Why God’s Word Isn’t Changing You

We know that we need to receive the Word and we need to receive it properly. But I want to show you through Scripture today how to receive the Word. Practical things that you can do in your everyday life that will cause the Word to become more than just information, but turn it into revelation that brings transformation.

Amen.

So go to Matthew 13. We're gonna read several portions of Scripture here, and then we'll examine the text. Matthew 13, beginning at verse number 1. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 9, and then we'll go down to verse 18. Later that same day, Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one. Listen, a farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow, but the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was 30, 60, and even 100 times as much as had been planted. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. So there Jesus gives us the parable of the sowers, seeds sown in various different places, resulting in various different Some did not produce, and of course, the good soil did. So now let's go down to verse 18, and Jesus gives us the explanation here. Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom and don't understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away that seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth. So no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, and even 100 times as much as had been planted. So notice here again, there are 3 different seeds or sets of seeds that were sown in 3 different places that did not produce any results. And so, in examining how the seeds were sown that did not produce results, we actually see keys for preventing those problems and causing the Word to be planted like a seed in the heart that brings forth much fruit.

Yes.

So, number 1, the seed that fell on the footpath. It was sown in the wrong place. Where there was no soil, would it— where it could not produce a harvest. So the seed was sown in the wrong place. In the same way, many times we receive the word intellectually, emotionally, but we do not allow the word to be planted in our spirits.

Yes.

Now there's nothing wrong with with knowing the Word intellectually. In fact, I encourage it. It's gonna be one of my points in a moment. And there's nothing wrong with being moved emotionally by the Scripture. There are moments where I'm going through the Scripture and I feel like weeping because they so move my heart. But if you're going to receive the Word, it cannot be just a textbook. People of God, atheists, some atheists know the Bible better than some pastors.

Amen.

It's the seed sown, but only in the intellect.

Yeah.

There are people of other religions who know the Word, but only so they can debate Christians. It's seed sown in the intellect. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. You cannot understand the Word of God. You cannot receive the Word of God in the depths of your spirit without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Yes.

Trying to understand the Word without the Holy Spirit will produce only intellectual and emotional results. When I first began to study the Word, I remember opening the Scripture and I would read a whole chapter before I realized I didn't understand a thing I was reading. Or halfway through, my mind would wander off to some responsibility or some idea that maybe I entertained for too long. And then I realized, wait a minute, I lost my place. I wasn't even paying attention as my eyes scanned the words. I have to go back. And then there were times when I would listen to preachers quote from scriptures that I had read again and again and again, and they would begin to expound upon the word filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching with fire. And I would say, how did I not see that?

Yeah.

How did I not get that? I just read that same text. And yet now there they are extracting the meaning of the text and expounding upon it in a Spirit-filled manner. And that was because it was without the help of the Holy Spirit that I was trying to know the Word. I was reading it as a religious obligation, trying to meet some spiritual quota to earn the approval that I already had, stressing over how many verses, how many chapters. Instead of doing that, I then switched to just saying, help me, Holy Spirit.

Yes. Yes.

And it really is that simple. So you say, okay, so how do I engage the Holy Spirit? What specifically do I do? Because if you're like me, you enjoy when you hear about spiritual concepts and lofty ideas, and you love hearing that you should do things or the importance on things, but give me the how-to. Show me specifically what to do. And I'm gonna give you something, but I don't wanna reduce it to just a formula. I hope you see the principle. behind what I'm giving to you. Revelation of the Word comes in awareness of the Holy Spirit because awareness of the Holy Spirit produces humility. You see, humility isn't self-hatred. Humility is a sober assessment of oneself in comparison to who God is. There are some people who think that humility is to never acknowledge that you have any gifts, to just think of yourself as a lowly worm. And there are some people who think the more you hate yourself, the more spiritual you are. But that's not humility.

No.

And there are others who lack humility altogether. But when you, when you see yourself through the presence of God and you see yourself the way he sees you, And you're seeing yourself in reference to His holiness based upon your faith in Christ. Now there's a sober assessment. If you ever get too prideful, you look at His holiness. If you ever get too self-hating, you look at the fact that He paid a high price for you. So awareness of the Holy Spirit postures you now. John 14:26 says, but when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. So when you sit down to read the Word, begin with stillness. Psalm 80:18 says, quicken us and we'll call unto you. I'm not saying that you can only come to the Holy Spirit when he quickens you necessarily. I'm saying that every time you desire to come to him, that is the Holy Spirit quickening you.

Amen.

And so you open the scripture, you quiet the mind. Sometimes you can begin with worship. That's powerful. Sometimes you just wait. Let, let, let the cares of the world melt away. Let the clutter in the mind settle. Focus your heart on Jesus. Be still. That's hard to do these days.

Yeah.

We're training ourselves to get everything instantly according to our preferences, customized to our liking, on our time. But the Scripture says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Amen.

So now I'm going before the Scripture and you look at it like a fine dining meal. You sit down and you simply say, and I'm not giving you a script, but the idea is you invite the Holy Spirit. Help me, Holy Spirit. And that awareness of his presence helps to do away with the distractions of the flesh. And when you go in with stillness and awareness, now the Scripture begins to come alive. John 10:10 says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. What does the thief steal? Jesus just told us in the parable. The thief, the enemy steals the Word. Notice the sequence of events there. Think about what Jesus said and the sequence in which this takes place. The enemy comes to steal and then to kill and destroy. He cannot kill and destroy unless he's first stolen the Word from you.

That's right.

First, he steals, then he can kill and destroy.

Yeah.

And many of us, because we're treating this as simply a historical text or a philosophical text or a text to be examined for certain hermeneutics, and there's nothing wrong with that. Again, this is— that's very important to your understanding of Scripture. But if that's all it is to you, if you don't recognize that when you read this book, you're not just reading a book, you're communing with a person, Yeah. My words are spirit and life. Then the lack of that awareness causes you to just receive it here emotionally. And because of that, the seed is sown in the wrong place and the enemy can more easily snatch it from you. Now, the second set of seeds that was sown was sown on rocky ground, sown without There were no roots. I was watching a YouTube video, and I won't say the name, I never will.

Uh-oh.

I'm watching a preacher and he's hyping me up. I'm excited, I'm listening. I mean, just screaming and yelling, and I'm excited. But then halfway through the sermon, I realize he's not really saying anything. And it was good. Again, there's nothing wrong with being excited. So I go through my algorithm looking for another sermon and I pull up this sermon of this guy in a suit, very monotone, kind of sharing, very Presbyterian, yeah. What was it, Presbycostal? And, and, and just, but my goodness, I was glued. Why? Because there was depth. There was substance. Now, now here's the thing about, about, about the, the, the substance of the word. Many of us, and I'm not saying this to condemn you, I'm saying this because you need to know what's available to you. Do not settle for shallow theology.

Amen.

for simply the verse of the day.

Yes. Amen.

Do not treat God's Word like a short that you can swipe by on YouTube or Instagram or TikTok. Receive much of the Word. Now, I am not saying that if you don't read 30 chapters a day, God's not pleased with you. I don't think heaven has a quota like that. But rather, when you get into the Word, there has to be this understanding of the text. We as Christians have a responsibility to know this book, to understand it in its depths. A powerful man of God once grabbed me by the hand, looked me straight in the eye, and said, David, promise me you'll tell the young people— he's talking about my generation— We're young in his mind. I still see myself as young too.

You are.

You're young. Thank you. Thank—

praise God.

I receive that. It's slowly creeping up though. He grabs me by the hand. He says, will you tell the young people, please get to know the Word? He says, if I could tell you anything, if I can impart anything— and he imparted a lot in my life— he said, if I can impart anything— he's squeezing my hand.

I thought he was going to break it.

He says, tell them, know the Word. And I could see it in his eyes, there was this urgency because today people just neglect this book. And not just, oh, I skimmed it today and there I checked it off my list, but to fall in love with this Word.

Amen.

To obsess over this Word, to become a lover of the Scripture. To where it permeates your mind and your heart and your being. And as you do this, you're going to notice this tension begin to rise. The more you get into the Word, and this happens to me every day, I go, oh, there's so much more. There are so many ways I'm not like Jesus. And you desire, you hunger, and you see the more that God has for you.

Amen.

Think about the fact that the God of the universe who breathed all of reality as we know it into existence, infinitely complex mind, sees all of time from beginning to end, knows what tomorrow holds, understands the thoughts and intents of the hearts of the people around you, can speak and defy the laws of physics.

Amen.

create miracles out of nothing, mysteries untold, depth untold, joy untold, spiritual riches untold. And we deny that for Netflix?

Amen.

We say no to this so we can say yes to something we won't even remember in 2 minutes?

Yeah.

If you're too busy for the word, you're too busy.

That's right.

Don't treat the word as a last-minute addition to your schedule. Schedule your life around the word. Get to know this book. Get to know the authors and who their intended audiences were. Get to know the themes and the tones and the historical backdrops. Dig into the Scripture because you'll find that no matter how many times you read it again and again and again and again, every single time you read it, there's something new that you uncover.

Amen.

That's the beauty of the Scripture. That is what produces depth.

Amen.

Number 3, there were seeds that were sown with no room to grow. Why? Because of the distractions of the world. The key to allowing this scripture to take root in the heart, and this is, this is probably the most powerful of the 3 that I'm mentioning here. at least in my personal experience, is meditation. Now, I'm not talking about ungodly meditation because ungodly meditation says empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind. Why? Because spirits like vacuums. But godly meditation is fill your mind, fill your mind, fill your mind, fill your mind with the Word. Meditation is more than just repetition in thought. It's contemplation in the heart. It's speaking it aloud. You know that speaking it aloud is part of meditation?

Yeah.

Where you begin to say the Scripture again and again and again. Here's why it doesn't go deep for us, because the distractions of the world snatch up the Word. Here's what that looks like. You say, okay, I set it up. I have my Bible out, I have my highlighters. I have the light on, the music's playing, it's Instagram-worthy. I'm all set to begin to study the Word. You study the Word, you go, wow, that's amazing. Yes, that blessed me. Oh, I was challenged there. And then, and then you close the book and then you instantly pull out your phone. Check, done, onto the next thing. Or, or let me just kind of get in here real quick, that 15 minutes. All right, I'm, I'm, I'm speed reading the Scripture. I got it. I did my 12 verses. Now I'm going to get onto my chores and my errands and I got to get to work. What just happened there? The weeds of life choked out that seed because meditation is how you produce that longevity. Meditation is how you produce that depth. If reading the word is eating the word, meditation is digestion.

Amen.

It's how all the spiritual nutrients of scripture become absorbed in the spiritual body. Psalm 1:1-3 says, oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

Amen.

That's the power of meditation. One of the techniques that was taught to me, and this is just the practical thing you can do, is let's say you read Matthew 12 and you look at Jesus healing on the Sabbath, talks about the spiritual dynamics of authority over demons, the sign of Jonah. And as you go through the Scripture, you try to retain as much as you can in your mind. This is just the practice. And you can start with just one verse, one key verse from the chapter where you go through and Steve, I've shown you this, where I can hold it for maybe half the day. I can't keep it forever. It's just, I'm working on my memory, but where you can actually quote back eventually the entire chapter, maybe not exact word for word, but almost verbatim. And you would be amazed at how quickly you can do this. And you repeat it back. You read, pause, think about what you just read. Read it again, pause, think about what you just read. Read it again, pause, think about what you just read until you can go thought for thought, idea for idea, beat for beat. You pace yourself through. And in so doing, you're allowing that truth to permeate your being. I'm amazed at how many of us can quote our favorite songs and movies, but not this book.

Powerful.

Why? Because of repetition again and again, speaking it, thinking about it. And this allows for that to permeate your being in such a way that you begin to talk like God talks. In fact, it comes to a point where when you are praying, the scripture is starting to come out of your prayers and you're praying the truth of the word of God. I call this the focus muscle. Who knows what a plank is? Not like the wooden board, I'm talking about the exercise. Okay, plank. When you're doing a plank, I was gonna have someone demonstrate, but I'm not gonna do that to anybody. And I'm not gonna do it either. You're gonna do it.

David.

I knew you were gonna say that. So a plank is where you hold your body up on your elbows and it's like an exercise for your core. And if you've ever seen one done, by the time the person's finishing up their plank, they're like shaking if they do it for long enough. Me, it's like the first 10 seconds, I'm shaking and sweating. And here is a great example that will help you to meditate better. You ever notice that when you go to focus on the Word, your flesh begins to pull you in another direction?

Yeah.

Treat focus like it's a muscle. I call it your focus muscle, where you hold and you'll feel it doing this because why? We're swiping all day. Everything's this, that quick. And you hold your attention. And as you're holding your attention, you will feel your soul begin to shake to get out of it.

Yeah.

Because you're holding now your focus on the truth. The more you do that, the stronger your focus becomes. The more often you do this, the longer you'll be able to hold your mind on the truth. And you'll notice, too, when you're done focusing, you feel almost like this, this release, this relief. It's because that is like a spiritual muscle that many of us are not exercising because of the convenience of the modern world.

Yep.

And these ancient pathways into the presence of God, these ancient pathways into the knowledge of truth are not going to be modernized. God doesn't change. His Word doesn't change. Spiritual dynamics don't change. And so as you meditate on the Word, you're holding your attention on the Scripture. So for revelation, you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. as you receive the Word. For depth, you receive the Word consistently in great amounts, and you're studying the Word. Meditation, you think about the Word constantly for as long as you can, memorizing it, contemplating it, and quoting it. You do these 3 things and you become good soil.

Amen.

These 3 simple practices will absolutely revolutionize your Bible reading. So, when you go home today, whether you read in the afternoons, at night, some of you early mornings, I want you to set aside time for that meditation. Schedule it into your Bible reading plan. Many of us make the time for the reading and then we're off to the next thing. Schedule stillness beforehand and meditation afterwards. Do you receive that word this morning?

Amen.

So, Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, That you would bless your people. Teach us to be lovers of your word. Teach us to carry a fire in our hearts that burns for the scripture. Let it be like fire in our bones that just pours out of us.

Amen.

Help us to set aside the distractions of this world that we might receive the treasures Yes, Lord. May we elevate your word. May we honor your word. May we value your word above riches, above influence, above comfort. Teach us, Holy Spirit. Teach us. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. And the church said, amen.

Now listen, I want to challenge you with something here. If this ministry has helped you in any way and you believe in what this ministry is doing through media, events, and church planting, then I want to invite you to be a part of our movement. The Holy Spirit is moving and we need your help. We need your help as our ministry continues to grow and expand and reach more people. Will you consider today becoming a monthly ministry supporter? To do so, you can go to davidhernandezministries.com/partner. You can also give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com/donate. Please hear me when I say this: everything counts. And I know this, that as you step out in faith and begin to support the work of the Lord, that God will bless you for it. I believe it's God's will to prosper his people. And as you step out in faith, as you act upon the word of God, as you resist the flesh— because let's admit it, the flesh likes to fight these things, the flesh likes to hold in fear, and the flesh isn't always necessarily generous on its own— will you fight the flesh and say yes to the Holy Spirit? Will you do that today?

Will you help me?

Let's take the gospel to the ends of the earth and let's win the soul of this generation.