Break My Heart for What Break Yours (2)

Introduction

Good morning!! It’s good to be here today, I’d like to thank the Lord for giving me this moment to stand up and deliver His message to all of you and of course thank you Pastor Ed and the leaders for allowing me to share God’s word here in Harvest City.

When I was growing up, I really didn’t give time to learning songs, not even learning how to sing songs like I do now. But when I started to like a girl, I drowned my self with the likes of “Im all out of Love” “If a picture paints...”

So that’s the only time a song meant something to me.

This morning I’d like to borrow a line from a familiar song as the title for my preaching this morning

Can we have that particular lyrics up there.

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours

Everything I am for your kingdom's cause As I walk from earth into eternity

“.....break our hearts for what break Yours....”So when we sing this, do we mean what we sing? Or because we are use to singing it and the meaning diminishes.

LET US PRAY

This month’s theme is THE HEART THAT GOD BLESSES!

May I propose this : To know the heart that God blesses IS simply to HAVE His heart!

To know the heart that God bless is simply to have His heart!

In order to know His heart, our hearts should be changed first. You can never understand the heart of Jesus until your heart changes. A changed heart, changes our whole being, you know, changed from the INSIDE, OUT,

say it with me INSIDE, OUT!

And when our whole being changes, our heart sees every opportunity to be generous. When we talk about having a GENEROUS HEART, most of the time, generally speaking, automatically we think about money, finances! Yes sometimes it’s about that but PLEASE, don’t ever think that everything is about money.

Having a Generous Heart means:

Having a Generous Heart means:

showing kindness toward others

showing a readiness to give more of something,

I mentioned OPPORTUNITY, because I believe this goes hand in hand with having a generous heart. Please bear with me, I want to point these things our from the word of God.

We practically can define OPPORTUNITY, (flick fingers) just like that! - means a chance, to do something...

But when we refer and go back to the word of God, it has a deeper meaning.

OPPORTUNITY means - THE MEASURE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Luke 14:25–27 NLT

25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

And these verses shows what is the cost of being a disciple - IF YOU CANNOT CARRY YOUR OWN CROSS AND FOLLOW ME, YOU CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLES.

WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, YOU HAVE TO BE READY TO WELCOME THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT COMES WITH IT.

ALL OF US HERE ARE CHRIST’S DISCIPLES, RIGHT???

Uh Oh! Every time this question arises, it either, we are caught of guard, we are NOT HERE, you know our minds are wandering OR WE REALLY DON’T KNOW IF WE ARE CHRIST’S DISCIPLE!

We all understand the whole story of the cross....you know ....this verse clearly shows us how much God loves us..AMEN! It shows us a LOVE that was put into action....

For God so love the world...

So love.....

That He gave His only begotten Son....action

Most Christian, in general only understands the love part, and chose forget the action part....He gave.

Gave, means - willing, wasn’t even thinking if it’s a wrong thing to do, decided, never had second thoughts.

When God loved us, He was not forced, coerced, had His arms twisted. He willingly gave His Son to be a sacrifice, a ransom for all of us.

When God saw humanity in it’s worst, it broke His heart in such a way it moved Him so that we, all of us here, will experience His saving grace.

This morning, we will not just talk about the theory part of the Christian life that we are living in right now. We have so much of that now in our lives.- How many preaching have we heard since we accepted Christ, how many Bible Studies have we attended!! It’s time to get up and about, and as a disciple of Christ, apply that theory, to make that understanding about His love for us, as an opportunity to show love in action, so that from that “love in action” a generous heart will just overflow. Amen!!!

To better understand this, I’d like us to check out this verses.

Mark 6:30–34 The Message

30 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. 31 Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat. 32 So they got in the boat and went off to a remote place by themselves. 33 Someone saw them going and the word got around. From the surrounding towns people went out on foot, running, and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke—like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.

Mark 6:30-34

If you will continue to read the following verses, this is the story about feeding the 5K. We always hear about that part. But I want us to take a look prior to the feeding of the 5K. And there 4 things to observe from our text:

Romans 10:9 YLT

9 that if thou mayest confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and mayest believe in thy heart that God did raise him out of the dead, thou shalt be saved,

4 things for us to observe

1. Jesus saw a great crowd

2. Jesus’ heart was broken

3. The crowd - sheep without a Shepherd: Jesus is Our great Shepherd

4. The crowd - needs a teacher: Jesus is our Great Teacher

What is it that breaks the heart of God? And why should it also break our hearts?

“When Jesus arrived, He saw the huge crowd. At the sight of them - His heart broke”

Who are these crowd?

a. Ordinary people

b. They are the people who sought after Him?

You would read from the very beginning of the chapter that Jesus kept moving from village to village. And together with Him are His disciples. They were sent out by pairs. And they preached, healed and cast out demons.

And amongst those ordinary people who knew about what was happening was Herod himself. Because there was a news spreading about the healing and about Jesus.

Mark 6:14 The Message

14 King Herod heard of all this, for by this time the name of Jesus was on everyone’s lips. He said, “This has to be John the Baptizer come back from the dead—that’s why he’s able to work miracles!”

King Herod was plagued with his own atrocities, he is guilt-ridden. He thinks it was John because he was the one who ordered for John’s head to be cut-off.

This story was included in this chapter because it talks about Jesus, and Herod was mistaken in concluding that it was John, but this whole chapter is showing how people are so taken by the personality of Jesus and how Jesus sees them for who they are.

Our text says....

He saw....

Jesus and His disciples didn’t even have enough time to rest, He said,

“let’s take a break and get a little rest”

Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

The ministry was in full blast, not time for dilly-dallying, there was constant coming and going, there’s no time to lose, Jesus saw an OPPORTUNITY and Him and His disciples know from the very beginning the responsibility that comes with it.

We run into a lot of different kind of people in our life's travels. In a country like ours where there is such diversity there will be those who we can rejoice over and others that we would rather ignore or have banished.

Who did God come for?

We like to believe that God came for all the good people, this makes sense to us.

Yet, Jesus demonstrated time and time again that

He came NOT for those who are well, but for those who were sick, physically and spiritually!

Christ's example is a great challenge to us as Christians if we examine the kinds of people He ministered to.

Why?

Because it will call us to reach out too

to those who make us uncomfortable, to those WE would rather not have to deal with,

to those WE would rather not have to deal with,

to those we would dismiss as ever deserving God's love and favor.

How easily we forget the kind of love it took God to accept us! We are not better than those people who makes us uncomfortable, we are all the same in the sight of God, “for all have sinned” remember?

Jesus did not only saw those people for who they are, He did not just see and then walked away, but the scripture says:

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 6

At the sight of them, his heart broke

His Heart Broke

Unlike some people, who would turn a blind eye, Jesus’ heart was broken…shattered, crushed! We sing “‘break our hearts for what break Yours’!!!

This is what breaks the heart of Jesus,

- people who are willing to know the truth,

- people who are out there who are just waiting for a savior!!

And we know that there are still a lot who haven’t heard the good news right??

People we are marginalized,

outcast of society,

people who are just living their life for the sake of getting by with the everyday life,

people who don’t care about having a Savior.

These are the people whom Jesus saw, and the Bible says IT BROKE HIS HEART, Jesus was moved with compassion!!!

We have an on going food distribution, 2 times a week, we have to sites, one in Clendenny Ave and one in Bergen Ave… let me tell you about this..

SLIDES

To know the heart that God blesses IS simply to HAVE His heart!

To have His heart makes our heart overflow with generosity

Being generous is seeing through God’s eyes an opportunity

and with every opportunity there is a measure of responsibility

encountering that opportunity

Jesus didn’t just say, “Okay I see your needs, it touch my heart, now I’m gonna connect you with the Salvation Army, they will take care of you!!!!

The Crowd, Sheep without a Shepherd

Do you know the job of a shepherd?

Sheep need fresh pasture and water daily and in the desserts of Palestine that can be no easy task.

A shepherd will search for water sometimes for hours every day.

He carries a pail with him that he will fill over and over again for any sheep who cannot access the water.

A shepherd will lead his flock to water

he will lead them to good pastures.

He will protect them,

watch out for them,

guard them,

tend to their wounds,

care for them,

brings back strays,

and seeks out the lost.

A shepherd carries a rod and a six foot staff.

A shepherd will sometimes throw his rod at a sheep who is wandering and refuses to heed the shepherd’s voice.

This is a discipline that can hurt the sheep but is done out of love to protect it.

Other times instead of the rod a shepherd will nudge gently the stray to bring it back to the flock.

Both the rod and the staff are protection for the sheep.

The life of a shepherd is not an easy one, but it is vital for the life of the sheep.

Without the shepherd the sheep have little hope for survival.

They will wander aimlessly searching for water but likely will not find it.

They will be harassed and killed by wild beasts. Sheep need a shepherd.

What does our scripture says today:

When Jesus saw them, it broke His heart…FOR THEY ARE LIKE SHEEP WHITH OUT A SHEPHERD!!!

Time and time and again, we always read how Jesus was so concerned about the people around Him, you don’t see Him mingling with people just to make them follow Him, you don’t read in the Bible that He likes to do miracles so that people will follow him. The premise was always…He saw the need, He saw the poor, the sick, the dying. He never intended to manipulate the people through His miracles so that the people will follow Him. His heart is a Shepherds heart. He cares for the people,

The best and famous chapter in the Bible that talks about Our Great Shepherd is in:

LET’S READ THIS TOGETHER:

GO

Psalm 23 NLT

A psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. 3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. 4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. 6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

In this chapter, God is using the analogy of sheep and their nature to describe us.

Sheep have a natural tendency to wander off and get lost. As believers, we tend to do the same thing. It’s as Isaiah has said: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” ().

When sheep go astray, they are in danger of getting lost, being attacked, even killing themselves by drowning or falling off cliffs.

Likewise, within our own nature there is a strong tendency to go astray (; 8:8),

We follow the lusts of our flesh and eyes and pursuing the pride of life ().

we are like sheep wandering away from the Shepherd through our own futile self-remedies and attempts at self-righteousness.

It is our nature to drift away (), to reject God, and to break His commandments.

to reject God, and to break His commandments.

When we do this, we run the risk of getting lost, even forgetting the way back to God.

This is us, this our tendency, we are so focused on our selves and we think we don’t need a Shepherd to guide us.

Jesus saw the same in the people who constantly followed Him. like you and me He sees the heart of this people, they need a Shepherd, to guide them, to love them, to take care of them.

He did not saw this people and said, “Woah, they can be an additional to the membership of my church” or “Woah, that group of people right there can really be helpful in times like these when we need to get our building fixed”!!!

NO NO NO NO NO!!! He sees them as people who needs a Shepherd!!! PERIOD!!

First Jesus SAW the crowd....people who heard that He was in the vicinity and they wanted to see and listen to Him.

He SAW the crowd and

second, at the sight of them, His heart BROKE, it hurts Him to see them, because He sees right through them, the state they are in, in their lives, physically and especially spiritually.

And third He knew that they need a SHEPHERD.

And one great thing that we want to see is that, not only He wants to Shepherd them, He wants to TEACH THEM. The Bible says,

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 6

He went right to work teaching them

The Crowd - Needs a Teacher

It may interest you to know that Jesus was a teacher. Other words come more quickly to mind—Lord, Savior, Master, and Redeemer. But here’s an amazing fact. Of the 90 times Jesus was addressed directly in the gospels, 60 times he was called Teacher. This was the word the multitudes used. This was how the disciples referred to him. Jesus himself used the term when he said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am” (). When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, he said, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God” ().

History has echoed the truth of that verdict. Scottish theologian James Stuart said, “The teaching of Jesus has had a power and an effect with which the influence of no other teacher can even for a moment be compared.” When Jesus had finished giving the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us the crowds were so amazed at his teaching because “he taught as one having authority, not as the teachers of the law” (). The rabbis quoted each other, but Jesus spoke the true and authoritative words of God.

He never entered a classroom as we know a classroom. He never had a degree as we understand an educational degree, yet all the world was his classroom. No degreed teacher did anything greater than what Jesus Christ did. He was truly and absolutely the Master Teacher and the greatest teacher of all time

So let’s sum up all that we heard. Let’s apply it now, like I said, we are done with the theory, this is the “how to’s” part.

We are all children of God here, amen!!

We heard the gospel of salvation, then like the disciples, we are called to take His light, to share to others.

So:

We go about our daily lives…WE SEE the people around us…in our work, our school and IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, OUR COMMUNITY!!! We literally and visibly can see the OPPORTUNITY to apply Love in action, for our heart to overflow with generosity, always showing kindness towards other, ready to give more.

After seeing or identifying your surroundings, what happens next? what are you suppose to feel…? Your hearts should be BROKEN…other translation renders it....COMPASSION. Now do you make this up? (Baka naman pilitin nyong sarili nyo dahil sinabi ko ngayon) You should not make it up, having compassion should come out naturally, should be automatic… that’s why ....“Break our hearts for what break yours”. That’s why I asked a question, are we all here a disciple or Christ? If we said amen to that, THEN WE SHOULD KNOW what breaks the heart of God!!

Now, the Lord will bring people in your lives, THE VERY REASON WHY HE CHOSE YOU AND ME TO BECOME HIS CHILD, because He wants us to SHEPHERD His people. Oooppps, don’t say that you can’t do it just because you are not a Pastor or you are not a graduate of a Bible School in order for you to shepherd somebody, Nope. WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT TITLES, NOT ABOUT DEGREES, NOT ABOUT COLLEGES WHERE WE GRADUATED!! IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP THAT WE HAVE WITH OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!!

This ministry that we are all in now, is the ministry of the Lord, what you are hearing now is not by chance, God is opening your mind to better understand that HIS KINGDOM IS VAST AND WIDE AND WE, ALL OF US, AS CHILDREN OF GOD, WE ARE THE CHURCH, AND HE WILL BRING PEOPLE TO US, HE WILL ALLOW US TO SEE THEIR CONDITION IN THEIR LIVES SO THAT WE CAN MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE AT, MINISTER TO THEM, SHEPHERD THEM AND

4. TEACH THEM.. Now I HOPE that we see and understand that this is not the “work” of the Pastor alone!!! We are done with the Theory, time to apply all we learned. If we will work together and apply what we learned today, you will not only see through the eyes of Jesus but you will feel the way He feels for all the people out there!!! Are you ready for the great revival starting WITH YOU, IN YOUR HOMES, IN THIS PLACE, IN YOUR WORKPLACE, IN YOUR SCHOOLS, HERE IN JERSEY AND BEYOND? ARE YOU READY????