Let Not Your Heart Get Hardened

Text: Mark 8:14-17

14  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.

15  And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

16  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

17  And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?

In this chapter Jesus points out three problems of a hardened heart.

1.      1. A hard hearted person cannot discern spiritual things, and  will find it hard to trust God, hard to live for God, and hard to trust others.

a.      This is something we all have to watch for in our lives. If your heart gets hardened the only person you can fault is yourself.

b.      Proverbs 13:15 - Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

c.       In our text, the disciples didn't understand that he wasn't talking about physical bread.

d.      When you talk to somebody in this state they often can only understand the physical, and not the spiritual

e.      The disciples didn't have the discernment required in order to understand Jesus

f.        1 Corinthians 2:11-16

11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

                    i.         We have the mind of Christ. The only one that can give you spiritual discernment is the Holy Spirit.

                  ii.         1 Corinthians 3:1-3

1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

                iii.         Hardheartedness happens as a result of not walking with God.

g.            People think when they leave the church that they are hurting the church. The church's life doesn't depend on anybody in here.

h.            God promised that nothing would destroy his church. Jesus said on this rock I build my church and nothing shall prevail against it.

  i.            Mark 8:22-26

22  And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.

23  And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.

24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

25  After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

26  And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

                    i.         Jesus spit on the man's eyes. We can't go to God if we believe we already got it figured out.

                  ii.         As you walk with God, you begin to see things differently. You can't change if your vision doesn't change.

                iii.         If you don't see things differently, then you won't make a lasting change.

                 iv.         When you know what God wants you to do and you don't change, then you are in rebellion against God.

                   v.         This man couldn't go back into the town. He saw things different, and because of that he had to do a different thing.

  j.            When you begin to walk with God, your perspective changes.

                    i.            When you come to church, God begins to change your perspective in which you live.

                  ii.            If you walk out of here and don't change, you begin a battle inside of yourself.

                iii.            When the spiritual man is illuminated, and yet the physical man doesn't want to change, then there is a battle going on inside of us.

1.      Yield yourself to the spirit of God and you will have peace. If you don't you will have turmoil.

22.  The hard-hearted cannot remember past experiences. They can't see past their own self.

a.            Remember when you thought that it was all over and you thought you weren't going to make it, when there were times when you didn't know where money was coming from to pay a bill, and God miraculously showed up? Remember the times when your heart got so hardened against God that you didn't even want to read your bible and pray, and yet He still showed up and gave you wisdom AND THEN SOME?

                    i.            These are the thing you must remember when you start getting upset with God.

                  ii.            You have to remember the goodness of God, even when you were backslidden, and cussed God out, because you didn't understand why certain things were happening in your life, and yet God still provided for you, still blessed you, still helped you.

                iii.            We think that we have to be this super-spiritual person to receive God's help, but He will still show up even when we are at rock-bottom.

b.            When you know what it's like to cry, and nobody even knows what's going on in your life, then you can come back and say, yes I praise God, not because I know what He's going to do, but because I REMEMVER what He brought me from.

 c.            Mark 8:18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

19  When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.

20  And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.

                     i.         The stuff that He wants us to remember, we forget, and the stuff that He wants us to forget, we remember!

                   ii.         This goes back to the trust factor, if God did it then, He can do it now.

d.            The IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD. WE HAVE TO HAVE THE FAITH TO BRING THE VICTORY OF YESTERDAY TO TODAY'S TRIALS!

                    i.            Although today's trial may seem more difficult, we still serve the same God. Because the trials that happen today seem to be more difficult than the things that happened yesterday because yesterday's trials are over, but God is still the same.

e.            God doesn't push the panic button just because you do!

                    i.            You push the panic button, and God's standing there asking, Are you gonna seek me now?

  f.            We must never limit the power of God by our limitations.

                    i.            We have limitations, but God does not.

                  ii.            Do you not remember when God was there to comfort you and nobody else was?

                iii.            Have you ever had god lay on your heart to just open His Words, and you opened the Word of God, and the answer to your problem was written right there? And in that moment you knew that God was speaking directly to you.

g.            God's eyes can see everything. God knows where His people are. It's not a coincidence that you are in church today, he knows where you are spiritually and mentally.

                    i.            God says, this is what your people are going through, and this is why I['m preaching it today.

                  ii.            There is a difference between taking heed to something and just listening.

h.            Remember when God made a way out of no way!

  i.            Mark 8:14 - Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.

  j.            Psalms 78:40-51

40  How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

41  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

42  They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43  How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

44  And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

45  He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46  He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.

47  He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

48  He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50  He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51  And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

                    i.         Why didn't they turn back at the red sea? Because they couldn't. Why did they turn back in the wilderness? Because they could.

                  ii.         The enemy that was trying to destroy them was not seen by the naked eye.

                iii.         How can you forget all that God has done for you? Think about the benefits of knowing God in hour life.

 k.            David applied his past victories into his present situation, when he fought the giant.

                    i.            It's not the size of the bark in the dog but the size of the heart of the dog that determines the fight.

33.      The hardhearted have limited understanding.

a.            It's hard to talk to a hardhearted person about spiritual things because they won't understand it all.

b.            Mark 8:21 - And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

                    i.            Even the meeting of our needs is not totally physical. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

                  ii.            We spend so much time taking care of the physical, that we don’t' realize that we spend all of our time putting our money into bags with holes. Something is not operating right.

                iii.            We apply so many things to the physical man. Many times we suffer need because we don't walk in the plan that God has for us.

 c.            If you apply a spiritual connotation into a physical need, you will see great results. The Bible says if you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly.

                    i.            When you learn how to sow, then you are going to reap more than what you sow

d.            The Bible says there is he that soweth sparingly. The Bible says that God giveth seed to the soul. The more I give out, the more God gives me.

                    i.            The lord says that if you give, then I will pour out the blessings of heaven upon you.

e.            When we ask God for a miracle, He often shows up with a plan.

  f.            The Bible distinctly says that is we sow sparingly we reap sparingly.

                    i.            If we sow into somebody else, then God will bless us for it.

                  ii.            God can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 100%

44.      The only way to understand purpose is by walking with God.

a.            When you begin to walk with God, you begin to understand what your purpose is.

b.            You only find true life by letting go of your own. When you learn to do this, it will really prevent you from getting  hard heart against God.

 c.            You don't reward a person for doing what they are supposed to do.