How Do you Listen?

Introduction

I. Ever wondered, Why do some believe the Gospel & others don’t?

ALSO, why do some Christians seem to grow spiritually more than others?

Is there a problem with the Messiah?

Is there a problem with the Message?

Is there a problem with the preacher?

Could be… but not necessarily

Is there a problem with the Bible?

Jesus answers this question in this parable…

II. Focus for this message

Why do some believe, and others don’t?

Why do some grow more than others?

How can you make sure you don’t miss out?

The Story of the Soils (1-9)

Farmers would hire sowers, to “broadcast” the seed in the field.

The seeds would land on different types of ground and soil.

Rocky- Hard Soil

Walkways for people to walk through the crop fields

Seed cannot get down into the ground and grow.

Ate up by the birds and trampled down and crushed under feet.

Shallow-Tricky Soil

Seed gets down in the ground, but has a thin rock layer hidden under the surface

Grows FAST, even tricks the farmer

No moisture, no root. Scorched and withers.

Thorny-Competitive Soil

Seed grows, but it has too much competition

Thorns, weeds, briars compete and win out for the nourishment.

Good-Fruitful Soil

Deep, rich soil

Typical crops some estimate maybe 7x yield was intense. Jesus was being very exaggerative to make His point about how good this soil was. “Better than anything you could imagine.”

The Curse & Blessing of the Parables (10-17)

The Parable Explained (18-23)

Principle: The reason for different responses is because of the condition of the heart of the listener.

The condition of the listener’s heart will determine the level of understanding & application of the Truth presented.

Sower = presenter of truth

Seed= the Truth of God (Gospel, any Truth from God, etc.)

Soils= Heart (spiritually) of the Listener

Types of Responses to Hearing the Truth of God

Hard Heart

Hardened, ignores truth. Calloused maybe

Satan even works actively to take away on this kind of heart

Mark & Luke say “Devil” and “Satan”

They hear, then ignore. What they may have started to understand, but ignore, gets taken away.

They don’t use it… they lose it.

Christians:

they hear truth, sermon-book-class, etc. Then they say, “not for me today.” “I don’t understand but not that important.” “I know what I need to do, but I’ll work on that later on...”

Sin may have lead to calluses of the heart for the Disciple. They begin to seem more distant from God. God seems to not speak clearly anymore.

Shallow Heart

Responds very quickly to the Truth; But when the ‘heat’ is on, they fade away.

Ever wondered how this can happen?

Someone receives Gospel as if on the spot! They are so on fire and passionate you might want to lock them up for a few days until they calm down… fast forward a month, 3, maybe 6 if lucky… They are gone!

no church, no spiritual life it seems, maybe even back to the old ways (or more). What happened?

They had a purely emotional response, not a real one.

They thought it sounded great! but when they got back to reality and counted the cost… it was too high of a price to pay to follow Jesus.

Christians:

Respond quick to the truth read or heard… but it doesn’t actually sink in.

Too emotional with how they treat the Truths of God. They don’t truly let it sink into their brain.

Shallow Christians may be Christians, but they are dangerous. To themselves and others around them.

They obey a little here and there… but never seem to grow up much and seem to always try and hide in the world so they don’t have their boat rocked too much.

They bear no real fruit though.

Distracted Heart

Too much competition in this heart

cares too much about the things the world offers

Note Jesus said thought it’s “tricked-deceived”

GK: “Falls into a pit-trap”

not by accident, but by willful neglect of walking the paths they knew they should be. Tricked into following a false path that appealed to them.

Truth sounds good, they may show a positive response to the Gospel. However, they end up caring too much about what the world can offer. They fade away as the competition beats out the truth in their heart.

Christians: