Latest / The Daily Word / April 26 – How You Hear Matters
Transcript
- Brandon Dirmann: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whenever and wherever you are listening to this from, welcome to another episode of the Daily Word podcast. My name is Brandon, and as a part of our pastoral team, I am thrilled to have you joining us today as we're taking time every single day to go to the scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us freshly and give us ⁓ practical. wisdom and understanding and insight and help us little by little become more of who God's called us to be so we can fully fulfill all that God's called us to do. The purpose of this podcast simply is to number one, encourage you. So I'm praying you're encouraged today. The things I share, they do bring encouragement and sharpening to your walk with God. But also the purpose of this podcast is to remind you that you have the ability to spend time with God for yourself. And I'm praying that that is a result of this podcast. in your life. We are in this podcast using the Life Journal reading plan. It's the reading plan that we have for our church that we use to unify us and to keep us moving in the same direction together. And we're simply taking the New Testament portion of this reading plan and each day sharing from it to accomplish those two things, to be an encouragement and also to remind you to go get in the scripture for yourself. Today's reading plan being April the 26th is Matthew chapter 13. I want to read to you a passage today from Matthew chapter 13. It's verses 18 through 23 and it is the parable of the sower explained. So Jesus, he tells a parable and his disciples afterwards are like, hey, that was an awesome sermon. Question though, do you think you could maybe explain it to us? Which even in that, to be honest, I get a lot of encouragement from because I think that there's something to be said about reading the scripture and going, ⁓ that's not making sense to me. And going back to the Holy Spirit to go, Holy Spirit, will you help me understand that? Holy Spirit, will you give? Jesus said in John 14, 15 and 16, it's better that he goes away because he's going to send the spirit and the spirit will be with us in the same way he was with his disciples. So if the disciples could go, go backwards and say, Jesus, we didn't, we didn't understand, explain it. we most certainly can go backwards and go, Holy spirit, I read this passage, it didn't make sense to me, but it stuck out. So would you explain it and help me to understanding? So I love that. But he tells a parable and they're like, we didn't get that one, explain it to us. So his explanation is this in verse 18. He says, therefore hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet doesn't have any root in himself but endures only for a while. And so when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received the seed among thorns is he who hears the word, And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word out and it becomes unfruitful. But he who received the seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some 60 and some 30. Here is this parable and the observation from it. Number one, that only one out of four people who received the word of God saw it produce or yield fruitfulness in their life. Well, man, that's something we should like actually pay attention to and consider because we know and I'm making an assumption here. So if you don't know this, then you're knowing it by me saying it. But we know that the word of God is like seed. God likens his kingdom to a farm or rather Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a farm and the word of God is seed. It's seed that gets planted in our heart. Seed that gets planted in our life. Seed that has to be cultivated. ⁓ Cultivation takes time and often results don't happen overnight and so there's a faithfulness component to that and with that being understood he goes, guys, the seed in this parable, it's the word. So if you want things to grow, you got to get the word in you. Romans 10 and 17 would say this way, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. So my faith and my maturity spiritually, it comes through faithful cultivation of God's word in my heart. But here's what he says, he goes, but there's four guys and out of the four guys, only one of them actually sees fruitfulness come to pass in their life. which immediately makes me pay attention and go, hold on for a second. I might be hearing the word of God, but it doesn't mean fruitfulness is happening in my life. I might be hearing the word of God, but it doesn't mean I'm spiritually maturing or growing. So I gotta pay attention to how I hear, not just that I hear, but how I hear the word. And very quickly, he says the first guy, he hears it, but it's in one ear out the other. That's a very simplistic way to say it. but he hears it it's in one ear out there. He doesn't really understand, not really pay attention. His mom made him go to church essentially and in one ear out the other, he heard it but he did nothing. It's on the way side. He said the second person they hear it and they're like, ⁓ man, that was so good. He was so inspiring. ⁓ my gosh, it's amazing. But they're shallow. And so what happens is for the word's sake, the enemy will bring persecution. ⁓ difficulty, hard times, and when life starts to squeeze they go, aww, well I guess that really isn't true, I guess it really doesn't apply, and they quickly give it up. That's the one that's on stony ground. So the one on the wayside, here's the one here at the other, one stony ground, I heard it, it was exciting, ⁓ but then it got difficult and so I gave up on it. The third one he says it's the one who He's so entangled with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that he's hearing the word and he's holding on to the word. But the word gets choked out because again, I shared this a couple days ago. You cannot serve two masters. So it gets choked out because the word of God it's it's it's it's it's in competition if you will. But the one who who hears it and there's fruitfulness. the one who hears what Jesus says, he hears it, understands it. Mark chapter 4 I think says he hears it and he takes heed to it. ⁓ Luke chapter 6 would say it this way, he hears the word and he does it, he applies it to his life. Jesus would say this, that not blessed are those who hear but blessed are those who are doers of the word. And so my observation is that yes, the word of God is like seed, but if I don't hear it or allow it to hit the soil of my heart appropriately, then it won't yield anything in my life. Maybe this is why Ezra chapter seven, verse 10 says that Ezra prepared his heart. ⁓ what a thought. Prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. So we have to have a heart that's prepared to seek God's word, to receive it diligently. and then to hold it tightly and to take heed to it without competing with anything else. And so my application for my life, but my encouragement to you is that we would be that fourth person that we really would. We would hear God's word with intentionality and diligence. We wouldn't be distracted. No, we'd lean in and engage when we're in church and the word of God's being preached. We wake up every day and we lead into the scripture and let God speak to us a minute. and we would take that word and not just let it sit there, but we would hold it tightly and apply it to our life. For as we apply God's word to our life, and as we do what God's word is telling us, the Bible says that we'll be blessed here in Luke or Matthew 10 or Matthew 13, 23, my apologies, that you'll bear fruit. When we take heed to God's word and we do, we'll bear fruit. I want my life to be fruitful in the things of God. And therefore I have to be like that fourth person who hears the Word of God, allows it to find good place in my heart, applies it to my life, and allows fruitfulness to come 30, 60, and 100-fold. That's the life I want to live, and I'm believing that's the life you want to live, and God wants you to live. So again, I hope today you were encouraged and you were blessed by God's Word. Lord Jesus, help us to apply these things to our life and to leave here today. not just being hearers, but being doers of your word in Jesus name, amen and amen. Hey, thank you again for joining us. Don't forget, like, subscribe, share, comment, share this with somebody today and help us get the word out. And so tomorrow we have maybe, maybe one more, maybe a thousand more listeners here on the daily word podcast. Can't wait for tomorrow. We'll see you again and I'll see you then.