OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART

By:  Pastor Carmin Battista

Have you ever looked at someone or yourself and thought about what was in that person in abundance. Luke 6:45 says whatever is in a person in abundance will come out of their mouth!  Have you ever heard someone who is under pressure (or had a few to many drinks in them) say something then catch themselves and say “I didn’t mean that”?   O, yes they did or it would not have come out of their mouth.

 Let’s look more closely at Luke 6:45.  It says that a good man or an evil man will bring forth the good or the evil that has been stored in their heart in abundance.  Two points to keep in mind here are:  1)  How did it get into their heart in abundance?  2)  What did Jesus mean when he said “brings forth”.  Things get into our hearts in abundance by what we continually look at, listen to, or speak. The more time you spend looking, listening, speaking and consuming, your spirit with something, the more “in abundance” it will be in your heart.  This works both for the good and the bad.

 Look at Proverbs 4:20-25.  It says that we must incline our ears (or make them) to listen to God’s Word and to let them (God’s Word) not depart from before our eyes.  Keep them (God’s Word) in the midst of our heart, then our heart will be full of His Word and we will have life instead of death.  I don’t know about you but that tells me that I decide my future is based upon the amount of time I spend in God’s Word.  The devil can’t stop me with his lies if I put the Word of God to work in my life!  Now look at verses 23-25. If I want this to work proficiently I must keep my heart with all diligence (that means it takes effort) if I want to have life.  It also says to put away a disobedient mouth.

 The second point refers to the phrase ‘brings forth’.  This means the things spoken out of the abundance of the heart will come into being because they came forth out of the things that were in your heart in abundance (good or bad).  In other words, they were not coming to pass until some one spoke them forth out of a heart of abundance.  Mark 11:23 says that we have what we say when we say what we have without doubting. A person with a heart full of abundance believes those things they say or they wouldn’t be saying them.  Keep in mind we have what we say based on Matt. 28:18 and Mark 16:17-18.

 My challenge for you is to put and then keep God’s Word in you heart on a consistent basis.  For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks!

Copyright 2006 Faith Foundations Church