Week 6 – Day 1

“THE FOURTH SOIL”

Our North Star journey is almost over. We’ve covered significant ground over the last six weeks. Let’s take a moment and celebrate our discoveries.

  • We learned that Jesus invites us on a journey that will change everything as we make him the North Star of our lives. (Week 1)
  • We looked at the story of scripture and discovered that God has always desired to dwell with his people. (Week 2)
  • We studied three threats to our spiritual growth: A hard heart, trials, and distractions. (Week 3)
  • We found out that God is far more committed to us than we are to him: He saved us through the gospel, empowered us through the Holy Spirit, and gave us a new identity in Christ (Week 4 and Week 5)
  • Finally, we have implemented five practices of Jesus. These disciplines (solitude, prayer, scripture, evangelism, and fasting) will help us grow in our faith for years to come.

GOD HAS BIG PLANS FOR YOU

Even though your 30-day journey is coming to a close, your walk with Jesus does not end this week. God has big plans for you. Paul writes that we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

Before the world began, God designed our lives to be masterpieces for his glory. He saved us to walk in good works. He has been planning our destinies since before the world began.

Even though your 30-day journey is coming to a close, your walk with Jesus does not end this week.

This week, we’ll learn about those good works. 

ONE MORE SOIL

In Week 3, we discovered three threats to our spiritual growth by looking at the parable of the four soils.

In the story, Jesus told us that a farmer scattered good seed. It fell on a pathway, among thorns, on rocks, and into good soil. You may have noticed that in Week 3, we only discussed the first three soils. This week, we’ll learn about the seed which fell into the final, good soil.

In a world of hard hearts (the pathway), trials (rocks), and distractions (thorns), God wants us to produce exponential fruit for his kingdom. 

Here’s what Jesus said when he taught about the fourth soil: The seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” (Mark 4:20 NLT)

In a world of hard hearts (the pathway), trials (rocks), and distractions (thorns), God wants us to produce exponential fruit for his kingdom. 

So, how do we become “good soil”? And how do we produce a 30-, 60-, or 100-fold harvest with our lives?

HOW TO BECOME GOOD SOIL

Let’s examine another of Jesus’ famous farming metaphors to understand how we become “good soil”. 

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus walked with his disciples through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. Along the way, he told a story about a vine and its branches. Imagine the twelve of them walking past a grapevine as Jesus taught:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5 ESV)

Let’s examine another of Jesus’ famous farming metaphors to understand how we become “good soil”. 

Let’s look at three keys from this text:

First, Jesus is THE source of life for Christians. A branch is lifeless without a vine to provide nourishment. In the same way, Jesus says we can do NOTHING apart from him.

Second, God desires spiritual growth. In Jesus’ metaphor, God the Father is seen as a gardener who does everything possible to help each branch bear fruit. God cares more about our growth than our comfort (at the moment, the branch doesn’t enjoy the pruning).

Finally, we bear fruit by abiding. God’s goal (and therefore our goal) is that we would bear fruit. But God doesn’t ask us to grunt and force our way towards fruit. A synonym for abide is “remain”. In other words, stay. Don’t move. Treasure and cultivate your relationship with Jesus. 

God doesn’t ask us to grunt and force our way towards fruit.

We do God’s will by staying close to him. To work for God, we must be with God. God’s commands are empowered by his presence. 

Let’s review. In his parable of the Four Soils, Jesus said that to bear fruit (aka produce a harvest of 30-, 60-, or 100-fold) we must be “Good Soil”. In his teaching on the vine and the branches, he says bearing fruit is abiding. 

Bear Fruit = Good Soil

Bear Fruit = Abide

Therefore, we must conclude that to be good soil, we abide in Jesus.

HOW TO ABIDE

Tomorrow, we will learn more about how to abide by being with Jesus. 

But on our North Star journey, we have already learned some ways to abide. We’ve discovered that the Holy Spirit empowers us and our new identity emboldens us to abide in Christ. The practices of Jesus give us hands-on ways to abide every day. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BEAR FRUIT?

To learn what it means to bear fruit, we’ll return to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In Mark 1, Jesus invited two brothers (eventually he would invite twelve disciples) to follow him.

As we learned on the second day of Week 1, Jesus was inviting them on a journey that would change their lives forever. On that journey, they would spend extended time with Jesus, become like him, and learn to do what he did.

As followers of Jesus, we bear fruit when we learn to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.

This is what it means to bear fruit. As followers of Jesus, we bear fruit when we learn to:

  1. Be With Jesus
  2. Become Like Jesus
  3. Do What Jesus Did

We’ll examine these concepts over the next three days.

(The section “What Does It Mean To Bear Fruit” was adapted from John Mark Comer’s teaching series “Practicing The Way of Jesus“, specifically the teaching “Practicing The Way“. The three-fold framework of “Be With Jesus, Become Like Jesus, Do What Jesus Did” was taken directly from that teaching.)

NEXT STEPS

1: Read Mark 14.
2: Spend 10 minutes in Solitude, reflecting on what you learned. Pray using the P-R-A-Y method.
3: Remember to choose one day to fast lunch this week. Spend that time seeking God.
4: Continue to pray and plan to share your testimony with the 1-2 people in your life who don’t know Jesus over the next week.  
5: Text one friend one thing that you learned

Tomorrow: Week 6 – Day 2 – “Be With Jesus”