Inland Empire: Riverside
A Transformed Heart - Audio
It's great to be together, it's great to hear from old friends and brothers in the Lord. Marty is great to hear from him this morning and it's just great to be family. I bring you greetings from the American Leadership Conference that the full-time staff was at this past week out in Boston and it was a fantastic time to be with all the New England churches as well as the church leaders from throughout the United States and we gathered up to strengthen, encourage one another, share good news and really be prepared for the great work that God has in store for the rest of this decade and I'm here to tell you that the state of our churches is better than it's been in years. It is across the globe, our churches are growing, across the United States, our churches are growing, there's news throughout the United States of churches being planted. Of old ministers who had left the ministry going back into the ministry, of new aspiring young ministers wanting to raise up and go out and start churches and be a part of campus ministry plantings and be a part of new established churches and there's a spirit of strengthening the smaller churches in our fellowship who have been weak for years and are now getting stronger. So it's awesome to be a part of our family of churches across the United States, amen? Today the title of the lesson in line with our theme for the year and we're closing out the year of course but it's been a great year of transformation right and I'm going to talk today about having a transformed heart and really have one point today and that's just simply that we all need a transformed heart and not just one time in our life, you need it all the time. Let's go to God in prayer and we'll study the word. Father in heaven thank you so much for this morning, this time to gather and worship with friends, with family, with neighbors, with just new people we're meeting, Father thank you so much for our worship time, our singing, the opportunity to be together and look in each other's eyes and encourage each other's spirits and thank you God that you are working across the United States, that you are working across the Inland Empire, Father you're working right here in this room and we ask that you would be here in a powerful way, open our hearts, help us to transform, help us to be the people we need to be for you. We ask that you'll bless this time in Jesus name, amen? You know I had a heart problem, a physical heart problem, I had a heart problem spiritually two years ago and even today always got to work on that heart but I want to share about my physical heart problem, for years growing up I love sports but I had this thing called a praxisimal atrial tachycardia, anybody know what that is, any doctors out there, if you can know what that is, okay well I had, I would be playing in like pop Warner football games and I would be the running bag you know trying to score touchdown I'd get tackled and my heart would go from normal you know maybe physical activity 140 beats a minute to instantly but just go to like 240 beats a minute instantaneously, even when I was resting and I calmed down my heart was going blah blah blah blah blah blah blah it was just beating and I was like you know I was almost going to pass out, this would happen from like age seven basically up until I was in my early 30s and it affected my sports ability, unfortunately at times I just have to come out of an event and there's nothing I could do and then just as quickly as it started beating that fast it would all of a sudden go from beating like blah blah blah blah blah blah blah back to normal and it scared my parents to say the least, scared my wife later too when she learned about it she's like that's a worrisome condition and I had gone to see all the best doctors early in my life that you know I went to the children's hospitals throughout you know the place where I lived at the time on the east coast in downtown Philadelphia this renowned children's hospital they gave me all kinds of medications, they said it's very common and there's really no solution so you know I just lived with it well when I came to the Inland Empire and I met Mo Bashar who was one of the ministers here he was also a heart doctor and I this is in my early 30s and he goes I started telling him about I said oh what do you do in the area the field is working on hearts he said well I'm a specialist in the electrical side I said oh I have a problem and I told him my problem he says you know there's been a cure for that for the last ten years I said what he says and I'm the specialist I said sign me up and I went on into a good Samaritan hospital in LA and Mo Bashar cured that heart condition that I had it was awesome I've been I've been totally fine totally fine since then for the last day I've been 12 years roughly now and I had my heart transformed in a great way in a physical sense but I realized that you know we need our hearts transformed in a spiritual way for sure initially right because all of our hearts go astray in a terrible way but we also need our hearts transformed in a spiritual way on a regular basis you know according to the Bible the heart is the center of not only our spiritual activity but really of all operations of human life and the heart really is the home of our personal life you know Jesus says you know where your treasure is there your heart will be also it's where your energy is where your attention lies it's what you're focused on it's the way you act and so where you live you know a man is characterized according to his heart you know we find in first Kings that that God had given Solomon a what he said I'm going to give you a wise and discerning heart and of course Psalm was known for his wisdom you know we see in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says you know bless of the pure in heart for they will see God you know in the Psalms we find in Psalm 78 verse 72 it says there that David had integrity of heart he was known for his integrity of heart and then in Luke chapter 8 at the end of the parable of the sower it says right in there that those with a noble and good heart hear the word retain it and by persevering produce a harvest and so we are at this time and throughout our lives characterized with a kind of heart you have but sadly we find in Genesis chapter 8 verse 21 the scriptures teach that every inclination of a man's heart is evil from childhood that we're always going to stray right that we're wicked in our heart that there's a side of us it's just it just raises against what is right and wants what it wants and then we also find in Jeremiah 17 you can turn there or Mike might put it up there okay turn to Jeremiah 17 and we find in Jeremiah 17 verse 9 the passage about it's a very um daunting passage it's kind of scary to think about and in verse 9 it says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure and I don't like that beyond cure portion I think that um it's in there there is ultimately a cure but our heart needs the medicine all the time who can understand the heart verse 10 says I the Lord searched the heart and examined the mind to reward a man according to his conduct according to what his deeds deserve what kind of heart do we have this morning what kind of heart do you have what is in your heart how would you be characterized this morning based upon the kind of heart that you have you know we all need a transformed heart my heart was defined by self gratification and self glorification in my earliest days and I would dare say most of us that defines us we grow up desiring to be gratified and glorified and our heart yearns for these things and the only one who's really okay with being glorified all the time is God himself and if we seek gratification and glorification is our primary motive in life and we use the world standards our heart will become hard and resistant I want us to turn to Hebrews chapter 3 and we find there an indicator of a hard heart where are you this morning we don't want to have a hard heart we got to have a soft heart a responsive heart a spiritual heart a transformed heart where are you this morning Hebrews chapter 3 writing to the church these are people you know this letter was written really to those who had found out about Jesus and yet the first time you undergo a transformation is not the last time you should undergo a transformation verse 7 of Hebrews 3 says so as the Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert where your fathers tested and tried me for 40 years saw what I did that is why I was angry with that generation and I said their hearts are always going to stray they've not known my ways so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest see to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness you know it is a battle in your heart taking place a battle to have a soft responsive heart a noble heart to be characterized by integrity and purity so that you can see God against the forces of deceit and self gratification and glorification you know on Friday night we had the preteen devotional it was great to have it up at a park in Rancho and had 19 you know a 9 10 11 year olds 12 year olds out playing sports and we quoted one scripture to them that we need to encourage one another daily so that we will not get a hard heart and I asked you know do I know if you ever get discouraged about things all the hands went up right all of us undergo and discouragement throughout the day and throughout the week and throughout the year and we need to fight off the discouragements that comes from sins deceitfulness encouragement opens our eyes up to truths and we got to fight the hardness of heart what are some indicators of hardness of heart well one thing that evidence is a hard heart is when we take sin lightly if you take sin lightly or you have a partial acknowledgement of sin the kind of thing where you kind of you think about a little but then you like to sweep it under the carpet you take sin lightly because your heart is hard and the lighter you take it the harder your heart becomes and it becomes a cycle of resistance to sin you know in the campus ministry one of the biggest sins that we have to battle is just just visual lust sexual lust sexual temptation not only in the campus ministry I would dare say in America I would dare say in western you know civilization we struggle with that visual desire and what we teach the campus guys is that you have got to take this sin serious if you don't take it serious you will become an addict as dangerous and addiction as any narcotic we know with the advent of internet pornography how damaging it is as we talk to the brothers you say listen you got to talk about the sin not only when it occurs but even at the temptation level even when the thought of even being tempted comes in your mind I want you to go home to the brothers household tell them hey you know I saw this girl I was tempted to look in this way or think this thought I want to get this off my chest I want to I want to clear my conscience if you don't do that you will become hard-hearted and ingrained in our disgusting ungodly impure culture and all you have to do is watch any TV program and boom you're like wow everything is is just so vulgar it's a darkness and you know all of us we live in this culture I guarantee if you don't regularly fight for a soft and transformed heart you will get hardened to sins deceitfulness no partial confession you can tell when a person has not really repented because they're not easy eager to come clean they're not eager to clear themselves as second Corinthians 7 says when you're hard hard you just you just don't put yourself out there you're afraid and the cycle of hardness is it's begun to creep into your heart and it will destroy your life you know other indicators are pride in our conceit as we grow older it's very easy to get more and more prideful now the truth is as you grow older you should get more humble because you keep seeing more in depth how sinful you are and oftentimes that is the case the older you get you start to see ah I'm a mess but also you get older and you start you start thinking you deserve more that you know something and pride can end our hearts independence can enter our hearts we forget the simple things that you know we're we're an interdependent congregation we're not we're not just dependent on each other and we're not independent of each other we're an interdependent we need each other at every stage of your life you need other people on a regular basis how you doing with that how you doing just your your weekly schedule think through your weekly schedule how much input digging on it think about your monthly schedule your annual schedule you know Marty talked about the conference next year in San Antonio let me just bring that up what an incredible event that's going to be you know we have campus conferences and campus retreats and singles conferences and singles retreats and marriage hovers and marriage retreats incredible events going on but oftentimes we hear about these things where a collective body were interdependent we're about building and changing the world and yet we don't even think to get input on whether we should go or be a part of it or what it's all about or would it be helpful we just think I got this problem doing my own thing I want to bring this up because I want to see the entire congregation in San Antonio amen and it isn't going to be easy to get there some of you haven't even even thought about going you immediately I can't go it's a what I've been a disciple actually yesterday was my 21st spiritual birthday amen I've been a disciple 21 years in my 21 years we've not had a world conference the way we're having it next year ever we've not gathered you know we've had leaders all around the world but we've never had all the disciples invited from the teens the campus the singles the marries the Spanish all over the world as many as possible we want to fill up where the San Antonio Spurs play basketball they hold about 18,000 I'm hoping that it's just overflowing over 20,000 I believe even more can come but you don't want to miss it are you thinking are you heart-hearted in your scheduling are you willing to be interdependent connected what you do affects everybody else we gotta have the heart that wants to be connected in that way you know sometimes we get a strong talking to you know we get we get shown a scripture that really cuts us but you know we forget it one day later we ignore it to sign up a hard heart you know it's like the parable of the of the you know the sewer right the second heart receive the word couple days later though you know persecution difficult it's kind of hard to forget it how are you do it persevering persevering and growing through the hard talks you had real change takes hard work we got to break through the hardness you know the biggest thing that starts the hardness of heart is bitterness isn't it bitterness and where does bitterness come when you feel wrong when you feel mistreated and you know how do you get mistreated well when you have you know total commitment to each other like in the bond of marriage it's easy to get hurt right marriage it's easy to feel hurt and we become unyielding when we feel hurt when we get that anger and some of us have that a little bit more passion than others and some of us are a little bit more calm and that's a good thing it gets us through so the tough times some of us we have this anger and it just boils up and we start saying stuff that we would never have thought we'd say because wounds it can't be repaired or that take years of healing how's your marriage marriage out there how are you really doing how honest how real how humble how transformed in heart toward one another are you lately we got the marriage treat coming up I hope you're prepared to be a part of that but marriage we can't be hard hearted toward one another we got to believe there's hope no matter where we've gone no matter what's going on there is hope you know we want to have the noble and good heart right let's turn to Luke chapter 8 verse 15 we want to have the noble and good heart that's what we're shooting for and in Luke chapter 8 we find Jesus in sharing the parable of sorrow I just I like a couple things we can get from this some great insights from Luke 8 verse 15 we see in that passage that it says the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart alright so well now what are the indicators of that don't we all want to have a noble and good heart that's the goal that to be transformed to keep your heart noble and good well it's those who hear the word that's good you guys came to church today I commend you okay you're hearing the word are you reading your Bible you know you got to read your Bible the noble and good heart is in the word there's just nothing like digging in the word right you it just opens your mind up sometimes you got to just read a couple verses and meditate sometimes you just got to read full volumes of it just just take in whole books of the Bible a noble and good heart here's the word retains it it sticks accepts it here's the truth and doesn't let it shake out of their heart see the truth will transform and by persevering produces a crop a noble and good heart God wants every one of us to have a noble and good heart and yet sadly we don't sadly we don't have the kind of hearts oftentimes that we need to have and God intends for us to get a new heart and a new spirit and you know I want to share with you you know God has been dealing with the human hearts since the beginning of mankind working on mankind and his plan has been the same for generations let's go into the Old Testament a little bit and look at how he dealt with some hearts let's turn to Ezekiel chapter 18 Ezekiel chapter 18 we find there it's a time when the nation has been overrun by no ungodly people and the faithful godly people have been taken captive they're in a foreign land and things are difficult for them and Ezekiel is preaching and talking to them and explaining to them God's intention is for them to have a new heart and yet unfortunately they don't quite get it I want to see I want you to see there in Ezekiel chapter 18 and we see in there let's go to the very end let's go to the very end for now verse 30 he says therefore oh house of Israel I will judge you each one according to his ways declares the sovereign Lord repent turn away from your offenses then sin will not be your downfall rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed and get a new heart and a new spirit why will you die oh house of Israel for I take no pleasure in the death of anyone declares the sovereign Lord repent and live God wants us all to have transformed hearts he wanted me to have a transformed heart when I was living in just debauchery and self gratification and lust and drunkenness and Americanized greed and the same thing with you but you know he wants that throughout your life and you know to have a transformed heart it's going to take two things it's going to take truth and it's going to take grace see the truth makes us wake up and see our need for God makes us see our need makes us see our hardness of heart go back to Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 1 now look at him with me in verse 1 says the word of the Lord came to me what do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge as surely as I live declares the sovereign Lord you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel for every living soul belongs to me the father as well as the son both alike belong to me the soul whose sins is the one who will die what was their issue well that you know life was difficult for them and in their heart of hearts they wanted to blame the circumstances you know the proverb had developed because there was some truth in it you know the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge yes God had disciplined the nation of Israel because of the bad hearts and actions of the nation and those now living there were having some trouble but God says you know but each individual will be held accountable for his actions and true peace true happiness true fulfillment which comes in eternity will be apportioned individually not in a group level so the soul who sins is the soul that will die the soul who sins will be held accountable each individual and yet the people in that generation not unlike our generation like to blame the circumstances we feel like the circumstances are causing my problems the circumstances around me are the issue and they are not the issue your heart is the issue is never the circumstances because every circumstance has a right response you put Jesus in that circumstance he'll solve the problem you put Jesus in that circumstance and he's going to create fruitfulness out of that situation and we are all sorts of different circumstances in here but where's your heart at are you willing to hear the truth step one they need to just hear the truth you got to be willing to hear the truth sometimes you just got to open your stomach ask people tell you the truth why am I having struggles in my marriage why I'm having struggles in my life why are things not going the way I really wish they would go and oftentimes you're disciplined for really no fault of your own God just always testing our faith but a lot of times there is a direct correlation to your circumstance now because of choices you've made earlier the point guys trying to make is each of us has to take responsibility and he didn't like that problem he said I want that said in the land because I'm a fair and just God and I care about every soul individually and you're not where you're at spiritually because of any circumstances you know he goes on he tells him the truth he tells him the truth about some circumstance and you're told the truth it can change us in a radical way can it sometimes it's just the truth of who there that there is a God sometimes it's the truth of what it means to follow God and you know he goes on to explain some of the truth they needed to understand let's look at those all right let's look at them verse five he says suppose there's a righteous man who does what is just and right so he's telling us here's the things you need to do to be just and right he says he does not eat at mountain shrines or look at the idols of the house of Israel he does not defile his neighbor's wife or lie with the women during her period he does not oppress anyone but returns what he took in pledge for a loan he does not commit robbery but gives us food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked he does not lend it usually or take excessive interest he withholds his hand from doing wrong and judges fairly between man and man he follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws that man is righteous he will surely live declares the sovereign lord suppose he has a violent son who sheds blood and does any of these other things and goes through the list again of those sins those sins that are true about life and I started thinking here was the sins of their generation what were they well they ate at the mountain shrines what does that mean you know they were worshiping false things they had false religion in their culture false idols even amongst it says even the idols of Israel even within the teachings of Israel even within their their own supposedly right teachings they had false idols false teaching is rampant and it's attacking your mind every day in our generation you know the battle across the globe you know we've shared the fours is is really it's a simple battle for Jesus most of the world doesn't have any idea who Jesus is in America we have an idea who it is so instead Satan throws at us 33,000 different denominations of Christianity and then we become very weak willed and complacent and what we think it means to be a Christian we get confused and we get watered down and easy believe is American Christianity just destroys our convictions and we talked several times about the radical nature that God is calling us to the radical commitment he is calling us to but are you stuck in a false religion you might be sitting in the pew this morning I want to preach the right teachings of Jesus but you don't want our hearts are hard we start believing false teachings teachings of comfort you know the other sins are pretty straightforward you know sexual sins right not paying back debts welcome to our generation nope greedy judging in unfair ways selfishness and not generous generous not willing to really live sacrificially and I sort of think well what are the sins of 2011 is the same is back then right the same is 550 BC give or take same since 2500 years later where you at today what kind of heart do you have see God's plan is if you'll hear the truth and you need to invite that truth in some of us we need to make the decision I want to ask for some help and hear the truth I want to ask for some help but my life and where I'm at because I want to change you know I don't want us to end this year without real transformation we need real transformation a woman in India heard the story about these these disciples who wouldn't give up on their dad and at the last minute their dad was baptized on their deathbed well these women heard the story they heard the truth and they realized their own cousin was about to die and they'd given up preaching the word they came home from that sermon went straight to her deathbed open the Bible and she's kept preaching and teaching and sharing she was baptized one day before she passed on to heaven the truth can transform us and motivate us but you know the other thing we need is grace I love the teaching in here that really if you've sinned before and turned with me now to verse in chapter 18 looking verse 21 if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right he will surely live he will not die you see if you turn he's talking about eternal life you're gonna have grace and I want to close out with just a great picture of God's grace for all of us to consider as you evaluate where your heart is at let's show that first picture Mike here's a car a truck driving on highway 100 in Arizona going 70 miles an hour it was going from the left to the right and it crashed through the rail flipped head overhead landed backwards facing the opposite direction two drivers in it had bumps and bruises no injury they were they were flying around that current flew off that thing flipped all the way over facing the opposite direction see if they were going that way you know and they ended up taking the opposite direction well look at the next picture that's where the truck landed everyone of us needs to respond to the grace of God we're on the edge of death but for the grace of God in our lives let's have transformed heart amen love you guys you. a lot of people. a lot of people. a lot of people. 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Sunday lesson by Steve Lounsbury