Engaging The Hearts

Introduction

Well, it’s certainly good to be with you this morning. I missed you guys last week. Last week I had the opportunity to go back to, I almost said go back home. It’s not home anymore, but go back to the congregation where I grew up and speak at Southside. And I don’t know who was who was more surprised at my being, at my or seeing each other there because Julia Everett saw me and I saw her, and we both had the same expression on our face. What are you doing here? I think she thought she went that far just to get away from me. It’s good to be with you this morning. It’s good to be have the opportunity to fill in for Tony. It’s good to be here on the Lord’s Day.

I want to thank Scott for the work that he did in the song service. I know what it’s like to pinch hit when you’re leaving singing. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. And I don’t mind that you said that I’m delivering the invitation because I’m actually doing that tonight. Which reminds me, Sean’s getting song service together, so the song leaders, if they’d see him after services so he can put them in the right spot, that would be appreciated. This morning, I want to talk with you about a matter of great importance that has for some reason decided to end the slideshow. Don’t know why it did that. But I want to talk to you about whether or not we’re engaging the heart.

Heartfelt devotion to God is something that just can’t be faked. It’s either there or it’s not.

In fact, so much of religion today, or what wears the name of Christianity today, gets distilled down into rote practices. And we even we even label various denominations by the things that they practice and do. And we no longer really talk much about, at least from a perspective when you’re talking about other denominations. What’s really true and what’s really not true. In the 119th Psalm, we’re going to go to Matthew 5 in just a minute. But in the 119th Psalm, David makes the following statement in verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in your ways. Establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. Turn away my reproach, which I dread. For your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for your precepts. Revive me through your righteousness.

He makes three different statements. He says, number one, incline my heart to your testimonies. Revive, verse 37, me in your ways. Establish, verse 38, your word to your servant. Is that the relationship that we have this morning? That you have this morning with the word of God. Are we approaching God this morning? And I don’t mean just here at the worship service. I mean in our day-to-day living, the people that we are. Are we coming to Him because our hearts are inclined to hear His testimony? That we are truly, that we have truly been revived by walking in His ways, and that we have been established by His Word. Does that describe you and me this morning? Because you see, it’s easy to look at the traditions of others.

It’s easy to look at the traditions of others that are out there in the denominational world, and we can give book, chapter, and verse for why those things are wrong. But it’s harder to take an introspective look at ourselves and say, Is my heart right with God? Open your Bibles, if you will, to the book of Matthew. And we’re going to begin in the fifth chapter.

And in Matthew chapter 5, open up to verse 13, if you will. Where after the Beatitudes, Jesus says in verse 13, You are the salt of the earth. But as salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in us. Let your light so shine before men, in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do you not think I came to abolish the law before the prophets?

I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the wall until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Normally when we go to this passage, we talk about the three injunctions. We talk about you are the salt. And we talk about you are the light, or we are the light.

We talk about letting our light shine, and we’ll do table that we’ll fit it back with the Beatitudes, and we’ll talk about how when we exemplify those attitudes, what we’re doing is letting our light shine forth. That’s what we’re doing is exemplifying the character of Christ. But I want you to see, he says something interesting there at the end of this passage. He says, For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You ever wonder what was wrong with the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, we find out later, don’t we? As you go through the gospels, it becomes evident what was wrong with the righteousness. You can’t see the aircraft if you’re hearing this later, but the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.

But what had happened to them? They were supposed to be the ultimate law. They were supposed to be those that knew the ins and outs of the law better than anyone. They were supposed to be the ones that governed all and made decisions based on their merely perfect as they would have others believe, understanding of what God expected from his people. What had become of their righteousness? Jesus is saying something significant here. He’s saying that your leaders have failed you. You can’t look to others and their behavior as a standard that God will be pleased with. You know, that’s one of the things that occurs to me today, that we see a lot today, is the temptation to look to others to define what God has clearly said in the scripture.

How many times in religious discussions have you heard it said to perhaps even in your own discussions, not just anecdotal kinds of stories, but anyway in discussions that you have with other people? Well, that’s just not the way that my, and you can fill in the blank preacher, pastor, reverend, what have you.

Sad fact is.

It doesn’t matter how Robert, Mike, Ken, or Tony. It doesn’t matter how they do it. Not for my salvation. For my eternal judgment, it matters how I do it. It matters whether or not my heart was inclined to God’s word. Whether or not I kept his precepts because I loved them. Whether or not I was revived to walk in his path, whether or not I had established my heart by inclining it first to the things that the Father said. Let’s see what was wrong with this righteousness. Open, if you will, to Matthew 23. We’re going to begin there. Familiar passage I know. Matthew 23, beginning in verse 1, it says, Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.

Therefore, all that they, all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds. For they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and I and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men. For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the places of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by men. But do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father.

How many of denominations violate that passage? For one is your father, he who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders, for one is your leader, that is Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. How many times from this very pulpit have we discussed the fact that a truly godly leader is someone who is first a servant of Christ and a servant of the people. A truly godly bishop overseeing a flock of God’s people, a truly godly elder is a man that first realizes that his first obligation is to serve Christ and then serve the people. Not serve himself. We are so blessed to have the men that lead this congregation.

But I’ve got to tell you.

There are those who think themselves leaders. There are those who think that, and I’m talking about in Christianity in general, or what professes of self in Christianity. There are those that think themselves spiritually enlightened, that all that they do and all that they strive for is really just to be noticed by men. And that’s really going to be our first failing if we’re not careful. If we’re not careful, you don’t have to be in a position of authority to have this failing. If we’re not careful and we no longer recognize that our audience and our master is no one less than God. You know, that’s difficult to understand. It’s difficult when you think about the day to day. We were talking about that this morning in Bible class.

The good that we do on a daily basis. How often do we think about that good being specifically done for the glory of God? Not for my glory. Not so I can be noticed. But the good that we do on a daily basis, our day-to-day living. How often do we think about that being God’s glory? He goes on to make several points about these Pharisees in Matthew 23. He pronounces the woes. We’re not going to take the time to read it because it’s a lengthy passage, but he tells them that even though they think themselves righteous, they shut off the kingdom of heaven from the people. He says, even though you think yourself righteous, he says you’ve removed compassion. This is where he talks about the devouring of the widows’ houses while they’re praying these long prayers for pretense.

That’s a lot of alliteration in that, doesn’t it? They’ve removed compassion even as they claim piety. They bind others with their traditions, leaving them just as faithless. He said that they fail to realize that it’s God that sanctifies. He says that they kept the letter but neglected the spirit. They concern themselves with physical and not spiritual cleansing. They’re concerned with outside trappings while neglecting true holiness. And finally, he says that they acknowledge the sins of those that came before them even as they repeat them.

You know what the problem with these men? You know what the problem with these men was?

Well, I think it’s the same thing that Jesus said in Mark 7 chapter, beginning in verse 6. Rightly did Isaiah prophesied Christ says it is written, this people honors me with their lips. But their hearts far from me. How do you become a people that shuts off access to the kingdom? That closes off the teaching of the truth. How do we become a people that is so concerned with piety but we leave compassion neglected? How do we become a people that binds upon others our traditions rather than teaching truth? How do we become a people that fails to realize that it’s God that sanctifies? How do we become a people that neglects that can keep the letter but neglect the spirit? How do we become this people?

Well, we remove our heart from the service. We no longer incline our hearts. You see, this was their interpretation of righteousness. They had distilled righteousness down into the trappings of perfect law keeping.

Do they worship me? Teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God. You hold to the tradition of men. This is not the first time. In fact, this is not the first time in scripture that this has been said. In fact, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29. This is a very old problem. A problem that came long before the time of Christ. Isaiah said, Because this people, beginning in verse 13, quoting the Lord, because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote.

And the wisdom of their wise men will perish. And their discernment of their discerning men will be concealed. I think it’s interesting the way Isaiah says it there.

Learned by what?

You want to sap the heart out of something real quick? You want to tear down the inner man that’s supposed to be inclined? It’s to godly things and godliness and revived and established. Nothing does that quicker than tradition for tradition’s sake. We look at the denominational world and we think, how did that come about? How did those movements get established? And how do so many people continue to funnel into that when every Sunday they go in and they’ve got the Bible on their laps and they can open it and they can read it and they can look at what the word of truth says. How can they be ignorant of it? Same way we can if we’re not careful. They fall into the trap of tradition because they shut down the very rarely ever do sermons that can be distilled into three points, but this one is a three-point.

1. Repetition for Its Own Sake Is Piety, Not Holiness

Repetition for its own sake is piety and not holiness. You know, this is one of the things that we have to be careful of. We have a formula, don’t we? Sunday morning service goes a certain way. Sunday night service goes a certain way. There are certain ways that we discuss certain topics from the pulpit. There are certain phrases that people have become comfortable with. We talk about things in certain ways. We establish our, we talked about a few weeks ago when I was up here filling in for Tony. We talked about our five-point plan of salvation. If we’re not careful, that’s what we’re teaching. But where goes the spiritual growth? And where goes the underlying principle behind the tradition that we’re so willing to take a stand for.

If our service to God becomes little more than one generation mimicking the one that came before, retelling old successes, repeating old failures, but never truly achieving anything, then congratulations, we’ve become the Pharisees.

You see, this is how traditions are built. You teach something safe, you teach something repeatable, something that’s easily remembered.

You talk about things in certain ways. Rather than teaching the underlying principles.

Oh, we all know it. But ultimately, it leaves us lacking in any kind of spiritual death because we’ve never taught ourselves to incline our hearts to God. Oh, we can quote scripture, we can quote chapter and verse for those things that we believe. That’s a wonderful thing to be able to do, to talk, be able to talk about the things that we believe. But are we talking about them just because we believe them, or are we talking about them because after careful study and observation of the scripture that we have come to the conclusion that these things are true? That I’m not doing what’s necessary to be a saint that worships at the Decor Prairie Church of Christ. I’m doing what’s necessary to be a child of God.

2. Law Keeping Without Heart Keeping Is Sanctimony, Not Devotion

Regardless of where I may fit within somebody. Point number two. Law keeping without heartkeeping is just sanctimony and not devotion.

You look at today what passes for modern religion, modern Christianity, the feel-good kinds of movements that require nothing. And you think, well, that is just a drastic appeal to the heart. There’s no truth in there. They’re just appealing to the heart. And I would say to you, no, they’re not really appealing to the heart. What they’re appealing to is selfishness. They’re appealing with a doctrine that says, come as you are, I require nothing of you. Come as you are and stay as you are. They’re not appealing to the men to men with truth that changes the inner man, truth that affects the inner man. They’re not appealing to men with the power of God unto salvation. It comes from the gospel. They’re appealing to them with a feel-good, come as you are, stay as you are kind of doctrine.

There is no truth in that, and therefore there is no heart in it. But you know, for us, we have to be careful because we have to realize that we can be right. And still be wrong. You know, one of the things I am so grateful. Sean Owen. I’m going to embarrass him. I love to embarrass Sean. Sean’s a great guy. We have such great conversations. And one of the ones that we had recently, and I don’t even remember how we got on this topic. You’d have to ask him because talking with Sean is a little bit like shooting skies. They just kind of come out of any direction. You can’t ever tell where they’re going. But it’s always good. And it’s usually a hit. Well, the he’s true, not me.

You can be right, he said. We can be right, and we can still be wrong because our motives aren’t what they should be.

You know, that’s one of the things that I think for this generation of God’s people, I’m not talking about the people here specifically. I’m talking about for this generation of God’s people. If we’re not careful, that may be one of the besetting sins of this generation. We can know the truth. We can know what’s right, but we can be doing it for the wrong reasons. We can be doing it with spugness, we can be doing it with a self-sanctified kind of approach to it. We can be looking at it as if we have what is true and you don’t, and that makes us better. Ever seen anybody with that attitude? Have you ever had that attitude? You see, what the Pharisees didn’t get is that the letter of the law is not sufficient when the heart is wrong.

Oh, we might observe the Lord’s Supper the right way and with the right frequency, and we might not have instrumental music, and we might take the right stands on the social issues of the day. We might not be allowing social doctrine to come in, we might not be taking, we might not be allowing ourselves to buy into the creed or to buy it, buy into some other machination that man has come up with. But if all that is done just so we can pat ourselves on the back and say that we’re wrong or we’re right, I just blew my plumbing. Then we’re wrong. This is what happens when you rewrite your lesson at midnight.

If we do all this merely to say that we’re right, we’re not engaging the heart any more than those that are in error.

I think about a passage in Deuteronomy. We’re going to go to the passage in Deuteronomy that you’re probably thinking of, but let’s go to the 10th chapter first.

In Deuteronomy chapter 10, beginning in verse 12, Moses says, after recounting the rededication of the stone tablets, and after retelling the story of how they were engraved, he says in verse 12, now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and keep the Lord’s commandments and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.

Always at the forefront of their mind. Israel, what does the Lord God does your God, excuse me, the Lord your God require from you? He doesn’t go back and list those commandments again. They would have understood that. Instead, he says, But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and love him. Does that describe why we do what we do this morning? See, the heart continually gives evidence of its motivation. Even if its outward manifestations are pure. We talk about people, we talk about their motivations, and we’ll say, in their heart of hearts. What are we really saying? But that they know from whence the motivation comes. Deuteronomy says, God’s original intent is to understand that actions alone do not keep one pure, but rather a constant pursuit of that which is holy with a godly heart.

Deuteronomy chapter 6, more familiar ground. In Deuteronomy 6, beginning in verse 1, the text reads, now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you. That you may observe them in the land which you’re crossing over to possess. That you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you. You and your son and your grandson all the days of your life. And that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it. That it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. With all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. Pause right there. He didn’t say these words are going to be written on a tablet. He didn’t say for these words to be bound in leather. He didn’t say for these words to be things that you vaguely knew about. He says these words need to be inscribed upon your heart. You shall teach them, verse 7. Diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house. When you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand.

And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. He’s talking about proper motivation here. He’s talking about the kind of motivation that causes a man to realize that the purpose for doing what he’s doing is not self-serving. The purpose for doing what we do is not so we can wear some title or be affiliated with some people. But we do what we do because we love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength. And a lesser motivation, a motivation that is not that pure, a motivation that is somehow less than what God expects is not going to be pleasing to God no matter how perfectly we keep the letter.

He wanted devotion built not upon repetition, but upon truth and understanding and a reciprocal love. It’s the difference between true consistency and vain repetition.

This, I suspect, if he really got down to it, was both the beginning and end of what God really wanted from his people. See, when the heart is inclined, commandments take care of themselves. That’s another shawnism, I think. When the heart is inclined, the righteousness takes care of itself. What were the motivations of the Pharisees? Well, they were corrupted motivations. They weren’t the foundational things.

And they had removed the heart of it. They had become serving, their position was one of serving self. He wanted their devotion built not upon repetition, but truth and understanding. We’re told that they loved themselves when we went over to Matthew 23. They didn’t really love the Father.

But not for truth.

Just briefly. Jesus says in verse 37, when replying to them about what the greatest commandment was that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Defend the whole law and the prophets. See, righteousness is not summed up in how frequently we observe the Lord’s Supper. Oh, we need to do it properly. And it’s not summed up with, certainly not summed up in whether or not our singing is on key. Righteousness begins in the heart that’s inclined to God. You see that law keeping without heart keeping. It’s just not true devotion. It’s sanctimony. It’s something less.

3. When the Heart Is Not Engaged: Apathy and Corruption

And corruption. The heart is not inclined to be godly first. When the heart is not inclined to be spiritual first, then what happens is those things that are spiritual just become motions that we go through. There’s no truth behind them. There’s no zeal behind them. Then it is just simply what we do. And I would bet if I was to ask for a show of hands this morning, have you ever felt in your time as a Christian? The kind of language that comes with the expression, that’s just what we do. I bet in an honest moment every hand in here would have to go on. Because we’re all guilty of this. We’re all guilty to this kind of corruption. And we don’t think about it because we can find the book, chapter, and verse that says, yeah, this is why we do it.

But if we’re doing it because of book, chapter, and verse, and we stand upon the pinnacle of I have the truth, and you don’t, and the heart is not engaged, then that’s just as corrupt as if we were doing it wrong. That’s just as lazy spiritually as if we weren’t as if we were keeping something that was best in the whole truth. From this comes departure from the truth. You wonder how so many false doctrines get propagated within the Lord’s people. How so many bodies fall away to untruth. It comes because the heart is not engaged and it’s not properly motivated, that we begin to look at the world and maybe we panic because there’s a tempest, and we begin to look at the world and we say, you know what, everybody else is doing this, and we disengage and we say, you know what, this must be right.

We don’t take on the burden of being zealous for the truth. There’s an apathy that creeps in. We just get lazy. Somebody told me once about a about a congregation that got that nearly came to division over how many songs are going to being sung. And I don’t know whether that’s a I don’t know whether that’s apocryphal or if it’s true.

But an apathy regarding that which is spiritual. An unwillingness to say, am I doing this just because it’s tradition, or am I doing this because it’s true? You know, we’ve got to be careful about our stance. It can lead the faulty leadership. Again, we are so blessed here. But you know what? That may not always be the case. If we’re not teaching our young people to engage their hearts, not just their minds, not just to know what the scripture says, but to live it and love it because of a devotion pure and sincere to the Father, there will be a fault in leadership eventually at this place, as sure as I’m standing here, because you don’t make men of the caliber that we have today serving as our leaders overnight.

You meant them by teaching the observance from the heart of all that God commanded. You don’t get to be that by accident. You look at so many congregations of the Lord’s people that are falling into untruth, and you think, you know, how can her stewards allow that to happen? How can a body of God’s people just give willingly over to something that’s so blatantly untrue? It’s because there’s no one at the helm that knows what they’re doing. And that can happen here. Because one day the men that we have will be gone. God forbid, maybe one day error will creep in among us. God forbid that. But it’s not impossible. If the heart is disengaged from the truth, it can happen. I’ll tell you what else can happen.

It leads to a doctrine of no accountability. I’m not accountable for that which we do. We’re just doing what we’ve always doing. How many times have you heard that? We do what we always do. Well, how does that work exactly? Aren’t we just really saying, hey, well, that’s a tradition somebody else came up with before I got there. It’s worked for so long, we’re not going to change it. Spiritual dissidence. I wonder why so many of our young people in this generation are succumbing to the temptations of false doctrines that are out there. Disconnecting from what they know is true. It’s because just like in the parable, the sower deceived how it took root. And that leads to worldly reasoning. A spiritual disconnection, a disconnection with those things that they ought to know to be true because the heart is not engaged will one day lead to worldly reasoning.

And from their sloth and from their corruption. And every one of these things comes from the fact that the truth did not abide in the heart. Oh, it might, we might give mental assent to it. We might get it okay to it. We might even say an amen at the right point. But if it doesn’t abide in the heart, it’s not where God intended it to be.

So where did they go wrong?

Well, I think it’s because they showed contempt and disdain rather than reverence. You go back to that Matthew 23, and when you have time, read that entire passage. They defiled that which was holy by offering that which was common in its place. They failed to realize that it was not the rope that God wanted, but rather respect the respect of their hearts. I think it’s one last thing. I think they became guilty of offering what they believed would do the minimum to fulfill the requirement rather than keeping the touch. Turn over to a familiar passage of scripture, if you will. I’m sorry, there’s been so many that are familiar this morning. But open your Bibles if you will.

But you say, How have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother, declares the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness through though Edom says, We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins, thus says the Lord of hosts. They may build, but I will tear down, and men will carry them, carry the wicked, men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever. Your eyes will see this, and you will say, The Lord be magnified beyond the border of Israel. A son honors his father and a servant, his master.

Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect, says the Lord of hosts? O priests who despise my name, but you say, Oh, how have we despised your name? You are presenting defiled food upon my altar, but you say, How have we defiled you? In that you say, the table of the Lord is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil? When you, why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? But now will you not entreat God’s favor that he may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part?

Will he receive any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offer it from you.

Do you think the Lord this morning says to himself of his people, I wish there was one person that would bar the door so they can’t raise their voice in song together because there’s no heart in it.

Because their heart isn’t in it. That’s what he’s saying. That’s how important these sacrifices were to them.

Conclusion

Go back to that list. They showed contempt and disdain rather than reverence. They defiled that which was holy by offering which was common in its place. They failed to realize that it’s not the rote. It wasn’t the tradition that God wanted, but rather the respect of the hearts. They offered what they believed would fulfill the value of the requirement rather than keep the covenant. Only we can answer that, and only you can answer it for yourself. But is that what we’re doing this morning? Doing the minimum to fill the requirement rather than keep the covenant. See, the question is not and should never be. Whether we’re talking about corporate, what we do here together in conjunction with one another, religion, or whether we’re talking about the way that we live our daily lives.

The question is not and should never be, can I do this and still be pleasing to God? Instead, we should be asking ourselves, am I doing this so that I might please them? What’s our motivation for the holiness that we tell ourselves about? Properly engaged heart seeks first the Lord’s will and his ways and is motivated by his glory alone. Is that our motivation this morning? Is that the people that we are? You know what? Only you can answer that for yourselves. But I can tell you, even if it is, we can always do that. We can always strive for more holiness, more engagement of the heart, more adoration of our father. There’s anyone here this morning that owes some duty to God if your soul is not right.

Heart is once you come forth to faith.