The Heart of the Problem: The Problem of the Heart
Jeremiah 17:9; Luke 3:10-14; Matthew 6:19-21
In October of 2001 my wife and I lost our son, Isaac, at only 17 days to a cause that has yet to be determined. The days that followed that life-altering moment were the worst days of our entire lives. But during those moments we were asked to make an important decision. We were contacted by the Upstate New York Transplant Service and asked if we were willing to donate his heart. It wasn’t a difficult decision. You see, we believed, that the possibility of his life living on through the life of another child was perhaps the only good that could come from such a tragedy. And so we said “yes”. After a few months we were notified that one of his heart valves had been too small to transplant while the other was able to be transplanted and was being held, awaiting a need.
In February 2003 such a need arose. A little girl was born with some sort of heart failure and at 11 days old she received Isaac’s heart valve. Today the life of my son lives on in the life of another precious child.
Never before had I understood the power of the heart. The encyclopedia defines the heart as the “muscular organ that pumps blood to all parts of the body. The rhythmic beating of the heart” the article says, “is a ceaseless activity, lasting from before birth to the end of life.”
Failure of the heart, statistics tell us, kills more people in the United States each year than any other cause, in fact, heart failure is the number one cause of death in the United States accounting for more than half of all deaths.
And even if heart ailments don’t kill they injure, they debilitate, and they alter our lives. How ironic it is that the very instrument of life is the cause of death for millions of Americans each year.
The Bible talks a lot about the heart, in fact it mentions the heart some 779 times, because in the same way as the physical organ which pumps blood throughout our body sustains life, so too is that organ at the center of our beings, our heart, that sustains us spiritually.
Ultimately everything in life, whether physical or spiritual depends upon this organ. And as important as it is to us to have a healthy physical heart to live, it’s even more important to have a spiritually healthy heart. Because one day when this physical heart gives out, it’s the spiritual heart which will determine how we will spend the rest of eternity.
The book of Proverbs, a book full of wisdom for daily living, gives this instruction regarding our heart: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
Over the next few weeks I want to look at the condition of our hearts and I want to talk to you about a difficult topic, something which can not be ignored, but must be addressed if you and I are to live healthy lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Before I elaborate on what I believe this symptom is I want to take you with to visit the Spiritual Cardiac Catheterization Lab. For those of you who are medically illiterate Cardiac Catheterization is the definitive test to determine if the coronary arteries are blocked or restricted in any way. This test can determine if blood flow is restricted to the heart muscle, which can cause pain and damage to the muscle.
I want to pause and take a look at our hearts to determine if they’re functioning in the right way and if we are in fact able to sustain and live life as we’ve been called to do so.
If you were to enter the Spiritual Card Cath Lab you would immediately discover two primary truths that are outlined in scripture about our hearts. If you’re following along in your outlines, the first truth is that your heart is evil. I visited someone recently who told me she didn’t like going to a particular church because they kept telling her she was a sinner. I’m sorry to say that we’re all sinners. We can’t avoid this truth. Jeremiah 17:9 says this, “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” As human beings each and every one of us carries the stain of sin that was handed down to us by Adam and Eve. We are sinners at birth. And while we were created in God’s image and I believe that a portion of that image still resides in each and every person, the reality is our hearts are evil.
If you don’t believe me just look at this weeks news. Just south of Columbus Ohio this week a bullet pierced a van’s windshield on Interstate 270 which was linked to a stretch of shootings including cars, school buses, and homes, since May bringing the total number of shootings to 21.
In Moscow on Friday, a bomb exploded on a subway car that killed at least 39 people and injured another 129.
And in Florida, the body of 11 year old Carlie was discovered after having been abducted last Sunday.
The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. At the very core of our beings is an evil which must be cured. But the cure can not come from within. The only cure is a transplant. In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth he wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The only way to rid ourselves of this evil is to accept the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us on the cross and ask God to give us a new heart. We can’t cure our own illness.
The second thing that you would discover upon a trip to the Spiritual Card Cath Lab is that your heart moves toward what you cherish. Think about that for a minute. Most of us pick our careers by what we cherish the most. If you’re a teacher you’re there because you value education and the lives of children. If you’re in the medical field, you’re there because you want to help others. While this isn’t always true most us follow our hearts in life and it is the desires of our hearts that direct us.
While following our hearts can be an incredibly fulfilling experience it can also be a dangerous one. Listen to Jesus words in Matthew 6 while he’s preaching to the crowds. He says, “Don’t store up for yourselves, treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Here’s what we’ve got to understand, our heart moves toward what we cherish.
You’ve all seen the bumper sticker, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” If we live our lives with that kind of mentality then everything we do in life, the majority of our energy will be devoted to acquiring more. Why? Because we cherish those toys.
Let me ask you, what is that you cherish the most in life? Do you know how you can tell? What is that you spend the most amount of time pursuing? Is it your career? Your family? Your relationship with God? I can almost guarantee you that the thing you exert the most energy, time, and thought toward is the thing you cherish the most.
So you’ve been to the Card Cath Lab and you’ve discovered that your heart is evil, that you need a transplant, and that your heart moves toward what you cherish. If you’re a Christian, if you’ve accepted the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf then you’ve had that transplant, but our hearts are still subject to the same type of attacks as they were before. Have you ever wondered why the lives of most Christians aren’t any different than the lives of non-Christians? I believe there’s one heart disease in particular which prevents us from experiencing the kind of fulfillment and joy in life that Jesus spoke of when he said he came to give us “abundant life.”
Second only to the disease of sin, which the Bible says will kill us unless we have a transplant, this is the leading spiritual heart disease in most Christians today: it’s the love of money. “Pastor, you say, wait a second, I don’t want to talk about money. You said we were going to talk about the heart. Let’s not get too personal, now.”
Listen to these two verses. I Timothy 6:10 says, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.” Money can be a real obstacle for us as we attempt to live our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The author of I Timothy says that many Christians have wandered away from their faith pursuing money.
Jesus had this startling remark to say in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
While the church and many pastors are afraid to talk about money, did you know that one out of six verses in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, deal with this issue?
Here’s what I want you to understand. In order to keep your spiritual heart beating the way God intends for it to beat; in order for you to remain spiritually healthy you’ve got to remember this truth, it’s at the bottom of your outlines: God sees our faith and finances as inseparable. Wow! That’s a tough one. It’s a tough one for me. We have our share of financial problems ourselves. And I’ve got to tell you the more I realize the truth of this principle the more convicted I am in my own life of my need to continue realigning my own priorities.
From first hand experience, I can tell you that one of the biggest struggles of the Christian life, one of the biggest obstacles to gaining the type of authentic Christian witness and experience that we desire is in the area of finances. Most people struggle in this area.
I don’t want you to think that I’m making this stuff up, so let me point you to a few scripture passages and tell you what they have to say about this.
The first is found in Luke 3. John the Baptist is preaching to a crowd who have gathered to hear him and be baptized. They want to know what they should do to show that they’re sorry for their sins. Listen to what his response is: “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” To the tax-collectors he says, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” And to the soldiers he says, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusations, and be satisfied with your wages.”
Notice what each answer relates to: money and possessions. But no one asked John about that. John knew that faith and finances are inseparable. In fact, John went to such an extent to even suggest that our approach to money and possessions is central to our spiritual lives.
Do you remember the story of Zacchaeus? He was a tax collector who, using politically correct language, was “vertically challenged.” One day he heard that Jesus was coming through town and so he climbed a Sycamore tree in order to get a good look. As Jesus was passing by he called him down and said, “I’m coming to your house.” And in response to Jesus’ visit, Zacchaeus, known for his dishonesty, says, “Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” And do know what Jesus said in response? “Today salvation has come to this house.” Again, the truth is evident: how we view our money and possessions is central to our spiritual condition.
Then there’s the story of new converts to Christianity in the book of Acts who sell their possessions and give to the needy. Acts also tells us that there was a group of occultists who became Christians and burned their magic books, worth what today would be millions of dollars.
Or how about the rich man who spent all his wealth on himself? He had so much money that he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so that he could save even more and retire early. And listen to God’s response, “This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
You see, the reason that our faith and finances are inseparable in God’s sight is because money and possessions become our god. It’s not hard to see this as we look around at our culture. My wife’s cousin and his wife work several full time jobs just so they can afford the home they live in. Things become our god and the Bible tells us that we can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve both God and money.
So what’s the alternative? Randy Alcorn wrote a book entitled “The Treasure Principle.” If you visit (Belfast’s) website and go to our book store there’s a link to purchase it. Here’s what he says, the treasure principle is that “You can’t take it with you but you can send it on ahead.” There’s a gospel song that says, “You’ll never see a hearse with a trailer hitch.” That’s not what the ancient Egyptians believed. They buried their loved ones with material possessions and even with servants because they thought that those things could be taken into the next world.
John D. Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. After he died someone asked his accountant, “How much money did he leave?” The reply was classic: “He left…all of it.” You can’t take it with you. And if you understand that then you can begin to understand the rest of the principle, “You can send it on ahead.”
Throughout this month we’re going to be talking about how giving is healthy for living. And I want to suggest to you that the best investment that you can make is not in this world but in the next.
As we close I want to ask you to stop and examine your own heart. What condition is it in? Are you plagued with the disease that is the leading cause of preventing us from experiencing fulfillment – the love of money? Have your money and possessions become your god?
In a parable Jesus told in Luke 8, he talks about four different kinds of hearts. He says, there’s a farmer who went out to sew some seed. Some seed fell on the path and was trampled on and eaten by the birds. Some fell on the rock were it grew up but withered because of lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. And some fell into good soil where it grew and produced a hundredfold.”
Our hearts are like that, Jesus tells us. Every week men and women line the pews of churches all across this country. And within those pews are four different kinds of hearts. Three of these hearts are the reason why people don’t give or serve in the church today. Next to each of these types of hearts I want you to write a short prayer.
The first is the hard heart. One of the reasons why churches are dying today and why many churches can’t afford to continue to exist is because some of their members have hard hearts. They are never changed by the message because they never allow it to penetrate their hearts. They don’t give and they don’t serve because their hearts are hard. And even though the message goes out every week these people aren’t affected by it. Is that you? Write this prayer to the right of the words hard heart: soften my heart.
The second kind of heart that I encounter in the church and that Jesus spoke about is the shallow heart. This was the seed that fell on the rock and grew but didn’t have the moisture to sustain it.
There are a lot of people like this in the church. These people make superficial decisions. It appears as if they’re serious about their faith but their faith never really takes root in their lives. These are the Christians who give Christianity a bad rep because people see in shallow Christians hypocrisy.
Write this prayer to the right of the words shallow heart: deepen my heart.
The third kind of heart that Jesus spoke of and which is very common in the church today is the crowded heart. This is the seed that fell among thorns and while it grew was choked by the thorns. There is perhaps now more than at any other time in history, a great deal to distract us from Jesus and from loving and serving and giving. The financial pressures, burdens, and worries that we encounter choke our hearts. Many of us don’t believe that God will take care of us. You’ve heard the church speak of tithing, but you can’t imagine giving up 10% of your money because you don’t know how you would make it. You’ve decided to believe that Jesus can take care of you for eternity but you can’t trust him for the day-to-day. I want to challenge you to step out on a limb with faith. Stop allowing the financial pressures of your life to choke you.
Test God. There’s a verse in a seldom read book of the Old Testament, Malachi. Write down this reference: Malachi 3:10: God says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” God has promised that if we’ll trust him and step out and give to him what belongs to him he’ll open the windows of heaven and bless us beyond our wildest dreams!
Write these words next to crowded heart: clean out my heart.
The final kind of heart that Jesus spoke of was a good heart. This was the seed that fell upon the good soil and grew and multiplied. I don’t about you, but that’s the kind of heart I want to have. The kind of heart that sees a need and is burdened to meet it. The kind of heart that isn’t plagued with financial worries or pressures or burdens. And the kind of heart that trusts that God will provide for all my needs.
As we close this morning I want you to remember this as you go home: how you use your money shows the condition of your heart. Think about that this week.
Do you want to spend the rest of your time here on earth struggling and chasing after wealth and possessions, or maybe even just trying to stay afloat or do you want to experience the abundant blessings that God has promised to pour down from heaven? If you’ll trust him I promise you he’ll take care of your every need.
Next week I want to challenge you to surrender your entire being to Jesus Christ, to in fact re-deed your heart and to realize that as Christians we don’t own any thing but are merely stewards of the gifts that have been entrusted to us.
Let us pray…
