Terry Lewis Sermon: “God’s Own Heart.” “Does your heart match God’s heart?”

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But yeah, it’s a great honor and privilege. I’m undeserving of being with you guys, to talk to you guys about God’s word and share my vision of God’s word with you guys. I love seeing the face of God in the scene for a long time. I think it’s been over a year since I’ve been here, so that’s great to see you guys. I always love coming out and spending time with you guys. I was lucky to get together some of the best food that I ever had. I was lucky to get together some food and pictures and I enjoyed that. Before I get started, I want to pray real quick and then we’ll get some friends to invest in it. But before I get started, I just want to thank you for this opportunity, Lord. It’s an opportunity that I’m going to give you. word and to talk about your heart lord and i pray that that lord you uh remove all of me from this you know you have only your words that belong over that i pray that as we uh go through the characteristics of your heart that it will enable us to see what we’ve done in these areas and give us the the lesson that I came over to the lesson called God’s own heart that’s one of the things that should be very important to us as believers is to try to emulate the Lord the best that we can we all fell in every single way I’ve given myself many times but my desire that I have, I think the characteristic of God’s heart is actually what actually identifies what God calls us to do.

And I think God really reveals his character to us, and he makes himself known from the scriptures, and one of the ways he does that is by revealing his heart to us, and whether that be like in questions, such as rhetorical ones, like God was asked, when God was explaining to Job, how he, who, where were you when I created these things, or whether it’s to get to Paul to say, “Who do you say that I am?” God uses these questions as devices to teach us something about himself. And I want us to consider these three questions as we consider the moment that you also examine yourself to see if you actually made these images. And the first question is from Genesis 3:9, and that question and he saw Adam and Eve, and this was after the rebellion, I think that’s a very key point in that passage because before that they were in perfection and when they were fallen and God saw after them as he seeks out all of those who are lost, And when Adam and Eve were afraid and they were hiding, God came looking for them. Jesus reflected that same fire in the big stories in Luke, of lost things being earnestly pursued, like a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son. He summarized his passions for these things that were lost, even when they were criticized, like in his outreach for Zacchaeus, he said, “For the Son of Man came seeking to save that which was lost.” And that’s the book of 19:10.

God comes looking for us, he wants to get back into a relationship with us, and he seeks after us. Even though we see that it’s a broken relationship, after he finds us, after we’ve been reconciled to him, he then calls us When we follow Christ, he calls to us to go into the world and to ask the same question to those who are broken in this world. And that question is, where are you? And he also calls us to be like his eyes. So the same question we should be asking when we go out in the world looking for those lost sheep. Paul captured that spirit. Also, a second point is, by urging people to be reconciled to God in 2 Corinthians 5:1. And if we understand the seeking heart of God, we will find ourselves compelled to plead with those who are perishing. We will plead to them to be reconciled to God, the loving Father God wants you back. When we truly desire to be obedient to the Lord and we truly desire to show the same love that he showed us, it will have a local and global effect. And I don’t want to just give you guys scriptures. I also want to give you guys practical application of what people go through at a very close in my life that have sacrificed time, sacrificed time with their families, sacrificed money for jobs.

So I’m going to give you just a few examples of those individuals. and he actually recently retired from that business and one of the things he actually started doing is he used to be a body builder, a really good professional body builder. And so he actually started a gym and a Christian degree membership and worked out to pray together. That’s something that he could have definitely used for the financial gain, but he’s chosen to make it a great place where people can come in and work out and sharpen each other while we’re there. You guys have a great example here. I mean, Alex and his wife, one of my favorite people that I talk about all the time is, I remember Alex and Cheryl were going to Europe. And he was very excited when he talked to me about that and saying that they were going. But one thing I found interesting is that he wasn’t really talking about the landscape of Europe, the old buildings of Europe. He wasn’t talking about those things that most people talk about. He was most excited about the basketball tracks that he had just got to pass out on the plane. He was most excited about actually being able to share the gospel in another country. And that’s something that actually reveals his heart for reaching the lost.

I think when we really truly desire to avail the Lord, and we truly desire to show the same love that he showed us, it will have an impact not only within your own church, but it will actually have an impact outside of this church. So our goal should never be to include the numbers within, but to include souls that are on the heavens and down. And that’s our focus, to be driven towards that. One of the great ideas that I’ve seen people come up with is whatever you’re actually skilled in, people will say, you know, chase your dreams. And I would say you should always chase whatever gift that God is giving you, the God’s gift that you’re in the field of nursing, the God’s gift that you’re in the field of business. I think one of the greatest areas that we really lack in as a believing group is the desire to get out of our comfort zone. That desire to not stay in the comfort of our air conditioning, not stay in the comfort of our comfy couches and watching our TV programs, but really to get outside of that comfort zone because God truly grows you when you’re the least comfortable. That’s the area where the crucible is put on fire and where there’s a fire in front of the walls of the communities.

I think that’s one of, I’ve probably preached to over 100 churches, you know, close to that. Some are either a little bit above or below that. And many times I hear some of the same things, you know, that people will have these ideas of why they want to share the gospel. You know, some of these ideas. these things. I’m working on a business. I’m trying to pay off a debt. You know, let’s say things like I’m not gifted in this particular area. You know, those are probably 90% of the things that I see on a consumer’s basis. And God really doesn’t give us any excuses not to serve him. You know, God searched us out while we were enemies to him. You know, we should have a similar love and compassion And so I think that really shows the seeking of God is the scripture that talks about how to sought out of the grave and how Jesus himself went out to seek those who people did not want to touch. The tax collectors, those who had diseases that were very contagious and people wanted to stay far away from the Lord and wanted Jesus to actually come.

One of the other types of characteristics of God’s heart is the sacrificial heart. And in Matthew 27 and 46, where God says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These words of Jesus on the cross reflect God’s willingness. going back to lost people. The thing that goes across all the scripture, God loves us so much that he comes and pays the price for the sins that we ourselves have committed. Isaiah 33, verse 6. The scripture tells us that Jesus suffered separation, loneliness, and pain so that he might make it possible for us to come back to God in 1 John 4:10. The scripture reflects God’s sacrificial heart. He loved us so much that he gave his own one and only begotten son that who he knew had no sin would become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him in 2 Corinthians 5:21. When we understand the sacrifice for our sins, God’s love should compel us to sacrifice Will you be willing to be inconvenienced so that others can know the love of God who gave himself for them? His sacrifice should stir us up so that we no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and was raised again.

God’s sacrificial heart motivates incarnational ministry as Jesus left his comfort zone to serve us by his death on the cross. How much more should we in turn leave our comfort zone to To sacrifice our time for the one who sacrificed his life for a rich and similar life for us. It is God’s sacrificial heart that is evident in those who actually spend the time and believe that the comfort zone Another great example of a sacrificial heart, a worker who’s a good friend of mine, who’s desire to be obedient, started to do a ministry. She’s definitely been a friend of mine since we were about 12. Early in her life, she fell into some drug abuse and other things like that, and eventually went into prostitution on the street. She’s been for the next 15 years as a prostitute. And so that interaction caused her to actually give up her addiction, get into a program that spent 18 months in a program called Phoenix Rescue Mission. And she stayed in that program. And now she went back to the ministry and she’s in the ministry now. mothers and children who have been, who have had to make that wish, she herself suffers with. And I think that’s a great example of how God can use our brokenness to want to speak to those others who may be able to relate to what we’ve been broken, and where God is taking those pieces and putting them back together.

You know, God has that plan for our brokenness, and that plan is glorified in him. I also with sacrificial heart met my uncle Jasper, who has severe lupus. He’s a foster parent. He was a foster parent specifically for those children who have severe mental illness. Pretty tough job. It’s a pretty thankful job. A lot of the time, and I think when we have children, as parents a lot of times we really embrace that love and gift of our children. And he’s a very good example of that. He just keeps driving us to take care of those who are abandoned by their parents, those who are broken. But he is very well educated. Before he decided to do this path, he lost a house, he lost his wife, he lost all those things, but still I fall short and I decided instead of going out to serve the Lord, I want to just take a day inside and hang out on the couch. as believers we should offer that we would draw out that desire to go on a secret stay.

The third area of scripture really talks about the sentient heart that God has. and in scripture we read this in isaiah 6 7 and in isaiah 6 7 it reads whom shall i send and who will go for us now these words were actually spoken by isaiah before his actual famous response which is here i am send me that’s in isaiah 6 8. isaiah reflects god’s method of getting the message of his love to the world he sends us as well more disciples. In Matthew 28, 15-20, he says, preach the good news everywhere. Mark 16, 15, Luke 24, 45-41, and read his witnesses to the ends of the earth and ask for the way. All these commands launch us out because Jesus says, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. We are God’s method. He fully intends to involve each and everyone because God makes his appeal of love and reconciliation to the world through us and second thinking of God’s plan.

So I really want to ask you this, this is a very honest question. When it comes to thinking of actually sharing your faith and going outside of that comfort zone, have you guys ever had the thoughts or the compulsion to give statements to why you could not share your faith, right? Statements I’ve used myself, you know, and I’ll be the first to say it, is that I’ve said things like, “This is not my gift.” Very early on in my faith, I was, I really had a desire to move ministry. I was a new pastor for a couple years, and so I really desired to work with the youth. And so as soon as they mentioned certain things that I’d brought up, I would just say, “Well, I’m not really gifted in this area of working with the youth.” You know, so it’s something that for me, I might have had that excuse many, many times, honest with ourselves, we can come up with a thousand different excuses why we actually of people thinking that was some kind of religious weirdo. I hear that all the time. That’s one of the funniest ones I always hear is because I tell them, do you believe that the Bible is the word of God? Do you believe the stories in the Bible? So you like to believe a burning bush spoke? You really like there was a fiery tornado and somebody followed it and then that guy raised himself from the dead? You’re already weird. You already believe weird stuff, right? But it’s through the Holy Spirit that grants us that ability to see this is the truth of God.

So being afraid that people are going to think we’re weird, you might as well just embrace it like the rest of us and know that the world thinks we’re weird. The world thinks that we’re different. The world sees us as not belonging to them. So our fear should not be of the world. Our fear should be really of those. Everybody in here, our clock is ticking and our next word is in promise. So one day, our ancient and the one of us will draw our last breath and our eyes will stay open but there will be no sorrow in our body. And that is not a time that you really know. It will be a time that God decides. And if you ended your life with knowledge, knowledge, and habits, you consider the loss of God’s promise to you. That could be a better time, but it would be too late to turn to that promise. It would be too late to do what he’s promised to do. I just want to tell you, you know, for myself, you know, just by a share of hands, how many of you guys have ever used the excuse like, “That’s not my calling,” right? I mean, of course I’m gonna raise my hand, right? I’ll say it, you know. Or that I’m too busy, you know, I have a kid’s soccer game on Saturday, so, you know, I’ll go to the soccer game, I’ll use that excuse. Not soccer, basketball, play basketball. So I’ve used that excuse many, many times. I’ve also said things like, you know, I give money. I give money to the church. That’s kind of how I support. I give money for ministry needs and things like that. So I don’t really have to go out because I kind of serve in this way.

you know, concerning to me as a group of believers is that the actual last command that Christ gave us is the one we have a thousand excuses for. Like, each one of us will say things like, you know, like, hi, you know, I was talking to a friend of mine recently and, you know, we were kind of going over evangelism and I said, well, you know, some people just aren’t gifted with evangelism. And I said, well, I’m glad you said that. You know, because me, myself, I had a tithe in three years for this church, and it turns out I just don’t have to give the tithe. I said, I’m very happy. I don’t have to be convicted of that anymore, right? Or let’s say, you know, I said, you know, I don’t like to teach very well. It took me a long time to put together the lesson in some of those revival, and it turned out it’s just not my business. You know, so I don’t think any of us would ever say that we don’t desire to serve. for is the actual evangelism of the religion of God. Charles Spurgeon gave one of my favorite quotes, and he says, if you have no desire to seek and save the lost, be assured you yourself are not saved at all. And I think that really wraps up the gospel. seek those who are perishing where really is our love you know I know for me sometimes when I get in that space of having that desire to stay in my company one of the things I like to do for myself is I like to really use what God has given me in my imagination and put myself back into a certain place and one of the things I do is I like to close my eyes in prayer the dirt road, you know, and as I’m walking, you know, starting to see, you know, dark imprints on the soil, and as I’m trying to avoid the rocks, as I’m walking, my sandals, I start to remember that those dark imprints in the soil are like white stains, and as I continue to walk, I see the nails that are penetrating my Savior’s feet. I see the wood that he’s pinned to. I see his hands spread out. I see him beaten. I see the flesh ripped from his body. I stare at his face and I see his feet beyond recognition. I see the spikes that are driven through his hands.

And I imagine myself looking at that and staring at his face and seeing my Savior in that state and then telling him, when he asked me, who have you told about me? And I tell him, let’s just not commit to that. Let’s just not commit to that. I tell him, I just didn’t have time. You know, something that, well, we have a couple other people in our church that do that, but don’t send them, send someone else. You know, and I know for me, that’s always been a mutual state of brokenness, thinking I saved all that cross, and him taking the punishment of my sins, and me not loving him enough to go through these commandments, to go in and seek his favor, those who are just once like me, and destiny to hell. You know, and so, I mean, that’s something I would ask you guys to consider as well. to share your faith, right? Every time that fear of man has overcome you so that you don’t share your faith at work, whether it’s, you know, in the business that you’re at. I pray that you remember that as well, that, you know, at one point in time, our Savior has died on the cross for those of us who are sinners, right? That he was even beyond recognition, that he suffered and died because of us. they’ve committed payments to clients and one of the things that they’ll tell me is uh you know you don’t know the things i’ve done trevor you know you don’t think know the things that i’ve done in my lifetime will never forgive me for these things you know and one of the things that i always tell them is you know i don’t know what you’ve done but i do know what i’ve done right and i know that money is the only instrument and the innocent man. There’s only ever been one incident when he chose to go to that cross is if you don’t have that desire, if you don’t have the desire to go out and serve the Lord, the question really is do you have the same heart as the Lord? Do you have the same desire as the Lord? Are you really a professor of faith? Or do you actually possess the faith that draws us to go out?

You aren’t meant to be saved to sit and listen to the service. You aren’t meant to be saved to just sit with those who feel are more important than those who are outside of your board, that they’re sharing with each other the things that God has blessed you with. You’re meant to be in the house and to use those blessings to glorify God, to tell others about your struggles, to tell others about the sacrifice that you’ve had to make, the people you’ve lost in your life for coming to the Lord. You know, if you think, I haven’t lost anybody in my life, or my life hasn’t really changed since I’ve been saved in that way, then I would say you’re probably not continuing to feel the faith. You’re probably not sharing your faith, that you’ve had an experience of persecution. Right? And if you are actually sharing your faith, and those of us who go out into the world and talk about Christ, it’s very evident how much the world hates us as we do. Right? It’s very evident how much they hate us for the messengers we say to them. So I would really believe if you guys said if you don’t have that desire, you know, pray tonight. We’re going to ignite that with Messiah. So that you cannot just be hearers in the Lord, but actually be doers in the Lord. Right? So I’m going to be motivated by the saving grace that God has given you to go and save those who just like you, but on their way to hell.

I don’t know if you guys know who Kenyon Teller is, right? Like the Magicians, right? Both of them are poor atheists. And Teller, which I also think is a tall one, I’m not for sure. I think it’s just Teller and Tall. Some of them are like that. One of the things that he said, and it’s really stuck with me, is he said that, he said, “I’m not a believer. “I don’t believe in Christ and I don’t believe in God. “And I don’t believe in any of those things.” He said, but I do understand why Christians do what they do and tell people about Christ. Christians really believe that this is the only way out of hell. He said, so I understand why they feel so much of a need and a draw to this prison, to this death, to say the word of God and tell the truth. He said, but what I don’t understand is how much you have to hate someone not to He said, if you truly believe that Christ is the only way for someone to save, if you truly believe that Christ is saving you from your sin, then how much must you hate those around you that are perishing? something I myself have become convicted of many times is I, I got the grocery line and I don’t share with the baby at the register, right? If I’m walking down the street and I see someone and I feel that holding with God and say, you know, you have to use the person and share the gospel with them, and I avoid it. You know, and that always stays in my mind is that what he said, coming even from an atheist, he knows the truth is that we really believe that, that we must not love those who are not necessarily Continually, even to this day, since 2009 when the Lord first saved me, I went out with way more zealousness and not a lot of tact. I was always very eager to serve the Lord during that time and did it wrong in many ways. And that’s one of the great fears is that we’re going to do it wrong, and we will. We’re going to do it wrong. But praise God, save 100% of who chooses. Right? We’re just on.

I think one of the areas too, and I said that’s one of the actual, the post-Misfortune, that always sticks with me too, is that if you have no desire to seek and save the lost, Does your heart long like the Father’s does for having his lost sheep brought back into the flock? Does your heart match God’s? Does your heart and your mouth match your actions? Or does your profession of faith just stop at that in your profession? I want you today, for the Lord’s sake, confess that your heart and your time has been ready for what you’ve desired. That your time has been spent looking for the things in this world that are going to perish. Right? Your car, your house. You know, one day you’re going to die and somebody else is going to get all your stuff. One day it will pass and somebody will move into that house you worked so hard for. One day the car will stop running, the engine will stop working, they will go to a junkyard, they will crush it, and it will rust away into eternity. the elements. You yourself are God. You yourself have a time when the body that you live in will no longer be here. And within four or five generations, everybody will forget who you are. Right? The only thing that we have that God gives us is the ability to speak with Him. working for, to be able to provide for right now, not just working for the kids, not just working for the Muslim, although we’re called to be if you don’t work you’re gonna be beat. Not a man who doesn’t take care of his family, of course, and a non-believer. So we are called to do those things, but before all that we’re called to praise our Lord. We’re called to share the Gospel. And the job is in a way that we can’t share the Gospel, it’s not even divided under God. If your work, if your home life, if your kids and all their activities is stopping you from sharing the gospel, then we need to cut back on the activities. We need to actually be people who don’t just tell people about Jesus and leave it at just Jesus and don’t do the work. And we don’t actually share the gospel.

Because most people that we meet, when we talk to them about Christ, They read those of us who proclaim the gospel. They read those of us who say we’re Christians. That’s what they read. And if they see you not sharing their faith, if they see you not actually doing the work that God has commanded us to do, then why would they ever desire to be like you? Why would they ever desire to be like the one you represent? And I say this really in love, and I don’t say this as if I’m doing it perfectly, because I’m not. I don’t do it perfectly. There’s many times that I desire to be with my kids on a Saturday. There’s many times I desire after working 60 to 80 hours a week that I just want to hang out on the couch. Mostly I want to go fishing. I like fishing. Mostly I just want to go fishing. So God has called me not to be comfortable in this life. God has called me to be uncomfortable. God has called me to have a man in Him that has to do it for me. God has called me to do what I’m able to do so I don’t want to perish. That’s something that I always have to fall back on because I know the Lord God saved me and I myself was doomed and deserved hell. What we What is the reason that he would have decided that he just can show up on a Sunday or a Wednesday and then your salvation that the Lord grants us as a free gift seems to not be apparent when we get on the doors? Why does it stop there? Why does the normal life start up again and Jesus is just left inside the building? It should always be proclaimed out there. It should always be our desire to go into others’ I run a pick-pick recovery group. And in that group, I have people coming straight off the street. They’ve been on the street for 10, 15 years. They’re just used an hour before they walk out the door. And one of my first things I share with them is I share with them what I say we all have inside of us, a little black box. We don’t want anybody to see that. We’ll share some stuff, but we ain’t going to share what’s inside that box. And I know by sharing my hurts, by sharing my pain, it gives others the opportunity to also share theirs so that way they can be open with it and God can be with them. God can work on it to remove the hurt, the pain, mistrust, the brokenness, the thoughts of those who are abandoning you.

And the way I say it, we have a heavenly father that never abandons us. And my question is, who are they telling about that father? I think all of us have had a personal father, right? We’re born, we’ve had one of those, right? And I know one of the greatest things is when I would hear my kids tell others about how good I was at basketball, right? But one of the things I’ll be very proud about is them actually telling people that. I can see the joy in their face. I can see how proud they were of the athletics that they used to do. And I always compare that to wild farming. Are we proud of our Heavenly Father? Are we overjoyed with our Heavenly Father? Do we look at him and acknowledge all the power that he has, all the love he had to lay down his life willingly for us? If we do, then how can we do that? that we really love the Father that we have in heaven that sacrificed his life for us, then we should just be as proud of him as we are I really want to ask you, are you really willing to lay down that company that you guys have? Are you guys really willing to sacrifice the time, the money, the best possible to do the things that we’ve been evangelizing? Are you willing to go out and maybe risk earning an extra $200 a week to go and I’m so grateful for this church. On Saturday, we had, I think I’ve heard about like 10 or 12 people that actually showed up to the Columbus College. And it just overwhelmed my heart with joy just to see that many people come out and sacrifice a Saturday, and sacrifice their time in the heat to actually pass out those bags and pray for people that are around them. Everyone of you that came out, you can make other choices.

So again, does your heart and mouth match your actions? to the Lord in your own time and ask him to give you your heart. Are you asking that you’ve never had that desire to see the Lord? Are you asking to give you that desire? And if you don’t have that desire, will you examine yourself as a Bible passage to the example? The Bible says to examine myself with faith. And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t need a baby. I don’t. But I know when I’m not going to have a baby, I’m going to put it away from the Lord. And I’ll hold myself to all the comforts. And I know it shouldn’t be too much of a And we ask that you acknowledge yourself and say, you know your heart and actually imagine God’s heart. You have that seeking heart. You have that heart to save the lost. You have that heart that calls out to the Lord and that you don’t perish. And I pray you take the time to pray on that. I pray that you won’t leave this building and not have any conviction that you have on you. Just be gone as soon as the Lord’s close. I pray it stays upon you. that stays with you so that you can go on and be a light in this God’s world through us who have perished. And that’s what I pray that you might do. Father God, I just really thank you for the condition of our longings and our desires to not be as you’ve called us to be born. I pray, Lord, that you, when you come to us, knowing that you’re the gentle Father, you are, and you’re in the direction of us, that we’re able to hold that direction and know that those things are for our own good. I pray, Father, that if there’s anybody in here, Lord, who doesn’t know you, Lord, and I pray that they draw closer to you, that you open their eyes and you give them a good heart and a good mind, that they’ll be born again, and you’ll be able to come next to them, Lord, and that they’ll start to be proud. the only thing will be I will show you more. Thank you so much.