Title: Give Up!
Subtitle: Seven things God hates, and how to keep them from messing up your life.
Matthew 15:10-20Proverbs 6:16-19
King James Version (KJV)
16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
We're into a message series called, "Give Up!" This is the church's season of Lent (L-E-N-T), which is the name we call the 40 days of preparation before Easter. Normally, when people think about Lent - if we think about it at all - we think about giving things up. We pick something and we give it up for Lent. Red meat. Cigarettes. This Lent, instead of politely suggesting that you to give up something you like, we're challenging you to give up something God hates.
Our text for the season of Lent is Proverbs 6:16-19. Proverbs has a list of seven things God hates. Conveniently, the writer of Proverbs has organized these things, by body part, starting at the top and moving down.
A proud look, comes from the EYES.
Lies and false witness come from the TONGUE.
The shedding of innocent blood is done by HANDS.
Wicked imaginations and the sewing of discord are devised by the HEART.
Running swiftly to mischief is done by the FEET.
Eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. The first week we talked about our proud EYES. Then we talked about our lying TONGUES. Then, our bloody HANDS. And today we're talking about our HEARTS. Our schemin' hearts. I keep thinking of Hank Williams singing, "Your cheatin' heart." But that's a different sermon. You heart can be schemin' without cheatin'. But you can't be cheatin' without schemin'.
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Schemin' hearts. How's your heart? Is it schemin'? Is it schemin' against you? How would you know? It's hard to say. Because you can't really see what you're heart's up to. If someone shows you your heart, it's generally not a good sign. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe you're schemin' against your heart. Maybe you and your stomach are in cahoots. "Psst. Hey Beano. Don't tell the achy-breaky guy we're ordering more fries."
When you're young, you never think about this stuff. You're like Celine Dion. Your heart will go on. When you get older, it's harder to sing about your heart. Because nothing rhymes with pulmonary embolism.
I've actually seen my own heart. I've seen it from the inside. A few years ago, I had a heart cath. It's where they go up an artery and send a camera crew of very tiny men to take video. I know this because I was awake the whole time and I saw them. I saw a lot of things I can't explain that day. They use a lot of sedatives. I clearly remember the cardiologist pointing at the monitor and showing me how great everything looked. He said, "Yes, Mrs. Johnson, your heart's just fine." Later, In recovery, they gave me all the Coke I could drink and a free souvenir DVD of my insides.
It really is kind of a miracle of modern medicine that you can get an interior view of your own heart. You can see if it's scheming against you. Or if it's being good. You can learn first-hand if there's something to be corrected. They can show you exactly how far away or how close you are to health and vitality, and a rich, full life.
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Jesus was not a cardiologist. But he could see into a person's heart. Jesus wasn't a doctor. But he knew how a heart beats, and flows, and keeps rhythm with the person around it. Jesus knew how a heart connects to a person, and how a person connects to the people around him or around her. Jesus believed our hearts connect us to each other. He knew we can have healthy hearts, that lead to healthy connections. And he knew we can have unhealthy hearts that lead to scheming.
In Matthew 15, Jesus talks about the body. The reason he was talking about the body is because the Religion Police (better known as the Pharisees) judged people's goodness by the purity of their diet. And in some ways, we still do that.
Now, to their credit, the men who made decisions about other people's bodies were doing their best to uphold religious piety and public morality. They believed that if you ate well, and if you ate the right foods, the right way, with the right people, you would be a better person. That's not so hard to understand. Anybody see the news reports about "Pink Slime"? When you see that stuff squishing out of a meat processing machine, and then think about it going into your kids' stomachs, you go, "Ew." They say you are what you eat. No one wants to be pink slime. That's a judgment call. Even now, we make pharisaic judgment calls about people based on what they eat. We do it all the time. We assume healthier eaters have healthier lives. Does eating bran muffins and tofu make you a better person? I don't know. It'll definitely make your body healthier. Will people want to be around you if you talk about bran muffins and tofu all the time? It depends on how much they love you.
Jesus cured people everywhere he went. We know he was concerned about physical health. But this is a different issue. The question the Pharisees were raising was, "Are people who don't eat well, or can't afford to eat well, are less moral than people who do and who can?" So, in verses 10 and 11, Jesus says this. He says, "Listen and understand." So, we know this is really important. It's like when your gym teacher says, "Listen up, people!" Jesus says, "Listen and understand. It isn't what goes into the mouth that defiles, but it's what comes out of the mouth that defiles."
And the disciples take Jesus aside and said, "Shhhh! Don't you know you're getting the religious body police mad at you?" And Jesus says, "They're missing the point. Don't pay any attention to them." And then he says the thing that ties all this together. In verse 18, he says, "...what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles."
What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.
A long time before Jesus, the writer of Proverbs said God HATES hearts that devise wicked imaginations. God HATES when our scheming hearts devise wicked imaginations. God HATES when the wicked imaginations sew discord among brethren. "Brethren," says the King James Version. Which means, "God HATES when wicked imaginations, stewed up in the heart, sew discord among people who are supposed to be brothers and sisters.
Jesus gives a laundry list of evil intentions that come from the heart and escape to daylight through the mouth. I'm pretty sure it's not intended to be exhaustive. If you have a wicked imagination, you can come up with a lot more. And if you can't come up with them on your own, there's always the Internet. They're the symptoms of spiritual heart disease. God's not too crazy about the symptoms. But God HATES it when hearts get to scheming, when wicked imaginations sew discord between people.
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I'm waiting for the eyeglasses with built-in heads-up displays. They're coming. Right now, engineers are working on them in their Batcaves. You put on the glasses, and then when you walk up to someone, your glasses will have sensors that recognize them, and flash their Facebook profile in front of your eyes. Never forget a name again. "Oh. Hello. Mike. How is your son. In Alaska?" Wouldn't it be awesome if they could make the glasses so they could see into a person's heart? Little trust meters would rise and fall on the side. "65% probability she's selling Amway." "98% chance he's having wicked imaginations." If the data's right, you'd be like Jesus. You'd know if a person's heart was scheming. You'd know the kind of stuff they're made of.
The only problems with this system - well, maybe not the only problem, but the biggest problem with it - is that, I assume, you won't be the only person who owns a pair. Other people will have the magic glasses, too. Which would mean, not only will you see their hearts, they can see yours.
You think, "Oh. I'll get a jamming device." Or, "I'll find a way to give their glasses a virus, so they only see the good things." But then they'll have anti-virus programs. And someone will get mad and say, "You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses on." And they would. And the glasses caste would get an upgrade, and the people without glasses would be made fun of, singing, "Two-eyes, two-eyes!" "Boys don't make passes at girls without glasses." It doesn't take too much imagination to know the human heart will go on, and on, the way it always goes on. God hates that. Even with magic x-ray glasses, we're still the blind leading the blind.
God hates it when hearts give in to wicked imaginations and the sewing of discord. God hates it when the mouth chokes up spiritual slime. Your mouth is directly connected to your heart. Your actions are directly connected to your spiritual core. What symptoms do your words produce? What syndromes do your actions create? Are they signs of health? Or are they indications of problems with your heart?
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The Bible calls us the Body of Christ. A church needs to take its pulse once in a while. Are we living proof of the health of Jesus? Or are we letting wicked imaginations take over?
How about you? In your daily living, are you guided by evidence of a healthy, Christlike heart? Or are you living in fear of schemes and discord? How's your diet? Do you feed your heart with people who want to help you grow in faith? Or are you a glutton for spiritual junk food? Are you nourishing the people around you? Does your example encourage them to live more energetic, productive, Christlike lives?
How's your heart? That's the question we started with. How's your heart? Listen and understand. Your heart, your soul, the fruits of your labor, are exactly as healthy, exactly as loving, exactly as godly, as you intend for them to be. No more. No less. Stop wickedly imagining yourself more or less than you are. Because God sees your heart. God knows who you are and how you are.
Give up your scheming heart for Lent. Give it up for God.
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