Ep. 010 God wants Your Heart

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your

host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

to you and bring you closer to God.

Hey, and welcome back to the Potter's House podcast and seminar in British Columbia. My

name is David Bickford and I am the pastor here at the Potter's House. Today's message

I have put together is called, God Wants Your Heart. The subheading for this message is,

the rest will come in time. I think it's important for us to always recognize that as in our

Christian walk that we always want to try to make things a lot more difficult than they

really need to be. As long as you are moving towards Christ with a desire to become just

like the name Christian in titles, to be more Christ-like, then that is the right path.

With that, I am not putting aside theology. I do believe all that stuff is important.

But my point is that if you give him your heart, the rest will come in time. So our

text that we will be working off of today is going to be John 3, 16-17. So if you have

your Bible, if you are following along, you can turn to that portion of scripture. That

will be our launching off point. Before I get into that, I want to go into a few illustrations

that I found that I believe are important or that kind of help us with this message.

The first one is a quote from Steve Jobs. It says, here's to the crazy ones, the misfits,

the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs and square holes, the ones who see things

differently. They're not fond of the rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify

or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things.

They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see the

genius because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are

the ones who do.

Now with that, I don't want to reference too heavily the thought of being a rule breaker

because in Christ Jesus, he is the fulfillment of the law. And so he did not break the law,

but he fulfilled the law. But still, we'll come back to that. I do believe there is quite

a bit of wisdom from this quote from Steve Jobs. And we'll be able to pull this in and

use the scripture to kind of get a little bit more clarity.

I found another one though for an illustration. It's called a Google search for Gaga changed

my life gets four million results. Lady Gaga identifies the world or identifies with the

world's misfits. So this is a little bit of a longer one, but it's a and here's the editor's

note. It's easy to focus on what we don't like about the lifestyle and songs of the

pop singer Lady Gaga. But this story reveals why millions of young people identify with

her and why the church might be missing an opportunity to love the world's misfits. So

the article reads Lady Gaga has sold over 64 million singles and won five Grammy Awards.

She's one of the most popular social media voices in the world with more than 33 million

Twitter followers and 55 million Facebook fans. The pop singer also has attracted millions

of fans around the globe who claim that she has changed their lives for the better. A

Google search for Gaga changed my life gets four million results marketing expert Jackie

Hubba argues that many of Gaga's fans identify with her concerns or concern for outcasts

and the misfits and an emotional MTV interview. Lady Gaga recounts some of the shame and humiliation

from high school that helped mold her and her life and left lasting deep scars. The

boys picked me up and threw me in the trash can on the street on the corner of my block

while all other girls from the school were leaving and could see me in the trash. Everybody

was laughing and I was even laughing. I had that nervous giggle. I remember even one of

the girls looking at me. Are you about to cry? You're pathetic. Out of her own feelings

of being a misfit Lady Gaga has created a community of outcasts. When old friends attended

one of her shows, they told her Gaga your fans are all of the misfits. They are all

the kinds of kids in school that everybody made fun of. She later told MTV all the weird

kids the artistic kids all the bad ones and I love that because that's who I was. We're

all together and they get it. It's our own little world. In Romans 12 16 it says live

in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Never be wise

in your own sight. So let's look at our scripture this morning our primary text which is John

3 16 through 17 and it says for God so loved the world for God so loved the world that

he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal

life. This is my favorite part though for God did not send his son into the world to

condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. The message is

one of redemption. It's not it's not a it's not one of condemnation. It's one of salvation

is one of taking someone who's sinking in the sea that is the world of sin and throwing

them a lifeline and pulling them out of the predicament that they find themselves in.

It's it's the saving of people who feel like they are misfits but really what they are

is they're just lacking Christ in their lives oftentimes. In Matthew 9 10 it says 9 10 through

13 and Jesus reclined at the table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners

came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this

they said to the disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. But when

he heard it he said those who are well have no need for a physician but those who are

sick go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I came not not

to call the righteous but the sinners. The importance here is that we are called to look

beyond what is considered the right people or the the popular people in our society.

We are called to look beyond that and to see all people the way Jesus sees people seeing

people in need as the people that we are supposed to go out in minister to. So why does God

pick the misfits the outcasts and the oddballs then because that's what he did in his time

in society is he went to the he went to the parts of the Jewish community that were being

neglected by the Pharisees and Sadducees at the time. Throughout the entirety of the Bible

we see this trend the trend is that God's choice for the oddballs and the rejects and

the misfits this permeates both the Old and the New Testament after the fall of man being

cast into the garden it became clear that many of the earth shakers in the kingdom of

God were characters they were oddballs. The story of Noah gives us a picture of a man

and his family building a massive ship away from the ocean and the sea. What kind of man

would have the faith to start a project of this type then to go on for years building

while being mocked and ridiculed by all his community. He would have hired help to help

him build this and they would have been like this is the dumbest thing ever but at least

I'm getting paid right they would have been mocking him even while working. We can look

at this story and move into our day and age by looking at those who've created unimaginable

creations in our time like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla and many others

the true truly oddball innovators of our time. We can see that it takes these type of men

and women to push the boundaries in our society. Now when we go back to the Word of God we

see this thread continued we have the fathers of our faith Abraham as we venture further

we have Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the judges, King David, the prophets, even Mary and Joseph.

God works through the outcasts he works with these oddballs because it is those who are

willing to preach unashamed of the gospel and to rise above their humble beginnings

and fully serve our savior. My first point here is that God's always picking these oddballs

and the God's Old Testament picks really start to highlight a trend for us. Imagine having

a conversation with Jacob explaining your God to a polytheistic pagan. Most of the world

worshiped many gods and carried idols with them everywhere. Now if you ask Jacob to explain

his God you can picture him saying I do not carry idols for my God for he is a spirit

and invisible to man except that time when I wrestled him and he broke my hip and changed

my name to Israel. How crazy does that sound in the context of the time and how much more

crazy does it sound to our ears today? Joseph is similar when you consider his dream of

ruling over his brothers and his father who was Jacob Israel. In fact it was so out there

that his father even rebuked him at the time. He was such a reject, a misfit, an oddball

that his brothers sold him into captivity. This didn't deter Joseph though. He clung

to his faith and was truly risen up and the godly dream was realized when he was the salvation

for not only his family but for the entire kingdom of Egypt. He became the second highest

governor of Egypt just under the Pharaoh. So we've looked so far at Noah, Jacob, and

Joseph but we have not even scratched the surface. We have Moses. I met God at a fiery

shrub. In the book of Exodus we get introduced to Moses given up by his mother and by God's

hand adopted into the Pharaoh's house. He was raised as a prince but became an outlaw

and a murderer. Fleeing into the wilderness after being rebuked by his Hebrew brothers

he stayed in the desert finding a wife and becoming a shepherd. It was here that he encountered

the burning bush. It was in this obscurity that he met with God and from that place of

obscurity that he was led back to free his people from Egyptian rule. Moses was called

out of the shadows but he remained an oddity to those he served. It was clear that God

was with him but regardless he was still very isolated. Later on we have King David, the

lion slayer, the giant destroyer and his sinner and more. So my favorite character in all

the Bible is David and it's not because my name is David. It's more than that. Yes I

know that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the primaries in the Bible but

it's the story of David that shows us how we can serve God with humility and despite

our own failings. David was taken from the fields. His own dad overlooked him when the

prophet Samuel asked to see the sons of Jesse. He was the son that rose up for Israel and

defeated Goliath and he was rewarded with hate from King Saul. Hiding and running from

Saul until Saul's death, once coronated as king he succumbed to temptation and became

an adulterer and conspired to kill the husband of Bathsheba his friend. It is through all

of David's ups and downs that we see how we can still come to the Lord for forgiveness.

We can praise our Lord, worship our Lord and when we mess up we can repent and be forgiven.

David's life was very difficult but he is noted in the Bible as a man after God's heart.

His ultimate claim to fame is not his nobility, his royalty, but rather that he was a servant

of the Lord. We then have the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and John the Baptist.

In 1 Kings 19 through 21 it says, So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat

who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him and he was with the twelve. Elijah

passed by him and cast his cloak upon him and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah

and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you. And he said to

him, Go back again for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and

took the yoke of oxen, sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen

and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted

him. These are some weird, weird stories. That's like Elisha, Elijah's second, you know,

this is origin story. It's like weird stories. Jeremiah 1 5, before I formed you in the womb,

I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet of nations.

Ezekiel 3 17, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever

you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning for me. Ezekiel 3 26 through

27, and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be mute

and unable to reprove them for they are rebellious house. But when I speak with you, I will open

your mouth and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God, he who will hear, let him

hear and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse for their rebellious house.

Now here's a guy, he's a prophet, but every time he's not talking the words of God and

when he is not prophesying, he's got his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth so he can't

talk. That's a pretty odd guy. This brings me to my second point, which is Jesus in the

New Testament picks this thread of picking people who the world might not think are the

right choices, but God can see past that and can see through that and see the perfect choice

even amongst the oddballs, if you will. So we have John the Baptist in Matthew 3 1 through

6. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, repent for the

kingdom of heaven is at hand for this is he who was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when

he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path

straight. Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and

his food was locusts with wild honey. And then Jerusalem and all of Judea and all the

region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him and the

river Jordan confessing their sins. So the first thing we get to see is we get to see

this oddball out in the wilderness preaching about repentance and baptism. And then we

have all the disciples, the fishermen, Simon Peter, son of Jonah or Jonas was a fisherman

and an impetuous man. He was emotional always and he spoke whatever was on his mind and

he was very impulsive. Andrew son of Jonas, the brother of Simon Peter, like his brother,

he was also a fisherman, lived in Bethesda, Capernam. Originally he was a disciple of

John the Baptist, but left to follow Jesus. So here we got another guy. Here's a guy.

He's not only a fisherman, which fishermen were looked pretty down upon in Jewish society.

It's a pretty low labor position, but not only that, but he follows that crazy guy on

the desert, desert eating locusts with honey. James son of Zebedee and Salome brother of

apostle John James the greater was the first martyr among the 12 disciples and the only

one recorded in the Bible. Another fisherman as well. And then John son of Zebedee, brother

of the, of James that we just said. And he was also known as John the evangelist. He

wrote the gospel of, of a first John, second John, third John and revelation.

Judy status also known as Jude or Libyus was the son of Alpheus and Cleo Cleophas and Mary.

He lived in Galilee and was a brother of James the younger. And he was also called Judas

the zealot. So like Simeon or Simon, he was an intense and violent nationalist with the

dreams of world power and domination by the chosen people. So these are the fishermen,

but these are the guys like, you're like, man, these guys are weirdos already. The lesser

known ones like Philip, they say he becomes a living personality in the gospel of John.

Then we have Bartholomew, who's also called Nathaniel, who was a true Israelite and there's

nothing false that anybody can say about him. But these are like lesser known guys. James

is also James the less, who's son of Alpheus and Mary. And he was also like the brother

of Jude who lived in Galilee. He was the oldest amongst the 12 disciples, but unlike James

the greater, he is one of the most obscure apostles. So here we got, we got some weirdos

like the fishermen. And then we got these guys that are like rejects or like just kind

of out loud skirts. Nobody cares who they are. But then we come now to the disreputable

apostles. We have Matthew also known as Levi was the son of Alpheus who lived in Capernay

and he was a publican, a tax collector, one of the most despised people in Jewish culture.

He worked for the, you know, the oppressive Romans collecting taxes. Thomas, did him as

often referred to as doubting Thomas lived in Galilee. He was a pessimist, a Bill Wilder

man, a man who couldn't believe until he'd seen. And so we always have that story about

the doubting Thomas. He didn't believe unless he could see. And then last we have a, we

have Simon the zealot who was a Canaanite who lived in Galilee. He is also one of the

less known disciples of the Bible. But interestingly, his name was only mentioned three times in

the Bible. So we don't know about him except that he was a zealot. Zealots were part of

that fanatical Jewish nationalist group who had a heroic disregard for the suffering involved

and the struggle for what they regarded as the purity of their faith. These were, these

were extremists, religious extremists of the time, if you will. But they were crazed with

hatred for the Roman Empire. And then of course I didn't touch on it too much, but you have

Judas Iscariot, who's the betrayer. Interesting thing about Judas is that he's the most famous

or reputable of the disciples. He was someone that was considered good with money. He was

their treasurer. And so it's, it's very interesting though, that he is the one who, who's most

reputable who ends up being the one to betray our Lord. And this brings me to my final point,

the rest will come. The least likely apostle, the special apostleship of Paul, who is also

known as Saul. There's however this special apostolic office that we have given to a man

named Paul who had never shared the public ministry of Jesus, but stood witness to the

grace of God. The apostle to the Gentiles, it is this unique purpose of Paul. He wasn't

part of the 12, but the 12 apostles accepted him as someone sharing their tasks and responsibilities.

Second Peter 315. Paul, a former persecutor of Christians, encountered Jesus through a

blinding light that speaks to him on his way to Damascus. After this encounter, he lived

a changed life, declaring the grace of God and his good news. Paul was not part of the

12, but was considered as an apostle for those who do not belong to the tribe of Israel,

the Gentiles, because of his calling, other nations received God's salvation. Paul was

the least likely to be called by Jesus, but regardless, he came face to face with our

savior and this meeting left Paul blind and all his beliefs shaken. This led to his powerful

conversion and he moved from persecutor and killer of Christians to one of the most devout

and important preachers of the gospel. As the apostle to the Gentiles, it is Paul that

we have most to thank for his ministry and bringing the good news to the Gentile world

and his challenging of even Peter to live according to the words of Jesus and the mission

of Christ. So we oddballs and misfits by looking at all these characters, it's important to

know that this is only, only scratches the surface. There are a number of other women

who follow Jesus and other men who are called to, you know, who God called. Many of these

were prostitutes, Gentiles, and others that society deemed unworthy. The key to all of

this is that we were never beyond redemption and salvation. That is why even if we are

at the end time, we are called to push forward. We are meant to recognize the time continually

moving forward with a purpose of Christ. We are called to preach to every living creature.

You cannot shut down when you are fearful, when you feel unworthy. It is in Christ in

you that empowers us and wills us to work through it and his will to work through us.

So we must remember all these outcasts and misfits and understand that God loves all

of us and it is often the most unlikely people that God chooses for the highest and most

impactful ministries. Like Moses in the wilderness or David in the fields, God chooses those

who will give them their heart. Jesus Iscariot had all the training and skills, but he refused

to give Jesus his heart. And it was here where he became willing to betray our Savior. So

Jesus chooses us and he has chosen you too. In Ephesians 2, 8-10, for by grace you have

been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result

of the works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ

Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.

So in closing, every head bowed, every eye closed. If you are driving keep your eyes

open, keep your hands ten and two. For everybody else, every head bowed, every eye closed.

It's time to give Jesus Christ your heart. Give him your heart fully and all the rest

will come in time. He will strengthen you, he will help you, he will uplift you and he

knows that it is not easy. He knows that there are times when we will falter, but he will

be there to pick you up again and again. Give him your heart because he has already given

you his life as a sacrifice that you might be saved. If this message has resonated with

you and you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, you signify that with an uplifted

hand. I can't see it, but God can. And just say after me, dear Lord, I know that I am

a sinner, but I know that you sent your son Jesus and he died on the cross for me. I turn

from my sin and I accept him as my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus name, amen. That simple

prayer is a prayer of salvation. It's a recognition of sin, a recognition of Christ's divinity

and his Lordship over your life. I pray that this message will have impacted you and I'm

going to close in a quick prayer before we go. I do pray that the Lord touches you today.

Dear Lord God, I give you all the praise and glory. I thank you for picking me, the oddball

that I am, the reject that I am, and knowing Lord God that you see past all of our issues

and our problems and that it is in your holy name that you have given us a better purpose.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you for listening and I can't wait for you to come

back next time.

Amen.