“A HEART CONDITION”
What is the Condition of your Heart?
I.) INTRODUCTION:
This morning I want to talk about the condition of your heart.
The heart is the most important muscle in our body.
It provides all of the nutrients and oxygen we need to live by sending blood to all the parts of our body.
Needless to say having a healthy heart is a very important thing.
The tragic reality is that each year Heart disease causes 25% of all deaths in the United States.
According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.
If you want to have a long and active life you need to have a healthy heart.
In the same way, the condition of our spiritual heart is just as important.
Today I want to talk to you about the condition of your spiritual heart.
The bible uses the word “heart” 1000 times.
It is used to designate the soul, spirit, mind, conscience, and will.
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines heart as the center of the physical, mental and spiritual life of humans.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines heart as the seat of the emotions, passions and appetites and includes our intellectual and moral faculties.
For our sake I am going to define the heart as the seat of our mind, will and emotions.
II.) IMPORTANCE OF OUR HEART:
The bible tells us in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
What Solomon was telling us is that the condition of our heart should be the first, chief, primary concern for every Christian.
He tells us the reason for this is because our heart is the wellspring of our life.
Webster’s dictionary defines a wellspring as a source of continual supply.
When I was young my family used to go trout fishing.
My favorite type of fishing is in streams.
I love to hike up a stream and find some fishing holes…the clear water and the warm sunshine was awesome.
When you think about it, that little stream provided life to that whole area.
Without that stream the trout, insects, animals and vegetation in that area would not be able to survive.
Everything depended on the water that came from that stream.
In the same way that little stream brought life to that area so too our heart is the fountain of life for our mind, soul and body.
That is why Solomon tells us that guarding our heart should be our highest priority because it is the wellspring of our life.
III.) GUARDING YOUR HEART:
Because the devil know the importance of your heart he is constantly trying to get to our heart.
It is his goal to get our hearts to become hard.
If he can do that he knows our spiritual life will quickly deteriaorate.
He does this by trying to get us to take offence at things, feed bitterness or hold on to unforgiveness.
Last week I shared about how messed up my marriage had gotten because my heart had gotten hard.
I thought it would be good to talk about that today because I was totally unaware of the condition of my heart and I wanted to help some of you who may be heading down the same path that I was.
I want to give you some signs that you can look for to see if your heart is getting hard.
IV.) SIGNS OF A HARD HEART:
In Mark 8:17, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the characteristics of a hard heart:
Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?
In these verses, Jesus gives us four symptoms that are descriptive of a hard heart.
They are unable to understand, unable to see, unable to hear and unable to remember.
1.) UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND:
A hardened heart dulls a person’s ability to perceive and understand.
Mark 6:51-52
Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
The disciples had just witnessed Jesus taking five small loaves of bread and two small fish, and feeding an entire multitude of at least 15,000 people!
What an awesome miracle!
But because their hearts were hard they were blind to the amazing miracle that had happened right before their eyes.
A hard heart is characterized by an inability to understand.
People with hard hearts are unable to recognize the reality of the supernatural.
Because the disciples were hard hearted they completely missed what had happened with the fishes and loaves.
I believe hard heartedness is what keeps some Christians from believing in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
When a person says they believe in God and they love Jesus but they deny the power of the Holy Spirit some part of their heart has become hard.
Hard hearts can also keep us from being able to understand relational issues.
When my heart was hard I was unable to understand what was going on in my marriage.
I remember thinking that this was all Chris’ fault.
I had no capacity to understand what she was going through or what she was feeling.
Actually I know now that was what was causing most of our problems!
When our hearts are hard we look at things from a selfish and distorted perspective.
We tend to maximize our suffering and minimize the pain we cause others.
Our ability to understand and sympathize with others is severely limited.
Matt 13:15
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'
2.) UNABLE TO SEE:
People with hard hearts become blind to their attitudes and actions.
We see this exemplified with the Scribes and Pharisees.
Because they were hard-hearted they were blinded to their hypocrisy and their sin.
When our hearts are hard we justify our actions and blame others.
During the summer I spent a lot of time blaming Chris for the condition of our marriage.
I keep a record of her faults and was pretty much blind to my own.
People tried to point out my sin, but I didn’t see it at all.
All my attention was focused on Chris’ offences.
When our hearts are hard we are unable to see the sin in our lives and we focus on the sins of others.
If you are easily offended and unable to forgive others you probably have a hard heart.
When our hearts are hard we become enslaved to our selfishness and we are unable to humble ourselves.
All we can focus on is our rights.
Our selfish motives become the primary driver in our life.
Why not be wronged to keep peace?
Why not give grace to keep relationship?
Hardness of heart leads to justification of sin.
Because my heart was hard I was unable to hear the Lord’s direction and correction.
I read the bible but I didn’t apply it to my life.
I listened to sermons, but I didn’t hear how I was supposed to apply it.
I read and studied so I could get material to teach.
If you read the bible or listen to teachings and you do not apply it to your life your heart is hard.
It is possible to enjoy biblical teaching and to even approve of what is being taught and yet grow hard hearted.
The difference is whether we are doers or hears of the Word.
If you have ignored the Holy Spirit's wooing to draw you to the secret closet for intimacy, then your heart is getting hard.
Or maybe you were warned by God to stop some secret sin.
But nonetheless you continue to harbor it in your heart.
You my friend have a hard heart.
Heb 3:7-9
So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
3. UNABLE TO HEAR:
When our hearts become hard we are unable to hear the Lord.
I did not think that my heart was hard because I was still reading the bible, praying and doing a lot at church.
I hadn’t turned away from God or rejected Christ, but I did notice that I was not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit as much.
I was still doing a lot for God, but the problem was that I was not doing it with Him.
Some of the hardest hearts on earth can be found in church every Sunday.
You can be hard hearted and listen to teaching tapes...singing God's praises...serving as an usher, a teacher, a member of the worship team.
If you are struggling to hear the voice of the Lord you may be suffering from a hard heart.
4.) UNABLE TO REMEMBER:
When we have a hard heart we are unable to remember all that God has done for us.
Instead we focus on what God hasn’t done.
When our hearts are hard we are miserable and unhappy because our eyes become glued to our problems and struggles.
Instead of remembering all the times God has come through for us we get stuck in depression or self-pity.
After the Lord rescued the Israelites from Egypt he told them to remember all that he had done.
He told them to remember how He provided for them while they were in the desert for forty years and how he even kept their clothes from wearing out!
But because their hearts were hard they forgot and grumbled against God and even wanted to go back into captivity.
A sure sign that your heart has gotten hard is when you fail to remember all of the blessings you have received from the Lord.
It has been so interesting for me how much more thankful I am now that my heart has been changed by the Lord.
Since my heart has gotten soften by the Holy Spirit I am so much more thankful and appreciative for all of the amazing blessings in my life.
I used to be easily bothered by my kids behavior, now I am so thankful the Lord has given me such great kids.
I used to be unhappy with all of the things that I need to fix around my house.
Now I am so grateful to have a house.
I used to be angry at Chris for not being the wife I wanted her to be.
Now I thank the Lord that I have an wonderful, loving wife.
Ps 77:11-14
I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. 13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
V.) WHAT CAUSES HARD HEARTEDNESS:
The main thing that hardens our heart is sin.
Heb 3:13
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
The Garden gives us a perfect example of how sin affects the heart.
The moment Adam tasted of the forbidden fruit his heart became hard and he blamed God for giving him Eve and he blamed Eve for giving him the fruit.
Adam’s heart of sensitive flesh was suddenly petrified and became a hard unfeeling stone.
He tried to hide himself from the Presence of his best Friend.
The devil temps us to sin because he knows it will harden our heart toward God.
Sin has been conquered and the wages of sin has been atoned for, but sin still has the ability to harden our heart.
That is why the devil tries so hard to get us to sin.
He whispers to us, “You can sin now and just ask for forgiveness.”
How about this one, “Don’t worry about it, no one will know.”
Or, “It is not going to hurt anybody” or “You deserve a little fun.”
Sin will bore a hole into our heart and rob us of the life Jesus came to give us.
During our struggles I allowed the sin of unforgiveness to take root in my heart.
I chose to hold on to Chris’ offences and by doing so my heart became hard.
God actually showed me when I made the decision to pull away from Chris and shut my heart off.
Eph 4:26-27
In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
VI.) HOW TO HAVE A CHANGE OF HEART:
So now that I have talked about what a hard heart is and the warning signs…you may be here today and you recognize that your heart has become hard.
You want more of God and you know your heart has become resistant.
I have some great news!
If you will call on the Lord today and repent and ask Him to change your heart He will!
He will not scold you, he will not judge you…he will act as your mediator and intercessor.
Right now he is saying to you, "Just call on me, and I will do it for you!”
If you will come to God with a broken and contrite heart he promises to receive you.
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
My breakthrough came when I recognized the condition of my heart and I simply asked Him to change my heart.
Since then that has been my daily prayer.
Remember He who made the heart can melt it.
Job said, "God make my heart soft."
One of the greatest miracles is that the Holy Spirit can turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
Only the Holy Spirit can do a work so amazing.
He alone can work in us to convict us of sin and create a holy tenderness in our heart.
Ezekiel 36:26
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.
• A heart of flesh is able to see when our attitudes and actions are not in line with God’s commands.
• A heart of flesh is able to hear and enjoy the Lord.
• A heart of flesh is able to perceive and understand things of the spirit.
• A heart of flesh is able to remember all that God has done.
VI.) CONCLUSION:
This week I had a vision from the Lord.
I saw this picture of my heart with a knife in it.
The knife was there because someone had done something very hurtful to me.
In the vision I quickly pulled the knife out in anger and threw it at the person.
The hole in my heart closed up but it became hardened scar tissue.
But then I got a different picture.
I saw the knife in my heart and instead of pulling it out I pushed it in. It hurt to do so…but the knife dissolved and my heart was softened.
It is my prayer that we would be a people who are willing to take the pain of others and give it to the Lord.
I am learning how to do that and it has made my life a lot better.
Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
