We have sung about our life being consecrated alone to thy matchless glory, and that is the theme I'd like for us to follow today in the message from God's Word entitled, A Determined Heart. Would you turn with me please to the book of Acts, the eleventh chapter, and focus your attention on the twenty-third verse.
It is talking here about one of the great men of the New Testament days, Barnabas, and it says in verse twenty-three, Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. Barnabas was concerned that these new believers in the city of Antioch with determined or resolute heart remain true to the Lord. You and I usually do what we truly desire to do, don't we?
When we use the statement, but I didn't have time, what we're usually meaning by that is other things seem more important. We determine in our hearts what is important to us, and we normally make our decisions based upon that. Now in light of that truth, I think it's interesting, if not a bit humbling, for us to listen to some of the expressed reasons that all of us perhaps have used from time to time as to why we do or don't do certain things.
I gleaned these from a conversation I had this week with some pastors in this area, and some of them come out of my own experience as well. There was this statement that was heard by one of the pastors in another church. The family said, we didn't come to church last Sunday because it was my wife's birthday. He thought to himself, now what's the deal there? How does that compute? What difference does that make?
Someone else said, we didn't make the services last week because we had company come from out of town. The pastor looked at me and he threw up his hands and he said, but why couldn't the company come too? Or at least they could say, we're going to church tonight, you have the run of the house, the refrigerator is there, make yourselves at home. But our priority is the Lord's house. Another statement, I can't be involved because that's the opening of fishing season.
Got that in just a week ahead of time, didn't I? The kids just aren't interested, so we're not coming on Sunday nights. I remember back a few years when I was a kid and wanted to watch television on Sunday night and my mother and father controlled our home and they said, you're going to church. They're too hard to control and they haven't learned to sit still in church yet. And so the logic seems to be, we'll keep them out of church until they learn to sit still in church.
I can't go on the retreat, I have to work to earn some money. My giving isn't what I'd like it to be, but I have too many other important bills. It's my life, no one else can tell me how to live it. Don't nag me, that's just the way I am, parenthesis and the way I intend to keep being. You're just legalistic. I have the freedom to choose the lifestyle that I want.
And then this statement from students that you hear occasionally, especially those in Christian colleges or schools, these rules are dumb and don't reflect my convictions. If I obey them, I'll be a hypocrite. That is a choice example of rationalization, isn't it? I genuinely thank God, dear people, for the level of commitment to Jesus Christ that is found in our church. I believe that it is far above the average as I listen to other pastor friends of mine.
The fact is that in the Church of Jesus Christ in a broad sense, there are some who are very accustomed however to excusing, pampering, and pleasing themselves, who have become experts at maintaining a comfortable Christianity that sabs the conscience without getting in the way of the life. And these usually are offended if anyone dares question their self-serving priorities. There are some of us who have mastered the art of talking the language without walking the life.
We have learned well the art of being acceptable in polite Christian circles without coming close to the danger of being considered a radical. Frankly, cynicism is the typical response of some professing Christians toward those who are excited about their faith and determined to live without reserves, without regrets, without retreats. I am convicted that we need to awaken to several realities concerning the lukewarmness which characterizes all too much of professing Christianity today.
Reality number one, lukewarm Christianity is nauseating to Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter three, he says, because you are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Literally is what he said. Reality number two, lukewarm Christianity is ineffective in making a positive impact upon our culture. It is impotent at best and destructive at worst.
Reality number three, it is out of step with a long line of faithful servants who have gone before us and laid down their all for the sake of the kingdom of God. Revelation number four, lukewarm Christianity is achieving no significant results nor is it gaining any eternal rewards. I believe that the hour is later than any of us today can possibly imagine.
There are some of us who are living in a Disneyland world with trinkets and toys, joy rides and fantasies, cheap fun and superficial fellowship. While around us the world burns and the coming of Jesus Christ is imminent and our day of opportunity is closing out. The church of Jesus Christ is in desperate need today for people with hearts determined to be true to the Lord.
That was the concern of Barnabas in the city of Antioch and that is God's concern I believe today in the city of Minneapolis St. Paul. For people whose hearts are determined to be true to the Lord. What is a determined or resolute heart? Well the word that is used in the original language means to set before. That's the verb form of it. It is a heart that has set before it a certain purpose or goal. A determined heart is a heart that has purpose to it. It knows what direction it wishes to go.
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter seven and verse 37 is talking about a completely different subject which we don't have time to go into but he uses some phrases in this verse which amplify what a determined or resolute heart means. He says in 1 Corinthians 7 37, but he who stands firm in his heart being under no constraint but has authority over his own will and has decided this in his own heart. You see those phrases? What is a resolute heart?
Well Paul is saying a resolute heart is one that stands firm. It belongs to a person who has authority over his will. A determined heart is one that has decided to do something. A determined heart refers to a predisposition of one's will to take certain actions whatever the consequences may be. I repeat that. A determined heart refers to one that has a predisposition of will to take certain actions whatever the consequences may be. The key to that definition is predisposition.
The predisposition is determined by one's priorities. That is those things that we have said before us that are important. What you and I determined to do will likely get done. There are some illustrations of this in the Bible. I'd like to look at several of them and begin in the Old Testament. So turn back with me please to the book of Ruth. Joshua judges Ruth. And the first chapter of the book of Ruth. You recall the story of Elimelech and his wife Naomi.
They took their two sons and went down to the land of Moab to live. And the two boys got married. And then all the men died. The women were left alone. Naomi determined to go back home to Palestine. One of the daughters-in-law, Orpah, decided to stay with her family in Moab. But the other, Ruth, determined to go with Naomi back to Palestine. Verse 15. And she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Return after your sister-in-law.
But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where did you hear those words last? Probably in a wedding. Beautiful song based upon these words. As though it were sung from a bride to her bridegroom. But actually it was said from a daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law in the biblical context.
And yet the commitment here is a beautiful one for a marriage as well. She goes on to say, Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. Thus may Yahweh, the Lord, Jehovah, do to me, and worse if anything but death parts you and me. When she, Naomi, saw that she, Ruth, was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So my first illustration of a determined heart is this young woman, Ruth. Her priority was that of identifying and staying with Naomi.
Now why did she want to do that? She wanted to care for her mother-in-law for one reason. That's clear. What happens following this? She wanted also to be identified with the people of Israel. But most importantly, she wanted to be identified with Yahweh, the God of the Israelites. She had come to believe in the God of Naomi. Therefore she had a priority of staying with her mother-in-law, whatever the cost might be. Therefore she would not leave Naomi.
She was willing to forsake her home, her family, her culture, her familiar things to do what was important to her. As I think of that description, I think of a missionary.
Someone who has set it as a priority of his heart to tell the tribes and the peoples that have never heard, where there is not a viable work of Jesus Christ in some other culture, and who because of that priority determines in his heart or her heart that they will go and leave behind culture and family and familiar things and home to get the job done. But not only in that application, but in many applications that could come to this congregation this morning.
How is it that you and I need to be like Ruth? Set the priority in our heart and determine in our hearts that we are going to pay whatever the cost may be to do the job that God has called us to do, to be what God has called us to be. Turn with me please to 1 Kings and the fifth chapter.
Now we come to Solomon, 1 Kings 5 and verse 2, who sent word to Hiram saying, You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars which surrounded him until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And behold I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God.
As the Lord spoke to David my father saying, Your son whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for my name. What is the priority? What is the predisposition of the heart of Solomon? It is the word that God gave to his father. That word rang in his heart that God had said to David, Your son will sit in your place and will build a house. And Solomon in these early years at least of his reign set that before him.
That was his priority to do what God told him to do in the word. Because of that he had a determined heart. He said, I intend to build this house. And now he writes to Hiram that he might employ his services in helping to get the job done. Here is a man with a determined heart. God make many of us follow in his train. Turn over with me please to the book of Daniel. How could we talk about a determined heart and skip Daniel?
You recall the story of Daniel and his friends who were taken from their homeland to far off Babylon. There they were made eunuchs. They were set aside for special service to the king of Babylon. And to prepare them for this. The one who was charged for their care gave them a special menu. And that was a menu directly from the king's house. They would have the very best of all of the food of Babylon to help prepare them for standing before the king. But in verse 8, Daniel made up his mind.
Or as the King James puts, I like it better. So purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank. So he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. What was Daniel's priority? Just to be different? No. Daniel's predisposition of heart was to keep the law of the Lord his God. The laws dealing with diet. He was determined that he might obey what God said in his word.
And because that was the determination of his heart, he refused to defile himself or to compromise himself with something that would seem as innocent as food put on the table. What was wrong with that food? It was not prepared according to the Jewish dietary laws. Or as we might say it today, it was not kosher food. But wait a minute. He's hundreds of miles from Palestine. There is no more government in Judah of Israel. I mean, who's going to know?
And what difference does it make at this point when his culture has been destroyed? Or so it would seem by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. It made no difference to Daniel. The historical circumstances he lived through did not change the abiding word of God. He said it was a priority to do what God said and he made the decision, a hard decision, to say no to the food that was put before him.
Now he did that in a very tactful way which you undoubtedly are familiar with, or if you're not you can read it on your own. He was not willing to compromise himself whatever the cost may have been to him. Now there are other examples of Daniel's heart. But let's move ahead to the New Testament to Luke in the ninth chapter.
Here we have none other than the Son of God Himself who in the Gospel of Luke has been moving toward Jerusalem, toward the climax of the offering of Himself for the sins of many. And it says in verse 51 of Luke 9, and it came about when the days were approaching for His ascension that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem. What is the priority of our Savior at this point? It is the priority that He had from the moment of His birth, the cross.
That was the reason He was sent into the world. That is the predisposition of His mind. Everything was aimed to the cross, the reason that He was here. And now as the days become few before the cross, as He sees it looming there on the horizon as it were in the city of Jerusalem where He's headed, He resolutely set His face. One translation says that it was like a flint that He set His face in fulfillment of what Isaiah said regarding Him.
Like a rock, His face was set toward Jerusalem and nothing would keep Him from that city and what He was to accomplish there. A determined heart. Then one final example is the great Apostle Paul. It was to Timothy that the Apostle wrote the words, you have followed my purpose. Now there were numbers of other things in that list that Timothy had followed, but one of the things that Paul commended Timothy for was that Timothy had become a man of purpose.
Second Timothy 3.10, you have followed my purpose. Now what kinds of purposes did Paul have? Well look first in Romans chapter 1. It seems very mundane and yet I think it's important. Romans 1.13 he says, and I do not want you to be unaware brethren that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented thus far. The Apostle Paul planned his ministry. There are some folks who have the idea regarding ministry that there should be no plan. We should just kind of roll with the punches.
But I see here an Apostle who said, this is what I planned to do. I said before me these goals. I didn't always accomplish them. Here he was prevented from coming to them as he had planned to do and he makes it clear in other places that it was Satan who had hindered him. But he had plans. He had plans regarding his ministry. He was determined to do something in terms of itinerary, in terms of preaching, in terms of reaching people. He had a plan.
What an example that is to us as a church and what our future holds and in us individually in our own personal ministry that God has for us. What are we planning to do in the next 25 years with our lives or the next 10 years or 40 years? You say, well we don't know how much time we have. We don't know how much time we have to do, but we are to plan nonetheless. And then 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
Here we see another determination of the Apostle. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul was riding to a city that prided itself in human wisdom, in philosophy, human learning, and intellect. Paul being one of the most educated and brilliant men of his day could have gone there and snowed them on a human level if he had wanted to do that, if that had been the determination of his heart, but it wasn't.
His priority was the gospel. And he said, I determined there in your midst to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, which was to the average person there in Corinth foolish and weak. But Paul said, that was my priority and my message among you. And so not only did he have a priority and a determination regarding where he was going to go and what he was going to do, but he had a determination of what he was going to say. It was the message of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins.
And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, we have another occasion when the Apostle speaks about purpose and determination. Regarding giving, the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 6, now this I say, he who sows sparingly, that is he who gives sparingly, shall also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And so in this matter of giving, the Apostle Paul lays down as a principle that is to be as one purposes or determines in his heart. I am to plan what I am to give. I am to purpose and determine what by God's grace I am going to do. That's a principle of our giving. Now as you think about these illustrations that we've talked about, consider with me that the determination of one's heart affects personal plans such as Ruth. It affects projects like Solomon. It affects lifestyle like Daniel.
It affects life goals like Jesus. It affects ministry plans like Paul. It affects the message we proclaim as in Paul. And it affects our stewardship as Paul exhorts here. A determined heart, I say to you, is absolutely a foundation of our Christian experience. And what we are determined to do, we usually will do. We are at a point in our church when our heart's purposes will be manifested by our responses.
Our priorities, our resolve, our determination will affect what we do and the commitments that we make over the next two weeks as we come now to the climax of sharing the vision. I say again that it is our priorities, our determination, our resolve that will affect what we do individually and the commitments that we make in praying, giving, and serving over the next two weeks when we'll have the opportunity to make those commitments. I believe the challenge that is before us today is immense.
It is the challenge of a determined heart, a heart that has the right predisposition so that what it determines to do is the right thing. If the predisposition of my heart is worldly and self-centered, then my heart's determination is going to be in those directions. But if the predisposition of my heart is to serve and please Jesus Christ as Lord, as the preeminent one, then that too is going to affect what I determine with my heart I will do.
I think the challenge to us today is not unlike that which Joshua voiced back in the book that bears his name. Would you turn again to the book, the Old Testament, to the book of Joshua this time, the 24th chapter. Joshua gathered the people together. He was their leader at this point. The mantle had been passed to him by Moses years before this. Now they have entered the land. They have conquered at least part of it.
They have begun establishing their own civilization, their own culture there in Palestine. And he gathers the people together, and this is what he says among other things as we begin reading in verse 14, Joshua 24. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He gathered the people together in a time when their religion, their faith was becoming lukewarm. And he said to them, people, choose who you will serve.
If it is disagreeable to serve the Lord, then serve the false gods. But he said, as for me and for my house, we are going to serve God. We will serve the Lord. I believe that's where some of us are today. It's decision time, folks. As a friend of mine said to me, it's time to fish or cut bait. We're at that point when we need to decide what direction we really are going, whose it is we really belong to, what our priorities really are.
We can no longer afford just to go through motions, use language, show up at the right time, say the right things. It's time now to decide whose we are and whom it is we will serve, the Lord or ourselves. It's time for us to examine our hearts to see what influence is there. What are our hearts predisposed to do? What are the things that determine what we do, where we go? What are the bottom lines in our life? What are the things that really matter? How do we measure what is important?
The answer to those kinds of questions will mold and shape what your heart, my heart, determines to do. If there is an ungodly and worldly priority in our lives, then our hearts are going to determine those kinds of things. And we'll be robbed of a life of maximum usefulness to God. And our need is to repent. That was the message that Jesus had to the church at Laodicea, whom He threatened to spew from His mouth. He said to them, repent and return.
It may be that like a sheep that has wandered off and gotten caught in a thicket somewhere, you today are crying out, miserable and lost and separated. The Good Shepherd today is seeking you for your good because His heart beats for you. He loves you. He wants to return you today to the fold. Will you cry out to Him? Will you allow Him to rescue you, to bring you back to Himself? Will you repent? Will you establish today the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
Will you test your priorities, your heart's determination against His Word? We need to realize that it is the blessing of the Lord that rests upon those who serve Him with a determined heart. Consider Ruth. This Gentile woman came into the line of a Jewish Messiah and is named as a part of His genealogy because of a determined heart. She said to her mother-in-law, where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your God will be my God.
Because of that determined heart, her name is listed in Matthew as one of the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon, with a determined heart, he built that temple. There was not a king in all of the world that had greater glory than Solomon did in his day. And Daniel, the man who determined not to compromise his lifestyle, that man became the prime minister of the whole pagan nation of Babylon. He influenced a whole culture because he was willing to stand alone with a determined heart.
And Jesus, what need we say? With a determined heart, he went to Jerusalem and laid down his life for our sins that we might be saved from hell. Then the apostle Paul, who with a determined heart served Jesus Christ, what of him? Well, he became the human author of 13 books in the New Testament. He became the apostle to the Gentiles. The man who at his execution in Rome was able to say, I have fought the fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
And I submit to you, there is not a greater statement that any man or woman could make on his deathbed than that. It's time today to choose whom it is we will serve. Oh, may it be God so that we may experience his blessing and glorify his great name. Let's pray together. What is your heart determined to do? That's going to tell whether you'll be at the banquet next Sunday night, whether you'll participate in the cluster meetings.
That's going to influence the decisions you make on the cards regarding serving, praying, and giving in the next couple of weeks. It's time today for us to choose whom we will serve. Will you renew your determination of heart to serve Jesus Christ? Will you say to him today, Jesus, I declare you Lord the number one priority, the preeminent one in my life. Because of that, my heart is determined to do what you want me to do and to be what you want me to be. Will you renew that lordship today?
It may not have lapsed. It may be that you have sat through this message knowing that he is Lord. By the uplifted hand, will you say right now, yes, my hand is up to Jesus Christ. I am saying to him by this action of my body, he is Lord. Will you lift your hand? No one is looking around, including me. Alice, put them down. My friend, if you could not lift your hand, is it because you're not a believer? You've not trusted the Savior. Will you do it today?
Is it because you are a lukewarm Christian? If you're lukewarm, you need to examine your heart whether you'd be in the faith. That's what the Word of God says. There is no confidence regarding salvation in a lukewarm Christian. There is no reason for security in a lukewarm Christian. Choose you today whom you will serve. Lord we only have one shot at life as we sang before we began the message. We forget that.
We think that we somehow are going to last on and on and on how soon we become the missing face. We are the one that is taken. Lord remind us, I pray, of the brevity of life, the soonness of the coming of the Savior, the critical nature of the hour in which we live. A weakness, I pray, to the realities that we need to see in this day. Make us each one a person with a determined heart to be true to the Lord.
Encourage us in that direction today, helping us to realize that when we make that determination by your grace there is reward, there is blessing. May that be our experience not only in this life but in that which is to come. Lord give us, I pray, to follow, to follow after Ruth and Solomon and Daniel and Paul and our Lord Jesus in this matter of a determined heart. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.