We good? Yeah, I can hear me now. Can you hear me now? There you go. The time that you just knew that if you did not, at that moment, receive Jesus Christ as Savior, all was lost forever. Do you remember that time? It happened to me on a road. I just couldn't drive another bit. Tears were flowing down my face. I heard the preaching of God's Word. I realized what a rotten, wretched, wicked sinner I was. And I saw what a wonderful, loving, forgiving Savior He was. I pulled my car over to the side of the road. And I just bowed my head with the tears just running down my face. Middle of rush hour traffic in Denver, Colorado. Just told the Lord I was a hell bound sinner. Would He please save my wicked, wretched soul? And He did. That was 45 years ago. I can't get over it. Don't want to get over it. My heart. This morning I preached on a vision. I preached on how not to have revival. But tonight, I've got to talk about the most important thing. You just sang it. I want to be a Christian in my heart. In my heart. Take your Bibles and turn to Jeremiah Chapter 17. Very familiar portion of God's Word. God starts off Jeremiah 17 with some absolutely interesting words. Of course, the truth of the matter is you can say that just about any part of the Bible. Now, every once in a while when you get over where this guy beget that guy and this guy beget that guy, it gets kind of tough, but we're going to find out we get to eternity that every bit of that meant something just as well. We're going to find out in eternity just how neat it was and how it fit together. But that time's yet to come. But Jeremiah 17, if you'd stand with me, please. It says this, verse number one, it says the sin of Judah. It's written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond. Then it says, it is graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of your altars. Think about this for a second. A pen made out of iron and the point of it is a diamond to scratch upon our wretched or wicked hearts. The hardest thing around. And still, our hearts dull it. And he says, whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. Oh, in the wrong way. Oh, my mountain in the field. I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil and to the high places for sin throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee. And I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not. For ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever." Listen, God says when our hearts are wrong, there's a fire kindled in God that burns forever. That's why God has no choice but to send us to hell if we don't trust His Son. There is a fire in God that burns forever on the wickedness of sin. Thus saith the Lord, verse 5, Cursed be that man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like a heath in a desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited. But then look at verse seven. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaves shall be green. and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing. Jeremiah doesn't say things that we want to hear. God does that a lot, doesn't He? But He says things that we need to hear. Would you pray tonight that God will open up your heart? Before I say a word from this passage of God's Word, will you ask God right now, will you ask God to just open up your heart? You see, if you close that heart, even a pin of iron, with a tip of diamond. Can't scratch it. But when you let the blood of Jesus Christ, through the grace of Almighty God, open up that heart, God will do something. Will you let God do that tonight? Let's pray together. Father, tonight I want to just look at the heart a bit. You've looked upon mine. It's just wicked. It's just... Nothing. And then you took and you gave me a new one. And you washed it in your blood. And I can walk freely before you one day with a heart that's right towards you. Lord, I can never, ever, ever thank you enough for saving my soul and allowing Just to be used a little bit. Lord, these people here tonight that need You, Lord, please touch their hearts. I do pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Jeremiah the prophet, the weeping prophet, never had much of a ministry when you really read his book. He had a rough life, did he not? He ended up in jail. He had problems all his life, but he never quit serving God. He writes about the heart. And he writes about how man is. And then God says, I try the heart. And God wants to try our hearts tonight. And I want to ask you a question tonight. How's your heart? If I could look upon your heart right now, as God is looking upon your heart right now, how's your heart? You know, we do strange things as Christians. We do strange things as people. We came down today, a lot of us came to pray this morning. What a privilege that was, what a blessing. And we talk to God as if God is way off somewhere and we're reaching, where is God tonight? He's right here. He's already here. He's just waiting, waiting to listen, waiting to bless, waiting to touch our hearts in a very special way. Waiting to renew in us that which we cannot renew in ourselves. Waiting to give us strength and joy that we didn't know we could even imagine. Waiting to use us in ways that we wouldn't even dream of. But it all has to do with the heart. If the heart doesn't get in the right place, nothing ever happens. It was the 14th day of November 1966. I had just been recommended to be a warrant officer in the United States Navy. I had just volunteered to be the executive officer of a river patrol boat in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. I didn't say I was smart. But everything just seemed to be going my way. Everything just seemed to be, what, 23 years old, invincible, up for warrant officer at 23 years of age in the United States Navy. Everything was going fine. I went down to do some checking. Went downstairs. I was working upstairs. I was a division petty officer, Fleet Airwings Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia. And I went down to the communications office. And I walked in that office and there was a new secretary there. I hadn't thought much about my heart all my life. But boy, did something happen there that morning. My heart fell out on the ground. Sitting behind that desk was the absolutely most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life. Where she came from, I did not know. What she was doing there, I did not know yet. But I wanted it. Two months later, I got it. Then we only dated two months and got married. I'm not recommending that. But there was no problem because my heart went to the right place. My heart, that was a lost heart, and it went that way. Think what God can do with a saved heart. Think what God can do with a heart that's turned over to Him. Think what God can do with the heart that says, here am I. The Proverbs, the writer of the Proverbs in chapter 26 says, my son, give me thy heart. What can happen? So how is your heart tonight? I want to ask you a few questions about your heart tonight. We are going to take a heart test tonight. I got my heart tested last year. I had a heart. Didn't have a heart attack, but I was on the way to a heart attack. Had a blockage of my heart. They did some strange things. How many of you have taken the medical stress test? The one that they just use medicine. Any of you done that? Well, I took a stress test and I didn't pass it. I thought I did. I did well. They thought I passed it well too, but it was a nuclear stress test and they found a blockage in my heart. And so after the blockage, they wanted to check me out. So they did the one with the medicine and they put an IV in your arm And you're sitting there, and there's a cardiologist sitting right here. They're going to check your heart. And they said, now, we're going to inject some medicine into you. And something may happen to you. You may get a little dizzy. You may get a terrible headache. But it's only going to last for three or four minutes. But we'll be able to see exactly how your heart is working. And I said, OK. And the nurse goes like that. And I'm sitting there. I couldn't even breathe. And my heart went from 70 to 150. And just in that second of a time, they could look and see physically what had happened to my heart. I want to tell you something tonight. There's a holy God right now that can see your heart just as clear as that cardiologist could see mine that night. But he can see your spiritual heart. And he wants to see what's going on with it. right now, tonight. And I want you to turn to Philippians chapter 3. We're going to take a heart test tonight. He's introduced me three times now as Dr. Schmidt, so I'm eligible. I can give you this heart test. So I want to give you a heart test tonight. In the book of Philippians chapter 3, in verse number 12, The Apostle Paul says, Not as though I had already attained, neither already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that with which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. in Christ Jesus. And then he says this, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. Now it says something about the mind, but what it is about the heart. And I want you to look at something about your heart right here. Is your heart burdened? Burdened tonight with the want of understanding. Do you want to understand God? Is there a burden in your heart that will not let you, you will not let go of the Word of God. You will not let go of what's going on here. You want to know what God is and who God is. And you want to understand God. Paul says, I have not apprehended, but I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Do you have a desire in your heart tonight to understand God? Do you want to understand what God wants for your life? The average Christian wonders through their entire Christian life, never knowing what God wants them to do. Never knowing what the will of God is for their life. And yet God says over and over again, I want you to know my will. It's because we won't give Him our heart. If we would give God our heart, we'd begin to understand God. We'd begin to feel what God feels. We'd begin to see why He died on the cross. We'd begin to understand why He loves us so much. Is your heart burdened for understanding? How many of y'all are going back to school again next year over this way? Still got school to finish. Are you really wanting to understand some new things? I remember when I had a Christian school. I used to love to go to kindergarten. None of you guys are kindergarten. I loved to go to kindergarten. I'd say, how's algebra today? Those little kids look up at me like, who is this idiot? They'd have a clue. They were just trying to figure out what one plus one was. or 2 plus 2. But then you get to your age, and you begin to understand a little bit what algebra is. I never have, but maybe you have. I took algebra, and it took me. I actually went all the way as far as trigonometry. Praise God, God called me to preach. I woke up one day, craving chicken, didn't want to go to work. Knew God had called me to preach. There was not a doubt in my life. I knew I was ready. It was odd. It had to be. But how is your heart? Do you want to understand anything tonight, that I may know Him? When He says that, that I may know Him. You see, that day that I walked in that room, and my heart fell on the floor before this beautiful lady here, I wanted to know her. I wanted to know everything I could find out about her. I wanted to know who she was and what she was. And God said, don't you want to know Me? Don't you want to understand Me? How's your heart? Is it burning for understanding that I may know Him? What does He say? This one thing I do. Pressing towards the mark, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Get that joy in your heart of knowing and understanding the Lord. Let's go a little bit further. Turn to Luke chapter 18, if you would. Do you want to understand God? I don't know about you, but I hate to be in a situation where I don't understand things. Do you like to sit down to take a test and you don't have a clue what's going on? You want to understand something. Why do we do this with this book? Why do we want to understand this book? Why do we want to understand God? Why do we want to know just what he's got for us and what he wants us to do and where he wants us to go? I found something that you may, I hope you found it, but I don't have a whole lot of trouble with the will of God. I've just found out if I'll just give God my heart, He'll show me my next thing. He'll show me where He wants me to go. He'll show me what He wants me to do. I'm doing furlough replacement right now. Next year I'm going to Dublin, Ireland. Just cry when I'm over there kissing the Barney stone. I'm going where God wants me to go. And then I'm going to Victoria, Canada the year after that. No, the same year. And then we've been invited to Mongolia and on and on and on. I'm only 70 years old. I'm going to do this until I'm 90. Just serving God. Because understand, this is what God wants me to do. You need to understand what God wants you to do. If you understand it, you're in this church. God wants you to work in this church and be part of this church and find their place in this church. And that's God's plan for your life. But Luke chapter 18. Verse number 9, it says, And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood out and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes, although I possess." Then look at verse 13, "...and the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down into his house justified, rather than the other. For every one that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted." Question number two, is your heart burning with conviction. When's the last time there was a conviction in your life? When's the last time you knew that you needed to go to God and confess sin? When's the last time you were convicted, I should not do this? When's the last time there was conviction in your life, I'm not living for God? I was pastoring my first church and I had a lady call and ask me and my wife to come by and visit her. I preached on conviction. You'll see conviction is a lost art in this day and age. But I'm here to tell you conviction is important. Conviction changes lives. When your heart gets broken over the sin in your life and the things that you're doing and you want to change them because you want to walk with Jesus Christ and conviction comes to you. So you have to drive yourself to your knees and ask God to forgive you and cleanse you and so you can walk with him. Conviction. She called me, my wife went with me. She said, you've been preaching on this conviction. She said, don't you know? She said, I come out of a different church and I've just been coming to your church a while. I didn't sin at all yesterday or today. I said, well, you just missed it now. Because you just lied. There's not a day goes by that each and every one of us in this room don't commit some kind of sin. But when was the last time we were convicted of it? Got saved in 1969. She was pregnant with our first child. We were driving down Colorado Boulevard in Denver. I'm a happy Christian. Saved. This idiot cut me off. And I went into road rage. And I cursed that man. I used God's name in vain. I'd only been saved a week or two. And the second I did it, and I'm not lying to you, Tears sprang to my eyes. And the Holy Spirit of God reached down and grabbed this old wicked heart right here and said, you cursed me. And I had to pull the car over with her in the car with me and get on my knees right there and ask God to forgive me for doing just that. When's the last time we had conviction like that in our lives? When we didn't even want to say anything bad about anything or anybody. where we didn't want our lives to be wicked. We turn on our television sets now. We look at half-naked people. We watch things we should not watch. No conviction whatsoever. And then we walk into church and say, Oh Lord, bless me. And God can't. Because this heart, this heart has no conviction. That's why people aren't getting saved. That's why people are dying and going to hell. Because we who say, I love the Lord, do things, hear things, say things, and no conviction comes. When's the last time conviction came on your heart? When's the last time you just wanted to be right with God? When's the last time that that was the most important thing in your life? The publican could stand there and brag on what a great church member he was. But that poor little old publican just bowed his head and said, oh, be merciful to me, a sinner. Can't you see Jesus just picking you up and putting His lovely arms around you and saying, let's walk together like I walked with Enoch? I want that. Don't you want that? Don't you want that in your life? How would you like to be walking so close to God that you could be like Enoch? Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. We'll never have it until our heart gets some conviction in it. There are people in this church maybe sitting right now that need to be saved. We need to start praying with broken hearts. Oh Lord, save them. Touch their hearts. Change their lives. Bring conviction to our life. Go to Romans chapter 12 with me for a minute. Is your heart burning with understanding? Is your heart burning with conviction? A little verse, verse number 11, Romans chapter 12. It says, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. When is the last time your heart burned with desire? When your heart burned to do something for Jesus. When your heart actually, that word fervent right there in the Greek, you know, I'm a doctor. I know this Greek stuff. Hardly. I taught you Greek, didn't I? Did you get some Greek? No. Yeah, a little bit. That's all you'd get if I taught it. But fervent means white hot, with a melting heat, with something that is just burning so much that you have to do something about it. Burns so much that you just, it makes, you could need a bottle full of Tums and it won't touch it. where your heart is just burning fervent, fervent, fervent for desire to serve the Lord, fervent in spirit, fervently wanting to serve the Lord, fervently wanting to just go somewhere. I was pastor of my second church and I was preaching. I don't even remember what I was preaching. A little girl, about 14 years of age, And during the invitation, just stepped out, walked down to the front of the church, stood there. I walked over to her and she said, Daddy, God's called me to be a missionary. I must be a missionary. I said, Honey, are you sure? She said, Yes, Daddy. I want to be a missionary. God wants me to be a missionary. Fourteen years old. I prayed with my daughter. We went on. She finished high school, went off to college. She fell in love with a young man. The young man was born on a mission field, but he didn't want to be a missionary. He wanted to be a diplomat. Went and got his degree from Old Dominion. He had a degree, a Bible degree, and he got his degree in Far Eastern Studies. He was going to work for the U.S. government and be a diplomat. My little girl fell in love with him. But I didn't fall in love with him. That poor boy had the hardest courtship any man ever had because he was not going to marry my daughter. And I met it. She cut to me, she's always been a good girl. She said, Daddy, and I said, honey, don't you remember that day? Don't you remember when your heart was broken to be a missionary? Don't you remember? Yes, sir, Daddy, I remember. And I said, well, honey, how can you marry this man? He's not going to be a missionary. She said, oh, he's going to be a missionary, Daddy. They just finished their 15th year on the mission field. God broke his heart. He surrendered and they've been missionaries in Scotland for 15 years now. But a heart, when's the last time your heart burnt with a desire? When's the last time God touched your heart, young people? And you knew you ought to be doing something for God. You knew it ought to be older people. You knew it. By the way, older people, I don't, you know, older people, us guys, you know, I'm one of them. But I don't like old people. Old people sit around and say, I've done my share. Well, I'm 70 years old and I certainly haven't finished mine yet. And there's a desire in this old heart to just do one more thing for Jesus. A desire in this old heart just to see one more young person get saved. A desire in this heart just to see one more person get right with God and walk with God. How's your heart? How's your heart tonight? Is there any desire in your heart? Does God just give you a desire that it burns like a fire? Just burns and don't quit burning. God wants to give you that desire. The problem is we won't give Him our heart. If we'll just give Him our heart, He'll put that desire in there. And it won't go away until you say, yes, sir. Fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit. Turn a little book of Jude with me. Chapter number one, that's always a good chapter to go to in Jude. Jude chapter number one, verse number 22. Some having compassion, making a difference. When's the last time your heart burned with compassion? When's the last time you were like the Lord Jesus at the grave of Lazarus? When's the last time your heart burnt with compassion over somebody? My wife and I, I was pastor in a church in Korea. There was an interesting thing happened there. Have I told you the story of Colin here? If I have, you're going to hear it again. Just wanted to ask you, but I'm going to tell you again anyway. David Lewis was a missionary. You know David well. Just before I came, a week before I came, David picked up Colin at the airport there in Inchon. Colin was a Korean. But Colin had been adopted by American parents in Wisconsin when he was 11 years old. Now Colin's 28 years old. He went back to America. When he was 16 years old, he took a shotgun and tried to commit armed robbery and got caught and got thrown in American prison. When he was 28 years of age, they let him out, put him on a plane and said, these people never adopted you. and sent him back to Korea. Never even let his American mom and dad even see him. Put him on a plane and sent him back. Mama knew what was going on, got a hold of David Lewis, and David, asked David, can you do something for my boy? David picked him up at the airport, but then left, and I took his church. And so here I had Colin, a 28-year-old Korean who didn't speak Korean. A 28-year-old Korean, I looked at him and says, Colin, Do you know anything? Do you love the Lord? He said, I don't even know there is a God. And I said, Colin, Colin, if you'll stay here with us, I'll give you a job in the church here, and we'll pay you $300 a month to clean the church, but you have to come to church every night and every day. Yes, sir, I'll do it. He really didn't have much choice, did he? So Colin started coming. I preached the gospel to him, prayed for him, talked to him. Nothing. Colin came to me one day and he said, he started calling me pastor though. He said, pastor, I'm joining the Korean army. I said, Colin, you can't join the army. You don't speak Korean. I mean, how, you know, can you see Marston? They say left facing. He ain't got a clue, man. He says, I'll get it. I'll do it. I know enough. I said, he said, I got to get an identity. I got to learn something. I said, oh, Colin, don't join. You'll be leaving us. No, I'm joining. He joined the Korean Army, went to boot camp, prayed for him. Hearts went out to him. We did everything we could. He got stationed at a little base up by the DMZ about, and there was only 11 men there on that little base. We prayed that God would just do something. Our hearts were broken over Colin. Got up to see him, found out that there was no internet. There was no TV. There was no bars. And I gave him Christian books to read. And he had nothing else. God is so good. Month went by. Another month went by. I had a mission conference. And I brought a mission. I brought Eddie Ray over. And I brought a fellow from the Philippines over to Korea. And we had a mission conference. And Colin came down. Didn't know we were having a mission conference, come down on leave to just see us. Came to the mission conference and Dr. Cha, you probably met Dr. Cha, medical doctor, loves the Lord. Wrote a book on Philippians or Ephesians, one of them, gave it to me in St. Corinth. I've never been able to read it. Dr. Cha led Colin to the Lord and I baptized Colin. You know why? Because there was a Korean lady and her husband. He was a warrant officer. I don't know if you ever met David Mitchell. Prayed every day for Colin. Their hearts were broken for Colin. They had compassion for Colin. They would not quit praying for Colin. They took his stuff up there. They did everything they could for Colin. They wanted to see Colin saved. And God saved Colin. Some having compassion. Making a difference. I got a letter from Colin's mother. Mr. Schmidt, I'll never get to see you on this earth and we've never met face to face, but one day in heaven I'm going to come up and I'm going to put my arms around you and I'm going to hug you for taking care of my boy. I can't wait. Of some having compassion, making a difference. There may be people in this church here right now But you know that they're on their way to hell and they're going to die. Has God woke you up one time in the middle of the night to where you got out of your bed and got on your knees and said, Oh Lord, Lord, please save them. How's your heart? How's your heart tonight? Does it have, is it burning with compassion? Would you go to 2 Timothy with me? Actually, 2 Timothy chapter number 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. For the rich cause also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Is your heart burning with destiny? Jesus is coming again. I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. It may be today. I want to say something to the young people just for a second if I might. I know I'm old and gray-headed and don't have a clue what you're thinking and I don't know what Google is and I don't know what a blog is and I can't do anything. I got arthritis. I can't play with those things. But I love you. And I just want to ask you a question. Are you saved? Are you going to heaven? Is Jesus your Savior? Do you know that? I had a family in my second church, and I just want to say this to the young people. They started coming to church. They had a 15-year-old boy. He wasn't saved. I talked to him. And they said, oh, he's a good boy. He'll be okay. And they left. And I never knew whether he got saved or not. About a year went by, I think. And I was sitting in my office and this man and woman came in the office. They walked into my office and their faces had grief on them. And they said, Pastor Schmidt, we're here to ask you. Can you preach our boy's funeral? The boy was driving his car and had a wreck. He was killed. The same boy that tried to tell about Jesus Christ. The same boy that sat in the church and heard. And they both started crying, oh, if we'd have just listened. They said that if we'd have just listened. The day is coming. You don't know when it is. The day's coming, folks. You don't know how many left you have. You may have today. You may not have today. I'm driving to Oklahoma tomorrow. I'm the best driver in the world, but there's a bunch of idiots out there. I don't know. We might get picked up by one of those tornadoes. You don't know. But I know whom I have believed. and then persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. And guess what I've committed? My heart. It belongs to Him. How's your heart? You see, you can't have revival. You can't have a vision. You can't have anything. if your heart's not His. Don't walk out this door without being sure that your heart belongs to God. How's your heart? Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, touch our hearts tonight. Do whatever You need to do, please, dear Lord, that we might walk and talk with you. Save anybody that's not saved, please, dear Father. We'll praise You for it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.