Heartfelt Religion Do We Have A Heartfelt Religion

Heartfelt Religion

Do We Have A Heartfelt Religion? Sometimes we are accused of not having a “heartfelt religion” because… We do not shout hallelujah or raise our hands We do not give testimonials about how we feel We do not have a lively worship service We are accused of having a cold, informal religion without “feeling”

Do We Have A Heartfelt Religion? There is more to the heart than emotions The Bible heart consists of four chambers: intellect – the knowing / thinking chamber emotion – the feeling chamber conscience – the judgment chamber will – the action chamber

Your Heart Must Be In Your Conversion The seed of God’s word is first planted in the heart of the unsaved (Mt. 13: 15, 19; Lk. 8: 15) The unconverted must be pricked in the heart (Acts 2: 47), not hardened (Acts 7: 51; 28: 27) The unconverted must obey from the heart (Acts 8: 37; 16: 47; Rom. 2: 29; 6: 17; 10: 8 -10)

Your Heart Must Be In Your Conversion The intellect, the emotions, the conscience, and the will are all involved in a proper conversion A person cannot be acceptably converted to God unless his heart is in it

Your Heart Must Be In Your Obedience Christians are to continue obeying from the heart after conversion (Acts 11: 23) Christians are to do the will of God from the heart (Eph. 3: 17; 6: 5 -6; Col. 3: 22 -23) Christians will call upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2: 22) Christians set apart the Lord in their hearts and are ready to answer (1 Pet. 3: 15; 2 Pet. 1: 19)

Your Heart Must Be In Your Obedience The intellect, the emotions, the conscience, and the will are all involved in proper obedience to God daily A person cannot acceptably do the will of God unless his heart is in it

Your Heart Must Be In Your Worship Christians are to discern with their heart during the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11: 29) Christians are to sing (Eph. 5: 19; Col. 3: 15 -16) and give from the heart (2 Cor. 9: 7) Christians are to have their heart in Bible study and prayer

Your Heart Must Be In Your Worship The intellect, the emotions, the conscience, and the will are all involved in proper worship to God A person cannot acceptably worship God unless his heart is in it

Your Heart Must Be In Your Local Church Christians are to be unified in heart as they work together in the local church (Acts 2: 46; 4: 32) Christians are to love one another with a pure heart fervently (1 Pet. 1: 22)

Your Heart Must Be In Your Local Church The intellect, the emotions, the will, and the conscience are all involved in local church membership A person cannot acceptably work together in the local church unless his heart is in it

When Your Heart Is Not In It You may start to avoid God’s word (Mt. 15: 8) You may start to complain (2 Cor. 9: 7) You may start to cause problems (1 Tim. 1: 5 -6) You may start to get weak (Heb. 10: 22 -25) You may start to follow error (Heb. 13: 9) You may start to become unstable and sin (Jas. 1: 8; 4: 8)

Yes, We Have A Heartfelt Religion! “and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” - Mark 12: 30 -