Prepare Your Heart
Notes
Transcript
Celebrate Answered Prayer
Celebrate Answered Prayer
REWIND CHRISTMAS RECAP
RESURRECTION — WIND WAVES — TODAY A PARABLE — NEXT WEEK HIS BIRTH
Jesus had several PARABLES that He told to get people to understand what following Him was supposed to look like. Think of this as the ancient version of a movie. Taking them on a journey to learn something deeper than the story itself.
This picks up immediately before last weeks message. He is teaching people by the sea, the very one that a few moments later He would calm.
1 Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, 3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. 8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”
This story is all about God’s word going out, and the condition of the heart that hears it. And the condition of the heart determines the effectiveness of the Word. You see there is what God can do, and what our lives allow Him to do.
DID YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A HEART CONDITION? Look at your neighbor and tell them you have a heart condition...
How is your heart today? Because the condition of your heart matters when it comes to God’s work in your life. So many of us want to see God move, what to see God’s purpose in our lives but we pay no attention to our heart.
9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
What a positive outlook for your Sunday morning. Look at your neighbor and tell them… you got a wicked heart.
Now when we are talking about the heart, obviously we are not scientifically talking about the organ. Your heart keeps you alive, it’s what makes you you. But here we are talking about the real you. The you when no one is looking. The gut reaction version of you. The instinct version of you. The thoughts that you have that sometimes make you go “wow i can’t believe I thought that”. Like the real you. The you that sometimes makes you do things you never would. The feelings you have that drive you. That’s the heart.
And the condition of your heart matters. Because if you do not keep your heart in check. If you do not work on your heart, your life will never run after the things of god it will always chase feelings. What feel right. What the world says is right. What causes you to be happy. And your heart is never stagnant. It’s ether inclining or declining.
Here’s what psalms 119:36 says:
36 Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
Incline my heart to the things you have done. incline my heart to who you are.
Now because he says “Incline” that must mean that the natural state of your heart is to Recline. Without any effort your heart will enter a reclined state. And when your heart is in the Lay-Z-Boy Recline mode it causes your heart to Decline. And when your heart is on the decline you feel distant from God. You stop caring about the things of God. You stop seeing God work and move in your life. And it’s slow and over time.
Now don’t get me wrong. God has never needed and will never need your permission to do anything. But He allows us the option of opening ourselves up to what He can do, or closing ourselves off.
At the core of the story are these two things: FAITH & WORKS
Faith to believe God for what only He can do. And the work that I am able to do. And these words seem to be opposites. They seem to fight against each other. But in reality they are meant to work together.
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
In fact just before this he says show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith because of my works. He says the only response to faith… is works. And my works build my faith. And as my faith grows my works grow. They are meant to go hand in hand.
BUT PEOPLE USUALLY FALL INTO ONE OF TWO CAMPS
FAITH PEOPLE
Believe that just let go and let God. Sit back. God is sovereign he is in control, there is nothing you can or should do. Sit back and let God do everything. My marriage is falling apart just have faith. No action just faith. My bank account is low, name it and claim it just have faith God is going to fill it, but no looking at indeed for something thats for sure. I have addiction issues have faith that God is going to remove it meanwhile you do nothing to get rid of it. Faith people believe in a big God that can do anything but believe they have absolutely no part to play and never live their lives like they actually have a big God. And in that way they never really see God move in their life because they may be called like Abram “Go to the land I will show you” but they don’t move. God will just bring it to me. This is a faith that believes ABOUT Jesus but not IN Jesus. Even the demons believe and tremble belief isn’t enough.
WORKS PEOPLE
It’s up to me. I have to do it all. God is not going to love me unless I am perfect. Works people will pursue things that God doesn’t want for them all in the name of works. Those things may not be inherently bad but it’s not God’s best. They consult God on almost nothing they just go go go. No faith in a big God just everything is up to me. these people don’t see God move or work much in their lives either. Think again to Abram being told “Go to the land I will show you” works people don’t even have to be told they just go right now to wherever they decide God would want them to go and then they ask God to bless what they have already done rather than doing what God wanted them to do.
IT’S MEANT TO BE BOTH.
Because of my faith… I work. My works my fruit prove my faith.
And so this get’s us back to Jesus’ parable. You see each one of these 4 sections of the story have the same ingredients just in different conditions.
14 The sower sows the word.
So He clarifies the sower God is sending out God’s word
15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.
Now think of a path. Like in a wooded trail. It’s been walked over so many times nothing grows there. This is where someone who doesn’t know Jesus and is completely closed off is. This can also be a believer who has closed themselves off. Usually because of unmet expectations. God can send the word out. Want to move. Want to work. Have a purpose and a plan. But because the heart is reclined, declined, satan is able to distract and make sure that word never takes root. There is no progress. There is no growth because the heart is completely closed off to him.
16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The rocky soil it says is someone who hears the word, they are excited about what God wants to do, they sit in a Sunday sermon just like this one but as soon as persecution comes because of the word they fall away. As soon as the change God wants them to make causes others to doubt them. Make fun of them. As soon as the word causes them to need to change and be different they fall away.
And then the next one has thorns and it says the worries of this age, wealth and desires for other things. This is the believer who hears God’s word but the world has their attention. Did God really say? Come on you can’t give up that addiction it makes you happy. You can’t trust God with your money cause you can’t spend it on this and this. And it says it chokes out God’s word in their lives. Because their heart is so full of desires for other things God’s word never takes root in their lives. But then we get to the last heart condition:
20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
COME ON THIS IS THE HEART I WANT. THIS IS THE HEART YOU NEED.
Good soil. Good ground. This is someone who desires God more than anything else. Someone who is hungry to see God move. Someone who’s heart is inclined to what God has to say. Who is seeking Him. Who is prepared for when God is ready to move.
This is the person you need to be and the church we need to be.
And soil has to be worked. Left on it’s own, just like your heart, weeds will grow, soil will become infertile. It has to be worked.
Now I used to be a good ole Luke Bryan Country Boy. I grew up in a place with less than 1,500 people. Nursery capital of the world here in Tennessee. Farms everywhere. There were no stoplights, no gas stations no grocery stores. You were 20 minutes away from the closest store. They just got a dollar general though so things are looking up. But there was a farm right next door to our house. And the soil has to be worked. It has to be tilled to prepare it for the harvest. For what needs to take root. So much work went into just preparing the soil.
We have to work and prepare our hearts daily for what God want’s to do. HOW DO WE PREPARE?
FAITH & WORKS.
I believe that God want’s to move in my life. I believe that God has a plan for me. I have faith that God has a purpose for my life. So I prove my faith by working. By tilling the soil of my heart. I believe God want’s to speak to me so Im praying daily. I believe God’s word is powerful so Im in the Bible daily. I believe God want’s to build His church so who can I invite. Im gonna make sure everyone I run into knows they have a place in my church saved for them. I know God want’s to move His church forward so I give generously. I have faith that God want’s to use me so when the Holy Spirit prompts me to share his word, to invite, to change, to lead, to pray I move and I act.
As I have faith, I till the soil of my heart, God sends the word and the harvest is so much more than I could imagine.
NOW MORE THAN EVER WE NEED TO WORK THE HEART OF THIS CHURCH.
I want to celebrate again what God did this week. For a year and a half we tried finding a new location and nothing came through. And then Ridenour closed and we needed to find a place in a week that we hadn’t been able to find in 18 months, in 76 weeks. And do you remember what we did? We got on our knees. We tilled the soil. We said God we have faith that you have a plan, that you want to build your church, so we are praying, we are asking, our faith is moving us to work.
We can’t just be a church that tills the soil when when there is something immediate we have to keep this soil ready for whenever God wants to pour something out.
We believe God wants his church to grow so we sign up to serve. We believe God wants a home for his church so we give generously.
We need a soil rich church full of soil rich people because our church will only be as strong as you are strong.
There is a dying broken hungry world that needs believers who are working the soil of their hearts and working the soil of this church.
COME ON CHURCH WE ARE NOT HERE TO JUST BE ANOTHER CHURCH WE ARE HERE TO BE A MOVE OF GOD.
And God promises that He is working the hearts of those that don’t know Him but we have to be ready for the harvest.
2 He told them, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Middle Tennessee is ready and the soil has been worked by a God that sent his own son, and it’s time for us to head out into the harvest.