How Does a Christian "Prepare His Heart" to Seek God?

In preparing for the sermon today, brethren, I've used the preacher's outline in the sermon Bible commentary. Well, as I mentioned a moment ago, we have been doing lots of preparation for the Holy Day season that's coming upon us. We have been examining ourselves, getting ourselves ready for the Passover. We have probably been doing planning regarding the night to be observed. Some of us are hosting. We're having people in our homes. Others of us will be going to Ike's to be with a larger group. But that still takes preparation and planning. We also have been de-leavening our homes as we get ready for the days of unleavened bread. We are physically de-leavening our homes, our cars, whatever pertains to us and our possessions. Lots of preparation during these days. But, brethren, the most important preparation that you and I are going to make at this time of the year, or any time of the year, is to make sure we have a heart that is prepared to follow God. We need to have a heart that is prepared to follow God. Let's take a look at Ezra, the book of Ezra. Chapter 7.

Ezra 7 and verse 10. To me, this is one of the hallmarked scriptures of the whole of the Bible. Ezra 7 and 10.

So, again, today we've been thinking about all sorts of preparation. I've given four sermons on preparing for the Passover, analyzing ourselves, examining ourselves, questions we need to be asking ourselves. But, again, we look at verse 10 here, and we have to ask ourselves this other question, and that is, how prepared is our heart? Another question we would ask, and this is the theme for the sermon today. If you're taking notes, you might want to jot this across the top of your paper. How does a Christian prepare his heart to seek God? What do you and I do? Is there a formula? The Bible gives us information, gives us guidelines. How does a Christian prepare his or her heart to seek God? Well, the first thing God wants us to appreciate as we look at that question is, in preparing our hearts, we've got to acknowledge we've got need. We have need. That's the starting point of our journey. That's why we examine ourselves at Passover season. We don't examine ourselves, as I've said so many times in the past, we don't examine ourselves to find out how much we've been sinning, we don't examine ourselves. So we don't come to the Passover. We examine ourselves so that we can see that, yes, we are sinners. Yes, we have weaknesses. We want to highlight those and understand those, and then we want to come to Passover because we desperately need it. We need to be here at Passover evening. So we have to understand where we're at. Luke 22. Luke 22. Notice something here that Christ is saying to one of the disciples.

Luke 22. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed that Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. This is not true for Simon only. This is true for all of us. Satan the devil wants to sift every one of us like wheat. He wants to literally take us through the mill, give us all sorts of trials and difficulties. And as I look at various faces in this room, I know that a number of you are going through some really difficult times in your life right now. And if you are not right now, you will be.

Just give it time. But notice something here in verse 32 that's very encouraging. Christ says, But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Christ is praying for Peter here, but brethren, Christ prays for you. Christ talks to God about you. Christ meditates on your situation. He loves every one of us so very, very much.

Tomorrow night, during the Passover, we're going to read the Scripture where Christ says, With great desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you. Every year I try to have a theme as I go through the Passover. This year over in Ann Arbor, I'll be covering the same Scriptures we cover every year, but I want to cover the Scriptures this year in the light of what it says in the Scriptures, how for the joy that was set before Christ, He endured the cross.

Now, that doesn't seem to register in our thinking, because we equate joy and happiness. We equate joy with laughter. Christ wasn't laughing on that cross. There was no one's telling jokes on the cross. He was tortured. He was horribly beaten. He was unrecognizable. But in His mind, apart from the circumstances, He realized that what He was doing was giving you and I eternal life.

And so the point is, when Jesus Christ said, With great desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you, He's talking to those disciples, none of whom were converted, all of whom fled Him.

You think you've got issues? You think you've got problems? They had issues. They had problems. Peter denied them several times. They all ran away. But Christ said, You know what? I understand that. And I love you anyway. I understand that. And I love you anyway. So you think about that as you are, you know, through all of our examination, let's remember the fact that God loves us, that Jesus Christ loves us, He died for us. And when He thinks about you, you know, you and I, we can be disappointed in ourselves.

We can be disappointed in other people. And as we're disappointed, our own carnality gets into the mix, and we have maybe some negative carnal feelings toward people we're disappointed in. When God is disappointed with us, and He has been disappointed with every one of us, when God gets disappointed with us, it's not that He's feeling negative feelings toward us, He's disappointed because He knows how much we're hurting ourselves. When we sin, we hurt ourselves. But for the joy that was set before Him, He said, You know what? I may be disappointed because they have failed here and they've failed there, but you know something?

They're on the right path. They're on the right track. They ask for forgiveness, and they really are trying to amend their life as the Days of Unleavened Bread Show. And because, bless their hearts, they're my sons, they're my daughters, I'm not going to give up on them, I love them. And He thinks, I'm so glad, and you put your name in a blank, I'm so glad that she or he is coming to the Passover.

Because I'm going to forgive them. I'm going to be there for them. Satan's going to try to sift us this wheat, but Christ is going to pray for us. He loves us. He's going to pray for us. He loves us. We have a need. Christ knows we have a need, and because of that, He's praying for us. When Stephen was being stoned, we saw where Christ was standing on His behalf.

When you saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace, you had the people saying, look, we threw three guys in there, but I see four guys in there right now. When you and I are going through our trials, God is standing with us. Jesus Christ is standing with us. They love us. Yes, we've got heart issues. We've got heart problems. We've got spiritual heart problems. We've got to acknowledge that. But we also have to realize the other side of the coin and how much Christ loves us. Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Matthew 13.

And verse 22. Matthew 13. Now He who receives seed among the thorns, as He who hears the Word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word, and He becomes unfruitful. So here we saw with the last scripture in Luke how Satan, his desire is to sift us. Here we see where society is going to try to choke the life out of us.

The people around us, the people at work, the people in the neighborhood, unconverted relatives, people who once were friends and who were no longer friends, they're going to work to choke our hearts, so to speak. So the heart has enemies. Satan is an enemy. The world is an enemy. Romans 7. Let's take a look at one other enemy here. A large enemy. Romans 7. Romans 7. We see a third major enemy to our heart.

We've got Satan. We've got society. We saw there in Matthew 13. In Romans 7, we see the other big enemy that our heart has, and that's self. Satan, society, and self. Romans 7. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it's good, but now it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I don't find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I would not do, that I practice.

I don't think there's a person in this room who doesn't relate to that set of Scriptures. Right? At times, we are just befuddled on how to move forward properly. Just befuddled. So the heart has got enemies from Satan, from society, and from self. Now maybe you think, well, it's because I'm so weak. I'm so weak, I've got... what can I do? Think about the strong men, the strong women of the Bible. Think about the Bible greats. Think about the people who populate Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. They had hard problems, too. Abraham was willing to give his wife away twice.

Twice. Once to Pharaoh, once to Abimelech. Sarah encouraged her husband to commit adultery with Hagar. Moses sinned and was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. God felt that was big enough where you don't go in. You've been working with these people all these decades. But you're not going in. You set a horrible example. Now we might think, well, isn't God being mean? No. God's teaching Moses and all of us a lesson.

David murdered Uriah, committed adultery with his wife Bathsheba. Peter was a respecter of persons. When he was with the Jews, he was one way. But when he was with the Gentiles, he acted differently. Paul had to stand toe to toe with Peter and said, you know, what you're doing is not right.

You're respecting people. The Bible is pretty good about showing all these people had tremendous strengths. They are people that we want to emulate in so many ways. But they all were people. They all had heart issues. And if we're going to prepare our hearts, we have to understand where our heart is. 1 Corinthians 10 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12 How many people have you and I known over the years in the church who seem to be pillars?

They seem to be strong. They knew their Bibles. People said, boy, I wish I could be like them. And you know what? Where are they now? Where are they now? In so many cases, if you were to see them on one of the Holy Days, they wouldn't even remember it's one of the Holy Days. They've lost track of when the Holy Days come. So preparing our hearts begins with acknowledging our need. Starting point. Preparing our hearts also requires much prayer and study.

Second point, preparing our hearts requires much prayer, much study. We have got to do our homework. We are in training. We're in training to become a part of a family that is the most awesome family that ever will exist. We become a part of that family by the grace of God freely. But there's something we need to do if we're going to be a part of that family as God desires us to be a part of that family.

We're not earning our salvation, but after God has called us and forgiven us, we see that in the Passover that He forgives us of our sins. He puts us on the road, but then what do the Days of Unleavened Bread teach us? There's a way of life that God expects His children to live. There's an example. There's a responsibility that He expects from His kids. Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 23.

So as we are preparing our hearts, notice what the book of Proverbs says here. Chapter 23 and verse 26. My son, give me your heart. Give it to me. Give me your heart. Proverbs 23 and verse 26. And let your eyes observe my ways. We are to give God. We are to yield to God comprehensively, totally, fully. We are not to compromise. This is a very comprehensive claim. God says, give me your whole heart. Just give it to me. Give it to me humbly. Give it to me believingly. Give it to me unreservedly. Give it to me cheerfully. Give it to me irrevocably. Give me your whole heart. And yet, do some of us hold back. Do some of us not do this comprehensively. Or some of us a little more haughty. Remember what it was like when we first started understanding the truth of God? Well, I remember in my life, you and yours, I'm sure, where I was making my trek through the world of religion. My father's family being Roman Catholic, my mother's family being Baptist. And then I started listening to a fellow on the radio. And it caught my ear because God was working with me. And I remember writing for literature. And it seemed like every piece of literature that came to that mailbox changed my life. Now I've got to do something with what I eat. I can't just eat what I want to eat. There's certain things I can do and not do. Now there are certain things I've got to do with my money. It's about all mine. Now there are certain things I need to do with my time. All time is not mine. And you know what? I need to go to church on Saturday. Who would think? You know, household of Catholics and Protestants? Here I'm becoming a Jew. You know? Who would think? But I remember back in those days how I always looked at that literature, and as Mr. Armstrong always said, with Bible in hand. And we prove out of the Bible what the truth is. And I remember in my life, as imperfect as my life was, and you were the same, we would take that literature, we would open the Scriptures, and we would allow the Scriptures to speak to us and guide us and change us. We've lost some of that. I think some of us have lost some of that. Now it's, well, I've been in a church a long time and I think I know what's right. I think we need to get back to that humble, believing attitude. Too many people say, well, if the minister says it must be true, I'll do what he says. And that's why we had troubles in 1995. People said, well, I don't understand Mr. Armstrong, but whatever Mr. Armstrong says, I'll do. Well, and he died, and they had that same attitude to the next guy. Well, whatever Mr. DeCotch says, that's what I'll do, and that's what they did. And we lost 80, 85%, maybe more, the people who were once attending with us. I'll bring this up on the first high day. I'm giving away from my notes here a little bit, but you know what's interesting? The Bereans. The Bereans had, as a minister that was teaching them, none other than the Apostle Paul. Famous. Wrote more of the New Testament than anybody else. But when the Bereans heard Paul, they didn't say, well, whatever Paul says, that's what I'm going to do. No. The Bereans said, let's check this out. Paul's a great guy, but this is what I'll be judged by. And the Bereans got into the Scriptures, and they got into the Scriptures positively. And they searched daily.

They were giving their hearts comprehensively to God. And, brethren, we need to make sure we're getting back to that. Proverbs 4. If the Bible's still open to Proverbs, go to Chapter 4. Proverbs 4 and verse 23.

Proverbs 4, 23. Proverbs 4, 23.

This is why we make sure we're doing our daily spiritual disciplines, and we are being comprehensive, we are being dedicated, we're being humble with it, and we're going to be diligent with it. We're not going to be slipshod with our prayer life, we're not going to be slipshod with our study life, or we're not going to find ourselves just fasting just on a day of atonement alone. These are tools that God gave to us, and we are to be diligent, diligent in the doing of this. We can't let up, not for a little. If we let up, Satan walks right in. If we leave a door ajar, he kicks it in. So if we want to prepare our hearts, we need to be sure that we're doing our daily disciplines comprehensively and diligently. Hebrews 4. Talk about a scripture that really speaks volumes to us. Here we have a Hebrews 4, one such scripture.

To this point I've been talking generally about our prayer and study to be comprehensive, to be diligent. But notice what Hebrews 4.12 says. Hebrews 4.12, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and morrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Notice the word of God is living. It's a living message. It's not dead. As you and I study the scriptures, it comes alive. If we are diligent and comprehensive in our prayers, God will be diligent as He opens up His word to us. We speak to God in our prayers. He speaks back to us as He opens our understanding to what the word of God says. We've got questions. We've got issues. God says, I will give you answers in my word. It's a living word. It comes alive. It's active. Some of the most inspiring times in my life have been as I've sat by myself with my Bible open, and I see something for the very first time in the scriptures. It's not that you haven't seen it. You may have seen it long before me. But me, Randy, I see this for the first time. Oh, I didn't notice that. I didn't quite put all this together. You know, if I add this with this other part of scripture, it really answers some questions for me. The Bible comes alive. Notice there in verse 12, it also says, not only is it living, it's powerful. It's powerful. The Bible is active. It's working. It energizes us. Do you and I feel weakened? Do you and I feel so down or depressed, or we can hardly move? We can hardly put one foot in front of another? Well, we need to be studying God's Word, because God's Word will energize us.

You know, life has its challenges. Over in the Ann Arbor congregation, we've lost four mothers in the last six weeks, including my own. That sort of thing, when you're losing parents, you just don't replace a mother or a father. You don't replace your moms or dads. There is an empty chair at the dinner table. There is a void that's not going to be filled. And some of you are going through other kinds of trials and troubles, and we can be down. We can get discouraged. That's the way we're wired, and yet we can't allow ourselves to stay there. Satan would love us to stay there so we can sip this like wheat. No, but we need to get into God's Word, allow God's thinking to energize us powerfully. Verse 12 also says that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

That means it cuts. It penetrates. It convicts. We need to be studying God's Word so we are convicted. Again, we get back to this whole idea about Jesus Christ is the standard. God the Father is the standard. And there's a lot of people in the world who want to say they're the standard, or they would like us to think about other people and try to measure up to other people. We want to penetrate through all that and get right to what does Christ want us to be. How does He want us to think and act? Regardless of what's happening around us, even people who say they're converted, we want to look at the Word of God and judge ourselves by that standard. The Word of God pierces. It separates a proud spirit from a humble spirit. And it teaches us the difference. It separates a rebellious spirit from an obedient spirit. How obedient are we? Where is our mind? Where does your mind live? I'll be asking that on the first day of Unleavened Bread. Where does our mind live? God wants our mind to live one place. Satan wants our mind to live someplace else. But where does your heart and mind live? Where does mine live? How do we know? What do we do about it? Since you hear the Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, it judges, it analyzes. We must really study the Word of God. And brethren, we've got so many tools to do that now. There's no reason why you and I can't get into a profound study of His Word. Most of us in this room have Internet access. If you don't at home, you can go to a library. Most libraries will give you half an hour or 40 minutes. You ask them, and many times, depending on the time you go, if no one else is one to use the computers, you can stay there as long as you want. The little town of Ypsilanti that I live in, they've got a wonderful library. They must have a dozen computers there. You can go in there any time you want to. Get online. There's so many Bible study tools. I found a new site the other day I'd not seen before. This Bible, this... It's got literally 30 or 40 Bibles, every kind of different language Bible, all kinds of Bibles. It's got commentaries, it's got encyclopedias, it's got dictionaries, it's got inter-liniaries. You can go into the Greek and go into Hebrew. It's all free. If you were to buy... No, I've got three major Bible programs in my home. At my computer at home, I probably over the years have spent several thousand dollars on my tools. You know, mechanics spends money on his tools. I spend money on my tools. But you can go on the Internet now and find so many of these things I paid for, you can find them free. There's no reason why you and I can't really delve deeply into the Scriptures. Get in there with all of our hearts and minds. So, we want to make sure that we are preparing our hearts through Bible study, but also prayer. Also through prayer. Psalm 10, verse 17. Psalm 10, verse 17.

Psalm 10, verse 17. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. Well, how has God heard that? Well, he's heard that because we've been praying to him. You've heard our prayers, the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear. Notice the interaction we have here between our prayers and God preparing our hearts.

If we want our hearts to be properly prepared, we've got to ask God for help in that process. We can't do that on our own. Acts 6. Acts 6. Here we see the early New Testament church. There is a tremendous need in the church. There was a need not just for the spiritual, there was a need for the physical. We are physical people, after all, aren't we? Notice here in Acts 6.4, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer into the ministry of the word. So the ministers were going to do this, but we needed some deacons, so they were about to ordain some deacons here, as we see in verses 5 and on. But here in verse 4, we will give ourselves continually to prayer. Where does our spiritual strength emanate? Our spiritual strength doesn't emanate because we are bright, because we've got a high IQ, because we've got a good education. I talked a moment ago about all the study-helps I've got on my computer at home. How many different PhDs have written all the various things I use? But do they know the plan of God? Do they know the will of God? They are some of the most educated people in the world of all time. But when it comes to knowing the plan of God, back when I was living in North Carolina, we had a fellow by the name of Johnny. Johnny couldn't read or write. Older fella, back in those days, I was in my early 30s, he was in his mid-60s. He would come to services, he couldn't read, he couldn't write, but you know what? He knew the truth of God. He can tell you the plan of God. He can go through the Holy Days with you and discuss what God was up to. He obviously was not an educated man, but you know what? God has his own way of educating people. God has his own way. And certainly, one of the things we want to do is continually give ourselves to prayer. That's our strength. Luke 18.

Luke 18, starting here in verse 1.

Luke 18 verse 1. Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Ought to pray is a necessity, always at all times. It's a necessity at all times, so we don't lose heart. Every one of us, brethren, in this room have lost heart from time to time. Every one of us in this room have gotten discouraged from time to time, depressed from time to time. Again, that's the way we're wired as human beings. But we don't want to stay there. If we don't want to stay there, then it says, we ought to pray, always. That gets us in touch with a very positive God. God is always upbeat. He's always positive. He gives us a mind and a spirit that is strong and positive, is not fearful but is loving. First, too, there was a certain city, a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now, there was a widow in that city. Widow was typical of somebody who had no strength, she had very little income, very little way of resources. Back in those days, widows were kind of at the mercy of what was happening around them. There was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said with himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her. In other words, she kept on coming back in prayer time and again, time and again. She always was praying. Verse 6, then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to him, though he bears along with them. Day and night. So here we have an idea of laboring hard in our prayers. So we see that we've got a need. We see that if our hearts are going to be prepared, we have to give ourselves over to prayer and to study, the things that are going to fortify us and solidify our standing with God. But preparing our hearts means that we must be committed to right living. We can do all the theoretical we want. We can do all the prayer and study, but we pray and study so that we live responsible for our lives. We can do all the work that we do to help our lives. We can do all the work that we do to help our lives. We can do all the work that we do to help our lives. Notice Romans 6. Romans 6 is the baptismal covenant chapter.

Romans 6.

Notice Romans 6. God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, in the past you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. We had a checkered past. We were not going God's way in the past, but God in His mercy, in His great grace, called us. We accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ put us on the right path. We were delivered, as it says here, but now we are obeying from the heart. We're not obeying as a matter of a formula. We don't live our lives by formula. We live our lives by the heart, by the essence of what we are. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119.

Psalm 119. I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the very end. Forever to the very end. It's a life-long commitment. Just as we get married, that is a life-long commitment. This is more than marriage. Our vow to God means more than any other vow we make. We make vows in marriage, but this vow to God in baptism, this is something that is permanent. We're walking hand in hand with our maker. And it's something that we keep as a commitment to the very end of our lives. James 4 gives us some more instruction along these lines.

How you and I can defeat Satan. James 4, starting here in verse 6. James 4, 6. But he gives more grace, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Here we've got the days of unleavened bread, the days of flatbread, the days of humility. God gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If we are preparing our hearts, we are going to submit. We're going to yield comprehensively, diligently, as we talked about earlier in the sermon. We're going to submit wholeheartedly. We're going to yield. We're going to submit to God. And then we're going to do the other thing as well. We're going to resist Satan. We've got a resistance movement that we're mounting. And notice, he will flee from you. He'll go someplace else where there's easier pickings. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Now, brethren, let's be honest. When the Bible here is talking about drawing near to God, it's not talking about geography. You know, you and I, we couldn't even get into a spaceship. Traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. There's no way we're getting to wherever God is. Well, he's up north. That always works southern. I used to say that all the time down south.

But drawing near to God is a matter of our hearts. It's a matter of our minds. It's a matter of not of geography, but of where we are spiritually. Our spirit transcends distance. You know, there are times I go shopping without Mary. Those are always dangerous times. Especially if I'm hungry. If I go shopping when I'm hungry, forget it. I don't make enough money. I can't push enough carts down the row. Oh, that looks good. Gotta get some of this. I've not had this in a long time. Let's get some of that. So what I find myself doing is I go when I'm not hungry. Normally I take a list, but sometimes I forget the list. I'm for that stage in life where you don't remember things. You put things on a list and you forget where your list is at. And then I find myself calling my wife, and then I can't get out of the lousy store. I don't have enough bars. So I'm walking around the store trying to find someplace where I've got a signal. Prayer is not that way. God is billions of probably light years from here. And you and I can pray to Him, and He hears us instantaneously. No roving charges. You don't have to get us some big bill from AT&T or anybody like that. God hears us. We draw near to Him through our prayers, through our study of His Word. And then it says, He will draw near to us. He closes that spiritual gap. He draws closer to us. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Yes, there are things for us to do. There are ways we need to shed. We need to get rid of certain things in our lives. We need to cleanse our hands. We need to purify our hearts. We need to make sure our minds are on one very specific focus. We don't have one mind in the world or one mind in the Kingdom. We're not going to be double-minded that way.

Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. We have here a spirit of repentance, of mourning. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. So here we see various clues as to how we have our hearts being prepared by God. Humility, submission, resisting Satan, repentance, having God's mind and coming full circle to making sure we're humble. To me, that's always been the foundational hallmark of a Christian, their humility. If you and I are humble, we can be taught. If we're not humble, no one's going to teach us. Not God, not Christ, nobody's going to teach us. But if we're humble, we can learn. I think that's one of the reasons why people enjoy the Psalms and why God Himself enjoys the Psalms. There were times when David would shake his fist at God, but God says, you know, but He's got some humility, that guy. And there's a point where He will stop shaking that fist, and I can teach Him. So it's kind of like we do with relatives at times. There it is, being them. Let them blow off their steam, they'll eventually come back. Like our dog Teddy. We had that chow virus. Teddy was a big old chow, 65 pounds, beautiful animal. This is a gorgeous animal. Most of you never saw him. A reddish dog, and he had kind of beige highlights. When I'd walk him, a lot of times, the little girls would say, oh, isn't he pretty? But Teddy, every once in a while, would get loose. But he didn't worry too much about it, because we knew that when he got thirsty, he'd come back home again. God understands that about us. When we get spiritually thirsty, we're going to come back. We're going to come back, because we know where we need to be. We are his sheep. We understand his voice. And if we have that humble attitude, we will come back. We can blow off steam. God says, okay, I'm working with them. They're a work in progress. But, you know, they're salvageable here. Through the sacrifice of Christ and through my labors, they're salvageable. I love them. I love them. They're my kids. Those of us who are parents understand that. We can understand that sometimes our kids really can be stinkers. But they're our kids, and we love them. We love them. Brethren, one last area I want to cover with you before I conclude today, and that is that, as we prepare our hearts, we are strengthened by Godly spiritual fruit. When we finally get in a groove the way God wants us to be in a groove, then we begin to see good things happen to us spiritually. Again, that we may be full of trials, have all sorts of difficulties, but as we obey God, there is spiritual good fruit that we can see. At times when you or I can tend to be discouraged or depressed, we need to take a good, long look at the good fruit that God is developing in our life. In the sermon I've got for the first day of Unleavened Bread, I'm going to ask the question, where does our mind live? I'm going to give some scriptures about where God wants our mind to live, where Satan wants our mind to live. I said, no, it's really easy. We'll probably all think, well, my mind lives closer to where God is. But that's not where I'm coming from in the sermon. On a continuum between where God wants us to be with our mind, the spiritual maturity, and where we were baptized, where are we on that continuum? The time we were baptized to where God wants us to be. Where does our mind live? Where does our mind live? Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach. Matthew 5, one of the Beatitudes, we were looking at these earlier in the month. Matthew 5.

And verse 6, Matthew 5 verse 6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because blessed are hearts they will never give anything. No. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Here's a promise from God. He said, God, I am not a prophet, but I am a prophet, and I am a prophet, and I am a prophet, and I am a prophet. Here's a promise from God that if we are preparing our hearts and minds and we're hungry and thirsting for HIS righteousness, then God's going to say, You know, I love that spirit, I love that attitude in you, and I'm going to grant you your wish. You're going to get some of the good stuff. You're going to get some of the really good stuff, because you've been hungry and thirsting for my way of life, you've been hungry and thirsting for the way I think and the way I live, and I want you to experience some of that. That's good stuff. That's real good stuff. It's filling stuff. It's right stuff. It's hearty. The Apostle Paul talked about this over in Ephesians chapter 3. Let's go over there to Ephesians chapter 3.

Let's start here in verse 14. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. They would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit and the inner man. Think about what Paul's writing here. How God wants to give us these beautiful and rich, enriching experiences and character. Verse 17. Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and ground in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is there with them, length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. This is what God wants. He wants us to have the good stuff. He wants us to be filled with all the fullness of God If we are preparing our hearts the way we should be preparing our hearts, God says, I will give you that. I'll give you this really beautiful thing that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Where does our mind live? Boy, our mind should be living where our best friend is God the Father, our best friend is Jesus Christ. Best friends talk to each other all the time. Best friends like to share themselves with their other good buddy. Is that the way we think of God the Father? Is that the way we think of Jesus Christ? Do we go through life thinking that that's my best friend? Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5 Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the things of God. Have our minds set on Christ. Have our minds set on the things above. We'll discuss that in more detail on the first day of Unleavened Bread as well.

Philippians 1 Page or so over. Philippians 1 Church of the Apostle Paul loved a tremendous amount. Philippians 1.11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness. Brethren, is your life, is my life, are our lives filled with the fruits of righteousness? What is our life filled with, yours and mine? If our hearts are properly prepared, then our hearts and minds can be filled with the fruits of righteousness. Those beautiful, delectable fruits. I remember several years ago, back in 2008, I think it was, Mary and I spent the feast in Italy. And I wanted to go there. I wanted to... Before things got any worse in the world, I wanted to see the little village my dad was born in, which was about 90 miles to the east of Rome. We did something, thinking back on it, it's a marvel that we survived, but we rented a car. In Rome. And we drove all over the place. I've driven a car in Manhattan. I've driven a car in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in Detroit. But driving in Italy, even in the country, it was something altogether different. But we managed to take a full day after services one day. We got in the car and we spent about two hours getting... Because we were south of Rome, where the fisight was on the coast, and we had to go almost into the middle of the state, middle of the country, to see this little tiny village, 1500 people. It was kind of like out of the Middle Ages. I mean, those homes... We think we've got an old home for homes 50 years old. Those homes have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. And I remember just seeing people there. I remember at one point I asked one of the older ladies. She was just standing in her front yard doing some work on her lawn. I said, I'm going to stop. And I couldn't speak much Italian. So I got out. I whipped up my driver's license. I showed it to her. I said, see, Delisandro. Ah, Delisandro! And she started pointing to the home where the Delisandros lived, in that little tiny town. Then her son came, just a few moments later, he was inspired. He came. He spoke some English. And I said, you know, we would like to see the cemetery. And so he took us over Hill and Dale someplace we never would have found the cemetery. We saw all these mausoleums, or Delisandro, all the different graves, or Delisandro. Saw various ones where they had pictures of a dead Delisandro. And the one particular fella who died many years before my dad was born. But they had his picture there with a little plastic covering on it. And I said, boy, that looks just like my dad. He's obviously kin. But in Italy at the feast, you know, we had all of our meals together communally. And so typical of Italians, when after we'd have our meal, we'd have dessert. And dessert in Italy was not, you know, cheesecake or a piece of pie. In Italy, cheesecake was this marvelous fruit. And they'd bring these big platters with the apples and the peaches and the bananas and grapes everywhere. And I used to say, man, you know, you're almost though. And so when you read a scripture like this, being filled with the fruits, something sweet and delectable and desired, the fruits of righteousness, they could paint a picture for our hearts and our minds where we need to be. One last scripture for today over in Acts 13.

Now, I believe somebody's planning a trip to Italy sometime in the future. Somebody else in this room who was of Italian origin. Maybe I can sneak in a briefcase or suitcase and go along. Once you've been there and you've seen the beauty of the people, it's amazing. Acts 13, verse 52. If we are properly preparing our hearts, notice what it says here, verse 52, Acts 13. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with joy. Now, they had some awful circumstances. Some of their number were already being killed and martyred. They were being chased from town to town by the Apostle Paul, when his name was Saul, back in those days before his conversion. And yet, they were filled with joy. Again, joy is not a matter of our circumstances. Christ was joyous in that he was giving us a road to eternal life, even as he was being tortured. Brethren, if we are preparing our hearts and minds, then we are going to be filled with God's joy. So today, we've taken a good, long look. We've asked the question, how does a Christian prepare his or her heart to seek God? We've gone through a number of ways to look at that. We need to prepare our hearts by acknowledging our need. We need to prepare our hearts by praying and studying and giving ourselves over to those disciplines, fasting. We need to prepare our hearts by committing ourselves to righteous living. And we need to prepare our hearts to be solidified, to be encouraged by the fruit. Though we observe, as we have prepared our hearts and minds to God. So the question I leave you with today, have you prepared your heart? Are you? Am I? Are we preparing our hearts? And how prepared are we?