Christianity a Religion of the Heart

Christianity a Religion of the Heart

Matthew 22:37-40

 

INTRO:

Good morning.   Nice to see everyone today. I would like to remind you that the scripture references I use will either be from the KJV or the NKJV unless I mention otherwise.   I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. If I’m wrong I will stand corrected.

For a number of lessons we have looked at the subject of worship and saw that worship is actually a manifestation of our own personal relationship with God.   Most recently you will recall this from the lesson on singing with the understanding.

 

These lessons are about the kind of relationship we actually have with our creator, with God almighty.    This morning we will continue along the same line of thinking to help us come to a fuller understanding about what Christianity is.   I want us to recognize that Christianity is a religion of the heart, with our relationship with God at the very core of it.

We're going to begin the sermon this morning by looking at Matthew 22:37-40.   These are familiar verses. In the text Jesus is being asked a question and the question is this: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” In response to this question Jesus just says; “37. … " `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38. "This is the first and great commandment. 39. "And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40. "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.''”

 

We recognize as the very core of the Mosaic Covenant, these two commands—love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.  We see that the religious leaders of Jesus time recognize this. Luke 10:25-28 says; “25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'' 26. He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?'' 27. So he answered and said, " `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and `your neighbor as yourself.' ''”

 

We also need to recognize this is at the very core of the new covenant under which we live, the covenant of Jesus Christ.   Between God and all mankind are the same two commands—to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

 

I have a question.  What do we get from this command; “love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind”?   Do we get from this command a casual relationship with God that we might put this way;   He is up there, I like him, and He’s nice?    I hope I go to heaven.   I think about Him sometimes. Sometimes I do things that I hope He likes.

I don't get from this verse that God wants from me to be casual in my relationship with Him.   “I think highly of you.”   No, that isn’t it.   God wants me to give myself totally over to Him in my relationship to where I honestly and completely love him.

The degree of love He wants and deserves is - with all of my heart.

 

1. First let’s consider a Half Hearted Relationship. Look in the book of Matthew at what Jesus quotes from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah.

Matthew 15:8 – “`These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”  This is the text we will be building this part of the sermon around.   What we see in this text, both from Isaiah in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament is people that are acknowledging God, going through the activity of honoring God, and yet God says there's a problem.

1. The problem is the heart. The heart is far from God.   What God sees when He looks at these people is individuals just going through the motions of a relationship, going through the motions of praise, going through the motions of honor, but in reality there is no honor in their heart, because there is no love in their heart.    There is no relationship in their heart.  It's just external
2. I would like us to recognize two things from these verses.  
   1. First we need to see that what God wants from us-is a real relationship.   He really wants us to love Him as He loves us.
   2. Second we need to see a danger that we need to be very careful about.   That is the danger of having just a ritualistic religion, an external religion, putting on a front of religion.   Putting on the front of a relationship with God when in reality it is the heart where our relationship with God is to be.
3. Turn with me for a moment to the Old Testament, Jeremiah 3:10 – “And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah, has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,'' says the Lord.” Jeremiah the prophet is trying to explain to Judah the sins they're involved in and why they're going to be taken into Babylonian captivity.  The problem is they have not turned to God.  Now notice this phrase “with her whole heart”.
   1. What they were doing was just a pretense.   What they were doing was going through the motions, going through the actions.
   2. They thought God, you want me to do this, God you want me to do that, okay.
   3. If you want me to do that, I'll do it. As far as doing it motivated out of love for God, of wanting to honor God because of how they felt about Him in their heart… that wasn't there.   It was just pretense.
4. In the New Testament Book of Revelation you find a similar circumstance.   Revelation 3:15-16 – “15. "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16. "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.”  In this text we see the people in the church of the Laodiceans who had not left the Lord but they were not on fire for the Lord either.   What does the Lord say about a relationship like that?   It makes Him want to vomit.   That's not the kind of relationship God wants with us.   He doesn't want a relationship that's just surface, that is just pretense. He wants us to have a whole-hearted relationship with Him.
5. Look at this from James 4:8 – “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Do we understand what a double minded person is? Merriam-Webster on-line defines it 1): wavering in mind: undecided, vacillating, a double-minded man unstable in all his ways — James 1:8 (Revised Standard Version) 2): marked by hypocrisy.   Strong’s definition is: wavering, uncertain, doubting, and divided in interest.
   1. That's what we see described back there in Revelation 3. Someone that's; “Yes, I'm serious about God, but I really don't care”.  “Yes, I want to go to heaven”.  “You know I really don't care right now, because I've got other things to do”.  “Yes. I want to be pleasing to God, but I’ve got other things going on.
   2. Part of your heart is for God and part of your heart is for yourself. That's the reality of a double minded person. God is in there somewhere.  He's part of your life.  He's just not at the center of your life. You're not building all of your activities in your life around that relationship with God.
6. Listen real close to this, folks.   God does not want to be a part of anybody's life. He wants to be your life. He wants you to build your whole life around your love for him as your God.   He wants to be at the center of your life not just have a part in it.
   1. When we are double minded God is just a part of our life. What takes up the rest of our mind is self, what I want to do, how I want to use my time and have my activities and my things.   Please realize this, when we give our self as a living sacrifice to God everything connected to us goes with it.
   2. Do we get that? When we give our self as a living sacrifice to God everything connected to us, our family, and our time, all are part of that.   All of our finances, everything in our whole life goes with it. God doesn’t want half of anybody.   It's either all or nothing.  Matthew 19:21
7. I strongly suspect that sometimes people develop this mindset that I have to give God X, Y and Z and whenever I have fulfilled that duty, He's going to let me go to heaven.   I wonder how many people get baptized because they're afraid of going to hell rather than getting baptized because they want Jesus as their Lord and their King.
   1. Do we understand the difference?   Do we understand the difference between being baptized out of fear and being baptized out of faith?   Do we understand the difference between a relationship motivated by duty and one motivation by desire?
   2. When this relationship with God is entered into as a duty, then a person is thinking, okay God you want me to be at church on Sunday.  Okay, I'll be there on Sunday.  You want me to sing songs. Okay, I’ll sing. You want me to give. Okay, I’ll give.
   3. When I've done what you want me to do, then I can go do what I want to do.
   4. Listen, folks, what I just laid out for you is the basis of why I suspect many people don't come back whenever the assembly meets other than Sunday morning. There are those who have a duty oriented mindset about their relationship with God and are thinking “I've fulfilled my duty Sunday morning”.
   5. Having said that I DO realize there are some who have legitimate reasons from time to time for not being here on Sunday evening and Wednesday evening.
8. Being motivated solely by duty is not what God wants.   He wants us to have a desire that motivates us in our relationship with Him.  He wants it to be desire that motivates us in our worship of Him and not just doing x y z and then “I'll go to heaven”.
9. Whenever we think of a relationship with God as “I've got to do this” and “I've got to do that then I'll have fulfilled what I've got to do”, we must realize we're honoring God with our lips, but the heart is what He's looking at.
   1. He's here in our presence now and we know that. When two or three are gathered together in His name He's here in our midst.  We know He's looking into the heart of each and every one of us to see why;
   2. Why are you here?   Why are you singing these songs?   Why are you taking the Lord's Supper? Why are you praying to God?   Why are you doing what you are doing? Are you doing it out of duty? Or; are you doing it because you love Him and you actually desire to have a relationship with Him?
10. Go back to the first part of this verse—draw near to God.    I heard from a gospel preacher about something he has come across when working with brethren.   He said; Brothers will come to me and they'll say I feel so far from God.   I don't feel close to Him.   The preacher said James 4:8 is one verse he looks at with them and tells them if they are feeing far from God this verse is speaking to them and telling them what they need to do.
    1. You see, God does not leave us. We leave him. You draw near to God. That is how the verse begins. YOU draw near to God.
    2. It starts from your drawing near and He will draw near to you.   YOU work on YOUR heart, on your relationship with your God.   Make it a heart motivated relationship rather than just “I’ve got to do this”, because as soon as you think you've done what you've got to do, you're not going to do any more.
    3. Purify your hearts, you double minded. That means you give yourself over totally. Get consumed with Christianity. Get consumed with your relationship with God.  Let go and let God take over.
11. Next let’s consider a Whole Hearted Relationship. Go with me to Acts chapter eight. Here we read about an Ethiopian eunuch and Philip who has been preaching to him about Jesus. The eunuch sees some water.   He says in verse 36; “see here is water what hinders me or prevents me from being baptized?” I want us to see Philip's response, Philip said; “if you believe with ALL your heart you may”.
    1. This is an example of what motivates someone to be baptized, the heart, a faith, a trust, a confidence.  Jesus is the key. He is the Lord. And that is going to motivate us to want to be baptized and to live a life pleasing to the King.
    2. Certainly it is true fear may be a part of it, if its fear motivate by faith.  Please recognize that faith must be at the core of our obedience to God.  We need to have a real relationship, so that faith will eventually progress into love.
       1. When we are conscious and aware of the magnitude of God's love for us, when we recognize that God gave His only son for us because He loves us, then our response is love.
       2. Jesus went through everything that He went through because He loves us.  It is a consciousness of God's love for us that causes us to have a love for someone whom we have never laid eyes on. I haven’t seen God. I haven't seen Jesus.    How can I love One that I've never seen, to the point that I love them with all of my heart. It is through faith.
    3. Before I go any further there's something I need to do. If what I've described to you earlier, the feeling that you are distant from God that your relationship is not where you want it to be, I've got something I would like to encourage you to do. Go back to the word. Go back to the beginning.   Go back to square one, back to Matthew Mark Luke and John.
       1. Read again about the crucifixion of Jesus and don't just pass over it with your eyes.   Let it sink in.   Meditate on the love of God.   Our faith comes through reading the Word of God. Our love comes from our faith.
       2. If there is a problem with our relationship then we have to get back to the beginning where that relationship starts, it starts with faith which comes through the word.  If you want to draw near to God this is how you do it.
       3. Let Him speak to you.   Let Him communicate with your heart and tell you how much He loves you.  
       4. We need to be talking to God in prayer. We need to take our problems, fears, cares, concerns, and needs and give them to Him because He cares for us.   That's how we draw near to God, by letting Him speak to us through His Word, strengthening our faith, and by going to Him in prayer telling Him all that troubles us.  In that way we strengthen our relationship and draw nearer to God and then He will draw nearer to us.
       5. When a person refreshes themselves in the word and goes to God in prayer they will find themselves going through a transition in their relationship.   Faith will grow and their love for God will grow into a relationship motivated by desire.
    4. Next lets look at Jeremiah 29:13 – “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” There is a common phrase between Acts 8:37 and Jeremiah 29:13, that common denominator is the phrase all your heart.    Do we believe with all our heart?   Are we searching and seeking God with all our heart?   If we are seeking and searching with all our heart, we will find God.   If we believe with all our heart, we will eventually come to love God and because of that love, we will obey.   If you love Me… you know the rest of the verse, keep My commandments. This is describing an obedience motivated by a loving relationship.
    5. Here is another description of worship found in Malachi 1:13 – “You also say, `Oh, what a weariness!' and you sneer at it,'' says the Lord of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?'' says the Lord.”  What kind of attitude do we see in these individuals who are worshipping God?   This is about actual worship, folks.   These people in their mind think, “we're acknowledging God,   We're giving God something”—the left leftovers, “but hey we're honoring God and we're worshipping God”.
       1. What does God have to say about that?   First notice that the verse starts with God talking about their attitude. Before He even talked about their actions, He talked about their attitude, and their attitude about their worship to Him.  
       2. What is that attitude? Oh man, what a pain, ok, I'll go.   If that's a person’s attitude they might as well stay home because it won’t do them any good be here.
       3. That may sound cold blooded but we need to realize if our attitude toward God and our worship to Him is; “I would really rather not be here”, He sees that in our hearts right now.   It's not just enough to be here in the pew.   It's not enough to just fulfill what we think is our duty.   He looks in our hearts.
       4. The heart is where God starts and He sees why you are doing what you are doing.   These individuals in Malachi are offering Him something.   His question toward them is; should I accept this from your hand?  Answer the question.   I mean this is worship directed to God.   Should He accept this from their hand when it's weariness to them?   They really don't want to do it.   They're basically giving God leftovers.   We know the answer and the answer is He's not going to accept it even though a person has gone through the motions.
    6. That being stated let's go to the next verse.   I want us to look at Psalms 122:1 and see the attitude in this verse.   “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord.''” What attitude do we see here? Let’s go! I have a desire to do that. I want to go worship God. Let's go to the house of the Lord.
       1. If we want to be here and we're here this morning out of desire to worship God—He knows that.
       2. Look at this verse, Revelation 2:23 “… all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.”  When two or three are gathered in His name He's here in our midst.   What is he doing?  He's searching and testing our hearts because that is where our relationship with Him actually begins.
    7. In John 4:24 the Word of God teaches us how God wants us to worship Him—in spirit and in truth.   It's very important that we obey the commands of God in worship to him.   Again, obeying those commands is motivated by our love for Him and our faith, but we need to recognize that worshipping according to truth is not enough.
       1. Just because we come together on the Lord's day and we're singing praises to God as best we can, even with understanding, and we're trying to do it according to the New Testament pattern, and we're taking the Lord's Supper with the fruit of the vine and unleavened bread, don't think that just because it's truth that that's pleasing to the Lord,
       2. God does indeed want it to be according to truth, but He also wants it to be real worship.   One of the dangers I fear is that sometimes in congregations of the body of Christ we get caught up into what I would call a ritualistic worship and we're going through the motions of fulfilling our duty and our obligation rather than actually worshipping God from the heart.
       3. He's testing our hearts.   He's seeing the attitude. He's looking at why we sing these songs.  What are we doing in our minds when we're taking the Lord's Supper?   Why are we praying? What is going through our minds when a prayer is being led?   Why are we here? That's the first thing He looks at, the heart.
       4. Yes, he wants truth but he also wants it to be in spirit as well.   Look at this from Psalms 111:1 - “Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.”
       5. Again in Psalms 100:2 – “Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.” Here again we're seeing singing in worship and it's motivated from the whole heart.  It's a praise motivated from the whole heart and it's actually worship to God in song.
    8. Think about Ephesians 5:19 – “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,”  Awhile ago we took a look at singing with the understanding.   In that lesson we saw how just mouthing the words, even though we may be singing the words in the exact melody and tone they are supposed to be sung in, if we don't know what the message is we can not sing from the heart to please the Lord.  Did you know that the same danger of not singing from the heart and pleasing the Lord exists if we know the song too well?
       1. Some hymns we learn very early and because we sing them so many times we know them.    There's a real danger that comes from that.   The danger is we sing from rote.   If you don't know what that means, we sing the song, we sing the words and we don't even really have to think about it.   We can go through the song and as soon as we finish the song and five seconds have passed if I turned to you and I say; “what was the name of that song”.   Well, ah…ah…
       2. What was the message in the song?   Message? What message?   Listen folks, that's an ever present danger that we've got to be careful about—just singing going through the motions.   If we really want to draw near to God when we're singing to God, sing to Him from your heart letting the words go through your mind and mean something to you.   That is real worship rather than just going through the motions of worship in song.
    9. Of course, this danger exists elsewhere as well. Let me ask you this: When prayer is offered have you ever closed your eyes and bowed your head then you hear amen you open your eyes and raise your head.   If someone would ask you what was the prayer about? What prayer?   Oh, yeah he said something, then amen. Is that worship? No, it's not.  Do you think that's pleasing to the Lord?
       1. How about the Lord’s Table?   When the prayer for the bread or for the fruit of the vine is offered are we listening to it?   Where are our thoughts when the bread and fruit of the vine are being passed?   Are our thoughts on Christ and what He did for us?   Are our thoughts on our shortcomings and how much we need His atonement? Or are they off on matters of the world?
       2. I almost hesitate to mention this, but where are our thoughts when the lesson is being given?   Are we listening, checking to see if what is being preached is accurate? Are we listening and learning, taking the lesson into our minds and hearts? Or are our minds elsewhere thinking about other things, or if the speaker not so dramatic, are we even awake?  
    10. The whole point of this sermon is there's a big difference between acceptable worship and the pretense of worshiping by going through the motions and honoring God with our lips.    Yes, we've said the words but our heart is far from Him.   For our worship to be acceptable to God it must be real worship, from the heart, motivated by love for Him.
        1. Look at Psalms 119:145 – “I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes.”   We read earlier about singing with the whole heart. Now we're praying with the whole heart.   We realize whenever we're casting our cares upon the Lord and we're pouring our heart out to Him that will strengthen our relationship because we're drawing near to Him.   Prayer is an expression of a personal relationship from our heart to God.
        2. We understand the difference between that and just saying some words by rote, closing our eyes and bowing our head.
        3. I’ll say it again, one of the greatest dangers those in the body of Christ face in our worship of God, is just going through the motions and then we wonder why we might not feel close to God.   After all I do my duty, I bow my head, I close my eyes, I eat the bread, I drink the grape juice, I sit on the pew, I look at the preacher, I give money, I fulfill my duty.   I'm going to heaven.
        4. If anyone thinks that way I would suggest you really need to totally rethink your whole life as a Christian, and your relationship with God.
    11. Christianity is a religion of the heart, where we love God with our whole heart, and motivated by that love we have a desire to come together and to worship Him. It is not a duty, it's a privilege.   It's an honor that we get to do this and we should want to do it.

• First Corinthians 11:29 in dealing with the Lord's Supper says; “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” I want you to imagine this.   We have come together on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week.   You’ve got the Lord's Supper set up with the fruit of the vine and the unleavened bread. You're taking the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table on the Lord's Day according to truth. Here comes time to take the Lord's Supper and the bread passes in front of you and you're thinking about “what am I going to cook today?” The fruit of the vine passes in front of you and you think about “what time is it?” “What time does the game start?” You just ate and drank judgment to yourself. You just called judgment on yourself in partaking of the Lord's Supper that you partook in truth.
  1. Again remember Malachi. Should He accept this from your hand? The answer is no.   He wants it to be real where we're focusing on the body of Christ, where we're focusing on the blood that was shed there on the cross of Calvary.   We are doing this in His memory.
  2. Every time each one of us partakes of the Lord's Supper the Lord is in our midst and the first place He's looking is not at the table but in our heart.  Yes, He wants it in truth but He wants it to be from the heart discerning the Lord's body and blood. Yes, according to truth because we love Him. All of it whether we realize it or not, is a heart-based relationship with God.
  3. Finally, even in giving it is a heart based relationship.   Have you ever wondered why under the new covenant God doesn't say to tithe, give ten percent?  If you want to give 10 percent that's fine, but why not the instruction to tithe?   Tithing in the O.T. had very practical uses.   Everyone contributed a portion of their resources so they could worship God together.   It was to support the priests, those that conducted the affairs of the temple, but it was also a way of providing for the vulnerable members of the community.  
     1. Why does the New Testament not talk about tithing?   I suspect it might have something to do with how we tend to look at specific instructions and what we should understand about the spirit of God’s commandments.
     2. First, what happened in Israel with tithing? Malachi tells us how they came to look at the tithing as a burden and so they offered the leftovers, the least of what they had.   In doing this they gave what could not fully supply the needs and they showed their contempt for God.  
     3. Israel started to think of tithing as fulfilling a check list.   When they started doing that they thought of it as duty.  I've given my 10 percent I've done what God wants me to do.   That is a lesson shown to us in the Old Testament.
  4. One of the big changes from the old covenant to the new covenant is going from a covenant of the law, one that was work oriented, to a covenant of the heart. The old covenant is rightly called our tutor in Galatians 3:24. It was our instructor of what to do, under the new covenant we are to do it from the heart.  
     1. Our worship, whether we realize or not, is all heart-based including our giving.   Second Corinthians 9:7 – “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, (notice the next words) not grudgingly or of necessity; (there is the attitude) for God loves a cheerful giver.”
     2. When it comes to giving back to God He's looking at the heart.   He sees the attitude of the giver. If when we're giving we think: I need the money right now. Keep it then.  Don’t think it will please God if you don't want to give it and give it in a grudging manner because you think it is your duty.
     3. Do you see the difference between a duty motivated mindset toward God and a desire motivated mindset?   If you have a duty oriented mindset you will do what you think you have to do and no more.   The Israelites had forgotten all that they had to be thankful for, they had forgotten the joy of having God looking over them. They only saw duty.

 

CONCLUSION:

Wrapping up, if it is desire that we have, it will be a desire to praise God, glorify God and give gladly back to God because He's showering us richly.   We'll want to give out of desire. When someone says: let’s go to the house of the Lord. Let’s sing praises to our God. Let's pray to God together.   Let's feed upon the word of God some more. Let's give back to God a part of that which He has showered upon us. We will not see our relationship with God as drudgery.

 

He will see our relationship with Him for what it really should be and is. He loves us and we love him. He loves us with the perfect love and what He desires back from us is that we love Him with all our heart.

 

Christianity if you do not understand from this sermon is a heart-based religion.   If there is a problem in our relationship with God we must first cleanse the inside of the cup.   We must first change the heart and with the changing of the heart we will eventually see the changing of the life.

 

We must all beware of just having an external relationship with God.   We may be able to fool one another. We may be able to fool everyone in the world around us but when Jesus is in our midst and God looks at us, when He searches and tests our hearts, He sees exactly where each and every one of us really is.

 

I would suggest we really need to ask this question on a regular basis and answer it honestly.   “What kind of relationship do I really have with God Almighty, our creator?

 

If you feel distant from Him, draw near starting today.   If there's sin separating you from God, deal with that sin.   That's what the blood of Christ is all about.

 

If you haven't obeyed the Gospel you can do so this morning if you believe with all your heart that Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of God.   It's not just enough to recognize Him as the King.   Are you willing now for him to be your King?   Are you willing to turn from your sins, motivated by your faith and your love for God, and repent of those sins? We would be glad to assist you as you, by your faith, are motivated to obey the command of God and be immersed in water for the remission of your sins.

 

If you're a child of God and sin is standing between you and your father, the grace of God is there for you. The mercy of God is there for you and the blood of Christ is there for you. Take this sin to your father. We'll pray for you. We'll pray with you as you turn from it. The blood of Christ will cleanse you. You can be reconciled to God.

 

If you feel distant because you feel that your heart is not right, you have the ability within you to grow in your relationship.   It starts with you drawing near. Go back to square one. Go back to the word. Go back to the Gospels. Read them again. Meditate on what God has done for you. Strengthen your faith.

As you come to know and believe the love that God has for you an amazing thing is going to happen.   You start loving God more and motivated by that love, you will see changes in your life.   The changes in your life are going to be because of a change in your relationship with God.

If there's anybody here this morning who is subject of the Gospel call in any way let it be made known while we stand and sing the song which has been selected.

 

Invitation song ???

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher