Anna Moore: So much.
Anna Moore: Those are two really good songs.
Anna Moore: And thank you for going with the theme on those.
Anna Moore: I haven't heard that first song in a long time.
Anna Moore: It was it was really lovely to sing that.
Anna Moore: So thank you.
Anna Moore: I'm Anna Moore.
Anna Moore: I'm happy to be here.
Anna Moore: Just honored that Royal would call and ask me to do this and have been looking forward to it for a long time.
Anna Moore: It's really great seeing some familiar faces and then meeting some new ones already tonight.
Anna Moore: And I look forward to getting to know some more of you tomorrow.
Anna Moore: Um we uh yeah, it's uh it's always it's always tough on a Friday night, and I'm really happy to see you.
Anna Moore: When you come into a conference or a retreat on a Friday night, you're tired, but you've been refreshed with sweet treats that were absolutely delicious.
Anna Moore: I love how you cut them so small so that we didn't feel so guilty eating multiple ones of them.
Anna Moore: And we got to taste them all, and they were delicious.
Anna Moore: Thank you for that.
Anna Moore: We've had sweet fellowship, and now I hope we have a great time around the word.
Anna Moore: So let me pray as we begin.
Anna Moore: Father, thank you for these ladies that have come out after a long week and I'm sure are tired.
Anna Moore: Lord, would you just refresh us tonight as we listen to your word, as we fellowship together?
Anna Moore: Thank you for the hard work that's gone into planning this conference.
Anna Moore: Thank you for all of the ladies on the ministry team that did this, Lord.
Anna Moore: How beautiful it is for us to come and enjoy.
Anna Moore: And now, Lord, help us to focus as we listen to your word, as I teach your word, God.
Anna Moore: I pray that you would cause me to rely upon you and help me to say what you want me to say and not say what you do not want me to say.
Anna Moore: And Lord, please just cause us to have open ears and open eyes and an open heart because of you tonight.
Anna Moore: May we leave here different than when we came.
Anna Moore: Uh may we leave here changed.
Anna Moore: In Jesus' name I pray.
Anna Moore: Amen.
Anna Moore: So you have that handout.
Anna Moore: I I am blown away.
Anna Moore: That's like first class stuff that I've never seen before, this packet.
Anna Moore: So uh just for the sheer fact that it is so nice, why don't you just use it tonight?
Anna Moore: I don't know.
Anna Moore: Maybe it's too pretty to write in or something.
Anna Moore: But yeah, if you are accustomed to following along with a handout or want to write or take notes, you have a lovely space to do that.
Anna Moore: So please do so.
Anna Moore: Some of the verses will be on the screen.
Anna Moore: Matthias has been so great to take those, and because I'm not technologically savvy and has put those up.
Anna Moore: Some of them I'm gonna say will not be behind me.
Anna Moore: Some you have on your handouts, some maybe not, but listen attentively as you do hear the word tonight.
Anna Moore: Hopefully, we will have lots of verses, lots of scripture throughout our lessons, and um, and so make note of those.
Anna Moore: Um and and we, yeah, we'll we will we will get through tonight and have two great sessions tomorrow, I hope.
Anna Moore: A wonderful day, lots of good small group time.
Anna Moore: I love that as well.
Anna Moore: Royal did say if I wanted to tell a little bit more um about myself, Ed and I have we actually met at the University of Georgia.
Anna Moore: I'm a Georgia native, Go Dogs.
Anna Moore: Anybody in here care about college football?
Anna Moore: I don't know.
Anna Moore: All right, and um, but Ed is from Western Pennsylvania.
Anna Moore: However, he met a girl on a campus crusade summer project way, way back in the early 80s, uh, that was from Georgia.
Anna Moore: So he decided to transfer from the University of Pittsburgh to the University of Georgia.
Anna Moore: That girl was not me, but thankfully that did not that did not work out.
Anna Moore: And I yeah, the Lord brought us together in his providence down there.
Anna Moore: So um, but we are we have uh enjoyed being at North Shore for these uh last 33 years.
Anna Moore: So very, very happy to um be continuing in the ministry there and thankful for what the Lord is doing in our evangelical community in this area, this region, it's really so encouraging to see churches that are strong, gospel preaching, Bible teaching churches.
Anna Moore: So thankful, very thankful for New Hyde Park Baptist Church for many, many years.
Anna Moore: Um, all right.
Anna Moore: How many of you watch home improvement or renovation shows?
Anna Moore: You have some that you like.
Anna Moore: Boy, I hope so.
Anna Moore: Somebody raise your hand.
Anna Moore: Okay.
Anna Moore: Well, if you're like me, and I'm totally dating myself on this one, but you would watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Anna Moore: I don't even know if that still exists.
Anna Moore: I think they tried to revive it at one point.
Anna Moore: But there are plenty of them out there, many that are you know popular today.
Anna Moore: Some of them start with a dilapidated house, like it they just totally demolish it, and then they build a new one.
Anna Moore: Some remodel a specific room, like a bathroom or a kitchen, maybe the yard or the deck or the you know pool area outdoors, whatever.
Anna Moore: And in two days or two weeks or two months, all of a sudden you have this finished product, a totally renovated, beautifully decorated, whatever.
Anna Moore: And it just appears on the screen for you.
Anna Moore: But we're not dealing with a house here, we're dealing with our lives, our hearts to be more specific, the heart of a godly woman, and that's what this weekend is about.
Anna Moore: It's the extreme makeover heart edition instead of home edition.
Anna Moore: So tonight we're gonna look at God's word, the Bible, and we're gonna see what our heart actually is, what God has to say about it, and we're gonna look to him who is the only one who can change a heart for his glory and for our good.
Anna Moore: Tonight we're gonna lay some theological groundwork, if you will, for the more practical lessons that we will have tomorrow.
Anna Moore: And just as on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, some of you may need a complete heart transplant tonight.
Anna Moore: Removing the old, making something brand new.
Anna Moore: But some of you may only need some renovations and a little remodeling.
Anna Moore: But whatever the case, I believe that a sovereign God has brought us all to this place at this time for his purposes.
Anna Moore: And our first order of business on your outline is Roman numeral one.
Anna Moore: What is the heart and why is it so important?
Anna Moore: Well, to clarify, we are not talking about the four-chambered muscle that's pumping blood through your body.
Anna Moore: Actually, just yesterday fittingly, I went for some routine medical tests.
Anna Moore: Thankfully, nothing wrong.
Anna Moore: And I had an echocardiogram.
Anna Moore: Have you ever had one of those where they're doing like the sonogram ultrasound on your heart?
Anna Moore: Wow.
Anna Moore: I thought, first of all, how appropriate when I'm about to teach this lesson that I have this illustration, but how fascinating to listen to my own heart beating and to see the four chambers on the screen of my heart.
Anna Moore: And it just, I mean, praise God, our creator.
Anna Moore: I just thought, how can anybody, I don't know the spiritual condition of the gentleman that was the, you know, the technician, how could anybody do that and not believe that there is a God?
Anna Moore: It was just amazing.
Anna Moore: But ladies, that's not, we're not talking about that organ tonight.
Anna Moore: We are talking actually about our heart, as we know, is the seat of our emotions of all human operations of human life.
Anna Moore: Easton's Bible Dictionary says the heart is the center not only of spiritual activity, but all the operations of human life.
Anna Moore: Last week, Christina Cook did a great job speaking to our ladies at North Shore Baptist Church, and she did a much better job of like breaking down the Greek word and telling all about the heart.
Anna Moore: So you can listen to that on our website if you want a better explanation of heart stuff like that.
Anna Moore: But often you will hear the heart described as our mind, our will, and our emotions all wrapped up in one.
Anna Moore: There's a wonderful sermon I found by Charles Spurgeon titled The Heart of Flesh.
Anna Moore: And Spurgeon says, the heart is the ruling power of manhood.
Anna Moore: If the heart is renewed, the judgment will before long follow in the same track.
Anna Moore: But as long as the heart is wrong, the affections govern the will and bias the character of the man towards evil.
Anna Moore: Great quote.
Anna Moore: So, ladies, we see that our hearts are extremely important.
Anna Moore: And having a right heart is extremely important.
Anna Moore: And we need to take matters of the heart very seriously because God does.
Anna Moore: So let's see what he says in his word about our hearts.
Anna Moore: In Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26, he says, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: So what is this heart of stone, and why would we want it out or need it out?
Anna Moore: Roman numeral 2, the heart of stone.
Anna Moore: And I happen to have a heart of stone tonight.
Anna Moore: This came from, I was talking to some of the sisters from Jamaica, and I said, Oh, you're gonna love the lesson tonight.
Anna Moore: Listen carefully.
Anna Moore: You'll get a Jamaica illustration.
Anna Moore: About 20 years ago on our mission trip, we've gone there in the same area, worked with the same pastor, same church, churches there for about 35 years, a long time, and since 1989.
Anna Moore: What did you say that was?
Anna Moore: How many years ago was that?
Anna Moore: I don't know.
Anna Moore: Anyway, the this came from Orange Bay, uh, Jamaica on the beach, and one of the kids on the mission team found it.
Anna Moore: And they're collecting shells, and they're like, wow, look at that.
Anna Moore: And I said, Wow, look at that, is right.
Anna Moore: That is such a perfect illustration of our heart, and it is so hard.
Anna Moore: You could come feel it.
Anna Moore: It is a stone, a hard heart, a heart of stone.
Anna Moore: And it's the perfect illustration that I've been able to use all of these years.
Anna Moore: I did take it away from that child.
Anna Moore: I did let them keep their shells, however, to go home with.
Anna Moore: But I took this thing home.
Anna Moore: So, as it was just too good of an illustration.
Anna Moore: Um, without Christ, ladies, without a supernatural transformation, this is our heart.
Anna Moore: It's just like this rock from Jamaica.
Anna Moore: Hard hearts, stony hearts.
Anna Moore: The heart of a man is dead.
Anna Moore: There's no sensitivity, there is only a propensity to do evil.
Anna Moore: Now you've got to get this point, or nothing else will make sense.
Anna Moore: We are totally depraved.
Anna Moore: And you say, you just acknowledge that we had a long, hard week, and I came here and gave up my weekend for you to tell me that I am totally depraved.
Anna Moore: You say, I'm not that bad.
Anna Moore: Well, let me define before you get too upset.
Anna Moore: Let me define total depravity.
Anna Moore: Total depravity does not mean that we are as bad as we possibly could be, it means that our whole being is infected with sin.
Anna Moore: Like every area of us got infected with sin at the fall.
Anna Moore: And within us lies the propensity to do more evil than we could ever imagine.
Anna Moore: Take Romans 3, 10 through 12 as your proof.
Anna Moore: As it is written, none is righteous, know not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside.
Anna Moore: Together they have become worthless.
Anna Moore: No one does good, not even one.
Anna Moore: I love it in scripture.
Anna Moore: Some I guess sometimes I don't love it, but it's very helpful in scripture when you see very clearly from that passage, there's no way to wiggle out of that.
Anna Moore: None, no, not one, no one, no one, all, no one, not even one.
Anna Moore: And you're probably familiar with Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Anna Moore: So, ladies, no one is exempt from sin from this stony heart.
Anna Moore: Every one of us is born with a hard, dead, stony heart.
Anna Moore: What does the Bible say about our hearts?
Anna Moore: Jeremiah 17, 9.
Anna Moore: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
Anna Moore: Who can understand it?
Anna Moore: We cannot trust our hearts.
Anna Moore: Follow your heart is really bad advice to give to someone.
Anna Moore: Did you know that you know more about yourself than anyone?
Anna Moore: But you don't truly know yourself.
Anna Moore: According to Scripture, you are more wicked than you know, you're more wicked than you think you are, and we don't even have the capability of knowing how wicked we really are.
Anna Moore: You and I are so wicked that in order to redeem us, the perfect one, Jesus Christ, God's only Son, had to leave the splendors of heaven to come to this wicked earth to die a cruel death on the cross to forgive us of our sins and to appease the wrath of a holy God.
Anna Moore: Let me ask you a question tonight.
Anna Moore: I do not know most of you.
Anna Moore: Do you see yourself as wicked?
Anna Moore: Unless and until you see yourself as God sees you, you will never look to Christ, the mediator.
Anna Moore: Because why would you need him if you don't see yourself as wicked?
Anna Moore: Some may listen to this hard-hearted explanation and say, Well, it doesn't apply to me, Anna, because I've got a really soft or tender heart.
Anna Moore: So let's look at the difference.
Anna Moore: Look at Roman numeral three: the soft heart versus the heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: You say, I cry at Hallmark Christmas movies.
Anna Moore: Well, I happen to cry at those, and I cry when I see them do the big reveals on the renovation shows.
Anna Moore: It just takes my breath away.
Anna Moore: I don't know.
Anna Moore: You may take in stray pets, to see your child's suffering breaks your heart.
Anna Moore: I understand all of those things, but that's not what it means to have a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: It's not bad to be emotional or tenderhearted.
Anna Moore: That's a good thing, but it's not the same as the heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: The Bible is talking about.
Anna Moore: And here's a very scary thought.
Anna Moore: Matthew 15, 8 says, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Anna Moore: So let's take it into the church realm or to the things of God.
Anna Moore: Just because you are emotionally moved by a worship service on Sunday morning and the great music and the accurate preaching, and you can say all the right things, that's not the true measurement of a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: I know ladies that will cry and be so moved by a Sunday morning service or a conference like this one.
Anna Moore: They give God lip service, but there's no heart service.
Anna Moore: There's no change.
Anna Moore: Now, please do not think that I want or that God wants you to sit unmoved during this during this conference as the spirit moves.
Anna Moore: I'm not asking you to sit here and listen like the rock of Gibraltar or to sing with a stiff upper lip.
Anna Moore: That's not what I'm asking.
Anna Moore: Because you may even see me cry and get emotional.
Anna Moore: Sensitivity to the spirit is a good thing, and it will often lead to being emotional.
Anna Moore: But you see, ladies, here's the key.
Anna Moore: It's not just emotion, it's not just those soft, tender feelings, although they can be good, but a heart of flesh is one that conforms in word and deed to the will of God.
Anna Moore: I'm going to repeat that.
Anna Moore: A heart of flesh is one that conforms in word and deed to the will of God.
Anna Moore: Not one that just talks the talk and cries buckets, but one that is a doer of the word.
Anna Moore: James 1, 22 through 24 says, But be what?
Anna Moore: Doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Anna Moore: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
Anna Moore: For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once he forgets what he was like.
Anna Moore: There's that word deceiving again.
Anna Moore: Just like in Jeremiah 17, 9, we are easily deceived by other people.
Anna Moore: And guess what, ladies?
Anna Moore: We're easily deceived by ourselves.
Anna Moore: We're gonna look more later at what this heart of flesh in obedience looks like for a Christian.
Anna Moore: But for now, remember, we're building that foundation, we're laying the theological groundwork.
Anna Moore: Number four, Roman numeral four.
Anna Moore: A heart of flesh is a work of God.
Anna Moore: We cannot muster up a soft heart, meaning a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: I don't want, I'm using these terms kind of interchangeably, so I don't want to confuse the issue.
Anna Moore: When I'm saying a soft heart here, I'm talking about the heart of flesh, soft versus hard.
Anna Moore: We can't muster up this soft heart, this heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: We can muster up emotions and tender feelings, but remember it's more than emotionalism, and it doesn't matter how hard we try on this, we're never going to be able to uh to muster up our heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: You know how on some of the home improvement shows, the homeowners actually help with the demolition and the renovation, and they'll pull them in for you'll see them painting and sawing and sledgehammer demoing, you know, like that's but they'll always say, you know, the ladies, oh, this is so fun.
Anna Moore: I've always wanted to do this.
Anna Moore: And I'm thinking, I don't even know how you pick the thing up, but they're doing the work on their own houses and their own renovation projects.
Anna Moore: They must contribute their time and energy.
Anna Moore: They must work for it.
Anna Moore: Well, that is absolutely the opposite with our salvation.
Anna Moore: It's absolutely not the case with our hearts, with our with our transformation, because God does all the work.
Anna Moore: We do not do any of the work.
Anna Moore: We cannot make the swap from this heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: It is a sovereign act of God to which we contribute absolutely nothing.
Anna Moore: Remember back in Ezekiel 36, 26, we looked at that early on.
Anna Moore: God says, I will give you a new heart.
Anna Moore: I will.
Anna Moore: Not you're gonna get one, but I will give you a new heart.
Anna Moore: God's the one who takes out and puts in.
Anna Moore: God is the one doing the heart transplant, the extreme makeover in us, and that is such a good thing.
Anna Moore: Because, ladies, he's going to do a perfect job at that.
Anna Moore: He's going to do exactly his will, and he's going to do it exactly how it should be done.
Anna Moore: Wouldn't it be awful number one if it was left up to us and we had to work for our salvation?
Anna Moore: And wouldn't it be awful number two to see what a poor job we did at that?
Anna Moore: But we don't ever have to know that because it is none of us, it is all of God.
Anna Moore: If I was contributing to my house renovation, it would be pathetic.
Anna Moore: I would not do a good job.
Anna Moore: All the more so, I would not do a good job contributing to my salvation.
Anna Moore: So thankfully, we cannot.
Anna Moore: It's an impossibility.
Anna Moore: God does it all.
Anna Moore: Romans 9:18 says, So then he has mercy on whom whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Anna Moore: It's up to God.
Anna Moore: And as the hymn writer so accurately put it in the second verse of Jesus paid it all, Lord, now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the lepros spots and melt the heart of stone.
Anna Moore: An impossibility for us, but not for a loving, powerful God who is sovereign over all.
Anna Moore: A few years ago, a pastor from out of state came to visit with us, and he was describing his talking about his brother and how he had over the years just shared the gospel and witnessed to his brother so many times, and just shared the word and sent it through various means.
Anna Moore: Over and over, his brother had heard from his mouth all the truths of the gospel.
Anna Moore: Never responded.
Anna Moore: It was like one ear and out the other.
Anna Moore: He did not in any way, he was not moved in any way.
Anna Moore: And then he said, My brother came to visit us recently, hadn't seen him in months.
Anna Moore: We're riding in the car together, and it was like I was sitting with someone I didn't even know.
Anna Moore: It was a different person.
Anna Moore: He started speaking about what the Lord was doing in his life, and that he had heard this wonderful gospel from I don't know who.
Anna Moore: And and and his brother turned and looked at him and said, Hang on a second.
Anna Moore: I've been saying this to you for 20 years.
Anna Moore: And he said, I didn't, I don't know.
Anna Moore: I didn't know that kind of thing, you know, kind of response.
Anna Moore: But isn't that the way it goes?
Anna Moore: The Spirit of God?
Anna Moore: Perhaps you can relate and have stories in your own life about people like that.
Anna Moore: Perhaps you can look back at your own conversion and think about that.
Anna Moore: You were blind and now you see.
Anna Moore: It just happened because God did it.
Anna Moore: You were lost and now you are found because God did it.
Anna Moore: And so, yes, ladies, we are to faithfully and joyfully share the gospel.
Anna Moore: We are to share our testimonies, we are to pray for people to be saved, and then we are to point them to Christ.
Anna Moore: However, ultimately, do not forget that we are not the ones changing their hearts.
Anna Moore: That's up to the Holy Spirit.
Anna Moore: So we pray in that uh manner.
Anna Moore: Listen carefully as I read a quote from Charles Spurgeon from that same sermon, The Heart of Flesh, and this is on your handout if you want to follow along as I read.
Anna Moore: A heart of flesh is a gift of sovereign grace, and it is always the result of divine power.
Anna Moore: No heart of stone was ever turned into flesh by accident, nor by human persuasions.
Anna Moore: You might argue with a rock a long while before you would persuade it into flesh.
Anna Moore: Neither is such a change worked by a man's own actions.
Anna Moore: How shall a stone being a stone produce in itself flesh?
Anna Moore: A power from above the man must work upon him.
Anna Moore: According to the language of the Scriptures, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Anna Moore: The Spirit of God must change the nature, or the heart of stone will never become a heart of flesh.
Anna Moore: Ladies, just like I do not have the power or the ability, I don't possess the power to turn this heart of stone into a pile of jello, or even just a harder, rubbery substance, just get a little loose.
Anna Moore: I can't do that.
Anna Moore: Just like I can't do that to this heart, I don't possess the ability to change my own heart.
Anna Moore: But praise God he does, and praise God he did.
Anna Moore: And do you know one of the many things that is so wonderful about this?
Anna Moore: Truly, all the glory must go to God.
Anna Moore: There is no way we can take any glory for this.
Anna Moore: We cannot take any of the credit.
Anna Moore: Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, verses that are very familiar to you.
Anna Moore: For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Anna Moore: And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Anna Moore: We cannot boast or take the credit, because it is all 100% not a smidgenless, a work of God.
Anna Moore: Now, there are many things this heart of flesh looks like.
Anna Moore: It's soft, not just emotional.
Anna Moore: It is pliable, it is teachable, it's sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit of God.
Anna Moore: And we're going to end with a few statements that will summarize and then some application within those.
Anna Moore: So, number one, these are the last things on your handout, I believe.
Anna Moore: A soft heart means a change in behavior, not just emotionalism.
Anna Moore: You want application?
Anna Moore: Obey.
Anna Moore: A changed heart.
Anna Moore: Look, our works are not getting us to heaven, our works are not saving us, but a saved person, once they are saved, will have good works and will look different than the world looks.
Anna Moore: And so that's what we want to do as Christians.
Anna Moore: We want to obey.
Anna Moore: Obey the word of God.
Anna Moore: Don't just listen to it, but do it.
Anna Moore: Speaking of building houses, let's look at Matthew 7, 24 through 27.
Anna Moore: A little lengthier, if you want to turn in your Bible, you can.
Anna Moore: I know that it'll be on the screen as well.
Anna Moore: Matthew 7, 24 through 27.
Anna Moore: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Anna Moore: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
Anna Moore: And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Anna Moore: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Anna Moore: We often put kind of the wrong emphasis on this verse.
Anna Moore: We kind of miss some of it, I think.
Anna Moore: We'll say, Well, Christ is the rock.
Anna Moore: Build your house on the rock.
Anna Moore: The foundation must be Christ.
Anna Moore: And we sing the Sunday school song, which I love, and I'm sure you know the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man, you know, the foolish man built his house upon the sand.
Anna Moore: And all of this is true.
Anna Moore: We must have Christ as our solid rock and our foundation.
Anna Moore: But how does this come about?
Anna Moore: You gotta look at the first, the phrase in in in there.
Anna Moore: There's it's twice, you see it.
Anna Moore: Look carefully at that.
Anna Moore: Remembering that Jesus has just preached the Sermon on the Mount, saying some very tough stuff in Matthew 7.
Anna Moore: It says, Forgive others if you want to be forgiven by God.
Anna Moore: Where your treasure is, there's your heart.
Anna Moore: Don't give and pray to be seen.
Anna Moore: Eye for an eye, turn the other cheek, love your enemies.
Anna Moore: And then what are the two verbs in the first phrase?
Anna Moore: All of you English teachers or homeschool moms, what does it say in the first line?
Anna Moore: But be doers of the word and not hears.
Anna Moore: I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong line.
Anna Moore: Where is it again?
Anna Moore: Everyone, who has your Bible open that has it there?
Anna Moore: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them.
Anna Moore: Where are your two verbs there?
Anna Moore: Look up there.
Anna Moore: There.
Anna Moore: What is it?
Anna Moore: Hears and does.
Anna Moore: That's right.
Anna Moore: Hears and does.
Anna Moore: Not hears and knows them, not hears and teaches them to others, not hears and remembers them, not hears and can repeat them, but the man who hears and does them.
Anna Moore: Obedience.
Anna Moore: That's what makes you a wise man.
Anna Moore: You hear the commands of scripture and you do them.
Anna Moore: A foolish man.
Anna Moore: Yeah, he builds his house on the sand, but why did he get to that point?
Anna Moore: He heard the word and did what?
Anna Moore: Did not do them.
Anna Moore: There's your key in that passage.
Anna Moore: Be a hearer and a doer.
Anna Moore: Same as it is in James 1, 22 through 25.
Anna Moore: But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Anna Moore: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
Anna Moore: But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts.
Anna Moore: He will be blessed in his doing.
Anna Moore: Doers, persevere, a doer who acts.
Anna Moore: Ladies, a heart of flesh is a changed heart, and it is one of obedience.
Anna Moore: Obeying the word of God.
Anna Moore: That's what our heart of flesh looks like.
Anna Moore: Number two, a softening of the heart is a sovereign work of God.
Anna Moore: We've talked about this.
Anna Moore: We are summarizing.
Anna Moore: Here's your application.
Anna Moore: Dear Christian, be thankful.
Anna Moore: Remember what has been done for you, something that you could not do and you did not deserve.
Anna Moore: Your hard heart has been changed into a heart of flesh by a loving, loving, sovereign triune God.
Anna Moore: Be thankful.
Anna Moore: And number three, not contradicting number two, a soft heart is something we are commanded to have and we are responsible for.
Anna Moore: Hmm.
Anna Moore: Hebrews 3, 7 and 8 say, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness.
Anna Moore: Oh dear ladies in this room who might not know Jesus, you might not be born again, you have not trusted Christ for your salvation.
Anna Moore: Here is your application.
Anna Moore: Cry out to God for mercy, for grace, for forgiveness.
Anna Moore: Do not.
Anna Moore: Harden your heart.
Anna Moore: Now, are we able to do what I just said?
Anna Moore: We're responsible.
Anna Moore: Are we able?
Anna Moore: We're not.
Anna Moore: Our hearts are stone.
Anna Moore: We've made that point.
Anna Moore: We're completely dead in sin.
Anna Moore: And we are responsible.
Anna Moore: Why?
Anna Moore: Because in Adam we all fell.
Anna Moore: In the garden, we were all infected by sin.
Anna Moore: We are all sinners.
Anna Moore: We looked at Romans chapter 3, several verses in there.
Anna Moore: Here's an illustration that I'm sure you've heard dozens of times.
Anna Moore: A guy robs a bank, steals a lot of money, but he loses all the money.
Anna Moore: Is he able to pay it back?
Anna Moore: No.
Anna Moore: Is he responsible?
Anna Moore: Yes, he is responsible.
Anna Moore: Ladies, our hearts and our lives and our eternities are hopeless without a touch from God.
Anna Moore: We are guilty sinners deserving of everlasting punishment in hell.
Anna Moore: We have hard, hard hearts.
Anna Moore: But the good news of the gospel is that God sent his perfect Son, Jesus Christ, His only Son, to die on the cross for us, to take the punishment for our sins, His so that we might have eternal life.
Anna Moore: His perfect life, his atoning death, and his very powerful, amazing resurrection.
Anna Moore: Ladies, look to the cross today, look to that gospel, look to Jesus, for he alone can change your hearts.
Anna Moore: Maybe you're sitting here tonight, you didn't even know that you needed a heart transplant.
Anna Moore: You came in thinking you were okay.
Anna Moore: Maybe you've been struggling and been convicted for a while and you really don't know what to do.
Anna Moore: I will say to you, we pray that you know Jesus.
Anna Moore: Seek him and he will forgive you.
Anna Moore: And maybe you're the one that just has a few cobwebs in your heart, and you came in, you said, you know what, I have been growing cold and insensitive to the things of God.
Anna Moore: I am not, I'm not sensitive to the conviction of the Spirit, conviction of sin in my life, and to the things of God.
Anna Moore: Well, you came in to this conference needing some work on your heart as well, and may God grant you restoration in that.
Anna Moore: Let's all pray that God will convict us and show us areas of our lives that need to conform to His will.
Anna Moore: Pray that God will give us a renewed joy in the gospel, for it is the gospel not only that saved you, but also gives you the power to live the Christian life.
Anna Moore: I'm so happy that we sang, create in me a clean heart, Psalm 51, 10.
Anna Moore: Let's make this our prayer tonight.
Anna Moore: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Anna Moore: Oh ladies, I'm looking so forward to tomorrow as we will jump into two areas of our lives that will change when God changes our hard heart to hearts of flesh.
Anna Moore: Let me pray for us.
Anna Moore: Father, thank you for the attentiveness of these dear ladies as they uh have come off a long and hard week, I'm sure.
Anna Moore: Lord, it the hour is late, but God, you have been so kind to let us hear your word, to let us be together.
Anna Moore: Thank you for the sweet spirit that has been in this place tonight.
Anna Moore: And I do ask that you, Holy Spirit, would do a special work, a convicting work, a changed, changing work in all of our hearts uh over this weekend.
Anna Moore: I pray in Jesus' name, amen.