A Matter of the Heart

Speaker 1: 0:00

Now I don't know who in here thinks about on a Friday night, the number one thing I'm going to do is go to the emergency room. You know, I don't think that's anyone's Friday night plan, right? Like, how can I stay in an emergency room lobby? I don't think anyone wants to do that. Today we are kicking off a brand new series on relationships. Okay, during the next four or five, during the next five weeks, we're going to go over topics like conflict resolution that's an important one. We're going to go over finances and how to dream big. We're going to talk about intimacy and recall in this series ER Recall.

Speaker 1: 0:37

In this series you might be confused with the George Clooney show. Anyone remember that? I remember being a kid and my mom always watched that. I was like, wow, okay, never mind. But when it comes to relationships, a lot of us we're kind of in the ER. We're kind of in the ER. We've been hurt, we've been wounded Relationally. We need a doctor, we need some assistance.

Speaker 1: 1:01

The past few years there's been a great divide in our nation. Right, there's been a lot of different things going on. And again, what's happening this year? This year is an election year and everyone remembers how kind everyone was last time right. I mean, it was just like peace on earth. It was just like, wow, this is how heaven's going to look like, how kind people are and everyone respects each other's opinions. No, that didn't happen right. There's still a lot of relationships that were broken up because of that, but this is the reality. A lot of us are in the ER when it comes to relationships. A lot of us need emergency assistance when it comes to how do we deal with our ex-spouse, our boss, our kids, our relationship.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Some of you in here are navigating the teenage years with your kids and you're like what happened to my baby? They used to be so sweet, Now they backtalk me. Some of you are learning how to care for age and parents. I could tell you this we live in an age where we have social media and you can know what people are doing. You can know what someone had for dinner last night and know nothing about them and not experience any closeness to people.

Speaker 1: 2:17

I shared a story a few years ago when we started the adoption process of our youngest son. At that time, I took a year-long break from social media and what I discovered in that break was that some of the people I consider really good friends. I guess we weren't really good friends. They didn't even know we were adopting a kid, because so much of the social media. You think you know people but you're not really calling anybody. You're not really talking to anyone. So I can tell you this when I hear from people, typically this is what people tell me that they feel. People often tell me that they feel lonely. They say to me, jacob, I feel lonely. And then they also say, jacob, I don't have any close friends. This is a common thing that I hear when I talk to people.

Speaker 1: 3:03

That's one of the reasons why at our church, we're starting small groups this upcoming week. And here you go. We don't want to be a church that does small groups. We want to be a church of small groups Because we know that life change happens in the context of healthy relationships, that when you're around good people who are running the race with you, that's where people can encourage you and come alongside of you, and I encourage you to be in a small group that's going around. So not only do we call this series ER, because the play on words with the emergency room, but ER also stands for extraordinary relationships, and I believe that's what God wants for us to have extraordinary relationships, people who we're doing life with, people who we can call up in times of need, people that we can depend on when things are going tough. To have extraordinary relationships.

Speaker 1: 3:50

And I actually believe, like I said, that life change happens in healthy relationships. And the problem is, I think, we have settled for what the culture has told us. I think we have settled for surface relationships on our phones, but we aren't calling people or having actual conversations. We have settled for the belief that if someone votes different than me or has a different viewpoint then me, that we can't break bread together and be friends together. We bought into this us versus them mindset. Can I actually get a water? Oh, yeah, there you go, I see him. Okay, awesome, okay. We have bought into this mindset of how to have an ordinary view of life. Instead, I truly believe the life that Jesus has for you is a life provided with extraordinary relationships, with extraordinary relationships. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 4:46

Here's our theme verse for the day Romans 12, two says this Says don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, that's what it says fix your attention on God and you'll be changed. Check this out. This is key. This part right here is key. You'll be changed from the inside out. You'll be changed from the inside out. Here we go. We got a 49ers fan here. We're gonna be praying for the Niners Not really, but we love them. Thank you, isaiah. Thank you so much. We changed from the inside out.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Now this is what I want you guys to see, most of us, most of us, if we're being honest today. Yeah, that sounds good. I'd be changed from the inside out, but we kind of want things to happen outside first and then we'll change, like, if that person is finally nice to me, then I'll be kind to them. If that person says sorry to me, then I will forgive them. Typically, this is how we think. We think, man if something happens externally, then I will change externally, internally. We want things to happen externally first and then internally.

Speaker 1: 5:59

But the truth is, god is often more concerned with the conditions of our hearts than the conditions around us. That doesn't mean he doesn't care about the conditions around us, but what we understand from the overflow of the heart. That's where good or bad comes. That's where good or bad comes. Here he goes. The verse continues says readily recognize dang man, that communion choked me up. I'm not gonna lie, that bread was a little extra toasty. That's some high quality H2O right there. Actually it's not. It's Food Lion. So they probably got it from the gutter. I'm joking. Food Lion is not that bad. Okay, all right, here you go Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its lovable maturity, god brings the best out of you, and this is in every area of your life. Did you know that God wants to bring the best out of you in every single area of your life, not just church attendance, not just coming to church on Sunday, but in every area of your life. This is your temperament, your attitude, your marriage, the way you handle conflict, your finances, everywhere. God wants to bring the best out of you. He wants to develop well-formed maturity in you.

Speaker 1: 7:22

What I want us to do today, I want to use this theme of the ER, which is a medical thought, to expose a spiritual condition, to expose a spiritual condition. So, just like in the natural, everything is centered around your heart, the condition of your heart. We're determining the condition of your life. You cannot live without your heart. You can live out without other organs which is kind of weird but you can live without other organs, but you can't live without your heart. So there's a cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in all of the world. So that's a problem and we also have a spiritual cardiovascular disease going on.

Speaker 1: 8:02

In other words, a lot of the things we don't like. They come out of the conditions of our hearts, a lot of the habits that we have, a lot of the things that we do and we say to ourselves why did I do that? When we accidentally get too angry at our kids, or when we don't treat our spouses the way we want, or we don't have friendships, or we don't hold on to the things that we promise. Only it comes from our hearts. Now this is very important to recognize the conditions of our hearts. Because the truth is, I don't think at the end of a long day, most of us go home, sit on our couch and say heart, how are you doing today? I don't think that's typically how we feel. I don't think that's everything. At the end of the day, we don't after we've had a day full of stressful meetings or stressful conversations or whatever. We don't kind of check on our heart. That's why. That's why, if you've been coming to LVC for any amount of time, I always recommend doing a thankfulness journal. Because one of the benefits of a thankfulness journal at the end of your day you can recognize where God moved in your life, even when you felt like man, god, where were you all day. So that's just a little tip right there, but it's so important. It's so important.

Speaker 1: 9:16

You've heard me say this before too. There is every lentless assault against your heart. You just notice, almost every single time you do something that you don't want to do. Typically, typically it's a response to a wounded heart. When you act a certain way, when you feel a certain way, when depression comes in, when anxiety heightens, typically it's a response where you felt like your heart got wounded. Someone said something, someone did something. There was an event that happened.

Speaker 1: 9:46

I got some scriptures we're going to read today. I got a lot and I'm excited for it. Tishiba, thank you, dang man. I got the best team in the world. You knew you were ready. That communion really did get me. Okay. I got some scriptures we're going to read today.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Proverbs 4.23 says this above all else. That's a big statement. Above all else, what does it say? Bible, make sure you pray three hours a day, make sure you listen to worship. It says, above all else, guard your heart, guard my heart, for it is the wellspring of life. So oftentimes we don't realize that. But we have to protect our hearts. We have to protect our hearts.

Speaker 1: 10:38

And it's interesting when you look at the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. He was often trying to get people to break away from a faith that was all about external things and get people to see that real change happens in the inside. First, see one way to tell the difference between the Hebrew scripture, our Old Testament, and the New Testament. Hebrew scriptures were typically about external things. There was the law and there was obedience to the law and there was an external. If you can do things on the outside, that counts. When Jesus comes along and he says yeah, doing things on the outside doesn't mean that much if your inside is still messed up.

Speaker 1: 11:17

And haven't we all encountered the Christian who does all the right things on the outside? They got perfect church attendance, they got their nice big Bible. But they mean as can be. You know what I'm talking about. You're like, miss, something. We've all encountered those believers that made you. You do all the right stuff, but you are as judgmental as I can see, because you can do all the perfect things on the outside, but if God hasn't transformed your heart, you're missing out.

Speaker 1: 11:47

And Jesus comes along and he says it's about the heart, it's a matter of the heart, and we got to look into that. See, for example, jesus says something kind of crazy. He says something. Jesus is always saying something crazy. If you read the Bible and you just think, oh well, that was just a good lesson, I don't know if you're really reading the right Bible.

Speaker 1: 12:06

I read when Jesus said something Jesus man, that was kind of whoo, that was just. For example, he says this. He says this man, I am still choking up. I'm going to press through this one today. Okay, and Jesus said you heard it said do not commit adultery. That's important. Okay, so that's an external thing that you want to follow. But Jesus says it.

Speaker 1: 12:29

But I say, uh-oh, if Jesus comes through with the? But I say you got to listen. He says but I say if you have lust in your heart, you're already in the process of adultery. That's kind of intense right. So what does that mean for us? It means that adultery I'm just picking on adultery, but you can apply this to lying or cheating or doing things like that it means that adultery isn't happening because you just couldn't control yourself and one day you just did something that you wish you didn't do before the action took place. There was a lust building up in your heart and, guys, this is actually very encouraging. And the reason why this is encouraging? Because sometimes you I don't know if you ever done something and you said why did I do that? I can't believe I did that. When we actually pull back, when we actually think back before we did the thing that we wish we didn't do, there was something happening in our hearts. There is something, there was a condition going on in our hearts. It was a response to something happening.

Speaker 1: 13:27

And what Jesus is saying the way you can follow me, the way you can find freedom in your life, the way you can experience victory, it's not by just trying to get all your ducks in a row and look good on the outside, but it's by emptying, coming with your heart and allowing me to move. And don't we live in a world that just loves the outside? Are we living in a world that got the perfect filter to make you look great when you know you didn't look that good that morning when you took that picture? We live in a world that's obsessed with outside appearances so obsessed with outside appearances that we will get in debt to show our neighbors that we can keep up with them. And all the while we're taking care of the outside, inside or inside, we're dying. On the inside, we feel like someone who is thirsting and in great need for something to drink and nothing to quench our thirst. And Jesus, the master teacher, jesus, says yeah, man, you can look good on the outside, but what's going on in the inside? You may be wondering why are we kicking off a series on relationships about our hearts? Because the relationships that you want will never become the relationships that you want if you do not deal with the matters of your heart. Hey, jacob man, this is intense today. Yes, intense today, because there's too many people who are hurting people, because you're trying to do things on the outside when God's trying to get to your inside. And I'm going to tell you this the way we love people, especially people that drive us crazy, is a great reflection on what we believe about God.

Speaker 1: 15:10

Let me get into some more scripture today. We got a lot of scripture today. It's on me. Good, okay, check this out. Here you go. Here you go. Here's the scripture.

Speaker 1: 15:18

The priest in the Old Testament time, the priest, had to wear certain garments before they can go to the Holies of Holies, where they can go to the Holy Place, and one certain garment they had to wear was called a breast piece of decision. Check this out. Exodus 28 says this whenever Aaron who's the priest, who was the priest enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names. I want you to get that. He will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breast piece of decision as a continuum immoral before the Lord. Thus, aaron will always bear the names of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord. What does that mean? Let's talk about priests for a second. When a priest comes before God and steps into the Holy Place, they are carrying something powerful. They are carrying names etched on right over their hearts. Let's unpack that. I want to unpack that, okay.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Every time we approach God, it's like we're bringing our life story with us. Every page of that story is etched right there on our hearts. Think about it this way we're all walking around with our own unique life experiences, which is why we can all see the same situation and view it differently, because we view things through the filters of our experiences. And the way I like to say that is, we view things through our pains, our past problems and the people we met along the way. That's typically our filters. That's how we're seeing things. Every one of us has our own set of these experiences and, in biblical terms, they're the names written over our hearts. They're the names written over our hearts. Here's the kicker. Here's the kicker. The names on our hearts are the decision-making breastplate. They shape the choices we make.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Did you know that the decisions that you make today are often based on the experiences you had yesterday? And so many of us are making decisions for tomorrow based on yesterday's traumas, and we wonder why we keep ending in the same spot that we said we would never get to. So the critical question is this is we've got to ask ourselves what is your life filter made of and what are you processing life through? And if you're processing your life through an unhealed, unforgiven, unredeemed heart, you're probably wondering why you're constantly agitated or bothered. Here's the secret to your spiritual journey If you're looking to see improvements in your relationships, your marriage, your family, you overcome those persistent addictions to make wiser choices, it all begins with us diving deep into what matters the most inside of our hearts. That's where transformation starts. Let me put it this way For the longest time in my life, for the longest time in my life I just really really believed I was dumb.

Speaker 1: 18:05

I just really really believed that. For the longest time in my life. As a kid I wasn't very good at school and I remember I actually remember the moment that I believed that I was. When I shaped this belief about myself. I was in the first grade. For the second time, I couldn't read. I had a hard time learning how to read. I remember being seven years old and my teacher wanted me to read out loud in front of the whole class and I remember standing there and I couldn't read. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't read it. I just couldn't read. And I remember what felt like forever. I remember just standing there, what felt like forever, and I started to cry and I felt this shame wash over me At a seven-year-old. I didn't know there was shame until years later in my life, but that's what it was and what happened in that moment was written on my heart Jacob, you are dumb. Jacob, you are dumb.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Now, long and fast forward, when I was 19 and I went to get my GED. I remember when I got my results back from when I took the test for the first time. I opened the letter and it said failed. And I remember the same thing. I had dumb Yep, of course. The second time I took the GED test and I got the results back and what did it say? Failed. And I felt dumb again. The third time I took the GED test and I got the results back. I opened it up and it said failed. And again I felt dumb. It wasn't until the fourth time, but I think some good guessing on the math portion that I passed my test.

Speaker 1: 19:35

And then I was able to start Bible college and I remember I love Bible college, but even in Bible college I graduated last in my class. I hope that makes you feel confident about your pastor. There you go, thank you. And before we went to church, plant my pastor. She really wanted me to get my bachelor's degree and I was like woman, you're crazy. My wife is the smart one, she's my sugar mama. I was okay with that. But no, but pastor shared, she really wanted me to go. She said, no, I believe you can do it. So I said okay. So I went down to the community college. I took a placement test out there, my placement test. The administrator took me into her office and said Mr Gaines, you scored so low you can't even go to community college, you need to go back to adult learning center. And what was the word etched on my heart? Dumb, dumb.

Speaker 1: 20:31

And at that point in my life I said man, I got enough charisma to get passed in life. You know, I don't want to be like that, right? So I would go back and talk to my pastor and I'll tell Sharon. I said, yeah, sharon, yeah, pastor Sharon, school is not for me. And then pastor Sharon looked at me with her piercing blue eyes. I can't wait for you guys to meet her one day. She's awesome. And she looked at me and said your rejection from school only confirms that it's the battle you need to take on. She said, jacob, you are smart and capable of doing this. And what happened in that moment? Her belief in me changed the words written on my heart from dumb to capable, to capable. And what ended up happening? I did. I didn't have gone back to school, I got accepted to Liberty University and I did end up going on. The graduate on the Dean's list from Liberty University. Go flames, yeah, and it was a real defining moment in my life.

Speaker 1: 21:23

But I'm going to say this that's the power of a name written on your heart. That's the power of a name written on your heart. Now, listen to me. All of us, all of you, you are operating out of something good or something bad that happened and it is written on your heart. You know, for some of you it may not be a name. It may be an actual name of a person. There may be a person that has marked you, good or bad, but you make decisions either trying to prove yourself to that person or trying to prove that person wrong. Maybe you have other experiences, good or bad, that has marked your life and you're making decisions in your life through that filter. And what God wants you to start to do, what God wants to do with you, is he wants you to get to the matters of your heart, because you can want all the change you can make your New Year's resolution, you can have your goals, but if you do not address your heart, you will always go back to the places you don't want to be. Scripture says like a dog returns to his vomit, is a fool that returns to their folly, meaning that even the thing that we don't want, we'll go back to it if we don't go here. If we don't go here.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Another example of this in the Old Testament I'm gonna show you is a story that you may have never even heard of before. It's pretty cool. It's kind of hidden in there there's a character you may not even know. In the Bible You'll know his son. His son is very famous. His son's name is Abraham. He's the father of nations A powerful story. But we don't know much about Abraham's dad. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Genesis 11 says this. This is the account of Tara. Tara became the father of Abraham, which would later become Abraham, nabar and Haran. I want you to remember that name Haran. Haran became the father of Lot and while his father, while his father Tara, was still alive, haran died in error of the Caledians in the land of his birth. Now scripture does not tell us how he died, but we can assume it was premature. We can assume it was premature because Tara, the dad, is still alive and his baby boy is dead.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Okay, so it wasn't planned in that sense. So now the scripture also tells us where it happened. It happened in Ur of the Caledians. Now Ur is gonna represent the place that God does not want you to be. That's why it's called Ur. I don't want you to know, but all of a sudden I want you to notice this event that takes place and I'm gonna infer something here. Okay, so it might not be true. What I mean by it might not be true. This is the way I interpret this scripture. Okay, but I encourage everyone to read the Bible for themselves. Okay, and so if you don't like it, you can spit it out. But here you go.

Speaker 1: 24:02

So Tara wakes up and all of a sudden he decides I gotta get out of this place. So he decides to leave Ur and go to Canaan. Now, at that time Tara didn't know this, but Canaan would end up becoming the Promised Land. When the Israelites are in Egyptian slavery for 400 plus years, canaan was the Promised Land that Moses was going to deliver them to. So Canaan is a very important place for God's people.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Now, the only thing that's missing in the story and this is where I'm inferring is and you don't have to agree with me, but I believe Tara woke up and he doesn't have a good idea in his head I believe God wanted him to go to Canaan. I believe God put that in his heart. So he woke up and he said this. He said Tara took his son Abram, his grandson Lot of Horan, his daughter-in-law Sarah, the wife of Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Caledians to go to Canaan. Now I need you to go to the place that will eventually become the Promised Land. That's what he's talking about. I want you to go there. I'm going to make this statement and it might not be true, but I think the original call was not on Abraham's life. I believe God's original plan wasn't for Abraham to be the father of many nations. I believe the original call was on his dad.

Speaker 1: 25:18

And check this out Now all along. I think it's supposed to be the God of Tara, abraham and Isaac, not the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob. Just my thought. You don't have to believe it and it doesn't break scripture either way. Here you go. All I know is this All I know is what happened. He was supposed to be the guy to go to Canaan, but then you get one of the most depressing verses in the Bible. Check this out Genesis 11, 31.

Speaker 1: 25:41

And when they came to Horan now, remember, horan is the name of his son they're leaving Ur to go to Canaan and they had a pastor in a city called Horan. When they got to Horan, they settled there. Tara lived 205 years and died in Horan. Now he has to pass through the city called Horan that just happened to be the name of his baby boy who died and when he got there he couldn't get past the pain. He couldn't get past the pain and he settled there. But that's not where he was supposed to go. Remember, he was supposed to go to Canaan, but he couldn't get there. And Tara lived 205 years and dies in Heran.

Speaker 1: 26:41

And I've been doing ministry long enough and I've watched people long enough to see people get up and say, man, I'm tired of her and I want to go to the promised land. But then they get confronted with their pain and they stay in their pain. They get confronted with that trauma, they get confronted with that hurt, with that disappointment and even though God's best for them is over there. Man, I'll just settle where I'm at right now because, dealing with the pain, I don't know if I can go there. I don't know if I can go there and they settle there. And James, you can play a little something up here for me, as I'm closing, you get stuck on a problem of pain and for him rightfully so right the death of a baby boy. How traumatic is that, how painful is that. But it made him stuck in a place where God never wanted him to stay stuck.

Speaker 1: 27:47

And here's the thing I don't know what has taken place in your yesterdays. I don't know what has happened in your yesterdays. I don't know how deep the wounds of your hearts are and I for sure will never, ever minimize your pain. But my prayer for you, friends, is that you don't settle in your pain, that you don't make camp in your pain, that you don't set up house in your pain, that you don't settle for a broken heart. You end up living the rest of your life ordinary, with a low grade anxiety, with a nagging feeling of depression and a wounded heart. When God has called your life, look at me. He has called your life to do something extraordinary.

Speaker 1: 28:51

In the next verse in Genesis, we see that God asks Abraham to then take up the mantle instead and Therese stayed there because the name of pain was written on his heart. And it's all of us. You may say well, my dad was mean and my granddad was mean and, from what I understand, my great-great-granddaddy was mean too. So what does mean in our family? What does mean? And we retaliate too much and anger? We're just angry. No, no, don't believe that Just because it's a name written on your heart doesn't mean it has to stay there. It doesn't mean it has to stay there.

Speaker 1: 29:37

Three attacks, three attacks on the heart that I want to quickly highlight in four ways to have a changed heart. The first attack is a confused identity. We get attacked and we have a confused identity. Who am I, what am I supposed to do and what happens? When we do that, we're constantly comparing ourselves to other people. This is the trap of social media. Again, I'm not going to get on this whole social media thing, but you compare someone's highlights and don't ever see their struggles. They have this and they have that and their family seems perfect and mine doesn't.

Speaker 1: 30:08

When I was a youth pastor. I was a youth pastor for a long time. I'm telling you this there is an attack on the hearts of young people. There is a relentless attack among young people. Depression rates are higher than ever before. Anxiety and suicide rates are on the rise. And I don't say that like to scare people, make people stressed out or whatever. I say that because we have to love our young people. We have to love them. We have to speak over our young people. The promises of God.

Speaker 1: 30:36

My five-year-old came home the other day from school. She was looking a little bummed out and I said you know, I met her at the pickup and I said what's wrong? Are you okay? And she said to me she said these three boys they call me hate all day today. I said they call you hate. They said what do you mean? And I said they said they hate you and she said yeah. She said yeah, we got a new table arrangement. I got these three boys and that sit with me and they said they hate me and I was just coloring. I didn't know why they said that. And here he goes. Easy for me to chop that up at some silly little boys or silly kids saying stuff in the elementary class. But the truth is, my daughter left that school today with the name I hate you written on her heart and as her dad, I had to over the top communicate no, you're great, you're awesome, and I don't say words to fluff her up, but I had to speak the truth in her. I got to speak the truth in her and when I'm going to say parents, aunts, uncles, mentors, you can't speak enough positive words over our young people. Today, here you go.

Speaker 1: 31:37

Almost half of our church attendance is kids and youth and I'm challenging some people in here today. I'm glad that you like to hear me preach and that's awesome, that's cool. But there are some young people in our youth environments and our kids environments that need your leadership. That needs you to step up to the occasion. That needs you. The way we do our kids church, we have small group leaders and imagine if you are a small group leader when those kids ran in, they knew, when they saw you, that they were going to be loved because you care about them. Our youth program, same thing. We need that because we want to engage with them and play with them and enter their world, and you want to know why we want to enter their world Because there's an enemy who's already entered their world Speaking things over them.

Speaker 1: 32:25

A change chart does this, though. A change chart says let the one who designed me define me. An attack heart is a confused identity. A change chart is one if we say let the one who designed me define me and you're going to say God, god, I don't know everything, but I'm going to trust you, I'm going to hold on to you and I'm not going to be the person that's going to live by my emotions and how I feel. I'm going to be a person that lives according to your will and I'm going to walk and step with your Holy Spirit. Why? Because God created me. Why would I step away from him? David says it like this in the Psalms. He says, for you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's room. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. Did you know that you are wonderful to God? He said. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my arm formed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Speaker 1: 33:27

Second attack that we see on a wounded heart, on a broken heart, is a distorted view of God, because if the enemy can distort your view of God, he can disrupt your relationship with God. So if you see God as angry and mad and all this stuff you're like, why would I want to have a relationship with that person? But God loves you and cares for you. I pray as a church that everyday people will learn how to become Jesus followers, because a change heart says I'm going to see God the right way. I'm going to see God the right way. And if you want to take this heart journey to see God for who he really is and that he really loves you and for some of you you may be like man I can't believe that someone would love me unconditionally. And the truth is, god does, and no matter what you did, no matter even what you did last night, his thoughts for you are still precious. Psalm 139 says how precious are your thoughts about me, oh God? They cannot be numbered. He thinks about you all the time, friends, he loves you. He's not irritated or frustrated by you, because, even though he sees what you've done, he knows what you can do.

Speaker 1: 34:39

Still, the third attack that we see on our hearts is a wounded emotion, wounded emotions, and this is where a lot of us are, and a lot of us we have too much negative self-talk. We have too much negative self-talk constantly speaking negativity over ourselves, and we allow ourselves to believe those things. And it's the story that we tell. And my question for you today is this what story are you going to tell about yourself? What is going to mean the story that you tell about yourself that I'll never be loved, that I'll always make mistakes, that I'm always second choice? There's a wound there and maybe you're here today and God wants you to know a different way, a different direction, because a healed heart or a changed heart is someone who says they allow God to heal my heart. I think I hear I am. I allow you to do what you can. Let me say it this way God sees how your heart can be healed. He moved Psalm 139 and says search me, god, and know my heart. Know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me. And for most of us. This happens. This happens.

Speaker 1: 35:52

We're able to get to this revelation or this movement when we're in small groups. When we're in small groups and we're talking to people, we see that man, that person's pretty broken too. I'm not in this by myself and I got someone who can be with me and encourage me. Maybe in here today you made some decisions that she would do anything to do over. Maybe you feel like man. You're too far gone for the purpose of God in your life. Which I want you to know today is this God has this supernatural ability to turn everything around for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That the journey might be long, but you can still get there.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Too much stories I want to share. Too much stories. I think they're important. One time I made not just one time I made plenty of bad mistakes, but there was this one particular horrible mistake that I made that I wish I could take back. And after I made the mistake, a pastor, a pastor said to me okay, a pastor said to me. He said, jacob, you are disqualified, god can never use you again. That's what he said to me and I wore that on my heart.

Speaker 1: 37:17

I was a young 20-something. I gave up my dreams, I gave up my hopes. I felt purposeless. And one day, in the middle of a KFC parking lot, when I worked at a pawn shop in Portsmouth, virginia, in the dirty dirty, a homeless man came up to me and asked me for food. I went in and I bought him a two-piece special. I walked back outside and, as I'm handing him the bag, I felt for the first time in a long time, at that point, a nudge from the Holy Spirit. I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit nudged me to pray for him. And at this point in my life I truly believe that God never could use me again because of my mistakes. And with this small measure of faith, I said to this man can I pray for you? And here you go.

Speaker 1: 38:09

Right when I started to pray for this man, right in this parking lot KFC crispy chicken, the smell of crispy chicken in the air. Right when I started to pray for him, I felt what I could only describe as the audible voice of God. It was so clear. I felt like someone was next to me and it said tell that man to make it right with his family. And it hit me. I was like what the heck and I say that to the man, and he's moved, wrecked emotionally. It was as if I was reading his mail. And I walked away that day knowing that the Spirit of God said Jacob, you are not disqualified, that, yeah, you may went on a direction that you shouldn't have went on, but I'm the God of grace, I'm the God of a second, third, fourth and fifth chance. I'm a God that, if you make yourself available, I can change your name In church. Here you go. Another last story. Last story here you go.

Speaker 1: 39:08

My father-in-law, at the age of 77, was standing at a worship conference, at a vineyard conference, and he was standing there, he was trying to figure things out and in that moment he heard God say John, come home. He ended up giving his life to Jesus at the age of 77. He later on said to me he said, jacob, I'm glad I lived long enough to come back to God. Friends, if there's a breath, if there's a breath in your lungs, then God is not done with you. And I'm going to tell you this don't settle for a wounded heart, Don't, settle for a broken place to stay, don't make camp with your brokenness, but instead say God, I give you all of me, I give you every part of me.

Speaker 1: 40:02

And then the scriptures tell us this, and the Psalm tells us this. It says lead me along the path of everlasting life and God will lead you. Invite God into your future and watch what he does. So we say God, jesus, holy Spirit, we need you today. We need you to speak your words over our hearts. If you're in here today and you know, you know a word that instantly pops out in your head, I want you to begin to say God, I give you that, I give you that thing that someone spoke over me Failure, reject. Come, holy Spirit, broken, unlovable. Come, holy Spirit, lord, we hand those to you and we know that you speak over us, that we are loved, and we know this not because just a fluffy filling inside, but we know this because, jesus, you went to the cross for us, that you took a death that we deserved and that she rose again so that we can be raised back to life, a new creation in you. So if you're in here today, you're like Jacob, that sounds all good, but I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. Or if you're in here today and you're like Jacob.

Speaker 1: 41:54

I used to follow God, but life got in the way. I want to come back to Him, and that's you. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life again. I trust Jesus for the first time. I want you to pray this prayer with me, right where you are. I'm not going to call you out and bear you nothing like that. Right where you are, say Jesus, forgive me for my mistakes, make me new. Today I trust you with my life. Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.