Gaurded Hearts - Part 2

Well, we're going back to almost the very, very beginning today.

We're going to be in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It's our second step in the pursuit of a life of holiness.

We all know we're supposed to live a holy life as Christians,

but most of us wouldn't say my life is very holy.

But today, today the whole message centres around a phrase

that gets repeated a lot in church culture, and it is this

Guard your heart. How many of you have said that

before? It's a show of hands.

How many of y'all have heard that before, right?

Guard your heart is something that gets said a lot.

And if you've gone to church for any length of time, you're going

to hear it. Parents say to teenagers, youth

pastor say it's teenagers pastor.

Satan sermons, friends Satan conversations sometimes.

Somewhere along the way, though, I think guard your heart became

one of those phrases that everybody knows and almost

nobody questions. If you ever seen like if if you

say a word enough times, it starts to lose its meaning.

It doesn't even sound real. It's like, give it to God.

OK, well, guard your heart. What does it mean?

What does it actually mean to guard your heart?

That's what we're going to be looking at today because I think

that a lot of us have misunderstood what it means at

times. And I think this is actually

central if you want to pursue a life of holiness.

For some people, guarding their heart has become an excuse to

keep their distance from people. It's become a reason to avoid

difficult relationships, hard conversations, or uncomfortable

situations or anybody who might challenge them.

We justify it by building walls, and sometimes we use it to

explain why we stay uninvolved or away from anybody who might

be different from us. I guess you could say we use it

to protect ourselves from the messiness that comes with

loving, real people. But I would like to ask you a

question before we enter into the scripture today.

If we are only supposed to be around places that are

completely safe or completely comfortable or completely set up

to help us prosper, why would we need to guard our heart at all?

If God wants you in a place where everything is tailor made

and set so that you have no challenges, no obstructions,

nothing to overcome, why would His Word even tell you to guard

your heart? For me, if there's no danger and

no deception in the world, if there's no temptations or no

risks in the world, what are we expecting to guard ourselves

from? To drive this home?

I want to share something from my own life, which is this.

I am allergic to bees. I know I held it back for so

long. Scandal.

Listen, though, when I was a kid, I got stung and it was a

big deal. I was young enough that I don't

remember it super well. I remember like this is

dramatic. I, I used to be dramatic.

So I please save that for the jokes.

I, I remember screaming. I remember like a panicked voice

when my mom was speaking. I remember like glimpses of the

hospital like from this bee sting.

And then I remember as I got a little bit older, we went to go

and we we went to visit my family down in the Houston area

of Texas. And I cannot remember if I was

trying to be Batman or Indiana Jones.

All I know is I had a jump rope and there was a wooden fence and

I was trying to sling it and get it stuck so that it was like a

grappling hook so I could climb like against the fence.

And apparently I had really good aim.

The the problem is, what it hit was a hornet's nest on the other

side of the fence, right? So of course I remember screams,

I remember Benadryl. You don't remember a lot after

Benadryl, but you remember the stuff that leads up to it,

right? Here's the thing.

I've been stung a few times throughout life, but it doesn't

always hit me the same way. So I'm obviously not allergic to

every single stinging insect, but I really don't know the

rhyme or reason of what I am allergic to.

I know this though, I used to say bees are my kryptonite.

So if I saw a bee buddy I was running, which is crazy because

have you ever seen me run? OK, so I would run just in case

it was bad for me. I was scared of it.

I had been indoctrinated by myself that this is dangerous

and I need to be away from it. However, in 2022 my family and I

took a quick trip down to Williamsburg, VA.

We were looking at the Colonial Williamsburg area, very

beautiful, lots of flowers, and I want to show you this picture

of a bee I got. Look at that.

Look how close up I am to that bee, right?

I'm telling y'all that I am. This is my last Sunday.

I'm going to work for National Geographic.

It is a little zoomed in, but not by a lot.

I got up in that grill, man. I I was This bee was busy, OK,

He was preoccupied. She whatever.

I don't know. How did I go from being somebody

who ran away from bees to in 2022, getting up there and

taking pictures? I took other pictures of bees

since, too, because I think it's so cool.

It's like I'm fascinated with getting close to them now

because for so long I was fascinated with all the ways to

be away from them. Well, one year before this, in

2021, good friends of mine, Mr. Jerry Morris and his wife

Christine, invited me over to the house.

They, they have bees at their house on purpose.

They they make honey and really good honey, by the way.

And, and they invited me over to see if I would help relocate a

new queen into the hive. And my heart said no.

My pride probably said, yeah, I'll do it.

Here's the thing. Jerry knows that I'm allergic to

bees. He wanted to help me overcome my

fear of it. So next slide, please.

I suited up. They happen to have an extra

suit, right? I look real professional there,

don't I? Unless you see how Jerry's

looking at me in the background of that picture.

So with my family there, my wife, my kids, another family in

the church, we were just all there and we were relocating the

queen. We were seeing a little bit

about how the honey's produced all that stuff.

It was a really cool day. And I'm just, I'm telling you

that the way that I felt while I was there, my adrenaline was up

more than any roller coaster at Busch Gardens.

Because they're, I mean, if you've ever been around bees

that are all flying, it's like the air is electric.

I mean, you don't really know where they're coming from.

They're all small. I'd look down and I could see

them like crawl on my arms sometimes and things like that

night. I know there's ways to make them

a little more docile. And I've always heard like

they're more scared of you. They're not, They're not.

But they can be unbothered by you.

I was scared, but the longer I stood there and helped with the

process, the more that my anxiety went down and eventually

everything was successful. Relocated the queen.

I don't wish you could have just relocated herself, but drama,

she's the queen. She gets what she wants.

But at the end of it, as I took the suit off and everything, I

thought, man, I did something that was scary to me.

And do you see that box back there?

Like that's kind of held up with the screen.

It's actually a trophy that I've got at the house.

And now Jerry wrote on it for me, wrote the date.

So the day that that we accomplished this together and

that I overcome, overcame a fear.

It's really cool. I'll never get rid of it.

It's got honeycomb inside of it, remnants of what we did.

And it is a constant reminder of something that I overcame.

Now let me ask you something before we move on and put

scriptures up there. Why would anybody wear a

beekeeper suit if they weren't going to walk into the middle of

bees? It exists so that I could be

guarded while walking into an area that could be dangerous.

Why? Because there's purpose in an

area that can be dangerous. And Christians, we're all called

to get out there where it's dangerous.

It's the Great Commission. We are out there with people

that belong to the world or people that have sold out to the

enemy. We've been given this gift of a

fresh chance and we hoard it for ourselves.

But we are supposed to be out there making a difference, being

salt and light in the world. I'll never forget that day.

And because of it, now I take pictures of bees and make you

look at them. What I discovered is there's a

difference between being exposed and unprotected, and there's a

big difference there. A lot of us are afraid of being

exposed to something that's dangerous because we feel like

we'll be unprotected. I was completely protected even

while I was amongst my kryptonite.

That day was pretty memorable for me.

I didn't change the hive. The suit changed the way that I

entered the area around the hive though, right?

So when you guard your heart, you can enter into areas you

would have normally avoided and still know that you are

protected because you're entering into it with the right

heart. Guys, there's a lot of things in

this world that we want to accomplish for the Kingdom.

Most of us don't want to do the hard work of making sure that

what's inside here is driving the engine the right way.

So think about this. Daniel lived in Babylon, Joseph

lived in Egypt, Esther lived in Persia.

The disciples lived under Rome. We live under Christian radio,

Christian clothing lines, Christian movies and The Chosen.

And I'm not bashing any of those things.

I'm glad we've got them. Does it make us a little scared

to get out there in the world where we need to be to make a

difference? Why would I go and do that when

the last season of The Chosen is coming out?

You know that's not really Jesus, right?

A lot of Christians, if they're being honest, and I love The

Chosen by the way, I enjoy watching it.

A lot of Christians, when they picture Jesus, they start to

picture Jonathan, who plays him on The Chosen.

Listen, Christians were called to remain faithful in the middle

of environments that are constantly challenging their

faithfulness. If you're never somewhere in a

conversation or an atmosphere that challenges your beliefs,

you might have insulated yourself.

But I want to take us all the way back to the beginning and

see what it means to guard our hearts.

If you are there around Genesis, we're in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Creation has happened. We're right here at original sin

starting in verse one. Here's what it says.

It says the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild

animals that the Lord God had made.

One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat

the fruit of any of the trees in the garden?

She said of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the

garden. She said it's only the fruit

from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not

allowed to eat. God said you must not eat it or

even touch it. If you do, you will die.

And the serpent said to the woman, you won't die.

God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it,

and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.

Well, the woman was convinced. It says in verse 6 she saw that

the tree was beautiful and it's fruit looked delicious and she

wanted the wisdom it would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it and then she gave

some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too.

At that moment their eyes were open and they suddenly felt

shame at their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together

to cover themselves. Out of all the questions we ask,

and we ask a lot of questions when we read through this, if

Adam was with her, why didn't he do something?

You ever hear that question before, right?

How about why did she do it in the first place?

Why didn't she just say no? This is why you don't talk to

strangers, guys. Have you ever wondered like man,

what would have happened if she ate both the fruit?

Well, that probably would have been awful because she would

have had eternal life in this fallen, sinful way.

So God and his goodness kicked them out eventually.

Here's a question that I've never asked before this sermon

study. Why didn't the serpent touch the

fruit? Why didn't the serpent get it

himself? I don't think he could have, but

I wonder about it. Well, I asked my wife and she

said because he didn't have any arms.

Thank you. Why didn't he get the fruit and

bring it to Eve and say, here's some fruit, eat this.

That also would have been deception, wouldn't it?

Here's why. It was a greater win for him,

not to get her to do the wrong thing, but to think the wrong

thing. So what he had to do first was

get inside of her thoughts, inside of the Jewish thought of

what your heart is, your mind, your will, your emotions, your,

your center of being, and get her to have some doubt.

That serpent never climbed over the tree and forced her hand.

He never dropped that fruit into her mouth.

Before there was ever action in Eve's life, there was a

conversation, and before there was ever a bite, there was a

question in her mind. Before there was ever

disobedience to God, there was an idea that got introduced into

her heart. Most of us have been taught to

focus on the fruit in this story, but the fruit wasn't the

real battle. By the time Eve reached for the

fruit, something had already happened inside of her.

The fruit was a result of something sinful that had

already happened here. A seed of doubt had been

planted. And so the enemy didn't begin by

attacking her behaviour. He began by influencing what

entered her heart. And This is why Genesis 3 is

actually one of the most important scriptures in the

whole Bible when it comes to understanding holiness.

The first temptation was not about an appetite or desire

even. It was about influence.

I remember my second time visiting this church back in

2004, Pastor Tom, who was the pastor at the time, he pulled me

to the side and I was a ADJ at the time.

And he said, hey, what you do, it sounds like you have a lot of

influence. And I said I wouldn't go that

far. And he said, well, he said John

Maxwell, if you ever read a John Maxwell book, he said John

Maxwell says all leadership is, is influence.

Whatever influence you do have, use it.

Well, I was like, nice to meet you too.

Thanks for putting all that pressure on me.

He's correct. Think about it, just for a

moment. Think about whoever you have

influence on. Kids, friends, family members or

Co workers, whatever. Think about the people you've

got influence with. It's a responsibility and John

Maxwell calls it leadership. Notice how settled the serpent

was here. He didn't start by telling Eve

to reject God. He begins by asking a question

about God. He doesn't start with

challenging her to rebel, he just starts by confusing her and

distorting the truth. Anytime we're in a conversation

with someone or ourselves and we feel confused, it's enough to

make us feel unsafe or unguarded.

And that's why deception is so dangerous, isn't it?

Because if deception looked obviously evil every time,

nobody would get deceived. It normally arrives dressed up

as wisdom or insight or freedom or self discovery or even worse,

common sense. Think the phrase guard your

heart matters a lot more than we realize.

Remember as we move forward today, OK, that the heart is not

just a place of emotions, it's the Control Center of a person.

It is where all of your beliefs and desires and convictions and

priorities and all your decisions come together.

So what are we allowing to influence or lead us?

It matters because that's what leads other people that we have

influence on too. The first thing, which is kind

of obvious, we have to guard what enters the heart.

So let's talk about that. If Genesis teaches us anything,

it's that not everything deserves access to our hearts.

In a moment, we'll be in First Samuel 15 if you want to read

along. But it's important to know that

we can't allow everything and everyone access into the heart.

Because when modern people hear the word heart, we almost always

do think about emotions, don't we?

If you don't believe that, wait until Valentine's Day is coming

up again. And by that I mean wait until

the week after Christmas because that'll be what's in all the

stores. Candy hearts, mushi, Gushi,

things written on cards. We buy them.

We don't even write them. We're just like, this sounds

like something I would say to my wife.

Here you go. I found this and picked it out

for you. It's all centered around hearts

and love, right? But in the Jewish school of

thought, writers understood the heart differently.

It was much bigger than that. Like we were saying, it's the

Control Center. So I want you to remember that

This is why the Serpent's strategy in Genesis was so

effective. He wasn't trying to change Eve's

behaviour. He was trying to influence her

thinking. Because then everything she does

will come out of a wrong place of wrong thinking and wrong

motives. He doesn't have to keep

convincing her to do wrong things.

Now she's on the wrong track. She's just going to continue to

do wrong things. He worked smart, not harder,

essentially, but he was trying to change what she believed

about God and what she trusted. And once that happened

internally, the external decision wasn't far behind.

It's the same thing for you and I.

As soon as we get confused about what God has asked us to do, or

who God has revealed Himself to be in our lives, actions always

follow it in some way. The same principle shows up over

and over in Scripture. Long before people drift away

from God, there's normally something that's been

influencing them in an unseen way.

That is why guarding your heart isn't just about avoiding bad

influences. It's about being intentional

with what we allow to actually go deep into the Control Center.

One of the clearest examples of this is what we're going to read

in just a moment in the life of King Saul.

But before we get there, I want you to know this.

When most people think about King Saul's downfall, they think

about the moment he disobeyed God.

They think about him chasing and persecuting King David, who

would later become King David. All valid, all makes sense.

But the real story, just like Eve, starts before the action.

By the time that Saul disobeyed God publicly, there was

something that had already been happening in his heart.

Fear had been gaining influence in his heart, pride had been

gaining influence in his heart, and maybe most dangerously, the

opinions of people had started carrying more weight than the

voice of God. And this is the first king that

the nation of Israel ever had. So before we read that story,

you need to know what has actually happened here.

God gave Saul a very specific instruction regarding the

Amalekites. It was a direct command.

OK Marines, when you're told clean your desk, you pretty well

clean your desk is my understanding.

Or there's consequences. It's not like, well, his

definition of clean is different from my definition of clean.

From what I understand, your definition of clean doesn't even

exist where you work. Only the commanding officer's

definition of what clean is exists.

And so the Amalekites had a long history of of coming against and

opposing God's people all the way back to the days of Moses.

And so God tells Saul, carry out judgement against them.

And this is one of those dark moments where he says wipe them

all out. He said not one of them to to

remain destroy everything they have, all their livestock, all

of that. Don't plunder them.

Don't bring anything back from this evil and wicked

civilization into your camp. Pretty direct, right?

It's a heavy order, so instead of it, Saul spares King a gag

and keeps the best of the livestock, convincing himself

that partial obedience is still good enough.

Let's not be too judge mental of him though, before we start

thinking about our lives. We'll start in verse 13, First

Samuel 15. Verse 13, the prophet Samuel

arrives, says when Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted

him cheerfully. May the Lord bless you.

I've carried out the Lord's command, by the way.

I think you really meant it. Verse 14 Then what is all the

bleeding of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle?

I hear Samuel demanded. It's a valid question.

You didn't bring that livestock into battle, Saul says.

Well, it's true that the army spared the best of the sheep,

goats and cattle, Saul admitted. But they're going to sacrifice

them to the Lord your God. We've destroyed everything else.

Yeah, I know I cheated on my taxes, but I'm going to put a

bigger check in the offering so God would be happy with that.

You ever have that moment? You were like, oh, God blessed

me because they gave me back $20 too much.

No, you just got somebody fired. All right, then.

Sorry. That hit somebody.

Then Samuel said to to Saul, stop.

Listen to what the Lord told me last night.

What did he tell you? Saul asked.

And Samuel told him, Although you may think little of

yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel?

The Lord has anointed you king of Israel, and the Lord sent you

on a mission and told you, go and completely destroy the

sinners, the Amalekites, until they're all dead.

Why haven't you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder

and to do what was evil in the Lord's sight?

See, that's very specific too. It wasn't evil in Saul's sight.

It made sense. Look, we're going to sacrifice

these to the Lord. Of course, there's also the meat

that they're going to have afterwards.

I bet they would have feasted there.

Verse 20, he says. But I did obey the Lord.

I carried out the mission He gave me.

I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else.

OK, then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats,

cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God and Gilgal.

But Samuel replied, what is more pleasing to the Lord, your burnt

offerings and sacrifices, or your obedience to his voice?

Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is

better than offering the fat of Rams.

Verse 23, Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness

is bad as worshipping idols. So because you've rejected the

command of the Lord, he's rejected you as king.

In other words, he got rejected in the place of influence that

the Lord gave him in the 1st place.

And in the last verse we're reading here, then Saul admitted

to Samuel, yes, I have sinned. I've disobeyed the instructions

and the Lord's command, for I was afraid of the people and did

what they demanded. Do you notice that Saul seems

genuinely surprised by Samuel's response when he gets there?

Hey, blessings of the Lord upon you.

You're here. He's like, what is, What is

this? What are you doing?

When Samuel arrives, Saul's not hiding there.

He's not acting like someone who has been caught.

He walks right up to him and he says he's carried out the Lord's

command. Somewhere along the way, Saul

convinced himself that partial obedience was still obedience to

the God that he worships. Partial obedience is

disobedience. Delayed obedience is

disobedience. And so in his mind, he took

God's clear instruction, adjusted it to fit what seemed

reasonable, and then expected God to approve the edited

version. Don't we do the same thing?

So the more I studied this, the more I realized that the

greatest problem Saul had isn't what he spared, it was what he

allowed into his heart. Somewhere along the way he said

that the opinions of other people started carrying weight

inside of him. In other words, the opinions of

other people started carrying more weight than the voice of

God itself. The appearance of success

started carrying more weight than faithfulness.

The the wisdom of the cultures around him started carrying more

weight than simple obedience. You know, a lot of the cultures

and civilizations around Israel in that day, they did this

practice, they would capture the king.

And why would they do that? You would think it would make

sense. Kill the king, you conquer them.

Kill the king. That way they can't rise up

again. Here's why.

It's all centered around pride. You can kill the king, and

that's the smart move. But if you can keep him

captured, if you can chain him up and walk him through the

streets of your Kingdom, if you can parade him around and put

him on display, it is a show of dominance and it's meant to

intimidate the other nations around.

And so you basically keep him like an animal for a while, if

not the rest of his life, and make him be humiliated in front

of your people, because then it raises your esteem in their

eyes. But it makes you a symbol of

fear in the eyes of people around.

Does that sound like the God that we worship?

But he took something that culture said was wise and

applied it to what God said was wise.

Came up with a hybrid idea and thought it would be fine, but

his area of influence got taken because of it.

And I'll just tell you all today, something that you

already know. The culture around us already

has opinions, doesn't it? It's got opinions about

marriage. It's got opinions about money,

opinions about our identity. It has opinions about our

success. Social media has got opinions.

News outlets have opinions. In fact, I'm finding that most

news outlets don't really have news, they just have opinions.

Family members have opinions, but you know what's even scarier

than that? Our fears have opinions, our

wounds have opinions, and everyday there's voices that are

all competing for influence. The question is not whether or

not those voices exist. Obviously they do.

The question is whether we recognize when they're beginning

to influence us more than the voice of God.

So we also tend to think that temptation begins with our

actions. I could do the right thing, I

could do the wrong thing, but a lot of times we've already

gotten so close to something that was going to lead us into

temptation. We could have cut it off at the

pass long before, before Saul spared A gag, he was listening

to other voices. And long before something comes

out of our lives, normally something has to enter our

hearts. And so I just tell you all this

church, we can't be careless about what is speaking into us

and still expect to remain holy. And I'm not saying that you need

to only watch. I don't know, I forgot the name

of it. The Christian movie streaming

platform Disney. That's it.

Follow your heart. A dream is a wish your heart

makes is my favorite scripture. I'm just kidding.

It's not a scripture, in case you're wondering.

All right, Pure Flix. Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not saying that you have to cut everything out and

only watch Pure Flix. You are called to be out in the

world, right? I don't even subscribe to Pure

Flix. But what I am telling you is you

have to use discernment. I went to go watch ATV show that

I used to watch when I was a little bit younger and I

thought, man, I haven't watched it in a long time.

That'd be fun to rewatch it. I got halfway through the

episode and I went, that one's not for me.

Why did I do that? I was listening to him.

I won't even tell you what the show was not because I'm

embarrassed about it. I don't want you to make your

decisions based off of what the Lord told me.

I want you to go to him and have him tell you what you can allow

into your heart. Because there are things that I

watch and sometimes somebody's like, man, I'm not comfortable

watching that and I'm like, cool, don't come over to my

house when I'm watching it. We agree.

But also I know stories from some of you that I've talked to

that you've watched things that I feel convicted over.

It is possible that sometimes one person is able to watch

something, listen to something and the other person is not.

I only have two kids that live in my house and I can't parent

them the same way. What makes you think that the

Father in heaven who created you, invented you, knit you

together in the womb, is going to treat you identically?

But He does know specifically what is good for you, and He

knows what is not good for you. You've got to know His voice.

If you don't know His voice, you're going to hear voices from

everybody else. And if you don't have a vision

for your life, any vision will do.

So again, when we talk about guarding our hearts, it's not

always an extreme. It's not a temptation to swing

too far in the other direction where instead of listening to

everybody, now you don't listen to anybody.

A lot of times when you hear a message like this, you start

making a list of people to avoid or conversations to leave or

situations you'll no longer be around.

But the problem for Saul wasn't the proximity to the battle.

Actually, he's the king. He was supposed to be out there

in the battle. He was supposed to be out there

amongst enemies. And furthermore, he was supposed

to be out there amongst his people and leading them.

But instead of leading them, he was listening to them.

They were leading him, and once they got into his heart, they

were leading him and he didn't even know it.

So now they're looking at him for guidance, but their opinion

is what's leading him. So now he's leading them using

their opinions. Do you see how this is going to

be a problem? And you wonder how we ever got

out of that book of judges where previous to this it was

everybody did what was right in their own eyes.

You also can't withdraw from everything.

That's difficult, guys. You just can't.

Sometimes you want to. Sometimes you need a Sabbath.

We'll get to that next week. But you were made for the

battle. Holiness is not the same thing

as isolating yourself from the difficult parts of the job of a

Christian. Yes, the Church Fathers and even

Jesus did withdraw to lonely places.

But you know why they went to lonely places?

So that they could hear His voice more clearly.

So that when they were around other people, they could also be

a conduit for God's will to help others hear Him more clearly.

You can't just be completely separated from everybody.

God has called us to remain faithful within our difficult

circumstances. Saul's responsibility as a king

is not to avoid the danger, but to deal with it according to

God's instructions. His obedience would have

protected the nation that he was leading if he would have just

done it completely the way that God wanted him to.

His story could have been completely different.

Instead, he allowed fear and public opinion and human

reasoning to be the decision making process.

In other words, the issue is not that Saul was surrounded by

competing voices. Every leader is surrounded by

competing voices. Every parent is surrounded by

competing voices. Every Christian is surrounded by

competing voices. The issue is that he stopped

filtering those voices through what God had already said.

And I'm just telling you right now, if somebody gives you what

sounds like good advice, but God has already spoken to you, it is

OK to look at them and say I love you.

But God said fill in the blank. Most people that give you

advice, they're not trying to tear you down, they're trying to

help you. But you have to be wise enough

to choose God first. This is about becoming

intentional gatekeepers of our heart.

It's learning to ask hard questions.

Who am I listening to? What am I believing?

I want you to think about a pilot for a moment.

Every time a pilot takes off, that pilot is surrounded by

voices and information. I've only flown in a simulator

twice, and the first time I crashed it and got this colorful

screen of death. The second time I did better,

but there's a lot going on in there.

The instruments, they provide constant feedback.

There's weather reports and there's warning systems and then

there's other flight crew. And if you're flying commercial,

then you've got you've got people like me who are walking

on board and trying to be funny, being like my grandma told you

to tell you that you've got precious cargo, so fly safe.

I always think it's funny. And one time one of them laughed

One time. I'm going to see if I can get

one to high 5 me this year. All of the beeping, all of the

sounds, all of the data streams, all coming in.

The problem isn't that they've got all this information.

All the information is actually helpful, but not if they give

all of it equal attention. You do not want a pilot that is

flying you to give equal attention to every single piece

of information. Could you imagine a pilot

deciding that all those voices deserve equal weight?

Could you imagine air traffic control giving one instruction

while another pilot on a different frequency is

suggesting that they do something else?

Well, you know, when I fly, I would do this, but air traffic

control's got some information that this guy doesn't have.

You have to be able to discern what voice is more important.

How do you do this? How do you even guard what

enters? How do you take those steps

towards holiness if you're going to guard your heart?

And the first thing is to pay attention to what captures your

emotions, to be observant. And here's, I'm going to be very

specific on this. A lot of times when we're

tackling a sin issue, one of the steps is to notice where we fail

within it. I'm asking you to notice what

captures your emotions. What situations or people make

you angry the fastest? What is the situation or the

person that will instantly put you into a melancholy place?

Who is the person that will instantly make you feel insecure

in what you thought you knew? Pay attention to where your

emotions go. Emotions never sit in the

driver's seat for a Christian or they're not supposed to, but

they're important information. This is part of what you're

going to hear as you're navigating.

Every emotion tells you something different, so pay

attention to what captures your emotion.

What is it that's harder for you to let go of and that you find

yourself thinking about 345 hours later, maybe later in the

week? Keep circling back even though

you thought you made your peace. That's the first thing you need

to notice if you're going to try and guard your heart.

We've been trained to be really suspicious of the conversations

we have with other people. I'm just going to challenge you.

Secondly, get a little suspicious of the conversations

you have with yourself when you're upset.

Most of us don't know this is what we're doing, but most of us

are trying really, really hard to justify how we already feel.

The emotion comes up, right? And because the emotion comes

up, we spend a lot of time talking to ourselves.

We spend very little time challenging ourselves.

And because the emotion comes up, we're saying, huh, well, why

would I feel angry? And when we get there, we say it

must because they did blah, blah, blah.

And we convince ourselves no, no, no, no, no, no.

Be suspicious of the conversation you have with

yourself. Your conversations you have with

yourself are what will make you double down or if it's a thing,

triple down on your opinion. And they cause a lot of

division. I'd be really careful with that.

You know, anybody know the comedian Jim Gaffigan?

It's one of my favorite comedians of all time.

And he has this really, really iconic to me set that he he

does. And no, it's not Hot Pockets,

but he talks about McDonald's. And I love it when he talks

about McDonald's. His joke about it is this

McDonald's has become so woven into our culture that people

just stop evaluating it all together.

He talks about how many billions of hamburgers they've served

throughout the years on their sign.

And he's like, but everybody I talk to, they're like, oh, I

don't eat McDonald's. It's so bad for you.

And he's like, look at all those burgers.

Somebody's eating them. And he says, maybe you just go

for the fries. Maybe it's for the MC Rib, maybe

it's for like the hot apple pie or whatever it is.

But everybody's got something. And he said, and maybe you

don't. Maybe you're one of those people

that never eats at McDonald's. He said, but would you look at

the gossip magazine when you're going through the the checkout

lane? And he starts saying, like, Oh

my gosh, did she cut her hair? Why do I care?

This is none of my business. I can't believe these two people

I've never met got divorced. And he says it's all McDonald's.

McDonald's did not sponsor this sermon.

And I don't think they would if they had read my notes.

But I'm loving it. Get it?

All right, That was that wasn't in there.

I'm asking you, listen, most of us will pay more attention to

what we eat than what we put into our soul.

I'm asking you to be observant this week.

Pay attention to what is feeding your soul.

Pay attention not just to what you watch or listen to.

Pay attention to the conversations you have, to the

ideas you entertain. And do they line up with things

that God has already told you? We've all got some McDonald's

out there and you're going to feel real guilty if you go there

after church today. All right, the last thing I

would tell you here, and this is a really practical step that

every Christian can do and probably should do, how about we

intentionally give God the 1st and final word in our day?

I don't want this to become something where you're like,

well, what does that mean? So let me walk that out.

Not the first text message, not the first opinion.

God's voice. Before your head hits the pillow

at night, pause long enough to ask yourself, God, did I listen

to you more than I listen to anybody else today?

These are important questions. When you wake up, can you get to

the place where you say, God, what do you want me to do today?

The other voices, they're going to come.

You don't have to look for them. Seek first the Kingdom of God,

right? And all the other stuff that you

need, it all gets added in there.

That's probably the most challenging step of all is to

give him first and last. And when you ask him at the end

of the day, was there anything that captured my heart in a way

that it shouldn't? That question will probably be

uncomfortable, but if you ask it with the right heart, it'll be

revealing and you'll be better for it.

Well, you have to guard what enters your heart, but you also

have to guard what leaves your heart.

So let's go ahead and talk about that.

How many people here consider themselves to be fairly

unfiltered in what they say? I'll buckle up, Marie.

I have found that I am increasingly unfiltered as it

gets later in the day. That's where I get it's it's a

form of funnier, but it's a little meaner.

So sometimes I just go to bed. Cassie always says she loves it

when I get like that, unless, unless I'm talking to her.

So let's go to Jonah, chapter 4, Old Testament.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

You know Jonah and the big fish, Jonah and the whale, right?

While you're getting there, I'll just tell you this, as important

as it is to guard what enters the heart, I think a lot of

Christians that really do endeavor to live for the Lord

stop there. You hear guard your heart.

And it's like a gate where you're just careful about what

enters, but you pay no attention to the exit gate.

And Christians have to guard both.

We might become careful about what we watch or listen to or

read or what influences us. But Jesus also taught

consistently that the condition of the heart is revealed not by

what enters it, but by what comes out of it, right?

So that's important because it is completely normal to

experience that wide range of emotions we were talking about

earlier. We all have moments of anger.

We all have moments of disappointment and hurt and

confusion and fear. We all have doubts.

Having a thought is not a sin. Just so you know, having a dream

is not a sin. Having an emotion is not a sin.

The question is what do you do with all those things once they

arrive on your doorstep? One of the things that I have

learned through the travel that I have done is that countries

don't just pay attention to what enters their borders.

They they also pay attention to what leaves their borders.

I remember being on a trip with teenagers one time and one of

the teenagers got pulled to the side because they had a sandwich

that they would not allow into America, even though they gave

her the sandwich on the flight from Guatemala to America.

So you can have it in the air, but you can't have it on the

soil, and she was pulled to the side.

They're very, very specific and they have their rules for it.

Why don't we have rules for what comes in and what goes out of

our hearts? We have to be specific about

what we allow out. Now, of course, when it comes to

a country, a lot of times they're very worried about

agricultural things or things that are, you know, not supposed

to be travelled or you're trafficking something across

country borders or things like that.

And I get it. But it's really not that

different with the human heart when you think about it.

The same thing is true spiritually.

We can spend all day talking about what we're allowing into

our hearts, but I would just tell you this.

If you're allowing, as best you can tell, only good things in,

but what's coming out of your heart is bitterness and division

and resentment and pessimism and gossip and constant negative

thoughts and words. We're not really guarding

ourselves, are we? I would tell you this, a guarded

heart is not a heart that never feels anything difficult.

A guarded heart is a heart that refuses to let every feeling

become a declaration that they now have to act on.

So whether you're looking to to vent or someone's asking you for

advice, remember that if you want to live a holy life, it's

still your job to keep an eye on what you export as well as what

you import. That's what makes the story of

Jonah fascinating to me. By the time we get to chapter 4,

Nineveh has already repented. And and just so we're all on the

same page, Jonah was given this job where he was told, go to

Nineveh, preach that my judgement is coming.

And the whole reason he wanted Jonah to preach this was so that

the people of Nineveh would repent.

And he said, go to the left. Jonah said.

I'll go to the right. And so he takes off and he ends

up getting thrown overboard, gets swallowed by a big fish or

a whale or whatever, you know, depending on your translation,

gets spit out a few days later, according to this scriptural

story. And he goes and he says, all

right, all right, you've convinced me I will go to

Nineveh. And he goes there and he

preaches about God's warning and revival breaks out.

Revival. I mean a genuine like nationwide

turning towards God from the leadership all the way down of

the nation, everybody turns towards the Lord.

Now, for somebody who loves God, should this not be the biggest

victory? Could you imagine?

Would you not want to go back home and be like, I have to tell

you about the goodness of God? He sent me into the heart of the

enemy country, and I saw lives get changed.

We all worship the same God. They've returned home to their

Father, their creator. Can you believe God would use

somebody like me even after I got swallowed by this fish?

I know I need a shower, but I had to tell you about what God

did, and that's not what happens.

And if you've read the book of Jonah, you know this.

We find him sitting outside the city that is now rejoicing

because they've been spared. And he's angry.

And I don't mean he's irked or mildly frustrated.

He's furious. The ugliest parts of him are

leaking out as he sits alone. And I won't get into the

breakdown of the words, but the Hebrew language in this chapter

actually paints a picture of someone who is highly offended

by God's mercy. But again, before we judge him,

have you ever seen a blessing hit somebody that you felt like

deserved a judgement? You might have been offended by

God's mercy if that's the case, it's a ridiculous sentence for a

Christian, isn't it? But as you read through the book

of Jonah, Jonah had no problem receiving grace for himself.

He just struggled with God extending that same grace to

people he believed didn't deserve it.

Starting in verse one of Jonah 4 said this change of plans when

the Lord was merciful to Nineveh greatly upset Jonah and he

became very angry. So he complained to the Lord

about it. Didn't I say before I left home

that you would do this, Lord? That's why I ran away to

Tarshish. I don't know if he was trying to

insult him, but he says I knew that you're merciful and

compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing

love. You're eager to turn back from

destroying people. 1st 3C says just kill me now.

He does. He says just kill me now.

Lord, I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will

not happen. So here it is.

He went there and said God's judgement is coming.

And when God's mercy arrived instead, because their hearts

changed, his heart changed as well and it was filled with

pride. And the Lord replied, is it

right for you to be angry about this?

It's like a biblical understatement.

And Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a

shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen

to the city. I think he's still looking to

see like, well, maybe some judgement still going to come,

maybe just in the bad corner of town.

I don't know. And it says in verse 6 that the

Lord arranged for a leafy plant to grow there.

And soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head,

shading him from the sun. And this eased is discomfort.

And Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

Oh, he does like that grace when it comes his way.

But God also arranged for a worm and the next morning at dawn,

the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered

away and as the sun grew hot, got arranged for a scorching E

wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head

until he grew faint and wished to die.

He said death is certainly better than living like this.

And then God said to Jonah, here's this question, Ian.

Is it is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?

Yes, Jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.

Oh, he got him, didn't he? Then the Lord said you feel

sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.

It came quickly and died quickly.

But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in

spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.

Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?

See, he feels bad for the plant because the plant was beneficial

to him. And to some extent, this is

natural, right? When you lose a loved one, it

normally hits you harder than when somebody you know loses a

loved 1. You can still feel for them, but

it hits you deeper. That's not what we're talking

about here. This is all built around

benefit. This is all built around pride.

I wonder what it would be like if every time we felt like

Jonah, the Lord simply asked us the same question He asked him.

Is it right for you to be angry about this?

Not do you have a reason because I just want you to know most of

us have reasons. The question is not were you

hurt? Because sometimes we genuinely

are hurt, aren't we? The question isn't even did

something unfair happen? Because often something unfair

happens. The question got asked Jonah is

deeper than all of those. He just says is it right for you

to carry anger over it? How many arguments would end

differently if we stopped and asked that question before we

spoke to the people we say that we love the most?

How many? How many angry tweets would

never be posted? How many bitter conversations

would have never happened? How many relationships would

heal faster? And I wonder how many wounds

would stop spreading? Because there are times when we

don't just feel anger. We feed it, we rehearse it, and

we nurture it until it grows roots just like that plant.

It's because what leaves the heart has often been living

there longer than we really realized.

We allowed it to be there. It was small.

We didn't think it was a big deal, but it grew.

What amazes me about Jonah here is that God keeps pursuing him

even there. Wouldn't you think, Well, I

saved 120 thousand of them. But Jonah's a little bit of a

lost cause. God doesn't even abandoned

Jonah. He doesn't shame him.

He patiently exposes sin in him. He uses a plant, a worm, and

wind. He's trying to help Jonah see

something that Jonah could not see in himself until his

circumstances changed. So somewhere along the way,

Jonah's heart had become so consumed with his own

perspective that he could no longer celebrate.

Was God what God was doing? It's a really dangerous place to

be. But his words revealed his

heart. And our words, they also reveal

our hearts. The way that we talk about

people reveals our hearts. The things that we repeatedly

complain about or criticize or mock or obsess over, they all

show what's been growing under the surface.

And I do want you to know this. It doesn't mean to suppress your

emotions. It doesn't mean that we become

fake Christians who smile through everything either.

If that's who you want to be, I got some churches to recommend

to you. I want real people here.

It does mean, though, that we have to learn to process our

frustrations with God before we weaponize our frustrations with

other people. A few years ago I had an old

coffee maker that was sort of like on its last leg.

And no matter what we tried to do with like the coffee filter,

it would always put coffee grounds in the, in the coffee.

And it was like, man, it was a crapshoot.

One day was fine, the next day it wasn't.

And we would just tried to make the best of it.

And then I thought, well, I'll just drink the top half of the

coffee. You know, I'm cutting back,

right? It's healthier.

I don't know. But the problem is then you'd

have One Cup or two cups and it was fine.

And then the third cup, you'd get a mouthful of grounds.

And it was really gross. And if you have you ever had?

Am I? I'm not the only one.

You've done that before. You get that mouth full of

grounds and you're like, oh, that's not what I some of you

are weird. And you're just like, I'll chew

it, I'll drink it. I just love it.

Yeah. God bless you.

Church is a place for the sick. But for me, every time I try to

drink it, it just, it ruined it. And So what I ended up doing was

just not even drinking coffee the same amount I wanted to

before. I was like, you know, I just

need a new, I need a new coffee maker.

The problem with that coffee maker wasn't that it couldn't

still process water through coffee grounds.

The problem was that it couldn't filter it properly.

And because it couldn't filter it properly, I avoided it.

Well, why do I bring that up today?

As I was thinking about the story of Jonah, I thought about

my coffee maker. May it rest in peace.

It just hit me. Some of us wonder why certain

people don't come to us like they used to.

We wonder why fewer people seek our advice, or share their

struggles or or bring us into important moments.

We're still available. We're still willing to talk.

We're still pouring into people. But we haven't realized that

what we're pouring is not what it used to be.

If we haven't guarded our heart. If every conversation contains

bitterness, people notice it over time, not in one or two

conversations. If every discussion eventually

feels like criticism. If every story turns into gossip

or permission for what they want to do, or or outrage and anger

and negativity, people notice over time, and even if they

don't make the conscious decision, they start to avoid it

because they're tired of getting the grounds in their cup.

Eventually people stop coming. And it's not because they don't

love you, and it's not because they don't need encouragement or

wisdom or friendship. They just stop coming because

they've learned what settles at the bottom of the conversation.

How do we guard what leaves our heart?

It's even harder, right? Because it's already in there

and God can take care of it. But what do we do with it?

One practical thing that might change your life is learning to

delay your response when your emotions are running hot.

Jonah felt something, and he immediately started talking.

Most of us do the same thing. We fire off the text or make the

phone call. One of the easiest ways to guard

what leaves is to create space between what you're feeling and

what you're speaking. A lot of times when you say

something, you're expressing the emotion, but you're not

expressing the facts. But the problem is, once you've

expressed it, they're going to take it as a hard opinion, and

you're in a lot of trouble there.

I'll just tell you this, Very few people that I know of have

ever regretted waiting. But I know a lot of people that

have regretted speaking too quickly.

Another habit you can do. Yeah, I enjoyed writing that.

Stop treating people as emotional dumpsters, OK?

We all need trusted people and we all need accountability.

We all need wise counsel. It's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the tendency that when you haven't dealt with

an issue in your life, it becomes what you have to talk

about with everybody. And now we unload our

frustration on whoever happens to be nearby.

They walk away saying, why would they tell me this?

Some people process every disappointment out loud, and

then they wonder why they've become negative.

Before you share something, just ask yourself, am I looking for

wisdom or am I looking for agreement?

Two different conversations happen there.

They're not the same thing. If all you're doing is

recruiting people to join your offence, you're not solving the

problem. You're actually not even

containing it to you. You're spreading it.

And here's a practical challenge.

I'm I'm going to ask you for a show of hands in a moment, but

don't lie in the House of God, all right?

How about we spend one week refusing to speak negatively

about anyone who's not in the room in any way.

Just one week. Not one week of lying, not one

week of pretending problems don't exist.

I'm saying one week of refusing to criticize or gossip or mock

or complain about or tear down somebody who can't even respond

to you. Who's willing to do that?

All right, I won't know. But you know who will?

Come on VBS season, Who's going to know?

Jesus. That's right.

OK, number one. Number one thing that I would

tell you, it's the fourth step, but it's more powerful than

everything else we've talked about on how to do this.

Start replacing your complaints with prayers.

This is something that has been standard in my life for a long

time. If I'm really struggling with

somebody, I'm a pray for them. It's very difficult to stay at

the same level of angry with somebody when you're interceding

for them. And let me be explicit in this

for you because I remember talking to Christians before

where I'm like in different, different areas, Hey, are you

praying for the president? They're like, I'm praying for

him to be impeached, praying for him to get out of office or

whatever. All right, so you could have

said no would have been fine. I don't care if it's your

politics or not. Every president we've ever had,

as far as I know, has been somebody made in the image of

God who needs Jesus. Not more or less than you, the

same amount as you. So when I'm saying pray for

someone, it doesn't start with Lord.

You know how they are. Well, not because he doesn't.

He does. He knows how you are too though.

So. So when you go to him and you

start praying blessings over them, God create unity in their

family. God, would you just make

yourself more present in their life?

Would they become a godlier man or a godlier woman?

Not would you help me be redeemed in their eyes or would

you help like stand up for me there?

No, don't worry about being defensive.

It's not about you. Pray blessings over somebody and

then let him do what he does. You know the New Testament, it

says that vengeance is for the Lord, right?

When you show honor, it actually says you're like raking hot

coals over their head. But don't let that be your

motive either. Oh, I'll show you about to catch

a blessing. You're going to feel so bad

about it. One thing that I'm very big on,

I'm trying to make sure every time I preach that I always talk

about Jesus. Jesus had a lot to say about the

heart. And I've got 2 scriptures I want

to share with you before we get out of here today, and before

you drive right past McDonald's and pivot.

Choose somewhere else to eat. As we close today, I keep coming

back to the picture of that beekeeping suit.

Two things I know. First of all, the goal was not

to remove every bee from the environment so I'd feel safe.

I'd be pretty silly in that bee suit if there was no bees.

But the goal was also not for me to lash out and smash every bee

I could find. Mr. Jerry would have been very

upset with me. The goal was for me to be

prepared for the environment that I was entering.

I needed to make sure that who I am on the inside was safe from

outside sources. But I also couldn't use what was

inside the suit to wound those that were outside of me.

Does this make sense? Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Jesus says this. Look, I am sending you out as

sheep among wolves. We talk a lot about.

Look out for the wolves in sheep's clothing.

Don't get deceived. He sent us out as sheep among

wolves. Does that sound like a safe

place to send your sheep? I don't know how many farmers we

have here, but I'm guessing no, he said.

Be shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.

But beware, for you'll be handed over to the courts and you'll be

flogged with the whips in the synagogues.

You'll stand before you, stand trial before governors and kings

because you're my followers, but this will be your opportunity to

tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.

Now, most of us aren't going to be flogged in a government

building. Most of us aren't going to have

to stand trial because we're Christians.

And God willing, I hope that we never get to the place that we

have to stand trial for being a believer.

But you are going to endure hard conversations and judgement and

criticism, and some of the criticism will be valid and some

of it won't. And you're going to have to

endure a lot of things. And do you know what Jesus said?

He said that will be your opportunity to tell others and

unbelievers about me. We look at it as an opportunity

for us to withdraw and then feel safer.

And Jesus looked at it completely differently.

And you may say, I don't even know what I would do if I tried

to do that. Well, I'm glad you would, He

said in verse 19. When you're arrested, don't

worry about how to respond or what to say.

God will give you the right words at the right time.

It is not you who will be speaking, It will be the Spirit

of your Father speaking through you.

I'm telling you guys, in this pursuit for holiness, if you

will guard what comes into your heart, and if you will guard

what leaves your heart, which is the true evidence of who you

are, God will give you the right things to say.

You won't have to sit up late at night and agonize.

Well, how do I witness best? How do I say this to this angry

person? How do I handle this situation?

How will I do this? Because God Himself will speak

through you, and you can't prepare for it other than to

prepare your heart. If you prepare your heart, God

will give you the words. It's not my promise, it's right

there. Isn't it interesting that Jesus

uses some of the same imagery that we've been talking about

all morning when he talks about them being sent out amongst

wolves? He never promised that the

wolves would disappear. He's trying to turn those wolves

into sheep. He doesn't promise that the

environment is going to be safe. Hey, now that you work for me,

welcome to Team Christianity. I got a real nice I got a real

nice assignment for you and that's what we saw in Genesis.

Also, Eve wasn't guarding what entered her heart.

It's what we saw in Saul. Other voices became louder than

God's voice. It's what we saw in Jonah would

have been growing in his heart eventually began leaving through

his words and his attitude. And here's your last scripture.

We started with a tree and we're going to end with a tree.

Luke chapter 6. Jesus tells us this.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't

produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its

fruit. Figs are never gathered from

thorn bushes and grapes are not picked from Bramble bushes, in

case you were curious. But listen what he says in verse

45. He says a good person produces

good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person

produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.

I wish evil hearts didn't have a treasury, but they do.

He says what you say flows from what is in your heart.

And you may say, well, there's some people that are really good

at lying and saying the wrong thing.

I know, I know. Eventually, though, the fruit

tells the truth. Not every single word, but when

you look at somebody's life, you'll always see what kind of

fruit is there. We can all manage our

appearances for a while. We can all explain ourselves for

a while, and we can justify ourselves for a while, but

eventually what's in the heart will find its way out into the

open. But I want you to know this

church. That's good news.

It's really good news. Because the point of this

message is not to make you suspicious of every thought or

ashamed of every emotion you have.

The point is that you would know that God cares enough to help us

pay attention to the places in our lives that are being

developed. Your quest for holiness will

never be perfection. We talked about this on

Wednesday night. But integrity means wholeness or

completeness. It is not perfection.

You can be complete in the Lord and still battle your sin life.

Your goal is not perfection. It is to be completely and

wholly turned over and devoted to Him and Him alone.

Holiness is cooperation with the Holy Spirit, letting God choose

what comes in and letting God choose what comes out.

So this week, just to remind you, pay attention.

Pay attention to the voices that are influencing you and the

conversations you're having with yourself.

Pay attention to what consistently comes out of your

mouth when life gets difficult. Why do we pay attention to these

things? So that we can invite God back

into these places in our lives. What God reveals, He can

transform. So God, I'm just asking for you

to reveal things we don't want to be revealed, but reveal them

to us in your kindness. You're creative when you

revealed it to Jonah. Be creative as you reveal it to

us. Be a good Father and walk with

us through the transformation that we need.

We want to lift holy hands that come from holy arms that are all

fueled from a holy heart. We want to be set apart for you,

and we're just not able to do it on our own.

So we come here and we ask you. We are still desperate for you.

Make us more like you. In the name of Jesus, Amen.