Set Apart - Redemption What makes the Christians different from the rest of the world? Those same things make the church unique - and irresistible.

1 Peter 1:1-2 "God's elect, strangers in the world"

Video: Christ is the answer to the wicked heart http://www.exploregod.com/is-the-world-better-without-christianity-video "When I think of a world without Christianity, I think of us completely left to our own. " "He's the answer to the wickedness that is in our own hearts."

We all have a sense that there is something wrong in us. Even as children we recognize that we struggle to do the right thing. We do something wrong. And then, when a parent or teacher caught, we lied and claimed we did nothing wrong to try to get away with it.

As adults, we begin to see that the sickness in us actually hurts other people. Men and women - dating or married - hurt each other with careless words. We find that we keep making selfish decisions - even when it hurts someone else.

We all have a sense that there's not only something wrong in the world, but there's something wrong with us.

As Christians, we have from the Bible, an understanding of what is wrong. Our hearts are sick. Our minds have been corrupted. Our desires are twisted. Jeremiah wrote about the sin of Israel. He said in chapter 1 about the sins of his people:

Jeremiah17:1 “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts...

He is saying two things: 1) Sin is a permanent mark on people's hearts. 2) Sin affects people's desire and decisions.

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

The "heart" refers to the person as a whole - their mind (thinking) and will (desire). It is their rational and emotional make up. Our hearts deceive - even us. We cannot understand ourselves. Why do we do wrong when we want to do right? Why do we do nothing instead of what's right?

We are sick with a disease that affects our ability to think. It affects the way that we feel about things - and we cannot even understand it. How can we fix it? We can't. We are unable to even diagnose our problem.

But we have a God Who searches the depths of our hearts.

Jeremiah 17:10a “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind”

God is the searcher of hearts. He searches thoroughly, digging through, examining our hearts. When we cannot understand ourselves, our own motives, why we cannot stop being selfish, failing to do what we know is right, The Lord knows. He knows us better than we do ourselves. He is the searcher of hearts.

How does that help? I know something's wrong. I need something done about it. Where is there hope for change? Where can my mistakes be undone? How can I be redeemed? Does the world have an answer?

Jeremiah 17:14 "Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise."

Only in Christ do we find healing for the sickness of our sin. Only he can search our hearts and heal them.

Jeremiah 31:33-34 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Only in Christ do we find redemption.