Introduction:
I believe as a believer of Christ we should always look inside our hearts.
The physical heart is the very center of life.This is the only organ when it fails your dead immediately.
That’s why we need to take care of this in order to have a healthy heart.
Heart: Chief organ of physical life.
But today we are going to study the spiritual heart of a believer.
In the Bible the heart is not simply the organ that pumps blood through the body.It’s a metaphor for a person’s innermost core or spiritual center.
God sees tests and searches the hidden depths of the human heart.
Are you a person who always looks inside your heart?
This is a wonderful habit a believer must have, always checking the motives and the conditions of his heart.
The phrase "hardness of heart" is used not only for God’s people’s enemies, like Pharaoh in Egypt, but also for God’s people, Israel.
In the New Testament it describes not only the scribes and Pharisees but also the disciples.
A hardhearted person is self-centered, resistant or closed off to God and what God wants to do in that person’s life.
It is deep below the surface of our lives, then, that God begins a work of renewing grace in us. The real action is deep in the heart.
The heart represents the true character of man.
How to make your spiritual heart healthy.
1. Always look inside your heart.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
You are the only person on earth who knows the condition of your heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Everything in our spiritual life is all about the condition of the heart.
We say the reason why some of our police are corrupt because of their low salary. I believe that statement is wrong.
Some are already corrupt because that is already the condition of their hearts before joining the police force.
There are many police officers with low salary but not corrupt.
That’s why it is very important for us to examine our hearts everyday.
Christians who don’t pay attention to the conditions of their heart are in dangers of abandoning God.
When David failed he asked God to create a clean heart in him again.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Our spiritual problems are often rooted in our failure to examine our hearts everyday.
Every time I detect something in my heart that I know is destructive in my spiritual life, I immediately expose it in the presence of God.
Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
2. Always guard your heart.
It is our responsibility to guard our own heart.
This is not the responsibility of your Pastor or your church.
I do not know what you allow in your heart after you step out of this place.
We are the gatekeepers of our hearts.
It is not God’s responsibility,
nor can we blame the devil, for our heart problems.
Jesus declared that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Mark 12:30)
When describing the kingdom of God, Jesus revealed the things that come out of the heart defile a man (Matt. 15:16-20).
He also taught, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34).
The apostle Paul prayed for the saints that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” (Eph. 1:18).
The heart is a mysterious spiritual reality that allows us to experience the fullness of life.
It includes emotion, but the heart is not limited to emotion.
According to Scripture, the heart can be grieved, troubled, broken, pierced, divided, and joyful.
Dr. Charles Ryrie defined the heart as “the very core of life.” Our heart is the truest expression of who we really are.
Guarding your heart includes seeking God, putting away perverse speech, looking straight ahead, and choosing good paths.
Guarding our heart is our partnership with the Holy Spirit.
There is nothing more important than the resource of your heart. If it gets corrupted, everything else will suffer:
Your heart is a vital resource, and it must be protected at all costs.
3. Always expose it to the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
“For the word of God is living and powerful.”
The word translated “powerful” (energes in greek) is the word from which we get energy and energetic. The word literally means “at work.”
Charles Swindoll shared,
“News articles may inform us. Novels may inspire us. Poetry may enrapture us. But only the living, active Word of God can transform us.”
“… sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow…”
Like a sharp sword which can lay open the human body with one slashing blow,
The Scripture can open our inner life and expose it to ourselves and to others.
This is the reason why Christians living in sin don’t want to read the bible.
God’s Word can reach into the innermost recesses of our being!
No heart is too tough and no soul is too dark.
Story:
Mr. Thorpe in the 18th century Bristol found out. Thorpe was a part of a band of men who called themselves, the ‘Hell Fire Club.’ Their reason for existence was to mock and ridicule the work of the famed evangelist, George Whitefield. On one occasion, the ‘Hell-Fire Club’ gathered at a pub for such mockery. Mr. Thorpe offered his brilliant imitation of Whitefield, whom he and his friends called, ‘Mr Squintum’ because of Whitefield eyes. He delivered his sermon with brilliant accuracy, perfectly imitating his tone and facial expressions as he quoted Scripture and Whitefield’s exposition. Suddenly amidst the laughter he had to sit down for he was pierced through and was converted on the spot.
Mr. Thorpe was a thoroughly nasty man, engaged in a nasty action yet the Word of God pierced his heart and changed him in an instant. Mr. Thorpe went on to be a prominent Christian leader in the city of Bristol”
Sometimes it is good to do a spiritual surgery on ourselves, when we see something in our hearts that is not pleasing to God.
Spiritual surgery means, exposing your problem in the right scripture.
For example, you detect that there is greed in your heart what scripture you will expose yourself?
You don’t expose your heart to this verse “Seek ye first”...
Meditate on this verse Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
If you detect Lust?
You don’t quote this scripture “ Give and it shall be given unto you”
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If you detect there is hate in your heart?
1 John 3:15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
Conclusion:
The heart is the seat of man’s inner life.
It represents our true character.
The seat of our emotions, reasoning, will, conscience.
The heart is our true identity.
