Mars Hill Fellowship

MESSAGE |

A Heart of Flesh

SERIES |

Stewardship

SCRIPTURE |

Ezekiel 36:24-26; Psalms 37:1-4

SPEAKER |

Pastor Joseph Ardayfio

KEY THEME |

Stewardship of the heart requires the transformation of our heart of stone into a heart of flesh by God, while we actively delight in God and guard against corruption seeping into our heart.

1) God cares about what is in our heart because a corrupted heart will produce corrupt desires + affections.

a.  The Scriptures tell us that the sinful nature produces a stony heart from birth.  This corrupted heart is stubborn and unresponsive to God.

b.  With a heart of stone, we are easily deceived by our seeming success and happiness, not realizing that left alone, our heart will degrade towards catastrophic failure.  The accumulation of things or positions is a fleeting barometer of the true condition of our heart.

c. We shouldn’t confuse a functioning heart with a healthy heart, both physically and spiritually

2) God promises us that when we make him the Lord of our lives, He transforms our heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

a.  A soft heart is pliable to the things of God.

b. Even with a new heart, we must guard what goes into our heart by delighting in the things of God.

3) How do we actively delight in God?

a. Our greatest delight should be “to know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him.”

b. When we give our heart to things above God, we still long for something else, yet our hearts become crowded with the affections of the past.

c. We must guard against the things that come to take away our delight in God. Anything that satisfies us more than God will take away from us delighting in God.

d. As we continually delight in God, we will see that he fulfills all of the desires of our renewed, sanctified soul

Scripture Index

Ezekiel 36:24-26

Psalms 14:1

Psalms 37:1-4

Proverbs 4:23

1 Chronicles 28:9

Luke 10:27

2 Corinthians 3:3

Philippians 4:8

thoughts for further study

1)     Why is God concerned with what goes on in our heart?

2)     What are practical ways that you can delight in God on a daily basis?  How can you focus  on things that are pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? 

3)     How does delighting in God give you confidence to know that God's provision is always sufficient?