Attitude of YOUR Heart (2)

Good morning everyone, it is great as always to get to be here with you all. Hey, today is a great day isn’t it? I mean, we got to worship together, we got to pray together, now the kids get to go back to their classes to learn together, and we get to stay here and open the Scriptures together. Then in a little bit we will have our annual church meeting followed by lunch together…I mean, this is just a great day together, isn’t it. Hey, those of you online, I want to thank you all for joining us here this morning and being a part of our extended spiritual family. Of coarse you all area missing this amazing day here, but just know that we would welcome you anytime. As a matter of fact, if you are watching now and you would like to come to lunch, then just come on over and join us for lunch in just a bit…We would love to have you.

You know over the coarse of the last few weeks we have been talking so much about our hearts and the focus of our hearts, or what we are worshiping. We have talked about a few topics that I believe should help each of us focus on the Lord as we pursue Godly activities, whatever those activities are. We have discussed being focused on the Lord and having a heart that is focused on the Lord in everything you do. That thing is that can be hard, right? I mean, how do we have a heart focused on the Lord while we are at work, or while we are shopping for groceries…especially while we are shopping for groceries…that has gotten a bit out of hand, hasn’t it. Anyway, let’s not focus on that because then its harder to focus on the Lord, right :) Ok, so when we hit a time like that where we are really not happy…what do we do? I mean, how do we focus on the Lord when we are faced with something that is very difficult, or is really frustrating? Well that is what I want to talk about this morning. This morning we are going to look at the

Attitude of YOUR heart

You see its one thing to think about and talk about things in the abstract, but this morning I want you to genuinely look at yourself while we look at a couple of passages. However, I want to get back to where we started this series. When we started this series I asked a question, and I am going to ask that question again right now. Why do I do what I do? Because I want what I want.

Ok so let’s take the example of rising groceries…I think that is something that we all can relate to right? Beth went to the store earlier and she told me something that about made me blow a gasket. She went to the store in Byron and she was going to buy some eggs. I love eggs, I mean I can eat half a dozen eggs at one time with no problem. The last time I purchased eggs, I paid $.88. Now, I know the price has risen, but I haven’t really paid attention to that. Last week when she came home, she didn’t have eggs with her. She told me that she didn’t buy eggs because they were $5 a dozen…That is insane. I mean how did we go from $.88 to $5? I know they didn’t really jump like that, but that is what happened in my mind. So, I was not super happy about that…especially because there is literally nothing we can do. Like, I started wondering if we should get chickens and manage our own, but thats a whole thing that we don’t want to deal with…so then we don’t really have an option, right? We have to deal with the current prices of eggs as well as everything else…So then how do we manage dealing with these things and trying to focus on the Lord and not our situations. How do we walk through our day dealing with all of the problems of life and try to keep our focus on the Lord. Like, it’s easy to say when we are sitting at church, but what about when we are living through the week?

Well, you see, believers have one goal…Do you know what that is? Let’s look at Scriptures to see what we can learn. Turn over to

2 Corinthians 5:9 (ESV)

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Ok, so we see that we have a goal…No matter what is going on, whether we are at home with the Lord, or whether we are here living our life today our goal is to live a life pleasing to the Lord. Now, we have been talking about the fact that God is more concerned about our heart than our actions, so if that is true, then we need to figure out how to

Measure your heart

You see the first step in adjusting the attitude of your heart is to measure you heart. So how do we do that…That is what I want to talk about briefly this morning. So, lets take the example of the eggs that I was talking about earlier. If I am looking at a situation like that, how do I measure what my heart is focused on right there? Well, first I need to ask myself, What do I want? Now thats a pretty easy question I think, right? I mean, I want to not spend $5 on a dozen eggs. But is it possible that I want something else? Maybe, so next I need to ask myself, What do I really want? Ok, I guess I could dig a little deeper than that. I mean, I guess I don’t want to pay $5 for a dozen eggs becuase i have a limited income and I need to provide for my family. I think that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? I am sure we all would answer in this same way if we are talking about groceries, or gas for the car, or utilities for the house. All of these things have been skyrocketing lately, so I think we would all answer the same way if we really thought about it, right? So that makes sense…I want to provide for my family, final answer...

Next, I need to ask myself another question, Why? Why do I want to provide for my family. Well, that seems like a bit of a no brainer, right? I mean, I want to provide for my family becuase that is my job as a husband and father. Aaaahhhhh, so I think that it is my job to provide for my family…I think its my job becuase no one else will provide for my family…in other words, I don’t trust God to what only I can do.

Now, you may say, Billy, thats silly, no one gets there from eggs…but the reality is that we do. You see, we think something like, its not fair I have to spend so much of my money on inflation. However, we need to remember this,

1 Corinthians 10:26 (ESV)

For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

In other words, everything in the Earth is the Lords…in other words, the gas we buy is the Lords...in other words, the money we use in the Lords...in other words, our food is the Lords....in other words, our family is the Lords…that means that it is not my job to provide for my family, it is my job to rely on the Lord to provide for my family. So, when I think about this situation with the eggs, those are the Lords…if I am getting mad about that, then that means I am not trusting the Lord to provide for my family. That means in my situation that in order to be pleasing to the Lord, that I need to repent of my lack of trust, and then rely on the Lord to provide for my family. Now, this same passage can be applied to almost any situation that we face, we can look and see that everything is the Lords. That means that if i get upset because someone wasted my time, I need to remember that its the Lords time, not mine.

You see, when I measure my heart, I am able to see if I am living in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, and if I am not, then I can adjust my focus. Of cause that is a corrective measurement, right? What about the times that nothing bad is really happening…How can I be sure that I am living in a way that is pleasing to God? Well, remember that right actions will follow a right heart. So when I have refocused my heart on the Lord, next I need to

Measure my actions

Ok, so this one is actually pretty easy. I mean, we literally just look at our actions and see if they are pleasing to the Lord. This is really another way to measure our heart, because if your heart is not focused on the Lord, then your actions will not be focused on the Lord either. But, how do we know if our actions are pleasing to the Lord? Take a look at what Jesus said,

Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

You all remember this verse. I’ve talked about it before, so it should at least be familiar. You see, if my goal is to be pleasing to the Lord, then my actions should fall into one of these two categories of loving God above all and loving others as myself. That means that when I am confronted with the attitude of my heart, I should be prepared to say that I will Love God…Love Others, then I will Live It!

Now, this morning I would like to ask someone to come up and share about how they have been seeking to live a life pleasing to the Lord and have been seeking to Love God and Love Others…Let’s take a moment and listen to how God has been working in Marcus Woods life…come on up Marcus. After Marcus shares then we will move into a time of closing worship as we individually focus on the Lord and corporately worship the Lord together.

Marcus Testimony

Thank you for sharing Marcus…If you are here this morning and you have been convicted, encouraged, or impacted in any way with these passages or Marcus’ testimony, then I want to ask you to write that down on a connect card and leave that in the basket in the back. If you are here and you would like to talk about what God is doing in your life, please reach out and let’s have a conversation together. For now though, lets pray...

Prayer