What are we What are we aiming for?aiming for?

Targeting the Targeting the HeartHeart

Session 3

I. The Biblical perspective on the heart

How does the Bible describe the function of the heart?

- Who a person truly is

- The moral and spiritual center of your being

I. The Biblical perspective on the heart

How does the Bible describe the function of the heart?

- The heart is the center of rational and spiritual life; the decision-making and determining locus of a person

- The heart is the center of thought and forming concepts

I. The Biblical perspective on the heart

How does the Bible describe the function of the heart?

- The heart is the center of our affections and desires

- The heart is the center of moral life, and therefore the seat of sin within man and the operative center of the conscience

II. The importance of the heart

A. We are to guard (keep watch over, protect, cultivate) our hearts, because what goes on in theheart determines our lives

II. The importance of the heart

B. One of the problems with how we often address our internal struggles is a radical separation between heart, mind, spirit, etc.

II. The importance of the heart

C. We cannot separate the emotional from the mental or spiritual. These are linked together because they all flow out of what is taking place in our hearts.

III. Why do we do what we do?

A. James 4 and the problem of desires

1. When we look at our lives, we can often see conflict and trouble. (4:1)

James says the root issue behind these problems is our desires.

III. Why do we do what we do?

2. The desires of our heart direct our behavior (4:2).

It is very difficult to act against your desires, and it is impossible to act against your most prominent desire.

III. Why do we do what we do?

3. Our desires our often sinful (4:3).

4. To supplant our desire to please God with a desire for something else is to commit spiritual adultery (4:4-5).

5. The solution for our sinful desires is to humble ourselves (4:6-10).

Human Heart Behavior State of Being

III. Why do we do what we do?B. A model of the life of the heart

Human Heart

Behavior State of Being

Sadness

Anxiety

Joy

Peace

etc.

Thinking

Speaking

Acting

Desires

Motivations

Drives

From Brent Aucoin, Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries

IV. Implications for ministry

- It is not enough to merely address behavior.

- We must address the affections.

- I must find out what the person wants.

IV. Implications for ministry

- Regeneration is a must.

- Christ must be seen as of ultimate worth and beauty.

- The promises of god must be known and believed.