Bonjur #blurt, how are we doing today.
I believe a good speaker spends most of his time listening.
To the heart that doesn’t listen, the gospel serves only to entertain or even enrage. We can be ever hearing and yet never truly listen to what is said. Or, as Jesus quoted in Mark 4:12, “They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding…” Not until we marry our listening and understanding to action does the gospel become a living force pushing us to move forward. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Matthew Henry once explained it this way: “If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven… It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven.”
We must listen deeper than the sound of the words. We must search their meaning and also our heart’s. We must transition from merely hearing towards understanding, accepting, and then to practice. A thousand people may hear the gospel preached but only ten leave truly changed. Jesus himself explained it like this: “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed which fell along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:19-23)
To simply hear makes no change in our lives. It is a scattering of unfruitful seeds. We must listen deeper. We must offer up fertile soil for the gospel to grow the fruits of salvation and the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Open up your heart. Allow the words you hear to take root in your life and change it from the inside out. Don’t be afraid to bloom with a new attitude, new direction, and new life. We were never meant to stay the same.