Enlarging Our Hearts - Part 6 — Zac Poonen

Cleansing the Heart to Honor God

Move to the place where, Lord, it dishonors you. If I lust with mice, it dishonors you. If I speak evil of others, it dishonors you. If I'm jealous of someone. So how shall I speak about an enlarged heart?

Supposing I say, let's have an enlarged heart, brothers, because that glorifies God. I don't think it will move anybody here. But if I say, if you have an enlarged heart, God can use you mightily. I better work on that now.

Start there, there's nothing wrong in that. You know, the Bible says, if a man cleanses himself from these things, 2 Timothy 2, verse 22 onwards. If a man cleanses himself, he can be a vessel useful for the master.

Oh, then I better cleanse myself. I want God to use me. It's second best. The best is if you can say, Lord, I want to cleanse myself because it dishonors you. It'll honor you more, never mind whether God uses me or not.

Christlike Purity and Jealousy Toward Others

That's how Jesus lived. Jesus didn't keep his heart pure because he wanted the Father to use him. No. You know what it means to be like Christ? So these preachers, they were so jealous that they got a little delight in their heart when they heard that Job was sick.

And how do you react when you find some brother whom you don't love so much? Brother in your church, maybe a very godly brother, but you hear that something went wrong there in his family or his life.

And you find a secret little delight, even though you've been in the church 25 years. It's not changed, this attitude. They're still in the kindergarten. And so what do you do? You go to his house, visit him, because you heard he's sick.

Brother, we are so sorry to hear that you are sick. All this expression of apparent sorrow, that's exactly what these actors did. They were as good at acting as we are. They went to Job and they threw sand on their heads.

We don't do that now because it's not our culture. But they tore their robes and did all types of things like that. And to show that they were sorry, and then God exposed them. Maybe they prayed for him, Lord, please heal Job.

They didn't really mean it. And then they told him, their real heart came out. And I'll tell you this, if God loves you, he will expose what is in your heart in some situation. It'll come out of your mouth.

And if you have eyes to see, you will see for yourself. Think back, my brothers and sisters, in past years, haven't you spoken evil and criticized people who are 10 ,000 times more spiritual than you are?

People whom God has used 10 ,000 times more than you. Why did you do it? You don't speak of the evil of the non-Christians like that, but it is a person, maybe in your church, whom you were jealous of.

Enlarged Hearts Through Christian Fellowship

You didn't like. And that's why after 25, 30 years, your heart is so narrow, you have tunnel vision. Well, we can only hear the word. It's up to us to decide whether we want to respond to it or not. Paul said to the Corinthians, enlarge your hearts, my dear brothers.

Our heart is enlarged towards you. And I would say that to all of you. God is not able, no matter how many times we pray, for example, that place where it says, when you ask the elders to come and pray for you when you're sick, confess your sins.

Because sin is very often the cause of many, many sicknesses. Confess it so that you can get this problem out of the way. I want to say the same thing to you. There's something God wants to do through you, make you a blessing to many, many people.

The Blessing of Abraham Through Believing Faith

I believe that. You read Galatians 3 .14, that the blessing of Abraham is meant to come for us. And God's blessing to Abraham was, I will bless all the families on the earth through you. But you've got to believe it.

You've got to enlarge your heart and say, Lord, I believe that. I believe you want to take a worthless person like me, like this idol-worshipping Abraham and pull him out and say, I'm going to make you a blessing to the whole earth.

And Galatians 3 .14 says that's for you. And if your heart responds to that and say, Lord, do that for me. Make me a blessing to every family that I meet on the face of the earth from today onwards, well, you'll have to have a large heart for that.

You can't allow a trickle of water to come through you and expect to be a blessing. It's got to be like rivers. And for that, you've got to have a large heart. Get rid of these attitudes of jealousy, criticism, love for all the saints.

Love as the Greatest Christian Virtue

I was reading a song the other day. It really challenged me. It's a song by this wonderful songwriter called Frederick Faber. My God, how wonderful thou art, thy majesty, how bright, how beautiful thy mercy seat in depths of burning light.

This amazing song that man wrote. He wrote another song. I worship thee, sweet will of God, and all thy ways adore. And every day I live, I seem to love thee more and more. And just for your information, he was a Roman Catholic.

I still love his songs. I don't agree with his theology, but the man was a godly man. On this other song, the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind, but we make his love too narrow, written by the same man.

And he's written another song, which says, you know that 1 Corinthians 13 says, there remains faith, hope, and love, and? Love is the? Greatest, okay. Faith, hope, love, love is the greatest. And he says in this song, if faith can move mountains, imagine what love can do.

I said, boy, that's a new thought. Faith can move mountains, what can love do? Do you find a mountain between you and somebody else? Maybe somebody whom you had a fight with or who had a fight with you.

Somebody you've got something against, some relative, some neighbor. And you're trying to move that mountain with faith. Try love. Try it. Try it actively in the days to come. If faith can move mountains, think what love can do.

Love is greater. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to respond to what you are seeking to say to us in these days. We humbly ask in Jesus' name, amen.