When We Become Cold Inside

When We Become Cold Inside

Jer. 17:9; Mk 16:14

SUBJECT: Evangelism and Personal Work

THEME: It is vital we maintain a correct attitude toward God and His work. We must keep our hearts respectful, clean, compliant, and obedient towards the duties, tasks, and responsibilities of evangelism.

INTRODUCTION:

Even though the Word of God is incredibly clear on the Great Commission and personal evangelism, there is still a great deal of reluctance among believers to invest, involve themselves, and share their faith. This perspective did not come from God…. 

Jeremiah 17:9, says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” You see our human nature is so fallible, broken, and deceptive…it cannot be trusted to respond to God or His priorities appropriately! 

God frequently refers to “heart surgery” as influential imagery pointing to spiritual rejuvenation, where He cleans our sin and replaces our stubborn, unenthusiastic, and sinful ‘hearts’ with spiritually compliant ‘hearts.’ As a result, we become far more spiritually minded then carnal minded.

When it comes to sacrificial service to the Lord…giving of ourselves, strength, gifts, skills, opportunities, and resources to God’s ministry…there is again excessive reluctance among God’s children. Maybe it is fear or a lack of self-confidence, but there is an incredible necessity for hardworking and steady Christian servants.

Additionally, there is an unsettling discomfort that grips the heart of the average believer whenever aggressive service to our Lord is dealt with. Maybe…we value our comfort and this world far more than we prize Him and eternity!

MESSAGE:

As God’s Servant, Use His Word to Examine Your Heart

We are susceptible to contracting various unhealthy heart conditions, but God’s word can be trusted to help us sort out our real condition. 

THE HARDEN HEART (Cold-hearted)

Mark 16:14, Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

Jesus appeared to His remaining disciples while they ate, rebuking them for their stubborn doubt and refusal to believe the eyewitness accounts of His resurrection before giving them the Great Commission.

• Jesus “Upbraided them” tells us Jesus firmly scolds and reproves them. The truth of the gospel was so full of evidence, that those first disciples should have been rebuked for their persistent unbelief.
• “Unbelief and hardness of heart” point to the disciple’s stubborn reluctance to trust that Jesus rose from the dead, despite reports from trusted witnesses.

This is the condition in which a Christian is unresponsive to the Word of God, the truth of God, the Will of God and the Things of God. We have refused to conduct ourselves in the fashion that God desires and has instructed us. We have allowed ourselves to become cold towards the Lord!

               1)   This Coldness Is Also Referred to as Blindness of Heart

Eph 4:18, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

This refers to the spiritual blindness, moral ignorance, and separation from God experienced by people who live apart from Christ.

                2)   This Coldness Can Also Be Referred to as Dullness of Hearing

Heb 5:11-14, Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 12, For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13, For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14, But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

This is spiritual laziness and stagnancy, and failing to grow up in our understanding of God’s word.

Summarily hardness, blindness, and dullness all point to a cold-hearted—unreceptive, non-feeling, imperceptive, non-discerning, and an unwilling individual! Such people have deliberately closed themselves off from spiritual truths, compassion or empathy.

Beloved, we must Overcoming Our Mental and Emotional Doubts! The disciples’ initial skepticism highlights that they did not easily invent or hallucinate the resurrection; they required concrete proof before becoming bold believers. But they were rebuke for their lack of openness to the facts pointing to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God resurrected!

Also, we must make the Necessary Transition to God’s Mission! Again, our Lord Jesus scolds them for their hard hearts and refusal to believe those who saw Him risen. This rebuke clears the air of their doubt right before Jesus transitions into commissioning them to preach the gospel to the entire world. The immediate solution (Mark 16:15–18) is the Great Commission through the preaching the gospel. The execution will require their full investment of their entire selves…there was no room for doubts, insensitivity, and imperception. Beloved, coldness towards God had to go! God adequately addresses their spiritual doubts! 

Finally, all these conditions are the direct result of a weighted down heart, a choking heart and a harden heart!  Leaving us worried, overwhelmed, and cold-hearted! Consequently, we are stagnant, indifferent and inactive. We seriously stand in need of a thoughtful ‘heart’ surgeon. Somebody, go get the Lord Jesus!