Autoshop Ministries K2K Sermon 10/25/26 - Planted to Flourish

All right, how y'all feeling this morning? Good. Yeah, I mean, y'all, everybody's eating this morning early, so I mean, I, I figured everybody was gonna be feeling good. We got a lot of fuel, so have some energy this morning, right? All right, all right. Well, listen, um, for those of y'all that I haven't had the privilege to meet yet in person, I'm so glad that you're here. Uh, but I want to dive right into the word because that's what we're here for. Um, I'm glad that y'all are a part of this early service, uh, but I think these have been extremely powerful. Anybody that has been a part of them, have these already been life-changing for you or encouraging for you? Anybody, just show of hands, you've been enjoying these? Yeah, I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad. Well, I'm really excited to announce that we're expanding it even further. One of the things that I felt like the Holy Spirit put on my heart was,

man, we got weekly podcasts, we got monthly in person, but it's like, man, what about when they're not with us? And the Holy Spirit put on my heart to put out a devotion for you all. So now you will have an encouragement every single day All you have to do is sign up for the email, and it's going to be one that I craft for you just to give you an encouragement. Gives you a scripture. I mean, it's going to be like, you know, 300, 400 words. It'll take you 5 minutes to read, but I believe it's going to help your days go better and keep your heart aligned. So make sure when you see that come across on social media, you sign up for that. That way you get encouragement, you continue to get built up, and the themes of the month will continue to just permeate throughout the entire month, not just on the podcast during the week or in person. So really hope that you take advantage of that completely free. And I just

want to help continue to help shape all of us the best way that we can as we grow together. So, but today I'm excited because this message was kind of birthed out of an idea that came from something that we were talking about at church. And good morning, good morning, good to see you. And I want to, I want to talk about what it means to be planted. Okay, so if you spent any amount of time in church where you've heard this concept of being planted, it's not Christianese, right? Like, Christianese is sometimes like a language that we use to say, oh, well, that matters, or that sounds good in church, but maybe other people don't know what we're talking about. So I want to unpack that statement today, but we're going to do it around the word of God, and it'll make a lot more sense here in a second. So I'm going to start— actually, both of the passages that I'll read today will be in the book of Psalms. So Psalm 92,

verse number 12 says this: The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. Verse 14 says they will still yield fruit in their old age. They shall be full of sap and very green. Say that again. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God. And really quickly, let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, help us to understand what it means to be planted in the house of the Lord. Not just what it means, Lord, but give us a challenge to do so as we understand the benefits of being close to you. In Jesus' name, all God's people said amen. Amen. Um, I love this idea of being planted. I love, you know, if you've spent enough amount of time around me and you've listened, you know I love analogies. I love connecting things to things that already exist in life

and these concepts and how we can learn from them. But I want to know if you are my people, okay? We're about to ask you a question. Are you ready? Have you ever killed a houseplant? Okay, y'all are my people. Most of the room has killed a houseplant besides me. So I don't feel alone. I just want to thank you right now. But how many people have never killed a houseplant? How many people have a green thumb? You got a great garden? None of y'all. Perfect. I knew I was in the right room. I knew I was in the right room. So, you know, when you, when you kill a plant, there's typically a process to killing this plant, right? Like you, it starts off with some excitement. And you think like you're going to do better than you are. I know I'm bad because I've killed a snake plant. And apparently the snake plant is the easiest plant to keep alive. Okay, It don't need a lot of sunlight. It can be in the shade. You don't even got to water it every day. And somehow

it still died, right? Well, there's a process to it. After the excitement of planting or getting a new plant, you, you say, man, I don't know, the leaves look a little bit off. So then you move it to another window. And then you move it from another window. You say, man, I saw on TikTok that I need to move it. It needs some humidity. So I move it to the bathroom. Then you move it because you saw it on TikTok. You're like, well, I saw on Instagram, like I started following this planter, you know, and this gardener and this planting page. And the company that I bought it from, and they said that I need to move it outside altogether. So then you move it outside, and then after a while it's dead. Anybody else? Yeah, that's how y'all— or you just forgot to water it. You got a little tired and you didn't water it again, and you looked up and you're like, man, I've been tired all week. I haven't watered this plant

in 2 weeks. I haven't watered this plant in 3 weeks. Well, it's not that the plant was the problem. It was the fact that it was unstable and being relocated to a bunch of different places. It didn't have the stability, it didn't have the consistency that it took for the plant to get everything it needed so that it could grow. And a lot of times that's how our life is. If we're really, really being honest, we're living in a generation right now that has glorified being extremely transient. What do I mean by that? We have made it very easy to leave and change and do things and quit and run away and hide from instead of staying and doing the hard work. Instead of staying and being consistent. But what if I told you the answer to what you're looking for in life is not about how fast you can change your mind around different things. It might be about how fast you can change your mind on the right thing. And the right thing is

being planted in the house of the Lord. The moment you shift from thinking the house of God or spending time with God is optional, and you shift from it being optional, from, I'll get over here, or I'll go over there, or maybe, you know, I've just been tired these last couple of weeks, or it's been a crazy few months— the moment you shift from that being optional to that being mandatory, to that being a part of your schedule, the more you will see, as the Bible says— this is not Devonte's words, these are God's words— that when you are planted in the house of the Lord, you will flourish. You will flourish. I don't know about you, but I want to flourish. I don't know anybody that says, man, I'm good with surviving, I don't want to thrive. As a matter of fact, if you are that person, I want to talk to you after service because I want to pray for you specifically. Like, if you just say, I'm good with just surviving, I just want to be here, I just

want to kind of coast, I just want to make it, I don't want to be successful, you might have a deeper issue. But for me, when I read this, it says when you're planted in the house of the Lord, not only will you flourish, but verse 14 says this, that you will still yield fruit in your old age. Why? Because planted people are not just good at 18. Planted people are not just good at 38, at 58. Planted people still have fruit, still have results, still are thriving when they're 80, when they're 90, because they understand 2 key things. So I want to explain to you a little bit about the definition of being planted, right? The definition, the literal definition of planted has 2 meanings, right? It has 2 meanings, and it actually has a few more, but I want to focus on 2. I want to read it verbatim. Definition 1 is to put a seed, flower, shrub, tree, or crop into the soil or a container so that it can grow. It's not

just to put something in a certain location, it's so that it can grow. The next one is this: to place an object, person, body part firmly or heavily or deliberately into a specific spot. You see, one of the keys about being planted actually has nothing to do with the seed itself. We can go to the store and buy seeds. The key that takes the seed from it being planted to it reaping a harvest and, and bringing forth fruit is the environment. Where are you planting this seed? And this doesn't just apply for the things in our life, this applies to you. You are the seed. There's so much greatness on the inside of you, there's so much potential on you, there's a version of you that you haven't met yet, but you're only going to meet that version of yourself when you are planted in the right environment. This is why it's so important to have friends who can encourage you, to have community that can pray for you. Because a lot of us look around and we start to follow

the trend of culture and be transient. When things don't go right, when I don't like the boss, I quit. When I don't like the relationship, I leave. When I don't like that one message at church, even though I've been going to church for the last 30 years, Pastor said one thing I didn't like, I'm gone. And we take this mentality, and in order to be planted, one of the keys of being planted is to have roots. And how many people have ever seen the roots of a plant? Have you seen the roots of a tree? A lot of trees have roots that are as deep or as wide as the tree is tall. The key to being planted is where are your roots going? How far, how wide, how deep are your roots? So it's not the seed itself. The seed is only a seed until it gets planted. The seed is only a seed in a package until it gets in the right environment and has roots that go down deep, because the thing that feeds the plant is the roots. It pulls the moisture The

water from the soil that comes from the roots. Where are you rooted? What about your mentality? Where is it? What are you rooted in? Is it— what about your success? What's your success rooted in? Is it built on the back of pain, bitterness, proving something to someone who said something negative about you? Bitterness, anger, frustration. Something went wrong. Please try again. Clearly Siri's on our side. See, Siri's on our side. Siri clearly knows, right? You can't make that up, right? But here's the thing. If you are chasing success to make yourself feel more valuable, when you get it, you will realize that you have nothing else left to chase. All you'll do is keep moving the goalposts. All you do is keep raising the bar, and then you'll still feel empty. You may not have— your bank account is full, but your heart is empty. Your contact book is full, But your relationships feel surface level. And here's what I want us to understand, is when you're planted in the house

of the Lord, it's when you get encouraged to understand that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. It did not change because you got more, accomplished more, hired more, accumulated more. God called you that today, but you don't understand that until you get planted in the right environment. The right environment makes or breaks every seed. Your finances in the right environment grows. In the wrong environment, they die. Your finances in an investment, it grows. Your finances spent on a vice dies. This, this law, essentially, this principle doesn't Just apply to one area of our life. Your relationships. How many people have heard you say, hey, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. You are who you hang around. You get around the wrong people, it's a matter of time before you start doing wrong. You get around the right people, it's a matter of time before you start doing right. When you get around godly community,

the concept applies. You say, man, I don't really know a lot about this Jesus person. I don't really know a lot about him, but when I got around some people who would pray for me, I realized that I started feeling a lot more encouraged. I realized that I wasn't going to work and making work my God. I realized that I wasn't chasing success and chasing money and chasing income so that I would feel better about myself. I was starting to turn to this book and say, God, what do you say about me? Oh, you said that I'm the head and not the tail. Oh, wait a second, God, you said that I'm above only and not beneath. Oh wait, God, you said that I am chosen, that before you formed me in my mother's womb, you knew me. Oh, you say that I am the righteousness of Christ. Oh, but I can recite these things because I've spent time in here to know. So that way, when the winds of life, when the storms come, I can actually thank

God for the storm because I know where I'm planted. All I see when storms happen is more water for me to grow. And I hope that you see the same thing, because when you're planted in the house of the Lord, the storm doesn't scare you. You start to rejoice and you say, man, it's growing season. It's time for us to grow. So I'm originally from Dallas, and my dad was complaining the other day because in Dallas it hadn't rained in over 2 months. So everybody's grass was brown. You know how it goes, right? You're driving through the neighborhood, everybody's grass is just brown. I'm talking about crispy brown, like, like when you walk out there, you hear it crunching underneath your shoes, you know, like crispy brown. Crispy brown. And it's like, man, like my dad was like, man, I'm kind of jealous sometimes because I come to Houston. It's like, you don't even have to do anything to your grass. And it just stays green for most of the year. And I'm like,

well, it hasn't been raining as much here lately either. So guess what my grass is starting to do? Crispy brown, you know what I mean? Like same thing. But then it's so funny how you start to look around and say, man, we really need some rain. We really need— man, we could use some rain. Now we can— and not just any kind of rain, like we don't want a little— like, man, we could use some, we could use some real rain, some heavy rain, because things need to grow. It's funny because when you are the one who's planted, you don't necessarily look forward to the storm. But on the outside looking at your plants, on the outside looking at your yard, you look forward to when the storm is coming, you look forward to the rain. What if we shifted the perspective? Because when you get planted in the house of the Lord, even when storms come, Even though they don't feel good, and a storm may just be trouble or difficulty

or something that you have to work with God to solve, you also get to celebrate and say, man, it's time for me to grow. I've needed some rain. We've needed some rain. You know what, God? I'm grateful for that situation because I get to see how much you've helped me grow with my patience. Because the old me would have snapped on them. The new me is having grace for them. That only happens when it rains. This is what it means that when you're planted in the house of the Lord, you'll flourish. It's not just because, oh, I get in church and then everything just pops up in my life and everything gets better and I'm never going to get sick and my bank account is running over and my kids are doing good. And that's not what it means. It means that your perspective starts to change because you get in alignment with what God says about who you are, and you get in alignment with how God sees life. And if he's not worried about a storm, you don't have to be either.

If he's at peace, you can be at peace too. If you— if he can have joy in the middle of chaos, you can have that too. So getting planted in the house of the Lord is the very thing that will make you flourish. And there are some people in the room right now that feel like something's missing. You say, man, I feel like something's missing in life. Like, I feel like I should— I should feel better. I should be happier, but something's missing. I'm not really sure what it is. Can I submit to you that maybe it is the environment in which you are planted? What's the challenge? What's the encouragement? There will always be more work. There will always be more to accomplish. There will always be more to gain. There will never be another you. You only get one of you. You only get one of these lives. The work will be there after you're gone, just like it was there before you got there. But my hope and my prayer as

your pastor is that you would get planted in a house wherever you're from, whatever side of the country you're from, into a good Bible-based church that can help you grow. My life changed because of some Bible-believing community, some people who said, you know what, Devon, say like, hey, that's not for you. You don't need to go over there anymore. Hey, you know God has more for you than that, right? Like, come out the club, man. You're not supposed to be there. I know what you're looking for. You're not going to find it over there. Can I show you a different way? I don't want you to assume that you already know all the answers. I'm a pastor and I'm still learning with God. He's still correcting me, shifting me, changing me, growing me, adjusting me, spanking me. Like, I'm still getting in trouble with God for certain things, but it's helping me grow. And when I understand, when I understand that because

I am planted My roots go deep and they're wide and I'm stable and I'm consistent. And it's not about my mood. It's not, oh, I feel good today, so I'm planted. I don't feel good, so I'm not planted. No, I am planted whether I feel good or I don't. I'm planted whether things are going great or they're not. I'm planted whether things are booming in the bank account or they're not. I'm planted no matter what. And I have seen that whether I can have plenty Or not enough. I've always been content because I understand that God is my source. He's the source of the nourishment. Same way that we have the sun, photosynthesis— I'm not trying to give y'all a school lesson, you know, I know it's early— but we know that plants need water, air, and sun to grow, right? In the same way that the plants— that we as plants need the sun, you also not just the S-U-N, you need the S-O-N, the Son of God. The Son is the thing that's going to help you feel the warmth, to help

you grow, to help you get the nourishment that you need, help you get the very nutrients you need to Become all that you were created to be. And some of those seasons don't feel good because a seed has a germination period. It has to go in the ground where nobody sees it. And it has to stay for a while where nobody sees it, where it's dark and nobody sees it. But between that process, some plants that have a fast germination stage, maybe 7 days, some may be 21 days, some may be a month or longer. Plants like bamboo grow underground for years before they ever sprout. There are other plants like parsley, plain old parsley that nobody— don't even taste like anything, but we put on our plates, we put in our food, right? Plain old parsley may take over a month before it ever sprouts. But just when it starts to sprout is not the time that you still need to— you need to pull it up. It still has to grow. It still needs more water. It still needs more wind. It still needs more nutrients.

There's a process to your development. So, I tell you all of that to tell you this, don't beat yourself up for where you are in the process right now. You're still growing, I'm still growing, and I want to encourage you that still growing is okay. You're not going to get it all right, you're not going to know all the scripture, you're not going to know how to connect with all the community and in the small groups and what to say when you get there and oh, who do I talk to and you know what, You don't have to know all of that yet, but when you stay planted, eventually you'll learn. And the same concept is the reason that I announced about the devotional. Because imagine what would happen if it wasn't just a podcast once a week or in person once a month, but imagine if you just spent 5 minutes every single day, little by little by little by little. What would you be in a year? Where would you be in a year? Imagine if you started walking at 4

AM like Todd Hayes. I don't know anybody else that walks at 4 AM, you know, but like, oh yeah, well, 2 of y'all. So for the 2 people on the planet that are walking at 4 AM while the rest of us are trying to walk to the bathroom, you know, but Todd, what happens when you walk little by little by little? When you start to see your health change and you lose the weight little by little by little. Day 1, like, man, I don't know. Like, what am I doing? Day 2, um. Day 3, man, I still don't like this. Day 7, now I'm sore. I really don't like this. But then you get to month number 7. Then you get to month number 8. Then you get to month number 9, then you get to year number 2, then you get to year number 5, and you start to look up and say, man, I can't believe how much my life has changed and grown in such a short amount of time. Because a lot of people overestimate what they can do in 1 year, but they underestimate what they

And you look up, and eventually when you turn around, you I don't even recognize myself. And it's not just the weight, it's not just the physical body, it's the spiritual body. I don't even recognize myself. Wait, wait, that person cut me off in traffic and I just turned my music up. Wait a second, like, they tried to get over on me and I saw it coming and I said, God bless you. I would have said a lot more than those 3 words a few years back. But that's what happens when you get planted in the house of the Lord. So in spaces like this, for those of y'all that have continued to come back every single month, I want to say thank you so much, and I am proud of you for being consistent. I also want to challenge you, if you haven't been consistent or you haven't been able to make these consistently, I would invite you to come on, you know. But also, it doesn't stop here. Take 5 minutes in the morning, Just 5 minutes in the morning. I promise you, a year from now,

I promise you, a year from now, you will have it. You will see a different version of yourself. The same way when you lose weight, your clothes start fitting a little bit differently. You'll see things in your spiritual life, you'll see things in your emotional life, you'll see things in your mental life. Like, wait a second, I slept a lot longer than I typically would have. I wasn't waking up in the middle of the night. Wait, I was a lot less worried. I was a lot less stressed. People are saying, man, Devonta, you've been glowing. You use a new moisturizer or something? Nah, just giving more things to God. I'm giving more things to God so I can smile a lot easier when things that would have— oh, what are we going to do? How are we going to fix it? What are we— who do I need to call? Oh my gosh, I got to do something. I got to stay up for 48 hours straight. Now I'm like, all right, well, Oh, that's, that's rough. Good night.

Oh, I woke up. Oh, is the problem still there? God's got it. And that's what I hope for you. That's the kind of flourishing I hope for you. You know what your life would look like if you had that kind of peace? You think you're successful now? You're chasing success now. Try to chase success from peace. Not from worry. You know how much more you would be able to accomplish if you were at peace? If you knew that, like, hey, it's not like I can take all of this stuff with me, but if I were to go today, I'm going to be in heaven with my Father forever. I'll be all right. When your family can say the same, I'll be okay. My prayer for you is that that would be your reality. And it starts with getting planted. Don't let it be scary, don't let it be daunting, because the thing in this text— I want to read one more in Psalm number 1. It says this, read the whole chapter. It says, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of

the wicked— there's that environment— nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night. Sounds a lot like doing a devotion first thing in the morning, huh? He will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. That sounds like the kind of life that I want to live. Anybody else? All you have to do is be planted in the house of the Lord. So in your health, you don't need a new plan every Monday. You need to be consistent with the one you got. You don't need new relationships every time you get into an argument. You need to learn how to have conflict resolution. In the business, you don't need to go get another garage or another warehouse. You need to make sure that you can be consistent and max out the space

you already have. Your job. Maybe crackling pot doesn't mean that it's time for you to quit. It means it's time to have a conversation. Maybe it's time for you to get a promotion. Maybe it's time for you to go to a new level, and that agitation is the thing that's going to say, it's my time to have a conversation. But you only have that kind of confidence, that kind of boldness, when you are planted in the house of the Lord. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I just want to Bring this home with one thought. What if I told you that what you were looking for was on the other side of your connection to Jesus? That peace, that joy, the stuff that's— the stuff that really matters. Because I think everybody in the room knows that money comes and money goes. People come and people go. Opportunities come and opportunities go. But everywhere you go, there you are. You will be right there. But Jesus wants you to be planted so that you can flourish.

He doesn't want you to just survive. He wants you to thrive. But he's very clear on how that's going to happen. It's the environment that you were planted in. And maybe you're in the room under the sound of my voice and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. And you say, man, DeVonta, I want to start with getting planted in a relationship with Christ. I want to tell you there's no better place to start. If that's you and you say, you know what, I need Jesus, I'm just going to ask you on the count of 3 to raise your hand. I'm not here to embarrass you. I just want to pray for you so that your eternity would be sealed. If you were to pass away tonight, you would know that I'm going to heaven for eternity. That's you. On the count of 3, just lift your hand. 1, maybe something is sticking with you, hands already going up. 2, if you believe this is for you. 3, just hold it up high. Let me see. Wow, wow. You can put it right

back down, right back down. Amen, amen. Hey, can we all just repeat this prayer after me? Maybe you weren't— you were too shy to raise your hand, or— and that's totally okay, but we all need it anyway. I'm gonna pray it because I need it too. Dear Jesus, I repent of my sins. I know I haven't been perfect, but you still call me worth it. I believe you died, and I believe you rose, and somehow the whole time you had me in mind. Plant me in a relationship with you and get me connected to a good house so that I can flourish. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Let's go. Amen. Well, listen, I am so grateful to be with you all again another month. Be on the lookout for when those devotions are going to be available to start out next month and, um, just spend 5 minutes in the morning meditating on his word, day and night And I believe that you're going to be better because of it. So thank y'all so much for the time. I'm looking forward to continuing

to get to know all of you, and I hope you enjoyed this morning.