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All right. Amen. So Proverbs chapter four, I just real quick look at verse number one, it says, hear ye children, the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding. So if you were to apply that spiritually, obviously we know that God, the father, the Lord Jesus Christ has also given us this book to follow, to learn from, right? So everything in here is for good doctrine, which is in verse two where it says, for I give you good doctrine forsake ye, not my law. And as I was reading that and thinking about this sermon that I'm going to be preaching this evening, I realized that, you know, actually just before I get there, look at verse number 23, this will explain better what I'm going to be preaching about. It says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. So what we're going to do tonight is we're going to study what the Bible says about the heart. Okay. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. There's, there's like over 700 verses in the Bible that talk about the heart. And so for the longest time now, I've been just kind of slowly chipping away at this. I just realized like, you know, this either has to be like a long series or I'm just gonna have to come out and preach something cause it's just been weighing on me and just something that I've wanted to cover. But nonetheless, it is good doctrine to remember these things and to apply them to our lives, especially even this verse. A lot of people think, Oh, what are you doing? You're talking about the heart. What are you getting all soft? You getting all mushy? And no, it's a commandment here, right? Look at the verse again, keep thy heart with all diligence. That means it's you have the responsibility as a Bible believing Christian to guard, right? To keep your heart. It takes work. It takes hard work. And why do we need to worry about this? We'll look at the rest of the verse. It says for out of it are the issues of life. Everybody in here that's got a pulse that's breathing has a life with issues. Who's ever met a bunch of people that have nothing but issues, nothing but drama. Guess where that all stems from? Not keeping their heart. That's where it comes from. We ought not to be like that. We are, you know, we're all going to have issues, negative and positive, but let's strive as God's people to have more positive issues in our life than negative. Okay. But it just seems like in today's day and age, it's just nothing but trouble, drama, issues, backbiting, people getting offended, all these different things. And the reason for it, I'll tell you right now is a lack of understanding of what the heart is, what the Bible teaches about the subject of the heart. So turn to Psalm chapter 19. And just remember to keep your place in the Psalms, Proverbs, neighborhood throughout the sermon, because we're going to keep coming back and forth to it. But why are you turning there? I'm going to read to you Psalm 66 18, which gives us a good reason to listen and pay attention to this sermon. You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 66 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That applies to a Bible believing Christian. The Christian that says, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and regard this iniquity. I'm going to go ahead and pay attention to the world. I'm going to go ahead and let that subvert my mind. God says, you know what? In the time of distress, I'm not going to hear you. When you cry out to me, I will not hear you. Right? That's what he's saying. He didn't say if the heathen regarded, look, God doesn't hear the heathen. The only prayer he's going to hear of a heathen is Lord save me. That's the prayer that God hears of the heathen. But to us who are saved, if we willingly choose to step aside and not walk in the new man, guess what? We have made the choice to regard iniquity in our heart. And God says he will not hear us. That's not how you resolve the issues of life, right? You want problems to the bad issues in your life. You need to learn how to keep your heart. How do you do it? Well, one step is to not regard iniquity in your heart. It's to always be abounding forward and getting stronger in the Lord. That's how you overcome the issues of life. Because look, everybody's got issues, right? Now, here's another reason that we need to pay attention to the sermon. Psalm 19, 14. Look what it says. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. So look, what does the Psalmist tell us right here? He's concerned about the meditation, about the thoughts of his heart, even being acceptable to God. Now that's pretty deep. A lot of us just consider, well, you know, hey, I went to church today, you know, I did this, I went sewing, I gave somebody a sandwich, you know, I helped somebody out. But no, we're supposed to take it deeper than that. We're supposed to be even concerned about what our own hearts are meditating, what our hearts are saying and thinking. And everybody in here needs to do a self audit and see, hey, have we gotten to this level yet? Are we headed to this direction? Because if not, then that's the direction that we need to go. Go to Psalm chapter 119. Psalm chapter 119. We're going to look around verse 112. We'll start at verse 110, but Psalms 119. So part of keeping your heart with all diligence goes even down to being concerned with how the Lord views the meditation of your heart, your daily thought life. I'll tell you right now, the only way you're going to bring those thoughts into captivity is by focusing on the new man. I'm sure everybody in here who's able to read is probably doing the New Testament challenge, right? Have you, if you just stop and just think back this last month that you've been doing that and think about your thought life, think about what you've been meditating on. I'll bet it's improved, right? Because you've got all this Bible coming and you're coming to church all the time. You're going soul winning. You're reading your Bible, right? Look, those, those negative thoughts that tend to arise, you know, in the old man, they get, they get a base, they get put down. And why is that? It's because that's what the word of God does. It's powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. It will cut those things in half. Literally, it will help you out so much. So another reason, reason number three, someone or 19. Let's see here. Look at verse number 110 verse 110. It says, the wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I erred not from thy precepts. This is very important because he's going to tell us how we got to this state. One more time. The wicked have laid a snare for me, right? Does not the world always have some kind of attack against us? Don't they always want to come at us, right? Lay a snare for us, a trap, some sort of, you know, I don't, I don't know, some sort of, uh, uh, battles. Just, just, just to get you into region, just to get you into a snare to trip you up, right? That that's their goal. That's what they do. But he says, yet I erred not from thy precepts. How did he do this? This is what we need to understand. Look at verse 111. It always goes back to God's word. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever for they are the rejoicing of my heart. So he tells you the source of where he got these things. Obviously it's from his decision to make God's testimonies, his word, his heritage, right? Meaning he's looking beyond just himself, right? He's looking into the future generations and saying, Hey, no, I'm going to pass this on. This is what, this is our life. God's word is what sustains us. This is how we live our lives, right? And then he says, for they are rejoicing of my heart. Obviously not the old man. Look, the flesh is willing, but the spirit, I mean the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing. The Bible says, right? So it's a new man is the heart of the new man that rejoices after the law of God. And you can read that again in Romans chapter seven, but it's a look, look one more verse down verse 112. He says this, I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end. So he gives you the what here in verse 110, right? The snare came against him. The battle was waged. The attacks came, but yet his heart wasn't moved. It didn't phase him. Right? And then in verse 111, it tells you the where, right? Where did this take place? It took place in his heart because God's law will cause you to rejoice in your heart. And then 100 verse 112, he shows you how you get this way. I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end, not just on Sundays, not just on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights, but always seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Now that word there incline is important and notice the context here. He says, I have inclined my heart. So a lot of people just have it, they're like, well, you know what? I'm just not like that. I'm just not hardcore like you are. Well, why is that? Do you think God made me this way? No, I made the choice a long time ago to be steadfast and unmovable and to put these laws and these statutes in my mind always so that when the snares and attacks come, I won't be moved. Right? You have to incline. That means you have to have the word incline means to feel willing, right? To be willing to do something in action or to go into a direction to go towards something, right? For example, you're jogging on the treadmill, you hit that incline button. Like you have to actually do it. You actually have to hit it. It's not going to come up by itself, right? And it's a crazy person that actually wants to hit that incline button because it gets harder, right? It's like the Christian life. You have to actually incline yourself to keep God's statutes forever. What are the majority of people doing today? They're on the decline. That's right. They're hitting that decline button. Slow me down. Let's walk downhill. You know what? Next thing you know, they're sitting down and they shoot right off that thing and they're done, right? That's what this sermon is for. To avoid, right? A decline. We want to be on the incline. And what is it? It's hard work. Like I said, it's hard work to walk uphill. It's hard work to constantly set yourself in that direction, to always be abounding forward. Because you're going to have setbacks. You're going to have bad days. Look, we still wear the flesh. Sometimes you're going to get a black eye, right? And it's going to hurt and you're going to get a little upset. But the idea is here that this is a continuous process, okay? I incline mine heart. That's the goal here. And in so doing, you'll avoid being a bleeding heart, which is really the bulk point of this message. So this sermon basically has a long introduction with just various statements and a little bit of study about the heart. And then we're going to get into it, right? Because the number one thing with the heart is what? You don't want it to leak. Because when it leaks, you lose blood. You lose blood. You lose life. You lose life. You're dead. And think about that as we come back to this. So you can go ahead and leave your place there. But like I said, we'll come back here later on and turn to Luke chapter number eight, Luke chapter number eight. So when you study the subject out about the heart and the Bible, you're going to see that it's really the heart is the center of spiritual activity, right? It's where issues in the operations of human life stem from. You know, and with that being said, this is one of the ways, yeah, really learning this is going to help you to be able to discern other people's actions. It's going to get you smart, get you some street smarts here, right? You ever talked to somebody and just, you know, something's wrong. Something is not right. Well, it's, it's, it's a heart connection. It's perhaps because through your diligence, through your obedience to the word, you've just learned things, maybe even things you don't fully understand yet. Your conscience gets it and it's telling you, Hey, there's a problem here. And when it fully manifests itself, then you're going to learn the full spectrum. You're gonna learn all the details about it, right? You ever, you ever thought somebody was one way, you know, you get along with them for a little bit. You think they're maybe going a certain direction, the same direction you are, but yet in the back of your mind, like, you know, something's just not right. And then all of a sudden it all comes out. It was phony. It was fake from the beginning. And you start to look back and you're like, wait a minute. They had a heart problem from the beginning and it never got better. They never got that surgery then, or they never got it stitched up. Right. And it just got worse and worse and worse. And by the way, spiritually speaking, a bleeding heart is content is, is, is contagious. Right. People that have the same symptoms often will bind together because they have something in common. And we are creatures of habit. We are people where we're humans. We like to be around people that are like us. This is why you come to this church and you don't go to these other churches is because we are all zealous for the truth. We like the truth no matter whether it makes us feel good or not. Right. Because we realize as a people, that's what makes us grow. Okay. So just remember that as we study this, um, quick example here, sometimes in the Bible, when you're reading about the heart, you'll see the soul, um, like interchanged, uh, with that. I'll just give you an example here. Deuteronomy six, five says this, and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might. Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 22 37, Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. And also with that being said, those three things are may, are what makes you, you, this is what makes you, who you are. This is your character, your heart, right? Your soul, your mind. And so in some instances in the Bible, they're interchangeable and others they're not. So just something that I learned, something to keep in mind here. So Luke chapter number eight, we're going to start, uh, studying this idea of character. And I said this, the heart is the home of the character. Now, Luke chapter eight here, um, we're just going to pick it up in verse 13, but Jesus just got done, uh, explaining or speaking the parable of the sower. Now look at verse 13 says they on the rock because the disciples are like, Lord, you know, what does this mean? He says 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. It's not saying they lost their salvation. It's just saying, you know, soul owners understand this completely, right? You're with somebody for like an hour, maybe, or a half an hour and they're happy. You got them saved and they're asking you questions and in they're zealous in that moment. Right. And, and, and you think, man, this might be somebody that comes to church and actually produces fruit and sticks with it. And then a lot of times they don't. In fact, most of the time they don't. So most people tend to fall into this category here, but look at verse 14, it says, 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. We're not talking about salvation here. We're talking about fruit. Things breed forth after their own kind, right? Christians beget Christians not talking about salvation being lost here in verse 15 and says, but that on the good ground are they, which in, don't miss this, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. You see that with an honest and good heart. So if you can have an honest and good heart, then you can have a rotten and nasty heart, right? Or you could have a reprobate heart, which this sermon is just not about reprobate. Mine would be more appropriate, but it's interesting here. He says, which an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. See, how do I get more people saved? Have patience. How do I grow in Lord with patience? How do I make disciples with patience, but also, and not at the expense of an honest and good heart. See an honest heart is somebody that says, you know what? I need preaching. I need church. I need the brothers and sisters of Christ. I need God's word. I need prayer. I need all of these things because I know that I can't do it alone. The dishonest heart says, I don't need that. I'm good at, I'm good on YouTube, right? I'm just, just point and click, man. Whatever's good. I'll just watch that. You're going to learn, right? You're going to learn, but when you're picking and choosing, you're not going to learn as much, right? So with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. So it's only the people that keep these things, right? With an honest and good heart that bring forth any fruit. All right. So, uh, turn to Jeremiah chapter 17, Jeremiah chapter 17. So the first statement that I wanted to make about the heart is that the heart is the home of the character. The heart is who you are. It's what you've inclined your mind and your, basically your soul and your, your heart to do it. People that have neglected the heart, they've gotten slack that have allowed it to bleed out, right? They're not keeping their heart. Like we read about in Proverbs chapter four. And the result are negative issues in life every single time, every single time. Anybody who's mad at this church, mad at me, mad at us, who's been here. It's because they haven't kept their heart. It all, that's what it boils down to. A neglect of the truth. An unwillingness to put others before themselves. You look at these people, it's all about them. All about me. Well, I do this. Well, I need this. Well, I need this. Well, what about this? What about that? Right? Selfish thoughts. Where do those come from? Comes from the heart. What does it breed? Negative issues every single time. Now, this is the next point here is that our hearts are naturally wicked, right? I had you turn to Jeremiah 17, nine, but I'm gonna read for you Genesis eight 21, which says this and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite anymore every thing living as I have done. So God's told us in book number one, that your heart on its own accord, apart from being safe, right? The old man's heart is full of what? Wickedness, right? It's evil from the days of your youth. That thing needs to be kept in check. That's why we're told to be filled with the spirit. Cause if we're not filled with the spirit, there's room for the world. Now you're in Jeremiah 17, nine, read the verse. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Right? So when somebody says, you know, I just feel in my heart that I just need to do this. You need to have the discernment and the wisdom to assess whether that's a good decision or not. Right? And if not, and it's a brother, you need to help them out and say, Hey, no, that's not right. The direction you're going is wrong. You need to change or you'll die. I've often preached about this song that I hate more than anything in the world. I don't know if it's my, my least what's that called? Listen to your heart. That's right. I heard that not too long ago. Again, I always hear it at Fred Meyer. You know, me and Fred Meyer have a thing with a song. It knows when I'm coming in and like once a month, I'll catch it just at the right time. It's this stupid song. I forgot at the, at the moment who's, who's saying it, but the whole, the whole point is just listen to your heart. Whatever you feel. That's what you do. No, whatever this book says, that's what you do. You have to incline your heart to God's testimonies. That's what the Bible says. That's the job of the believer, right? Well, my heart tells me this, which heart, the old man or the new man. That's the question you need to ask yourself because the Bible says very clearly, the heart is deceitful above all things. More than, more than Disney, more than Hollywood, more than Fox news, more than CNN. Your heart is more wicked, more deceitful, and will deceive you before those other things will. So why add to that issue by subjecting your mind to that programming? It's just going to make things even worse, right? Turn to Matthew chapter 15, Matthew chapter 15. Why are you turning there? I'm going to read for you another similar verse. Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verse 11 says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. So because we live in a world that's not exactly quick to judge, to sentence in, the result is more and more wickedness. The Bible says that the children are men. They see that and it's like a green light. Go, go, go, right? We were talking about this before the service about the progression of television shows supporting sodomites, right? It started way back in the day. You know, I don't know how far back it goes. I'm sure if you were to study even the Andy Griffith show, you could probably see it. You know, Three's Company, a show that was on when I was growing up, right? What do you think that was doing? It was setting the stage to progressively get the world to accept the sodomite agenda. And now it's just full bore on TV, right? In my own hometown, Port Archer, Washington. I'll never forget this. This was a few years ago, what, 2014, when they opened up all those pot shops. It seemed like within the first three months, maybe, after the pot shops were open. I mean, look, like Washington said, you know what? We're just going to go ahead and let people get as high as a kite. We're going to let them sell all this stuff. No questions asked. It's like these pot shops, man, you just started popping up everywhere, just all over the place. Well, you might think, okay, well, yeah, but you know, it doesn't hurt anybody. It's not as bad as drinking. Okay, look, that's not the point. The point is, as soon as that happened, the criminals saw it. The people with wicked heart saw that. And they said, they're on my side. The government's on my side. They've lost the sentencing. Let me read the verse for you again. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. You know, that's an evil work because the Bible says to be sober, right? It's kind of hard to be sober when you're stoned, okay? So when people see the government saying, hey, that's no longer an issue. It's not something that we're going to go after anymore. The children of men say, wow, you know what? I'm going to fully set my heart to do evil now. So in my hometown, shortly after all these pot shops started opening, then all of a sudden the heroin and the Coke and the meth just exploded. The robberies, the crime, my town's 15,000 people. And it's like, like a big city crime, you know, spree going on right now. It's ridiculous. It's so bad. People are moving. I mean, you think people are fleeing California. People are fleeing our small town and somehow maybe what, like in the top five worst places to live or something like that in Washington. She's always got some, Jessica's always got the best wisdom, you know, and then after I'm done preaching, she's like, you should have said this. I'm like, ah, man, you know, but I'm growing. I'm learning. I've inclined my heart to the Lord. So you got to bear with me and she will educate me. Well, and one day you guys will be happy. Okay. So anyways, what am I talking about here? The heart, right? It's naturally wicked. And so the reason why I picked this verse is just to kind of show you the progression here, why we need to guard our hearts, right? Because you're, you know, your buddy at work and these people that are running our country, they don't exactly have God's laws at the forefront of their mind. Okay. And as a result, you're going to just be steeped with people that are just severely wicked, right? And the result is that we have to be a discerning type people because they got their hearts fully set to do evil. The Bible says that in the last days, iniquity will abound. So iniquity shall abound. So with that being said, you're just going to see just a snowball effect. You know, the love of many will wax cold as a result of that. Okay. So you're there in Matthew, when I say 15, I got one verse for you, Matthew 12, 34. Don't turn there. It says a generation of vipers. How can ye being evil speak good things for the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Remember that that is good for your judgment, for your discernment. The majority of what comes out of a person's mouth reflects the abundance of what they have put in their heart, what they have inclined their heart to do. So remember that when you're talking with people at the door and they keep giving you these fuzzy answers, whether or not they believe what you're saying is because what's in their heart is what's been sown in their heart and by the world and by the churches in this community that you have to work your way to heaven, right? They've got 121 different ways to say it, right? And you know that here, that to be very true, but it never fails from the abundance, the heart, the mouth speakers, which is why we ask question after question, do you believe this? Tell me in your own words what you have to do to be saved. You know, things like that, because that draws that council, like which the Bible says is like a deep water in them. It draws that out. Okay. Proverbs, I'm sorry, in Proverbs, Matthew 15, look at verse 15. It says, then answered Peter and said unto him, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever enterth in at the mouth goes into the belly and is cast out into the drought. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. This is why we need to be saved. And this is why after we're saved, you know, obviously we're not going to lose our salvation, but we have to make the constant effort to walk in the new man to guard our hearts. And he says for verse 19, for out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. And he's talking spiritually here, but this is what you're up against. You're up against verse 19 for out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts. Every single person in here has evil, evil thoughts. You know, all these things are going to come into fruition, not into fruition, but they're going to come up into your mind from time to time, right? The more you replace your time with God's testimonies in his statutes, the less likely you are to have those things overwhelm your heart and be the abundance that's in there. Okay. And he just gives you a few things here. Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. I mean, any sin could be, not any sin, but most sins could be in there, right? Gambling, right? Bitterness, being weak, right? That's part of it too. That comes from the heart. We have to make the conscious choice and effort to fight against that. We're fighting against ourselves. If you read this and you study this, you think about it, that's what we're doing. We're fighting against ourselves. Why? Because the heart is evil. It's desperately wicked. Who can know it? So don't set out on this Oprah Winfield, Dr. Phil type quest to get to know the heart and go, I'm going to go out and do some soul searching. No, just read the Bible. If you're saved, you have no business worrying about that. You just know instantly, look, I already gave it to you. Your heart's wicked. It's evil. You need to keep that thing in check. All right, so let's move on here. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter number 10. Deuteronomy chapter number 10. Next statement is this, the heart produces imaginations and thoughts, kind of just a review here. Genesis 6, 5 says this, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Of course, if you studied Bible prophecy, you know that as in the days of Noah is what it's going to be like in the end times. All the more reason for us to guard our hearts, to keep our hearts. Cause we gotta be a discerning people. It's the only way you're going to survive in the last days. Next statement would be this. You have the choice to keep or lose your heart. Deuteronomy chapter 10, look at verse 16. That's what God told the children of Israel. He said, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff neck. He's basically saying, Hey, get saved. Hey, make the choice and get saved. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Because it covers your heart. It covers what you can see as a person who's not saved, cannot clearly see the word of God, right? So when your heart circumcised and that's peeled back, guess what? Then now you can see now God can reveal truth to you. Now you can actually keep your heart and stop having the issues of life that plague the world, right? A Christian has just got, you know, that's been coming to church for a while, or they've been saved for a while, and they've got nothing but drama, nothing but issues. You know what that stands from? Again, it stems from the heart, from not keeping the heart. That's what it all boils down to. Now go back to Psalms, go to Psalms chapter number four, Psalms chapter number four. And so you're going to see this idea the entire time you study this out in the Bible. You have the choice and you incline your heart. You get yourself circumcised. You get saved. You do this, right? It's your choice. You have the choice to either keep your heart or you can lose it. You start filling that thing up with a bunch of garbage and it's going to puncture a hole in it and it will start to bleed. And then next thing you know, you're not a healthy believer, right? I don't know. I'm not saying that if your heart bleeds out, you lost your salvation. Don't get me wrong. I'm just using this to speak metaphorically, just to try to hammer this idea home that you have the choice to have the majority of your life be good issues, okay? You really do. Psalm chapter four, look at verse four. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. You have the ability to commune with your own heart and it would do us well. It would do us very well to make sure the bulk of that communication is between your heart and God. The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart, right? It's not saying that God has a heart organ like ours, but he has a heart and we ought to be a people like that that wants to seek after his heart because in so doing, it will reveal what's in our heart and what we need to change and it will make us get better, right? That's the goal here. So you guys turn to 1 Samuel 10. So last statement was this. You have the choice to keep or you can lose your heart and it's done through communication. Well, obviously the first step is getting safe, but then it's how you commune, right? You need to be in a prayer with, you need to be in a constant state of prayer. You need to be always willing to pray and ask God for help, praying for each other, praying for this church, all sorts of things, right? And in so doing, it's going to be kind of hard for your heart to want to wander because that's just another tool for you to keep that thing, keep that thing in check. Because if you don't, you just do nothing. The natural progression is just downhill, just a backside. It's that decline that we talked about earlier. Next statement will be this here. As you study this out, you're going to see that the heart is where emotions are stored, right? I'm just going to read a few verses here, just quick examples. Judges 18, 20 says this, and the priest's heart was glad. Judges 19, eight says, comfort thy heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon. They did eat both of them. Ruth chapter three, verse seven says, and when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn and she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down. So you'll see this idea oftentimes in the Bible about physical things, rejoice in the heart, right? If you go on all day without eating, you go home and eat a good meal, guess what? Your heart's going to be glad. And by the way, we learned in other places, we don't have time to turn there, but that is actually good for you as a physical human being, right? The Bible says that stress will kill you. Stress will literally kill you. It's bad for your heart, right? I mean, think about it. How do you feel when you get good news? You feel it right here, don't you? You feel like right in the center of your chest. It's not really your physical organ of your heart, right? That's your soul and spirit that feels that. That's what makes us different than a dog, which obviously our government and our world wants to put ahead of a human being. Why is that? Because they're nothing but a bunch of bleeding hearts and a bleeding heart will cloud your judgment, right? But I'm going to get ahead of myself here. All right, one more here. First Samuel 1-8 says this, then said Elkanah, her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than 10 sons? So just keep that in mind, right? The issues of life affect your overall health. Say, you know what? My hair is turning gray. Mine's been turning gray for a long time. I just found out today it's from stress, okay? I'm just saying, Jessica was reading this article that said that can contribute to it. That's true that I've been stressed out since I was 19. Because I've had gray hair since, probably since late high school, right? Yeah, my first haircut in the military, they made a big spectacle out of me. I mean, it was embarrassing. Like when, you know, standing in line, they shaved my head and like, where'd all this gray hair come from? What, stressed you out already? And then they brought in all the drill sergeants and they came and started making fun of me and making me do these stupid exercises. But hey, you know, I went through that so I could tell you guys this story for absolutely no reason. All right. All right. All right. Let me give you a couple other verses. Psalm chapter 19 verse eight says this, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. I would submit to you that this is true. A Bible believing Christian who sets his heart towards the things of God, though he might want to do something in the world, you know, I believe wholeheartedly that that is good for your body as well. It's less stress. Look, when you have to make heads roll sometimes, you know, but you know that you're right. You know that you did it because you're standing on the principles and the testimonies and the statutes of God's word. That is comforting. You know, the whole world might turn against me, my family, my friends, everybody doesn't want, you know, all these people that all of a sudden they don't want anything to do with me, but you know, what's going to give me that peace is inclining my heart to God's testimony. That's what's going to bring you that health and that issue that you need that's good. All right. So I had you turn to first Samuel chapter 10. So we're just going to take a look at two examples of basically characters in the Bible. We're going to take a look at King Saul. Then we're going to take a look at Pharaoh real quick and how their heart affects character. Okay. First Samuel chapter 10, just real quick here for sake of time, look at verse number one. It says, then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head, talking about Saul and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed me to be captain over his inheritance? When thou art departed for me today, then thou shall find two men by Rachel Sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say unto thee, the asses which thou witnessed to seek are found and lo thy father hath left the care of the asses and sorrow for you, saying, what shall I do for my son? And then Samuel tells him verse three, then thou shalt, or then shalt thou go on forward from thence and thou shall come to the plan of Tabor. And there shall meet the three men going up to, going up to God, to Bethel, one carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine. And the three kids there are goats. They're not children. Okay. Just in case anybody's wondering verse four, and they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shall receive of their hands. Verse five, verse five is where it's going to start. After that thou shall come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city that thou shall meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a sultry and a tabard and a pipe and a heart before them. And they shall prophesy. Now verse six, and the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and now shall prophesy with them and shall be turned into another man. So he's one man right now, right? He's being anointed by Samuel to be King, but Samuel says, Hey, you're going to be turned into another man. Well, how does this happen? We'll keep reading verse eight and thou shall go down before me to Gilgal and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou Terry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shall do. Verse nine. And it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, don't miss this. God gave him another heart and all those signs came to pass that day. So there's a correlation between the type of man you are and the kind of heart that you have. So it would do us all wise to understand what's really going on here that we need to go to the Hill of God. And we need to look to his prophets and look to his words and pull things out of here that incline our hearts back to him. Why? Because it will change your character. It will change who you are. It will seal up any holes that might be in your heart and it will turn you into another man, which is the goal of everyone in this church. I hope to be turned into another man, not to have the outcome that Saul did. Right? That's a sermon for another day. Turn to Exodus chapter seven, Exodus chapter number seven. So we'll leave you off with a good note there with Saul. He got another heart and at this moment, right, he does good for just a little bit. Does good for a little bit. And before the news breaks your heart, we'll look at somebody who's already a reprobate. So while you're turning to Exodus seven, I'm going to read for you Exodus chapter four. Just pay attention here. It says, and the Lord said unto Moses, will now go as to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand, but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. Here's what it doesn't say. I will harden his heart so that he cannot be saved. The reason why you bring that up is because people often will try to bring you here. Well, you know, God choose this person or whatever, you know, he could make you do, you know, if you're really called to preach, well, it's him that made you do it. You know, maybe he gave you that desire, but he's not physically making you do it. Right? The Bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. You have to work on becoming good by getting saved and accepting his righteousness first. Okay. That's the teaching here, but notice he says, but I will just listen. He says, but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. Remember Moses' first encounter with Pharaoh. What did Pharaoh say? I know not the Lord. Obviously he heard about him. His country is full of Hebrew people, right? He knew who they worship, but he said, I'm not saved is basically what that translates. That's what that means. He says, I know not the Lord, right? I don't care what you have to say. Get out of here. The people are staying, right? He wants the people. So God didn't make it so that way. He obviously rejected God a long time ago. We don't know when, but the Bible says here, but I will harden his heart that he will not let the people go. It's a good lesson for us that God, God will harden your heart. You know, like I said in the beginning, if I regard iniquity in my heart, thou will not hear me. That's what the Bible says. If we make the effort to say, you know what, I'm just going to depart from these teachings. You know what? God's going to depart from hearing you. And then when your calamity comes on you, you know what wisdom says in the Bible? It will mock and laugh. So you're there in Exodus chapter seven real quick, look at verse number three, Exodus seven, three says, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. Jump down to verse 13. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearkened not unto them. As the Lord had said, verse 14 and the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said, verse 23 and Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither did he set his heart to this also. Why read this? Because your heart is who you are. It affects your character. So Pharaoh had his heart hardened so that he would not let the people go. But look what the end of verse 23 says, and Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither did he set his heart to this also. So it's just a snowball effect. As you read the story, what do you see? Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh's basically hardening his heart even more. He's basically helping God. He's like, I don't want anything to do with these people. I mean, think of all the plagues that God sent to Egypt, Pharaoh. And he's like, I just want the people. Take the money, just give me the people. Just like the king of Sodom. It's the same attitude, right? Which is a hallmark of a rapper name. All they care about are the souls of the people. That's what they want. People, power, control. Those things are their issues. That's what is the abundance in their hearts. So turn to Deuteronomy chapter number seven. So that's it for the statements on the heart. I just wanted to just basically just kind of spew some stuff out there about the heart. Just kind of an introduction. You know, further down the road, I'll probably preach another sermon more specific, but right now what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about the bleeding heart, right? Why? Because a bleeding heart's the result of an attack, of an unshielded attack at some point in a person's life. Here's the definition of a bleeding heart. It says a person considered to be dangerously soft-hearted, typically someone considered to be too liberal in political beliefs. We're not talking about that today, but you know, sometime soon we probably will. But the point here is a bleeding heart is somebody considered to be dangerously soft-hearted towards people. Who's ever met somebody like this? Every hand. Everybody knows. Everybody has, right? So let's say a decision has to be made. Somebody's head's got to roll, right? The people that are like, oh, but, but, but. You're a bleeding heart. I'm not saying you're wicked and you're bad. I'm kicking you out of church. No, no. I just spent the last half hour giving you a little bit of remedy to that. How to fix that. How to get that surgery done on it. What I'm trying to do now is to caution you, to warn you of the dangers of allowing yourself to be a bleeding heart. Why? Because when your heart's bleeding, you don't have that blood through there. Like I said earlier, right? The blood is the life. You don't have life. You don't have nutrients. You can't think clearly. It clouds your judgment. And then the next thing you know, all you're doing is you're, you're basically concerned about yourself because about how your heart feels. And now you're not walking in the new man anymore. Now everything offends you. And all of a sudden God's words out the window. You know why? Because great peace have they, which love thy law, nothing shall offend them. The Bible says so people that are always getting offended. Oh, why don't you have to do that? What'd you have to kick him out of church? You know what? You're a problem. You're a big problem. A big problem. And we need to realize that look, there is a danger in your physical heart bleeding. Is there not? It's called a heart attack. What happens when that artery that's going to your heart clogs up and causes a burst in there and it fills up with blood. You die. It's the same thing spiritually when you decide, you know what? I'm going to incline my heart to the world. Guess what? You're going to get a clog spiritually in your life. And the next thing you know, you will be out of church. You will no longer be here. Why? Because you didn't follow the commandments. You didn't take heed to the word of God. You didn't incline. You didn't, you never guarded your heart. You were too concerned about other people's feelings and emotions. You know what? Sometimes judgment needs to be executed. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, this is war. And in war, people die. People get hurt. They get injured. But you know what? You're going to be sad for the enemy. That just means you're weak. Weak. We don't need weakness. Look, there's a time and a place to be weak. Right? But when it comes to doctrine, when it comes to truth, that's not the time to be weak. Right? People's heads got to go sometimes. And you know what? You need to be a person like Abishai who we're going to read about in a little while and said, let me just go take his head off. Be like Joab. Hey, throw her down. Throw that skank down here. Oh, you guys did a good job. Now I'm going to go make a sandwich. No bleeding heart there with you. Right? That's what I'm talking about. Look, think about King David. Anybody here want to say that King David was a bleeding heart? Not at all. And God used him greatly. Right? Show me in the Bible where God's using a bleeding heart greatly. Show me right now. You won't be able to. It's a fact. Look, David, man, he saw, he had people saw it in half. Where are you supposed to do that in the Bible? Right? Look, God told them how he wanted one of them to get rid of the enemy to kill him. Right? And you got David like, I'm just going to saw these guys in half. That's how much he hated the enemy. Right? Did God hold that over his head? No. He just said, no, you're not going to be able to build a temple. Okay, buddy. You just shed too much blood. But look, Jesus Christ wasn't ashamed to be called the son of David. He wasn't ashamed to be of that lineage. Right? So where are your priorities at here? Other people's feelings and their emotions or the word of God in the battle that needs to rage on and take place. So Deuteronomy chapter number seven, look at verse number 14. It says thou shall be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female, barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from the all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee and now shall consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee. So notice he says, Hey, you're going to have all these blessings here, right? But it comes with a price. It comes with a price verse 16 again, and now shall consume all the people. Sounds great. Which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee. That's great. But notice that how, how does that go down? It goes down through battle, right? You read the Old Testament, you know, that God delivered the enemy to them and they had to dispatch them. They had to take them out. They actually had to get their hands dirty. They had to get their hands on the swords and the shields and the knives and the bows and actually fight the fight, right? That's what it's saying. But notice what he says next. Thine eye shall have no pity upon them. Now we're starting to learn about what could hinder those blessings. Neither shalt thou serve their gods for that will be a snare on to thee. You need to be careful with your heart. You need to make sure you're not having pity towards the enemy. Pity towards people that are back. Obviously we should, we should pray for them. Don't get me wrong. People are back saying, look, we all get backs in from time to time, right? But we need to make sure that we praying for those people, but for just for bad people, people that have gotten kicked out of church, people that haven't repented, people that we know for a fact were set out to destroy, right? We ought not to pity those types of people, right? They're harming the cause of Christ. And we've been commanded obviously a different way without carnal weapons, a way to deal with that. And the way to deal with that is to not have pity on them. No pity. Because when you pity the enemy, your judgment's clouded and the blessings go away. That's what God's telling the children of Israel here. Why would it be any different for us today? So continue to read, jump down, look at verse 17. So we learned that it's also a snare. He says, if thou shall say in thine heart, these nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them? Right? Verse 18, thou shall not be afraid of them, but shall well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt. So we're just going to stop there, right? Pity, bleeding heart, being soft-hearted towards those that would maybe want to harm our children. I mean, think about it. The world today, especially in this country, it seems like people are getting soft on pedophiles. It's not like super duper out there like the whole sodomite thing is, right? But it's coming. And it's more clear now than it was even last year or even five years ago. Why is that? Because the world has done a very good job at declining people's hearts and not sentencing wickedness, right? This country is not exactly throwing the book at pedophiles if you haven't noticed. And the result is the sons of men, right? Just people that are unsaved, they say, you know what? I'm going to fully set my heart to do evil. It's go time. Look, if they don't care about the drugs, they don't care about the kids, I'll do whatever I want. And you know what? Those are the times that we're heading towards. Yeah. Turn to second Samuel 16. Second Samuel chapter 16. We're going to take a look at a character in the Bible named Shimei. Shimei was a bleeding heart. He, the Bible says that he was of the house of Saul. Okay. What happened to Saul? Well, pride got to him. He started to be disobedient. God rebuked him through the prophet Samuel, told him, you know what? I found a man after my own heart. He's going to be King. Saul said, you know what? Now I'm going to fill my heart with envy. Next thing you know, Saul's trying to kill David. He goes and has doe egg to eat him. I kill God's priests. I just all sorts of wickedness goes and sees the witch at indoor, right? I mean, what would talk about a hypocrite here, right? He had a lot of put these witches to death during that time. And he's like, you know what? God's not listened to me. I'm going to go to a, I'm going to go to a witch and try to get some, some wisdom here, right? What happens? God allows Samuel to come up and speak to him and said, Hey, tomorrow thou and thy sons will be with me. Meaning you're going to die. And Saul committed suicide. Well, obviously I believe Saul saved. I believe that's clear for seven 28. But the reason why I bring that up is he was a wicked person and in his later life saved, but just a bad guy, a bad dude. And here, we're going to learn about this guy named Shimei who has a bleeding heart towards him, right? But here, let's just read here. Second Samuel chapter six, look at verse five. And it says, and when King David came to Beth, to Baharim behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came forth and cursed still as he came, right? So the context of the story is David's son Absalom has basically attempted to hijack the kingdom from him, right? As a result of his sin with Bathsheba many years later, coming down the road here to haunt him, you know, and David's just in distress. I mean, his own child is trying to take the kingdom from him. He's, he's sorry. I mean, that's just, that's his child, right? But here you have this guy who just is rejoicing in that, right? Though a member of the kingdom of Israel here, David is now the king, been the king for many years at this point. And he's like, just still mad about Saul, still mad that his boy, you know, that his family member, that his tribal member is not the king, right? That's a bleeding heart. He still hasn't let it go yet. Verse six, and he cast stones at David and at all the servants of the King David or of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, come out, come out thou bloody man and doubt man of Belial. So look, he's cursing David. He's throwing stones at him, right? And he's just accusing him of being a devil. Verse eight, talk about having your mind clouded with judgment. Is that how you're supposed to talk to a king back then? No, not at all. Not at all. But he's, his heart has bled so much that he just can't think straight. Verse eight, the Lord has returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul and whose stead thou has reigned. And the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, thy son. And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man. You know what that reminds me of? That reminds me of people in this church and in other places. Oh, you know, Pastor Jones, he's just a little too hardcore. He's just a little too quick to kick people out. A little, always yelling and screaming about, always getting angry, always flip it out. Well, you know what? You learn to get in a battle and you're going to have that same attitude. At least my heart's not bleeding all over the place, right? Like Shimei. Is he doing anything for the kingdom? Has he even picked a side? No, just by word, right? In word, he's paying homage to Absalom, but he hasn't done anything to help Absalom out. He just saw an opportunity and capitalized on it. That's the hallmark of a bleeding heart. These people, oh, I can't believe he said that. I can't believe he keeps talking about that. I can't believe he did this. You know, this stuff always gets back to me. Always, 100% of the time. But I'm not the problem. Your bleeding heart's the problem. You stained my floor and you better come back and clean it up. So turn to 2 Samuel 19. Now what's going to happen? So after this here, you know, the, so during this encounter here, the sons of Zeruiah, more specifically Abishai is like, let me just go over there and cut this guy's head off. You know, David's like, you know, hey, I deserve this. It's from God. And I'm bringing that up for reasons. I want you to keep that in the back of your mind for a second. 2 Samuel 19, look at verse 18. And there went over a ferryboat to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good. And Shimei, the son of Garith fell down before the king as he was come over Jordan. So now it's a different story. Now, Absalom has been killed. It's obvious that David's going to keep his seat. He's going to keep the throne and now Shimei, oh, oh, wait a second. You know, it's kind of like before pastor Jimenez came here, there were people that were like, oh, I bet you're going to get it for kicking those people out here. And then he backed me up. What do you think I learned it from? Oh, crazy. And they're like, oh, well, hey, hey, you're doing a great job. It was a great sermon. I don't think I see that stuff. You're out of your mind. Verse 19 and said unto the king, let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember that which thy servant did previously. The day that my Lord, the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. Okay. So David decides to give him a pardon. He's like, you know what? I'm not going to kill you. Just go off and live your life. But he doesn't forget about it. Turn to first Kings chapter number two, first Kings chapter number two. So David's got discernment. Obviously, you know, in a time he said, you know what? I deserve that. I'll take that. I'll eat that plate of crow. Right. But I'm going to go about this a different way because I haven't forgotten. And I want you guys to remember this. Here's what we're about to learn. Bleeding hearts are dangerous. Bleed people that are bleeding hearts. If they don't get it fixed, spiritually speaking, they are dangerous. And you're going to see that here. All right. And look, I got that statement. I got the doctrine from studying this out. First Kings two verse eight and behold. So David's giving his final directive to Solomon, right? And he's saying, Hey, this guy is good. Take care of him. This person's bad and destroy him. Verse eight and behold thou has with the Shimei, the son of Garabendramite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse. And the day when I went to Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at Jordan. And I swear to him by the Lord saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore hold him not guiltless for thou are a wise man and knowest what thou ought us to do unto him. But his whore head bring thou down to the grave with blood. You say, wait a minute. Why do you give him a pardon if now he's commanding him to be killed? We're going to find out. Verse 41. Look at verse 41. So I'm sorry. What I got you here? Oh yeah. First Kings two jumped down to verse number 41. It says, and it was told Solomon. So after David tells him that, Solomon says, you know what? I'm going to say, you know what Shimei, your heart's privy to wickedness. Here's what you can and can't do. If you violate this, if you go across the book, uh, Kydron, I'm going to kill you. If you, if you leave the area that I've had set up for you, I'm going to kill you. Why? Because Solomon was wise and knew that he wasn't a person that liked to listen. He wasn't the loyal guy. Bleeding hearts are not loyal. They're dangerous. They don't work. They add work. Think about that. They don't work. They add work. Why? Because they're selfish. Why? Because they are not concerned with healing their heart. That's why the result is selfishness. The result is stained right there. When you have a bleeding heart spiritually, that thing's spewing out spiritually speaking and it gets on you. If you don't have the right discernment, it can contaminate you. Okay. Just think about that for a second. Verse 41. And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and was come again. So you see Shimei, he couldn't listen, right? He couldn't listen. He put his own needs above what he was told. Verse 42. And the king sit and called for Shimei and said unto him, did I not make thee to swear by the Lord and protested unto thee saying, know for a certain on the day thou goest out and walk us abroad with, walk us abroad, any wither that thou shalt surely die. And now said unto me, the word that I have heard is good. Right? So Solomon's like, Hey, I gave you the boundaries. You said you understood. You agreed. You do it. And you violated it. Verse 43. Why then has thou not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment that I have charged thee with? Verse 44. Then the king said, moreover to Shimei, thou knowest all the wickedness, which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David, my father. Therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head. You know what I learned by studying the subject out of Shimei? I learned that I'd rather have five Abishai's that are maybe a little too aggressive than 5,000 Shimei's. You cannot trust a bleeding heart. You cannot do it. Go ahead and try and let me know how, how it turns out for you. Think about it. Who was getting the work done here? The guy who was a little too zealous and wanting to cut people's heads off or Shimei, the bleeding heart. Look, second Samuel 23. You can read about the sons of Zechariah. You can read about Asahel. You can read about Abishai. Obviously Joab didn't finish life so well, but you know, nonetheless, he was still a mighty man. You know, he still did do a lot of work for God. I believe you say it. I believe we'll see him in heaven. You know, I mean, surely if Samuel saved Joab would be, you know what? Just understand that you need to keep your heart. What happened to Shimei? It ultimately led to his departure. It led to his death because he never got that thing fixed. He was never able to choose a side and that's how bleeding hearts are. It's always, well, you got to have the right balance, but really what they mean is my heart goes out to everything because I'm too soft. I'm too weak and I don't want to change. That's what it boils down to. Shimei, the bleeding heart. Look, who would you rather have on your side? Somebody who's maybe a little too aggressive. You see the, see the sense of Zechariah, David was always able to reign him back like, no, no, no, come on, come on. Right. And you can even see that with God and you know, like, all right, David, come on. You know, let's, let's calm down. Look, Peter, when he cut off Malchus's ear, do you think he went to actually cut off his ear? No, he tried to cut his head off more than likely and miss and cut his ear off. Did Jesus say, you lost your salvation. You're so wicked. No, he's like, look, put that thing away. You're going to die that way. Get real, start focusing on the eternal dude. This battle has changed from the times like this to the spiritual. And that's what Jesus was trying to teach him. Right. But Peter went on to do great things. God can use somebody like that. Those are the people that God uses people that are hard core. And that's who's sitting in this room right now. And that might offend people who listen to this later on, but I don't really care. I don't care at all. Get right. Get your heart fixed. How about that? So we're going to have some compassion on these people. What people? People want to talk behind my back and run their mouths. I don't think so. I didn't come here to be a soft-hearted lily-livered pink shirt wearing gizzard guzzler. Okay. It's not why I came here. I came here to do what God has called us to do. Not serve God. And sometimes that includes creating casualties and dispatching the enemy, spiritually speaking. And if that offends people, then so be it. You know what? That's, that's what I'm, that's what I've learned here. So real quickly here, we're almost done. I just want to leave you with a couple of things. How to cure and keep your heart. Say I have a little bit of a bleeding heart. I've listened to you. I get it. I understand it. What do, what do I do about it? Turn to Psalm chapter 101. Why don't you turn to Psalm 51, 10, which says this, created me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. So your first step would be the acknowledgement. And the second step, the prayer. Okay. I've got a problem. Definitely. You know, I'm a softy. It's okay. I don't hate you. Right. But created me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me should be the attitude. And that should be the attitude of all of us. That should be part of your prayer life. Create a right spirit. You know, help me out. Help me to grow, Lord, please. You look, you, Jesus said, look, you knowing, you know how to give gifts to your kids being evil. So I'm paraphrasing obviously, but how, how much more does the father, you know, going to give his children that ask him, you know, he's not a respecter of persons. Okay. So you ask him to create a clean heart in you and to get right, he's going to help you do that. It's a fact. Psalm 101, look at verse four, a froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. So the second thing I would say is just check your life. Are you hanging around with wicked people? And that would include the radio, the TV, you know, things like that. Now, obviously we have to be in the world of work and see these things. That's completely different than willingly accepting these people to do life. So, you know, I am going to go out to lunch and just hang out week after week with these people that don't share my beliefs, right? A froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person that tells you that when you decide to get to know a wicked person, they're going to rub off on you and they're going to cause your heart to be froward. And that's a bad thing. Turn to Proverbs chapter four. We're going to finish this here, right where we started. While you're turning there, I got one more Psalm for you. Psalm 27, 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage. He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. So this isn't something that happens overnight. This is a patience game. You've got to have the patience. You've got to have the acknowledgement, the willingness, and the patience to get it right. Nobody just gets their life completely better after one sermon. It'll set you in the right direction, but then it's on you. You've actually got to put in the work. Okay. And we started off here. Proverbs chapter four, verse 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. And you're going to see that in every area of your life. In church, any issues that we have are a result of the heart. What we have decided to incline our hearts to. Is the bulk going to be the word of God or the world? The word of God or the word of the world. It's going to be one of the other. And the outcome is, if it's God in his statutes and his testimonies, you know what? You're going to be blessed. You know what? You're going to have the abundance. You're going to have the issues of your life be better, far better than the worst. I mean, you know, when we get booted out of here, we are booted out by the apartment managers and, you know, they cut us off. Yeah, we get mad and we get upset, but we still rejoice, right? Because we're in the battle. Feels good. You know, that's a good thing. You know, we're keeping our hearts with all diligence, even down to the meditation of God's word. You know what? And so that, that's, that's the key right there. Keep your heart. It is an ongoing effort that we all need to make. So that being said, I'm going to cut the rest of this out. We're just going to stop there for the night. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this teaching in the Bible. I just pray you help each and every one of us, Lord, to continuously assess ourselves and continuously ask for help in repair of our own hearts, Lord, that we might continuously serve you, Lord, all the days of our lives in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.