What Has Your Heart?

"The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live." (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Everyone Worships

I want to start with something that is true of every single person in this room, whether you believe in God or not. Everybody worships.

The novelist David Foster Wallace was not a Christian, and in 2005 he stood up in front of a graduating class and told them there is really no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get, he said, is what we worship. And he was right. The Bible said it thousands of years before he did.

Now, what does it mean to worship something? Our English word comes from an old word, worth-ship. To worship something is to show what it's worth to you. It's to give it your heart, to look to it for life, to build your sense of who you are on top of it. Whatever your heart treats as most worth having, that's what you worship. It might be your career, or your family, or your reputation. It might be the approval of the people around you, or being right, or being in control. Most of those are good things. But when any good thing becomes the thing your heart can't live without, it has become your god.

If you're here this morning and you're not sure you believe any of this, stay with me, because this is your question too. You're worshiping something. We all are.

And I want to suggest that this isn't only true out there, in the rest of the week. It's true in here, in church, in the middle of worship itself. Let me tell you how I learned that.

At my last assignment, before I became the pastor of that church, the pastor before me asked me a question. I don't remember what the question was, but I remember where I was sitting. I was in the back. And I remember telling him how amazing it was that so many people were disconnected in worship. People were on their phones, flipping through the hymnal, talking, staring out the window. It was one of those moments when you realize our minds aren't always where they need to be.

But what took me longer to see was this: while I sat back there watching everybody else, my own heart wasn't worshiping either. I was so busy grading the room that I gave God nothing.

So the question this morning isn't whether you worship. You do. The question is, what makes worship real, and worthy of God? What is the worship God actually receives? And to answer that, we have to go underneath the outward forms, all the way down to the heart.

Lips Near, Hearts Far

Jesus put his finger right on this. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, he said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain" (Matthew 15:8-9).

Notice what Jesus does. He doesn't criticize the singing or the prayers or the gathering. He says there's an inner essence of worship and an outer expression of worship, and it's possible to have all of the outer and none of the inner. And when that happens, he says, the worship is vain. For Jesus, that kind of worship amounts to zero.

In English, the word vain has two meanings. It means empty, and it means full of yourself. Jesus meant empty. But the reason that worship is empty is that it's full of self. So you can do as many good deeds as you want, and go to as many church services as you want, and never truly worship, if nothing is happening in your heart toward God. All real and true worship is heartfelt.

Now, why does that happen to people who love God? Jesus told a story about good seed that never grew, because the worries of this life, the pull of money, and the desire for other things grew up around it and choked it out (Mark 4:18-19). Sometimes it's the world around us, the noise and the pressure and the things we chase. And sometimes it's the world inside us.

Let me go a little deeper, because the sin beneath the sin is always a question of worship. When I sat in that back row grading everyone, what was I really doing? I was protecting something. My sense of being right. My sense of being a little better than the people around me. In the middle of worshiping God, I was worshiping myself. And most of us do some version of that. So let me ask you a few honest questions. What does your mind drift to when it has nowhere it has to be? Whose approval would crush you to lose? Where do you run first when you're afraid? Your answers will tell you what your heart is really treating as worth the most.

The apostle Paul said this to religious people in Rome who were trusting the outward sign that they belonged to God: "True circumcision is not something visible in the flesh... circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter. That person's praise is not from people but from God" (Romans 2:28-29).

Circumcision was the sign God gave Abraham, the mark that you belonged to God's people. But you could carry that mark on your body while your heart was a thousand miles away. For us, the outward marks look different: baptism, membership, knowing the right answers, being here every Sunday. Those are good things, but they can never stand in for a heart the Spirit has made new.

So what is the inner, authentic, Godward experience of the heart that we call the essence of worship? Moses gives us the beginning of the answer: "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart... and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live." In other words, God goes to work on the inside, where no one else can reach. He cuts away what keeps pulling our hearts away from him, and he fills the heart with the very character of Jesus. Worthy worship begins with a heart God himself has made whole.

What We Cannot Do, God Promises

But that raises an obvious question. How does God do that? How does a divided heart become whole?

To answer that, we have to go back to the moment God first asked for it. The book of Deuteronomy is Moses speaking to Israel near the end of his life, about forty years after they came out of Egypt, on the edge of the promised land. And in chapters 9 and 10, he makes them remember the worst moment of their history. While he was up on the mountain receiving God's law, their parents made a golden calf and worshiped it. Moses came down, saw the worship, which led him straight back to the hearts of the people, and he shattered the tablets. And yet God called Moses back up the mountain, gave him new tablets, and renewed the covenant with a people who didn't deserve it. And with that story of a second chance fresh in their minds, Moses said, "Circumcise your hearts and don't be stiff-necked any longer" (Deuteronomy 10:16).

What I find interesting in that moment is how easy it is, when we are left alone with our hearts, to revert back to our former selves. The calf was made while Moses was away. The people decided he was taking too long. Their bodies had left Egypt, but their hearts never did.

And they couldn't do what God asked. Why not? Because the heart that needed cutting was the very heart holding the knife. You can make yourself come to church. You can make yourself say the right words. But you cannot make yourself love God with all your heart, any more than you can make yourself love anything. Even David, the man after God's own heart, didn't try to fix himself. He prayed, "God, create a clean heart for me" (Psalm 51:10).

So near the end of his life, Moses gave them a promise: "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:6). What God had commanded, God now promised to do himself.

Centuries later, a young man named Stephen stood before the religious leaders and preached the last sermon of his life. He said of Israel in the wilderness, "Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt" (Acts 7:39). And then he looked at the leaders in front of him and said, "You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also" (Acts 7:51). And they stoned him for it.

Standing there guarding the coats of the men throwing the stones was a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58). He never forgot it. Years later, as Paul, he prayed, "When the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval" (Acts 22:20). And the man who once stood there with an uncircumcised heart would one day write that true circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit.

And how does the Spirit do it? Through Christ. "You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands... in the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11). Paul ties our new hearts to what Jesus did on the cross. Isaiah said the Savior would be "cut off from the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8), and because Jesus gave himself up to death for us, the Spirit can do in our hearts what we could never do ourselves.

Humility

So what happened to Saul? He stood with the Pharisees, watching, while Stephen, full of grace and power, looked up and saw Jesus. That day stayed with him, and later, on the road to Damascus, Jesus himself stopped him and humbled him. And that's always where God begins. When God pursues a heart, he begins by humbling it.

Now, humility is a strange thing. The moment you start checking your own heart to see how humble you are, it slips away. Keller once said humility is so shy that if you start talking about it, it leaves. Piper built on that and said humility flourishes when we stand at a window looking out at the greatness of Christ, and it disappears when we turn around and stand at a mirror. You'll never find humility staring at yourself. It only shows up when you're looking at Jesus. Even when David prayed, "Search me, God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23), he was asking God to do the looking.

If you're not a Christian, humility is where you stop trusting your own record, and you look and see Jesus. That's what happened to Paul. He had every outward credential a person could have: circumcised the eighth day, a Pharisee, blameless in the law. And when he saw Jesus, he said, "I consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). He had seen someone so much greater that his record stopped mattering.

But humility is just as important for those of us who have walked with Jesus for years. Maybe we need it more, because pride has a way of growing right inside the religious life. It grows from knowing your Bible. It grows from serving others. It grows from showing up when others don't.

C.S. Lewis said a proud person is "always looking down on things and people," and as long as you're looking down, you can't see what's above you. That was me in the back row. Jesus told a story about it (Luke 18:9-14). Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a faithful, religious Pharisee, and he stood up and prayed, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people... or even like this tax collector." Think about what he did. He went to the house of God to pray and spent his prayer looking down at the man in the back. And that man couldn't even lift his eyes. He prayed, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" And Jesus said that man went home right with God.

And when we finally look up, do you know who we see? We see the One who had every right to sit in the judge's seat, and he got up out of it. He emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and humbled himself all the way to death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). That's the humble mind we learn from Christ. There is a sickness in the heart that needs to be cleansed, in sinners and saints alike. Humility opens our eyes to see it, and God cleanses us more and more from one part of it, our pride and our vanity, so that we can welcome faith.

Humility is recognizing our need, and recognizing who can meet it.

I struggle with this. Every day I have to wake up and pray, Father, check my pride, in every conversation, every inward thought, every decision I make. Why? Because the moment I start living for what people think of me, I've stopped looking at Jesus.

The gospel does something for us in this that nothing else can. Most of us live every day in a kind of courtroom. We're on trial, and the verdict keeps changing. A compliment, and we're acquitted. A criticism, and we're condemned. Paul says something remarkable about that courtroom: "It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself... It is the Lord who judges me" (1 Corinthians 4:3-4). Paul had stepped out of the courtroom, because in Christ the verdict was already in.

My heart, as it stands right now, is that people would see me as someone trying to be faithful with what God has entrusted to me, not because it profits me or gives me praise, but because it might help me serve them better.

The approval of others was never meant to hold up your heart.

Faith

If the approval of others can't hold up your heart, something has to. That's where faith comes in. Once we see our true heart and the disease that lies within, God renews and cleanses us by faith. Peter said it about the first believers who weren't Jewish: God made no distinction between us and them, "cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9).

But we have to be clear about what faith is. James says, "You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe, and they shudder" (James 2:19). The demons have perfect theology. They know exactly who God is, and nothing in them has changed. So faith has to be more than believing the right things about the unseen.

In the summer of 1859, a tightrope walker named Charles Blondin stretched a rope across the gorge below Niagara Falls, and thousands of people came out to watch him cross it. He crossed it again and again, and every time, the crowd believed a little more that he could do it. Then that August he carried a man across on his back. His manager, Harry Colcord, climbed onto his shoulders, and the two of them went out over the gorge. Colcord said later that out in the middle, where nothing steadied the rope, Blondin began to totter and sway, and all he could do was hold on.

The crowd believed something true about Charles Blondin, and they went home impressed, but the same as they came. Harry trusted him with his life. That's faith.

So what does it look like to trust Jesus with your whole weight? It means letting him into the places of your heart you've walled off.

Faith is powerful. John Wesley said a living faith is "powerful through God for tearing down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). A stronghold is a fortress, something dug in and walled up, and every one of us has a few. Some of those strongholds are around us: the things everyone says until we believe them. Follow your heart. You deserve it. Look out for number one. But the Bible says the heart is more deceitful than anything else (Jeremiah 17:9). And some of the strongholds are within us. Sin bends the way we think, so we reach our verdicts first and find our reasons afterward. We decide someone will never change, or that God feels far away so he must be far away, or that we've gone too far for him to want us back.

And underneath all of that, most of us are carrying on an argument with God. If he really loved me, he wouldn't have let that happen. I'll forgive them when they've earned it. I know better about this one part of my life. We rehearse those arguments so often that we start winning them, and every argument we win against God is another wall around a part of our heart he isn't allowed into. Faith takes every one of those thoughts captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). It hands the argument back to him and lets him have the last word.

So let me ask you. What argument have you been winning against God that you need to lose?

And think about this. If by faith we believe that Jesus gave himself for us, that he forgives us and reconciles us, even me, to the Father, and that we have redemption through his blood, then how does that same faith not have the power to cleanse the heart? John puts both in one sentence: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Sin no longer rules over you (Romans 6:14). You are no longer forced to obey it.

That's why humility matters so much. Without it, the heart will not confess its need, and if the heart does not confess, there is no cleansing. But when a heart finally confesses and is cleansed, it has something to say. It can testify of Christ: he took my sin, and he made me clean.

Hope

And something beautiful happens when we testify about God. God testifies about us. Paul says, "The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16). That is where hope begins.

Hope is the next part of a circumcised heart. It's the Spirit's living proof that humility and faith are at work in us. Hope bears witness that we belong to God, and that our Father gives his children good things (Matthew 7:11). "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). My joy is anchored in someone, and his Spirit witnesses to my spirit that I belong to God.

Why does that anchor matter so much? Because a heart that is unsure where it stands with God performs. It watches, it compares, it grades, and it needs approval. That isn't assurance in God.

Jesus told a story about exactly this kind of heart. We usually call it the parable of the prodigal son, but there are two sons in it. The younger son ran off and wasted everything. The older son stayed home his whole life and did everything right. And when the younger son came home and the father threw him a party, the older son stood outside and refused to go in. He said, "Look, I have been slaving many years for you" (Luke 15:29). Keller pointed out that both sons were lost. The younger son was lost in his rebellion, and the older son was lost in his goodness. He lived in his father's house like a hired hand, watching his brother, grading him, angry that he never got what he thought he'd earned. And the father went out to him too, and said, "Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours" (Luke 15:31). He was a son the whole time. He just never lived like one.

Paul says, "You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15). A slave performs, because his place depends on it. A child calls out to his father, because his place was never in question.

So hope is joy, not fear. Underneath all the performing, the heart is asking one question: Am I worthy to be loved? And the Spirit answers it by telling you that you are loved. "God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The Spirit whispers, I am yours, and you are mine. And Jesus prayed for this very thing, that just as he is in the Father and the Father is in him, we would be in them (John 17:21).

When that finally lands in a heart, something happens that words can't hold. David said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!" (Psalm 34:8). There's a difference between reading about honey and tasting it. You can know everything about God and never once taste him. But when you do, the heart can't stay quiet. John could hardly contain himself: "See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children, and we are!" (1 John 3:1). It's the slave finding out he's a son. It's the older brother finally walking in to the party. It's the man in the back row who stops grading the room and starts to sing.

And joy and hope produce love. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Love

What is it that cries out, "Abba, Father"? It can't be pride. It can't be selfishness. Only love can do that, the very love Jesus has for his Father, poured into our hearts by the Spirit (Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6). And that's what completes a whole heart: real, Christlike love.

Saint Augustine said that the deepest problem of the human heart is disordered love. We love good things in the wrong order. We love comfort, approval, family, success, even ministry, more than we love God, and those good things start to sit on a throne they were never built for. Love for God puts everything back in its place. We still love people. We still enjoy God's good gifts. But we love them in him and for him.

Mark tells us about a young man who came to Jesus who had kept the commandments since he was a boy. He had the outward life down. And Mark says, "Looking at him, Jesus loved him," and then said, "You lack one thing" (Mark 10:21). Jesus told him to let go of what he loved most and follow him, and the man went away grieving, because he had many possessions. He had everything on the outside and a divided heart on the inside. Something else had his heart. And notice the order: Jesus asked for his whole heart because he loved him.

God's love always comes first. He loved us while we were still sinners. But so many of us want to feel his love without letting it change us. We skip humility. We skip faith and hope. And we try to go straight to feeling loved, without letting God cut away what's in the way. We want love without the circumcision.

We refuse the hardship and the pain that come when what we have loved is cut away from us. But God never cuts to leave us scarred and empty. He cuts so that we can have real life. That's the promise of our text: God circumcises the heart so that you will love him with all your heart, "so that you will live."

So what does that look like on an ordinary Tuesday? When God has your whole heart, you don't love the people in your life less. You love them better, because you're no longer asking them to be your god. You can love your spouse without needing them to fill what only God can fill. You can work hard without your job deciding whether you're worth anything. When a disappointment comes, it hurts, but it doesn't take everything from you, because the one thing you can't lose is still yours. When someone criticizes you, you can listen, because your heart isn't resting on their verdict. And when you walk into church on Sunday, you aren't coming to be entertained or to grade the room. You're coming home to the One your heart already loves most.

When love takes the seat we have ruled from, Christ sits there and reigns without a rival, and our joy comes from that very circumcision, as the spirit returns to God who gave it. John Wesley said it as strongly as anyone ever has: "Whoever is not happy, yea, happy in God, is not a Christian." He meant it as an invitation. God is offering you the deepest happiness there is, and it's in him.

Our songs, our giving, and our service all matter to God, but underneath every one of them, he is after the living sacrifice of the heart (Romans 12:1). "The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God" (Psalm 51:17).

But if God wants a whole heart, and none of us could ever give him one on our own, then where does that leave us? It leaves us looking at the only one who ever did.

The True Worshiper

There has only ever been one person whose heart was never divided in worship. Jesus loved his Father with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength. He never once sat in the back row of his own heart. Every word, every step, every breath was for the Father's glory. He said, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38).

And yet on the cross, the one whole heart in all of history was given up for us. The Son who had always cried out, "Abba, Father," cried out instead, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Mark 15:34). He was abandoned so that we could be adopted. He gave himself up so that the Spirit could make our hearts new, and pour into us the same love he has for the Father, so that we can love God with all our heart too. He cried out as one forsaken so that we could cry "Abba" forever.

And Keller would remind us of something else from the parable of the two sons. In that story, no one goes out to find the younger brother. But we have a true and better older brother, Jesus, who left the Father's house and came all the way out to where we were, to bring us home at the cost of his own life.

So let's come back to our question. What makes worship real, and worthy of God? What is the inner, authentic, Godward experience of the heart that we call the essence of worship?

The inner essence of worship is a heart that God has made whole.

It's a heart that has been humbled, so it isn't sitting in the judge's seat anymore. It's a heart that has put its whole weight on Jesus. It's a heart that knows it's home, crying out, "Abba, Father." And it's a heart that loves God more than anything he could ever give it. Those aren't four steps we climb to earn a whole heart. They're what God's grace forms in a heart as he makes it whole.

And in that wholeness comes joy. Peter called it inexpressible and glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8), joy too big for words, joy that doesn't come from anything in this world, the joy of a heart that has tasted God and found him better than everything it was chasing.

That is worship.

So let me ask you one more time. What has your heart?

The God who asks for your whole heart is the God who promises to make it whole.

If you've never come to Jesus, this is where it begins. Come to him with empty hands. He said, "The one who comes to me I will never cast out" (John 6:37).

And if you've followed him for years but your heart is still divided, ask him to make it whole. The same faith that received his forgiveness can receive his cleansing.

Let's pray the words of an old hymn together:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Shema - Week 2 Heart

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Today I want us to pick up where we left off last week. We’ve been talking about the voice of truth—about living in the rhythm of God’s inhale and exhale—about receiving His presence before we offer our words.

But where do we start.. What does it look like, not just to breathe in God’s presence, but to live our whole lives within the Word of truth? Let me start here… The church exists first and foremost as a community shaped by God’s Word.

“So today, my goal is simple: I want to show you how this truth applies to your faith—so you don’t just survive or find comfort, but actually flourish in Christ. Now, let’s set the stage for Deuteronomy 6. God had just brought His people out of slavery in Egypt and met them at Mount Sinai. There He revealed Himself and gave His law in what was essentially a covenant ceremony—almost like a wedding. The people responded, ‘Everything the Lord has said we will do; we will obey’ (Ex. 24:7). But here’s the tragedy: right after that, they turned away. Their yes was on their lips but not in their hearts. And because of that, a whole generation died in the wilderness—not because God wasn’t faithful, but because they refused to hear and obey His Word. Now, in Deuteronomy 6, God gathers the next generation on the edge of the Promised Land and says, ‘Here’s my Word again. Don’t miss it this time. Don’t just hear it—take it into your hearts. Teach it to your children. Live it in your homes. Let it shape every part of your life.’ Let’s read together in verse 1.”

Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Now, right at the center of this passage is a word that every faithful Israelite would have known by heart. Look at verse 4, because this is where flourishing faith begins, ‘Hear, O Israel…’ That word hear is the Hebrew word Shema. It shows up more than 1,100 times in the Old Testament, but here’s the challenge—there really isn’t a single English word that captures its depth. We translate it simply as ‘hear,’ but it means far more than sound entering your ears. It’s a word that means to hear, yes—but also to understand, to learn, and to respond. The real weight of the word isn’t just about receiving sound—it’s about receiving truth in such a way that it shapes your life. And I got other ask.. when was the last time you heard something and it changed your life? Like the first time you heard, I love you… and it meant something… Or, … maybe there was a time you heard some sort of news, and it radically changed how you lived? Or even the gospel… when was the first time you heard the gospel and it pierced your heart in such a way, that you gave your life to Christ? Thats what Shema means. It’s hearing that demands a response. It’s hearing that forms you. When I think about this word, I think about our kids. Sometimes I’ll tell them to do something, and it just goes in one ear and out the other. Have you ever experienced that? And here’s the thing—it’s not like they have hearing issues. Our kids ears work fine. The problem isn’t physical; it’s intellectual. They’re not paying attention to what I’ve asked. Or worse—they’re flat-out ignoring my words. And that, church, is not Shema. You see, this word carries the weight of hearing, listening, intellectually knowing, and truly understanding—but it also means to walk in, and obey. When someone Shema’s, they don’t just hear and understand it. They do it. They put what’s being said, into action. And here’s a question… how often do we do that with gods word? Now, think about this… was the last time you heard the word preached, or read, or within your studies, saw what it said, but it never formed anything in you? Again, one of the purposes of the gospel isn’t information as much as its to lead to transofmfraiton within the hearer and listneinger and reader. And so, the Israelites would have heard this word, hear, or listen, O Israel from God, and understood that this command, demands a response, that transforms the listener to walk in the statues and laws that’s being asked. So, listen, If God’s Word hasn’t changed your life, you haven’t really heard it. The Shema reminds us that the starting point of flourishing faith is hearing God’s Word in such a way that it takes root and bears fruit in your life.

But watch what happens next—God doesn’t just say, ‘Hear, listen, know and obey.’ He immediately shows us where His Word is meant to go. Where it should land… and what should it affect in your life… lok at verse 6… Verse 6: ‘And these words that I command you today shall be… (Where) on your heart.’ Say those three words with me, on your heart… ready, 1,2,3… on your heart. This is so important… Because the heart is the home of our affections. Think about what Proverbs 4:23 says, ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.’ Now let’s pause there for a second… God doesn’t just say put His Word in your mind, or even just on your lips. He says it must land on your heart—the place where your love is, your desires, and your affections live. And Here’s why this matters: what you love shapes what you see. If your heart loves the darkness, you’ll be blind to the light. That’s what Jesus said in John 3:19: people didn’t come to the light, not because the evidence wasn’t there, but because they loved the darkness. That’s not a head problem—it’s a heart problem. Paul said the same thing in Ephesians 4:18. He described people as being ‘darkened in their understanding… because of the hardness of their heart.’ Did you catch that? The root wasn’t lack of information, is was ignorance You can find the gospel everywhere… online, every Sunday here at church, in our house churches… there is no lack of biblical information in todays generation… The root issue is, love has gone wrong. A stubborn heart that wanted independence more than surrender.

And if we’re honest, that’s us apart from grace. Our hearts are bent to love all the wrong things. And when our desires bend away from God, our minds start finding ways to justify it. We convince ourselves sin isn’t really sin. We make excuses. We rationalize. Lets get real for a moment. How many times has the Holy Spirit nudged you—put that urge in your heart to do or say something for His glory—and you knew it was Him? Pray. Read the Bible. Send an encouraging text, or he put someone on your mind and heart. Give to someone in need, or just be nice to that one person that irritates you at work or school. And the Spirit of God said, love on them….. You knew it. But you didn’t act… ….can I ask…. Why not? What made you pause and rationalize what was being laid on y0pour heart/ Was it because you didn’t hear Him? No—you heard. But your mind talked your heart out of trusting God. You thought, ‘well, That feels out of place. That’s not something I’d normally do.’ And so, what was the reply to gods word… the action of disobedience… you didn’t obey. You said, no… with your heart. And the effect was what? : the Word of God being spoken in that moment, never took root, not because the ears didn’t hear, but because the heart didn’t trust, and the mind found a way to quiet the affections for Him. I… I just wonder at times… how many times in my life has God spleen to my heart and I didn’t step out by faith to do what he was leading me to do…

Let me ask you this: What is the deepest longing of a redeemed heart? When God saves us, what becomes the great craving, the burning desire, the thing we can’t shake? Scripture is clear—the answer is the glory of God. Psalm 19:1 says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God.’ And if creation itself can’t help but proclaim His glory, how much more should a heart that has been redeemed? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6 that God has shone in our hearts ‘to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ That’s what our hearts were made for: to see His glory and to show His glory. That’s the design of your soul. Listen, you are to love the Lord your God, with what? Heart,. mind and soul… To rightly love God, when… the word of God lands on the heart of the listener, not one of those can be out of order or in defiance. Your heart is the seat of our affections— its designed for loving what is most lovely. Your soul was created for worship—for delighting in what is most glorious. And your mind was created for truth—for seeing God as He really is. And here’s the danger: if your heart sets its affection on lesser things, your soul will worship lesser things, and your mind will twist itself to justify it. That’s how idolatry creeps into your life—not because we stopped believing in God with our heads, but because we loved something more than Him with our hearts, and our souls glorified it. The best way I can illustrate this, is by looking at our solar system. The sun belongs in the center, holding every planet in orbit. But if the sun is displaced, if you move it out of the center, everything flies apart. That’s exactly what happens when God is not the center of our affections. When our hearts love the wrong things, when our souls delight in the wrong glories, when our minds justify the wrong truths—our whole life flies out of orbit.

Now,lets ask this important wuestiojhn… : what is the glory of God? Because if the deepest longing of our soul is His glory, then we better be clear about what that means. Here’s an easy way to do so, God’s glory is His holiness made visible—His infinite worth and absolute perfection going public through creation and through His people.” It’s His beauty and His value put on display for the whole world to see, and it is shared, right there in your own life. Think about it… its shared with us, and in us, for the world to see, His goodness. That’s exactly what Jesus prays in John 17:22: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.” In other words, the very glory of God the Father given to the Son is now given to His people. Shared. Poured out. Placed within us. And I think we can get this wrong sometimes… We look up at the night sky and we marvel at the stars, and We stand in awe and say, “Man, they display the glory of God.” And they do. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” There truth in the word of God. We agree… But let me ask you this—what if ….we were just as captivated when we looked at one another and saw Christ in one another? What if, instead of just looking up, we looked across the room and saw the glory of God at work in the person sitting next to us? Would that change everyday life? Wouldn’t that change how we saw one another…

That’s exactly why, when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He didn’t stop at “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” He added, “And love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, the glory of God you behold is meant to become the love of God you extend. His infinite worth isn’t just something to admire—it’s something to embody in how we treat one another. And that’s why I love moments like baptism. Here next month, we’re planning baptisms, and it’s a moment where we can stand together as a family and see God’s glory go public. We hear testimonies of heart change, we watch lives being made new, and we witness the Spirit’s work drawing us together to celebrate transformation. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Wouldn’t that be someone flourishing in their faith? In other words, God’s glory isn’t just written in the stars—it’s written in your story. It’s etched into your heart, your soul, and your mind, declaring to the world: “Look at my God.”

But here’s the question: how does that happen? How does God actually write His glory into your life, into your marriage, into your work, into your everyday? The Bible is really clear about this. What happens in your heart shapes what happens in your mind. And what happens in your mind shapes everything else about you. Now, for a long time, I used to think the order went like this: If I just knew enough, I would obey enough.This is why so many will say, I want to learn the Bible. So I can know! If I could just learn more, memorize more, study more—then surely my life would follow. But Jesus actually flips that order on its head. Listen to His words in John 7:17: “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know (theres that word know) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” So,. Did you catch that? Jesus says your willingness to obey comes before your ability to understand. If the Shema is going to be a lifestyle for you—if you’re going to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind—then don’t just hear God’s Word. Don’t just let it hit your ears. Let it shape your will. Let it capture your mind. Let it be written on your heart. That’s not….. how most of us naturally think. We tell ourselves, “Once I understand, then I’ll obey.” And I fear, that is why discipleship over the past few decades have fallen short of its true meaning. We’ve reduced it to programs, to classrooms, to content transfer. But biblically, discipleship is far more personal.God’s Word landed on your heart At its heart, Discipleship is what happens when somebody invests his or her life into your life, one on one. It’s one person walking alongside another person, pointing them to Jesus, helping them obey His Word, and encouraging them to keep going when it gets hard. And yes, small groups can do that, Sunday school classes can in some way accomplish this, but what if, you took one person, and took a certain amount of time each week to talk and study the Bible and pray with. That’s biblical discipleship. Not just the transfer of information, but the knitting together of two lives in unity through the Spirit of God, being weaved into the tapestry by the thread of the gospel… where, Christ is formed in both of you.

So, here’s what we’ve got to realize—church, we can’t fix this on our own. We have to be born again. We need a new will and a new heart. Something has to happen inside of us so we can truly know God and love Him rightly. Because left to ourselves, it doesn’t matter how much information we have. My will is bent by nature. Yours too. That’s what we call original sin. It’s not just the wrong things I do—it’s that deep-down bent in me that wants the wrong things. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t will myself out of willing the wrong thing. I need God to intervene. I need Him to take out this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. I don’t just need Jesus to rescue me from my sins—I need Him to rescue me from me.

And here’s the miracle of new birth: God steps in and rescues us from our sinful hearts. He begins to form in us a new will that actually wants Him, loves Him, trusts Him. Most of you have lived purely off of that grace. You heard the gospel, you were saved, a new life began… but if you’re honest, there’s still something missing. What is it? What’s going on? Why is there this urge for more—and why haven’t you found it in your duty, your serving, your busyness? You say, “I want more of Him, but I’m still bent toward my own desires and wants. I want to pray, but I struggle. I want to love Him, adore Him, be captivated by Him—but I always fall short.” Lets address it… right now.. lets find out why… If you’ll allow me to be honest with you? That bent nature—that root of sin—doesn’t just disappear at salvation. Yes, we’re forgiven. Yes, we’re made new. But deep inside, that pull toward pride, toward selfishness, toward me-first living—it still wages war. Its called this… original sin.. And original sin isn’t just the wrong things we do—it’s that deep-down bent in me that wants all the wrong things. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t will myself out of willing the wrong thing. I need God to intervene. I need Him to take out this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. I don’t just need Jesus to rescue me from my sins—I need Him to rescue me from me. And here’s the miracle of new birth: God steps in and rescues us from our sinful hearts. He begins to form in us a new will that actually wants Him, loves Him, trusts Him. But can I still be honest? That bent nature—that root of sin—doesn’t just vanish at salvation. Yes, we’re forgiven. Yes, we’re made new. But that tug toward pride, toward selfishness, toward me-first living—it still wages war inside us. That’s why the Bible speaks not only of being born again, but also of being sanctified. Remember what I said earlier: the glory of God is the holiness of God on display. And sanctification is how God puts that display in motion—His Spirit changing us so that His glory isn’t just something we see, but something we show.” Think about the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those aren’t just good Christian traits; that’s the holiness of God shining out of ordinary people. That’s His glory taking root in us and bearing fruit through us.”

That’s why Jesus prayed in John 17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Because God doesn’t just want forgiven people—He wants holy people. He wants sons and daughters with hearts so purified by His Spirit that love for Him comes first—naturally, deeply, freely. And then, that glory, his glory, is shared with others. John 17:22 says it this way: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.” The holy love God pours into you isn’t meant to stop with you—it’s meant to flow through you. Here’s the good news: Jesus not only rescues us from the guilt of sin—He can also free us from the grip of sin. Entire sanctification isn’t about becoming flawless in performance. It’s about being perfected in love. It’s about God so filling your heart, mind, and soul with Himself that every part of you is surrendered to Christ. And isn’t that what you long for? A heart that doesn’t just fight sin, but is free to love God fully. A soul that doesn’t just struggle, but rests secure in Him. That’s the promise of the Spirit—that the same God who saves you will also sanctify you, until Christ is all in all.

And this is why discipleship can never be reduced to just showing up to church, or memorizing a few verses, or checking the right boxes. God doesn’t just want your head filled with His Word—He wants your heart reshaped by His Word, your soul reoriented toward His glory, and your will surrendered in obedience. The Shema is God saying, ‘I don’t just want you to hear My voice—I want you to love Me with everything you are.’ Heart, soul, strength. That’s transformation. That’s discipleship. That’s what it means to flourish in faith. So, as the worship team comes up, let me ask you: Has God’s Word landed on your heart? Is it bending your will? Is it shaping your mind? Or is it still just information—words you’ve heard, maybe even memorized, but never obeyed? “If God’s Word hasn’t changed your life, you haven’t really heard it. And today, the Spirit is inviting you to really hear.” Because the Shema won’t let us settle for that. It’s a call to whole-life surrender. A call to let God’s glory be written into your story.” I want to invite you to respond. Lets stand together…. Maybe today you need to humble yourself before the Lord and pray, ‘God, take my hard heart. Give me a new heart. Bend my will toward You. ’Maybe you need to confess that you’ve been hearing but not obeying. Maybe you’ve been content with information, but not formation. Don’t leave today the same way you came.

“ Church, today we’ve heard the Word of Truth. But the question is—where will it land? Will it fall on a heart that truly hears, or on a heart that stays hard? Jesus said, ‘He who has ears, let him hear.’ The Shema says, ‘Hear, O Israel.’ The Spirit is still saying today—hear, believe, obey. So where will His Word land in you?”

“Family, as you go this week, don’t just be hearers of the Word — be doers of the Word. Let the Word of Truth dwell in your heart, shape your mind, and bend your will toward Jesus.and His glory, shine through you this week. May the Spirit remind you in the quiet moments, strengthen you in the hard moments, and lead you in every moment — so that God’s glory isn’t just written in the stars above, but written in your story below. Go in His truth, go in His Spirit, and go in His peace.” *

Won't You Be My Neighbor - Week 1

Lets open our bibles together to Luke’s gospel and find with me chapter 10. Our service looks a little different this morning… Right? It’s beautiful here. Next week I believe we will be at the Twin Bridges in Orangeville just to give you a heads up to where we will be. We’re making an emphasis on being good neighbors, in our very own neighborhoods. So, were here in one of our neighborhoods to kick off this new series called, Would you be, My neighbor.

The entire series is based on the Great commandment from Luke chapter 10. One day, a lawyer asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question was designed to trap Jesus into saying something that would get him into trouble with the religious authorities, but Jesus simply replied, “What does the law of Moses say?” The lawyer knew the answer as any devote Jewish person would. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and you must love your neighbor as yourself”.

The lawyer was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The Great Commandment defines what’s most important in life: Loving God and Loving people. How do we do that? Loving God is more than feeling our hearts touched in worship or in prayer as beautiful as that is. We prove we love God by the way we love other people. If you don’t love people well, you aren’t loving God well. Jesus said to the lawyer “You really know your stuff.

Do this and you will live”. But the lawyer was satisfied, he wanted to justify his actions. What does that mean? It means he wasn’t interested in loving everybody; he was trying to justify why it was okay for him to keep his love circle small. So, he asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” So, Jesus told a parable. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. It’s about a 15-mile journey and would take about 8 hours walking.

Along the way, the man was attacked by bandits, badly beaten, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest came upon the half dead man. You would think the priest would run over to help him but instead he crossed over to the other side and passed him by. Then a Levite came along. A Levite was a temple assistant to the priests; like being on staff at the church.

Surely this man would help but he did the same thing as the priest. Then a Samaritan came along. When he saw the man, he didn’t hesitate. He rushed over to see if he was still breathing and realizing he was, he sterilized his wounds and put oil on them, picked up the man, put him on his donkey and took him to an inn where he could recuperate. The good Samaritan gave the innkeeper a pre-loaded debit card and said “If his expenses are higher than I’ll settle the debt when I return.

Jesus asked the lawyer “Which of the three was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy”. Then Jesus said, “Now go and do the same.” When we look at this parable. There are three questions we tend to wrestle with… First, who is my neighbor? Right.. How can I neighbor well if I’m not sure who’s my neighbor. Secondly, what about this question?

What keeps me from being a good neighbor? And lastly, How Do I neighbor well? So, lets dive into the first question. Who is my neighbor.. the answer is you’re neighbor is anyone in need. Now that’s a hard question to ask isn’t it? Because I’d ask, well then Who’s in need? I wanna say, I bet all of us here has some sort of need. Maybe you need help with something?

Maybe you need to just feel like you belong? Maybe theres an emotional need, or physical need. The truth is, I think we all have a need for something. And at Momentum Church, we believe the the holy Spirit draws us together, to meet the needs of one another. To fill the needs of others. One of my favorite cartoons that came out in 2005 forever changed my thoughts on how to neighbo well…

Its called Robots which was a cartoon made by the creators of Ice age and it had a star packed cast. Robin Williams, Haley Berry, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bines to just name a few… but the cartoon was about a young idealistic inventor who travels to the big city to join his inspiration's company. A typical story right.. and there was a famous line that this young investor uses throughout the movie…

Its this.. see a need, fill a need. And so, all throughout this movie this young robot recognized that this company was being taken over by greed, and the poor robots couldn’t afford the upgrades so they were obsolete and falling apart and no one was caring for them. And so, he keeps reminding himself, see a need fill a need. Which in this context was, see someone needing help, help them.

Its another way of saying, to love your neighbor as yourself, put yourself in their shoes. Ask those hard questions.. If I was in their shoes, If I were him or her in this situation, what would I need? It s really living a life having empathy for others. And heres something about that.. to love your neighbor as yourself, its about helping others who can’t meet their needs right now, for what4ever reason.

And it goes even deeper… its not just meeting needs for whatever reason, but also, its about meeting needs for anyone whois even different than you. Culturally different. Right now, think about this for the time we are in right now, someone politically different than you. Maybe even someone who is theologically different than you. The punch line for this story of the lawyer, priest and Samaritan is that the jews and the Samaritans had a great hate towards each other.

Each of them claimed to be the true inheritors of the promises of Abraham and Moses and both claimed the rightful claim to the land. And as Jesus was telling this story, the listeners were expecting the jews in this story to be the hero but ironically as Jesus was telling this story you can just read into it and feel the boos when the Samaritan comes onto the scene. But Jesus isn’t here to play favorites..

He’s; hear to write a news story of grace which includes everyone. And when I say everyone, I really mean everyone. Even those you may not like. Even those that may be your enemy. I always love it when I read the book of acts, and right in the beginning of chapter one, Jesus says, you will take the gospel to Jeruslamn, to Samaria and then to the world. Do you remember what that meant?

You’ll take the gosplel to those who first hated me… And then you’ll take it to those you hate. Before you go anywhere where they do not know you or me, I think it was Jesu saying, you need to learn to love first. Because what are you going to do when you go where they do not know Jesus or you, and you make an enemy? Wither they hate you or Jesus, would you be willing to love those who are hard to love?

And I think by learning to love those in Jerusalem, and Samria they can learn to love those anywhere. Jesus is writing a news story of grace and love, and he’s telling this story asking, the lawyer and the jewish people, do you really know who your neighbor is? Because, to neighbor well, this circle requires a wide circle of grace. How wide is your circle of grace? How many people are you willing to love, our care for, or give without question?

Who is your neighbor? Who is in your sphere of influence right now at work, or in your own neighborhoods, or even in your own home who you know is in need/ Jesus says, go meet there needs. There is a quote by a Bible teach named Tom Wright, who writes about this story in Luke, and he writes, “No church, no Christian can remain content with easy definitions which allow us to watch most of the world laying half-dead in the road.” Which leads us to the next question..

What keeps us from being a good neighbor? As Jesus was telling this parable, those who heard it must have thought when the priest came onto the scene, what luck! If there’s one person you would think would step in and do something it would be a religious guy but he didn’t. Let’s as a question, Have you ever been surprised at who didn’t help? Has there ever been a moment where we’ve been let down when we needed help?

I know I have. And I know the feelings of feeling let down, or maybe even alone when I’ve put my own pride aside and asked for help and no one was there. But what keeps us from neighboring well?? Well.. what about being too busy? Have you ever been deriving down the road and seen a car on the side of the road with a couple kids in the back seat and thought to yourself, maybe I should stop to see if they are ok.

Did you stop? Or did say, I got to get to where I’m going? I think we’ve all done it. How hard would it have been to stop and offer a few bottles of water and some snacks for the kids? What about fear? Fear can keep us from welcoming people into our circle of grace. Maybe if we see someone on the side of the road, and you’re like, I’m not stopping and helping.

You never know these days. Maybe it’s a trap to lure people to stop to harm them.. The truth is, we watch way to many movies where people are harmed for doing the right thing. And maybe the priest and the levite had the same thing in their minds too. Lets not forget, traveling was very dangerous in Jesus time. It s dangerous road to anywhere. Someone could be hiding in the weeds, or the brush to jump out to attack you.

Then theres this one, its goon gt o require to much and become messy and complicated. Let’s face it.. helping people can get hard and messy at times. It is. We want our love for others to fit within a 30 minute sitcom which ends with every one getting better and learning some new life lesson. Maybe there was a time you did help, and you got burned.. Maybe someone took advantage of you.

Lets face it, it can happen. Messy people bring messy situations and loving on people can become messy and complicated. And in full disclosure… I know first hand of all of these. Busyness, fear and messiness. Just a few weeks ago, a friend and I were at Cape May teen camp, andthewse two guys showed up sweaty and tired. They were talking to some of the ladies who were a little uncomfortable and ask for a couple guys to come and talk with them.

When we arrived, we saw these two men, all tattooed up. Baggy pants and dirty clothes. They were sweaty and dirty. So we learned that they had been walking for some time, and were asking if someone could give them a ride. We got the van, and loaded it up with them and the two of us. Then we went to McDonald’s and got them dinner. There was change to the $50 I had, so I gave that to them incase they needed something else.

And then they began to direct us to where they needed to go, but they wouldn’t give us the exact address. We were scared. He thought he was going to get stabbed in the side, and I was afraid that I was going to get my throat slashed, while they robbed us. The drive kept getting scarier and scarier. Until finally, we pulled into a house where they were staying, and we prayed and let them out, and told them Jesus loved them.

On the way home, we asked the question, did we have faith even in this moment where we needed to be the samaritan in a story where it was, scary, took our time and could get messy. What we determined was that they needed grace just like we needed grace. We all need grace. You and I do not need to save the world because there is already a savior, but the savior invites us to join him in his work and that means he puts people right in front of us to neighbor.

Its complicated right?? There so many questions like, how? How much? When? When not to? What is helpful and what is not helpful? We need dot ads those questions. Yet, they can also paralyze us to the point and numb us to all of the great needs that are around us. Each and every day. Where we walk this world, watching all these people around us dead from their sin. So how do we neighbor well then?

Well, here are some tangible things we can do.. First, walk across the street. If the priest and Levite walked across the street, they would have discovered the man wasn’t dead and could have helped them. Walking across the street for you may mean walking across the street to your neighbor and getting to know them better. It may be throwing a neighborhood BBQ or a hot dog night around the fire pit.

I remember the first time I saw someone from this church singing on Facebook… I was scared to ask her because I didn’t know her, but I could sense she knew Jesus. One invitation and conversation led to the last two years of watching her grow in her faith. Take that time to get know those around you… and maybe that could begin by getting to know those you church with. Make an effort to get to know those around you.

Invite them to dinner or lunch. Start a Bible study together. Make the effort to walk across that boundary, or to let others in to your circle of grace. Secondly, be you. We talk about this a lot in our Christina circles. Don’t be a Christian at church, and someone different at home. Be authentic, and to be authentic takes people being honest. Most of my friendships grew when I was willing to be honest about myself to them.

When I am at the fire hall, these guys cuss. They get excited.. and they always say, sorry Matt… I forget you were here. And I’m ,like, its ok. Be you. Be authentic. It’s easier to show you the gosple when you’re being the real you… when they take off their mask and show their real heart. It helps me see where they are. Lastly, and this might be one of those..

man that is so easy moments for you… Be consistent in going to the same places. I intentionally go into the bank just to speak with the tellers face to face. Now, they know me. They know where I pastor, and I get to know their lives a little more. Just the other day, I walked into the bank to make a deposit and the teller began to speak about her kids, and she opened up about seeing me at other community events.

When it comes to intentionally neighboring, it means being consistently going to the same places. To the same grocery store. To the same laundry mat. To the same gas station. To the same garage. To the same restaurants. Our family goes to buffalo wild wings almost every week and we know the waitreses there and they know us.. so much so they know I always order two waters. We know their names, and have prayed for them.

As we close, I want to encourage us to really think about these questions… who are we neighboring to… Even in this moment, we are out of the walls of the church among people.*

A Servant's Heart

So, what is the first attribute of a servants heart that we learn from the life of Joseph? Look In verse 19… So her husband Joseph being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly. Do you want to know what that is?… A servants heart must be righteously compassionate? What is righteousness… well, simply put, righteousness is the perfect holiness of Christ. It means, “one who is right.

“ We receive our righteousness through Christ’s work on the cross. Isaiah says: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Proverbs says: “The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.” Paul’s says “There is none righteous, no not one”? So, if sin is considered filthy rugs, and no one is righteous, then who can really pursue it?

How can we be redeemed and righteous? That’s a really good question… and the answer is no one can on this own. “Jesus said, Apart from me you can do nothing” Our whole faith is depended upon whether or not we are in Christ. Christ is our standard. So righteousness sets the standard of our service because by faith Jesus becomes our everything. He becomes our strength, he becomes our life, he becomes our savior, he becomes the model of righteousness, and he becomes our righteaouness.

Really, that’s what holiness is… we take on the righteousness of Christ when Christ takes on our sin as his. Joseph was righteous…. By being a righteous Jew, he was careful to keep the Law of Moses, which allowed separation for infidelity (Deuteronomy 24:1). But what we realize is that you can not have righteousness without compassion, and vice versa. Peter gives one of my favorite verses that calls us into compassion in the context of biblical marriage.

I Peter 3:8 Peter writes: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” Compassion calls for us to be sympathetic towards one another. To be sympathetic, it simply means to put yourself in their shoes. How would your outlook be different if you spent time putting yourself in someone else shoes? There’s an old saying I’m sure we’ve all heard it… “do not judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes”.

It means, to see something from someone else’s perspective… and that’s tough, is it not?. Because for many of the people we see come into contact with, Most times, we will never fully know or understand what they have gone through in their life. A great thinker of his time named Obi Wan Kenobi once said, “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”.

One of the hardest things in our Christian walk is setting aside our ego, and our perspective to consider a different opinion from someone else. Just because someone has a different opinion than we do, it doesn’t make them wrong. Most truth is subjective anyway… right? Most truth is filtered through our experiences. But if we’re ever going to understand others and consider different opinions from others, it’s requires us to sympathize with them.

But, there is a danger here by putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and trying to see from their perspective.…. We, have a tendency to always view ourselves as the hero to every story and we also have a tendency, that when we put ourselves in other peoples shoes, we rarely ever see ourselves as wrong, or even as the villain. Typically we put ourselves in their shoes and we go…

why don’t you just get up and go. Or, This is what I would do in your situation. We say those things and we don’t even know what resources they have available to them.. We just assume they have, all they need, just like us to get through. It might be surprising, but we have been geared our entire life as always looking at ourselves as the pinnacle of our life.

And so, sanctification and holiness is always a direct attack on our hearts because it requires a kingship change of our hearts. Holiness requires surrender. And seeing others in the eyes of Jesus requires his Rightirouness. The bibles says: Phillipians (2:4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Romans (12:10) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

(1 C. 10:24) tells us: Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. And so where does this loving others and being sympathetic towards others come from? It comes from our pursuit of putting Jesus at the center of our lives, and living and pursuing HIs righteousness, while we pursue a deep loving relationship with God. That’s holiness. Jesus, I want to be one with you as your are with the Father!

Isn’t that what our Scripture says about being like minded? To love one another? Jesus tells us says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 Who’s the king of the kingdom of God… it’s Jesus. And we follow his example of living a compassionate life, giving up ourselves, for the service and the uplifting of others. But that’s hard isn’t it…

Think about it…. Would you sacrifice your life to serve the town drunk? Would you sacrifice your life to serve unconditionally that one kid without a father, or a mother? Would you sacrifice your life to serve that person who’s dealing with shame and unforgivness? Let’s ask this.. could you love someone who is hard to love? Would you love someone that is your enemy? Would you love someone that you can’t stand to be around…

Well the answer should be yes… But how… how do we love the unloveable, or in Marys case, how do we love someone who has sinned against God, and us? Humility. Remember, Peter said: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate” And then he follows by showing the husband and wife, the church and all of us to drive all of those attributes of Christ forward in humility.

Why? Why does humility lead from behind, love, sympathy, like mindedness and compassion? It leads from behind because real servitude is not that we serve, or how we serve, but where we direct the praise while and as we serve others. Because if you’re like me… I’m human, I’ve been human my whole live and I’ve sinned, and acted unsanctified for most of my life before Christ raised me from death to life, and then he sanctified my heart.

My first initial, carnal reaction to me serving someone else with compassion was always, what do I get in return. Right? I mean, didn’t we learn that at the core of sin is us stealing the praise from God, and placing that praise upon what we Idolize most… and that’s us. Sin redirects praise to ourselves while righteousness points the praise back to God. That’s why it’s so important that in the love we have for Jesus, we take sin serious because we’re robbing Him of the praise He deserves when we choose to live in sin rather than have him as our life.

I think of James chapter 4 often when I serve… James says.. but he gives more grace… I dunno about you, but I need grace for every moment in my life. This will cause your brain to fart… did you know God is giving you the same grace that he’s giving that person living in sin and choosing to walk away? It’s not different grace, it just means more to you and me because our eyes have been opened to see the beauty of Christ…

But When we serve a person, and they reject us… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out and send a text to someone and they don’t text back, or they left the conversation.… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out to do something nice for someone and they say all kinds of hurtful things about us to others behind our backs…

God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. Why grace? Because 2 Peter 1 says, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (vs. 2-3). You see the grace of God is more than salvation but also everything we need for life and godliness.

The definition of grace could be “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” James in chapter 4 goes on to say. But he gives more grace. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” He also says in the same chapter, 10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” And so what we learn that when it comes to serving others with humility.

Humility takes grace, which is sufficient, looks to Christ who is the the ultimate reward in our service, and goes, Jesus you are good and my reward and portion. Joesph was righteous and Compassionate towards Mary. And what we realize is that by us putting ourselves in other peoples shoes, and through humility, treating them as we would treat ourselves, expecting nothing in return. We learn that Real God given compassion, is God’s righteous compassion exploding out of us as we love God, Love others and as we serve both.

We learn that we can care about what is right and wrong and also care about people as well. One more thing we learn about a servants heart… Look with me back in Matthew chapter 1 at the life of Joseph, beginning in verse 20… 20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

At this moment, Joseph had already made up his mind on what he was going to do… He just said in verse 19, He decided to divorce her secretly. His mind was made up. But watch what happens after his encounter with God’s messenger. Look down in verse 24 with me….. 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son.

And he named him Jesus. When we read this… Many of us would think changing our mind as someone who is wishy washy. Right? But what we see is that Jospeh isn’t being wishy washy, but he’s actually showing us that he had a soft heart. A soft heart is a heart that is willing to change and stay in the conversation, not obeying what God has said, but what God is saying.

Now let me explain that because I can just imagine a lot of you hearing this, and going… did our pastor just say not to obey what God has said…. Let me explain. Joseph went to bed with his mind made up that he was divorcing Mary, but then, after the angel brought God’s message, Joseph wakes up with the plan to take on the potential shame of Marys pregnancy. And so, let’s asked the question…

What caused him to do that? What caused him to change his mind?… I believe it was his faith. Righteousness and compassion is our faith on display. And when anything is out in the open and on display, it gets tested doesn’t it. Because Real faith must be tested. Faith isn’t faith unless it’s proven. We can sit here in church all day saying we have real faith, but at some point we need to ask, has our faith been proven and tested?

Has it endured? Think of the life of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. Verse 1 says, after saying all these things God tested Abraham and said to him.. Abraham! Take your son Issac, whom you love (So God said, Abraham, I know you love your son… do you love me?) and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

So, Abraham got up the next morning and went…. That’s Abraham hearing what God had said, and by faith he was committed. Committed faith is obeying faith… but it’s also trusting faith as well. Abraham trusted in God. Now here’s where I want to dial into what God is showing us today about having a soft heart that serves. A soft heart is a heart that obeys by faith, but it’s also a heart that stays in the conversation with God because it trust.

Jospeh went to bed knowing the law, he was righteous, he loved God and he knew GOd loved Mary… I believe Joesph loved Mary too… God loves people, and Jospeh had to love those GOd loved… and so Jospeh decided to divorce her.. but then his righteousness is tested, his faith is tested, and his faith is also rewarded. Do you know how Abraham answered the Lord when he was about to sacrifice Issac?

He says, Here I am. Right before he takes the life of his only son, he hears the angel of the Lord, some believe this was Jesus, I believe the same… and he says… yes! Here I am….. all of me… right now… I am here, and I hear you. Faith is always rewarded and do you want to know what Abraham’s reward was…. Some might think it was his son…

but it wasn’t… what’s better at that moment than having your son alive… If I was a betting man, I would bet Abraham would say his greatest reward that day was hearing the voice of God again… Oh that’s so good…. The reward was the relationship Abraham still had with God!!… Thank goodness he listens for what God was saying and not just following what God had said. Thank goodness he stayed in the conversation and heard what God was now saying to him later.

This is why presence is so important in our walk with God… that we stay in His presence while living in the present. Think about this as I close… Abraham’s reward to his faith was this deep relationship with the Father… Jospehs reward to his faith was the reward of relationship with God’s only son… He got to be Jesus’s earthly step daddy…. Oh that’s good stuff right there… I’m gonna close now..

I promise… but I wanna close with with these 7 words…. Do you have a servants heart today? A Heart that pursues righteousness. A heart of compassion, showing unity and humility as you serve A heart that’s soft and pliable and workable? Willing to listen to what GOd is saying… rather than just what he had said. Or maybe I should ask a greater question with 7 more words…… Does Jesus have your hearts attention today…..

Are you listening and trusting and obeying? *

Elements: Father

It’s good to be here this morning… I’ve been anticipating and preparing this series for awhile now. Today we embark in a new series called, Elements. I’ve come to realize, and I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, but It’s no easy task to take all of our differences and uniquenesses and experiences and then, to bring them together to make a unique song of unified adoring worship to God. What I’ve learned over the years of pastoring..

was that Church gatherings have a tendency to be a mixture of people who are either new to the faith, or from another denomination of faith, or who are from the Nazarene/Wesleyan faith. We hear words like God the father, son and Holy Spirit. We hear about sin, we teach about grace. We know all these things are key words of our faith. But do we really understand why these truths are a part of the foundation of what we believe and how they interact with one another.

It’s kind of like… The periodic table…. The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic number, electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties. The table becomes this useful tool for modern students and scientists because it helps predict the types of chemical reactions that are likely for an element. For instance H2O is known as the chemical compound of two hydrogens and one Oxygen and those two elements in that sequence creates water.

But if you add another oxygen element, and it becomes H2O2, it’s no longer water, but becomes hydrogen peroxide. So, one compound if drank sustains life and the other compound if drank can take life away. It’s the same principle to our faith. What we believe about our articles of faith as Nazarenes, when brought together and combined, can create this beautiful song of unified worship within the church which creates an envioemnt for Christ like unity, or it can cause division because we’re trying to add things that may go together but instead of leading us to life, it leads us to misunderstanding and death.

So, in this series, we will use the periodic table as a framework to take a deep dive into the foundational “elements” of our faith as a way to illustrate that we can predict the outcome when we place our faith in God! Today, we’re going to be looking at the first element of the trinity, God the Father. Let’s read some scriptures to help get us on track to understanding, God the Father.

The first is Deuteronomy 6:4-5 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is Exodus 4:22-23 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” The third Scripture, comes from dueteronly 1:29-31 29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.

30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” These are some of the EARLIEST writings we have that compare God as father. And we learn throughout the Old Testament that God does refer to himself as Father.

So, what? What does that mean for us? God the Father? What is a father and why does Scripture use this word to describe God? Well, what we learn from the Bible is that: In exodus 4 and Deuteronomy 1, we see that God the Father will protect his children. He has freed them from slavery, freed them from that which has held them back. They were oppressed, they were in bondage, and God never gave up, but helped them taste freedom.

In Deuteronomy 1:30-31 we see a God who has guided and protected them as they go through life, towards a good gift he has for them. God the Father has carried them through their troubles and he is guiding them towards a better, liberated life. And, in Deuteronomy 4, God the Father is teaches us how to live, like a father should. He, through Moses, is trying to teach them to trust in and love him–as he will guide and protect them.

These are things that Fathers do. Or as I would say, these were the things my mother had done for me! Our parents teach, protect and guide, trying to give their children the freedom from that which holds them back. That’s what good parents do. Good parents guide their children towards better lives, not forcing them one way or another, but showing them the way. Right? I mean hear the wisdom Solomon writes about parents in proverbs…

Proverbs 22:6 - “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Why? Why, as parents train our children in the way to go… well one reason is because of legacy. The father who is loving, and kind, and patient, guiding, and protecting wants to see their child grow so that they can be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

The truth is: We all want to be a part of something bigger than us. And one way a family can do that is by passing down a legacy to the next generation. These jewish people lived in a patriarchal society. and in this patriarchal society, The father would love, and protect, and teach and then pass on, or give forward his blessing to his children. Billy Graham once said: “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” John Wesley would go on to say: “...do not send your children to hell by leaving them your wealth.

Have pity on them!” I don’t think there is one person here who does not want a blessing from God? Right? For some, I think they would wish to come to church and have God the father just hand out blessing like Oprah. You get a blessing and you get a blessing and you get a blessing. What would you do with a blessing if you did get one? Now be honest because God knows your heart.

You can fool me and fool others… but you can’t fool God the Father… who knows your heart. Would you share it someone else while taking none of the credit? In Genesis 12:2, God speaking to Abraham and here’s what he tells him before Abraham leaves his earthly father and family to follow God the Father who wants to hand him a blessing and legacy… God the Father says: “I will make you into a great nation (That sounds great…), and I will bless you (ok..

it’s getting better…); I will make your name great (No way… that means people will know my name. I’m all in…), and you will be a blessing. (Wait a minute… what?) The living bibles says: 2 If you do (meaning leaving behind everything Abram had always known), I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.

What we learn is that… Our heavenly father blesses us so that we might be a BLESSING to others. That truth flies in the face of our current Christianity in todays world. I used to laugh at the Israelites because, man they had horrible faith. It’s true. I would be like.. man, The red sea parted, Water from a rock, Fire by night and smoke by day. God’s presence would come down into the tabernacle…

but time after time the first generation that came out of slavery kept being rebellious… not only to Moses, making their spiritual leaders life absolutely exhausting and stressful .., but to God the father. Every step of the way, God was proving that he was with them and he’d take care of them. That he would protect them…. But YHWH and Moses were taking too long. So one time, Moses went up and was on the mountain for a little longer than the Israelites wanted him to be, so they got is brother Aaron to build a golden calf.

Can you imagine how weird it would be to create something with you’re own hands, and then worship it? Like hear what God’s word says about this in Isaiah 44 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” Even when God the Father freed them, and gave himself to them, and protected them, they got bored and restless. So, at the first chance they got, they went back to their old idolatrous ways they’d learned in captivity and built an idol..

and never thought to think… man, I’m worship something I have made with my own hands. The Father wanted them to have a blessing, but they made an idol instead… How many times have we done the same thing in our own life? When God wants to bless us, we take matters into our own hands and we create idols in our life. We create red elephants and blue donkeys hoping that one of them will save us from ourselves.

We create documents, and rights and amendments hoping they will provide security. We create traditions, that are good but over time hold people back from exploring faith. We create altars of worship around our families, and our weapons, and our finances, and our politics bringing them sacrifices and unending loyalty in hopes that those things might provide security and direction for our lives. Did you know, that the first few of the 10 commandments are dominated by warnings against idolatry.

And so, we might look at them and laugh… but the truth is, we’re no different. The truth is…. Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol. And the Bible tells us… to stay away from them. Turn with me to I John as I close and find with me chapter 5 and the last verse in this letter… verse 21 it says: 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

ESV Here in the NLT… it says: Dear Children, keep away from anything that might take GOd’s place in your heart. It’s odd that John would finish here…. What’s odd, is that He doesn’t speak of idols in the entire letter. Out of the blue comes this closing sentence with the very word idol that ordinarily means a statue of something that we use to replace God with. “Don’t give in to idols; keep yourselves from idols.” And I wondered..

why would he end this way? Here’s what I think… in chapter 2 verse 15, he write: 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Now, John may have truly meant to keep away from physical idols in our life, WHICH IS TRUE, but I also want to believe he’s saying, keep away from anything that competes against our love for God as an idol. the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life..is not a blessing or a legacy of the Father but is given to us from idolizing the world.” Think of it this way: God wants to give us blessings but our idols take them away.

In a world where God says he is enough, Idols always require more from us. Idols require our time. Idols require maintenance. Idols require endless sacrifice for their appeasement. And in return we get earthly comforts, we get immediate responses. We get satisfaction. And so many times we bring those expectations into church, while expecting the same immediate blessing. God, my kids gave me satisfaction. God, the money I made from my job gave me some nice comforts.

What are you able to give me? Many times I think we’re like a JG Wentworth commercial when we come into church… It’s my blessing and I want it now… Our blessings are meant for us to be inheritances. But also blessings we pass down to the next generation. Think of this… what we inherit as the ultimate enteral blessing in our life, is Jesus. And many of us is giving up that inheritance for worldly idols.

Galatians 4:6 touched my hear this week and I want to share it with you.… “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, crying abba father… Aww… man… that’s so tender. Do you understand what’s being said here.. Because we are sons, and daughters of God the father…… because we are adopted through our faith in Jesus Christ and heirs to the kingdom. God blesses us with the Spirit of His son, so that our hearts would cry, Daddy…

that’s what abba father means… it means Daddy.. I love you. Does your heart cry ABBA FATHER when you worship? And if not.. could there be idols in your life that prevents you from this kind of relationship? I had one of the many hard father decisions to make this week. As our kids settle into school and begin journeying into sports and extra curricular activities. Chloe got a chance to begin practicing for basketball.

And her mother and I support her in it. This Tuesday they had a clinic to prepare for the upcoming season and the coach offered the middle schoolers to come on Wednesday nights to practice with the High schoolers. And I know from explreince what this kind of practice can do as an athlete… it can increase her awareness, her speed, her strength by practicing and scrimmaging with other girls who are taller and stronger than she is and.

Make her a far better player for this season… but we had a problem. It competed against Wednesday night church for our Family. Wednesday nights are teen nights for Twin Hills. Over the last few weeks we’ve been taking a fully loaded van of teens and children to Crossroads so that they too can worship and learn with those their age. And so, my daughter was a bit disappointed in hearing that we weren’t skipping church for basketball.

But guess what… her two friends that have been coming with us… who they both play basketball as well with Chloe and they both chose to give up basketball, to come to teens with Chloe. As parents, the truth is we want what’s best for our children. We want to protect, to guide and to teach them how to live just like God the father teach us… but as christian Fathers and Mothers, we also know what’s better, and that’s receiving the blessing of Jesus, so we can give the blessing of Jesus to others.

We’re called to share the blessing God gives… but you can only share Jesus if you have Jesus shared with you first, and he’s crying out Abba Father in your heart as you worship. *