Let's Go: "Hearing Well"
Mark 4:24 ESV
And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
Reading Parables
Mark 4:10–12 ESV
And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”
1. Know the One Point.
2. Find what’s alarming.
3. Understand the author’s purpose.
1 Corinthians 3:7 ESV
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
4 Responses to the Delivered Word
1. Professing not Producing (Mark 4:4, 15)
2. Premature Passion (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17)
Luke 14:27–28 ESV
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
3. Prevented by Paralysis (Mark 4:7, 18-19)
James 4:4 ESV
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
4. Producers (Mark 4:8, 20)
Hebrews 3:7–8 ESV
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Romans 10:17 ESV
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
John 8:47 ESV
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
John 10:27 ESV
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
James 1:19–27 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 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. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
John 8:12 ESV
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
4 Ways to Prepare the Soil of Our Hearts
1. Saturday Night
2. Sunday Morning
3. Prayer
4. Bible
4 Questions to Cultivate Good Soil in Others (Mark 4:21-25)
1. Who did I pray for today?
2. Who have I ate with this week?
3. Who have I served this month?
4. Who have I shared The Story with recently?
Mark 4:24 ESV
And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.