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Open Hearts, Open Hands
Scripture: Luke 12:13-34

Sermon by George B. Wirth
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
November 7, 1999

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12:34

Introduction
This coming week, the American Heart Association is meeting in Atlanta. As you may know, that national organization is committed to health and healing and hope for people in this country who are struggling with heart problems and for those who want to avoid them.
A cardiologist friend of mine from Indiana who is here today and will be attending the AHA gathering sent me some statistics which indicate the magnitude of the situation:

59 million Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease
Nearly one million Americans died of cardiovascular disease last year (twice the rate of cancer victims)
Since 1900 (except 1918), cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer in the United States

But in the last decade, the death rate from cardiovascular disease has declined by two percent with fewer cases by far of new cardiovascular patients - which indicates, according to the American Heart Association, that we are making some progress in the struggle.
Now, in light of those numbers, it is abundantly clear that we, all of us, need to pay attention to what the professional experts are telling us - to take care of our hearts! Preventative measures, such as proper diet, regular exercise, refraining from smoking, reduction of stress, adequate sleep, and medical check-ups are exactly what "the doctor ordered" to take care of our hearts, because, a healthy heart is essential to the abundant life God has in store for us, and the heart is the one part of the body we cannot live without.

Part 1
So it was long ago. The authors of the ancient biblical texts describe the heart as the center of our being and the core of physical, mental, psychological and spiritual life.

The Hebrew word lev and the Greek New Testament word kardia refer to the heart as the "seat of our emotional and moral activity, the essence of our personality and the place deep inside of us where contact with God is made."

According to the Old Testament, the heart can be glad (Proverbs 27:11), sad (Nehemiah 2:2), troubled (II Kings 6:11), courageous (II Samuel 17:10), discouraged (Numbers 32:7), fearful (Isaiah 35:4), envious (Proverbs 23:17), trustful (Proverbs 31:11), generous (II Chronicles 29:31), moved by hatred (Leviticus 19:17) or encountered in love (Deuteronomy 13:3). And in both the Old and New Testaments, the heart is the place where God’s Spirit dwells (Deuteronomy 30:14). In Romans, chapter five, we read that God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and Ephesians 3:17 reminds us that Christ Himself lives in our hearts through faith. (From The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, "Heart", pages 549-550).
But the Bible also describes what happens when we close our hearts to the Lord and allow sin to separate us from Him and to ruin our relationships with others. The scriptures tell us, over and over again, that this spiritual heart disease called sin can block the arteries that lead to joy, can shut the valves which enable us to love and can cut off the flow of God’s presence and peace which we all need to keep us alive.
St. Augustine, who was one of the great early Christian leaders at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., wrote that "our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O God." And the mistake we have continued to make before and ever since then is to try to fill the void inside us with pleasures that we think will satisfy us but don’t and with material things we hope will fulfill us but won’t.
Jesus cut to the heart of the matter when He said, "What does it profit, if we gain the whole world but lose our souls?" And He went on to tell a story, a parable in the 12^th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was blessed with prosperity but missed the opportunity of giving thanks to God and sharing his good fortune with others. Listen again to what Jesus said:

The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought to himself, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?" So he said, "I will do this - I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Now you have ample of everything, laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’" But God said, "You fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" So it is for those who lay up treasure for themselves, and are not rich toward God . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Luke 12:16-21, 34)

Now I know people, and so do you, who have been blessed with an overabundance of this world’s treasures, and because they are Christians, they believe that what they have received has come from God. So as faithful stewards of God’s grace, they give back to Him a portion of what they have received and share their treasures with those in need.
However, I also know people, and so do you, who like that man in Jesus’ parable, are productive and prosperous, but their inclination is to hold on to what they have because they actually think that all of it belongs to them. They live by the philosophy "How much is enough? Just a little bit more!" And as they store up treasures for themselves their hearts become poor.
Why? Well, according to the parable, Jesus said that if we lay up treasures for ourselves and are not rich toward God, our hearts, our souls will begin to die. And unless, until we open our hearts to Him and experience the freedom of sharing and of giving, we will miss the height of joy and the depth of abundant living which the Lord has in store for us.

Part 2
A man I knew in another city discovered that reality years ago. He belonged to the congregation where I served as pastor, and he attended worship occasionally with his family, when he wasn’t out of town on business or playing golf on Sunday morning.
He held an important position with a multinational corporation, which brought him financial success and a high degree of respect in the community. But he was not active in our congregation; neither did he give all that much to the ministry and mission of the church.
Late on night, the call came from his wife, who told me that he had felt severe chest pains, collapsed in the kitchen, and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. I met her in the emergency room and, after what seemed like an eternity, the doctor came out to report that they needed to do open-heart surgery. At least two arteries were blocked, said the doctor, and so permission was given and the operation began.
We kept the vigil through the night, and the following morning we learned that the man was going to be all right. We visited him in the recovery room, told him that he was in our prayers, and as his wife touched his hand, there were tears in his eyes.
One month later, I noticed that he was sitting with his family in church. The next week, he was there again, and even when he went back to work, he didn’t miss a single worship service on Sunday morning.

A week before Christmas, as I was greeting people at the door after the benediction, that man shook my hand and asked if we could visit for a minute in the pastor’s office. As we sat down, he looked at me, and this is what he said: "I have been given a second chance at life. I’ve grown closer to my family, I’m learning how to pace myself at work, and I want to become more involved in this church."

Then he stood up, handed me an envelope, and said, "Christmas is coming. I hope this will help someone else." We said a prayer together, I bid him farewell, and when he left I opened the envelope and found a check for far more than he had ever given before, attached with a note which read, "You can count on me every Christmas." And he kept that promise by increasing his gift, year after year after year, around the 25^th of December.
Now if you should forget everything else that has been said in this sermon, this is the one thing I hope you will remember: On the night that skillful doctor performed double bypass surgery on that man, there was another physician, the Divine Physician, who was there in the operating room with them. And when that businessman’s heart was laid open, God’s Holy Spirit came alive in him and set in motion a healing power which not only transformed that man’s life, but also reached out through him to touch the lives of others with an attitude of gratitude and generosity.

Conclusion
This past week I asked a heart surgeon and close friend who belongs to this congregation if he could share with me some information that would be helpful in this sermon. He gave me this booklet titled "Understanding Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery," and the subtitle is "Giving Your Heart Another Chance."

As I read those words, I remembered what that businessperson said: "I have been given a second chance at life." And if that is where you are this morning, if that is why you have come here today, looking for that second chance in your own life, then listen again to what Jesus Christ has to say to us here and now, as He said it long ago: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
So open your hearts Christian people! Open your heart and let the Lord come in. Open your heart to His love and to His grace. Open your heart to His presence and to His peace and then ask Him to help open your hands to share your treasure with those who are in need. If you do that, if you give generously and sacrificially, then it will please God, it will change your heart, and it will touch the lives of more people than you may ever know.

Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

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