Thorns
Lots of scripture - good soil - The point is life, growth and making a difference!
The parable of the sower is found in Mt.13, Mk.4, Lk.8. Mt.13:1-8 reads like this, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Good soil exists to produce good fruit - You are here to produce fruit!
Visualize a fruitless life!
Mt.3:8 & Lk.3:8 tell us “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Phil.2:13
Lk.6:44 says a tree is recognized by its fruit.
Mt.7:17-18 continues, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
Col.1:10 challenges us to - Live a life worthy of the Lord pleasing Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...”
Just a note: Outside that context nothing makes sense!
Outside that context this world makes no sense.
Outside that context eternity makes no sense.
There are 2 different kinds of fruit He produces as we allow:
1st, He produces fruit in you:
Gal.5:19-23 contrasts the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit saying: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...”
2nd, He produces fruit in the world through you: Col.1:6 tells us the gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world.
This is a reference to the Great Commission He has called each of us to: Mt.28:18-20 - Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
If you aren’t seeing both of those types of fruit in increasing measure in your life, the parable of the sower will clear this up.
The sower lays out three scenarios:
Some seed fell on the road and it never came to life.
Other seed fell in rocky soil and it didn’t grow.
Other seed fell in soil that was full of thorns...that seed did come to life, it did grow but it never produced fruit.
Remember, the point is life, growth and making a difference!
Mt.13:7-8 and v.22 describes the seed that fell in the thorny soil this way - “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown...The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”
Did you hear that?
Mt.13, Mk.4, Lk.8 say The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, riches and pleasures and the desires for other things choke you and keep you from maturing and bearing fruit.
Apopneego - to choke, suffocate or drown!
Comes from the root Pneego meaning to strangle or wring one’s neck.
How serious is choking? Physically why was everyone worried last night?
Do we have that same response to spiritual choking?
Imagine the horror of being choked, strangled or drowned - spiritual sense.
Video
We are living in a prison we have created. We are being strangled by our own hands, choking on our own desires and drowning in our own selfishness.
The parable of the sower says that every one of us in this room, lives entangled, choked, strangled, suffocated, imprisoned and drowned by the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, riches and pleasures and the desires for other things.
Read notecards: These things hold us captive!!!
You are being imprisoned and choked out by your fears, insecurities, ambitions, ideas, expectations, dreams, desires, worries, plans, sin and pride.
I have let so many of these keep me from being who God has called me to be.
I have let fears, wrong expectations, desires, insecurities and dreams, my own pride and sin choke my growth and limit my fruit - I know you have too.
God wants us to be free. Do you want to be free?
Imagine you are sleeping when you hear a thief breaking in...
The best years of our lives are being stolen!
But you can stop the thief!!!
Jesus wants to free you!
Gal.5:1 tells you, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
2 Cor.3:17 says “...Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Jesus tells us in John 8, “...If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
I don’t want you to leave this place, choked and enslaved, just to live a fruitless life.
I want you to live the life that only He offers.
I want you to grow into all He made you to be.
I want you to experience His fruit internally and I want Him to produce His fruit in the World through you.
I want you to change this world and eternity through Him in you.
So how do we get there?
Bottom line: Dying to all that junk that destroys fruit and surrendering to Christ creates the good soil that allows you to grow into who He made you to be, bearing fruit.
Even 30, 60 or 100 times what is invested!
Dying to that stuff daily is what we call discipleship.
Jesus confirms that in Jn.15:8 saying, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Bearing fruit requires complete surrender and committed discipleship.
That involves dying to your self and all that entangles, chokes, strangles, suffocates, imprisons and drowns you.
Jn.12:24 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jesus said that in reference to Himself but also in the context of our discipleship.
Jesus puts it bluntly in, Lk.9:23, saying - “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
1 Jn.2:15-17 - Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
Being a disciple means LOVING God with everything.
In Jn.15:1-5, 8, 16 Jesus tells you, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing...This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples...You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last...”
Life, growth, abundance, joy, meaning significance, freedom & fruit - EVERYTHING in this life & eternity is wrapped up in Him & pursuing Him with everything.
Bottom line: God made you for a purpose - to know and love Him and to make Him know.
Eph.2:10 - You are His masterpiece, created for a great purpose - BEARING FRUIT!
Unfortunately, the weeds, the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, riches and pleasures and desires for other things often choke you, preventing you from that purpose.
We will only become who we were made to be in a place of selfless love and committed discipleship.
Read Jer.4:3-4 - Song + throw that stuff in the fire!
