New Heart (New Life Series)

Introduction

In my last sermon, I spoke about the long walk I had with Christ and in the process discovered His character and His faithfulness. It is one thing to read about it in the Bible, it is another thing to experience it. The fundamental change that occurred was not a head knowledge of who God is, but a heart knowledge. God’s Word and His constant presence in my life changed my heart. Indeed, part of the salvation experience is the transformation of the heart. The prophet Ezekiel presents the process in great detail.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 NASB 2020

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances.

God puts a new heart and His Spirit in us. We call out to Him and He saves us by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, gives us a new heart, and places His Spirit in us. And there is more! We’ll take a closer look in my final sermon in this series. But for now we will take a closer look at the heart. First let’s take a look at our current heart condition. Ezekiel said we had a heart of stone and Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB 2020

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Story

Jeremiah points out that the heart of man is deceitful and sick. That’s sad because many of us think we have good intentions and are generally good people. We may even have compassion for some worthy cause, and we may even go so far as to put our money where our mouth is. So why would God’s prophet say the heart is so deceitful and sick. This may sound counterintuitive, but it is for the very reason that we think we are ‘good’ that Jeremiah call us out. Our heart deceives us into thinking we are good. Even Jesus agreed with him.

Mark 10:18 NASB 2020

But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

When I was a young boy, I thought I had it all figured out. The devil was evil and God was too perfect. So I was going to stand in the middle and walk the ‘good’ life as I saw fit. Spoiler Alert! It didn’t work out so well. Surprised? I’m sure you’re not. We either get what we want and in the process hurt other people or we mess up our own lives. My grand idea wasn’t panning out. I didn’t know how to interact with people and I didn’t know how to reconcile my desires in a way that was truly good. There was always an element of selfishness in everything I did. I came to realize that the only truly good and perfect person was Jesus Christ. Only God was good.

When Jesus came into my life He gave me a new heart. Now, I will tell you flat out that I didn’t know what to do with this new heart. Frankly it was foreign to everything I’d ever known. I wanted to do things for Jesus now. I told everyone about Jesus and hummed songs while at work. I was super saved! Yeah, I was one of those people. One year I carved a Halloween pumpkin with the name of Jesus on it, cause what are demon’s afraid of? Jesus! Right? Needless to say, my poor wife at the time cried because I was embarrassing her but I was bound and determine to ‘share the good news’.

Transition

Now my heart was in the right place, but my head certainly wasn’t. It took some time to mature and grow out of that awkwardness. In some respects, I may have swung back too far the other way, becoming apprehensive about sharing my faith and becoming too quiet and reserved. But the new heart God gave me recognized that and I’m moving back to that more vocal period in time, but this time with more grace. In my pursuit of God, I can’t forget the people around me. I need to bring them along, not leave them in the dust. That is truly one of the most important things God taught me. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Mark 12:28–31 NASB 2020

One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘hear, israel! the lord is our God, the lord is one; and you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Points

The heart God gives us urges us to fulfill all the law out of love. We love God. We love people. We forgive. We mend old wounds. We seek to know God more intimately. We want to read His Word and understand it fully. We want His Spirit to not only just be in us but commune with us. Teach us. Guide us. Counsel us. Show us more of Jesus and show us more of who we are meant to be. We want God to transform us into what it truly is like to be good and do good all the time. We want to be like Jesus because only God is good.

Application

So instead of discovering what the new heart is all about on your own and making a whole lot of awkward mistakes, I’ll make it easy. Love God. Love People. Don’t sacrifice one for the other. Don’t run people over chasing after God and don’t let people distract you from your earnest love for God. Take them along with you on the journey. Challenge them to seek God with you. Tell them in a heartfelt way how Jesus is changing you and be humble about it. It’s when we start to love people that we discover what humility is all about. Be as innocent and kind as a child. Let your new heart teach you in your quiet place. It was given to you by God and it is directed by the Holy Spirit. So just listen.