(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The chapter that I'd like to focus on is verses 6 and 10. But before I get there, though, I just wanted to point out that great part at the end of the chapter. Wood to God, we had a righteous ruler like Artaxerxes here. I like what he said, that he was instituting God's laws, that he said, whatever God's law says the punishment is, whether it's death, banishment, imprisonment, he said just carry out God's law. You know, Wood to God, our government would do that. And I also like the part where he said in verse 24, also we certify you that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethanites, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom upon them. That would be a great blessing. No taxes for those who work at God's house. I like that. But anyway, that's not what I'm preaching about this morning. In verse number 10, the Bible reads, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Then look at verse 6. This Ezra went up from Babylon and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. And I want to preach this morning about preparing your heart. Now that's a phrase that's actually used a lot in the Bible. I'm going to show you a few other places that it's used. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 12. 2 Chronicles chapter 12. It says that Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and then it said that he was a ready scribe. He had studied the Bible, he knew the Bible, he was ready to preach the Bible, and he was prepared. Look at 2 Chronicles 12, 14. This is spoken of Rehoboam. It says, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. That's why he did evil, because he had prepared his heart. Look at chapter 19. 2 Chronicles 19, verse 1. The Bible reads, And Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani, to see her, went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, and that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. Go to the next chapter, chapter 20, verse 32. This is about the same person, Jehoshaphat. He walked in the way of Asa his father, chapter 20, verse 32, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord, howbeit the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers. Now go to Luke, chapter 8. Luke, chapter 8 in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke. Luke, chapter 8. So we see right away that if you don't prepare your heart, you're going to do evil in the sight of the Lord. In order to do right, you have to prepare your heart. In Luke, chapter 8, we see that in order to bring forth any fruit, you need to prepare your heart. It says in Luke, chapter 8, verse 11. Of course, this is the famous parable of the sower. It says in Luke 8, 11, Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear. Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. So these people in verse 12, they're not saved. This is the seed that fell by the wayside. They heard the word of God, they didn't understand it, and the devil comes and catches away that which was sown in their heart, lest they should believe and be saved. So they did not believe, and they did not get saved. It says in verse 13, They on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy. And these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. So here's another type, or a couple other types of people, those who are not rooted and grounded, that are there for a while, they believe, they're saved, but then in time of temptation, when persecution or tribulation arises because of the word, by and by they're offended. They come to church for a while, they begin to show signs that they're going to bring forth fruit, but then they fall away as soon as the going gets tough. Then we saw those that were among the thorns, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word so that they become unfruitful. They don't bring any fruit to perfection. But look at verse 15, it says, But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Notice the equivalent of the good ground here is an honest and good heart. That's what the ground represents. He says, But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. And just as a farmer or a gardener has to prepare the ground and prepare the soil before they plant, just like all throughout the Bible it talks about tilling up the ground and breaking up the fowl ground. We must prepare our hearts to serve God. We must prepare our hearts to do right, and we have to prepare our hearts if we're ever going to bring forth fruit. Just a quick definition, go to 1 Peter 3 at the end of your New Testament. 1 Peter 3, let me define for you bringing forth fruit. Everything brings forth after its own kind. In the first book of the Bible we see that over and over again, Genesis 1. Everything brings forth after its own kind. The apple brings forth apples, the orange brings forth oranges, and the Christian brings forth other Christians. We're to be fruitful and multiply and to win people to Christ, to get people saved. We're never going to be a fruitful Christian if we don't prepare our heart. Look at 1 Peter 3, verse 15, it talks about being prepared. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be what? Ready. Ready is a synonym of being prepared. He said, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Ephesians 6 15, you don't have to turn there, but it says, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. If you're going to go out and preach the gospel to every preacher, he's saying you've got to be ready to give an answer to every man. You've got to be prepared to preach the gospel. Paul said in Romans 1 15, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. God wants us to be ready or to be prepared to preach the gospel. Now, can you imagine if you had an opportunity to give the gospel to one of your friends or dear loved ones that's not saved? And let's say this person is somebody that you've wanted to get saved for a long time, and all of a sudden the perfect opportunity arose where you're alone with that person, and you had the perfect chance to give them the gospel. Or maybe they even asked you about the gospel. Maybe they even asked you about what you believe about salvation. And can you imagine if you weren't prepared and you're stuttering, oh, well, you don't know where to turn. You don't know where the Bible verses are to show them. You don't have any of it memorized. What a waste of that opportunity and how bad you'd feel. But I guarantee you, I promise you that the people in this church who are out there every week knocking doors and faithfully winning souls and preaching the gospel, if they got that same opportunity, they would be ready. They would know exactly where to turn in their Bible. They would have all the right verses memorized, and they'd be able to seize upon that opportunity. We've got to be ready to preach the gospel. We've got to be ready. And I always think of this, when I'm out knocking doors, and we knock on the door of somebody and we ask them the same question. Hey, do you know for sure if you died today, you'd go to heaven? And a lot of times they'll say yes. And I say, okay, well, how do you know? Or what do you think it takes to get there? Or what Brother Garrett always says, he says, well, what would you tell someone if they asked you, what must I do to be saved? And often it's, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Or other times it'll be like, oh, well, I'm not really prepared to answer. I don't really have time to discuss that. The Bible says be ready to always give an answer to every man that asketh you of a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. A lot of those people just aren't even really saved. They just throw out that yes, and they don't even know what it takes to be saved. But other people are saved, and they still have to stammer and stutter and try to figure out, oh, oh, oh, you know, because... Be ready with an answer. Know what you believe. Know why you believe it. Be prepared to give the Gospel at any time. Be prepared if you had that opportunity to preach the Gospel. Go to Proverbs 4. And Proverbs 4 talks about preparing your heart also. Proverbs 4. You see, there are times when opportunities come up in your life that you don't expect, and you want to be prepared for those opportunities. I remember one time I was sitting in church. I was a young man. I was an older teenager, young adult, somewhere in there, maybe 17, 18 years old. And I remember I was sitting in church, and the pastor gave an opportunity. Just whoever wants to can just come up and preach a short sermon. You know, and it was just kind of like a popcorn preaching. And I remember I really wanted to preach so bad, but I didn't have anything prepared. I didn't know what to preach. I wasn't ready, and I missed out on that opportunity. I was kicking myself. This is a rare opportunity, years and years apart, where they would just give an opportunity to get up and preach. And I thought to myself, I'm never going to let that happen again. I'm always going to be prepared to preach. I'm always going to know what I'm going to preach and have something right. I mean, think about it. What if I were to do that right now? Everybody's getting all nervous. All these guys are looking scared, turning to each other. But you know what? You ought to be ready to preach at any time, because you don't know when that opportunity is going to present itself. You ought to be ready to give the Gospel. You want to be prepared. As much as in you is, have the Word of God in you, and have your heart prepared to the point where you are ready to preach, the Gospel to every preacher, ready to preach in church or wherever else, just be ready with it. Here's Proverbs 4. This tells us a little bit how we're going to be ready. It says in Proverbs 4, verse 20, My son, attend to my words. Or speaking of God's word, Imply thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thy heart, for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. God's warning us that our heart is the source of all the issues of our life. Everything that has to do with our life comes from our heart, and so we're to keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. How are we going to do that? Well, one way is found in verse 4. Jump up to verse 4. It says, He taught me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live. And so the first thing I want to talk about is that in order to prepare your heart, you've got to memorize God's word and read God's word. That's how you're going to prepare your heart. Retaining God's word, attending your ear to God's word, keeping his sayings, letting them not depart from thine eyes, keeping them in the midst of thy heart. He said keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life, and the best way to prepare your heart, the best way to be a ready scribe as Ezra was, the best way to be prepared and ready to preach the gospel is to memorize the Bible and read the Bible. We live in a day where far too many people do not know the Bible. Going to church is not enough to teach you the Bible. You've got to read this book on your own, cover to cover. It cannot depart from your eyes. It needs to be in your heart. Thou shalt meditate therein all the days of thy life, the Bible says, and coming to church three times a week for an hour is not going to let you know the Bible like you need to know it. You've got to read it and study it and meditate upon it on your own. The first step I'll tell you right now is reading the Bible once cover to cover. If you've never read the Bible cover to cover, that is the first most important step for you to take because you can't even see the big picture. Your heart is not prepared at all until you at least read the book one time. That's why we just got a bunch of the charts out there in the lobby. Of course, everything in the lobby is always free. We don't believe it's selling anything. There are all kinds of Bibles out there and Bible reading charts. Grab one of those charts that will tell you how to read the Bible in one year. You can check it off and read through your Bible at least once a year for crying out loud. For many, it ought to be more than that. Reading it, studying it, learning it so that you'll be prepared to give an answer, so that you'll be prepared to defend what you believe and prepared to give the Gospel and prepared to preach and prepared to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord by learning God's Word, but not only just reading. Take it a step further and memorize God's Word. First of all, if you're going to be ready to preach the Gospel, the best thing you can do is memorize verses in regard to salvation. Now look, every time I go out soloing and knocking doors, I bring my Bible with me because I like to show people in the Bible. I don't like them to just trust what I'm saying. I like to actually hold up the Bible and show them the verses when I get somebody the Gospel. It's more powerful when they can see it right there for themselves with their own eyes. But I still have the verses memorized anyway because if you have to sit there and flip to it and turn to it and you have to read it yourself, you're not going to be as effective. You ought to memorize these verses and get them in your heart. If you don't have these verses memorized, whatever your plan is for salvation, maybe it's Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23, Revelation 20.14 and 15, Revelation 21.8, Romans 5.8, Romans 5.12, Romans 10.9, Romans 10.13, John 3.16, John 3.18, John 3.36, John 5.24, John 6.47, you know, whatever verses you use, those are pretty much a rundown of the verses that I like to use right there. But whatever verses you use to give the Gospel, have them memorized. Be ready with it. Be ready to preach from your heart, not just, well, let me read it to you here. I mean, I show them, but I'm usually showing them like this and I'm quoting it from memory. See, there it is right there. And oftentimes, I've tried to give somebody the Gospel and I go to open my Bible and show them and they're kind of like, oh, I don't really have time for that. So then I just close the Bible and I'll just quote them the whole thing. It'll take the same amount of time, just psychologically, because I didn't open my Bible. They thought it wasn't taking as long. So it's okay. Well, you know, it says in Romans 3.3, it says in Romans 3, you know, I give them all the verses and quote it to them because I had to memorize. Other times, I didn't have my Bible with me. Now, I recommend having the Bible with you all the time, you know, at least a New Testament in your pocket or in your purse or whatever. But let's face it, sometimes we just don't have a Bible with us for whatever reason. And what if that opportunity comes up to preach the Gospel and you don't have your Bible with you? You see, that's not going to happen to you if you have the verses memorized. You'll always have your Bible with you. You can always give the Gospel. And don't be one of these people that gives the Gospel without using the Bible. You know, a lot of people will just explain the Gospel in their own words. No, it's God's word that has the power. In that parable of the sower, he said the sower sows the word. The good seed is the word being born again, not a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever of his own will begat thee us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your soul. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him and sent me has everlasting life to not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life. Use the word. Memorize the word so that you can preach it from your heart so that you can do it with or without your Bible in your hand so that even if your Bible is in your hand, you can quote it to them and recite it to them and preach it to them. Learn the verses in regard to salvation. If you're going to get up and preach a sermon, if you have an opportunity to preach, whether it's here or at a nursing home or on a camping trip or at a preaching class, memorize the verses in your sermon and that will help you be more effective. It will help you to understand what you're preaching and be able to preach in a more fluid manner because you have it coming from the heart, not just reading it off a piece of paper. And so let your heart retain God's word, as he said in verse 4. You know what retain means to retention, it means that you have it memorized, that you remember it. He said keep God's word in your heart. You've heard the phrase learning something off by heart? It has to do with memory. And so memorize God's word in order to prepare your heart. You see, you've got to picture your heart like a field of earth in that parable of the sower with the gardening and farming illustration. And every time you read God's word, and every time you memorize God's word, that field of your heart is being plowed up. And you can picture you're memorizing God's word, it's just pouring in some fertilizer and putting in plant food. I don't know anything about gardening, so bear with me on this illustration. But I do know one thing, that the earth in Arizona is not very good for gardening. Does anybody else realize that? Yeah, it's not very good for gardening. And so my wife, she's been doing a lot of gardening lately and she has all these gardens, but she had to bring in special soil and she has to constantly put in compost and constantly put in fertilizer and constantly deal with the ground and break it up and add nutrients because the ground is just not a good ground here. It's a desert. It's just not conducive to gardening a lot of vegetables. And so you have to do a lot to make it work. That's the way our heart is. It's going to take a lot of work to break it up and you say, what is the point of this earth? Because every issue of your life proceeds from your heart. Everything about the way you live, everything about the way you think, everything you're going to do is going to be based on what's in your heart. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth's speaking. So the words that come out of your mouth are going to have to do with how well you prepared your heart. The level of sin in your life has to do with how much you've prepared your heart. Whether or not you decide to go to church or not go to church, that's a decision that you make in your heart. Whether you decide to go out and go soul wedding, that's a decision made in the heart. Whether you decide to watch a bunch of filth and smut on TV or whether you decide to shut the stupid thing off, throw it out the window and open the Bible and read it, hey, that's a decision that you make in your heart. And you've got to prepare your heart so that you'll make the right decisions in your life. You can't just make at the spur of the moment, it's too late. You've got to have a prepared heart in advance, already prepared to just automatically make the right decisions because your heart is filled with God's Word. And your heart is prepared that the seeds of God's Word can grow and germinate and that you can grow into a tree of life and you can bring forth much fruit. Go to Psalm 1. You're in Proverbs 4. We're going to be back in Proverbs 4 if you want to keep that in mind. But go to Psalm 1 just a few pages to the left in your Bible. Psalm 1 says this in verse 1, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's why I would never go to some unsaved ungodly counselor or psychiatrist or life coach. You know these life coaches that they have made up? Is that what they're called? Counselors, life coach, psychiatrist, therapist. You know, I would only go to somebody who's sick. You know what? I'd rather just go to the Bible. Because did you know that God's name is counselor? Did you know that? It says in Isaiah 9, 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father. God's name is counselor. So if you're looking for a counselor, just go to God. Go to the Bible. He's your counselor. Don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don't go to Oprah and Dr. Phil and get their counsel on how to rear your child or get their counsel on how to straighten out your family or straighten out your marriage or get their counsel on your career or your life or go to the counselor at the public pool system. Hey, I'm going to go to God as my counselor and I'd rather walk and get the counsel of God's word than with the counsel of the ungodly. And look, these TV counselors, they are the ungodly. I hate to break with you. Dr. Phil's not going to tell you to thank your kids. He ought to. I mean, that's what the Bible says. The Bible says, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. The Bible says, he that spareth his rod hated his son, but he that loveth him chasteth him betight. And you see, Dr. Phil's going to tell you to sit down and reason with the child and have timeouts and have pow-wows or I don't know what they'd be. Maybe that's the name. Sorry, I didn't mean to get on you there, Brother Sosa. You know, have a little pow-wow with the child, a little rap session with the child and kind of, you know, figure out, you know, find out where they're coming. I don't care where they're coming from. I'm coming from the position of authority. I'm coming with a bell, my friend. And so the Bible's clear. But if you walk into counsel of the ungodly, you're going to do everything contrary to the Bible because they're ungodly. That's why. So it says, Blessed is the man that walketh not into counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Is that what it says? And in his law doth he meditate every morning for ten minutes when he wakes up. No. It says his law is he meditate day and night. You know, he's meditating day and night by a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in his season. Remember we talked about being fruitful and multiplying and being a good grout? His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The Bible's telling us here, if we get our heart right, every other area of our life will be right. If we can meditate in God's word day and night instead of filling our minds with the counsel of our hearts. Go back to Proverbs 4 where we were. Proverbs 4 says this. We saw, of course, in verse 4 He taught me also and said to me Let thy heart retain my words keep my commandments and live. Verse 20 My son, attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my saints. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thy heart for they are light unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence in the shoots of light. Verse 24 Put away from thee a forward mouth or a wicked mouth He's saying there and perverse lips put far from thee. So in order to keep our heart with all diligence we talked a little bit about the positive input we need. God's word. Reading the Bible. Memorizing the Bible. Keeping it in front of our eyes. Having it on three by five cards. Having the New Testament in your pocket. You know, listening to it on audio. You know, maybe Alexander Scorby reading the Bible or whatever you've got on CD. Just constantly getting God's word in. But he also says to put away far from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips. And there are plenty of forward mouths and perverse lips that you can listen to if you want to. I mean, if you want to listen to a forward mouth and perverse lips you don't have to go far. All you've got to do is just call Cox or whatever and they'll hook it up at your house and they'll call you evil or else you can get a satellite dish and direct TV or you can get it through the internet. You can get it on YouTube. You can get it through whatever iTunes, whatever you choose to download perverse lips and forward mouth. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the comedy of today is perverted and forward. You go to that video store and get that comedy section, you know as well as I do, you know what the jokes are going to be about? Perversion. Sodomy. What are the jokes going to be about? They're going to be about religion. Making a mockery of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's Word. That's the comedy of today. That's the comedy and we need to put that far from us. That's not helping your heart. When you go and get the latest Adam Sandler movie and you know you watch all the Adam Sandler and watch the, what are the big, Jim Carrey, and you know his movies are perverted by brand new. Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, I'm sorry, I don't know that. Somebody help me out. Who are the comedy stars today? Alright good, everybody's, no worldly people in our church. Alright. You know the Adam Sandler, the Jim Carrey movie? You know it's perverse, it's wicked, and you know what the Bible, it's just fun, it's just fun. The Bible says fools make a mock and sin. Fools make a mock. There's nothing funny about sin. And you know, I don't appreciate jokes about homosexuality either. I don't think they're funny. Okay, I do think one of them is funny. How do you, how do you wink at a queer? You know, but you know what, when you're making fun of what they do and when you're making fun of being a queer and when you think it's funny, there's nothing funny about abomination. There's nothing funny about perversion. You know, my joke was not about wickedness. My joke wasn't about sin. The Bible said Leviticus 20, 13. And so, the bottom line is that we need to get off this thing where we just think everything's a big joke and that it's funny to be perverted and to be wicked and thrower. We need to put that stuff far from us. We need to put that stuff as far away from us as we possibly can. And God says that's going to help us keep our heart. With diligence, that's going to help us prepare our heart. He said in verse 25, so that has to do with what's going into our ears. You know, the wicked mouth and the perverse lips that are speaking all these things. That's what's going into our ears. But look at verse 25. He deals with our eyes. He says, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. And then look at verse 27. It says, turn not to the right hand nor to thy left. Remove thy foot from evil. Now you say, what is he saying there when he says to look straight on, to look right on, not to turn left or right. You know, I quote this verse every time I'm driving down the freeway, because think about the stuff that's on these billboards today. There are a lot of scantily clad women on the billboards. There are a lot of ads for booze and ads for Las Vegas casinos and ads for everything that's wrong. When you go to the grocery store, when you're walking down the checkout aisle, you know, to the left and to the right, what is there? A bunch of dirty magazines that have a lot of dirty texts and a lot of dirty pictures. And you walk down there, and I quote this verse to myself constantly to let my eyes look right on, to look straight ahead, and to just be like this, because there's so much out there, and the problem with looking at it and the problem with seeing it is that it goes into your heart. And there's a battle going on in our heart today. The Bible says, the flesh rusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. So there's a battle going on, and when we look at the billboards and when we look at the magazines and when we reach out just out of curiosity, just see what they say, just see what they're about, and when we check out all those images and when we listen to the comedy and we listen to the smut and perversion that Hollywood puts out, we're just fueling the fire of our flesh, and we're losing the battle. And we're not preparing our heart. We're actually preparing our heart the wrong way. We're preparing it to do wrong. And then every time we read the Bible, every time we sing the hymns, every time we memorize God's word, every time we come to church and listen to Bible preaching, every time we sing the hymns, every time we pray, every time we do the right things, we're preparing our heart. We're putting good things into our heart. We're putting good things in, and good things are going to come out. And you see, you have to ask yourself, is more good going in or is more bad going in? Am I spending more time around the wicked people of this world or am I spending more time around God's people in the house of God? Am I spending more time listening to a bunch of worldliness and wickedness or am I spending more time listening to God's word being preached or being read to be? Am I spending more time reading my Bible and reading the pages of his word or am I spending more time just browsing the magazine rack and browsing the television show? But you wonder why you can't seem to just get on track in your life. You wonder why you just are constantly getting into temptation. You know, you wonder why is it that I have such a hard time dragging myself to church? Why is it that I have such a hard time forcing myself to read the Bible and it's just so hard to stay focused and I just want to get up and do everything else? It's so hard for me not to lie, you know? Like you? No, I'm just kidding. It's hard for me, brother. But you know, it's so hard for me not to give in to these temptations all the time or it's so hard for me to do right and to get out soul winning and to have the boldness to get the gospel to my co-workers and my friends because you're in the flesh because your heart is not prepared at all. You're not ready. That's why you're not able to do it because you haven't prepared it. You haven't exercised it. Look, if you would, at 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. Remember in 1 Peter 3, we saw that verse that explained about being ready always to give an answer to every man. I'm sorry, 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. Look at verse 14. Here's the negative side of the point. It says in 2 Peter 2. Having eyes full of adultery. Translation. You watch, you know, Desperate Housewives and whatever other TV shows. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin. Beguiling, that doesn't sound like a good situation, does it? Cannot cease from sin. Look at the next verse. Beguiling unstable souls on heart they have what? Exercised. On heart they have exercised with covetous practices. Cursing children. So the Bible talks about those who exercise their heart in the wrong way. They exercise it with covetous practices and now they can't even cease from sin. Their eyes are just full of adultery. The opposite of that is preparing your heart to do what's right inside of the body. Now anybody who knows anything about exercise or fitness, they know that the most important muscle in your body is your heart, isn't it? And they talk about, you know, well whenever you exercise, any exercise program is always going to include cardio, right? Like no matter what the, even if you're lifting weights or whatever, it's always that you got to do your cardio. And cardio just means heart. That's all it means. Like a cardiologist is somebody who deals with your heart. And so you have to exercise your heart in order to get it to function properly and keep your heart healthy. And if you keep your heart healthy, you're going to live a lot longer. I'm talking about your physical heart now. If you keep your heart healthy, you're going to live much longer because, you know, if your heart rate is too high and your heart's beating really hard all the time because your heart is out of shape, well your heart only has so many beats in it. So you're going to have a heart attack eventually. You're going to die at a younger age. But if you keep your heart healthy, you're going to live longer, okay? Exercising your heart is crucial to the whole body being right. And it's the same way spiritually. You have to exercise your heart not with covetous practices, not with having your eyes full of adultery. What does covetousness mean? It means when you desire something that belongs to someone else. That's covetousness. Not with covetous practices, not with constant shopping and window shopping and constant TV viewing and constant billboard viewing. You've got to exercise your heart having your eyes full of God's Word, having your eyes full of the right things. David said this, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them which turn aside and shall not cleave me. He said, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land. He said, I want to look at the right people. I want to look at godly people. I want to look at people that are righteous and I want to have God's Word with me all the time. I want to listen to that and I want to listen to preaching and I want to listen to God's people singing the hymns. I don't want to listen to a bunch of ungodly music. You say, what's wrong with listening to the world's music? All the rock and rap and country and reggae and folk or whatever other sections I've seen at the store. What's wrong with listening to all that stuff? Because it's affecting your heart. It's going into your heart. You know, when you're constantly listening to it, it's going to begin to affect you and you're constantly listening to songs that are just all glorifying and about just dating and it's all about the women and it's all about the men and it's all about how love is the greatest thing in the whole world. You know, that's going to affect the way that you think. You're being brainwashed right now. And it's going to affect you when you're constantly listening to music that has nothing to do with God, nothing to do with the Bible, well then your thought process will begin to have nothing to do with God and nothing to do with the Bible. And when you're singing the hymns constantly, that's going to affect your heart too. The Bible says, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Where does your music collection fall into that category right there? Songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Which of those three is AC Beastie? Which of those three is Lady Gaga? Is it songs, is it hymns, or is it spiritual songs? You know, which of those three does your CD tower fall into? And look, I'm not here to police your CD tower. You know, you ought to grow up and police your own CD tower and say to yourself, I'm going to keep my heart with all diligence because out of it are the issues of life and if you do not, keep your heart, you will fail. You will fall. You will not continue in the things of God. You will not be in church a year from now or two years from now or three years from now. You will not be out soul-running. You will slowly fade away. You will quit reading your Bible. You will quit serving God. You will quit doing what's right because you're exercising your heart the wrong way. Day after day, you're putting garbage in, garbage in, garbage in, garbage in, and then you wonder why you start looking at garbage life. It's because you have garbage in your heart and we've got to guard it. We've got to keep our heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Everything is going to be affected by your heart, your job, your thought life, your family, your friends, your soul-winning, your church attendance, your Bible reading, your prayer, everything. It's all about your heart. You've got to guard it and protect it and keep it safe from the wrong influences coming in because if you don't, you'll fail. You'll be destroyed. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. And I would encourage you to do this. If you don't believe what I'm saying right now, just try it. Just try for a couple of weeks. Just literally, just for like two weeks. Just completely unplug your TV and completely put away your worldly CDs of music and just all music CDs. You know, put away all music CDs, put away all TV, put away all magazines, and just fill a couple weeks without it. You say, what in the world am I going to do with my life? And I remember when I was a kid, I used to honestly think, what did people do before they had TV? Whoever had that thought? Tell the truth. I had that thought. I remember, I would give you reading about technology and stuff, and I used to just picture, I used to think about, what did people do like in the 1800s and stuff, you know, in the 1900s? Like, what did they do all day? And I used to just picture people like in a cabin with like a candle and they're just reading. You know, because they just have no TV. There's just nothing. But you know what's amazing? There's so much to do besides TV and video games. Like once you get rid of stuff like that, you just, you don't wonder what people did. I mean, there's plenty. There is, yes, there's reading, believe it or not. But I mean, there's all kinds of things to do. I mean, there's tons. Like, I don't think anybody, who has ever been to my house before? But Brianna is not. Okay. Do we, have you seen us? Are we just kind of like sitting around looking at each other? Like, are we just all kind of sitting in a chair and seeing cows just looking at each other just not knowing what to do? So, how's it going? No. Because we just, we think we need this stuff and we don't. It's just an addiction that you have. You know, and it's just a tool of the devil to get in your head every day and to put the wrong people in front of you all day long, put the wrong philosophy in front of you, and just look, it can't hurt to just try. Just go a couple weeks without it and just read and read your Bible and pray and talk to your family and, you know, get to know your family, meet some people that live in your house. Honestly, it'll dramatically change your life because you'll notice your heart will start getting stronger. You'll notice your spiritual cardio will begin to increase and it'll make a huge difference. But look at 2 Timothy 2, 19. It says this, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His, and let everyone that needs Him be healed. The Lord knoweth them that are His and let everyone in the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now, as Christians, we should depart from iniquity. Right? Now, does every Christian depart from iniquity? Of course not. That's why God has to constantly tell us not to sin and so forth and God gives us free will. Just as my children have free will, whether they'll obey or disobey. But He says here, Let everyone in the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But look at verse 20. But, the first word there is important. But, it says, Let everyone in the name of the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Now, God there is talking about those in the name of Christ. Those who are His children. Many of them bring honor to their father which is in heaven. Many of His children bring dishonor to their father which is in heaven. Many are vessels of gold and silver. Others are of wood and of earth. He's explaining that there are different types of Christians there. Just like at the final judgment. Some of our works will be gold, silver, or precious stones. The Bible says that some people's works will be 100% wood, hand, stubble. All their works will be burned. They'll suffer a loss of reward, but they themselves will be saved. Yes, so is by fire. And so, He's explaining here that some will honor and some will dishonor. Just as a parent and some children that bring them dishonor. Verse 21 says this, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use. And what? Prepare unto every good work. So one of the ways to prepare yourself and prepare your heart is sometimes you have to purge some friends that are the wrong friends. That's what He's warning here. He says, There are those in a great house that are of dishonor. And if a man therefore purge himself from these, because these is a pronoun referring back to those vessels of dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace. With who? With them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. So what's God saying? If you want to be a vessel of honor, hang around with people that are vessels of honor. You want to be a vessel unto honor, purge yourself of the vessels of dishonor. Because if you hang around the vessels of dishonor all the time, you're going to become a vessel of dishonor. If you hang around the vessels of honor, you're going to be a vessel of honor. If you follow righteousness with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, then you're going to be a vessel unto honor. But if you're hanging around all the wrong people all the time, you're going to be a vessel unto dishonor. So first of all, number one, to prepare your heart was to put in the right things. Reading, memorizing God's word, especially memorizing God's word. And by the way, do some serious Bible memory. I'm not talking about Jesus wept here. We're not talking about memorizing John 11.35. You know, we need to grow up spiritually here and do some serious Bible memory. There are people that I've known that have done a lot of Bible memory. Even, I mean, I knew a guy, and Scott's out of town, he's in West Virginia, but his friend Richie, actually the guy who won him to Christ, Richie had only been saved for like a year and a half. Okay, are you listening to me? He'd been saved for about a year and a half, two years. He had the entire book of Matthew memorized. Are you listening? He'd only been saved for a year and a half or two years. Young college guy. And he's not some genius going around memorizing the phone book. He's just an average, who knows Richie? Remember he was out here for a couple months? He's not some kind of a savant. He's not, you know, like some kind of a prodigy. No, just an average guy, and he memorized the book of Matthew. We're talking 28 large chapters in just a matter of a couple of years. I mean, there's a guy who's serious about growing in the Lord, you know? And I mean, we need to get to the point where we get this out of our mind of being a baby Christian. Well, as long as I can just read a couple verses a day, I can keep my head above water. Don't just try to keep your head above water. Hey, keep your heart with all diligence. Meditating God's word day and night. Memorize whole, and that's why we do this as a church, where we memorize whole chapters. Like right now as a church, we're memorizing Proverbs 1. Because it shows people that they can do it. Because there are a lot of people I'll bet you that have thought to themselves, I could never memorize a whole chapter of the Bible. An entire chapter? But yet when we do it in church, they did it with us. And they succeeded at that, and it broke through that barrier in their mind. Because I remember the first time I heard people talk about memorizing a lot of the Bible, I didn't even think it was possible. It blew me away. I heard somebody talk about memorizing the whole Psalm 119, and that just blew me away. Like that's not even possible. It's only 176 verses. But you know, when you have this mentality that's a failed mentality and a losing mentality, you don't think beyond boundaries and realize that if you just memorize two verses a day, two verses a day in a year, you can memorize like the whole book of Revelation and the book of Hebrews, two verses a day, and retain it all obviously and remember it all. It's possible to do a lot more. Get into some Bible memory. That was the first thing to keep your heart. Read the Bible and memorize the Bible. Jump into Proverbs 1 or whatever book you want to memorize. Not only that, number two, you got to guard your eyes and your ears from the wrong input because those are the doors into your heart. He said keep your heart. He mentioned the ears. He mentioned the eyes. But then number three, the third thing was you got to guard who your friends are. Guard who you're hanging around with because your friends will determine what you are. I heard somebody say this. You are right now or you soon shall be what your friends are. That's why it's so important what church you go to by the way because if you're plugged into the right church, if you're hanging around with people that are excited about soul winning and they're fired up about it and not because somebody's forcing them to do it because they want to do it and they're thrilled about it and they think it's fun and they go out and do a bunch of soul winning, guess what? That's how you're going to be. That will rub off on you. If you're around people that are constantly talking about the Bible and constantly bringing stuff up out of the Bible and that's what they're excited about and they're excited about church and they're faithful to church and they're always in church and church is a priority, you're going to begin to be like those people. But if you're in some dead as a doornail church, some watered down church where nobody's getting saved, nobody's getting back nobody's getting baptized, nobody's growing in the Lord, nobody's excited about reaching people, nobody's new is coming in, that's how you're going to be. You're going to be dead and boring and drab like that church is because that's who you're hanging around with. It's going to rub off on you. You get in an exciting church, you're going to get excited about the things that God. You get in a dead church, you're going to begin to die spiritually and be a withered up Christian that's just struggling to bring forth any fruit because you're not around the right people. And even worse than that, you start hanging around with unbelievers, you're going to begin to act like an unbeliever. Yes, you will. God saved, that will never happen to me. Yeah, but the old man is still there. The flesh is still there. And the flesh wants to be against the Spirit and the Spirit gets the flesh and the flesh wants to take over. And when you start hanging around with all these unbelievers and unsaved friends and that's your main circle of friends, you're going to start talking like them, dressing like them, acting like them, and thinking like them and your heart will start to resemble their heart. And so those are the three biggest things right there to prepare your heart and you've got to prepare your heart. He said in Proverbs 16 one, the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Let God prepare your heart so that you can do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. If you do not heed what's being preached this morning and you don't prepare your heart and you just say, well, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. Well, you know what? You're going to be like those people in Jehoshaphat's day. They did wrong because they hadn't prepared their hearts. So as far as that word of prayer. Father, please set up everyone who's here to let these words sink down into their ears and to realize the importance of what's being preached here, God. Our hearts are the most valuable things we have. Physically, it's the most important muscle in our body. And spiritually, it is the source of all the issues of life. So I pray that everyone who's here would very carefully guard their eyes, guard their ears, guard their mind, and to constantly be putting in your word and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and to get around the right people there, God. Help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.