Two Conditions Of The Heart That Draws God's Attention

Mark: Good morning, everybody. Good to see you. And ⁓ I've been looking forward to this today. I th the Lord gave me something that has kind of shocked me really. ⁓ that I had probably read this scripture many, many times over the years. ⁓ but y sometimes when you read a scripture in a moment and suddenly you see something you've never seen before. That's kind of what happened to me. And ⁓ I'll start out by reading it to you from from the book of Isaiah, chapter sixty-six, verses one and two. It says, Thus says the Lord. Always a good place to take notice. A lot of people are saying a lot of things, but when the Lord says something, we need to be sure that we pay attention. He says this Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. And I I got this mental image of that, you know, here's God sitting on his throne, he created the earth, and he's just kind of relaxing, got his feet up on the earth. Where is the house that you would build for me? Where is the place of my rest? For all these things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. So what he's saying is, listen, where is the house you could build for me? Solomon built an amazing temple for the Lord. It was a wonder of the world. There have been many temples built for the Lord, many projects done for the Lord, and in the name of the Lord over the years, and with the Lord's help. But he's saying, What could you put? possibly create and do that I'll take notice of. All those things exist. You know, if you have creativity, if you got a mind that creates wonderful things that you could do for God, wonderful, but I made your mind. Are you skilled in what you put together, the temple you built, the organization you've created? But but but I'm the one that gave ability to your hands and your mind. It's all me. And those things are wonderful, and those things are needed because he wants to communicate to people on the earth. But he says, What am I gonna take notice of? He says, On this one I will look. All those things are impressive, but on this one I will look. And the word in the Hebrew there is Nabat. And it means to look with intensity at, to regard with pleasure, favor, and care, to consider, to regard, and to have respect. He's asking the question: what would I have to look at to have that kind of emotion, that kind of commitment? That kind of admiration, that kind of joy, what would I have to look at to see that? And then he answers his own question. On him who is poor, that means poor in spirit. He's not convinced that there's something awesome, a humble person. On him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word from heaven this morning. God takes joy when he finds someone like that. I believe there's a mutual admiration society going on there. That we're adoring him and taking him seriously what he has said. We're trying to wrap our mind around the incomparable. We're walking into it as revelation comes to us. You can't understand it unless the Lord opens your eyes to it. When we have this beautiful relationship starting to Come together where we're beginning to understand who he is, and he's looking down on us, and we're we're contrite and broken, and we understand we don't deserve him. We don't deserve the blessing of being invited into his fellowship, but yes, yet he does it. And we find ourselves there, and we sometimes feel so unworthy. In fact, I I saw a quote by Billy Graham the other day. He said something like this: He said, The closer we get to God. The more aware we become of our sinfulness. You know, you can be in a service like this or in your own ⁓ devotion sometimes, and and suddenly ⁓ you feel the presence of God, but you feel also, ooh, I'm not like that. I'm I I wish I were, but I I'm really not like that. I I have all this stuff going on in my life. I have this propensity for this or this hunger for that that I shouldn't have. But But yet here I am in the presence of God. I'm feeling his presence. I'm feeling his love. I'm even feeling maybe his joy. But yet I feel somehow this is not right because I'm like this. Doesn't scare God at all. He came to remedy that. He came to remedy that. It's good news. You'll have to run from God, even though you feel like you don't deserve Him because you don't. That's the first understanding we need to have. I'm not worthy. I'm not. And my record isn't the greatest. And I'm guessing I'm talking to a room full of people that can say amen to that, even if you don't want to. Huh? But this is so cool because God says, this is the one I this is the one that's going to get my attention. You're sitting there thinking, I'm not important enough for God to take notice of me. Well, according to what I read right here, and according to the way he's dealt with people through the scriptures. I'm here to tell you he's very interested in you. In fact, he loved you so much that he sent heaven's best to take the penalty away from you through the blood that he shed on the cross. And you can tell how much God cares about you because of the gift that he gave you. And so I think we need to establish that before him this morning and not come into his presence feeling like he couldn't care less about us. He takes notice of you. Broken heart and a contrite heart, God will not despise. You know, I was thinking about King David. King David was a man that. Probably had a unique statement made about him. The Lord said, He's a man after my own heart. And the Lord took him out of an invisible place in Israel at the time. When King Saul was ruling, he was filled with pageantry and power. And David was just a little shepherd boy. Something about David's life tells us that he probably was not favored by his family. He said something in one of the one places where he said, My in sin did my mother conceive me. It's hard to understand particularly what that means. We don't have any other evidence, but one would think, probably, because the way he was treated by his brothers and so forth, that he may have been an illegitimate child. Can you imagine someone in that state that God would take and raise him up in ambiguity in a nation of people that were looking at greatness, and yet God puts a finger on him and said, This is a man. After my own heart. Poor, unloved, unknown, and yet God zeros in on him above all of the warriors in the nation, above King Saul, whom he had a mind to replace with this shepherd boy nobody knew, nobody cared about but God. You think you're unworthy? You are. Grace is favor, unmerited favor. And God extends that to people just like you and me. Regardless of our record, but he's looking for some things: contrite heart and a broken spirit. We see that all through scriptures, in fact, there are several places that that very statement is made. David himself made one in Psalm 34, verse 18. During a time when he was running for his life. He said, The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. You know, these two words capture the essence of repentance. A broken heart is somebody whose driving force has been interrupted by failure. Somebody who started out with good intention, maybe and made mistakes, and but they've got a broken heart now. They feel like they're they're ruined. And but it also says he saves such as has a contrite spirit. You know, I've I've been at this for a long time and been around church for all my life, literally. And you see a lot of people that Kind of get a little bit arrogant in their sin. Even as believers, you know, they kind of say I'm God's rebel or whatever. And God doesn't like rebels unless they're rebelling against dead religion. But we have a problem sometimes in our arrogance and in our, you know, you as a pastor, you get in counseling and you're talking about somebody with somebody and and you're talking about their situation and And they they reveal to you that they've got this kind of thing or this kind of anger or whatever it might be. And you say, Well, you know, God can redeem you from that and they'll say, Well, just just this is just the way I am. Hello. You may be that way right now. But you're sitting in this seat today because you have an issue with how you are. You're eating the fruit of your own ways. And one thing I've learned as a pastor that people don't change until the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of changing. So if you're sitting there today in pain, don't just say, this is the way I am. God has a remedy for the way you am. And when you humble yourself in the sight of God, He will lift you up. Plain and simple. Scripture promises that. That contrite heart, that broken spirit, that that sense of I'm really off the rails here. But some people, when they get off the rails, they just keep pouring down pouring energy into that. God says, let your contrite heart, your settled heart, kind of like what Pastor Josh was talking about there. You gotta back away from all the noise. Settle down. Submit your heart to God and let him take care. It's amazing how he will. And David, you know, he said that. And yet later in his life, he made a huge mistake. He made a huge mistake. And at the pinnacle of his power, David. In a callous place and in love with his power, he felt an urge for another for another man's wife. had an affair with her. She became pregnant. And then David killed her husband. Had him killed to cover up his sin. This man that he had killed was one of his mighty men. One of that band of men that would lay down their life for him. And yet, this man, with after God's own heart, made such a heinous mistake. Listened to his lower nature to a point that he overrode all the things that he would have believed in. That in the pinnacle of his power, somehow he allowed himself. This diversion from God's will. Psalm 51 resulted from those moments. And David, in the pits of despair, cried out to the Lord in this Psalm and said, For you did not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. That was an amazing revelation because right across town the temple was built for that very purpose. People would bring a lamb, they would bring a turtle dove, whatever they had, they would sacrifice for their sins. But David knew that was somewhat empty. It was only pointing towards something greater. He said, You don't desire that. Or I would give it. He could give flocks and herds to the sacrifice with a word. He delved deeper. He said, You don't care about that. You don't delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. These, ⁓ God, you will not despise. That word despise there means to disesteem or to discount. In the moment of your worst self, a contrite heart before God. A broken spirit before God, an open heart toward God. He won't despise it. He won't write you off. He'll hear your heart. He'll open the windows of heaven upon you and pour out on you a blessing you can't possibly deserve or even receive hardly. Doesn't seem right almost. But that's what grace is, folks. Not to not to downplay or or dissipate the responsibility and the and the cost, because David paid a cost for this the rest of his life. Absolutely. When Nathan the prophet came and shed the light of God's glory upon his actions, he was devastated. But in that critical moment, in that crossroads of his life, he came to himself. When he's confronted with his sin by Nathan the Prophet, face to face with the hideous things he's done in those dark moments when his sins were seen in the blinding clarity of Of heaven spotlight, he records this psalm in anguish. This brutally transparent moment for David, where he cries out to God for forgiveness and cleansing in the desperate hope that he may again find a path and a place to purity and acceptance. Can you ever outlive something like that? Can you ever close that chapter and get back to being a man after God's own heart? Yes. Yes. Categorically, thankfully, yes. There's no one in this room today, no one within the sound of my voice, wherever it goes, that hasn't had a moment like this of some sort. Maybe not to that degree, hopefully. I would tell you this there are a lot of us who have disqualified ourselves from receiving the love and the attention of God. Because we've self Distanced ourselves thinking I'm gonna have to exist on this lower level for the rest of my life because When God forgives, the Bible tells us He forgets. It's just as if you'd never done it. That's not to lessen the cost of what you did. And the cost you may still pay. But when you ask for forgiveness with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, God cancels it. It's like he took a red pen of the blood and marked through it so it's illegible from that point on. That doesn't lessen. The severity of what's happened. And as I said, David paid for it the rest of his life. So you'll want to go there. You don't want to cause issues. But when you find yourself in a place like that, and so many people disqualify themselves and feel like they're going to be on the bench for the rest of the game. Can I just tell you, if you've ever been right here, where David is, you're so valuable to God. It costs you a lot. But what you have when you walk away from that moment is a message that nine out of ten people you will meet for the rest of your life need to hear. Is this too heavy? I'm telling you guys, it's such a blessing when you realize that God has foreknown you. He already knows everything about you, every thought you have, every desire, good, bad, and indifferent that you have. And all he says, would you just please come to me with a broken heart over it? Contrite spirit, that means a moldable spirit, somebody that's pliable in my hands. You know, we I think about, as an example, I think about when we, when I was a kid, well, I wasn't a kid at that time, I was in college, but our family moved to South Texas from San Antonio, and we bought a place that had some acreage, and a horse came with it. This horse's name was Loco. I soon learned why. I thought, ⁓ cool, I love to ride horses. And and we got this horse and and you know, you'd go outside and he'd be hanging his head over the fence. And he he learned to exp he had this almost look on his face. I need an apple or something. And so you'd go out there and you'd feed him an apple or whatever, feed him some grain, whatever it was, and and then he'd mosey off in the back of the place and eat some grass. And every time it was amazing. If you went out with the attitude of giving him a treat, he's hanging his fed head over the fence. If you went out with the thought you just might ride it. He suddenly got hungry for grass in the far corner of the path. It happened every stinking time. And you get the bridle out and you walk with it behind you with an apple and he's looking at you and he'll come close enough to grab a bite of the apple and then he's gone. And then when you finally got the bridle on the thing, you d you drag him literally, it felt like you had to drag him into the barn to get the saddle on. Tie him up or he'd run away. Get the saddle on him. Get up in the, you say, All right, we're gonna ride now. That that horse had the ability to have the worst gait you could possibly imagine. It was bone rattling. As long as you were going away from the barn. But as soon as you turned around to head back home, it was like in a rocking chair. I know some Christians like that. One of them I've seen in the mirror quite a few times. It's amazing. But God says, Listen, if I could just ever get you to come to me without an agenda. I've kind of come to the place I don't like prayer lists. Because I'm talking to God about what I want to talk to God about. When my understanding of prayer is I'm in there to listen as much as pray. And maybe talk to God about what He's talking to me about. Nothing wrong with the prayer list. It's a good place to start. But don't be married to it. Don't be hanging your head over the fence only for an apple. God's here because He wants to inhabit you. That's been his choice. That's the temple that he's excited about. Not the one across town that you look at, whoa, glory to God. God looks at somebody who's even poor, without two cents to rub together, but has a contrite heart, teachable spirit. I'm paying attention to that. Two things God draws that draws God's attention, a contrite heart and a broken spirit. These, O Lord, you will not despise. If you find yourself in a place where you feel like God has abandoned you because you did this or that X, Y, and Z, or didn't do this X, Y, or Z, I want you to remember this next story. It's one of my favorites because it's my story too. called the prodigal son. I've changed it to the prodigal sons because both boys were a mess. Jesus in Luke fifteen Брот зі сторін. He brought it in in a triad of three parables. And parables, if you don't particularly know what that means or what they are, why they're there. A parable is a story, not necessarily a true story, but it's a scenario that Jesus told to illustrate principles of his kingdom. Which is a beautiful thing to do because you can get real theological and things don't make much sense to the common person. So Jesus said, I'm going to get down where you live here. I'm going talk about scenarios in life where you've seen them, you've been part of them, and I want you to see that my kingdom is like this. And he picked three of them. One was a lost child or lost sheep, pardon me, a lost sheep, the other was a lost coin, and the other was a lost son or sons in this case. And Jesus told this triad of threes, because He says, In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. That's first second Corinthians 13 1. So it's a principle. If you just say it once, okay. If you say it twice or three times, you better pay attention. And so he has these three little parables together. The final one is the longest one. And one day in a company of a random crowd made up of tax collectors, sinners, which would be everybody, and Pharisees. Jesus told a series of three parables. Through these simple stories, he reveals several immensely important aspects of God's nature and two characteristics of the human heart in particular that draw his loving response. We've been dealing with those. Parables, of course, were store were stories Jesus used to help us understand the nature and the principles of God. In Luke 15, the clustering of these three parables. Illustrating the same general message in is in keeping with the new but the new things he was doing on earth. They're established, yes, in the Old Testament. They pointed toward them, but now they have come to pass. And the use of in these parables in Luke 15 clearly and emphatically they establish the priority of God's heart toward reclaiming things that have been lost. These three sequential parables feature lost sheep, as I said, a lost coin and lost sons. In each situation, we can feel the same sense of anguish and hopeful longing for the restoration of what has been lost. This is a direct revelation of God's deep longing for all of mankind separated from him because of sin. The longest of these three parables stands in direct contrast to a Pharisaic parable that was commonly taught in the synagogues and schools of the day. At that version, it featured an apparently rebellious and disobedient child that came to his father. For his possessions and for his inheritance, and went to a far country where he wasted it all in some kind of self indulgent indulgent lifestyle. And it says he became poor and he and he came to himself and he returned home to his father. And his father received him only under the condition that this boy would serve as a slave in the house, having forfeited his inheritance already. Parable was known, taught, and preached. And Jesus stood in the face of the crowd who'd all heard it. And he changes it to a kingdom reality. That boy came to his father, asked his father for his inheritance. In that day and time to ask your father for your inheritance before his passing would be considered saying, I wish you were already dead. We can read into the whole situation. There must have been problems in the home. The elder brother didn't get mentioned here, but he was part of the problem. The elder brother in this actually compares to the Pharisees themselves. When you understand what Jesus is doing, he's telling the everyman story, and he's also pointing a finger at the established religion of the day. So in this case, the boy comes to himself. He's finally come to the end of his road down there. He's spent everything he had. He's feeding pigs, which to a young Jewish nobleman would be the last thing on earth you would ever want to do. It'd be the lowest rung on the employment ladder. You'd never want to be in this position. And here he is, he's come to the end of himself. He's in a mess. He's in a deplorable situation he could never have possibly dreamt of. And in these moments he comes to himself. It's the grace of God to bring us to repentance. Maybe some of you are shaking your head at me today because you've been there. I was there. It's different stuff for different people. Finally, we realize, you know, I'm I'm not where I need to be with God. I used to be maybe, but I'm not where I need to be now. You've got a choice to make in that moment. Are you gonna double down on stupid? Or are you gonna break? Are you gonna break? A broken heart, a contrite spirit, teachable spirit, will draw you back to the place you offended. It will draw you back there as this boy came home. And I love this picture. It just breaks my heart thinking about it. He starts the journey back. You gotta understand he's he's as far down as you can possibly get. He was so far down feed feeding these hogs that he even began to lust for the food that he was feeding the pigs. And there was no mercy in his boss's eyes. He wouldn't even give him that. Finally, this boy breaks. You know, sometimes we need to understand that this mess we're all in. God has allowed it. Break us so he can make us. boy responded to the only option he had and he said, ⁓ I'm gonna return to my father. And I'll say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no worthy, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Only make me one of your hired servants. And so with that on his lips, he's meditating on that. He's hoping beyond hope, beyond hope, that as he gets back home to his father, then his father will have some level of mercy. But he says, I'm gonna just throw myself on his mercy. And as he's walking down the road, you can only imagine this guy is filthy, he smells, everything about him is decrepit and pitiful. And as he walks toward his father, he gets a surprise because his father is standing somewhere looking down the road. And while he was still a far way off, his father sees him. There's a parable somewhere, a quote somewhere I've read that you take one step for toward God and He's taking two steps toward you. And the Father comes running to him. In that day and time, an elder would never run to anybody. As the headmen in their tribes and of the headmen of their families, people ran to them, but they never ran to anyone else. And God debunks this authority picture that people held. He said, the father ran to him, fell on his neck, kissed him. He would have become unclean just like his son according to Jewish law. But he didn't care. Because it's his boy. Say, well God doesn't care for me like that. Listen, he's no respecter of persons. Small or great. Smart or dumb. Doesn't matter. He loves you because he created you. Period. End of story. Full stop. If you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out. It's not in his DNA. If he sees you and he sees your broken heart, he says, I'm looking. I'm looking. This is the kind of stuff I look for. There's a party in heaven over one sinner that repents. Can you imagine the Father's heart? Every time some of us Get the moment where we come to ourselves, we say, what am I thinking? I won't be in this life forever. How can I be such a fool to live this life I'm living, knowing that it's only for a short time and I'll be paying for it for the rest of my eternity? On the other hand, if I repent and go back to my father, what's possible? Not only on this life in this life, but in eternity as well. It's that important. It's absolutely that important, folks. And what we see next is so beautiful. You know, you'd think that the father would say, Okay, listen, ⁓ you're gonna have to pay for your, you know, your affairs. You're gonna have to pay the price for what you've done, but the father doesn't say that. The boy starts his confession to the father. Father, I've sinned in heaven. I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Only, and then about that time, the father interrupts. And calls his servant and said, Bring the robe. You know the one. The best robe. They they always had a robe for people that would come to their places from a whether it was the priest or the king or somebody of importance. They had a special robe that the family had, the father's robe, actually. He says, Bring the robe. Bring the robe. And they put it around the shoulders of this boy that's about as dirty and nasty. As could possibly imagine, but he's r in robe to win the family's robe. A picture of acceptance, of love, a priority. And then bring the ring. In those days they didn't have credit cards, they didn't have checks that they could write. They had a ring with a family symbol on it. The ring was a picture of authority to act in the family's name. They put the ring on his finger and now he can do business in the family name and and put that symbol in the hot wax of an agreement. The family's resources are at his disposal. Some of us coming back to the Lord, we may understand that He's covered us with the robes of righteousness, but as far as our prayers really mattering, we don't say God hears us. We can't transact business like Pastor Josh or another person you know. I'm here to tell you today when you come back to Jesus, when you're in the family, when you've been accepted in the beloved, you have the authority, you have the ring on your finger. And you can do business in the kingdom. Your prayers are heard when you pray them in Jesus' name. Now. You're accepted. You're positioned and you're provisioned. And the third thing they said was bring sandals for his feet. Only slaves went barefooted. Sandals on his feet said he's he's a significant person. And now he's got a robe on, he's got a family ring, and he's wearing sandals. He lost his in the mud somewhere. What you gave up voluntarily in a life of rebellion, God replaces with a contrite spirit and a broken heart. You never outgrow the need for a contrite spirit and a broken heart. Never, never, ever, ever. These two phrases are repeated over and over and over in the scriptures. When that begins to happen, you know it is a priority for God. He wants us to understand. He wants us to walk out our salvation with fear and trembling, yes. But understanding that that kind of respect and awe that causes that fear and trembling is a healthy one. It's not some debasing one. Do you understand what we've been given? We've been given things the Old Testament saints could only dream of. They're not externals. We've been given something else. And that is the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The essence of God Himself. Indecipherable form, tangible form, if you will. The Spirit of the Living God that breathed over creation, into which the word came and all things happened. That same scenario awaits us. When the Spirit of God breathes into us, breathes upon us. God can then speak a word into us and create things in us that never existed until that very moment. You never thought you could do this or you could do that. You never had those impressions or feelings or even desire before. And now you find yourself being swept along in something that's so great and so awesome and so healing and so restor restorative and so compassionate. And that's the Spirit of God. The one who draws us to him now fills us. Now let me tell you, you may have a messed up past. You may have a messed up present. Now I'm talking about somebody that can take your mess and create out of those horrible elements a story. Can change people's lives. Pastor Tom, when he was here, encouraged us to be able to share our faith and share our testimony in just a couple of minutes. You know what? That's something we should remember. Because we're interfacing with people every day. You go wherever you go, you're gonna run into people that live in a far country. They need to know that there's a Jesus who loves them where they are. They need to know that you've been the route you're proposing. You confess your sins. You pick up your cross. And you follow after. What a journey. What a joy. And what an amazing, powerful thing to understand that among all the things in the earth that are impressive, God is impressed most with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Can you give him that? Can you give him that? Thank you, Kia. Don't be like Loco. Good name for him. But there's a lot of us that are always hanging our heads over the fence hoping for an apple. When all the Lord wants to do is climb astride of our life and take us on a journey. Don't make it hard for him. Don't make it hard for him. Submit to him. The rains across your neck are the most wonderful thing in the earth. Releads us and guides us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. You want to go on the journey that he has in mind. Trust me. I look back on life and I think, ⁓ God, I wish I'd gotten into this earlier. Things you've done, the things you've Places you've taken me, the opportunities you've given me, because I I felt the reins on my neck turning me from this way to that way. What what an honor. What an honor. And folks, I talked to you today, not to talk about how great we are, any of us. I'm just saying that what God would do for me or Pastor Josh or any of the team here, He will do for you. He needs evangelists, He needs pastors and teachers in all kinds of places. Shouldn't just be under this roof. You'll never regret letting him lead you. You'll never regret admitting your failures to him. You'll never regret saying, God, just take me in. Use me. Fill my life. Why don't you stand with me this morning as we close? I saw a notice this week of a family that's having one of those prodigal son moments with a child. It's not a new story, happens all the time. I'm gonna tell you something. You may be here this morning and you say, Pastor, I just don't know. That sounds good. Sounds like something I might want to look into. Listen. Do not despise the day of small beginnings. That that that hunger you have in your heart maybe right this very moment hadn't been there before. This would be the time, this would be the place that you'd make a step and say, I'm in. I don't feel worthy. I don't know where it leads me. I don't know what you could possibly do with my life, but I'm just gonna ask people to come and stand in this altar this morning. You're not admitting to being a bad person. You're just saying I just want from this point on. The Lord to smile on me and see my spirit and see my heart and pour out on me whatever he has in mind. Would you just come right now? We want to pray. Come on, quickly. Quickly. Ministry team, if you want to come as well. I just I just sense in my heart this morning, don't be reticent right now. Don't be reticent. Don't feel embarrassed. Don't don't do any of those things. This is between you and God. This is between you and God. He sees you. He sees you. It has good things in mind for you. If you're standing back there, would just raise your hands toward these ones here? Lord, we pray right now that you'd open the eyes of our understanding. Show us, Lord, what is the hope of your calling? Help us to make our lives sure before you. Lord, we ask that you would remove from our minds the barriers that say, but, but, but, but, how could this possibly happen with me? You're just looking for an attitude of heart. You're just looking for someone as moldable, someone that can respond. And Lord, we ask in Jesus' name today that you literally open the heart, mind, and soul of each of these. And that you lead them and guide them in paths of righteousness for your name's sake, God. They lay their agendas before you. They lay their expectations. They lay their sense of their own potential before you. And say, God, whatever you want. Whatever you want. Amen. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And amen. God bless you folks. Have an awesome weekend. Take care.

Psalms 34:18