Marriage Seminar - The Head & the Heart - Part Three

[larry2]

Marriage Seminar - The Head & the Heart

by Gene Hawkins

Part Three of Six

~ transcribed and edited from CD's by larry2 ~

This morning we will look into examples of some differences of thinking with the head and the heart. This first one that we see is about exactly the same incident, and that's what makes it so important that we understand, because we're not talking about being emotional thinking in this one and thinking like a man in this one. To emphasize the fact, when men and women look upon exactly the same situation, they are going to feel about and react to it in two different ways and this becomes the hard part, we have to as a couple decide which is God's way.

(Luke 1:29-35) This is Mary when she saw the angel. (29) "And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. (30) And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. (31) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. (32) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: (33) And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (34) Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" Now I want to see here that she asked this question, but it is not a question of unbelief. It is a question inquiring for more information and there is not one thing wrong with that, because what she has heard defies all that she already knows to be true; for a woman to be pregnant she has to be with a man. She says I've not been with any man, so it was not out of order for her to ask. (35) "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." I want to notice that she didn't ask one question. She didn't ask the how of it at all. The angel said this is what it's going to be and that was sufficient for her; she didn't need to know the how of the matter. 

(Luke 1:36-38) "And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. (37) For with God nothing shall be impossible. (38) And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." Her response here is a response of the heart; she didn't reason anything out as to how this was going to come to pass, he just said it was and she just laid herself wide open for the vessel for God to use. That's what God is looking for in all of us, and we're going to get to that here in just a little bit.

Now contrast that with Joseph's story. (Matthew 1:18-24) "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. (19) Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. (20) But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (21) And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (22) Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, (23) Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (24) Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

(Matthew 1:18 repeated) "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph," that is, she was engaged to him, "Before they came together," they absolutely had no sexual contact until after Jesus was born; she was a virgin, "She was found with child of the Holy Ghost." And so again "When as Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."

Now look at Joseph, he was not some sinner or unbelieving person that never heard of God. He was not some person that was so devoid of spiritual instruction that he didn't know what was going on and so he was just dismissing things. Joseph was a just man and also a man who was willing to take his place as the protector that God had made him. (Matthew 1:19 repeated) "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily." He did that in order to protect her. He was doing exactly what God intended him to do and he was doing exactly as to how God had made him. (Matthew 1:20 repeated) "But while he thought."  He is doing exactly the way that God made him, he is thinking; this is what a man does. Whenever things come up you will find that the wheels start spinning and sometimes you find the smoke start belching out the ears and things like this. He is working that hard trying to reason out and to find a solution.

Joseph was doing exactly and following the same pattern as to which had made him. He could have been thinking along such lines as this; the judgment. Go back through the Old Testament and read the severe judgment that fell on a woman that was pregnant out of wedlock. One good case is in the case of Judah. Do you remember his daughter-in-law got pregnant whenever he refused to give her the son he had promised so she played the harlot and Judah her father-in-law got her pregnant? When he found out he was incensed about it and so his reasoning mind says alright, we're going to bring down the hammer on you; let her be brought forth and burned with fire. Then when he found out whose it was he had to back off a little and of course there's a wonderful story of divine grace in there but you see, all of these thoughts could well have been running through the mind of Joseph.

The point that I want to make here is that we never read that Mary even considered what the neighbors would think; that didn't even enter into her mind at all. She didn't even consider it and why? She's thinking from her heart and the heart don't think beyond what it can feel, and her feeling was for this new baby and what God had told her; this was the only thing that was important to her and so it didn't even enter into her head the fallout or reproach, or any kind of the persecution that might arise as a result of anything like that.

And I want to say right now and we're going to see it later on: there is an advantage to us when we act out of such a heart when God has ordered it. We have to forget about the reasoning mind, but understand that Joseph was doing exactly as God had made him. Do you realize that Joseph was exactly right in all of the fears that he had. Even down to our day men still question the virgin birth and Mary's just a young peasant girl who got into trouble. Joseph saw that before it ever happened and years later when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, do you remember what they said to him? (John 8:41) "We be not born of fornication." Do you know what they're saying? The insinuation was, you were born of fornication. Even down to that day Joseph's fears had been realized, he was right in his thinking all along, he was not some ungodly man devoid of spiritual strength and blessing at all.

(Matthew 1:20 repeated) "But while he (Joseph) thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream." and this is what I want to notice here that I did not notice quite a number of years and that is that Joseph's first reaction was to go to his reasoning head, but do you realize what God did for this man because He knew his honesty, and God knew He wanted for His purposes to be fulfilled, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and He did that because a dream is one of the quickest ways to your emotions there is. Now you just think about it for a moment; I have waked up at various times in my life and something happening in a dream so real and your heart is just a pumping; I mean here I have been laying in bed doing absolutely nothing yet my heart is going like I have been running about ten or fifteen miles. The emotions are so powerful and yet people don't even realize it, and so when a woman was made that way, she can be a powerful individual force but as we will find out here that has to be channeled.

So with Joseph, God did not come and try to explain how this was to come about. He didn't let Joseph go back to his reasoning mind as to how such a thing could be, and you know people are still trying to figure out how that God could come down and plant that seed into the womb of a woman. You're never going to answer that question any more than you're going to answer the question of how God can come down and plant the seed of His Son in the heart of a sinner and he be born again. You can't reason that out, it's something you have to take by faith from the heart.

Joseph was willing to do that (Matthew 1:20-24) "The Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (21) And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (22) Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, (23) Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Did you notice that the only thing God gave Joseph was the scripture? You see, this is what men have to learn to do. We have to learn to take God's word for exactly what it says and quit trying to reason it out the way we are really impressed to do and the natural thing to do. (24) "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:" And how grateful we can be for that example because we have to follow the same one even when we can't reason it out, even when we can't sort it all out in our so called wonderful fantastic brains, there are times we just have to surrender it to the Lord and realize that God is certainly above and beyond any explanation that we might demand. So Joseph did as the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife. So what I want to notice in this particular example is: men, we must eventually think with our hearts too, but God has given to us the head as a safeguard and we're going to see that in just a little bit too.

Another example here is Zacharias. Here are two babies involved; Jesus and John the Baptist. (Luke 1:5-11) "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. (6) And they were both righteous before God," Now we need to understand Zechariah is not some backsliding fallen man here; he is a righteous man as was his wife Elizabeth. They were righteous before God and not just righteous before man; that was not their testimony of themselves. "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (7) And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. (8) And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, (9) According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. (10) And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. (11) And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense." Now what I noticed here is that this is not a dream so no, he really didn't go to his emotions. He saw this angel of the Lord as we would say a vision, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to do and say the right thing. People think oh if I could only have a vision of the Lord it'd make me so spiritual; it will not. Spirituality comes from inside and our response to the Lord, not from the fact we see things. You know, some people think that if they can just witness and experience all of these miracles it would make them so spiritual. All you've got to do is read through Israel and their journeys in the wilderness and they experienced and witnessed miracle after miracle after miracle. When it was all said and done God said you’re the most stiff necked rebellious people I ever saw; it didn't change them. Spirituality beloved comes from the inside as we respond to the ways of the Lord. 

(Luke 1:11-18)  So "There appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. (12) And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. (13) But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard." Zacharias and Elizabeth had been praying for a son and you would think oh my, if they had been doing that oh bless the Lord, here's the answer; no I'm afraid not. "Thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. (14) And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. (15) For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." He's going to be a Nazarite and all of these things as you see. (18) "And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Wrong answer! You know his reasoning mind got ahead of him and this is not even though he had been praying about it. How many times do we hear I've been praying about this and yet when God goes to do something; oh no, this can't be it and this can't be happening. "Whereby shall I know this?"  Again here is a reasoning mind.

"For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." Well, here's what he got for a reasoning mind with his eyes on circumstance and I can tell you men, that you and I may experience the same thing.

In Jesus' name - larry2