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Colin Smith: One of our boys said from the back seat of the van, "I wish Dad would mess up more." I will tell you that was a wake-up call to me because I thought, this boy actually thinks that his dad has got his life all sorted out and that he really hardly messes up at all. I have got to change that perception.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, I think a lot of parents would hope that their kids would hold them in such high esteem. Why is it that you want that perception to change?

Colin Smith: Well, first because it's not true. I certainly started after that, after my son in middle school said that from the back of the van, I started making a regular habit of saying to him, "Hey, your dad just messed up again." He's very tired of hearing that nowadays, by the way.

But here's the reality: Who will be drawn to Jesus Christ apart from an awareness that we are all messed up inside? There isn't a single person in this fallen world that's some kind of a paragon of virtue. I think it's really important for us as parents to be able to communicate effectively to our children, and especially in their teenage years when they're thinking about these things, that we're not setting ourselves before them as some kind of example of virtue. Rather, we are those who know that we depend upon the grace of God and are seeking the help of God in pursuing the life to which he calls us. Only then are children going to see that they also have a need and that there is a Savior who is able to meet that need.

Steve Hiller: That's such an important thing to bring out. As you began to do that, did you notice a difference?

Colin Smith: Well, I think my son knows that he messes up too, and I'm very, very thankful that both of our boys love Christ. Let's get into our message today. This is from Ephesians chapter two as we continue "The Heart Wants What It Wants."

Now, what are the cravings of the sinful nature? Let me just give you 10 quickly, randomly chosen examples, and you could double the list very, very quickly, but just to give you the idea. When you are blessed, the sinful nature produces pride: "Look what I did." When other people are blessed, the sinful nature produces envy: "Why them and not me?"

When you do good, the sinful nature produces self-righteousness. When you do wrong, the sinful nature goes into denial: "It wasn't my fault. You've got to understand." When you suffer, you will find that the sinful nature produces within you self-pity, and you have to deal with that.

When you don't get what you want, the sinful nature will get irritable; it will get frustrated and get angry. When your work is not appreciated or what you do is not recognized by others, the sinful nature will get resentful.

When you're in a conflict, the sinful nature will tell you how absolutely right you are at every point and will fill you with self-justification. When you hear about the love of God, the sinful nature will produce unbelief. It will produce this sense of, "That can't be right. That can't be true." That's what the sinful nature does then. And when you hear what the Bible says about sin, the sinful nature produces evasion. It dodges and weaves.

I tell you, the sinful nature is at the height of its production during the preaching of the Word of God. It will dodge and it will weave to make sure, as far as is possible, that nothing lands on you and nothing comes into you so that you would go out as you came in, never having truly encountered God.

And then here's my second practical description: The cravings of your sinful nature will find expression in your thoughts and in your desires. Notice how that's made very, very clear in this verse: "...gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and its thoughts."

Now, I have a quotation that I want to give to you that speaks about sins in the thoughts and in the imagination and in the desires, probably more powerfully than any other quotation that I have read on the subject. Here is what is fascinating to me about it.

I'm going to quote to you from a Scottish pastor by the name of Thomas Boston, who describes so perceptively how the imagination enables the sinner to indulge the cravings of his heart. All of us know what he's talking about. Here's the fascinating thing: the quotation that I'm going to read to you, he wrote in 1729, which is long before the internet, long before the television, and more than a century before the invention of the camera.

So when we think about the battles that we experience in terms of sins of the imagination and we say, "Well, the problem of course is all out there. We live in this media-saturated culture and all these images that we're bombarded with," Boston, writing in 1729, lived before any of that. And what's so fascinating is that he describes what all of us experience as if he was writing last week. This makes the point that the problem, though there are all kinds of problems out there, the real place where the problem exists is in here, which is what Paul is saying in Ephesians.

Listen to Boston: "The sinful mind supplies the lack of real objects to the corrupt heart so that it may make sinners happy at least in the imaginary enjoyment of their lusts. The corrupt heart feeds itself with imagination sins. The unclean person is filled with speculative impurities. The covetous man fills his heart with the world, even though he cannot get his hands on it. The malicious person fills his mind with acts of revenge, and the envious man beholds with satisfaction his neighbor laid low."

He says, "Every lust finds the corrupt imagination to be a friend to it in time of need." And he adds finally, "This the heart does not only when people are awake but sometimes even when they are asleep, whereby it comes to pass that those sins are acted in dreams which their hearts pant after when they are awake." Everybody here knows exactly what he's talking about. That's the struggle of the human heart in 1729. What's changed?

The title for today's message is a quip from Woody Allen: "The heart wants what it wants." Woody Allen said this in 1992 when he had been living with a woman for some years and then he left her to take up with her daughter. Even the secular world was at least surprised by that and asked the question why he would do that. When he was asked that question, Woody Allen came up with this comment: "The heart wants what it wants."

Friends, that is exactly the teaching of Ephesians chapter two and verse three. It's exactly what it's saying. The heart wants what it wants. So, all of us are going to have to make a choice as to how we will live, and it will have to be made on a daily and a continuing basis.

The choice you make about how you live will be a direct reflection about what you most deeply believe regarding the condition of your own heart. If you believe that your heart is good, if that at the deepest level is what you continue to believe, you will follow the inclination of your heart and you will live on impulse just as Woody Allen did.

But if you believe what we are learning from the Bible today, you will learn to distrust your own heart. And so the next time someone says to you, "Oh, follow your heart," doesn't that phrase sound so wonderfully pious? Follow your heart. You'll say, "Wait a minute. Follow my heart? This heart was born in the likeness of Adam. If I follow my heart, it may lead me into all kinds of sin and folly. I need to follow the Word and check what is in my heart against it and put what is in my heart under it and let it be the judge of my heart. Otherwise, I will drive myself to a wreck."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "The Heart Wants What It Wants." Now, we're going to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment. Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day, and as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, I think it's for anyone who really loves the Word of God, but especially I think for anyone who's looking for something fresh or anyone who's looking for something really short. This little devotional that was actually used by Abraham Lincoln himself simply offers a verse of scripture for every day. They're organized by themes, a different theme each month. They go through the experience of a Christian believer in the various parts of life that we go through, and it gives to us just a verse that you can meditate on.

If you're looking for something really short, just to pop a verse of scripture into your mind each day, then this book does it very simply, very wonderfully. It does it from the old King James version, of course. And I think too, for someone who feels, I just want to do something fresh and different. I find it helpful to change up what I'm doing in my own devotional life, to move from one thing to another, one part of scripture to another, to use different books and devotionals and aids at different times. Here's something that might just be fresh for someone today: a verse of scripture each day from Abraham Lincoln's devotional that will help you to meditate on the Word of God, take in its truth, and live in its beauty and in its power.

Steve Hiller: We want to send you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org, or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Again, the website is openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: A few weeks ago, I met with some of our pastors to talk about this series. It's one of the great joys of my life to gather with the guys in different groups at different times and just for us to talk about the scriptures and for me to benefit from some of their insights. One of our pastors said, "Colin, this series is going to be important because many of our people are reading the Bible but they do not really believe what it says about sin. The default position in middle-class suburban evangelicalism is that we're basically good."

Then Josh Newton, who's our youth pastor at Barrington, said to me, "Pastor Colin, do you know the song by Lady Gaga called 'Born This Way'?" He said, "Students at middle school and high school believe what that says." So I said, "Well, can you get the words and email them to me?" He had his cell phone. He said, "I just did." It's another world, isn't it? Let me read the words to you.

"My mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars. There's nothing wrong with loving who you are, she said, because he made you perfect, babe. So hold your head up, girl, and you'll go far. Listen to me when I say I'm beautiful in my way because God makes no mistakes. I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way. Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you're set. I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way."

Let me say this word from a deep place in my own heart to all parents today. You may not allow your son or your daughter to watch or listen to Lady Gaga, but could it be that you are unwittingly teaching your children exactly what she is saying? We live in an affirming culture that gives us the idea that the best thing we can do for our children is to constantly tell them how good they are.

And here's the problem, and I choose my word very carefully: that is the most damning thing you could tell your children. Here's why. If nothing in your child is broken, what is there in your child to redeem? How will your child ever see his or her need of a Redeemer if you keep telling him or her how good and how great they really are?

You say, "Are you suggesting that I start telling my child that he or she is a little sinner?" And I say to you, no. I'm suggesting that you start by telling your son or your daughter that you are a big sinner. I'm serious. Let me tell you about my aha moment on this.

When our boys were in middle school, we were driving together in the van. We were heading up to Door County, the end of the year. We had a couple of days break and we were bringing in the New Year up there together. So we had a five-hour trip or whatever it is, and as often happened in our family, we managed to get into a good and an interesting conversation. We got going on this thing: it's going to be New Year in two days, and so let's all come up with ideas about one thing that each of us could change in the New Year. What would you want that would be different from each of us? And we all had a free opportunity to throw in our suggestions. Well, it went round the family, and you know that the suggestions for Dad are always going to come last. Finally, the moment comes: "Okay, what do we want Dad to change?"

And one of our boys said from the back seat of the van, "I wish Dad would mess up more." "I wish Dad would mess up more." I will tell you that was a wake-up call to me because I thought, this boy actually thinks that his dad has got his life all sorted out and that he really hardly messes up at all. I have got to change that perception. Otherwise, he will never be drawn to Christ. How could he be?

So I started a new habit called confessing the mess-ups. Of course, we had some fun with it too. It was not at all unusual when our family was eating during the years that followed, the kids were in middle school at that time, for me to come in and say, "Well, Dad messed up again today. Let me tell you about it."

And you know what happened within a very short period of time? When it was, "Dad messed up again today," then it was, "Oh no, Dad, not again!" So sometimes it was with great humor. But I will tell you as they grew in middle school and then began to develop and through their high school years, more privately and one-on-one, there were repeated and very real moments with genuine sadness, and on a couple of occasions with tears, of saying, "Son, you need to know how much your dad right now needs the Savior."

What are you teaching your children? Are you helping them realistically as they grow up to understand the mystery of sin in their life because they're battling all the same things that you are? Why don't you come clean with them? Why don't you get real with them? Are you helping your children to understand the mystery of sin that is in them, or are you actively blinding their minds to the gospel by drip-feeding them the false gospel of self-esteem? I have a great burden as you can tell on my heart today that in too many of our homes, we may actually be undercutting the credibility of the gospel by drip-feeding the false gospel of self-esteem.

I'm nearly through. I just want to tell you this, that my mama didn't tell me when I was young that we are all born superstars. And I'm very thankful for it. My mama loved me greatly and still does, and I'm so grateful for her and her godly influence in my life. But with apologies to Lady Gaga, I have rewritten her song. And with this, we end because this is my story, and it's the polar opposite of what the vast majority of students are believing today.

"My mama told me when I was young, we are all born sinners. There's everything wrong with loving who you are, she said, because you're far from perfect, babe. So bow your head down, boy, and you'll go far. Listen to me when I say, become beautiful in God's way because God makes no mistakes. You're on the wrong track, baby, you were born that way. Draw near to God in regret, seek faith in Christ, then you'll be set. You're on the wrong track, baby, you were born that way."

And I ask you for the good of your own soul and for the good of your extended family: what do you most deeply believe today? Do you believe the Word of God, or do you believe the words of Gaga? Because if nothing in you is broken, there's nothing in you to redeem. And if you can see nothing in you to redeem, then as long as that is the case, you will never come to Christ and then you will die in your sins. But if you see today that you are a sinner by nature and by practice and you believe the Word of God, then I say to you there is a Redeemer today to whom you can come, Jesus Christ the righteous one, and he is ready to receive you and to walk with you and he will change you. And there is hope for every person in Him today.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "The Heart Wants What It Wants." If you've ever missed a broadcast in our series called "The Inside Story of Human Life," come and listen online at openthebible.org. Colin, I suspect that we may have some parents listening today who are caught a little off guard by your advice to tell our kids that we're big sinners.

Colin Smith: Yeah, I remember when I gave this message getting some reaction along these lines, some folks who wanted to say, "Well, you know, I'm righteous in Christ," as if belonging to Christ meant that it was no longer true that I am a sinner. And that surely is to move beyond what we're told in the New Testament. If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So it's a marvelous thing to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and to know that God does not count your sins against you. But there's a big difference between saying, "God does not count my sins against me," and saying, "I no longer have any sins that could be counted against me." It's his grace and his mercy that puts me in that position.

So we want to be authentic believers, not the kind of parents who are kidding our kids along by this pretense of righteousness: "You've got to be a righteous person as I'm a righteous person." What that does is it puts me at the center and that displaces Christ. That's the worst kind of idolatry. I don't want to be pointing my kids to myself. I want to be pointing my kids and my grandchildren to Christ and to say, "I need him, and I need him because of my many sins and my many failings. I am not yet the person that I want to be, and you need him too. By his grace, he will not count your sins against you, and by his Spirit, you will be put in a position where you're able to grow in the likeness of Jesus."

Steve Hiller: Thank you, Colin. I think it's really helpful for those of us who are raising kids or maybe grandkids to think about sharing with our kids in that way. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Our message, "The Heart Wants What It Wants." If you ever miss a program, listen online at openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

Colin Smith: A single conversation can change your life, and that happened to me at a conference many years ago. Over lunch, I sat next to a pioneer missionary. He told me the story of how he'd made contact with an unreached tribal group in Northern Thailand, how the tribal chief had invited him to make his home there, how he built his own home and then learned the tribal language and began to serve these people. It was jaw-dropping stuff. At one point in the conversation, I asked him, "Where do you begin in explaining the gospel to people who don't even know who God is?" And he said, "We tell them the Bible story."

Now, I'm convinced that we need to learn from the approach of pioneer missionaries in reaching lost people today. And that's why I wrote "Fly Through the Bible." "Fly Through the Bible" is short, simple, and shareable. It's a place where someone in your life can begin. So who is there in your life who needs to know the God of the Bible and might be willing to open the Bible with you if you asked them? For more information, visit openthebible.org/fly. That's openthebible.org/fly.