be praying should be, lord, guide me through this, show me through this, help me to get through this, not take this from me.
If there's nothing pushing up against you and there's no tension, what are we doing here? Why am I speaking? We need those things to help us develop. Help us develop to learn different things about ourselves. Areas we need to grow in, things that we can be praised for and things that we give glory to and all these types of things.
But those things don't generally happen if the walk of God is smooth sailing and everything was just a. Okay, trust the Lord. On Wednesday night, we had our team night here and I was on worship here, Pastor Adrian, he was ministering, he was praying, he was doing this thing and he mentions my daughter's name. Nine year old and I couldn't see the front row. We had a lot of people on team that night and I went like that.
And my daughter's sitting right here and she's been sitting there for the whole time. A nine year old. Here's me thinking, you're not running amok with your sister behind the curtain. You're not jumping on that table, throwing basketballs at the sound desk as you usually do, right? And Adrian had a word for her.
Man, I was so proud of her. You know why I'm so proud of her? She didn't sit there because she trusted her mom and dad had nothing to do with her mom and dad. A nine year old sat there because something is stirring in her heart to say, I want to trust the Lord. I want to trust the Lord like my mom and dad, like many others.
And I've seen them as they go through their journey and they're trusting in Lord. I want that. What is that?
Where is your trust today, Church? What are you prepared to go through to see the harvest unfold?
What's stopping your roots from digging deep?
Where is your trust in the dry seasons? That's the first thing, Church. First thing it teaches us. Now, the second part of the. Of trusting the Lord is that we trust the journey.
And the journey we can't rush. And that's my second point. Don't rush the reveal. How many of us here, be honest. Raise your hands.
You trust the Lord, but you don't trust the path he has you on. Come on. Hey. You trust the Lord, but you don't agree with that pathway there. You trust the Lord, but you don't like that person you're supposed to pray for.
Oh, but you trust the Lord. Oh, yeah, but I don't like that song. I'm not coming.
We trust the Lord, but we don't trust the journey. We trust the Lord, but we don't trust the process. You know, what's powerful about a journey. And a process steps everything, layer upon layer upon layer. If you talk to our, you know, our elders here and that they will tell you story after story after story of how faithful God is and how much trust it took to go through those seasons.
And they would never tell you before. Yeah, I took shortcuts. And in just two months after being saved, I'm now the lead pastor. It can happen for you. You can do that, too.
Just grab one of the certificates and you'll be all good.
I wish it was that easy, Church. I wish it was that easy.
When we trust God, we trust the path he set us. We trust the process, no matter how hard it is. Your strength doesn't come from your surroundings, but from your connection to him, drawing from him. Right, Jeremiah? Right.
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.
When you trust the Lord and the second part is the process, you don't rush the reveal. Each and every single time, he's trying to reveal something new to you. You can't rush that process. You have to let things unfold. And a lot of the time we don't.
And we rush it because it's too hard, because we go straight away to take this from me, take this struggle from me. We don't let it unfold. We have to let it unfold. Layers upon layers upon layers of God doing a work in you. We draw from the water.
He fills us. He gives what we need to thrive. So each and every time, when you're facing all types of challenges, you draw from the water, from the source. That's what fills you. That's what gives you perspective.
That's what gives you a spirit. That's what gives you a fruitful life. And then you go, I'm going to grow with you. Are you with me? With me, Church.
Real trust doesn't flinch under pressure.
Real trust in the Lord doesn't flinch. I've met some of you here over the years, absolute blessing. Met some people, and they'll be going through stuff, and this is how you know. So you know when someone's deep in their trust, it's when you go, how you going, brother? Goes, you know what?
I'm going through the stuff. But I'm good, man. I'm focused on fixed. And I know that God's going to take care of it. I know that God's going to lead me on this path, and he's going to take me to a better place.
But when your trust is in something else and you're rushing what he's trying to reveal to you, it's struggle week one, struggle week two, struggle week, year one, year two, year three. Everything's a struggle. And the problem with that, if you sit in your struggle, you're just surviving. You're just making it through. You're just turning up to church and going, yep, I did it.
You're just surviving.
Real trust doesn't panic. It doesn't rush like a tree. It digs deep, especially when growth feels slow, silent and unseen. When you don't hear from God, it does not mean he's not there. He's always there.
It means that he's letting you go through that when you grow together and you start to develop something in that process, right? That's why you can't rush church. You cannot rush what God is revealing.
Can't rush anything in life, really. You let it take its course, its path. You got to go through this step, that step, that step. And then later on the track, he reveals something powerful. Which reminds me of all the years I've been cooking for Pastor alex.
Close to 15 years I've been cooking for this awesome girl, beautiful girl, woman. And I've made everything, man, from carbonaras to lasagnas to cacciatores to filet mignon, all that type of stuff, right? She got the best. Only problem is she found out during the years how much I. I don't like making desserts. Nah.
I'm not a dessert person, man. And in the beginning, it was all good and fun, right? We're like, here you go. Here's a panna cotta. Just a hint of vanilla.
Just a hint of vanilla cream. Let it sit in the fridge on a hot summer's day. Just crack it open and just let it come through. Oh, you're hungry now, eh? Peach malbar.
Peach malbar. Eh, Glaze it. Let it glaze. Let it glaze in that brown sugar, right? Star anise and all that.
And just fan it over that pudding. Yeah, we're really hungry. Now. Here's the thing, right? Those were the early years, right?
Men, we want to impress our partners. Let's be honest. Etzy's laughing right now because he knows what I mean. You see that brother here on the base? Yeah.
He knows his wife's going, that's my man. That's my man. Good on you, brother. Those were the early days.
It got to a point of actually going, okay, I have to be real with myself. I do not like making desserts. And I was never really honest with Alex, and she caught me out through the desserts. Starting to look like something else. It's supposed to be a cake.
It's now a pancake. Right? It's supposed to be a panna cotta. Now it's cream cups that you can just pour over your coffee. Right?
Right. All these things. And she starts noticing. She. What's going on?
And I said, I'm sorry, man. I just. I don't have time to be doing five cups or this and two cups of that, and. And all those things. And I just don't care.
Right? I just. I had to be honest. I can't. I gotta.
Where am I hiding it now? I was like, you know, I have to be honest now. I. I just. Church. Many of you here, we're raised up in that.
In that. In that time where we get home, we're hungry, we open the cupboard, grab whatever's there, put it in a pot, cook it, hope and pray that you're alive the next day. Right? Eat it, be thankful, go to bed. Amen.
I was raised up in that era, so for me, making desserts, everything goes in. You want that? You want kilos of sugar? You want pinch of salt? Never ask the islander for a pinch of salt.
It's not a pinch. It's more like that. All right? It Never works out because I just don't care.
Those cooking books that you see the ingredients on one side and the picture of the dessert on the other, I want the picture without that.
I want it to look like this, but I'm not. I can't be bothered going through every single step.
How many of us live like that in our walk with Jesus?
We want the fruit without the fight, the growth without the grit, the clarity without the waiting. But when we rush the process, we risk uprooting what God is carefully cultivating every single step, layer after layer after layer, right? And Romans 5, 3, 4 gives us a great illustration of this, right? We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials. For we know that they help us develop endurance.
And endurance develops strength of character. And character strengthens our confident hope, right? So when we run into our challenges, right, we develop endurance. Then what's the second layer here? Endurance develops strength of character.
Another layer. Character, strength, confident, hope. I cannot go from someone that has this part, and then I've gone to step number four.
If you try and rush the journey that the Lord has you on, you're going to miss the goal that he's trying to give you. You're going to miss certain things that you're going to plant in your life. You're going to miss certain relationships that you're supposed to be journeying with. You're going to miss certain people that are supposed to be interceding for you. Every single step has a purpose, has a place.
And when you don't rush it, he reveals something beautiful in your life. Church.
Are your roots deep enough to stay steady when the life is a struggle?
What are you rushing into in your life right now? What are areas in your life that you're rushing? You just want to go, what would you change this season of growth? In your season of growth right now, what's the one thing you would change today?
When we trust the Lord, Church, trust the process and not rush it, you will see fruit. And here's my third and final thing that Jeremiah teaches us is this. Be fruitful all the time. All the time, be fruitful. Verse 8.
Such trees are not bothered by heat or worried by long months of drought. The leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit. Fruit.
A fruitful life is a life that's not bothered by the heat. It's not bothered by the struggle, the pain, right? Doesn't mean they don't necessarily care about it, or they're not acknowledging or anything like that. They know it's there. But we go back to the parable.
They're not bothered by it, but they'll still grow with it. The Storga River. Why is that? A fruitful life shines even in the darkest places of your life. A fruitful life stands out from all the weeds.
You will see them from afar. They're not loud. They're not performing. You know what they are? They are people who have deeply planted their lives into Christ and being continually fed from the Holy Spirit, from God.
And when you see them around, you just know straight away, that's a fruitful life. They're not bothered by it.
I love this idea of shining your fruitful life, and it shines.
A life that digs deep in Christ and stays the course no matter how harsh the season is, is a life that shines when nothing else does. A fruitful life is such a powerful thing.
And I caught up with a young man here this week, and he serves on our teams and that. And he's fairly new to the. Fairly new to the faith. And we catch up every. Every month.
And then he goes to me for, I'm about to leave my family. I went, okay. I said, you're okay. He goes, no, I've just had enough, right? I go, oh, you know, can you.
Can you. Can you share with me, help me to understand what you mean by that? And he goes, I've been trying to share the word of God with them, and they keep persecuting me.
They keep pushing back, they keep saying things, and I'm hurt, I'm frustrated, I'm upset, right? He's about to leave his family. And so I said to the brother, listen here. My brother, as we sat quietly in the parents room with all those fake plants, said to him, have you ever thought that maybe your life is the only glimmer of hope? They have.
I heard a lot of, mmm, yeah. Have you ever thought that maybe your life could be someone's last chance one last time, that extra 1%? And he goes, oh, I didn't see it that way. And I said to him, it's okay, we don't. Or I've gone through it.
We don't see it that way because we're so fixated on what we think we should do, we're trusting in what we should do. Run away. Where are you going to go? So I said to him, where are you going to go? And he goes, I don't know.
So let me tell you this. I'm not going to tell his name. And I said to him, let me tell you this. If you leave your family, you run away from your family, and you end up in a situation where they're exactly like how your family was to you. What are you gonna do?
You can't run away from it. The words. We're not supposed to run away from it. You grow with it. That's your trust in the Lord.
That's your trust. That's your. That's your roots digging deep into the Father. You don't run. People that thrive.
We don't run. We don't escape. We face that. We stand firm. We let our lives do all the talking.
You don't even need a microphone. Your life, a fruitful life, speaks louder than any other sermon.
Can I get the team up, please?
Paul? He writes this encouragement in Philippians 2, 13, 16. It says this.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God, without faults and a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
That is the calling on your life is to shine when no one else does is to be an example when no one else will, is to step into situations when no one else is there. That is the calling on your life. To see lives change, to make disciples, takes trust. A deep trust takes patience in the waiting. When he's developing you to grow together, that's when you see a fruitful life.
Not just sometimes, not just every Sunday, but all the time.
Your shine isn't loud. It's lasting. It's lasting. Church.
One of my greatest challenges is probably the biggest challenge I've ever faced in my life. And it's probably challenging some of you right now, this morning. You can't really see it. We don't tend to think about it, but it carries so much weight that it rips lives apart. Part.
And that is shame.
That is shame. We're ashamed of something.
We look the part up top. Fake plants, remember, we look the part.
But the shame keeps our roots low. We say all the right things, but the shame hinders our roots from getting to the water.
My early seasons in the journey, I live that life. Church. What you see now, that's all glory to God. Right now, I'm not missing any steps, no matter how Hard it gets back then I did rushed everything. Rushed everything I wanted this gave my heart to the Lord.
All right, cool. Now I'm all this memorize scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture. But I forgot him.
I forgot the name of Jesus.
And in their season of going through that.
That was my years of dating Pastor Alex. When she saw the light and God delivered her a night in shining armor and go here, my child. I've blessed you.
Tell you what, you guys see me, right? You know me, you know my heart. You know how I'm just gonna say it. You see me. Worship team.
Just before I came on stage, I was doing the live stream sound. I cook.
Cook, right. All these things and all these great things and stuff like that. Church. But I can tell you what, if it wasn't for the fruitful life that Pastor Alex had and still has, I don't know if I would be here.
Because here's the thing, Church. She never ran away. Even my cultural challenges. Five brothers, three sisters. I'm the odd one out, first generation pastor.
I'm not a tradie cooked for most of my years and their whole time, the whole time thinking about these things I've done in my life, it now makes sense. It just needed someone, Alex. To go seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. She never panted.
Her roots in Christ, they were so deep. She never buckled under pressure. She never said for. You know what? I've just had enough of you.
I've had enough of your sister that's sitting back there, right? Her son's like looking up, right? Not once. That's a fruitful life. That's a fruitful.
No grumbling, no complaining, no gossip. Joseph, I got you.
Do you believe that God's got you? Do you believe that there is a trust, Lord, how can we deepen our roots in Christ this week? Church, who has been refreshed, helped and pointed to Jesus for your life right now? What does fruitfulness look like in the current season of your life? Church.
I want to. I want to invite us to stand.
We kill the lights and Jeremiah in that passage, the beginning of the passage, it says, and those that turn their hearts away from the Lord turns their back on the Lord, I want to invite you to come forward if that's you. I want you to dig deep. If you want prayer, if there's something in your heart that you've been struggling with, maybe something stirred up in your heart right now and you're going, you know what, Father? If I. If I have to make a start again, if I Have to reset myself, Lord.
I'm going to do it right here and right now.
If that's you, can I invite you to come forward? I want to pray for you. We want to pray for you. We want to pray for you, Church.
Don't be like the fake plants.
Nothing embarrassing about it.
Awesome. Come forward. Come forward. Come forward, boys. Awesome, brother.
If I get the passes. Leaders. Well done, brother. Well done. If you want to see God move in your life and it's stirring and you want to get up, but you're too embarrassed, a bit shy or whatever, can I challenge you?
Can I encourage you? Trust in the Lord. Leave it at his feet, Church.
Jesus is away.
Jesus is away.
Jesus is away.
Jesus is away.
Jesus. Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Come on, Church.
Sometimes we don't even need to know what the way forward is. Only that the way forward is Jesus. And that we surrender that he has the answer.
If we declare it with our heart and with our mind and with our voice, we can just trust that he's got the answer for the rest. Come on, Church. I really encourage you. If you feel like Jesus is your only way, why don't you raise your hand this morning?
He is the way. He is the truth, and he is the life. We know that he says that because he has the way for us. We just need to step into it and know that he has all the answers.
Thank you, Jesus.
Come. Before we close today, why don't we just close our eyes for a moment?
Isn't that a beautiful truth? God wants to plant you so that you last forever. We're called to thrive. Even in the dark seasons, to know in our spirits we're thriving. Whatever you're facing right now, maybe you're facing something.
Maybe, you know, maybe you're not feeling like you're thriving. You know what? Inside here, the Holy Spirit can say, you're still thriving. Keep going. Keep serving.
Keep loving. Keep believing. Plant those roots. Let them go down deep. You watch what God does in you.
And it's not just about you. It's about your family. It's about generations. Amen. Can't you say, lord, why don't we close our eyes?
Maybe you want to lift out your hand. I'm going to pray for you right now, all over this place. Say, lord, I want to thrive. God, I thank you, Lord Jesus. You've called every single one of us, Lord God.
To be people. Lord God. Who are like strong, mighty trees. Lord God. Planted for growth.
Planted, Lord Jesus. For eternal significance. Planted, God, you want to Take out the weeds of our lives, God, some of us have just been planted. But, God, you got more in store for us. Some of us have been doing this a long time, serving you.
But, God, you're doing a mighty work, God, and it's infecting and influencing far beyond us. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters, God, that you would use them, God, that you would plant them, God, deep in you. God, don't let the weak winds take us. Don't let the storms come on. Who's had a storm that's tried to rip them out?
I'm not budging in, Jesus name. I'm gonna stand strong through the difficulties, God. I'm gonna bear fruit in every season, God. And I thank you, God, that you've called it for our children, for our workplaces, in our families. God.
I'm praying right now for thriving families in Jesus name, raising our children, our marriages, Lord Jesus, Jesus. We want to pray, God, for fruitfulness in our marriages, fruitfulness in our workplace, wherever we go, Lord, we pray it in Jesus name. And all God's people said amen. Amen. Why don't we give Pastor Fu a great hand this morning?
Thank you for being here. Next week, I'm going to be bringing the Word. I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna be preaching about the man on the cross, the third man on the cross, and what he can teach us. And we're gonna continue learning and growing together.
So God bless you. Have a great morning tea and have a great rest of the weekend.
Related Bible Verses
1. Jeremiah 17:5–8 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JER.17.5-8.NLT
5 This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,
who rely on human strength
and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,
with no hope for the future.
They will live in the barren wilderness,
in an uninhabited salty land.
7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.
2. Luke 2:52 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/LUK.2.52.NLT
Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.
3. Hebrews 5:8 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/HEB.5.8.NLT
Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
4. Matthew 13:24–30 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MAT.13.24-30.NLT
24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.
26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.
27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’
28 “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.
“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.
29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”
5. Romans 5:3–4 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ROM.5.3-4.NLT
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.
4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
6. Philippians 2:12–16 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PHP.2.12-16.NLT
12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
14 Do everything without complaining and arguing,
15 so that no one can criticise you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.
16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.