A Change Of Heart

1. Some AMAZING THINGS are happening at the University of Louisville’s Health Sciences Center in Kentucky.

a. Doctors, scientists, students, and businessmen have been feverishly at work with the hope of saving many lives…

b. Their desire? Their goal? They want to extend life, prolong happiness, & lengthen days…

c. They’re hoping hundreds if not thousands are helped by their invention & new surgical techniques…

d. In their quest, they’ve developed a new life-saving device which they’ve named: The AbioCor…

2. So what problem are they trying to tackle, what dilemma are they trying to solve? Heart Failure.

September 14, 2001, The Courior Journal, Louisville Kentucky: The criteria set by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the experimental surgery require that patients have no other options -- they must be so sick from heart failure that they are projected to live 30 days or less. They can’t be eligible for a heart transplant, nor are other treatments likely to help them.

3. It’s a one time, last ditch effort to save a life.

a. And what’s required? A Heart change, a Heart Transplant.

4. Did you know that the Bible has a lot to say about the ‘heart’?:

a. Not our physical heart but the heart of man, the seat of our emotions, our inner person… who we are!

Jer. 17.9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Prov. 4.23 Keep (guard, protect, shield) your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Prov. 28.26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.

The Bible’s verdict? The Summary? The Conclusion?

· We too, all of humanity, need a heart transplant!

· Not just a change of mind, but a change of heart! Nothing else!

· That’s exactly what the phrase ‘born again’ means…

John 3.3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

· Being born again brings an inward change, a heart transplant.

· Enabling us to live a New LIFE… & DEVOTION… & DIRECTION

By now you know that Ephesians divides neatly into 2 sections.

· CH 1-3 all about the work of God in us, to us, and for us…

· The doctrines & teachings of God’s great GRACE…

· CH 4-6 highlight our responsibilities… our duties.

· We’re in The WHAT TO, HOW TO, GO FOR IT section…

I find that there are really 2 ways of reading & studying the Bible:

#1 – We can study it with our minds made up… Rigid & inflexible.

#2 – We can study it with our minds open, ready to be changed.

· Let’s look at what a what a changed heart brings…

· And let’s be open to all the Spirit has to say to us…

I. (4:17-24) A NEW WALK

1. (17) No longer walk as the UNSAVED walk.

· There’s that word ‘walk’ again… It refers to our lifestyle, our practice, who we are and what we do.

· There is a difference, a distinction… between those with changed hearts and those that are still fighting God.

· We’re told… “Don’t live like those who live in the world.”

SO From this day forward, Paul says, don’t walk this way anymore!

· Isn’t your ambition, not your lifestyle, not you new way of life.

· Never walk again like the worldly people around you. No more!

· May approach Christianity as just another added task in life.

NOTE: I get up, GO TO WORK, GO TO SCHOOL, GO TO THE STORE, GO TO CHURCH, GO TO BED, get up, GO TO WORK… on and on

· BUT be careful… it’s not a mere routine but a relationship…

· Our relationship with Jesus is a freshness everyday of that spiritual man/woman inside of you learning to live a whole new life in Jesus Christ! (Jesus consumes everything.)

In this section before us, We get another glimpse of the person that is joined to, knit to, part of this world system looks like…

· In reality, it’s almost like a trip down memory lane…

· Amazing to think that we were there… we walked this way.

· Friends… be careful… Because Christians still do this!

2. (17) He/She is EMPTY IN THEIR MIND

· The world ‘futility’ literally means empty, vain, worthless.

· World is one big façade… promising a lot… delivering little.

AS a kid I remember clearly in my mind our family trips to Universal Studios.

· Driving through the back lots, seeing all the wonderful buildings.

· As you turned the corner a beautiful two story house was on fire.

· COOL! But only seconds later as we passed by, we noticed the house was a FAKE. The scenery FAKE. The shark trying to eat me? FAKE!