Sheryl Brady - The Ground Rules for Good Ground

On your way down, just hit somebody and tell them «ground rules, ground rules.» In the text today, Jesus is teaching in what we would call the form of a parable. Those of you who know your Bible know that there are many parables in Scripture, and that’s what He’s teaching in this particular passage. Now, what is a parable? A parable is a spiritual truth that has been communicated through a short story. This particular one we are talking about today is the parable of the sower. The first part of what we read was Jesus talking to the multitudes about this parable. In the second part, He is not just talking to the multitudes but to His disciples. He is telling them that in Palestine, there was no farming machinery. Today, there is farming machinery, and as it goes forth, it spreads out the seed. However, in those days, they didn’t have farming machinery, so those who were going to be sowers had to take the good seed and scatter it all over the land. They scattered it here, scattered it there, they scattered it everywhere. He closes His teaching by using this mysterious phrase, and I heard it as I read it in this room. There is something about this phrase that causes us to be on alert, which is a good thing because it is meant for us to be alert. That phrase is, «He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.» He said that not because they didn’t have ears; they did have ears, but he said it because it is possible to have ears and still not hear what the Spirit is saying to us. Often, what we hear when we come into the house of God is based on what we’ve trained our ear to hear. If we’ve trained our ear all week to hear one thing and then come in here and don’t hear the same thing, sometimes we can’t even hear it because we have trained our ear to hear certain things. A lot of people have a great ear for trash because that’s what they’ve trained themselves to hear; they can hear trash but not truth. It’s all because of their training. They can’t hear truth, but they can hear gossip, they can hear rumors, hello! They can hear all those kinds of things, and it perks them up; they get involved. They say they can’t remember scripture, but they can remember gossip. When it comes to gossip, they remember every word, every detail, every description; they remember who said it, when they said it, why they said it, where they were, and even what they were wearing when they said it because they have an ear tuned to that kind of stuff. So, look at somebody and tell them, «Train your ear to hear truth; train your ear to hear truth and not trash.» Now, a lot of people come to church, and when they arrive, they have what is called an outer ear. Because of this outer ear, they will sit in an atmosphere like we sat in this morning and hear the melody of the service. They don’t really know what all is happening; they only get the melody. They hear the preacher preach and get the melody of the message, and they smile, which makes them feel good. But really, all they got was the melody of the message. If you ask them after church what they sang or what the preacher said, they can’t even tell you because all they know is they got the melody of the message. It’s like that because they have an outer ear but not an inner ear. When you have an inner ear to hear, you hear the meat of the message, not just the melody. You hear the core of what God was doing in here a while ago. When you heard a certain sound, something in you realized this is different; this is God; this is heaven; something is going on here, and it’s not your typical Sunday morning praise and worship. Therefore, it is imperative that we take time to ask God to give us an inner ear. We must develop that inner ear because if we don’t, we will never grow; we will never know the mystery of His kingdom. You do understand that when we’re talking about the mystery of His kingdom, of His will, and of His purpose, that is a gift from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us what is known as the gift of understanding. Therefore, it would do us good to lay hands on ourselves every now and then and ask God, «Give me an ear so that I can understand what I am hearing in my inner ear.» Do not let me come to this church just because it is in my neighborhood. I know most of you are not in your neighborhood, but don’t let me come to this church just because I have some friends who go here.