The Heart

Good morning, Church.

Today's scripture is from Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23.

Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it spring, from fruit, for from it flow the springs of life.

This is the word of God.

Please be seated.

Hello.

It worked.

Good morning.

Well done, Carson.

That memorized scripture brought to you inspired by Samantha Klein, uh, who over Christmas read us a scripture and she was not looking at it at all.

It was incredible.

Okay, so welcome to church this morning.

Uh let's start with some calisthenics.

So last week we uh moved everyone down as tightly as we could into the front, and it was wonderful.

So let's try it again.

Uh would you stand with me?

Gather up your coffee, and uh uh let's get as densely together as we can uh into this front section.

And feel free to say hello, hi, nice to meet you.

Uh the escalation of volume is welcome during this time.

Nice, high commitment.

Good morning.

I'm gonna preach just to you.

Yeah.

We uh we uh we still got some seats in the middle here, so you don't have to run to the wings too quickly.

All right.

All right, if you feel too far away over in those wings, there's still some spaces in here.

Feel free to uh change your seats during the intermission.

Um welcome to church this morning.

Thank you for uh joining us together, for gathering together down here.

Uh I just don't like the optical illusion of like we're this big building that we spread out into.

I think this forces us to see we're r the the building kind of swallows us.

The building is not the church, it's just not us.

It's it's us, right?

It's all of us sitting together, sitting next to each other.

That's the church, that's the thing that moves out into the city.

That's the redemptive agent that God chose to make his name known in the world.

Uh so yeah, sit next to each other.

Uh I'll probably ask to do this until we just get some ropes.

Rope off the back.

Uh so thanks for joining us.

A couple of announcements.

Um I should probably introduce myself.

My name's James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

Uh that was Zach, he's our worship pastor here.

Um thanks for joining us this morning.

Here's uh here's a couple of announcements.

Uh one is uh our elder application is now open.

So if uh you uh are a male person uh who would like to be an elder, you feel that call on your heart to be an elder in our church, uh you can go to the calendar on your app, and it will show the deadline for the elder application is February 10th.

And uh it will link you to the Google form where you will pour out your heart and soul to us in the most genuine way you possibly can.

Um and over the course of this first quarter of the year, we'll be selecting uh basically the first elder board for Redemption Church Denver.

So it's a really exciting thing.

Um, and it's also a critical moment for our church.

This is where a real foundation is being laid.

So please join us in praying for these, for the proper selection of who moves into this role.

The elder position is an interesting one because our job as the church is not to create elders or make people elders, it's to wisely identify them.

Because God has called and chosen the elders for the church.

So would you pray for our wisdom in this process that we might follow the Spirit's leading in identifying those whom God has called to be elders?

Um okay, so you can find that application online.

Uh is Zach in here, where's the link?

Zach doesn't really go here.

Um He goes to another church.

Uh Church of Tattered Cover.

Uh also, uh we were had a lot going on in December uh launching uh trying to get the app up and running and um developing where we're headed for this next year.

And so uh one of the things that we've done each year is a long underwear uh fundraiser.

So uh a couple who attended our church for a long time and attend still online.

Hello, that was to the camera, because they're probably watching, um, Ron and Gail Bard, they uh uh basically started this tradition in our church of raising funds to make a bulk purchase of long underwear to donate to the Denver Rescue Mission.

It's one of their most requested items.

Uh it's just good base layers for people to keep warm during the winter.

So that fund is open, and we're gonna leave it open through January and basically just do this giving a month late.

So get in the holiday spirit to give, and uh uh you can go to where you would normally give online uh at redemptiondenver.com or in the app, you can click give and just select Long Underwear Drive 2018.

Uh so do what you want with that.

Because it's 2019.

Last announcement.

Uh in uh on January 13th through the 27th, we're going to have a two-week period, which will be open sign up for the next semester of our redemption groups.

There are really two ways to be involved at our church.

That's where we gather large, like this, and we gather small throughout the week in each other's homes in our redemption groups.

So this next semester, we're taking some feedback and we're really trying to capture that idea that Zach was sharing of moving from that classroom feel to the gymnasium feel.

So, what you're going to be equipped to do in these redemption groups is really be studying exactly what we're moving through in our sermon series, you studying and being equipped and taught how to study on your own, and then sharing those insights with the group.

What we're hoping to spark is a sort of mini reformation.

Uh what really broke through and turned the event of the Reformation into this uh sort of explosive movement among the people is that for the first time, the Bible was in the church's hands so that you could gather together and read in accessible language the Word of God.

And that that sparked this incredible movement of Christianity across Europe.

And we're looking to have that same sort of energy moved into our church by gathering together in small groups around Scripture so that we can see what there really is for us there.

So that's what's coming up.

Three announcements.

Elder, long underwear, spring semester redemption group sign up.

One of these things is not like the others.

Um, so with that, let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you that we can gather together as a church.

Lord, that weekly we can be reminded that there are people along this path with us.

That you didn't call us as individuals, but you called us together into a body, to be parts of a body.

Lord, I pray that your word would build us up this morning.

That it would go forth and be empowered by your Holy Spirit to really connect and become a part of our hearts.

Father, only your spirit can do that.

We ask that you would attend that this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So the first half of this year, we're going to be going through the books of first and second Samuel.

So it's going to be a three-part series moving through the books of 1st and 2 Samuel.

So the first part will be looking at Samuel, uh, the prophet.

Uh, the next part we'll be looking at King Saul, a sort of character study, and the next part we'll be looking at King David, a sort of character study of those three people.

And first and second Samuel is really a political drama.

It's about the establishment of the monarchy in Israel, where they move from a true theocracy with God as their head and as their king, and they say, Can we just have a king like all the other nations?

And they reject God and God sends them kings.

And what's interesting, seeing this sort of political drama lay itself out, is that the turning points of the story don't hinge on the charisma of the leader or their political acumen or their expertise in policy or their war strategy.

It all hinges on the condition of their heart before God.

And when we see this pattern emerge in these three characters that we're going to be looking at, it becomes apparent, this theme throughout all of Scripture, that the thing that really matters, the guiding force in our lives, are not these skills that we try and tack onto ourselves, it's the condition of our hearts.

That core fundamental part of ourselves.

And so before we move into that series, we're going to set this theme.

And it's a theme that will guide us throughout the whole year, and that's the theme of keeping and refining and transforming our hearts.

How it is that this core aspect of ourselves, the most fundamental aspect of who we are, gets transformed.

That's what we're going to be looking at throughout the course of the whole year, but explicitly this morning.

So this week we're going to look at just one verse.

We'll look at a couple others because they relate, but really, this is just a meditation on one verse, which is Proverbs 4.23.

It says, Keep your heart with all the vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

I'll read it again because that's pretty quick.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

The Bible uses the term heart to describe the whole of a person's internal life.

When we use the word heart, we often think, okay, that's just sort of the emotional side of me, or that's just an appeal to my heart, and that's a removal of the intellect.

But that's not the way the Bible uses the term heart.

The Bible uses it as a holistic representation of your entire internal life.

So that means this is your thoughts, your ideas, your intellect, your emotions, your will, your volition.

That is all encapsulated in this idea of the heart.

There is this core, interior, real you.

It's a word that millennials will love.

This is your authentic self.

The real you.

Now, that may seem obvious that there is this thing that is a real you, but it's it's actually not as obvious as it seems.

Because most of us don't live in such a way as there is a real me.

We don't think that our identity is something that we received at birth, something that we were sort of, was sort of knit together by God into us, and there's this fundamental self.

The way that we live demonstrates that what we really think is that our identity is not something that we receive, but something that we create.

We view ourselves as our own creators.

Not as though we're creatures who were created by a God, but as though we are our own creators.

And we do that in at least three different ways.

We add these definitions to ourselves.

And we say, this is the most fundamental part of me, and this gives me my identity, this makes me who I am.

We say, I am what I do, I am what I have, or I am what others think of me.

I'm sure there's others, but those are big ones.

I am what I do means you pick a metric, and based on your opinion of success in that metric, you are either a success or a failure.

So is your family going well?

That may or may not determine who you are.

It depends on how identified you are with your family.

If you're deeply identified with success as a family, with the success of your children, then if your children are doing well, then you are doing well.

If your children are not doing well, you are not doing well.

You are what you do.

The achievements that you can rack up, the diplomas or the ignoring the diplomas, the pick any coin and then flip it over and you can get that.

It's I, you know, would never wear Nike shoes.

I would only wear Nike shoes.

In both cases, you're just being influenced by Nike shoes.

I am what I do.

I am what I have means I I there are things that I need to acquire, and once I acquire those things, then they will reflect on me to give me an identity.

And that can be relationships, it could be marriage, it could be wealth, it could be if I just get this much in my bank account, then I'll finally feel secure.

Once we get that safety net built up, once we get that debt driven away, once I get rid of those car payments.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey.

Sorry, dad.

Dad's in car business.

Uh then I'll I'll know who I am, I'll know I'm in control of my life.

I will have made myself.

Or I am what others think of me.

And it that you that's what happens when you're in a conversation with someone and you realize I haven't really said anything in this conversation, I've just maneuvered to get them to like me.

I've just manipulated responses in this conversation.

And so you walk away and you think, I didn't learn anything about them.

I just tried to elicit something from them to say something about me.

So you're just engaging with yourself, this project, this burden of self-creation.

I am what others think of me.

In all of those cases, we ignore this reality that there is a real you.

There is a core to you, this fundamental thing that is uniquely you, knit together in your mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully made.

The Bible affirms that, that that exists.

We live as though it doesn't.

As though we don't have an identity that could be received, but as though we are vacant and have an identity we have to cobble together on our own.

I love this quote from uh a guy named Thomas Merton, who's like a contemplative writer.

I I don't know many contemplatives, I don't read them often.

I haven't read this book.

This is a quote from somebody else in another book I was reading quoted this.

Um but I I think it's an I I think it's incredibly accurate.

I related to it so much.

He says, I love to clothe this false self.

And I wind experiences around myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself visible to myself and to the world.

As if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface.

But there is no substance underneath the things with which I am clothed.

I am hollow.

And when they are gone, there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness.

You know, in many ways, that's uh that's the great American novel in a paragraph.

You know, that that's the great Gatsby, that's the whole theme.

That's uh Wolf of Wall Street, that's the theme.

Those are the same movie.

Oh but don't see Wolf of Wall Street.

It's not good for your soul.

We live as though we are these hollow things, empty on the inside.

And the only way to actually be visible to ourselves or visible to the world is to wrap ourselves with these things that will say, that's me.

Now I know who I am because of this success, because of the the way that I overcame this challenge because of the uh home being paid down.

Whatever it is, pick it.

We do it with really silly things.

We're almost always doing it.

Wrapping ourselves in an identity that denies the identity we've received, so that we can make ourselves our own creators.

This is why the task of keeping your heart requires vigilance.

In order to keep your heart to guard this thing that is intrinsically you, it requires incredible vigilance because you have to move through the world that is always asking you these questions in order to define who you are.

It's saying, well, what have you done?

What have you accomplished?

What do you have?

I'll take your advice when I see what you have and what you've built up.

What do others think of you?

I mean, look, we our our culture is making this sort of move from uh this has almost become cliche to say, so please give me some grace when I say this.

But our culture is making this move from a truth-based culture.

Look, I don't know if it ever really was.

But we are moving into an honor and shame-based culture where we have an ethic that's always moving around, and it's just this impossible to trace moving target.

And the way that we discover it is we are either honored by our peers or we're shamed by our peers.

That's the perfect way.

To be successful in that type of culture is the perfect way to lose the guard on your heart.

Because you're just twisting to whatever the people around you happen to respect at that moment.

There's nothing intrinsic in that.

This part of uh excuse me, the verse that we're looking at today is Proverbs 4.23.

It's written in this section of Proverbs, and it's an address from a father to a son.

And he's actually relaying to his son what his father had told him.

There's three generations involved in this advice that's being given.

And this ultimate advice that's being given in this section is keep your heart.

You can picture the father talking to the son.

I think of, I was thinking of my son who's two, and the glimmers of his personality are just starting to show up.

He doesn't pick what he wears, he can't wrap himself.

He's two years old, and we dress him like a little Breck Skater bro.

I don't know why.

Neither of us dress like that, but we think it's so cute.

And I think of sitting with him, and it's like, what advice am I gonna give him for this complicated world that he's going to enter into?

That's and it's terrifying because right now he's done nothing, he has nothing, people don't have opinions on two-year-olds, he can't move through the world yet, at least consciously in those ways.

And so we see the glimmers of his personality coming through, and my wife and I are aching to see what it really is, what's real in him, that God built into him, that God knit together in him.

And it's horrifying to think that that beautiful thing.

You shouldn't talk about your kids up here.

That you want to see so bad could get stripped away by like like middle school opinions, or by like, you know, this need to get into the right college, and it's like we've lost him.

He's lost that thing that was just him.

This little spark of goodness.

So you think, what advice?

What advice can you hear when you're looking towards the next year?

What is the really important thing?

What's the critical thing?

What's the critical New Year's resolution?

Keep your heart.

Don't lose that.

There's all sorts of ways the world's going to try and strip it away.

And it's it's mostly successful.

Keep your heart.

So you have a heart.

It's incredibly valuable.

It's the most valuable thing.

We often live as though we don't.

We live as though we're hollow.

It's not the case.

It's our sin that causes us to do that.

Next, we're going to look at the second part of this verse, which says, For from it flow the springs of life.

So this is about the outflow of our hearts.

You have a heart, this incredible thing.

The advice of scripture is keep it.

And so, what is the outflow from our hearts?

One of the other translations doesn't say, for from it flow the springs of life.

The NIV says, for from it comes everything you do.

From it flow the springs of life is probably a helpful picture when you live in a desert land that requires springs for water.

We don't really live like that.

So the NIV makes it more tangible for us saying, look, this is the spring, this is the source.

From your heart comes everything that you do.

So that means that the way that we're going about things to try and shape our identities is in perfect reverse order from the way that we ought to be living.

Because it's not that you are what you do, it's that you do what you are.

Do you want to know what you are?

A helpful way is to look clearly at these things that you are doing.

And if you guard your heart, if you keep it, if you guard this precious thing that was intrinsically good from the Lord, and you live in the ways that God called you to be living as that thing, you receive who you are from Him.

You take the boundaries from your creator and you say, those will be my boundaries.

I won't go past them, because I know there is real life in this space.

When you live in that way, from your heart will flow springs of life.

And life in this context is not just like generic good things.

Don't think generic good things.

You've got to go back to the couple verses before, where he says, My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings, let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

You see, we're right back to where we were last week.

The life is in the word.

It is in God revealing himself to us in his word.

Christianity is at its core a revealed religion.

This is not a religion that has been intuited, it is not a religion that has been deduced.

It has not been control group tested.

It has been revealed to us.

The heart of our story is that God shows himself to us when we are blind and dead and can't see him.

In his grace, he makes himself visible, reveals himself to humans in ways such that we can grasp the living God.

He condescends to us.

And so the life that could flow forth from us is the evidence of and the fruit of the word that lives in us.

That's where the life comes from.

And that's the life that he's talking about here.

A quote that I loved, referring to this section, was from Derek Kidner, who's this excellent theologian.

And he said of that part, be attentive to my words.

He says, a major part of godliness is dogged attention to familiar truths.

Which means a major part of godliness is not necessarily new ideas, but it's dogged attention.

It's a not letting go of these things which God has said.

In many ways, they're static.

They're in your Bible.

You can go and consult them over and over again.

They require a dogged attention so that those things really dwell and become the defining characteristics of your heart.

Derek Kidner also says, with regards to that true life, this is a quote we need to take slowly.

He says, that is to say, true life is no superficial or static possession.

Okay, we'll pause.

True life is no superficial possession.

Remember when Jesus says, is the body not more than clothes?

And you hear it and it's like, of course it is.

Of course the body is more than clothing.

But that's the way we treat our lives.

Like the superficial possessions are the things that really give us the core of who we are.

And so we chase those things as though life lives in those.

And we desire life to be this sort of static possession to where we can build up this life.

Has anybody read Atlas Shrugged?

All right.

There's four liars.

Nobody's finished that book.

And the uh uh there's this part, and uh I used to think it was inspiring.

Now now I think it's kind of cat I think it's uh now I see it as kind of a loss of a soul, where this main character he looks at this metal foundry that he had created, and there's a sign over it that says uh his last name reared in.

And he thinks to himself, I wish I could look back over my whole life that led up to this amazing creation, and I would hang a sign over it that said reared in life.

And I would be able to stand back from that life, and I would have my life as this static possession, and I would know I was valuable because I could look at what I created.

That's the way we live.

But there's no life there.

That isn't real life.

It feels solid because we can stand back and look at it, but it's fickle and it goes away.

So this life is no superficial or static possession, but the spiritual vitality.

You see, it's movement, which wells up as truth is made a man's own.

That means as the word of God becomes the defining character of your internal life, so that your thoughts are guided by Scripture.

You're living in the identity, not that you're making, but in the identity that you've received, the truth of who you are.

So this truth is made a man's own and flows abroad wherever his renewed outlook makes itself felt.

It's where you live from the truth of Scripture, the truth of who you are, and it flows out into the world.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

But you see, that also leads to this painful self-awareness.

Because if what you do flows from your heart, then that means the things that you have done are not due to circumstance.

They're not due to lack of food, lack of sleep, overcommitment, lack of sex, your sins have not flown from those things.

They've flowed out from your heart.

So that means when you take a real inventory, the way that you live throughout the day, the anxiety that removes you from your family, the idolatry of finances, when you consider these things that really mark your day-to-day existence, the selfishness that marks how we move through the world.

The reason for those is they're who you really are.

You see, this concept of the heart, of this wonderful thing to guard, and that everything we do flows from it, it also reveals this correlative concept, which is that when you look at the things you do, you aren't actually detached from them.

They're actually showing you who you are before God.

Jesus says it like this: He says, For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

What you do shows who you are.

So let's do a quick recap.

Keep your heart.

It's the advice I'd want to give to my son.

It's this wonderful thing, it's this amazing, intrinsic good.

It's it the world needs it.

You need to live from it.

Don't let it go away.

Springs of life will flow from it.

And look at your heart.

You can tell from the way you live, it's filled with incredible wickedness.

It's utterly corrupted, corrupted to the core.

We live in such self-deceit.

Because we we deny our emotions and we say, that's not really me.

This is just something I'm going through right now.

The Bible doesn't let us have those options.

You're being revealed to yourself in the way that you live, in the priorities that you set.

The real you is being revealed.

And so, what do we do with both of those things?

This incredible good that's been completely and terribly corrupted, almost lost.

It's inevitably lost in us.

Where do we go from there?

Each year the Jews celebrate a feast to commemorate their time in the wilderness.

And it's the feast of booths, so they they set up like tents outside their homes, and they live in those.

They remember there was a time where we wandered through the wilderness.

We had nothing to define ourselves.

We had no wealth to speak of.

We didn't know where our daily provision would come from.

We only had God to depend on in that time.

And God knew that their hearts, once they settled into a place where things would get consistent and easier, their hearts would start to stray.

And so he gave them this practice of the feast of booths.

It says, Go back to the tents and remember that there was a time where you just wandered and you needed me every single day.

If I didn't provide manna, there was no manna.

If I didn't provide water, there was no water.

If I wasn't a cloud, there'd be no shade.

If I wasn't a fire at night, there'd be no light and safety.

Remember your dependence on me.

On the last day of that feast, Jesus stands up and he says this, John 37 through 38, on the last day of the feast, told you, the great day, Jesus stood up, again, told you, and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Here's why you have to see both.

You have to see that there is this incredible, intrinsic thing in creation, and you're a part of that.

The biblical story is not that creation was created neutral, and it could have gone either way.

The biblical story is that creation is good.

When God steps back from creation, he says that it's very good.

And then as the story continues, we see that creation is completely corrupted, radically corrupted by our sin.

By us saying to our creator who created this good thing, you will not be the thing that defines me.

I will not be defined by the boundaries that you have set into my life, that will not be freedom to me.

I will be defined by how I make myself.

How I make myself, that's who I will be.

And we deny God as God, we put ourselves in his position, and as overseers of all of creation, when that relationship gets disordered, they all get disordered.

And sin flows through into everything.

And if we don't see both of those things, the goodness that's there, and the complete and utter corruption of it, if we don't see both, we won't thirst.

Because the thirst says, I'm in pain now.

But there is such a thing as water.

And this can be satisfied.

Jesus says, if you thirst, if you see, I'm sick of having a heart that's just chasing after and being defined by all of these extrinsic things that don't really equate to life.

And I want to live as who I really am, who I was made to be, not just tossed about to and fro, but pursuing the boundaries that God set up for me, which means knowing my limits, knowing I'm good at some things and I'm terrible at other things.

When we see that we thirst.

And if we come to Jesus, he will satisfy us.

Because what happens in Christ is this arrogance that we have approached God with, where we have denied him.

In Christ, God removes that arrogance with an utter humility.

Humility to the point of death.

And what that death means is that this false self that we've been clothed with, that we wrap ourselves with constantly, can die too.

It can be put to death completely.

And then who we were created to be, sons of God.

We can rise with Christ.

Jesus says in another place, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

For this next year, we're going to be looking at the hearts of three people, Samuel, Saul, and David.

We're going to be doing character studies on what is it in their hearts.

How does God use their hearts, the core of who they are, to accomplish these incredible things?

In some ways, in spite of.

We'll look at Samuel, who's this sort of archetypal good heart, but is rejected by the people because of it.

We'll look at Saul, who is a sort of archetypal evil heart, who thinks he's all these things that he just isn't.

No self-awareness at all in Saul.

And then we'll look at David, who we'll hopefully find relatable, who has this heart that is marked by a thirst.

How do we live?

How do we live as containing this incredible thing, this gift of our hearts, but knowing that we have completely corrupted them.

We have not kept them.

We have to be living in a place of incredible thirst.

I hope that's what will mark this next year.

A thirst for Jesus to be transforming our hearts.

That's seeing things as they really are.

So that's what the next year is going to look like.

This theme of our hearts being transformed by Christ.

So with that, let's take a question.

I think you just did step one.

You know that it this is going to be, if we do this right, like if we really go through this ride together, I think you're going to be blown away how much you aren't identified with Christ.

How much what he says and who he's calling you to be is not the defining character of your internal life.

It's going to be horrifying.

I think for a long time it's going to be really unsettling if we do this right.

Because we'll see all sorts of things that we've been chasing and just putting too much weight on.

And we're going to see we're just covering up something that we think is hollow.

I think so much of the anxiety in this room is an anxiety of everyone around you finally discovering.

Discovering that there's nothing there.

Christ is our only hope for this.

Jesus says, I don't trust man because I know what's in man.

You know, he knows what's really in you.

He knows the depths of your corruption completely.

And while we were yet sinners.

I forgot the first part.

For God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So here's what that means.

You won't be able to live as your real self, this thing that God is calling you to be, courageously, authentically in the world, operating, identified with him, unless you are swimming in the reality of his love for you.

And what you'll discover is that likely you've never let him love you before.

You've let him love the wrappings.

You've let him love your obedience or your consistency or whatever it may be that you offer to God to make yourself seem valid to him, but you've never stood before him with nothing.

And learned that he could love you.

That's a new birth.

Thank you for asking that question.

I can't believe I left that out of the sermon.

Okay.

We'll take communion.

Take this time.

You have some time right now, right?

Use this to take an inventory of your heart, right?

Make an assessment.

Consider what is flowing from you.

Be brutally honest with yourself.

Brutally honest with yourself.

And stand before Christ in that and say, I'm thirsty.

I need to be saved.

And then come take communion.

Let's pray.

Father, everything we do flows from our hearts.

It's horrifying and wonderful.

Horrifying because we see that what you the sin that we do really is us.

And that's our biggest fear that we might be exposed to be as evil as we really are, as vacuous and hollow as we really are.

And Lord, it's wonderful because you promised that you will take our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh.

That by your death on the cross we can be transformed, that the dead spirit in us might be resurrected to new life because you will give us your spirit.

You will recreate us.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old thing is gone, the new thing has come.

Lord, we need to be recreated by you.

You need to be our creator again.

When we try and create ourselves, we die.

Lord, let us sit before you, contemplate before you this incredible reality that you would make us new again.

The things that seem like they've been lost forever, that could never be regained, in Christ will be.

Father, we praise you for that.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.