The Heart of the Matter is the Heart

The Heart of the Matter Is the Heart (David Powlison)

Our hearts cause us to do what we do. In Luke 6:43-45 Jesus says: “A good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. ⁴⁴Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorn bushes, and they don’t get grapes from bushes. ⁴⁵Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts.” (NCV)

The principle of this passage is very simple: “our hearts are active – the heart causes, directs, shapes and guides our behavior.” Our hearts cause us to do what we do.

What does the Bible mean by ‘heart”? The Bible divides us into two categories: The outer person and the inner person. The outer person is our physical self; the inner person is the spiritual self. There are a lot of words used for the inner person – soul, spirit, mind, emotions, will. All of those functions are collected by one Biblical word used over 900 times. The word is ‘heart’. The heart is the real you.

For example: if I say I’m getting to know you, that doesn’t mean I’m getting a more intimate knowledge of your ears or your eyes. I’m talking about your heart. I’m getting to know what makes you happy or sad; what you like or don’t like. I’m getting to know your heart.

Jesus is telling us the fundamental way that humans’ function. Jesus says,” You’re sort of like a fruit tree. If it’s the late summer you will notice its fruit.” If you’re looking at an apple tree loaded with apples, you don’t say, “I wonder what kind of tree this is?” You know it’s an apple tree by its fruit. If you get that illustration you will understand what Jesus is saying. When Jesus talks about fruit, he’s talking about behavior and its consequences.

Like a tree, your life produces fruit. What’s in your heart determines the kind of fruit, the kind of behavior that you produce.

Here’s what this means: People and situations never cause you to do what you do. (repeat) We like to say “she makes me so angry.” Not true! Everything you do is the result of the thoughts and desires of your heart. Your heart causes you to do what you do.

Now what does this have to do with our lives? It has everything to do with our lives! Because we live out of the heart. Here’s the point: lasting change always goes through the pathway of the heart. (repeat)

Example: Pretend I have an apple tree in my back yard and every year it produces brown, shriveled uneatable apples. Dori comes to me and says: “Tom, it doesn’t make any sense to have an apple tree in our back yard and we can never eat the apples.” You know I want to please Dori, so I tell her I got an idea how to fix the apple tree. That afternoon Dori sees me get a tall stepladder, a pair of branch cutters, a nail gun and three bushels of red delicious apples. I climb up on the ladder and I gently cut off every tough, Brown uneatable apple and I nail 3 bushels of Red delicious apples on that tree. From the window it looks like I took lessons from Johnny Appleseed. The tree is now full of fruit.

If you are Dori, what are you thinking at this moment? You’re thinking it finally happened, he finally went completely nuts. Now what’s going to happen to those apples I just nailed to the tree? They are going to rot. Why, because they are not attached to the life of the tree.

Here’s an insight: I wonder, at times how much of what we do, in the church, is nothing more or less than apple nailing! It’s don’t do this and do this counsel. It just pays attention to the behavior and doesn’t pay attention to the heart.

Hear this: Unless the heart changes, the behavior won’t change for very long. What happens to people who hear the don’t do this or do that counsel? They may change for 6 weeks or 6 months, but eventually they return to where they were because the heart hasn’t changed! Lasting change always takes place through the pathway of the heart. The heart is God’s target. God will settle for nothing but your heart.

God shares these sad words with his people in the OT: “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I hate their sacrifices. I hate their holy days. I hate their solemn assemblies. I am their God and I want their hearts.” (Amos 5:21; Isa 1:11-17)

So the question is: What rules a person’s heart? Notice what God says in Ezekiel 14:3-5 “… This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face….. , I the Lord will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. ⁵I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’

The elders of Israel came to the prophet for advice from God. God observes that there is something wrong with them. What is it? According to Ezekiel it is IDOLS! What kind of idols? Idols of the heart.

What is an idol of the heart? An idol of the heart is anything that takes functional control over my heart other than God.

We all tend to wander away from the worship and service of God to the worship and service created things. God recognizes idols in these people’s hearts.

I’m going to ask you all to do something. I want you to take your hand and put it up to your face like this. Now look through your fingers. Turn your head right and left and up and down. Now take your hands down. That had nothing to do with this passage; I just wanted to wake you up! Yes it does. Watch, “these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.”

Now watch, if my hand is in front of my eyes, what happens to my vision? It gets obstructed where ever my head goes, my vision is still obstructed.

You can give me a graduate level course on proper seeing. You can lecture to me on the importance of the eyes. You can buy me new glasses – and you will not alter my seeing until what? My hand comes down!

That illustrates this principle: the principle of inescapable influence. Whatever rules the heart will exercise inescapable influence over my life and my behavior. Whatever or whoever rules the heart will exercise inescapable influence over my life and my behavior.

What rules our hearts determines the way we respond to what is going on in our lives. For example: My wife and I go out to eat at Applebee’s and sometimes we share the same meal – the riblet platter. The waitress will sometimes put the order on two plates. One time the portions were not divided equally. My riblet plate had much fewer riblets than Dori had on her plate. I couldn’t believe it!

So what do think I’m thinking? I’m not sitting there thinking, “God has bountifully supplied my wife with a wonderful gift of extra riblets. No that is not my first thought!

My first thought is to ask the waitress, “If she knows how to count?” And then I start to think about how I can trade plates with Dori without seeming like the selfish guy I am.

You see, that’s the heart. That’s what rules the heart. Because the hugest of all idols, is the idol of self!

As you are examining your heart, hear this, the most important question is this: “What in this or any situation is ruling in my heart?” Because what is ruling the heart will set the agenda for our behavior. My problem was not what was on the riblet platter. My problem is the thoughts and desires, in my heart, that cause my selfishness. And unless those things change – change won’t take place in my behavior.

Our hearts are always being ruled by something!

God doesn’t just want our hearts on Sunday morning in this building. He wants our hearts in the car, in the home, in the workplace, in the classroom, and in the moments of everyday life. Why? Because if He does not have your heart – He does not have you!

Hear this: what causes you to do whatever you do, is NOT the difficult situations in your life and NOT the people in your life. It is the god, little “g” or the God, big G that is ruling your heart.

So let me ask you, who’s got control of your heart? Why is that important? It is important because, whatever or whoever rules the heart will exercise inescapable influence over your life and your behavior. God wants your heart! He wants inescapable influence over your heart. So what did God do? God sent his Son Jesus to give his life on the cross to pay for our sin. Jesus paid for our sin and made it possible for us to be have clean, holy and God honoring hearts.

Lasting change takes place in the heart! That is why the Bible says: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Prov. 4:23 NLT)

ADDENDUM: Listen to Heb 4:12-13: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, …; it judges the thoughts & attitudes of the heart.” When we listen to the counsel that comes from the Bible you will begin to know and understand what are your greatest heart struggles. You can begin to see your functional idols exposed. You and I can grow and change because God, by His Spirit, can reveal the heart. The word of God is like a great mirror. Most mornings you get up, look into it and accept it’s message.

You don’t say, “mirror, mirror on the wall – what in the world is that image? I’ve taken care of you for many years and this is how you treat me?” You look into the mirror and accept it’s message immediately pull out instruments of human repair. The Bible is a wonderfully accurate mirror that shows us ourselves as we actually are. The Bible will not only show the outside, but the inside.

Some of us are looking in carnival mirrors. The “carnival mirror” of cultural values, the “carnival mirror” of our opinions, the “carnival mirror” of our successes, the “carnival mirror” of the opinions of others. The carnival shows you to you, but with distortions.

If we hear the counsel from the Word of God, we will begin to know the true thoughts and motives of our hearts.