How Do You Hear God's Word?

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How Do You Hear God's Word?

Mark 4:1-20

Several years ago, I traveled to southern Oklahoma with Dr. Truman Wester (retired president of our local college in Sherman-Denison, to scope in our rifles for a dear hunt planned for a few days in November.   Dr. Wester showed me an unusual sight of trees completely covered with kudzu vines. Often these lush-green leafy vines completely hide the tree and even small houses. These vines were brought to America by the Japanese to provide cover from the hot sun.

Although they were later used as ground cover to combat erosion, these vines are now a curse. Covering acres and acres of excellent timber and farmland, they slowly destroy other vegetation. And the kudzu begins as a little seed but is almost impossible to eliminate, once it sets its woody roots.

Spiritual and moral kudzu vines choke our world and hide our true identity. They begin as insignificant seeds of thought and grow into massive systems of destructive thinking, completely distorting and hiding our real nature, even from ourselves. In a parable Jesus warned about weeds that choke the true plant and keep it from bearing fruit. The kudzu vine is not really the tree whose exterior it covers. It is a foreign element so attached to the tree that one could easily mistake it for the tree itself.

The parable Jesus spoke here in Mark 4 is perhaps the first parable he ever spoke.  In Palestine it was customary for crowds to follow famous rabbis wherever they went to catch the pearls of wisdom which fell from their teachers' lips while they walked along.  To escape the press of the crowds, Jesus climbed into a boat and taught the people from there.

This story is usually called "The Parable of the Sower" or "The Parable of the Seed."  But the emphasis of Jesus is really on the soil.  He explains that there are four kinds of hearts in this world, and he identifies them according to how they respond to the seed of God's word.  The first word of the story in v. 3 challenges attention.  "Listen!" in the NIV.  The KJV renders the opening word "Behold!" In v. 9, Jesus ssaid, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  Hearing is the urgent business at hand!

To hide God’s Word in your heart and apply it to your life requires good listening. We Americans are not known as being good listeners.  A poet recently expressed the misgiving that often enters the heart of the listener:  “I bend a sympathetic ear…To other people’s woes,… However dull it is to hear…Their real or fancied throes. …I pay to every gloomy line…Attention undiminished,…Because I plan to start on mine…The moment theirs are finished.”

1. You Might Be Hearing God's Word With a Hard Heart.

--4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

Footpaths ran through the fields in Palestine.  Therefore, it wouldn’t be unusual for some of the seed to fall on hard soil.  Such soil represents the person who hears the word of God but does not comprehend it.  The seed lies on the surface of the soil and never sinks in.  Birds swoop down and snatch it away.

The problem is not with the seed but with the soil.  It was too hard.  But can a hard heart be changed?  Yes, it can be plowed up and prepared for seed.   The prophet Hosea advised, "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you" (Hosea 10:12).

 Hardening of the heart is more serious than hardening of the arteries.

Over one million acres that once held oxygen-producing trees are paved over every year.  Oxygen is the source of life for man. Without oxygen one dies quickly.  In paving our tree-producing soil, we are cutting one source of life-sustaining oxygen.  This is like the person that hardens his feelings against God's leadership in one area of his life at a time.  He is ultimately hardened against God's will and is lifeless.  The Scripture says, "by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself."  (Rom. 2:5, RSV)

Diogenes: "We have two ears and only one tongue that we may hear more and speak less."

2. Or Perhaps You Are Hearing God's Word With a Shallow Heart.

 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

The soil in Palestine lies on a thick layer of limestone.  Where the soil is thin, the roots of a germinating seed cannot go very far.  As a result, the shoot springs up quickly but there is no root system to sustain the plant.  No root means no water.  When the sun comes up, the shoot is scorched and dies.

The soil represents a hearer who hears the word but does not really receive it so that it is rooted in his heart.  His response is purely emotional, shallow, and temporary.

3. Or Maybe You are Hearing God's Word With a Crowded Heart.

 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

A gardener must not only love flowers and fruits; he must also hate weeds.  The weeds represent those influences from the world that choke the seed and keep it from bearing fruit.  Jesus identified these weeds in Mark 4:18-19--- "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

4. You Shold Be Hearing God's Word With a Responsive Heart.

 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times .20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.

The heart is "good ground" in contrast to the other three hearts.  Unlike the hard heart, the responsive heart "comprehends the word."  Unlike the shallow heart, the responsive heart "allows the seed to take root."  Unlike the crowded heart, the responsive heart "holds fast what it receives."

9 Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Our preacher sure did pour it on, But he just let me be!
    He took the starch all out of them That sat just next to me.
You should have heard the things he said. It was true as true could be!
    He burned the seat from under them That sat just next to me.
He hit the nail square on the head; With him I did agree.
    He trimmed the dead limbs off of them That sat just next to me.
And then...I got to thinking, And felt 'sneaky' as could be,
    For when I turned and looked at him, His guns were aimed at me!"

I challenge you to listen to the Word of God with your whole heart:

1. Reverently--Hab 2:20 (NIV)  "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.""

2. Expectantly--Psa 62:5 (NIV)  "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him."

3. Prayerfully--1 Sam 3:10 (NIV)  "The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening.""

4. Attentively--Acts 15:12 (NIV)  "The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them."

5. Understandingly--Neh 8:8 (NIV)  "They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."

6. Discerningly--Acts 17:11 (NIV)  "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

7. Obediently--Mat 7:24-27 (NIV)  ""Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.""

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