A Deficient Heart Will Produce Deficient Things

Sermon outline

Going into a fast, the heart must be made right, because a deficient heart produces deficient prayers and actions: forgive and release, refuse a hardened or callous heart, put off the old man, and turn your focus to what God is passionate about.

1. Prepare your heart before you fast

   Everything begins and ends with the heart: if it is twisted, the thoughts, actions and even the prayers are twisted, and prayers become entitled demands for vengeance on those who hurt us. Some prayers will not be answered, including those prayed to be seen. The fast is not a diet; it is to make us sensitive to God's voice and direction. Have devotional time in the morning as a family, find out what the children are facing and put it before the Lord together, so that they learn to stand in agreement for when you are gone.

   “A heart that is deficient, everything that comes out of that heart is going to be deficient.”

   • Proverbs 22:6

2. Do not harden your heart

   Beware an evil heart of unbelief that departs from the living God. A hardened heart is one that, in church, sees only the person who offended you in 1942, and goes home praying for justice on their family instead of a miracle in your own. Exhort, that is warn, one another daily while it is still called today, because there will be a day when it is too late. For a Christian the deceitfulness of sin is unforgiveness, malice and jealousy, and rebellion is not only children's; it is adults who will not do what God told them.

   “We want a year of double blessing, we need to give double grace.”

   • Hebrews 3:12-15

3. Do not go to bed with the devil

   Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. When you go to bed angry, the devil supplies the other half of the conversation: how dare he say that to you, after everything you've done for him; they never appreciated you at work. Entertain those thoughts and the hooks go in, and you wake up hating the person you loved. The price of forgiveness is dying to self, and you cannot say "I forgive, but I won't forget", bringing up the missed birthday gift and the sixteenth anniversary later as evidence.

   Illustration: "Thank you, devil. At least you understand me." He acts out the late-night conversation that ends with a TikTok video telling you it is time to move on.

   “Now we can't say, "I forgive, but I won't forget."”

   • Ephesians 4:26

4. Whatever you hold onto will hold you

   Going into a fast while harbouring resentment is banging your head against a concrete wall, because you have let the devil sleep in the bed. If the person is still around, go and forgive them; if they are gone, fix it with the Lord. A hurt from when you were thirteen can have you living as a thirteen-year-old at fifty-six, until something reminds you and the whole hornet's nest comes out. Self-sabotage works the same way, and people have unholy arguments at home with a pastor who was never in the conversation, then move church only to find the common denominator is still their own heart.

   “You'll be bound by the very same thing that you're holding onto.”

   • Hebrews 10:25

5. No foundation can be built on a hard heart

   Those who came out of Egypt could not enter God's rest because of unbelief. Build on bitterness and the house falls whenever circumstances press the devil's buttons; bring the pieces of your life to the Lord and build on Christ, and the house stands. Because Christ is on the throne and we are co-heirs, what we went through makes no difference to the new life available to us.

   “No foundation can be built on a hard heart.”

   • Hebrews 3:16-19

6. Put off the old man, put on the new

   From a passage his father wrote on in "The Life of the New Man": a mind walking in futility goes round in circles, causing confusion, anxiety, stress and depression, darkening the understanding and alienating us from the life of God. Speaking the truth in love, every part of the body does its share, and unity in a family or a church brings health and growth. Put off the old conduct, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man. God says come as you are, not stay as you are. Healing is the children's bread, available to every believer; parents can pray at a child's bedside without waiting for a prophet from far away.

   Illustration: Sitting down in the morning and opening an app's "devotional" to read your horoscope: "Today you will meet a Scorpio. And the Scorpio will sting you." That is the futility of the mind; the Faith Chronicle was started in 2007 to give believers a daily bite of the word instead.

   “The Bible says, "Come as you are." It doesn't say, "Stay as you are."”

   • Ephesians 4:14-24
   • John 14:12

7. The mark of a callous heart

   When a terrible story is in the news about somebody else's children or husband, and we say "shame" and scroll on, that is a callous heart; they were still somebody's children, and when it is our own family we want compassion. A callous heart sees a need, walks the other way and never thinks of it again. People spend R1,000 at the shops but balk at R150 for a Bible. Bible sales have risen sharply since COVID, so who is discipling those readers? Make a resolution to give Bibles and to lead and disciple people, because evangelism and discipleship are everybody's job. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, so cut away the distractions.

   “Evangelism is everybody's job. Discipleship is everybody's job.”

   • Genesis 25:29-34

In this message