Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Uh, we're gonna continue our, our talk on, uh, discernment this morning. And the topic is interesting because I mentioned this when we first started this series a while ago, that if there's one thing that I would pray for for my kids these days, it's not necessarily that they know more scripture, but that they can discern God's will. And for even for them and for us as adults, that becomes a difficult thing to do sometimes, especially with the world changing so rapidly around us and requiring us to change with it. And so today we're gonna, uh, actually continue our discussion on discernment. Uh, this one is actually one of my favorite. And then next week, if you're tracking with us, uh, we're gonna talk about discerning evil spirits. So, uh, so that'll be fun for everybody, won't it? Uh, but for now, today we're gonna be talking about discerning my heart motives.
Speaker 0 00:00:54 I don't know about you, but for me, it is increasingly difficult to discern what is right and what is wrong when my heart speaks to me. I have an interesting, um, ongoing battle with my heart where it tells me one thing and I think, well, maybe that's the will of God. Maybe that's the wants of God for my life, and maybe it's not. I went fishing the other day, which is something that I enjoy doing, and I spent the day in the stream when I got out of the stream. Now you have to understand when you're in the stream, you're walking miles in the, in, uh, in this rocky water, and you're walking up banks, and you're walking down banks, and there's a lot of brush in the way, and there's, there's currents and there's, it's, it's, you've got the waiters on, you got the full gear on you sweat all day.
Speaker 0 00:01:42 And, uh, and it's really, it's really actually quite a workout. So every time I go fishing, I think to myself, it's okay. Like, I can handle that because I'm gonna lose some weight outta this too. I'll enjoy the day, enjoy, and I'll lose some weight. And so, uh, that's really something that, that I think about on my drive home. And when I'm driving home, I find that I'm getting hungry. And so, uh, as I'm driving home, I'm thinking to myself, while I spent the day in the stream, I sweat a lot. I, I probably lost at least 10 pounds, so I deserve something nice. And so I'll stop and get a burger or a fries or something like that. I'll think to myself, eh, it, it won't even equal out to me. And I'm still ahead of the game, right? And then I see Culver's, and then I think to myself, ah, you know, I had hard day.
Speaker 0 00:02:27 I worked, I worked it off. Surely I deserve this Culver. I'll stop and get a concrete mixer or something like that. I'll eat on the way back. And then on the way back, while I'm driving back, I feel terrible <laugh> because I haven't eaten all day except the stuff that's now sitting in me. And, and I kind of ruined the day because whatever gains I had at the beginning of the day were losses at the end. And it, it's a silly illustration that kind of illustrate to you how sometimes for me, and I don't know about you, but sometimes for me, my heart kind of plays games with me. It kind of tells me that I deserve something. I've worked hard, I need this thing. And not necessarily am I always looking for God's plan for my life or God's want for my life. Sometimes I just want to treat, treat yourself.
Speaker 0 00:03:13 And that's kind of the, that's kind of what I, what I play games with once in a while. Sometimes in the world, the world that we live in can be very persuasive, we think to ourselves, is this the want of God or is it just one of my wants? You get me to buy all kinds of different things. I never knew I needed so many Ginsu knives in my life, but the world has persuaded me without that I can't cut through, you know, wood in the backyard without a chin suit knife, which is why you would typically use that for not just buying physical things. But the world has convinced us that we might need some ideologies that they sell us as well. Some philosophies. They, they have populated, populated and popularized a set of ideals that they constantly try to sell to us. And I'm constantly asking myself, do I need this thing?
Speaker 0 00:04:06 Should I add this thing to my life? If I follow this group, if I subscribe to this activity, if I post this sign on my business, will this bring glory to God? Or is there some other reason I want to do this thing? I don't know about you, but I've noticed, uh, especially in the past couple of years, people have have bought into all kinds of different ideologies. Not because they buy into them because they're worthwhile, but because it's popular. It's like what everybody else is doing. And so it seems like the right thing to do and given enough time, everybody forgets about it, and you wait for the next pill. The world tells you to die on. My personal desires are also very persuasive. I know that God wants me to follow his way. I know that I should not follow my way, and yet my personal desires can certainly get in my way.
Speaker 0 00:05:01 How can I be sure of the choices that I make? Will my choices actually bring God glory or is there another reason hidden to me that I wanna do this thing, add this thing to my life, believe in this thing, follow this thing. Playing this game is something that my heart does with me constantly. And I don't know about you, but I'm constantly, these days, I turn on the tv, I listen to the radio, I I live in the world around me, and I'm thinking to myself, is this something I need to adopt? Is this something I need to believe in? Is this something I need to follow? Or am I doing it for the wrong reasons? Will this bring God glory or am I doing it for a different reason? Here's what discernment means in the, in the, uh, context of what we're talking about.
Speaker 0 00:05:47 Discernment is testing and determining what is right for me in a given situation. And like I said at the beginning, my goal for my kids and my goal for you, my goal for, for any believer these days is that they would discern correctly not being pushed or persuaded by personal desires or outward demands or, or popular ideas, but so that we can actually learn and do god's will. We say we want to do God's will as believers, but sometimes I'm not sure if everything we do declares that to be absolutely true. God, like we talked about last week, has given me resources so that I can know his wants for my life. The Holy Spirit, the Bible, listening to others, the counsel of others, all of these different things that God has given to me. He wants me to use my faculties to figure out what his wants are for me.
Speaker 0 00:06:39 But today I want to tell you that we fight a common enemy and that common enemy is our heart. How do we know that our heart is listening to God and not to other things? How do I know I'm discerning what God wants and not what I want The battle to no true motivations begins with me acknowledging, first of all, I can be deceived. So I was, I was curious about this because you know, you look at me and I'm, I'm the pastor for church. Certainly you can't be deceived. Oh, well little do you know because I deal with the same things that you do, the motivation to do God's will, but always the questions is this God's will, God's wants or is it my wants? If you look up the word deceive in the Bible, you'll be amazed. I was curious about this this week.
Speaker 0 00:07:27 So I looked up the word deceive. It is everywhere Now. I'm glad you're sitting down because these are some of the ways we can be deceived. You ready for this? Yeah. This is kind of scary. In Psalm 52, 4, it says, our tongue can deceive us. In fact, tongues deceiving others and ourselves is constant throughout the Bible. Psalm 32, 2 says, the spirit in us can be deceit, deceitful. Now, not the Holy Spirit but our, our fallen spirit that is within us. Psalm 32, 2, Proverbs 31 says, charm can be deceitful. Jeremiah 14 says, your mind can be deceitful. Matthew 13 says, well, Jesus said riches can deceive us. Ephesians four says, our own desires can deceive us. First Timothy four says, evil spirits can deceive us. Hebrews three says, our sin can deceive us. Second Timothy 2 26 says, church leaders can deceive us. Can you believe that?
Speaker 0 00:08:26 No, I know <laugh>, but you know the biggest one of all, the biggest thing that can deceive us above all things is, and we know what it is. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful. What are the next three words above all things and desperately, what's the next word? Sick. Who can understand it? Now, I'd like a show of hands here. How many of you currently have a functioning heart? Okay, good. If you didn't raise your hand, you should seek medical help immediately. Every one of us has a functioning heart. Heart in the Bible is not necessarily your flesh heart, but is your seat of motivation is what drives you to do what you do to make what you make to be who you are. The seed of motivation. Jesus warned the Pharisees in Mark seven, verse six, Jesus said to the Pharisees, well, did Isaiah say prophesy of you?
Speaker 0 00:09:27 Hypocrites, as it is written, the people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain, do they worship me? Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men? These guys were convinced they were worshiping God. They were convinced these Pharisees, that they were doing God's will. But Jesus said they were teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. These guys were absolutely sold out to God, they thought, but their hearts deceived them. You should know that the heart is the most deceitful thing in you above all things. It is desperately sick. But there is a clue in the very next verse in Jeremiah that we should know because of the very next verse, gives us a little bit of hope. And here's what it says. But the Lord, I the Lord search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. In other words, if you want, God can search and test your mind, your heart, and make it what it needs to be. We know this to be true.
Speaker 0 00:10:37 In fact, I'm gonna break a major, a major rule of preaching this morning. I'm gonna tell you what the end is before we actually get there. Here's the end of the whole message. You wanna know what it is? God can change your heart. Thank God. God can change your heart. God can rule your heart. God can purify your heart. God can make a renovation in your heart so that you do know what his will is and you are not deceived. In fact, David, God's favorite king tells us this himself when he falls into sin for over a year, one of the worst sins of all time, murdered adultery. I mean, he lying, all this stuff. But in Psalm 51, when he repents for his behavior, he gives us a clue. And here's what he says. Psalm 51 10, he says, create in me. In fact, would you read this with me please?
Speaker 0 00:11:34 'cause it's a great verse. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit. If your heart is unclean, if your heart is deceitful, if you're following your heart and wondering yourself, I wanna do the glory of God, but I'm not quite sure this is right. The prayer, David can also be yours. You can pray for God to clean your heart. Isn't that great? You're not on your own. James three tells us about the tongue. And it's a terrible passage of scripture. If you wanna run and go to bed and read a terrible passage of scripture, read James three. 'cause it basically says, your tongue is in you and all it does is bad stuff constantly. In fact, it is a restless evil full of deadly poison. This is a terrible way to talk about our tongues. But if you go to Ephesians four and Ephesians five, it says that our tongues can be clean by God.
Speaker 0 00:12:24 Our hearts are the same way as followers of Jesus. That prayer of David is fulfilled in us. When Jesus comes to live in us, he can clean our arts. So we know our motivation is God's motivation. Here's the passage that I wanna work through with you this morning. It's in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. Look at what it says. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the what? Church of the heart, the word of God can discern the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. Now, cut and slicing is all in this passage of scripture, and it actually is taken from the Old Testament idea of, of, of a butcher's life, what the priest uses. When you brought an animal to the priest, that guy had to cut through bone and marrow and sinew and everything else, slice that sucker up, burn it up, and give you part of it to take home.
Speaker 0 00:13:30 He had to be a world class butcher. And he had to know what parts to slice off, what parts to burn, and what parts to send home and what parts that didn't get used for anything. But he was a great slicer. Hebrews four comes into it, and it reminds us that the word of God is the same thing. It's like a butcher's knife. It slices through muscle, flesh, ligament, it cuts apart. And it's two t. What's the good of a two T sword? It slices one way, and when you bring it out, it slices the other way. Slice, slice, slice. We're disgusting, right? Nothing is safe from the word of God. Moments of stress expose me to slicing. By the way, when my life goes through stressful moments, I realize what I'm made of. James one, two says, this, count at all joys my brother.
Speaker 0 00:14:28 When you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. In other words, the slicing that goes on in our lives are stressful moments, painful moments, moments when we make bad decisions and we have to come back to God. And we feel sliced moments when we have stuff come into our lives that we have no control over losing our jobs or health issues or our parents and decisions our children make slice, slice, slice moments when we make decisions we're not proud of. And we think to ourself, can I ever come back to the Lord? Slice, slice. My response to the cutting slices reveals whose glory I'm seeking. It reveals the genuineness of my heart. I I want to just rock your world one more time.
Speaker 0 00:15:34 I've taught this passage before the word of God. What is the word of God in this passage? Typically when I've taught this before, I've always taught that the word of God is the written word of God. Open God's word and it'll slice away all of this, all of the stuff that you need to get rid of, all of the silliness that you're thinking of, all of the fears and all of the, all of the pain that you're going through. And it'll bring reality to your life, a clarity to your life. I've always taught that it was God's written word. I no longer believe that. Instead, let me tell you what I think the word of God is. In Hebrews chapter four, Hebrews chapter four talks about the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword. There are two things called the word of God in scripture.
Speaker 0 00:16:19 Do you know what they are? The word of God is God's written word, but the word of God is also one other thing. What is it? Do you remember this? One of the spear That's right, the sword of the spear, which is God's written word, but it's also one other thing. Really smart kids right here in the front row. <laugh>, it's Jesus Christ. In John chapter one, in verse one, it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was, the word was in the beginning with God. The word Lagos refers to Jesus Christ constantly in scripture. So when God, when we read about the word of God in scripture, it can be God's written word or it can be God's living word, Jesus Christ. I now believe Hebrews chapter four is not necessarily talking only about the written word of God, but I think more specifically it's talking about Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:17:05 The word of God is sharper than any two edge of sword setting this passage. It blows me away. And the reason that I think that is because context matters. And if you read in the book of Hebrews chapter one to chapter three, it only talks about Jesus. Jesus is bigger than the angels. Jesus is bigger than Moses. Jesus is bigger than Jesus is our high priest. Jesus is this, Jesus is that. And then it gets to Hebrews four and and it still talks about Jesus, but only in the word of God context. And then after this gets what it talks about in Hebrews chapter five, Jesus, I think this word of God is actually Jesus living in us. And I think that's the power that can cleanse our hearts. That's the power that helps us discern what is right God's wants and what is not God's wants.
Speaker 0 00:17:57 I think through the Holy Spirit, Jesus dwells in us and cuts away at our motivations. Why? Because Lord, I am prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love because we're prone to listen to our own wants rather than God's wants. We all have a deceptive heart in us, and we need God's help to discern what is his wants and what is our wants. Discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, I think, is Jesus doing surgery on our hearts? Once we confess that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, he goes to work like a butcher's knife slicing away, giving us this amazing ability to know his wants versus our wants.
Speaker 0 00:18:44 It's also interesting in, in, uh, this passage, Hebrews four, and in Hebrews three, one of the reason I believe this is because it says constantly three times, three different times. It quotes an Old Testament verse. And that Old Testament verse is today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. When you hear Jesus' voice working inside you, don't harden your heart. That heart that is deceitful about all things. Don't let it be hardened. Don't go back to the old ways, the old, the old desires, the old, the old pulls. Instead, let Jesus do the slicing that he needs to do for us. This is compelling. This is the compelling motivation to listen to one voice and one voice only. In fact, in verse seven, it says again, he appoints a a certain day today saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
Speaker 0 00:19:42 Jesus will help us understand the motivations of our actions. How do I know who am I surrendering to? When I, when I wanna make choices in my life? Am I really doing what God wants? I'm telling you, the devil is very, very creative in this. He will help you think you are doing God's will for all the right reasons when in actuality you are not. We are not. So do I believe that because Jesus has saved me. I can live my own way. That's a false gospel with a false Jesus. Do I believe that uh, my good works can get me anywhere, any good standing with God? False Jesus false gospel there. There's a ton of them in our world today, but verse 14 says this, since then, we have a great high priest again talking about Jesus who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
Speaker 0 00:20:44 This is the key. What is our confession? Not a confession, but the confession. The confession is that Jesus is the Lord of our lives and his will is better than mine. When you come to know Jesus as your savior, that is the confession that we make. That is the confession you make. God's will is better than mine. He knows more. He has the authority. I will follow his will. I am his servant. He is not mine. My confession guides every part of my life, every choice, every decision I make, it's not a confession, it's the confession. Jesus is the Lord of my life. And the closer you are to Jesus, the better decisions you'll make. That is the bottom line. I've been in ministry for 30 plus years and I have seen this to be true all the time. The closer you are to Jesus, the better decisions you make When somebody stops coming to church, when somebody starts fading away or they start losing interest in Jesus, it's usually because their hearts begin to, one, they usually stop coming to church.
Speaker 0 00:21:52 It's usually a telltale sign and it's always been something that just kind of grates in my stomach because I wish it were for different reasons, but it's almost always because hearts wander from Jesus. And so the body follows. So we must know Jesus, the Jesus of God's word, not the Jesus that somebody makes up. Verse 13, why is that important? Because no creature is hidden from his sight. All are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. What does that mean? He's the only one that can discern our hearts, and he is the only one that can judge our hearts. And at the end of the day, what re what matters is my response to his prompting in my life. The key is this, my daily response to Jesus indicates the status of my heart. So listen, church, in your hinge moment when the, uh, when the stuff hits the fan, when it all goes south, when when it gets really tough, when when, when the stress moments come, do you run closer to Jesus or do you want run away from him?
Speaker 0 00:22:57 Because that is an indication of your heart's condition. It is an indication of who rules your heart. People who are close to Jesus, run to Jesus in their hard moments. Press into Jesus' chest when their hearts begin to fail. The motivations of my choices are already obvious, obvious to God. My prayer is that their motivation of my heart becomes obvious to me. God already knows why I do what I do. The challenge for me is that I know why I do what I do. I've given you this illustration before 'cause it's a great illustration and it makes me look bad <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:23:41 I look next to a guy who was an older guy and he had heart surgery. This is when we were in Madison. We had one of the worst snowfalls of all time, and it all ended in his driveway and my driveway and everybody else's driveway. I mean it was deep up to up to the knees. My snowblower broke. I had to shovel out my driveway, my sidewalk, my my doorstep. I had to shovel that all out. And then I looked over to his house and I thought to myself, uh, another whole house, he just had surgery. He shouldn't be out shoveling, but he, and he should know this also, he had the world's biggest snowblower. I mean, you needed a seatbelt to work this thing. I never got to use it. I always had to use my little, you know, little push snowblower. And that broke.
Speaker 0 00:24:31 So I had my shovel and I thought to myself, I really should do this. So I went over and I spent three hours shoveling 'em out. I mean, I was sweating. It was cold, it was nasty. I finally got it all shoveled out by hand with a shovel. And then I thought to myself, all right, I did this for the Lord. This is for the Lord. God loves this my neighbor and I need to love my neighbor. And I did it for the Lord. And I finished shoveling, scooped it all up. It looked pretty, it looked fantastic. And I put my shovel on my shoulder and I walked home and I thought to myself, I'm a pretty good guy.
Speaker 0 00:25:08 <laugh> makes me look bad, doesn't it? I'm a pretty good guy. None of my neighbors would've done mess. They got all their snowblowers and that none of them down here doing. But I, I'm a pretty good God. And you know what? I realized my heart is sick because I did that. I wanted to do that for the Lord. And I flushed it down the toilet because I really did it for you. And I struggled with the same thing. God already knows our motivations. The challenge for us is to know our own motivations. The point of this whole thing is motivation for my choices are revealed by the death of my commitment to Jesus Christ. I know I must give an account to him. My goal is to remain faithful in devotion to Jesus in all circumstances, so that in all circumstances I am doing things for his glory and not my own. In fact, this is how chapter four begins. Therefore, while promising, the entering of his rest still stands, let us fearless. Any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. And you could gloss over that verse because it doesn't make a lot of sense. But the bottom line is, Jesus is God's rest. And when we rest in Jesus, the motivations of our heart become easier to discern.
Speaker 0 00:26:31 My confession needs to line up with God's confession, with God's gospel of who Jesus is. Satan would be glad to sell you a version of Jesus in order to keep you from the real thing. And there's lots of churches that will give you a version of Jesus to keep you from the real thing. But the key is if you go home and check with a written word, it will help you understand what is true and what is right. So the bottom line is who do you serve? This is about serving Jesus Christians one 10. Paul says, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. So is your motivation to please men, including yourself or women, including yourself, or is to please God? And if it's to please God, then you are a good servant of Jesus Christ. Alright, how about this? Can we judge the motivations of others?
Speaker 0 00:27:32 It's hard for us to judge our own motivations. Can we judge the motivations of somebody else? Sure we can. Every day we do. You do. When you get in your car and you say, Hey, that person is a blank, or that person is a liar, or that person is, is a tattletale or a, or a gossip or a busy body or whatever, we judge the actions of other people constantly. Is that right to do? I'm not even gonna give you an answer. Instead, I'm gonna give you a verse. Jesus talked about this in Luke six, verse 40. A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. Why then do you see the spec that is in your brother's eye? But do not notice the log in your own eye? We have a tendency to look at other people and judge them way more quickly than we judge ourselves.
Speaker 0 00:28:23 We judge the motivations of others way more easily than we judge our own motivations. Why? Because it's just more fun and we're more accurate when we judge other people right, to be like our teacher. According to Luke four, according to Jesus, we must begin by surrendering our own hearts to his scalpel. He needs to slice away our own motivations so that we understand why we do what we do and who we're really serving Our job. Church is not to correct the motivations of others. Lemme say that one more time because it's really, really good. Our job is not to correct the motivations of others. We can tell 'em they might be doing something wrong. We can pray for them. We can. We might even avoid them, but it is God's job to fix them, not ours. And that is so frustrating, isn't it? 'cause I can easily judge every one of your motivations for you.
Speaker 0 00:29:23 It's so easy. I say that tongue in cheek. You understand that it's way more easy to judge other people than to judge ourselves. It's the log in the plank syndrome. So what number one closeness with Jesus gives me confidence to identify motivations. The closer I am with Jesus, the easier it is for me to judge personal motivations. Hebrews four 15. For what we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin that's talking about Jesus. Let us then with confidence, what is the next two words? Draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace in the time of need. Our solution to know our own motivations is that we draw closer to Jesus. Here's a list if you want to see a list and take a picture.
Speaker 0 00:30:20 Here it is right here. How can I be certain that my heart is pure? How can I be certain of whom I actually serve? Here's six different ways we can know. Number one, am I walking with Jesus constantly? Number two, am I off base with God's word? Number three, can God get his way in my life if I make this decision? Number four, what has mature godly counsel shown me? Number five, am I willing to be wrong? Ouch. Underline that one. Would you? Am I willing to, when we wanna do something, we really do and we forget. Number five, we have to ask ourselves, are we willing to be wrong? And number six, am I humbly submitting to the authorities that God has given to me? God's authority is over me for a reason. Well, I have to be careful if I go against God's authority, that's stepping out of bounds. Keep in mind, Proverbs 16, two says, all the ways of a man are pure in his own ways, but the Lord weighs the spirit. We think we do things always for the right reasons, but sometimes we just don't. Personal motivations will always fight against God's scalpel.
Speaker 0 00:31:35 It's very difficult for us to be honest about our personal motivations. But if we allow Jesus to cut away the, the sinew, the parts of us that we may be deceived by, we can know the decisions we should make. That painful, humbling process might be the very thing that helps us make the right decision. Pride, anger, revenge, sense of entitlement, desire for approval. None of those fit into figuring out God's will. God's wants for my life. If you wanna know what God wants you to do today, tomorrow, the next day, every decision that you make, you cannot sin in order to figure it out. Pride, anger, revenge, sense of entitlement. The desire for being right or approval. These are not ever included in trying to figure out God's plan for us. Instead, the fruit of the spirit is what we follow. Walk by the spirit. You'll not gratify the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are against the spirit. The desires of the spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to one another. Listen to this, to keep you from doing the things you wanna do.
Speaker 0 00:32:44 You ever tell your kids not to do something they want to do? <laugh>, adults have the same problem when it comes to God. This verse says, the flesh and the spirit war against one another because the flesh wants to do one thing and the spirit keeps you from doing the things you want to do. Number two. So closeness to God, number one, honestly about my motivations, helps me make the right decisions. Listen to this verse one, Timothy one, five. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart of good conscience and a sincere faith. We aim to love as God loves. So we can learn to love what God loves honestly about our motivations. That means the charge of our this. This whole thing is love that issues from a pure heart, not a deceived heart. Good conscience, not a duplicate.
Speaker 0 00:33:40 Duplicate conscience and sincere faith. Not listening to men's voices, but listening to God's voice. So church, we must be, if we wanna do the will of God, really do the will of God, do the watts of God on a regular basis. Our motivation has to be pure. And the only way it can be pure is if we're close to Jesus and we are listening to his voice and not our own. We have to be honest about our motivation. Should you buy that car? Should you buy that house? Should you go to that school? Should you date that person? All of these questions that we deal with on a regular basis can be submitted to God's will. He tells us in his word a lot of these answers, but some answers are not there. And some things we have to go to him and ask him in the closest of our faith to reveal to us. So be honest about our motivation. My confession is that God is my authority. I will follow his rules.
Speaker 0 00:34:41 I might have to dump that date. I might have to give up that desire, that scalpel may cut away something I really love in my life. But whatever it is, if we really follow our confession, the confession, and not a confession of faith, then we believe that God's will is better than our own. Right? If God's will is better than our own, that's scalpel will show us. And it might be painful. Slice, slice, slice. Has God ever taken away something that you loved in your life He has with me. Slice. And the job of our, of our hearts is to bend to what he is doing, not to argue or complain against it. Because what that is, is our will. If you're willing to compromise the truths laid out in the word of God, you are not going to make good decisions. Well, God will understand if I do this with my boyfriend and girlfriend, well God will understand if I do this with my job or my taxes, and in the end you're not gonna make good decisions. We must hold fast to de confession pure heart, who leads your heart good conscience, who gives you marching orders and the sincere faith? Who are you serving?
Speaker 0 00:36:07 Discerning the heart. What is the most deceitful part of you right now? The heart. It fights against the will of God, right? The goal is to be submissive. Pray close to Jesus and you'll make the right decisions. The flesh may fail, but God you never will. Let's pray. Father God, I'm grateful for our time together today. Thank you for Hebrews chapter four and for reminding us that even though our hearts are, are deceitful, they they're highly deceitful and and desperately wicked. They lead us from what you want us to do on a regular basis. Paul himself in in Romans chapter seven, said, who shall save me from this body of death? But there's hope. Thank you for giving us the hope that your spirit can cleanse our hearts. As David reminding us, reminded us, you can give us a clean heart, pure motivation. Help us to be close to you so that we can discern what is your wants and what is our wants. And in this world that is rapidly changing, may you make it clear to us the way that we should live and the things that we should say and the decisions that we should make. I pray in Jesus name.
Speaker 1 00:37:24 Amen.
