A New Heart Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Today we continue with our All Things New Series.

• Today we are going to examine the heart.

• Not the blood pumping muscle, but rather that thing that drives us to be who we are and to do what we do.

• The heart is at the center of what we do and why we do it.

• We talk about having a heart for God, which what we are saying is that we want God to direct what we do and even why we do it.

• The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did all the right actions, but for the wrong reasons, and Jesus did not cut them any slack for it.

• He did not say, “Well guys, GREAT ACTIONS, I love the fact you did them in a self-serving way!”

• I have always believed that it is much easier to change one’s behavior, the external behavior, but without help from God, it is impossible to change one’s heart.

• When you think about eternal actions, one can really never know what motivates those actions, only God knows.

• One of the beautiful new things we can receive from God when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior is a NEW heart, or as the text we will examine together states, A PURE HEART!

• I knew that before I came to Jesus my heart was a mess. I knew that I wanted that to change.

• The reason I wanted it to change is because I figured out WHY it needed to change.

• Today, let’s examine the new heart.

• SLIDE #2

• Psalm 51:10 (CSB) God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. An appeal to God.

• Now I want to give you the context for Psalm 51. If you read the introductory note at the beginning of the chapter, you will note that it says” For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.”

• So, if you do not remember what happened, David was staying home from the battles and he saw Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop.

• He slobbered all over himself over her beauty, invited her over, did things he should not have done.

• She leaves, and later tells David that she has a present, she is pregnant with his child.

• David panics, he tried to get her husband home from the battle so he could have relations with her to conceal the fact that David was the father.

• It did not work, so David had her husband put in a position in the battle that would kill him

• David marries Bathsheba and no one is the wiser, except….

• God sends Nathan the prophet to tell David that He knows what he had done and that the child will die as a result.

• David is repentant for what he had done.

• Psalm 51 was said to be written in response as David pour out his heart to God.

• Let me read a little from Psalm 51!

• SLIDE #4

• Psalm 51:1–4 (CSB) — 1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. 2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

• Psalm 51:5–9 (CSB) — 5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. 6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.

• In verse 4 David rightly says…

• 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

• David appeals to God because no matter what David had done, he understood that he was sinning against God, and therefore he needed to turn to God in repentance as well as for forgiveness!

• David goes to God with his appeal because he knows ONLY God can help him fix his issue.

• In our time, we do not take sin seriously, we do not think God really cares what we do and we have a blatant disregard for how GOD feels about sin.