The past few weeks, we’ve been learning about how to bear good fruit; the fruits of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are things that everyone desires to both receive from and also give to others. These fruits are unstoppable life attributes that only result in good things!
In order to bear these good fruits, we must stay connected to Jesus like branches to a vine. We also need to trust our Heavenly Father as He prunes away anything in our lives that prevent us from being fruitful. Less is more!
In the previous two scenarios, it is us allowing God to do His work in our lives. This morning, we turn to one last thing required of us to bear good fruit. It’s now time for us to get to work in order to be grounded.
In fact, anytime that I say the word “ground” this morning, let’s all say it using American Sign Language.
This is more than just an analogy used in a parable, it is our reality! Let’s turn all the way back to the beginning as a good starting point.
Genesis 2:4-20
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
What are our bodies made from? Yup, ground!
And when we die, what do our bodies return to? Yup, ground!
This is more than just an analogy used in a parable, we are ground. This isn’t the picture that you’ll typically find in children’s Bibles, but creation was initially a giant mud pit. The gardener still had some work to do.
The perfect garden of Eden wasn’t spoken into existence, it was personally planned and planted!
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The ground was not created to exist alone as dust. Plants cannot grow in that environment! It was created to be nourished by a continual flow of water.
In the same way, our lives were created with an innate dryness and need for the springs of living water provided only by the Presence of the Holy Spirit within us! It’s only in that richly saturated environment that the fruits of the Spirit can grow! God and us together as one!
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
This is an incredible picture of what our lives look like. The Garden of Eden was a cooperative effort between God and man. God planted it. God made it grow. Man managed it.
God provided all that was needed, but man was responsible to work and care for the garden.
As a direct results of man’s management of the garden, he was able to eat from the garden and receive provision from it. Not only was it good for food, but it was pleasing to all of the other senses as well! Nice to look at, pleasant aromas, different textures and shade to feel, and a place for the birds and animals to hang out and listen to.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
There are a whole lot of different kinds of fruit trees out there in the world! However, there aren’t any that I know of that you can eat from and immediately know things. That’s not typically how we learn and become aware of knowledge.
In fact, there was another tree that we later learn about that was not at all off limits for humans until after they ate from the only tree that they weren’t allowed to eat from. This other tree was the tree of life. The fruit from this tree causes humans to live eternally.
I can’t wait for the day, but all who live by faith in Jesus will get to not only see this tree for themselves, but will also finally get to eat from it!
Revelation 2:7
…To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
In some translations, the subheading has been added to the next scripture entitled “Eden Restored.”
Revelation 22:1-5
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
It kind of makes me wonder what other trees existed in the Garden of Eden and what was provided by eating from them. In any case, we now move on…
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
Then, of course, God saw that it wasn’t good for man to be alone and created woman. Apparently the entire Garden of Eden and all that it richly provided for them wasn’t quite enough.
They wanted the one thing that God told Adam he could not have and they ate from the tree of knowledge sinning against God.
Eve’s punishment was painful child birth and being ruled over by her husband. That’s right, a husband ruling over a wife is a curse and not the plan nor purpose of God as a side-by-side helper.
What was Adam’s punishment?
Genesis 3:17-19;23
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
I still don’t entirely know the significance of this, but hopefully God provides the revelation at some point…
God created Adam from ground outside of the Garden of Eden and then transported him to the garden. After Adam sinned against God, he was transported back out of the Garden of Eden to work and live on the same ground that God made him from.
There’s just something about dirt. There is something holy, sacred, and even revitalizing in getting our hands dirty working the ground. It’s kind of like the feeling of going back home. It’s comfortable, familiar, and refreshing.
Spas even charge quite a bit of money to lay back and get mud rubbed all over your body.
The Lord even reminded Moses about this in his encounter with the burning bush.
Exodus 3:1-5
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Get those shoes off and reconnect with your roots! Make personal contact with that dirt!
Along the same line, God gave instructions about how to build altars; a place to meet with God and to present to Him sacrifices and offerings. He said:
Exodus 20:24-25
24 Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.
Although the tabernacle and temples were grandiose and extravagant places, we don’t need gold gilded cedar wood or precious jewels to worship God. What God has provided for us is acceptable to Him just as it is.
Pile up some stones and dirt and honor His name. He will meet us and bless us there in that place! In simplicity and through what is common, we encounter our Creator.
He doesn’t require us to put on a show or get all fancy to meet with Him. In fact, He requires exactly the opposite. It is through humility that we properly worship the Lord! He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Time and time and time again throughout the Bible, worship was expressed very simply by bowing facedown to the ground. Worship can be bowing down in quiet reverence just resting in His Presence.
Of course, worship can also be lifting up shouts of praise and claps and dances and instruments so loud that the earth shakes! Such worship took place when David anointed Solomon as king.
1 Kings 1:40
And all the people went up after him, playing pipes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound.
The same thing happened in Nehemiah 12 when the rebuilt wall around Jerusalem was dedicated. Choirs and cymbals and harps and lyres and trumpets and all kinds of musicians came together in worship of the Lord. It was simply said: “The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.”
Worship can be quietly bowing to the ground or being so loud that the ground shakes!
To bear good fruit, we need to be good ground.
Mathew, Mark, and Luke all recorded this familiar parable taught by Jesus.
Mark 4:3-8;10;13-20
3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much ground. It sprang up quickly, because the ground was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good ground. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.
13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? (a lot of Jesus’ parables were farming related!) 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good ground, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop – some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
What kind of ground are we?
Are we superficial, not allowing God’s word to take deep root in our lives?
Are we intentionally being discipled by others?
Are we resistant to accountability?
Are we quick to defend ourselves?
Are we worriers bound by fear?
Do we crave the things of this world more than God?
Or…
Are we good ground?
Do we hunger and thirst for God’s Presence?
Do we read and meditate God’s word?
Do we pray unceasingly responding to Holy Spirit’s lead?
Are we humble enough to learn from others?
Are we quick to change and learn from our failures?
Have we surrendered our everything into the hands of the Lord?
The choice is ours. Good ground, good fruit!
Lastly, are we willing to die to self?
Are we willing to decrease so that Jesus might increase?
Unless a seed falls to the ground, it can never produce fruit…
John 12:24
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
Thirty, Sixty, One Hundred times what is sown is our potential to bear good fruit! It’s not just possible, it’s expected!
Be good ground, stay connected to Jesus and trust the Heavenly Father to prune away things that don’t belong in your life. You won’t regret it as your life begins to abundantly be filled with and produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.