Rooted, Not Scattered
Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-8
Series: Rooted and Walking
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Introduction: A New Season, A Fresh Planting
September is a big life reset for a lot of people. Some of you just returned from college. Even if you’re not in school, this month still changes your routines—the days are shorter, school traffic shifts your commute, and the calendar fills up. September invites new patterns.
Big question: Where are we going to plant our roots this fall?
What habits and hopes will guide your life in this season? The temptation is to let life “just happen,” to drift and see where the wind takes us. But Scripture calls us to plant our lives intentionally in the Lord.
Jeremiah 17 sets a sharp contrast before us: a cursed life that trusts in man, and a blessed life that trusts in the Lord. Today we’ll walk that contrast in four steps:
1) The curse of trusting in man.
2) The blessing of trusting in the Lord.
3) The test of drought.
4) Rooting ourselves in Christ, the living water.
1) The Curse of Trusting in Man (vv. 5–6)
“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. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited, salty land.” (Jer. 17:5–6, NLT)
If you’ve never gardened, you might miss the weight of this picture. A shrub in the desert survives on shallow roots and scarce moisture. It is constantly thirsty, living on the edge between life and death. There is no abundance, no fruit—just survival.
Jeremiah isn’t first addressing people who’ve never heard of God. He’s warning **us**—those who know God’s promises yet choose to plant themselves elsewhere. We throw our buckets down into “false wells” that can’t carry us through:
- Security wells: retirement accounts, grades, promotions, social status.
- Identity wells: approval, image, achievements.
- Coping wells: distraction, doom‑scrolling, numbing.
You might pull up a little water for a day, but it cannot sustain you. Salted ground doesn’t grow anything; that’s why we use salt to preserve—it stops growth. Trusting in man is salted soil.
Reflection: What false wells do you keep running to? What fills your quiet moments? What do you turn to instead of God’s Word and presence? The sweetness is temporary; the long-term effect is poison.
Practice: Ask the Lord this week, Where am I sinking roots into poisoned wells? What am I treating as more important than you?” Name it and bring it to God.
2) The Blessing of Trusting in the Lord (vv. 7–8)
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the 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. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (Jer. 17:7–8, NLT)
On one side is the stunted shrub; on the other is the flourishing tree. If you’ve driven the BW Parkway, you’ve seen both: tiny shrubs clinging to life in the salted median, and strong trees thriving off the shoulder—rooted, steady, fruitful.
The difference is underground. Where are the roots? The tree reaches into a constant stream. For us, roots are our persistent reach into God’s promises:
- “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
- The story of God’s faithfulness—Egypt, exile, fulfillment in Christ.
- The Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his Son.”
Question: What matters most? What do you give weight and time to? God’s promises must be the deepest roots—more defining than bank accounts, job titles, or even family outcomes. Those things matter, but they cannot be your stream.
Pastoral aside: This week I often felt more like the shrub than the tree. I kept checking the new solar app on my phone—turning to it for a little hit of “it’s going okay,” even reaching for that before picking up my Bible. I share that so you don’t hear this contrast as all‑or‑nothing fatalism. The point isn’t that you’re stuck forever in one soil or the other. It’s that **continuing** to plant in cursed ground leads toward death, and **by the Spirit** you really can re‑plant and grow by the stream.
So if you recognize shrub‑like rhythms: there is hope. In Christ, you can choose again where you will plant.
3) The Test of Drought
How do we know where we’ve planted our lives? Jeremiah says drought reveals it.
What is drought? Real hardships: anxiety spikes, financial strain, grief, relational fracture, “winter of the soul” seasons when God feels distant. Sometimes God even allows certain supports to dry up so we can see that our roots were in man’s strength, not His.
Fasting is a kind of voluntary drought—laying aside good things so they don’t become ultimate things, training our roots to reach for Christ.
Drought exposes reality:
- The desert shrub has **nothing** to draw from.
- The tree **isn’t bothered by heat** and **isn’t worried by long months of drought**. It still has a source; leaves stay green; fruit keeps coming.
Why? Because **God does not stop providing**. The stream may feel low, but it is still flowing.
Self‑examination:
1) What false wells am I frequenting?
2) In drought, am I withering—or do my roots press deeper into Christ? Do I return to prayer, Scripture, worship, and honest lament? Do I look to my identity: child of God, heir with Christ?
If today your answer is “I’m withering,” hear this: that is not the end of your story. In Christ there is hope to re‑plant and grow.
4) Christ, the Living Stream (John 4; the Gospel)
Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” That invitation is for all of us. Christ Himself is the stream that never runs dry.
The reason we can move from cursed ground to blessed ground is **the Gospel**. Jesus removed every barrier—sin and death—through His cross and resurrection, so that we could plant our lives in Him. He took our withering so we could share His life.
He “became a shrub” to the point of death so we could become a tree planted by living water.
This is not prosperity talk. Drought still comes. But bank accounts, titles, and even family systems cannot sustain you. Only Christ can. So let Him be your source. Invest in Him. Choose Him in this season.
Practicing Deep Roots: Five Simple Habits
It may sound simple, but trees don’t grow 40 feet overnight. They grow by daily faithfulness. Here are five ways to plant and keep planting:
1) Be in the Word. Choose a time, set a reminder, and read daily. Start with the Psalms or the Gospels. You can’t cling to promises you don’t know.
2) Be in Prayer. Pair prayer with Scripture. Pray the Lord’s Prayer, or bring your anxieties honestly to God instead of numbing them.
3) Be with God’s People. Prioritize Sunday worship and our Wednesday prayer group (in-person or online). Share your “shrub weeks” and encourage one another.
4) Obey in Small Steps. If God prompts you—toward forgiveness, generosity, serving, honesty—say yes. Roots deepen through obedience.
5) Remember the Gospel. Speak it, sing it, and rehearse it. Build a playlist that preaches Christ to your heart morning and night.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a faithful start.
Conclusion: Choose Your Planting
As this new season begins, we all choose—whether intentionally or by drift—where to plant our roots. Shrub or tree? Salted land or living stream? The wind rarely blows us toward life; it usually blows us toward the desert. But God invites you to choose Him.
So, family, make a plan. Make time. Sink your roots into Christ, our living water. He is faithful. He is enough.
Prayer:
“God, as we begin this new season, help us examine where we’ve planted our lives. Expose the false wells we run to. Teach us habits that draw us to your living stream. By your Spirit, root us in Christ. In His name we pray, amen.”