The Heart of the Matter (Part Three)
"Spiritual Cholesterol"
Introduction
A. "For this people’s heart has become calloused; their ears are hard of hearing, 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." (Matt.
13:15)
B. "These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me." (Matthew 15:8)
C. "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing
up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous
judgment will be revealed." (Romans 2:5)
D. "Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their
unbelief and hardness of heart." (Mark 16:14)
E. "Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart
falls into trouble." (Proverbs 28:14)
F. What do you think about or what comes to your mind when you think of someone
being hard hearted? What kind of picture do you see?
1. Do we think of Adolph Hitler? All of those innocent people who suffered and died.
2. Do we think of a mass murderer? He has no conscience or guilt feelings at all.
3. Do we think of the husband who tells his wife, "I want a divorce! I want you
out of my life and I don’t care what you think!"
4. Do we think of a mother or a father leaving or abandoning their children?
5. Do we think of a young person (a teen) who looks at her parents and says, "I
hate you! I don’t want to live here anymore. I wish you were out of my life!"
G. Did any of that hit close to home? Maybe you were thinking, "Ouch! I don’t
want to be like that! I don’t want anyone to ever say that I’m hard hearted!"
H. It’s a shame to see people act like that, isn’t it? But what is more pitiful is to
see people who were once such dedicated Christians who, because of years of
life or bad circumstances, have become hard hearted.
I. Has your relationship with Jesus become lifeless and stale because your heart is
hard? Are you no longer moved by a lesson or touched by a scripture?
J. Point: Spiritual hardness of the heart, just like the hardening of the arteries, can
happen to the best of us!
K. In our series on "The Heart of the Matter" we have discussed heart trouble and
intensive care for broken hearts.
1. Our lesson for today is "Spiritual Cholesterol—The Hardening of the Heart."
2. This heart condition is the most serious and dangerous one of all.
3. Why is it the most serious and dangerous one? Because once I block God from
my heart there’s not a lot He can do.
4. O, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t powerful. But God didn’t create robots! We
are free to choose what we do!
5. Good News: If we will open our hearts to God, He has the power to get our
hearts running smoothly if they have become clogged with spiritual cholesterol.
L. I’m not quite sure when they discovered the effect that cholesterol has on the
heart. However, once the discovery was made and people heard about the danger of having a high cholesterol number, people made sure to have their cholesterol level checked.
1. I remember the first time mine was checked. My number was 128. (Jealousy!)
2. But if your number is up in the 300’s or 400’s then there is a strong possibility
that you will experience a hardening of the arteries.
M. I find it very interesting that we pay so much attention to the condition of our
physical hearts and yet we ignore and neglect the condition of our spiritual hearts.
N. A few moments ago, I asked you what comes to mind when you think of some-
one being hard hearted.
1. Some of the things I mentioned were "hot button" topics. They were emotional,
family type of things.
O. But what about spiritually? Do any of these situations hit close to home?
1. Have you ever knocked on someone’s door to visit them or to have a study and
they say, "No thank you! I’m NOT interested! Bye!" They slam the door.
2. Or you visit someone to encourage them to come to worship services more often
or to get involved in the work of the church but they say, "Listen, we’re coming
to worship on Sunday morning only and that’s it! Nothing more!"
3. What about the person who at one time was so active in the church but they
have fallen away and no longer have anything to do with the church? When
you try to talk to them, it’s like, "Don’t even start with me! Don’t try to make
me feel guilty! I don’t care any more about the church! I don’t want to hear
anything about the church! Leave me alone!"
4. We think, "Wow! How hard hearted can a person be? How did this person
ever get to this point?"
5. Answer: One step at a time!
6. It doesn’t happen all of the sudden. I don’t just wake up one morning and
decide, "You know what? I think I’ll just walk away from Jesus and the church,
starting today."
7. Hardening of the spiritual heart is a gradual process that can take months or
years to happen. But once it occurs, watch out! It can be deadly!
8. Turn to Psalm 95.
9. Today, we want to focus on how we can avoid becoming hard hearted. We also
want to try and work on a little bit of preventive maintenance.
P. Psalm 95 is written about Israel’s future with regards to Israel’s past. Notice how
it starts out with a wonderful call to praise!
1. Psalm 95:1-7 - READ
Q. The picture in my mind is the Israelite priest standing up before the people
saying, "Come! It is time for all of us to sing praises to God and worship His
mighty and holy name! Sing this song of blessing with me!"
1. BUT in the back of the crowd, or at the edge of the group, the priest notices
somebody with a cynical, sour look on his face that says, "Are we going to sing
that song again? Do we have to sing it again?" (GRUMPY)
2. "Is it going to be another long service? If we don’t get out on time today there
is no way we are going to beat other people to the Jerusalem cafe’."
3. "Oh brother, Don’t tell me he wants to sing THAT song! O, I hope he doesn’t
make us sing that song where we have to repeat the same line over and over,
‘His love endures forever.’"
4. Maybe the priest spotted somebody who just had that hard hearted look that
said, "I’ve been through this too many times. I’m tired of this! It’s always the
same thing! Please hurry up with this!"
5. Maybe he spotted someone who acted a lot like some people do today in worship
services.
6. For some Christians, admit it, the worship services bore you! "How much longer
is it going to be?" You go on automatic pilot every week. You have a glazed
look that says, "I’ve heard it all before! I wish I was some place else!"
7. Because of that attitude, you start missing worship services on a regular basis.
You begin to think, "I don’t need to be there. I don’t have to be there."
8. It’s unfortunate, because someone else ends up taking your seat!
9. "What? What do you mean, Ross? Who takes my seat?"
a. The DEVIL sits in your seat, looks up at me and grins, "I’ve got him again!"
R. It’s no wonder that the Psalmist followed up his song of praise with a warning
about hard hearts.
S. Psalm 95:8-10 - READ
1. Verse 8 is the key to understanding what the Psalmist was trying to get across.
2. Note - The words Meribah and Massah
3. He’s making reference to what their forefathers did in Exodus 17 - TURN TO IT
4. The word Meribah means quarreling or rebellion. The word Massah means
testing or contention.
5. You remember the story about how the Israelites were freed from Egypt. There
were probably over one million Israelites who followed Moses into the desert.
6. God has proven His ability to take care of His people. (They crossed the Red
Sea on dry ground; God supplies manna and quail to eat)
7. But soon, the songs of praise become stale, the choruses of worship become
boring and the people get thirsty.
T. Exodus 17:1-7 - READ
U. Are you ready for some warning signs of spiritual cholesterol?
Body
I. Warning Signs of Spiritual Cholesterol.
A. First Warning Sign is Excessive Griping.
1. Philippians 2:14 - "Do all things without complaining and arguing."
2. Children of Israel is an accurate term. Many times the Israelites acted just
like children. Whining, complaining, griping, irritating, etc.
3. In the N.T. there were contentions (quarrels) among the brethren at Corinth
(I Cor. 1:11).
4. Excessive griping and complaining are a warning sign. It just happens. In fact,
you get to the point where you start to enjoy it. You take great pleasure in
having group gripe sessions. (You even volunteer to lead the discussion)
5. These sessions can start within the next 30 minutes while you’re at lunch.
a. "I’ll tell you what I don’t like about Brother A or Sister B..."
b. You can even take a few pot shots at the worship service. (Singing was
terrible, song leader was awful, prayer was too long, the Lord’s Supper
took forever, and the sermon?... Well, you don’t even want to go there
with me!")
6. If we don’t discuss the worship service then we just start talking about our
country or our community or whatever!
7. The Israelites kept asking, "Why isn’t there any water Moses? You’ve brought
us out here in the desert to die!"
8. These people were FREE! They had been slaves for hundreds of years but
now their main concern wasn’t "We are so thankful and grateful," their concern
was, "Where’s the water fountain? Why don’t we have any water? Thanks a
bunch, Moses! You get us out of Egypt so we can die of thirst! Way to go!"
9. I doubt that God was pleased with their attitude! Because what is really
behind the question of "Where’s the drinking fountain?" is "Is God all He’s
cracked up to be? Is He really going to see us through?"
B. Second Warning Sign is Excessive Doubting.
1. A little bit of doubt is not bad. We all have doubts.
2. But, when my heart continually brings up the negative, doubting side of me,
it’s a warning sign that I’ve got some hardening of the spiritual heart going on.
3. Questions - "Is God really that powerful? Does He care? Can He really help?"
4. James 1:6 - "But let him ask in faith without any doubting (or "he must believe
and not doubt), because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and
tossed by the wind."
5. There’s a reason why God was displeased with the Israelites at Meribah.
There’s a revealing comment in Exodus 17:7 about why God was upset.
6. Exodus 17:7 - "...because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested
the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’"
7. Their attitude was, "Prove it, God!"
8. "Ross, we’re here for you to prove to us that we need to be good." (Some may
feel like that’s my job. I’m the hit man every Sunday.)
a. Older brother said, "The job of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and to
afflict the comfortable."
9. I will not get drawn into a battle of proving! Besides, God has done His
proving already! He has given us His word! He sent Jesus! He is the great
I AM and not the great I WAS!
10. God wants to see the hands and hearts of those who trust Him!
11. Hardening of the spiritual heart is a disease that can result in the death of your
faith! Because slowly but surely, you just don’t trust God anymore!
12. Sad point: There are Christians and non-Christians who have made a decision
to harden their hearts and be miserable!
a. The Christian has hardened his heart and decided to walk away from God or
keep God at a distance.
b. The non-Christian has hardened his heart and decided not to obey the gospel.
C. Having your heart clogged with spiritual cholesterol is a miserable way to live!
D. Thank you very much for listening. That’s the end of the lesson for today. NOT!
E. I could end the lesson and we could all go home sick and worried and thinking,
"Am I that kind of person? Do I have spiritual cholesterol?"
F. Good News: There IS a cure for the hardening of the spiritual heart.
G. There are two things we need to look at in order to get the cure. Pardon the
metaphor if you will but I think it fits our topic really well.
H. You go to the doctor and he says, "We’ve found some blockage in your
arteries." You ask, "Do I need surgery?" The doctor says, "No you don’t need
surgery. It’s not that serious yet. Let’s try TWO things."
I. Question - What are the TWO things he’s probably going to ask you to work
on?
J. Number One - He will mention a foul four letter word; D-I-E-T! He’s going to
talk to you about what you eat.
1. He’ll ask, "Do you eat a lot of junk food? Do you eat a lot of fast food? Do
you eat a lot of fried chicken?" (Doctor! I preach the word and eat the bird!)
K. Number Two - The doctor will ask, "Do you do much...EXERCISE?"
1. He will want you to get out and walk; maybe do a little jogging; wants you to
work your cardiovascular system.
L. Let’s look at these two items and see how they can help cure our spiritual
cholesterol problem.
II. The Cure for Spiritual Cholesterol.
A. First, is our DIET. What kind of diet do we need to have? What are some things
we need to watch so we don’t clog our spiritual arteries?
1. Item One - Watch out for FAT
a. Revelation 3:17 - "You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not
need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor,
blind and naked."
(1) The church at Laodicea had just grown fat. They thought they had it made;
that they had everything.
b. Luke 12:21 - "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for
himself but is not rich toward God." The rich fool was FAT!
c. Luke 12:15 - "a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions"
d. Matthew 6:19 - "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth..."
e. One sure sign of spiritual cholesterol is when you just start living the FAT
lifestyle.. You eat as much of the "sweets" as possible.
f. It’s a lifestyle that is filled with affluence, excess and outrageous consumption
of material goods.
g. Point: It’s not necessarily a sin to be rich. I’ve known people with great
wealth who were extremely generous with their money. They were rich
toward God and used their money to help spread the good news.
h. By the way, it’s not just money that we’re talking about here.
i. When it takes a real "ripper" of a sermon to dig into our pockets to help the
needy, or meet the budget, or to help a mission work—but boy, we’ve GOT
to have one of those new, expensive big screen T.V.’s and we’ve got to have
it today—then we’ve got a problem!
j. There’s nothing wrong with a big screen T.V.—but if my lifestyle is marked
by excessive and outrageous consumption of material goods and I no longer
care about spiritual things—then a hardening of the heart will take place!
2. Item Two - Watch out for Greasy Food. (This is different from fat)
a. It’s the greasy food of self-assurance! "Kick back and take it easy! We’ve
got it made! We have arrived!"
b. Amos 6:1 - "Woe to you who are at ease (complacent) in Zion."
c. Luke 18:10-14 - parable of the Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee said,
"I’m not like other men—robbers, evildoers, etc. I fast twice, I give a tenth..."
d. I Corinthians 10:12 - "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest
he fall."
e. This is an attitude of sitting back and being so sure about yourself, so
arrogant, so self-absorbed and cocky. "I’m so good! I’m glad I’m not like
the hypocrite, or the lazy or the ungodly."
f. It’s the greasy sliminess that oozes off of people and makes you go, "Yuck!
He is so sure of himself!"
g. Beware of eating the greasy food of self assurance because slowly but surely
it will clog our hearts to where the only voice we hear is our own!
3. Item Three - Watch Out for I’d Food (not "fried")
a. "I’d rather do this; I’d rather have things my way; I’d rather belong to a
church that does things the way I think they should be done."
b. When "I" starts too many of my sentences, I can be sure that the spiritual
cholesterol has caused selfishness to be the diet of food I eat.
c. So many people are worried about the church today. "We’re worried about
the direction the church is headed. We worried about liberalism, doctrinal
error and other things." (Perhaps there’s some validity to those issues)
d. However, if those things are happening in the church, they are the direct
result of us eating too much "I’d" food!
e. Eating too much "I’d" food causes us to turn inward and to focus only on
ourselves. We get more worried about "keeping house" than we do anything
else.
4. We must watch what we eat! Our spiritual diet must be monitored at all times.
5. The saying "We are what we eat" is true in spiritual matter as well.
B. Second, is EXERCISE.
1. Item One - Do the FAITH STRETCH!
a. Spiritual exercise is tough because I really only want to do the things that
feel good.
b. As anyone who has ever exercised will tell you, if you don’t stretch first,
you can injure yourself. All of your muscles have to be stretched properly.
c. So we stretch our "patience" muscles and our understanding muscles and our
"love" muscles and our "godly living" muscles.
d. How do we stretch those particular muscles? Easy! We say, "God, I’m going
to trust in You and do what YOU want me to do, period!"
e. Trusting in God is NOT saying, "Prove it!" but it’s saying, "Okay, God, I’ll
DO it!"
f. Hebrews 11:7 - Quote
g. "But I’m tired of getting beat up all the time. I’ve turned the other cheek."
h. Proverbs 3:5,6 - Quote
i. Don’t give up! Trust Him! Do the Faith stretch!
2. Item Two - Do the SPEAK OUT, WORK OUT.
a. Once the heart is right, then we will be able to exercise in the way Psalm 51
tells us to.
b. Psalm 51:13-15 - READ
c. It’s a simple three step workout. Did you see it? TEACH, SING, PRAISE
d. I recommend at least 50 repetitions of these or as often as possible.
e. TEACH a friend about Jesus, a family member, co-worker. We can lead at least one person to the Lord.
f. SING a song from your heart - not necessarily the song that has notes—but the song that comes from our hearts because of our relationship with God.
g. PRAISE the Lord every day - This is probably our weakest area. We’re afraid to because of whatother people might say or think. We’re afraid of being "branded" a fanatic. (Although we don’t mind telling people what team we pull for! Or wearing the team colors but don’t give me a shirt that says "Praise God!")
(1) If we don’t praise him here how can we expect to praise
him when we get home?
Conclusion
A. What about each of us? Do we exhibit any of the symptoms of spiritual
cholesterol? Are our hearts hard? Do we need to work on the cure? Are we
miserable?
B. Question - What kind of heart do we have?
C. Maybe it might help us if we could see what kind of heart we have. If we could
see what our arteries look like.
D. Picture One - Does my heart look like this? (http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/
WebPath/CVHTML/CV004.html)
1. Notice how this artery is open and clean. The blood can flow smoothly to the
heart. Is our spiritual heart open and clean so that God’s spirit can flow freely
to our hearts?
E. Picture Two - Does my heart look like this? (http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/
WebPath/CVHTML/CV009.html)
1. Notice how this artery is clogged with cholesterol. The blood flow has been
severely restricted. Is our spiritual heart clogged with "cholesterol?" Is it filled
with "I’d" food, "greasy" food, and "fat?"
F. Picture Three - Does my heart look like this? (http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/
WebPath/CVHTML/CV172.html)
1. This is an artery that was so bad, it had to be lacerated and cut.
2. Has our spiritual heart become so hard and calloused that we have cut
Jesus off from our hearts?
G. The cure is available! The cure is so simple! Sing a familiar song with me.
H. Song - Into My Heart
