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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

A Safe Heart: When Compliance Isn’t Enough

Our Father in heaven, thank you Lord that you created time and opportunity to worship you with all our hearts, with our soul, with all our mind.

I pray that whether we're here today in person or watching from home, that you would tune our hearts right now to be able to discern and hear your still small voice.

Convict our hearts, Lord, do whatever is necessary for us to be able to be transformed.

So speak Lord, and we thank you for answering our prayer in Jesus name, amen.

My message today is entitled, A Safe Heart, When Compliance Isn't Enough.

Across the country and around the world, compliance is a buzzword nowadays, particularly in efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.

We hear about it, compliance with social distancing, compliance with wearing a mask, compliance with washing your hands, and the list goes on and on and on.

A few months ago, in the early onset of the pandemic, my parents were literally stranded in Argentina as countries around the world sealed their borders.

The streets of Buenos Aires, which is the largest city in the country with a population of nearly 3000000 people.

You see, a couple of days after arriving to Argentina to visit family, the pandemic alert unexpectedly, unexpectedly reached a level that called for major trans restrictions.

He experienced something very similar in New Zealand.

And my parents' 1 week stay turned into a 50 day lockdown during which they were expected to comply with several mandates while there.

Long-distance buses, trains, and domestic flights stopped running overnight.

Social distancing at least 6 feet was enforced.

Numbers of occupants was limited in every store.

Squirts of sanitizing gel was offered at by every cashier.

Citizens were forced to stay home except for medical reasons or for just an hour if you're going to go buy groceries.

Police checkpoints were everywhere to ensure compliance with the rules.

And believe me, in Argentina as it is in various other countries, breaking a public health order means I have to be fined or up to 2 years in an Argentinian prison.

I understand that Singapore, among other countries, does the same, why?

Because national compliance with rules and standards is believed to be essential for the safety of all.

If you want to be in a safe environment, comply.

If you want communities to be safe, comply.

If you want the country to be safe, Comply.

Keeping the coronavirus under control, stopping the spread, not allowing entry to anyone who is contagious, is, after all, everyone's end result.

Governors here in the United States reassure us that if things are kept clean, if you wash your hands regularly, if you use sanitizers often, and if you comply with restrictions that are put in place, We should, we should have this virus under control.

And as a result, making our homes and our country safe.

The name of the website that I came across was called A Secure Life.

And on this website, I found an article on residential safety.

It got my attention because after all, who doesn't want to be safe and secure from all alarms?

And so this article offered some safety tips when 1 goes away on a long trip.

After all, there's times that we do leave on trips, and I thought this would be something of interest.

And so I started reading the article, and let me share with you a few tips on what people can do before they leave on a long trip to keep their home as secure as possible.

The list included, ask a neighbor to park in your driveway.

And occasionally, place garbage in your garbage can.

Maybe a little too far, but I kept reading.

It said, keep your garage door closed and locked so that no 1 sees that your car is gone.

I mean, I'm not gonna leave the garage door open, but.

Now this next 1 I thought was really clever.

It says, get automatic timers to turn lights on and off in different areas of your house.

Throughout the evening, Vary the lights to be turned on and have a radio or television on a timer.

Now we're getting very, very clever here.

The list goes on and on, but you get the idea, right?

All in all, the idea is to create the illusion, don't miss this, to create the illusion that somebody is inside the house for the purpose of preventing a break-in or an unwanted entry.

I suppose that all these ideas could potentially deter a thief from breaking into your house.

Complying with restrictions and guidelines sure can potentially prevent somebody from catching the virus.

These are all measures that we can take in order to be safe and secure.

Can the appearance that somebody is at home deter the enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy in the spiritual realm.

Can comply with restrictions and guidelines prevent somebody from being unsafe?

And I would ask, can complying with biblical restrictions and principles make the heart safe?

Today as we explore a parable that Jesus taught that really takes us to the heart of the matter.

Is it complying with biblical principles and standards?

How do we deter the thief, the enemy of souls from entry into the life.

Here we find in this chapter Jesus himself answering the question in an intriguing and rather bizarre parable.

Let me tell you the immediate context of the parable found there in verse 24.

The immediate context is that Jesus has just cast out a demon out of a man.

That context is so immediate that the multitude around Jesus listening to him are still with their jaws down to the ground.

Their mouths are wide open because they have just witnessed with their very own eyes Jesus casting out a demon.

In fact, Matthew says that they were, they marveled.

And so the people are captivated by what is happening.

And Jesus speaks a parable there in Luke 11, verse 24.

Jesus said, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest.

And finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.

And then he goes and takes with him 7 other spirits more wicked than himself.

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A Safe Heart: When Compliance Isn’t Enough

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