Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

If you hear something about the heart in church, chances are we aren’t talking about that thing in your body that pumps blood, though as we age that one does come up in prayer requests a lot more.  What do we mean?  Our culture recognizes the heart as the source of deep emotion, courage, and compassion.  We use the symbol as a stand-in, albeit a cheapened one, for love. The Bible uses the word in a similar way, but with a deeper meaning.  You’ve heard the call to give your heart to Jesus.  What are we saying?  Let’s look more deeply at what the Bible has to say about the heart.  This will be more of a concept study than an exposition of one passage, but we will use Psalm 51:15-17 as our foundation as we get to “The Heart of the Matter”.

Jesus often spoke of the Father.  Taking from His example, we often speak of our Heavenly Father.  We usually direct our prayers to Him.  What do we mean when we call Him father?  if that’s even an appropriate way to address the creator of the universe, why so?  It is and has always been about relationship.  He has made a way so that we may not only call Him Father, but Daddy.  He has adopted us into His family.  Our text is from Romans 8:10-17.

From the inspirational story of Jane Markzewski (aka Nightbirde), Linda teaches us that we have hope.

Tradition can be a good thing.  It binds us together.  It can be used to teach us things that we need to remember.  Yahweh established traditions to do that for His people.  It can also be a bad thing.  It becomes a bad thing when we forget its purpose.  It becomes a bad thing when the tradition becomes the thing we worship instead of our Lord. One of the first things children learn to ask is “why?”  Somewhere there still may be an incriminating cassette tape of a very young me asking it over and over again. It’s built into us to want to know the reason for everything.  We explore our physical world through science, but science can’t answer the deeper questions in life. Somewhere into adulthood, many of us stop asking.  Life gets too busy.  Sometimes we’re discouraged from asking.  Sometimes we stop caring.  Sometimes, most dangerous of all, we think we know all the whys that matter.  It’s good to stop and ask once in a while as my wife says, “what are we doing and why are we doing it?” These are good questions in our personal lives.  They are also good questions to ask ourselves as a church.  We all claim the Bible as our source for the things we do.  Does it have anything to say about how a church should operate?  Actually, though it has a great deal to say on how we should conduct ourselves as the church, it says little about what should happen when we meet together.  There’s no order of service or prescribed program to be found.  What did they do?  Are we obligated to model ourselves after them?  Why do we do things the way we do? I’m sure one could fill a library with books on the subject, so we will hardly be able to do it justice in 20-30 minutes.  Instead, we will take one short passage, 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. and draw some conclusions from what we find there.  Now if you know your Bible, you probably already have an objection.  This is part of a chapter where Paul is issuing a correction to the behavior going on in the church meeting.  It hardly seems a good place to get ideas on how a service should be run.  Stick with me and I’ll explain.

Every so often I will see a book title or headline on the subject of dealing with difficult people.  We all known them.  There’s no denying that some people are more challenging to be around than others, but what strikes me about such advice is often the presumption that it’s all their fault.  I suppose one doesn’t sell many books by blaming the reader, but sometimes we need to examine ourselves first. Especially within the church, we should be approaching our relationships with a different attitude.  That takes a change of heart, and what is in our hearts is what will come from our mouths.  In Ephesians, Chapter 4, we see a theme of unity within the body of Christ, with Jesus as the head.  Paul instructs us to build each other up in love, working together as do all the parts of a body.  We will focus on Ephesians 4:29-32.  Paul’s instruction continues on, but these verses summarize some important keys to living and working together as He has commanded us.

Priscilla dispenses gems of Godly wisdom.

One day as I was praying, the Lord asked me a question, “Do you want to walk with me?”  For a long time, I have been conscious that some of my entertainment choices are not healthy for me, but I have not been willing to give them up.  I knew that I was putting things into my mind that are a corrupting influence, causing me to think in ways that are not pleasing to Him.  It seems like a small thing, but because I knew that the Lord was not pleased, it became a barrier to our relationship.  I could not go to Him with an open heart because I was holding something back. That question would not leave my mind.  Almost every time opened that book I was reading, I would hear it again.  “Do you want to walk with me?”  I’m being offered a choice.  I can join my Heavenly Father to walk together in a deepening relationship, or I can run off to find my own cheap and temporal amusements.  Why did it take me so long? I choose Yahweh!  I want to walk with him and talk with him the way I used to do with my earthly father growing up.  I didn’t appreciate those times as much as I should have at the time, but now I remember them with fondness and gratitude.  He’s calling to me just like that. Remember the story of Adam and Even in the garden of Eden?  After they had broken the one commandment He gave them, they heard the sound of His coming.  The scripture doesn’t tell us, but we imagine this was a common occurrence.  I imagine peaceful walks through the beauty of His creation, sharing the love and unity between them. But this time was different.  Immediately aware of their shame, they had already made a feeble attempt to cover themselves in fig leaves, and now they cowered in the trees as Yahweh called out, “Where are you?”  The relationship has been broken.  Where once there was love and unity with the Creator, now there is fear and shame.  In body and soul they stand before him naked, but no longer unashamed. (Genesis 3:6-13) That is what happens when we sin.  That is what happens when we believe Satan’s lies, and choose to satisfy our own lusts.  We replace the creator with the creation.  We take the imitation instead of the real thing.  True love is sacrificed on the altar of self.  From the start we have been faithless, but He remains faithful.  He knew from the beginning of time what would be necessary to redeem us.  Jesus is the remedy. Because of His sacrifice, we can still have that relationship that Adam threw away.  He calls to each of us, “Do you want to walk with me?”  Join me in saying, “YES!”

The recognition of who Yahweh is and what He has done for us through song helps our hearts to come to a place where we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit within us. That’s why we have the Psalms. They actually contain all the elements we find in our worship as well as some that are not as common. They teach us God’s truth, extol His virtues, and even contain prophecy. In this message, we’ll have a look at Psalm 100. It has been used as the basis for a particular format for worship, but I want to look more broadly at what it says. I pray that we will all come away encouraged and more desirous of experiencing the awareness of God’s presence. We all want to feel close to the ones we love. No one is more worthy of our love and of our worship than He.

Priscilla speaks of the legacy of Pastor David and urges us to live in such a way that those who come after us will know us as followers of Jesus.

Over the years we have talked about how God’s word should direct our lives and how all of it, including the Old Testament, is of value for us today.  It all points to Jesus, and we can find wisdom everywhere we look.  We have also talked about making good decisions.  One think I have stressed every time the topic comes up is the importance of looking to God for answers, usually siting the story of Joshua and the Gibeonites as an example of why that is important.  Something that happened with us last week got me thinking about that story again, so I thought it would be of benefit for all of us to examine.  I did ask the Lord. The story is found in Joshua, Chapter 9.  We’ll read Joshua 9:9-16, but we’ll cover material found in chapters 9 and 10.  Joshua has led the Israelites across the Jordan and conquered the towns of Jericho and Ai.  Hearing of this and afraid of being next, the inhabitants of Gibeon hatch a plot to avoid the same fate.  Having learned that the Israelites were charged with driving out the peoples of the land, they tricked Joshua and the leaders of Israel into thinking they came from far away, and got them to agree to a treaty.  We find the critical error in verse 14.  Israel did not ask the Lord first. But there’s more to this story.  Yes, Israel has violated God’s commandment not to make treaties with the people of the land that He was giving them, but they did it in ignorance, not in rebellion.  Even after they learned that the Gibeonites lived nearby, they kept there word.  The Gibeonites’ action was not without consequence.  They would live as slaves, but they would live.  When the kings around them got together to attack them, Israel was bound to defend them.  God turned their Israel’s error into an opportunity for them to defeat more of their enemies, giving them supernatural help in the process. This account teaches us a few things about how we should live.  Never think that God has no interest in the decisions that you make.  Never assume that you know the answer.  Don’t forget to include Him, and then obey.  Keep your word, even when the other party is dishonest.  You answer for your own actions.  Finally, do not despair when you find you have erred.  Stay true to the Lord, and know that He can turn your failure into His success.