SPIRITUAL HEART DISEASE; Early detection and treatment

20 He went on: ‘‘What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” Mark 7:20-23

The Bible says that sin is the heart of the human problem. As we strive to be pure in heart before God, we need to remember that He is our source and that the supply of our purity can only be maintained by a relationship with Jesus. Whenever we allow distance between ourselves and the Lord, we lose the ability to remain pure, and find ourselves shaking our heads and muttering we’re having a heart attack. The Greek word kardia is used for heart. We get our words cardiology, the study of the heart, and cardio, meaning an exercise for the heart from this word. The Bible definition of heart encompassed more than we understand it to be today. The word heart in New Testament times was the seat of the will and conscience. The heart is the center for moral, spiritual, and intellectual part of a person. The heart was seen as the center the whole person, The center of a person’s life. The heart was the center of the physical, emotional and spiritual life. The heart was the center of the thoughts, passions, and desires. From the heart came the nature of the will and the essential traits of character.

Dealing With The Heart
Jesus lists the kinds of evil intentions that flow from the human heart. It’s quite a catalog of evil: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, slander, arrogance and folly. Jesus is saying that every human heart is a fertile breeding ground for these kinds of things. He’s saying that these things are not caused by anything outside of us, but that the come from within.

Jesus says now that he’s brought God’s Kingdom to our world, things have changed, the purity laws that declared certain foods to be unclean are now obsolete. So the kind of food you eat doesn’t matter nearly as much as the kind of person you are. It’s not what you come in contact with that renders you unclean, but it’s what comes out of you. Here Jesus focuses in on the heart. The heart isn’t just your emotions in the Bible, but it’s your whole inner person, who you are on the inside. Jesus identifies the human heart as the location of true uncleanness, because it’s from the human heart that human evil flows. What Jesus is saying here is that our problems isn’t caused by our environment but caused what’s already residing within each human heart. It’s not the way we were raised, or the culture we’re in, or anything else outside of us. No wonder the prophet Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful and sick beyond cure; who can understand it?"; That’s why the bible mentions the heart 779 times! Today can be a very important day in your life, if you will say what King David said,

Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:11-12

The Prognosis and Prescription

PLOW - Repent of any known sin. It is no mistake that the word repent means, "to turn." Repentance means to turn away from sin and pursue righteousness. To repent means that you make a 180 degree change in your direction. You don’t say that you are sorry and you will try to do better, you confess that you have sinned and you need God’s forgiveness and grace. In order to cultivate a heart that is noble and good, you need to plow up your heart and mind and turn control over to God. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

PREPARE The second step is to fertilize the soil. Spend time in God’s Word so that the life-giving truth of scripture can soak deep into your heart. Meditate, as God told Joshua to do in Joshua 1:8&9. Meditate day and night so that the truth will saturate past your mind and flow into your heart. As you do this, you are literally washing away the negative, deadly ingredients that result in doubt, fear and defeat and they are replaced with faith, confidence and victory.

PLANT The third step is to sow God’s Word into the situations of your life. We are commanded to not be hearers only of God’s Word, but a doer as well. If we want a harvest to take place, we must apply the truth of the Bible into our lives and do what it says. Galatians 6:7-9 instructs us, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Apply God’s Word to the things you face everyday. Look for what the Bible says about your situation and then follow the principals of scripture. In other words, put your faith into practice and live what scripture teaches. Don’t just say you believe it, live it. I love what Paul Harvey said, "If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it."

PROTECT- The fourth step is to weed the garden of your heart. Guard your heart from the thorns of anxiety, worry and the cares of the world. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all other things will be added unto you." Don’t allow weeds of evil to grow, but remove them from your heart and life. Be careful what you watch, listen to and read. Protect your heart and your relationship with God. Keep the standard of holiness and purity always before you. With your eyes on God and your trust in Him, live to please and love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

We need a heart transplant
What God is really interested in is doing some major reconstructive surgery that changes us inside which will also have effects on the outside. God wants to do an Extreme Makeover on you from the inside out. Without a heart transplant, the other elements of the makeover will be rejected by our bodies. In Ezekiel 36:26, the Lord says
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. God is in the business of doing Extreme Makeovers and He wants to start with your heart.
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. Deuteronomy 30:6. If we will plow, prepare, plant and protect our hearts, we will be ready soil that is good for God to use. And with good soil that is daily cultivated and ready to receive His Word, a harvest will be produced.

"But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it and by persevering produce a crop."(V.15)