Made to Bear Fruit

Introduction

Did you know that Jesus said a prayer for us before He was crucified on the cross?

Within that prayer He asked our Father in Heaven something very profound, He said:

John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

He asked God the Father to sanctify us by His Word.

**This is His Word**

But what does He mean by sanctify?

Sanctify comes from the larger word sanctification which is a christian term that refers “to the process of gradual purification from sin and progressive spiritual growth that should mark the life of every believer.” (Lexham Bible Dictionary)

So Christ says in this passage that He wants each on of us to be sanctified, it is not enough for us to be saved and be justified, but it is necessary for every believer to be sanctified.

There must be a constant pattern found within us to become more and more like Jesus everyday.

And it is by His Holy Word, this Bible I am holding that Christ says we are sanctified.

Contained in the Bible are the keys that God has given you to get through this life the right way. It is your bread by which you must live.

Jesus said that we shall not live by bread alone, that is physical food, but we shall live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So what are you living by?

But the Word of God must get in you. If you want to be more like Jesus His Word must get within you.

The Word of God, This Bible must bear fruit on your life, my life, and in every christians life.

In Mark 4 Christ likens the Bible as being a seed.

You see when this Word is planted within you like a seed, something begins to happen, a changing process begins to take place on the inside of you. When you read His Word and seek to follow it, that seed begins to take form and it becomes a fruit, and that fruit then becomes a blessing. Your whole life is changed.

When God’s Word is active in our lives, The Bible says amazing things begin to happen:

Psalm 1:3 ESV

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

The Bible says that if we make this Bible our delight, and we take the time to study and follow it, We will be:

Planted (strong)

Fruitful (pleasing God)

Prosperous (successful)

Who does not want those things in their lives?

So that is just a brief introduction into the importance of God’s Word in your life.

Tonight we are going to look in scripture at 3 ways on which the Word of God can be hindered in our lives, and 3 ways we can overcome those things that way God’s Word will always bear fruit in our lives.

The Text:

Mark 4:1–9 ESV

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

3 Threats to the Word of God Bearing Fruit in Our Lives:

The Word Being Devoured (Mark 4:4)

Mark 4:4 “4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.”

A few verses down Jesus explains that the birds were a symbol of satan:

Mark 4:15 ESV

15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

So the Word was sown within them, but satan stole it from them.

So what we learn hear is that satan can steal the word from us.

How can he do that?

He does this in numerous ways: confusion and deception is usually the greatest.

**satan knows the word of god, and he will use it to deceive you, if you don’t know it.

2. The Word Being Scorched (Mark 4:6)

Mark 4:6 “6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.”

A few verses down Jesus explains this section by stating the Word can be scorched by trials and tribulations in this life:

Mark 4:16–17 ESV

16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

We can receive the Word at first and even walk a little bit, but when problems in this life arise, if we are not careful, if we don’t handle it the right way we can fall away.

3. The Word Being Choked (Mark 4:7)

Mark 4:7 “7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.”

Later Jesus further explains this section by telling us the Word can be choked by letting the cares of this life become more important than His Word:

Mark 4:18–19 ESV

18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

We can commit to a life with Christ, but if we allow the things of this life to consume us and our hearts, we will be unfruitful.

3 Shields for These Threats:

When the birds come, we defend ourselves.

Matthew 4:1-7 Jesus is in the wilderness and He is being tempted by satan, for 40 days and 40 nights.

Satan continuously comes at Jesus and attempts to take away or steal His identity.

In other words satan was attacking who Jesus was, what was inside of Him:

Every time satan approached Jesus he tells him “if you are the Son of God” do this or do that.

What you and me must understand, is that what satan is after is what is inside of us. With the Word of God you are a serious threat to him.

**you have a Heavenly destiny inside of you.

He knows He cannot take the Spirit of God from us, but he knows if he can make us doubt God’s Word, he knows that God’s Word will not bear fruit in our lives. How does he make us doubt God’s word? Confusion and Deception.

How do we combat confusion and deception?

One way is by praying and asking God for

Discernment- reveals what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false.

Wisdom- gives us understanding to know what the Word of God truly means

Proverbs 2:3–5 ESV

3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

God’s Word tells us that He wants us as His people to have both wisdom and discernment. By praying and asking God to show us these things, He will by His Holy Spirit show us what is true and give us better understanding, that way, when Satan comes and tries to lie to us we know better, why? Because our mighty God has shown us the truth.

2. We develop depth with God.

The ones who were on the rocky ground, who allowed the Word of God to be scorched, had two problems: They had no depth of soil (Mark 4:5) and they had no root within themselves (Mark 4:17)

It was because they honestly didn’t really know God that well.

Listen to this:

If you and me do not know God personally, we will not be able to stand in faith when trials come, especially when they come as a result of us believing in Him.

People everyday stop believing in Christ, because they only knew ABOUT Him, and when tragedy strikes their life, they blame God, and leave the faith.

But the truth is, is that when you know God, when you truly know Him, you know that He is better and greater than any trial and tribulation we will have in this life.

**Think about if you had personally knew superman, you two were like best friends. Then all of a sudden you start being attacked by bad guys left and right. Would you trust superman to help you? Knowing God, in a personal way, is kinda like knowing superman. You know He has your back, because you know that He loves you so much that He will help you through every trial.

3. We cut out the thorns in our heart.

Your heart is like a garden, beautiful and alive. But if you never tend to your garden, weeds and thorns will begin to grow inside it. And if you do not kill and cut the thorns and weeds they will consume your entire garden, and your precious plants will not grow.

This is what happens when we let desires of our lives get in the way of God.

The moment we care more about, fitting in, sports, friends, goals, and even dreams, hobbies, video games, all these things we have and do in our lives, when these things take the throne of our heart, thorns grow in our garden.

And the Word of God is choked. We can’t follow God’s Word because we care too much about our own desires. His Word doesn’t have room to grow.

So what do we do about it, we:

Identify thorns in our life

Cut the thorns by repenting of placing those things first

Replant God and His Word in the place where the thorns were

Conclusion

The thing is, as an individual we determine:

When someone takes something from us.

How much depth we have in God.

What grows in our hearts.

Based on how we manage each these areas in our lives depends on how much or little fruit we will bear for God.

Notice each one of these “threats” to God’s Word in our being active in our lives is our fault. God never hinders His Word in our lives.

He leaves it up to us to determine if His Word will grow in our lives.