Guardrails Part 5 Guard Your Heart
Proverbs 4:23-27 Luke 19:28-40
How many of you have ever had a crush on somebody and thought they were the greatest, but when you finally got to know the person, you didn’t think they were all that after all. As a matter of fact, you were surprised that you were attracted to the person in the first place. What happened was, your heart got ahead of your brain, and you let it run wild. Love isn’t the only emotion or feeling that we allow our hearts to run off the cliff in need of a guardrail. There are four others that want our hearts that we will talk about.
We are in week five of our series on Guardrails. We have seen that guardrails 1) Direct and Protect, 2) Helps Us With Friendships, 3) Keeps Us From Falling Into Sexual Immorality, 4) Keeps Us From Wasting Our Money, and 5) today we will see how they help us guard our hearts.
Remember: Guardrails are a system designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off limit areas. Guardrails are designed to cause a limited amount of damage now, to prevent major damage or loss of life later. The guardrails are always placed in the safety zone. A guardrail is a personal rule, or standard of behavior that becomes a matter of conscience. A guardrail is designed to light up our conscience before we hurt ourselves or others.
We are in our final message on Guardrails today, and it happens to fall on Palm Sunday which gives an opportunity to see what happened to a group on Palm Sunday that didn’t guard their hearts. Have you ever seen somebody that overreacted to a situation and an explosion seemed to have come out of their mouths out of nowhere? Have you ever been in a situation in which you said, “that wasn’t me, I don’t know where that came from. I usually don’t act like that.”
Now Jesus would tell us that our behavior came out of a response that was inside of our heart. We would rather say, “No Jesus, my behavior was a response to what they said to me, or what they did to me.” Jesus would argue with us and say “No, your response was based on what was inside of your heart.” Jesus would tell us, “Aa long time ago, there was a guy by the name of Solomon and he wrote this verse in Proverbs 4:23 (NIV2011) 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
What Jesus is saying is that what is in our hearts is eventually going to be reflected or it is going to show up in our behavior. We really don’t know what is inside of us, until we are put in a pressure situation and have to make a decision of how we are going to respond. When we are setting up guardrails in our heart, we need to know what is it that might cause us to drive off the road and have a major wreck with our lives.
Today is Palm Sunday. Jesus has been preaching for 3 to 5 years and is still the most popular religious figure of the day. Although many people had left Jesus because they didn’t want to obey his teachings, a lot of people are still excited about him. His message of God wanting to be in a relationship with people was catching on.
There was one group, called the Pharisees and scribes, who followed Jesus, but they did so in order to try to find something he might say or do so that they could have him arrested by the authorities. Now they don’t know it at the time, but this Palm Sunday is Jesus’ final march into the city of Jerusalem. They don’t know that they will be getting what they want in just a few days, and that Jesus will be crucified and killed.’
Even before Jesus was born, hundreds of years earlier, it had been predicted that the Messiah, the Anointed One, God’s deliverer was going to come into the city riding on a donkey. Jesus sets this up by having two of his disciples go and bring a donkey to him for him to ride into the city. The people got wind that Jesus was coming into the city. Matthew let’s us know that is happening just after Jesus had healed two blind men in Jericho.
Luke let’s us know it was right after the rich tax collector had gotten saved and paid back money to everyone he had cheated. John lets us know that it was after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and it was at a time for the Feast to take place. This means there were more people in Jerusalem than normal, the crowd was bigger and some of them had never seen Jesus before.
There was an excitement in the air. People knew Jesus would be coming down the road from Bethany to Jerusalem. They lined the streets in anticipation. What miracle might Jesus do today? As Jesus was coming down the road, people started laying down their coats and jackets so that the donkey Jesus was on would touch them. Other people started to cut down palms and lay them in the road to make a red carpet like they do for the stars today.
People were singing songs. They were praising God. They were shouting Halleluiah, Hosanna. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. If you could have seen the joy and enthusiasm on their faces. This was bigger than winning the NBA championship. People just wanted to hug and high five each other as Jesus passed by.
But there was one group there who would not participate in this event. In verse Luke 19:39 (NIV2011) 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” Now that would be like LeBron James scoring 60 points in the NBA finals in a comeback victory in which Cleveland was down by 20 with 6 minutes left and he hits a ½ court shot at the buzzer for the win. The fans are going wild only to have the coach from the other side get on the loud speaker and say, “LeBron we demand that you tell these people, you are not all that and they need to stop this fuss.”
Why did these words of rebuke to Jesus come out of the Pharisees mouth? Why when everybody else could see the goodness and mercy of God, they saw something evil and sinister taking place? It was because they had not guarded their hearts. They had not put the appropriate guardrails in their hearts to keep them from going off the edge.
There are four emotions that come out of our hearts that we need to be aware of that will cause us to hurt other people if we don’t put guardrails alongside of them. Remember, the most difficult commandment that Jesus gave to us was, John 13:34-35 (NIV2011) 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
I think one of the emotions that keep these Pharisees from being able to worship Jesus is guilt. They know that from the time Jesus had set his foot on the scene, they have been working behind his back to discredit him. They have tried to trap him with questions to get the Romans to arrest him. They have told lies about him to the people saying he doesn’t follow the laws of Moses. They have accused him of being one of Satan’s followers. They have tried to throw him off a cliff. They can’t worship Jesus because they have a lot of guilt about their behavior.
Guilt is the feeling “I owe you.” I have taken something from you that belonged to you and you don’t know about it. Guilt can keep us from being honest about our feelings. The other person may asks, what’s wrong, oh nothing’s wrong. What’s really wrong? I said nothing was wrong. So nothings wrong but you’re now both upset of nothing that’s wrong, but you both know something is wrong. But Guilt keeps it hidden.
Guilt may come when we know we have taken something from someone, and they know about it, but we just won’t admit it because of our pride. We won’t admit that our actions were devastating to them. Without inserting a guardrail, guilt is going to lead to keeping more and more secrets until you finally hope that someone finds out about it.
Do You know what is sad about these Pharisees and scribes and their guilt? It kept them and others from getting to know who Jesus really was. John 12:42-43 (NIV2011) 42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
The second emotion that keeps them from being able to worship Jesus on that day is anger. Anger is the feeling you owe me. The Pharisees were upset that Jesus didn’t follow their protocol. He hadn’t checked in with them before he started preaching, he just started preaching without them making sure he was fit to preach. Right in front of the people he had called them hypocrites. They heard Jesus had told his disciples not to be like the scribes and Pharisees because they teach one thing but live another.
Men who had spent their lives trying to serve God. He even had told a story comparing one of them to a low down good for nothing tax collector, and Jesus had the tax collector be the one that came out right with God. They wouldn’t join in praising Jesus if their salvation depended on it. They would just take all their brilliant learning and knowledge of the Scriptures and go home.
Is there anybody here struggling with an anger issue today? You don’t have to look very far to find the person who upset you, who hurt you, who told a lie about you. They were not there for you when you needed them. You feel like they owe you. After all you did for your kids, look at how they repaid you.
You can’t believe the sacrifices you made for that person, and they not only dogged you, but up and walked out. Anger never stays with the person that caused you the pain. You say you’ve moved on, but every time you think about that person or that situation you feel the feelings all over again. Without guardrails that anger seeps out. You walk in the church angry, around the church angry, and out the church angry and it has nothing to do with the church? People don’t want to be around you because you just seem upset all the time, a walking time bomb, ticking and ready to explode.
Have you ever had to apologize to someone for overreacting in a situation, when in reality you were angry with someone or something else. You get angry with someone in the church or some group in the church, and you take it out on the whole church. I will never ever…. Suppose God made it possible for you to not only never do it here, but made certain you were unable to do it anywhere else. The Pharisees were angry with Jesus, and were hoping Jesus would see, they are not part of this worshipping group. Jesus says no problem, if you won’t do it, there are some rocks over here willing to take your place.
The third emotion the Pharisees had to deal with was greed. Greed is the I owe me. It is the assumption that what comes into my hands is for me to enjoy on myself. Since Jesus has come around, donations given to be seen have gone down. Jesus had stood at the temple when the rich people was dropping big bags of gold money into the treasury and along comes this poor woman who puts in two copper coins worth a cent and Jesus says she had put in more than all the rest. God doesn’t just look at how much you put in, He looks at how much you keep for yourself. Jesus had actually made the following statement in public
Luke 20:45-47 (NIV2011)
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
The Pharisees felt they were entitled to what came into their possession. They were committed to silencing the voice of Jesus not only in their hearts, but in the hears of others as well.
It is so easy for us to believe, because its ours, I owe me with it. Most of us are not willing to have an open conversation with ourselves and with God about our purchases, our perks, or our positions. We don’t want to consider what else we can do with our money besides spend it on ourselves. Or how can possibly choose another option in order to be a blessing to someone else.
Greed keeps us from loving other people. Feeling sorry for others with all our hearts, but not doing anything about it with some of our money or stuff is called worthless religion according to James. Greed needs some guardrails. Something we did 5 years ago does not prove we have not allowed greed to spread in our hearts today.
Think about it, everything we have and think we owned has existed in one form or another since Jesus walked the planet. It has been passed on to us from those who came before us, and will be passed by us to those who come after us. We are simply stewards of what God has given to this world. God tells us to use the wealth of this world, to prepare you for the world that is to come. Greed says, “no, I’m going to live like this is it.”
The fourth emotion that the Pharisees have to deal with is jealousy. Jealousy is the world owes me. The Pharisees had followed the playbook. You follow the right rules, you discipline yourself and you go to school, you learn how to preach and teach, and you get exalted in the eyes of the people. They are jealous of Jesus.
Jesus had been a carpenter. He hadn’t studied under any great philosopher or religious leader. He hung he around with all kinds of people not concerned too much with his reputation. Yet God chooses him to have these great big crowds of people coming to see him. God chooses him to do all these miracles. He was getting the attention they should be getting. They were afraid, the Romans would be more interested in dealing with Jesus to control the people than with them.
Have you ever been jealous of somebody? You should have been the valedictorian. You should have been the mvp. You should have gotten married first. You should have gotten the promotion after all you did deserve it. You should have won the election. You should have gotten the solo part.
Jealousy keeps us from loving another person. The dark side of jealousy even causes us to feel good when the other person fails, or messes up, or lose what they have. We will even go and tell somebody else, “isn’t this awful what happened to them, I feel so bad for them.”
How do we set up guardrails with each of these emotions so that we can become what Christ calls us to be. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives. Remember, a guardrail is going to cause you some pain now, in order to prevent some major pain later.
We handle guilt through confession. We have to confess what it is we have done first of all to God. Then we may have to confess it to someone that we trust and is a close friend of ours. Depending on the circumstance, we may have to confess to the person that we wronged.
You need to seek God and godly counsel on confessing some things to a person that the person is unaware of. You can do more damage than good to a person just trying to get something off your conscience. When both of you are aware of the issue, you may need to admit that you were wrong and what it was that you did.
We handle our anger by choosing to forgive. You have to identify, what exactly does the other person owe you. You have to choose to forgive them for that particular thing. But wouldn’t that be canceling their debt and letting them off the hook. Yes, but it will let you off the hook as well. It will also free you from taking your anger out on those who are around you. God cancelled our debt. The power of the Holy Spirit can enable you to cancel any debt that you want to cancel. That situation does not have to determine the quality of the rest of your life. You don’t have to keep carrying the anger everywhere that you go. It will hurt to let the person off the hook, but that’s nothing compared to stopping the potential pain you would be causing those you love.
We handle our greed by choosing to give. You write a large check to you and give it away for something good that won’t come back to you. With every large purchase make, ask Is there a way I can get what I want while still being a blessing to others. Can I cut back here, and fund this over there for the same amount of time. It will hurt to put in this small guard rail, but it will keep you from thinking only about yourself. Sometimes the things that bless you the most in life, are the things you choose not to get so that you can love somebody.
We handle our jealousy by celebrating the victory of others. We congratulate them on their good fortune. We might have to grit our teeth at first, that’s the guardrail. It’s a lot better than becoming a bitter person. We thank God for our situation and ask God to give us the grace to learn and to grow from what has happened to us. Sometimes you are going to do all the right things, and bad things are going to still happen, but know that God is still with you. Having an abundant life, isn’t a life where you have an abundance of things, it’s a life where you have an abundance of God’s grace and God’s presence.
It’s only by guarding your heart of these things, that there is room in your heart to receive the love and grace that God wants to give you through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on a cross to cancel the debt we owed for our sins. God raised him 3 days later to prove we were forgiven and our lives could be lived differently because of the resurrection power o Jesus Christ. Guardrails will help us to get better at living the life, God wants us to have.
(Several of the ideas contained in this Message comes from Andy Stanley’s Series on Guardrails. Our church purchased their DVD bible study and adapted it for our use.)
