Today, we are going to begin, the first part of a four part series, titled, “Full-Time Christianity.” Another way of saying it is Lifestyle-Worship. Imagine with me, you get your dream job. You start off with a high salary, full benefits, a retirement plan, and investment package. You get it all and today is your first day of work. You go in, get to it and have a blast. You stop and say to yourself. I am getting paid to do what I always wanted to do in life. But for some reason, you change your mind, and decide not to go into work that following day and then the next day you miss also, but then you come in that third day for a couple hours and then this becomes a pattern all the while you are collecting your fulltime pay and benefits, when you are only putting in part time hours, sooner or later, if you didn’t shape up, you will get fired. The way you handle a fulltime job is a lot like the way we are to handle our relationship with God. We are always on the clock. In this lifetime, we will not get any paid vacations, but that is alright, because God has one planned for all his children who live their life to worship Him. Worship is a lifestyle, not just a part of a church service. Yes, we are to worship God with our words, but we are also to worship God with every aspect of our lives.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
These verses are considered to be the most famous Jewish Prayer. They are called the SHEMA, which in Hebrew; means to both listen and obey. When the Hebrews heard the commands of God, they acted on them.
Next, Leviticus 19:18 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
These verses look real familiar, don’t they? They are found in both Matthew and Mark coming out of the mouth of Jesus. Jesus says these are the greatest commandments out of all 400 or so in the Torah. The bottom line is that we are to love God with our whole being. Every part of you has the ability to worship God.
1. First, we are to love God with all our heart. What this means is that the way we handle our emotions, decisions, mind, and character are all part of our worship.
2. Second, we are to love God with all our soul. What this means is that the way we handle our life, personality and individuality are all part of our worship.
3. Third, we are to love God with all our strength. What this means is that the way we handle our body, resources and power are all part of our worship.
4. Last, we are to love God by loving our neighbor. What this means is that the way we treat our family, neighbors, friends and people in need are all part of our worship.
When you put these all together, you are worshipping God with your whole being. When we worship God, he is not really concerned with our bodies, as He is concerned with our hearts. Today, I want to focus on the heart. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart when talking about worshipping God. If we can get our hearts right before God, then everything else will fall into place, our attitudes and behaviors, but if our hearts are bad, we will continually fall short in life and fail.
I want to share a story with you about a man named, Bob Pierce. In 1950, he founded World Vision. World vision is the world’s largest Christian relief and development agency. Today the organization serves more than fifty million people a year in 103 countries.
Passionate for Jesus and for a world without hunger or disease, Bob Pierce began helping children orphaned by the Korean War. Every outreach he organized grew in size and scope. Whatever he put his mind to was successful. Books and magazines were written about him. His friends said, “He is a man restless to win souls.”
Bob often prayed, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” His zeal drove him to the ends of the earth. The unfortunate piece of this story was the degree in which he neglected to meet the needs of his own family. A friend of the family said, Bob’s wife, Lorraine, “knew deprivation of a different kind than those to whom her husband was ministering.”
Emotionally, he abandoned his own family. He consistently put his family on the back burner. When asked by his daughter to come home after she attempted suicide. He let the urgency and demands of so many people in need around him make the decision for him, and instead of returning home, he booked a flight to Vietnam. His daughter said, “I knew he wouldn’t come.” And what do you know, but a couple years later, she successfully took her own life.
It was all down hill from there. His relationship with his wife and two remaining children deteriorated to the point that in the last year of his life, he completely alienated himself from his family.
On top of that his relationship with World Vision, the ministry he spent his whole life building, the ministry that he literally sacrificed his daughter for, came to an end.
How does that happen? How does a man lose his family in the process of building one of the most thriving international ministries in the world?
He had what it took to meet the needs of people he never met before, but when it came to meeting the needs of the people closest to him, his immediate family, he was clueless. He had no depth. He spent more time feeding his Spirit man then building his heart.
Our hearts are what direct us in life. They are our compass. If our hearts go bad, then our behavior will follow suit, but if our heart is pure, then only positive behavior will follow.
Our hearts must line up with that what pleases God. This means that our commitment to our families supersede our ministry to others. Our hearts are nurtured when our priorities line up with God’s priorities.
If we neglect our emotional health and only focus on our spiritual health, we become all spirit and no heart. Our goal is to be successful on the inside as well as the outside, to do this we must integrate emotional health and spirituality.
Today, I want to talk to you about the importance of maintaining a pure heart. I believe that for us to consistently move forward in our walk with God, we must go deep before we can go wide. For us to live victoriously, we must win the battle in here (in our heart) before we can win the battle out there.
Today, I am going to walk you through the process King David, the man we know as being after the heart of God, under went, after he messed up big time and dropped the ball. My goal is that by the end of this message, you will understand the importance of the heart as it relates to your spiritual growth and how you can worship God with every beat.
Turn with me to Psalm 51:1-10. Let me set the scene for you, before we jump into the text. In 2nd Samuel 11, we find David committing adultery with Bathsheba, who becomes pregnant. David, then, tries to cover his tracks by inviting Uriah from the battlefront to his palace in hope that he would go home to Bathsheba, get it on so that he would believe the child was his. When his plan failed, David sent Uriah back to the battlefront with orders to have Joab the commander of David’s army place him in the front lines. Joab obeys his instructions and Uriah is killed.
David thought he was home free, but he forgot the word of the Lord that says a man’s sin will find him out. He began to pay a heavy price for his sin. (1) The baby that was born from his affair died. (2) Amnon, David’s son, would rape David’s daughter Tamar. (3) Absalom would kill Amnon in an act of revenge for what he had done to Tamar. (4) Later Absalom would rebel against David and in a show of strength would sleep in view of all Israel with David’s wives and concubines. (5) Eventually Absalom would be killed by one of David’s fighting men. All the while, the greatest king on the plant was powerless because he was heartless. It is at this point, David is said to have written Psalm 51.
Recovering a Fumble!
1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
We can recover a fumble by. . .
1. Relying on the power of God!
The first thing the David did was acknowledge the greatness of God. In the midst of his great sin, David, remembered the greatness of God. It was in his reflection of God’s greatness that he found the courage to pick himself up. David learned that when you’re down and out, you don’t have to stay that way.
If you don’t take anything else away from this program, you better learn how to pick yourself up, when you fall. There are going to be times when you score a touch down. For instance, when you graduate from here, and then when you get a job, and have a family, but then there are going to be times when you fumble, like when an old friend comes along who is heavily addicted to drugs and sticks them in your face, and for some reason, only God knows, you do drop the ball.
Are you suppose to beat yourself into an addiction, or are you suppose to pick up the ball and begin to run for the end zone again? If you know how to recover a fumble, you will pick up the ball and run like there is no tomorrow.
To begin the process of recovering a fumble, you must understand who God is, His character. If you don’t get God into your heart now, it is going to be hard later when you begin to fumble and you find yourself down for the count, looking for something to grab a hold of, or somebody to throw you a life jacket, and since you never hid God’s word in your heart, you will have no foundation to stand upon.
I am not saying God can’t meet you under those circumstances, but like the prodigal son, who remembered the goodness of his father’s house. He had to first experience his father’s goodness, to have it in his heart so that when the time came, and he fumbled the ball, he had something to draw from.
I want to examine David’s heart for a moment. When the rubber met the road, and his sin was brought to the light, David fell hard, but what made all the difference in the world was that he knew who God is. He hid three specific attributes in his heart. Three things that God always was, always is and always will be.
First, he relied on the fact that God is Merciful. A merciful God shows favor even to people who do not desire it. I would say by looking through this crowd, God goes above and beyond the call of duty and showed favor to you and me at times in our lives when we did not even deserve a drink of water, let alone a second chance at life. The word for mercy is usually used when an enemy, evil itself, or sins have become such a burden on somebody that only a supernatural act could intervene and release their troubles. God frees us from sin, so that he can release us to do his will and right now you are in the middle of his will and I commend you for that.
The second characteristic, David relied on is that God shows Unfailing love. God shows us acts of kindness. He is so concerned with His people that He is not just interested in the big things in life, but he takes great pride in meeting the details of our lives. Gods love is backed up with action. The psalmist says, “Your loving-kindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” You can over extend God’s love in your life. He never runs low. His love is in action and waiting for us to call upon His name.
The third characteristic of God, David relied on was His ability to be Compassionate. God is deeply concerned for you and me. He longs for us to connect with Him. Think of those stories you hear, when a long lost family member is reunited with their family after years of separation. Words can’t explain how those people felt, but what we hear about is the overwhelming excitement that leads to tears. That is exactly how our God feels about us; His heart breaks for us when we fumble the ball, since by nature he is compassionate.
Whether we are running with the ball for a touch down or beginning to fumble it, God is all these three things all the time and we need to remember that because if and when you do fumble the ball, me included, what is going to compel us to pick it up again? Knowing that, “The LORD’S loving kindnesses never cease and His compassion never fails, will help you make the decision. God is crazy about you and me and willing to do whatever it takes for us, all we have to do is call upon Him, if we ever fumble.
The psalmist also acknowledged the greatness of his sin. I don’t think David could have done any thing worse then what he already did. David’s sin took him out his game. It caused him to fumble the ball. He was a man after God’s own heart, and now, he is a man with a bad heart.
What gave David the courage to pick up the ball again was his ability to view his sin in light of God’s mercy, loving kindness and compassion. That is some powerful stuff if you think about it. David took all his junk, his sin and bad heart and then positioned himself where God could begin to work on him.
When you do this, you will have full access to God’s restoration program. In God’s program, the worst sin can be wiped clean. I know that is hard to believe, but in the midst of a life of sin. I mean a life where not one ounce is in right standing with God, in the midst of that kind of life, a man can look to God for restoration. A bad heart can be made whole again. A fumble can turn into a touchdown. The process to wholeness begins and ends with God.
David understood that and knew exactly what was keeping him from his intimate relationship he had with God so he decided to pick up the ball and run, even though the odds were against him. He wanted to do something. He got sick and tired of being sick and tired, so be picked up the ball and began to run.
The worst thing you can do after you fumble in life is do nothing. Do something, call a friend, call a pastor, call someone do something, the enemies plan for sin is to isolate a man. The enemy knows that if he can get a man alone, he can conquer him and that is exactly why the enemy is terrified of accountability.
Let me give you a definition of accountability that changed my whole perspective on the importance of having being accountable to someone. I was told “Accountability is giving the necessary information before it is required. It is giving people information before they ask.” Being accountable gives you credibility with others and the ability to hold that ball tight because if you are about to fumble, your honesty with another person can prevent the ball from being stripped from your hands. People who are not accountable tend to carry many secrets. What do you think one of your secrets could do, if David’s one secret ruined a whole kingdom? When David tried to cover his secrets, it only made it worse. If you don’t have an outlet in life to share you hurts, loses, failures, and on the other hand, your successes, victories and wins, you will become isolated. This will cause you to suppress all your stuff.
My dad is a perfect example of someone who experienced way too much stuff and did not have the proper accountability in his life. Not having an outlet to share your heart with anyone is a recipe for destruction.
At one point in my dad’s life things were real good. He accepted Christ as his savior and he began to grow spiritually but he neglected his past emotional baggage. He never dealt with the scares his past left on his heart. The mistakes he made, the failures he experienced, and the hardships he faced. Let me give you some of the details about my dad’s past so you can see what I am talking about.
His father tried to kill himself in front of him, so my dad had to push the gun, which caused the gun to shoot through his shoulder instead of his heart, later my dad’s dad was murdered, my dad went to prison and my brother and I ended up in the custody of the state, he was divorced two times, married three and the list goes on. Not properly processing all these traumatic events caused his heart to go bad and he topped out in life. He reached a certain point in life and instead of moving to the next level, he began to fall back.
At the most successful point in his life, he could not move forward. He began to move backwards and all that he worked for, a healthy Christian second marriage, a high paying job, 3 houses, a 30 foot boat, and multiple cars, was all gone. He fumbled the ball. 5 DWI’s later, multiple arrests, thousands of dollars down the drain in all kinds of fees and fines; and now he is finally beginning to pick up the ball. He finally began to realize who God was and is and can be in his life, if he begins to let God restore his heart. A bad heart was the root cause of my dad’s destructive behavior. But a restored heart will be his key to success and victory for his future. Realizing who God is jump started my dad’s ability to recover his fumble. Like my dad, David also began to recover his fumble and run with the ball. He knew that he had to rely on the power of God and secondly . . .
We can recover a fumble by. . .
2. Taking ownership for our Fumbles!
3 “For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.”
As you can see, David accepted the responsibility for his fumbles in life. Listen to his vocabulary, he said, “I know my transgressions,” “I sinned and done what is evil,” and “I was sinful at birth.” Do you hear the ownership? He used “I” statements, not “you” statements. He didn’t pass the blame on anybody, but himself. Brothers, don’t pass the blame. Fess-up as David did. It was at that point where David picked up his fumble and began to run.
In my opinion, King David was better at picking up his fumbles then Adam and Eve. When Adam was asked by God, where are you? After he and his wife fumbled in the garden, they didn’t fess up and take ownership for their fumble, but began to do something so natural to the human nature. They began to play the blame game. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent wasn’t there, so he had no one to blame. Adam could have begun the process to recover his fumble but he passed the blame.
Brothers, don’t let the blame game prevent you from picking up your fumble and running for a touchdown with God. I have seen way to many people stay out in their sin because they were blaming this person and that person.
Accept responsibility for your fumbles and move on. Someone once told me, “The more you hang around the foot ball the better chance you have to score a touch down.” Position yourself so when you fumble, and mess up your are right there to recover, instead of having to change downs and let the enemy score a touch down on you.
The bible says “If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” You are the only person who can own your sins. As long as David did not own up to his fumbles, his life would stay out of control. David lived his whole life as a great man of God. Way before he was ever even king, God showed him favor, continually. He ruled Israel like no other king. He had the blessing of God in his life, but his heart went bad. In the midst of all his fame and fortune as a king, he lost control of the one thing that got him to the throne, his heart. He fumbled his heart. That fumble did not only cost him his respect as a father, husband, and king, but he compromised his relationship with God. Let’s pause for a moment and move from David’s life to ours. I think at one level we can all relate to David. There came a point in our lives when we fumbled. Our fumbles resulted in drug abuse. As a result of your fumble, you are here today. On the surface, it appears that your problems were the drugs but when you really think about it, our problems goes much deeper then that, they go all the way to our hearts. You probably heard it before, drugs are not the problem. They are just symptoms of a much deeper issue, an issue of the heart. The truth of the matter is that we had a bad heart way before we ever turned to drugs. What the drugs did was make our condition worse and caused us to fumble in other areas of our lives as well. When your heart goes bad, your healing can’t take place unless you detach yourself from people, places, and things.
I want to share with you a simple illustration I shared with my dad a couple weeks ago that helped him see the importance of going away to get help. I asked him to think about war. Some men and women fight and have victories and others fight and get injured. What do you think happens when someone gets his arm and leg shot in the middle of battle? He said, most likely they will be shipped to a hospital away from the gun fire and explosions so that they can receive the medical treatment they needs. I said, exactly my point. You are wounded right now, you fumbled the ball, and you can’t possibly pick the ball back up, in the environment you are in. You are being attacked from every area, the phone, your friends, and yourself. You must detach yourself from those kinds of circumstances and come to a place that is safe, away from the work of the enemy. You wonder why TC is the most successful program in the world. It is a safe place where people can find healing so that when they graduate, they will have recovered their fumbles and have the skills to score a touch down. David knew that if he was going to find healing for his bad heart, he must take credit for his fumbles, and once he did that, God began to work on his heart. We can recover a fumble by. . .
3. Offering our heart back to God.
Verse10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
The only person, who can create a pure heart in you, is God. The word, create here is always used in reference to God’s creative power. The word, create, in Hebrew means to bring into existence what was not before. This act was and is a work solely reserved for God. The secret to recovering a fumble is found in the power of God. Like I said before, recovering a fumble begins and ends with God.
David relied on the character of God, took ownership for his sin in the presence of God and finally he offered his heart back to God. God picks us up and cleans us off and then cheers us on as we recover our fumbles. He is doing that as we speak. He is cheering you on, right now, as you commit to do the hard work of restoring your heart as you go through TC. God’s desire is for all of you to finish this program. He wants you to be successful, but that will only be accomplished by those who want God to take their bad heart and make it anew. Notice David asked God to create in him a clean heart, a new heart. It was David’s initiative.
I want to challenge you to initiative the restoration process. Don’t wait for someone to do it for you or for your life to get better, because it won’t. Yes, David fumbled, but he recovered that fumble and got back up and took off for the end zone.
David did not ask God for money, or fame, but a new heart. David wanted to get order back in his life. Would you like to do the same? Begin to pick the pieces of your life up and put them back in order. Would you like to live a life, not running from the police or worrying about who you beat or who wants to beat you, or if you are going to fail a drug test? The list goes on. All of that is in the past and can be kept in the past, if you begin this process and let God create a new heart in you.
Actions Points
1. Come in contact With Gods Word Daily: David was able to rely on the power of God because he hid God’s word in his heart. I want to challenge you to do the same. One of the best ways is to memorize Scripture. Also, in your devotional time that you will learn who God is.
2. Confess you’re Sins Frequently: David took Ownership for his fumbles, and so have I. The question is, do you? Have you asked God for forgiveness of your past fumbles? If you haven’t completely come clean with God, he would love to meet you up here at this alter tonight.
3. Meet With God Regularly: Don’t expect God to fix the heart you took 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 years to mess up in one day. Give God time to work. This means you have to spend time with God. If you stay around the football long enough you will score a touch down, and if you hang around God long enough, he will create in you a new heart and if you hang around TC long enough, some longer then others, you will graduate.
As we come to a close, if you rely on the power of God, take ownership for your fumbles, and offer your heart back to God, he will create in you a new heart. Once your heart is restored, then the problems you have with drugs, alcohol, women, authority, will begin to disappear. If you can find the courage to go through this process and receive from God a clean heart as David did, then you will place your life in a position that worships God with every beat of your heart. Altar call.
I have a really good power point to go with this sermon, if you want it. Email me, jjbousa@vfcc.edu
God Bless, Rev. Jess J. Bousa
