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Grace from the Heart Good Morning Friends, I have heard more than my fair share of sermons and preachers. Some preached fire and brimstone and others of a loving God. Some preached from the head and others the heart. But I would have to say that the key to a good one is found in the lessons from the Sermon on the Mount. You see, if the message is in one’s heart as a prayer it works. From the pew, I am moved to be a blessing more by the heart than the head. The person in the pulpit need not say much more than that the devil is bad and Jesus is good if it is sincerely from the heart and offered as a prayer for us to experience. Here even the name of Jesus becomes a Christian prayer that invokes the Holy Spirit that offers us Grace from the Heart. Scripture: But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 (NIV) I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (NRSV) ‘Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:9-15 (NRSV) |
Message: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…is not just the greatest name I know…it is the greatest name I feel. I do hope to feel Jesus in sermons steeped in prayer of more heart than head. I do like an intellectual journey but it is big hearts that make big preacher and good hearts that make for a good sermon. A sermon to enlarge and cultivate the heart is what I both need and desire. Preachers and congregations need to realize that the stronghold of the power in the pulpit is in the heart of a preacher wielding a scepter of love. But there is power in the pews as well and people should take greater responsibility to come before the throne of God to be ruled by the heart of the message. Do not just know it but feel it in your bones that the throne of Jesus’ power is the Messiah’s heart. We see it phrased beautifully and skillfully in the well-known Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. That Jesus pray the night before it and during it is part of its power. I hope you do not just know but feel that the sermon is about righteousness that comes from the heart. Here Jesus challenges us to evaluate ourselves by an inner standard not an external form. It is one thing to have a head count in church and quite another to have a heart count. But let me be clear on this point…Homage in our head does not pass current on earth for long and not at all in heaven. Friends, the heart must speak from the pulpit but it must also be heard from the pew. The meditations of our hearts here need to glorify God as much as the words spoken. Knowing that Jesus’ instruction on prayer is in the broad context of a sermon about the heart is not of much help unless we feel that the real source of good and evil in us comes from the heart. In the grace offered by the heart of Jesus through the Holy Spirit pray for those in the pulpit this Pentecost but also pray for those in the pews.
Pray we realize that it is the heart not the head that surrenders the life to love. Pray the Holy Spirit activates a Grace from the heart in us to teach us. Pray we have courage to speak from the genius of heart and not the head. Pray we realize that it is the heart that draws people to heaven. Pray we gain revelation born in the heart of prayer.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 