Is your heart ready for your life to become fruitful? God wants each of us to allow Him to make us FRUITFUL! Are you ready!
DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, APRIL 15TH, 1860,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
…I shall briefly treat of the third class, and may the Spirit of God assist me to deal faithfully with you. “And some fell among THORNS; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.” Now, this was good soil. The two first characters were bad: the wayside was not the proper place, the rock was not a congenial situation for the growth of any plant; but this is good soil, for it grows thorns. Wherever a thistle will spring up and flourish, there would wheat flourish too. This was fat, fertile soil; it was no marvel therefore that the husbandman dealt largely there, and threw handful after handful upon that corner of the field. See how happy he is when in a month or two he visits the spot. The seed has sprung up. True, there’s a suspicious little plant down there of about the same size as the wheat. “Oh!” he thinks, “that’s not much, the corn will out-grow that. When it is stronger it will choke these few thistles that have unfortunately mixed with it.” Ay, Mr. Husbandman, you do not understand the force of evil, or you would not thus dream! He comes again, and the seed has grown, there is even the corn in the ear; but the thistles, the thorns, and the briars have become intertwisted with one another, and the poor wheat can hardly get a ray of sunshine. It is so choked with thorns every way, that it looks quite yellow: the plant is starved. Still it perseveres in growing, and it does seem as if it would bring forth a little fruit. Continue Reading…
We often come to God with high expectations, believing He has something to offer, that things will get better in our lives. While we want to see things happen in life, even as Christians we often don’t. The hard truth is that we don’t see more results from our relationship with God because we are not fully kingdom-minded. We struggle with issues like fear and doubt or battle addictive behaviors and relationship challenges.
We need to become Kingdom-minded persons, people of God’s Kingdom, where as His citizens we begin to look more like our King. The parable of the soils deals with four kinds of soil: good, rocky, thorny, and that of a path. Each represents four kinds of attitudes that people hold. All the “soils” can be found side by side, in one general location. The result of being in the Kingdom is fruitfulness, not just an average amount but an abundance; a reasonable crop produced 10-fold, but “crops” in the Kingdom bear 30, 60 or 100-fold. It is important to note that a tree or plant is not sustained by itself – apple trees don’t eat apples! The condition of the soil is vital for the growth of the tree.
When we say, “I didn’t get anything from that” when we hear the Word of God, we are talking more about the condition of our own soil than we are about the seed that was planted. God created us to be fruitful and it is encouraging to know that none of the environments is unchangeable. Turning, repenting, and doing even one thing different, can change our soil and enable us to bear fruit, 30, 60 or 100-fold.
I was honored to preach this weekend alongside my Bride! All I can say is that she crushed it! She spoke with confidence, passion, conviction and anointing. If you missed the message, make sure to listen to it this week. Living Water weekend messages.
A citizen of a kingdom has the rights, freedoms, and authority derived from their citizenship. As Christians, we must understand that we have new rights and freedoms, but also need to stop living our old way of life. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus talked about the importance of the Kingdom of God. More than a territory or political system, this kingdom is fundamentally about authority…who is reigning as King in your life? Jesus taught that we must repent to embrace the kingdom. Repentance is more than merely feeling “bad”, but is a complete change in direction, an action with moves us to from following the domain of darkness to following the kingdom of light. Even after we enter into the Kingdom of God, there is still a pressure to conform to the old way of living in the kingdom of darkness. As we learn to embrace the rights and privileges our citizenship empowers us with, we will realize that our relationship with Jesus is about more than making right choices, but about who our Lord is and where we draw our identity from. Jesus has wholly delivered us from the kingdom of darkness, but we must daily make the choice to say and live out that “Jesus is the Lord of my life!” The heart of the King is that we are such a treasure He was willing to sell everything, even His own life, to save us from ourselves and our sin. When we understand His heart for us, the sacrifice He made, and the blessings He wants to give us, it is easy to embrace His reign in our lives.
Watch or Listen to the full message here.
Don’t miss this weekend!
Powerful words from Charles Spurgeon about the nature of true repentance.
“Godly sorrow worketh repentance.” –2 Corinthians 7:10
Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God.Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”
True repentance Continue Reading…
As a pastor, you never know what your weekends will hold. This weekend was great. Not only was it my son’s birthday, I got to do something that I believe Jesus loves!
The Bible tells us to “give honor where it is due” (Romans 13:7), and we usually think of that in the context of celebrating people publicly when they have achieved something significant. This weekend I was able to practice “honoring” in a different way. It was a great reminder that the way we operate as His church isn’t always “normal”. Continue Reading…
I read a recent article which pressed the idea that many people are less familiar with what the Gospel actually is that many pastors want to admit. If you call yourself a Christian, then your answer to the question is a BIG DEAL. What is the Gospel?
Paul the Apostle wrote this about the Gospel:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4
In verse 1 of the same chapter he says, “this is the Gospel I preached to you”. This is the Gospel that has been declared for hundreds of years, it is the essence of how you and I can be saved. As simple as it may sound, the reality of the person of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, all according to the scripture, is the Gospel.
I love what Charles Spurgeon said when asked about his “style” of preaching: His answer was simple and straightforward, “I take my text and make a beeline for the cross.”
May we never forget or compromise!
