Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - How to Listen Well - Luke 8:16-21

So if you would turned with me to Luke chapter eight, that's what we're

going to be opening up to today. Luke chapter eight. We're just going

to read the text, pray, and jump into it. Sound pretty straightforward,

awesome Luke chapter eight, verses sixteen through twenty one. This is what

it reads. No one lights the lamp and hides it in a clay jar

or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand

so those who come in can see the light. For there's nothing hidden that

will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought

out into the open. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has

will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what they think they

have, will be taken away from them. Now, Jesus's mother and brothers

came to see him, but they were not able to get him because of

the crowd. Someone told him, your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting

to see you. He replied, my brother or my mother and brothers are

those who hear God's word and put it into practice. This is God's word.

Let's pray. Lord, we give you this time. And we just

asked that after we've sung these songs to your glory, that you had been

preparing our hearts to hear from you that we'd be ready to receive your word

today for us, that we would be ready to be changed and have it

take root, that we look more like Christ, more like your body,

more like your Church, more like the light that you have called us to

be. So just help us understand your word, help us be attentive today

and ready to apply it to our lives. An all to your glory in

Jesus name. Everyone said, Amen. Awesome. So we've been in a

series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. In this series, you've been

going verse by verse through the historical account of Jesus's life and ministry as was

put forth by Luke the Doctor. He wrote this gospel account for someone named

Theophilus, with the intent that it would its strengthen his faith and give him

certainty concerning the things taught about Jesus. By God's grace, this account has

been preserved for us not just as an accurate historical document, but as the

very word of God. Now, last week we looked at a parable that

Jesus told a crowd. It was about a farmer who had gone out to

sow seed. Some of that seed fell, or that seed fell on four

different types of soil. The first three soils that the seed landed on were

problematic soils, resulting in the seed never maturing and coming to fruition. But

the last soil was good soil, resulting in the seed persevering elements, maturing

and ultimately producing a large harvest. Afterwards, Jesus explained to his disciples why

he spoke to the crowd and parables. That was as a judgment against the

crowd who had been hearing him teach plainly and still not accepting his word.

But now Jesus was going to reveal. And Jesus had we looked at last

week, revealed what the meaning of this parable was to his disciples. So

then Jesus told them the meaning of the parable, which was that the seed

that had gone out represented the Word of God. That the soils were different

souls or hearts that the word would have that would hear the word and have

different responses to this word of God. The first soil was that of blatant

unbelief. The next two were of false converts, those who appeared to be

believers, but would fall away and for two different reasons, either for persecution

on account of the word, or those who are choked out their faith was

choked out by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this world. Finally,

the fourth soil, the good soil, was the soil that heard the

word, received the word, retain the word, and produced fruit. That

is, the Word did not return void, but had a bountiful return.

Jesus told this to his disciples to set the expectation regarding what they could expect

to see as they went out, either following Jesus and seeing him preach,

or when they themselves went out to preach. He was setting the expectation to

say, you're going to go out there, You're going to preach the Word,

and there's going to be unbelief, false converts, and true believers.

So Jesus set the expectation. He gave his disciples the means of recognizing where

the seed had fallen, and last week we landed on the point. Though.

What Jesus was getting at is that true, genuine faith is faith that

perseveres and through that perseverance produces fruit, which is the intended result of sowing

seed. In the first place. Right, you don't just sew a seed

for nothing to happen. You have something that you want to come out of

that. Now, the reason for this long recap is because where we're going

to find ourselves in today's text is still in the middle of Jesus teaching his

disciples. So it's important to know where we're at what's going on. We

have not left the context. We're still in the middle of Jesus teaching and

explaining his disciples or to his disciples what he's talking about. And Jesus is

going to go on to make what he was talking about clearer and clearer.

Jesus will not only teach us how to recognize good fruit, but today actually

how to produce fruit ourselves. So if you are taking notes, today's message

is titled how to listen Well. All the husbands and wives and parents are

like nudging each other, eh, how to listen well? I will offer

a warning, a good warning. This isn't how to get someone else to

listen well. Right, it's how we read like we hear messages and we

go like, man, I know who I wish could hear this? Right?

I do it all the time, You know, what I mean.

You got a marriage conference, right, Someone's like You're like, they're telling

you what everything a wife should be and you're like, yeah, I hope

my wife's listening to this, right, vice versa and everything. So I'm

just saying this is something for us to take and apply to ourselves and make

sure that we're applying it to ourselves. Because here's the You can't control anyone.

You You ultimately can't change anyone, and so all you are going to

be responsible before God is for what He has told you to do. Okay,

So as we look to apply how to listen, well, as we

look at Jesus's teaching, we have to understand this is for us, all

right? Does that make sense? I just think that's kind of helpful,

or else we might spend this entire message thinking about someone else and not how

to apply this for ourselves. Okay, So our first section of verses,

let's start there. If you're taking notes, write this down. The purpose

of the light. The purpose of the light Luke eight sixteen through seventeen.

The first two verses we're gonna look at says, no one lights a lamp

and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead,

they put it on a stand so those who come in can see the

light. There's nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that

will not be made known or brought out into the open. Now, these

two verses have a lot to say. We see here that Jesus tells us

that the purpose of lighting a light is not to hide it, but to

let the light shine. Is to give as to give light. This is

an illustration that Jesus uses multiple times throughout the Gospel and Matthew five. He

tells his disciples that they are the light of the world, and then uses

this example to go on to tell them to hide their light but let it

shine, that they would live in accordance with God's word and so be a

light to those around them, so that when others would see their good works,

that God would be glorified. We see another truth at the end here

that Jesus tells the disciples, that is that everything will be revealed. Everything

is going to be revealed. There is nothing hidden from God that will not

be laid bare. We know in scripture that one day every single one of

us will stand before God to give an account and nothing is and nothing will

be hidden from God. That is our motives, our sins, our good

works are suffering. Nothing is hidden before him and will all be made known

one day. But as amazing as these truths are from these verses, these

verses are in a context. And I'm convinced that although those are true conclusions

from those verses, and we could just take each one of these verses and

preach a whole message on them, these verses are set in a context which

is extremely important. So what we're going to look at is we're going to

see what Jesus is getting at by using these illustrations in this text. So

let's look a little closer. Last week, Jesus told the parable of the

sower, and this text is a continuation and I believe a further explanation of

the parable that he had just told his disciples. He didn't switch topics in

the middle of his teaching. He's still teaching the same idea. And like

we looked at last week, Jesus was speaking to an agricultural society. So

when he spoke of sowing a seed amongst the crowd and the people, there

would have been this expected and desired result from doing so. That was as

seed with the end goal of eventually maturing bearing produce and eating its fruit.

That was their day to day life. We go to the grocery store.

I believe Jesus is using the same example of the light in the same fashion

to get the same point across at your house right now, do you know

where all of your emergency flashlights are? Do you? That's probably a good

thing, because here's the deal. I accidentally found mine the other day,

which I realize is not the way you want to find your emergency backup lights.

I was looking for batteries, so this kind of was a win.

I was looking for batteries and they were behind the batteries, and I thought

to myself, that's where those are. I wasn't even looking for them,

but it was a good thing to recognize, to go like, well,

if anything were to happen, now I know where they're at. There are

these actually really cool lamps. They're extremely bright, and they're kind of fun

to use when the power goes out. Not that it's fun when the power

goes out, but they also have charging ports on them for your phone.

Right, I was like, that was kind of the selling point for me.

I was like, yeah, the light, but I can charge my

phone. That's that's still important. Why are we talking about this? Well,

for us in modern times, we have light light everywhere, super easy

and accessible. We flip a switch or use our phone. We very rarely

find ourselves in a situation where where we are stuck in the dark or have

to consider how we are going to get light into a room. But back

then that wasn't the case. When it got dark, it got dark.

And the closest thing that I could think of that we could experience what they

experience on a day to day basis is when our power goes out for a

few hours, right, Because once again, it really is normally only a

few hours. You guys know what I'm talking about. You know when you're

like awake when the power goes out, or maybe you wake up from the

power out, because the whole houses goes boo, shuts down, all the

lights, all the fans, the sound machines, whatever else you have running

the fridge, and you're left with silence and darkness. But that's normally when

we start to scrounge, right, That's when we start looking around for lights.

Going around, we find candles, I can use this to light of

this area, flashlights, lamps, looking for a way to charge our phones.

Right now, imagine that darkness. None of us is going to find

that lamp, turn it on, and then go stick it under the couch,

right like that, That just makes sense. What we're going to do

is we're going to take that lamp and what if it's the strongest light we

have, We're gonna take it and we're gonna put in the most optimal place

in the house to try and still have our evening going. That's not actually

how it is in my house because my wife's like, is dark now,

we don't have lights. Let's just go to bed, and I'm like,

we could maybe play a board game, you know, we'll light a candle,

it'll be cool. But we do that because we light this light because

we need it. We're looking for this light. I just the reason I'm

using this example is because it's just so easy for us to like have light.

We take it for granted, really easily. But for them, they're

like, yeah, it's it definitely wouldn't be putting out a candle because it's

all the light I have. So the purpose of lighting a light is for

it to have light to light up the space to be able to see,

which I believe Jesus is just using another illustration to say that just like the

point of lighting a light is to get light, and sowing a seed is

to get produce. So it is when the word goes out that it's intended

result is for it to be heard and through this perseverance produce something that the

word that the point of the word going out and being spread is for it

to take root in people's lives, change them, and produce something that people

are to have the word take root in their hearts and put what they hear

into practice as to bear fruit. The second part of this tech, Jesus

yes is teaching that everything will be made known. But this once again is

coming off the context where Jesus is teaching his disciples what to expect when they

go out and preach the word to other people. He's teaching them and kind

of I think saying it in a way that they need not worry because there

is a sense in which things may not be apparent at the beginning, that

it's going to take time for things to be revealed, right because he just

said you're gonna go out, there's gonna be uneliever, it's gonna be false

believers, it's gonna be true believers. And you might be like, how

and when will I know that? They need not worry who is who immediately

because in due time everything will be revealed. There is no hiding. Everything

that is hidden will come to light. And that is true for the true

believer and the false believer. They're going to be revealed, either in this

life or on judgment Day. There is no hiding. It will come.

So we can rest assured about that. What we can rest sure about is

that there's no fooling God. You can fool us, but there is no

fooling God. Everything comes to light in God's timing. So just like the

disciples could expect unbelief, false converts, and true believers, Jesus is saying

the truth may not be immediately evident, but in due time everything will come

to light, both the good and the bad. Jesus is going to now

go to the application of what he's been talking about. He just taught them

via the explanation of the parable and more parables, that in due time you

will recognize where the seed God's word is truly at work and where it is

not. That is God's word doing what it's intended to do when it's heard,

which Jesus is going to make clear and clear the intended purpose of hearing

God's word. So if you're taking notes, write this down for our next

point, be careful how you listen, or take care how you listen,

or take care how you hear Luke eighteen. Jesus says, therefore, consider

carefully how you listen. We gotta stop. Jesus says, Therefore, anytime

we see this word in scripture, we need to ask ourselves what is the

therefo? Therefore, what is the point that was just made? Means it's

on the basis of that point that was just made, that whatever is coming

next is a necessary conclusion or application of the point that was just made.

So if you get to a therefore in the text and you're like, like

it kind of wakes you up, you should go back and see what the

point was just made, because it's going to be on the basis of that

that he's saying. Therefore, in applying it, it's just like in Romans.

After eleven chapters of Paul bounding on the Amazing Truths of the Gospel,

how we all fall short of the glory of God, how we were enemies

of God, but that Christ died for us while we were still sinners,

making the only way for sinful men to be made right before a holy,

righteous God. By the fact that Christ bore our sins gives us his righteousness.

And that for anyone in Christ there is no condemnation, and that for

all who call on the name of the Lord, they will be saved.

That there is future glory and hope and a plan working for good in the

life of every believer set forth from the foundation of the earth. That we

now have this amazing opportunity to take this gift and good news to a lost

and dying world and desperate need of this good news. After all of that,

that's eleven chapters, and that was like a really crude, crude summation.

They're incredible, you should go read it. After all of that,

Paul says, therefore, and it's the turning point in the letter to the

Romans where he now moves from all of this teaching where there are little thereforees

in there, to this big Therefore, because the rest of Romans, he's

gonna now be talking about how to live out and in light of what we

just talked about how to now live which he kind of summarized. He summarizes

in Romans twelve to one. He says this, Therefore, it's after eleven

chapters, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy.

Those first eleven chapters were about God's mercy to offer your bodies as a

living sacrifice, wholly and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper

worship. That is, after expounding eleven chapters of good News, that is

the gospel. He says. Therefore, in view of everything we just talked

about about relating to the mercy that God has shown, offer your bodies as

a living sacrifice, wholly and pleasing to him. And here's the deal.

If you understand what those first eleven chapters are really saying, it will change

your life. That mercy is too great, too good not to do something

in your life. You'd have no other response but to offer yourselves up to

live your entire life for God, who loves you and has saved you,

and has redeemed you and is sanctifying you all to conform you to the image

of His son, it is a necessary response if your heart and when your

heart truly grasps the depths of the truth that are laid out there, So

that therefore is very important. Okay, that was my point with that,

Luke eight eighteen. Let's go back to it. Therefore, consider carefully how

you listen. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have,

even what they think they have, will be taken away from them. Jesus

says, therefore, consider carefully how you listen, or your translation may say

how you hear. Jesus just got done explaining to his disciples the four soils

and the the In each one of those examples, there are someone who heard

the word and four responses to that same word, the three of the soil,

or that three of the soils heard the word but didn't mature and didn't

produce anything, but only one soil did. That was the soil that received

the word, retain the word and matured and produced. Jesus then says,

whoever has will be given more, but those who don't have, even what

they think they have, will be taken away. What is Jesus saying,

Well, once again, in the context of the parable, he just spoke

there was only one of the four examples that produced a crop. That is,

the one who has, the one who has is the one who has

fruit in their life, meaning they have true faith and will be given more

as The parable indicates that those who mature and produce don't just produce a little,

but they multiply greatly. But the contrasting example says that those who have

not, that is, those who don't have any fruit, who don't have

anything to show for the seed planted. Even what they think they have,

which they might think that they're saved, they might think that they have faith,

will be taken away from them. And really what that is is they've

never had it, So they lost something that they never had. Really,

the problem is that they've been fooling themselves. It might seem harsh, but

this isn't what I say. Let's look at James one nineteen through twenty five.

He really summarizes a lot of what we've been talking about the last two

weeks. My dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone should be

quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because

human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore get rid of

all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the

word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to

the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens

to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks

at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away

and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect

law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard,

but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do. Here,

almost as if James was teaching from today's text himself, he puts forth

the same points. James tells believers how they are to listen, that is,

quick to listen, to speak, to humbly accept the word they hear.

This isn't in my notes, But how often how often do we hear

a word that maybe we don't like, and immediately we want to say something

about it. Well, hold on, you don't know me. Hold on,

I actually have an exciuse, or I have a reason I did that

I have a reason rather than just humbly accepting what we're being told. Here

he uses the image of the word being something planted in them. He then

tells them very specifically how they are to listen. That is, not just

merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, but listen and then do

what it says. He then shares the word or that the word is not

something that you hear once and forget. You're like cool, I heard it,

I got my sticker, I'm good to go. But like we looked

at in the parable of the sewhere that it is received and retained, and

that through perseverance or continuing in it, not forgetting but doing it, they

are blessed. And last week we looked at the blessedness that is associated with

those who persevere and receive the crown, receive the fruit on the other side,

as it is the mark of genuine saving faith. So James tells us

this word that has been planted in us should be to the end that we

hear it and do it, because those who hear it and hear it only

are deceiving or are deceived in thinking it has done anything for them if they

just heard it and nothing comes of it. They've deceived themselves. And that's

what Jesus is getting at in our loop text. Those who have that is,

obedience to the word, will be given more, but those who have

not, even what they think they have, will be taken from them.

That is, those who hear the word and don't put it into practice are

deceived if they think that it's doing anything for them. It's a fun message.

Right. To summarize the point, I put it like this, We're

talking about this difference between genuine and false faith. The difference maker is this,

who are taking notes? Do you simply agree with the word or do

you seek to apply the word? That's kind of the difference we're talking about

here. Do you simply agree with the word or do you seek to apply

the word. We may agree that this world is full of sinners and need

and need Jesus and need to hear the Gospel, need to have their life

transformed, and then never apply that text to ourselves. We may agree that

whoever Paul was writing to in Romans should definitely live their lives as a living

sacrifice, but then never apply that to ourselves. We may agree when we

hear that other as children if you have them or are one, that you

are to obey your parents, but do you apply it. We may read

that we are to submit to our husbands. We may read that we are

to lead and love and lay down our lives for our families. Do we

The difference is in the fruit that is born in our life as a result

of the belief that we have. And as a reminder, it's not our

works or our fruits that save us. Salvation is alone by putting faith in

Jesus Christ. But the way we will come to know if we have truly

put genuine faith in Jesus is in how we respond when we hear God's word.

How do we respond? So what Jesus is telling us to be careful?

How you listen? That there's a way, a wrong way to listen.

We're gonna talk about that in a second. There's a wrong way to

listen. In one John two three says this, we know that we have

come to know him if we keep his commands. It's the fruit of our

salvation is that we produce fruit. What comes of being saved is that we

now produce fruit and we live in accordance with what our Savior has laid out

for us. Do we merely hear it, agree with it, and move

on, or does the word go down deep to the core of who we

are and take a strong root and start to change us and transform us?

Because true, genuine saving faith will change you. It does produce fruit.

It not just in your own life you will start to see it, but

so will others. It will produce light to those around you, godliness,

holiness. That is, you will actually start to be conformed to the image

of Jesus. That is the evidence and result of the word genuinely taking root.

Just like a light gives light when it's lit, so the word produces

fruit when it has actually taken root. Jesus tells them to be careful how

then they are, how they listen. He doesn't want them to be deceived,

but to examine how they listen, That is, to listen as those

who will put what they hear into practice. And we know this to be

true. There are many relationships in our life where we know this to be

true. If we're at work and our boss comes and says, I need

you to do this or I need this project done, They're not looking for

us to just be like I hear you. Right, you probably won't have

a job very much sooner after that. That's all we did with our children?

Or right once again, if our parents told us to clean up our

room and we said, I hear you, do we merely hear them?

Or do we put it into action? Do we put it into practice?

If our wives ask us to take out the trash. If our wives say

that they want to spend time with us, let we go I hear you,

but we don't put that into practice. If our husbands say that they

want to spend time with us. Your husband says that they want to spend

time with you, do we just hear them or do we put it into

practice? So when our Lord speaks to us through his word, do we

merely say I hear you and then not put it into practice? Because here's

the deal. We should not treat Jesus like we treat all of our other

relationships in our life. And the thing is, we don't do a great

job with our relationships in our life. Okay, that's kind of the problem,

and then we're treating Jesus like that that we end up going like we

do the same thing we do with our spouse and our children, or our

parents or coworkers. We go yeah, yeah, you always tell me this

same news. I know you want that. You don't have to tell me

that. Well, there's a reason that you keep hearing it over and over

again because you haven't put into practice. That's just that's it, because here's

the deal. To take an easier one, right, or to take one

of the easier examples. With the trash. You don't have to hear about

the trash. It's taken out, and not only if you start to learn

that there's an expectation that the trash goes out when you see that it's full,

rather than go like someone will take care of that. If you know

that there's an expectation, you don't have to wait to be asked because now

you've retained the word that there's something that has been asked of you. So

you see the trash and you can go and you can take care of it.

You get frustrated, you keep people can just keep telling me the same

things from the Bible. People just keep giving me the same solution. It's

well, you haven't applied it to your life once. The same thing with

Jesus. We can go black, Okay, Jesus. Yeah, I know

he wants to move to love people like no, but he actually wants you

to love people. He actually wants you to do it. And here's the

deal. Honestly, all of our earthly relationships and and and uh friendships and

familiar relationships really are not going to change until we first change how we respond

to Christ. Until we first respond like learn how to properly respond to his

word, our relationships are not going to improve because when we actually start to

obey him, we're gonna find that he tells us to respond properly in our

earthly relationships with our family and our friends. We move on in our text

kind of shifts scenes a little bit, we're still talking about the same thing

Verses nineteen through twenty. Now, Jesus's mother and brothers came to see him,

but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd.

Someone told him, your mother and brothers are standing outside waiting to see you.

So here we get some kind of actually interesting information about Jesus's family.

And also I'm going to fill in some of the places without going to the

different scriptures because as we've seen through Luke and we know in other places in

the Gospels, we get more information about Jesus's family. So first we see

that Jesus's mother, that is Mary, and Jesus's brothers came to see him.

Jesus had four half brothers then. Their names were James, Joseph,

Simon, and Judas and not the one you're thinking of, right, This

is a good Judas. And he also had some sisters. As we saw

earlier in our series going through Luke, Mary miraculously conceived while still a virgin

by the power of the Holy Spirit and gave birth to Jesus. It was

after Jesus's birth that Joseph, who is basically Jesus's stepdad, and Mary went

on to have normal biblical marital relationships with one another and bear more children.

So Jesus would have been the oldest of Mary, and now he has all

of these siblings. The reason I point this out is because that you may

encounter people, specifically Catholics, who believe that even after Jesus was born,

Mary remained a perpetual virgin. She stayed a virgin, but as scripture clearly

teaches, she had more children, so that's just impossible, okay. And

also Joseph. We don't see Joseph much later in the Gospels. It's believed

that at the point where Jesus started his ministry, that he had passed away

at some point before then, but jesus family shows up and wants to see

him. We see in other places in scripture that during Jesus's ministry his brothers

and family kind of thought that Jesus to some extent was out of his mind.

If you put them, if you put yourself in their shoes, it

kind of makes sense. You can find those verses Mark three point twenty one,

John seven five. It just plainly says that, like even his own

brothers didn't believe in him. It's not that Mary did seem to know who

Jesus was in some sense, as she had had encounters with angels who were

like, this is a pretty important guy, you know, like who you're

going to have is going to change everything, and he's going to save his

people from his sins and other and all kinds of other things. So,

but Jesus's brothers and other family did not believe at least until sometime close after

the resurrection, which I don't know about you, but it would probably take

my sibly rising from the dead for me to believe that they're God right.

Acts one four kind of get a picture of this. After Jesus has risen,

they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary,

the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers once again another verse Jesus's

brothers. What's actually really cool is that his brothers didn't believe in him,

but after his resurrection would believe him, and two of them at least has

believed that. At least two of them went on to write two books on

our New Testament, one of those being James. So when we go like

man, he sounds a lot like Jesus, well he has to say,

well, what makes sense. He probably grew up hearing that stuff. And

Jude, which they believe is Jesus's brother Judas, but maybe just didn't want

people to get a little confused by the letter from Judas. Maybe kind of

just dropped it to Jude for short. But what we need to understand is

that at this time in the text, but most likely the exception of Mary,

they thought Jesus had lost it a little, so they're showing up.

I just thought there was some extra context to kind of help us know what's

going on with the family, So thank you for bearing with me. Back

in our text nineteen through twenty, now, Jesus's mother and brothers came to

see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the

crowd. Someone told him, your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to

see you. Jesus' family shows up to see him, but they couldn't even

get close to him, because if you remember Jesus when he told his parable,

it was to a crowd that had been coming from town after town.

So they're there to see Jesus as well. There's this crowd. They can't

even get to Jesus. So eventually someone somehow gets the message to Jesus that

his family's outside. Also helps us realize. For me, I was reading

this, I was like, Wow, that's crazy. Is that Apparently he's

indoors teaching everyone, right, So he must have been inside a building teaching

to the crowd and his disciples. Just kind of helpful to put a picture

in our head of what's going on here. And now Jesus is gonna say

something incredible. At first, it might seem like he's disowning his family,

But I actually think we should flip it on its head and understand that he's

owning his real family, owning in the positive sense, not like owned.

Okay, so we're gonna look at our last text for the day, verse

twenty one, or in this passage, verse twenty one, and I need

the band to come up, please. He's told that his mother and brothers

are outside trying to see him, and he replied, my mother and brothers

are those who hear God's word and put it into practice. Jesus says,

my true family are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.

Jesus's family, just like our family, in most circumstances, are going to

be considered the closest to us relationally. Generally speaking, your family is going

to be thought of as the closest to you relationally. But what Jesus is

pointing to is that those who are closest to him relationally aren't marked by blood

or status, but by hearing and doing that there is a true faith that

drives them to obedience to all that is revealed by God's word. Those who

hear God's word and truly receive it, believe it, retain it and have

had it had its full effect in them to the end that they've actually put

it into practice that as they mature and produce fruit in their lives. Jesus

says, that's my family. Those are the people who are closest to me

relationally, who hear God's word and put it into practice. John one nine

through thirteen says, this the true light that gives light to everyone, was

coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world

was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to

that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet

to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural

descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Jesus is the true light that he's come into the world. That when

he is received, if that is the mark of a child of God,

we become part of the family. We are adopted into the family as sons

and daughters of Light. We look like Jesus, and that this will be

extremely evident by our listening and put what we hear into practice and I encourage

all of you to go read Ephesians five this week, because I'm gonna pull

just a couple of verses so that we don't literally just read all of chapter

five, basically to show that this is a consistent picture with what scripture teaches.

Ephesians five one through two. Follow God's example. Therefore, as dearly

loved children, right, so once again, in view of God's mercy,

offer yourselves. This is therefour as dearly loved children, and walk in the

way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us

as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Jesus says, my mother,

my brother is my family. Are those who do what I do? And

Jesus offered his life up to God to obedience to walk out the path that

he had laid out for him. Farther down, Ephesians five eight through thirteen

says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the

Lord. Praise God. Live as children of light, for the fruit of

the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And find out

what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,

but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient

do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything

that is illuminated becomes a light as children of light. The true family of

Jesus are those who are marked by hearing God's word and putting into practice.

They seek to find out what pleases the Lord, and that's contained in his

word. He didn't leave us guessing. He revealed to us where it's at.

He's told us how to live in which way we are to walk,

and it's in the light. John fifteen eight through eleven. This is to

my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Right, Jesus is saying the same thing, and to his disciples in

another way, showing yourself to be true. It was contingent on what bearing

fruit, that the evidence of our faith is that you would go on to

bear fruit showing yourselves, revealing yourselves, recognizing yourselves to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain

in me. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.

I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your

joy may be complete. This isn't rigid rule following. This isn't putting things

into practice so you look awesome so that I can feel more righteous in a

self righteous sense. But it's actually letting God just move in your life.

You know who you were before him, you know how you handle things.

Why go back to that? Yeah, So Christian believer, examine yourself.

How do you respond to God's word? Do you merely agree with it or

do you seek to put it into action as you hear it spoken. If

we're going to claim to be part of God's family, do we have the

marks of hearing and doing need just to be heard? As an encouragement,

this could feel like, oh man, I suck totally for sure. We

all do. We need Jesus as grace and thank God. And it's honestly

easier if we just admit it upfront that we're not great, we fail.

That honestly just gets us all out of the way. So then now we

go like, all right, well, now I'm dealt with what do you

want me to do? Lord? I'll just do that. I don't have

room for excuses anymore. I'm just kind of delaying my producing, delaying my

perseverance, making this more difficult. Just get that out of the way,

get yourself out of the way. So this is just an encouragement, it's

a tool. It's a reminder that every time you open God's word, seek

to listen to what it says and put it into practice. I use the

other examples earlier. They're less important. They still apply. Your husband,

if your wife, if your boss opens their mouth, listen to what they

say and seek to put it into practice. If it's reasonable, it doesn't

tell you to do anything against what God said. Every time you open God's

words, seek to listen to it, see what it says, and put

it into practice. Is you will grow. You will multiply, not only

in your faith, but in your fruitfulness for God. As you read a

passage, asked, how can I apply this to my life. If it

says don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, then obey it.

It says stop sleeping with someone who you're not married to. Obey it.

It says stay so reminded, obey it. If it says love each other,

obey it. If it says to be generous, to give it to

the poor, obey it. Hear what God's words says and put it into

practice. That's what obedience is. So when God said live this way,

and I'm gonna go okay, So what is your application for today? If

you want to write this down, this is what your application is. It's

to obey the call to obedience. You want to write it in another way,

to practice putting God's word into practice. Until you start to walk in

obedience to what the Lord has laid out in his word, you haven't even

begun to experience all this life and this walk and this light has to offer

as a follower of Jesus, as a son or daughter of the Most High,

you actually get to experience what that looks like. Because now you're looking

like the light. You're walking in the light. There's freedom there. We

spent all our time in the darkness hiding because we're like, my deeds might

be exposed. Just expose them, give them the God know he dealt with

them, and now live for him. He's laid it out for you.

Open God's word, Listen to God's word, and don't deceive yourselves. Don't

deceive yourselves. So I have to be careful how you listen, because we

will deceive ourselves. And only hearing the word. We should put it into

practice when we hear it, so as to retain it and do it.

And we're gonna and you'll watch God transform your life to conform you to live

and look like Jesus, full of love and truth, bringing light to everyone

around you. If you don't know Christ, I pray that his word would

actually take root in your heart, they would hear the good news, the

gospel of Jesus Christ. Turn from your sins and walk out of darkness and

into the light of this new life. And honestly, we're going to start

to listen well. We will listen well when we seek to apply the things

that we hear. That's how we listen well. We listen well when we

seek to apply the things that we've heard. And my hope is that we

as a church will be known as a church not full of empty amens,

but of action to the living word of God. Would you guys, please stand