"Enlarging the Heart to Worship You" – Psalm 34:3 "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together." The image the whole message comes from is a night in a planetarium: billions of stars, and God beyond every one of them. Hence the thesis: the heart is squeezed smaller by the years and the circumstances until it is small and bitter, and what is needed is for God to enlarge it. Not out of vainglory —to be enlarged is to be made great— but in order to worship. The study moves through Psalm 69:30, Psalm 145:1, Matthew 22:37, Proverbs 4:23 and Ezekiel 36:26, where God does not patch: He gives a new heart.
I. Why the heart
A. The heart sits at the centre of the body and has a function beyond pumping blood: God wants us to love Him with the heart.
B. So it must be enlarged. It cannot go on being squeezed by the years, by the trials, by the difficulties.
C. And this is not vanity: to be enlarged is to be made great.
D. For as circumstances press, the heart keeps shrinking, and a person hardens and finds fault with everyone.
E. There is always a reason to quarrel, a reason to criticize, a reason not to let good dwell in our life.
F. And as the heart grows small, the good fades away, until one lives simply embittered, finding in everything a reason to fight.
G. And then, when we sing, we cannot feel much, because we are full of anger.
II. The image: the stars
A. On a journey, seated in a planetarium, we did not see God: we saw stars, one upon another.
B. And down here we see very little.
C. The messages on the churches of Revelation had left their mark. And to be affected is not to be harmed: what affects you is what works something strong in you.
D. There were so many stars that one could only think: God is beyond all those billions. And we are on this little earth, turning, never leaving our orbit and never stopping.
E. Let us learn to marvel at God. For if you look at yourself, you have no marvel of your own.
III. How the heart grows
A. It grows when you are cleaning it; when everything of God amazes you; when you set God always in front.
B. When the heart grows, your speech changes, your thinking changes, everything changes; because in the heart is life.
C. And for God to take that place, you must die. Do you flare up in anger? Die. Does everything annoy you? You must die.
D. It is not that God becomes greater: God is. What happens is that we recognize His greatness; and there spiritual growth begins.
E. It depends what your heart is set on: the children, the marriage, the vanity of this earth, what is claimed, what is shown off. You may keep it where you like.
F. But if there is an awakening, it is telling God: let my heart be made great, to love you with all my strength.
G. And do not leave it so late, for the heart hardens.
IV. Those who did enlarge their hearts
A. The verse is an invitation: not only to worship, but to learn together the greatness of this God. Hence unity, and having one same heart.
B. If we all have one same heart, we must have one voice. Paul and Peter did not speak differently: they spoke of the one they had seen face to face.
C. And they were killed. Paul was held for beheading, the axe being sharpened. Would we be as bold in that place as we are walking out of this door?
D. They did enlarge their hearts: they were not attached to the vanity or the pretension of this earth, but wholly to loving the Lord.
E. When they saw Jesus their hearts began to be enlarged, and Jesus went on filling their lives. Many were martyrs; the rest lost everything and lived in hiding.
F. And their hearts kept enlarging. They gave such a measure of heart that there must be a special place for them in heaven.
V. Worship is congregational
A. That is the psalm's powerful truth: worship is not individual, it is congregational. It is giving glory and honour to the one in the third heaven.
B. This is not being religious: it is the kingdom of God, which came into our lives, and that is why we are free, and there is joy and peace.
C. The church is not the place where we pretend, presume, demand and claim: it is the place of worship.
D. God is pleased when His people are united exalting His name; the place fills with angels ascending and descending.
E. And who receives more when the LORD rises to hear your worship? God has millions of angels worshipping Him perfectly; we do not worship like that.
F. But God delights in ours, because we do it with a mortal's effort; for angels it simply flows, their being is not like ours.
G. And how much does praising cost you? It costs you to lift your hands. Lift one, and the other follows.
H. Giving thanks changes our view of the world: He grows, and our problems and circumstances grow small, because He is the great one.
I. "I have trouble with my husband." Why not say, "God came into my marriage, because I prayed, I fasted, I sought God"? It is easier to discredit God's power.
VI. What is written about you
A. In time a person stalls and the coldness comes. Growing in God is not what is wanted first; a position in the church is, and that is pure vanity.
B. And who sees us? The angels. Each one has his, and that one writes.
C. Not because God does not know, but because what is written is stored up for the day of judgement: whole libraries of it.
D. And what do they write about you? For according to what is written about you is what you come to obtain.
E. The only one who does justice and judgement is God, because He is the creator. The devil only hinders: no demon can touch mortals.
F. And God grants many years, to see whether we will ever care to be converted, and whether the word, when read, will shake us.
VII. Invite, declare, unite
A. Invite others to worship, beginning with the family, that they may love the church.
B. Declare His greatness north, south, east and west. For what you say is what you are supposed to live.
C. When someone lends you his ears, you can move him. And why is he not moved? Because it is not done.
D. And you do not need a theology: you need a heart for the Lord.
E. If we took out a little of the bitterness, the rage and the rebellion, our heart would be more enlarged, and we would start praying for someone.
F. Because the mouth opens for plenty: to argue, to envy, to murmur.
G. Seek unity in worship: not only emotion, but one same spirit in this corner and in that one.
H. If we think ourselves superior, come down and humble the vanity. Why not speak with a brother plainly, without showing him a level that surpasses his?
VIII. Praise with a song (Psalm 69:30)
A. "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving."
B. "I will praise" is a personal decision: it does not depend on circumstances. And in song, worship is expressed, declared, sung.
C. "But I do not sing beautifully." No matter: hardly anyone does. But the greatest joy is weeping in the songs and lifting the arms.
D. Some truly cannot lift a hand; then that is how the hand is lifted. It is all effort: one need not be the strongest, one must be diligent.
E. And let us drop the fuss: we ask "how are you?" out of duty, and they answer what they wanted us to ask. We are not here for information.
F. And this psalm is one of affliction: even in the middle of pain the psalmist decides to praise. For in pain what we do is weep and complain.
G. That teaches us that praise is not born only in victory, but also in the trial.
IX. "I will extol thee, my God, O king" (Psalm 145:1)
A. "I will extol thee" is the personal decision to put God above everything. Do we do it? On the day of trouble, are we not distressed?
B. "My God" is the intimate relationship. "O king" is the acknowledgement of authority: the authority over your life is God's.
C. That is why we must fear. Man? No. But God I do fear.
D. "For ever and ever": a continual praise, with no limit of time. For if something happens, or if you are tired, you stop blessing God.
E. And who loses? God can create more angels at any moment.
F. This is a psalm of praise by David with no petition in it: only pure worship. A heart that does not seek God out of need, but exalts Him for who He is.
G. To acknowledge God as King implies total surrender: "I cannot, Lord; I yield." Because I am haughty, because I am vain, because I think I know it all.
H. Life is life or death, salvation or condemnation: there is no middle ground. And praise is not momentary: it is a way of life.
X. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" (Matthew 22:37)
A. "Thou shalt love" is not only emotion: it is a decision and a commitment. It is not that I like some services and not others.
B. With all thy heart: give Him your affections. When you worship Him, that affection goes out from you to God.
C. With all thy soul: your inner life, what you are in essence. With all thy mind: your thinking, your decisions, your understanding.
D. Jesus said this when asked which was the greatest commandment: the sum of the whole law is to love God completely.
E. And He must be loved above the children, above the marriage, above father and mother, because He is the creator: if you breathe, it is because He made you breathe.
F. Do you know when a life ends? When God says: this is your last second. And not everyone goes to heaven.
G. Coming to church is not what gives security: security is how you love God, and not putting yourself in places of danger.
H. God does not want a part of us, but all. And loving God implies obedience, not only feeling: not halfway, not the world, not lukewarm.
I. Examine whether there are areas of your life you have not surrendered. Seek God not only out of need, but out of love; and fill your mind with His word.
XI. "Keep thy heart" (Proverbs 4:23)
A. What must be kept? The heart. Not this one or that one: your problem is your heart.
B. The danger is what is grown there, in secret: monsters live hidden, and intentions are prepared in hiding.
C. And one day those monsters come out, and whom do they devour? Oneself. For from in there you can harm no one else.
D. Guard your inner life above all else, because everything you are and do flows out of there.
E. Every other part of the body discards; the heart does not: the heart accumulates. And for whom? For oneself.
F. "Keep" is a continuous and intentional action. Out of it flow the issues of life: decisions, words, attitudes.
G. The verse does not speak of the physical heart, but of the centre of the being, where we think no one knows what is there. But you know: that is the danger.
H. However much harm or envy is held toward someone, that person is not destroyed: you are. For what one wants for another falls back on one's own head.
I. Not everything that reaches your life should enter your heart. And if your children do not know it, you have not taught them; and if you do not teach it, you do not apply it either.
J. Learn to filter conversations, contents and influences; for what is not filtered soaks into the body, and afterwards it shouts.
K. Keep your heart aligned with God, and the only way is prayer, the word and obedience.
L. It is not what enters your life that destroys you, but what you let into your heart.
XII. "A new heart also will I give you" (Ezekiel 36:26)
A. God does not patch. Patching means thread that rots, and the cloth tears right where it was mended.
B. God makes new: the day we were converted, God made the heart new.
C. "A new spirit": a new inner life, a new way of thinking, a new way of living.
D. "I will take away the stony heart" —hard, unfeeling, rebellious— "and I will give you an heart of flesh": tender, obedient, disposed toward God.
E. He promises it to a people in exile: not merely to restore them outwardly, but to change them within.
F. Real change comes from God, not from human effort. "Tomorrow I will be good" — and the next day someone cuts you off in traffic and there goes the horn.
G. God can take away the hardness of the heart, however deep it goes. The catch is that it is not wanted.
H. God did not come to improve your heart: He came to give you a heart. He performs a transplant: He removes the old and puts in the one He carries in His hands.
I. In the middle ground God is not. And the only one who can guard your life is you: in prayer, in seeking, and with a meek spirit.
J. For we pretend to knowledge, and the knowledge we pretend to always comes with deception.
XIII. Application
A. Ask God today to enlarge your heart, and say it in those words.
B. Examine what has been squeezing it: the bitterness, the rage, the rebellion, the reason to quarrel.
C. Worship with the people, not only alone: worship is congregational.
D. Invite someone —beginning at home— to worship, and declare God's greatness out loud.
E. Filter what you let in: conversations, contents and influences.
F. And do not expect to transform yourself by your own effort: God does not patch, He gives a new heart.
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
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