COVENANT COMMUNITY CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
10-7-02
KJV Matthew 12:35
TITLE: LIVING FROM THE HEART
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 12:35 “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
We don’t do things quite like God does. We don’t observe things quite like the Lord does. We might look at people and see that they are doing some good things. And it’s possible that we can look at people and see them as bad, yet they can do good things. It’s also possible for people to be good and do bad things. According to the word of God that is not the case here where Jesus said “A good man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man bringeth forth evil things.” God looks at things in two ways. He sees things in two ways. Let me give you a good example. When God looks upon our soul. Not our flesh or body or works but our soul. He sees us in one of two ways. He either sees us as being a born again child of God or he sees us as being lost without God in this world and dying and on our way to Hell. He sees us as saved or lost. In other words. When Christ looks at us he sees us as either being a good man or an evil man as it says in verse 35. Now you’ve read in the scripture where it says that man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart. We often times see peoples attitudes, their actions and it tells us a story of what kind of person they are. The Bible says we’ll know a tree by the fruit it bears.
Now God either sees us as doing good or doing evil and there is no in between. So I want to preach this morning on “Living from the heart.”
There’s a lot of people today that are living from their minds. They see a lot of things around them and a lot of things that are bad on television, maybe they see bad things in school and maybe even see bad things in peoples lives they are around. These kind of things reflect on what kind of life style we live. Often times we see these things and they begin to become a reality to us and they start affecting our lives and not in the right way but in the wrong way. We Shouldn’t go by things that are in our mind. The devil can put things in your mind. That’s why I believe people take their own lives. The devil puts things in their mind and tries to tell them that they are no good nothing, their nobody and worthless and nobody loves them and they end up taking their own lives because of what the devil has put in their mind. But I have news for you today. Everybody is good in the eyes of God. He loves everybody and cares for everybody and He would never tell you that you were worthless. Your worth meant so much to him that he sent his only begotten Son to die on a cross for you. He wants you to care for him.
NUMBER ONE: I want you to remember this…..You need to live your lives with a heart that is PURCHASED with the Salvation of God. 1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
There are people scattered all over the world that don’t know Christ as their personal Savior. We preached a funeral yesterday of a good friend that went home to be with the Lord. I’m glad she had that assurance. She lived the kind of life where her heart had been purchased with the Salvation of God. When I stood over Ms Wilma yesterday I thought about the old beggar in the Bible. The beggar didn’t have anything , he laid there at the rich mans gate full of sores, the dogs came and licked upon him. To look at him you’d think he had nothing. But he had Jesus Christ as his Savior when he left this world and while we’re here we need to live a life with a heart that’s been purchased with the Salvation of God. So many people today have wild and crazy lifestyles. You see it everyday and even in the schools. I was talking to my daughter Stephanie about it. It’s sad that there are children being raised in drugs and alcohol. That doesn’t come from the heart but it comes from the head. It comes from their parents and how they are taught. But God is the best teacher. If we’re going to proclaim our Salvation then we need to live our Salvation. We need to live like we love the Lord and that we’re different.
These movie stars get up on television and thank God for their awards and they don’t even come to the house of God enough to show God they love him. They thank God in one sentence and bare their skin in another.
How can we live with our heart. In Acts 2:21 “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” When Christ came into this world, he came to save sinners. All it takes for a sinner to be saved is to humble themselves in the sight of God and say, “God I’m a sinner and I want you to come into my soul and my heart and save me.” God says that he will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then after that point we start growing in the Lord. We begin to look like God, living like God, acting like God. There’s too many people in the world today that don’t live like God. Our lifestyle ought to match our life source. We’re children of God!
NUMBER TWO: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s been PENETRATED with the Spirit of God. You cannot have the Salvation of God and not have the Spirit of God to go along with it.
There’s a lot of people that say they’ve been saved and they never bear any Spirit of God about them. I believe when you get the Salvation of God, you’ll also get the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” There’s a lot of people today that don’t even know what the Spirit of God is. The Spirit of God will lead you. The Spirit of God can fill you.
If someone were to ask you, “Where is God?” He’s seated on his throne. If someone were to ask you, “Where is Jesus?” He’s seated at the right hand of God making intercession for you and I. Then you say , “How can we feel him, how can we know him?” Because Jesus said, “When I go away I’ll leave you a comforter.” That comforter is the Holy Spirit of God.
NUMBER THREE: We need to lives our lives with a heart that’s been PURIFIED by the faith of God. Faith is the most important thing in a Christians life. The Bible says that faith is the essence of things not seen, but yet it’s the substance of things hoped for. Without faith you cannot please God. Ephesians 2:8 says “we’re saved by faith through grace.” You can’t even get saved without faith.
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We don’t live by the natural things of this world. We don’t let the natural things of this world govern what we do. We live our lives simply on word and one source that God gave us and that word is Faith. We live and walk by faith. A lot of Christians don’t keep the faith that God can do all things.
NUMBER FOUR: We need to lives our lives with a heart that’s been PARDONED by the forgiveness of God. Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” But do you know what controls most Christians lives in this world? Sin! It’s every where you turn. But I have good news….where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Grace always defeats sin. Always! When I was growing up mom and dad took me to church every Sunday. They told me about Christ. Not everybody has that opportunity. We need to keep in mind if there are children out there that aren’t hearing about Christ because of their parents, then we need to tell them. I’ve been doing evangelistic work on Sunday nights by visiting other churches and preaching. Some of those churches and Pastors need some help. Their members are acting just like the world. Those Pastors are preaching their hearts out and some of those people that are listening aren’t getting it. Their coming to church on Sunday and leaving in the same condition they came in. They go home and live in sin because they don’t heed to God’s word. They don’t read their Bibles, they don’t pray, they don’t fellowship. They pretend!!
The Bible says that if the man of God dwells in you then the man of God cannot sin.
NUMBER FIVE: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s been POSSESSED by the grace of God.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10 “For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” None of us was worthy of God. But by the grace of God we are what we are.
He told Paul his grace was sufficient for him. In other words, he doesn’t have to give you anything else. Often times we pray for anything and everything that we need and want. But Jesus told Paul that his grace was sufficient. If the grace of God can’t do it for you then nothing will. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. God’s mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. He who knew no sin became sin for us. We need to realize that his grace is a free gift.
NUMBER SIX: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s been PERSUADED by the power of God. Romans 1:16 “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it’s the power of God unto Salvation to everyone that believe, to the Jew first then to the Greek.” Sometimes I’ll get in my natural mind and I’ll start saying, “Lord, why did you call me to preach? I’m not even good enough to be a Christian.” But Paul said that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. His heart had been persuaded by the power of God. “You can, you will do as I say” We need to let our power source be God. We’re faced with a troubled time. But we’re not here to live eternity. Our eternity is in heaven with the Lord.
NUMBER SEVEN: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s been PRACTICING the word of God. This is the number one area where I feel Christian fail the most. Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Notice the word the three letter word that Paul used: LET In other words Christ’s words are not just going to conquer and overtake our lives. We have to LET the word of God dwell in us richly. If you’re not a Bible reader then you’re probably not too effective at being a Christian. If you’re not a Bible studier then you’re probably not going to be effective at being a soul winner for God. If you’re not a Bible reader you probably won’t be an effective church goer or member. We need God’s word to develop our lives. Our children go to school everyday and the amount of books they bring home is ridiculous. They probably spend more time in the school books than they do in His book. I’m being honest. We have to have time to read God’s word in order for our Spiritual lives to develop into something. When God develops our spiritual lives, it’s not for our benefit but for his. Every time he develops our spiritual life it affects somebody elses life that we’re around. Paul said that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto al good works. Paul said to study to show thyself approved unto God. He was talking about studying the Bible and not some magazine.
There are too many Bible dust collectors in the world. God can speak things to you that I can’t. I like what James said There’s two things we need to remember about the word of God. #1 he said we have to be hearers of the word. You can preach to some people and it goes in one ear and out the other. People it’s not speaking to you…it’s God speaking through me. You need to be attentive to God’s word. And #2 we have to be doers of the word. You can not be a doer of the word without being a hearer of the word. And you can not hear the words then not do the words.
NUMBER EIGHT: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s PERSUING the will of God. Everyone has their own ideas of what they should do and what they should be. The devil has so many people tricked. We need to do God’s will and not our will. Ephesians 5:17 “Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” When Jesus prayed in the Garden he said, “Father not my will, but thy will be done.” That’s the way we need to pray.? We need to do what God wants us to do and not what self or spouse wants us to do. There are people out there that aren’t bearing any fruit. Their trying to control their own spiritual destiny, their own spiritual maturity and God’s taking them down a notch every day and they don’t even realize it. The more you get in God’s word, the more you get down on your knees and pray and the more you’ll know what God’s will is in your life. A lot of people don’t read the word of God because they know God will change them. They don’t want that. So they stay away from the Bible, from prayer and God’s house. Somewhere in John 3 or 4 it says that people don’t come to the light because they don’t want their deeds made manifest. There’s people out there that will spend a hundred dollars on lottery tickets and do you think they’re going to pray and ask God to forgive them? Joyce and I have never had much. We’ve been married going on 17 years. I’m just like everybody else out there, We live payday to payday. If something very big happened where I didn’t get that payday, we’d be in trouble. But I can look back over the 17 years and I can see that God has always supplied our needs. We’ve always had groceries, clothes, and a roof over our head.
NUMBER NINE: We need to live our lives with a heart that has a PASSION for the love of God. 1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love.” Who are we supposed to love? God! The greatest commandment in the Bible says to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, thy mind and thy strength. The second greatest commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. He’s not talking about the person who lives next door to you. He’s talking about His people. People out there are devouring each other. That’s not the love of God. The love of God says you can look beyond others faults and failures and love them in the Lord. You know why people aren’t good soul winners? Because they haven’t fallen in love with lost people . If we don’t share the gospel with the lost we might as well be telling them to die and go to Hell.
NUMBER TEN: We need to live our lives with a heart that’s PREPARED to spend eternity with God. Our heart needs to be prepared. Abraham was seeking for a city whose builder and maker was God. He was just a pilgrim, a stranger passing through this land like you and me but he was seeking for a city to come. That city was heaven. We are going to die one day. We will either go to heaven or we will go to Hell. The only way we can get to heaven is to trust Christ. John 14:10-4 “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, also believe in me. For in my fathers house are many mansions. If it were not true I would have told you so. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also.” I told you at the beginning that he was seated at the right hand side of God. So when he comes again to receive us unto himself, we’ll be right there with him at the right hand side of God. There’s going to be sheeps and goats there and he’s going to look at the sheep and say, enter into the joys of the lord and then he’s going to look at the goats and say depart from me for I never knew you. What did I say in the beginning? God looks at things in two ways. He either looks at it as good or bad. When we go to that great white throne judgment those of us that have accepted Christ into our hearts he’s going to see us as being saved and we’ll enter in to the joys of the Lord. But people that die and go to the judgment and he looks down and doesn’t see the blood of the lamb, will depart from God for he never knew them. They will spend eternity in a Lake of fire that burns forever and ever.
Matthew 6:21 “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” I wonder where your treasure is at today. Where is your heart? Do you know Christ as your personal Savior? What kind of lifestyle are you living for the Lord today?
