How's Your Heart? | Ryan Kramer

going to be digging deeper into one parable, the parable of the sower that's found in Matthew 13. So if you've got your Bibles, you can begin to make your way there. But I was thinking this week, you know, everybody, at least for the most part, everybody wants a faith that works, right? A faith that gets us through the hard seasons, a faith that keeps us grounded when life gets difficult, a faith that doesn't disappear when God doesn't do things the way that we think that they should be done, right? And here's the question that I've been wrestling with this week, and maybe you've wrestled with it from time to time to your life, but why does faith grow in some people and not in others? Like why does that faith grow in some but not in others? I mean, think about it for just a second. People can sit in the same church service, they can experience the same presence of God, and they can read the same verses in the Bible, they can sing the same songs during worship, they can experience the same opportunities to grow their faith. And yet after a year or two years that go by, one person's faith is stronger than it's ever been, and another person's faith is barely hanging on. Like have you ever wondered why that is? Like I've wondered sometimes even in my own life, like why can I have some seasons where my faith feels like it's growing and it's activated and it just feels alive? And then there's some seasons that it's like do I even have faith, right? Questioning and life just feels complicated everywhere that you turn. I think the answer to that question, I think it lies on the other side of a question that my counselor asked me, every single time that we meet. See every time we meet, we get the pleasantries out of the way and how you doing, how's the week been, how's family, that kind of thing. And then I can always tell my counselor is like very eager to get past all the pleasant riesbecause he wants to drop this one question and it's the same question every single time. He looks at me and he says Ryan, how's your heart?

How's your heart? And I don't know about you, but the one that gets asked the question, I hate that question. I hate it, and the reason why I hate that question is because it cuts right past all the fluff in my life and gets down to the root, to what's really going on. And you see for me in that session, I'd much rather talk about what's happening around me or what somebody did to me or said about me or what I'm frustrated with or the things that I would rather be different in my life. But that question, how's your heart, is a question that instantly forces me to stop looking outside of myself and what's going on around me and to start paying closer attention to what's going on inside of me. And apparently that's a pretty good question for us to ask ourself from time to time because King Solomon thousands of years ago said this in Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23, he said guard your heart above all else, like above everything else in our life, all the things that we spend our lives paying attention to, God is like don't neglect what's happening inside your heart. And why does he say that? He says it then because it determines the course of your life. In other words, what happens in our heart is eventually going to shape what happens in our life. And maybe that's why two people can experience the same things in their faith journey but That have two completely different ways. why I want to step into this series that we've entitled Unshakable because I want to spend a couple weeks and I want to help us understand why that is in life so that you and I can have an unshakable faith. And so like I said we're going to be in Matthew chapter 13 we're gonna look at the parable of the sower over the next couple weeks and today what we're going to learn Jesus is going to show us that there are our four different conditions of our heart and by the time we get done with with our talk today I want to share three questions that will help us honestly evaluate the condition of our heart and then next week what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about how to cultivate our heart wherever we

are in our journey with God in whatever the condition is of our heart next week we're gonna talk about practically how do we cultivate that so that we can experience all that God has for us and so I've entitled today's message if you're taking notes how's your heart how's your heart let's pray father we thank you for your word and we're so thankful for your presence in this place today and so father as we come before you as we open your word as we look at this parable that your son Jesus shared Lord I pray that you would give us wisdom and clarity and revelation Lord help us to see where we are in our faith journey not not from a position of condemnation but Lord from the position of an invitation to experience more from you in Jesus name amen amen so Matthew chapter 13 you know Jesus often taught from parables and essentially a parable was he would he would look at some of the customs of the day and and things that they were constantly exposed to and he would take that and he would use that as a way to be able to communicate biblical truth and before we hop into the parable one thing I want to show you in the first couple verses is where Jesus is going to be telling this parable from so in verse one it says later that same day Jesus left the house and he sat beside the lake now I want you to pause here for just a second and think about we've been in the series called that's crazy that we wrapped up a couple weeks ago where we were looking at Matthew chapter 8 and 9 and the miracles that Jesus was doing in Matthew 8 and 9 so you could imagine my guys tired right and so he's had a long season of ministry and and all of a sudden he decides I want to go chill out by the lake just kind of get some R and R enjoy like I don't know how many of you are beach people but there's just something about laying out at the beach and just here in the water you know up against the shore that just relaxes you and and I can imagine Jesus wanting to go out and do that but here's what we find out happens in verse 2 again a large crowd gathers around him and so he gets into a boat and then he sat there and he taught as the people stood on the shore now I don't want to I don't want to move past this because I think that there's I think there's a lesson for us to learn out of verse 2 I I don't know if you've noticed that

Jesus has a way of always wanting to challenge people's assumptions like if you look at the gospels and you look at Jesus's teaching he's always doing that he's challenging the assumptions of you know what people think Jesus should do and how Jesus should do it and what it should look like and you think about this like he's not teaching out of the synagogue which would have been some of the assumption where Jesus would teach us lesson he's teaching it out of a boat and it it reminds me of that that joke about the pastor who buys a boat and he names the boat visitation and the reason why he names it visitation is so every time somebody calls the church his wife could say yeah he's out on visitation right you know and and so Jesus is on this on this boat I don't know if it's called visitation or what but he's on the boat and he's teaching people and because the expectations that we have of Jesus, the expectations that we have of other people can certainly be dangerous. I think especially with Jesus, like once we decide what God has to look like and what it looks like for God to move, once we determine what that looks like, anything outside of that box becomes really easy for us to miss. And that's why Jesus is constantly in the gospels. He's constantly disrupting those boxes because he wants to break people's assumptions and expectations of how things should be. And so now we find in verse three, he begins as all these people are on the shore and Jesus is on the boat. He's gonna begin to share a parable of story. In verse three, here's what Jesus says. He says, "Listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds."

Now this word plant in the Greek is not like Jesus is out in a garden and he's like creating a little bit of hole and then he's dropping a seed in and covering it up and then moving to the next one and doing a hole and dropping a seed in, it's this idea of scattering. And so it's this idea of having a handful of seed and as the farmer is walking, he's just kind of scattering the seed in the field. And in verse 14 it says, or verse four, it says that as he scattered them across the field, some seeds fell on a footpath and the birds came and ate them. The footpath that he's speaking of is like a dirt road. It's the pathway, the road that the people would walk on, the animals would walk on, the wagons and stuff, when they were moving stuff was all traveling on this road. So you could imagine, it was probably as hard as this stage and as seed gets thrown out onto that hardened footpath, the birds come and just begin to eat it because it doesn't seat down into the dirt. Verse five says other seeds, they're falling on shallow soil. It's got some underlying rock in it. And the seeds, what they do, they sprout up quickly because the soil was shallow. So from a distance, the shallow soil, it looks good, growth is happening, but verse six, he says, "But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun and since they didn't have deep roots, they died." Verse seven then says other seeds fell among thorns

that ended up growing up and choking out the tender plants. And so it's this idea of something is actually growing, but something else is growing around it and beginning to choke it out. Verse eight says, "Still other seeds fell on fertile soil." And they produced a crop that was 30, 60, and even a hundred times as much as been planted. I want you to think about this first part of the parable that it's the same farmer, it's the same seed, but the seed is producing dramatically different results. Now, what's the variable in the story? It's not the farmer, it's not the seed, it's the soil. And Jesus is about to explain what that means and when he does, you and I ultimately begin to realize that this story isn't really about what's happening in the field, that it's about what's happening in our heart. You see, we're gonna see as Jesus explains this, that the seed that he talks about is the gospel. It's the word of God that goes forth. And as that seed goes forth, there's a soil that is our heart. And then the sower, the farmer is the messenger. And so maybe for some of us in those moments, it's we're reading the Bible and it's just us and God and it's the Holy Spirit that is becoming the messenger. And this is the seed that he's trying to get into our heart. Maybe it's a Sunday, maybe it's a sermon like this. Maybe it's a small group leader. the messenger and still this becomes the seed, the same seed. But the soil of our heart ultimately determines what's going to happen with that seed. And Jesus says in verse 19, He said, "The seed that fell on the footpath, it represents

those who hear the message about the kingdom and they don't understand it." Now, this word "understand" isn't really talking about like somebody speaks another language and you just don't understand it because you don't know that language. The Greek word means to discern and to do. So it's this understanding of what Jesus is trying to say, but it's also coupled with this idea of doing it, of living it out in our life. Says then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in our heart. Verse 20 then gives us another soil, says the seed on the rocky soil, that it represents those who hear the message, notice this, and immediately receive it with joy. But 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. Verse 22 says the seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth. So no fruit is produced. And then in verse 23 the seed that fell on good soil, it represents those who truly hear and understand, it's that same word, the Greek word, understand, to discern and do God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted. So I want you to think about this parable for a second. The problem that Jesus is presenting here isn't with the farmer. The problem isn't with the seed, the problem is with the soil. What Jesus does is he shares four types of soil. It's four different conditions of the heart and I want to walk through each one of those with you this morning. The first one is this, is a hard heart. And a hard heart is one that hears the gospel but doesn't receive it. They hear the word but nothing gets beneath the surface because their heart is resistant to God. And that resistance can come from a lot of different areas.

It could come from deep hurt in our life, it could come from disappointment. And many times a hard heart is generated from disappointment in God because we have these expectations of what God should do and how he should move in certain situations. And friend, when that doesn't happen, we become discontent and frustrated and disappointed. And there was something that in 2006, Andrew and I took a step of faith in ministry. And it was a huge step of faith for us. And within six months of taking that step of faith, it was like the rug got pulled out from under our feet. And I went six years continuing to do ministry with this disdain and unforgiveness in my heart, not towards people, towards God. Because my heart was like God, you challenged us to do this and we took a step of faith and we took a step of faith and it didn't work out. And I was in this place where I don't even know how to explain it, but I still loved God. But I had unforgiveness towards God that it didn't work out the way that... And that's a hard heart. You know, essentially what Jesus is saying here is that that it's possible for us to hear God's word without being open to God's word. We want to have a hard heart. We could we could be sitting in church and we could be hearing a message, but we don't really care anything about what's coming from this. We're not interested in it shaping our life or changing the decisions or the behaviors that we have. You know, we're just we're checking a box off. Maybe it's because we're trying to be a good a good spouse and our spouse comes. And so we want to we want to come, you know, to try to keep the marriage connected or maybe we grew up

and we felt we learned that like, you know, works was a big thing. And so we feel like just coming to church and checking the box, you know, kind of solves everything and what Jesus is saying here is that, you know, some of us have this this hard heart where we can hear it, but we don't receive it. The second condition that Jesus gives us is a shallow heart. And this is one that that is hearing the gospel but doesn't endure. Like we're receiving it with joy and excitement. There's a genuine response emotionally from us when we receive the gospel. There could even be some visible growth that's happening in our life, but when problems start coming, persecution starts coming. Life doesn't go the way that we hoped that it would go. Or here's one when obedience becomes difficult, right? Obedience is easy when it's something we want to do, but when it's something we don't want to do or we don't agree with, then all of a sudden obedience becomes difficult. And what Jesus is saying here is that, that those with a shallow heart, that they'll start off strong, there's emotion tied to it. It'll look like things are growing, but they're gonna phase out. They're gonna die off over time when things begin to get difficult.

The third one that he mentions is a crowded heart. A crowded heart is one that hears the gospel, but doesn't prioritize. This is probably the stickiest one for most of us because when we have a crowded heart, we don't reject God, we're good with God, we're good with the gospel, like something things in our life are growing, our faith is growing, but the problem is, is there's too many things in our life that are growing. Jesus specifically says in this passage that the worries of life and the lure of wealth, right? The worries of life, that's what we're afraid of losing. Think about some of the things that keep you up at night. Think about some of the things that create the anxious thoughts in your life that you worry about. Those are the things that we're afraid of losing, and then it's the lure of wealth. It's the things that we're consumed with gaining. The retirement, the cars, the houses, the bank account, the status, the influence, whatever it is, it's that lure of wealth and the things that we're consumed with in our life with gaining. And what Jesus is saying here is that the seed is there and it's receptive, but there's all these other things that are growing up and they're crowding out the gospel. Well, I don't know if you caught it in the passage, but the word doesn't disappear in the life of someone who has a crowded heart. It's just that their life becomes unfruitful.

Becomes unfruitful because of all the other things that are consuming our time and our energy and our priorities. And then there's the fourth one, a receptive heart. This is one that hears the word, hears the gospel, and obeys, and through that obedience produces fruit. Let's do it. to challenge some things in our life. To challenge some assumptions, to challenge some expectations, some preferences, some behaviors. You see, the evidence of a receptive heart isn't what we know. It's not how much of this that we've memorized. The evidence is what we produce. It's the fruit that we produce in our life. And Jesus says that with a receptive heart, we'll produce 30, 60, a hundred times what has been planted. And notice here, the amount may look different. From one person to another, the amount may look different, but there's always fruit that is showing up in their character, their integrity, the choices that they're making, the priorities that they're choosing to protect, generosity, obedience, right? The impact that we have with our life, that when we have a receptive heart that's producing fruit in our life, that we naturally move from this consumer,

you know, Christianity into a contributing Christianity, where it's not there to serve me, but it is changing me so that I can be used to change others. Now the temptation for every single one of us, when we read a passage like that, is to begin to assign heart conditions to the people we know. (chuckling) And chances are you've been listening to those four, and you've thought in your mind, you've, this is Bill, oh, that's Joe, that is so Susan, like, you've been listening and you've been assigning these heart conditions to people we know, but I want you to keep this in mind. That Jesus doesn't give us this parable to evaluate somebody else's heart. He gives it so we would evaluate our own. So don't try to figure out what soil your spouse is today. Try to figure out which soil you are. And here's three questions that might help you begin to navigate through some of that. The first one is this, is what truth am I resisting? What truth am I resisting? Like think about in the season of your life right now, like, what do you dismiss from God because it doesn't fit in the box of what you've always believed? What experiences or expectations do you have that have become a filter for what you will believe or receive? Another one like, am I willing to let God challenge something that I am convinced that I'm right about?

What truth am I resisting? I think another question that we need to wrestle with is in the season, where does my faith lack depth? And here's what I mean by that. Like I'm good with believing that God sent a son to Don across from my salvation. I'm not so quick to believe that about my finances, about my future, about my relationships. Like do I believe in God when life is easy but then begin to question God when life begins to get difficult? That could reflect a lack of depth in my faith. Does my trust in God, does it begin to weaken when life goes a different way than we had planned? There's one, does my obedience become negotiable when it's gonna cost me something that I'm not willing to pay? [BLANK_AUDIO] I want you to think about that in the season of your life. What's competing for my attention? What am I worrying about that consumes my mind all the time? What am I pursuing in my life more than I should be? Here's one, what's a good thing? It's not a bad thing, it's not a sin, but what's a good thing that's taking up too much space for my calendar? And my guess is that as you see these conditions and as you prompt yourself with these questions, that maybe there's one that tends to hit a little harder than the others do. And if that's you today, I want you to understand something, that these aren't labels that Jesus is putting on people. They're conditions Jesus is revealing in people. And there's a big difference, because a label tells us who we are, but a condition tells us where we are. The current conditions can change.

Your soil isn't your identity, it's your current condition. So in this season your heart doesn't have to stay hard, it doesn't have to stay shallow, it doesn't have to stay crowded. But you do have to be honest enough to recognize where you're at it. Because here's the reality, you can't change what you won't acknowledge. And maybe that's all God wants from us today, maybe he's not looking for us to fix everything by the end of service. He's not looking for us to have all the answers, but to just have some humility. Some humility that would say, "God, show me the condition of my heart today." Because next week, next week we're going to talk about how it will be. 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 transformtlh.com, and we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday. Thanks so much and have a great day. [BLANK_AUDIO]