Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 38 – October 1997

 

The Best Place For Your Heart

 

Sermon by Rev. K. Rietveld on 2Thessalonians 3:5

Scripture Readings: 1 John 4:7-21

 

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus.

INTRODUCTION

They say that Fort Knox is one of the safest places on earth.  I don't know, I have never been there, but there was an article about it in the Reader's Digest some time ago and apparently it is extremely difficult to get into Fort Knox.  I suppose if you wanted to protect something, then a place like Fort Knox would be a good place to put it.

Then again, what is really worth protecting to that extent?  Do we go to great lengths to protect our money, our jewels, or our shares, or whatever else of value we might have?  Are these things really so important to us?

Yes, we know that we spend so much time in this life working for these things, working for our own quarter acre and our house, and the things that we need for our living, but are they the most important things?

THE VALUE OF THE HUMAN HEART

What is the most precious thing in our lives?  Surely it's not the physical, tangible things of this earth.  Surely it is our very life itself, which can be represented by our hearts.  And what is so special about our hearts, you ask?  Well, from a physical or a biological perspective, if our heart stops, if our heart dies, then our body dies.  Our hearts are essential for life, and no amount of jewels can ever buy a new life if our heart should give up.

But it's even more true in the spiritual sense isn't it?  If our heart is spiritually dead, then we really are dead – dead for all eternity.

What do we understand when we use the "heart"?  You hear people say sometimes, "You need to give your heart to Jesus."  What is it that you actually give when you give your heart to Jesus?  It is not just the external part of your life is it?  The part that people can see, although some people may think that is all you need to do.

Some people may think that all you need to do is to make some external changes in your life.  You do things like start to attend church and you meet together with other Christians, and you keep the golden rule and other 'good' things like that, and if you can do that, then you have given your heart to Jesus.

But it's much more than that, isn't it?  When we talk about giving your heart to Jesus, we talk about giving the whole of yourself.  Giving Him your inmost being, your mind, your thoughts, your intellect.

The Bible has a lot to say about the human heart.  It is an immense subject in its own right that cannot possibly be dealt with to its full extent in one sermon, but in order to demonstrate the value of the heart we should look at some of these things.

The heart is the seat of emotions

Firstly, we see from the Bible that the heart is the seat of our emotions.  We love with our hearts?  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart,” the Bible says in Matthew 22.

It is the place where we experience joy.  "I will see you again and you will rejoice," says Jesus to his disciples in John 16:22, and a literal translation would be "your heart will rejoice" when Jesus talks here about his coming again.

We also feel sorrow there.  "Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief," says Jesus in speaking about his imminent departure for heaven.  Grief is carried in the human heart.

So is anxiety: "Do not let your hearts be troubled."

Doubt also is nurtured in the heart.  Mark 11 speaks of "not doubting in your hearts."

So, the heart is the seat of our emotions.  At least it is in our Western way of thinking.  In fact, if you read the Old Testament, the seat of your emotions is in a different place, it is in your bowels, in your guts.  In fact, we still talk about having a "gut feeling."  Well, that comes from the Hebrew thinking, where your emotions are sort of deep in your belly.  But we talk about our heart as the seat of our emotions

The heart is the place of understanding

It is also the place of our understanding and thought, isn't it?  In Mark 2 8 it says, "Jesus knew that this was what the Pharisees were thinking in their hearts," and, likewise, in Matthew 9, Jesus says, "...why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?”  In John 12 it says, “So they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts."  So, our heart is the place of understanding and thought.

The heart is the place where good and evil dwell

It is also the place of good and evil.  In the parable of the sower, which we can read in Luke 8, Jesus explains, "The seed of the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart."  In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says, "For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder..." etc.  Similarly, in Romans 1, "Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Our actions originate in the heart

Our heart is the place from where our words and actions originate.  "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34); and "...unless you forgive your brother from your heart...” (Matthew 18:35).

The heart is where God's law is written and his Spirit dwells

The Bible also speaks of the heart as the place where God's law is written.  "The requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences bearing witness," says Paul, writing to the Romans (2:15).  Our heart is also the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit: "God put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit” (2Corinthians 1:22).  "Because you are sons, God set the Spirit of his Son into our hearts" (Galatians 4:6).

There is probably a lot more I can say about how the Bible views our hearts, but I think we have seen enough to be able to acknowledge that our hearts are certainly very important, very valuable.  Therefore we must not let our heart be abused by subjecting it to all manner of evil, or allowing it to be damaged by sin.  We must guard our heart like a treasure.

And so, the Apostle Paul says that the best place for our heart is to be "in the love of God...  May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."  Safer than Fort Knox.

THE LORD DIRECTS OUR HEARTS

These words of Paul are really a prayer.  Paul is not saying to the Thessalonians and he is not saying to us that it is our duty, our responsibility to take our hearts and put them in a safe place.  It is not like going to the bank and depositing your money which is your responsibility.  In fact, the Thesselonians can't even do that.  We can't do it either.  There is a very similar formulation in chapter two of this letter.  In verse 16 of chapter 2 it says, "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

You see, what happens to our hearts is God's work, isn't it?  This is a prayer that God will do something with our hearts.  "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."

What does it mean, to direct?  When we use the word 'direct', we think of a policeman on traffic duty standing at an intersection waving his arms to direct the traffic, from one place to another.  And, in fact, it does mean something very similar to that idea.  It is a rather interesting word that we only find three times in the New Testament.  It means, literally, to keep on the straight path, to direct us.

In Luke 1:79, we find the same word speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying that he will shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, "...to guide our feet into the path of peace."  To guide our feet, to direct us, to lead us.

The same word is used again in 1Thessalonians 3:11, and there it is translated in this way, "Now may our God and Father himself and the Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you."  To clear the way – and so the thought of this word is to guide our hearts in a way that is clear that has no obstacles.  May the Lord direct our hearts, guide our hearts into the love of God.

But there are obstacles, aren't there?  Obstacles that need to be cleared.  Obstacles in the path to God's love.  They are all sin-related: pride, stubbornness, envy, anger, hatred, suspicion, resentment.  All those things are barriers to God's love.

And if these things hang on our hearts like anchors in the sand, like shackles on our feet, then we must pray for deliverance.  We must pray to be set free from those things that entangle us, so that our hearts may again be directed into the love of God.

"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."  "Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil," writes the psalmist.  "Create in me a clean heart, O God."  Friends, that's the prayer that needs to be in our lives and on our lips constantly, day by day, that the Lord will always be directing our hearts into the love of God.

            "Take my heart, it is thine own,
             it shall be thy royal throne.”

INTO THE LOVE OF GOD

When we pray for the Lord to direct our hearts, what does he direct it in to?  Firstly, it is directed into God's love.

In 1John 4, we read that the very essence, the very nature of God's character is love.  2Corinthians 13 talks about the God of love and peace, and because God is love, therefore, God loves.  And his love is directed to you and to me.  "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish..."  "It is not that we loved God but that he loved us.”

Friends, God loved unworthy people.  God loved sinners.  God loves you, and he loves me.

I know not why God's wondrous grace
  to me he has made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
   redeemed me for His own.

You see, we deserve God's judgment don't we?  We deserve God's condemnation, but in his rich grace and mercy, God pours his love into our lives, and that makes the love of God a very gracious, and merciful, and great love.  In fact, we can even call it a redemptive love, because God shows his love through Jesus Christ, and what he has done for us on the cross at Calvary.  God demonstrates his love in sending Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins.  "This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Friends, the love of God is great.  It is beyond measure.  And that's the place where our hearts are to be directed.  May God direct our hearts into his love.  May he bury our hearts in his love, may he overwhelm our hearts, may he secure our hearts in his love.  What comfort, what joy it is for the believer to know that this is what God is doing with our hearts, he is protecting it, he is watching over them.  He is enveloping our hearts with his love, so that they are protected.

Of course, that has an effect in our lives doesn't it?  At least it ought to!  The effect of God's love on our hearts being in God's love is that we begin to live God's love.  We begin to reflect the character of God's love, where our hearts are found.  That God's love will begin to shine through our lives.  "Dear friends," writes John, "since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."  And, "...if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."  May the Lord direct our hearts into God's love, and, of course, also into Christ's perseverance.

AND INTO CHRIST'S PERSEVERANCE

Perseverance means 'going on', doesn't it?  It means not stopping, not giving up half way.  Perseverance – keeps on keeping on.  Isn't that true of Jesus?  In his life and in his humiliation and suffering on earth?  The writer to the Hebrews can put it far better than I can: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus endured the cross.  He drank the bitter cup that he had to drink.  A cup that was so bitter and so hard to swallow that he prayed, "Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me."  But Jesus drank it.  He endured.  He persevered.  He humbled himself and became obedient unto death.  That's the perseverance of Christ.  A perseverance for our sakes, so that we might be delivered from our sin.  Jesus said, "I lay down my life for the sheep."  That's for you and for me and for all who believe.  Friends, Christ persevered in order to save us.  May our hearts be planted into Christ's perseverance!

Surely this must mean that we should be imitators of Christ in our perseverance.  In our endurance as we live the Christian life and walk the Christian faith.  Sometimes that's tough, sometimes it is hard to keep on putting our Christian values into practice.  There are so many things that would discourage us, there so many things that would draw us away, so many times when we lose the plot, when we don't see the full picture anymore, when we become so engrossed in ourselves or in the circumstances of the moment.  It is then that we need to stop and take some time out and re-focus; to ask ourselves, "where is my heart?  Is it firmly embedded in the love of God and in the perseverance of Christ?  Am I listening to Jesus, following him, loving him as his disciple?"

As you move back into a working week tomorrow morning, as life begins to take on its busy day to day routine, the challenge becomes all the more important.  Stop and check and ask yourself, "where is my heart in all this?"  Because where our hearts are will determine where our lives are going to go.  Friends, if your heart is firmly embedded in the love of God and in the perseverance of Christ, then you will have the strength and encouragement to walk in the way of God each day of the week.

I trust that this prayer that Paul gives for the Thessalonians is a prayer that's going to be on our hearts too – everyday: "Lord let my heart be firmly embedded in your love, and in the perseverance of Christ, that I may walk in fellowship with you."

Amen.