Search the Heart - Pastor Stacey Shiflett
- Pastor Shiflett
- Jul 19, 2023
- 4 min read
Search the Heart
Jeremiah 17
· 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
· 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
I. The Significance of the Heart
With revival services just around the corner, we all need to be very concerned about the condition of our hearts. Just last week we looked at the importance of rending our hearts out of Joel 2:13.
I believe that God has been giving us these messages to prepare us for the upcoming series of messages that we will hear during the Summer Revival with Dr. Ingram.
The heart is vitally important.
· Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Revival is when we pray and ask God to fix our heart and make our love for Him afresh and anew.
· Matthew 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
II. The State of the Heart
A. The Heart is Unreliable – “The heart is deceitful above all things…”
· Deuteronomy 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
B. The Heart is Ungodly – “…and desperately wicked…”
DESPERATELY WICKED: Hebrew: anash - to be weak, sick, frail, woeful, incurable
It was ungodly before the Flood, and God destroyed the earth.
· Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
After the Flood, God made a promise to never destroy the earth again with water. But He pointed out that man’s heart was still evil – even from his youth.
· Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
C. The Heart is Unknown – “…and who can know it?” (to understand, perceive…)
One of the most common mistakes going into a revival is thinking you don’t need one.
Thinking there is no area of your life where God cannot improve something.
We need to be open to the fact that we cannot know our heart, and therefore we cannot know what it holds.
Going into a revival with the preconceived idea that you are OK is just another manifestation of the deceitful heart.
III. The Searching of the Heart
One of the keys to experiencing a work of God in your life is to allow God to determine what needs to be done.
A. The Person that is Searching
It is important for us to understand one vital truth.
We cannot be the ones searching our heart.
It must be God.
Notice our text – “The heart is deceitful …who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins…”
David said it like this:
Psalm 139
· 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
· 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
We cannot know our heart.
But God can.
1 John 3
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
· 22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
God can interpret our heart and God can deal with the condemnation of our heart.
B. The Perspective of the Searching
Romans 8
· 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
· 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God
C. The Precision of the Searching
God performs open heart surgery in a very precise manner
He uses the Word of God to pierce past the flesh, bones, joints, marrow all the way down to the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4
· 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
· 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
God’s way of searching the heart is to deal with your and my very intentions.
Things we thought about doing. And why we want to do them.
We need to enter into revival asking to search our hearts and then reveal to us what He wants to do.
And we need to agree tonight to let Him do it.
