As each of my three children were born into the world I thought, “Lord, what am I going to do now?” “You mean these little things are entrusted to me to train up in all your ways?” While it was incredibly exciting to have new babies to hold, it was a bit unnerving to realize the amount of planning and effort and patience and faith it was going to take in order to help them develop into all their Father in heaven had created them to be. Thus, we began a journey together that included a lot of winding turns with some very high highs, some incredibly low lows, and a lot of places in between. The goal in sight was to introduce our children to their true Father in a manner that produced trust in Him and a level of intimacy that led them to surrender their wills to Him in a bond of covenant love.
Our task is by no means over, but imagine the joy Deeann and I felt as we witnessed the spiritual birth of the third of our three children. I was brought back into focus in my own faith walk with God when two minutes out of the waters of baptism Whitney said to her mother in an expression of pure joy and relief, “Now I don’t have to worry if Jesus returns tomorrow!” Have I been living with this kind of anticipation? Have you?
One of the greatest dangers to our spiritual walk is the slow hardening of our hearts. If we are not careful we can become so caught up in the things of this world that we forget to focus on the things of the world beyond this one. The author of Hebrews warns about this four times in chapters 3 & 4 of his book, three times quoting the same verse found in Psalm 95:7—“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts . . .” He also quotes Psalm 95:11 twice which warns, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.” Isn’t it interesting that this warning comes a mere ten verses after the author of Psalm 95 says this, “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving; and extol Him with music and song.” How do you move from praise and worship to a threat of not entering His rest?
This morning we are going to look at having a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone. We have an enemy who is trying to harden us so that we lose the awe of a God who is working daily in our midst; an enemy who would rather me worry about some temporary problem of this world rather than rejoice in the victory I have for eternity; an enemy who would strip away the joy of my salvation and my contentment in each day because he gets me focused on the wrong things. When he is successful, my faith walk and the kingdom of God suffer. Consider the benefits of being soft hearted this morning and throughout this week so that we soar like eagles (as God has created us to do) and enjoy the activity of our God as He works among us to mold us and give us a heart of flesh!
To listen to sermon, click Developing a Heart Like God's.
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