Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Right. So I've been doing a series just when I get up to speak. S is in Exeter this morning. You know, we've never done that. S is in one place, night in another, so it feels a bit but, yeah, I'm doing a series myself called Manage Your Life. Is it up there? Yes. Manage your life. So I'm going to look at manage we looked at Manage Your Mind, didn't we? Sorry? We looked at manage your mouth last time. We're going to do? Manage your heart today We've got. Manage your marriage, manage your mind and manage your money. If we can get through all those So just some practical areas of life we want to look into. Get some scriptures out. You've all been really kind to me when I do preach, because I know I always tell a lot of stories, partly to calm my nerves, and sometimes it's just my style. I like to bring some live testimony into maybe a scripture we're looking at, just to try and unpack it a little bit. I haven't got that many stories today and I've been battling with it all week and I felt I was I was out on the family walk yesterday, shared with a couple that was really nervous today because I feel like it's going to be more of a teaching and digging in to what is a massive subject. So I hope Church, I can do it well, and I hope I can do it give it the sort of due attention it needs. Because we're going to look at our heart today and let me tell you, is a massive area in it. As a Christian, our heart is a huge, huge area. There's so many scriptures I could have brought in. We've got a few. But we're going to look at our heart this morning. So obviously, last time we looked at our mouth, remember who was here for that? Last time we looked at our mouth? Have you been managing your mouth since then?
That was indifferent. There's more of a thumbs up for the academy here.
Well, we looked at you remember, we looked at in the Book of James as a Christian, if you ever read the Book of James, it's not a big book in the Bible, but it certainly pokes you in the eye, doesn't it, the Book of James? It's got a lot of stuff to say that makes you think, Ouch. So we looked in James, didn't we? And the mouth being the rudder on the ship, do you remember? And how powerful the mouth was. But we couldn't look at the mouth, could we, without talking about the heart? Do you remember that passage? We looked at Matthew 1234 and he said, what out of the heart? The mouth speaks. Yeah. Another version says, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. So as we were looking at the mouth, straight away we had to link it to the heart. As well, didn't we? So we're going to look at the heart this morning. But I want to tell you, Church, this is a massive subject. This is a massive subject for us as Christians. So listen up.
Hope I can cover this off. It's a huge area. So some of you know I've had a reaction to the vaccine, something called myocarditis, which is the lining of your heart, actually. Got a bit of the vaccine, got stuck there and it went a bit toxic. Still, two and a half years later, I still struggle with it sometimes. And I've seen a heart specialist a few times over the last couple of years and the virtue said, my heart is okay, but it's this lining of my heart and I'm believing God is going to fully heal me. Some people have already prayed for me. Thank you. But it's been a know, Paul talks about thorn in the flesh. It's been a real challenge for me, actually. But as I've gone to these heart specialists a few times, I've got to know some of the terminology, some of these heart things. So there's such a thing, there's an echogram. You've heard of that, some of you. There's a thing called an ECG. Yeah. So we're going to do some heart surgery, Church, this morning. We're not going to do an ECG, we're going to do a CGG.
You're looking at me blank thinking, what is Eon? About? All will be made clear. So we're going to do a CGG. But if you think ECG when you go home and have your Sunday dinner, if you're going to remember the sermon, I've got three points this morning.
See, check your heart.
Look at that. In a minute.
Guard your heart. That's a huge one. We're going to look at that, guard your heart and finally give your heart. So not an ECG, a CGG is check your heart, guard your heart and give your heart.
Cool. So we'll get straight in there with the start off first point here. Check your heart. Now, you might be looking at me thinking, phil, why do I have to check my heart? And I'm going to tell you one simple major reason why. You know why, Church? Why check your heart? Because God does.
God checks our hearts, right? Got a great passage here that I've known for years, since I've been a young man, and it has just smashed me in the face this last two weeks as I've come to prepare what want to share this morning. If you've got your Bibles, it's Jeremiah 17, verse ten.
It says this, this is in the NIV. Remember god's checking our hearts. Yeah. God checks our hearts. It says, I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct and according to what their deeds deserve.
That's a check of our hearts now and later on at Judgment day into it when we all stand before.
Know if you're a non believer, you don't know Jesus. That is going to be quite a scary day you go back. I was only in conversation last week sometimes about Billy Graham. Do you remember that real hellfire ministry that we're called through the it was like, if you don't know Jesus, one day you're going to stand before Him and there's a road either go that way or that way. That's a big day. But for us as Christians, we still stand before God, even though we've accepted Him as our Lord and Savior and we stand in judgment before Him for how we've lived our life here. It's quite a sobering thought that, isn't it? So check our hearts. So Jeremiah 1710. That's the NIV. Listen to this in the New Living translation. Really good, Church, to read things a couple of times. I know I get to prepare this and do this, but in your own quiet times, in your own times, reading the Bible, sometimes if you've read a scripture that maybe pokes you in the eye or encourages you or you think, wow, that was good, dive into it, you can do it on your Bibles, can't you? On your Bible apps. You can do it on Google. You can do it so easily nowadays. But check another translation, because listen to this.
It says, I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the secret motives of the heart. I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve. Same passage, but talking about our motives here, the heart's motives, everything we do comes from in here, don't it? We spoke about last time, about what we speak, things we do, but everything we do, what we think, how we act in life, how we are as people, it stems from in here. That's why I truly want to do this morning justice to this huge area. Our hearts are a big thing, Church. As Christians, it says, I the Lord, search the heart and examine the secret motives. I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve. It's quite sobering thought, isn't it, that the God of heaven searches our motives. Yeah, that's what he does. So check your heart church Check your heart because why Jesus checks our heart. I guess the first question to ask is, have you given your heart to Jesus? Maybe there's some here this morning that haven't. I just want to encourage you that it's the best decision you'll ever make. Don't cost you a penny, don't cost you anything other than your heart. If you give a full yes in your heart, maybe some young people you don't know Jesus as your own saviour, you know mum and dad do, I know you can't get to heaven on your mum and dad's passport. But our heart is the most precious entity we have. And if we give it to Jesus, it is the best life you'll ever live. So I guess my first question is if you don't know Jesus that check of your heart is do I know him? And if you want to know him, come and see me afterwards. It's only one prayer away, full of faith and sincerity. Yeah. So check our hearts. But for us as Christians, I'm guessing the majority of the room are Christians. It's quite a sobering read this church into it. I the Lord, examine your heart and check for your secret motives. It's quite a sobering read into it anybody? Let's just look at what our heart can do. Some of the stinky things it can do. Anyone ever struggled with pride?
There's more hands up for that than there was for the theater. No? Well that's good Church, because you've been honest with me. We all do. Can't we?
Anyone ever mentioned something about themselves to another to secretly, you know, he said tips our motives to secretly make ourselves look good? Anyone been in a situation where we've thought I'm just going to slip this in there. Sometimes we don't pray enough, do we? Because we think, well I don't know if God could do it as well as me. So I'll just kind of give God a bit of a hint just to let somebody know what I've done. Anyone ever done that? God's looking at our motives all the time.
If we're giving, maybe giving of our time, maybe giving financially to something, jesus always says do it in quiet. Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing on earth. Does that mean do it in secret? Jesus is always watching. Church, you don't need to get the acclaim of people down here. Jesus is always watching. What about that woman that gave that last little penny? She had it's penned in scripture for all eternity to see from then on. Jesus is always watching in Sid. So whatever we give, give it in secret. Give it as diligently and quietly as you can and always have your heart pure before him.
Who's ever done this one? This is a stinker. I've done it a couple of times, embarrassed to say looking at our heart. Who's ever engineered a situation out of vengeance? Yeah. Who's ever done something thinking?
Remember that scripture? Seven times seven and then 70 times seven. How many times do you forgive? I once said a great sermon on that. He worked it out. He said so 490. So at 491 times it's like that.
I don't forgive you anymore. But who's ever engineered a situation purely out of vengeance? Men, I don't want to pick on you but I'm going to put my hand up to this one in a big way. Who's ever driven down the A 38 or any road and somebody pulls out in front of you, especially in my son Reuben's little car that as it goes up Halden Hill, it struggles to do 70 anyway. And if a lorry pulls out and slows me down 50. I can't get back to 70 because it won't do it. But who's ever had that? As guys, maybe some girls would do it and they won't admit it, but who's ever had it? And then listen to this, because I've done this so many times and I was out with Ruben and young Joe the other day, I did it. I was like, Phil, you stinky, man. So what I do is I pull in front of them and put my brake on and slow them down. How bad is that? What kind of heart does that? You've wronged me. I know it's a silly little example on the road, but listen, we can do it in life, church, can't we? For really, honest, you've wronged me, so I'm going to wrong you.
Stinks, doesn't it? Where did it come from? Income from a mind. Income from anywhere else, rather in there. In there? I thought you rotter. You've just slowed me down. I've lost my momentum. Right? I'll slow you down. What's that about? Come on, what's that about? These things come from our heart, Church. Check our hearts. Remember, Jesus is always searching our hearts. I just want you to get that this morning when you go home. Got this? Check, guard and give. Jesus is always searching our hearts. Yes. I don't want to talk too gloomy about Judgment Day, but how we live our lives now affects that and it affects the rest of our earthly life. We have consequences and what our actions deserve. Jesus is always watching. Do you know what? That can be a scary thing, but it can be a great thing as well. If we want God to get listen to this. If we want God to get the greatest glory through our lives, how many of you know he works through us. He works through his people. We're not robots, you know. We're made in his image. And he loves us. He loves all of you so much. He's passionate about you. And he gets his glory through us. He could do it all Himself. He doesn't need us, but he likes to work through his people. We're made in his image. Jesus came worth in his half human, half God. Right? He glorifies Himself through us, right? The more you think of that, you think, wow, God's glory is shown through me. What's my heart going to be like? We've got an option to show the world Jesus through us always stems from where in your heart.
My favorite psalm, which I know I read out nearly every time I preach because I absolutely love it to bits, but it says this, done it in Psalm 37 four. It just really sort of comes in with this scripture we've read earlier on in Jeremiah. Delight yourself in the Lord for what he will give you, the desires of your heart. It always gets me. As we put God first church, as we put God first in our hearts as we live our lives for Him, not to get anything back. Actually, as I've said before, it's a full stop. After that. Delight yourself in the Lord. Full stop. Why? Because he's God, but because he loves you. This morning church, he says, what? I will give you the desires of your heart. That's not always a Ferrari. That's not always something you're thinking of. Do you know, as we mold, we live for Him. He actually changes us to be like Him. Our desires even change to be like Him. Yeah. So delight yourself in the Lord if he gives you the desires of your heart. Want to say this as well? Some of the things that happen down here on earth, if you journey with God for a while, you know this with me. You've been a Christian a while. I think God has got a fantastic sense of humour and he's bothered by every little bit of our lives. We've told you before, when we go out as a family, James and Heidi here, they will testify to this if we can't find a parking space. Esther always says, Come on, let's pray it's a parking space. It's a little nothing into it, but, you know, time and time again, God shows up. We drive around a car park for ages. We're down by the sea somewhere. I don't want to drive right up that hill to have to walk all the way back. We pray. Suddenly somebody just comes in miraculously and just drives out. We didn't even see him go in the car park, but he's bothered about every little bit of our life. And I think some of these things we're talking about is for appointed time when we stand before it. But there's also little wins all the way through your life. Now, quick little story I do have is I think I've shared with you before, I love golf. I used to golf as a young man, and then for about 25 years, I never played golf, okay? And when we came down to Devon to plant the church, I said, Esther, as well as planting the church, I'm going to take up golf again. So I did two years ago. And I love golf. I play at least once a week. It's just my little thing I like to do. And I started with these things called just stay with me, right? If you don't understand golf, don't worry. But there's got this thing called one length irons. So basically, you have all these different length of clubs. Simply the one length, so you have a seven iron is the same as your four iron and your wedge. It's just one length for all of them. And it's a bit of a beginner's thing to do, but I love them. I've got really good with them three months ago. My friend who I play with at Stover Golf Club, phil, you need to get these new fitted irons. You need to get some. You're good enough now. Get some irons that fit for you. Zach's laughing at me because he knows what I mean. So I bought these. I treated myself a fair few hundred quid to these new irons that I bought. Had them fitted, they measure your arms. You did it all. Could I hit them? Could I heck. So my handicap up instead of coming down, has gone up. And for the last three months, every time I play golf, they're like, what's up with you? And I have three friends at the Exeter church that I play with as a little group of four of us. We actually went out to Portugal last year for four days. They're all Christian guys in the 40s. It's a great little group. I've got together and even then we're saying, Phil, what's wrong? I just couldn't hit these irons. And I was so proud. I thought, Well, I spent a few hundred quid on these, I couldn't hit them. And then I thought, I'll just go out with my old one lens. So I got me old, dusted them down out of the garage, covered in cobwebs in only three months. Shows what our garage is like. And got me one length back, went to play. Boom. Great feeling again, did a great score. Thought, thank you, my friend, you're back my one lengths. But I had these tight, list irons and one of the guys who I play with who remained nameless out of the four of us, he doesn't have a lot of money. And I felt that lovely thing to say, give him your irons, Phil. I could have put them on ebay and probably got half the price back, but I thought, no, give him your irons. Do you know what was the worst thing in my heart out of the four of us? There was one guy that's kind of the best, and then I'm sort of an average about second, he's close behind me in third, and then there's another guy fourth. And I thought, if I give him my irons, he'd be better than me.
He actually has a really old set of rubbish irons. He doesn't have much money. And that was more of a thing to me than actually giving him the money side of it. I thought, if I give him these irons and he is, he's great with them. So I gave him them about three weeks ago. But you know what? Listen to this church. You might think this is not a coincidence. You might think this is just stupid, right? But we've played twice together, the three of the four of us that we do. We played this week and we played the week before. I was amazing. I did the best golf I've ever done, right? And I looked to heaven when I got in the car on the way home, I thought, Jesus, you're so lovely. I knew I was going to be preaching on my heart and I thought, you know, these little wins along the way. I know I gave him them clubs out of a pure heart and I thought, you're going to be better than me if you have these. He did. He played well. Bry played amazing.
I had these tatty old one lens back and I was ripping that course up. So if anyone knows, you have what's called a par, right? So on the nine holes, right, of par 35, I did a 36. I was one over par for nine holes. And I was like going back to the car, like, Come on.
But it just made me think as we journey through life, that's me and my little thing in golf, what things are you going through? But when your heart is for, know this constant checking that he does of us. I just thought that was a little win between me and heaven. I just thought, Jesus, thank you, you're so kind. He saw my heart of what I did. And God looks after his kids and he will look after you. So check your heart church that's what I'm trying to say. This first point, check your hearts. Always give from a glad and cheerful heart. The Scriptures tell us, don't it? Never give anything to get it back. Always give it for him. As I say, some rewards are for now, some are for later. But let's check our hearts. The more we check our hearts in Jesus, the more he delights in us. It's a pretty powerful statement in it. The more our hearts become like Him, the more he delights in us, because that's what Scripture tells us. Listen to this. In one Corinthians three, verse seven to nine, it says so neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God makes things grow. Stay with me. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. Each will be rewarded. Here it comes again. Totally separate scripture. Each will be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are all coworkers in God's service. You are God's field, you are God's building. That's powerful, isn't it? We're all coworkers together for Him. So that's me and you folk. Yeah. God works through us. But notice how it says here. According to what? To our labour and what our deeds deserve. There's one back in Jeremiah. Here we are in Corinthians, same theme, coming through according to our labour and what our deeds deserve. So if we're going to be in God's service, it's through our deeds into it. Yeah. And it starts where? In your heart. Check your heart, check your deeds, check what you're about. Never for any glory for yourself. Everything is for the glory of Him. Yeah. Let's check our hearts before we do anything, then don't. Do I'll slow you down? Because you've slowed me down? Whatever that is that you journey with you. Almost have a little something that you do you think that stinks? I need to get that out. Me daily thing. Get it out. Come on. One day we're going to stand before him. Church, let's check our hearts. Let's keep humble. Yeah, this is a hard one, but let's try and think less of ourselves and more of Him. Do you know what? As you do, you don't miss out. You don't. The more you put God first in your life, you do not miss out. Humble yourself before me. It says the Bible. Humble ourselves before God. Hard to do sometimes a human. But he raises us up, he elevates us, he sees our deeds, he sees everything. That's check your heart. You with me? Come on. Let's move on then. Right, so next, this is a big one. Okay? So we've got remember ECG, CGG, guard your heart. If you're taking notes, guard your heart. This is a huge one, Church. It really is. Listen to this famous passage. But wow, come on, let's get our hearts right before him. Proverbs four, verse 23. First of all, from the NIV.
Have you ever drunk cold tea?
Yeah, that wasn't too good.
Proverbs 423. This is in the NIV.
Love how it starts. Listen to this. Above all else, above all else, guard your heart, for it is what? The wellspring of life. Wow.
Put away perversity from your mouth. Keep corrupt talk from your lips. I'm going to read that again. Church, this is so important, I want you to grasp it. Proverbs 423 above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put perversity away from your mouth and keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
As I said earlier, sometimes it's good to dive into another translation message. Bible not for everyone. It's very modern. Love how it says it here, though. Listen to this from the message, same passage. Keep a vigilant, watch over your heart. That's us, isn't it? It's not God. That's us. Ain't talking to Himself, is he? It's for us. Guard your heart. Keep a vigilant, watch over your heart. Why? That's where life starts. Wow. Remember I said how important the heart is? Out of these five things we're looking at, the heart is vital.
Keep a vigilant, watch over your heart, for that's where life starts. Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth. Not sure I got that bit, but it's in the message. Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth. Listen. Avoid careless, banter anyone ever done that in the office? Laughing at that joke. That's really rude, but actually really funny. And they all know you're a Christian. What do they do? They look at you, see how you're going to respond. Yeah, we don't have to join in. Church. Avoid careless, banter white lies. It says in the message. Google it. White lies and the killer one gossip.
Avoid careless, banter, white lies and gossip.
Not going to go into all that this morning. But what is it referring to as it's talking about these things not to do your heart above all else. These three things here, terrible. Are they? Careless, banter, white lies and gossip. Where did they come from? Your heart.
But I love how this passage starts. Church.
Excuse me. Here we go. In the NIV sees three words. You don't often see this in the Bible, so it must be important, right? It says this above all else.
Yeah, he's talking about he says, then guard your heart. But it starts off, above all else, comma. Guard your heart. You getting that kind of thing. The writer wanted to say to us, God through his anointed word. So God wanted to say to us, above all else, guard your heart. This is quite a proclamation from heaven, isn't it? It's a word over our lives. How do we supposed to live here as humans? He says, above all else, above everything.
Above every other thing we could speak about. Thank you. Guard your heart. Okay, so I kind of think it's important when it starts off the sentence, before it tells us to guard our hearts. It says, above all else, guard your heart. Yeah, it's important, Church, because guarding our hearts is such an important thing. As a Christian, how many of us know in life we guard many things, don't we? Who's got an alarm on the car? Yeah. Who's got a lock on the car? Yeah. My Tesla. I had to get rid of it because I kept getting jolly speeding. So it's had to go. I swapped it with a colleague. So I've got a slower four before now to slow me down. But I got caught twice in six weeks. Not good as a pastor, that is. It got caught to 81 in a 70 and 79 in a 70. Because when you got in, it was like didn't make any noise. It was electric, but it was jolly fast. But it had this thing called sentry mode. If any of you know what a Tesla is, it's nuts. It does everything and you could walk past it. It's like, done. Do you remember Knight Rider? Anybody? In the 80s? He was old enough. I felt like Michael Knight. I mean, it was actually a black car. Michael, we have an intruder.
The Tesla actually did that. It had its own kit. It was called Auntie Kit. Lived inside the car. It had a kit inside it. So it had this thing called sentry mode. And it would film and people put postings on YouTube. You can see them. So somebody's got this one woman, right? She goes past, you know, in the little side wing mirrors. The woman's going like this with her hair just obviously going into a shop, making herself look nice. It's all been filmed by the car, and this guy posted it online later on. So we guard our. Cars, don't we? We guard our cars. Teslas really guard cars. We guard our know. We often have an alarm, a lock on the front. We often have a camera. You can get these little cameras guard you to the front. There's funny stories of that. When the postman comes, picking his nose, it's all there on camera. What else do we guard our? We guard our bank account. We have a password, don't we?
If you want to get on social media, we have a code to get in. Even to open your phone. We have a code to get in. Everything's guarded into it. What does the Bible tell us above all these things? Above all else? Guard what? Not your phone, your Tesla, your house. Guard your heart. Church. Are you getting in this morning? It's the wellspring of life, church. It's where everything comes from. You've got to guard it. Nobody's going to guard it for you, right? Our heart is a precious thing. Out of our heart can do many things, speak, think, actions, giving kindness and horrendous things can come out of our heart. We want to be a church, so we want to be a people that guards our heart. This precious commodity has given us he didn't make us robots, did he? He made us in his image. He gave us our own free will. And the most important part of that is our heart. So we're getting that this morning. Above all else, guard your heart.
I want to say as well, just about this enemy coming in.
It says about the careless banter.
Can I tell you? Just watch what comes into your home as well. Esther and I turn films off. We very, very, very rarely watch anything above a twelve. This is not a judgment thing this morning. But I tell you what, as we journey through life as a Christian, the enemy is subtle, into. You see it in adverts now. You see it in so many areas of life. But if we watch as entertainment stuff that comes into our eyes yet we've got to guard our hearts. And sometimes you might be watching a great movie that's full of blasphemy, full of stuff that stinks, where you're thinking, Is everyone all right?
It's like a mass exodus.
Only kidding.
But watch. Watch what you watch. Only you can turn that telly off. Only you can turn that zapper off. Esther and I have been in a film just like this, sat in stadium seating. It's embarrassing. If you're the one at the back to walk out. We thought, this is not edifying to my soul. Yeah. This is what the Message Bible says here. It's telling us what we watch. Avoid these things. Right? Sometimes, church, you got to say, I'm not going to watch that. I love heart. 80s my kids will tell you that if you go along in the car with me. I used to listen to UCB. Then sometimes I think do you know what heart 80s is going on? It's on digital radio. It's the best. So I'm grooving along to my 80s tunes. Just sometimes. I'm starting to sing songs that you've known for years, and some of the lyrics in some of the songs are terrible. I'm actually thinking, I can't sing that. I certainly can't sing with that. With my kids in. Sometimes they go, Turn it off because it's guarding my heart. It's what coming into our atmosphere as a family. There's some lyrics, madonna's a classic for it, some great songs. But you listen to some of what she says, you're thinking, I don't want that in my home. Off it goes. Please don't think I'm being heavy. We want to be more like him, don't we? It starts in our hearts.
Watch. Some of these lyrics want to say just before we move on to the final point, we are in a constant battle, you know, against the enemy, all of us. You as Christians, you are target number one for the devil, right? You are. So when you're God in your heart, it is a battle, because he's out for your heart as well as you, as well as God wants to live within us. The enemy is trying to pull us down. You know what's hard, church. The more you get to know Jesus, the more you make those good decisions in life, like, turn the radio off. Like starting to live your life for Him. The more he attacks us, crazy in it because he wants to pull us down. He sees you maturing and growing. The more the enemy roars, the more he comes in. We have got that lock on our heart. It's up to us if we allow the enemy in. He wants to roar and pull us down. All your thoughts that come in your mind, there's three thoughts. There's your own, there's God's and there's the enemies. And let me tell you, there's a lot of number three comes in that we allow in and then it comes in there, don't it? We've got to block them off. Spit it out. Yeah. The enemy is out. Let me tell you this. It's in. Paul talking in. Timothy Two. Timothy Two. Timothy Four, verse seven.
I want this for us, right? When the enemy's roaring, it says this, I have fought the good fight, I have finished this race. I have kept the faith. Wow. Yeah. You with me. You're guarding your heart. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race and I have kept the faith. You know Christians that fall away from the faith, that backslide heartbreak into it. Think, come on, you've met the King of Kings, you've met the Lord and Saviour of your life. Why the heck would you want to fall away? Do you know what's actually just as bad? Some preachers would say worse is to go, Lukewarm, you're neither here nor there. I remember being a young man. You know, when I was backslidden and I used to be at this nightclub in Leeds, and there were some young people from church there drinking just like me and smoking and being an idiot and then telling me to come to church on a Sunday, I'm thinking, whoa, where are you? You're no better than me. Do you know what I mean? Our lives are always to be seen by all, aren't they? I think this Lukewarmness mixing the world and him together, they don't mix, do they? So this Lukewarmness in our know, never reading our Bible, just never spending time with Jesus, never looking to glorify him through our lives, just going Lukewarm, not actually saying, Jesus, I don't believe you anymore, just to be Lukewarm. In Revelation, jesus says, I'll spit you out. Frightening passage, isn't it? Jesus says, I will spit you out if you're Lukewarm. I know some people say, once saved, always saved. I'm not getting into that debate. I'm just saying, why the heck's that in the Bible if it wasn't relevant? He says, I will spit you out if you're Lukewarm. So I encourage us. This morning, church Lukewarmness starts again. Where? In here? Everything starts in the heart. Guard your heart if you're going to go lukewarm as a Christian doesn't start anywhere else than in here. And it's those subtle little things that we're allowed to come in. Are you with me?
Jesus says, I'll spit you out if you're Lukewarm. Come on. We need to guard our hearts. The falling away isn't an overnight thing. You know that, don't it takes time, but over the course of a year, it can be in a different place, can't it?
Embarrassing one for me is because talking about right relationships that we choose. I went out with a non Christian girl when I was 25, two years after I'd recommitted my life to God. She was a nurse from Scotland. I thought she was beautiful. Etta knows all this. I'm not speaking behind her back. Thought she was a lovely person, but she wanted Christian.
Some of my friends at the time had said, well, it'd be all right. Just pray for her. That was bad advice, really, looking back. And I gave her my heart.
I fell in love with her. I thought she was lovely. And after a year, I kind of split up with her because I thought, I want my kids to go to Sunday school. I want decisions to join together as Christians.
I want to marry a Christian wife. As much as I loved and I knew I was going to be single again and lonely, I thought, I can't do this. So I split up with her. Two, three weeks later, I missed her like mad. I got back with her, okay? And guess what? She split up with me.
About a month later, she said, I love you, Phil. You're great fun. We're getting on well. But you want this god thing. I don't want God. I took her to church. You just want for her now. She broke my heart. It's funny, isn't it? When you're dating, when you break up with somebody, you feel a bit bad for them, but you think kind of got to finish it. But then when they finish with you, it's all unrequited love. It's called insect. I was like a zombie for a year. I absolutely missed her like mad, right? But I'd given her all my heart. And I always remember thinking if I could just find a Christian version of this girl, that'd be perfect. But four years later I met, you know, it was the most amazing thing. As we had fun, I fancied like, I fancy this other one. My heart was healed, I was okay again. But she loved Jesus for herself, not for me. And I was always worried this other girl would have loved Jesus for me, not for her. And she loved Jesus for herself. In fact, Esther really loves Jesus. Every morning at 05:00, she's shabba dabbering downstairs reading the Bible. I'm still snoring for another 2 hours.
I married a good Godly woman. And just want to say to us all encouragement. If you are single, find a life partner that loves Jesus and there's three of you in a marriage love Jesus together. I mean that. And for those that are single, it's okay. God holds you in his hand. He loves you and he'll care for you. He will. You're not on your own. Jesus is always with you. Maybe we'll talk about des. Actually spoke about singleness in Exeter last week. So you could look back and look at that. But God really loves everyone, you know what I mean? Sometimes you look at some marriage things and it's important because the Bible talks about his. But I don't think single people spoke about enough how much God loves them and cares for them. And as a church, I think it's our privilege to get alongside people. So if that's you this morning still guard your heart. And if you're praying for a life partner, pray for a Christian God's. Timing is not always ours, is it? And it can be hard. But trust him. Trust him through it all. Don't give your heart away easily. Why? Because Proverbs says here it's the wellspring of life. It's the wellspring of life.
How does it look? Do you know you have to die to self church? It's an inward looking thing. We live in a world, don't we? That's so outward looking. Appearance, what car you drive, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How you look about these things. If we're going to live a God centered life, if we're going to guard our hearts and fully live for Him, it's actually dying to self. And it's an inward looking thing because nobody around sees what's going on in your heart, do they? But between us and God, die to self.
Look inwards, look towards Jesus in our heart.
Allow the Holy Spirit actually to change us. It's the Holy Spirit working with us.
And I know it's countercultural to this world, but live a heart truly for him. Live a life for him. Finally, how are we going for time? Ruben?
Right. Final one. Final one.
That's the cold tea. Forgot about that.
Ruben did me a water here.
Final one. Give your heart so we've done. Check your heart, guard your heart. Really important.
Finally, give your heart I love this. If you're taking notes, it's Psalm 119, verse 112. It says this in the NIV. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. Don't often look in. King James, remember said, always look at another passage. I think the King James rocks it here. Are you with me? King James says this, I have inclined my heart to perform thy statues always, even unto the end. I have inclined my heart to perform thy statues, even to the end. What does that mean? I have inclined my heart there's a physical like leaning in, isn't there? There's a leaning into him. We don't all walk around declined, do we? Don't all walk around like that. But when we're talking about our hearts, we have to incline our hearts to him. The Word tells us here, we have to lean into Jesus. We have to dig deep and think, I'm going to commit my heart to you. When those thoughts come along, when the enemy tries to take you down, and he will. He will, church, he will. Even when you're doing well in your greatest victories next day, be ready, because that's when God will sorry. When the enemy will come to try and take you out. You can have a real yes, can't you? And then the enemy tries to take you out. Many times I've been away on business and embarrassed to say, but sometimes lustful thoughts do come in my mind as a Christian husband. And I have to do. I have to pick my phone up and throw it across a hotel room. I thought, I am not looking at anything on that phone tonight, but the enemy wants to take me out. Usually when that happens, after today, you preach a sermon or something, you walk within God in some areas in your life, you might think as a real victory. Think, come on, me and God had a real yes. There, get ready, because the next day the enemy will try and take you down. And we have to be strong. We have to incline our hearts to Him. I am not going to look at that on that screen. I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, it's us. It's a conscious thing that we need to win the battle for Jesus, right? If we're going to be fully devoted to Him. I've written down devotion is a great word in it but if we're going to be fully devoted to Him, it starts in here, right? And it's giving of our heart. It's a giving thing. It's an action. It's a giving. We give our hearts to Him. So we have to incline. That's what the King James is saying here. Lean into Jesus in those moments when no one's looking. Lean in. Dig deep, Church. Fully give your heart to Jesus.
I've written here. Do I fully love Jesus with all my heart? Do I? Do you church? This morning. Do you fully love Jesus with all your heart lost? And will you come up, please? And the know if you're going to fully give your heart to Him, right? If you're going to fully give your heart to Him, there's this inclining into Him and a giving of your heart, right? It's a doing word.
We're just going to close now.
Just some concluding thoughts. And we're going to watch a little video. Gordon, if you can have that ready in a minute. Oh, Ruben, are you doing that one? The video.
So check our hearts. Just in conclusion, just before watch this video. It's a cute little video to finish. You'll like it?
Remember, check our hearts. Why? Because God does. Why do you check your heart? Because God does. I the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind and search the secret motives, remember? And he rewards us according to our deeds deserve. And guess what? He delights in us. Secondly, guard your hearts. Why? It's the wellspring of life and the enemy is roaring around trying to take us out. Remember that church? Can we finish strong? Can we say, like in Timothy, I fought the good fights that's guard our hearts into it. Finally, give your heart. Give your heart to Jesus. Inclined to him. Right. We're just going to watch a lovely cute story. Then I want us to all do something at the end.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: One day, a driver was suddenly confronted by a dough standing in front of his car. Refusing to move, the man got out of his car to investigate the reason. The dough's gaze made him realize that she needed help. With compassion and kindness, the driver decided to follow the dough. After about a mile, he was led to a small house where he discovered a fawn trapped in a soccer net.
Clearly, this was the reason the doe had stopped his car. At that moment, the dough cried out as if pleading with the man to save her child. Moved by the situation, the driver quickly rescued the young fawn. Hearing the cries of the fawn, the dough became very panicked and the people there had to calm her down. Finally, the fawn was freed and both mother and child hurriedly ran into the forest. It seemed like the story had come to an end. However, unexpectedly, the dough led her fawn to wait on the road. What was truly touching was when the fawn ran up to the driver and lay down on the ground, expressing its gratitude for having its life saved. It's hard to believe, but this serves as evidence that animals also have emotions, gratitude, and a profound maternal bond.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: It might have come up with some of your instagram feeds this week. It came up on mine. I thought that is cute. But just as I was preparing this, that little form was grateful, wasn't it? At the end, you know what he did do? He came and knelt down.
We're going to sing a song in a minute. It's a famous old and said, lord, I give you my heart, I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every moment I'm awake, every breath that I take, I live for you. It's actually a really hard song to sing if you get the lyrics out, you think, every moment I'm awake, I live for you alone. Really? That's our desire. And it starts off, this is my desire. And that's got to be our desire. Church, if you're with me on this and you don't mind, and you're physically able, would you kneel now like this little thorn knelt? If you're capable and you're able, would you kneel? Just as we sing this song, just sing it a couple of times through.
After you've sung a couple of times through, you don't have to stay kneeling. You can get up.
But something about kneeling there's something about kneeling, church that's a posture of saying, lord, I give you my heart. I give you everything this morning. Check my heart. Lord, help me guard my heart.
Yeah. And help me give my heart to you. That's what we're saying this morning. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you everything. As Lawson sings this, remember these words which spoken this morning and declare over your own heart. Heart I'm giving it to Jesus. Maybe you have gone slightly lukewarm recently, Church. Maybe you felt a bit far from him. Put it right this morning, Church. Put it right this morning. Say heart. I'm giving you to Jesus. I'm giving you my all. All amen.
