December 29, 2024

Luke 8:1-21

Keep Your Eyes on Your Ears

Sunday Sermons
This Sunday, we will dive into Luke 8:1-21 where Jesus teaches the transformative power of truly hearing and living out God’s Word. From the women who followed Jesus, the parable of the sower, and the illuminating call that His family is made up of those who hear and obey, Jesus challenges us to examine the soil of our hearts. Are we merely hearing the Word or allowing it to take root, grow, and bear fruit in our lives? If not, how do we cultivate hearts that can truly receive God’s word when we hear it? Join us as we uncover what it means to truly hear, respond, and bear fruit in the Kingdom of God.
Speaker

Ryan Motta

Series

The Gospel According to Luke

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 8:1-21

Topics
Worship

Sermon Notes

Luke 8: 1-21

Keep Your Eyes on Your Ears

Associate Pastor Ryan Motta
  1.  Wayward Soil (v.5;12)
  2. Rocky Soil (v.6;13)
  3. Thorny soil (v.7;14)
  4. Thorny soil (v.7;14)

1. Listen to God’s word (v.8) 

“The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity. You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe. Your life is not a project, but a journey of listening to God and being formed by Him.”
Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart

“The greatest single secret of spiritual development lies in personal, humble, believing, obedient response to the Word of God. It is as God speaks to us through his Word that his warnings can bring us to conviction of sin, his promises to assurance of forgiveness, and his commands to amendment of life. We live and grow by his Word.”
John Stott

2. Do God’s word (v.15; 19-21)

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:22-25

“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”
Romans 2:13

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
John 14:23

3. Spread God’s word  (v.11; 16-18) 

The Gospel does not fall from the clouds like rain, by accident, but is brought by the hands of men to where God has sent it.”
John Calvin

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay.”
Charles Spurgeon

4. Enjoy God’s word (v.1) 

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”
John 5:39

 

Discussion Questions

  • Can you think of a time when you struggled to receive God’s grace personally, even though you knew about it intellectually? What do you think Jesus would say to you in that moment?”
  • Of the four types of soil, representing different responses to the word of God, which type of soil do you currently identify? Why?
  • What distractions & worldly concerns – or “thorns” – may be crowding out space for God’s word to take root in your life?
  • How can we, as a community, help each other to thrive as “good soil’ where God’s word can bear fruit in our lives? What practical steps can we take this week toward that end?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“On Christ The Solid Rock“ by William Batchelder Bradbury, Edward Mote
“Anchor Of Hope“ by Brown Bannister and Ellie Holcomb
“Speak O Lord“ by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
“Revive Us Again“ by John Jenkins Husband and William Paton MacKay
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship: How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

Excerpts from Psalm 84, 72, 73, and  Ezekiel 15

LEADER: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
PEOPLE:  Our souls long, yes faint for the courts of the Lord; Our hearts and flesh sing for joy To the living God.

LEADER:  Who is like you, O Lord, Majestic in holiness, Awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
PEOPLE: It is good to be near God; Make the Lord God our refuge And tell of all his works.

LEADER:  Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who alone does wondrous things.
ALL: Blessed be his glorious name forever; May the whole earth be filled with his Glory! Amen and Amen!

Classic Prayer: Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471

Grant me, O Lord, heavenly wisdom, that I may learn to seek you above all things, and to understand all other things as they are according to the order of your wisdom. Amen.