Skip to content Reality Check: Why Can't I Just Follow My Heart? Oct 15 · 43 min ...more
Reality Check: Why Can't I Just Follow My Heart?
October 15, 2024 · 43 min
Pastor John Mark discusses following your heart vs. following God’s principles and plan. He also presents ways to deal with this struggle we all face in daily life.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton October 15, 2024 · 43 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark discusses following your heart vs. following God’s principles and plan. He also presents ways to deal with this struggle we all face in daily life. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark discusses following your heart vs. following God’s principles and plan. He also presents ways to deal with this struggle we all face in daily life.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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0:00 Are you glad you're in God's house today? Amen. Give God's hand God a hand for that. Y'all sound so good. We have been, if you're new here, in a series entitled reality check over the last couple of weeks. And0:12 we've been taking some of the toughest topics that we find ourselves faced with in today's environment and we really really have dealt with them 1 at a time. We started off by talking about what is the0:23 biblical foundation and the biblical definition of marriage, then we talked about salvation by faith, We talked about eternal security. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about voting our biblical values. Today0:35 I wanna talk to you about something else, your heart. Now this isn't gonna be a physical health lesson, I'm not gonna examine you for heart disease, although I'm gonna tell you according to God's word,0:47 we all have spiritual heart disease. It's very common for people today to ask the question, this is the title of the series, can I trust1:00 my heart? Well a lot of what you hear in today's environment is just follow your heart. Trust your heart. Believe your heart. Your1:11 heart won't lie to you. Well, the truth is we all have spiritual heart disease and the cure for a diseased heart is God's word and God's1:23 way. And so I don't know about you, but when you think about her heart, maybe you think about a book, or you think about a movie, or you about something. I just Googled a couple of movies. How many of you remember Brave1:34 Heart? Wasn't that a great movie? Oh, we all want a Braveheart. But too many times we have how many of remember the movie Crazy Heart? Too many times we have Crazy Heart. Angel1:45 Heart, man, we all want an angel's heart. We'd all love that. It's interesting you look at those movies that are listed up there, it grossed a lot of money. That's the worst of all the movies. Alright? Angel Heart1:56 because they said no 1 has an angel heart. What about wild at heart? Right? Someone said, well, have a child that is wild at heart or just just for you ladies, places of the heart with Sally Field.2:08 Now the truth is, our our hearts will lie to us and our hearts are set in such a way that they are stricken with a disease, a spiritual heart2:19 disease called sin. So when we think on this topic today of can I just follow my heart or can I just trust my heart, let's see what God's word has to say about it? Jeremiah chapter2:31 17. Here's what Jeremiah said about our heart. He says, the heart is deceitful and above all things beyond cure. If you wanna take that2:43 that Hebrew word deceitful, it simply means to be permanently stained, to lie. Or it can also be used as rough2:54 ground. So that 1 Hebrew word can be translated 1 of 3 ways. The heart is a liar. Can you trust a liar? Nope. So be careful if you're3:06 saying you're just gonna trust your heart. And that Hebrew word can also mean it is permanently stained. What's it stained with? Sin. So can you trust your heart? Be3:18 careful, it is stained with sin. The third 1 has the idea deal with rough ground or a rough patch. If you and I, especially in Jeremiah's day, we're going to say3:30 hey, I'm gonna go from this city to that city, the path might be smooth. They might say you're gonna be fine, your path is easy to see, but if I said I was gonna not go to that city but I'm gonna go to this city and3:41 there's cliffs and rocks and maybe lions and and other forms and robbers over there, you would use the same Hebrew word, be careful, that is a rough path. And here's what we3:52 know, if we follow our deceitful hearts, it could be a rough pass. So let's read on. The heart is deceitful and above all things beyond cure, desperately sick,4:04 desperately wicked. Who can understand it? He says, I the Lord search the heart and examine the minds. So what is God saying? Listen, not only do I search your heart, but I4:16 examine your mind. And why is that? Because God knows and we should know how I think determines how I behave. Did you get that? He says I wanna search your heart and examine your4:28 mind because if you put the 2 of those together I will promise you the more you think about something or how much you dwell on something, what you believe will determine how you behave.4:40 What you think about will ultimately determine how you act. And so what is Jeremiah saying and God's saying be careful if you just wanna say follow your heart. Your your heart will lead you down a4:52 stained path, a broken path, a lying path. So read on. He says, I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct. Everybody say5:04 conduct. Conduct matters. A bunch of what we hear in our culture today is you know, hey, the Jesus I know, how many of heard that phrase? You know, just love5:16 and this and that and how you live doesn't matter. What path you go down doesn't matter. And they will say something like, well conduct doesn't matter. Well the truth is conduct doesn't5:27 matter as it relates to our salvation. But it does after our salvation. And so when we think about what I believe determines what I how I5:39 behave, then I wanna understand how I behave matters. Why does it matter? Because God said it did. He says, you and I will be rewarded based on our conduct. So5:51 read it again. I the Lord search the heart and the mind and reward each person according to their conduct. Conduct matters, how we live matters, according to what their deeds6:02 deserve. So here's a couple of thoughts. Do you think your heart will lead you astray? Absolutely. Why? Because it's stained with sin. It'll lead you down6:14 rough paths. It will lie to you about something you should or shouldn't do. Then the second thought is, well if I choose to follow my lying stained rough6:26 heart what will happen? I'll find myself and we can see these results all the way through God's word. I can find myself brokenhearted. I can find myself pursuing6:37 sin or lushed and falling into failure to sin. I can find myself if I just follow my heart and ignore the warning signs, then I'll find myself6:49 in bad relationships or I'll break the good relationships. I'll find myself if I follow my stained heart, my rough heart, my lying heart, I'll find myself at the end of the day with emotional scars God7:01 never wanted me to have to begin with. Or perhaps I'll find myself following my heart to financial ruin. Anybody ever gone out and say hey, we're just gonna go look7:13 for a car And you come home with a car? You ever say, yeah, I'm just gonna go look for a boat? And then you come home with a boat?7:25 What happens? You get in there and all of a sudden your heart says, you know, that's really a good price. And it's not that bad and your family will love it, and you end up coming7:37 home and it is great, except for those next 60 months of payments. Because your heart in the moment lied to you and said, this is a good7:49 decision. And financially later you're going, that was a horrible decision. And your heart goes and hides. Says I wasn't even there. And the result is this, when we follow our heart8:01 and we break relationships or fall into lust or fall into sin or end up with emotional scars or go to financial ruin, what happens is result once we are caught, the result8:13 is we lie. We lie to cover ourselves or deceive ourselves. There are people out there, they're actually, they study lies. Alright? Not listen to them, I mean they're lie8:24 ologists I guess. They study lies. And there are different levels of lies that we tell. The the first level you all know and we all do it from time to time is the white lie. It's that lie that you haven't been caught in8:36 something, someone just asked you a question and you like really don't wanna tell them the truth because they don't wanna hear the truth? You can't handle the truth? So you say, yeah, you look good in that. Right? How8:45 many of you know that? That's really that's a white lie. You're not meaning any, you're not covering up any sin, you just don't wanna hurt someone's feelings. But then the second level of lies and when we begin to step8:55 up and we get caught doing something, so I lie, so I will make myself look better. That they say, someone will come say, hey, did you say or did you do9:06 and your immediate response is, uh-oh, what I did or what I said makes me look bad, so I'm going to lie to make myself look better. Then it goes beyond that, sometimes we9:18 just flat out get caught and I'm not lying to to make myself look better, I'm lying because I wanna get out of trouble. I absolutely, I just don't want yes, I've been caught but I'm9:30 gonna lie, I'm gonna give all kinds of excuses, and then there's a next level of lying that once you're really caught, alright, and you've told a lie to try to get out of the hell trouble, you've been caught, Then the9:41 next lie is you shift the blame. How many of you have more than 1 kid? You know this well. You ever caught 1 of your kids red handed and their9:53 response is, but point at the sister or point at the brother, they're shifting blame or shifting the responsibility. Sometimes when we get caught because we followed our lying lying10:05 hearts down a stained path, a rugged path, or a lying path, we get caught, then I wanna lie and shift the blame to someone, yeah, but they did this, or yeah, but they10:17 did that, or yeah, this was their fault, or that fault, their fault. The worst form of lying, this is almost moving to the pathological, when people just consistently lie10:29 for personal gain or personal power. People do it all the time. That this just becomes a habit of lying so they can make themselves look better, so they can have personal power or have10:41 personal gain or push their own agenda so lies just flow easily out of their mouth. But the lies don't start in our mouth, they ultimately start in our deceitful and lying heart.10:52 So I wanna ask and answer a couple of questions about our heart today and then give us a path to help purify our hearts in the days ahead. Thought number 1, why is my11:04 heart so deceitful? If Jeremiah and God say our hearts are deceitful, the simple answer, write this down, hopefully you have your app open, it's the word sin. That just means missing the mark.11:16 Look at what it says in Romans chapter 3 verse 23. It says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every 1 of us. That that sin affects each and every 1 of us, we11:28 all struggle with it. You say, alright pastor, what does it mean my my deceitful heart leads me to sin and it is affected by sin? Well, best example I can give and I'll give you a couple of them,11:40 is go back to the Garden of Eden. All the way back to the Garden of Eden. We are all basically heirs of Adam and Eve. But here you have, if there was ever going to be a couple that got it11:52 right, it was that couple. Then Adam and Eve lived in the garden and in the garden they were free to eat of anything and everything throughout the entire12:04 garden. But go read the story. It says in the middle of the garden there was 1 tree that they were told not to eat from. Well you know the end of the story, right? They12:15 basically ate of the tree that was sin that was missing the mark. Now let's step back a little bit. I think it's important that they put the idea that that 1 tree is in the middle of the garden. Why?12:27 I think it shows to us that Adam and Eve walked by all the other abundance they have in their life. All the other good trees they could have eaten from, all the other good fruit they could have12:39 had, all because their heart drew them to that 1 tree. Think about it. Doesn't that happen in our lives? How many of you, be honest, how many of you are blessed?12:51 I mean you just just step back, that doesn't mean you don't have something to whine about, you're blessed. But our heart will draw us, listen to this, to walk past all of the13:03 good things in my life and all the great things in my life and pursue 1 thing I don't have. And my heart will tell you that is ultimately what you need and your heart will lie13:14 to you and blind you in such a way that you think, I will never have joy, I will never be happy unless I eat of that tree. When in reality God is saying look at all the other13:26 blessings, look at all the other trees, look at all the other acres you could enjoy all throughout the garden, but instead our heart draws us to walk to the 1 thing we13:38 can have and ignore the abundance and the love of our family and this or that. So child of God understand that your heart will lie to you and it will also blind you.13:50 Your heart will lie to you and blind you so you can't see all the good things. You can only see the thing that you lack. What about a guy in the Old Testament named Samson?14:03 If you go look at Samson, man, he he seems to have great parents. He took a Nazirite vow. Apparently he was strong and he was handsome, he had everything in the world,14:15 but even when his family began to give give him advice he ignored their advice and followed his heart to his passion. And you would think and if you read, go read Samson's14:26 story, he would follow his heart to his passion, he would go after the tree he shouldn't have had and he should have celebrated the abundance of what he did have, but he listened to his lying heart, had blinders on and14:37 went after this person, and then he went after this person, went after this person. And if you just read the story it's such a tragedy because after every mistake you, if you don't know the full story,14:49 your thought is maybe he learned his lesson. And then he follows his lying heart again. And then you hope maybe he learned his lesson and then he follows15:01 his lying heart again. And if you read all the way to the end what finally happens, Because he followed his divided and deceitful and lying heart, he ended up going down15:13 the rough path that ultimately led to his death. What about the children of Israel? Think about the children of Israel. They have been in in slavery in Egypt for centuries.15:25 And God shows up through Moses, leads them out of Egypt in slavery toward the promised land. They go through and see the miracle of all miracles15:37 as they walk through the Red Sea and the Egyptian soldiers are swallowed up behind them. They journey a few days journey beyond that Red Sea. Moses stops the children of Israel,15:49 he goes up on the mountain and the people begin to listen to their heart. They begin to say, you know what, we if we're only gonna worship the 1 true heart, 1 true God, we we need us an idol.16:01 And so they built a golden calf. You say, why would they build a golden calf? Because everybody else had 1, and everybody else worshiped 1. Go read the story in Exodus16:13 chapter 32. Says, why did you do it? Because all the children of Israel said everybody else has a golden calf that they worship, so we want 1 too. But listen folks, let's don't think that it's16:25 just Adam and Eve that will walk by our abundance for the 1 thing I shouldn't have. Let's not think it's just Samson that time after time that has given God's grace but never learns a lesson. Child of God, let's16:37 don't ever think it was just the children of Israel who worship something else because others do. How often do we do the same thing? Man, your lying heart, my lying heart will say, you know16:48 what? Yeah, they don't go to worship but boy they sure got a nice this or they sure got a nice that. And all of a sudden we're drawn to worship what they worship. Why? For the same reason the children of Israel17:00 did it. Because others were doing it. Or or go to the New Testament. Remember a guy named Judas? Judas was chosen by Jesus.17:13 He was 1 of the 12. He spent 3 years with Jesus watching Jesus heal, feed, make the lame walk and the blind17:24 see, listen to all those amazing sermons, even settle on the Sermon on the Mount, watch Jesus walk on water, calm the storms, and there was something in Judas' heart.17:37 They did a calculation. I can have Jesus or 30 pieces of silver. Now I know what you're saying in this room and everybody online, you're immediately17:49 saying, take Jesus. Right? But there was something in his heart that said, you mean I can get 30 pieces of silver. I'll take the silver.18:02 See, if we aren't careful, we can be just like Judas if we follow our heart. We can be just like Samson. We can be just like the children of Israel. We can be just like18:14 Adam and Eve. So what's wrong with my sinful heart? It's called sin. My deceitful heart is called sin. Number 2, well, how can I overcome my sinful heart? That's called salvation. Let me show that to you.18:25 Go back to Romans chapter 3, let's walk it through. How do I gain salvation? Let me just show you what Paul says. In Romans chapter 3 verse 22, he says, this righteousness if given through faith in Jesus18:37 Christ to all, everybody say all, To all who believe. How is God's righteousness given to us? By faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no18:49 difference between Jew and Gentile. Now in our mindset we don't get that idea of Jew and Gentile, but in those days the Jews thought of themselves as those were people that were close to God and the Gentiles were way19:01 away from God. Alright? And so here's what we know is the gospel is for those who are close to God and those who are far off. For us, we might think not Jew and Gentile, those who grew up in church and those who19:12 didn't. Those who grew up in church might be close to God or closer to God. Those who didn't would be like the Gentiles, they grew up way away from God. But I love what he says, There is no19:24 difference between the Jew and the Gentile, all come by faith. Look at it says verse 23, for all have sinned, this is what I read a few minutes ago, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, every 1 of us19:36 is sinful and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption. What does redemption mean? It simply means a payment that is19:47 made to liberate a slave. A payment that is made to liberate a slave that came to him by Jesus Christ. So here's what we know. We're all sinners,19:59 cannot save ourselves. God loved us so much that instead of requiring we pay for our sins, he inserted his son in the salvation process. Jesus paid the price and so20:11 his price was paid on our behalf. That's that theological word redemption that we see. That he redeemed us from slavery to sin and bondage to sin. Continue to read verse20:23 25. God presented Christ as the sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his20:35 righteousness. From time to time people will say, just can't wrap my head around why God would allow his son to die on the cross for your sins and my sins. Because20:47 he's holy and righteous. If you and I just all of a sudden for the next couple of weeks or months became court observers, we just find ourselves whether in Collin County or Dallas or somewhere,20:59 maybe even the Supreme Court, we found ourselves watching these court proceedings. It's just a bunch of 1 murder trial after another murder trial with the same judge up there and they would come in, they would show video21:10 evidence, they would give all the evidence and you're clearly sitting there going, you know, this guy's guilty or this girl's guilty and that judge says, you're guilty, but yeah, you're okay. You're okay. We would sit21:21 back go, wait, what? This is an unrighteous judge. This is an unjust judge. That's why it says God sent his son to die on the cross so that21:33 he might be righteous. What does that mean? Is that listen, God looked at your sin and my sin, and in his holiness and justice and righteousness says someone has to pay for that.21:46 Hey, if I pay for my own sins, that's justice. If God pays for my sins through his son, that's called grace. And so as you think about this21:57 passage, why do we receive Jesus Christ by faith as our savior and Lord? Because he is the redemption, the payment for my sins that offers me22:09 the opportunity to by faith receive the gift of eternal life. Continue to read. And because of his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. Let me just take22:21 a little aside. What is he saying? See the children of Israel are saying, alright, but Jesus died today, they were, they were asking the question, Paul, what about all of the Old Testament saints?22:34 How are their sins paid for? And so Paul says, listen, because in his forbearance or patience, he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. What does that mean? In the Old Testament before22:46 Jesus, the children of Israel had what we call a sacrificial system. They would go down to the temple, they would sacrifice, some sort of animal, they would shed the blood understanding that they22:58 are sinful and need a sacrifice. Go to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews said day after day the priest kept on making sacrifice after sacrifice none of which23:09 could pay for the price of sins. So what did the sacrificial system in the Old Testament do? It looked forward to Jesus Christ who is the ultimate sacrifice. So he says,23:21 yes, until Jesus died all the Old Testament sins were unpunished. But when Jesus died on the cross, he was the lamb of God that takes away23:33 the sins of the world. All the sins before Christ and all the sins of the saints after Christ. And so as you think about that pattern, God did this so he could be righteous and just. So23:45 let's read on. And he did it, to demonstrate his righteousness at this time so to be just and the 1 who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ.23:57 Alright. So the key is faith in Jesus Christ. How can I overcome my sinful and deceitful heart? It's called salvation. Simple, just admit you're a sinner.24:09 Acknowledge just like everybody else, I'm just like Adam and Eve, I'm just like Samson, I'm just like the children of Israel, I'm just like David, I'm just like this person, I'm just like your, Believe that Jesus died24:21 on the cross, was buried, rose again the third day, receive him as your savior, make him the Lord of your life and Jesus says you will be saved. Alright. So why is my heart24:33 sinful or deceitful? Sin. How do I overcome my deceitful heart? That's called salvation. Then this, why do I still struggle with sin? Alright.24:44 If I've been saved and I've overcome my sin with salvation, how come I still struggle with sin? It's called my sin nature. That we are made up24:56 of body and spirit. I won't go into that a lot, but here is reality, as long as I am in my flesh there is a sin nature that dwells in my heart. Notice what Paul says in Romans25:08 chapter 7. He says, don't even know by by the way, when you come to Romans chapter 7, Paul is not a newbie Christian anymore. He's not a new saint. This isn't right after25:20 the road to Damascus. Paul has been doing a lot of great things, already writing books, he's been planting churches, he's talking about worship, he's talking about everything, and all of a sudden right here in Romans25:31 chapter 7, this super saint Paul says, I still struggle because my heart is divided. And you're gonna see in Romans chapter 7 verse 15, he says, I25:43 don't even understand what I do. He says, for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate that's what I do. Verse 16, And if I do what I do not want to do, I25:55 agree that the law is good. In other words, we need rules. Verse 17, he says, as it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but is sin living in me?26:07 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me that is in my sin nature. Stop right there. Paul is saying that even though I've been saved by grace I still struggle with26:19 sin because I have that sin nature that lives within me. Does that make sense? See, when I am saved there's a theological word called justification. That means when I am26:30 saved by faith I receive a favorable court verdict that all your sins are forgiven. However there's another theological term26:42 called sanctification. Justification removes the penalty of sin, sanctification helps me grow in my strength to resist sinning. And I do that26:54 with God's word and God's spirit, and so that's the journey he's saying. He's saying listen, I am struggling with my sanctification, why? Because even though I wanna do some good things, I don't do those. And27:06 I don't wanna do bad things, but I do those. He says, why? It's the sin that lives in me. So here's the reality folks. Since Adam and Eve we have all suffered from27:18 a sin nature being involved in our lives. And so notice as we read on, as it is, it is no longer I myself, I'm in verse 17, who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that this good thing,27:30 no good thing in itself dwells in me that is in my sin nature. Look, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry that out. Look at verse 19. For he27:41 says, I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. This is what I keep on doing. Here's a super saint27:54 talking about the struggle that he has with his sin nature, his deceitful heart, that his heart just consistently says, you know, I know God's word says goes go this way, but you'll have more fun28:06 if you go that way. And Paul says, I struggle with that. When it comes to our deceitful heart, what about in the Old Testament? Remember a guy named David?28:17 Boy, David, the little shepherd boy, when the prophet went out and went to Jesse's house and said, hey, God's told me that that that that the next king in Israel is gonna come from your house, they look at all the other28:29 sons and God rejects rejects and all of a sudden brings in David. Remember what God said? Man looks on the outward appearance but eye look at the heart. Boy, there was something28:41 good about David's heart that God took notice of. Fast forward, David is called a man after God's own heart. But in28:52 between those 2 things, David at 1 point in the middle of all of his abundance, living in the palace, having everything you could possibly imagine,29:05 looks down and see a sees a tree, her name's Bathsheba, that he doesn't have. And instead of celebrating his abundance,29:16 enjoying his palace, his heart says, you deserve that. And here this man of God follows29:28 his divided deceitful heart to leave all of the abundance he had for what he destroyed himself with. Man,29:40 as we think about our minds, boy, if if David could struggle with that, if if Paul could struggle with that, what about us? And then when we sin what do we do? We can either repent and confess it or29:52 we could rationalize it. Yeah, but I'm not as bad as everybody else or you know that sin's kind of a sin of a century ago. We compromise our ethics, we do whatever we want. But here's the30:03 key, we wanna make sure that we are living in such a way that we are constantly saying no to our deceitful heart and yes to God's word and God's way. So here's number 4. Alright.30:15 So what's the problem with my my heart? Sin. How to get old, how to overcome my sinful heart? That's called salvation. Why do I still struggle with sin? That's called my sin nature. So how can30:27 I overcome or how can I develop a strategy to overcome my sinful heart? Let me give you a strategy. Right? We all struggle with it. Doesn't matter how young, how old you are, whether you're male or female, whether30:39 you're in person or online, we all struggle with our sinful heart. Look at his strategy. Look at Psalm 86 verse 11. Really a couple of points of the strategy come right over this these 2 verses. He says,30:51 teach me your way. In other words, I need to read God's word. Teach me your way. Are you daily in God's word? Every time we do a new new series right now, we're in the middle of it. Our31:02 Billy Graham, daily devotion. We do a devotion every time with every series. Why? Because we want you in the word. So if you and I are gonna handle and resist our sinful heart, the strategy starts with31:14 teach me your way Lord, that I might rely on your faithfulness. Number 2, I am going to ask God to give me an undivided heart. You say, you see that right there. Right there he says, give me an31:26 undivided heart. So number 1, I am gonna get in God's word, I'm gonna read God's word because here's what I understand. What I believe determines what how I behave. If I know God's word, then I will know God's way. So31:38 I wanna do what? I wanna sit under God's word. I wanna read God's word. I wanna hear God's word. And then I wanna pray that God would give me an undivided heart. Cry out to him. God, give me a31:50 heart that desires righteousness over unrighteousness. Sinlessness over on over sinfulness that I may fear your name. Here's the third thing, worship. He says32:02 I will praise you Lord my God with all my heart. Man, part of the way we get over our divided heart is we make a commitment. I am not gonna be like the children of Israel and32:14 spend my weekends worshiping my golden calf. Regardless of how many calves they have or people they have, we wanna be a people that worship God. He says, will praise you Lord my God with32:26 all might, notice that word heart, and then glorify your name. What's the difference between praise and glory? Alright. Praise is what I do when I come and gather with God's people, when we worship32:37 together, we celebrate God's word, we study God's word. How do I give God glory? How I live? When we leave here, are we following our lying32:49 heart or we following God's word? Are we moving in a sinful sinful path or we walking according to God's way? You say pastor, it's been a great message33:01 to have a year ago before I did x. It's been a great message to have 5 years ago before I did y. Been a great message to have33:13 10 years ago before I did z. Can I tell you, regardless of where you are in this, you can start inputting the strategy right now and it starts with what David did33:25 after his failure? Psalm 51 verse 10, David said create in me, oh Lord, a pure heart and renew in me33:37 a steadfast spirit. See, it was in that moment that that little shepherd boy who had a heart for God, that little shepherd boy that had a heart for God and and and God's word33:50 realized that there's a sin nature in me that will lead me astray. So he confessed his sins, and he asked God to give him a pure heart. What does that mean? An34:01 undivided heart that he would honor and love God. Alright. So let me walk you through quickly this biblical strategy. This is where hopefully you have and flowing straight out of that idea34:13 of a strategy, here it is, give you 6 points. This is why I always want you to download the app because I'm gonna go through these pretty quickly but with each 1 of these I have a Bible verse and you're only gonna get34:23 those on the app. So biblical strategy for developing a pure heart, create in me a pure heart, Lord. Renew in me a steadfast spirit. Thought number 1, you gotta guard your heart. You gotta guard your heart.34:35 Proverbs 4 verse 23 says, above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. This talks about the what and the who. The what. What's going into my ears? What's going into34:47 my eyes? What's going into my mind? What is coming? Where am I getting my information? If you're getting your theological information off social media be careful. Alright? There is34:58 what goes into my mind, into my into my ears, that helps. But it's also not just the what, it's the who. Who am I walking with and who35:10 am I hearing from? Who has the ability to speak into your life? Who do you do day by day, life by life walk with? See it's a who and a what. If you're gonna guard your35:22 heart, if I'm gonna guard my heart, it starts with what? What do I allow my eyes to see? What do I hear go in my ears? But then it's a who. Who am I hearing from?35:34 And if all you are doing right now is you're hearing from people and it's all over social media, it's all over in churches where they'll make statements like, well, you know, the Jesus that I serve,35:47 conduct doesn't matter. That's why you need to be careful what goes in and careful who's talking in. See, because if we35:59 aren't careful, we can be destroyed if we don't guard our heart. Here's number 2, change your focus. We absolutely have to change our focus. There's great theologian of yesteryear, I bet we all36:10 remember. Remember that great theologian Winnie the Pooh? Remember what he said? Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. Think36:26 about the garden. Compared to the Garden of Eden, the tree was the smallest thing in the garden. But that's all they could think about, and they36:38 gave it all up. Think about David and his palace. He had all the abundance of being a king and a wife,36:50 and he saw Bathsheba. And the smallest thing did he take up the largest spaces in our heart. Child of God, we wanna make37:01 sure as we pray for this undivided heart that we don't let the little things overwhelm the great things and the abundance that God has given us. Look37:13 at you say, how do we do this? Look at Colossians chapter 3, change your focus. Since then you have been raised with Christ, that means you've been saved, set your heart, everybody say heart.37:25 That's saying, Lord, I wanna learn your way, I wanna pray for an undivided heart. So now that I've been raised up, I'm gonna set my heart on things above. Why?37:36 Because your heart will constantly want to look at things below. And then he says, move on. Where Christ is seated at the right hand, set your minds on things above not on earthly things. Remember again, I've already37:48 talked about this today, your mind and your heart will ultimately end up being in lock scene. What you think you will eventually do, what you believe is how you will eventually37:59 behave. If it's God's word, you will live God's way. If it's the world's word, you will live the world's way. Those 2 go together. So if we are gonna live with an38:11 undivided heart, we have to set our minds and our hearts on things above, change our focus. Number 3, we wanna follow Jesus' example. Pretty simple. If we were38:23 all perfect from here on out, that would be awesome. However, none of us will be. But we want to constantly read God's word and look at God's word and see how Jesus responded to38:35 people. I want to live and listen to God's spirit. Let me tell you what, there are times that the spirit of God will be clapping for you and cheering for you because you didn't say it, and the38:46 spirit will go, way to go. There'll be other times that you went ahead and said it and the spirit of God will convict you. Live according to the spirit not according to flesh. Here's number 5, prioritize corporate38:57 worship. I already told you that. That was right out of Psalm 86. Man, I will tell you being in corporate worship, Hebrews chapter 10, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as some are in the habit of39:08 doing, but instead what do we do? We come together and worship to encourage 1 another, to love and good deeds. Man, when we come together we ought to be encouraged that man, allShow more
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