Latest / First Love Revolution / A Heart Adrift | The Greatest Commandment | January 28, 2024

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A Heart Adrift | The Greatest Commandment | January 28, 2024 · First Love Revolution

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Revolution Church Message Series, the Greatest Commandment.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You can find the entire series in video and podcast format, as well as other messages, at FirstLoveRevolutioncom.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Shane with today's message.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, he is Amen.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you guys for coming out today to worship with us.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I'm really looking forward to continuing this new series.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: We started it a couple of weeks ago called the Greatest Commandment.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Whenever Jesus was asked what is the first and what is the greatest commandment, he said it is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Or, in Mark 1230,.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: He also added strength, and so when he was asked that, he did not equivocate, he did not hesitate.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: It's like this is the thing, this is the one thing, this is the emphasis.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is this is it?
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: This is the focus.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: It's the greatest commandment.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's the one thing that God created us to be about at all times.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: If you get everything right and you get this wrong.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: you really get it all wrong, but if you just get this right, your purpose is to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: You may feel like you got everything else wrong, but you got the main thing right.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: And about this one thing I think we can all admit it's a pretty high calling.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: It's such a high calling to love God with all of all of you that it's quite impossible for us to achieve that on our own.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: We know this is beyond our ability to do.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what Jesus commands us to do.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: So what do we do whenever God calls us to certain standards and we're like that's beyond me, we can't do that, which I'm pretty sure all of God's standards are beyond us and we can't do it.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That's why we need the spirit of the Lord poured out into our hearts.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: But do we just kind of throw up our hands and do we roll over and say, well, it's impossible.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So I'm I'm not even going to try and know what we do is we go to God and we go in desperation, we go in dependence and we ask the Holy Spirit who lives in us, the same spirit that raised Christ from the grave Would you do in me what I cannot do on my own?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Loving you with all of all of me?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: So this series is all about that.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: One thing that Jesus said was first and Jesus said was greatest.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: As we are diving into this commandment, we've been starting to look at the pieces like, well, okay, let's get practical about it.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: We know that God has called us to see a first love revolution in the church, where the bride of Christ returns to her first love.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So what does it mean to love Him with all of us?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Specifically, what does it mean to love Him with all your heart?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Biblically, what does that mean to love Him with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: So we're working through these things.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Two weeks ago, we talked about what does it mean to love Him with all of your heart.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: We discovered that Biblically, that at the center of love in God with all of your heart is to have your desire set on Him.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: This week, we're going to be continuing to talk about what does it mean to love Him with all of your heart.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: So this is like all your heart, part two.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: But if you remember, last week we took a little break and we just paused because God's been speaking so much and already doing so much.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: But this unique calling he has on this house for 2024, specifically to plant five international locations in Latin America.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: This is crazy, starting with Mexico City.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: If you missed last week and you want to hear a testimony that will cause your head to pop?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, you need to go back and you need to watch this online, because God is on the move in Biblical proportions, but he hasn't stopped.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: In fact, this past week, god did a lot of things, but he answered a really big prayer along these lines.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Can I share one more testimony with you?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: You've had a week to recover from testimony overload from last week, so here's another one.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: So, as we're praying, we're like well, god, we're going to obviously need a worship leader.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: And so, god, what are we looking for?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: And he just began to show us like this isn't just any worship leader like that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: It's someone who's passionate about writing songs in the heart language of the people, instrumentalizing those songs in the heart language of the people, building systems and building teams to foster worship at all the Revolution Church locations in Latin America, and someone who's passionate about raising up and multiplying and sending other worship leaders out.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: So, thankfully, it's a pretty low bar that we're like no, I was like God, that's impossible.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Like that's one in a million, maybe that's one in 10 million, maybe even more.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Like God, you are going to have to point us precisely and specifically to who you have and you're going to have to call them clearly and loudly.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: And just like God has been doing with everything involving this call into Mexico, he has provided in record time.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: God has given us a worship leader who's actually joining us online right now.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: He's the worship pastor of Camuni D'Av Paz in San Jose, costa Rica.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: He's one of the most prolific songwriters in Latin America a track record of building up worship teams.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: He's passionate about the next generation.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: We just started talking to him a few weeks ago and the Lord's already confirmed it in his heart, in his wife's heart, in our hearts as well.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: So Chisco and his wife, raquel, are going to be joining the team.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: They have two children, julian and Camillo.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Raquel, chisco's wife, she's a pastor as well.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: She has strengths in a passion for teaching and leading and operations.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Also, she has a passion for the next generation.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And, by the way, of all things, chisco had just finished writing and producing another song the week that we first spoke to him.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: And guess what?
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: The title of the song is First Love yes, I kid you not.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: In fact, do you want to hear a little bit of it?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, like 60 seconds here you can check it out.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Then Mariados plays the song Vero al primero.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Amor Vero a tu casa, donde tu estas.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Mi corazón no necesita mas que Tu presencia.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: Mi senor, vero al primero.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: Amor Vero a tu casa donde tu estas.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: Mi corazón no necesita mas Que tu presencia.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Mi senor, vero al primero, amor Vero a tu casa donde tu estas.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Mi corazón no necesita mas que.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Tu presencia.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Mi senor Vero a tu casa, donde tu estas.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: God is good.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: So money donated to Jesus, donated to the ministry of Jesus, this tells us something about Judas' prize.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: It was money, and it's a prize for a lot of people.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Now it's different for everyone, though.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: You know what was the prize that started on this path for Pharaoh.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: You go back to the very first chapter of the book of Exodus.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: We read in verse 8 to 10 that this new king arose over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: He said to his people Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Let's deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply, and then, in the event of war, they'll join themselves against those who hate us and they will fight against us and they will depart from the land.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: So Pharaoh's prize from his very first words, we see, it's not his prize, isn't God?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: And relating to him rightly, his prize is his own power.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: This is the step that is first in the drift of the heart.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: What about Ananias?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: We've looked at this before.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: He's a little more difficult in the book of Acts, but we see an alternate prize with him by paying attention to the context in which he sold his own land and brought that gift before the apostles.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: So if you look at the last couple of verses of the chapter prior the end of chapter four, we read what was happening in the church.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: There wasn't a needy person among them.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Those who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sale and lay them at the apostles' feet, and then they would get distributed to each as any had need.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who is also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated me as son of encouragement, and who owned attractive land.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: He sold it, he brought the money and he laid it at the apostles' feet.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: So this is what's just been happening.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And then in the very next verse, we read that there was a man named Ananias sold a piece of property, kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Of course, if we keep reading, we know it was up to them to do whatever they wanted with the land that they had, but they presented it as if they were giving all, when in fact they were giving part.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: So, for Ananias and Sapphira, what was the prize that was actually driving everything that was taking place in their lives?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Well, they prized the perception and the praise of man.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: They saw that that kind of perception and praise was going toward those who were doing this.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: They wanted to receive that for themselves, but they lied in the process of doing so.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: So Hezekiah, he's another one that I want us to just take a few glimpses at today.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: What was his prize?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So, if you're new to the scriptures, or even if you're old to the scriptures, but you just need a little refreshing, he was the king of the southern tribe of Israel, called the tribe of Judah in the Old Testament, during the divided kingdom period.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: He started off really strong.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: He devoted himself to the Lord.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: We read in II Kings that, as a result of that, god was just prospering, everything that was taking place, things are going really good and then suddenly something changes.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Ii Kings 18, 14,.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria at Lake-ish, saying I have done wrong, withdraw from me, and whatever you impose on me I will bear.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So what's happening in context is that at short, at this moment that Hezekiah sees the Assyrian army when he went to his land and it is sieging various cities in his own kingdom.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Well before he was standing up against the king and standing with God, but now he's gonna cower to this king.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: He was all about following the Lord until it didn't seem like it was working for him to secure the security that he was seeking.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: And so at this very moment, if you keep reading, he actually goes and he takes from God to give it to this other king.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Ii Kings 18, 15,.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: So what was Hezekiah's prize that led his heart?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Off course, he prized security and he was using God to get it until he perceived that another route would be better.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: And then he takes from God even the things that were devoted to God to give to another that he feared more.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: It's different for everyone.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: What about Samson?
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: What did he prize Not as hard to discern with him, as you'll see Judges 14, 3,.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: His father and his mother said to Samson is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all of our people, that you go and take a life from the uncircumcised Philistines?
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: But Samson said to his father get her for me.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: She looked good to me.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, he doesn't even try to say something that sounds godly.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: It's just like she looked good to me.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's God's own God Samson.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: For him it says whatever feels good, it's whatever's enjoyable, it's whatever's fun, it's whatever's fulfilling Like.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: That's what I am after.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: So, in short, it's hedonism that pursues self-satisfaction for him.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: And then Solomon's prize.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: We touched a little bit on this back on anniversary weekend, but, as a refresher, Solomon is the only person who never went by the new name that God gave to him.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: So his original name, solomon, it's from Shalom or peace, but his new God-given name was Jedediah, meaning beloved of the Lord, and that was supposed to anchor him and knowing who he was and who he belonged to.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: And he didn't go by that new name.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: He actually spent his whole life pursuing and living out of this other identity, pursuing peace, but not peace with God, peace with man.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: And why did he do this?
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Well, he had actually seen quite a bit of history.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Growing up as a son of David, he saw what happened to his father.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: He saw what happened with his brother, absalom, and the people joining Absalom and revolting against his dad, david.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And because?
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Because Absalom promised to be a good judge for the people, whereas David didn't like to judge the cases of the people.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: And so he concluded like I don't want war, I don't want that, I want peace.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: When you have eyes to see, everything that Solomon did was with this goal in mind His desire to be a good judge for the people, his alliance with foreign nations, his allegiances, his judgments, his marriages of the daughters of four kings.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: He prized peace with man over peace with God.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: The question is what do we prize?
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: What is it that you want?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: What do you desire?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: What's the prize of your heart?
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: If it's anything other than him, then your heart's already adrift.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: If the prize of our heart is anything other than him, it's already adrift from loving him with all of your heart.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: But, church, I just want to speak kind of personally to you for a moment.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I think that this is so important for you to understand that we do not serve a God who says to us hey, seek me with all of your heart, but you can't find me Because you can't see me and you won't experience me and you're not going to hear from me.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: That's not what he says.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: He's the God who says taste and see that the Lord is good.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: He's the one who says if anyone is thirsty, come to me for a drink.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: If anyone is hungry, come to me and you will be filled, and you will be filled.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: If anyone is hungry, come to me and you will be filled.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: You see, you can set your heart on him and I'm feeding on his words and drinking from the well of his presence.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: And if you seek with all of your heart.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: He will find you.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: He will allow you to find him.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: He'll give you the understanding of his words, which will nourish your soul beyond anything you've tasted in this life.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: He will allow you to drink from the well of his presence, which will satisfy unlike anything else can in this world.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: That is the byproduct of loving God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and all of your strength.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: You will find him.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Because when you love him with all, you will seek him with all, and he promises you will find and you will keep finding.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: But is he the prize of my heart?
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Is he the prize of your heart?
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Is he what you want?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: I just want to personally testify.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm not someone who has experienced all of what the world has to offer.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I'm not, but I do feel like I've tasted much of what this world has to offer.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I've had the contacts, I've had the relationships to know, privileged access to places on this planet.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I know what it is involved, the table with famous people and powerful people and I have.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I've tasted the finest of wines even on other people's dimes, praise the Lord and the most expensive of Wagyu steaks.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've seen most of the most beautiful places in the world.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I've also known the adventures of life.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I know what it's like to sleep on the side of a sheer vertical cliff, 1,000 feet above the ground, and speed down slopes at highway speeds.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I've jumped out of airplanes.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I've fished in the most secret of serene spots that, no, I can't tell you about.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I've had the opportunities to speak to tens of thousands of people in the largest of platforms and I've been honored with some of the highest prizes of my profession.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: I've experienced a decent amount in this world and what this world has to offer, but I will say this nothing even comes close to a moment had complete peace with the Lord, in the presence of the Lord, being filled and nourished by the words of the Lord, him unlocking the truths and the mysteries of his word.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Nothing comes close.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I'm just one person, but I just am one person that I want to testify.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Jesus wasn't lying.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Taste and see.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I've tasted and I've seen he's, he's good, and for me I just see, everything else is a distraction.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I Don't love those things.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: I Don't want those things.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty shocked so many are so filled up by them because they seem so Little and less than compared to him.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: I've tasted, I've seen who the good one is, and I'm just testifying it's him.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: And you know what I want?
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I want more people to taste more.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I want more people to see, not just intellectually, but experientially.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: It's what I want to taste.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: More, though, you've got to set him as the prize of your heart, so that what follows leads to the finding of him, because that's where the promise is, that's where you find, that's where you drink.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: That's where you get filled, and I'm convinced we need a generation who have tasted and who have seen that the Lord is good and is no longer so easily filled up by lower and lesser things.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So this is first.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: It's all about setting our heart on the prize of our hearts.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: This is where our heart goes from there.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Step two is we start to pursue the prize.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Now, when I talk about pursuing the prize, I'm not yet talking about pursuing with our feet necessarily, but we start to pursue it inwardly first.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: We start to seek it at a heart level, at an inward level next.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: This is where our longings are growing, for that thing we prize.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Our affections are growing for that thing we prize.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: We all know how this works the more that you look at something, the more you want something.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, you might walk into the mall thinking I'm just gonna walk off a few calories after dinner, but if you keep looking in all those windows, by the time you leave you like I need a lot of things that I didn't know I needed an hour ago.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, I went to the grocery store recently, which is showing I don't go to the grocery store enough.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Please forgive me, babe, but as I was, walking through the aisles, I was amazed what I was seeing.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: There are things in there that I didn't know and I'm telling you.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I saw it and I was like I need this, I have to have this.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: I mean a Chick-fil-A sauce in a huge bottle that exists.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: You've got to be kidding me.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: How have I lived without this up until now?
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: And you mean to tell me that there are twice toasted Jesus?
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I have been denied the finer things.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: In truth, how's this been kept from me?
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Have you seen the Oreo section lately?
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: It's almost like its own.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: I own now.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's glorious.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: In my poor wife, I spent most of our grocery budget on trashy snacks, but nevertheless, whatever we gaze upon, our hearts begin to grown.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: For we know, it's true, how many of us like I'm just gonna look around at cars, I'm not serious by the end of the weekend I have to have this one.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: And you know we have a new car.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Or like we start shopping for houses, like it's hard to reverse that.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Once your eyes start to look upon that, the more you look at it, the more you think about it, the more that your heart starts to want it, more the heart, more your heart starts to like it more and and you just have Grown your affections for it.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: This is the next step in in all the process of heart drift.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: We see it with Judas, matthew 26 14.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Judas went to the chief priest.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: He says what are you willing to give me To betray him to you?
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: What does it show us?
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: He's been thinking about this.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe I could at least make a little something off of handing him over now.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: He's actually going to look for it same with Pharaoh.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: It was about power.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: We read in verse 12 of Exodus 1 that the more the Israelites afflicted the, or sorry, the more the Egyptians Afflicted the Israelites, the more the Israelites multiplied and the more the Israelites spread out, so that the Egyptians were in dread of the sons of Israel.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: And we know that this dread was growing in the heart of Pharaoh because the next thing he says he tells the Hebrew women, or he tells the midwives, that if the Hebrew women have a son verse 16 you shall put him to death.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: So prize becomes Pursuit.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: And Although these things seem pretty seamless to us prizing something and then beginning to inwardly pursue it there's actually a progress from one step to the next that takes place in us.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: In the second step of pursuing the prize, it's about the heart level, the thing that's that's being pursued in the heart, the thing that we're meditating upon, the thing that we are thinking about.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: As a result of that, our Care for that prize is growing.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Our care about that prize is growing whenever James 1, 15 says after Desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and then, when it's full grown, it gives birth to death.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Will desire Conceived.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Those are the first two steps desire and conceiving.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: In this whole heart drift process, that's one and two prize and pursuit in the heart.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: We see the same with ananias.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Whenever Peter confronted him, pay attention to the, the words that he confronted him With.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: He says why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart?
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: You haven't lied to men, but to God.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: You see, ananias, he had this other prize pop up.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, I want to be praised like those guys are being pray.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I want to be perceived the way that Barnabas is being perceived in this community.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: But he didn't just have that moment of another prize popping into his heart.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: He was conceiving it in his heart as well.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: He allowed it to occupy His heart.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Temptation is the prize and that, thinking about it and pondering about it and, you know, looking longer at it, that's the conceiving, that's the pursuing that takes place within us.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: And whenever we're Doing any of these steps, I should say there's a certain way we will relate to the word of God.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: As we do them Always.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Pay attention in scripture, someone's heart being soft to the Lord, hardened to the Lord, all of this it's always directly in relation to how they respond to the word of God.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: And Each step, our response to the word of God, will take a shift in the very first step, whenever we start Pricing another prize.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Honestly, the response in our heart toward the word of God tends to be one of deception, like we're just, we're kind of self-deceived.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Actually, we have put a different prize in our heart, other than God, but at this point we are deceived that our intentions and our motivations are great and glorious, and all of this typically.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: The second step, however, with the word of God is when we start to discount.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Whenever we're now pursuing it inwardly, we're discounting the word of God.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: We're just kind of leaving it out of account, we're not gonna pay attention to it, we're not gonna allow ourselves to meditate on that and how it might kind of conflict with where we're at.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: We want to shrug it off, like yeah, that's not for me, that doesn't apply.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: We're discounting it.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Think about Judas.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: They offer him 30 pieces of silver as a price for the Lord.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: As a, as a Jewish boy, he should have stopped and gone.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Huh, maybe I'm doing something wrong here, because he would have known Zachariah, chapter 11 In the Hebrew scriptures, verse 12 to 13.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I said to them if it's good in your sight, give me my wages.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: If it's not, never mind.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: So they weighed out 30 shekels of silver as my wages and then the Lord said to me throw it to the potter that Magnificent price at which I was valued by them.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: So what price had they put on God back then?
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: 30 shekels of silver.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: What price are they willing to give him, judas now for Jesus?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: 30 shekels of silver, that should have been enough for Judas to say whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Like Am I repeating that here?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Am I treating God with so little value and so little worth but have, instead of Responding, to the word of God.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: Judas just discounted it.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: This isn't that it's just a coincidence and we need to apply this to our lives.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: One very practical way you can apply this to your life is pay attention to your heart's posture, to the gray areas.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Is it leaning more toward like Better to honor God when in doubt, or is it leaning more toward kind of shrugging it off, like, ah, that doesn't apply to me.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: That latter response Tends to tell us that there is a there's a sign that our heart has grown fond of another prize at that point that's other than him.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: So third step of a heart at drift is you start to now prioritize around it.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about this.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: It's very simple.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: But we actually begin to pursue it, not just at a heart level, but prioritize it in our actions.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: So the one of the most concrete revealers of our prize that we are now Prioritizing is just how are we prioritizing with our practical, tangible time and money and talents and treasures, all of that?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Look at your calendar, look at your checkbook.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: It will tell you what you prioritize, what.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Step four we're now protecting the prize.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: We have this prize.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: We grew fond of it in our hearts, we started to prioritize around it and now we're gonna bat in the hatches, we're gonna put a lock on it, we're gonna kind of take the key and throw it away, that sort of thing.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: So at this point a person is gone beyond discounting and dismissing the word of God.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Now we have someone who is defying the word of God, meaning they're not going to allow the word of God to pierce this place.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: This prize, at this stage, that thing that you're prizing and pursuing and prioritizing, you're putting armor around it.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: You are protecting it against the word of God, whether in the written scriptures or by his spirit ever think about how many teachings Jesus sat through, or Judas sat through, of Jesus, and Yet he was intending and planning this for some time and he just sat there and heard what Jesus was saying.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: How many times did he have to harden his heart and harden it harder and Harden it harder, to the words of God.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Clearly, with each one he was refusing to allow the word of God to bring any correction to him.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Don't forget he was present when Jesus said to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: He was present when Jesus said don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: He was present when Jesus taught about the hypocrites.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, judas is sitting right there and you got to understand something with this whole Judas bit.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: He did choose all of that.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: He did all of that.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: And I just have to have a little aside here, because sometimes I hear people kind of feeling bad for Judas, as If he didn't have a decision that is not recorded anywhere in scripture.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: That's simply not true.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Never mistake God's foreknowledge of Of someone's choices as God's forcing of their choices.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: There's a big difference.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Romans 8, 29, 30 talks about this in the context of salvation.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Of course, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined To what to become, conformed to the image of his son, so that he, jesus, would be the firstborn among many brethren.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: And those he Predestined he also called.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: And those he called he also justified.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: And those he justified he also glorified.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Of course, some people don't accept this plain reading of scripture that those God foreknew, he predestined.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: But foreknowledge by God.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: It doesn't remove the element of human culpability or the freedom of human choice, which scripture also upholds.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Nor does God's foreknowledge of someone's choices makes someone capable of earning their salvation in any way either.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: There's no way to hold together the sovereignty of God and human responsibility Biblically other than what God reveals that foreknowledge proceeds predestination.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: All this to say, these guys that were reading about they made choices that led them to this point of no return.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Pharaoh, judas it can be the same for us.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Did Satan enter Judas?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: According to the scriptures, yes, after Judas made decisions that opened the door to him.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Does that remove a Judas culpability for what he did?
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: No, in fact.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Look at his own words afterwards.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: His own description of what he did is I have sinned by betraying innocent blood, the point being Judas opened the door.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: Judas chose to receive the seed that Satan planted in his heart.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: In all cases, we have people hardening their own hearts beyond restoration, before there's any hardening of their heart by the Lord, god's choosing of them To become a vessel of dishonor and wrath as a display of his might and power and justice.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: This just tells us something about Life.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: It's that there is a point, while we're still living, where we can harden our hearts beyond return, because God would never arrest someone's capacity to turn and to be forgiven by giving them over to eternal judgment with no choice For them to make.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: That makes a monster of God, that doesn't protect his honor and it's not who he is.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: At that point they've committed the sin that leads to death Reference in 1st John 517.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: At that point, they have committed that sin which cuts them off from forgiveness that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 12, 31.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: When someone refuses, you see, to be convicted by the Holy Spirit, rejecting, cutting off the Holy Spirit, who is the only one who can open our eyes, the only one that can open our ears, the only one that can unlock and open our hearts and Lead us into faith and lead us into repentance.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: At that point we are cut off from forgiveness because all of what God supplied to lead us there, we've cut ourselves off from that.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: All is to say, we need to be careful about protecting our prize from the piercings and the convictions of the Holy Spirit and His call to repentance in our lives, because we're defying the Word of God in this way, where we are playing with fire and beyond our wildest imagination.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: This is the fourth step.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: We start to protect our prize.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: And then, fifth and you don't want to go here, and this is the final step, it's when you actually purchase your prize.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Say what do you mean?
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Purchase your prize?
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: You see, when you go beyond prioritizing and even beyond protecting, there is a place of exchange, there is a place of purchase.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: It's that time where we commit in such a way.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: It's very hard to now reverse the course that we have committed to.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: When this phase happens, what Judas does, it can't just be like rewound.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: He committed, he did it, he betrayed him.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: He came to a one-way exiting decision that Jesus was not worth what Jesus revealed himself to be worth.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: That Jesus was not who Jesus revealed himself to be.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: It's this full-out denial toward the Word of God.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: And that denial of the Word of God can happen a lot of ways.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: It can be just denying the revelation of God's existence altogether, or of Jesus Christ as the true Lord and Savior of the world.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: It could be denying scriptures are authoritative in any way, because then I can say Jesus is my Lord, but then I get to make up my own life however I want and truly be my own Lord.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: It could be a lot of different things, just denying his value, denying his worth, denying his place.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: But there is a denial and at this point of denial there is this committing to this other prize that is taking place.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: That's hard to reverse.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: So when commitments or when covenants get made which enshrine a disbelief or enshrine a disobedience in your life, that's what it means to purchase the prize.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: That's the fifth step.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: It's very unusual to see the throne be returned to Christ after this happens.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: So what are some examples how this might play out?
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Concessions around God's Word and marriage would obviously be in this category.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: God calls for marriage to be between a man and a woman who are equally yoked in the faith.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: If you enter into that covenant that is outside of God's will, you've actually enshrined disobedience.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: You enshrine this other person in a place in your life that is not according to God's Word, and they're always going to be competing for the throne in that way.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Or when people make financial commitments that actually disable them from being able to be financially obedient to the Lord, it's enshrining a commitment.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: It's enshrining that other thing in the altar.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: It's purchasing the prize when people go public with denial statements.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: It's also this See, when people go public with their statements, there is a commitment that takes place in the heart.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: There's a covenant in the soul that comes along with their willingness to go public in that way.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: It's why public confession is so important.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Whether it's good or bad, it's significant, like when God specifically calls someone to something and then they also make a commitment which cuts them off from the capacity to be faithful to that path.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: It's a purchasing of another prize.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: It is enshrining that idol's place in the heart.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: When there are people who just covenant in their heart, like, hey, I'm not going to believe that, I'm never going to believe that part's the Word of God, I just won't Like, they're covenanting.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing to deny the Word of God.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Unholy commitments, unholy covenants.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: They purchase that thing as a prize.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: They place it as the prize in the heart and that's why God says, by the way, don't swear oaths, and oath is a covenant that you're making.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: They're very dangerous to the soul when they are wrongly aligned.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: So, in summary, we'll close with this we saw in week one that loving God with all of your heart.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: It starts with having him as your desire, what you want, or, as we're speaking of it today, the prize of the soul.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: This week we see what flows from that prize what we prize, we pursue, and what we pursue, we prioritize, and what we prioritize, we protect, and what we protect, we will ultimately purchase.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: I've told you guys this many times before, but my family first darkened the doors of a church when I was in seventh grade and I would say that as a teenager, not by any of my own doing, but my heart was very soft to hearing the gospel about Jesus Christ and the words of Scripture.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: And I was no saint For that age, I was no saint.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: But when I heard the gospel, I just I believed it.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I was cut with this awareness Like it's true, like I am a sinner, I'm not right before God, I need Jesus to save me.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: And I'm telling you, when I received him you know his good old Southern Baptist altar call I walked down the aisle and I prayed with the pastor for all the whole world to see, and then they'd stick the mic in front of your mouth and have you publicly testify right afterwards.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: You guys think I'm hardcore, like that was hardcore, but I just believed it and I received and I remember just doing all that with tears floating down my face and countering the Lord.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: When I heard the Scriptures taught for the first time, I just believed him.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of supernatural when I look back on it in retrospect.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I just I believed.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: When I heard the voice of God through the Spirit for the first time when he called me into ministry, I believed him.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: I didn't necessarily like what I was hearing but I, you know, I believed him.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: That first year and a half with the Lord, it was just this incredible year, something special.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Our youth group, like nearly double, like all my buddies, start coming to church and you know all this stuff.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: We got baptized together.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: But I loved that first year.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: I could barely go to sleep at night.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to be up and talking with the Lord and reading and journaling and scriptures and things like that.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: But by the time my freshman year of high school started, this other prize was competing for the place in my heart.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: How did that happen?
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Well, all my buddies, we grew up together playing sports.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: All my friends in the football team and the baseball team well, when we started high school, they all started partying, they left the faith, they stopped coming to church, and so here, all of a sudden, all my my bros they grew up with and we kind of ran the school together and now they're breaking off from me and I was separate and I was, like you know, the last one, so to speak, and I was alone.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: And so I had these two prizes that were happening in my heart my friends and my social status, as well as Jesus.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: And for the first year and a half they actually kind of all went together, because all my friends came to Jesus and you know, we were just doing this together.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: But now it wasn't that way, and so there was this other prize that was exposed.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: I prized them and I prized being a part of the cool crowd and all of that, that desire.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: It didn't get crucified quickly in my heart, but instead I nurtured it and I watered it and I nourished it until it grew into something that took over the full place of the prize in my heart.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: So this happened all throughout my freshman year and, honestly, a lot of it happened by just continuing to sit with these old, you know lifetime friends at the lunch table and they would just talk about all the things they were doing on the weekend that I wasn't invited because I'm the church boy and you know this sort of thing and my desire to be back in the kind of inner circle.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: It just kept growing and it kept growing.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: I should have been honest with myself to say this isn't really good for my relationship with the Lord.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: I probably should have chosen to sit at a different table for a time, but nevertheless it grew until desire conceded and then I started to actually prioritize.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Prioritize this drift to a different prize other than God.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: During that time frame my family was still going to church but honestly, it was just a place I didn't want to be anymore.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: And I would say this I remember sitting through the teachings of the sermons and stuff like this and feeling convicted early on.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: But there came this point where my heart was like fortified against any such feeling of conviction and it wouldn't even impact me in the slightest.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: It was almost like I was there but I wasn't really there.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: I even went to this charismatic house church service once because there was this girl that I was wanting to date that invited me there and while I was there I got a chance to speak to me by the spirit and this man said that he was hearing something from the Lord and asked if he could share it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: I reluctantly said, yeah, go ahead.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: And he opened his mouth and he said what I had never told a soul that God had already called me into ministry and that I was running away from him and that I needed to repent.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: And all this, and what did I do?
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I ran out of the house and I hid in the bushes, literally like Adam and Eve.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: That's what I did.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Instead of being cut to the heart and repenting like David did in scripture, I did more like Jonah did.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: I just doubled down on my defiance against God and I began to run as far away from God as fast as I could.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: At that moment, my sophomore and my junior years of high school were really godless years.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: They were spiritually wasted years.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: But if you've been down that path, you know it's also spiritually damaging years and I wish I could get him back.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: But that is the path that I went.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: But, by the grace of God, his heavy hand upon me eventually led me to repentance.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: His heavy hand upon me largely came in the form of profound emptiness and meaninglessness, and it just it brought me to my knees.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: I came back to him and after that moment in time I remember, oh, my youth pastor said to me.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: He said for years it was just like, no matter what I preached, it was just like it just went boom, like your eyes were shut, you know, like your ears were stoned death.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: It was like nothing could pierce or penetrate.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: But now it's like you're back.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: He could just see it in my face and of course I've seen that as a pastor and many people over time.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: But here's the point in sharing this None of us should think that we're above our heart, drifting away from loving him with all of our heart.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: In fact, the moment that we're thinking that probably is a good sign that our heart has already drifted.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: None of us are above it.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: And as we learn about the ways of the heart, it should make us more wise, and I don't mean wise just in terms of information, but I mean wise in terms of our actions.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: We need to be intentional about guarding the wellspring of the heart, bringing it before God, who sees all to see what he says.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: You know, in ancient times, if someone poisoned the well of a village or a town or a city or whatever I mean, that could make the whole area uninhabitable.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Like you had to guard the well, one of the most important things of any city.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: You guard the well of this city, church.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: You need to guard the well today.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: The wellspring of your heart needs to be guarded and it needs to be guarded with diligence.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: How do we do that?
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: We cannot do that without getting with God and saying please show me Lord, please reveal to me Lord, it is better to be corrected by you than to have my heart adrift from you.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: And as we do that, I just want to come back to something I said two weeks ago, because there is a strong hidden resistance to tending to the matters of the heart.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: What is that?
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Loving God with all your heart requires going inward.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: It requires paying attention to what's on the inside, and that's painful for most of us, because there's stuff in there that's painful to most of us.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: But we have to pay most attention to what is it that I want?
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: What am I prizing?
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: What do I desire?
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: What am I thinking about?
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: What is it that I'm making room for?
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: What am I cutting out of my life in order to make room for that?
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: What am I after?
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: Is it Him?
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Is there another prize?
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you every time I'm like God, I know what the right answer is.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: But are you the prize of my heart?
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: You know I'm a little nervous when I ask, but we got to know, we have to know.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: We cannot afford to be ignorant and blind to what's taking place there.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: You cannot be diligent about the well of your city and guarding it if you never look at it.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: We can't do it with our hearts either.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: And church, I know we want to believe that loving God with a heart is something.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's just for people that are wired a certain way, people that are kind of more emotional or whatever.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: That's not what it's about.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: It's about desire.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: But there's also it's not a passive thing Love actually is called a fruit of the spirit.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Love for God is a fruit of Spirit first, and love for people, of course, is also a fruit of Spirit as well.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: But there's a gardening of the heart that leads to that fruit being produced.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: And it's true we start looking at this.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: It's like man left to my own.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: I would just be so overwhelmed by the work.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: I'd be so overwhelmed by the amount of weeds that need to be pulled out of there.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: But when we submit to the Spirit of God and we say, lord, do what only you can do in me, then he does the work.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: Don't forget creation started with Him planting a garden.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: He knows how to plant the garden in your heart.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: He can place the seeds and he can supply the water.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: But there is a role that we take in coming to Him for that he is able to do it though amen.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to invite us to prayerfully respond as we close today.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: As you come to the Lord, I would encourage you to do exactly that.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Come and just say, god, what's the prize of my heart right now?
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Would you show me?
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Is there another prize that I've started to pursue and grow my affections for Another prize that I've been prioritizing?
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: God, have I gone so far as to protecting and even purchasing some other prize?
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: Lord, I want you to reach into my heart with the key of your spirit and unlock anything that's been guarded from you.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I want you to be the prize of my heart.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: I want to love you with all my heart.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: I want to encourage you.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Church, there are many definitions of success in this world.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: There are many definitions of success that have been imputed to you and cast upon you, and hurled on you and dreamt up by yourself.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: There is one definition of success before the Lord, when we stand before Him, and that definition of success is faithfulness.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: Faithfulness to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: This is what matters.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: This is your purpose, this is our reason to love Him, to teach others to do the same.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: This is all that really counts for eternity.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: Let Him search your heart.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: If you're here, maybe you're exploring Christianity, or you would just say, hey, I've been around the church and the things of faith for quite a while now, but, if I'm honest, I don't feel like I'm at peace with God.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: I don't feel right before Him.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: I lack confidence that if I were to die today, that I would spend all of eternity with Him.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: I want to share the good news with you God loves you.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: He made you for a relationship with Him and you can leave this room today having that confident assurance, being at peace with Him, not just intellectually, but experientially.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: You say how do you do that?
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: Well, god's revealed in His Word that we do need help, we do need a Savior, and that's brought about by our sin.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: According to the Word of God, everyone has sinned, everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: You see, he's a sinless God, he's a holy God.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: Sin can no more be in His presence than darkness could just exist right on the surface of the sun.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: It can't happen, and so many are trying to earn their way into a relationship with God and into eternity with Him by their own good works.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: You cannot achieve this on your own.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: The standard to be with Him is sinlessness, complete righteousness, holiness.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: That's not a standard that I could meet, that's not a standard that you could meet, but the good news is that Christ Jesus, himself being God, he came and he made a way for your sins to be washed away, for your sins to be completely forgiven.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: See, jesus came to take the sentence upon you of being a sinner and the consequence of sin upon Himself, and then to give you the status of righteousness and sinlessness that he Himself is and lived.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: See when he came and he died on the cross.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: He died in my place, he died in your place.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: He took the consequence, the just punishment of sin, upon Himself, which is death, but he rose from the grave, promising life and eternal life for all who put their faith in Him.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: You see, you can't earn your way to God, but by putting your faith in Jesus Christ to be your Lord and your Savior, you receive the forgiveness that he has paid the price for.
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: You're reconciled into a right relationship with God, no longer separated from Him by sin, but you're given the same access to the Holy Spirit All who are in Christ Jesus have.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: If you were here and you've lacked that assurance, but you do believe that Jesus Christ, being God, came and died and rose so that you could be forgiven and have eternal life In relationship with God, and you would be willing to admit yeah, I'm a sinner, I know I need to be forgiven with heads bowed and eyes closed.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: I just want to give you a chance to respond and receive the gift of salvation and a relationship with Him today.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: If that's you, would you just raise your hand and hold it high for a moment, as you do?
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: No one's going to grab your hand.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: No one's going to do anything weird to you.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: This is you reaching your hand up for the one who's extended his hand down to save you.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: This is you saying.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: I want to be included in the prayer that you're about to pray.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Is that you today?
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: I'm listening online.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: There's a place for you to indicate that that's the decision you'd like to make as well.
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: If that's you, I just want to lead you in a prayer to come and say God, I want to know you, I want to have a relationship with you.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: You made me to love you with all my heart and soul, mind and strength.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: I admit, god, I have not been living that way.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: I confess to you that I've sinned.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: I know I need to be forgiven and, jesus, I believe that you being God, that you came and you died on the cross, I believe you rose from the grave and that you give life and place of death for all who put their faith, their trust, in you.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: I'm choosing to do that today, Jesus.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: I'm putting my faith in you to be my Lord, to be my savior, to be the leader of my life and the forgiver of my sin.
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: Would you forgive me now, jesus, if you've been knocking at the door of my heart and this is going to apply for those who have been believers for some time or those that are just receiving the Lord today I want you to come and say God, I'm opening up the door.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: I'm asking, jesus, would you come into this house, the house of my heart?
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: I want to know you.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: I want to know all of you.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: I want you to inhabit every place and every space and every room, nothing locked off from you.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: I want you to be the prize of my whole heart.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: God, I'm asking by the power of your spirit that you would move hearts, even right now, that have been in the wrong place into the right place.
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: That you yourself handed the key, by us saying have it all, have it all.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: That you would unlock the heart that has been locked.
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: That you would unlock the rooms in the heart that have been locked.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: You see, you asking Him have it all, gives Him the key, have all of our hearts, lord.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: And right now I'm asking by your spirit, by your presence, would you unlock our hearts, would you realign our hearts, even right now, come Holy Spirit.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: I just want to encourage you.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Let the spirit do the work in this moment.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: You say yes, you ask, and then you receive.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: If you need to come to the altar, the altars are open.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: Have my heart, lord.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: Have it all.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: The surrender that's taking place in this room.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: I want you to know.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: It is a pleasing aroma before the Lord.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: He sees you.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Come, lord, come in power.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: I don't want to just talk about it.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: I want you to do it.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: Do it only you can do.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: All of me.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: God, I pray for your sons and your daughters, for every single one present and listening today, whether it's for the first time or the second time or however many times.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: If this would be a year 2024, would be a year when they would set you as the prize of their heart, that you would be their desire, wholehearted, not a little piece, not a little portion, but the wholehearted desire.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: And from that place they would find themselves pursuing you in their heart, dwelling on you, meditating on you, beholding your beauty, that they would begin to see their feet move in a priority that they've never seen before.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: And I am asking this would be a year of seeking with whole hearts and finding, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: God.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: I thank you, lord, I thank you for what you've done this morning.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: Even though I didn't see a hand, I just sense that there was salvation.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: That took place today.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: And, god, I do sense that you're doing a good work in our hearts and we thank you, lord, and we ask you for more In Jesus' name.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: And all who agree said Amen.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: Why don't you stand with me as we dismiss and close?
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: Today?
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: We're officially dismissing.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: If you're new to the church, starting on March 8th of last year, we felt the Lord inviting us to bring him a continual assembly of perpetual praise.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: And so you've actually walked into a gathering that has been going for over 10 months now and it's going to continue right now, and so it always makes our kind of entrances and exits a little awkward compared to what maybe a normal church experience would be.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: But thank you guys for coming.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: If you want to stay in worship for a while, you can stay as long as you want, literally, and if not, then you guys have a great rest of your day and a great rest of your weekend, and I hope to see you guys back here real soon.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: Blessings everybody, goodbye.