A Burning Heart

Thank you, Lord. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your presence. We thank you for oh How you met us in worship? We thank you for the way you love us And I'm asking you Jesus right now that you would encounter us through your word Just continue to open your heart to us as we open our hearts to you And I'm asking for the spirit of revelation to fall on this room And I pray Lord help me to speak as your Oracle help me to declare truth Help me to be vulnerable with the truth that you've given me And hold my hand as I share this morning, and I just pray you'd encounter every Single heart all those that are connecting online all those that are here with us Encounter every heart this morning Lord. We give you thanks in Jesus name. Everybody said Amen Well, we're starting a new series today I get to launch it and the series is entitled living with a burning heart living with a burning heart and obviously the worship team has already begun to take us that direction and Man, I just so appreciate their ministry to us and how they've led us today But what we're gonna do over the next several weeks probably five or six weeks what we're gonna do Is we're gonna look specifically at John 13 through 17 these are the last words of Jesus They're the the pinnacle of Jesus teaching some gospel commentators Call it the final frontier of the gospel John 13 to 17 and as we're digging into John 13 to 17 We're gonna do that through the lens of Revelation 3 Chapter 3 verse 15 through 20 So we're gonna set up the John 13 to 17 through Revelation 3 15 through 20 you with me All right. So today I'm going to talk about Revelation 3 15 through 20 and As I'm doing that some of you already know what that chapter and those verses are talking about like some of you already doing the math and you know, that's Laodicea and Then some of you know that Laodicea is like, oh no We're about to get vomited. Oh, no Because that's the passage where Jesus says I wish that you were either hot or cold But because you're lukewarm, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth Well, that's not the that's not the direction. We're going with that passage today that we will talk about that point But I want to share it more from a personal standpoint These passages the Revelation 3 15 through 20 the John 13 through 17 They've been meaning a lot to me personally and a lot to our leadership team over the last eight eight weeks ten weeks and So what we're gonna do is we're gonna come out of that place of where the Lord's been ministering to us. I find that that's the best place to minister from Instead of just teaching some lesson if if we can come out of the place where God's been encountering us It tends to it tends to hit the mark the most it tends to be what the Lord wants to say to to many Well, I'll just share a story with you last year whenever the shutdown came from Kovat right there the end of March beginning of April the Lord highlighted to me Revelation chapter 3 verse 15 through 20 he put that on my heart and I remember looking at it and I remember doing a Video put a video out on it on one of the social media platforms and and kind of just moved on What's the next thing? Well about like I said about two months ago a little over the Lord starts highlighting Revelation 3 15 through 20 to me again And it had gotten So like so many of the things had gotten in my mind that I literally was like wait Didn't I have something about that last year? Oh, wait a minute and I had to go back and look it up. I'd almost forgotten and I don't know how it is with you, but sometimes the Lord will speak something to me and I'll go right Yeah, I got that one Lord. They all need Revelation 3 15 through 20 all of them out there whoever they are And he goes hey, hey bud, hey remember that Revelation 3 15 through 20 that wasn't for them That was for you. Take another look and As I began to look at it, man, the Lord started encountering me he started ministering to my heart with like tenderness and and intimacy and and deep conviction and and so that's where we're gonna come from today, so Let's go ahead and let's look at this passage Revelation 3 It's Jesus speaking to the church of Laodicea this was a real church in the first century in Asia Minor Jesus is giving this letter He's giving John seven letters to seven churches that were real churches of that time And he's giving this letter to John to give to Laodicea and He's gonna speak specifically to them about his heart for them and he's gonna he's gonna deal with them in a very very focused and intentional way and So here he says he says verse 15, I know your works That you are neither cold nor hot I could wish you were cold or hot So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will vomit you out of my mouth because you say I am rich have become wealthy and have need of nothing and Do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked. I Counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire That you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see as Many as I love I rebuke and chasten Therefore be zealous and repent Behold, I stand at the door and knock Anyone hears my voice and opens the door. I will come into him and dine with him and he with me so I would just say this that any any revival preacher any Evangelist over the years they will use this passage and and so often they'll take this passage and they'll focus it Toward unbelievers and say Jesus is standing at the door of your heart You need to open your heart to Jesus and come and get saved Let Jesus come into your heart get born again, and he will save you. He will fellowship with you He will save you and and I appreciate that application. I understand why Evangelists use that but the the context here is not a message to the unsaved this is a message to believers and So if that if you have that in your paradigm like those unsaved people, they all need to open their hearts let's go ahead and just back that up a bit and let's realize that Jesus was actually talking to the church and And so for me, I would just go ahead and say I've been guilty of this and I've heard many preachers do the same thing That usually when this passage is referenced What tends to be referenced is the the first two verses? Where he says you're not cold and you're not hot I wish you were either cold or hot but because you're lukewarm. I'll vomit you out of my mouth and and it's usually left right there and then all the details about how bad it is to be vomited and spewed and all the different words that go with vomit and spewing and How bad it is to be lukewarm that's heavily emphasized well, it's definitely a part of the passage, but it's not the entire thrust of this passage by any stretch and And I'm just as guilty as anybody God's gonna vomit you out of his mouth. You need to get right with God, you know, I've done that many many times and and just to be honest in Approaching this passage. I've always read it historically. I've read it where Jesus has got a bit of an attitude He's like you're not hot you're not cold you're lukewarm Are you lukewarm Vomitotious people, you know, he's just got this attitude and he's upset and And actually when you read this what you find out is this is not his attitude in it at all If you just if you just let the words in this passage kind of wash over you a bit You find that he has a completely different attitude Toward the Church of Laodicea. Um He's correcting them, but he's correcting them in deep tenderness and he is addressing them because he is after greater intimacy and so I just want to kind of walk through this and Highlight some of these points and then what I want to do is I want to share something the Lord has has done with me in the last couple of months. It's been profound It's been powerful. It's been deeply convicting and confronting but also it's been Life-changing and if you don't mind, I'll be a little vulnerable with you guys today. Can we do that in church? Can we get vulnerable and be honest? so One of the things immediately when I look at this passage, I realize is that with all the other letters to the churches Jesus he calls out their specific sins He actually identifies things that they were doing that were specific he calls out, you know immorality or Fellowshipping with you know in temples where they were sacrificing me to idols or or losing their first love He's very very specific about actions that they are committing that are sinful Well with Laodicea, he's not he doesn't highlight any specific actions he actually just highlights a mentality and It's really interesting because the mentality leaves them incredibly spiritually handicapped and It's a mentality that they do not realize that they have and I've said for a long time The most dangerous person in any room is is the one that doesn't know that he doesn't know You know, you might know that you don't know but if you don't know that you don't know you're that guy there's all sorts of outcomes That could happen because of your ignorance Well, that's what he's telling Laodicea. He's saying. Hey Hey guys whole Church of Laodicea. You don't know what you don't know and You need to know it and then he dials in on this this one specific thought he says because you say you have need of nothing and you do not know and This is where the Lord Highlighted to me some some deep things that he was wanting to address in my own heart Because if I'm honest and many of you that have been around in the Lord a long time if you're honest there's a whole bunch of sort of Places of maturity that I think we kind of get to in the Lord. We kind of get the hundred verses down We quit, you know cussing watching the really bad R-rated movies We quit doing the real bad stuff. So all the bad sins are over here. We don't do those anymore We're we're Christians, you know And and you know, you just kind of feel like you've there's a there's a place of arrival at Maturity, you know and and I think that that's been One of the things in my own soul that the Lord's put his finger on where I realize I need Jesus I need him desperately, but I'm not thinking I need him to deal with my heart I'm thinking I need him for more anointing more power more kingdom ministry because I've gotten most of the main stuff handled okay, and what I think happens and happens to has happened to me and happens to others is We go along and we get the main big bad stuff dealt with and then there's just these other little areas just issues challenges Hang-ups Call them what you call them That we just expect Well, the Lord understands. I mean, I'm only human You know, I'm just I'm just a guy or I'm just a girl and of course, I mean everybody deals with that and What the Lord is looking for are wide open hearts that are willing for him to walk into those wide open hearts and that when he comes in he brings all that he is and So that none of the hang-ups get to stay hung up And instead they get burned up and and so this issue of Thinking you have need of nothing That was the one that the Lord really put his finger on for me this this place of imagining you have need of nothing and what he started doing for me was tying together that the Definition of being lukewarm is Believing that in any area of your life, you don't need Jesus in that area because you already got it Just like that one just rest on you and So as as I was going through this I realized well, there's a whole bunch of areas of attainment I think I've arrived at and And in he's saying but look at lukewarmness look look at what I was saying to Laodicea I was telling them because they say they have need of nothing They do not know They're poor wretched miserable Blind and naked and what I did for you in the notes is I broke down all these things that Jesus says and how he how he kind of Walks through a process with them and then I give little little definitions on each of those but each one of those words is A specific area of Sort of shallowness and coldness in the heart poor wretched miserable blind and naked And that the things that hit me were this these points about being Miserable It's it's this pitiful state He gives you're blind And you're naked and you're pitiful and you don't know it think about how awkward that would be You know, you know, there's that People have that dream. I'm not gonna actually say okay I've had this dream to where you show up at the store. You don't have your clothes on you ever had that one just me So I had this dream one time But, you know, maybe you needed to have pants on and you didn't you're like are you like why why don't have a shirt on You know, you're in school with your shirt off. Like I graduated. I don't know what this is, but You show up and you're not clothed now, could you imagine in reality? In reality you're like, I'm sure I'm clothed and you show up and you're completely naked Completely unclothed and he's saying he goes you don't realize it, but you're exposed You're exposed and you don't realize it And he goes and you think you can see But you can't And he goes It's pitiful Guys, it's pitiful It's pitiful and so he says these phrases like he goes I counsel you See he's not coming with the backhand He's not coming to sort of grab us by the neck and like shake us around and go I'm gonna vomit you You know, it's not how he's coming He's coming with this gentle heart. He goes listen Listen, you you are in a serious spiritual state that you don't even realize how serious it is And he goes man, it's miserable he goes you're actually poverty stricken, but you think you're you're supplied You think you've got everything and you don't know that you're deeply needy He goes you're actually wretched he goes. It's pitiful. You're miserable. He goes you can't see and you're exposed He's not telling us that because he's angry. He's telling us that because he cares And his his answer to it is i'm counseling you i'm coming to you as a counselor Because I want to help you get out of this state of blindness Out of the state of being exposed. I want to help you to get out of this state Of imagining you need nothing And that right there really is the contact point That really is where the rubber meets the road it's this place Where you have these areas in your heart and you think well i'm good in that area. I don't need anything i've arrived And I would just say just gently say you If you're willing to take inventory of your own heart And start with the places where you think you got it together And then ask jesus to come into that place I think you'll find amazing holy spirit activities Because I think we tend to assess things through our own lens and then he assesses things through his lens And we tend to have the 10 areas that we think are a problem and he's not talking about any of those 10 He's talking about other stuff Well, he says I'm going to counsel you He goes I want to counsel you to get real gold To get gold refined in the fire real riches He goes and i'm going to counsel you to to get white garments So you're covered he goes. I don't want you to be shamed He goes and I want to counsel you that you would get Anointing salve for your eyes that your blindness can be removed your eyes could be healed you could actually see You could actually have revelation and understanding and then he says I I need you to know this The reason why i'm doing this the reason why i'm putting my finger on these areas is because I love you As many as I love I rebuke And chasten those two words are they're translated a bunch of different ways in the different versions when you read them the different bible versions, but he basically is saying I love you. So i'm gonna call you out and correct you Nobody likes being called out Nobody likes that But he goes I love you so much I'm, not going to let you sit there poor wretched miserable blind and naked. I don't I won't Because I love you more than that I love you more than to act like Your lukewarm state of sin is okay. I love you more than that He goes so I will call you out and correct you because I love you not to shame you to cover your shame Do you see how he deals with us? I think for years. I just had his I just had the wrong attitude assigned to him in this passage And i'm like man, he's being so tender He he doesn't show up and say there's a problem and figure out the answer He literally gives you the test and then gives you the answers to the test That's like the best class ever Did you ever have that happen to you when you're in school and maybe in college never happened to me in college maybe high school You showed up and You know, maybe everybody bombed the test and the next day the teacher goes everybody bombed the test. Here's the answers Let's do them all together. We're gonna give everybody a 90. I'm like, yes Praise god Jesus shows up like that He goes you've all bombed the test But i'm giving you the answers He goes you all maybe you don't even know that you bombed it but you did but i'm giving you the answers and i'll tell you what happened in my own heart there was a a shift that the lord took me through this has been about six weeks and i'll explain in detail in just a moment, but He dealt with me in this way of thinking about christian maturity as a place that you arrive at And he and he was just dealing with me showing me like You think you've arrived at maturity in your walk? You think you've arrived at maturity in love? But what you don't realize is that in your walk The place of arrival is actually the continual confession of your need The place of arrival Is when you are willing to continually confess You are needy Okay Okay, this isn't in the it's not going to show up on the screen, but can I just show you one bible passage second Corinthians just flip over there on your device. I'd like you to lay your eyes on it Second corinthians chapter 12 And if you guys have quick fingers in the back i'm going to go second corinthians 12 10 if you if you can do it But I don't blame you if you can't Second corinthians 12 10 There's so much going on in this passage. Um, paul describes a heavenly encounter. He's had and Describes how the lord was exalting him above measure and all these revelations the lord was giving him And then he describes this issue that he calls a thorn in the flesh That was also given to him So he's got these heavenly encounters given to him and then this messenger of satan at the same time So he's he's experiencing amazing stuff With the lord and there is an an attack of the enemy at the same time And and so he asked the lord he says three times I asked the lord That it would depart from me verse eight concerning this thing. I pleaded with the lord three times that it might depart from me And Verse nine and the lord said to me he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my strength Is made perfect in weakness Therefore most gladly I paul now saying and because of this whole encounter because I will rather boast in infirmities That the power of christ would rest upon me This is the mature apostle He would see people raised from the dead he wrote two-thirds of the new testament And he says I am going to boast In my infirmities now, that's not just sicknesses. That's my weaknesses and my needs That the power of christ may rest on me now look at verse 10 because this is where it's just like I don't know what you're talking about He goes therefore I take Pleasure in infirmities I'm that word take pleasure. It could be it could be interpreted. I'm delighted with infirmities Another translation is i'm satisfied With infirmities But not just infirmities in reproaches in needs in persecutions in distresses for christ's sake For when I am weak Then I am strong Do you understand the mature apostle? From the new testament from the bible is telling us the place of arrival is taking pleasure in infirmities in needs in persecutions In reproaches and in distresses because when we are in that place of vulnerable weakness The power of god rests on us Now that's just not american Darn it It's just not american at all Weaknesses you're taking pleasure in being weak in being needy And I think paul would say yeah, this is what i've arrived at this is what it's come to That the only way forward for me Is to embrace the reproach of following jesus And to confess and come to grips with the fact that I will never arrive That I always need him That i'm always in need of him That in every area I need him to live himself through me Which is why he would write. I have been crucified with christ Nevertheless, I live yet not I but christ Who loved me gave himself for me he lives through me And this is the place of christian maturity, I just want to point out this one word, uh this word uh reproaches It's rough It literally it's a greek word hubris. It's where we get the english word hubris It's when somebody is arrogantly talking down to you Oh, that's fun Paul goes I take pleasure in people arrogantly talking down to me It's just like um I'm not saved paul I don't know what that means Because I take pleasure in distresses But when i'm weak Then i'm strong Because when i'm weak catch it i'm in touch with my need when i'm in touch with my need Then i'm not lukewarm But when I think i'm not needy That's the definition of lukewarmness you followed me back over to revelation three So Jesus is gently correcting laodicea. He's coming As a counselor he's coming as a lover he's coming Because he wants something And what he wants is intimacy he goes i'm standing at the door and knocking And so they say well i'm a christian i've already asked jesus into my heart and yes jesus christ He lives in your spirit. John 14 is really clear about this. He lives in your spirit by The father and the son live in your spirit by the holy spirit who have come They've come and made their home in you the The triune god he lives in you by the holy spirit. That's absolutely true. That's absolutely biblical but what we don't realize is that The hebrew way of thinking of spirit soul and body heart Inner man, it's it's the lines are way more blurred than we tend to make them when we kind of We kind of think more greek like it's spirit soul body three parts, you know, and the the hebrew way is a little more blurring And so when he's saying i'm standing at the door knocking Paul would say he goes i'm praying for you that christ would dwell in your heart through faith And and the idea is yeah god's in your spirit, but you need him to possess your soul You need him to possess your emotions You need him to possess your mind your feelings And jesus goes I want that level of intimacy with you I want that level of encounter with you i'm asking you he goes i'm knocking on the door I'm knocking on the door And i'm asking you will you open your heart? And let me in Will you let me walk right in? Well, probably about a year a little over a year ago a year and a half ago the lord He started putting this song on my heart That that's the refrain that keeps going over and over and over in the song and I hadn't heard it in years But it says open up your heart and let me in open up your heart and let me in And I was singing this song around. I couldn't even remember what song it was. I had to like Look it up and spotify and then I started playing and I was like, oh, it's such a good song Open up your heart and let me in. Yes, lord And I started praying that I was and I was in now i'm into revelation 3 This is about you know, i've been singing that song for a year now I'm into revelation 3 and I go. Oh my gosh this song open up your heart and let me in It's revelation 320 behold. I stand at the door and knock if anybody hears my voice and opens up he goes i'll come in He doesn't say i'll come in. He goes i'll come in and we're gonna fellowship We're gonna have partnership And what I started realizing is he goes i'm asking you to be vulnerable with me Just a quick parentheses, you know what I realized We can do all sorts of christian stuff and never be vulnerable with jesus Like seriously Like we can listen to the christian song. We can read the christian book We can go to the christian meeting go to the christian concert watch the christian tv show We can christian our faces off and literally never open our heart to jesus The very thing jesus wants is to come into our heart And we can go through all the christian motions and never open our hearts And here's the thing I just have to ask When was the last time you intentionally sat before him and said jesus? I open up my heart to you And there might be all sorts of stuff in there That we don't want him to see And it's like when the uh Guest comes to your house Unexpected and you open they go. Oh, hold on a sec start running around like fixing everything. I got Hi Come on in And Just that idea of opening our heart to jesus And letting him walk through our house without tidying up first Oh my gosh now now we're getting real because when he walks in there He brings all of him And I I got this Picture in my mind. I know I know god speaks to you guys in way more holy sanctified ways He speaks to me in all sorts of funny ways. He uses movies. He uses all sorts of stuff But there's the fantastic four And um, there's the one guy he's the human torch He's like all fire And when jesus walks in he's that guy And unless everything in your house is completely fireproof he's gonna burn everything down So I'm praying this prayer. I'm i'm in these verses. I've got that song open up your heart. Let me in I'm, like yes revelation 3 15 through 20. I put out a video last year. They all need to repent all those lukewarm people out there And He goes Check it out again There's a lot there. I go. Yeah, and here's what happened. I got invited to speak at a men's event Church in st. Louis and I went and did their men's event and the lord's putting revelation 3 15 through 20 And I preach all weekend on the men's event. I've got all this revelation all these men. They need to repent of their lukewarmness And in between the sessions man the lord is like It's on me and he's like look a little deeper look a little deeper look a little deeper And so, uh, here's what happens Um I was talking to one of my sons and Whenever I say one of my sons, it could be any of the three and basically all three are one in the story I just conflate them into a person But i'm talking to one of my sons and uh And i'll be honest i'll go honest with you. He said to me probably Like one of the sentences like that would be the best sentence you could ever hear from your son from your adult son And and because I asked him a question I said hey i'm just noticing you and I are a lot closer It feels like we're flowing a lot more together a lot closer than we have been Do you feel that he goes? Yeah, dad. I feel that And I said, oh wow, it's amazing I said Why why do you what do you think that is? And he said well, and this is the sentence. It's a beautiful sentence. He said i've just come to realize That you're safe And I just thought every dad on the planet wants to Hear that from their kid. They want to be that maybe they don't even know they want to be that And uh And I said, oh, thank you. Thank you But the phrase that got highlighted to me was i've just come to realize This was the lord dealing with me in an area I didn't think I had any need Because I think i'm a good dad i've got a great relationship with my kids and I just I'm going in and out. Is there something I can do? It is it's going in and out right Yeah, okay Not sure, okay I just love my kids. We have an amazing relationship. It's fantastic And so this is an area where I didn't think I had any need and uh And so my son says I just I come to realize you're a safe place for me And what gets highlighted to me is the i've come to realize Puts a question in my head. Was there a time when you felt like I wasn't a safe place? And we're now we're getting vulnerable and open He goes well, yeah And he recounts to me a time four or five years ago Where he goes he goes, you know, I did something wrong dad. He goes. I really did do something wrong. It was really wrong He goes but you responded He goes you were really upset He goes and then what you know, I had to go away and come back and then when you corrected me When I came back, you know, he goes you just were so strong with me He goes you don't know this But I went and cried for an hour in the bathroom And I was when he said that to me I was sick I just got sick To my stomach. I just was like, oh buddy I am so sorry And we started talking through it And uh, the lord just began to gently put his finger on me so the next day The lord I come in i'm in the prayer room and the lord. He just he just shows me this area of Frustration now. I don't think of myself as a frustrated person I'm i'm a happy guy. I'm i'm a lover. I'm not a fighter, you know I'm I'm happy. I'm relational. I don't walk around angry But he shows me this area of frustration and this is what he starts dialing in for me. He goes you thought Somebody could do you wrong to a certain level and you forgive all of it And then you just assess that after a certain level It was reasonable for you to get frustrated And jesus goes but that's not me He goes i'm 70 times seven But i'm at least 10 or 15 He goes yeah, that's not me son, that's flesh And uh, so then he shows me someone else close to me And he says I want you to repent of being frustrated with them because you've been frustrated I said, okay and I repent Well when I repent boom tears And then the lord shows me someone else and I repent to them boom tears Then I go through all my kids tears I try to repent to my wife. She goes i've known this forever I already knew this i've been praying for this for years Not exactly but basically A little bit highlight different ones the ones real close to me And i'd say hey listen, I realized that there's been times that i've been frustrated with you and i'm so sorry i've been too strong harsh arrogant And I had grown men in front of me weeping And uh just broken And I went through a deep Place of conviction and mourning and brokenness Over these moments of Being frustrated not i'm not a yeller. I'm i'm just not that guy but uh Having to take ownership of my own sin And what the lord did was he put his finger on an area that I thought I had no need To read because you say you're rich and have need of nothing and do not know You're poor wretched miserable blind and naked Because I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that Refined in the fire of gold that is faith that is tested and purified It's not faith that's arrived it's faith that's been through the furnace and has stayed employed Stayed locked in stayed in faith Even through all the things that hell can offer all the challenges of this world can offer and everything your flesh shirks at Faith that stays in the game and keeps asking jesus to come in It gets purified gold refined in the fire It gives white garments Or the white garments to the righteous works of the saints Because I salve the spirit of revelation That you could see you could have wisdom But i'm going to tell you what happened as as jesus walked into my heart in this area It was so shocking and so stunning to me. It was one of those places of oh my gosh I thought I had this area down And I had no idea That i'm needy i'm poor wretched miserable blind naked And the lord just began to do a work in me and I would tell you that For a few weeks. I literally felt like I was in ashes. I felt like jesus the human torch Walked right into the front door of my house and everything went up in fire And i'm and a little bit in my own heart. I was like, hey jesus You're burning everything down like Come on You're burning my whole house down And I almost felt like the lord just goes buddy. I just walked in the front door You want to look at the rest of the rooms I'm, like no you can burn the lobby down Burn the lobby on down And uh What I realized is that When he comes in All of him comes in I tried to repent to my daughter. I I I say to her she or I say about her. She's the most spiritual one in our family I said baby, I know there's times i've been frustrated. I'm, so sorry. She goes It's okay. Daddy. I've already forgiven you She goes everybody acts like that from time to time I go but it's not okay She goes I know You're forgiven I'm like, did you lay hands on me, baby? You know what I realize Jesus wants to walk in the front door of all of our hearts And I think we've gotten so attuned To doing christian things and doing church That we've literally gone through the motions without opening our hearts to him And I was thinking about how often we've trained our kids You know To do the christian disciplines to do the things that are christian to watch the christian shows You know, we raise them on we raised our kids on bible man and veggie tales glory to god And yeah, those are bad shows these are good shows but But did we raise them opening their hearts to the man christ jesus? Because you could literally be in your 20s in your 30s Older than that in this room and have gone through an entire christian life And you never vulnerably opened your heart to him And what's amazing to me is how jesus the very thing he wants he doesn't want more good works out of you He wants your heart He's not trying to get you to do more stuff. He just wants your heart And the very thing that he wants which is an open vulnerable heart Is the very thing we don't train people to do So It's shocking And what I see in revelation 320 It's a bit of a mission statement of jesus the son of god His mission statement could be I want to come in and have a lifelong Encounter of fellowship with you That's what I want from you everybody thinks what do you want from me? What do you want from me? He goes I want you I want to fellowship with you. I want to be with you I want to encounter you And The truth of the matter is when he comes in he comes all the way in He comes in with all of him And whatever is in there that's burn up burn up a bull will get burned up The question is are we willing to open our hearts in that way? The series is entitled living with a burning heart It may be it may be more like living with a house on fire, I don't know But I do know this that there is an invitation to our spiritual family To learn how to live with an open heart To learn how to live with a heart that's authentic that's real That's not just going through the motions or doing the christian thing But that literally says jesus I yeah, i've got a frustration issue i've got an anger problem or or jesus i've got a I've got an issue in this area or that area. I need you to come in What's amazing to me is he says if you'll open the door i'll come in he goes and i'll fellowship with you He goes I don't care what the food is that you're serving He goes i'll eat it I'll come right in and fellowship with you I mean if jesus was coming to your house tonight How many days would you work to prepare the meal I mean you do everything you can I mean how many courses I mean You know for for those of us that are, you know, culinarily challenged we'd be like employing somebody to like make a meal for jesus He goes, you know what i'm coming in and i'll eat whatever you put in front of me Because I just want you I don't want your best Presentation of you. I want the real you And i've come to believe this We've said it a long time many have said it that spiritual hunger Is the currency of the kingdom of god I'm beginning to believe That a vulnerable open heart is as much the currency of the kingdom of god as spiritual hunger Because he wants fellowship with his people He wants encounter He wants our hearts to be fully his amen Well, that's uh, that's the introduction Let's go ahead let's just stand right there