Danger of Hardened Hearts but More in not Sharing the Warning
Good Morning Friends,
What difficulties has God prepared you to expect? Oh you will have difficulties. In this work of redemption there are things beyond understanding but there are some things that can be revealed if we lead with our heart and realize the Holy Spirit is guiding us. The first thing to know is that the question about God hardening hearts in the Bible is not one to tiptoe past. It is a problem faced by Jesus and the prophets and we too must face it but not with speculation. We must face it in the reality that God hardens the hearts of sinners in ways that unfold an answer to what is happening. Here we discover that the work of the Holy Spirit demonstrates the power of God in not just His Story but our own personal history as well as our collective one. Now your heart may indeed have been hardened and woe to you if your response was to become more assured in your sin. But if you find yourself small and wanting, then rejoice for you have hope and so too the people in your worshipping community. The revelation is that the Holy Spirit guides the process in ways that are not harsh and manipulative but instead a way of engaging in a relationship with the greatest potential wrath but also the greatest potential love and mercy in the universe. In this we can rejoice for there is hope in God’s sovereignty. Friends, I believe that God really wants people to respond positively to his warnings and invitations. But God knows that people are confident in their own strategies and that they will choose their own way even more stubbornly when they’re challenged. Still the situation needs to be proclaimed. There is Danger of Hardened Hearts but More in not Sharing the Warning.
Scripture: Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Romans 9:18 (NIV)
‘While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’ After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfil the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not look with their eyes, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’ Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.
John 12:36-43 (NRSV)
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:12-17 (NRSV)
Message: A couple of days ago I wrote about the opening and closing of doors. And I would have to say that today’s topic is very similar in how it relates to evangelism. The key is to realize that we cannot understand it with our head alone. We need our hearts and we need to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit too. How people react to the Holy Spirit is key. How people respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is essential to understanding what is going on here. Friends, we have to be connected and changed before we can be transformed. Some people receive the blessing and some do not. Some doors are opened and others are not. One thing leads to another….but it is the path of Jesus and the sequence of events in the Holy Spirit that ends up opening the doors. One cannot plan this or control this. One has to live in it and witness it. Sometimes we are pushed by the events and at other times gently nudged by the Spirit. But friends, whatever the strength of the Spirit do not resist it. Pay attention to what is happening in your heart and mind. Choose the path that brings joy. There is a reason that Jesus had trouble with those wanting intellectual explanations. Friends, our faith is one of the heart first and then the mind. Some people only understand with their heads and not their hearts. They are proud and their idols are their ideas. We must love others and our self in ways that connect our hearts and our heads.
Pray we ask the Lord for a grace in us to submit to the Holy Spirit. Pray we understand that a truly hard heart cannot feel or lament its own hardness. Pray we move forward in life creatively and joyfully engaging but also defending ourselves from the evil of self-sufficiency, pride and arrogance. Pray we see the beauty of God’s divine drama. Pray we be vessels of mercy. Pray we not just believe in the things we own. Pray we embrace Jesus Christ as the greatest treasure and mystery in the universe. Pray we let the gospel-lion out of its cage to do its work. Pray we realize that a hard heart will be blind to the precious value of the gospel and will refuse to embrace Christ. Pray we realize that we need a lot of Holy Spirit teaching. Pray we respond to the revealing and concealing going on in people’s hearts around us. Pray our hearts realize that God is sovereign yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. Pray we realize it is better to know we have failed at being good so God’s mercy can fill in the hole in our hearts.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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