The Elephant in the Room Is Your Own Heart

amen i need to tell you right up front that when it comes to this sermon today this is one as a preacher i've really wrestled with i've wrestled with this message so much that i'm really convinced that this message is actually just for me so today i'm just going to preach to me today and if god speaks to you that's how i know that god is real he's able to speak to more than just one person in this room today we're in a series called the elephant in the room this is the the subject matter this is the thing this is this is the elephant that's in our lives that we often just want to ignore we want to ignore elephants in the room because they're they're hard to talk about often an elephant in the room is awkward for for some of us we don't even know how to talk about the elephant in the room and that's why we're not talking

about the elephant in the room and if there was ever an elephant that was so important in this series this is it the elephant in the room today is you let me just put it a different way the elephant in the room today is our own hearts we're going to talk about that which is inside of each of us that we have to deal with let me just do a quick survey just to see if if you're alive today how many of you have a heart just buy a show of hands come on come on all right look around all right if your neighbor didn't raise their hand just say you're a liar or just pray for them either one of those things you see we all have a heart and the heart is so important it was jesus that actually warns in mark

chapter 7 how important the heart is he says for from within out of the heart everyone shout heart heart of man out of the heart come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person ouch jesus gives a pretty comprehensive list i believe if we look carefully all of us can probably find a top three in that list let me just go through the list one more

time he says in our hearts there's evil thought sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these things he says are evil he wants us to know that if you have something in your heart that's not of god it's actually evil and today i want to talk about that elephant in the room that is our own hearts that that god has something greater plan for you than for you to leave your life the same last week we talked about the elephant in the room which is money it was jesus that says in matthew 6 verse 21 he says for where your treasure is they're your heart will be also jesus teaches us that you're meant for

more than just money money is not evil but but what you do in your heart will dictate what you do with your money jesus wants you to know that you can live for something greater than possessions in fact you're to live for something that lasts forever see what's in your heart is so important that it dictates every single thing you do in your life and the book of john he's describing to us the life of jesus and we have here in john chapter 8 verse 37 he says on the last day of the feast the great day jesus stood up and cried out in john chapter 7 verse 37 on the last day jesus stood up and he cried out i wonder what it was like for jesus to cry out was he preaching passionately or did he

actually yell he cried out if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink i love jesus because he's the great inviter he invites all of us if you're heavy-laden and burdened come to me and i will give you rest come follow me learn from me and here he gives this great invitation if you are spiritually thirsty i'm going to satisfy you i'm going to quench that thirst he goes on in john 7 verse 38 whoever believes in me jesus says whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water your heart is meant to flow out of it

rivers of living water come on that's awesome you're meant to have so much life in you that it overflows on other people jesus has such a great plan for you that you just don't have some water you have living water yet when you look around the world today if you look at the church today if you look at people that call themselves christians it doesn't look like they have rivers of living water flowing from their heart it looks more like what we're experiencing on the west coast like a drought do you know what happens in a drought you conserve water you hold it back you don't share it with others you don't use it too often in fact in a drought

you expect death and jesus does not want you to have a drought spiritually in the heart jesus wants you to overflow with rivers of living water he wants you to have life and for too many people they call themselves christians yet they don't experience jesus they don't experience what god has for us the fullness of this life he has planned so what's missing well john explains what this living water is as if we'd be confused he says in chapter 7 verse 39 he says now this he said about the spirit now i want you to know the word spirit here is capitalized this is referring to the holy spirit god himself so jesus is referring to god himself that he will

overflow in your life that others will experience this as well john explains this is referring to the spirit whom those who believe in jesus were to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because jesus was not yet glorified see the theology here he's explaining what happened after the resurrection jesus who was without sin took our sin on the cross he died and was buried and on the third day rose again and after he was resurrected he revealed himself to others and then he sent us out on mission to go make disciples then he says you shall receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you that you would be his witness wherever you go

and john is explaining this was the plan from the beginning and now we get to experience what jesus promised that your hearts would have living water that you are made to experience what jesus said in john 10 that you would have life and have it abundantly not a little bit of life not some life not once in a while not when your circumstances are great not when you're at the right age but that you would have this life yet we're living in times of trouble everything bad seems to be up divorce is up depression is up drug abuse is up prescription medications are up uh counseling is

up suicides are up everything bad right now just seems to be up if you have you noticed that it's just you look around it's like everything that seems to be bad is there we could blame the government we can blame a virus we can blame our parents but jesus promised in john 14 verse 1 he says this let not your hearts be troubled here's a promise of jesus let not your hearts be troubled believe in god believe also in me in the same chapter jesus says this peace peace i leave with you my peace i give to you jesus says not as the world gives do i give to you here's the promise again let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid it's

as if jesus knew that you're going to face an uncertainty of the future you're going to face something that you should be afraid of but you don't need to be afraid you're going to be in such a tumultuous troubled time that i'm going to give you a peace that surpasses what your circumstance or situation is this peace jesus says i'm going to give to you but it's not the peace that the world gives so you're not going to find this peace in yoga and meditation you're not going to find this piece in medicinal purposes like marijuana it doesn't matter how you justify it whether you sleep better or you're more relaxed this is a peace that no one can give you but jesus this is a peace that alcohol cannot give you sex cannot give you this peace a better car is not going to give

you this peace a greater therapist isn't going to give you this peace the government's not going to give you this peace my peace i leave with you jesus says and it's not like the world gives you so you come to me and you're not going to be afraid you come to me and you're going to have a peace that only i can give you you come to me and i'm actually going to give you my holy spirit that you experienced the very thing you were created to experience which is living water this is what jesus wants for us so what is this jesus explains it he says in john 14 26 how do you receive this piece he says in john 14 verse 26 but the helper come on we could all use a little more

help right now the helper the holy spirit there's that person again i know some of us have been so weirded out by the holy spirit maybe you grew up in a church that used the king james version the holy ghost that's just kind of tripped you out a little bit maybe you're weirded out by the holy spirit because people have misrepresented the holy spirit many of us have experienced that where someone did something that kind of scared you a little bit like if that's the holy spirit not sure i want it but jesus said this about the holy spirit don't miss it this is the person of god this is a person he's a helper the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name this is great theology one god and three persons believe in jesus god the father gives you the holy spirit he will teach you all things and bring

your remembrance all that i have said to you so with the help of the holy spirit you remember what jesus said so if my heart is troubled i've forgotten the promise of jesus i need the help of the holy spirit to remind me i don't need to be troubled in my heart if i start to be fearful or afraid i need the holy spirit to help me and remind me that jesus says do not be afraid if there's peace missing in my life it's not god god never changes it's something in my heart so i need the help of the holy spirit so i can be who god has created me to be john in describing the life of jesus in chapter 1 verse 14 he just epically or poetically describes jesus he says and the word that which is

invisible became flesh the invisible became visible the creator became the created the word clothed himself in flesh and dwelt among us we've talked about that phrase here journey before and the original greek is he tabernacled among us another way to put it is he pitched a tent god came and he he made himself known through the person jesus and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father and then john says is full of grace and truth how many know someone full of something don't look at them all right we all know someone full of something there's a lot of people right now full of anger see

whatever's in you is what's going to come out of you especially if you get shaken up if you have anger in you you can hide it from a lot of people but the moment you get shaken up guess what comes out of you anger and john says when it comes to jesus he's not 50 grace and 50 truth he is the fullness of grace and truth so when he was on the cross and he was shaken up what came out of jesus grace and truth so now when you turn to jesus what does he offer you in the fullness he wants you to experience grace and truth now one of these things is not like the other we typically fall on one side of the pendulum or the other but jesus is the

fullness and he wants you to experience the fullness of grace and truth what's grace well paul writes in ephesians 2 verse 8 he says for by grace you have been saved through faith so by believing in jesus you've received grace which is the forgiveness of your sins you're adopted as a child of god you get the great inheritance of eternal life you're no longer who you used to be you're now a royal priesthood this happens through faith by grace that you're saved and this is not of your own doing don't ever be confused you did not work hard enough to receive this you're not good enough to get this you're not born into the right family you go to the right church this is not of your own doing it is the gift of god so we can just summarize grace and really one word grace saves that's that's how you're saved it's not because you pulled yourself up

by your own bootstraps and earned your way into heaven no grace is what saves you and it's so important to remember that i'm forgiven of all my sins and my wickedness he went to the cross on my behalf so what is truth i i love how jesus in john chapter 8 tells us that when we follow him we'll obey his commandments in john 8 31 and then in verse 32 he says and you will know the truth and the truth will set you what free now this is one of the most misquoted of all scriptures jesus says if you follow me you obey my commands and that's how you know what the truth is because you obey jesus because in john 14 6 he says i am the truth so if you follow the truth and you do what the truth tells you to do then you know the

truth and the truth does what sets you free so truth frees grace says truth frees this is so important that we begin to understand that you are more wicked than you fully understand your heart has more evil in it than you fully understand but his grace covers every one of your sins and now sets you free yet many of us find ourselves on one side of the pendulum or the other or we see this in other people on the grace side it says well i know i'm saved and forgiven so i know i'm going to get into heaven but i'm not going to take the truth too seriously so so the truth is suppressed the truth is absent the grace person

looks many different ways often they're happier than the truth person the grace person says i can smoke what i want to smoke i can drink what i want to drink i can look at whatever i want to look at because i know at least i'm forgiven of my sins and and they may not smoke everything or do everything but at the end of the day they know they're forgiven they know they're going to heaven on the truth side of the pendulum they say no i've never gotten drunk i've never done drugs and you shouldn't either see the truth side knows the word of god and says i i appear to the word of god i hold to the commandments of god and i'm going to point out what's wrong with everybody else because the truth is so important but on the truth side of the pendulum we suppress grace and we forget how great the grace of god is that it covers all of our sins and so if you have too much truth with not enough grace or you have too much grace with

not enough truth you have missed jesus because he's not just a little of either he is the fullness of grace and truth it changes everything it shapes who you are and jesus revealed himself the fullness of grace and truth so that when you go to him you now get the very peace that you long for through the person the holy spirit yet when we don't have those things something's wrong in our hearts remember how we started this message jesus warned us there there could be something in your heart that's toxic there could be something in your heart that's going to stop you from experiencing living waters the stagnation that's more of a bacteria it's actually going to kill you you say oh pastor you're being dramatic i mean this seriously

that god has something great planned for you we we've bought into a myth in our culture that your heart is good and you should follow your heart it makes for a great pinterest post just follow your heart it would make for a great hobby lobby a picture just follow your heart you know it's going to lead you to a good place go wherever your heart tells you to go but actually jeremiah the prophet warns us your heart is deceitful above all things and your heart is actually desperately sick and he just asked this question who can understand it now he goes on to say that it's god that searches the heart so if we if we take the bible at full value when someone says you should follow your heart you should say no don't do it

because many of us have actually followed our hearts and we've ended up in the place we don't want to be many of us it's the gal that sees the good looking guy and everybody knows that she shouldn't be with him but she says oh my heart says i should i see potential in him deep down inside somewhere there's a good guy down there and so what she does is she follows her heart and then her heart gets broken no it's not just her that follows that loser but there's that deceitful hearts in all of us when we lie and we say you know what this is too hard to tell the truth this is going to create conflict and you know at the end of the day i would rather lie than tell the truth and so what i do is i deceive my own

heart or in the age of inflation when it seems like today everyone's taking advantage of other people with greed and so you say you know what i'm just going to take a little more than i actually should because at the end of the day i deserve this and we deceive ourselves and we don't have the heart of the fullness of grace and truth and jesus wants to come in and change our hearts he wants us to experience all that he has for us god wants you to have this living water inside of you that you would experience this life that you would know god that you're made to live a life of purpose that you are called by god but you've got to take it seriously every time jesus gives an invitation to

follow him he he warns us like matthew 16 24 then jesus told his disciples if anyone that includes you if anyone would come after me jesus said let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me see when you follow jesus it's no longer about you you've given your entire life to jesus and lest we forget the cross was a torture device that led to death it's as if jesus is saying you will suffer when you follow me but it's going to lead to something greater because on the other side of the crucifixion was the resurrection so if you want to experience the resurrection power of jesus you also need to experience the cross of jesus when peter writes to us he says for to

this you have been called i'm afraid many of us don't understand the severity that you've been called by god to do things you can never ordinarily do on your own wherever you are in the marketplace and ministry in your neighborhood in your family you are called god has a calling upon your life we're going to talk about this this fall we're going to do an incredible series on the life of paul but here peter affirms this that you are called because christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps when you take the scripture seriously it says you will suffer but through the promise of god's word here's what we find there is meaning and suffering the world would love you to avoid suffering but in jesus you see there's

meaning and suffering that nothing in your life is wasted that god wants to use you for good that you would know him that you would experience all that he has for you he's not asking you to play games he's not asking you to just go to church he's not asking you to look like a christian or call yourself a christian he's asking you to know him that you would understand you're known by him jesus said on several accounts as we see at the end of the sermon on the mount a scary warning to people who think that they're saved he says not everyone jesus said says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven now what is the will of his father in heaven that you would experience this living water don't don't make this too complicated jesus did not make this confusing and

complicated in fact he says you have to be like a little child you have to believe in him that what he's done for you is what saves you it's by grace that you've been saved that's the will of the father he goes on to say on that date many will say to me lord lord did we not prophesy your name cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name jesus is simply saying did we not play the religious game did we not do what needs to be done to get into heaven but jesus said but then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you workers a lawlessness jesus just wants to know you he he wants you to invite him into every area of your life he doesn't need you to play games he doesn't need you to call yourself a christian or to go to church all he wants for you is to experience all that he has when john writes in 1st john 2

verse 3 and 4 he says by this we know that we've come to know him here's how you know you're a christian if we keep his commandments remember what jesus says if you follow me you're going to keep my word and then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free whoever says i know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him you see following jesus is never meant to be taken lightly it's meant for you to experience the life of christ and i know it's difficult to do that because our hearts are torn in a million different directions there are so many voices that are just vying for the attention of your heart including your own voice but when you take jesus seriously you get to seriously experience god listen how peter writes us as obedient children that is we are god's kids he's the heavenly father do not be conformed

to the passions of your former ignorance so before you knew jesus you lived a life apart from jesus if you keep doing things the same way you're going to keep getting the same results and peter says don't do it he says this is what you should do though you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for i am holy holiness much like the holy spirit has a bad rap today the word holy is not something we talk about yet it should be holy means to be set apart and god is completely holy holy holy so the very thing we should long for is holiness because that's more like our god yeah we have phrases in our culture like this when when we don't like the way someone's living or they're judging us or we just don't even like them we say oh you're just holier than now

you ever heard someone say that i know you wouldn't say that but it was judging somebody else we've actually taken the word holy and said you shouldn't be holy when the very thing you should long for is to say god i just want to be like you how can i be holy because you're holy because holy is good perfect life-giving and apart from holiness is to be apart from god therefore i want to be holy because he's holy i don't want to be holier than thou like i'm better than you i want to be holier than thou because i'm like thou i want to be more like the king of all kings the creator the one that made me and knows me better than i know myself nothing is wrong with being holy holiness is a byproduct of getting to know the fullness of grace and truth and i want to warn you that holiness will never happen by accident

you never wake out of wake up out of bed and say i'm holier today if you're anything like me you take a few steps backwards every day it's like starting over but his mercies are new every morning holiness requires intentionality it requires you to take the lord seriously it just doesn't happen that you just make a decision to follow jesus today and it all just works out it takes a habit it takes it takes a change of behavior where all of a sudden i'm going to be more like god and in the day and age in which we're living it's difficult this is the angriest age ever in history i declare that there's so many angry people would you submit that is this the angriest age that you've ever experienced people are angry at the government they're angry they're angry at religion they're angry

ethic and people angry at everything my daughter works at chick-fil-a that's the lord's chicken and uh recently someone bought a gluten-free bun at chick-fil-a and they came to her and and they were very angry they were angry because if you get a gluten-free bun it comes in a separate package you know just they just throw it together like everything else it comes in this special uh box and and she was angry she says why aren't the gluten-free buns grilled like the other buns and my daughter so clearly articulated because we grill all of the buns with gluten on the same grill therefore if we take the gluten-free bun and put it on the same grill it loses its integrity and it's no longer gluten-free and that just infuriated her oh you lazy no good this is what's wrong

with all of you guys and cursing actually using cuss words at a 16 year old because the gluten-free bun is not grilled now i know some of you be like i would never do that i have a righteous anger i'm only angry at what god would be angry at because we all know you guys are a pastor you you know you you know what's in my life there's idiots in my life you just got to be angry at those people that just are are idiots in my life but there's a warning here about righteous anger because some of us actually the longer you're at church you might actually believe you have a righteous anger but paul warns to the romans in chapter three he says none are righteous nope not one none here's why because jesus warned us

that in our hearts our evil things as jeremiah said our hearts are deceitful above all things we're born in sin for all of sin and far short of the glory of god the only way to get righteousness is through who jesus it's always safe to shout jesus at church paul said this in romans 3 22 just the same chapter he says the righteousness of god so where's righteousness come from the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ is for all who believe there is no distinction so if you believe in jesus he exchanges your righteousness which is like filthy rags you can never be good enough to be like god he takes your righteousness and exchanges it for his righteousness so it's no longer about you it's all about so you no longer have the right to be righteously angry

and someone's going to say well what about the book of ephesians where it says this be angry and do not sin so so i can be angry i'm just not going to sin how easy is that to do see the problem with scripture is this that sometimes we either take scripture out of context or we twist scripture or as i shared last week we even say things that aren't even scripture i tested y'all last week and i quoted jesus and it wasn't a jesus quote i just want to see if you all were listening but like this verse this is only half the verse it says be angry and do not sin then it says do not let the sun go down on your anger here's what that means you can't keep anger inside if you don't deal with this today it's only going to continue to grow

and it's going to be like a snowball that little anger today is going to be bigger tomorrow and it's going to be bigger after that inside of fact you shouldn't be angry because if you go to bed anger you're going to wake up angry and this is what he warns he says be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger and then he says this give no opportunity to the devil because you know what the devil wants is for you to be angry for you to be angry at your parents for you to be angry at your ex for you to be angry at people who don't think like you if you could just be angry at someone the devil's like ha i got him you'd be angry at chick-fil-a for not toasting your gluten-free buns so this idea of being angry it's everywhere and it actually can be found

in our hearts as well and what paul says in ephesians 4 is this he says when you don't live like god it actually grieves the holy spirit so he says do not grieve the holy spirit remember the holy spirit is god and you make god sad and you've been sealed by this holy spirit when you believe in jesus you're sealed you are saved but you can still make god sad that you're not living the way he has planned for you see if you're a parent you know what it's like to grieve over a child when they do something that hurts themselves or others it hurts or if you're a child and your parents are alcoholics and you know that it's not helping them and it just grieves your heart when your parents are doing something they shouldn't be doing it grieves you and it grieves god when you're not living the

life that he's called you to we could cause each other grief we we cause a gap in the intimacy of our relationship with god when we're not living like him so practically speaking what does that look like the previous verse in ephesians 4 verse 29 says this let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up as is fit for the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear so if you have jesus you have the living water you have the fullness of grace and truth and it's going to show in your mouth because jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so if you have corrupt talk now come on help me out here i told you i'm preaching to myself if you say something about anyone that's not building them up if you don't see

what god sees if you miss the potential if you miss the opportunity to live the way that god wants to use and use life-giving words it actually grieves the holy spirit and god did everything possible so that you would know him john when he writes this biography of jesus life in his opening line he retweets from genesis chapter one genesis chapter one the opening line says in the beginning how does john start off his biography with jesus in the beginning meaning before anything was john chapter 1 verse 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god now this this can be confusing because wait a second how is god the word well what do words do words help you understand some of you love to use lots of words to

to explain someone else it might be colorful words and what john tells us that if you want to get to know god he has used the word which is god himself so how do you understand god you go to the word who is the word john 1 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us that if you want to get to know the glory of god get to know jesus because he's the fullness of grace and truth this is what you are made for and according to ephesians 4 if you're made for this then you're going to talk like this but when we're unkind when we use unkind words when we have a bitter spirit when we gossip when we slander other people it makes god sad and if you have any of those things in your life right now which by the way it's easy to have any of those things in your life right now

you're missing out on the flowing river of the holy spirit abundant life the term christian today means so many different things to so many different people but i'll tell you god doesn't care if you call yourself a christian he cares about your heart and so many christians are miserable today and the reason why is they don't have the anointing of the holy spirit they're not experiencing all that god has planned for us and it's time for us to take holiness serious to stand up and say i'm not going to live like the world i want to be set apart i want to experience all that god i'm sorry lord for grieving you so some of us need to repent today i love a story of a family at journey church when the wife one day at church experienced jesus in a way she had never

experienced before and the holy spirit got a hold of her heart and she was an alcoholic and she had hard alcohol literally hiding throughout the entire house and on that particular day she came home and she took every one of those liquor bottles and started pouring it down the drain and the husband's like what are you doing that's a lot of money because jesus has gotten a hold of her heart and he was more valuable than what she was giving her life to she now wanted to be filled with the spirit instead of being filled with drunkenness and for you today it might not be alcohol it might be something whatever you've prioritized in front of jesus that you got to get rid of you got to remove it from your heart you got to allow god to do what he's come to do which is to change you the solution is not for you to do it but for jesus to do it

in you i love how paul after he says in ephesians 4 verse 30 do not grieve the holy spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption the very next verse he he once again gives the practical verse 29 he said do not let any crep talk come out but only that which is full of grace then he says this let all bitterness and wrath and anger and anger and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice it's like he was speaking into our age and says hey you have no justification for any of those things instead he says be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another as god and christ forgave you we have to forgive he say but you don't know what was done to me in my childhood you don't know what was done to me in my

marriage you don't know what was done to me no i don't know but the lord does and he knows everything you've done and he's forgiven you of everything so just as you've been forgiven it's time for us to forgive you can't hold on to bitterness literally if you hold on to bitterness and resentfulness and anger and malice and slander and rage if you hold on to these things it actually causes diseases it'll cause holes in your stomach it will cause you to have inflammation it will literally it'll it it'll only increase disease in your life not bring you life so jesus said you're not meant to bear the burden of bitterness so give it to me i'm gonna forgive you so that you now by the power of the holy spirit can forgive others and and here's the key here can we put that verse back up here's the key here be kind

could you imagine the world with kind people come on you've been on social media lately it's just anxiety starts boiling up everybody's angry i got the answer i'm going to comment i'm going to tell you my answer is not your answer your answer's wrong i'm going to tell you what's wrong with you here's what's wrong with everybody else i'm going to post something that's completely false but it's going to be true because i shared it and you all better think like i think just imagine if if we were just kind kind kindness oh kindness paul says in romans he said it's god's kindness that leads to repentance go on you know if you were god you would have wiped people out a long time ago but god instead of taking his thumb and wiping you out for all those times that you went and sought false gods in one way or another he was kind to you he was patient he was so patient he loves you

jesus would you just practice who i am and you're not going to be able to do this on your own because god knows how evil the world is jesus said this he says out of the heart all those evil things come so here's why we be kind we tend our heart of forgiving one another as god in christ forgave you and all that damage that's done through bitterness through anger through stress the muscle tension the back problems the migraines gone in jesus name it's the cheapest therapy you can get right there but but it takes you being serious and i submit to you unless you have the seriousness of god's grace and you understand the seriousness of being forgiven by jesus it can't happen and we're living in an age where being a

christian is no longer culturally relevant it doesn't matter what anybody else says about being a christian we need to be kind i know that's hard some christians be like yeah but you know what i've read the bible and jesus went in the temple and he flipped tables so i got to flip tables on that what shouldn't be done i'll tell you why you can't do that you're not jesus jesus did that on the way to the cross he went to the temple and when there were money exchanges taken advantage of other people he knew that the temple was meant to be the dwelling place of god where redemption was supposed to happen the forgiveness of sin through sacrifice so he wanted to make right that which is wrong but the bible says because jesus

went to the cross for our sins once and for all he is the last sacrifice he died he was buried on the third day he rose from the grave and the same power of the holy spirit that rose him from the grave is the spirit we get so now the bible says you don't need to travel to the temple to meet with god your body is a temple so the only prayer we should pray is not god give me the power to flip over tables but rather it's lord jesus if you need to flip over tables in your temple have your way and that's a hard prayer because you might have some stuff in the temple that shouldn't be there jesus comes into your heart and he starts flipping over the the table of anger and he flips over the table of envy and he flips over the table of of greed he said listen if there's something in

your life that shouldn't be there i want to remove it so that you can experience all that god has and then what happens as jesus said for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks now you start speaking life i know these are trying times i know they are they've been trying for me as well with all the change and i've prayed more than i've ever prayed before in my life and sometimes i don't feel like praying but i'll tell you this in my life i have a greater intimacy with god and my wife more than any other time in my life and it's because i'm going before god i'm not finding my hope in the government or any other person i'm finding my hope in jesus christ alone and so if some of you need to turn more to jesus i'm telling you right now in the church some of y'all need to care

more about jesus than vaccinations or masks i'm not just speaking about somebody else i'm speaking about the church that we get more excited about the things of this world than we do the next world jesus never have prayed oh god would you just give me the power to flip over and he said let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven well what says what rivers of living water kindness forgiveness grace truth that i'm all of a sudden change because of jesus and it's not going to happen overnight you you take jesus serious you're going to have to keep coming back to him every single time every time you keep coming back to jesus i want to close with one last scripture it's in first thessalonians is paul speaking again this is the practical side some of you were like what's practical how do i have the holy spirit work in my life how do i have

this living wall here's the practical side look at verse 15 of first thessalonians 5. see to it that no one repays evil anyone evil for evil but always seeks to do good to one another and to one another and to everyone you know what this is called just one word kindness just because other people are behaving badly doesn't mean you should behave badly and then here's what that looks like well how do how can i have this kindness well i'm glad you asked three things these are three of my favorite verses super simple you should memorize these here's what he says first one rejoice always rejoice means to choose joy that's what rejoice means it doesn't mean i have joy because of my circumstances or situation rejoice means to choose joy you know what the psalmist says this is the day the lord has made let us rejoice in it right let us rejoice and be glad paul

when he's in prison in philippi or excuse me when he writes a letter to the philippians when he's in prison in robe do you know what he says in philippians 4 he says rejoice in the lord always again i will say rejoice now he didn't write that because he was on vacation at some resort and from the beach hey just rejoice in the lord hey check out this instagram filter no no you can rejoice even if you're in prison because it's to choose joy rejoice means to choose it when you choose joy like paul you're saying it's not my circumstances that give me joy paul had scars on his back from being beaten he was whipped this is the guy that was thrown in prison this is a guy that was persecuted over

and over he was stoned some of you all be like oh at least you got to relax a little you know no no rocks were thrown at this guy just just imagine what this guy went through and what is his answer to life rejoice always choose joy then here's the second thing he says this is a secret sauce of what it means to have this living water he says pray without ceasing pray without ceasing pray without ceasing you know what prayer is it's conversation with god it means it never ever stops you don't pick up the phone to call god and say well goodbye nope don't stop you wake up you start praying seek first the kingdom of god his righteousness and all these things will be added to you you start your day praying you pray before you talk you pray before you make a decision you pray in the shower you

pray while you're driving you pray wherever you go you just messed up and you deceived yourself by your own heart you pray and you ask god for forgiveness and he'll forgive you he is faithful and just to forgive all your sins you just confess it and he's faithful and just he'll forgive every single don't stop praying keep coming back to god you know what happens when you keep praying you start looking like the guy you're talking to everything starts to change and all of a sudden you look more like him and here's the third thing and this is so important you see this oh the world needs this right now and give thanks in all circumstances for this is god's will for you in christ jesus you want to know what god's will for you is to be thankful to be thankful if you're not thankful right now you're living outside of god's will be thankful you say well what should i be thankful for you're sick you should be thankful that you need god to heal you you're weak you

thank god because he's going to be your strength you're going through some difficult challenges in your relationship you thank god because he's going to answer that prayer in a way that you didn't know possible you thank god that nothing is impossible with god you thank him for his promises you have something to be thankful for psalm 150 says let everything that has breath praise the lord that means you have breath you thank god that you can praise him like paul we should just be thankful you can throw me into prison great i can't wait to witness to those guards again i've been meaning to finish that book [Music] you're set free oh i thank god that i get to experience this living water and then look at this i want you to notice what he says after he says rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances and then he says in verse 19 he says do not quench the spirit see if you're not praying if you're not

thankful if you're not choosing joy you've grieved the holy spirit god's still there but you're not experiencing it so what we do is verse 20. do not despise prophecies meaning god's word go to god's word but test everything hold fast what is good abstain from every form of evil [Music] it's time for us to change to be holy not to live like the world so i want to just pray this last two verses in this same scripture when paul says this to the church now may the god of peace remember who that is jesus says now my peace i give to you may the god of peace himself sanctify you completely that means you'd be so set apart and may your whole spirit and soul and body be

kept blameless at the coming of our lord jesus christ he who calls you is faithful he will surely do it this is not for some people today if you have a heart this is for you i warned you i was just preaching to myself today but i know that god is so great that he can speak to you as well so just in this time of prayer this is our response time right now this is our response time if you've never given your life to jesus right now is the time you're never too young to give your life to jesus you're never too old you've never sent too great that god won't forgive you today is your day if you want jesus he's yours the bible's made it really clear that all you have to do is believe

in your heart that he died on the cross for your sins and if you're willing to confess it which means that you're denying yourself you're saying that you need to save your jesus if you want to confess that he rose from the grave from me you'll be saved today if you want that it's yours i would love to pray with you i'm going to pray some words they're not magical words they're they don't need to be my words they've got to be sincere from your heart if you want that today you will be saved that's a celebration jesus says that when one sinner repents there is a great celebration in heaven i like to put it this way there's a party in heaven when you come home so that's you we won't do that right now maybe today there's a second person that maybe you grew up going to church you believed in jesus for the forgiveness of your sins but you need to take him serious in your life right now this is your opportunity i'm going to give you an opportunity to do that as

well and then finally if you have sin in your life that needs to be removed would you give it to god right now maybe you need to go home and dump something out maybe you need to burn it maybe you need to stop a relationship you know you shouldn't be in you stop it today you get on the phone today and you go back to your spouse and you make right that which is wrong it's not going to be easy but it's going to be worth it there's resurrection power in jesus don't stop don't stop would you close your eyes right where you are lord we want to bring you our hearts right now that's you today for the first time you want to give your life to jesus pray something like this lord jesus come into my life i receive your holy spirit [Music] i ask for the forgiveness of my sins so that i could be born again so that i can experience the eternal life that's found in you

just with all eyes closed if you just prayed that prayer today for the first time would you throw up your hands so i could celebrate with you i'll praise god amen amen yes amen hands all over the place praise god anyone else i just want to celebrate with you i'm just so grateful when god does that work in his heart anyone else if you're watching online your host is going to give you instructions anyone else want to give their life to jesus today for the first time right now just throw your hand up nice and high so i could celebrate with you [Music] amen praise god yes yes i also want to lift up those right now lord that they decided to follow you many years ago maybe months years or even decades and i pray right now god that you would receive them home that there would be a

celebration from this point forward they would take you serious i ask god do you protect their heart against the enemy i ask that you'd fill them by the power of your holy spirit to do what they could never do on their own may the joy of the lord be our strength we love you lord i pray you would receive our sacrifice of our sins today as we lay them at your feet god would you would you set them free would you bury them on the deepest parts of the ocean that god we would never do them again maybe may we turn to you lord we receive your light in the dark place today in jesus mighty name all god's people said come on amen amen hey if you're able to would you just stand up right now we're going to sing one last song i'll realize it's probably lunchtime you might have your mind on something else right now but i'm just going to turn our attention one last song would you give your heart fully to jesus would you remember what he's done for

you today would you ask god i want that living water you said it so i'm going to receive it you said believe in you so i'm going to believe in you i don't know how you're going to do it but god when i don't feel it i'm going to keep turning to you i'm going to keep trusting you god let's sing together yes [Music]