MK040 Sermons
Vital Signs of a Healthy Heart (Audio)
and talking about all those financial things and whether you should vote to go ahead and I couldn't believe it. Now part of the not believing it is that John's on sabbatical and you guys just took the reins and surprised him with a decision by the time he got back. How do you do that? You go away and you come back and you have a new place. Well, I guess the new place didn't really happen right away but this is awesome. I imagine you're disappointed in some respects of not having to set up every Sunday but that was also impressive to me. I remember coming here and seeing how you brought everything out. You had everything just precisely and ever. I just can't believe it and now I start wandering around the building here. I went across the way. Does it look like it's quite completed yet? Do I have that right? I just thought maybe it would be a new style knowing you guys. It could be just about anything but we are delighted to be here. Now I do have a question though. Is Amanda here? She's going on this trip she could be away today but I have no idea how to say her last name E-N-C-K. Hank? Hank? You got to I should have her stand up because you got to get this kind of Hank. Okay, I don't want to make fun of her name. I just want to be able to say it and bring it before the Lord. It's great to see these individuals taking off going down to Haiti. That will be an awesome time I'm sure as God will be at work in your lives. Yeah, this is good. Well, take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. How many of you have more than one or two Bibles in your home? How many? Let me see. More than one or two. Okay, how about more than three? More than four? Five? Six? Seven? Are you counting all your iphones? You know, with all the things on it? Don't forget those. Isn't it amazing how many Bibles we have? And if you don't even have enough they've got something they're giving away here this morning too. Just feel free to take them home, add them to your collection. Is that the way these work? Not sure. No, it's great. If you don't have one though you should have one this morning. That's part of the freedom we enjoy in this country. Really to have a Bible. That sounds rather strange but my wife and I were on a trip and we were at a book bindery and they were talking about the history of books and we were asking them about Bibles and they mentioned to us that basically up until about the 17th century even later, 18th century people didn't have them. They might have one in a town, one Bible because they were so expensive to make. And here we are having how many are represented in this room and the freedom not only to have them but then to use them. In some countries they actually experienced persecution if they're found with the Bible. And that's today. How can that be? But we should delight in the freedom that we have. Well we're going to be reading this text in Matthew here and Matthew chapter 13 and it really has some very interesting things but keep in mind as we're moving through this, we're going to be talking about a heart condition. It's amazing to me that as we begin to come to this text we've seen that Jesus has healed people, Jesus has spoken, Jesus has done some amazing miracles and then the Pharisees of all things say show us a sign. And Jesus, well, he responds by saying let me tell you some stories. The stories are parables and I know that you've been looking at parables but basically Jesus is going to tell this story and right alongside of that story are some truths that we need to get a holdout. That's what basically a parable is. It's a some truth that is thrown alongside of parah and cast alongside there. Well Matthew chapter 13. Let me read the text. It's the parable of soils or the parable, we can look at this here, it's the parable of the sower. It's either the parable of the seed, it's the parable of the souls. Soil soils, this particular parable has many names and I think many times they just do this in relationship to the emphasis. But I would suggest to you today that we're going to look at the emphasis of the soils which represents our hearts. Well, listen as I would read. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great clouds gathered around him so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach and he told the many things in parable saying sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell along the path. The birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil but when the sun rose they were scorched and since they had no roots they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears let him hear. And then in verse 18 we have Jesus explaining this parable. Now I think that's great because many of the parables you'll read he doesn't explain. It goes through, he teaches them and we're hoping that we gather the truth from that text. And this one? No he's going to tell us and here's what he says. Here then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on the rocky ground this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while and then tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word and immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choked the word and it proves unproofle. As for what was sown on good soil this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold another sixty and another thirty. I want us to think in terms of these four soils this morning and realize that they represent hearts but more specifically I want you to think of it this way. I believe every one of us and any given point in time can have one of these hearts. The description that we find here. In fact I suggest that even throughout this morning together some of you may start off with a hard heart and then God the Spirit begins to work your mind and you might move toward another and maybe even have a good heart by the time the morning is over. Some may start with I came in here God I'm ready I'm worshiping I really want to hear from you today but somewhere along the line you might take on the character of another heart. Maybe it'll be a thorny one or a weedy one or a stony one but I do want you to think in terms of how is my heart this morning. Because it's important that we guard our hearts if we're going to have the kind of heart that is going to bear fruit. So we'll take a look at them one at a time here as we move through this morning. The wayside heart this is the heart where it's the path that it's spoken of in my text this morning is the path but you understand how this works don't you the farming of that particular day they would throw the seed it would be cast like this and it would be spread out. I know I do some of that when I'm planting grass seed you probably have any of ever cast out grassy come on I'm pretty sure. Does it always fall exactly where you want it to fall? No way. In fact it just kind of goes all over the place and then if you have a rain it kind of washes it in one place or the other you're just not quite sure how it's going to fair and whether it's going to grow where you want it to or maybe grow you should see our house we have kind of a hill like this and we planted grass seed up on this one part. I'll tell you we have great lush grass down here hardly anything up there anyway maybe I'm not that good of a grass grower. That's not the issue it's the heart it's the soils that we're going to be looking at this morning this particular one he likens to the one where you throw it out and then the adversary comes and takes it away the hard heart the calloused heart the heart doesn't really embrace and take in the word and you know I think the apostle Paul probably fit this category well when he was Saul of course did it ever occur to you that Saul a Pharisee lived at the same time as Jesus did did that occur to you? Did it ever occur to you that Saul likely was one of those Pharisees standing around listening to the words of Jesus and he wasn't responding well to it I mean actually it didn't that had not occurred to me till much later in my pastoral experience I just kind of separated to well okay here's Jesus and he's walking around in Galilee and he's there in Jerusalem and he's living and yes there were Pharisees that came against him and and they were always questioning and they were always doing this but somehow the apostle Paul or Saul well he lived at another time in another place but he didn't and so I think he would represent very well for us this one that has the hard stony or rather the hard heart that is walked on and though truth had been preached to him and taught to him by Jesus and yet it was not taken in and bore any fruit not at that point much later it was quite different then we have another heart and that's this one the stony soil or rocky soil as other would say it falls out there in the rock the idea of it as you read in different translations and even different texts because this parable is taught in Matthew it's taught in Mark and it's taught in Luke and when you read it you find that it's talking about soil that is very thin where the roost would go down in but they hit this rock ledge and nothing really happens other than it springs up and then I thought I'd bring some of my horticultural work along with me here today doesn't that look beautiful you know what the problem is with this actually this pot was sitting outside her house and I don't know how that a walnut ended up in this pot and the acorn ended up in this pot but it did and one day we come out and we see these plants starting to grow you can actually see the walnut had cracked open and the roots were going down and this plant was coming up I thought that is so cool so we continued to watch it and watered it every once in a while and as you can see not very often once in a while right but the real problem with this is is shallow soil and it's not getting the nutrients that it needs I had actually thought I knew that you know it's not going to make it in that pot very long so about three weeks ago I said to self you know I really should transplant that out if we want to see and watch this thing grow that was three weeks ago I'm wondering maybe it's a little too late what do you think I don't know we'll find out when I get home and plant it sometime in the next three weeks so I mean really it's shallow but that can be our hearts too our hearts can be such that we get excited about what we hear in the Word of God the Word of God is priests just proclaim and we respond to it and say oh that is so awesome and God I'm going to live for you and I'm going to go for you and and then as the text says difficulties or struggles or persecution come and all bets are off don't tell me that hasn't happened to you sometime I know it's a long way back but we used to love to go to camp any of go to camp here do that yeah any of you ever go to high point camp there we go that's a little better yeah but I started ministry I had two years there as the camp director so that was kind of fun so I love camp ministry I went there knowing that camp can have an impact on a person's life but because I remember as a teenager young teenager going to camp and I would get so fired up for God I mean I'm going to go home and I'm going to be a witness at school we're going into that public school we're going to see lives change and I'm going to carry my Bible and I'm going to talk to them and how long did that last come on how long do you think week two weeks three weeks what do you think a week I was much better two weeks two weeks at least you know and and and a couple years it would happen each year I mean what is that I hear the word of God and be excited about what was going on and I'm going to have my devotions every day well that maybe didn't last two weeks but I was going to try to do this and pray oh yeah yeah we're going to have a prayer I'm going to go home and I'm going to pray an hour a day well that was the first day and you know I prayed for that whole hour and then ten minutes passed yeah it really it was crazy but I really was excited and I mean I really had true intentions but when yes when the persecution and the time and the stress and the struggles and this kind of stuff that was being said at school and what they were calling us you know it stopped and I think all of us have that potential of being excited about what the word of God has said and teaches but then life happens difficulties take place and we back off and we will and we die or at least that intention dies pastors well know that week after week we proclaim the word of God and people get excited and they'll even meet you at the door that message is changing my life and that can be true and I hope it is true that our lives continue to grow and are transformed and by the way apparently somewhere along the line it was on good soil because I'm even here speaking today and God's word did have that impact but there's another soil that I'm even more concerned about and this is one that I think is ever so present in our day and in our church and in my life and that is this weedy soil this cluttered heart this heart where when God's word is preached and then weeds begin the cares of this world begin to come in and press so much so that God's word just doesn't have fruitfulness. It can begin to be fruitful but then it just doesn't think of it this way have you ever had the experience of picking up your Bible reading it going down through the text your eyes going down through but at the very end when you're finished reading you realize you don't remember a thing that was set that was written. Do you ever have that experience? What were you thinking about during that time? I mean you started by oh Lord I'm going to read your word and you start down through it two or three verses later you're thinking about what you're going to make for lunch. You're thinking about that relationship with that guy or that gal. You're thinking about a slide in range. Wait a minute you probably weren't thinking about that but I have been I'm telling you I'm finding it really hard to concentrate in reading the word because of all the stuff that's coming in around the outside. Do you know that 1 Corinthians chapter 6 tells us that single is better than being married? Did you know that? I mean you have to have the gift but both take a gift but it actually says that in fact he warns us if you marry you will have trouble. I teach that at every wedding I do, right? No actually I teach that in premarital counseling but in terms of this honestly it does. It says because you're going to have this mixed concern you're going to be desires of really ministering and caring for your wife. You're going to have these cares. I'm married. We're redoing our kitchen and then you know Bond has these ideas about what she wants and we go in and we're looking at these ranges you know the gas stove and we go into the store and she sees these and these and you know this slide in I don't know what that is but she sure does and you know the slide in range goes in and it doesn't have any back on it and as she would put it if you get the other kind it's going to have a back on it like this and it's just going to mess up the way it looks. I mean why am I telling you all this because it's driving me nuts that's why it costs a thousand dollars more for a billion range. Who's going to pay a thousand dollars more? Me? Yeah probably she doesn't know it yet but I just every time we talk about it I just keep quiet and I listen I keep quiet and I listen but I'm going to cave and I'm telling you so here's what happens I'm studying my Bible I'm studying for a message and I'm reading down through here and I'm thinking about these the text and I'm getting into it and all of a sudden I realize I'm thinking about a stupid stove really I am or I'm thinking about some other issue that's going on with my grown kids or maybe my granddaughter or where I'm going to be next week and when is school going to come and oh no August is only a month and a half away and all these kind of things are just pressing in don't you find that happening to you that your mind just kind of goes off when the word of God is being being taught I mean how many of you are thinking about something other than what I'm talking about right now no don't raise your hands because what it happens I know it does I sit in chapel three or four times a week I'm just glad that while they're preaching my mind thoughts aren't being projected up on a screen it would be dangerous you know there's a soil that is a weedy soil meaning the word of God is being preached and taught but the cares of this world in fact it lists them it says the cares of this world will sneak in and drag it away and you can't live in this world without having cares but we must guard our hearts because the truth is there are so many things that can draw our attention away and our culture works against it the consumer culture I mean really you got to have a better car here's what you ought to have a better car you ought to have a nicer car and then you are I mean right now I drove here today and I'm thinking about the message I go by this one place in there it was a motor cycle that looked like man I'd love to have a motor cycle and I mean wait a minute I shouldn't be thinking about that I was just praying I was just thinking come on back so we have this cares the desires and the cares and then it talks about the deceitfulness of riches in the text did you notice that the deceitfulness of riches what that means the basic idea there is that we see riches and somehow we're thinking that's going to make life better more desirable it's deceitful it's lying to us Eve had the deceitfulness of lust it talks about there but the same basic idea here she is in the garden and she hears the adversary saying to her oh but this will make it better for you and how much of our lives is spent with the deceitfulness of riches this will make it better for you and yet most of us have come to realize that as we pursue or would chase after some kind of riches that it doesn't really make it better it distracts us off I had that experience as a pastor a few years back well actually it's quite a few years back now because they've been a BBC or Summit for 15 years but prior to that I passed to the church in Philadelphia area and there was a downturn in the economy believe it or not way back then and so men in our church were finding it difficult to find work and so we started a painting business I mean I started that and I employed the guys in the church and I continued to pastor the church but on Mondays I would go and I would bid jobs and get things ready and on my lunch hours I would run out and do that but what I didn't realize is that my mind and my heart had been drawn away and so that I wasn't studying as much as I used to I wasn't thinking about the ministry as much as I used to and we weren't having the fruitfulness either that we had used to in that ministry and then one day a well-meaning path Deacon took me aside he says "Pastor Don I need to talk to you" he says you know sometimes I don't know if we have a pastor or a painter in our church leading our church Wow what a wake-up call that was and that day I got rid of all that painting equipment done and do that God had called me to be a pastor not a painter but I had allowed those things to creep into my life the cares of the world yes and even the deceitfulness of riches it can happen to any of us and what God intends when the word of God is preached he intends that it would flourish but there are things that can get in the way so guard your heart in fact say this with me I will guard my heart would you do that I will guard my heart maybe you didn't even realize you needed to but when the word of God is preached there are four possibilities that Jesus tells us about one is that we can have a hard heart and we cannot even take it into consideration another is we can get excited about it but it will fizzle out a third is that it'll just get choked out and then of course this last one last one is where I hope we would all live and that is this that it's good soil and it would be responsive to the word of God that it will be fruitful the little have it says in this text a hundred fold sixty four thirties full and in other texts it says thirtyfold sixty fold a hundredfold I mean the point is that there will be fruit that will be growth in our lives because the word of God is true now I do have one other I think you have an outline there so I need to make sure you fill this out but here it is the three different texts actually approach it just a little differently and I wanted you to see this in Matthew it says but he who received the seed on good ground is he who the word and he who hears the word and he understands it now this is significant this doesn't necessarily mean anything to you other than this a transliteration of the Greek word that is used there it's the idea that we understand that we gather it that we embrace it we we get it we understand now it's different in mark in mark chapter four verse twenty says this these are the ones sewn on good ground those who hear the word and accept it and again it's a different word it seems that God in his directing these men to write the text had them give us a different nuance each time they wrote and this case we see this one that accepts it and then in Luke having heard the word with noble and good hearts they keep it and yet another word and again all three of them different words different men writing about the parable of the soils now here's what I want you to notice in Matthew he emphasizes the intellect in mark we emphasize the emotion and in Luke it emphasizes the will I think it's awesome to see how that when God talks about the word of God and we take the scripture as a whole he's saying listen when the word of God is preached it needs to connect with your intellect it needs to connect with your emotion and it needs to connect with your will your whole being it's not just enough to know it it's not just enough to get excited about it and on top of that you need to do something about it that's how the word of God is to be received in your mind through your heart out into life these young people that have the green shirts on listen as you you down and and you work with these kids you're going to get involved with them you're going to be connecting with their minds but and their emotion and encouraging them to act upon the truth of the word of God that they've received and I desire that for each one of us here too that when the word God's word is read when it is preached when it is taught that it's not just a matter sitting down and knowing more or feeling good about what you're hearing and it's not just about doing either it's about all of you embracing and connecting with the truth of God's word for years I think one of the great weaknesses in our churches has been an emphasis on simply knowing the word of God so we sit in Sunday school classes we've set in church services we sit in Sunday morning Sunday school Sunday morning church Sunday evening church Wednesday night church every time you get together you've got to have the word of God you've got to know more got to know more got to know more but it didn't always connect with our hearts and it certainly didn't bring about life transformation that wasn't didn't seem to be the goal the goal seemed to be to know the word of God more the mind and in fact if people start getting excited about it a little bit too much and maybe raise the hand or two you know in their excitement about the word of God it was frowned upon that's not what it's to be we preach that God's word might transform lives intellect emotion and will now these last thoughts here what we called life lessons here's something that is so important to graphs and that is this that God's word does bear fruit when your team goes to Haiti and you proclaim the word of God you can anticipate that it will bear fruit you're going to spread the word yes and some people will hear and it'll be snatched away and some people will get excited and it'll be gone and some people yes Louise is going to grow up but there will be some that are going to respond to that I'm so thankful you're sending this team to Haiti you pray for them and pray that the word of God might fall on good soil yes you'll do that and pray that their hearts are hearts that are good soil hearts and then there's this that you would examine your own heart and I've implied this all the way along this morning but I wonder if we would just now take a have that moment of silence and you were to evaluate your heart how many different conditions existed throughout the morning together where you in and out or is the word of God falling on hearts that have been guarded and prepared and will be fruitful I certainly hope so and then the last one is this we can assist in the heart health of others now we didn't really talk about this but we can be soil preparers in other words we can pray that there will be good soil for it to fall on we can come alongside of someone in times of discouragement in times of trouble in times of difficulty when the Tennessee would be for it to fizzle the Christianity or the decisions they made to fizzle you can come alongside and encourage them on and help them in their Christian experience it's so important to be involved in things like small groups or discipleship groups where we can build into each others lives in a real sense help people have good soil guard your heart just say that with me again guard your heart encourage people and take the word of God and own it in your mind, in your emotion and in your will embrace God's word Paul made this statement in 2 Timothy, he said the scripture is profitable for doctrine for instruction, for reproof, for correction you that know the text know I didn't do it in order but it's important to realize that God's word is what's going to bring about life change so we thank you then for the opportunity of opening up your word hearing it Lord now may the hearing result in doing not just 10% but 30, 40, 60, even a hundredfold for we pray this in Jesus name, amen? 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