Transformation Letting God Change You from the Inside Out

Transformation Copyright © 1997 by Willow Creek Association Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 ISBN-10: 0-310-26598-3 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26598-6 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Interior design by Rick Devon and Michelle Espinoza Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /?DCI/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 S E S S I O N 1 T R A N S F O R M A T I O N A NEW HEART T H E B I G P I C T U R E There is a very serious heart disease we should all know about. I call it "the disease of hard-heartedness." There is also a very painful but effective cure for this disease. Many times in the Old Testament we read that God accused the people of Israel of being hard-hearted. In the New Testament, Jesus would sometimes tell the religious leaders, and even His own followers, "Your hearts are so hard!" In the Bible "hardhearted" refers to the unresponsive, stiff, angry, insensitive, rebellious, and independent attitude ruling our hearts. This attitude is first directed toward God, but also toward other people. Jesus told a parable of a farmer who went out and sowed seeds. You don't have to have a green thumb to know that the object of sowing seed is to get it into fertile soil so it can take root and produce fruit. Jesus pointed out that often when a farmer would throw seed, some would land on hard-packed soil. That seed was wasted; it would never grow. Jesus went on to explain what He meant by this agricultural story. Some people's hearts are impenetrable, hardened, unresponsive, and callous. The Word of God just bounces off. It doesn't even take root. If I were to nominate a biblical character for the "Iron Heart Award," I would submit the man who was crucified next to Jesus. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, there was a criminal being executed on His right and another on His left. One was a repentant thief. In the last moments of his life, he softened his heart and said, "Oh Lord, would You remember me?" Jesus said to him, "Today you'll be with Me in paradise." But the other thief, who was being crucified for a life of crime and violence, had a hard heart. He was minutes from death, inches from the Savior, but his heart was like stone. He was busy hurling abuse and insults at Jesus. The repentant thief called over to the hard-hearted thief and said, "I can't believe it. You are minutes away from death and inches away from the Savior and you're still hard! Don't you fear God?" From all indications of Scripture, the "Iron Heart Award" would have been presented to that unrepentant thief on his arrival in hell. And that is what will happen ultimately to those people who spend their whole lives with an attitude of hard-heartedness. A W I D E A N G L E V I E W 1. If you were a spiritual doctor doing a test for hardheartedness, what are some of the symptoms you would look for in your examination? A B I B L I C A L P O R T R A I T Read Ezekiel 11:17-21; 36:24-28 2. According to Ezekiel, idolatry was a sign of hard-heartedness. What did idolatry look like in Ezekiel's day? What does idolatry look like in our day? A HARD HEART Hearts get hard when we habitually say no to God. The very first time you say no to God a littHybels, Bill is the author of 'Transformation Letting God Change You from the Inside Out', published 2005 under ISBN 9780310265986 and ISBN 0310265983.