The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat. . .in. . .the. . .Hat.  The Cat in the Hat is probably the best known of any of Dr. Seuss’s books, with the possible exception of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but really most people are more familiar with the Grinches’s Christmas special or movie then they are with the book.  The Cat in the Hat is iconic.  Probably the most recognizable face out there, maybe with the exception of Charlie Sheen. 

We are told that Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, wrote the Cat in the Hat in response to an article published in Life magazine in May of 1954.   The article written by John Hersey was critical of school primers, in the article which was ten pages long Hersey wrote “In the classroom boys and girls are confronted with six books that have insipid illustrations depicting the slicked-up lives of other children. [Existing primers] feature abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls. . . .”    Of course those were the Dick and Jane books.
A friend of Seuss’, publisher William Ellsworth Spaulding, challenged Suess to “Write me a story that first-graders can't put down!”  He gave Seuss a list of 348 words that every six year old should know and insisted the book should use no more than 225 of those word.
The Cat in the Hat uses 223 of the words that appeared on the list and 13 words that didn’t.  Seuss wanted the title to rhyme and Cat and Hat were the first two words on the list that rhymed and worked as a title. 
The story is 1629 words long and uses 236 different words.  For those who are interested there is only one three syllable word,  – “another” –14 words  which have two syllables and the 221 remaining words are monosyllabic. The longest words in the book are “something” and “playthings”.

You know the story, the narrator, who is unnamed, and his sister Sally have been left home on a cold and rainy day, which begs the question:  What kind of mother would leave her two little kids with only a fish to watch them?  Tell you what that lady would be charged today with being an unfit parent and her kids would be taken away.  But it was a different time, many of us can probably remember being left home alone with a list of rules and no fish.

And into their lives arrives The Cat in the Hat and his two friends Thing one and Thing Two.  Against the strenuous objection of the Fish, the Cat in the Hat and his cohorts turn the house into absolute chaos.  Ending with things broken and bent.  (Read from book)  The mess is cleaned up only when Sally and her brother realize that their mother’s return in imminent and then they are left with the dilemma of what to tell their mother about the events that had gone on.  (read last page)

So what do we learn from the book?  Well, my first idea was to draw a comparison between the story of the Cat and the Hat and the story from the Book of Genesis about the temptation of Adam and Eve.  Then I realized that using the Cat in the Hat as an analogy for Satan probably wasn’t the best way to win friends and influence people and would end up doing  irreparable damage to any children listening, so we aren’t going there.

However, we still need to understand that into the lives of these children came the temptation to do things that they knew that not ought to do and even if they were not personally responsible for those actions they knew that they were wrong in permitting the Cat to come into the house and allowing him to do what he did. 

So this morning we are talking about temptation, doing or permitting things which we know are wrong in our lives.  And being tempted doesn’t mean you are a bad person, it just means you are a person.  Paul remind us in  1 Corinthians 10:13-14 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.

Every one of us will be tempted by something at some time in our lives.  And what makes it so difficult to understand is that what tempts you might not tempt me, and so I don’t understand it.  It’s so easy to stand in judgement when someone gives in to something that has no appeal to us.  

We are told in Galatians 6:1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. And might we add:  or another, different temptation. 

So what should the kids have done?  Or more importantly, because really it is just a kid’s book, what should you do when you are faced with temptations in your life?  Well 2000 years ago Paul addressed a letter to a young preacher by the name of Timothy and he offered his friend advice that is just as valuable today as it was then. 

It comes from the passage of scripture that was read earlier and it is found at the very end of 1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.
Three pieces of advice for Timothy to follow, three pieces of advice for Denn to follow, three pieces of advice for you to follow, if you are indeed a Christ follower, and probably not bad advice if you aren’t a Christ Follower.
So Paul begins his closing The closing words of his letter with this advice for Timothy, 1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things.. .

1) There are Times You Should Run The word run is mentioned 102 times in the Bible,  ten of those times are in the New Testament.  And when the writers are not speaking about literal running they are telling us to run to God, run the race set before us, run with endurance.  But three times we are told to run away from certain things.   We are told in 1 Corinthians 6:18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 

Plus 1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things.. .And finally in 2 Timothy 2:22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts.

Kind of a common theme that is running through there.

So here we go.  Most of us have survived in life by knowing that there are times that we need to execute what has been called as a tactical advance to the rear.  That whatever it is ahead of us it’s either too big to fight, or not worth the effort. Do you remember the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where they are up against the Killer Bunny?  Do you remember the advice that was given?  “Run Away, Run Away.”

Now I know that retreat is a dirty word, to most of us it signifies giving up or surrendering.  But it would appear that Paul is telling Timothy that in this particular instance that discretion might be the best part of valour.  When I was young my father imparted some advice upon me which while not necessarily heroic sounding was certainly practical, here it is, you might want to write it down. “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.”  I thought that was pretty profound and it was only as an adult I found that Dad was actually quoting the Roman Historian Tacitus who said “He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.”

What we are being warned about are those areas in life that we are prone to be spiritually weak in.  And it’s a personal thing, what may tempt you may not tempt me and vice versa.  But you know what areas you are weak in.  Someone once said “The reason most people don’t pray ‘lead me not into temptation’ is they are afraid God will take them serious.” 

But Mark Twain hit the nail on the head when he said “It is easier to stay out than get out.”

You know that don’t you?  You think that the temptation to give in to sinful behaviour is strong, but that’s nothing compared to the temptation to give in to that sinful behaviour again.

James the brother of Jesus warned those in the early church James 1:14-15 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.   

Another way to look at is that you need to avoid the opportunity for sin.  If we go back to our book for a moment, there really wasn’t opportunity for Sally and her brother to run from the cat but at no point in the story did they actually tell him to leave. 
This isn’t rocket surgery people.  If you have a problem with gambling you don’t go down to watch the folks feed the VLTs, you don’t wander through the casino just to kill time.  If you have a problem with lust you don’t watch certain programs or go to certain movies, if you struggle with alcohol you don’t hang out in the bars or keep a bottle around just in case. 
Paul doesn’t tell Timothy to walk away from evil, or to saunter away from evil or to stroll away from evil.  Instead he yells, Run away, run away.  Don’t mess with it, don’t play with it, just walk away from it. 
You say “Don’t worry Denn, I have everything under control.”  Sure, famous last words, I think Custer said the same thing.  Listen up, write it down, engrave it on your forehead, I don’t care what you do to remember it but remember it.  1 Timothy 6:11 But you, __________, are a person of God; so run from all these evil things...   And I shouldn’t have to give you a list of what evil things Paul is talking about, E V I L Things, evil things.  Things that you should not be messing with, things you shouldn’t be looking at, things you shouldn’t be thinking

about.  And you know what they are.  Remember what Solomon asked in Proverbs 6:27 Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? 

While that is a rhetorical question and isn’t meant to be answered, the correct answer is “No you dummy.”  You don’t stick your hand into the fire and pray that you won’t be burned, you keep your hand out of the fire and pray for enough sense to not put it in.
I’ve told you before, I am telling you now and I will tell you again.  “Sin will always take you further then you want to go.  Sin will always keep you longer then you want to stay and sin will always cost you more then you want to pay.”  Run Away, Run Away.
But we can’t spend our lives running so Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.  In other translations it reads “Follow what is right and good” 

2) There are Times You Should Follow.  Follow is another one of those words that doesn’t have a high profile. We don’t want to follow we want to lead.  Following is for followers.  Ahhhhh.  Like Christ Followers, those who would follow Jesus.  What was the invitation that Christ extended to those he met?  Mark 2:14 “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him.

You ever hear the old adage “Idle hands are the Devil’s hands”?  The easiest way to stay away from what is evil is to immerse yourself in what is good.  That’s the concept that Paul is teaching to Timothy, the concept that we need to learn as well.  So, if you commit yourself to following what is right and good. To pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.  How much time are you going to have for evil?
Focus on the good.  Read good books, watch good movies, listen to good music, think good thoughts.  But Denn, don’t but Denn me.  A number of years ago a  survey showed that the majority of Americans thought that there was too much sex and violence on Television, at the same time the two highest rated shows were CSI and Desperate House Wives.  You scoop fire into your lap you will get burned. 
For just a minute think about what you have watched, read and listened to this week, how does it stack up?  And I know that you can’t isolate yourself completely from the world.  But if you were able to weigh on a scale the amount of garbage that you subject yourself to on a daily basis and then on the other side you placed the good stuff, the stuff that is right and good that you take in.  Which way would the scale tip? 
The scriptures are full of the things you should be doing, and as we’ve often noted if you spend all your time doing the dos, you won’t have time to do the don’ts. The slide that’s been up on the screen a couple of times this morning makes some suggestions about what our thought life should look like, did you catch it when it was up?  True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy think about these things.  What do you think? A pretty good description about what goes on between your ears?  It should be.   
Instead of focusing on what you are supposed to avoid, what you are supposed to run from set your eyes on what you are supposed to follow.  Those things that are right and good, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 
And all the kids in the story had to do was follow the advice of the fish.  Time and time again he warned them.  God doesn’t leave us alone, instead he provides us with his word and His Spirit.  But we can choice to listen to God’s direction or ignore God’s direction. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.

3) There are Times You Should fight.  Do you know there are people out there who don’t believe what you believe?  There are people out there who will actually mock our beliefs.  That’s a given, Jesus told us it would happen, Paul told us it would happen, Peter told us it would happen, James told us it would happen.  We’d be foolish if we thought we would be immune. 
And when we are confronted by people and situations like that we have a couple of options.  Actually there are at least three options and we’ve looked at a couple of them so far.  We can flee from them, just walk away.  We can follow them and decide that maybe they are right and we are wrong, or we can fight.
But who or what are we supposed to fight?  The last major fight that the church seemed to be involved in was the same sex marriage issue.  But we can see in the news from time to time how the church fights to keep prayer in school and the Ten Commandments in public buildings in the States and Christ in school Christmas presentations.
Is that what Paul was talking about when he said to fight the good fight?  Was he telling us to fight for what we believe in so that our society will be a “Christian society”? I’m not so sure? 
I mean when the Taliban tries to enforce their view of Islam in Afghanistan we say it’s a bad thing.  And we can’t understand why secular countries throughout the Middle East enforce Sharia law.    
If one of Paul’s goals was to fight to change society the early church did a dismal job and Jesus did a worse job.  The only way the early church tried to make society better was by making individual people better.  And if we look at history we discover that society changes when people change, not the other way around. 
And so if this is not about fighting the big fight, you know the fight to keep society intact and the institution of marriage safe what are we supposed to be fighting?  Here are more of Paul’s words to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:18 Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles.
Again with the fighting, but what are the Lord’s battles?  Paul answers that in the next verse, 1 Timothy 1:19 Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.
The fight we are supposed to be fighting is the fight against evil in our own lives.  We are supposed to be fighting against temptation and sin.  We are supposed to be fighting to maintain our moral purity and integrity.  Not out there but in here, and it is a fight.  You see the fight isn’t to keep trash off of television; the fight is to not watch the trash on television.  The fight isn’t to protect marriage; the fight is to protect our marriages. 
If Satan’s not picking on you maybe it’s because he doesn’t think you are worth picking on because you’re not doing anything for the kingdom.  And if you think maintaining a strong and vital relationship with God isn’t a struggle then maybe that’s because you’re not doing it.
And we need to be taking a stand and saying this is what the church is supposed to believe in.  It’s amazing that we will criticize the liberal churches publicly about their stand in favour of same sex marriages or abortion but we never publicly denounce them for denying the deity of Christ, or the virgin birth or the resurrection.  Those are things worth fighting about and taking a stand for.  
So this week what are the things you are going to run from?  What are the things that you are going to embrace and follow and what are the things you will be willing to fight for?
So let’s go back to a scripture that we looked at earlier, because this is your promise for today and for tomorrow.
1 Corinthians 10:13The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
No let’s personalize it and make it our own, read this with me this morning. 
1 Corinthians 10:13The temptations in my life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than I can stand. When I am tempted, he will show me a way out so that I can endure.

Healthy Vision

This is week six of our health check series and for me it represents the most frightening topic that I've spoken about since the New Year, and that is optical health. Being very honest this morning the thought of losing my sight is frightening. I tend to be a procrastinator about most things, if my dentist didn't book my next appointment when I'm finished with my cleaning, I wouldn't think of it until I had problems, I have a blood work requisition that has been sitting on my dresser since November. I know that I should exercise and I plan on getting on that, maybe next week or definitely the week after that.

Last spring my sister, who is a year older than me, was diagnosed with Glaucoma. I was talking to my optometrist so fast it would make your head spin. When she got me into a specialist and he told me there was no evidence right now that I had the same thing I was over the moon, and when he added that there were some markers that indicated that I might be at risk and recommended that I have a test a couple of times a year that I would have to pay out of pocket I said "sign me up."

And if you were to question me about this fear of blindness I could probably talk about missing the beauty that surround me but bottom line is would be about reading. I literally can't imagine my life without books. Most of you know that we do a third service at the Berkeley each Sunday afternoon and last year one of the ladies who attend our services had a stroke and lost a good portion of her sight and each week she would tell me how much she missed reading. On the other hand another one of the ladies was Agnes DeGarthe who lived to be a hundred and one and was a voracious reader, you very seldom saw Agnes without a book and she never wore glasses.

Most of you didn't realize that I wore glasses until I started wearing them for this series but I have worn glasses since I was a teenager and only started wearing contact lenses about 6 years ago. In the scripture that was read this morning was the story of a man who did not have healthy vision but then he did and that is where we are going to start.

He opened his eyes and it was dark. Panic welled up inside him as he realized that he couldn't see. But then he realized that he had never been able to see that it was just the start to another black, barren day. He felt his way around his room looking for his clothes, getting ready to face a hopeless day begging on the streets. He had long ago surrendered any hope of seeing the things that others saw. He knew that he would never see the sun that he felt on his face, would never view the grass he felt under feet. Never know what a tree looked like or and never see the people that jostled him on a daily basis as they pushed past him on their way through life. He would never be anything but what he was, a poor, blind, beggar in a hard land during a cruel time in history.



And so his day began, no different than any other day that he had spent, no better no worse just a day. And then his day changed because some friends came and took him by the hand and dragged him out of his house, their voices blending together in confusion as they told him of the man Jesus, the one who made the lame to walk and the blind to see. He was here they said, and Jesus could heal him. And so they dragged him through the streets of Bethsaida looking for the one that so many called lord. And then they were there and they pushed him into the carpenter begging that he heal their friend. His voice was soft, but his hands were hard and callused by his years spent working with wood and timber. Jesus spoke quietly to the blind man as he led him out of the crowd and through the city gates. "Where were they going? What did this Jesus want with him?" All he'd wanted was his sight he protested but Jesus continued to lead him by the hand. And then they stopped. And he waited, straining to hear, willing his ears to see the things that his eyes couldn't. Jesus spit, that's right he spit, spit right in his eyes and then laid his hands on him. And, and he could see, he looked around and the colors and shapes and sizes, and movement overwhelmed the blind man he was speechless words couldn't explain or describe what he was seeing. Then he heard the master speak saying "do you see anything." Could he see anything? He could see everything but it was so confusing, "what was the everything he could see" "I see people, they look like trees walking around?" And then Jesus reached out and touched him again and then he realized another miracle had happened because now the confusion was gone, and he knew what everything was.

Think about it, just for a minute. Here was a man who had struggled through his entire life without vision. His entire life revolving around what he could feel and hear. And into his darkness walks Jesus and his life is changed forever. You realize of course that there are far greater blindness's then not being able to see physically. Although being the reader that I am the thought of not being able to see a written page terrifies me more then any other handicap. There is a lesson to be learned here, and it is a whole lot bigger then knowing that Jesus can heal the physically blind. And we are going to use this story as a platform for the concepts that we are going to share as we look at the need for healthy vision in our churches today.

1) Healthy Vision is From God This might be obvious but it needs stating. Blindness had robbed this man of a lot of opportunities in life but it wasn't life threatening as long as he didn't walk off a cliff or into the path of a chariot. He could still walk and talk. He could still love and be loved. Admittedly there were things that he couldn't do, but there were a lot of things that he could do. The problem was that he missed out on so much. Some of it tangible like the ability in that time and culture to earn a living without begging. Other things couldn't have a price tag put on them but they were just as important or even more so. Seeing a sunrise, or sunset. Looking into the eyes of the one you love. Seeing for the first time a new born foal struggle to it's feet, watching God draw a rainbow across the sky. But he was alive. Even if he wasn't living life to the fullest.

The lack of vision doesn't mean that a church is dead. There are a lot of churches out there without a vision that are alive. They function. People are saved and ministered to. But they miss out on so much. Simple things like knowing where they are going so that they can plan ahead in buildings, staff and programs. Major things like knowing what God wants them to do so they can be in the centre of God's will. God has a plan for every church, just like he has a plan for every individual. And if we don't have vision that plan will never be fulfilled. We might do good things but we will never do the best things.

A church without vision is like a man without sight, handicapped. Even though there are lots of things that a blind person can do to cope with that handicap and minimize that handicap it will always be a handicap, and as long as they are blind they will never see. Science is racing to find a way to provide a substitute for sight with guide dogs and ultra sonic devices but they will always be inferior to being able to see.

A church may try to substitute different things for vision. Programs, staff, buildings. They may race ahead embracing every new concept and strategy that comes along, but if they haven't got vision they still can't see where Christ wants them to be. Just as that blind man only enjoyed part of the wonderful creation that God had provided for him churches without a vision often only enjoy a part of God's total plan for them.

The great commission might be a good starting place for the church. The Great Commission was the direction that Jesus gave to the apostles before he left them, but it is as general and generic and no more a vision then Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground."

We need more to guide our lives as individuals then the command to procreate. And in our churches we need to know more than simply; go forth into the entire world.

Too often local churches get confused between the mission of the "church" that is all churches and the specific vision that Christ has for them individually. Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

That is our mission. How we are going to achieve it is our vision.

What about your personal life? You can be alive without having a vision for your life. You can walk and talk and go to class, love and be loved but do you know where you are going. If you don't have vision you are handicapped just as if you were blind.

Have you got a vision for where God wants to take you? Have you got a vision for your spiritual walk? Have you got a vision for where God wants you to be next year or five years from now? And if you have a vision you have to ask yourself is it God's vision? How often are we guilty of doing our will in God's name and then calling it God's will? When you dream and set goals for the future is God even in it? Perhaps you need to let Jesus take you by the hand, lead you away from the hustle and bustle of life and give you vision as only he can.

2) Healthy Vision Is Personal Jesus took the blind man to one side; just the two of them and then Jesus touched the blind man and gave him sight. He didn't touch the blind man's friends he didn't touch the blind man's family he touched the blind man. It didn't matter that everyone around him already had vision this man needed it personally. Nobody else's vision would do. I can't see through your eyes, and the vision and dreams that you have for your life won't do me any good. It's unfortunate that so many churches feel that all they have to do is to adopt the vision of a successful church and then they too will be successful. And so we have a whole bunch of churches trying to operate with the vision to reach the lost that God gave to Bill Hybels at Willow Creek, or to Rick Warren at Saddleback, or Kevin Myers at 12stone or Laurel Buckingham at Moncton

But the vision of those men was given to them by God, for that particular situation. The vision that God has given me for Cornerstone is totally different then the vision he gave me for North Point Wesleyan church or Truro. The vision that God gives to churches is as distinctive as fingerprints. It has to be in order to take into account things like demographics, personal, property, staffing.

The vision that God has given Paul Yongi Cho for reaching Korea, utilizing a church base of a million people and tens of thousands of volunteer lay assistants must be different then the vision that God gave to me almost 17 years ago when we had Angela and I and the two kids getting ready to plant a church.

It doesn't matter if all the other churches around have a vision; the only vision that will help the local church is the local church vision. Not only is the vision of the church unique for that church but it is normally given first to the pastor of that church. Throughout history God has provided a clear vision of where he wants his people to go through a leader.

Whether it was Moses who was given a vision of delivering his people out of Egypt, Joshua who had a vision of taking the promised land, David who had a vision of making Jerusalem the city of God, Solomon who had a vision of building a temple or Gideon who had a vision of freeing Israel from the Midianites.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley had a vision for the common people. We need to realize that the vision is given first to a leader and then through him it is communicated to God's people. And if that vision is the vision for the local church then it will need to come to the local church. A vision for the denomination is great for the denomination but that isn't a local church vision.

It is scary to talk to pastors who have no vision for what God can do in their communities because unless the pastor has a vision then the church can't effectively have a vision. And not only that but it has to be a God given vision. It's not enough to sit down and decide on the vision and dreams that you have for your church if they aren't from God and yet many churches do exactly that embracing human visions and expecting supernatural results. Too many churches use vision like a drunk uses a lamppost! More for support than illumination. They know where they want to go and so they provide a vision to support their direction. And that's not the way it's supposed to be.

What about your personal life? The vision that God gives you will be as distinctive as your fingerprints. You see God has a wonderful plan for your life. And realize that if you are going to get the most out of your life it will only be by following God's plan.

How often do you feel like "God loves me, and everybody else has a wonderful plan for my life."? The bottom line is this if you are going to be happy it will only be when you have God's vision for your life. If I had done what I wanted to do I would have been a politician, if I had of followed what my father wanted me to do I would have been a sailor. There are a lot of people out there who think they know what is best for your future, including you but only God truly does.

3) Healthy Vision Is Perfect have you ever been confused by this particular portion of scripture? You know the story, Jesus spits in the guy's eyes, you say "no pastor he spit on his fingers and then applied it to the man's eyes" uh-huh read it again, Mark 8:23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, "Can you see anything now?"

So he had spit on the man's eyes and laid his hands on him and then he asked him "do you see anything?" And the man responds in Mark 8:24 The man looked around. "Yes," he said, "I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around."

And then Jesus touched him again and he could see properly.

You ever wonder, "How did he know what trees looked like?" Or "were the people really brown with branches and leaves?" Or "how in the world did Jesus mess up that miracle?" The answers are: that what he said was that he saw people, they were walking and they were talking but they didn't match the description that he had in his head, instead they looked like what he thought trees would look like. His vision had been restored but his perception was all wrong.

When Jesus touched him the second time he wasn't fine tuning the first miracle, "well it's obvious we have a problem with the colour contrasts and vertical hold let me, there that should do" instead he was changing the perceptions that the man had of what things should look like.

When Jesus gives us a vision either as a church or as a person they are often coloured by our perceptions. In other words if you perceive church to be six hymns, three prayers, and a fifty minute message all geared to edify the folks who have been on the way and in the way for thirty years. Than the vision that God has given me for Cornerstone might confuse you. I see church but it looks like trees walking around. Often times it isn't that we need to have our vision healed nearly as much as we need to have our perceptions changed. At Cornerstone we have a vision for touching those who are Unchurched and those who have been abused by churches, is that too strong of a term. And because of that we have worked at making church a little friendlier in order to more effective minister to those people.

It means that I need to spend more time in developing and implementing ways of reaching those lost sheep then in coddling the flock. It means that all over again we need to get concerned over winning lost rather than concerned over losing the found. And part of that means that we expect the believers in the church to minister to those people who come to our churches looking for a spiritual healing.

And even though sometimes what we are doing seems out there it really isn't. When we started using music from Hill Songs in Australia in 1995 we were the first church on the Atlantic District to do it, when we launched our website in 1996 we were the only Church on our district with a website, when we started using PowerPoint in 1998 we were the first church in the Atlantic District to use PowerPoint in every service. And now we are just one of any number of Wesleyan Churches that do that. And two years ago when we started broadcasting our services live on the web we were the first church in Halifax and the first Wesleyan Church on our district to it. And we will continue to seek out new and exciting ways to deliver an ageless message.

What is it that we need to do to reach those folks who are indifferent to church? Host a health clinic with area health professionals? Preach a series a messages revolving around CSI or spend half a year looking at 24 Hours in the life of Jesus, how about using Dr. Seuss as a springboard for a series of messages.

You say, "But Denn I want church to be the way I perceive it, with a pulpit, and a communion table and hymn books, singing the hymns I grew up with and having bake sales to raise money." But you have to realize that in order to accommodate the 400 people who call Cornerstone their church home we would have to have church 400 different ways to match each person's perceptions of church. And if you think that is a problem with a larger church it was the same when we only had 40 people. Where two or three are gathered there will be two or three different opinions on what church should look like.

In the same way we can have a faulty perception of what life is supposed to be like. If we view life as making us "healthy, wealthy and wise." And figure that we'll never have problems or pain or grief then the life that Jesus gives us will never match up to the perceptions that we have. It isn't that our life is wrong it's our perceptions of what our life should be like that are wrong.

The vision that Jesus gave to the blind man was perfect vision in Mark 8:25 Then Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.

He was neither near sighted nor far sighted. The church that can see where God wants it to be in 10 years without being able to see tomorrow doesn't have perfect vision. The person who knows where God wants them without knowing how to get there doesn't have perfect vision. How about it, has Jesus touched you and given you vision? Or maybe you need to have your perceptions changed and healed.

So how do we protect our the health of our vision? Good question, and one I asked my optometrist. And the answer were all things that we can do: Make sure that you have regular eye exams, not just eye screenings where they check your vision but eye exams where they check the health of your eyes. A thorough eye exam can also catch diabetes, blood pressure problems and skin cancer. Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from UV damage, wear eye protection when you are working at anything that might get in your eyes, and quit smoking. Funny how that keeps coming up, want a healthy heart? Quit smoking. Want a healthy mouth? Quit smoking? Want healthy vision? Quit smoking.

You want healthy spiritual vision? Keep your eyes on Jesus, he told us in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

I began by saying that one thing that scares me as a person is to lose my vision, and the thing that scares me more than anything as a pastor is for the church to lose its vision

A Healthy Mouth

This is week five of our Health Check series, and we've looked at a Healthy Body, Healthy Appetites and a Healthy Heart and so this week we are looking at "A Healthy Mouth"

 

It really isn't fair! When I think of Doctors there are a whole slew in the media who come to mind. From my childhood it would have been Marcus Welby MD, as a teen it would be Hawkeye and Trapper John, in my twenties obviously Cliff Huxtable and now . . . I guess it would be House MD. All fine examples and nice people, with the exception of House. Not a nice person but he would be a great doctor, maybe. You ever notice that House and his team can kill their patient three or four times in the run of an hour?

 

But go looking for a dentist in the media and what do you get? Nothing zip, nada and in the movies the only one I can think of is the villain from the "Marathon Man", Dr. Christian Szell, the Nazi Dr. Understand he is listed as one of the top ten movie bad guys of all time but still. . .

 

Through the years our concept of oral health has changed. Dentistry only began being seen as a serious medical practice in the last 150 years or so, before that if you needed a tooth tended to it was a barber or tooth drawer at the market who tended to you.

 

But things began to change in the early 1900's Here is a quote from: Oral Hygiene volume 1, number 1 printed in January 1911 in an article by George Edwin Hunt entitled: What is the Best Way?. "Yesterday practitioners of the healing art said, Let us pray; today they are saying, Let us cure; tomorrow they will be saying, Let us prevent." Years ago we never through of our teeth unless they were giving us problems. It wasn't that long ago that it was recommended that you visit your dentist every two years, now it's every six months and there are reasons for that.

 

People are more conscious than ever about how their teeth look, are they white enough, straight enough, too big or too small? And people spend a lot of money on their teeth, from check-ups and cleanings to whitening and straightenings. From root canals to caps and implants we are obsessed with how their mouths look. And if you visit the oral care section of your local supermarket or pharmacy you are overwhelmed with the plethora of toothpaste and toothbrushes, whitening kits and various types of floss, Listerine used to be the taste people hate twice a day now there are a half a dozen types of Listerine promising stronger teeth, whiter smiles and healthy gums.

 

And our teeth and our smiles aren't' something that people just started noticing. In the Song of Solomon, which if you have missed it is a love song written in the middle of the Bible, the author talks about how white and even his lovers teeth were. Three thousand years ago a person's smile was considered an important attribute. And there is a lot of truth in what was said by Soupy Sales "Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you."

 

But this morning we aren't looking at the appearance of your mouth, as important as that might be, but the health of your mouth. New research is showing more correlations between oral health and the overall health of our bodies. As a matter of fact we now know that there are links between oral health and diabetes, respiratory illness, pre-term, low weight babies and cardiovascular disease. Then there are the direct results of neglecting your oral health, tooth pain, tooth loss and chronic bad breath. And whether you want to admit it or not society as a whole has a slightly lower impression of people with bad teeth.

 

But it's not just our physical mouth that we are talking about this morning, let's talk about the spiritual impact of your oral health, that is what comes out of your mouth. We are warned by Jesus in Matthew 15:11 It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth."

 

And that isn't the only place in the Bible that our tongues and mouths are spoken of. Listen to the words of Solomon in Proverbs 13:3 Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.

Our mouths will reveal as much or more about our Christian character or lack of Christian character then our actions will. The words of our mouth are the most powerful influence in the church and it is able to build people up or tear them down.

 

This may shake some people up but there's a lot more in the bible about gossip then there is about drinking, smoking, gambling, movie going and dancing combined.
They say that the old nature needs to be crucified, well I've met more than one Christian that would benefit from having their tongue nailed to a cross, or at least some of us would benefit.

 

In the scripture that was read this morning you heard the truth of the word of God when James wrote James 3:12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring.

There are things that your dentist can determine about your physical health from your mouth and so here is the question: What does Your Mouth Say about Your Spiritual Health?

 

And so it's not just how you walk but how you talk that will determine the credibility of your Christianity.

 

And so on a day to day basis you are judged not just on your actions but on your words, and on your tone of voice. And you're not just judged by the person you are talking to you are judged by everyone within earshot, and so for just a few moments let's look at what your mouth says about you. Will your mouth betray spiritual flaws, or will it reveal spiritual strengths?

 

Those of you who remember your Old Testament history may recall that Moses sent twelve spies into the promised land to determine whether or not it could be occupied. It was the most beautiful country they had ever seen, it was fertile, it was rich, and they brought back a sample of its produce. And here is their report Numbers 13:27 This was their report to Moses: "We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. The problem was, that numbers 13:28 began with the word but, and with that but, ten of the twelve spies began telling Moses and the children of Israel why they could not possibly go into Canaan, Numbers 13:28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! They recognized the promises of God, but because of their unbelief they were unwilling to claim those promises. 1) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Little Faith You Have

 

Time and time again, we see Christian men and women who have glimpsed what God can do but they don't go any further, not because God can't or won't take them further but because of unbelief in their hearts. The problem that those twelve spies had was summed up in Numbers 13:33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that's what they thought, too!"

 

The spies had come to the conclusion that there was no way they could conquer the promised land by themselves and they were right. But God had never asked them to do it by themselves. And when the Israelites finally entered into the land which God had promised them their journey was a journey of miracles. In Joshua 3, the Jordan stood still, in chapter 6 the city of Jericho fell when on the seventh day after marching around it seven times the people blew their horns and shouted unto the Lord. In chapter ten Joshua called to the Lord and the God made the sun stand still.

 

The children of Israel, knew that there was no way in the world that they could conquer the promised land, and their speech betrayed that fact. But God never implied that they would have to do it by themselves. They talked themselves into defeat. And when we say, "I can't do that" or "we can't do this" we are usually right because we have convinced ourselves that we can't. And worse then that we have convinced ourselves that God can't do it either. Leo Tolstoy had it right when he wrote "We lost because we told ourselves we lost".

 

Because when we are saying as Christians, "it's too hard, it's too long, it's too tough" "I can't get victory over cussing, or drinking, or smoking, or gossiping or my temper." what we are really saying is that it's too hard for God, or too tough for God or too long for God. Don't let your speech betray your lack of belief.

 

But there were Twelve Spies not ten and here is the report of the other two Numbers 14:7-8 They said to all the people of Israel, "The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. 2) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Much Faith You Have

 

Not only did Caleb and Joshua believe that God was able to deliver them into the Promised Land but they were willing to put their faith on the line and verbalize their belief. It's funny but faith often doesn't become reality until it is spoken aloud. In Genesis 1 we see God speaking the world into existence, and through the rest of the creation process we read that God spoke, or God said or God called. Now to be truthful I don't know if it's accountability or if God just wants us to verbalize our belief and faith in him. But I do know this, that we have to get beyond "no I can't" and get to "yes God can!"

 

I can't kick that habit, I can't overcome that sin, I can't love that person, I can't tithe, I can't I can't I can't. But remember Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

 

Again, this is one of those verses that is fun to take out of context. Whenever we are facing difficulty in our personal, academic or business life we trot this one out like some magical mantra. But understand, this is not a name it and claim it verse, a blab it and grab it promise foisted on us by the cargo cults. It's not a genie in a bottle, but it is a promise of empowerment in our Christian walk, it is the promise when we are facing temptation or when we need strength to follow and obey Christ's commands.

 

I believe there is real power in the positive self-talk, not trying to be new agey or uber positive thinking here, not wanting to jump on the "name it claim" it band wagon but we all know how good it feels to be encouraged by others, to hear others tell us they believe in us and believe we can do it, so why shouldn't there be the same encouragement when we hear it from ourselves.

 

Your mouth will not only reveal your faith in God but also in God's greatest creation which you. All goes back to the premise that "God don't make Junk."

 

 

Exodus 14:11-12 and they said to Moses, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, 'Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!' " 3) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Discontent You Are

 

This goes back to the beginning of the story of Israel's escape from Egypt. Moses has led the children of Israel out of Egypt and for the first little while everything was a cake walk. The people were rejoicing and the entire spirit of the journey was one of joy and happiness. Moses was the hero of the day. And he leads them to the shore of the red sea, and as they look out at the angry waves lapping the beach at their feet they chance a look back and here comes the other side. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

That theme of whingeing and whining was to be repeated time and time again as the Jews marched through the wilderness in search of the land of milk and honey.

 

Even when God provided them with a food source that required no more than for them to bend over and pick it up they had complaints.

 

You know what I mean, there are people who are sea sick on the entire journey of life. And wouldn't be happy if they didn't have someone or something to complain about. Don't let your mouth betray your discontentment.

 

In writing to the Christians in Philippi, the apostle Paul says in
Philippians 4:11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. (by the way this is the lead in to Philippians 4:13) 4) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Content You Are

 

Now I want to make one thing perfectly clear, contentment is not complacency.

 

Discontentment tends to rail against things and people, while contentment moves consistently toward Godliness. It is never willing to stand still and be stagnate. We can be content to live in 2011 without becoming complacent toward the evils which surround us, instead we will seek to change them. The content person is the person who says "I believe that God is in control and will seek to serve him regardless of the situation."

 

I am content at Cornerstone Wesleyan Church, I tell you I am happier than a raccoon in a garbage can, I am in hog heaven here. I love you folks; I love the church God has given me. I really do. I am content here but I will not allow that contentment to develop into complacency, contentment must never become an excuse for complacency. Does your speech reveal your contentment with what God is doing in your life?

 

3 John 9-10 I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church. 5) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Nasty You Are

 

I can think of no other one thing that does as much damage within the body of Christ as the words of Christians. But brother I was just sharing sister so and so's problem so that we could pray about it. Uh-huh. Yah right. You got a problem it doesn't go to the person down the street; it doesn't go to the pastor or the board. The scriptures are very plain ifn you got a problem with someone, then you go to that person and you get it straight.

 

It's unfortunate that so many Christians think they've taken a vow of silence when it comes to witnessing and then try to make up for it when they are revealing the faults and weaknesses of brothers and sisters in the Lord. And the nine times out of ten it matters not whether those faults are real or imaginary.

 

Gossip isn't the only problem with our words, another one is candour. And we try to dress this one up and take credit for it. A woman once told Wesley, "I have a talent for always speaking my mind." His response, "that's one talent that would be best buried." It's sometimes too easy to point out a person's shortcomings and sometimes the damage is devastating.

 

It's been said that we need to apply a threefold test to what we say, 1) is it true? 2) is it kind? 3) is it necessary? It would probably help a lot. If we can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.

 

Don't let your mouth betray your lack of love and never underestimate the power of your words, as Eric Idle said "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for hours."

 

Romans 1:8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world.

 

6) Your Mouth Can Reveal How Encouraging You Are

 

It is imperative that we be positive when we talk to and about people. It is so important to hold up people's achievement and give praise where praise is due. As parents we need to verbalize our love for our children and tell them how proud we are of them. Our words mould our children and become self-fulfilling prophesies. And not just your children, but our spouses as well. Husbands tell your wives, wives tell your husbands.

 

How about telling your friends how you feel about them, or your brothers and sisters in the church, or the workers in the church. I'm not talking about flattery I'm talking about sincere praise. Most people can tell the difference.

 

Dale Carnegie wrote "You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime."

 

Let's make a conscious effort to be positive in our comments to one another. To speak up more in praise and encouragement. Everything that happened this morning happened because someone did it. Have you thanked and encouraged someone lately?

 

And here's one I would like to add because I can 7) Your Mouth Can Reveal What a Jerk You Are This is just a short one but it involves cussing. You understand that who you are as a believer will be judged by the words you speak, and who you are as a person will be judged by the words you speak.

 

Profanity and blasphemy doesn't make you a hero it doesn't make you sound grown up, it doesn't make you sound worldly. It makes you sound like a jerk, with no education and no respect for the people around you. When I hear someone use profanity I immediately deduct 30 IQ points and I'm not alone. Remember that is the same mouth you use to kiss your mother.

 

When you start to swear it means that you've lost the argument and can't think of any intelligent reply.

 

So where are you at? What will your mouth reveal about you? Physically we are told that the most important things we can do to have a health mouth is brush and floss, don't have to join a gym, don't have to deprive yourself of your favourite food, just brush and floss.

On the other side of the coin, I have two quotes and a scripture to close Calvin Coolidge was president of the US in the early 1900's and was known by many people as Silent Cal and he said "I have never been hurt by what I have not said."

Dan Quayle was Vice President of the US in the late 1900s and he said "Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

And David was the greatest King to ever serve Israel and his prayer was Psalm 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Let's read that together this morning as our prayer.

 

 

 

A Healthy Heart

(Sound file of heart beat)

Your heart, do you ever stop and think about your heart? It's pretty important. One of the pivotal points when you are expecting is when you can first hear your child's heartbeat. And in all the murder and mayhem shows on TV what's the first thing they do when they discover a body? Sure, check to see if there is a pulse, a heartbeat. Except on Bones, because then it's pretty evident that the person is dead.

And so for many people life begins and ends with their heart. Hardly much bigger than your fist your heart will beat 60 times a minute, 3600 times an hour, 86,400 times a day. And that's just one day, if you live to be 70 then your heart will have beat 25,550 days, do the math. Every minute of our lives the heart pumps over five litres of blood through our bodies, that's over 300 litres of blood an hour, 7,200 litres of blood a day through a network of 96,000 km of arteries, veins and capillaries. And again that is just one day.

But if we move away from the physical it was B.C. Forbes who said "The size of your body is of little account; the size of your brain is of much account; the size of your heart is of the most account of all." And that has nothing to do with the physical size of your heart. When you love someone you love them with all your heart and when they leave they broke your heart. If someone is kind compassionate and loving they have a big heart on the other hand if they are none of those they are heartless.

If you really enjoy the Big Apple you "Heart NY".

Six verses into the bible when God looked at the world and how it had deviated from his will and his way we read in Genesis 6:5 The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

And then the very next verse tells us the result, Genesis 6:6 So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.

This is week four of our health check series and this morning we are looking at "A Healthy Heart." And this is important. The leading cause of hospitalization in Canada continues to be heart disease and stroke, accounting for 16.9 % of total hospitalizations. Heart disease and stroke costs the Canadian economy more than $22.2 billion every year in physician services, hospital costs, lost wages and decreased productivity. That's 22.2 Billion with a B.

And Heart disease is the number one killer in Canada, approximately 30% of Canadians who die this year will die from a heart related condition. Every seven minutes someone will die from heart disease or stroke in Canada. From the time our first service began at 9:00 a.m. until our third service will finish at 3:15 this afternoon statically speaking heart disease will have killed over 40 people in Canada.

And there are some frightening statistics that point to the cause of Heart disease, I read this just recently.

The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians or Americans.

The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians or Americans.

The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians or Americans.

The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians or Americans.

The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Canadians or Americans.

So apparently it is speaking English that will kill you!!!

But the reality is that regardless of what language we speak most of us start with a healthy heart. Oh there are a few anomalies and sometimes you will hear of a child who has been born with a heart problem but for the most part we start with a healthy heart that will do what very few if any man made pumps could do and that is pump continually for up to a hundred years or beyond without having parts replaced.

So how does that relate to us individually as Christ Followers and collectively as his church? Well, the bible, the word of God uses the word heart hundreds of times from the first time it is mentioned in the book of Genesis until the last time it is mentioned in the book of Revelation. And very few of those instances refer to the organ that beats in your chest. Instead it refers to our love, our loyalty and our attitudes, both toward God and toward others.

So let's start with: What Makes a Heart Unhealthy? Most of us have heard of Hardening of the Arteries but there is also a hardening of the heart and it happens as a result of the walls of the heart thickening. Eventually as the cardiac wall becomes thicker the heart muscles in effect become hard and unable to pump blood the way they are supposed to.

In the scriptures we read of people having a hard heart and that means that they are not responsive to God and his will. You might recall way back in the book of Exodus when Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded that the Israelites be set free from the slavery of Egypt that we are told that Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he refused. Exodus 7:13 Pharaoh's heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted. Actually that is one of the stories that has confused me and I'm sure others have been confused as well because when the story begins God tells Moses Exodus 4:21 And the LORD told Moses, "When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go."

And when I first read that, way back when I thought: "That's not fair, God hardened his heart." But then I went back further in the story and discovered God didn't have to do much hardening. Listen to the beginning of the story Exodus 1:8-11 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He said to his people, "Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don't, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country." So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labour. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.

And the story continues in Exodus 1:13-16 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives: "When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live."

Not a nice guy. Augustine wrote "God does not harden men by infusing malice into them, but by not imparting mercy to them." In other words Pharaoh had done so much wrong for so long and had rejected God for so long that the grace that would have soften his heart was not offered to him, and that is scary. But Pharaoh wasn't the only one who is referenced as having a hard heart in the Bible.

 

When we think of Jesus and attributes used to describe him we think: gentle, caring, forgiving and loving. But very seldom do we think of the term angry, if we do it's when he cleared out the temple of the money changers. But there is another time as well and that is in Mark 3:5 He (Jesus) looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. And that wasn't the only case, throughout the gospels Jesus criticized people for having hard hearts.

But what does that mean, having a hard or hardened heart? Paul said this in the letter he wrote to the Ephesians. Ephesians 4:17-19 With the Lord's authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles (unbelievers) do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

To have a hard heart means that you have closed yourself off from God, from his teachings, from his guidance, from his correction and ultimately from his Grace.

Jesus warns us about an unhealthy spiritual heart in Matthew 12:35 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And broadens that out in Matthew 15:19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.

Can it be changed? Yes. In the physical we are told that a change in life style and a change in diet can help restore a diseased heart and it's just as radical in the spiritual sense. Both Jeremiah and Hosea offer the people of Israel similar advice Hosea 10:12 I (God) said, 'Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plough up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.' And in order to break though that hard heart it will require a conscious choice and it will require work, it's not something that comes easy or without effort, if you've ever broken hard ground for a garden then you know exactly what I mean.

But often what is defined as heart disease doesn't have anything to do with the pump itself but with the rest of the mechanism breaks down. Hardened or blocked arteries, clots, and leaky or faulty valves, the plumbing and the electrical.

So if that is what makes a heart unhealthy what is the alternative? What Makes a Heart Healthy? Physically your heart has one job and that is to move blood through your body. And it does that in a spectacular fashion. Your heart pumps on an average 70 times a minute, 4200 times and hour, 108,000 times a day, 36,792,000 times a year. And if you live to be seventy like some of our folks then your heart will have beat some 2,575,440,00 times. And you wonder why you feel tired.

And every time it beats it pumps 2 1/2 ounces of blood through 96,000 kms of arteries, veins and capillaries. And if we were to talk about how much that blood weighed, that is about 9 lbs of blood every minute, almost 550 of blood each hour, 6.5 tons a day, 2333 tons a year, that is 163,278 tons in a seventy year life, or 326,556,160 pounds. And if your heart is able to do its job then it is considered a healthy heart.

Spiritually there are all kinds of scriptures that define what a healthy heart is and does. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. And in his first letter to Timothy Paul defines one of his goals, 1 Timothy 1:5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. And so it would be fair to say that spiritually a healthy heart is a pure heart. Pure in action and pure in motive, that goes back to some of what we talked about in an unhealthy heart. Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 15:19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. And Jesus warns us in Matthew 5:28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. That stuff doesn't sound like it's coming from a pure heart, does it. Remember James tells us in his letter that Salt water and fresh water can't come from the same spring and grapes don't grow on thorn bushes. Is your heart a pure heart? Not only in action but also in motive?

Solomon tells us in Proverbs 14:30 A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; . . . so a healthy heart is a peaceful heart, that probably crosses to the physical as well, if your spiritual and emotional heart is at peace it probably puts less strain on you physical heart.
In the book of Leviticus we are told Leviticus 19:17 "Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives." And in the New Testament John reminds us 1 John 3:15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. Do you have a peaceful heart? It really is a choice, you will forgive or you won't forgive, you will either harbour resentment in your heart or you will let it go. And those things aren't feelings, they are actions, things you do.

David writes in Psalm 9:1 I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvellous things you have done. And in Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. So I think it would be fair to say that a healthy heart is a Praising Heart. It is a heart that gets its focus from praising God and looking outward instead of inward. A healthy heart acknowledges that all we have is from God and gives thanks for that. And we can think to ourselves "Well, really God knows I'm thankful." But that isn't the point, there is something about stating your thanks that makes it real, not necessarily to God but to yourselves. It is an acknowledgment in yourself that you are who you are and you have what you have not by chance or by accident but because God provides all things. We are told in Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Do you realize how incredible fortunate you are? And if you can't think of anything to give thanks for than you definitely have heart problems.

So a healthy heart is a pure heart, a peaceful heart and a praising heart and Jesus sums all of that up in Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'" So bottom line is you know your heart is healthy when you Love God and Love others.

So that brings us to the last question which is How Do We Maintain a Healthy Heart? How do we keep our hearts healthy? The two major things are 1) What we consume, too much and the wrong type of food, excess consumption of alcohol and smoking. And 2) What we do and don't' do. Bottom line and you don't want to hear it any more than I do is that we keep our hearts healthy by our diet and exercise.

People talk about a cure for cancer and yet heart disease kills more people than cancer and we have a cure. And sometimes it takes something dramatic to happen, a heart attack will often cause people to change their lifestyle but sometimes not. In the game called life there are no guarantees, skinny physically fit people sometimes die of heart disease but not as often as those on the other end of the scale.

If you want to reduce your chance of heart disease you will quit smoking, get your weight down to a healthy level and start exercising.

And in our spiritual life if we want to have a healthy heart it boils down to the same too things, what we consume and what we do. Pastor Jason spoke on having healthy appetites last week, what are you feeding your soul on? The things of God or the things of the world? Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. If we could do a spiritual echocardiogram on you what would we find hidden in your heart? Because what you feed on will dictate what is in your heart. You want a good spiritual menu? Try this for a suggestion, Philippians 4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

So if the first step toward having a healthy heart is watching what we consume the second thing is what you do. Jesus talked about this as did the rest of the New Testament writers, your heart is evidenced in your actions. It's not enough to say you love God and love others if that doesn't affect how you live. Time and time again we read that a tree will be judged by its fruit and that salt water and fresh water can't come from the same spring. James reminds his readers in James 2:15-16 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"—but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? And then if they didn't get they didn't get the point he adds James 2:17-18 So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." But I say, "How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds."

What are your deeds saying about your love for God and for others? If people were going to judge your Christian heart by your appetites and your actions what conclusions would they reach? And trust me, people will judge your Christian heart by both your appetites and your actions.

The good news for your physical heart and for your spiritual heart is this: In most cases it's not too late, if you make the decision to do the right things. The question is: Will you?