A Heavenly Heart

Title: A Heart for the Kingdom

Rapport: story about my kids, how they trust me, how they are innocent, believing. 

Reading: Matthew 18:1-4

Review: Disciples wanted to be greatest, Jesus changed questioning around from “who is the greatest in the kingdom,” to “who can enter into the kingdom.”

Relevance:

BODY

BIG IDEA: Entering the Kingdom of Heaven requires Heavenly Hearts

KEY Q’s: What Are Heavenly Hearts Made of?

UNIFYING WORDS: 2 Components

INTEGRATING THOUGHTS:

1.      A Heart that Repents

a.       Strepho-means to turn or change direction

§  Acts 13:46- Paul and Barnabas change direction with gospel toward Gentiles

§  Matthew 9:22- Jesus touched by the woman who bled for 12 years, turned around and granted her healing. 

§  Used many times in the gospels as Jesus was walking with a multitude following, he would turn and teach them. 

§  Rev. 11:6- turning water into blood

o   Repentance. In the New Testament, this term does not merely mean “change of mind” (as some have gathered from the Greek term); it reflects the Old Testament and Jewish concept of “turning around” or “turning away” from sin. Jewish people were to repent whenever they sinned; the New Testament uses the term especially for the once-for-all turning a Gentile would undergo when converting to Judaism or any sinner would undergo when becoming a follower of Jesus.

b.      Psalm 51

                                                              i.      Praise- v.1-2

                                                            ii.      Pentitence v. 3-6

                                                          iii.      Petition v. 7- 12

                                                          iv.      Promise v. 13-19

c.       2 Cor. 7:9-10

2.      A Heart that is Humble

a.       Like a child

                                                              i.      The most powerless members of ancient society were little children; in most of ancient society, age increased one’s social status and authority. In Jewish culture, children were loved, not despised; but the point is that they had no status apart from that love, and no power or privileges apart from what they received as total dependents on their parents.

b.      Humility

                                                              i.      Ταπεινώσει- to make low, be humble

                                                            ii.      2 Chronicles 7:14 (11-16)- At the consecration of the temple that Solomon built, God gives Solomon detailed instruction about the purpose of the temple.  It is a house of prayer where He will dwell.  God will bless and forgive those who “humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

                                                          iii.      Isaiah 66:2- God does not reside in a temple made with hands like in the OT but in the hearts of those who are humble and contrite in spirit. 

                                                          iv.      James 4:6-10