God Dwells In Our Heart

My wife Marianne and I adopted our daughter Sarah from Guatemala.  Sarah was born to a single mother who did not have the physical or financial stability to raise her.  Her mother gave her up and she was placed in an orphanage called Eagle’s Nest after she was born in Solola, Guatemala.  She lived at Eagle’s Nest for 10 months before we were able to bring her home July of 2008.  Before Sarah was adopted, she was in the vulnerable position of being without the provision and protection of a mother or father.  If we had not pursued and adopted Sarah, she would not have been part of a family and vulnerable to much suffering and difficulty.

READ: Galatians 4:3-7

God dwells inside the hearts of all those who are His ADOPTED children!  Aren’t all human beings God’s children?  The answer is NO!  By sin, we all have chosen to walk out on our Creator’s provision and protection and made ourselves spiritual orphans; helpless, hopeless, and vulnerable to the wrath of God.  Ephesians 2:1-2 says, “(we) were dead in our trespasses and sins, . . . and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  While in such vulnerable circumstances, it was not us who pursued God, it was God who pursued us by sending His Son to redeem us from slavery to sin and adopt us into His family.  What happens to those who have been adopted as God’s children? 

God’s adopted children are given the Holy Spirt by which we are able to call God “FATHER” (Gal. 4:6) – Sarah has been in our home now for 7 years.  During those years she has come to think and know of us as dad and mom.  When she wants to talk to us, tell us something, or get our attention she calls us “mommy” and “daddy”.  Does that make any sense?  Why would she do that?  She thinks of us, looks at us, and calls us father and mother because we pursued her at the most vulnerable moment in her life and adopted her and made her a permanent member of our family.  As a result of our adoption of Sarah, she has a sure place in her heart by which she knows us as her mother and father.  At the moment when we were most vulnerable, God sent His Son Jesus Christ for the purpose of adopting us and making us a permanent member of His family.  As a result of our adoption by God, we are given the Holy Spirit by which we have the supernatural desire and ability to know that God is our Father and we are His children!

God’s adopted children are HEIRS to the same INHERITANCE as His Son Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:7) – Sarah is privileged to the best of everything Marianne and I possess.  She is ours and we will give to her every material and spiritual blessing that we are capable of as parents.  Each and every one of our children, because of their relationship with us as our sons and daughters have special rights to everything that Marianne and I possess.  Whatever inheritance that Marianne and I have to give is reserved for OUR heirs who are OUR children.  Jesus Christ is God’s Son and therefore an heir, and we too, as adopted sons and daughters of God are heirs as well.  Romans 8:17 says, “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”  According to 1 Peter 1:4 as heirs we have hope in an eternal inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept for (us) in heaven!”

CONCLUSION
In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prays that, “according to the riches of (God’s) glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . to comprehend . . . what is the breadth and the length and the height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”  When we are adopted, we know we are loved!  When God is our Father, we will have a strong sense inside of us that we are important and valuable, no longer hopeless, helpless, and vulnerable.  Have you accepted God's invitation to adopt you into His family?  Do you KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves you and that He is your Heavenly Father?  If not, it’s time to put your faith in Jesus Christ and become a child of God!

God Transforms Our Heart

My wife Marianne has an uncle who was born with a life threatening heart condition that doctors didn’t believe would allow him to live past 2 years old.  At the age of 48 he received a heart transplant.  As a result of someone’s death, Marianne’s uncle’s diseased heart was replaced with a new healthy heart and he is still alive today at the age of 71.  It was a new heart that allowed Marianne’s uncle to avoid death and experience life.

We all have an eternal-life threatening heart condition called sin.  Our only hope to escape death is a supernatural heart transplant.  We need someone to die in order that we might obtain a new spiritually and eternally healthy heart.  The good news is that God is a spiritual cardiologist!  Nearly 600 years before Jesus was born God made His spiritual surgical plans known through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the nation of Israel.

READ: Jeremiah 31:31, 33; Ezekiel 36:26-27

God transforms our lives by removing our OLD heart and giving us a NEW heart!  The new covenant God promised to us through the prophets was nothing less than a spiritual heart transplant!  Jesus Christ, who loved and obeyed God perfectly, exchanged His perfect heart for our sinful heart when He died on the cross.  How do we get a spiritual heart transplant and what happens when we get a new heart?  In describing the post heart transplant of the Corinthians who had believed in Jesus Christ Paul wrote in . . .

READ:  2 Corinthians 3:3-18

God transforms us by putting His SPIRIT in our heart (2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8) – Have you ever struggled with wanting to do what God wanted you to do?  What about wanting to want to do what God wants you to do?  By placing His Spirit into our hearts God miraculously replaces our old sinful wants and desire with His wants and desires.  It is God’s Spirit dwelling inside our hearts that gives us new thoughts, new attitudes, new intentions, new motivations, new words, and new actions.  Without God’s Spirit in our hearts, we will continue in a life of unforgiven sin.  This transformation happens, “when one turns to the Lord”.  At the moment we repent of the sin in our heart and put faith in Jesus Christ, God does His surgical work of removing our diseased heart of sin through forgiveness and putting His Spirit into our hearts.

God transforms us into the GLORY of the image of JESUS CHRIST (2 Cor. 3:16-18) – Just as a dimmer switch can increase the brightness of a lightbulb in order to illuminate a room, God is working in our hearts to increase the “brightness” of His image in our lives in order to illuminate the world.  Amazingly, the “brightness” of our lives has the divine potential to be greater than the sun.  How?  Romans 8:28 says that, “those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son”.  Our maximum brightness are the very thoughts, attitudes, intentions, motivations, words, and actions of Jesus Christ Himself!  As a result of giving us a new heart, little by little, one characteristic at a time, God gradually increases the brightness of Christlikeness that comes out of lives.   In ever increasing amounts, our lives should reflect more and more of the thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions of Jesus Christ.  

CONCLUSION
2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”   The God of the universe, who created light, wants the light of His glory to dwell inside of us. Without Him in our lives, we have no other choice but to be darkness.  A transformed heart starts with a belief in the light of Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5, 9-14). Have you allowed the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to shine in your life?  God’s glory shone most brightly through Jesus Christ on the cross.  The reason Jesus died was to forgive our sins, but also so that God could transplant His righteous heart for our sinful heart so that we might shine like the Son (pun intended)!

Evil in Our Heart

A couple years ago my kids and I tried to grow a few vegetables in a small 4 foot by 4 foot raised garden bed.  It was more for the experience than the expectation that we might get anything out of it, but we wanted to give it a shot, so we planted some carrots and green beans. We had no idea what we were doing, but the one thing that we understood and got right is that when we put a carrot seed in the ground, it was supposed to produce a carrot, and it did. When we put a green bean seed in the ground, it was supposed to produce a green bean, and it did.  This simple principle of God’s created world is true of the “fruit” that comes out of our lives as well.  

READ: Luke 6:43-45

Just as the fruit produced by a tree proves the type of tree it is, what comes out of our LIVES proves what is in our HEART!  A facebook friend recently posted a quote from Anne Frank which says, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."  While I think we would all love for this to be true, evidenced by all of our behavior, it is not.  The Bible is pretty clear that we are all born bad apples!  Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Ecclesiastes 9:3 says, “the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.”  No matter how good we would like to think we are, we are all a bad tree.  How do we know if there is evil in our heart?

An EVIL heart is going to produce EVIL behavior (Luke 6:43) – A detective investigates a crime in order to compile evidence to determine the truth about something. Without solid evidence no one could be considered guilty of a crime.  If a detective wanted to discover the truth of what is in our hearts, where would he investigate?  According to God’s Word he would look at the words and actions that come out of our lives.  Matthew 15:18 and Mark 7:21-22 combine to make quite a list of evil behaviors Jesus says give evidence of the evil that resides in our hearts, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander . . . coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, pride.”  Based on the facts of this evidence, we are all guilty of having evil and sin in our hearts.  It appears that the opposite of what Anne Frank thinks is true, in spite of any good things we might do, the Bible gives clear evidence that people are really bad at heart.  Just like a seed planted grows into a plant or fruit, the evil that is planted in our hearts grows into evil attitudes, words, and actions!  

Our behavior is evil because we TREASURE it in our hearts (Luke 6:45) – Marianne and I have a small safe in our house where we store a few of our most important and valuable belongings.  The safe protects these important and valuable belongings from being stolen or damaged.  Matthew 6:21 says, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Our heart is the place where we store and protect the things that we “treasure” in life because of their importance and value.  The sad truth is that instead of storing good, we all store evil and sin in our hearts.  Whether words, attitudes, or actions, sin comes out of our lives because we have got it locked up tight in the safe place of our heart.  Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we enjoy our sin, many times deceiving ourselves into thinking that our happiness depends on it.  And so, we store it deep down in our hearts, often times where no one else can see.  God designed us to treasure Him and His commands, but sadly, we treasure our sin and evil even more.

CONCLUSION

Hebrews 3:12 says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.”   Our hearts will remain evil as long as there is any unbelief in Jesus Christ.  No amount of good words, attitudes, or actions will make our heart good.  We can even do more good than evil in our lives, but that does not make our hearts good.  God desires a good heart, one that is completely empty of sin and evil.  The only way to obtain a good heart is to give God the key to our heart, confess our sin to Him, and put faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness.  Have you removed the evil from within your heart through belief in Jesus Christ?

God Tests the Heart

What is the hardest test you’ve ever taken?  The hardest tests I remember taking were in a college class called History of the Restoration Movement.  The tests always involved lots of facts, dates, and more information than I could ever fit into my brain at one time.  Nobody likes taking a test.  Taking a test requires lots of study and hard work.  Taking a test is nerve wracking.  As hard and time consuming test taking is, they are necessary in order to display whether we genuinely have learned whatever information we were expected to put in our mind.  Without taking a test there is no way of knowing whether we understand and grasp the information we have been taught.  When it comes down to it, test taking proves or disproves what we know.

Just as a teacher tests our minds in order to prove what we know, God TESTS our heart in order to PROVE who the REAL us is!  Proverbs 17:3 says, “the crucible is for silver, the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.”  The intense heat of a crucible or a furnace is applied to precious metals in order to burn away and eliminate any impurities, anything that is NOT silver or gold.  God takes the human heart through a similar process to eliminate what is not intended to be there and see if the love and obedience He designed to be there genuinely exists there.  When it comes down to it, testing is God’s way of authenticating who we are.  How and why does God test our heart?

READ:  Deuteronomy 8:1-20

God tests our heart by bringing HUMBLING circumstances into our life (Deut. 8:2-3) – God applied “heat” to the lives of the people of Israel by leading them away from their prosperity in Egypt and leaving them hungry in the wilderness.  Their “hunger” was a humbling circumstance intended to expose the reality of their dependence, or lack of dependence, on God.  The Israelites were not to depend on bread, but rather the word of God!  God leads us into humbling times of sadness, disappointment, struggle, trial, frustration, sickness, and even persecution for the purpose of seeing whether our belief in and our dependence on Him is real.  We pass the test if we go through these times without grumbling, complaining, or blaming God, and instead patiently loving, trusting, depending, and remaining obedient to Him.

God tests our heart by DISCIPLINING us (Deut. 8:5) – Disciplining my children is never fun.  Whether I apply discipline through training or instruction or enforce consequences or punishment, disciple is painful.  And yet, discipline is for my children’s good.  Discipline involves creating undesirable circumstances in order to discourage them from doing something foolish or wrong.  Just like I discipline my children, God disciplines us!  God applies the “heat” of discipline in our lives in order to give us the opportunity to eliminate foolishness and sin from our hearts.  Discipline is a gracious and merciful effort on God’s part to inspire repentance and change.

God tests our heart so that we REMEMBER and not FORGET His provision (Deut. 8:2, 11, *14, 18-19) – When is it most easy to forget that God is all we ever really need to be satisfied?  When our lives are easy, comfortable, healthy, and enjoyable.  Humbling circumstances and discipline provide important opportunities for us to “remember” God and not “forget” Him.  Whether we are rich or poor, healthy or sick, happy or sad, loved or lonely, we must remember that with God in our lives, we have all we need in life to be satisfied.  God allows these opportunities sometimes (and for many, often) in order to remind us that HE is all we should ever really want or need!  Difficult circumstances should not push us further away from God, but closer to Him.

CONCLUSION
Psalm 26:2 says, “prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.”   This is a dangerous prayer but a necessary prayer.  We must be willing to go through times of testing in order for our love and obedience for God to be proved genuine.  It is through testing that not only does God proves the genuineness of our heart for Him, but we get to see the genuineness of our own heart.  Be ready, in His time and in His way, God will test our heart to prove that our love and obedience toward Him is real.  This is one test we do not want to fail!

God Looks at the Heart

I discovered in April of 1998 that God is lot like a gemologist.  A gemologist is someone who determines the value of fine gems.  In 1998 I was particularly interested in finding a gemologist who specialized in diamond engagement rings.  In searching for a gemologist, I quickly discovered that three things are important in determining the worth of a diamond:  color, cut, and clarity.  Each of these qualities contribute to the value and beauty of a diamond but are indiscernible to the naked eye.  I chose a gemologist who was able to place a diamond under a microscope and project it onto a jumbo television screen where I could see for myself the hidden beauty inside the diamond.  At the conclusion of my search I found a perfect diamond engagement ring for a perfect lady!

In the same way that a gemologist meticulously looks at what is within a diamond, God looks at us in the hidden spiritual place of our HEART to determine WHO WE ARE!  When God looks at you and me, He is looking deep into our hearts.  What specifically is God looking at when He looks into our heart?  Let’s look at three biblical characters that reveal a little about how God determines what is in our hearts . . .

God is looking beyond our EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS (1 Sam. 16:1-13) – When God sent Samuel to find a king to replace Saul, He sent him to the house of Jesse.  God instructed Samuel NOT to choose one of his sons based on his “appearance” or the “height of his stature”.  We tend to evaluate others or our own value or worth based on external characteristics like personality, good looks, clothing, abilities, education, money, or any number of other external features.  Although this is how we might determines someone else’s value or worth or how we might determine our own value or worth, that is not how God determines our value or worth . . . He looks at the heart!

God is looking at our PLANS and THOUGHTS (1 Chron. 28:1-10) – Can you imagine if after every word and action of our life a neon sign flashed above our head revealing your inner plans and thoughts (motives)?  We might say with our mouth, “mom/dad, I’m going over to a friend’s house to study” while in our heart we’re thinking about the guy or girl we like who’s going to be at our friend’s house too.  Our words and actions can be very different from our inner plans and thoughts.  Our inner motives are as visible to God as a neon sign blinking above our heads.  God is not as concerned about “what” we do as much as He is concerned about “why” we do it.  God looks at the motivation underneath what we say and do, He sees deeply into who we are and knows what we are really about.

God is looking at whether or not we are RELYING ENTIRELY on Him (2 Chron. 14:4, 9-12, 16:1-9) – Two different battles, two different outcomes.  Why was King Asa able to defeat the Ethiopian army of 1 million soldiers and 300 chariots and the Syrian army was able to escape?  Very simple, against the Ethiopian army King Asa, “relied on God”, but against the Syrian army King Asa, “did not rely on the Lord (his) God.”  God is looking to provide and protect for all those whose hearts are entirely, completely, 100% dependent on Him!  If in our hearts we are relying on our own strength or ability to accomplish something then God will allow us to function using our own limited human effort.  But if in our hearts we are relying on God’s strength and ability then we have access to His unlimited divine power and He will fight for us.

CONCLUSION
Hebrews 4:12-13 says, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”   The fact that God looks into our heart in essence means that He knows EVERYTHING about us and who we are.  This can be a comforting reality or it may be a terrifying reality.  We are all accountable to God, not just for our actions, but for what we think no one can see that is hidden in our hearts.  What does God see when He looks into your heart!?!

The Heart God Desires

A car engine is designed to run on gasoline.  If we put anything other than gasoline in the engine it’s not going to work the way it was designed.  If we put water, or vegetable oil, or kool-aid, or anything else in the gas tank of our car, it’s not going to run right or will be permanently damaged.  If a car is going to run correctly, we must put in the fuel that the original creator designed.  No one would purposely put something into the gas tank of a car knowing that it was designed to run on gasoline.

God CREATED our hearts and He knows exactly how they are DESIGNED to WORK!  When there are things in our hearts that God did not design to be there our lives will not run right.  No one wants a broke down, sputtering, life!  And yet, many of us don’t know or are unwilling to fill our hearts with the “fuel” God designed in order to make our lives work.  Experiencing a fulfilling life requires having the right things in our heart.  What did God design to be in be in our hearts?

In the book of Deuteronomy God speaks through Moses to communicate to the people of Israel the heart He desires (Deut 4:1-9).  Throughout the book of Deuteronomy God has several important things to say about the heart of man and makes His people aware of His original design for the heart . . .

God desires a heart that SEEKS for Him (Dt. 4:25-29) – God knew His people would forget Him and serve gods of wood and stone, made by the work of human hands.  God knows that it is our nature to fill our hearts with idolatrous things He did not design or desire to be there.  We all “act corruptly” and “do what is evil in the sight of the Lord”.  It is “from there”, a place of sin, rebellion, and forgetting God, that we are to “seek” the Lord and “search” after Him with all our hearts.  A sin filled and rebellious heart that seeks God will find Him and God will remember His covenant to humanity and grant mercy and withhold the punishment we deserve.  The very first step toward a heart God desires is seeking Him in the midst of our sin and rebellion.

God desires a heart that KNOWS Him and LOVES Him (Dt. 4:39, 6:5, 30:6) – Here we find two important things about God’s design for the heart.  First, we are to “know” in our heart that God is the one and only God and there is NO other (Dt. 5:7-8).  God is not one among other good options.  We are to be convinced that there is only one true God and the God of the Bible is Him.  There are no substitutes, no equals, no others!  Second, with every nook and cranny of our heart we are to “love” Him.  The word love here means to have a “great affection for”, a “strong emotional attachment”, or a “desire to be in the physical presence”.  At the very center of who we are, we are to have stronger longing for God and loyalty to God than for anyone or anything else.

God desires a heart that KNOWS and LIVES by His COMMANDS (Dt. 5:29, 6:6, 11:18, 26:16, 30:10, 14, 32:46) – At the beginning of the year, most teachers design a list of standards and expectations for their classroom.  These rules are designed specifically to make the class run smoothly and disobeying the rules results in chaos and consequences.  God established the standards and expectations for life that we are to be obedient to and live by.  In John 14:15 Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments (Jn. 14:21-23, 1 Jn. 2:3, 5:1-5).”  It’s pretty clear that God’s love language is obedience.  We display our love for God by learning the things that He has commands and do them.

CONCLUSION
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 summarizes the heart God desires, “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”  Did you catch it?  Our hearts were designed to be filled with these things for OUR GOOD!  The things that God designed and desires to be in our hearts are the very things that produce a meaningful, purposeful, and enjoyable life.  If we are not putting these things in our heart, most likely, our life is not running smoothly or it has been permanently damaged.

Man is Reflected in the Heart

What is it inside of us that make us who we are?  This is an important question to consider in life.  In the movie “Big Hero 6” there is a loveable character named Baymax who is a marshmallow-like inflatable robot.  Baymax was created by a brainy young inventor named Tadashi Hamada to be an unintimidating, gentle, kind, and loving health care provider.  Baymax’s actions, words, and feelings all originate from a tiny little computer chip designed and placed inside of him by his creator Tadashi.  It is this hidden computer chip inside Baymax’s chest that animates and makes him everything of who he is!

Do human beings have a similar “computer chip” that shapes our thoughts and our attitudes, our inner motives and our intentions, and our words and our actions?  According to Scripture the answer is YES!  Much like Baymax’s computer chip that dictate his words and actions, God created human beings with a HEART, a hidden spiritual place where our THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, ATTITUDES, INTENTIONS, MOTIVES, WORDS, and ACTIONS originate.  According to Scripture our heart is the internal command center of our entire existence.  The spiritual code programmed into our hearts is what ultimately makes us who we are.  But unlike a computer chip, our hearts can be miraculously reprogrammed and changed!

If this is true (and it is), then our HEART MATTERS immensely!  What is in our heart is infinitely eternally important.  Therefore, we should care deeply about what is in our heart and what we allow or don’t allow to enter into our heart.  Knowing what is in our heart, what should be in our heart, and how it can be changed are foundational issues to who each and every one of us as individuals created by God.  Why is the heart important? Why does the heart matter?

Our heart REFLECTS PERFECTLY who we are (Proverbs 27:19) – A mirror does not lie.  This morning we all looked into a mirror for a reason.  We wanted to discover what damage our pillow had done to our face and hair so we could repair it before we were seen by others!  When we look in the mirror it reflects back our physical appearance to us exactly as it is.  Just like a mirror reflects back an exact representation of what we look like, the human heart “reflects” back an exact representation of the true us!  It is in our hearts where our true thoughts, feelings, attitudes, intentions, and motives lie.  There is no more accurate reflection of who we are than what is contained within our hearts.  It is within our heart self that we find our real self!  Although it is possible to reveal to others what is in our heart, we often keep much of what is in our hearts hidden from others.

Our heart is the DEEP part of us where our TRUE SELF is located (Proverbs 20:5) – We can only see so far down into deep water.  If we looked into the ocean, we may be able to see what’s just below the surface of the water, but at some point, our ability to see is clouded and what is beneath the surface is hidden.  Our heart is the spiritual deep hidden place of our lives.  The “purposes” (thoughts, feelings, attitudes, intentions, motivations) of our lives are hidden deep down inside of our hearts, out of the sight of others.  When others look at our outward behavior, they are only seeing the surface of who we are.  The vast majority of who we are lies far below the surface of what others can see or observe.  In 1 Peter 3:4 says, “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart”.  We are not to be as concerned about what others see on the outside, but the deepest hidden places of our heart.  If our heart is right, then our outward actions will be right, but if our heart is bad, our outward actions will be bad.

CONCLUSION
Make no mistake about it, our hearts matter!  In fact, our heart is the most important part of who we are.  God created us with a heart to be the very source of everything that makes us who we are.  1 Peter 3:15 says, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy”.  What is the attitude of your heart toward Jesus Christ?  God’s Word says that we are to honor Christ as holy!  Too often, we are more concerned about changing our outward behavior, when in reality, the thing that matters most is the attitude of our heart toward Christ.  Since the substance of who we are is reflected in our hearts, what we do with Christ in our hearts is what truly matters.