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If you want to know where is my heart, look where your mind goes when it wanders.
"I believe in the kind of love that doesn't demand me to prove my worth and sit in anxiety. I crave natural connection, where my soul is able to recognize a feeling of home in another. Something free-flowing, something simple. Something that allows me to be me without question...."
1. The Movie:
The movie “Braveheart” starring Mel Gibson, who portrays William Wallace, a late-13th-century Scottish warrior. The film depicts the life of Wallace leading the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England.
“Around the end of the 1200s, oppressed by King Edward “Longshanks” who rules England with an iron fist, the noble and charismatic Scot of humble descent, William Wallace, leads a righteous campaign to end tyranny. In this gallant quest for freedom, the gifted strategist and mighty warrior will amass the hordes of the oppressed Scotsmen who thirst to reclaim their independence, however, the road to liberty is always drenched in blood” — Nick Riganas
2. Quotes from the Movie:
"I came back home to raise crops and God willing a family".
“So you want me to marry you then? Well that is a bit sudden but alright. Is that your kind of a proposal? I love you, always have. I want to marry you.”
“In the land of timeless beauty, William Wallace was a man of peace.”
"I want to stay here with you. And I with you."
"You say you want to stay out of the troubles? If I can live in peace I will.”
"Edward Longshanks is the most ruthless king to ever sit on the throne of England. Scotland, my land. ”
"But then they threatened his world and the women he love, he was driven to war.”
"I want a home and children. It is all for nothing if you do not have freedom.”
"Go back to England and tell them there, Scotlands daughters and sons are yours no more.”
"The rebellion has begun. Under who. William Wallace. He rallies new Scotish volunteers in every town.”
"I have come to fight and die for you. Stand up man I am not the pope.”
"Take a flock of your finest assasins and set a meeting. Wallace is renowned for smalling an ambush.”
"We will dispatch our future queen with the notion that she comes in peace”
"Longshanks desires peace. He declares it to me, I swear it.”
"You tell your king, William Wallace will not be ruled nor will any Scott in him.”
"He waits for you at York, if you are man enough to face him. ”
"Why do you help me? Because of the way you look at me now.”
"Where are you going? To pick a fight. Well, we did not get dressed up for nothing.”
"We can't beat an army! We can and we will!!!”
"Would you be willingfor one chance, just one chance to kill our enemy. That they may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom. ”
"If we win we will have what we never had before, a country of our own.”
– Hans we all remember Braveheart. A man who is willing to stand up for his family and community to give them freedom from slavery and unjust treatment by a ruthless king. William had noble intentions when he came back from France to lead a life of peace and to be a farmer who raises crops. He also wanted to marry the love of his life which he did in secret. So far so good, but then reality sets in, his wife is killed unjustly and his world is shattered because he realise that he is not free but a slave to a king. He then fights his rest of his life to win back that freedom, which he really only attained when he died.
Isn’t our lives the same? We start out as disciples with a dream to devote our whole lives to God (to lead a life of peace and live a fairytail life) but then reality sets in. We sin and our lives become entangled in the world again and we loose our spiritual fervour mostly due to our own sin and conviction and other people’s sins. Sin, like the ruthless king causes our hearts to become hard, we then become unrepentant and eventually unbelieving (we loose hope) following “our hearts”. Hans if I do not guard my spiritual heart, it will be lost for eternity. Our world might be shattered to see our “brothers and sisters” leave God for the world or our perfect world crumbling. The only way to freedom is to die to ourselves and our sin to win back that freedom. Hans will you truly be free on earth and heaven from sin? The question is; will you have that brave heart in God’s sight?
3. The Bible Scriptures:
– Hans what are these passages trying to tell us?
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it – Pr 4:23e l
- The heart is the centre of your being Francois.
- It determines what kind of man or women you are.
- There is a saying, “Home is where the heart is”. So what does your home look like.
- Your heart will determine your destiny, heaven or hell.
- The scripture says to guard it above all else.
- I am wondering Francois how would I guard my heart above else?
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it? – Jer 17:9
- There is a saying Francois “Follow your heart” or “Listen to your heart” like Roxette sings, but where has your heart led you?
- Do you even know where your heart will lead you?
- Well according to this verse your heart is the most deceitful thing there is.
- You will not be able to understand what the heart wants?
– In your Christian life Hans you will need to learn to diagnose different “heart” conditions.
- Hard heart
“Blessed is the one who always trembles before God,
but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.” –Pr 28:14
- If my priorities is wordly Francois before God, whatever is my priority then that is my God.
- Trembling before God shows you know him and have a deep understanding about the Bible.
- I think hardening your heart shows that you think what you think is more important than God, in actual fact you are God in your own eyes.
- It is your perspective of God that determines if your heart is soft.
- I would say if you praise God on a daily basis your heart is in the right spot Francois.
- Unrepentant heart
“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” –Rom 2:5
- Not repenting of my sin Francois means I love my sin, I am a slave to my sin. Sin is my master.
- I am self deceived and do not love God, for love for God is obeying his commands. (1 Jn 5:3)
- It is like seeing your son hitting your daughter time and again and you keep on thinking it is a good thing, she deserves it.
- When am I normally stubborn Francois? It is when I know what I do is right isn’t it. So I elevate my thinking above God. I am a God to myself just like the hard heart.
- What is scary is I do not believe I am storing up wrath against myself towards judgement day because my heart is deceived.
- What do I do if I am in a life threatening situation? I will do whatever possible to survive isn’t it Francois.
- It just means you are not a spiritual person even if you think you are, again being self deceived.
- Unbelieving heart
“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” – Heb 3:12
- Ok Francois so the first indication of a unbelieving heart is that it is full of sin.
- Soooo, that means that if I keep on sinning willfull knowing or not knowing my heart will become an unbeliever.
- There is a natural progression of wandering away from God, like we talked yesterday Francois.
- So the last scary state of being is that I turn away from God, I become a God hater. If I loved God I would obey.
– As you handle different situations in your life Hans, learn to ask, “Where is my heart?”. If you resist correction, ask “Where is my heart?”. If you find yourself wanting to skip a meeting of the Body (Church), ask “Where is my heart?”. Why is it so dangerous to give in even a little to a bad heart?
- It only takes a little poison to kill you. It is like poison you drink every day, in the end it will kill you spiritually.
- If you know there is a little bit of poison in say a glass of water Francois, would you drink it?
- Jesus used yeast as an example so illustrate that it takes only a little bit of hyprocrisy to work through the whole church. (Mat 16:6-12)
- What if I am just a little bad at work Francois? It will definately catch up with me in the end, like the Bible says “your sin will find you out“.(Num 32:23)
– Who is someone you know who strikes you as having a pure heart? What is it about them that you want to immitate?
- Well the first one that comes to mind is Andrew, Francois.
- I admire his discipline, like he says: “the most radical thing you can do as a Christian is to be consistent“.
- Consistency definately needs planning.
- Planning needs goals in your life that you want to achieve.
- To have goals you want to achieve, means you have a spiritual ambition to please God.
- Sometimes we think it is it only like going to church and read my Bible, but it is more that that.
- The Bible talks about: “Watch your life and doctrine closely“. (1 Tim 4:16)
- So it is not just being spiritual (what you believe about the Bible) but your life as well.
- That means being the best husband / wife, a father / mother, a friend, a son / daughter, your work, etc.
- All aspects of life, needs to be in a balance, spirituality taking the lead and overseeing all other aspects of your life.
- Another thing I want to immitate; is being open with my lifes struggles and sin. Sharing and confessing towards my mentor that he can help me and encourage me.
17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’
18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
– Hans what kind of heart did God promise to give us as we surrender our bad hearts?
- François if we remove sinful things and practices, God will give us one heart as a community of disciples.
- He will also give us a new spirit within us.
- God will remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh.
- So where we might have been obstinate and ignorant, now we are sort hearted and sensitive to obey God and accept advice.
- I will be part of God’s people and He will be our God, not ourselves.
“Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.” – Mat 5:8
– What is the end result for the pure heart?
- That I will see God.
- Francois I will be called a son of God.
- I will spend eternity with God in heaven.
4. Close
– Looking at the movie Hans we can see if we do not die to ourselves we will never be free really in this world literally and figuratively speaking. We can believe in a fantasy dream world or we can guard our hearts and live in the real world not being lead astray from the world. We know the scripture which says our hearts first become sinful, then unbelieving and then turn away from the living God.
- It is sad when someone goes that route Francois, but like the bible says see to it that none of us has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.(Heb 3:12)
- I think that is why we did that scripture about above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life, it is that important.
– So this can happen to anybody of us. If we do not decide to make God our first love.
– Would you like to close us out in a prayer?
- Sure, Francois
- Morning, Abba Father.
- Thank you so much for a new day.
- Thank you Lord just for all these scriptures of encouragement and warning.
- Lord please protect my heart from going the sinful, unbelieving and turning away route.
- Father I do know that when I focus on making you my first love and it is a priority in my life that that will never happen.
- I pray that my heart will always stay pure in your eyes.
- Father I pray that I always may have that brave heart to walk the road less travelled and a pure heart.
- Lord I do know that when I fall into trouble that my heart is getting hard. That should send alarm bells off into my head to do something.
- Father I pray that I might not be prideful and stubborn and have an unrepentant heart realizing that sin kills me physically, spiritually and emotionally.
- If my heart is full of sin then I become life a unbeliever, non christian.
- It is amazing God that if I want to repent you will always bring me back to you.
- Father always give me that gift of the undevided heart, the heart of flesh and not of stone.
- Amen.
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