Well, happy Labor Day.
Glad you're here.
Happy college football season, right?
I I don't I needed yesterday.
More out of redemption.
I'm a Georgia Bulldog, and it had been nine months since what happened to us, right?
Some of you know what I'm talking about.
So a few of you, I know who you are, are happy about that.
As we played for the national championship against Alabama.
Now, to fill you in, if you play Alabama, you don't expect to win, right?
You don't.
You just go and you you just like this slight hope, like just maybe something could happen.
Like all their players could be injured in one play, and then maybe you're playing their third team and you have a chance, right?
So that national championship game, it started late at night, eight or nine o'clock at night.
And so our whole family, my wife and I, and our three little girls, we all wanted to watch it, but we're so into it, we don't watch it with other people because you know you have to talk and stuff.
We have to focus.
So we watched it at our house, all by ourselves, or in our den, and we're all there watching it.
And man, that first half was amazing.
I mean, we it's like all of a sudden we thought maybe we can beat this unbelievable team.
This could happen.
It's 13 to zero at halftime, if you don't remember.
13 to 0.
And just this little bit inside of you is like hopeful.
This could happen.
This could actually happen.
I mean, our defense is shutting down their offense or their quarterback.
He couldn't do anything.
It was amazing.
And then halftime comes.
And Coach Sabin, Alabama coach, he goes in there because he can do whatever he wants.
He's won so many times, he can take so many risks.
It doesn't matter.
He can't be fired, right?
And he pulls out his senior quarterback and he plays the freshman.
Like, who thinks you're gonna put a freshman in the second half of the national championship game?
And he plays this freshman.
This guy comes out, he runs all over the field, he's throwing deep balls, he's scrambling.
It is painful, right?
It is painful.
And nobody saw it coming.
And the cameras would kind of scan the UGA players or the fans, and everybody's like, you know, oh, you know, it's like the end of the world, the world's ending, my life.
And they would say, Oh, their hearts are breaking.
And then they'd show this kid scrambling all over and like, you know, throwing it long.
I mean, like amazing play after amazing play, and they'd say, Oh, this kid has heart.
And eventually they score 10 in the third, we score seven, they score ten in the fourth, we score none.
They win by three, and my insides are just breaking.
I look down to the end of the couch, and one of my little girls just is just sad and she's starting to tear up, my dog's crying.
Right?
Our hearts are breaking, right?
Our hearts break when we lose something.
We say something, we say something like it.
We use this language when we lose something.
You lose a game and you go, oh, it broke our hearts, right?
But but even more so, you lose a job, you lose a relationship, you lose innocence, you lose health, you you lose the dream of what you thought life would be like.
And we use that phrase.
That's a phrase we use.
My heart was broken.
I had a broken heart.
I have I have a broken heart.
And what are we saying?
Because the heart's an organ, right?
Heart's an organ, it's about the size of an adult fist, pumps 115,000 times a day.
2,000 gallons of blood will be pumped through your body today.
You could disconnect the heart from your body, it'll keep pumping.
Like it's amazing.
This organ is amazing.
The heart is complex and amazing, and it sends out life to every limb and part of your body.
So when we say our heart is breaking, my heart was broken, or Jesus lives in my heart.
Well, we're not saying or talking about the organ, we're talking about something else, right?
But it's sort of the same thing, right?
Like the organ, right, is complex, it's amazing, it sends out life to every limb and part of your body.
And when Jesus in the scriptures talks about the heart, same thing.
That's why he uses the term.
The inner part of us.
That's what this heart is.
The inner part of us that's complex and amazing and sends out life to every limb and part of your body.
Counselor and Pastor Paul Tripp, he says it this way: the heart is the center of your personhood, the seeds of your thoughts and your desires and your emotions and your motivations and your values.
So keep all that in mind.
Let me reread Mark 7, 14 through 23.
So some of that was in your bolts, and some of it won't be.
And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you understand.
There's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.
But the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked about him about the parable.
And you know they're going, like, what's he talking about?
It's so different, so radical.
Verse 18, and he said to them, Then are you also without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?
He's getting a little graphic there, verse 20.
And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts.
Sexual morality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
So a few points.
Point number one is this we are the problem.
You and I, we are the problem because our hearts are a mix of good and evil.
So, my friend David, he tells a story about when he was a teenager and his father needed to move to Germany, and they moved their family to Germany to finish his PhD.
He was a teenager, so he had to leave his friends.
Leave a school?
That's not an easy thing to do when you're a teenager.
So when he gets to Germany, he's upset, he's angry.
And he starts going into his room and shutting the door and playing angry, hateful, heavy metal rock.
So his father lets it go by for about a week, pulls him aside about after a week, and he says, David, um, I know you're listening to horrible music.
It's not good for you.
I know that.
I'll let you listen to it.
But I only ask that you ask yourself one question.
Why do you want to listen to it?
And he left him alone.
Now, maybe you wouldn't parent like that.
Okay, maybe you wouldn't.
But what was his dad doing?
Well, his dad knew this passage.
The music does not defile his son.
His son has a heart that wants to listen to that music, which is the bigger and deeper issue.
Now, my friend kept listening to the music for a while, and then eventually the love of his father, the questioning of his father, helped him see that he was angry.
And when his anger subsided, guess what?
He didn't want to listen to the music anymore.
Right?
You see, the world is real and it influences.
There's evil in the world, it influences, sure it does.
But all the evil is not out there.
It's in here.
It's in your children.
It's in your sweet granny.
Right?
You already know it's in your spouse and your sibling.
You already know that.
And it's in you.
He or she or they or that or those people.
They're not the problem.
You're the problem.
Because you're a sinner.
I'm the problem because I'm a sinner.
It's my heart.
And it it'll be effortless.
It will be effortless in your life to continue to always blame other people.
And to never engage your own heart.
It'll be effortless for all the evil to always be out there and to be them and it for never, ever, ever for it to possibly be you.
And then to think if I just get all the external things in place, right?
Like if I if I protect myself from them and from him and her and that, if I protect myself and I protect my kids from all of that evil, then we will be okay and we will be holy and we will be happy.
And it'll be easy to do that.
But it doesn't work.
Because your heart is a mix of good and evil.
Just like their heart is a mix of good and evil.
Point number two is this the external is not sufficient to deal with the problem because the problem is our hearts.
This is what Jesus is saying in this passage.
The scene in the passage is a group of people trying to manage their imperfection and their sin and their guilt by means of external solutions.
Down to the way of like, hey, let's form a rule about washing our hands the right way and the dishes the right way so that we eat the right food.
If we get all this in place, all these rules, and then we can obey the rules, then we can feel holy or sanctified or approved by God.
Right?
It's a form of legalism.
Right?
Legalism is uh I will obey and then I will be accepted or absolved of my sin and I will then be loved by God.
Right?
Obey, then accept it.
But the gospel's the other way around.
The gospel is no, no, no, no, no.
Like you're the problem, you're a sinner, and yet you're fully loved, and Jesus' work is enough for you, so you are accepted, therefore, hopefully, you will obey.
And Jesus sees a group of people who have it the wrong way around.
I read a recent article, it's a couple weeks ago, about some famous pastors who are absorbed in celebrity culture.
And so I read this article, and my first reaction is I go to their Instagram feed, and you know, so I can sit in judgment over them and feel better about my life, is why I was doing this.
And it actually worked.
Um I felt very proud of myself for about 30 minutes as I was looking through their feed, and it was picture after picture of them with celebrity after celebrity, and they're like all in strange leather jackets, right?
Like, I mean, that's always part of it.
And I'm just like, judgment over them, like they're so horrible, you know, all they care about is fame, blah blah, you know, and I would never, you know.
Like how quickly I or you skip over compassion.
Right?
There's a self-righteousness in me that does not want to die.
You see, there is evil out there.
There is.
But there's evil in here.
And that's why Jesus gives us a laundry list here in this passage of like, hey, will you see yourself yet?
Right?
Like, can you will you let down on all those rules trying to make yourself feel righteous?
Can you see yourself yet?
Do you remember the David story?
Remember that brave guy in the Old Testament?
He takes down Goliath.
But before that, the prophet Samuel, he's looking to anoint a new king, and he shows up and there's all these brothers and they're lined up, and they're all the studs.
Like, these are the guys who have it under control.
I mean, they're the guys that they look like, they're captain of the football team type of guy, right?
Like they're the one you think would be anointed to be king.
And Samuel looks through all of them and he's like, no, none of them.
Like, is there another one?
Is there somebody else?
And the brothers are like, there's another one, but like he's the runt, man.
Like he's keeping the sheep like out.
You don't want to see him.
It doesn't matter.
He's inconsequential.
No, no, no, that's that's the one.
That's the Bible actually says, oh, that's the man after God's own heart.
Right?
The Bible said, this guy has a heart after God's heart.
And then the storyline's amazing, sad, because he eventually becomes king and he lusts after a woman.
He has an affair with a woman.
The storyline gets worse and worse.
There's a pregnancy, there's trying to be a cover-up, then there's uh put Uriah on the front line to have him killed.
Same man.
The same man.
Same heart.
And then he repents.
And he weeps in sorrow, and he writes these unbelievable psalms for us, these beautiful poems for us to read.
Same man.
Same heart.
A heart that is a mix of good and evil.
Okay, maybe at this point you're thinking, I came to church on Labor Day.
I should be rewarded for this.
And you are depressing me.
This is the most depressing sermon I've ever heard up till this point.
Well, I heard it put this this way this week.
By accepting Jesus' diagnosis of our inner selves, we allow ourselves to become a more mature, aware person.
You see, this is why.
Because it explains you.
Until you accept this diagnosis, you don't have an explanation of yourself.
You don't have an explanation why you're not getting better in certain areas of your life.
Or why in one area it gets better, and then there's another area all of a sudden that pops up.
You don't have an explanation for that unless you're a sinner.
And then all of a sudden, if you're a sinner, and then if you're a sinner saved by grace, you have an explanation of yourself and you have a rescue of yourself and you have a power to deal with all of this.
And then point number three, a gospel lens of sin and grace upon yourself takes you into your heart and then leads you outward.
A gospel lens of sin and grace upon yourself takes you into your heart and then leads you outward.
And all I have to say about that is because you're humbled that you're a sinner.
Just like him and her and them and that person.
She's so horrible, but yeah, I'm horrible like her.
And all this creates compassion for other people.
Because yeah, they don't have their act together.
But I also don't have my act together.
Point number four.
You can forgive yourself.
You can forgive yourself because you are loved and forgiven in that heart that is a mix of good and evil.
Have you forgiven yourself yet for not being perfect?
I know maybe you've forgiven other people, but I'm not talking about you forgiven other people.
Have you forgiven yourself yet for not being perfect?
For that thing you did, or you think you can't be forgiven of that, or that missed opportunity, or you haven't lived up to the standard your parents set, or you thought you'd be at by whatever age, or there was a mishap, there's a something happened, or there's shame, or there's guilt.
And there's gonna be part of your heart that keeps condemning you for not being perfect.
But the grace of God, Jesus' word for you, that takes your sin on the cross, fully pays for it, so his righteousness is given to you.
You are forever his beloved, forever righteous, forever, always, secure.
Heart is good and evil, and yet God sees you as his beloved.
Have you forgiven yourself yet?
That you're not perfect.
It's the only way for you to experience growth and grace.
Any transformation.
So, church, go into your heart and see what the Holy Spirit will show you.
And know whatever you see, whatever you see, you are absolved and accepted because of Jesus' work for you.
And see, the scriptures have been, the scriptures have been speaking to the heart the entire time.
Song of Solomon chapter 2 says this.
This is how God speaks to us.
Listen to this.
My beloved speaks and says to me, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For now the winter is past and the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in her land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom.
They give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one.
This is you.
Arise, my love.
That's you.
My fair one.
And come away.
My brothers and sisters, may you have hearts to receive.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you for the gift of Jesus that proclaims that we are your beloved.
That you see us through the blood of Jesus, your grace toward us, not our work, not our performance, not our, you know, you don't see our sin, but you see your son.
May our identities be formed by your love for us, our acceptance and absolution in the work of Jesus.
May our hearts, while they are a mix of good and evil, may they know your love more and more and more, and be transformed by your goodness and your power.
Through your grace is greater than our sin.
In Jesus' name we pray all things and we hope in.
Amen.