The Heart Of The Matter
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Our sermon will be on Luke 10:17-20
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The Heart Of The Matter
The Heart Of The Matter
Over 10 years ago, we lived about a mile from where we do now, at my grandparents old house.
For some reason, skunks decided they wanted to live with us. Well, under the house.
There were several holes in the house, that eventually I was able to plug up.
In the middle of that, I put a live trap under the house.
So, I went to check it and I had caught one. I took my .22 with me and opened the access panel.
The skunk was facing away from me with its tail up in the air.
If I had waited a second longer, I would have been in trouble.
As it is, it had presented the perfect target to me.
I shot and ducked out of the way.
Did you know that a skunks spray is a yellowish green?
You can actually see it.
Somehow, I avoided the worse of it.
One time a year or so earlier, I got within 5 foot of one when it went off.
I got it, but my eyes started watering and I got sick to my stomach.
Our house had the smell in it for a long time.
It got in everything we had.
If you tangle with a skunk, everyone knows it.
We bought a lot of citrus spray and it helped, but it didn’t take it all out..
I don’t like skunks. I didn’t like them before all that, but especially now.
But skunks can be dangerous. They often carry rabies.
I caught one in a trap one time and it bit its leg off trying to get out.
Am I afraid of skunks? No, there is someone we need to fear.
1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!
6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
8 “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.
9 But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
10 “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.
12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
The Heart Of The Matter
If you remember from last week Jesus had been talking to the Pharisees and the scribes and they were not happy.
Evidently, people had started Gathering around him.
There were so many that they were trampling one another.
We hear of this happening every once in a while at different sporting events.
Jesus had been speaking to the crowd, but now he turns to his disciples to tell them something important.
His disciples must have been closer to him.
With all the noise of the crowd around him, only his disciples could hear what he was about to say.
We need to remember 2 things:
Jesus is talking about things in general
He is talking about things that his apostles would be going through
So that means we need to apply the things that are in general first. We’ll come back to that later.
Our Heart
Our Heart
Jesus had put down the scribes and the Pharisees.
Now he tells the disciples to beware their leaven.
I talked about this last week a bit, but I want to cover it more deeply today.
Jesus takes an ordinary thing that everyone there understood and applies it spiritually.
Now some of us don’t get this because this is not an everyday item for us.
Leaven is yeast which is a single-celled fungi. Fungi includes things mushrooms and molds.
Leaven, when put in bread dough, will convert the sugars and starch in the dough to produce ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The bread stretches and the carbon dioxide can’t escape.
That’s what causes the bread to rise.
The amount of alcohol is very small so don’t worry about that.
The point Jesus is making is that like yeast, the teachings of the Pharisees will worm their way in and populate like yeast does until the teaching manifests itself in all that we do.
We do this all the time.
The idea that we need to work for our salvation works into everything we do.
We start saying we need to follow this rule or that.
Let me give you an example.
So over a hundred years ago different baptist groups taught that dancing was bad.
So dancing in the past was associated with getting drunk and various sexual sins.
Instead of teaching these things are bad (the sexual aspect and the drunkeness), they taught that dancing was a sin.
This is exactly what the pharisees did.
One time the disciples were going through a field with some type of grain on the sabbath and they grabbed some grain to eat.
The pharisees were upset that Jesus allowed this and Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath.
What he meant is that is that missed the point of the sabbath.
What happens is that we turn things that God did not speak about into sin when it’s about the principles and not the points.
Here’s the deal: God knows your heart. Are you purposely trying to sin?
The truth is going to come out.
What’s in your heart? Is it that you are going through the motions of religion or do you put your faith in God?
What’s important is who do we fear?
Our Fear
Our Fear
Do not be afraid of the religious. Do not be afraid of what people think, but fear God instead.
I remember a friend of mine saying that since I was going to be a pastor that I will have to worry about what everyone thinks. I said that I was more worried about what God thinks.
God is the one that can kill us both physically and spiritually.
So what does this fear mean for us. The actual word here in Greek is phobia.
What does it mean in this context?
Here’s the truth: we have no reason to fear others because they cannot take our soul.
We should fear God instead.
Let me tell you, if you do not put your trust in him, you should fear God.
But if you put your trust, your faith, in God, then you do not have to be afraid.
If you are a Christian, then God is with us and he’s our comforter.
How many times in the Bible did God tell someone to not be afraid.
So what do we believe? What is ...
Our Confession
Our Confession
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever had an opportunity to share the gospel and you didn’t do it?
I’ve done it and then felt guilty about it.
I remember many years ago talking to a guy that I went to school with. I talked to him for a bit and a few days later he had a really bad wreck. They didn’t know if he would even survive.
I immediately thought back to our conversation and thought that I could have done something.
Who do we fear more? The people we are talking to, or God.
Having said that, we need to understand that God will take care of us.
This passage says that God knows the number of hairs on our head.
Some of us have less and some of us have more.
Some are longer and some are shorter. God knows it all.
What is it talking about here about confessing before men? If we deny him, what will happen?
I said before that some of this is general statements that apply to all of us.
This last part may not apply like we think it does.
I’ve heard is said by some they don’t need to study or prepare for a sermon because of verse 11 and 12.
11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.
12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Our Confession
This could be applied to us if we were in that particular situation.
That would be if we were arrested for being a Christian.
In those cases, the Holy Spirit will guide us.
But in general, we should study the word as Paul commanded Timothy.
The point of all this is that we cannot deny Jesus.
Paul said in Romans 1:15-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Our Confession
I’ll tell you a story that happened almost 22 years ago.
I was at one of my friends houses playing cards.
That wore so heavily on my heart that a few days later, God saved me.
So what’s this deal about blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Well, it’s a bit complicated. There are multiple views about what Jesus is talking about.
When I was about 10, I went to my only church camp as a kids.
I remember being convicted and I even cried.
Later, I left the church.
Did I commit that sin?
No, or I wouldn’t be here.
So what’s this taking about.
I don’t think this is a one time event, but instead is a continually denial of Jesus.
So what does all of this mean?
What does this mean?
It means that God knows the truth. He knows what’s in your heart.
That means if you truly believe, then God will not deny you.
If you are a fake, God knows that, and he will deny you.
As for me I believe