How is Your Heart?, Part 1

We trust that that's your prayer.

We've been looking at Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 and 19 over the last four weeks to help us understand the danger of unbelief.

Looking at the life of Israel, an illustration from Psalm 95, written a thousand years before the book of Hebrews was written.

And David would use the illustration of the nation of Israel.

And the writer of Hebrews tells us, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation in the wilderness.

Two times in Hebrews 3 he says that.

Once in Hebrews 4 he says that because he's concerned that these Jewish people will harden their hearts to the work of God in their lives.

And so as I think about that, it's imperative for us to understand what's happening in our hearts.

And so I want to ask the question: how is your heart today?

Are you in danger of unbelief?

Are you in danger of hardening your heart against the truth of God's holy word?

Are you in danger of living in unbelief?

Or is your heart tender to the things of God?

And how do you know your heart is hard versus it not being hard?

How can you even begin to know your heart?

When the Bible says in Jeremiah 17, 9, that no man can know his heart.

Because this heart is deceitful, it is desperately wicked, and therefore there's no way for us to truly understand the condition of our heart.

Except through divine revel because God knows your heart.

And if God knows your heart, God will reveal to you in His Word the condition of your heart.

While we might not know our hearts, God does know our heart.

In fact, God knows everything.

In the book of Proverbs, the 15th chapter, listen to what the Lord God says through the pen of Solomon.

Now it's important to understand that when I was growing up, my parents made me read a chapter in Proverbs.

My dad used to always say that a Proverbs a day Okay?

A pro a day properly obeyed keeps the prince of darkness away.

Okay?

That's what it used to always tell me.

But you got to obey what the Proverbs says.

You got to follow the Lord in obedience.

And the book of Proverbs says this, the 15th chapter, the 11th verse, She, Hades, and Abaddon, destruction, lie open before the Lord, how much more the hearts of men?

In other words, God knows what's happening in hell.

You don't.

And only by divine revelation would you know anything about hell, the grave, She.

Abad in Hebrew, Apoll in Greek, destruction.

Revelation 9, 11 says that Satan is called Apollyon.

He is the king of She.

And so, therefore, he is the king of destruction.

And yet, when Christ came, 1 John 3:8, he came to destroy the works of the devil because The devil's work is to destroy the work of Christ and destroy the people of God.

But he came to destroy all that.

But the Bible is very clear that everything about hell and everything about the destruction of hell is open to the eyes of God.

He sees everything.

Even the hearts of many.

In other words, he sees everything nobody else can see.

Because that's the way God is.

In fact, it says earlier in verse number 3 of chapter 15: the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good.

In other words, he sees everything in every place.

There's nothing secret from the Lord.

That's important.

And so.

When we read that, we know from that verse in Proverbs 15 and many other verses that God knows exactly what's happening in your heart, even at this very moment.

Because he sees what's there.

And with all the evil in your heart.

With all the sin and iniquity that's there, and all the deceitfulness that's there, God still says, Give me.

Your heart.

Proverbs 23:2, my son, give me your heart.

And let your eyes delight in my ways.

That amazes me.

That amidst all the sin in my heart, God still says, I want your heart.

Isn't it interesting to note that God never says, Give me your head?

Never says, give me your hands.

He never says, give me your eyes, give me your arms, give me your legs, give me your feet.

He never says that.

He says, give me your heart.

Give it to me.

Why?

Because your heart is a center of learning.

Your heart is the seed of understanding.

Your heart is everything.

Because within the heart flow all the issues of man, God says, Give me your heart.

In Proverbs 2, 26.

And in Proverbs 4, verse number 23, he says, Guard your heart, watch over your heart, for out of your heart flow all the issues of life.

Everything about life stems from the heart.

Everything you do in life comes from your heart.

Your feet only go where your heart wants to go.

Your eyes only look at what your heart wants to look at.

So God says, give me your heart.

Give it to me.

Once you give it to me, guard.

Your heart.

Watch over your heart.

Proverbs 4:2.

Keep it with all keeping.

Protect it.

Because out of it flow all the issues of life.

I would venture to say that that most people in the room have some kind of security system in their home or on their car.

Because we want to protect that which is valuable to us.

And so we had these security systems to protect our home.

From thieves, from someone breaking in, stealing something that's our possession.

And yet, We spend very little time guarding the most precious possession we have, which is our heart.

And God says, guard your heart.

Protect your heart.

Watch over your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.

H are you guarding your heart?

How is your he on this day?

The Lord said.

To the religious leaders of Israel, book of Matthew, 15th chapter, he said this: as the prophet Isaiah had spoken.

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

That's most religious people today.

In our churches across America.

They honor God with their lips.

They have all the external.

Trappings that make them look like they're Christians, but in the inside, their hearts are far from the Lord.

You see, it's not about what's going on on the outside, it about what's going on on the inside because the inside determines the outside.

And so we have to realize that there are a lot of people today who can talk religion.

Who can talk Christianity, who can talk about God, who can even pray with you to God with their lips, but their hearts.

Are far from the Lord.

How's your heart?

How do you know that your heart is far from the Lord?

How do you know that?

How do you know your heart is in tune with the Lord?

As your pastor, it's my job to help you understand the condition of your heart based on what the revelation of God's word says, right?

So that you can properly assess where I am in my walk with the Lord.

In fact, if you've got your Bible, turn to Proverbs chapter 4 with me, if you would, for a moment.

Proverbs chapter 4, verse number 23, where Solomon said, Watch over your heart with All diligence.

Oh, that's very good, isn't it?

Well, what is man's most precious possession?

Proverbs 12:2, man's most precious possession is his diligence.

And so Solomon says, watch your heart, guard your heart, keep it with all keeping.

You do that with all diligence.

In other words, there is a supreme effort put into guarding, protecting, watching over my heart.

Very important.

And how do you know you're doing that?

Earlier it says in verse number 20: My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings, do not let them depart from you.

Sight, keep them in the midst of your heart.

Why?

Because the word of God.

Is that which cleanses the heart, the word of God is that which protects the heart, and if you're not giving attention to the word, if you're not inclining your ear to the word of God, if you are letting them depart from your sight and not keeping them.

In the midst of your heart, then you're not guarding your heart.

You see, David would say in Psalm 119, Thy word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

The Bible also says in Colossians 3:16 that we are to let the word of Christ be at home in our hearts.

Let it dwell in us richly, right?

Let it be a settled conc element of our hearts.

Let it be at home in your hearts.

The Bible also says in John 17, sanctify them in truth, for your word, O Lord, is tr.

And so Solomon says, inc your ears to my saying.

Keep your word.

In your heart, or my word, in your heart.

Why?

For they are life to those who find them in health to all their body.

You need this for your life.

So he says, Watch over your heart.

Keep it with all keeping, with all diligence.

Proverbs chapter 4 verse number 23 for from it flow the springs of life says this look at this put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you.

Let your eyes look directly ahead.

Let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established.

Do not turn to the right nor to the left.

Turn your foot from evil.

In other words, stop.

M it very clear that if God has your heart, He has your eyes.

If God has your heart, He has your lips.

God has your heart.

He has your feet.

God has your heart, he has everything.

God never asks for your money because he knows that if he has your heart, he has your money.

If he doesn't have your heart, he'll never get your money.

He knows that.

Son, give me your heart.

Once you give me your heart, guard your heart.

If you don't guard your heart, your lips, your lips.

Will be wicked.

They'll be deceitful.

They'll be devious.

Your eyes will wonder.

And your feet, your feet will walk toward evil.

But give me your heart.

Watch over your heart.

With all diligence.

Remember what the Lord said in the book of Matthew, 12th chapter, verse number 34?

These words.

Verse 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

You brood of vipers, how can you be in evil speak what is good?

For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

The mouth speaks out of what fills the heart.

In other words, your convers is the clearest indicator of your heart's condition.

Because your lips speak out of that which fills the heart.

Because out of your heart flow all the issues of life.

And that's why Solomon would move immediately to the lips, immediately to your conversation.

Because he knows that if your conversation is devious and deceitful, you haven't watched over your heart and protected your heart.

Because out of it flow all the issues of life.

And so he says, put away those things from you.

Let your eyes look directly ahead.

Let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Your eyes.

What do they see?

Because what they look at determines the condition of your heart.

That's why the Lord said, You have heard that it was said by the ancients of old.

That you shall not commit adultery.

And you can imagine the religious leaders in those days saying, Amen, Jesus, preach it.

Praise him.

Preach it.

Yes, you have heard that it was said by the ancients of old: do not commit adultery.

You got that right.

And Jesus then said, But I say unto you that he who looks upon a woman and lusts after her, Has already committed adultery in his heart.

It's not the lustful looking.

That causes a man to commit adultery in his heart.

Ah, it's the adulterous heart that causes the lustful looking.

So the Lord reversed it on them.

It's not about what you look at, it's about your heart that directs your eyes to look in a certain direction.

He dealt with the heart of a man.

That's why he said to those same religious people: they honor me with their lips, but their heart is so far from me.

They have all the outward trappings.

They say all the right things.

And, you know, we go to a church, and we go to church across our country with a lot of people who say all the right things, right?

But so many times our hearts are so far from the Lord.

How do you know their hearts are far from the Lord?

Listen to their conversation.

What do they speak about?

What do their eyes gaze up?

And then he says about their feet, where they walk.

Read Proverbs chapter 5, read Proverbs chapter 6, read Proverbs chapter 7.

It goes on and on about the Word of God, the power of the Word of God To keep your foot from From the evil, adulterous woman, keep you from walking the wrong way.

You see, we walk in the direction of our heart, we walk in the direction of our heart.

How is your heart?

You see, God says, Give me your heart.

He doesn't say, I want to have a portion of your heart.

Just give me a portion.

Give me a third of your heart.

Give me half your heart.

Give me three quarters of your heart.

No, he says, give me your heart.

God wants your heart.

What woman in her right mind would stand up here on her wedding day and say, and listen to her would-be husband say to you, I pledge to you half of my heart.

I will give you half because the other half is devoted to my work.

So I'm going to give you half of my heart.

Or I say, I will give you three-quarters of my heart, dear, but a quarter of my heart is still with the woman I dated three years ago.

No woman in a right mind would marry that man, right?

Because she wants all of his heart.

She doesn't want to marry somebody who has a divided heart.

Who is partially given to her and partially given to some other person or some other object, right?

No woman wants a half-hearted man.

Right?

No man wants a half-hearted woman.

As a husband, I want my wife's heart.

My wife wants all of my heart.

She should have it.

In the spiritual realm, God says, Give me your heart.

Let me ask you a question: How is your heart?

Where is your Heart.

Does God have all of your heart?

Remember Jehu?

Jehu reigned for 28 years in the nation of Israel.

He's the king of Israel.

He was anoint king over Israel.

He was the one who would slay Ahab, Jezebel.

Listen to what it says in the book of 2 Kings chapter 10 about Jehu.

Verse 28, thus Jehu er Baal out of Israel.

Wow, that's so good because when Elijah came on the scene, the nation was full bore into Baal worship.

And God would use King Jehu to eradicate Baal worship in Israel.

Then listen to this, verse 31, 2 Kings chapter 10.

But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his Heart with all his heart, he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

Wow.

You can do a lot of things externally, but if God doesn't have your heart internally, What you have done might make a difference to some people's lives, but God wants the inner part of a man.

He wants all of your he.

All of it.

Best illustration of that: Caleb, Joshua chapter 14.

In Joshua chapter 14, he went to Joshua.

And he said, Joshua, I have who followed. the Lord.

My whole heart has been His.

And now I want the land that was promised me 40 years ago.

By God Himself.

And some would, Well, that seems a little narcissistic that Caleb would go and say, I have fully followed the Lord.

My whole heart sins.

No, no, because God said.

God said in Numbers 14 that Caleb had a different heart, like Joshua had a different heart, than the other ten spies in the nation of Israel itself.

He had a heart devoted to me, wholly following me.

He had a heart that was fully devoted to me.

Moses said to Joshua that Caleb had a heart fully that followed the Lord.

So Caleb was echoing what the Lord God of Israel had already said and echoing what Moses, the greatest leader in Israel's history, ever said about him by saying, I have fully followed the Lord.

Now I want to obtain my land that God promised me 40 years ago.

In other words, After going into the promised land and coming back with a great report with Joshua and then Israel's rebellion against them, right?

And the Lord God of Israel him, which caused them to wander and die in the wilderness, that caused them to have a hard heart of unbelief, as Hebrews 3 has already stated.

And they died in the wilderness because of their unbelief, verse 19 of Hebrews chapter 3.

For 40 years, Caleb remained faithful.

Caleb remained wholly committed to his God.

Caleb was fully devoted to his God.

Amidst all of that disappointment, he remained 100% committed to his God with all of his heart.

You know what land he wanted?

Joshua 14 tells us Hebron.

You know why he wanted Hebron?

Very important.

Not just the He, but Hebron.

Because Hebron was where Abraham received the promise about the land.

And Hebron was a place where Abraham communed with the Lord God face to face.

And so Hebron became symbolic of intimacy with God.

And Caleb says, I want the place that signifies intimacy with my God because my heart is fully his.

Interesting.

Intimacy, int always breeds victory.

Because Caleb was the only one who was able to drive out everybody from the land.

Nobody else did, but Caleb did, because intimacy breeds victory.

And if you read on in the book of Joshua, you begin to see where only Caleb Was the man who was able to drive up out the Canaanites fully from his portion of the land because he was the one who fully followed the Lord God of Israel.

I ask you this question.

How is your he?

What have you fully accomplished for the Lord?

How intimate are you with the Lord?

How victorious are you with the Lord?

Jehu did a lot of good things for the Lord.

He eradicated Baal worship in the land of Israel, but he did not follow the Lord with all of his heart.

That's why the great Shemal, here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God God, with all of your heart, God wants everything.

My son, give me your he.

Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow all the issues of life.

How is?

Your heart.

Have you ever wondered what it is about people?

Who comes to a church that preaches the word, teaches the word, and yet their hearts are far from the Lord.

Or their hearts are hardened against the Lord.

Have you ever wondered why that is?

Well, the book of Ezekiel gives us a pretty good hint.

Got your Bible, Ezekiel chapter 33.

Ezekiel chapter 33.

Ezekiel, great prophet of God.

He was God's watchman for Israel.

We talked about that last week.

And listen to what Ezekiel thirty-three says.

In verse number thirty, we'll start there.

But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens, who talk about you by the walls, in the doorways of their houses, speak to one another.

Each to his brother, saying, Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.

God says, Ezekiel, this is what people are saying about you.

They're speaking to one another at the walls.

They're speaking to one another in their homes.

They're saying, Come, let's hear what the message of the Lord is.

And they come to you as people come, verse 31, and sit before you as my people, and hear your words.

I mean, in modern-day vern, they say, come to my church.

Hear my preacher, and they come and they sit and they hear your words, but they do not Do them.

But why would they not do them?

If they heard from the Lord and they know it's a message from the Lord, and Ezekiel is a prophet of the Lord, why is it when they hear, they do not do them?

For they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain.

Why don't they listen?

It's because their heart is covetous.

Their heart has another idol.

Their heart, in their mind, has a greater God.

It's their own welfare.

It's their own protection.

It's their own comfort.

It's whatever brings them gain.

Oh, they'll come.

They'll even bring friends with them.

Come and hear our preacher.

He's so good.

We love the way he says it.

And you come and you listen with me.

And they'll say, oh, yeah, man, we love what he had to say.

But they don't do what the message of the Lord says.

And the reason they don't is because they follow the lustful desires expressed by their mouth.

And that which is expressed by their mouth comes from the inside of their heart.

That 's why Jesus said in Mark 7 these words: that which proceeds out of the man.

That is what defiles the man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things proceed from within Within, and they defile the man.

Everything comes from inside of a man, a depraved, wretched heart.

These people, these Jewish people, Ezekiel 33, oh, they like the way Ezekiel speaks.

They like how he speaks.

They even sort of like the message of the Lord.

But they don't want to do what it says.

And that's because they have a he committ to their own personal gain.

They are idolaters.

Behold, verse 32: you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument.

You are such a great speaker, Ezekiel.

They tell people.

Our preacher is like listening to the greatest of all songs.

For they hear your words, but they do not practice them.

So when it comes to pass, as surely it will, then they will know that a prophet has been in there.

Midst.

Oh, it's going to happen.

Captivity is going to come.

It's going to happen just exactly as I said.

And although they don't listen, one day they will realize that what I said was true.

See, that's why so many religious people come and honor God with their lips, but their hearts are so far from them.

It's because they have another God that they serve that means more to them than the true God.

They have not truly committed themselves to the living God.

They have an evil heart, as Hebrews 3 says, of unbelief.

They always go astray in their hearts, as the writer of Hebrews said we talked about last week, and they do not know my ways.

Simply because they have an evil heart of unbelief.

Amidst overwhelming evidence that proved that God was among them, they denied the presence of God in their lives.

So I ask you, how is your heart?

Where is Your heart.

Give me your heart, God says.

Give me your heart.

Guard your heart.

For out of it flow all the issues of life.

Have you given your heart to the Lord?

Are you guarding your heart with all diligence?

Because out of it flows all the issues of life?

Give me your heart.

Let your eyes delight in my ways.

Sol will say earlier in Proverbs 2, verse number 7: as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

You know, God does many things.

In your heart.

Did you know that?

Great study.

Great study.

First Chronicles 29:1 says this: David is speaking, he can't build the temple.

Solomon's son is going to build the temple, but he wants to give.

So it says, says I know, O my God, that you try me, you try, exam, test the heart.

God tests every heart.

God tries every heart.

God examines your heart.

God, at this very moment, is examining your heart.

Did you know that?

Your heart is being tested and tried right now.

And David admits that he knows that God examines his heart.

So he says, and you delight in uprightness.

I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things.

So now with joy I have seen your people who are present here.

Make their offerings willingly to you.

In other words, David was making an offering above and beyond what he would normally give to the Lord, and abundantly he would give it.

He says, Lord, because you know these, know the heart, because you examine the heart, you know that in the integrity.

Of my heart, I have willingly given to you.

See, God knows your heart.

When you gave today part of our worship, God examined your heart.

He knows whether or not you gave willingly or grudgingly.

He just knows.

Because God examines the heart.

He tests the heart.

He tries the heart.

Jeremiah 12, verse number 3 says these words.

But you know me, O Lord.

You see me and you examine my heart's attitude toward you.

That's just so good.

You examine my attitude.

Not just my heart, but my heart's attitude.

So he knows your heart's attitude.

He knows whether or not your wife dragged you to church today and you came grudgingly to church.

He knows that if you're a child, you're sitting here and your parents made you come to church, he knows your attitude.

He knows that.

As a preacher, that's just so freeing because I don't have to know your heart, I don't even have to know your attitude.

God knows everything.

That frees me up from any responsibility of knowing what's in your heart.

Because God knows everything.

See?

He not only knows your heart, he knows the attitude in your heart.

Because out of your heart comes your attitude.

Out of your heart comes what you see.

Out of your heart comes where you walk and what You do, and where you go.

God examines the heart.

And God is examining your heart as we speak through the power of His Word and the ministry of His Spirit in your life.

Knowing does God examine it, he knows what's in it.

Psalm 44.

Verse number 21.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange God, would not God find this out?

Would not God know?

For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Wow!

He knows not just your heart, He knows the secrets within the heart.

If we would set our mind on another God, if we would worship another God, wouldn't God find out about it?

Of course he would.

Why would he find out?

How would he know?

Because he knows the secret in the heart.

He knows the inner recesses of the heart.

You can't fool God.

You can fool me.

Yeah, you can fool me.

You can fool everybody in the room.

You fool your wife and your kids.

You cannot fool God.

He knows your Heart.

And even though your heart's deceitful and desperately wicked, you can know by divine revelation.

What God knows about your heart because He examines it, He knows it.

In fact, it says God even searches the heart.

1 Chronicles chapter 28.

Go back there if you would just for a minute.

1 Chronicles 28, verse number 9.

As for you, my son Solomon, David speaking to his son, know the God of your father, serve him with a whole heart.

Don't serve him partially.

Don't serve him half-heartedly.

Serve him fully.

Totally.

How do you know you're doing that?

With a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent.

Of the thought.

He searches your heart, Solomon.

Don 't think for one moment you can fool God.

You can 't.

Oh, you can fool the nation of Israel, but you can't fool the living God because he searches the heart and he knows the mind and he understands.

Every intent of the thoughts in your heart.

That's mind-boggling.

God knows that.

So God, He'll examine the heart.

God, yes, He'll even search the heart.

God will know the heart.

God understands the thoughts of your heart.

God even influences the heart and directs the heart.

Did you know that?

Remember what Ezra said, Book of Ezra, 6th chapter, 21st verse?

The sons of Israel who returned from exile and those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations and of the land to join them to serve The Lord God of Israel ate the Passover.

And they observed the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy.

For the Lord had caused them to rejoice and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house.

House of the God, the God of Israel.

God turned the heart of the king of Assyria.

God does that.

God's in control of every king's he.

He 's in control of our president's heart.

He can turn it wherever he wants to turn it because he is the director of man's hearts.

He turned the king of Assyria's heart to let Israel go back and build the walls around Jerusalem.

God knows the heart, God searches the heart, God examines the heart, God understands the thoughts and secrets of your heart.

God influences the heart.

The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.

It's like channels of water.

He moves it wherever he wants to go.

That's what God does.

So let me ask you a question: How is your heart?

If we had time, we would go on and tell you that God creates a clean heart.

Psalm 51.

David says, Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.

Right?

God creates clean hearts.

God prepares the heart.

1 Chronicles 29, 18.

Oh, that's a great verse.

Let me read that to you.

1 Chronicles 29, verse number 18.

We had verse 17 earlier.

O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart of your people and direct their heart to you.

You.

Wow.

Lord, you know the intentions of the heart of Israel.

Direct their hearts toward you.

Prepare their hearts for you.

God prepares the heart.

God does that.

God opens the heart.

Remember Lydia in Acts 16, 14, that when she heard the word of the Lord, God opened her heart.

God opens people's hearts.

God prepares people's hearts because God examines people's hearts.

God knows people's hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:8, God enlightens the heart.

Psalm 27:14, 2 Chronicles 16:9, God strengthens the heart.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:1, God establishes the heart.

God solidifies the heart.

God does everything to you.

Your heart.

On top of that, God even hardens the heart.

Did you know that?

God examines it, God searches it, God knows it, God enlightens it, God opens it, God influences it, God directs it, God's in charge of it, everything.

And yet we know that God even hardens the heart.

He prophesied through Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart.

Because once a Pharaoh hardened his heart toward the Lord, God confirmed him in a state of unbelief and hardened his heart to make it impossible for him to ever repent of his sins.

So let me ask you a question.

How's your heart?

Is it hardened toward the things of God?

Or is it soft and tended to the things of God?

How is your heart?

Have you given it to the Lord?

Are you protecting it, guarding it, watching over it every single day?

Because it's so valuable to the Lord?

You want to protect what's his because you gave it to him?

Do you know that everybody in the room was born with a hard heart?

Did you know that?

Ezekiel chapter thirty-s says this Speaking of the new covenant, the Lord God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Moreover, I will give you a new covenant.

Heart.

God gives new hearts.

And put a new spirit within you, and I will remove from you the heart of stone.

The hard heart, the heart of stone, from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes if you have a new heart.

You will walk in the statutes of God.

Because God has put a new spirit within you to cause you to walk in his statutes.

Israel was not willing to do that.

Because their hearts were hardened to God.

Now, listen, everybody's born with a stony, hard heart.

Stony hearts don't produce fruit.

You ever try to grow wheat on rock?

Have you?

Ever try to go flowers on top of stone?

Ever try to grow corn in a rock bed?

Doesn happen.

No fruit.

Can't grow peaches on rocks because they're hard.

They don't allow there to be any growth.

Can't be.

They're barren.

And yet, God says, book of Jeremiah, 23rd verse, 29th chapter, is not my word like A hammer that shatter the ro.

Is it not?

Sure, it is.

That's why we preach the word.

Because I can't shatter your hard heart.

But God can.

His word is like a hammer that shatters.

The rock.

And so as we preach the Word of God, it's almost like when you come to church, you're coming to a quarry.

We're bringing out the hammer.

And we're just pounding on your hearts.

Boom, boom boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, with the Word of God.

To break up all that crust, co, h portion of your heart.

That it might be supple and soft and tender to the things of God.

How is your he?

How is it that a heart can remain hard and grow cold and colder to the things of God?

How about this?

Can a believer have a hard heart?

And if so, what's the difference between a believer hardening his heart, as the disciples did?

Mark 6, Mark 8, and the unbeliever hardening his heart to the things of God.

Is there a difference?

You bet.

There is a difference.

But you got to know what the Bible says, right?

Because although no man knows his heart, it's deceitful, desperately wicked, God knows your heart.

And God reveals everything you need to know about the condition of your heart.

Have you given your heart to the Lord?

If you've given it to Him, have you given it to Him fully?

Are you like Jehu, who does a lot of good things for the Lord, but did not give your heart fully to the Lord?

We like Caleb, who wholly followed the Lord, even amidst disappointment, never wavered in his commitment to the Lord until he was able to attain the land that expressed the intimacy of his heart.

That allowed him to gain victory over all of his obstacles.

How is your heart?

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for today, your word, a chance to be in it.

You are so good to us.

Our prayer, Father, is that your word would be like a hammer.

And break up the hard heart.

If someone is here today and their heart has been hardened, we pray that your word would shatter that rock.

Cause them to be sensitive to the things of God.

We pray, Lord, for everybody in the room.

Somehow, their hearts would be fully committed to the Lord, totally invested in the truth of your word.

That Lord, they would have given their heart to you.

Having given it to you, they would guard it diligently.

Protect it.

Aggressively, because it's yours.

They gave it to you.

Now they want to protect what is yours because you are so precious to them.

Thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.