Four Kinds of Hearts

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There’s a remedy for impure hearts. Pastor Chris Brooks reminds us of Jesus’ perspective.

Pastor Chris Brooks: You cannot purify your own heart. You cannot change your own heart. But I went to that cross to pay your sin debt so you might have a new heart.

Nancy: We’ll hear more from Chris Brooks, today on Revive Our Hearts, for Tuesday, January 18, 2022. I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

So, what does it look like to have a heart that’s grounded in God’s Word? Pastor Chris Brooks is going to explain as he continues his message from yesterday. If you missed part one, you can listen to that at ReviveOurHearts.com, or on the Revive Our Hearts app. Pastor Brooks gave this message to thousands of women who had gathered in Indianapolis for the conference Revive '21. 

Today, we’re going to pick up where he left off yesterday in Luke chapter 8. Let me read a portion of that passage. This is a story—a parable—Jesus told to the crowds. Luke 8, starting in verse 5:

A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.

Here’s Pastor Chris Brooks.

Pastor Brooks: Then He goes to say something very interesting in verse 8. At the end He leaves them with this statement: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

Now, the Hebrew language that this is pulled from goes back to the Shema: “Hear, O Israel,” Deuteronomy chapter 6. It goes back to the ancient Hebrew. Now, the ancient Hebrew language, ladies, is what’s known as a word-poor language. That’s not a criticism, it just means that it doesn’t have as many words as other languages might have. The ancient Hebrew that this is pulled from—this word “hear” is what I want to focus in on—only has 8,000 words, compared to modern English that has over 400,000 words. What that means is that every word, just about, in ancient Hebrew has a range of meanings.

So when you read this word “hear,” what it would have meant or been heard as in the ears of the original audience was more than just to listen or to be aware that someone is talking, but it means to obey. It means to be ready to respond.

When He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” He is not just talking about just listening, but He’s talking about having a ready heart to respond to what is being said. 

How do we know that we have received the Word of God? It is when we do the work of God. We know we have received His Word. How do you know that you are grounded in the Word? When you are doing the work of God.

Recently at our church, we have been focused on global missions, and we launched a new initiative. We call it the Woodside Global 100. We borrowed this from a phenomenal student mission movement started by D.L. Moody called the Moody 100. In the early 1900s, Moody did a clarion call across the nation, inviting young adults to come who would commit their lives to the global church and reaching the world for Jesus.

Well, in similar fashion, as we looked at the average age of the current missionaries who are serving around the world, we said, “We need a next-generation movement of missionaries.” So we have taught on this, we have preached on this, and we have called for 100 young people from our church to answer the call for global missions and to invest their lives in it.

Now, everyone across all of our campuses have heard these message, but recently there was a young man who came to us; his name is Andrew. After watching all that has happened in Afghanistan—he had been going through preparation to be deployed into the mission field—he said, “I have heard from the Lord, and I want to invest the rest of my life into reaching the people of Afghanistan with the gospel.”

So we gathered together as elders, we wept, and we prayed for him. We deployed him, and now he is in a Central Asian country bordering Afghanistan, ministering to refugees there.

Why do I bring up Andrew’s story? Because it is an example of what it means to be grounded in the Word of God. How do you know that you are grounded in the Word of God? Not by the number of podcasts that are downloaded on your iPhone. Not by the number of sermons that you have heard. Not by the sweet quotes that you tweet out. Jesus is far more than a tweetable Savior. We know that we have received the Word of God when we do the work of God, when we say, “Yes, Lord; your servant is listening, and I will obey.” So obedience reveals that we are grounded in His Word. 

Jesus goes on to explain the parable in verse 11. “Now the parable is this: the seed is the Word of God.” He is very clear on that detail, that in this parable the seed that is being sown is the Word of God. From there He’s going to go into the soils and explain the various types of soils.

But I want you to notice for a moment what He doesn’t describe. He does not describe the sower. It’s not that the sower is unimportant, but it’s that the description of the sower is not pertinent to the story that He’s telling. We get so wrapped up in the identity, the popularity, and the fame of sowers that we think sowers are more important than seeds. Never allow yourself to be so enamored with the fame and the identity of the sower—who cares what great school they graduated from, what their resume proclaims? If they have not given you the seed, who cares about the sower?

What I love about this conference and I love about Nancy’s heart for you is that she is committed to bringing speakers before you not based on popularity or audience or resume, but based on their handling of the seed.

Ladies, I want to encourage you that if you are going to be a woman grounded in the Word, you have to be in love and enamored more with the seed than you are with the various sowers. God can use any sower. God can use anyone. He can use someone from a broken family and high school education, and He can use someone with a Ph.D. from a famed academy. It doesn’t matter to God. What is most important is not the sower, but the seed. As a matter of fact, the sower brings nothing of import to the moment except for the seed. The seed is what changes us. The seed is the Word of God.

So what about these soils? Well, the soil, according to verse 12, the ones along the path are “those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” That’s the first type of soil.

Secondly, verse 13, the ones on the rock are “those who, when they hear the Word, receive it with joy, but these have no root. They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”

So far this sower’s batting 0 for 3. Then verse 15 is given to us for encouragement. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

Ladies, the question and the purpose and the moral of the story is very clear; it is to confront the reader with one question: What type of soil are you? What type of soil is your heart? What type of soil is my heart? He gives us a picture of four different types of hearts.

First, a hard heart, the heart that does not receive, the heart that rejects what is being sown, the heart that is so bitter and so hurt and so wounded that that heart can’t even receive the hope and the truth that is given to us in Jesus Christ.

Some that are watching and present with us now, maybe you have been through so much life and pain, you have grown so cynical that even now, as the Word of God is being sown, your heart is hard and the Word doesn’t penetrate. Just know that it’s the devil at work, trying to prevent you from receiving the only thing that can heal you.

The second type of heart He gives us is a shallow heart. Oh, you’ve seen that type of heart before, right? The type of person who eagerly receives. They say, “Yes, this is true.” And then a little heat comes, a little persecution comes. Their expectations aren’t met.

Some of you were sold a bill of goods: “Come to Jesus and you’ll lose fifty pounds.” “Come to Jesus and He’ll make everything right again.” “Come to Jesus and there’ll be no more pain.” Though the Bible promises us that we are saved from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, it does not promise that we are rescued currently from the presence of sin. That is a future promise. While we’re living in this world we will still know brokenness, and we will still know pain. The difference is that when we have put our faith and trust in Christ, He is with us through it all. He is Emmanuel, God with us.

The shallow heart receives the Word of God quickly, but then it fades away, it withers as soon as persecution comes. What type of heart are you? What type of heart am I?

The third type of heart is what I will call a divided heart, a heart that, again, readily receives the Word of God: “I believe!” The person who maybe is subsequently baptized and professes that belief. But then the cares of this life begin to creep in. Jesus describes it again in verse 14; it is choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of life.

If ever there is a verse that keeps me awake at night, ladies, it is this verse that continues to challenge my heart and my own relationship with God’s Word, because I have so many cares in this life. I have a family that I care about. I have a home that I have to take care of. I have a car that needs repairing. None of these things are bad. The cares of life are not bad, but if they take preeminence over the seed and it’s work in your life, it will choke out God’s Word.

What does Chris Brooks have to watch out for? I have to watch out for having a divided heart.

I don’t know which soil you are, but the story invites us to ask the question, What type of soil am I?

Well, the fourth type of soil is good soil, the good heart. We know this heart is good not just because it receives God’s Word, but again, as I said earlier, we know that we have received the Word of God when we do the work of God. The fact that it produces spiritual fruit is actually living out the Word. Jesus doesn’t want us to be just hearers of His Word, ladies, He wants us to be doers of His Word. That’s the picture of the good heart.

Now, here’s my question for you. Which category do you fall in? Which soil are you?

Let me tell you one of the insights into properly reading the parables. One of the insights into properly reading the parables is what you call location. It is so important that you locate yourself in the story, in the parable. I don’t care if it’s the parable of the soil or the parable of the Good Samaritan; it is so important that you locate yourself. Where do I find myself in this parable?

Here is the trick, and it reveals our fallenness. All of us want to identify with the good guy. All of us want to say, “That’s me.” Some of us, as we read through this story, want to raise our hands and say, “Hey, I’m number four. I am the good soil.” You don’t have to say amen; just look straight ahead and say, ‘Ouch,’ and the sister next to you won’t know it was you.” [Laughter]

But the story is not given to affirm us, it is given to affirm God. As a matter fact, you probably are reading the story right when you identify with the bad characters. That’s how you know that you have read a parable right, when you read the parable and you look at yourself and you say, “Lord, I am so desperately in need of a Savior.”

Now, for those of us who might be tempted to say that “I am the good soil,” let me remind you of the words of Romans 3:10, “There are none that are righteous, no not one.” Not one of us is righteous!

This is the problem. The problem of the parable, the desperation that it leaves the reader in, the hearer in, when it is properly understood, is that Jesus is clearly demanding that I have a good heart. But the problem is, He has already told me that I don’t have a good heart, that I can’t have a good heart, that none of us are righteous, no not one. He told another man at another time, “There is only one who is good, and that is God.” So, I am left in a very desperate situation, knowing that my heart is not good, but knowing that the only soil that actually produces fruit is a good heart. 

That’s exactly where Jesus wants me to be. He wants me and you to be at a place where we recognize that unless we get a heart transplant, we will never be grounded in the Word. It is impossible for me to stand before you and tell you to be grounded in the Word and simply give you Bible study methods when your heart isn’t right. It would be fruitless for me to tell you to be women who are grounded in the Word and give you cute techniques about how to find all the secrets of Scripture, as if there’s some mystery key, if your heart is not right. No, my message to you and to me today is that we are in desperate need of a heart transplant, and it’s only when we get a new heart that we can have a heart that receives the Word of God, evidenced by us doing the work of God.

But thanks be unto God that He offers us a heart transplant! This, again, is where I go back to the ordinances, where I go back to the sacraments, because when properly understood we know where to go for that heart transplant. On that night in which He knew He was going to be betrayed, He took the bread and said, “This is my body, offered for you. You cannot purify your own heart, you cannot change your own heart, but I went to that cross to pay your sin debt so that you might have a new heart.”

The new covenant, which is ratified in His blood, which promises me, according to Scripture, that He will give us new hearts of flesh exchanged for our hearts of stone when we put our faith and trust in Him, is ratified through His blood. So, when I take Communion, I am reminded that through His death on the cross and His resurrection He made it possible for me to have a new heart, a good heart that can be good soil to receive the good word to produce good fruit unto God. How many praise God for that?

But not only that, knowing that only He is good, He testifies to my union with Christ through baptism. Remember, my old heart, your old heart was buried with Him in baptism, and we rose with Him on that resurrection morning to the newness of life, giving us a heart transplant, good soil to receive the good Word of God, so that we might bear good fruit.

This morning I invite you to receive from the Master a new heart. Maybe you have searched your heart and, like me, you say, “God, I have a divided heart—so many directions, so many loves, so many pursuits; but I want You to be my primary love and my primary pursuit. Give me a clean heart.”

Maybe today you search your heart and you say, “God, my heart is stony, rocky, hurt, and bitter. It’s been downtrodden; it is so compacted from people who have walked over my heart that I need a clean heart. Give me, Lord, a clean heart.”

Maybe you have looked at your heart and said, “My heart is far too shallow in an Instagram world, where nothing seems to be real, and everything seems to be only surface deep. God, I need a clean heart.”

The psalmist David found himself in that same situation, and He gives us these wonderful words as I close today. In Psalm 51:10 he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Today I want to encourage you women of God to be grounded in His Word. If you’re going to be grounded in His Word, you need a heart transplant, a new heart, a heart to replace the wounded heart, the hard heart, the divided heart, the shallow heart, a heart that is from God, good soil to receive the good seed of His Word, to produce fruit for His glory.

I want you just to bow your heads for just a moment, close your eyes, and in the quietness of this moment I want you to ask God for the gift that only He can give. None of us can clean our own hearts; none of us can renew our own hearts. We need a Savior for that. So praise that He has come. Praise God that He offers us today new life in Him.

Father, we look to You. The parable, the story, the Word leads us to a truth that confronts us in a way that we didn’t quite expect. We thought that what we needed when we came here was a miracle or a promotion or new political leaders or a new job. But You offer us what we really need, new hearts.

So today, Lord, I pray that we would receive Your gift of new life in Christ. Help us to have a heart that longs for the Word; that celebrates Your presence; that longs for worship; that wakes up daily craving Your truth; that looks to You in the days of our lives for answers, direction, and guidance; that believes in the inerrancy of the Word, the inspiration of the Word, the sufficiency of the Word. Your Word is truth. May our hearts be hearts from You that receive Your Word and live Your Word. May it produce much fruit until all have heard, until Christ returns. In Jesus’ name—and all God’s women said, amen.

Nancy: Amen! As we’ve been listening to Pastor Chris Brooks share this message from Revive '21, I hope you ask yourself: “What kind of heart do I have? Which of the four types of hearts he explained most describes mine?” I found the Spirit of God asking me that question as I listened to this message, especially the part about distractions and having a divided heart. It is something the Lord has been speaking about to me ever since. The condition of our hearts matters for how we take in God’s Word and how we respond to it.

Dannah: This message is one we can all relate to. For one, my Grounded cohost, Portia Collins, really appreciated hearing from Pastor Chris Brooks. Here's Portia with Erin Davis.

Erin Davis: Portia says when Pastor Brooks preaches . . . 

Portia Collins: “I want to throw my shoe! He took us to church last night, and it was a blessing.”

Nancy: Maybe what you heard today makes you want to throw your shoe, too! Or at least, maybe you’ll take some time to examine your heart and let the Word of God take root.

Dannah: If you’ve been thinking about how you can soften the soil of your heart, let us help you launch into 2022 with Nancy’s A Place of Quiet Rest Journal. We’re not bashful about admitting: our goal is to get you to form the habit of spending time in God’s Word on a daily basis. If you already do that, this journal will help strengthen and refresh your time with God. All this month, we’re making the Place of Quiet Rest Journal available as our way of thanking you for your donation of any size.

We’re a listener-supported program. That means we depend on listeners like you to help us with our ongoing financial needs related to producing and distributing Revive Our Hearts. So your donation helps this program continue coming to you, but get this! It also helps extend the reach of this program to women who otherwise wouldn’t hear, in places all over the world. So thank you so much for praying for Revive Our Hearts. And thank you for giving, too.

We don’t ever want to take anything away from your regular giving to your local church. But as the Lord blesses you and if He’s at work in your life through Revive Our Hearts, we hope you’ll consider donating to support this ministry. You can do that by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com, or by calling 1–800–569–5959. Be sure to ask about the thirty-day devotional journal by Nancy when you get in touch.

Well, Laura Gonzales wanted to have children, but her husband, Fausto, didn't want to have anything to do with kids. Hear the ups and downs of a couple who had misplaced attitudes about the value of life. And hear how this couple is now spreading a message of life to others. That's beginning tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to freedom, fullness, and the “good soil” kind of fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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