God Has Turned Their Hearts

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

We're going to get into the Word together today. And the Lord saw it fit to give me a word that I put the title above: God has turned their hearts. God has turned their hearts. Church, there comes a time in each and every single one of our lives. If you have believed on Jesus, if you have at all sought to follow Him, then there will come a time in your life where God begins to call on your faith to make other people see. Now, there's miracle instances where we know stories from the Bible and even testimonies from people where the Holy Spirit, without using a person, began to speak to someone's heart and arrested someone for Jesus and brought someone to salvation by directly speaking to a person's heart. But generally, God will seek to do that through another person. And when God does that through another person, He does a miracle at the same time in the heart of the person that is listening. That helps that heart understand you just didn't hear through the mouth of a person—it's like God is knocking on the heart, letting you know that He is trying to speak to your heart and that He's trying to get something across.

It's always an invitation. God is not forceful. There's an invitation on the heart that says, "If you let me in, if you believe, here's what I will do for you. If you will trust me, here's how I will respond to you. Here's how I will move things out of the way or move things into your life."

But there comes a time where God begins to call in every single follower of Jesus' life—every single follower’s life. There comes a time where God begins to call on your faith. And He does it because He wants to make other people see. And I pray that you will be able to see this morning that you have an incredible purpose in this life. That you have an incredibly important assignment ahead of you. Because when you answer the call of faith, when it's about someone else, God is about to do a miracle and change eternity for that person. But He's going to call on your faith in that moment. There's going to be times that you're going to stand in front of someone, and that is the last time in that person's life that they have someone in front of them who knows Jesus and who has the ability to listen to the Holy Spirit and speak up.

I remind myself of this daily. There are people I face every day, and it may be the last time—either because they're going home soon or it may be the last time because there's just not that many people filled with God's Spirit that they get in front of. And of those people that are filled with God's Spirit, how many of them answer the call of faith and speak up in the moments that God is trying to do a miracle in the life of the person that is standing in front of them? I want you to understand that you being alive in this generation has very little to do with your job, has very little to do with your house, has very little to do with the plans and the planning for your life that you may have in mind or that you would love. Your value—the point of your life, the purpose of your life—is found in what God still seeks to do through you in this earth. Even though He could already bring you home so you could be together with Him, He didn't do that yet because He has a plan of how He wants to use you.

I want you to understand that God has confidence towards you—that when the call of faith comes, you will answer. That when the call to action comes, you will answer. That when you stand in front of the person that does not know, or their heart has not been turned to Jesus yet, that you're going to answer that small call of faith to now believe for someone else and to begin to speak the gospel into their life—that they too may receive forgiveness in the name of Jesus, just like you received it. God has confidence that you are going to answer that call when He places you in front of people that don't know. When we get distracted by the things of this world, or the way this world thinks, or what this world says is important, we begin to lose sight of those moments. Very soon, we find ourselves not very often seeing somebody get saved right in front of our eyes because we took a small step of faith. And before you know it, you feel like a failure of a Christian. You feel like a lukewarm Christian. You begin, slowly but surely, to have an underlaying feeling in all areas of your life that it's not that great, not that satisfying, not that exciting, not that valuable. Am I even valuable? Do I matter?

You see, God left you still here with a purpose and a plan for you in mind. And when you enter into that plan, it's always—hear me on this—it is always about other people. It is always about other people. And when you step into God's plan for other people, when He's trying to make you a part of their journey—whether it is into salvation or discipleship or whatever it may be—that's where your value is found. That's where your identity in Christ is walked out. That is where you find fulfillment in life, because that's exactly why God left you on this earth, filled you with His Spirit, gave you His Word, and said, "Go." And as you go into this world, the Lord will begin to show you people that don't know yet that there's forgiveness for them. That have not experienced God miraculously removing their heart of stone and giving them a new heart—without any of their help. They've never experienced that.

They still have a heart that, when nobody's watching or when the wrong friends are with you, you love to lust, or words that do not represent the Lord and His holiness find their way out of your mouth—even though you know the Scripture: Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When you time and time again come face to face with the fact that your heart is not the new heart that heaven has promised, there's a word—there's something—the Lord wants you to see this morning. Because the title of this message, and it comes straight from a verse in the Bible, is: God has turned their hearts. Just this last Tuesday, the Lord gave us a word on life-giving prayer. And that really marked a moment in my journey of prayer with the Lord—my understanding of prayer with the Lord. It was a very prophetic word, a very simple biblical word, but it allowed us to learn and to see that in a very similar way, there comes a time where the Lord will call on your prayer life for you to believe and to pray according to that belief—when no one else believes anymore for a person or for a situation.

And in a very similar way, I could sense the Lord pressing on me to go deeper on this—that there's more to see and more that He wants to reveal about that topic. And so, He led me to the story of Elijah with this title: God has turned their hearts. And I pray that in this story of Elijah, perhaps for the first time, you're not only able to see that this story is all about Jesus, but I also pray that you may see your purpose and the necessity of your journey in this generation. Your journey with Jesus is necessary for this generation. Your journey with Jesus is designed by God in such a way that other people will be getting saved left and right. You won't have to do that work. You won’t have to do great things. When you follow Jesus into His journey for your life—if you will, let me just say it this way—the side effect of people that really follow Jesus is that other people get saved.

That’s what Jesus does when He redeems a life that used to be full of sin. And now Jesus says, “Watch what happens when I’m allowed to live in that man’s heart.” Watch the fruit that will just come about. People will begin to have hope. People will begin to trust the Lord. People will begin to trust God. Your journey with Jesus is designed to change other people’s eternity. Let me take you to that story of Elijah. Chapter 18 of First Kings. We’re going to start in verse 19. Here, Elijah is sent into a completely broken situation. The people of God, if you will—that believed in God at the time—were completely in doubt, completely confused. Nobody was hardcore. Nobody was fully dedicated. Everybody was kind of winging it and trying to keep everybody around them happy while they still called themselves the people of God. But their life was going two directions, if you will. And there's a broken situation. The servants of the Lord, the people that would proclaim the Word of God—they are being harshly removed from the people. Elijah is one of the last people that actually knows God in his generation. Can you imagine? One of the last ones.

And here we pick up in verse 19: “Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel—the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.” Here, Elijah says, “Come and bring the people and have them meet me at this place.” He’s talking with the king, and Elijah can sense in his heart he’s not content with the situation of other people that say they are part of the people of God. He believes there is more for them. He believes that God is willing to do something, and he is beginning to answer that call of faith that God is just poking in his heart. And he walks straight into this quite impossible situation: 450 prophets of Baal—an idol and a false god that was being worshiped at the time. 400 prophets of Asherah—also another god, a false god in that time. So altogether, 850 other prophets that all claim they hear from God and speak into people’s lives.

He says, “Meet me at this particular place and bring all of the people of Israel as well.” Verse 20: “So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.” Verse 21: “And Elijah came to all the people and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.’” But the people answered him not a word. This is the people—they’ve seen the Lord fight their battles. This is the people that have all of the stories that they carry with them from generation to generation of how God did miracle after miracle on their behalf. How God led them out of the land of Egypt. How God did miracles in the desert. How God split for them the Red Sea. They have all of these miracles—and they don't know what to say.

Elijah is putting on this almost display where he’s speaking on this mountain. There are people as far as you can look in every direction. More than likely, they had people stationed in sections to repeat what Elijah said so that people could continue to hear it the further away from Elijah they were. We don't know that for sure, but that was a common occurrence at the time to make sure that people would know. They would pass along what was said. So very often, people wouldn't speak very much in such big gatherings, and they would speak very slowly so there was time for everyone to hear those words—as it were, echoing away from Elijah to all of the people as far as you could see. And he makes this incredible statement: How long will you be wishy-washy? How long will you falter between two opinions? When will you make up your mind? Now, the people would have known what he's referring to, because the people were proud of their history.

They knew when Joshua said, “Today, choose whom you will serve. Me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And here they stand, with Elijah declaring this moment: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, serve Him. Follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him.” And it’s almost like he’s waiting for a duh answer. And no one—as far as the eye can see, there are people—no one answers. No one was able to see what the prophet was seeing. Nobody was confident that God was worth following with all of their life. No one was sure that God would have their back and the power to get them out of the situation when they reject Baal and when they reject any other prophet, any other god. No one answered. No one was able to see like the prophet was able to see—what is on God's heart, what is on God's mind, what is the truth in their situation.

Verse 22:Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.” Elijah stands there in the midst of the people. No one answers. And it's almost like he lets his hands hang with a big sigh and says, “I'm alone here. I'm the only one here that can actually see what God is willing to do over your life. I'm the only one here that's actually able to see that God is willing to be on your side, that He has not rejected you, that He is for you—but that He's calling you to come to Him, that He's calling you to worship Him, that He's calling you to follow Him.” Verse 23:“Therefore, let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves. Cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.”

Now, what I want you to see, church, is that we can learn a lot of things from this story. But what I want you to see today is that Elijah represents the Church. Elijah, as the prophet of the Lord at that time, represents you and I. That’s what this story is trying to make us understand in our generation. I'll read to you Acts 2:17: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.” And there will come that time where God is calling on your faith. And you’re the only prophet in the room. You’re the only one in the room that knows what God has done for all of these people. You’re the only one that can see that all of these people are welcome in the presence of God—if they would only believe and turn to Him. You’re the only one that sees that “All of my house can just come to God, and He will not reject us.”

There will be times in your life where you stand before a person, or even in a group—whether it is at the job, at a birthday party, at the sports field, school, the gym, wherever you go—it does not matter. But I’m telling you, the day will come when you stand and realize: “I’m the only one here that knows the heart of God, that knows the mind of God, the message of God.” And people cannot see it. People can’t see it. And watch what happens when God brings one of His children in front of a people group that cannot see and that does not know. Watch what happens. He says, “Go find bulls. Make an altar. Put wood on it, and put that bull on it.” You see, a bull offering is a very specific offering. He could have picked any animal, and different animals represented different things. A bull offering was a sin offering. When a bull would be offered, that represented the payment for the sins of the people.

Now watch this—they're on a hill. He says wood needs to be placed. A sacrifice needs to come on this wood. And we're going to find out who is God. Verse 24:“Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”

So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.” Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal: “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Now, it could be perceived that Elijah is almost mean—because he knows exactly what’s going to happen. And he thinks, If I go first, I’ll steal all of the thunder, and the story will be over before you know it. But the heart of God loves to display that the enemy has lost all of its power. The Word tells us that Jesus Christ made a public display of the enemy, and that he has lost all of his authority, all of his strength, all of his ability to lord power over you. And we see that reflection in what Elijah is doing right here. He says: “You go ahead and try. I’m going to give you the place of honor. You take center stage, and you go ahead. Put your best prophets on it.” And there they go.

Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal: “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying: “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice. No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said: “Cry aloud! Cry harder, for he is a god. Either he is meditating, or he’s busy, or he’s on a journey—or perhaps he’s sleeping and must be awakened!” So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out of them.

And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." So all the people came near to him. And they repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name." The name Israel means princes with God. God had said, "This is who you will be. You will be family to me. You will be princes with God. You will be family of God. You will be brought into the inner chambers of the Lord. You won't be a guest. You won't be distant. I'm going to bring you all the way into my home." Your name—you've forgotten your name—is what He's saying. You all who have forgotten. You all who are half in, half out. Not sure to serve money or to serve Jesus. Not sure to serve your family or to serve Jesus. Not sure what to do, what to commit to. Not sure to serve your career or to serve God's kingdom. Not sure how to prioritize stuff. Faltering between two opinions left and right.

He says, "You have forgotten who you are. God called you princes with Him. You've forgotten it." And God is about to do a miracle for these faltering people.

He's not rebuking them. He's not telling them what to go do next. He sends in somebody that can still see. He sends in somebody that still knows the heart of God, that still knows the mind of God, that is willing to believe over the person or the group of people in front of him. And God is calling on their faith to do the impossible in the lives of those people that Jesus died for.

They just can't really see it. How many people in your life know the name of Jesus, but they don't know with all of their heart that they are forgiven before the Father because of this Jesus? Think about that for a moment. This is that people group. They all saw that bull on the wood on a mountaintop. But they were not sure what it meant for them. And God sends Elijah.

Verse 32: Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, representing the cross, and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And said, "Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood." Then he said, "Do it a second time." And they did it a second time. And he said, "Do it a third time." And they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar. And he also filled the trench with water.

Here we see a pile of wood, a sacrifice placed on top of it—representing, pointing forward to Christ, who would die on a piece of wood on a hill, dying on the cross. But Elijah pours water over the bull. He pours water over the wood. He pours water even in trenches around this altar. Why does he do this? Why does he say, "Put no fire under this?" Why is no one allowed to set the altar ablaze? Why is no one allowed to bring fire and to simply bring a sacrifice to the Lord?

The Lord was foreshadowing: I'm going to do this without the help of any human strength. I'm going to do this without any of your obedience. I'm going to do this without anything that contributes to the strength or the power or the helpfulness of man. When God is about to do something in your life, He doesn’t need your help. He’ll never ask for your help. All He’s going to say is, “Show up and watch what I will do for you.”

36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, "The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God." Here God faces a people—I'll read it to you again in verse 21: And Elijah came to all the people and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word.

You've heard the story now. You know how it's going to end. But God encounters a people that is not all-in. They have one foot in the world and one foot in God's house. It is the lukewarm believer—believes in God, sees the sacrifice—but their heart can't fully see anymore what that really means for them. And they're definitely not a prophet in their generation. They don't know what God wants for other people, how He's going to do it, when He's going to do it. And what does God do? What is God's intention? How does He respond to a man or a woman that is given over to a place of compromise—stuck in sin, stuck in idolatry? How does God respond?God begins to call them. He begins to draw them to a mountain. And God also, at the same time, calls a prophet to that mountain so that their eyes may begin to open and begin to see that there is a sin offering—and that heaven decides to consume that sin offering without the help of any man. Heaven deciding to accept the payment of this sin offering on their behalf, that they may know that God is Lord and that He has turned their hearts for them to Himself.

This is a people that says, "If God is real, I'd want to serve Him." But that is all they have. They are given over to other things, other commitments, busy in life, believing that enough money will provide for them. And they do not believe God will, no matter how little money there may be. They believe that government, or whoever is in office, will affect how good their next four years will be. They do not believe with all of their heart that their steps are ordered by the Lord.

It's half-hearted. It's half-committed. The trust of the heart is in different places. And God responds to this kind of people by sending someone—by sending you, Church—by sending you into a situation and inviting you to believe for the person in front of you that cannot see anymore, that cannot hear anymore. And God is going to do something so miraculous that it will allow the heart of the person in front of you to realize, God has turned my heart around. God has made it possible. God decided to accept the sacrifice of Jesus for me.

The people were now able to see: God just chose to burn up that sacrifice with His wrath so that I will never face the wrath of God. They had seen something when God had sent Elijah into that broken situation. Church, there comes a time that God is going to call on your faith, and it's going to be a situation where nobody is on your side, and maybe nobody is cheering you on. Everyone may have another opinion. Everyone may be okay with their lukewarm or half-hearted life, and it seems to serve them better. They're friends with everyone. They're able to roam with everyone. They're able to fit in better. Their life works out better. The king does not have a bad eye on them. They're allowed to trade the way they want to trade. Elijah had been chased after for a long time. At this point, letters had gone out into every region to see Elijah arrested. He was not free to move around like others were. He was under pressure because he still loved and served the Lord and spoke the truth according to God's word.

But I'm telling you, there comes a time in your life—if you've at all given it to Jesus—that He will call on your faith because your journey with Jesus matters. And your journey with Jesus can turn other people's eternity around. You have to be ready to answer the call when God says,"I'm trying to bring some people to a place where they can, for the first time, see that Jesus died on the cross on a hill—and I accepted that payment by burning all of My wrath upon Him. Their hearts cannot see it anymore. Would you go? Would you testify? Would you tell them? And I will show up and open their eyes. I will show up and I will give them a new heart. I will show up and I will glorify My name. Would you go?" There comes a time that God wants to show Christ to people. God wants to reveal to people. God wants to show people the Father’s willingness to pour all sin on Jesus Christ.

That’s what that fire from heaven represented—God pouring out His wrath on the sacrifice, willing to burn up the sacrifice instead of any single one of us, any single one of the people of Israel. And there come times where people can’t see it anymore. They don’t know it anymore. And even though they’ve seen it with their eyes, their heart cannot see it anymore. And God will call you and say,"I'm going to need you to meet those people." And when you meet those people, I'm going to do something so miraculous. You’re going to feel like you’re alone. But if you answer the call of faith and you open your mouth, I will be there. And I will cause them to see that I accepted payment for their life. That I was willing to pour My wrath out on Jesus so that they see they are forgiven. Now I will show them that I have turned their hearts. What does that mean? That God has paid the price to get rid of this heart, and God paid the price to give me a new one. He's done the miracle of turning our heart around.

If you’ve ever been a little bit like me in any kind of way, you know what it feels like to want to have a heart that loves Jesus more, to want to have a heart that hates sin. And every time we have those desires, it is so easy to feel like we’re going to do something now. We're going to reject some sin. We’re going to pick up our Bible. We're going to do something. And as all these things are not bad, we begin to say,"Okay Lord, I’m going to turn my heart to You." And God is showing Elijah: These people—they can’t see anymore that I have turned their hearts to Myself.

You realize sometimes you’re the only prophet left. There are stores you will walk into this week, and you may be the only prophet left in that store. There will be workplaces, there will be situations, there will be friend groups where you’re the only prophet left. And it is my prayer that you’re sensitive, that you wait on God, and that when God calls you to meet people at that mountain—so that He may reveal to their heart that the Father is willing to pour all of their sin on Jesus Christ as He died for them on the cross—that you answer that call of faith.

Whatever God is asking you to do—whether He’s asking you to pray with someone, or share the gospel perhaps for the first time with people, or you’re calling them to faith once again—when the Lord calls on you, that may be the last time these people ever saw a prophet. A prophet is simply someone who knows what’s on God’s heart, who knows what’s on God’s mind, and who’s willing to speak about it. God has showed you what He desires for your generation. God has revealed to you what He would love to do for your loved ones. And there comes a time that God says,"Now, would you show them? Would you trust that I will open the eyes of the heart as you take a step forward?" And you say,"Pour water on that altar. Not a man will help. I’m not going to do it by pretty preaching. I’m not going to do it by just bringing you to my church. The man doesn’t need to help in this process at all. Let me tell you about Jesus Christ and the willingness of the Father to accept Him as a sacrifice." And watch God open the eyes of the hearts, and show people that He has paid the price to take their heart and give them a new one. That He has paid the price for pouring all of their sins on Christ Jesus—not a sin left of their lifetime to pay for.

He wants to show these things to people that don't know. Remember, all of these people gathering around were all called by the name of God. We'd call them church people. Yet, they were stuck in their sins, stuck in their idolatry. And I believe with all my heart that there was quite a few that didn't like their own heart. That if they could push a button and have a new heart, they'd do it. And God will call on you. God will call on you as His son, as His daughter, princess with God, in whatever broken situation your life is able to touch. Everyone may have already given up in this situation. Everybody expects for nothing to happen. No one trusts God anymore for this or that or the other thing. And the Lord will send you, ask you, whisper to your heart to go in there as a prophet. Go in there as a son or a daughter of the kingdom. Someone who knows Jesus and is authorized to represent Him in the earth. And God will begin to call on your faith and He'll break your heart. It'll sound in your heart very similar to what Elijah said in verse 37: "Hear me, O Lord. Hear me, that this people may know." In other words, they don't know, Lord. I want them to know that You are Lord and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.

There's no work left to do for them. They don't know. They can't come to You just like this. They think they have to change their own heart. They think they have to remove things out of their own heart. They can't see that You've already done it. They can't see that You've paid for the miracle. Lord, would You reveal it to them? That's what God begins to do in your heart when you look at your generation, whatever your realm of influence may be. When you become quiet just a little and you say, "God, You've taught me who You are. God, You've taught me Your gospel. God, You've taught me a little bit of understanding of what You would like for people. Lord, are You calling me at all?" And He'll begin to break your heart. He'll begin to cause you to see, wow, they don't know. And you'll begin to feel, I'm the only prophet here. I'm the only one that loves Jesus here. I'm the only one that knows Jesus here. And God will call on you to speak up and to tell people what happened on a hill a long time ago, on some wood, when Jesus was being rejected, spit at, His beard pulled out of His face, and He never spoke up. And He allowed all the wrath of heaven to be poured on Him, and He took it to the grave for you and for me.

When that gospel is declared, God will come in and open eyes. God will show up in your conversation and He will plant seeds in the hearts of those listening—seeds that cannot by any means easily be removed. God has paid for sins. The Father was willing to place all of your sins on His Son. And He accepted His only begotten Son as payment. And He sent the fire of His wrath upon that sacrifice. And Jesus felt it when He cried out, "Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?" That you may know that He is the Lord and that God has paid to give to you a new heart. There's not a thing in your heart you have to fix, church. You have to come back to that hill and say, "Lord, I believe the payment was accepted by heaven. I believe that this sacrifice is enough for me. I believe heaven has fully accepted what was necessary for me to receive a new heart." A heart that can hear the voice of the Lord. A heart that can understand the mind of God. A heart that can respond to the Spirit of God. A heart of a prophet that knows what God loves to do over His people.

Today you can have a new heart that completely and perfectly loves God and loves people.

When you find that hard to believe, that means it's hard for you to see exactly what Elijah was praying right here in verse 37: "Hear me, O Lord. Hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." If that's hard to believe with childlike faith, the Lord wants to do a miracle in your heart today. He wants to take away whatever heart you would rather not have, and He wants to simply give you a new one. He's already paid for that miracle. He's prepared for that miracle. He's willing to give it out. And you can have a new heart today. I don't care. You will never have to be embarrassed before me. I don't care how long you've been in church. I don't care how long you've been a Christian. If there are things in your heart and you don't like them, and you're willing now to accept that you cannot change them, you're being invited to believe God paid the price to make that exchange without any of your help. Poured water on that sacrifice so that not a man could help set that on fire.

You can have a new heart today because the Father accepted the suffering death of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins. There's nothing to it. There's nothing more, and nothing less will ever be preached from this pulpit. And here's my question for you, church—and I want you to just think on that for just a second for your own life: Has your heart been turned to God by the power of God? Has that happened in your life? Has God done that miracle? Or are you tired and weary of always, time and again, trying to turn your own heart to God, and it's never a finished work? It always fails. You always end up right back where you started because you're turning your heart, and the eyes of your heart somehow have not been able to see that God has turned my heart. That's where I run. That's where I get it from. He doesn't need my fire. He doesn't need my help. "That they may know that You have turned their heart back to You."

Something happens, church. Something very powerful. It's not a small thing. Something happens when you get, spiritually speaking, to that mountain—when you have your mountain moment, when you see the wood with the eyes of your heart, when you see the sacrifice, and when you see with the eyes of your heart that God chose—God made a decision—to pour all of your sin, without any of your help, before you ever prayed a word, ever worshiped Him, ever loved on Him, before you did a thing, God decided to pour all of your sin right on that altar, right on the cross, right on Jesus Christ. When that is revealed by God's Spirit to your heart, when you can see that God chose, and the Father accepted the payment for your life—what happens in that place is God gives you a heart that is turned all the way to Him. It's not something you have to do. It's not something you have to figure out. You don't even have to pray for this. When you let God lead you to the foot of the cross—that altar that Christ was placed on—and you see all that water, that none of your work is ever required, that none of your saying sorry will ever contribute, that none of your repenting will ever add to God's decision to pour your sins on Jesus—none of it will do a thing.

There's a trench around it. It's drenched. There's nothing that the works of man can do. And yet, without any of my help, God decided to pour all of my stuff on Jesus. When the eyes of your heart see the Father make that decision, a miracle happens. He sends His Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit takes your old heart out and gives you a new heart that loves God and that is able to love people as yourself. Here’s the altar call, church. And again, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church for years. If you realize you’ve been faltering between two opinions—one moment you’re on fire for the Lord, committed to His kingdom, committed to your ministry, committed to what you’re called to do—the next moment you realize you’ve forgotten to even talk to God for two days in a row. It’s—you have to remember God. You don’t have a new heart that cannot even get away from Him, even if you would try. It’s not a finished work. It’s a constant turning. That doesn’t mean that this altar call is not for you if you’ve been in church for years.

Maybe you’re online or here in the house and you’ve never wholeheartedly, with full peace in your heart, believed that the Father has accepted payment already for every sin you will ever do in your lifetime—and that He’s already paid to give you, for free, a new heart. There’s no payment required on your part. In every case, if the Holy Spirit’s been working in your heart, you would like to say to God something along these lines: God, turn my heart to Yourself. If you see this Word and you’re willing to pray that simple prayer—Okay, God, I’m going to let You. God, turn my heart to Yourself.—if that’s you, I’m going to invite you to come forward in just a moment. Because there’s another group of people here and online with us.

Some of you—God is stirring your heart, just like He did for Elijah. And He’s stirring your heart. People have been coming to mind throughout this service, and you’re realizing, I’m standing in front of them as a prophet, and they don’t know. And the Lord is allowing you to see people and to understand people that cannot see their own forgiveness, that cannot see that God will give them a brand new heart without any of their help—that God will accept payment for their sins without any of their help. And God is willing to give you this burden: that this people may know that You are the Lord God and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.

That desire to see that in certain people—the Holy Spirit’s brought up throughout this service. People have come to mind. If that is you, God is calling you to make yourself available to your ministry. All He’s asking you to do is say, Yes, I’ll show up at that mountain where You’re willing to do the work. I’ll make room for that ministry.

So if you want to say to God, God, turn my heart to Yourself. I’m done doing the work. I can’t do it. Turn my heart to Yourself. Or if you want to say to the Lord, Lord, I’m going to make myself available to the ministry that You’re calling me to, I want to invite you to join me here at the altar so we can pray together. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. If He’s willing to do a miracle in your life today, He will have touched your heart throughout the service. And you probably already knew that the altar call was coming for you before it was given. And when the Holy Spirit speaks to you like this, there’s a scripture that is for you: Today, if you can hear His voice, don’t harden your heart as in the rebellion, but let Him lead you. The rebellion made the people’s journey so much longer than it needed to be, and they missed out on so much that God was willing to do. And the Lord doesn’t want that for your life.

So when you have a small nudge in your heart, or that person coming to mind as you sit under a service—that’s the Lord inviting you to say, Believe that I will do the work, because I’m about to take you on a journey. And coming to an altar is nothing special in itself—it’s just symbolic of us saying, Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Turn my heart. Yes, Lord. Teach me to make room for this ministry.

And God will open eyes. God will open the eyes of your heart. God will give you a new heart. And God will make you a minister of revealing that the Father decided to pour all of the wrath on the sacrifice on the cross long before God was ever a thought on your mind. Without any of your help, any of your repenting, any of your praying—God decided to pay the price to give you a heart that is turned to Him. Believe on Jesus. Believe the Word from heaven. Believe the gospel. And God will never fail you.

-Pastor Stan Mons