RISE ABOVE CALLOUS HEART

SCRIPTURE TEXT: Matthew 13:1-23

KEY VERSES: vv.10-15

DIFFERENT HEART CONDITION

A. The Types of Soil (Heart Condition)

– By the way side v.19

– Stony heart v.20-21

– Thorny heart v. 22

– Good ground v. 23

B. The Recipients

           – They all heard the Word!

C. The Response

           – Understand it not

           – Immediately received with joy

           – Allowed the cares of the world; deceitfulness of riches choke the Word

           – Understand the Word

D. The Result

           – The wicked one catches away the word that was sown.

           – No root in himself; endures for a while; offended

           – Becomes unfruitful

           – Bear fruit and produces increase some 100, 60, 30 fold.      

HOW TO RISE ABOVE CALLOUS HEART

1. Ask God to open the eyes of our understanding!

Proverbs 14:33; Psalms 119:33-35

2. Let our hearts be rooted in God’s Word!

Colossians 1:23; Psalms 119:9-11

CONCLUSION:

James 1:22-25

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.