Heart Matters

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This morning's passage is on Matthew 15 ver 1 to 20 if you have your Bibles with you I would love to encourage you to open read along with me then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders they don't wash their hands before they eat Jesus replied and why do you then command of God for the sake of your tradition for God said honor your father and your mother and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death but you say if anyone declares that what not have been used to help their father or mother is devoted to God they are not to honor their father or mother with it thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition you Hypocrites Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you these people H me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain their teachings are mely human rules Jesus called to the crowd to join him and said listen and understand what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them but what comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them then the disciples came to him and they asked do you know that the Pharisees were affected when they heard this he replied every plant that heavly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots leave them they are blind guides if the blind leave the blind both will fall into a pit Peter said explain the parable to us are you still so dull Jesus asks them don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body but the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart and these defile them for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery slander oh sorry murder adultery sexual immorality theft CL testimony slander these are what defile a person but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them this morning church as you see as you sit here this morning what is your heart yearn for what does it desire how is the condition of your heart here this morning see I need to go to university and get a degree in biology to be able to tell you that our hearts are physically important we've got the children here with us this morning kids is your heart important they're shy yeah our hearts are important we learned this from a young age right our hearts are important why because they're the power supply for our body our hearts are physically important and when our hearts are healthy when our hearts are functioning well our body functions well also we able to do the things that we wanted to because our hearts are help and yet if our physical Hearts SK a be if they start to deteriorate if they stop even for a couple minutes our physical body begins to systematically sh hearts are physically important we all know that statement to be true and yet an equally true but not quite as obvious statement is that just like our hearts are physically important our hearts spiritually important our hearts are physically important our hearts are spiritually important well and if that spiritual hearts are healthy if they're functioning as they should then we the good results of that if have spiritual hearts are deteriorating if they skip of if they stop and we see the negative consequences of that as well and yet the Bible tells us very clearly that from the moment you and I were born as a result of the original scene of Adam and Eve we were born into this Earth with a heart condition we were born into this Earth with a SE spiritual heart Jesus touches on this reality in verse 19 he says for out of the heart coming murder adultery sexual immorality death false testimony and sler but it's important that we realize that the fact that we're born into Earth with a spiritually sick heart isn't a surprise God he knows about it he's known about it the whole time we see in mult occasions throughout the Old Testament he recognizes this fact he to his nation of Israel to his people that he took aside and said you will be my people you will set my example he said through the prophet Ezekiel he said I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will remove the Heart of Stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of Flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you walk in my statute and be careful to obey my rules if you're a Christian sitting here this morning you know the Contemporary realization of that you know that when you reached a point in your life where you were able to acknowledge the sinfulness that you had fallen into when you were able to realize that you had a spiritual heart problem when you cried out to God and you declared that Jesus Christ was your lord and savior you receed the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit he enters into our hearts and he performs spiritual seek he's at work within our hearts because our hearts are spiritually sick he's at work to bring Health back into that heart and it's by the work of the holy spirit that we're able to more and more obey the commands of God more and more live how God intended us to live more and more have help in our spiritual heart and so we have to ask ourselves this morning as we sit in what is the condition of our heart before we into the scripture would you pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word Lord God as we come from we pray and ask that you would open our hearts by your Holy Spirit Lord God that we wouldn't just hear words this morning but Lord God that we would hear what it is that you are saying to each and every one of us weay and ask you things in the name of Jesus Christ amen and the passage that we just heard read it begins with these Pharisees and teachers of the law they're coming to Jesus and if you read through the gospel you know that Jesus has a number of interactions with phares and teachers of the law but these particular Pharisees these particular teachers of the law they weren't just your average guys they were from Jerusalem they were from the center of Israelite religion right they were the big hits they knew God's law they knew the tradition of the elders right they thought that they were pretty good at keeping it and even better than keeping it they was good at pointing out when others did these guys knew their stuff and they come up to Jesus they're observing him and they say why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders they don't wash their hands before they eat and I love Jesus as respon cuz he doesn't care away he doesn't oh if I done wrong he doesn't apologize but he doesn't argue either ver tells us he just ask a question back he says and why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition and what continues from here we can describe as a showdown between the tradition the law the commands of men and the commands of God and I want to pause here very intentionally I want to make this so clear this morning that no In this passage does Jesus say the tradition is bad Nowhere In this passage does he say forsake all tradition because it is sinful that is Nowhere In this passage in fact we see through the gospels that Jesus participating in Tradition why because tradition can be helpful for our journey with God tradition can be beneficial for our heart growth in relationship with God so if Jesus doesn't say forsake tradition is he saying by asking this question back quite simply I believe he says check your priorities see the tradition of the elders is based upon the law of God and for the sake of this morning I want to suggest that the law of God it affects our hearts right God's law was given to us to affect our hearts he instructed us on how to live in the way in which he designed us to live how to be in relationship with he who created us it affects our hearts but standing here this morning I can't see your heart and you can't see my heart right it's hidden behind this physical appearance and so I want to suggest this morning that the tradition of the elders can be represented by the physical appearance I've done a fair bit of um work with Youth Boys in particular in the last little while and it's amazing to note that when you get a group of boys in a room together if they're trying to decide who's the strongest who's the alpha who's the best they look at the physical appearance more specifically they look at a person's arms they look at the biceps and if you've got the biggest biceps you are ja the strongest person in that room and what we're going to see is that the tradition of the old as it begins to live weight begins to grow the physical begins to develop so well the law of God to His People Israel required them to wash their hands at certain times in certain situations so that they could be clean before God there was a heart command from God to his people certain times certain situations make sure you wash your hands before you and I do believe that at some point in religious history these traditions of their Elders there they were just people who wanted to make sure that they did exactly what God wanted them to do they saw God's heart commandment and they went I just really want to make sure that I am Godly I really want to make sure that I'm spiritually good I want to make sure that I'm close to God and I don't want to get this wrong and so they take God's heart command to wash at certain times in certain circumstances which he has prescribed and they go well we can't get this wrong if we wash our hands before we eat every time and so they begin to make that tradition they begin to take this etern internal heart command and very physically demonstrated they show that hey we wash our hands every time we but Jesus calls them out on this because at some stage their focus shifted from the heart command to what they could see they became more invested in the muscle in the demonstration of it but they lost the heart Jesus says why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition God said honor your father and mother and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death that is a heart command that is God telling us to honor our parents he takes it so seriously he says if you curse him be put to death that is the high commandment of God and yet somewhere in religious history these groups they realize that in order to honor our father and mother when they become old they stop providing for themselves they might ask my resources what a burden how dare they while I'm building up my family while I'm building up my life how dare they want some of what I've got to help support them what a honor you mother and father yeah God we we want to be able to play with we want to be close to you we want to live how you want us to leave but that's a bur I don't want to use what I've got to help them they can hand themselves but we still want to look spiritual we still want to look like we're close to God and so they made a work around in essence for the sake of the metaphor they injected some kind of spiritual steroids right because they they knew the heart command and they were like oh we don't really want to do that and so they made a word Jesus tells us that they they decided that if we o to God that that we're going to devote all of our resources to him then evitably when our parents come to us and they say hey can you help us out can can you look after us we can say well sorry Mom and Dad we've actually devoted all of our resources to God and so they're not available for you and yet because God already owns everything he didn't come down and just scoop up what they had devoted to them conveniently was still at their disposal do you see what's happening in here Church they knew God's command and yet steroids they have this amazing ability to negatively affect the heart and by consequence of the negative effects on the heart they can grow the muscles see they didn't want to be seen that they weren't following God they knew God's command that was a birth and so they focused on the muscle they went how Godly how spiritual are we that we devote everything to God and yet conveniently it's there for our use and our parents can't touch it their focus shifted from heart to mon Jesus calls out on this in verse six he says thus you nullify the word of God for the s of your tradition and so we have to ask ourselves Church what is the condition of our this morning when we decided to come to church this morning did we desire obedience to God did we come here to lift his name because it is worthy to be lifted up did we come to spend time in community with Brothers and Sisters in Christ we come to hear from his word to pray and communicate with God our Father or did we come because it's Sunday and traditionally if I've got nothing better to do and it's a Sunday I go to church because that's how people know that I'm a Christian what's the condition of see just like the tradition of Elders we too can start with something good we can start with a God command and through the sickness of our heart through our information we can take God's good command and we can make it meaningless and legalistic we can shift our Focus From The Heart to the musle we can look as though we are good Christians we can look as though we spiritually close to God and yet have our hearts be deteriorated we have a lot of amazing Ministries within this church right we we've got kids and youth Ministries we've got Sunday Services we we've got Ministries that run all throughout the week and yet even taking the example of this morning God doesn't call us to sing songs right the whole world sings songs in their car on the way for work the whole world sings songs and they're not Christian they're they're not about God so God doesn't call us to sing songs God doesn't call us to give speeches politicians Primary School students high school students they can give speeches God doesn't call us to serve coffee or to have morning tea together God doesn't call us to entertain children or to run programs that's all the physical God calls to the heart he calls us to praise him he calls us to Proclaim his name and so that is why because we want to praise him we come together as gathered Believers and we LIF his name in song because we are praising God Almighty who is worthy of our s God calls us to declare his word and to teach one another to I could give you a speech this morning but that's meaningless God instructions to us to declare his word and to teach one another to obey it God calls us to care for our children to teach them to disciple one another to build one another up in our faith that is the reason that we do a lot of the things that we do that is the reason that Ministries function right because of that inner call from God that heart desire to share the gospel to share the hope of Jesus Christ to declare his good news to disciple one another to build one another up in faith and we have to ask ourselves what is the condition of our heart are we focus on our purpose or are we too busy looking at the muses Jesus continues speaking and the Pharisees he appys a quote from Isaiah the prophet Isaiah he says these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain their teachings are but rules Tau by men and that's a warning to us this morning church God doesn't call us to gather together and to worship him with our lips the worship of our lips is meaningless if it's not backed by the desire of our heart we can teach how to build muscles right you don't have to be a Christian to learn how to run a successful program how to put together a service that people will come along to that's muscle stuff and the disciples after this interaction happens I love it the disciples they they seemingly run to Jesus horrified they come to Jesus and they say do you know that you offended the Pharisees and the teachers of the law from Jerusalem when you said those things did you know that you offended them and yet as we look back through the passage Jesus didn't really say anything offensive did he he didn't argue with them he didn't put them down so why these people offended they were offended because Jesus saw past their muscles he looked at their physical appearance he saw that physically they looked as though they were spiritually close with God he he said you've got good muscles that he saw through them and he looked to that heart and he saw that in their show of good muscle their heart was deterior their heart was not healthy because their focus was there instead of here and he says be careful who you follow he says make sure heart and not tradition is your driving purpose check your priorities he says the teachers the LA the phes say they blind gods and if a blind man leads a blind man they will both fall into a pit see they could teach others how to look as though they had good spiritual muscles and yet by doing so they weren't teaching the genuiness of the heart command behind it and So eventually they was both fall into the P have you ever noticed that our hearts affect every single muscle we have and yet our muscles have no effect on our heart I could have the world's strongest person here to my left muscles upon muscles upon muscles upon muscles and yet if their hearts cease to do what it was supposed to do for only a couple of minutes their muscles would be meaningless their muscles would deteriorate their physical body will fall apart because the heart is not Heth and yet by the same example if I was to have someone to my right with absolutely no muscle at all they were skin and bone but their hearts were healthy then they going to function they're going to be able to walk and reach and grab and do the things which their body needs to do if their heart is healthy by natural consequence of their heart beating and then moving because their heart enables it their muscles are going to grow not necessarily to the same magnificent structure of someone who is so focused on their muscles that they deteriorate their heart but by natural consequence of our heartbeating we build muscles if the person with muscles upon muscles upon muscles will start having heart problems they're not going to be lying down on the bed going yeah but I'm so strong my muscles will pull me through this no if the heart goes so the muses and yet if the heart is strong the muscles will grow Jesus summarizes this verse 18 to 20 he says but from the heart that the things that come out of the body sorry if you look the right Verse 18 but the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make man unclean so out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality death false testimony slander we didn't have to be taught how to be bad we were born to this city and he says these things what make a Manan but eting does don't make Jesus says if we want to assess the condition of our hearts carefully listen take note to The Words which come out of them out to The Words which come to mind in situations which come from our heart for example when we leave from this place when we go into our work places into our home into whatever you go to from here what words come to mind what words come out of our mouth when we do we say I attended church on Sunday and did you know that because I attended church on Sunday that Mar six months of me not missing a service I have been every single Sunday for six months you've got good muscles but what's your heart doing CU if you say those things and your heart goes yeah I am spiritual I'm close to because I physically attended these church services yeah I'm so good you've got a heart problem because you're only there to be appearance but if you say that same statement and you say why wouldn't I be there every week because this is the one opportunity that we have to corporately gather as The Wider body the local body of Brothers and Sisters in Christ we get to lift up God we get to praise him we get to declare his goodness I get to sit under his word God speaks to me I get to praise him and communicate with him and build relationship with Brothers and Sisters in Christ I get to walk alongside them and build them up in their faith as well then your muscles are good but your heart is better because God calls us to meet together to worship him to build one another up not to say that we went church on Sunday and so spirit in the same way as we go about our weeks do we say oh yeah no I'm just really busy this week I'm involved in this ministry and this and I'm doing this this and this and oh this ministry is going so well we've got this many people and we're doing this and if there's so much ex about you really got to come along sounds like you got good muscles but what's the heart behind it are you only serving in that Ministry because it seems to be going well and you look spiritual people think that you're close to God because you're serving in this ministry which is doing all these things you've got good muscles but your heart is deteriorating or do we say these things and go man to be honest God really challenged me I didn't think I was gifted in this way at all and yet God it on my heart to serve in this ministry and it has been such a blessing to me God has grown me so much and he's been a blessing not only to me but to others or do we say God has gifted me in an area and called me to serve in this way with it I thinkk God for the fact that he's given me this gift and that I can bless others through it because really I'm blessed by serving and being obedient to God do we see the difference church one perspective looks at the mus one looks at the heart and if the muscles are big but the heart is deteriorating the muscles are meaningless but if the muscles however big or small they are are backed by a genuine solid healthy heart then they can make a difference one final example when we meet up with our Bible study group or when we're talking to people try and communicate with or if you go the wrong perspective impressed do we say I've been so good this week I've read my Bible every single morning I spend time in prayer I woke up and I gave the first five minutes of every single morning to God you got good muscles what the H are you just doing that because it makes you look good see I could wake up every morning and rean and pag out of theist book that doesn't mean that by the end of the week I'll have any understanding of chemistry it doesn't and so if we're just doing it to have the appearance I we come up here and say I've read five minutes of the chemistry book every single morning this week and you could ask me a question about chemistry I have no idea I really don't see the muscles look good but the heart is deteriorated the AL is we say I was only able to give God 5 minutes or even exitement I gave God the first 5 minutes of my morning each day this week why what was the heart behind because God is the creator of everything and even in my sinful Rebellion against him he made a way through Jesus Christ so that I could be in relationship with him how could I do anything but spend the first five minutes of every morning taking grasp of the opportunity of the privilege that it is that I can from this God's word that I can hear from the creator of the universe through his word that I can pray and lay my request before him and that I can listen take his response muscles can be big doesn't they healthy we need to check our priority always focus on the heart on the physical muscles see just like Jesus with the Pharisees with the teachers of the law he looked straight past their physical appearance he looked to their heart and so while they came to him accusing him of not keeping up with the physical appearance of spirituality he said why do you break theand of God for the sake of your tradition God wants our heart's church because even though we were born spiritually sick even though very rightly Jesus says out of the hearts flow these things these sexual immorality these slander these thoughts of murder these evil thoughts these false testimonies when we invite the holy spirit in and he begins his heart transform transforming work when the Holy B CPR then our hearts aren necessarily fixed right the Bible tells us that it's not until Jesus comes again that our hearts will fully be restored and so we're going to struggle with a half healthy half unhealthy heart and that's all the more reason to keep focused on it because out of the heart when the holy spirit's working can come genuine relationship with God can come good works which are done in obedience to his command the heart command and eventually if the heart is healthy pres serving out of the place that Health then the muscles will grow they might not necessarily be as impressive they could be God doesn't care about the physical appearance Hees to that high and so we have to ask ourselves this morning Church's our heart what condition is it in as we sit here this morning what is our heart Desiring as we come to church as we serve in ministry as we meet up with friends and family do we do it because of God's command to declare his goodness claim his name to build one another up to teach one another not only what God's GL is but how to or do we do it because it makes us look as though by way of finishing we're going to spend some time in prayer and I want to invite you we're probably going to spend the 30 minute in silence take this opportunity to talk God take this opportunity to ask God for his help in assessing the condition of your heart have the condition of your heart this morning change in a moment I'll pray that not not before we do this and if you're sitting there if you got questions if you want prayer come say may one of the past love to continue this conversation we love to pray has [Music] condition some Heavenly Father we thank you that you have given us your commands Lord God which break beyond the physical and look to the heart we thank you that you have given us instructions in how to live in accordance with the way in which you designed us and father God this morning we ask that by your Holy Spirit you would reveal to each and every one of us the condition of our heart Lord God not that we might discouraged but Lord that we might genuinely be able to cry out to you for help knowing that you will hear us that you will respond father God that by your Holy Spirit you will be doing a work within our heart that you will be restoring help to our hearts father God we pray that the things we do the words that come M the actions which we are involved in Lord God that they wouldn't be a facade that they wouldn't be done with the purpose with the desire to look spiritual Lord God that we wouldn't do that to present as though we are close to you father God but that we would do it in obedience to your heart commands Lord God that we would do it leaning into your strength knowing that we can't do it on our father God we pray that as we check our priorities you would lead our Focus to the matters of the heart and not the muscles Lord God we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.