Do not harden your hearts III

Level 1 of a hard heart - Disobedience is a sure sign of a hardening heart.

We talked about hardening our hearts to his word and obedience, that if we didn’t obey we were not pursuing his rest.
The cures – Come close to his word again on a daily basis and do it.

Level 2 of a hard heart - Not Giving God the Honor he is due

Last week we talked about Mary and her heart of sacrifice to the Lord. We only touched the subject of sacrifice.
The cure – Giving God his rightful place through worship, sacrifice, attention,

Level 3 of a hard heart - Total selfishness, makes us see only ourselves

The cure? Living a sacrificial life -

Lk 17:26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man (when the Lord returns). 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left. ”

I love to look at the scriptures that tell us how it will be in the Last days.

They tell me how close we are to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But they also tell me what people will be like.
What we will have to resist to staying on track with the plan of God.

The generation before the return of Jesus will be a generation of “Hardened Hearts”

People will be living like there is no end to their own little kingdoms (in the time of Noah and Lot. V:30 it will be like this in the last days
Nothing should hold us back from going forward with God.
Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Hold onto your life

Your stuff
Your will, (Yeah Pastor Jerry is so cool, he loves the sheep, I love to hear him preach and share the word of God with us. But you know I think, I want, I feel…)
Your plans, (no one is going to tell me what to do, but me! Oh yeah and God can tell me (I won’t listen but he can tell me)

Whoever loses (sacrifices) his life will find it.

Ge 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14a So make yourself an ark...

I love Noah. He is an example of what we have been talking about. He obeyed the Word of the Lord, he honored God by giving the best that he had (his life) and he continued a life of sacrifice.

When we live a sacrificial life we will stay in covenant with God.

Character of Sacrifice

Sacrifice will cost you your life. God say how long – Noah worked on the Ark for 120 years

His friends
His status, reputation,
His home, property, everything he owned
His plans and dreams (what about my Life and my way?

Let’s put ourselves in the time of Noah for a moment OK? When God came to Noah he was 480 years old. He was surely busy doing other things besides thinking about building a boat. He surely had time to develop his own way of living. He was probably a farmer, but we know that he was righteous and he followed the Lord by faith.

I believe that Noah began immediately to work on the Ark.
What do you think his wife said?
He worked on the Ark for twenty years and then he started having children.
He had three sons and they grew up helping their Father build the Ark.
During these 120 years Noah preached about the coming disaster and no one listened or believed. Did he stop, NO!

He sacrificed his life and the lives of his sons to obey God. Noah brought a hard sacrifice, he brought a “living sacrifice”

Sacrifice will cost you your best. God says when it is enough – Abraham obeyed God and offered his Son who he loved

There will be times when the Lord will require us to lay down what we love.
He may not stop us either from sacrificing it.

Sacrifice will always cost you something – David

After the Flood was over the first thing Noah did was sacrifice

He lost it all to obey the Lord

Ge 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Because of his obedience and sacrifice the whole earth was blessed.

Is our life affecting the whole earth?