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1:14Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God. Did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you rejoicing in these words that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Father, and in that our hearts can just be at peace. No condemnation whatsoever from From you, the one who matters. We thank you, Father.

3:09We thank you that your Spirit has set us free. Father, that you have put in us a heart of flesh. And though we still live in this body and struggle with the things of this world, Father, we recognize that what has come from you is a new life, a new heart, new spirit. So, Father, we rejoice in that today. And, Father, we want to use our minds and our hearts to glorify you. So, we come confessing our sin to you this morning.

3:45We also come in faith, thanking you, Father, for the work of the cross, for the gracious work of your Spirit that gives life to our days, our mortal bodies, and gives us life to come. Father, we thank you for all this. May you be exalted here this morning. In Christ's name, Amen. Well, again, good morning. Please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5. I want to talk to you today about loving the Lord with all your heart.

4:31Deuteronomy 6, text will be verse 5, but I want to read the verses right before that, beginning in verse 1. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

5:34It's a unique opportunity to share with you the testimony of one from our own number who has actually undergone a heart transplant. And I want to put an interview that did just a few days ago, where he will tell his story, and I'll come back and Draw some analogies from that. So go ahead. Welcome, friends. I'm here with Larry Gentry, a member here at Emmanuel Baptist Church, who has recently had a heart transplant. And I'm excited to hear his story and wanted to give you an opportunity to share with us what God has done through that surgery. And I want to ask you several questions. So just to start out, tell us about the decline of your heart. And when did you first realize that you needed a new heart?

6:45I first knew that I had a problem in 2002 when I was walking to work. I started getting a lump in my chest. By the time I got to work, I had the classic pains down the left arm and in the jaw, and I knew something wasn't right. I had a co-worker take me to a nearby hospital downtown Houston. And I was 50 at the time. I had just turned 50 a couple months back and very active. Hunted a lot, exercised a lot, and went to the emergency room. They did all their tests, blood work, you know, everything that they would do. And they deemed that I just maybe had exercised or was maybe had been. Too strenuous in doing something, and they kept me for a little while, but then they released me. I mean, I got there at 7 o'clock in the morning, and they released me by 9. And on the way home, my wife was driving me at that time, and I told her, That is not right. I know something's still wrong, because the lump was still there, and it was like somebody had a fist in my chest, and it didn't feel good. So I got home and called my GP, and he told me to go to another hospital downtown Houston, which I did. And when I got there, they immediately saw that I had a 100% left aorta descending blockage. So I've been walking around for eight or nine hours with a totally blocked artery. And you had a misdiagnosis in the first place. And when they put a stint in it, it cleared the blockage, and of course, put me in the hospital. They told me that I had about two more hours and I would have expired walking around like that. So that was the beginning of knowing that I had a problem with my heart. Ultimately, in 2018, they decided I needed to have a pacemaker and a defibrillator, which ended up saving my life because six months after I got that, I had a tachycardia event, which is a near-death event. And you only have like two minutes to recover. Well, when it happened because of my defibrillator, it's like a team of mules kicking you. On the inside, and it really hurts, but it saved my life. And it was at that point that my cardiologist referred me to a transplant team member, and I began to see them.

9:15So, at this point, you know, you need a new heart. Tell me a little bit about the process in finding that new heart. I knew that something was wrong, but I didn't believe I needed a new heart. I felt like, well, I'm still exercising, I'm still doing everything I want to do in my life, hunting, fishing, I was doing everything. And one of the doctors asked me, if we had a heart today, would you take it? And I said no, and they were extremely upset with me. Another doctor told me about that same time, this was in September of 21. He says, by August of 22, your heart will not be working. I'll be dead. But that still wasn't the deciding factor. I wrestled with this from the standpoint of someone has to die for me to live. And that was just, I couldn't wrap my mind around that. I just absolutely wasn't worthy to accept that. And I wouldn't do it. These are my words. I said, Lord, I would have to suffer. And I don't want to do that. And, you know, immediately it came back to me. Suffered for you on the cross. And that changed my life right there. That was the moment I knew that I had to make myself available for God to do his healing and miraculous work. And I don't know why I was chosen for that, but I believe I was. So I said yes to it. April 8th, they put in a temporary heart pump because they hook you up to a machine. and you don't go anywhere. You're in bed until a new heart arrives. On the 15th, that's seven days later, they came to me with a heart where they said they had one available that was in Louisiana. They had to go and fly.

11:15Through prayer, I felt like God was leading me to this heart. So they flew it back that night. About midnight that night, they were prepping me and took about five hours and they put the heart in my chest. And I understand that was a heart of a young man, about 30 years old, was he? He was about 32. Okay, 32. So you come to agree that you need a new heart. You're through refusing the hearts that they're offering you, and you have a heart that now has been given to you.

11:52Now tell us about the day of the surgery. Tell us about it. The day of the surgery, the night going in, I went. Not concerned about them cracking my chest open and putting a heart in. In fact, my wife took a picture of me as they were wheeling me away. She showed it to me after the transplant, and my reaction was, Oh, why did you take a picture of me? I haven't had a bath in a week. I look terrible. And she said, Look at your face. And when I looked at my face, it was the face of someone that was at a social gathering. I had not a care in the world. I was not concerned about them taking my heart out or losing my life. It was never, never a factor. And so I went in to surgery that night at midnight. I woke up the next morning. I'm understanding the nurses talk to you pretty loud to bring you out of it, but I only heard my son's voice and my wife's voice. And when I opened my eyes, it was the most different view I've ever had in my life. It looked like a curtain show where the curtain was raising and I could see the dark and I could see the light and I could see the color of my son's pants. They were tan and my wife's shirt was red and and I could see them as as my eyes opened. It was just like a new day, a new dawn. It was really different. That's the only way to explain it.

13:24So your role in receiving a new heart was just receiving. Making myself available because I said no for years. Let's talk post-surgery for a moment. Tell us a little bit about post-surgery and life with a new heart. Tell us about it. When I came home, I felt really, really good. I felt energetic. I felt fine. Just a couple of months ago, April 15th, was my two-year anniversary. And a month after that, something changed inside of me as far as how I feel.

14:03I feel fabulous. Issues when I came home that I have to deal with and I still have to deal with. The anti-rejection medicine increases your blood sugar. So I'm on insulin. I have to poke myself four times a day. It puts a strain on your kidneys. So my kidney function is probably about half what it should be. When I came home from the hospital, just going to bed, it would bother me because I could feel it beating in my chest. It was beating so hard that my wife could feel the vibration on the bed herself. I asked the transplant team about it and they told me that they implanted a Ferrari in my chest.

14:49The morning that you awakened, you had a nurse calling you by name to wake up. Your son and family were there, and it was as if you were being called forth from the grave, much like Lazarus, and new heart, a new life ahead of you. Any thoughts on that that you might want to have? Most definitely. First of all, it's interesting that I never heard the nurse call my name. I heard Matthew say died, and I heard my wife calling my name. But as far as a new heart and a new life, there's no way that I feel worthy that I got a second chance. So I know it's by the grace of God. It is absolutely a miracle that he did. And I lived, I was that miracle that he did. And it's unfathomable to understand that. You can only accept it as you accept grace in your salvation. That's the only way I can compare it. There's a young fellow that his heart is in my body, so I feel the responsibility of living that life even more special for the Lord because it's someone else's heart in my body as well.

16:10Very humbly, very, without a doubt. Modern medicine is really something, but there's a providential miracle in all of that. And so we have a providential miracle walking around among us each week. And so, but I want to, by way of review, just note several different stages and key movements in Larry's heart surgery or heart transplant. There was a point in time when he knew that just there was something that wasn't right. You heard that. There was a period in which his heart was misdiagnosed and it nearly cost him his life. He knew there was still something wrong with it.

17:17Then he had that near-death event, and it became evident that helping his old heart wasn't viable anymore. There's just so many stents, pacemaker, and all of that. All the maintenance they could do on the heart was eventually not going to do the job. He needed a whole new heart. And then he entered into this denial or refusal phase. He says, I knew something was wrong, but I didn't think I needed a new heart. I think that's...

17:54Knows that there's something wrong, but in a state of denial. I don't really need it. But then there was this realization. At some point, Larry understood without a doubt that he needed a new heart or he would die. And then he entered into this dilemma stage. Someone had to die. And there are many on the list. Larry was approaching 69 and was at the very end of his opportunity to even receive a new heart. They don't put him in over 70.

18:32And so he was at the end of it and then he consented. Yes, I will go forward with a new heart. And he was chosen among those on the list to receive the transplant. And as he was wheeled away, he trusted, went into surgery, but the whole surgery was relatively brief compared to everything else. And then the new day came, post-surgery. I love the statement: a Ferrari in my chest. And to this day, he has to take anti-rejection medicine. His 69-year-old body didn't want a 32-year-old heart.

19:28Now, think about what has happened. His old heart couldn't keep up with the demands of his body. And now you've got the opposite. His body, old body, can't keep up with his new heart. Sought to reject it and still does. And then there comes that stewardship phase. Humbled and now living the rest of his life, recognizing that somebody else had to die to give him whatever days he has left. And the sober reality and responsibility and humility that comes with that. And so, with this in mind, I'd like to begin talking about a heart transplant from a spiritual vantage point. We already read about the kind of heart that God wants in his people. What is a good heart? This is the description of a good heart from God's perspective. Deuteronomy 6:5, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the kind of life he wants from his people.

20:49And fundamental to that is going to be a heart from which all the issues of life come. Of course, this command was given to, in a context. Of Israel about to go into the land. Israel's success in the land was going to be tied directly to their ability to obey God's law. Deuteronomy 6:1 says this. Now, this is the commandment, singular. This is the commandment. And then it goes on to say, the statutes, plural, and the judgments or ordinances. But here is the commandment, and out of that, statutes and ordinances.

21:33And here is the commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 24 says this. So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, plural, to fear the Lord our God for our good, always, and for our survival. Verse 25, it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment, singular. The commandment. That commandment is to love the Lord all your heart, soul, might.

22:23The command to love. It's in the perfect tense. The idea is. Is, you are to love, breathe after, you are to highly esteem, you are to cherish above all, you are to love the Lord, you are to breathe after Him. And the tense of the verb in the Hebrew is: this shall be a perfect heart in you, complete without defect. It's interesting when the Greek translators translate the Hebrew verb here in the Septuagint, they translate it as a future verb. You shall love. In other words, this will be the condition of your heart, Israel, to love the Lord your God without defect, perfectly, with all your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might.

23:36That's the command. And the degree, the degree of this love with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all, with everything, whole, the whole part of your being, all parts, and with all might. So all parts. And all might. This is what God sees as the requirement that He wants in His people. Heart. What is the heart? Well, that is that inner seat of the inner person. That's your inner, inner part. It's that control point for the seated issues of life. Think about the physical heart. It is that place from which all the blood is pumped throughout the whole body, giving life to everything and regulating that life force through the whole body. Same is true in a spiritual sense, or you can certainly by analogy. I know all analogies will break down at some point, but certainly there is a connection here. The heart, the spiritual heart, the inner seat of your inner person is to be completely devoted and breathe after and desire after God.

25:09The soul. With all of your heart and with all of your soul. There is some overlap between heart and soul, but the distinction really deals with life. It's really the breath. It's God breathed in, and the animals became a living soul, that life force, with all of your heart. And with all of the life that God has put in you, all of your breath, you are to love Him. This deals with the quality, not just the, this deals with the essence, the life force, the very essence of life that God has given you that is being regulated through your heart. That essence, that life breath that He has given you, you are to love Him entirely with it. You see, God is looking for a life that pulsates in accord with His heartbeat, with Him.

26:13So that is exactly, we want the life that God has given us pulsating through all the faculties of our being so that they may serve Him in full capacity. Love Him with all of your might, power, strength, the highest degree. It's the word for force. Power, strength, ability, influence. All of your faculties, the core of your being, pumping all of your strength. It's loving the Lord your God with all of your being, all of your faculty. Faculties to their maximum output. That's what God calls a good heart.

27:11Think about life is in the blood. Think about physical life in the spirit. I mean, in physical life, life is in the blood. Spiritual life, life is in union with God's Spirit. And so, think about what the physical body does. The heart pulsates blood through the entire body, giving life to all the members. In a spiritual sense, the spiritual heart that God has given us pumps God's desires and disposition into every aspect of our being. That's the analogy. And this is why we are exhorted throughout Scripture, often repeated, like it is in Proverbs 4:23: watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

28:12How you regulate the desires of your heart and steward that heart, out of that will come all the issues of life. And the kind of heart that God wants in his people is a heart that pulsates relationship with God. Into every aspect of our being and life, physical, spiritual, emotional, the whole bit. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Jesus affirmed this commandment. You know that. Matthew 22, he was asked, what is the greatest commandment?

28:57And he says in verse 36, 37, and he said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, with all your capacity, strength, intellectual, and everything. That's the command. That's the heart that God wants in all of his people. We all have different capacities, but we all have the same command. This is what God expected of Israel in the wilderness. And God has never changed that standard. He didn't get there and say, okay, Israel, I guess that didn't work. Let's come up with another standard for what we want in the heart of humanity. No, it's the same standard. Sandra comes down to us today. This is what he wants. A heart that loves him.

29:55I mean, he wants us to love him with all our heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. So, then the question is: how do we get there? Because if we're honest, kind of like we're not there yet. How do we get there? Well, and that's what I want to start a series that we'll look at this summer as just aspects of this heart and how we get to this point of loving God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, strength, however it is to be communicated.

30:29But today, in the time that we have, I just want to look at an overview of God's heart transplant process so that you will identify where you are at in the process. God is going to take His people to this point to love Him with all of their being. And it begins and is necessary with a heart transplant. You don't get that right, you never will love Him the way He expects. So, the first part of God's heart transplant process involves assessing the condition of your own heart, assessing the condition of your own heart. The Bible describes many kinds of hearts. There's a whole bunch of different kinds of hearts throughout Scripture, very specific on identifying the kinds of heart, but really, there are two.

31:31Basic conditions. There's a heart that will not survive or live. Deuteronomy 29, 18 calls this a heart that turns away from the Lord. Do you have a heart that turns away from the Lord? Psalm 12, 2 speaks of a double heart, a heart that is divided in its interests toward God. Psalm 17, 10 speaks about an unfeeling heart, an unfeeling heart to God and to the world around. Psalm 101:4 speaks of a perverse heart, someone who takes something good and twists it. Such a heart will not endure. Psalm 101.5 speaks of an arrogant heart. God says, I will not endure. A haughty look and an arrogant heart.

32:26Is he ever going to endure? Isaiah 44, 20 speaks of a deceived heart, one who prefers lies to truth. Jeremiah 3, 17 speaks of an evil heart that is characterized by stubbornness. Stubbornness. Jeremiah speaks of a stubborn and rebellious heart that turns. Turns aside to its own way. Hosea 10:2 speaks of a heart that is faithless, that has no loyalty to God, no enduring loyalty. Jesus Himself speaks in Mark 8:17 of a hardened heart. You see that hardened heart? Pharaoh, others. But be sure that a hardened heart is not going to live. It's on its way out, will not survive. Hebrews 3:12 speaks of an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. An unbelieving heart.

33:48Again, Jesus speaks, Matthew 13, of a people who have a dull heart, a heart that doesn't listen, a heart that doesn't understand or paying attention to the truth. There are many more, but these are just a handful. But these are the hearts that will not survive the coming judgment. They will expire and they will have no place in the new heavens and the new earth. But then there's another category of hearts, and that's those hearts that endure before God. Scripture speaks about them as well. Psalm 7:10 speaks of an upright heart.

34:38Those are the ones that God saves, the upright in heart. Psalm 24, 4 speaks of a pure heart. The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully. Psalm 57:7 speaks about a steadfast heart toward God. Those are the ones that are going to endure. Those who are steadfast in their loyalty to him. Jesus in 11:29 speaks about his own heart. I am gentle and humble in heart. Learn from me. The king himself, gentle and humble. This is going to be the character, the new heavens and the new earth and the heart of mankind. 1 Chronicles 12, 33 speaks of an undivided heart, different from a divided heart, one that is undivided.

35:47Psalm 28, 47 speaks about a glad heart, glad heart for the abundance of all that God has given, all of his bounty. It's a thankful heart, a glad heart, because Of all of what God has given. Job 9 speaks about the wise in heart. All of these are hearts that are going to endure forever. What is the condition of your heart? Have you assessed your own heart? And have you come to the realization that something just isn't right? Something without God, in my own disposition, something isn't right.

36:38I think you can, if you're honest, you can look around the world and you know something isn't fundamentally right. Something's off. But have you looked to realize that what is fundamentally off with the world is also fundamentally off with yourself as well? That you are part of this larger corporate problem. I think if you're honest, if you look around, the problem with humanity isn't the weather. It's not in the trees. It's not in anything else. It's in the heart of mankind. That is what is wreaking havoc in our world today.

37:27And yet we also. Have a heart. And a fallen heart is going to do fallen things, is going to live for self, exalt self, serve self. And when anybody gets in the way, we're going to run them over and get serve ourselves. That's the fundamental problem. So the fundamental correction issue that we have to deal with is the heart of mankind, and that's what God comes to do. You see, a failing heart cannot keep up with the demands of the flesh. Hopefully, by now, you realize that. I have watched people go to their graves pursuing that with a passion that was killing them. Whether it's substance, whether it's whatever, you fill in the blank.

38:35Seen a man dying of lung cancer on oxygen, smoking his cigarette. I can give you stories of drunkards. I could give you stories of the sexually immoral, and you could just. But a failing heart, it cannot keep up with the demands of the flesh. It's going to keep longing after that, and eventually Expire. A fallen heart will never be satisfied with the world and it will eventually just give out. Assessing the condition of your own heart is necessary, a necessary part of the process of undergoing a heart transplant.

39:25Second, the thing that God's heart transplant process involves is admitting your need for a new heart. Admitting your need for a new heart. You need to come to the point of admitting that you need a new heart. And this is going to involve listening to God, listening to counsel outside yourself. There are more hearts in Scripture. And as you go through and survey them, it's clear that it's the heart that listens to God that is going to receive a new heart.

40:102 Kings 22, 19, Josiah. Speaking of Josiah, listen to what it says: Because your heart, Josiah, was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a A destruction and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I truly have heard you, declares the Lord. What did Josiah do? Josiah had heard the Lord, and the Lord heard him.

40:53So admitting, coming to the point of admitting you need a new heart involves listening to God, but it also involves a repentant heart. Listen to what Ezekiel 18:31 says: Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Interesting. Here's God saying to Ezekiel's generation, make yourself a new heart. What does that new heart look like? A heart that is turning away. A heart says, You know what? I don't want to keep doing this. I don't want to keep serving my flesh. I can't keep up with it. I recognize it's failing. I know why it's failing, and I'm not going to keep doing this, keep justifying, keep excusing, and keep pursuing it. That's the new heart in this context he's talking about. One that's looking to God, a repentant heart.

41:55For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure. In the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord. Therefore, repent and live. A repentant heart. But also, coming to the point of admitting your needs involves looking to the one who can help, seeking God's help. Psalm 51:17 says this: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Isaiah 57, 15 says, Look, I dwell on high, says the Almighty God. I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lonely of spirit, in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Where does God dwell? He dwells in the heights on high, in the most holy place, but he also dwells with the contrite of heart.

43:11So, coming to the point of admitting your need involves listening to God, listening to his diagnosis, a repentant heart, a heart that seeks his help, but it also involves recognizing where the new heart must come from. Ezekiel. Ezekiel 11, 19 says this, and I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them, and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them, then they will be my people, and I shall be their God.

43:57We need a new heart in order to be God's people. And he's the one. He's the surgeon. He's the one who gives that heart. It comes from him. It's implanted by him. And in one sense, he's the donor, Christ's heart. And in another sense, he's the surgeon. You see, you don't need another failing heart. It's interesting when Larry got his heart transplant, they didn't give him a 90-year-old heart. They gave him a 32-year-old heart, one that would go the distance the rest of his life.

44:41And that's what we need. We need a heart that's going to be able to endure before God, and it comes from God as the donor and as the surgeon. This kind of heart doesn't come from the original Adam. Or his fallen race. No one has been able to obey the law. And then here comes this peasant from Galilee that just blows by all the statutes and God's law. It was not trouble for him. Why? He had a heart of a Ferrari.

45:26And what the law of God shows us is his righteous standards. And then here comes this one that just meets them. And I mean, just not to the point. I mean, he loves his enemies, not just his neighbors. He just embodies the righteousness of God thoroughly. And so we recognize him. Such a heart comes from him. You know, you can only prop up your old heart for so long. And beware of misdiagnosing your heart. A lot of misdiagnoses out there. We have a sin problem. That's the problem. Also, beware of minimizing the problem.

46:19You need a new heart. You don't just need another stint. You need a new heart. Listen to what God says is not right with the world. There's something not right with the world. There's something not right with you. And it fundamentally involves the heart. So God's heart transplant process involves assessing the condition of your own heart, admitting your need for a new heart, and asking God for a new heart. You simply have to come to that point of saying, like David in Psalm 51:10, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

47:09Give me a clean heart, God. I know the problem. I may not know the degree of it, but I know I need a clean heart. Forgive me for not having a clean heart. Give me that heart. In fact, it's like coming to God and saying, I don't care who you are, where you are right now in the process, but say to God, God, give me the heart that you want. I see in Scripture the kind of heart you want. God, that's the heart I want. You take the prerogative. God, you know all the ins and outs. I want the heart that you want me to have.

47:51And ask in faith. Hebrews 10:22, let us draw near with a sincere heart. With full assurance of faith, a sincere heart. John 6:37, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. This is the request He wants you to come before Him with. This is the one He wants to answer because this is the kind of heart He wants in you. A heart that will love Him with all of its capacity.

48:31Have you ever asked God for a new heart? You cannot, you absolutely cannot love God with all of your being without the heart of Christ in you. He must give you His heart. That's what it means to follow the King, to walk with the King, is to have the heart of the King, and that's something He has to give you. And He will. Fourth, God's heart transplant process involves adjusting your life to God's gift of a new heart. Now you've got a new heart, and it's different from the old one.

49:19How do you adjust? Well, number one, expect an ongoing struggle. Your flesh is going to resist the impulses of your new heart. Just like letters. Mary's body continues to want to reject his new heart, so your fallen human body with all of its inclinations and dispositions and fleshly disposition, it's going to be at war with heavenly inclinations. In fact, Paul articulated this principle quite profoundly in Romans 7 and 8. In Romans 7:15, he says, For what am I doing? I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing that I hate. And he goes on in Romans 7:21, I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. I see a problem. And here, this is a believer talking.

50:23I find that the principle of evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. God is deserving of love. Totally. His ways are right. But I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. Expect an ongoing struggle. You've got a fallen human flesh, and you've got a Ferrari in your chest.

51:00One that wants to please God. And there's going to be conflict. In light of this reality, we are to train the members of our body to obey the law of Christ by living according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Let me read to you Romans 8. I read it earlier, Romans 8:3. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. And get this, verse 4, so that the requirement, singular, of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

51:53That's the requirement. What is the requirement? To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That desire has to be in. That is the requirement for Israel to obey the law because they didn't have that heart. They didn't obey the law. They found ways around it, ways to compromise, because they were still following the dictates of their own heart. You can throw a law in front of them, and then they can find ways around it.

52:20That was not the heart of Christ. So expect an ongoing struggle. Second, grow in Christ's likeness. Since you have been given the heart of Christ, And this heart wants to please God in everything, grow in the skill of pleasing Him with your whole being. Colossians 3:1. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Colossians 3:12, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Philippians 4, anything praiseworthy, think on these things because you see, the mind is going to follow the heart. You let your heart, you watch your heart, you make sure that it is setting itself upon desires, breathing after the things of God, because the rest of your life and body is going to follow.

53:30Fourth, adjusting your life to God's gift of a new heart. Get ready to serve. Get ready to serve. God will move you to serve Him in whatever capacity He has given you. There is going to be a stirring. Listen to how God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle and how to furnish it. In Exodus 35, 5. He's giving instructions, and he says, This: Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, bronze, a willing heart. God is looking for ministers with a willing heart, those who will be party to what he's doing in the world. Exodus 35, 21. Everyone whose heart stirred in him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, came and brought the Lord's contribution and the work.

54:38Exodus 35, 29 brought, everyone whose heart was moved brought in a free will offering. Get ready to serve. This is what the heart of Christ is about: serving the Father for His glory. And you're going to be stirred within you to make contributions of time, talent, and treasure. Get ready for it. That's what this new heart does. Serving God is an impulse that comes from Him, but it is freely given to Him. Like receiving a new heart. It's about humble stewardship with the life that. You have been given and the days that you have left. Someone had to die to give you this new life. Be a good steward.

55:41And finally, fifth, start enjoying the blessings of a good heart. This is what Proverbs 15:15 says. All the days of the afflicted are hard, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 17:22, a joyful heart is good medicine. This is what the gospel does. It gives us cheerful hearts, joyful hearts. Psalm 57:7 says, A heart that is steadfast, a heart that is steadfast will sing praises. Job 9:6, 9:4 speaks about the wise in heart are mighty in strength. So think about the enjoying the blessings of a good heart. It's a cheerful heart, good medicine, steadfast, singing praises, wise in heart, mighty in strength.

56:51How is your life adjusting to your new heart? Where are you in this process? Many of us probably are in. Assessing. Many of us are adjusting. Well, God's heart transplant involves assessing the condition of your heart, admitting your need for a new heart, asking God for a new heart, and adjusting your life to God's gift of a new heart. Where are you? Where are you today? What's wrong with the world? Well, if you look around the world today at all the heartache and pain that's caused in the world, including that which you have experienced, or maybe that you have caused, I can assure you it's because somebody has elevated themselves above you and has taken advantage of it, or you have elevated yourself above others.

58:04But here's the problem: how do we get out of the paradigm of living for ourselves? That's the problem in the world: sin, living for yourself, and it creates a very small universe when you set yourself up as the one to be pleased over God, and then you're in a conflict, you're in a struggle to get your way, your will. How do we get out of this paradigm? By being given a new heart. Watch over your heart with all diligence. From it flow the issues of life. But here is the good heart that God wants: a heart, a person that will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

58:58We must all grow in these areas. It begins with the heart. Until one day we will be confirmed with a new body. See, right now we have a new heart. Our old man is wasting away. But soon we're going to have the body of the Ferrari that matches the heart of the Ferrari, so that we may serve God in complete capacity, perfect forever. So I hope you'll continue with us this summer as we keep looking at these matters of the heart. Heavenly Father, thank you for these truths. Father, thank you that you have not changed the standard. You have brought about a way for us to be elevated to that standard. And it involves heart surgery, a heart transplant. And that is what you do, Father. We want to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

1:00:00And we're dependent upon you to bring it about. So help us, Father, to look to you and to steward the life that you have given us, that we may present to you a wise heart. That we will receive a wise heart and present a wise heart to you. Father, thank you for this. In Jesus' name, amen.