Secrets Of The Heart

And two others both criminals were let out to be executed with him And when they came to a place called the skull they nailed him to the cross and the criminals were also crucified one on his right And one on his left and one of the criminals hanging beside him mocked so you're the Messiah Are you prove it by saving yourself and us too while you're at it? But the other criminal protested and said don't you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man Hasn't done anything wrong And then he said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus replied. I promise you that today You will be with me in paradise Jesus was born in a tiny little backwoods village called Nazareth to an extremely poor family He lived and worked in virtual obscurity for 30 years There's very little record of what happened over those 30 years save one scripture that gives us a small glimpse when he was 12 years Of age, but the rest we virtually know nothing of but at the age of 30 he began his earthly ministry traveling the countryside teaching the kingdom of God Encouraging the hopeless healing the afflicted and inspiring the masses But when you come to Luke chapter 23 these verses remind us that this was the ultimate purpose and the culmination of his life And they record these heavy tragic final moments of his earthly life Now maybe you've read these verses before yourself or maybe somewhere in church along the way you have heard someone preach These verses but I want to say something to you today I know it's a big statement But I want you to understand that my prayer for you today Is that would use you would see these verses in a way like you have never seen them before in your life again? It's a big statement and yet I believe it to be true Because it's important for you to understand that when you read it on the surface level You'll see some things but I want you to know there's something far deeper far bigger that is happening under the surface Then we first see and it could change everything for someone here today in an extremely significant Way, so if you'll do something with me, I want us to take this scene in Luke chapter 23 and I want you to hold it fresh in your mind And I want you with me to just metaphorically reach up and press the pause button and freeze this scene in your mind

We're gonna take a brief departure from it I'm gonna lay a very quick foundation and then we're gonna come back together to Luke 23 We're gonna hit play and then I'm gonna tie all of this together and show you what's actually going on under the surface Then meets the eye Let me start by getting us moving down the road in the right direction So that you understand something very important our lives will always move in the direction of the strongest desires of our heart Now this is absolutely true No matter how much we try to refute this our lives will always move in the direction of the strongest desires of our heart Now when you talk about the heart, of course physically the heart is an astounding creation In fact by the time you're 70 years of age, they say the average heart will have pumped 36 million 288,000 gallons of blood through your body. That's a lot of work But when the Bible speaks of the heart, it really never speaks to the physical part of the heart It gives us clear indication There's something much more going on than when really no and the scriptures speak to it over and over and over again In fact, there are over a thousand verses that reference the heart directly in the Bible But before I get to the scriptures I want to say something interesting to you that science is also now making unbelievable discoveries About the heart and they are now uncovering things that are literally shocking the scientific community About the heart. So I want you to bear with me for just a second I was traveling somewhere to speak years ago and I read an article on a plane that so astounded me I saved it and put it in my file and I want to share it with you right now Not all of it just a small portion of it But the article was first published in the American Journal of Cardiology And it highlights some research that is being done in a place called the Hartmouth Institute in California it turns out that a significant amount of money has been invested in studying the heart and one of the things that prompted or predicated the research was the alarming amount of prisons and Prisoners that are being incarcerated in this country and there's been a lot of study That has been put into Psychology or the mind or the brain or why people act out the way they do But there's not been near as much research about the heart and that's what this is all about

They are now turning from the brain and they are looking at the heart to see why some people conduct themselves in such a self-destructive manner and so let me just to read this to you, just a portion, because it's astounding, so stick with me. Pay close attention. In a peaceful valley nestled in the hills of California, just south of Stanford University, sits an eight-year-old privately funded research center called the Institute of Hartmouth. Resident and visiting scientists there are making revolutionary discoveries about love, hope, faith, and human feelings. These discoveries reported in the prestigious Journal of Cardiology show that the human heart, or what they now are calling the house of the human spirit, it's a big one, plays a larger and more important role in human emotions than previously thought. Researchers have discovered that there are actually electrical signals in the heart that actually shape the way the brain thinks. And not only does it shape the way the brain thinks, they also found out, like the brain, the heart has a memory. It remembers every emotional experience that we have throughout our lives. As a result, scientists are now saying that the heart is actually proving to be a faster and more direct way to dismantle destructive emotional habits

and free the human spirit that is often a prisoner of those habits. This is remarkable because for the first time, they are now linking the heart and not just the mind to human behavior. Clinical psychologist Paul Pearsall makes a case that the heart is a vault of emotional memories and energy patterns that make us who we are as individuals. As partial evidence, he recounts stories of heart transplant patients who, without any explanation, have taken on the character, tastes, attitudes, and even memories of their donors, people that they know absolutely nothing about. In one example, a man who received the heart of a woman who was hit by a train began having a recurrent dream in which he was driving a large truck or riding on a train. In another example, a 52-year-old man who played classical piano his entire life was given the heart of a 15-year-old boy and three months later could not explain his newfound love of rock music. Man got on that Nirvana train, right? It smells like teen spirit up in here, boy. Yet another example cites a man who received the heart of a woman who died from a gunshot wound to the back. Upon a six-month checkup, complained of his doctor of a sharp pain, often plagued him between his shoulder blades since his operation.

And then they go on to say, some of these may be mere coincidences or mere surges of joy or energy from simply being granted a second chance to live, but there are others that are much harder to explain. A psychologist told Pearsall the story of a patient, an eight-year-old girl, who was given the heart of a murdered child in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After surgery, the girl began having nightmares. These nightmares led her to be able to describe the circumstances of the murdered girl's death, and what was even harder to explain was her ability to describe an image of the killer in such detail that six months later, the police were able to apprehend a suspect who later confessed and was convicted of murder. Cue the Twilight music right here. Dr. Benjamin Bonzel of Vienna's University wrote in a 1992 study linking heart transplants to changes in one's personality, I quote, I now know and we now know that heart transplantation is not simply the replacing of an organ. We now know the heart is a source of love, emotions, and focus of personality. We now believe this organ may very well define the essential character of our entire existence. Scientists may be taking the first steps to understand the energy of the human soul. The chief scientist of HeartMath, Roland McCraney,

has presented evidence that supports Pearsall's discovery. In 1991, medical literature recognized the heart actually has its own brain. Listen to this. It has its own brain, a network of diverse neurons identical to the many kinds of neurons and neural networks that are found in the brain. But the brain in our heart is actually connected to the brain in our head with a nerve system made up of thousands of filaments that are flashing messages continuously between the two. What has been interesting to discover is that the heart actually emits an electromagnetic signal 500 times stronger than the brain. This discovery explains why the impressions of the heart can at times overpower the reasoning and thinking of the brain. So the heart receives and processes information similar to the brain. If the information's positive, brain receives it as positive. If it's negative, the brain receives it as negative. In other words, how the brain perceives an event is vastly determined by the energy of the heart. It goes on to say a lot of other things, and it's amazing. But what I wanted to say to you is, while this research is fascinating, while it's enlightening, let me say that science is just now discovering what the Bible has been saying all along. I always tell people who try to refute the Bible with science, I always say, don't be too hard on science.

If you give them enough time, they'll catch up to God eventually. God's been saying this stuff all along. Let me walk you through a little bit of the Bible and just show you what I mean. Bible says the heart is the source of our personal values in Matthew 6. Wherever your treasure is, the desires of your heart will be also. In other words, all that is important to you and all of your priorities in life are not established by the categories that are reasoned out by your head. According to the Bible, they are established by the desires that are in your hearts. The Bible says that the heart is the vault of our beliefs that are revealed through the words that we speak, Matthew 12. Whatever is in your heart is what determines what you say. So when you listen closely to the things that people say, they cannot help but expose what is actually living in their heart. Or in other words, our words are the ships that carry the cargo of our hearts. Bible says that the heart is, watch this, science is trying to figure out is the heart linked to somehow our destructive behavior? Jesus clarified the mystery, God clarified that mystery thousands of years ago in Matthew chapter 15. He told us it was the seed of destructive places.

For from the heart come evil thoughts. From the heart comes murder. From the heart comes adultery. From the heart comes all sexual immorality, all theft, lying, and slander against others. Not from the head, it's from the heart. Science is trying to figure out if there's a link. God said yes, yes there's a link. It's not just a link, it's directly linked to what's going on in your heart. Scientists are just now saying that they discovered the heart has a brain, that it's thinking on its own. They coined a phrase recently in modern medical history, neurocardiology, neurocardiology. But God knew all about neurocardiology over 3,000 years ago in Proverbs 23 and seven. For as a man thinks in his heart, not his head, God said yeah, neurocardiology's real. I made you that way, I know all about it. For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The heart is actually thinking. But let me say this, it means that it processes information, but unlike the information that we process in the brain that goes in a logical, rational, reasoning fashion, the heart processes information based on the feelings of the emotions that are attached to the information. And what's funny to me is that you ladies far understand this better than we men do. Because when a man tries to remember something,

he tries to recollect all the facts and the details that are linked to an event. And we struggle sometimes with limited recall because our thought process is so closely attached to facts. But a woman, a woman is totally different, bro. A woman will shock you with her ability to recall because her thought process is not nearly as attached to the facts as they are associated with the feelings that are associated with those facts. So when a woman remembers, she can recall incredible details because of the emotion that was attached to the experience. In other words, gentlemen, in other words, fellas, what she actually recalls is not what you did. It's not that she remembers what you said, she remembers what she felt when you said what you said. She remembers how she felt when you did what you did. And that emotion triggers her brain like a supercomputer. And she begins to download information and she can tell you where you were when you said it, what date and time you said it, the color of your shirt that you were wearing when you said it, who was present in the room when you said what you said. Things that you and I can't believe any human being could ever recall. And I'm gonna just tell y'all ladies right now, dude, it wigs us out. It wigs us out because we're like, whoa, Rain Man, where in the world? And let me tell you something else.

We gentlemen, we have been trained to know that whatever we must do in that moment, we must change the conversation. Immediately. Because it don't go good from there. I've been married 34 years, y'all, I ain't lying. So, the heart thinks. But of course, it doesn't just think. The Bible says that it's linked to all these other important capacities in life as well, like love. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your strength and all your mind. There's four of them, and heart is the first one. That is not random or coincidence. That is on purpose, with a purpose for a purpose. That's strategic. God said your heart comes first. Why? Because your life will always move in the direction of the strongest desires of your heart. And God said, I want your heart to be leaning towards me. It also possesses the capacity of faith, the ability to believe in Jesus, the ability to believe in God, the ability to believe the gospel. It is not two plus two equals four. It's never gonna make sense if you only come to God with your intellect and your rationale. It will never make sense that the innocent died

for the guilty. It will never make sense that God sent his only begotten son when he could just have. Allowed us to just go to hell and he could have started all over again with people stronger than us and better than us It'll never make sense the only way that you're going to know what it's right to be right with god is is this if you openly declare that Jesus is lord and you you believe in your heart Not your head your heart that god raised him from the dead You will be saved for it is by believing in your heart man That you are made right with god and by declaring your faith that you are Saved not the head but the heart Now all of this is vitally important So important because what the scriptures are telling us is that the heart is actually the storage facility of our lives It is the place where everything that we see It is the place that everything we hear and everything we feel according to the bible is being collected deep in its faults Those chambers in our heart are not just pumping blood According to this they are collecting experiences. They are capturing emotions. They are holding onto every encounter in life It is the place where our will our desire and our motivation seem to all merge together and because of this god gave us one Of the most sobering warnings in all of the bible in proverbs chapter 4 guards your heart above everything else Above everything else. Yes, he said about but there's so much that I should guard and god says yes There's a lot of things that you should be vigilant about a lot of things You should guard a lot of things you should be careful with but none of it supersedes your heart You better guard this one with everything you have because it determines the trajectory of your entire Life, I actually like it better in the king james version This version says in the king james, uh guard your heart because out of it come the issues of life Every issue that we ever have in our lives good or bad are heart issues And if we're dealing with bad issues or negative issues or sinful issues Then all we got to do is let god change our heart and it'll change the issues that we deal with

on a daily basis Now watch this I want you to understand we're going to turn the corner It is extremely important for you to know That it's not just the brain and the heart that work in cooperation together You need to understand that the eyes and the heart work together as well The eyes in our head are constantly working in close cooperation with the emotions of our heart what i'm saying is It's not what we actually see with our eyes, but how the heart interprets what we see that actually determines our reality This is true. This is why I think about it for a moment It's why when an artist paints or a sculptor sculpts, they don't actually paint what they see What they paint is what they feel about what they see So if you give five artists the same landscape you will come back with five different Interpretations of that mountain ranger landscape because they're not simply painting what they see They are painting out of the unique expression of what they see their heart has told them something else So every person in this room our eyes are colored by the condition of our heart Your perspective is determined by the posture of your heart and all of this is not just vitally important Please listen It is eternally important It can literally mean the difference between life and death And heaven and hell and I can prove it to you Remember luke 23 We press pause I want you to go back with me Go back to this scene on calvary three crosses Jesus is taking his last breath he's hanging there between

two criminals And now I want you to hit press play And I want you to go back there with me now and I want you to see what's actually going on I want you to see it for what it really is three men sentenced to die three crosses one sinless savior two guilty criminals But now in the fresh light of what I just told you about the power of the heart I want you to see this moment for what it really is. This is not just jesus hanging between two guilty criminals Here's what's going on. It's jesus hanging between two hearts Two Hearts and one heart Looks at jesus And what does it see It looks at jesus and it says if you're really the son of god Save yourself Oh, and by the way Save us with you and with cynicism and sarcasm and pride. I can't believe this really He uses some of his very last breath that he would ever breathe on this earth to literally ridicule and mock Jesus rather than begging him for grace and mercy in that moment Because what he saw with his eyes was colored by the condition of his heart and his heart was filled with doubts And his heart was filled with disbelief and his heart was filled with anger and his heart was filled with malice And it blinded him to the one who could save his soul and redirect his eternal destiny. But on the other side, there was another heart. And what did that heart see when he looked at Jesus? His heart told his eyes, nah bro, I've seen too much. I've heard too much. I've witnessed too much in these last hours. This is the Christ, the savior of the world, the son of the living God. My heart is telling my eyes that hanging beside me right now is the man who is being wounded

for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities. The price of our peace is being laid upon him, and it's by his stripes that we can be healed. And what one man saw through logic and reason, the other man saw by spiritual revelation, and what a time to have a revelation when you are on the brink of eternity yourself and drawing your last breath at the very edge of death. And all at once, his heart sends a signal to his eyes and communicates hanging beside you is the hope and the healing and the answer to every question that you have ever had your entire life. And from his heart, not his head, he quickly organizes a prayer and he looks over and all he simply said is, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. I want you to notice the first word that he utters. It is the sign that something has happened in his heart. It is already a sign that the Holy Spirit has done a work in his life because he doesn't look at him and see him as another criminal or just calls him by his name. He says, Lord. In other words, he recognizes in that moment this is not another man like us. He is not another criminal like us. He is somehow the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords. And then I love what he says next

because it's further proof that something's going on in his life. In fact, it is a moment of sincere repentance. Please notice that the other criminal, he said, if you save yourself, save us too so we can come down and go on about our lives. The second heart asks for no such thing. Look what he says. He says, I know I'm getting what I deserve. I did the crime. I deserve to pay the penalty for my sin. I'm not asking for anything now. I'm not asking for deliverance now. I'm on this cross because I did things that put me on this cross. I deserve this cross. That is true repentance. He owns and accepts the sin of his life. That is a sign that something is going on in the heart. He's not asking for immediate deliverance. He's asking for eternal mercy from the only one in the universe who is capable of giving it. And so what he says is, he says, Lord, in a few moments, when all of the agony is over and all of the pain is over and all of the suffering is over and I've paid for my crimes and we enter into whatever's next, would you just remember me? Bro.

And Jesus looked past his brain and past his eyes and straight into his heart and he sees the sincerity of his repentance. And Jesus said, bro, I hear you. I see you. And in a few moments, I got you. Life and death, heaven and hell. And it's here in this room right now based on whatever is in your heart. Life and death, heaven and hell, waiting in this room based on whatever is in your heart. And I wanna say something to you. That being right with God is not a head thing. Being right with God is not a hand thing. See, being right with God is not a head thing. Knowledge about God is good and fine, but it's not enough. You can know all the scripture you want and that don't mean you're saved. That don't mean you're right with God. You can know all about God. You could have went to church ever since you were a little kid and gone to Sunday school. You can know all the Bible stories and recount them. That don't mean you're right with God. You can know all about bread and starve to death. You can know all about water and die of dehydration. It is not head knowledge. It is not because you are familiar with God because you grew up in the Bible Belt

and you know about God. That's not enough. It's not a hand thing. You can't do enough good deeds. You can't live enough by the golden rule. You can't serve long enough to somehow earn the favor of God. It can never be earned. It can only be given. It is a gift of God and your good deeds and good works are not enough to overcome the power of sin in our life and make us right with God. It's not a head thing. It's not a hand thing. Bro, it's a heart thing. It is surrendering all that we are to all that he is and bowing our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins and looking up and saying, Lord, I believe what you did on the cross counted for me and would you remember me? And no matter who you are, because don't you think for one second, That you randomly chose the 9 a.m. Service God brought you here on purpose with a purpose and for a purpose We have prayed and we have fasted and we have asked God to do miracles this weekend. God brought you here in this room So you could hear this gospel preached in exactly the way I've preached it in this 9 a.m Service and so that it would hit you where it needs to hit you not just in your head or your eyes But in your heart and that you would understand that in spite of what you've done or who you are That you can be saved and delivered because I know there's a lot of people in this world that are like, oh man Religion is not my thing guys. I'm I think church is not my thing But you know what? I've ran into more than people like that. I've ran into a bunch of people dude

I've ran into him why we've been inviting people to Easter this these last couple of weeks You'll invite somebody and if you ever invited somebody maybe you heard him say there's a maybe you've said this yourself I would invite somebody and they've got a pastor if I got in if I came in that room You guys would have to reinforce the rafters What are they saying What they're saying to you is deep down, dude. I know something's wrong with me and I know I'm not right with God and I don't think I'm good enough for God to even save me You need to see this scripture for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Everyone Do you know what this word means in the Greek I Went deep like that boy, you gotta watch me Everyone yeah, but pastor you don't know what I everyone yeah, but you don't understand how I've lived my But you don't know what I did man to offend God But you don't know how many chances he's given me that I've squandered away and spit in his face I joined the club, bro, I Was raised in a pastor's home. I had every opportunity. My mom and dad are wonderful were wonderful My mother passed away with my dad. He'll be here at 1230 today I had every opportunity I had better opportunities than most people and I still spit in the face of God and ran and ran and read but somehow at the age of 20 I really came to this conclusion that everyone who does call in the name of the Lord shall be saved and even though I felt unworthy I Came to the realization that was not about how worthy I was or how good I was it was about how good God is and The reason that you can trust and know that this is true is Because there is an empty tomb See several months ago We stood here and celebrated Christmas and the promise of a Redeemer who could free us from our sins and make all things new But what I'm telling you is that while Christmas was the promise

Easter was the proof at the manger light was born But at the tomb darkness died the empty tomb is where Jesus proved once and for all that he is who he said he is That he can do what he said he came to do and that means for you and me that no matter who you are Where you come from if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved And maybe you're here right now. And now that you've heard all of this What you know now is that really what you've had for all these years is a head thing and it's not enough Or what you had forever is a hand thing You just try to live by the golden rule and just be a good dude or good a good lady And now you know it's not enough And now you know that in your heart. You've never made him the Lord. You've never repented of your sins You've never come home. And and right now what you're feeling is the Holy Spirit drawing you and tugging your heart He's doing it because he loves you He's doing it because he loves you more than ever I could articulate to you. I don't have the superlative ability To tell you How much he loves you you just have to look at the cross and when you look at the cross, you'll see the tangible expression of the love of a holy God for you and today he is inviting you to come home and To be made new in him and I can't think of a better time than Easter season to find new life in Christ