Key to steadily producing a huge harvest

n the year of fruit bearing, our church's focus in 2009, Luke 8 gives us a key to steadily producing a huge harvest. Let's look at this in detail...

In 2009, my church, Northwest Bible Church, is kicking off a sermon series about being a fruit bearing believer and church. I'm pretty excited about it as fruit bearing is the most significant reason the Lord left us here. Fruit bearing probably means many things, but certainly it means we, as Christians, are to reproduce new Christ followers, and, if you are like me, you don't focus on that singular most important activity as much as you should. After all, why do we live, breath, eat, work, play, and remain here on earth if it isn't to reproduce Christ-followers in our family members, neighbors, co-workers, friends, and anyone we come in contact with?

So I was looking at Luke 8 today and the parable of the sower was there. We've probably all read that passage and know it very well. Do you realize that the key to fruit bearing is nestled in that passage? I never saw it that way before. So let's look at Jesus' explanation of the parable in verses 11 - 15:

"This is the meaning of the story: The seed is God's message. The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but then the Devil comes and steals it away and prevents them from believing and being saved. The rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep. They believe for a while, but they wilt when the hot winds of testing blow. The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God's message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest.

God's Word, the Bible, is the seed in the parable. The first type of person, depicted as the "hard path", is the only one of the four types of people in this passage that the Bible says they were prevented from believing and being saved. It is interesting that these "hard path" people do actually hear the message of God's Word but ultimately don't accept it. Clearly these type of people don't produce fruit.

The next two types of people "hear" as well but don't produce any fruit. The even accept God's Word since the "seed" turns into plants. First, we have the "rocky soil" people. They Bible says they believe for a while then wilt when the going gets tough. Are they still believers? Well, probably, but that depends upon what you believe about eternal security, and I'm not going there in this blog today, in the interest of time. 

Then you have "thorny ground" people who believe but eventually get too concerned with the cares and pleasures of this world, and, as such, they don't mature to produce any fruit either. Are these people saved? Probably yes. Boy, this type of person hits a little too close to home, doesn't it?

Okay, so now the secret for a fruit bearing life is in the last type of person. The "good soil" people, yeah, these sorts of folks are honest and good hearted people for sure, but I think the Bible goes further to define the secret to their fruit-bearing success. They hear God's message just like the others, but they also cling to it. The King James version says they hear the Word and keep it.

It's easy to hear the Word, right? All four types of people we encounter in life are able to hear the Word of God. I'm one of these types of people and so are you. But do you want to just merely hear the Word and not produce a huge harvest? I sure don't. Then we need to hear and cling to the Word, the whole Word of God. Then just sit back and watch that fruit be produced!