THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

THE PROBLEM

Jeremiah 17:9-10

9“The heart is deceitful above all things,And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart,I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

THE SOLUTION

Ezekiel 36:25-27

25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

THE EVENT

Acts 2:23-24

23He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. 24But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.

OUR RESPONSE

Acts 2:38-39

38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

THE BY PRODUCT

Titus 3:4-7

4But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birtha and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

THOUGHTS

• Our country is currently in turmoil. We are still reeling from the Corona virus Pandemic. So many have lost loved ones, many businesses and Churches are still shut down, and now, because of another horrible police brutality case in which a black man was slowly and painfully suffocated to death by a police office on live video, protests and race riots have taken over the cities, news stations, and social media. This has only caused more death, division, hatred, fear, and pain, NOT CHANGE!!!
• So many, even in the Church, are crying out that Systemic Racism is the problem. They keep trying to come up with ways that we can somehow all do better as individuals and a nation to fix this problem. That we need to somehow change ourselves so we can somehow BE BETTER!!! But racism, which is hatred and evil, is NOT the real problem! It is only a byproduct of the real issue, A WICKED & DECEITFUL HEART!!!
• The scripture clearly tells us that we are without hope unless something happens to our wicked and deceitful hearts! We were born broken and defiled from the beginning. Because sin was allowed to come into the world by Satan’s deceit, and  Adams decision, we all became SEPARATED  from God OUR CREATOR and like a woeful disease, inherited A SINFUL NATURE!!!
• The only way to remedy this is to to REPENT and be BAPTIZED in the Name of JESUS, receiving what JESUS HAS DONE FOR US as the antidote for our disease!!! Doing this makes a way for the HOLY SPIRIT to come in to us and WASH our wicked and deceitful heart!!! We open the door for Him by making a decision to REPENT!!!
• Once we’ve truly REPENTED, The Holy Spirit comes into us and starts making us aware of what we need to change about US, and then HELPS US do it. Without HIM dwelling IN US we CANNOT DO THIS ON OUR OWN!!! 
• When we do this HE changes our heart! HE gives us the ability to be able to RENEW OUR MINDS with His Word and Truth!!! We now are made ABLE to OBEY HIM and do life HIS WAY!!!
• The world is not going to change its view of something because of a movement or system we create! Democracy is not the answer, New laws are not the answer, a new POLITICAL LEADER is not the answer!  JESUS IS THE ANSWER!!! Nothing else changes the heart of mankind!!! There is no other way for any man to change!!! 
  By Mike Brister