17th September, 2023
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I
will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
We all need a new heart
Ezek 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I
will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
The retreat was so graceful for us. I would like to share a little of
the grace that many people received at the retreat during last week’s
service. At the retreat, we were filled with the Holy Spirit. With richness,
you’ve been filled with depth. I believe we all received the heart from the
Holy Spirit. The Bible often puts this concept about the heart this way.
Proverbs 4:23 – “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do
flows from it.” Yes, it says “Guard your heart”
Looking back on the hot heart of the retreat, we are now going to
read 2 Samuel. Before that, there were some members who asked if I
could review 1 Samuel, and I was actually wondering what to cover. I
was very curious about what God wanted to tell us through 1 & 2
Samuel.
Let’s read the scripture we just shared. It said keep our heart safe.
How does 1&2 Samuel deal with this heart? The book begins with a
woman named Hannah, who was infertile, praying for son. Here her
husband Elkanah asks, “Why is your heart sad?” (1:8). This part seems
to be asking why she doesn’t look happy emotionally. It’s not that hard to
understand.
Now, if you look at the scene where she goes to the temple and
prays, you can see the part where the scripture goes like, “She spoke in
her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard” (1:13). In
the part where it could just be mentioned as Hannah prayed quietly, the
author said she prayed with a heart to describe Hannah’s prayer at the
temple. I think it showed the importance of praying with a heart, not
being loud and small.
I pray that we may be those who pray with our hearts. Amen.
You don’t need that loud and passionate voice but I’m encouraging
you to open up your mouth and pray with your own voice, make it as
your hobby. And I bless you that this habit will lead to “Prayer of the
heart.”
Hannah prayed with “heart” like this, and finally gave birth to a son,
Samuel. And her confession was like this. “My heart exults in the Lord”
(2:1).
The two chapters are like the Intro of 1 Samuel highlighting the
contribution of the state of the heart to us in experiencing faith and life.
Prayer and worship from the heart that Saul totally forgot, may we keep
it till the end of our life. Everyone, like the quote at the beginning, I hope
we will be the ones who guard our hearts above all else.
When Samuel grew up and was active in his ministry, he
proclaimed these words to the people. 1 Samuel 7:3 – So Samuel said
to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts,
then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit
yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistines.”
At that time, the people of Israel were in idolatry, looking at
Ashtaroth and various other idols. The same can be true of us. We also
put other things before the Lord too easily. However, if you always go
before him and repent with all your heart, He accepts with joy as 1 John
1:9 puts. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If you’ve been obsessed with other things than the Lord, including
your decision making during retreats, why don’t you run to him now?
There is a person who received a new heart for the first time in the
1 Samuel. It was King Saul. 1 Samuel 10:9 As Saul turned to leave
Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled
that day. Saul in his early days was definitely a man of heart, but Saul,
who we’ve been watching over 1 Samuel, seems to be unable to keep
that heart. If you’re curious, take the time to read the whole book
carefully from the beginning.
Looking at King Saul’s disappointment, Samuel, who puts down his
ministry, mentions in his farewell speech that the people asked for the
king with the wrong heart.
1 Samuel 12:20-24
20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do
not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor
can they rescue you, because they are useless.
22 For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people,
because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.
23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by
failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and
right.
24 But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your
heart; consider what great things he has done for you.
Let’s all follow along. Serve the Lord with all your heart. My dear
LIFE CEM members, this is what Samuel emphasized the most in his
last sermon. I mean, don’t serve moderately, worship moderately, and
pray moderately. If you keep choosing “the moderate amount,” you will
have “the moderate amount” for your life too, and you will likely live as a
“moderate” believer.
The recent retreat must have been a big challenge for us. There
will be challenges in this faith life, and I think there will be challenges in
your life and your workplace. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all the
best in choosing “All My Heart” in the face of these challenges. I wish
you all the best to live a complete life, rather than a proper heart, a
whole heart, and a proper life.
Samuel said this when God left King Saul and chose a new king,
following the disappointment he had had with those who had sought the
king in idol worshipping.
1 Samuel 13:14 – But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord
has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of
his people because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
When King Saul’s heart turned to himself, God excluded King Saul
from his plan. And when Samuel finally went to anoint David as the new
king after a long time, God said. Where are your eyes and directions?
Are you facing God’s heart? Are you facing your own heart?
1 Samuel 16:7 – But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his
appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look
at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.”
When all people see the appearance, God sees the heart. In
response to this mindset, the words of the Deuteronomy use the
expression “the circumcision of the heart
1
” to express a clean heart that
looks at God from the deep of our hearts beyond what we see outside.”
Deuteronomy 10:16 – Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be
stiff-necked any longer.
Deuteronomy 30:6 – The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and
the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your
heart and with all your soul, and live.
It’s a little funny, but a circumcision has to hurt the genitalia, but
there’s no genitalia in the heart. So, how should I get a “circumcision of
the heart”? If I give you an answer now, I think it will be a spoiler, but to
give you a hint, circumcision is an act of letting go of my power and
relying only on the Lord.
When people play soccer, there are times when big mishaps like
this happen. You’re the goalkeeper, and the opponent shoots into the
net. Now, the ball hits somewhere between the legs, not the goalpost.
You grab your lower abdomen, kneel painfully, roll over, and the referee
whistles.
When I was young, I remember when I was competing at a
Taekwondo studio, and my friend almost cried and rolled on the floor
1 이스라엘 백성을 하나님의 백성으로 구분 짓기 위한 의식. 태어난 지 8일 된 남자 아이의 성기 일부인
포피를 제거하는 것으로, 이는 인간의 종으로서의 삶을 끊고 하나님의 백성으로 삶을 살아가는 것을
의미한다. 할례를 받지 아니한 자는 이방인 대접을 하였다. 하지만, 신약시대와 현재의 교리에서는 외적인
행위와 흔적이 아닌, 믿음과 삶으로 살아내는 것이 더 중요하며, 이를 강제함은 불필요하다 봄.
Galatians 5:6 – For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only
thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
because I wasn’t flexible enough to kick an opponent’s head and ended
up kicking somewhere in the middle. Cutting the foreskin by putting a
knife on this area, which hurts just by hitting it by mistake, is putting
down our own strength.
In fact, you can see that David’s right heart is the criterion for
evaluation as the bible evaluates all the later kings who appear under
the 1&2 Kings. Let’s not forget that we also hope to have this right heart
and posture in our faith and that we should always pray for this heart.
What we need is not a visible and temporary act, but a heart that bears
fruit for all my actions.
All of us who listen to this sermon today will be people going to
heaven. However, if only I am excluded from his kingdom and ministry,
which God plans, we will live as guests in the gospel. Is this the life of a
living Christian? No, the kingdom of God and the life of a true Christian. I
bless you that we are not only chosen to go to heaven but also chosen
to work for heaven in your life here.
Summary & Conclusion
Today, we covered the entire 1 Samuel under the theme of heart,
and we had time to reflect on not only the 1 Samuel but also our faith
and hearts. How do we approach the mind in 1&2 Samuel, and what
forms of life should we take?
- Let’s have prayer and worship of the heart.
- Let’s serve the Lord with all your heart.
- Let’s have the circumcision of the heart
There seems to be no existence as complex as humans. Although
we are children of God, we live in a corrupt world simultaneously, and we
live with various issues derived from the fallen “heart” that inherited our
sins. Jesus also mentioned issues derived from the human mind as
follows.
Matthew 15:18-19 – 18 But those things which proceed out of the
mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies.
You have to keep your heart, but it doesn’t seem like you have to
keep this heart. What kind of heart should we protect, not the human
heart that Jesus mentioned above?
He shows the reader of 1-2 Samuel that what people need most is a new
heart. Yahweh is the only one who can provide it, and He has thankfully
promised to give it.
Attaining this new heart gives the answer to the question that we
talked about earlier, “How do you get a circumcision of the heart?”
Ezek 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I
will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Now you have the clear answer for the circumcision of the heart.
We can have it by asking for the heart of God, not looking after our own
hearts.
You have given us new hearts, as the Lord promised us. You gave
me the conscience of the Holy Spirit, not the conscience of a fallen man
who shakes every day. He gave us not just our own passion, but the
heart of the Holy Spirit. Do you believe this? Trust me. Please reply with
an amen. Did you get a new heart? Let’s have time to pray for the New
Heart that the Lord promised.
