Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

It weighs about 310 grams. Normally it's about 13cms long and at its widest point about 9 cms across. It is somewhat pear shaped, about the size of your fist. The colour is reddy-brown. It is a hard working four-chambered pump.

By this time you have probably recognised that I have been describing the human heart. The heart is a muscle in your chest, one of the masterpieces of the Creator. This marvellous little organ in our body beats 100,000 times each day without us even being aware of it most of the time. Each day the heart pumps blood through 96,000 klms of blood vessels.

The Bible has a good deal to say about the heart but it rarely speaks of the heart beating in our chest. The heart is the core and centre of everything we think, feel and act. According the biblical writers the heart is the source of our emotions, our intellect, the will and our moral life. The heart, as the Bible writers often say, questions, understands, meditates, plans, believes and trusts. It is the evil heart that plans and thinks and acts bad things. God says, "In your hearts do not think evil of each other" (Zech 7.10). In the New Testament Paul says Christ rules in the heart through faith (Eph 3:17).

Look into a concordance and you will be fascinated at not only the number of times the word heart appears in the Bible, but also the different ways the word is used. There are texts that speak about
a sad heart,
a proud heart,
a glad heart,
an upright heart,
a trembling heart,
a clean heart,
a faithful heart or fearful heart.
The heart for the Bible writers is a person’s whole character and personality and it is to the heart that God speaks and reveals his will. God says in Jeremiah, "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord" (Jer 24.7).

The Bible tells us that every human being has a fatal spiritual heart disease. As descendants of Adam and Eve we have received from birth a heart full of sin and carry it with us all the days of our life here on this earth. Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, we have a heart disease that could be fatal.

This disease shows itself in our day to day life.
It shows itself in the way we speak to one another when we say unkind and hurtful things.
This heart disease shows itself in the intolerance we show toward others, the prejudice we display toward those who are different from us, our refusal to see another person’s point of view.

This heart disease is evident in the way we find it difficult to go to a person with whom we have a difference and to make amends. You and I know all too well how our proud hearts will not let us understand, sympathise, seek out the person who has offended us and to show love. Our hearts so easily become hard hearts – cold hearts - as we harbour grudges, self-righteousness and an unwillingness to admit our own faults.

Jesus summed it up like this, "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matthew 15:19).

Heart disease is a fact. The other name for this heart disease is "sin". It’s part of our lives. Even though we are regular members of this congregation, we are not immune to this heart disease. It can attack us at any moment. In fact, it seems to strike members of the church with a particular vengeance. Satan loves to set one Christian against another. He loves it when Christians foster a hard heart against their fellow Christians and take every opportunity to sting the other with hard words and unkind actions. Believe me when I say that over the past 30 plus years in the ministry I have witnessed how hard and cruel one Christian can be against another. I have witnessed it in myself.

This disease is not cured by surgery, or artificial valves or bypasses. Spiritual rebirth is not produced with instruments. After the prophet Nathan had pointed out David’s sin of covetousness, murder and adultery, David prays, "Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).
God said to Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (36:25).

This is not a repair job. It’s not a matter of fixing a few vices, improving a few virtues and everything will be all right. It is heart removal and replacement. We’re talking a heart transplant here. Because of his love for us, and by his power he takes out the old and puts in the new.

God says, "Any kind of do-it-yourself fix will not get to the very bottom of the cause of what ails our heart. What people need is a new heart, a new character and personality: new thoughts, feelings, ways of looking at things, new ways of doing things".

For a person to receive a donor heart someone has to die. Jesus died to give us a new heart. On the cross of Calvary we see God acting as only he can, taking out the old heart of stone and replacing it entirely, totally, completely with a warm, living heart that loves others. It is the heart of Christ himself that now lives in our heart. It renews us, gives us new life and energy to do the things that please God.

This is what Paul is getting at in his second letter to the Corinthians when he said, "We recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death. … Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

The old sin-filled heart has been replaced with a new heart that gives us a new life, a new perspective on how life should be lived and a new way of treating other people, a new viewpoint of who God is and what kind of worship we should offer to him. We are joined with Christ in his death and resurrection and we are made new. The old ways and values are gone. Through Jesus’ love and forgiveness, God has given us a new heart and a new spirit.

But let’s get real here. If Jesus has given us new hearts why is there still so much pain in our lives? Why haven’t our old sinful habits and egos disappeared? Why do we keep on letting down God and other people? Why do we feel so guilty?