Extreme Makeover
Heart Transplant
We need a heart transplant because…
Without one we will not be able to Love God
Deuteronomy 30:6
Without one we will not be able to Love People
Matt 5:43-48
Without one, we will not be able to Live
Deuteronomy 30:6
Slide 1
If you have seen TV at all in the past several years, you can see that reality shows have taken over much of the airwaves.
There is
Survivor,
Big Brother,
The Apprentice,
What not to wear,
Who wants to marry a Millionaire,
The Bachelor,
The Bachelorette,
The Swan,
Wife Swap,
Nanny 911,
Super Nanny,
Fear Factor,
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
Extreme Makeover
All of these shows try and take real people and either
put them in a different environment (ala Survivor, Big Brother) or change something about them (What not to wear?, Extreme makeover.).
The purpose is to do one of 2 things.
Slide 2
Reveal what a person is truly like inside.
Change some of the externals of a person.
Or in other words,
Slide 3
They expose the flaws on the inside or
Slide 4
Cover over the flaws on the outside
But they don’t really do anything to change the person.
Now these things are not bad.
Sometimes we need our flaws on the inside revealed or
it is helpful to fix our flaws on the outside
But if God had a reality show, Do you think He would be interested in doing those things or would it be something else.
To answer that, I think we must know a couple things about God.
First God already knows what is inside a person. It doesn’t need to be revealed to Him
Second God is really not that interested in changing only the external appearance of anything.
What God is really interested in is doing some major reconstructive surgery that changes us inside which will also have effects on the outside.
God wants to do an Extreme Makeover on you from the inside out.
Slide 5
If God wanted to do an extreme makeover on us,
What would he do?
Where would he start?
Over the next several weeks we are going to be doing a series entitled Extreme Makeover: God Edition.
We are going to look at some things that God would change in each of us.
Some of the surgeries that I believe God would do to enhance us are the following:
Ear augmentation – Expand our ears
Tongue resection – shorten our tongue
Lasik surgery to make your vision Cross-Eyed
To name a few of the topics we will be covering
But I believe the place he would start is with a heart transplant,
Slide 6
so that is where I want to start this week.
A heart Transplant is essential to all the other work God would want to do on us. Without a heart transplant, the other elements of the makeover will be rejected by our bodies.
We are going to be looking at a number of different scriptures today, but I want to start with a verse in Ezekiel 36.
In Ezekiel, the Lord is speaking through the prophet to the nation of Israel about bringing them back from their rebellion so God can bring glory to Himself.
To do that, to change them, God tells them that He will give them a new heart.
In Ezekiel 36:26, the Lord says
Slide 7
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.
God is in the business of doing Extreme Makeovers and He wants to start with your heart. Why?
Because our heart is the center of who we are and
for any external thing to change,
we need to change on the inside.
Physically, why does a person get a heart transplant anyway?
Because their heart is bad.
Many times, a person does not even know they have a bad heart until it is too late.
Why do we need a heart transplant?
Everyone needs a heart transplant, because the heart we have is a heart of stone.
I want to propose 3 reasons today that each one of us need a heart transplant, and if you have never had your heart transplanted by God, you will have an opportunity to have that done at the end of the service.
The first reason that we need a heart transplant is because without one…
We will not be able to Love God
Slide 8
Deuteronomy 30:6
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
God needs to
circumcise our heart,
do major surgery,
give us a transplant
so that we can love Him as He wants us to.
God wants us to be able to Love Him totally
Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, He said this in
Matthew 22:37
"’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
You may be saying to yourself, “Hey, I love God.”
I don’t need a heart transplant to love God.”
If you are to love God the way He wants you to.
With all of your heart
With all of your soul
Then you will need a heart transplant. We can’t truly love God without His help to love Him.
Why? Well first,
We show God our love by our actions.
John 14:15
15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
1 John 5:3
3 This is love for God: to obey his commands.
And unless we have a new heart, filled with the Spirit, we will not be able to obey God because the heart we have before our transplant is evil, it is a heart of stone.
Jesus tells us this in
Mark 7:20-23
20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him ’unclean.’ 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ’unclean.’"
Out of men’s hearts comes the evil that we see.
But because God gives us a new heart when we receive His Son as Savior, we then have the ability by the power of the Holy Spirit, to obey Him.
Don’t let your heart continue to harden, but
humble yourself and
recognize that you are unable to be obedient to God
until you receive Jesus as Savior and have your heart transplanted.
The second reason that we need a heart transplant is because without one…
We will not be able to Love People
Slide 9
When Jesus was asked about the greatest command, He also told us about the second greatest command
Matthew 22:39
And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Maybe you are saying to yourself right now, I have got that one. I don’t need a heart transplant to love people. I love people.
I help the homeless
I gave to the red cross
I make meals for people
But under the loving people category also includes
Loving our Enemies.
Matthew 5:43-48
43 "You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. … 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Loving your enemies is quite a bit more challenging than loving your friends. So much more so, in fact, that we need the kind of heart that Jesus had.
The kind of heart that says
When they are inflicting pain and nailing you to a cross -
Forgive them Father for they know not what they do. – Luke 23:34
That kind of love does not come out of a heart of stone,
but out of the kind of heart that God can transplant into us.
Means Forgiving
Loving people also means being willing to forgive hurts and pains.
Colossians 3:13
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
A story is told about two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE." They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE." The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.
To have that kind of forgiving heart requires a heart of flesh, the kind of heart that God wants to give us
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
God can give you a new heart so that you will increase in love for others and be blameless and holy in His presence.
The third reason that we need a heart transplant is that with out one…
We will not be able to Live it Out!
Slide 10
Deuteronomy 30:6
6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
God wants to circumcise your heart, give you a heart transplant so you can live out life.
I want to talk about 2 ways that God wants you to be able to live, to live out this life that He has given you.
First, God wants to give you this Heart Transplant so you can
Live Out Life to the Fullest
Slide 11
Jesus said in
John 10:10
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
This full life is what you long for inside you. I guarantee that each person here today desires the full life. It’s just that we keep looking for it in the wrong places.
You won’t find it at the ATM
You won’t find it at the pharmacy
You won’t find it in the bedroom
You won’t find it at the clothing store
You won’t find it at the Plastic surgeon.
You will find it when you visit the Great Physician, Jesus Christ and receive that heart transplant that will allow you to live that life to the full.
A life that can have peace in spite of circumstance,
And joy amidst tragedy.
The full life is available only from the inside out, not from the outside in.
Secondly, God wants to give you this Heart Transplant so you can
Live Out Life Eternally
Slide 12
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For those
who do not receive a heart transplant,
who do not come to the great Physician,
who do not believe in and receive Jesus Christ as Savior,
death awaits. Your sin will be counted against you.
But to those
who receive the gift of God,
who receive Jesus Christ as Savior,
will receive a heart transplant and will Live Out Life Eternally
Your sins will be forgiven and be covered by the blood of Jesus the Savior.
You will live
life to the full now in your physical bodies and
life eternally in your spiritual body in the presence of God almighty.
Conclusion
Maybe your sitting here today and have never recognized your need for a Heart Transplant. You didn’t know you had a bad heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 says
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked;
But God stands ready to do an Extreme Makeover on you beginning with your heart.
Are you ready to receive it?
Are you ready to start a new life that will be transformed beginning on the inside?
Once we clean up the inside, the outside will be clean too.
Perhaps you are hearing all of this and saying, well how do I get this heart transplant? I see that I need one and I want it, but how do I get it.
You get a new heart when you receive Jesus Christ as Savior.
You receive Christ as Savior by believing in Him
John 1:12
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- (from New International Version)
Believing in your heart, that is when the transplant takes place.
You recognize your need, that you are a sinner.
You recognize who Jesus is
He is the Christ, the Son of God, God in the Flesh
You believe in what He did
He died for your sins
He rose from the dead
And you take a step of your will by telling God those things and telling Him you receive the gift of Salvation through Jesus right now.
That is it.
You are a member of the family.
This new heart gives us the ability to Love God, Love People and Live it out.
It doesn’t just happen, when we get a new heart.
The purpose of Christ’s church is 2 fold.
First, to get people to see they need a new heart and be the means in which they can receive it.
But secondly, the church is here so we can help one another grow in our relationship with the Lord and apply these things to our life so that the change tha has occurred on the inside will become apparent on the outside. We need people, the church, in our life to be able to do that.
We here at Hickory Creek take seriously our role to see Jesus do heart transplants on people.
In fact, our motto is for His people here to
Love God…Love People…Live it Out!
if you have already had your heart transplanted, you have already received Jesus as Savior, and are not a part of a church, think about becoming part of one so the work that the Lord has done in you can be manifested on the outside as well.
If you have never received Jesus as Savior, then
Let God transplant your heart
and begin an Extreme Makeover on you today.
Let’s pray
