The heart in Christian preaching symbolizes the core of human nature, encompassing desires, intentions, and spiritual condition (Jeremiah 17:9; Ezekiel 36:26). Illustrations often use images of conflict, disease, and deception to reveal inner struggles and the need for divine transformation. The heart's true state shapes speech, actions, and destiny, emphasizing genuine renewal over outward appearances.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) wrote:
“The heart has its reasons that reason does not know... What a vast distance there is between knowing God and loving Him... Human things must be known to be loved: but Divine things must be loved to be known.”
In September 1993, with the Major League Baseball season nearing its end, the first-place Philadelphia Phillies visited the second-place Montreal Expos. In the first game of the series, the home team Expos came to bat one inning trailing 7-4. Their first two batters reached base. The manager sent a pinch hitter to the plate, rookie Curtis Pride, who had never gotten a hit in the major leagues. Pride took his warm up swings, walked to the plate, and on the first pitch laced a double, scoring two runners. The stadium thundered as 45,757 fans screamed their approval. The Expos third base coach called time, walked toward Pride, and told him to take off his batting helmet.
What's wrong with my helmet? wondered the rookie. Then, realizing what his coach meant, Pride tipped his cap to the appreciative fans.
After the game, someone asked Pride if he could hear the cheering. This person wasn't giving the rookie a hard time. Curtis Pride is 95 percent deaf. "Here," Pride said, pointing to his heart. "I could hear it here."
Sometimes we hear things most strongly in our heart. Curtis Pride heard the fans' approval in his heart. It's in our hearts that God wants us to know his approval of our faith in Jesus Christ. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Rom. 8:16). -Harry J. Heintz Troy, New York
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist."
-- Louis Nizer, American Lawyer (1902-1994)
I started thinking about Saint Valentine's Day and ended up thinking like Andy Rooney.
Do you realize how many ways you use the word "heart"?
If you mean business, you take something to heart, have your heart in it, or speak from your heart. Such sincerity means that your heart is in the right place. And if you admonish someone about a serious matter the two of you have a heart-to-heart talk.
If you are too hard on someone you need to have a heart. If you are too soft on someone you don't have the heart.
If you have a goal you set your heart on it. If in the process of time, reaching that goal seems highly unlikely, you lose heart. If someone else breezes by you and successfully captures your goal you eat your heart out.
Of course, there is your heart, and there is your heart. The heart you superstitiously cross in making a promise is not the heart you superfluously wear on your sleeve.
There is the heart that beats in your breast. That is, unless a good scare has chased your heart up into your throat, or bad news has sunk your heart down into your boots.
Then there is the heart of your inner being. It is the place where you will or won't before you do or you don't. It might be a divided heart of indecision, a broken heart of sorrow, or a big heart of generosity. When someone does your heart good, it is this heart. When you find it in your heart to do something good for someone else, it is this heart.
Now, if you like working out in the gymnasium of semantics, you might think that what I've written about your heart is worth committing to memory. If you do memorize it you will probably say you have learned it by heart.
Actually, you really only learn something by heart if you give your heart to it. You have to put your heart into it. Otherwise you've just learned it by head.
My final say will be a verse of Scripture. I hope it will pull on your heart strings. I hope you respond to it with all your heart.
Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me" (John 14:1).
- Rev. George E. Atha
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Remember the valentines you gave other students in elementary school? Every card had a heart on it; some were even cut in that shape. Did you ever carve a heart into wood and place your name and someone else's inside?
From childhood we have learned to connect the heart with love. We often say, "You're in my heart." More often than not, however, we mean little more than we have a childlike attraction. It's wispy feeling that evaporates like a morning fog.
Scientists have discovered that every snowflake has a tiny piece of dust at its core. Yes, every snowflake has a "dirty heart." In the spiritual realm, when the blood of Christ is applied to the heart of an unbeliever, it cleanses him from all sin. Not a speck of defilement remains, for God removes every stain and washes him even whiter than snow.
"Why in the world would I want to become a Christian?" asked a young woman who was responding to a question posed by a street minister. That day, the minister was handing out to those passing by a pamphlet on inviting Christ into one's life and becoming a Christian. "Being a Christian means I will have to give up everything I enjoy; smoking, drinking, telling jokes, and wearing the types of clothes I like," said the young woman. The minister just stood and listened as the woman went on, "I am not perfect. I cannot be like you. I am a sinner, so I cannot be a Christian." After a moment, the minister responded, "Is that what you think, that Jesus died for the sins of the PERFECT, for the sinless?" "Well, no," replied the young woman as she fumbled with her purse, slightly unnerved. The minister continued, "It is because of our sinful nature that God sent His Son. The Bible is not filled with stories of perfect people, but of the imperfect; of robbers who repented of their stealing, of prostitutes who turned from their evil ways, and of adulterers who sought forgiveness from their sins. Through God, and His Son Jesus Christ, we can OVERCOME sin through His mercy and forgiveness." The young woman seemed confused. "So, are you telling me that even if I smoke, drink, tell jokes, and dress the way I want, God will still accept me the way I am?" Again, the minister answered, "God is more concerned with the inner being than what shows on the outside. He recognizes a pure and sincere heart, one that seeks to please Him." (\reference{Matthew 25:46}{Matthew 25:46}) "And what if I screw up?" asked the woman. "God forgives those who truly seek His forgiveness and repent of their past transgressions," responded the minister as he handed the young woman a small Bible, "that is the only difference between you and me. It is not that I am perfect, for I am far from it." During that same hour, the minister and young woman talked more about God, forgiveness, and a change of heart. Right then, the young woman made a conscious decision to accept Jesus Christ into her life, for she realized she had exactly what it took to be a Christian... a sinner who was not perfect, but sought God's perfect way.
“And as to Judas Iscariot, my reason is different. I would fain see the face of him who, having dipped his hand in the same dish with the Son of Man, could afterwards betray Him. I have no conception of such a thing; nor have I ever seen any picture, not even Leonardo’s very fine one, that gave me the least idea of it.” So, according to William Hazlitt in his essay “Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen,” spake Charles Lamb. And so say we all. Could we see his face, we might get some idea of the man, and some understanding of his crime. Judas is the man of mystery among the Twelve. -- McCartney
Judas’ heart, not his face, reflected his treachery, and He Whom Judas’ betrayed saw that reflection. -- D. V. M.
When Sir Walter Raleigh was led to the block, his executioner asked
him if his head lay right. Raleigh answered, "It matters little, my
friend, how the head lies provided the heart is right. Here in the
presence of God, here before him through whom are revealed the secrets
of all hearts, here before the Cross of mercy and of love, what does
your heart speak? How does your heart lie?
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My Source:
HURST STREET HERALD
Vol 20, #20, May 23, 1999
Author: Darwin Hunter
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ASSESSING BLAME FOR THE COLUMBINE SHOOTINGS
by Darwin Hunter
School violence, again. This time in Colorado. Shots are fired, bombs set, 15 dead. Then the hand-wringing begins, the child psychologists are called, and the politicians are mobilized. The answers they suggest and the solutions they propose are puny and short-sighted at best. Movies are the culprit, they say. They promote violence, and glorify such carnage. Others contend that the problem is guns, their availability to young people, and adult carelessness in their storage. Sadly, everything is thought of and discussed except the REAL PROBLEM.
What is wrong with today's youth? Why are they so twisted in mind, and perverted in values that such tragedies have become commonplace in America? Can we take the real answer, the truth?
Evil hearts (thoughts) produce evil actions! There is the answer. Eric and Dylan allowed hatred and vengefulness to invade their thoughts and control their thinking, and the result was murder and mayhem in a school. They even networked with others possessing the same evil intentions, and rage erupted. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). The Lord taught that a defiled heart will produce such things as "murders, adulteries, fornications..." (Matthew 15:18-20). These boys themselves bear responsibility for giving their minds over to evil, and allowing it to fester and grow.
I know that many will say that this is too simplistic an answer to a complex problem. And, in some respects it may be. It does not discuss the influences which led the boys to these thoughts. Violent movies and video games, the teaching of evolution in the classroom, and the parental failure, all of which play a role.
We are more comfortable talking about Hollywood's movies, and the gun manufacturers, and poor educators. That is not personal, and it is easier to point a finger elsewhere. But, consider this: Cain never saw a movie produced in Hollywood, never attended a public school, and never owned a gun (or misused someone else's). Yet, he still slew his brother (Genesis 4). Personal responsibility was not removed from him simply because he had sinful parents (Genesis 3), or was a member of a fallen society. God's judgment is individual and will emphasize personal accountability (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:12).
I am NOT defending Hollywood and its senseless depictions of gratuitous violence. None can defend such movies as "Basketball Diaries," in which a trenchcoat-clad character portrayed by Leonardo DeCaprio "blows away" his fellow classmates. Nor, can we ignore the fact that many kids are "messed up" because their parents are so "messed up." Schools have certainly played a part, too, by ignoring the place of Bible-based morals in a well-rounded education. But, somewhere in the analysis of such a tragedy, someone should remind us that it is a story of two boys who gave their minds over to Satan.
My Source:
THE SOUTHSIDE REMINDER
Volume XXII, #13
Publication of Southside church of Christ, Pasadena, TX
A non-institutional church
Author: Jason Moore
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THE MORAL HEART
by Jason Moore
The moral heart is misunderstood in our day. Great progress has been made in understanding the maladies of the physical heart. Yet while great leaps and bound have brought us to the point that bypass surgery has about the same risk as an appendectomy, the moral center of man's being has been shrouded in myth and fiction.
The moral heart, like the physical heart, is constructed of four chambers. All four chambers have a distinct function and each must be kept in proper working order to ensure a healthy heart.
The Intellect is the DIGESTIVE CHAMBER of the moral heart. It equips man for three activities: knowing, thinking, and understanding. It's function for the moral man is closely kin to that of the digestive organs for the physical man. It is not just a receptacle but a facility for knowledge just as the stomach is not just a silo but a refinery for food. The intellect collects and stores (knowing), chews and breaks down (thinking), and then distributes and assimilates (understanding) the information and experience gathered through the five senses. Faith is an act of the intellect, not an act of the emotion. "With the heart man believes…" (Romans 10:10) is speaking of the intellect because faith is an intellectual persuasion based on knowing, thinking and understanding the evidence about God: "So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Three rules for the care of the intellect correspond to the three God-given faculties that it possess: 1) PROPER DIET, 2) PROPER EXERCISE, 3) PROPER CLOTHING. The proper diet for the intellect is truth. It is properly exercised in the study and meditation of truth. The only way properly to clothe the intellect and protect it from the hazards of such elements as falsehood and myths is by applying the truth to oneself.
The Emotion is the COMBUSTION CHAMBER of the moral heart. As the word e-motion suggests it is the portion of the heart that moves man. The emotions are fueled by the intellect. The information and experience gathered through the five senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting) and digested by the intellect feed and ignite reactions within the emotion chamber. These reactions, or emotions, then spark chemical changes within the body that "turn on" a man for action--to flee, to fight, to cry, to rejoice, to love. So intense are the physiological changes that accompany the emotions, that the ancients identified the seat of the emotions in the belly and loins. Listen to 1 Peter 1:13: "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind for action." This passage indicates that emotional reactions can and must be controlled reactions which prepare a man to run in the right direction.
Emotions move but they are not equipped either to steer or to brake; they are just the engine room. A man controls his emotions by steering his intellect. He turns on and off his emotional burners by turning his head or his attention and by refining the mixture of information and experience with fuel his emotion--by pondering things true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, reputable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). Meekness or gentleness is chiefly the virtue of mastering the emotions. The man like Esau who is a slave to his passions will sell his inheritance for a mess of pottage. Never mastering himself, he is always the slave of another. The meek, on the other hand, inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
The Conscience is the JUDICIAL CHAMBER of the moral heart. Conscience is the apparatus that sits in judgment over a man's actions and is for this reason described as the Judicial Chamber of the heart. As the judge of a man's moral condition it is constantly on watch delivering its verdict on past, present, and even future action. It commends or condemns past action, accuses or excuses present conduct, and approves or disapproves contemplated activity (Romans 2:15). it is properly a judicial and not a legislative chamber. The conscience doesn't make laws, it only enforces them. The conscience must be informed properly of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil, sin and righteousness, vice and virtue, wickedness and uprightness. It is good at judging and policing action, but it is only as dependable as the standard it has been taught. The conscience is quite vulnerable to three sorts of injuries. (1) An uneducated or misinformed conscience like an ignorant jury or a sleeping dog will let the trespasser go free, so that Paul could say when he was a persecutor of the church, "I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 26:9). If regularly disregarded and so trampled upon, like unshod feet, the conscience grows callous after its blisters heal and becomes dull and insensitive (Ephesians 4:19). (3) If truth is the friend of the conscience, then a lie is its worst enemy, just like a false witness is the foe of the courtroom. For that reason the consciences of liars and hypocrites are said to be seared (1 Timothy 4:2).
The Will is the EXECUTIVE CHAMBER of the moral heart. Man is endowed with the power of choice and the will is the seat of that faculty. The other chambers of the moral heart are subject to the will. The intellect empowers the will to make informed decisions, but the attention of the intellect is turned by the will. A man decides with what to fill his intellect like he does his belly, by a pattern of choices he develops habits of thought, and having understood a truth he decides what to do about it. While the will must push the intellect, it must restrain the emotion. The emotions tug at the will like a horse at the reins, but the will is in the saddle and tames the heart (or emotion) by turning the head (or intellect) this way and that. In fact, we sometimes say to the impatient, "Hold your horses!" The conscience lobbies the executive chamber of the will to act in accord with justice. The will decides whether to heed or to trample the appeals of the conscience. Furthermore, by an act of will a man applies the intellect to the training of his conscience and so chooses his counselors like a president chooses his cabinet. He can fill it with flatterers who always applaud him or fill it with wise advisers who censure him when necessary.
The physical heart is a thing of wonder but the moral heart is even more so. See how it's made, learn how it functions, know the risk factors, and understanding how to care for your moral heart, keep it healthy.
A daring story has been told of a young Frenchman who loved a courtesan. This woman hated her lover’s mother, and when, in his passion, he offered her any gift in return for her love, she answered: “Bring me then your mother’s bleeding heart.”
And he, in his madness, killed his mother and, plucking out her heart, hurried by night through the streets, carrying it to the cruel woman to whom he had given his soul. But as he went he stumbled and fell, and from the bleeding heart came an anxious voice, “My son, are you hurt?” Not even murder could kill that mother’s love; it lived on in the torn heart.
— Ministers’ Research Service
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. --1 Samuel 16:7
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be the last tree on the lot on Christmas Eve? People have passed you by because you were the wrong size or had gnarled branches or a poor shape or your needles were falling.
Perhaps you feel like a rejected Christmas tree. You don't quite measure up to people's expectations. You think nobody wants you.
There's good news. God doesn't look at you the way people do. He looks at your heart.
When the prophet Samuel was looking for a person who was qualified to be the next king of Israel, Jesse paraded his seven oldest sons in front of him. But the Lord had not chosen any of them. God told Samuel, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (v.7).
Jesse's youngest son was out tending the sheep. He wasn't even being considered. Yet when Samuel found young David, he anointed him as the one to succeed Saul as king of Israel. The Lord saw in David "a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22).
Today, as back in David's time, the Lord is looking for a heart that is willing to serve Him. What does He see when He looks at you? --HWR
That I may love Him is my soul's ambition--
Love Him with all my mind and strength and heart,
Seek out His will and choose it, in submission,
And with the joy He only can impart. --Anon.
To have a heart for God, give God your heart.
Today he's a respected Christian professional in our community. But legend has it that he had a strong streak of mischief in him when he was a boy - and maybe even now. An older friend from their church told me that when this man was four, his pastor came up to him at a football game and sat down next to him. And the pastor said, "Well, Mark, what have you been doing with yourself lately?" To which Mark replied with a smile, "Would you believe - praying?" To which his pastor replied, "No, Mark, I wouldn't believe it." Smart pastor.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Right Words, Wrong Heart."
It doesn't take long to learn the right church answers, does it? I mean even a four-year-old boy can do it! And many of us who've been around a lot longer as well. The danger is that you can really fool yourself spiritually, just because you know all the right words, and go to all the right meetings, and do all the right things. Tragically, a full Christian vocabulary can mask a dangerously empty heart.
Jesus talked about that in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 7:6. He said of some deeply religious people, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." And you can be sure that getting into Heaven will be based on what's in your heart, not on your lips. Your eternal rewards from Jesus will be based on what's in your heart, not your lips, too. Remember, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (I Samuel 16:7)
Recently, we called some Native American Christian friends of ours - whose daughter has been struggling with some serious moral and life issues. The daughter was willing to talk with my wife - but only, in her mother's words, "after she puts her coat on." Now, that expression was new to us. Our friend explained that Indians use that expression sometimes to describe saying what non-Indians want to hear - in other words, saying what you think the other person wants to hear.
Well a lot of church folks "put their coat on" regularly when they're in a Christian setting. After all, you can pretty much learn the vocabulary of Christianity in about a month - and that will be enough to get you through with most Christians for the rest of your life. But it's not enough to get you through with God.
It's wise to stand back every once in a while and ask, "How much of my Christianity is really about Christ - and how much is a mask, a role I'm playing, human expectations I'm trying to fulfill?" If there's been more than one you - the Christian you and then those other guys - maybe you're tired of playing charades spiritually ... you're tired of the performance ... you're tired of the mask. It's time to say, "Jesus, I've been saying all the right words, but You know how hollow it all is really - and now so do I. I just want to love and know You for real - I want this to be all about a Christ relationship, not the Christian religion."
And if you've never really given yourself to Jesus, let this be the day you move from playing a role to the reality of knowing this awesome Savior. If you're ready to begin this relationship for real, I'd love to send you the booklet, "Yours for Life," that I wrote about it. Just let me know you want it.
Your words will get you by as far as Christians are concerned. But only what's in your heart will get you by with Christ. The words that really matter aren't the ones you say to men about Jesus ... they're the ones you say to Jesus about being really His.
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Dr. Christian Barnaard died recently - a doctor who made medical history. He performed the first successful heart transplant in human history. Since then, the procedure has become much more advanced as a way to extend the life of someone with a failing heart. I've got friends whose lives were radically changed by a heart transplant - an operation from which they recovered in a surprisingly short time. I mean, it's pretty amazing to think that a surgeon can literally put a new heart in someone. Of course, heart transplants have been going on since long before Dr. Barnaard's historic surgery.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Heaven's Cardiology."
God's been in the business of changing hearts for a long time. If you know a heart that could use some changing right now, start praying for that miracle every day.
In Ezekiel 36:26, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord explains the miracle of a heart transplant from heaven. He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." So, God turns hard hearts into soft hearts. In Proverbs 21:1, the Bible says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." One example of that is when the Jews were stuck in captivity in a foreign land, unable to go back. But, "the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia" - and so a pagan king opened the door for the Jews to go home.
Our God is a heart-changing God. Recently, Bob came to me at a dinner and he showed me a letter his now 19-year-old daughter wrote when she was just 11. Bob is now a representative for a mission organization. But in 1994 he was, as he said, a lost and bitter rancher. He told me he was well on his way to becoming an alcoholic by the age of 15, into pornography, and ultimately so deep into drugs that he thought the only good dose was an overdose. Now, he married a Christian girl and had three daughters, but went on living for himself. In 1990, Bob lost his home and 24,000 acres of ranchland that had been passed on to him by his father.
Bob said that on the morning of October 19, 1994, he was a bitter, drug-addicted rancher. What he didn't know was what was going on between his youngest daughter and God. At a camp in July of that same year, she wrote a letter to God that said, "My dad isn't a Christian. I can't stand the thought of my dearly beloved Father going to hell and living in torment. Please help me." So, she prayed for her father's heart to change. That day, after two friends had asked him separately, "Why don't you take it to the Lord?", Bob finally got his 11-year old daughter out of school to show him the way to Jesus. He was gloriously reborn that day - and instantly transformed.
Our God is a heart-changing God. Why not believe Him to be that for you? Sometimes, God will work through something you say to the person whose heart needs changing. Other times, it's time to be still and just let God work. He'll let you know which time it is.
Right now, you may be about to give up hope that your situation will ever change - because there's a person there who it seems will never change. Don't underestimate heaven's Heart Surgeon. He does heart transplants - often in answer to our prayers. And the results are miraculous!
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'
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In the Bible, the heart represents more than a part of the body, it is a description of the whole of man. In the Old Testament especially, the heart is used to refer to the intellectual, emotional and volitional capacities that God uses to communicate fully with us; and these are described in reference to the center of man's being. Clearly, we can understand God intends that in our very essence we communicate completely and transparently -- whole-heartedly -- with him. Empowering Kingdom Growth seeks to catalyze a movement among Southern Baptists that makes God the priority in our thoughts, our feelings, our desires and efforts -- giving God rule and reign in our hearts.
INTELLECTUAL HEART
In Deuteronomy 6:6-7, God demands we commit his commandments to heart, that we might “teach them to your sons” and “talk of them when you sit in your house and walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” He desires that we commit to an ongoing, intentional, mental process -- learning and remembering his words. Empowering Kingdom Growth seeks to encourage Bible memorization and understanding.
EMOTIONAL HEART
David rejoices, “Therefore my heart is glad” in Psalms 16:9, describing an innermost quality God intends for man to share specifically with him. Every healthy relationship involves emotional connections and expressions that establish ties drawing us closer to each other. Importantly, the quality of our relationship with God depends no less on our emotional expressions to him. Empowering Kingdom Growth hopes to inspire us to greater emotional investment in our relationships with God.
VOLITIONAL HEART
The human will describes something more elemental than the choices or decisions we make. Our “will” describes the intentions and predispositions we hold that are expressed in our choices and decisions. In Hebrews 4:7, Paul warns against repeating the rebellion of Israel, reminding us of David's words in the 95th Psalm, “Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts.” Empowering Kingdom Growth promises to set a direction, a movement that pulls individuals together, away from personal agendas and predispositions and into a focus on causes for the Kingdom.
PHYSICAL HEART
Yet, the heart does symbolize man's physical nature, especially one's strength. In Joshua 14:11, Caleb declares his fitness “for war and for coming out and coming in.” Even at the age of 85 years, Caleb pledged his physical heart in his service to God. Empowering Kingdom Growth includes a focus on finding opportunities to serve the King.
The heart of the matter is this: is our passion the King and his Kingdom? Are our hearts dedicated to him?
Empowering Kingdom Growth hopes to nurture healthy hearts.
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Morris H. Chapman is president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Scripture references are taken from the New American Standard Bible.
It isn’t the size of your house as such
That matters so much at all.
It’s the gentle hand and its loving touch,
That make it great or small.
The friends who come and the hour they go,
Who out of your house depart,
Will judge it not by the style you show,
But rather by the size of your heart.
It isn’t the size of your head so much,
It isn’t the wealth you found.
That will make you happy — it’s how you touch
The lives that are all around.
For making money is not hard —
To live life well is an art:
How people love you, how they regard,
Is all in the size of your heart.
Sermon in Beatitudes series. Matthew 5:8 and Psalm 24:3-6
ONLY THE PURE SEE GOD
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I. Your black-spotted heart.
II. What the heart stands for.
III. Meanings of "pure" (katharos) in the Bible.
Clean / winnowed / unadulterated or unmixed.
IV. Insight from Psalm 24. Psalm 24:3-6
A. Jesus probably had this psalm in mind.
B. Basic question: who can stand before God as a true believer?
V. How focused is your heart?
A. A pure heart has one focus.
B. Our hearts tend to be fractured.
VI. Only God can make us pure.
A. Religion, ethics, etc., cannot do it.
B. King David's answer. Psalm 51:10
C. We must be prepared to receive it. 1 John 1:9
VII. They shall see God.
A. Two themes in Bible:
B. Jesus is focusing on the future.
C. Where is YOUR heart headed?
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I met an 87-year-old man the other day who's been given a whole new lease on life. His heart arteries were so clogged that his health was deteriorating rapidly. But then the heart surgeon went to work on him and gave him a quadruple heart bypass. In a sense, the doctor created four new arteries and plugged them into this man's heart so his heart could once again get the blood it needs when it needs it. I mean it is totally amazing the difference a skilled heart surgeon can make.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Master Heart Surgeon.”
If God was a doctor, I think He'd be a heart specialist. Actually, He is a heart specialist - look at how He has changed your heart and mine. And you may be facing a situation right now that will only change for the better if someone's heart changes. There may be someone out there whose heart, whose attitude, is standing in the way of something you believe God wants done. It's time for some heart surgery - and one of the most powerful prayers you can learn to pray.
God's heart-changing work is graphically illustrated in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Ezra 1 beginning in verse 1. Now God's people, the Jews, have been in captivity for 70 years, but now it's time for them to go home and build God's temple in God's land. Problem: they are under the control of a pagan king named Cyrus, who just happens to be the most powerful man on earth at that time. Well, actually, not a problem - for God, that is.
Here's what our word for today says. “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord ... the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout his realm.” Now the proclamation said this. “The Lord ... has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.” This is amazing! This is a pagan king. Who would have guessed? “Anyone of His people among you - may His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem to Judah and build the temple of the Lord.” You guys, it's okay with me. You go home. I want to be a part of building the temple of the Lord. He didn't even believe in Him as far as we know. Isn't that amazing?
See, God wants something done. A king is standing in the way. God changes his heart. Later in this same book there is another pagan king in power who stands in the way. But Ezra tells us, “The Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king” - that's another king - “...so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God” (Ezra 6:22).
Now, in many of life's situations there is a “king.” You know, there's always a king person - that's the gatekeeper. That's the one whose permission is needed. That's the one who's in a position to decide whether this is a yes or a no. And here's what God tells us about those people in Proverbs 21:1. I love this - “The king's heart” (the most powerful guy around). “The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.” Even if he's far from God, even if he's the most powerful man in the world.
So one of the most powerful prayers you can pray is, “Lord, change her heart. Change his heart.” Through fervent, consistent prayer, focus all of God's unlimited power on the heart of the “king” in your situation. Like a skilled heart surgeon, God has the ability to open up a clogged heart - to move an unmovable heart, to change a stubborn heart.
So exercise the authority you have in prayer - the authority to enter the throne room from which billions of galaxies are governed and to aim God's power at one heart on earth. It is amazing the difference the Master Heart Surgeon can make when He changes a heart that no one on earth could move.
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Matt Redman, a worship leader in England, tells how his pastor taught his church the real meaning of worship. To show that worship is more than music, he banned all singing in their services for a several weeks. During this time they learned to worship in other ways. By the end of that time, Matt had written the classic song “Heart of Worship”:
I'll bring You more than a song,
because the song itself is not what You've required.
You search much deeper within
than the way things appear.
You're looking into my heart.
The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.
Have you ever given or received the advice, “Trust your heart?” It is a motto we hear often, in various forms and across various mediums. Flipping through an old high school yearbook where well-meaning friends offer a mark of wisdom beside their signature, I was nearly convinced the expression was a requirement.
Speaking worldviews away on that very same subject John Calvin states otherwise. He vehemently warns against trusting your heart. Writes Calvin, “It is no small profit to be robbed of our blind self-love so that we become fully aware of our weakness; to have such an understanding of our weakness that we distrust ourselves, to distrust ourselves to such an extent that we put all our trust in God...” [1]
His words do not spare gentleness any more than they spare certain types of hearts. That no heart is trustworthy is the message he seems to assert. My guess is that many of us would prefer the counsel of trusting our hearts to the adamant advice of John Calvin.
The Postmodern heartbeat has pumped cynicism through the veins of our culture; we are distrusting of everything. There is no truth, no meaning, no certainty. Yet, even in such a distrusting worldview, trust of the self is the one thing that seems to be left unquestioned.
The warning of Dostoevsky no doubt explains the contradiction. When God is dead, someone or something will take his place. Self, interpretation, and taste are the rulers of the postmodern worldview. Trusting your heart has become the religion of choice. But the questions remain; can you always trust what your heart feels? Can you always rely on what your eyes see?
Ravi Zacharias has told this story many times, but it is so revealing. Malcolm Muggeridge tells of a time when he was a journalist in India, and he left home one evening to go for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw a woman bathing. Impulsively, he felt the allure of the moment. He had resisted this struggle before, but this time, he felt compelled to cross the line of his conscience. Swimming toward the woman, his mind fed him fantasies of stolen waters. Finally, only a few feet away, he looked again. At once he realized that he was looking into the eyes of a leper — a toothless old woman was grinning at him. Gripped with disgust at the leprous woman he abruptly turned away. As he returned to shore, the thought suddenly overwhelmed him: It was not the woman who was leprous, but his own heart.
As it were, the Scriptures are more adamant than John Calvin that trusting the heart is certain foolishness. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” asks Jeremiah (17:9). To trust our hearts, to live as if our hearts are not in need of a cure is to embrace as healthy what is leprous. Through the prophet Jeremiah God speaks into our deceitful hearts and motives, “I, the LORD, search the heart and examine the mind” (17:10).
We can define life by feeling and interpretation or we can live as Christ teaches by dying to the self-centeredness that blinds us and following the God who sees. The unwavering good news is that God has a history of opening blind eyes and purifying hearts.
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1. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Ch. 8, sect. 3.
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Copyright © 2004 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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Wearing only a diaper and a pink T-shirt, 13-month-old Erika Nordby wandered outdoors into the 24 degree weather during the night of February 23, 2001. Hours later, Erika’s mom, Leyla, found her lying in the snow, frozen stiff. By the time paramedics reached the house, Erika’s heart had stopped beating for as long as two hours, her lungs had stopped breathing, and her body temperature was 21 degrees Celsius below normal. She was clinically dead.
But paramedics, one of whom had been in attendance at a similar case seven years earlier in Saskatchewan, did not give up. They began CPR, inserted a breathing tube in the little girl and rushed her to hospital. The staff there hooked the baby up to a machine that warmed her blood outside of her body and then returned the blood to her.
Just as they were about to hook up the machine that would cause her heart to beat for her, Erika’s little heart started to beat on its own. The next day, just like any other toddler, Erika was eating, drinking from her sippy cup, watching Barney on TV and babbling happily away to the doctors, nurses and her mom. A month later, Erika Nordby went home from hospital, with a small skin graft on her left foot from frostbite the only permanent damage she had to show for her ordeal.
Everyone said it was a miracle. But the experts said that because it was so cold, Erika’s entire body, heart, brain, everything, had frozen so quickly that it was perfectly protected, and that once warmed up, her body was in perfect condition to start up again as if nothing had happened.
My friends, there are an awful lot of people in this world who go through life with frozen hearts. Unlike little Erika’s, our hearts didn’t freeze suddenly and quickly. For most of us, it is a much longer and more painful process than that.
It starts when we’re children, 8 or 9 years old maybe. It starts the first time we give ourselves to someone else, and they reject us. Do you remember that feeling, the coldness that almost literally closes around the heart? It happens to everyone, and when it happens, we begin to learn how to freeze others out.
By the time we’re adults, we’re experts. Some of us are blessed in that we have families or friends with whom we can let down our guard a little, with whom we can be our true selves. But most of the time, we hold back, hiding who we really are, because so long as we hide, we will not get hurt. Like little Erika showed the world, a heart that is frozen may not work very well, but at least it is protected from being hurt.
And so we go through life with frozen hearts, hearts that don’t break at every slur or insult aimed our way. Hearts that can survive the breakdown of a relationship, because our hearts are so very rarely fully in the relationship in the first place. Hearts that are capable of quickly changing the channel when one of those infomercials about starving children in the Third World come on TV. Hearts that can accept that homelessness and the need for food banks is just a reality in modern-day society.
Sure, there are very good reasons to live with a frozen heart. Living in this world without the hard shell of protecting yourself makes you vulnerable. Hearts that aren’t frozen are very likely to be broken. Opening up our hearts, taking the risk to trust others, to love, to care, means you will almost inevitably get hurt.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21317]
Oprah Winfrey is not only a television entertainer, she is an entire industry, and her massive following has made her one of America’s richest people with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Called “the Queen of Talk,” her secret is the self-esteem philosophy that encourages people simply to believe in themselves and follow their heart.
Earlier this month, in a conversation with Naomi Judd over weight issues on her television program, Winfrey said:
“When you’re really inside yourself -- you don’t need a book, you
don’t need a psalm, you don’t need a song, but you know that you
are worthy because you were born. The moment you get to the
point where you really do feel worthy and, ‘I deserve it, I
deserve all the happiness and abundance that God is willing to
give me,’ it will be over.”[1]
The Bible, on the other hand, says that each and every one of us have sinned against God and that we deserve eternal hell, but through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (and through nothing else and nothing less) we can receive God’s grace, which is the opposite of what we deserve. Beware of Oprah Winfrey’s self-esteem, “follow your heart” philosophy. The Bible warns: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
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1. “Oprah Winfrey Told Naomi Judd Her Life Changed for Better Once She Came to Realization that She Deserved It,” Best Syndication, Oct. 2, 2006.
There is a muscle that beats about 100,000 times each day, pumping about 5 quarts of blood each minute, approximately 2,000 gallons of blood each day, throughout your body. The path taken, your system of blood vessels which includes arteries, veins, and capillaries, is over 60,000 miles long. That’s long enough to go around the world more than twice! And for an adult, this muscle is the size of two clenched fists.
For the couples whose hearts are not cemented by God’s covenant of grace, these clenched fists serve as a reminder of the constant, unbending posture of combative behavior rather than of two hearts divinely joined together in mutual love and support.
Weighing in at 10 ounces, the heart is the universal symbol of love. From golden heart-shaped earrings, to chocolate hearts, to various sizes of heart tattoos, the heart conveys a common experience. Or, does it?
At one time or another, most people will be struck by love and experience a skipping of the heart or even a heart flutter. Life comes to a stop and nothing else matters. Some couples will cry to the tune of an “achy breaky heart” (whatever that means!). Some will face an unforeseen heartache and even a broken heart when a so-called “good” marriage turns bad. Again, life comes to a stop. Still others will encounter and enjoy the blessings of the love God so wonderfully designed for a man and a woman. The two then become one. Not good math, but amazing theology!
William Gurnall, in his Puritan classic “The Christian in Complete Armour, Volume 1,” writes, “Head knowledge of the things of Christ is not enough; this following Christ is primarily a matter of the heart. If your heart is not fixed in its purpose, your principles, as good as they may be, will hang loose and be of no more use in the heat of battle than an ill-strung bow.”
Is your heart, as a Christian couple, “fixed in its purpose”? What are the guiding principles of your marriage? Do these principles “hang loose” and not provide the necessary help in difficult times? When two hearts are joined together to beat as one, then life’s greatest lessons can be learned. Consider these lessons, these principles, coming from the very H-E-A-R-T of God.
H -- Honor the Lord through your marriage.
The greatest testimony you can leave your children is for them to see and hear about the workings of God in and through your marriage (Psalm 78:1-7). The greatest testimony you can give a disease-filled world is evidence that Jesus makes a difference in and through your marriage. Be the salt and light to a tasteless and dark world. We exist on this earth to bring glory to our Father. You exist, as a Christian couple, to do the same.
E -- Encourage one another in unconditional love.
Husbands, do you know that your first priority in disciple-making is to disciple your spouse? Wives, do you know that your first priority as an encourager and booster is to support your spouse? “Building up of the body in love” (Ephesians 4:16) cannot take place in the church when Christian couples are working at tearing each other down outside the church. Find ways to verbally and behaviorally build up your spouse.
A -- Ask for and give forgiveness.
Perhaps every week, if not every day, you will have the opportunity (or even opportunities) to ask for forgiveness or forgive your spouse over something said or done. Be quick to do both. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves (1 John 1:9). As God forgives us when we ask Him for forgiveness, would He not expect us to do the same with our spouse? What a beautiful example we have for each other! Do not allow the pride of the heart to rob you of intimate moments of asking for and giving forgiveness with your spouse.
R -- Realign your priorities daily.
We all do what we think (or feel) is important for us to do. Outside of your relationship with the Lord, your spouse holds the second spot of importance and significance in your heart. What changes do you need to make today to reflect this priority? Mark Twain once said, “One learns about people through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.” What is your spouse learning about you and your priorities? What are you teaching your spouse by what you are doing during the day?
T -- Train your children to know and love the heart of God.
Concerning our spiritual parental responsibilities, Deuteronomy 4:9 compels and commands us to “teach [the statues of the law] to your children and your grandchildren.” We are to nurture our children in the faith. You are your child’s greatest spiritual mentor! Don’t be alarmed, but be warned. No greater urgency exists today in the home. No greater training will draw your children into the heart of God. The church has the responsibility to equip parents for this fundamental and essential task.
Cleland B. McAfee experienced firsthand a lesson from God’s heart. When diphtheria claimed the lives of his two beloved nieces, he penned a song to comfort his soul and the hearts of his suffering family members. We, too, as couples are now reminded to find comfort and strength in this one place:
There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God.
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before thee
Near to the heart of God.
H-E-A-R-T: Herein begins the lessons learned from the heart of God.
The Christmas rush jammed the streets of London. Drivers were losing their tempers.
One fellow who had decorated his car by putting a bunch of holly on the hood seemed to think that everyone should make way for him. When a taxi blocked his progress, he leaned out and shouted abuse.
The taxi driver replied, “What’s the use of having holly on your bonnet if you ain’t got holly in your heart?”
Without our heart’s response to God’s love and grace in giving us Jesus, our celebrations are, as Shakespeare said, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
“Heart and Soul” is a simple love song with lyrics that express what all lovers have felt. The song is full of the lyrics of love: love, adore, madly, gladly, magic, thrilling, willing and on and on. But the key to the meaning of the song, and the meaning of love, is the phrase “heart and soul.”
Indeed, the songwriter could have written “heart and whole” because that’s what he was saying. When we love -- I mean really, truly love -- we love with our whole self, our entire being. There’s no holding back. Isn’t that how you loved when you first met the love of your life? (And hopefully still do!) There was nothing you wouldn’t have done for that person. Your heart, soul, time, money, abilities -- you devoted it all to the love of your life. Your heart and your whole being were a visible expression of your love.
The original “Heart and Soul”
Isn’t it funny that the man who said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10), eventually gave us some of the most beautiful prose in the Bible?
It was Moses who told the Israelites that they must “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Moses was saying, “Love God with your whole being, all that you are. Don’t hold back anything. If you do, you won’t be loving God or anyone else.”
Jesus and “Heart and Soul”
When Jesus was asked, “Which is the first commandment of all?” He didn’t quote the first of the Ten Commandments. He quoted Moses from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30). See the fourth human dimension Jesus added to Moses’ three? Jesus added the “mind” -- that we should love God with all our mental faculties as well, further expanding the totality of our love life toward God.
But then Jesus said, “This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (verses 30-31).
What is Jesus saying with these two commandments? That loving God is the foundation for all other loves, that loving God must precede our love for others. Here are what I believe are some reasonable conclusions from Jesus’ words:
1. Human love for others that is not rooted in love for God cannot be the fullest kind of love.
2. The way we love others reflects how we love God.
Jesus’ first and second commandments are more than a priority list in a theological sense. They are a priority list practically speaking as well. We must love God -- understand His love in Christ and embrace that love as evidenced by our love for Him -- if we are going to be able to love others.
Is there any place in Scripture where God says, “I will love you if you do this or that”? No.
Does He say, “I will love you because you have done this or that”? No.
Indeed, God actually says, “I love you in spite of the things you have done and the things you have left undone. I love you, period.”
And this is exactly how we are to love others. If we love “if or because,” instead of “in spite of,” then we have not yet learned to love God the way He loves us.
Heart, soul, mind and strength
Think about how you love God and see if it is reflected in how you love others:
● With your heart: unconditionally.
● With your soul: passionately.
● With your mind: willfully.
● With your strength: continually.
We should know and observe the commands of Scripture, that is true. But I daresay that if you and I love God unconditionally, passionately, willfully and continually, we will fulfill all the Law with regard to God -- and then to our neighbor. Loving God is the foundation of all other loves.
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