Latest / The Daily Word / June 10 – A Sincere Heart
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well hello, it is June tenth. It's Pastor Jenny here, and we are in Ephesians chapter six. And so as I share with you today, I want to key in. I'm gonna share parts of the first three verses, four verses maybe, but I really want to lean into verses five through eight today. And you're gonna see why. ⁓ Ephesians six Kicks off talking about children and parents. So whether you're a child or a parent, you know, it's gotta apply to you because we're all children, that's for sure. Maybe your parents aren't alive, ⁓ but certainly you can hear and receive from this today. It starts off with this. It says, Children, obey your parents and the Lord. For this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. which is this, verse three, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land. Goes on to say, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So that's the first little portion, talking to children and parents. All the parents said, Amen. Children, you should obey me. and there's nothing wrong with using the scripture in in talking to your children, raising up your children. ⁓ our children should know God's word, and that not only does Paul write about this, but as Paul is referencing, it is a commandment. It w it was written in the Old Testament, ⁓ you know, so and we see it all throughout scripture. ⁓ and I think secular or sacred, you're gonna find this in many spaces, right? And so this isn't gonna be unfamiliar anywhere you go. But as parents, we're gonna quickly, I would say, jump to this. Yes, my children should obey me, children should obey. But then we're gonna go on to this next passage. And this is where I think we really have to do a heart check. And this is where I think it certainly applies. ⁓ maybe you find yourself in a situation where you're not a parent ⁓ and you're like, I don't know if this where this is for me. ⁓ but again, I want us to take the posture today. For all of us that to check our hearts. Let's take an opportunity to check our hearts. God's really been talking to me lately about just the heart. So as I'm reading his word, it's almost like I've got glasses on that in every scripture. ⁓ what's the heart of the writer? What's the heart of the people receiving? Because the Bible's very clear all throughout that God is looking at the heart. ⁓ we look at the life of David and he's known as a man after God's own heart. David did some great things, but he did some pretty terrible things. And when we try to reconcile that, we look at the fact that God was looking at his heart. But there's many other times in the scripture where we know no one was gonna be it wasn't about their rightful actions, but what was their heart. So let's go on to verse five. Verse five says, bondservants. So workers, employees, obey your earthly masters, obey your bosses, obey your coaches, obey your teachers, obey anyone in authority. How do we obey them? With fear and trembling. And catch this, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. So we aren't looking at these teachers, leaders, authority. Those in authority over us are bosses as people and humans that just in and of themselves, as broken individuals, maybe they're a great boss, maybe they're a terrible boss, but we're obeying them as if it was Christ Himself in front of us. Not by the way of I service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. What is God's will? Well, we know God's will as again we continue to read all of Scripture. God's will is we look at the fruits of the Spirit, that we would walk in love, that we walk in peace, ⁓ that joy, long suffering, patience, goodness, kindness, all of those things would be on our lips. But again, this says not just as people pleasers. So we're not just trying to act out and do what's going to please those people. And not with a heart that is sincere, that's just trying to do good on the outside. But no, we're sincerely working and obeying and doing because we are genuinely doing it from the heart as if Christ Himself were asking us. We're doing what Paul wrote many times as well. We're dying to the flesh. We're putting aside and saying, Yeah, I may not want to do this task. I may not want to do this thing. I don't even agree with this pathway. I think there's a better way that we could get this work done. But you know what? It's not about my way. It's about laying down my preferences and what I think, pushing that aside and saying, you know what? But I'm not the one in charge. I'm here to lay my life down because Jesus, who was God Himself, came from heaven to earth and he certainly laid his life down. He gave it all up so that he could come. Not to Lord over us, but to serve us. And through laying his life down, serving us, we now have life and life more abundantly. And we are called to imitate Christ, to live the life that he lived. We we we can't live fully as he lived, but we can begin to imitate him through the power of the Holy Spirit. So I love this passage of scripture because it's very specific. It it tells us many of us Sometimes in our walk with Christ, we can feel there's a struggle of I just don't know what to do, or I don't know how to do it. That you want something tangible to hold on to. Well, I would say this is something very tangible for us to hold on to. And but we need the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to help us because it's not just an outward work. It's not a fake it till you make it. It's a from the depths of who we are. It's crying out to God and it's dying to our Flesh dying to ourself and saying, Lord help me. I help me to see my those in authority over me as if it were you in front of me. ⁓ let me go ahead and read this. So doing the will of God from the heart, verse seven, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord. Whether he is a bond servant or is free. So again, our reward, it may not be in our circumstances. It may not be, you may never get a pat on your back from this person or these people. But know that we can trust God and trust that our reward is from him and that God sees you, that he is faithful to meet every need and to walk with you. But again, we we do what everything that we're doing with a sincere sincere heart as unto him. So I hope this is an encouragement for you today. Encourage your children, because as you encourage them to beginning in your home to obey and walk this out, as as children are young, you know, there's a proverb that says raise a child up in the in the way when as they're young, and when they are old they will not depart. ⁓ talking about following the Lord. but really it's just a a a proverb about, you know, the habits and patterns that we establish as a child as we establish when we're younger, th the likelihood of those habits being broken when we're older, it's it's just not likely to happen because it it's habits. Again, you look at secular look at secular formation that's gonna be pulled from what God makes very clear because it's wisdom literature. And so Parents, do not overlook the importance of this principle of teaching your children at this age the importance of honoring you as their mother and father, obeying you, not just on the outside, but work with them on ⁓ make sure that you're not just trying to create behavioral changes, but that you're being equipped ⁓ to work with them on and pr you're praying for them. On how their heart can be transformed. And God's very clear that it would go well with them, that they'll live long in the land, because it's not just equipping them to obey you, it's equit equipping them to obey God. It's equipping them to obey all those in authority over them. So let me pray for you. Let me pray for us today. Lord, we come before you, and as always, I just want to thank you for your word. Thank you that your word Is useful for correcting, for teaching, and for rebuking us when needed. Lord, would our hearts be open before you today, just as David came before you and said, ⁓ Lord, search me, know me, give me a pure heart, a clean heart. We come before you and say, God, if in this area of obeying those in authority over us, if this is a struggle, we ask that you would help us ⁓ to see that. And to walk with sincere hearts in all we do, whether it's to our parents or to anyone in authority today. In Jesus' name. Amen.