The Real You: keep Your Heart

In youth.

We just wrapped up our eight week series on the real you, on living an authentic life to God, and we taught them of who they are in Christ and what their benefits are.

And so the eighth week was last week, and so we taught on, or I did.

I taught on keeping our heart.

And then Luke eight.

And so, before I get started, let's pray, father, god, we just thank you, lord, for the word of God.

We thank you that the word is powerful, it is sharp.

I thank you that we are not only hearers of your word, but we are doers of your word, father.

I thank you for everybody listening that they will grab ahold to your word, father, because it's your word that produces life and it's your word that produces true change in our lives.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Everybody said amen.

So my first scripture if you want to turn in your Bible or leave, we'll put it up on the screen for you is Proverbs 4.23 out of the New King James.

It says keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life, and I wanted to read that in the Passion translation.

It says so above all.

So, above all means above everything else, at the top of the list.

The most important thing guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are.

Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.

So you know, we're the keeper of our heart, and sometimes, when we face things, I really believe that it's yes, we have an enemy, yes, there's a devil.

He comes to steal, kill and destroy, but a lot of times what we face is what we are allowing in our lives.

And so the word of God here in Proverbs 4.23 says above all else, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect who you are.

They don't just affect what you do, but they affect everything in life.

And so in Luke 8, if you turn to Luke 8 with me, jesus used and this is the parable of the sower, and he used soil as a reference to hey, that's our heart.

And so Luke 8, starting with verse 5, says a sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it.

Some fell on rock and as soon as it springed up it withered away because it had lacked moisture, and some fell among thorns and the thorns spring up with it and choked it.

But others fell on good ground, spring up and yielded a crop a hundred fold.

When he had said these things, he cried.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And then, if you skip down to verse 11, now the parable is this the seed is the word of God.

Those by the wayside are the ones who hear.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while and, in time of temptation, fall away.

Now, the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with the cares, the riches and the pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

But the ones that fell on good ground are those who, having heard the word, with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear much fruit with patience In that good.

And so here, basically, you can say Jesus said that there are four types of heart the wayside, the stony, the thorny and the good heart.

Let me say that again, there are four types of heart the wayside heart, the stony heart, the thorny heart and the good heart.

And so, every believer, when we said yes to Jesus, he gave us this new life.

But how many of y'all know that our intentions and our heart are automatically renewed?

I mean, we have to renew those in the word of God, and so our thoughts need to be aligned with what God is saying, with His word.

And that's a daily submission.

Daily.

Not my will, not my thoughts, not what I say, not my opinion about this.

But what do you say, god?

What are your thoughts about this?

What's your opinion about this?

I always say, when somebody asks me, you know when they're in quandary or they have a question, well, what does the word say?

You know not what I, and when, not what Selena thinks.

What does the word of God say?

And so that's where you're gonna find answers.

Hebrews 412 in the Passion Translation says for we have the living word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouth sword.

It will even penetrate to the very core of our being, where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet.

It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.

So the word of God is what reveals your true motives and your true, those secret things in there.

The word of God, as you read the word, as you study the word, it reveals things to you like, yeah, you know what I need to change, that I need to change the way I'm talking, I need to change what I'm thinking about, I need to change what I'm looking at.

And so the word of God, as you dig into the word of God, it reveals those things.

Okay, so the four types of heart Number one, if you're taking notes, is the wayside heart.

So the wayside heart is anyone who hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it.

So Matthew 1319, and actually this story is in, I think it's three times in the Bible, but in another version it says like if you don't understand this parable, you're not even gonna understand all the other ones.

So it's a pretty important that we understand this parable.

So number one, the wayside heart, is anyone who hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it.

So then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart, and so the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.

I mean, it's amazing how we can sit in a service and hear the word of God and then we walk out into the parking lot and somebody says something and we get offended.

Well, that's the wayside heart.

So we heard the word and it was good, and it was preached, and maybe pastor talked about offense or forgiveness and we took communion.

But then, a couple hours later, what changed?

We are acting the same way before we came in and so we wanna make sure we're not.

Our heart isn't the wayside heart.

And also I wrote down in my notes when we hear the word, we must make a decision to believe it, whether we understand it or not.

Like, if it's in that word, I'm gonna believe it.

I might not get it yet and it might not make sense to me, but I'm gonna believe it.

Just say God, I believe your word above everybody else's word.

Whatever's in this word I'm take as the truth, amen.

So the first trick of the devil is to immediately attack the seed with doubt and unbelief.

So you have to quickly apply the word of God.

Whenever you hear the word about forgiveness, read a scripture about forgiving your brother, quickly apply it.

Don't just read it, but quickly do that.

You know what I see?

You have been harboring unforgiveness.

I'm gonna, quickly, I'm gonna forgive, just like you have forgiven me, I'm gonna forgive.

When you hear the word about tithes and offerings, I'm gonna, quickly, I'm gonna say, yes, lord, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna sow into your kingdom.

So we quickly believe the word.

When we hear it, we believe it and then we put it into practice.

And I wrote down we can't ignore areas that need change.

So we know the areas in our life and God will reveal them to us through His word.

There are areas that need change, and a lot of it's the super.

I would say this, the supernatural working with the natural.

Now, when I was in third grade, I broke this wrist right here Skates and I don't get along.

I knew to be like wrapped in a bubble you know that bubble that comes into those big Amazon packages.

And I was in third grade and I loved going to the skating rink every Friday with my friends and it was time to get off of the skating rink and I just fell and I broke my arm, but I didn't know it was broken.

Actually, I didn't go to the doctor till the day after I broke.

My parents were like, no, it's not broken.

I'm like, yeah, it hurts, and so I had to wear a cast.

And so what if I would have said you know what doctor, I don't want to wear a cast, no, I'm not gonna do what you say, no, I got this, no, I don't need a cast?

Well, that kind of would have been foolish, right, because maybe the bone wouldn't have healed up properly.

Doctors do know what they're doing most of the time, right, and so it's the natural.

It's like we know the word of God and he gives us His word.

But we also have to do things in the natural.

We also have to do our part and not be just oblivious to it.

It's the natural and the supernatural working together.

So, number one the wayside heart.

Number two is the stony heart.

So the stony heart is here's the word.

The person who hears the word received it with joy, yes, but only endures for a time, because he stumbles too easily at persecution, tribulation and temptation.

And so I use this example in youth, a lot of the kids.

We have summer camp that the teens look forward to going every summer, and it's kind of we hype it up and some of the kids, they all love it.

They all love going to summer camp and they look forward to it, but I always encourage them what do you do for the rest of the year?

364?

It's not just that.

One time at summer camp I'm gonna get delivered.

At summer camp, I'm gonna get set free At summer camp.

That's where I'm gonna.

Yes, we do learn more about Jesus, but no, it's what are you doing in your daily life?

And so we can't allow things of this world to come upon.

We have to be committed to the word, be committed to praying in the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

So we wanna make sure to have our roots grow deep.

You know, in a garden, if you have, I have an area where I have mint, if you know much about mint.

If you just plant it anywhere, it takes over the entire area.

So I have it, like in the little section, and there are rocks right by the mint and so no other plant is gonna spring up there.

It's like contained, and so the rocks push that down, and so that's the same way.

That's what Jesus is telling us.

So stony heart, you know it tramples the word.

We have to make sure that we don't have a stony heart, amen.

Okay, number three is a thorny heart.

Those who received when they heard they go out.

So they heard the word.

Right, all these heard the word and so they heard.

But then they go out into the world and they're choked with the cares of the riches, the pleasures of life, and so it brings no fruit to maturity.

So they had fruit, but it never matured.

You know, in our home we buy bananas and sometimes we have my freezers full of bananas because I'm like I buy the bananas and nobody eats the bananas.

I eat the bananas and we buy, put them in my oatmeal and then put them in my cereal, and then they go back quickly.

Now Allison likes the bananas that are almost they're like green and I'm like how are you eating that banana?

It's green, it's not.

She's like I don't like the way it tastes when it's like it has black spots on it and it does have a different taste, but there's fruit there and maybe you're a green banana, but God wants to mature.

You, you know we bear, god wants us to.

We should be people that are bearing fruit, good fruit, fruit that is going to remain, fruit that is going to last from generation, not only for this generation but for the next generation.

You don't want to leave rotten fruit for your kids.

You don't want to leave a mess.

You're either leaving a good message for your kids or a mess.

And so it's up to us.

We can't allow this world to choke up the word of God.

And it's easy to do you go out, it's easy.

It's easy, get on social media, you work, take the kids to school, and then the day has gone by, and if you haven't read the word, I mean you know that the cares of the world is going to be easy for those to get upon you.

And so you have to put the word first.

So that's the thorny heart, and then it's the good heart.

And that's us Say that's me, that's me.

So, verse 15, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience, let me read it.

But the ones who fell, the ones that fell on good ground, are those, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

And so God wants us to make sure we bear fruit.

Not only bear fruit, but bear fruit with patience.

You know, maybe you're believing for something and it's being like oh God, I've been patient, I've been believing for so, and so I've been believing for a mate.

I've been believing for something to get paid off.

You know, and it's been a year, it's been.

You know, there's working in the patience, like when you.

There's perseverance when you stick to the word, when you come to church, when you speak the word only it produces.

God wants us to bear fruit, but with patience, and so I just want to encourage you don't give up.

Don't give up.

You're believing, for whatever it is that you know.

You have this promise and God told you and maybe you don't see it manifest yet.

Well, don't give up, keep believing, keep praying, keep coming to church, and so there's fruit in that.

Okay, so I have a couple of points.

Number one keep your heart full.

Keep your heart full.

What is it full of?

It should be full of the word of God.

Keep your heart full of the word of God.

Open your hearts to the spirit of God.

Meditate on his word day and night.

Meditate, you know, meditate doesn't mean just to read the scripture for 30 seconds and then you go on your day check.

No, you meditate, you just pick a.

You don't have to start off with reading the whole Bible.

Pick a Proverbs, pick today's June 1st Happy June 1st Proverbs one Psalm, one, you know.

Pick a scripture out of there and just meditate on it and trust in the Lord and do good.

You know, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name.

And so bless the Lord, oh my soul, like everything that is within me is going to bless his name today, right, and so you just pick a scripture and that's how you keep your heart full of the word of God is by what you say.

You can't just let trash come out of your mouth, you know, or you can't talk to your kids or your husband or whoever's in the house.

You know good, you never amount to nothing.

You know.

What do you do?

Why are you acting like?

Teach, train your kids, be patient with them, teach them.

Don't just spout out whatever.

You know.

Words come to your mouth.

Make sure that their faith filled words, full of hope, always Amen, amen.

And so when your heart's full of the word of God, it's gonna come out.

What you meditate is gonna come out.

So, number two number one keep your heart full.

Number two keep your heart pure.

Let's see something.

Pure is free from contaminants, right?

Matthew 5.8 says blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, isn't that good.

And then the passion translation that says what bliss you experience when your heart is pure, for then your eyes will open, for then.

So it's an if then.

If you do this, if your heart's pure, then this is what then your eyes will open to see more and more of God.

So, when you keep your heart pure and how do you do that?

Stick to the word you know, bless unto pastors' messages Then.

So when you this says what bliss you experience when your heart is pure, for then your eyes will open to see more and more of God.

And so don't pollute yourself.

How do we do that?

Well, what we watch on TV.

You can't just go to the Netflix and let the you know all of the shows come on, you know how they do.

They just come on all these or whatever you know, whatever you have at the house, and especially if you have kids around, you can't just watch what you wanna watch.

Like that's polluting, like, whether you realize it or not, it pollutes us.

What we listen to.

What kind of songs do we listen to?

You know, there's some good country songs out there that I like, but I'm not gonna.

That's not gonna bring me closer to God.

That's very soulish, you know, cute little tune and that's great.

But praise and worship music is gonna bring me closer to God because that's full of the word, that has scripture in it.

I'm gonna be thinking about the word of God after I've listened to Maverick City or where Hillsong.

So I just wanna encourage you.

That's how you keep your heart pure.

I mean, these are simple little things, but it's in the simple where sometimes we get tripped up and, you know, we just allow these things of the world to come upon us instead of keeping our heart pure and free from contaminations.

So I wanted to read, I brought this book Qualified by Tony Cook and I wanted to read to you a little bit from it.

It's in chapter 24, and it's called Seasoned or Poisoned.

We have probably heard, all heard, the phrase life will make us bitter or better, and in the same way, I believe that how we respond to God will determine whether we end up seasoned or poisoned.

And so here these are.

He lists some of the potential poisonings that we're exposed to Betrayal, disappointment, someone doesn't do what you expected them to do and leaves you frustrated.

Broken promises, rejection, disrespect in gratitude, someone is insensitive to you or fails to recognize your basic needs.

Criticism someone lies or gossips about you.

Someone undermines you.

They work against you instead of with you.

Your convictions and values are disregarded.

People place unreasonable demands and expectations on you and then belittle you when you can't fulfill them.

False accusations you are blamed for things that weren't your fault.

So all of these things can poison us if we let them.

And so here he has some of the following contrast of a seasoned individual and a poisoned one.

So a seasoned person trusts, a poisoned one is paranoid.

A seasoned individual is open-hearted, a poisoned one is closed off.

A seasoned one releases hurts.

A poisoned one accumulates hurts, like I remember what you did back in 1994.

Hey, so we don't want to be poisoned.

A seasoned one has scars.

A poisoned one carries wounds.

Hey, we all go through things In the church.

We all go through things In the staff.

We all go through things.

But it's our job to be a seasoned Christian, not a poisoned one, not one who's cranky, not one who's rude and mean.

Christian means Christ-like, like we should be, like Christ Pretty simple, right, like just how Jesus is we should be.

A seasoned individual is thankful.

A poisoned one is resentful.

A seasoned individual heals others.

A poisoned one Poisons others.

A season one is proactive.

A poison one is reactive.

A season one is resilient rolls with the punches.

A poison one is fragile.

No balance.

I got offended, I'm done, I'm leaving.

This ain't worth it, forget it.

And so we should be seasoned, not poisoned.

And so the more you allow the word of God to penetrate your heart, just like that scripture, the more you become seasoned, the more you bear fruit.

Amen.

And so I do these little leadership things with the altitude, praise and worship ban.

And not too long ago I taught them on choose what is right over what is easy.

You know, it's easy to be rude to somebody who's rude to you.

That's easy.

They were rude, I'm gonna be rude back.

They don't like, I'm not gonna like them.

Maybe we're at work and people have it out against you.

I'm gonna do the same thing.

That's easy, right, but it's not the right thing.

We have to choose what.

The right thing is to pray for them.

The right thing is to walk in love towards them.

The right thing is to bless them.

The word of God says to love your enemies, do good to those, bless them who despitefully use you.

And so to choose.

So we have to choose what is right and not what is easy, amen.

And then I wrote this down If you always choose the easy road, you will sabotage your destiny.

And so God has a destiny for you, and it's a good one.

It's one that is filled with true love and peace and joy.

And so if you just choose the easy road, temporary satisfaction, like I'm gonna do what I want, I'm gonna sleep with whoever I want, I'm gonna eat what I want, I'm gonna watch what I want, I'm good, I love Jesus, right, and you know what you can go to heaven and do all those things, but you will not fulfill the plan of God to your full potential, what God has laid out for you.

And so there's a submissive.

And then there's, like this perfect will that he has for your life.

And so we want that, we want the perfect will of God.

We don't want it to submissive, we want the eh, whatever, you know Christian, oh, he's a Christian.

I don't even know he was a Christian.

He acts out like no.

We should, there should be some characteristics in our life that are Christ, like amen.

And so that's that.

On that, okay.

So, number one, keep your heart full.

Keep your number two, keep your heart pure.

And then, number three, keep your heart tender.

So you know, don't allow our heart to become calloused.

I wrote this down.

Tenderhearted people always want to do and say what's right before God, not what's right in their own eyes.

So tenderhearted people are like God.

You know, I care about you, know doing the right thing, I care about what you think versus what somebody else thinks, and so keep your heart tender before God.

And so that comes with.

Are you teachable or hearthearted?

You know, if somebody comes up to you and says something that's maybe corrective and okay, maybe I do need to change, it can hurt, right, like who wants to be told you're doing the wrong thing.

But we have to make sure we're teachable.

Like, hey, this you know.

Like I said earlier, in the natural versus the supernatural, where you I see you're going down this pathway, brother, let me you know, let me correct you, let me.

This is what the word said.

Okay, yeah, I see that.

Yeah, or what do they know?

How dare they talk to me?

Do they know who I am?

Like?

You see the difference in that, instead of okay, god you know, and take it to God, like God.

You see, somebody came to me and maybe I do need to change.

Maybe I am rude, maybe I do say it in a way that sounds harsh, maybe I do need to change.

And so being and it's just being teachable simple, be teachable, be moldable, that's how you keep a tender heart.

Psalm 51,.

If you want to turn, there is my last scripture, I believe, and I'll jump around on Psalm 51.

Let me see so.

This Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in with Bathsheba, 51, verse one have mercy upon me, oh God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

If you skip down to verse six, behold, you desire truth in my inward parts and in the hidden part and in the amplified says of my heart.

You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hissup and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be wider than snow.

Verse eight make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast away your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me.

I love that you hear faith in his repentance.

He has a repentant heart, a true repentant.

Like God, I messed up, I did the wrong.

Like just forgive me, cleanse me, restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Then that's verse 12.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold to me by your generous spirit.

The amplified says sustain in me a willing spirit.

You know I taught a message in youth and it was called are you willing?

Like there's obedience, like you may ask your kids take out the trash?

Right, there's some kids in here, maybe mommy and daddy.

Well, they're younger.

Do mommy and daddy make you take out the trash?

No, not yet.

There you go.

But how about if you ask your kids to take out the trash?

And they obeyed you?

They did it.

But maybe they grumbled all the way there.

They said some words it's not my turn, it's Ethan's turn, or it's not my turn, it's Allison.

Why do I have to do it?

You know they did it, they obeyed, it got done.

But were they willing, not a very willing spirit.

And so here David is saying sustain in me a willing spirit Like I am willing to do your word.

If it's in your word, I'm willing to do it Right.

If it's in these pages, right here, I'm willing.

I'm a willing daughter, I'm a willing son, I obey your word, but I'm also willing to do it and I set myself up for success.

If there's temptation in a certain area, I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to do that Right.

And so I'm willing, being a willing yielded vessel.

And so I love it.

David is just so transparent here in Psalm 51.

In verse 17, well, 16,.

For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You do not delight in burnt offering, verse 17,.

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

These, oh God, you will not despise.

And so, hey, my heart's broken Like I.

Whatever you want to do, not my will, but your will be done, lord.

I love that.

I love this Psalm because it shows David's just willingness, his repentance, and so I just want to encourage you with that.

Keep your heart pure, keep your heart tender before God.

You know, just like at the beginning in Proverbs, for out of it flows the issues of life.

Everything, all of life flows from our heart, and so God wants us to.

I mean, we live in this world, the nasty, nasty world, but we're not of this world, we're just passing through, and so it's how we live our life, it's how we do things, and so God wants us to be bearing fruit.

God wants us to be bearing fruit, and not only for this generation, but for the generation to come, amen.

So I just want to encourage you to, with that, keep your heart.

Don't allow the things of this world to pollute your heart.

Make sure you you read the word of God, you stay tenderhearted before God and he'll raise you up.

Amen.

Let's pray, father.

God, we just thank you, lord, for your word.

We thank you, father, that we keep our heart full of the word of God.

We're not only hears of the word, but we are doers of the word, father.

We are not cranky Christians.

We are not mean and rude Christians, father, but we are faith-filled Christians.

We are Christians that are full of the word of God.

We are Christians that are doing mighty exploits.

Father, I thank you that we are light bearers.

We bring light into this dark world where there's been hatred, we bring love.

Where there's been confusion, we bring peace, lord.

Where there's been animosity, maybe in the workplace, we bring peace and love, father, we practice 1 Corinthians 13,.

Father, love is patient and love is kind and it bears up anything, father.

So I just thank you, father, that we bear up anything in your word.

It's not us doing it in and of ourselves, with our five senses, but it's in your word and through your word, father, that we bear up anything, father, and I thank you that you didn't leave us as orphans, but you sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to be a guide and to lead us, father.

So we just thank you and Jesus.

Same amen, amen.