In episode 88 of the “No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe” podcast, host Greg Ryan expands on his series “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” He revisits the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4) to illustrate that spiritual growth requires removing “rocks” and distractions from the heart, emphasizing that having less— not more— in the heart creates space for God’s seed. He then cites Proverbs 4:20‑22 to stress diligent guarding of the heart, describing the heart as the source of life’s issues. Ryan moves to the Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13) to explain how the world and the devil sow unwanted “seeds” (tares) among believers, and how the harvest will separate wheat from tares at the end of the age. He introduces the concept of “ears of the heart,” a spiritual listening ability that will be explored in the next episode. Practical advice follows: evaluate relationships and business partnerships, avoid “oil‑and‑water” alliances with those driven by worldly gain, and recognize three enemies— Satan, the world system, and people whose motives conflict with God’s kingdom. The episode concludes with a prayer for listeners to receive wisdom, hear God’s voice, and be transformed by His word.
Welcome to episode 88.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 88. We are going to continue the talk on the 'out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.' If you've listened to the previous episodes, you would know, you know, that I had talked about the seed, and we were talking about the heart, and that you need less of something in your heart, not more. And I think that anybody can deal with less than, you know, it's when you think, 'Oh, I've got to have this,' or 'I've got to— I'm not I'm not smart enough, or I'm not good enough. But if it's just a matter of digging rocks out of your heart or being— your distractions, getting them away, anybody can shut out the world. And that's what's so encouraging about Mark 4. It's when Jesus talked about there's 4 different types of soil, and he was talking about a man's heart. And it's about— and I want to read that real quick. And it's in Mark 4:3. Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced some 30, some 60, and some 100. And he said to him, he who has ears, let him hear. And we're going to talk about the ears of your heart, but he's talking about right now, he's talking about the, the soil in your heart. We talked about getting all that stuff out, and I, you know, in a previous episode I talked about this scripture, but I wanted to read it because this is where Jesus explained to his disciples a little bit later that each different type of soil was a man's heart, and that if you throw the seed— and the seed was the word of God. And remember, in Peter it says that the word of God is the incorruptible seed. So we're going to plant this seed in our heart, and as— and it depends on what kind of soil we have, what our heart is like, on how well this soil or how well this seed is going to grow. And so if you want the word of God to grow, it's not about you've got to be better than and you got to have more than. You've got to have less than. And it talks about humbling yourself, and you've got to, you've got to humble yourself and you've got to decide, look, it's not about me. This is not about my kingdom. This is about God's kingdom. And I need to start digging out some of— and what I would say, I need to start digging out some of Greg Ryan. I need to get some of all of my thoughts and all of my cares of this world and all of the stuff that I think is important to me, I need to put that aside. In fact, Paul even talks about it. He says the stuff that I used to count as wonderful, you know, all the stuff that Paul came up with, and I'm paraphrasing, but he says the things that I have, I count as rubbish compared to the word or compared to God, knowing God. And Paul came up with the idea that he, you know, he don't want anything but Jesus. And if we can get into that mindset to where we are just so Christ-driven and so Word-driven— and I know I get up on my soapbox all the time and I say, look, we need to get into the Word— but this is the Word. This is what God— this is Jesus talking. If we could talk to Jesus right now, he would probably say, hey, you need to dig some of that stuff out of your heart. You need to, you need to dig some of those rocks out so we can get this this seed, we can get these roots dug into good soil. Because God made us. God knows what our heart's like, and he knows that they've got some right— he knows they've got to do some gardening. We got to do some tilling, you know. We got some hardness of heart, and we got all of that. But I want to— I want to go on to a different scripture in Proverbs talking about the heart, because I think it's important that we get an idea of what God's talking about. And we're going to go to Proverbs Proverbs 4:20. My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes, keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to all flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Now I want to stop right there because out of your heart spring the issues of life, but it says to keep your heart with all diligence. And I, with this analogy that we're using where Jesus talked about weeding, getting the weeds out, getting the rocks out. Your heart, we need to keep our heart. If we don't guard our heart, something's going in there. There's gonna be some, the enemy's gonna throw some seed in there, and we're gonna see in the next scripture that God threw seed out, and then the enemy comes and throws seed out. The parable I wanna talk about is in Matthew 13:24. And it said, it starts here, it says, another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let them— let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in the bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. And I understand that the, the tares is, is sown, and it— they're talking— it's not talking about the things in your heart, but it's this— it's the field. Jesus is going to explain it to his disciples. It goes on in Matthew 36: Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares in the field. He answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And again, we saw the ears to hear, and that we're going to talk about in the next episode. Is, is, do your heart— does your heart have ears? And I know that's kind of a funny question because if anybody's ever seen a heart on a monitor, or, you know, if you've ever seen a beating heart, it, it doesn't have ears. But we are not talking— remember, we're talking about the physical and the spirit realm. And we're not always talking to your outside— I call mine cauliflower ears. I got big old ears. But we're not talking about the ears that hear, that what you're using to listen to this podcast. We're not talking about those ears. We're talking about the ears in your heart. And we're going to talk about that in the next episode. We're going to try to explain that. But I wanted to go to this tares, the cares. I want to tie this into the cares of the world. And actually, this actual— this parable is talking more of the, the people that are on Satan's side and the people that are following God. But the cares of the world, the, the weeds and all of that stuff, you need to pull them out. And if that's, if that's people in your life, I mean, you need to kind of maybe get some people out of your life. I know that's kind of a hard conversation, but you know, oil and oil and water don't mix real well. And you just can't tie into the things of this world and expect to have the same result. Now, that don't mean, you know, that don't mean you get out of the world, and that don't mean you get in a, in a convent, or it means you stay in your house and just pray. You've got to be out in the world. But when you start hooking in, you start doing business with other people, and you start partnering with other people, you need to kind of make sure that they're on the same path as you. They, you, they're believers because if you start digging in with what the world is digging into, remember we have 3 enemies. We have the enemy that's Satan, and the punk is who I like to call him. He comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But then you also have the world. The world system is also your enemy. And if you hook in and lock arms with somebody that's all they're driven with is more money and more fame and more of this, more of that, and they're not building God's kingdom, then you probably need to back off. That don't mean you have to disassociate with them, you know, not talk to them and shut the door, don't take their phone calls. What I'm saying is don't go, maybe go into business with them and don't spend a lot, you know, if you got a certain number of hours in a day that you can spend time with people, maybe you should be spending time with people that are gonna lift you up. And drag you closer to God instead of pulling you away. And I don't know who was supposed to hear that because I— that's not in my notes. But I did want— when I had that thought about the wheat and the tares, I wanted to go to that. And I knew it talked about he that had ears to hear, and it's kind of setting up for my next episode. But I wanted— I want to stop right there. I need to— I need to— I looked up at the clock and I saw that I'm going past my— right around my 10-minute mark. So I want to thank you for being a part of this. Let me pray real quick for you. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this podcast. I want you to touch them right now, Holy Spirit. You know right where they are. I pray in Jesus' name that you would just open up in their mind wisdom and knowledge, Lord, if they ask for it. It says that we have to ask for wisdom, but wisdom calls out. I pray, Jesus, that the person listening will start asking for wisdom. And Lord, start listening for your voice. Your sheep hear your voice. And God, I pray that you would start speaking to them through your word. I thank you, Lord, and I love you, and I ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I'll visit with you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
