Monday, March 5, 2007
David Letterman has been one of the kings of late-night television for years. His offbeat sense of humor has given him a prime spot in America's entertainment constellation for a long time. But one day, suddenly everybody stopped laughing. David Letterman, whose family has a bad history when it comes to heart problems apparently, went in for some seemingly routine cardiac tests. Suddenly, this comic king was rushed into surgery by his doctor and given a multiple bypass operation on his heart. The doctor saw major blockage in David Letterman's heart and he took radical action to save him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Hope for a Dying Heart."
We all have heart trouble - potentially terminal heart trouble - according to God. Even if you have perfect EKGs and cardiac test results, you may very well have the kind of spiritual heart trouble that can only be removed by the greatest Heart Specialist in the universe. Like David Letterman, if you don't allow the Surgeon to take radical action, your condition will be fatal - forever.
God's Book, the Bible, says that our "...heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" ( Jeremiah 17:9). Then God says, "I the Lord search the heart" ( Jeremiah 17:10). Man, God knows all the darkness we've concealed from everyone else. His heart tests expose every lie you've ever told, every adulterous thought or relationship, all the anger, all the selfishness, all the prejudice, all the bitterness, everything you're ashamed of, and everything you wish you hadn't done.
It isn't that you don't want to change - that you haven't tried to change - but there's darkness inside of each of us that it seems nothing on earth can change; nothing on earth. In fact, a parent of yours, a grandparent of yours, may have had the same kind of heart trouble - the same sins. Those sins probably hurt you, and now maybe you're hurting people you love with those same sins.
Without radical action, we die spiritually from our heart trouble. That's die as in being separated from God and His love forever in a place Jesus called hell. That's the penalty for our sin, but your hope is in this wonderful word for today from the Word of God in Ezekiel 36:26. God says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you." God actually says He wants to give you a heart transplant; a whole new perspective on life, a whole new power to change, a whole new eternity. He wants to forgive all the sin and remove all the sin that has clogged your heart for so long.
It took His Son, Jesus, dying for your sin to make this miracle possible. And then He walked out of His grave under His own power on Easter Sunday to prove that He can give us eternal life. If you'll give yourself to Jesus Christ and trust Him to be your Savior from your sin, the healing heart miracle can begin in your heart.
If you want to begin this life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, you need to tell Him that right now, and say "Jesus, I know that I have sinned against You by running my own life. I know the penalty for that is spiritual death. Thank you for taking that penalty for me; for dying my death penalty that I deserve. Thank You for rising from the dead. Thank You for giving me this chance to begin a relationship with You and I want to. Jesus, beginning right now, I'm Yours."
I want to invite you to come to our website which is yoursforlife.net, because there you will find a very simple explanation of how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Jesus Christ. Or you can call for the booklet Yours For Life at 877-741-1200.
See, religion can't do this. It can only make you look better on the outside. Jesus is ready to change you from the inside. There's no need to hurt like this anymore, to go on flirting with eternal death. There is a Savior who loves you and who paid the price so you could have a new beginning!