63. Sermon: How Does My Heart Direct My Life

Welcome, everybody, back to the For Freedom podcast, and this is a podcast where we try to bring grace and the sufficiency of Scripture to the conversation of spiritual abuse and legalism. And James is not here today. We had plans on doing an interview this week that we were very excited about, looking forward to doing with a subject really sort of encompassing all of ministry. And it just didn't work out. First of all, the interview didn't work with sort of James' schedule, so he wasn't going to be on there. And then I wasn't able to make it work next with mine. Something with the family came up and had to give priority to that. So we are going to still get the interview rescheduled and actually been working on getting some other guests lined up here lately. But somebody had suggested a while back about putting sermons. James and I are both preachers, and we preach regularly. And I'm preaching every Sunday, and so somebody had suggested about maybe us putting maybe one of our sermons as something we've never done, we've talked about, and just sort of not decided to do, but been thinking about it. And since we have not had many episodes being put out this year, we thought we might try it. So here is a sermon today from the one that I preached at our church this past week. And it's in the middle of a series that we've been doing called The Idol Factory. And so this is going to be a sermon that I've preached, and it's going to be how my heart directs my life. And so that is what is going to be on the podcast today. So probably some of you are going to turn it off and not listen because you don't want to hear a sermon. I understand that's okay, but some of you are going to listen to this, and I hope that it helps you and benefits you today. So we're going to play the intro, and you guys have a wonderful week. I do not mean to be mean. I do mean to be mad. You obey your pastor. If you ain't got the King James, you ain't got – hey, you don't have a King James. You don't have a Bible. But you know, there's something about that local Newcastle, that independent from the middle, so we separate a King James Bible. We get from my hand, we get to pray, and we're going to have a great tribulation to the matter of the Baptist church. I still believe there'd be a cold day in hell before I get my talents from a woman. I'm a preacher. The young preachers have too loved God, get pulled off in the Calvinist. And I'll fight it. I'll fight it. I'll fight you in the parking lot over there. I'll get personal with you. When you got dressed today, you dressed deity. This is the For Freedom Podcast. A podcast that is part of the RFP network. That seeks to bring freedom in Christ. From the spiritual abuse of legalism in the independent fundamental Baptist movement. Now here are your hosts, John Hollifield and James Saifert. And so fundamentalism is designed to unpack the idea of authority from Scripture. The problem with that is that that's not the defining principle in Scripture. It is a part of Scripture. But the defining principle in Scripture is love. And now I'm not saying that all men who sit under that teaching will become abusive. But what I'm saying is the ones who are abusive will be drawn to that sort of teaching. I don't want to give people just a list of things they can start doing differently until they have a heart out of which they're going to be doing those things differently. Bitterness is different from hurt. I would say that hurt or even abuse does not have to result in bitterness. This morning we're going to go, first of all, you can turn your Bibles. We're going to be mainly this morning in the Scripture in the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs. So let's go ahead and you can go ahead and start making your way to the book of Proverbs. Okay. So this is message number six in our series on the idol factory. Okay. The message number six. And so we turned a corner, said last week we were going to turn a corner as far as we spent about four weeks sort of deciphering and dissecting the problem. Okay. So let me just go over just, well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's put, the first one should be our James 4, 1 through 3 passage. James 4. Okay. Here we are. All right. So what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. All right. So you know the drill. Now let's say this all together, everybody. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Okay. So this James 4, 1 through 3 passage is sort of the passage that I've asked you to memorize, to get to know, to go over weekly because this right here unlocks the secret behind why you do what you do. The sin, we said, beneath the sin. And its central place, as we've said week after week after week, is located where? In your heart. In your heart. So this brings us to the definition of an idol. An idol is anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds, and affections more than God. Let's say it together. An idol is anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds, and affections more than God. All right. Travis, take it off the screen. I'm going to see if you guys can say it by yourself. All right. Go ahead and go to the next one. All right. Just leave it right there. Can you guys say that? I'll get you started. An idol is or that heart affections more than God. Good job. Man, you guys are picking that up. Good job. All right. Well done, class. Well done. So I feel like I'm really loud when I get behind the pulpit for some reason. I know this is off, but do I sound loud out there? Okay. Then if they don't care, I don't care. All right. All right. Message one. We talked about how idolatry flies in the face of God. It violates Matthew 22, 37. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. Okay. And then it also violates the very first of the Ten Commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. That's what idolatry does. Then we talked about how idolatry is rooted in the desires of my heart. We struggle with idolatry so much because of our continual lust for more. We never find satisfaction in all of the things that we look for it in our life. We should be finding our satisfaction in God, but we are not. So we are never satisfied. And that is what is causing us so much frustration. Next, we talked about where does idolatry show up in our relationships. And we talked about this concept. Conflict exposes my idolatry. This happens when legitimate desires turn into demands. We then relabel it a need. Expectation kicks in. And whenever that happens, expectations are bound to go unmet. And when that happens, we end up punishing others around us. This is why we end up saying and being harsh to the ones that we say we love the most in our lives. Our children. Our spouses. So then we move to talking about our identity. Idolatry changes how you see yourself. You start redefining yourself in light of that particular idol. We call this identity replacement. And it happens when we replace God as the rightful affection in our lives with the idol of our hearts. So where should our identity be found in? In Christ. In Christ. All right? And so last week, last week we talked about, we went to Ezekiel 14. Idols come from our hearts. Now what we did in last week's message was crucial because where we're going to go this morning, we needed to set up the basis of understanding a biblical view of the heart. All right? So Ezekiel 14 is where we went. Idols come from our hearts. So we must search our hearts in order to accurately repent from idols. When God spoke of the heart, get this. This will be a key for going forward today. All right? So I'm going to operate on the premise that you understand this. All right? When God spoke of the heart, He was talking about the inner you. When the Bible refers to the heart, it means the three main operations of the inner you. Your mind, affections, and will. All right? So the Bible points you to your own heart as the control center of what's going on in your life. So at this point in the series, I feel like that we've said this over and over again enough to where we're going to sort of move away from it just a tad bit. And that is this. How do you handle the idols in your heart? We re... Good job, Madison. Madison gets a gold star. All right? We repent. Right? And I think that we've explained... I've explained enough going through week to week about repenting from idols. All right? So where I'm going to go in the direction today is... Did you have... Go back to the next one if you can, Travis. And this is the title of today's message. How does my heart direct my life? So let's say at this point you say, John, I've understood where my idolatry is. I've figured out an idol in my heart. I've repented of it. But you said that our hearts are idol factories. And so they're going to keep coming up. So how do I live life like this? And so where we're going to dive in today is the subject of directing your life or directing your heart through life. Because yes, you may have repented of this particular idol. But what about tomorrow when the next idol tries to show up? And if the idols spring forth from your heart, then how are you supposed to handle your heart? This is where we're going. How does my heart direct my life? You see, idolatry in our hearts exposes the ongoing battle that rages right there on a daily basis. It's a battle for ownership. It's a battle for control. It's a battle for worship. So let's look at Proverbs 23.7. Proverbs 23.7. We're going to jump around in Proverbs today. So just keep your Bibles open to Proverbs. We're going to look at several Proverbs passages. Proverbs 23.7. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. What does that tell you about your heart? It tells you that your heart is the control center of your life. Who has your heart? For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, he says, to you, but his heart is not with you. How many of you heard this? Our culture and our society gives so much different language today about the heart. We talked a little bit about this last week with Valentine's Day and that kind of thing. But how many of you have heard statements like this? The heart wants what the heart wants. Who ever heard that? And media, can I tell you this? Media and news is trying to get that message to you. Why? They're wanting to teach your kids that message. Why? Because they're wanting to say that just the whims and decisions and the things and the choices that you make is really not yours. It's really based on things outside of your control. Because think about that phrase right there. The heart wants what the heart wants. What is that? Does that seem like you have control over it? You know, people love who they love. Why can't someone just love who they want? That's the idea. That's the sentiment of our day. But I'm telling you something that carries with it an idea and a concept that is completely opposed to what Scripture teaches about our heart. Because what actually Scripture does teach about our heart is this. That you can control it. It does not control you. Or let me say it this way. It should not control you. It should not control you. Okay? So this is counter-cultural here. Alright? The culture says the heart wants what the heart wants. Just give in. The Bible says, No, your heart's deceitful above all else. And desperately wicked. Who can know it? And as we're going to see in Proverbs today, Scripture teaches us that we are to guide our heart. Proverbs tells us, Yeah, we're good. That's right where we need. Proverbs tells us to guide our heart. Guard our heart. And that you're a fool if you follow your heart. Proverbs 23, 19. I know it's on the screen. I'm going to turn there. Proverbs 23, 19 says, Hear, my son, and be wise and guide your heart in the way. Give attention to this. You're supposed to be leading your heart, not letting your heart lead you. And this is what this is my life versus a teenager. Proverbs 4, 23. And I quote it in the King James because I like the King James translation of it. Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it, your heart comes the issues of life. The idea of guarding is setting up a fortress around it. Does that sound like just let your heart go? Let it decide. Let your heart do what it wants. No, it's saying guard it because everything around you is coming after your heart. Proverbs 28, 26. I'll turn over there and read that. Proverbs 28, 26 says, The lambs will provide your clothing. I think I have the wrong reference. No, I'm in 27. Sorry. 28, 26. All right. 28, 26. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. But whoever walks wisely will be delivered. You are foolish to trust in your heart. How many of you have ever heard someone say this? I know in my heart this is the right way to go. Listen, I'm not trying to be a fundamentalist here. I'm trying to give you scripture on the way that this is teaching how we're supposed to view this. Because even with that, when people say things like that, they're still viewing the heart in a cultural idea of the heart. Not a biblical understanding of the heart. Not a biblical understanding of the heart being your mind, emotions, and will. Because your heart, the worship of your heart shapes the direction of your life. Because your heart is the processing and sorting center of everything you do and everything you'll become. So where is the center, where's the control center of your life? Where's the control center of your life? Before we move on, where's the control center of your life? The heart. All right, the heart. This is the biblical view of the heart. Okay? Biblical view of the heart. This is the control center of your life where you think, where you emote, and where you choose, where you make choices. Okay? Okay? So what we're going to do is teach you how your life operates. That's where we're going. Okay? And so I don't, I think I forgot. I made, I spent probably 20 minutes. I just realized this, Travis. I spent 20 minutes making up a graphic with little arrows to help you understand what I'm about to teach you. And I forgot to put it in the thing. Huh? It's on the desktop, actually. I don't know if you can figure that out. But this is what we're going to do. I'm going to take this one thing at a time. All right? So here's what number one is. Number one, stimuli. That's a different word that we don't use every day. Stimuli. What is this talking about? This is that you can't, the idea that you can't keep life from happening all around you. Things happen. Every single day, everything that you do, every step that you take, you've got things happening around you. We call this stimuli. It is stimulating and it's coming at you and it's causing your brain to register and then process and react. Things are going to happen. Things break down. People disappoint. People do nice things for you. People encourage you. People tear you down. Things will operate like they're supposed to. Things operate like they're not supposed to. All right? And so all of this is life. This is life. We operate in life with this kind of thing 24-7 every day of the week. Things are happening. Stuff comes at us every day. People hurt us. Best friends desert us. Health fails us. And finances can evaporate along with any kind of job security. Things happen. Things happen that are way outside of your control. Come on, let's be honest. Nothing is in your control. Okay? You turn on the news and you see all this happening and you think, those are people making decisions that do not care how it's affecting me. And that causes you to process it. So this is number two. This is number two. Stimuli, you can't keep from life happening all around you. Number two, this is thinking. This is the heart area of it. So things happen and your heart never stops trying to make sense out of it. So when stimuli happens, you begin to process it. As you're processing it, this is what reveals where your heart's at. Because how you process the stimuli that's happening around you, you're trying to make sense out of what's going on. What did they mean by that? How is this going to affect me in the long run? How is this going to affect me right now? How is this going to affect my family? You see, idols in your heart are going to confuse you and try, confuse you trying to make sense out of it. Think about this. You're trying. How many of you can open your eyes underwater? Like everybody in the room except for me. Okay. When I go swimming, all right, I don't open my eyes underwater. When I go underwater, I'm blind because I can't do it. Like I've tried and I'm like, oh, that hurts. No. Okay. I don't open my eyes underwater. I know that at times when I do open my eyes underwater, I don't see anything but like a blue fog. Now, some of you probably have 20-20 vision underwater. I don't know how God made you. Okay. But when I, it's just a blue fog. Whenever you are trying to interpret life, the stimuli, the things happening around you, with the idol of your heart raised up, you're viewing it through a blue fog. You're not going to see things clearly, which then causes great confusion with how you're going to respond to it. See, whenever God is not at the center of your life and heart's worship, it causes great confusion in every area of your life. This is where we're talking about the heart. The Bible, I still want to hit this because I think this is so key because now you're going to start looking through Scripture and when it talks about the heart, I don't want you thinking how the culture views the heart. Because honestly, biblical language uses the heart how we think about our mind. Most of the time when you go to the Bible and it uses the heart in a passage, it's how a lot of times in our vernacular or our vocabulary, we talk about our minds. Now, you want to hear something, and you'll understand this as soon as I say it, it'll click with you. When the Bible talks about how our culture views the heart, it uses language like bowels. Right? You've seen passages like that before where somebody says that they were, in Psalms, it says that they were moved in their bowels. You know what? Honestly, Scripture is a whole lot more accurate with describing the language than our culture is because you think about that feeling of nauseousness or nervousness that you get when you don't want to do that. Where's that coming from? It's coming from the rumbly in your tumbling whenever you don't want to do it. Okay? What about whenever you are in love at the first time? And those feelings that you have, where are they coming from? They're coming from your bowels. But see, it's not appropriate in our culture to say, honey, you make my small intestine move. You know? That just doesn't sound romantic anymore. Okay? But really, that's what's going on. The Bible is much more accurate with descriptive language on what's actually going on with you. All right? So when you see language about the heart, it's the heart, the mind, the emotions, and your will. The Bible teaches that you're thinking something whether you're conscious of it or not. So we talk to ourselves in our heart. You know, the person that you speak to the most in your life is you. The person that you are the most harsh on in your life is yourself. And the person you justify the most for their actions is yourself. Because you speak to yourself. We already read Proverbs 23, 7. Psalm 15, 1 and 2. The Lord who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill, He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in His heart. Obadiah 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? Jeremiah 13, 22. And if you say in your heart, speaking to yourself, Why have these things come upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity, your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare. Deuteronomy 8, 17. Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. The heart is where we do our thinking, talking, assessing, and processing of all that life is throwing at us and the thoughts that we say to ourselves, we say in our hearts. So, I'm going to go back and read that quote again. Alright? But let's, stimuli happens. Life happens around you. When that stimuli is taking place, you process everything that's going on. You begin to try to make sense out of it. Alright? But scripturally, we understand that the heart is where we do that thinking, talking, assessing, and processing of all that life is throwing at us and the thoughts that we say to ourselves, we say in our hearts. How many of you know who Martin Lloyd-Jones is? Alright? Many people that knew him at the time when he was alive called him the doctor. Because he was a medical doctor who then gave up his medical practice and became a preacher. And he pastored there in England. Actually, I think his congregation was right close to Buckingham Palace. And he pastored there for many, many years. He was a very, very astute, expositional preacher. And he wrote some materials. One book that he produced was a book called Spiritual Depression. Where he used his knowledge of the medical field and his knowledge of the scriptures and wrote a biblical view of how we should view depression. Even to this day, the material in the book still holds up. I mean, it is still very good and enlightening. But he talked about this. In this book, he talked about this. He said that most of the time whenever you're experiencing depression and these dark, as the Bible talks at the dark night of the Puritans, the dark night of the soul comes on you, it's because you're listening to yourself more than speaking to yourself. That sounds a little confusing, right? But here's what happens. You are listening to what you're saying to yourself about yourself or about the circumstances going on. And most of the time in those situations that bring you down, you're lying about it. You're not, you're telling things of how you're interpreting things and they're not true. And so what Lloyd-Jones posed is that what you need to do is stop listening to the lies you're telling yourself and start speaking truth, or can I say this, God's truth to yourself. And so I use this as an example. You know, somebody who's prone to this type of thinking will do something, it'll mess up, and then they'll say to themselves in their minds, I'm just a failure. And they'll say that over and over again that brings their worth and their value so far down to where they think that people would be better off without them. But think about that. The phrase, I'm a failure, is a lie. To say that means that you are encompassing everything that you do and everything that you are in your entire life as complete failure. See, that's a definite statement. That's not accurate. Because there's something that you have done that you've done well. But you're lying to yourself and that's heaping more emotions to come up and stir up and you're believing that lie. But what you need to do is reorient your mind to speaking God's truth into yourself about what God says that you are. You're chosen. You're His. You're redeemed. That's something worth being excited about. Now listen, I understand that there also are some physical situations that then add to depression. But can I say this? And if you want to disagree with me, that's completely fine. In reality, that's the exception to the rule. When you look at how many actual cases of depression are actually caused first and foremost by the physical side, hyperthyroidism or something else, it's very, very low compared to the things that we're allowing our spiritual state to affect what's going on in our hearts. And I'm not saying that to be unkind or be cruel because I myself am someone that has struggled with that in the past. I get it. I get it. So this brings us to number three, emotions. So stimuli happens. Thinking then does the work. You're processing life around you. Your thinking then goes and leads to your emotions. Your feelings never stop feeding off of your thinking. They never stop feeding off of your thinking. See, what you're thinking about, you begin to feel. Your emotions start taking place. Based on what you've been thinking, you start experiencing fear, anxiety, worry, depression, envy, or anger. Feelings don't erupt out of a vacuum. Our feelings flow out of our thinking. I wanted to, I wrote the, copied this off, this is something from David Pallison wrote in his book Seeing New Eyes, Seeing With New Eyes, and I wanted to read it to you because I think this is a good illustration of what we're talking about here. David Pallison says, Fear and desire are two sides of a single coin. A sinful fear is a craving for something not to happen. If I want money, I fear poverty. If I long to be accepted, I'm terrified of rejection. If I fear pain or hardship, I crave comfort or pleasure. If I crave preeminence, I fear being inferior to others. With some people, the fear may be more pronounced than the corresponding desire. Wise counseling will work with what is pronounced. See, if you worship or build your life around control, you say things, I must know what's going on. Your greatest nightmare is going to be uncertainty about anything. If you live for comfort, you build your life around the absence of pain, of trial. You say, I've had enough pain and enough hurt. And can I say this? My heart goes out to those of you that's had, I mean, there are seriously those that have been through the ringer. The loss that some of you have experienced. I can't begin to understand. And so a lot of times when someone who is gone through a life like that then begins to desire, I've had enough. God, you've put it on me enough. Don't I deserve a time of comfort? There's those words again. Deserve. If you live for comfort, then your greatest nightmare is going to be stress and demands and pressure. You begin not to respond well when those things arise in your life. Pallison says again, he says, I remember the time I counseled a man who habitually escaped life's pressures into TV, food, video games, alcohol, pornography, antique collecting, sci-fi novels. Where did he even begin? Could I find a passage to focus his problems? I wasn't sure what to pick up on. Then it struck me. Try the Psalms as a whole. Almost every single Psalm in some way or other portrays the Lord as our refuge in trouble. The Psalms implicitly and explicitly rebuke taking refuge in anything less. The Psalms offer steadfast love and mercy. The Psalms spur us to know and obey God in the trenches of life. This man felt vaguely guilty for some of his bad behavior but he didn't see the pattern or the seriousness. His effort at change were half-baked and unsuccessful. Conviction of the specific sin of his heart turning from the living God in order to seek idolatrous refuge woke him up and made him see his behavioral sins in a fresh way. Christ's grace become very real and necessary. He became motivated to practical change to face pressures and responsibilities to God's way. You see, a lot of times when people are experiencing those types of things, it's what we've been saying the whole time. It's the sin beneath the sin that is actually the culprit of what's going on. You know, we've relegated so many times that whenever lust is the issue or sexual sin is the issue, then this person just has this problem that they need to repent and they need to get right with God. But what we're failing to acknowledge is what is the reason that they're running to that? Because many times it can be many different things, but sometimes they're running to that because they feel in their heart that they deserve it. That all of this pressure and stress is going on in their life and so they deserve a moment of relief, a moment of pressure. being taken off, a moment of pleasure, but it never satisfies. And before long, that drink that you take at night to just wind down after a crazy day with kids or that watching that program that just seems like it just takes the edge off will have an addictive hold on your heart. and so these things are very, very serious that we have to look at. Idolatry is like a kid's toy. Okay? It's like a kid's toy. I couldn't think of a specific... I was thinking... I know I've played with toys like this. Well, not played. The kids have had toys like this. But I couldn't think of one that actually does this. But you've seen it, right? Some kind of toy where you push one thing down and when you push it down it comes out the other side. And then you're like, no, I'm going to beast this. I'm going to best this thing. It's not going to be smarter than me. So you're like, I'm going to push this down. I'm going to hold this down. And then it comes out over here. It's like, no. And so you're going to... And you try and you realize the toy's smarter than you. You're not going to do it. But idols quite often can be like that. Because once you repent of something, your heart is going to find some other avenue to find that escape in. To find that emotional relief from how you're processing the stresses of life. Many times you see these situations like the most famous is AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. They have NA, Narcotics Anonymous and many other anonymous groups. 12-step programs, if you will. Really what happens a lot of times with these 12-step programs with the very small percentage, small percentage, of the ones that actually defeat their addiction is that they just find another thing to be addicted to that's not the thing they're going to the meeting for. So they're going to the meeting for alcoholism, right? Well, they give up alcohol. They go through the 12-step program and they say, I've been sober for three years but they've picked up and now they're addicted to cigarettes. And listen, I'm not saying that... I'm not going to give you that. Anyways, but addiction, something that has control over your life, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, never ends up being a good thing. You see, emotions are heart indicators to alert us that there's a problem. Think of emotions as your spiritual sense of smell. That is, the proper place for emotions is that they don't drive us. they are indicators of what is going on inside us. I mean, that's what you do, right? You're sitting there in the house, got something baking, next thing you know, something's burning. Your sense of smell just alerted you that something is off. Mary and I had a situation like that the other night. I come home and she's like, I was like, where's the trash can? Oh, I've been smelling this smell all day long and it's driving me nuts. It's awful. So I thought it was a trash can. So she took the trash can out. She completely washed the trash can. She left it outside the dry. I was like, okay. She's like, but I'm still smelling it. I was like, okay, so what in the trash can? Then we ate supper. She's like, you smell it? I said, no, I don't smell it. I don't know what you're talking about. She's like, it's driving me crazy. And then she's like, I know what it is. So they got these animals, right? Outside, but they give them scraps. So the scrap bowl came in, hasn't been washed out yet. I bet it's the scrap bowl. And she's sitting there on the couch, all right? It's like, we put the kids to bed and she's sitting there on the couch. I'm trying to make you feel bad for me, okay? She's sitting there on the couch. I got home from work at 7.30 that night. We got the kids to bed. Yeah, it was 7, that was the night. It was 7.30. It was late, all right? And I'm sitting there. I mean, my eyes are barely open. And I said, she said, I smell it. I think it's that. Meaning, the solution to the problem would be, somebody needs to wash the dishes. And I just look over at her and she goes, I said, all right, I'll wash the dishes. So I get up and I start washing the dishes. I get the dishes washed. I lay down on the couch and I said, I smell it. But I've already washed the dishes. So we're sitting there, we're sitting there on the couch, just like later on, watching something. And then I get up to go get me a snack and I look at the countertop and there on the countertop is a dishrag and I grab the dishrag. It's damp and I smell it. There's the problem. There's the problem. It was a dishrag that who knows how long it had been sitting there but it was sitting in the middle of the thing and it was just mildewing. It smelled awful. We got that and there the smell was gone. But see, what was going on is that our sense of smell was recognizing there was something wrong and we couldn't figure out what it was. And so many times our emotions are doing the exact same thing. They're signaling to us something is wrong and because we don't know that we're supposed to go inside and look at our hearts, we never can figure out what the smell is. Why? Because we're looking for everything around us and outside of us as the problem. Going back to James 4, 1 through 3, where's the problem? It's here. It's here. I got another illustration but okay. Y'all got on to me last time I said something about time so I'm going to give you another illustration. Here you go. We do this with the idea of how many of you have heard the term panic attack? I've done a lot of research into panic attacks. I've read some books, read some journal articles about panic attacks. So panic attacks, I would say, are real things but think about even the language. Here's most of my problem with secular psychological terms. The labeling. I'm not saying that most of the situations and the things that they say people experience they're not experiencing or they're not real. Very much the opposite. I believe that most of those things are real and they are experiencing things. The problem I have is that their labels actually tend to hurt more than help. So let's think about this idea of the panic attack. Panic attack is the idea that when sudden fear just comes on you and that fear then debilitates you, your heart's beating at a rapid pace a moment, your hands are sweaty, your mouth dries, and you can't figure out why that's going on. Sometimes you know, sometimes you don't. And the problem with many people that experience these panic attacks is that it happens at the worst moments. Maybe out in the grocery store. It happens. And you're sitting there in public around everybody and you've got kids and you're debilitated. But the problem is the old terminology of a panic attack. What is that signal to you? That something from outside of you is attacking you. What is actually going on? What is actually going on is because of something, some stimuli that has just happened, the way that you've processed that, and now your emotions are then taking over. It could be something that is actually a legitimate issue to be fearful of. But it is a moment that you have let your mind run and race with this thing to where you have not gone to the Lord, you have not gone to trusting God with it, you have gone to try to figure it out on your own, and it leaves debilitating fear flowing freely all over you. Brad Bigney said this, he said, I choose to not term it panic attack, but a panic payback or panic paycheck because it is the absence or neglect of dealing with the stimuli or the problems or the attack or the abuse or whatever it is that has happened to you and then thinking you can handle it yourself and then allowing that fear that it didn't take over when you see what's called a trigger. So this brings us to the next one, actions. So, stimuli happens, things take place, life happens, you begin to process it in thinking. Your thinking then breeds your feeling about it, your emotions, and then from there you have your actions. How do you act it out? Your actions are rarely ever bizarre. Based on what you're feeling you begin to make choices and take action. See, if you knew, think about this, if you knew what was going on in your heart and how you have been interpreting life, it would make total sense to you why you did what you did. And I think it comes back down to we are letting the heart control us instead of us guiding and guarding our heart as Scripture teaches us to do. So this brings us to number five, Travis, number five. This then develops character. This develops character. This is, Brad Bigney sort of classifies this as T, T-E-A. Because what happens is as you go through life not fighting this or not counteracting this, the thinking, emoting, and acting now becomes the way you're responding automatically. Which we call that what? A habit. So now the way you respond to when somebody upsets your apple cart, somebody gets in the way of your schedule, somebody does something that you were not aware of and you can't control, someone responds to you with disrespect. Then that response habit comes into place, you think it, you process it, you feel it, and then you act on it. And so those things are now what's considered how you view life now takes on, because it's a habit, that's your character. More thinking, emotions, and actions in the same direction, your character will eventually be shaped by the dominant patterns in your heart. If you chase your idols long enough, you will adopt the identity of your idols. They'll start to define you. And what started off being something that served you starts to enslave you. Based on the way you've been interpreting life, what you've been thinking and feeling and doing, you arrive at where you're at today. So how do we handle this? We take control, we guide as, we said, and guard our hearts with the gospel. The gospel. Christ's penalty on the cross who died and rose again to save us still can conquer the idol in our hearts. As Christ encountered real people, He loved them enough to put His finger right on the idol that was standing in the way of them and being able to treasure the prize of Christ. Alright, so in conclusion, let's go to Luke. Go to Luke 18. We're going to look at this very passage you're familiar with. You know the story. Some of you can probably teach it and pull out three or four applicational points. Luke 18. Luke 18. See, that's what Christ did. He didn't just meet somebody and say, you know, and change their life and then bring them in with the good news and you follow me. Quite often, He would do what I just said. He put His finger right on their issue. You remember the woman at the well? The woman at the well? What did He say? Just follow me. No. He started hitting her heart right away. I know why you come here when you do. I know you've had five husbands and the guy that you're with is not your husband. He nails down exactly where the issue is in their life. Same thing with this situation in Luke 18. The rich man, verse 18. Verse number 18. Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And He said, All these things I have kept from my youth. So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, You still lack one thing. What is He doing? Where is He going? He's getting right at where the guy's idol was. What was the guy's idol? His possessions. His position. Verse 22. He said, You still lack one thing? Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me. You see a lot of people miss this passage and they think that's Jesus telling all of us to do that. No, He's talking to this one guy because He nailed that guy's idol. Now the guy didn't follow Him. What is Christ coming to us in the gospel? He's saying, Forsake your idol and follow me. So this is something we need to continue to do. We've talked about repenting of your idol, but we need to put back on the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Jesus and actuate that in our life. Get our, as we've been saying through this series, all back-directed toward God. Idolatry exposes the ugly disconnect between your confessional theology, what you say you believe, and your functional theology, what you actually live out. So here's the question. Does your functional theology, how you live, match your confessional theology? It's a hard question to do heart introspection on. And can I say this? I think it's one that we need to visit, if not every day, at least every week. Asking ourselves, did how I live today match what I say I believe? And can I say this, just so you don't think that I'm just like hammering you guys so hard, I'm saying it to myself. I've got to ask that question to myself. Probably more harshly than I do to you. Because I'm up here giving you this theology. I'm proclaiming it among many. I've got, to what's the terminology we use? Practice. Well, I'm preaching. But if you don't think that I battle with this, you're crazy. I have the frustrations that arise in my heart that take over and say, John, you're the one that needs to be satisfied. You're the one that needs to sit on the throne of your heart, not God. I have to remind myself of the gospel that did away with that and placed God on that throne. So that's, how do we direct our hearts? How do we treat our hearts? We are to guide it, direct it, and guard it. And we do that by applying the gospel to our lives every day. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for all that you've done for us. You are a wonderful, merciful, gracious God. If there's ever someone who does not deserve what you've given, it's me. And Father, I pray that you'll continue to work on my heart. I want to grow to be sensitive to you and keep you as the focus of my life. ever striving to please you and give glory to your name. I pray for those who are here. I pray that the message that whatever it was, it might be different from one person on one side of the auditorium as it is to another today. I pray that whatever it is that your Holy Spirit pricked their heart for, they will heed you this morning and that'll change. God, we love you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast. To find more content like this, please visit rfpnetwork.org to find more podcasts like this one, resources, and meetups to encourage you on your journey. to find more Thank you.

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