All throughout the book of Malachi, we have noticed the heart of God. It began with a statement from the Lord in chapter one and verse number two, where he said, I have loved you. And yet even then they doubted the love of God for them. I find very often when people take the occasion to doubt the love of God, I think that they're in a very woeful place in their spiritual experience. And I think whenever any of us may have had an occasion to to wonder about whether the Lord really loved us. And I find that there are people that that really struggle with that and a lot of that is tied to how they were brought up. People who had a terrible relationship with an earthly father I find very often have a difficult time relating to their heavenly Father and understanding how He could love them as He does. But the people of Israel were doubting even the love of God for them. And in their insolence, eight times they answered the Lord abruptly and disrespectfully. And you know, when people get to a place where they're just going through the motions like the people of Israel were here, and like the priesthood was in Judah and in Jerusalem, just going through the motions spiritually speaking, then they don't have respect for anybody, including God Himself. Because they'll, with insolence, look heavenward and utter things that in their right spiritual senses, they would never dream of uttering. And I'm not saying that we never have fleeting thoughts, but I'm talking about this was a way of life for these people. And God raised up a prophet to prophesy against it. and to prophesy against the priesthood which had done wickedly, and the people who had lost their heart for serving God because they had their eyes upon man and not upon God, and as they looked at the priesthood and they saw them going through the ritualism of the Hebrew law, and knowing that they were corrupt and wicked, And consequently, all of the men of Israel had gone away from the ordinances and the women along with them. And we discover here that they were insolent toward God. And whenever God said, look, you've gone away from Me, they said, where have we gone away from you? God said, you've spoken against Me. And they said, no, we haven't either. And in reality, folks, there are times where when we are reproved of the Lord, rather than giving excuses, it may be better for us to be clothed upon with a meek and a contrite spirit, to have a penitential heart that says, Lord, whatever it is that you may be trying to reveal to me, then give me a humble heart that I may receive it. The Bible says that meekness is required in the book of James in chapter one to receive the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. And so I want us tonight as we consider these people whose heart was far away from the Lord, much like the Pharisees that Jesus spoke of during his earthly ministry when he said, This people draw nigh to me with their mouth and with their lip, but their heart is far from me. And these were people that were still going to the temple. These were people that were still offering prayers and oblations. These were people that were still making sacrifices, although not with a pure heart. And the Lord knew it. The Lord knew it. You see, The Lord said, Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said it is vain to serve the Lord. What's the point? Nobody appreciates it anyway. What's the point? It's all just a bunch of idiots down there anyway. What's the point? The church doesn't pay my mortgage or my rent payment anyway. Right. Of course, nobody that we know would ever think anything like that. But that's how they were thinking. And what's more than that, that's how they were talking. What's the point in going down to the church all the time and being fanatical about God? All the good that it's done. Look, there's people running around and they're in the flesh and they're doing this and they're doing that. And they seem to be set up. And the ones that are really doing right, they seem to be put down. And there's no justice in the world. And they question the justice of God. They talk back to the Lord God. And the truth of the matter was that these people who were questioning the justice and the love of God were no better in their spirits. And tonight as we examine this, we see a contrast in two hearts. A contrast in two hearts as we try to wrap up this portion called the condition of the heart. The Lord gives us a contrast in two types of heart. First of all, those that have said it is vain to serve the Lord. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? Had they really done that? Had they really done that? They really hadn't, had they? They had gone through the motions, but their reasoning behind it was entirely self-centered. It was not that they may serve God. It was more about what was socially and culturally acceptable. It was about this is the way we're supposed to do it. And so we'll just go ahead and do it that way. And they had kind of an attitude that ours is not to reason why. Ours is but to do or die. And so this is the way to do it. So we're just going to go ahead on and do it. And there was no heart of love. There was no purity in sacrifice. It was all done with a grudging heart. There was no reward consequently, and we'll see that in a moment. I sometimes tell people, and we dealt with the portion concerning giving, and I think we dealt with it in a way that was akin to proper teaching on grace giving in this season and dispensation of time, but you see, Your treasure is where your treasure is, there where your heart be also. It reveals, it's a revelation of what's in your heart, where you put your finances, what you're investing in. And, you know, I'll tell you something, folks, that these people here were sitting around disputing, complaining, fault finding, murmuring, and they were grumbling. What's the point? We're calling the proud happy. Those that work wickedness, they're set up. Look here. What good has it done us that we walk mournfully before the Lord, that we put on sackcloth and ashes and pray? You know, folks, It's like that person that wants to tell everybody in the church that they're fasting. You know, pray for me. I'm having, you know, hunger pains because I'm fasting. You know, you may as well just give up on it right then, because you've forsaken the whole purpose of fasting. The first time you called somebody up to tell them to pray for you while you fasted. That fast wasn't about you, about God. That was about you. That wasn't about you hearing from heaven. It was about others hearing from you about what a great Christian you were. And those that said they walked mournfully before the Lord, what they were doing was they were posturing spiritually so that others would think well of them and not think less of them. And in reality, many of us have been guilty throughout the course of our spiritual lives of perhaps doing other things, doing things within the scope of the work of the Lord, because we are afraid that if we didn't, others might not think well of us. And that really was a motive that began and ended with us. And that's not love motivated service. That's lust motivated service. And the Lord is contrasting hearts here. Those that did not love him sincerely were the complainers, the grumblers and the fault finders saying, yeah, you know, look over there at Linda. You know, if she really loved the Lord, she would have been in there doing discipleship so long. She'd have been in here earlier. I've just given you a hard time. But, you know, they find some reason even in her doing well, they would try to find something against it. You know why? Because they want to justify their lack of love for the Savior. That's exactly what they were doing here. They were looking at others. Look, those over there, they're proud in their spirits and we call them happy. Look at over there, there's wicked people and they're the ones that are set up. They began to look at everyone else and compare themselves to how everyone else was faring, spiritually speaking. And you run into trouble, my friend, when you begin to fixate. upon where everyone else is in their spiritual walk, instead of getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror and saying, Lord, what would you have me to do? And saying, Lord, it's me. It's me. It's me, O Lord, that's standing in the need of prayer. Not Pastor Eccleberry or Mrs. Eccleberry, but it's me that's standing in the need of prayer. It's not the deacon or the teacher or the preacher. It's me that's standing in the need of prayer. And these people were so far gone spiritually that they could not see their undoneness spiritually. And God forbid that we would ever come to the place where all that proceeds from us is condemnation and judgmentalism and criticism and murmuring and complaining. because it is a revelation of a lack of purehearted love for God. And if you take it in context from all the beginning of this book all the way to the end, there's no other conclusion that can be drawn from this. There may be other interpretations in terms of how this is appropriated prophetically, and we're going to look at that, but the application is eminently clear. Because the Lord goes into a contrast between these folks and the folks that love the Lord and fear him. The ones that truly did not the ones that were going through the motions, not the one that were just showing up because they had to, not the ones that were just showing up because they had to keep their game face on and not let anybody think they were something else. See, there's a difference. I've said it before, people long before they ever leave the church, They give up on certain things that are not seen to men. They lose heart before they quit. You understand. And the Bible says, consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. And where we quit first is right up here. We start looking at men and we begin judging ourselves either favorably or unfavorably against them and somehow imputing all the inequities unto God. It reveals a heart that's insolent towards God, not one that is passionate towards him. You know, there's very little middle ground between being an encourager or a discourager. These are the people that were discouragers and God was calling them out. He wasn't impressed with the fact that they were bringing a lame sacrifice. They're saying, well, I brought one, didn't I? The only one I had, but you know, I know it's not exactly I was blind, but you know, it's OK, right? The Lord said, I want you to do it out of a pure heart. I want you to obey, to obey is better than sacrifice. Right now. Listen. We we're going to gather together as a church on Friday. And we are going to seek the Lord's face and just see what God does. You know what I realize? I can't make anybody do anything against their will. And you know what? God's not in the business of asking anybody to do anything against their will either. You know that? But whenever you do something for the body of Christ, you lavish it on who? You lavish it on who? What? On Jesus. When you do it for the body of Christ, you do it for Jesus, right? Absolutely you do. It's Freeway Baptist Church. representative of the body of Christ, yes or no? Yes or no? Yes, it is. It is representative of the body of Christ. So if I fall into this category of those people that say, what profit is it for me to go down there and help out? All they're ever asking me to do is come down there and help stack chairs, you know, come down and vacuum, come down and wash dishes, come down and watch the nursery. Are they going to pay me for this or what? Like as if somehow God just it slipped his mind. He forgot to call account temps and he's not keeping good records and he's not really going to pay you at the end of it all. Right. Don't you know that God is keeping copious records of everything done for him? Don't you know that? Don't you know that nothing that you do for the Lord is in vain if you do it out of a heart of love? Do you know that? We're going to gather together. And you know what, folks? People can say, well, I don't like what they're going to do down there. What don't you like? That we're going to try to make some plans so that the kids that are sitting in children's church, when they come into the youth group, will have a place to sit? Gabriel and Andrew and Carter and Erica and Timothy and Phoebe and and every little bus kid is going to be sure to have a place that they can sit down and worship and serve the Lord. In a few years. It's not like all of a sudden the pastor just had this knee jerk idea that we got to move the church. Do you know what I'm saying? In the sovereignty of God, Department of Arizona, not one time, but three times has called us to meetings, said this impacts you and you're going to lose your property. So what do you think the people of God should do? Say, oh, OK. Let's just wait and see what happens about it. You know what I want to do? I want to continue. Serving and honoring the Lord, winning people of Jesus Christ, seeing the body of Christ built up and grow up. And then, you know what? It may come that Ada comes through here. And you know, somebody said, if we're going to lose the building, why are we painting it? Well, because we don't want to look like a dive for three years, number one. Number two, it represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Number three, we have volunteer labor and in some cases free paint. Why wouldn't we? We would be foolish not to do it. Number four, it adds to the property values if we should sell it before they take it. And number five, it adds to the appraisal from an independent appraiser when the Department of Transportation comes to us. And number six, because it's the work of God and it deserves to be done the right way. And if you love Jesus, you're happy to see the work of the Lord being done in an excellent way. You're delighted to see four and five and six year olds sitting in chairs and not on the floor. You're delighted to see the third and fourth grade class with a new white board and a bulletin board and carpet on the floor. You're happy about that. And in as much as you have done it into the least of these, my brethren, You've done it unto me. And I realize it's talking about Israel. But friends, I'm telling you, there is a greater principle there. And that is this, that folks, when we reach out to those and minister to those that are the downhearted, the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the vulnerable, the lowly, the little lambs, and we help them, we have done it unto Christ himself. And folks, I'm going to tell you something. I'm not sure if the Lord will forgive my stinginess. I think he might my generosity, the work of the Lord. Now, I say that in jest. But if I want to make a mistake, I want to do it on the side of of doing too much for Jesus and not enough and not on the side and not enough. Wouldn't you? I wonder 30 seconds into heaven. Are you going to say stink? I wish I had kept that extra hundred bucks I gave in the offering. Think you're going to say that? No. You say, man, I can't believe I stink and wasted all those Saturdays going out door knocking. Think you're going to say that 30 seconds into heaven? By the way, this is all relevant. You're going to see it. Because it's talking about that day of reckoning and that God is going to reward those who have done some things for him in love. But you see the contrast in hearts. You see the naysayers on the one side, those who are insincere, just going through the motions, who are criticizing everyone that's trying to do anything right and then blaming God for all of the inequities. And then there's another crowd. In verse 16, the Bible says this. Then they that fear the Lord spake often one to another. So here we have a group in verse 13, 14 and 15 that didn't fear the Lord. They had no respect for anyone, including God. They talked about everyone. They criticized everyone. And they were insolent toward God. And now we have a remnant of people. And by the way, those that are truly filled with the Spirit, Those who truly seek to worship God in righteousness and in truth are always in the minority. Sometimes folks always want to go to voting on things, and you know, I dare you to go to the Word of God other than one time that I can think where that a vote was taken and the people elected to do the right thing. You know that? I find where there was a vote taken in the assembly of Israel, and they voted to reject God as their king and ruler. And they said, we will have salt, but it was a majority, right? So since it was a majority, that has to be the right thing, right? Huh? No. In fact, the majority of the people of Israel for 40 years would have voted Moses to an early grave, right? And there were some guys like Cora, Nathan and Byron that were bold enough to say it in front of God and the world and everybody. And God just opened up the earth and swallowed them. Then their wives, their children, their animals, their servants said, took care of that problem. Anybody else want to complain? But look, the Lord deals with this seriously. There was a crowd that that didn't fear God. They were insolent. They answered back at God and then Then they that fear the Lord, this is the contrast you see, spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that fear the Lord and that fought upon his name. Why did they think upon his name? I'll tell you why. They loved him. They fought about him all the time. You know, it's a funny thing. I think about Linda all the time. You know why? I'm in love with her. You know? And when we're in love with the Lord God, you know what? You think about Him. You think often on His name. Amen? Think about that. How good the Lord is. That where I was and where the Lord has brought me from. God, You're awesome. You ever just think about that? You know what they did? There was a remnant of people that worshiped God in purity and in truth. When they got together, you know what they did? They encouraged one another. They spoke often one to another. You know what they did? They talked about how good God was. They didn't talk about how wicked the priests were. They didn't talk about how how bad their neighbor was. They encouraged those that had a pure heart for God. They spake often one another and the Lord hearken. God sat up and paid attention when a few folks got together with the right heart and the right spirit and the right attitude. God will pay attention. Now, if you want to get the devil's attention, just start groaning and complaining. You start focusing on somebody that you don't like at church, and you know what? The devil can come along with a stick and stir up that pile of mess. Amen? Until it stinks real good. You'll get the devil's attention in a minute. But do you know what gets God's attention? When folks fall in love with Him. When folks that have fallen in love with Him get together and exhort and encourage one another to love Him more fervently, to serve Him more passionately. God took notice. And the Bible says He heard it at a book of remembrances written before Him for them that feared the Lord. You know what the Lord said? I am not going to let one of these loving things go unrewarded. I'm going to record it all. The people that didn't serve the Lord sincerely said, what profit is there in serving the Lord? They thought nothing was going to come of it. These people that said, hey, we don't care if we get a paycheck for it. God said, you know what? I'm going to make sure the records are copiously kept so that everything that you've done for me will be for an eternal reward. Amen. You know what your life is? It's a vapor. You know what my life is? It's a vapor that appears for a moment and then it vanishes away. You know what we live for most of the time? For a vapor. For a vapor. Several years ago, we had a missionary to Zambia come and preach in our church and and he said, imagine if you would, that all of the wall space in this auditorium represents the span of eternity and we could never do that. But just imagine in your mind if you would. And then he took out an ink pen. And he went over the wall and he put one dot on the wall and he said, That dot is so small you can't even see it. But that's your life compared to eternity. And yet, what do we invest in? That dot. That dot. You know what the Lord said? You that love me and fear me, I've noticed it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to I'm going to keep some records and I'm going to make sure that that investment you have made in loving me will be duly rewarded. It will be duly rewarded. And the Lord said they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. They shall be mine. That's who God wants to call his child. Look, you can be the child of God simply because of the fact that you came to him acknowledging you were a sinner and that you needed his grace or you would never be saved and you placed your faith in him for eternity. And then maybe you've gone away from him. You can still be his child. But folks, God said, look, They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." When God rewards the works of men, the consummation of it all, these are the precious ones. He said, I will spare them. As a man spareth his own son that serveth him. And this is talking about just before the great day of the Lord, when the Lord pours down his fury upon this earth. God said these are the ones that are going to be spared that. I realize prophetically is talking about a remnant, but this is indicative in any dispensation of the people that God is looking to reward. He said, They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. What a tremendous grace it is that God would love us this much, that He would choose us to be His sons, His daughters, by faith in Him. And he said, listen, when you serve me, there's a great reward in it, regardless of what other people are telling you, regardless of what you have heard from others that think God is inequitable, unjust, and that the proud are called happy and the wicked are set up. And you're mad about it. You want to gripe and complain about it. There are some people that still love me. And instead of looking at what everyone else is doing or not doing, they're focused on me and living their life toward me and not toward me for the benefit of man, but because they love me. And God says, these are the ones that I want to reward. These are the ones that I'm keeping records to reward. Then shall ye return. And you recall that in chapter three here, the Bible says return unto me in verse seven, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. These insolent people that had no respect for God, they did not fear him. Folks, if you don't respect God, you're not going to respect anybody else either, even yourself, even yourself. You know that? So if you don't respect God, you're not even going to respect yourself. But these that did, you know what happened? They listened to the admonition return unto me. You know what that word is implying to us? That they have repented from all of those things within and without that would be displeasing to their Savior. They repented of those things, both within and without, not so that they could be saved, but because they were his sons. And when they understood the mercy of God and the bounty of God for them, then it says, then shall you return. It was the mercy and the grace of God, just like it says in Romans chapter two, that it is the goodness of God that leadeth men into repentance. Here it was the mercy of God that brought them all the way back, not just partway, not just kind of half in, half out. Sometimes I talk to people that come into church and it's interesting, I get things in the mail that I get all these packets. Anybody else get junk mail? You like that as much as I do. And we get junk mail at the church, too. We get catalogs and we get all kinds of things. And I get these pastor's resource packets about every every two weeks. And then these pastor's resource magazines and they send them to you for free. And one of these packets, they have all these cards. They're like postcards or advertisements. They're trying to get you to buy books or software or publish a book or sermon, all this stuff. Or to advance your degrees. And I get stacks of them. And the other day I opened up a little booklet that came in a packet and it was from a website for people that wanted to be involved in the ministry. And it had ads from churches that were looking for pastors. And I opened it up in curiosity and there was a little church in Missouri that said, we're a small church of 50. We're about two years old and we have all been hurt by other churches and pastors and are looking for someone to love us. Like, wow. These people don't just need a pastor, they need therapy. They would put that in print for everybody in the world to see it. I thought, how pathetic is that? I hope the devil's crowd doesn't read these ads. They'd be rejoicing. I thought to myself, here's a group of 50 people and what had drawn them together was their common hurt by other Christians, by pastors in churches. Folks, let me tell you something. You're always going to find people that will hurt you in the church. You know why? Because there are people in the church. You know, we open the doors and we don't say, only people without problems may come. Right? Because not many people would come, would they? No, we say, if you're thirsty, come. Guess who gets thirsty? Everyone, people come in and they have problems and they're hurting. And, you know, it's true what they say. Hurting people, you know what they do? They hurt other people. You know, I thought to myself, whoever goes to that little church in Missouri better put on some armor, you know, because the first time he sounds like that mean pastor that ran them out, you know, he's going to be on a rail somewhere being run out of town. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because they're looking at a man. They're focusing in on their hurts. They're focusing in on the inequities, all the things, the terrible things that people have done to me. Well, God bless your heart. When did God die? Because you're acting as if he's dead and if he were alive, that he forgot your address and he didn't know how to care for you. Folks, listen. Who in here has been hurt by a church or another pastor? And I haven't. You know, we could testify. And after you're done testifying, I could go on and on testifying. Right? Yeah. Look, the point is, What draws us together is a common love for the Lord and an understanding that He is God and we are not, and He is righteous and holy, and He calls us to come back to Him. Not to hold on to hurts and to find some common denominator based upon our hurts. What draws us together is Jesus. What we have in common is Jesus. But you know, the people that had no respect for God, what drew them together was their common hatred of other people. Was there a common feeling that God didn't love them? Was there a common feeling that God was not just? because the people that they despise and thought God should be judging, they seem to be profiting and they didn't understand it. So therefore, God must not be a God of justice anymore. Therefore, God must not be a God of love anymore because their consciences are so offended. Why then would not a righteous God be offended by all of this nonsense? And so they look around for other people that will listen to them bash God by bashing his people, His ordinances and His plan. You know, when Paul was on the road to Damascus and the Lord confronted him there, he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, Paul was beating Christians. Paul was killing Christians. Paul was stoning Christians. Paul was putting Christians into prison. He wasn't saying, where's Jesus? I'm hunting for Jesus. He was hunting down anybody that had allegiance to Jesus. Right? You know what God said? God the Son said, why persecutest thou me? And if I attack Joe, guess who I'm attacking? Jesus. If I attack Margaret, guess who I'm attacking? But what if I have a good reason? Still attacking Jesus. Look, these people didn't like God, they thought God was unjust, unloving, inequitable, and they didn't like anybody else either. But then there was a faithful remnant that encouraged one another and fought on the Lord's name how good God was and God took notice. I don't know about you, but I want to be on God's radar. And according to this, what put these people on God's radar was the fact that they were in love with Jesus. They spake often one another of their fear of the Lord, their respect for God. And the Lord hearkened. The Lord hearkened. And they returned and God said, Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked. Between him that serveth God and him that serveth not. God's not going to give you a spirit of judgmentalism. God will give you a discernment in your spirit. It's a gift that God gives. But do you know what? People that are so wrapped up in their selves don't have it. They might think they have it. These people thought they had it all together. That's why when God said, return unto me, they said, wherein shall we return? God said, you've robbed me. They said, where have we robbed you? God said, you've spoken against me. They said, no, we haven't. And on and on, they kept coming up against the Christ Holy God. They had no respect for him. They did not fear God. You know what it means to fear God? They have respect and awesome respect for him. The fear of the Lord is to hate pride and arrogancy in the evil way and the froward tongue do I hate. That's what the Bible says. God resists the proud, but gives grace in the humble, so there were the proud that thought they had it all together. They were smarter than everyone, including God, because they question even the movement, the work of God. I want to be on God's radar for something good, don't you? I want to be written down in the book for something good, don't you? Folks, I'm telling you, it's easy to get on the devil's radar. All you got to do is live for Jesus. But if you want to sow some dissent, sow some discord, you know what? He'll give you a hand. God's not in the business of tearing his house and his body apart. The devil is. You can go into league with him and think you're righteous and holy just like they did. But what does it reveal? What do you accomplish? What does it prove? They said, oh, we walked morally before the Lord. Had they really? No. Anybody can put on sackcloth and ashes. I lived in Korea as a missionary's son for nearly four years. And while we lived there, we witnessed many funerals. And in Asia in particular, still is in Vietnam, one of the customs is to have a period of mourning. And for those that had maybe a little bit of money to spend, they would often hire professional mourners. You could go to the yellow pages, go on the Internet and find mourners, you know, and even say, you know, you think I can get, you know, 25 mourners on Thursday from 10 to noon or whatever to follow this processional. You think I'm kidding? I'm not. So they'll show up and you know what they're wearing. I'm not kidding you. They'll show up wearing sack cloth. They'll be wearing burlap. They'll have burlap from head to toe. And you know what they'll have with them? A sack of ash. And they'll smear the ash on their face. And then what they'll do is they'll beat a gourd and they'll follow along behind the funeral processional wailing. Folks, are you hearing what I'm saying? That's like your husband calling some guy out of the phone book to come and take you out on Valentine's Day. Right? At least he thought of you, right? What I'm saying to you is this. These folks had no more of their heart in it. They showed up in burlap, but they didn't even know the deceased. They didn't care about what was going on. They were going through the motions just as they felt like they had to. And if they didn't, nobody would think well of them. It was all about them. And then they felt totally justified in questioning God. A contrast in hearts. I want you to know God takes notice when you love him. I want you to know God takes notice when you tell others how much you love him. I want you to know that God sits up and pays attention. He hearkens unto it. When you get together with other people who love God and you talk about the greatness of God and the goodness of God, he notices it. And when you serve him like a son because of love, You know what he says? Hey, that's my son. He's pleased with that. You know what the Bible says of Jesus in John chapter 8 verse 29? I do always those things that please my Father. I wish I could say I've always done those things. I can't. But I want to. Dr. Lester Roloff used to say, sometimes I preach a harder message than I can even live. But God knows I want to. You know, I think that God's looking at the heart. A condition of the heart is what we've been talking about for these number of weeks. And God's revealing a contrast in hearts. I don't know about you, but I want to serve him in sincerity. I want to love him with purity. I don't want to be the critic. I don't want to be the insolent son that would question the love and the justice of God. focus on man and not think on God? What about you? It took a little trouble, but revealed some things about their heart. That's what it boils down to, doesn't it? The condition of the heart. Because if your heart's not right, nothing else will be. It starts with Something as simple as thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. Look, if your heart's not right, nothing else will be. You're not going to be happy. You can't be. For a minute, you can have pleasure of sin for a season, right? But there's nothing to show for it. You get like that guy that said, what profit is there in me going down and serving the Lord at Freeway Baptist Church? It doesn't pay my bills. I bet you I get a thousand people up there who would tell me, hey, you know, when I started serving the Lord down at the church, God opened the windows of heaven. I didn't have any money. I started giving my time. God started giving me money. Amen. I'm just saying to you folks, it all boils down to this, the condition of the heart. And let's determine tonight, each one, that our heart before the Lord will be tender, it'll be pure, it'll be surrendered. Say, Lord, whatever you want to do, I surrender all. That's the condition of the heart that God delights to bless. you