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System Maintenance: Restoring Your Heart Drive Luke 6:17-26

Almost all of us have learned to live with computers. Computers are really great as long as everything is working. Day after day we turn them on and use them. We expect them to perform. We expect them to be there. The moments you don’t forget are those times when you need them and something fails.

Ever lost a lot of work because you didn’t save it along the way as you were working? Words like crashes, system failure, not responding and fatal error are words that you don’t want to hear if you own or work on a computer.

Recently our computer at home lost its hard drive. I’m no computer expert but I can tell you this morning you don’t want to lose your hard drive. We lost everything. Without the hard drive the computer was useless. We could turn it on but it was frozen and locked and would not advance beyond a certain point. There came a moment when I had to make a decision. Should I put in the system restore disk? All computers come with them you know. Hopefully you don’t know. Computer companies know. That’s why they stick those disks in your box of accessories that come with your computer. They know that if you have the computer long enough it will eventually fail. The system restore disk will erase everything and attempt to start your computer over as if it were completely new.

Of all the things you could have happen to you and your computer, you don’t want to lose your hard drive.

The hard drive in your computer is the much like your heart. Not your literal heart that beats inside your body but the heart that we refer to when we talk about what we love and what we give ourselves to in this life. Our hearts are the center of our affection. It’s where we express our emotions. It is where we declare our allegiance to the priorities in our lives.

Jesus taught in the Bible about many things but more often then not He was trying to change the hearts of men and women.

In Math. 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart...”

Luke 6:45, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart...”

It was Jesus who said, “Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

How’s your heart-drive? How are things going in your world? What have you given yourself to? What is it that you live for? What consumes you? What are you passionate about?

Some information from the Barna Research Group raises deep concern about the influence of Christianity in America. According to their research, “the people who believe Christianity is losing its influence in our society outnumber those who say it is gaining influence by more than a three-to-one margin.” Likewise, the Barna Group discovered “born-again Christians were virtually indistinguishable from nonbelievers on all sixty-five of the nonreligious variables” they examined. As Christians, it is important for us to realize three-fourths of our nation believes Christianity is losing ground, and that a large percentage of Christians are living virtually the same as those without Christ. Jesus’ admonition to be salt and light must be taken more seriously by his followers if we hope to have an impact on the society in which we live.

According to data collected by the Barna Research Group, “only four out of ten people who claim to be a Christian also claim they are ‘absolutely committed’ to the Christian faith.” Moody, July/August 1998, p. 32

Jesus was at the beginning of His ministry on earth and he was addressing His first followers. There are two different kinds of people in the crowd. First there is “His disciples.” Newly appointed, I might add. Second, they are joined by a great crowd or congregation of people. The Bible says that, “everyone was trying to touch Him.”

He was launching his ministry on earth. This was His first recorded time of teaching. You might say this was what He really wanted his disciples to know. These are the foundational words that He built into His followers.

There is an interesting line that Luke includes in his narrative. The NIV says that “Looking at His disciples, he said.”

Right before he began He looks at his disciples. This teaching was for those who were going to follow Him. The crowd would probably go home after the teaching. They were there for the miracles and the hype. They could listen but He was addressing His closest followers.

Basically, Jesus told them things that would allow them to keep there hearts in tune with His. That is critical and one of the hardest issues we face. How do we keep our hearts functioning and beating for the right things in life?

Jesus left us some answers in this message. Let’s look at them together. These words are found in Luke 6. You can find a more detailed version of this teaching by Jesus in Matthew five, six and seven.

Let’s take a closer look at what Jesus had to say about keeping your heart-drive healthy and working.

1. Things to know. - System Restore

Jesus said, “You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding.”

You will find that the life God calls us to live is often counter to what the culture teaches us is important. It is one of the reasons that so much of modern Christianity has become anemic. It is much easier to give and nod to God and fit in the culture than give a nod to the culture and fit in with God. In this statement Jesus is teaching that we give up everything to follow Him. It may not be necessary to literally give up everything but we are to hold to this life loosely. We are to be willing to loose anything and anybody at any time. This takes intentional effort and commitment on our part. Basically this is about keeping perspective and the only way to have right perspective in this imperfect world is to be ultimately surrendered to God.

Jesus said, “You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal."

We all hunger for different things. There’s nothing better to me than a good steak good medium or medium well. Sometime I hunger for good Cajun or Mexican or some other ethnic food. Jesus is not talking about the hunger you feel around eleven thirty every day. He is talking about the knawing hunger that exists in the heart of every human being. That hunger can only be satisfied with Jesus.

Life is all about hunger. It is a natural human tendency. What are you hungry for this morning? Are you hungry for a relationship with someone who will not fail you? Are you hungry for a relationship with someone who will help you with the things you are struggling with in your life?

Are you hungry for something real? Something that will last for ever? Jesus was teaching when you are not satisfied with the what life is giving you and you become desperate to live then you are ready for the Messianic meal. What colorful language. He came to this earth to be our source of strength.

He is what drives our heart and soul. You may be able to function today but without God in your life you will never experience the satisfied and full life that He offers.

Jesus said, “You’re blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning.”

Here we are again with something that seems so backwards. Who wants to cry? Who wants to experience tears? Tears happen because things happen. That is life on this earth. We don’t have any choice in the matter other than to decide how we are going to best get through the situations that caused the tears.

Many of you have experienced tears. Maybe some of you recently have cried yourselves to sleep. You may cry because of a lot of things:

Bad relationships,
Wayward children,
Broken promises, and ruined dreams.

Unplanned for circumstances can take us by surprise but Jesus taught that it was all in the course of life. For the Christ follower, joy comes in the morning.

2. Things to do. - Hit Refresh

He continues to teach by giving us some things to do.

“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – skip like a lamb, if you like! – for even if they don’t like it, I do . . .and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.” (The Message)

If I hear what Jesus is saying it is simply that you and I will face some rough times. Hopefully some of them will come because of our faith!

When you are cut down or belittled because of your faith its okay to count yourself blessed. Strange talk. I think I need an example.

In Acts five there is a great story of the early Christ followers. Shortly after Jesus death they were hauled in before the authorities because of their faith and the fact that they were leading others to Jesus. They were beaten and told to not speak the name of Jesus again and then released.

Acts5:41-42, “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Do you want to be refreshed in your faith? Let God refresh you. In bygone years we used to have yearly revivals. In many places they outlived there usefulness because people took them for granted and they became ineffective. The concept of revival (refresh) is God’s word and His plan for every one of us.

There need to be times in our lives when we will proactively ask God to bring us to new life spiritually.

If your computer web pages never refreshed themselves within hours you would be out of touch and looking at old information. The longer you went without refreshing the more out of touch you would become.

Psalm 85:6, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

Once you’ve counted yourself blessed, Jesus says skip like a lamb if you like.

Jack Hayford story from Promise Keepers.

3. Things not to be. - Avoiding system crashes

“But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you’ll ever get.” And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games. There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.” (The Message)

The bottom line of all of this teaching is being real. Be genuine in your faith. Three weeks ago I preached on authentic faith and last week on living beyond the borderland. All of it essentially says the same thing.

Be real. Don’t be a fraud. Be real because when life gets tough what you are will be exposed. You can’t hide forever.

American’s have a national colloquialism which is frequently used when signing documents. This common practice of asking for a person’s “John Hancock” comes from the most obvious signature on our Declaration of Independence. John Hancock’s name is the only signature that can be easily identified by the casual observer . . . and that’s exactly what he intended. The Declaration was approved on July 4, but it was not signed until August 2. After its initial approval, Jefferson’s words were hand printed on parchment in preparation for being sent to the king. This gave Hancock nearly a month to contemplate his actions in signing. As president of the Congress, he felt responsible to make a clear statement to not only the king, but to his fellow countrymen as well. Consequently, he was the first to sign, and as all Americans know, he artistically scrawled his name in large, flowing letters. His expressed intent was to make certain King George III could read his name without the aid of glasses. It was a bold declaration of his personal commitment to the cause for which he was willing to die. John Hancock’s overly legible signature hit the target at which he aimed. During the Revolutionary War, King George offered amnesty to all of the Americans who were willing to stop the war. Hancock and a few select others were intentionally omitted from this proposition. His zealous signature informed the king there was no turning back, and the British Empire clearly heard that strong message of commitment. All of us have been asked to give our “John Hancock” in a variety of settings. Among those settings should be the local church. Our “John Hancock” should be next to a specific job in the ministry of our church home. Fifty-six delegates signed the Declaration of Independence, but only one name stands out above the others because John Hancock wanted the king to know where he stood with his country. Does your signature let every one know clearly where you stand?

We started this service with a startling version of Your Cheatin’ Heart. It was written by Hank Williams. A large number of the songs he wrote were sad descriptions of life without God. Godless living. Divided heart living. Divided loyalties.

A few years ago the Pepsi Company produced a funny commercial of a Coke driver stocking the Coke cooler and then trying to sneak a Pepsi for himself to drink. Your Cheatin’ heart was playing in the background of the commercial.

Let’s take a close look at those words:
Your cheatin' heart will make you weep
You'll cry and cry and try to sleep
But sleep won't come the whole night through
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

When tears come down like falling rain
You'll toss around and call my name
You're gonna walk that floor the way that I do
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

Your cheatin' heart will tell on you
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

If you are cheating anyone by having a sick heart it’s yourself. You are spending your life living far below where God wants you to live. System Upgrade

Some of you are living with heart drive problems. You don’t know from day to day what you’re going to do next. Maybe you’ve lost hope of ever recovering or doing something with your life.

Larry Carter, president of Great Lakes Christian College, tells the following true story:I remember when I was a kid, some 40 years ago, playing on a Little League Baseball team.One of the things our coach did was host a picnic for the team at the beginning of the season. After we ate hot dogs and burgers, he sat us down for a pep talk. He asked, "How many of you have a dream to one day play in the Major Leagues?" Almost every hand shot up. Every kid with his hand up believed he could do it. You could see it in their eyes. He then told us, "If that is to happen—that dream begins now!"I was so inspired by that challenge—all of us were—that we practiced and played hard and we went undefeated for the next few years. All-Star teams from other leagues would play us and lose!Some 25 years later I became a Little League coach. I brought all the kids together at the beginning of the season to give them a pep talk—the same one my coach had given me. I asked my team the same question, "How many of you have a dream to one day play in the Major Leagues?" Not one hand was raised. Not one kid believed he could do it. You could see it in their eyes. I was speechless.The rest of my talk was meaningless, so I said, "Really? Nobody? Well, go get your gloves and let's throw." I thought about that day for a long time. What had happened in the 25 years since I was a kid? What had come into their lives to steal their dreams? What had convinced them they would never be more than what they were? Citation: Barry Merritt, Toledo, Ohio

What’s keeping you from being what God wants you to be?

Romans 10:10, “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

(This was printed on the back of the sermon notes sheet in the bulletin.)New Software Installation Jesus 1.0

“I am writing because of questions from people regarding installation of the latest version of the popular program Jesus 1.0 (also available as Yeshua 1.0). It seems that installation of Jesus 1.0 eventually leads to several conflicts with other programs you may be running and may even require certain upgrades and utility programs.

“Jesus 1.0 usually installs easily enough. The program has beenaround for years and was written so well that it has never needed to be upgraded. It runs on the oldest of machines as well as on the fanciest of operating systems running at blazing speed. System requirements are minimal. Jesus 1.0 requires virtually no RAM initially and is self installing. The evaluation copy and full version are available free of charge despite reportedly enormous development costs.

“Problems arise however as you use the program. Jesus 1.0 runs inthe background and does a systematic evaluation of all programs,utilities, and games on your system. For example Jesus 1.0 does not run well at all with Religion 1.0 and higher or Hate 1.0. There are extreme conflicts with these and other programs that are unresolvable. Jesus 1.0 also evaluates network connections that may be dangerous. Jesus 1.0 uses pop-up windows to suggest better utilization of disc space by deleting old programs and routines as well as severing dangerous network connections. This is actually very helpful and responding Yes' will result in extremely efficient and productive use of your system.

“When installing Jesus 1.0 you should be aware that when a pop-up window makes a suggestion to remove a program or routine, there is no choice on the pop-up to say: "Do not show this warning again." Some feel this is a flaw in the system because they cannot remove these persistent warnings. The warnings actually become more urgent such as: "Continued use of Program XYZ or Game ABC may result in a Fatal Error or Permanent Damage to Your System". (NOTE: Jesus 1.0 does not uninstall easily if at all. Software engineers debate ad nauseam whether this is even possible.)

“Removing old programs at the suggestion of Jesus 1.0 can be difficult so we recommend a powerful utility program called Holy Spirit 1.0. HS 1.0 is capable of removing any old program that is in conflict with the smooth operation of Jesus 1.0 while also sweeping for viruses. HS 1.0 is actually a utility that comes with Jesus 1.0 but often needs to be installed or unzipped (though some report that it self-installs automatically).

“HS 1.0 can be a bit of a memory hog and is a little unpredictable. It can even make the system appear unstable for brief periods of time. HS 1.0 wipes out old programs, defragments your hard drive automatically and even increases hard disk space and available RAM. HS 1.0 makes Jesus 1.0 run at lightning speed on any operating system and debugs your communications software. HS 1.0 also has utilities that read and write in any language when necessary. It is really quite marvelous and runs as a memory resident program.

“We have found that HS 1.0 runs best in conjunction with any of the popular HiSWord software programs available from Yahweh (Yahweh is not currently trading on the NYSE). HiSWord is an extensive online manual that also automatically repairs broken files, clusters and strings of data. HiSWord in various versions such as KJV, NAS, NIV etc. is in public domain and is quite commonly available at modest cost.

“You also may have heard that there is a powerful utility command available in Jesus 1.0 called Repent.exe. Repent.exe does not install as a shortcut. The command causes an intensive reworking of your entire system somewhat like a soft reformat. All illegal and pirated programs are deleted, sleeping viruses are purged and all software is all updated. Repent.exe is an extreme command that causes an evaluation and virtual rewrite of your system item by item but the results are terrific. Some report a screen warning with Repent.exe that says: "This Will Take Considerable Time-Do You Want to Continue?"

“In fact, there are normally several warnings before the Repent.exe command is implemented such as: "Are You Sure You Want To Repent.exe?", "The Repent.exe Command Will Result In Total System Re-Write", "An Undetermined Number of Files Will Be Lost", and a strange one that says "The Axe is Already At the Root of the Trees-John". Don't let this alarm you. Clicking Yes' at all prompts may result in what appears to be a system shutdown but others report quick results and a reboot. It can be a scary experience but we have never heard of the Repent.exe command resulting in a permanent crash. To the contrary, the command generally results in maximum system efficiency and function.

“Bottom line, we view the Jesus 1.0 is an essential program which we highly recommend especially with use of HS 1.0 and HiSWord 1.0. Hope this is helpful.

“Instructions on how to install Jesus 1.0 (Yeshua 1.0)1) Log on with God. (PRAY)

2) CONFESS - "My system is corrupt and I need you. I confess mysin. Save me."

3) INSTALL - "Lord Jesus, I need You. I make you Lord of mylife. Come into my life and be number one. Write Yourself onto the tablet of my heart and mind and never leave me. Re-write me and restore me."

-Jeffrey D. Hoy, “Words of Faith,” February 1999, an e-mail devotion sent out by Jeffhoy@juno.com. Used by permission.

The idea for this sermon originated from a sermon developed by Leonard Sweet and published at www.preachingplus.com

2003/09/14