Bill Frist, a thoracic surgeon. had performed about 150 heart transplants. In an address at the National Prayer Breakfast he talked about the miracle of heart transplant. He spoke about this moment when a new heart had been grafted into a new body, and all the surgical team could do once the grafts had taken place, all they could do was wait in hope that it would begin to beat. Then he stopped talking in medical terms and started talking more in spiritual terms about this moment when a new heart would beat in a new body. He called it a mystery.
Folks, So it is with you and I. When we give our heart to Christ, Christ gives his heart to us. In a sense, there is a transplant that happens.
In the book “A Man After His Own Heart” by Charles Siebert he referred to these medical heart transplant donors as, I love this, as the tribe of the transplanted. Isn’t that cool? The tribe of the transplanted. I would suggest that if we are following Christ, we are a part of the tribe of the transplanted, and that’s exactly what Ezekiel Chapter 36 talks about, verses 25-27 to be exact.
What an amazing promise! I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you and I’ll take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Isn’t that what you and I need? What we need is for God, not just to give us a face lift, not just to put a band-aid on something, but my hunch is that what most of us need is for God to do a deep work within our hearts.
Let’s look at these verses....
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.
We are half way through this year, and I think it is an opportunity to look back & evaluate these past 6 mos. Maybe some habits you shouldn't have, or with some things that have crept into your life, maybe routines or just wasteful things, things that are permissible but not beneficial, or maybe things that have pulled you away from a relationship with God. Is there something in your life that needs to be purified?
Now, you have to do the hard work of purifying yourself and you can’t, only Christ can do it for you, but it is by His sacrifice on the cross that you can be clean and set free. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and the moment you do that, I’ll tell you exactly what will happen, the father of lies, the one who seeks to bring condemnation into your life, will try to remind you of everything you’ve done wrong this past year, but that is not the heart of your heavenly Father, who is all about giving us a new start over and over, his mercies are new every morning. I believe that if you will purify yourself before the Lord, He can do some amazing things in your life. But let me put it this way, I’m not just talking about ‘Lord forgive me for everything I’ve ever done wrong,’ that’s weak. I don’t let my kids get by with that.
(lil johnny tell your sister you’re sorry, [moan] johnny… [moan sorry] sorry for what? [idk] johnny… what are you sorry about?)
I don’t let my kids get by with that. Parents, do you let your kids get by with that? No, tell me what you are sorry about, because unless you understand it, then you are going to go back and do the exact same thing over again. It is so easy for us to go through the routines and get in our habits and do our things, I’m just saying, if we don’t redeem the opportunity of evaluating our lives to do some deep cleaning in our hearts, then we are missing an opportunity for God to enlarge our potential for his kingdom’s sake.
Is there something in your life that God needs to purify?
Then we continue, the end of verse 25
and you will no longer worship idols.
There again, it’s like, we want to skip to the next verse. I don’t have any idols! Are you kidding me? We immediately think of ancient people bowing down to little statues. Those silly, foolish ancient people, pagans, bowed down to wood carvings. Are you serious? As we go to the mall this summer and buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like. We are just sophisticated idolaters. That’s what we are. We wouldn’t bow down to a statue of Aphrodite, but when we are at the gym, checking ourselves out in the mirror, you know what I’m saying. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Take care of your temple but how many of you know that that thing can become an idol in your life? Or… you may be more like me, who’s allowed food and atrophy to become an idol. I’ve had to many trips to Whataburger & allowed the lack of physical maintenance & desire for food to rule my life.
See, here’s what’s so tricky, you think of idol and you think of something bad, but it’s not always, it can be something good. Nine times out of ten, an idol in your life is something good but that something good has become something bad because instead of seeing it as a means to an end, it has become an end in itself. So everything from money to sex to family to your job, any of those things can become idols in our lives if they displace God as being primary in our lives.
Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added upon you.
It doesn’t say to seek God second or third or fourth or tenth, seek God first. The reason why many of us struggle spiritually, I am so convinced, I don’t know if I have the words to frame it but it is very interesting that the first of the 10 commandment is have no other Gods before me. It’s a commandment against idolatry. The first commandment is where it’s at, because if you break that one, you break all of them, but if you can keep that one, then you can keep the other ones. It really comes back to, is there an idol in your life? That’s what I’m trying to say. Is there an idol in your life and are you courageous enough to look in the mirror and ask God that question.
How do I know if it is an idol? Maybe it is a good thing that is a little out of control. Listen, it takes tremendous discernment. I’m not saying it is easy, but let me help you a little bit. Here are a few idol questions:
Number one, are you willing to give it up? If you’re not willing to give it up, maybe it is something that has a hold on your life.
Number two, what do you think about when you don’t have anything to think about? If you are like, I don’t know what my idol is, what do you daydream about? What do you fixate on? Is it possible that that thing can be taken to an extent where it begins to consume you more than your relationship with God?
Number three, what do you put your money into? Or too much money? Your spending habits are idolatry clues, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I’m not trying to find the idol in every closet. All of us struggle with things that could be idolatrous, so I don’t want all of us walking out totally discouraged. But listen, I need to ask a hard question, is there an idol in our life?
Number four, does the thing draw you closer to God or push you further away? Be honest. Is it something that helps your relationship with God or something that hurts your relationship?
Number five, is it something you control or something that controls you? An idol is often an addiction. It is something that displaces God and you don’t control it, it controls you. It has become a master in your life.
Those are tough questions that we don’t ask all the time but this is a time where we need to ask those questions. Have you given something else the title to your heart? Then you need to give it back to God.
Last piece of scripture:
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
Let’s close with this. I pray this for my kids all the time. I pray that God would give them a soft heart. It is so easy for the heart to become hardened to the sin in our life; it is so easy for our hearts to become hardened to the things of God. Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God? It is so easy for us to have a callused heart because it is so hard to have a vulnerable heart that you put out there. But my prayer for us is that we would have a soft heart towards God. It says, God says, “I will put my Spirit in you.” I want to end with this promise. Can I tell you what you need the 2nd half of this year? Here it is, you don’t need more money, you don’t need more opportunity, you don’t need a relationship; what you really need is more of the Spirit of God filling you, that’s what you really need. If you are going to produce the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, then you need the Spirit of God in you. It is the Spirit of God that gives us a new heart.
I want to promise you this and I want to invite you to this. If you give your heart to Christ, Christ will give his heart to you. The tribe of the transplanted. I have no idea where many of you are at in your spiritual journey, but I want to talk to two specific kinds of people... Number one, I think there are many people who have been seeking and searching and thinking and praying and wondering and asking and dialoguing for a long time about what it means to follow Christ and what is this thing called Christianity all about. It is all about loving God heart, soul, mind and strength. It is not all these religious trappings, it is about a love relationship with the Creator who sent his Son to die on the cross for you. If you give your heart to Him, He will make you into a different person. He will begin to change you from the inside out. He will begin to shape a new heart within you. That’s what we need! We need for God to give us His heart.
Then, I wonder for some of us, in you’re in this place where, oh man, if you had any idea how hard my heart has become, like, I hear your words but they don’t even touch my heart because my heart is so callused that the word of God hasn’t penetrated my heart in years. And for some, it is just fear of opening themselves up. For some, it is a level of brokenness and it’s so hard for you to think about becoming vulnerable again. I don’t know what it is for you, but I wonder if for some of us, we need to give our heart to Christ again.
When you give your heart to Christ, He give His heart to you and your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God.
Welcome to the Tribe of the Transplanted.
Watch or listen to "ALLmost" part 1, Loving God with ALL your Heart:
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