Matthew 13:14–17
14“In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
15 For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.’
16“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17“For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Focused Thinking:
How authoritative is it when Jesus quotes Isaiah and says this prophecy is being fulfilled?
The One who is the WORD is quoting the WORD.
The One who is the WORD is telling that ISAIAH’S WORD has come true in this moment.
That would be exciting if it was a positive word; but it is tragic when it is a negative word.
14‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
Why?
15For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Personal Application:
Oh God, forgive us for allowing our hearts to become dull.
- It definitely feels like this is true in America today.
Oh God, show me how to sharpen people’s hearts.
How do we penetrate hard hearts?
We have to do the same thing Jesus did.
We need to disciple a few and turn them loose to change the world.
We can’t disciple the masses all at once.
That is the equivalent of trying to boil the ocean.
We must reach the crowd and grow the core at the same time.
We must fully commit to discipleship and leadership development.
This can’t happen through education alone; we must take discipleship out of the classroom.
Discipleship isn’t an intellectual process alone; discipleship is the process of loving God and loving people.
Oh God, help us prioritize true discipleship and leadership.
Forgive me for constantly getting distracted.
Help me lead this team and organization to discipline ourselves and structure this organization to prioritize discipleship and leadership development.
We will never win this city or this world to Christ by having more people who attend our church will dull hearts.
We must not fall into the trap of reaching people only to allow their hearts to become dull like the majority of casual consumer focused Christians today.
Focused Thinking:
15Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.’
What happens when our hearts aren’t dull?
They see with their eyes.
They hear with their ears.
They understand with their hearts.
They return and I heal them.
Once again, that is another picture of revival.
- Revival is simply the people of God returning to God with all their heart.
- Revival is simply the people of God loving and obeying God from a heart of love.
- Revival is simply the people of God obeying the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
- Revival is simply the people of God loving God, loving people, and making disciples.
16“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17“For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
We are seeing small numbers of people Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples and the results are amazing.
- We are blessed to see this; therefore, we must be good stewards of it.
- We are blessed to hear this; therefore, we must be good stewards of it.
Many are not seeing what we are seeing.
Many are not hearing what we are hearing.
Many are not experiencing what we are experiencing.
I have been on two previous staffs where God was working, but I rarely saw what we are seeing today, I rarely heard what we are hearing today and I rarely experienced what we are experiencing today.
We must be good stewards of the people that God is entrusting to us.
- We must disciple and grow our core.
- We must disciple and grow our new believers.
We must prioritize the good soil.
We must keep sowing in the good soil.
We must scatter seed everywhere, but we must be smart enough to prioritize the good soil.
The farmer and the seed are the same, but the soil is different with different people, different families and different locations through this city.
We must not give up on anyone; but we lead those who are willing to be led.
We must not give up on anyone; but we must disciple those who are willing to be discipled.
We must run with those who are willing to run!
Interactive Prayer:
Father, give us the ability to truly pastor people. Give us the passion and priority to disciple people. Give us the ability to identify leaders, mentor leaders and send them out to reproduce and multiply. Father, help us quit making excuses. Help us quit being too busy and to demand that we stop and do what is most important.
Father, forgive us for not having a better discipleship process in place for new believers. Father, forgive us and forgive our previous generations for not disciplining people and for turning Christianity into church attendance. Father, forgive the American Church for producing more Pharisees than disciples.
Father, show our team and me how to truly prioritize discipleship and to fully commit to it and to hold ourselves accountable. Father, help me in the midst of all the busyness to prioritize M28. Help us lead our organization more effectively so that we don’t burn one another out. Father, help us to redesign this church to truly prioritize reaching people and disciplining people. Show us how to build systems that enable us to focus on Loving God, Loving People, and Making Disciples.
Father, the first step of focus is the process of elimination. Show us what we are doing that we don’t need to be doing. Show us how to direct all of our energy and efforts to do three things well: Love God, Love People and Make Disciples.
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