NewLife's Got Talent: Bless Your Hearts

It’s amazing to me how there are so many songs about the heart and about love in pop culture. While I played several songs on Sunday before the start of my sermon, there were many, many more that included the themes about love and the heart that I could have also included. I think that speaks to how the world is looking to understand, know and find love. It also shows me that pop culture can capture the human experience in powerful expressions. As I noted on Sunday, U2’s song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking for” is such an example. The chorus, which repeats the title of the song, expresses the search of looking for something in life and not finding it, despite basically searching everywhere and through everything. It’s just like what the theologian Augustine said as well, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” The world’s songs and the testimony of our own hearts speak to the restlessness within us until we find it in Jesus.

That’s why we have the privilege from God to have a heart: so that we could know Him (Rom. 10:9-10) and to know His love (Rom. 5:5). It stands to reason then, that God ought to have the privilege of being Who we love the most. For what we love, we serve (Matt. 6:21). No wonder because of this that He also commands us to guard our hearts for it is the wellspring/source of life (Prov. 4:23). The Father wants us to guard the very core of us, which He’s given to us so we can grow deeper in His love and experience Him more. This also means that we eliminate unnecessary/unproductive things that distract us from Him and avoid loving things that would lead us away from Him. King Solomon’s life is a sad commentary on this (1 Kings 11:1-4). My friends, I’m going to include the questions from the sermon handout from Sunday as a way for us to reflect on the impact of our hearts in life. 

Questions:

• What does it mean to trust God, seek God, and love God with all of our heart? How do you do this in your life? How do you show it?
• Why do you think God cares so much about our hearts?
• How do you personally delight your heart in Him?
• What are ways that we can guard our heart? What specifically do you need to be on guard for your heart?
• What is Jesus saying to you about your heart? 

Please read Psalm 63 for Sunday.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer (Ps. 19:14).
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Bless your hearts! (**REMINDER FROM SUNDAY: when I say this phrase, I mean it as an encouragement and kindness, not an insult!)

Pastor Andy

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