[0:00] When he did that, he started. But for me, it helped me check myself. Did he say, yeah, give me a turn?
[0:11] Yeah. It did be. I mean, this is not my message today. But the old past. You need to save the old past.
[0:22] Yeah. Look, we're too far along. All right. Save the old past. Not preaching on that today.
[0:33] I might be good to, but. You know, church. Church is an old path. It's God's thing. You don't decide what God's business is. You just find out what it is and get in on it.
[0:44] Right? And church is one of them. It's not on. Did you joke it on? It's on mute, yeah. Turn it on. Take it on mute. All right.
[1:01] All right. Nice to meet you. Take two. It's good to be saved. Amen.
[1:15] You know, I also woke up around 3 o'clock. Actually, around 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock. I don't know what it was. Usually, I sleep really good. And I slept really good anyway, even though I woke up a bunch of times.
[1:26] It doesn't even matter. If you don't sleep well, I'm sorry for you. But, you know, my dad doesn't sleep well. And I know some people out here that probably don't sleep well.
[1:36] I sleep very well, usually. And I'm very thankful for that. Okay. Turn to your Bibles. So, Psalms 57. Psalms 57.
[1:47] And we're going to talk about something today that I want you to prepare yourself for. You know, even right now, just plan to pay attention to it.
[2:04] And I'll tell you why in a minute. But, Psalms 57. And you might figure it out right away. Psalms 57 and verse 7. It says, My heart is fixed.
[2:17] Oh, God. My heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Now, I understand what he's saying there. Here's a guy. Here's a guy to say, Hey, my heart is fixed.
[2:27] You know what this means, right? This means that it's there. It isn't going anywhere. Okay. It's like right there. Doesn't matter what you do.
[2:38] It ain't going anywhere. That's not what I'm talking about today. Okay. What I'm talking about today is getting your heart to that place.
[2:50] What I'm talking about today is fixing your heart. Now, you may sit there and you may be sitting there right now saying, Hey, my heart's fixed. I'm good to go. I'm good to go.
[3:02] There's no problem with my heart. Let me give you a little insight on something. Hopefully, by the time we're done, you realize there's probably a lot more than you know.
[3:13] And the reason I say that is because this is one of the most, if not the most important piece of equipment in your body, both physically and spiritually.
[3:30] Okay. And I just want you to think about right now, how much time you spent in the last, let's say month, thinking about your heart condition.
[3:43] I'm telling you, if you, hopefully you can see, but we are, we're the jumping off place.
[3:56] We're, we're not getting closer to the beginning. We're getting closer to the end. And it ain't getting any better. So we, as Christians, we are the last hurrah.
[4:15] This right here, this is the last of the last. All right. We're, we're not looking for, um, these, let's say, what we would consider lukewarm churches to step up.
[4:31] That ain't happening. What we got to do is we got to stop letting us keep going down. Right.
[4:44] I'll guarantee you and me including that if you looked at your Christianity and for you, for you that only been saved a couple of years, we can't look at very far, but for us that can look back 40 years, 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, how was it back then compared to today?
[5:07] How was it? How was your Christianity compared to now? So, so I said to pay attention this morning because we're talking about something that is probably the most important thing in your life as a Christian.
[5:29] is your heart, your heart. If you don't keep that thing fixed, if you don't fix that thing, you will be in a mess for sure.
[5:51] Proverbs chapter four. Some of you know where I'm going. How many know I'm going? One, two, three, four.
[6:03] Proverbs chapter four. Some things, you know, uh, I'm just going to encourage you. You should know your Bible. Been saved 10 years, 15 years. You really need to know your Bible.
[6:15] You just, you really need to know it. You're, you need that Bible to be able to flow through here on a daily basis all day long.
[6:29] That's what you need. It's an integral, integral part of that right there, that heart. So when I said, have you checked out your heart recently?
[6:42] Uh, I would say this. If you, if you say in your mind or you say, yeah, I think I have. Okay. What is your check system? What, what really, what really have you done?
[6:54] To check it. If you can't think of anything. Chances are you have it. So that's the point today.
[7:07] The point is okay. Today. Let's do a checkup. Let's consider that, right? This is preaching. Preaching is, uh, you know, in the old Testament, in the old Testament, the, uh, prophet preacher, right?
[7:22] They got the voice of God. That was great. You know, and they didn't even believe back then. So when the guy's going, when the guy's going, you know, here's the message you were getting from the creator, the very message, right?
[7:41] Post old Testament, new Testament. We, by faith, you, by faith, trust that I spend time seeking God's face for a message.
[7:53] And you, by faith, receive that and do something with it. Right? That's how that, that's how it works today. And I'm hoping in fellowship and tune with the spirit of God this week, I've had a couple of things on my, on my heart.
[8:08] And this is one of them. This is one of them. It's about a fixed heart. And, and, and I, I know how it came about. Maybe talk about it a little later, but how it started. But in Proverbs chapter four, that's where I was, right?
[8:26] Proverbs chapter four, verse 23. Proverbs chapter four, and verse 23. It says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it, are the issues of life.
[8:38] You know, in the Bible, in your Bible, you're going to find some real dogmatic stuff. This is one of them, you know, it just says, keep the heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.
[8:54] Okay. The issues of life come forth out of that. That's all it is to it. I'm sorry. That dogmatic. That's what God said. And when God says something that's dogmatic like that, you got to work with that.
[9:08] You don't choose something else. You know, you don't decide, well, you know what? I think the issues of life actually come from. No, it doesn't work like that. It works just like God says it works.
[9:20] So God says, you need to keep that thing. Hey man, you're the keeper this morning. What have you been doing? This is good.
[9:31] I'm already, I've already been thinking about this message. You know, I am preaching to myself, but I've already done that. I've already preached to myself. Many, umpteen times. But for you today, how are you as the keeper of your heart doing?
[9:53] Hey, you know, I get it. I get it. We've allowed things in our lives that, well, might not have let in 20 years ago. And we got every reason for it.
[10:04] but I'm not sure. I'm not sure. That he does. And I'm not here this morning to point out every one of them and tell you what they are.
[10:18] But I will tell you that the one that just came to your mind is probably it. That's how that works.
[10:29] So, when somebody says, you need to fix your heart, chances are this is what's wrong in it. And that first thing comes to your mind, don't send it away.
[10:40] That's probably it. That's probably one of them. Just ask for another one. Because it ain't going to do you any good to push it away.
[10:56] A fixed heart. We're talking about a fixed heart today. And the Bible says you need to keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. The issues of life come forth from the heart. Now, I don't know if I could say this or not, but I'm going to say that I think that probably everything, passes through your heart.
[11:15] Everything that goes on in your life probably passes through that thing right there. You know, it's hard. It's hard for me even to know everything about that thing. Because it's like, it's like it's in there.
[11:28] And even if I took it out, it wouldn't be the thing I'm talking about. Right? But I know that it's in there. When I feel that strong lust for something, it's in there.
[11:44] It isn't in there. It's right in there. Like if I took the heart out and I stuck it over here, there's still something going on right there. That's our spiritual part.
[11:55] You may understand what I'm talking about. If you don't, listen for it and look for it. And you may soon. So the heart is mentioned 8,000 plus times in your Bible.
[12:07] That's a lot. So chances are you're going to find a lot about your heart in the Bible. So you do well to get out your concordance.
[12:17] And now, you know, it's easy. I mean, I think about before they had a concordance, you talk about having to know your Bible. You really had to know it then. Now you can just go, Hey Siri, pull up hard on my app.
[12:32] Up to cart a Bible. Right? Don't do it now. Right? Siri's always there for you. You say, Hey Siri. And boom, there she comes. And it's so easy today.
[12:44] Right? You really don't even have to know much. So I want to encourage you that this week sometime, you know, spend a little time looking up that word. If you don't have a Bible app, I'll show you how to get it.
[12:56] Or somebody that's real savvy could. I'll tell you what it is. I don't know if I can tell you how to get it, but so it's mentioned about 800 times in your Bible. Pastor, pastor's recently been doing stuff on the words, of the Bible.
[13:10] Right? We are Bible believers here. We believe the King James Bible is the word of God. That's what this church has stood for, for as long as I've been here, before I got here. And that's what we are.
[13:22] We believe the word of God exists. And that we can pick it up and hold it in our hands and trust it and believe it. That's what we believe. I know. It's weird. To everybody else out there, that's not, that's weird to them.
[13:37] They're just like, Hey man, I just like the concept theory. I'm okay with it changing every year. As long as it kind of tells us the same thing. Are you crazy? I don't get it.
[13:49] I just, I just don't compute to me. I want to be able to, I believe in God. I want to be able to trust what I, I believe he said. Not, Oh, maybe this month it'll be there.
[14:02] Next month it won't be. We're going to take it out this time. We think it doesn't match this. Time out. I am trusting that God is the custodian of his word and not these guys on a board.
[14:21] That's just not doing all that. So with that being said, and tell me, I want you to, audience participation this morning. I want you to give me some things that come to your mind about the word heart in the Bible.
[14:35] And since, in the Bible, since we are in church, let's do it that way. Let's talk about something. Anybody raise your hand. What, what, what word do you associate biblically with heart? Like, uh, you know, and some of the things I'll mention today, like, like the first one that just came to my mind was a stirred heart.
[14:51] Bible mentions that. Anything else? Huh? Loving heart. Okay. Obviously we would all, I think, agree that love is connected with the heart.
[15:02] If you're loving anything, it's connected with your heart. Sir. Yeah. Yeah. So the, the fool has said in his heart, and I, I mentioned something this morning about talking to yourself because there's something I, you know, people talk to themselves and it's okay.
[15:19] Talking to yourself is good. Actually, don't say, don't say the wrong thing. Sir. Huh? Oh yeah. Jeremiah 17, nine. It's one of the verses I'll be looking at this morning.
[15:30] The heart of deceitful above all things. That's pretty dogmatic. You think your heart's good? I'm sorry. It's not.
[15:42] Your heart is deceitful above all things. So you think you, you think you might ought to keep that? Nothing in check. You think that when Solomon said, keep thy heart with all, he didn't know what he was talking about.
[15:57] No, he knew. He knew. So, I mean, there's a lot of things in there. Heart's deceitful. Uh, it talks about a prepared heart, a clean heart, uh, uh, a discouraged heart, an obstinate heart, a hardened heart, heart.
[16:09] That's wax gross, a pure heart, a clean heart, a fainted heart, a failed heart. I can't remember. Oh, glad heart, willing heart, wise heart, fearing heart for God.
[16:23] A lot of things in there. I mean, it's like I said, there's 800 verses having to do with the heart. And may I just remind you about the greatest commandment in the word of God.
[16:37] Right? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. So here, I want you to do a checkup right now. Do a checkup right now. Here's an easy checkup for you. The one thing you can do is a checkup.
[16:48] So I want you to say, say to yourself, not out loud, just say to yourself, say, I love God. Okay? So, when you say that, do you say it, I love God.
[17:04] Not love God. Or do you say it, I love God. I don't know if you hear it all the time. When you talk to people, I love God. I love God.
[17:17] Do you know, raise your hand if you know, do you know what the Bible says, that if you love God, what you'll do? Okay. The reason I said that is because, you wouldn't know, if you really did or not.
[17:33] You got to check with something. What are you checking your, your philosophy with? Right? We as Bible believers, are going to check it with the book. Right? This is the only thing you know, about God.
[17:47] This is it. This is it. Anything else is, kind of guesswork. You know, like, like, I know the stars and the constellations. They give us some stuff about God. I know that.
[17:57] But you know how I know that? It isn't because I looked at them and figured it out. It's because the Bible, says it does. It's all based on the scripture.
[18:08] So, when you say, I love God. What can you point to in the word of God that agrees with you?
[18:21] Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. All of them. All the issues of life. He says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
[18:34] He says, if you love me, you'll keep my words. There you go. So, don't raise your hand.
[18:45] But, if I asked you, if I, don't raise your hand. But, if I asked you, how many of you think your heart is fixed today, you're good.
[18:56] My heart's good. Or, you sit there and you go, my heart needs fixing. My heart needs fixing. Now, I want to give you two things to help you make that, one of the, help me make that judgment.
[19:10] First off, is, you realize, we are in the last, church. And, the last church, doesn't know, what they should.
[19:24] Right? God said, you say, you're rich, and increase with goods, and have need of nothing. And, that may be true. But, God says, but what you don't know, is you're poor, you're miserable, you're wretched, and you're blind, and you're naked.
[19:45] Oh, my God. I'm just like, well, that's enough. That's enough. So, you gotta, you gotta realize, where you're really at.
[20:00] And, the one brother that said, the heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately wicked, who, can know it? Who, can know it?
[20:13] You can't know it, by yourself. It's not gonna be you. He knows it. He knows it. So, that's why, you need, what is it?
[20:25] Psalms, Psalms 139. It was in here somewhere. I missed it, or something, I don't know. I'm sure, I'll probably get there, and then I'll, I'll be off my notes. Psalms 139.
[20:43] Psalms 129, and verse, uh, 23. I think it's 22, and 23. No, it's not. Oh, that's 129.
[20:56] Maybe it is. I need new glasses. That's for real. Uh, search me, oh God. And know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
[21:09] You ever pray that? Usually I pray, usually I pray, you know God, I know you don't have to look far. I, I'm probably not like David, to say, search me?
[21:25] Really? I'm pretty exposed. I, I mean, it is, you ain't gotta go very far. It's probably right up on my shoulders. But it's that, it's that attitude that you want your heart right.
[21:41] You ought to want your heart right. Yeah. Amen. It might not be a bad song to sing. It's a reminder, you know, is thy heart right with God? I like to, once in a while, pull that one out and sing it, because it needs me to remember about my heart.
[22:00] If you need to fix your heart today, that means it's broken. There's something broken there. Now, I'm not talking about the broken heart that you need to have.
[22:11] Because, right, in the psalm that says, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, that will not despise. God likes that. And you do real well to have some times where your heart breaks and you weep before God.
[22:24] But what I'm talking about is if you need a fixed heart today, then that means something's broken in there. Something's broken in there and you need to have it fixed.
[22:34] God help us to see our heart condition. How's your heart today? You know, it's no different when you go to the physical doctor versus a spiritual doctor.
[22:50] They both want to know how your heart is. Right? You go to that, you go to that physical doctor and what does he do? He gets this thing, he puts it in his ears and he starts listening to you. He wants to know how that valve's doing.
[23:00] One of them valves are doing. He's checking that heart and then what do they do? Maybe before or after. I don't know. I don't go to the doctor very much. Try not to scare me. But then they put this thing on your arm there and start doing that because they're checking your blood pressure.
[23:18] They're checking to see how that pressure's working on that heart because they know that the most important thing in that body is to make sure your heart is good. And I submit to you today that if you haven't been thinking much about your heart, you do well.
[23:35] to fix that today and consider your heart. I want to give you some things today. I just want to give you some things and I can be real quick. I don't have to be real quick.
[23:47] But I don't plan to go over my time. So I'm planning, I'll give you some things today that will, that you can, that help you do a checkup on your heart and fix your heart at the same time.
[23:59] All right? Now, if I was sitting where you're sitting, this has kind of been on my mind lately and I know everybody's different. I know everybody's different. But if I was sitting where you're sitting and I had a guy with 40 years experience in Christianity, still in the church, you know, just, man, if I had a guy like that telling me that I'm, and we're talking about one of the most important pieces of equipment in your body and that guy said, I'm going to give you some things that will help you check it out and fix it, I might, I might just write it down.
[24:34] I might. I might just write it down or maybe even take a note or two. I might do that. Now, I know everybody's different. But in my experience, I tell these guys at work, yeah, I don't know why it is, but I've been doing what I've been doing career for 40 years.
[24:55] And I tell the guy that works under me as my next boss down, I tell him, you need to write it down. Right? You know what he tells me? I remember pretty good.
[25:10] You know what I tell him? You see this? This already knows you don't. You know why? Because you and the last five didn't. So it isn't long before I ask him hey, did you, you know what he says?
[25:29] Huh? I forgot. I go, you just said it. So I have you a pad and pen on Monday. And you know what happens?
[25:41] He just has some piece of paper he pulls out of his pocket, scribbles something on it, it drops on the floor, somebody steps on it, he picks up another one. I'm like, I'm like, now I understand that I'm a nobody.
[25:56] I understand that. I've been doing this for 40 years. This Christianity thing. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you some things that I know to be so.
[26:13] Now, you know, I mean, that's just me telling you. You probably ought to write it down. Right? Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17. Now, I'm not saying you got to write a book.
[26:25] I'm just saying it might not be a bad idea. And if it was just me, I could understand that, you know, I might have some weird quirks.
[26:38] Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17 and verse 18. Start in verse 18 there. It says, And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom.
[26:51] So who are we talking about? We're talking about a king. Right? Somebody sitting on the throne of the kingdom. That he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priest, the Levites.
[27:06] And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.
[27:17] that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel.
[27:36] So God's telling this king, hey man, when you get on the throne, you write you a copy. You take out your pen and you get some paper and you write yourself a copy.
[27:51] You don't listen to somebody else read you the copy. You don't go down to the store and buy you a copy. You make yourself one. You get out your pen.
[28:03] You write it down. Now, okay, so I told you you might ought to do that and that looks like God said it wouldn't be a bad idea to do some of that.
[28:13] Now let's see what let's see what what God really says. We're going to Google it. Right? We're going to see what God really says. I Googled it anyway, you know, I just now I just got to find it.
[28:32] Here it is. Okay. So this is what it says. When you write it down, it has much greater chance of being remembered. Neuropsychologists, whatever these guys are, neuropsychologists have identified the generation effect, which basically says individuals demonstrate better memory from materials they generated themselves than from material they merely read.
[29:02] Yeah. Whatever. And while each person has their own preferred method for writing notes and to-do list, your brain holds on to information better after you've written it down.
[29:15] That's a pretty good incentive for going old school with a journal or a day planner. Why your brain loves pen and paper. When you type, you use your fine motor skills in a more limited way than when you write by hand using a pen and paper.
[29:33] It's a deeper sensory experience than touching a keyboard. Since you're crafting each letter by hand, it requires more dexterity to write with a pen than it does to type.
[29:43] Here you go. Here you go.
[29:55] For you that need to hear it from Google. So I'm going to give you some things real quick. And look, I'm not here to really necessarily just change your mind, but I would.
[30:06] You know, the older I get, the older I get, the more I'm okay with telling somebody what they should do. You know, I've learned, I've learned some things over the years. You know, I've learned that there's different ways of doing things and people have different ideas and I always tell guys at work, you know, if you, if you have a faster way or a better way than I do, bring it on.
[30:27] I'm teachable, I'm learnable, I don't know everything. Sometimes I get one. Sometimes I don't. But whatever.
[30:38] So the first thing I want to give you this morning, I'll tell you, when we're talking about fixing your heart is you need to consider your heart. All right? You need to consider this thing. I don't know how much time you spent in the last month when we talked about that in the beginning.
[30:53] How much time you spent in the last month considering your heart? So the first thing I think you should do is consider that. Look at Deuteronomy chapter four and I got other references down here, but we're not going to be able to look at them all.
[31:11] Deuteronomy chapter four and in verse 39 it says, Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath there is none else.
[31:30] And they were going through and telling Israel about the different things that God did for him and you do well to consider your heart this morning.
[31:45] And I'm going to say especially if you could look back and say, you know, and I'm just going to tell you, I'm just going to tell you, when I thought about this, man, I thought, man, I have not been doing a checkup on my heart.
[31:59] I know I got issues and I know that I just know and I thought, that's it. That's what I'm not paying attention to.
[32:13] I understand we get busy and there's so many things in life and even in Christianity there's so much, but if there's one thing you need to pay attention to, it's that thing that all the issues of life come out of.
[32:36] So you need to consider your heart. So I want to encourage you to just, this week, a simple self-examination. Okay, when you're considering your heart, you're just going to be thinking about it.
[32:47] Right? We're not even talking about the meats on the bone yet. We're just talking about just thinking about it. Just at least, let's get the, let's get the thing moving where we're thinking about. You know, think about the word heart this week.
[32:59] I would write it down somewhere and put it in front of you. You know, if you got a day plan or maybe put it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's kind of the way I do it. You know, if somebody says, hey, we need to pray for so-and-so, I try to put their name on the next five days.
[33:10] When I turn that thing, I see their name, turn the thing, see their name. I'm praying for them at least five days. I'm going to forget about them completely after five days, but, you know, I'm trying something.
[33:23] But, you know, you get out ahead of yourself. You know, you got phones, you know, you got plans. I don't know what you do. Maybe you got a calendar in there. You got notes in there. You got reminders. You know, you can just set a reminder. You don't even have, you can just go, hey, Siri, set me a reminder.
[33:34] Not now. You know what I'm saying? You can just go, hey, you know who, set me a reminder for tomorrow through Friday. I don't know. Maybe you can do that.
[33:45] I never did it like that. Set me a reminder to tell me to check out my heart. And boom, every day, that thing will just boom, boom, boom, easy. All right, that's the easy stuff.
[33:58] You need to consider your heart. That's one thing. Second thing, Psalms 139, that we already looked at that verse. I want to go there again. Psalms 139.
[34:09] You know, the Bible said in the book of Proverbs that the, a wise son, here with his father's instruction.
[34:23] All right? So, you would expect the older people in Christianity to have an idea. You would hope.
[34:35] So, you know, and like I said, I'm nobody. But I would hope that I got something to impart to somebody who's young in the Lord. What a cry in shame if I don't.
[34:51] Right? That's just, that would just be shameful. All right. So, Psalms 139. 139. Not 39. 23.
[35:07] It said, Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. So, David is praying, and he's asking God to search his heart.
[35:17] Now, I don't know what you know about David, but David is considered a man after God's own heart. Right? Because when Saul became king, he was a bad, he was no good.
[35:30] And God said, he's seeking for somebody after his own heart, and David was a guy. So, if I hear David praying like this, I'm going to say, hey, that's probably a good thing to do.
[35:43] I don't know. I don't know. You know, I'm kind of a simple guy. I just look at that and go, hey, that's probably a good thing to do. So, prayer, you need to be praying that, praying about your heart.
[35:55] So, maybe tomorrow morning or today, you say, God, go ahead and search my heart. I'm ready.
[36:11] And see if there'll be any wicked way. I don't even pray like that. I just go, just show me what the wicked way is. I already know that they're in there. Just not, just not there, you know. I'm not, I'm not looking forward to standing next to David at the judgment, all right?
[36:24] I understand he made his mistakes, but see, I got plenty of them. But when, when they say we're looking for a guy who's a man after God's own heart, I'm going to tell you right now, my name probably wouldn't come.
[36:40] But David did. I, I mean, my name is probably way down the list. You know, if all our names were on there, I don't even think I'm in the top. I don't even think I'm in the top.
[36:50] I don't even think I'm in the top. Whatever. The thing with all the zeros on the end of it. So you need to consider your heart.
[37:01] You need to pray and ask God to show you your heart. Okay, number three was Hebrews chapter four.
[37:13] How many know where I'm going? You know, these are, these are, these are verses that, you know, I don't know. When I think of Hebrews four, only one verse comes to my mind. Hebrews four, boom.
[37:27] And this is a verse you want, I've memorized. If you're not one that likes to memorize scripture, fix that. I don't know what that's telling you. I don't know what that's telling you. You need to fix that.
[37:40] That's, that's, that's a no, no. That's a no good. That's a, that's a thing that needs to be adjusted. And I get it. Memorizing scripture is really hard to do flesh wise.
[37:57] I get it. It isn't that it's hard to memorize. You know your name. You remember your birthday. You got home yesterday. Right? You probably remembered most of the people's name when you walked in here today.
[38:11] I mean, that, memorization is probably not the big problem. It is what the flesh doesn't like. The flesh does not like memorizing the word of God.
[38:26] It doesn't like it. Does anybody understand that for me? Okay. Some of you experiencing that, you know what I'm talking about. Just like the last, the last point we had was, was prayer.
[38:38] All right. I remember Ian Bounds reading that book by Ian Bounds on the power, power through prayer. I think it was. And he talked about prayer being your most important employment. And that'll preach.
[38:54] And it's going to be very hard to do that job well because the flesh does not like it. Doesn't like it. All right.
[39:04] So Hebrews 4.12, good memory verse. If you haven't memorized that verse, do it this week. Start yourself on that path to memorize the scripture. If you don't do it, if you used to do it, get back to it. If you, if you, if you didn't do it and you don't like it, which none of us probably like it.
[39:20] Start. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. It says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, which, you know, we're going to get back.
[39:38] I wouldn't want you to see this right here. And is a, what? Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You need to fix your heart today?
[39:50] Get in the word of God. Get in the word of God. If you're not in the word of God, get in there. I'm not talking about doing Bible studies. I'm not talking about reading books about the Bible.
[40:00] I'm not talking about listening to preaching. I'm talking about opening that book and reading it. Letting God do something in there with his word.
[40:11] That's what I'm talking about. So if you're not, if you haven't been spending time, you know, and let me correct that. Spend time in the word of God. You may only get a verse read today.
[40:25] You may read that verse and fall on your face and get right with God. I don't know. And that may be a half hour later. You may be late for work. You may, you may look at that verse and it may take you somewhere else to another verse.
[40:38] And before you know it, you're, you're, you're looking at the according to find out other words that have to do with that verse. And, you know, I understand. I'm, what I'm trying to tell you is you need to be in the word of God. If I open up my Bible and, and, and, and the Holy Spirit or, or my spirit starts bearing witness to things and I start moving around in the book, so be it.
[40:59] I'm not on a rigid, a rigid thing. I just don't do that. Sometimes I do. If I decide I'm going to read my Bible through, then I kind of be rigid. But outside of that, I just enjoy my Bible. So you need to spend time in the word of God.
[41:15] You need something more than just you to tell you about your heart. So you got to consider it. You need to spend time in prayer.
[41:25] You need to spend time in the word of God. Matthew chapter 23. And I'm going to move kind of quickly now a little bit faster. Just give you the points. I got seven points. I'm on only four. That means I'll be here till three o'clock and we're not going to do that.
[41:39] I don't even hear it. One amen out of that. Wow. Matthew chapter 23. He's talking to the Pharisees here.
[41:52] Matthew 23 and starting verse 25. It says, It says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
[42:05] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. So this point is, you are responsible for your heart.
[42:21] God's not responsible for your heart. You are. It's not fairy dust that's going to come down and do something great in your heart. Now don't get me wrong. There's times, I know, when God will come down and do a mighty work in somebody's heart.
[42:35] And I pray for those and I've had those in my life where those were plateaus in my Christianity. You know, I call them game changers. They were times that God moved on my heart whether it's through preaching or however, through reading or whatever.
[42:49] And my life changed. My life changed for the good. It was that big step. And then, you know, there was another one somewhere down the road, another one.
[43:00] And you need to have those and hopefully you do have those. But here's some guys. Let's look at, let's look at some takeaways from the verse. So these guys, they were clean outside.
[43:14] Right? So I'm looking at you guys this morning. Y'all look pretty clean. Y'all look pretty clean. But inside, I don't know.
[43:26] Jesus told these guys, hey, you got, you're clean outside. And Jesus knew. He said, but inside, you're just nasty.
[43:40] You're just nasty. And he said, another takeaway from the verse, he says, the first thing you need to do is you need to clean the inside.
[43:56] And what he did say was, hey, clean the outside's good. All he said was, first, clean the inside. Then worry about the outside.
[44:09] And that's the way you want it. When a person gets saved, they got that inside, a clean day. And they start, they start cleaning things outside. And then we get older when we bring them back.
[44:19] But that's a different story. So, you're cleaning things, you know. That's what happens when you get saved. The problem is the people that aren't saved that are keeping those things clean outside. Inside, they're just nasty.
[44:32] And I submit this morning that chances are there's some people here that you are just nasty inside. There's some people here that we are just nasty inside.
[44:49] you are responsible for your heart.
[45:03] Take responsibility for your heart. And remember, the heart is deceitful above all things. And we're in this day and age where that last church doesn't know what they really need.
[45:15] you do well to find a better way to find out about your heart than just you. But nonetheless, you are responsible for your heart.
[45:28] Number five. Number five, 1 Timothy chapter four. I'm almost done. 1 Timothy chapter four.
[45:38] How many know where I'm going? There's not a whole lot I think about. 1 Timothy chapter four. Only one thing that really comes to my mind. 1 Timothy chapter four.
[45:54] Oh, sorry. 2 Timothy chapter four. And verse two, it says, priest the word. I'm going to fix that real quick. No, I'm not. It says, priest the word, being sent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
[46:13] Okay? So the preaching of the word of God is supposed to do something with your heart. Right? Reproving, rebuking, exhorting isn't a Bible study.
[46:27] 2 Timothy four. Two. Okay? You know, to the first and a second and that's first and second. Get me. The reproving, the rebuking, the exhorting is designed to do something on the heart.
[46:45] It isn't designed to do something in there. That's a simple Bible study. So the preaching of the word of God should, look, every time something is preached by let's say a man of God because there's plenty that aren't.
[47:04] I get that. Let's say by a man of God you ought to respond somehow. Big, little, I'm not here to tell you how much but there ought to be something.
[47:16] There ought to be some response. That's what it's for. Preach the word. Be instant in season out of season.
[47:27] Reprove, rebuke, exhort. That's what you do when you preach. That's what we do in hopes that God, the Holy Spirit will minister to your heart in some way and today it's in hopes that your heart will be, you'll see the need to fix.
[47:48] Preaching of the word of God. I had a lot to say there but I'm not going to. All right, number six and I'll be done real quickly. I'm looking at my notes here, you know, my notes get all destroyed. It started out when my boy, well, when Joey, like, I mean, I wrote the first paragraph and he scribbled on my notes.
[48:06] I'm like, dude, I just got started. All right. And then, you know, then I just didn't want to rewrite everything.
[48:17] Sorry. If you pick up this, if you pick up this pile of notes, if you ever went through my sermons, don't pick up this one. All right, this one goes one, two, three, four, back to three, to two.
[48:31] It's just, you know, I just didn't feel like rewriting it for you. Sorry. Didn't have a lot of time either, but okay. Number six was here. It's in Matthew chapter 15, verse 18 and 19.
[48:43] It talks about out of the heart proceeded evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornication, right? Everybody know, everybody's been hearing that before. Okay, so the point is, number six is, listen to what comes out of your mouth.
[49:00] I preached a long time ago a message called, you can't hide. You know, one of the verses had to do with, be sure your sin will find you out. So, you know, you think you're going to get away with something.
[49:12] No, let me tell you something. It's going to come out somewhere. If not here, it's going to, everything is going to be revealed one day. you know, now with this, you know, way back when, you know, somebody killed somebody, they could get away with it pretty easy.
[49:26] It wasn't no DNA stuff. And then, then they came out with the DNA stuff, right? And now, they have the next generation DNA check. And they're pulling these guys out from 40 years ago and going, remember when we couldn't nail you?
[49:41] We got you now. I don't know if you do, I get these blurps on my phone, you know, and I'm always seeing this next guy that 30 years ago, he did something and they said, you know, we just, it's just the DNA couldn't.
[49:56] He goes, but now, well, we got so much evidence on this guy. We just went and arrested him. Yeah. And I don't know what the next generation is going to be, but you know what the final generation is going to be?
[50:08] Up there. When God will just reveal it all. So, listen to what comes out of your mouth. You can't hide. Okay? You can't hide it. The Bible says out of the, out of the heart proceeds and it comes forth out of your mouth.
[50:22] That's what it does. So, what's abundantly in your heart is going to come out of your mouth. So, don't make me tell you because I'm going to hear it and I'm going to go, hey man, that was in your heart. And you're going to go, well, I'm talking to you again.
[50:36] Okay? You listen to yourself. That's, I'm just telling you ways to help you fix your own heart. And then the last one, last one's around here somewhere. It ain't there.
[50:48] Number seven. It's on the back of page three. All right. The last one was when, oh yeah, the last one, Exodus chapter 35, verse 21.
[50:59] You can just write it down. It talks about a stirred heart. You need your heart to be stirred. I don't know when the last time you had that happen was.
[51:11] I don't know if you've ever had that happen. If you haven't, you ought to look for one. It'd do you really good. But when that heart gets stirred and it gets moved, you almost want to just get alone somewhere.
[51:23] Okay. So we're just talking about the heart this morning and I'm trying to encourage you to make sure your heart is correct.
[51:35] But only you can check that out. So I gave you some ways to check that out this morning. And we're going to pray. If you know, we do an altar call here.
[51:48] If you want to do business with God, this altar is open for that kind of stuff. If you don't, you know, this is a day and age now where this is kind of obsolete anymore. We've gotten so far away from the altar that I don't know.
[52:02] I know what it is. We're in the last days. I know what it is. But you do well if you have not found yourself in any kind of need to get right with God at an altar.
[52:16] Man, you might want to check yourself out. You might want to just don't. You don't have to do it today. But you might want to just sometimes just get up and go down there just to do it, man.
[52:30] Just say, God, I know there's something wrong in here. I know that. But I don't see it. Deal with my heart.
[52:41] Deal with my heart. Let's pray. Gave you some things this morning. Hopefully, maybe you jotted some of them down. Let's pray. Father, would you danger let's pray for you her.
[53:00] ? Yeah. . Bye.