How to have a Happy and Healthy HEART

Three Seasons Community Church– 2-24-08

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:21 (NLT) Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

The sower. Matthew 13:3-9; Matthew 13:18-23; Mark 4:1-9; Mark 4:14-20; Luke 8:5-8; Luke 8:11-15

Matthew 13:3-23 [PAGE 690]

The Path [4] No soil-- Birds came and ate it up

Rocky Places [5-6] Shallow Soil-- Grew up quickly and got scorched because it had no root.

Thorny Places [7] Thorny Soil– Grew up but was choked out

Good Soil– [8] Good Soil– harvest of 30, 60, or 100 times what was planted

What is the condition of your heart?

Which soil best describes your openness to God’s Word?

[9] He who has ears, let him hear."

If you have ears... listen to what God is trying to say to you!

What is God trying to say to you?

Don’t treat God’s word like you do/did your mother– where you shook your head and then did what you were planning to do anyway! LISTEN– to what God is saying!

MATTHEW 13:10-23 [690-691]

The Path [4] No soil-- Birds came and ate it up

[19]-- Seed snatched away from an unbeliever by Satan

Rocky Places [5-6] Shallow Soil-- Grew up quickly and got scorched because it had no root.

[20-21]-- Hears God’s Word and receives it with Joy BUT has no root. When trouble or persecution comes they quickly fall away.

Thorny Places [7] Thorny Soil– Grew up but was choked out

[22]-- Hears God’s Word BUT the worries [distractions, cares, anxiety, pleasures, delight, glamour] of life and the delusion or deceitfulness of riches and wealth CHOKE and SUFFOCATE the Word– making it unfruitful.

Choke = to strangle completely or drown

Which terms best describe your life?

Worried, distracted, anxious, fearful, uptight, troubled, distressed, afraid, distraught, depressed, overwhelmed, pessimistic, negative, hopeless, hurried?

Or

Peaceful, fruitful, calm, confident, serene, faithful, joyful, happy, encouraged, optimistic, positive, hopeful?

What is choking and suffocating the Word of God out of your life?

What is making your life unfruitful?

Good Soil– [8] Good Soil– harvest of 30, 60, or 100 times what was planted

[23] Hears and understands God’s Word. It produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Hear = To Understand or Comprehend

Understands = The comprehending activity of the mind... entails the
assembling of individual facts into an organized whole, as collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. The mind grasps concepts and sees the proper relationship between them.

What does seeing and understanding require of us?

1. The Path [4/19] No soil-- Birds came and ate it up

2. Rocky Places [5-6/20-21] Shallow Soil-- Grew up quickly and got scorched because it had no root.

3. Thorny Places [7/22] Thorny Soil– Grew up but was choked out

4. Good Soil– [8/23] Good Soil– harvest of 30, 60, or 100 times what was planted

Are you willing to make God and His Word a more central part of your life? [hear and understand]

[9] He who has ears, let him hear."

If you have ears... listen to what God is trying to say to you!

What is God trying to say to you?

Don’t treat God’s word like you do/did your mother– where you shook your head and then did what you were planning to do anyway!