Key Takeaway
You can rest assured that God already knows all your stuff...and He still loves you. He sees through it to the person that He wants you to be and gives you a way to come back to Him through Jesus. Be honest, vulnerable, and accountable so you can thrive in the life God wants for you.
We all look for curb appeal when we're looking for a house, but we depend on the inspection because that exposes the character of it. It shows the issues underneath the surface. God wants to build you into something amazing and He has plans for you, but those plans begin with internal things, not external. The heart determines the house.
Proverbs 4:20-23 shows that to get to where God wants you to be, you can't be about curb appeal. Above all else, guard your heart for it in the wellspring of life. Jesus said the same thing in Luke 6:43-45 when he said that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. We love to be in homes where the heart of the house is incredible; it's warm, inviting, comfortable, and filled with laughter and conversation.
Jesus continues to explain his statement in Luke 6:46-49. A good person brings good out of the things stored in his heart. An evil man brings evil because out of the heart, the mouth speaks. So the good will be reformed by God and a strong foundation, but the evil man does what he wants and is destroyed. All of your hearts in their flesh will bend away from God naturally.
Jesus pointed this out in Mark 7:17-23, it's out of a person's heart that thoughts come. This is why we have to guard our hearts. God sees us as we are. A perfect example of this is when Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well and told her everything she had ever done in John 4. But even though God sees us and all our stuff under the fluff, He also loves us as we are. You can end the curb appeal campaign with God. God is going to call out your stuff because He wants to change your heart so you have a life that lasts. We can stop drawing water from empty wells, Jesus offers living water that never runs out.
We have to get in touch with what is not working in our hearts. We have to become honest with ourselves. Before you can have your heart change, you to have a firm grip on what is less so He can take you to more. We don't have to play games with God, He already knows, we just need to be honest with ourselves. It's vulnerable, but it's necessary. We also have to become accountable to someone. It may be a counselor, a friend, or your family that you can invite into the long haul to help you deal with your stuff and support you as God transforms your heart.
Jesus sees you. We are covered in a blanket of grace because God is a God of love, moving towards us, understanding our need for Him. You don't have to be afraid to be vulnerable with God because he loves you. He wants to bring your heart from death to life.
Discussion Questions
1. Why are we so taken in by curb appeal? When it comes to our lives, what are the external things you are constantly working on? Are you avoiding anything internal at the expense of the external?
2. What determines how a house feels, treats people, and meets needs?
3. Read Proverbs 4:20-23. What are we instructed to do in verse 23?
4. What are our hearts naturally drawn to if we aren't making every effort to stay focused and rooted in the truth?
5. Where is the source for the words that we speak out of our mouths? See Luke 6:45.
6. Read Mark 7:17-23. What types of things come out of our hearts?
7. How is Jesus and his encounter with the Samaritan woman the perfect example of how God sees us fully as we are?
8. Does it make you nervous that God already knows everything about you? What truth can you hold onto? Why does Jesus call us out on our stuff?
9. Do you have someone you can be honest, vulnerable, and accountable with?
10. Why does God cover us with a blanket of grace? What is He wanting to move us towards?
