Step 2. Find REST and RESTORATION in the authority of Jesus Christ. (Luke 6:9-10)
Step 3. Seek FORGIVENESS for your CRITICAL SPIRIT. (Luke 6:11)
Solution to a Critical Spirit:
Step 4. Forgive your CRITICS . (Luke 6:2, 7)
Guest Speaker - Luke Ahrens
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:05
I recently did a little thing and I didn't realize it the entire time, but the mic went out.
00:05-00:10
The acoustics were really cool in that building and I, um, fortunately that worked out.
00:11-00:17
It's really great to be with you. You just said some very nice words to us, Jeff, and we love you and Aaron.
00:18-00:20
And it's just a privilege to be partners in ministry together.
00:21-00:26
You know, sometimes it's good for us all to know we're part of a bigger fellowship that God is working in.
00:26-00:30
I heard some of the missions, opportunities you've been taking advantage of in Romania.
00:31-00:31
It's very exciting.
00:32-00:34
We had an opportunity to go to Nicaragua this year.
00:35-00:42
God is doing great through our fellowship, our broader family of churches, and God is using that.
00:43-00:47
Also, I have to say, I just had that envious of you.
00:48-00:50
You have a really nice facility here.
00:50-00:56
Compared to ours, and I said that to Jared, he's like, "Actually, the other place you'd be there for the rest of the year is even better than this.
00:56-00:58
So I'm really enjoying it with Envy.
00:58-01:02
You can pray for me on Envy's end as I preach the word to you today.
01:04-01:11
My final message today is a Jesus over a hard heart.
01:13-01:16
Jesus over a hard heart.
01:16-01:19
Now maybe you didn't think of coming to church with a hard heart this morning.
01:22-01:29
I think all of us can say that God is working hearts. Amen. I have to say I'm going to need your help in preaching this message.
01:29-01:52
I preached this message a few weeks back to our church family and God used it in all of our hearts and I'm praying that God's going to speak to your heart and my heart today as he spoke to my heart a few weeks ago through this message. Now, I'm guessing at some point you've gone to the doctor.
01:54-02:28
If you go to the doctor and maybe you're just having a random small thing, maybe you have a break of finger or you fracture something small, and you go to the ER, and as you're in the ER, and they start doing tests and stuff, and suddenly, they start having some problems, and you can sense that the urgency is going up a little bit, and then after a and say, "Sir, or ma'am, we need to pull you "into this other room, we need to do some more tests on you." And you're like, "What's up?
02:28-02:40
"I just think I might have broken my finger." Well, they did some more tests and more tests, and then they turn to you and they say, "You know what, actually, you may not have known this, "but you have a very serious heart issue.
02:40-02:42
"Pulse is tipping us off of some things.
02:44-02:47
"You're not gonna need this building.
02:47-02:52
In fact, more and more, we can walk it out along, we're gonna be doing open heart surgery.
02:53-02:55
How many of us are like, whoa.
02:58-02:58
Okay.
03:00-03:05
I wanna tell you, if you've ever had that experience or had someone you know, that's obviously very intense.
03:06-03:15
I wanna tell you about something far more important than that, and that is a spiritually damaged heart or a spiritually hard heart.
03:16-03:19
That's what we're gonna talk about today because that's what God cares about in our life.
03:20-03:22
Is my heart where God wants it to be?
03:22-03:23
There's no hope.
03:23-03:25
My physical heart is not where it's supposed to be.
03:25-03:25
I got an issue.
03:26-03:27
I got a big issue, okay?
03:28-03:30
If my fingers are broken, no worries.
03:30-03:33
If my heart's broken, that's a big worry.
03:33-03:34
That's what we're gonna talk about today.
03:34-03:38
If you wanna open your heart, then you need a Luke chapter six.
03:39-03:43
The gospel of Luke chapter six, verse one.
03:43-03:54
I always mention verse one because I know some of you are looking in your iPad and you're like, "I need to know the verse." So, chapter six, verse one, the Gospel of Luke.
03:56-04:06
I think it's fair to say that probably every one of us knows someone that has an issue with a hard heart.
04:07-04:08
You all remember that?
04:09-04:15
Everyone in this room knows someone that has an issue with a hard heart.
04:16-04:23
Now, if we're honest, you would admit that some of us, that someone, does.
04:25-04:31
I want to talk to you about that because here in Geelong, right, the month of independence, the month of freedom.
04:32-04:34
We celebrate that as Americans.
04:36-04:38
In fact, this state, you host the Liberty Bell.
04:40-04:46
My heart for us today, I believe God's heart for us today is defying freedom from a hard heart.
04:46-04:48
If you agree with me, I say amen.
04:49-04:51
All right, let's go to God's word here.
04:51-04:56
We're gonna look at four steps to restoring a hard heart.
04:56-04:59
Let's begin reading chapter six, verse one.
05:00-05:06
It says on the Sabbath, which was Saturday, but it was kind of like our Sunday, was the day for worship.
05:07-05:31
So then the Sabbath, while he was going, Jesus, was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. They were literally going through the fields, and as they were going, they were kind of grabbing a little wheat or barley and rubbing it in their hands, and just kind of chewing on it as they were going on their way.
05:32-05:47
Was an ancient like snack you know they didn't have like a little thing where you put two quarters in and you get like chips or something that was kind of so they're going along and they're plucking these head, but some of the Pharisees Who were hanging out with them said?
05:48-05:54
doing What is not all to do on the Sabbath?
05:56-06:06
I need to talk to you just for a moment about these We're also going to hear about the scribes.
06:08-06:15
This was a religious group that was, you might say, the evangelical conservatives of the day.
06:16-06:20
They were the people that were absolutely committed to God's word.
06:20-06:24
They would die for God's word, much like we would.
06:24-06:25
We love God's word.
06:27-07:31
And yet, they had gone to such an extent Legalism had gone in for their hearts and they had come to a place where instead of becoming soft by God's word They become hardened in pride Remember a story and when I what am I John before I moved here like Jeff I was in the training center from Chicago before we planted our church in Columbus Four and a half years ago But before that I was actually in the training center a couple years earlier And I kind of did a I guess I wasn't ready to church plant And so I kind of detour and I had some of you for a kind of James McDonald I'm being his assistant for a couple years and just kind of work with them and that kind of get me ready to go church plant So I traveled in and you just bring anything But basically glorified assistant and I would try with him when we were in this one trip to North Carolina it's a big state convention for the Southern Baptist and he was preaching there and It's kind of a big deal for him, and so he's going to lots of people and we arrive and they have a lunch ready for us.
07:31-07:49
I guess it was for all the speakers at this convention. So we're about ready to go into this lunch, and there is this lady standing, kind of sitting on a stool right before the entrance door, checking off people when they had access to this lunchroom. I guess it was like a thing to be in this lunch.
07:50-07:52
And so, you know, they were checking people off.
07:52-07:54
Well, I walked up and I gave them names.
07:54-07:57
The great thing about having a name Aaron is you're always up and down the list.
07:57-07:58
They find your name like that.
07:58-08:00
They don't find your name like that here in trouble.
08:00-08:02
'Cause there's no one down on the list that you're hiding.
08:03-08:06
And I walked up and they're my names, Luke, Aaron.
08:06-08:25
And she looked down the list, she goes, "No, I'm not finding it, not finding it." And I said, "All right." And she turned to the other guy, "Who are you?" "I'm James McDonald." "Oh, I see you, you can go in." All right, so you and what was your name again Aaron?
08:25-08:28
So I'm not fighting it. What's it?
08:30-08:41
Like I'm with him. I have a little him. He's like yeah, he's with me. We just go over No, sir. I think not on the list. He can't go into the launch What?
08:42-08:56
I'm sure we've all experienced right or somebody is just so stuck in the world that I can't you know take my little boss So what do you feel like saying you have one word to say to that person or that experience? What is it?
08:58-08:58
Like what do you say?
09:00-09:26
All right, that's yours Come on, we ask the insurance. Okay, what we would really say with the passes that around I'm fast. I think really Maybe any of you say that I say that about everything like really Like there's the "Really?" and then there's like "Really?" Like I just want to say to our spouses or our kids sometimes when they do something like a knucklehead, right?
09:26-09:33
Right now I'm just going to say, "When Jesus heard this, what was Jesus thinking?" I'll tell you what Jesus was thinking.
09:35-09:58
He's like, "Really?" "Really." So my disciples are walking through the grain field, which was completely allowed by the law, you could snack on the grain that was allowed by the law, and he's like, "You're Saturday What was already been thinking And I'm just gonna ask you and maybe you're not used to this Jeff's a really good preacher I'm not I'm still getting there, so you're gonna have to help me with this message, okay?
09:58-10:16
So when you feel like it's an appropriate time in the message. We're gonna like yeah, I'm sick of this I'm really cool with that, okay Here we go here. We go. Oh, I'm gonna go over to activist really quick exit is 20 Why? What was this whole idea of Sabbath?
10:16-10:18
I do want to get the biblical perspective.
10:19-10:24
I think it's twenty eight, twenty, verse eight through eleven says this.
10:25-10:28
God said in the Ten Commandments, he said, remove the Sabbath day, keep it holy.
10:29-10:32
The sixth day you shall labor and do all your work.
10:32-10:35
But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God.
10:36-10:37
You shall not do any work.
10:37-10:44
You are your son or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
10:44-10:50
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
10:51-10:59
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and made it all a living." Now, that was the biblical teaching.
11:02-11:03
Here's the problem.
11:03-11:21
The evangelicals of the day, the scribes, the Pharisees, they took the law of Sabbath, thought it intended as a good thing for the people to have from their labor to sign it, worship the Lord, to adorn the Lord together.
11:22-11:32
But instead, they were so amped up about, "I've got five" - not even five, they have like 500 rules about how you could keep the Sabbath.
11:34-11:37
I just want to get your really thing going.
11:37-11:40
I was reading John MacArthur about this.
11:40-11:41
He had some great things.
11:41-11:46
Now, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the Talmud.
11:47-11:54
The Talmud is some religious Jewish writings, kind of like their commentary on God's word.
11:55-12:04
And he gives a couple of things here about the Talmud and the teaching that the Pharisees and the Scribes would have had about the Sabbath.
12:04-12:06
I just don't see if this is just crazy or what.
12:07-12:24
In the Talmud, I'll just put this, by the first century, the Talmud had accumulated a number of extra-biblical restrictions for the Sabbath and regulations for it, so much so that it had become the most oppressive and burdensome day of the week.
12:25-12:35
The Talmud devotes 24 chapters to Sabbath regulations, describing in painfully exhaustive detail what was and what was not permitted.
12:36-12:49
The result was a ridiculously complex system of external behavior restraints, so much so that one rabbi spent two and a half years studying just one of the 24 chapters.
12:51-12:55
Now, I thought it'd be really interesting to kind of see what these rabbis looked like.
12:55-12:58
Would you like to see a picture of them discussing the Talmud?
12:58-13:24
I really having a good time good. I have a picture here. I think we'll pop it up here Here's some guys you can just see what they're doing. I love the guy here. He's so fired up on the right It's that guy. He's not really sure They're kind of talking here Among the favorite guy without obsession is the board I really he's like I mean, he's just like really come on man. You really believe that isn't that what he's saying right there. Did you see it?
13:28-14:51
Okay talking about. Arthur continues, "For example, these Talmud teachings traveling more than 3,000 feet from a hole most forbidden." Most of us wouldn't even have gone to church then, unless you live next door. But, if one had placed food at the 3,000 foot point before the Sabbath on Friday night, that point would then be considered whole since there was food Allow another three thousand feet of travel so hypothetically if you can pull you know I'm going back to the one of the rings if you could have breakfast and then like Second breakfast and then you could spread this out. You guys are probably go a significant distance as long as you spread it out What was Jesus thinking again Really really really? Well, why you're on that? I just get you more amped up If a person didn't reach out to pick up food when the Sabbath began the food had to be dropped To bring the arm back while holding food would be to carry a burden on the Sabbath You're getting it now just keep louder is great, okay Here's another one clothes could not be examined or shaken out before being put on because an insect might be killed in the process Which would be work?
14:51-14:53
(audience laughing)
14:53-14:54
I'm not making this up.
14:55-14:57
Here's my favorite one.
14:58-15:07
Bathing was forbidden lest water be spilled on the floor and wash it, which was considered war.
15:08-15:08
(audience laughing)
15:10-15:12
And this is where things have gone.
15:13-15:14
This is where things have gone.
15:20-16:18
say this, as we go through the text here today. God's Word, the Bible as we would call it, God's Word plus man's rules equals trouble. Don't ever forget that. I had a discussion with somebody about this this week in my own church. God's Word plus man's rules always equals trouble. Listen, we believe in treating the authority by the Word. What God's Word says we do amen to that okay but but God's word plus a whole bunch of man's rules mixed in that's a problem it's also called legalism hey maybe today you're hearing things in the newspaper about liberalism all these crazy things going on all over the world we just tell you that's a problem but the other side of the problem is people who create this whole religious system around Jesus That's not good.
16:19-16:20
You're going to see that today.
16:20-16:21
That's what creates hard hearts.
16:21-16:23
Now look at verse three with me quickly.
16:24-16:29
It says, "And Jesus answered them, 'Have you not read what David did when he was hungry?
16:30-16:43
He and those who were with him," you can read that story in 1 Samuel, "how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the present, which is not lawful for any, but that breaks the eat, and also gave it to those who were with him.
16:43-16:48
Jesus giving an example to them, "Back to me, O Testament, thank you, for the bread Haven't you even read your own Bible?
16:48-16:50
Don't you know that there's exception?
16:50-16:53
Don't you know that there's a greater purpose at work here?
16:54-16:59
Then he says this, verse five, most important verse in the entire text.
17:01-17:14
He said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Now, here in Luke, I love Luke, that's my namesake.
17:15-17:18
Here's the thing, Luke tells all the stories in his book.
17:18-17:23
His book's the longest, the longest gospel, but he doesn't always put all the information that happened in every story.
17:24-17:26
We can actually get that from some of the other gospels.
17:26-17:35
And I wanna turn, I'm gonna turn a couple times I'm gonna do this, but I wanna turn quickly to Matthew, who's picking up on the same story in Matthew chapter 12.
17:37-17:43
Jesus is giving another example that Luke leaves out in his particular telling of the story.
17:44-17:57
And Matthew says this, that Jesus said, "Oh, have you not read on the Sabbath, "the priest in the temple profane the Sabbath "and our guiltless." I mean, they're working, they break the Sabbath, but they're guiltless.
17:58-18:02
Jesus said, "I tell you, "something greater than the temple is here.
18:02-18:08
"And if you had known what this means, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
18:08-18:14
"You would not have condemned." What is Jesus saying here?
18:14-18:22
It says, listen, in verse five it says, "The Son of Man is Lord the Sabbath." What he's saying is, listen, I'm God.
18:22-18:24
I'm bigger than the Sabbath.
18:24-18:26
Then he says it in this other text in Matthew.
18:26-18:35
He says, "Something greater than the temple, "something greater than the Sabbath is here." It's me, it's God.
18:35-18:43
And sometimes we Christians get so wound up, or maybe you're not a believer here today, and you're wound up about religion.
18:44-18:46
It's about doing things this way.
18:46-18:51
It's a horizontal religion where we should do it this way, we should do it this way.
18:51-18:52
The fabric should be green, no it should be blue.
18:52-18:55
We get into all these discussion, okay?
18:56-18:58
And Jesus is saying, "Listen, listen, forget about that.
19:00-19:06
"All true worship is vertical." And he's saying, "I'm the second person of the Trinity.
19:08-19:09
"I'm the one who made up the rule about the Sabbath.
19:11-19:12
"Something greater is here.
19:13-19:15
Don't get lost in the...
19:15-19:16
Can I have a break?
19:16-19:16
Oh wait, that's...
19:17-19:17
Do I need to read it?
19:17-19:18
No, no, no, no.
19:19-19:21
He said, "Get out of that!" Really?
19:22-19:24
Something bigger is here.
19:25-19:25
Something bigger.
19:31-19:37
If you want to write down the first of these four steps, four steps to restoring a hard heart, here's the first one.
19:39-19:59
point is the yield to the authority of Jesus Christ. Now the story would change dramatically at this point if these Pharisees had said, "Oh, you're Jesus! Oh, we get it now! You're the authority!" We totally would get off that what we were saying. Now did Jesus have the authority to say what he said?
19:59-20:05
Did he have the authority to interpret what the Sabbath was about? Absolutely he did.
20:06-20:15
The question for our lives, if we're to find freedom from a hard heart, is to yield to the authority of Jesus Christ.
20:17-20:20
Now, let me just say this to you.
20:22-20:25
This is where the enemy fights the hard way.
20:28-20:59
The enemy, the devil, the enemy of our souls fights here first, because if he wins here, wins all. If he can undermine the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority of God's Word, he wins. That's why the biggest debate in our country today is not what are people doing, it's who has authority to decide what is right and wrong. We believe that it's God's Word.
21:00-21:12
Now, all the way back to the garden, what was the thing that the serpent, the enemy in the garden said to Eve?
21:12-21:21
He said, "As God said." He was trying to undercut the authority of what God had said right in the beginning.
21:21-21:25
That's been going on until this morning, and it will continue this afternoon.
21:29-21:30
Let me encourage you with this.
21:32-21:37
There is no freedom from a hard heart without yielding to the authority.
21:38-21:42
In fact, there's no freedom from sin, there's no freedom from anything.
21:42-21:51
Whatever burden you brought this morning, the only freedom you will find will you will find when you yield to the authority of Jesus Christ.
21:51-21:56
The only decision you're making in life, as I heard one guy say once, is choosing who your authority will be.
21:57-21:58
That's it.
21:58-22:07
I believe for me, I'd be my own authority slash on the enemy authority, but I'm gonna make my own rules and be my own boss, or I'm gonna come under the authority of Jesus Christ.
22:07-22:14
But it's under the authority of Jesus Christ that we find freedom and hope and love and forgiveness.
22:16-22:17
Questions whether you'll heal.
22:19-22:20
I'm gonna continue here in the text.
22:20-22:22
Look at me with verse six.
22:24-22:31
It says on another Sabbath, so we're talking about two different Sabbaths, It says, "He, Jesus, entered the synagogue and was teaching.
22:33-22:37
And a man was there whose right hand was withered." Now, get your really ready.
22:38-22:49
"And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him." - Hallelujah.
22:54-22:59
"But he knew their thought, and he said to the man with the withered hand, I come and stand here.
23:00-23:01
Rose stood there.
23:02-23:07
Jesus said to them, I asked you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm?
23:08-23:11
To save law or to destroy it.
23:12-23:14
Now we're looking around at them.
23:14-23:17
He said to them, we said to him, stretch out your hand.
23:18-23:22
He did so and his hand was restored.
23:24-23:25
Look at verse nine.
23:25-23:39
It says, Jesus said to them, He was a lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm save life or to Destroy Jesus was looking into their eyes and he would say what is the purpose of Sunday?
23:40-23:49
That without What is the purpose of having this day of rest? What is the purpose that God is looking for in?
23:50-23:51
What is it?
23:51-23:56
Is it to destroy? Is it to pull people away from everything that is good?
23:56-24:00
Make them heart and be all stiff and be like this? Is that the purpose?
24:01-24:04
Or is the purpose to bring life and freedom and hope?
24:05-24:11
Now, let's not get so lost in thinking about an ancient story that we predicted.
24:12-24:13
Get into it.
24:14-24:16
I don't know how many of you have ever...
24:17-24:21
Let's keep in mind in this day and age there was no technology sector.
24:22-24:25
There were many cubicle jobs in those days.
24:26-24:28
Most of the people worked with their hands.
24:29-24:32
Most of them were farmers or they were doing something with their hands.
24:32-24:34
Now this man had a withered hand.
24:34-24:40
I don't know if you've ever broken your hand or hurt your hand or had issues with your hand occasionally.
24:42-24:54
You ever had a physical job, I used to work at UPS for 10 years, I know what it's like to have a physical job where you're working hard, if one of your hands is not working well, that is very painful.
24:55-25:03
Aside from the fact that you have to work three times as hard, and your right hand or your other hand has to work three times as hard just to get the same amount of work done as the guy next to you.
25:05-25:15
This man was experiencing a very painful life, and Jesus is looking and saying, "Listen, Do you matter that I leave this man in this state of pain?
25:15-25:18
He's gonna have to go to work tomorrow with his withered hand.
25:18-25:24
Or was the purpose of him coming to church that he was gonna get healed so he'd be a different man tomorrow?
25:24-25:29
What is the purpose, Sunday morning, or Saturday, Saturday morning?
25:32-25:33
He's looking right into their eyes.
25:34-25:35
What did they say?
25:37-25:38
They said nothing.
25:38-25:40
I wanna catch up on this story.
25:40-25:44
Mark chapter 3 verse 5 tells us what Jesus was thinking.
25:44-25:55
It says that Jesus looked around at them with anger, grieved at their, here's the three key words, grieved at their hardness of heart.
25:56-25:59
He said to the man, stretched out his hand, he stretched out his hand to the door.
25:59-26:02
When Jesus looked at them, he was angry.
26:05-26:20
Here are these scholars in God's word, these leaders in the synagogues, and they were more willing to let this man go to work on Monday in a state of brokenness than the breaker they ruled.
26:23-26:23
What was Jesus thinking?
26:29-26:34
We get a good sense of what it means to have a broken heart.
26:34-26:37
Jesus continued, we pick this up in the Matthew version.
26:38-26:48
It said to them which of you has a sheep it falls into a pit on the Sabbath Will you not take hold and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
26:49-27:24
It was lawful You good on the Sabbath He's like really Consistent your sheep your little your little pet sheep of your you know your son's pet sheep falls into a pit on the stabbing. You're not sitting there like, "Yep, man, got to kill for Sunday." You're not doing that and yet here is a man who's created in the image of God and you're willing to let him sit in a lifetime of pits because because you have these petty rules.
27:25-27:26
You're not even consistent with yourself.
27:28-28:45
What a sad evidence of a hardness of heart it's interesting those who wrestle with our disappear Or often even inconsistent in their heart They're hypocritical How sad Jesus goes on to say in Mark chapter 2 that the purpose of the Sabbath is to restore the blessed man Not the Sabbath to exist man. He's not exist for the Sabbath the Sabbath Exists for man to be a blessing to be a time of worship and and rest in the authority Let me ask you to write down step number two here Or steps to restoring a heart heart Step two is to find rest and restoration in the authority of Jesus Christ find rest and restoration the authority of Jesus Christ The hardness of heart begins and ends with pride, but not because of a healthy love for God.
28:48-28:56
Listen, Sabbath was to me a reminder of the goodness of God, how God cared for his people, how he didn't want them to work themselves to death, literally.
28:57-28:59
He wanted them to have time with him, time with family.
29:01-29:04
I find it interesting here that what did Jesus do?
29:04-29:07
He stretched out, and I'm going to ask one of my sons to put his hand out.
29:07-29:07
Put your hand out.
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Okay?
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He reached out.
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He restored his hand.
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He restored his hand.
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And what would Jesus really want to do that day?
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Is that all Jesus wanted to do?
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What Jesus wanted to do more even than restoring the man's hand, He wanted to restore people's hearts.
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For their Heavenly Father.
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Jesus wanted to do really these hard hearts that these people had been abstaining and living with.
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They needed a change of thinking.
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Okay.
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Recently, I had an experience in changing my thinking about something.
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My wife mentioned a couple weeks ago that she said, "Hey, our neighborhood's having a, "we live in kind of a neighborhood "that's kind of boundary, "and they're gonna have a car sale." Some of you love car sales.
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Some of you, when I take a car sale, you're just like, "No, no, no, no." You know, different people like them.
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She said, "I'm going to sell a couple things in our garage.
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I'm all for getting stuff out of the garage.
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In fact, I'm really for it.
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I'm the guy that's throwing stuff away.
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If there's not a good place for it, in the trash can is great." Okay?
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And she said, "Well, I'm going to have a group of talent do some of these things." And I came home one day, and I wasn't particularly in a sanctified mood.
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Even pastors hit those occasionally.
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And she said, "You know, I've been working for a while, and I'm going to get this stuff ready.
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I really got to work hard for it." In my unsanctified state, I thought I should have stopped there, But I said, I said, honey, this is not even worth your time.
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And I said these infamous words.
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I said, honey, listen, I said, this stuff's not even worth $20.
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I said, I'll just give you the $20.
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I'll throw it in the trash.
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I said, just get it out of here.
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I don't care.
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Just throw it away.
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I'll give you the $20.
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I walked back, and I sensed that I was wrong.
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This fear got on me.
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I went back.
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I apologized.
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I should have.
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Then when I came back I said, "Honey..." Then my competitor side took over.
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And I said, "Honey..." I said, "If you get $50..." I mean, that's blowing, I mean, there's no way you get $50 on this.
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I said, "I'll tell you what, if you get $75 on this, I'll take you out to dinner, on me, date night, wherever you wanna go, date night, $75, there's no way you'll even..." I'm thinking, if she gets into the 30s, this is going to be awesome.
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So Friday comes, and I'm sitting working on my sermon.
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And she was very kind and gentle way to send me texts every so often about how much money was rolling.
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$20, $30, $50.
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By the end of the day, she had $73.
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This was for two days.
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And then Saturday comes.
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$120.
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I never enjoyed being wrong so much, but I was still wrong, right?
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All the way up to she broke $175.
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I laughed at myself.
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I learned a lesson about closing my mind, or, sorry, not closing my mind, closing my mouth.
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Some of us need to have a different way of thinking.
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Some of us are like me, this is a worthless waste of time.
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Like why would I want to do what the Lord's saying here?
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Like this doesn't make any sense.
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Don't be as ignorant as me in actually saying it.
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So, thank you.
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I want to tell you something here.
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My heart for you is to leave this place with freedom.
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I want to, I want you to open up your thinking on something here.
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Look down at me, with me at verse 11.
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We'll look at the negative example, but I'm trusting that God's gonna give us grace here in the minutes that remain.
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Think differently.
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Look at verse 11, it says, "But after Jesus had healed the man, "his hand was restored." Says, "They were filled with fury "and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
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Like, it's all things together.
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Really?
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Like, I love to hear it said, "Oh, as soon as he heals me, and they all are in love." And said, "This guy's the Messiah, what will we do?" And yet, when someone has a hard heart, even when God is doing miracles next door, right in front of their face, their heart is so hard.
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They can't rejoice in it, they can't celebrate it.
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In fact, they go out and try to scheme together.
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How ridiculous.
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They rejected Christ's authority, they rejected God's purpose for the Sabbath, they rejected God's heart to heal.
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We can all stop here and say, we could go on walking out of here going, that one more time, the whole sermon was, really?
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Like those knuckleheads at the cross for me at church, you know, those other people that have hard hearts, Like how could people possibly think like this?
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I'm gonna bring it into our world for a minute.
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I think one of the greatest evidence of a hard heart is a critical spirit.
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Critical spirit.
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I'm gonna stop preaching to you, I'm gonna preach to us.
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Because this is something that God has spoken to my heart about.
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I would say that there's not a person in this room who hasn't either been hurt by someone with a critical spirit, or had a critical spirit and hurt others.
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Bring it close to home.
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Notice that in verse seven, it says, "And the scribes and Pharisees watched him "to see whether he would heal the savage, "or they might find a reason to accuse him." and their action came from a heart of jealousy and pride.
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They were filled with a critical spirit.
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I wanna take just a minute to give you a couple things to think about here.
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The cause and characteristics of a critical spirit.
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What is the cause?
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What are the causes of a critical spirit in us?
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How do we know that we have a critical spirit or someone else sitting next to us has a critical spirit that we need to forgive?
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How do we know that?
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How do we know that?
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I wanna give you a couple of thoughts here now.
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I wanna say this quickly, look up here real quick.
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Okay, before you get your pen out and write down if you're writing it down.
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I'm not talking about critical thinking, okay?
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There is a need for critical thinking.
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When it comes to your budget, you need to have critical thinking, okay?
36:09-36:14
You can't be like, "Oh, I was in the spirit "and I just kept spending." Okay, critical thinking is important.
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I'm talking about a critical spirit.
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I'm talking about that person.
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You ever known someone?
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No matter what you say, no matter what you do, always have a, yeah.
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Always have a fight.
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Ah, that term was good.
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That third point was a little weak.
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I'm not joking here when I said, I made a joke about something a couple weeks ago and somebody came to my office and wanted to talk about the joke.
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What would you say to that?
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Really? - Yeah, yeah.
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Now, go give them some freedom, praise God.
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Let me give you a couple of causes and characteristics of a critical spirit.
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Here's the first one.
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Critical spirit is usually bitter about something.
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Your heart has, if you struggle with a critical spirit, if you're in that sin, particular sin, or struggling with a hard heart, evidence in a critical spirit, usually you're bitter about something.
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In the past, in the present, thinking about the future.
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If only my future would be better than someone in the past.
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If only my parents would be better than my education.
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Or if only I had better opportunities than so-and-so.
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Or if only my parents had better things.
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Or if my parents split up.
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Or if my girlfriend, that girlfriend, if she'd only married me.
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If only, if somebody else's fault, I'd been better about something.
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Here's another cause or characteristic of a critical spirit.
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Critical spirit usually stems Comparison instead of vertical comparison Instead of saying before the Lord we all are in need Here's another characteristic.
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Critical spirit is usually from a person that's ungrateful.
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It usually comes from a person that is ungracious.
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Critical spirit usually comes from someone that is unhumble.
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Some of you want to critique my work right there.
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You're like, "Unhumble isn't a word." I don't care.
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Thanks for saying it for me.
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Critique it later, just absorb it now.
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Critical spirit is usually a summon, comes from someone who is unwilling to receive correction.
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It comes from somebody who's usually impatient.
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Listen, if I had summed it up, a critical spirit comes, is in someone who has a heart filled with pride and a heart filled with unmet expectations.
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And the combination of those two eat away at their heart and it leads to a hard heart that has a critical spirit that you're never good enough, that wasn't nice enough, you shouldn't do that, it's a person that can never, never be satisfied and the reason is trying to find the satisfaction.
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That never works that way.
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Now maybe you're here and you're like, well, Pastor, you're talking about somebody I know.
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'Cause when I'm preaching this, I'm preaching this to you.
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I wanna give you, maybe you're sitting here and you think, well, Pastor, could you give me some hope?
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Could you help me wrestle with this idea of a critical sphere?
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Let me give you three quick things that can help you, the solution, if you will, to a critical spirit.
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And I would encourage you, it comes first by humbling yourself.
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Humbling yourself under Christ's authority.
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But let me give you three solutions to a critical spirit.
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First, set your expectations biblically.
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The person that has a critical spirit, like a team of text, is someone who's set their expectations outside of the scripture.
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I think we set our expectations biblically.
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Here's a good expectation.
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Expect others to fail.
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One of the things about a critical spirit is we're expecting everyone else to never fail.
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We're expecting them to be perfect, them to do the working, right?
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Not that we ever have to do that.
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Critical experience saying, "You need to be..." Here's the thing, you need to expect people to fail.
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Don't tell them that, you know, but you need to expect that other people are gonna fail you.
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You need to expect that your joy will come outside of your expectations.
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Your joy is meant to come from God, not your expectations.
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You need to expect that you're gonna have to come back many times and reset your identity and your expectations in God.
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Set your expectations biblically. Here's the second one. Discuss your expectations mutually.
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I have a tendency to this. This is where I fail sometimes.
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You know, um, um, um, in our church I want things to go well.
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Ministry I have high expectations. I want this to be done like this this to be done like this And one thing I noticed as I was going through the taxes. I have a tendency how many of your like this we have a tendency to I want this person to do and I want to do this and that works like this and why didn't they get this it why?
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Person bring up their game over there, and then I stop and ask myself the question Did I even tell her that I wanted it like this?
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Well, it's a no-brainer that if you don't tell people what you're hoping for them to do, and if you haven't faced it biblically, why are you expecting them to know that on their own?
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Now you need to come back and set expectations mutually.
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You know, the good thing is if you discuss your expectations mutually, even if you disagree, at least you'll know the trouble that's coming. You already know what to expect.
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Right? Problems are coming.
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Set expectations biblically discuss expectations mutually here's the third one yield expectations totally See what we were willing to give our expectations to God when we say Husband was always home at six o'clock With me Always speak me respectfully I would love if my kids would clean up their rooms and not leave it dirtier than the whole time I cleaned it.
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No expectations.
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Sometimes we become bonded.
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Sadly, some of you here, like me, sometimes we're never happy about things because we're in bondage.
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If my expectations are not being met, then I can't be happy.
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If my kids don't do it, make sure if that small group leader doesn't do it, he should if my pastor doesn't prove like I think he should, if he doesn't do what I want him to do, then I have this critical spirit and I never have.
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I'll tell you, you'll never find freedom in your expectations until you're willing to heal them.
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Say, "If my husband comes home on time, "one time this week, "if I'll accept it with joy.
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"And if I can't respond like I should, "like I'm teaching them to, "then I'll rejoice in that as a gift from you.
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"And if my mother, if my co-worker, "if my pastor does these things, "then thank you, Lord, that's so awesome, "but I didn't expect it, "because I yielded my expectations." You see, a person like that is always filled with fury.
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Because whenever God chooses to surprise them and do things the way they should happen, it follows a blessing, right?
45:00-45:02
I want to come back here to the text quickly.
45:03-45:03
Look at verse 11.
45:04-45:13
It says, "And they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus." What they might do to Jesus.
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I'd love to say right here in the text that in verse 11 it would read something like this and they heard it and they repented of their critical spirit and they found Jesus.
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That's not what it says.
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You see, remember when we were reading about the scribes and the Pharisees going through the grain field.
45:39-45:47
You really think they were going to the grave and Jesus going, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, we don't want your disciples to eat the grave because we wouldn't want them to break the law.
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And we're so concerned, Jesus, that everybody respects you.
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We would not want them to eat it.
45:53-45:54
In fact, we're here.
45:54-45:56
We're 1-800 Sabbath Keepers.
45:56-46:00
We're just here to help you along in any way we can." Do you think that was their spirit?
46:02-46:04
No, they were looking for a way to, "Got your banners on?
46:05-46:06
There they go.
46:06-46:06
There they go.
46:06-46:08
They're grabbing for it right now.
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Come on, Jesus.
46:09-46:09
Come on, Jesus.
46:09-46:09
Come on, Jesus.
46:09-46:49
Come on, That was their heart that was their intention Listen those people I don't know if they ever found freedom in the Lord. Here's the question listen Questions whether we will win Because the freedom that Jesus Christ offers is something it's offered to us today in this moment Whether they did or not. We'll have to wait. We won't know until eternity As I said, most of us have been hurt or have hurt people with a critical spirit.
46:50-46:51
I want to give you step number three.
46:52-46:52
Here it is.
46:52-46:53
Write it down quickly.
46:55-47:04
If we're going to find freedom from a hard heart of a critical spirit, we need to seek forgiveness for our critical spirit.
47:04-47:07
need to seek forgiveness for your critical spirit.
47:08-47:24
If you notice in verse two, look in verse two, it says that some of the Pharisees said, "What are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?" Verse seven says that they watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath.
47:26-47:28
Listen, a critical spirit is like this.
47:29-47:31
Sometimes it's the person that asks questions.
47:31-47:32
You ever had that person?
47:32-47:35
They're always kind of sitting behind and then they throw all these little questions.
47:36-47:42
"Why didn't you do that?" "Why didn't you do it that way?" "What were you thinking?" Right?
47:42-47:44
That's a critical spirit coming out of the mouth.
47:45-47:46
They did it in verse 2.
47:48-47:49
And there's the other side of the critical spirit.
47:49-47:50
It's the eyes.
47:51-47:52
It's the eyes that are always watching.
47:53-47:58
You ever had somebody in your life, like, every time they're around, they're like, "Ahh!" like this.
47:58-48:00
And it's your mother-in-law or it's your somebody else.
48:00-48:09
and you're like, "Every time I'm doing it, "I gotta be careful because I got somebody "looking over my shoulder all the time "just looking for something they can make a comment about." You ever known somebody like that?
48:12-48:17
I'm gonna tell you a critical eye, critical tongue comes from a hard heart.
48:19-48:22
And that's the question we need to face up to today.
48:24-48:29
Are my eyes blinded, looking hurt?
48:30-48:37
Is my tongue maybe not saying abusive things, maybe I'm saying cuss words or something.
48:37-48:46
Are my words just that jab as a critical spirit, a hard heart that's evidence in a critical spirit that's coming out and hurting those around me?
48:49-48:52
Maybe you're wondering, "I don't even know if I have a hard heart." Well think about this question.
48:54-48:55
How do I know, Pastor?
48:55-48:58
How do I know if I have a hard heart or a critical spirit?
48:59-49:01
Well, is there anyone that you want to fail?
49:04-49:06
Is there anyone you want to change?
49:08-49:09
Is there anyone you...
49:11-49:11
Eh...
49:12-49:14
...say sarcastic things about sometimes?
49:19-49:28
Maybe you say, "Well, Pastor, but they are so wrong! They're so derp and sarcastic!" But that doesn't change the fact that it's coming from the heart of God.
49:32-49:35
We need to ask forgiveness to those that we have hurt.
49:37-49:50
You know, often a critical spirit, something that's kind of a, I would call a, or mutually, how do I say this, mutual, equal opportunity critics, right?
49:51-49:53
You have somebody, you have a relationship with, you're an equal opportunity critic.
49:53-49:55
I criticize them, they criticize me.
49:55-49:59
And it kind of becomes this cycle of criticism and hurt and pain.
50:00-50:01
What God's waiting for you to do.
50:02-50:07
To put a wedge of humility right in that cycle of criticism.
50:16-50:17
Here's step four.
50:19-50:20
Forgive your critics.
50:20-50:22
Forgive your critics.
50:30-50:33
Look up and be participant and we're almost at the end here.
50:36-50:45
Often a critical spirit in us, in a child, comes from a parent.
50:47-50:53
Maybe your mom, your dad, maybe your coach, but especially maybe mom or dad or someone that was involved in raising you had a critical spirit.
50:55-50:58
You tried so hard to tell, I want to please that person.
50:58-51:04
I want my mom to love me the way I do my schoolwork.
51:04-51:08
I want my dad to appreciate what I do in softball.
51:08-51:15
I want, and you tried hard, and that person would never be pleased, or only rarely.
51:17-51:22
They always had that little zinger, and you always felt like you couldn't quite match up.
51:24-51:28
Maybe it's your boss, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's even your child.
51:31-51:37
If you were to be honest, and if you were to open up your heart to the Lord today, the Lord sees all things.
51:38-51:44
You know that in the recesses of your heart, you're broken.
51:46-52:00
Maybe it's a significant area, Maybe it's God has allowed or things have happened in your life where you had an extensive broken relationship with someone who had a critical experience that just would not relent.
52:01-52:04
I would ask you today, are you willing to forgive them?
52:06-52:09
God does not want us to walk out with a critical experience.
52:09-52:12
We may need to ask some people to forgive us this afternoon.
52:13-52:17
But often that comes from a place of hurt in our own hearts.
52:18-52:51
I don't know what the dad or parents or people around these parodies and scribes I don't know what they were loving but there's a good chance. They were just as legalistic And the reason why these people were for Jeremy of Jesus and his disciples is because they grew up with people that were all he said Don't do anything And they had just grown up with that and now they were What Jesus wanted them to see that he had the authority to deliver them.
52:55-52:56
What about you?
52:57-52:58
Do you want to be free?
53:01-53:06
Do you want to find freedom from your critical spirit?
53:06-53:14
Do you want to find freedom from the hurts or the words that the person felt? That person might be dead.
53:15-53:17
That person might be in eternity now.
53:18-53:21
But you've always harbored a sense of hurt.
53:21-53:26
Listen, what God's calling you, our Heavenly Father is calling you to do today is just to forgive.
53:27-53:31
Say, "God, here's the things they said.
53:31-53:34
Here's the expectations they put on me.
53:34-53:37
I could never have that job, but God, I'm giving it to you.
53:37-53:39
Your son forgave me.
53:39-54:08
son came to earth to die for my sin so that I don't have to stay in bondage listen the person that's over somebody else's critical spirit the only person that's hurting from that right now is you and me. That other person that had the critical spirit the person that hurt you they're not off today they're not off today thinking oh I hurt them they're not thinking that right now. The only person that's in bondage is you, if you choose to be better.
54:16-54:21
I would challenge you, don't forgive generalities.
54:22-54:24
The devil, somebody said, works in generalities.
54:24-54:26
Well, I sort of forgive them.
54:27-54:28
I forgive everybody in my path.
54:30-54:32
I want you to think specifically.
54:33-54:40
Who are the people whose critical spirit, you know, I just said critical spirit and three names just jumped into your head.
54:40-54:42
You don't have, most of us don't have to think real hard about that.
54:44-54:48
Are you willing to forgive them specifically?
54:50-54:57
To give them the freedom that Jesus Christ has given you, the forgiveness, offer them the forgiveness that Jesus Christ has offered to you.
54:58-54:58
Are you willing to do that?
55:00-55:04
If you do, you will find freedom from a hard heart.
55:05-55:12
If you don't, you will take that hard heart home with you and continue to hurt and continue to hurt other people.
55:14-55:23
You know, I think, think about these men here in the text, all the people that were in the synagogue, but especially these scribes and Pharisees.
55:24-55:28
Doesn't say in the text, but I have to wonder if some of them went home that night.
55:31-55:33
I don't know if this ever happened to you.
55:34-55:36
They were sitting on their bed after everyone's gone.
55:36-55:40
Have you ever been awake and you kind of wake up and something in your mind can't stop you?
55:42-56:06
I have to think that maybe one or two of them were sitting there, waking up, just wide awake at 11 o'clock after everyone else has asleep, just thinking, "Are we really doing this right?" that man with the withered hand, he probably could have been a brother or a sibling to any one of the people in that synagogue that day.
56:08-56:15
I was so amped up about not breaking the rules of the Sabbath that I let my faith stay hurt.
56:16-56:21
In fact, I didn't even invite my other brother to even come to the Sabbath because I didn't want him to get involved.
56:22-56:36
hearts were so hard they were using their religiosity not as an opportunity to bless others but it became chains of bondage around them. That is not why we pray the Sabbath.
56:36-56:44
That is not why God wants to be in our lives. Jesus Christ came to bring forgiveness and freedom and hope.
56:46-56:49
I hear in a minute, I'm going to invite the worship team to come up.
56:52-56:53
I want us to think here.
56:54-56:56
You know, we have a lot of great things that are going to happen today.
56:56-56:58
I'm guessing some of us have barbecues planned.
56:58-57:03
If it's not raining for the 18th time in a row, we're going to have a great day today.
57:05-57:18
The greatest desire that I have for you is that you would find freedom from a hard heart, freedom from a critical spirit, to find freedom from a broken, bitter spirit.
57:20-57:23
We have some people here that would love to pray with you.
57:23-57:25
Here's what I'm going to ask you to do.
57:25-57:26
I'm going to ask you to close your eyes for just a minute.
57:26-57:27
I'm going to pray.
57:31-57:41
When I'm done praying here, I'm going to invite you, in just a minute to make a physical statement about what you believe.
57:45-58:02
If you, if God is putting on your heart someone that you need to forgive, or if you are the critical spirit, you're the person that's giving jabs and never happy and always setting expectations of the impossibly high.
58:02-58:04
You're the person with the critical spirit.
58:04-58:06
I want to ask you to do business with God.
58:08-58:12
In a minute, God is speaking to your heart.
58:12-58:16
I'm going to plead with you just to slip out of your chair and come up to the front here.
58:17-58:17
I'm going to be praying.
58:17-58:19
God's working in my heart on this.
58:20-58:26
In a minute, I'm going to ask you to come forward, come to the front, and just kneel up here and talk to God.
58:27-58:27
OK?
58:28-58:33
We're not going to bother you. If you want to pray with somebody, we have people here standing that would love to pray with you.
58:37-58:44
Don't leave here without receiving the freedom that God offers you in Jesus Christ.
58:44-58:53
I'm a critical father. I ask right now as we're even thinking together as brothers and sisters, as your spirit is working in us.
58:55-59:02
Lord, we don't want to be the people that your spirit is watching us saying, "Really?
59:04-59:11
Really?" Lord, we don't want to be the people that are harboring bitterness toward others who have had a critical spirit.
59:11-59:12
Lord, it's painful.
59:12-59:13
We didn't deserve it.
59:14-59:19
Lord, we want to offer forgiveness just as your Son has offered forgiveness to us.
59:20-01:00:07
I pray for the person who's wrestling with this bitterness and this Disappointment and others who have had a critical spirit might have been decades ago Or but they have the freedom to come up here and to believe that up here What I pray for those of us who have had the critical spirit. We know who we are We've hurt people we've said damaging things we've been Unable to be pleased. We've never been able to give our children the love and approval and the affirmation They need because they're always wound up about the next bar. They have to meet the next thing they have to surpass Lord we need to ask forgiveness. We need to ask you to forgive us for our critical sphere.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 6:1-11
Have you found freedom in fully yielding to the authority of Jesus Christ in every area of your life?
Where do you struggle with Hardness of Heart?
Discuss the Solutions to a Critical Spirit:
Do you set your expectations based on God's Word?
Do you discuss your expectations mutually with those close to you?
Have you yielded your expectations to God?
Who do you need to go to and seek forgiveness from regarding your critical spirit?
Who has hurt you with a critical spirit? Have you forgiven them in Christ?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.