Sermons
That Which Fills The Heart.
So we're going to be talking our series for the year is about the Great Commission.
This morning our focus will be the part Matthew 28-20 where it says teaching
them to observe all I commanded you. We're not going to be taught we've been talking
about some of the commands that Jesus gave of if you want to be in my disciple
you've got to deny yourself and you've got to you know prioritize Jesus
over everything in life and you've got to prioritize Jesus over your life.
So there are some things that are required of the disciples but what I want to talk
about is how do I observe following Jesus like what's the process like what is
that going to look like and become in in my life and in in me.
And Jesus gives us a really good insight into how to follow Jesus like the
internal process of following Jesus and preparing to make ourselves
subject to Him really I think is the right word is subjecting ourself to Him.
So the thesis for Sermon or kind of the point we're going to try and get across
this is like we're condensing our passage here. The claim of loving the Lord
and following the Holy Spirit will be followed with actions and words that are
consistent with their teaching. So you say okay I follow the teaching of Jesus
and the Holy Spirit. Well that will be followed with really thoughts, actions,
and words that are consistent with that teaching. What Jesus says is okay
there are what's in your heart will become, will be made known by what you
do and say. So I want us to imagine this. What would you say if you knew
someone who was very vocal about loving the Lord and the word of God?
And then you go visit their house and it's completely decorated in a satanic
cult motif. They chose alright we're going with crystals and posters of
Satan and demons. We have a collection of antique sacrificial knives.
Everything is dark and disturbing but they tell you it's just a fashion
decision and it doesn't have any reflection on whether or not they love the
Lord. Is that maybe the way to say this? Would some red flags be going off in
your mind? You walk into this house decorated like it's a trying to a satanic
cult and say this has nothing to do with my Christianity at all. I just like
the style. I've always been kind of a dark kind of a style and that's just
what I like. And you say well you know I don't think this is really congruent
with your Christian claims and then they get furiously angry at you and
say what does this have to do anything with that? I love the Lord I follow
God. This is what I do. You know what will happen to that Christian?
What's going to happen? What are the options? And that's kind of a
superficial thing although I think it is a reflection of what's going on inside
of you to some extent because it's a it's a fruit of something. They'll
either repent because they realize satanic cult and Jesus don't work
together. Right so I really do love the Lord and this part of my life is
inconsistent with my love of the Lord so maybe I'll repent and I'll change
that about myself. They might leave the Lord. See the claim I love the Lord is
actually what the decoration is. The heart loves the satanic cults and the
manifestation of that love of the satanic cults. You can't walk with a heart
that loves the wrong and actions that demonstrate you love the wrong and the
claim of loving Jesus. You're going to repent of loving Jesus that ultimately
you're going to fall away. You're going to leave the Lord. Or they will
continue without seeking forgiveness and repentance and we'll have to answer
to the Lord for their deeds. So there's your third option. They just decide
no I'm existing in this incongruency and Jesus talks about this in our
scripture. This is where it says if you blasphemy against the Holy Spirit or
fail to recognize the authority he has over your life and that he demands if
you don't acknowledge that in your life you're never going to seek repentance
or forgiveness and you're going to be judged based on living a life that
did not reflect God and his ethics and his ways, his did not follow God's
commands. You're going to have to give an answer for that. So those are the three
options and so Jesus is saying we need to take into consideration what fills our
heart. So let's begin here, Matthew chapter 12, 22 through 32. What this
does is gives us the contextual background for our teaching but this is a
really important part of this teaching starting in verse 22, Matthew 12,
22. Then a demon possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he
healed him so that the mute man spoke and saw and the crowds were amazed and
were saying this man cannot be the son of David can he but when the Pharisees heard
this they said this man cast out demons by beelsable the ruler of the demons and
knowing that and knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them any kingdom divided
against itself is laid waste and any city or house divided against itself
will not stand. If Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how
then will his kingdom stand. If I by beelsable cast out demons by whom
do your sons cast them out for this reason they will be your judges but if I cast
out demons by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you
or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property unless
he first binds the strong man and then he plunders his house he who is not
with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters therefore I
will say to you any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people but blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven whoever speaks a word against
the son of man is shall be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the Holy
Spirit it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come
so here you have this situation and basically what you have going on is Jesus
cast out a demon and the Pharisees are watching this they see it happen they're
not denying Jesus can cast out demons but they decide I'm going to be like
the magician who shows how the trick is done and so they say their tricks like
sometimes when someone speaks it's a mirror to who they are and what they say is
now he's casting out the devil demons by the authority of Billsable and so
here's just a little we'll take a quick little side trip into it okay what did
Jewish exorcists do how did that work and the theory was you could cast out a
demon by the name of a greater demon so Billsable would be and the more unknown
the name of the greater demon the more powerful it was to exercise to cast out
so you would essentially like in the name of Jesus I cast out the demon that's what Paul
would do well that was you know Jewish exorcist would count would discover and
seek far and wide for names of demons to be able to cast out these demons and so
when they said see he's using Billsable to cast out what he's doing is he's invoking
a demonic authority in order to cast out a lesser demonic authority like that's
what Jesus is doing they're trying to give a peek behind the curtain if you
will here's how exorcism works and Jesus's answer to them is well that's what
you're saying I'm doing well I wonder how you guys are doing it see this is
the magician who says that guy is not levitating he has a stand it's just
covered up and you can't see it and he's like if I have a stand then I wonder
how you're levitating in the exact same way right so Jesus is kind of they're
trying to reveal the trick and be like see it's just a trick he's not from God
and what Jesus says is if it's a trick for me it's a trick for you but he's
like however if I'm going about and dividing Satan's kingdom a house divided
can't stand right that's what he says a house divided can't stand and you might
say well is he just talking about Satan's kingdom or is he talking about
the person whose actions and whose thoughts are incongruent okay you guys are
trying to further the kingdom of God but you're doing this practice how's
that going to affect your life how's that going to work out for you you're
claiming you love God but you decorate in the in the satanic cult look you
have in your house is divided you say I agree with the Bible but you're
willing to do things that are rejection of the Bible and you think you're
okay do you think you're really going to stand without changing see when Jesus
says I can't invite against this can't laid waste notice what he says first this
is Matthew 12 I think verse 26 here let me double check verse 25 knowing
their thoughts so now we get some insight here so I have these three pictures
and these are three pictures of things that worked you have the guy putting the
extension ladder from one building to another building to get up and work on the
chimney now maybe that worked but what is the consistent use of this sort of
approach to getting to high places how is that going to result in the long run
what's going to happen you're going to end up having a fall now there was this
guy and now I can't remember his name arm chair Larry was that right arm chair
Larry something like that lawn chair Larry that's what it was not this Larry so
this I remember this new story from when I was a kid because it was in the
northwest and I I just remember my brother in law thought it was hilarious and this
that's how I remember about like 15 maybe 14 this guy got all these huge balloons
weather balloons I think and connected him to his arm chair because he couldn't
get a pilot license and he had a BB gun and a bunch of like beverages whatever
they were and he decided I want to fly so he not just so many balloons to his
his lawn chair and he got up to 14,000 feet and then he thought well I'm going
to start shooting the balloons out and that's how I'm going to go back down
but he gets into the continental wind or whatever and he ends up getting into
restricted airspace and they like the militaries out after him and stuff so he
ends up getting himself in the trouble now that worked so stop that worked how
would it be a reliable form of transportation though no do not connect
balloons like now that I've given you the idea maybe an Adirond act would be
better but don't do it right Larry don't be let hard chair Larry too or
lawn chair Larry okay here's another one this is this is a picture I just cut
it because there's a bunch of guys without shirts on but this was the darwin
award thing and that's when people who removed themselves from the gene pool
by having such bad ideas so they got a plug strip floating on two flip flops
in a pool where there's probably five guys in it plugged into a radio so they
can listen to sports or whatever that works so but this is what Jesus is saying is
you can play it being religious for a while it might appear fine but a
kingdom divided against the self cannot stand that's the bottom line it might
be tomorrow it might be ten years from now a kingdom divided against the
self cannot stand so if your thoughts are incongruent with your claims then it
might be fine for today it might be fine you might be able to pull it off for
most of your life but you're going to be judged by those things and if you
live in that incongruency you are willing to accept the wrong and claim I love
the Lord you will never in that condition in that state of justification you
will never seek forgiveness because that is a life that rejects the teaching of
the Holy Spirit and if you blaspheme what does that mean well what were they
trying to do with Jesus he's just casting out demons because he's using the
demons their blaspheme they're trying to make his name look bad they're trying to
discredit him if you say yeah I really like the Holy Spirit well why don't you do
what he says because I don't I am exempted from that kind of response so however
you exempt yourself from responding to the teaching of the Holy Spirit what
you're saying is he has no power over my life he doesn't deserve me to follow
him I don't I get an exception from the things he said to do because and add in
your justification whatever it happens to be that'll work for a while but
there's going to come a reckoning for it just like all these bad ideas so house
divided what does that look like so here's my illustration for divided houses this
guy has a sinful mind but how is he presenting himself he's presenting
himself as presenting good now this woman here has the flowers are good the
spiders are bad so that's the metric if you're okay so she's got a righteous
mind but she's putting out unrighteous things now there's two ways you can
go you could this guy if he continues in this path he's going to rebellion
the Lord right that's rebellion that will result in rebellion this situation
if your heart truly is according to the Lord and yet you're still what you
might say stumbling acting in congruent to your core then the requirement is you
need to repent and seek forgiveness because they're both wrong right they both
got the spiders it's just a matter of this is a divided house this is an
illustration of what's it when Jesus do their mind and he said a divided house
what he's really saying is your mind divided your life divided your inconsistency
and so it depends on okay where's the inconsistency is inconsistency with what
you're doing which is somewhat of a reflection of the heart and so we need to
pay attention to that so but that's what we're looking at here is there's a
situation we get ourselves in and this is a I think a belief problem that we
have so you say okay well I'm not divided other people might be I'm not I
love the Lord I do follow the Lord yeah I stumble sometimes or you know how
things well let's let's look and Jeremiah 17 I think this gives us some insight
into this heart situation we find Jesus addressing and one of the things I
would say is like we know our own heart but we don't know other people's hearts
and one of the things that it's like I was thinking about this what Jesus is
saying and this insight but Jesus knew their hearts Jesus had the ability to
witness what's going on in the mind and what's coming out of the mouth and
what's coming out of the actions and he personally could see the inconsistency
I stop and think about that for a moment like well we're trying to read
ourselves and this is just true across the board you could be an expert at
something and not be able to give yourself advice right like you could be an
expert at whatever you're good at and you still might like say have some other
expert look and say oh you should do this oh yeah I knew I should do that why couldn't
I think of that for myself like it's very hard to counsel yourself in a lot of
things like for whatever reason there's just this in a bias toward yourself
that you have a hard time seeing the problem that's easy for someone else to
see and would be easy for you to see in someone else so now you think about that
from Jesus's perspective he's not in the mind and in the moment like with all
the background noise that causes us to get confused about where we really stand
or why we think we stand he's just observing the process he knows the
thoughts and then he sees the deeds and this is from someone who can from the
outside perspective with an unbiased clear thinking way of saying it here's
Jesus' advice on how to interpret the thoughts and the actions and how they
interact like that's what we're going to be talking about here so I think that's
a really important thing to keep in mind is this is the only person who's reliable
to talk about this process no one else can really observe this in the way Jesus
can and here's his advice but I want to back up and say okay well why do we get
into trouble why do we have a hard time with our own selves so in Jeremiah 17
in verse five here's the first statement cursed as a man who trusts the mankind
and it goes to you and makes a case for it but here's the here's the statement
if you trust in man you are cursed man is not a reliable thing to trust in
okay that's one Jeremiah 17 seven blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
if you trust in the Lord and he goes through it you're going to be like a tree
planted by the water you're going to have you're always going to be fertile
you're always going to be bearing fruit you're always going to be doing well
so here's the question if you're cursed if you trust in man and you're blessed
if you're trust in the Lord why on earth would people trust in man and
convince themselves are trusting in the Lord how does that happen how do we find
ourselves in that situation and I think a honest self examination would reveal
we find ourselves in this situation we say we're doing right when we're not
doing right we say we trust in the Lord when we're not trusting the Lord we say
I don't trust in man when we we do trust in man look in verse nine the heart
is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick who can understand it
your heart will deceive you what does that mean how do I feel
my relationship with God is like right how do I feel about my relationship with God
what do my emotions tell me about my relationship with God what is my sense of my
relationship with God you say I feel like I'm good I sense it's okay
I don't feel unsaved I feel like yeah I got problems but I'm seeking forgiveness
I'm not saying repentance I'm saying I'm seeking forgiveness without
maybe without repentance but we convince ourselves we're okay just like every
silly every guy if you go to prison and you ask them everyone thinks they're a
good guy why do they think I'm not that bad of a guy I'm not that bad yeah I got
a little problem yeah I've made some mistakes had some bad judgment calls but I'm a
good guy why does everyone think they're a good guy why does everyone convince
themselves that I'm not wrong with the Lord I love the Lord what about because I
feel like I'm right with Lord your heart is a liar your feelings are lies what
if you're convinced based purely on an emotional state you're believing a lie
you're going to end up trusting in man and being cursed while saying I trust in
the Lord look in verse 10 I the Lord searched the heart I test the mind even to
give each man according to his ways according to the result of his deeds so Jesus
doesn't use a subjective metric metric to pass out judgment he uses an
objective metric something that can be measured something that can be identified
something that can be pointed to and substantiate an actual claim I love the
Lord yeah but your whole house is decorated like a satanic cult objectively
that honors something other than God yeah I love the Lord yeah but your behavior
is decorated like a satanic cult your attitude is decorated like a satanic
cult your actions are decorated like a satanic cult yeah but I feel like I'm
okay are you safe now what Jeremiah warns us about is your emotions in your
feelings and what you feel about where you stand with the Lord is going to be
deceitful that's not a reliable source to know doesn't matter how you feel
what are you doing what is it actually taking place in your life are you
actually considering what is consistent with your heart or are you being inconsistent
in your heart so Matthew 1233 here's where Jesus is in his teaching here now he
gives his he gives three teachings here any teachings really are helpful to say
okay I don't want my house to be divided I don't want to blast in the Holy
Spirit by saying you have no authority in my life you can't tell me what to do
by my actions not by just my words you might say yeah go ahead and tell me
what to do but then don't do anything he says but verse 33 Matthew 1233
either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's
fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit Jesus is giving us some advice this
is advice about ourselves this is advice for leadership and this is advice
for what does it mean to say I love the Lord a good tree produces good fruit
that's what it is right and so isn't it common maybe not super common isn't it
common to have somebody attend church and make all the rights kinds of statements
to present themselves in the right kind of way but then you start saying okay
well what are they actually producing and it's like I don't see it maybe I don't
know about it like that's a lot of times what you tell yourself is I don't see it
but maybe I just don't know about it but it seems like there's something
neglect here yeah but I'm presenting myself in the right way and I'm trying to do
the right things yeah but it seems like there's somebody neglect here and if you
been at church long enough how many times do you see someone that they say is a
pillar in the church fall why does that happen because the tree is known by its fruit
you can't fake it forever your neglect and your divided house will fall
it may not fall immediately but without repentance without true forgiveness
without being willing to give the Holy Spirit and Christ authority actual authority
in your life to change what you actually do to adopt the idea of self denial
for real not just say I feel like I deny myself in what way what is the objective
work you're doing that demonstrates your self denial what is the objective work
you're doing that shows you're taking up your cross like name the activities
if if you don't produce those things your house might be divided you might be
deceived and you might have a problem here's the next thing that Jesus says
Matthew 1234 you brood of vipers how can you being evil speak what is good now
Jesus can say this because he knows their heart and they're coming up trying to
correct Jesus saying he's not doing this by the Holy Spirit he's casting out
the devil using the power of the devil and Jesus comments about their heart
you guys are sons of the devil that's what brood is serving right sons of snakes
well who is the snake in Jewish world was Satan so you guys are sons of the devil
how can you being evil speak what is good how do you trust yourself to be a source
for good for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart so you want to say
okay test one what is the objective
deeds that your commitment to the Holy Spirit produces you'll know the tree by its fruits
step two what do you allow your mouth to say what do you consistently find yourself
doing and saying particularly when you're not being guarded what do you mumble to yourself
what are you willing to say to your family or about your family or to your church or
about your church like what are you willing to say not all the praise things
what's the lowest things that come out of your mouth what's the ugliest things
that come out of your house mouth well that was just a slip up no that came out of your heart
what you allow your mouth to say is a reflection of what is in your heart what you dwell on
what you hold dear what you truly accept and to say like we're going to have various levels
but here's the thing if I'm unwilling to repent and if I decide to say this is okay for me
I'm going to continue in this I don't need to change it God's pleased with it
that's all the lie right the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart so there's a proverb
and what it says where words are multiplied the heart is revealed so maybe you're talking to someone
in a counseling kind of situation and they're lying to you and you kind of have the sense they're lying to you
just keep asking questions because the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart
the truth will come out they'll put out what's in your heart like and when people are when you listen to people
and they're saying things and you're like okay yeah it may not be something to condemn them over
but it is a clue to how you're doing spiritually and Jesus says if you have spiders you're going to put out spiders
here's the other side of it if you are spiritual and righteous and really love the Lord
that's also going to be relevant that's going to become known
1235 Jesus says the good man brings out of his good treasure what is good the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil
here's the key to this treasure what is treasure something you hold dear something you keep for yourself
something you have put high value to and so you say okay well what is that well look at your patterns over time
right our patterns over time reveal our treasure if your pattern over time is is simple or you can say
okay well yeah that's going to help you to identify in yourself I have something I need to work on
right I have something that needs to be addressed I see this problem and I don't know how to fix it yet
but your pattern over time reveals your treasure because it's the thing you're unwilling to let go of
it's the thing you're unwilling to give up on it's what you hold dear it's what you seek your security from
it's where you place your future hopes in that's what your treasure is and if it's the Lord over time
the good man is going to bring out of his good treasure that which is good but the evil man brings out of his evil treasure that which is evil
your heart is revealed in these things these are objective these are measurable these are you can notice them
you can notice them in yourself maybe you can notice them in other people but what this says is if you notice them
and you're unwilling to change for the better I would say that's equivalent to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
because you're rejecting his teaching in order to preserve your treasure in order to keep what's in your heart there
in order to keep your actions from changing produce those things Jesus says that's a house divided that can't stand
so let's just say you decide not to repent I'm going to continue on in this but I'm going to make the front and I'm going to present myself in a certain way without repenting and without seeking forgiveness
Matthew 12 36 to 37 I tell you that every careless word that people speak this is lazy words that don't come that come out without consideration
see when you're considering your words like for instance people probably swear less at church then they do when they hit their hammer
when they're working at their job or something right why is that a church you're careful now I have been in a church where I was talking to a guy and he was cussing at me
and I I always joke about him like you know you know stop cussing I don't want to be near you when the lightning hits like I'll say a joke like that or something you know and people you know but see it's not the guarded words that you're judged by
it's not the ones you say to present yourself in a certain light to other people it's not the ones that come intentionally and purposefully assuming they're good
it's the ones you speak before you think it's the carelessness because the carelessness reveals the content of the heart doesn't it
the ones that slip out the ones that are programmed into your internal thinking mechanism right the words your mind uses when even your mouth doesn't
that'll come out Jesus says I tell you every careless word that people speak they shall give an accounting for in the day of judgment
for by your words you'll be justified in by your words you will be condemned so just I want to stop and think about what Jesus is saying here is he's giving us a warning
and what this says is be careful to observe all the things I've commanded you one of the pitfalls in being a servant of the Lord
is being convinced I'm okay when I'm not okay and one of the ways we can identify that in ourselves and in others is objectively
measurably visibly not why you said it but what are you saying what are you doing and what are those right or wrong
right like objectively that's what it is because that's what Jesus says you're going to be judged by God sees the heart he looks at your deeds
and he's you're going to give an account for them God's going to take an account of the careless words the ones that are not intended to communicate something that may be
incongruent with my heart it's the ones that just flow right out of what's inside of you and so we need to be realize that is yeah we might have problems
we're got a struggle all of us will have struggles in this I had our hearts are going to be perfectly tuned and perfectly right and there is a warning that we might be deceived
but without repentance and without truly seeking to change into acknowledge and to do something different we don't have a hope
we need to take a step we need to yield to the Lord we need to honor the spirit of God and we honor him by letting him change us
by acknowledging his right to have authority in our life and our inability to choose what's right for ourself
like we can try to do right but any solution we come up with is going to fall far short of what the Holy Spirit is going to give to us
and so we need to look at the word of God we need to elevate it in our lives and respond to it with repentance and seeking of forgiveness and change
substantive change that's that would be that's my message this morning if you hear this morning and the invitation is take a step back and consider your ways
I think that's a consistent Bible message consider your ways look at what your life is producing and ask yourself am I producing something that's pleasing to God
the question the answer is not beat yourself up over and be worried about hell the answer is repent right if you need more information
if you need to know the word the will of the Lord more go get the will of the Lord if you have to reorganize your life in order to accommodate your need for repentance
reorganize your life and accommodate your need for repentance but there it's going to begin by identifying what is my life producing is it godly or is it not godly
and maybe the one one easy test is would I want my brethren to know about it right that would maybe be an easy test to do that so that's our call this morning
if you're here and you need the spiritual if you need any have any spiritual needs you'd like prayers the congregation or be baptized or anything else
please come forward while we're stashing this song and let your needs be made up
