In the last few group meetings we have discussed different parts of the head. From the eyes, to the mouth, to the mind; tonight we will talk about another part of the head – the ears. 

The ears play such a vital role in our lives that we often take them for granted. The actual ears themselves are mentioned 250 times in the Bible. Related terms like “listening” and “giving ear” are mentioned hundreds of times, with “hearing” appearing in some form in nearly every book of the New and Old Testaments. Specifically though, the word “hear” or “hearing” is staggeringly found over 1,400 times. 

Our modern world also has a penchant for hearing and listening and the like. Consider the following common sayings: 

“Ya heard?”

“You’re not hearing me!” 

“Listen up!” 

“Let me holler at you.” 

“Just hear me out.” 

“You know what I’m saying?” 

“What?” 

“Hello? Are you even listening to me?” 

“Can you hear me now?”

With these sayings and others like them being so commonplace, from the days of the Old Testament to now, it is obvious that we are still susceptible to the colloquialism of “hearing but not listening.” Let’s start there and break down the finite points.

Hearing is a passive process that is, simply put, the physical ability to detect sound waves through the auditory system. It is automatic and it happens when your ears are exposed to sound. It doesn’t have to involve understanding: You can hear music but may not beagle to name the notes, keys, etc. – but you can hear it. You can hear a language you don’t understand, or a jumbled sentence without grasping its meaning. These are but a few examples of what it means to hear but not listen.

Listening, however, is an active process. It requires focused attention, cognitive effort, and interpretation of the sounds received. Unlike hearing, listening is not automatic; it takes conscious effort to engage with the speaker and their message.

There are many reasons why someone can hear but not listen. The most prominent of which is being distracted. When someone is talking to you, but you’re preoccupied with your thoughts, or your phone, or another person in the room, you might hear their words but not truly absorb, comprehend, and contemplate what they’re saying. 

The second most prominent is a lack of interest. If you’re not interested in the topic or the speaker, you might hear the words without making an effort to understand or to pay attention to the material being discussed. Another example though is one that deals with assuming you have no interest. For example, I had a guy in school that I just could not stand. It didn’t matter what he said, I wasn’t having any of it. Whenever he opened his mouth and talked, for me, it was like when the teacher speaks in Charlie Brown cartoons – all I heard was “Waaa waa wa wa waa waaaaa.” This happens when you have strong opinions or biases. You might technically be hearing what someone says, but filter it through your own perspective, potentially misinterpreting or ignoring parts of their message entirely. 

There could also be the times when it is that you physically are unable due to hearing loss. In some cases, individuals with auditory neuropathy or other hearing impairments may hear sounds but struggle to understand speech due to difficulties processing the information but that one is the technical example and not what we want to focus on.

Why is it important to listen, not just hear? 

Listening helps you understand the other party’s perspective, leading to more effective communication and stronger relationships. Listening attentively allows you to grasp information, concepts, and ideas more effectively. A litany of political, religious, and personal disagreements, divisions and arguments throughout time immemorial could have been avoided if one or more parties involved had shut their mouths and just listened and gave their attention and took the time to really comprehend the other side and make some type of attempt to understand where they were coming from. Don’t get that twisted or take it the wrong way – it does NOT mean that the other party necessarily would have been right or justified in their actions – but it would have, at the very least, afforded the opportunity for understanding and potentially maintaining peace and safety or prevented the collapse and destruction of relationships, governments, churches, etc. Even our own church, in its 100 years, has undergone schisms due to disagreements; we weren’t always  a non-denominational church – at one time it was First Assembly of God of Winter Garden. What caused the disagreement and divide was well before our time there so we do not speculate or even care why – we just know that the division happened – and it was likely due to a disagreement that may have likely stemmed from one side not listening to the other. 

Can you think of any time specifically in your own life where a relationship or a job or any similar situation took a significant blow because you heard but didn’t listen or when someone else didn’t listen to you? 

Actively listening demonstrates respect and empathy for the speaker, fostering stronger connections. By truly listening, you can clarify any misunderstandings and avoid potential conflicts.

While hearing is a basic physiological function, listening is a skill that requires active engagement, focused attention, and a willingness to understand the speaker’s message. Sometimes the message is heard but not understood in the moment. This is different that hearing but not listening. In this reference, one may be hearing and listening intently but at the time they are hearing and listening to what is being said they are unable to relate or truly comprehend the message. They may in time, come to have a realization of what was being said to them. There have any times for me personally where someone said something to me and I listened but didn’t really “get it” and then days, weeks, and more than a few times YEARS later when it finally became applicable I would recall having heard something once upon a time. There are also times when someone says something and the person or persons hearing and listening may never truly “get it.” 

This is exactly what is going on here in Matthew 13:1-23: 

Matthew 13:1-23 

On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the [a]mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,So that I should heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.“

“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

I’m sure everyone has heard something and listened and received and understood in the moment and even heard and listened and got it later but are there any significant times where you were in fact listening but didn’t get it until later or never got it all? 

Jeremiah 25:1-11 

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king ofJudah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

This is a powerful warning that is sent to the tribe of Judah through the prophet but they heard, and did not listen. The direct result was ultimately the pain of warfare, but also all of the disruptions in society before the war actually broke out—the kind of things that our culture is struggling with now—things similar to our plight with  drugs, murder, disease, political divides and so much more. 

God said if they would only repent, He would heal them. They did not listen. They did not repent. They did not get healed. Instead, they went through war and into captivity, and these few had to flee for their lives. God is saying what almost any parent would say to a child in a similar situation: “I told you not to do that, but you wouldn’t listen.”

Has there ever been an instance when you were given a warning but didn’t listen to or heed that warning and ultimately paid a great price for it? 

Consider Luke 11:27-28:

And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”

But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

This woman is hearing and listening to what Jesus is saying in the previous verse and is so moved by it that she cries out praising His mother for having birthed and nursed Him but He quickly corrects her and says how it is even more of a blessing for those hearing the word of God to understand and obey and keep it. That is significant. We need to absorb that and let it sink in. And we need to remember that the next time you hear someone trying to justify their willful sin say something like “well it isn’t meant to be taken literally.” YES IT IS!

He has told us for generations how important it was and that He would tell us in ways we could understand and that we didn’t hear and not listen. 

Consider Psalm 78:1-3:

Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter [b]dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

Ultimately this whole concept of hearing and listening is summed up with James 1:22-24:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;  for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

God wants us to not just hear Him but to obey what He says and to do His will and follow His word. But He also wants us to know He hears us. He hears us, and He listens.

Psalm 18:6

In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

1 John 5:14-15

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 Peter 3:12: 

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

There are so many additional verses that go hat and hand with what we have learned tonight – as I said in the onset – 1400 times just for “hear” or “hearing” alone which only serves to drive home the point that goes along with another old saying I grew up hearing 

“God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak” and I had it said to me A LOT because I tend to ramble on. The heart of the matter is we would all be well served to put this into action and take the time to listen more than we hear and give our undivided attention when someone is speaking – even when we aren’t interested even when we may not agree. I dare say those are the times we should listen even more intently, lest we make an assumption or have a misunderstanding that causes unwarranted pain and hurt. 

-DC