You Can Listen As Well As You Hear
(Paul R. Blake)

Recently, I was listening to the radio and heard an old, familiar song about bridging the communication gap between generations. I had heard it many times when I was younger, but it occurred to me that I had never really listened to it. Ironically, the chorus had a line that caught my attention by saying, "you can listen as well as you hear." Apparently, I was guilty of not listening to what I was hearing.

Jesus spoke a parable to the multitude in Matthew 13 and concluded it by saying, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?... Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand ... For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (13:9-10,13,15-16). 

Jesus explained to His disciples that some would hear Him, but would not understand the parables because they were not listening. In fact, He implied that they would not listen even if He spoke plainly. Therefore since they would not listen to plain speech, He would address them in parable form, to which they would listen even less (if that is possible). "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath" (13:12).

This simply means that those who are inclined to listen to the Lord will be enriched by hearing the parable, and those who are indifferent to His teaching will be turned away by the parable. Simply put, if one wants to understand the Lord's will for man, he will listen, regardless of how it is spoken, and he will understand it. If one is not favorably disposed toward the will of God, he will hear it, but he will not listen. 

I have often been asked, "Paul, why don't people obey the Gospel when it is preached to them in such a clear and direct manner?" The answer is: they hear, but they do not listen. The word of God is spoken; but, the hearer has no sympathy for the suffering Savior, he has no interest in life beyond this present world, and his heart does not respond to the wonder and majesty of the truth. 

That is the whole point of the Lord's parable of the sower. The seed is the word of God, the four soils are four different hearts of men. The first heart was hard and disinterested; the seed could not penetrate the surface. The word landed on his ears, but did not enter into his heart.

The second was shallow and fickle; the seed could not take lasting root. The word only generated a passing interest. The third was tangled and crowded; there was no room for the seed. The heart was too pre-occupied with other matters to truly listen to the word.

However, in the case of the fourth type of soil, the ground was prepared and receptive to the seed, and the seed took root and produced. A heart that is interested in truth will not merely hear it, but will listen to it as well. The word of God will produce an effect: it will stir upemotional and intellectual involvement, and it will motivate an active response. But only if one listens as well as he hears.

This is not complex. Nearly everyone can hear; very few are completely deaf. But not everyone who hears actually listens to what is said. Listening requires an interest in what one hears, and it demands that the hearer focus his attention on what is being said, and that he works to assimilate and understand the content of the message. Wehave the capacity to listen that is also equal to our capacity to hear... if we truly desire to understand it.

Too often, we allow barriers to widen the gap between hearing and listening. In a discussion with others with whom we disagree, we often hear their points, but we do not listen well enough to understand. Occasionally, dislike for someone becomes a hindrance to listening to the words we hear them speak. Even worse, prejudice can make one incapable of listening to anyone from the disliked group. 

Yet, I believe the greatest bar to listening and understanding is the mind that is already made up before getting all of the essential information. For example, the Pharisees did not believe Jesus could possibly be the Messiah. They already had an idea of what the Anointed would be like, and Jesus didn't fit their notion of what he should be. In fact, in their stubbornness they went so far as to dismiss the Christ after witnessing an unprecedented miracle (John 9:24-34). We must resolve to remove these barriers to our understanding, or else remain in ignorance.

Do you want to learn more about the world you live in? Then listen as well as you hear. Do you want to have more productive conversations with others? Then listen as well as you hear. More importantly, do you want to understand the will of God and go to heaven? Then listen as well as you hear.

How Busy Are We?
(Eric Sanders)

We live in an age when everything is changing at an incredible pace. We are always hearing about the advances in medicine, space exploration, and computer technology, just to name a few. We are even changing the way we carry out our everyday activities. We are able to do more now in less time than ever before in history. But are we really getting more done now than ever?

Maybe we need to ask ourselves, "How busy am I?" Are we so busy that we miss a social function? Are we so busy that we don't spend time with our children? Are we so busy that we are tempted to miss a church service or Bible studies? If we answer "yes" to the latter, we need to reassess our priorities and come up with a solution that will take away the temptation to miss a gathering of God's people.

When preparing this lesson, I was thumbing through the maps in the back of my Bible and I noticed the journeys of the apostle Paul. This was truly a busy man. If we think about the amount of effort he put into these journeys, we must be impressed. Remember that he didn't have a car or an airplane or train to travel by. Some of his trips covered vast distances in those days. Today, we have cars to take short trips and jets to make long trips seem short. 

Microwave ovens have shortened our meal preparation time and the dishwasher has made cleanup a breeze. Yet we still, often times find that there aren't enough hours in a day to study our Bibles or the next lesson for Bible class. This is where we are tricked by Satan into believing there is not enough time to do God's word or study His word. When this happens, our soul is in grave danger and that is exactly what Satan wants.

Again we need to ask ourselves, in the light of God's truth, how busy are we? We must be honest with ourselves and change whatever it is that is hindering us from serving God as He would have us too. We must be willing to devote the majority of our time to God rather than the portion He usually gets from us. 

Let's remember what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22, "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." That sounds like a full time job to me. 

We must dedicate our lives to these efforts and all the others found in God's word. To do this we must spend time learning of His ways through study and meditation. And when opportunity presents themselves, such as Bible studies and worship services, we must be ready and willing to be present and learn.

I would like to close by challenging each one of us to sit down with a pencil and paper and write down how much time we are currently spending on God's work. Then write down how much time we spend on ourselves. Remember that He has promised us eternity as the reward for a life of service now. What do we spend our time on now that can possibly compare with that?