Talking To Someone Who Gives You Heartburn

Talking to Someone Who Gives You Heartburn

PPT 1 title

There are people that just the thought of them can make you feel uncomfortable. We all know people like that. If I were to ask when is the last time you talked to someone who gave you heartburn, I wouldn't be surprised if someone said it happened in the car this morning. Just kidding.

Heartburn is usually also called acid reflux, where some of your stomach acids get up into your esophagus which is not really the place those things ought to be. And it burns.

Our bodies are amazing with the processes that go on, beneath the surface and the conscious level. It is also amazing to know that parts of me can handle acid that the rest of me wants nothing to do with. Parts of me can handle human waste that would kill me if it got into other parts of me. It's a good thing we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

So let's talk briefly talk about heartburn.

Heartburn is a condition that is uncomfortable and can produce a measure of fear. You wonder if the pain is a heart problem or a digestion problem. Either one can send you to the hospital in a panic. My intention today is not talk about people who give you negative heartburn, but people who give us good heartburn. We can get heartburn from secondary and from primary sources. (I'll explain)

So I want to talk about the One who gives heartburn, that makes you come alive.

God is looking for people who will become living burning bushes, that will cause others to turn aside and be changed.

PPT 2 text

Luke 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Fire has always been a symbol of God's ability to energize, illuminate, captivate, and to do so with absolutely no harm. The first example in the bible would be Moses when He meets God at the burning bush. Moses is amazed to find the bush is on fire but wasn't being damaged at all. In that meeting He talked with God, and though the bible doesn't exactly say it this way, Moses Himself caught fire. The fire he caught was that the Jewish people would be set free from slavery. Moses caught fire with the fire that burned in God's own heart.

You see when you get around someone whose heart is on fire, it tends to spread. Have you ever talked to someone whose heart is on fire? We are going to briefly look at a couple people today who did. My prayer is that if you have never had a heart fire talk with God, that you will leave this place with one, or filled with desire that you will, because I know that if people hunger and thirst for righteousness they will be filled. I also want to challenge those who already know Jesus, when is the last time you had a talk with Him that set your heart on fire? I believe He wants to do it again for you.

For me my first encounter with heart fire was on the streets of San Francisco Ca, in January of 1974...

I was 18 years old, in the US Navy waiting to get transferred to Japan. One day I went into town and on Market Street in San Francisco there was a man preaching on a corner. Actually there were all kinds of things going on, on Market Street then. The Hare Krishna's were out, the pan handlers etc. It was the usual chaos of San Francisco in the early 70's. But there was something different about the man preaching. All I heard him say was, "there is a burning in my heart to get this message to you." My usual attitude towards Christians at that time in my life was to ignore them, I didn't want change the way I was living. But there was something about that man and that day, and I knew it, though I didn't quite understand it at the time. It was if the source of that burning fire in his heart was reaching out to me. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was there that day so that I would hear what he had to say. Within nine months I would have an encounter with the one who filled that mans heart with fire, and I would know for myself what it is to have a burning in your heart. It was the burning love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That man for me was secondary fire, but he pushed me in the direction of the primary source of that fire - God Himself.