Receiving the Word - Kevin Brechbill

Lesson Transcript

Good morning again. Um, I've chosen to, uh, keep this message pretty short. It'll probably be one of the shorter messages I've, I've shared. And, uh, it's because we're having a baptism. And, uh, the second reason is, how many of you remember your baptism sermon? We got one up here in the front. No one else remembers. Oh, there's—we got three. We have three that remember. Uh, so David, what was said at your baptism sermon or whatever? The only thing I remember from it, I—yeah, I don't remember most of it.

The thing that stood out, and it, it was life-changing as it turned out, um, I was Jehovah's Witness at the time. The brother said, "You are not dedicating your life to the Watchtower Organization or to any man. You're dedicating your life to Jesus Christ and His Father." And I took that to heart and followed that. Is there anything I remember from the message? I don't think he knew what he was saying. Okay. I don't remember either. And it's part of the why I want to keep it short.

And my intent is that at least you can remember something that I shared. So I want to try to give you something, uh, just really simple and, and practical. This is primarily for Rebecca and, uh, and Raquel. So the rest of you can, uh, uh, sit and hear what I'm going to share with them. So the first thing I want you to think about is receiving the Word, okay? And I'm going to read some passages and then try to explain the value of receiving the Word and why this matters in your life.

And it's something that if you understand this, it will always be something that you can, um, return to every day, work at the rest of your life. I'm going to read Matthew 13:19 to 23, just a couple of verses. It says, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who bears the—or hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. And yet he who has no root in himself but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

As for what was sown on good ground or good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, and indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundred, sixty, and in another, thirty." So when we think about receiving the Word, I think these verses are a little bit multilayered. Um, when I started looking at different people's, uh, understanding of it, some of the early, early Christians, there was—there was basically two, two levels.

There is this idea that a hundred, thirty, and, uh, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold was throughout the ages, okay, and how it was delivered to people throughout the ages. But the one I want to look at is to bring it just a little bit, bit closer home. And the whole concept represents a resurrection, okay? And it's a resurrection—a seed that was planted or buried, and it's a resurrection, okay? And it's this idea of rejoicing in this resurrection.

So to you that are being, uh, going to be baptized today, afterward, there's this coming out of the water. It's this resurrection. It's this new birth. And that is what we want to, I'm going to say, focus on and, and understand. But, but how is that word received matters, okay? We don't necessarily focus on the sin and the burning, uh, burning, although that's a part of it. We are buried in baptism. We're buried and, and all that, and all that that represents.

So in looking at the verses that I read, you have the different kinds of soil. And the sower that went out to sow, is that just a random throwing of the, of the, of the seed? Okay. It is a random, a random planting. But what matters is you are in charge of your heart or the soil of where that, where that seed lands, okay? You're the one that makes the soil fertile to receive the Word. There's no one else that can make that soil, that soil fertile.

And whether that soil is receptive or your heart is receptive is whether you'll receive the Word and how it'll respond. Whether you have all these other responses that it was on rocky soil, it was on the, the, the thorns came up, all these different examples. But then the last one here is the verse that's up here. It says it was sown on good soil. What made the soil good? It was because of who they were, okay?

So each of you that receives the Word, it has to land on good soil in order for it to have, in order for you to hear and for you to have understanding and bear fruit. Like, and what's, what's beautiful about this concept, this is not a one-time event. And I want everyone actually to understand this. You, you go through life, so you have an initial response to the Word, okay? And you prepare your heart to receive it, okay?

And you've, you have done that, um, by the influence of your family, your brothers and sisters around you. Um, you have chosen to make your, make your soil receptive to receiving the Word. And the bearing of the fruit is beginning in, in how you've lived your life, how that works out. But you can make your heart hard again. You can turn, you can fall. And there's no one else that can keep your heart soft and receptive to the Word of God, okay?

And I, I want, I want you to never forget that, that you hold the key to keep your heart with good soil to receive the Word. And if you do that, you'll bear fruit and you'll yield. Um, you know, I was trying to think, does anyone know anyone that's bearing a hundredfold? I don't even know how to, uh, how to respond, respond to that. Um, I'm not even sure about sixty and thirty. Like, I don't know how to measure that exactly.

But we all know people that are mature and bearing fruit, okay, without a shadow of a doubt. The more you have the ability to bear fruit is how your heart is receiving the Word of God. It's directly connected to this. And how you process that Word of God and make that applicable in your life, the more you bear fruit, the more yields you'll get. Like, it's a multiplication kind of a process, but it comes back to keeping your heart, your heart, your heart with good soil.

So it's really something I want you to understand. It's just a simple, it's a very simple thought. We hold the key as to how we receive the Word. No one else has that key. I don't know if that ever impacts you the way, the way it should. Um, you know, there's all, there's this thing of, you know, you hear the Word, you hear good things, you, I don't know, you do all these things in life, but you hold the key to how, how well you receive it, to whether it's going to produce fruit.

It is not a one-time event of receiving the Word. There's an initial reception, um, but how you continue to receive it is very, very important. The quality of how you receive, um, uh, the quality of the soil is dependent, is dependent on, on you. Anytime you have a test in life or a temptation, that's going to be the two things that, that, that will, you that'll, you'll find yourself in. You'll be tested and you'll be tempted.

The quality of the soil and how you receive the Word and respond to that will be whether you succeed in passing the test or avoiding temptation in the soil and how, how you prepare yourself. How you make time and energy, how much time and energy you put into the quality of that soil is probably the most important thing you can do in life. It is where your character is built to respond to tests and temptations. It's hugely important. And you know, I don't know how to say this, but I was thinking of all the things.

So we, we think of all the things that can distract us. So the, we think of worldly things, fleshly things that can distract from being focused on keeping the quality of your soil fertile. But you know, there's other things that can also distract us. I've seen people get so focused on evangelism that they forget to keep their heart fertile to receive the Word. And they end up going off on these weird things by themselves.

They get, I don't know, you just see people and they focus on evangelism or they, they focus on, on, on ministry and they do it at the expense of their own soul. And the Word wants to speak to them, they're not open to it. So it's, it's weird how you'll find yourself in life being distracted. So just keep that in mind. If you find yourself struggling to receive the Word, it's because you haven't given yourself enough attention.

So I was thinking of how we receive the Word, how to keep ourselves, um, our the soil and our heart ready to have quality. How you think in life is one of the most important things of whether your heart will be open to receiving the Word. You both of you sit in a, in a, an amazing opportunity. There's a lot of people that don't have the opportunity that you have. I mean, you live in America where the gospel isn't yet, um, kicked out. You can read the Bible every day.

No one's going to shoot you or haul you off to prison. You have parents around you and you have a church community and there's a greater body of believers around, especially in this area. Like the opportunity is endless. In fact, I'm going to argue that you have so much opportunity that you miss it, okay? But that comes back to your daily decision to keeping your, the, the, your heart fertile to receive the Word. So learning from learning, learning or, or how you think matters.

And you do that by learning, learning from people. The brothers and sisters in this church are amazing people, amazing people. There is a ton of examples in here of how to learn to think. There's people in here that have thought right all their life. There's people in here that in the last five years have drastically changed their way of thinking. And it changes their, their output. How you think matters every day.

The habits you do, the, the probably the second most important thing, the habits you could, you, you form in your life will be one or one of the most impactful things of whether your heart will be receptive to the Word. It's huge in your life. How you think will determine what you do in life. And I think how you respond to that thinking and to what you do will, will be, will, will be the evidence or the quality of that soil. I think it's very, very important. So I was thinking of another, uh, another thought.

I was thinking of this thought here. I shall make my commandments prosperous. And I think this is a beautiful, powerful concept. So God has not done all that he's done for you not to be prosperous, okay? Like he hasn't done all this work. He hasn't sent his son. He hasn't given us all these amazing things to have us be people that are not prosperous, okay? But he wants us to, this is how you become prosperous, by making his commandments prosperous in you. You understand what I just said there?

You, you listen, your heart has to be fertile, but then it's up to you to make his commandments prosperous. And that's how he prospers in the world. That's how you're, you're made prosperous. And, and like, and he's given us all these opportunities and privileges, people around us, the Holy Spirit community. But he needs you to respond well, okay? And that's how his commandments are made prosperous. And I think that's a, that's a, just a, a, a beautiful thing. Um, he wants us to become people in every area.

The, the testimony that I gave at the beginning, when if you struggle in something in life, like I said, I struggled with anger and then I went through this stage where I was anger management and now I'm no longer anger management. He wants that in all of your areas. That's called being prosperous, okay? That's on receiving the Word and allowing permanently. And that can happen in every area of your life. This idea that modern Christianity sells us that, that you can't be righteous is false.

You can walk in righteousness. You can become righteous people. This idea that your, your righteousness is filthy rags is a horrible understanding of that. It's a terrible thing. We walk in righteous. We become righteous people. But it is how we receive the Word. So the seed that is planted needs to be planted in good soil and that soil needs to stay good. And that's the thing that I, that I really, really want you, each of you to remember. I'm just going to read a little quote here.

For as the snow or the rain descends from heaven and shall not return to what waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud and gives seed to the sower and bread for food, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return until it shall have accomplished all that I desired and I shall make my commandments prosperous. For ye shall go out with joy and be taught with gladness. For the mountains and the hills shall leap while they expect, expect you.

And all the trees of the fields shall applaud with their branches. And instead of the thorn shall up, shall come up the cypress. And instead of the brow shall come up the myrtle. And the Lord shall be for a name and for an everlasting sign. And he shall not fail. So the thing that I take from that is God does not want you to fail and you don't have to fail. You can follow God your entire life and not fail. You don't have to worry about that if you keep your heart fertile, okay, to receive the Word.