I would like for us to turn again this morning to the Scriptures we read last week, to start our time in Acts Chapter 13.
Acts Chapter 13, Verse 22. Just the last part of that verse is the testimony of the Spirit to David, where the Lord says:
“I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.”
Then, over in Verse 36, we have the testimony at the end of David’s life:
“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and saw corruption.”
A portion of that verse we considered was, “David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation.”
Finally, out of the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 4:23 reads:
“Keep thy heart with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.”
Or, some translations say, “the springs of life.”
Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, it’s exciting, as we’ve been going through the Gospel of John, to see the many various ways that You continue to speak to us. Even a simple little phrase like “the bread of life,” when we focus it upon You, Lord, there’s an unsearchable richness there that we find.
Lord, any time we come to Your Word, and as we’re looking for You, there’s a vastness of Your great life that we see. As we come to Your Word this morning, as we break this bread of life, Lord, we would ask You to speak to us in a very fresh way.
Lord, we give this time to You. We’re thankful for the enabling and anointing of Your Holy Spirit, not only for speaking but for hearing. We’re thankful for Your victory over the time, that You would defend us, keep the enemy out, and keep out anything that would distract us. Allow our hearts to be turned unto You in a way that we would be vessels ready for our Master to use.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.
Last week we considered these verses, and we looked at some aspects in David’s life concerning this matter of critical importance as we head into the conference, and far beyond the conference, in the days we’re living in.
We’ve been considering lately this matter of transition—passing the torch of the testimony. In David’s life, we see one of the real keys to this whole matter: not only passing the torch, but maintaining the torch, keeping the testimony bright and fresh within our lives. It is this whole matter of the heart.
Remember how we shared last week that David was unnoticed, unknown, and unappreciated by those closest to him, yet he was known by God. What captured God was David’s heart.
We do not know much of David during that time, other than the first testimony we hear of David: that he was one after God’s heart. What a wonderful way to be known.
As we look throughout David’s life, we see how he continued to maintain that testimony. David was not sinless. Having a heart for the Lord does not mean that we are sinlessly perfect. It means that our hearts are drawn to Him, and we appreciate the blood of the Lamb more and more every day because we recognize our own fallen nature. We are so thankful for the greatness of His salvation.
As David was getting ready to pass on and knew that his son Solomon was to be king, the key prayer David had for Solomon was that Solomon’s heart would really be fixed on the Lord—that Solomon could serve the Lord with a perfect heart, in a wholehearted manner.
There were riches, prestige, the kingdom, and everything Solomon was going to have. But the key within Solomon’s life, as David had learned, was going to be Solomon’s heart. This is what David prayed for.
It is so vital within all of our lives because the Lord is seeking this heart-to-heart relationship. He has fully opened His heart to us. He has poured out His heart for us, and He is yearning for us to respond in a similar way.
Whether we call it abiding, whether we call it, as Jerry mentioned, a Bethany, whether it is a home—whatever various ways we try to find words to describe it—it is this heart-to-heart relationship, this intimate relationship where He can freely speak to us and we can freely, in a transparent way, respond to Him.
When the Lord deals with us, He goes to the very root of the issue. He is dealing with our hearts. He is not interested in an outward performance. He is not interested in superficiality. That is just lip service; that just pleases man. He wants to get to the real core issue within all of our lives.
As we looked at this matter of the heart, because it has so many various descriptions, we saw how the heart has characteristics both of the spirit and of the soul. The heart is described by many as a bridge, a connector, a link, a corridor, or a door—whatever term we are most comfortable with—between the spirit and soul.
It allows the living God to work within us. As the Holy Spirit lives within our spirit, and as that bridge is clear and clean, the Spirit can move into the soul and work out that salvation of the soul. He can do that work of conforming us to the image of His Son.
This is what we are jealous for: this lifelong, progressive process. I got a wonderful compliment yesterday. A brother said I was able to use the word progressive in a positive way and not a negative way.
Progressive, in the society we live in today, comes out negatively. But when we look at the things of the Lord, this progress in the Christian life is very positive. That is what we are after.
We do not get it all right at first. We learn more and more of the riches that we have in Him. We explore and discover all of the vast riches there. That is why it is so important for us to keep our hearts healthy.
We want to have that healthy heart. We want to have that good heart. When we speak of the heart of a person, we are really speaking of what represents that person. When you say, “Oh, this person, their heart is like this,” that speaks of the person in a representative way.
What a picture and testimony of David: a man after God’s own heart. To summarize all that David did in one short sentence—what a precious testimony.
As we are looking at this matter of the heart, we are considering our own very lives. Just as the heart is the very core of our physical life, the heart is the very core of our spiritual life. It is the very center of our spiritual life—the governmental center, the throne within our lives. Who is on that throne? Who is ruling and reigning?
We are thankful for the encouraging lessons we can see in David’s life. Now we want to start this morning by looking at Solomon a little bit.
In one way, I hesitate with Solomon because it is going to be a negative lesson. But it is a warning for us—a warning for our hearts.
The wonderful thing about our God is that He is so transparent. He puts before us people who have served Him. They have strengths; they have weaknesses. Some succeed; some fail. But here they are, and we are to learn from them.
Even though it is a negative example, overall we can see that the Lord can use it to instruct us. Solomon had a good beginning. David had prayed that Solomon would have that heart for the Lord.
What was Solomon’s prayer after David passed away? Turn over to 1 Kings Chapter 3. We will look at Verses 7 through 9.
Solomon had already declared how great the Lord is, and he comes before Him in a spirit of humility:
“And now, O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in.
And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.”
What a great responsibility he saw that he had. He said, “Lord, You have put me in the midst of Thy people, whom You chose. I did not choose these people. You chose them, and You put me here. I need You, Lord.”
Do we recognize this call upon Solomon’s life? It is really the call upon each one of our lives. The Lord has put us here among His people, and He has called us here. Are we going to be those who respond?
Solomon continues:
“Give Thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this Thy great people?”
Praise God, Solomon had this good beginning. We know how he responded: he built the temple, he fulfilled the call of God upon his life, and the glory of the Lord came down.
There was that healthy beginning. But tragically, throughout Solomon’s life, because of this matter of foreign wives, his heart became weak and divided. He did not keep his heart healthy.
When we talk about a heart being healthy, what are we talking about? Just think about your physical heart. How do you keep your heart healthy?
In the complexity of this world, it is actually pretty simple. There are just two things for keeping your heart healthy: diet and exercise. That is it.
Diet: there are some things you are supposed to eat and some things you are not supposed to eat. You are supposed to go to Sugar Shack; you are not supposed to go to the salad place. No, wait a minute! But you get the picture.
There are certain things we are to eat and certain things we are not to eat in order to stay healthy. The same is true with exercise. I am not talking about being a gym fanatic, but just a little movement every day—not being sedentary, just a little exercise. It is pretty simple.
The world has made a great industry out of this simple thing, making billions of dollars from it, simply because we are always looking for some complicated way. We think that makes it better. But there is a simplicity here.
It is the same way in our Christian life. How do we grow in the Lord? How do we keep our hearts healthy? Diet and exercise.
What are we feeding upon? We have the bread of life. We have the water of life. And there is spiritual exercise. Our brother has shared on that. We have this book, The Gymnasium of Christ. There is this wonderful way of exercising our spirits to stay healthy.
It is not complicated. There is a daily exercise, a daily eating of the things of Him, and not eating certain other things, in order to stay healthy.
As I was thinking about the heart—and, as you get older, you think about it a little more—how do you know if your heart is healthy? We might say, “My heart is healthy,” but none of us can self-diagnose our hearts.
That is why they call high blood pressure the silent killer. You really do not know whether your heart is healthy until you go to the doctor. You walk in thinking it is healthy, and you walk out finding it is not. You have high blood pressure, cholesterol, this, and that; you walk out with all these prescriptions. You were doing great until you went to the doctor.
Then he diagnoses you, and you have all these problems because you were not maintaining your heart, not doing the proper diet, and not doing the proper exercise. Your heart’s condition was unknown to you because you had not noticed the symptoms yet.
If it gets really bad, you start noticing the symptoms, and it is too late. It is called an attack.
But it is the same way spiritually. Spiritually, we cannot self-diagnose our hearts. But praise God, we have a great Physician, and we have the Holy Spirit who searches our hearts and allows us to really see.
“Lord, what part of our hearts do we need to be working on? What am I feasting on that is not of You?” This is the beautiful prayer that we considered last week in David’s life, in Psalm 139, about searching our hearts and daily allowing the Holy Spirit to work within us.
Another wonderful thing about our spiritual hearts is that, physically, some people are born with hearts that are genetically weak. Some hearts are not healthy when people are born. You can have a little hole here and a hole there.
But praise God, brothers and sisters, when we are born again, every one of us receives a new heart. We get a healthy heart to start with. That eliminates any excuse: “Well, when I was born, my heart was bad.” No, not in the Lord.
Look over at Ezekiel 36. It is mentioned several times in Ezekiel; we will just look at Ezekiel 36:26. This is really speaking of the new covenant and all the Lord is going to do for us—and what He has done for us in Christ.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
In Christ, when we are born again, this is the new heart we receive.
This chapter is full of many precious and magnificent promises. I would like for you, on your own, to go back and look. There is a key phrase in this chapter: “I will.”
In Verse 23, He says, “I will vindicate My holiness.” In Verse 24, “I will take you from the nations and bring you back.” In Verse 25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and I will cleanse you from your filthiness.”
We have already read Verse 26. In Verse 27, He says, “I will put My Spirit within you.” In Verse 28, “I will be your God.” In Verse 29, “I will save you from your uncleanness.”
All that the Lord has promised in this chapter, He has done for us in Christ. Each and every one of these promises has been fulfilled in Christ. This is a richness that we have.
We are starting this life in the Lord with a very healthy heart. The challenge before us is this: are we going to maintain a healthy heart? Are we daily going to stay before Him, allowing our hearts to remain healthy?
Tragically, as we look at Solomon’s life, he did not maintain a healthy heart. There were certain things—even at the beginning of his life—where we get indications that his heart was not fully on the Lord. It was distracted and dissipated by other things.
If you turn back to 1 Kings Chapter 3, at the beginning of the chapter we just read, 1 Kings 3:1, we see the story of a marriage alliance Solomon made with Egypt.
“And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.”
This was for economic reasons. It was a great alliance, a world alliance. Sometimes we can have compromises that appear harmless. We say, “Oh, what harm is this going to do?”
Even Solomon knew that this woman was not holy. Turn over to 2 Chronicles 8:11.
“And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come.”
Solomon had enough sense at this point to know that the things of David and the things of the Lord were holy. This person he had married from Egypt was not holy. So he said, “I need to keep these separated.”
Solomon could appear to be doing a good thing. He said, “Here are the holy things; I will keep them over here. Here is the worldly, profane thing; I will keep it over here. That way they will not intermingle.”
But if you keep the holy things over here and the profane things over there, what is in the middle? Your heart. It ends up divided. It works on you, and it weakens your heart.
We have to challenge ourselves: do we do this in life? Do we say, “These are the things of the Lord, and I will keep them over here and be faithful. These are things of the world, but I will keep them separate and not let them affect me over here”?
We kid ourselves, because those things have an effect upon us. We see how this slowly started working within Solomon’s life, and it ended up dividing his heart.
He ended up marrying many foreign wives. What appeared to be a compromise that at first did not have consequences eventually brought great consequences, because he married more and more foreign wives.
The Scripture uses this term foreign wives here, and we see it also in Nehemiah and Ezra. What are they talking about? We need to look at it spiritually.
Foreign simply means that you were not born in the same country; you do not have the same origin. To a Christian, what does that mean? It means something is not of Christ. We are born of Him. Something foreign that tries to come in is not born of Him.
And what is a wife? A wife is one with whom you have entered into an intimate relationship. You have given your heart. You have given your life to this person. You are intimately intertwined; you are not merely associated with them.
So when Scripture speaks of Solomon marrying these foreign wives, he had given his heart to and become joined with things that were not of the Lord: other gods, the world, and the nations with which he had allied himself.
It starts gradually within Solomon’s life, and it can start gradually in our lives. But then it continues to grow and multiply. He was not able, with a full heart, to do all that God had called him to do.
The effect is dissipation and distraction. The testimony becomes weakened.
At the end of Solomon’s life, we see the Lord’s testimony concerning him in 1 Kings Chapter 11. It is a tragic picture.
“Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in among them, neither shall they come in unto you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.”
That is exactly what happened. Solomon held fast to them in love. He was not merely associating with them; he had fallen there.
“And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”
Talk about a tragic summary of a life. Solomon had a good beginning. He was blessed with everything. He had absolutely no excuse. But one small step at first ended up becoming a great chasm in his life. It was a great divide.
It was only because of the mercy and love the Lord had for Solomon’s father, David, that He did not take the kingdom away from Solomon during his lifetime. He said, in effect, “It is not because of you, but because of David. After you, the kingdom will be torn apart. Even in that, I will save one tribe for Myself.”
You see the mercy, and you see the righteous judgment of God. God loved Solomon so much, but there was a righteous judgment that had to occur.
Depending on how you look at Solomon’s life, some think that at the very end he did come back. He started off well, went far away, and perhaps at the very end did return. There are different schools of thought, and we will not get into that.
But we see the effect of these foreign wives. We really have to ask ourselves today: how does this apply to us?
How does this matter of our hearts being joined in intimate relationship with things that are not of the Lord apply to us? They have a different origin than the Lord. They are of the world, and perhaps they are of ourselves—things that we love.
What are we seeking after in these days? It can be things like work, education, or family. It can even be our ambition for God and the work of the Lord—our ambition.
There are many believers who are ambitious for the Lord and want to be working, but it is coming out of their own self-nature.
There was a dear sister named Jessie Penn-Lewis. As she went on serving the Lord very diligently for many years, the Lord, in His great love, brought her to a place where she saw that much of her service before had simply been filthy rags. It originated in herself.
But then, through this, He revealed the cross, the new risen life, and the victorious life to her. Her life was transformed, and she became a servant of the living God. She put that former thing aside.
Brothers and sisters, it is anything that distracts us, anything that dissipates us, and anything that robs Him of His rightful place within our hearts and lives. We do not want to be married to these foreign things.
Solomon’s life is a tragedy. The greater tragedy is if we do not learn from it. That is why it is here: for our instruction and for our benefit, so that we would really take heed.
Solomon may have thought he was too big to fail, like one of the banks these days. But none of us are too big to fail. We can all self-destruct. In essence, it was Solomon’s own self-destruction. You cannot blame it on those women; it was his own heart.
Let’s move on to something a little more positive. Let’s look at Ezra.
After Solomon and all the kings, because of the sins of Israel and Judah, they were taken into captivity. They were in Babylonian captivity, and by God’s grace, after seventy years, Cyrus the king made a proclamation that whoever wanted to could return to Jerusalem to build the house of God.
Sadly, about fifty thousand returned under Zerubbabel. It is sad because millions chose to remain in Babylon. But those who returned set up the altar and rebuilt the house of God.
Then Ezra returned with a burden on his heart that was described as beautifying the house of God. Beautifying the house simply means that we see Christ in the house. There is a spiritual reality; there is a life there that is seen.
We are looking at Ezra the person; we are not really going to get into the history. But Ezra is a wonderful testimony of one whom the Lord captured, as he set his heart.
Look over at Ezra Chapter 7. Ezra is still in Babylon here. If you look at Ezra 7:9–10:
“For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.”
That phrase, “the good hand of his God was upon him,” is another little phrase to notice. Throughout these books, when people were obeying the Lord, we find this phrase: the good hand of the Lord was upon them. That is a whole separate study, but go look at that little phrase sometime.
Now look how the Holy Spirit describes Ezra: “Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.” Wow.
Ezra is the one on whom we are going to focus concerning diet. Ezra chose to eat the right stuff. He chose to feast upon the Word of God.
He was studying the Word of God, but he was not merely willing to study it. He studied it, practiced it, and taught it. The Word was engulfing Ezra in this wonderful way.
Ezra was not one whose life was one way and whose mouth was another way. No, this Word had captured him.
What is so precious to me about Ezra is where he set his heart: to study the Word of God. He was still in Babylon. He did not wait for better circumstances. His circumstances were horrible. He was in Babylon in captivity, and yet his heart was set to study the Word of God.
When we are talking about studying the Word of God and feeding upon the Word of God, we are not talking about merely an academic, mental study. We are talking about encountering Christ, the living Word. He is the bread of life. He is Christ. He is the living Word. It is learning of Him.
That is what we are called to. Ezra set his heart—he prepared his heart. Different translations use different phrases, but his life was consumed with learning and studying the Word of God.
What a precious testimony. Again, we think of how the Holy Spirit summarized David’s life, and here is a summary of Ezra’s life: he set his heart to study the Word of God, he practiced it, and he taught it.
When Ezra practiced it, it had a public testimony. When he was getting ready to return to Jerusalem, the king offered him an escort—soldiers to guard him—because they had gold, silver, supplies, and treasure with them.
Ezra said, “No. The good hand of my God is upon me.” He was fully trusting in God. He did not say, “God has told me to go back, but I will use the help of the king.” No. He said, “If God has told me to go back, if God has spoken this into my heart, then I am believing God.”
“I am practicing what I have studied. I am practicing what I am believing.”
Praise God, when Ezra arrived back in Jerusalem, he testified that they arrived safely because the good hand of the Lord was upon him.
Brothers and sisters, in the days we are living in, it is simply not enough to study the Word of God and learn of it. Are we actually practicing it? Are we believing it? Is it impacting our lives?
Each and every one of us is called not only to study and practice it, but in practicing it, we each become teachers. Sometimes we shy back and say, “Oh, I am not a teacher.” But our lives teach one another.
By what people see in our lives, we teach one another. We need to become aware that we are all teaching. The choices we make, the decisions we make, and the way we respond to situations all send a message to our brothers and sisters. It can either encourage them or discourage them, depending on how we are living that day.
There is teaching that comes verbally through messages, books, and various other means in this day and time. But each and every one of us, through our lives, is to be a teacher. We are to bear the testimony of Christ.
That is what we see in Ezra. Ezra received a revelation, and when he received that revelation from the Lord, it revolutionized his life. When one receives a revelation, when one touches the Lord in such a way, it revolutionizes our hearts and allows us to go on.
Praise God, Ezra was able to fulfill the call of God upon his life because he kept his heart healthy. He kept his heart healthy by a healthy diet, eating the right things and feeding upon the Word of God.
Because of that, he was able to return and beautify the house. He beautified the house—which really means that more of the Lord was there—by proclaiming the Word of God, through prayer, and through bringing the people together in a spirit of repentance, so that God could have what He was after in his day and time.
Thank the Lord for Ezra. One simple little thing: setting his heart upon the Lord.
Would we, in these days, keep our hearts set upon the Lord? As we see Him, as we are captured by Him—“Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty”—our hearts are set.
When we are talking about heart relationship, we are talking about love and intimacy. When those are involved, your heart is set upon that object. That is what keeps us fresh, and that is how we maintain a healthy heart: out of a desire to maintain this intimate relationship.
Praise God for that.
Another one that we can look at in captivity is Daniel. Turn over to Daniel Chapter 1.
Daniel will be another dietary example—an example of what not to eat. Ezra shows us what to eat; Daniel shows us what not to eat.
If you look at Daniel 1:8, the New American Standard reads that Daniel “made up his mind,” but the margin literally says that Daniel “set upon his heart” that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine that he drank.
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
Again, we see Daniel setting his heart not to defile himself.
Physically, there are things that, if we eat too much of them, will defile and harm us. In the same way spiritually, there is a world out there. There are things that are not of the Lord that, if we touch them and take of them, defile us.
We have to have our eyes open to be aware of these things in this day in which we are living. A healthy heart is not only eating the right thing; it is not eating the wrong thing.
Daniel realized the impact this food would have upon his personal life and public testimony. It was defiled because it had been sacrificed to idols. It was joining with the idols of this world, joining with things committed to the world and under the world’s governmental authority.
Daniel said, “I am not going to defile myself with that.” He saw that, just as we are, he was called to be a holy person, set apart unto the Lord.
Because Daniel was able to maintain his testimony in this way, he was used by the Lord to prepare for the return of the people of God to Jerusalem.
Daniel, because he kept his heart healthy, served the purpose of God in his generation. He was able to accomplish what God had called him to do because he kept his heart healthy throughout his life and did not defile his heart.
As we consider this matter of things that defile us, we realize, as I said earlier, that the Lord wants this very intimate, personal, transparent relationship.
Are our hearts touching things of this world that are defiling us? I am hesitant to mention things because, as soon as you start mentioning things—“Don’t do this; do that”—we switch to the outward, and we miss it. The issue is the heart.
I am going to mention some things. Can we honestly ask the Lord to search our hearts? Can we be transparent and willing enough for the Lord to search our hearts to see whether there is anything really defiling us?
I am not talking about blatant sin—illegal drugs, extramarital affairs, premarital sex, pornography. I am not talking about any of that. Sin is obvious.
What we are talking about are things each one of us encounters in our daily lives. Are they defiling us? Things like sports, music—even Christian music—work, social media, video games, television, movies, dancing, clothes, appearance, hair, whether we care more about how we look, beer, wine, liquor, and relationships.
Are we willing to let go of each of these things and say, “Lord, if this is not of You, will You remove it from my life?”
Sports—I have been a Christian a good number of years, and I honestly say I still have to be very careful. I can turn on ESPN or check my app and see the Yankees score. They won yesterday, so I am happy today. But I have to be careful.
I have to guard my heart. If I am not careful, I can get caught up in a game, and three hours later I have just wasted time—and they lose. I have learned that if I watch the whole game, they lose too.
But this is an indication. Maybe it is a video game, maybe you are reading a book, maybe you are watching a movie, or maybe you go online to shop for some clothes. Then all of a sudden, four hours have gone by and you did not even realize it. There is a consuming thing there.
Going online to buy clothes is not necessarily wrong. But it is our heart. What is guarding our hearts? There is a spectrum, and at some point in each of our lives there is a point where something goes from being acceptable to defiling.
In sports, I know I am learning. I miss it at times. But at times I get absorbed, and I go beyond. I have to repent because I have defiled my heart with that.
Are we honest enough before the Lord to take these things and hold them before Him? “Lord, I am spending a lot of time in this. I have this relationship with it. Is this really of You?”
The movies we watch—do we ask, “Is it defiling me?” We say, “Well, they only cursed the Lord twice in that.” That is two times too many. How can we put up with watching somebody curse our Lord?
I am sorry, I cannot. I said I am not going to do the right-and-wrong list up here; I am simply telling you what my convictions are. But if somebody is going to curse my Lord, I am not going to pay money for that.
There are things we have to see in our lives. Has the Lord captured us in such a way that we are willing to let them go?
If He says, “Okay, you can still play some video games, you can still watch some sports, you can still do this or that,” whatever it may be, is it under His control? Have we not reached the point of defilement?
I am having trouble trying to fully express it, but I think you are getting the nature of what I am trying to say.
If we saw how much our Lord was jealous for the life of His Son to be formed in us, would we be willing to let these things go to Him?
David saw that. He went through affliction, but he caught the affection of the Lord through that affliction.
Would we simply say, “Lord, if this is not of You, I want to let it go. I want to forsake it. I want to put it behind me, because I want to be sold out for You.”
In the days we are living in, at some point in time I believe most of us are going to be forced into those decisions. Right now we can choose voluntarily, constrained by His love.
But as the name of Christ becomes more and more hated, there are going to be more and more things in which we will be challenged and confronted. We have to have these things settled in our hearts, so that we know our foundation is sure and will hold through the storms of life coming upon us.
Today is a day of preparation. We have a wonderful opportunity, while we have time, to take advantage of it.
Would we really do that with an honest heart? It is so simple to stand up and sing, “Maranatha.” Has that really captured us?
What if He came today? Would we say, “Oops, wait a minute. How about tomorrow, Lord? I have to settle up a few things today.” Or has He captured us in such a way that we can go on?
Daniel was captured. His heart was set. He kept his heart pure, and the Lord used him in a marvelous way to prepare the way for those to return from captivity.
The Lord is looking for people today whom He can use to prepare for His second return.
Another one we can see who maintained a healthy heart is Nehemiah. Turn back to Nehemiah Chapter 1.
We have looked at Daniel and Ezra from the dietary point of view—eating what we should eat and not eating what we should not eat. When we think of Nehemiah, we are going to think of exercise.
Nehemiah is always moving. He is either battling or building. There is either warfare or building going on. This is a man of action.
I do not want it to come across as though it is either diet or exercise. When you look more at Ezra’s life and Daniel’s life, you see spiritual exercise. When you look at Nehemiah’s life, you see that he was eating the right things too. There was healthiness there. We are simply using this distinction for fellowship and help.
Nehemiah was greatly exercised by the Lord. This was after Ezra; the temple had been rebuilt, but Nehemiah was still in Babylon.
When he received a report of the condition of the people in Jerusalem, it was pitiful. When Nehemiah heard the condition of the people of Israel, he broke down. It broke his heart.
Look at Nehemiah 1:4–6:
“And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,
And said, I beseech Thee, O Lord, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments:
Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee; yea, I and my father’s house have sinned.”
When Nehemiah heard of the weakened condition of the testimony of God, it broke his heart. He was on the ground before the Lord in prayer and fasting.
It affected him so much that when the king saw him later, the king asked, “What is this distress of heart that you have?” You could see that it affected him deeply.
The challenge before us is this: as we see the weakened condition of the testimony of the Lord in this day and time, how does it impact us? Do we say, “Well, that is just the way we are these days. We are weak. Christianity is just like this”?
Has it really impacted us that this is not what God wants? The condition of the people of Israel was such because of their own sins. Much of our condition as believers today, and the condition of Christianity, is also from our own lives and our own condition.
We have made wrong choices and compromised in things. We have been feeding upon the wrong tree—not the tree of life. We have been feeding upon the wrong food and allowing defilement to come in and weaken the overall testimony.
We see how it impacted Nehemiah: distress and brokenness of heart. Oh, would it really bring us to that place in this day and time?
It is sad that we can become so accustomed to living in a weakened condition that we think it is the norm. “We are kind of weak, but that is normal, so it is okay. I am better than some other people. Look how bad off they are.”
“We have a prayer meeting; at least people pray. Some other people do not even have a prayer meeting. We are doing pretty good.” No, that is not our standard. Our standard is not others. Our standard is Christ.
We need to be those who are burdened in a fresh way for His testimony to be strengthened, rather than living in complacent acceptance of the condition we are in.
God can move. Do we still believe that God can recover and strengthen the testimony of God? We may talk about it, but do we really believe it?
Do we believe that God can take a handful of people? He found an Ezra and a Nehemiah, and through each of these many were encouraged. God is just looking for a heart or two today, and through a few, many can be encouraged.
That is the precious testimony we see in these different ones. It was not about them. We see many coming in, standing, and fighting.
Throughout the book of Nehemiah, as I said, it is characterized by building and warfare. The warfare takes many forms. There is mocking and despising. Sometimes it is subtle warfare; sometimes it is deception.
The enemy forms a conspiracy to come against them. They try to distract Nehemiah to come off the wall, but he says, “Oh no, I am not going there.”
There was also the condition among the people themselves. One chapter speaks about how many were subject to one another because of lending and interest. They were taking advantage of the brethren.
Nehemiah’s heart was broken, and he prayed for God to bring about a recovery. But praise God, in the midst of all the warfare, the wall was built.
They did not wait for a better time. They rose up. It says they were of one heart and one mind; they had a mind to work. They went forth, built, and the testimony was strengthened.
Look over at Nehemiah 4:16–17. This is a wonderful passage because it summarizes the attitude needed in the days we are living in. We are building, but we are in a battle.
“And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, and half of them held the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
They all builded the wall and they that bare burdens laded themselves; every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held his weapon.”
Some say they had a sword and a trowel together. I do not know much about construction, but I did a little bit for a couple of summers. It seems to me that if you have a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, it is kind of hard to work.
And if you are in a battle with a sword in one hand but only a trowel in the other, it is pretty hard to fight. On one hand, it shows our inability. But it shows that God is able.
It is not on you. But if you get yourself in the right place with the right heart, God is able to fight, and God is able to build. It is not on the man who wills, but on Him who is the victorious One. He can do this for us.
If we get in that place and have our hearts in a condition where He can move, He can bring about this wonderful work.
Praise God, because Nehemiah kept his heart healthy, the wall was built and the city was strengthened spiritually. The spiritual life within the city rose up. They were brought to repentance.
If you want to study prayer sometime, look at Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel Chapter 9. They made it easy for us—it is all Chapter 9. But these are three beautiful chapters on prayer during times of recovery.
There is confession. There is identification. That is spiritual exercise.
Would the Lord capture us in this day and time too? I keep relating things physically, but there is a phrase in physical exercise: “No pain, no gain.”
I am sorry to tell you, but it is the same way in the spiritual life: no pain, no gain. The pain is our self going away in battle, but there is a joy set before us.
Our Lord was able to endure the cross because of the joy set before Him.
Look over at James Chapter 1. I am going to read a couple of Scriptures, and I know they are everybody’s favorite Scriptures. We go to bed at night meditating upon these.
It is wonderful to look from the beginning of these verses to the end, to see what has happened in this process, in this exercise. James 1:2–4:
“Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations;
Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience.
And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.”
Throughout these trials, Christ has proved all-sufficient for us. Whatever trial we have gone through, we have learned more of Him. That simply means our hearts have become healthy. Our hearts have become strengthened throughout the battles.
Another passage is 1 Peter 4:12–14:
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you:
But insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy.
If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you.”
What a wonderful testimony. There is reviling, but there is blessing. This is affliction and affection in one passage.
In these verses, we see affection—a heart set on the Lord and loving the Lord—but there is also an affliction that can go along with that. Yet it keeps our hearts healthy.
Praise God for these examples we have in David, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and even Solomon. We have to come back to the question: what was their secret?
They all had a pretty simple secret. They kept a healthy heart. They kept it healthy simply by diet and exercise. We have a negative lesson through Solomon, and we can learn from that too.
It is wonderful, as I mentioned, how each of these was characterized by the impact they had upon other people—how others rose up, how others came into places, and how others responded to the work of God.
This is what the Lord is jealous for in this day and time.
As we think about having a healthy heart, a whole heart, and a heart set on Him, we have that great Physician on our side. We have the great Physician, and we have the great Dietitian too. He says, “Come, taste and see.”
He has that perfect diet for us. And we have our own personal Trainer, the Holy Spirit, who gives us the workout to strengthen us in Him.
The tragedy, the thing we have to face, is that it is so easy to talk about these things. It is easy to talk about having a healthy heart and a good heart, about diet and exercise, testimony and passing the torch.
But is it really impacting our lives in such a way that we are living serious and sober lives before Him in the hour we are in?
Would we daily keep our hearts fresh, allowing Him to work a greater measure of His own heart within us?
I had a question written down here: are our hearts in a healthy place so that we can be used by the Lord to serve His purpose in our generation?
Are our hearts in a healthy place so that we can be used by the Lord to serve His purpose in our generation? These dear ones were.
The Lord is reaching out. He is pleading with us to respond to Him, to be among those who are hastening His return.
He is jealous. He is jealous for the love of His heart, His bride, to make herself ready. God the Father loves the Son so much. He is jealous that the bride would make herself ready, so there can be that day of the great consummation of the ages.
Would it capture us in a fresh way?
It is not complicated. We are thankful that it is impossible in ourselves, but it is possible in Him.
I pray specifically as we enter the conference, but far more beyond that as we go on in life, that the Lord would be working in our hearts. Would we permit Him to work within each of our hearts and lives?
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are thankful for Your great love that has called us. We are thankful, Lord, that You have captured us.
Lord, we are thankful that You are not looking to us to perfect ourselves, but You have put the perfect life within us.
You have a simple design: that the life of Your Son would be expressed and lived out among Your people.
May we keep it that simple, Lord. Would we cooperate with You? Would we cooperate with Your Spirit, that Your life could be lived out and seen in us and through us?
In Thy name we pray. Amen.