What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word dirt?
Dirt is a natural medium for growth.
Jesus’ parables weren't always easy to understand.
Many times Jesus left people confused.
There is a tension with hearing from God.
Why am I not hearing from God anymore?
4 Conditions of Our Hearts
Luke 8:4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,
There are all kinds of people in the crowd.
ESV Luke 8:4-8 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Then Jesus walks off.
Were there people with ulterior motives in the crowd?
Luke 8:9-10 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:
Luke 8:11-12 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word. 12 The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.
Why can’t I hear from God? 2 reasons
I don’t want to know.
I already know. (most dangerous soil)
Never rethinking - never being challenged.
You don’t have to stay on the footpath.
How does God do something new in you?
Listen
Why do so many people come to faith at rock bottom?
What happens at rock bottom?
Everything that you planted, died.
God is still scattering seed.
Listening places you in environments that create soil that is receptive to the word of God.
God, what do you have for me?
Eugene Peterson, “The task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done but, to become aware of what God is doing so that I can participate in what He is doing.”
“God will either give you what you prayed for, or he will give you what you would have prayed for if you knew all the things, that He knew.”
Do you have a time and a place to hear from God?
“I really hear from God when I go on vacation.”
Perhaps what you're anticipating hearing may not arrive, not because there's anything flawed with you or because God doesn't exist, but what if it's because God has something even better in store.
Following Jesus is more about getting God, than getting away from the Devil.
How would it be for someone who has been deaf all their lives and suddenly they hear?
How is it for someone who has been sitting in church for years and suddenly who God is, and everything changes?
And you hear God? And you receive the seed and it grows?
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
