Like Treasures of the Kingdom

Transcription

1 1 Hearts Fully Alive.12 Like Treasures of the Kingdom Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, But the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Isaiah 60:1-2 Early in the series we referred to this verse: Above all else, guard your heart Proverbs 4:23. We usually hear these words with a sense of: Keep an eye on that heart of yours, sort of in the same way you would warn a deputy watching over a dangerous criminal Don t let him out of your sight. Having so long believed our hearts are evil, we assume the warning is to keep us out of trouble. So we lock up our hearts and throw away the key, and then try to get on with our living. But that isn t the spirit of the command at all. It doesn t say to guard your heart because it s criminal; it says: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life. That makes your heart a true treasure one that even life depends on. So, are you doing this? Are you guarding your heart above everything else? I d be surprised if most of us here were even doing it once in awhile. We might as well leave our life savings on the seat of the car with the windows rolled down that s how careless we generally are with our hearts. We live completely backward. All else is generally guarded more than our heart. I d wager that caring for your heart isn t even a category in your life s game of Jeopardy. Let s see I ve got to get the kids to hockey, get the oil changed on the car, pick up the mail at the post office, swing by the grocery store before hockey practice is over, drop the kids off at friends so I can finish Christmas shopping oh yeah, and take a few hours to take care of my heart yeah, right. But what s weird about it is that God intends that we treat our hearts at the treasures of the kingdom, ransomed at tremendous cost on the Cross. He wants us to prioritize our lives to show that they really do matter. Look at this quote: If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. A canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, but a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, and thus without loss to itself it shares its superabundant water. (Bernard of Clairvaux) What do you think? Sounds like Bible to me. Every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. Matthew 13:52 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

2 2 Storeroom? Overflow? I m afraid that many of us live spiritually the same way we do financially get a little and go and spend it always living at the end of the income. I m a financial canal. I look like a reservoir twice a month, but shortly after that it s canal time. Anyone else besides me? And it s not just about money. There was a time in my ministry where I burned out totally losing joy and energy for my work. Why did that happen? There are multiple layers of reasons, but underneath them was that in the midst of all my busy, I didn t take care of my heart. We are so short on grace and mercy. Life drains us dry and we just accept dry living as the normal way to live. Do you realize that God gives out of the abundance of his heart? One of the first things that John tells us about his dear friend Jesus is that: from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16 Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you. God is definitely a reservoir. And God wants to pattern that for us. And we are going to look at three reasons to care for our heart. The first: Care for your heart as an act of love. You might be thinking that caring for your heart is selfish but truthfully it s hard to do the day in and day out of loving others if you don t. What will you bring to others lives when your heart is empty, dried up, or pinned down? Love is the point of what we are called to do. Jesus said it is the definer of how others will know we truly are his followers. And while you won t stop loving some one dear to you, it will be hard to turn that love into action unless your heart is well. And another thing I ve learned. How you handle your own heart is how you will handle others. That s the wisdom behind Jesus saying we should love others as we love ourselves. Mark 12:31 If you dismiss your own heart, you will end up dismissing theirs as well. If you expect perfection in your heart, you will raise the same standard for them. If you manage your heart for efficiency and performance, that s what you ll pressure them to do. Now you may be thinking, wait a minute, PD I ve got lots of grace for others, I m just hard on myself. That doesn t work; I know that from personal experience. Even though we try to be merciful toward others while we neglect or beat ourselves up others can see the disconnect. They see how we treat ourselves and they will believe the same treatment is headed for them. And you know what? Sooner or later they will be right. Care for your heart about all else. Not only for your sake, not even primarily for your own sake if you like. Do it in order to love better and to be there for those who need you. And remember, they do need you because this is our desperate hour. The second reason: Care for your heart as an act of devotion. This is how your relationship with God matures. Imagine a guy who hates the telephone. He neglects to pay the bills and could care less when the phone company disconnects the service. The he wonders: how come nobody ever calls? The old church sign said: If God seems far away, who moved? You cannot cut off your heart and expect to hear from God. It s hard to hear his promptings and leadings if you aren t used to listening for his voice.

3 3 The same holds true for people who desire to find the abundant life Christ promised. The ultimate definition of that life is in heaven. But Jesus has in mind abundant living for us in this life as well. He said: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7: Flow from within means coming from you inmost being your heart that wellspring of life inside you. God wants to give you life. To recognize his gifts, you need your heart. The third reason: Care for your heart as an act of war. The heart that is weak is vulnerable. After you re wiped out from a hard day, how good are you at fending off the accusations of the enemy? You know how draining the holidays can be. Are you overflowing with prayer the day after Christmas? The first wave of any enemy strike against us is to rob us of the heart to fight it. It starts with you feeling too tired or overwhelmed. When that happens, heads up the main assault is coming. It works like this: hyenas cannot bring down a lion in its prime. What they do is run it and taunt it and wear it down to the point of exhaustion. Once they see it cannot defend itself, they close in. Much of the busyness and drivenness of our world today is enemy strategy. Tomorrow, ask a number of people how things are going. A lot of them will give you some form of really busy. The deadly scheme is to keep you running and convince you that you don t have time to slow down. If that s the way you live, you will never take care of your heart but the enemy will take control of it. I don t want to get taken out by the enemy again. Others are counting on me. I must take care of my heart as a first line of defense. So, how do we do this? I think the first thing we all need is silence and solitude. Often. Jesus modeled that, though few of us follow his example. Not even 1 full chapter into the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is creating quite a stir. Mark tells us that the whole town gathered at the door where Jesus was staying. Let s pick up the story there. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demonpossessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: Everyone is looking for you. Jesus replied: Let us go somewhere else. You can relate to that can t you the times where everyone seems to be after you? I have experienced them too. But the disconnect for most of us in this event is what Jesus did. Now, this is a tremendous opportunity. I mean, if Jesus really wants to launch his ministry in a big way, increase sales, expand his audience, and pound that door of possibility this sure looks like the chance to do it. What does he do? He leaves. He walks away. He seeks silence and solitude to pray. This cracks me up. Jesus simply refuses to live within the

4 4 confines of other people s expectations of him. We are just the opposite. Our lives seem to be ruled by the expectations of others and when we live like that, the heart is the first thing to go. We schedule our time the same way we start with our offerings. After everything else is handled if there is any leftover, then we will give God some of that. God tells us to give first fruits offering first, then we will know the blessing of giving and of his abundance. Why would it be any different with our time? Give him the time first. There are 168 hours in every week. Imagine what it would be like to be a time-tither hours a week intentionally dedicated to walking with the Lord and serving in his name. Take the time to get to know him and to care for your heart. He will bless your time all of it, as you do. The second thing we all need we spoke of last week. We need a little platoon. We need a small group of intimate warrior-friends to fight with us and for us. We need to do life together with a few, true allies. In a life group we can learn each other s stories and glories. We will find encouragement for the places where we are less than God would have us be. It is in these small groups that we can apply to one another the truth of God s Word. We can do those one another s in small, intimate teams love one another, encourage one another, build each other up, spur one another one all things God calls us to. It may be inspiring to gather with a larger group of Christians for worship or study the dailies of our life can only be done in small, intimate, life groups. Check out last week s sermon on the church website: (In fact, you can find this whole series on the website.) I will tell you this, so far 39 of your brothers and sisters in Christ have committed to try and do life together in a life group. They signed up last week and they didn t even have all the answers about how this is going to work out. It s the risk that begins the reward! If you want to risk a level of Christian living that you have not truly experienced before, I invite you to join these warriors for the Cross. You can find a purple sheet on the shelf under the bulletin board by the offices. Fill it out and place it on my desk. This week, all who are beginning this adventure will receive an from me about what is next. The enemy will tell you that you don t have time. The enemy will tell you there are more important things for you to do. The enemy will tell you this is not for you. The enemy has a name, given to him by Jesus: he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44 Why do you think the enemy is so intent on you not participating? Why? Because he fears you. He fears your heart coming fully alive. Caring for your heart is an act of love, it is an act of devotion, and it is an act of war. This Christmas season we re in is the also an act of war. The birth of Christ is an invasion read Revelation 12. Look at the CROSS (build its meaning). Picture the Empty Tomb. These are all part of the victory already won for us by Christ and freely given to us by God s grace. As a result, even though Satan knows his time is short, but he battles on for the hearts of men and women and children. And we are to fight. So, now we are going to war. This time in which we live is the beginning of the end. The hour is late, and you are needed. I need you we need you. If there was some other way to say it that could convince you, I wish I could find it. We have spent 12 weeks together looking with new eyes at the Word of God. And still I know we have only begun.

5 5 We have reached the moment where we must rise up and fight for our hearts and the hearts of those dear to us. We are called to take the fight to the world and bring the good news of God s love to people everywhere in this battle. We have God s Word and the promises it contains. Peter writes this to us: you will do well to pay attention as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19 No matter how dark it gets, the day will dawn and the true Morning Star will rise in your heart. Wake up, O Sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. - The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:14