S1: Today on Bold steps, Mark Jobe explains why we need
S1: to be checking our hearts.
S2: If there is something in your heart that is good,
S2: it flows into all of your life. If there's something
S2: in your heart that's polluted, it also flows into all
S2: of your life. Notice that the writer of Proverbs says,
S2: guard your heart.
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is the
S1: senior pastor at New Life Community Church in Chicago and
S1: president of Moody Bible Institute. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Jesus tells
S1: us that it's not what goes into your body that
S1: causes problems, but what comes out of your mouth from
S1: your heart that can get us into trouble. It's a
S1: bold statement and the topic of today's message. Our series
S1: is titled Step Up, living higher, and you can join
S1: us by turning in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12.
S1: Marcus titled this message stepping up to a Clean Heart.
S2: In the movie dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner plays the
S2: character of a dejected cowboy, and in some of the
S2: opening scenes of dances with Wolves, this cowboy goes to
S2: a spring of water. He's thirsty, he's parched. But when
S2: he gets that spring of water, he realizes that he
S2: can't take a drink because there's a carcass of a buffalo,
S2: a rotting carcass in the middle of that spring. And
S2: before he can drink, he has to take that carcass
S2: of the buffalo out, make sure that the water is
S2: clean so that he can take advantage of the water
S2: that's there. One of the tactics of warfare in the
S2: old days was to pollute the wells and the springs
S2: of the enemy. Some of the ancient armies would take
S2: animals that had died of diseases, and they had dropped
S2: them in the well waters, or drop them in the
S2: springs where the water where a river would start. And
S2: so when the opposing armies came to give water to
S2: their horses or came to drink themselves, they would become
S2: poisoned by the water because there was a carcass or
S2: a dead animal inserted into that well. The Bible says
S2: in Proverbs chapter four verse 23, keep your heart with
S2: all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.
S2: Another version says, guard your heart above all else, for
S2: it determines the course of your life. What is in
S2: our heart determines the course of our life. What the
S2: writer of Proverbs is doing is giving us the image.
S2: And he's saying that your heart is like a spring
S2: of water. It's constantly producing life and everything in your life.
S2: Your relationships, your attitudes, your mindset, your success and your
S2: destiny are affected by that which is in your heart.
S2: If there is something in your heart that is good,
S2: it flows into all of your life. If there's something
S2: in your heart that's Polluted. It also flows into all
S2: of your life. Notice that the writer of Proverbs says,
S2: guard your heart. We only guard things that are important
S2: and valuable in our house. Thursday evening is trash day.
S2: It's my son Josiah's responsibility to take out the trash,
S2: to put it in front of the house, and to
S2: get it ready for the garbage man the next morning.
S2: He doesn't like that responsibility. He claims we mass produce garbage.
S2: But we take out the garbage on Thursday night. Never
S2: once in all these years of taking garbage out and
S2: putting it in front of our house, have I ever
S2: stayed up at night looking out the window, guarding my garbage? Never.
S2: I've never given my son a baseball bat and said,
S2: you know, I want you to spend all night sleeping
S2: next to our garbage to make sure no one takes it. No,
S2: I don't care about our garbage. It's garbage. You don't
S2: guard that, which is not important. Right. You only watch
S2: over that which is important. So? So when we put
S2: out the garbage at night. During the night, someone wants
S2: to take it. Go ahead, take it. Just don't make
S2: a mess. It's garbage. I don't watch my garbage. However,
S2: Thursday night comes and my daughter doesn't come in at
S2: time of curfew time. I'm looking through the window, waiting
S2: for her to her to show up. Is she arrived yet?
S2: What's going on? And sending her a text. Why? Because
S2: she's important to me, not the garbage. That is not important.
S2: You guard what you feel is important in your life.
S2: How many of you dads know what I'm talking about? Alright, well,
S2: in the same way the writer of Proverbs is saying,
S2: your heart needs to be guarded. You need to watch
S2: over your heart with all diligence, because what happens to
S2: your heart will happen to your life. What you allow
S2: around your heart will affect every single area of your life.
S2: You say, well, pastor, how do I know what's in
S2: my heart? How do I know if there's a carcass
S2: in my heart or something contaminating my heart? Well, Jesus
S2: said in Matthew chapter 15, verse 18, but the things
S2: that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart
S2: and defile a person. What Jesus said is, if you
S2: want to know what's in your heart, ask yourself what's
S2: coming out of your mouth. Because eventually whatever's in your
S2: heart is going to come out of your mouth. Oh,
S2: you may be able to hide it for some time.
S2: You may be able to guard your mouth for a while,
S2: but it's just a matter of time before whatever's in
S2: your heart is going to start spilling out of your mouth.
S2: Because out of the King, James says, out of the
S2: abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. I travel a lot,
S2: speaking in different places and sometimes in different countries. And
S2: so I sit on the plane near strangers. And I
S2: always when I sit down, I always ask myself if
S2: someone is to my right or to my left. I
S2: wonder what they're about. And so I usually try to
S2: engage in conversation and give me about 15 to 20 minutes.
S2: And I usually can tell what that person is about,
S2: because after a little bit of conversation, whatever they're into
S2: is going to start coming out of their mouth. Some
S2: people are into education and some people are into sports,
S2: and some people are into fun, and some people whatever's there.
S2: If someone is angry at the world in 20 minutes,
S2: they'll start ranting and raving about the world and the
S2: system and politics and how unjust things are. It comes
S2: out because out of the abundance of the heart, the
S2: mouth starts to speak. I usually don't like to tell
S2: them I'm a pastor right up front. Because if I
S2: tell them I'm a pastor and then they try to
S2: clean everything up before they they it comes out. So
S2: I like to get the unedited version. Then about a
S2: half hour into the conversation, when they find out I'm
S2: a pastor, they start thinking, oh, what did I say?
S2: They start trying to clean up everything they said and
S2: excuse their French and so forth. That's how usually it happens.
S2: But out of your heart, your mouth speaks. Listen, if
S2: you have bitterness in your heart, resentment in your soul,
S2: it's just a matter of time that it starts to
S2: come out of your mouth. It will erupt out of
S2: your mouth and unexpected times. Why? Because it's in your heart.
S2: And so Jesus tells us that it's not what goes
S2: into our mouth that really defiles us. It's what comes
S2: out of our mouth that defiles us. It's the words
S2: that come out of our mouth. I like what one
S2: person said. They said, what is in the well of
S2: the heart will come up out of the bucket of
S2: the mouth. Whatever is in your heart, you're going to
S2: pull out of the bucket of your mouth and it's
S2: going to show up that way. Chuck Swindoll says it
S2: this way. How important is the heart? It is there.
S2: That character is formed. It alone holds the secret of
S2: true success. Its treasures are priceless. But they can be stolen.
S2: So I want you to turn in your Bibles to
S2: Hebrews chapter 12. And I'm going to talk to you
S2: today about how to do a heart audit, how to look,
S2: how to look in your heart and make sure that
S2: there's nothing there that shouldn't be there. I have a
S2: feeling that some of you have been living years. Some
S2: of you months, some of you decades, with certain carcasses
S2: in your heart that have been polluting your life, and
S2: you're not even aware of it. And I think today
S2: God wants to speak to some of your hearts about
S2: cleaning the debris around the spring of your life so
S2: that clean, fresh, pure life can come out of your
S2: heart instead of that which is contaminated. Hebrews chapter 12,
S2: verses 12 through 17. It says, therefore strengthen your feeble
S2: arms and weak knees. Make level the paths of your feet,
S2: so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed.
S2: Make every effort to live in peace with all men
S2: and to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see
S2: the Lord. See to it that no one misses the
S2: grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up
S2: to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one
S2: is sexually immoral or godless like Esau, who for a
S2: single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterwards,
S2: as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing,
S2: he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind,
S2: though he sought the blessing with tears. So in Hebrews
S2: chapter 12, the writer of the Hebrews tells us how
S2: to keep our heart clean, how to do a heart check.
S1: You're listening to Bold Steps. The Bible teaching of Mark
S1: job will continue today's message right after a quick break.
S1: If you haven't been to our website yet, we really
S1: encourage you to visit and see all the faith building
S1: resources and opportunities and sermon series we have available. Just
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S1: Org or you can give us a call with your
S1: own voice and leave your message on a recorded line
S1: by dialing 312329 2011. That's (312) 329-2011. Now let's continue our
S1: lesson about stepping up to a clean heart. Here again
S1: is Mark Jobe.
S2: I just prayed for a brother at an early service
S2: that on Tuesday is having open heart surgery. Thank God
S2: that they caught the fact that his arteries were clogged
S2: in time and avoided a major disaster. And I believe
S2: for some of you, this service today could be a
S2: diagnostic that's identifying clogged arteries in your heart that could
S2: avoid a major disaster. If you choose to clean the
S2: debris out of your heart, your spiritual heart, so that
S2: the life life of God can flow strongly and powerfully.
S2: So how to take care of your heart? I'm going
S2: to give you five quick things of how to take
S2: care of your heart and to be able to clean
S2: up anything that may not need to be there. Number one,
S2: strengthen your grip on the things that really matter. Notice
S2: what it says in verse 12. Therefore, strengthen your feeble
S2: arms and weak knees. Discouragement, disappointment, and disillusionment can weaken
S2: our grip on the things that really matter in life.
S2: Have you ever noticed that when you get discouraged, you
S2: feel weak? Well, I noticed that in the Olympics, especially
S2: on the beam where the gymnasts would perform these acrobatics.
S2: Did you notice that when a gymnast makes a mistake
S2: at the beginning of the routine, then suddenly it seems
S2: like they'll make more mistakes because they're discouraged. That which
S2: is strong becomes weak. Their confidence dissipates. Why? They've made
S2: a mistake. And because they make a mistake, they become discouraged.
S2: And when you become discouraged, you start getting weak. When
S2: you're encouraged, you become strong. When you're discouraged, you become weak.
S2: One of the greatest tactics of the enemy is to
S2: discourage us somehow in our life. So those things that
S2: we are holding on to that we know are good, right? True, virtuous,
S2: we start losing our grip. He uses the illustration of
S2: feeble hands and weak knees. Oh, I've seen it over
S2: and over. I've seen someone that was going really strong
S2: and doing really well, and somehow they become discouraged. Maybe
S2: they get disappointed in someone that was supposed to help
S2: them and didn't help them. Or maybe they feel like
S2: they called to God for an answer to prayer that
S2: didn't come. Or maybe they have tried to really change
S2: their ways, but keep struggling, and then they become discouraged.
S2: And instead of hanging on tight, they start loosening their grip.
S2: Instead of holding on tight to what they know, they
S2: need to hold on to those habits. Maybe someone committed
S2: at the beginning of the year. I'm going to spend
S2: some time with God every morning before I start the day.
S2: But you come discouraged and instead of hanging on tight,
S2: you start loosening the grip. Maybe you determine at the
S2: beginning of the year, I'm not going to allow some
S2: of the friendships I've had in the past to influence
S2: my life in a negative way and take me down.
S2: And you were strong in the beginning, resisting their influence,
S2: but you got discouraged. And so now you're allowing them
S2: to influence your life again and take you in a
S2: spiral downward. The writer of the Hebrews says, strengthen your grip,
S2: strengthen your knees. It's not time to let go of
S2: the things you need to hang on to. It's time
S2: to grip them stronger. It's time to hold on stronger,
S2: not to let go. God has given you some. Some
S2: of you visions and dreams as to what he's called
S2: you to do. Some of you are in the midst
S2: of education, and you know that you need to pursue
S2: that degree, because that degree opens up doors to your calling.
S2: But boy, does it get long and hard and expensive.
S2: So some of you begin to weaken the grip, thinking, wow,
S2: it's a lot. It's hard, I don't know, can I
S2: do this? Maybe I'll take a semester off or 2
S2: or 3 and maybe God is saying, I gave you
S2: a vision. I gave you a dream. Now pursue it.
S2: It tells us in this passage is strengthen your feeble
S2: arms and strengthen your weak knees. Number two, I'm talking
S2: about how to strengthen our heart and get it in
S2: the right place, how to take care of our heart,
S2: take care of the hurts and injuries quickly before they
S2: become disabling. Notice what it says in verse 13. Make
S2: level paths for your feet so that the lame may
S2: not be disabled, but rather healed. Now notice he's using
S2: spiritual language but talking about our body. And he says,
S2: make straight paths for your feet so that those that
S2: are lame or those that are injured may not become
S2: disabled but healed. How many of you know that you
S2: can allow an injury to become worse, and eventually it
S2: can disable you? When I was young, I broke quite
S2: a few bones. I broke my arm. I broke bones
S2: in my hand. I had stitches in my head, stitches
S2: in my ear. I broke my arm, falling off a
S2: tree and cracked. Snapped both bones in my arm so
S2: my arm looked like this. We went to the hospital.
S2: The doctor reset the bones in my arm. Put a cast.
S2: In those days they used to use plaster, plastered up
S2: my arm, and he said, you need to take care
S2: of that until your arm heals. But that was pretty active,
S2: young man. And I was probably about nine years old.
S2: And about a week later I was off on a
S2: bicycle with a friend, and we actually fell off a
S2: bridge with our bicycle and I rebroke the cast cracked
S2: it into again and he broke his leg, cracked his tooth,
S2: and so I had to show up to the same
S2: doctor a week and a half later with a broken
S2: arm again, and he said, young man, I will have
S2: to cut your arm open and put a pin in there.
S2: This arm could be disabled unless you take care of it.
S2: This arm has to heal. It's happened to some of you,
S2: hasn't it, that you sprang your leg or something happens
S2: and you don't take care of it. You keep walking
S2: on it and walking on it and walking on it.
S2: And finally it becomes so bad that you become disabled.
S2: I had a friend of mine, played football for many
S2: years and and messed up his knees and his knees
S2: got worse and worse and worse so he could barely walk.
S2: He had to. He had to walk with. With a walker,
S2: with a crutch because his knees got so bad and
S2: they had to operate. And what, what is telling us
S2: in this passage is that life is full of inevitable hurts.
S2: You and I will be hurt by people in our life.
S2: Life hurts sometimes, period. You can't make it through life
S2: without getting hurt. Someone's going to bump you. Someone's going
S2: to disappoint you. Someone's going to hurt you because they
S2: didn't follow through on their commitment, or because you thought
S2: they were loyal to you, and then they turned their
S2: back on you, or you thought they were a friend
S2: and they talked about you behind your back, or you
S2: thought they were going to show up and really back
S2: you in your time of need, and they weren't there
S2: when you needed them. And so life is full of hurts.
S2: It may be your father, your mother, your brother, your sister,
S2: your friend, your aunt, your cousin, your. And when they
S2: disappoint you, you become hurt. I have seen more people
S2: tube out spiritually because they didn't take care of their injuries,
S2: their heart injuries than almost any other reason. I've seen
S2: people fall away. Make sure that when you get injured,
S2: you take care of that injury so that it doesn't
S2: turn in to disability, but instead you become healed. Whatever
S2: happens in your heart, if it's undealt with will show
S2: up in your life. If you allow a seed of
S2: resentment or bitterness to get into your heart and you
S2: don't deal with it and heal it, it may start
S2: because someone hurts you and you nurse that hurt, that
S2: hurt you rehearse that. You tell other people about it.
S2: It's turned into a disability, and now you find yourself
S2: paralyzed at the side of the road wondering what happened.
S2: It all happened because you got hurt and you didn't
S2: properly deal with the hurt of your heart.
S1: You're listening to Bold Steps, the Bible teaching of Mark job.
S1: Today's message is called stepping up to a Clean Heart.
S1: And you can hear part two of this message tomorrow.
S1: So please keep listening. In the meantime, we encourage you
S1: to visit our website and check out all the special
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S1: I'm Wayne Shepherd signing off, but be sure to join
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S1: up to a clean heart. That's Friday on Bold Steps
S1: with Mark Jones. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio,
S1: a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.