Time to Rejoice
Matters of the Heart • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 46 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
So how is your heart? We have looked this month at the matters of the heart. Our emphasis has been on the heart being the center of our spiritual being. We have reexamined our heart, refreshed our hearts and talked about how to respond with our hearts. This month has been the culmination of a long, rough year. It really has been hard to look at matters of the heart when so much continues to hammer at us from the outside. In the medical world, when the heart is showing signs of illness or problems, often, doctors will prescribe a stress test. It is of course a test in which the heart is strained under supervised conditions to see how it functions. Sometimes, life is one long stress test, is it not? We wonder how we are going to make it. How are we going to get through a pandemic or how are we going to get back to meeting as a church. We get all worked up over things which we cannot control and we get worked up over things we can control. How we handle things speaks volumes about us and who we are. However, the truth of the matter comes down to the condition of our spiritual hearts.
As we conclude this series Matters of the Heart, I am convinced that there are three things we can do based on God’s word, which will cause us to always, no matter what, take time to rejoice. There are several examples, but the example for our purpose today is found in Peter’s sermon listed in Acts 2. A careful reading of this chapter shows that the Holy Spirit descended among the believers when the day of Pentecost came. The gift of the Holy Spirit was fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies as well as the words that Jesus declared. When the Holy Spirit came on the followers of Christ, according to Acts 2:13 there were some that thought they were drunk. Peter stands, addresses the crowd, and tells those within the sound of his voice that they were not drunk but had the Spirit had been poured out on them. This pouring out of the Spirit caused their hearts to rejoice and be glad. Peter declares in this great sermon, that Jesus performed miracles and signs among them through the power of God. Yet, Jesus was put to death by the Jews by being nailed to a cross. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 2:24-28:
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:
“ ‘I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will live in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
If we have the matters of the heart settled, we can rejoice and do so triumphantly! We can rejoice because we can rely on God, we can remember His word and we can do regretting absolutely nothing.
Rely on God
Rely on God
One of the greatest truths found throughout scripture is the fact that we can rely on God. The first words from vs. 24 are “but God.” I have never done an official count of those two powerful words as we find them them in the Bible. However they are there much more than you might think. The Bible is the summary of how God shared His love to mankind. It shows mankind lost, hopeless, and lacking, but God changed all that through the demonstration of His great power. The Bible shows how the outcome for the good was absolutely impossible, but God made it possible. The Bible shows that which was ceremonially unclean, but God made it pure, holy, and clean. If you have done any kind of Bible study at all, you see that God makes old things new. God transforms that which is unworthy and worthless and makes it worthy and priceless. How can we find so great an emphasis on those two words, “but God?” One author says these two words are at the heart of the Gospel. I would agree! We can say “but God” is indeed at the heart of the Gospel first and foremost because He is my Strength.
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Exodus 15:2 says the same thing but Moses adds, “He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God and I will exalt Him.” Because He is my strength, I can rely on Him to carry me through and set me in places I could not go by myself.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
We can rely on the strength of God when we make Him our source. If we can believe that all things came about because of God, then we can rely on Him as our source.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We have mentioned earlier in this study that the heart is the wellspring. Remember Proverbs 4:23?
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
The wellspring of our lives flows from the source of God Himself. It is the opportunity for us to experience the overflow from the fountain of God in our lives.
As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”
God and Jesus are sources in which we can rely. God provided His Son, the very essence and nature of His being in human form, to become for us our Savior.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Have you allowed Jesus to be your Savior? Jesus is not just our salvation on Sundays or every now and then when we need Him, He is our Savior for eternity! Maybe you are thinking, “I don’t know, I have done some pretty horrible things.” I want to remind you just how great of a Savior we have.
The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
We can rely on our God because of His great strength. We can rely on our God because He is my source of my everything. We can rely on our God because He has given us a Savior and His name is Jesus! So we rejoice that we can have Jesus in our hearts and we can live with Him now and forever.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Remember His Word (vs. 25)
Remember His Word (vs. 25)
As Peter gives his sermon, he proclaims the word of David. This is very significant for us because it is an example of a follower of Christ remembering the Word of God.
There are several ways we can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but the best way I have found is by remembering His word. We have 66 Books compiled in the best selling book of all time known as the Bible. Every book points to the Savior. We have it readily available to us in print, online and through apps on our phone. We can read, study, sing it and memorize it.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Every Christian should make it a habit to memorize the Word of God. As you do, you are adding to that which God has put in you through Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that out of the overflow of your heart the mouth speaks. If you are remembering the Word of God through memorizing it, you are allowing the overflow from your heart to be that which comes out of your mouth. If you are bringing forth words of God’s word out of your mouth, you are compelled to live a life worthy of that which you have been called.
When you memorize the Word of God, you will also meditate on it.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
When we meditate on the Word of God, we will also incorporate in our lives God’s instructions in how we should act and exist. The Word of God becomes our mission statement.
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
God wants our hearts to be right so that we can live right and be what He has called us to be. We are to be doers of the Word of God.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
As we carry out God’s Word, we will live a life that is full of rejoicing! It is better to rejoice than to regret.
Regret Absolutely Nothing (vs. 26-28)
Regret Absolutely Nothing (vs. 26-28)
How many conversations have you had with folks that talk about their regrets? I have often quoted Dandy Don Meredith from the early days of Monday Night Football: “If if’s and but’s were candies and nuts, we would all have a Merry Christmas!” I have laughed and that line many times but it is very true. How often do we think, “if only I had done this…?” The problem with this is that it propels to a time of regrets. While we should certainly learn from the past, we should never dwell in it.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
When we have the matters of our hearts in line with the Designer of our hearts, we will see life in a way which we will have absolutely no regrets. We do not have to wait until we are in heaven to experience God’s goodness.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
What a promise we have! What a victory we can celebrate! What a joy to rejoice!
We are reminded in this passage where Peter quotes King David that the Lord is with us, we should be glad, we have hope, we will be abandoned, our paths will be directed, and we will have joy because Jesus is in our presence.
What is the condition of your heart? Are you living the victorious life that Christ has designed for us to have? Even in the midst of troubles, and we are promised troubles, our attitude should reflect this great joy we can have because of what Christ has done for us! We have to make it a priority in all that we are, all that we do, and it begins with how we think.
I ran across this poem recently. It was written in the early twentieth century by a man we really know nothing about, yet his words are so true today.
Thinking
By Walter Wintle
If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you like to win, but you think you can't
It is almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!
I would simply add to this that these thoughts simply come down to the matters of the heart. Maybe your life is not rainbows and roses. Maybe you are ready for something different. Instead of trying to find rainbows and roses, why discover the One who makes rainbows and roses and all things new. He loves you. He cares for you. He has a plan for your life. What do you say you let Him help you with the matters of your heart? You will be very glad you did!