Where You Focus Your Heart Will Follow

The Heart of Man

Where You Focus Your Heart Will Follow

Good morning CHURCH!

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

1. Are your hearts positioned towards the father?

2. Are you excited to hear what Holy Spirit has to say to you today?

Let’s go to the book of Psalms for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (ESV)

Turn off your 21st century mind and turn on your biblical day’s mindset.

The Psalmist is using a word picture to speak about the benefit of the word of God in his life.

Sometimes after the sun goes down, I go to the lower level of the house, and I try to walk from one side of the room to the other without turning on light.

(I walk slow feeling with my hands if i’m about to run into something. Often i will bump into something and experience pain that was unnecessary if I had just turned on some light.)

1. The word of God is the light through darkness.

2. It is what keeps me from falling into danger and going astray.

3. It leads me from one position in life to another.

The word of God should define how I view life.

Do you know that we either have a biblical world view or we have a societal world view?

Follow God’s word as if your very life depends on it because your eternal life does depend on it.

We’re continuing our series: The Heart of Man.

Where You Focus - Your Heart Will Follow

As believers we desire to have our hearts towards the kingdom of God.

Point #1

Focus On Your Future

Matthew 6:19-20 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (ESV)

Anyone given the choice to invest in something that is going to last over something that will decay should choose the former.

( option 1 Honda with 30K miles and all service records or option 2 Mercedes with 450k miles never been serviced)

The Bible doesn’t forbid possessions.

The Bible doesn’t forbid enjoying the gifts of a good Creator.

The Bible doesn’t forbid saving for a rainy day.

The Bible and Jesus are forbidding the greed and extreme focus on gaining wealth and possessions.

Especially at the expense of helping with the needs of the worlds under privileged and poor people.

These treasures don’t just consist of money.

In the middle east, part of an individual’s wealth consisted of fine and elaborate clothes.

That was one of the things which tempted Achan to sin which we saw mentioned in:

Joshua 7:21 “when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”” (ESV)

Some of your translations may say a mantle from Shinar.

A mantle was a dress which showed status and power.

There was a significant role played by clothing in ancient society and the biblical writers often mentioned this.

We see Peter and Apostle Paul speaking in the New Testament against showing off your status with things.

1 Peter 3:3-4 “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (ESV)

Why would he say this. It keeps in line with focusing on things that are eternal over things that will decay or that can be stolen.

1 Timothy 2:8-9 “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,” (ESV)

The braiding of hair was a way they showed off their wealth.

Back to Matthew 6.

Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Your heart follows your money. (do you financially support the kingdom or give the least required of you?)

Your heart follows what you focus on the most. (Is my focus on something that will benefit me or others?)

Your heart follows the direction of your eyes. (Are my eyes fixed on what feels good to me or what will benefit the kingdom?)

Matthew 6:22-23 ““The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

With their eyes they were either coveting money and wealth or they were being generous.

They were either in spiritual darkness because a healthy eye was generous or in the light because a bad eye was stingy.

They were slaves to the master of greed, and their desire for money was so great they were failing in their service to their true Master, God.

Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Some translations say mammon.

Money is the translation of the Aramaic word for “wealth or property,” mamōna (mammon)

You might say I love God and I don’t hate money. Or I love money and I don’t hate God.

In the Greek this word hate means to love less. So, if your focus is the love of money, you’ll love God less.

And if your focus is loving God, your love for money will be less and not out of balance.

Bottom line: our loyalties must be undivided.

Point #2

Focus On Following Christ

What do we really value?

What do we worry about?

Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (ESV)

To seek first means to give the most importance or priority to.

This verse is a promise from Jesus that if the kingdom of God and his righteousness is the most important thing to you, God will take care of your needs.

(And you can’t manipulate this promise.)

If your heart is not focused on the Kingdom of God, your focus is unhealthy.

We saw an example of this heart position with:

The Rich Young Ruler:

Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:18-23

With money, with things and with people, wherever one makes his investment is where his interest is.

If you want your heart to be in line with God, you need to make deposits that lead to eternal profits.

And you need to stop investing in things that are dragging the interest of your heart towards things that will decay.

In America this has to be the toughest mindset to change.

Seeking after possessions and worrying about them when you don’t have them or when they’re lacking seems to be the American way.

But trusting God to provide over trusting yourself or someone else is the kingdom way.

** If time permits continue Point #2, if not move on to Point #3**

James gave a warning to those who focused on riches in the earth.

James 5:2–3 “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.”

Their focus was so much on stuff that they used measures to obtain it that were not Christ like or that put the kingdom of God out of 1st place.

One’s attitude toward wealth is another barometer of righteousness. It gives away the real position of your heart.

The Pharisees believed the Lord materially blessed all He loved.

Sounds like the prosperity gospel.

They were intent on building great treasures on earth.

But treasures built here are subject to decay or theft, whereas treasures deposited in heaven can never be lost.

The Pharisees had this problem because their spiritual eyes were diseased. And most of ours are too.

Point #3

Focus On Hearing Well Done

How many of you want to hear God say well done concerning you?

Those two words used like this are only mentioned 3 times in the Bible.

Matt. 25:21;23, Lk. 19:17,

I find it a bit interesting that Jesus would use a parable about financial stewardship to drive his point about getting to hear well done.

Good stewardship seems to be the wise way in the scriptures.

If you manage well what God gives you, that along with tithing and tending to the less fortunate will put you in a position to receive more from the kingdom of God.

**If God can count on you financially, he will send more resources your way.**

We won’t have time to read it, but you can read it in your study time.

Matthew 25:19-30 ESV

Master went away on a long journey.

Gave 1-5 talents, 1-2 talents, and 1-1 talent according to their ability.

(The value of a talent was about six thousand days of wages)

The one with 5 talents doubled his and the one with 2 talents doubled his. The one with 1 talent did nothing with his.

The master upon returning told the first two well done good and faithful servants. You’ve been faithful over little, so I’ll make you faithful over much.

The master called the 3rd one wicked and slothful and gave what he had to the one with now 10 talents and cast him into utter darkness because he was afraid or lacked faith to trade his master’s money or at least put it in the bank to gain interest.

Those who have been good stewards of all the time, material resources, and abilities God has given them (and not just with a tenth of these) can expect commendation, happiness, and eternal life from God.

A worldly person or a Christian more heavily influenced by the world doesn’t get that everything we are and own belongs to God.

They feel like I worked for it so I can do with it what I want.

That’s not a kingdom citizen.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?