Readiness Starts in the Heart | Luke 14 & Philippians 3 | Rickie Jenkins

As Sam said, the uh the this morning is about readiness starts within.

And to me, a passage that just popped into my mind is the book of Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 23.

Proverbs 4:23

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

We're going to come back to at least Sunday night, especially on this idea of flowing through things.

And we'll look at a Luke 6 passage in just a moment that speaks about the same thing.

But when you think about readiness, readiness is not something you manipulate.

It's not something that happens as a result.

You're just shamed to into it.

Readiness is something that is deliberate.

It is a deliberate choice to be ready.

Last night, Noah began at the part asking, Are you ready?

And there were several questions that he asked, Are you ready for?

And every one of those questions that he asked and you responded to required some effort and some participation.

Nobody said, Oh, I just fell into readiness.

Nobody said, I was shamed into that.

Oh, it just happened to me.

Everything that he asked, and you answered last night, had to do something with something deliberate, some choice, some decision being made.

And so he says, guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life.

That word guard is important.

That word guard speaks to an alert that's there.

And that word guard also speaks to something that is by choice and something that you're aware of.

So guard your hearts.

There's something that is an alert, there's a warning here.

You guard your hearts.

And then Luke chapter 6 and verse 45, and the Lord talks about this also in the other gospels.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

He talks about out of your heart flow the issues of life, but treasure in your heart.

Treasure in your heart, for out of your heart flows the issues of life.

Treasure.

That word treasure and put that word guard together.

Treasure in your heart.

You think about the idea of treasure.

That speaks of something of great value to us.

That speaks of an investment in something.

And so you're guarding, you're guarding that what you are investing in.

And the thing we are investing in is our heart.

Now when we think about that, we're thinking obviously about our attitude.

We're thinking about our disposition.

The kind of heart that we have that wants to serve the Lord, the kind of heart that wants to serve God's people.

Yesterday, George and Justin asked me why I preached and why I wanted to keep preaching after all these years.

And I told them, honestly, it wasn't until I was at College Park about 23 years, which was about 13 years ago now, that I decided I'd really figure this out and why that was the case, because I always wondered, should I be doing this?

And it was because of a love for God, love for God's people, and love for God's Word.

And you invest in that.

So treasure something and you guard that.

Now, the point is, we are making investments in our hearts every day.

And we're making investments by what we call important or by what we watch or what we listen to.

And there are a number of things in our world that offer a number of wholesome things for us.

Obviously, a number of wicked things, but there are a number of wholesome things this world offers for us that would be worthy of giving some time and attention to.

But they're not the things that we're talking about from Proverbs 4 and also talking about from Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

So you think about treasuring something, you're storing something up, and you're guarding that.

There is an alert to what you are treasuring in your heart.

If you'd like to, turn to Luke chapter 14 with me.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

This passage in Luke chapter 14, I think, really helps us see something about where we're going to go with this lesson.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Look with me beginning in verse 25 of Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Now, a great many multitudes went with him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes after me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life he cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it?

Lest, after he said the foundation, after he's laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it began to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

What king going to war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes after him with twenty thousand?

Or else?

While the other is a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

So likewise, whoever you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Now, the point I want to take from this reading is there was an evaluation that had to be made.

There was something about what the treasure was going to be.

There was an evaluation.

You don't begin to build a building without counting the cost for what you're going to build.

How many times have you maybe driven down the streets of Lubbock or any particular city and you see a building that was started and now it just sits there on the foundation or it's half-built?

I always think when they did that, somebody ran out of money.

Somebody didn't count the cost.

And you know, even when our leaders and they enter into a military campaign, they always count the cost.

It's sad that it comes down this way, but they always expect a percentage of loss.

What percentage of loss can we sustain and still accomplish what we want to accomplish?

Now, the loss is going to be loss of life, but it's the game of war, which is that which is an ugly thing.

So they're counting the cost.

Do we have enough men?

Do we have enough machines?

All things that go into the battle, do we have enough to win this battle?

You don't go into a battle ill-equipped.

You go into a battle equipped knowing you're going to win.

And so there's an evaluation that takes place here.

I like what one guy said.

He said, I have a CPA to keep me liquid, a lawyer to keep me legal, and a doctor to keep me healthy.

But I have no one to help make a spiritual audit.

Well, what we're talking about here then is a spiritual audit.

And we're talking about the audit of our heart.

And so there's three things I want you to think about for just a moment when we think about this.

And these are real simple, they're not profound, but I think they're profound in their simplicity.

Let me just say that.

When we think about the kind of audit we need to make and the thing we need to consider when we think about readiness beginning in the heart, I think number one, number one, we need to remember what we were.

We need to remember what we were.

You know, when we come on the Lord's Day, we gather around the table.

We don't come there to remember.

We come there because we remember.

And so we come to the Lord's table and we come because we remember something.

We need to remember what we were.

When I think about that, I think of several Bible characters that help me with that.

I think of Joseph.

You know, after he had been in Egypt a number of years, he was married and he had two sons, and the name one Manasseh means I have forgotten, until his brother showed up and then remembered.

No longer what he was.

I think of Jacob.

You know, when we think of Jacob and Esau, really, growing up, Esau wanted you wanted Esau to be your buddy.

Esau was a man's man.

Esau knew how to hunt, he knew how to kill, he knew how to cook what he hunted.

Esau was a man of the field, he smelled like a man of the field.

Jacob was what I call a press pot.

He stayed in the tent with his mother, wore sweet smelling cologne, and dressed in a princely way.

Now I don't know that he did that, I'm making that up.

But he was not the rough, rugged guy.

But he's the guy when you walked away from you want to check your pocket here to make sure you still had your billfold in your pocket.

He was called the supplanter.

But that's what he was.

That's what he was.

When I think about what you were, I think about the Corinthians, and you think about 1 Corinthians chapter 6, in which he says, Know you not, beginning in verse 9, that all these things that you do here, all these immoral things that take place here, know you not, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God because of adultery, immorality, hatred, wickedness, murder, theft, all those things.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

You cannot cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And then he says, Notice this, such were some of you.

Such were you.

Notice the audit there.

Such were you.

But now you have been washed, you have been justified, you have been sanctified.

That doesn't mean the Corinthians had everything all plugged in and everything right, but he's talking about what they were.

And I think that's important that we get that.

I think there's an element of our life that we don't need to wallow in it, but we need to always remember what we were and where we came from.

Paul will say it this way: I was the chiefest of sinners.

In 1 Corinthians 15, he will say, I am one as one born out of due season.

He said, I don't fit the apostolic company.

I'm one that doesn't fit here.

And so Paul, when he thinks about himself, he never forgot where he came from.

And I think when we think about where readiness begins in the heart, we need to always remember what we were.

But second of all, let me move from that rather quickly to say we need to remember who we are.

We need to remember what we were, but we need to remember who we are.

When you think about who we are, maybe, maybe when we think about this thing of who we were, we have a story.

And we think about that story.

And we think about how we came to Christ.

We think about the victories that we've had along the way because of what Christ has provided us the strength to have.

And we think about the failures in that and what we were too.

But maybe that's not what we think about.

Maybe we haven't come to grips with who we are.

Maybe we've not had that experience with Christ.

And we need to remember who we are.

You know, the challenge of that is when you're young and you have black hair and you have the strength of youth, we don't spend a lot of time thinking about that, who we are.

I mean, we've always got tomorrow, so why are we worried about who we are today?

Turn with me to the book of Philippians, chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Book of Philippians, chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

When I think about this, I want to look at verse 12 just as an introductory thought to this.

You know, it may be that after being a Christian, maybe maybe we've looked at what we were, we realize what we were being lost in Christ, being lost and now being found, and remember those things.

And now then we can appreciate who we are.

Or maybe we still are in that lost condition, we haven't realized who we are yet.

It's not a bit unusual for me to have the experience in teaching people and baptizing them that immediately when they crest the water, they want to know everything about the Bible there is to know in that very moment.

And then a couple of months down the road, after a few stumps of the toe, they begin to think, I'm just not getting this.

I just don't understand.

I want to understand.

And I'm just gonna quit.

I'm just gonna give them and throw my arms up.

I just don't, I just don't get it all.

Well, I'm comforted by this because Paul will say in verse 12 in Philippians 3, not that I've already attained.

Now, here's the old man Paul writing this.

And when I think about that is if here is Paul writing this, I've not already attained, then why am I so quick to throw on the garbage heap my failures in the beginning?

Or maybe my failures after time.

And so when we begin to think about who we are, it may not be that who we are are who we really want to be because we've not yet attained those things.

But Paul is saying, don't give up, don't quit, don't throw in the towel here.

Persevere, stay ready.

And then he will say this further, reading in verse 12.

I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of something, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.

Brethren, I don't count myself to be apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

He said, I haven't attained something, but I'm pressing for something.

I'm pressing for the goal, for the upward call.

Now let me make a distinction I think this passage makes.

Notice I'm pressing toward the mark for the upward call, for the upward call, upward goal of the prize.

He distinguishes the mark from the prize.

So here we're talking about victory language.

Put a pause there.

Let me come back to just a moment.

In 1 Corinthians 9, the latter part of 1 Corinthians 9, about verse 24 and following, Paul will say, I don't just run, I soul run.

I don't fight, I soul fight.

And what he's saying there, I didn't get in the competition, I didn't enter the games to compete to lose.

I entered to win.

And he said, When you do, you win a crown.

Now for them, the crown was something that by the time their grandkids came, it would have been a fig leaves sewn together and would dried up and rotted and fall apart.

But the crown Paul's talking about, there is the crown of 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8, laid up for me and for all those who love the Lord.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

That's the goal.

That's the prize.

But the goal is something else.

The mark is something else.

I run toward the mark.

I don't just so run, I run to compete to gain the victory.

And the victory he wants is not to make sure we have all of our external boxes checked.

Okay, I've been in attendance this many times this month, this many times this year.

I partake in the Lord's Supper in the right way, the right time, the right place.

All these things take.

It's not all those external things.

He said, I'm pressing towards something.

I'm pressing towards something that God is going to make me to be.

The victory that is there, that is achieved by running the race to the mark at the end of the race to receive the crown is that I may be somebody.

And that somebody is to be like Christ.

Now, just please pause and let that war show of you.

I'm sure that's not the first time you've ever heard that.

But I don't want to run by that too quick.

Because that says something about who we are.

We're not checking boxes here.

We think about all the boxes to check, those are the pot tests.

Who we are becoming is the major quiz.

Here he says, We are becoming someone.

We are becoming like Christ.

And he says, I haven't attained that yet.

I've not laid hold of that yet.

But I'm stretching and I'm reaching and I'm pressing.

That word press is a muscular word.

It's a word that expresses urgency.

He's not just trotting along.

He has entered this race to win the race, and he's competing hard to gain a victory.

And the victory he wants that leads to a crown, that leads to a prize, is to be like Jesus.

Paul says, We need to remember who we are.

So when we think about that, you think about going to war and counting the cost of that.

You think about building a building and counting the cost of all that's there and not just laying a foundation.

When we become children of God, we become to become a child of God.

That doesn't mean just baptize, that's important.

But that's to become, to become someone, to become a child of God.

There's a foundation that's laid there to cast off who we were, to be who we are intended to be.

That begins someplace, it begins in the heart.

You know, sometimes we talk about the uh the plan of salvation, and we talk about the thing of hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.

When you think about that, it's not unlike the dating process and engagement process that leads to marriage.

Now, I know some of you aren't there yet, but nonetheless, it's still there.

You know, a boy uh meets a girl, and uh her first thought of him is I'm not giving him the time of day, much less look at him.

But he's infatuated with her.

And uh he wants to pursue her.

And after some time of pursuit, she still doesn't give him the time of day.

She's playing hard to get.

And then finally, something happens.

Finally, to get rid of this guy, okay, I'll just one time go out with him.

Just to get rid of him.

One time, one and done.

But she goes out with him, and uh, she thinks, whoa, I I've not been paying attention to this guy, maybe as close as I should have.

You know, he's kind of interesting.

So he says, Would you like to go out again?

And to her surprise, she says, Yes.

I'll go out again, and then again and again and again.

And then eventually, with a lump in his throat and a sweaty palm, he gets on one knee and says, Will you marry me?

He's laying it all online now.

Will you marry me?

And the hopeful answer is yes.

That's the anticipated answer.

And she says, Yes.

What happened first?

There was a change in understanding.

What happened second?

There was a change in thinking.

What happened third?

There's a change in will.

And finally they stand before an official and he says, Do you take, do you take, do you take, will you, will you, will you, and say, Yes, there's your confession.

Now, they've gone through the ceremony, but they're not married yet.

The marriage bed is the consummation of the marriage.

You know, you can have a person that will hear, their understanding can change, their thinking can change, their will can change, and they can confess all day long, Lord, Lord, Lord.

But until that has been consummated in baptism, they're not a child of God.

But what has happened to produce that?

A change of heart.

Where did that change of relationship begin?

It began in the heart and overflowed to a change of relationship.

Paul is saying, I press toward the mark to receive a prize.

I'm pressing toward, I haven't attained it yet.

I'm not going to give up.

I may fail, I may make mistakes, but I'm not going to quit.

I haven't given up yet.

Paul said, when I said I will, there was no small print.

It was set in stone once for all.

And when I find myself away from that, I come back to that single minded determination to say, I will, and I keep renewing that kind of heart.

Readiness does not simply begin in the heart, it stays in the heart.

We can never leave the readiness.

That has begun in the heart, and there's never a place to recant.

Paul will say, godly sorrow leads to repentance, but not the repentance of the world.

It's only when we pull up anchor that we go back to the repentance of the world.

But the repentance we're talking about that begins in the heart helps establish who we are to become.

And without that being in place, the time will come when it's convenient to quit and return to who we were.

Paul said, I've not yet attained, but I'm pressing towards something.

And I would suggest to us that is the key to our successful victory.

And that's the key to the victory language that is shared with us in 1 Corinthians 9 and also Philippians chapter 3 that Paul gives us here.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

So readiness begins in the heart remembering who we were, but also recognizing who we are.

But number three, where we're going.

Where we're going.

Turn to 1 John chapter 3.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

Turn to 1 John chapter 3 with me.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

Look at verses 1 and 2.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

Therefore, the world does not know us.

Because it did not know him.

Beloved, now we are children of God.

It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Where are we going?

If we're going up to be somebody, then where are we going?

Back to Philippians chapter 3 a moment.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Because in that very last part there of chapter 3, look at verse 20.

Look at verse 20.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which you also eagerly wait for the Savior.

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which everyone is able to subdue all things to himself.

We are what?

We have a heavenly citizenship.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

John will say, we are going to be changed to be like him.

And we have that heavenly citizenship in which we shall ultimately be like him.

And who we are, we're talking about a transformation that takes place.

In regards to how early or late that begins, we'll never complete that process on this side of eternity.

But God completes the process on his side of eternity to make us like the Savior, to look like him, to be like him in that heavenly citizenship.

And so we think about who we are there.

Turn to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 18.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 8, verse 18.

Romans 8:18

Thinking about who we will be, where we're going.

If I consider the suffering of this present time worthy to be compared, if I consider the suffering of this present time not to be worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

When we're transformed to be like him, he said, there's a glory that's going to be revealed.

We don't know what that shall be, but we shall be like him.

I can't explain that.

I wish I could explain that.

But God didn't tell us how to explain that.

I think that's just one of those passages we're going to look at and we're going to wrestle with, but in the end we just have to accept by faith to say, yeah, okay, I trust it.

But whatever is there and whatever we deal with here, nothing is going to compare to the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Now you think about what that glory shall be revealed in us.

Don't you think that would be significant to challenge who we ought to be?

Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Look at verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 3.

But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, notice, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We're being transformed from glory to glory, little by little.

Failure by failure, success by success.

We're being transformed glory from glory to glory, little by little, to be what?

To be in the image of the Lord.

And he said, when we then are revealed, this world has got nothing to compare of what that is going to be.

All of this though requires a change.

I'm just asking you, you can answer this for yourself.

How do you respond to change?

How well do you respond to change?

You know, we get our feet stuck in mud pretty good, and they can turn to hard concrete, and we don't want to change.

And there are people who resist change.

But listen, if we're going to be a child of God to receive a glory that is going to be transcendent of anything we can possibly imagine or dream of, it's going to be because along the way there have been changes that have taken place in our life.

And the sad thing is, and this is a generalization, there are a number that call themselves brethren who have no interest in changing.

They're no different today, 35 years later, than when they were at arm length away from the baptistry when they were first baptized.

If we're going to receive a glory that's to be revealed, there's going to be change along the way.

That's what transformation is about.

If we're going to have a heavenly citizenship, it's going to be because we have been transformed to be in his image.

That heavenly citizenship is the crown.

We talk about going to heaven.

Can I rephrase that?

We're not talking about changing zip codes when we die.

We're not talking about running the treadmill of life.

And when finally the last sinew pops, like you pop a meniscus on your knee or tear an A C L, when the last sinew pops, we're done.

We change zip codes from earth to heaven forward by mail.

We don't go to heaven.

We grow.

We grow to heaven.

And we grow to heaven when we grow to be like Him.

And so Paul will talk about a glory to be revealed.

That's where we're going.

You see the spiritual audit in all this, going back to our initial thought about the war and the building of a building.

You see the spiritual audit in this?

We look at ourselves and say, that's who we were.

But now I've been washed, I've been sanctified and justified.

Perfect?

No.

But this is who I am.

I've become a child of God.

And in becoming a child of God, I've not yet attained that for which that for which I have been laid hold of.

I've not yet captured that in total.

But I'm being transformed.

And when I undergo that transformation process, this is where we're going.

This is where we're growing.

We're going to grow to be with the Father.

Only people who are undergoing transformation will grow to be with Him.

So if transformation and change is not appealing, then growing to Him is going to have no appeal either.

All we're doing is jumping through hoops.

So let me ask you a few questions there, just a few thought questions for you to consider with me as we bring this, as we kind of wind this down just a little bit.

When we think about this, who are you becoming?

Who are we becoming?

Who am I becoming?

You know, the Everglades are stagnant.

Let me go back to Luke chapter 6 again.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Treasure your heart for out of it flows.

Treasure your heart, for there's an overflow that comes out of your heart.

You want a river that's running.

You want a river that's live.

You want a river that's flowing.

What's flowing through our hearts?

We don't want to become stagnant.

We don't want to put a pause on our spiritual growth and spiritual development.

Where we become stagnant.

We don't want to reach a place in our lives, young or old, where we say, okay, I sit down and I'm just waiting for death's door.

I know young people don't think about that.

And it's a challenge as you get older.

My dad is 99 years old.

He called, reminded me yesterday, coming out here.

He's 99 years old in 10 months now.

That was important for him to tell me.

By November 18th, if he lives that long, he'll be 100 and he's hoping he doesn't make it.

This is his life every day.

No exaggeration.

True story.

He wakes up, takes his morning walk with his walker, and sings a hymn when he's doing it.

And sits down and reads his Bible all day long.

And he's talking to me about things now.

I'm thinking, Dan, I thought you had that figured out 50 years ago.

He hasn't grown stagnant even though his physical activity has been limited.

He's still spiritually growing.

I gotta tell you, that impresses a 71-year-old son.

Who am I becoming?

Second, do I have the joy in who am I becoming?

Paul wrote, or John wrote 1 John 1, I write these things that your joy may be full.

Is becoming a child of God something that is a joy to us?

Or is it a task of drudgery?

Does the appeal of the world, the challenge of the world, really overcome us so that being a child of God and becoming like Christ is something that really has lost its appeal because the challenge of the world has tainted all of that?

Am I really filled with the joy of the Lord?

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

That's what is stated in the book of Nehemiah.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Do we have that joy of the Lord in our lives?

Is that really our strength?

Is there joy found not only in remembering who we were but not staying there, but recognizing who we are and where we're going?

Is there joy in our life because of that?

And then third, do I really have the spiritual appetite?

Do I really have the spiritual appetite for the glory that is to be revealed?

The language in Philippians chapter 3 is interesting to me.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Back to verse 20.

There's an imagery here that you don't see readily in the text, but the language is there.

He says, For our citizenship is in heaven, for which we eagerly wait for the Savior.

He uses those same words in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That idea of eagerly waiting, when I was a boy, dad for three years preached and took him, carried to Mexico.

Nanny and granddad lived in Alma, Texas.

You take 45 out of Dallas, you don't quite make it to Corsicana in between Innis and Corsicana.

There's a spot in the road.

It's just got a beer store there and a tattoo parlor.

That's all that's there now.

We'd take a hard ride off of 45, and we'd go down the country road, and after a couple miles down there, we'd turn in.

There was Grandad's farm.

Now from Tukum Carry to just south of Innis for a little boy was a long trip.

In fact, for a grown man, it's still a long trip.

But granddad had a barn.

And when we would leave Innis, we'd begin looking for that barn.

We'd stretch our neck as far as we could possibly stretch our neck to see it.

And when we could stretch our neck and we could see the top of Granddad's barn, we knew we were there.

We're almost there.

Eagerly waiting, stretching the neck.

Conversely, when we leave to begin that long road back to Tucum Carrie to Mexico, we'd focus on that barn as long as we could focus on that barn.

Our necks would be stretched out as far as they could be to see that barn until finally it disappeared in the distance.

When I say, do we have the spiritual appetite for the glory that is to be revealed?

Are we eagerly anticipating having our nets stretched out to see, to see that coming because of who we're being transformed to be?

All of this begins in the heart.

If the heart is not prepared, we can go through all the acts, we can jump through all the hoops we want to jump through, do all the external things we want to do.

But the time will come in which we're challenged and we'll quit and walk away.

Paul said, I never found a place to go back to who I was.

I remember who I am, and I think about the glory to be revealed.

Jody and I have been married 51 years, which means she's been real long-suffering.

When we married, I was 19 years old.

And I gotta be honest with you, I don't know what life is out like without Jody.

We started dating at age 17 in high school.

I don't have a memory of what it was like to be without her.

And I don't want to go back and find out.

And I don't want to go back to the walling in the mire.

And like a dog returning to his vomit.

Because the glory to be revealed transcends anything that this world has to offer, whatever the treasure is.

Readiness begins in the heart.

You've been good to listen, thank you.