So we are nearing the end of our series on the
anthropomorphic traits of God as described in
Scripture, and the heart of God will be last.
We have one more lesson in this series as we
will look at the whole of God, the whole thing
together, how it all works together, so we'll
go back. and we'll loop in the eyes and the hands
and the arms all together and see how it all
comes together. The truth is there are another
probably seven or eight terms. Each is a little
less common, but there are plenty of additional
terms in the Scripture that we could have lumped
on. We could have done this for another couple
months if we wanted to. But we tried to pick
all the most important and most prevalent ones,
and that's why we did these. Again, on this one,
too, you've heard the heart of God. You kind
of understand the concept a little bit. So don't
be surprised if I'm telling you something you
already know, but there are seven points. I'm
sure that not all of them will be like that.
So remember that God is spirit. For those of
you who haven't been, God is spirit. And so he
does not have a literal heart like you or I do.
Obviously, Jesus did. In fact, his heart was
pure from the spirit when he was hanging on the
cross and was under great strain for 24 hours
leading up to that. But when the Bible says,
for I know the plans I have for you declares
the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity,
to give you a future and a hope, that sort of
like shows how God feels about us. And then we're
going to see as we go through the lesson a number
of times it refers specifically to God's heart.
What we're really talking about is his will.
His holiness, his compassion, his purpose, his
desires, his affections, all of that, that's
what your heart is. So if you think, for example,
the Bible says, where your treasure is, there
is your heart. So you want your treasure in heaven
with God, so that would be the case. So it's
what you care about. It's the center of your
being. It's what makes your important choices.
You make a lot of choices with your mind, but
you might find yourself sometimes internally
feeling like, ah, this doesn't seem right. Your
head's saying, go this way, go this way, and
there's something inside you that's saying something
different. That's your heart. the core of your
being, making those decisions. So to understand
the references, we have to remember that God's
heart has that picture. So we're going to get
two key overpoints that are there in that top
left box. This is going to talk about God's desires.
You can write desires in there if you want. God's
purposes, his will, his compassion, which that
word is on the screen. Compassion is C -O -M
-P -A -S -S -I -O -N. And then moral character.
So when the Bible talks about God's heart, it's
revealing to us what pleases him, what grieves
him, what he values, and what he wants to do,
what he wants to accomplish. That's what it's
talking about. God's heart is never sinful. Yes,
ma 'am. Moral. His judging between right and
wrong. So he's never sinful, divided, selfish,
or unstable like ours often is, certainly before
we're saved. And his affections are perfectly
consistent with his holiness. And that doesn't
necessarily work for us, right? You decide there's
something you like, and if you go after that
thing, it might be bad. It might not be holy
to you. You can go after some things a little
bit, and they're fine, right? But too much chocolate
cake, that's unholy, right? That's just the reality
of it. Too much of almost anything can become
unholy. So God deeply loves his people. God desires...
righteousness, God grieves over sin, and God's
purposes never change. So, you might have heard
somebody say, my heart broke. They say, like,
my heart broke when I saw my child make that
decision. There are a couple people in this room
who have experienced that. So, my heart broke
when she said that to me, or when he said that
to me, or when I saw what suffering made me want
to do that kind of thing. They're not talking
about a medical condition. It's not something
you can take medicine for. They're expressing
deep love, sorrow, and concern over the situation.
So, when we talk about God's heart, Similarly,
if God's heart were breaking, it would be the
same way. It would be breaking his love, sorrow,
and concern for us. All right, so number one.
This is number one. God's heart. Delights in
obedience. The scripture is 1 Samuel 15, 22.
This is the same verse that talks about how rebellion
is like the sin of witchcraft. It's right in
there. Same speech of Samuel. But the actual,
what we're using it for is the part where it
says to obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel
15, 22. Say that again. Teach under that. I haven't
said it yet. Under 1 Samuel 15, 22. Do that right
now. Okay. So to obey is better than sacrifice,
Samuel said, but he was saying it on behalf of
God, right? So God values obedient hearts more
than religious rituals. That's tricky to navigate
because I might say things like, I know where
I'll be at 1131 or 1135 on Sunday morning. I
know where I'll be, right? And I'm being obedient
to God because that's what God wants me to do.
But notice that someone else could do that for
religious reasons. That make sense? So we're
like, I do this, I do this. religiously because
it makes me better, because people expect to
see me there, because I want the prestige of
it, whatever. There's a lot of reasons why you
might do it other than obedience. God values
or wants obedient hearts more than religious
ritual. People will frequently say Christianity
is not a religion, and I would agree with that.
In the world class of religions, somebody might
say Christianity is a religion, but the truth
is Christianity is all about your relationship
with God. It's not about religion at all. Hence,
churches can have their worship service on Saturday
night instead of Sunday and still be legit, right?
You can have your Sabbath Wednesday into Thursday.
As a result, when you take 24 -hour Sabbath,
you can do that on any day of the week and it
would still be good. God values obedient hearts
more than religious riches. Then worship without
obedience does not please him. It's a pretty
big deal. If you are worshiping God on Sunday
mornings, Tuesday nights now, praise the Lord,
or whatever, and your heart is in the wrong place,
And you understand that that worship isn't good
for him. It's not saying anything about God saying,
you're awesome, God. Well, everything you're
doing in your heart condition is saying God sucks.
That's not how that works. So you need to be
through and through in your truth. And then your
worship really is an honor. And the last one
is external religion cannot replace inward devotion.
External religion, so religion on the outside,
cannot replace inward devotion. Your insides
are looking for God. External religion, or outside,
you can use that word, it's a little easier to
spell. Outside religion cannot replace inward
devotion. Inside. So your insides are what really
matters, right? There's a whole bunch of places
in scripture where it says God looks upon the
heart of a man. But your outsides are what determines
what your insides can be like, right? So if you're
cussing up the storm, your heart is dirty. There's
a problem, right? Or if you're assassinating
people with the words, you realize that your
heart's got a condition. It needs to be resolved.
So then the application is seek to obey God from
the heart rather than merely performing religious
duties. So yes, you should go to worship. Yes,
you should spend time serving. Yes, you should
give. All of those things. Yes, you should follow
the rules. Submit to authority. All of those
things. But more importantly, you want to obey
God from the heart. In fact, that's probably
the whole thing. Remember he said, whosoever
believeth in his heart, confess with his mouth
that Jesus Christ is what? Lord, right? And a
Lord is what? It's the person who tells you what
to do when you do it. Jesus said, if you love
me, follow my commands. So the chief thing is
to obey God from the heart rather than obeying
the religious duties. Okay, number two. God's
heart loves his people. That's kind of a given.
That's not really a surprise. God's heart loves
his people. And the reference there is Jeremiah
31 .3. Jeremiah 31 .3. It says, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. You know what's
cool about that? It means God loved you before
you were born, and it means God will love you
after you die. that God would love to do while
you're in hell, if you would choose to go there
rather than heaven. I mean, it's heartbreaking
for him, but it's a reality. It's an everlasting
thing. And to the points under that one, the
first one is God's love is eternal. Back forever,
forward forever. God's love never ends. His covenant
love does not, big word, fluctuate or change
up and down. I just want to say that. It doesn't
go up and down. So his covenant love, the love
that God has for his people, is not... different
day to day. That was the problem they were making
a lot in the Old Testament. Judges and like that,
they were like, oh, God has turned his back on
us while they were worshiping idols and sacrificing
their babies in the fire and all that stuff.
And they'd say, well, God has turned his back
on us. But God had never turned his back on them.
He always loved them. But what they were doing
was having certain results. God's covenant love
does not fluctuate or change up now. The last
one is his love originates in his own character
rather than our worthiness. In other words, God's
love is based on who God is, not who you are.
So when somebody says, I'm too bad for God to
love me, for example, they're wrong. God loves
that person. God loves Adolf Hitler just as much
as he loves you or me. Mussolini, right? Jeffrey
Dahmer, while he was killing people and eating,
he loves everybody. He loves just the same. It's
horrible. His heart is breaking. over what that
person is doing, and he will willingly let them
go to hell when the time comes, and they'll pay
a dear price for it. But the point is, he loves
you because of who he is, not because of who
you are or whether you're worthy of that love.
So then the application is, rest in God's unchanging
love during difficult seasons. So when times
are tough, rest in his unchanging love. Look
at her go! So mobile. Getting mobile. All right,
so we're going to go on. The sun continues shining
even when clouds hide it from view. You understand
that, right? So if you go outside and it's a
cloudy day, it's also a sunny day, right? Cloudy
days are also sunny. That's what always makes
me laugh when you see the forecast and see me
partly cloudy. It's always sunny. So to say partly
cloudy means we're going to have some clouds.
That's what it means, right? And if you fill
the sky with clouds, it's just going to be cloudy.
But it's also sunny because the sun is not shining
any less. It's just shining on the top of the
clouds instead of down here, right? So the clouds
can affect our ability to see the sun, but they
do not diminish the light of the sun. It's still
there, still just as bright. So difficult circumstances
can obscure our awareness of God. We might not
see God's love right now visibly because we're
struggling, thinking about something else, looking
somewhere else. But those circumstances never
lessen his love. loves us the same. So you could
go out today or tomorrow and do something really
stupid and he'll still love you just the same
as he did for you back. Number three, God's heart
grieves over sin. God's heart grieves over sin.
Genesis 6 references Genesis 6, 5 to 6. Number
two, the number two application was rest in God's
unchanging love during difficulties. It's really
always. or stands out more during difficult seasons
because it seems counterintuitive. I don't think
it's quite that. The scripture reference for
number three then was Genesis 6, 5 -6, which
says, The Lord was sorry that he had made man
on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.
It is a different thing to be sorry than it is
to be grieved in your heart. When the core of
your being is fallen like a baby because something
happened, that is a pretty bad thing. When you're
sorry because you stubbed your toe, or you're
sorry because you said something on your feelings,
that is bad. But to be grieved in your heart,
that's terrible. And that's how God was feeling
about the fact that he had made man on the earth.
Think about that. And out of that, a horse will
come flooding. So under that, human sin deeply
offends God's holy character. God really despises
sin. He hates what it does to people. He hates
the act. He hates what sin does to people. What
the sinner is causing to happen to another person.
What the person is having happen to them. All
the way. Everybody's a victim. When you sin,
God hates your sin because it is messing with
you. Yes, ma 'am. Human sin deeply offends God's
holy character. God's grief reflects his holiness,
not weakness. In other words, God is not, we
think of like when people are sad and they're
upset because something went wrong. We think
God's a sign of weakness for them. But that's
God's grief. I was going to say it again. I'll
say it a couple times each time. God's grief
reflects his holiness, not weakness. So sometimes
when people are in grief, we think, oh, that's
sad for them. That's bad. They're weak because
they're crying. They look weak, right? So grief
sometimes looks like weakness. But with God,
that's certainly never the case. God's grief
reflects his holiness, not weakness. His heart
is able to grieve this because he is holy. He
is different than he is. Okay? The last one's
pretty easy. Sin destroys what God loves. Sin
destroys what God loves. That might be you, or
it might be me, right? It could be the persons
that we're hurting, whatever. There are lots
of people in the world who are dying because
of sin. They're dead in their trespasses and
sins. Sin destroys what God loves. That's not
good, right? And then the application then is
we need to, and frankly, we're not good at this,
right? And we need to get better at it. We need
to view sin as God views sin. sin. So no excuses.
Don't play it off like it's not a big deal, right?
It's not that you're getting away with something
or it's not that God is upset, but he loves you.
So he's still going to be nice to you, right?
We can't do that. God, his heart is breaking
over sin. You're destroying him in a sense. Not
literally, he's not going to end, right? People
have been doing it for all time. You can take
it. But the point is, if you love him, why would
you break his heart like that? You have to start
seeing it like he sees it. And by the way, that's
where the freedom is. The freedom to not sin
is in recognizing just how bad it is. That little
white lie, that's a sin. Put it in this scale.
One little white lie. If a person lived a perfectly
sinless life, never did anything wrong ever,
and once, at the age of like 30, they told one
little white lie, then they lived to be 100.
So for 99 years and 364 days and 23 hours and
50 minutes, they were perfect, sinless, and they
lied that one time. That would be enough for
them to spend hell, eternity in hell. That's
how bad God feels about that. It's very serious.
And it isn't just because he would say, oh, that
one little white lie, well, you deserve to burn
in hell for that. It's because he would say,
I want you to come be with me. And they would
say, I don't want to come be with you. I relish
my freedom. I want to be able to lie if I want
to lie. I want to be able to be the kind of person
I want to be. I don't want to be the kind of
person you want me to be. God is a very big deal.
Number four, God's heart is compassionate. That
has the word compassion in the beginning out
of the struggling word spelling. Compassion 8.
The reference there is Hosea, H -O -S -E -A,
Hosea 11 .8. He is speaking on behalf of God,
and he says, My heart is turned over within me,
which also sounds very bad. Hosea, H -O -S -E
-A, 11 .8. Hosea 11 .8. All right, so God's compassion
is extraordinary. I know it's a big word. You
can use different words if you want. But it means
it is really outside our understanding. God is
so moved by what he is experiencing. He's so
moved by what he is experiencing that we have
a hard time understanding it. I want you to think
about the worst experience you've personally
ever had and how horrible you felt at that moment.
The worst you've ever had and how horrible you
felt. And then realize that... God experiences
that kind of feeling probably every moment of
every day. It's constant. Somewhere in the world,
God is doing what would turn God's heart over.
Justice and mercy, then. Justice and mercy perfectly
coexist. I wrote a fiction story about one of
the characters in the fantasy world that I write
about. And that character is very much about
justice and mercy and matching them up. She's
trying to reconcile them. I've been writing this
story, I spend a lot of time praying and thinking
about justice and mercy. We think of them as
opposites. Because we think justice is, you get
what you deserve. That's the definition of justice.
You get what you deserve. Mercy is, you don't
get what you deserve. So that sounds like an
opposite, right? Except it isn't. Because in
the case of Jesus, for example, Jesus takes what
we deserve. So it isn't that you get what you
deserve. That's not justice. Justice is that
somebody who can take it, who can stand for you,
gets what you deserve. Which means technically,
if you had two people and one of them both knew
that this guy committed a crime and this guy
confessed to the crime and he went to jail justice
has been served because this guy went to jail
for the crime now justice is not served between
the two of them but justice is served as far
as the law is concerned because somebody went
to jail for the crime right but between the two
of them justice is not served because this person
let this person go to jail for them so now there's
another problem justice and mercy perfectly coexist
in god and god's love does not compromise his
holiness. So no matter how much God loves you,
he's not going to change the rules for you. He's
not going to do it. The rules are the rules.
The promises are the promises. So it is what
it is. And we're going to go on to number five.
God's heart seeks those who seek him. God is
pursuing a certain group of people whose heart
desires that people pretty much... More than
anything. 1 Samuel 13, 14 is a reference. So
1 Sam 13, 14. 1 Samuel 13, 14 says, The Lord
has sought out for himself a man after his own
heart. Samuel's talking about, do we know who?
David, right? So he's talking about David. So
God, the point is, God desires a man after his
own heart. That's what he wants. People are going
to think like he thinks about sin. They're going
to be compassionate in an extraordinary sense.
You're right. Oh, I'm... say it that's why x
yeah you do extend compassion because you have
received compassion thank you it wasn't that
you weren't listening it's because i didn't say
it extend compassion because you have received
compassion so all those application points those
are what we do about it right so So number one,
because God's heart delights in obedience, what
do you do? Seek to obey him from the heart, right?
That's what you do. Not just performing religious
duties, but actually seek to obey him. Number
two, God's heart loves his people. What do you
do about that? If God loves you so much, what
do you do about it? Well, you rest in God's unchanging
love during difficult times in your life, right?
He's got you. Number three, God's heart grieves
our sin. What do you do about that? You need
to try to view sin as God views it. Think about
sin the way God does. Number four was God's heart
is compassionate. And so then extend compassion
because you have received passion. And also because
we're supposed to be like him as much as we can.
Because we're following Jesus. And Jesus is him
in the flesh. And Jesus certainly was compassionate.
There's lots of reasons. Number five. God's heart
seeks those who seek him. 1 Samuel 13, 14. The
Lord has sought out himself a man after his own
heart. The first point is God values surrendered
hearts. God values surrendered hearts. Between
a married man and a married woman, the wedding
ring might mean a lot. It doesn't mean anything
compared to the devotion of that other person.
Lose your wedding ring. Burn your wedding ring
by accident. But if you love your spouse the
way you're supposed to, the wedding ring isn't
going to matter all that much. But if the wedding
ring is representative and you start nonchalantly
blowing it off or whatever, you're not wearing
it, or you've lost it a third time in five years
or something, then you might be making a statement
about your commitment to your spouse. needs to
be to your spouse. It's the same way with God.
God wants our surrendered hearts. David was not
perfect. You don't know? David committed some
of the worst sins that were ever committed. Maybe
not as much as the average person. We don't really
know. But he committed some pretty bad ones.
He took multiple wives, which is not ordained
in Scripture. One of the wives he took was already
married to another man. He had that man killed
so that he could have her. That was not even
the first time he did it. He had another woman
who was his wife, and he killed her husband.
But he didn't do it to have a affair with her.
He did it, and then afterwards, she didn't have
a husband, and everybody would take care of her,
so then he married her, supposedly out of mercy,
taking care of her, right? But he killed her
husband, who was a jerk, by the way. David was
not perfect. In fact, at the end of his life,
he was told he was not allowed to build the temple
because his hands were too bloody. So God wanted
a man after his own heart, not a perfect man,
which is probably a good thing because none of
us are perfect, right? So just be after his heart.
All right, so the third one there, he consistently
desired God. That's what David did. He consistently
desired God. When God was going to discipline
him, David never... thought about running away.
In fact, David wrote to Solomon and says, if
I would run to the ends of the earth, you would
be there. Under the depths of the sea, you would
be there. On the highest mountain, you would
be there. What am I going to do? You're God,
right? Consistently desired God. And the application
then is, God desires your heart more than your
achievements. Does God want you to win people
to Christ? Absolutely. without emotion in your
heart, which is sort of impossible, right? Billy
Graham, most of us know who Billy Graham is,
at least in some sense. He's an old guy, fairly
recently passed away, last five years or so.
He had shared the gospel all over the world.
He had crusades all over the United States, won
tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands
of people in Christ. His right -hand man who
served with him during all of those things, right,
eventually came out and said that he was an atheist.
He had claimed to be a Christian the whole time
he was working for Billy Graham, but in the end
he came out and said he was an atheist. He was
part of winning all those people, but he did
not know the Lord. So God desires your heart
more than your achievements. Give him your heart.
Okay, we're on number six. Did everybody get
everything? David was not perfect. It's like
the most important one, too. Dan is not perfect.
And you are not. I know. All right. Number six.
God's heart never changes. Yay. It's a good thing.
Malachi 3 .6. Malachi. M -A -L -A -C -H -I. It's
like Malachi. M -A -L -A -C -H -I. Like Malachi.
And it's 3, 6. Chapter 3, verse 6. Now, there's
a bunch of these. This is one. And he says, For
I, the Lord, do not change. That's what Malachi
3 .6 says. God's character is immutable. I chose
that word very specifically. Immutable means
nothing can change. It's I -M -M -U -T -A -B
-L -E. Immutable. I -M -M -U -T -A -B -L -E.
Immutable. So you can put acid with it, that
won't change. You can put fire to it, that won't
change. You can put sin to it, that won't change.
Gravity won't change. Nothing will change God's
character. His love remains constant. I already
covered that when we talked about love before.
His love remains constant. And last, his promises
never fail. So it's God's character, it's immutable.
His love remains constant, and his promises never
fail. So then the application, what do you think
the application is? Without me telling you, do
you want to take a stab at it? So based on the
fact that God's heart never changes, what could
we do? Okay, kind of. You could change it to
be like it is, right? So you want to anchor your
heart, your life. You want to make it solid in
God's unchanging curve. Easy ways to do that.
What does God want me to do? As soon as I know,
what do I do? I do it. Whatever that is. What
does God want me to do? I don't say, well, God
wants me to do this, but maybe he's okay if I
do that. If God wants me to do this, that's what
I'm going to do. It's kind of simple, right?
The Bible says, don't do this. What am I going
to do? I'm not going to do it. The Bible says,
do this. What am I going to do? You've got to
do that. What am I talking about? We're following
directions. So the easy way, God is gracious
to give us direction so we can follow the direction
that we've been given. And in the world you'll
find all kinds of reasons because the world,
if anything has a changing character, it's the
world. Not because the world gets to be sometimes
not wicked, right? The world is always pretty
wicked. But because it's all over the place.
So right now, in Toledo, Ohio, if you got caught
with a five -pound bag of marijuana in your car,
probably pretty much nothing would happen because
there's no punishment for it now in the city
of Toledo. But 20 years ago, guys went to jail.
Because the world's character is constantly changing.
You can't even change the definition of words.
The target is constantly moving. If you're after
the target that is the way the world wants you
to live, you'll never line up perfectly because
you'll never get there. As soon as you try to
get there, it'll move on. But God is not like
that. You can learn God's heart. You can base
your life on God's heart. So anchor or base your
life in God's unchanging character. Number seven.
God's heart is fully, completely, absolutely
and totally, fully revealed in Christ. It's all
there. He did it. He showed it completely. And
the reference is Matthew, Matthew, M -A -T -T
-Q -H -E -W, Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Matthew 11,
28 to 30. We're not going to read the whole thing,
but we could. It'd be awesome. Yes, yeah. Please
do take these things and read the verses and
read the whole chapters. I am gentle and humble
in heart. So then we're saying Jesus. perfectly
reveals the Father's heart. So when you think
about the way Jesus behaved, and you say, well,
why would he do that? The answer is because he
was, that's the way God is. He said, I don't
do anything except what I see the Father doing.
So when you see him doing something in the Bible,
say, why would he do that? Because that's a picture
of God's heart. So if you could, has anybody
seen the movie, it's called The Map of Incredible
Things? I think it's called. It's a highly recommended
romantic comedy, highly recommended movie. It's
probably rated PG. I think kids will find this.
see it um and it's called the map of it's incredible
things i'm missing the adjective google i'll
come right up anyway the idea it's a groundhog
day movie if you know what i mean by that it's
a day that repeats over and over and over again
and this kid is stuck in it the day repeats over
and over and over again and there's another girl
she's stuck in there too and they meet each other
and that's where the romantic comedy part comes
in right and they begin to hunt down these incredible
things these powerful moments right and they're
trying to find essentially all it becomes like
a game for them to try to find all of the moments.
I'm not going to tell you any more than that
because I don't want to ruin the movie for you.
But the point is, these moments were like, there
was a guy walking down the sidewalk and a bird
pooped on his shoulder. There was a guy who sat
down on the park bench and just then a bus came
by that had a pair of wings on it and it looked
like he had wings. And it was really neat, just
little neat little things. They just saw an eagle
swoop down and pick a fish out of the water in
the lake. It's really neat moments that you wouldn't
normally get to see and they start collecting.
It's like that with Jesus. Jesus is... moments.
We get parables, we get stories, we get commands,
things like that. But if you could draw like
a dot to dot out of all of the incredible moments
that Jesus showed us about himself, guess what
you would see? You would see God's heart. You
would see an idea of who God is and what he was
all about. That's what Jesus was showing us.
Number two there is God's love is seen most clearly
at, can somebody finish it? Where is God's love
seen most clearly? It's the crucifixion. I just
put it at the cross. Yep. That's where it's most
clear. We already know God's heart is breaking
over sin every day, not just at the cross, right?
Every day, God's heart is turning. It says, we
read, my heart turns over. It's terrible. God
is suffering because of our sin because he cares
that much. At the cross, the sin was being paid
for. So all the while, he was horrible seeing
his son be crucified. He was horrible seeing
what he's been through. In some sense, people
say that God kind of looked away at that moment.
I'm not sure I believe that. Jesus said, my God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me? And that's
the beginning of Psalm 22. And if you read Psalm
22, it's everything about the crucifixion. So
Jesus was really quoting Psalm 22. I'm not sure
I believe that God looked away at the cross.
It's definitely not clearly the case, but nonetheless,
he was definitely suffering for what Jesus was
going through, and does every day. As Jesus knew
that once that was done and sin was paid for
or not, people could be saved. And the people
that were saved before were being saved by what
was happening right then. God's love and seed
was growing at the cross. The last one there,
Christ embodies, kind of a big word, God's compassion,
his mercy, his holiness, and his grace. They're
all big Bible words. I'm going to tell you what
they mean. So to embody something, is to show
it in its fullness. That's what we're talking
about. God's heart revealing Christ. And then
Jesus was revealing God's compassion. How deeply
he cares for us. How much he does not stop caring
for us. He never quit caring for us, even in
the worst of it. So God embodies, Christ embodies
God's compassion. His mercy, which means he really
does not want to give you or me what we deserve.
God really doesn't want to do that. So Christ
embodies God's compassion. His mercy. His holiness,
which means somebody needs to pay for all the
stuff that people is doing. And the dirtiness
of hearts and the disrespect that God is receiving,
somebody's got to pay for that. There is justice.
The wages of sin is death. God set it up that
way before he made Adam and Eve. And he told
them, in the day that you eat of the tree, the
knowledge of the people, you will surely die.
And then they ate of the tree anyway. From that
point on, it was guaranteed that people would
always die and always be separated from God,
essentially, in their relationship. But if you
trust God to make a way, then you'd be saved.
And Jesus is that way, which is also God is Jesus
embodies God's grace. Yes. Tiny, perfect things.
Keep on. Are you fine? It's okay, you're fine.
A map of tiny, perfect things. Highly recommend
it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Right.
So his point was, if you look at the end of Psalm
22, it does not say that God has turned away
or abandoned. It actually says the opposite.
He's absolutely right. That's true. Okay. So
the application on number seven, if you want
to know God's heart, what? God's heart is fully
revealed in Jesus Christ. If you want to know
God's heart, what do you do? Study Jesus. Look
at his life. Listen to what he says. Pursue following
him and so on. So we've completed the seven.
We are going to do this. We will do a round of
trivia, time permitting. And I have prizes. So
we'll do that. I didn't do stunts today because
we have a little schedule. Sometimes I'll do
stunts and sometimes I'll do trivia. We'll mix
it up. So we're into the summary. The heart of
God teaches. First one, his love. You can see
that. He eternally loves his people. The heart
of God teaches his holiness. He grieves over
sin. His compassion. There's that word again.
By now you should know how to spell it a little
bit. His compassion. We put C -O -M -D period.
He delights in mercy. God really wants to forgive
you. He really wants to forgive me. That's what
he's trying to do. That's what it's all about.
His will. He desires obedience. You've got to
do what God wants. You've got to stop doing what
God doesn't want you to do. And yes, it's a journey.
Day in, day out, there may be mistakes. I think
God fully understands mistakes and ignorance,
sin, that kind of thing. I think God is a lot
more concerned about what you're going to act
when you sin on earth. Wickedness. The difference
between iniquity, where you go, oh, I made a
mistake. Oh, I wish I hadn't done that. Oh, I
know I shouldn't do this, but I can't stop myself.
That's one thing. That's different from, he wants
me to do this, but I'm not going to do it. Or
he doesn't want me to do this, but I'm going
to do it anyway. That's willfully disobedient.
His faithfulness. That's faithfulness. He never
changes. No breakdown up there. No breakdown
in here. He'll let him in. His faithfulness.
He never changes. His purpose. He seeks devoted
hearts. That's what God wants. Jesus said it
himself. He says, my father desires worshipers
in spirit and in truth. That's what he wants.
He wants you to be real about your care for him,
real about who you are in him. And the last one
is grace. He is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.
Now some practical applications. You can pick
and choose or come up with some of your own if
you want for that little box down there. You
might say, love God with your whole heart. I'll
say this much too, and I wrote this in one of
the books I wrote many years ago. This is probably
the first one I wrote. This is the first book.
And that is that if your heart, the more your
heart can love God, the more your heart can steer.
And a regenerated heart is a brand new heart,
right? So if you had a heart and it was failing
or you had a bad heartbeat or one of your bowels
was bad or whatever, and you went to the hospital,
they're not going to put a broken heart. in there.
They're not going to put a heart in there that
doesn't work very good. They're going to give
you a new heart, but they're not going to give
you a heart at all. They're not going to go,
oh, this guy died. He's got heart disease from
smoking for 50 years. We're going to put him
in there because he's the better one you got.
That's not how it works. They're going to give
you a good heart, but they're not going to give
you a heart. Well, God doesn't take your bad
heart out and give you a bad heart, right? So
when you got saved, you regenerate your heart.
You've been born again. All old things pass away.
All things come to you, right? And so the heart
you have now can guide your whole life. It can
do everything for you. And that's what you need
to let it do. Pursue obedience over empty ritual.
So if you go like, well, I don't think I want
to, but it's what God wants me to do, do it anyway.
Not because it's an empty ritual, but make sure
you understand you're doing it because it's what
God wants. It's okay to do something you don't
want to do for God. Just make sure you're doing
it because it's what God wants. If you're just
doing it because somebody else thinks you should
or somebody else is going to give reputation
or whatever, then that's not going to honor God
at all. Trust God's unchanging love. That's kind
of our best safe net. After you've screwed up,
you don't feel like you're good enough to come
back and confess to God and beg Him for forgiveness
again or whatever like that, trust Him. He is
faithful and just. He will forgive you and He
will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Hate
sin because it grieves God. Stop hating sin because
it bothers you. Stop hating sin because it hurts
you. But hate it because it grieves you. If there's
something that really gets under the skin of
your friend or your spouse or your pastor, you
should not want that for them. You should want
to cut it out. You don't want to talk a way that's
going to hurt your wife or your husband or your
kids. As a kid, you don't want to talk a way
that's going to hurt your parents. You don't
want to do that.