Getting a Heart Start

Excerpts from the sermon by Lester Roloff

Our first desire each year should be to dedicate and consecrate our hearts to Jesus and His Word and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. Ananias and Sapphira had heart trouble. We have called it “cirrhosis of the giver,” but it was heart trouble. Brother Peter asked in Acts 5:4, “Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?” Sin is a heart matter, but so is salvation! When the great Pentecostal revival had broken out and Peter preached with mighty power, “they were pricked in their heart.” Salvation is a heart matter!

When our nation was pure, she was strong. When the Church is pure, She is strong. The Puritan forefathers have become the object of ridicule. The new morality is immorality. Blindness of heart and deceitfulness of heart are nothing new, but we also suffer from slowness of heart. On the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his friend were “slow of heart.” But after Christ opened the Scriptures with them, their hearts burned within them (Luke 24). When I feel my heart start to slow down, I open the Word!

Now, let me give you some heart advice and heart suggestions for this year.

Number one: judge not. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ commands us to remove the beam from our own eye so we can have clear hearts to help others (Matthew 7:1-3). Let’s not murmur or criticize or be selfish in our service.

Number two: give generously. Our incoming bucket is made of our outgoing gifts (Luke 6:38). When we sow bountifully, we reap bountifully. And cheerful giving begins in the heart (II Corinthians 9:6-8)!

When King David, after he had sinned, visited Ornan and wanted to use his threshing floor, Ornan said, “I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all” (I Chronicles 21:23). One may give without loving, but we could never love without giving. When I see six thousand precious young people in the valley of despair, and hear their desperate cries, surely I ought to be willing to say, “I give it all”.

The greatest commendation in the Bible for the giver is when the widow busted her penny bank and gave her all (Luke 21:1-4). Thousands of dollars have been given this past year because people saved, summed the silver, and sent it. But faithfulness in our finances starts with our pennies—when we choose to serve God instead of mammon (Luke 16:10-13).

An unsaved businessman just left my house, and in our course of conversation he asked, “What makes all your people so happy? I would like to be happy like that.” This man has been so impressed by God’s provisions and the growth of all the work that he even told his men, “If we are going to work around those people, we are going behave like them.” He is under tremendous conviction by what he has seen and is going to start coming to the services. Oh that our just and faithful and cheerful giving would be a testimony unto salvation!

What will you give to Jesus
out of your treasured store?

Shall it be gold or silver,
or will you not give Him more?

What will you give to Jesus?
Hear the world’s pleading cry.

Will you refuse to carry
mercy to those who die?

What will you give to Jesus;
Shall it be less than all?

Do not withhold a portion;
heed not the tempter’s call.

What will you give to Jesus?
Jesus gave all to you.

Give Him your heart’s devotion;
nothing but love will do.

The Heart Condition

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart… –Jeremiah 17:9-10

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. –Ephesians 4:18

The Heart Prescription

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. –Proverbs 4:23

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. –Romans 10:9-10

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. –Ephesians 3:17

For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. –Hebrews 4:12

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord…. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. –Colossians 3:15-16, 23

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:7

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. –Matthew 5:8