20210710 | Heart Of The Matter | Pastor John Lomacang (tvsdac)

this morning we're going to talk about the heart of the matter the heart of the matter the heart of the matter is everything if you look at the most significant circumstances people have found themselves in whether in a packed courtroom or whether facing major life decisions it really all boils down to the heart of the matter the most important thing the decision on which the future rises or falls the decision that can mean everything fails or succeeds when you can get to the heart of the matter you've gotten to the bedrock of the issue that will support or be the reason why your world crumbles and the lord impressed me strongly in this busy week and many of us live in the vortex of activity but this week has been especially challenging and he said what do you what do i talk about lord and he said the heart of the matter so this morning as we go before the lord i want to ask you to be in prayer because in reality it all boils down when we stand before the lord on that glorious day whether on the right or on the left we're going to determine and see that it was really the heart of the matter that determined where we stood bow your heads with me as i asked for the lord to guide in the proclamation of this message and as my wife said she said preach that message god gave it to you loving father in heaven lord you alone sit upon the circle of the world you alone are worthy of glory and honor father you alone are the one to whom we stand before or kneel before and this morning heavenly father i come to you asking for your grace to speak in a way that will receive heaven's approval to speak in a way that will find the fertile hearts that are listening that are watching that are at that pivotal point in their journey and they are about to make a decision that will affect in one way or the other the outcome of their eternal life send your holy spirit lord to be the surgeon of the hearts that are presented here today and when the heart surgery is done may there be a throne in our heart upon which you will be installed and may we find that when you are there there is no room for anything else to take away the place that you alone deserve so i commit my mind and mouth to you now lord use it for your glory in jesus name amen i want to begin with a very simple scripture but i found out that simple scriptures are profound scriptures we find from the heart of a converted tax collector what would he talk about other than treasure and money something he knows quite a bit about this converted tax collector named matthew wrote these following words for where your treasure is there your heart will be also what a fitting passage for this morning as i told you my heart is somewhere else in a special sense matthew is speaking about money because as a tax collector one who was loved and hated by the society in which he operated the tax man the guy that came and lived a life of extortion trying to siphon from the pockets and the companies of individuals he was called to serve he was not very well liked in his society but then he had an encounter with jesus and this man whose heart focused so much on money god through jesus christ found a way to address the heart of the matter and so we find now a converted man speaking to an issue that he knows cause as much of the world to go round where your treasure is there there there your heart will also be in a general sense matthew's speaking about the place of our affections the place where the things closest to us can receive our internal embrace the heart of the matter this morning i'd like to invite you on a journey with me to the headquarters of human sustenance the place that we often ignore until we recognize that it's not working the way it ought to the heart i want to share with you some amazing statistics about the heart the heart is about the size of a large fist weighing only 9 to 12 ounces but this little engine of god's creation is able to beat 100 000 times per day somebody want to ask somebody once asked me when does my heart rest i said between beats you better hope it doesn't rest any longer than that you may have a great kidney wonderful set of lungs you might be the most amazingly fit athlete but if that heart decides to rest more than between beats you're in trouble god designed us we are fearfully and wonderfully made god with something just a little larger or maybe about the size of my fist 9 to 12 ounces 100 000 beets per day this electrical plant keeps creation in all of its forms alive from moment to moment when you think about it some people say well what kind of pressure does it take one physician said the pressure that it takes to squeeze a tennis ball is equivalent to the pressure applied by the heart to pump the blood so the that you hear physicians say that's when all four valves close and open together like the harmonious synchronized beating of an engine can you feel it have you laid it awake at night and the room is so quiet that all of a sudden the thing you ignore the most sounds the loudest i've been there before or you've coughed and you've coughed and you've coughed as has been the experience of my dear wife and it's so significant that when you go to the doctors the first thing they say is let me listen to your heart the place where life is sustained when you think about the heart it's amazing to me that the heart is responsible for circulating six quarts of blood a total of sixty thousand miles through sixty thousand miles grab that your vessels your arteries your veins your capillaries scientists say that we have about 60 000 miles of highways in our bodies that's about three times around the earth in your body god created a highway system reliably relying on that little 9 to 12 ounce electric machine pushing blood to its extremities and we know that when it's not working well our fingertips get cold we we begin to become clammy we sense that something's wrong and in many cases physicians say we want to get an ekg to see if there's anything wrong with your heart i'm amazed that in this body of mind in angel's body as little as she is sixty thousand miles of blood vessels arteries and veins and god is keeping each one of us alive the thing that also amazed me is that every day what did i say every day the heart produces enough energy to drive a large truck 20 miles every day every single day so when scientists deny the existence of god i say to myself well then you haven't really paid attention to this instrument called the human body i was listening to an astrophysicist uh neil degrassi tyson just recently on a youtube about a 12 minute video he was being interviewed by a talk show host and the talk show host said to him do you believe in the existence of god now he's an astrophysicist he studies the stars the planets he studies the expansion and the continued metamorphosis of all the bodies the heavenly bodies and he is amazed by what he sees when he looks up and he said to my chagrin he said i don't see any evidence of the existence of god and i thought to myself his telescope must be really cloudy how can you look into the heavens and not see any evidence for the existence of god the heavens declare the glory of god and the firmament shows his handiwork but this amazing heart if you don't want to look into the heavens just put your hand on your chest and say to yourself this was an accident this thing occurred through a a an untimed explosion a big bang happened and this amazing body was the result of that yeah right you couldn't use the most the most amazing explosive device you couldn't take an explosive device to a metal factory and just blow stuff up and have a mercedes come out the other end and yet men look at this amazing body the structure of society seasons come and go and plants disappear and come back again and leaves hide and show themselves up when the time is right and oh it happened by accident they have ignored the heart of the matter the heart is the place where these electrical impulses continue to continue every day one scientist said as long as the heart has an adequate supply of oxygen it's electrically its electrical system can beat outside of the body god built into the heart an electrical system that can keep the heart beating outside of the body and for those of you that have been through heart surgery you know that they've said we've got to take your heart out and work on it and put it back in praise god it can sustain itself outside the body because you know how difficult it will be if for whatever reason that heart came out and said we didn't mean to disconnect it there's nothing that we can disconnect that can keep working without electricity getting access to it during an average lifetime i'm also told that the heart will pump 1.5 million barrels of blood and that is enough to fill up a train that has 200 tanker cars behind it in your lifetime this little heart can pump 1.5 million barrels of blood if you see a train passing across the train tracks there in benton or in west frankfurt just think every box cart every tanker is just simply one that could contain blood pumping through that small 9 to 12 ounce vessel called the heart isn't god amazing god is amazing and when we think about the heart we think about the blood flow we think about blockage we know that something if something is blocked there are certain parts of the body that the blood is not going to reach and depending on the severity of it the level of the severity we can have a limb removed a finger removed we can lose the function of a certain part of our body whether the eyes or the hands or the arm and when you go back to it blockage somewhere affected something in the human body talk about blockage somebody once said it's the arteries these arteries that are so significant that's why god has given us a health message because if you eat right you have a higher level of a functioning heart and every time when i get a pain if no matter where it is it could be over here it could be over here i said hope my heart is doing well you ever had those spells where you have gas in your system and you take a shallow shallow breath because it feels like your heart is about to explode in your chest when it finally subsides you say i'll be fine i'll be just fine but i know that one of the reasons recently i made a decision to stop eating junk it's hard to put down barbecue potato chips come on somebody say amen you know what i'm talking about you like like years ago with the commercial when larry bird said to matthew johnson i bet you can't eat just one when you when you when you just uh you know i go to the store and i go down the aisle i walk in the walmart and and i see lays barbecue potato chips and i can clear a bag in one evening but i wonder i i said to myself one day and i said you know i'm getting a gut and how is that going to help my heart and i'm not getting any younger and i want to do something so that when i as i get older that i don't start looking it too quickly help me somebody so i decided honey we got to clear all the junk out of our closets all that processed stuff that has stuff in it that we don't even know what it is words that we can't even pronounce because we know there are no potato chip trees in the neighborhood got to retrain our tongues to taste differently when it's coated with salt and all that other stuff it's hard to taste the carrot but i guarantee you don't do that for 10 days a carrot would taste sweet and something as simple as celery you'll actually taste the flavor but what's the greater benefactor the heart can you imagine potato chips going through my veins trying to give my heart the needed oxygen that it that it so desires to keep my body in good shape i thought to myself i actually saw ricky i saw potato chip fragments in my mind passing through my veins and i see my heart saying what am i going to do with that i said i need to fix this thing so i went to walmart yesterday and i walked past that aisle i looked a long time and i made a pass amen so tonight i'm gonna have me some celery and some carrots why does celery and carrots not sound good in comparison to barbecue potato chips but for the heart it sounds really really good because the heart of the matter is when you're laying on that hospital bed i can say to you you are willing to do whatever it takes to survive another day and the doctor says so what's in your diet my uncle down in the virgin islands i lost one of them to a severe heart attack when i got to know my family they ate anything if it was in the ocean they ate it conch crab lobster shrimps oyster you name it they ate it they say if god didn't want us to eat it it wouldn't be in the ocean and i couldn't convince them otherwise until one of them had a severe heart attack and they said his arteries all they were so blocked that there was no chance of him surviving that heart attack and his brother my other uncle had a heart attack and when he told me about his heart attack somebody from the call center matter of fact let me reverse that i got an email from him and he said can you please find out how i can get that book that they offered on 3abn about healthy eating and i looked at it uncle lia healthy eating and i went down to the virgin islands and there he said tell me he said i said so what do you eat and i said i can't eat anything i can't eat and he went through all the food he used to love to eat he said i can't even eat salt and he said don't forget to get those recipes from tree abn that's what he said because he's french french caribbean you know caucasian french caribbean all that mixture there and um but it really comes down to the heart of the matter and as i was thinking about that i thought lord there's got to be some other things because we look at the circulatory system we look at these little we look at these little capillaries we look at these blood vessels going through and we know that these blockages can develop over the course of time by our habits or it can happen instantly by a blood clot but when we look at where we may be or where we can be it all comes down to the heart of the matter what is the condition of the heart that's why when we go to the doctor's office most of the tests they take they test your heart your blood pressure your pulse the oximeter all that to tie it back to what the heart of the matter is when i thought about that i said okay lord i can get a sermon out of that the heart of the matter i can find a sermon out of that because in in the very same way the condition of our physical heart has a lot to do with our physical health but the condition of our spiritual heart has everything to do with our spiritual health and the world wants to clog our spiritual hearts with junk food so that we can't function spiritually at the optimum level the world wants to feed us with junk food in media in music in television in entertainment in lifestyle in society pressures and we wonder why we don't have the functioning spiritual life because we're feeding our spiritual hearts junk and until we divorce ourselves from the things that clog the spiritual life that god knows we can't experience we will never get to the heart of the matter that's why the wise man wrote these words in proverbs 4 and verse 23 he says keep your heart with all what's the next word diligence for out of it spring the issues of life issues of life these are the contributing factors to the spiritual the spiritual condition of the heart the issues of life when you follow the issues of life it leads you down to the heart of the matter not just the matter of the heart the issues of life money job family relationships the place you work this the conditions under which you work your marriage relationship whether it's being built stronger or whether it's becoming weaker interpersonal relationship with family members it all comes back to the heart of the matter how you're raising your children all of these are issues of life and when the wise man solomon wrote that he said keep your heart with all diligence in other words protect your spiritual life because how your heart operates spiritually will affect in one way or the other the people that are around you whether for good or for bad the reason why matthew wrote what he did is because matthew not only being a tax collector but in some way pharisaical he was aware of the things that the pharisees focused on more they focused on the external impact of life they focused on how they looked and how they ate and how they drank and the condition of the cup out of which they drank and they looked healthy to the to those in society but the lord looked beyond their external appearances as you know in the bible says man looks at the outward appearance but god looks at the heart and there is a nine verse revelation that i want to walk you through right now because one of the reasons why the pharisees had a problem with jesus is when jesus spoke he addressed the issues of the life and the issues of the life revealed whether they were paying attention to the heart of the matter or just the matters of the heart because there's quite a difference when jesus spoke he confronted the issues of life that went right to the heart of the matter and the pharisees didn't like it and so matthew recorded this wonderful set of conversations between jesus and the pharisees and notice how jesus addressed the issues of life matthew chapter 15 beginning in verse 11 and i'll walk you through it it's on the screen if you don't have your bibles and notice what the lord says not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth this defiles the man then his disciples came and said to him do you know that the pharisees were offended when they heard this saying why because the pharisees said we don't eat pork we don't eat shrimp we don't need lobsters we don't need crabs we don't smoke we don't eat meat we are vegetarians and the lord says you are the cleanest sinner on your way to hell that i've ever met so we got to be really careful how we brag about our diets because the lord says i like what's on your plate i just don't like what's in your heart and he continued you know when people talk about if you get offended because people talk about how you eat be careful because you might be just like them they got offended when jesus said it's not what you eat but what's coming out of you and he went on he wasn't saying eat anything he was saying it's not what you're eating it's what's eating you that makes a difference look at verse 13. but he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted he took a turn let them alone they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the blind what happens both will fall into a ditch verse 15 then peter answered and said to him explain the parable to us so jesus said are you still without understanding do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the what the heart and they defile a man for out of the heart proceed and look what the lord gives us a list evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications theft false witness blasphemies in verse 20 these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man the lord said if you didn't wash your hands because the pharisees loved to put their arms on these long tall pitchers and they would wash their arms up to their elbows said in modern vernacular the pharisees had an unlimited supply of hand sanitizer but when it came to heart purifiers the shelves were empty clean hands their hands were clean but their hearts were polluted they boasted on their exterior but they ignored their interior notice the difference clean hands they focused on the lord wanted a pure heart that's why david the psalmist says as he did in psalm 24 3 and 4 he says who may ascend into the hill of the lord or who may stand in the holy place and look what he says read this with me he who has what clean hands and a pure heart the lord is not saying that your hands ought to be dirty but he's in essence and while you're focusing on your external condition i am really concerned about your internal condition the heart a receptive heart affects every area of life both positively and negatively the heart is always on the circum the circumference of the issues we face why is this important because the heart is the place where the lord is trying to access to make sure that we can be prepared for eternity a lot of people can't think about eternity you know when you're when you're having fun you don't think about eternity it's amazing that the places like call hospitals and funeral parlors when you drive past places like that isn't it amazing that all of a sudden you start thinking about eternity when you're standing over the bed of someone who's slipping away eternity starts to become a focal point when somebody that should not pass away passes away at a at an age that shocks you you start thinking eternity when you hear about people on their way to a july 4th celebration and they they get into the middle of a car accident and the entire family is wiped out you start thinking how did their records close for eternity the heart of the matter is the biggest issues that we all must confront a receptive heart affects every area of our lives both positively but when our hearts are complacent to god's word it affects our hearts in a negative way that's why james said it's great to listen to a sermon but notice what he says in james 1 and verse 22 but be what doers of the word are not hearers is only deceiving who deceiving yourselves so if we if we say that we're living in the closing scenes of the great controversy we're saying that the sowing time the what time did i say the sowing time is soon going to be replaced with the reaping time right now we're sowing the gospel 24 hours a day seven days a week and sometimes you don't know how much you're sowing matter of fact last night i received two emails one from a lady who asked me to pray for her son and i called her and she lives in chicago and another guy i got another email from a man named frank who was little upset about what i said in one of my sermons and he lives in new jersey and i called him he's a polish italian man you're talking about talking fast i had fun talking to a guy and see what you guys call yelling in new york new jersey connecticut we call it talking how you doing frank i'm doing fine that was a whole conversation it was that fever pitch hold on hold on my wife linda wants to talk to you and we talked that way the whole conversation was like so you know you're my favorite preacher you know you know and he's like i'm going to be watching you tomorrow he says and i said what's the issue he says i don't like it when you made that particular comment and i said what what comment and we got to the issue and he says that you wouldn't believe what instrument i play i said what instrument do you play he said yes i said is it a is it a harmonica or accordion he says no it says it's one of those instruments you guys don't have on three abn i said why i said drums and i said so what's the issue frank i said i got a new friend in new jersey he said because you don't know it but when i watch 3abn and i watch your church service i send all these links to all my friends to watch your programs so i don't mind you disagreeing with me frank we got a new friend but when i spoke to frank he made a point he says you know i wasn't raised a seventh-day adventist both my wife and i were catholic most of our lives until we watched your programs and he says and we're adventists now so we're excited frank would have said that was not an amen amen and so my wife said so she recorded andrew record the conversation because it was so funny because she says you know if you talk to people like that out here they'll say you're yelling but if you raised in new york new jersey or connecticut that's the way you communicate everybody talks at a fever pitch and i i i said frank i bet your hands are not you know you can't talk to an italian if you handcuff him it disables his lips but my point is frank was listening but he wasn't listening with his heart the lord found a way to his heart and to his wife's heart and i got good friends frank and linda now are friends of three abn and they watch the church service every sabbath morning and they said keep going keep going we like the fact that you're talking about issues that people are trying to ignore but keep preaching it about the sunday and sabbath keep talking about it somebody's going to get it because it comes down to the heart of the matter when we stand before god do we want to stand before god uncertain about our salvation or do we want to stand before god with our hearts secure knowing that we are saved by grace through faith in christ alone we are living in the closing scenes this is a sowing time and revelation tells us what's going to happen next revelation 14 15 when the three angels messages is completed and god has accomplished the work he intends for it to accomplish this is the declaration that is going to be made by heaven and another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud thrust in your sickle and reap for the time has come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe when the reaping time comes jesus is going to send his angels to gather into his barn all of those whose hearts have been changed by the power of the indwelling holy spirit and i thank the lord every now and then we all go left and go right in our journey to heaven god is not going to kick you out of the family because of that but when those moments come and the holy spirit nudges you back allow god to nudge you back because the the final analysis is as one as one um person teaching geometry said the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and there's no way that we're going to get to heaven going left and right and right and left and back and forward but god is trying to straighten our path so that those coming behind us will find us faithful i'm still growing but i thank the lord i'm growing in the right direction anybody else that's why this parable today that we're going to consider in the time remaining is so vitally important because the lord wants us to be more productive than we have been to this point and the and the reason why we haven't been is not the sower it is not the seed it is not the word of god but it is the heart of the matter the condition of the human heart so dive with me into matthew chapter 13 let's look very quickly at a parable that many of you are familiar with but this parable has everything to do with the heart of the matter let us see what the word of the lord says we're going to first consider what is referred to in the parable as the wayside hero what kind of era the wayside hero matthew 13 verse 3 and 4 speaking about jesus then he spoke many things to them parables the reason why jesus spoke in parables is he hid the message from those who would seek to do him harm if they didn't understand it they couldn't harm him he did the very same thing with prophecy that's why when they when john the revelator on the island of patmos started talking about beasts and and and all these creatures that are described in such an eerie way i could be sure that in his day and age the roman guards probably thought this guy is losing his mind coming up out of the sea and the ocean but as we look at this we're going to begin to see that the lord is going to bring to our attention the parable and why he gave these parables matthew chapter 13 verse 1 and 2. the bible says on the same day when jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea and great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore when you study the way that jesus communicated he used the surroundings of people to communicate to communicate his message so in our sense if jesus met us in a computer store he might say your hard drive is full i can't get through to you if jesus met us at the verizon store he says your phone must be off the hook you're not answering my call jesus used the surroundings the things that were in the eyesight of the people to communicate the message to them in verse 3 and 4 of matthew chapter 13 he begins to unfold the kind of here the wayside here he says then he spoke many things to them in parables saying behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured them now what happened i want you to get i want you to understand this because it wasn't up to the birds it was the responsibility was not on the birds the birds didn't have the prerogative to snatch from us what god was trying to sow but what he's in essence saying is when he was trying to sow he couldn't get you to receive it so since it wasn't penetrating it was falling by the wayside and since it wasn't getting into your heart it was just on the ground and the birds came and ate it up he's he's casting seed your way but because you are a wayside hero because you're not absorbing what he's trying to send your way it falls on the ground and when you go back to look for it it's no longer there because the birds ate it up what is jesus saying he is saying to us there is no more urgent time in our lives let me illustrate it today the most urgent time for you to today is right now the lord is saying while the word of god is going forth if it's bouncing off of you and falling on the ground the devil is going to send his birds snatch it away and three days from now when you say you know i wonder what the pastor was saying you look around and it's no longer there what is unison saying he says today is the acceptable time today is the day of salvation he's saying this is the moment when the food is on the counter when it's being when it's being served he is saying pray for your heart to be receptive so that as the sower is sowing he will find fertile soil on which the seed will take effect he's looking for that heart to be receptive so when you hear god's word try not to listen to god's word with it and i want to say this correctly try not to dissect god's word to say whether or not i should receive it or like others say i don't understand it therefore i'm not going to receive it well if you don't understand it pray for understanding and god will give you understanding but sometimes the reason why we don't understand something is showing the depth of god's word one one one physicist said and i'll just go ahead and say this neil degrassi tyson said he said the bible is a book that has been put together by men to control other men that's what he said because there's no evidence that this book has any divine origin and i'm thinking to myself can you be an astrophysicist to that level and not even take the time to study god's word but then he said something that gave me the idea that there is still hope for his position he took he said you know when it really boils down to it we don't know what we don't know did you grab that i don't know but i don't know what i don't know and then he says some of us know just enough to think we know it all but not enough to know we don't know at all but i thought to myself if you take the time to read god's word you'll find that god's word is the the authorization to what you're seeing when you study his heavens but when the heart is not receptive to the word of god the clean hands and the pure heart will never be our experience that's why james the apostle speaking about this kind of here the wayside here notice what he says in james 4 and verse 8 he says draw near to god do what friends if you have a friend that you want to understand you got to draw near to him you can't understand the lord from a distance if you keep the lord at a distance you'll never understand him but if you are in his presence he can tell you things that everybody else doesn't need to hear if you draw near to god god will draw near to you he says draw near to god and he will draw near to you so who has he given the prerogative to god doesn't draw near to us unless we draw near to him first god would not force himself to be where he's not invited that's why god doesn't have a long hook and drag people into church when they walk by that's why god on the road to emmaus when jesus is walking on the road to emmaus with cleopas and the other disciple the bible says he would have continued to go past but they constrained him they said come on in and stay a while are you inviting the lord to come in during the week or are you content to just walk with him and not know who he is and when he gets to your house you don't invite him in i would recommend to you when you invite the lord in that drawing near changes the way you think about christ because he says when you draw near to me i'll draw near to you and notice the two issues that the pharisees struggle with the two issues that david the psalmist addressed notice what he says cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded what was he concerned about not just the cleanliness of your hands but he was saying there's some double-mindedness going on here and your hands and your hearts are not benefiting because you haven't made up your mind did you grab that if your mind is not made up your heart is not made up because people when they when they make up their minds it is no longer just something that they understand intellectually as something that they embrace to their heart i had people say to me that got to my heart today i've seen people change because the lord found a way to their heart and so when the word of god is going forth do not hesitate when eternal issues are at stake do not drag your feet when god is trying to convict your heart don't assume that there will be another time and another place that will be more convenient and god's word will just be on the ground waiting for you to pick it up well how do i know that that won't happen remember the governor felix when the when the gospel was being proclaimed to him what did he say acts 24 verse 25 and as he reasoned about righteousness self-control and the judgment to come what it feel what happened to felix felix was afraid and answered go away for now for when i have a convenient time i will call for you when you read that passage there is no evidence in scripture that there was ever a convenient time trent felix never called him back to say what was the rest of that message there's no evidence that felix ever received what was what the lord was attempting to sow in his heart friends the most convenient time is now when the time is now felix was listening with his ears and not with his heart but there's a second kind look at verse 19 of matthew 13. look at it the lord describes what exactly happened in that wayside moment when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it and you might think well they just didn't understand what's the problem no they didn't pray for understanding then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart this is he who receives seed by the wayside let me spend a minute more on do not understand some people might say well i honestly don't understand you know the lord knows the difference between sincerity and arrogance doesn't he like those people that say don't tell me don't tell me i don't want to be responsible for it i've had people do that i don't want to hear i don't want to be responsible for it so they figure if they don't if i don't tell them then the electric fence is no longer electric don't tell me don't touch the fence i'm just don't tell me you know the rest of the story so because you didn't get told doesn't negate the circumstances that you're about to be exposed to but then there's a second kind of here the stoney hera look at verses five to six in matthew 13. the bible says some fell on stony places this is a little more critical because the heart the heart is hard where they did not have much earth couldn't get too deep they and they immediately sprang up because they had they had no depth of earth but when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root what happened they withered away now let me let me explain this one how can i say this lord without making people feel uncomfortable no i don't want to make them uncomfortable i want them to hear i've learned that when they get uncomfortable they don't want to hear anymore but listen to this there is a caution when people get too excited too fast about something they heard and they say i want to join your church right away what i heard today i want to join right away and i will say to them well let's have studies so that you can know what you're committing your life to because what is being said here is because because the lord couldn't get deeper than the surface in their lives it appeared as though they understood so clearly and comprehended so completely that they understood fully what was going on and they said i want to embrace it but what happened was because it was shallow the water didn't have to penetrate too deeply and there was easy access to the roots but because the root roots had no depth there was quick growth and quick death be careful that's why the bible says be anxious for nothing that which grows everything grows gradually when you plant corn it grows at a different rate than carrots and tomatoes everything grows at a particular rate god is saying when you grow in maturity it's better to grow in maturity and continue to grow consistently than to be excited about immediate growth and quick death what is he saying when you settle for surface understanding you miss the point when you neglect bible study and the deep searching of the scriptures it doesn't have time to take root when you don't dedicate yourself to the to the deep searching of the word of god and i've said this before but it fits right here our world has done a job on us right now i could go to google and ask a question and get an answer right away and my sabbath school class has learned that google is not always right amen sabbath school class this morning in our class we asked google what's the first day of the week said sunday we said google what's the seventh day of the week it said sunday google ain't always right but the bible is never wrong for those of you that want to get your answers quickly you don't get you don't get the depth like my teacher told me going to school and miss bates i'm sure she probably told us to our students don't read for the answers read for the information and the answers will come if you're just studying the bible because you want to answer the question and searching the internet just to get the answer you miss the journey the lord is saying you will learn more about me in the journey than just saying you can get from point a to point b and not need me in the journey that's why the christian life is not a run it's not a flight it is a walk because it is in the walk that the roots get deep it's in the walk that the relationship has depth it's in the walk the day-by-day walk with christ that the roots are developed so that when the winds and the waves and the rains and the storms of life come that's why one person that was into agriculture i mean to horticulture said to me he said whenever you see a tree standing in a field all by itself it's got deep roots what is he saying a tree that has deep roots don't need anyone to stand with it because it's anchored to the bedrock of its sustenance i want to be able to be able to be anchored to the bedrock of my sustenance not just need other people to stand if we are anchored to the bedrock of god's word we can stand with him by ourselves what do you say this is that temporary christianity he describes what kind of heroes that is look at verses 20 and 21 he makes it clear what kind of stony ground this was verse 20 of matthew 13 but he who received the word on stony places this is he who hears the word and what immediately receives it with joy but what happens yet he has no root in himself verse 21 but endures for a while for when what is the next word tribulation or what else persecution arises because of the word immediately he stumbles when you stumble because of what god's word says you're not allowing god's word to do its work don't allow yourself to be a surgeon of the bible allow the bible to be your surgeon to cut out what doesn't need to be there and put what needs to be there if there's something in the bible that offends you pray and ask the lord give me understanding soften my heart that i may receive the word some people say it's true i know what the bible says it's true but not right now i don't have the space in my life for it and i'm going to tell you my friend you could be the stony ground hero you could be the person hardening your heart like pharaoh did against a moment that god wants to transform and change your life but the text also points out tribulation and persecution which is another aspect of this that makes a difference if you're waiting for everything to be just right before you give your life to christ if you're waiting for the problems to settle down the devil is going to make sure the problems never settle down do i have a witness anywhere if you're thinking well as soon as i get things right i'm coming back to church the enemy is going to make sure things don't get right i've had people say i got up this morning ready and dressed to go to church and they give me the ex what happened what happened what happened what happened i know that some people get to church that's why when i see parents make it to church i said to god be the glory they have a strong faith because to get out of the house by yourself on sabbath morning is the task but i'm still trying to figure out the other side of that how on sabbath morning 9 30 seems early and during the week 7 30 seems late still trying to figure that one out so you just got it you get to work at 7 35 on monday you're late but you get to work at you get to church at 9 30. why so early it's the matter of the heart give god 9 30 and talk about us early give your employer 7 30 and talk about us late that shows the issue of the heart the bible says clearly in proverbs 30 and verse 5 every word of god is pure what is it pure he is a shield to those who put their trust in him don't be the stony person trust god's word and when god sees that you trust his word you know what's going to happen he's going to soften your heart how do i know that because i was raised that way i was a young man that fought against god's word i was that young man that knew what the bible taught knew what the church taught but i ended up being a disc jockey a gambler a partier a pool hustler living a life in and out of the mazes of the world and holding god's word behind me but praise the lord his patience is greater than our failure running around new york city on friday night gambling in queens in a pool hall during the sabbath discharging on the 44th floor on the world trade center friday night during the sabbath coming to church sleeping in the back almost broke my neck a number of times on the middle in the middle of the sermon but god said that's okay i'm still after him one day he sent this young lady after me and if you think angie doesn't have tenacity you you are you have another thing coming it took a whole lot of tenacity to wake me up but i'm awake today praise god for that but god is saying when you when you allow his word to do the surgery he can take you from where you are to where you will never imagine you can be so i'm not speaking about theory i'm talking about what i know and even after i gave my life to the lord for some time i was still partying still gambling giving bible studies at the base of the world trade center still going to church passing out party fliers on sabbath morning isn't god patient because if i was the lord i'd have taken me out on like aisle three no not in my church but god saw 20 21 thank you jesus he saw 2021 when i was living in 1985 or 1979. and he says i'm going to work on this young man his heart is not where i i know it needs to be but i'm going to make his road tough and my turning point was when i almost lost my life in a car accident on my way to a party to disc jockey on a sunday morning and my wife who's my girlfriend and my wife she was in the passenger seat i was driving we were in this little volkswagen i don't know how we got all that no we were in a honda civic anybody remember honda civics that's when they were small enough to fit in the ambulance i had two 15-inch speakers in the back seat had a 400 record albums two turntables power amps i know all my equipment was heavier than that car because when i pressed the gas the brake pedal in the rain it just slid and hit the back of a a big old american electric 225 they used to call it the deuce in the quarter back then remember that and that car didn't budge but i broke the windshield angie's head broke the windshield i bent the steering wheel and i said when we stopped uninjured i said lord if i lost my life here i would have been lost monday morning those albums were gone god had to bring me to a surgical point in my life to turn me around so let me tell you something if you're not there yet god's got an intersection for you he's going to come to you at your intersection because he's more concerned about your long-term life than just the things that are important to your heart amen somebody matthew 13 verse 7 makes it clear about what this issue was some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and what happened and choked them don't serve god for what you think he'll give you don't use god as your promoter don't think of christianity as a road to riches and don't give the devil more press than he already has but i'm going to end the sermon with this fact there's one more ground even though 75 of the production was negative god is saying there is still in this field of laborers in this field of individuals there's still somebody there that i can work with and thus we get to the good ground what kind of ground look at verse 8 of matthew 13. as a matter of fact i'll read the comfortable christianity first talking about the ground that was thorny here's the definition matthew 13 22 now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches what happens to that it chokes the word and he becomes unfruitful let me ask a question how many of you could use more money be honest raise your hand come on you broke folk raise your hand lying to yourself like yeah i ain't put my hand up i'm fine no you know you broke some of y'all don't even if some of you lost your job you're one paycheck away from the salvation army am i right so now let me ask you how many of you could use some more money i'm putting my hand up let's be honest with each other there's nothing wrong with that but when that supersedes your eternal goals god is saying when you stop considering the fact that i said i will supply all your need according to my riches and glory remember there's nothing wrong with money but it's our attitude towards it the love of money is the root of all evil abraham was rich was he rich solomon was rich uriah was rich only second to s to solomon in the bible david solomon's temple there were men in the bible that had great wealth matthew joseph nicodemus he financed a lot of the evangelism in the new testament church lydia the cellar of purple she helped the apostles in their camp meetings they had money there was no issue there but when that becomes the all-consuming factor the bible says it's going to choke the word the bible is going to die when you sit around reading those get rich quick books and you and you click on those things on facebook how to make twenty five thousand dollars in two hours read the fine print results may vary huh you know and people with these pyramid get rich quick schemes well now if you put this money in and you get five friends who put that money in and they get five friends to put that money in and they get five friends to put that money in we went to church once man the church almost fell apart everybody's sharing what they called tables amongst each other had to call the elders and deacons into rebuke elders trying to just get money from the members and the members trying to get money from other members and the whole church falling apart everybody want to be rich nobody thinking about heaven don't allow the deceitfulness the deceitfulness riches lie to you and they'll rob you riches will rob you of your eternal destiny if you allow them to supersede god sowing his word in your life now let's wind it up there's some good ground here matthew 13 verse 8 but others fell on good ground and yield of the crop some a hundred fold some thirty fold some sixty fold praise the lord can somebody say amen in the midst of all of this confusion there are those that are going to come out of this productive there are those people that are going to hang in with god long enough there are those people i believe here today that are going to say i am not happy with where my life is i want my life to be better i wanted to be what god just predicted i want my crop to yield a hundredfold maybe thirtyfold maybe sixtyfold i wanna be a productive christian i want my life to stand for something how did it happen look at verse 23 of matthew 13. but he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word of god and what else and understands it who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold some sixty some thirty you know what friends i'm going to invite someone to come forth and just play that come on pharah just play something softly for me because i'm going to challenge you today as i close because so many of us rely on our natural inclinations to produce a spiritual outcome you can't do that unless your heart is in the right place your natural inclinations will never produce a spiritual outcome your efforts that are human will never produce a divine product but when your efforts are combined with the power and the presence of the christ then you'll see the hundred-fold the sixty-fold the thirty-fold i'm gonna give you two very important points before i close i wanna show you why you can't rely on your heart you cannot rely on your natural heart to produce a spiritual result jeremiah said in jeremiah 79 why cannot why can't i trust this heart of mine i'm very well educated i understand life he says you can't trust your heart the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it he said you don't even know your own heart but who does god does and he wants to take your life from this humdrum spiritual existence he wants you to stand up one of these mornings during the week this week and say father i know there's got to be more to this thing called christianity than i've experienced thus far i don't want to be the kind of guy that's trying to trying to motivate myself i want to know that i'm standing on a solid faith a solid ground a solid trust that's why matthew when he looked at his life before and he looked at his life after christ here's what his testimony was in matthew 12 and verse 35 a good man out of the good treasures of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasures brings forth evil things how many of us want to have good treasures in our hearts hidden treasure the x marks the spot don't look for it it's right here if this gets in there it's going to do what the lord intends for it to accomplish but what is your part your part is a prayer david prayed it and i want us to pray that prayer today are you ready let's say it together let's say it together psalm 51 10 let's say it together ready created me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me let's say that one more time create in me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit with him if you mean that would you stand wherever you are i want us to stand and say that one more time because this is the heart of the matter it's not the heart but it's the condition of the heart when you stand before the kingdom he's going to ask what kind of heart were you listening with were your spiritual arteries clogged with the world were you caught in the turn style of indecision and decided to not decide for eternal life what kind of heart are you listening with don't be like felix who said i'm gonna wait for a convenient time don't be like pharaoh who hardened his heart against god but we want to do as hebrews said today hebrews 3 hebrews 3 verse 15 today when friends today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion you see the summary of this message is salvation is not just a matter of the heart salvation is the heart of the matter who i am tomorrow is not just a matter of the heart who i am tomorrow is the heart of the matter how i love how i live how i worship how i conduct my life and my business is not just a matter of the heart but it is the heart of the matter and i want to pray for you today that you will not put the issues of life aside in the matter of the heart or the matters of the heart but you say lord i want the heart of the matter to be my focus until you change my heart father in heaven the world will say it's just a matter of the heart but you're saying it is the heart of the matter where you stand when eternity rolls is the heart of the matter we can possess things and have things and buy things and live for things that bring us joy and excitement we can have a good job and a good life and a good sustenance we have could have money in the bank or not even money in the bank have great relationships we could have all of that and miss eternity by a thousand miles and so lord jesus i pray that you can do for all of us continually what we cannot do for ourselves clean out this heart unclog our arteries from the world but help us to be willing to ask you to do that help us to commit ourselves to you that you will work in us both to will and to do of your good pleasure we have young folk here today that are saying how is this going to work put your hand in the hand of a divine surgeon and he'll bring you out the other side with a clean heart don't worry about all the issues god will show you how those can be handled he will sort out the matters of your life and will get your heart ready for eternity is there one here today that says by the raising of hand father in heaven i want you to sort the matters of my life out i want my heart to be yours i don't want there to be anybody else on the throne of my heart but you i don't want there to be anything competing with the heart that belongs to you but but you i want this heart to hear your voice to desire your word to live for your glory and to live for your honor and when it's all said and done i want my heart to embrace your heart so that we can talk about the matters of the heart throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity this we ask in the precious and worthy name of jesus we pray [Music] amen you

Channel: Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Length: 71min 48sec (4308 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 10 2021