STRENGTHS FINDER - Purity & Passion

Today we looked at the heart. The physical heart is the engine that drives the body. It beats approximately 100,000 beats/day; 35 million beats/year; and over 2.5 billion beats in a lifetime. About the size of your fist, a man's heart weighs 11-12 oz. and a woman's heart weighs 9-11 oz.

But more important than your physical heart is your spiritual heart. Today we looked at purity and passion as they relate to your spiritual heart. The main point of the lesson was that the quality of all of our relationships is determined by the spiritual condition of our heart. Is your heart pure or is it filled with sin?

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

God knows the condition of your heart.

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b NIV)

Since all of your talents/strengths/abilities pass through your heart, if you have a pure heart (confessed of all sin), you will be a blessing to others--especially to your spouse, family members, or close friends. If your heart is filled with unconfessed sin, you will be a burden to everyone you come in contact with. The difference is whether your talents/strengths/abilities are focused outward or inward. The variable is sin.

How you communicate with others is a choice. If you get angry at your spouse, you are choosing to get angry. Nobody is forcing you to get angry. People say, "You make me so mad!" But nobody can make you mad without your permission. Anger is a choice, and you must choose to control it if you want to be a loving person. You have far more control over your anger than you may want to admit. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you're at home and you're in an argument with somebody in your family. Your voices are raised, you're getting excited, and you're upset. All of a sudden, the phone rings, and you answer sweetly, "Hello? Oh, yes! It's for you honey!"

What happened? You didn't want to be embarrassed or have to explain, so you flipped your anger off real quick. Anger is highly controllable! Anger is a choice.

"Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back." (Proverbs 29:11 NLT)

Resolve to manage your anger in advance--before you open the door to your house at the end of the day. You manage your anger by first resolving--deciding in advance--that you're going to hold back your anger.

"Whatever is in your heart determines what you say." (Matthew 12:34b NLT)

Just as anger is a choice, love is also a choice. Passion comes from a deep love. The reason we are learning our talents and our spouse's talents is to better understand how God has wired us. With this knowledge, we can better accept our differences. God made us each uniquely for a special purpose. We are wired the way we are to accomplish that purpose. Knowing how to use this tool will allow us to love others more freely.

Our talents are invisible, but they can be seen through the outpouring of our heart and our personality. Sin will determine if our talents are pointed outward (serving others) or inward (serving self).

The easiest way to see what is on the inside of a person is to listen to what comes out of their mouth. Your mouth reveals what is in your heart. A harsh tongue reveals an angry heart. A negative tongue reveals a fearful heart. A boasting tongue reveals an insecure heart. A judgmental tongue exposes a guilty heart. A filthy tongue reveals an impure heart.

There is no better example of passion flowing through the heart than what Jesus did for us when He came to earth, suffered, and died a torturous death. When He questioned what was ahead of Him, he said:

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour." (John 12:27 ESV)

Now THAT is passion!

Jesus cares about your hurting heart. He can replace it with His love. He will help you heal so that your words give life and reveal to others the hope you have in Christ. The passion Christ showed by his coming to earth to suffer and die for our sins is an example that we can look to the next time we are faced with anger.

• The source of Christ's passion was his intense love for mankind.
• The passion of Christ was directed by the Father's will and resulted in a life whose purpose was the cross.
• The passion of Christ originated in love, was directed by the purpose of God, and was lived in dependence on the presence of God.
• The passion of Christ was energized by the power of God.

Today, I mentioned to the class that in the Spring of 1980 (34 years ago; we were 26 and 25), we attended the 1980 production (#38) of the Oberammergau Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. The play has been performed by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau every 10 years since 1634. The commitment of this small village of approximately 5,000 people is a great illustration of passion and love. The video below is a brief excerpt explaining more about the play.

The Passion Play - Oberammergau, Germany

The PowerPoint slides from today's lesson are below. This lesson was 3 of 5 in our Strengths Finder Series. We will continue next week with more on our talents and how they impact our relationships.

Notice that I made some changes to our class schedule. We added the series The 5 Love Languages (5LL). We all need to take the online test to discover our particular love language before we begin the series. The test takes about 15 minutes. It is free and there is no time limit.

NOTE: My top two love languages were QUALITY TIME (10) and PHYSICAL TOUCH (9). The highest score is 12. Here is the link to the test: DISCOVER YOU LOVE LANGUAGE 

Due to the wedding of Anna Coe and Dan Tankersley on April 12th, I will miss the class on April 13th. We moved our breakfast social to April 13th. This will be an important planning time for the class to discuss topics for future series. Patrick will lead the class and he will have a topic sheet with suggestions for future series.