The Power of the Gospel XII

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Bearing Fruit8Sunday 06/21/15

 

Series: The Power of the Gospel XII

 

Message – The Power to Bear Fruit unto Godliness VIII.mp3

Click here for the Video

 

We’ve been talking about the Power of God.

  • We are to look to, anticipate and rely upon God’s power for living Godly lives. (Not having a form of godliness but denying it’s power).

The Four Hearts

Thorny:

Mat 13:22/Luke 8:14  As for what was sown among the thorn bushes, this is the person who listens to the word, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries of life (Flesh) and the deceitfulness of pleasures of life (EYES) and wealth (PRIDE) so that the fruit doesn’t come to maturity and can’t produce a crop.

  • This is a heart that CANNOT glorify God – Jn. 15:8, 16
  • This heart only produces IMMATURE FRUIT.
  • Immature fruit – Generally, people do not want to eat fruit that is not ripe. Unripe fruit is undesirable!
  • The thorny heart is a heart that is unstable. It is divided in its loyalties, appetites, desires & pursuits.

So this heart is either naïve, simple, lazy or divided in its interests.

 

Key point last week – The TYPE of learning makes the difference

*Note the difference between their method of learning from the word and their method of   learning from the world….

  1. One was as Christ was teaching – One time exposure to another person’s thoughts.
  2. The other was as they walk through the way – An ongoing inner dialogue between oneself and the word.

READ – Prov. 7:1-4,

“My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words.”

 

“How I love Your teaching! It is my meditation all day long.” ~ Psa 119:97

 

“My mouth shall speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark saying on the harp.” ~ Psa 49:3-4

 

Second Point last week…

In order for fruit to come to maturity it MUST continue to draw nutrients from the soil.

“For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.” ~ Heb 6:7-9

The earth (heart) has IN IT all that is necessary to produce anything that is planted in it.

This is why we are told to guard it!

Remember our Key passage for this heart (and all the hearts really) is

Prov. 4:20-23,

“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.

Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;

For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”

 

All a heart needs to grow ANYTHING is…

  • Seed
  • Water
  • Sunlight
  • Time

 

Seed = the word of God or the “word” of this world. (cares of life, deceitfulness of riches & desires for other things)

Water = Dialogue either between you and God or you and the world. What has been planted is fed with thoughts which are consistent with the seed that was planted. It takes the form of Discussion…pondering…meditation…reflection…day dreaming 

Sunlight = A catalyst. Something that stirs to activity – many times (though not always) a catalyst generates heat.

  1. Opposition to the word / affirmation of the world. – IF NEED BE 1Peter 1
    1. Remember in the last heart, the stoney/shallow heart – the Sun coming up with its burning heat was likened to opposition coming against the Word.
      1. Mat 13:6 “But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.”
      2. Mat 13:20-21/Luke 8:13 “… he believes for only a short time, but when  times of testing come like trouble or persecution, he immediately falls away. This testing comes because of the Word that was sown – it is a test of the ground (heart).”

 

  1. Calling to mind – Remembering – praising – worshiping

Time = Time/patient endurance – Hebrews 10:35-39

 [INSIGHT]

So we looked at the naïve/simple heart weeks ago in Prov. 7, We’ve looked at the lazy heart that just allows anyone to plant in his heart & now we are looking at the divided heart who splits it’s interests equally between God and mammon.

Question – what is dividing your heart?

THIS IS A KEY POINT!!!! >>> Anytime you feel the need to offer a reason for why something in your life is okay either to yourself or someone else…it ISN’T!

1Jn. 2:15-17,

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

The word love is agapao – To esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone.

 “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

 

James 4:1-8

Now, let’s be clear – EVERY heart has weeds sown into it. Weeds can simply blow into a garden and begin to grow almost immediately. Having weeds is NOT the real issue – failing to weed them out IS.

Last Point…

To wrap things up I wanted to cause you to see the harmony in the message of the New Testament.

Jesus came teaching and preaching the Kingdom of God. Jesus trained and instructed his disciples in teaching and preaching the kingdom of God. This is the same Gospel Paul, John, James, Peter and any other writer of the New Testament taught – it is THE message! So, with that in mind, we need to realize that whenever metaphors are used in the New Testament, it is MOST likely they are painting a part of the same picture – that of the kingdom.

If you will keep this in your mind as  your study scripture you will begin to see a single message emerge in the New Testament that becomes increasingly clear. This is important because otherwise, the New Testament appears to be a collection of hundreds of individual teachings which makes the disciple of Christ feel like a juggler trying to keep one too many pins in the air at once. These metaphors were not intended to confuse, but to clarify, so allow them to do just that by realizing they are largely talking about the very same thing.

For example, all of these topics are just metaphors for the exact same thing.

  • Fruit bearing
  • Abiding
  • Victory/being triumphant/ overcoming
  • Maturity in Christ
  • Glory
  • Suffering
  • Our Great hope
  • Faith
  • The kingdom
  • Salvation of the soul

This is how these topics fit into the metaphor of the parable we are looking at now…

Thorns

Click to Enlarge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALL the above are the exact same topic. They focus on the primary reason why we are here.

They challenge the KINGDOM of GOD within!

The entire life of the Christian is about establishing the Kingdom of God in our hearts and in the hearts of others.

The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of Christ in our hearts.

 


This is where we ended this week. We will begin with hurtles to bearing fruit in our next message.

I realize that the graphic on the video says this is week 3 but that was my mistake and I did not feel like redoing the video so, I kept it like it is – my apologies. 

I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Attendance at our church will NOT even be mentioned nor will money.

If you have been spiritually fed by this ministry and wish to give, we truly appreciate that and you may do so here, but all outreaches of this ministry are FREE for you and anyone to enjoy at no cost.

 

Blessings!

 

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!