STEPPING INTO ABUNDANT LIVING - Enemies of the Heart
MATTHEW 5:3–12 Beatitudes
6th Beatitude:
Matthew
5: (NIV)
8 Blessed
are kthe pure in heart: for lthey shall see God. [1]
We seek
to keep our hearts pure that we might see God in our lives today[2]
Principle
– Openly examine and confess MY
faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
James 5:16 “Therefore
confess your sins to each other and pray
for each other so that you may be healed.”
There are
four primary enemies of the heart that we need to consider while doing
our personal inventory—four life-blocking agents that become lodged in
the heart, poisoning our relationships, our faith, and our character. These corrosive forces gain strength from the
darkness. Secrecy is their greatest
ally. Left to their own, they grow in
power and influence, like a lab experiment gone terribly wrong.1
But as
you will discover, these creatures lose their power when exposed to light. Like roaches that scatter at the flick of a
switch, so these four enemies of the heart dissipate when exposed to the light
of truth.2 (God is light & His Word is Truth.)
Here they
are:
Guilt; Anger; Greed and
Jealousy. (You could even add control to this mix.)
Maybe
you’re wondering why I left lust off
the list. It’s because lust is not a
problem to be solved; it is an appetite to me managed—an appetite God
created. Now there’s a thought! Lust is actually a good thing within the right relationship. Truth be know, if it wasn’t for lust, you wouldn’t
be here.3
Guilt,
anger, greed, jealousy—each results in a debt-to-debtor dynamic that always
causes an imbalance in any relationship.
If you owe someone money, or vice versa, you know this to be the case. No matter what else is going on at the moment,
the debt is always in the room with you.4
Guilt says, “I owe you”. Guilt is the
result of having done something we perceived as wrong. Every wrong we do can be restated as an act
of theft. We’ve even adopted specific
terminology for resolving our guilt. We
say, “I owe her an apology.” Why do we “owe” people an apology? Because our hearts tell us we took something,
that we’re now debtors in some fashion.
Consequently, the only way to make things right is to pay up. Even if our only available currency is
words—“I’m sorry”—still we feel obligated to pay something.
Nothing
less than paying that debt will relieve a guilty heart of its burden of
guilt. People try to work it off, serve
it off, give it off and even pray it off.
But No amount of good deeds, community service, charitable giving, or
Sundays in a pew can relieve the guilt.
It is a debt. And it must be paid
or canceled for a guilty heart to experience relief.5
Anger on the other hand, says, “You
owe me”. We get angry when we
don’t get what we want. What we want may include what we deserve.6 In other words, you didn’t get what you were
convinced you deserved.
Interpreted: Somebody owed you!7
Show me
an angry person and I’ll show you a hurt person. And I guarantee you that person is hurt
because something has been taken.
Somebody owes them something. (If
nothing else, an apology.)8
Again,
here is the point: The root of anger is
the perception that something has been taken.
Something is owed you. And now a
debt-to-debtor relationship has been established.9
Anger,
like each of the four “viruses” we will discuss, refuses to remain isolated or
appropriately focused. If anger is
lodged in my heart, then before long, I will come to believe that everybody owes me. That’s why we characterize certain men and
women as “an angry person”. …anger is a heart disease. People with anger lodged in their hearts are
sick, and sick people act sick.10
Anger
gains its strength from secrecy.
Exposing it is painful and powerful at the same time. And to be honest, if you discover that you
are carrying a heart full of anger, that won’t come as a surprise to the people
who love you most. They have known it
for a long time. And chances are, they
have been praying that one day you would wake up and see if for yourself.
If in
fact it is you who is suffering from this common malady, I bet you have a story
to tell. You may have never shared it
with anybody, but I bet you’ve got one.
A story that leaves no room for doubt as to the legitimacy of your
anger.
These
monsters of the heart cannot withstand the light of exposure. For you to tell your story would be to drag
it out into the light. You know
intuitively that bringing it out into the open would cause it to loose its
potency, which means you would lose an excuse to stay angry. Beside, the whole ordeal would be so
uncomfortable that it’s easier just to keep it yourself. Can you see that by forcing yourself to bring
your story to light you may deal your anger a fatal blow?12
Here’s a
question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you
don’t even like—people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who
aren’t even alive anymore—to control your life?
How long?
Seriously,
get out your calendar and pick a date.
Ridiculous? Silly? What’s ridiculous is to continue to allow the
people who have hurt you the most to influence your current and future
relationships. That’s not just
silly. That’s…sick.13
There is
an appropriate way to use your story.
Not as an excuse, but as a testimony to God’s ability to free you from
the past. When you allow Him access to
that part of your heart that harbors your anger, something amazing will
transpire. Your story will not longer
explain your behavior; it will stand in stark contracts to it.
That’s
what happens when a person quits using his story to justify his anger and
instead allows God to do heart surgery.14
Perhaps
you see your anger as an asset, an ally.
You’ve learned to leverage it in certain situations in order to get your
way—or, as you like to put it, to get
things accomplished. You believe that your anger makes you
strong. You think it makes you a better
leader. A more effective disciplinarian. A more successful coach. Granted, your anger probably gives you energy
at times, and when harnessed and properly focused, it can be a powerful ally in
certain situations. But it doesn’t make
you more effective or successful. In
fact, the people who are forced to interact with you see it as a weakness. A sickness.
Like
guilt, anger alienates us from other people.
More times than we care to admit, the shrapnel of our anger pierces
those closest to us, loved ones who are innocent and clueless as to what caused
us to detonate in their presence. A
heart filled with anger is a heart looking to be paid back.15
Quick
review. Guilt says “I owe you.” Anger says, “You owe me.” The third hideous beast on our list is greed.
Greed says, “I owe me.”
Bottom
line, the greedy people believe they deserve every good thing that comes their
way. Not only that, but they believe
they deserve every good thing that could possibly
come their way. Consequently, it is hard
to get a greedy person to part with money or stuff. Why?
Because its’ theirs. And they are
scared. Greed disguises itself.
The truth
is, we’ve made it almost impossible to identify greed in our own lives. Unlike anger or guilt, greed hides behind
several virtues. Greedy people are
savers, and saving is a good thing.
Greedy people are often planners, and planning is a good thing. Greedy people want to make sure their
financial future is secure, and that’s a good thing as well. Right?
Greed
knows no socioeconomic boundaries. I’ve
met greedy poor people and greedy rich people.
Greed is not a financial
issue; it is a heart issue. Financial gain doesn’t make greedy people
less greedy. Financial gain or loss
doesn’t change anything, because greed emanates from the heart.16
Consider
this warning issued by Jesus himself:
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
(Luke 12:15)
Be on
your guard! Why? Because of the four heart conditions we will
discuss, greed is the most subtle of all.17
Fear is
the driving force behind greed. Fear
fuels greed. Greed is supported by an
endless cast of what ifs.
People
with greed lodged in their heart fear that God either can’t or won’t take care
of them. More to the point, they’re
afraid that God won’t take care of them in the fashion or style in which they want to be cared for. And the gap between what they suspect God
might be willing to do and what they want becomes a major source of
anxiety. (My car as an example)
Greedy
people can never have enough to satisfy their need to feel secure in light of
every conceivable eventuality. There’s
always another “what if” that drives
them to acquire more. Their appetite
cannot be satisfied. Greedy people are
rarely at peace with others and never at peace with themselves. Greed eventually strains their relationships
at every level, eroding long-term relationships over stuff that has a use-life
of only a few years.19
Proverbs
27:20 says Death and Destruction are
never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man.
The
fourth heart issue is no different. Jealousy. Jealousy says, “God owes me.” When we
think about jealousy or envy, we immediately think of the things others have
that we lack—looks, skills, opportunities, health, height, inheritance,
etc. We assume that our problem is with
the person who possesses what we lack.
But let’s face it, God could have fixed all of that for us. The point is, there’s an inequity there that
God could have remedied. Let’s face it,
most of us believe on some level that if God had taken as good care of us as he
has some people we know, our lives would be richer.20
Who’s
really to blame? If you are a theist by
any definition, your jealousy is really an issue between you and God. What God did for one he could have done for
you too. But for some reason he
didn’t. Your problem isn’t with the
person who has what you don’t; it’s with your Creator. He owes
you.
Yet our
jealousy rarely surfaces in our interaction with God. If we’re aware of it at all, we might confess
it as sin. But even then we think of our
jealousy as an issue between friends, coworkers, or neighbors. It doesn’t register as a grudge we are
holding against God. But that’s exactly
what it is.21
(example of person who confessed jealousy to
me) – should have been handled between her and God
Of the
four heart invaders under consideration here, perhaps jealousy betrays the true
condition of our heart more than any other.
I can justify my efforts to conceal my past. I can make a convincing case for my
anger. And my greed is easy to
camouflage behind the virtues of stewardship and prudence. But how do you justify those incriminating
feelings of satisfaction when someone you know (and even love) suffers a
setback or loss of some kind? But before
you know it, with no conscious effort on your part, there it is: that despicable feeling of satisfaction. And where did it come from? Straight from the heart.22
We are
going to look at four specific spiritual exercises that, if you will make them
a habit, will effectively neutralize the enemies of your heart. Like physical exercise, implementing this
regimen is often a matter of sheer discipline.
An act of the will. A
feeling-defying act of will. And like
physical exercise, these internal “stretches” are always profitable, even when
they are not enjoyable.
The
longer you’ve been living with guilt, hanging on to anger, clinging to your
stuff, or comparing yourself to others, the harder it will be to exercise these
four virtues. The longer you have
neglected your heart, the harder it is to get in shape. I’ve never met anyone who regretted a good
habit.23
Confession
exposes our secrets and frees the heart from the oppressive power of
guilt. But, I’m not talking about the
kind of confession most of us are accustomed to—i.e., a simple admission of
culpability in a particular incident.
That kind of confession eases our conscience temporarily but does
nothing to expose the deeper secrets we carry.
And it is the secrets that keep our hearts in turmoil.24
Confession
was all about guilt relief. I knew even
as I was confessing that I would be back the next day, confessing the same
sins. My routine had nothing to do with
change. I just wanted to feel better.
Chances
are, you play your own version of the confession game. Some confess to a priest, some confess
directly to God, but none of us is really interested in changing anything. But we sure feel better about ourselves. The cloud lifts. The slate is clean. And now that we’ve gotten
God off our case, we think, perhaps he will be on our side. But would you
side up with someone who treated you that way25
So how do we deal with these enemies of the
heart?
- Admit
you have them for starters… which is why this is part of your inventory… then .. we will need to:
- Confess
to God, yourself & someone you trust – not just for guilt relief but for
accountability and repentance..
Repent
– turning to a new way… a change of mind/ thinking… a change of heart!
STEPPING
INTO ABUNDANT LIVING
‘BLESSED
ARE THE PURE IN HEART’ – INVENTORY PART 3
GROUP WORK
1) Share
about what you discovered through ‘the four enemies of the heart’.
2) What
are your thoughts about ‘I owe you’, ‘you owe me’, ‘I owe me’, ‘God owes me’?
3)
Why do you think it is important to confess the way it was
presented tonight?
4)
When and with whom will you be doing your
confession? Is there something you want to share tonight?
l Heb. 12. 14. 1 John 3. 2, 3.
[1] The Cambridge Paragraph Bible:
Of the Authorized English Version. Bellingham,
WA : Logos Research Systems,
Inc., 2006, cxix
[2]Wiersbe,
Warren W.:
The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.
: Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Mt 5:1
