Good Tree Good Soil Good Fruit
Well, praise Jesus, everyone. The words of Jesus are very convicting. Jesus often speaks to me in dreams, and He gives me words that then I contemplate. And often it's to correct me, to chastise me, to build me up in righteousness. And when I hear something from the Lord that I don't like, I have to change what I'm doing to be bearing good fruit. One of the things Jesus showed me by the way of a dream was not to have bad fellowship with people, not to have fruitless conversations. See, it's really easy for us, especially if we're nice people, to just engage in conversations that then become fruitful, not because we want to be unfruitful for God, but because we just want to be likable and to be able to get along with others. Jesus wants us to be able to get along with others, but He doesn't want us to be fruitless. And where the rubber hits the road with this a lot of the times is with family and friends, old family and old friends from our past life. Remember how Jesus said that He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. That's a really hard thing to accept, especially when your own family members choose not to follow Jesus, or they choose the way of religion, and you choose the way of Jesus. And it's even harder when they want to do nice things for you. They want to invite you over for, say, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, all of these sorts of pagan holidays. They give you gifts. They're always trying to love you in the way that the world does. And then what you return to them is basically nothing, just saying, I can't be with you. I need to separate from you. They can't understand it. You look just like you're being a punk, that you're being hateful. And that's why Jesus said that He came to bring a sword, even between family members. We don't want a division. We don't want to have war with family members. We want peace with people, especially if we're following Jesus as the Prince of Peace. But if people that have been in our life are causing us to be unfruitful for the Kingdom of God, and they are leading us away, you know, in our conversation to be fruitless and just to waste our time, then we need to sever ourselves from them.
And too many of us, because we are just nice, we don't sever ourselves from ungodly family members, ungodly friends. We just continue to associate with them. The Lord warned me about this, that we need to make sure that we are always fruitful in our conversations. And if we're around old friends or family members that are not bearing good fruit, we need to be very careful and not waste our time there. Because a lot of Christians get hung up on just family nights, playing games with family members and friends. And the Kingdom of God always comes second, or it doesn't even come second. It's never even there. So they end up just watching TV with their family members and friends, just hanging out. And it's very dangerous because they become fruitless. And what Jesus said, if we're not a good tree, we're a bad tree. And if we're not bearing good fruit, we're going to be cut off and thrown into the fire. What does that mean? That means we're not worthy to inherit everlasting life. We'll be thrown into hell. I, for one, don't want to be thrown into hell because my family members aren't following God. And even though it makes me sad not to associate with my old family members and friends that aren't really following Jesus, but they're following religion, for the sake of my own soul and the sake of my children and the sake of the body of Christ, I sever myself from them, not because I hate them as the world hates, but because I want to obey Jesus.I've put Jesus first in my life. And of course, family members and friends are going to think, well, you're hateful. You're returning hate for good. You don't give us presence, even though we've given you presence. We want to hang out with you and give you things, and you don't give us any of your time back. You don't share your children with us. And so over the name of Jesus, there is a huge division. We need to be very careful who we associate with. Another thing that I've seen that we need to be very careful with not to become fruitless is with our worldly business. See, all of us have to have a business. Jesus hasn't called us to be lazy. He hasn't called us to be homeless or to be beggars. So we have to be doing something in the world. Either you go out and you work some kind of a job or you're an entrepreneur, you're an employee somewhere, you own your own business, whatever it is, you're doing something to bring in physical money then to buy physical food so you have food on your table to eat. We are in the world, but not of the world.
But the danger is it's easy to start worshiping money or money to become way too important. And we don't want money to be one of the tentacles of the octopus of this false god that is pulling us away from the true provision of the living God. It is so easy to get wrapped up in just wanting to make money, just putting our security in money, putting our security in the government, and that to become a false fruit and a false god in a false lifestyle. Of course, we're supposed to be making money. We're supposed to be helping others, you know, raising our families. And that all takes money. I understand that. And so do you. But how do we make sure that we're not serving God and money, worshiping God and mammon? See, this is a very important thing for us to understand as Christians, because if we get this one thing wrong, we will be fruitless. And that leads me into what Jesus spoke about the parable of the four soils. You've probably read this parable before, but I'm going to just go over it briefly. Jesus says that with the four soils, the first soil is the wayside. The wayside is the side of the road where these seeds were scattered right on the road. And the devil quickly comes like in the form of a bird, and he eats that seed right off the road. And it never makes it into the soil at all. This represents people that are in the world. They hear the gospel message. They hear that Jesus died on the cross and he resurrected. And they say, whatever, I'm here to make money. I'm here to live the good life. So immediately, the gospel message that they hear is eaten by the devil. And they never, ever even start their journey with Jesus in faith. So that's the first soil. Jesus calls it the wayside.
The second soil is the rocky, shallow soil. And what Jesus says about this soil is that it is shallow. These are the sorts of people that they hear the gospel and they go, that is awesome. But they never do anything about it. They never grow to maturity. And as soon as tribulation or persecution arise, or people start to speak negatively about them in the workplace, they say, forget it. It's not worth being a If it causes a divide in your family, if Jesus is the prince of peace, he can never cause division. So these sorts of people, because they are in the shallow soil, they also are devoured by the devil. They never become truly fruitful. There are a lot of people that are on this soil. They will only follow Jesus as long as it is convenient. These are the sorts of Christians that believe in church light, like beer light, and they never really grow deep in their faith. Christianity is always on the side and it always comes second after football. It always comes second after family, after alcohol and parties and making money. These sorts of people could care less about having deep and genuine relationships with others. And they certainly don't care about having a deep and passionate relationship with Jesus Christ. They don't have dreams. They don't have visions. They don't have the fire of the Holy Spirit. They certainly don't speak in new tongues. They're just shallow Christians. And similarly to those on the wayside, the devil eats up the seed that is in their heart and they don't continue to grow. When the sun beats down on them, they do not grow through trial and tribulation and persecution. But what I find most convicting is the third soil Jesus speaks about, which is the soil or the seed that lands amongst the thorns. And what Jesus says that this represents is people who hear the Word of God, so they hear about Jesus's testimony and they know about the disciples. They know what Jesus taught. But then what happens is all the worries of the world arise and the deceitfulness of riches. And so even though they know the parables of the kingdom of God, even though they know about Jesus and they know the way, because there's deceitfulness in money, deceitfulness in riches, deceitfulness in all the pleasures of the world, it's too hard for them to be fruitful. It's easier to just go out and have fun, go out and make money, focus on business and the things of the world and professionalism than it is to preach the kingdom of God and bear good fruit. Now this is very convicting, guys, because I believe most Christians who are serious fall into this category. They don't continue to produce good fruit because after a while, even though they've pushed through trials and tribulations and sicknesses and persecutions in their life, what ends up getting them is all the joys of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of this life. And that chokes them out like thorns choke out a plant that's trying to grow in the garden. And unless these things are weeded out of our lives, we can't continue to grow. So this goes back to the importance of not serving God and money, but serving the Lord our God with all of our heart and saying, Lord, have your way with me. I know I need to make money. I know that I need to provide for my children.
I need to be the provider of my household. But how do I do that so that I am bearing good fruit and not letting all of the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke me out? Because most Christians, all they're concerned about is the things of the world. It's all about taking the kids to the soccer game, taking the kids back and forth from here to there from school, commuting to work and back. It's all about grocery shopping, getting things on Amazon. And all of these things are things that we need. But how do we make sure that we're truly putting Jesus Christ first? And what I want to tell you is, in order to do this, you need to do some soul searching and you need to start asking Jesus, am I producing good fruit or am I getting choked out? And if you can be just introspective, looking into your own heart and into your own life and able to ask these questions, then you can have this pure heart before the Lord ready to be corrected. If you have started to allow the things of the world to choke you out and to become unfruitful. If we are fruitful, we will be teaching our children to trust and obey Jesus. We'll be seeking first the kingdom of God in his righteousness, not just making money in the world, not just living for the pleasures of the flesh. And I'm not saying we can't have fun. I have a lot of fun in life. I have a lot of fun with my children, but I also have a deep conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit that I know that I need to bear good fruit and not let any of the things in this world or the fear of putting food on the table or deceitfulness of riches, all these things that Jesus talks about, how these thorns choke out the seed. I want to make sure that that is not me. I find this very, it's a challenge. It's a challenge not to be pulled down by the world in one way or another or choked out. We need to make sure that we have the conviction of the Holy Spirit in us and that we keep that conviction alive. I know I'm still alive in Jesus because I have conviction. I know the difference between right and wrong. I know that I'm in the fight with Jesus because I still feel and hear the accusations from Satan and both in the spiritual realm and physically from people who are always accusing me. So if we know that we're still being accused by people, accused by the devil, and that we're fighting against this world and the thorns that are in this world and trying to get that out of our life, we can know we're still on the right path with Jesus. But as soon as you don't care about seeking first God's kingdom and your worries are all the worries of the world, all the things of this world, all the desires of the flesh, then you're bound to be choked out just as this soil is.
You know, this seed growing up in this soil that seems good, but then it has thorns in it and it totally chokes it out so it can't produce fruit. All three of these soils never produce good fruit. Not a hundredfold, not thirtyfold, not you know tenfold. All of them are choked out and because of that they are then cast out. Jesus' other parables talk about being cast out into the fire or thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We certainly don't want that. So we need to make sure that we figure out our relationship with Jesus in how we can produce good fruit and be like the fourth soil which is the good soil that produces fruit. Some more than others, but whatever amount of faith that God gives us, we will produce fruit a hundredfold, fiftyfold, thirtyfold, twentyfold, tenfold, whatever the Lord gives us with our talents and our abilities. Instead of serving the world and trying to become something in the world, we are working for Jesus, working out our salvation with fear and trembling and asking Him to give us good fruit. That we may produce good fruit in our lives so that we will be acceptable to the Lord and ready to walk into those pearly gates into heaven and that also we will be able to encourage others to enter into the kingdom of God. If we ourselves are not producing good fruit and being chastised and overcoming in the name of Jesus, casting out devils, casting out evil thoughts from our minds, selfish ambitions, if we are not doing that then we have no business being able to help or coach or teach other people to do that. So if we want to be the sons and daughters of the light and let our light shine before men, we have to have our light shining and practicing what we preach. I want to practice what I preach, I want to practice what I say I live, and every day I want to bear good fruit for Jesus Christ. I find this parable of the four soils very convicting because I never want to let my worldly business, my earthly business and making money ever be in head of seeking first the kingdom of God. And where the rubber hits the road is if I have clients or if I have people that disagree with my testimony of Jesus, I never want to change what I believe in. I never want to change or bend my knee to Satan in order to keep worldly business. At the end of the day I'd rather be homeless and right with Jesus than live in a mansion and be with the devil. So if there are conflicts or persecution or all these things that arise, I want to be able to push through that and not be serving mammon.If the devil puts mammon before me and he says you need to bow down in order to receive this, I need to say I will stand for Jesus and I will never bow to the devil. Each of us always come to forks in the road in our path where we are tested. Either the Lord himself allows a test or the devil is tempting us.
And at those forks in the road will we go left or will we go right? Will we choose good or will we choose evil? Will we choose to bow down to Satan so that we can continue to make money? Will we start to bow to money so that we can receive more money? Will we make compromises that pull us away from being fruitful to the kingdom of God? Or will we truly seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and bear good fruit? Remember, only the fourth soil bears good fruit. We want to be the fourth soil because if we're the first, the second, or the third, if we're the ones on the wayside, the shallow soil, or amongst the thorns, we don't bear good fruit and we are not worthy to enter the kingdom of God. The three soils that don't bear good fruit, they're cast out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I want to make sure that I am the fourth soil and I'd want to encourage you also. Is your heart right before the Lord and are you producing good soil or are you like the third soil amongst the thorns or the second amongst the shallow rocky soil or the first amongst the wayside? You don't care what Jesus thinks. I want to encourage people to come and have good fruit for the Lord. So I want to pray for those of you that want to dedicate your life to Jesus and keep your life on track with the Lord.
“Lord Jesus, I pray that I can bear good fruit, that I can be separate from worldliness and ungodliness and pursuits that are ungodly. I pray that we can truly seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and be your sons and your daughters. I pray that you sever us from worldliness, that you prune us and keep us away from the things that make us unfruitful and the things that choke us out. May we have everything that we need. May we have physical food and spiritual food that we don't have to be in want, but that we can say thank you Lord for providing everything that we need. And may the works of our hands be blessed. May you give us just everything that we spiritually need and physically need so that we can use all of our resources, all of our talents and abilities for the kingdom of God, that we ourselves may be entering the kingdom and that we can also be encouraging others to enter your kingdom, that they would also produce good fruit and enter into your holy kingdom. So help us Lord Jesus be humble before you, help us be righteous before you, but also confident that you are leading us and guiding us, and may we have confidence in our faith in you knowing that it is through you and your power that we overcome. In your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
