Pastor Jon Burgess
June 23, 2019 - W1925

Faith Is Action—Not Intent

Matters Of The Heart

Pastor Jon Burgess

June 22 & 23, 2019

Aloha, New Hope! It’s great to be back and to see each one of you again—it’s been a couple of weeks! I took the Burgess Bunch on a staycation, so we could actually enjoy the island we live on! Most of the time, we’re all so busy that we don’t get to see the beauty of this place—I must say we are all pretty blessed! While we relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of Hawaii, I thought not only that are we blessed living on such a beautiful island, but we are also blessed with the amazing teaching that God has brought here: If it weren’t for people like Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, Pastor Aaron Cordeiro, and Pastor Richard Waialeale, I might not have been able to appreciate our home and family in ways as a staycation! So please, let’s thank God for our amazing teachers! 

Pastor Wayne kicked off this series a few weeks ago by helping us to understand in our hearts how to serve God, as we are looking at—The Matters Of The Heart. God wants to move us from intention to action—putting feet to our faith!

Luke 10:25-28 NIV says, “²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  ²⁶ ‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’  ²⁷ He answered,‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.’  ²⁸ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’”

Notice: Jesus didn’t say, “Think about this, ponder this, or maybe do this.” No, Jesus says, “Do this!” Faith is action. It isn’t just thinking about it. It isn’t enough to just have good intentions. We must turn those intentions into actions; otherwise, we are just playing church!  Jesus knows we know the right answer; He knows we feel it in our hearts; He wants to see us live it! 

In his last time here, Pastor Wayne illustrated a diagram showing that faith in action starts with our hearts—our intentions. We all intend to serve God with our whole heart (but our hearts are controlled by our emotions and passions); Pastor Aaron talked about making sure that our soul is surrendered to the Lord, and Pastor Richard described having the mind of Christ. All of that leads to how God uses our strengths and actions to walk out a wholehearted life!

Do you enjoy roller coasters? For those who didn’t say, “Yes,” it’s probably because you didn’t have a great experience—or you may have heard someone else’s opinion about them, or maybe you think life will be just fine not having to experience something scary! 

There’s a ride called Space Mountain in Disneyland: When you get in, it’s so dark that you can’t even see anything in front of you—but you can hear people screaming! Then our minds and emotions try to push us away from what might be one of the greatest adventures of our lives! Then you take those last few moments to decide whether or not to get on. That’s what faith is like: Faith is getting on that roller coaster even when you can’t see what will happen next! 

At that moment, God tells us that He has a plan for us. He wants us to cling to Him in our faith and trust! If we decide to have faith and get on that roller coaster, Jesus will hold on to us, and we will experience the best life possible! Some of you might be on that roller coaster now. Some might be hearing those mysterious clicks taking you to the very top of the ride, and you might be asking yourself, “What have I got myself into?” Listen. Just hold on tight and surrender all your fears to Jesus! Be Wholehearted In Your Action Towards The Lord!

1. Surrender The Day!

Surrender your day, your fears, and your offenses! That’s what following Jesus is all about—a steady series of surrenders. 

Luke 9:23-25 NIV says, “²³ Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”’

Again, following Jesus goes hand in hand with a steady series of surrenders—daily. Jesus looks at us and ahead of us, and He lets us know what we will need for what we are about to face! He tells us to first take up our cross, then to lay down our right to get offended! We have a choice: We can take up our cross or take up an offense—but we cannot take up both!  

Picture Jesus handing us some wood, a hammer, and some nails and tells us that if we want to be His disciples, we must make a cross from this wood, hammer, and nails, and anytime we see a sin, we nail it to that cross. This will remind us that we are not in a position to judge others; instead, we will be thankful that we get to follow the Lord on a daily basis—our flesh, emotions and minds are not in charge! Jesus tells us that if we prefer to have our flesh, emotions and minds in charge, we can just leave the wood, hammer, and nails and walk away…

Listen as Jesus predicts His death a second time to His disciples: Luke 9:22 NIV says, “And he said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’” 

Jesus tells His disciples, “I am going to die for you,” and His disciples start arguing among themselves, about who is the greatest, which one Jesus likes more, and get offended by each other! Luke 9:46 NIV says, “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.” They missed out on the big picture by comparing themselves among each other. We often take offense by those who are closest to us; especially, when we compare ourselves to those around us. Remember: If we get offended by people close to us, we will get offended by those who aren’t close to us!  

Then when Jesus and His disciples were making their way to Jerusalem, the Samaritans wouldn’t let them pass through their city, so they had to take the long way around; and the disciples, of course, were offended, and tried to convince Jesus how bad the offense was! They wanted to call down fire from heaven and have justice served! Jesus reminded them in Luke 9:55-56 NKJV, “⁵⁵ …He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. ⁵⁶For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’” This is not what they were there to do—they were headed towards the cross and should be focused on that!

When we choose to lay down our lives, we are choosing to not get offended! The world may tell you that you have a right to be offended, but the Lord asks that you lay down that right and take up the cross!

2. Savor The Day!

When Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain to pray, Jesus’ appearance altered and His robe became white and glistening. Then Moses and Elijah appeared talking with Jesus about His death and the journey to the cross. Even though Peter was still half asleep, he saw the cloud and, of course, was afraid—wondering if they were going to die... 

Luke 9:33-35 NIV says, “³³As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Him, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)  ³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

God is correcting Peter, telling him to stop talking; this is a holy moment! He is trying to tell Peter that if he really wants to get what he’s supposed to from that moment, he must savor it! Sometimes, we just need to slow down as Holy Spirit has something new to teach us. Let the lesson enter our hearts, minds and souls, that we could take action through a Christ-like example!  

Our oldest son, Elijah just graduated from high school, and he’ll be going to Australia for six months with Youth With A Mission. (I won’t see my son for 6 months!) At his graduation, Cyndi and I looked at each other and wondered where did the last 18 years go! We reminisced about the times when all five of them were little boys, running around, and the older people would always come up to us and say, “Make sure you cherish time with your kids because it will go by fast!” We would look at each other, and hoped it would go by fast because they drove us crazy!

So how do we make sure to savor our moments? I’m sure there are a lot of tools out there, but one that I really gravitated towards was from St. Ignatius of Loyola 400 years ago. He suggested that we ask each other (or ourselves if we are alone) these simple questions at the end of each day, so that we can end the day with purpose, and start the new day with purpose:

1.      Where did I see God today?
2.      What am I thankful for today?
3.      How did I feel today? (Good, bad, happy, sad, stressed, etc.)
4.      How do I feel about tomorrow?

I like this method because it forces me to take a good honest look at myself and ask if I really savored the day, or if I were too busy to stop and savor. We don’t need to talk just to talk and not know what we are saying, like Peter. Just listen. Get the most out of every moment!

Carpe Diem! Seize the day! None of us have forever on this earth, so let’s make today count. Don’t put it off! 

3. Seize The Day!

As we finish out the chapter in Luke, we see examples of people who promise their devotion to Jesus, but then pull back and want to wait until they think it’s better. 

Luke 9:61-62 NIV says, “⁶¹ Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’  ⁶² Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”

In order for our good intentions to turn into God actions, we need to give God our undivided attention. Keep our focus on Him. When He asks us to follow Him, we shouldn’t put it off. We all have a heart to obey God, but sometimes our mind and emotions pull us to do it our own way, and we end up procrastinating—instead of obeying! Guess what? Delayed obedience is disobedience! Our heart, mind and emotions are proven by our actions. If we choose to put something off, we are proving that our hearts, minds and emotions are not devoted to that something.

James 1:22 NLT says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

The enemy of our souls would love for us to put off what God is speaking to our hearts and to refuse Jesus. However, we defeat the enemy by surrendering, savoring, and seizing the day! Let us pray:

Father God, we are here to serve you with all of our hearts, minds and strength. We don’t want to just play church. Some of us have been holding things against others. Some have hurt, wounded, and offended me and I don’t understand it. We sometimes build a fence because we think that it’s the easier thing to do, but realize that it also holds us back from everything You want us to do. Many have convinced ourselves that we are too busy, and in return we have missed moments that You have been trying to speak to us. There are a lot of us here who feel that life is getting away from us. We’re not sure about tomorrow, but we are grateful for today. Father, we come to surrender our offenses and forgive those who have hurt us—we will put them in your hands.  Lord, thank you for this moment. Thank you for speaking into our hearts. We seize this day and every day, thereafter, by putting feet to our faith, in Jesus’ name. Amen!

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1.      Where did you see God today?
2.      What are you thankful for today?
3.      How did you feel today?
4.      What should you pray for?
5.      How do you feel about tomorrow?