One day Jesus compared life to a field, people to soil, the Gospel to seed, and eternal life to a crop of harvested righteousness.
Jesus also classified everyone on Earth as either - "Wayside" or The Hard Heart, "Rocky" or The Shallow Heart, "Thorny" or The Crowded Heart, or "Good" which is the Fruitful Heart.
That day Jesus also said that God's Word either is -- stolen away by birds (demons); or God's Word is scorched away because it is unrooted into the heart; or God's Word is choked by the world; or finally God's Word burst forth supernaturally into a fruitful to harvest.
Today He warns us about the Crowded Heart. This is the heart that has the roots of three very deadly weeds alive and poised to spring forth from the soil of that life.
Mark 4:7 "And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop."
Mark 4:18-19 "Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."
Jesus reveals three symptoms of a crowded heart; three danger signs of a life that is choking God and His Word right out of existence.
- DISTRACTIONS: and the cares of this world,
- DECEPTIONS: the deceitfulness of riches, and
- DESIRES: the desires for other things
Crowded hearts are DIVIDED HEARTS
Weedy soil represents a heart preoccupied with worldly matters. Here the thorn bushes are not visible because they have been burned off the surface, but their roots are intact. When the seed is sown on this soil, then watered and germinated, the entrenched thorns also sprout and grow with a virulent violence, choking out the grain before it can produce any fruit. This portrayed a divided heart, a heart divided by irreconcilable loyalties.
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
They are uncommitted and preoccupied with the world's pleasures, money, career, fame, fortune, or the lusts of the flesh. They say they are Christians, but they care nothing about a pure life. That is the response of weedy soil. The germinating seed that looks so good will ultimately be overwhelmed by the thorns of worldliness, and eventually the weedy heart will show no evidence that good seed was ever sown.
To continue reading this message on the Crowded Heart please click here.
