How's your heart?

Introduction

Week 5 of our series in Mark. We’ve seen the humility it takes to follow Christ, the work He does and that we are apart of, and today we are going to examine our own hearts in light of Christ.

Written by John mark who is mentioned in Acts, the one that Paul and Barnabas separated over. They were the first two missionaries.

Believed to be a written record from Peters memory. Written around AD 50-60 AD to Roman/Gentile believers and portrays Christ as the suffering Servant.

Last week we saw in chapter 3 the difference between following a religion and following Jesus.

The problem with religion is that it makes a person like a container full of muddy water.

Sure, it’s a bottle with water in it but it’s muddy water. And even if I pour the water out, I’m going to have some mud left in there to clean up.

I can’t just pour more water in, becuase then the mud stays.

It is better for a person to have no religious background and receive truth becuase then there is no mud to clean up.

Today we arre going to look at our Jesus described a similar situation regarding our hearts.

We encoiunter Jesus in Chapter 4 giving a parable to a group of people. A parable is a story that teaches a biblical truth.

If you are a person that has grown up in church you are probably very familiar with this passage. If you are here and have never heard it before, buckle up. Today is an opportunity for you, and all of us, to hear from Jesus a description of our hearts. We must decide which condition ours is in and respond appropriately.

The title of the message is my question to you this morning, how’s your heart?

Not the physical organ in your body. The essence that makes you, you. How is that? How is that in relation to God? To Jesus? To the Holy Spirit?

We have 4 conditinos of the heart given here today. Follow along with me and lets hear Jesus describe our hearts.

Mark 4:1-9 “1 And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. 2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, 3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: 6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. 9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

OK, So he tells this parable of the sower and then gets alone with the twelve apostles and they asked about it.

So he goes on to describe it without the word pictures.

Mark 4:13-15 “13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? 14 The sower soweth the word. 15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.”

Exegete:

Ok, now that we have heard the whole parable we arrer going to break it down like this.

Here is Jesus telling them whats going on in the story.

The sower is often referred to as Jesus who is there preaching the gospel and the coming kingdom of God. That’s true. It is also true that the sower is anyone that is spreading the message of the gospel.

Then in verse 15 we get the description of the first heart. Those that hear the word but once satan comes, it’s gone.

Exegete:

The easiest way I can describe this to you and illustrate what’s happening here is men. Men do this so often I believe it’s apart of cultural studies at the collegiate level.

Men don’t listen. Right ladies?

How many times have you told him to pick something up and he forgot? Fix something and it takes 6 months.

Or if you were just talking and he is giving you the courtesty “uh huh” “yup” and he has no clue what you are saying.

Men hear but we don’t listen.

Apply:

Now, that could really happen to anyone. I’m sure some of you ladies have had times in life where you’ve heard and not listened. Teenageers, you’ve never done this I’m sure.

When this happens to us it’s almost as though the words bounce right off us not even entering the ear canal to comprehend what was said.

Why? We are ignoring what’s right in front of us. We are dismissing it as less important than something else around us.

The Gospel can’t be important to you until you understand how important you are to the gospel

As long as you deem the gospel and the word of God as unimportant, it won’t impact you at all. As soon as tempatation comes or another word or false gospel, you are swept away with it.

People deem the gospel and the word unimportant becuase they believe there are better answers found in the world.

If that’s you today, if you are sitting here and think you know better the the Word because of science or some other religion, I challenege you to come talk with me about it. Let’s review facts, let’s speak with reason, and see if the claims of scripture are not only plausible but true.

Until your willing to see the value God places on you and not only hear the message of the gospel but listen to the Word and to the reasoning behind the faith of the Bible, you will always have a hardened heart.

I. The Hardened Heart Refuses the Word

Men usually soften up and realize they weren’t listening. They apologize and give you their full attention.

Be like that man today. Soften your heart, stop refusing the Word.

Jesus goes on

Mark 4:16-17 “16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.”

Exegete:

Now we have stony ground. Remember, the first one is hard and flat. The word just bounces off. Now there are stones. The seed sinks in a bit. It’s received and they are happy to have it. However, the roots are not grounded in anything. So when something comes their way, they forsake the gospel or the word.

When someone looks at them differently, when someone persecutes them and threatens their life, when there is a price to be paid for their faith. When they have to sacrifice time, talent, or treasurres. There is no solid root system to keep them connected.

This often happens through reasoning

Illustrate:

Have you ever watched the show hoarders? If you are here today and are a hoarder, I don’t mean to offend but I’d love to talk to you about getting that cleaned up.

I know your kids don’t have this problem but my kids like to leave things around the house and their room. We mentioned they woudl end up like hoarders and they didn’t know what we were talking about.

So…wee turned on an episode.

it’s sad to see the conditions of the homes of those that are hoarders. not only that, the food that would be found in the fridge, nasty.

One episode had a man named Bill in it. Bill lived with his partner…patty maybe or something like that and their daughter who was an adult.

The daughter had her own room and it looked nothinng like the rest of the house. He had a stack of magazines and boxes of stuff on evry step of the tiny staircase in their home. He had filled up an extra apartmeent they had which could be rrented out.

The partner and daughter had said enough. Either get rid of it or get out. So here comes the hoarders tv show crew.

The therapist is working witht hem to clean this out in 3 days. The first day it took 4-6 hours to go through one box.

They kept telling him you don’t need this, or asking, why do you need this magazine from 1996, and there would be one piece of information in there that he may one day use.

Theey reminded him, get rid of it orr get out and he keept arguing with them about it.

His heart was rocky towards what they were saying to him.

He heard them, he recceived it and agreed something needed ot happen…but the moment it came time to execute, he argued and reasoned his way away from it.

Apply:

When your heart is rocky, you are like Bill. You hear the gospel, the good news about the death burial and resurrection of Christ, you recieeve it believeing it or at least believing it could be true, and then when it comes time to live it…you make excuses, you argue, and then the root is pulled up easily.

Have you ever seen how grass or weeds grow in rocks?

I lived in AZ and we used to rake our rock and pull the weeds in it.

Root was just intertwined between the rocks and not attached to anything. Very easy to pull up

Is that your faith? Is that how deep the roots of the gospel aree in your heart?

easily pulled up when any challenge comes?

II. The Rocky Heart Reasons with the Word

The word has no root. The truth of the gospel, the love of Jesus, have no root in your life. They are not firmly attached so you reason why you shouldn’t live a life for God. You reason why you shouldn’t dedicate your time, talents, and treasures to the Lord.

The rocky heart has an excuse for everything.

Jesus went on describing the Parable to them

Mark 4:18-19 “18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”

Exegete:

When the seed falls in thorns nd weeds it can take root. It can get a foundation and even begin to grow. However, the weeds and thorns eventually keep it from being able to spring up with life becuase they draw out the water needed to grow, they grow over top and block the sun light.

Jesus says this is the Christian, this is the beliveer, the one who has trusted in Jesus as their savior, but allows the lust of the flesh, the lust of thee eyes, and the pride of life to keep them from following Jesus. They are distracted.

We live in the distracted age now don’t we?

Illustrate:

In 2019, The Guardian reported that “the information age has changed the general attention span. A recently published study from researchers at the Technical University of Denmark suggests the collective global attention span is narrowing due to the amount of information that is presented to the public.” It said the findings, published in Nature Communications, indicate “people now have more things to focus on — but often focus on things for short periods of time.”

It’ said that during an 8 hour period you will be distracted 60 times.

There is so much marketing going on to grab our attention. Teenagers you’ve got social media crammed in your face constantly watching and listening to only sound bites.

You know how long wee tell business owners they have to grab attention on tiktok or insta reels?

3 seconds, if you don’t grab the attention of the view in 3 seconds, they aren’t watching the rest of your video and they will swipe on.

Let’s take this to a little bigger picturre.

Ever watched the tv show, the jeffersons? Remmebere the song? Moving on up, to the top, a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Or the saying, keeping up with the Joneses?

Maybe a Dave Ramsey quote

“You buy sstuff you don’t need ot imprreess people you don’t like”

Why? Why do we do these thing? Becasue we allow ourselves to be distracted by what Jesus spoke about 2k years ago.

Apply:

Listen…Listen close, the problems we face today are not new problems to humankind. They just look different.

People were trying to get rich with side hustles when Jesus walked the earth.

People were worried about the political systems, wars and rumors of wars, and banks in Jesus’ day,

People were lusting and coveting after the life or lifestyle their neighbor lives in Jesus’ day.

The problems you face are no different than the Jews of old or the New Testament Christians of the 1st Century.

They had businesses that they had to run, jobs they had to work in, families to support, schedules to keep, food to prrepare, kids to raise, and everything you have.

They had to make the same choice you have to make.

Is the Gospel, is the Word of God, is God Himself more important than the things around me or is he not?

Jesus said “No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he be devoted to one and despise the other.”

III. The Thorny Heart Disregards the Word

You have it, you know what is right and you choose not to do it.

Is that where your heart is today? You know Jesus but your life doesn’t look like it? You know the truth but choose to neglect service to the Lord with your life?

If you find your heart in the condition of any of these three, I encourage you and emplore you to consider how you can move your heart to this last condition.

Mark 4:20 “20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”

Exegete:

This is the good soft soil. This is that early spring soil that is wet and fertile. Rready to recieeve the word.

This heart brings forth fruit. THis heart is living a faithful life to the Lord.

Apply:

How do we get this heart though?

How do we prevent our hearts from being so hard they refuse the word?

How do we prevent our hearts from being rocky and reason away the word?

How do we prevent our hearts form being thorny and disregarding the word?

Intentionally lliving for the Lord.

Jesus living intentionally in you makes it possible for you to live intentionally for Jesus.

Let’s put the jelly on the bottom shelf.

It’s waking up and daily committing yourself to the Lord. It doesn’t have to be the same every day, it doesn’t have to look like someone elses daily routine of commitment, but it needs to happen.

Say a prayer, write a poem, listen to a worship song, whatever it looks like for you, do somthing to commit your heart to the Lord.

Acknowledging His existence daily will soften your heart to the truth of His Word and create space in your life for you to live it out.

I believe this is how we have our hearts like the good soil.

IV. The Good Heart Receives and Reproduces the Word

With a good heart as described by Jesus, we take in what is said by faith and live it out, resulting in fruit being produces thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.

I close this morning asking the question that iis the title of thi message.

How is your heart?

Time of Response

Is your heart hardned adn your refusuing the Word?

Is your heart rocky and you reason away why you should follow Jesus?

Is your heart thorny and distracted by everything going on around you?

If you had to decide one step to take to soften your heart, what would that step be?

Whatever answer just came to your mind, will you do it?

Will you commit that to Jesus now?

I don’t know about you btu I want a heart like the good soil, humble, receptive, and reproducing.