What are you thinking about

Developing a Heart Like

God’s Heart

Josh Hunt,

Presenter

What do you think about when you don’t have

anything to think about?

For as he thinketh in his

heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

(KJV)

What do you think God

thinks about?

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and

loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country

and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Luke 15:4

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins

and loses one. Does she not light a lamp,

sweep the house and search carefully until

she finds it? Luke 15:8

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled

with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

The son started his speech: “Father, I’ve sinned against God,

I’ve sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever

again.”Luke 15:21 (MSG)

But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to

the servants, “Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family

ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” Luke 15:22 (MSG)

It is impossible to love the

Father without sharing His heart

for those who are far from Him.

Who is the most spiritually mature person who ever lived?

For the Son of Man came to

seek and to save what was lost.

Luke 19:10

The Son of Man came eating and drinking,

and you say, “Here is a glutton and a

drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and

‘sinners.’”Luke 7:34

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the

sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but

sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32

Sin:the desire to exclude.

God:the desire

to embrace

“A church has to choose between being a place

that can attract seekers or

being a place that can help people become spiritually mature.”

The more spiritually mature you are, the more you will want to

reach out to people who are far

from God.

“We cannot have one posture

toward God, and a different one toward other

people.”

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his

brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not

love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he

has not seen.1 John 4:20

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your

heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:14

It is psychologically impossible for you to desire to live in grace and forgiveness and not want it for others.

- John Ortberg

“Some have created models of Christian growth that suggest

that we can have one attitude toward God and another toward those who are far

from him.”

“When we do that we make Christianity

repulsive to people on the outside and

sometimes to people who go to church.”

-John Ortberg

Some actually prefer not to be around sinners.

People here in Oklahoma,

they are kind of hard to love.

Some think this tendency to not

be around sinners is a sign of their maturity.

Lifesaving Museum, Nantucket, Massachusetts

Jesus is still looking for people

who will go into the life-saving business.

How is your heart for

people who are far from Him?