GIVE GOD THE BEST THING ON EARTH

In an attempt to please God, people have always offered Him things. All kinds of things; gold, silver, prayers, fasting, pilgrimages, and vows, just to name a few. Not to mention all of the monuments and temples built to honor God. Man loves bricks. ‘Aha,’ he thinks, ‘at last a substantial offering for our God.’

Somehow, God is not so impressed. Listen to God in Isaiah 66:1: Thus says the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house you build for me? And where is the place of my rest?

And get this. God does not seem too happy with all the sacrifices we come bearing. He reproves Israel in Psalms 50:10: Every forest beast is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills.

In other words, I don’t need your livestock. Nor do I think God is all that thrilled with the chocolates we forgo at Lent. Chocolates won’t cover it. God wants much more from you than that. So what, you ask, does God want? Well, He tells us plainly in Proverbs 23:26: My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.

God will not come and take our hearts; He wants us to give them to Him. And like any other offering brought to Him – God loves a cheerful giver.

MAN’S HEART – THE FOCUS OF THE AGES

Yes, all eyes are on the human heart. The dramatic clash of two kingdoms is taking place, where the real action on this planet occurs—man’s heart. In terms of significance, Mt Everest is not the highest point on the earth. Excluding God, man’s heart is the most important thing on this earth. There is nothing of greater value on the planet than the human heart.

We find the reason for this in Romans 10:8-10: The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is the word of faith, that we preach; That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Man believes unto righteousness with the heart, and confession is made unto salvation with the mouth.

Do you see it? Man can believe himself right back to the Garden of Eden with the heart. It is a powerful truth. You see, with the heart believing and the mouth confessing the Word of faith, nothing can stop a man. No power can stand against him and prevail. It is where we can receive every promise of God’s great covenant with us and find ourselves living with joy and victory right here on planet earth.

By believing God’s truth with our heart, not only are we saved from all that can come against us – but we are ushered into full fellowship with a loving Savior. Consequently, this is where the devil draws the line and fights the hardest. He must not allow a man to believe the truth (God’s word) in his heart. The Truth: That we are more than conquerors. That the Lord is our Shepherd – and we need not fear ever. That by His stripes, we were healed. That all things are ours and we are Christ’s. That we have been given peace that passes understanding. That God will pour out His Spirit upon our seed and His blessing upon our offspring. That God loves us and sends new mercies to us each morning!

The devil clouds all of these truths with questions – ‘Hath God said?’ he whispers. And with this, he persuades us to write a whole ‘new gospel.’ A gospel that is not good news at all, for it is based purely on the context of our own experience and not the word of God.

PAUL TARGETS THE HUMAN HEART

Man’s heart is the great value in the world today. Paul understood this as he traveled and preached the gospel in many idolatrous lands. Regardless of the spiritual climate, Paul happened to be in, he always reasoned with men out of the scriptures seeking to touch their hearts. We see him doing this in Acts 17: 2-4: They came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went into them. Three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must need have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach to you is Christ. And some of them believed and joined Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and the chief women, not a few.

And now, I want you to notice in Acts 17: 16-17 what Paul does not do as he waits for Timothy and Silas in Athens. While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city completely given over to idolatry. Therefore, he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, the devout persons, and the daily market with them who met with him.

You do not see Paul doing a “prayer walk” to bind and cast down ‘ruling powers of idolatry,’ do you? Jesus never did anything like this, and neither does Paul. Jesus is perfect theology; His life is perfect theology. We don’t need a commentary when we have the life of Christ as our example. So just as Jesus did, Paul made his appeal to the human heart – for this is where the real action is.

Our problem with evil does not originate somewhere up in the sky with nebulous clouds of fallen spirits but in man’s heart. We learn this in Mark 7: 21-23: For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness: All of these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Paul knew this and found success in Athens when ‘certain men joined Paul and believed: among them Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.’

The Bible records only one place where Jesus Himself could do no great works. His hometown. The people there said: “Isn’t this that carpenter guy? We know him and his family, too and he’s no big deal!” And it says in Mark 6:5 that: He could do there no mighty work, except to lay hands upon a few sick folks and heal them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Jesus did not ‘marvel’ at the strong-holds of darkness and unbelief over the city of Nazareth. He marveled at the unbelief that was in the heart of the people.

It was unbelief in the hearts of the people then, and it is unbelief in the hearts of God’s people now that prevent Him from doing ‘mighty works.’

MAN’S HEART – THE MAIN SPRING OF THE SPIRIT

Your heart is the mainspring of your life. It is the very core of who you are and resides in your spirit, which is eternal. You are a spirit like God because you are made in His image. You have a soul, a mind, and you live in a body. (Matthew 22:37)

Your heart is the real you—the center of all you value and treasure. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:2l that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So everything you truly love and value is in your heart. It’s who we are. Therefore, God says: “That’s what I want. Give me that and nothing less!” For out of the heart comes the true substance of our life. And what takes place in our hearts affects everything and everybody around us.

We are told in Proverbs 4:23 to: Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues (springs) of life. The heart can compare to a natural garden, for we are called to ‘keep’ it. We always need to cultivate the heart’s soil so that it is tender and sweet; and use diligence to keep it free from wrong attitudes, desires, emotions, opinions, and thoughts.

I remember as a young person observing the embittered countenances of some older people. Their faces would be like stone, with the evidence of disillusionment, hurt and unhappiness etched in. Their eyes are cold and wary. I vowed in my heart that I would never let my face look like that. Never. No matter what life dealt me or what I went through.

Yet I have seen elderly people with tender eyes and gentle, happy countenances. Does this mean they have not experienced the same hard blows in life as their miserable-looking counterparts? Not at all. It all depends on how we process the events of our lives in our hearts. Disappointment, ingratitude, betrayal, and sorrow come to all. We have a choice: we can close down and become bitter or become better by learning to love, forgive and put up with others just as our Loving Savior bears with us.

Joyce Meyers relates that at one time, as she was going through some hard circumstances, she confided in Darlene Zschech – and Darlene had only one question for her. She asked, “How is your heart?” When Joyce replied, “Oh, my heart is fine.” Darlene then assured her, “You’re all right then.” It is true that when our heart is fine – we are truly ‘all right.’

BRINGING YOUR HEART NEAR TO GOD

Jesus says in Matthew 15:8 that: This people draws near to me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me.

There is only one way to bring our hearts near to God. Are you ready for this? Complete surrender of our lives to God. Listen as Jesus speaks to His disciples in Matthew 16:24-25: If any man comes after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Jesus tells us here what is required to come after him. Not after a certain position in a church, or a pet doctrine, or even ‘our ministry.’ He says come after ME. I am all that you need. And we come after Him not with our feet but with our hearts. Jesus says here that we will have to deny ourselves some things. Not just bad things, but even good things …. that are weights. We get a kick out of things that do not lead us close to God. (Uh-Oh, I don’t like the sound of this!) We want all of our ‘stuff” + Jesus. It has been tried before and will not work.

You see, Jesus calls our attention here to a cross, but not His cross. Oh, I know we hear a lot about Jesus’ cross, and we sing songs about it and cry. Yes, I know the great work of Calvary’s Cross is the basis of our salvation, and we take nothing away from that. But here Jesus speaks of another cross …. our cross and the life of self-denial we are called to before we can truly follow Him. We have to add our cross to Jesus’ cross to see the real results of the gospel. Paul said he suffered the loss of all things counting them but dung that he might ‘win’ Christ through this’ cross.’ Nothing has changed; Christ is still the Prize, the Grand Prize set before us in this last hour.