Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church Feb. 25,2013
The Undivided Heart – Psalm 86:11
“Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name”Ps. 86:11.
Translators/divided/how/translate/phrase.
• The NASB says, "Unite my heart to fear your name."
• CEB, "Make my heart focused only on honoring your name.”
I like that because it sounds like the way I often pray: “Put me together, Lord, because right now my life is scattered in a thousand directions.”
• Most days my heart doesn’t seem “undivided,”
• it needs some kind of “uniting."
Because our hearts/often divided, we need/Lord/unite it somehow so we worship him/nothing held back.
That is the situation many of us face right now.
Our hearts/fragmented because we/pulled/many directions/once.
In order to get some practical help in this area, let’s start with a
very basic question.
What are the marks of a divided heart?
1. Perpetual Ambivalence
It has been said that a narcissist is a person who is unable to commit to anything outside of himself.
He flies from one relationship to another
• one job to another
• one friendship to another
• one church to another
• one promise to another
• never staying in one place long enough to make anything stick.
He’s here today and gone tomorrow.
• He promises and then makes excuses.
• “I’ll call you tomorrow, “then forgets and apologizes later.
• Or maybe he never remembers at all.
He’s here today and gone tomorrow.
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Pondered/situation, a verse came to mind from 1 Chronicles 12,
• Lists the soldiers/came/David’s aid when/Ziklag/Hebron.
• Soldiers/various tribes/Israel
They realized/David was not king over Israel yet
• God’s hand/upon him/he/bound/replace Saul sooner/later.
• List of men/Benjamin/Gad, Manasseh, and so on.
Perhaps/most famous/men/Issachar 1 Chronicles 12:32 who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
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Next verse we find/note about the warriors/tribe of Zebulon.
They are described as
• Experienced soldiers prepared for battle
• every type of weapon/help David
• undivided loyalty-50,000 (v. 33).
A great host of trained soldiers who came to David ready to fight.
• They showed up in full battle gear
• shield and spears and bows
• Ready to go to battle at a moment’s notice.
• But that is not their finest quality.
• Something even better to be said about them.
• They were men of “undivided loyalty.”
Original Hebrew text emphasizes/unusual way when it uses the word for “not” and the word “heart” repeated twice.
• Not heart and heart.
• Not “double-hearted.
• Not partly for Saul and partly for David.
• But having made their choice
• It was one heart all the time, nothing held back.
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These men said, “David, we are all in.
• Where you lead, we will follow.
• Say the word and we will go into battle.
• We serve at your command-and only at your command.”
Three thousand years after/men/Zebulon came to David, we remember them not for their military prowess (which must have been great) but for their hearts.
• They were not “heart and heart.”
• They were not “double-hearted.”
• They were in all the way.
• People with a divided heart can’t talk that way.
• They are in and out at the same time.
There is a second characteristic of a divided heart . . .
2. Divided Priorities
In Matthew 13 Jesus told a parable about a man who went out to sow seed.
• Some fell on the path, some/stony ground
• Some among/thorns, some/good ground.
Jesus explained/parable, he said/four soils represented four responses/message/kingdom.
Let’s focus on the seed sown among the thorns. Here is that part of the parable:
“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants” (Matthew 13:7).
And this is the explanation:
“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22)
• If you have ever planted a garden
• You understand what Jesus is saying.
• No matter how good the soil may appear from above
• Weeds lurk just below the surface.
• If you do not pull them up
• They will choke out the seed you have planted.
Weeds lurk just below the surface.
Jesus said that some people are like that.
• They are fence-straddlers.
• They say “Yes but . . .” when they hear the Word.
• Maybe they mean business, but they never pull the weeds out of their life.
parable Jesus mentions two particular kinds of weeds.
First, the worries of this life.
Any consuming concern in your life that catches all your attention.
It could be
• something that in itself is not bad
• such as a genuine concern for your job or your health or your personal financial situation.
It could be
• a relationship that takes up all your waking moments.
• a family issue that keeps you tossing/turning at night.
Second, there is the deceitfulness of wealth.
Again, we all understand this. Money is addictive.
• The more you have, the more you want.
You’ve probably heard the story/rich man who when asked when he would stop working so hard, replied, “When I have enough money.” How much is enough? “Just one more dollar.”
• That is the deceitfulness of riches.
• And it’s not just a temptation to the rich man.
• The love of money comes to all of us, seduces us
• whispers to us over and over again:
• “If only you had a little bit more , you would be happy.
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It’s important to remember that Jesus is not describing “unusual” or “strange” temptations.
We all have things that worry us.
• Wednesday night prayer list.
• So many names, so many needs.
We all face sickness, family crisis, medical issues, financial troubles, marital problems, struggles with our children, disappointments, setbacks, career issues, and periods of doubt and anger and spiritual struggle.
• We live in a very fallen world.
• No one is exempt from the troubles of life.
• We get sick, our loved ones get sick.
• Financial pressures weigh on all of us
• Death knocks on our door sooner or later.
How quickly/“thorns of life” arise/divide our heart/divert our attention.
These problems, trials/difficulties can choke out God’s work and leave us spiritually anemic.
There is a third sign of a divided heart . . .
3. Unclear Identity
This follows logically.
When the heart is divided, you won’t know who you really are.
• You can’t decide what team you’re on.
• You don’t know what uniform to put on.
• You act single even though you are married.
• You have two sets of friends that you keep separate.
• You have two vocabularies depending on where you are.
• You know how to fit in wherever you happen to be.
• You are like the proverbial chameleon
• Changing your colors so you will always blend in.
Living with a divided heart messes up the mind eventually.
• When you join the devil’s team
• you won’t feel comfortable going back to the Lord’s locker room at halftime.
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The strange, sad case/Apostle Peter provides a prime example.
On the night before the crucifixion, when Jesus met with his chosen men in the Upper Room, Peter took a look around and wasn’t very impressed with what he saw:
“Lord, I don’t know about these other guys. They look a little weak to me. I wouldn’t count on them if I were you. But don’t worry. You’ve got me. I’m your man. No matter what the rest of them do, I will never betray you. You have my word on it. I’ll never let you down.”
Or more simply put,
“Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will” Matt. 26:33.
• I’m sure Peter meant it.
• If you had asked him, I’m sure he would have said,
“I know I’m a little rough around the edges, and sometimes I put my foot in my mouth.
It’s true I’m a fisherman and not some Torah scholar, but I know my own heart, and I will never desert you, Lord."
When you join the devil’s team, you won’t feel comfortable going back to the Lord’s locker room at halftime.
• But that’s the problem.
• Peter didn’t know his own heart.
Less than five hours after proclaiming his loyalty
• the bold apostle turned to butter.
All it took was a servant girl to bring him down.
When the sordid triple betrayal was over, Peter wept bitterly and went away to be by himself, awash in shame and regret.
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Easter morning came/women went/tomb, not knowing/Jesus had risen from the dead.
When they arrived/tomb early morning
• angel announced the good news/instructed them
• “go, tell his disciples and Peter” Mark 16:7.
• What does that mean-"his disciples and Peter?"
• Peter’s denial has separated him from the other disciples.
• No doubt he wondered to himself many times,
• “What am I now? Am I a traitor or am I a disciple?”
• How quickly he fell.
• No wonder he is confused.
• His divided heart has tripped him up.
That’s what happens when we decide/play/Jesus’ team/Devil’s team at the same time.
• At some point you’ve got to make up your mind.
• Choose a team and stick with it!
• Follow Jesus-or don’t!
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That was the secret to Daniel’s greatness.
He knew who he was
Captive/Babylon, hundreds of miles from Jerusalem
ripped away/homeland
forcibly marched across the desert/pagan city.
• enrolled in a school he did not choose.
• Leaning a language that was not his own,
• Absorbing a culture both foreign and utterly pagan
• Being trained to serve in the Babylonian court.
• He was given a pagan name.
Daniel means “God is my judge,” which tell/he/raised/godly home.
• The Babylonians called him Belteshazzar
• It was a prayer to a pagan deity.
He had no choice/against their will.
• it was a great honor/chosen/serve/Babylonian king.
• Part/training involved eating/king’s table.
• It would like eating at Buckingham Palace.
• The king always eats well.
• They give him the best of the best.
• So to eat at the king’s table meant the best food
• expertly prepared, served with the best wines.
• It meant eating well every day.
• It was the best the world had to offer.
• And Daniel said no.
“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank” Dan 1:8.
• The King James version says he “purposed in his heart.”
• You can only “purpose in your heart” when you have an undivided heart.
• Daniel purposed in his heart.
• You know the rest of the story.
Daniel and friends ate water and cereal for ten days.
They ended up looking healthier and stronger than those who ate at the king’s table. As a result, they were recognized and rewarded by the king himself. Dan 1:17-21.
• Good story. Happy ending.
• One question hangs in the air.
• Where did Daniel find the strength to say no to the food from the king’s table?
• My answer is simple.
Daniel never forgot who he was and he never forgot where he came from.
• It was as if he was saying,
• “I may look Babylonian on the outside
• but I’m 100% Jewish on the inside."
• Daniel never forgot who he was.
This teaches us that you can’t corrupt a man from the outside.
You can change
a culture but not a character.
his name but not his nature.
• Daniel may have looked like a pagan
• but on the inside he was a servant of the living God.
• Even mighty Nebuchadnezzar could do nothing about that.
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We live in a world where biblical values/constantly under attack.
We won’t change the world’s way of thinking any time soon.
• But will the world change our way of thinking?
• That’s the question that hangs in the balance.
When you know who you are, you can serve Christ anywhere.
And the reverse is also true:
• When you are unclear about who you really are,
• You will struggle to serve Christ anywhere.
A man with a divided heart cannot grasp his true identity.
• He will be pulled this way and that.
• Under pressure he almost certainly will cave in.
But the man with an undivided heart knows who he is.
• He knows who he because he knows where his soul rest.
• He doesn’t have to constantly make decisions.
• Life becomes simpler (though not always easier).
• If you’re going to be a Christian, be one!
• That strikes me as excellent advice.
• It starts by having an undivided heart.
• If you’re going to be a Christian, be one!
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And that brings us back to the beginning, back to Psalm 86:11, “Unite my heart to fear your name” and “Put me together, Lord.”
As Spurgeon contemplated this verse, he offered this concise summary:
• A man of divided heart is weak
• the man of one object is the man.
Sometimes/our conversation, we will say, “He is the man.”
• We mean he is a man of one purpose
• the man we admire and want to follow.
• Such a man is the man.
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That’s why David prayed this prayer.
He looked within and saw his heart pulled in a hundred directions.
• So he prayed, “Unite my heart, O Lord.
• We marinate in hate.
There is no prayer more appropriate and more needed in our day.
Every honest man or woman must at times say, “My life is far from what I want it to be."
• We run low on love.
• find ourselves distracted, worried and easily confused
• fall prey to little temptations that lead to bigger ones
• marinate in hate.
• dawdle in our duties.
• make excuses for every failure.
• find ourselves both disagreeing and disagreeable.
• love the world more than we love God.
• live in unbelief instead of walking in faith.
• refuse to submit because our pride is at stake.
And so it goes, this struggle of the soul to find rest and peace.
• No wonder we are frustrated.
• When the heart is not united, nothing works right.
• Without God, we will be fragmented/torn/pulled/distracted.
A Prayer for a United Heart
We must do as David did. We must pray, “O Lord, take the scattered fragments of my heart and unite them so that I may praise you.”
• Only God can do this
• God can do it if we will come to him in humility and sincerity.
• The hardest part is coming.
• Until you admit you need God’s help
• you will be stuck exactly where you are.
