Give Thanks With Your Heart

Introduction:

I Give Thanks with My Whole Heart… (Psalm 138)

1. Because God has Proven His Reliability to Me IN THE PAST (Psalm 138:1–3)

2. Because God is at Work in My Life RIGHT NOW (Psalm 138:6–7)

   1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

3. Because God Will Not Give Up on Me IN THE FUTURE (Psalm 138:4–5; 8)

   Philippians 2:9-11 – Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

   2 Samuel 7:16 – And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

   Philippians 1:6 – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

   Jude 24 – Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Psalm 138

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. If we know it’s so bad for us, why do we complain so much? What do you complain about the most?
   

3. How has the Lord proven Himself reliable to you in the past? Take some time to thank the Lord for what He has done.
   

4. How is the Lord at work in your life right now? Praise Him for what He is doing.
   

5. How will the Lord fulfill His purposes for you in the future? Give Him thanks for what He will do for you.

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  I hope you're all doing well this morning.

  I've had better days.

  I took me forever to fall asleep last night.

  I'm just so tired.

  My neighbors were just blasting fireworks

  in all hours of the night.

  Isn't it been like three weeks since the 4th of July?

  I just don't get it.

  And then when I fell asleep, I couldn't stay asleep.

  I have a bed that's too small.

  I have a room that gets way too hot.

  I have a pillow that isn't comfortable at all.

  And I just set the alarm really early this morning.

  So I had to wake up and look presentable for all of you.

  And I stubbed my toe really hard and it still hurts.

  Oh, and I forgot to iron all my clothes.

  So I had to do it all this morning.

  So I was way later than I wanted to be.

  And so I was driving here.

  I got stuck behind the slowest drivers in the entire world.

  That just drives me insane.

  It's like, don't you want to get where you want to go

  in this century?

  You may not have things that you want to do,

  but there's things that I need to do.

  So move it.

  Oh, and I also have the worst headaches.

  So these lights aren't helping me at all.

  OK, time out.

  Is anyone tired of listening to my complaining yet?

  There is a resounding yes from the congregation.

  It is so annoying when someone constantly complains

  and grumbles about everything.

  This person's constant whining sounds like nails

  screeching across a chalkboard.

  But quick question, if that's how other people's complaining

  sounds to you, how do you think your complaining

  sounds to them?

  Not much different.

  Let's up the ante even more.

  How do you think your constant complaining sounds to God?

  Do you think He appreciates it?

  No, He does not.

  I know that complaining is bad for me and offends God.

  And I am very sure that most of you

  know that complaining is bad for you and offends God.

  So why do we keep doing it?

  What is going on within us?

  Well, this is the third week in our latest series called

  Heart Problems.

  What to do when you don't want God?

  Over the past two Sundays, we've identified two different heart

  problems and their surgical solutions according to God's

  word.

  We began by evaluating our hearts to see how serious of a heart

  surgery we truly need.

  And last week, we discovered the heart problem of hidden sin.

  And the surgical solution to that problem

  is confession from the heart.

  And this morning, we will unpack a third heart problem

  and its surgical solution from Psalm 138.

  Psalm 138.

  Your heart problem this morning could

  be that you have a serious infection of negativity

  and complaining.

  You struggle to truly appreciate all that God has given to you

  because you are so fixated on everything

  that God has not given to you.

  In your mind, you deserve better.

  You deserve more.

  You deserve what you want.

  Does that describe you right now?

  How do you fix this heart problem?

  The surgical solution to a negative and discontent heart

  is passionate praise and true thanksgiving.

  You must actually give thanks from your heart.

  So before we look into the solution any further,

  let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.

  Please pray for me, and I will pray for you.

  Father, we come to you with one of our greatest struggles,

  with something that I am very sure that every single person

  in this room struggles with.

  Lord, minister to us in the way that only you can.

  Challenge us, convict us, but also comfort us and build us up.

  We thank you in advance for what you will do.

  We ask all this in the beautiful, wonderful, powerful name

  of Jesus Christ.

  Amen.

  If you are able, please stand in reverence

  for the reading of God's Word as we read Psalm 138.

  I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.

  Before the gods, I sing your praise.

  I bow down toward your holy temple

  and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love

  and your faithfulness.

  For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

  On the day I called, you answered me.

  My strength of soul, you increased

  all the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,

  for they have heard the words of your mouth.

  And they shall sing of the ways the Lord for great

  is the glory of the Lord.

  For though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly,

  but the haughty He knows from afar.

  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.

  You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,

  and your right hand delivers me.

  The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.

  Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.

  Do not forsake the work of your hands.

  You may be seated.

  As you study this Psalm, you can't

  help but notice that David's Thanksgiving is divided up

  into three different sections--

  the past, the present, and the future.

  In this Psalm, David slides back and forth

  on the timeline of history to find reasons to praise the Lord

  and give Him thanks for His actions and His attributes.

  And I want you to follow David's lead this morning.

  I want you to be on the lookout for reasons

  to give thanks with your whole heart for what God has

  done in your past, what He is doing in your present,

  and what He will do in the future.

  So I give thanks to my whole heart, firstly,

  because God has proven His reliability to me in the past.

  I give thanks with my whole heart,

  because God has proven His reliability to me in the past.

  So David starts this Psalm by declaring

  his complete and total devotion to the Lord.

  Let's read verses 1 through 2 again.

  I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart,

  before the gods I sing your praise,

  I bow down towards your holy temple

  and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love

  and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things

  your name and your word.

  This isn't the prayer of a man who is dispassionate and disconnected.

  This isn't the prayer of a man going through the motions.

  David is overflowing with gratitude for God's faithfulness,

  His love, and His power.

  David is saying, "The false gods of the other nations

  are worthless idols.

  They get nothing from me while God gets everything from me.

  They get my ridicule.

  God gets my praise.

  Their words are worthless and accomplish nothing

  while God's word never fails me.

  Their names do not matter while God's name is infinite."

  David doesn't offer God some of his heart or even most of his heart.

  He offers God his whole heart.

  This is what God wants and deserves from David.

  This is also what God wants and deserves from you.

  God isn't worthy of your leftovers.

  He is worthy of your best.

  God doesn't want you just to thank Him when you remember.

  He doesn't want you to treat Him like the teenage cashier at the ice cream shop,

  who you begrudgingly tip with the slowest amount possible

  when the iPad screen is flipped around.

  "Ah, fine. I guess I'll do it if I have to."

  Is that kind of attitude honoring to God?

  Not on any level, but that is often how we approach giving Him the credit

  that He deserves.

  Instead of stopping what we're doing to give Him a heartfelt thank you,

  we throw a quick three-second prayer up to Him

  that is devoid of any emotion and energy.

  Instead of immediately praising Him,

  we immediately move on to the next thing and the next big concern.

  This half-heartedness drains you of your joy.

  This half-heartedness gives you spiritual amnesia.

  You forget what God has done for you in the past,

  so you trust in yourself moving forward.

  In verse 3, David gets very specific with his thanksgiving

  and remembers how God has come through for him in the past.

  "On the day I called, you answered,

  'My strength of soul,' you increased.

  I am well aware that some of you are telophonophobics.

  You hate talking on the phone.

  When someone calls, you panic.

  When you know you have to call someone else,

  you secretly hope that they won't pick up.

  But even you telophonophobics in the room

  have had to make calls that you needed someone to answer.

  Maybe you had an urgent question that required an immediate answer.

  Maybe it was a serious issue at work that you need to solve right now.

  Maybe it was even a matter of life or death.

  Every single person in this room has a call of this kind in their past.

  Put yourself into that tense mindset.

  Try to remember how you felt.

  Let me ask you, when you called, did that person answer?

  Did they come through for you?

  Other people cannot always come through for you

  no matter how reliable they might seem.

  Friends and family members cannot always answer when you call.

  But that is not true of God.

  He always picks up.

  He always answers.

  God doesn't screen your prayer to say to himself,

  "Ah, this guy again.

  I don't have time to deal with him right now."

  That has never happened.

  God doesn't send you to voicemail.

  God is always ready and willing to answer you when you call.

  But God's help may not come in the form that you expected or hoped for.

  At some point, every single one of us in this room

  have had this exact thought or said this exact thing.

  God didn't answer my prayer.

  Is that true?

  Well, it really depends on what you mean by answer.

  If by answer you mean that God says yes,

  then God didn't answer your prayer.

  But that definition captures our experience of the situation

  more than the reality of the situation.

  It captures our feelings more than the facts.

  That definition misses the big picture of what God is up to behind the scenes.

  God answering your prayers doesn't mean that He always answers with a yes.

  But it does mean that God always responds.

  And sometimes that response is no or wait.

  And you never want that answer, do you?

  I never want that answer either.

  Again, every single one of us in this room can think of a time

  when we called to God and He answered with a no.

  You prayed for healing and healing didn't come.

  You asked for that big promotion

  and it went to someone far less deserving.

  You asked for the Lord to use your witnessing, your positive example

  to make an impact on your prodigal child, but there is no positive reception.

  You call to the Lord and ask for that baby that you've always wanted,

  but that room is still empty.

  That no can be so confusing and devastating.

  What reason could God possibly have to say no to that request?

  I don't know.

  I don't want to patronize you or minimize your pain.

  I don't want to give you a hallmark card answer and tell you that do not be sad and upset.

  Listen, it's okay to be sad and upset.

  Seasons of sorrow are unavoidable.

  I've gone through these times in the past and I will again.

  You've gone through these times of sorrow and you may be experiencing it right now.

  I truly don't know the exact reason that God said no to that request when you called to Him.

  But He does.

  God never says no for no reason.

  Everything He does is purposeful.

  God never wastes your pain.

  Everything you go through has meaning.

  As I meditated upon these truths over the past week, I couldn't help but think of the hymn,

  "God moves in a mysterious way," which says this,

  "judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace.

  Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.

  God's purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.

  The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower."

  Why God said no back then may never make sense in this life.

  But it will in eternity.

  And those times when God said no often drown out and obscure the times that He said yes.

  So I want you to stop focusing on the no's for a minute.

  I want you to start thinking about the times when you called to God and He answered you

  with a yes.

  Consider that.

  Were you able to think of some clear examples when God said yes and proved His reliability

  to you in the past?

  Maybe you experienced a season of dark, deep depression.

  You called out to God and He answered you with a yes by sending you a friend who loved

  you, who encouraged you, who prayed for you, who listened to you.

  Maybe you called out to God when you had no idea how to handle a specific situation and

  He gave you a yes by providing you wisdom from His Word.

  Maybe you experienced a broken relationship and you called out to God and He answered

  with a yes by bringing restoration and putting all the pieces back together again.

  Or how about the most important yes of all?

  You realized you were a sinner.

  You called out to God asking for forgiveness and salvation and God answered with a yes

  by giving it to you.

  I could keep going for days, weeks, months and years because there is no end to what

  God has done for you.

  Friends, God has been so good to you in the past.

  Do you recognize that?

  Do you believe that?

  There have been so many times when you recognized His goodness and you praised Him for it.

  But there have been many more times when you didn't recognize His goodness or praise Him.

  And thankfully God's goodness wasn't taken away from you when you didn't recognize it.

  God still gives good gifts to His children even when His children don't say thank you.

  But in those moments when you didn't acknowledge what God had done and say thank you to Him,

  the strength of your soul was diminished and depleted.

  Your strength of soul was like a balloon and ungratefulness was the needle that popped

  that balloon and left it deflated on the floor.

  That may be how you feel this morning.

  You're just deflated.

  You're just kind of there.

  You're down and out.

  Could it be that you have a heart problem because you were ungrateful for what God has

  done for you?

  No matter how hard your life has been, God's fingerprints of kindness are all over your

  story.

  You simply need the eyes of faith to see these evidences of grace or you'll miss them completely.

  Like David, give thanks with your whole heart because God has proven His reliability to

  you in the past.

  Give thanks with your whole heart for what God has done for you and your strength of

  soul will be increased.

  I give thanks with my whole heart because God is at work in my life right now.

  Because God is at work in my life right now.

  I'm going to break some preaching rules here for a minute.

  Who wants to break the rules with me?

  All right, some of you, most of your rulekeepers besides Darlet and Jay, I guess we'll go with

  it.

  So, we're going to skip past verses 4 through 5 for now.

  We're not going to skip them entirely.

  We'll come back to them.

  We're going to move on to verses 6 through 7.

  Don't worry this will all make sense very soon.

  We spent some time focusing on what God has done for David.

  Now let's focus on what God is doing for David in verses 6 through 7.

  For though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.

  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.

  You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand delivers

  me.

  We don't know the backstory of the Psalm or what kind of trouble David is experiencing.

  All we know is he needs his life to be preserved.

  He has enemies that the Lord needs to stretch out his hands against.

  David needs deliverance.

  Your problems seem like the biggest deal in the entire world, don't they?

  When you're going through trouble, you often feel like you're the only one in the entire

  world who is experiencing what you're experiencing.

  Is that actually the case?

  Not at all.

  Literally every person in the world has something going on right now.

  Everyone has a problem.

  Everyone has trouble.

  And David is well aware where his life, where his troubles, where his problems rank on the

  order of importance.

  Compared to God, he is nothing and nobody.

  David acknowledges that he is lowly.

  But he actually rejoices in that truth because even though the Lord is high, He regards the

  lowly, but the haughty, the proud, the arrogant He knows from afar.

  If you exalt yourself to the position of the movie star of your life, you will not be in

  a position to receive God's help.

  You will dismiss what he has to offer.

  But if you rightly acknowledge that God is the star, you will receive help from Him.

  God is big, but He still loves little people.

  God is great, but He still blesses the unremarkable.

  God is supremely important, but He still serves the unimportant.

  You may be painfully aware that you are unimportant, unremarkable, and little.

  But that is a good thing.

  That means the Lord has regard for you.

  God cares for you.

  He pays attention to you.

  God's helping hand is offered to you at all times.

  You can either push away this helping hand in pride or you can grab ahold of it in humility.

  I need God's help right now.

  You need God's help right now.

  You are in the midst of some kind of trouble.

  Maybe you're being attacked.

  Someone at work is gunning for you.

  A family member or friend is making life miserable for you.

  Your integrity is being called into question.

  You may have a target on your back, but God preserves your life.

  You may have enemies who are seeking to destroy you, but God stretches out His hand against

  the wrath of your enemies.

  His right hand delivers you.

  Fair warning.

  God may not deliver you from experiencing that hardship, but He delivers you from giving

  up as you experience that hardship.

  His right hand delivers you from anger, bitterness, resentment, isolation.

  You may be enduring the most intense season of temptation you've ever encountered.

  You feel like you can't say no one more time that any day now you're going to break.

  You can stand strong because God preserves you.

  He stretches, will stretch His hand against that temptation.

  If you believe that He can, His right hand delivers you from giving in.

  Listen to this promise from 1 Corinthians 10.13.

  No temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man.

  God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the

  temptation He will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

  Something that God has taught me recently is that He most often delivers you through

  trust and His promises.

  There is nothing more powerful and dependable than a promise from God.

  If you're experiencing intense temptation, grab ahold of this promise and don't let go

  so you will experience deliverance and find the way of escape.

  Maybe you need delivered from the ultimate enemies of Satan, sin, and death.

  You are under the power of the evil one in this evil world.

  You are a slave to sin.

  You are bound for eternal death.

  You are like that toddler running towards the road and there will be a horrible fate

  unless that child is grasped by a loving father.

  Ask this father to preserve you and give you eternal life.

  Ask him to stretch out His hand against the wrath of your enemies.

  Ask for His right hand to grab ahold of you and deliver you from the fate that you deserve.

  A truck of hell is barreling down.

  But God will rescue you if you ask Him to.

  No matter what trouble you are walking through, God is at work in your life right now.

  You can't say, "Yeah, God sure was at work back in the day, but He hasn't done anything

  for me lately."

  No, God is preserving your life even when you don't know it.

  He is stretching out His hand against enemies that you don't even know you have.

  God is delivering you all the time.

  God isn't like the lifeguards at the pool or the beach who clock in and clock out.

  For many hours of the day, their floatation devices are hung up and those chairs are empty.

  But God is always on duty.

  He keeps you from drowning.

  He keeps your head above water.

  God is always on His heavenly throne.

  In the Psalm 121, 1-4, "I lift up my eyes to the hills from where does my help come

  from?

  My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

  He will not let your foot be moved.

  He who keeps you will not slumber.

  Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."

  God is not asleep on the job.

  God is not taking a break.

  He is not packing up His office.

  God is helping you.

  God is fighting for you.

  Give thanks with your whole heart because God is at work in your life right now.

  I give thanks with my whole heart, finally, because God will not give up on me in the

  future.

  Because God will not give up on me in the future.

  Let's rewind back to verses 4 through 5, but this rewind is actually a fast forward as

  David gives thanks for what God will do.

  "All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words

  of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of

  the Lord."

  In 2025, this scene seems very unlikely, doesn't it?

  I mean, how many presidents, politicians, dictators, and governments truly fear God

  and worship Him?

  Not many.

  God is openly mocked and dishonored.

  His people are belittled.

  People are even put into prison and martyred for their faith.

  So many world leaders do not recognize the one who put them into power in the first place.

  But despite this hostility, the message of the gospel is still advancing and spreading

  among the nations.

  People of different backgrounds, positions, and levels of influence are hearing the words

  of God's mouth, being saved, giving thanks, and praising Him.

  In one day, all leaders of the earth will retire from their positions and vacate their

  offices as one rightful ruler reigns supreme.

  And who is this rightful ruler?

  Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

  And Paul speaks to this future in Philippians 2, 9 through 11.

  "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name as above every name,

  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

  One day there will be no more elections, no more protests, no more corruption, no more

  political news channels, no more war, no more threat of nuclear attack.

  There will be only praise and thanksgiving.

  The glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

  And this future isn't maybe a might be or let's hope so.

  No, this future is set in stone.

  It is certain fact.

  You can resist it all you want, but it will come to pass.

  While the immediate future of this world is uncertain, God's ultimate future is not in

  question.

  In verse 8, "Folks is on David's future and the purpose that God has for David's life,

  his throne, and his house.

  The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.

  Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.

  Do not forsake the work of your hands."

  The same God who will cause kings and leaders to bow down before him will fulfill David's

  purpose as well.

  Actually, it is through fulfilling David's purpose that God will fulfill this ultimate

  future for his people and his creation.

  Help me with a quick reminder.

  From whose family line does King Jesus come?

  From King David's line.

  Listen to the promise that the Lord made to David in 2 Samuel 7.16, "And your house and

  your kingdom shall be made sure forever, before me your throne shall be established forever."

  This purpose has been fulfilled and will further be fulfilled in Christ.

  This promise has been kept and will be further kept in Christ.

  David's throne has been established and will be established forever.

  And the one who sits on this throne is none other than Jesus Christ himself.

  He trusts in God's future plans.

  But he still cries out to the Lord and offers this prayer, "Do not forsake the work of your

  hands."

  This may sound like doubt, but it isn't.

  This is a cry of dependence and neediness.

  David is saying, "God, please keep your promises to me.

  Without you, I am completely sunk.

  Do not forsake the work of your hands."

  This has become my new favorite prayer request.

  I've lost count of how many times I've prayed it over the past week, and you should pray

  it as well.

  God, keep your promise.

  Do not forsake the work of your hands.

  David's personal future is set in stone.

  It is a certain fact.

  The same is true for you if you're a follower of Christ.

  God will fulfill His purpose for you.

  He will keep every single promise that He has made to you in His Word.

  His steadfast love for you will endure forever.

  If you don't believe me, Paul backs up this truth in Philippians 1-6, and I am sure of

  this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of

  Jesus Christ.

  Jude 1-24, that God will keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence

  of His glory with great joy.

  The steadfastness of God is so foreign to us because we give up on things all the time.

  You start a brand new read that you're so excited for, but then it puts you to sleep

  so that you sell it, you send it to good will, you put it back on the shelf.

  You watch a movie that's boring so you turn it off.

  You start a new diet or exercise routine, but you get distracted and you give up on

  that.

  You start a new hobby, but you get very distracted and very bored very quickly.

  You start something, but you don't finish it.

  God never does that.

  God doesn't operate like that at all.

  God will not forsake the work of His hands.

  God will not give up on you someday.

  God will hold on to you.

  He will finish what He started in you.

  It's so easy to believe these truths intellectually, but it's hard to feel in your heart.

  You often feel that God's love for you is an up and down, up and down roller coaster

  that's based on your performance.

  If you're a good boy or a good girl, God's happy with you.

  If you're a bad boy or a bad girl, God's very unhappy with you.

  But God's love for you doesn't depend upon you and your performance at all.

  God's love for you depends on Christ and His perfect performance on your behalf.

  If God's love for me depended on my good deeds, my good works, He would have stopped

  loving me a long time ago.

  But because His love depends on Christ, who is perfect and obeyed in every way that I've

  failed, His love for me will last forever and ever and ever.

  And that is true for you if you belong to Him.

  If you have trusted in Christ, God gives you the same exact message that I give to my kids

  every single night before I put them to bed.

  I love you when you're good.

  I love you when you're bad.

  I love you when you listen.

  I love you when you don't listen.

  I'm your dad no matter what.

  Isn't the assurance of God's love a cause for celebration?

  Isn't His steadfastness worthy of your thanksgiving and your praise?

  Instead of stressing out about what's ahead, choose to give thanks with your whole heart

  because God will not give up on you in the future.

  Give thanks with your whole heart for what God will do.

  I doubt that anyone in this room has a heart that is completely free from negativity and

  complaining.

  You and I complain about something every single day.

  And many of us complain about many things most days.

  Discontentment is a serious heart problem that you shouldn't take lightly.

  Disatisfaction is an acid that eats away your heart, your ministry, your walk with the Lord.

  The only surgical solution to that heart problem of ingratitude is gratitude.

  You must give thanks.

  It's not enough to just feel thankful.

  You have to verbalize it.

  You have to express it.

  You must acknowledge and verbalize your thankfulness for the attributes and actions of God.

  We've spent a lot of time talking about giving thanks.

  But it would be a big failure on my part if I didn't give you the opportunity to actually

  give thanks.

  In a moment, you will find some people around you and you're going to praise the Lord together

  with your whole hearts.

  Come together to give thanks for who God is.

  Think about this God we saw in Psalm 138.

  He is loving.

  He is steadfast.

  He is faithful.

  He is glorious.

  He is worthy.

  He is high and exalted.

  He is the King of all.

  He is the Preserver and Sustainer.

  He is a promise keeper.

  Also give thanks with your whole hearts for what God has done, what He is doing, and what

  He will do.

  So find some people around you and give thanks together.

  Father, we come to you and we thank you so much, first and foremost, for the gift of

  your Son.

  We thank you that your Son came to live a perfect life because we never could.

  And He endured hell on the cross so that we could experience heaven forever.

  Well, there are people in this room who don't have the hope of heaven, that don't have a

  true relationship with Christ, may today be the day of salvation.

  So that they can give thanks to you both now and forever.

  Thanks for the rest of us, Lord, help us to continually give thanks, to not give ourselves

  over to discontentment and complaining, but to always recognize your goodness.

  And to know that every single day is a fresh pouring out of your mercy and your grace for

  us.

  We thank you for what you have done.

  We thank you for what you are doing, and we thank you for what you will do.

  We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Confess From Your Heart

Introduction:

Why Should I Confess from My Heart? (Psalm 51)

1. Because My God is MERCIFUL AND LOVING (Ps 51:1–2)

2. Because My Sin INSULTS GOD (Ps 51:3–6)

   2 Samuel 12:9 – “Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in His sight?”

3. Because My Heart NEEDS RENOVATION (Ps 51:7–12)

4. Because My Worship and Witness is HINDERED BY HIDDEN SIN (Ps 51:13–19)

   James 5:16 – Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Psalm 51

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Why is sin such a big deal in the life of the Christian and why must it be confessed? What happens if you don’t confess sin but keep it hidden?
   

3. What often keeps you from confessing your sin to God? What often keeps you from confessing your sin to other believers?

Breakout
Separate by gender and confess your sin to one another. Encourage and pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Who has ever received a bad haircut?

  Don't point to the person next to you. I'm asking you personally that'd be really rude

  When I was a kid back in the mid 90s, I got a bad haircut

  My barber really messed up my bowl cut

  And that may sound like an oxymoron because you think well a bowl cuts already kind of messed up

  And they're all kind of lame, but mine actually look pretty good

  for bull cuts except for this one time

  And for the rest of this story, I'm gonna shift to my mom's perspective to give the story some more dramatic weight

  So we get home from the haircut

  Later on that day my mom goes into the bathroom to find quite the crime scene

  There's hair everywhere and there are scissors right on the sink

  My mom didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what had happened because there is an abundance of evidence right in front of her face

  I had obviously tried to fix my bowl cut and made it way worse in the process

  And like any good detective my mom tried to get me to confess

  She came up to me and said Taylor

  Did you cut your hair?

  I said no I didn't

  Even though there's a huge chunk missing right out of the front of my bull cut

  So my mom tried a different approach

  Well, I found hair in the sink. I found scissors and there's a huge chunk just gone from your hair

  And I kept digging my own graves. No that lady messed it up

  And my mom tried one last attempt. She said Taylor

  You're not gonna be in trouble for cutting your hair

  But you will be in trouble if you keep lying and you don't tell the truth

  Well, that was the final straw

  I finally broke down and I confessed like in one of those over-the-top crime dramas on TV

  I told my mom everything even though she already knew everything

  And I'm sure that many of you have a similar story to tell

  Isn't it interesting that no one has to train you to cover up what you're ashamed of

  It comes so naturally to you

  It started at a young age and even continues to this day

  You knock over something very valuable in your house as a kid and it shatters on the ground

  What do you do?

  You pick up all the pieces and you try to hide it somewhere, right?

  But you're just a kid so you're hiding place stinks and your parents find it almost immediately

  You hit your brother or sister and they start to weep and to wail

  What's your response?

  You cover their mouth and threaten him or her to not tattle to your parents

  You finally get your driver's license and you promised your parents you will take care of their car

  But then you immediately scratch it

  What do you do?

  You try to buff out that scratch and try to cover it up with the cheapest paint you can find

  Or how about now?

  At work you make a very serious and embarrassing

  mistake

  What's your first blush response?

  To say nothing and hope that no one notices what you did

  Hiding is easy

  Coming clean is hard

  You and I struggle to confess our sins to other people and we also struggle to tell God everything that we have done

  Even though he already knows

  What we have done

  This reluctance to be honest about our failures reveals that we have deep issues within our hearts that we cannot

  ignore

  There's a second week of our latest series heart problems what to do when you don't want God

  No matter who you are or how long you've been a Christian you have a heart problem of some kind right now

  Maybe it's spiritual laziness

  Maybe it's indifference to the things of God

  Maybe it's a lack of connection with the Lord in prayer or maybe it's serious doubts that you have about the Christian faith or a

  habitual sin

  That is hidden

  All of these problems require a surgical solution and not a quick fix

  Last week we studied the parable of the sower and unpacked the importance of evaluating our hearts to see how serious

  of a heart surgery the Lord needs to give us

  This morning we will dig into Psalm 51 as the Lord lays out the importance of another surgical solution that we must cooperate with and

  participate in

  Confession of sin

  Is this the most popular of topics in the church today?

  Sin is often affirmed and accepted rather than confessed

  And this is why there are so many unhealthy and dying churches

  This is why there are so many unhealthy

  human hearts within those churches

  That are spiritually withering away

  For you to get better the infection of hidden sin needs to be pulled out by the root and the method of that extraction is

  heartfelt confession

  to the Lord and

  Your natural response to a message like this a passage like this will be to inwardly cross your arms and dig in your heels

  And I want to plead with you not to do that

  Lower your defenses and prepare your heart for what God is going to command you to do

  So let's go to the Lord and ask for his help because we certainly need it

  Father we come to you and we admit that we so often hide from you

  We're like Adam and Eve

  Foolishly hiding in the garden when you can see them right there

  Lord there are people in this room who have others fooled, but they do not have you fooled I

  Pray that today would be the day of

  Revealing what has been hidden to others of

  Confessing to you what you already know

  And we thank you for the healing we thank you for the change that you will bring through this genuine confession

  We ask all these things in Jesus name amen

  The turn your Bibles to Psalm 51

  Psalm 51

  It's important to note that you should never skip the descriptions at the beginning of many of the Psalms because these descriptions

  Give you helpful background information

  Skipping these descriptions would be like fast-forwarding through the first two minutes of Star Wars as

  The music blast the logo appears and the background text of the story

  Scrolls on the screen in front of you if you fast forward through that

  You're gonna miss a lot of helpful background information that will really lead you not fully understand the story

  And the same is true for this description at the beginning of Psalm 51 if you skip it

  You're not gonna understand why David wrote it in the first place

  So let's see what he says to the choir master a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet

  Went to him after he had gone in

  to Bathsheba

  David may have been a great king of Israel and a man after God's own heart

  But he was not free from sin and heart problems far from it. He committed adultery

  and murder

  He had sex with a woman who was not his wife

  And he thought everything was under wraps

  And no one knew but then Bathsheba

  Gets pregnant and the problem is she's married to a man named Uriah

  Instead of confessing what he had done David decides to have Uriah killed in battle

  Then he moves

  Bathsheba into his house they get married and they have their child

  It seems once again

  That David got away with these things got free

  But he had

  Who was the one who saw what David had done?

  God himself the one who sees all things

  We were told this in 2nd Samuel 11 27, but the thing that David had done

  displeased

  the Lord

  And God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David in his sin and thankfully David doesn't cross his arms and dig in his heels

  No, he confesses

  And he acknowledges what he had done

  And he accepts the consequences for his sin

  Which is the death of his son who was a result of this affair

  And violent division within his own family

  moving forward

  And after this confrontation David writes one of the rawest most hard-hitting songs in the entire bible in Psalm 51

  David honestly confessed his sin

  from the heart

  I know what you may be wondering after all this setup

  Taylor i'm certainly not a perfect person. I've made mistakes in the past. I've never done anything as bad as David

  I'm actually a pretty good person. I'm nice to other people. Why should I?

  confess from my heart

  Some of you have a different thought that has that ends with the same exact question

  I see why David should confess his sin. He lived in the old testament

  But i'm a christian living after the new testament. I'm covered by the grace of jesus christ. All of my sin has been forgiven. Why should I?

  confess

  from my heart

  Well, that is a great question that we're going to spend the rest of this message answering. Why should I?

  Confess from my heart

  Reason number one because my god is merciful

  and loving

  My god is merciful

  and loving

  David kicks off this psalm by getting as low as he can as fast as he can

  He humbles himself before his maker and admits his need for compassion

  In verses one through two. Let's read that together

  Have mercy on me. Oh god

  According to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions

  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me

  from my sin

  David makes zero excuses for his sin

  He doesn't try to minimize what he has done or try to lessen its seriousness

  Like celebrities and politicians who get caught in underhanded scandals

  You know what i'm talking about, right? You've received those press conferences

  Or statements from famous people that are non apologetic

  apologies

  Oh, what I did was unfortunate. I got caught up in a moment of weakness. I'm sorry if what I did offended anyone

  Aka what I did wasn't that bad so lighten up

  David doesn't do any of this soft peddling nonsense

  He describes his affair in three different ways

  as transgression

  as iniquity

  and as sin

  And these three words cross over with one another but communicate different aspects of the same concept

  Transgression is purposeful rebellion

  Iniquity is perversion a twisting of god's ways and intentions

  Sin is falling short and missing the mark of god's holy standard

  David is brutally honest here because he knows that he has abused his role as king to satisfy his own evil desires

  David knows that he deserves nothing good from god

  But david also knows that he serves a god who is willing to forgive

  Anyone of anything if that person comes to him in repentance and faith

  David knows that he shouldn't run away from the one who is ready

  to embrace him

  If you have not yet turned from your sin and trusted in christ, what are you waiting for?

  I have to be honest with you

  You are not a good person

  I am not a good person

  You may not have ordered a hit on someone else like david, but you are just as guilty as him of

  Perversion, iniquity, and sin

  You have rebelled against god's rightful rule and authority

  You have perverted how life should be lived

  You have fallen away short of god's perfect and holy standard

  You are far more wicked than you could possibly understand

  But god is far more gracious than you could ever imagine

  God wants to show you mercy

  He doesn't want to give you what you deserve, which is eternal punishment in hell

  God wants to give you what you don't deserve, which is grace

  Eternal joy in heaven

  God wants to show you his steadfast love and his abundant mercy

  He wants to blot out your transgressions and erase all record of your evil deeds

  He wants to wash you thoroughly of your iniquity and cleanse you of all your sin

  But god will only do those things if you ask him to

  If you humble yourself before him like david and make no excuses for your evil desires and decisions

  Your heart problem may be that your heart is spiritually dead

  It needs to be brought to new life in christ

  If that's the case confess your sin for the very first time and plead for christ's forgiveness and he will

  Give it to you

  He will fix your heart problem

  He will give you the solution which is faith in jesus christ and what he achieved by dying on the cross and rising again

  Please don't let your pride keep you from the abundant

  Mercy and steadfast love of god

  Why should i confess from my heart?

  Reason number two because my sin insults god

  Because my sin insults god

  David goes even deeper in verses three through six to reveal why his sin and your sin

  Is such a big deal. Let's read that together for i know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me

  Against you you only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight

  So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments

  Behold i was brought forth in iniquity and incended my mother conceived me

  Behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom

  in the secret heart

  David has a constant reminder of his affair and murder right in front of him all the time

  In the form of basheba

  I think that's one of the reasons why he says my sin is ever before me

  Every single time he sees basheba. He remembers that he took her when she didn't belong to him

  And he ended the life of her first husband uraya who was a man of great integrity

  Yes, he wronged this woman. Yes, he wronged her husband, but they're not the ones that david is most concerned about wronging

  Listen again to verse four against you. You only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight

  Who is david most concerned about wronging?

  The lord

  No one matters more than god. So offending him matters more than offending anyone else

  Every sinful thought every sinful word action inaction reaction is an insult to god

  It is a slap in his face

  And this inescapable reality is highlighted when the lord asks a direct question to david through the prophet nathan

  In second sancton 12 9

  Why have you despised the word of the lord to do what is evil in his sight?

  In the following verse god says that david didn't just despise his word. He despised him

  When you take the word lightly you take god lightly

  When you disobey

  God's word

  You disobey the one who spoke it into existence

  Christians in the room and watching online

  I want you to understand what you communicate to god when you choose to do something that you know you shouldn't

  Or you fail to do something that you know you should

  You are telling god. I love this sin more than I love you

  When you click that link and watch that pornographic video you are telling god. I'd rather look at this than behold you in your word

  When you gossip and slander you're telling god. I care more about other people think about me than what you think about me

  When you lie and cover your tracks you are telling god. I care way more about my comfort

  Than honoring you

  When you intentionally disrespect your husband

  Or selflessly dishonor your wife

  You are telling god. I'd rather do things my way than your way

  in this marriage

  In those moments you dismiss god and act like he is worth nothing to you

  How insulting is that?

  If that view of your sin doesn't make you want to confess. I don't know what else to tell you

  When I am rude and disrespectful to my wife, we are still married

  My bad behavior doesn't divorce or separate me from her

  In that moment, but it does affect how close I feel to her

  And I can't enjoy that closeness that fellowship again until I confess to her

  How I have wronged her

  If you are a true believer in jesus christ, you confess to draw near to the lord

  In fellowship to enjoy a closeness with him that you cannot enjoy when you were holding on to sin and refusing to let it go

  You confess because you're already forgiven

  You confess because you love god and are loved by god

  So often we feel like god forsakes us

  But he's not the one who forsakes you

  You are the one who forsakes him

  The hymn come now founten nails this on the head

  Prone to wander lord. I feel it prone to leave the god I love

  Does that describe anyone else besides me this morning?

  Is your heart problem that you feel distant from the lord because you've been wandering off the path of his word

  If that's you admit that you've strayed because he already knows that you have

  Confess that you need his help because god is well aware that you already need his help

  Draw near to god and scripture promises that he will draw near to you

  Why should I confess from my heart third reason because my heart needs renovation

  Because my heart needs renovation

  In

  Verses seven through twelve david continues on with more

  Please for god to wash him of what he has done and then he pops the hood so to speak and ask god to work on the engine

  of his heart

  Purge me with hissup and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be wider than snow

  Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice

  Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities

  Create in me a clean heart. Oh god and renew a right spirit within me

  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with the willing spirit

  David asked god to create in him a clean heart

  And that hebrew word for create is the same word used in genesis one one when god made everything

  In the beginning god created things that were not there to begin with

  He did something brand new

  And david is asking him god do something brand new and me creating me something that doesn't exist

  A heart that desires you a heart that would rather choose you than sin

  And david doesn't want this change to be a passing fad or a flash in the pan. He wants it to last

  That's why he says renew a right spirit within me

  Uphold me

  with the willing spirit

  In other words god, don't let me be lazy

  Don't let me go back to business as usual. Let this change last for the rest of my days

  Help me to step into who you've created me to be instead of sliding back into who I used to be

  David understands that his life is a marathon not a sprint

  He needs to focus on the long term

  Not just the short term

  And david says something in verse 11 that may have surprised you

  Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me

  Maybe that verse unlocked a new fear within you and you're starting to wonder wait

  Can that actually happen? Can god take his spirit away from his people?

  You just said that god doesn't forsake his people. Aren't you contradicting yourself?

  Well, I don't have the time to fully explain the theology of this verse

  So let me try to do my best in 90 seconds. You can even time me if you really want to

  In the old testament the holy spirit did not live within god's people

  as he does today

  Instead he would rush upon people and anoint them for specific tasks and roles

  He would empower

  the prophets the kings

  Judges and others to say and do what god told them to say and do

  And one such man was king sall

  The first king of visual he certainly looked the part. He was tall dark and handsome, but the problem was his heart

  He had a heart problem that was never resolved

  He sinned he disobeyed but he didn't truly confess and repent as david would

  So god took away his holy spirit from sall

  Which also meant that he took away the throne from sall as well

  And that's what david is thinking about in this verse god. Don't let me be another sall

  Don't take the throne away from me. Don't take your holy spirit and his help away from me

  But if you are a follower of christ this side of the cross in the empty tomb

  You don't need to share this fear of davids because you are sealed and indwelt by the holy spirit

  He has made you into a new creation and given you a changed heart

  The holy spirit can never be taken away from you just as your salvation can never be taken away from you

  How amazing it is to enjoy the blessings that david longed for

  A brand new heart and the constant presence the constant indwelling of the holy spirit

  But you and i often take these blessings for granted don't we

  We often take advantage of these blessings and acts as if we don't need to do anything

  In our personal journey of holiness

  Like david asked god to uphold you with a willing spirit

  To maintain this heart that has been given to you

  You know who likes new stuff

  A new car with a new car smell

  New shoes that don't stink like a gym locker room

  A new phone that can do one do stuff that your old one could not

  a new car

  How about a new house that doesn't have the issues that your last one did

  And i think one of the reasons we like new stuff is that we think we can enjoy a break from maintenance and upkeep

  Is that true

  That's a really false hope that really goes away very quickly a new car can be trashed in a few days

  If you're not diligent in cleaning it out

  A new phone can be broken and shattered if you don't have a protective case in screen shield

  New shoes will look very old and gross if you don't spray them out every once in a while and clean the dust and the grime that accumulates

  I want you to imagine that a wealthy friend has a brand new house built for you free of charge

  This house is state-of-the-art everything inside and outside the house looks fantastic

  But how fantastic will that house look if you never cut the grass

  If you never do any upkeep of any kind if you never keep up with ongoing renovations

  As the years pass by

  That new house will not look new for very long

  The same goes to the new heart that god has gifted to you it needs ongoing maintenance and renovation

  This isn't a task you could do once a year really quickly. This is a 24/7 project

  And we'll talk about this heart maintenance in even greater detail in two weeks

  But for the time being I want you to understand that this heart maintenance includes personal time with the lord in prayer and in his word

  Participation in the life of the church not just attend attendance

  Participation in the life of the church and yes ongoing confession and repenting of sin

  It's hard to maintain a car and keep it running

  It's hard to maintain a house and keep it looking presentable

  It's way harder to maintain your heart and keep it dialed in to the lord

  What's the motivation for this difficult project

  What keeps you on task on schedule on mission?

  Well, david gives us the answer in verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation

  You will not continually maintain your heart if you are not continually blown away that you are saved in the first place

  You will not constantly confess to your father if you are not thrilled that you belong to him

  And you are a part of his family

  The moment you take your salvation for granted is the moment you stop growing

  Is the moment you stop making progress? It's like all the gas is siphoned out of your tank

  Are you running on empty in this current season of life?

  If so ask the lord to fill your tank ask him to restore to you the joy of your salvation

  Ask that you would once again celebrate

  That your name is written in heaven and nothing and no one can scratch it out

  Do you know what the best thing about me is?

  That I belong to jesus

  And if you're a christian the best thing about you is that you belong to jesus

  Do you truly believe that this morning?

  Is that a truth that's on the forefront of your mind and fills your heart?

  If not ask god that it would

  Because otherwise you're not going to grow and your heart problem will not be solved

  Why should I confess to my heart final reason because my worship and witness is hindered by hidden sin

  Because my worship and witness is hindered by hidden sin

  Let's wrap up with verses 13 through 19

  Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you

  Deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh god. Oh god of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness

  Oh lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise

  For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with the burnt offering

  The sacrifices of god are a broken spirit

  I'm broken in contrite heart. Oh god, you will not despise

  Do good design and your good pleasure build up the walls of jesus

  Then

  Will you delight and write sacrifices and burn offerings and whole burn offerings then bulls will be offered on your altar

  David's heart is broken in contrite

  As we studied a few months ago in the beatitudes david is poor in spirit and one who mourns over his sin

  David understands that his sin doesn't just affect him

  It affects everyone in positions underneath of him

  It affects everyone in israel as the nation goes as the king goes so goes the nation

  In this section david isn't me focused. He is others

  focused

  He asked to be used for god's purposes. Listen again to verse 13 that I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will

  return to you

  david wants to be a living testimony of god's grace and kindness

  Verses 14 through 15 deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh god. Oh god of my salvation

  And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise

  David wants to demonstrate what it truly looks like

  to holy worship god

  Verse 18 do good design and your good pleasure build up the walls of jr.

  David doesn't want to hoard all the blessing for himself. He wants jr.

  And all of israel to experience the blessing of god as well

  David isn't interested in keeping his sin a secret any longer

  He's ready to go public with it and one of the ways he does this is by writing this psalm that we are reading

  right now

  Think about it. How many transgressors have been taught? How many sinners have returned to god because of this psalm?

  How many countless numbers of sins have been confessed because david gives us a clear example of how to do this

  In a godly way, but this wouldn't have happened if david kept his sin a secret and only confessed it to god

  Confession increased david's worship and

  strengthened his witness

  And the same can be true for you as well

  confession will increase your worship

  and strengthen your witness

  But the problem is you often believe the exact opposite

  You think to yourself, I don't want to ruin my testimony. So I'll just keep my struggles to myself

  I won't tell anyone about my failures except god

  That is a horrible plan

  That plan is pride disguised as humility

  That plan is self-interest disguised as an outward focus

  Please listen to me. There is only one sinless person in all of existence

  And this person is without a doubt not you or me

  No one will benefit

  From a false image of your fake perfection

  People will only benefit from a true image of your genuine confession

  How many unbelievers could you point to the forgiveness of christ by sharing how you have experienced his forgiveness

  How many fellow believers can you remind can you remind them of that?

  It is a good and godly thing to be transparent in the body of christ

  You can model that because so often we think this isn't a safe place

  But this should be the safest place to confess our sins and be honest with one another

  For the rest of my life, I'll never forget one particular night at Geneva college during my freshman year

  When my guy friends and I were completely honest with one another about what we struggled with

  And to a man we all admitted that we at one point had struggled with pornography use

  I'll never forget the looks on people's faces. Everyone was shocked. We were all amazed because each guy thought he was the only one

  Because that's how satan wanted us to feel

  alone

  isolated self

  condemning

  No one wants you to confess your sin less than satan

  He doesn't want you to confess to god

  He doesn't want you to confess to others because then you will receive love

  And prayer that will help you to make those needed changes

  Listen to james 516

  Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another

  That you may be healed

  It is so healing to shine a light on what you've kept in the dark

  It is so freeing to unearth what you've kept covered up

  It is such a blessing to share what you have done to a person who is ready to build you up

  with the truths of the gospel

  You don't need to hide your sins any longer because god himself has already hidden his face from your sin

  As we close let me ask you what sins are you so desperate to keep hidden?

  What are you holding on to and refusing to confess to god and to those who are willing to help you?

  Maybe it's a sexual sin of some kind

  Maybe it's a substance abuse problem. Maybe it's an anger issue or a pattern of lying

  Maybe you've destroyed someone's reputation and they don't even know it

  Maybe it's an all-consuming worry that no one knows the full extent of besides you and god

  Whatever it is you can and should confess it to the lord and your loved ones today

  Not next week when you've had more time to think about it because you're just going to talk yourself out of it in the meantime

  Not when it's more easy and convenient. No, it's never going to be easy and convenient to confess your sin do it today

  But I know what some of you are thinking taylor you just don't get it

  If I share this secret my life will be ruined. I'm going to hurt so many people

  Well over the past 10 years in ministry, I've had people confess some doozies to me

  And then to other people who need to know

  And guess what it was hard. It was painful, but they survived

  And most those people not only survive they are thriving right now. They are closer to god than ever before

  If you don't plan to confess to god

  That tells me that you may not truly understand his saving grace

  If you don't plan to confess to others that tells me that you don't actually plan to change

  You should confess from your heart because god is ready to pour out his love and mercy upon you

  You should confess from your heart because you shouldn't want to indulge in what insults god

  You should confess from your heart because you are in desperate need of renovation

  You should confess from your heart because hidden sin will shipwreck your worship of god and your witness

  to everyone

  There is no better place to come and confess our sin in the table of the lord supper

  This god-given meal reminds you of god's

  Given solution to your heart problem

  The sacrifice of his one and only son

  Jesus christ came down from heavens that you could join him there

  Someday

  His heart was set upon the cross so that your heart could be transformed and set to worship him forever

  and ever

  As you come to the lord and communion

  withhold nothing from him

  Because he withholds nothing from you

  Our servers can now make their way forward as well as the worship team

  You don't need to belong to this church to take part in the lord supper

  But you do need to belong to jesus christ

  If you have not yet confessed your sins and asked jesus to save you please remain seated

  But please don't just tune out

  Please consider

  How your sin has offended god

  How it has hurt others and how it has damaged your own soul

  But also find hope in the fact that you can lay those sinful burdens down at the foot of the cross

  And receive forgiveness today

Evaluate Your Heart

Introduction:

IYKYK

Heart Hearing Evaluation (Luke 8:4–15)

1. Does Your Heart Hear BUT DISBELIEVE? (Luke 8:12)

   2 Corinthians 4:4 – In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2. Does Your Heart Hear BUT STALL OUT? (Luke 8:13)

   Matthew 7:13–14 – Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

3. Does Your Heart Hear BUT GET DISTRACTED? (Luke 8:14)

   1 Timothy 6:10 – For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

4. Does Your Heart Hear AND PRODUCE A CHANGED LIFE? (Luke 8:15)

   Revelation 2:4–5 – But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 8:4-15

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What is your biggest heart problem right now? Why can’t it be ignored and how should you address it?
   

3. Re-read the Parable of the Sower and break down what the characters and elements represent. What is the major message of this parable?
   

4. According to Jesus, what is the true test of saving faith?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  We all love quick fixes, don't we?

  If we have a problem, we wanna solve it

  in the quickest and simplest way possible.

  And our bent towards quick fixes

  pops up almost every single day.

  The router is acting up, so what do you do?

  All right, try to be a bit louder so I can hear you.

  What do you do when the router's acting up?

  You unplug it, then you plug it back in, right?

  You have a pounding headache.

  What's your go-to when you have a flare up?

  Just pop a few ibuprofen or Tylenol to take the edge off.

  And when the edge doesn't grow dull or you get so annoyed,

  when that router issue isn't fixed by the unplug

  and plug back in, you get so frustrated.

  The ultimate example of an easy fix from my life

  is the N64, the Nintendo 64, whoever owned one growing up.

  For those of you who weren't born sometime in the 1900s,

  let me make it clear that these games

  were not played on discs.

  You couldn't download them digitally.

  You had to play them on cartridges.

  And for you, 80s and 90s kids in the room,

  what was the quick fix to the problem

  of the game glitching or freezing?

  The harmonica method, right?

  (splat)

  We thought there was dust in the cartridge

  and you had to blow it out.

  According to my internet research,

  people are divided over the effectiveness

  of the harmonica method.

  Some people say that it was the placebo

  that made you feel better, but didn't actually do anything.

  While others say, yeah, it was a short-term fix.

  It worked for a bit, but it caused long-term damage.

  According to these gamers online,

  the moisture from your breath corroded

  the inside of the cartridge or something, I don't know.

  But all of these nerds online agree about one simple fact.

  This was a quick fix,

  not a long-term solution.

  It either did nothing to help the problem

  or it made the problem even worse.

  As you saw in the promo video a few moments

  ago, we have been hyper-focused on one major theme

  from Scripture over the past nine months.

  God wants your heart.

  He doesn't just want your external rule following,

  He wants your internal love and devotion.

  But maybe you've heard this theme of God wants your heart

  preached about Sunday after Sunday,

  but you still aren't there.

  Maybe you know what God wants from you,

  for some reason you don't want to give it to Him.

  Your heart is distant from the Lord.

  Your heart is cold towards His Word.

  There is something off inside of you.

  You need to get to a better place,

  but you don't know how to get there.

  And for weeks, months, or even years,

  you've been trying all the quick fixes,

  but nothing is working.

  The problem just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

  You have a serious heart problem

  that you cannot solve on your own.

  If that's you, I have a two-part question to ask

  that you don't have to answer out loud,

  but you do need to answer in your heart.

  Are you ready to put away the quick fixes

  and stop doing things your way?

  Are you ready to grab ahold of God's long-term

  solutions and start doing things His way?

  If the answer is yes, I have to warn you,

  it's gonna hurt.

  It's gonna take God's painful scalp cuts,

  scalpel cuts to truly lead you to the change that you need.

  True change requires an open heart procedure.

  Over the next month,

  we're gonna undergo four surgical solutions

  to our heart problems, evaluating our hearts,

  confessing from our hearts,

  giving thanks with our hearts, and guarding our hearts.

  As you may have noticed, all these surgical solutions

  require your cooperation and participation.

  None of these solutions will be easy,

  but they are guaranteed success.

  If you submit to your divine doctor

  and let Him do His work in your heart.

  So before we continue, let's go to the Lord

  and ask for His help.

  Please pray for me and I will pray for you.

  Father, we thank you for this most important appointment

  of the week.

  This isn't just a throwaway time.

  We come if we have a break in the schedule.

  There's a time we come together as your people

  to worship you and to come under the teaching of your Word.

  Or may you do a work that only you can.

  May you work in human hearts.

  May you bring conviction.

  May you challenge.

  May you build up.

  May you bring life where there is none.

  What I can do, none of those things, only you can.

  Preach a much better message in people's hearts

  than I ever could with my mouth.

  We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

  So the first surgical solution to your heart problem

  is found in Luke chapter eight, verses four through 15.

  Please turn there with me.

  Luke chapter eight, verses four through 15.

  At this point in his ministry,

  Jesus is being followed around by crowds

  who want to experience his miracles

  and hear him preach messages that are unlike anyone else's.

  In our passage for this morning,

  Jesus teaches the crowd a parable.

  And as a refresher, a parable

  is an everyday story with a spiritual meaning.

  It is a work of fiction that points to the reality

  of God's kingdom and the salvation that Jesus offers.

  Let's read one of the greatest parables

  in Luke chapter eight, verses four through eight.

  And when a great crowd was gathering

  and people from town to town came to him,

  Jesus said in a parable,

  a sower went out to sow his seed.

  And as he sowed, some fell on the path

  and was trampled underfoot

  and the birds of the air devoured it.

  And some fell on the rock.

  And as it grew up, it withered away

  because it had no moisture.

  And some seed fell among thorns

  and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

  And some fell into good soil

  and grew and healed at a hundredfold.

  As Jesus said these things,

  he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

  So a sower is in his field,

  scattering seed anywhere and everywhere that he goes.

  And some of this seed lands on good soil

  but most of it lands on bad soil.

  Some of the seed falls along the path

  where people stomp on it

  and it is quickly picked up by birds.

  Some falls on soil where it looks good

  but there is a bedrock underneath the soil

  that you cannot see.

  So the seed has no moisture.

  It can't develop a root system

  so it withers away and dies.

  Some of the seed falls on thorns

  where it is choked out.

  But some of the seed falls on good soil

  where it steadily but surely grows over time

  and leads to an abundant harvest.

  That's the story.

  And Jesus closes out by saying,

  "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

  Why does he say that?

  What's the point of saying that?

  Well, the modern day equivalent is on the screen behind me.

  Can any of you young people decipher this for us?

  What is it?

  Thank you, Sierra.

  If you know, you know.

  Jesus is saying you're either gonna understand

  what I'm saying or you won't.

  Well, the disciples themselves are left confused

  not really understanding the story.

  So they work up the courage to go up to Jesus

  and say, "Hey, Jesus, great story."

  But what in the world was that about?

  And check out Jesus' response in verses nine through 10.

  And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,

  he said, "To you, it has been given to know the secrets

  "of the kingdom of God,

  "but for others they are in parables.

  "So that seeing they may not see and hearing

  "they may not understand."

  Now you may be thinking, hold on a minute.

  It seems like Jesus is saying

  that he taught in parables to confuse some people.

  Yeah, you get a gold star for observation.

  That is exactly what he is saying.

  This may be a hard pill to swallow,

  but Jesus taught these parables

  both to reveal and to conceal the truth.

  He taught these parables to reveal the truth

  to those whose hearts are soft and ready to receive it.

  But he also told these parables to conceal the truth

  from those whose hearts are hardened

  and resolved to reject it.

  The good news is if you truly want to understand

  the parables, you will.

  But if you don't really care

  about understanding the parables, you won't.

  It's that simple and clear cut.

  But thankfully Jesus does something that he rarely does.

  He explains the meaning of the parable.

  Praise the Lord, isn't that so convenient

  for every single one of us in this room?

  Jesus is like that teacher who tells you

  what's on the final exam

  and lets you go to the back of the book to find the answers.

  So let's go to the back of the book

  and see Jesus answer for what this parable means

  in verses 11 through 15.

  Now the parable is this.

  The seed is the word of God.

  The ones along the path are those who have heard it.

  And the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts

  so that they may not believe and be saved.

  And the ones on the rock are those

  when they hear the word, receive it with joy,

  but these have no root.

  They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away.

  And as for what fell among the thorns,

  they are those who hear, but as they go on their way,

  they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures

  of life and their fruit does not mature.

  As for that in the good soil,

  they are those who hearing the word hold it fast

  in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

  Jesus clearly spells out everything for us.

  The seed is the word of God that is scattered

  by the sower by anyone who faithfully shares the word.

  The seed of the word is scattered every single Sunday

  as someone stands before you to proclaim

  what God has to say.

  The seed of the word is scattered

  whenever you teach the lesson back in Harvest Academy

  or do family devotions with your kids.

  The seed of the word is scattered

  whenever you share the gospel

  with that unsafe family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor.

  And according to Jesus, the scattered seed of the word

  lands on four different types of soils,

  which represents four different types of human hearts.

  And Jesus is not talking about the organ

  that's bumping in your chest right now.

  He's talking about who you really are on the inside.

  Your heart is the source of all your emotions,

  your affections, and your motivations.

  Your heart is constantly taking in everything you see

  here and experiencing and evaluating it.

  And according to God's word,

  you don't just have physical ears on the sides of your head,

  you also have spiritual ears on your heart.

  And these spiritual ears can either hear the truth

  and reject it or can hear the truth and accept it.

  Three of these soils,

  three of these heart hearers in this parable

  reject the word, which leads to eternal destruction.

  Only one soil, only one heart here accepts the word

  and is saved and has eternal life.

  Do you remember those hearing evaluations

  you had to take back in elementary school

  where you shuffled the school library or some random room?

  You put on the headphones,

  where they play different noises

  at different frequencies and decibels.

  And what would you do if you could hear the noise?

  Show me what you would do.

  You raise your hand, right?

  Or you kept it down if you couldn't hear it.

  And depending on how the evaluation went,

  you could either go about the rest of your day as normal

  or you'd be sent to an ear doctor.

  Well, this parable is a heart hearing evaluation.

  It gauges how your heart hears

  and responds to the word of God.

  It reveals if you are currently rejecting Jesus Christ

  in His gospel or if you've actually accepted Him or not.

  It reveals how serious of a heart problem you have

  and how serious of a heart surgery you need.

  So after one of the longest introductions

  in the history of this church,

  it's time to put on the spiritual headphones

  and take your heart hearing evaluation.

  First question of the heart hearing evaluation.

  Does your heart hear but disbelief?

  Does your heart hear but disbelief?

  Let's start with the pathway soil

  where the seed is crushed and eaten by birds.

  Listen again to Jesus' explanation in verse 12.

  The ones along the path are those who have heard,

  then the devil comes and takes away the word

  from their hearts so that they may not believe

  and be saved.

  The birds stand in for Satan himself

  who has a mission to accomplish,

  to keep unbelievers from truly hearing the gospel message

  and accepting it.

  The apostle Paul speaks to this ministry of Satan

  in 2nd Corinthians 4/4.

  He says, "The God of this world, that Satan,

  "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers

  "to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel

  "of the glory of Christ who is the image of God."

  Do you know that Satan and his demons

  are faithful church attenders?

  I guarantee they have a better track record of attendance

  than anyone in this room.

  They never miss a Sunday.

  But they don't show up to worship God,

  they show up to deceive and to divert attention.

  Satan wants you to daydream during the message

  and think about what's for lunch afterwards.

  Like that even matters at all.

  Satan wants you to have sleepy eyes

  and a head that bobs up and down, up and down.

  He wants you to be restless and fidgety in your seat.

  He wants you to absentmindedly doodle on your outline

  rather than take diligent notes.

  He wants you to be doubtful regarding the things of God.

  He wants you to suffer from this condition of believing

  that God could never love or forgive someone like you.

  He wants you to hear the word, but disbelieve the word.

  Is that where you are this morning?

  Is your heart problem that you're disinterested in

  and maybe even disgusted by?

  What is preached behind the pulpit here?

  Or shared with you by faithful Christian relatives and friends?

  Maybe you're here to make your family happy,

  but you're not buying into all this Jesus stuff.

  Maybe the teachings of the Bible seem outdated,

  harsh and even harmful to you.

  Maybe when you look at this book,

  it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

  If I've described you at all,

  I wanna share with you that I am so glad that you're here.

  And I have been praying for you all week.

  I've been praying that Satan would not steal

  the seed of the word from your heart once again.

  I've been praying that you would hear the word

  with fresh ears and a willing heart.

  I've been praying that you would see yourself

  as a sinner and Jesus Christ as the only savior.

  Turn from your disbelief, turn to Jesus Christ

  and believe in what he accomplished

  through his perfect life, his sacrificial death,

  and his resurrection from the grave.

  If you do, he will wipe away all of your sins.

  He will give you his perfect righteousness.

  He will give you a new heart that has new life

  and a new love.

  That is what faith in Christ will get you.

  Let me ask, what has disbelief in Christ ever gotten you?

  Nothing but an anxious and dissatisfied heart.

  If you continue with that disbelief,

  you will experience spiritual death that lasts forever.

  Second question of the heart hearing evaluation,

  does your heart hear but stall out?

  Does your heart hear but stall out?

  Next up is the rocky soil.

  Let's read verse 13.

  "And the ones on the rock are those,

  when they hear the word, receive it with joy,

  but they have no root.

  They believe for a while in time of testing fall away."

  This kind of heart hears the word and seems to accept it.

  There is an immediate willingness to follow Jesus.

  There is quick growth.

  Bad habits are put away and new habits are formed.

  This person feels happy.

  Boy, oh boy, it's fun to be a Christian.

  Life is the best.

  But then times get tough.

  They experience hardship.

  And life isn't so great anymore.

  It isn't so fun to be a Christian anymore.

  The view ahead used to be filled with hope and with life,

  but now it is full of darkness and uncertainty.

  Back in high school, my friends and I were driving

  in two separate cars to a concert.

  When the car I was in stalled and came to a halt

  on the side of the road.

  And the other car full of guys parked right behind us.

  And my friend Robert, who was driving the car I was in,

  got out.

  He popped the hood, which was basically an empty gesture

  because none of us had jumper cables

  or knew how a car worked.

  I wish Ben Maul was there that day.

  That would have been fantastic.

  He could have helped us.

  And so Robert pretended like he knew

  he was doing looking under the hood.

  And then he called his stepdad to come and help.

  But the problem was the other car full of guys

  was getting antsy because they still wanted

  to go to the concert.

  And the driver of that car said,

  "Hey guys, we got one less spot.

  We got one more spot less in this car.

  Two of you are gonna have to stay here

  because we're not waiting."

  And that made me so mad.

  I was like, "Seriously?

  I'm not gonna go have fun at the concert

  while we leave people stranded here."

  Well, my friend Ryan didn't feel the same way.

  He said, "I'll go with you."

  And he jumped in the car.

  They sped off while we were coughing up dust

  from their speedy getaway.

  And we waited for Robert's stepdad

  for what felt like hours.

  And it was the dead of summer, so it was hot.

  It was hot like this auditorium often is, right?

  And we got so desperate,

  we drank the emergency water in the trunk,

  which must have been there for years

  'cause it tasted like warm motor oil.

  And eventually Robert's dad, his stepdad showed up

  and he said, "Hey, I called a tow truck.

  It's gonna come soon.

  And I can still take you to the concert if you want to."

  How do you think we felt about that?

  We're like, "No, we're totally over that.

  Just take us back home."

  We were so done with that concert.

  The day had started out so well.

  It was a ton of fun.

  Then the car stalled out

  and we were thrown for a loop.

  The concert was no longer exciting and appealing to us

  like it used to be.

  That happens to so many people who profess faith

  in Jesus Christ.

  They seem to be doing just fine

  as they drive along on the Christian journey,

  but then they hit an unexpected bump in the road

  and totally stall out.

  Family members stopped talking to them

  because of their new beliefs.

  Friends make fun of them for their new ridiculous standards.

  Coworkers belittle them for missing happy hour

  to go to small group.

  Romantic interests threaten to break up the relationship

  if you don't cut it out with this religious nonsense.

  Instead of persevering through these tough times

  and moving forward, they give up on Jesus.

  They retreat and go back to their old lives.

  Following Jesus was convenient for a season,

  but then there was too high of a price to pay.

  Have you already given up?

  Are you tempted to give up right now?

  You have to understand that Jesus never promises

  an easy life if you follow him.

  That's not listed in the brochure.

  True Christians are not exempt from suffering and persecution.

  Actually, true Christians are targets

  for suffering and persecution.

  Listen to Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 through 14.

  "For the gate is wide and the way is easy

  that leads to destruction,

  and those who enter by it are many.

  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard

  that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

  Let me ask you, what is the smarter play?

  Easy for several decades in this life

  and horribly hard in hell forever

  or hard for a little bit in this life

  and easy for all of eternity in heaven?

  Which is the better option?

  Anyone can start out well, but very few finish well.

  A quick start out the gate doesn't mean much

  if you don't cross the finish line.

  Only those who hear the word and persevere in the Word

  possess a transformed heart.

  So please do not give up.

  Do not pick up your ball and go home.

  If you already have, it's not too late to get back in the game.

  It's not too late to jump back on that racetrack

  and keep going until the end.

  Third question of the heart-hearing evaluation.

  Does your heart hear but get distracted?

  Does your heart hear but get distracted?

  Does your heart hear but get distracted?

  In verse 14, Jesus talks about the thorny soil.

  And as for what fell among the thorns,

  they are those who hear, but as they go on their way,

  they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life

  and their fruit does not mature.

  This kind of heart here is not at all hostile to Jesus.

  This person may even claim to be a Christian,

  know a lot about the Bible

  and even sit in church on Sunday.

  But the knowledge in his or her brain

  does not affect his or her heart

  because any growth, any transformation

  is pushed down by an obsession with the world.

  It is choked out.

  Climbing the ladder of achievement,

  having a stacked financial portfolio,

  planning for a carefree retirement

  and raising impressive kids who do impressive things

  is always the front of this person's thinking.

  They have no interest in hearing what God has to say

  about how they should live

  because they already have a plan for their life.

  To be clear, I'm not saying it's bad to have a lot of money,

  invest in the stock market or plan for retirement.

  It's not bad if you own things,

  but it is bad when things own you.

  People often misquote the apostle Paul

  and say, "Money is the root of evil."

  Is that what the Bible says?

  The apostle Paul says it this way,

  "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

  It is through this craving

  that some have wandered away from the faith

  and pierced themselves with many pangs.

  The greedy longing for more and more and more stuff

  and success will spiritually bankrupt you."

  Please be honest with yourself.

  Are you distracted by the things of this world right now?

  Are you more excited to receive your direct deposit from work?

  More than you are excited to receive and read God's word?

  Does remodeling your house or buying a new car

  thrill your heart more than worshiping God?

  My son is almost six years old

  and my daughter is three and a half,

  and they are totally oblivious to the basics of finances.

  And they have next to no interest in money.

  If I were to come home and tell them,

  "Hey, do you want to spend an entire day with me?

  Or do you want all the money in my various accounts?"

  What do you think they would say?

  They want to spend a time with their dad.

  They would want me more than stuff from me.

  And please listen to me. This is so important.

  It is a serious heart problem to want stuff from God

  more than God himself.

  This is a symptom of a heart that is thorny and distracted.

  According to Jesus, this kind of heart does not truly know Him.

  If that's you, please don't push aside this concern

  and say, "I'll deal with it later."

  No, deal with it right now.

  Ask God to take His scalpel and clear the thorns

  from your heart that are keeping you from Him.

  Let go of the garbage of this world

  so you can grab ahold of the treasures of heaven.

  Final question of the heart-hearing evaluation.

  Does your heart hear and produce a changed life?

  Does your heart hear and produce a changed life?

  Let's see what Jesus has to say about the good soil

  in verse 15.

  "As for that in the good soil,

  there are those who hearing the word hold it fast

  in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience."

  This heart here receives the word and perseveres in the word.

  It doesn't experience quick growth.

  It actually grows in a sustainable pattern for the long run.

  This person has a good and godly heart

  that produces good and godly life.

  This good and godly fruit is a changed life.

  This good and godly fruit includes ongoing repentance of sin,

  loving the church, refusing to throw in the towel,

  sharing their faith, making disciples.

  The true test of saving faith

  isn't that you pray to prayer as a kid.

  Walked an aisle at a revival service,

  raised your hand or signed a card.

  There are so many people who grew up in the church

  and say that they accepted Christ,

  but there is nothing different about them now.

  A past action means nothing

  if there is no present evidence of God at work in your life.

  What you did back then doesn't really matter

  if you're not trusting in Jesus now, loving Jesus now,

  following Jesus now.

  The true test of saving faith is a changed life.

  And it brings my heart so much joy to know

  that many of you in this room are the good soil.

  You have received the word of God

  and it is growing up and taking over your life.

  It changes how you think, it changes how you speak,

  it changes how you react.

  Your heart is good soil.

  But that doesn't mean that your heart is exempt from heart problems.

  The temptation to stay still or to backslide

  will always be there.

  You will go through seasons of apathy and depression.

  There will be times you read the words in these pages

  and they mean nothing to you in your heart.

  You will know what you should do,

  but you still decide to do what you shouldn't.

  The question isn't will you experience heart problems?

  The question is what will you do when you experience heart problems?

  And we're going to spend the rest of this series answering that question,

  but I don't want to leave you hanging until next Sunday.

  So I'm going to provide you with Jesus' own answer to this question

  in Revelation 2 verses 4 through 5,

  where the church in Ephesus gets a personal message from Jesus himself.

  He says this,

  "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

  Remember therefore from where you have fallen.

  Repent and do the works you did at first."

  Brothers and sisters, have you abandoned your first love?

  Have you lost the passion that you used to have for Christ when you were first saved?

  Remember how you used to feel about Him.

  Remind yourself of how you couldn't get enough of the Bible and impactful sermons.

  Remind yourself of how you couldn't wait to grab ahold of people

  to tell them all that you were learning, to tell them about Jesus.

  Don't you miss how things used to be?

  Don't you want your heart to be on fire for Christ again?

  You can get back to that point and move so far beyond it,

  if you repent of your dispassion and do what you did before.

  Don't wait to make the right choice until you feel like it.

  Make the right choice so you will feel the right way once again.

  Now, I know what some of you are thinking as we come to a close with this message.

  Man, this is a super heavy sermon series for the summer.

  Don't you realize this July?

  Mentally, I'm just checked out and on a beach somewhere wearing flip flops.

  This is the month of rest and relaxation.

  Not in this church, it's not.

  We're going to get after it for the next month.

  We are going to walk out of this building as different people

  with different heart attitudes at the end of July.

  We are going to be done with the quick fixes.

  And instead, we're going to pursue after God's solution to our heart problems.

  Is anyone else with me?

  The first step in receiving God's solution to your heart problem

  is to evaluate the health of your heart.

  So how is your heart doing?

  Is it stomped on and disbelieving?

  Is it rocky and stalled out?

  Is it thorny and distracted?

  Or is it good and ready to go?

  Only one of those hearts will truly hear God's word over the course of this series

  and be changed.

  The other three, we denied access into heaven one day

  and cast into hell.

  And I don't want that fate for any of you.

  I want to spend eternity with every single person in this room.

  As much as I may want to, I can't change your heart.

  But thankfully, I know the one who can.

  I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit is cultivating the soil of your heart

  and preparing you to receive the word in an honest and good heart

  that perseveres in patience.

  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

  Let's pray.

  Father, this is a very weighty passage.

  Lord, it's obvious that there are serious consequences for rejecting you and rejecting your word.

  Well, let the very single person in this room, if there is anybody here who does not know you,

  does not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, may today be the day of salvation.

  May today be the day where the seed lands on the soil of the heart,

  grows up, takes over, and continues.

  But Lord, only you can do this.

  Well, I pray that you'd push away the distractions.

  You'd push away the worries about what's after service or what's happening tomorrow.

  I pray that we would fix our minds on Jesus Christ and what He accomplished.

  And what He offers to every single one of us.

  And for those of us who do know and love you,

  where we admit that we are all experiencing heart problems of some kind right now.

  And we need your assistance. We need your healing.

  But we do pray at the end of this month, we would look way different than we do this Sunday.

  We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Secret to Fasting

Introduction:

What is fasting? – Abstaining from food (and/or other things) for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

What Am I Really Hungry For? (Matthew 6:16–18)

1. Am I hungry for ATTENTION ... (Matt 6:16)

2. ...or am I hungry for GOD? (Matt 6:17–18)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:16-18

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What is the purpose of fasting? Why do you think that fasting isn’t more common in the American church?
   

3. How would you describe the spiritual benefit of fasting to a believer who has never done it?
   

4. How would you respond to someone who says “Due to my health issues, not eating is impossible for me.”?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Open your bibles to Matthew chapter 6.

  Are you there?

  Look, verse 1, "This is the greatest sermon ever preached,

  and here Jesus is talking about the heart of religion."

  And this is how this whole section starts.

  "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people.

  In order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

  Jesus says, "Beware of trying to impress people with your religious acts.

  Beware of doing your church stuff in a way that you want people's attention."

  And specifically, Jesus goes after three things here.

  He goes after giving and praying and fasting.

  And you know, anytime that I teach or preach about fasting,

  I always feel like I'm playing from behind.

  What I mean is people recognize giving and praying

  as normal religious things that God's people do.

  Those are kind of no-brainers.

  But fasting?

  Well, look at verse 16.

  Look at the first phrase. Jesus says, "And when you fast..."

  Stop there. "When you fast..."

  You know what that phrase tells me?

  That phrase tells me that fasting is just as expected as giving.

  Fasting is just as expected as praying.

  Let's bow our heads. I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful, to communicate.

  A passage and a concept that's very simple and very hard at the same time.

  Pray for me and I will pray for you that our hearts would be open to receive what God wants to tell us today.

  Transform us, Father, by the power of Your Word.

  We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

  Let's talk about fasting, shall we?

  Our culture is obsessed with food, have you noticed?

  Turn on the TV.

  If the commercial is not about a pharmaceutical, what's the commercial about?

  Food, right?

  Food. Get on social media.

  You'll find somebody took a picture of their hamburger.

  Right? We're obsessed with it.

  You know the thing that always fascinates me though?

  These eating contests. Have you ever seen those eating contests?

  You know the most famous one?

  Like the hot dog eating contests.

  How many people here show of hands have been in a hot dog eating contests?

  Nobody.

  They're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, have you ever been in an eating contest?"

  Yeah.

  And I won.

  It was eating a pie as fast as you can, hands free.

  And I won.

  I won a shop vac.

  That is a true story.

  And I needed that shop vac to clean up when I got sick

  after eating a pie that fast without my hands.

  There's all kinds of eating contests.

  A taco eating contest. I think I could win that too.

  Wings. How about this one?

  An oyster eating contest.

  How many people would be up for that?

  A couple of you would.

  All right, Pastor Taylor, game on.

  Or here's an eating contest.

  I have no idea what this even is.

  Slug burger. A slug burger eating contest.

  Does anybody know what a slug burger is?

  Anybody?

  All right.

  We'll have to Google that one later. Not now, later.

  But I'm always fascinated by these eating contests.

  This one caught my eye.

  There was one eating contest.

  It was eating a 72-ounce steak.

  Do you know how much a 72-ounce steak is?

  That's 4.5 pounds of steak.

  And I read of this woman.

  A 120-pound woman ate the 72-ounce steak.

  And then she ate another one.

  And then she ate a third in 20 minutes.

  And with that, she also ate three baked potatoes,

  three shrimp cocktails, three salads,

  and three buttered rolls in 20 minutes.

  I read that.

  I'm like, you put butter on the rolls?

  Doesn't that seem excessive?

  But there's TV shows all about food.

  Like, you see these shows.

  They have all these shows about cake.

  Have you seen this?

  And it's not just like, what's the best tasting cake?

  It's like, well, I made a cake that looks like a football

  or whatever.

  And then there's these shows where they travel all over the

  world and they eat these exotic foods from all over the world.

  And we're sitting in our TVs watching people eat.

  And then you turn the channel.

  And on the other channel is a show called My 600-Pound Life.

  We're obsessed with food.

  And we live in a culture where we are constantly, constantly

  taught that life is about consuming.

  But how much talk is there really about refusing consumption?

  So with that horrible backdrop, we're going to talk about fasting

  because this is what the Word of God addresses.

  So what is fasting?

  We have a definition here.

  What is fasting?

  Fasting is abstaining from food and/or other things.

  We'll explain that in a minute.

  Extaining from food and/or other things for measured periods of

  time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

  That's fasting.

  Fasting measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

  You see, Jesus, when He talks about giving, praying, and fasting, that's really

  three categories of things.

  Giving has to do with what you do with others.

  And praying is what you do with God.

  And fasting is what you do with yourself.

  Right?

  So there's different kinds of fasting.

  There's a normal fast that's just no food.

  Right?

  There's a partial fast where you only have maybe vegetables and juice.

  And there's an absolute fast where you have absolutely nothing.

  But you can and should also fast from other things.

  And we'll talk about that in a moment.

  But primarily, primarily, biblically, fasting is about food.

  Well, speaking of biblically, fasting is mentioned more than 77 times in the Old Testament

  and the New Testament.

  It is almost always connected with prayer.

  You see fasting throughout the Bible, different occasions, like for example, repentance.

  I'm guilty of this sin.

  I need to turn from this sin.

  I'm going to fast and I'm going to pray in my repentance.

  In the same line of thinking, fasting accompanies mourning over sin.

  My personal sin, the sins of our culture, our country, we should be mourning.

  And part of mourning is fasting and praying.

  You see fasting in the Bible is seeking God at critical times.

  We need to fast because I really need to seek the Lord right now.

  Think Jesus in the wilderness.

  Right?

  Think the early church in the book of Acts.

  Now when you talk about fasting, you always have the person that comes along and says,

  "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, fasting isn't explicitly commanded in the New Testament."

  And that's absolutely true.

  But something we can't get around is this.

  Jesus obviously assumed that we would fast.

  I mean right here, you're going to see in this passage today, twice He says, "When you fast."

  He says it again in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 15.

  He's assuming that His people would fast.

  Oh, and then as I said, by the way, the early church did.

  They fasted.

  Fasting though, to clarify our definition here, we're going to make sure we understand

  what it's not.

  Fasting is not self-punishment.

  Okay?

  It's not self-punishment.

  Fasting isn't like, "I've sinned.

  I've messed up."

  You know what?

  I'm not going to eat because I don't deserve to eat.

  And like you're sort of punishing yourself.

  That's not what fasting is about.

  It's not self-punishment.

  But fasting also is not self-serving.

  Meaning somebody could walk away from this service going, "Oh, you know, Pastor Jeff was

  talking about fasting and I could stand to lose a couple of pounds.

  So I'll fast."

  That's not what it's about.

  Fasting also is not a bargaining chip.

  Like I need something from God.

  Oh, okay.

  I'll fast and then God will have to give me what I want.

  Talk more about that in a minute.

  Fasting is not something that makes you holy.

  All right?

  Listen, fasting is not even about getting God's attention.

  Understand that.

  Fasting is not, "Look!

  Look at me, God!

  I haven't eaten!

  Look at me!

  Look at me!"

  No, that's not what it's about.

  Fasting isn't about me trying to get God's attention.

  God noticed me.

  Fasting is about me noticing God.

  You see the difference?

  Fasting doesn't make your prayer more powerful.

  Fasting makes you more focused.

  Fasting is what I do when I need my entire concentration, all of my being.

  Every cell in my body focused on God.

  That's what fasting is.

  Because Christ's follower, listen, I know, I know, you want to focus on God.

  You do.

  But the problem is sometimes, if we're honest, and we should be, we want to focus on God,

  but sometimes we want other things more.

  You're like, "What do I do when what I know I should want is not the thing that I'm going

  after?

  What do I do?"

  You fast.

  Fasting is stopping the feeding of ourselves with other things to focus only on our relationship

  with God.

  Because here's the reality.

  Every day, every day of your life, you have the capacity to only consume so much.

  The capacity that you have to satisfy yourself is limited.

  Here's what I mean.

  Let's let this table here, this tabletop, let's let this represent you.

  Let this table represent you, your heart, your spirit.

  You realize every day of your life, you are filling yourself up with stuff.

  Now obviously as we talk about fasting, one of the things that we fill up, we satisfy ourselves

  with is food, right?

  This isn't just life.

  This is mighty life, cereal.

  That's how we roll in our house.

  We fill ourselves up with food.

  I need to tell Aaron we need to get more pretzels.

  But we fill ourselves up.

  We're filling ourselves up.

  But it's not even just food, right?

  Think of how much stuff we fill ourselves with every day.

  For some of us, maybe it's sports.

  Like I'm on the church softball team, right?

  That's one of the things that I'm filling myself up with.

  I'm consuming myself with every day.

  Maybe it's not even just eating the food.

  Maybe it's preparing the food.

  So we have our magazine with the latest recipes and we're filling ourselves up with this stuff.

  Maybe some of us, we like to grow our food in the garden.

  We have our seeds here, right?

  But maybe we're filling ourselves up with that.

  What else are we filling our hearts, our minds, our souls with?

  For some of us, we're like, "Well, I've got to do my recreational reading, right?

  So I've got to make sure I get that into me."

  And oh, here's more seeds.

  And for some of us, it's like, "Well, I like to paint, so I've got to take time out."

  That's something that I fill myself up with, a hobby that I do.

  For some of us, it's exercise.

  You've got to make sure you get your reps in, right?

  Right, Dr. Andrew?

  We've got to make sure that we get our exercise in.

  That's something else.

  This is 6.6 pounds.

  That's why I'm so ripped.

  The first service last one, I said that.

  Can you believe those jerks?

  For some of us, you're on the golf course, right?

  That's something that we fill ourselves with, right?

  For some of us, maybe you're a gamer.

  You spend time during the day playing your video games.

  It's something you're consuming.

  I don't mean to show off, but this is Pac-Man from PlayStation 2.

  Not the old PlayStation.

  This is PlayStation 2.

  That's cutting edge, right?

  We fill ourselves up.

  Do you see where we're going with this?

  We're constantly filling ourselves.

  Oh, and it's not even just that, because we've got to make sure we entertain ourselves, right?

  With movies.

  This is a DVD.

  I had to explain to the first service what a DVD was.

  Before streaming, this is a shiny circle that you stick in a machine that plays a movie.

  This particular one was a gift.

  It's called The Masked Saint.

  It's about a pastor who becomes a pro wrestler.

  Have you ever heard such a stupid thing?

  But we've got to get our intake of entertainment, right?

  Do you see how much stuff we're taking in?

  Do you see?

  That's not it.

  How much time do we spend on our computers?

  We've got to get that in, don't we?

  Am I forgetting anything?

  Oh, yeah.

  How about this little guy?

  How much time a day do we spend filling ourselves with content from this?

  Do you see the point over the course of a day how much are you filling yourself with?

  Your body, your mind, your belly, your spirit, you're constantly, constantly, constantly,

  constantly consuming.

  Now, we're going to let this glass cross represent our walk with Jesus.

  This represents your relationship with Jesus Christ, your personal walk with Him.

  Now, do you see a problem?

  We have to...

  Well, that's...

  You see a problem?

  Now we're so full of stuff that we don't have any room left for the thing that really matters.

  And that's our walk with the Lord.

  So do you see the purpose of fasting?

  You know, if fasting does...

  Fasting just...

  Fasting takes everything off the table and says the only thing that I'm going to focus

  on is my walk with Christ.

  The only thing that my heart, my mind, my attention is getting is my personal walk with

  the Lord.

  That's the purpose of fasting.

  So on your outline, I want you to draw a couple of things down here.

  The question is, what am I really hungry for?

  What am I really hungry for?

  Number one, am I hungry for attention?

  Am I hungry for attention?

  Right?

  Look at verse 16.

  Jesus says, "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they just figure

  their faces that they're fasting may be seen by others.

  Truly I say to you, they have received their reward."

  Am I hungry for attention?

  Jesus calls out to Pharisees.

  He says, "When they fast, they look gloomy.

  They disfigure their faces."

  You know the Pharisees in Jesus, they fasted twice a week.

  Like, why did they do that?

  Well, that wasn't commanded in the Old Testament.

  Like, well, why did they do that?

  Jesus tells us why they did that.

  They were putting on a show.

  That's why.

  He tells us that they may be seen by others.

  Actually, the Pharisees in Jesus, they would literally put ashes over their eyes because

  they were all in on the performance.

  They wanted to make sure that people knew.

  And when people knew that they were fasting, they were like, "Oh, you don't look so good.

  What's going on?

  Well, I'm fasting."

  You're fasting?

  Wow.

  Wow, you are really, you're a really devoted believer.

  You're a really religious person.

  Wow.

  Wow.

  And that little pat on the back there, that little, as Pastor Taylor calls it, the atta

  boy, that little thing, Jesus goes, "There's your reward."

  Have fun with that.

  It's like giving.

  It's like praying.

  We can become tempted to fast with the wrong motive.

  See, the fasting is supposed to be about seeking God, not human applause.

  And look, let's just be real.

  We love the attention.

  There is something deep down in every one of us that loves the attention, and that's

  the problem with hypocrisy.

  The problem with hypocrisy is it works.

  I mean, we've all been there.

  Someone makes a comment about how devoted we are.

  Someone sees how religious we must be, and we start to feel pretty good about ourselves.

  Jesus says, "Beware."

  Beware.

  Like, well, what about corporate fasting?

  I mean, others have to know about that, right?

  Well, yeah, there's New Testament examples of corporate fasting, Acts chapter 13, Acts

  chapter 14.

  Now look, here's the thing with that.

  It's not about whether or not other people know.

  It's about whether or not you want them to know.

  See the difference?

  There's a difference between being seen fasting and fasting in order to be seen.

  That's how it is with corporate fasting.

  That's how it is with private fasting.

  When I fast, I tell Aaron, "Why?"

  Not because I want her applause, but because she feeds us, right?

  Oh, and by the way, it'd be a pretty impossible thing for me to hide from her, right?

  She's going to notice if I go days without eating.

  The point Jesus is driving us to is the motives.

  The motives.

  It's a hard issue.

  It's the same as giving, and it's the same as praying.

  It's the same point if you're looking for praises from man, don't look for anything from God.

  So what am I really hungry for?

  Am I hungry for attention?

  Or am I hungry for God?

  According to verses 17 and 18, Jesus said, "But when you fast, anoint your head and wash

  your face that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret

  and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

  So here Jesus is saying, "Look, on the other hand, instead of making yourself look like

  you're dying, anoint your head and wash your face."

  Oh, by the way, it goes without saying, right?

  You don't make that a show, right?

  Like I shouldn't come to church and catch you in the men's room at the sink washing your

  face.

  Like, "Joe, why are you washing your face?"

  Oh, I'm fasting and being obedient to our Lord.

  Like you could make that a show.

  Obvious point, right?

  Jesus says don't leave any physical clues that you're fasting.

  It's like giving, it's like praying, make it a secret, make it between you and God.

  And He sees and He rewards according to Jesus.

  He rewards.

  Listen, reward does not mean, reward does not mean that God owes you one now.

  Like look, God, I starved myself for you.

  I sacrificed eating for you, God.

  No, you have to do what I want.

  Look, God never works like that.

  Do you realize anything at all that we have from God is grace?

  It's all grace.

  Your salvation in Christ, believing that Jesus died for your sins, believing He rose to give

  you eternal life.

  If you've received Him, if you are saved, it is only by the grace of God that you are

  saved.

  The gift of the Holy Spirit, God indwelling His people.

  It's a gift.

  It's grace.

  You know, God does not run a swap meet.

  To say, you do for me, then I do for you.

  That's not how it works.

  And that's not how it works with fasting.

  So like, what is the reward?

  The reward is connecting with God.

  The reward is connecting with God because you're seeking Him in a very deliberate way.

  You have taken off anything else that could distract you because you want to focus solely

  on your relationship with Him.

  And someone would say, "Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, time out."

  You're telling me that if I choose not to eat or I choose to abstain from other things

  and instead use that appetite and use that time to seek the Lord, you're telling me that

  if I do that, that something spiritual will happen.

  Yeah.

  Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you.

  Look, I know I could never fully explain it.

  And it's hard to understand, but you will understand it if you do it.

  If you do it for the right reason.

  That's what I want to encourage you.

  I'm sure there are people here that have never fasted for spiritual reasons in their lives.

  I want to encourage you to try it.

  Can you just, as a simple act of obedience, as a simple God, this is what your Word said,

  so I want to respond in obedience.

  Can you do that?

  Now look, you can modify.

  Like maybe you say, "You know what, I've never done this before, but this week I'm going

  to take a few days and I'm going to skip lunch."

  And instead of eating at lunchtime, I'm going to spend that time reading a passage from

  God's Word and praying to God.

  I'm going to do that instead this week.

  Can you do that?

  You can do that.

  Or maybe you say, "You know what, I've never had an extended fast, but this week I'm going

  to spend one day.

  I'm going to spend just two days with nothing but water, and instead I'm going to seek the

  Lord over something very specific."

  You can do that.

  Because look, if you're sitting here going, "Oh, I hear what He's saying, but you know

  what, I don't know if I could skip a meal.

  Like I don't know.

  I don't know if I could go without eating."

  Well, that might be a commentary on which appetite really controls you.

  Are you hungry enough for God that you're willing to forego consuming food and/or other

  things to focus solely on seeking Him?

  Because if you're finding that focusing on your walk with Christ has been difficult.

  If you're finding that lately you really haven't had much of an appetite for prayer that you

  know you should.

  If you're finding like, "In this chapter of my life right now, this season of my life

  that I'm in, I haven't really been seeking the Lord as I know He calls me to."

  If any of these describe you, I want to encourage you to use this gift that God has given and

  redirect your appetite.

  This is the heart of religion.

  God wants your heart.

  And true religion comes from a heart that wants God.

  I'm sure some of you have picked up on this, which you realized for the last three weeks

  between Pastor Taylor and I.

  We've basically preached the exact same sermon three times.

  Why?

  Because our goal is to represent the text and really it's the exact same formula in

  all three things that the Lord calls us to.

  It's the same sermon.

  Here it is.

  If you give, pray, or fast in order to be seen by others, you're going to miss God's reward.

  But if you do them in secret, God sees in secret and He will reward you.

  Oh, and there are rewards for a faith that says, "I'm not looking for man's applause.

  All I'm looking for is God's reward."

  And with fasting, God is the reward.

  Let's pray.

  Father in heaven, we confess before you as a church that we don't seek you as we should

  too often.

  The Father, we've allowed other things to crowd our hearts and our minds and our bellies.

  We very diligently distract ourselves from what's most important.

  So Father, I pray that we would be hit with, for some of us it's an old concept that we

  need renewed.

  And for some I'm sure this is a brand new concept.

  Father, let us take a serious and honest and hard look at your word and that we would fast

  as our Lord assumed that we would, but with motives that honor you.

  Father put it in our hearts and minds.

  Make us feel how desperately we need you.

  Let us match that desperation with how hard we seek after you.

  We pray in Jesus' name.

The Secret to Praying

Introduction:

Four Marks of Real Prayer (Matthew 6:5–15)

1. PRIVATE. (Matt 6:5–6)

2. PERSONAL. (Matt 6:7–8)

3. PROPORTIONED. (Matt 6:9–13)

   Three Ingredients of Prayer:

   1. PRAISE. (Matt 6:9)

   2. PURPOSE. (Matt 6:10)

   3. PROVISION. (Matt 6:11–13)

4. PRACTICAL. (Matt 6:14–15)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:5-15

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. “Prayer is the screw that almost always needs to be tightened for the Christian.” Why do you think this is true? Why do you think prayer is so difficult for many Christians?
   

3. Explain Jesus' teaching in verse 6 in your own words. Why is secret prayer so important?
   

4. What are the 3 ingredients of prayer in “The Lord’s Prayer”? Which one do you need to work on the most right now? Why?

Breakout
How is your prayer life these days? What have we learned from this passage that we will apply to grow as pray-ers?

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Matthew chapter 6.

  Let's turn to God's Word together.

  I'm going to ask that you please pray for me to be faithful to communicate it clearly.

  I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it.

  Father in heaven, we humble ourselves before you

  and ask that you would make us the people that you've called us to be

  so that you may accomplish the purposes you want to accomplish through us.

  Thank you ahead of time.

  The transformation that comes when we come under the authority of your Word.

  We pray in Jesus' name.

  In all of God's people said, "Amen."

  Matthew chapter 6, are you there?

  Well, I was going to college in Ohio.

  I was working at Walmart, among many other places I was working.

  But at Walmart, I worked with this man named George.

  And I was trying to think of how I could describe George to you.

  But I think the only phrase that really encapsulates who he was

  was a phrase they use in the South.

  Bless his heart.

  You know what I mean? Okay, enough said.

  George, when I would go to work and we were on the same shift, George would always say,

  "I'm awfully tired today."

  He said, "I drove..." He drove truck. That was his other job.

  He goes, "I drove the rig down to Alabama and back last night."

  Like, you went to Alabama and back in one night?

  He's like, "Yeah?"

  So I'm trying to calculate. I'm like, "Is that possible? Are you driving a jet?"

  "Can you make it to Alabama and back from Ohio in one night?"

  I don't know about that.

  I'm like, "Wow, you must be tired then."

  He goes, "Yeah?"

  He goes, "My other job-driving truck, they got me working 200 hours a week."

  And he was not being hyperbolic, by the way.

  I said, "You work 200 hours a week driving truck?"

  He goes, "Yeah?"

  So how many hours you work in here?

  He goes, "40?"

  I said, "You work 240 hours last week?"

  He goes, "Yeah?"

  And bless his heart.

  I just couldn't tell him.

  I just didn't have it in me to tell him.

  But he was always telling me this story.

  But I'm somewhat of an armchair psychologist, I guess.

  But I wonder what was it in him that made him want to tell me that story every time we worked together?

  Because I heard it a lot.

  What would possess a guy to say something like that?

  And there really is only one answer, right?

  He wanted to impress me, right?

  He wanted me to be like, "Wow, George, you're such a hard worker.

  You work more hours than there are in a week."

  Like, that's what he wanted from me. He wanted my attention.

  And, church, what is it in us that we want the attention from other people?

  Why are we like that?

  Why don't we bring that mindset into the church where we encounter the words of our Lord when He says in Matthew 6,

  verse 1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,

  for then you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

  Jesus very clearly warned us.

  Well, we are to do religious acts. I mean, that's a given.

  He talks about prayer. He talks about giving.

  And He talks about fasting.

  And you're going to see Jesus just assumed that His people would do those things, right?

  But the caution He gives is trying to do these things in a way to get attention from other people,

  to try to impress other people.

  That's a question.

  Pastor Taylor addressed last week. We'll look at this week.

  And spoiler alert next week too.

  Because it's the same question for all of these things.

  Giving, praying, fasting. Whose attention do you want?

  Do you want God's attention?

  Or do you want other people's attention?

  Excuse me. Today, we're going to talk about prayer.

  Why is prayer so hard?

  In the Christian life and discipline,

  why is prayer the hardest thing?

  Preparing for this message, that was the question that was just like

  constantly running through my mind this past week.

  Why is it so hard?

  I think there's three overlapping reasons that prayer is hard.

  One is we are bored with it.

  As one author put it, we're bored with prayer because we pray the same old things about the same old things.

  True. Boring. We're bored with it.

  That's why it's so hard.

  Number two, second overlapping reason why prayer is the hardest thing

  is we don't see God moving in our lives.

  Or, excuse me, we don't trust that He will.

  I mean, who wants to set themselves up for disappointment, right?

  We're on our face, we're crying out for something, and He doesn't do it.

  What fun is that?

  Third reason is we don't really know what to pray about.

  Again, these are all overlap. We just don't know what to pray about.

  Somebody's got a health issue, somebody's got a relationship problem.

  We're like, what exactly do I say about that?

  Why is prayer so difficult?

  I mean, here Jesus is talking about the religious acts that His people do, right?

  Giving to the needy.

  Pastor Taylor talked about last week.

  What do the pagans do that, right?

  People that have never opened a Bible in their lives

  will contribute when they see someone in need, right?

  Or next week we're going to talk about fasting.

  Let's talk about self-discipline.

  I know non-Christians that have much better self-discipline than me

  diet and exercise and time management.

  Non-Christians.

  And then I thought about preaching a sermon.

  There are a ton of people in this church, in this church, that can do that.

  I'm like the sixth or seventh best preacher in this church.

  In this church.

  Or whether it's preaching or leading a Bible study.

  People do that.

  But you know the question that really hits us is why is talking to God

  harder than talking about God?

  God wants your heart.

  And this is a tough pill to swallow, but swallow it we shall.

  Prayer is the test where your heart really is with the Lord.

  Do you get alone with God?

  I mean do you really spend time alone with God?

  When you do, if you do, do you have something to say to God?

  Well, prayer is the screw that always needs tightened.

  Christians, true or false.

  And you know what, a lot of times around the church we idealize prayer

  and we talk about prayer, but...

  Let's be people that actually pray.

  How about that?

  So on your outline, four marks of real prayer.

  And if you, like me, are an alliteration nerd,

  boy are you in for a treat.

  Four marks of real prayer, number one.

  Real prayer is private.

  Look at verse five.

  Jesus said, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites,

  for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues

  and at the street corners that they may be seen by others."

  What looks like prayer often is not prayer.

  It's performance.

  See, Jesus was calling out the religious people of His day,

  praying on the street corner.

  And the picture here is, I just couldn't wait to get to the temple to pray.

  I just, my heart was so bursting with wanting to pray, I couldn't wait.

  So I'm just praying right here.

  And look how holy I am, everybody.

  And it's performance.

  And you're like, pfft.

  I'd never do that.

  Really?

  Let me ask you this.

  Have you ever been praying in a group?

  Like you're in a Bible study, you're in your small group,

  or you're in one of your little prayer groups at one of our prayer services.

  Have you ever been praying in a group of people and in your prayer,

  you know you're about to come up to a phrase in your prayer

  that's going to sound so good.

  So good, in fact, that you're planning for a little pause

  because you just know people are going to amen that.

  You know what I'm talking about and you're praying and here comes the phrase.

  We're going to ratchet it up.

  Wait for amen.

  Okay, and then we keep going. Have you ever done that?

  Or how about this?

  Have you ever complimented a person in your prayer?

  Have you ever done that?

  Oh, come on, you know what I mean.

  Like, we're praying.

  And I'm like, Father in heaven, I want to pray for my brother Chuck

  because Chuck is so handsome and God, he's such a great dad.

  And he's such a devoted husband.

  And God, I love Chuck so much. I just thank you.

  God, he's a fine figure of a man, Lord.

  Like, who is that for?

  But don't we do that sometimes?

  Have you ever given somebody a subtle rebuke in a prayer?

  I'm getting warm in here, isn't it?

  Partly the temperature of the room and partly conviction.

  Have you ever rebuke somebody in a prayer?

  That you're praying and you're like, you know, Father in heaven,

  Betsy asked for prayer for this relationship she's entering into.

  But Lord, I pray that you would teach her patience.

  Like shop-blocking people in their prayer.

  Have you ever made a need known in your prayer?

  Have you ever done that? You're praying?

  And you're like, oh Lord, I'm just praying You provide me $1,100

  to fix my 94 Honda Civic.

  And then you're looking around, seeing who's reaching for their wallet.

  Have you ever tried to turn prayer into teaching time?

  Like, I'm about to lay out some doctrine in this prayer.

  As if the Lord doesn't know.

  As if the Lord's like, wait, let me write this down.

  This is fantastic.

  Alright, here's the point.

  If you have ever said something in a prayer

  for the benefit of the other people around you,

  then you're performing.

  Jesus said you have received your reward.

  After the prayer, they're like, wow, that was such a great prayer.

  Wow, that was a powerful prayer.

  You know, that little, you know, half a second of warm fuzzies you get from that.

  There's your reward.

  Enjoy.

  The look at verse 6, Jesus says,

  "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door,

  and pray to your Father who is in secret."

  Go to your room, shut the door.

  Private.

  You want the secret to prayer is?

  Praying is secret.

  It's private.

  It's shutting out other people.

  Now listen, this is not an excuse to skip prayer service.

  We're having one tomorrow night at the property.

  Talk about that in a few minutes.

  But don't like no show me.

  And I'm like, hey, didn't see it to prayer service.

  Well, you know, prayer is supposed to be private.

  Now, there are many examples of people praying in groups, the church,

  praying together in God's Word.

  There's power in praying with your small group.

  There's power in the elders coming together to pray before elder meetings.

  All right?

  But, all that said,

  Jesus here is specifically and clearly addressing private prayer.

  Because your secret prayer life is your real prayer life.

  I mean, you can say what you want about prayer.

  And you can get on Twitter's or X's or whatever it's called

  and tweet your pithy little sayings about prayer.

  Or you can get on the Facebook's and show a post, a picture of a pretty sunset

  and a duck and some verse about prayer.

  Here's the truth, my friends.

  What you really believe about prayer

  is proven when you pray privately.

  Because that's when prayer is real business.

  Because then it's just you and God,

  and no one knows what you are saying to God, except God.

  And there's no one around to be impressed by your prayers

  or to applaud your prayers.

  It's just you and God.

  And that is when prayer is pure.

  Because that is when you are proving by faith

  that you really believe that you're talking to God.

  Your secret prayer life is your real prayer life.

  Jesus said, verse 6, "And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

  Like giving, you have a choice.

  Do you want rewarded by man?

  Or do you want rewarded by God?

  I could guess most of us here would probably say I want rewarded by God.

  So the question is, well, what is God's reward?

  What do you think the reward is?

  What do you think is the reward that God gives?

  I think it's answered prayer.

  That's the reward.

  And you see, for some of you,

  the reason you haven't seen answered prayer

  is you haven't really been praying.

  When's the last time in your life

  you can point specifically to say,

  "I was praying specifically for this thing.

  Nobody knew about it.

  I was praying specifically for this thing.

  And then I saw God answered the prayer very specifically."

  When's the last time that's happened to you?

  Because if you're a follower of Christ,

  that should be happening on a regular basis.

  Some of you haven't seen prayer answered

  because you haven't really been praying.

  You haven't prayed in secret.

  Your Father hasn't seen in secret.

  So He hasn't rewarded you.

  Because it is the rewarded prayer

  who has faith-fueled private conversations with God.

  It is that person that sees prayer answered

  and you're like, "God, we were just talking about that.

  God, I specifically was talking to you about this very thing

  and I see what you did.

  Thank you."

  You want to see God move in your life like that?

  Then you've got to get with God privately.

  And you'll see how He rewards.

  Like, "Well, how do I do that?"

  I have to remind you again

  that the most important things in life

  are intentional, right?

  You've got to be intentional.

  You can't hope that it accidentally happens.

  That doesn't work with anything else in life, does it?

  You don't roll out of bed and say,

  "Well, I hope I exercise today."

  If you don't intentionally try to make that happen,

  it's not going to happen.

  You're not going to accidentally exercise.

  You can't get up and say,

  "Oh, I hope I stick to my diet today.

  Hope that Oreos and Funyons

  don't find their way into my mouth today."

  If you're not intentional,

  it's not going to happen.

  Parents, you can't say,

  "Oh boy, I sure hope I spend time with my kids today."

  It's not going to happen by accident.

  The most important things in life are done intentionally.

  Same with prayer.

  Carve out a time, get alone with God,

  and by the way, turn off all the electronic distractions.

  And pray privately.

  That's real prayer.

  Number two, for March of Real Prayer, it's personal.

  It's personal. Look at verse 7.

  Jesus says, "When you pray, do you know what?

  Heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,

  for they think that they will be heard for their many words."

  Jesus here isn't talking about this need that's on your heart

  that you keep bringing before the Lord sincerely crying out.

  Jesus is talking about mindless repetition.

  That's why verse 8, he says, "Do not be like them."

  Don't be like them.

  In some churches, that is the thing.

  Can prayers.

  Oh, you've sinned?

  Well, what you need to do is recite this prayer ten times.

  And I've talked to people in those churches,

  and what they do is they go out and they just spin out the words

  as fast as they can, not thinking about what the words even mean.

  That's exactly what Jesus is talking about here.

  Empty phrases.

  Like, yeah, that's church, right?

  You know what I mean?

  How about this church?

  You know, sometimes we teach our kids to recite canned prayers.

  You know the first prayer I remember learning?

  "Now I lay me down to sleep."

  How many people know that?

  Raise your hand if you're familiar with it.

  "Now I lay me down to sleep."

  Okay.

  And then you get to that.

  I'll tell you how young I was.

  I learned the words to that before I knew what the words meant.

  Because I remember at a point in my childhood,

  when I was saying that, like, if I should die before I wake,

  I was like, "What?!"

  Like, "That can happen?!"

  Seriously, I was freaked out.

  My parents had to come to my bedside.

  I was like, freaked out.

  I'm like, "Well, what if I die before I wake?"

  I had no idea what was going on.

  Canned prayers.

  Here's another canned prayer that we teach before dinner.

  You know that one?

  "God is great. God is good."

  You know the rest of that?

  How many of that one?

  Okay, all.

  Okay.

  "Let us thank Him for our food. Amen."

  We always had to find out what mom was making

  before we thanked God for it.

  I'm not so thankful for this one.

  That's what Jesus talked about.

  Empty phrases.

  I mean, if you had an appointment with the Lord,

  if it was like in the spirit of the Zacchaeus event,

  that the Lord was like, "I'm coming to your house for dinner."

  And Jesus is sitting at your table.

  How would you talk to Him?

  If Jesus sat down and said,

  "What would you like to talk about?"

  Would you go,

  "Now I'll lay me down to sleep.

  I pray to the Lord my soul to keep.

  I should die before I wake."

  You wouldn't just go into some empty poem thing

  that you heard as a kid.

  Wouldn't you just want to talk to Him?

  That's what prayer is.

  It's conversation.

  It's conversation.

  God wants your heart.

  Have you heard?

  And private prayer is to be a very personal thing.

  Look, verse 8, he says,

  "Do not be like them for your Father

  who knows what you need before you ask Him."

  It's personal with God.

  He knows and He cares.

  Prayer is personal to Him

  and you've got to make it personal to you.

  But this part of the verse is troubling for a lot of people

  because your Father knows what you need

  before you ask Him.

  So why ask Him?

  Luke chapter 18, you don't have to turn there now.

  I'm going to paraphrase it for you for the sake of time.

  But you can look this up later.

  But the paraphrase, look chapter 18, Jesus is walking

  and there's a group of people following Him

  and there's this blind guy on the side of the road

  and he hears all the commotion.

  He's like, "What's going on?"

  They're like, "Well, Jesus is coming

  and there's a lot of crowd with Him."

  And the blind guy is like,

  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

  And people with Him are like, "Shut up!"

  And he's like, "No! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

  And Jesus stops.

  He goes, "Bring that guy here."

  So they brought the guy to Jesus, the blind man.

  They brought the blind man to the Son of God

  and Jesus asks him the strangest question.

  Jesus says to him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

  Now, I've got to confess to you, I'm not proud of this,

  but I've got to confess there's a little smart alecky side of me

  that imagines the blind man going, "A pizza!

  That's what I want from you! A pizza! Do you have any?

  What do I want from you?

  I want the Pirates to Win the World Series.

  Can you make that happen?"

  Look, look, I'm not the Son of God.

  But I think even I, in ten guesses or less,

  could probably guess what a blind man would want from God.

  I said to Jesus, "I want to see. I want my sight."

  And I have to ask you, church, do you think Jesus knew that?

  I would suggest to you that Jesus saying,

  "What do you want me to do for you?"

  is not such a crazy question.

  I think it is infinitely profound.

  Because you see what Jesus was saying,

  you need to be specific.

  But Jesus already knows.

  Oh, yes, that stirs up the question,

  "Well, why do we pray if He already knows?"

  Right? Why pray? God knows, right?

  Why pray? Here's why.

  Like the blind man praying specifically,

  praying specifically is an act of faith.

  Praying specifically is an act of faith.

  Let's be honest, church. Can we be honest today?

  Can we be honest?

  Do you want to answer that one?

  Can we be honest?

  Don't we pray vague?

  Don't we pray vague?

  This guy prayed vague. Have mercy on me!

  What does that mean?

  We do the same thing

  when we do things like, "God bless grandma."

  "Bless grandma, how?"

  What am I asking for for grandma?

  Or another one we do is we say, "I pray for it."

  I caught myself doing that.

  I'm like correcting myself when I pray sometimes.

  Because I'm like, "No, God knows I'm praying for it."

  But we're like that. We're like, "I pray for Pastor Rich."

  "I pray for Bethany." You know, "I pray for Lord."

  Like, "Yes, you're praying for them."

  It's almost like the Lord's like,

  "I could tell you were praying for them."

  You're on your face and they're on your prayer list.

  Praying what?

  Do you know I think we do that?

  I think sometimes we don't have enough faith

  to pray specifically.

  I mean, if we say, "God bless grandma,"

  anything that happens to grandma,

  we can just say that was the blessing I prayed for.

  Grandma won bingo, her gout went away, whatever.

  I prayed for her.

  I think we're afraid.

  I think we lack the faith to pray specifically.

  Maybe you don't see answered prayer

  because you haven't received a specific answer

  because you haven't prayed specifically.

  Four marks of real prayer.

  Number three, write this down.

  Proportioned.

  In this section, the Lord gives us

  what we call the Lord's prayer.

  Look, this is a pattern prayer.

  There are principles that show us the right balance

  in how to pray.

  I'm going to go through this quickly

  because the truth be told, I can preach 10,000 sermons

  on this passage in 10,000 different ways.

  I don't want us to be so caught up in the individual trees

  that we miss the forest here.

  When you pray, our Lord is showing

  that your prayer should be proportioned.

  There should be balance.

  There should be three things in your prayer,

  three ingredients in your prayer.

  Take your prayer time, divide it up into thirds.

  These are the three things you should be going after.

  The first one is praise letter A.

  Look at verse 9.

  Pray then like this, our Father in heaven.

  "Hallowed be your name."

  "Hallowed." That's holy.

  That's praise.

  Notice that's first.

  Worshiping God for who He is.

  That's why I encourage you.

  We're teaching the youth group this.

  Praying God's word back to Him.

  Praying concepts.

  "God, you said this in your word.

  Therefore, I'm praying that back to you."

  When you do that, especially in the Psalms,

  you will find yourself worshiping God

  with concepts that you don't even normally think about.

  But your prayer time should start with praise.

  Secondly, purpose.

  Verse 10.

  "Your kingdom come.

  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

  We should be praying for purpose.

  Whose purpose? His.

  And therefore, ours.

  May your kingdom advance.

  Use Me, however you want to use Me,

  to advance your kingdom.

  Gospel purposes.

  Let us see.

  Third ingredient of prayer is provision.

  Provision. Verses 11 through 13.

  "Give us this day our daily bread,

  and forgive us our debts.

  As we also have forgiven our debtors,

  and lead us not into temptation,

  but deliver us from evil."

  Provision.

  And there's balance in provision, right?

  Balance in provision.

  Physical, right?

  Bread.

  Relational.

  Forgiveness.

  Spiritual.

  Lead us not into temptation.

  See the balance in that?

  Most of our prayer requests

  have to do with so and so sick pray for them.

  I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for them,

  but I'm saying it's concerning to me

  when that seems to be all that we pray for.

  Where's the praise? Where's the purpose?

  Where's the other provision things?

  Because usually when we pray,

  between praise, purpose, and provision,

  provision gets the most attention.

  True or false?

  Sometimes it's the first thing we pray,

  embarrassingly, sometimes

  it's the only thing we pray.

  God, I need. God, please provide.

  God, help me.

  Prayer is about communion with God.

  Prayer is not about getting things.

  I think too often in the church we treat God

  like mall Santa Claus.

  We show up, we tell them what we want,

  and then we leave and hope He caches in.

  That's not prayer.

  Look, if you're bored,

  if you're bored with prayer,

  maybe it's because you've been lopsided

  in the way you pray.

  Take these ingredients that the Lord has given us,

  incorporate these into your prayer life.

  Our prayers should be proportionate.

  One more.

  One more. Finally, Mark of Real Prayer is,

  it's practical.

  Look at our last two verses for today,

  14 and 15.

  It says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses,

  your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

  But if you do not forgive others their trespasses,

  neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

  Again, we don't want to get too deep

  in the weeds on the subject.

  I want you to see the overall point.

  Jesus is showing us that there is to be a connection

  between our prayers and our everyday lives.

  You see, too often we pray holy-sounding words

  that have nothing to do with life at work,

  at home, at school, wherever.

  We pray things like this,

  "Heavenly Father, I beseech Thee,

  hither to fore, to bestow on thine servants

  a bountiful haja protection."

  What?

  What are you even saying?

  Prayer isn't detached from real life.

  Jesus is showing us that prayer directly connects

  to real life.

  Prayer should be practical.

  For example, the example that the Lord gives us.

  Verse 12, "You pray for forgiveness,

  and you pray to be a person who forgives others."

  Jesus is showing us that when you do that business with God,

  now you're motivated and empowered to forgive others.

  Jesus was not saying that the basis of salvation is forgiving.

  Forgiving others isn't a plan of salvation;

  it's the proof of salvation.

  Salvation comes through God's grace alone.

  And that topics a whole other sermon series.

  Here's the point Jesus is making right here.

  What happens in the prayer closet

  directly affects what happens outside of it.

  Are you having trouble forgiving someone?

  How much time have you prayed about that?

  Maybe for someone else that's your temper.

  I just have a temper, man.

  It's just something I struggled with for a long time.

  How much have you talked to God about that?

  Maybe for somebody else that's anxiety.

  "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I'm just so nervous and anxious."

  I know I shouldn't, but I just...

  Have you really talked to God about that?

  Like really spent time in the presence of the Lord talking about this?

  For someone that's lost, like I just can't seem to figure out the self-control thing, Pastor Jeff.

  How much have you really prayed about?

  Because my guess is if you're still struggling in a particular area,

  you probably haven't been praying too much about it at all.

  Because Jesus says what happens in the prayer closet

  affects what happens to you outside of it.

  Our worship team would make their way back up front

  and say, "Prayer is the screw that always needs tightened."

  That's true for me.

  And I imagine that's true for a lot of you.

  Look, over the years I have read so many books about prayer.

  I've read so many blogs from so many amazing preachers about prayer.

  I have listened to so many sermons about prayer, podcasts.

  I've been to conferences where they've talked about prayer and taught on prayer.

  But you know what I've learned?

  That there's really only one way to grow as a person who sincerely prays.

  Do you know what that is? Do you know what that one way is?

  To pray.

  Today I just want to encourage you to take a few pointers from the one who did it best.

  Jesus Christ, who told us, "Pray privately.

  Make it personal.

  Keep it proportions.

  And make it practical."

  Let's pray now.

  Father in heaven, as we come to this teaching, you're worded,

  I know it really hits me between the eyes.

  And I imagine there's a lot of people in this room in the first service

  and they'll be listening to this later. It hits us all.

  I'm just asking Father that we would be a people who would in a fresh way be renewed in our prayer lives.

  Maybe we've been filling our time with lesser things.

  Maybe we've been discouraged or despondent.

  Father, bring a fresh conviction, bring a fresh enthusiasm, bring just a fresh excitement in all of us

  to privately and sincerely come before you.

  Father, I know you're going to reward when we do that.

  Let all glory and honor and praise be unto your name.

  We pray in Jesus' name, amen.