Lord, thank you for inviting us to be here with you today. Help us to open our hearts to you this morning. Indeed, may we discover the dream you’ve placed in the very center of our being. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

If this is your first Sunday with us, welcome. A couple weeks ago we started a series of teachings about “What We Believe and What the Bible Teaches Us About What We Are to Do with Our Lives.” 

 

We learned, I hope, that the Creator never makes copies of anything. Indeed, God only makes originals, because originals are far more valuable than any copy. Part of what makes you so valuable is that you are wired, you are shaped, you are formed for a specific purpose. No one on this earth can do what you have been uniquely shaped to do. That means, unlike architecture, you’re function follows your form. Your function follows your form. 

 

The secret here is the Lord, in the Lord’s wisdom, taught us to just look at the way God has formed us, the way God has shaped us and wired us. Then we get to know what probably 90 percent of this world has yet to discover. We get to know what we were created for and what we are supposed to be doing with our lives here on this earth. It is an awesome, awesome thing.

 

Today we are going to be talking about hearts. Proverbs 27 says, “As a face is reflected in the water, so the heart reflects the person.”

 

When the Bible talks about “hearts,” of course, it’s not talking about your pump. It is not talking about your intellect. It’s not talking about your capacity to think or to reason logically. When the Bible talks about your heart, it is talking about your interests, your passions, your desires. It is the emotional component that each and every one of us has. It’s that side of you that motivates you to get up, and get out, and get going in the morning. It is your hopes, and your dreams, and your ambitions. It’s what drives you, and excites you, and turns your crank. This is what the Bible calls your “heart.”

 

It tells us that this heart of yours affects everything you say, everything you do, and everything you feel. That means your heart is huge. Your heart is powerful. It is key to life – your heart. 

 

Once again, as we said earlier, your heart is unique. Your heart is an original. That means that everybody here has a different heart. No one else has a heart exactly like yours, which means, of course, we all like different things. What fascinates me may bore you to tears. Some of the things that you enjoy just leave me flat. I can’t imagine how that could possibly be, but it does. That’s a good thing, as you know, because that’s the way everything in this world actually gets done.

 

Today we are going to focus on the fact of our hearts. We are all different. For instance, fall is just around the corner, as you know. It may not feel like it this week, but it is. How many of you would say that fall is, essentially, about football? I mean… You love football. You can’t wait for your football fix. Let’s see hands. OK. All right.

 

Now, how many of you would say that if football were never played again, if it were never going to be on television, you wouldn’t miss it. It is the most monumental waste of time you can imagine. Hands? OK. 

 

You see what we have done here? We have created some family feuds already here today. Kim will be doing some counseling right after the service.

 

The point is there are some things we care passionately and very deeply about, and there are some things that we could, quite frankly, care less about. Where do you think that comes from? The Bible says those kinds of differences come from God. God has hard-wired your uniqueness into your system. Philippians 2 says, “It is God who produces in you the desires.”

 

“Desires,” in the Bible, means your interests, your passions, your ambitions, your hopes, your dreams. God produces in you those desires and actions, which please the Lord (Philippians 2).

 

The point: God wants you to be you; not to be anybody else; just you. That’s why God placed God’s guidance system inside of you. It’s called “your heart.” You know your heart is working right when, essentially, two things are happening. 

Number One: You enjoy what you are doing. Number Two: You are good at it.

 

Did you know that? The Bible calls that “being delighted” in what God has given you to do. When we delight in our life, you can just feel it. You wake up in the morning, and you say, “Good Morning, Lord,” instead of, “Oh Lord, it’s morning.”

 

You delight in your life when you are doing what you have a heart for. Nobody needs to reward you to do that. You don’t need a supervisor in order to accomplish it. You don’t have to enter contests and competitions in order to excel. You just flat out love doing what you are doing. It’s what you were wired to do.

 

Now, on the other hand, if you are spending your precious days and nights doing what you don’t have a heart for, it’s a drag. It’s boring. You are watching the clock and thinking, “You know… It’s got to be five o’clock somewhere.” That song wasn’t popular, folks, without a reason. That song spoke to the hearts of millions of people. 

 

So, today, what we are going to be talking about is how to follow our hearts, which is scary, quite frankly, for us, because there is a problem. Do you know what the problem is? The problem is that our hearts sometime get beat up.

Sometimes our hearts get bruised, battered, and even broken.

 

There’s that old country song we used to sing when I was a kid:

 

You all didn’t sing that song, did you, when you were a kid? All right. It was part of my early teenage romantic years.

 

Anyway, before we can get into following our hearts the way God designed our hearts – and that’s the key – we need to first start by naming some of the heart stoppers. Some of that bad stuff. Some of that spiritual cholesterol. The things that block our hearts. The things that stop our passions. The things that dim our lights. The things that keep you from being the unique person that God meant you to be. Now, let’s make a list of some heart stoppers.

 

The first heart stopper I want to talk to you about today is disappointment.

 

Have you ever had an expectation that didn’t turn out the way you expected, you had hoped, you had intended? Sure you have. Everybody does. The result of that, of course, is disappointment. Welcome to the human race. That’s normal. Everybody experiences disappointment, unless those disappointments cause you to give up on your hopes, your dreams, your passions, and your ambitions.

 

When you and I get hurt, we get defensive. We go into a protective mode, which says, “The number one goal in my life is not to get hurt. I don’t want to ever get hurt again.” Bad idea! That is a self-imposed prison, folks. That’s why it’s a bad idea. If your number one goal is to never let anybody else get close enough to you so that it hurts you, you can say good-bye to your passions. You can say good-bye to your hopes, and your ambitions, and your dreams. When that happens, and disappointment wins, your heart loses.

 

The number two heart stopper I want to talk to you about today is fear.

 

Fear is another one of those self-imposed prisons that keeps you from being what God has created you to be. Jesus told a marvelous story in the New Testament. Many of you know it. It was about an owner who gave three of her employees some of her money. In those days, as you know, money was measured in silver. It was called a “talent.” A talent of silver was a measure. To one, according to Jesus’ story, she gave five talents of money. To another she gave three. To another, she gave one. Then she said, “Go out and invest it. Make the most of what I have given you.”

 

That’s what God says to you and to me. “Make the most of what I have given you.”

 

So, as you know, the first guy comes back. He’s doubled the investment. The owner says, “Good job.”

 

The second guy comes back. He’s doubled the investment. The owner says, “Good job.”

 

The third guy comes back. He hands the owner the silver that she had given. He says, “I didn’t do anything with it.”

 

“What?”

 

“No. I buried it in the ground. Here’s everything you gave me. It right here. None of it is missing. It’s yours. It’s back.”

 

She says, “Why? Why didn’t you use it?”

 

The answer he gave was, “Because I was afraid.”

 

Fear, folks, keeps you from making the most of what you have been given. It shrinks the human heart.

 

The third heart stopper that we can identify is guilt.

 

This is the big one. Carrying around guilt is like carrying around a great big, huge sack of garbage on your shoulder and on your back day in and day out, night in and night out. You cannot go after your passions and be guilty at the same time. The reason you can’t is because you are plum worn out. Guilt takes an enormous amount of energy. Did you know that? It does. All that shame, all that regret, all that pain, all the mess you have made of things consumes enormous amounts of energy.

 

If you want an example of some amazing Christians who really messed up a lot of her life, read Anne Lamott, until she found her way to Christ. 

 

The debilitating power of guilt is so draining. Why? Because you are always worrying about who is going to find out. You’re always worried about who’s going to know. What if they really knew? So, you keep a low profile. You work overtime protecting yourself. It’s a self-imposed prison, and it’s a heart stopper, if there ever was one.

 

Folks, God never intended for you or for me to live life dominated by guilt and regrets. Yet, you and I know hundreds, thousands of folks who are doing just that. It was part of what Jesus came to this world to do – to forgive those kinds of things. The forgiveness was to free us, you see. It was to free us from that stuff we’re carrying around. He died on a cross for those wrong doings that we all do. They’re called “our sins.” But the good news of the gospel is that he has paid for them, so that you don’t have to. The reason you don’t have to, quite frankly, is you couldn’t pay for them even if you wanted to. That’s forgiveness. That’s a mystery. That’s a miracle. It’s for real.

 

The catch is, of course, as you all know, you have to accept it. You have to receive it. You have to believe that. You have to take it and embrace it as a gift – that forgiveness that comes to us in Christ. It’s been that way since the beginning. It hasn’t changed. It never will.

 

Now, the amazing thing is that when you do, if you do, it sets the heart free. You see? When we have a free heart it allows us to move on, to move ahead, to move forward. Most importantly, it frees you to become what God has created you to become all along.

 

How does that happen? It frees us, because that garbage – those regrets, that shame – is literally gone. You’re not hiding any more. You’re not beating yourself up any more. You know that you have received forgiveness and truly accepted it when you are not beating yourself up any more. You’re free. You’re free to be what God formed you, wired you, shaped you, custom-made you to be.

 

Number four is bitterness.

This is an ugly one. Bitterness can eat you alive. It’s the worst heart disease you can have. It’s the worst, because it is so debilitating. It literally consumes you.

 

When you are bitter, you try, but you just cannot stop thinking about revenge. You can’t stop thinking about how you are going to get back at - how you are going to get even – with that person, that organization, that group, that institution, that hurt you. That’s bitterness.

 

“For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction,” says physics. “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.” All of us want justice when we’ve been hurt. Justice is good, but the problem with justice is that it rectifies some things, but it doesn’t take away the bitterness. It doesn’t have the power.

 

If you are bitter, you are stuck. When you hold on to the hurt that has come from the past, it is like driving a car looking through the rearview mirror. I’ve seen a few of those. It’s just a matter of time before you are going to crack up. It’s going to happen. It’s a guaranteed heart-stopper.

 

The solution: You have to let some things go. You have to let some things go; I have to let some things go. You have to let things go, because you need to get on with the life that God has given you. 

 

Yes. You’ve been hurt. I’m sorry you have been hurt. I have experienced some of that. I really am sorry. I know that God is sorry that you have been hurt. I think God is sad about your pain. However, the fact is the past is the past. The truth is the people of your past cannot hurt any more unless you allow them to do that.

 

The point: You have to let some things go. You have to let it go for you, not for them. For you! 

 

“Delight yourself,” is today’s text. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and the Lord will give you the desires of your heart.”

 

The fifth heart stopper is rejection.

If you have ever had a friend… If you ever had a parent… Let’s see; that counts for most of us here. If you’ve ever had a boyfriend or a girlfriend… If you happen to be a person with a former spouse… Or if you have ever had an employer, you know about rejection. You know how rejection hurts your heart.

 

Psalm 64 says, “They cut me with sharp tongues. They aimed their bitter words like arrows straight at my heart.”

 

Rejection is a heart stopper. The point: You need to stop building your life on what the critics are telling you. Start building your life on what God is telling about you. What is God saying about you?

 

God is saying, “I made you. You are mine. You are my beloved. My favor rests upon you. I have formed you. I shaped you. I made you you. I have put gifts, and passions, and ability into your heart. I love it when you do what I created you to do. You don’t have to please anybody else. You please me, and you are going to be doing the right thing every time, every time you are pleasing me. You need to stop living for the approval of other people, because the truth is the folks you really want it from probably aren’t going to give it to you.”

 

Now, the good news is you don’t need it. You just have to get on with being what God intended you to be.

 

“You are my beloved.” Write that one down in your heart, in your soul. Put it on your refrigerator. Put it somewhere. Remember it.

 

Folks, there are a ton of folks out there whose hearts have all but stopped. We have people in this room today who have hearts that have been beat up, who have been bruised, and battered, and broken. Yet the Scripture teaches us, and implores us, and challenges us that whatever you do – where you work, or where you play, or with your family, or with your friends, or at school, or in the office, or in church – whatever you do, do it with all your heart. “As if,” it says, “you were doing it for the Lord and not for human beings” (Colossians 3).

 

The final question today: How? That’s what I want to talk about. How do you do that?

 

Let’s list five.

 

Number One: Open. How do you follow your heart? You have to open it. Open your heart to the Spirit of the Living Christ. That’s the one who gave you your heart in the first place. Let’s do first things first. Open your heart to him. That’s the place you start. The rest of it doesn’t matter if that doesn’t happen. Why? No one – not your parents, not your friends… There are good doctors, and good therapists, and good all kinds of people, but no one can treat your heart and deal with your heart the way the Living Christ can. No one.

 

So, what that says to me is that heart of mine, and that heart of yours is a powerful thing. That’s where our passions, our dreams, our ambitions, our drives, and our desires reside. God put them there. The issue is who’s going to control that? Who’s going to sit in the driver’s seat of your heart? Who is going to run your ship?

 

The witness of Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian experience says, “Unless your heart is freely placed under God’s control, the passions, the dreams, the ambitions that are yours will be misused. They will be abused. They will be misdirected.” Isn’t that interesting? Did you know that?

 

Folks, there are millions and millions of very passionate, very talented, very gifted people with interests, and gifts, and ambitions that are being tragically misused, abused, and wasted. God’s heart is breaking. God says, “I didn’t give you that gift to be used that way.”

 

But when we choose to open our hearts… And the way we do that is that we have to spend some time. We are learning that as a congregation. We have to spend some intentional, conscious time every day just with God. Get connected. Get plugged in. 

 

When we do, we start encountering that Spirit of the Living Christ. We talk about that a lot. When you do that, your heart starts to come alive. You start feeling again. Do you know how many people we know whose feelings have just been shut down? You start to feel the things that God feels for you. You start feeling the things that God feels for other people. You start feeling what God feels for the whole world. You start feeling passionately about life again. You have more energy than you’ve ever had. You get enthusiastic about things.

 

Do you know where the word “enthusiastic” comes from? “Enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word “entheos,” they tell me, which means, guess what? “In God.” You see. The closer we are to God, the more energy, the more vitality, the more enthusiasm we have for life. If you are bored… If you are apathetic… If you are negative… If you are lethargic… If you are critical… If you are despairing… It’s very likely you have a heart problem. Interesting.

 

Number One: Open your heart to Jesus Christ.

 

Number Two: Heal. Let God heal your heart. Everybody in this room knows what it’s like to have a broken heart sometime, some place. It’s like a good parent with a child. When you’re hurt, God hurts. Did you know that? God hurts with you. God weeps when you weep. In fact, “It’s in your pain,” the Scripture says, “that God is the closest to you.” It’s not so much when you are happy, but when you are in pain. I don’t know if you realize that or not.

 

Psalm 34 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves (which translates ‘heals’) those who are crushed in spirit.”

 

How? What God offers us is a heart transplant. It’s pure and simple. It’s a brand new heart replacing that guilty heart with a forgiven heart. Replacing that bitter heart with a peace, loving-kindness kind of heart. God can heal, and change, and transform hearts. When that happens, that’s the time to start following. You have to let your heart heal, and then you follow your heart the way God made it.

 

Open. Heal.

 

Number Three: Listen. Listen to your heart. 

 

The problem: Everybody is going so fast. They have so much to do. They get up and hit the rug running. Everybody is in such a hurry. Nobody is listening to his or her heart.

 

The group Alabama used to sing that old song:

 

 Good ole Alabama.

 

That wasn’t popular in this country, because people just wanted to buy a record. They heard a message there. That’s what most of our country is doing. We have people running, and running, but they’re not going much of anywhere. They’re not taking time to listen.

 

God says, “Let me heal your heart. When I heal it, listen to it.”

 

I received an e-mail a couple weeks ago from a guy who said, “I just wish I had learned some years ago what I am just getting started to understand. My function, my purpose on this earth, comes from the way I was formed. I thought it was just the other way around. That’s amazing. I can’t tell you what a difference that has made for me. I feel good about what I’m doing. It feels good to be doing it, and I believe it brings glory to God.”

 

Number Four: Check out your options.

 

Proverbs 19 says, “Desire without knowledge is not good. To be over hasty is to miss the mark.”

 

The point: Everybody here has interests, and dreams, and ambitions, and passions. That’s great. But do your homework before you jump in. OK? Don’t bet the farm until you’ve checked things out. Don’t do things carelessly, and stupidly, and irresponsibly. Just because you love something, doesn’t mean you are gifted to do it. OK?

 

Let me give you an example. I can think of all kinds of them, but here’s the one I can share in public. You say, “I love doughnuts. Since I love doughnuts, I think I’ll go out and start a doughnut shop.” 

 

I have two words for you. Crispy Crème. You are not going to break into that market very easily. Ninety-five percent of all business start-ups in this country fail in the first five years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Why? Because they have the desire, but they don’t have the knowledge. Do your homework before you dive in.

 

Number Five: If you are going to dive in… If you are going to follow your heart, launch out in faith. What I mean by that is expect God to bless what you are doing. This is so hard for main-line folks, because we just can’t imagine having expectations of God to do anything. Expect God to bless what you are doing.

 

Why? Why wouldn’t God bless what you are doing if what you are doing is what God created you, and wired you, and special-made you to do? It seems like that would be a reasonable thing to do. 

 

But get this. If you actually decide to start following your heart, there’s going to be, what they call, a fear factor. I can guarantee it. There are going to be people in your life who do not want you to follow your heart. They don’t want you to follow your heart, because it’s scary to them. It shakes their tree. It’s too unpredictable. You’re connected with them, and they would rather you stay just the way you are. That’s not a good things, folks. 

 

If you choose to launch out in faith and start doing what God created you to do, the witness of the faithful says, “This is what’s going to happen. You are going to stop worrying about your status, and you are going to start enjoying your significance.” Isn’t that good?

 

You are going to stop competing for position, and you are going to start enjoying being what God made you to be. You are going to stop obsessing over money, and you are going to start obtaining meaning. That’s because purpose, meaning, trumps prosperity every time, any day of the week.

 

This is what I am asking you to think about today. I want you to take that in your heart today. I want you to pray with me just a minute. Let’s pray about our hearts for just a moment. Would you, with me today?

 

Lord, I know, I hear, I believe that you have molded me. You have shaped me. You have custom-made me to know you, to love you, and to serve you. I know that. But my heart sometimes gets clogged up. Sometimes it almost stops completely. So I ask you to help me open it today. Heal, I pray, what’s bruised, and battered, and broken. Let me discover what a healthy heart really feels like. Once I know, help me to launch out in faith, to really trust you, and to follow the heart that you’ve given me. This I humbly ask in the name of Jesus…

 

And we all say together…   “Amen.”

 

God of our heats, you are the drummer that makes our hearts beat. It is your song that we hear and recognize. Help us to listen for the rhythms of our life’s passions, desires, and dreams, that we might follow the beat of your heart with ours. Amen.