God's Great Garden
Discipleship • Sermon • Submitted
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· 12 viewsAn overview of how our discipleship determines the type of dirt we are planting our garden in.
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Intro- Great Commission and how we are to make disciples. Explain the garden, planting, and watering. Adam and Eve. The culture understood the metaphor because of the agricultural background.
Discipleship is a lifelong process
Discipleship is a lifelong process
How deep are your roots? Vs 5
How deep are your roots? Vs 5
Exposition: This verse is very interesting: Jesus gives us a great illustration about the heart of this type of “disciple”
forthwith = immediately
Deepness of Earth- No depth, shallow, hard
They burn up or burn out- why? they’re running off of fumes, emotion. they are lacking something.
Application: Why does this happen? Jesus explains this to his disciples in Vs 20-21
A Root- a piece of the plant that digs deep
A foundation- Hebrew translation used in the OT for root
Too many times we lead someone to Christ and that’s it! We give them nothing to build on. WE DON’T FOLLOW UP!
What would the church look like if we led people to Christ and then invited them to church the following Sunday, instead of telling them congratulations your saved, now go find a church.
Lost are being led to Christ but not being discipled! That fall on the church!
I’ve seen
Jesus tell us in the Great Commission to Go, make disciples, baptizing, and TEACHING!
It’s no wonder we see people come to know Christ and then a few months later we never see them again.
They have been attacked by the Devil and ran into trouble or have been tempted by their old lifestyle and gave in or even worse they gave up.
As a Church Body, the body of Christ, we need to step up and ensure that we are doing everything we can to strengthen the roots of others as well as ourselves. We need to grow disciples, till the ground and allow their roots dig deeper into the word of God!
Illustration:
Transition: So people with no depth, root or support system is one group that we can see today, but what about the next group of people that Jesus describes. As church members have any of you fallen into this category?
How Clean are your rows? Vs 7
How Clean are your rows? Vs 7
Expound:
In this verse we see a group of people who have heard the word, maybe even have been following for a while because in Luke’s account of this parable he tells us that the thorns “grew up with it” meaning that the seed had taken root and was beginning to grow but because of where it was at, the surrounding weeds and thorns killed it’s growth!
Vs 22 Jesus explains: There are two things here we should pay attention to
He has heard the word
Becomes unfruitful
I put many hours into my garden this year. Tilling the soil, trying to get the grass out and before I planted my vegetables it looked really good. So I thought my garden was ready. I didn’t notice that there was still the remnants of grass underneath the soil. As time went on i notice the grass was growing better than the vegetables. I tried to get rid of it and clean my rows but because of other things that came up I didn’t take the time to tend to my rows like they should have been and the grass eventually overtook my garden. My vegetables didn’t produce like they should have because my attention was somewhere else.
Application:
The problem here lies with the disciple. Jesus says he hears the word but...
When Jesus says the cares of this world, he is speaking of the worries and stress that take our mind off our spiritual garden.
The stress of the job; the mortgage; family members being far away; anger; bitterness; gossip; loss of joy!
Distractions! He calls out the deceitfulness of riches!
Your excuse for being choked out is that you job demands most of your time! What about God? Who do you think allowed you to have that job?
Don’t let the world crowd out the word.
When it’s all said and done you won’t have that house, you wont have that truck, you wont have that RV but what you will have is a Savior who loves you
Some of you in here today need to tend to your spiritual rows and weed out some of the bad stuff that is keeping you from producing spiritual fruit.
Transition: So we see two groups so far, those who are not rooted in the word of God and have no stability, and those who were rooted at one point in time but has allowed the world to choke out their fruit. But what about the last group? The good ground as Jesus called it...
How is your Harvest? Vs 8
How is your Harvest? Vs 8
Expound:
Other seed fell on good ground and brought forth fruit. NKJV says yielded a crop.
Many of you in here can understand that. We want our crops to yield as much as possible.
To get the full explanation lets go to the Master and see what he says in all the Gospels.
But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Application: They don’t all say something different. Together they tell the full story of why the good ground produces:
You must hear the Word; You must accept it; you must have a noble and good heart (clean heart); and then you will understand it.
When you come to the word, you must pray and repent. Then God through His Holy Spirit will give you understanding of the passage that He is leading you to and with the final piece, patience, you will bear fruit.
Not only in your life but in the lives of those around you.
Are you producing a harvest? If the answer is no, then look over the checklist and see what ingredient you are missing in your garden and ask God for it.
Conclusion: As a church we are called to make disciples. You can’t do that if you aren’t one. You can’t pour out the Love of Jesus into others if you are harboring anything that goes against what Jesus has taught us. No one is perfect, we all have our faults but Jesus was and is and will always be big enough, strong enough and gracious enough to forgive us. He is waiting on you today to make the first move.