The folks at the hospital asked my father-in-law if he'd like to donate his organs. He smiled and said, "Depends on how soon you want them." That's a great answer. Someone somewhere decided to donate their heart if something happened to them. And that heart ultimately was beating in the former Vice President of the United States. Some years ago, Dick Cheney had a major heart issue, and doctors had done everything else science could do to save and extend his life. Since his first heart attack at the age of 37, they'd had the stents, and the bypasses, an implanted defibrillator. And now, at age 71, his life probably depended on the ultimate solution. Not a heart repair. He needed a totally new heart. Right now, there are thousands of Americans whose lives depend on getting a new heart. Their average wait for one was somewhere between six months and a year. Dick Cheney had to wait 20 months for his. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about a "Long Wait for a New Heart." Every day - somewhere in the world - people are getting a new heart. Made possible by a donor who died and the miracle-working skill of a master heart surgeon. I know Him. He performed that miracle on me and on a lot of the people I love. The Surgeon is God Himself. The donor? That would be Jesus. It took His dying for me to have the spiritual heart transplant that changed everything. In our word for today from the Word of God, Ezekiel 36 beginning in verse 25, God made a promise to all of us who know all too well the darkness that lives in our heart. He said, "I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols." That's all those things that push God to the edge. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh...you will be My people, and I will be your God." A while back, a lady told me how her heart toward her husband had turned hard over the years of a difficult marriage. But then her face just lit up as she told me how Jesus had given her a "heart transplant" with a new love for her man and a new marriage. Only the Master Heart Surgeon can do that. One of God's prophets provided a revealing "spiritual EKG" of the heart behind all of our actions. He said "The heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Out of our spiritually diseased hearts come words that scar people for life, betrayal of the person we committed our life to, unthinking selfishness, cancerous anger, bitterness and all kinds of darkness that poisons our relationships, our reputation and our future. Oh, we try a lot of things to get better, just like they did with Dick Cheney's heart. But all of our resolutions and religion are temporary and unsuccessful fixes. Because we need Dr. Jesus. But He had to die to make possible the new heart that's our only hope of living right and dying right. God tells us that "the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And that happens, not through being reformed, but by being transformed from the inside out. That's the miracle that takes place when you recognize that Jesus - the Man who died for your sin and then birthed eternal life by walking out of His grave - is your only hope. And you tell Him that. When you put yourself in the hands of Dr. Jesus, He in essence, implants a new spiritual heart. With a love you never had before. A power to be the kind of person you've always wanted to be and those you love need you to be. You give them the ability to forgive, to break bondages that heal broken relationships. All this waits for you, including changing your destiny from hell to heaven. Right now, this is your day to say, "Jesus, come into my life. I put all my hopes in You now because of what you did for me on that cross." Our website will help you make that commitment. It will help you get the rest of the way. It's ANewStory.com. It could be the beginning of your new story.