Sermon About Fruitfulness

Sermon Outline Mark 4:14-20

Mark 4:14-20 & 23-25

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

 

“Fruits of Obedience”

 

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

• We just heard about the people who hear and don’t hear

24 And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

• Pay attention to what you hear

• • • The word

• Measure you use

• • • Amount you use
    • Keyword use

• It will be measured to you

• • • In exchange some will be given back to you
      • More word, more grace, more holiness, more sanctification, more Christlike-ness

• Still more will be added to you

• • Plus some

25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away

• The person in verse above, more will be given 
• The person who doesn’t use (the word) the word will be taken away

 

• This looks like the parable
  • Bears fruit, thirtyfold, 60 fold, 100fold
  • They bear fruit, more word is given, bear more fruit, more word given—–all the way to 100fold
  • In comparison, the other ground got the word:
    • Got it stolen
    • Didn’t root themselves by using it
    • Didn’t untangle themselves by using
    • Therefore, the seed they had, was taken away

 

“Talking about Fruitfullness”

• Incentive and encouragement for being fruitful
• We will also get a warning for not obeying the word we hear

 

• There is something more in the backdrop of this almost transactional parable
  • Define transactional
  • Talk about how it had to be something more, why is Jesus preaching this?
  • Re-read it

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

24 And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

• What are we talking about here?  
  • We are talking about first of all what Hebrews 2 describes as a “great salvation”
  • 1 Peter 1:10-12 continues to expound on this great salvation

10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

• • So first of all we are talking about salvation or eternal death, but we are also talking about pursuing God
•  with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
  • We will see today that as we use the word in our life, we receive more of His grace
  • We have the opportunity to get more and more of His Spirit
  • To go from faith to faith
  • James 1:16 16For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
    • Today we see practically a model of how james 4:8a works 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you
    • Saints we have the opportunity to have ears to ear, we have the word of salvation growing in our lives, lets be good ground, lets be people of God who use what we have been given and receive more.
    • I pray that none of us are the ones from whom the seed is taken away

 

First lets define “bearing fruit”

• 1) ultimately bearing fruit means the fruit of eternal life
• 2) bearing fruit also means in this text, bearing fruits of righteousness
  • This fruit of righteousness comes from hearing the word and obeying 
  • Ie of fruit of righteousness-an area of your life that you received the word and applied it
    • Easy examples-communion, word says do this in remembrance of me
    • Hear and obey
• These two are related, they have a symbiotic relationship
  • John 15:8  8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 
• God literally made things to be fruitful, all living things: trees, animals, insects, people, christians (death to life), 
  • so if you are a believer,Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—,you are alive in christ, and therefore ought to be fruitful

 

Lets jump in

 

24 And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

• Pay attention to what you hear

• • Take seriously what you hear
  • In 2nd Timothy 3:15-17  we get some reasons for paying attention and taking the word seriously

14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of Godb may be complete, equipped for every good work.

• Are you paying attention to what you hear?
  • Ask yourself, am i taking the word seriously?
  • Do I understand this word is breathed out from the living God
  • Do I appreciate that this word leads me to salvationf
  • Talk about in school setting, we pay more attention when we hear the phrase “pay attention because this is going to be on the test”
    • Is this how we treat the word?
    • Do we let it go in one ear and out the other
    • Do we day dream or fall asleep when we get in the word
    • Do we just push through our daily devotions to say we did it
    • Do we not take Sunday preaching seriously
    • When the holy spirit brings the word up to lead us, to keep us from sin, do we pay attention, do we take it seriously?
    • A good test is to ask yourself what the Lord is teaching you or admonishing (correcting) or leading you to in His word?  If you can’t answer that question, you must ask yourself if you are paying attention
    • David shows us what it is like to pay attention to what we hear in Psalm 119:4-11

24 And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

• with the measure you use
  • Saints we are expected to obey the word
  • Luke 11 Jesus is doing His thing, casting out demons, healing the sick, preaching the word with the authority of God in the flesh
    • And someone yells out to Him
    • Kind of like at a concert 
    • They say…27As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
      • This is what blessed looks like
    • James tells us about this using the word in James 1:21-25
• with the measure you use, it will be measured to you
  • Luke 6:37 gives us an idea of what this using or obeying of the word looks like to be measured back to us in grace: 37“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
    • In other words, as we obey God’s word, we get His grace back in return
    • In its most simple terms, the formula is: hear and obey God’s word=His grace in that area to do it
    • Ie I’m struggling to forgive someone, but I am obedient to try to forgive and He gives me grace to forgive, thats fruit
    • I’m struggling to put God first in my life, but I commit it to Him and ask for His help, He meets me and gives me the grace to do it, thats fruit
    • I’m struggling with a sinful habit, I put the word on it and ask God to help me be obedient, He gives me grace, thats fruit
    • You are now growing in your bearing fruit
      • That one seed of the word is bearing fruit, 30, 60, 100 times in your life
• Are you seeing growth and grace?
  • Are you seeing this pattern in your life of hearing God’s word, obeying it by His Spirit?
  • Going from grace to grace?
  • Or are you feeling stagnant?  Not really getting the word, not really applying the word, not really seeing the grace of God move in your life?  If thats you, today is the day!  Today is the day that you pay attention to the what you hear and use it!
• still more will be added to you.
  • As we hear and obey, as we seek to please Him, as we persue Christlikeness and sanctification, God rewards us with more of His grace & more of His spirit, more of His word, and more fruitfulness

25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away

• Even what he has will be taken away

• • gospel?
  • This seed, which isn’t fruitful
  • The word that isn’t used, brings forth no fruit
  • It will be taken away
• End with Hebrews 10:26-27?
• Philippians 2:12-1312Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.