How does Jesus deal with prejudice? Mark 7:14-24

How does Jesus deal with prejudice_ Mark 7_14-24 Matt: [00:00:00] Okay, so Mark chapter seven, verses 14 to 24. I've called this the heart of the matter 'cause we're gonna carry on looking at this scripture that Martin, uh, started us on last week. And, um, it's sort of the second part of it. And, uh, as I was sort of prepping for this, I must have come up with about four or five different ways to go. Okay. Four or five different things to say as a result of this. Um, but genuinely it's mm-hmm. Sometimes the hardest thing when you are preparing a talk is figuring what to leave out. It just is because the word of God is amazing, right? And it's just got so much stuff in there that you can apply and learn. And, uh, I, I tend to get carried away, so I didn't wanna keep you here for like, you know, four hours as I've ramble on about the gospel of Mark. So we've got a few, few of those things out you'd be pleased to know. But any questions, any comments, do put them in the comments. I am seeing them. We will interact. Em, it just really blesses me that you guys, again into this. So. Uh, [00:01:00] do write those in there. And so I've called this the heart of the matter, and we're gonna talk about that and we're gonna talk a little bit about prejudice today. A bit of a heavy topic, but you know, the gospel doesn't shy away from these conversations at all. Uh, so we're gonna get into it, right? And so Jesus called the Crowd together again, saying, hear my words, all of you, and take them to heart. What truly contaminates a person is not what he puts into his body, but what comes out that that's what makes a person defiled. Now I'm reading from the passion translation. Uh, then, uh, when Jesus went back home and away from the Crowd, his disciples acknowledged that they didn't really understand the meaning of the bearable and asked him to explain it. Now, I want you to watch Jesus's response here when they said, we don't get that Jesus. Um. Please explain it a little bit more. And the reason they didn't get it was because they had been bought up and taught for so many years that actually there were certain things which did defile the human body, that when you [00:02:00] ate them, they did defile the human body. So this is contrary to a lot of stuff that they know, and I dunno about you, but when I've read this in the past, um, I've kind of read over it and gone, okay, it's a clean, um, food clean thing. Um, and not really thought about it. And it's an easy scripture to pass over, I think. But, uh. But it, it gets quite extraordinary and i's watched Jesus' response to this when he, when the disciples go, hang on a minute. Excuse me. Don't, don't get it. He says this, um, are you as dollars as the rest? Uh, do you, uh, don't you understand that you are not defiled by what you eat for the food you swallow? Doesn't enter your heart, but goes into your stomach only to pass into the sewer. That's pretty graphic, right? Um. This means all foods are clean, and he added words and deeds pollute a person, not food. Evil originates from inside. A person coming out of a human heart are evil schemes, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery. There's a word we don't use a lot. Deery, jealously, sla, [00:03:00] jealously, jealousy, slender arrogance, and recklessness. All these corrupt things emerge from within and constantly pollute a person. And I was like, whenever I've read the scripture, I've kind of skimmed over the first bit and then I've got to this list and gone. Okay. Uh, let's just do a double check. Sexual immorality. Okay, where am I at with that theft? Not really stolen anything. I'm good. Murder definitely not killed anybody. A adult treat? No. Good death. Uh, greed. Uh, wickedness not been all right with that. Treachery, dunno what it means. Debauchery definitely not done that. Jealousy. Mm. Possibly sometimes. Um, mate of mine pulled up outside my house yesterday in his McLaren. Lemme tell you, it was lovely to see his car. Would I like it? Would I not Dunno, I'm kind of cool. He's, he is cool. He is got one there. Uh, slander. Not really done that. Don't think arrogance. Maybe, uh, recklessness, well define recklessness can have a little bit more interpretation. And that's just kind of how I would've read that. Right? And I would've gone down that list and gone. Right. What [00:04:00] does, is there anything I just, you know, like a checklist that I just need to check my own sort of heart about. Um, but I wanna get first and foremost into this unclean clean foods thing because I do think it is easy to miss. Okay? Uh, and I wanna show you how this actually ties in with prejudice and it's important, okay? So I want you to think about, so I'll just pull up my notes here. Um, I want you to think about the group that Jesus is talking to. In this conversation. So they've gone away from the main Crowd and it's just Jesus and the disciples. Okay? So they're just sort of sitting and chatting away. Um, what have you put here? Glad you're okay in all these things, especially the lack of adultery. You and me both, bud. Let me tell you, my mother would kill me. Uh, but let's not go down that road anyway. Um, so let's think about the disciples and [00:05:00] when they're alone, they go. What did you mean? And Jesus is like, are you as dull as the rest? Let me pull that, uh, scripture up again. 'cause this is really fascinating. Are you as dull as the rest? You know, the message translation rights? Um, are you being willfully stupid in asking me this question? Right? I mean, wow. Are you being willfully stupid? In other words, come on guys, you need to get this right. You need to understand what it is I'm going on about. But they just weren't, the disciples weren't getting it. And I want you to. To think about who is one of the disciples, right? Um, so I'm gonna pick on Peter A. Little bit today. Um, we always pick on Peter, but I'm gonna pick on Peter A. Little bit and I'm sure he won't mind. Um, uh, me picking on a little bit because Peter, um, is one of this group, right? This had this sort of teaching from Jesus about clean and unclean foods. And this is important because Peter, um, actually discipled Mark, the guy that wrote this gospel. So you see a lot of Peter's teaching and influence in the gospel of [00:06:00] Mark, even though it's not. Written by Peter necessarily. A lot of people do call it the Gospel of Peter, right? Because of the closeness of Mark and Peter. And so, uh, Peter's kind of drawing your attention or has drawn Mark's attention to this, and it's in here for a reason. Okay? So the timeline is Jesus gives them this teaching. And then we're gonna fast forward to just after the resurrection, where, um, there's a story in the book of Acts to do with Peter. Okay? And in the book of Acts chapter 10, there's this chap called Cornelius, who's a Roman centurion, right? Um, and you know, from all accounts, pretty decent chap, God-fearing kind of guy. Um, and he's a Roman cent, but he's not Jewish, right? He's a Roman centurian and he's praying. And in while, while he is praying, he gets this vision of an angel. I mean, hello. That'd been pretty awesome. Right? And the angel says to him, you know what he needs to do? Go and find a chap called Peter. So [00:07:00] Cornelius sends some guys off to go and find this guy called Peter. Okay. Now, at the same time, Cornelius is, you know, having this conversation with an angel. Um, Peter is praying and having a conversation with God. He falls into what the Bible calls a trance. And, um, in this vision, this sort of trance, trance-like state, he sees this huge sheet. Sort of sheet, sort of descend from heaven. And on that, uh, sheet is um, like a whole bunch of, uh, wild animals, all of which the Jewish people classed as unclean. So a pig, for example, would've been on it. And so, um, this comes down with all these animals. And, uh, at the time, Peter's praying, he's hungry. And so in this vision, he's, God says to him, arise Peter, kill and eat. In other words, go and, you know, fill yourself, fill your belly. And Peter says, no, 'cause all these are unclean. I can't eat them. In other words, um. In this Prayer time, he has not [00:08:00] grasped what Jesus was referring to in this lesson. Right? So Jesus gives him this lesson about it doesn't matter what you eat or what you don't eat. And yet a few years later Peter's going, nah, I can't eat that. 'cause that's not clean. Right? So he is missed the point of that lesson, which if I take a little pause here, is beautiful news for me because, um. You know, it, it, I dunno about you. I don't always get it the first time round. I just don't, I just don't always get it at all. The first time round. It takes a little bit of time for God sometimes to get through to me and I feel like I'm in good company because, you know. Peter was like that. So he has this lesson, hangs around with Jesus, doesn't get it a few years later in this vision. It's like Jesus needs to sort of get through to him again to talk to him about this. Right. Um, and he sort of, he goes through this measure of Trent, this kind of really interesting measure of saying, and in this, at the end of this vision, and God says to Peter, he says, you know what? What I've called clean. You can't call unclean, right? You just can't do that. And so, uh, Peter then comes out from the tr and he's kind of going, oh, I [00:09:00] wonder what all this means. And then there's a knock at the door because he's trying to figure it out. And here comes this, the servants of Centura of, uh, Cornelius, the representatives to say, would you mind coming and having a chat with Cornelius? He sent us to come and get you? And so Peter is like, hang on a minute, this is a Roman centurian. Now he starts to understand, now he starts to, to sort of figure out what God is trying to say to him here, right? In that before Peter had had the trance, he wouldn't have gone to Sea Cornelius because the Jewish people would not have hung out with the Roman Torian. Okay? They just wouldn't have done that. Um, and in fact, Peter, I think when he goes to see, um. Cornelia, uh, Cornelius Centurion. He in fact says to him, uh, Cornelius, it is unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to another nation. In other words, Peter had a prejudice, right? And he had been brought up with it. It was part of his belief system that actually, you know, clean doesn't mix with unclean. And that was with people that was with [00:10:00] food, right? So I don't eat bacon and I don't mix with Romans. That's what I don't do because they're unclean and they're gonna pollute me, and I have some kind of. Um, I have some kind of prejudice against you because you are not clean, right? It just is what it is. Um, and it's like God needs to get through to Peter on this whole thing, right? To do with prejudice and go, no, no, no, no. Come on. You need to get your head around this. And so Peter goes, well, hang on a minute. Who am I to say no to you? If you are, you know, you're a God-fearing guy. And what happens is he goes to Cornelius's house, he says, you know that I can't mix with you, but he sees the Holy Spirit fall on Cornelius's family and the whole family, you know, give their life to Christ and become Christians. And so amazing things started to happen. And Peter, at the end of this says, um. What is it? Let me get my notes here. He says, uh, in truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. He is Lord of all. In other words, it's at this point, Peter finally [00:11:00] gets it and goes, you know what? It doesn't matter whether you're Jewish or not Jewish. He is Lord of all. In other words. That's awesome. There's no need for me to be prejudiced against you. I can eat whatever food that I want. That's cool. Um, and I don't have to be afraid or against people that eat foods that I wouldn't eat. I can hang out with them. I can be with them. I, I don't have to have this prejudice. Right. Um, and Peter would've, Peter would've grown up in a Jewish household where this prejudice would've been justifiable because it was actually written in God's law. That you, you shouldn't eat certain foods and you shouldn't mix with certain people. He was trying to be holy and by trying to be holy, uh, prejudice had come in. Which means even as Christians, I think we can suffer from this and we can look at people, um, in different ways that don't keep what we perceive to be God's laws. My classic example that I always have to check myself is, um, is if people go out and get drunk, and I know what scripture's about getting drunk. Um, but [00:12:00] if people are doing that, I kind of. There's a little thing inside me, a little alarm bell, but a little prejudice thing that goes off. And I'm like, just be careful, Matt, just because they don't think or believe and act like you just, just, just watch out. And so, um, and so Peter ends with this statement. In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. He is. Lord of all, but, and I wanna point this as a massive, but right, so timeline. Jesus has this conversation about, you know, clean food, clean and all that sort of stuff. And then we go forward a few years and Jesus, um, you know, talks to Peter through this trance-like thing. Okay. So just. Then Peter kind of gets it right. He kind of gets it, but he doesn't completely get it. So we then go to the third part of the timeline. Okay? Uh, which is where the Apostle Paul comes in. Oh yes, it's gonna get sticky now. And there's a story, uh, that Paul records in the book of Galatians, [00:13:00] and what happens is Paul observes Peter. He is in a room where Peter's at, and um, what he notices is, uh, is Peter is eating with the Gentiles. He's eating with the non-Jewish people and he's eating whatever food that they're eating, right? He's kind of, he's worked through this revelation from the Book of Acts. No problem until. His Jewish friends walk in the room and then what happened was. He would separate himself from the non-Jews and their food and he would go and segregate himself with the Jewish people and only eat what they were eating. Right? And um, Paul called this hypocrisy. I mean, he, you know, if you were gonna get rebuked by anybody, you do not wanna get rebuked by Paul. This man was just. Hang on. Right. And he just has a go at Peter and says, you cannot do this. And there's this wonderful verse, let me bring it up inside here. Um, where Paul says, I realize they were acting inconsistently with the revelation of grace. What an [00:14:00] amazing statement that is. Because basically Paul is saying here he was being prejudice and he was being hypocritical. So whilst he was saying that he wasn't be, wasn't prejudice against the non-Jewish people, he was acting in a way that was inconsistent with that, right? He was being a hypocrite. That's what hypocrite is. And so Paul calls him out about it and says, well, hang on a minute. This is inconsistent with the revelation of grace. You are treating people like second class citizens. Um, you think you're okay 'cause you had your, you know, your little sheet and pig dream, but actually your heart is still not right because you are acting in a way which is inconsistent with the revelation of grace. In other words, the revelation of grace says there is no prejudice, there is no divide. There is no difference between those that are Jewish and non-Jewish. There is no difference between gentle or Jew slave or free man or woman. There just isn't in the Bible. It gets rid of it. And that's a revelation of grace, right? Um, that. That it kind of tears down [00:15:00] all of these things. And I want, and this is important because at the time, this was the biggest division in the church. Okay? So everybody was becoming Christians all over the place. I mean, just amazing stuff going on. And the church was growing and the biggest thing they had to deal with was who was Jewish and who wasn't. In other words, Paul had steel. You see it in his writings all the time. You know, when, when he writes in the the, the New Testament, should I get circumcised? Should I not get circumcised? In other words, do I need to? Um, become a Jew. To become a Christian. And Paul deals with that. You know, he talks about that a lot, and he challenges Peter on his behavior. And Peter, uh, has to go through these sort of three phases. So he has Jesus, then he has, you know, the trance, and then he has the Apostle Paul. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then a few years after that, he is discipling Mark and the gospel of Mark gets written. Um, and, you know, he. He brings this story out to life, um, and just makes it really clear once and for all. Look right here. [00:16:00] All foods are clean. In other words, there's no reason for any division. It's getting rid of it all because that's what the gospel does, right? It tears down, prejudice, it tears down, division, it tears down racial divide. It tears down religious divides. Political, educational class, money status, male, female. It makes no difference, right? The gospel just tears it down and says. He is Lord of all. We are all one. He's the head, we are the body. And we're all different. And we've got all these different things going on, but we're all equal and we're all important. And we can't say to anybody, uh, we don't have any need of you because that would just be wrong, right? And that's consistent with the revelation of grace. We are all one. We are all equal. Whew. Hope you're getting this right. So what does that mean? Now let me show you this because. Uh, I love this card. I saw haw, uh, Shar Tipping. Do you remember Shar? She came to Frontline City and spoke with Dave and um, she showed this on her Instagram feed and I loved it. Um, Jesus loves you, but I'm [00:17:00] his favorite. It's just brilliant, isn't it? I just love it. It's great. Um, and I've told people this for years, right? That I'm God's favorite it, to be honest with you, for the longest time, um, I, it's not a penny more 'cause I just, I thought it was a bit bit of fun back then. What I did, uh, I guess about 10, 15 years ago when the web was kicking off, is I registered the domain name God's favorite.com. Right. And basically when you went to God's favorite.com, typed it in, you just saw a picture of me. That's all you saw, right? That was just, that was the whole webpage. It was just my photograph. Uh, so God's favorite.com and it just, it doesn't do that now, so don't try it. Right. Uh, but whenever you went to Google and you typed in God's favorite, that was just this picture of me. Right. And so I would argue all the time with like Dave Connolly about, you know, who's God's favorite? I'm God's favorite. No, I'm God's favorite. No, I'm God's favorite. And eventually I said to Dave, just go and ask Google who God's favorite is. Uh, 'cause Google knows everything. And he did. He went to Google. [00:18:00] And lo and behold, my picture came up and that just settled all the arguments in my head as far as I concern. And it is a bit of fun, isn't it? But um. I do have to watch out for it. Right? Because, um, whilst on one hand, you know, Peter said that there is no favoritism there, there isn't with God. He has no favorites. Um, or he doesn't show favoritism is a better way to put it. In other words, we're all his favorites. And so by saying I'm his favorite, I kind of think, you know, that that's just a mindset that I have that actually, um. I think God prizes me, right? I don't have an insecurity around that. Um, but I do have to be careful because what I'm not saying is that you are not his favorite. But I am, I'm not trying to put you down by saying this. Does that make sense? Um, because that, that would be totally wrong on every kind of level. That would be totally wrong. And I do have to watch out for it. I have to watch out for prejudice. I can't look down on anyone. Um. Even though I do right, I'm not more important. You, I'm not less important than you all, all equal [00:19:00] before God. Uh, whether you've got a degree or whether you don't have a degree. Whether you are, you know, regardless of your skin color, your political beliefs, whether you voted for Brexit or didn't. Um, and I think this is radical teaching. I think it's still radical teaching even today. Right. The world. Um, as things currently stand, I don't think tolerates people with different opinions, just my personal opinion, um, that doesn't really tolerate people with different ways of living despite the rhetoric. Um, and I think now more than ever, this revelation of grace is needed. If you look at what's happening, for example, in the US you see that there's a divide between the, we, what, what I would call the West coast urban, elite, um, and Trump supporters. And you've got these two groups sort of growing and growing and growing, and they're getting bigger and they're, they're. The, the rep, the sort of the anger and the bitterness flying across the camps is unbelievable. And the accusations, it just totally does my head in. Um, but the UK is not any better, right? Think about what happened with Brexit and the, even from Christians, the anger just flying [00:20:00] across and just some of the things people were saying just blow my mind. Um, and even in Liverpool, where we're coming from now. Uh, there are families in Liverpool that are divided and split because some of them support Liverpool Football Club and some of them support Everton. And so, you know, despite the rhetoric, I think division is massive and rife in the world. And I think one of the things that you'll notice is that if we, we try and force you to conform to our way of thinking. Um, and actually, if you don't think like we do, if you don't believe like we do, we're gonna make you out to be a bad guy and we're gonna call you intolerant. Um, and as such, uh, we don't want anything to do with you. We're gonna ostracize you and put you over there in a camp of bad guys. The irony is not lost on me. Um. The intolerance of the tolerance movement is extraordinary. It just blows my mind. Um, but, and that's not to criticize anyone because I don't think the church is immune from this. Let me tell you, if Peter can suffer from this, having hung around with [00:21:00] Jesus, for goodness knows how long, I mean personally, Do you know what I mean? When fishing with the fella, had the guy live in his house, if he can suffer from prejudice, I am definitely not immune from this. Right? So if we come back to, um. This statement here, uh, it says, evil originates from inside. A person coming out of a human heart are evil schemes, right? Um, I want you to notice this. Evil schemes, I think prejudice is just nothing but pure evil. Genuinely pure evil. Um, but it's a heart matter. And that's, that's what Peter discovered. It's actually a matter of his heart, right? Uh, and coming out of his heart, and I think. I think we just have to be aware of that. You know, scripture says, um, in one Samuel 16, seven, uh, that God, um, doesn't look on the outside man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart and God's always been interested in your heart. Jesus has always [00:22:00] been about heart transformation. Um. But men, we always look at the external appearance, right? Do they look good? Do they smell good? Do they sound good? Do they act good? Do they conform to how I think people should be? And I am always looking to that outward appearance rather than the heart of the person. Um, and so I think, you know, prejudice, racism, division, all of that, it comes from the heart. I think it's just something evil and it comes out of the heart of people. Uh, trying to make themselves better than somebody else for whatever reason. Um, but that's not the revelation of gray of grace at all. And to change that, we need a change of heart. Right. So let me ask you a question. Um, what's, what is your heart? I'm gonna define it, we're gonna talk about it in a minute, but, um, for me, the heart is the place where your desires and emotions begin, and it's what drives you towards action. In other words, your heart is where. Your behavior starts. And so we know that Peter still had prejudice in his heart because of the way he acted. Do you see what I mean? Um, you can't act, uh, [00:23:00] differently to what is in your heart. At least. You can't do that for any length of time. Um, you can try and act the right way. You can try and say the right things, but after a while, cracks are gonna show. Right? The classic one for me is diets. You just, you know, if your heart's not in it. Your diet's just gonna fail. Full stop diets. Don't start with a change of what you eat. They start with a change of your heart. They always have done fitness. Health always starts in the heart, never changes with, with, you know, uh, what you eat or how many minutes you do on a treadmill. Um. Proverbs, there's this wonderful scripture here which says, keep your heart with all vigilance or keep and guard your heart with all vigilance, uh, and above all that you God for out of it flow, the forces or springs of life, uh, the forces, the springs of life, the source of life. It comes from your heart, and we have to guard our heart of everything else. And the reason is simple, right? Because that's what governs our behavior. And if we get the slightest tint of prejudice or bitterness or [00:24:00] anger or unforgiveness, it takes root in our hearts and it turns kind of manifests in our behavior. Right? Um, in Hebrews chapter four. It says this, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and merit. It is the discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. So how do you keep your heart with all vigilance? For me, this comes down to what Paul called the revelation of God's grace. So what I would call the revelation of scripture, um, you know, you just have to get in and dig into God's word because it gets in your face and it challenges you. Um. On your heart and what is in your heart. Do you know what I mean? And I think it's, as Christians, one of the first things that gets attacked, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the first things that gets attacked I think is um, is our time in scripture. And it's, as Christians, one of the hardest things that we have is trying to [00:25:00] find time in scripture. And we even have to wrestle with the fact, well. Does the Bible really says what it say, what it says, or there's all this kind of attacks and stuff around scripture. Because if I get it, scripture, I get it. Your heart. And if I stop you reading the Bible, I can poison your heart. It's a remarkable sort of scheme. And um, and if you think about it, right, if you think about the examples that Jesus gives in these verses here. Where he talks about, you know, adultery and greed and stuff like that. He talks about murder. And I kind of jokingly said earlier on, I've not killed anybody. Not, don't worry, this is not confession. I still haven't killed anybody. Um, but we read that and go, okay, well I've not done that. That's cool. Uh, but then we read elsewhere in scripture where Jesus goes, well, hang on a minute. You've not killed anyone, but have you, have you been angry? Let's talk about that. Because anger's a heart thing, isn't it? It's a heart issue. Um, and anger grows and our behavior changes. Uh, and our behavior can get worse and worse and worse if we don't deal with anger. And eventually it could, in theory, [00:26:00] spill over to murder. Everybody that kills somebody or murder somebody, you look, you trace it all back. There'll be some. Anger and bitterness in their heart that just dictated their behavior and it changed over time. I mean, I'm not a psychologist and I could tightly be wrong, but that based on scripture, what I know. Um, so whilst I may not end up, you know, killing somebody, how often do I harbor anger or resentment towards someone in my heart? It's a big question, right? And this is where I think the word of God challenges and provokes us and gets us to examine our hearts. You just, it's so black and white. It is just brutal sometimes. And you have to, I think, be brutally honest with yourself and before. The word of God, because for me, that is what is keeping your heart with all vigilance. Just doing that. So let's get into today's questions. Question number one, what does heart mean to you? Write that in the comments, um, as we go along. Uh, what does heart mean to you? So when the Bible says, keep your heart with all vi uh, vigilance, when it says things like, um, you know, evil thoughts sort of come out of a man's heart, uh.[00:27:00] When I say that word, what does it mean to you? What do you understand by that? Write that and let's share those comments out. Um, Matt's put here, I feel prejudice sometimes due to my mental health conditions. And I get that Matt. I totally do. And uh, I hope it's never come from me, but if it has, I apologize. But I get that, that actually societies is not great. Dealing with people that struggle with mental health, then it is easy to judge. And be prejudiced towards them because, you know, we just, we just do. And if you come from a background like I come from, which is, you know, the stoic sort of backgrounds, the, you know, man up and get on with it, it's not very helpful or empathetic. So, um, so I totally agree with you. So what does heart mean to you? Question number two, as you're writing those out, do you think you have any prejudices. Which is not an easy word to say, let me tell you. Um, but I just want you to take some time. Has the Holy Spirit, just put something on your heart, uh, put his hand on you and just gone, you know what you want to think about this? This is an area of p, [00:28:00] this is an area of racism. This is an area of division. This is an area of superiority. Um, you know, what do you think, for example, about people that vote differently to you if you vote for Brexit? What do you think about people that voted against Brexit? Um, how do you think about people that, um, earn more money than you? How do you feel about people that earn less money than you? Um, is there any bitterness or anger or unforgiveness in there? Just take a few seconds just to think about that. And then question number three. What is the last revelation you had from God's word? And the reason I've had, I've put this question in is because, like I say, for me, keeping your heart is about spending time in God's Word. And um, what was the last sort of God shared with you from his word, if that makes sense. Um, I guess I'm a little bit, uh. I, if I was to answer this [00:29:00] question, I would say this, this talk just 'cause this is what I've been doing all day. But, you know, had I not been able to say that, what would, what would the answer to that question be? Is it, so, is it something from yesterday? Is it something from this morning? Is it something from last week? Is it something from last month? When did you actually last get into God's word and God's word just came out and just. Bang all over you and you're like, wow, that's amazing. Or Wow, that's painful. Um, Do you know what I mean? That's one of the responses, isn't it? To God's word is often ouch. Uh, sometimes it's like, that's totally cool. Love that. Have more of that. And so, um, what do you think, uh, the answers to those three questions or what does heart mean to you? Do you think you have any prejudice? And what's the last revelation you had from God's word? Um, just to see, you know, do you find it easy to spend time in God's word? Do you find it's difficult to be in God's word? Do you find, um, that actually it, you can get distracted quickly or spending time in God's word can easily be forgotten when life gets busy or stressful. Um, [00:30:00] and it's not necessarily talking about quiet times in the morning or anything like that, it's just. Listening to God's word, you know, or reading God's word. Um, I like to, you know, you, you, some people like to sit and read scripture. Some people like to read books. Some people like to listen to podcasts. I think you just have to do all of them. Do you know what I mean? Um, what did you put here? Matt's put here less revelation thing. Don't be so hard on yourself. Hold on to hope in Jesus. Amen. That's good. That meant don't be so hard on yourself. Hold on to hope in Jesus. That's a great thing to put. You know, I remember, um, here's a little aside here. One of the first things I've, one of the first real revelations I got from scripture when I was early on in my Christian walk. Um, was this idea, um, I just, it was just a simple mathematic revelation and 'cause my brain is mathematically sort of geared and what it was, I came across this, the verses that [00:31:00] said, um, you know, uh, these are my commands. I want you to love other people and I want you to love God, right? Love God, and love other people. And, um, I want you to love other people as I have loved you. And, um. Then elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus says, I want you to love other people as you love yourself. And I kind of thought about those two statements. The, and I'm, how you know, loving other people was a consistency. One said, love other people as God loves you. The other one says, love other people as you love yourself. And it didn't take long from my mathematical to brain to go well, the consistency there is living other people. Therefore, um, I should love myself as God loves me. And that was just my little mini revelation from those two things. And actually, um, scripture says not to think more highly of yourself than you ought, but you ought to think highly of yourself. Do you know what I mean? It's just that doesn't mean to think of yourself as as low. That just means don't be prejudiced. Don't, don't be [00:32:00] prejudiced. Don't think you're better than anybody else. You're not, but you are so important. Um, and so don't be hard on yourself. 'cause you know, you need to learn to love yourself with the same love that Christ has for you. It's an extraordinary command. I feel a Whitney Houston song coming on. Anyway, uh, well done, met Abby. What have you put here? To me, the idea of heart involves emotions, feelings, thoughts and desires. Yeah, it's very good. I think it's, it's who you are, isn't it? As a person, it's the very core, smack the microphone. Uh, it's the very core of who you are as a person. Um, and I think that's very true, Abby. I think that's great. Um, it's the, I, it's, it's everything, emotions, feelings, thoughts, desires, everything that drives your behavior. And who you are as a person. Um, and just put here, same here, which is cool. Great. Wonderful. So, uh, how are we getting on? So let me look at the time, it's time to go to Zoom. I think so, uh, let me just say to you [00:33:00] that, um, next week, uh, we will be on here as normal. Sharon is at Sharon, my beautiful wife is teaching next week. You know, yay for Sharon. Woo. Woo. High five. So I do pray for her this week. I'm looking forward to that. Um, so Sharon's doing the talk next week, uh, and, uh, it's gonna be great. Uh, she's wanted to do this talk for a little while, so I'm really looking forward to hearing it. No pressure, babe. But it's gonna be good, isn't it? Oh yes. Gonna be amazing. Looking forward to it. So Sharon's gonna be here next week. Uh, chatting with us. Um, oh, let's put what Abby's got here. So the last revelation I had from God's world was to grow in through the day. It is God that is in charge and in control of growth in my life. My job is to take it one day at a time, making the most of each day, learning and growing closer to God day by day. Absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you Abby, for sharing that. Beautiful. I like that. Grow in and through the day. [00:34:00] Yeah. Let God deal with the bigger plans, make the most of each day. Learning and growing close to God day by day. It's cool. Well done. Loving it. Loving it. I love it when you guys share stuff from scripture. So cool. Uh, we need to find a way of doing this. Where you guys talk more. Uh, but that's what Zoom's all about, right? So we're gonna see you in there. So like I say, next week, uh, Sharon is gonna be, uh, speaking, uh, which is fantastic. Look into that. And, um, there's, I think that's all the notes, notes from today. So we're gonna go into Zoom. I put the link in the, uh, Facebook comments section, so hopefully that's working. Um, let me, uh, just. Go into Zoom and start that meeting and just double check and then I will see you in there. If you're not coming to us onto the Zoom call then, uh, bless you. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining on the broadcast. [00:35:00] If you are watching this and you are watching the recording. Um, which I know a lot of people do, so we get a bunch of people on the live, which is great. Uh, but I know we get a lot of people watching the recording throughout the week, which has always blown my mind. Um, and it's great to see you. It's great to have you. Uh, thanks for coming along. I hope you've got something out of us. Do join us when we're live, come and throwing you questions and you comments. Um, it'd be great to see you. If you, uh, don't know. We're running an alpha on Friday night, seven 30 UK time. Which you are more than welcome to join us on the Alpha is just exploring Christianity, um, and, you know, life meaning and faith and all of those kind of questions in a real easy, chilled out way, which is just lovely. I really, really enjoy Alpha. It's about an hour on a Friday night, so do come and join us for that.