By Rev.
Brian Wilkie
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA
broadcast - Sunday, July 19th, 2015:
Broadcast Notes:
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Welcome to
Good News In the Morning a program of words and music bringing a Christian
message of hope and encouragement to those who are looking for intelligent
meaningful and spirited approach to faith and to life.
This program
is sponsored by Good News Christian Ministries PO Box 184 Rideau Ferry, Ontario
K0G 1W0. I'm your host today, Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew's Christian church in
Rockland. As always I want to start by thanking you our listeners. We are so
grateful for your encouragement and support. Please remember that you can
always visit our website for materials to encourage and support you in your
Christian walk.
If you miss an
episode of the show you can go to our website and download the podcast or the
MP3 of our broadcast. Details can be found on our website. The website is
www.GNCM.ca.
Today I want
to thank an anonymous sponsor: someone who doesn't want her name to be used but
who has donated in order to pay for the broadcast of this show. we thank her so
much for that support
A New Heart
For today's
topic I want to speak about the new heart that God promises to those who
believe in Christ. This is the Scripture from Ezekiel 36:20-30 where that idea of a new heart is introduced in
the Old Testament:
“Therefore say
to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for
your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the
sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have
gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among
the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know
that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy
through you before their eyes.
“ ‘For I will
take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring
you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will
be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in
you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will
live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be
your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain
and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. I will increase the
fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer
suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.
(Eze 36:22–30)
This is the
word of God. Today we are going to consider the new heart that God gives to us
when he brings us to new life in Jesus Christ, but first here's a song on that
very topic, which is the song Change My
Heart Oh God which is sung by the Maranatha
Praise Band from their album The Top
25 Worship Songs Of The 1990s. would you listen to this with me?
As we go into
the message about a new heart, it's a message that has a secondary meaning for
me, because I've just recently gone through a little bit of heart trouble in
the physical sense. In fact back in October 2014 I started to suffer shortness
of breath when I was bicycling, when I was carrying luggage, when I was just
walking up the stairs a couple of times quickly. I realized something was wrong
about the second or third time I experienced that and it turned out to be what
you probably already know. It was angina. It meant that my heart wasn't getting
enough oxygen. I went to my doctor and she set up the tests. In mid-December
the cardiologist confirmed that this was heart trouble. Heart trouble I expect
that many of you listeners have had that. I talked to my friends in Capital
City Chorus, in my church, in my neighborhood - and it's a surprise to me how many people have
had physical heart trouble. I certainly wasn't expecting it at 51 years of age,
but I guess that it comes as a surprise to each of us doesn't it?
That physical
trouble caused me a great deal of difficulty and a fair bit of worry, I might
add. It was reassuring once I was in the cardiologist hands to know that they
could take care of this, that they would to keep me safe through the procedure
and they'd fix up my heart. I was very fortunate to get the warning signs of
angina instead of a heart attack.
When you
compare the experience of heart trouble in the physical realm to the idea of
heart trouble in the spiritual realm there is a great deal of similarity as it turns out. I guess I've had some cause
to think about it.
Remember that
the people of Israel had heart trouble in their relationship with God. They had
known God's saving power in so many different ways from the very beginning of
their existence: when Abraham and Sarah who were unable to have children were
miraculously given the son Isaac, and throughout the generations: their
deliverance from famine through Joseph, and their deliverance from slavery in
Egypt under Moses. They had many Judges and Kings that at various times and
places lifted them out of trouble, but every time they got into trouble it was
their own doing. I've got to admit that part of the problem with my physical
heart was my own doing: there are several causes for spiritual and physical
heart trouble that are very similar.
The one that
we can't do much about is inheritance. Sometimes our family passes down the
history of heart trouble. Physically I didn't have that history, my parents and
my grandparents didn't have heart trouble, but spiritually we all have that
history. We were born into a world which is separated from God, in which is
often even hard to recognize that there is a God because of the cloudiness of
sin in our perception of the world. Sin is something that is part of our
experience from the very beginning. One psalmist even writes that he was sinful
from his mother's womb. Right from the beginning we started out separated from
God and need to be reintroduced to God before we can begin that journey to him
again. it's God's work when his spirit
and when his word start to teach us about his great love for us, but we come
into the world with a problem in our spiritual heart.
Another cause
of the of physical heart trouble is appetite. Now I wasn't greatly overweight but
my doctor and been telling me for some time that I needed to lose a few pounds and I needed to cut down
the cholesterol in my diet. Have you heard that before? I think that's the first and last thing they
teach them in medical school isn't it? But I did need to do that and you know what?
I really wasn't listening. I was thinking about changing my eating habits but
it hadn't happened yet. You can be sure that once I started feeling the
symptoms my eating habits changed dramatically.
What are the
spiritual appetites that get us into trouble? You know the heart trouble with
God has a lot to do with our spiritual appetites. Sometimes it's as simple as
physical appetites like food. When we are so concerned about what we eat. Sometimes
people enjoy eating so much that they don't think about the needs of others. They
are selfish in their eating and they experience both physical and spiritual
consequences from their gluttony. Sometimes people are so concerned about
eating right these days and we've got so much contradictory ideas on the
Internet, some supported by science and some just made up on the spot. People
get obsessed with their food and eating a particular diet that can sometimes
cause physical harm.
But is there
spiritual harm from our appetites? The root of all spiritual harm in appetites
is selfishness. when we indulge our appetites purely for our own pleasure some
people take comfort in food and they comfort themselves to the point where they
have difficulty physically but as they comfort themselves with food their also
missing out the opportunity to seek God's comfort in their lives. How much
better if we found peace through God then peace through Cheeto's?
Now there are more
dangerous appetites, or more commonly problematic appetites. sometimes the
appetite of desire - lust, or sexual appetite; sometimes materialism just the
covetousness and greed that causes us to pursue anything at any expense.
These
appetites cause our heart to harden with regards to God. Isn't it funny that in
this physical world we talk about the hardening of the arteries, while in the
spiritual world we also talk about the
hardening of the heart towards God. Similar language to speak about very
important problems.
Finally along
with the appetites comes the behavior With spiritual heart trouble there's all
kinds of sins that cause problems. The people of Israel had a huge problem with
idolatry, putting their trust in things that were not God, putting their trust
in false idols and false prophets. Because these idols and these prophets, the needs that they claimed to
meet where the very selfish needs of the people of Israel. They looked for
advantage in unjust trading, and they look for their protection from gods that
claimed to protect them from the results and consequences of their injustice. God
commanded them to live justly. They would've had much less heart trouble
spiritually if they listened to the word of God. God commanded them to behave
with compassion. In Micah chapter 6 verse 8 he tells them, "This is what I
have required of you - to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God." Now there is behavior that mitigates spiritual heart trouble!
Now that I've had
double bypass surgery and am on the mend, I'm feeling actually much better than
I felt for years. I am able to go to an exercise program and hopefully learn
some new habits that will help me stay healthy. Now spiritually we talk very
much about the importance of that initial time of putting your trust in Jesus
Christ, but Jesus Christ also calls you to continue in the right behavior, in
the right activities that keep your heart spiritually healthy. He's shown us
how to live, not simply how to say of some magic words and become saved, but to
draw near to him in prayer and to follow him in the life we live.
The change
from death to life, the change from darkness to light, is very, very dramatic I
found in my physical heart repair that I've got more energy than I had for
years and I wonder how long with my heart struggling? Perhaps when you put your
trust in Jesus Christ some years ago you had that same feeling. You wondered, "How
long have I been missing this? How long has my life been dragged down? How long
if I have I been failing to experience the peace and the joy and the love that
God has for me? What impact did that have on me before I knew Jesus?" It's
a dramatic change from death to life, from tired to energetic, and from
despairing to joyful.
Now I do want
to encourage you to listen with me to one of those great hymns of the faith Joyfu,L Joyful We Adore Thee as it is
sung by the a cappella group Glad
from their album A Cappella Hymns.
Before the
last song I told you that when I had the heart surgery and got through the
brief recovery period, that I had more energy than before. You know what? This
is reflected in my spiritual outlook right now. My physical health was dragging
down my optimism, my physical health was dragging down my emotions. It's
helping now to look back and see what spiritual factors have been dragging me
away from the initial joy of my salvation, because along with the physical
there is a spiritual.
Was their time
in your life when your faith in Jesus Christ brought you much more joy, much
more enthusiasm, much more motivation? What is it that steals away that joy? Has
our heart grown a little harder after being fixed by the Holy Spirit and trust
in Jesus Christ. We need to go back and do the things we did at first, like the
church in Ephesus was told to do when the spirit of God told them that they had
lost their first love.
Restoring the
joy of your salvation is something you can do. If you've known Christ and if
you've trusted in him maybe it's time to spend bit more time trying to renew
that joy, remembering what it was to confess your sins, trusting him again to
receive his forgiveness and to go forward in his way. If you're someone who
hasn't ever put your trust in Christ, what would it mean for you to gain
salvation in Christ? Scripture tells us
that it's a new life ,that you become a new creation when you trust in Christ. Why
is this? Not because of your work but because when you let God into your life
Jesus Christ begins to work in a powerful way. Confess your sins and turn from
them, trust in Christ, let him change your life and his joy will fill you over
time. It's as easy as, at least to begin, it's as easy as praying. Even as we continue,
we continue in prayer. so as we conclude this message let's continue in prayer.
Almighty God,
now I come before you and I ask you to take a look at our hearts. Create in us
a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. Search our heart ,O God, and
see if there be any wicked way in me. Lord cleanse us from every sin. Give us
that promised new heart, give us that promised new life. Lord lead us in this
new life to practice our faith and become strong and energetic in your service
and in your love. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Well thank you
again listeners for your encouragement and support. We do thank you for keeping
us on the air week by week. We are making a special appeal these days to some
of our international listeners. We have hundreds of visits to our website daily
and we are so thankful that the message is getting out into many different
countries: Russia, France, China, all
over Asia! We are glad that you're able to hear us! There are many people who
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Once again I
do want to thank the anonymous sponsor whose generous donation has made today's
broadcast possible. Now as for you
please, please find yourself a gathering of other Christians: a church where
the gospel is soundly proclaimed and lived out with compassion, integrity and
resolve.
For one last
song before we go I'd like to have you listen to this song called Lord You Have My Heart which is sung by
the band delirious? from their album Cutting-Edge.
I do pray the
Lord will hold your heart and you would know Jesus personally and profoundly. May
the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart, may the heavenly Father surround
you with his constant and abiding and
accompanying love.
Good News In The Morning is produced in the
Studios of news talk radio 580
In The Morning
is produced in the Studios of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
- Rev. Brian Wilkie
St. Andrew's Christian Community, Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:
