Preached by Chris Van Staden, 10/25/2008

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Chris Van Staden (left) Preaches to the Chicago Campus Ministry

Discipling the Heart – Outline

1 Samuel 16:6-13
- God makes a really important decision, who will be the next King and Leader of his people, Someone that will be useful to him
- How does he do that: He looks at the heart, not the physical
- When God wants to use someone for important matters he looks at the heart

1 Samuel 13:14
- The kind of heart he is looking for is a heart thats like his heart
- Thats why he chose David as the next king
- We need to daily for Hearts like God, it doesnt come naturally
- do you want to have a heart after Gods own heart?

Jeremiah 17:9
- We cannot trust our own hearts, its deceitful
- We need help ie. discipling
- its beyond cure, thus we will always need discipling to help us otherwise we will get deceived
- Thats why God has given us church, that we can trust one another and help one another

“Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as “the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,” “the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,” and “the center of a person. The place to which God turns.”

- There is are many spiritual lessons we can learn from the physical heart.

1.) Heart Attack (Jeremiah 15:5-8)
Most heart attacks occur as a result of a material called plaque on the inner walls of the coronary arteries. Eventually, a section of plaque can break open, causing a blood clot to form at the site. A heart attack occurs if the clot becomes large enough to cut off most or all of the blood flow through the artery. The blocked blood flow prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching the part of the heart muscle fed by the artery. The lack of oxygen damages the heart muscle. If the blockage isn’t treated quickly, the damaged heart muscle begins to die

v5: The life giving blood to our spiritual heart is Remaining in the Vine: Reading the Word, Obeying it and praying to God
- apart from God we can do nothing
- if we dont have quiet times we will be ok for a while but spiritual heart tissue might start dying
- that’s why many suddenly fall away, they stopped getting the life giving oxygen to their spirtual heart
- They had a spiritual heart attack

- Also when somone get confused they can get a spiritual heart attack
- confusion doesnt come from God but from a unwillingness to obey the scriptures (John 8:31-32)

2 Corinthians 3:5-6
- just like you have checkups for blood pressure, we need check ups for our spiritual hearts
- checkups is your zeal, joy, faith, and hope
- ask someone how they view those 4 areas of your life
- examine yourself: Sin is like a blood clot that can cause heart attacks
- if we dont get it out and confess it it can cause heart attack
- test yourself

2.) Heart Transplant (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
- God will reward according to what our deeds deserve
- Our deeds reveal what is in our hearts

Revelation 2:2-5 – Their deeds revealed that they lost their first love and stopped doing the things they did at first
Rev3:15-16 – Their deeds revealed that their hearts was lukewarm

- If you wanna know the condition of your heart then check your deeds, the last week or month
- thats how we can disciple the heart, by looking at the deeds
- Dont disciple the action, but the heart. If somone is not sharing their faith maybe they are faithless or timid, help their hearts

Ezekekiel 36:26-27
- God wants to give everyone a new heart
- If your deeds reveal you have a hard heart, or your faithless/hopeless, or maybe that you are prideful, or maybe you just feel like you never really had a heart for God
- Then its time for a heart transplant

The first heart transplant was done by Dr. Chris Barnard from South Africa in 1967, it took 9 hours and a team of 30 people to complete. In his book he wrote: For a dying man its not a difficult decision to get a new heart because he knows he is at his end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, will you not leap into the water convinced that you can swim to the other side.

- Many of us are chased by the lion, Satan 1 Peter 5:8, and instead of swimming we are getting devoured
- We are afraid of the commitment
- But God wants to move you to follow him
- Just like God send Ezekiel to tell the people, Jesus said we should teach one another to obey (Matthew 28:19-20)
- We need to help one another jump in and get a new heart by teaching one another to obey

3.) Healthy Heartbeat (Psalm 51:9-13)
- The man after God’s own heart, fell into wicked sin and needed a heart transplant
- God send Nathan to disciple David
- David begged for God to Create in him a new heart

“A healthy heart will pump blood to all parts of the body so that it can function well and stay healthy. It also beats steadily and rythmically”

- the goal is to have a spiritual healthy heart
- if you do all areas of your life will go well and be healthy and pleasing
- like David said the Ps51, you will be steady and willing in doing Gods will
- and with a new heart you will go and teach others that God wants to give them a heart transplant

Philippians 3:17
- just like our hearts beat a certain pattern some live in the pattern that we should live
- this is men of God with healthy spiritual hearts
- we should take note of them and join them, imitate them
- Then there will be more people with healthy spiritual heart beats

God desires more than anything to have men and woman after his own heart, and he is willing to give us a heart transplant so we can have a healthy heartbeat for him, Lets make sure that we never get a spiritual heart attack, but lets live according to the pattern of true disciples!

Categories: Campus Ministry, Sermons
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