Journey Together

LAYERS - HEART #4
This month we have been talking about the heart and the importance of getting our heart in order. From the heart all life flows. Jesus came to show the heart of God in everything. We started off with fake plants, cleaning cups, last week with fruit, and tonight we are going to talk about layers - specifically onion layers.

I know many of you aren’t doctors but tonight you get to pretend that you are. I am going to give you a list of symptoms and you have to tell me what sickness these symptoms describe.
Here are some symptoms - your goal is to guess what symptoms go with what sickness.
symptoms :: fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss of appetite, and body aches. = YOU MAY HAVE THE FLU
Symptoms : : the stuffy nose, sore throat, and cough = YOU HAVE A COMMON COLD
Symptoms : : Aching, tiredness, headache, fever, sore throat, itchy skin rash, blisters =Chix Pox

If you have more than one symptom you know that there is something else going on. You start linking them together and discover you have a cold, fever, flue etc. We go to the doctor and try and fix the root problem that is causing the symptoms. The symptoms are bad but the root of the symptoms is the disease which causes the symptoms - find the root and you solve the symptoms. If we don't treat the root cause the symptoms never go away.

Things in our life our the same way we can look at our lives and see symptoms but few of us actually ever look and try and link the symptoms to the root cause. See there is nothing that shows up on the outside of our life that cannot be tied to what is going on in the inside of our lives.
If we have pride in our hearts it’s going to show up on the outside in many different symptoms. Anything that shows up on the outside is a direct tie to something that is happening on the inside.

Our lives are like onions. You know what I mean?
Well what i mean is - our lives have many layers as well. If everything on the outside points to something going on in the inside then we have to peel away the layers to see what the root of all the symptoms is - what is causing us to do _______.
Let’s deconstruct our onions - our lives. See on the outside an onion has a little smell to it but it looks whole - together. When we get into it we see that there are layers, lots of layers. The stink comes out.
If our lives are like onions then let’s take a life and look at it and see if we can get to the root of what’s going on.
The guy sitting in traffic just full of rage that he is going to be late - and he is honking his horn yelling. That’s the top layer. The next layer is he is so busy - he is always running around and he feels like his plate is full and it is. Why does he continue to say yes to things? Is he trying to win people’s approval? Insecurity? The symptom is he has road rage the core issue is he isn’t yelling it’s much deeper.
What are your symptoms? Have you ever tried and linked the symptoms together to see what the root issue is? Anger, Bitterness, Lust, Control, Un-Forgiveness, etc. What are the big circumstances that have happened in your life that could cause symptoms? Divorce, Parent leaving, Friendship broken, etc. Have you dealt with those? Have you healed from those? Anger, bitterness whatever it is doesn't go away on it's own it only gets bigger and worse. Treat the root, find the root, peel back the layers - before the symptoms take over.