River Church NOLA
Sunday, Feb 1 It's About the Heart
  • Forever
  • Hosanna
  • He Paid A Debt
  • Great Are You Lord
  • Intro
    Welcome people.
    We are beginning a new series called Extraordinary Relationships. On Feb 13, we have a Valentine Event that you can come to.
    This is a difficult time for relationships. People are more connected than ever before through technology but more disconnected than ever before. We have allowed social media be our news and it’s splitting our nation, our families and all of our relationships.
    We want all of you to have Extraordinary Relationships. That’s putting the bar pretty high, but I believe that we all deserve that in all of our relationships.
    The options are these. You can be extra - ordinary or just ordinary. Ordinary doesn’t work and isn’t working. Extraordinary begins with your faith… with you coming to faith and accepting what God wants to do in your life.
    Theme verse.
    Romans 12:2 (MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
    IOW, don’t just blindly go with the flow of culture. It’s easy to just try to fit into culture. You can do anything you want to except practice your Christian faith, and you are ok.
    Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
    We want it from the outside in, but that’s not the way God works. It starts on the inside.
    Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
    God wants to bring the best out of you… in every area of your life… in all of your relationships, and every area of your life.
    Romans 12:2 MSG
    2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
    We are talking about the heart today.
    Just like in the natural, your life depends on your heart. You can’t live without your heart. You do without some parts of your body, but not your heart. When the heart stops, you die. Cardio vascular disease is still the #1 killer in the world.
    We also have a spiritual cardio vascular disease going on. IOW, a lot of what we don’t like is coming out from our own hearts. That’s why I named this message, It’s about the heart.
    Look what Solomon said,
    Proverbs 4:23 NLT
    23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
    Everything in life flows from our hearts. That why when Jesus came and taught, he was trying to get faith in God away from all things external and into being internal.
    If you ever want to know the main difference in the OT and the NT it’s this. The OT is External. The laws were external… the obedience was all external. It doesn’t really focus on what’s going on inside of you. The NT is internal. It’s the inside that determines the outside behavior.
    Jesus would say you have heard it said, “don’t commit murder, but I say if you are angry you have committed murder.” “Don’t commit adultery, but I say that if you have lust in your heart, you have already committed adultery.” Adultery or murder isn’t happening because you are undisciplined, it’s happening because you have lust or anger in your heart.
    Jesus addressed all sorts fo things this way.
    Matthew 19:3–8 NLT
    3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ 5 And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ 6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” 7 “Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked. 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.
    Matthew 19:3–8 “Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’
    (I know the world is confused about this, but God is very clear… Male and Female and you cannot change)
    5 And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ 6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” 7 “Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked. 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.”
    Jesus is addressing the heart. The heart issue is so huge that in the OT…
    Exodus 28:29–30 “In this way, Aaron will carry the names of the tribes of Israel on the sacred chestpiece over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place.
    Whenever we come to God, we are bearing something that’s been written on our lives, some true and some lies. We are the sum total of everything that’s happened to us to up to this point. That’s why we can look at the same thing and come to a different conclusion. It’s going through different filters of our past experiences. (Our pain, problems, past and people) We all have these. The Bible calls this the names of the tribes. He is representing the people to God. It’s also the place of decision or determining God’s will for the people. So the things that are written on the heart are the filter we make decisions with and impact our decision making.
    We all have a set of good stuff and a set of bad stuff. If we keep putting hurt, anger and those negative things into our heart, it’s no wonder why we keep acting the way we do. It’s because you are putting what you see now through a filter of what you have experienced up to now, and you see things through those filters. One of the steps in your spiritual journey is to get healing and freedom for your heart.
    There is no way to address the issues in your marriages, your relationships, etc without addressing the heart issues.
    ILL - Billy Hornsby … ill of somone who believed a lie but then reversed the lie…
    This will be a continual reminder that he represents the people when he comes before the Lord. 30 Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the Lord’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord.”
    We carry all the stuff from our experiences as we make choices in life.
    If you have been told you don’t measure up or that you are stupid, you carry that with you. You need to have your curse reversed.
    Exodus 28:29–30 NLT
    29 “In this way, Aaron will carry the names of the tribes of Israel on the sacred chestpiece over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place. This will be a continual reminder that he represents the people when he comes before the Lord. 30 Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the Lord’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord.
    The next person we are going to look at, is the father of someone famous. Terah was the father of Abraham.
    Genesis 11:27–28 NLT
    27 This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. 28 But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living.
    Haran died… we don’t know how but he died prematurely. He died in Ur. Ur represents the place where you don’t want to be, but you are stuck there. It’s a place where God doesn’t want you to be stuck.
    One day Terah decided to move. It’s quite possible God told him to move.
    Genesis 11:31–32 NLT
    31 One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran.
    Maybe God told him to leave. It doesn’t say but it could be. IOW, the call of Abraham might have been supposed to be on Terah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The bible doesn’t say that, but I’m just throwing that out there.
    But instead of going to Canaan, the promised land, he stopped in Haran. It’s the same name as his dead baby boy. Maybe he could not get over the loss of his son and couldn’t leave. Remember, he was headed to Canaan. But he stayed in Haran.
    We have been trying to lead people from Ur to the promised land for years and they get stuck in Haran… their pain. They settled there. Terah was traumatized by the death of his son but he got stuck in his pain and missed out on what God wanted to do in his life. He got stuck on ordinary and never made it to extra-ordinary. So Terah missed it because he was stuck.
    So in the next verse, God calls Abraham. Genesis 12:1 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.”
    Take a look at this. Almost every time God does something special in someone’s life, he changes their name. tell story of Babylonian exile.
    Daniel 1:3–7 “Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, ( a bad guy) his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives.
    Young men. This is when most of the names we carry are written… when we are young. That’s why you see the attack of the devil on our college campuses and students. There is an all out assault against our young people to indoctrinate them into something that is so far away from God, and it we dont wake up, we will miss the fact that they had their names written over their hearts that they will carry for the rest of their lives. This is really happening.
    4 “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace.
    Indoctrinate them into Babylonian culture. Change them.
    Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” 5 The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.
    So he chose these four…
    6 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshack & Abednego) were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 7 The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar. Hananiah was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach. Azariah was called Abednego.”
    Daniel 1:3–7 NLT
    3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4 “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” 5 The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service. 6 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 7 The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar. Hananiah was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach. Azariah was called Abednego.
    Here is what those names mean.

    From Daniel: “God is my judge”

    God is right … not me.

    To Belteshazzar: “Lady, protect the King”

    This was a feminine name. Lady… This is happening in our culture today.
    It’s a …

    Confused identity.

    The worlds answer to this is gender affirming care which is crazy. We don’t need to mutilate people’s bodies, we need to help them know who God says they are.

    From Hananiah: “Yahweh has been gracious” To Shadrach: “I am fearful of God”

    This is changing. Right now there is a huge hunger for God. On college campuses there are thousands of young people coming to faith in Jesus but you don’t see that on the news. The news wants you to think that all the young people are protesting the evils of our government… they are not.
    There is more hunger for God than in the last 20 to 30 years. But there is still this message that says, You don’t want to serve God, He just wants to keep you from enjoying life and that’s a

    Distorted spirituality.

    From Mishael: “Who is what God is?”

    There was an awe of who God was.

    To Meshach: “I am despised, contemptible & humiliated.”

    Wounded emotions.

    Many of us have been bullied in school. So we begin to do things to make people like us. class clown…

    From Azariah: “Yahweh has helped”

    Yahweh prophesies about your future…

    To Abednego: “Servant of Nebo”

    Nebo - to prophesy. IOW, don’t follow God’s prophesy for your life, follow the devils. This leads to a

    Redirected purpose.

    A lot people have a plan written over their hearts and it’s the plan they have chosen for their life that they know wasn’t the plan they wanted for their life.
    Some of you may even think it’s too late. You think you have missed it, but you haven’t.
    God has the supernatural ability to turn everything around. It’s a long way from NO to Baton Rouge when you go through Chicago, but you can still get there. And while your life may have taken a turn from what God originally intended. He says, the last chapter can still be the same.
    God can heal and deliver us instantly but more often than not, it’s a process. We want to take you on a journey where you say stuff like…
    I used to get so mad and now I don’t anymore…
    I used to want things I should not want but now I don’t want those things anymore.
    I used to be the worst communicator and no one in my family liked or respected me but now I have a relationship with them.
    What happened? A heart change. A change in your spirituality … your wounds… Your identity… your future. The wrong things can be erased and new names given. How? If you go back to those four names, they really give us the prescription for this.
    We need to do what Daniel means…

    1. Let the One who designed me define me.

    God’s right and I am not. I will not live by my emotions, I’m going to be a person that lives according to the WOG. Why? Because God created me. Why would I step away from the manufacturers instructions?
    That’s why the Psalmist wrote…
    Psalm 139:13–16 NLT
    13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
    This is why I am prolife.

    2. See God the right way.

    See that God loves you. Maybe you have never experienced love like God’s but he loves you. He saw what you did last night, or wanted to do last night. He knows your thoughts but He still loves you. But… God’s thoughts about you are precious to Him…
    Psalm 139:17 NLT
    17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
    This doesn’t mean He approves, but he loves you. He doesn’t judge you for where you are, but he sees you for who you can become. He loves you where you are but loves you too much to leave you there.

    3. Allow God to heal my heart.

    God sees how your heart can be healed… how the names can be erased and rewritten but it will not happen until you say to God, I am taking the mask off. Here is how you do that…
    Psalm 139:23–24 NLT
    23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
    You have to give God permission to change you from the inside out…

    4. Invite God into my future.

    Psalm 139:24 NLT
    24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
    Life has a path and
    God is inviting you to join him in it.
    Prayer
    Show us what changes you want to make in us, and give us the courage to follow your lead.
    Salvation -
    You have to decide. That’s why the Bible says in
    Romans 10:9 “9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
    Romans 10:13 “13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””
    Prayer

      • Romans 12:2NKJV

      • Proverbs 4:23NKJV

      • Matthew 19:3–8NKJV

      • Exodus 28:29–30NKJV

      • Genesis 11:27–28NKJV

      • Genesis 11:31–32NKJV

      • Daniel 1:3–7NKJV

      • Psalm 139:13–16NKJV

      • Psalm 139:17NKJV

      • Psalm 139:23–24NKJV

      • Psalm 139:24NKJV

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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