There is great emphasis placed on living a balanced life. There is certainly nothing wrong with eating balanced meals and living in balance with your community and personal life, and balancing time spend with one person over another; in fact a good case could be made for this being a biblical concept. What concerns me is that I see a lot of people in this world who go to great extents to order their world and who give little or no attention to ordering their heart.

Solomon had so much going on in his life. So much popularity, so much wealth, so many people clamoring for his attention. He had to carry two day timers and a palm pilot just to keep track of it all. Yet he was wise enough to know that was not to be his real focus.

You that know Soloman's story know that later in his life he failed to follow his own advise; he failed to guard his heart, and in the end of his life he paid dearly for that lack of focus.

So…. I don’t want to know today if you have a well ordered life, that can be a seminar we offer someday; what I want to ask you is a much more important question:

Are you living with a well-ordered heart?

You don’t see the great of the Bible living their life with their relationship with God simply being a part of their daily existence. It was their existence! That’s the whole point.

In fact, the people in the Bible who made God only a part of their lives are the ones who are given to us as bad examples. They’re the ones who didn’t measure up. Their lives often ended poorly.

When Jesus called people to lives of discipleship he didn’t call them to lead a balanced life. He asked them to

…deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him.

It’s hard to imagine the Apostle Paul talking about making sure his spiritual life was balanced with the rest of his existence. It’s easy to hear him talking about his accomplishments and then considering them like a pile of dung compared to knowing Christ.

Its familiar to hear him recounting his life based not on how many stocks were in his portfolio or how many tents he made and how much profit he received form each but on <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The key here is that these people knew that:

A) Having the best ordered life doesn’t count for much of anything if you don’t have a well-ordered heart.

What does it mean to have a well ordered heart?

The effects of the fall gave us a naturally disordered heart. Our natural tendency is to misfocus:

When the heart is rightly ordered there is an increasing wall that grows inside us toward the lure to sin. If you have strong temptations that constantly pull you off the path of righteousness and into active sin, often the same sins over and over, and over…

You are living with disorder in your heart.

I’m not saying you are not a Christian, I’m not saying you don’t have a love for God. I’m am saying your heart is untidy, it is disordered.

You know what it is like when you walk into a room that is untidy? You have a sense of EHHHH! (Garage) You may learn to live with it. But there is often a sense of unease; life doesn’t have to be this way…. If somehow I could just have the motivation to clean up this mess, I could be surrounded by order, and I would have such a sense of peace

It is your spiritual birthright to have your garage cleaned out…

B) A Game Plan for “Meta-Morphing”

How does God go about transforming ordinary fallen hearts into hearts that love to do the right thing, in the right way, to the right degree, with the right kind of attitude?

He transforms them….. He renews the mind.. Yes that’s right….But notice something;

God’s transformation is in response to something we do….

None of us will ever move into a deep relationship with our Creator in a casual or haphazard manner.

Now, understand that I am not saying that spiritual transformation can be programmed or orchestrated by us. It is a work of the grace of God. Neither can it be a random venture. You don’t just luck into spiritual growth. You plan for it. You tack your sail into the wind of the Spirit and I spoke of last week. You consciously offer yourself as a living sacrifice. You consciously set out to not conform to the practices of this world. You develop spiritual disciplines.

Now there’s a nasty word…. Discipline… Remember, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control.

A disciplined person is one who can do the right things, at the right time, in the right way, with the right spirit.

Disciplined people get that way by developing into their lives spiritual disciplines…

A (Spiritual) discipline in any activity I can do by direct effort that help me to do what I cannot now do by direct effort.

The old devotional masters used to talk about developing a:

A Rule of Life… If I were to ask you to describe to me your rule of life what would you say?

A Rhythm for Living … have you developed a pattern of behavior that is consistently moving you closer and closer to God’s image?

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I’ve discussed with you before that in the New Testament (Old Testament) the term name does not simply mean a title that identifies a person. Names in the Bible were given to express character. When asked to pray in Jesus name it doesn’t primarily mean that you tack that at the end of a sentence….