Hardness of Heart | Have Faith In God | Pastor Tope Koleoso

well we're in a series entitled have faith in god jesus said that it wasn't a suggestion it was uh it was an outright statement for you and i to immediately adopt have faith in god and the nature of this series is not really to excite you as much as it is to empower you to give you understanding from the scriptures how faith works and different components of faith okay last week we spoke about the source of faith in faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of god we spoke about uh god's word we spoke about the effect when faith is not in a life the debilitating effect of fear in a person's life and what that can be like and uh and and then just so the end prayed about that and of course led us into three days of praying and fasting and so today i want to speak to you about some of the the obstacles of faith obstacles of of faith and there are many obstacles of faith i'm going to speak about one in this sermon today most of it will be things reminding you to help you walk right with god it's entitled hardness of hearts that's where we're going let's pray father thank you for it's a time of corporate worship thank you for uh powerful words scriptures set to music that helps us sing back to you how great you are you you stand in the middle and you hold it all together and we're grateful you're the alpha and the omega nothing nothing is hidden from you and the eyes of the lord go to and for the face of the earth and so we know that your eyes are here upon us lord jesus today where would you let your word come to us that at the end of it we all be edified and jesus be glorified in jesus name and everybody said amen amen amen well so i'm going to speak to you about the hardness of heart and the first thing i'm going to talk about is the meaning of hardness what does it mean we talk about hardness of heart what does it mean the meaning of hardness well when you're talking about the heart the heart uh there is a physical side to the heart you think about the human heart okay it's an organ in the body and it's an organ that has a particular function without it the body doesn't work the person attributes and dies uh and therefore there's a biological side to the heart it is the engine that pumps the blood around the body and uh it's in in in accurate rhythmic uh you know uh method as it were you know in other words it's not just tachycardic that that's a disease when something like that happens you know it goes around in the right way when you're scared it increases and then all the time it decreases it has a basic level that it it is add but the blood goes all through the body just enough time by it to get back and to be pushed back again a good healthy functional heart creating flow and giving life to the body as it distributes nutrients all around it there is another way we use the word the heart and it's the romantic way okay uh you know boy meets gog or miss boy you know you know girls said oh my goodness me i think you know i think i may have fallen in love with him you know boy says yeah i think i'm all of that although i shared my first service out that uh kemi likes you know the romantic kind films don't want to watch films she wants the romantic ones you know they it doesn't matter how this story is all the same and uh so i you know so i watch it you know like a beautiful husband you know i try and be in it you know me i like the films where you know people get shot people die and uh you know they say somebody gets punished you go for it i know you're thinking why do we have this guy as our pastor you know but you know i know at the end of it everybody wakes up and goes home nobody really died but you know we watch that and uh so in the end we kind of make it equal you know we'll watch one of chemis and ten of mine and everything is fair and that's how it goes basically you know that's the romantic side of it you know he said talk about the heart a heart can be broken we say emotionally a heart can be built emotionally heart can be injured or wounded emotionally when the bible talks about the heart is talking about it spiritually talking about the spirit so when we're talking about the hardening of the heart we're talking about uh uh actually medically called sclerosis the hardening of the arteries on the outer part so it cannot function right and it begins to lose sensitivity okay and when the bible talks about hardness of hearts at the spiritual level there are different levels there different types the first one really is the one those who reject reveals truth those who reject god's word those who completely rejected they have no place for it and the bible talks about them romans chapter one says they suppress the truth because the truth is there and they just don't want to drown it out they suppress the truth because the things that you basically a basic level need to know about god okay uh are plain for all to see uh romans chapter 1 verse 18 to 28 somewhere there you see it all there you know you know he says you could the things about god are plain to see his invisible attributes his eternal power his divine nature you know you can see it and know okay there must be a god there's intelligent design behind all of this that may not have all the answers but somebody somewhere designed this that's why paul in book of acts chapter 17 walks around sees people worshipping an unknown god in other words there must know there must be someone that made everything to which it says this unknown god i'll tell you about him and he describes to them the god of heaven and brings jesus so there are those who want to submerge it they want to kill truth they have no regard for god even though they could see his divine nature and although he says although they knew god they did not honor him as god they did not thank him and their minds became futile and their hearts were darkened that's the light i'm looking for their hearts became darkened talking about the hardness of heart there are people who their hearts are just hard and calloused toward god and then but you have another level those who are yeah they kind of know god but they refuse god's way if you talk to them they'll be like you know i know there's a god i can't believe there's a god but they refuse they refuse god's way and uh a good example of that would be stephen in the book of acts acts chapter 7 you are stephen is speaking he's stephen is a godly man and people just can't bear what he's saying when he's telling them to live right in fact they're going to store him to death before they actually do that he preaches a sermon which is pretty firm that summer in which it calls them you stiff-necked people you know on circumcised of heart and of air you do always resist the holy spirit stiff-necked so they can't be moved no one comes from god can't move them a stiff-necked people uncircumcised of heart so when he says uncircumcised that heart cannot feel things have grown around it and it loses sensitivity on circumcised of health and of air all of this at the spiritual level you resist the holy spirit there are those who yes they are rejecting of god's truth they're those who are refusing of god's way and then there are those who just have an inability to quite perceive god's work and that can lead to a hardness of heart and that's the one we really want to talk about in this sermon those who is that inability so they're not against god why they love god they love god these we're going to go on to say they're christians that they love god but but sometimes they just can't see how that's going to happen they just can't see so they lose belief in god and that becomes an obstacle that obstacle creates such a hardness of heart hardness of heart and there are consequences when a heart is hard one of the key consequences is it becomes unrepentant towards sin when a heart is hard it doesn't repent anymore about sin in fact it has no regard for it you know he may have started that at some point because that's not right that's not good my goodness me so forgiveness put it right after a while if the heart is hard and it's getting harder and harder it doesn't repent any more of sin if anything it even now goes forward and then it justifies it uh one of the key examples in the scriptures about this is pharaoh or if ever you read the story of pharaoh in the book of exodus pharaoh is king over egypt god's people are slaves in egypt god wants to free his people from egypt and so he sends moses to go but he says to moses uh yeah you go but they won't listen he won't listen to you and the story is really particularly uh interested in this regard hardness of heart because when you read it you see the whole his heart was hard and heart was hardened a lot and in fact on a number of occasions it says and god hardened his heart to which you want to say well that's not so fair if god hardened and then blames it like calling the dog giving the dog a bad name and i said your name is so bad we're gonna have to shoot you be like that's not right well to really understand how the whole thing works here because god did harden pharaoh's heart but god hardened his heart it doesn't stop there where it starts from is when god said moses and said to moses he will not listen he will not his heart is already hardened toward god but go he's he will not listen but i will do miracles okay so that he can begin to change his mind well moses goes in and pharaoh would change his mind yeah you can go there after a while he will be like no you can't and each time he did that the bible writes it there that his heart was hardened his heart was hardened and because of the way it's written it's easy to miss it but the first six miracles that god does pharaoh's heart is hardened he is hardening his own our heart against god in the last four the bible puts it outright and god hardened pharaoh's heart in other words if god is trying to tell you something and you will not listen he'll wait god is patient he tells us to be patient so he certainly is his patients his patients he's trying to correct you if you won't have it he'll step back he'll step back he'll step back god stepping back allows other things to infiltrate and your heart becomes harder so that god's hardening of a person's heart has a process to it if ever there is a lesson the lesson is simply this when god is speaking to you don't harden your heart if today you hear his voice do not harden your heart as in those who did are rebellious toward god the consequences of a heart and heart are unrepentant another one is unforgiveness when people will not forgive others um if i hope that half time i come back to that when people won't forgive others they won't forgive those who've hurt them frankly sometimes they won't even let you go they won't forgive themselves it is one of the most destructive emotions uh unforgiveness in a person's life because it damages relationship with god even i'm talking about nice people and so the consequences of a heart and heart on repentance unforgiveness but the chief one i want to talk about today is unbelief unbelief where the bible will use the words of my faithlessness or the word unbelief this is this is this is massively important because you see jesus had to deal with this a lot in his ministry unbelievable and the thing is i used to really think oh it just has to do with the pharisees unbelief and the pharisees except on closer reading questions inspection i realized it's not just the pharisees in fact was sometimes his disciples in other words people like you and i where jesus had to deal with concerning unbelief and uh uh and some of them you really you think oh that's a little harsh for example luke chapter nine story just we just read in luke chapter nine jesus gets to this place a boy has a demonic situation and uh the father brings him and the disciples cannot heal the boy so jesus comes speaks into a situation sorted out but before he does he says he looks at his disciples and said your faithless generation how long will i be with you he says gentle jesus that you realize sometimes it looks like it got ticked off sometimes he got he got there was a righteous in other words he expected that they would be able to do this faithless generation faithless unbelief in mark chapter four it might chapter four that's actually that was interesting because in mark chapter four what actually happens there is that jesus is in the bold disciples are with jesus the storms come you know the story well and uh jesus awakens you know and he rebukes the storm and everything is fine that uh we thought we're going to die oh we're going to die all good all good so we jesus said wait a minute wait a minute feedback time guess them together why were you afraid why were you afraid do you still have no faith see the tone and the tenses of this statement matter because it basically means jesus expected them to have faith he expected this to be fine you should know is what he's basically i mean here i am in the boat with you considering everything else i've done you should know but they were just like um we were scared in mark chapter 6 jesus is walking on the water which is set up i'm not because he told her you just go i'll catch up with you they go the storm comes jesus is walking the storm is there they see him they think it's a ghost they're all screaming and terrified fully grown men they're wetting themselves and the odd poop when all of a sudden maybe not the odd poop but real fear can make you can make bowels go trust me you know and uh and uh so jesus comes and uh he fixes the whole through the psalms so he gets him with them and he's talking to them about this and it turns out they had no faith they had no they were faithless it was an unbelieving heart and this is what he says the reason they had that was because they didn't understand the miracle of the loaves hence their hearts were hardened would you leave that off from my own already exactly i was just paraphrasing there and it got into the boat with them and the wind ceased and they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the loaves but their hearts were hardened who would have put those two things together what is the bible saying it say they saw him feed people they've seen miracles despite everything they'd seen they just didn't get it they just didn't get it the point is this if god keeps doing things your life and you're not seeing it and getting it and celebrating and thankful for it your heart gets hard and that hardness of heart becomes an obstacle so that you no longer be you could live 50 years and not be the man or woman of faith you are supposed to be by now though you're reading the book the funniest one most tragic one i think is mark chapter 8. in mark chapter 8 jesus on the boat he's always under both god if you see lake nestorate they're always going to and through the holy jesus is getting the ball and they're going somewhere and he has is teaching them you know he's a he's a teacher on the move so he said to them you know these pharisees you need to be careful because the pharisees you know be careful about the level of the pharisees i was talking about lemon you're thinking about you know i don't know wheat or bread or it will care for the it came of the yeast the pharisees and now you know if you was that you would know this is jesus this is saying profound things profound his disciples heard him talk about the level they think oh he wants bread how did you jump from jesus talking about the pharisees talking about what you should be careful of what they just heard one word of bread and and then not just that as he's talking they begin to discuss among where's the bread who got the bread it turns out they forgot the bread you only have one love they're like oh one love whose job was it was your job you're your job you're from bartholomew's job because you think you know of all the disciples he didn't seem to do much you got one job where's the bread and jesus hears all this and he's like what are you discussing i mean here i am giving profound truths that generations on this planet forever will be still trying to tweak out through the centuries and there they are discussing bread as if jesus is talking about about bread they just don't get it they don't understand this is why understanding really really matters it's actually the same thing people do when they yank a verse right out of context and just just see one word and they just fly you don't understand what else is being said it doesn't produce what you think it ought to jesus was so upset that he said in fact i want to read this to you look at this could you put on the tv for me do you have it on the tv they don't okay well this is what he says he says to them okay i oh there it is okay and they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread and jesus aware of this said to them why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread why are you discussing this are there no more important things to this why are you discussing next slide it says this when i broke the five loads for the 5 000 how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up and they said to him to of and he said to his them and the seven for the four thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up and they said to him seven you see what jesus is saying he's like i'm teaching you profound truths you're talking about bread you're missing the point bread of all the things you could discuss bread okay okay okay you're just causing breakfast you say well yeah he forgot the bread i don't care about the what is wrong with these people okay even if we have a problem with bread and somebody forgot about the bread okay i have a question for you do you remember somebody because it's so dumb and it's crazy somebody doing a miracle where he used five loaves of bread to feed 5 000 people do you anybody remember that the disciples were there thinking oh yeah okay okay even if you forgot that one do you remember when i fed 4 000 people how many loaves did you have seven how many baskets did you seven do you think maybe miracle oh yeah you know from five loaves to have all of them on the first one for five thousand they had a basket each somebody must have thought wait a minute how did this happen but no they just served it's almost like he didn't realize it and the point is trying to make it i'm teaching you profound truth you're talking about bread there's a big lesson here if i want bread i'll make it so all this counsel by now the disciples they're trying to be show initiative quick no bread get on the wall order it by amazon prime to deliver if i want bread i'll just make some and then he goes on to say this put it back up from dinner he says do you not yet perceive or understand are your hearts hardened and that's the line having eyes but you do not see ears you do not hear and do you not remember it tells us the key things when it comes to your heart and heart when the heart is hardened the little miracles all around you you don't even see it because god moves in spiritual dimensions and we gauge everything with physical dimensions and so our hearts are always palpitating and fear is always coming to which is saying do you even remember things that i did in the past do you even do you even remember that's why all the miracles and all the healings they didn't remember and their hearts were hard and it's just like us hardness of heart is a real thing it's important for you to know about this and stay away from it because it is a subtle killer for a person in the christian life oh you'll make heaven but the life on earth becomes a perpetual struggle a perpetual struggle you will pray your for you do everything but if the heart is desensitized from touching god there's no remedy for it except the remains that he gives which i come to in a few moments this is a real and deadly thing it affects all of us we must be delivered from it because it's an obstacle to faith and to really really understand it what i always like to do is to try to show you how this thing affects us okay so for example you would have heard me say before in the past that the human being if i put it up on this led screen uh every human being has is made of the spirit soul and the body this is important okay and so when the bible uses the word the heart he uses it interchangeably with the word soul okay uh so every human being has a soul every human being has a has a heart okay now spirit soul and body this is important because what he's saying is that man has a spirit everybody does a man man is a spirit he has a soul and he lives in a body okay he is a spirit you are a spirit being before you're anything else you're a spirit being okay and then your spirit being that has a soul and you live in a body god is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth god is spirit you so just when you're worshiping it really needs to get beyond the emotions in the soul it needs to be your spirit connecting with his even latina winning connection does a huge thing in a person's life you're not just we're not just singing songs which is this is spiritual there like man is a spirit has a soul and he lives in a body and this is another way of looking at it is that when you're saved it is your spirit that is saved not your soul not your body is your spirit your abil your spirit is saved your soul is being saved so no one is perfect on day one or day 50 or day 50 000. we're all just in different stages of growing bible causes sanctification okay okay so you are saved and no one can take that from you once you're saved once you're saved by the spirit you are and then you are being saved the body well it's that one day you will be safe one day we'll all have new bodies it'll be great and so until now we have the bodies that we have the hands we've been dealt or whatever it is that we feed it and so we have the body okay now this is also important with the spirit you relate to god with the body you relate to the world but with your soul you relate to both this is why your soul is so important this is why you have to guard your soul or your heart with all diligence why because out of it will flow the issues the things that frame that frame life really really important now the soul being so important is in many ways it's like the command center it's not totally but it thinks it is you know it's the command center your mind your will your emotions are all in the soul the way that you think your worldview that you adopted apart it from background practice from books practically for experiences your mind your will you just have a bench towards certain things it's what makes us have different personalities we have different personalities and so you have your particular wills you have your emotions how you respond or react to different situations of life what makes you happy and joyful what turns you on what doesn't all of these things are in your soul it is your decision-making center it is the place of your choices it is a place where habits become entrenched and fully formed it is a place where your belief system really is is is worked through wrestle through and formed and then delivered to the spirit all this is about the soul now everybody is born with all those three like i said but you know you grow up over the years let's say now 15 years later he's grown okay or she's grown well what does she look like the next one shows us that this is what they look what you see that the spirit stays just the same because the spirit just doesn't grow spirit is spirit okay god doesn't grow older or younger god is god your spirit is what it is okay when you die and go to heaven your spirit will still live so the spirit doesn't grow your soul grows your but look at the body look at the soul and the body oh they're growing because this is a few years on i mean the chap has been eating no wonder he's growing but look most people pay we all pay so much attention to our body the bible will say pay more attention to your soul and to your spirit we pay an inordinate amount of because the body is the outside is what impresses people and all that stuff okay look at the soul over 15 years you'll be oh my goodness like i've been seeing all these kids after panda are you so tall now you're so big now you so never mind you're so tall now you know all of that they all grow trust me their soul is also growing they issue it what is it growing with that's 15 years by the time you're 30 years old okay the next one by the time you're 30 years old you're not look at your soul it's your soul is overweight you would have packed all kinds of things into your life okay look at your body your body is growing and you know instead of being talking about all the nice things you could have done uneaten i'm going to talk about uh let's just for you to get the point of this sermon the negative side everything you're eating okay you're 30 years old now if you've been eating all the mcdonald's you've been all your time in subway so you know you've been eating other i know you're saying you're thinking subway is nice i read the other well let not spoil their business but i read the other day that you probably read it as well they had there was a chicken burger and they tested it and they couldn't find chicken in the chicken all right all right you know but but there you are it's burger king it's kfc ksc you know that's me when we we're always too late oh we can't be bothered to just get it okay oh fine all fast food trust me what you feed your body with is waiting for you in the future it's waiting for you in the future on a couch sitting down your future you is just sitting waiting thoroughly content and wide that's what's gonna happen okay now you're feeling you're feeding all of that you know and by the way eating all this and tapping four greens of grains of peas won't do well that's another sugar story your soul on the other hand is also growing i'm going to tell your soul is growing much more because you're seeing things you're experiencing things you're being hurt by people you're leaving home you're making friends you're leaving friends you're studying moving failing passing all these things are depositing stuff in your soul and it's shaping who you are and i got to tell you something about the soul the soul is very selfish it is so selfish okay there's so many good things about it i'm trying to take you to the point of the issue it it is so selfish from when you're young i want it i want it till when you grow up i've seen i have seen people commit adultery when you see their husband or their wife you'd be like okay what else could you possibly want i mean this person is as stunning as good-looking as whatever because they see things and they think i want it and your soul if it's not controlled it's going to it it will wrestle you down until you give in to it you just got to have it i want it i want her all of that is in the soul are we talking about christians yes we're talking about christians the soul is selfish it just wants the soul this you know the soul you only if you're like me you go we go to a restaurant with you know i order my food can we order some food or can we order us my food you know we're ordering it and i'm the guy you know i and i'm if it's arrested i've never been before when i go to restaurant i basically order the same thing bathing for one restaurant they'll be like they don't ask me anymore right then gaming changes all the time me is always the same thing now here's the thing if you are the kind of person where you know you go to the restaurant you change once in a while you know and uh uh you change it to this one changes that one and so on ah the body the body is going to adjust but somebody like me sometimes they bring the food i'm new restaurant i'm checking it out i order something wonder how it comes 99 of the time when they bring mine it's good until they bring chemise then now i don't want this one anymore i don't you know i should have ordered that one you know then i said okay should we swap which way you know she in the early days she said yeah what's up now she's like no you know so sometimes the soul only has to see certain things only has to see it and it demands you have to have that one but i have this one it's like this one is rubbish this is done this is yesterday what will people say when you wear that what all of these things are in the soul the soul sounds all cute be careful because it's also self-centered in other words this is where ego lives whenever you've seen people driven by their ego unbelievable they believe too much of themselves this is where ego this is where self-entitlement lives where you think no no one can talk me like no one can no one can there's a sense i'm entitled to this really you might want to be careful christian before god shows you what you're really entitled to and it'll be a lot less than you have that's why the bible pays so much emphasis on gratitude learn to be grateful learn to be grateful this is where your character gets formed over time your character will get for why you should be careful those around your life because they will inject and install things before you know you're copying them if it's a good thing then great like paul says uh follow me as i follow christ but if it is not good you've learned how to you you say we're talking but it's gossip it's tearing people down we're doing it but it's cheating you all of these things it's gonna wreck your life and it need not be so because the soul just absorbs it you see the soul essentially in the end it's self-destructive it it just it's like do you want to kill yourself it doesn't care much about the future self-destructive and it just keeps growing the soul has no capacity to stop it will just keep go you keep feeding it see the body at some point at some point the body is going to begin to break down it can't grow anymore the soul will just keep absorbing things absorbing things absorbing things therefore be careful what you feed your soul most people don't realize you have so much in there honest truth be told you need to feed your spirit and starve your soul of all the different things that you've been feeding they are not good for it because all the images that are unwholesome that you're feeding it trust me it's coming back to roost and it's going to rule you your voices that you're listening to that you shouldn't be ungodly one the suggestions that are unrighteous they're appetites that are unhelpful all of these things matter because the soul when you go so big it gets out of control no one can control it it gets out of control it's basically in control it will tell you what to do which is why sometimes your spirit will be willing to do the right thing your soul is going to say you what it will beat up your spirit look how big the soul is it's huge it will just it'll beat it up every single time every single time is why i like you know i was thinking first of all i was telling them that you know okay so this is this is melody my assistant everybody upload melody yeah yeah yeah yeah this is melody okay so melody so uh wait wait wait wait wait wait this is melody she's uh she's nearly born again sorry actually she is okay so this is you you go to church on a sunday right the pastor put the camera on melody melody is the spirit okay the pastor preaches the word so she preaches preaches the word from the spirit to the soul okay go and preach the word and your soul goes every time the past is god is good god is amazing god loves you you believe it on sunday until monday comes your spirit wants to say to the soul also god loves you oh really does he does it no more anxieties here i'll tell you what to do with your anxieties go and go joy in jesus i'll tell you what to do with it go on all these things you believe it on sunday thanks we're done we you'll be leaving on sunday until monday when monday comes or tuesday in fact the enemy knows you're still kind of hot on monday you'll wait around thursday to take you out by thursday he's going to let a text come a message come an email something somewhere to just dampen your spirit and all the sermon and all the everything just drains right out why because the soul although the spirit is willing the flesh that one is just it's just weak the soul has not been trained it is basically out is out of control how does one fix this because if it's there's no control there's no discipline there's no restraint there are no boundaries in that life it's going to be a problem it's going to be a massive massive massive problem how does one begin to fix this i'll tell you this you need to get to the place in your life where you recognize it has to go my heart is getting hard my heart is getting hard you notice it in worship you're not you're not in the way you used to be you notice that convenience is what trumps everything else you notice that it's easier for you to harbor sin it's easier for you to to to be you there's a character in you brewing that is not of god you find it far far more difficult now to just let things go and now because the heart is hard you can't receive the word you can't retain the word you have no capacity for the word you open the bible you have the all the intentions of reading you open the scriptures and the first thing that will come you will fall asleep anything else you won't fall asleep when it comes to this holy bible you fall asleep because there's somebody there's something going wrong not just emotional is spiritual maybe one of the biggest ones is unforgiveness it causes hardness of heart and it's caused by where you won't let things go i was speaking just no somebody told me sorry pastor jack hayford i don't have time to tell your story maybe next time i'll tell you somebody many years ago his father was somebody was working in their church going back mostly like 40 years and the father was working the church and some things happened and they had to let him go let the let the guy go many years later the guy's son wrote him joking for the letter and then writing him the letter he spoke to him about how wicked he was what he did to his dad letting the dad go that the dad never recovered in his faith that thing really hurts his dad and he just wrote everything and uh and uh he jackie ford then told me the full story they'd improv in wanting to protect that man they protected him and told enough for the congregation that should be sufficient for anyone who just isn't nauseous or a storyteller and they were fine but they protected the son from the full extent of what their father did but the point is the boy grew up just hating hatred hating him lack of and when he forgets the letter i mean he's teaching me a big lesson in life for which i'm so thankful to god for he writes back to the son because now you can tell the sun the full thing so that the sun can know but the father is so much older now and i think there was some things medically wrong with him and he wrote back apologizing to the son i'm sure we could have done things better on both sides i mean you could have no no you could have given it to him to know but he's caring for the father and he's caring for this son that if he knew what his father did i think it would wreck his life forever as a shepherd that's it he was teaching us to say this you pastor it doesn't mean everything is hidden no you know you have to open to people and let them know but the whole time behind in your spirit how do i pass to people through but the point i'm trying to make is this the boy had unforgiveness in his heart against somebody who was innocent don't tell me the enemy isn't involved in these things don't turn the enemies involved in these things unforgiveness is one of the most destructive things like a malignant cancer it will work its way through everything slowly you don't see results until much later by which time yeah it can be fixed but the damage is done that's why the bible says in hebrews chapter 12 see that no one fails to obtain the grace of god that no root of bitterness comes through why because in the soul if your soul is full of these things it's got all kinds of roots growing in there and the world just cannot grow there and that's why jesus in trying to explain this to people told the parable of the sower i said the sower goes out to sow and he's just throwing the seed the seed is the word of god it's there every sunday for all to hear every time for anyone who wants it he said but some fell on the path where the birds came to eat it they just took it away they devoured it it's the person who the word of god on a sunday you hear it but by the time you walk it's all gone it's not just a lack of memory no it's not just a lack of memory it's something is taken away from you every time that we should do your good you see the seed is important because the way to get rid of all the junk in the soul is that the seed needs to go in once it's embedded in it has a strong life of its own and it will begin to grow grow grow and it will eventually flush out all these other things in other words the way to beat the problem it's not just don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this that's that that will use something but the way the bible does it is that you you have the engrafted word which is able to save your souls that's what the bible says james 1 21 they engrafted it's into your soul and then it just begins to grow grow grow grow and it flushes out the other things and before you know it your appetite is changed before you know it your character has changed this is how it's done it takes time because you are 30 years of dumping junk she's going to take a while to walk through he says the sower goes out and some of them fell on rocky soil on the rocket on rocket saw these are the ones who oh this it goes out but because it's rocky the roots the root there are no roots it's got no roots it says it they have no roots in themselves it's the person who hears the word but they never really take time to get the word and for themselves go into the scriptures it's only what they hear in the sermons that's important but there's a reason he gave us the word there's a reason his bible begins with uh god in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth in the beginning john chapter one it says you know and he gave us the word and the word became flesh in the beginning was the word there is a reason for youtuber to pick it up and read there are many parts of the world they don't have this i must have like 20 different bibles in myself not even electronic ones it's available everywhere no time in the history of humanity has the bible be more available and no time has it been read less it's quite an indictment there has no root in themselves they never learned to be self-feeders they never learned to actually what i heard there let me go over it again so it endures for a while but you all when the trials come and the persecutions come every word falls on account of the world everything falls away it says some fall on the thorns the ones that fall on the third people that they hear the word but it gets choked by what oh by the cares of this world the children uh my wife uh the husband the car uh the mot the all of these things got to the things i want to be my calling my calling where i want to go oh my goodness i'm all the way back all my mates are here all these things the deceitfulness of riches says the cares of the world the deceitfulness of riches and desires all kinds of this are your desires wholesome and godly really it says it chokes it and in the end it's just unfruitful so these are people hearing the word every sunday but it's not pretty of saying oh but then for some it falls on good soil and here they hear these are the ones who hear and they accept it they hear it they accept it and it brings forth fruits 30 60 100. you've got a space there in your notes you might want to write this down it won't come up because i'm just brilliant all of this the lessons here this you need to discipline the soul a life of in discipline is going to get wrecked in the end disciplines your emotions deeply your appetite discipline you discipline yourself simplify your life what is it in your life you need to cut out you don't have to have everything you don't have to be everywhere you don't have to do everything you don't have to be the life of the part what do you have to cut out and simplify it i don't mean go lazy on god because i'm going to come back to show you god is the one that should be the foremost discipline your life is that what i said if you also simplify your life but then prioritize the word the word is the solution because if i showed you a seed and show you a sakova tree that grows for hundreds of years really you would not believe that that thing came from that seed which means that seed has an inherent power inside it that cannot be stopped it's the same thing with the word of god if the word goes engrafted into your soul it will so produce it will be so powerful that it flushes out everything how do you get it to get there i'm going to close with this well how does one reverse the hardness of heart the answers are in your notes i put it there on purpose for you you know daily meditation the bible daily encounter with the spirit no matter how small that's in the place of prayer just a daily encounter you probably think as pastor i have huge encounters like this you know on the mountain no i don't i pray i'll stay still i have a moment with god i'll speak in the spirit i do that quite a bit and he will just drop some i'm just looking for just a brush and then obedience to the prompting whatever he says to you do it how does one meditate on the word this is how i do it and i'm going to help you with this you want to write these five things down they're not in your notes and i think it's going to help you number one if you could put it up for me here when you read the text you then want to say what does it say about god what does it say about god because it does say something about god and if you're reading text i'd advise you know read like a whole section or a chapter a day you can do this second question is it what does it say about people what does it say about people if you ask me this what was read to us earlier on what does it say about god i will tell you this it tells me that when god sees a father who is hurting for his son when god sees a human being whose life is being taken over by the enemy he wants to change it what does he say about people it says no i'm just going through a story it says that people have hurts and they have pains then the third question what does it say what what is god saying to you that's question what is god saying to me as a result of this which leads me to number four which is what am i gonna change what will you change that's the point of obedience and will you actually and then finally the last one which is who will you tell until you tell someone the full cycle is not done which is why you love to look for some who you're gonna tell look for who you're gonna tell it's why when we go into our small groups the opportunity to tell don't just be quiet there say something it doesn't have to be right just don't say something say something there this is my prayer jubilee because i know it's what god wants that we become self-feeders people who love the world the charismatic church almost left the world behind and run with the spirit and i think the spirit is saying you need the word i know those who love the word i want nothing of the spirit i still resist the spirit but listen the word and the spirit there's no substitute for it that we must be self-feeders i pray i see in my mind's eye and it will happen in jesus name thousands of bible studies in the life of this church that is not just in small groups of course we're going to put the bible right there put these questions right there but it's also just friends walking and just talking yeah then i read it and then i said jesus did such as it's just impromptu spontaneous that we're talking god's word and it's so that it's on our head and on our hearts and all over the place the bible says the old testament that's how it's supposed to be that you'll be self-feeders that you'll be hungry while you hear foundation scores do it half the things i'm teaching when found in foundations course really you know i'm expanding on it now or deeper where we low go through the bible book by book it's there for you that you may bear it may bear fruit but i know this work because my brother who was suffering by christian brother here in the life of the church for many years was addicted to pornography when he came to talk to me about it and i was and i just showed him the place of the world i didn't bind any devil or anything i said it's going to be a journey i'm just going to embark not even reading verses on thou shall not commit pornography just the bible if you have an appetite for it it has a way of going in and flush it out and i love because when he tells the story of how just the apple it's gone the power of it is broken the word is powerful to a sword it's the sister who used to be so fearful in life married to a non-christian husband who was like a demigod in the house and she had no voice until i just showed her how to walk with god from the scriptures and now is strong strong and says no to certain things frankly i had the right to even move on you know become so strong as a person whose identity was constantly tampered with by the devil but because they have a walk with the word of god they know how to meditate on a day and night they become like a tree planted by tree by streams of water it lives down with and in due season everything works everything works read your bible because there you will find eternal life everybody stand i'm going to pray close end estan let's have the band to come up real quick you know the story that was read to you i know the time begun but i want to leave you with this one of the most powerful things about that is that jesus sees the situation he tells the disciples you of you have no faith but then there's something else that happens he says to the father what is what is going on here because when he say bring the sun and the sun begins to form at the mouth everything goes so horribly wrong most people would have feared jesus just stood i said how long has this been going on and he's speaking to the father he engages him and the father said he's been like this for such a long time and jesus showing compassion drawing real compassion to him and jesus says to him well you know don't fear all of this will be taken care of and the man says to jesus i do believe but help my unbelief [Music] i can't tell you how much i love it because that's me often there are moments in my life where i do believe but but and i can tell you that man says i do believe but only have i have unbelief too and the whole thing you set up for jesus to say well i only do believe i don't do unbelief i don't do unbelief i only do believe jesus did not do that he went ahead and healed that boy which tells me despite my unbelief his goodness is greater and in his goodness he sees my weakness and he stands in the middle he holds it all together but he wants me to grow up the eye to become someone that others can depend on as i point them to christ we're going to close with this song but in my heart i'm saying to you pleading with you preaching to you challenging you pick up the bible learn about jesus growing god amen

Channel: Jubilee Church London

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Id: G6Z4fFh84xM

Length: 54min 54sec (3294 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021