3 Minute Church: Open Your Heart Up
This blog unpacks Pastor Caleb Culver’s sermon from the Church in the Wild series on July 14, 2024: Open Your Heart Up
“God cannot heal what we conceal.”
Pastor Caleb Culver
Pastor Caleb asked several people what living with a closed heart feels like:
“Self-hatred”
“Numbness”
“Emotionless”
“Negative thought patterns”
Haven’t you ever felt this way before?
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN:
Continuing the study of 2 Corinthians, Pastor Caleb takes us through the posture of Paul’s heart towards the Church of Corinth. When Paul finds out that the church is in a state of division and abuse, he writes to them once more in Chapter 6 stating that his heart is “freely open.”
What does this mean?
Paul had every opportunity to harden his heart towards the Church of Corinth. They pushed him out, drug his name through the dirt, and still he fasted and blessed them.
But Paul also says that the Church was “restricted by their own afflictions.”
Restricted.
Closed off.
In a state of turmoil.
When we go through things that have the ability to harden our heart, it’s easy to want to hide from God. To take on victim mentality, to refuse forgiveness and hold on to grudges.
You know what’s hard?
Giving it up to God.
An open heart does not mean that we allow abuse to continue to take place, but boundaries and forgiveness go hand in hand. When we live with a closed heart and allow hate to consume our hearts, limitations will continue…
just like the Church of Corinth.
Pain has the power to produce healing, but only if we let it.
The first step to living with an open heart begins with acknowledging that we all feel pain. It is a part of the human condition.
Not acknowledging pain leads to restrictions of our own heart, but acknowledging pain with the help of Christ leads to freedom.
The second step to living with an open heart is making room in our hearts to trust the Lord.
Jesus is the initiator of Justice, and the pursuer of truth. There are situations that have hurt so deeply we want to be the judge and the jury, but when we live with an open heart, we make room for Him to work.
The third step to living with an open heart is choosing Godly grief over worldly sorrow.
Jesus, the man who came and took on flesh to understand every emotion that WE feel, felt it even deeper. He sits with us. He experiences our pain with us. He walks with us.
When we mourn in repentance without regret, worldly pain becomes dim.
When He gave His life for us on the cross, it wasn’t just to take the weight of our sin, but the weight of our pain too. We don’t have to live in anger because Jesus showed us there’s a better way to live, and a better way to love.
When Pastor Caleb asked people what living with an open heart feels like, they answered:
“Confident”
“Free”
“Vulnerable”
“Hopeful”
Don’t you want to feel like that instead?
He is the one man who will never hurt us, never break our hearts.
If we choose to live with an open heart, His love becomes so much greater than our pain.
Tap to watch Pastor Caleb Culver's sermon now on YouTube.