Heartfelt Desires: The Path to Genuine Righteousness

if all of us would have one prayer uppermost in our heart even if we don't actually pray it every day if it is in our heart there is a song in English which says prayer is the souls sincere desire whether it is spoken or not spoken what we saved our mouth is not necessarily the prayer that God hears there could be an unspoken desire in our heart which is stronger than what we pray with our tongue and that is why many prayers are not answered because God answers according to the unspoken desire of the heart man looks on the outward appearance listens to the tongue [00:00:00]

so in our heart that should be one prayers the one that Jesus taught us how Lord be thy name Lord I don't want to do anything that will bring dishonor to your name that is the unspoken longing of our heart all the time we're not speaking it but we have this tremendous desire that I never never want to bring dishonor to God's name by anything I say or anything I do you'll find a tremendous difference in your life many of you who are seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously you will experience that continuous I don't mean a once for all experience [00:01:00]

you know it took nine months for David to realize that committing adultery with somebody's wife killing her husband and marrying her was a sin imagine how can anybody so be so blind to this you commit adultery but somebody's wife killed her husband marry the man marry the woman and you still don't feel it's a sin the longing that David had when he was a young man slowly disappeared when he was a young man you know that David wrote many of his Psalms before he was thirty years old [00:02:16]

because you read at the top of the some of the Psalms when he was running from Saul to some cave and many of the Psalms when he was running away from some King when he pretended to be mad it's all before he became King before he was thirty years old I'm sometimes amazed how person younger than 30 years old could write Scripture which is a blessing to people today and how the same man when he was fifty commits adultery kills the woman's husband marries her and he's still not convicted of sin how is that possible that is because it can happen to us [00:03:15]

think of your own life when you started out we read about joked you know when joke said I do not lust after a woman his ten children were living in their own houses remember he's a grown up man of joke was probably more than a hundred years old aha more than a hundred year old man saying I made a covenant I will not look after look at a woman he had kept that I mean job was probably richer than David it says he was the greatest man in the east and yet he kept his eyes pure he was watchful feared God and he was upright [00:04:01]

and not only that he brought up his children in a proper way all ten of them he read their what we read that what he said was perhaps my children have sinned in their hearts not externally you read that in job chapter one maybe in their hearts in their thoughts they didn't pass him God externally they were having this feast and in their thoughts they may have sinned what a concern this man had that his children we have sinned in their thoughts today we have a generation of people who are not even bothered when they themselves in in their thoughts [00:05:06]

have a burden that my children should not sin in their thoughts and to pray for them how many people pray like that today for their children Lord my son is working in a dangerous place there's a lot of wickedness there please protect him that he won't even sin in his thoughts you know it's amazing what that man job was David on the other hand he became King and it's so much money and gradually what happens over a period of time when wealth increases I'll tell you this when wealth increases and comfort increases we begin to become careless in our thoughts and begin to sin [00:05:49]

when God is forgiving your sin a man commits sin and gets the disease of AIDS he prays and God forgives him but he dies of AIDS I've seen that happen born-again believer in his unconverted days he got AIDS really forgiven born-again he died and went to heaven but he died of AIDS you have to understand God acts in mercy but we still have to reap what we have sown your sin is forgiven but he will still reap what you have sown think for example if you spend many many years watching pornography and then you repent the Lord says all your past sin is forgiven [00:07:33]

but for the next 3040 years he will keep on having dreams of the things that you watched in pornography they'll never leave you they'll torture you at night you will reap what you have sown you can't escape it it doesn't mean your sin is not forgiven the Lord is taking away your sin but your child will die please remember this that God taking away our sin does not mean that on this earth we will not reap what we have sown if we have done foolish things and taken advantage of God's goodness and say it's okay I'll confess and he'll forgive me of course he'll forgive you but you will reap what you have sown [00:08:24]

you know the two things which we sin with the most are eyes and tongue and that is why when the Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount and he said in Matthew 5:20 your righteousness must be greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees the scribes and Pharisees are an external righteousness Matthew 5:20 and he said I'll tell you where your righteousness must be greater I'll give you two examples first your tongue and then your eyes so he said your righteousness must be more than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees first in your tongue and then in your eyes [00:10:03]

I believe there are people who could have been prophets and apostles and godly women who never got there because they took sin lightly because of forgiveness they didn't realize that you're forgiven but you'll still reap what you have sown and the second sin Jesus said is with the eyes Pharisees only thought about adultery but I said you will lust to the eyes you're guilty these are the two areas Jesus spoke about in that is it Matthew 5:28 and if your right eye offends you tear it out and then I would add to that after that with one eye your lust with that eye also tear that one also out [00:12:39]

I want to say to all of you do brothers and sisters ask God for the fullness of the Holy Spirit to control your mother tongue and I want to say God has helped me an angry man from whom anger is gone they can control my tongue by God's grace let's bow our heads in prayer we've heard him solemn things today example of Joe how Davidson made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme what these things are written for our instruction help us to be watchful and careful help us to honor you Lord we pray in Jesus name [00:20:00]