Why Won't They Listen | Matthew 13

welcome to our together on mission podcast when we seek to be with and like jesus as we begin a conversation with jesus in the morning scripture prayer and meditation and then continue that conversation within throughout your day your host is travis twyman the pastor at the inland venue church in corona california good morning everyone and welcome to the daily together on mission podcast this is travis and good morning the title of the podcast this morning is why won't they listen why won't they listen and we're gonna be in matthew chapter 13 beginning in verse 55 in just a moment but i think most of us can tap the frustration maybe we've never said it out loud but we certainly thought it why won't they listen i mean i've got something good to say it's something helpful it's tried and true wisdom that i've learned the hard way why won't they listen and of course if you're a parent you've thought this or said this whether your child is seven or 17 or 37 if you're a teacher a coach a grandparent you know a pastor even a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a husband or wife or a really good friend or whatever it might be it's like why won't they listen i've got something good to say and sometimes it seems that those that we want to listen the most because we love them most seem to be listening the least and that is a pain and a frustration that we live with and jesus experienced that as well so in matthew chapter 13 beginning verse 55 jesus just taught in his hometown in nazareth and then listen to what people said isn't this the carpenter's son now that's not a compliment that means he probably doesn't have a pedigree to be speaking in the synagogue and then they start talking about mary his mother and his brothers and sisters and then they say where did this man get all these things in other words who taught him is he qualified he probably shouldn't be standing up teaching us and in verse 57 they took offense at him instead of listening to him they took offense at him and jesus says a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home and there's no question that this was a painful experience for jesus there's absolutely no question he wanted his family he wanted his hometown hometown of nazareth to listen to what he had to say he had profound things to say he had things that would aid in bringing those that he loved the most into a life that was truly life but instead of listening they took offense at him and this is not the only experience jesus had with this not even close his disciples often didn't listen some of his disciples went the opposite direction of his whole teaching about the kingdom of god many of his disciples chose violence instead of turning the other cheek his countrymen would not listen to him one time he's you know comes over the hill of the mount of olives he sees jerusalem he sees this amazing city with all these people the country that he loves and he just begins to weep because he knows that en masse israel is just not going to listen to him his own town his own family his own friends they're just not going to listen and there's a pain in that and we can relate to that again certainly if we're parents definitely if we're teachers coaches counselors if we have any kind of authority to shape to shape anyone's life but but not only that again as husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends and good friends and older siblings or even younger siblings it's like why won't they listen and as i've been pondering this and pondering the life of jesus that led up to this i remembered a line from a book i read years and years ago by stephen covey he says seek first to understand and then to be understood in the word seek first to listen to genuinely genuinely listen and then seek to be heard but don't seek to be understood until you have sought to understand that's profound and i think that jesus did that in the first 30 years of his life i think this was one of the reasons why jesus didn't start his public ministry of teaching right and giving advice and preaching to kingdom i think this is one of the reasons why jesus didn't start his public ministry until 30 years old because i think he spent those early years listening listening to god listening to mary and joseph listening to his brothers listening to his countrymen listening for not only their struggles but also their solution to those struggles or those problems i think jesus spent time listening to the pain and the plight of his people so that when it was time for him to say something that that would have come out of a long season of genuinely and intentionally listening that's profound jesus tells parables and shares stories about listening without judgment about not throwing pearls to swine about asking and seeking and knocking and i think one of jesus's greatest teachings about listening is make sure that you listen to those that are trying to take the log out of your own eye before you speak to those whose speck you're trying to remove from their eye jesus talked about deep deep listening because i think jesus knew something i want to i want to meditate on this this morning especially in the midst of our frustration of why won't they listen jesus knew that people don't really care how much you know until they actually know how much you care and so what i'd like to do this morning is we ponder the story and think about listening and think about teaching instead of being frustrated with why won't they listen i think maybe it would be better to ask the question how can i listen to them better how can i seek to understand them better their pain their plight how can i truly truly hear how can i stop throwing my pearls to swine how can i stop speaking always to get that speck out of their eye and listen because there's probably a log in my own eye how can i stop pushing and pressing with eloquence and advice and begin to ask and seek and knock and wait for that door to open and then any speaking that i get the privilege of doing will come out of intentional and genuine listening i think there will always be a reality that jesus wrestled with in the story a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home i think there will always be that frustration and i think there may always be the plight of those that i want to hear the most seem to be the least interested in hearing that might just be part of being broken being in a broken world and doing life with broken people we may never be able to fully get around that but we can discover that we don't want to seek to be understood until we've sought to understand we can discover that people really don't care how much we know until they really know how much we care we can learn to ask and to seek and to knock and to be much more willing to have the log removed out of our own eye by listening than we are to have the speck removed from our brother our friend our spouse's eye by speaking so this morning let's just begin to listen to jesus let's open up our mind let's open up our hearts think about our relationships and let's be people that genuinely and intentionally and passionately listen and then as the doors opened we get the privilege to speak we'll talk soon thanks for listening to the together on mission podcast we truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today if you had any questions about the inland vineyard church our ministries or our sunday services feel free to connect with us on our brand new app which you can find in the google play and the app store and check out our social media pages like facebook and instagram or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org