It’s Time to Worship With a Right Heart
It's Time

Transcript

The title of today's sermon is, “It's Time to Worship with a Right Heart.” God really cares about your heart. Here's our theme. It comes from Haggai, chapter one and two.

Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord… Yet now be strong… Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord… My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” That's been our theme.

It's time to be strong, do the work and to be fearless. Last week in our sermon we said, ‘Okay, that's our part, but that still doesn't determine the results. Who's in charge of the results?’ We're going to be strong, do the work and be fearless.

God's in charge of the results. That's what we talked about last week. But now this week in Haggai, God starts saying, ‘Before you keep working, before you move any further, I want you to take a time out and examine your hearts. I want you to back up a little bit before you make this commitment and check if your heart is right, because if your heart's not right, your worship won't be right.

God cares more about your attitude than He does the amount. He cares more about your motive than He does your money. He cares more about the attitude of your heart than He does the amount of your gift. So, as you're thinking about your time, your talent, your treasure and how you want to serve God with it and you want to worship God with it, know this: man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

God wants right hearted worship. That's what we're talking about today in the book of Haggai. That's what we're talking about. Now, what are some wrong hearted ways we might worship? What are some wrong hearted ways?

Let me give you some examples. What are some wrong hearted ways that we could worship in serving or in giving? Here's one: Giving to impress others. That's wrong hearted worship.

Giving to impress others. Giving out of the idea that I'm going to make this donation for public recognition because I want to look good. I want the applause of men. That's wrong hearted worship.

Here's another one:. Serving or worshiping out of guilt. Well, the pastor just finally guilted me into it or such and such just made me feel bad. Everybody else is on board if I don't get on board. Your motive is not joy, it's not generosity, it's guilt.

You're giving out of guilt rather than love and gratitude. Here's another wrong hearted way: you could give with an expectation of return, giving with expectation. I'm giving so I can get; I'm giving to get. Like God is some kind of heavenly slot machine or something. If I put a gift in, maybe something will come out. I'll win a jackpot from God. That's wrong hearted worship; half hearted worship rather than wholehearted worship.

That's lukewarm worship, selective obedience. I serve over here so I don't have to give. Or the opposite, I'm a big giver so now I don't have to do anything. That's selective obedience and that's half hearted worship too. We're called to give all that we are, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, which is our spiritual worship acceptable unto God. How are you doing today?

Is your heart right with God? That's what we're talking about today. In Haggai, chapter 2, verses 10 through 17, God told the prophet Haggai to help the Israelites understand that what really matters to God is that they worship Him with a right heart and I believe today we can understand that God cares.

It matters to Him that we worship Him with a right heart. As we look at the text, we'll see three reasons why. Let's look at it. We'll read it and then we'll talk about it. Haggai 2:10-17 (ESV) 10 “On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet,

11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?”

The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 15 Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten.

When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.” This is God's word. We're looking for three reasons why worshiping with a right heart matters to God. Here's the first reason:

1. Because true worship comes from a clean heart.

True worship comes from a clean heart. Now, these early verses have an Old Testament law kind of question for the priest. It's kind of confusing upon first reading, but I would just have you take note of a couple of things. God asks three questions through the prophet Haggai to the people here.

Three questions. Whenever God starts asking questions, He's trying to get at your heart. Questions are really a tool to try to get at the heart of the issue. So, in this passage, God makes some declarations, but He preempts them with questions in order to get them to engage their heart. Instead of just coming out and saying, boom, boom, boom, He gives you some examples to think about by asking these questions.

You'll notice that the word “unclean” is in this passage four times. He has a concern about hard issues here. He's not concerned so much now about their offering and their work. He's more concerned about the condition of their heart. He wants them to have a clean heart, then their worship will be clean.

He wants them to have a right heart, and then their worship will be right. Well, let's deal with some preliminary issues and then we'll dig in deeper. Verse 10, as I've said before, Haggai is a really good diary keeper. He puts the date when he hears a word from the Lord, he enters a date and he now gives us the date.

The 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of King Darius. Now, king Darius is in his second year as the king over Persia. Jerusalem and Judah are now under Persian rule, so, he's dating it by the Persian calendar in terms of the year, the second year of king Darius. They didn't have the Gregorian calendar that we have today that's based on the life of Jesus, that it's now 2025 AD which is numbered Anno Domini, the year of our Lord.

So that's how we keep an annual calendar. Now, in those days, whoever your king was, that was the year of how long he'd been king. So it's in the second year of king Darius. Then, they used the Hebrew calendar for the month, the 24th day of the ninth month, which in the Hebrew calendar, that's the month of Kislev, which would, in terms of the Gregorian calendar be like November or December, thereabouts.

Okay. This is about two months after the previous diary entry that he had made in chapter two. Those are some preliminary issues, just moving through the text here.He says it was on that day, the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, that the word of the Lord came to him.

I love that. ‘I remember the day that that happened,’ he says. The Lord spoke to me and He had me bring some priests in and ask them some legal questions from the Torah, from the law, from the books of Moses. You priests, you're supposed to be experts at this stuff, so I have some questions for you.

So, he begins to ask them these questions. The word for priest, in Hebrew, is kōhēn. If you know somebody whose last name is Cohen, they're probably Jewish. Their last name means priest. They may even follow their family history all the way back to the Levitical priesthood. kōhēn is the priestly word here in Hebrew.

Go to the kōhēn and ask this question. He has a very particular question. Let's see if I've got something I can use. Here we go.
In verse 12, ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” If you have a piece of meat that's holy because it's been on the altar and you put it in the fold of your garment and then the fold of your garment later touches this, is this holy?

The priests said, “no.” So, if this holy piece of meat touches your garment, your garment is holy. But if the fold of it touches something else, it doesn't transmit. It doesn't transfer, because holiness must come in order for you to become holy.

We learned this from the Levitical law: you have to come into primary contact with the holy. So that was the nature of the first legal question to the priests who were to be the teachers in Israel. But then, the follow up question was in verse 13, Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” Okay, this is holy because it had something holy in it and it touches up against a dead body, will it become unholy? And they said, “It does become unclean.”

So here's the thing about unholiness or defilement. It's catching. Holiness is not catching. In order to become holy, you have to come into contact with that which is holy. You have to have primary contact.

But unholiness, uncleanness is catching. It's viral. And so, if this touches that, and that touches this, and this touches that, every bit of it's unclean according to Levitical law. Now, why is he asking these questions?

That's his first two questions. Here we are in the book of Haggai, and Haggai's got this really legal thing. But then, God “lands the plane” in verse 14, Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.” Because you have unclean hearts.

He says to his people. He says, ‘Okay, you've gone back to work on the temple. That's a good thing. But the thing I want you to know is every stone you lay has been touched with unclean hands.

Every work that you've done and every offering you've brought has come out of an unclean heart. Therefore, your worship is unacceptable, because I care more about the attitude of your heart than I do the amount of your labor or the amount of your gift. I care more about that. I care more about the motive than the money.

I care more about your heart.’ Let me give you a couple of verses to help you work this out. The idea of holiness, of how it can be transferred from the primary holy thing to a secondary thing, Exodus 29:21 (ESV) “Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons' garments with him.

He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons' garments with him.” So, we can see that when they come into contact with that which is holy, now, their robes are holy. You might be thinking, What does that mean, holy? Just think of it like this:

”Set apart for special use” if you're taking notes. What's one of the best definitions when the Bible's using the word, “holy?” Think of it like this,

“Set apart for special use.” Whose special use? God's. So, when He calls us to be holy, he says, ‘I want your heart to be set apart for me. I want your life, I want all that you are to be set apart for the special use of your Father.

Your life has been set apart for Me.’ That's what holiness really means. We think of it as purity, sinless. Well, we can't do that, can we?

But God can cleanse us of sin, but primarily the sense of it is “set apart for special use.” So now, Aaron, your clothes and your son's garments you can’t wear them out in the marketplace. You only wear them in the temple because they've been made holy.

Do you understand the word, “holy,” a little bit? “Set apart for special use.” Then, he says in Exodus 30:29 (ESV) “You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.” So, he's talking about how something holy can transfer something and transfer that holiness, but there is no secondary holiness.

It must come into the primary touch of the Holy One. This is what he's teaching, but the point of it is in verse 14. 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.” David rightly understood this; King David.

writes about it in Psalm 51. David wrote Psalm 51 after he'd been confronted by the prophet Nathan with his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite.

If you really studied those chapters about his adultery with Bathsheba, you could find that David broke seven or eight of the Ten Commandments in one chapter.

David wrote Psalm 51 after Nathan confronted him. Because when Nathan confronted him, he said, “I have sinned,” and he wrote this. He recognized something. In Psalm 51:10 (ESV) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

I know I'm dirty on the inside.

The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. He wasn't talking about whether he was sinful or not, because he was sinful. But David was the kind of man that understood he had a heart problem and so he said, ‘God, clean my heart.

Only you can clean my heart. I can't clean it. My heart is filthy. Clean my heart and make me right with You.’ When Jesus encountered the Pharisees, who were known for their outward religiosity and because they had read in the

law that they were to have it on their hands and upon their foreheads, they took it literally. They made these little leather boxes that had little miniature Torahs in them. They would strap them on their hands, on their wrists and they would have the strap around their arm. Then they would tie it on their head. They wanted everybody to know, we are under the law and we're taking it literally. They were very religious about a lot of things

outwardly. Here's what Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:25-27 (ESV) 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

Only God can clean the heart. He was trying to wake them up; He hit them hard there. He's trying to wake them up. If you went to a restaurant and the waiter brought out a tray of all of your drinks and passed all the drinks around, they looked really good on the outside. But as you picked yours up and you got ready to take a drink, there was a fly floating in your cup.

Would you go, gulp, gulp, gulp. It's protein. No, you ask the waiter to come back. Oh, I'm so sorry, sir.

It wouldn't matter how clean the outside of the cup was if there was a fly floating in your glass, right? Here's what God is saying to the people of Israel, and perhaps he's saying to us today, ‘Your worship means nothing to me if your heart's dirty. Come to me and pray like David did.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.’ God rebuked the people of Israel. They were rebuilding the temple, but their works and offerings were defiled because of their unclean hearts. Don't assume that church attendance, giving to the church, making a commitment or coming and taking the Lord's supper, any of these outward things can cleanse your heart, because they can't.

All of these things are good things if they come from a clean heart. But if they come from an unclean heart, they are defiled, meaningless and without value. Only God can clean the heart. You must come into contact with the Holy One in order to have a clean heart.

Parents, you can't make your children holy. It's a humbling thing being a parent. You can pray for them, you can teach them, but only Jesus can change their heart, Amen? You can't do it for somebody else.

Only you can come to Jesus and say, “Touch my heart, cleanse my heart and create in me a clean heart.” Here's the second reason. The first reason is because he wants us to have a clean heart. Here's the second:

2. Because true worship comes from a confessing heart.

True worship comes from a confessing heart. We're going to look at verses 15 and 16 now. 15 “Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.” Now then consider, from this day onward, okay, because of what I'm asking you right now and now what I'm teaching you. I want you, from this day forward, to think differently. I want you to have a considering heart, a quick to confess heart.

15 “Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare?” That's his third question. Remember what I told you about God asking questions? When he's asking questions, he's always trying to get at hard issues.

How did you fare? Then, he brings up some things that have happened. We talked about it in chapter one. He brings up some things. When you came to a heap, kind of like a heap of grain or whatever and you tried to bring out 20 measures and you tried to get home with it and there were only 10.

Remember when that happened? When you tried to get some wine out of the vat and you were trying to get 50 measures and you got home with it and there were only 20, do you remember that happened? Did you ever consider why that was happening? That's what He's asking. Have you ever thought about that?

Did you ever consider, were you ever humble enough to ask the Lord, “Lord, what's going on right now?” You might be going, I don't know if that speaks to me or not. Well, let me ask you this, “Do you remember when eggs started being seven or eight dollars for a dozen?”

Do you remember when that happened? Think about that. Do you remember when a dollar started being worth 50 cents? Actually, I think a dollar, since the 1960s, is now worth 25 cents. I think that's what I read.

Did you know they're eliminating the penny? By the way, it takes three and a half cents for the US Mint to produce a penny. So, every penny costs three and a half cents to make. And so they're looking at eliminating the penny.

There is going to be a run on pennies. Right now, people are going to be saving pennies, but you won't be able to spend them. Times are changing. Do you ever ask, “What's going on, Lord? Lord, have we sinned?

Have we sinned as Americans? Have we sinned as a nation? Have we sinned as a church? Have we sinned as a people? Have we sinned as a family? Lord, wait a minute,

have I sinned.” See, that's a confessing heart that's willing to call a sin a sin. That's really what confession means. The word, “confession,” in the Bible means “to say the same word” or “to say the same thing” or “to agree with God.” So, God calls it a sin.

Don't call it a mistake. God calls it a sin. Don't call it a bad habit, call it a sin. What is a sin? It's an offense to God.

It's an offense to His Holiness. I hadn't hurt anybody. You've offended God, and He made you. By the way, you're lying to yourself because you live in a community, you live in a family. When you sin, that sin always breaks out and hurts other people.

It always does. It might start out secret, but it always breaks out and it hurts everybody around you. A confessing heart says, “I agree with you, God. I'm a sinner.

Save me.

Save me from this wretched heart. I confess.” That’s a humble heart. This is why David writes in Psalm 66:18 (NLT) “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” It's not that God chooses to close his ears to certain prayers. It's that He just can't deal with fake prayers, hypocritical prayers.

When you're talking to Him, God, I want this. I need this. I don't know why all this is going wrong. I don't know why eggs are $7. I can't hardly pay for groceries right now.

The whole time, you're never even talking to Him about your heart and saying, “God, what's going on in me?” A humble heart, a confessing heart, is always quick to find out how they're doing with the Father. I remember when I was growing up. It didn't make sense to me at the time. When I was a little boy, I'd hear the old preacher say, “Beloved, keep short accounts with God.”

”Beloved, keep short accounts with God.” I'd always wonder, what are short accounts with God? What that means is now, you don't have to wait and accumulate a whole week's worth of sin before you talk to God about it. I think you ought to do it like breathing, ‘Lord, did I just sin against You? I need to exhale that.

I need to confess that.’ Breathe in forgiveness and cleansing. I think you need to be quick about it. Besides, God cares more about your heart than He does your sacrifice or your offering. Do you remember Psalm 51?

That's the Psalm that David wrote after he'd been confronted with his sin with Bathsheba. This is another excerpt of that same psalm. He's speaking to God. Psalm 51:16-17 (NLT) 16 “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.

You do not want a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Whatever offering you bring, whatever service you bring to God, it matters not if your heart's not right with God. If you want to worship rightly, you have to have the right heart.

The right heart is a clean heart, and the right heart is a confessing heart.

True worshipers confess their sins before God, acknowledging their dependence on His mercy and forgiveness and not only that, for His cleansing. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". I'm glad He's forgiven us, but sometimes I need a fresh cleansing.

I need to get the stain out. We can have a confessing heart. That leads us to the third reason that it matters to God that we have a right heart when we worship:

3. Because true worship comes from a changed heart.

A right heart is a clean heart, a confessing heart. It's a changed heart. We've got one more verse to consider. It's verse 17, “I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.”

I struck you.

That's what he says. “I struck you.” God, You did what? It was Me; I struck you.

I've been disciplining you; that was Me. That's me and yet you did not turn to Me, declares the Lord. I struck you.

I struck your stuff. I struck your house. I struck your car

and you just kept on going.

The Bible teaches us that the Father will discipline those He loves. If the Father doesn't discipline you, what's the opposite of that? Then, you're not one of His. But if you're one of His, a loving father, even an earthly loving father, will discipline his children. If he doesn't discipline,

the Bible says that he doesn't love them. He will discipline you. Have you been struck by the Lord? Have you been disciplined? Remember what Cindy said earlier.

”I don't like it.”

I don't either. I don't like it either. But He's talking to them about it. I want you to hear something about His discipline. God's discipline is an invitation to worship.

It's not punishment because He doesn't punish. There is no wrath. There's no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 says,

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit". So, if He disciplines you, it's an invitation to get right with Him and to worship Him. To be in right relationship again. When He tells you that it's Him, He has been disciplining

you, but you've been hard hearted and you have not turned back to Him. Now that idea of turn often in the Bible refers to “repentance,” to having a change of heart or a change of mind. In fact, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, is called the Septuagint, and the Jews translated it into Greek. Whenever Greek became the common language of even the Hebrew people, many of them had forgotten how to read and speak in Hebrew. Greek became the lingua franca of the day. So, they wrote the Septuagint.

When you read this same verse 17 in the Septuagint, it says, “Yet you did not repent.”

I struck you and you were hard headed. Now, I don't know if that relates to you, but I remember from an early age that I was like the Israelites. I have a younger brother named Barry. My parents were poets.

He's four years younger than me. It would be discipline time; line up. You're all getting it. My mom kept a “switch.”

Does anyone here know what a “switch” is? It makes it sound like Zorro's sword when it whips through the air. It won't kill you, but it stings. My mom kept it on top of the refrigerator. Its home was on top of the refrigerator.

She would start reaching for the top of the refrigerator and say, “Y'all are going to get a spanking now.” My brother, Barry, would start crying as soon as she reached her hand up there. I always thought he was a wimp, but it turned out as I reflected back on it, that he was wise, because she would just give him a little flick and he would cry.

That's all he got. But I would stand there like a bull and she would switch me. I would not cry because I'm the firstborn.

”I struck you, yet you did not turn to me.” I was born with that kind of heart. I'm thankful that God changed my heart. I've turned into a crybaby for God now. I want to keep short accounts.

I finally understood what that meant. God, don't switch me. Just tell me what it is. I'll fix it. Lord,

I feel like You're taking me through 101 again. I thought I already learned this lesson a couple years ago. What do I need to correct?

Have you got a tender heart towards God that's willing to change? Romans 2:29 (NLT)” … a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” You have a changed heart.

Romans 12:1 speaks of a transformed heart. Romans 12:1 (NLT) 1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship

him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We can have a changed mind. The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia.”

“Meta” means change. “Noia” means mind, so that we no longer are going in the world's way, the sinful way. Or like they say in the military, “about face.” We go the opposite way.

We have a change of heart and a change of mind. Here's what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea and He says to our church this morning. I believe that He says to those whom I love, I reprove in discipline, so be zealous and repent. To those whom I love, I reprove

and discipline. I correct them and discipline them. God's correction is an invitation to real worship. If He disciplines you, it's not for punishment's sake. It’s not condemnation. It's to get you back right with Him. God is disciplining our hearts today.

He's changing them so that we're more generous like Jesus. For some of you today, as I conclude, this is the most important part. The part about commitment, the part about the Lord's Supper, all the different ways you can respond today, those parts are important. But the part for you today is, has your heart been cleansed? Have you confessed your sins?

Has He transformed and changed your heart so that you have a new heart, following Christ? That's the most important thing I'll teach today and for you, that's your response today. Would you respond to Jesus, because unless you come in contact with the Holy One, there's no holiness for you.

Do you remember the story where the leper came to Jesus and he said, “Lord, if you're willing, you could heal me” and the Lord said, “I am willing” and He touched him and made him whole. According to the law, if He touches something unclean and a leper's unclean,

the uncleanness will pass to Him and make Him unclean. But Jesus came in grace. Jesus is the Holy One. He's the source of all holiness. He came as the Son of God.

When He touched the leper, holiness passed to him and made him whole. The leper came into primary contact with the Holy One; He touched him and made him whole. Remember about the woman who had had a bloody show for twelve years? She'd spent all of her wealth on going to doctors and couldn't get healed. She couldn't go to the temple because it was against the Levitical law for her to go to the temple. Because of her blood, she couldn't have a husband, really, because that was against the Levitical law too, because of her constant bleeding.

She never stopped bleeding. So, she decided to do something that she knew better, but she thought, what if He is the Son of God? What if I just touched the hem of His garment?

Would that make me whole? Can you see her getting down on her face and on her knees in the crowd, looking for the precise moment and reaching out and grabbing the hem of His garment, knowing that was against the law? It would make Him unclean for her to do it. But that's not what happened. Jesus said, “Somebody touched me.”

One of the disciples, probably Peter, said, “Lord, You're in a crowd. Everybody's touching you.” Jesus says, “No. I felt essence pass from Me. I felt power

pass from Me.” He turns and He looks right at her. She says, “Lord” and He says, “Daughter, you're healed.” Do you know why?

It is because when the unholy touches Him, His holiness passes to them. Whether you touch the hem of His garment or whether He touches you, if you come into contact with the primary one, the Holy One and you say, ‘Would you clean my heart? I confess my sins to you. Would you change me?

Are you willing to do that?’ He says, “I am willing’ and He will touch you. This is the most important thing you'll hear today, my friend, if you're in a place where you need a touch of Jesus. But if Jesus has already touched your heart, then I would ask you to consider all the things He's calling you to. Can you offer it now with a right heart?

Can you offer right worship with a right heart that's been cleansed, that you've confessed your sin? He's changed you now. You can bring your worship, you can bring your commitments, you can bring all that you are, with joyful worship. May it be so today. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we just lift up, first of all, that person who came in today. You need the Lord; you need a touch from Jesus. Is that you? Would you pray with me right where you're at, right in your seat right now? Pray like this.

“Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I confess it. I agree with You. I've fallen short of Your glory. But I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today.

Today, I ask Him to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. Change my heart, move into my life, make me a child of God. I believe in You as my Lord and Savior.” If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, Jesus will save you. He is willing to touch your life. Others are here today and you've prayed and you've believed. You're a Christ follower, but you've been struggling.

You've let the account run long. Even this series that we've been through has bothered you. It always bothers you when we talk about giving. Is there a broken place inside of you? Is there a stronghold, something that causes you to be afraid or angry, nervous about generosity?

Lord, right now we just lift that to You. Would You begin to break strongholds? Would You begin to help us, to have the joyful heart of generosity that comes from Jesus? Would You cleanse our hearts, so that the work of our hands and the offerings of our hearts would be acceptable to You? In Jesus’ name. Amen.