This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to week 15 of our look through
the book of Matthew, which means we're in chapter 13 this week. And in chapter
13, we get to take a look at, in one way, life made simple. Wouldn't you like
life and truth to be made more simple?

So that's a perfect description in many ways of the ways that Jesus told
stories. Jesus told stories called parables, simple stories about how abundant
life can happen in your life. And in doing that, he simplifies things down to
what's priority, what's really important.

In Matthew 13, 34, we're going to see as we read through this chapter, says that
stories, parables, were Jesus' main method of communication. And this chapter
has seven parables. As we walk through these parables this week, let me just
begin by talking about the nature of a parable.

The word parable actually means to place alongside. And what Jesus is doing is
he's taking a story and he's placing it alongside your life, my life, so that we
can see how do I match up to the truth? How does my life match up to the truth
of what Jesus wants to do in my life?

And this week, we're going to talk about how Jesus makes growth more simple.
Growth made simple. God's kingdom made simple.

We're going to talk about in the middle of the week. And then at the end of the
week, we're going to talk about good and evil, one of the most complicated
questions of all, how Jesus makes it more simple. Now when I say simple, I don't
mean simplistic.

I don't mean something that is reduced down to nothingness. I mean simple in the
way of strength, reduced to the point of understanding, to the point of action.
So the first parable that Jesus tells in this list of parables, seven parables
in chapter makes growth more simple in our lives.

The familiar parable, probably one of Jesus's most familiar. Listen to what
Jesus taught in verses one down to verse nine. That same day, Jesus went out of
the house and he sat by the lake.

Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and he sat in it
while all the people stood on the shore. And then he told them many things in
parable saying, "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the
seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up.

Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly
because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched
and they withered because they had no root.

Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Still other
seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty or thirty times
what had been sown. He who has ears, let him hear.

" You get this picture. Jesus is in this boat, he's gone off a little ways from
the shore and it creates this natural amphitheater of Jesus in a boat and this
sloping shoreline with all these people sitting listening to these stories. You
can almost sense Jesus pointing to a farmer up on the hillside casting seed and
you have these listeners in front of him, all with different attitudes in
listening.

Some of them are in the warm sunshine, they're disinterested, they're sleepy.
Others of them, they have this excitement, this enthusiasm that is going to be
forgotten the minute they walk away. Others they're looking at the cloud and
they're worried about the rain.

But there are a few, they're leaning forward, they have ears that are intent on
hearing what Jesus has to say. This story is about growth and how it happens in
our lives, how to have a growth spurt. And what I love about this story is Jesus
is teaching us here that growth is to be expected in your life.

You plant a seed, you should expect it to grow. If it doesn't grow, something is
wrong. You look at your life, you look at my life.

Expect, Jesus says, to grow personally. If you're not growing in me, growing
closer to me, growing in faith, growing in hope, growing in love, Jesus says
something is wrong. So let's just break this down in essence, Jesus is saying as
he tells this story to simple terms so that you and I can get things growing in
our lives.

Now the simple truth that's behind everything in this parable is that personal
growth comes to those who have learned to listen. Those who have ears to hear,
Jesus says, let them hear. You and I, we're going through the same old routine
and all of a sudden there's a growth spurt that happens in our faith, that
happens in our life.

What happened? What caused that to happen? That where all of a sudden you will
try new things, you start to achieve new victories You see things happen in your
life that you've been dreaming of for a long time.

What brings that on in people, in relationships, in churches even? Jesus says it
all starts with listening. In this parable, Jesus actually talks to us about
what causes our growth.

Three things that stop our growth and three things that start our growth. During
these next few days, we're going to be looking together at those things that
stop our growth and that start our growth. Beginning today with the first of
those things that is a growth stopper in our life.

The first thing that stops your growth, Jesus says, I would say it this way,
it's familiarity. It's becoming too familiar with the truth so you don't apply,
you don't listen to the truth. Now, I love this parable because not only does
Jesus tell this parable, but later he explains this parable down in verse 18.

So we get to listen to Jesus' explanation of exactly what he was saying. He
doesn't always do that, but he does do that here. So in verses 18 and 19, Jesus
says, listen to what the parable of the sower means.

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
sown along the path. So you get this picture of a hardened path and the seed
can't make its way in.

It's the hard soil, pathways through the fields, hardened by thousands of
footfalls and hoofbeats and wagon wheels. And this seed has no hope of
penetrating a person's heart. Hard people with hard hearts, thousands of
experiences, thousands of actions and decisions which have hardened your heart
to hearing the truth.

What happens is it all becomes familiar. You feel like I've heard it a thousand
times before. Your life gets to be all in neat little boxes and you want it to
stay in those neat little boxes and your heart becomes hardened to new ideas, to
new directions, to new growth.

This can happen and as Jesus says here, keep you from becoming a believer, keep
the truth from ever getting into your life. It can also happen in the life of a
believer and keep you from growing as a believer. Toynbee said that familiarity
is the opiate of the imagination.

It's like a killer drug to our imagination, just doing the same thing over and
over again because we've become content with what is and growth gets stopped
dead in its tracks. Now what creates familiarity in our lives? Let me share with
you the three of the primary culprits that create the sense of familiarity that
keeps me from growing.

Person is hearing without responding. You hear God's truth, you go and you hear
a sermon week after week, you hear something important to do, you even have a
sense of something important to do, but you never do anything about it. That
creates a sense of familiarity with the good news, the truth of God.

And after a while, what once was challenging, it just starts to be familiar.
It's that old phrase, if we don't express what's impressed, we get depressed.
And sometimes we feel depressed spiritually in our relationship with God because
we haven't done what God's already asked us to do.

It's hearing without responding. It's also acting without thinking, allowing
tradition to become to rule your life. Why are you doing what you're doing in
your life spiritually?

Are you doing it because you did it yesterday or are you looking towards
tomorrow? Some people, the only reason they go to church this week is because
they went to church last week. They never think really about worshiping God.

They're just doing what they did before. So how can you begin to act in a way
that has thought to it? What do you want to be doing in your life?

When you pray, for instance, at a meal, instead of praying the same rote prayer
again and again and again, next time, even if you sit and pray the same prayer,
think about the words that you're praying. Think about it. That creates a new
sense of relationship with God that breaks you out of the mold of familiarity.

A third thing that creates familiarity is declaring without doing. Declaring it
to others without struggling to do it yourself. That is a great trap, I have to
admit, in my own life for teachers, for preachers.

It's a lot easier to say the truth than it is to live the truth. And nothing
creates growth-halting familiarity quite so quickly as saying to other people,
"This is what you should do," without first saying, "Is this something I'm
willing to do? " Now, Jesus says here, "The fault is in the familiarity, the
hardness of the soil.

" And there's a warning here. Stop blaming the birds. The birds will come and
eat this seed.

Jesus says, "Stop blaming the birds when the problem is with the ground. " The
problem isn't the things that have become familiar to you. The problem, Jesus
says, you have to admit, is your own heart.

Your heart has been hardened by not responding, by not doing, by not acting.
Hebrews 3. 15 says, "Today, if you hear God's voice speaking to you, don't
harden your hearts against Him, as the people of Israel did when they rebelled
against Him in the desert.

Today. That's the solution. What are you going to do today?

What has God asked you to do that you can act on today? That's what begins to
open your heart to a new growth in your life. Not, "What am I going to do next
year?

What do I need to do next month? " But what today can you do to be obedient to
God? Let's pray together.

Our Father, we pray that You'd lead and guide us, that through Your Word, even
what we've heard now, You'd help us to replace some tradition, something we've
done again and again and again, with a thoughtful action. You'd help us to begin
to act in some of the ways You've already asked us to act. Bring them to mind
right now, Lord, we pray.

And then help us to act on those things. Not tomorrow, not next week. Give us
the faith to act today, we pray.

And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to look
together at two additional things that stop our growth.