What's In Your Heart?

If you were this morning following your bulletins and along in your scriptures if you have them, Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

We'll be reading the whole chapter this morning in your hearing.

Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 8, and reads as follows: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

And he humbled you, and he let you hunger and fed you with manner which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Your clothing did not wear out on your foot, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks, the land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and the hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, and a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, and in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper, and you shall eat and be full, and and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Take care, lest you forget your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statues which I command you today.

Lest when you have eaten and are full and have have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart is lifted up.

And you forget that the Lord your God, you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents, scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who who fed you in the wilderness with manner that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to know to do you good in the end.

Beware, lest you say in your heart, My power and my might have made it, my hand have gotten me this wealth.

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant with you and he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

And then and if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

Like the nations the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

The reading of God's word for the people of God.

Let us let us pray this morning.

Father, we're we're grateful and that we can come to a place and we can hear and your praises being sung, we can hear your word being read, we can be fed by your word.

We pray this morning, Lord, that you would feed us.

Bread of heaven.

Would you feed us till we till we want no more?

Father, I pray for your help this morning, for clarity, for your mercy, that you would you would speak through me and empower me, Lord, to proclaim your word this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray with thanksgiving.

Amen.

I've uh been a Christian for over 40 years.

I was raised in the church, went to Sunday school, Bible study on Wednesday nights when I didn't want to go.

My mom's here this morning when she made us go.

In summertime would be the everybody would be out there in the summertime, and she'd be traping us along in the car to go to Bible study on Wednesday night.

Didn't want to go, but I went.

I was exposed to good expository preaching.

I went to youth groups.

I I went to Bible college.

I've I've heard all kinds of good preaching, read good books, pastor to church.

But but to be honest with you, it's been this these last couple of years, these last two years, that that I've come to, and I've begun to understand that, and this might sound I might I'm a little slow in my Christian walk, but but I've begun to understand, I'm beginning to understand that God is more concerned about what's going on in my heart than he is about what's going on in my actions and my behavior.

Now don't get me wrong.

Don't don't misunderstand me that God is, I'm not saying that God is not concerned about how I live, but but oftentimes as Christians and as a Christian, I've been more concerned about the outward appearances in my walk.

I've been more concerned about how I look and making sure I'm doing the right things as a Christian, and I'm I'm praying the right prayers and I'm coming to the right service.

That that has been my concern, and that's where a lot of my energy has been all my life as a Christian, and and and not so much concerned about what's going on and brewing inside.

We can all do that.

We can all be guilty of that.

That's that's an it's an easy thing to do, to be concerned with the external appearances, and not so much concerned about what's really going on in our hearts.

Our text this morning helps us to understand that a little bit this morning in Deuteronomy because God is dealing with his people and he tells about the narrative about him taking them from Egypt all the way to the to the promised land, and he and he says, I want he gives them some reasons why he did what he did.

And and one of the reasons why he did what he did is that he wanted to discover for them what was going on in their hearts.

Notice if you would look at verse 2 of Deuteronomy chapter 8, he says, and and and and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you by testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandment or not.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

Verse 13 to 14 is the same chapter.

And when your herds and your flocks multiplied, and and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up.

He's talking about the heart, and you forget that the Lord your God has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Verse 17, he he reinities the same thing.

Bear with beware lest you say in your heart, God's concerned about what's going on in our hearts.

He says, I brought you this way so that I might show you what was happening in your heart.

The scriptures tell us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?

It tells us that.

It tells us that our hearts, if we're if we're left to ourselves, our hearts will will trick you, it will bamboozle you, it will fool you.

That's why it's interesting.

A lot of times when people are talking, they say, Well, I just I just gotta get away and look in me, and I've got to find myself.

If I go find myself in here, I'm gonna lie to me every time.

I'm never going to tell the truth about what's really in here.

I will deceive myself, I will make excuses for myself, I will explain myself away, but I will never come to grips left to myself with what's really going on in my heart.

And God says, I am the one who searches the hearts and and who brings revelation to that.

But but it's not just said here, if you just listen to these verses that talk about the heart.

Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16.

Deuteronomy 10:16

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.

God's speaking to the children of Israel, and and they were so proud of their circumcision.

They were circumcised, but but God says, I could care less about that.

I'd rather your hearts be set apart for me.

I'd rather your heart be in line with me.

The outward expression has nothing to do, and it really can't determine what's going on on the inside.

And so he's talking about the heart.

If you look in Psalms chapter 51, verses 16 to 17, he says, For you will not delight in sacrifices or give, or I would give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

Psalms 51:16–17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

Oh God, you will not despise.

David said, after he had sinned, he said, If God, if you were, if you were looking for sacrifices, I'd I'd burn everything I got.

But that's not what you're looking for.

He's looking for a contrite, a broken heart.

Matthew 15, verses 7 through 9.

Matthew 15:7–9

You you hypocrites, Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honest me with their lips, but their hearts is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching me, teaching as doctors of men, uh doctrines the commandments of men.

They they were, they looked good on the outside, they dressed well, they they preached well, they gave well, everything was looking good on the outside, but God said, Jesus said, You're a mess inside.

And and and God on this wilderness journey, what he was concerned about, he was going to take these folks to the promised land.

The destination was already secured.

They were going to the land, but he said, I gotta do hard work, I gotta, I gotta fix the mess that's in there.

And and that's part of the process of what he was doing.

So I want us this morning, if we could, just briefly walk through this text and see God's dealing with Israel to see how He He brought about and how He brings about, even with us, changes in our hearts, how He transforms our hearts and brings our hearts in lines so that when I give, when I pray, when I preach, when I sing, that what's coming out of my mouth is really what's brewing and what's dealing in my heart.

They line up together.

Now, the first thing we need to understand and see here as we look at this text here in Deuteronomy chapter 8 is that God is the one leading on this journey.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

The places that you and I go, the things that you do, where you've been, God's leading.

That's what he says here in verse 2.

He says, and you should remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.

God's this journey that they were on to help them discover what was on their heart and what was in their heart.

God was orchestrating where they went.

God was orchestrating what they were experiencing.

God was fixing and he was arranging things so that the things they experienced might reveal what was going on in here.

He says, I'm the one that's leading this show.

I'm the one that's directing you.

I'm the one that's that's guiding you that you might know what's in your heart.

Verse 7 of this chapter says, For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land.

Verses 18 to 14.

And do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness.

God is orchestrating the revelation, as it were, or the discovery of what's going on in our hearts by leading us and taking us different places.

Sometimes he helps reveal what's in our heart by you getting that note or that call from the doctor.

I need you to come in.

Sometimes you you get that that that direction, and God is working to reveal what is in our hearts when when you get that knock on the door in the middle of the night that your child is in the police station and you need to come and get him.

God has a way of showing us what's really in our hearts.

God has a way of pressing us and moving us.

And understand God's God's orchestrating that, God's directing that.

Sometimes God, sometimes God shows you what's in your heart when you get married.

Now, you young folks, you folks that are getting ready to get married, you think what's in your heart is all that love.

And it is good, it's there, but you're gonna see a whole lot of other stuff in there too.

You're gonna see a whole lot of stuff that you didn't know was there.

You're gonna see a whole lot of selfishness and attitude and self-righteousness, and he uses sometimes marriage to show us what's really in our hearts.

That's what God does.

He's concerned about the hearts.

See, it's not just so much concern about us coming to church, that's all good, but but we can come to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and and never deal with what's really going on in our hearts.

And so we need to understand that as God is is shepherding you and I, as God is moving in our lives, there are no mistakes, there are no no no mishaps.

God is not looking at the map and and going on his phone and looking at Google Maps and trying to figure out, I didn't mean to go this way.

Oh, he knows exactly where he's shepherding us, he knows exactly what he's exposing us to, he knows exactly what he's doing so that he might bring out to us what's really going on inside of us.

Because God is not content to leave us where we are.

He really isn't.

He loves us too much, he loves you too much to leave you and to leave me in the in our in our Christian walk where we are.

He wants to grow us and he wants to conform us and he wants to build us up so that we are reflecting the glory of Christ in our lives.

And and that takes dealing with what's going on on the inside.

So we need to understand that that God is there and He's orchestrating our lives, and He's working in your life, and and He's moving in your life, and and you might be going through something right now, it may be with your family, or with your child, or with your health, or with your finances, and you might be saying, Where's God?

And God says, I am shepherding you, and I have been shepherding you these many years.

I'm here.

But I got work I want to do.

Please understand that as he's shepherding us, one of the things we need to realize is that that the destination is already set.

He already told them that they were going to go to the promised land.

So, so so so the destination is already set.

Your destination, your your future is already taken care of.

That's not the issue.

But what is the issue is how God's gonna get us there.

And that he does not tell us.

There'll be twists and there'll be turns and there'll be ups and there'll be downs, and and and we'll be thinking, where's God?

God says, All right here, everything's all good, everything's good.

Calm down, everything's good.

You're gonna get to glory.

Now in the Him was able to keep you from falling to present you faultless before his presence with exceeding joy.

You're going to get there.

That's not the issue.

I ain't worried about that.

I got that taken care of.

What I'm working on here is that process of transforming you.

And so there will be turns and there will be ups and there will be downs and there will be valleys and there will be wildernesses in all of our lives.

Because God wants to show us what is in our hearts.

And he wants to do that because he has a goal.

He says he wants to humble us.

Notice what he says in verses two through six.

And you should remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you.

He might humble you.

He might cause us and work on us and shape our lives so that we're no longer dependent on ourselves.

We're no longer dependent on our abilities and on our skills.

We're no longer dependent on who we know and what we have and all the various things.

God, God led them that way so that He might humble them.

God leads us.

And He, you know, one of the most humbling things is when you can't fix your kids.

That's humbling.

That's humbling when you don't have the answers to get them to act right.

Oh, you can work with them now.

Now they're okay.

When they're young, they're fine.

Just wait till they get to be teenagers and adults.

And you ain't got no control over that.

And all you can do is get on your knees and pray.

And call out to your friends and your loved ones and say, What you pray?

Humble you.

He humbles us.

He humbles you when the doctor calls you and there's that cancer and and you don't have any control over that.

He humbles you when there's that boss that just won't cut you any slack.

You can't do anything about it.

And they just keep working you over.

And all you can do is pray, God, help! Humbles us.

He says, I I brought you this way that I might humble you.

So God is concerned about humbling us and breaking us and bringing us to where we want He wants us to be.

But He's also concerned, He wants us to know that I'm doing this not because I'm angry at you.

And not because I don't like you.

I got or I got it out for you.

But notice what He says here.

He says, further on, know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son.

Oh beloved, the reason why, the reason why the Christian can face hard work, the reason why the Christian can can look at those difficult things that God is working and doing in our lives, the reason why you can do it is because you're a son.

That's why you can do it.

Because all that God is doing, he does it because he loves us.

And all that God is doing, he does because he wants the best for us.

And all the changes that God takes and moves and brings in our lives, he does and he moves and he brings because he loves you.

It's not because he's out to get you.

He's on your side.

He's on my side.

He wants the best for us.

And so he takes us through these changes and he works our lives so that he might show us what is in our hearts, so that we might repent and we might depend on him because he loves me.

See, if God wouldn't mess with you, if God didn't bother with you, you're not his.

That's what it says in Hebrews.

He says, look, if you're not a son, then you're a bastard.

You're illegitimate.

You're not his child.

But because he does do that, we know that we are his sons and his daughters.

You know why else, you know why else heart work is is is okay and Christians can do heart work?

It's because, and we learned this in sonship.

This is my second time with sonship.

I'm just I'm just beginning to get it now.

That's why Pastor Tom says keep doing it over and over again, because it takes a while to get it through.

If I am accepted in the beloved, if he watches over me and sings over me and and he loves me, and and and if I am loved by him, if if if God loves me just like he loves Jesus, if that's all set, that's taken care of, that I there's nothing I can do to make him love me more or make him love me less, if that's secure, then beloved, I I can look at the mess that God is revealing in my heart.

I can look at the pettiness, I can look at the jealousy, I can look at the insecurity, I can look at the anger, I can look at the the greed, I can look at the pride, I can look at all those things that that may be lingering in my heart, and I can say, God help me.

And as he says in Hebrews, you can you can come boldly to the throne of judgment.

I ain't what it says.

He says, to the throne of grace that you may find mercy and you may find help in the time of need.

You see, doing hard work and being exposed by God and by his word would be unbearable if I didn't have a safe place, and if it wasn't done by someone who loved me.

And here the scripture tells us here, God lets them know.

He says, Know then in your heart that that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord God disciplines you, so you shall keep his commandments.

That's that's why he's doing it.

He's doing it because you're his child.

He's doing it because he loves you, he's doing it because he wants the best for us.

So he he works us.

He walks us through these various places in these wilderness, leading us and guiding us all the way.

All the way my Savior leads me.

He is the good shepherd who has shepherding us through the highs and the low.

He's shepherded us, he's there with us, his rod and the staff.

He comforts us, but he's going to grow us, he's going to mature us, he's going to change you and I into the image of Christ.

He accomplishes this through trials.

We've mentioned that before.

You see, he took them through the wilderness.

He didn't take them to a party.

He took them through the wilderness.

He took them where there was no water.

And you know how we get when we're thirsty.

You all know how you get.

Just get out there on a hot summer day and let somebody give you a warm glass of water when you're really thirsty.

But he did it for a purpose.

He took them where there was no food.

He took them places to test them.

I want to see how you're going to act.

I want to see how you're going to react.

I want to see what's going to happen if I don't, if I don't do this for you.

I'm going to see what's going to happen and how you're going to respond if I don't if I don't provide that for you right now.

I'm going to see.

I want to see what's in your heart.

So he uses trials to do that.

That's just the way God works.

I wish he would do it some other way.

There's oftentimes I looked at Hebrews chapter 1, and you know, it says kind of all joy when you run into various trials and temptations.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

I'm like, well, God, I mean, you're all wise.

Couldn't you figure that out another way?

I mean, do we have to do trials?

Do we have to do testings and tribulations?

I mean, couldn't there be a better way to get this done?

And yet he uses that in our lives.

Because that's how he does it.

But then he also shows us what's in our hearts through prosperity.

Because you notice later on in that passage, when he talks about, talks to the children, he talks to them.

He says to them, look, he says, when you get into the land, and he says, When you take care of verse 11, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes and which I command you, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up.

See, prosperity can do a thing on us.

Prosperity can show you what's in your heart.

Because prosperity can make you forget God.

It can make you forget where it all came from, it can make you forget how you got where you got.

You look at all the things that you've done and all the things you've accomplished.

If you're not careful, you'll start thinking, well, I really worked.

And we have, but you'll you'll start thinking ultimately it's because of us.

Look how hard I work, looked at what I've done, look at how I positioned myself, look at the things that I have.

And you're lifted up with pride.

And he says, he says, Forget not and forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery, who led you through this great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents of scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the fliny rock, who fed you in the wilderness in manna.

And then verse 17, beware lest you say in your heart, My power and my might and my hand have gotten me this wealth.

He says, Be careful.

Oh, God, God can show you what's going on through trials, but he can also show you what's going on through blessings.

He can also show you what's really brewing in your heart by just prospering you and seeing just how are you going to respond from all this stuff that God gives you.

What are you gonna do with it?

How are you going to respond?

But beloved, God is in the business.

God wants to show us what is in our hearts.

He's gonna do that with us individually in various ways.

It's not gonna be the same road, all of us are gonna take.

We're all gonna take different roads, different things are gonna happen that God is gonna use to change and conform us and to reveal things in our hearts, but he's going to do it.

And he does it because he loves you.

But but also as we close, he does this corporately, possibly.

And I've been thinking about this as a church here at APC.

I'm I'm not just a guest, I'm a member.

I don't know, the last few times he's been introduced to me, y'all have been calling me uh, you know, a friend of APC.

I'm a member.

And while y'all forget, I'm a member, my positive member.

You did come here and preach when I was at the fountain of life, but I'm not there anymore.

This is home.

All right?

This is home for me.

This is home for our family.

This is home.

And I've been thinking about this journey that we're on as a church.

How is it maybe that God has brought all of us this way, that he might show us what is in our hearts when it comes to how we're going to look at our resources for this church that needs to be built?

I mean, again, again, if God is leading, none of us, whether you joined just this last week or you've been here forever, none of us are here by chance.

God has led you here at this time.

Could it be that God has brought all of us here at this time in this journey that He might say to all of us as a church corporately and as individuals within this church, but what's in your heart concerning your stuff?

How I have blessed you and how I have given to you.

And how do you, how, how do you really view that?

Maybe that this is a time that God would want to do that corporately for us as a body.

That we would do the hard work of searching our hearts and and resting in our hearts and wrestling with, okay, whose stuff is this really?

Because he says, I have led you and I lead you, that I might show you what is in your heart.

Beloved, we're not here by chance.

You didn't you didn't just roll up in here on and join APC and at this time because you wanted to.

God was directing, God was orchestrating, God was moving, and and you just happen to roll up in here.

Well, we need to build a new church.

And God might be saying to all of us, I got you here.

Because it's time to see what's in your heart corporately.

Beloved, God is concerned about our hearts.

He is concerned about us walking and living for him, not just on the outward, but but truly deep from within, that we do it because we love him.

Let us rejoice that he loves us enough to bring that to pass.

As I close, Psalms 139, verses 23 and 24, it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Psalms 139:23

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Father, would you do that for us this morning?

Would you give us eyes to see that you what it is you're doing, that you're working on our hearts, among other things, and many other things, but you're working to get our hearts in line with the truth of your word.

And Father, would you work on us corporately as a church?

That you would search our hearts and that you would try us and you would help us to see how we have positioned ourselves with our things.

And what may you bring righteousness and holiness and transformation into each of us in the various ways that you are revealing yourself and you are revealing our hearts this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray with thanksgiving.

Amen.