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“Where is Your Heart?”
Matt. 6:25-34
IPC, August 2, 2009

We use the term “heart” a lot.  It is often “symbol language” on bumper stickers, such as “I ‘heart’ New York.”  We use phrases like, “You’re heartless!”  However, the title of this morning’s message does not denote an anatomy lesson. 

Our passage is drawn from Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 6 (Vs. 25-34).  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, & the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, & yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive & tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith. Therefore do not be anxious saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the gentiles seek after all these things, & your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God & his righteousness, & all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 

1. A Heart That Loves Earth.

The “world” is spoken of in three ways in the Bible.  First, there is the planet earth: “The earth is the Lord’s & the fullness thereof, the world & those who dwell therein.”  (Ps. 24:1)  Secondly, there is the world of men, the world that God loves and for which Christ died. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”  (John 3:16)  Finally there is the spirit of the age: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  (I John 2:15) 

“Worldliness” is a term that is batted around from our pulpits a lot.  We are told not to be “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good & acceptable & perfect.”  (Romans 12:2)  We are also told to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2)  We are told that we are IN the world, but we aren’t supposed to be OF the world, but the fact still remains that we ARE in the world.  And of the three worlds that are mentioned in Scripture, we are called to fight the “spirit of the age.”  So, how is a believer to react to the world?  

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the Christian’s relationship with the world.  Some believers have withdrawn totally from contact with non-Christian people.  They have confused separation from sin with isolation from sinners.   

Our world-system is alluring.  We are told to get ahead at any cost—that seeking advancement should be our ultimate goal.  This economic downturn—recession—or whatever you wish to call it, has caused a lot of folks to take stock of their expenses and spending habits.  Retailers, food outlets, and service providers are offering coupons, discounts and incentives to get us into the marketplace to shop.  Many of us live in neighborhoods where the mantra appeared to be “Keep up with the Joneses.”  However, the Jones’ house isn’t worth what it was a year ago.   

We seem to be in a quest for “stuff.”  Focus on the Family puts out a kids’ cartoon series called “Veggi-tales.”  In fact, NBC has put this cartoon on their Saturday morning lineup this year.  We have a number of episodes at the Bratley household—we use our grandchildren as the reason we have them—however, I like them.  I particularly like an episode with Madame Blueberry who makes numerous shopping trips to a big box discount department store called “Stuff-Mart.”  (Wonder where they got the idea for THAT name?  Too bad you can’t ask the late Sam Walton.)  Anyway, she buys so much stuff and has it delivered to her tree house that the tree gives way and her house comes crashing to the ground.   

Most folks have set their lives on THIS life.  They are tuned into the “here and now,” somewhat like a radio dial. People are vested in this life and what they can gain in it.  Their hearts are tuned into this world.   My main question for you this morning is: WHAT STATION IS YOUR LIFE SET ON TODAY? 

What is the “heart” in Scripture?  It is the seat of our affections—of what is important.  Your heart determines where your first love is.  Jesus declares, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37) 

We hear that verse, yet we love nice homes, nice cars, and designer-label clothes.  And these things are not wrong in and of themselves.  Jesus has often been painted as anti-rich folks.  He isn’t but, in reality, Jesus knows how money can change the heart of a man (or a woman), when He declares that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  Affluence is not evil, but the way that it affects most people is.  We get sucked into living this life as if this is all that there is. 

2. A Heart That Desires Heaven.

In our Matthew 6 passage, verses 20-21 tell us to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys & where thieves do not break in & steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Those “treasures in heaven” are delineated in verse 33: “But seek first the kingdom of God & his righteousness.” 

Now, describing God’s kingdom would take a series of sermons but, briefly speaking, “kingdom” is where the King is and rules with His power and His grace.  Seeking the kingdom is to desire more and more participation in the rule of the Father through Christ and enjoying more and more of His blessings.   

As a result, we begin to think in “kingdom terms.”  In other words, am I investing my time and resources into things and people and projects that are going to truly count for all of eternity?  Or are they “flash in the pan” events that basically benefit only me or my family?   

We are not only to seek His kingdom, but also “his righteousness.”  Time and again, Scripture emphasizes our relationship to this kingdom of God.  Jesus Himself said in Matt. 16:24 “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, & take up his cross & follow me.”  I Peter 4:2 (NIV) “He (the true disciple) does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desire, but rather for the will of God.”  I John 2:6 “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”  Luke 14:33 “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  The heart that desires heaven requires a relinquishment of claim.  All that we are and all that we have are given up into the hands of our loving Heavenly Father. 

How do you determine if an urging or a leading is drawing you toward the world or toward heaven?  John Wesley said, “Whatever cools my affection toward Christ is the world.” 

Nineteenth Century British medical missionary, Dr. David Livingstone served the Lord in Africa.  When his body was brought back to England from Africa, throngs assembled along the streets as the funeral processional went by.  A man burst into sobs: “I was best friends with David.  When he told me of God’s will for him to go to Africa, I ridiculed him.  I was ambitious and chose a life of self-ease and self-interests.  Now I acknowledge that David made the wise choice.  I put the emphasis on the wrong world.”  How often do we put the emphasis on the “wrong world?”

A man had a flat tire next to the state’s mental institution.  He jacked up the car, removed the nuts from the wheel and placed them on the hood of the car.  They rolled off into his grillwork and he couldn’t get them out.  He thought, “Oh crud, what am I going to do?”  On the other side of the fence, one of the institution’s patients was watching him and said, “Just take one nut off of each of the other wheels and put them on the that one and it will get you where you’re going.”  The man replied, “That’s a brilliant idea.  Why, you’re not crazy.  What are you doing in there?”  The patient replied, “No, I’m crazy alright!  But I’m not stupid.”   

As we look at the “heart” this morning, I don’t want you to be crazy…or stupid.  Instead I want you to look at the heart that God blesses. 

3. A Heart That God Blesses.

The end of verse 33 says “and all these things will be added to you.  (Or, will be provided for you.)  We have seen God’s providential care for His creatures in verses 26-30.  How God cares for the birds and the flowers.  Note verse 34: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”  Verse 34 doesn’t mean that we are to let God worry.  It tells us we can worry tomorrow.  When does “tomorrow” get here?  It doesn’t!  Worry is the advance interest you pay on troubles that seldom come.  I love what the late Dr. Vance Havner wrote, “Worry, like a rocking chair, will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” 

When the great nurse Florence Nightingale was thirty, she made this entry into her diary: “I am 30 years old, the age at which Jesus began His mission.  Now, no more childish things, no more vain things.  Now, Lord, let me think only of Thy will.”  Years later, when she was asked for her life secret, she said, “I can give only one explanation.  That is, I have kept nothing back from God.” 

I mentioned Dr. David Livingstone a few moments ago.  He wrote: “I would rather be in the heart of Africa in the will of God than on the throne of England out of the will of God.”  When Dr. Livingstone died at age 60, his body was brought back to England for burial.  However, the African people he served removed his heart and buried it in Africa.   

We are involved in living our lives.  What are your priorities?  What is of vital importance in your life?  In your program I have placed an insert “A Personal Spiritual Assessment.”  I encourage you to find a time this coming week to carefully read it and attempt to answer the questions in it honestly.  The new school year is almost upon us and that is a great time to regroup.  Our students will begin the year with a clean, blank grade book, with opportunities to make this a good year academically for themselves.  All of us can enter this time of year with a renewed resolve to serve Christ and to serve Him wholeheartedly, like we saw demonstrated in Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in last week’s message.  The bottom line is this: Are you going to live for yourself or live for Christ?  Where is your heart?  Is your heart in “Africa” today?  In other words, is it exactly where God wants it?  Let’s pray.

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In Christ,
Bill Bratley - Pastor