Cultivating A Receptive Heart

Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that your word is truth. Father, thank you for your son Jesus and the shed blood of the cross and also for the resurrection that we may attain to that his brother just shared.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Before Jesus comes on the scene, he has a forerunner that comes to prepare the way for him. Jesus is the Word of God.

He's the Logos, but he's also the Rhema because he's full of the Spirit, full of grace and truth. Whenever he spoke, things happened. Never did anything not happen when he spoke.

He was creating, he was healing, he was restoring, he was delivering, he was providing. But before that word could come, the heart had to be prepared to receive the Word of God. And so it was necessary for a man to rise up, his name John the Baptist, to preach about the kingdom of God being at hand, that the one who would come after him.

And that message was repentance. Now, it'd been a dark period of 400 years since Malachi and the Word of God was very rare in those days. So, understandably, the people of God, the children of God, the children of Israel, their hearts would have become hardened.

You say, well, how could their hearts be hardened? They had a religious bunch who were very meticulous about the law and the reading of the law and the scriptures. They had synagogue, you know, and all these things. But their hearts were hardened because although they had truth, they didn't have life.

In order for that word to penetrate the heart, there has to be a softening so that a seed go into the ground and die. If the Word of God doesn't get into your heart and produce a change, then you become like one Saul of Tarsus, who brother shared, according to the law was blameless. And those things that were gained to me, he had to count lost.

Because all the knowledge that was packed up into his head like cement never made its way into the heart. The only way for the heart to become softened was for there to be a forerunner to preach repentance. Think of a time in your life when your heart softened.

What happened? There was a deep sense of sin. You knew that you were sinful. And then there was an antidote in the Word of God, a revelation of Jesus Christ, and your heart became soft.

And peace came into your life. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So how is it that when we read the Word of God today, it doesn't penetrate? When we hear the preaching of the Word of God, we can hear the best preaching.

It doesn't penetrate. What has happened? The heart has become hardened. That is why we preach repentance.

Some would say preaching repentance is like bringing milk, but we need the solid meat. You know what? You can pack solid meat onto a hard heart, and that heart will receive zero. Because it's not solid meat we need.

It's life that we need. It can manifest in many different ways. But it ultimately comes to not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but in the hearing of faith, that Word which is near you, it says in Romans, that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and we believe in our heart through faith, that God raised Him from the dead, we're going to have salvation.

There's going to be life. He talked about knowing Him. Not knowing the law, not knowing nothing against myself, but knowing Him.

The power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. Because you're not going to be conformed into His likeness without the fellowship of His sufferings, and you're not going to be encouraged to keep going if you haven't experienced the power of His resurrection. You need to experience both.

And after you suffered for a while, there's hope of change, there's hope of growth. He's going to strengthen you, establish, perfect you, and settle you in Him. So what is that faith when I say I believe in Jesus? The demons believe in Jesus, but they don't receive the Word, and the Word has no place in them.

That Word which we preach, looking in Matthew verse chapter 18, this morning, the parable of the sower and the seed, we're not going to go over that parable, but just after that parable, the parable of the sower and the seed describes four conditions of the heart. And the seed, which is the Word of God, comes to each one in one of those four categories. And this morning, you can ask yourself this question, where is my heart at today? Not where it was ten years ago, or three years ago, or last week.

Where is my heart today? Is my heart hard, where I come to church, I hear the Word of God, and immediately it gets robbed from me, because my heart is hardened. Is my heart soft on the top, and I can put an amen on it, but as soon as I leave here, nothing changes in my life. Is my heart able to receive the Word, but as soon as I leave this place, and Monday morning hits, till Saturday, I'm thinking about money, pleasure, and how I can please myself, and it chokes the Word, and it never produces the good fruit that it was intended.

Or is my heart still soft as it was when he read about the Ephesian church, how they had all the good works, but they left their first love. Their heart was not full of love for Jesus. Can we receive the Word with meekness? Does it have a place in you? He said to the Jews who believed in him, my word has no place in you.

Your heart can't receive my word. You seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth. And you know what, what happens when a tough word comes from the Spirit, or even if it comes from a man? If it's true, and we love the Lord, we will not be offended by it.

We will receive it, we'll reflect on it, we'll take it to heart. Say, Lord, is there something you want me to hear here? Matters not the messenger, doesn't matter who's standing at this pulpit. Matters is if you have a heart to receive, you can receive.

Four types of soil of the heart. Verse 10, I want to key in on verse 10 here, Matthew 13 10, and the disciples came and said to Jesus, why do you speak in parables? What is a parable? A parable is a story that can be understood, and people who have a heart to understand will reflect on it. Just as I said, you can go home after you leave here, and you can reflect on where is my heart at today.

And if you get light on yourself, or you're honest with yourself, you can become the kind of heart that receives the Word of God and bears fruit. You can become that, but it depends on how you hear. And Jesus speaks in parables because there's an invitation for you to hear, or there's an invitation for you to just say, well you know what, it's not that big a deal because I got other stuff on the go.

And so he says something in verse 11, which is quite astounding. He says to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. Why has it not been given? It sounds almost like election.

It's almost like they can't hear. No. The Pharaoh, he had opportunity to hear, but he chose to harden his heart.

It's a choice not to hear. You can reflect on the truth of it, and you can push into the parable to seek more light for yourself. It says if we come to the light, having no part dark, we won't have any condemnation.

Our hearts won't be evil. But if we divert, deflect, or choose to ignore, that's a choice. It's a choice not to hear.

We were growing up, some of the kids would say when dad speaks, I put my hands over my ears, say la la la la, or sorry I can't hear you, got caught in my ears. Well we did those kind of things, we'd get heavy discipline. But yet the Lord allows us to do that to him, because he doesn't force himself on us.

We close our ears. When Stephen was prophesying under the unction of the Spirit, they closed their, they put their hands over their ears, they didn't want to hear the things that were spoken, and that made them angry. The Word of God will either convict you or cut you to the heart, or it will make you angry, and you'll charge at the man bringing the message.

We have to look inward and say, why is the Word of God made me angry? He's preaching at me. No, the Lord is speaking to you. Be angry with the Lord.

Why do they want to kill the messenger? They always wanted to kill the messenger. They hated the words of the prophets. They stopped their ears, and they tried to shut their mouths.

They couldn't endure the things that were spoken. Verse 12, whoever has will be given more. You have some light, you read the parable, you press into it, you're gonna get more understanding.

And that understanding is gonna produce spiritual change. Your heart's gonna become softer. When you push into the parable, your heart will become softer.

When you deflect the parable, and you don't want to see the things that are spoken, or hear the things that are spoken, your heart will become harder. It's a process of time. Keep pushing off conviction, something you once were convicted of, and pretty soon you have no conviction.

Your heart becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. You once were convicted, but now you have no conviction. You've chosen to stop your ears, and to shut your eyes, lest you should hear with your ears, see with your eyes, and turn, and change.

The message is about the condition of the heart. It says, he will have an abundance, but whoever does not have, what he has will be taken away from him. And so there's a slow fade, a drifting away from the truth.

And ignoring of truth makes our hearts accept other truths, lies. And pretty soon we start justifying our lies, and we call it wisdom. But this wisdom is not from above, it's earthly, sensual, and demonic.

Because this kind of wisdom produces confusion, and every evil thing is there. That's from James, the end of chapter 3. But the wisdom from above is first pure. His Word is pure.

It's able to divide between soul and spirit, even the motives and the intents of our own heart. If you really search, and say, Lord search me, and try me. What is my motive? Why did I do this? Why did I buy this? Why did I sell that? Why did I manipulate here? Why did I say these things? What was my motive? If you really want to know, you can know more.

But if you don't want to know, even what you have will be taken, and you'll just justify yourself. You deceive yourself. Verse 13, therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see.

In other words, seeing they don't want to see. And hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, saying, hearing you will hear and not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive.

For the hearts of this people have grown dull. They become calloused. The hearts become lukewarm.

The hearts become hardened. Because we love the world and all the things in it, we don't love the Word of God like we did at the first. At the first, we would have done anything if the Lord asked us to do it.

We would have done anything. And you don't want us to lose that. How do we lose that? Start loving everything else.

Usually that happens because a disappointment came into my life. I was hoping that God would do this for me, but it went exactly the opposite. And so we pulled back a little bit.

There was a trust issue between me and Jesus, you see. And so then I started to put my trust in other things. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He'll direct your path. I don't understand His ways. I don't have to understand it, but I should not pull back from pushing into Him.

When I say pushing into Him, I'm talking about coming to the light, having no part dark. But what do we do? We pull back from the light, and we lurk around in the shadows, and we have a good form of godliness, and we boast in those things, and we measure ourselves among ourselves, we consider ourselves by ourselves, we judge one another, and become a dead useless bunch. Their ears are hard of hearing, their eyes they have closed.

That's a choice. You choose to stop your ears so you don't have to hear. That's your choice.

And it's because of pride. I know better. I'll do it my way.

Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and understand. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, and I should heal them.

When we see, when we hear, when we understand, we're confronted with truth. We can repent. Repentance softens the heart.

It doesn't have to take a year. He says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26 that I will take your heart of stone. That's one that can't feel.

It once felt, it once was very sensitive to things of God, but now it's become dull and hardened through the deceitfulness of worldliness, and through repentance he can do a heart transplant, where he can take our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. It can happen instantaneous. The other way for us who have become dull of hearing is start to respond when we get conviction.

You know, I was with a brother here for three weeks. When he came, I was sharing the word, his heart was like concrete. And you know what I found? That bitterness was there.

A lot of bitterness was there. And when bitterness is there, bitterness is like a layer of concrete on top of the heart. You can't expect to receive anything from the Lord if you've got bitterness and resentment, anger, and unforgiveness there.

It's like concrete. Nothing will change. But through the washing of the Word of God, consistent washing, the heart can soften.

And all of a sudden, through some confession and just steps of obedience, in humbling oneself and making some restitution, just asking some forgiveness, humbling of oneself, all of a sudden the Word of God is starting to penetrate. And now the Word of God speaks. Speaking where? Speaking to the heart.

And then the heart begins to respond through faith. The heart has to always respond through faith. It's with the heart one believes unto righteousness.

A righteousness which comes by faith. Hey, you know what? There's stuff that's been undealt with. And when you humble yourself and you bring it to the light, having no part dark, you know what? God begins to work in your life.

We hold to some kind of reputation. But like Tyler shared, those things that seem to be something, seem to be gain to me, these I have to count as loss. My reputation, my pride, my thing.

What about His name? What about His glory? What about what Jesus wants? You call all those things as rubbish to gain Him. And gaining Him means coming to His truth. Coming to the light.

Walking in that light. This is a convicting. It's not for you, it's for all of us.

Looking in Ephesians chapter 4. Reflecting on Hebrews 3 says, today if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart. You choose to accept and say, Lord it's me, standing in the need of prayer. Or you choose to reject and say, you know what? That's not for me.

I'm gonna keep going my way. Whom having heard, rebelled. They said, no, I'm not receiving that.

I cut that off. Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart. That's how we depart from the Word of God.

We reject truth, we reject light, and then what happens is, we get condemnation. It says in John 3 verse 19, this is the condemnation. That men love darkness rather than the light.

Why? Because their deeds are evil. They don't want their deeds to come to the light. We don't want to change.

We're not ready to change. We're gonna try and make Jesus get happy with our way of doing things. We're gonna bring Jesus into our will.

And we're gonna wrap Jesus around that. It'll be another Jesus, but you know what? Jesus wants me to do this, and Jesus wants me to do that. And it all centered around me and mine.

Not you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. No. And that's why we don't have peace.

When we have condemnation. Because we're not coming to the light. We're not allowing the Word of God to penetrate our hearts through faith.

Our hearts have become hardened. And it starts to manifest the fruit of rebellion manifests. Bitterness, anger, resentment, selfishness, pride, greed.

All these things is the fruit of a bad tree. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good. And this is what we're fixing to read here in Ephesians in chapter 4. We read last week, brother read it, about having unity in the Spirit.

Endeavoring, striving to keep unity in the Spirit among the brothers. It takes work and it is a choice. I can choose to treat my brothers and my friends nicely and with respect, even if I don't agree with them.

I can choose to treat my wife and my children with respect, even though I may be at odds with them sometimes. But there's a way in which I'm to lead so that my home stays in peace. Sometimes my kids have some great ideas that are absolutely wrong, but I don't just put them down and put them in their place just because I can.

We pray for them until they get light on themselves. And we teach carefully using careful instruction. The opposite of that is just lording it over them.

Well, you know what? If you suppress your kids and you dominate them, I did that in my early days. You want to know what happens? They chafe under the yoke until they can break free. And then they run and then they have to go through some very, very hard things because we use law to suppress them, rather than doing things in a Christlike manner and teaching them and disciplining them correctly.

Now the reason we did these things is because we were ignorant. But you know what? It's good to learn from our mistakes and to course correct and do things differently. When I was being raised, I took up half of what my dad's method was and discipline and I went with half of what he did to me.

But it was still ten times more than I should have used. And now I'm trying to do things in a different manner, so that the children don't run away. The purpose of the gifts, the keeping of the unity of the Spirit, is for the equipping of the saints, that every part would become effective, whether young or whether old, that the Holy Spirit's able to work in each one of us individually, in verse 13, Ephesians 4, till we come to the unity of the faith, where the children grow up into maturity and they start to see things the way that we've taught them.

You know, I don't know how many of the kids have come to me after they got into their thirties, there's only a couple of them there now, and they say, you know what? They're starting to see, starting to understand things differently than they did when they're in their teens. Seeing things the same way, raising their families the same way, trying to lead them in a right way, find their own course, find their own path. And going from despising the parents in the teens who are restraining them, to respecting them and saying, you know what? They did as they thought best, and they really did love us.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, till we start to come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Growing up until we come to understand the Word of God as Jesus had intended it, through Paul and Silas and Cephas and the others who have preached the Word, pointing people to Christ. Saying these things in verse 17, it says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the worldly people walk.

Now we are all Gentiles. We're not talking about living like Gentiles. We're not talking about living worldly.

We're talking about living godly. And it takes time to learn what the will of God is, how we should conduct ourselves in this life. But we don't want to live the way the rest of the world lives.

The way we once lived. There has to be an evident change. It says, in the futilities of their mind, having their understanding darkened.

So when you don't want to see, when you don't want to hear, when you shut your ears and you close your eyes and the Word is speaking, whether through parable or just plain preaching of the Word, we reject truth. What happens is our hearts become hardened and our understanding becomes darkened and now we go back to living the way we used to live. And all the while calling ourselves Christians.

Being alienated from the life of God. That life is in his son Jesus. We don't have the life.

We just become religious. Because of the ignorance that is in them. Because of the blindness of the heart.

Pharaoh chose to become blind. Pharaoh chose not to see the works of God and take them to heart. He made a decision and it was God who ultimately said, I harden the guy's heart because the guy didn't want to change.

And then eventually it becomes not your decision anymore. It becomes his decision. Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.

Where God says, you know what? I will not strive with this man forever. Who being past feeling. You know what it talks about in 1st Timothy in chapter 4 verse 2. It says that their consciences were seared with a hot iron.

I don't know, but my wife burned herself on the skillet there. She got red marks there. You know what? When it scabs over and you have a seared wound that no longer the nerves have been fried.

It no longer feels. I have that on my incisions. I have two incisions.

No longer feels. But it can still suffer severe damage. But you can't feel it.

Like the lepers. The lepers lose feeling and parts of their body start rotting. It can happen that we would lose feeling.

That we would no longer be convicted by sermon that which is trying to get our attention. By a parable which is trying to draw us in. Instead we're pushing it away.

Because hey, it's almost 12 o'clock. There's a ballgame that I'm missing right now. My mind can drift to think about all those other things rather than in him his life.

There's always something out there trying to draw our heart after it. But it has to be put in its place. Who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness.

To work on cleanness. Work is fruit. I know your works.

I know your fruit. Whether it's good or bad. Working on cleanness with greediness.

You know there's a verse in Matthew in 24. Matthew 6 24. It says you cannot serve God and money.

You're going to love one hate the other. When you love money you're going to start justifying things and making some compromising decisions. And pretty soon good stewardship turns to greed.

May the Lord keep us from greediness. The whole purpose in our serving is to be a blessing. Whether we have much or whether we have little.

We've been bought with a price. It's not your own. You know I have some family members are very generous.

And so to ease the conscience they throw cash at a problem. And then men go and honor the men who throw cash at a problem. And they esteem them highly.

But to God it's an abomination. Because you received your reward. I'm not saying we shouldn't give.

But I'm saying sometimes to ease our conscience we throw cash at a problem. God doesn't want your cash. He wants your hearts.

If he has your heart he has your cash. It's just that simple. You have not so learned Christ.

If indeed you've heard him. If indeed you've been taught by him. As the truth is in Jesus.

Your word is truth. Jesus is the light of this world. And he calls us to be the light of the world.

So his word has to have a place in us. If his word has a place in us. Our hearts will be soft and tender and loving and compassionate and merciful.

Those will be the works. It says that you put off concerning your former conduct. The old man which was supposed to be crucified.

Were to reckon ourselves dead. Which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. If we live according to the flesh.

Those are the kind of things that are going to manifest. Corrupt conduct and deceitful lusts. But it says we're to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

You know where that verse is found? Romans 12 verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world or to this world's way of thinking. You know what happens is when I get around worldly people. And I associate you with them.

And I rub shoulders with them. You want to know what I hear? I hear about all the things. All the money they're making.

And all their successes. And all the stuff they got going. And how everything's going great for them.

Even the gamblers. You always hear about their big winnings in the 649. And this and that.

You don't hear about they lost their house. And their wife. And their kids.

And their car. They don't tell you that part. They only tell you about their big wins.

When they get together to brag. All you're hearing about is their success stories. But they're the most miserable people on earth.

If you get them alone. That's why bad company corrupts good habits. You say what makes them bad company? Worldly way of thinking.

Because when I get around the worldly, I feel like I'm missing out. And I like got to go and lend. Get some money.

And start buying stocks. And start investing in land. And start getting farms.

And everything else. And there's nothing wrong with buying and investing. But if your heart is there, that's where your treasure will be.

But if your heart is for Jesus, then you're going to start to see that the eternal reward of one soul outweighs the multitude of billions that you could have in your account. Because in eternity, that's what matters to Jesus. You say, well how many are in your church? How many in your Sunday school? How many in German they say, means nothing.

How many are born again? How many are hearing the Word of God? How many have changed? How many lives have changed? How many families are following the Lord now? Have you made an impact? When Jesus went, there were thousands. What kind of impact did he make? According to today's standards, we would say he was a loser. He had only 12 guys.

And even then they rejected him when push came to shove. But not according to God. He did all the things that God asked him to do.

Don't measure success the way the world measures success. Through one man, Abram, who became Abraham, he said your descendants will be as the stars in the heavens, if you can count them, and as the sand of the seashore, and good luck with that. I will make you a father of many nations.

Through one man's obedience, even Jesus the man, the Christ, the last Adam, many will be made righteous. He was obedient in his life, and as many as heard him and received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. And it wasn't just in that moment in time.

There is no time with God. And so you're making good choices now is going to affect your children's children's children's children. To a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my word.

You need to believe that. That your decision today to do or not to do is going to affect your line. And when you cease to exist, is there any spiritual blessing or any spiritual inheritance that comes from your line? It's not he who dies with the most toys wins.

Who cares? Carney's gonna take half of it anyhow. Your kids will fight over the rest if they don't love God. Be renewed in your mind.

Romans 12 to be renewed in your mind. Put off the old man, put on the new man. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind.

How do you get transformed? Through the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Allow the Word of God to penetrate your mind. And when you start to have a different way of thinking, then it starts to work its way into your heart and it starts to change your conduct.

But you got to choose what you let into your mind. Are you going to embrace the Word of God? Are you going to allow the Word of God to put to death and to cut off some of these relationships and some of these passions and these desires that are leading you in a direction that is not good? Or are you going to continue on and close your ears and stop your eyes? I'll finish here. Verse 31, well 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

When we push off truth, when we say I'll deal with it tomorrow, when we delay in our obedience, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. Verse 31, this is what makes our hearts hard. Let all bitterness, wrath, which is anger, anger, clamor, evil speaking, be put away from among you with all malice.

Those are the things that we need to repent of and we need to get out of our life. And we need to put on this, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you. That's what we need to do.

You know, our tongues are the biggest fire out there. With it we can bless men and with it we can tear people down. We can discourage them.

With it we can build faith, with it we can rob faith. I did a little study here on verse 29. It says, let no corrupt word come out of your mouth.

When I think corrupt word, I'm thinking swears. Not so. That's only a small part of it.

I have written here a corrupt word. I did a word search on it. A hurtful word.

A word intent to injure. It robs faith. It discourages people.

A harsh word. A harsh word can discourage people, can rob faith, which leads to sin. A discouraging word, a bad report, can rob faith and cause the people to sin.

A filthy word, an unclean word, a destructive word, a word that tears down and doesn't build up. It's not for the building up. With the tongue we can bless God and with it we can curse others.

We need to be careful how we speak and the kind of way in which we lead our families and our children. I still remember things that I've spoken that people remember what I said. I don't even remember saying them.

It was a hurtful word and sometimes I had recently in the last month someone came to me and said, well you said this about me. I couldn't even remember it. I said I'm sorry I said that.

I don't remember saying that. Words can impact people for years and years. We have to be careful with our speech.

That our words become seasoned with salt. That our tongues go through the fire of being seasoned with salt so that we might impart grace to the hearers. For the building up, yeah it might be an exhortation, but how do you like an exhortation? You like it when I come browbeat you on the head with a 2x4 or do you like it when I come put my arm around you and we go for a little walk and we have a little talk about it? Doesn't matter how I used to do it.

What matters is what Jesus says the right way to do it. The best way. I talked to the brother who was here, I don't want to use his name, and I said you know what sometimes the Word of God is bitter.

It's like Buckley's. It tastes awful but it works. I put my arm there and I said here this is this is why it's important for us.

At first it's bitter in our stomach but you know what it's gonna be good for us. It's good that the Word of God convicted me. It's good that it caused me to become unsettled in my spirit that I was convicted.

But you know what it's gonna bring something of a change if I allow it to work and I don't spit it out. Allow the Word of God, as bitter as it might taste in your mouth, to produce a sweetness inside of you. May the Lord give you understanding in these things.

Let's pray. Father grateful for your Word. I pray that we wouldn't have hearts that become numb or dull.

Our ears wouldn't become hard to hear. That our consciences wouldn't be seared with a hot iron through pushing off conviction, Lord. And that we wouldn't experience any more slow fade, Lord.

But that our hearts would start to become tender as we receive with meekness the Word of God. That it would become implanted within us. That it might begin to turn things around.

That the tears might begin to flow clear again, Lord. And we'd start to have more compassion and love for the lost and the hurting as we repent of the things that we see and the convictions that we have and we turn away from them. Thank you for the shed blood of the cross.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the power to change in Jesus' name. Amen.