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Friday, October 24, 2014

What Now?

  It’s the last week of our six-week series, “Enemies of the Heart,” and I want to start by thanking Lecil and Fran Frink, Allen and Cindy Garrett, Dan and Sandy Faust, Warren and Pat Frees, and Clayton and Amanda Kreisel for leading our Sunday morning community groups.  Your ministry has blessed many! Over the past few Sundays, we’ve learned that guilt is an enemy of our hearts.  Guilt causes us to pull away from others and from God in an attempt to hide what we’ve done.  Over time, guilt can deeply damage our hearts and our emotional well-being.  Guilt is conquered by confession.  When we confess our guilt to God or to others, our hearts are immediately set free. We also talked about the enemy of anger!  Anger causes us to explode unreasonably, to seethe, to nurse grudges, and to complain about everything in our lives.  Anger is conquered by forgiveness; when we choose to forgive those who’ve hurt us, the anger in our hearts is broken and we are set free! We also looked at the enemy of greed.  Greed causes us to fearfully and selfishly cling to our stuff.  Greedy people live in a very small, self-absorbed world that revolves around them and no one else.  Greed is conquered by generosity.  If you want to free your heart from greed, start by giving! And last week we talked about the enemy of jealousy.  Jealousy can cause us to do some crazy things.  Jealous people find it easy to rejoice in the misfortune of others and to keep score.  It also encourages us to chant the mantra – “God’s not fair!  God’s not fair!”  Jealousy is conquered with gratitude and a willingness to celebrate the accomplishments of others. What we’ve learned has been enlightening but if it’s never practiced it’s really useless.  So here’s my question for Sunday – why should every Christ follower want to break free from the destructive power of guilt, anger, greed and jealousy?  I can think of two good reasons.  One, because doing so will positively impact our kids and families and, two, doing so will bring greater glory to God.  To benefit our kids and to glorify God – that’s where we’re headed. I look forward to seeing your shining face! pastor Jamie