SERMON 04-10-2015 WSG-MSJ
This morning/evening I just want to look at one phrase that Jesus uses and it is this phrase from Mk 10:5 where Jesus said:
“It was because your hearts were hard”
Introduction:
But let me start by telling you a rather unusual story that I came across some years ago.
On 24th February 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place - at the Department of Research Surgery at Ohio State University..
A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age.
When only a boy he had accidentally been shot by a school friend with a .22-caliber rifle.
The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not killed him, so the doctors just left it there.
However, little did they know that a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it.
The operation was a delicate one.
It required the separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side.
Then the stony coating was lifted from the heart as an orange is peeled.
Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally.
"I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation.
And there is a parable of life in this story too.
Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life.
They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs.
They are hardened by the pressure of circumstances.
And they can squeeze the real life out of us.
I have been over in Zermatt as Chaplain to St Peter’s Church there for the last two weeks
And this has given me a bit of time to reflect on my life – and though I might not have worded it as such, essentially the question I have been mulling over is:
Where is my heart?
Let us start by looking at some of the Scriptures relating to the heart.
Matt. 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart-For they will see God.
Prov. 27:19
As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.
Proverbs 23:26
My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep my ways.
So let’s start by considering: What is the definition of the heart.
1. One definition given is it is that organ that DISTINGUISHES the LIVING from the DEAD.
2. Another definition is that it forms the central part of a man.
And it is this definition that I would like consider today.
And to me it seems there are three types of heart
I. A Degenerate Heart
II. A Divided Heart and
III. A Delivered Heart (or Divinely Orientated Heart).
Let us look at each in turn
I. A Degenerate Heart.
Let us start by considering what the Scripture has to say about a degenerate heart..
Jer. 17.9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Mark: 7: 20-21
What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
Jer. 24:7
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God for they will return to me with all their heart.
Jer. 31:33
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour or man his brother saying: Know the Lord, because they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest" declares the Lord.
In fact before we come to Christ – the Bible tells us that our heart is degenerate.
It is not focussed on Christ but on other gods
Football teams, golf, success in business, adultery……
The list goes on
But we have a wonderful promise in Ez. 36: 25-26
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you - A NEW HEART and put a NEW SPIRIT (the Holy Spirit I believe) within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
John 7: 37
Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, steams of living waters will flow from within him."
2 Cor. 5:17
Therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature, the old has passed away, the new has come.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
A regenerate heart is not a godly heart.
I think it is this heart that Jesus alludes to in our Gospel reading when he says that God allows divorce for the hardness of your hearts.
In this case Man is on the throne of his life and Jesus has practically no place in his life.
Yet sadly we find this sort of degenerate heart in many of our congregations.
Jesus referred to this problem as sorting the wheat and the tares.
Let’s take a look at the second type of heart
II. A Divided Heart
Again let’s look at what the Bible has to say:
It is no accident that the first commandment of the ten commandment in Ex. 20 v. 3 is
You shall have no other gods before me.
Ez. 11.19: The Lord promises to give his people
"an undivided heart and a new spirit within them.
1 Sam. 15:22, the prophet speaking on behalf of God says:
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices (eg our excuses) as much as in OBEYING the WORD OF THE LORD.
To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams
For rebellion is like the sin of DIVINATION and
arrogance like the evil of idolatry."
And in yet another passage, Jesus himself said:
A man cannot serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. Mt 6:24
And that goes to the heart of a man with a divided heart
A Divided heart is pulled by the ways of the world and the guidance of God.
The question is who will you allow to win?
Because one day you will decide for one or the other.
And the longer you put off deciding the harder it becomes.
Because as Jesus said in Matt 7:13-14
For the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life.
It is so easy to start off with God and then get enticed by riches.
Just look at some of the multimillion pound Christian Missions run in the United States.
They started off right but in time money took over.
This holiday I have been reading a book by the former head of United Christian Broadcasters (UCB).
The book is called Scandalous Christianity by Gareth Littler (only available in Kindle on line).
In it Gareth gives us a horrible insight to the way UCB is doing God’s business
As I read his book, I thought that some of UCB’s commercial practices would not be acceptable in the secular world of commerce - were they to come to light.
They certainly would not have been acceptable when I was working in Reckitt and Colman.!
And perhaps very tellingly, in the introduction to his book Gareth says this:
The Chief Executive of UCB said:
“Gareth it is all about control and money, Christain broadcasting is all about control and money.
In 1988, I could not agree with the Chief Executive of UCB at a formative stage of our Christian broadcasting.
My argument: Surely it is all about Jesus” - has probably been lost, so this book is a tale about two kingdoms.
Littler, Gareth (2012-11-28). Scandalous Christianity (Kindle Location 130). Reformation.is / AWP / IMMI. Kindle Edition.
It is easy to start with God – and then take your eyes off him.
Indeed many godly ministers over the years have fallen because of a divided heart.
Ian Bilby, the famous New Zealand Pentecostal minister who inspired me for over a year to consider the words of
Proverbs 23:26
My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep my ways.
over and over again, fell from grace when he committed adultery until he had to resign his pastoral position.
(ref: http://culteducation.com/group/889-destiny-churches-international/5618-adultery-row-in-destiny-church-.html)
And the church lost a great and inspiring preacher.
When I first heard of Ian’s fall from grace, it hurt because he had been such an inspiration.
God had used him to speak to me but I guess Ian had a divided heart.
And so let us look at the final type of heart
III. A Delivered Heart
Again let’s start with what the Scriptures have to say.
Luke 22:42; Jesus said, in the Garden of Gethsemane when contemplating the Cross
Nevertheless not My Will but Thine be done.
Jesus said in Matt. 6:21 "Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.
Have you given that any thought recently.
Where is what you dearly treasure?
If we are going to have a delivered heart, then we need to stay close to Jesus
In John 15: 4 Jesus speaks of abiding in Him.
Abiding is a process – no wonder Jesus went up on a mountain early in the mountain to pray
(And please don’t tell my churchwarden Tim that as he has been trying to get me to be an early bird as he is!)
Abiding in Christ will bring a transformation of our mind
Note what St Paul says in Phil:4:7
And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your HEARTS and minds in CHRIST JESUS.
The Characteristics of a Delivered Heart are:
1. PRAYER
2. OBEDIENCE.
Jesus said, John 15:9-10
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His Love.
And the Beatitudes flow from there.
a) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
b) Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
c) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
I wonder how much you recall about Moses?
i) the man who led the children of Israel out of Egypt in defiance of Pharoah,
ii) the same man who smashed the first lot of ten Commandments given to him by God because he was incensed by Israel’s idolatry when he was away with God receiving the 10 commandments
iii) the man who God did not allow into the promised land because he struck the rock in desperation with his staff because of the complaining of the Israelites that they wanted water when God had told him simply to speak to the rock.( Numbers 20)
Do you recall what God says of Moses:
Now Moses was a very humble man, (meek in the KJV), more humble than any one else on the face of the earth.
(Numbers 12:3)
Why – because he wasn’t perfect BUT his heart was right.
Moses had a delivered heart>
Conclusions.
Jesus gives us the choice of what heart we want.
Can I leave you with two questions.
1. Where is your heart now and
2. Is your heart where you want it to be?
