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

  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?

Transcript

Good morning, church family. My name is Ryan Motta and I’m an associate pastor here at The Village Chapel. And whether you have been coming here for a long time or this is your first Sunday joining us or you’re just visiting from out of town, we are really glad that you’re here with us this morning. We study through books of the Bible here at TVC and this Sunday is no different, so if you would like a copy of a Bible to follow along as I read the text, please raise your hand and someone will come around to hand out a copy to you. Today we’re going to be picking up our study in the Gospel of Luke and we’ll be in Luke chapter 8:1-2.1 The title of my sermon is “Keep your Eyes on Your Ears.”

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to participate in a group that was focused on counseling for pastors. And when I say that I don’t mean that I was being trained on how to counsel others. I was the one being counseled, along with five other people who were also actively involved with church ministry. And to be honest, this was a really hard experience for me. I found each session to be exhausting because it felt like it always pushed me right past the edge of my emotional comfort zone. We talked about our family of origin and how that had a tremendous impact on the way that we interact with others in the world around us. We discussed our personality types, and the particular strengths and weaknesses associated with our natural dispositions towards situations and people. We talked about specific moments in ministry, and just life in general, where we have felt wounded by others and how we dealt with that pain or how we didn’t deal with that pain.

Like I said, this wasn’t easy, and I wasn’t comfortable most of the time, but there was one particular session that I found to be the worst, by far the most difficult time during this counseling season of my life. During our meeting time, I had to share with the group what I believed was my greatest failure in life. How this worked was I sat in a chair in the middle of the room while everyone stood in a circle around me and just looked at me. And after I shared, the room remained silent for 30 seconds while I felt the piercing glare of everyone looking at me in one of the most vulnerable states I had ever been in. I was completely exposed, and I couldn’t help but think that these people that I had considered friends were now forsaking me because of what they had heard.

And then, after what felt like the longest 30 seconds of my life, our leader placed an empty chair in front of me, and he told me to imagine that sitting in that chair was the younger version of myself who had just made the mistake that I shared with the group. And then he asked me what I would say to the younger version of myself. Without even hesitating, I started to spew words of shame and contempt. I couldn’t believe how easy the words came to me at that moment because without knowing I had locked away these cruel thoughts and tricked myself into believing that I had dealt with that shameful part of my life simply because a lot of time had passed since the moment.

After about a minute-long tirade of me shouting at this empty chair, that was a metaphor of my younger self, I stopped because I had no words left to say. I wasn’t sad, I was angry. And in some kind of weird way, it felt good to say those words because I believe that that’s what the younger version of myself needed to hear. That’s what I believe I needed to hear. He had it coming; he deserved it. But what happened next was the moment that broke me in a lot of ways and is honestly still changing me to this day. Our group leader then asked me, “What do you think Jesus would say to him? How would Jesus respond to your greatest failure?” And this should have been a walk in the park to me. I’m a pastor on staff at a church. I have preached countless messages on the grace of Jesus towards sinners. I’ve graduated from seminary and written well over 30 papers on the person and work of Jesus. I’ve been following Christ for 12 years, and I’ve completed the Bible in one year reading plan numerous times. Surely, I had an answer to this question, right? But as I sat there, these are the words that came out of my mouth. “I don’t know.”

And I started to get emotional because it was at that moment that I had a huge realization that seems so simple, but when you get this, is life-changing. I realized there was a disconnect between what I knew to be true about Jesus and actually experiencing that truth in a real way in my own life. It wasn’t that I couldn’t come up with an answer to the question, it was that I couldn’t come up with one that I believed in at that moment. Sure, Jesus has grace, but does He really have grace for me? I had experienced the love of God in so many areas of my life, but as I sat in that chair, I realized there was a place in my own heart that I had avoided allowing the truth and the grace and the love of God to enter into. There was a wide gap between what I know about God and actually receiving that truth in my heart.

I knew all the right information, but I didn’t allow it to sink into the depths of my own soul. I bring this up because this is the exact thing Jesus is going to be talking about in the text that we are going to be reading today. Jesus is going to show us by way of story how we can be people who go from simply knowing about God to actually receiving God in our own life. But before we dive into Luke 8, I wanted to do a brief recap, since we took a break for Advent, of all that’s happened in the Gospel of Luke. So, we are told at the very beginning of the letter that Luke has written this account of the life of Jesus so that a man named Theophilus may have certainty about all of the things he has heard about Jesus. This helps us because as we read the Gospel of Luke, we have to keep in mind that Luke’s goal of everything he writes is that you would have certainty in regard to who Jesus is.

He wants you to know the person, the man Jesus. Then in Chapters 1 and 2, we are told about the miraculous birth narrative of Jesus, which we read at our Christmas Eve service last Tuesday. And then for the rest of what we studied, this is a very brief summary. We see Jesus perform miracles and teach revolutionary ideas. He heals the demon-possessed man. He calls the most unlikely men to be His disciples. He gets into public disputes with religious leaders of the day and in Chapter 7, so the chapter that’s just taking place before today, we see Jesus heal a centurion servant from a distance, raise a widow’s son back from the dead and show compassion to a prostitute who interrupted a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee. I don’t know what you think of Jesus, but you must admit, He is compelling.

So now that we have a rough survey of where we have been so far in the Gospel of Luke, let’s read the text, but before I read, allow me to pray for God to be with us: Lord, we are desperate for You this morning. We’re desperate for a word from You. God, help us as we read and study this text. Spirit illuminate the meaning to us in a real way, not just that we would know the meaning of this, but we would actually experience the meaning of the text. God, we pray that as we have an opportunity to sit under Your words today, God, it would actually take root in our hearts. But Jesus, in order for that to happen, we are dependent upon the Spirit. So, God, we ask that You would be with us. Change us because of what we read and study today. Help us to experience You in a new way. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Starting in Luke chapter 8:1: “Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him; and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” I’m going to pause right there. So, this chapter begins by giving us an account of three of the women who followed Jesus. And it’s important for us to remember that Jesus had more than just 12 disciples who followed Him. It’s true that the 12 were appointed for a specific purpose out of His disciples, but Jesus had a larger crowd of people who were also known as His disciples too.

And in this crowd, Luke decides to highlight three women; Mary, who was called Magdalene, who Jesus had cast seven demons out from. Joanna, who was the wife of a man named Chuza, who served as Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, who honestly, we don’t get much of a description of. Now, if you were reading Luke 8 for a morning devotion, it might be tempting to fly over this small paragraph because at first glance it can seem irrelevant and even a little bit random. But these verses have massive implications for the people of God. These verses show us that the invitation to be a disciple of Christ is for both men and women. And as God is bringing forth His kingdom here on Earth, He has a role for everyone to play into. We don’t only see this in this section that we just read, but we actually see this theme throughout the whole story lines of the gospels.

The first person to know about the coming of the Messiah, the one who Israel had been waiting thousands of years and then suffered a 400-year period of silence. The first person to know that the Messiah was coming was a woman named Mary from a no-name town. The longest recorded conversation Jesus had in all of the Scriptures is with a woman at a well in Samaria, in John, Chapter 4. In the passage we just read, we are told that the women were the ones who financially provided for the ministry of Jesus. In Luke 10, we’re going to read this in a few weeks, Jesus honors Mary sitting at his feet, which was the posture of a disciple. In Luke 7, Jesus holds up a woman to a Pharisee as an example to follow. At the crucifixion, the 11 disciples flee, but it was the women who stayed and witnessed all that happened to Jesus.

And at the resurrection, the first people to see and spread the news of the King who had just come back from the dead were two women. The way that Jesus included women in His ministry in the first century was revolutionary, and it quite literally changed the world. If you read and study ancient writings from Roman emperors when Christianity was spreading throughout the Roman Empire, we see that this is one of the most confusing things about this new religion to them. Because in a culture that viewed women as nothing more than mere objects to be had, Jesus flipped the script and made them an invaluable part of His kingdom coming to Earth. He restored the image-bearing dignity they were created with, and the people of God need to live in accordance with that truth. Because in order for the mission of God to be accomplished here on Earth, God desires to use both faithful men and faithful women in the battle. He needs all of us.

So, whenever Luke highlights these three women, it’s really important for us to understand that this means that God’s calling all of us to be disciples and to play a role in His kingdom. But Luke doesn’t stop there, because he then turns the chapter’s attention to the crowds who were following Jesus. So, let’s keep reading to see what happens next. I’m going to read verses 4 all the way through 21.

“And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.’ As he said these things, he called out, ‘He who is ears to hear, let him hear.’ And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables so that “seeing they may not see, and hearing, they may not understand.” Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time and in time of testing they fall away. And as for what fell among thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

‘As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.’ Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you.’ But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’”

And that’s where we’re going to stop for today. So, as Jesus is going from town to town proclaiming the good news of the Gospel of His kingdom, His fame is starting to spread rapidly. Where Jesus goes, a mob of curious people quickly forms to see what He is going to do and to hear what He is going to say. And as Jesus notices the crowd, we are told that He begins to teach them with a parable. Now, before we consider what Jesus taught this crowd, it’s important that we discuss what a parable is and what the purpose of parables are, because this is the first one in the Gospel of Luke that we see. So, what are parables and what’s the purpose of parables? A commentary I was reading had a short definition of what a parable is that I found really helpful. Here’s what it said: “A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.”

A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Now, what he means by that is that Jesus would tell a story that used everyday objects in common situations that people experienced in life to communicate the truth about the kingdom of God. See, so often we fixate on the miracles of Jesus, that we miss out on the fact that Jesus was also a master at teaching. In using parables, Jesus was wanting those who followed Him to know what life as a disciple of His looked like and meant. This is why, in verse 8, we see Jesus say the phrase, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” He deeply wants his audience to know the truth of what He’s teaching. So now that we have the definition of parables, let’s talk about the purpose.

The purpose of parables is actually given to us in verses 9 and 10 of the text we just read. He tells His disciples that He teaches in parables so that those who desire to know more about the kingdom can receive His teaching; but those who don’t have any desire to know, the parables will actually hide the truth from them. Now at first read, this can be one of the more difficult sayings of Jesus in the gospels. What is Jesus saying about hiding the truth? Don’t we want everyone to know the truth?

But to understand what Jesus said, it’s important to know that He’s quoting what God said to Isaiah in Isaiah, Chapter 6. As God is commissioning Isaiah to go and tell the news that God has for him to Israel, God tells him that when he delivers this message to His people, they aren’t going to listen to him. They are going to reject it. The Word of God from the mouth of Isaiah won’t soften the people’s hearts. It will actually harden their hearts. And I think this is what Jesus is telling His disciples about the effects His parables will have on some of His audience. To His disciples, the parables will reveal precious truth about God’s kingdom. But to those who reject Jesus, the parables will be a source of judgment that will harden their hearts towards God.

Think of it like this, imagine during a hot summer day, you put a lump of wax outside on the concrete along with a lump of clay. As both cooked in the heat of the sun, they would have different results. The wax would melt, and the clay would harden. They both received the same source of light and heat, but the results were different because the substance was different. For those who truly desire to learn under Jesus as a disciple, the parables will melt their heart at the truth that God reveals. But for those who have no desire for God, they reject the teachings of Jesus before He even says a word. The parables will actually harden their hearts like clay. So now that we know the definition and the purpose of parables, let’s see what Jesus is trying to teach us in the parable of the sower. So just for a quick summary, we are told the story of a sower who went out to sow some seed and as he began to generously spread seed all over, the seed fell among four different kinds of soil.

Some seed fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on the rock, and it showed a little life at first, but it withered away because it had no moisture, and it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorns, and as the seeds grew, it was eventually choked out by the surrounding weeds. And then lastly, there were seeds that fell among good soil and grew and multiplied a hundredfold. And that’s how Jesus’s short little story ends. So, then the question is what’s the meaning? What’s Jesus trying to tell us? And my guess is that for many of us in this room as we read it, even before the explanation of Jesus, you might’ve had it figured out already. But here’s what we know, it wasn’t so obvious to the crowds that day. In fact, His disciples had to pull Him aside and say, “Jesus, what the heck was that, dude? What did that mean? What are you trying to say?”

And thankfully, Luke gives us the meaning of the parable directly from the mouth of Jesus, which makes my job so much easier. I’m very thankful Luke did that. Jesus says this, “The seed in the story represents the word of God.” And I think this is a perfect metaphor because every seed has opportunity for great potential, does it not? Every time you sit under God’s Word, whether it’s being preached or you’re reading it by yourself or you’re studying it in a home group or you’re just listening to the audio version in your car when you drive to work, here’s what you have to understand. There is great opportunity and potential in that moment. You can actually allow the Word of God to transform you when you hear it. We often think of the parable of the sower in regard to the first time we heard the Gospel preached, but in reality, this parable can be applied to everyday life because we don’t just hear God’s Word one time, we hear it all the time.

So, as we think through this story, we can begin to see that the four different soils are four different responses to the Word of God. Let’s work through these four different kinds of responses. The first soil type is the wayward soil. The first place the seed falls in the story is along the path and it’s trampled by feet and devoured by birds. This kind of soil represents the individual who has heard the Word of God, and then immediately the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts. In ancient Palestine, a farmer’s field was long and narrow and often had serpentine strips of land that were divided by walking paths that could be used by the farmer, the farmer’s equipment and animals. So oftentimes these walking paths would be so worn that they would be hardest pavement, and nothing could grow on them.

So, what Jesus is saying is that someone with this kind of condition of heart who heard the Word of God, it would be like planting a seed on concrete, just wouldn’t work. This kind of soil represents the person who won’t even entertain anything said in God’s Word. Nothing they hear stirs up their heart towards curiosity. Perhaps it’s not a hostile approach to Christianity. Maybe this person is just really indifferent to anything beyond this life. They just don’t view matters of faith as important in the midst of their busy lives. They never stop to consider the things of God because, in their heart of hearts, they believe they don’t really need God. “I’m fine on my own.” And when they long for meaning and purpose, they seek out the pleasures of this world to cheaply fill the void in their heart. They don’t actually solve the pain; they merely numb it.

Or maybe it’s a more sophisticated unbelief. They have believed the modern lie that technology can provide everything we ever dreamed of. If we just continue to push the ball of human progress forward, well, we wouldn’t need the idea of God because we could become gods ourselves. This may lead this kind of person to even pity those who believe in God because they view it as a crutch. For an example of this kind of heart, consider Pharaoh. When God rescued His people from Egypt, Pharaoh had a front row seat to see God do miraculous things.

You ever consider that Pharaoh saw God do things that you and I could only dream of seeing God do? And yet every miracle Pharaoh saw, every word he heard from God hardened his heart further. You see there’s a lot of different ways that the devil can snag the Word out of someone’s heart, but here’s the truth we desperately need to see and the warning we desperately need to see from this first kind of soil, that when we hear the Word of God and reject it, or we hear the Word of God and do not act on what we have heard, it puts us in a very spiritually dangerous place.

Here’s what this can look like: You come to church every Sunday and sit under the teaching of God’s Word and never receive it or live differently. Or you wake up every morning and you do a devotion, and you read God’s Word, but you never allow what you’ve read to sit in your mind or change the way you live. Listen, you are in danger of the Word of God actually hardening your heart. If you get into the habit of just saying the words without ever allowing what you’re hearing to actually take root, your heart may grow more cold and indifferent towards the truth that you’re hearing. Now, just to be clear, this does not mean that we should stop seeking God’s Word or hearing God’s Word or listening to God’s Word. Sorry. But this does mean that when we seek it, we must be ready to receive it. Because if we just hear it and we do nothing with it, our hearts may become hard.

The second kind of soil is rocky soil. The seed that fell among the rock. This is the kind of person who when they hear the Word, they actually respond with great enthusiasm. Maybe they’ll even be as bold as to share it on their Instagram story if they really love what they read. But even though they are excited by what they hear, they never actually receive it. They enjoy the thought of it, but they never allow the truth to actually sink deep down into their soul. Put another way, they love the way the Word of God makes them feel, but they don’t actually want to make any changes to their current way of life. This kind of person is like the kindling in a fire. It goes up in a great flame, but the fire never sustains. But what causes them to fall away? What happened to their great enthusiasm?

Jesus tells us that they fell away during a time of testing. When life got hard, they bailed. Their excitement wasn’t about the forgiveness of sin on offer, their excitement was wrapped up in false expectations. Their faith wasn’t about treasuring God, it was about their own comfort. And here is the warning for us. Our faith cannot be built upon the foundation of our emotions and circumstances. Emotions are not a bad thing, but they are certainly not the ultimate thing. We must have a faith that is deeply rooted in our heart that can withstand the storms of trials. We must have a kind of faith that even when we don’t feel the nearness of God, we still know it’s true. To doubt the goodness of God when life is hard is like doubting the heat of the sun on a cold day.

Just because we don’t feel the same effect every moment does not make God any less present in our affliction. Our faith must go deeper than surface-level emotions. The third kind of soil is thorny soil, the seed that falls among the thorns. The tragedy about this kind of person is that for a moment, the Word actually takes root in their heart, but as they allow the Word to take root, it’s not the only thing they’re making space for in their heart. We are told that the seed that has taken root eventually gets choked out due to the overwhelming concern this person has for the things of this world. Whether it be wars, social tensions, politics, finances, popularity, relationships or career advancement or you could put anything on that list, we can allow the things of this world to begin to crowd out the Word of God in our minds and in our hearts. It may be that this person desires to act on God’s Word, but they get distracted by the hurried pace of their daily life.

Maybe they just finished reading their Bible, and without hesitation, they picked up their phone and started scrolling to the point that they forgot everything they just read. Maybe they were planning on spending some time in prayer but ended up spending more time on work. You see, these kinds of people have a divided heart that seeks to serve two masters, but however hard they might try to make this work, it never will. This is at the heart of what Jesus teaches His disciples in Matthew 6 on the Sermon on the Mount when He tells them that they cannot serve God and money. Jesus will never settle for a half-hearted loyalty. He won’t. So, the danger we must avoid is living a life of distraction. Out of concern for every little thing in life, we just might miss out on the thing that life is really all about.

And the last soil is described as the good soil because in it the seed takes root and begins to bear fruit. The Word does not bounce off of their heart when they hear it, they don’t receive it for a moment and then abandon it when difficulty comes, and they don’t allow the things of this life to get in the way of making the Word the most central thing in their hearts. And the evidence that the seed has taken root in the good soil is if the good fruit of character formation begins to take place. The good fruit is defined for us in Galatians, Chapter 5, when Paul says, “The fruit of the spirit is…” What? “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

And to further explain what the good soil looks like or what it means to truly receive God’s Word. Jesus actually gives us two more examples at the end of the passage we just read. Look at verses 16-18, this mini-parable of the lamp. In verses 16-18, Jesus teaches us that the more we seek God’s Word, the more we will begin to understand God’s Word. But the more we ignore God’s Word, the less of it we will understand. And this makes sense, does it not? We get out what we put in. So New Year’s resolutions are around the corner, right? If I want to grow strong muscles this year, I have to start working out. But if I neglect working out or any form of physical exercise, eventually over a period of time my muscles will atrophy to the point that they can no longer be used. Likewise, when we ignore spending time in God’s Word for months on end and then it finally hits us, “Hey, I should start reading my Bible again,” it would make sense that the first quiet time we have will feel a little dry.

We’re out of practice. If that’s you, be encouraged, if that makes sense. But thankfully, this truth also works in the opposite direction. If you feel like your time in the Word has been dry, the answer isn’t to stop trying. It’s by staying faithful and trusting that the more you seek out the truth of God, the more He will give to you. Be patient. It will come. Be persistent in your time as you seek God’s Word. And then to add in verses 19-21, so y’all can look there, “And Jesus teaches us that the true sign that we are in the family of God is if we hear and obey God’s Word.” When that happens, when you begin to hear it and then actually live differently because of it, you can have assurance that you have truly repented of your sins and have been adopted into the family of God.

So, to summarize everything that’s been said so far, the parable of the sower teaches us that there is only one true way to receive God’s Word and many ways that we can miss out on God’s Word. So, then the question becomes, how do we cultivate a heart that receives God’s Word? How do we produce good soil so that when we hear it, the Word of God actually takes root and leads us into life? Before we end our time together today, I want to give you four ways that this text teaches us how we can cultivate a heart that receives God’s Word.

The first thing that we must do is listen to God’s Word. Listen to God’s Word. The prerequisite to receiving God’s Word is hearing God’s Word. And it may seem elementary, but the first thing we have to do is intentionally place ourselves under the Word of God every day of our lives. Whether it’s listening to the sermon or reading through a Bible plan or listening to an audio version of God’s Word. Do whatever you can to be in a position to actively listen to God’s Word every day. As we’re all in the mindset of forming New Year’s resolutions, which are good things. What if we as a church, the people of God at The Village Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee, what if we committed to being a people that sought to be students of God’s Word this year? I can’t tell you how much that would change the life of our church if we were all committed to that.

And when you take time to listen to God’s Word, this is really important, do whatever you can to eliminate distractions. If your phone is a distraction, don’t do a YouVersion Bible plan. Don’t do it. Because a notification will come, and you will get distracted. When you listen to God’s Word, listen as if God Himself was speaking directly to you because, get this, He is! God is speaking to you through His Word every time you place yourself in front of it. If you’ve ever desired to hear God speak to you; I’ve heard so many people say that, “I just wish God would say something to me.” I need you to know He already has. God has spoken to you through His Word. You have a chance to hear from God, the living God, the creator of all things, on a daily basis. Why would we not make space for that in our daily lives?

Why would that not be the single greatest priority as soon as we wake up in the morning to make time for? Dallas Willard says it like this, “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.” The greatest tool we have in Christian transformation is God’s Word. This is what led John Stott to say, “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 a conviction of sin, His promises to assurance of forgiveness and His commands to amendment of life. We live and grow by His Word.”

The first step of producing a heart of good soil is listening to God’s Word. The next step is to do God’s Word. Do God’s Word. Listening to the Word of God is useless if we have no intent of living it out. Paying attention to God must be paired with the desire to act on it or the truth that we just heard will quickly fade from our minds and hearts. Listen to these verses taken directly from the Scriptures. It’s all throughout the Scriptures, this idea of hearing the Word and doing it. So, I just wanted to make it very plain to you this morning.

Three different verses, first out of James 1:22-25, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word of God and not a doer, he’s 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.” Romans 2:13, “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.” John 14:23, “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.”

To be crystal clear, obedience is not what earns God’s love for us. It’s not. Rather, obedience is our natural response to having already received God’s grace in our lives. So, when we hear God’s Word, we must be ready to live it out, no matter how hard or costly it may seem. Has God’s Word called you to forgive someone? Make a call after church today. Has God’s Word convicted you in needing to confess sin in your life? After church today, ask a brother or a sister in Christ to get coffee with you today or this week. Has God’s Word called you to speak the truth and love to someone who you know they’re going to respond bitterly? Pray for courage and say what God has called you to say. Has God called you to share the Gospel with a coworker or a neighbor who you have built a good relationship with? Trust God and step forward in faith. The more we are people who obey God’s Word, the more we’ll begin to experience the blessed life He has purchased for us on the cross.

Make a habit of living out what you hear from God even when you don’t feel like it, because the reward for that kind of faithfulness will be far greater than the momentary comfort you gained by avoiding obedience. I promise you. The prize for faithfulness is much better than the momentary reward of avoiding hard things. The third step in cultivating a receptive heart is to spread God’s Word. The way that God spreads His Word to those who have never heard the Gospel is through His people who have heard and received the Gospel for themselves. Notice how Jesus never gives us the identity of the sower in the story. I think He does this because anyone can be the sower who spreads God’s Word. And look at what Jesus says in verse 16, “Nobody after lighting a lamp hides the light under a bed or a blanket.” Because the point of the light, was what?

So that others might see the light too. When we are people who experience the blessings of God’s Word, that blessing is never meant to stop with you. It’s always meant to flow through you. It’s not our job to make people believe in God, but it is our job to tell them about the good news of a savior who has come to rescue them from themselves. John Calvin says it like this, “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.” I heard a pastor say it like this one time, “The only thing standing between an unrepentant sinner, bound for Hell, and the good news of the Gospel that can rescue them is your mouth.” You telling them the Gospel.

Do we have this kind of urgency as a church? Does the reality of life apart from Christ break our hearts so much that it leads us to take the Great Commission seriously? Do we love God so much that it pains us that there are people in this world who don’t know Him and aren’t worshiping Him properly? Spurgeon says it like this… I love this quote. It makes me want to run through a wall. “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.” Let’s be a church so committed to God’s Word that we do whatever we can to make sure that everyone around us has a chance to hear it. Like the sower, let’s spread the Word of God generously and trust God with the outcome. Spread it generously.

And the last step in producing a heart that has good soil is to enjoy God’s Word. Enjoy God’s Word. In verse 1 of Chapter 8, the text says that Jesus went about spreading what? The good news of the kingdom of God. As Christians, we must realize that God’s Word is always good news to be enjoyed. But we shouldn’t enjoy the Bible out of a desire for mere knowledge. We should enjoy the Bible because of who it is pointing to. In John 5:39, as Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for their legalistic rule following, He tells them this… this is so important. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me.” The point of the Bible is not the words. The point of the Bible is who it points to: Jesus. So, when I say that we should enjoy God’s Word, I’m not talking about having an appreciation for good writing. I’m talking about a person.

In Hebrews, we are told that the Word of God is living and active. In John 1, that we are told that Jesus is what? The Word made flesh who made His home among us. We should be people who love God’s Word because it is a story about a glorious God who has rescued His people from their greatest enemy so that they can be restored to a relationship with Him and dwell in a new creation with Him forever. If you think the Bible is boring; it’s not boring. You’re boring. The Bible is awesome. It’s awesome. The Bible is full of wonder and beauty and majesty because it points to a king who is the most glorious being the world has ever known. Let us be a people who craves God’s Word more than the deer pants for water in the desert.

Let us be a people who deeply delight in God’s Word because we know it is good and profitable for all matters of righteousness. Let us be a people who are moved by a God who is far better than any fictional God we could have created or thought up by ourselves. Let us be a people who enjoy God’s Word. As we close our time today, you might be thinking, Ryan, I hear what you’re saying. The truth is my heart just isn’t there yet. I’ve tried and I’ve tried. I’ve tried listening to the Word. I’ve tried reading the Word. I’ve come to church, and yet my heart just continues to feel cold towards the truth of God’s Word. If that’s you today, I need you to hear the good news that it’s because of Jesus, the Word made flesh who came and lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died and invites us into the victory of His resurrection.

Because of Jesus, you have a brand-new opportunity today to hear God’s Word and respond. His loving persistence can break through your stubborn concrete heart. He can bury His Word deep in your shallow heart. He can become so precious to you that all of the things of this world grow strangely dim. He can do that for you. This can be true of you if you stop merely listening to God’s Word and you begin to truly receive it in your own heart. When Jesus teaches the parable of the sower, He isn’t issuing a final sentence that is unchangeable. Out of love, He is issuing a warning to the crowd and to you today. For those following Him, Jesus tells the crowds this parable so that they could come to terms with where they are and repent of their ways and receive God’s grace. Would you accept that invitation this morning?

For the first time in your life, would you allow the Word of God not to bounce off of your heart, but to actually settle and take root and to receive it? And for those of you here who have heard, and you do believe, here’s my question. Connected to my story at the beginning, have you allowed the truth of God to sink into every fiber of your being? Have you allowed it to grow roots beyond the depths that you’ve gotten to in your own life? If not, today is a great day to experience the love of God more deeply than you ever have before.

Church, let’s pray: Jesus, thank You for this day, and God thank You for Your Word. God, You tell us in Isaiah that, like the rain, God, your Word will go forth and it will bring forth fruit. It is effective. It cannot fail because it is Your Word. God, I pray today, God, amongst this audience, those watching online, God, there are different kinds of soils hearing the Word of God today. God, for anyone who’s hearing this, God, anyone who’s listening to Your Word right now, God, would You produce good soil that receives the Word today? God, we are desperate for You. We need You. God, take root in our lives. Go deeper than we have before. We love You. We thank You and we praise You. In Your name I pray. Amen.

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.