The Importance of a Right Heart with God: A Deep Dive into Luke 12

Join Harold as he opens up the Bible to the Book of Luke, Chapter 12, verses 13-15, to deliver a compelling sermon on the significance of having a right heart with God. In this insightful message, Harold emphasizes the importance of integrity, education, purity, love, and contrition in one's heart. Through various scriptural references from both the Old and New Testaments, he explores how our motives, actions, and inner thoughts are crucial in aligning ourselves with God's will. Harold challenges us to examine the true intentions of our hearts and encourages us to live wholeheartedly for God, addressing topics such as covetousness, integrity, love, and wholehearted worship.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:58 Reading from the Book of Luke
01:37 Jesus' Teachings on Covetousness
05:13 The Importance of the Heart
08:09 Examples of Heart in Scripture
15:03 Integrity and Sincerity of Heart
20:26 Educated and Pure Heart
30:03 Loving Heart and Commandments
35:44 Contrite Heart and Repentance
38:20 Wholehearted Worship and Conclusion

Transcript

If you have your Bibles, you might open them to the Book of Luke in the 12th chapter. In just a moment, we'll read verses 13 through 15. Luke 12, verse 13 through 15. I joined with. Sean and with David in expressing our appreciation for the presence of each of you. We do have a number of visitors with us this morning, and we thank you for being here.

Pray that all things have been done decently and in order, and to the point that you feel like that you've been able to worship God in spirit and in truth, and pray that, uh. Lesson will be something that will be of value to you as well. If you're in the book of Luke in the 12th chapter and looking at verse 13, begin reading with me, said, then one from the crowd said to him, talking about Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But he said to him, that is Jesus said to this man. Man who has made me a judge or an arbitrator over you, and he said to them, take heed and beware of the covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

I would imagine that most of you have read that passage before, just like I have, but let me ask you, the first time you read it. Did it read like you thought it would read? I mean, here's a man that comes to Jesus and tells him, said, would you tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me?

I would expect really one of two things. I would expect Jesus to say, man, you don't have a right to this and you're just trying to to get me on your side and get some. Wait behind things you know, you don't deserve it, be gone. Or if his legitimate, his request was legitimate, then you would perhaps think, Jesus might say, well, let's go talk to your brother and I'll tell him that he has an obligation and responsibility of dealing fairly with men, and that you ought to get what is rightly furious.

There are passages in the Old Testament as well as the new, that tell us that we ought to treat our fellow man in a, in a rightful way. For instance, in the Deuteronomy, the 25th chapter and verse 13, and again in Proverbs 16th chapter and verse 11, even the Old Testament, he talks about weights and how you shouldn't have two different kind of weights in your bag.

And what it was meaning was you need to be fair with people. And you don't have a weight that you know is light when you're going to buy something that you put on there. So you get in a good bargain. And then if you are selling, you put something that that is heavy, so it looks like you're giving somebody more and you can ask for more.

That's not the way we do things. We, as we talk about in the Golden Rule, we do unto others as we want men to do unto us, and it just seems like that maybe this time that Jesus would've. Would've used that principle and said, you know, men ought to do unto others as they would have of them to do. And if you're deserving of this, then your brother ought to give it to you.

But if you're not, then you are the one that's in the wrong. But Jesus didn't do that. Instead. Talked about Cove. And again, I think that as you think about this and that Jesus is warning the men a covet, that you could do one or two things. You could say, well, Jesus is not here to be a judge or an arbitrary and, and he mentions that in there, this just isn't my job.

I'm not. Here in this world to set up a judgment seat and, and have people come before me with their, their situations in life and me say, now this is what you ought to do, or this is what you ought not do. He said, that's not my job. Or the second thing is that he sees in this request something that alarms him, and that seems the case.

He sees the possibility of cove and so he warns this man about cove and that it is a heart problem. I wanna talk with you, if I may, this morning about the subject of the heart, and I wanna begin by just sharing with you three passages that I hope will help us to, to see how important the heart is. The first one is back in the book of Proverbs in the fourth chapter in verse 23, and it's probably one that's familiar to you where, uh, he says, keep your heart with all diligence or out of it springs the issues of life.

He's just telling us that our heart controls our life. He says, you give diligence to make sure your heart is right, and if you can get your heart right, then probably your life will be right too, because out of the heart comes the issues of the life. A second passage comes from the New Testament. It's to the book of Matthew in the 15th chapter, and on this occasion, the chapter has started with an account where Jesus and his disciples have come through Phil and they have eaten.

They, they're accused of eating with unwashed hands. And this is the thing that upsets the, the Pharisees and scribes. Your disciples ate with unwashed hands and Jesus rebukes them. He says, you're worried about them eating with unwashed hands and, and you're not even keeping the commandments of God. And he talks about how they didn't really take care of their parents like they should.

They had parents in need and, and they just said, well, I've already given in the treasure. My responsibility to you. I've given him the treasure, let the treasure take care of him. And he was saying, you, you're violating the word of God on that occasion. And so down in about verse 12, we, we find that, uh, when comes to Jesus and said, Hey, these people are kind of upset.

They're offended. And so in verse 17, Jesus. That verse 15 that Peter answered and said to him, explain this parable to us. Uh, tell us about it. They're been upset about it. And so Jesus begins, and he tells them about, um, he said, do you not understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man. Out of the heart receives evil thoughts, murders, adulterers, fornication. And so I want you to see that he say, evilness comes out of an evil heart. We ought to, as Proverbs says, give villages to keep our heart, because out of it comes to issues of life.

Matthew 15 and 17 is given some example to here's some people, uh, their life isn't right. And the reason they're right life isn't right is because their heart's not right. Then if you look lastly at the Book of Proverbs in the 23rd chapter in verse seven, you have a statement or as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

If you are a reader of self-help books, you've probably seen that there as well as in scripture. A lot of people in these self-help books will say, well, as a man thinks in his heart's, so is he. And so they're trying to tell you if you wanna be enthusiastic, just act enthusiastic and, and those kind of things.

But if you actually go back and look at the context of this passage in the book of Proverbs, you'll see that he's talking about how that a man might give IES to another man, and this man thinks well, or the one that's given to him, but he says. Beware. He's got motives behind what he's doing that's not right.

And he says, therefore, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. In other words, you can do good things and still, you're not gonna be judged righteous because even though you, you help somebody, your, your motive was not really to help them, but to help you and to get some gain by that. You know, we ought to sometimes ask the question, why do I do things?

Motive makes a difference. Uh, why are we seeking material possessions? It's all right to have material possessions. If you look in the book of one Timothy and fifth chapter and verse eight, Paul talks about, uh, we can get things so that we can. Supply for our family, or Ephesians four, verse 28. It talks about work and, and getting things so that you can give to those that are poor.

Those are legitimate reasons for working and, and having material possession so that you can help others. But at the same time, if it's the love of money, if it's cove.

Behind our desire to have things that's wrong, and if we're covetous, then God's going to judge us. That way, even, even if I'm giving my goods to somebody, but I'm doing it just so I can get a tax write off, I'm not going to be judged as a benevolent person by God. I'm gonna be judged as somebody that cheats on his taxes or, or maybe not cheating, but, but more concerned with money and keeping that money then.

Paying it out to the governor. So more for something we need to ask. Why do we do things in religion? You know, there they're people that have done things in religion, but they did it for the wrong reasons. Uh, you can think about, for instance, Matthew, the six chapter, and he talks about the Pharisees and he talks about how.

They give so that they can get the praises of the men and how they fast and they stand on the corners and, and all they want men to do is to see they're religious in their eyes. But Jesus points out that they're not going to be judged that way. They're gonna be judged for what they want, the praises of men.

What he is telling us this is, is our heart matters.

Ought to ask. Why would preach if you preach? Is it just because of the money or the fame? Is that why we would stand up here if it's for any reason other than to serve God and to to teach his word, to try and win souls to Christ? For the wrong reason, and that's how we'll be judged because that's what's in our heart.

You ever thought about gambling? Ask a lot of times what's wrong with gambling? And you probably know there is no thou shalt not gamble in in the scriptures. I'm convinced that like one preacher said. Galatians five when he talks about the works of the flesh and names, all those fornication, adultery, all those things.

In the end he says, and the such like that. That such like comes and covers a whole lot of things then, and maybe gambling goes there, but just for a moment, ask yourself, why do people gamble? Most of the time it's because of Cove. They're wanting more. They don't care if they get it from somebody else without working or fair exchange.

They just want it. You ever stop to think about why so many charities have raffles rather than just donations? I've thought about it and I wonder, I can't say for sure, but I wonder if, if they know that if a person stands a chance of winning something, getting something. They're more likely to do that than just make a donation out of a, a benevolent heart.

And if that's the reason we give and, and it's just in hopes of getting something, then we're gonna be judged as a covetous person, not as a benevolent person. And so I hope you can see from that, that, that the heart is very important. That it determines what we do and, and it determines how we're going to be judged in the end.

And so I, I wanna talk with you and the rest of the time about the subject is thy heart, right? With God. And I want us to, to think about it. When I first prepared this lesson, I piped the word heart into my computer. It comes up a lot of times and there's a number of times that, that it's used in a bad way.

For instance, uh, in the flood, God condemned those people saying they had an evil heart. And there are a lot of times that, uh, the passages tell us what our hearts should be. And that's what I want to do this morning. I want us to look at some of the passages that tell us what kind of heart we should have.

So that we can ask the question, is our heart right with God? And the first thing I wanna suggest to you is that we need a heart of integrity. If you were to go back to the Book of Genesis and the 20th chapter, you'd find this is the time that Abraham and Sarah go down to Jawar and the King of Jar.

Abraham's kind of fearful of him. He thinks Sarah's a good looking lady, evidently and afraid that somebody. Will want her as if their wife or, uh, and so that they might even kill him so that he could, they could take her. So he tells Sarah, just tell everybody you're my sister. And so when he goes before the king, he tells 'em that Sarah is his sister, and, and the king even asked Sarah.

And Sarah says, he's my brother. And so he takes Sarah unto him. Before anything can happen, God speaks to a bili in a dream and says, you're as a dead man because you have another man's wife. And Bim says, Lord, I didn't know that that was his wife. He told me it was his sister. And she told me it was his brother or the She was his.

He was his her brother. He says, I did this with integrity of heart. And not only that, God says, I know that you did it in integrity of heart. And what he's trying to say is, this is a good heart to be integrity or have a heart of integrity. There's a couple of words that we could use instead of integrity.

Uh, we could use sincerity. Uh, someone. Who does things in religious out of a insincere heart, they're not gonna be judged, uh, as being person of integrity. Uh, we mentioned a moment ago the, the people in Matthew, how they did things outta selfish reasons, and, and they're not gonna be judged with a benevolent heart.

They're gonna be judged as evil hearts. You need to be sincere in your heart. Another word would be honest. We need to be honest when we are examining ourselves and, and be sure that the reason we say we're doing this thing is the real reason for our actions and that it's not like the proverb we mentioned we're, you're doing something good, but you're doing it for evil reasons.

We need to make sure that we're honest. Maybe at the same time, we should say that a person needs to have a good conscience, that that would be a kind of a heart of sincerity. Uh, a couple of passages along this line, look over, if you would, to the book of one John in the third chapter and verse 20,

Jesus or John just talking about how we ought to love our brothers in this, uh, matter. And he says, or if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. He's, he's been talking about, you ought to love your brother. You ought to help that brother. You ought to give that brother.

But he, he comes down, he says, but you ought to be doing the outta love and you need to be sincere in your motive. He said, if you're doing it and your heart condemns you, you know that it, you're not doing it. To help and, and I love, he said, you stand condemned in Romans, the 14th chapter in verse 23. He's talking about eating meats on that occasion and how that we ought to do all things in good faith, he says, but it, it just seems like he's, he's really just saying, uh, what we need to do is to be sincere and be honest in what we're doing.

Say we're doing something and, and doing it for the wrong reasons and all that, we're gonna make sure of our motives. And then you can look at first or second, Peter, the first chapter in verse 10. And Peter there talks about giving all diligence to, uh, keep our heart in this manner. So again, the idea is that.

We need a heart of integrity. We need to make sure that our heart is what we want it to be and that we want it to be what God wants it to be. That it is a pure heart and, and one that is a heart of integrity. And so I would just ask you think about it for a moment. You think of your heart and you say, I have a heart of integrity.

I do things out of a good conscience, that I'm sincere in the things that I do. There's no hidden motive there behind what I do. If our heart is right, then we're gonna have a heart of integrity. But I wanna suggest also that we need an educated heart, the Psalms and Psalms 119 chapter and verse 11 says, your word I have hidden in my heart.

That I might not sin against you. So he's saying you need an educated heart, a heart that knows the word of the God so that you might not sin against God. Integrity of heart is good, but it's just can care so far. Even people with good conscience can do wrong things. You think back to the story about ab bialek.

Here's a man that has a heart of integrity, but he's about to do the wrong thing because he just ignorant in the matter. Or you can think about Paul, uh, several times. You know, he mentioned his life before he was a Christian and he would say, I did it in all good conscience. When Paul was putting Christians to death.

He thought that he was doing the will of God and he really thought that that was his, the sheer thought until he actually met the Lord on the road to Damascus and he realized I've been wrong all this time, but he was doing it. He said in good conscience at that very time. And then you can look at Romans, the 10th chapter in verse two, and, and Paul talks about Israelite there, the Israelite, and he said, uh.

They don't do it. They're not. They have a good conscience. They want to do the word will of God, but they're ignorant of God's will. And so here's somebody who said, yeah, I want to do it, but they don't know what it is, and it just tells us we not only need to have a heart of integrity alongside of that heart of integrity, we need an educated heart, and that's what's going to keep us from sinning.

Direct us so we won't sin. Remember in Matthew four you're talking about the temptations of Jesus and how that each time that Jesus is tempted, he answers by saying it's written and then he quotes a passage and this is his defense against Satan. He knows what's right and he's able even to quote the scriptures and say, this is what's right.

Are we to the point that we can, can say. No, this is what the scripture says, and it's different than what you're trying to get me to do. Is our heart, a heart of integrity, but it knows what you shouldn't do. That's the point in first John, the third chapter in verse eight, he says, he whose sins of the devil and the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose, the son of God would manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil who's ever been born of God, does not sin for his seed remains in him. He doesn't want to sin because he is a child of God and he seeks to have the seed, the word in him so that he knows what's right and what's wrong, and that he can do those things.

That's right. And so we ask him, not only do you have a heart of integrity. But do you have an educated heart? As far as scriptures are concerned? We need to know the very basics of God's word. And I, I wonder, sometimes I think we are blessed,

but there's a lot of places now that they're not getting the basics of God's word. They're not even getting God's word. They get a lot of thoughts and feelings, but not really God's word. And we need to know God's word. And then we need to seek even beyond just the basics and just know God's word. And the only way we can do that is by studying.

You know, I, I love as the seven 10 that he set his heart to know the word of the Lord, and then to do the word of the Lord, and then to teach others the word of the Lord. That's what we need to be doing. We need to set our heart to know the word of the Lord and, and keep pressing on until we feel like we've got a good knowledge.

And, and even beyond that, we could still never get to the point that we can just say, okay, I'm through study. A third thing, we need a pure heart. You remember in the book of Matthew in the fifth chapter, when Jesus. Given what we call the beatitude that he says, blessed are they, they have a pure heart.

What does that mean to us? We need a pure heart. Well, it would be a heart that is free from corruption. If you look a little further down in Matthew, the fifth chapter in verse 28, you, you hear Jesus talk about, uh, the. A man shouldn't look on a woman to lust after that, he does. So he's committed adultery already in his heart.

That's a corrupt heart. That's an evil heart. That's that's not a pure heart one that's looking for ways or wanting to do evil thing. A pure heart means here's somebody that, that really wants to do the word of God. I have found two or three words that just, uh, mean a lot to me. Uh, one of 'em is the word meanness.

You've heard me say that, and I've said before and still hold to that. Godliness is just a neat word because if you look at the word godliness, it means doing those things that are right, but not just doing those things right, but it's, it's because of the right attitude. You want to please God. You think about how that Peter, in two Peter one, he tells us, I, I preach a sermon sometimes in a meeting called Salvation guaranteed.

And I point out, I'm not talking about, uh, once saved, always saved from standpoint, the impossibility of Impost. But if you look at Peter in one, Peter second, Peter one, he says, now, if you'll do these things, you'll have an abundant of entrance given into the kingdom. He starts out saying, add to your faith virtue and the virtue.

Knowledge, knowledge, temperance, tempers. Patience. Patience, godly. And when you look at that, it's like we said, it's not just somebody that, that is got faith and then they go on climb step and get a step higher and, and they're on virtue. It's rather the idea of bringing the instruments of music in beside each other and making harmony and growing the orchestra.

So you start out with your faith and you bring in virtue, which I think is a moral, uh, zeal. So he's saying, you've gotta have faith, but you gotta have zeal. But then he says, but add to it knowledge. You can't have just zeal without knowledge. The Israelites were like that. I bear them record. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

And then he says, and not only that, but you need patience because if you start something, if you start with God and then quit, you are worse off than you were to begin with. He goes on to add to your faith. Virtue, virtue, all his knowledge, patience, patience, temper, or godliness. He says, what's that? That's, I'm going to do the right thing, but I'm going to also do it with the right heart.

I'm going to do it not because this is going to give me some earthly advantage. It will probably, if you're doing the word of God, maybe. But the idea is I'm going to do it because I want to please God, and that's what we need. We need a heart that is in tune with God, a pure heart that just just wants to do what God says.

Does this mean we'll never sin him? No. If, if you think for a moment to the book of Romans and seventh, seventh chapter in verse 19, and, and the context is different, uh, Paul was talking about somebody under the law and trying to show the fallacy of the law or the weakness of the law. Uh, really the weakness of man.

But he talks about a man that I, I keep the whole law, but yet I offend him. One point that was a good man, and his point was that even as a good man and he's sinned, he still needed something to get rid of that sin. And so he was looking for Christ and, and point out, uh, there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

Uh, and so it doesn't mean that we're not going to sin if we have a pure heart. But it does mean that we're trying not to sin. And it does mean that if we do sin, we're gonna recognize that we sin. Or when we recognize we sin, we're going to seek forgiveness as quick as we can on those things. Or else we'd be like, this man that Paul talks about in Romans seven lost even with one sin if it wasn't for Jesus Christ.

And so. I ask you, do you have a pure heart? Do you seek to please God? Is godliness a part of your character? Well, let's go further and say you need a loving heart. Uh, you're familiar with Matthew the 22nd chapter in verse 37, I'm sure, where uh, someone comes to Jesus and asks him, what's the greatest commandment?

Jesus answers that you need to love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and then tells him you need also to love your neighbor as your step. Or you could go back to the book of one Peter in the first chapter in verse 22. And there you hear Peter say, we need to give all diligence to, to make sure that we love our brothers as we should.

And while these passages are talking about loving God and particularly loving. Our brothers, you and I know that there are other passages that tell us that we ought to love everyone, that husbands ought to love their wives. Wives ought to love their husbands, that even our enemies we need to love. And not necessarily the the love that husband has for his wife or, or vice versa, but defining love as an act of goodwill toward other people.

The best interest for somebody else. And, and that's the basis even when whatever kinda love we're talking about, that's the basic definition. And that's when a husband loves his wife. He's going to have her best interest at his heart trying to do those things that please her and vice versa. She's gonna love him.

She's got his interest in her heart, but even the enemy. You know, is trying to do you wrong. You have an obligation to love him. You have an obligation still to do the very best you can to that person or what's right toward that person. Now we can sum up the word love and say, you know, for our loving God, it just means keep God's commandments.

Uh, look at John 14 and verse 15, verse 21, verse 24. Uh, each one of those passages can say, this is the love that you keep God's commandment. Then it summed up real good in one John five and three. This is the love of God that you keep his commandments. It's not that God is selfish. God loves us and he wants the best for us, and we'd be wise if we ever woke up and the world would wake up and realize that God's commandments are what's best for us.

Because he loves us and that's the reason he's given us these commandments. Not to to hurt us or to restrict us unmercifully, but because this is the best way of life and he loves us, but he wants us to want his best interests at heart too, and do the things that he wants us to do. And so if we love him, we keep his commandments and toward the enemy again.

Romans 13 verse nine, through. Tent or, or toward our neighbors. He again says, this is what love is. It's, it's doing what's good for those people. And again, you can find out what's good for a person. Mainly by looking at the word and seeing what it says. Do it. Uh, in Proverbs, the 17th chapter in verse nine, there's a passage that says Love covers a multitude of sin.

And there's several ways you could read that and take it. Uh, it's mentioned kind of in James, very similar passage, and there it's talking about forgiveness. But in Proverbs, you have a contrast. Love covers a multitude of sins. And then underneath that he said, but others repeat transgression. And that's the idea.

I think that in Proverbs, he just ain't. You wouldn't want somebody going out and just spreading all the bad stuff they could find about you and don't, if you love somebody, you're not going to go out and trying to hurt them by crippling their reputation or tell 'em all the bad things. Love will cover a multitude of sins.

It's going to to forget those things and do that sometimes, or think about one Corinthians 13th chapter, and of course he's trying to talk to us about. Inspiration and how that's going to end. But he says, love's the greatest. And then he says, but love's kind. It's patient, seeks not its own. All those characteristics of love and, and he's saying, this is the kind of life we need to be living toward God, toward other people.

We need to be kind toward 'em, not not trying to hurt them in any way, but being kind toward 'em and loving them is the idea. We asked you, do you have a loving heart? Do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind like he tells us to do in Matthew? And you can tell that by whether or not you're keeping the commandments.

A lot of people lie to ourselves. We'll, we'll say, oh yeah, I love God, but I'm not going to go worship him even though he tells me to worship him. I'm not going to labor with my hands to give to the poor, even though that's what he tells me. You don't love you if you're not doing his commandments. So we'd ask, do you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind?

And do you love your neighbor? And neighbor? There means anybody. Anybody you have opportunity to do good with, do you love that person? Well, let me ask you and say and tell you that a right heart is a contrite heart. Uh, look, if you would, in the Book of Psalms, in the 51st chapter, and we know this as being the time when apparently David had recognized he committed adultery and was facing up to that.

But in this particular Psalm, he says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, you do not despise. We need a contrite heart, especially when we've sinned. Um, international Bible encyclopedia, uh, IBSE, whatever defines this word as crushed contrite. It's crushed.

Then it says, A heart broken to pieces. The contrite heart is one in which the natural pride and self sufficiencies have been completely humbled by the consciousness of sin. It grieves the person has a contrite heart. When he realizes he's sinned against God. It'll hurt him when he realizes he's sinned against anybody, but particularly.

He recognizes who God is, what God is, and when he recognizes that he has sinned against that person and against God, it just tears his heart up and he can't persist in sin with that kind of heart. It's going to lead him to what Paul talks about in two Corinthians seven as godly sorrow. And that's the sorrow that's that's there.

Not because you got caught, but it's a sorrow because you realize you violated God's law or you've fallen short of what God wants you to do. And that contrite heart will cause you to repent of your sins and and seek forgiveness because we love God and we care so much for God. To worship God is good.

Take the Lord's Supper if we did is good and, and all those right? Necessary to give is good. But God wants us also to have a contr heart that when we sin, we're just bothered to the point that we've got to get right with God and nicely. Let me tell you, we need to be. Worshiping God and serving God wholeheartedly.

The psalmist in Psalms 119, in verse two said, blessed are those who keep his testimonies. Who keep him with the whole heart. The whole heart. You remember Matthew, the 22nd chapter, we, we mentioned in a moment ago, when love the the man has come saying, what's the greatest commandment? And Jesus says, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind.

And I've said before, I don't think that the idea there is that God wants us to parse those terms, mind, spirit, so forth. They're so closely together. I think the whole idea is I want you to love me with everything that you are, heart, soul, mind, give it all to me is the idea

you. Look at Revelations, the 12 chapter, verse 11. He's been talking about persecution, but then he talks about some people and he said that they love not their life, even unto death. They love the blood of Christ. They they overcame by the blood of Christ, by the Word of the Christ, and that they love their life even under death.

That they were willing to give their life unto God is the idea that even if somebody was threatening them with death, they would not renounce God. They loved him so much.

I like John 21st chapter verse 15 through 25. This is the occasion, Peter. He's in Jesus' presence. And Jesus asked him, do you love me? And Peter answers, Lord, you know I love him. If you're reading the Greek Testament, then you know that Jesus, Peter, do you agape me? And Peter answers, Lord, you know, I Val, you and Jesus asked him again, do you agape me and Peter answer again?

Lord, you know I filet you. A third time this time, Jesus says, do you phileo me? And Peter said, Lord, you know, I filet you. And some people think, well, the point of that passage really is between the word agape, philo or phileo. I felt about that for a while, and I'm not sure that's true and, and sometimes we try and make agape.

The best kind of love phileo kind of secondo means there is a tender affection also, and I don't see anything that says Agape is stronger than phileo. I think EO is just saying it's in relationship. And I point out before there's times that phileo is a better word than agape to use, and you find it in the scripture even where.

Jesus on occasion said Io. This disciple talking about seemingly John. And some of the disciples would say, IO Jesus. And just suppose for a moment that your wife should come to your husband's and say, do you love me? And you answer and said, oh, IGA pay you. And she says, I know you. You're a Christian. I know that you agape everybody, but do you belay me?

That's not the time to say, I said agape. You could get in a lot of trouble if they know the difference in the words. There's times that philo is a good word, and I think that Peter was probably saying, Lord, I don't just love you outta duty. I love you. I, I'm connected to you. And one of the things you learn outta that is that, that what Jesus says these time is.

Then keep my commandments and follow my word or go, go teach the sheep again, if you love me, Peter, it's not so much about which word you pick or what you tell me. It's about what you do, that you show me. And what we need to do is show God we love him wholeheartedly, that there's nothing that will keep us from it.

It teaches that we love him and that we're going to do everything we can and change from the inside, even to the outside. And when you look at Romans 12, that's what it talks about. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the reviewing of your mind. It just love God so much that it you. Well, I'd ask you right now, do you love God?

Do you keep his commandments, and are you wholehearted about your love, loving Will all your heart, soul, and mind?

One day? We don't know when. We're gonna stand before the Lord and give an account in judgment. I have a feeling judgment is not going to be quite like some of us think. We think we're just going to wake up and we're gonna be on one side or the other and that's it. But passages talk about coming before God and Christ and it.

Sounds to me like there's a good chance that we will stand before God and he's gonna look at me and say, Harold, did you love me with all your heart, soul, and mine? And I can say anything I want to. I guess at that time I may be forced to tell the truth. I don't know. I may just, even though I know it would be to my detriment to say, no, God, I didn't be said.

And it may be that some will say, yes, I did, but. He'll say, now look at this. But can you imagine standing before God in judgment and him saying, let's look at your heart. That's going to tell me the whole story. Let's look at your heart and what are you gonna say? And you can say again, maybe, I don't know.

You may can say, well, but I did this and this. What's going to happen when he says, uh, you say you love me, but I don't see where you gave your life to me. You say that you love me, but I don't see where you were willing to serve me. You say you love me, but I don't see where you saw others disciples trying to bring others to me.

What are we gonna say? I hope and pray and try. I can say I love you, God, with all my heart. So my, I hope He says, well done. Nothing else's just going to matter. Is your heart right with God? If it's not, we can help you get it right. Let's do it now. It's together. We stand.