It Came From Within 03-30-08

When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to swear. Looking back, I know that was a good rule. I heard other kids swear at school and on the bus. Sometimes my friends swore, but I learned not to swear. I heard it from other people and sometimes I wanted to swear, and it was right there on the edge of my lips, but I knew that my dad would whoop my butt, so I didn’t . . . most of the time. But every once in a while it’d slip out when I was angry. I remember being angry with my sister one time and out of nowhere, I called her a really bad name. I didn’t even know my mom was in the house, but out of no where she appeared and I knew by the look in her eyes that I was in trouble.

Over time, you and I learn to put filters on our mouths and our actions. We learn what’s acceptable in other people’s eyes and what’s not. We learn what to say and to do in order to win others approval. We learn how to modify our behavior to get people to like us. We learn that there are certain things that you don’t do, because there are consequences. We learn that things don’t work out for us in the real world if we say or do certain things.

We learn what we need to do and say to get through school. And we learn what to do and say to get a date. We learn what to do and not do to get a date. We learn what to do and not to keep a date. We learn what to say and do to get a job and we learn what we need to say and do to keep a job and we learn what not to do and what not to say in order to keep a job. Wouldn’t you agree, we learn how to navigate through life in order to make life work?

But every once in a while we say something that we shouldn’t have said, or we do something that we shouldn’t have done and the relationship crashes or we loose our job or there’s consequences involving the police or the court system and we say “Whoa! Where did that come from? I had better not do that again.”

We all have developed a filter that filters our words and actions in order to make life work – to keep our jobs and make money and make our relationships work. So real early in life we learn how to monitor our behavior in order to get along in life, but that’s not enough. Because at some point along the way, something comes through the filter and we go, “Ooooof, why did I say that, or why did I do that”. Or you do something with major consequences and you hope that you don’t get caught or that somebody doesn’t find out and you say to yourself, “Wow, that wasn’t like me, or somebody might even say, “What were you doing, that wasn’t like you?” It’s as if your filter had a hole in it temporarily and something got out. And you try and patch that filter up really quick and you tell yourself, “I better not ever do that again, or I better not ever say that again.

What we’re going to talk about over the next couple of weeks is that it’s really not enough to monitor our behavior and that we need to learn how to monitor something else. There’s a deeper issue going on. The thing that we have to monitor is something that no one has taught us how to monitor.

Some of you have maybe experienced this: you got married or you knew someone who got married, but then after a certain amount of time had gone by, you realize that he’s not the man or the woman that you married. I’m telling you that when we dated, he/she was this, but after we got married he/she was this. He/she changed overnight. I don’t know who this person is. They behaved right and they said everything right and then bam – who is this person? They had a really good filter, but then in times of stress or threat the filter came off and everything changed. Eventually we find that monitoring our words and monitoring our behavior is not enough.

Jesus is talking to the religious leaders of his time and they’re have a discussion about being clean and unclean. The religious leaders, and you can tell here that this is a very unsophisticated way of thinking, but they believed that when they ate things with unwashed hands or when they ate any bad, unclean animals that God forbid them to eat – that if you put bad things – dirty things in your mouth and they went down inside of you, that those bad things would corrupt the inside of you and then when you said or did things that were bad, it was because of the dirty, vile things that you put into your mouth. That was what they thought, so they had all kinds of rules about what to eat and how to eat it, but Jesus, he straightens them out. Let me read you this thought from Jesus.

“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a person ‘unclean.’ Matthew 15:17-18 (NIV)

What he says is that everything that comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. The mouth is like a stethoscope for the heart. If you want to know what’s in a person’s heart, you just have to listen to what comes out of their mouth.

In other words, when I have those moments in time where I go, “Ohhhhh!” why did I say that! I don’t know where that came from.” Jesus says, “I do. It came from your heart.” NO, no, no, you see Jesus that wasn’t like me, that was so uncharacteristic of me.” Yeah, I know, it’s because you have a filter. You’ve learned to get along. You’ve learned to modify your behavior. You’ve learned to filter and monitor your words and actions. But every once in a while, your heart is going to pierce your filtering system, especially when you’re angry, or hurt or tired – you know, you sort of let your guard down, and then Bam! – Something gets out. And you might apologize – hopefully you do and then you say to yourself, “I’m never going to say that again.” I’m going to double my efforts to filter what I say.

But Jesus says, no, no, no. You need to listen because that stuff that just came out. That came from your heart and it needs to come out. Don’t learn to filter it out, because that doesn’t get rid of it. It’s still there. It’s darkness. It’s evil. It’s not what you were created for. Learn to get rid of it, because if you don’t then when you get angry again, or when you get tired again, or when you get stressed again, it’s going to come out again and it’s going to hurt all of your relationships, because eventually your filter is going to break down. Jesus continues:

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a person ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make someone ‘unclean.’ “ Matthew 15:19-20 (NIV)

Now wait a minute: This confuses me. I thought that my thoughts came from my brain. “No they don’t,” Jesus says. He’s saying that out of the heart (palm on chest) comes evil thoughts (hand on the head). I was confused by this, but this is amazing. Think about this:

When we grow up, we are taught by parents, teachers, coaches, books, magazines, the news, our culture – our world what not to do – not murder, steal, commit adultery, lie – all these things. We know that in our minds. We know that we’re not supposed to do them, but people still do them. Murder comes from Hate and hate comes from the heart. Adultery comes from lust and lust comes from the heart. Theft comes from greed and greed comes from the heart. False testimony and slander are about putting other people down because when I put other people down, I feel better about me. I feel bigger because they feel smaller. These are all heart issues, not mind issues, because we can know that we’re not supposed to do them, but we still do them.

If you’re still not convinced, there are a bunch of studies out there about consequences. Like, would you kill someone if you knew that you wouldn’t get caught and there were no consequences. Or would you sleep with someone else’s husband or wife, you know, the really good looking one, if you knew there were no consequences and you knew that you wouldn’t get caught. Would you rob a bank if you knew that you wouldn’t get caught or there were no consequences and it’s amazing to see that a very high percentage of people respond to those questions and say “Yes, I would.”

I want to stop for a minute and ask, “What would the world look like if there were no filters. What would the world look like if we took all the filters off? The picture that forms in my mind is a great picture of what hell would look like. Let’s take it to a more personal level. What would your life and mine look like if we took all the filters off and just lived out of our heart? What would your life and mine look like if we lived out of our heart with no filters?

Most people have learned to filter and monitor their behavior, but there is still a bunch of dark stuff lurking around in their hearts that has gone unmonitored and it continues to grow, and one day when the filter is wearing thin, it’s going to come to the surface and wreak havoc with the people that they love the most. We don’t have to say “they”, because this is your world and my world and it’s your heart and my heart.

When I say something or do something, and I ask myself, “Where did that come from?” Jesus responds, “It came from your heart”. It’s those things that I do that I’m against, I don’t even agree with some of the things that I do, If there was a ban on those things, I would vote to ban those things, but then I turn right around and do those things or say those things. And I say, “Where did that come from? Jesus says, that comes from your hear.

Until I learn to monitor and change my heart there is no significant, lasting change to what I say or what I do. This is why the wisest man in the world, Salomon, who wrote a big chunk of our Bible and who wrote on almost every subject imaginable and who had insights way beyond anybody in his day and age, and is still regarded as the wisest man who ever lived. Here’s what he said on this subject:

Above all else, Check that out! In other words, if you don’t do anything else, if you don’t read anything else that I’ve written, if you don’t do anything else in your life, do this.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

You live from your heart, you parent from your heart, you lead from your heart, you manage your money

from your heart, you conduct relationships from your heart. He’s saying that your heart is the spring of

life – that all of life flows out of your heart. He agrees with Jesus, your words, your actions, your

attitudes, all of that flows out of your heart. So he says this: Guard your heart

Guard you heart, means to be careful what goes in to your heart and to be careful what comes out of your heart. Solomon says that there is all this practical stuff that he talks about, what to do and what not to do in order to become all that God created you to be, but above everything else, he tells us to Guard our heart, because everything in our lives comes from our heart. Our hearts are like an artesian well and if that well gets contaminated, the water that comes out of the well isn’t going to be any good. If the well is crystal clear, cold ground water, then that’s what’s going to comes out. If our heart has evil in it, then evil stuff comes out.

Movie clip: Dances with wolves

Jesus is saying that we’ve got to learn to guard our heart, because all of life flows out of your heart. No one has ever taught us to do that. We were just taught to behave. We were just taught what to say and what not to say. We were taught what to do and what not to do. No has ever taught me and said, “Adam, this is what you need to do, or this is how you are supposed to guard your heart. Nobody has ever done that. They never taught me how to know if there is something bad is coming out of my heart. Nobody has ever taught me why I shouldn’t let some stuff in or why I have to get that other stuff out. Nobody. We we’re just taught to edit our behavior, even though the wisest man who ever lived and even though Jesus, the God who came down and put on flesh said that we needed to monitor our heart.

We are called by God to be self-aware. Aware of what’s going on in here (heart). We are called to be able to step back from a very difficult situation and go OK, I know what he’s saying or I know what she’s saying, but what’s going on in here (heart). What’s coming out that let’s me know that there’s an issue here. So we need to learn to monitor our hearts, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about for the next couple of weeks, because we need to learn how to do that, because every bad thing that you’ve ever done, comes from there.

Here’s a great way to monitor your heart. When something comes out of your heart – when you says something or do something or even when you feel something or are thinking about something, measure it against this:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSV)

If you are going to monitor your heart, then you need to memorize this statement. Because this statement is the standard by which you are called to monitor your heart. This is who you were created to be. This is what our hearts were created to be filled with. If there is something that is contrary to love in my heart, then it’s not who God created me to be and it’s got to come out. If I have anxiety or fear in my heart, then it’s got to come out, because the standard is peace. If I’m impatient, then it’s got to come out, because the standard is patience, and on it goes. You get the point.

Here’s the deal. Life, life, just life, has a way of lodging stuff in our hearts that has no business being there, and if you and I don’t know the disciplines of how to clean out our hearts, then that stuff stays there and grows and at the most in opportune times, it rears it’s ugly head and destroys all that we hold dear.

Most of us have never have learned to monitor our heart. Counselors have a name for this. It’s called being self aware. Aware of what’s going on, on the inside of me, and spending the time to evaluate what I feel. Many people, when I ask them, “How do you feel?” cannot tell me. The Bible calls this a hardened heart. It’s only God who can make your heart soft again. Maybe somebody’s stepped on your heart once upon a time, and it was just easier not to feel and so you walled your heart off, because you decided it was easier not to feel. There’s evil inside and it has to come out in order for anything good to ever come out. You will need a coach to help get the junk out. It’s only God who can help you feel again.

Many of us have never monitored our hearts. We’ve never stopped and asked ourselves “where did that come from.” Or “Why am I feeling like this.” When ever I feel fear, or anxiety, or impatient, or depressed, or an insatiable appetite for food, sex, drugs, etc, or I’m unable to part with my hard earned money, I have to ask myself why am I feeling this way. What’s going on in my heart? Then my next question is, “is it good?” If it is, then I praise God. If it isn’t I being looking for the source, and I pray to God for help in getting rid of it. I ask God the Great Gardener to help me weed my garden. If I can’t find the source and get rid of it on my own, then I get help – often times a professional counselor or coach.

According to Jesus, all your words and all your actions come from your heart, and what that means is that your heart drives all your relationships. This is great news if you’re new to Christianity or if you’re still trying to figure it out, because maybe you thought Christianity was all about behavior or all about rules. It’s not about that. Being a Christian is not about acting like Christians. It’s not about behavior modification. It’s about transformation. You’re heavenly Father wants to renew your heart. God wants to enter the inside of you and clean you out. God wants to pull the weeds out of your heart, so that your heart can produce something that’s good. Good fruit!

God says, “I don’t want you to have a really cool Christian filter for what you say and do. I want to do something more substantial than that. I want to teach you how to stand guard over your heart – to guard against what gets in and what comes out. And when you notice those little things that come out – those dragons that keep getting bigger and bigger. Monsters that are beginning to control your thought life and all that. I want to show you how to slay them and create in you a clean and a pure heart that will impact your words and behavior, so that your life can be full of all the goodness that I created you for.

I’m wondering, take a moment and close your eyes and answer truthfully these questions: Is everything OK in your heart. Are you mad at anybody? Are there things that come out of your mouth that you’re not proud of. Are there times when you do things that you’d like to take back and you don’t know why you do them, but they just come out. Are you waiting around from someone to make things right. Have you secretly celebrated someone’s failure? Do you have any secrets eating at you? Is there a question that you hope nobody asks you? Have you lied recently to someone you love? Is there anything contrary to peace inside your heart? Do you struggle with being generous? Do you struggle with self-control? I could go on. But I think we all get the point. We have work to do!

With your eyes closed, would you say this prayer out loud with me. Heavenly Father, teach me to guard my heart for it is the well-spring of life. One more time, Heavenly Father, teach me to guard my heart for it is the well-spring of life.

Some of this work you can do on your own, but some of it you will need help getting it out because the roots go deep.

Four ways to get rid of the evil that we find in our hearts

1. Ask your self – do I want to get rid of the evil?

2. Ask God to help you get rid of it

3. Ask a friend or accountability partner

4. Ask a professional counselor for help while continuing to do the other three – When the other 3 don’t seem to be working

Heaven on earth

Love God

Life Groups

Counseling

Guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life.

Life Link:

1. Describe your family’s favorite pet from anytime in your life.
2. Review message to refresh people’s minds
3. The Question
4. What is the difference between filtering your heart and transformation of your heart?
5. What have you been taught to do, filter your actions or behavior or guard your heart? Explain.
6. What’s the standard for a clean heart? How do use this information to motivate you toward transformation?
7. How do you know there is something growing in your heart that doesn’t belong there?
8. How do we get rid of the evil that we find in our hearts?