Valley Church Clinton
December 7, 2025 - Advent 2025 | A Heart Restored
  • Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
  • Introduction
    Good morning everyone, and welcome to Valley Church Clinton!
    So glad you’re here joining us during Advent season, it continues to be one of my favorite times of year.
    And if you’ve been around for any amount of time, you may know a deeply held personal opinion that I have. It’s pretty irrational, and a lot of people absolutely don’t share in this opinion.
    And this opinion isn’t meant to offend, or be taken as a harmful provocation toward anyone - so if this directly affects you as a person I’m deeply sorry.
    But I really don’t understand the point of home inspectors. I mean, most of the time it’s a dude off the street who seems to know about as much as I do.
    They know the banks require them, so they charge an arm and a leg.
    They come in and poke around, and you spend like 4 hours with them. And every single thing they find, somehow it’s the buyers fault, you know what I mean?
    Like - ugh, this subfloor is soft - and they look at you as if you’ve been sneaking into this house every night dumping water on the floor.
    And it drives me even more crazy to see the self-righteous inspectors on youtube who go around and poke walls and plaster with their screwdrivers - I mean, they’ll stab that sucker straight through a wall and be like - see, not fortified with 4 inches of concrete.
    Okay, enough dogging on them, but people pay an exorbitant amount of money to have this inspector come in and make sure the home you’re buying is structurally sound. Make sure it has “good bones”.
    Because you can only see so much from the outside. From the road, a house can look amazing. It can check all the boxes, look move in ready.
    You peek in the windows, and you’re already getting excited about moving in.
    But then, you inspect the inside. You get in the crawlspace, you see if the floor is crooked. You check for roof leaks.
    All things that aren’t obvious from the outside, but can make a seemingly good house on the surface turn in to a lifelong nightmare and money pit.
    And I think we can do the same thing in our walk with Jesus. See, we can show up. We can look kind. We can look “Christian”, whatever that means.
    Our external shell, when viewed from the street, before people start peaking in our windows, it can look nice, well-polished, pleasing to the eye.
    But as soon as anyone starts poking around, inspecting, looking for leaks, they find a rotten core, a broken interior that is in desperate need of healing and repair.
    And the problem is we try to repair ourselves with stuff we can find. We try to fix our insides, our thoughts, our hearts by bringing in various things. Vices, perhaps. Healing from worldly sources. Religion. You name it, humanity has tried it.
    But the problem is all of those things are looking to repair a broken interior. But in reality, we need to be looking for a complete replacement.
    So, i’d like to invite our Scripture reader up, Dillon, to read Ezekiel 36:24-28.
    Historical Context
    Alright, let’s get into the book of Ezekiel. Overall, this book is something we call prophecy.
    And Ezekiel, the prophet, starts seeing all kinds of crazy visions, all from God, Yahweh, about what Israel did wrong, how God is holy, and how God will be the one to restore Israel, the people of God, back to holiness once again.
    The big theme of this is really unique because God is largely a shepherd that will one day reign his flock in, and the visions have a lot to do with Israel straying like lost sheep.
    The problem was that Israel wasn’t interested in following God’s commands - they completley took the covenant relationship God established and tarnished it.
    In fact, Israel is described as not only and adulterer, but as a prostitute. Completley turning on God and essentially cheating with other nations and gods, in order to be like the other, more powerful nations.
    And this is what Ezekiel was warning the people about. He needed them to realize that their actions had very real consequences.
    And the biggest consequence was none other than

    Total Exile

    See, just like an adulterous relationship, there’s a point where it hits the fan, so to speak.
    And that happens, literally to Ezekiel, and the rest of his people. The were deported from Israel.
    Let’s take a look at history to see what happened:
    2 Kings 24:10–13 CSB
    10 At that time the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. 11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it. 12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the king of Babylon. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. 13 He also carried off from there all the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king’s palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s sanctuary, just as the Lord had predicted.
    So, King Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, was the leading instrument of Israel’s exile.
    And if you don’t know what that phrase “came under siege means” be extremely thankful.
    Because a siege, or besieging, was a horrible, horrible thing. Basically, and army would come up against a well fortified city, in this case, Jerusalem, and naturally, the city would close shop. Batten down the hatches.
    And the invading army knew it was pointless to try to get through the walls in any way, so what they would so is just sit outside.
    They would batter the walls constantly, but the main problem with closing up your city is no one can get in, sure, but that meant everyone. That meant anyone delivering food. Water. Supplies.
    That meant no one could leave to get supplies. Think about even simple things like firewood, weapons.
    This army would cut off all supplies to starve out the people inside. It got so bad in some sieges that the inhabitants of the city would scrape together nearly a half of years wages for a donkey’s head to eat, and they would literally buy cups of dove dung.
    A lot of times, it got so bad that they would even start to eat their own children out of shear desperation.
    This is what’s happening to Isreal, to Jerusalem, to God’s holy people and land.
    This is the bottom of the barrel, the lowest of the low. Rock bottom.
    This was the culmination of Israel’s unfaithfulness.
    And eventually, Nebuchadnezzar prevailed, and took everyone, everything of value, back to his homeland of Babylon.
    And Ezekiel was among this crowd of deports. And 4 years later, he would be called into ministry as a prophet to warn the people of their lack of worship, of their idolatry, of their complete disdain for a holy God.
    See, for years, on the outside, Israel was winning battles. They were prosperous, rich, their God was winning. They had great cities, great kings, great walls.
    But on the inside, they were rotting. Their motives weren’t pure, they were no longer interested in the God that had been their rescuer and covenant maker.
    And for years, their prophets warned them - if you disobey God, you will be destroyed.
    But they didn’t listen.
    The thing about us humans is we don’t usually listen until it’s too late. Sometimes…

    Exile is Often the Only Way

    And let me tell you, I’m not only speaking about Israel this morning.
    Sometimes, the only way to get our attention, is to leave our side for a moment. God says “fine, you want to be like to world, good luck. Go live in the world, see how it works out”.
    Israel already historically did this when they asked God for a king. In the beginning of 1 Samuel, the people some to the prophet Samuel and ask for a king. They wanted to be like the other nations - prosperity, power, they thought.
    And Samuel says “Look, this king you want, he’ll take your sons into war, he’ll take your daughters for himself. He’ll take your land to do whatever he wants, use your labor to make weapons for warring, he’ll make you servants. God is your King, why do you want a king?”
    And this is what the crowd said:
    1 Samuel 8:19–22 CSB
    19 The people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us. 20 Then we’ll be like all the other nations: our king will judge us, go out before us, and fight our battles.” 21 Samuel listened to all the people’s words and then repeated them to the Lord. 22 “Listen to them,” the Lord told Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.”
    God said - okay, have it your way.
    And I think this is how he handles all of us. Because let me tell you, as much as we want to believe it, God is not groveling to get us to like him.
    Does he pursue us? Absolutely. Does he love us and desire for us to be with Him? You bet.
    But. God did not create a world of robots. He didn’t create humanity to automatically respond with “love” at every becon.
    What God did was impart a will in each of us. And this free will, free to do whatever we want, really. Free to worship whoever we want, including ourselves, this free will we have is the only way true love could be created.
    Because automatons that love at default do not have a choice. God, in his infinite beauty and creativity, wanted to give us a choice. To either truly love Him, or truly reject him.
    He did this at the expense of his only son, Jesus Christ. But it was the only way true love could exist.
    And at this point in history, Israel did not truly love God. So God, who absolutely truly loved Israel, had one last resort to save his beloved people - he allowed them to be exiled.
    And now, His people are living in a foreign land. And they’re under the rule of a king who uses them as servants, laborers, worship toys.
    And every day, these Israelites are working around Babylon, painfully working, fingers torn from making more mud bricks to expand the giant tower of the Babylonian god Marduk, all reminders that they were prostitutes to their God Yaweh, praying that he would come rescue them. Crying out in anguish, in pitiful cries for help.
    Then their friend, this fellow Ezekiel comes along, reminding them of their wrongdoing, but even more importantly, Ezekiel shares his vision of how God, the great Shepherd, will rescue his people and fulfil his promises.
    And then Ezekiel says something that would have absolutely perked up the ears of the Israelites living in Babylon.
    Ezekiel 36:26 CSB
    26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
    Their ears would have perked at the sound of this…

    New Heart

    Now, the Israelites had somehitng called the shema. The Shema was a constantly repeated Jewish prayer and saying that kids from the youngest age would have started learning. It primarily comes from Deut 6:4-6:
    Deuteronomy 6:4–6 CSB
    4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.
    This was the basis of Jewish thought and belief. Everything could be boiled down to the concept of one God, wholly and entirely sufficient, and that you should love him with your entire being.
    So when Ezekiel would have said - God will give you a new heart - it may have been met with confusion, and possibly criticism. Because they were already trying as hard as they could, as exiles, to start loving God again with all their heart.
    And the human heart, although we think of them now in terms of emotion and mushy gushy love, it was something much different to the ancient world.
    Because in ancient times, the heart was considered the “seat of the will”.
    It was the inner self, your inclinations, your dispositions, your determination, courage, inetntions.
    It was your true self, revealed.
    As one lexicon defines it in the context of ancient thought - the heart is the center and source of the whole inner life - its thinking, feeling and volition.
    In essence strip away everything on the outside, and your heart reveals who you are. Truly. Without the mask.
    This is why David writes this in Psalm 51
    Psalm 51:10 CSB
    10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
    Psalm 51:12 CSB
    12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
    And similarly in Psalm 139
    Psalm 139:23–24 CSB
    23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.
    What David wanted to be completely aligned with the will of God in his heart, in his innermost being.
    Ezekiel give the answer that the Israelites have been looking for all along - they must be willing to let God carve and chisel out their hearts of stone. Their hard hearts that do not have life.
    And they must be willing to receive a heart of flesh. A heart that can feel, that can move, that can live.
    Only then will they find who they are created to be. Only then can their will align with that of God.
    The inside can be made new. They can return to God, as a new creation.
    And the second half of this promise is also that God will place in them a new spirit.
    Ezekiel 36:27 CSB
    27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.
    See, God’s Spirit would take the place of our own. So, not only would God’s people be given a new heart made of flesh instead of stone, they would also be given the Spirit of life.
    This has close ties with the creation account in Genesis:
    Genesis 2:7 CSB
    7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
    This is God’s Spirit. The sustainer of all life. Although our hearts can be made a new, it doesn’t matter if that heart isn’t made alive by the living Spirit.
    Sticking with the house metaphor, a can be beautiful and majestic, a mansion with all kinds of rooms and frills.
    But it doesn’t come to life - it doesn’t become a home until the laughter of kids roams the hallways. The Christmas tree is lit up and ornaments from years of collecting are hung. Until dinner is served around the dining room table as a family shares their day.
    This is God filling us with His spirit. This is what He was promising through Ezekiel. He would give us a heart of flesh - capable of doing the will of God. Then, He would give us life to make that heart beat abundantly.
    And this bring us to our final conclusion:

    Our Problem is Internal, not External

    So often, we get so focused on the outside. The visible. Our own affairs, how people view us.
    But our problem is our hearts. They’re hard, made of stone. And again, we try to chisel away. We try to fix our insides by cleaning up our outsides.
    And here’s what Jesus says about that:
    Mark 7:14–23 CSB
    14 Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
    It’s not what goes into us, but what comes out of us. Because those things coming out of us, they come from within. From our innermost being, from the seat of our will. From our heart.
    What we have is a heart problem. And the only solution is to swap out our heart for another one. For a better one. For one offered by God.
    And then, we must let His Spirit indwell us, not for some magical purpose or blessings or something, but to literally sustain our life. Because that is our source.
    Like the Pharisees, we can get so caught up in a narrowly focused view of God. See, they were so focused on how to ceremonially wash your hands before a meal that they completely missed the Messiah that was standing right in front of them.
    So, this season as a church, I really want us to focus on this concept of heart posture. And this is really difficult, a lifelong struggle really.
    But it’s really easy to get wrapped up in festivities, driving here or there, meals, gifts, whatever else the holidays entail.
    What we need to continually say to God is “Here’s my heart, Lord”. Here’s my heart, replace it with something better. Please, give me heart of flesh.
    Give me your heart.
    And this will completley change how you look at your Bible reading. No longer will it be about checking off a box, but instead you will approach it with love to learn more about God.
    It’ll change how you approach prayer. It’s no longer only before meals, or when you need something. Prayer turns into a heart of obedience, sitting at the Lord’s feet even when nothing is wrong, purely because you cant imagine being anywhere else.
    A correct heart posture changes how you look at other people, your family, your coworkers, your small group.
    There is nothing else that will radically change your life, and change the world, than a true heart transplant. A completley new will. A new outlook on life.
    A new innermost self that aligns with the views and will and ordinances and commands of God.
    Now, this again is lifelong. God is sanctifying you every day if you let Him. He is making you more like Him, if you have the Spirit in you.
    I know some of you out there feel far. You feel in exile.
    I know some of you are stagnant. I know some of you feel disconnected, not sure where to go, who to turn to. It seems like everyone else is connecting with God except you.
    But here’s the thing - were all together, in exile. Because we aren’t with God fully yet. We are here in this in-between place called earth and heaven seems so far away.
    So, as a fellow exile, as a church full of deportees who aren’t fully home yet - we are here for you. We exist for one another.
    All of us in this room, every single one of us - young, old, newly saved, mature Christian - we need to approach the altar with our heart of stone and beg God to swap it with a heart of flesh.
    Because here’s the thing is, God isn’t restoring us for our sake, for our glory.
    This is what God says:
    Ezekiel 36:22–23 ““Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went. I will honor the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord—this is the declaration of the Lord God—when I demonstrate my holiness through you in their sight.”
    This is the only way to make us Capable of love for Him and one another.
    And we need to follow the Wisdom of Solomon:
    Proverbs 4:23 CSB
    23 Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
    Flee from sin, and guard your hearts. This is what God wants from you. He wants to make you a new.
    Let’s pray.

      • 2 Kings 24:10–13CSB

      • 1 Samuel 8:19–22CSB

      • Ezekiel 36:26CSB

      • Deuteronomy 6:4–6CSB

      • Psalm 51:10CSB

      • Psalm 51:12CSB

      • Psalm 139:23–24CSB

      • Ezekiel 36:27CSB

      • Genesis 2:7CSB

      • Mark 7:14–23CSB

      • Proverbs 4:23CSB

  • Holy Spirit
  • Living Hope
Valley Church Clinton
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