A Change of Heart
Memory Verse
(Matthew 5:13, 14,16 GNT) You are like salt for the whole human race… You are like light for the whole
world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid… In the same way your light must shine before people, so that
they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.
An Unchanged World
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Bent towards the wrong things.
(Psalm 51:5 NIV) Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
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Broken and hurting.
(Proverbs 14:10 NIV) Each heart knows its own bitterness.
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Backwards.
(Isaiah 53: 6 NIV) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.
(Genesis 4:7 NASB) If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is
crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.
A Change of Heart
(Matthew 4:19 NASB) "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
(Jonah 1:1-3 NLT) The lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of
Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got
up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where
he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the lord
by sailing to Tarshish.
(Jonah 3:5 NLT) The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they
declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.
(Jonah 3:10 NIV) When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and
did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
(Jonah 4:1-4 NIV) But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t
this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew
that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents
from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord
replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
1.
Relevant
(Romans 15:4 NLT) “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us [today], so that
through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
2.
Authentic
(Matthew 26:37-38 NIV) He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be
sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Stay here and keep watch with me.”
3.
Enjoyable
(Mark 10:14-16 NIV) “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child
will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
4.
Accepting
(John 8:10-11 NIV) Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one
condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and
leave your life of sin.”
(Romans 15:7 NLT) “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.”
5.
Powerful
(Romans 15:19 NLT) “They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the
power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ.”