Gregory Dickow - Your Heart Set Free
Luke, chapter four, verse 18, and let's look there together, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel. To who? Come on, talk to me now, the right here he is anointed me to preach the gospel. To who? So the gospel is for the poor. Guess what that means? It means we're all poor without Jesus because the gospels for everybody. So what he's saying here is he's not he's not saying the gospel is just for people that are living on the streets, the gospel. He's not saying the gospel for people that are broke. He's not saying the gospel is for people that don't have any money. He's not saying the gospel is only for people on welfare. He's not saying the gospel is only for people that that are homeless. He's saying the gospel is to be preached of Jesus, said the spirit of God.
And joining me to preach the gospel to the poor and everybody's poor without the gospel. Everybody else, you've got to get a hold of this, everybody's poor without the gospel, no matter how much money they have, no matter how much health they have, no matter how many friends they have, no matter how much success they have. Everybody's poor without the gospel. The gospel is the good news that Jesus no longer is holding your sins against you, but he is holding your sins in his heart and nailing them to the cross. And he is taking your sins upon himself and nailing them to the cross so all of your sins are washed away. The Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world and the sins of the world through his precious blood. He has forgiven us of all our sins, washed us off all of our sins.
And that's why we're poor no more, because the wealthiest person in the world is the person who has accepted the Gospel and has accepted the King of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, into their life as their savior in law. You want to know what it means to be wealthy. It means to have God in your life. You want to know what it means to be prosperous, to have God in your life and to know him. This is so important that we get a hold of this Jesus didn't come to preach the gospel to one group of people, he came to preach the gospel to everybody, to all who believe to every human being God so loved the world. That doesn't say God so loved the poor. Yes, he loves people that don't have any money, but he doesn't love poor people without any money, any more than people with money. He loves everybody the same. And he sent Jesus for everybody.
So he sent me to be anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, because without God you are in the deepest of all poverties without God. But notice, once you get say, once you hear the gospel and get saved, the first thing that Jesus comes to do his first assignment, the first thing that the spirit of the Lord has anointed Jesus to do once you're born again is what what's the very next thing he says after he came to preach the gospel to the poor. We assume that many people get saved when he preaches the gospel to them. And many people say when we preach the gospel, what's the very next thing that God has sent him to do? Come on, talk to me. Heal the broken hearted, heal the broken hearted.
That's more important than even liberty to the captives is more important than recovery of sight to the blind. It's those are those are important. But the most important thing is to be born again, the gospel to be to save us the gospel of God's grace. That by grace, are we saved through faith. That's the most important thing. But then the next most important thing is, is that you heal, that God heals your broken heart. Why is that so important? Because, look, if if if if if the first thing that happens when you get saved is that you die and go to heaven. Then you would need to have a healed heart, because all of that will take place in heaven, but to live in this earth, you need a healed heart. No wonder Satan makes your heart his primary target.
Did you notice the Bible doesn't say that Satan comes after your toes. He doesn't come after your hair. Thank God, and he's never getting to mine in Jesus name. And if he got to yours already. Restor. You can't drive down the highway highway and not see the promise of God on those billboards, Star. But he goes after the heart. Because the Bible says when a person hears the word in Matthew 13, 19 and does not understand it, Satan comes and steals the word from his heart, snatches it out of your heart, snatches away will the soul in his heart. Satan is after your heart because it contains the power to bring any harvest to pass. Heart is so powerful. The soul is so powerful. Your heart is under constant attack.
That's why we must be willing to follow Jesus words about the heart. And what does he say about the heart, John 14 one. Look at what he says. He says, look at John 14. Verse one. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. So he's telling us that's our responsibility. Don't let your heart be troubled. And then he gives us the answer on how to not let our hearts be troubled. In the very next verse, he says, Look, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would not say so. And if I go to prepare a place for you like that should cause your heart to not be troubled, he says. Don't let your heart be troubled. Why? Because in my father's house are many mansions. You're not going to be left out. God is preparing a place for you, Jesus, and preparing a place for you. If it weren't so, he wouldn't have told you this should take the trouble out of your heart.
OK, I'm not going to let my heart be troubled because in my father's house are many mansions. I'm not going to be rejected. There's many mansions. I'm not going to be rejected. He's preparing a place for me. What else does it say to do to not let your heart be troubled? It says it says be anxious for nothing. But in everything with prayer and supplication, prayer and petition, let your request be made known to God. Philippians four six and the peace of God. Let your request be made known to God. And with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known with Thanksgiving and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.
Do you see how important it is that we employ God's way of protecting and guarding our hearts? Because our heart is where deception gets in, our heart is where bitterness gets in, our heart is where fear gets in. And that's why we have to guard our hearts, because these are the things that will destroy and cripple our ability to fulfill our potential and our destiny, deception, bitterness and fear when we believe a lie. That's deception, deception, bitterness and fear. These are the three things we need to guard our hearts most from deception is anything contrary to God's word or any scripture taken out of the context of God's word. We're deceived and we might say quoting scripture, but we're deceived. We're using it in a deceptive way because we truly don't understand the context of it.
The Bible says Judas hung himself and then another scripture later says, go and do likewise. You can't put those two verses together and draw a conclusion that that's God's will for your life. My point is every scripture has to be taken in context or it will be it, you will be deceived. The heart is easily deceived. The heart is deceived by gossip. The heart is deceived by bad news. It's easier for us to believe bad news than it is for good news because we we've been programed in negativity. Oh, I wish I had time to get into this. We've been programed in negativity. Even in America. We're programed to negativity, cynicism, skepticism, negativity, and therefore we believe and expect something bad to happen. When good things are happening, when things go up, we're expecting them to go down. We got roller coaster mentalities.
And man, I'm honest, I want to have a fast speed brake to break the speed of sound, you know, some sort of vehicle that just goes so fast, so straight, so high, so up that I'm not expecting to come down. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, everybody is poor until they've met Jesus. The presence of God is the source of all success and all true prosperity. Can a person have financial success without God? Can a person be healthy physically? Without God? Yes, but a person cannot have. True. Eternal success without God, nor can they have true happiness without God, because God's presence is the source of real joy in your presence.
Psalm 16 11 says in your presence is fullness of joy and that your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Joy and pleasure was God's idea, but it comes from his presence. And when you substitute joy and pleasure and you try to supply yourself with joy and pleasure from some other way. Then you you will you will you will be miserable, you'll you'll end up on crack. You'll end up on an opioid, you'll end up you'll end up addicted to something, because let me tell you what we're all addicted to. We're all addicted to happiness. And we are experimenting in life. We all experiment in life with trying to find the thing that will make us happy. And until you come to grips with this reality that only in his presence is fullness of joy, you can have temporary, partial, momentary happiness with a artificial stimulant. But you cannot have fullness of joy without the presence of God. And you cannot have pleasure forever. More pleasure that lasts.
The thing I was trying to impress upon you the other day is when I was talking about, you know, God says my love is better than wine. God's love is better than wine. And do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn't because he was comparing something bad to something good. He was comparing something good to something better. Not because it's good to get drunk or it's good to be high, but because he's saying those artificial stimulants do make you feel good temporarily. But the thing about God's love and the thing about God's Holy Spirit, the reason it's better is because it doesn't leave you with a hangover. The reason it's better is because it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. The reason that it's better is because you won't go broke losing all your money on drugs.
You won't go broke, losing all your money on gambling, you won't go broke, losing all your money on making bad decisions because you have tapped into the true source of joy and happiness, which is the presence of God who lives inside of you when you're born again, is inside of you and man are our journey is to get to know him, Jesus said in John seventeen verse three. This is eternal life, he says to the father. This is eternal life. He says, Father, this is eternal life that they, meaning us, would know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life, man. This is the God kind of life. This is the life that never ends. This is the life that never fails. This is the life that never runs out. This is the life that is never depressed. This is the life that never is empty. This eternal life is knowing God.
So I'm forty three, five says, why so downcast on my soul or my heart, psalm forty three, verse five. Why so downcast on my soul or and then he answers the question, why are you so quiet when you know, when somebody gets somber and sullen and quiet and depressed and you can just feel the negativity, you can feel their, their sadness, you can feel they're down. Why cast down on my soul? He's about to answer the question and why so disquieted with me hoping God put your hope in God. Guess what? Your soul your heart is sad. Your heart is downcast because you're putting your hope in something other than God. He says the answer to a disquiet.
And so the answer to a cast down heart, the answer to a depressed heart is to read, to reposition where your hope is directed and when your hope is directed in God and in his word, your soul is going to be lifted and pulled up, not cast down. Deuteronomy one twenty eight says Our brethren have made our heart melt. Look at what he says, Deuteronomy one 20, I know I'm going through some scriptures here, but where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying the people are great or stop listening to your brethren about how great the people are and how tall the enemy is and how wall the city is and how and how great and fortified they are. Up to heaven. No city. It goes all the way up to heaven. No walls are as high as heaven. There's no ceiling to your life.
Don't listen to people in their negativity. Surround yourself with the right people to disassociate yourself from people that want to discourage your heart by telling you how big the enemy is. Because Davids brothers were like, man, Goliath is so big, we could never take him down and we could never get him. And David's attitude was Goliath so big we can't miss God wants our hearts to be healed because our heart is the essence of our identity. Our heart represents our authentic self. God doesn't look at the outward, he looks at the heart, this is what it's so important that we get a hold of. This is it says in First Samuel 16, verse seven, he says he says, man, judges, according to appearances, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature because I have refused him. He says, for the Lord does not see as manses, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Now, it's really important that I get this across to you. God doesn't look at your heart to judge it. He looks at your heart to see what it contains so that he has something to work with. Because if your heart is filled with the promises of God, then God is watching over his word to perform it. We need to fill our hearts with whatever we want God to see. God doesn't see your sins. He washed them away. He's not looking in your heart to see your bad motives. He's not looking in your heart to see where you failed. That's been washed away by the blood of Jesus. He's looking in your heart to see what it's filled with so that you give him something to work with.
God needs something to work with in your life, just like when you got saved, it said for it says in Romans ten, nine and ten. If I confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved. So what? So when it says God is looking to go back to that verse for Samuel, what it says when a man looks on the outward but God looks on the heart, man says, well, you're not really saved because you're still smoking. You're not really saved because you're still cussing. You're not really saved because you're still lying. You're not really safe because you're still doing this man looks on the outward, but where does God look? He looks at the heart.
And what's he looking for? Does the man or does the woman believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead? And if you believe in your heart that God raised you raised Jesus from the dead, you're saved. No matter what man looks at on the outward, God looks at the heart. Now, you see now so soon as we read a scripture like this, but the Lord looks at the heart, we immediately condemn ourselves. Oh, he's looking at my heart. I know it's all sorts of bad stuff in there. God's not looking at the bad.
So he looks past the bad stuff. He's looking at what you believe in your heart. He's looking for what your heart is filled with so that he can do something with it. I'll show you what I mean in the moment. Because Proverbs three, verse three, says, right, the word of God on the table of your heart, why are we supposed to write the word of God? Look at what is this, Proverbs three three. I know I said this last verse. Hurry, look at this. Hurry, hurry, hurry. He says write them on the table of your heart.
Why? Why are we supposed to write God's word on the table of our heart? Habakkuk chapter two, verse two answers the question, look at what he says. Have a chapter two verse to look at. He answers the question, why should we write the word on our heart? The Lord answered, said, write the vision and make it plain on tablets. The tablet of what? The tablet of the heart, why so that he may run, who reads it, what is happening here? God looks on the heart to see what you've written on your heart so that he can take what you've written and run with it to bring it to pass, because he is the vision maker and the vision keeper and he's watching over his word to run and perform it. And because we're not writing the word on our heart, he's got nothing to work with.
So he's just standing still. He's not judging you. He's just got nothing to run with. And if you write crap on your heart, he's not running with that. Sorry. He's like, no, sorry. Stand still till you get put some right. Some good stuff on you. I'm not judging you for what that junk that you put on there, but I can't run with that. And bring it to pass. So how do we how do we write the word on our heart, Psalm forty five, verse one, I'm glad you Psalm forty five, verse one. My heart is overflowing with a good theme. As I recite my verses to the king. Who's the king? Jesus is the king, God is the king. So how do we write our verses to the King? My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
So with our Tom. We write. God's word on our hearts. And he does not judge his man judges. You got some junk in your life, you got some sins in your mind, you got some mistakes in your past, you got some bad motives in your heart right now. But God does not look at those things. He's looking for what you have written in your heart that he can run with. My tongue, as I speak, God's word, I'm writing it on my heart. It's overflowing with a good theme, it's overflowing with a good theme as I recite my verses to the king and said what to look at, I think it's in the new American standard translation as I recite my verses to the king. In other words, as I as I speak the verses of God and of his word to the king, I'm writing. His word on the table of my heart, my heart is overflowing with a good theme full of God's promises on my heart.
You see how much power you have in your heart. And then the one who reads it, the one who doesn't judge on the outside. So you say, well, I got all this stuff messed up in my life. God's not looking at the outward like that man looks at. He's looking at the heart. What's written on? What have you been writing on your heart? I'm healed by his stripes. God is for me, not against me. Bless coming in and bless going out. Favor surrounds the righteous like a shield man on their head and not the tail I'm above only not beneath. I'm more than a conquer. Whenever I ask, I receive. God is for me. God is good. If I would have despaired and thus I believe that I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
And as you write that stuff on your heart, God looks and he goes, Yeah, I can work with that. Yeah, I can run with that. Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah. I'll make miracles happen with that. I'm writing the promises on miracles happen when you believe. When you believe. When you believe. How do you believe. Write the word on your heart. Write the world on your heart. Write the word on your cause. The one who reads it is going to run and bring it to Pat.