Hearts On Fire, Luke 24:32
Luke 24:32 “And they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while he opened the scriptures to us.”
Did you know that the word “heart” appears in the King James Bible 830 times? Only the words Lord, God, and Father appear more often.
With this much of the old and new testament dedicated to the heart, God must have thought it very important for us to understand.
Proverbs 4:23 admonishes us, “above all else guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life.”
Psalms 51:10 says, “create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Indeed, our hearts, not the pump that circulates our blood, but the core of our souls, is of great importance to God.
The heart that scripture speaks of is just as important to our souls as the physical heart is to our bodies.
If the physical heart stops, our physical life ends. Without life in our spiritual heart, there is no life in our soul.
A few months ago, I had to be re-certified in CPR and the use of an AED. Just out of curiosity, how many of you know how to perform CPR? Do any of you know how to use an AED?
AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator. It’s the device that shocks the heart and causes it to resume a normal rhythm after or during a heart attack.
In preparing this sermon, it occurred to me that we really need to have one of those here at the church, but that’s a matter for the next business meeting.
When I read Luke 24:32 it makes me long to experience Jesus in the same way these disciples did, they said, “did not our hearts burn within us.”
The more I thought about this verse, the more I asked myself, what would it take for our hearts to burn within us?
Even a casual study of scripture reveals that the spiritual heart is just as important, if not more so, as our physical heart.
Each of us, when we are born into God’s kingdom are given a vibrant strong beating heart that is at once on fire for the things of God.
Similarly, when we are conceived in the womb, within six weeks our new heart starts beating. I believe it became a slogan of the pro-life movement, “every abortion stops a beating heart,” and it is true.
Unless there is a congenital defect, the baby’s new heart will grow stronger as it grows to maturity.
So, I began to ask myself, what exactly causes our hearts to go from growing stronger to growing weaker and ultimately stopping?
Well, there are several factors that contribute to heart disease. But for the purpose of my message today, I want to focus on the ones that are self-inflicted.
I guess the number one contributing factor that we are responsible for is poor habits.
For instance, we don’t eat healthy. Several years ago it became a trendy advertising campaign to label certain foods as “heart smart.”
If the food you were buying had the heart smart logo, then it was a safe assumption that it would be good for you.
It is a known scientific fact that some foods will contribute to heart disease. What amazes me is that we can recognize this reality for our physical heart, but not for our spiritual heart.
So, what are some of the things we consume that give us spiritual heart disease?
a. Well, in today’s data rich society, I would say that concentrated doses of bad news don’t do us much good.
I quit watching the evening news years ago because I just couldn’t take it. Whether it was local or national, 30 minutes to an hour of murder, robbery, rape, and scandal can be overwhelming.
I don’t believe that God designed us to consume a steady diet of concentrated evil reports night after night. I believe that doing so causes a hardening of the heart.
With our 24 hour news cycle, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, it has gotten to the point where nothing shocks us anymore
Lucky for us, God’s word has a treatment for this problem and it can be found in Philippians 4:8, “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Let me challenge you, if you are inclined to watch the local and national news EVERY night, print this verse out in large letters and hang it next to your TV…
…and as you listen to the nightly report of sin and suffering, read this verse and then come and tell me how long it took you to turn it off.
b. Another contributing factor to heart disease is a sedentary lifestyle. That’s a fancy phrase for “being lazy” or doing nothing.
Back in 2002, I was in such poor physical shape that I couldn’t run around the house without having to stop to catch my breath. Then, in 2003, I was invited to join a relay team to run an Ironman Triathlon (I was the swimmer).
That invitation changed my life for the better and three years later I ran an Ironman race by myself. I swam, bicycled, and ran 140.6 miles in 12:25. Ever since that relay race, I have been very mindful of my physical health.
If you sit around and do nothing, it causes your heart to become weak. I think the analogy is pretty simple.
People who sit around and do nothing, physically, become physical weaklings, unable to help themselves or anyone else.
Likewise, those who sit around and do nothing, spiritually, become spiritual weaklings; unable to help themselves or anyone else.
Furthermore, just as someone with heart problems requires care and attention, the same is true for the spiritually heart sick.
Those who are spiritually strong, rather than going out into the world to seek the lost and share the gospel, are stuck at home tending to the heart sick saints who can’t care for themselves.
c. Another contributing factor to heart disease has to do with who you hang out with.
How many times have you been trying to eat right, but when you are out with friends and see them enjoy a “not so healthy meal,” you are tempted to stray from your diet “just this once?”
The same thing can happen to you spiritually. Hanging with the wrong crowd can have devastating consequences to your spiritual heart. The wrong friends can lead you astray, expose you to temptation, and make you feel pressured to “fit in.”
In fact, the scripture gives us clear warning in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” (HCSB)
d. Finally, perhaps one of the most significant contributing factors to heart disease is smoking. I’m not making this a sermon against smoking, but I do want to look at what it is.
Smoking is the act of taking something into your body that doesn’t belong there and thus, causes severe damage to the organs of your body. Smoking damages your lungs, heart, stomach, and skin.
In a similar fashion, when we take things into our spirit that don’t belong there, we damage our soul.
It’s a sad statistic in our internet connected world, according to Barna Group Research, 50% of the men and 25% of the women, who identify as Christians, are addicted to online pornography.
Furthermore, when we listen to filthy music, or dirty jokes, or salacious gossip, or watch vile movies, we are taking things into our souls that do not belong there.
Ephesians tells us that we are not to “grieve the Spirit,” yet that is exactly what we do when we participate in any of these activities.
And the difficulty we face when we try to stop doing these things is similar to the difficulty associated with stopping smoking.
As a former smoker, I can tell you that when you are hooked, it is very very difficult to stop. Even though you know full well what it is doing to your body, you still crave it, you still want it.
Even after all these years, I could still smoke a cigarette a foot long, and it would probably make me turn green.
In a similar fashion, when we become accustomed to a steady diet of pornography, or violence from movies or video games, or vile music, or gossip, or filthy communications, our brain receives stimulation and releases chemicals similar to morphine, so that we become addicted.
While these types of addictions probably have little effect on you physically, they are destroyers of your soul.
All of these things act to warp your sense of reality and morality, such that it becomes difficult to distinguish right from wrong.
Our society today is struggling with its definition of right and wrong.
The simple fact is this: if my spiritual heart isn’t healthy, how can it ever be on fire for the things of God?
My CPR training taught me how to keep the heart pumping until normal function can be restored. CPR and AED were never intended to keep the heart functioning all the time, they are emergency measures.
Spiritually speaking some of you here today may be on the verge of a heart attack.
1. You consume a steady diet of concentrated bad news to the point that there is no joy in your life.
2. You have sat around doing nothing for the Lord for so long, that now you require someone to take care of you.
3. Maybe you have been hanging with the wrong crowd and their bad behavior is starting to rub off on you.
4. Perhaps you have taken so many harmful things into your soul that your heart is literally rotting from the inside out.
What can be done, if anything, to reverse this condition?
If it was a physical heart, there is a pretty simple list of things that need to be done to make immediate improvements.
Doctors refer to all of these things together as a “lifestyle change.” Perhaps that is what some of us need as Christians, a lifestyle change.
1. Stop the concentrated doses of the sinful world that harden your heart.
2. Start a regular routine of spiritual exercises, might I suggest deep knee bends. Get back on your knees and start talking to God again. Start working to help others, which will, in turn, make you stronger. The greatest blessings come from serving others.
3. Put an end to toxic relationships
4. And cut out all of those things that are destroying you from the inside.
In our scripture passage, the two disciples said something that was very important. Let’s look at Luke 24:32 one more time.
“And they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while he opened the scriptures to us.”
How do we set our hearts on fire for the Lord? By doing what they did.
Their hearts burned within them when they:
1. Talked with the Lord
Their hearts burned within them when they:
2. Listened to the Lord
Their hearts burned within them when they:
3. Understood scripture
It seems so simple on the surface, but I promise you that it works every time it is tried.
Are you talking to Him, really talking to Him? Are you sharing you day with him in constant conversations? Do you start and end you day talking to Him?
Are you listening to Him? Jesus has a lot to share with us, He has a lot to teach us. Talking with Him is important, but we have one mouth and two ears. After you finish talking, sit back and listen to what He is saying to your heart.
Are you understanding His Word? The deeper you dig into His Word, the more on fire your heart will be. It’s impossible for you heart to be cold when you are consuming and understanding the Words of God.
I have one final verse for you this morning. It comes from Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Where is your heart today? According to Jesus, it will be with whatever it is that you treasure most.
Let us pray.
