TOPIC: GOOD GROUND – KEY TO FRUITFULNESS
Text: Mark 4:1-29
vv. 26-29, “26 And He said, the Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground, 27 and then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases – he knows not how. 28 The earth produces (acting) by itself – first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately sends forth (the reapers) and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.”
Introduction:
(ILL. Three men working in the building of a palace was asked by a man with the same question. What are you doing here or why are you here? The first one answered, “I am a family man, I am here because I need to work hard as a mason to earn money for my family’s needs.” The other man was asked with the same question and he said, “I am here and I work hard because they need my specialty as a mason.” And the third man was also asked by the same question and he said, “I am here as a mason, and I work hard because we are building the palace of the king.”)
Fruitfulness is a way God builds His Kingdom. And like those three men we are either here for own gain, for our own gratification or for helping God to build His Kingdom. Actually in God’s Kingdom you are either an enemy of the Kingdom or helping Him to build and advance His Kingdom. In building His Kingdom we must know from Him what is important to Him so that we can really help building His Kingdom.
Today’s text also talks about the Kingdom of God, and every time Jesus teach about God’s Kingdom He is always use parable, common stories with heavenly truth and meaning. Let’s read Mark 4:26-29. This part of the Bible is about the parable of the Growing Seed, but I would like to suggest that it is more to me as a Parable of a Good Ground. It takes good or healthy ground to grow a seed into a full-grown plant or tree. So this morning I would like us to see the principles that healthy life and church is needed in building God’s Kingdom.
I. THE PURPOSE OF GOOD GROUND
Why do farmer want a good ground, a healthy soil for his seed?
1. To have a healthy plants
2. To have a fruitful harvest
II. THE POWER OF GOOD GROUND
There is no problem with the seed; there is power in the seed. From just a small seed, once it crack and sprout, it will grow into a big tree that will break even the hardest and strongest fence. That is the power of the seed. But do you know that this power of the seed to grow depends on how healthy the ground is, even the cracking of the seed from its outer cover depends on the right temperature of the soil, if the soil is not healthy then it will not bring the seed to crack and sprout and grow. So from Mark 4:27-29 (Mark 4:8) we can see the power of a healthy ground.
1. It produces healthy grains – vv. 27, 28
2. It produces fruitful harvest – v. 29
III. THE PREPARATION OF GOOD GROUND
Mark 4:3-9, talks about different kinds of soil where the same healthy seed was scattered. Again there is no problem with the seed; it’s more on the ground. v. 4 – Pathway Soil (hard, stubborn one); v. 5 – Rocky Soil (shallow one); v. 7 – Thorny Soil (crowded one) & v. 8 – Good Soil (healthy one). (ILL. A man with two dogs, black and white and he use to fight for one another for people to bet and sometimes the black win sometimes the white, but the man, the owner always win. And when he was asked what his secret is, he said that he feed the one he likes to win and let the other one starved and become weak.) This parable tells us about different kinds of soil, three of it is consider not good or not healthy and only one was consider good soil. Do you think there is way to make the three soils which is not good to turn it into healthy one or good soil? There is and it takes time, efforts, perseverance, diligence and lots of work on the part of the farmer to bring it into usefulness for his crop, for his seed, for his harvest. And it also takes a lot of humility, trust and cooperation on the part of the ground.
1. Plowing
2. Breaking
3. Weeding
(Note: Brokenness – key to have a healthy life (ILL. Fruitfulness of an Eagle – an eagle is one of the excellent creations of God. There are almost 6000 species of birds, but God always uses eagle in the Bible to show the idea of fruitfulness and being excellent in all areas of its life. An eagle normally lives for 40 – 45 of fruitful years but if an eagle wants to live more and become fruitful, he can do it for another 40 – 45 years more, but it takes him complete brokenness to do it.) (ILL. When I was in Subic God want me to therapy.)
I want to sum up the principles we see in order to bring us into being a good, healthy ground of God’s Kingdom. We need to restore first and foremost our PASSION FOR GOD. Many Christians their passion is for the ministry, for the lost, this is not wrong actually we need it, but we miss the most important principles to have a healthy life that leads to fruitfulness and that is our PASSION FOR GOD.
We can see here the principles for fruitfulness in building God’s Kingdom; it is not what we do or what we know but what we have in for our God. Christians, churches focus more on growth, on ministries and activities but forget the more important things, their passion for God, their love for God, and their devotion for God. In Luke 10:38-42, where Jesus visited Mary and Martha. Martha started to become busy preparing while Mary seated at the feet of Jesus and because of this Martha approach Jesus and asked to tell Mary to help her preparing, in other words, Martha is asking Jesus to asked Mary become busy like her. If we can see here that sometimes even our being busy or doing things for God is not really for God but for ourselves especially when we affected by others who is not as busy as we are. So just imagine what Mary is expecting from what Jesus will do, she probably expect Jesus to reprimand Mary, or praising and thanking her for what she is doing, but to her surprise and we too should have the same feeling, Jesus told here, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things but only ONE THING IS NEEDED. Mary has CHOSEN WHAT IS BETTER and it will not be taken away from her.” Can you feel what Martha feels, many times like Martha we don’t like to be corrected or tell us what to do? But here Jesus teach Martha a principle of God’s Kingdom, it is our devotion and passion for God. (ILL. Daughter and father who have an intimate relationship to one another that one time it seems change until the father learned why. The Father said, “I like the sandals but next time buy the sandals and I prefer to have you always with me.”)
Passion for God is more important for having a passion for the lost, or passion for the ministry. Remember Great Commandments come first (Matt. 22:37-40) before the Greatest Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). Fruitfulness in life is founded in our love for God John 15 reveals it. From this chapter we can see that in order to become fruitful we need to REMAIN IN HIM through His Word and Prayer and to REMAIN IN HIS LOVE that express in loving others. Apart from Him and His love we can do nothing. Paul discovers it when he said in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ constraints me…” That is why also in Revelation when Jesus is talking to the 7 churches He commends the Ephesians church for their good deeds, hard work, their perseverance, even how they exposed those who are false teachers and they didn’t weary. And yet Jesus told them, Rev 2:4, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
Conclusion:
Are we healthy Ground for God’s Kingdom? Is our passion for God still burning or the flame is dying? Let’s go back again to the feet of God like Mary doing THE ONE THING NEEDED, CHOOSING WHAT IS BETTER – OUR PASSION FOR GOD!
