Topical Sermon – This topical sermon was submitted by a student at Christian Leaders Institute. Topical sermons are one of the types of sermons that are taught at Christian Leaders Institute.
Topical Sermon – How God truly sees your heart.
Topical Sermon Audience – I belong to a very small congregation of about 10-20 men and women with about 5 children. Where I am a Minister in training.
Topical Sermon Content
Today we are going to talk about how God truly sees your heart. Do you have the love of God in your heart? Or are you going through religious practices thinking your impressing God. Let’s visit is your heart right with God? Or is your heart deceitful with God?
Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The heart is deceitful above all things: it deceives in the business of religion it makes a person believe that their holy and a righteous person. The heart will make him feel that he is already on his way to heaven when he is far from that. The heart will trick you in to becoming self-righteous; you will begin to compare your outward conduct with others.
Making you feel like you are a better religious person than they are, and that you are more holy in Gods eyes than they are because
1. I go to church every Sunday
2. I make bible study every week
3. I make prayer meeting every week
Not saying that these things are not important because they are, but if you are doing these things out of habit and not because God is in your heart and because you truly love God, you are mistaken and you have been deceived by your wicked heart with it wicked imaginations. Where is your heart with God? Why here today? Are you coming to church because you love God or are you here to see what sister Mary wore today? Or did you come to find yourself a nice christen woman or are you here because you love Jesus? Why are you here? Where is your heart with God?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
1. Angels do not
2. Satan can not
3. The man that is still in the flesh does not know the plague of his own heart.
4. Only the spiritual man can know the things of his own heart, the plague of it the, the deceitfulness and wickedness of it. Even the spiritual man doesn’t know it all only God knows it all.
God is the only one who truly sees the heart and all of its wicked imaginations.
Proverbs 6:18 “An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,”
The heart is either desperately wicked or pure. God will judge our hearts, not our deeds. These wicked imaginations here in this scripture are speaking of people who imagine evil things which will cause trouble for other people.
People like
1. Osama bin Laden
2. Saddam Hussein
3. Adolf Hitler
These are all people with wicked imaginations. We also see in this scripture that an evil person is eager to get into all kinds of mischief. Their Feet are quick to run to mischief. Where are your feet running to? Are they quick to run to sinful things or are they quick to run after righteousness? Are they quick to go to a party where there will be drinking and ungodly music? Then your feet move real slowly when it comes to Sunday morning. Where are your feet running to? Are you running to the righteousness of God I know I am. How about you? When we choose to do these things our hearts get further and further form God?
Matthew 15:8 these people draw near to me with their mouth, and[a] honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
In this scripture Jesus Corrects the Pharisees and Ministers to Gentiles.
“And honoureth me with their lips”:
1. They called him to be their creator and there sustainer;
2. They made their boast of him, and of their knowledge of him,
3. as the one only living, and true God, and as the God of Israel;
4. They brought their sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, even the fruit of their lips, unto him,
5. for their many peculiar mercies, privileges, and favors, as a nation, church, and people,
6. They did this with much seeming sincerity and affection.
“But their heart is far from me”: They had no true love to God, nor faith in him, nor fear of him; they were not at all concerned for his presence with them, or for communion with him, or for his honor and glory; their hearts were in the world, and after their covetousness; they made religion a tool to their secular purposes, supposing gain to be godliness; sought the applause of men, and contented themselves with bodily exercise
God does not want us to be like a robot going through all the formalism. He does not want us to talk a good belief in Him, but to truly believe way down deep in our hearts. As I have said so many times before, we must be in love with Jesus, not just obeying Him when it looks good. He wants our hearts to be stayed on Him. Where is your heart with God? Are you honoring God with your mouth as well as your heart or are you too proud to serve God.
Deuteronomy 8:14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
The spirit of pride in the heart will cause you to forget the Lord your God. You get so proud that you believe your way is better than Gods. You begin to believe that you do no sin because of the pride in your heart. You get so proud in the heart that you think you do not need forgiveness. We too like the children of Israel forget what God has done for us. God sent his only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins. Those sins that you are too proud to get on your hands and knees and ask forgiveness for. You have to let go of the pride in your heart and remember what God has done for you. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Until you confess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you will not see the kingdom. Is your heart truly with God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit? When God looks deep in your heart what is he seeing?
I want you to look back with me on how god truly sees the heart.
1. God sees the heart as desperately wicked.
Causing you to become self-righteous and believe that you are righteous in Gods eyes when you are far from that.
2. God sees the heart has wicked imaginations, that are quick to run to mischief
Are you quick to run to mischief and slow to worship God.
3. He sees your heart is far from him
Do you talk a good game for God but when you leave church on Sunday you won’t live by his word the rest of the week.
4. He sees your heart as becoming so proud that you forget about the lord.
You get so proud in the heart that you start to believe I got this, what do I need God for? I am doing fine, forgiveness for what; for your sins and my sins. God did not create a perfect man or women, pride sets in our hearts and we tend to forget that we are not perfect. Until you get down on your hands and knees and repent and call the name of Jesus you will not enter the kingdom Amen.
Hello, my name is Andrew Shreffler and I am from Springfield, Missouri, United States.
I would like to first say thank you to Christian Leaders Institute for providing me – as well as many others – with a wonderful opportunity to study the Word of God online!
My walk with the Lord hasn’t always been on solid ground. Sometimes, I’ve hit jagged rocks and slippery terrain. Many ups and downs have been encountered in my walk of faith, but overall, I believe these struggles have been for the best, as they have made me a stronger and more faithful person.
The idea of becoming a minister wasn’t always my cup of tea. In fact, until it hit me that God wanted me to preach His Word, I was appalled by the thought of it. But as I read more and more of the Word of God, my love for it grew, as well as my desire to share it. Eventually, I got to the point where I decided to make it my life.
It hasn’t been an easy road, though. I have faced opposition from all possible directions, especially from my parents. They called my love of the Word of God an “obsession” and tried to put me on medications for it. I also have Tourette’s Syndrome, which has added some difficulty to reaching out to people.
Nevertheless, I will remain vigilant. My current goal is to start and lead a church after completing my courses here at Christian Leaders Institute. I believe my primary gifts are as a pastor and evangelist. My only obstacle now is to be able to talk to people and get over stage fright.
Christian Leaders Institute is such a blessing because it enables me to study the art of ministry without breaking the bank. If Christian Leaders Institute wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to study, due to the horrific college costs. With a dead-end job and a child to feed, college is an impossibility!
Thank you so much, Christian Leaders Institute, for all you do, and GOD BLESS YOU!
Name: Johnis Burton
Scripture: Daniel 1 (focus vs 7)
Theme: There Is Something In A Name
Sermon #1 in the Sermon Construction Class at CLI
Summary of the Author of the Book of Daniel
Daniel the author of the book of Daniel was one of the Major Profits in the Old Testament era. Daniel’s account was of a historical format. He was born in the 17th century BC and died about 6th Century BC in Bobylon.
Daniel in Hebrew is “Daniyyel” which means “God is my judge”. When Daniel was a young man, he was educated in Chaldean thoughts. However, he never converted to Neo-Bobylonian ways. Through “divine wisdom” from his God, Yeheweh, he interpreted dreams and visions of kings, thus becoming a prominent figure in the court of Bobylon.
When the lion’s den event occurred, Daniel was in his 80s. Through a life of hard work and obedience to God, he had risen through the political ranks as an administrator of this pagan kingdom. In fact, Daniel was so honest and hardworking that the government officials – who were jealous of him – couldn’t find anything to remove him from office. So they tried to use Daniel’s faith in God against him. Eventually he had apocalyptic vision of his own that have been interpreted as the Four Monarchies. Some of the most famous accounts of Daniel are: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, The writing on the wall, and Daniel in the lions’ den. (web search www.christianity.about.com and en.wikipedia.org/wikidaniel.com)
Daniel 1:7 Focus
Examining how a name takes on a character take for example the name of Jesus which means. It is written in the word of God that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess who is Lord … (Rom 14:11). Therefore a name is truly powerful.
The Hebrew names of these young men showed that they were worshippers of the true God, Jehovah! The following names were the Hebrew names given to the three Hebrew boys along with Daniel.
Daniel which means “God is my judge”
Hananiah which means “ Jehovah is gracious”
Mishael which means “who belong to God”
Azariah which means “Jehovah helps”
Daniel 4:8 reveals that king Nebuchadnezzer renamed these Hebrew after his gods! New name were given to these captive from Israel, not to just blend them into the Bobylonian court, but to change their allegiance from their God to the gods of Bobylon. And as we continue to read the story of Daniel we will notice that Daniel nor the three Hebrew boys were not affected by the name change because they remained faithful to their God and was rewarded for that faithfulness. Research from the web www.dedication.com
These are the name change as follows:
Daniel was changed to Belteshazzar with the first three letter of his name “ Bel” meaning “Marduk” Nebuchadnezzer favorite god.
Hananiah was changed to Shadrach which means “command of Aku” the moon god.
Mishael was changed to Meshach which means “who is like Aku” the moon god.
Azariah was changed to Abednego with the first four letters of his name meaning “servant” and the last four “nebo” instead of “nego” meaning “god of wisdom”.
True Attributes of a name:
Naming could be attributed to God originating through a divine birth announcement (Gen 17:19; Luke 1:13). Naming took place near birth in the Old Testament and on the eighth day accompanying circumcision in New Testament narrative (Luke 1:59; Luke 2:21).
The Bible concept of naming was rooted in the ancient worlds understanding that a name expressed essence.To know the name of a person was to the promise of God through character and nature. Revealing character and destiny, personal names might express hope for the child’s future (Congregation participation). Changing a name could occur at divine or human initiative, revealing a transformation in character or destiny (Gen 17:5; 17:15; 32:28, Matt 16:17-18).
The knowledge of a name implied a relationship between parties in which power to do harm or good was in force. That God knew Moses by name occasioned the granting of Moses’s request for divine presence (Ex 33:12). The act of naming implied power of the namer over the named, evidenced the naming of the animals in Gen 2:19-20 or Pharaoh’s renaming Joseph Gen 41:45, compare Daniel 1:6-7; 2 Kings 24:17.
Proper names consisting of one or more terms consciously chosen by namer conveyed a readily understandable meaning within the biblical world. Reflecting circumstances of the birth Rachel called “the child of her death”. (Ben-oni, “ son of my sorrow” (Gen 35:18)). Jacob was named “the supplanter” for he tool hold of Esau’s heel (Gen 25:26). Moses, “the stranger in a strange land” named his son Gershom (Ex 2:22). Research www.studylight.org
Picking the right name for a child is a parent’s job, but giving a child a name like Mercedes for example or Champaign tells a lot about the parent and the child. The best way to get a name that is God approved or will spiritual fits a child is to seek God’s approval on the name you have chosen for your child.
SUMMARY:
My research clearly indicates that a name takes on a character and expresses an essence. Look at some of the problems in our society today and the chaos in the school system. It is a fact truth that some children wear a name and what it represent as the nature overtake them. Do we research a name before we give it to our children? A child that is called “DEMON / DAMON” what is that name saying about the child? The child will live out the meaning and essence of that name. It is not that a child is born bad, but what his character draws him to good or bad things helps to form him for the future.
We also need to be careful when we give our children “nicknames” or call them a name when we are angry with them. It scares them for one, but it also helps define their character in the physical and spiritual. Don’t be surprise you see your child / children acting a certain way they can’t help it they are wearing a proverbial garment that you gave to them that they will wear for the rest of their lives.