Heart Check
Easter 2026 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 11 viewsHeart check - How is your heart. God is more concerned about who we are on the inside than external appearances.
Notes
Transcript
Mic
Prayer
Easter is just one month away. Palm Sunday is in 3 weeks and so I am going to take a break from our study in 2 Peter as we prepare for Easter.
By way of a side note this last week was Purim on the Jewish calendar. Purim is the celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people under the reign of the Persian King Ahasuerus. Haman the evil counselor had plotted to kill all the Jews throughout the Persian empire. Esther took her life in her hand, went before the king at risk of her life to plead for her people. In the end Haman was killed on the gallows that he had built to kill Mordecai and Mordecai became the 2nd highest ruler in the Persian Empire. What a dramatic change of events demonstrating that God is in control.
What does this have to do with current events. As my wife pointed out to me if you look at
Slide
Ayatollah Ali
K hamen ei
Is really close to Haman in fact it is pronounced hameni
and he was most definitely an avowed enemy of the Jews.
The Jewish people and a lot of people are comparing Trump to Cyrus, because Cyrus ushered in an era of peace,
but, I believe that Trump is more like Abraham Lincoln and Mordecai with regard to the current situation. He wants to be a man of peace. He would like to bring peace to the Middle East and regrets the bloodshed. But there can be no peace unless the enemy is defeated. The enemies of the Jews must be destroyed first. Until they lay down their arms and make a decision to truly pursue peace with their neighbors, there can be no peace for them, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment.
As we focus in on this Easter season, we will find that for those who are enemies of God and who oppose the people of God…
in the end, they will find that they will have the same end.
This Easter season, let us make sure that we are on God’s side.
With that in view, let us also remember that
God is more concerned about who we are on the inside, not who we are on the outside! It is a normal thing for us to put sin into categories. A sinful thought is not as bad as a sinful action … right?
But is categorizing sins the right thing to do? Are our actions… the things people can see.… the main issue? or does the real problem lie deeper? inside our heart?
I am reminded of Jesus’s teaching in ...
Slide
11 “Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”
Peter asked Jesus to explain what He meant by this and Jesus responded in verses 17-20
4 Slides (ending vs 20)
17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
20 “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
This morning, as we enter the Easter season, I am going to ask us to examine our hearts.
Jeremiah taught us a very important lesson about our hearts.
Slide
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus confronts us with the attitudes in our hearts.
If you will … turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. [pg 960 in your pew Bible or pg 3]
Jesus begins by speaking to the religious people. and He let’s us know that we are the light of the world!
3 Slides
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 “Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus challenges us to let our light shine. As Christians we are to stand up for what is right! We are to stand up for truth, for justice, for love. We are to be the example setters! We are to let our light shine before men so that they may see our good works.… not to bring glory to ourselves but to bring glory to God!
How then can I know what is right? Do I draw my values from the local community? from what others think? or do I get them from the Bible? what God thinks?
Jesus answers that question.
4 Slides [ending vs 20]
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.
19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus begins by taking a strong stand for the law. He takes a strong stand for the Bible..
However, the problem is that in the first century (and today) many people were following a bunch of religious rules, they were listening to the religious teachers of the day… the scribes and Pharisees.… but were missing the point of the law.
God is more concerned with our heart than our outward behavior. Our outward behavior… in the end.… is a reflection of our heart attitudes.
and so He begins...
2 Slides
21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’
22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
He is going to give a number of examples and each example will begin with “You have heard”.… and then He will conclude with “But I say to you...”
The first part of the example comes from the teachings of the Scribes and Pharisees and may be based on the law… but will focus on external… outward behavior… Jesus moves from the external action to the internal attitudes of the heart.
This morning I am going to ask each of us to look at the internal attitudes of our hearts before God. We are going to do a heart check.
In this first example Jesus quotes from the law, you shall not commit murder.
Well I pass that test. I have not killed anyone… (on the other hand if you were involved in an abortion, there may be some guilt there… but I’m not going to get into that.
but then He moves from the external action of killing someone physically to the heart attitude. But I say to you anyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court… and whoever says angry words with his brother… “Raca” “You fool”, you idiot… you moron. shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Wow!
Have you ever been angry with someone?
You know the basic reason we get angry with someone is because we think that God is not in control!
We get mad because they did something to us that we don’t like. or did not do something that we wanted them to do.
Have you not considered that they could do nothing to us unless God allowed it? Why did God allow it?
Is He trying to teach me something?
Friends the reason we get angry is because we have anger in our heart. and we need to deal with that anger. We need to confess it to God as a sin within us.
You may say to me… yes but the Bible says be angry, but sin not… and didn’t Jesus get angry when he went to the temple and took a whip and chased the sellers out of the temple?
Yes, there is a place for righteous anger.… but when was the last time that you were angry because people were using the name of God in vain? or was it because you did not get your way? How did Jesus respond when they beat Him, and spit upon Him and abused Him… was he screaming and yelling at them… or ..
did He entrust Himself to God and remain silent? and even pray for them.… Father forgive them?
I dare say that in 99% of the cases where we get angry, it is not for a just reason.
How are you doing on this first heart check?
Let’s take a look at the next example.
4 Slides[ending vs 30]
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’;
28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
29 “And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
30 “And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell.
You have heard that it was said,… “You shall not commit adultery.” You may say again… Woo… I’m clear again! I have not physically gone out and committed adultery against my wife of husband… or
if you are not married… Jesus could have said fornication.. having sex with someone to whom you are not married. I suspect some of us are guilty of sleeping with someone we are not married too… but I will skip over that.…
but Jesus does not stop with the physical outward appearance. He moves to our heart attitudes.
Have you ever looked on another man or woman to lust after her? Maybe in a Romance novel you were reading… you know we live out in our minds what we are reading, or watching in the movies or on TV.
They do not throw those scenes in the movies for nothing. People demand them because we have lust in our hearts.
Or you look at some “hot guy” or “hot woman” and basically stripped them down in your mind. Then friend you are guilty.
The law was written to expose our heart attitudes.
Jesus moves on.
2 Slides
31 “And it was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’;
32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Divorce is rampant in America. and then we have people who just want to live together and not get married so they won’t have to get a divorce. Friends… divorce is a symptom of a much larger problem… a failure to love one another. Think of 1 Corinthians 13. 4-7.
4 Slides [ ending vs 7]
4 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
If we love our spouse we are not going to be seeking a divorce.
We won’t be yelling and screaming at them.
Love never acts unbecomingly. so before it ever gets to divorce the couple has left love behind.
They have replaced it with anger, and bitterness. [That was heart check item #1]
Jesus says that whoever divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity makes her commit adultery.
Basically, he is sending her out to find another man.
However, this is true in reverse as well… every woman who divorces her husband except for the cause of fornication, causes him to commit adultery to break his wedding vow..… “ to be faithful until death do us part.”
Now while I am speaking on this, I also have to address something that does sometimes go on in far too many homes.
I know this because I have heard about it too many times for it not to be true
and that is sometimes wives use sex to manipulate their husbands into doing something or not doing something they want.
I am therefore going to direct us to
5 Slides [ ending vs 5]
1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
3 Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Please note that this passage applies to both the men and the ladies in a marriage relationship.
Your body does not belong to yourself… it belongs to your spouse.
So let’s forget this .… “It’s my body.” thing. If you are married, it is not your body
and we are to fulfill our marital obligations with our spouse.
and what is the scripture talking about when it says “Because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own man? ...
It is talking about just this thing… we are sexual beings and we have sexual desires.
So ladies, if you are refusing to have sex with you husband (I’m too tired tonight or I have a head-ache) you are basically telling your husband to go out and sleep with another woman..
and men, if you are coming home so tired that you don’t have time for your wife.… you are basically telling her to go out and sleep with another man…
Paul says in this passage… don’t do that… we are to fulfill the desires of our spouse. Stop depriving one another.
There is only one exception and that is by mutual agreement… and the word mutual means that both of you agree together. It is not a one sided decision. and then only for the purpose of prayer … You are both fasting and praying for the peace of Jerusalem.… for our outreach here in Bryson City.… and then you are to come together again.
Enough said? Have I been blunt enough?
Now if you are not married and you have sexual desires… find yourself a mate of the opposite sex , who is a Bible-believing Christian, and get married.
Let’s move on.… back to Matthew chapter 5.
5 Slides [ending ve 37]
33 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
34 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes‘ or ‘No, no‘; and anything beyond these is of evil.
The Pharisees had all sorts of rules concerning vows or making promises. Some people claimed that you could not swear falsely by God’s name, …
but if you swore by any other name … I swear by the name of Caesar. or any other name then you didn’t have to keep your word. we see this in Matthew 23..
If you swore by the temple.. that was nothing.. you could break the vow..
but if you swore by the gold in the temple.. that was a whole other matter.
It was like when I was a child and the rule was you had to keep your promise unless your fingers were crossed … and so you would cross your fingers behind your back or inside your coat pocket and then you did not have to keep your promise.
You didn’t have to be telling the truth.
Jesus says NO! NO! No! No! Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.” Period..
Anything else is a lie. and we are to be a people of the truth.
And why do we tell lies? It is because we want others to think better of us than we are? We have a problem with pride!
Do you have a pride problem in your heart?
Jesus is moving from the outward form - lying… to the inward nature of our heart attitude. Our God is a God of truth and we are to be
Slide
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
We are to be imitators of God. We are to be holy in all our behavior. We are to be pure on the inside and not
just have a whitewash job looking clean on the outside, when actually we are dirty and smelly on the inside.
Anything beyond this is evil. lying is morally bad. it is a form of sin and it needs to be dealt with.
Do you ever tell “white lies”? Do you ever bend the truth?
Why are you lying? To protect yourself… or to protect your friend? Who are you trying to please? are you trying to please God? NO!
Then friend, you are in violation of God’s standard and need to repent and confess your sin to God… and change your ways.
No, you can not cheat on your taxes, no you can not lie to your parents.
Parents, if you tell your children you are going to do something, then you need to keep your word.…
it doesn’t matter if something came up, you are going to have to negotiate a change of terms with your child or keep your promise. Don’t say you are going to do something and then not do it. That is lying.
I learned to be very careful about saying I was going to do something, because I can’t predict the future.
Jesus continues.
5 Slides [ending vs 42]
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
39 “But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 “And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
41 “And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two.
42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
In this section Jesus deals with how we respond to situations where we are mistreated or taken advantage of.
The world says do unto others as they do to you. Jesus says we are to have a heart filled with love. a heart that gives to others beyond what they ask or expect.
So if they slap us on one cheek.. If they are throwing rocks and hit us… we are to turn the other cheek. We ignore it.. We let it go… we don’t sue them for all they are worth.
If they want to sue you and take your shirt… let them have your coat also.. Give it to them.
Give to him who asks of you.
Now the early disciples taught that we also need to be wise in our giving. So I generally do not give money away… in fact I don’t carry cash on me so I can’t give cash away… but that does not mean that I won’t take someone to the grocery store and buy them some groceries or take them to McDonalds and buy them a hamburger. Or help them to find a job.
I cannot tell you how many people would give me a hard-luck story… they needed some money… and so I would tell them, let me call my friend and he has day jobs hauling bags of sand for dumping down oil wells.
It is amazing how everyone seemed to have a bad back. They just weren’t hungry enough to work for their food. The scripture also teaches us that if a man is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Slide
10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone will not work, neither let him eat.
So what is our take away? What if this is me? when I begin to look past the external rules and begin to look at my heart attitudes.… I don’t like what I see? what do I do then?
The answer is really quite simple. We need to admit to God that we have a problem.
We admit that we have a sin problem in our heart and ask Him to forgive us and to change me.
That is 1 john 1.9
Slide
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We confess our sins to God. We ask Him to forgive us. We ask Him to cleanse us from our sins.
Slide
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
We place our faith in Jesus . He paid the price for our sins and we commit our lives to God and to Jesus to make Him the Lord of our lives for the rest of our lives.
We also make a commitment to study God’s word so that we can follow Him. as we are taught in God’s word.
2 Slides
1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Don’t we all want to be more and more like Jesus.
If that’s you, I invite you to come forward and give your life to Jesus or re-commit your life to Jesus this morning.
Now is the time. The altar is open.
and by the way… God is cheering you on… He loves you… He wants to forgive you.… Think of it… He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins so we could be adopted into His family… so let’s get right with God as we approach this Easter season. The time is near. the time is now… The altar is open.
Let’s pray
