The Hardened Heart
Seeds of Change • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 58 viewsA look at how we consider sharing the seeds of the Gospel to those who have hardened hearts.
Notes
Transcript
Seeds of Change: The Hardened Heart
May 3, 2020
Seeds of Change Initiative
Goal is to change our culture (slowly but surely), into one truly reflects what God intended church to be, join him in Great Commission
Expectation of Disciple-Making, sow seeds of faith
Expectation of Missional Living, sow seeds of love
Nurture our commitment to Jesus as Lord, sow seeds of surrender
Become more of risk-taking church, sow seeds of the Gospel
Requires actual doing on our part, why we’re trying to put this into bite size pieces of simply sow a seed, one at time, every week
Reading recently about drastic change our culture has undergone, particularly in regards to information, sheer amount of information that we come across everyday (examples?!)
Problem is information overload, cope by learning to let it just go, move on to next thing - all this learning does us no good unless we take time to thoughtfully, intentionally, put it into practice
Which means, actually sowing seeds…faith, love, surrender, Gospel
Last week, introduced idea of sowing seeds of Gospel, we talked about “why”, gave three reasons of what spurs us to share Gospel
What Jesus has done for us, for sake of others (their lives matter to us), and what it does in us (nourishes us)
Today, want to talk about how, how do we share our faith
Since we’re using image of sowing seeds, look at parable of Jesus about sowing seeds, Matthew 13:1-19 (begin with first part, 1-10)
Prayer / Matthew 13:1-10
Falling on Deaf Ears
*Examples of bad communication
Golden rule of communication: be clear about what you’re trying to say!
Sermon advice: say what you’re doing to talk about it, say it, and tell them what you just said.
And yet Jesus doesn’t do that here - at all!
He simply tells story about farmer sowing seeds
some of seeds fell on walking path, birds snatched them away, some fell on shallow soil, seeds grew but withered quickly when sun scorched them, seeds that grew but got tangled up in weeds and finally, seed that fell on good soil!
Finishes that up with, if you have ears to hear, listen!
Now many of us are familiar enough with rest of story that we have an idea of what Jesus is teaching here - but for moment, I want to you consider audience at that time…this was all they heard!
Not even his disciples got what Jesus was communicating, that’s why they ask, why are you speaking in parables?
As an aside, disciples are giving us wonderful example of what it means to be disciple, follower of Jesus - ask questions! What are you doing here, Jesus? Help me understand! That’s heart of follower - to look to teacher, to want to learn and know and understand.
Jesus honors their desire to learn - because it speaks to where their hearts are. Speaks to whole reason why he teaches in parables in first place…because of heart.
Happens to be point of parable itself. Some people are open and receptive and ready, soft hearts.
Some people are not, their hearts are hardened.
Some people fall somewhere in between.
Read more of story, so we can see how Jesus responds to their question, why he doesn’t communicate plainly, uses parables
Matthew 13:11-19
His response to why: because knowledge of secrets (mysteries) of kingdom of God has been given to you, but not to them
That seems unfair! Those who have will get more, and those who don’t have, even what they do have will be taken away
Point is this: This knowledge, to really get kingdom of God, what it’s all about, is precious, so valuable, it’s life itself
with something that valuable, you put it into hands of people who will enjoy it, use it, live into it, appreciate it
Don’t put it in hands of those who won’t - they’ll misuse it, neglect it, trash it, because they don’t recognize value of it
In other parables, Jesus likens kingdom of God to treasure found in field (man sells all of his possessions to buy) or pearl of great value
In his Sermon on Mount, you don’t give dogs what is sacred or pearls to pigs, they’ll just trample them
Wendy had friend whose puppy ate one of their three remaining rolls of toilet paper - because they don’t know what’s sacred, valuable!
Jesus: that’s why I speak in parables! because some folks will see it, hear it, but they won’t get it. Pass right on by.
It’s pass right on by for one primary reason: hearts are calloused, hardened.
Nothing to do with their intellectual capacity, how smart they are, ability to comprehend it
Has everything to do with orientation of heart, willingness to hear, to receive, to respond, to learn, to grow
We’ve all had experience to trying to persuade someone of something who just won’t listen, mind’s made up, they’re just set (how often my family has missed my wisdom)
But it’s true of us, too, we’ve been that person - dismissed ideas, thoughts - one ear and out other, arms crossed
It’s not as if Jesus wants to deny them - it breaks his heart! He finishes with quote from prophet Isaiah…if only they would see and hear and understand with their hearts - if only they would get it here (heart), then they’d really get it here (mind)
And they would turn and I would heal them.
This is heart of Jesus, is to bring healing into our lives, wholeness, fullness of life
These are great mysteries of Kingdom of God
But until there’s repentance - that’s what turning is - it’s that softening of heart…healing will not happen.
Hardened Hearts
Prime example of all this in Jesus’ parable is hardened path, soil that’s compacted, so hard - no seed, no Word of God - can’t break through. It just sits there until bird (Satan) snatches it away.
There’s whole new wonderful set of hiking trails at Hurricane City Park, Meeks Mountain trails - sign that talks about development of trails.
made point of saying trails are just being cleared, but that it will take years for those trails to actually become hardened by gradual foot traffic
Here’s why that’s important - our hearts don’t start hardened against God, children are far more open to God, believing in him
Thinking about this in terms of sowing seeds of Gospel, there will be some people who are simply not receptive, hearts are hardened (true in Jesus’ day, true in ours as well)
All sorts of reasons for this
bad experience in church (church politics, bad theology, petty infighting)
wounded by Christians: hypocritical, self-righteous, judgmental
To be fair - some of heart hardening we do to ourselves
False expectations of God, encounter disappointment, suffering
we chose to harbor grudges, refuse to forgive, nurse our wounds, assume things we don’t really know (did you see how they looked at me?!), indulge in self pity
believe in lies - don’t want to give up on what we’ve banked on (where your treasure is, there your heart will be also - my own happiness, “good life”, our own success)
indulged in sin - pornography, affair
Good time and stop for moment to ask question - where is your heart when it comes to Jesus?
Listen to verse 15 from the Message:
The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.
this is ultimately what it’s all about - are we, am I, are you - open to face-to-face relationship to Jesus. That’s what it means to have soul! To be spiritual.
Are you more like disciples - that eagerness, asking questions, want to learn, you want to know secrets of Kingdom of God
You long to be face-to-face with God?
Is that your heart? Honestly, truly? Can you hear this?
Or are you leaning more in direction of hardened path, calloused heart?
Don’t care to learn - might listen to sermon, but then it’s over and done, done your duty, back to what you really want?
Don’t really want to be face-to-face with God - prefer more of social distance relationship with God.
I urge you to seriously consider that question. On scale of 1 to 10, where would you put softness or hardness of your heart in relationship to God.
There is nothing - I mean that - nothing more important than where your heart is with Jesus Christ.
My heart’s desire, Jesus’ heart’s desire is that you would understand with your heart, turn - so that he can bring healing into your heart
After all, who wants to be blockhead?
Brings me to final thing: what does this mean for us as we seek to sow seeds of Gospel
Our next few weeks - talk about seeds that fall on shallow soil and amongst weeds, but this week, hardened path.
why bother throwing seed on hardened path if it’s just going to be snatched away?
Goal is to soften soil by speaking to heart
Spiritual Conversation Curve - helpful tool to engage in spiritual conversations
when we can gather again, we’ll hold some workshops on this - in meantime, we’ll be covering this much more in depth as part of our online training
Spiritual Conversation Curve is based on recognition that not everyone we engage is in same place
Some people are active seekers, speak to them in particular way. Some people are at least receptive, open, curious - intentional ways to engage them. But some people are unreceptive, not open to Gospel - how do we sow seeds to them?
Way is to engage them lovingly, heartfelt manner
Begin with what Don Everts calls “Chat”. You begin with basic conversation: talking about weather, current news, your family, big game, so on.
Gently, humbly, sincerely - goal is to make basic human connection
Continue to move up curve by Relating. Being with Chat then Relate.
Goal is to deepen connection by relating to each other’s joys and pains.
Not just chatting about weather or family, but about how weather affects our arthritis and our struggles with aging parents. I know that experience. I can appreciate why that’s hard for you, why you’re celebrating that!
In short, we love people. Who they are and what’s happening in their lives matter to us.
Last week, shared briefly story of Daryl Davis, black man who befriended members of Ku Klux Klan in order to persuade them to change their racist views. That’s where he started: He chatted: About music, kids. Then he related: Talked about families, hopes and dreams for kids, struggles in life.
In our Seeds of Change lesson this week, Everyday Opportunities, two things matter most: investing in relationships & being in moment.
Ian Morgan Cron is author, songwriter, therapist tells his story of coming to faith in Jesus.His father was alcoholic, terrible repercussions for family (“trainwreck of childhood”), entered his teens years with hardened heart: angry, rebellious, lonely - he began his own struggle with alcohol.
He got invited to Young Life club. Went. Loved attention and care of leaders (it was intoxicating to have two older men see me - I mean really see me).
But - if they’d just left out talks about Jesus, club would have been perfect.
But slowly, those investing relationships in Ian, sowing those seeds of love and the Gospel - just by chatting, relating to his hardened heart, “Ian’s heart softened to message of Jesus’ love and he began walking with Christ during his time at college.”
Let me close with challenge, two, really
If your heart is hardened, if on that scale of 1 to 10, you’re towards diamond, let me encourage you to so some soul searching. What’s going on there? What’s causing you to resist encountering Jesus face-to-face. If it would be helpful to talk through that, I’d love to do that.
Second, let’s do. Sow a seed. This week. Who is someone you already know that you can invest in relationship with? Bring that before God in prayer.
Begin simply with reaching out. Just to chat. To relate. To connect.