Merry Life Repair – 2 – Freeze Proofing Your Life

 

Welcome back to Redemption Church in Plano Tx. I am glad you are here! I am glad Jesus is here. I am glad I am here to share the Word of God with you.

 

Merry Christmas everyone. We are in the Christmas season.

 

Merry Life Repair

There are lights, music, and all the trappings of the season, BUT that does not mean everything is right with the world.

We want to not just make the season merry and bright. We want our lives to be merry and bright… filled with hope, love, joy and peace.

There are areas of our life that need fixing.

Last week we talked about the darkness that is our world and has become front and center in our life.

We talked about a light that pushes the darkness out and leaves us with hope.

 

Today I want to talk to you about Freeze Proofing your life.

We are living in dark times, but they are also cold times.

 

Cold Times

There is a lack of love in our culture.
People have frozen hearts, cold as stone.
People are so numb, that sometimes we don’t even notice it.

Social Media – the way we treat each other on social media is shocking. People will rip one another in hurtful ways. It makes me wonder if we still remember that we are talking to other human beings.

Family – the way we treat each other at home can be disappointing. We value entertainment than we do family.

Friends – Some of the people we call friends are lonely and don’t know they don’t have to be lonely. They have grown accustomed to the loneliness… we have grown accustomed to not taking care of one another.

Generosity & Care – It is all too easy for society to give $20 to Starbucks… good luck getting $20 from the same people to help a person in their neighborhood.

As the song says… Baby it’s cold outside…

Like a cold draft gets into your house… the coldness of our world finds a way to get inside us.

Are you cold and unfeeling? Are the people around you cold and numb?

This is a problem, but how do we solve it?

 

During the Christmas season we try to change our actions.
We give gifts…
We decorate…
We go to parties…
We may even volunteer our time and give generously…

Yet the change of behavior… the change in action, does not mean our hearts are changed.
Come December 26th… no more gifts, no more decor… it is back to usual.

 

A change of Action vs A change of Heart

A change of action is difficult.
They say that changing your habits takes at least 21 days of repetition. Some say 60 or more days…

There are some healthy habits you can form… but if you ever break the habit… you are back to square 1.

 

But if you change your heart, your heart will affect your action.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Want to really change your actions? Change your heart.

Want to change the things you say? Change your heart.

Matthew 12:34 (NIV) For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Luke 6:45 (NIV) A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

Who you are, and what you do, has everything to do with your heart.

 

We all know this is true.  Even if you are not a follower of Christ, you know that what Jesus says about the heart is true.

Perhaps we should follow what Jesus teaches about the heart… 

 

Cold Times

We especially need to pay attention to our hearts because of these cold times.

I don’t want to be vague; I will just come out and say it.

 

You must do more than change your actions. You must change your heart.

And this is everything that is wrong with the Christmas season.  We seek a change of action, but not a change of heart.

We sing about it… rather than have it transform our heart.
We package it and put under the tree… rather than let our heart be healed.
We decorate the house… rather than address the coldness in our house.

It makes sense that we need to change our heart because our actions are wrong… but sometimes we have the right action… but the wrong heart.

 

The right action, but the wrong heart.

It is easy to see our wrong actions and realize that we need to change on the inside… but what is easily hidden is when we have the right action, but the wrong heart.

It is possible that this is exactly where you are living today.

Let’s check… Wave your hands at me if you have…

• NOT murdered someone this week.
• NOT stolen money from the Salvation Army worker with the bell and the red bucket.
• NOT burnt someone’s house down.
• NOT lied about a co-worker so they would be fired.
• NOT cooked meth in your bathtub and sold it at the elementary school.

For the most part, our actions aren’t so bad.

When I preach about bad actions, usually the few people doing bad actions come to the front and ask me to pray with them that they stop doing bad things.

BUT USUALLY when I preach about bad actions, the entire Church just stares at me like… “Bro, who are you preaching to? We aren’t murdering people.”

So let me preach to you that you can have the right actions… but the wrong heart.

No matter your actions… good or bad… your heart needs to be healthy, clean, pure, forgiven…

Here is what I mean by “the wrong heart.”

 

Motivation

The motivation behind the action is often overlooked.

If you are doing all the right actions, but you are still miserable, lonely, angry, depressed, frustrated… you might check your heart’s motivation.

Let’s check this out… form you answer in your mind…

• You can’t stand your boss and you hate your job. Why do you keep going back to that job? Why not find a better job?
• That person you are having relationship problems with, why don’t you have the conversation you know you need to have? (If you have tried before… why don’t you try again?)
• That goal and dream you have been delaying and putting off… why don’t you start today?
• The decisions your family is making that is unhealthy… how you spend time, how you spend money, how you eat… why don’t you come out and have that conversation?

There are a lot of possible responses you could have to these questions, but if you pay close attention your motivation might reveal itself.

“Why don’t you quit and find a better job?”   I’m afraid that I won’t find a better job… I’m afraid that we won’t have enough money… I’m afraid of what my friends and family will think…  WHAT WORD DID I REPEAT OVER AND OVER?

“Why don’t you have the conversation you know you need to have?”  Well I’m afraid that they will be angry… I’m afraid that it won’t do any good… I’m afraid they will leave… WHAT WORD DID I PREAPEAT OVER AND OVER?

What is the motivation behind the actions and non-actions?

 

Fear Motivation = Wrong Heart

If you are doing the right actions, but are doing them from the motivation of fear, you have the wrong heart.

Are you doing the RIGHT THING from the wrong motivation?

You can come to Church and worship from the wrong motivation…  Fear of hell is NOT the reason to worship.
You can serve at Redemption Church from the wrong motivation… Fear of what others think is not the reason to serve.

Fear motivation equals a wrong heart. We need a new motivation.

The answer for fear is NOT bravery or courage. The answer for fear is Love.

 

Love Motivation = Right Heart

We need the right actions and the right motivation.

“Why not find a better job?” I keep going back to that job because I love my family and want to provide for them.

“Why have that difficult conversation?” I love them and I want to help them.

“Why not start your goal today?”  Love requires other things from me at the moment.

 

Perhaps you don’t need to change your action today, but change your motive.

Is that enough of a reason to talk to God?
Is that enough of a reason to pray with one another?
Is that enough reason to repent and ask God to forgive you for doing the right things for the wrong reasons?

 

Wouldn’t it be terrible to walk into your job and say, “Boss I showed up to this lousy job and your poor management skills because I am afraid I can’t get a better job.”

It would be better to show up because of love. You want to provide for your family whom you love.  You work for your boss not just for a paycheck but because you care about his life, future, and even his soul.  You may be underpaid, but just think of the loving things you can do with this pay check.

Wouldn’t it be terrible if I came home at the end of the day and told my wife… “I did not commit adultery today because I was afraid of how you would react.”

Isn’t it better to say “Honey you are the only one for me because I love you. I am not serving you out of fear but out of love.”

 

Wouldn’t it be terrible to tell God, well I came to Church… I hope you are happy.
It is way better to say, “Here I am God! I want more of you. I want to love you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.”

 

Your life is best when you do the right things for the right reason. That reason is love!

 

I recently had coffee with someone that no one here knows. They opened up to me about depression and sadness in their marriage. They were doing all the right things…

They cleaned the house.
They took care of the kids.
They welcomed their wife at the end of her work shift.

Yet they felt cold, numb, distant, un-appreciated.

They were doing the right things, but for the wrong reason. They were doing the right things in order to receive something transactionally. I do this and then you do this.  If I do this and you don’t do this, then I start to ask “Why am I doing this?”

This is not healthy either.

I want everyone who hears me to DO THE RIGHT THING, FOR THE RIGHT REASON.

 

What is your right thing? What is your right reason?

If you figure this out you will have a merry life repair.
If you and your spouse work on this together…
If you will bring love into your career pursuits…
If you bring love into the things you do…

…You will have a life that causes other people to say “What is going on with you? What is your secret?”

 

If you are sold on this idea of doing the right thing for the right reason, then you ought to be open to hearing about Jesus.

Jesus did the right thing, for the right reason.

Why He taught…
Why He healed…
Why He hung out with people…
Why He listened…
Why He served…
Why He came to us…
Why He died on the cross…

 

Jesus did all the right things… Seriously ALL THE RIGHT THINGS. Scripture says He had NO SIN. No one else can have that said about them…

As impressive as it is that Jesus did all the right things… maybe it is more impressive that He always did the right things for the right reason.

Titus 3:4-5 (NIV) 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

When Jesus appeared, kindness and love appeared.  That was His motivation.
Here is what He did, He saved us.
NOT BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUS THINGS WE HAD DONE… That would be a transactional motivation.. BUT BECAUSE OF HIS MERCY.  It was done from a motivation of love.

 

Love Motivation = Right Heart

 

I want our worship team to come back to the stage, and I want us all to take time to consider our actions and our heart.

We live in cold times. Uncaring, unfeeling times…

Redemption Church, ss followers of Jesus we need to DO THE RIGHT THING and do it for THE RIGHT REASON.

What if most of your frustration, anger, and depression is not that you are doing the wrong thing… but that you are not doing the right thing for the right reason?

Wrong actions?
Wrong heart?
Right actions but a wrong heart?

Let’s come talk to the one who does the right thing for the right reason. Jesus loves us.