Jesus was making a statement that He wanted His audience to understand, and that is that much of what He was teaching… much of His audience didn’t understand. It wasn’t because what He was teaching was hard to grasp, it was because their hearts were hard, their attention spans were short and shallow, and their priorities lie elsewhere. Only a few were ‘catching’ it… and with those few, God was going to do miraculous stuff!

The following are questions meant to stir up discussion with you and your family, or small group, during the week following the past weekend’s message. The purpose is to dig deeper into the main ideas of the message. This might be a wonderful way to have a quick family devotion time!

In Luke 8:10 Pastor Michael said that Jesus was using irony and referring to Isaiah 6:9-10. Even as Isaiah was being sent out to a people that would reject his message, so too, Jesus was speaking a message that was falling on many who were just not ‘getting it’. Talk about why people then… and now… just don’t ‘get it’ when it comes to the message of the Kingdom of God.

Discuss the following quote from Max Lucado: “If the ratio in the story is significant, three-fourths of the world isn’t listening to God’s voice. Whether the cause be hard hearts, shallow lives, or anxious minds, 75% of us are missing the Message. It’s not that we don’t have ears; it’s that we don’t use them.” ( Just Like Jesus – Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998 pp 42 )

The Hebrew word ‘shema’ doesn’t just mean to listen, but also to respond and obey. Jesus’ point seems to be that if you truly hear, then you’ll obey as well. The entire passage seems to be about hearing and obedience, and how the state of our hearts (the soil) impacts how we shema, hear and obey. Discuss the 4 types of soil and the types of people each represents.

What type of soil best represents you?

What would it take for you to produce a Hundred times the fruit you are now producing in your life for the glory of God?