Master 246: My Heart, Christ's Home
This last Sunday, I was able to co-preach with the Associate Pastor at my church. Actually, what we did is deliver a sermon written by Robert Boyd Munger, entitled "My Heart, Christ's Home." It's a very well-known sermon, has been published in pamphlet form, and is probably easily accessible online. In that message, illustrates the process of sanctification by describing the human heart as a home, full of rooms. He traces the Jesus Christ's movement through His own heart and some of the challenges that He faced.
The sermon is excellent and I would highly recommend it. After we spoke, two people came up to me and asked for copies of the message to review and to share with family.
Below are a few remarks that I made after we read through Munger's text. A lot more could be said but this is just intended to help prompt further reflection.
--
Munger says, "He took my life that day and I can give you my word, there is no better way to live the Christian life." I think the claim should be even stronger: there is no better way to live life period. That's what Jesus offers to us--what He offers to you. He says, if you'll let me, I'll come into your heart--into your life--, take up residence there, and I'll change and transform every part of it, to make it new and good, clean and whole.
Through Robert Munger's imaginative depiction, we are reminded that this sort of change and transformation does involve a process. Our lives consist of many different parts; our hearts contain many different rooms. Some of these rooms are easily accessible, right on the surface. Others are hidden very deep inside and take time to uncover and reach. But Jesus Christ wants to move into them all. He wants to change and transform them all for good. The question for you, this morning: Will you allow Him to do that? Will you invite Him in?
Some of you, perhaps, have never invited Jesus to take up residence in your heart. You've never said to Him what Munger said at the beginning of his message: "Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want to have you settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to you. Let me show you around and introduce you to the various features of the home that you may be more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together." That is the first step: inviting Him into the home of your heart; and then surrendering the lordship and control of each area of your life to Him and His will.
Some of you may have taken that first step. Jesus has entered into your heart and worked some changes in your life. But there are still rooms in your heart that you're trying to keep Him out of. Some of you have been Christian for years, and yet you know that Jesus Christ is not completely at home in your heart. And, if you were honest, you'd admit that you're not completely at home with Him either. Maybe you sense that Jesus has moved his bed out onto the back porch of your life and, as a result, the truths and promises of His Word don't seem to be working out for you.
Some of you have a growing and vibrant relationship with Jesus. You have made Him Lord of your life and you are, daily, surrendering more and more of yourself to God and experiencing how good that is. And perhaps, this morning, you sense God's Holy Spirit drawing your attention to yet another area of your life, asking you to let Him in to change and transform it.
We're all at different places in our lives and walks with God, but the basic question is the same for everyone: Will you invite Jesus in? Will you submit each room of your heart to His will and lordship? Will you allow Him to change and transform you for good? Remember, He will only come in if you allow Him to.
--
If you fill your mind with the things of the world, you're going to think just like the world thinks. Now you need to stop for a moment and consider what that's like. If you're constantly desiring and chasing after the things of this world--what the world considers to be valuable and worthwhile--you're never going to be satisfied. Isn't that what you've found? If you neglect that time of quiet fellowship with God around His Word and prayer, you're just asking for the pressure of responsibilities and the weight of people's expectations to grind you into the ground. If you don't come alongside of the work that God is already doing, the most that you can hope to accomplish will be limited to what you can pull off on your own, by yourself. If your hobbies and relationships are drawing you away from God, then your relationship with Him will inevitably suffer, along with your experience of the joy and love and peace and contentment that come from Him. If you stray from God's intention for your sexuality, you're going to miss out on what is best for you and for your relationships. If you refuse to let God into that closet of your darkest secrets, hidden sins, and deepest hurts, then you will never experience the full depth of God's love for you, the full extent of His power to redeem, the great relief that comes from knowing that you are completely forgiven, and the real, deep, and abiding assurance that there is nothing in all creation that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus wants to give you life. He wants to change you in such a way that you'll look back on your life before or your life even a couple years ago and you'll say, "I thought I was living then. But everything that I had then is death in comparison to the life that I have now."
--
The conceit of Munger's sermon comes from a line from Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith". (NASB) Here's a bit more of the context. And notice what Paul expects to be the result of Christ's dwelling in the believer's heart.
"For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Paul then closes this section of His letter with this wonderful benediction.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
The sermon is excellent and I would highly recommend it. After we spoke, two people came up to me and asked for copies of the message to review and to share with family.
Below are a few remarks that I made after we read through Munger's text. A lot more could be said but this is just intended to help prompt further reflection.
--
Munger says, "He took my life that day and I can give you my word, there is no better way to live the Christian life." I think the claim should be even stronger: there is no better way to live life period. That's what Jesus offers to us--what He offers to you. He says, if you'll let me, I'll come into your heart--into your life--, take up residence there, and I'll change and transform every part of it, to make it new and good, clean and whole.
Through Robert Munger's imaginative depiction, we are reminded that this sort of change and transformation does involve a process. Our lives consist of many different parts; our hearts contain many different rooms. Some of these rooms are easily accessible, right on the surface. Others are hidden very deep inside and take time to uncover and reach. But Jesus Christ wants to move into them all. He wants to change and transform them all for good. The question for you, this morning: Will you allow Him to do that? Will you invite Him in?
Some of you, perhaps, have never invited Jesus to take up residence in your heart. You've never said to Him what Munger said at the beginning of his message: "Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want to have you settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to you. Let me show you around and introduce you to the various features of the home that you may be more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together." That is the first step: inviting Him into the home of your heart; and then surrendering the lordship and control of each area of your life to Him and His will.
Some of you may have taken that first step. Jesus has entered into your heart and worked some changes in your life. But there are still rooms in your heart that you're trying to keep Him out of. Some of you have been Christian for years, and yet you know that Jesus Christ is not completely at home in your heart. And, if you were honest, you'd admit that you're not completely at home with Him either. Maybe you sense that Jesus has moved his bed out onto the back porch of your life and, as a result, the truths and promises of His Word don't seem to be working out for you.
Some of you have a growing and vibrant relationship with Jesus. You have made Him Lord of your life and you are, daily, surrendering more and more of yourself to God and experiencing how good that is. And perhaps, this morning, you sense God's Holy Spirit drawing your attention to yet another area of your life, asking you to let Him in to change and transform it.
We're all at different places in our lives and walks with God, but the basic question is the same for everyone: Will you invite Jesus in? Will you submit each room of your heart to His will and lordship? Will you allow Him to change and transform you for good? Remember, He will only come in if you allow Him to.
--
If you fill your mind with the things of the world, you're going to think just like the world thinks. Now you need to stop for a moment and consider what that's like. If you're constantly desiring and chasing after the things of this world--what the world considers to be valuable and worthwhile--you're never going to be satisfied. Isn't that what you've found? If you neglect that time of quiet fellowship with God around His Word and prayer, you're just asking for the pressure of responsibilities and the weight of people's expectations to grind you into the ground. If you don't come alongside of the work that God is already doing, the most that you can hope to accomplish will be limited to what you can pull off on your own, by yourself. If your hobbies and relationships are drawing you away from God, then your relationship with Him will inevitably suffer, along with your experience of the joy and love and peace and contentment that come from Him. If you stray from God's intention for your sexuality, you're going to miss out on what is best for you and for your relationships. If you refuse to let God into that closet of your darkest secrets, hidden sins, and deepest hurts, then you will never experience the full depth of God's love for you, the full extent of His power to redeem, the great relief that comes from knowing that you are completely forgiven, and the real, deep, and abiding assurance that there is nothing in all creation that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus wants to give you life. He wants to change you in such a way that you'll look back on your life before or your life even a couple years ago and you'll say, "I thought I was living then. But everything that I had then is death in comparison to the life that I have now."
--
The conceit of Munger's sermon comes from a line from Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith". (NASB) Here's a bit more of the context. And notice what Paul expects to be the result of Christ's dwelling in the believer's heart.
"For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Paul then closes this section of His letter with this wonderful benediction.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 8:39 AM
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