Do Not Harden Your Heart - Part 2

Do not harden your heart.

God warns us in His Word over and over and over. The Lord is so passionate and compassionate about warning us, so we should stop everything and take a look at ourselves. Hardening your heart is the absolute worst thing you can do!

Previously, we saw:

1 - You harden your heart when you test God (Hebrews 3:8-9)

What does it mean to test God? It simply means demanding, as a test, to see if He can provide. You aren’t satisfied with what God has provided and start to insist upon more, different, or better, and it is up to God to prove Himself to you by giving you what you want. Doing this hardens your heart!

You callous your heart against God by saying “no” to Him on any matter. Then it becomes so much easier to say “no” thenext time. Heart gets harder, saying “no” gets easier.

For instance, you are sitting in church and the preacher is telling you about Jesus, and you think, “I should receive Christ, I should get serious about spiritual matters.” But you talk yourself out of it, that is, you tell God “no”. The next time the Holy Spirit gives you that nudge, it is much easier to say no. So begins the journey on the world’s most dangerous road.

So here is the next warning from Hebrews:

2 - You harden your heart when you see God at work and still won’t get on board.

Hebrews 3:7-9

says: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. (emphasis mine)

Here is a sure and tragic way to get a hard heart: be right in the middle of what God is doing, but still refuse to allow God to be in the middle of you.

These people being spoken of here did not simply hear of God’s works, or read about God’s works… they saw His works! Firsthand, eyewitness, front row seats! And what would they have seen? The plagues of Egypt, water from a rock, manna from heaven, God’s glory leading the exodus, God’s judgment upon the wicked… we aren’t talking about minor things a skeptic could explain away. We are talking about earth shaking acts of God! And don’t think these were just a couple isolated incidences. They saw God’s hand actively at work for… 40 years. That blows my mind. I am 36 as of the time of typing this. I am trying to imagine seeing God at work for my entire life plus another 4 years! And then walking away doubting and disbelieving.

The problem is just that: disbelief. “I will not believe.” Unbelief never has enough proof. Even if God is standing in front of your face (literally: Matthew 12:38-41).

Think of everything that they saw and still would not believe. But what have you seen? Think of the exposure you and I have had to God at work. Lives changed, forgiveness offered, reconciliation in families, divorces averted, finances provided, health restored…

Come to a passionate worship service sometime. To see people, hands raised, crying out praise. To see the power of the Word at work in people. To hear the testimonies of changed lives…

God is still actively at work, and you do see it! But what are you doing about it? Have you responded in belief? Can you say, “I am seeing the awesomeness of God! I want to be passionately growing in Him and used by Him!” Or are you content to walk away unchanged, not because God is inactive, but because your heart is so hardened?

Do not deny Him. Get on board. Today!!!

p.s. - 40 years?! That’s, like, forever…!

Do Not Harden Your Heart - Part 1

If God says something once, I would hope you would listen. If He says something twice, I would expect you to really listen. If He says something three times, I would hope you drop everything and really, really listen.

What if He says something four times? In Hebrews chapter 3, verses 8, 13, 14, and chapter 4, verse 7, the Lord keeps repeating a warning. And He is repeating something He said way back in Psalm 95. OK, now I am starting to lose count, but this must be pretty important if He keeps warning us over and over. And what is the command / warning?

Do not harden your heart.

Hebrews was written to Jews, some who believed in Jesus and some who didn’t. Knowing about Jesus does not equalknowing Jesus.

And there is a real danger in seeing Bible facts in front of you, and not doing something with them. Specifically, seeing who Jesus Christ is, and not receiving Him!

So if God warns us, “Do not harden your heart” - then what does that mean? How does someone harden their heart?

Hebrews 3:9-10 gives us the example: Israel. Don’t do what they did!

You remember the story, right? Israel was in Egypt for 400 years, 200 of them as slaves. God delivered them through Moses, and you might have expected a joyful trip to the Promised Land. Read Exodus through Deuteronomy. Not very joyful, that group. Saw God at work, but were never happy.

This is as serious as it gets, so let’s let God’s Word get specific with the warning so we don’t fall into the same trap! How did the Israelites harden their hearts? And how could we? Let's go through the text together.

1 - You harden your heart when you test God (Hebrews 3:8-9)

We can read the OT and ask, “What were they thinking?” But you know we all have a tendency to repeat the previous generation’s sins. And the Israelites first charge was testing God.

What does it mean to test God? It simply means demanding, as a test, to see if He can provide. Check out Exodus 17:7 - as soon as God provides something, they started complaining again.

Heart check time - are you a complainer? Nothing is ever enough, or good enough, or cheap enough, or expensive enough, or easy enough, or hard enough… You aren’t satisfied with what God has provided and start to insist upon more, different, or better, and it is up to God to prove Himself to you by giving you what you want. That is testing God.

Complaining turns oh so quickly to testing… Almost as if your belief, your commitment, and your love are all contingent upon God first passing your initiation test by handing over your demands.

“Well, if there is a God, He would have…”

“If God really exists, He would not…”

“I’m going to start going to church if God will just take care of this thing…”

“I would be more serious about God if He would…”

A heart already bent on this type of demanding, already warped into a misunderstanding on which one of us is God and which one isn’t, can’t be heading anywhere good. And when the heart is aligned already towards discontentment, however God would choose to act would still be met with discontentment. It’s not a “can’t win” for God - it’s a “won’t win” for you!

Choose to test God, choose to harden your heart. Choose to harden your heart, choose to forfeit the blessings God wants to pour into your life.

p.s. - owed nothing, given everything

God is Laughing

Well, I learned that God has a Facebook page.

I was dropping in on the lives of friends, family, and others on the social media site just the other day when I came across a repost of something “god” posted earlier.

It wasn’t from God, the capital “G“ real God.

I went to this Facebook page of this “god” character. It was obviously meant to be funny, but what I saw was anything but. It featured everything from blasphemy towards God to mocking Christians to exalting sin.

Do NOT waste your time going there, and for sure don‘t let your kids on this page! The things on there have bothered me for days, just the sick, arrogant dishonoring of the Lord.

Have you ever wondered what God thinks of this stuff? You know He sees it, He sees everything! Does it frustrate Him, annoy Him, make Him discouraged…? How does God feel about this?

There are 3 passages in the Bible that say “God laughs”, and in all of them, He is laughing at the same thing. Check these out:

Psalm 2:4 -

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Psalm 37:13 -

but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Psalm 59:8 -

But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.

Check the context of all three of these passages, and you will see that when the wicked have the audacity to exalt themselves in the face of the Almighty, He simply laughs at them. Like a gnat trying to knock down a linebacker, the foolishness of a human (or even a nation) getting in the face of the Almighty is just pathetic - laughable!

I don’t enjoy the thought of the end of the wicked, but I do enjoy the thought that the Lord isn’t bothered by them. His offer of grace is still on the table, for now. But whether it is Facebook, or Hollywood, or evolutionary “scientists”, or atheistic psychologists, be sure that when man tries to put himself in God’s position, the Lord laughs. 

p.s. - is not going to friend "god" on Facebook

Why does He talk like that?!

Have you ever been around someone that made you ask yourself this (hopefully in your head)? I went to high school with someone who suddenly grew a British accent when she went to work. I am sure she didn’t know she was doing it. But I was just like… why is she talking like that? When did she get so British?

So Jesus, the greatest Person to ever walk the earth, is about to reveal some deep spiritual truths about God, the earth, heaven, hell, the Gospel, the end of the world… you know, all the big topics. And He starts His teaching by basically saying, “Want to know about Sovereign Holy God’s kingdom? Let me tell you a story about a guy who had a bag of seeds.”

In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches 7 parables. What is a parable? The Greek (para) means “something alongside of something else”, or a comparison. It is a hard spiritual truth alongside an easy, earthly story. Spiritual matters are very hard for fleshly humans to understand, so parables help us make sense of them.

Parables can be effective for many reasons. They put concepts in pictures, for those of us who think that way. Parables are also easy to remember and retell. They are also great attention-grabbers!

But why did Jesus talk like that? Why didn’t He just teach the facts? Why did He communicate in parables?

In Matthew 13:10-17, the disciples had the same question, and Jesus explains why.

Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 

So Jesus said He speaks in parables because “seeing they do not see” and “hearing they do not hear”. Parables had a way of revealing truth to some people and concealing it from others… at the same time! If you want to hear God’s truth, He makes a way. But if you harden your heart, you will not be able to hear him! Receive truth, get more; reject truth, stay in darkness! Also an interesting note: Jesus didn’t explain this to the multitudes… He explained this to His disciples!

The bottom line is grace. We are accountable for how we respond to what we know. And the more someone knows… and rejects… the worse the punishment is going to be for them in hell. So God, in His grace, uses a method of clearly teaching truth in a way that can be taught by those looking for it… BUT ALSO missed by those not interested. It’s grace!

The parables have always fascinated me. How can Jesus say so much by saying so little? Join us at Harvest on Sunday as we seek to understand the profound truths taught in simple stories.

p.s. - has a congregation that wishes he could say so much by saying so little