Category: Heart

Hard Hearts

On By BrianIn Heart

Hebrews 3:7-14 warn us about hard hearts.  Israel hardened their hearts against God and were not able to enter the Promised Land.  Their hearts went astray.  And we are warned to take care lest we follow in their steps – lest we have evil, unbelieving hearts that lead us to fall away from God, lest our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we share in Christ (that is, we are saved) IF we hold our original confidence (faith) firm to the end.  That is, true saving faith endures.

How badly the church today needs the exhortation found in these verses.  Too many (and too often myself included) are too careless in their Christian walk.  Many think they said a prayer, and so they are in no matter what.  But no, we share in Christ only if we continue in the faith.  There is disagreement about those who don’t continue in the faith – did they lose their salvation or were they never truly saved (I favor the latter – see for instance I John 2:19).  Either way, this passage calls us to a vigilance, a seriousness, a careful regard for our hearts that is all too uncommon in the church today.

Beware lest you have an evil unbelieving heart, lest your heart is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  I doubt many people claiming to be Christians wake up one morning and say they are going to harden their heart and reject Christ.  A few perhaps, but for most I suspect this hardening is a gradual process often unknown to the person.  A slow drift away from God, his Word, and his people.  A slow movement into sin, toward the idols of this world.  A slow turning of the heart from seeking God to seeking other things.   Over a long time of gradual drift, they walk away from the living God.

And so we must take care.  Beware.  Be on our guard.  As Peter tells us: we must “be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith….” (I Peter 5:8-9).

Are you drifting away from God and into sin?  Take care!  Wake up!  Seek God’s mercy and grace!  Look to him!  Return!  And guard your life lest you fall away from the living God!

Heart of Faith

On By BrianIn Heart

Foundational to having a heart for God is to simply believe in God and his way of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that those who draw near to God and would please him must believe that he exists.  And Romans 10:9-10 tells us we must believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead – which implies that we believe he died too.  As I Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us the summary of the gospel is that Jesus died for sins, was buried, and rose on the third day.  Believing in God and in Jesus as our Savior is the first step to having a heart for him.

People after God’s Heart 4

On By BrianIn Heart

What does it look like to have a heart for God?  Four brief thoughts:

Daily Walk:  Solomon speaks of his father David as walking before God with an upright heart (I Kings 3:6).  To walk befor God is to live before him.  All of life is to be lived before God.  A heart for God is not reserved to “religious” activities.  All of life is to be lived with a heart for God.

Talk: Jesus says that “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  If we have a heart for God it will show in what we say.  We will talk in a way that pleases him.  We will talk about him.

Loving God: What is the greatest Command?  Jesus tells us it is to love God with all your heart (Matthew 22:37).  If we have a heart for God, we will love him – and not just a little, but with all our hearts.

Loving People: A few posts back, I noted that being a people after God’s heart meant we did all his will (Acts 13:22).  His will is summed up by Jesus as loving God (see last point) and loving people (Matthew 22:39).  We cannot claim to love God if we don’t love people.

Do we have hearts for God?  Does it show in our walk and talk?  Does it show in our love for God and people?

Pastors after God’s Heart

On By BrianIn Heart

I mentioned in a past blog that the Bible uses the phrase “after God’s heart” or something similar at least four times by my count.  Two refer to David.  A third is found in Jeremiah 3:15 –

“And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

The context of this verse references a specific time, but the application is timeless.  We need shepherds after God’s heart – pastors whose hearts beat like God’s heart.  Pastors who have hearts for God and seek to do all his will.

As a pastor, I know all too well how easy it is to get caught in the busyness of ministry.  But what I need is a heart for God.  What the church I pastor needs is a man after God’s heart.  And how will I have such a heart?  Through God’s Word that reveals his heart and through prayer that submits my life to his will.  And then from this heart flows the ministry God desires.

And what does God desire.  Back to the verse: “who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”  God desires his people to be fed.  They need the Word – to know it and to understand it to the point that they can live it.

The apostles said they would devote themselves to prayer and the Word (Acys 6:4).  That must be my calling – to be in the Word and prayer so that I might have a heart for God, and then prayerfully preach the Word so that God’s people might have a heart for God.

God, help me to be a shepherd after your heart, and raise up countless shepherds after your own heart – that you might lead your people to be a people after your heart.

People After God’s Heart 3

On By BrianIn Heart

In the last post, we noted that to be a people after God’s heart is to to do all his will.  Saul’s problem was that he didn’t – he had a bad case of selective obedience.  But wait – David – the man after God’s heart – wasn’t perfect either.  He didn’t do all God’s will – he blew it some very serious ways.  So what was the difference?

I think the difference was the heart.  David wanted to obey fully – Saul didn’t care.  When confronted, Saul just started making excuses.  David was broken – crying out for mercy and forgiveness.

So which one are we more like?  Saul with his selective obedience and excuse-making?  Or David trying to obey and repenting with a humble contrite spirit when he failed?

People After God’s Heart 2

On By BrianIn Heart

The phrase “after God’s heart” or something similar is used at least four times in Scripture – two to refer to David.  God says of David that he is “a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22).  That second phrase helps define the first.  A person after God’s heart is one who does all God’s will.  Not part, not some, not a little – all.

This was Saul’s problem.  He chose to do some of God’s will.  He was content to wait for Samuel to make the sacrifice – until Samuel didn’t come, then Saul did it his way.  And he was told that his kingdom would not continue because God had “sought out a man after his own heart” (I Samuel 13:14) – a man who would do God’s will.

Later God tells Saul to wipe out the Amalekites.  Saul wipes out some of them, and then brings the rest for a sacrifice to God.  How religious and pious of him!  But no – again he did it his way rather than doing all God’s will.

We can be like this.  We try to do the Christian life our way.  We obey partly – when it is easy, or it makes sense, or we feel like it.  We have selective obedience.  I have a pastor friend who tells his congregation that the Christian life is not like a convenience store.  At a convenience store, you take just what you want.  I’ll take salvation, but not baptism; church attendance, but not ministry; some prayer today, but not tomorrow; some love and joy and peace, but not patience or self-control.  Each of us can fill in our own tendencies, but God didn’t design the Christian life this way.  He wants us to be a people after his heart – who do all of his will.

What are we doing our way instead of God’s way?  How do we pick and choose like Saul what to obey?  How are we failing to be people after God’s heart?

People after God’s Heart

On By BrianIn Heart

The Bible’s description of the human heart is not flattering.  It is evil and stubborn (Jeremiah 3:17, 18:12), with evil intentions (Genesis 6:5, 8:21), sick and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), and goes after detestable things (Ezekiel 11:21).  Or as Ephesians 2:1-3 tells us – we are dead in our sins.

But Ephesians 2 goes on to say that God mercifully makes us, who were dead, alive together with Christ through faith (v4-5, 8).  That is, God gives us new hearts (Jeremiah 24:7, 31:33, 32:38-39, Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-27).  No longer stubborn evil hearts, but hearts that seek to do God’s will.

And why does God do this?  Because of his mercy and love and grace (Ephesians 2:4-5) – this is God’s heart for us.  And Ephesians 5:2 says we should walk in love as Christ loved us.  That is, we should have the same heart God has – a heart of love.

So we might sum it up this way: with a new heart we respond to God’s heart with the same heart.  We become a people after God’s heart.

But what exactly does it look like to be a people after God’s heart, to have a heart for God?  And how can we grow to have more of a heart for God?  This is what I want to write (and preach) about for the next several weeks.  Basically, I looked up every passage using the word heart in the Bible.  There are 766 occurrences in my translation for those who like statistics.  After weeding out passages that don’t really apply (like Jonah being thrown into the HEART of the sea), I have grouped passages into themes that spell out what it means to have a heart for God.  Each week we’ll look at some of these themes.  Hope you’ll join me on the journey and add to the conversation!

God’s Heart For Us

On By BrianIn God & His Glory, Heart2 Comments

This past Sunday I preached about God’s heart for us.  We looked at Ephesians 2:4-5 which says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.”  Three words describe God’s heart for us:

Mercy – We deserve judgment and wrath and condemnation because of our sins, but God gives us mercy.  We who were dead, helpless, unworthy rebels have received mercy from almighty God.  And his mercy isn’t stingy or small, but overflowing – God is “rich in mercy.”

Love – How do we account for his mercy?  The answer is his great love.  And how did God show his love?  He showed it by sending his Son for our salvation (John 3:16).  Jesus showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, he suffered and died for us (Romans 5:8).  We didn’t deserve it, but Jesus did it.  He died that we who were dead might have a new life.  That is great love!

Grace – God saves us by his grace – his free undeserved favor.  It is free – you can’t buy it or work for it.  It is undeserved – you can never earn it or do enough good things to merit it.  And it is this  grace alone that saves us. Without his grace we are dead.  By his grace we are made alive.

Mercy.  Love.  Grace.  This is God’s heart for us.  And this is our salvation!

Why Don’t We Talk About Jesus?

On By BrianIn Heart, Revival2 Comments

In my last two posts, I wrote about using every context of our lives to talk about Jesus – to encourage other believers and to share the good news with those who are dead in their sins.  My question here is – why don’t we do this more?

Why is it that we talk about Jesus in Sunday School and the Worship Service, but before, between, and after we talk about everything else but Jesus.  Why don’t we talk about what we heard from God’s Word just minutes before.  Why is my Facebook account filled with “friends” who are Christians but who rarely if ever mention Christ?  Why is it that we don’t talk more about Jesus?

Let me be clear – I’m not judging anyone – because I am guilty of this too.  I’m just wondering why we are so slow to talk about Jesus.  Could it be that we don’t talk about Jesus much because we don’t think about him much?  Or maybe we are afraid to mention his name?  Or are we so distracted by the things of this world that other things take our focus and hence we talk about those things?

If Jesus is most important in our lives, wouldn’t we be talking about him?

New Heart

On By BrianIn Heart

How can we have a heart for God?  On our own we can’t.  Everyone is born apart from God, dead in their sins, with cold, hard, rebellious, unresponsive hearts.  We follow the sinful ways of our world, the temptations of the devil, and our own sinful desires.  We stand under the judgment of a holy God.  That is the conclusion of Ephesians 2:1-3.  We are dead.

But v4 begins with two glorious words – “But God.”  On our own we are dead…but God!  God, rich in mercy, with great love, and immeasurable grace, makes us alive in Christ.  He does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. As God powerfully raised Jesus physically from the dead, so God powerfully raised us spiritually from the dead.  Other pictures in Scripture for this miracle of being made alive are: born again, new creation, new heart.  God makes us alive and new by giving us a new heart.  And all of it comes by faith alone apart from works.

And yet the works follow.  Once we are made alive with new hearts, we no longer want to live as we did before in sin.  We have new hearts.  Now we want to live for God, doing the good works he gives us opportunities to do.

Have you received this new life?

If so, let us live the new life he has given us!