Good Soil, Good Tree; Good Fruit

Good Soil, Good Tree; Good Fruit

Luke 8:5-18 Amplified Bible

Everything God made on this earth has an ear to hear. How do I know that? We can find examples of it throughout the Word.

In Mark 4 and Luke 8 Jesus tells his disciples to go to the other side with him. Jesus falls asleep and a wind storm comes and starts to fill the boat with water. The boys on the boat start to get a little worried and they wake Jesus up and say, “Master, Master we perish.” Jesus interrupted from his sleep rises up, walks to the front of the boat, and calls out to the wind, “Peace be still!”, and the wind ceased and there was calm.

So the wind had an ear to hear.

Another example is when Jesus spoke to the fig tree in Matthew 21.

And the Word says…

Matt 21:18 In the early dawn the next morning, as He was coming back into the city, He was hungry.

Matt 21:19 And as He saw one single leafy tree on the roadside, He went to it but he found nothing but leaves on it [seeing that in the fig tree fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And He said to it, “Never again shall fruit grow on you!” And the fig tree withered up at once.

Last week we had a sermon that talked about the barren tree. We discussed that like a tree we have to be careful that we don’t represent ourselves as dead trees walking.

Spiritually fruitless

Unproductive

And worthless

The word taught us that if we don’t bear fruit in our season of life, we have the threat of being cut down. Luke 13:9.

So we must flourish and become more fruitful.

We must bear fruit so that others may draw from us.

We must recognize that God’s grace has time limit and we had better live it out or it could be wasted.

So if everything that God made has an ear to hear, how much more careful must we be in what we say, what we hear and what we do? The challenge here is to be different. Don’t buy into the ways of others and the ways of the world so that you walk around representing yourself as a dead tree. We have too many dead trees already in our midst. We need to be the lively, good, full, filled, nourishing, fruitful trees. So here we gather a week later, and I give to you the question again, “What kind of tree are you?”

As we ponder on that thought, I was at the park yesterday watching my son’s T-ball game. The coach and I began discussing the wonderful grace and mercy of the Lord. As our discussion moved forward others started gathering around us and interrupted our conversation to discuss the new Hooter’s Restaurant coming to town. The joy on their faces was overwhelming as they continued to discuss two other restaurants in town, honoring them for the way they display the young girls who work in those types of restaurants. I stood my ground, and firmly stated, “I would not be caught dead in those restaurants!” Surprisingly, the statement silenced the crowd as they looked to me for an explanation. I told them, “As a Pastor, honoring God is one of the most important aspects of my service to Him. I am not only responsible for my actions, but I am responsible who I’m seen with and where I’m seen. I can’t risk leading my sheep into a place full of perversion and lust all for a few chicken wings and a soda. I am a tree that bears good fruit, and I have to look forward to feeding the sheep that come to my church meals worthy of being at the Kings table. ”

As I said that, I couldn’t help but think about last Sunday’s sermon. I was a flourishing fruitful tree in that moment. And like the caretaker in Luke 13:8, I was digging around and fertilizing those guys, hoping they got a message out of it.

Well that led me to this week’s scripture. It’s scripture and a parable most Christians are familiar with and you can find it in Luke 8:5 – 18. (Amplified)

8:5 A sower went out to sow some seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the traveled path and was trodden underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it up.

As Christians we are all sowers, and each day we wake up and represent Christ, we sow seed everyday. Just like the sower in this parable, all the seed we sow along our daily walk does not always fall on good ground. And when you are not careful about where you drop your seed, it can produce some bad trees. And when you are out there dropping seed that produces bad fruit, it takes you out of character and makes you a thief, a murderer and a destroyer. In other words, our actions as seed sowers can determine what kind of fruit we bear for ourselves as well as others. What Christian wants to steal someone’s salvation, kill someone’s faith and see anyone go to hell? Be careful where you drop your seed and how you drop your seed. And make sure when you drop it you represent Christ the way he represented you when he died on the cross to cover your iniquities.