S1: Today on Bold steps, Mark Jobe shows us how we
S1: can purify our hearts.
S2: If you're not careful and you allow bitterness, or you
S2: allow some sort of carcass around your heart and you
S2: don't take it out, what happens is that carcass is
S2: going to cause your heart to grow hard and contaminated.
S2: A contaminated heart will cause you for a season to
S2: fall away from God.
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is the
S1: president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of
S1: New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Today,
S1: as we move forward in our study on living higher,
S1: we're continuing our discussion on stepping up to a clean heart. Today,
S1: Mark is going to show us how we can purify
S1: our hearts and deal with the things that cause us conflict.
S1: We started this message last week, but if you missed
S1: the first two points, you can catch up online when
S1: you visit. Bold steps org. Let's not delay any longer.
S1: Here's Mark Jobe with today's bold steps.
S2: Jesus talks a lot about being peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers.
S2: It's our job to pursue peace, to chase after peace,
S2: to do what's in our power, to make things right
S2: with people that were in conflict with. That means that, listen,
S2: we are peace initiators. Some of us find ourselves wanting peace,
S2: but we set back with our arms crossed and think,
S2: I'm not going to do anything. They need to come
S2: to me. I'm just waiting. I believe as followers of Jesus, though,
S2: we need to be peace initiators. That means that we
S2: take the initiative to pursue peace, that we are the
S2: ones that if there's a conflict, if there's something wrong,
S2: if we're not in the right place with someone else
S2: that we actually take the first step to make things right.
S2: Romans chapter 14, verse 19 says, let us therefore follow
S2: after the things which make for peace, and the things
S2: wherewith 1st May edify one another. Matthew chapter five, verse
S2: 23 and 24 Jesus is speaking, and he says, when
S2: you come therefore to present your offering at the altar.
S2: In other words, when you're in church and you're about
S2: to present your offering to God, and it may be
S2: the offering of worship, or it may be coming, presenting
S2: your heart before God. And there you remember that a
S2: brother has something against you. Leave your offering there at
S2: the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to
S2: your brother, and then come and present your offering. In
S2: other words, what God is saying is that if you're
S2: in the house of God, if you're trying to live
S2: for God and you know that there is something wrong
S2: between you and someone else and you haven't attempted to
S2: make it right, then leave whatever you're doing there, go
S2: make it right and then come to God so that
S2: there can be a flow in your life. Now here's
S2: what I want you to understand. I want you to
S2: understand that not everybody we attempt to make peace with
S2: will want to have peace with us. So Jesus doesn't say,
S2: be at peace with everybody. He says, make an effort
S2: to be at peace. I may go. I may apologize,
S2: I may initiate a conversation. I may say I'm sorry,
S2: or we have a bad tension here. And they may say, well,
S2: I don't care. I don't want to have anything to
S2: do with you. Then I can't make them be at
S2: peace with me, but I can do my part in
S2: releasing them. Are you with me? Are you hearing me?
S2: This is really important. I don't want you to be
S2: under false guilt, because some people feel if someone's if
S2: someone has something against them, that they have to make
S2: it right. Sometimes you'll do everything in your power. You'll apologize,
S2: you'll extend a token of peace to them. And they
S2: don't want it. They're still angry. If they're angry and
S2: they're full of resentment and bitterness, that's up to them.
S2: And God, all you can do is try to make peace.
S2: But you can't force someone into peace. They have to
S2: want it. But as long as your conscience is clean,
S2: as long as you've said I'm sorry, as long as
S2: you've made an effort to talk, as long as you've
S2: extended the branch of peace toward them, that's what's important,
S2: because what they do between them and God, you can't
S2: force them into peace. Jesus had a lot of enemies,
S2: and sometimes they were enemies because they they didn't like
S2: the fact that he was light and they were darkness
S2: and refused to follow after that. Number four deal with
S2: the roots of bitterness before they spread contamination. Verse 15 says,
S2: see to it that no one misses the grace of God,
S2: and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble
S2: and defile many. See to it that no one misses
S2: the grace of God. What is the grace of God?
S2: It's the favor of God. Listen to what he's saying.
S2: See to it that no one misses the favor of God.
S2: Because they allow a root of bitterness in their heart.
S2: When you become bitter, then the favor of God cannot
S2: flow on your life because God's favor can't be poured
S2: out on a bitter person. See to it that no
S2: one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter
S2: root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Let
S2: me tell you something about bitterness. The best time to
S2: deal with bitterness is when it's a root and not
S2: when it's a plant. When you get hurt and you
S2: feel yourself angry, and then you feel yourself turning resentful
S2: toward someone. Sometimes we want to nurse it. We want
S2: to protect it. We feel like we have the right
S2: to become angry. We've been hurt. We've been damaged. We
S2: like to keep that resentment. And that little plant starts
S2: growing up, and it gets bigger and bigger, and it
S2: grows seeds. It grows fruit. And that fruit has seeds,
S2: and it spreads into our life. And guess what? It
S2: tends to spread into other people's lives as well. And
S2: pretty soon before we know it, our whole life is
S2: affected by that bitterness and the people that were that
S2: are around us are, are affected by that bitterness as well.
S2: And that's why the writer of the Hebrews says, make
S2: sure that the root of bitterness does not grow up
S2: and cause trouble and defile many. I've seen so many
S2: people lose their way because they allowed bitterness to spring
S2: up in their heart and rob them of so much
S2: that God had for their life. I've seen people fall
S2: away from God, fall away from the family, make a
S2: lot of bad decisions because they held resentment against someone
S2: in their life, and it just did not let them
S2: go forward in their walk with God, in their relationship.
S2: I've seen roots of bitterness cause marriages to go down
S2: the route of divorce. I've seen roots of bitterness caused
S2: children to reject their parents and not have anything to
S2: do with them and go down a different path. I've
S2: seen roots of bitterness contaminate people's lives and grow up
S2: and spread the people around them as well. It's a dangerous,
S2: dangerous thing. And then, number five, don't allow your heart
S2: to get hardened and lose out on your destiny. In
S2: verse 16, he goes on and he says, see that
S2: no one is sexually immoral or is godless like Esau,
S2: who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as
S2: the oldest son. Afterwards, you know, when he wanted to
S2: inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about
S2: no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
S2: The fifth thing I want you to understand about keeping
S2: your heart clean is that if you're not careful and
S2: you allow bitterness, or you allow some sort of carcass
S2: around your heart and you don't take it out, what
S2: happens is that carcass is going to cause your heart
S2: to grow hard and contaminated. And if you're not careful,
S2: a contaminated heart will cause you for a season to
S2: fall away from God. This is what happened with Esau.
S2: Esau allowed his heart to get hard. He was a twin.
S2: His brother was Jacob. He was Esau. But he allowed
S2: some contamination in his heart, and that contamination allowed his
S2: heart to grow hard. And during the hardness of his
S2: heart he made poor choices about his life. And those
S2: poor choices affected the rest of his life. Look up
S2: at me because this is really important. I want you
S2: to hear this. God is a God of second chances.
S2: No matter where you've been or how long you've been there,
S2: or how far you've fallen, or what mistakes you've made
S2: or failures you've had in your life, God can always
S2: restore you, forgive you, cleanse you, and make you new.
S2: He has the power to do so. He has that power.
S2: And if you've been at this church for some time,
S2: you've heard me preach that because we have people from
S2: every walk of life. I've heard about every kind of
S2: story you can imagine, and I have seen lives that
S2: people would have given up on a long time ago,
S2: and I've seen them turn around and accept the grace
S2: of God and forgiveness of God. And now you look
S2: at you look at some of these people that had
S2: a really, really rough background and you see the the
S2: joy in their heart, the fullness, the compassion, the mercy.
S2: And you could never believe that they were who they were.
S2: Because God has brought about an incredible, miraculous, powerful, transformational
S2: change within their lives. And we believe that.
S1: If. You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark job, Mark
S1: will be back to continue today's message in a moment,
S1: and let me remind you that you can find all
S1: of these daily lessons, along with other faith building tools
S1: and resources, by visiting Bold Steps. Org. In fact, there's
S1: one resource that thousands of listeners are enjoying every week
S1: that you can get for free. And Mark, that's the
S1: weekly email devotional, The Bold Step or weekly?
S2: That's right, Wayne, the Bold Step.
S3: Or weekly goes out every Monday morning to help our
S3: listeners be able to start their week out with Christ
S3: at the forefront. Typically, you'll have a devotional, some thoughts
S3: from our ministry. And what I love about this as
S3: well is that now you have the availability to just
S3: listen to it. If you're driving or at work and
S3: you can't read it, you can just listen to it.
S3: And also we have a Spanish written version of it.
S3: So our desire is just to get you going in
S3: the right direction, making sure that you are living for
S3: Jesus and taking bold steps all the way.
S1: Yes, and you can sign up for The Bold Stepper
S1: weekly by visiting our website bold steps org. Thank you. Mark,
S1: let's go back to your message now for today. It's
S1: titled Stepping Up to a Clean Heart. Once again, here's
S1: Mark Jobe.
S2: But I want to remind you that although God can
S2: change and restore at every season, there are certain things
S2: during times of being away from God or falling away
S2: that we may lose, that we can never recover again. Esau.
S2: He knew God. He was raised in the ways of God.
S2: But he allowed himself to grow hard towards the things
S2: of God. And so he didn't value spiritual things when
S2: his heart was hard. And so he sold his inheritance
S2: for a bowl of soup. He didn't care about his inheritance. Why?
S2: Because all he cared about was the flesh at the moment.
S2: He cared about immediate gratification. If it feels good, I
S2: do it. His spiritual inheritance was really important. It was
S2: about his destiny. But at the moment, all he cared
S2: about was the bowl of soup. I don't care about
S2: my inheritance. I'm hungry. If I'm hungry. Now I want
S2: to eat it. Give me my bowl of soup. Sure,
S2: you can have my inheritance. Later on, when he started
S2: getting on track with God, he realized he had given
S2: up his inheritance and he wanted to regain it. And
S2: he cried for it and begged for it, but he
S2: could not regain what he had lost during that season
S2: of time. And that's why, he says, see to it
S2: that no one is sexually immoral or godless like Esau.
S2: There are many people that grow up in the faith
S2: and go through prodigal seasons in their life. And praise God.
S2: I've heard so many stories of restoration after being a prodigal.
S2: And I know so many of you here. How many
S2: of you know that God rescues the prodigal? How many
S2: of you know that? Yeah. Because so many of us
S2: have had to go through prodigal seasons. But can I
S2: tell you this? I don't believe that everybody has to
S2: be a prodigal. I don't believe that everybody has to
S2: fall away from God before they really understand the things
S2: of God. I don't believe that everybody has to go
S2: out there, and I believe there's things that we lose
S2: in our prodigal state that sometimes it's hard to regain.
S2: I've heard so many stories of restoration of God, but
S2: I've also heard a lot of stories of people losing
S2: things they could never regain again. The young man that
S2: goes out, and maybe he's raised in the church and
S2: raised in the things of God, and he reaches college
S2: age and and thinks for a time, I'm away from
S2: my family and I'm going to just so my wild
S2: oats and do my thing. And I haven't given up
S2: on God, but I really don't want to live restricted
S2: in my life. I want to have fun with my friends.
S2: And he goes out there and ends up finding a
S2: girl that doesn't share his faith and cross his line, sexually,
S2: finds out she's pregnant, and next thing you know, he
S2: feels compelled to marry her. And and three years down
S2: the road, he's a Father, married to a woman who
S2: has resentments about the fact that she had to marry him,
S2: and who doesn't share his faith. Maybe his dream was always,
S2: I want to have a family that that I can
S2: pray with my wife and I can raise my kids
S2: the right way, and we share the same values. But
S2: he finds himself going to church alone. With a wife
S2: that resents him, who can't pray with them, who thinks
S2: you're a hypocrite? You say you had faith, you got
S2: me pregnant. Here's where we're at, I resent. And so
S2: he he restores his heart to God, and he comes
S2: back to God and he's worshiping. But he's lost something
S2: in his prodigal years that can't be recovered. He's lost
S2: the dream of a godly home. He's lost the dream
S2: of a partner that shares the values that they could
S2: share together, and the family that they could raise together. Oh,
S2: he's restored his soul. But he's lost something that he
S2: may beg and cry and call out to God for.
S2: But he's lost it. Oh, I'm not saying that God
S2: can never reach her. And I'm not saying that her
S2: heart could never turn around, but he has to live
S2: for a season without someone that's worshiping with him and
S2: living with him and following God because he. During a
S2: season of being a prodigal of a heart hearted season,
S2: he gave up something that he can't recover quickly. For
S2: the young woman, young girl that's raised in church and
S2: she knows about the things of God, and she grows
S2: up and she has a heart, and it's there and
S2: she's always been around. But then. In her 20s, after college,
S2: she decides, you know, I'm going to take a break.
S2: I don't know, I'm I believe in God, but becomes
S2: hardened somehow. Maybe someone disappointed or maybe someone didn't follow
S2: up and maybe she gets a little attitude towards church
S2: people or someone hurt her and it was a hypocrite.
S2: And now she's 26, 27 and decides, I'm just going
S2: to do my thing. And she goes out there and
S2: she lives a life that in her eyes is the fun.
S2: Life is the is the what all her friends are doing.
S2: And everybody else is kind of living this life and
S2: and doing her thing. And she goes to the doctor
S2: and wakes up one day and finds that she has
S2: a venereal disease. And then starts making her way back
S2: to God. But she still has the regrets of crossing
S2: the line, of being used, of going down that road.
S2: She meets a young man that really wants to follow
S2: God and decides, you know, I really want to do
S2: things right and goes down that road and they're in
S2: premarital counseling, and the day comes where she has to
S2: before it gets too far. She has to sit down
S2: and say, listen, there's something you need to know about me.
S2: I went through a prodigal season. I went through a
S2: bad stage in life. And before we get married, I
S2: want you to know I have a venereal disease. Oh,
S2: can God restore her heart? Oh, yes, he can restore
S2: her heart. But you see, she's lost something that she
S2: can never recover again. And in our season of hardness,
S2: of heart, there are things that we may lose. Decisions
S2: that we may make, choices that we may have that
S2: affect the rest of our life. You know how many
S2: women I've talked to here at this altar that with
S2: broken weeping hearts, have confessed to abortions? I've had those
S2: weeping conversations with women that look me in the face
S2: and say, you know what? No one else knows about this.
S2: But every year at this month, I think he would
S2: be 15 now. I wonder what he'd look like. He'd
S2: be a sophomore in high school. And every year, I
S2: feel the incredible guilt of having taken the life of someone.
S2: It could have been my son. My daughter. Because at
S2: that time, at that season, I just didn't know what
S2: I was doing. I was far from God. I wasn't
S2: thinking straight. My spiritual life was a mess. You see,
S2: God can restore them. But there's things that happen during
S2: our hardness of heart that, like Esau, we cry out
S2: for but can never return again. And so my challenge
S2: to you today, my exhortation to you, is that you
S2: would do a close audit of your heart. My challenge
S2: is that you would walk around the fountain of your
S2: the spring of your heart right now, and you would
S2: examine the spring of your heart and you would ask yourself, Lord,
S2: is there any carcass? Is there any carcass here that
S2: is poisoning or contaminating my heart? Is there anything that
S2: I need to drag out of the fountain of my
S2: life and say, you know what, if I let this
S2: stay in my life, it's going to poison me and
S2: poison my destiny and poison my relationships. And so, God,
S2: I know this can't be there. I don't want it
S2: in my life. Lord, I'm willing to take this carcass
S2: and get it out of my life. Because I want
S2: my destiny to flow in life and not to flow
S2: in death.
S1: Well, the Bible teaches it, and it's true. Your heart
S1: determines the course of your life. Thank you, Mark, for
S1: this message today. It's all about guarding our hearts, isn't it?
S3: It is, Wayne. And it's so easy for us to
S3: allow something to pollute the well of our life. And
S3: this passage, really? You heard this message, and I'm wondering
S3: if some of you feel the conviction of the Holy
S3: Spirit that you've allowed a bitter relationship, a undealt with
S3: issue in your life, that every time you come into
S3: the presence of God, every time you open your Bible,
S3: every time you worship, there's a spotlight that the Holy
S3: Spirit puts on and deal with it. Deal with it.
S3: If you don't, it's going to continue to pollute the
S3: rest of your life. So I want to pause right
S3: now and pray with you if you would join me. Father,
S3: I pray for that man, that woman right now that
S3: feels under conviction that as this message was being preached,
S3: you brought something specific, very real, specific, tangible to mind.
S3: I pray, father, that you would give them, even right now, today,
S3: the boldness to say, God, I will not go one
S3: more day without dealing with this in my life. So
S3: give the power to repent, the courage to take a
S3: bold step, the willingness to go to the hard places. Father,
S3: I thank you for this person listening right now that
S3: you want them to live in joy, restore the joy
S3: as they deal with this issue that you've been convicting
S3: them about for a long time. Father, give them grace
S3: and power to move forward. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
S1: Amen. Thank you Mark. If you're looking for tools and
S1: resources to help you make a heart change, we'd love
S1: for you to go online. Explore our website at bird-stamps.org.
S1: You'll find videos and articles in our latest Bold Step gift.
S1: You know, it's fair to say the past few years
S1: have been somewhat unpredictable and filled with a lot of change.
S1: The world we live in today looks much different than
S1: it did even just a few decades ago, and sometimes
S1: it feels like everything we knew about leadership and ministry
S1: no longer applies. Well, that's why the book A Non-anxious
S1: presence is such a timely resource. Mark Sayers helps us
S1: understand how to lead effectively in a world where the
S1: old rules no longer work. He explains how periods of
S1: disruption often prepare the way for spiritual breakthrough, and shows
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S1: midst of turmoil. This is our bold step gift, and
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S1: you to join us again next week when Mark explains
S1: how you can step into your calling. It's a message
S1: from our series Step Up and it's coming Monday here
S1: on Bold Steps with Mark Jones. Bold steps is a
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