Sermon Tone Analysis
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What matters most to me
What matters most to me
What matters most to me is what matters most to me.
This is our natural default.
Check my heart, check my motives
Last time we talked about this in looking at where we begin in loving our neighbor.
We noted that before we can love our neighbor the first thing that is absolutely required is to check my heart, and to check my motives.
Because I can never love others the way God wants me to love others if my heart is in the wrong place.
And I can never love others the way God wants me to love others if I have the wrong motives.
So today we’re going to pick up with that idea where we left off last time.
Here’s why this is so important.
If you and I are completely honest with ourselves, I think we all need to admit that sometimes we have the wrong heart, and we have the wrong motives.
For some of us that might be an confession that, in fact, most of the time—maybe even ALL of the time—I have the wrong heart and the wrong motives.
It’s a confession that basically boils down to this: God I cannot love other people the way you want me to love other people because I don’t love other people the way you want me to love other people.
We work our way around that confession in so many ways.
We tell ourselves, I know I’m supposed to love others.
Or we know that the Bible teaches us about loving others.
And if I stand up here declare that God wants us to love other people, and then ask if you love other people, we might all affirm that we do.
Yes, I love other people.
We can sit here today and say those words even if they are empty words because our hearts are in the wrong place, or we have the wrong motives.
But here’s the thing.
You can’t hide your heart from God. God knows your heart.
God knows your motives.
We all need God to change our hearts so that we can love others the way God wants us to love others.
So maybe today the next place to go in this whole thing about loving our neighbors is to admit before God, I need a change of heart.
God, I need you to change my heart so that I can love others the way you love others.
It needs to start with that prayer.
And let’s not kid ourselves.
We all need to pray that prayer.
We all need God to change our hearts so that we can love others the way God wants us to love others.
And we all need to keep praying that prayer.
Because there is never a point where you have that completely mastered.
There is never a time where I can say I now totally love other people the way God wants me to.
There is always room to improve.
There is always space for God to continually keep changing my heart to love like he loves.
And who wouldn’t want that?
Who wouldn’t want to be better at loving others the way God wants us to love others?
Who wouldn’t want to be better at loving your spouse?
Or better at loving your kids or grandkids?
That would not only be great for you because it makes you a better person, but it’s great for everybody else around you in your world as well.
Every single person here should want that, right?
So how do we get there?
How do I change my heart so that I love others the way God wants me to?
The net step goes here.
When I change my heart like that, then the things that matter most to me fall in line with the things that matter most to God.
Because when I truly desires most the same kind of things that God truly desires most, then my heart will also follow.
What matters most to God
What does God desire most?
What matters most to God?
If the key to changing my heart to love others like God loves others is to follow God’s desires for what matters most, then it only makes sense that I need to begin by answering the question of what matters most to God.
And Jesus gives us a clue about that today in .
When Jesus tells a parable, it’s always for a reason.
Usually he uses the story to describe something about the way God intends his world to work so that his kingdom can thrive.
And usually there is some sort of problem or behavior that gets in the way and keeps this from actually happening.
So what’s the problem in this story?
You might be tempted to say that the problem is that there are people who are lost from God. There’s a story about a lost sheep, and a story about a lost coin.
And these these things echo and illustrate lost people.
Religious people don’t like to associate with non-religious people.
That’s reading too far into the story.
That’s not the problem here.
The problem starts in verse 1 & 2. Jesus is having dinner with the wrong kind of people.
And the religious leaders complain about who it is Jesus associates with—that he is with the sinners, the bad people.
This is the problem Jesus is addressing with this story.
Religious people don’t like to associate with non-religious people.
The entire reason Jesus tells these stories is so that he can address what he sees happening around him; that the religious people don’t associate with non-religious people.
They don’t even care.
The religious elite of Jesus’ day were sort of the star belly Sneetches of that time.
And maybe we in the church today can be a bit like the star belly sneetches too.
Do you think that’s still true today?
Do religious people still prefer not to associate with non-religious people?
Do Christians just hang out with other Christians?
What about you?
Jesus had his top 12 list of his closest disciples.
It’s certainly not a bad thing to have some close friendships with other Christian people.
But Jesus tells these parables about the lost sheep and the lost coin because he is saying that people who are far from God matter too.
In fact, Jesus is saying more than that.
Jesus is saying that people who are far from God matter more.
And when even just one person is found the reaction in heaven is rejoicing.
Joy.
There is a party when even one lost person comes to be included.
What does that say about what matters most to God? So, sure, there’s nothing wrong with having a circle of Christian friends.
But Jesus is instructing his hearers that your circle of Christian friends absolutely needs to make room for others to be invited in—others who are very different from you.
All people matter to God.
And the people who are being left on the outside matter to God the most because he desires for them to be included.
Synchronize hearts
Then here’s what we’re left with today.
How do we synchronize those two things?
How do I take the thing that matters most to God and make it the thing that also matters most to me? God’s heart bends towards people who are left on the outside.
How do you and I bend our hearts toward that same thing as well?
Because maybe this is where you are today.
I know who God is.
I know what the Bible says.
I have faith; I believe.
But I also know that I just simply do not have a heart for outside people the way God does—the way God wants me to.
How do we go about synchronizing our hearts with God’s heart?
There is a book I’ve mentioned recently that I think is so helpful.
Jamey Smith’s book, You Are What You Love provides some good advice.
Smith argues that our passions—our heart—develops around the habits and rituals which we practice most regularly in our lives.
Smith calls these our cultural liturgies.
For example, if the only television channel I ever watch is ESPN.
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