Stewarding Your Heart | The Heart | FireBible Sunday (2/16/25)
Stewarding
Your Heart | The Heart | FireBible Sunday
Presented By Rev. Nicholas Sybrowsky
.png)
Service Invocation:
Holy Father, thank You for the snow. This answered prayer provides the seed within the soils of the earth the much-needed nutrients for growth. We invite you to continue to pour out moisture upon the earth and give you our undivided attention that we may grow our hearts to be more available to your perfect will. Perfect the love you have within us. Remove all fear and doubt that the world around us may soon know peace again.
Sermon Thesis
Lead the stewardship of your heart.
Intro:
For today’s FireBible Sunday I’d like to share with you the Life Publishers mission and this profound heart message, an excerpt, from former missionary of the Assemblies of God (Cite 1).
This message is essentially from the late, but alive, Pastor Donald C. Stamps. General Editor of the Life Publishers FireBible. This premier study Bible for the Spirit-Led Believer holds commentary from a Pentecostal perspective. This unique Bible is a comprehensive resource to help Christians live fully inspired lives abiding in the unfailing power of the Holy Spirit. It is a one-book library to assist anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work throughout Scripture.
The FireBible explains Scripture verse by verse with easy-to-understand study notes on every page, giving insight into meaning and application.
There are over 1,200,000 words added in commentary, notes, and articles in the FireBible, with 2,386 in the New Testament and 3,133 in the Old Testament.
Life Publishers International is a global ministry of Assemblies of God World Missions, publishing Bibles and Christian literature to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Their mission is to print the FireBible in the top 100 heart languages in the world. All believers are invited to join them in meeting this challenge. Nothing is more powerful than being able to read God’s Word in one’s own heart language.
MAIN TOPIC & TEXT
'Above everything else, guard your heart. Everything you do comes from it. ' Proverbs 4:23 (NIrV Cite 2)
1. Definition of the Heart.
People generally consider the head—with its brain—to be the center and director of individual human thought and activity. However, the Bible refers to the heart as the center of our being; “out of it are the issues of life” (Pr 4:23 (KJV); cf. Lk 6:45). When the Bible speaks of the “heart,” it is not referring to our physical organ that pumps blood throughout the body. It is referring the whole of one’s intellect, emotion and will (see Mk 7:20-23 note FireBible).
A) The heart is the center of intellect. The Bible describes people knowing (Dt 8:5), praying (1Sa 1:12-13), and meditating in their hearts (Ps 19:14). They are also able to hide God’s word in their heart (Ps 119:11), devise plans (Ps 140:2) and retain God’s word there (Pr 4:21). Individuals are able to think (Mk 2:8), doubt (Mk 11:23), ponder (Lk 2:19), believe (Ro 10:9) and sing in their hearts (Eph 5:19). All of these abilities of the heart involve the mind.
B) The heart is the center of the emotions. The Bible speaks about the glad heart (Ex 4:14), the loving heart (Dt 6:5), the fearful heart (Jos 5:1), the courageous heart (Ps 27:14), the repentant heart (Ps 51:17), the anxious heart (Pr 12:25), the angry heart (Pr 19:3), the revived heart (Isa 57:15), the anguished heart (Jer 4:19; Ro 9:2), the delighted heart (Jer 15:16), the grieving heart (La 2:18), the humble heart (Mt 11:29), the excited or burning heart (Lk 24:32) and the troubled heart (Jn 14:1). All of these actions of the heart are basically emotional in nature.
C) Finally, the heart is the center of the human will. The will could be defined as one’s desire, motivation, purpose, determination or ability to choose. We read in God’s Word about the hardened heart that resists God and refuses to do what he commands (Ex 4:21), the heart that is yielded, or submitted, to God (Jos 24:23), the heart that intends to do something (2Ch 6:7), the heart that desires to receive from God (Ps 21:1-2), the heart that is turned toward God’s laws (Ps 119:36) and the heart that wants to do something (Ro 10:1), All of these are acts of the human will.
2. The Nature & Condition of the Heart Apart from God.
When Adam and Eve chose to defy and disobey God’s command and follow the serpent’s temptation to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their decision was most destructive to the human heart (Ge 3:6). Because of their choice, the human heart became open to and filled with evil influences and selfish desires. That is why the words “follow your heart” are literally NOT good advice, though the speaker may mean well.
The Bible shows us the real, naturally dark and sobering condition of the heart apart from God. In the God-inspired words of the prophet Jeremiah, “The heart is more deceitful than all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9 MEV). Jesus explained this truth another way when he said that spiritual impurity (being unlike God) is not the failure to follow some ritual or ceremonial law; it is the willingness to follow the pull of wickedness that is written deep within the heart of humankind. He meant such things as “evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride and foolishness” (Mk 7:21-22 MEV). Jesus taught about the seriousness of holding tight to sin in the heart when he explained that the sin of anger is equal to murder (Mt 5:21-22), and the sin of lust is the same as taking part in adultery (Mt 5:27-28); see Ex 20:14, note FireBible; Mt 5:28, note FireBible).
Hearts that are stubbornly turned toward evil are on a path that will make them hardened (i.e., totally resistant) toward God. Those who keep refusing to accept God’s Word and to obey what he commands put themselves in a most dangerous situation. They may not even realize it when God finally allows them to go their own way. Then they will lose all sensitivity to his Word and to the Holy Spirit (see Ex 7:3, note FireBible; Heb 3:8, note FireBible). The perfect example of this in the Bible is Pharoah’s heart at the time of the exodus (i.e., Israel’s miraculous liberation from slavery in Egypt; see Ex 7:3, 13, 22-23; 8:15, 32; 9:12; 10:1; 11:10; 14:17).
Paul saw the same hardened condition at work in the hearts of many who tried to influence the NT believers in Rome (cf. Ro 1:24, 26, 28). The apostle predicted that this condition of the heart would also occur in the end times during the days of the antichrist (2Th 2:11-12). The writer of Hebrews filled his letter with warning to believers not to harden their hearts (e.g., Heb 3:8-12; see article on INDIVIDUAL APOSTASY, p. 1818, for a description of the steps leading to a hardened heart FireBible). Anyone who continues to reject God’s Word will finally come to have a hardened heart.
3. The Spiritually Renewed Heart.
God’s answer to the sinfulness of the human heart is regeneration, which happens in individuals who truly repent, turn to God by faith and accept Jesus as the Forgiver of their sins and Leader of their lives. Regeneration refers to a heart that has been spiritually reborn, renewed, revitalized, reformed and redeveloped (all being necessary processes of the newness) to where it right with God (see article on REGENERATION: SPIRITUAL BIRTH AND RENEWAL, p. 1474 FireBible).
A) Regeneration refers to the heart being “born again” (Jn 3:3). Those who repent from their heart of all sin and confess in their heart that Jesus is Lord (Ro 10:9) are “born again” spiritually and receive a new spiritual heart from God (cf. Ps 51:10; Eze 11:19).
B) For those who experience this spiritual birth, God creates within them a desire to love him and to obey him. Repeatedly God makes it clear to his people the necessity of expressing a love that comes from the heart (see Dt 4:29, note FireBible; 6:5, note FireBible). This type of true love for God and devotion to him cannot be separated from obedience to his Word (cf. Ps 119:34, 69, 112). True love for God and faithful obedience to God are like two sides of the same coin (Jn 14:15, 23; 1Jn 2:5; 5:3). Jesus said the way to fulfill all the law of God is to love God wholeheartedly and love others unselfishly (Mt 22:37-40).
C) Love from the heart is the necessary part of obedience to God. But it is often the part that is lacking. Too often God’s people try to substitute a practice of religious rituals and regulations (such as sacred feast days, offerings and sacrifices) for a genuine love from the heart (see Isa 1:10-17; Am 5:21-26; Mic 6:6-8; See Dt 10:12 note FireBible). Outward activity without an inner desire to serve God is not true love and devotion. In fact, it is being boastful and false, and it is greatly condemned by Jesus (see Mt 23:13-28; see Lk 21:1-4, note FireBible [and see Pr 6:16-19]).
D) Many other spiritual activities take place in the hearts of those who are spiritually transformed. They praise God with all their heart (Ps 9:1), meditate on God’s Word in their heart (Ps 19:14), cry out to God from the heart (Ps 84:2), seek God with all their heart (Ps 119:2, 10), hide God’s Word in their heart (Ps 119:11; see Dt 6:6, note FireBible), trust in the Lord with all their heart (Pr 3:5), forgive others from their heart (Mt 18:35), experience God’s love poured into their heart (Ro 5:5), give to God from their heart (2Co 9:7), sing to God in their heart (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16) and love other Christians from their heart (1Pe 1:22). Above all, they love God with all their heart (Mt 22:37; Mk 12:30).
4. Next week’s message is just as much a mystery to me as it is to you…
Sermon Summary & Conclusion:
We’ve examined a survey in the Definition of the Heart according to the Bible. What’s the shape & condition of your heart today?
Sermon Exhortation:
Will you Choose resiliency not hardness? Will you Choose preservation not rust? Will you choose regeneration not degeneration? How do you develop resiliency that promotes toughness? Hardness vs. toughness. One is brittle, the other has elasticity and pliability. One breaks while the other endures. Will you become durably flexible?
Sermon Altar Call to Action:
Will you lead your heart to accept the final sacrifice? Will you accept Jesus as the Forgiver of your sins? Will you accept Jesus as the Leader of your life? Stewardship of your heart can begin today, Mat 11:29
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” - Mat 11:29 NKJV
Stewarding the heart is a day-by-day response to God’s grace and mercy. Today is the day for tomorrow might never come. Ps 118:24
“This [is] the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” - Psa 118:24 NKJV
Sermon Prayer & song:
He Leadeth Me. A cappella.
Service Benediction:
Almighty Father in heaven. You know the condition of our heart before we do. Please render such grace and mercy that empowers us to steward our whole being to be complete. We surrender to your will that we may be renewed daily by your precious Holy Spirit. Lead us in your everlasting way.
Next Week:
{Place holder for Insert of Next Message and Video}
Sources, Credits, Citations & Notes:
- The core of this message is an adaptation to an excerpt of the FireBible (MEV) | Life Publishers | Article: The Heart pg. 828 by General Editor the late Donald C. Stamps. Everything is from this except where noted. Presented as a “FireBible Sunday” sermon message by Rev. Nicholas Sybrowsky
- YouVersion https://www.bible.com/bible/110/PRO.4.23
- Scriptural Hyperlinks to Blue Letter Bible & YouVersion. NKJV, KJV, NIV, NLT, MEV.
Comments
Post a Comment