THE HEART IS THE THING – The Wayside Hearted Person

 “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down,                                                                and the fowls of the air devoured it.”

                                                                                  Luke 8:5(KJV)

Dodze, a young boy growing up in Nima, one of the biggest Shanty suburbs in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, where the majority of the people are of the Islamic faith. His friends were mainly Muslims and a few nominal Christians. His Muslims peers always go to the mosque to pray five times a day as required by their religion to the pain of Dodze whose parents were against him joining them. Having always felt out of place when religion becomes the fulcrum of argument and soccer competition between Muslims and Christians in the community. Dodze decided to start attending a local Catholic Church in the community so that he can also have a sense of belonging and the clout to argue and compete as far as religion is concern.

Dodze’s sole motive for going to church was to be able to fit into the religious mold of a very religious community and country. Although, Dodze was not born again he found himself going to church religiously and faithfully to the admiration of everybody in his local community. There are many people in our churches today who are also religiously going to church week in and week out with motives that are akin to that of Dodze; they want to be accepted by society and be in the good books of people, other than being in the book of life in heaven (Revelation_20:15 “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”)

Our world is filled with lonely people who are starving for love and acceptance, people want to have a sense of belonging hence, a  lot of people are going to church with other motives other than having a relationship with their marker; some want to have a befitting burial when they pass on from this world; some are in church because they only want a marriage partner; some are only in the church because they want a business connection; some sales and marketing executive  go to church because they are just prospecting for customers; some also go to church because they are born into Christian families and  must follow the tradition of their home. 

There are even some Pastors who do not understand the redemptive work Christ did on the cross, they only became pastors because it has become another source of security other than serving the people of God. A survey conducted by one of the biggest and thriving ministries in the United States of America indicated that about 50% of the people who occupy our pews in churches today do not have any relationship with Christ and let alone understand the work He came to do on the cross. What this study means is that you are most likely to have about 100 church members who are not born again in a 200 member congregated Church. 

This segment of the congregation was referred to as THE WAYSIDE HEARTED PERSON OR PEOPLE according to Luke 8:5(KJV) “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.” And Luke 8:12 (KJV) “Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

This category of people are Church goers who are not saved, they have not come to that place of submitting their all to the Lordship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The bible said in Luke 8:12 that they hear the word of God but the devil comes to take the word from their heart lest they believe and be saved. This statistically means that, there are more hearers in the church, than believers. Our present situation is not very different from what happened in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, after one of his ministration in John 6, Jesus Christ  miraculously fed the crowd with five loaves of bread and two fishes. 

Having done that he dispersed the crowd and went to the other side of the town. And the same crowd came looking for him the next day at the other side of the town called Capernaum which was at the river bank. After the crowd tirelessly and painstakingly looked for Him and found Him, this was the reply Jesus gave them in John 6:26 (KJV)  “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” Just like our contemporary churches, majority of the crowd that came around Jesus Christ, did not really come to seek Him, but to seek solutions to their personal needs. 

These are attitudes of way hearted people in the church, they do not come to church because they want to know Jesus Christ and make Him known; some do not even believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Lord and Personal savior, all they care about is pursuing their agenda in the church. These are people who can walk out of the church when the messages that comes from the pulpit makes them uncomfortable; they are mainly critical of the Pastor and the leadership of the Church for preaching the real gospel of the kingdom. 

Just like in the case of Jesus in John 6:52 -68(KJV) “The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 

This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Way hearted members of most churches are mainly those who will complain and murmur; they are very critical of the pastor and always foment troubles in the church. They are very unproductive in the hands of God; they are usually those who come and warm the pews on Sundays and disappear and reappear the next Sunday; they are not submissive to the will and the authority of the Holy Spirit and they represent the larger section of the congregation.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK WITH THE SUB TOPIC -“THE ROCKY HEARTED PERSON”…………..