 All right, we're there in Mark chapter seven. We have an interesting story here we're jumping into. Let's go ahead and look at verse number one. Kind of skim through this story real quickly, leading up to our text. Verse one says, they came together and they came to the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with the file they just say to say on washing hands, they found faults for the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands off, eat not holding the tradition of the elder. So here we have Jesus is invited to a dinner and the Pharisees they are constantly trying to catch him. They're constantly trying to find fault in him. And they're sort of just setting him up constantly. And one thing that they find fault in is when his disciples are eating they don't wash their hands first. Now obviously this is not a good practice to wash your hands and that's not the point of the story. The point is that, and this is what Jesus is addressing is that's not in the Bible. And what the Pharisees would do is they would take traditions. They would take things that maybe they, you should wash your hands before you eat but they would take certain things and they would preach their words as if they were the word of God. And that's why Jesus calls it tradition here. And here Jesus skim down to verse six or look at verse five then the Pharisees and the scribes asked him saying why walk not thy disciples according to the Bible? They say no. They say according to the tradition of the elders. That's what they cared about. They had thought of themselves so highly that their traditions were esteemed as the Bible. He answered and said unto them and here Jesus addresses in verse six sort of a recurring problem that God has always had with his people throughout the years. He says in verse six, well, Isaiah speaking of Isaiah, prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written. Notice what he says here. This people, this is a problem that he's quoting Isaiah. So God has had this problem with them before. He says this people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. How be vain to worship me. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Here Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he's quoting Isaiah 29, 13. You don't have to turn there. But it says, wherefore the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. So God is essentially saying here, he's frustrated, he's saying they do lips service to me and they claim to love me and they claim to do my commandments. But their heart is not really there. This is similar to where Jesus said, oh the Pharisees you know you do all these things, you tie, you do all these things which we're not wrong to do. He says these ought you have to do but the problem is that they were leading the way to your matters of the law undone, judgment, mercy, and faith. So the problem was not that the Pharisees were washing their hands, the problem is not of the things they did, the problem is not that they tied. Many of these other things are commandments in the Bible but the problem is that they did these things while admitting the way to your matters of the law, the things that meant more to God. And in so doing this indicated that their hearts was not actually towards God. They were more concerned about themselves, concerned in John it would talk about how they were more after the praise of men than being in favor with God. So turn to Haggai chapter one. Haggai chapter one. So what I like to look at this evening is because we see this theme, we're gonna look at in Haggai chapter one, this theme of just because is every Christian, every saved believer would do lip service to God. Every saved believer regardless of how excellent they are or how spiritual they are would say, oh, I love God and they would do lip service to the Bible and they would with their mouth they would show forth honor to God. But this morning is sort of a introduction is that has nothing to do with where your heart lies. Now what I'd like to do, you're there in Haggai chapter one, look at verse two. Haggai chapter one, verse two, the context is that the Israelites have just come out of captivity. They have been judged in Babylon for 70 years, now they are coming out of captivity. And God wanted them to, God instructed them, he had both Haggai and Zachariah at this time preaching to them that he wanted them to rebuild the house of God. He wanted them to rebuild the temple. Verse two says, thus speak at the Lord of hosts. So God's frustrated with them here. He's just brought them back out of this captivity. He says, this people say, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. They came with the word of the Lord that Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you, oh ye to dwell in your sealed houses and this house, life waste? So God is talking about this problem where these people have come back from captivity and they're building houses for themselves, they're getting settled in, but the house of God is still rubble, it's still in ruins. And God is frustrated with them. And notice verse five, the verse of the week, if you look at your bulletin, now therefore thus say at the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. He's saying, you know, maybe you should just stop for a second and slow down and kind of look at your life and look at your actions and think and just consider your ways. Think is this what God wants? Is this, is my heart in the right place? Verse six, he kind of describes a problem that they're having. He says, you have so much and bring in little, you eat and have not enough. So their life's sort of, they're not really cursed. I mean, they're not in Babylon anymore, but they're not only being blessed either. They're sort of just, their life's just kind of, they're just kind of going through the motions. They're not, they're, specifically, they are not being blessed. You have, you eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. Either earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. So he's saying, you know, you're just not really, you're not doing great. You know, you're doing everything, you're eating, but you never really quite have enough food. You're, you plants, but you're not really harvesting quite what you expected. They're not being blessed. So God says again, in verse seven, he says a second time, he says, now sayeth the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Verse eight, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house. And I will take pleasure in it. And I will be glorified, sayeth the Lord. So this morning, what I'd like to do is I'd like us all to do a spiritual self diagnosis. I'd like us all to stop and consider our ways. And is every one of us this evening, or this morning, sorry, would do lip service to God. And we, we, we claim to, to serve God and love God, but let's slow down and let's, let's all self diagnose ourselves and look at the measuring sticks that the Bible mentions on, and try to find out where our heart lies. Is our heart and spiritual things? Is it in unspiritual things? Is it with the world? Is it with, is it with God? Where are we all at this morning? Let's self diagnose ourselves, because Proverbs 21 too, you don't have to turn there, says that every wave of man writes in his own eyes, Lord pondereth the heart. So everyone to themselves, this is just mankind in general, whether someone's saved or not saved, everyone thinks that the way they are and the way they are doing things is right. So instead of comparing to what we think, let's compare ourselves to the Bible this morning. Turn to Matthew six, Matthew six. I apologize, that was a typo. Turn to first Peter chapter one, first Peter chapter number one. So let's look at a few things this morning. How, how do we tell where we are spiritually? Where is our heart? It has nothing to do with what we say necessarily, or that's not strong enough of an indicator. If it's possible to say one thing, but our heart be somewhere else, how do we tell? The first way this morning is this, what do you spend your time on? What do you spend your time on? You're there in first Peter chapter one, look at verse 17. The Bible says this, and if you call in the Father, who without respect of persons, judge you according to every man's work, notice this, past the time of your sojourning here in fear. Say if you're saved, you call, if you called on the Father and you were saved, it's saying, here's what you should do, you should pass the time of your sojourning, is we're not, our home is not this earth, we are just passing through the Bible says, so how do you, as we are passing through this earth, and with our very limited time, how are you passing that time? Are you passing that time in fear? Are you passing that time in other things? How do you use your time on earth, fearing God, turn to James chapter four? And the reason that this is such a good measuring stick, or such a good comparison, or good way to tell where you are spiritually, is because you only have so much of it. Time is actually very similar to money in that sense, you've heard the saying, put your money where your mouth is, in the same way, the reason that money can be used in some manners to tell what you really care about is because it's a finite resource. So if you have something that's finite, what you decide to spend that on, time is no different, what you choose to spend that limited time on, shows what you really care about in this world. Benjamin Franklin once said, you may delay, but time will not. It's a finite resource, you know, the time will never stop. In James chapter four, 13, I wanna look at a, this verse is often used to talk about how your life is a vapor and time is a finite resource, and that's what it's saying, that's a very great, but there's a greater meaning of this chapter, there's these few verses, there's a greater lesson that the Bible's trying to teach us here. Verse 13 says this, go to now, you that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be in the moral for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish it away. So here, he's just talking about people making business plans, this is something we all do every day, this is something we, just making plans in life that have to do just with life in general and the decisions we all make in life. And here he's talking about people who have a plan of, okay, we're gonna go into a city and we're gonna start a business, we're gonna sell, we're gonna buy, we're gonna try to make some money, nothing wrong with that. But look at verse 15, he doesn't say that's wrong to do, he doesn't say you shouldn't do that or think that, but here's what he does say, he says, for, here's how I can correct that a little bit, here's how you could say this a little better, for you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. So the lesson here is that obviously it's a major factor that yes, life is a finite resource, but the major lesson here is that everything you do at that time needs to be run through the will of God. There's nothing wrong with making plans, there's nothing wrong, but everything you do, you should, you ought to say, okay, if God will, if this is what God wants, we shall do this or that. Turn to Psalm 90. Everything we do as Christians should filter through the will of God. God's not against you having success or you having money, but there's a point where if you don't run that through the will of God, that can, those things or any earthly thing can take preeminence over what God wants. Psalm chapter 90, Psalm 90 is a great chapter, this is actually, Psalm 90 is written by Moses. The beginning you'll see is written by Moses, the man of God. So Psalm 90 was actually written by the prophet Moses and it's just a great chapter where he's essentially the whole Psalm, he is speaking about time. He's talking about time, he's sort of pondering on time and thinking about time and how it affects us as believers. He says this, he's talking to God here, this is a prayer, it says, that was said our iniquities before thee and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. So he's just sort of lamenting in a sense or the fact that we only have a finite amount of time to serve God and we're sinners and we make mistakes and no one is perfect. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, notice this, we spend our years in the world that is told. Your life, the way we spend our time, it's like a story. It's like a, this is what a biography is. You read, what are you reading? You're reading about how, about someone's time on earth. You're reading about someone's life. Which is a side note, this is a, I've heard it put this way, your life is a tale that is told. So how is your story going to be told? You're writing your story every day that you live, every decision you make, you are painting down a story that cannot be erased. How will that tale be told? What are you writing down with your life? Is you, what are you spending your time doing? Are you spending your time serving God? Are you spending your time, is today's story, is this next week's story of your life going to be a story of serving God throughout the day or thinking about following God's commandments throughout the day and in every waking hour, is it going to be a story of fulfilling the lust of the flesh? Is it going to be a story of doing what God wants and doing what God is against? Look at verse number eight. Thou hast said our, I'm sorry, we already heard that, verse 10. The days of our years are three score years and 10. And if by reason of strength, they'd be four score years. So he's just talking about how we only live before a certain amount of time. Yet their strength is labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away. This is the hymn we sing, all fly away. That's what it's talking about. We have a short amount of time and we die and we go to heaven. Who know what the power of thine anger even according to thy fear? So is thy wrath. And verse 12 he says this, so because of this, because we have a short amount of time because we're writing our story down every single day. So he says to God, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts into wisdom. So he's saying, as a result of this God, as a result of the time that you've only given us a certain amount of time, we don't know when it is. It's soon, it's nothing compared to eternity. As a result of that God, help us to take our days, our years, our numbers and apply them under wisdom. Be wise with them as much as we possibly can. This is the song in the hymnal, So Little Time. It was written by John R. Rice an independent fundamental Baptist preacher. And the words say this on one of the verses. So little time, the harvest will be over. Our reaping done, we reapers taken home. Report our work to Jesus, Lord of Harvest and hope he'll smile and that he'll say, well done. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. A song speaking about not just we should go out and we should preach the gospel, but the fact that the amount of time that we spend doing it is directly proportional to how much success we will have at it. If we do not, if we spend half the time or we spend twice the amount of time then soul winning and preaching the gospel that's just being one area that we would have, there will be twice as many people in heaven than there would have been as a result of our actions. So we wanna find out, we wanna do a self diagnosis of where is our heart spiritually? Is our heart in the right area? Well, the first way we can decide that this morning is what do we spend our time doing? Look, even if you are three to thrive and you should be three to thrive, but even if you are, you were only in this church for about six hours a week. What are you doing with the rest? What are you doing? And just like James said, that doesn't mean that every single waking hour is meant to be at church, but everything we do when we're not at church, everything that we do when we're not soul winning, everything that we do when we're not reading our Bible, when we're not praying, everything, all those things still should be at least run through the will of God and make sure that God has the preeminence to spend our time. Turn to 1 Peter 4. So, we're discussing how to tell where our heart is spiritually. The first way is, what do we spend your time doing? The second way is this. What do you get happiness from? What do you get happiness from? What makes you joyful in life? They're in 1 Peter 4, look at verse 12. Beloved, think not, think not strange is concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. So, he's talking to believers who are being persecuted, and he's saying, don't think it's some strange thing, don't think it's some unusual thing, that is happening to you. But, verse 13, rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Verse 14, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, the spirit of glory and of God, the rest of the bond you, on their part, he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified. And you read this, and you say, rejoice, glad, happy. How is this supposed to give me joy in life? How is this supposed to give me happiness in life? Because when your heart is in the right place, when your heart is with the Bible and with serving God, there are certain things that are going to give you joy that you would not get joy from if your heart was away from God. Let's look at a few different areas of this. The first one is persecution, that's what this verse is referring to. Persecution, persecution should make you glad. I love that verse in the book of Acts, where it mentions when they were beaten for the cause of Christ, in towards the beginning of the book, it says they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. They weren't, instead, they could have been angry and they could have been mad and they could have been embarrassed or they could have been resentful, but instead the emotion that they had was they were happy just that they were worthy, just that God had given them the privilege to suffer for his name. Those are people whose heart is in the right spot. That's the indication of that. Here's another thing that should give you happiness in life. Getting people saved, leading people to Christ. That should give you joy, that should come close to being, if not the most happiest thing in your life. Turn to the third John three, third John three. While you're turning there, I'm going to read to you Psalm 126, five through seven that says this, they that sow in tears shall keep in joy. They go forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, that is the word of God. He that goeth forth and weepeth, that has compassion, just like Jesus had compassion, just like Jesus wept for the multitude, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Here's someone in written in a poetic way who goes, he goes forth bearing the precious seed of the word of God, he as hard as any, he goes forth he's weeping, and he comes again bringing his sheaves with him, just like the fruit that we bear on this earth, the people who get saved on this earth, Jesus is often compared to sheaves as a harvest. It says they will come back with rejoicing. They'll come back with those sheaves and those souls that they have won to Christ with great rejoicing. But not just getting people saved, what about discipling others? Because getting saved has nothing to do with your work, someone can get saved and never come to church again in their life and they'll probably spend the rest of their life being chastised by God on this earth and they'll never be truly blessed on this earth, but that can happen. So when we get people saved, that's not where it ends. Many, someone who preaches a false gospel, someone who preaches you have to repent of your sins to be saved, you're being saved over a period of years or your work save you. What we teach is that salvation is the end of the road. Salvation is what you're shooting for, your whole life is trying to get saved, trying to hope you can be saved, trying to be saved over a period of time. The Bible, with the Bible, with what the gospel says is that salvation is just the beginning. Salvation is the beginning, someone comes to you, that's the easy part. Someone comes to you and just tells you about Christ, you believe on Jesus Christ, you get saved, you have eternal life. Now your Christian life is just begun. This is the starting line. You have the whole life ahead of you, you have the whole Christian life ahead of you. You have just started much less finished. Here's third John, look at third John verse three. For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came, he's talking to people he has gotten saved. When the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in truth. Verse four, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children, talking spiritually here, walk in truth. This is similar to how Paul would refer to people he's gotten saved as his son in the faith, or this is what he's saying here. He's saying there's no greater joy in my life, there's no greater happiness I've experienced than not just leading someone to Christ and seeing someone's soul go right there in front of me, go from death unto life, but actually seeing that soul, that person grow in Jesus Christ and learn to, and start coming to church themselves and get baptized and walk spiritually and learn to soul in and learn to get other people saved. There's no greater joy I have than that, he says. This is what should give you joy in life. Turn to Proverbs 29, Proverbs 29. Here's another one, what about helping others? Just in general, just helping other people and putting other people before yourselves. Here's Proverbs 29, but Proverbs 14, 21 says this, he that despises his neighbor Sineth, but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. So how am I happy if I'm helping other people? I'm losing resources, I'm losing money, I'm losing time, I'm losing whatever it is, it's a net loss. How does that make me happy? Well, if your heart is in the right place, that will give you joy, that will give you happiness. Here's Proverbs 29, here's another one that should give you joy, following the laws of God. Where there is no vision that people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy is he. You keep the law and you're serving God and your heart is in the right place, that will give you joy, that will give you happiness. And say, well, it doesn't give me joy, these things don't give me joy, I don't have joy from serving God, I just do it because I have to, right? It doesn't give me joy to help others, it doesn't give me joy to go so winning. Then consider your ways, consider your ways. Obviously, no one's ever going to be perfect, so it's something that literally applies to everybody. Our heart is never going to be in a perfect place with God that will never happen, unless we are sinless. So we can take all these things, if they look at this one area of the Christian life, there's no longer giving you joy or giving you happiness, work on getting your heart back in the right place. Here in Proverbs 16, here's another area that should give you happiness. Trusting in God, trusting in God, taking trust off yourself just in your day to day life and putting more of it on God. Psalm 146.5, you're turning to Proverbs 16 says this, happy is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Salvation is just a small example of that. It's such a joy to be saved, because knowing that you are trusting God and knowing that God has your salvation taken care of, that's why that should be so exciting and give you so much happiness and joy in life. But it's not just with salvation, it's with every other area of your life. You're in a point in your life where you're trusting God in multiple areas of your life and you're leaving, you have strong faith, that will give you happiness. There in Proverbs 16, look at verse 20, it says, he that handled the matter wisely shall find good and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Turn to Ecclesiastes two, we'll end this point with Ecclesiastes chapter two. Let's look at a bad example of this. So we looked at all these good examples of, hey, this should give you happiness, this should give you happiness, this should give you joy. But let's look at the wrong example of this. Let's look at what happens when the opposite is done. When someone goes to the world for happiness or goes to, it goes to, that depends solely on what the world has to offer for their happiness. Ecclesiastes chapter two, look at verse one, this is Solomon. This is Solomon sort of lamenting on the mistakes he made in life, that's what Ecclesiastes is. Verse one, I said to my heart, go to now while I prove thee with worth, therefore enjoy pleasure. Look, again, there's nothing wrong with having money and there's nothing wrong with having success and getting happiness from that. But when it comes to the core of what gives you purpose and life, it should not be what the world has to offer. Two, I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what do with it. So now we're gonna go just down the list looking at all the things, that's what he's talking about here, that he tried for happiness, the specific things that he went to for happiness. I saw to my heart to give myself unto wine. He tried alcohol. A lot of people are trying that. He had a quainting my heart with wisdom. Look at verse four, I made me great works. So he built things. I built to be houses. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards. I planted trees and them of all kinds of fruits. I made me pools of water to water wherewith the wood. They're bringing forth trees. I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house. Also I had great possessions of great small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me. Notice how he keeps saying I had more than anyone ever had up to this point. I, there was no one before me that had what I had at this time. I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts. Verse nine, so I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. So again the problem, if you look at this, the problem is not necessarily that it made him happy to plant trees that it made him happy to build himself a house. The problem was that gave him what of all these things that he listed, you know what you don't see? You don't see the joy he got from helping other people. You don't see the joy he got from teaching. David would talk about the joy that was given to him by telling other people about the Lord. You don't see that here. You don't see the joy he got from discipling people and teaching people about the word of God that he got from trusting in God. That's omitted here because that's not, that had nothing, that was no part of what gave him joy at this point in his life. Verse 10, he just reiterates this and talks about how this was and whatsoever of mine I desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. My heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was the portion of all my labor. And then verse 11, I feel like, I love verse 11 because I feel like there's a certain moments you can almost see in his writing. You can almost see a certain moment in his life where something clicked with him, where there's a realization that hit him. Where he had everything and he thought he was happy and he got to a point where it finally clicked with him that he was miserable. That all these things he had, he was still had an empty life. Verse 11, then, so after he had all these things, then I looked on all the works, my hands had wrought, he's, I believe there's a moment that it clicked with him where he realized this, where he looked at everything he had. He was looking at his vineyards. He was looking at his trees and pools of water and house and silver and gold. And on the labor that I had labor to do, again the time, because labor is time, he's looking at the time he spent doing these things. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no prophet under the sun. It was a moment where he looked at it all and he saw all these things and none of it was for God, none of it was for serving the Lord. And he looks at it and he says, this is all waste. This is all for nothing. All the time and later in my life I spent all the good I could have done and this was all I did with it. This was all I did with it. Verse 17, therefore I hated life because the work that is raw under the sun is grievous unto me because what you see, we're not gonna read it all between verse 11 and verse 17 in a heavy theme throughout the book as he talks about how so many things are vain because of the fact that we all die. We're all gonna leave this earth at some point. So he's talking about all this and the reason he saw this as vain is because he looked at this and he's like, you know, I'm gonna die anyway. What was the point of spending 100% of my efforts in life on this? Look, if you were saved in all of your effort, the majority of your happiness in life and what you go to for happiness, what you go for for joy, if the majority of it is for searching for happiness and vain things, you will come to deeply regret it one day. Guaranteed. We all have the Holy Spirit in us and just like with Jonah, you cannot run from the Holy Spirit. And if we search the wrong things to where the joys of the Bible and the joys of church and soul, those things no longer give us happiness anymore, we go to happiness for other things, we will come to regret that one day. Turn to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter number 15. So how do we tell where our heart is spiritually this morning? How do we tell if our heart is really in the right place or if we need to make corrections or adjustments? Well, the first way is what do we spend our time on? Ask yourself that. What do I spend? What am I most excited to spend my time doing? And then the second thing is what do I get happiness from? What do I do? What do I go to for mainly in my life that gives me excitement? What gives me happiness and what doesn't give me happiness? What do I, maybe even things I do that I don't really get happiness from? How about this one? What would you give your life for? What would you give your life for? Acts chapter 15, look at verse 25. It seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Look what they say about them. Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look, even if we knew nothing about Paul and Barnabas, even if they were never mentioned again in the book of Acts, even if this is the only mention in the Bible that we ever had of these two men, that's all we knew about them. And just from these two verses, or rather that one, I bet I could tell you where their heart was. I bet I could tell you what their deepest care was in life, but I could tell you what they spent, just as one glimpse of a single phrase, of a single verse, I bet I could look at that and I could have a pretty successful prediction of what the majority of their life was spent doing. Or where their heart was. Turn to John 13. John 13, well you're turning to John 13 because ultimately the best example of this is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of this. How do we know what Jesus cared about? How do we know why he came to this earth? It's because of what he died for. Well you're turning there already Matthew 20 verse 28 where Jesus says this, even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, he's teaching his disciples about leadership and how if you wanna be in a leadership position you have to serve, it's not this preeminent position, if you want to be a leader you must serve other people. And he's teaching, he's saying here's the best example of this, it's me, I'm the best example of this, even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, he says I didn't come to this earth to be served, to be treated like a king, but rather to minister and to give his life a ransom for many, he says I came to take this life and to give it to other people and not myself. John 13 verse one, I love this verse, says now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour was come, he knows that it's his time, throughout the Gospels he would tell people my time's not come, his time was not yet come, his time was not yet come. Now it is his time to die for the sins of the world and he says when he knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world, unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. His greatest concern, obviously Jesus, he asked God and he prayed God to, if it was possible to remove this death from him, but his greatest concern, his greatest sadness was leaving his disciples behind. He says he loved them unto the end. Say, how do we know this? First John 3.16, you don't have to turn there, says, hereby perceive we the love of God. Here's how we know he loved them unto the end. Here's how we know that's not just the narrator saying that because he laid down his life for us, we ought also to lay down our lives for the brother. In John 15, Jesus would say no greater love have the man than this than to lay down his life for his friends. We know what Jesus cared about because of what he did. That's why all these religions that say, oh Jesus was just a good teacher, he was just a good man, they're missing obviously salvation but the greatest part of Jesus that they're missing is that the Muslim can't prove to me what Jesus cared about. The person who believed Jesus was real or just walked around in this earth but he wasn't God and he wasn't deity and he didn't die for us, they can't tell me what he cared about because they don't believe that he died for what he actually died for. Turn to Revelation chapter 12. Then Revelation chapter number 12. The Bible says this, and I heard a loud voice in heaven. Now has come salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accuse them before our God day and night. And look at verse 11, talking about believers here and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. The reason we are gonna overcome, we still have the flesh in this life but the reason that we will one day win in the end and the reason that we will one day overcome the devil and sin and death is because we overcome him by the blood of the lamb. And by the word of their testimony, and look at this phrase, it says, and they love not their lives unto the death. They didn't love their life, they loved God who died for them. When it came down to it, when it came down to the very end, that's who they love their life for. Someone once said this, they said, if you're not at least willing to die for something, something that really matters, in the end, you die for nothing. That's true. So another person once said, no one knows who they are alive until they know or why they are alive until they know what they would die for. Turn to Revelation 2, already in Revelation, turn to Revelation chapter 2. A few things we'll define in a greater way where your heart is than knowing yourself what you would give it. Revelation verse 2, look at verse 9, or chapter 2, look at verse 9. I know thy works. Is Jesus talking to the churches here? He's rebuking some, he's praising some, he's both rebuking and praising some. I know thy works. So God knows our works, God knows our heart. That's known to God. The purpose of this sermon isn't because God doesn't know where our heart is, it's so we can know where our heart is so we can fix it or improve. I know thy works in tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them who would say they are Jews and are not but are of the synagogue of Satan. Through none of those things which thou shalt suffer, behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison. He may be tried. And he shall have tribulation in 10 days, be thou faithful unto death. And I will give thee a credit of life. Here Jesus says, you know, you're gonna have persecution, you're gonna have tribulation. And it's not just enough that you're faithful, I need you to be faithful, I need you to be faithful unto your death is what I need. Look, Christ was faithful. If you're saved, Christ was faithful unto death for you. What do you do the same for him? Turn to Colossians three. So how do we tell where our heart is? This is Colossians three is the last place we'll turn. Okay, where do we spend our time? Where do we spend our time doing? That's a good measurement. What gives us happiness? What would we die for? That's a big one. But here's perhaps the greatest one. Here's the perhaps the greatest measurements of where your heart is with God. What do you live for? What do you live for? Look, dying for Christ is often considered the epitome of spirituality. I wouldn't disagree with that. But I've heard it said, Pastor Meheah had a sermon I listened to a few months ago and he made a really good point. But that's what perhaps is harder and more difficult than dying for Christ is spending an entire life living for him. He's like, dying for Christ, that's a decision you make in one moment. That's a big decision. And Jesus says that those who have died for him and were martyred for him, they will receive a special reward and have it a crown of life. But you know what's difficult? Sending an entire lifetime, deciding every single moment whether or not to serve God. Colossians three, look at verse one. The Bible says this, if then you'd be risen with Christ, that's everyone here. If you're saved. Everyone who's here, that is we are risen with Christ. Seek those things which are above where Christ is on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above and not on things of the earth. See, okay, that sounds nice. But how do I do that specifically? So I set my affection on what God wants it. That's easy. This is the sort of thing that people give lip service to. But specifically, how do we do this? How do we know if we're doing this? Look at verse five. Mortify, kill, therefore your members which are on the earth. Just look, when you got saved, the new man born inside of you, but you still have the old man. You still have the flesh with you. You still have our sinful, we still have our sinful nature with us. When we die, the old man, that is when the old man will finally perish. Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth. Fornication, here's some specifics for you. Uncleanness, inordinate affection, evocompiscuance, covetousness, idolatry which is idolatry. Covetousness in the New Testament is often compared to the, in the Old Testament idolatry was a major thing. In the New Testament, it's often compared to covetousness. It's the same concept. You're having something that you're putting in front of God. You're having, it's the same, if it was an idol, taking some thing that's not real, some temporary thing, some mortal thing on earth and you are placing it above God in your life. For which things sake the wrath of God, cometh on the children of disobedience. These are things that God chastises us for as believers. In the which he also walked some time when he lived in them. But now you've also put off all these. He's saying, you used to walk in these things before you were saved. So don't keep walking in them. Anger, wrath. Look, are you an angry person? Blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Do you still speak the same ways before you got saved? Lie not one to another, seeing that you've put off the old man with his deeds. He's saying, you need to take this old man that's still, you need to try to put him off. You need to try to get rid of him. He didn't, he didn't die when you got saved. You have eternal life, that's what the new man is, but you still have the flesh with you. Look at verse 10. And now have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. He says, you have the new man, act like it. Look at verse 12. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, again, the saved, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies. So write these down to remember these things and bookmark this in your Bible because these are the specifics. When it comes to what do you live for? What do you spend your life doing? These are the specifics. We can compare it to. Bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another, for giving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. It's another thing in the Bible. Don't, you know, Christ forgave you, it doesn't matter if you forgave everyone. None of us will be perfect at doing this, but if we forgave everyone in our life for anything that they ever did against us, no matter how severe, that will never come close to what Christ forgave you. Above all, these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And then I love verse 15, I'll kind of tie this together. It says, it'll let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which ye are also called the one body and be thankful. Look, if you can do this, if you can live a life where your heart is with God and no one's perfect and no one will ever be perfect until the old man dies and we're in heaven, but if we can have a heart that is towards God and if we can spend a life where our time is, the priority of our time and our happiness and what we would die for, what we would live for is to God, there is an unmatchable peace that comes along with that, of serving the Lord. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in the heart of God, always done, teaching and admonishing one another. So he's just talking about the joy that will come from if you can do this. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, what do you listen to? Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. In verse 17, he ties it all together. He says, and whatsoever you do, whatever you do in your life, what does it mean to live for God? Whatsoever you do in word or deed, whatever you say and whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. If you are thankful and that's why I think it ties it with thankfulness twice here, you can be thankful for your salvation, you can serve God with thankfulness, out of thankfulness for what he did for you, the peace of God will rule in your heart. Look, this is the spiritual, successful, selfless Christian life. Is this where your heart is? You know, it's funny in closing, I was thinking about this, as I was writing the sermon, I was thinking about this phrase you hear a lot, where people talk about finding yourself. And, you know, it gets made fun of a lot, oh, you know, you gotta find yourself, bro, and I decided to actually look it up and see what this is. Just, okay, people who say this from their perspective, what are they talking about? And basically finding yourself, what people are talking about when they say that, I mean, you'll have entire articles written by professors and doctors on this subject. Basically finding yourself is this thing where you need to go and you need to forget what everyone else has taught you, forget what you were taught, forget what it is doing, forget any advice, anything, and just do, just think about what you believe and what you really want to do, and just do that thing. So basically, you just think of every lust of the flesh or everything that you want or every false belief that you may have, and instead of going to the Bible or going to people who are wiser than you or going for advice, you just double down on whatever it is you want to do. That's wicked. That's evil. That's what Satan is trying to get everybody to do. Satan's trying to, because look, Satan already has, by default, by default, we deserve hell. Just born into this world and born in chooses to stand against God all by default, all by, on their own. By default, Satan has won with them. So all this is, that's what Satan wants you to do. He just wants you to take your default setting of rebellion against God in separation from God. He just wants you to continue in that until the day you die and you wake up in hell. That's what Satan wants for the unsafe world. Look, so essentially what the sermon is, what we're trying to do is we actually are trying to find ourself, but the difference is that we find where we are and we look at how wrong we are and we correct it. We find where we are, we compare it to the word of God, we compare it to what God wants for our lives and then we change to move towards that. Instead of doubling down with what our flesh wants and doubling in what we want, we find ourselves. Look, you need to go and need to find yourself. That's what this sermon is. I hope you find yourself. And then I hope you, once you've found yourself and you find where you are compared with God wants, we need to change and move towards that. But most people can't change. It's very difficult. Well, my dad, what I would say that's very, most people can't change. Or not that they can't change, but most people will not change. You need to. That's what, look, if you're saved, you can change. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you can change. So look, let's find ourself. Let's find out where our heart is. If you have the spectrum from spiritual to unspiritual, your heart is somewhere in there. Let's find it and change for the better. Let's borrow our heads and have a word of prayer.