Your Heart Matters
God is most concerned with your heart. Going through all sorts of challenges, and God cares for everything you go through – he is most interested in your heart. So today we are looking at our hearts.
My bike had a wobble in my wheel – it annoyed me no end. I could feel the vibration. I replaced it before I rode again.
Excess baggage when you travel costs you money vs your baggage in your heart.
We can sometimes let something niggle into our hearts and ultimately into our spirit. A lot of the Bible is God deal with our heart. Even Treasure – Where your Treasure is – there is your heart also.
Jeremiah 17:9 King James Version (KJV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
God can – he knows you better than you know yourself – lets pray. Heart surgery today.
Matt 13:3 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
This time – I am going to focus on us. Our Hearts in this Parable
So the seed is the Word of God. The message about the Kingdom. The seed is perfect in every way – Same seed
God’s word is fruitful –
4 different soils
- Pavement – Rock hard- just bounces
- Rocky- No depth – did not actually take to heart.
- Good Soil – but in thorns
- Good Soil – Same as above but Thorn free.
The heart that it fell into. V18 – sown into the heart. I am going to focus on the good soil. The last two fell into good soil.
The difference was not the soil. What was there with it….. How many know that thorns and weeds seem to grow faster in good soil than sometimes what you actually wanted to grow.
Note here the seed amongst thorns. The seed is not growing much, thorns grow quickly and choke the seed – God’s word- Good news. The difference is in the Gardening. Thorns and Seed grow in good soil. Who likes Gardening?
Prov 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Guard/Tend – means gardening
Heart must be tended. Gardening is good. A garden left to itself will go wild. It is not an event, it is a lifestyle. I seem to have a backyard that would go wild unless I tended it. How do we have good soil – How do we cultivate and till the ground – get the rocks out of it – water it, turn it over. Aerate it. Put some bark on it to protect it from the Queensland sun.
So we see here Gardening is good. We need to get rid of the thorns….but wait – lets read on. 24-30
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” Matt 13:24-29
So we learnt that gardening is good, and the next couple of verses, we are told not to do gardening – prohibited.
Hey, you can’t have it both ways.
They are different. We obviously need to know the different between Thorns and Weeds/Tares. We are supposed to be ruthless with the Thorns but leave the Weeds/Tares alone.
Thorns – were the issues and worries of life. The deceitfulness of riches. The cares of this world that would distract us. Worry. Things inside of us. The Weeds grow around you, The Thorns grow within you.
Weeds, or Tares in some versions are different
Lets look what happens to Weeds. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Thrown into the fire – that is very end times. You see Weeds are people and ultimately what people do to you. They are from the enemy, or can be used by the enemy. They are the seen/heard things. Thorns are unseen
The Weed is what people do to you, the Thorn is what you with the affect of the weed allow to grow.
We need to be ruthless on the thorns
Tares is the guy who pulled the trigger, the Thorn is the bullet to your heart. The thorn is my responsibility. Sometimes we focus on the Weeds
Weeds is the family member or work person getting you down
Thornes – that is your anger/disappointment/fear/bitternes/anxiety/lack of trust
| Weeds | Thorns |
| Is the family member who made a comment | The unforgiveness, every time you see them |
| Is the person at work who constantly underminds you | The resentment everytime you go into the office |
Devil has one simple strategy, divert from the Thorn and focus on the Weed.
- Cut off the seeds
- Plant wasps – thorns
Trade Weeds – Accumulate Thornes. People change, so the type of Weed changes, however the Thorn stays and makes you more sensitive next time. You can leave a Weed – change jobs. Thorns you take with you. Must be dealt with. People leave churches to avoid a Weed, and pick up the baggage of Thorns and take it with them.
We have Wheat hours and Weed Hours in our soil – the Heart.
- Allow the Wheat to grow
You may be someone elses Weed. Actually most likely, no – a certainty, because we bump shoulders with people all the time. We cannot please people all the time. We All like to think we are wheat and everybody elses Weed. I am sure I am Nina’s biggest Weed.
Wheat in the service and a Weed in the foyer. Date Wheats, marry Weeds.
The Weed is not the problem.
No Weed, can stop your destiny – unless you let it.
- In this Parable – God says leave the Weeds alone. He didn’t want to remove it as it might hurt the wheat. You can be with the Weeds and live thorn free.
Connect group – road rage
Joseph- Weeds – Brothers/Potipher – she even Tare his clothes.
Dave – Weed Dad =- forgot him at the coronation – Weed brothers = rubbished him before goliath – but had a clean heart
- Goliath /Saul / Queen of Sheba – had a good run then Bathsheba – Bathsheba- a weed on the next balcony – peace / weed Absolom
Nehemiah
Peter – sift as wheat – Weed at the trial
One thing I know – Weeds do not define us, and God has more for us.
Revival/Gods blessing starts in a Thorn free heart (unseen), regardless of my Weeds (seen).
Judas
God has somehow tied your growth to Weeds. They will grow as you do….
- Don’t let Weeds define you. People at work forever complaining
- WE ARE SUPPOSED TO INFLUENCE THE WEEDS
As we close – What do we do to avoid gardening
- Nina and I were have breakfast one time, and I had some water left over so she told me to throw it on the pot plants. I now ask which one, because I found out I was watering a plastic plant.
- We don’t want to put in a fake lawn/Plants….to keep the Weeds at bay. Fake
Gardening – a little every day beats an intense working bee annually.
- Hedge at home
- If we do a little daily
- Maybe we need to start with a working bee.
- Momentum is a by-product of a soft heart, a thorn free heart, a straight wheel. a pebble free heart. When you remove the pebble, you can take on the boulders. When the wheel is straight, I can focus on the journey.
John 15:1
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
God is a surgeon – not a butcher.. Deal with our thorns – get back to good soil – thorn free. Give God full access. You tried counselling- give God access. Every day – ask God to prune.
Jesus wore a crown of thorns so our hearts never have to.
As we close today, we are going to open the front for prayer, so if you have any prayer needs today, we would love to pray with you, but before we do, if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, and would like to start this journey today I would like to pray with you.
Having done all things to stand, keep standing/believing/praising/worshiping being faithful.
You will see the promises of God. Keep your heart, your attitude right. Do not forsake your first love…Keep God in focus.
