Be Careful How You Hear

The podcast from CCI Fellowship is about being careful how we hear. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus explains the parable of the sower to his disciples, emphasizing that they have the privilege of understanding. He speaks in parables to those outside because they don't understand. But to his disciples, he gives the private explanation. The message encourages listeners to be careful about what they listen to and how they hear it. People hear based on their emotions, beliefs, and experiences. Jesus commands us to listen and emphasizes the importance of hearing the word of God. The podcast also discusses stewardship and how we need to steward the word of God that is being spoken to us. We should have a teachable heart and a longing for truth in order to gain understanding. It is important to listen without preconceived ideas and judgments. We should listen to the person God has placed us under spiritually, even if we don't prefer their method of speaking. The message reminds us to be careful how Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 4. I want to encourage us tonight through a message entitled, Be Careful How You Hear. And as I was thinking about what next week will be, no, I wasn't getting ahead of myself. Mondays are my day for preparation for the following week. And so I was considering what to follow this up with, that today we will focus on Be Careful How You Hear. Next week we'll talk about Be Careful How You Walk. And if there are any other places in Scripture that there is a be careful how you, we'll look at those too and see what God has to say for us. In Mark chapter 4, in the first 33 verses, of course, this is the account in Mark of the parable of the sower, that Jesus goes through the parable, he tells it, then his disciples come to him and say, we're ignorant, we have no idea what you're talking about. And when they are alone, he gives them the private interpretation or explanation of the parable. And he says, to you it is given to understand, while to others it is not. You have the privilege of understanding. You have the privilege given to you of clarity. You have the privilege to hear the explanation. I want to tell you today that you have the privilege to understand. We are not those who are outside, who are spoken to in parables. Jesus said, I speak to them in parables specifically because they don't understand. Specifically because they can't hear. Specifically because their eyes are not open yet. And we can look at that verse and say, OK, God, why? I don't understand that. He has his purpose in that. But to his people, obviously those who are outside hear at some point. You have to hear in order to come into the family in the first place. You have to hear in order to believe. Faith comes by hearing the Word, hearing the Word of God. But he says to his disciples, you have the privilege of the private explanation, and we are exactly in the same place because of the Holy Spirit. In the material that we're using in Fellowship Group, that pastor specifically ends his messages by saying, what is the Holy Spirit saying to you? What are you hearing? If we took a poll at the end of this service, as you walk out and ask each person, what did you hear today? We would get a variety of answers. Certainly some things would be consistent because we all heard the same message, but we each hear according to, one, what we need to hear, where our thoughts go. A lot of times I'll ask Adriana on the way home, what did you think about the message? She'll say, well, I like when you said this and this and this, and I'll say, I didn't say that. That wasn't in my notes. That wasn't in my improv because I don't always follow my notes. It was something else, something that the Spirit spoke to her through what I was saying. So we all hear in a different way. We all hear perhaps a slightly different aspect of the message being spoken. But Jesus got his guys together and he said, I want you specifically to know these things. And in the first 33 verses of this chapter, we find that Jesus gives the command, listen. And throughout those verses, ten times the word hear appears. There is something important concerning this parable regarding hearing. In verse 13 he says, you don't understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables? There's something within this parable of the sower that is the key to the whole of the gospel. The whole of every other parable that is spoken, it has to do with how do you hear. In verse 24 and 25 it says, Then he said to them, take heed what you hear, or be careful what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you, and to you who hear, more will be given. To you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. In the companion account in Luke chapter 8, in verse 18 it says, Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given more, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him. Now when we read the different accounts in the different gospels, we have a tendency to think that this was the only instance that Jesus said this parable or this story. I'm pretty sure that he said some of these things in multiple different places. And so we have the variation that exists. It's not an error in scripture. It's not contradicting verses. It is simply that the probability exists that one heard him say it in one place and wrote it down and said, be careful what you hear, and the next time he said it, he said, be careful how you hear. So what do we do with that? I think because scripture is inspired by God, that he made sure things were in here that we needed to know, that not only do we need to be careful of what we are listening to, who is it that is feeding us, who is it that we are receiving spiritual nourishment from, who is it that we are, even in the natural, the things of the natural, the news or our coworkers or the things that we watch on TV. What are the things that we are listening to? And Jesus says, be careful, guard those things. But he also says, take heed how you hear it. How do you hear what is being said? People hear what they want to. They hear what they want to that is based on their own emotions, based on how they are feeling in the moment, based on their own beliefs, based on preconceived ideas. People hear what they want to that is based on their own experiences, so we filter the things that come into us based on our things that have happened previously in our lives. But this applies also when we are listening to somebody speak the word of God. And Jesus says, be careful how you hear. Because again, he says this at the end of the parable of the sower, which is all about the word of God. We often associate the statement of, for whoever has, to him more will be given, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away. We associate this with what is at the end of Matthew in the story of the talents, where one was given ten, one was given five, one was given one, that the one who was given one did nothing with it, and when the Master came back and found that out, he took that one and gave it to one of the other ones. Well, that's not fair. He that has gets more, and he that doesn't have gets less? Well, yes. In this section of our fellowship groups, we're focusing on stewardship, and that really is what it boils down to. How do we steward the word of God that is being spoken to us? How do you hear? The very first place this is mentioned is with this parable. Not just with the talents, not with just physical things, but with the spiritual. In taking a page out of Pastor Jose's method of preaching, I'm going to look at some of the amplified verses. In Luke 8, verse 18, in the amplified version, it says, So be careful how you listen, for whoever has a teachable heart, to him more understanding will be given. And whoever does not have a longing for truth, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him. Even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him. When we listen to a message, do we start at the beginning of the message, we hear the title of what is going to be spoken, and immediately we make up our minds about how that sermon is going to be. We do it many times without even knowing. Oh, this topic again? In fact, for a while the church would advertise who was preaching in what service over the weekend, and what the title of the message was. Back then I didn't write my sermons until Sunday morning, and I had to come up with a title on Monday so that they could advertise it. It was very difficult for me. But what they found was that people from one service would attend another service because one, they liked who was speaking in that service better, and two, they liked the topic better. Aren't all topics good for us? Cannot we learn from whatever is being spoken? Can't we learn from whoever it is that is the one speaking? But a lot of times we come into it already critiquing what is about to be said. And when we come in with that attitude, we miss actually what is being said. We miss even what the Holy Spirit wants to tell us because we're listening with ears that are already filtered by our own preconceived ideas and beliefs. Well, I just don't like the way that speaker said that. You know what? You don't have to listen to them. You don't have to join their podcast. You don't have to search them on YouTube. You don't have to discredit them on social media. Just stop listening. You don't like a certain preacher? Don't listen to them. But if it's your pastor, if it's the person that God has placed you under spiritually, you don't have a choice. You have to listen. And if that pastor puts somebody else in the pulpit, no, I'm not preaching this because of something specific. This is just for us to grow in. Some of you might be thinking, who said something? Nobody said anything. You've got to listen to the one whom God has placed you under spiritually, whether you like the way they say it or not. I've said it before. I'm not the most eloquent speaker. As Adriana, we listen to other preachers, even from older times back, and they're so eloquent in the way that they weave together Scripture and how they can connect things from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It's just so wonderful how they can do that. But they're not our pastor. They're just somebody speaking the Word that we can learn from, that we can hear from. But if it's somebody that God has said you are under them, then whether we prefer their method or not, we do have to listen. Be careful how you listen. The Amplified Bible tells us that if we have a teachable heart, then understanding will be multiplied to us. I just don't understand this topic. I just don't understand what is being said. This was said, and that was said, and that was said, but I just don't get it. Well, a teachable heart will pursue the knowledge. A teachable heart will pray about what is said, and a teachable heart says, Holy Spirit, help me to understand. A teachable heart will go to the person who was speaking and say, I didn't understand when you said this. Can you help me? And then we take that to the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher, and ask Him for clarity. And understanding is multiplied to us. However, if we take the opposite side of it and say, well, I didn't understand what He said. I didn't like the way that He said it. He phrased it in this way, and, you know, it's just, I don't like that He said that. What you understand about that topic begins to diminish, because we have placed ourselves in a position that is unteachable. And in that place, not even the Holy Spirit can get through to be able to teach us better things. In the classic version of the Amplified Bible, Mark chapter 4, verse 24 says, And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure of thought and study you give to the truth you hear will be the measure of virtue and knowledge that comes back to you, and more, besides, will be given to you who hear. Did you get that? Do you want to take a second to read it more? The measure. There's another place in the Gospels where Jesus said a similar thing. The measure that you use will be the measure that's given back to you, and it is highly quoted, because it says, Give, and it'll be given back to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together. Running over with the measure that you use will be the measure it is given back to you. That same section of Scripture talks about judging. It talks about forgiving. All of those things. In the measure that you forgive somebody else, you will be forgiven. In the measure that you judge another person, you'll be judged. In the measure that you give, whether that is giving finances, giving time, giving resources, giving of yourself, giving this, giving that, in the measure that you give, it'll be given back to you. So Jesus here starts it all out by saying the measure of thought and study that you give to the Word, the truth that is being taught. Remember, this is in the context of the parable of the sower. How does that parable go? He says in the explanation, The seed that was sown on the wayside are those that hear, but there's no place for the root to grab ahold. The seed that is sown among rocky ground represent those that hear, but there's no depth. The seed that is sown here represent those that hear, but when the trials and the cares of life spring up, it dies away. They receive it with gladness. Oh, I heard this great message. I received it with gladness. It reminds me of when people come and they tell me afterwards, Oh, that message was a blessing. And they tell me that after service. In all reality, it is not a blessing to you until it produces fruit. That's when it is a blessing. And it will only produce fruit in your life if you hear it in a teachable way. You can say, That was a good sermon. Great, I'd like to know that it was a good sermon. It's encouraging. But it won't be a blessing to you until you allow it to germinate inside of you and allow it to grow, allow it to take root, keep root, and grow until it produces a harvest in you. In the classic amplified version of Luke 18, it says, Be careful, therefore, how you listen. For to him who has spiritual knowledge will more be given. How many want more spiritual knowledge? Amen? I do. More will be given. And from him who does not have spiritual knowledge, even what he thinks and guesses and supposes that he has will be taken away. You may think you're smart. You may think you have intelligence. You may think that you know better than somebody else. But when you have made yourself unteachable even to the Holy Spirit, even what you think you have, even the convoluted understanding that you think is there, even that will be taken away from you. If we become unteachable, even the understanding we do have will become corrupted. You may have a good understanding. It may be sound doctrine that you're holding on to. But if you're not careful how you hear what is being preached, even that sound doctrine can become corrupted, and we can bring ourselves into the danger of spiritual confusion. Now, we shouldn't listen blindly at all. There's nothing wrong with testing what is being said. In fact, Scripture tells us to do that. That's how we can know between true teachers and false teachers. Does it line up with the Word of God? But be careful when somebody is speaking something that doesn't go along maybe with your own beliefs, though it does go along with Scripture. That if you take the perspective of, you know... No, he's just... I don't like the way they said that. Is it scriptural? Did they use it in a manner that is scriptural? Yes. Okay. What's the problem? I don't like the way they said it. Whose problem is that then? Is it the person that said it, or is it your ears? You know, Scripture says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He is a master at changing what is being said and what is being heard. Just look at a marriage. We were in a car the other day, and I said something, and she's like... I don't even remember what her response was, but it was different than what I had said. She heard something different than what I had said. I said something different than what she had heard. And that happens all the time in life, not us. We don't have communication issues. Not any more than anybody normally has. But the devil has a fun way of changing things so that we miss out on what God wants to teach us. We get offended by what is being said because it doesn't agree with what we already believe. A lot of times we listen to a sermon wanting to be validated in the things that we already believe instead of wanting to be taught and make sure that what we believe is sound. So we come in with an attitude of, well, if he doesn't say what I already believe, then that's fine. It's not a good message unless it lines up with my own belief. Guess what? Your beliefs are imperfect. Your understanding is not perfect. You have not acquired all of the spiritual knowledge there is to acquire. So be careful how you listen. Be careful what you listen to. Be careful who it is you're listening to. I remember in high school that we were in chapel the one day, and the chapel was student-led except for the speaker. And this kid who was in a grade below me, he got up to lead worship, and I was like, there's no way I can worship with him leading the singing. I know too much about him. There's no way that he should be up there leading worship. And of course the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, is this about you and him or is this about you and me? Is this a time of worship between me and you or between you and him? And so comes in the phrase of the song that we sang, who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to be hindered in my worship with God simply because of the person who may be leading the singing? Who am I not to be taught by the Holy Spirit simply because the person who is preaching phrased something incorrectly? More and more often in today's mentality we are quick to correct. We're quick to critique and we're very slow to listen and receive. In that instance it was someone who the leadership who was over me put up there. Therefore who am I to question them or to say you're wrong? I wasn't in a place to say that. I was a student. And so I got to trust who the leadership was and not worry about the decision they make so that I can worship God and learn from the Holy Spirit. In the same manner, between who stands up here to preach, what material we use in fellowship groups, all of that, that all goes through me. I don't let just anybody stand up here and preach. Kyle is the one that is over the fellowship groups and he comes to me and he says, what's the topic? I give him the topic. He goes and he searches out two or three or four options and then he comes back to me and says, which one do you think? He doesn't send me a message and say, well, I'm over fellowship groups. This is what you put me in charge of. This is what we're doing. And I have no say in it whatsoever. No. In case you were wondering, I choose all the topics for fellowship groups. Why? For our good. So that we grow. So that we follow the plan and the path that God has for us as a church. So that we can grow in our spiritual understanding and gain more of it. As the worship team comes, I want to encourage you in that just to reiterate. That Jesus said, be careful what you hear. What are you listening to? You know, my life is just full of negativity. My life is, we were with somebody recently while we were in the States that all they could do was complain about this and complain about that. And everything was just so negative. And this is a person who is filled with the spirit of God. But the focus, their focus in life, has gotten so much onto the negative things that are happening and transpiring that they can't see the good of what God wants to do. Why? Because of the voices that they're listening to. Constantly listening to the news. Constantly listening to the doomsdayers. Constantly listening to the world is falling apart. You know what? We serve a God who is able to do miracles. Let's get our focus off of the negatives. Not deny that it's there. It's there. But may what we be listening to, through God, supersede anything that is being listened to elsewhere. May whatever news that comes be heard through the filter of the Holy Spirit, not through the filter of our emotions and fear. How we listen. Listen with a teachable spirit. Listen with a submitted spirit. That's a... For many people, you put submission in the title of a message, and they might as well leave. They've already said, nope, I'm not listening to that. Which just goes to show, they're the person that really needs the message the most. Be careful what you hear. Like the old Sunday school song, Oh, be careful little eyes what you see. Oh, be careful little ears what you hear. Be careful little feet where you go. Let's stand and pray. After we pray, we're going to sing this song. I want you to prepare your tithes and your offerings. But yet, the ushers, the greeters will come forward. And when we're done singing, we'll make our confession of faith over our tithes and our offerings. And then you'll have opportunity to come and give those and be dismissed into this week of victory. This week of listening to the Holy Spirit. Teach us what he wants us to know. Father, we present ourselves before you today. We come, Lord God, ready. Ready for instruction. Ready for correction. Ready, Lord God, with submissive hearts. Ready, Lord God, with teachable spirits. Heal, Lord God, our hearing. Heal, Lord God, our sight. Heal, Lord God, our hearts where there would be hard and stony ground. That you would place inside of us yet again a heart of flesh. Your word says that you will give us a heart of flesh so that you can write your law upon our hearts. Father, may we have soft hearts. Teachable hearts. Ears ready to listen. Eyes ready to see. For, Lord, we do not want to grow stagnant and we don't want to stay in the place where we are now. Nor, Lord God, do we want to go backwards, putting at risk the understanding that we already do have. May we grow in you. May we move forward in you. May you be glorified in us and through us. And may we never be found. May we never be found to resist the things that you want to do in us. May we have faith. May we still believe, Lord God. In Jesus' name, Amen. If you would like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings. .