(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 05/14/06) 

INTRODUCTION:

You may be happy to hear that there’s going to be a guest preacher today.  You can forget about the certain mannerisms and the preaching style of the pastor who is currently serving at Sola Fide and prepare yourself for what may be a welcome change of pace.  The guest preacher for today – his eyes have seen the glory of Jesus shining more brilliantly than the sun and his hands have touched him.  He once stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross and he took care of Jesus’ mother for a fair amount of time after Jesus returned to heaven.  His brother James was beheaded in the early days of the Christian church.  During his senior years, he served a Christian congregation in Ephesus.  A balding, white haired old man slowly climbs the two steps and takes his place behind the pulpit.  And in a way that only a ninety year old really can, he clears his throat and addresses you by saying, “Dear children.”

The ground he’s going to cover in this sermon is ground he’s covered before.  But that’s not a problem for him, because he knows how important it is for God’s people to hear about it.  “Don’t let your love for each other be nothing more than talk.  Make it genuine and let it show in all your actions, in the way that you help people and listen to people and treat people.”

The genuine kind of love that we show to other people is a good thing all by itself, but it’s also evidence that we belong to the truth, that we are true followers of Jesus, because that’s what believers do.  Well good, because that’s how we operate… usually.

See… now he’s got me thinking.  I don’t really love the people who disagree with me.  What they say gets under my skin and I resent them.  When I get fed up with so-and-so (spouse, student, coworker, neighbor) because they are so annoying, that’s a far cry from love.  There are times that I show love to people or don’t show love to people just to control them, to get them to do what I want.  It works pretty well.  This old preacher named John – he doesn’t rant and rave or raise his voice, but when he talks about the kind of love I’m to show, part of me wants to shrivel up and hide because I can hear it in my head: “I sure haven’t done that!”

But then, almost as if he knows exactly how we’re feeling, he brings up that very point.  “You may experience a heart that condemns you.”  We may?  Yeah, like every day.  It makes us feel worthless.  “How could I have said that!?”  It makes us feel two inches tall.  “I don’t believe I did that!”  It scares us.  “My sins do not exist in a vacuum.  They fly in the face of God and they overqualify me for hell.”  How convincing has your conscience been when it cries out, “Look at you!  You’re no Christian.  A Christian would never…  You’re going down!”

The old man in the pulpit remains calm.  He has one of those condemning hearts, too.  He’s had it for ninety years.  But Jesus taught him how that gets taken care of, and he’s in the pulpit today to share the information with you.  He looks right at you and says, “Dear children, whenever our hearts condemn us,

God Is Greater Than Our Hearts

It would have been worth it to have him as our guest preacher today if he had said those six words and nothing else.  God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.

Your heart knows very well how to lay your sins at your front door.  Through your conscience, it deposits them there every day.  God is greater than your heart because he sweeps them away.  Your heart knows more than enough to condemn you, but God is greater than your heart because he knows everything there is to know about how your condemnation went away.  He knows because he came up with the idea and he carried it out.

Everything your heart could ever say against you, plus all the wickedness that’s been in your heart and mind without you even knowing it, was transferred over to Jesus’ heart.  His heart condemned him to hell as God condemned him to hell as three spikes suspended his body above the earth on a pole.  When he died for you and for everyone, guilt was gone.  When he rose from the dead, condemnation was history.  Today those words resound whenever our hearts want to condemn us.  There’s relief for guilty hearts. God is greater than our hearts. 

That old guest preacher has a little more to say now.  Now he’s talking to people who know how it happens that God gets them through every day.  “My children, when your hearts condemn you, turn straight for the gospel.”  And here it is:  “God is greater than our hearts; he knows that our guilt is gone because he’s the one who took it away.  This means we have nothing to be afraid of before God, nothing to be alarmed about before God, nothing to be apprehensive about before God.” 

So the old preacher John leans out over the pulpit and smiles and says, “My children, you can ask him for anything, anything that lines up with his will, and it’s yours.”  “Strengthen me to serve you.  Lead me to love your Word and your House more all the time.  Help me reach out to people who are hurting.  Help me speak to people who are without Christ.”  “There’s got to be more to ask for than that.  Come on.  Keep it coming.”

He’s bringing the sermon to a close now…  “My children, when God keeps convincing you that your conscience can’t condemn you at all because Christ was condemned for you, things do improve.  You have confidence for daily life.”  “God’s not going to turn a deaf ear to our prayers.  By his grace and power, we’re keeping his commands and doing things that are pleasing to him (never perfectly, but it’s happening!).  We trust in Jesus, we love our fellow Christians (never perfectly, but it’s happening!).  This means that we are in Christ and he is in us.”  The old preacher chimes in: “My children, it’s the Holy Spirit whom God has given you who convinces you that you are Christ’s and Christ is yours.  He’ll stay with you.  He won’t let you down.”

The ninety year old is getting ready to descend the two steps and take a seat.  Perhaps as only a ninety year old can, he smiles ever so slightly and says, “My children, how great is the love the Father has lavished on you (3:1). Jesus Christ laid down his life for you (3:16).  Your sins have been forgiven in his name (2:12). Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts (3:20).  Believe in the name of Jesus and love one another (3:23).”  With guilt-free hearts and confidence before God, we smile back and think, “We’ll have to have that man preach here again.”

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