Luke 6:27-45 // Power and Purpose // Part 7 (12:30 pm)

Jesus is not telling us to try harder. Jesus is telling us to look deeper because the greatest problem in my life is not enemies or what's going on, the circumstances in my life or what's happening in the world today. No. The biggest problem is my life is my heart. And it's the same for every single one here and online. Our biggest problem is our heart because naturally you and I, we will defend ourselves, we will judge, we will protect ourselves, we will speak from wounded hearts and Jesus knows this. That's why he came to give us new hearts. [01:33:17] (53 seconds)  #CheckYourHeart

Forgiveness is not a gift to offer to others. Forgiveness is a gift God is offering to you. And and honestly, you know, they're they're still gonna have to stand before God. You know, it's gonna be between them. So so there's no but there so there's no reason. That's what I'm trying to say. There's no reason not to forgive somebody who has harmed you, hurt you, taken advantage of you, frustrated or stressed you out of your mind. There's no reason why you can't forgive them even if they don't change their attitude and they don't change their behavior. [01:21:49] (48 seconds)  #ForgiveForYou

It's been said you are what you eat. If that's true, it's even true. You are what you say. Your words reveal your heart. The things that you say expose, not just what you say but the tone in which you say them exposes the condition of your heart. Now if everything in in Luke chapter number six that Jesus told us to do feels, yeah, almost impossible, that's because it is. I know I've tried to be more patient. I have tried not to be as judgmental. I've tried to control my words and their tone. But eventually, I realized it wasn't a problem with my effort. It was the problem was with my heart. [01:32:08] (54 seconds)  #WordsRevealHeart

I I stopped and I emphasized the command because this isn't a suggestion folks. What Jesus is saying in this sermon, these aren't these aren't suggestions. These are commands and he was commanding a different kind of love. I mean, a love that probably didn't make sense in that culture and maybe doesn't even make sense in our culture. It's it's a kind of love, you know, where you do things for people who are hurting you and and praying for people who abuse you and and all of this. Yeah. Actually, what it is, it's loving without expectation of return. [00:56:26] (48 seconds)  #RadicalCommandedLove

And before you say, you know, automatically go, yes, of course, I love them. Yeah. Before you do that, I want you to really think about it for a minute. Really look inside your heart about it for just a minute because true discipleship is loving like Jesus love. Loving those that hurt and abuse you. It and I know that this sounds hard. Really, all of his sermon here is hard. But I'm gonna let you on a little spoiler alert that I'm gonna talk about at the end of the message and that is simply this. This is a heart issue, not a behavior issue. [00:58:53] (46 seconds)  #HeartNotBehavior

Jesus is not asking you to act different for a moment. He wants to change your heart so you can live differently for a lifetime. Let me say that again. Jesus is not asking you to act differently for a moment. He wants to change your heart so you can live differently for a lifetime. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your revelation. Thank you for the spotlight that you've been shining on us. I just pray, Lord God, that you would transform our hearts, not only today and the coming days, but every day till we see you face to face. In Jesus' name, amen. [01:41:11] (75 seconds)  #LifetimeHeartChange

that you use to scrutinize other people and pick up the mirror so you can judge yourself, reflect your own reflection and you can deal with your faults first. Amen. That's the ultimate point here. Deal with your faults first. So now we examine our our hearts, our behaviors, our thoughts while we're in prayer and while we're in the word. But it's only after humbling ourselves and dealing with our own faults that we can truly help other people and only if it's based on God's word, not your personal preferences, and not a judgmental attitude. Everybody said, ouch. [01:28:29] (56 seconds)  #AddressYourFaultsFirst

And understand that I'm not talking about how we are at church. I'm talking about how we are every single day of the week, on the job or with our family. Because you see, when we're good, we're probably all pretty good. But when we're under pressure so you need to ask yourself, if I am squeezed, what comes out of me? When I'm hurt, when I'm criticized, when I'm ignored, when I'm offended, does love mercy and grace come out of me or does offensiveness, judgment, and sharp words come out of me? Because Jesus says that whatever comes out shows what's really inside your heart already. [01:31:10] (58 seconds)  #PressureRevealsHeart