Women’s Sunday – Deeply Rooted: Outline

Women’s Sunday – Deeply Rooted: Enrollment Program & Meal

Women’s Sunday 2023 – Deeply Rooted: PDF | Word

Scripture: Jeremiah 17:7-13

I have a garden where I grow tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, white eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, and lots of beautiful herbs. Some harvests have been better than others, but each year it’s been a joy to watch the young plants develop deep roots and produce fruit.

This year my tomatoes didn’t do well. The plants grew, but they just didn’t produce the delicious red tomatoes that I love. It took me awhile, but I eventually learned that the irritation system was not working properly. When I planted the tender seedlings, they didn’t get enough water and therefore, weren’t growing the deep roots necessary to create the fruit for harvest. Adequate water is essential to developing roots and producing fruit.

Our scripture today is from Jeremiah 17 where we see a people just like my tomatoes. They were planted in parched places with no prosperity, no increase, no inheritance because they were trusting in man and not the Lord.

1. Judah loses its trust in God (Corporate)

Jeremiah 17:1-4 give us a picture of a nation that was the apple of God’s eye, but who become a sinful nation. They lost their inheritance, both the actual physical land which God had given them, as well as the spiritual inheritance of being God’s favored ones because of their sinful habits and practices like worshipping pagan idols.

Read Jeremiah 17: 1-4.

 The people who had been liberated from Egypt had become slaves again. It was a national disgrace. The people who had been given instructions on how-to live-in God’s way had lost it all as they broke commandment after commandment.

The prophet Jeremiah, prompted by God’s Spirit, after addressing the people as a group, focuses in and looks at something more personal than the shame of the nation. He shows that the broader perspective is created through the actions of each individual person in Judah. They’ve lost their nation, their way of life and it’s not just their neighbor’s fault, it was their fault as well.

Read Jeremiah 17:5-6

2. Shallow Rooted Man Trusts in Self (Personal)

The person in this scripture put their trust in man, not God. Their strength is in something that is shallow, and they live in the dry places. The people of Judah knew about living in the desert, they knew that water could not be found in just anywhere. There were parched places, salty places where no prosperity or sustaining fruit could be found. Yet, that is where they chose to live spiritually, where they tried to develop spiritual roots.

If we jump ahead to verse 13, we read, “Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

When we choose to forsake God, we will find no lasting spiritual sustenance. We have no holy inheritance that produces healthy fruit, but instead dry, shriveled lives that struggle to survive. This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah had for Judah and for her citizens, and it still rings true for us today. Self-reliance can only get us so far. Dependence upon what is found in self and this life alone is shallow. God has created us for so much more.

Read Jeremiah 17: 7-8.

3. Deeply Rooted Man Trusts in God (Personal)

The person who trusts in the Lord has confidence in God! They depend on Him. They are deeply rooted and live without fear of the future. The heat will come. Dry seasons of life, difficult times and problems will come, but there is no fear because their roots run deep in the spring of living water, depending on God through it all.

When the irrigation system in my garden is working correctly, despite the heat of the day, the plants are green and bearing fruit. The same is true of when we are tapped in, irrigated, watered by “the Lord, the spring of living water.” (vs. 13). If we keep going and read in verse 14, “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

The deeply rooted man has great trust in God. He faces the same troubles of life that the person of shallow faith does, but it’s in the response to those problems that faith is proven genuine and God rewards those who give Him the praise that He deserves.

We can fool others, can’t we? We can say things, do things and play things, but only God knows what we really think and what we really believe. He knows our heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, reward each person according to their conduct according to what their deeds deserve.” (vs. 9, 10).

So, let’s dig in deep and develop those extensive roots. Scripture supports scripture. The Word of God interprets the Word of God. This concept of developing deep roots, nourished by the Living Water are found throughout the Bible in both The Old and New Testaments.

Read Psalm 1. 

It’s no accident that God compares us to trees. He urges us to grow! Just like giant oak trees began with an acorn, we begin our faith with a tiny seed, planted within us, but then we have to grow! Giving our life to Christ is just the beginning.

Paul prayed for the believers he loved in Ephesus to have deep roots as well.

Read Ephesians 3:14-19

“Conversion is the work of an instant; spiritual maturity is the work of a lifetime. Is your faith like a seedling, a sprout, or a mature tree?”—Reverend Billy Graham, “Peace for Each Day.”

In other words, are you deeply rooted in Christ? In John 4 Jesus called Himself “the living water.” He said that those who drink from the living water, wouldn’t thirst again. That’s how we grow those well–watered, deep roots found in our text from Jeremiah. We focus first on the roots and then the fruit will follow. We can’t look for fruits until the roots are deeply watered in Him because deeply rooted people are obedient people who say yes to God. “The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit” (Luke 8:15, GNT). Are you deeply rooted?

A Christian with shallow roots is often impulsive, emotional, superficial, and immature. “The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don’t have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up” (Luke 8:13 (CEV).

What evidence do you have for your own life? Are your roots shallow or deep? Growth can often be painful and even scary. We can be slow learners and it takes time to develop good spiritual habits and just as much time for us to unlearn bad spiritual habits. Judah never did. They didn’t give up the Asherah poles, their false idols, and broken-hearted practices.

In closing, allow God’s Holy Spirit to convict you of things you need to either eliminate or add to your life. He will help you develop deep roots as you tap into the Jesus the Living Water, but you must obey Him as He directs you to make those things happen.