Preventing Spiritual Heart Disease

[Music] brethren i want to talk with you today about a subject and about a problem that really impacts every one of us whether you're young whether you're old in fact it impacts everybody in the world everybody in the world it actually takes the lives of millions of people around the world every year and it could take your spiritual life if we're not sensitive to what's going on if we're not alert if we're not watching it's a problem that god and jesus christ are particularly concerned about but from a very different perspective than most of us today it's a subject that we each need to be concerned about especially as we approach the passover and the days of unleavened bread i'd like to start by asking a few questions this is a challenging podium because it's so steep everything rolls off to the bottom when was the last time you had a physical checkup from a doctor when was the last time you had a physical checkup what was your heart rate what was your blood pressure what were the results of the physical exam were there any concerns that you had do you have any concerns if you didn't have a physical checkup you know i think i've told this joke before but this older man and his wife were waking up one morning and he reaches over and pats her and says morning honey she said no don't touch me don't touch me he said what you're okay don't touch me don't touch me what do you mean what do you mean don't touch you she said i think i'm dead why do you think you're dead this is good nothing hurts nothing hurts now if you're not 60 or 70 that may not be funny but if you're 70 or 80 you begin to know what i'm talking about my wife and i were sitting in our chairs by the fire the other day and said how do you feel she says nothing hurts nothing hurts but that's what happens as we get older they talk about the golden age or the better second half i don't know about that somebody must have been sleeping when they came up with that but i had a little story that i heard that this prominent heart surgeon is having problems with his car so he took it to the garage and he said well you guys look at my my car my engines are not running right the guy says leave it here a couple days we'll give you a call a couple of days later the mechanic called the search and he said come on down we're all done with the car so he got there and he said what was the problem he said well we we took the engine apart we ground the valves we put in several new cylinders we adjusted the timing we put some new belts on the new fan belts on and then we also put some new hoses on the radiator and when we started up the car it worked like a charm it really worked well he said well thank you very much i'm very impressed and then the mechanic kind of pushed a little bit because he knew the doctors hey doc when you do heart operations do you get results like this that are really tremendous he looked at me said well our fields are a little bit different when i do heart operations in my position i have to do all the repairs with the engine running okay [Laughter] you know sometimes they can do hard operations and stop the heart but in this case he said i can't leave the end i can't leave the engine not running for two or three days while i fix the heart you know car engines need periodic maintenance and repairs but so does the human heart so does the human heart when you think about it the heart is probably the most important organ in the body you know you can live and function if your brain isn't working a number of us know that you know i was having a a conversation one time with bob lee we'd been friends for about 40 years we're in the office and we were talking and then bob stops middle sentences said now doug what was i talking about i said bob i don't remember you know we both had a senior moment at the same time and that was a disaster but we can function whenever our brain and our kidneys maybe don't work quite that well you know you can lose your eyesight but you can still function you can lose your hearing you can still function you can lose an arm or a leg or a foot or whatever and you can still function but if your heart stops that's the end of the road that's all there is the heart is extremely important when i was in graduate school we did a we created a health promotion radio spot in which we had different people be different voices for different organs in the body so we get ready around the microphone and we hear an alarm clock go off and then we hear the brain starts talking so this is the brain calling everybody time to get up guys let's get going this is lungs start pumping deep because we need to get some oxygenated blood to the heart and then another voice chimes in the brain tells the the arms and legs come on guys get moving we need to get the blood circulating get some of that blood back to the heart and then you hear this is the feet calling say hey brain we'd ran 10 miles yesterday we're a sword we got blisters why do we have to get up and get going just for the heart and then you hear the the heart chimes in he says thanks guys for all you're doing but you need to remember that if i go you all go your heart's extremely important it's extremely important you know for the last year we've been very concerned about coven and how many deaths are happening because of covid they estimate that probably over 300 000 people in america will have died in the past year because of coven but when we realize heart disease is the leading cause of death not only in this country but in the world in the past year over seven hundred thousand or nearly seven hundred thousand people in america will die of heart disease or diseases related to the heart whereas covid will take about three hundred thousand about half heart disease kills more than all the cancers combined it's a big problem it's a big problem one of the biggest problems is that heart disease is almost 100 percent preventable almost 100 preventable it could be prevented if we just took certain steps and followed those steps you know health textbooks talk about important physical things that we can do to prevent heart disease regular exercise you know we're a nation of couch potatoes today it's not a vegetable well maybe it is but we sit a lot we sit a lot and then that creates problems we need to do ever regular exercise we need to make wise diet choices if you eat too much fat fat contains a lot of calories if you consume too many calories you look in the mirror and you recognize well that's a calorie and that's a calorie that's the calorie and these things build up but it creates problems learning how to manage stress learning how to manage stress if we can do that that reduces our risk of heart disease these are things that we can do you know the human heart is important to god the human heart is also important to god the bible actually has much to say about heart disease it also talks an awful lot about spiritual heart disease spiritual heart disease which is another ballpark altogether the scriptures tell us that god looks on the heart we'll get to some of these a little bit that god tests the heart it also tells us that god is going to give us a new heart now what do these things mean as we approach the days of unleavened bread we are told to examine ourselves which means examining our hearts turn if you would to first corinthians [Music] first corinthians chapter 11 and we'll be reading this probably numerous times through the passover and days of unleavened bread but if we start in verse start verse 23 paul is talking to the church in corinth because i want to put this in the context of the days of unleavened bread in the passover paul says for i received from the lord that which i delivered to you that the lord jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it saying eat this is my body which is broken for you and we can be forgiven of our sins and healed of our diseases because of the sacrifice that jesus christ made for us he said do this in remembrance of me in the same manner he also took the cup and after supper saying this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood this do also in remembrance of me as often as you do it in remembrance of me and down in verse 27 he says therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the blood in the body of jesus christ but then in verse 28 and this is our instruction as we go through these days let a man or let a person examine himself this is something you have to do for yourself i can't do it for you and for those of you young people that have not been baptized yet you're not going to be at the passover you can still examine yourselves you can still examine yourselves and we'll talk about some of those things through the sermon so let a person examine himself and so let him eat or drink of the bread drink of the cup for whoever eats and drinks in an unworthy manner taking it lightly taking it lightly eats and drinks a judgment to himself for this reason many are weak many are sick among you you know many of us are sick today because we don't follow the laws that god has given us that our body operates on i've got a friend i went to high school with he got a phone call from his wife last friday and he said you know your friend is in a hospital he's got pancreatic cancer and he's probably not going to live that long now we grew up together his dad got him a pony and we used to ride that little pony until it was about ready to quit and wear out uh you know we went to the same church staying in choirs together we've kept in touch with each other over the years but he's may not make it out of the hospital but he did some things he did some things that he should have done differently and now there's consequences for that it says here he that eats and drinks an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep for if we would judge ourselves if we would examine ourselves we look in the mirror and say look i don't like that person in there because i don't recognize them i need to talk to you and make some changes if we would judge ourselves we are chastened by the lord that we not be condemned with the world so as we approach the days of unleavened bread in the passover look in the mirror see if there's things you could do differently and we'll talk about some of those things in the context of the sermon so in the sermon today i want to discuss how each of us can examine the condition of our hearts how each of us can examine the condition of our hearts and let's notice what god is looking for in our hearts and how we can prevent spiritual heart disease spiritual heart disease and that's the title that i've chosen for today preventing spiritual heart disease because the bible talks about both physical and spiritual principles but the spiritual things are really the most important so what does god have to say about our heart uh return back to first samuel 16 and verse 7. first samuel 16 and verse 7. and we're going to talk a little bit more about some of these scriptures here in first samuel i want to just focus on one first samuel 16 and verse 7. samuel was looking to anoint someone he said but the lord said to samuel do not look on his appearance or in his physical stature because i have refused him for the lord does not see man or see people as god does for man looks on the heart but the lord looks excuse me man looks on the appearance but the lord looks on the heart god looks on the heart he's looking into our hearts he wants to see what's in our heart and we'll find out why and there's a context to this scripture here in first samuel that we'll come back to in just a little bit but god looks on the heart he wants to see what's in our heart he wants to see what we're thinking about he wants to see what our attitude is and these things are important because they're going to influence whether or not we gain eternal life because they depend on what's in our heart proverbs 27 verse 19 you don't need to turn there but another interesting scripture that gives us a perception of what god is looking for proverbs 27 verse 19 it says as water reflects the face if i've looked into a very clear stream or a clear lake there's no ripples or anything and you can see yourself staring back at yourself as water reflects the face so man's heart reveals man so a man or a person's heart reveals who that person is it reveals who we are it reveals our character you know the bible mentions the word heart over a thousand times over a thousand times and the bible contains some very important principles for physical health of the heart you know we published a booklet recently on biblical principles of health might be good to review periodically maybe even during the days of unleavened bread what do i need to change what do i need to change about my diet about my my lifestyle just a couple of scriptures again you don't have to turn there this is all in the booklet but it mentions in leviticus 3 verse 17 leviticus 3 17 says eat neither fat nor blood because both of these things too much fat in your diet is going to create problems eating blood products you know my background to a degree is german had an uncle at a farm and he used to butcher a couple of cows and a couple of pigs every year and he would supply us with pig sausage and liver sausage and some of you germans don't start lusting after these things but that was just what we did we never questioned it we just ate it we just ate it and when we moved to georgia um we bought little can it said possum fixins no possum in the can you had to get your own but this was just vegetables that you mixed with it and some people pick up roadkill here and there and bring it home just these are things we did growing up without really thinking about it very much and yet the bible says no there's certain things we don't eat unclean foods in this particular case don't eat fat don't eat blood proverbs 25 twice verse 16 and verse 27 talks about going easy on sweets you have a little bit of honey well that's fine you know when i came into the church i was cooking for myself and i thought well honey is good i'll just have a big tablespoon full every night not the best thing to do because you're pumping in all this sugar into your bloodstream and you do that too much you're going to wear out your pancreas because a little bit again in the scripture says a little bit on is good but you're going to vomit it up if you eat too much of it so it's the balance that's there that's needed first timothy 4 verse 8 and again when you read the old kings of king james it says you know exercise prophets a little but there are other things that are more important that doesn't mean exercise is not important it profits for a little while it profits for a little while you'll get an exercise program it'll take you about 30 days to get in fairly decent shape but you stop exercising for a week you're going to lose most of that so it takes you 30 days to get in shape and then you lose it in the week if you stop exercising these are just things we have to do if we want to have a healthy heart but again the bible says there's more important things than exercise now paul was writing and roman empire had a greek influence there everybody had baths that they could do and exercise rooms we went through a big spa someplace in germany a number of years ago and they had hot water baths lukewarm water baths cold water bears steam baths exercise all kinds of things it was as big as this room it was as big as this room but this was the environment that paul was writing in he said but there's more important things there's more important things than exercise matthew 4 19 jesus said follow me he said follow me now jesus prayed and he taught his disciples to pray jesus taught us to say he taught his disciples and then he taught them what to teach jesus healed people and he taught his disciples how to heal people gave them that power jesus worked he just didn't sit around and some of these flagpole sitters used to sit back in the middle ages the pillar saints that just sat up there and argued with another guy sitting on another pillar jesus wasn't a monk or a nun he just didn't sit around and pray all day he worked he was physically active physically active many of our jobs today are not physically active so we've got to get some exercise we've got to do something but jesus also walked every place he went he didn't have a sports car to hop in and roared on the road i'm amazed at how some people are driving on the freeways anymore i came up here i think it was last week some guy i heard him coming he was one of the little sports cars with a big muffler i heard him coming behind me cut in front of me went around the car was in front of him and in and out and i heard him going down the freeway i thought this is not indianapolis 500 i don't think they're driving like crazy but jesus walked every place he went now when he walked from nazareth up to jerusalem and back three times a year it's about 75 miles each way so he clocked about 450 miles a year just walking going to the holy days and you figure then he he didn't have a power saw or a power drill or a jackhammer he did it all he was very physically active and it says he never sinned which the implication is he never never broke the health laws of god the physical health laws of god but this is all in the bible you know most people think the old testament and stuff like that we're into spiritual things we're not into physical things but brethren we're living in a physical world we have physical bodies we have to take care of that the body that god has given us the sooner we learn to follow these biblical health principles the better our health is going to be but the bible has another dimension and this is what i want to focus on more in the sermon today god is interested in more than just a physical condition of our heart god is concerned with the spiritual condition of our heart and this doesn't matter whether you're 18 years old or 80 years old i'm pushing that number i'm not quite up to mr ames yet but um we're both over the hill i guess we're heading in that direction let's put it that way but you know if you can grow older with a sense of humor you'll be a lot better off than coming and becoming an angry viral you know fussy at everybody but we have that tendency i was talking to another individual who is has passed the uh octogenarian mark and he made the comment he said you know i find i'm getting bugged by more things now than i used to so that's something as we get older we need to be careful about and not get too uh ornery but god is concerned about the the spiritual condition of our heart because if it's not in good condition we could lose our eternal life we could lose our eternal life if we pick up a spiritual disease that affects our heart so we need to think about these things okay very briefly what does the bible mean when it says heart when we read that word heart it's talking a lot about a lot more talking about a lot more than just our physical beating heart in the old testament the hebrew word is lieb l-e-b the hebrew word that is translated heart is l-e-b l-e-b as in boy but not only means heart that means the mind it means the mind it means our thoughts it means what we think about it means the inner person this person inside us that thinks and acts and functions and it can mean your conscience in other words what are you thinking about are you worried about this are you worried about that or are you not worried about anything your conscience in the new testament the greek word is something that we recognize very very readily it's cardia k-a-r-d-i-a cardia we talk about cardiac arrest it's talking about the heart stopping an ekg a necrocardiogram where it measures what's going on in your heart so the greek word in the new testament is cardia but it means the same thing as the old testament word means your heart it means your mind so when you're reading that verse about a heart it's talking about what's going on in your mind you're thinking what you are thinking about your paul mentions about bringing every thought into subjection in other words you control what you're going to think about it means your inner self in other words who you are what you are you can ask the question who do you want to be who do you want to be do you want to be like jesus christ or do you want to be like some rock star or somebody in your neighborhood that's really tough or something talks about your character what kind of character do you want to develop what kind of character are you developing if you're not sure as somebody is close to you ask your wife ask your husband ask your kids what kind of character am i well dad we can't say we don't want to say we'll get in trouble now again i'm joking here but how we act every day what we say what we think about god sees because he looks on our heart he understands you know there are certain qualities that god looks for in our heart and these qualities reveal who we are just like the water reflects your appearance this is the water reflects your appearance what goes on in our heart reflects who we are you god is looking for individuals men and women after his own heart after his own heart you know we're told in acts 13 verse 22 that david was a man after god's own heart now david wasn't perfect david made mistakes but when he did make a mistake he repented deeply of that mistake he did not want to be that way you know paul mentions also in the new testament how he he wants to be one thing but he realizes i i'm still slipping back here is slipping back there so paul's struggle just as we are going to have to struggle and as we go through the days of unleavened bread if we do that right if we take time to examine ourselves we're going to come out of the days of unleavened bread a different person with a different perspective with a different perspective you know our challenge right now if we hope to be in the kingdom of god and rule with jesus christ our challenge right now is to become a man or a woman a young woman a young man a boy a girl with a heart after god's own heart it's got to be our goal i want to be like jesus christ that's very different from satan's attitude i'm going to be like god i'm going to take his throne no but to want to be like jesus christ to be want to want to be walking in his footsteps this needs to be our goal it needs to be our goal a couple of scriptures along this line let's turn to those quickly in philippians chapter 2 and verse 5. now these are just principles these are spiritual principles that relate to our heart and our minds philippians 2 5 really should be a memory verse [Music] paul is talking to the church here in philippi he mentions in verse five it says let this mind be in you which was also in jesus christ or we could say let this heart be in you that was also in jesus christ who being in the form of god did not considered robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men he actually came in the likeness of men i think there's an issue going around in some of the places where jesus christ never became a man well he did he walked he talked he ate food took a bath he did become a man but he was also god but he made himself of no reputation you know i had a young fellow who was in college one of the churches that i pastored he was a journalism major and he started attending i said look you're majoring in journalism would like to have somebody write up an article on the church periodically and send it into at that time it was pasadena to write about the church is not interested i said what i said you got a journalism degree and you're not interested no the job's not big enough for me the job is not big enough for me yet jesus took on the form of a servant the form of a servant is willing to help willing to help wherever as opposed to wanting to be noticed another guy who was already a deacon and we'd moved to a new church building it was on main street and there were people coming in off the street because it was a church building and i said would you i just kind of take over the welcoming committee or that that's there at the front door to kind of deal politely with these people that are coming here after a handout but we're not here to give handouts he said no i've done that before i've done that before i i'd like something bigger a deacon means a servant that's willing to jump in and help out but it was kind of no i've done that before the attitude of a servant just wasn't there there was something in his heart that wasn't there but here were to have the mind or the heart of jesus christ verse 8 and being found in the appearance of a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death you know when he was on the cross his father did we have to do it this way but your will not my will he did what he was asked to do you know john the baptist could have put up a real fight he prepared the way for try for jesus christ to come and then had his head cut off he goes like god look what i did i i stayed true to everything but his job was over when he comes up in the resurrection he's gonna be very live person but his job was over at that time it wouldn't have worked too good probably to have john the baptist with his ministry and then christ with his ministry that his job was over he didn't complain about it it was done we're to have this mind verse 9 what happens if we have the mind of god the mind of jesus christ therefore god has highly exalted him and given him the name of which is above every other name that in the name of jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that jesus christ is the lord he's the boss you know if we have this mind then god is going to be able to give us all kinds of things he's going to need a person to be the mayor of charlotte if charlotte is still around at that time he's going to need a person to be the governor of north carolina of south carolina he's going to need a president of the united states whatever that is going to be you and i have been called to train for these jobs now and if we get hung up over well i didn't get to do the song books you know i didn't get to do this or that they ordained them instead of me we're not going to be ready for the job that god wants to give us and this goes for you young people too what do you want to be what would you like to do in the kingdom of god first of all do you want to be in the kingdom of god or is that just that mom and dad's idea i want to have fun right now you know this this nation this this society is going down the tubes and it might not be that much longer this is going to be over when christ returns he's going to need a staff of people individuals that he can trust to put various in various places and he's looking at our hearts today to see what is in our heart you know samuel is a child he was donated to the to the the priest by his mom as a little child he was sleeping one night and he heard this voice he came running into what was it elijah here i am eli said i didn't call you i didn't call you and this was a kid what four five six years of age baby does it go back to beds he goes back to bed and he hears this noise again samuel samuel he runs out to ela here i am you see a little kid doing that here i am eli said i didn't call you he said you go back and listen you go back and listen god was working with samuel as a child he was working with samuel as a child and he'll work with you especially if he senses from your heart that you want to be like jesus christ you want to be in his kingdom let him work with you let him work with you and do what your part is do what your part is in first john 3 verses 1 to 3 it says now we are children now we are children but we can become like him we can become like him you know when christ was transfigured in front of several of his disciples they saw this what was standing in that spot a human being and all of a sudden he radiated energy just like somebody plugged in a 220 volt light bulb or something and then all of a sudden he was just back to normal but he was transfigured in front of them and we said you can become like me you can become a spirit being like me radiating energy you know as we get older our teeth fall out our hair falls out we limp around and bump around and bump into walls and all kinds of things like that exciting things [Laughter] now nobody knows what i'm talking about but we're not going to be that way when christ returns we're going to be totally different beings if you're a young person you happen to be in the first resurrection you're not you're not going to have to go through all these wonderful things that as old people go through but it's going to be exciting it's going to be exciting and you can focus on that as a young person you don't have to do all the bad things that everybody does and burn their fingers and get all messed up yeah it's sad watching young kids grow up that are bright and fresh and so on and then they got to get away from the church got to get out from under mom and dad they got to get out there with real they've all the real fun is and then sometimes 10 years later 15 years later 20 years later don't i recognize you yeah i was in your congregation what happened i don't want to say but they saw the grass on the other side of the fence and i thought it was so wonderful because it looked so green and they got out there and then they found their snakes out there there's all kind of bad stuff out there you can learn the hard way or you can learn the easy way by listening and motivating your heart to go in a different direction notice in psalm 7 and verse 9 psalm 7 and verse 9. we're just looking up some of the verses where it talks about the heart might be an interesting bible study to just look up the word heart a number of different places notice what it says psalm 7 and verse 9. so let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end and that's coming not too many years up ahead of us maybe even less than that but let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end but establish the just establish the just put your stamp of approval on the just for the righteous god tests the hearts and minds god will allow us to experience all kinds of things because he wants to see how we're going to react are we going to react as jesus christ would react or are we going to lose it are we going to be drawn over here or drawn over there god wants to see you know abraham and sarah were childless god made certain promises to them and then they tried to work it out on their own they tried to work things out on their own it didn't work out and then sarah can see wow we got a child let him raise that child probably what 17 18 19 something like that and then he says abraham i want you to take your son and offer him as a sacrifice what that was not abraham's reaction he said he may not have been overly happy but off he went and then he allowed abraham and isaac to gather some wood build an altar that 20 year old guy allowed his dad to tie him up dad what are you doing you'll find out yeah this doesn't look real good he's laying there abraham gets a knife is about ready and then god says now i know because that ram in the bushes over there now i know what's in your heart what's in your heart he wanted to find out who was going to become the father of the faithful would he be faithful and god is going to give us opportunities to find out if we will be faithful but he's got to know if he's going to give us eternal life he's got to know what's going on up here in our mind in our hearts so when you see that word in the bible heart it means your thoughts that means what you're thinking [Music] it means what's going on in your mind and you need to think about that when you're reading these scriptures what's going on in your mind your attitude i wish that guy giving a sermon today would hurry up and finish a guy sees that if you're here under duress he knows that is it going to give eternal life to someone who's here under direct i don't really want to be here i don't think this guy's jokes are funny at all you know god sees those things or when he looks in your heart does he see in your heart i want to be in the kingdom of god there is any price i'm not willing to pay that's where i want to be that's what i want to do i want to help change the world i don't want to stick around here too long as this thing goes down the tubes i want to be in the kingdom of god and that can be as a child as a young person i want to be there i want to be there you know in matthew 6 33 jesus called and told his disciples seek first the kingdom of god seek first make that your your primary goal you know it's you want to come up with some ideas for a career in education and so on but maybe think a little bit deeper how can i use what i'm going to do in the coming kingdom of god you know if your goal is to be a poker player in a big casino that ain't going to be around you're going to have to be re-educated if you make it into the kingdom as a as a poker player no think about it what would be useful now 10 years from now and in the kingdom of god yeah i wanted to be a medical doctor i broke my neck in a swimming accident in college i spent about a month in the hospital and i saw these doctors walking around with their white coats on and i heard everybody good morning doctor good morning doctor good morning doctor i thought it'd be pretty cool because we put on white coats too and we went down to eat in the cafeteria people were saying to us as college students good morning doctor good morning doctor that was not that's not a reason i always wanted to be a teacher until i found out that they didn't get paid in the summertime then i had to kind of rethink but to teach people uh how to live how to take care of their bodies that's what i wound up doing for 20 30 years and i actually had a physician i had him come in and talk to my health education class it was a stop smoking how to prevent alcohol and drug abuse type of class and i asked him when he was a thoracic surgeon i wanted to talk a little bit about what he does you're cutting people's lungs out and so uh he said what's your class all about i said it's health promotion disease prevention he kind of well that's interesting but after he gave his talk he said you know i can see what you're doing here you're trying to help people avoid the problems i said exactly he said you know i'd almost like to change trade you jobs he said i cut people's lungs out every day and it's not helping the situation i said would you trade salaries he looked at me are you kidding i said no but here's a guy he's in a profession he's making plenty of money but just cutting people's lungs out he's got plenty of clients but it's i think it was frustrating to him because he realizes this isn't solving the problem this isn't solving the problem so what can we do to recognize the the the symptoms of spiritual heart problems what can we do to recognize the symptoms of spiritual heart problems there's a number of examples let me just summarize some of these scriptures from first samuel from first samuel about 10 to about 16 he's talking about saul you know saul was a very impressive guy head and shoulders above everybody else in his tribe the israelites wanted a king so god gives them saul here's this big impressive guy uh humble to begin with well maybe we should go back there first samuel chapter 10. god knew what he was doing but i think he also wanted to teach the israelites a lesson help them learn that there's more than just physical appearance there's more than just physical appearance samuel comes and he anoints saul and verse 9 says so it was when he had turned his back and went from samuel that god gave him another heart in other words he was anointed he was anointed by samuel it says god gave him another heart verse 10 when they came there to the where the prophets were on this hill then the spirit of god came upon saul and he prophesied so he was given in god's spirit but he came he became a different person you know when you are baptized you come into the church your life begins to change and people may look at you and say you're different you're different what happened what happened yeah you received god's spirit you became a different person your perspective changed your values changed maybe you like pork sausage and you realize i'm not going to eat that anymore but people noticed the change you know some of you if you lived a very decent life maybe they didn't notice that much he didn't make these great big changes but there was a change that occurred in your heart and in your mind saul took it to took certain liberties he was told not to do certain things the priest will do that you do your job but then he said well i felt compelled i just had to do that well he felt compelled to go contrary to god's instructions as a result he lost his kingship and it says a different spirit came on saul whenever david was anointed king when david was anointed king god's spirit came on him god's spirit left saul and it says an evil spirit came and he became very accusative very worried very uptight became a different person he became a different person david then received god's spirit uh he functioned very well until he got in a moment of weakness he was up on the roof now over here we don't get up on our roofs but if you spend some time in the middle east the roofs are flat and people go up on the roof whenever it's hot inside and david was up on the roof and he saw this woman down below the palace he should have said uh nope i can't be looking over there but he didn't so in a moment of weakness in an unguarded moment he sent a message hey why don't you come up and talk a little bit and one thing led to another and he wound up plotting the murder of the the woman's husband committing adultery and then there were consequences but this was what happened in a moment and some of you probably all have your own stories about what i did when i wasn't really thinking i've talked to people that have had problems with alcohol and say you know i was out last night i don't remember a thing i did you don't remember a thing that you did so what did you do i don't know and the police car pulls in the driveway where were you last night i don't remember somebody was killed last night they saw you there i don't remember where something else happened you know god knows what's in our heart he wants us to focus in the right direction you know david messed up but david had an attitude we can read about in psalm 51. david had an attitude in psalm 51 that god saw and heard i'd encourage you to read the whole thing but he starts out have mercy on me o god according to your loving kindness and when we mess up we can ask god god please be merciful i'm sorry i really did mess up i want to change now these are the things we need to talk to god about during the days of unleavened bread chances are your your past year wasn't perfect but that's why christ died for us so that we can ask for forgiveness he had a story with dr scott when he was little we had two boys at that time we were in a fedco it's like a costco back here and my wife was doing some shopping and i had the boys that i'm carrying the little one the sean the youngest one and i gave scott the shopping cart and he was pushing it i said scott don't swing it back and forth because he was you can do all kinds of things with shopping carts scott don't swing it and then i walked up an aisle uh looking at something i heard this crash and bottles breaking and whatever and it was where scott was so i figured okay so i went back there here's the the buggy the basket buried in a ketchup display that was on the end of an aisle and about that time the manager came running up and he's starting to clean up i said how much is this going to cost me he said don't worry about it we have insurance so i didn't say a thing we went through the line checked out i didn't say anything to scott we got in the car i didn't say anything to scott we got home we brought the groceries in and scott i'd like to talk with you come on into the the den here and sit down and we'll talk i said scott what should a dad do who had told his son not to swing the shopping cart and he did scott says give him another chance give him another ch he's a diplomat has been since he was born but you know we can go to god the same way god i'm sorry i messed up i don't want to do this again please help me do that david is asking here have mercy on me o god according to your loving kindness verse six behold you desire truth in the inward parts this is what you're looking for you know when your kids get into something and they get in the fight or whatever and you come out and say okay who did this not me not me he did it she did it they all couldn't have done it somebody had to be telling the truth and somebody was probably not telling the truth god wants to see the truth if we just say look i messed up i'm sorry that's what david did but notice in verse seven purge me clean me up purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i'll be whiter than snow verse 10 create in me a clean heart create in me a clean heart that looks for the the good that wants to do the good prop verse 11 do not cast me away from your presence do not take your holy spirit from me david probably saw what happened with saul he became a different person when god's spirit left him and this evil spirit came on him he saw what happened he said don't take your holy spirit from me then i will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you as he mentions here you know there are numerous examples of what people have done being influenced by a different spirit i'd like to focus next on what's what we can do to prevent spiritual prevent spiritual heart attacks and prevent spiritual heart disease let me just give you the scriptures so we don't run out of time i thought about quitting early and letting mr mcnair come up and give a a second sermon but i guess we'll not do that we'll probably make it um i found enough to fill up my uh impromptu certainly now what can we do to prevent spiritual heart attacks or spiritual heart disease number one first peter chapter 5 verses 8 and 9. first peter 5 verse 8 9 talks about being vigilant being alert to recognize and resist satan's attempts to to to tempt us if you ever decided to fast and then somebody calls you up and asked you to come over for dinner anybody had that experience you're gonna fast and you're all serious about it and somebody you haven't even seen in six months calls you up oh we're just thinking about you we'd like you to come over and have dinner with us so what are your priorities well i can fast tomorrow or you could say you know i have another engagement i would love to take up your invitation maybe next week but god sees what's in our hearts it's not that big a deal maybe but it could be be alert and recognize what satan's going to try to he wants to destroy us satan has talked about like a roaring lion a roaring lion i stayed in a hotel on the south coast of england we're checking out some different hotels for some fee sites over there and i checked in late at night and i woke up about four o'clock in the morning with this big and the windows started to shake i thought what what's going on here there was a world war ii fort next door that they had put lions in and had a lion display in there but it was right next to the hotel i didn't see that the night before but i sure found out about it about four or five o'clock in the morning it just shook you out of a very sound sleep but satan is like that except lions don't run around and say ah i'm going to get you no they sneak up and they notice who's not looking or who's limping and then they're on them and then they grow got them but satan is like that we need to be aware we've been called to become part of god's family god wants us to be in the kingdom but satan doesn't and he will go after us in any way that he can you know the parable of the sower in matthew 13. some people had trials and satan got to them through the trial well god is god of love why is he allowing this to happen or the cares of the world the cares of the world can get to you well i can't tithe because you know i just bought a new house or this or that i was chatting with the minister one time when things were beginning to change in the worldwide church of god i was teaching in big sandy and we went to an outlying congregation and the minister's job was to read some of the announcements and he read some of the announcements uh from mr dikach and afterwards we went out to dinner i said you know i could not have read those announcements in good conscience because of what was being said he said well well well we just put an addition on the house and i can't afford to lose my job right now so he was promoting some of these ideas that were changing the church in a very different direction because he had a little bit different priorities his priorities were different so it's not surprising that people went in different directions but satan is out to get us we need to remember that we need to be alert philippians 4 verse 7 and 8 talks about the same type of thing that we've got to guard our hearts we've got to guard our hearts we've got to guard our minds you know i've used this example with our boys one time up in massachusetts they were early teens we were walking up the stairs we'd been downstairs by a fireplace uh friday evening we're walking upstairs i was i was first one of the boys was second another boy was at the bottom and i heard this and i turned around and the boy at the bottom said my brother just kicked me in his stomach and i grabbed the other boy and i said why did you do that he said i don't know i just felt like it turned around and kicked his brother in the stomach i said who do you think would put a thought like that in your mind to kick your brother he said i think i know i said look a lesson in life you don't act on every thought that comes into your mind you don't act on every thought that comes you have to filter it and say no i'm not going to think about that i'm not going to do it that way david didn't stop the thought that came in his mind scenery is better over there he should have said no no no no can't do it can't do it i'm not going to do that see satan tries to influence our thoughts number two another way that we can prevent spiritual heart attacks and spiritual heart disease ephesians chapter 6 verses 11 to 18. ephesians 6 11 to 18 talks about putting on the whole armor of god and i would encourage you to go home read that scripture and then look up the different things that are mentioned there it talks about putting on truth focus on truth john 17 17 jesus said your word is truth this is the book this has got to truth in it the truth about god the truth about satan the truth about creation the truth about raising children truth about marriage all kinds of things this has got to become the book that we spend time on it's got to be the book that we spend time on truth is extremely important part of the armor of god is righteousness [Applause] righteousness psalm 119 verse 172 says all thy commandments are righteousness our righteousness read the booklet that's one of the assignments i want to give you at the end of the sermon go through the ten commandments read one or two chapters a day during the days of unleavened bread read it think about it and hold it up as a mirror am i doing it that way am i doing it that way could i do better that way but righteousness is extremely important faith do you trust god do you trust his word think about it think about it and determine to trust god determine to follow god your second timothy 2 15 says study and apply rightly correctly the word of god you can't apply it correctly if you don't know what's in the book but spend some time reading the bible every day every day number three seek god with a whole heart seek god with a whole heart deuteronomy 4 verse 29 god i want to be in the kingdom of god god i want to be like you i want to do things your way but seek god with all your heart with all your heart number four pray pray every day first thessalonians 5 17. paul is telling the church of thessalonica pray always pray without ceasing you know before we had gps's whenever i was visiting or making visits up in new england you know they they paved cow paths up there and those became the streets those became the roads and they're all over everywhere uh they were just putting in some interstate highways when we were living up there but before we had a gps i would pray god please help me find this particular address and i would look up and there was the street because i could get to the general area but after that i was lost another time i was looking for telephone poles if you drive through the country the telephone poles have numbers on them this guy said look we live right by uh telephone poll number 372 or something like that so i'm going along with my flashlight got it there's 372. but i prayed for help that way because they didn't have gps's at that time that's how old i am but you know seek god with all your heart pray david said psalm 55 and verse 17 psalm 55 verse 17 he prayed morning noon and evening he prayed morning noon and evening take time to pray and ask god for guidance ask god for guidance number five we talked about faith we need faith to please god number six david had an attitude psalm 119 verse 12 he says teach me show me help me teach me be it be a teachable person along with this goes a number of proverbs proverbs chapter 1 verses 5 through 9. it says a wise person will listen but fools reject advice wise people listen you know get advice when you're making big decisions you're thinking about a career talk to your mom and dad what do you think i'd be good at get some advice from a career counselor um i get advice making big decisions by getting married for young people well i found the perfect guy and don't don't go give me any advice i found the perfect girl don't don't mess up my dreams you get advice get advice mom dad what do you think or but get advice these are big decisions these are big decisions get advice you know it ambassador college we used to encourage the guys don't get married before until you're about 24 25 26 something like that and the girls wait until you're about 22 23 why why very simple your perspectives will change between 18 and 19 and 23 24 25. what was important to you at that age will probably change you know in ecclesiastes chapter 3 it says there's a time to be born a time to die a time to rejoice and a time to cry and a time to get married and it's time not to get married you know if it's good and right at a certain age it'll be just as good and right a year or two later maybe when you're both not working at mcdonald's i had a young kid come up to me one time one of the churches i was pastor he said you know i didn't see you last week oh i was another church i found a girl we're going to get married i said you have a job and it was kind of like what what is that a requirement [Music] if you want to eat it probably is but take some time take some time take some time get some advice but you know i'm annie and i'm from australia i met this guy ned from new york and we want to get married well great but where are you going to live how often will your kids see their grandparents i never thought about that whenever i got married i don't think many of the kids at ambassador college did either it was just we're in this little world but you know we've had the blessing of having both our boys and five grandkids here in charlotte for the last 10 years and have the grandkids come in the back door grandma grandpa where are you they had a stable environment my wife and i invented aunts and uncles for our boys because my wife's parents lived in california and mine lived in where was pennsylvania our youngest son moved here because he said dad we're not inventing aunts and uncles for my kids i mean these are just some things to think about just some things to think about i wasn't thinking that way whenever we got married but think about some of these things talk these things over get some input before you make these big decisions point number seven and we'll quit here respond to correction respond to correction david responded you can read that in psalm 51. he was he he he responded to correction you know what we've been talking about here is spiritual heart disease and ways that we can avoid ways that we can prevent spiritual heart disease you know the world is concerned about the coven pandemic covet has taken about 300 000 lives in america in the last year heart disease has taken the lives of over seven about seven hundred thousand almost twice as many it's a much bigger problem the bible contains prevention measures for physical heart disease as well as recognizing spiritual heart disease during the passover and days of unleavened bread we're commanded to take time to examine ourselves to sit down and just read we read through the ten commandments read some of the other scriptures examine yourself and ask yourself these questions do i have this symptom do i react whenever somebody pushes me a little bit do i have doubts do i resent somebody telling me how to do something these are all symptoms of spiritual heart disease that could get worse if we're not aware we need to recognize the cause and symptoms of spiritual heart disease they come from outside satan is there trying to push us we need to focus on what god wants us to see in our hearts and in our minds and our actions we need to focus on what we can do to prevent spiritual heart disease which could take our eternal life if we're not careful brethren as we go through the passover in the days of unleavened bread let's follow god's instruction let's strive to become men and women young men and young women and kids after god's own heart [Music] you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Length: 75min 11sec (4511 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021