Introduction

There is a company based in Chicago, called Heart Check America. They produce numerous ads and testimonials about how Heart Check America has affected various people’s lives. Here’s one example:

"I am a businessman in my mid forties. I eat well and exercise five times a week. I've never had any serious medical problems. But my wife begged me to have a heart check. The test is quick and painless. She said, 'What have you got to lose?' So I went. And are we glad I did. The doctors discovered major blockage in three arteries and I was scheduled for treatment immediately. Heart Check America saved my life. You may think everything is fine. So did I. Do yourself a favor. Schedule your test today."

But what about your spiritual heart, your heart for Christ? What does the Bible say about the heart? Can our spiritual hearts have problems?

Body

I. The Bible speaks of many heart conditions that are serious problems.

A. The natural heart is a wicked heart.

(Jer 17:9-10 NKJV) "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? {10} I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

1. Some feel that their heart, or their feelings are a safe guide for making right decisions, but God says otherwise.

2. It is the Lord Who will search the heart, and His test will determine what we are given for the way we have lived.

(Prov 21:2-3 NKJV) Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts. {3} To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

B. Some, like Pharaoh, harden their hearts.

(Exo 8:32 NKJV) But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.

1. Knowing the story of Pharaoh, we know that he rejected God’s will.

2. We also know that he and Egypt were ruined because he refused to submit to God.

C. The Bible speaks of a heart so hard that it is called a stony heart.

(Ezek 11:19-20 NKJV) "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, {20} "that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

1. It is God Who can take away the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh.

II. What kind of heart does God want us to have?

A. He wants us to have a pure heart.

(Mat 5:8 NKJV) Blessed are the pure¹ in heart, For they shall see God.

¹2513. katharos, kath-ar-os'; clean (lit. or fig.):--clean, clear, pure.

1. We are admonished to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.

(James 4:8-10 NKJV) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. {9} Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. {10} Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

a. We draw near in reading His word and doing it.

(James 1:22-27 NKJV) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. {23} For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; {24} for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. {25} But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. {26} If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. {27} Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

b. We draw near in prayer.

(Mat 7:7-8 NKJV) "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. {8} "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

2. Our love is to be from a pure heart.

(1 Tim 1:5 NKJV) Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,

B. God wants us to have loving hearts, especially hearts that love Him.

(Mat 22:37-38 NKJV) Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' {38} "This is the first and great commandment.

C. God wants us to have tender hearts.

(Eph 4:32 NKJV) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

(1 Pet 3:8 NKJV) Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;

D. We are to draw near to God with a true heart.

(Heb 10:22 NKJV) let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

E. We should have caring hearts.

(2 Cor 8:16 NKJV) But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.

III. How is your heart?

A. Jesus encouraged us to check our hearts – at least our own lives.

(Mat 7:3-5 NKJV) "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? {4} "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? {5} "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

B. Paul also encouraged us to examine ourselves to see if we were in the faith.

(2 Cor 13:5 NKJV) Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?; unless indeed you are disqualified.

Conclusion

I. We all know that if your heart fails we will die.

II. If our spiritual heart is diseased, we will die for eternity, we will be lost.

III. We don’t need to go for an echo cardiogram to check our spiritual hearts.

1. The question is, will we “Take time to be holy”?

2. Will we make the effort to draw close to God?

3. Finally, is your heart right with God?

Bible Study with Harley Sermons I have Preached

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