Anthropomorphic Descriptors for God: The Heart of God

So we are nearing the end of our series on the

anthropomorphic traits of God as described in

Scripture, and the heart of God will be last.

We have one more lesson in this series as we

will look at the whole of God, the whole thing

together, how it all works together, so we'll

go back. and we'll loop in the eyes and the hands

and the arms all together and see how it all

comes together. The truth is there are another

probably seven or eight terms. Each is a little

less common, but there are plenty of additional

terms in the Scripture that we could have lumped

on. We could have done this for another couple

months if we wanted to. But we tried to pick

all the most important and most prevalent ones,

and that's why we did these. Again, on this one,

too, you've heard the heart of God. You kind

of understand the concept a little bit. So don't

be surprised if I'm telling you something you

already know, but there are seven points. I'm

sure that not all of them will be like that.

So remember that God is spirit. For those of

you who haven't been, God is spirit. And so he

does not have a literal heart like you or I do.

Obviously, Jesus did. In fact, his heart was

pure from the spirit when he was hanging on the

cross and was under great strain for 24 hours

leading up to that. But when the Bible says,

for I know the plans I have for you declares

the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity,

to give you a future and a hope, that sort of

like shows how God feels about us. And then we're

going to see as we go through the lesson a number

of times it refers specifically to God's heart.

What we're really talking about is his will.

His holiness, his compassion, his purpose, his

desires, his affections, all of that, that's

what your heart is. So if you think, for example,

the Bible says, where your treasure is, there

is your heart. So you want your treasure in heaven

with God, so that would be the case. So it's

what you care about. It's the center of your

being. It's what makes your important choices.

You make a lot of choices with your mind, but

you might find yourself sometimes internally

feeling like, ah, this doesn't seem right. Your

head's saying, go this way, go this way, and

there's something inside you that's saying something

different. That's your heart. the core of your

being, making those decisions. So to understand

the references, we have to remember that God's

heart has that picture. So we're going to get

two key overpoints that are there in that top

left box. This is going to talk about God's desires.

You can write desires in there if you want. God's

purposes, his will, his compassion, which that

word is on the screen. Compassion is C -O -M

-P -A -S -S -I -O -N. And then moral character.

So when the Bible talks about God's heart, it's

revealing to us what pleases him, what grieves

him, what he values, and what he wants to do,

what he wants to accomplish. That's what it's

talking about. God's heart is never sinful. Yes,

ma 'am. Moral. His judging between right and

wrong. So he's never sinful, divided, selfish,

or unstable like ours often is, certainly before

we're saved. And his affections are perfectly

consistent with his holiness. And that doesn't

necessarily work for us, right? You decide there's

something you like, and if you go after that

thing, it might be bad. It might not be holy

to you. You can go after some things a little

bit, and they're fine, right? But too much chocolate

cake, that's unholy, right? That's just the reality

of it. Too much of almost anything can become

unholy. So God deeply loves his people. God desires...

righteousness, God grieves over sin, and God's

purposes never change. So, you might have heard

somebody say, my heart broke. They say, like,

my heart broke when I saw my child make that

decision. There are a couple people in this room

who have experienced that. So, my heart broke

when she said that to me, or when he said that

to me, or when I saw what suffering made me want

to do that kind of thing. They're not talking

about a medical condition. It's not something

you can take medicine for. They're expressing

deep love, sorrow, and concern over the situation.

So, when we talk about God's heart, Similarly,

if God's heart were breaking, it would be the

same way. It would be breaking his love, sorrow,

and concern for us. All right, so number one.

This is number one. God's heart. Delights in

obedience. The scripture is 1 Samuel 15, 22.

This is the same verse that talks about how rebellion

is like the sin of witchcraft. It's right in

there. Same speech of Samuel. But the actual,

what we're using it for is the part where it

says to obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel

15, 22. Say that again. Teach under that. I haven't

said it yet. Under 1 Samuel 15, 22. Do that right

now. Okay. So to obey is better than sacrifice,

Samuel said, but he was saying it on behalf of

God, right? So God values obedient hearts more

than religious rituals. That's tricky to navigate

because I might say things like, I know where

I'll be at 1131 or 1135 on Sunday morning. I

know where I'll be, right? And I'm being obedient

to God because that's what God wants me to do.

But notice that someone else could do that for

religious reasons. That make sense? So we're

like, I do this, I do this. religiously because

it makes me better, because people expect to

see me there, because I want the prestige of

it, whatever. There's a lot of reasons why you

might do it other than obedience. God values

or wants obedient hearts more than religious

ritual. People will frequently say Christianity

is not a religion, and I would agree with that.

In the world class of religions, somebody might

say Christianity is a religion, but the truth

is Christianity is all about your relationship

with God. It's not about religion at all. Hence,

churches can have their worship service on Saturday

night instead of Sunday and still be legit, right?

You can have your Sabbath Wednesday into Thursday.

As a result, when you take 24 -hour Sabbath,

you can do that on any day of the week and it

would still be good. God values obedient hearts

more than religious riches. Then worship without

obedience does not please him. It's a pretty

big deal. If you are worshiping God on Sunday

mornings, Tuesday nights now, praise the Lord,

or whatever, and your heart is in the wrong place,

And you understand that that worship isn't good

for him. It's not saying anything about God saying,

you're awesome, God. Well, everything you're

doing in your heart condition is saying God sucks.

That's not how that works. So you need to be

through and through in your truth. And then your

worship really is an honor. And the last one

is external religion cannot replace inward devotion.

External religion, so religion on the outside,

cannot replace inward devotion. Your insides

are looking for God. External religion, or outside,

you can use that word, it's a little easier to

spell. Outside religion cannot replace inward

devotion. Inside. So your insides are what really

matters, right? There's a whole bunch of places

in scripture where it says God looks upon the

heart of a man. But your outsides are what determines

what your insides can be like, right? So if you're

cussing up the storm, your heart is dirty. There's

a problem, right? Or if you're assassinating

people with the words, you realize that your

heart's got a condition. It needs to be resolved.

So then the application is seek to obey God from

the heart rather than merely performing religious

duties. So yes, you should go to worship. Yes,

you should spend time serving. Yes, you should

give. All of those things. Yes, you should follow

the rules. Submit to authority. All of those

things. But more importantly, you want to obey

God from the heart. In fact, that's probably

the whole thing. Remember he said, whosoever

believeth in his heart, confess with his mouth

that Jesus Christ is what? Lord, right? And a

Lord is what? It's the person who tells you what

to do when you do it. Jesus said, if you love

me, follow my commands. So the chief thing is

to obey God from the heart rather than obeying

the religious duties. Okay, number two. God's

heart loves his people. That's kind of a given.

That's not really a surprise. God's heart loves

his people. And the reference there is Jeremiah

31 .3. Jeremiah 31 .3. It says, I have loved

you with an everlasting love. You know what's

cool about that? It means God loved you before

you were born, and it means God will love you

after you die. that God would love to do while

you're in hell, if you would choose to go there

rather than heaven. I mean, it's heartbreaking

for him, but it's a reality. It's an everlasting

thing. And to the points under that one, the

first one is God's love is eternal. Back forever,

forward forever. God's love never ends. His covenant

love does not, big word, fluctuate or change

up and down. I just want to say that. It doesn't

go up and down. So his covenant love, the love

that God has for his people, is not... different

day to day. That was the problem they were making

a lot in the Old Testament. Judges and like that,

they were like, oh, God has turned his back on

us while they were worshiping idols and sacrificing

their babies in the fire and all that stuff.

And they'd say, well, God has turned his back

on us. But God had never turned his back on them.

He always loved them. But what they were doing

was having certain results. God's covenant love

does not fluctuate or change up now. The last

one is his love originates in his own character

rather than our worthiness. In other words, God's

love is based on who God is, not who you are.

So when somebody says, I'm too bad for God to

love me, for example, they're wrong. God loves

that person. God loves Adolf Hitler just as much

as he loves you or me. Mussolini, right? Jeffrey

Dahmer, while he was killing people and eating,

he loves everybody. He loves just the same. It's

horrible. His heart is breaking. over what that

person is doing, and he will willingly let them

go to hell when the time comes, and they'll pay

a dear price for it. But the point is, he loves

you because of who he is, not because of who

you are or whether you're worthy of that love.

So then the application is, rest in God's unchanging

love during difficult seasons. So when times

are tough, rest in his unchanging love. Look

at her go! So mobile. Getting mobile. All right,

so we're going to go on. The sun continues shining

even when clouds hide it from view. You understand

that, right? So if you go outside and it's a

cloudy day, it's also a sunny day, right? Cloudy

days are also sunny. That's what always makes

me laugh when you see the forecast and see me

partly cloudy. It's always sunny. So to say partly

cloudy means we're going to have some clouds.

That's what it means, right? And if you fill

the sky with clouds, it's just going to be cloudy.

But it's also sunny because the sun is not shining

any less. It's just shining on the top of the

clouds instead of down here, right? So the clouds

can affect our ability to see the sun, but they

do not diminish the light of the sun. It's still

there, still just as bright. So difficult circumstances

can obscure our awareness of God. We might not

see God's love right now visibly because we're

struggling, thinking about something else, looking

somewhere else. But those circumstances never

lessen his love. loves us the same. So you could

go out today or tomorrow and do something really

stupid and he'll still love you just the same

as he did for you back. Number three, God's heart

grieves over sin. God's heart grieves over sin.

Genesis 6 references Genesis 6, 5 to 6. Number

two, the number two application was rest in God's

unchanging love during difficulties. It's really

always. or stands out more during difficult seasons

because it seems counterintuitive. I don't think

it's quite that. The scripture reference for

number three then was Genesis 6, 5 -6, which

says, The Lord was sorry that he had made man

on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

It is a different thing to be sorry than it is

to be grieved in your heart. When the core of

your being is fallen like a baby because something

happened, that is a pretty bad thing. When you're

sorry because you stubbed your toe, or you're

sorry because you said something on your feelings,

that is bad. But to be grieved in your heart,

that's terrible. And that's how God was feeling

about the fact that he had made man on the earth.

Think about that. And out of that, a horse will

come flooding. So under that, human sin deeply

offends God's holy character. God really despises

sin. He hates what it does to people. He hates

the act. He hates what sin does to people. What

the sinner is causing to happen to another person.

What the person is having happen to them. All

the way. Everybody's a victim. When you sin,

God hates your sin because it is messing with

you. Yes, ma 'am. Human sin deeply offends God's

holy character. God's grief reflects his holiness,

not weakness. In other words, God is not, we

think of like when people are sad and they're

upset because something went wrong. We think

God's a sign of weakness for them. But that's

God's grief. I was going to say it again. I'll

say it a couple times each time. God's grief

reflects his holiness, not weakness. So sometimes

when people are in grief, we think, oh, that's

sad for them. That's bad. They're weak because

they're crying. They look weak, right? So grief

sometimes looks like weakness. But with God,

that's certainly never the case. God's grief

reflects his holiness, not weakness. His heart

is able to grieve this because he is holy. He

is different than he is. Okay? The last one's

pretty easy. Sin destroys what God loves. Sin

destroys what God loves. That might be you, or

it might be me, right? It could be the persons

that we're hurting, whatever. There are lots

of people in the world who are dying because

of sin. They're dead in their trespasses and

sins. Sin destroys what God loves. That's not

good, right? And then the application then is

we need to, and frankly, we're not good at this,

right? And we need to get better at it. We need

to view sin as God views sin. sin. So no excuses.

Don't play it off like it's not a big deal, right?

It's not that you're getting away with something

or it's not that God is upset, but he loves you.

So he's still going to be nice to you, right?

We can't do that. God, his heart is breaking

over sin. You're destroying him in a sense. Not

literally, he's not going to end, right? People

have been doing it for all time. You can take

it. But the point is, if you love him, why would

you break his heart like that? You have to start

seeing it like he sees it. And by the way, that's

where the freedom is. The freedom to not sin

is in recognizing just how bad it is. That little

white lie, that's a sin. Put it in this scale.

One little white lie. If a person lived a perfectly

sinless life, never did anything wrong ever,

and once, at the age of like 30, they told one

little white lie, then they lived to be 100.

So for 99 years and 364 days and 23 hours and

50 minutes, they were perfect, sinless, and they

lied that one time. That would be enough for

them to spend hell, eternity in hell. That's

how bad God feels about that. It's very serious.

And it isn't just because he would say, oh, that

one little white lie, well, you deserve to burn

in hell for that. It's because he would say,

I want you to come be with me. And they would

say, I don't want to come be with you. I relish

my freedom. I want to be able to lie if I want

to lie. I want to be able to be the kind of person

I want to be. I don't want to be the kind of

person you want me to be. God is a very big deal.

Number four, God's heart is compassionate. That

has the word compassion in the beginning out

of the struggling word spelling. Compassion 8.

The reference there is Hosea, H -O -S -E -A,

Hosea 11 .8. He is speaking on behalf of God,

and he says, My heart is turned over within me,

which also sounds very bad. Hosea, H -O -S -E

-A, 11 .8. Hosea 11 .8. All right, so God's compassion

is extraordinary. I know it's a big word. You

can use different words if you want. But it means

it is really outside our understanding. God is

so moved by what he is experiencing. He's so

moved by what he is experiencing that we have

a hard time understanding it. I want you to think

about the worst experience you've personally

ever had and how horrible you felt at that moment.

The worst you've ever had and how horrible you

felt. And then realize that... God experiences

that kind of feeling probably every moment of

every day. It's constant. Somewhere in the world,

God is doing what would turn God's heart over.

Justice and mercy, then. Justice and mercy perfectly

coexist. I wrote a fiction story about one of

the characters in the fantasy world that I write

about. And that character is very much about

justice and mercy and matching them up. She's

trying to reconcile them. I've been writing this

story, I spend a lot of time praying and thinking

about justice and mercy. We think of them as

opposites. Because we think justice is, you get

what you deserve. That's the definition of justice.

You get what you deserve. Mercy is, you don't

get what you deserve. So that sounds like an

opposite, right? Except it isn't. Because in

the case of Jesus, for example, Jesus takes what

we deserve. So it isn't that you get what you

deserve. That's not justice. Justice is that

somebody who can take it, who can stand for you,

gets what you deserve. Which means technically,

if you had two people and one of them both knew

that this guy committed a crime and this guy

confessed to the crime and he went to jail justice

has been served because this guy went to jail

for the crime now justice is not served between

the two of them but justice is served as far

as the law is concerned because somebody went

to jail for the crime right but between the two

of them justice is not served because this person

let this person go to jail for them so now there's

another problem justice and mercy perfectly coexist

in god and god's love does not compromise his

holiness. So no matter how much God loves you,

he's not going to change the rules for you. He's

not going to do it. The rules are the rules.

The promises are the promises. So it is what

it is. And we're going to go on to number five.

God's heart seeks those who seek him. God is

pursuing a certain group of people whose heart

desires that people pretty much... More than

anything. 1 Samuel 13, 14 is a reference. So

1 Sam 13, 14. 1 Samuel 13, 14 says, The Lord

has sought out for himself a man after his own

heart. Samuel's talking about, do we know who?

David, right? So he's talking about David. So

God, the point is, God desires a man after his

own heart. That's what he wants. People are going

to think like he thinks about sin. They're going

to be compassionate in an extraordinary sense.

You're right. Oh, I'm... say it that's why x

yeah you do extend compassion because you have

received compassion thank you it wasn't that

you weren't listening it's because i didn't say

it extend compassion because you have received

compassion so all those application points those

are what we do about it right so So number one,

because God's heart delights in obedience, what

do you do? Seek to obey him from the heart, right?

That's what you do. Not just performing religious

duties, but actually seek to obey him. Number

two, God's heart loves his people. What do you

do about that? If God loves you so much, what

do you do about it? Well, you rest in God's unchanging

love during difficult times in your life, right?

He's got you. Number three, God's heart grieves

our sin. What do you do about that? You need

to try to view sin as God views it. Think about

sin the way God does. Number four was God's heart

is compassionate. And so then extend compassion

because you have received passion. And also because

we're supposed to be like him as much as we can.

Because we're following Jesus. And Jesus is him

in the flesh. And Jesus certainly was compassionate.

There's lots of reasons. Number five. God's heart

seeks those who seek him. 1 Samuel 13, 14. The

Lord has sought out himself a man after his own

heart. The first point is God values surrendered

hearts. God values surrendered hearts. Between

a married man and a married woman, the wedding

ring might mean a lot. It doesn't mean anything

compared to the devotion of that other person.

Lose your wedding ring. Burn your wedding ring

by accident. But if you love your spouse the

way you're supposed to, the wedding ring isn't

going to matter all that much. But if the wedding

ring is representative and you start nonchalantly

blowing it off or whatever, you're not wearing

it, or you've lost it a third time in five years

or something, then you might be making a statement

about your commitment to your spouse. needs to

be to your spouse. It's the same way with God.

God wants our surrendered hearts. David was not

perfect. You don't know? David committed some

of the worst sins that were ever committed. Maybe

not as much as the average person. We don't really

know. But he committed some pretty bad ones.

He took multiple wives, which is not ordained

in Scripture. One of the wives he took was already

married to another man. He had that man killed

so that he could have her. That was not even

the first time he did it. He had another woman

who was his wife, and he killed her husband.

But he didn't do it to have a affair with her.

He did it, and then afterwards, she didn't have

a husband, and everybody would take care of her,

so then he married her, supposedly out of mercy,

taking care of her, right? But he killed her

husband, who was a jerk, by the way. David was

not perfect. In fact, at the end of his life,

he was told he was not allowed to build the temple

because his hands were too bloody. So God wanted

a man after his own heart, not a perfect man,

which is probably a good thing because none of

us are perfect, right? So just be after his heart.

All right, so the third one there, he consistently

desired God. That's what David did. He consistently

desired God. When God was going to discipline

him, David never... thought about running away.

In fact, David wrote to Solomon and says, if

I would run to the ends of the earth, you would

be there. Under the depths of the sea, you would

be there. On the highest mountain, you would

be there. What am I going to do? You're God,

right? Consistently desired God. And the application

then is, God desires your heart more than your

achievements. Does God want you to win people

to Christ? Absolutely. without emotion in your

heart, which is sort of impossible, right? Billy

Graham, most of us know who Billy Graham is,

at least in some sense. He's an old guy, fairly

recently passed away, last five years or so.

He had shared the gospel all over the world.

He had crusades all over the United States, won

tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands

of people in Christ. His right -hand man who

served with him during all of those things, right,

eventually came out and said that he was an atheist.

He had claimed to be a Christian the whole time

he was working for Billy Graham, but in the end

he came out and said he was an atheist. He was

part of winning all those people, but he did

not know the Lord. So God desires your heart

more than your achievements. Give him your heart.

Okay, we're on number six. Did everybody get

everything? David was not perfect. It's like

the most important one, too. Dan is not perfect.

And you are not. I know. All right. Number six.

God's heart never changes. Yay. It's a good thing.

Malachi 3 .6. Malachi. M -A -L -A -C -H -I. It's

like Malachi. M -A -L -A -C -H -I. Like Malachi.

And it's 3, 6. Chapter 3, verse 6. Now, there's

a bunch of these. This is one. And he says, For

I, the Lord, do not change. That's what Malachi

3 .6 says. God's character is immutable. I chose

that word very specifically. Immutable means

nothing can change. It's I -M -M -U -T -A -B

-L -E. Immutable. I -M -M -U -T -A -B -L -E.

Immutable. So you can put acid with it, that

won't change. You can put fire to it, that won't

change. You can put sin to it, that won't change.

Gravity won't change. Nothing will change God's

character. His love remains constant. I already

covered that when we talked about love before.

His love remains constant. And last, his promises

never fail. So it's God's character, it's immutable.

His love remains constant, and his promises never

fail. So then the application, what do you think

the application is? Without me telling you, do

you want to take a stab at it? So based on the

fact that God's heart never changes, what could

we do? Okay, kind of. You could change it to

be like it is, right? So you want to anchor your

heart, your life. You want to make it solid in

God's unchanging curve. Easy ways to do that.

What does God want me to do? As soon as I know,

what do I do? I do it. Whatever that is. What

does God want me to do? I don't say, well, God

wants me to do this, but maybe he's okay if I

do that. If God wants me to do this, that's what

I'm going to do. It's kind of simple, right?

The Bible says, don't do this. What am I going

to do? I'm not going to do it. The Bible says,

do this. What am I going to do? You've got to

do that. What am I talking about? We're following

directions. So the easy way, God is gracious

to give us direction so we can follow the direction

that we've been given. And in the world you'll

find all kinds of reasons because the world,

if anything has a changing character, it's the

world. Not because the world gets to be sometimes

not wicked, right? The world is always pretty

wicked. But because it's all over the place.

So right now, in Toledo, Ohio, if you got caught

with a five -pound bag of marijuana in your car,

probably pretty much nothing would happen because

there's no punishment for it now in the city

of Toledo. But 20 years ago, guys went to jail.

Because the world's character is constantly changing.

You can't even change the definition of words.

The target is constantly moving. If you're after

the target that is the way the world wants you

to live, you'll never line up perfectly because

you'll never get there. As soon as you try to

get there, it'll move on. But God is not like

that. You can learn God's heart. You can base

your life on God's heart. So anchor or base your

life in God's unchanging character. Number seven.

God's heart is fully, completely, absolutely

and totally, fully revealed in Christ. It's all

there. He did it. He showed it completely. And

the reference is Matthew, Matthew, M -A -T -T

-Q -H -E -W, Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Matthew 11,

28 to 30. We're not going to read the whole thing,

but we could. It'd be awesome. Yes, yeah. Please

do take these things and read the verses and

read the whole chapters. I am gentle and humble

in heart. So then we're saying Jesus. perfectly

reveals the Father's heart. So when you think

about the way Jesus behaved, and you say, well,

why would he do that? The answer is because he

was, that's the way God is. He said, I don't

do anything except what I see the Father doing.

So when you see him doing something in the Bible,

say, why would he do that? Because that's a picture

of God's heart. So if you could, has anybody

seen the movie, it's called The Map of Incredible

Things? I think it's called. It's a highly recommended

romantic comedy, highly recommended movie. It's

probably rated PG. I think kids will find this.

see it um and it's called the map of it's incredible

things i'm missing the adjective google i'll

come right up anyway the idea it's a groundhog

day movie if you know what i mean by that it's

a day that repeats over and over and over again

and this kid is stuck in it the day repeats over

and over and over again and there's another girl

she's stuck in there too and they meet each other

and that's where the romantic comedy part comes

in right and they begin to hunt down these incredible

things these powerful moments right and they're

trying to find essentially all it becomes like

a game for them to try to find all of the moments.

I'm not going to tell you any more than that

because I don't want to ruin the movie for you.

But the point is, these moments were like, there

was a guy walking down the sidewalk and a bird

pooped on his shoulder. There was a guy who sat

down on the park bench and just then a bus came

by that had a pair of wings on it and it looked

like he had wings. And it was really neat, just

little neat little things. They just saw an eagle

swoop down and pick a fish out of the water in

the lake. It's really neat moments that you wouldn't

normally get to see and they start collecting.

It's like that with Jesus. Jesus is... moments.

We get parables, we get stories, we get commands,

things like that. But if you could draw like

a dot to dot out of all of the incredible moments

that Jesus showed us about himself, guess what

you would see? You would see God's heart. You

would see an idea of who God is and what he was

all about. That's what Jesus was showing us.

Number two there is God's love is seen most clearly

at, can somebody finish it? Where is God's love

seen most clearly? It's the crucifixion. I just

put it at the cross. Yep. That's where it's most

clear. We already know God's heart is breaking

over sin every day, not just at the cross, right?

Every day, God's heart is turning. It says, we

read, my heart turns over. It's terrible. God

is suffering because of our sin because he cares

that much. At the cross, the sin was being paid

for. So all the while, he was horrible seeing

his son be crucified. He was horrible seeing

what he's been through. In some sense, people

say that God kind of looked away at that moment.

I'm not sure I believe that. Jesus said, my God,

my God, why has thou forsaken me? And that's

the beginning of Psalm 22. And if you read Psalm

22, it's everything about the crucifixion. So

Jesus was really quoting Psalm 22. I'm not sure

I believe that God looked away at the cross.

It's definitely not clearly the case, but nonetheless,

he was definitely suffering for what Jesus was

going through, and does every day. As Jesus knew

that once that was done and sin was paid for

or not, people could be saved. And the people

that were saved before were being saved by what

was happening right then. God's love and seed

was growing at the cross. The last one there,

Christ embodies, kind of a big word, God's compassion,

his mercy, his holiness, and his grace. They're

all big Bible words. I'm going to tell you what

they mean. So to embody something, is to show

it in its fullness. That's what we're talking

about. God's heart revealing Christ. And then

Jesus was revealing God's compassion. How deeply

he cares for us. How much he does not stop caring

for us. He never quit caring for us, even in

the worst of it. So God embodies, Christ embodies

God's compassion. His mercy, which means he really

does not want to give you or me what we deserve.

God really doesn't want to do that. So Christ

embodies God's compassion. His mercy. His holiness,

which means somebody needs to pay for all the

stuff that people is doing. And the dirtiness

of hearts and the disrespect that God is receiving,

somebody's got to pay for that. There is justice.

The wages of sin is death. God set it up that

way before he made Adam and Eve. And he told

them, in the day that you eat of the tree, the

knowledge of the people, you will surely die.

And then they ate of the tree anyway. From that

point on, it was guaranteed that people would

always die and always be separated from God,

essentially, in their relationship. But if you

trust God to make a way, then you'd be saved.

And Jesus is that way, which is also God is Jesus

embodies God's grace. Yes. Tiny, perfect things.

Keep on. Are you fine? It's okay, you're fine.

A map of tiny, perfect things. Highly recommend

it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Right.

So his point was, if you look at the end of Psalm

22, it does not say that God has turned away

or abandoned. It actually says the opposite.

He's absolutely right. That's true. Okay. So

the application on number seven, if you want

to know God's heart, what? God's heart is fully

revealed in Jesus Christ. If you want to know

God's heart, what do you do? Study Jesus. Look

at his life. Listen to what he says. Pursue following

him and so on. So we've completed the seven.

We are going to do this. We will do a round of

trivia, time permitting. And I have prizes. So

we'll do that. I didn't do stunts today because

we have a little schedule. Sometimes I'll do

stunts and sometimes I'll do trivia. We'll mix

it up. So we're into the summary. The heart of

God teaches. First one, his love. You can see

that. He eternally loves his people. The heart

of God teaches his holiness. He grieves over

sin. His compassion. There's that word again.

By now you should know how to spell it a little

bit. His compassion. We put C -O -M -D period.

He delights in mercy. God really wants to forgive

you. He really wants to forgive me. That's what

he's trying to do. That's what it's all about.

His will. He desires obedience. You've got to

do what God wants. You've got to stop doing what

God doesn't want you to do. And yes, it's a journey.

Day in, day out, there may be mistakes. I think

God fully understands mistakes and ignorance,

sin, that kind of thing. I think God is a lot

more concerned about what you're going to act

when you sin on earth. Wickedness. The difference

between iniquity, where you go, oh, I made a

mistake. Oh, I wish I hadn't done that. Oh, I

know I shouldn't do this, but I can't stop myself.

That's one thing. That's different from, he wants

me to do this, but I'm not going to do it. Or

he doesn't want me to do this, but I'm going

to do it anyway. That's willfully disobedient.

His faithfulness. That's faithfulness. He never

changes. No breakdown up there. No breakdown

in here. He'll let him in. His faithfulness.

He never changes. His purpose. He seeks devoted

hearts. That's what God wants. Jesus said it

himself. He says, my father desires worshipers

in spirit and in truth. That's what he wants.

He wants you to be real about your care for him,

real about who you are in him. And the last one

is grace. He is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.

Now some practical applications. You can pick

and choose or come up with some of your own if

you want for that little box down there. You

might say, love God with your whole heart. I'll

say this much too, and I wrote this in one of

the books I wrote many years ago. This is probably

the first one I wrote. This is the first book.

And that is that if your heart, the more your

heart can love God, the more your heart can steer.

And a regenerated heart is a brand new heart,

right? So if you had a heart and it was failing

or you had a bad heartbeat or one of your bowels

was bad or whatever, and you went to the hospital,

they're not going to put a broken heart. in there.

They're not going to put a heart in there that

doesn't work very good. They're going to give

you a new heart, but they're not going to give

you a heart at all. They're not going to go,

oh, this guy died. He's got heart disease from

smoking for 50 years. We're going to put him

in there because he's the better one you got.

That's not how it works. They're going to give

you a good heart, but they're not going to give

you a heart. Well, God doesn't take your bad

heart out and give you a bad heart, right? So

when you got saved, you regenerate your heart.

You've been born again. All old things pass away.

All things come to you, right? And so the heart

you have now can guide your whole life. It can

do everything for you. And that's what you need

to let it do. Pursue obedience over empty ritual.

So if you go like, well, I don't think I want

to, but it's what God wants me to do, do it anyway.

Not because it's an empty ritual, but make sure

you understand you're doing it because it's what

God wants. It's okay to do something you don't

want to do for God. Just make sure you're doing

it because it's what God wants. If you're just

doing it because somebody else thinks you should

or somebody else is going to give reputation

or whatever, then that's not going to honor God

at all. Trust God's unchanging love. That's kind

of our best safe net. After you've screwed up,

you don't feel like you're good enough to come

back and confess to God and beg Him for forgiveness

again or whatever like that, trust Him. He is

faithful and just. He will forgive you and He

will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Hate

sin because it grieves God. Stop hating sin because

it bothers you. Stop hating sin because it hurts

you. But hate it because it grieves you. If there's

something that really gets under the skin of

your friend or your spouse or your pastor, you

should not want that for them. You should want

to cut it out. You don't want to talk a way that's

going to hurt your wife or your husband or your

kids. As a kid, you don't want to talk a way

that's going to hurt your parents. You don't

want to do that.