Heart Work | Ryan Kramer

Ecological homogenation. You have no idea how many times I had to rehearse that before I got up here and said it. Ecological homogenation. I hadn't heard of it before this week, but what I learned about it this week is that about 40% of us in this room struggle with it. And out of the 40% of us in this room that struggle with it, two-thirds of those end up changing or modifying their behavior because of it. We end up spending money that we don't have to fix it. We end up spending time and energy in order to fix it. Most people who have it will almost in some ways be obsessive around what to do to fix it. Now you might not be familiar as I wasn't either with the more accurate scientific term, but you may know it the way that I know it and that is lawn envy. Lawn envy. It's that thing that happens in our life when the neighbor across the street has this beautiful lawn, and we look at it and we're like, "Man, I wish that our lawn looked like that." That is ecological homogenation. It's interesting because for me at my house I have a home office and I often work out of that on Monday and Wednesday and working on message prep and stuff like that. And I have this window that's to the left of my desk, and out that window I can look across the street to John's house. John is my neighbor, my retired neighbor, and John is out in his yard all the time, and his yard looks beautiful. It's green. It's lush. It just looks amazing. And as I look at his lawn, I'm forced to have to look past all the bare spots and my lawn in order to see his lawn, and I just can't help but to think, "Man, I wish I had a lawn just like John." And I think about that, and John's not the one who has given me this issue of lawn envy, but he has definitely been the one that has reminded me that I have it. I kind of learned some of this issue of lawn envy from my grandfather. My grandpa Kramer lived in Illinois, and he had the most perfectly manicured lawn. I mean, it was edged perfectly, not a single weed was anywhere to be seen. The way that he would mow the yard is he would do one lap around the outside of the yard, and then everything would be a diagonal push mower. You know, this is back before the self-propelled mowers, and he would push a diagonal, and then he would turn and come back diagonal the opposite way. And here's the thing, every other week he would switch the pattern so that when you took a step back and you looked at his lawn, it looked like the outfield of a professional baseball team. And when I was a kid, I looked at that, and the assumption that I had was that a great lawn was really the outcome of what you did on the outside. It was the work of the trimming and the work of pulling the weeds and stuff like that. But what I didn't realize until I got older and had my own lawn, especially in Florida,

is that there's a whole lot more to having a nice lawn than just the way that you mow it. Like, there's a lot that is required under the surface, a lot that is required within the soil in which the grass is growing in order to have a beautifully manicured lawn that those things just don't happen by accident. And I share that with you this morning because I wonder if sometimes we approach our spiritual lives in the same kind of way. Think about this. We want a strong the wisdom for that next big decision that we've got to make. We want the kind of character and integrity that holds up under pressure in our life. We want to know our purpose. If you have kids, we want our kids to grow up and to follow Jesus. We want to know that we can hear God, that we can hear His voice and sense His direction in our life. But the problem is that we end up focusing most of our attention and our effort on what we want to see on the outside without giving much attention to what needs to happen on the inside to produce it. And spiritually speaking, what's on the inside is our heart. And we've been in this little two-part series that we've entitled "Unshakable," where we're looking specifically at the parable of the sower that's found in Matthew chapter 13 and discovering how to build an unshakable kind of faith in our life. And last week, if you were here, we looked at the four conditions of our heart, the four types of soil that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 13. And we challenged ourselves with a rather difficult challenge, and that was to identify which soil we are in this season of our life. I would say this, that when it comes to the types of soil in our heart, you know, that can change from season to season. But here's something that I found in my own life is that I can have a fertile soil, good soil type of heart in some areas of my life, and I can have a hardened heart in other areas of my life. And what we said last week is that these conditions of our heart, of the soil, that they aren't labels that Jesus is sticking on our life, that their conditions that Jesus is revealing inside of us. And so today, what I want to do is I want to follow up last week, and I want us to look today on how we can cultivate our heart, that whatever type of soil, whatever condition our heart may be in today, I want to talk about what it looks like to actually cultivate that so that we can produce the kind of life that God desires us to live. So if you got your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew 13, and I've entitled today's message, "Heart Work." I'm going to have some heart work this week. Matthew chapter 13, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word today.

We're thankful for your Son Jesus who died on a cross for our sins. Lord, I pray that today we recognize the price that was paid and that Lord, we choose to live a life that is worthy of that price. So we invite your Holy Spirit into this moment, into this space. God speak to us, challenge us in areas that we need to be challenged, and Lord, point us in the direction in which you would have us go. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Most of us are familiar with Jesus, the Savior, but there's something that I love about Jesus, the leader. And one of those things about Jesus, the leader, is how He would take deep spiritual truth and would make it more understandable. It's the very reason why I'll take 10 minutes in a message and talk about law and envy. Instead of spending 35 minutes up here digging into every Hebrew and Greek word, deep word studies and sending you home with 17 pages of notes. Because Jesus' goal wasn't to give more information, his goal wasn't to impress people with his knowledge, his goal was transformation in people's life. were parables. There were stories that Jesus would use where he would take something that was incredibly ordinary but customary for their day and he would use that as a way to be able to explain what the kingdom of God looked like. In Matthew 13 we see one of these parables. In a verse 3 it says that he told many stories in the form of parables such as this one and he says listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds and as he scattered them across this field some seeds fell on a footpath and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock and the seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow but the plant soon wilted under the hot sun and since they didn't have deep roots they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they produced a crop that was 30, 60 and even a hundred times as much as it had been planted. Verse 19 says that the seed that fell on the footpath that it represents those who hear the message about the kingdom and don't understand it. And last week we talked about that, understand the Greek word for that means to know and to

do. It's both of those working together that then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy and that's interesting because those aren't people that are opposed to what the word of God is saying in their life, there is joy in the receiving of it. But verse 21 says, "Since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems and are persecuted for believing God's Word." The seed that fell among the thorns represent those who hear God's Word but all too quickly the message becomes crowded out by the worries of life and the lore of wealth. So no fruit is produced. Notice here in verse 22 that there is growth but there is no fruit. Verse 23 says, "The seed that fell on good soil, that it represents those who truly hear and understand God's Word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, and even 100 times as much has been planted." Now if you weren't here last week, we spent time digging into this passage and learning a little bit about what Jesus was describing in this parable and I'm not going to re-teach that and so if you missed last week, I'd love for you to go back to our YouTube channel and you can check that message out. But I want to give you just a quick brushstroke, 30,000 foot view of what Jesus is describing here. He's describing one farmer that's spreading seed and that seed represents the Word of God. And he's spreading that seed across four different types of soils which is representative of the condition of our heart. And so the first one that Jesus mentions is the footpath. It's the hard soil and how the ground is hard to the point where the seed can't ever get in in order to create the growth that is desired. The second kind of soil is a shallow soil. So it pops up with some quick growth but it doesn't last because it doesn't have the

kind of roots that are necessary in order to endure difficult seasons. The third kind of soil is the soil that has a bunch of thorns and there is growth that's coming from this soil but eventually other things begin to choke that growth out. And then Jesus mentions the good soil, the fertile soil, and that's the one that And I think what we can conclude from this parable is that it's not the sower and it's not the seed that determines what we experience in our life. It's the soil, meaning it's not God, it's not the preacher, it's not the small group leader, it's not whatever you're watching on social media that's bringing forth the seed, which is the Word of God. It's not those things that determine the growth in our life, that it's the soil of our heart and how it is receiving those things in our life that determines what we experience. Which is why last week the question that we didn't ask is, is there something wrong with the seed, right? When things are not going good in our life and what do we do? And I've done this plenty of times in my life, like I've blamed God, I've looked at this verse and I've been like that doesn't, that's not true, that doesn't happen. And our tendency is to push the blame towards God or his word and what Jesus is trying to help us understand here is that there's nothing wrong with the sower, there's nothing wrong with the seed, what determines the growth in our life is the soil of our heart in which those things are landing upon. And so the question that we asked last week is, how's our heart, like how's our heart in this season right now? How's our heart in these certain areas of our life because what happens is over time or because of various different seasons in our life, our heart becomes either hard, becomes shallow, crowded, or fertile. But here's what I love about Jesus' parable is that he describes the condition of the soil but he never says the condition has to be permanent in our life. In fact, throughout scripture, God repeatedly calls us to pay special attention to what's happening in our heart. Remember that verse from last week, Proverbs 4, 23, says, guard your heart above all else

for it determines the course of your life. Notice the priority that Solomon gives here in Proverbs, the priority is above all else. Like Solomon's saying, don't wait until you have time, it's not when you feel like it, it's above all else we need to guard our heart and the reason why we have to guard our heart is because the condition of our heart determines the course of our life. Think about it. The words in which we speak that come out, they come from the heart. The decisions that we make, they flow from our heart. Our relationships are affected by what flows from our heart. The way in which we respond under pressure, right? It's revealing what is happening in our heart, how we handle disappointment in our life. It exposes what is happening in our heart and that's why heart work isn't something that can be optional if we want to have an unshakable kind of faith. So the question that we've got to wrestle with today is what does heart work look like? Like what does it really look like for us to cultivate our heart so that God's word can begin to take root in our life and produce the kind of harvest that I know you and I know I desire in my life and I want to give you, I want to give you four things today. The first one is this and none of us are going to like it is be teachable. If we want to experience the kind of harvest that God desires us to experience in our life, we have to be teachable. The first type of soil that Jesus describes is the hard soil, right? Where the seed lands on it. And spiritually speaking, one of the ways in our heart can be hummed hard is by being unteachable. We stop asking the question, God, what are you trying to show me in this situation? What are you trying to show me through this relationship or this season in my life? And we start making assumptions. Like, I already know this.

I already know what I need to do and where I need to go or what decision has to be made. And friend, one of the best tests of whether we're teachable or not is how we respond to criticism and correction. Like, some of us, let's be honest, some of us can receive encouragement all day long. Like, keep it coming. Keep the encourage. Keep telling me how pretty I am. Keep telling me how smart I am, how much wisdom I have, how good I am at my job. Like, just keep with the encouragement. I'll take it all day long. But then let somebody correct us or challenge us or disagree with us or point out something that we could do better. And immediately, what happens? We get defensive. Listen, not every critique is accurate. But what is important is understanding that spiritual maturity is being able to receive correction without turning it into rejection. That despite whatever their body language is, whatever words come out of their mouth, whatever has been done prior to that is being able to see between the lines and ask the question, God, what are you trying to show me? So before we dismiss criticism, before we defend ourselves or get offended, we've got to be willing to ask the question, is there any truth? Is there any truth in this that I need to hear?

The second one is we've got to be willing to develop some deep roots. The second soil that Jesus described received the seed and started growing, which means things began to look different for a little while. But when it faced difficulty, it didn't last. And I think that this is where most of us get frustrated the most in our spiritual journey. Listen, unshakeable faith is built through rhythms, not moments. Unshakeable faith is built through rhythms, not moments. Here's what I mean. Powerful worship experiences like we have this morning are great. Those moments are important in our life. Altar calls, those moments are great. They're important in our life. They ignite our faith. They take what seems to be like an imber or what seems to not really be burning, and it throws some gasoline on the flame in our spiritual life. Those moments are great. But if you've ever thrown gasoline on a flame, what happens after a minute or two? You get the big burst, and then it goes right back to where it was before. Because it's not moments that we build our faith on, it's rhythms. It's the rhythms of our life that determine whether our faith is going to grow or not.

And that's why Sunday's only will never be enough for you to experience the kind of harvest that God wants to bring in your life. Sundays are great and I love that that you make it You see, our nature is to want all that God has to offer for us with the least amount of sacrifice necessary. And I'm just telling you, friend, like it doesn't work that way. It doesn't. It's the rhythms throughout the week that determine the kind of life that we live. Sundays help, but Sunday, this is the only time, like listen, if this is the only time that you're eating a spiritual meal in your life, and what studies say nationally is that I think it's 1.7 times a month is the average that a Christ follower attends church. If you're only eating 1.7 times a month, or you're only eating four times a month, like you're starving. And the same goes for our spiritual lives. And that's why the rhythms of our week become so important is because it's bringing the spiritual nourishment not just on a one hour and 15 minute block once a week, but it is constantly throughout our life creating these rhythms. And, friend, that's one of the reasons

why small groups is so important. It's not the solution, but it's another rhythm. To be able to come on a Sunday morning, an hour before church, and to be able to be a part of a small group, and to be able to dig deeper into his word, and to build relationships, and community. That's why it's so important. Let me tell you why our roots matter so much. Because when life is good, shallow roots will always feel like they're enough. When our marriage is going good, when our kids are doing well, when there's money in the bank, when our health is good, we don't even realize how shallow our roots really are. But what Jesus says is that when the trouble comes, that that's when the depth of our roots are revealed. That's when it's revealed of whether or not we're building the house of our life on the sand, on the rock. And I've learned this, I've learned this the hard way in my own life. That the roots that hold us through the storm have to be built before the storm. The last thing you wanna do is wait until everything is falling apart in your life to begin to build a prayer life, right? The last thing we wanna do is to wait until our marriage is in crisis

and there's no desire to move forward anymore to decide that we need Godly community or to wait until we're overwhelmed with fear to decide that we need God's word planted in our heart. Friend, today is the time to grow the roots that you'll wish you had tomorrow, today is the time. So we gotta be teachable. We gotta develop some deep roots. If we're gonna continue to cultivate our heart, the third thing is we gotta clear the clutter. The third soil that Jesus mentioned, the soil that had the thorns that was growing up around it is interesting because the seed was actually growing but so was everything else in the soil. And Jesus specifically mentions in this parable two things. He mentions worry and wealth. Now, for honest, in our modern day-to-day, we deal with a whole lot more than just worry or wealth. It's competing for our heart. We have busyness, right? And success and wanting approval from people and entertainment and vacations and ambition and fear our phone, Like And what makes this heart condition so tricky is that not everything that's competing for your heart is bad. And that's why it's so tricky, because sometimes a good thing in the wrong place can choke out what God's trying to grow in her life. That's why it says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith," says, "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us." Did you notice here that there are two things that choke out God's purposes in our life, and only one of them is a bad one?

Right? There's the sin that trips us up in our life, but there's also some things in our life that are weights. They're not necessarily sinned, they're not necessarily bad, but they're waiting us down. They're things that are in our life that are choking out what God is trying to do in our life and they are competing for priority. Sometimes, sometimes some heart work means that we've got to ask the question, like, what do I need to remove in my life in order to make room for what God's wanting to grow? What's some things in my life that I've elevated to a higher priority than I have God, and I'm experiencing this growth, but it's getting choked out by all the other things that are in my life? And then the fourth one, and the final one, is we've got to live it out, that we've got to live it out. Jesus says that the fertile soil is the only soil that produced the harvest. I want you to think about that for a moment. Every heart, and Jesus' story, every heart heard the word. Everyone, but only a fertile heart allowed the word to penetrate in such a way that it produced something sustainable. And I think this one of living it out is fitting as we end these two weeks of being unshakable because it's the most important heart work that we could ever do in our life. Just asking the question, and being real with ourselves, what am I going to do with what I'm hearing? What am I going to do with it? Is this seed that is going forth? I know it's an iPad, but my eyes are too bad to read my Bible, so this is seed. This is a seed that is going forth. What am I going to do with it? James, man, he made a plain. He said it like this in James chapter 1 verse 22. He said, "Don't just listen to God's word." He said, "You must do what it says." Otherwise, you're only fooling yourself. How many times do we get frustrated with God? How many times do we get frustrated with people? How many times do we get frustrated with a church? How many times do we get frustrated with a group leader? How many times do we get frustrated with the things that are happening out there and assigning blame out there for what's happening on our life rather than... Is my heart hard? Is it shallow? Is it crowded? Or is it fertile?" I wonder, this morning if maybe there's some that have been waiting on a word from God in order to take a step of faith. And you've been waiting. You've been waiting on God to create clarity, to give you direction, in order for you to take the step of faith that is in your heart

but you're fearful to take it. And I would just push back on that just a little bit and I would ask you this question. Have you chosen to obey the word that he's already given you? Because we're really good. When God starts prompting us to do something that we don't want to do, we're really good at putting these conditions in place and saying, "God, if you'll do this or you'll do this or you'll make this clear, then I'll take this step." All the while, what he's already given us, the word, the 66 books that he's already given us in his word, we don't obey anyway. Friend, he's already spoken to you. We can take notes all day long. We can highlight our Bibles, we can memorize verses, we can listen to podcasts, we can share social influencing preachers and I love most of them and I listen to their stuff and we can share that all that we want. But the better question that we need to ask ourselves is when are we going to do something with the seed in which we keep consuming? If you miss everything else over these two weeks, don't miss this last statement before we close. Friend obedience is the only bridge that connects what God promises and what we experience. It's the only bridge. Because what we're experiencing isn't what God promised, it doesn't mean that he's not faithful to his word, it means that there is somewhere in your life a lack of obedience that connects the two. And so the question then becomes, God, the seed in which you are giving me, what does obedience look like?

What is the soil of my heart and what are the things within me that need to be cultivated in order for the seed to be able to take root and to grow deep roots so that it can withstand the storms of life and produce the kind of harvest that you desire? And friend, I want to take a moment and I want to walk you to that place this morning. Would you back ahead with me and close your eyes? In this moment, don't think about your spouse, don't think about your kids, don't think about a person, three or four seats down from you. But between you and God and the stillness of this moment, just ask Holy Spirit, what are you trying to show me today? What are you trying to show me? Maybe ask the question, have I become unteachable? Teachable in life, have I become unteachable in my spiritual journey? Or maybe today, God's? some deeper roots. That the reason why the circumstances and the seasons keep knocking you back several steps is because you don't have the roots to sustain the blow. And Jesus promises we're all gonna experience the blows in life, but it's the roots that determine whether we sustain. Or maybe for some today, it's the clutter. Just so much that's going on in your life, like even in this moment, you can feel the weight of the pressure of all the expectations and all the demands, and what makes it so hard as chances are none of them are bad. But none of them are God either.

Maybe in this moment, it's actually in the Holy Spirit. What's something that's in my life that's clattering? (gentle music) Stay here a moment that in one part of my life, I'm seeing this growth, but on the other part, it just feels like it never goes anywhere. And maybe it's not something new that you've got to add to your life, maybe it's something old that you've got to remove. Or what about this question? God, what have you already told me? But I still haven't done. What step of faith have you already spoken to me, already stirred in my heart, and I still haven't done? Maybe it's putting yourself out there for a small group, and to walk into a room of perfectly perfect strangers that you have Noah, and just putting yourself out there. Maybe it's to take a step of faith in giving in some way, or serving, or talking to your co-worker about Jesus, or praying with somebody. I don't know, but what has he already been speaking that you still haven't done? And friend, whatever he brings to your mind, don't defend your action. Don't try to explain it away. Don't even try to fight or resist against it, that whatever you sense in this moment that God is speaking, acknowledge it.

Acknowledging. 'Cause we can't change what we want to acknowledge. But then we got to live it. 'Cause friend, the life you desire doesn't begin with your circumstances changing. Begins with you doing what he's been showing you to do. - Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, make sure you subscribe. Also, if something spoke to you in a special way, share it with a friend, because you never know how it could transform someone's life. If you're interested in checking out our service times, make sure you go to our website at transform tlh.com. And we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday. Thanks so much and have a great day. [BLANK_AUDIO]