We all love quick fixes, don't we?
If we have a problem, we wanna solve it
in the quickest and simplest way possible.
And our bent towards quick fixes
pops up almost every single day.
The router is acting up, so what do you do?
All right, try to be a bit louder so I can hear you.
What do you do when the router's acting up?
You unplug it, then you plug it back in, right?
You have a pounding headache.
What's your go-to when you have a flare up?
Just pop a few ibuprofen or Tylenol to take the edge off.
And when the edge doesn't grow dull or you get so annoyed,
when that router issue isn't fixed by the unplug
and plug back in, you get so frustrated.
The ultimate example of an easy fix from my life
is the N64, the Nintendo 64, whoever owned one growing up.
For those of you who weren't born sometime in the 1900s,
let me make it clear that these games
were not played on discs.
You couldn't download them digitally.
You had to play them on cartridges.
And for you, 80s and 90s kids in the room,
what was the quick fix to the problem
of the game glitching or freezing?
The harmonica method, right?
(splat)
We thought there was dust in the cartridge
and you had to blow it out.
According to my internet research,
people are divided over the effectiveness
of the harmonica method.
Some people say that it was the placebo
that made you feel better, but didn't actually do anything.
While others say, yeah, it was a short-term fix.
It worked for a bit, but it caused long-term damage.
According to these gamers online,
the moisture from your breath corroded
the inside of the cartridge or something, I don't know.
But all of these nerds online agree about one simple fact.
This was a quick fix,
not a long-term solution.
It either did nothing to help the problem
or it made the problem even worse.
As you saw in the promo video a few moments
ago, we have been hyper-focused on one major theme
from Scripture over the past nine months.
God wants your heart.
He doesn't just want your external rule following,
He wants your internal love and devotion.
But maybe you've heard this theme of God wants your heart
preached about Sunday after Sunday,
but you still aren't there.
Maybe you know what God wants from you,
for some reason you don't want to give it to Him.
Your heart is distant from the Lord.
Your heart is cold towards His Word.
There is something off inside of you.
You need to get to a better place,
but you don't know how to get there.
And for weeks, months, or even years,
you've been trying all the quick fixes,
but nothing is working.
The problem just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
You have a serious heart problem
that you cannot solve on your own.
If that's you, I have a two-part question to ask
that you don't have to answer out loud,
but you do need to answer in your heart.
Are you ready to put away the quick fixes
and stop doing things your way?
Are you ready to grab ahold of God's long-term
solutions and start doing things His way?
If the answer is yes, I have to warn you,
it's gonna hurt.
It's gonna take God's painful scalp cuts,
scalpel cuts to truly lead you to the change that you need.
True change requires an open heart procedure.
Over the next month,
we're gonna undergo four surgical solutions
to our heart problems, evaluating our hearts,
confessing from our hearts,
giving thanks with our hearts, and guarding our hearts.
As you may have noticed, all these surgical solutions
require your cooperation and participation.
None of these solutions will be easy,
but they are guaranteed success.
If you submit to your divine doctor
and let Him do His work in your heart.
So before we continue, let's go to the Lord
and ask for His help.
Please pray for me and I will pray for you.
Father, we thank you for this most important appointment
of the week.
This isn't just a throwaway time.
We come if we have a break in the schedule.
There's a time we come together as your people
to worship you and to come under the teaching of your Word.
Or may you do a work that only you can.
May you work in human hearts.
May you bring conviction.
May you challenge.
May you build up.
May you bring life where there is none.
What I can do, none of those things, only you can.
Preach a much better message in people's hearts
than I ever could with my mouth.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.
So the first surgical solution to your heart problem
is found in Luke chapter eight, verses four through 15.
Please turn there with me.
Luke chapter eight, verses four through 15.
At this point in his ministry,
Jesus is being followed around by crowds
who want to experience his miracles
and hear him preach messages that are unlike anyone else's.
In our passage for this morning,
Jesus teaches the crowd a parable.
And as a refresher, a parable
is an everyday story with a spiritual meaning.
It is a work of fiction that points to the reality
of God's kingdom and the salvation that Jesus offers.
Let's read one of the greatest parables
in Luke chapter eight, verses four through eight.
And when a great crowd was gathering
and people from town to town came to him,
Jesus said in a parable,
a sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some fell on the path
and was trampled underfoot
and the birds of the air devoured it.
And some fell on the rock.
And as it grew up, it withered away
because it had no moisture.
And some seed fell among thorns
and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
And some fell into good soil
and grew and healed at a hundredfold.
As Jesus said these things,
he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
So a sower is in his field,
scattering seed anywhere and everywhere that he goes.
And some of this seed lands on good soil
but most of it lands on bad soil.
Some of the seed falls along the path
where people stomp on it
and it is quickly picked up by birds.
Some falls on soil where it looks good
but there is a bedrock underneath the soil
that you cannot see.
So the seed has no moisture.
It can't develop a root system
so it withers away and dies.
Some of the seed falls on thorns
where it is choked out.
But some of the seed falls on good soil
where it steadily but surely grows over time
and leads to an abundant harvest.
That's the story.
And Jesus closes out by saying,
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Why does he say that?
What's the point of saying that?
Well, the modern day equivalent is on the screen behind me.
Can any of you young people decipher this for us?
What is it?
Thank you, Sierra.
If you know, you know.
Jesus is saying you're either gonna understand
what I'm saying or you won't.
Well, the disciples themselves are left confused
not really understanding the story.
So they work up the courage to go up to Jesus
and say, "Hey, Jesus, great story."
But what in the world was that about?
And check out Jesus' response in verses nine through 10.
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
he said, "To you, it has been given to know the secrets
"of the kingdom of God,
"but for others they are in parables.
"So that seeing they may not see and hearing
"they may not understand."
Now you may be thinking, hold on a minute.
It seems like Jesus is saying
that he taught in parables to confuse some people.
Yeah, you get a gold star for observation.
That is exactly what he is saying.
This may be a hard pill to swallow,
but Jesus taught these parables
both to reveal and to conceal the truth.
He taught these parables to reveal the truth
to those whose hearts are soft and ready to receive it.
But he also told these parables to conceal the truth
from those whose hearts are hardened
and resolved to reject it.
The good news is if you truly want to understand
the parables, you will.
But if you don't really care
about understanding the parables, you won't.
It's that simple and clear cut.
But thankfully Jesus does something that he rarely does.
He explains the meaning of the parable.
Praise the Lord, isn't that so convenient
for every single one of us in this room?
Jesus is like that teacher who tells you
what's on the final exam
and lets you go to the back of the book to find the answers.
So let's go to the back of the book
and see Jesus answer for what this parable means
in verses 11 through 15.
Now the parable is this.
The seed is the word of God.
The ones along the path are those who have heard it.
And the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
so that they may not believe and be saved.
And the ones on the rock are those
when they hear the word, receive it with joy,
but these have no root.
They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away.
And as for what fell among the thorns,
they are those who hear, but as they go on their way,
they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures
of life and their fruit does not mature.
As for that in the good soil,
they are those who hearing the word hold it fast
in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.
Jesus clearly spells out everything for us.
The seed is the word of God that is scattered
by the sower by anyone who faithfully shares the word.
The seed of the word is scattered every single Sunday
as someone stands before you to proclaim
what God has to say.
The seed of the word is scattered
whenever you teach the lesson back in Harvest Academy
or do family devotions with your kids.
The seed of the word is scattered
whenever you share the gospel
with that unsafe family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor.
And according to Jesus, the scattered seed of the word
lands on four different types of soils,
which represents four different types of human hearts.
And Jesus is not talking about the organ
that's bumping in your chest right now.
He's talking about who you really are on the inside.
Your heart is the source of all your emotions,
your affections, and your motivations.
Your heart is constantly taking in everything you see
here and experiencing and evaluating it.
And according to God's word,
you don't just have physical ears on the sides of your head,
you also have spiritual ears on your heart.
And these spiritual ears can either hear the truth
and reject it or can hear the truth and accept it.
Three of these soils,
three of these heart hearers in this parable
reject the word, which leads to eternal destruction.
Only one soil, only one heart here accepts the word
and is saved and has eternal life.
Do you remember those hearing evaluations
you had to take back in elementary school
where you shuffled the school library or some random room?
You put on the headphones,
where they play different noises
at different frequencies and decibels.
And what would you do if you could hear the noise?
Show me what you would do.
You raise your hand, right?
Or you kept it down if you couldn't hear it.
And depending on how the evaluation went,
you could either go about the rest of your day as normal
or you'd be sent to an ear doctor.
Well, this parable is a heart hearing evaluation.
It gauges how your heart hears
and responds to the word of God.
It reveals if you are currently rejecting Jesus Christ
in His gospel or if you've actually accepted Him or not.
It reveals how serious of a heart problem you have
and how serious of a heart surgery you need.
So after one of the longest introductions
in the history of this church,
it's time to put on the spiritual headphones
and take your heart hearing evaluation.
First question of the heart hearing evaluation.
Does your heart hear but disbelief?
Does your heart hear but disbelief?
Let's start with the pathway soil
where the seed is crushed and eaten by birds.
Listen again to Jesus' explanation in verse 12.
The ones along the path are those who have heard,
then the devil comes and takes away the word
from their hearts so that they may not believe
and be saved.
The birds stand in for Satan himself
who has a mission to accomplish,
to keep unbelievers from truly hearing the gospel message
and accepting it.
The apostle Paul speaks to this ministry of Satan
in 2nd Corinthians 4/4.
He says, "The God of this world, that Satan,
"has blinded the minds of the unbelievers
"to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
"of the glory of Christ who is the image of God."
Do you know that Satan and his demons
are faithful church attenders?
I guarantee they have a better track record of attendance
than anyone in this room.
They never miss a Sunday.
But they don't show up to worship God,
they show up to deceive and to divert attention.
Satan wants you to daydream during the message
and think about what's for lunch afterwards.
Like that even matters at all.
Satan wants you to have sleepy eyes
and a head that bobs up and down, up and down.
He wants you to be restless and fidgety in your seat.
He wants you to absentmindedly doodle on your outline
rather than take diligent notes.
He wants you to be doubtful regarding the things of God.
He wants you to suffer from this condition of believing
that God could never love or forgive someone like you.
He wants you to hear the word, but disbelieve the word.
Is that where you are this morning?
Is your heart problem that you're disinterested in
and maybe even disgusted by?
What is preached behind the pulpit here?
Or shared with you by faithful Christian relatives and friends?
Maybe you're here to make your family happy,
but you're not buying into all this Jesus stuff.
Maybe the teachings of the Bible seem outdated,
harsh and even harmful to you.
Maybe when you look at this book,
it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
If I've described you at all,
I wanna share with you that I am so glad that you're here.
And I have been praying for you all week.
I've been praying that Satan would not steal
the seed of the word from your heart once again.
I've been praying that you would hear the word
with fresh ears and a willing heart.
I've been praying that you would see yourself
as a sinner and Jesus Christ as the only savior.
Turn from your disbelief, turn to Jesus Christ
and believe in what he accomplished
through his perfect life, his sacrificial death,
and his resurrection from the grave.
If you do, he will wipe away all of your sins.
He will give you his perfect righteousness.
He will give you a new heart that has new life
and a new love.
That is what faith in Christ will get you.
Let me ask, what has disbelief in Christ ever gotten you?
Nothing but an anxious and dissatisfied heart.
If you continue with that disbelief,
you will experience spiritual death that lasts forever.
Second question of the heart hearing evaluation,
does your heart hear but stall out?
Does your heart hear but stall out?
Next up is the rocky soil.
Let's read verse 13.
"And the ones on the rock are those,
when they hear the word, receive it with joy,
but they have no root.
They believe for a while in time of testing fall away."
This kind of heart hears the word and seems to accept it.
There is an immediate willingness to follow Jesus.
There is quick growth.
Bad habits are put away and new habits are formed.
This person feels happy.
Boy, oh boy, it's fun to be a Christian.
Life is the best.
But then times get tough.
They experience hardship.
And life isn't so great anymore.
It isn't so fun to be a Christian anymore.
The view ahead used to be filled with hope and with life,
but now it is full of darkness and uncertainty.
Back in high school, my friends and I were driving
in two separate cars to a concert.
When the car I was in stalled and came to a halt
on the side of the road.
And the other car full of guys parked right behind us.
And my friend Robert, who was driving the car I was in,
got out.
He popped the hood, which was basically an empty gesture
because none of us had jumper cables
or knew how a car worked.
I wish Ben Maul was there that day.
That would have been fantastic.
He could have helped us.
And so Robert pretended like he knew
he was doing looking under the hood.
And then he called his stepdad to come and help.
But the problem was the other car full of guys
was getting antsy because they still wanted
to go to the concert.
And the driver of that car said,
"Hey guys, we got one less spot.
We got one more spot less in this car.
Two of you are gonna have to stay here
because we're not waiting."
And that made me so mad.
I was like, "Seriously?
I'm not gonna go have fun at the concert
while we leave people stranded here."
Well, my friend Ryan didn't feel the same way.
He said, "I'll go with you."
And he jumped in the car.
They sped off while we were coughing up dust
from their speedy getaway.
And we waited for Robert's stepdad
for what felt like hours.
And it was the dead of summer, so it was hot.
It was hot like this auditorium often is, right?
And we got so desperate,
we drank the emergency water in the trunk,
which must have been there for years
'cause it tasted like warm motor oil.
And eventually Robert's dad, his stepdad showed up
and he said, "Hey, I called a tow truck.
It's gonna come soon.
And I can still take you to the concert if you want to."
How do you think we felt about that?
We're like, "No, we're totally over that.
Just take us back home."
We were so done with that concert.
The day had started out so well.
It was a ton of fun.
Then the car stalled out
and we were thrown for a loop.
The concert was no longer exciting and appealing to us
like it used to be.
That happens to so many people who profess faith
in Jesus Christ.
They seem to be doing just fine
as they drive along on the Christian journey,
but then they hit an unexpected bump in the road
and totally stall out.
Family members stopped talking to them
because of their new beliefs.
Friends make fun of them for their new ridiculous standards.
Coworkers belittle them for missing happy hour
to go to small group.
Romantic interests threaten to break up the relationship
if you don't cut it out with this religious nonsense.
Instead of persevering through these tough times
and moving forward, they give up on Jesus.
They retreat and go back to their old lives.
Following Jesus was convenient for a season,
but then there was too high of a price to pay.
Have you already given up?
Are you tempted to give up right now?
You have to understand that Jesus never promises
an easy life if you follow him.
That's not listed in the brochure.
True Christians are not exempt from suffering and persecution.
Actually, true Christians are targets
for suffering and persecution.
Listen to Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 through 14.
"For the gate is wide and the way is easy
that leads to destruction,
and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard
that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
Let me ask you, what is the smarter play?
Easy for several decades in this life
and horribly hard in hell forever
or hard for a little bit in this life
and easy for all of eternity in heaven?
Which is the better option?
Anyone can start out well, but very few finish well.
A quick start out the gate doesn't mean much
if you don't cross the finish line.
Only those who hear the word and persevere in the Word
possess a transformed heart.
So please do not give up.
Do not pick up your ball and go home.
If you already have, it's not too late to get back in the game.
It's not too late to jump back on that racetrack
and keep going until the end.
Third question of the heart-hearing evaluation.
Does your heart hear but get distracted?
Does your heart hear but get distracted?
Does your heart hear but get distracted?
In verse 14, Jesus talks about the thorny soil.
And as for what fell among the thorns,
they are those who hear, but as they go on their way,
they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life
and their fruit does not mature.
This kind of heart here is not at all hostile to Jesus.
This person may even claim to be a Christian,
know a lot about the Bible
and even sit in church on Sunday.
But the knowledge in his or her brain
does not affect his or her heart
because any growth, any transformation
is pushed down by an obsession with the world.
It is choked out.
Climbing the ladder of achievement,
having a stacked financial portfolio,
planning for a carefree retirement
and raising impressive kids who do impressive things
is always the front of this person's thinking.
They have no interest in hearing what God has to say
about how they should live
because they already have a plan for their life.
To be clear, I'm not saying it's bad to have a lot of money,
invest in the stock market or plan for retirement.
It's not bad if you own things,
but it is bad when things own you.
People often misquote the apostle Paul
and say, "Money is the root of evil."
Is that what the Bible says?
The apostle Paul says it this way,
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
It is through this craving
that some have wandered away from the faith
and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The greedy longing for more and more and more stuff
and success will spiritually bankrupt you."
Please be honest with yourself.
Are you distracted by the things of this world right now?
Are you more excited to receive your direct deposit from work?
More than you are excited to receive and read God's word?
Does remodeling your house or buying a new car
thrill your heart more than worshiping God?
My son is almost six years old
and my daughter is three and a half,
and they are totally oblivious to the basics of finances.
And they have next to no interest in money.
If I were to come home and tell them,
"Hey, do you want to spend an entire day with me?
Or do you want all the money in my various accounts?"
What do you think they would say?
They want to spend a time with their dad.
They would want me more than stuff from me.
And please listen to me. This is so important.
It is a serious heart problem to want stuff from God
more than God himself.
This is a symptom of a heart that is thorny and distracted.
According to Jesus, this kind of heart does not truly know Him.
If that's you, please don't push aside this concern
and say, "I'll deal with it later."
No, deal with it right now.
Ask God to take His scalpel and clear the thorns
from your heart that are keeping you from Him.
Let go of the garbage of this world
so you can grab ahold of the treasures of heaven.
Final question of the heart-hearing evaluation.
Does your heart hear and produce a changed life?
Does your heart hear and produce a changed life?
Let's see what Jesus has to say about the good soil
in verse 15.
"As for that in the good soil,
there are those who hearing the word hold it fast
in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience."
This heart here receives the word and perseveres in the word.
It doesn't experience quick growth.
It actually grows in a sustainable pattern for the long run.
This person has a good and godly heart
that produces good and godly life.
This good and godly fruit is a changed life.
This good and godly fruit includes ongoing repentance of sin,
loving the church, refusing to throw in the towel,
sharing their faith, making disciples.
The true test of saving faith
isn't that you pray to prayer as a kid.
Walked an aisle at a revival service,
raised your hand or signed a card.
There are so many people who grew up in the church
and say that they accepted Christ,
but there is nothing different about them now.
A past action means nothing
if there is no present evidence of God at work in your life.
What you did back then doesn't really matter
if you're not trusting in Jesus now, loving Jesus now,
following Jesus now.
The true test of saving faith is a changed life.
And it brings my heart so much joy to know
that many of you in this room are the good soil.
You have received the word of God
and it is growing up and taking over your life.
It changes how you think, it changes how you speak,
it changes how you react.
Your heart is good soil.
But that doesn't mean that your heart is exempt from heart problems.
The temptation to stay still or to backslide
will always be there.
You will go through seasons of apathy and depression.
There will be times you read the words in these pages
and they mean nothing to you in your heart.
You will know what you should do,
but you still decide to do what you shouldn't.
The question isn't will you experience heart problems?
The question is what will you do when you experience heart problems?
And we're going to spend the rest of this series answering that question,
but I don't want to leave you hanging until next Sunday.
So I'm going to provide you with Jesus' own answer to this question
in Revelation 2 verses 4 through 5,
where the church in Ephesus gets a personal message from Jesus himself.
He says this,
"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen.
Repent and do the works you did at first."
Brothers and sisters, have you abandoned your first love?
Have you lost the passion that you used to have for Christ when you were first saved?
Remember how you used to feel about Him.
Remind yourself of how you couldn't get enough of the Bible and impactful sermons.
Remind yourself of how you couldn't wait to grab ahold of people
to tell them all that you were learning, to tell them about Jesus.
Don't you miss how things used to be?
Don't you want your heart to be on fire for Christ again?
You can get back to that point and move so far beyond it,
if you repent of your dispassion and do what you did before.
Don't wait to make the right choice until you feel like it.
Make the right choice so you will feel the right way once again.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking as we come to a close with this message.
Man, this is a super heavy sermon series for the summer.
Don't you realize this July?
Mentally, I'm just checked out and on a beach somewhere wearing flip flops.
This is the month of rest and relaxation.
Not in this church, it's not.
We're going to get after it for the next month.
We are going to walk out of this building as different people
with different heart attitudes at the end of July.
We are going to be done with the quick fixes.
And instead, we're going to pursue after God's solution to our heart problems.
Is anyone else with me?
The first step in receiving God's solution to your heart problem
is to evaluate the health of your heart.
So how is your heart doing?
Is it stomped on and disbelieving?
Is it rocky and stalled out?
Is it thorny and distracted?
Or is it good and ready to go?
Only one of those hearts will truly hear God's word over the course of this series
and be changed.
The other three, we denied access into heaven one day
and cast into hell.
And I don't want that fate for any of you.
I want to spend eternity with every single person in this room.
As much as I may want to, I can't change your heart.
But thankfully, I know the one who can.
I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit is cultivating the soil of your heart
and preparing you to receive the word in an honest and good heart
that perseveres in patience.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Let's pray.
Father, this is a very weighty passage.
Lord, it's obvious that there are serious consequences for rejecting you and rejecting your word.
Well, let the very single person in this room, if there is anybody here who does not know you,
does not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, may today be the day of salvation.
May today be the day where the seed lands on the soil of the heart,
grows up, takes over, and continues.
But Lord, only you can do this.
Well, I pray that you'd push away the distractions.
You'd push away the worries about what's after service or what's happening tomorrow.
I pray that we would fix our minds on Jesus Christ and what He accomplished.
And what He offers to every single one of us.
And for those of us who do know and love you,
where we admit that we are all experiencing heart problems of some kind right now.
And we need your assistance. We need your healing.
But we do pray at the end of this month, we would look way different than we do this Sunday.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
