Forgetting What You Look Like

Scripture: Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23; Romans 8.1-11; James 1.19-24


What makes you listen? And who do you listen to?

There was a burglar who was terrorizing this small town. He would break into people’s homes when they were out and rob them blind. If his victims happened to be home and awake, he would kill them. Well, it happened this way at a particular house, the residents awoke to find the burglar taking their valuables. The burglar pointed a gun at the husband and wife. “Now, I’ll have to kill you. I can’t have any witnesses.” By chance, though, the burglar asked them their names. The wife responded, “My name is Elizabeth.”

“Oh, I can’t kill you. My mother’s name is Elizabeth and I never kill anyone with that name.” At which the husband breathed a big sigh of relief and said, “My name is Elizabeth too.”

Sometimes we tell people what we think they want to hear. When it comes to listening to the Scriptures, some scriptures are easier than others to listen to. We have a tendency to only listen to the parts we like, and block out the things we don’t. Sometimes as a preacher and teacher, it’s easier to preach about some things than others because of the reaction I know the message will receive. Sometimes I worry too much about what others will think. I’m not alone in that.

The other morning a young man came to my house. He rang the door bell and I got my first glimpse of him as I was coming down the stairs. I could see him standing on the porch. He was unusual in that he was swaying back and forth, almost dancing, as if listen ing to a rockin’ song, only he didn’t have headphones or any visible source of music.
I opened the door and he jumped back, surprised that anyone answered.. He explained to me that he was a college student from Oklahoma. He asked if I had any school-age kids and what they were interested in, and did they do well in school. I soon deduced that this kid was selling textbooks. He told me that he got “credit” for how many presentations he made and would I mind taking a few minutes to listen to him. I said, no problem, and I asked him to sit down on the porch with me. Now, here’s a crucial point: the young bookseller from Oklahoma said this to me – “I’ll show you what I have and then just ask you for a yes or no, so as not to waste any time, and if you can just give me a definite answer, I can be on my way, because I want to make about 30 calls today. Yes or no, I want be offended.”

That’s what the young man said, almost word for word. He did his presentation and I listened dutifully. He then began to transition into getting information from me so he could sign me up, when I interrupted and said, “Ya know, Matt, I’m going to say, “no” now.” He looked at me like I had just shot him. “It’s a good product and you did a good job presenting it. . .”
“Well, some people can’t afford it all at once, but budget it over the summer.”

“No, it’s not really in my budget now.”

“It’s a small price to pay for your kids education.”

“Well, Matt they already have a lot of books and I’m just going to say no.”

Then he got real quiet and started packing his bag up, but looking at me sideways, very hurt, almost angry. I felt guilty. I told him what a good presenter he was. And wondered what happened to “just say yes or no.”

I hear church folks talk a lot about the quality of a speaker or a message, and no doubt that’s important, but I think we place too much emphasis on that sometimes. In fact the Lord suggests that the power of his Word relies on God and the success of the word proclaimed, rests in good part on those who listen to the Word, not as much on those who preach it. When God spoke to young Samuel the boy responded, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” What we seem to say to God these days is, “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”

Don’t get me wrong. I know how important it is to preach with skill, humor, authority, and passion. I did it one time. And it was great. But there is something in me that says, if I just stood up here for twenty minutes and read the scriptures with conviction, that God would be able to work if there were any with ears to hear what He was saying.

Jesus put it this way. A farmer went out to sow some seed in his fields. The seed, of course, is the Word of God. And notice how indiscriminately this farmer seems to spread the seed. He’s not carefully placing a single seed every few feet, in rows, like he was planting corn. No, this guy is throwing the seed everywhere, on all kinds of ground, hard, soft, rocky, weedy, thorny, shoot, he threw seed on the road! Apparently, Jesus wants us to be generous with his Word. Spread it around! Give it to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Don’t worry about it if someone seems unlikely to receive it.

This parable Jesus tells is often called the parable of the sower. But that’s inaccurate. It’s really the story of the dirts. It’s about different kinds of dirt, or hearts, that receive with varying degrees of success, the seed or word planted there. Jesus seems to be telling us it up to you what you do with my word. “For him who has ears to hear,” Jesus often said, at the end of one of his stories. Look, I’m just telling you the truth. It’s up to you what you do with it.

Jesus warns us about a few things that might get in the way of hearing and obeying: not understanding what you hear; not growing deeper in your walk to survive trouble in your life; loving too much the worries and wealth of this world. All these things can sidetrack you from obeying the word, and all the while you may just blame on the messenger.

In James, the apostle writes, “Rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.” Notice that word comes to anyone and will be implanted anywhere, even in us wicked people. He goes on, “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves, and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”

The Word of God is a mirror held up to our souls. But we must receive, believe, and act on God’s Word in order to be changed by God’s Word, in order to be shaped into our true identity.

A guy told me just the other day at the gym that his uncle is always referring to Bible stories and it gets boring. No matter what, this uncle has a bible story to relate to. And my friend gets tired of it. He says it makes him hungry ‘cause the Bible’s always talking about wine and food.

Well, when we really listen to the Word of God, it does make us hungry for more. And if my friend were really listening, it wouldn’t be boring and he wouldn’t be able to get enough of it. I want to offer this challenge to you. When you come to worship and Sunday School next week, I want you to pray this prayer at the beginning of your time, “Lord, what is it you want to say to me today through your Word?”

Pray that prayer and see if that doesn’t change your experience of the Bible in your life.
“Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.”