What Makes Us Fruitful?

1. What Makes Us Fruitful? July 28, 2013

2. Matthew 13:1-9 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up

3. Matthew 13:1-9 quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."

4. Introduction • God designed fruit to be a healthy part of life. • Theme throughout scripture of bearing fruit. • From creation, we see that description. Gen 1:11-12 • Tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Gen 2 • We are made in His image Gen 1:27 • John the Baptist said produce fruit in keeping with repentance Matt 3:8

5. Introduction • Produce good fruit or you will be cut down. Matt 3:10 • By their fruit you will recognize them. Matt 7:16 • Fig tree cut down if it doesn’t bear fruit. Luke 13:6 • Cannot bear fruit apart from Jesus, the vine. John 15 • Type of fruit we bear depends on type of soil of our hearts.

6. Pathway People • There is no productivity, no fruit to pick. • Jesus describes this as a wayside soil, these are beaten down paths. • Soil is too hard, beaten down by life. • What types of things beat a pathway through our lives and make us hardened?

7. Pathway People 1. Friends and Associates • Who are the people who most frequently pound a path through my life? • What sort of impact do they make? 2. What we watch & read. • Expose our mind and emotions to materials that have an influence on my soil. • Captivates us and influences our thinking.

8. Pathway People 3. Music • The wrong kind of music can begin to intrude on the soil of your heart, beat it down. • Distracts us from the things of God’s Spirit. 4. Pursuit of Pleasure • Hedonistic society • Ease of life, our luxury, appealing to our senses

9. Pathway People “If the resources devoted to pleasure were given over instead to Christ’s interests in the world, we would indeed be amazed. Congregations would flourish. Churches would be crowded. Missionaries would multiply. The poor would be helped. The downtrodden would be lifted up. The suffering of men and women would be alleviated. And like our Master himself, many would go about doing this weary old world a great deal of good.” Phillip Keller

10. Pathway People 5. Personal Ambitions • Self-centered ambitions will set you against God and trample your soil • Jer45:5 vs. Matt 6:33 6. Our Thought Life • I am what I think about when I’m alone. • Unforgiving grudges and grievances • As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Pv 23:7

11. Pathway People 7. Jesus’ Footprints • If anyone will trod on the soil of your heart, let it be Jesus alone. • Tender and loving gardener who knows what your heart needs.

12. Conclusion • What relationships with friends & associates are dragging me down? • What programs, music, media influence do I have in my soil? • Examine personal ambitions and drives for pleasure. • Examine my thought life? • If I’ve been a pathway person, I need to let the master walk on my soil.