Worship Call 0691 The heart
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Worship call 0691
Tuesday July 18, 2022
The Heart.
Matthew 5:8 (NASB95) — 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
You know we all have ambitions; I believe. Goals you might say, desires things we’d like to achieve.
As one matures in the faith, one begins to realize that the desires of the heart changes and the focus changes from a worldly perspective to an eternal perspective. That is, you begin to live your life in the Light of where you are going to spend eternity.
Should it be that the one who comes to worship God should want to one day see God?
Moses wanted to. (Exodus 33:18)
And so did the Israelites until the presence of God that shook the mountains became just too much for the people and they were affraid.
But to approach God and to see God we have to do so with a purified heart a heart. That is cleansed from the uncleanliness of the world.
And this is another fine day in the Lord.
We want to see God. but there lies a stumbling block that stands between a relationship with between us and our Creator. It is our hearts.
26.3 καρδίαa, ας f: (a figurative extension of meaning of καρδία ‘heart,’ not occurring in the NT in its literal sense) the causative source of a person’s psychological life in its various aspects, but with special emphasis upon thoughts—‘heart, inner self, mind.
What about the heart of man?
Fact is it is the heart that the Lord is most concerned with. It is that center of man’s soul.
1 Kings 8:39 (NASB95) — 39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,
1 Samuel 16:7 (NASB95) — 7 But the Lordsaid to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lordlooks at the heart.”
1 Chronicles 28:9 (NASB95) — 9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.
Luke 16:15 (NASB95) — 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
You Know, this is really not a comfortable situation if you really think about it. that is that God knows my heart. I do not have a single private thought that God does not know about. Not all of my thoughts I would want others to know, and I am sure many of you feel the same way about the hidden thoughts in your own hearts.
But it is that someone knows every little ugly thought that comes into that heart of yours and mine.
What does the word say about the heart?
Genesis 8:21 (NASB95) — 21 The Lordsmelled the soothing aroma; and the Lordsaid to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
Jeremiah 17:9–10 (NASB95) — 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
But yet, God loves me despite the heart of mine and as ugly and sinful as it is, God wants it. But with such an ugliness that looms within the heart of man, a person can be redeemed and saved from eternal condemnation but be set far away from a relationship with his and her redeemer.
I love a line in the movie fireproof when Kaleb’s friend councils him when Caleb says that he will trust his heart. His friend says, “no, don’t trust your heart it is deceptive, but you are lead your heart.
Proverbs 23:7 (NASB95) — 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is
At the point that you and I were born again we have had much time for the sewage of this world to be poured into the hearts, pouring over to make us who and what we are.
The heart is the most important part of a person for it is in the heart where the person finds freedom in his relationship with the Lord or where he is enslaved to the dictates of the world.
At that moment that we were born again we have been influenced by everything in our lives by the world. radio, internet, education, religion social life, TV etc. All the world being received by the eye gate and the ear gate. Our hearts are weighed down with Garbage of the world. The Lord, the spirit does not flush the garbage that is circulating in our hearts, it is left to be cleaned up after salvation.
Some are very confused by this. Some are confused at the fact that if they are truly saved why then does this ugliness continue in the hearts resulting in the same ole’ messed up life.
You see, Justification brings you into this new life. Justification means that our sins have been judicated, that our crimes have been annulled and that we are been set free from the slave market of sin. This happened at the point of our faith in Christ.
34.46 δικαιόωa; δικαίωσιςa, εως f; δικαιοσύνηb, ης f: to cause someone to be in a proper or right relation with someone else—‘to put right with, to cause to be in a right relationship with.’[1]
One has been made right.
Remember we said in yesterday’s lesson that where there is a crime, it incurs a debt that has to be paid to the one who holds the debt, the Law giver. All sin is against God, and it is our sins that are brought before the Judge. The evidence is irrefutable. It is an open and shut case. We are guilty and no way around it. the perfect Judge cannot say, “Well, lets just let by gones be by gones.
There has to be restitution. Christ, our advocate freely gives himself up to pay for our Crimes. And when it was that Jesus on the Cross said it is finished, we have been justified and our sins have been paid for. The Judge then slaps his gavel down and says
You are free to go, when we call upon Him to be our advocate by trusting in Christ and his work on the cross for our salvation.
But when we walked out of the court, we find that we are still the same retched persons that had gotten us where you were in the first place. Our hearts hadn’t changed. You might say that you are going to turn over a new leaf but soon you will probably find yourself back to the same ole same ole.
God could have given us a new heart like he is going to in the future when he gives his children Israel a new heart. a Heart for God.
But God did not give us a new heart. Some might argue and if I find that I am wrong I will admit it. but we have the same ole messed up heart.
But What God does do, is that he makes available a rehabilitation program. Our trainer is the Holy Spirit, and our thinking is the word of God.
This is a lifelong program which takes our stinking thinking and replaces it with the word of the Lord the mind of Christ and a mind for Christ.
The Lord opens up the path of a spiritual rehabilitation, but you and I will have to want it. we must be seeking, asking and knocking. We have to spend time in God’s word. We have to be malleable to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must have our spiritual priorities in place.
This process is called sanctification. It is the cleaning up process of the heart.
Ephesians 5:25–26 (NASB95) — 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
But here is where people get hung up.
“I tried reading the bible and I just don’t understand it.”
“I am not that good of a reader.”
“I failed out of school.”
Ok, what you think is academics is not so attractive to you. But without becoming a disciple which is a student of God’s word you will never reach the objective.
How bad do you want to know God?
How bad do you want to see God?
How bad do you want to walk in a relationship with the Lord?
It comes with a purified Sanctified heart and that heart will not be cleansed by all your self help self righteousness do goodisms in the world. it only comes with the washing of the word of God.
Hebrews 4:9–13 (NASB95) — 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 12:14 (NASB95) — 14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 451). United Bible Societies.