This sermon emphasizes the importance of addressing the hardness of the heart, likening it to a heart of stone that repels everything, including God's word and relationships. The speaker highlights the need for humility and a spirit-filled life to absorb and cherish interactions instead of breaking them. The contrast between a hard, rigid heart and a humble, gentle spirit is explored, emphasizing the impact on marriages, relationships, and the ability to receive God's word.

Jesus was calling them out on their hardness, their stiff neck, their rigid, they're always, your heart is hard as stone, heart is like iron. It was always the hardness of the heart. You know what that looks like? I brought an analogy because I know you guys like me, like to use analogies, right? The closest thing I could find was this, this stone. I think I got on my way to, I don't know where I got it. Hardest can be, I think one of my kids actually fell on it on the ground once. It didn't give away at all. This is what Jesus is talking about. Many of us are walking around with this. Don't you touch me. The things of God, everything, everything, your heart is stone. So Jesus is saying, get rid of that. Get rid of that hardness. You're driving everybody away. You're not receptive. And that's what it looks like. A heart is a heart of stone. What can go into that? So what happens is, here's the analogy part. Our spouse comes up against the heart of stone, right? Our spouse comes up, sorry, Ronnie, I'm gonna help clean. Other people come up, our kids, every, nothing's work. It's a heart of stone. Everything that comes up against you breaks. No wonder your marriage is falling apart. No wonder relationships are falling apart. You need another analogy? Here's what happens. The word of God even comes up against you. Everything that's coming up against you, it's everything, nothing's working. Why? What's wrong with that? The hardness of the heart. That's why God's word can't get through. That's why the marriage is falling apart. That's why everything is going haywire in your life. The hard heart. Now contrasting when somebody's filled with the spirit of God, what's normally the analogy for that? Water, overflowing, filled with the spirit of God. So what happens then? When something like glass hits that, whoops, I can tie that in somehow. Anyway, it's not broken. What hits, it absorbs, it's in the spirit. It's a spirit-filled life. So what used to break against the hard rock is now absorbed by the spirit-filled life. So now the spouse feels love and appreciated, not broken. Now your kids feel loved and appreciated, not broken. Why? Because they hit the spirit-filled life. That's what humility does, the desperate need for humility. This is humility. So when something comes up against you, it's absorbed and it's cherished and it's held. It's not broken on the hard stone. When God's word comes into you, it is received and welcomed because you're filled with the spirit of God. Humility, gentleness, love, joy, peace, contentment. What's the opposite of that? Hard, rigid, arrogant. Pharisees, judgmental. You see the difference? That's the hard heart. It breaks everything. So many times, a lot of times in counseling, we've got to go after that. I've got to get my hammer out after that. I've got to get a big sledgehammer out after that and break the heart. That's why I talk about the hammer of God coming and crushing the hard heart and breaking that heart so it breaks. Because it takes broken men to break men from the pulpit. It also takes broken men to guide your families in the fear of the Lord and cherishing your spouse and your kids instead of breaking them every time they come up against you. And men call it toughness. God calls it a hard heart. Men say, I was just raised that way. God calls it a hard heart. Excuses must bow at the foot of the cross.