PREVIOUS SERMON  (sorted accordingly,starting from recent )

Over the past weeks we have been reflecting on the fact that one of the ways we can deepen our spiritual roots of faith/belief down into the Center which is our Lord God is by putting our entire believe and trust in our Lord God in total response to the trials and troubles and life difficulties/challenges that come to us. There are, however, at least three more things we ourselves can do to encourage the growth of our spiritual roots of faith/belief, and it is these three things that will occupy our attention for the rest of this issue that we have been on with. The first of those three things is this: spending adequate time with God through reading His Word, the Bible. Christian history bears testimony to the truth that the most influential and mature Christians the world over have been those who knew how to send their faith--roots deep down into God by meditating on God’s Word. Bishop Paul Kern, an American of the Methodist tradition who was known to spend much time studying the Bible, said: ‘I read my Bible because (a) within its pages I find Power for the ordering of my inner life, (b) it assures me that mankind is supremely dear to God, (c) it tells me whither/where I am bound and why, (d) in its pages are found the Secrets by which mankind walks the pathways of light and hope, (e) it teaches me, in the words of Emerson, that the great lesson of life is believe more what the years and centuries say against the hours.’ Let us consider that last statement, attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: ‘believe more what the years and centuries say against the hours.’ What do the years say? They tell us that a Sovereign God is in Control and that we [true believers] belong to a kingdom that is Unshakeable. The more time we give to God’s Word, the more unshakeable we shall be in times of life troubles and confusion. So you can now see that in this our generation, the measure of God in us is the amount or measure of True God’s Word that is in us and active for our daily activities. So when we know and understand this fact very well that: the measure of God in us is the amount or measure of True God’s Word that is in us and active for our daily activities, it means that we just have to live a life style that find Power in Ordering our inner/outer life to spend Adequate Time in Reading and Studying God’s Word [The Holy Bible] on a daily basis for our good and well being!

We are thinking about why some Christians’ roots reach down deep into the center of Christ in faith and others’ do not. We suggested it has to do with trust. Those people who respond to life’s trials with confidence that God can eventually turn whatever we face to good, find that as a result their roots go down deeper into God. Thanksgiving, worship and praise during a time of trial has a powerful effect on our spiritual roots and causes them to strengthen and penetrate. I know two Christian women who went through the painful experience of desertion by their husbands. One developed great bitterness towards God for allowing this to happen. Her roots went to the surface for sustenance and she sought relief in the entertainment arts, alcohol and excessive comfort eating. Sadly, life for her became like Jeremiah’s unfruitful ‘bush in the wasteland’ and she was unable to see God’s prosperity when it comes’ as seen in Jeremiah 17:6 saying, “6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert: and shall not see when prosperity comes, but shall live in the rocky places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” The other abandoned wife, though deeply hurt, began to focus on God, meditating on the word of God and the things of God and not on her distressing circumstances, actively seeking God’s presence and direction. This resulted in a ministry that has encouraged thousands of other women and drawn them into a closer walk with God. Unless there is an ultimate trust in the goodness of God in our hearts irrespective of our situations, we are most likely to turn to that which is temporary for spiritual sustenance when we encounter troubles and life challenges. When these trials come, it is important to do what James suggest to: ‘consider it pure joy’. George Muller (1805 -1898), a man of great faith who founded the Bristol orphanages and saw many answers to prayer said: ‘The only way to learn great faith is to endure great trials.’ That may be something we don’t want to hear, but it’s what we need to hear.

Today we consider the question: Why is it that some Christians put their roots down deep and others do not? After much thought about this matter, I believe it has to do with trust. Jeremiah, I think, would answer the question in this way: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh’ as seen in Jeremiah 17:5. It is far easier to put our confidence in the things we can see or quantify than in those we cannot see. It’s all too easy to drift into believing that our security and significance depend on things that are tangible, such as money and possessions, academic qualifications, business success, personal skills, or physical attractiveness. However, please do not misunderstand me, these things are not wrong in themselves, but they cannot provide us with the security and significance that deep down our hearts we long for. So it all comes back to this matter of what we depend upon. ‘Maturity’, someone said, ‘is shown by where we place our dependency.’ How true. When things don’t go as we expected in our lives, we can respond either negatively or redemptively ("Redemptively" means in a way that brings about redemption, deliverance, or salvation, often from sin or evil. It implies an act or quality that saves or redeems someone, making things better or leading to a positive outcome, especially in a spiritual or moral sense.) Responding by complaining, showing resentment, and an unwillingness to forgive prevents our roots going down deeper into God: instead they remain close to the surface. When, however, we trust God and believe that all things are working according to His eternal purposes and plans, our roots in God start growing deeper and deeper when we rely implicitly in Him. Sadly, many Christians never gain trust. Those who grumble and complain when things do not go the way they wish lose a God-given opportunity to develop their spiritual rooting system. Under such situation of unbelief with grumbles and complains their roots are restricted rather than extended.

Once, near my home, a row of beautiful trees was brought down by a storm. Speaking about this, someone knowledgeable about trees told me that the probable reason why the trees could not withstand the storm was that the water table was too high –too near the surface –so the trees had not needed to put their roots down deep to find water. Later, when thinking about this, I looked again at the article I had read about the vines in the Napa Valley, California, and came across this: ‘Drought stretches the natural vine’s root. As long as there is abundant water on the surface the root feeds there, but drought sends the taproot deep in search of moisture and water. The more frequent and severe the droughts, the deeper the taproot grows.’ This is nature through which our Lord God Almighty often talks to us in things of reality! In a similar way, when the things of this world on which we may have been relying fail us, we are challenged to send our roots down deeper in search of spiritual nourishment but often instead of us to make efforts to send our roots of spiritual and physical intelligence deeper down to the Centre Who is God in His Holy Spirit which is the very form that we gain from God today, we waste all the time doing things that does not profit us anything, too bad! We can either find sustenance in the superficial things of life –those of the world around us –or seek to send our spiritual roots downwards to draw from the abundant waters provided by God, which start to flow when we give our lives to Him in the Holy Spirit. Is there a spiritual drought in your life at this moment? Many of you reading these lines may feel spiritually jaded or worn out because you are drawing from the waters found on the surface of life and there is little moisture left. It is important to remember that no matter what happens in life, you always have a choice: you can attempt to find what you need to sustain you in the things of this world, or seek to send your roots down deeper into God to sustain life in you. What or which will you choose to do today? Remember that it is life that is sustained with roots in God that enjoys cares for the things of this world! The Igbos will tell you that O bu onye di Ndu ga eri aku! Again aku uwa enwegi ihe obu! King Solomon made us to know that everything in this world is vanity upon vanity! So let us put up all efforts in life to keep chasing and seeking the things of the Kingdom of God through His Holy Spirit instead of wasting all our time in the things of this world! Come to think of it the Word of our Lord God said, what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose his soul!

We shall reflect on the thought that there can be no full experience of peace and rest unless our spiritual roots go down deep by faith into God. We need to learn to rest, not in the immediate, but in the ultimate understanding that God knows best, and that everything He does is motivated by His loving heart. The faith of the three young men in the passage we are reading has been described as the ‘if not’ faith. This is because they made it clear that if God did not rescue them they would still refuse to worship the image of gold, even though they knew that as a consequence they would certainly burn to death in the blazing furnace. They did not rest their confidence on condition in God’s immediate deliverance, but in His ultimate love. To have the faith that rests in constant goodness and love of God, no matter what we face or whatever happens, is really challenging. However, we read in the Bible many examples of those who trusted in God’s faithfulness regardless of what the situation is, and this is exactly what God wants from His real children. Many years ago I came across these lines, which I then wrote in my Bible: Nothing that happens can harm me, Whether I lose or win. Though life may be changed on the surface, I do my main living within. We may face many difficulties and struggle in life, but God has promised to be an ‘ever-present help in trouble’ as seen in Psalm 46:1. Even when we don’t understand or can’t see very far ahead, we too can learn, like these three young men, to trust in our God’s goodness and faithfulness.