Heart Condition

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Proverbs 15:13-18.

            How’s your heart?

            I don’t mean the physical condition of your heart, although that’s obviously important.  What I mean is, is your heart cheerful?  Is your heart joyful?  Or is your heart heavy?  Is your heart sad?  You know, the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, used to ask people, “How is it with your soul today?”  He could just as well have asked, “How is it with your heart today?”

            We’d like it to be well with our soul, as the song we heard Lauren Daigle sing says.  We’d like our hearts to be happy, to be cheerful.  But often they’re not, are they?

            Now, no one can be happy all the time.  Much as we might like to be, it’s really not possible.  In life, there are things that happen to us.  We mess up.  People get mad at us, sometimes people we care a lot about.  We have serious setbacks--in our health, in our finances, in our relationships, in our work, all kinds of things.  I mean, even Jesus had times when he was down, so you and I have to expect it to happen sometimes, too.

            But even in those times, there’s an extent to which we can say it’s well with our soul.  There’s an extent to which we can still have a cheerful heart, a happy heart.  And our reading tonight, from the book of Proverbs, gives us some help in doing that.

            First, it tells us why this is something we should try to have.  It tells us that “a happy heart makes the face cheerful” and “the cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  And we all want that.  So how do we get it?

            It says, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.”  So there’s the first thing that will help us have a cheerful heart--knowledge.

            But knowledge of what?  I mean, they say that all knowledge is useful, and I suppose to an extent it is, but I know a lot about baseball, and I know a lot about ‘70s music, but I don’t know that it really helps me in life a whole lot.  It does make my heart happy, in some ways, but it’s a fleeting happiness.  That sort of knowledge is not the kind of thing that really gives us the long-lasting sort of cheerful heart the author of the Proverbs is writing about.

            What the discerning heart seeks knowledge of, really, is knowledge of God.  Not a full understanding of God, of course--human beings are not capable of that.  But knowledge of the greatness of God.  Knowledge of the goodness of God.  Knowledge of how much God loves us and cares about us.  Knowledge of the forgiveness and grace and mercy of God.  Knowledge of the chance for salvation and eternal life that is available through faith in God and in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            That kind of knowledge will make our hearts cheerful, no matter what the circumstances are.  How can we not have cheerful hearts, when we think about all that?  I’ve talked about this before, but it truly is an amazing thing to think about.  Think about who God is.  God is all-powerful.  God is almighty.  God is all-seeing.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-wise.  God is righteous.  God is holy.  God is perfect.

            Think about who we are compared to God.  Human beings are weak.  All of us are.  The president of the United States--regardless of who it is--is sometimes referred to as “the most powerful man on earth”.  God laughs at a statement like that.  The most powerful man on earth is nothing compared to God.  

            Think about the other things we are.  We have trouble seeing beyond next week.  We don’t know much of anything, really--if we did, a virus would not be causing the problems that it does.  The Bible tells us that God considers human wisdom to be foolishness.  And we human beings are certainly not righteous, or holy, or perfect.  Not even close.

            God is so far above and beyond anything we are or could ever hope to be.  There’s no comparison even to be made.  And yet, God loves us.  God loves us so much that God gives us the chance for salvation and eternal life.  God gives us the chance to go to heaven and with Him, to be in God’s presence even though that’s the last place we deserve to be.

            And God loves us so much that God does not even ask us to do anything hard to go to heaven.  We don’t have to live perfect lives or memorize the Bible or anything like that.  All we need to do is accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s it.  If we do that, God gives us salvation and eternal life in heaven.  That’s some incredible love.  Knowing that, how can we not have happy and cheerful hearts?  What greater thing could there ever be than that?

            That knowledge of the love of God, that assurance of salvation and eternal life, are all we really need.  They’re worth more than anything this world could ever offer us.  Listen to this:  “Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.”

            Now, I know that no one here is wealthy.  But we dream of it, don’t we?  That’s why things like the lottery are so popular.  When the Powerball gets way up there, almost everyone buys a ticket.  We have that dream of hitting it big, of having more money than we know what to do with.  And yet, if we did hit the lottery, would it really make us happy?  

Probably not.  We would still have problems.  Maybe not financial problems--and yet, we’d still have those, too, don’t you think?  We’d be worried about what to do with the money.  We’d have people coming to us all the time, wanting us to give them some or loan them some.  We’d be worried about how to invest it properly, so we did not lose it.  And even if we were trying really hard to do what’s right and handle it the way God wants us to, how do we do that?  There are so many worthy causes out there.  How do you choose?  The money would cause us all kinds of problems.  And of course, we’d still have all the other problems of life--health-wise, relationship-wise, all the other things that come with life.

Happiness--true happiness--can only come from inside ourselves.  And it can only come from inside ourselves if God’s Holy Spirit is inside us.  And that’s where the love comes from.  Listen to the next line:  “better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.”

We can only have happy, cheerful hearts through love--the love we receive from God, and the love we give to others.  Money will not do it for us.  A fancy house won’t do it for us.  Huge meals won’t do it for us.  Having fun and enjoying life won’t even do it for us.  Because, at the end of the day, and at the end of our lives, none of it means anything.  The only thing that really means anything, the only thing that will give us happy, cheerful hearts throughout all of our lives--is love.  

It’s really kind of sad, you know?  We see so many people looking in so many places for happiness.  They think, “If only I had this, then I’d be happy”  “If only that happened, then I’d be happy.”  If only I lived in this place, if I had these things, if I got this job, then I’d be happy.  They keep looking for happiness somewhere else.  And when they get somewhere else, they’re not happy.  And so they look in another place.  And another.  And another.  And they never find it.  Sometimes people search for their entire lives for happiness and never find it.  That’s really sad.

And what’s sadder still is that the happiness they’re looking for is right there in front of them.  It’s right there, and they cannot see it.  All they need to do is trust God.  All they need to do is accept Jesus as the Savior.  All they need to do is invite God’s Holy Spirit to come in.  The happy, cheerful heart they want is available to them.  In fact, God is eager to give it to them.  God wants nothing more than to give it to them.  But they cannot see it, and so they don’t take it.  It’s very sad.

But the good news is that it’s not too late.  As long as we’re on this earth, it’s never too late.  So if you don’t have a happy, cheerful heart, and you want one, now’s your chance.  Trust God.  Accept Jesus as the Savior.  Invite God’s Holy Spirit to come into your heart.  Let God’s Holy Spirit lead you and guide you.  Feel the incredible love God has for you.  Accept the incredible love God has for you.  And then, after you’ve accepted that love, share it with others.

“The cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  That continual feast is available to you.  Don’t wait until later.  Let’s dig into that feast now.  Tonight.