Guarding Our Hearts (Robert Bhatra)

Read: PS. 51 & Proverbs 4:23

A: Introduction

-          Red Fort

-          Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life…”

B. Why is the heart so important?  

The Bible portrays the heart negatively as it uses words like these about the heart…

-          Hard, Deceitful, Bitter, Evil, Proud, Grudging, Despairing, Sad, Guilty, Anguished, Lustful, Perverse, Foolish, Anxious, Envious, Arrogant, Corrupt, Rebellious, Idolatrous, Malicious, Adulterous, Unforgiving.   

It grieves God’s heart, injures our hearts and family, and grants Satan legal doors of access to our lives.

But the Bible also talks about a different kind of heart: a heart that is:-  

-          Rejoicing, Faithful, Discerning, Wise,  Devoted, Seeking after God, Upright, Joyful, Pure, Contrite, Obedient, Trembling, Heart of flesh, Noble-&-good, Encouraged,

What a much better list.

1. The heart is important because ____________________________.

-          1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  (Samuel saw Eliab, but God saw David)

2. The Heart Is Important Because __________________(hard-disk – bad sector comes)___.

-          Matthew 15:18-20 “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ùnclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ùnclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ùnclean.'" 

-          Luke 6:45 “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” 

-          RO 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

-          We are not ordinary people….. ……….we are the brides of his Son Jesus Christ.

-          Forerunner, Intercessor, kings in his kingdom.

-          To seek him to restore the original heart that he created first in us.

-          Paul was right when he said -- Work out your salvation? PHP 2:12b --continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

-          1 Pet 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

-          Jesus gave us entry pass — there promotion and demotion.

-          1 TH 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-          Angelic protection will gradually be taken away (we must struggled ourselves)

-          King Sole and David both were anointed by God.

-          Impurities in each believer need to be exposed and expelled so that more of His light and nature can flow from us.

C. How do we guard out heart? 

1. Ask for God’s help to have a pure and noble heart.

-          Phil. 4:7, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

-          Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”

-          Psalms 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” 

 

2. Ask for God’s help to have an undivided heart.                                       . 

-          Psalms 86:11 “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”  (united with God’s heart)

-          Psalms 119:11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” 

-          Mathew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  (100% loyal to Jesus the king)

-          Luke 12:34 Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A small test –

            - Food or drinks - Movies - Sports - Emails - Mobile - Reading Bible - An hour of prayer - Fasting - Attending church

Our war to guard our heart is difficult but it is the only way to enter the narrow gate (experience “life in the Spirit”).

-          MT 7: [14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Worship the Risen Christ (Easter msg by S. Robert)

WORSHIP THE RISEN CHRIST (Mt. 28)

What is worship?

 To love, seek, encounter, praise, whole heart desire or devotion for God.

Worship: The Purpose of Creation:

We were created for God's pleasure. We were not created to live for ourselves but for Him. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and His people, He would have us know we were created first for His pleasure. In these closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose purpose for living is to WORSHIP God with their lives. In them, God finds His own joy for creating man. They are His worshipers.

-David is known as the love-seek worshiper.

David vowed to live in full devotion to seek the Lord with all his resources (time, talents, and money). (PS 27:4 “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

-After David became king, the first thing he did was to setting up a worship tabernacle in Jerusalem. 

Who is Risen Christ? Why worship Him?

(Rev. 1:5-6) ⁵Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, ⁶and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and power forever and ever…

Rev. 5:5, “Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

v. 13, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever! The four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

Col. 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

- All kings will bow down to Him; all nations will serve Him. (Ps. 72:11)

- PHP 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, PHP 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

-       Our risen Christ is the King of Kings, Lord, Messiah, holy bridegroom God and the sovereign lord of the universe, thus we must worship him.

What is True Worship?

Jesus taught that "true worshipers" are those who worship "the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23).  In other words, our worship of God must flows from our hearts, unhindered by difficult outward conditions. 

"Spirit and truth" worship is genuine worship.  Indeed, right now on earth, the Father is seeking such people "to be His worshipers" (John 4:23-24).

He isn't seeking for us to be miracle workers or great apostles and prophets. He desires more from us than the cultivation of good leadership skills or administrative strengths.  What does He seek? He desires that, in spirit and truth, we become His worshipers.

Genuine worship causes us to become genuine Christians.

- Seeking God with our whole heart is true worship. Paul says in Rom. 1:9, “I serve God with my whole heart”

- To worship him rightly we must have right knowledge of him (Jesus)

- To worship him we must make him the King and the Leader of our life. It means we must surrender every aspect of our life, ministry, and family in to his lordship. If not we must settled it with him. This is true worship.

What is the significance of worship in our life?

- Worship rescues our spiritual efforts from routine, religiosity, pride and guilt; it takes our minds completely off ourselves and draws us into the overwhelming life of God.

- We cannot pass through life without getting hurt. Pain and disappointment in this world are inevitable. But how we handle our setbacks shapes our character and prepares us for eternity.

- Regardless of the hardships we have faced, and in spite of the mistakes we have made, the end of our lives can either be full of praise and thanksgiving---or full of misery and complaint.

- Nothing can overpower us or disappoint us, for we are worshipers of Risen Christ!

(Rom. 8:28) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”. If we continue to love God, nothing we experience can ultimately turn out harmful!

Psalms 37:4 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” As we delight in Jesus, we are transformed. Yes, delight yourself with Jesus and your self-destructive tendencies will actually begin to vanish.

Samaritan Woman worshiped Jesus

JN 4: [23] Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. [24] God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

-          The moment she worshiped Jesus the living water started flowing into her and overflowed.

-          Become a worshiper of Jesus! As you surrender your desires to Him, Christ will beautify your life from the inside out.

Some time we feel puzzled whether it is possible to worship Jesus rightly?

- If you have true worship for God it is because you have, indeed, been loved by Him. "We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). 

Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (it is possible for God to transform us into the image of Christ)

-Too many Christians have given up on the vision of becoming like Jesus. More than we desire for him, he is desired for us.

- Our worship is the result of His drawing near to us; it is the effect He has upon the redeemed. Yet, it is also a choice we make. 

- As we live in the end-time we must be the love seek worshipers of Jesus Christ,

-All who dwell on the earth will worship him (Antichrist), whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8) 

But as the days of the Kingdom draw near and the warfare at the end of this age increases, those who have been created solely for the worship of God will come forth in the power and glory of the Son. With the high praises of God in their mouth, they will execute upon His enemies the judgment written. They will lead as generals in the Lord's army of worshipers. (See Ps. 149)

MT 28: [18] Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Why? So that they may worship the living God not ….) And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Praying like Daniel?

I am a regular visitior of UBFriends.org becasue of some of the pertinent discussions that take place there. In this post, I am posting my comment on Praying like Daniel? by Henoch Hong. The original article can be viewed here:

http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/04/praying-like-daniel/#more-4558

Hi Henoch! The question that you ask, “how can I become the person who loves to pray and who is unceasing in prayer?” is I think the question most Christians including myself struggle with. I see the answers in your article. Please allow me to call “What I therefore realized is that change is not just about doing the right thing (i.e. praying three times a day). Rather, I first have to become the person who does the right thing: a person who loves to pray, who loves to spend time with his heavenly father and who has the necessary grace-driven discipline to seek God’s face in times when the desire to do so reaches a low,” as becoming the right person and “Here is why I personally would refrain from applications such as ‘Be like Daniel and pray three times!’ If this is done mechanically and done for the wrong motives, we have become merely religious people, not Christ-centered people” as having the right motivation. I think both these things were keys to the prayer life of Daniel. Now, how Daniel became the right person, and how did he get his motivations right?

The initial chapters of Daniel make it clear that Daniel knew (personal relationship) who his God was very personally. And his relationship with God went on becoming stronger just as his understanding about God [encounters] kept increasing. As a result, his decision to abstain food from the king’s table, overnight prayer meeting to gain understanding of the king’s dream, his friends’ refusal to bow before the idol, and defying king’s edict to offer prayers only to the king, are not just about doing the right things, but primarily about becoming the right person based on a personal revelation of who God to me is. The point I am trying to make is, although a prayer topic, for example, “May God make [so and so country] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” may be good and the right thing to do, but it does not make me pray like Daniel. On the other hand a deeper revelation [deeper personal relationship] with God might actually make me pray like Daniel.

Next, why did he not stop praying, “May God bring Israel back to their land and make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” even before the threat of the lion’s den? The timing and the context of the passage makes it clear that Daniel knew what was going on. That the seventy years of captivity was over (Dan 9:2-3). Probably a group of the captives had already returned to the land but were facing serious opposition and the building of the temple is not happening. Further he has been having those series of visions about the future of his nation yet unable to fully understand them (Dan 8:27). It says he sets his heart to gain understanding and as a result God is sending angels to interpret his visions and give right understanding about the future of his people (Dan 10:12). Now, I think such a dynamic spiritual life and understanding of the signs of the time definitely motivates to pray for what God is doing.

Two years back, I reached a crisis in my life and as a result decided to stop doing all things that seemed right and prayed to be a right person before God first. At that time the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and helped me to see Jesus in a fresh perspective as the Bridegroom God and the Judge. As the Bridegroom, He desires love from his people and as the Judge, He removes everything that hinders love. Based on this revelation I also received a new identity for my life as an intercessor to prepare myself and others for Jesus, who desires for His people and will return to finish the evil on planet earth and establish his glorious kingdom all saints (old and new) have been waiting for. After coming out of UBF, as a small community in New Delhi, we call ourselves F.R.I.E.N.D. (Fore-Runner Intercessors of End-times in New Delhi). Our existence and our activities are centered around the new revelation of Jesus to us, and hence to encounter Him more in this understanding and to make Him known as the Bridegroom and Judge, of course not neglecting what he did on the cross. Prior to this encounter, I could not have thought of prayer and fasting etc possible for me. I still have a long long way to go when I think of Daniel. But my prayer is not to be another Daniel, but to be a person that God wants me to be in my own peculiar life situations with the understanding of God’s heart so as to participate in what I know Him to be doing.  Further I am hearing the fascinating stories of people who pray in tongues for hours without getting tired or bored! I wish to have such gifts from the Spirit to pray because it is biblical.

Sorry for the lengthy comment (or sogam?).    

Thoughts on Resurrection

Three types of belief about life after death:

1)      Resuscitation (Western): to revive, especially from apparent death or from unconsciousness

2)      Reincarnation (Eastern): to keep coming back in another body, as different humans/animals, finally the spirit is rescued from body and becomes one with God.

3)      Resurrection (Hebrew or Biblical): to come back as yourself with a new material, visible and tangible body that will not grow old, be affected by diseases and never die again.

What do we believe as Christians? None of the Christian creeds say, “We believe in the immortality of the soul.” Rather we affirm: “We believe in the RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.”

We all are influenced by Greek thinking to some extent through our education system that says, “Body is a prison to the soul. Body dies and soul is released from the dead.”

But the Hebrew thinking tells us: We are incomplete without a body even in the life after death. After death we continue to exist without a body as a disembodied spirit, until one day all believers dead or alive will receive a new body. Paul says that without a body we are naked.

2CO 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. [2] Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, [3] because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. [4] For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. [5] Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

2CO 5:6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. [7] We live by faith, not by sight. [8] We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [9] So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2Co 5:1-10 KJV)

David’s prayer for himself and prophecy about the Messiah (the Holy One) was for a resurrection, coming back to life with a new body!

Ps 16:10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

The Bible further tells us that death is a limitation in robbing you of your body. Therefore, for God to complete our existence, will give us our new body.

The Resurrection of Jesus: Jesus is the first human being to receive a resurrection body. About ten days before his own resurrection, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus did not yet receive his resurrected body. He simply came back to life with the same body and later he died again.

What do we know about the resurrection body?

The resurrection body is a brand new body having resemblance to our old body so that we can be clearly identified as the same person. The resurrection body also has far more supernatural power than the old body. For example Jesus with his resurrected body could swiftly move from one place to another. He also passed through closed objects such as doors and walls. The resurrection body is a fully material, tangible and visible body but could become intangible and invisible at the will of its possessor. For example Jesus gave the proof of his bodily existence that were verified through five senses such sight, smell, touch, eating, hearing, etc. But with the same resurrected body he could appear and disappear from his people at will.

There is a difference between the raising up of Lazarus and the resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus had to be unwrapped from the grave clothes. However, Jesus at his resurrection did not have to be unwrapped from the grave clothes. The old body of Jesus simply disappeared and became nothing, his spirit entered into a brand new body given to him by God at his resurrection.

It is true that in our present life, our body is weak. Our present body is not in perfect submission to our spirit. Even Jesus confessed that his spirit was willing, but the body was weak and therefore had a long prayer battle before his cross until he made his body submit to his spirit. It is true that our present natural body does not cooperate with our spirit. But the resurrected body will be in perfect submission to the spirit.

What is the new creation work?

The author of Ecclesiastes complained there is nothing new under the sun!

Ecc 1:9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is  nothing new under the sun.

But the New Testament is full of the new creation work (2Co 5:17). There are so many new things happening in the New Testament period that did not happen in the Old.

I believe that, as His new creation work, the first thing that God created was the resurrection body of His Son Jesus. In the first week of creation, the last thing was Man. But in the second week of creation, I call it the new creation, the first thing to be created was Man (The Resurrected Jesus). The new creation work is in the reverse order of the old creation work. In the new creation, God has gone back to work again! He started with created a body for His Son and His new creation work will continue until he creates the New Heaven and the New Earth. Hallelujah!

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Past, Present and Future Resurrection:  Justification, Sanctification and Glorification.

In this Good Friday and Easter, I give praises and glory to God who saves our spirit, soul and body from death. He justified me by taking my sins and dying on the cross. Thus He made my spirit alive by giving me a new birth, he continues to sanctify my soul (self) when I learn to die to myself and live by His Spirit, and He will glorify me by giving me a brand new body at the Resurrection.

Community Picnic and Fellowship (April 1, 2012)