“The Feet and Heart Connection” 8-27-23
Overview
The Feet and Heart Connection
In Psalm 86:11-12, David offers two intertwined petitions: "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth," and "give me an undivided heart to fear your name." The first asks God to so fashion him in faith that his life walks in truth. The second asks for singularity of mind, emotion, and will—the kind of unified heart God promises in Ezekiel 11:19. David's prayer is for a heart and a walk that belong wholly to the Lord.
A popular bumper sticker says, "It doesn't matter where your feet are on Sunday. What matters is where your heart is on Monday." But Scripture rejects that divide. There is a real spiritual connection between the feet and the heart—where we go shapes who we are. God answers David's two petitions through the means He has appointed: His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are how He births, sustains, and grows faith. The early Christians, freed from Sabbath obligation Colossians 2:16-17 because Christ Himself is our rest, gathered on the first day of the week—the day of resurrection (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2)—to receive what God came to give. Worship, rightly understood, is not primarily our praying, praising, and singing; it is hearing, learning, and receiving as God comes to us in Word and Sacrament.
If the evil one wanted to attack faith, he would attack precisely there—at the means of grace and our reception of them. The temptation is to treat the Lord's Day like any other day: a day to sleep in, catch up on chores, or fill with the activities now scheduled increasingly into Sunday mornings. The result is a soul slowly malnourished, until faith itself withers. We were never meant to live that way. Left to ourselves, we will not rest; God commands rest because He has something to give us, and apart from His Word we will never truly be at rest from the top of our heads to the soles of our feet.
The good news is that on the cross, Christ bore even our pension for crowding Him out of the Lord's Day. He forgives our neglect of His Word and continues coming to us with the gospel—pulling away the rubble of our overscheduled lives and revealing the love that has opened eternity for us. So He gathers His people on His day, not as a burden but as a gift. Where your feet go on Sunday matters, because there is a connection between the feet and the heart, and God in His grace has gathered you to where He gives Himself to you.
Transcript
Would you open up your Bibles please with me to Psalm 86 for our study this morning? 3s
Psalm 86 in the Old Testament if you're using a Pue edition page 507 Psalm 86. 10s
The Gospel writer Luke was a physician by profession. 19s
And of course as a doctor then he would have given medical advice and medical counsel. 25s
Interestingly the Apostle Paul also gave some medical advice in 1 Timothy 5 chapter. 33s
I am not inclined to do that. 43s
But interestingly as I studied for this message I came across some really interesting articles 47s
by several doctors that said that there is a connection between the health of your heart 54s
and your feet. A connection between your feet and your heart. 65s
One doctor put it this way that the feet and the heart go hand in hand. 74s
A nice turn of phrase I think. Well I'll leave the analysis of that up to you and your physician. 82s
But what I do know for certain is that there is a spiritual connection between the feet 93s
and the heart. A spiritual connection. 104s
Luke will be pleased at verse 11 and 12 of Psalm 86. The author here is David. 113s
And in these verses for study this morning there are two petitions that are being offered. 122s
Here's the first one. David cries out and says, 127s
teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Here's the second petition. 131s
Give me an undivided heart to rever your name. Teach and give. David here when he says, 139s
teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. That may walk in it. In other words 151s
he's crying out to the Lord to be so fashioned. The way here is another way of referencing 159s
one's faith. To be so fashioned by God that is that faith is expressed that there is this walk 166s
in the truth. The second petition he's asking for the undivided heart. Remember the heart in 173s
Scripture is so fascinating and so all encompassing. When the heart is referenced in Scripture, 182s
what is being referred to is the mind, the emotions, and the will. So David is saying, 190s
I want a singularity of my heart, a singularity of purpose. God says, in Ezekiel, 199s
the 11th chapter, I will give them one heart that results then in revering the name of God, 209s
all and reverence. A prayer here that David might walk in the truth, walk in the truth of God, 223s
a prayer that his heart will be undivided singularity of purpose. Here's the question. 235s
What is a way that God answers these petitions? What's a way that God answers these petitions? 249s
It was a mid-sized SUV and on the back of the SUV it was literally covered with bumper stickers. 267s
He was a treasure trove for someone who was preparing for the topics of this series. There was certainly 279s
a certain political perspective that was being offered. There were certain philosophies for living. 289s
Some were just plain and innocuous, but there was hardly any paint showing on the back of this person's 297s
SUV covered with stickers. You would have to have several stoplights in order to even begin to 307s
scratch the surface. There was one that particularly was intriguing. It went like this. 315s
It doesn't matter where your feet are on Sunday. What matters is where your heart is on Monday. 329s
It doesn't matter where your feet are on Sunday. What matters is where your heart is on Monday. 345s
No. No. Because there's a connection. There's a connection between the feet and the heart. 363s
In the third commandment that our Lord gave us, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 386s
Well, when Jesus came, the early Christians knew for well that they were under no obligation 398s
to worship on Saturday anymore. They were under no obligation to worship on the day designated as the 406s
Sabbath anymore. Colossians, the second chapter, says this, therefore, do not let anyone condemn you 414s
in matters of food and drink or observing festivals, new moons or Sabbaths. 423s
You see the Sabbath, the worshiping on Saturday, the Sabbath pointed ahead to the rest that 430s
comes through Jesus Christ. Because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his actions on 442s
cross and the empty tomb, because of that, we can rest, we can cease from our laborers 450s
of trying to earn salvation. And we can rest in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 459s
So the early Christians, they knew that the command to worship on Saturday 470s
because Christ had come, was no longer. They were no longer under that obligation. 478s
They quickly changed the day. They quickly changed it. 486s
Acts tells us in Acts 20, on the first day of the week when we met to break bread. 492s
Or, first Corinthians the 16th chapter, it says, on the first day of every week, 500s
the Christians understanding their no longer under the obligation 506s
to worship on Saturday because Christ had come and because that was a pointing ahead to the 511s
rest that would come in the Lord Jesus Christ quickly. And I mean quickly, quickly, 517s
change the day to what day. Sunday, Sunday, and what a perfect day to change it to, 523s
the very day that our Lord rose in our Lutheran confessional writings, in our doctrinal 539s
writings, in the large catacusum, says this, since from ancient times, Sunday has been appointed 549s
for this purpose, worship, we should not change it. In this way, a common order will prevail 557s
and no one will create this order by unnecessary innovation. Luther writes in the small 566s
lektis word in the preaching of it, but regarded as holy and gladly here and learn it. 579s
God uses means. He uses means to give us faith, to sustain faith and to grow faith. What are those 590s
means? Bible reveals to us that the means whereby God uses to accomplish that is word and 607s
sacrament, where the two sacraments baptism and holy communion, the word, God's infallible 616s
infallible word. Inerrant without error, infallible, incapable of error, and it's those means, 624s
God says, it's those means that I use He says to birth, to keep and to grow faith. Those very means. 634s
I like how a Missouri Senate pastor, Clement Proyce puts it. He says, you know, when it comes to worship, 655s
worship is not primarily us praying, praising and singing. If worship were primarily praying, 664s
praising and singing, well you could basically do that anywhere. He says, no, worship is not primarily 676s
praying, praising and singing. He says, worship is hearing and learning and receiving. 683s
You see the biblical direction here? He's he's spot on on this. It's not, it's not worship 699s
primarily as this. It's worship as this where God comes to us in word and sacrament so that we 706s
are not partitions of Psalm 86. It's through word and sacrament in the worship, as he gathers 736s
his people. Okay? So if you were Satan, how's that for a question? 754s
If you were Satan, where would you attack? Since God establishes the means and He says, 767s
this is how I birth grow and sustain your faith. Since God establishes those means to accomplish 782s
that with regard to faith? Well, if you were Satan, where would you attack? He'd attack 790s
the very means of grace, wouldn't you, and the reception of it. So what is the temptation of the evil one? 802s
The temptation is for us to be tempted to treat the Lord's day Sunday, as if it's just like any 815s
other day. It's like any other day to treat it like that. What would be the temptation? 829s
The temptation to attack the reception of word and sacrament. So what's the temptation? 843s
To schedule ourselves silly. The other rest of the week, to schedule ourselves, so that 849s
when the Lord's day comes, we find ourselves saying things like, 861s
oh, it's only the eye can sleep in. It's only the eye can do laundry. It's only the eye can catch up on 870s
the chores I gotta go food shopping. Where is it that the world is tempting? 876s
It's the Lord's day to do what? To schedule. Have you noticed? Have you noticed how much 887s
stuff is getting scheduled between the hours of 830 and noon on Sunday? 897s
I mean, it's all over the place now. That is a brilliant plan, if you were saying. It's brilliant. 910s
Because it treats the day, the Lord's day, as if it's like any other day, schedule oneself silly, 925s
so you're run exhaustedly into the last day. So that one then pulls themselves away 933s
from the means that God has established to birth, keep sustain and grow our faith. 944s
So that we become malnourished because we aren't receiving what God has to give us through 953s
his means so that we might become malnourished and so malnourished that we come to the point where we 963s
realize that we don't even have to eat and death occurs. Not physical death. Death 972s
of one's faith, it's a brilliant, a brilliant plan of the evil one. One of my favorite 990s
professors in seminary was the fellow by the name of Jim Nestigan. Nestigan recently was 1012s
transferred by our Lord to his heavenly home. Nestigan had such an amazing gift. He had a gift of 1019s
taking that which is complex and reducing it to that which is clear and concise and crisp. 1030s
And when he would teach and when he would preach, when he would get a go and he would start to rock 1043s
back and forth and listen to him, you just kind of started to do the same thing 1054s
as you were listening to him and his and his north Dakota accent would just get thicker 1062s
as he would rock as he would teach and preach. And Nestigan said, 1069s
Nestigan said that God gives us a day to rest, to rest and to hear his word. He gives us that. 1078s
Nestigan said, because left to ourselves, we won't rest. We won't. We'll just get caught up in 1093s
all kinds of stuff and keep filling the schedule with all kinds of stuff to where we come into the 1103s
Lord's day absolutely pancing because we're just retired. He said, what we'll do is we'll just keep 1109s
running around and around and around scheduling stuff because we won't rest. 1119s
He said, God commands us. He commands us to rest. He commands us. 1132s
To hear and receive and to learn. Nestigan put it this way. God tells us 1144s
to stop it, to just stop it because he has something to give us. All of the things that 1168s
fill the Lord's day God says, stop it. Stop it. When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, 1195s
he bore all of our sin, all of it, including our pension for yielding to the temptation of the 1220s
evil one to fill the Lord's day with our stuff and to push Him into the background. 1230s
He bore that sin on the cross. He bore our succumbing to the temptation of not 1243s
receiving the word of God and gladly hearing and learning it and treating it as holy. He bore 1255s
that on the cross and He said, forgiven, forgiven. And He is at work in our lives through His word. 1261s
He is at work in our lives continually coming to us with the word that we need to hear. The truth 1276s
of His word, He keeps coming to us with that gospel, clear and crisp and concise of what He has 1284s
done in the Lord Jesus Christ. He keeps coming to us with His word pulling away all of the 1294s
humble and all of the stuff that we put in our lives pulling it away and revealing to us, 1304s
His incredible love for us, a love that has opened up for us eternity. 1318s
God and His grace gathering us together, pulling us back to the glorious beauty of the Lord's 1329s
beauty and telling us, I command you, I command you to rest. 1347s
And telling us to His word that we will never be rested. We will never be rested from the top of 1363s
our head to the souls of our feet. We will never be rested apart from the reception of His word. 1371s
We can sleep till noon. We could do whatever it is that wants to get in the way of the Lord's day 1383s
and say, I feel so good but will never be rested. Never rested without resting in the beauty 1394s
of what God has to give us. Words and sacrament. 1406s
It doesn't matter where your feet go on Sunday. What matters is where your heart is on Monday. 1417s
No. Because there's a connection between the feet and the heart and God and His grace 1435s
has gathered you here today for that very reason because God understands the connection. 1455s
Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we pray for Your goodness and grace. We praise you 1476s
for the gospel. We praise you, O Lord, for the Word of forgiveness and life eternal one 1484s
through the cross and the empty tomb. We praise you for the means of grace, word and sacrament. 1491s
Your appointed means for accomplishing that what you want to accomplish in our lives. 1501s
We give you thanks, O Lord, for the Lord's day, your day in which you tell us to rest 1510s
because you have something to give us. For that word refreshes and rejuvenates us. 1521s
We praise you that in your grace you gather us to this place where we meet on Holy ground 1533s
because you have something to give us. We praise you for the connection 1546s
between the feet and the heart and Jesus strong and holding it. Amen. 1555s