Make sure you vote today. Vote for the candidates who will honor God, stand up for those who have no voice, men and women who are honest, trustworthy and folks of integrity. I know it probably sound sappy, but none the less it is very true- blood has been spilled, lives have been sacrificed for our right to vote. Don't waste it.
Yesterday, we began to look at the way Jesus did relationships. We said the relationship principle #1 was this. Jesus placed the highest value on relationships.
Relationship Principle #2: Act Like Your Feelings Are IMPORTANT.
Most of us feel like our feelings are important but I’ve got to learn to act like my feelings are important. In relationships, the heart is as important as the action. That’s what Jesus teaches us. It’s not just what you see on the outside. It’s what’s happening on the inside that’s important. If you read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached, the first part of this entire sermon is about the difference between what you see on the outside and what you see on the inside.
Jesus sat down with His disciples to teach and He began to go through this list of how important it is to look at the heart. He talked about anger. He said in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder… but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”
That’s the outside action. Don’t do that. but He said, “I tell you that anyone who says ‘You fool!’ to his brother or is angry with his brother that one is subject to judgement too.” Jesus is saying it’s the heart. I think many times we think, “So what about my heart? As long as people don’t see it, as long as people don’t know it, so what about what’s going on in my heart? So what if I absolutely hate the people in my office? No just dislike them or I’m irritated by them but I hate them.
So what if I feel trapped in my marriage? So what if I look at my kids and feel this incredible disappointment toward them and I can’t love them like I should? So what?” Jesus says this phrase we use, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” isn’t true. Why? Because your heart always, always leaks out into your actions. So to pretend like what I’m feeling is not impacting my relationships is just a lie.
The encouragement here is do something about your heart. If we think we can hide within our heart, it’s impossible. It’s eventually going to leak out. It’s like saying, “I’ve got this radioactive container and it has a very small pinhole leak –a tiny, tiny leak. Would you be concerned about that? Would you want to take it home?” No matter how tiny the leak you’re going to be incredibly concerned because it’s going to leak out.
Do you notice how quickly husbands and wives pick up on this, the idea of the heart and the actions? They have this way of seeing how the heart leaks out. It may just be you’re looking a little too sweet in your face or it’s the way your nose twitches and they say, “What’s wrong?” and you say “Nothing’s wrong!” when you know in your heart that something’s wrong. And they know it too. The heart always leaks out.
A lot of us deal with this by bottling up some of the problems and struggles we’re facing in our lives. Like a balloon. We have things build up within us. As those things begin to build up they’re going to leak out one way or the other. Sometimes it’s a slow leak. Others of us let it keep building up. Then just the smallest statement, just the smallest irritation comes in and everything goes wacky all of a sudden.
Most of feel like our actions are important. But too few of us act like our feelings are important. Jesus teaches us as He teaches about relationships, here’s how to act like your feelings are important. Here’s how to act like what’s going on inside is important.
#1. Give your heart priority. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, if you’ve got something against somebody and you go to church to worship and you realize there is something not right in a relationship He says “First, go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” Circle “first”. It’s about priorities. Jesus says you’re sitting there ready to give an offering and you realize something’s not right in a relationship – first, go and be reconciled to them.
Notice it says very clear, then come back and give your offering. Don’t miss that part of it. (I almost feel like us closing our eyes for thirty seconds now so some of you could sneak out of the room if you needed to.) That’s literally what Jesus is saying here. If there’s really a relationship going wrong, give it priority in your life. There’s really nothing more important.
#2. Take your heart seriously. As Jesus goes through this Sermon on the Mount, He gets more and more serious about our heart. In v. 30 He says “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” How many think Jesus is literally talking about our right hand there? Because obviously if you cut off your right hand and you really wanted to sin, you could sin with your left hand just as well. He’s talking about our heart, about the serious business of taking what’s happening with me to an extent where I’m willing to say, “I’m willing to do anything to have my heart in the right place.”
What you allow into your heart is serious business, Jesus is saying. It effects every relationship in your life. So, He says, when you recognize something in your heart that’s messing up a relationship, some unforgiveness, some bitterness that’s messing up a relationship don’t try to just taper off, cut it out. Cut it out as immediately as possible because what’s happening in you heart is impacting a relationship one hundred percent – guaranteed!
You may think that the temptation towards adultery that you have in your right now isn’t effecting your marriage because it’s just a temptation at this point. It’s a temptation that you’ve nursed. It’s the kind of temptation where you walk by that person’s desk as often as possible, or you make sure you’re at that person’s house whenever you can be. It’s a temptation that you’re nursing but you’re thinking, “I haven’t done anything about it so how can it be affecting my relationships?” Jesus is saying it is affecting your relationships.
You may think that the anger that you’re nursing inside that you haven’t told anyone about yet – maybe anger toward a spouse, one of your children, a coworker, a friend – you can’t bring yourself to talk about it and you think maybe it will just go away. You think it’s not affecting your relationships. Jesus said, yes, it is. It’s serious business what happens in our hearts.
You may think that the self pity that you heap on yourself every day isn’t affecting your relationship in your life but it is.I think all of us would have to honestly look at ourselves when Jesus says cut it out.
Ponder these things today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!
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