The Battle for Your Heart
Text: Matthew 13:3-9 Matthew 13:18-23
Intro:
We will say sometimes lets get to the heart of the problem… but sometimes the problem is the Heart.
Why is it that some people’s lives change after one sermon, and others don’t seem to change at all?
Why is it as I preach, only a few people hear, hang on to , and put to practice the message?
How can two people sit side by side on the same aisle, in the same church. Listen to the same message’s week after week and:
Only one of them grows in faith.
Only one of them matures
Only on learns to walk in the Spirit
Only one of them begins to live a productive life.
Only one is living a fruitful life.
And others fail
No sign of maturity.
No sign of sharing their faith
No evidence of fruit.
Little or no change
Sam problem week after week, year after year
Jesus tells us that in the parable of the Sower that not all believers will show the same kind of fruitfulness
Three Basic Symbols in the parable.
The seed is the word of God
The Sower is the one who shares the word of God
The Battle for your Heart
The soil or ground represents the heart of different kinds of listeners
Jesus describes 4 kinds of hearts
The first kind of heart is the hardened heart.
The Wayside Ground (The Harden Heart)
In Matthew 13:4
Jesus talks about the seed which falls beside the wayside and the birds came and eat the seed.
“And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the road, and the birds came and ate them up.”
Jesus explains in Matthew 13:19
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one whom seed was sewn beside the road.
This is the person who has hardened their heart.
We sometimes say that we might as well be talking to a brick wall than them.
Matthew 13:9 Does not understand it.
This is the person that hears the word of God but does not understand it.
It is not that he doesn’t understand it but is not willing to try. Won’t take the time to understand it.
This person can be a non-believer or a believer.
This person may go to church every week.
This is the person who will decide what he will hear and what he will not hear.
The Battle for your Heart
This person closes their mind to anything that they do not want to do.
The mind is closed, and the heart is hardened because they have heard the truth so many times without responding to God.
There is a danger when we hear the word of God and do not respond to Gods word because the heart becomes hardened.
Jesus says: “It’s like the seed dopped on the hard ground where the seed has no chance to grow.
The Birds came and ate the seed Matthew 13:4
The Birds are a symbol of the devil.
Satan comes and snatches away the thought from your heart, and it never comes back again.
Satan will come and steal the word of God from you if you fail to apply the word of God towards your everyday living.
When you allow your heart to become calloused to the word of God then you give Satan an opportunity to steal Gods words out of our life.
The reason Satan could snatch away the word was that it could not penetrate to the heart.
The problem isn’t the word the problem is the heart is so hard that the word couldn’t penetrate the heart.
WE ARE INVOLVED IN SPOROTUAL WARFARE
Satan wants to harden our hearts. This spiritual warfare is to harden our hearts towards God.
The Battle for your Heart
The Second kind of heart is the shallow heart
II) The Rocky Ground (The Shallow Heart)
Matthew 13:5-6
“And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil: and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away.”
Jesus’ explanation is in Matthew 13:20-21 NIV
20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the [a]word, immediately he [b]falls away.
Receives it with Joy (Matthew 13:20)
This represents an emotional heart who hears the word, but the response is only emotional or shallow and temporary.
This is a person who gets excited and says “That’s what I want”
This is a person who wants to be saved, but only wants to enjoy the excitement and thrill of being saved.
No Firm root (Matthew 13:21)
This represents the type of person who does not take time to study the Bible, so he has no firm foundation.
The Battle for your Heart
This type of person has no firm foundation so when the storms of life comes he backslides.
This is why many Christians backslide during the hard times of life.
When the Sun has risen (Heat)
Matthew 13:6
But when the sun had risen, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away.”
The sun represents persecution that come because of the word.
This person serves God if it is popular to be a Christian but as soon as persecution comes falls away.
This person will not stand true to convictions because wants to blend in with the crowd. Want to be accepted by everyone.
THE BATTLE IS OVER YOUR HEART
Satan wants to corrupt your heart and ruin your testimony.
This spiritual warfare is for the purpose to destroy the condition of the heart.
The Third kind of Heart is the Crowded Heart
Matthew 13:7 NASB
7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
Jesus explains this in
Matthew 13:22 NKJV
22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
The Battle for your Heart
Thorns
This is the person whose life gets so crowded with other things that Jesus gets crowded out.
This person has no time to think about the word no time to receive the word, no time to study the word.
This person can sit in Bible Study or Church service and their mind is going all over the place that they are unable to focus on what God is saying or teaching,
Praise gets crowded out
Worship gets crowded out
Message gets crowded out
Church gets crowded out
No time for spiritual nutrition
THE BATTLE IS OVER YOUR HEART
Satan wants your heart so crowded with the things of this world that Jesus gets crowded out.
The Fourth Kind of Heart is the good heart.
IV) The Good Ground (The good Heart)
Matthew 13:8 NKJV
8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Jesus explanation is found in Matthew 13:23
The Battle for your Heart
Matthew 13:23 NKJV
23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
The good heart hears the word of God
and receives the word of God
The good heart keeps the word of God
Luke 8:15 NASB
15 But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word [a]with a good and virtuous heart, and hold it firmly, and produce fruit with [b]perseverance.
The good heart understands the word of God
The good heart will devote his life to study, practice, and teach the Word of God.
Ezra 7:10 NASB
10 For Ezra had [a]firmly resolved to study the Law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
The good heart is a man after Gods own Heart
The heart of Jesus
Acts 13:22
22 And when He had removed him, (Speaking of King Saul) He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’
The Battle for your Heart
Heart set by our mind, our will, our emotions.
THE BATTLE IS OVER YOUR HEART and the condition of your heart.
Matthew 5:8 NKJV
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Our job is to maintain a pure heart It is a pure heart that is acceptable to the Lord
Conclusion:
We are involved in spiritual warfare The battle is over your Heart
We must realize we are in a battle between two powers.
Between Satan and God
The battle is over our hearts and the condition of the heart.
John 10:10 NKJV
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
What is the condition of your heart?
Psalm 139:23-24 KJV
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Religious Heart
Hardened Heart
Greedy Heart
Rebellious Heart
Selfish Heart
Unforgiving Heart
Jealous Heart
Divided Heart
Scheming Heart
Unrepented Heart
Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
God is after your Heart
Ezekiel 36:26 KJV
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
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