LUKE 8:4-8 WORKING THE SOIL2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 8:4-8 Working The Soil

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Well today as we look at the parable of the sower, this is part two of looking at this parable. Last week we covered these verses but also the following verses where Jesus goes on to explain the parable.

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This week we're going to be slowing down a little bit and digging a little bit deeper. Now last week we talked about the heart conditions that are represented here in the parable of the sower. We saw the hardened heart, which was represented by the soil that was on the wayside or the path, the dirt that was hard that was packed down.

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And then we also saw the shallow heart, which was represented by the rocky soil, the soil with the rock underneath it. And then we saw the divided heart, which was represented by the thorny soil or the soil that had the weeds within it.

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And then we saw the committed heart, which was the good soil. And if you weren't here last week to listen to that, I encourage you to check it out on the webpage or ask someone in the sound ministry to make you a CD and make sure that you listen to and kind of get that introduction to this parable that we looked at last week. But as we continue on this week, we're...

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Digging a little bit deeper with the purpose of learning to identify bad soil in our hearts. Really learning to recognize when there's issues, when there's areas of our hearts that are hard or shallow or divided. How do we recognize when that is the case? How do we see that in our own hearts?

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Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23 gives us a really important verse, important instruction. It says, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life. Here the proverb is telling us you have been given a trust, a responsibility. It's your own heart and it's your responsibility to keep your heart with all diligence, to make sure that your heart is right with God.

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It goes on to say, for out of it spring the issues of life. You know, everything that you face in life really comes back to, it boils down to the condition of your heart. Situations, problems, achievements, victories, it all comes back to a condition of our heart. And so when we look at this subject of, well, soils of the heart, we understand it's not just soil.

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We're not just talking about, you know, ideally or, you know, certain people should really pay attention to this. But this is something for us to really consider. Each of us, well, we're not perfect. And what we know about our heart is what Jeremiah tells us, Jeremiah 17. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Then it goes on to say only God knows the heart.

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So how do you recognize, how do you know if you have bad soil in your heart? Can you ask yourself, heart, do I have bad soil? And your heart says, no, I've got perfect soil. It's good to go. Our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. And so we are not going to automatically recognize when there's conditions or issues of our hearts. And so looking at the parable of the sower, we can learn to identify conditions

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When there are those bad areas, when there's those bad soils that need to be worked. And so we'll be digging a little bit deeper, learning how to identify the bad soil and then how to develop that into good soil. And so there's three points I'd like to share with you today on the identifying bad soil, how to correct it, how to develop it and cultivate it into the good soil that Jesus describes there in verse 8.

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And so the first thing we see is looking again at the hardened soil or the hardened heart there in verse 5. And that is that we need to soften the hardened heart. To soften the hardened heart. Look with me again at verse 5. It says, A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.

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So again, Jesus is giving this parable of this sower who's casting out seed. He's not taking the seed and, you know, putting it one by one exactly in precise positions, but he's casting it out. And so it's landing on different places on different kinds of soil. The first kind of soil he's addressing here is the wayside or the roadside, the path that goes along the field.

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This path has dirt, but the dirt is hard. It's packed down. And so the seed, when it lands on the dirt, doesn't penetrate the soil. It just sits on the top. It gets kicked around as people are walking by because it's just sitting there on the top. And then ultimately the birds come and eat the seed and remove it from the soil so that it doesn't have a chance to grow, to penetrate and begin to develop.

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And so this first soil that he's talking about here is this hardened soil where the seed just sits on the top.

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Now we're relating to that as hardened hearts because, well, in verse 12 of Luke chapter 8, as Jesus is explaining the parable, he starts out in verse 12 saying, those by the wayside are the ones who hear. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. And so Jesus is explaining this parable about soils is really about hearts. You

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Your heart. My heart. Now, we can easily see, we can look at this parable and see, you know, how this applies to the gospel message and how it applies to people receiving and rejecting the gospel message, becoming Christians, being born again, but not lasting or being, you know, divided or distracted and so on and so forth.

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But I would encourage you today that this is not just about the salvation message or the gospel message, but that the gospel message is just the beginning of God's word being sown into our hearts. And so this is not just for, you know, unbelievers or those who've walked away from the Lord, but you as a believer in Jesus Christ who desires to walk with God and to know God, these are very important things for you and I because, well,

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our hearts are continually receiving the Word of God. And how the Word of God falls upon our hearts, or how our hearts are, the condition of our hearts when the Word falls upon them, determines what kind of product will be received from the Word of God in us. And so you and I need to be considering the hardened heart. Do you have a hardened heart?

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And it might not be, you know, a complete hardening of your heart. But many times in our lives with all of these soils, it's not, you know, a complete entirety type of thing. But there's areas of our hearts that are hard or shallow or divided. And so how do we identify, how do we spot the bad soil of our hearts? Well, there's a couple things I'll walk you through here. The first aspect of identifying the bad soil is...

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When God says, do this, and you refuse. You can identify when there's some hardness in your heart, when there are some things that God has said, here's what I want you to do, and you say, no. No.

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When you refuse to do what God has called you to do or spoken to you about, commanded you to do, instructed you to do, counseled you to do, however you want to word it, when you refuse to do what God has said you should do, that is evidence of a hardness of heart. Now we can see this very clearly as we're reading through the Bible in three years in the life of

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of Pharaoh, can't we? I mean, we've already begun to see. We're in chapter 5 today, and Pharaoh hears what God has to say. God says, let my people go out into the wilderness to worship. And Pharaoh says, no. I don't know the Lord. Why should I listen to him? I don't have to pay attention to what he says. Essentially, he says, you're not the boss of me. I'm going to do what I want to do. He says, no. And what do we see described here? How does...

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How does God describe Pharaoh? He describes him having a hard heart. His heart is hard. He's not receptive to what God has to say. He's not receptive to what God has instructed through Moses and Aaron. He says no. We also see hardness of heart in the children of Israel. Later on as they're led out of Egypt.

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God brings them to the border. They're at Kadesh Barnea, which is right on the edge of the promised land. And God says, I'm going to take you in. You're going to be victorious. Go on in. Go for it. Now go. And they're right here on the edge. They're right on the border. And they say, no. Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 kind of reviews this account for us and says, this is because of the hardness of their hearts. That they heard God's word. They had God's instruction.

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But they said, no, we will not enter in. Now, why would they not enter in? Was it because they decided, hey, we don't like God anymore. We're just going to walk away from God. We're just going to rebel against God. Were they angry with God? Were they trying to get back at God? Why wouldn't they enter in? Because they were fearful. You see, a hardness of heart is not just one of defiance that says, I want to fight against God.

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It's not just like Pharaoh who says, no, I don't want to listen to you at all. But hardness of heart also takes place when we do not obey God because we're fearful. Or any other reason. We might think it's a good reason. But when we know what God has said and we say no, it's evidence that there's a hardness of our heart. Now the inverse of that is also true. When God says, don't do this,

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and we do it anyways, that also is an evidence of the hardness of heart. And so if you are continuing on in things that God has said, don't do that, then you can know there's a hardness there in your heart. There's an issue that needs to be addressed. If you are continuing on in sin, if you are continuing to practice things that God in His Word has said, you should not be doing these things. To know what God has said...

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And to continue to practice those things anyways demonstrates that your heart is hard. That you are not receptive to God and His Word. When He says, do this and you don't. When He says, don't do that and you continue to do it. It shows that there is a hardness to your heart. Now, the third aspect of identifying when there's hardness in your heart is when God is not speaking to you at all. So when you can look at your life and you can think,

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Yeah, I can identify. I can see in my life there's examples. I know God's told me to do this. This verse tells me to do that. Or God spoke to my heart. It could be by a Bible study. It could be your personal devotion time. It could be, you know, in the time of ministering to one another that we're doing on Sunday evenings where God's spoken to you and you say, no. Or he spoke to you and said, don't do it. And you said, I don't care what you say. I'm going to do it. Or if you have the testimony or if you would say today, no.

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I don't think God's speaking to me at all. Listen, that's the evidence of a hardness of heart. Although I'm describing it this way, God's not speaking to me at all. The reality is the reverse. It's not that God isn't speaking to me. It's that I'm not listening to what he has to say. God's continually reaching out to us, speaking to us. He's got plenty of work to do in us.

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And so he's constantly pouring out the word upon us. He's speaking forth to us. There's an old song, I don't know if it's still on any of the Christian radio stations, but it talks about when God is silent, it's not that he's whispering, it's that we are not listening. When you don't hear from God, it's revealing the hardness of your own heart. When's the last time God spoke to you? I'm sure God's spoken to you.

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I'm sure you've experienced that, but is it ongoing? Is God working in your life? Is he giving you instruction? Is he giving you counsel? Is he working in your life? If you would say, you know, I can't remember the last time God spoke to me. Listen, there's probably a hardness of heart that you need to address because although God's sowing the seed, he's casting it out, it's being taken away, it's not penetrating, you don't even realize that he is speaking to you.

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And so using these three things, we can quickly identify whether or not there's some hardness in our hearts. Now, God does not want your heart to be hard. In Psalm chapter 51 verse 17, David says, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise.

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A broken and a contrite heart, David says, that's the sacrifice that you desire. You will not despise that. What God desires in us is not a hard heart, but a soft heart. A tenderness, a responsiveness to his word. The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 66 verse 2, God says, but on this one I will look. On him who is poor and

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and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Someone who trembles at the word of God. That there's a response. That there's a softness. That when God's word goes forth, it produces this trembling. As I was considering this point this week, I was reminded over and over again about King Josiah.

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And I'm going to be sharing quite a few verses with you this morning. So I encourage you to write those down, check them out later on. But King Josiah, you can find out about him in 2 Kings chapter 22.

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And Josiah became king at a very young age and in a time in Judah's history where they had forgotten the word of God. In fact, it had been lost. Their hearts were hard and as a result, the word of God was just forgotten about. They didn't even know if there was any copies left. They didn't know it existed. And as they're working on the temple under King Josiah's direction, they find the scriptures.

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They find the scrolls and they run to the king. They take it to the king and they say, we found the word of God. And they begin to read it to the king. Now as Josiah is hearing these things that are being read to him, he's hearing the scriptures being read to him, he realizes, oh no, we're in a bad condition because this is what God said not to do.

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And we're practicing those things. And God told us to do these things and we're not doing those things. And so he repented immediately. He realized, oh, we're in a terrible spot. And he sends messengers to go inquire of the Lord about their situation, about their condition. And God responds to King Josiah. He says in 2 Kings 22, 19, he says, because your heart was tendered,

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God says, Josiah, you're right. Judgment is coming upon these people because of the hardness of their hearts. But you, well, your heart was tender. I'm paying attention to you, Josiah.

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Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before me. And so the hardness of heart is not what God desires. He doesn't put up with it. He brings judgment upon hardness of heart. But the tender heart, the soft heart, that's what he desires. That's what he loves. And so how do we get there? How do we

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seeing these areas of hardness of our hearts, how do we then work the soil to develop it, to soften it? Well, for that, would you turn with me please to James chapter 4. James chapter 4. You see, the good news is, the important thing to know is that you don't have to be stuck with bad soil. So you look and you say, oh wow, I can see there's hardness in my heart.

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Where I'm not doing what God told me to do. Where I'm doing what God told me not to do. Where I don't hear God speaking to me at all. And you say there's hardness in my heart. Listen, you don't have to be stuck in that condition. You don't have to continue on that way. God has given us some tools to work the ground. To develop it into good soil.

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How do we do that? Well, James chapter 4, look at verse 6. It says, but he gives more grace, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, as we look here at James chapter 4, James says, God resists the proud. Now, this is related to what we're talking about, because hardness of heart could also be called a prideful heart. Hard heart, prideful heart.

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Pretty much synonymous. Because when we are prideful, it is us putting what we think before God. So when God says, do this, and we don't do it, in reality what's happening in our hearts is we're saying, God, I know what you said, but I don't like that. And I don't want to do that.

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And I consider myself more important than you and what I think more important than what you think. And so I'm not going to do what you want me to do because I'm going to do what I want to do. That's pride. That's elevating yourself and saying, what I think, what I want is more important than what God thinks and what he wants. Or when God says, don't do this and then we do it anyways, that's our pride in our heart saying, God, I know you think I can't handle this.

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I know you think that this is not good for me, but I know it's best. And so I'm going to do what I think is best. I'm going to do according to what I know I can handle. It's evaluating our own thoughts, our own desires, our own heart above God. It's pride. And here James says, God resists the proud, but notice he gives grace to the humble. And what do we see with King Josiah? God says, I'm resisting the proud.

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I am bringing judgment upon these people who are hard-hearted, but your heart was tender. So Josiah, I'm going to hear your prayers. I'm going to be with you. You see, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Then he tells us in verse 6, therefore, so since this is the case, since he resists the proud, the hard-hearted, but he gives grace to the humble, the soft-hearted,

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Here's what you should do. Therefore, verse 7, therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Here's the thing. Here's how to develop your hard heart into a soft heart. To develop those areas of hardness into, well, softness. How do you do that? Listen,

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It's not real complicated. It's not like, whoa, I've never heard anything like this before. It's very simple. Submit to God. He says, therefore, submit to God. It's not complicated. It's not hard to figure out. It's just hard for us to do it. Submit to God. So that when he says, do this, then you do it. And when he says, don't do that, then you don't do it. Submit to God. Do what he says. Put his word, his will, his ways above your own.

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humble yourself and put God higher. Submit to God. He goes on in verse 8, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. You see this humility, submitting to God, it's, well, it involves repentance.

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It involves weeping and mourning as we realize, I have been in defiance of you, God. I have been putting my own thoughts above yours. I've been preferring my ways to your ways. And there needs to be, well, there needs to be some sorrow over that. Repentance. I don't want to continue that way. It's a humbling of ourselves. A submitting to God.

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And He will lift you up. He will draw near to you. He will bring grace to the humble. And so when we identify that there is hardness in our hearts, we need to develop the soil to work the ground by submitting to God. It's a choice. It's a decision that we have to make. And it probably will feel like the hardest thing we've ever had to do in our lives. But it's not complicated. It's simple. Submit to God.

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Well, the second kind of soil that we see, going back to Luke chapter 8, is the shallow soil or the shallow heart. And so here we learn what we need to do is deepen the shallow heart. We need to dig deeper. Verse 6 of Luke chapter 8 says, "...some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture."

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So here Jesus describes the sower casting out the seed. Some of the seed lands on the rock. Now, I shared this last week. I always pictured in this part of the parable, you know, seeds landing on dirt that had a bunch of rocks in it. But in reality, what Jesus is describing here is, well, seed that falls on rocks...

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Think about big rocks and boulders that have a little bit of dirt on them. This was something common for them on their mountain sides because the water would wash away all the dirt and so there would just be these big rocks left with a little bit of dirt on top of them. And so if a seed were to fall on those, well, it would do what Jesus said. It would spring up quickly. Because it's a thin layer of dirt, it would be kept warmer and so the

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the seed would be able to sprout it would begin to grow very quickly but then it would also die very quickly because as it began to grow and as it developed well then the roots would have nowhere to go it would hit the rock and it would not be able to develop enough roots to sustain itself and so it would spring up really quickly but it would die really quickly and

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And using this understanding, using this explanation, now we can learn to identify if there is shallowness in our own hearts. How do we identify that? How do we spot the bad soil to recognize that there's shallowness in our hearts? Well, I would say you can identify it. You can see that there's shallowness when you see those times where God says, do this.

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And you do it until it gets hard. You ever have those times? Where God says, here's what I want you to do. And you spring up and you say, yes, I'm going to do what God's called me to do. I'm going to go on that mission trip. I'm going to start that Bible study. I'm going to lead my family in God's ways. I'm going to do what God's called me to do. God spoke to your heart. He's given you instruction. He's told you the way to go. And you spring up and you say, yes, I'm going to do what God's called me to do.

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But then the question is, did you see it to completion? Were you faithful to carry it out? Did you continue on and see it to the end? You can identify when there's shallowness in your heart by looking at how faithful you were to do those things that God spoke to your heart. As I was considering this point, I was thinking about John Mark in the book of Acts. You remember John Mark? He was...

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One of the guys who went with Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey. Now, how exciting that must have been, right? To go with Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey, to watch the miracles, to hear the gospel, to see what God was doing. I mean, what an incredible experience. And John Mark signs up and says, yes, count me in. I'm going.

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But about halfway through the trip, now we don't know exactly what happened. The Bible doesn't record all the details. But about halfway through the trip, John Mark leaves and goes home. So halfway through he says, never mind. I got a bail. I'm going home. It became a point of contention later on between Barnabas and Paul because on the next journey, Barnabas said, let's bring John Mark again. And Paul says, no, he abandoned us. He left us right in the middle of the trip.

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We can't rely upon him. Again, we don't know exactly. It doesn't give us the details, but perhaps there was a shallowness of heart here. He committed. He said, yes, I'm going to go, but then it got hard. Maybe he experienced the spiritual battles that go along with that kind of mission trip. Maybe he experienced the emotional difficulties of being on the road and being under attack and the pressures that are there. Maybe he experienced the physical difficulties of

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oh man, it's hard traveling out of a suitcase and sleeping just wherever you can find space on the floor. And he said, never mind. He didn't see it through to the end. I think this is an area that you and I can identify with. That we can recognize there's been times in your Christian walk where you know God has spoken to you. And you were excited about it. You started well. But you didn't bring it to completion. The question is, is that something

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where your heart is now. Is that what you're going through? Can you look at your recent history as a Christian and think about, yeah, God told me to do that. And I started to do it. But I'm not doing it anymore. Now, why aren't you doing it? Well, we often don't see it as that big of a problem, big of a deal, because we're really good at justifying ourselves. We always tease Mario because

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Well, hanging out with Mario is always interesting in that you never know what's going to happen, but also you never know when you're actually going to get a start to hang out with him. Because you say, hey Mario, let's hook up. You know, we're going to go hang out and grab a bite or something. Eight o'clock. All right, eight o'clock it is. And so it's usually like me and Richard and back in the day it was Lester too. And we're just hanging out like, where's Mario? It's 830. Mario, where you at? Oh, Mario.

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I'm just about to take a shower. I'll be right there. You're supposed to be here 30 minutes ago. Where are you? Well, you see what happened was, and we always tease him with that. What had happened was, and then there's the reason. See, I'm not actually late because what happened was, you and I can relate to that, right? We all have our reasons and we think, hey, it's not wrong. God told me to do this, but I'm not doing it now because you see what happened was, it got hard.

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It got difficult. There was some type of opposition. It required more than I thought. We have our reasons. We justify it to ourselves beautifully that we have ourselves convinced. It's not a problem. It's okay that I quit and gave up the Bible study because you see, and we have our explanation. It's okay that I didn't do what God told me to do. That I didn't follow through. That I didn't finish it to completion. Do you have a shallow heart? Are there areas in your life where God has spoken to you

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He says, do this. And you started to do it, but it got too hard. And so you're not doing it any longer. Or, again, the inverse. God says, don't do that. And you say, alright, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to stop. And you throw away all the stuff that goes along with that. And you get rid of all the junk that accompanies that. And you say, yes, I'm not going to do that anymore. Until it gets hard. And then when it's hard to not do what God said before,

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you shouldn't do, well then you find yourself doing it again. And involving yourself back in that sin. Involving yourself back in those things that God says you should not participate in those things. You have no business being there, doing that. But it's so hard. Again, we have our reasons, our justifications. Well, yeah I did, I gave it up, but then I lost my job, or then this happened, and I just really needed something to pick me up, to help me. I just really needed...

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We have our reasons, our explanations why it's okay. But what we're really declaring is, I have a shallow heart. Now, none of us like to declare that. None of us like to consider this. And we're looking at these soils. We all want to think that we have the good soil that Jesus talks about last. Because our heart is deceitful. It's got us tricked. We're convinced. I'm okay. But look at your life. Do you see those areas where God has said, do this, and you started to, but you're not anymore?

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I consider this shallow heart a hard heart in disguise. Because in reality, it's a hard heart, but it's in disguise. It's got a little bit of soil on top to pretend like there's some real life there. And so things are growing. And from the outside, you're like, oh, wow, look, things are growing. Things are happening. You can't see the hardness that's underneath. So how do we address this? How do we develop this soil? When we recognize, when we see...

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Yeah, that's me. All the time. It happens where God tells me things and I start to do it, but I don't see it through. I give up. I quit. I forget about it. Things happen and I'm not doing the things that I know God told me that I need to do. Well, we learn to develop the soil in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 12 through 14. Would you turn there with me please? Hebrews chapter 5 verses 12 through 14. Again, the good news is you don't have to be stuck in

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With bad soil. You don't have to be stuck and say, well, I have a shallow heart. That's just who I am. That's how God created me. So that must be how he wants me to continue. I give up. I'm not going to do anything about it. We don't have to be stuck in that condition.

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In that perpetual, yes, Lord. Oh, never mind. Yes, Lord. Oh, I quit. Yes, Lord. Never mind. We don't have to be stuck in that cycle of being excited, springing up like Jesus describes the seed springing up, but then dying so quickly. And God spoke to you, but then a month later we say, hey, how's it going? Oh, well, you see what happened was, and so I'm not doing that no more. How do we develop that? How do we change that? Well, Hebrews chapter 5 says,

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The author of Hebrews is addressing people who I would describe as shallow-hearted. Only he describes it a little bit differently. He describes it as infancy or immaturity. Verse 12 of Hebrews 5 says, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

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For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Here the author of Hebrews says to his audience, Hey you guys, by this time you ought to be teachers. In other words, if you had kept maturing at the rate that God intended, by this time you'd be teachers of the word. You'd be instructors, you'd be evangelists, you'd be pastors, you'd be disciplers.

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But instead, your growth has been stunted. And so instead of being teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles. So he's describing this condition where the people, they've been around for a long time. And they should have developed, but they haven't. And so they're needing to be taught again the first things. Repentance and baptism, the basics of the faith. He says you've come to need milk and not solid food.

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Now milk, I describe it this way. When he talks about milk, he's talking about pre-processed food, right? When a baby has milk, it's food that's been pre-processed for the baby. The mother consumes the food, extracts the nutrients, and then produces it to the baby in a way that can be received. When you and I drink a glass of milk, it's the same thing.

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Again, we're talking about the seed is the word of God.

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And because it lands in the shallow soil, it springs up, but it never gets to develop. And so it's just constantly springing up and dying, springing up and dying, springing up and dying. It's this constant cycle of needing to hear the first principles again. Hey, you've been around the church for a long time, the author of Hebrews says. You ought to be much more mature as a Christian right now, but you're not because, well, when you only partake of milk, then you continue on in an infant state.

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In other words, when you only hear from God through other people, you continue on in infancy. When you only hear from God because someone else is sharing with you in a Bible study, church service, ministering to one another on Sunday evenings, whatever the case may be. When you only hear from God because someone else is telling you what God is saying, you

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That's an important part of our Christian walk. But if that's the only time you hear from God, listen, you will remain with a shallow heart.

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You'll remain in a condition of infancy. And so then when God calls you onto the mission trip, hey, you've been around the church for 10 years. You ought to be able to go on a mission trip. You ought to be able to lead someone to the Lord. You ought to be able to take advantage of this opportunity and share the gospel and lead your family in the ways of God. And so God gives you these opportunities, but you're not equipped. You're not prepared. You're a baby. You're an infant. You're not prepared.

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Because you've only heard from God through somebody else. And so you don't have the depth to sustain the work that God would love to do in you and through you. Because along with the work of God comes spiritual battles, comes opposition, comes difficulty. And you need to be able to have the depth in the parable. And Jesus talks about the sun rising on this seed that fell in the shallow soil.

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I think it's in Matthew chapter 13 in that accounting of this parable. And the sun rises and it scorches the seed that is growing. It's unable to survive the heat. And that's what happens when we have shallow hearts. We hear from God. God says go. And so we're like, yeah, I want to go. But then there's the heat. Whatever form that takes. There's this heat that comes and we just can't endure because there's no depth to our soil.

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The author of Hebrews goes on in verse 14 and says, But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So solid food is the opposite of milk. Milk is pre-processed food. Solid food is food that you process yourself. You take the meat. You cut it up. You chew it. You extract the nutrients. The work is done by you.

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spiritually speaking, you need to hear from God on your own. You need to learn how to hear from God. You need to learn how to dig into the Word of God, to spend time with Him in His Word, to hear Him, to let Him speak to you. If you only hear from God because somebody else tells you, you will remain with that shallow heart. To develop depth, you have to learn to process the food yourself.

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He says the solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that maturity. He says those who by reason of use, it's because they've used the word of God so much that they've come to maturity, that their senses have been exercised to discern both good and evil. It's because they've dug in. They've spent time with God.

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Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.15, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If you have this condition, the shallow heart, and you can see the evidence of that, you need to develop some depth by learning to rightly divide the word of God, by reason of use, learning His word, spending time with God.

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Again, Paul said, be diligent to present yourself approved to God. Other translation says, study to show yourself approved to God. It involves this diligence, this discipline of sitting with God, spending much time with God. If you want to develop depth, you want to address this shallowness of your soil, you need to spend much time with God. Listen,

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you might not consider how much time you spend with God much of a problem. Because many other things may develop fine with the same level of commitment that you are giving to your relationship with God. In the workplace, having the same level of commitment that you have with your Christian walk, you might have an abounding fruitful job. You might do very well at work with the same level of commitment.

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even though you have a shallow heart. You might have a great family with the same level of commitment. You might be successful. You might do well in many avenues with the same level of commitment. But listen, the Word of God is not like those other things. It cannot survive in shallow soil. It needs depth. You cannot give God partial access to your life.

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You can't say, okay, this much you can have. This is the extent of my commitment. This is the extent of where you can go. This is the extent of what I will do for you. That's it. This is what you have to work with. That's what causes the shallow heart. It's that hardness of our heart that we put there and we said, you can go this far, but no farther. And that may be fine for many other things, but not a relationship with God, not His Word.

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And so to develop our shallow hearts into, well, hearts that have depth and substance. What do we do? Again, it's not rocket science. It's not real complicated or difficult. It's not new and you've never heard this before. Here's what you need to do. Be diligent. Be disciplined. Study the Word of God. Spend time with God and His Word. That's what you need to do. If you see the evidence that your heart has some shallowness,

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You commit, but you don't follow through. You say, yeah, and you go for it, but then, well, when it gets hard, you're not doing it anymore. You need to go deeper in your relationship with God by reason of use, spending much time with Him and His Word. Well, back to Luke chapter 8, we finish it off with a third point, looking at the divided heart. How do we address the divided heart? How do we work it? Well, we devote the divided heart.

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In order to address the issue of division within our hearts, well, we need to devote it to the things of God. Verse 7, Jesus addresses it. He says, So again, as he's casting out the seed, the seeds falling in various places, some of it fell in this soil that has thorns in it. And so as the seed begins to grow, these thorns begin to grow again.

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And ultimately they choke out the seed that was sown. The thorns, the weeds, they choke out the seed by stealing away the nutrients of the soil, by stealing away the space that was necessary for the seed in the soil, by stealing away the sunshine or sunlight. So the weeds crowd it, steal from it, shadow it, and as a result the seed is choked.

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Now we saw this last week as the divided heart. That there's these other things that compete for our attention. Our heart becomes divided and well the seed is choked. How do we spot this? How do we know if we have a heart that is divided? Well again looking at when God says do this and you do it until something else gets in the way.

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When you can look at your life and you can say, yeah, God spoke to me and he told me to do this and so that's what I'm doing. But then, well, then that surprise bill comes in. God told me to do this. I'm going this way. But now this bill comes in. Oh man, how am I going to pay this bill? Okay, I can't do this no more, God. Sorry. I got to do this thing over here so I can take care of this bill. Jesus talked about three things that divides our hearts. Cares, riches, and pleasures.

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cares is those surprise bills. It's the pressures, the things that we face where, well, there's anxieties, there's stresses. And I know you told me to do this, God, but I can't do it anymore because I have these other things I have to fix. And these other pressures that I have to relieve, these other stresses I have to deal with. And so, sorry, God, I can't do what you call me to do. That's a divided heart. Or when it's like this.

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God says, I want you to go over here and I want you to start doing this. I want you to start leading your family in this way. I want you to start a Bible study here. I want you to start obeying me and forgiving this person over there. I want you to start whatever it is. God speaks to your heart and you say, okay, I'm going to do it. You start to go that route. You begin that and then you have a job offer. And the job offer now begins to compete with what God has called you to do.

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So God's called you to go start a church in Texas and you have a job offer in Idaho. But the job offer is a really good one. Lord, you got to understand. I mean, I'm going to make bank. It's going to be awesome. I'm going to be able to tithe so much. You're going to love it, God. There becomes this, well, there's opportunities. You could get that car. You could have this life. You could go over here. You could accomplish this. You could get all this glory. You could have these accolades.

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And now these desires for the things of this world steal away the attention, the focus, the energy, the commitment to do what God had called us to do. You know, it's amazing to me, people will go to great lengths to move all over the world to secure for themselves some type of future without ever considering what it means for their spiritual life.

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I've heard of many people selling everything and moving in order to get a job or to get a house or to get into this or to get into that. But very seldom do you hear people selling everything and moving to get a better relationship with God, to really develop their spiritual life. It's very rare because there's these divisions. I'm not saying we're all supposed to... Stay here, please.

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I'm not saying we're all supposed to move, but what's competing for the attention? God says, go here, do this, follow that, obey this. And then we're like, well, I'd like to do that, but I'd like to do this. And there's this, can't I do both, God? God says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Or another division, Jesus talks about His pleasures. Or maybe I would call it entertainment. You know, this is an area that I'm very familiar with. Because, um...

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Well, I am, I like to be entertained. For me, you know, I've had to, several times in my life, I've had to weed out video games. Now, not because video games are in and of themselves wrong. Some of them are. They're not, you should never be playing those. But, you know, not all of them. But here's what happens. For me, for who I am, knowing who I am, knowing, looking at my history, it's pretty easy to tell. I get consumed. I get consumed.

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And so I don't play a lot of video games. Not because I don't like them, but because I like them too much. And I will get consumed with those things. And it can very easily destroy my life. Back in my younger years, a couple days ago, no, younger years, Lester and I and Richard were all living at the Norco house.

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Tom's house in Norco and we were all living there and and I can't tell you how many times Lester and I would stay up all night playing video games now it was no big deal for him he didn't have to work the next day but I had a regular you know eight to five job and so I was convinced every time the next game I could beat you Lester the next game so pretty soon it's one o'clock in the morning and

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Oh man, I got to get up in a few hours. No, no, no. I can beat you the next game. So let's go again. Come on. And then it's 3 o'clock in the morning. Then it's 4 o'clock in the morning. Then it's 5 o'clock in the morning. I can't tell you how many times this happened. Too many to count. Because I just get consumed. I always lost. But I was always convinced I can beat you the next game. And so there was many sleepless nights. And there was many sleepless freeway travels. Or sleeping freeway travels.

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Because I didn't sleep, because I was consumed by, I got to win, I think I can do it. That attention, that entertainment took away from higher responsibilities, things that I should have been paying attention to and involved with. And so the cares, the riches, the pleasures...

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There's tons of examples. I'll let you work that out yourself. What is God speaking to you? Are there those things that are dividing your heart, that are stealing away from things that you know God's called you to do? It's stealing away from your time with the Lord devotionally. It's stealing away from the service that he's called you to be involved with within the church. Is it stealing away from the commitments that he's called you to make with your family? Is it stealing away from the things that God has called you to do?

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Those are divisions. Well, how do you deal with that then? If you've got those divisions, you've got those things that are vying for your attention, well, again, I say you need to devote the divided heart. Would you turn with me please to Luke chapter 10? We're just going to look at this really briefly because we're running short on time. But again, the point is you don't have to be stuck with bad soil. And so in Luke chapter 10, we have the example of Mary and Martha. And Jesus is there at their house and

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And Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus while Martha is very busy preparing the meal for Jesus and those who are with him. And so as Jesus is there, it says in verse 39, it says, she, that's Martha, she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. So first we see Mary. And she's sitting at Jesus' feet. And what is she doing? She's hearing his word. She is...

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While the seed is being sown into her heart. She's saying, he's here, he's speaking. I'm going to receive it. Martha, on the other hand, verse 40. But Martha was distracted with much serving. Is serving bad? No. Is it sinful? Can be. Can it distract you from the work that God has called you to? Absolutely.

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So it's riches and cares and pleasures. It's not just, again, defiance, I want to walk away from God. But hey, you can get too caught up in the things that are good things that are happening within the church or within family or whatever. And you can be serving all kinds of people, but it's really a distraction. And Martha becomes upset. She's like, Jesus, tell her to help me. I've got so much stuff to do.

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Verse 41, and Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things. You've got these cares that are weighing you down, that are distracting you, that are dividing your heart. But notice verse 42, but one thing is needed. How many things are needed? One thing is needed. Devote the divided heart. You're worried, you're troubled about many things. You've got all these things you're worried and troubled about, but one thing is needed. One thing is needed.

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Oh, I got to go over here. I got to do this. And I got these other things going on and back and forth. And one thing is needed. How many things are needed? One thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. Listen, the most important thing in your life is your heart and making sure that your heart is right with God. That is your first and foremost responsibility.

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Keeping your heart in line with God. It's one thing. The rest of the stuff follows. But that must come first. Jesus said, we talked about it last week, Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God. That must be first. You have to devote the divided heart and say, no, I'm going to put this first. Now, it doesn't mean we don't do other things.

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God is not saying you should only, you know, just stay in your prayer closet all day, never come out, just keep praying and don't do anything else. No, but go there first. Spend time with God first. Align your heart first. Develop the soil that's hard and shallow and divided and devote yourself to God. Seek first, foremost, before anything else, more important than anything else, devote the divided heart.

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And so when we find that there's this division, that there's these things that are stealing away from what God has called us to do, what do we do? Well, again, it's not super complicated. It's not brand new. You've never heard this before. But here's what we need to do. Let God and His Word be unrivaled in your heart. Unrivaled. Without competition. He comes first to vote the divided heart.

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Again, Proverbs 4.23 says, keep your heart with all diligence. Listen, your heart is your responsibility. You're not stuck in the condition that you have right now. God's given you tools to develop the soil. Keep it, protect it, develop it, cultivate it with all diligence because out of it springs all the issues of life. Everything that you will encounter in this life has to deal with your heart.

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It's the most important thing that you have. So keep it with all diligence. And if you find that there's hardness, soften it. Submit to God. I know it feels terrible. I know it's very difficult. And breaking up hard soil, you know, I was thinking about like a rototiller, right? Like that's how it feels to submit to God when your heart's hard. But do it. Keep your heart with all diligence.

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Deepen the shallow heart where you find that shallowness where you're committing but you're not following through. Be diligent. Be disciplined. Use the word of God much. Spend time with him in his word. Let God develop that depth that you need to be able to do the things he's called you to do. And then when you find that your heart is divided, devote it. Let God and his word be unrivaled in your heart. No competition. He comes first.

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And the end result will be, verse 8, but others, back in Luke chapter 8, verse 8, but others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold. You see, the result is the good soil that Jesus talks about. If you've got a hard heart, a shallow heart, or a divided heart, you don't have to stay that way. You can develop it. You'll have good soil. And as God casts out the word, it will produce. There will be fruit there.

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God will change your life. So keep your heart with all diligence. Let's pray. God, as we consider these things, I pray, Lord, because our hearts are deceitful and above all things, desperately wicked, I pray, God, that you would help us, Lord, to recognize the real condition of our heart. And Lord, for those who see there as you reveal it, that there's hardness or that there's not depth, that it's shallow.

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Or for those who see the division and the things that are competing for the attention and devotion that's due to You. God, I pray that You would help us, Lord, to cultivate our hearts, to develop them by submitting to You. Even though we disagree, help us to do what You say. Even though we think our way is better, help us to follow Your Word. And God, help us to be disciplined and diligent in our time with You and Your Word.

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And as we do, I pray, God, that you would provide that depth, that we'd be able to withstand the heat and be faithful to the end with the things that you've committed to us. And God, we pray that you would help us to seek you first, that our time with you, that one thing, Lord, that it would be the most important thing for us. Lord, that you and your word would be unrivaled in our hearts. Help us, God. In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.