Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
June 2, 2019 - W1922

It’s More Than Heart!

Matters Of The Heart

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro

June 1 & 2, 2019

Welcome, New Hope! This weekend we are beginning a new series called, Matters of the Heart; and, today, we’ll talk about It’s More Than Heart! Heart is kind of a buzzword. There are millions of songs about the heart: Loving from the heart. Follow your heart. Give your heart away or keep your heart. Maybe your heart’s been betrayed, or was taken advantage of, or thrown aside and dumped like garbage. All of us have had those experiences. 

It's tough to talk about the heart because it's difficult to define. Jeremiah 17:9 KJV says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Before we came to Christ, we were taught by the world through wrong experiences, which harbored hurts in our heart. 

Many brand?new Christians come to Christ and are given a brand?new heart, just like a brand?new baby. When a baby comes into the world, that baby has a fresh new beginning, a new life as we have in Christ—which now must be developed!

1. Who You Are Is God’s Gift To You, But What You Make Of Yourself Is Your Gift To God!

So, today, we’ll talk about the heart that God has given us and learn how to develop it!

Just before Judas betrays Jesus, Jesus turns to His disciples and tells them what was about to happen:

Matthew 26:31-35 (selected) NIV says, “³¹ Then Jesus told them, ‘This very night you will all fall away on account of me… ³³ Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.’  ³⁴ ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’  ³⁵ But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ 

2. Do You Think Peter Meant What He Said With All His Heart?

Peter had just told Jesus, "I will never disown you," but a few verses down, he changes his mind! The question is: Did he change his heart?  

Matthew 26:69-74 NIV says, “⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said. ⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said. ⁷¹ Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ ⁷² He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’ ⁷³ After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.’ ⁷⁴ Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed.”

The interesting thing about Peter when he said to Jesus, “I will never deny you,” I believe, he meant that with all of his heart. Yet, within a few verses down he changes his mind and curses and denies Jesus saying, “I don’t know him!” 

3. Peter Was Convinced In His Heart That He Would Never Disown Jesus, But He Didn't Have The Capacity To Follow Through With His Conviction.

Many young people during courtship are convinced they are in love, and say, “I'll never leave you or forsake you. I will love you for the rest of my life.” Then, three years later, they're divorced and hate each other! The young man meant what he said, but he did not have the capacity to follow through with what he was convinced about—like Peter, he changed his mind!  

You may ask, ”If a person’s heart is sincere but is not mature enough to follow through with his conviction, how does he build the capacity, so he does not change his mind?” 

The heart has four quarters: Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. All of these things make up our heart. Sometimes we say, “Love God with all your heart,” but, it requires more than just words, as mentioned in The Greatest Commandment:

Mark 12:30-31 NIV says, “³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

God is talking about our heart, which is made up of soul (emotions), mind (thoughts), and strength (actions).

Did you know that we could love God with all our heart but still struggle with our emotions (souls)? It requires more than just words—more than heart! Did you know that when you come to Christ, your emotions are untrained? They're rebellious and worldly, and you must train your emotions. You've got to tell it to knock it off! Settle down! This is what I'm doing! 

Sometimes we struggle with our mind; but we cannot allow our thoughts to control us! So when our mind drifts on something we shouldn't be thinking about, we must pull them back! II Corinthians 10:5b KJV says, “…bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Our thoughts need to be trained—work on that! When we're able to say to our emotions to just chill, because I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, we begin to train our emotions. When you get that, you'll have the capacity to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And the Lord then will say, “Ahh, now you're starting to understand what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!

Our hearts will be tested to make sure it is whole and strong! Is it working right? Is everything in the right place? Is the soul in the right place? Is the mind working right? Is the strength part of it, or do we have a bias for action?

As the old saying goes: There were three frogs on a tree limb. One decided to jump off. So how many are left? Three, because the one that decided to jump never followed through! 

We can be like that when we make decisions and don’t follow through because our heart is not yet completely whole. 

4. God Knows That The Capacity Of Our Heart Is Infinitely Greater Than The Intention Of Our Heart—That's Where We Must Grow In! 

Forty-five years ago on our wedding day, when I said to Anna, "I love you," I was sincere, and I meant it with all my heart. But now 45 years later, when I say, "I love you," it means infinitely more because we’ve gone through some difficult setbacks and struggles together, and now it's completely different—our capacity to love each other has grown! 

As our love for Jesus grows, and we begin to enlarge the capacity of our heart for the King, we will begin to understand just how much He loves us, and we will want to offer ourselves as a gift to Him!

So when God wants us to get out of something; stop doing certain acts; say no to a relationship; avoid certain places; let go of hurts that we’ve been holding on to; develop guardrails and begin to take action on them, we will start to understand the full orb of our heart and God’s love! Now, we're beginning to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and increasing the capacity of our heart. He will then give us the treasures that He's been storing up for us! 

Le me share a story of a Christian nurse in a hospital. She had a belligerent patient whose vital signs were dropping, and no one knew why. He really didn't want to live, but the nurse went into his hospital room and ministered to him everyday. Days went by and his vital signs decreased more and more until he was near death. One night she came in to his room and said, "When I check out tonight, I'm coming back and will pray for you.”   

He replied, “Go away, no praying!” But after work that evening, she went into his room, sat on a chair, and began to pray, while the man lay in bed. Finally, she went home. The next morning she returned fully expecting his bed to be empty because he was that close to death; but, when she came into his room, instead of the man having passed away, he was sitting up eating breakfast! He looked at her and said, "You're surprised, aren't you? Your prayers healed me."   

She said, "Oh, no, sir! Jesus healed you, and now you need to find out why Jesus has given you a new heart.” Many of us should be dead, but God has given us a new lease on life, and we need to find out why: Who you are, is God’s gift to you; what you make of yourself is your gift to Him!

5. Our Heart Must Grow In Our Capacity To Love. 

When we learn to love God not just with all our heart, but also with all our emotions and say, “Stop, don't be that way;” with all our mind, “I won’t think that way any more;” and with all our strength, “I've got to do this because God's been talking to me about it;” then, we will begin to understand the full orb of our heart. We are now beginning to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and He will give us the treasures that He's been storing up for us. Watch the capacity of your heart to love begin to grow larger!

By increasing your capacity to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you're beginning to fulfill the greatest commandment of all; you will have the capacity to follow through with your conviction and love others as yourself! God has so much in store for you! Surrender to Him!   

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:  

1.     What does it mean to have a deceptive heart?
2.     Explain what Jesus said is the greatest commandment.
3.     If loving God is easy, why then is loving people so difficult?
4.     How do you hold thoughts captive onto The Lord?
5.     What does it mean: “To approve God’s love is to release his promises to you?”
6.     How is the capacity of your heart different from the conviction of your heart?