Spiritual Heart Trouble

Heart Attack Info: now we talk about spiritual heart failure: more deadly: kills us twice!

Heart: in text: seat of feelings, desires, affections, impulses: seat of intellect (in the mind). As a noun: innermost, core, center: (inner man).

Signs / Symptoms: see signs, have to be told symptoms: (God sees both!)

• Pride / Arrogance: For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. [1 John 2:16]

• Grudges / Hatred: But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. [Matthew 6:15]

• Worry / Anxiety: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? [Matthew 6:25] {Proverbs 12:25: Anxiety in heart; depression}

• Fear (obsessed): Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. [John 14:27] {2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.}

• Envy / Jealousy: But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. [James 3:14]

• Prejudice (not just racial): My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? [James 2:1-4]

• Lust / Covetousness: having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. [2 Peter 2:14]

• Stubbornness: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. [Acts 7:51]

• Indifference: And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. [Matthew 24:12]

CLOSE:

Diagnosis: Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. [Psalm 26:2]

Spiritual MRI: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12]

Prognosis: But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. [1 John 1:7]

What we need to do: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:8-9]