The Heart of the Matter (Part Four)
"Resuscitating Tired Hearts"
Introduction
A. Example - A married couple sits in a counselor’s office. She says, "He comes
home on time, buys me an occasional gift, he provides for the family, but I just
don’t feel like I have his heart any more!"
1. (Please don’t elbow your spouse while I say these things and tell them, "Listen
up honey! He’s talking to you!")
B. Sometimes the counselor will run through a list of questions, "Have you done
this? Have you tried that?"
C. Example - A husband was told by the marriage counselor to try and be nice to
his wife. One day he comes home from work. He’s dressed up in a suit, he has
cologne on, he has a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy in his hands. He’s
trying to make a good impression. The wife says, "Oh, I can’t believe it! Little
Johnny has been throwing up; the dishwasher just broke; your parents are
coming to visit this weekend and to top it all off, you come home drunk!"
D. There are times in a marriage when we think, "I don’t care how you are
behaving, I know without a doubt that your heart isn’t in our relationship."
1. You give your spouse a kiss on the cheek, mutter "Love ya," as you walk out the door to work, but you could have done without it because the heart wasn’t in it.
(Some say, "Kiss? What kiss?")
E. The scenario I just mentioned might be an accurate description of our "marriage"
to Jesus. In fact, some of us aren’t married to Christ; we’re just living with him.
F. Jesus doesn’t just want us to show up for worship services, or say our prayers,
or read our Bibles—He wants our hearts! He wants ALL of our heart, not just a part of our heart.
G. We’ve come to the final lesson in our series on "The Heart of the Matter."
1. Why have we been talking so much about the heart? Isn’t it obvious?
2. If Jesus can have our hearts, then everything else—the good attitude, the songs
of praise, the right view of His word—will fall into place.
3. Example - An elderly Christian lady, who was crippled with arthritis, used to
hobble to the services of the church on crutches. It was a great ordeal and
required of her a considerable amount of toil and pain. A friend of hers observed
her regular and faithful attendance and asked, "How do you manage to be at
every service?" Her answer was, "My heart gets there first, and my old legs
just follow after."
H. God truly wants what is best for us and what’s best for us is to give Him our
hearts! To give him ALL of our heart!
I. We’ve talked about heart trouble, broken hearts, and spiritual cholesterol.
J. Today’s Lesson: "Resuscitating Tired Hearts"
1. Are you a Christian whose heart is worn out by guilt, worry and frustration?
2. Are you fatigued spiritually? Have you lost your zeal, enthusiasm and devotion?
3. Are you a Christian who has experienced tremendous pain, heartache and loss
and you are weary from the burdens you’ve had to bear?
K. Occasionally, a doctor will view an elderly patient and say, "Their heart is just
giving out! Their heart is tired and worn and it’s been beating for so long. There’s
not a lot we can do."
L. What is really frustrating is when a young person has a heart that starts giving
out on them. (12 year old boy, 22 year old wife) The doctors scratch their heads
and say, "We don’t know what’s wrong—but their heart just wants to quit!"
M. From a spiritual standpoint, I have seen Christians whose hearts have given up.
They’ve quit!
1. The minister will go to visit them and say, "We miss you. We haven’t seen you
in a while."
2. They’ll look at the preacher and say, "Look, I did everything. I served on
every committee. I was there at every service. I’m absolutely worn out. I just
want a little space. I ran myself ragged. I burned the candle at both ends. I did
all I could and it still wasn’t enough."
N. Could it be that we have people who are right on the edge of being "burned out"
spiritually?
1. Some are right at the core of everything we do. Some are the "back bones" of
this congregation.
2. And some are on the brink of saying, "I’ve had it! I don’t want to do anything
else! I can’t take it anymore. I’m tired, I’m worn and I want out!"
O. Point: And SATAN is waiting on the other side of the door.
1. He says, "How would you like a little vacation? What do you say we start
skipping Wednesday night Bible study, skipping Sunday night services and
sleeping in on Sunday mornings and missing Bible class?"
2. "Listen, you’ve gone to church how many years now? What do you say we
just take a little break from the Lord? Let’s just take a month of two off. What
do you say?"
3. And we think, "Boy, that sure sounds great to me! I like that idea!"
P. Of course, what eventually happens is, a month or two off becomes a year or
two off and before you know it—that member who was once so involved in the
church—has lost all interest in God!
Q. Question - How does something like that happen? How do you resuscitate a
tired heart?
R. Let’s notice some of the causes and some of the cures for the tired heart.
Body
I. The First Cause (It’s complicated, so I’ll spell it slowly) is S-I-N.
A. Turn to Psalm 32.
B. When David got close to spiritual burnout (and spiritual death) it had to do
with sin.
1. David’s biggest problem was NOT ruling and reigning as king over Israel, but
it was dealing with sin.
2. He had taken another man’s wife; he had her husband put to death and
tried to cover it all up.
3. Yet, deep down inside, he had to live with the guilt and the sorrow.
C. Psalm 32:1-5 - READ
D. The reason some of us "burn out" is because we get involved in sin but we
don’t deal with it properly.
E. Some of us try to do what David did in verse 3 - "When I kept silent..."
1. There’s something about trying to keep our sin hidden that appeals to us.
2. We wish that somehow we could pull a "Jonah stunt." If we could just get
away from God’s presence and "go down into the ship" then God won’t be
able to find us. He’ll never know about our sin.
3. But then the word of God comes along and blows that plan out of the water.
4. Psalm 44:21 - (God)..."knows the secrets of the heart."
5. Ecclesiastes 12:14 - "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including
every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
6. Psalm 90:8 - "You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the
light of your presence."
F. O how we long to sing the words of the song, "Purer in Heart, O God."
1. "Keep me from secret sin, reign thou my soul within."
G. You see, we really know what to do about our sin problem.
H. Acts 3:19 - "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."
I. But wait a minute! Let’s remember whom we are talking about right here.
1. We’re not talking about the drug addict, or the prostitute or the murderer and
asking them to stand up and say, "I’m a sinner."
2. We’re talking about the man or the woman who is right in the center of the
church!
3. We’re so quick to sweep sin under the rug! So we never go forward at church
and admit we’ve got sin in our lives.
J. Question - Is going forward at church somehow going out of style?
1. It seems to "shake people up" when a minister, or elder or deacon responds.
2. Example - When I responded at Camp Wiregrass a few years ago. I was the
director of the session and a minister so the jaws began to drop.
3. We don’t like it when people in leadership positions show us they can make
mistakes. If they respond, then people will think they are weak.
4. Maybe too much emphasis is put on going forward at services. After all, we
can make a change in our lives by staying put on our pew and not going
forward.
5. But then again, maybe there is something to be said for making a PUBLIC
confession. Because if we won’t say anything about Jesus in here what makes
us think we will say anything about Him out there?
K. David kept silent about his sin. After all, he was the king of Israel. And I’m
sure the king of Israel is going to walk out before the entire assembly and say,
1. "I’ve got some news for the kingdom today. I feel like it’s going to rain
tomorrow; the crops are doing well; there’s peace in the kingdom; and...I
committed adultery. Any questions from the press?"
2. Nobody wants to walk out and say, "I have sinned." So instead, we keep
quiet about it. We don’t do anything about it. We play it cool.
L. Our attitude: "Come on, honey. Let’s walk into service; we’ll sing a song;
smile at the people; we’ll shake their hands; we’ll get in the car and go home
and nobody will ever know that our family is about to split apart at the seams."
1. "Nobody will ever know that I’m about to walk away from the Lord and His
church and leave it all behind."
M. Some of us are suffering from "burn out" because of sin and we’re trying to
keep everything looking good on the outside but on the inside we’re burning
up with guilt, frustration and heartache because of sin.
N. David came clean from his sin but he had to have a little push. Sometimes I
have to be Nathan the prophet. (I don’t enjoy it!)
O. Please realize that unconfessed sin can cause us to burn ourselves out until
even those who love us cannot resuscitate our tired heart.
II. The Second Cause is a Lack of Spiritual Food.
A. Turn to Psalm 19.
B. I Peter 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; Psalm 119:105 - Quote
C. Psalm 19:7-11 - READ
D. In particular, notice verse 7 - "the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul."
E. God’s word can revive a tired, worn out heart!
F. Point: We’ve got people who are "burned out" spiritually because they are so
busy working that they aren’t eating.
G. There are two ways of looking at this point and I hope that I don’t lose anyone
in the process of discussing both of them.
H. Number One - Some Christians are so busy doing God’s work that they
aren’t eating. (spiritually speaking)
1. There are those who keep dishing out (i.e., teaching) and they get nothing
in return. They don’t seem to get any nourishment at all.
2. Do you realize that you can spend a lot of time teaching the word of God without necessarily feeding yourself on the word of God?
3. How does this happen? Believe it or not, you get so busy doing things for
the church, that you spend more time working than you do eating!
4. Exodus 18:13-18; 21-23 - READ
a. This passage lets us know that no one can be "Superman" or "Wonder
Woman" when it comes to working for God.
b. One can only give so much of himself (or herself) until they get "burned out."
5. That’s why it’s so important for everyone to do their part.
6. Through Bible study, prayer, worshiping together and working together, we
are able to help feed one another.
7. I pray for the day when we don’t have to beg people to teach Bible classes.
8. I long for the day when the elders have so many volunteers to help accomplish
the work of the church that they don’t know what to do.
9. I look forward to the day when brothers and sisters are no longer tired or burned out because they have received the proper nourishment they need.
I. Number Two - Some Christians are tired, NOT because they are wearing
themselves out for the Lord, but because they are wearing themselves out doing
everything else but working for the Lord!
1. For some, non-church related activities get the TOP priority. They will break
their necks to be there. They will schedule an appropriate amount of time in
order to participate in those activities.
2. Disclaimer - There’s nothing wrong with being involved in our
community whether it’s civic clubs, social organizations or sports related
activities.
3. But when those activities dominate my time or they take the place of time
spent at church in worship and Bible study, I’ll begin to starve spiritually!
4. Question - Why is it that the church seems to end up on the short end most
of the time?
5. "Preacher, don’t put me on a guilt trip about not being more involved with the
church! I’ve got enough activity in my life."
6. It’s not my purpose to put you on a guilt trip. But if you are feeling guilty, then
where it is coming from?
J. A lack of spiritual food and nourishment can cause fatigue, anxiety and burn out.
K. However, a steady diet of God’s word can revive the worn out and tired heart.
III. The Third Cause is a Lack of Joy.
A. Turn to Psalm 30.
B. For some, they believe that being a Christian is a sober and somber experience.
C. Some believe in a "long faced" religion. No smiles. No joy. No laughter.
D. If that is my attitude and philosophy, then Psalm 30 is going to bug me!
E. Psalm 30:1-5; 10-12 - READ
F. The cure for a lack of joy is CELEBRATION!
G. Why is it that we celebrate in every other area of our lives except this area?
H. It’s a proven fact that joy and laughter can revive a tired and worn heart.
IV. The Fourth Cause is a Lack of Love.
A. When we don’t feel loved then we are not likely to be loving toward others.
B. Maybe we need to be reminded about God’s great love for us.
C. I John 4:7-11 - READ
D. The cure for the lack of love is (1) love toward God and (2) love toward others.
E. Matthew 22:35-39 - READ
F. The world has an unusual view of love. To many, love is temperamental and
conditional.
1. "I’ll love you one day but not the next" or "I’ll love you, if you do this or that."
G. For some, love is the message they hear in country music.
H. Example - Achy Breaky Heart
1. It was about six years ago when Billy Ray Cyrus released the song "Achy
Breaky Heart." It was a smash hit that put into words the woeful feelings of a
love gone bad. But country music has been doing that for decades. Check out
some of these countryfied lost-love lines passed down through the years.
2. Jack Clement, 1967 - "Flushed from the bathroom of your heart"
3. Jim Malloy, 1975 - "I only miss you on days that end in ‘Y’"
4. Wayne Walker and Mel Tillis, 1961 - "How come your dog don’t bite nobody
but me?"
5. Hank Thompson and Lyle Gaston, 1956 - "My tears have washed ‘I love you’
from the blackboard of my heart"
6. But it’s not all bad news. Some of country’s love songs are quite, well, uplifting.
7. Wouldn’t you just love to hear your spouse say, "Old King Kong was just a
little monkey compared to my love for you." Sammy Lyons, 1977.
8. Or how about George Jones, 1959 - "If I don’t love you, grits ain’t groceries"
I. I don’t believe that’s the kind of love God had in mind.
J. God has a love for us that exceeds boundaries or expectations. His love is
constant and true and it never fails.
K. When my heart is tired and worn, I would do well to remember the great
and unconditional love that God has for me!
Conclusion
A. Do I have heart trouble?
B. Has my heart been broken?
C. Is my heart filled with spiritual cholesterol?
D. Do I have a tired heart that needs to be resuscitated?
E. Life is filled with pain and uncertainty. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with
the challenges of life that we feel like our heart is about give out on us.
F. Remember, Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled!"
Preached at FWB church on January 28, 2001 - A.M. service
