" God is Greater Than Our Heart, and He Knows Everything."

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!

1 John 3:19–20 ¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

          How's your heart pumping these days?  You ever listen to your heart?  I remember going to the doctor when I was a young boy and the doctor putting his stethoscope on me and letting me listen to my heart beat.  Sounded more like some fluid being forced in and out of a tube.  Seems more like a beat when I hear it night laying on my side and my blood pressure is high.  It almost sounds deafening.  How does your heart sound these days?

          I think my blood pressure goes up based on how many people I hold in my heart.  At least that's what I try to tell my doctor.  Well maybe not.  Enough about my heart, what about our heart?  Yes, what about the collective heart of our congregation?

          We certainly claim to have a heart for our God that we worship every Sunday, and we might even claim that our heart for God never condemns us, or does it?  There are those times when we have been on that side path of sin and then something important comes up that we feel we should go to our Lord and pray for.  So we put our hands together and start to pray and all of a sudden we remember we are on that side path of sin and no words come out.  It's like we are frozen in the thought of what's the use God won't answer this prayer, because He knows of my side path of sin.

1 John 3:21–24 ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.  ²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

          Oh yea, I've been good all this week and God will surely listen to my prayers, yeah!  It's funny how we get stuck on the perfect, that is, as long as we do everything by the law then God will be good to us.  And, if I don't do everything by the law of God then He will not be good to us?  Well... that's not entirely true is it? 

          Certainly if we follow God's commands He will be good to us.  But, if we do not follow God's commands God will forgive us if we have a repentant heart.  Maybe that's the contributing factor of blood pressure, the more one sins and the more one repents the more one's blood pressure increase.  I better stop sinning so much.  Ok, maybe that's not it either.  But it's good to have a healthy heart to keep us on the steady beat.

          You remember what we read first, "God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything."  God knows our heart, He knows why we sin, and what we are trying to make up or replace with our sin.  Though the reasoning for our sin is not a real excuse, God sees everything attached to our heart and becomes greater than our heart as He forgives. 

1 John 3:16–18 ¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

          We can believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because we should know through God's word that we have a loving and caring God.  Our hearts might condemn us, but God says Himself that He does not.

John 3:17 ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Christ laid down His life to show just how much God wants us to be with him, and not just for a time, but for eternity.  This is the truth of God's love, it is Jesus Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection that gives everlasting relationship with our God who has the greater heart.  Amen.

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!

Alleluia!  Christ has Risen! 

He has risen indeed!