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…off the side of the
ship like plunk, splash. What a great sound that would have been to a
sailor. You know as I read this parable, I had the same idea, kind of a
negative one. People hear the word and it bounces off through minds and
hearts and skin. Plunk. Splash. Why do people not believe? Well, for
lots of reasons. Sometimes people don’t believe because they think it’s
crazy. What does this mean about a God who sends His Son who dies on a
cross? You know I remember the day when I became a Christian. Not
everybody has it happen to them like it did to me. I went into a place
through a God-given invitation, I accepted, and I walked out different.
Some people have it happen to them very gradually. But I remember it
very well. God had been plowing the ground in my life for a long time
before this so it didn’t quite happen all at once. But I was ready and
when the invitation was given, I did not come forward, I didn’t do
anything, I just said, “I believe, I’m yours. I surrender.” And I walked
out different. You know what was different? I knew God was there. Before
I didn’t know God, but now I did and I was excited. I didn’t know what
to say. And I was curious. I had come with a bunch of guys, football
players like me. I wondered if the same thing had happened to them.
Well, it didn’t. They were talking about the speaker and saying that he
wasn’t that good. They didn’t know what he was trying to say. I said,
“Didn’t something happen to you? Didn’t you hear?” They said, “No.” I’m
sure other people did hear and believe, but these guys didn’t. It was
like plunk, splash.
Or as Jesus talks
about it, sometimes people hear the word with joy or they hear it and
say, “That makes sense to me.” But then they walk out and then life
happens. Life begins to happen again. There’s cancer, there’s problems,
war, starvation, children dying…all kinds of things happening out there.
And maybe it went in a little ways, but then plunk, splash for them. It
really has very little to do with the persecution that Jesus talks about
because many times people come to know Christ in the midst of
persecution. But sometimes it just didn’t get in and get heard. People
use these things and say, “Well, how could this happen? I thought it was
supposed to be different.” Plunk, splash.
Then Jesus talks about
some others who accept the word and maybe believe for a long time…maybe
they believe all their lives, in a way, but they never quite hear the
Word. I think sometimes we read this and say, “That is all those folks
out there.” But this third category I find challenging because even as a
Christian who believes and knows God, there are times when in my own
heart, the word goes plunk, splash. I don’t hear it. You see, I think
this Word has a lot to say to us because it says we are supposed to
listen and often we don’t listen. He identifies three main reasons why a
lot of people don’t listen. A lot of people are worried; the worries of
life drive out the Word. Plunk, splash. Or they have other goals for
their lives, deceitfulness of wealth and such. Plunk, splash. Or they
just simply are wrapped up in other things. Plunk, splash. But there are
lots of reasons people don’t hear the Word. The reason why a lot of
people don’t listen to the Word of God, I think is, in churches, people
have particular danger of becoming inoculated against the Word. You see,
we hear it so often. Sometimes when we go to church for years, we hear
the same stories, we hear the same things. You know I come in as your
pastor and I don’t know what everybody has said for fifty years. So I’m
preaching along and I’m sure you’ve heard these same things, I’m sure
you have. It’s a danger for all of us. You know, preachers are the
worst. You ever try to preach in front of preachers? They can be
inoculated against the Word. I was the pastor of a church in Tennessee,
nice people, wonderful people, but, sadly thoroughly inoculated. They
had a pastor before me who had planted a church, it was a thriving
church, but felt called to come to this church. That church had been
there for a long time. Whether God called him or not, he had to leave
after five years because he was very frustrated. I came after him. I
don’t think I preached anything different. God called me away after five
years and the person who followed me, I heard reports, “Chris, he’s
saying the same things you did.” He was an interim and was there for two
years. They had twelve years of the same message…they needed to wake up.
Plunk, splash…thoroughly inoculated against the Word.
Sometimes we don’t
hear the Word because we think it’s just for us. Here’s what I mean
about that. I find in churches people are very interested in learning
about the Word and so they are almost devotional junkies. They read all
the books out there, but it’s just for them. I’m thinking of
particularly the 40 Days of Purpose book – The 40 Days of
Purpose. A lot of people are asking the question, “Why are we
doing this again? We’ve already read it.” It’s okay to ask questions, I
want you to ask questions. If I’m doing something, you should ask why
I’m doing it. It may surprise you for me to say that, but I mean it. I
want to be required to tell you the answer because not everything I am
going to do, and this may surprise you as well, may not be right. I’m an
idea person; sometimes my ideas aren’t that great. I need people to say
that to me. That’s not going to stop me from having ideas…I have lots of
them. You haven’t heard all of them. But when I heard that, I was a
little bit troubled because of the way it was phrased. “Why are we doing
that again, because we’ve already done that before?” If you say it quite
that way, it shows you really haven’t read the book. Because the first
line of the book says, “It’s not about you.” But when you read a book
and it becomes a notch in your belt, we aren’t thinking about all the
other people who haven’t read it. We aren’t thinking about those on the
outside of us who need to read it.
Jesus says in this
parable that we have responsibility. One is the responsibility to
listen; we are responsible for our listening, to hear. “He, who has ears
to hear, let him hear.” You know, I have found that as human beings we
don’t listen very well. Usually when someone is trying to talk to us, we
are formulating a response in their mid-sentence. Have you ever noticed
that about yourself? I have. I catch myself hearing about half of it and
getting ready to answer that person. Have you ever watched people as
they talk sometimes, how they talk over each other at the same time? You
see that a lot on these talk shows. But we do the same thing. I kind of
study people sometimes and I watch people talk; they talk over each
other trying to make their point. It’s a competition. It’s not listening
going on. We do the same with God. “Not me Lord, I haven’t got time, I’m
too busy.” We say we are too busy, too worried, or have other goals. Or
we say, “I’ve already read that. What does this have to do with me?”
Not only are we
responsible to listen, we are responsible to shine. “Does anyone light a
lamp and put it under a bushel?” Jesus said. In other words, do you take
your flashlight and stick it under a bowl? Who would do that? Jesus
says, “You are the light of the world. You are the light of the world.”
Of course, He’s the light and we reflect. Do you know what happens to
us, I think sometimes we think we aren’t worthy to shine. Well, who is?
I’m not. God did not choose me because I was good. God did not choose me
to be a minister because I was good. He doesn’t work that way. If you
have that in your mind, please put it away. God does not choose people
because they are good; He chooses people out of His grace and then He
begins working on them. And that’s just the way it is. So none of us
shine that well, but the more we listen to God’s Word, maybe the smudges
get rubbed off a little more. The more we hear and sincerely listen and
try to obey, maybe that old cloth is cleaning us off again so that we
can shine a little brighter. But if we don’t listen, we don’t shine.
Not only are we
responsible to shine, we are responsible to bear fruit. Yes, bear fruit.
This is precisely where I think we find that in church there are so many
who are not bearing fruit because they are there to hear the Word and
bless Him for it, but they don’t do anything with it. We are responsible
to bear fruit. We are called to bear fruit. What does bearing fruit
mean? It means that somebody else should be able to grow in their faith
because of you. Somebody can become a Christian because of you, but not
all of us are evangelists. We are not all gifted in that way. I like to
define it that somebody will grow in their faith because of you and the
way you live your life and the way you use your gifts, not perfectly,
maybe not that well, but they do. You know a lot of times we don’t know
who we affect in our lives. I find that being a minister is that way. I
don’t know who I affect because a lot of people don’t tell you. That’s
okay, you will find that in the kingdom. When I paint houses or work on
cars, at least I see what I’ve done. Sometimes as a minister you don’t
see the results. But we are all that way. We walk through life,
affecting people, shining on people we just don’t know. But we will find
out later and it’s okay. We are responsible to bear fruit and it just
means to help someone else grow in their faith and their relationship
with God. How do you do that? How do you do that practically speaking?
Well there are millions of ways, but I want to tell you one thing. That
is simply to be available. That’s the problem, the biggest problem, we
are not available because we are worried or busy or pursuing other
goals. We are not available to listen, to do. We aren’t available
because we’ve already done that. Be available so that you can hear, you
can shine, you can bear fruit.
You have an
opportunity to do that coming up. I know a lot of you are bearing fruit
in your lives right now and are available. Some of you are not. You have
an opportunity. I’ll ask you to look at this card in your bulletin – the
40 Days host sign-up card. Consider being a host; we want to have
fifty small groups going on all over this community for seven weeks. You
might say, “I’ll be out of town for two of those weeks.” Well, team up
with someone. Do it at your house for five of those weeks and at someone
else’s for the other two. We can overcome this, if you want to. Sign up
for this. Be a host. You know what you don’t have to be to be a host?
You don’t have to be a born leader. You don’t have to have a decorator
home. You don’t have to be a salesman. You don’t have to even be a
church member. If you aren’t a church member we’ll assign someone to you
who is to lead the discussion. But you can still open your home, be
available. If you look at this and just can’t be a host, at least sign
your name on it and say that you’ll be a part of a small group. We want
as many people as possible to go through this with us so that we may
learn what our purpose is a little better. You may have read it. You may
know what your purpose is. Help someone else. That’s part of it. Part of
being a Christian is helping other people along the path. Don’t go
plunk, splash. Don’t have a thick heart or thick skin or thick ears.
Don’t let the word of God bounce off your soul. Let it in so that you
may hear and shine and bear fruit. Let us pray together.
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