The Secret of a Soft Heart 7/18/2021

I heard a story of a young boy, 6 years old, who had a strange disease. When he was 1 year old doctors found a piece of calcium in the right ventricle of his heart.

By the time he was four years of age the calcium had nearly encased his heart. The little boys tender heart was physically becoming like stone.

The doctors came up with a conclusion that the calcification of his heart was the result of several things at one time that caused this strange thing.

The little boy passed away three days past his sixth birthday. His parents were both devastated and grateful at the same time. They were grateful for the courage and the hope in which this little boy had inspired them. He never complained the whole time.

The last Christmas with their child was tough yet they made it as happy a time as they could. It was his attitude and courage that helped them through it all.

He put a package under the tree for dad. And he placed another package there for mom. Then he placed one there for himself, the card on it said “from me to me”.

Just before his passing, his parents talked to him and they said “When it comes time for you to go, you go. You will see Jesus, and when you see Him, you run to Him and we will be along after a while.”

That six year old child may be the only one who ever made it into heaven with a hard heart.

Hard Hearts

The inference in scripture is that the ones who make it to heaven all do so with a soft heart.

Three times the writer of the book of Hebrews across chapters 3 and 4 instructs us “Do not harden your hearts”. (Hebrews 3:8, 3:15, 4:7)

Each is a quotation from Psalm 95.

When scripture talks about the heart it is not talking about the heart like in this little six year old boy that calcified. It is talking about the seat of who we are as a person.

If you want to know what is important to someone? Hang around them a while and listen to what they talk about most often. What subject comes up repeatedly in conversation… listening you learn what they value. The heart is mentioned 830 times. We should pay attention to what God has to say about the heart because He mentions it so often.

The scriptural heart is far different than the physical heart. The physical heart is about the size of a fist and it weighs just under a pound. It is a pump that moves blood through out the body, on the other hand the scriptural heart is the center of our being, the center of our affections.

With the heart a person loves, and with the same heart a person can hate.

Joy can flood a persons heart, and that same heart can be overwhelmed with sorrow.

The heart can be bitter.

The heart can be peaceful.

The heart can be sad. The heart can be full of gladness.

can be fearful.

can be full of courage.

The heart thinks, the heart believes, the heart knows. The heart understands. The heart ponders… perceives, imagines, the heart decides.

The heart of a person is the person himself or herself.

Everyone say “the heart, that’s the real me.” The heart is the real you.

The heart is...

the person behind the persona.

character in back of the charisma.

the face behind the facade. The man or woman behind the mask.

the reality in back of the reputation.

The heart is the value behind the validation.

The heart can be soft and warm toward the Lord and toward the things of the Lord or the heart can be cold and implacable.

Mystery of the Heart

It has always been a deep mystery concerning the heart. Why are some hearts hard and some hearts soft? Why do some hearts believe and why do some hearts doubt? Why are some sensitive and why are some hearts callous? How is it possible for some folks heart to become hard as stone?

It ought to be the prayer of each of us today “Lord help me to keep my heart tender and soft toward Your things.”

The writer of Hebrews tells us over and over of something better, a better covenant, a better name, better blood, a better sacrifice, a better altar, a better tabernacle, better priest...

The author writes about the mystery of a hard heart. He quotes from Psalm 95.

Psalm 95:6–7 NKJV

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:

Psalm 95:8–11 NKJV

8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

In that passage there are four things.

He is speaking to Israel.

The rebellion is when Israel demanded water at Meribah.

The day of trial in the wilderness was at Massah when Israel grew dissatisfied with God.

The result of that was a hardening of their hearts because of their lack of faith.

How can anyone grow dissatisfied with God?

“When your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw my work”

How could anyone have their heart harden as they stand witness to the work of the Lord?

What Hardens the Heart?

There are only three reasons I can find in scripture for a hardened heart toward God.

Disobedience.

An uncaring attitude toward another person.

Finally and the subject of this sermon today, Unbelief.

It was their unbelief in the wilderness that caused their hearts to grow hard and calloused. It is so imperative that our hearts be soft.

Three times the writer of Hebrews referenced verse 8 of Psalm 95, “Do not harden your hearts”. That means the individual is the one responsible for keeping a soft heart. The individual has the ability to keep it soft.

It is not age that causes a heart to become hard. It is not the slings, arrows or attacks that cause a heart to become hard. It is not the difficulties of life or the ebb and flow of things that does so. It is not the trouble that comes our way.

The mystery lies in the fact that an individual can allow his heart to become hard.

Six times we read of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Seven times we read Pharaoh hardening his own heart. So, more times than not we are the ones who harden our own heart.

The writer of Hebrews is not appealing to pagans, or unbelievers. He is describing people who had been delivered from bondage. People who knew Jehovah God. They had seen the miracles of deliverance, they had eaten the angels food, they had drank water from the rock. But those same people that God had done so much for, hardened their hearts.

In his warning the writer is saying watch out you are in much the same position, don’t let it happen to you.

What happened?

The children of Israel remembered Egypt and the Egyptians, and they said they had it better than we had it. They began to complain that Moses had brought them out into the wilderness to perish. That God had done this to them. They didn’t remember that it was God who had delivered them.

Our hearts grow hard when we compare ourselves to others and when we blame our situation on someone else. Our hearts grow hard when we forget God’s goodness. When we stop being grateful our hearts grow hard.

We allow the enemy to paint a drab picture over our lives and the things that God has done… the softness leaves our heart.

We harden our heart when we disobey God and then justify ourselves and our disobedience.

Six times God accused the people of being “stiff necked”, a Hebrew metaphor for a beast of burden that has decided to refuse to go on, so it stiffens and tightens its neck resisting. Stubborn disobedience becomes the defining characteristic of the animal.

A stiff neck or a hard heart resists the divine impulses from God. Refuses to follow the path that God wants followed. It is closed, insensitive and disobedient.

Jesus gave a parable of a man who had two sons. The man sent them to work in his vineyard, the one said he would but did not. The other said he wouldn’t, but then later repented and went.

Which one had the hard heart?

Both of them. But one was willing to repent and change course. That is the only answer for hardness of heart. Repentance. Repentance is more than just asking forgiveness, it is a change in action and activity.

It is far better when the father asks for you to go that you go and do it with a cheerful heart. It is better to do the will of God in the first place and do it cheerfully and from the heart.

So what is the secret of a soft heart?

Our hearts grow soft when we listen to the voice of God. Listen to this… “Today, if you will hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts”

Psalm 95:7 NKJV

7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:

Hear him when he says...

Matthew 5:44 NKJV

44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

John 14:15 NKJV

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

John 16:24 NKJV

24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

John 14:1–3 NKJV

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Matthew 24:42 NKJV

42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Hebrews 12:1–2 NKJV

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Why would anyone allow their hearts to be hard? When they can exchange it for a soft one?