He Gave Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• I want you to take a moment to think about some words that you associate with the word love.

• Last week we gleaned from John 3:16 that our God loves. One of the things that I think of when I think of the word love is GIVING.

• My friend Billy appeared to be a picture of health. He was in his late 60’s when I met him.

• Billy led a very healthy lifestyle, and he really was a picture of self-discipline.

• Billy looked healthy and looked like he would be able to farm for another 20 years or more.

• Sometimes we can look very healthy and not be as healthy as we thought.

• A person may think that he does not need what God gave because they have lived a good live, were loved by many and did not do anything majorly bad.

• Billy lived a good life, he took care of himself, but Billy had a problem, I believe all the males in his family had died in their early sixties because they all had been born with bad hearts.

• For Billy to continue to live, he was going to need a heart transplant.

• Billy was in his late 60’s and what were the chances he was going to get a heart at his age. SLIM AND NONE!

• Imagine if the doctor told Billy that he would be willing to trade hearts with Billy!

• He would take Billy’s diseased heart and replace it with his healthy one.

• No doctor would do that or is there one?

• SLIDE #2

• Where do you find such a physician? You can reach him at this number—3:16. At the heart of this verse, he deals with the heart of our problem: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” What does this mean?

• Why did we need to have God give up His one and only Son? I think it is hard for many people to see the need because they feel like they are good people, good enough to win God’s love and favor.

• Today as we continue to use the Rosetta Stone of the bible to unlock what God wants us to know about Him, we are going to look at the second part of this great passage.

• Why is this passage so important?

• How can the death of Christ mean life for us? The answer begins with a heart exam.

• Let us examine our unholy heart.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. OUR UNHOLY HEART.

• Sometimes it takes a heart exam in order to detect a problem.

• Many will try to diagnose their own hearts. The problem with doing that is we cannot see what is really going on and if we could we may not understand what is happening.

• SLIDE #4

• Jeremiah 17:9 ( ESV ) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

• Our spiritual cardiologist is always examining our hearts for us.

• If you have a heart issue, you want to go to someone who knows the heart, to one who specializes in working with the heart.

• Our hearts are infected with a disease that will inflict a death sentence upon us. That disease is sin.

• SLIDE #5

• Mark 7:21-22 ( ESV ) For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

• SLIDE #6

• Romans 3:10-11 ( ESV ) as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

• This seems hardcore; could it be that God is exaggerating?

• Is it true that ALL of us have a heart problem? What about Mother Theresa? What about Billy Graham?

• There must be exceptions!

• There are none

• SLIDE #7

• Romans 3:23 ( ESV ) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• Sin is not a popular thing to talk about even in church today. It is a problem that we want to ignore. We are good at ignoring problems in life. We can bury things like weight issues, health issues, relationship problems, and the list goes on.

• It is easy for us to look at others and see a problem, we can see that Adolph Hitler, or others like him have or had a heart problem, a problem with sin, but NOT ME!

• Look at all the terrible things that have happened and are happing in the world we live in. These atrocities are ALL a result of sin.