The Captured Heart

Lent 2020 • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Today we are going to talk about the importance of allowing the good news to capture our heart....I believe that when the good news or Jesus captures our hearts there is an unbreakable strength to live this life.

Prayer

(NLT)

Luke 19:41–48 ESV

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

It is Palm Sunday…Imagine if you will everyone of you waving your palm branches in our services…singing hosanna to the King…as a matter of fact why don’t we all on the count of 3 say the words Hosanna with feeling and anticipation of Easter.

There we go I can feel the excitement here even though you are not here with me…I can feel the anticipation of better days because all of us are choosing to allow God to capture our hearts.

Even though we will not be all together next week it will be Easter…it will still be true that Jesus has risen and that because of this we can celebrate…we can have Joy and the future is in fact bright.

That is why the people were celebrating…the future was going to bring peace…They were to be delivered just like their ancestors where delivered from Egypt. It was a joyous time full of singing and expectation.

Yet this passage focuses on Jesus Weeping for Jerusalem…It seems out of place doesn’t it…I mean Jesus should have been happy…you would have thought that Jesus would have felt a sense of accomplishment because all of these people were excited for the Messiah.

Luke 19:41-48

Instead we have a picture of a sorrowful saviour…one that understood something that no one else did in this moment...one that understood the even in the midst of all the noise and celebration the hearts of some of the people were still in peril.

They had not allowed the good news…the real good news of Jesus to capture their hearts.

They did not yet understand the type of peace and freedom that Jesus was offering. The Romans were still going to rule after Jesus died, the lives of the Jews were still going to be hard…and in just a little while all these people were going to prove that they really did not understand the role of the Messiah.

In just a few hours they would be yelling crucify him instead of singing hosanna…and the result would be dire. Jesus was weeping because instead of receiving peace in the storm…Instead of living the gospel of love thy enemies great destruction would come.

Jesus points this out by saying that because their hearts were not captured their enemies would not only continue to rule but destroy what they love.

This is in fact what would happen. In 66 AD the Jews would rebel as they had hoped Jesus would lead them. They would make so much trouble and cause so much strife that the Romans would level Jerusalem in 70 AD killing 1.1 million and taking 97K into captivity.

Jesus was weeping because if they would allow their hearts to be captured by His true message of love they could have avoided all of this. Jesus did not come to lead a bloody revolution…

Jesus came to renew the Spiritual Vitality of God’s People

Jesus clearing out of the Temple is really a wonderful metaphor for this. Just as Jesus cleared out all the to coin a popular term today non essential stuff from the temple. He came to clear our all the non essential stuff from our mind, hearts and lives.

Jesus came not to make our life better but to make our life Whole. This threatened the religious leaders so much that even while he was speaking truth they were beginning to plan to take his life. However even though all of this was happening the people were hanging on every word that Jesus was teaching.

Jesus was not calling people to arms but he was calling them to holiness. He was calling to allow the Spirit to Capture their hearts. says

New Living Translation Chapter 1

13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

Jesus was weeping because he knew that until the people allowed God to make them holy…they would continue to act in ignorance…which would guarantee turmoil.

Yet the important thing to remember here…the Good News here is this…Jesus still went to the cross…He still rose from the dead for us even though he knew that some would still live for less than God wanted for them.

The fact that people are going to mess things up does not change who Jesus is. It does not change how He feels about us, It does not change the fact that Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit still wants to capture our hearts.

A captured Heart equals a Holy heart. Not because of what we do but because of what Jesus has already done in spite of the ways we are naturally inclined to think.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they had not seen the truth yet…

Jesus is weeping over the world today because so many are in despair…So many are focused on just getting through this and not thinking of how God can bring them through this time closer to Him....

Yet…Just like with Jerusalem Jesus is working and giving us His Spirit anyway. Pandemic does not change who Jesus is and what He has done and what He will do. The song we sang has become sort of an anthem during these days…why because it is true.

Jesus is the Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness My God, That is who You are

Jesus is a Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness My God, That is who You are

pirit captured your heart?

Longs for time with Jesus

Allows the Holy Spirit to guide

A captured heart Changes the way we view ciricustance

A captured heart shares what they have with others …Spiritual and Materially

Has the Holy Spirit captured your heart?

‘a life of holiness and total devotion to God’

Knowing this maybe it is time to accept the Gift of Holiness from the Lord today. Maybe it is time to take the next step in your spiritual Journey.

Has the Holy Spirit captured your heart?

For a few of you the next step is the first step…Today you are at your witts end…filled with worry and you have never accepted Jesus gift of salvation. Today is your day…Ask Jesus to forgive your sins and begin your journey with him.

For others your next step is a step of total consecration to God....This is allowing God to empower you with His Holiness…It is allowing God to control your thoughts, your actions and your life completely not conditionally.

This is how we can live victoriously in the midst of the most difficult circumstances…

If you are making one of these commitments please let us know in the comment section.