Living Connected: Guarding Your Heart in Faith

"You train for the life that you want to live. If you want to live a life of spiritual victory, if you want to live a life where you're continually saying yes to Jesus and no to sin, if you want to live a life where you, in a healthy way, express your emotions, if you want to live a life where you sense deeply the goodness and the presence of God, if you want to live a life where you're loving the things that Jesus loves and turning away from the Jesus, the things that Jesus doesn't love, that draw your heart away from Jesus, then you need to pay attention to your heart. It takes intentionality. It takes diligence. It takes steadfastness. It takes consistency. It takes commitment. It takes mindfulness. It takes other people allowing other people to live a life of spiritual victory." [00:02:44] (46 seconds)


"Desire plus a plan plus accountability equals success. In fact, the greatest antidote to not living a life that does not please Jesus is having your desires and your affections change. C .S. Lewis, a philosopher, a theologian, an author who died several years ago, said that oftentimes Christians are playing in mud pies. They settle for mud pies when really what awaits them in the English vernacular is a holiday at the sea or a vacation to the sea. He goes, essentially what he's saying is our affections are too weak. Our desires are too weak. So to live the Christian life, we want our affections and our desires to change. But as we live on this side of glory and our desires are still a mixture at times of the good and the bad, of obedience, disobedience, of Jesus' glory or our own glory, we want our desires to, to grow. But as we are walking the Christian life, you got to have a plan." [00:03:53] (50 seconds)


"Make a commitment to read. You and I need time in the Word with Jesus. What does this look like in your life? Think about these truths that we found in the Bible. The Bible helps us know the truth. Helps us and teaches us how to know God in a personal way. How to live well for God in this world. How to live out His will and express a love and a desire for Him. The Bible says in 2 Peter, everything we need for life and godliness is found in the Scriptures. To know, to experience God's freedom and His grace and His peace and His hope is found in the Word. To understand marriage and relationships and parenting and finances. How to live outrightly. How to have victory over sin. How to grow spiritually. As we reject conformity to the Word, and are changed by the renewing of our minds. How do we guard ourselves from sin?" [00:12:16] (53 seconds)


"Your heart needs to be in a state of repentance. If you're in a state of repentance, if you're in a state of repentance, you've got to be in a healthy place. You've got to train your heart. Part of training your heart is pursuing and practicing repentance. 1 Timothy 4, 7 says to train yourselves for the purpose of godliness. It takes discipline. It's the word where we get our word, gymnasium. You go to the gym to train. Perhaps another message as we're talking about commitments of 2025, we'll do that another time. Part of the Christian life is turning from sin, attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, beliefs, worldviews, practices, behavior, words, turning from those things, repenting from those things and replacing them with truth and putting on truth and putting on the new man, the new woman, our humanity that we find ourselves as we repented of our sins and believed upon Christ." [00:16:05] (48 seconds)


"Living connected to your heart means I see sin. You observe sin. You have a remorse for sin. There's a contrition for sin. There's a brokenness for sin. Are you broken for your sin? Does it bother you? Part of living connected to your heart is oftentimes our heart takes us down paths that are wrong. We want to observe it. We want to have remorse for it. We want to confess our sin. Confess simply means to agree. God, I see this is wrong. It's ugly, dishonoring to you. It's not stewarding my life. A confession of sin, a hatred of sin. I don't hate my sin as much as I should. Just a little confession to you, Graceland Church, Palmyra, Memphis, Salem, and Dearborn. I don't hate my sin. And oftentimes in my journal, when I read the Bible, I will write in my journal, God, help me to see sin like you do." [00:20:29] (47 seconds)


"commitment to restfulness, a way of being. Rest teaches us and cultivates reliance upon God and reminds us that we are finite beings, that God has physiologically made us to be men, women, boys and girls, where you cannot burn it at both ends. It's costly. It's costly to your life. It's costly to your relationships. It's costly to your marriage. It's costly to your parenting. It's costly to your physical. It's costly to your physical quality of life. You have to, if you're gonna live connected to your heart, understand that you are a finite being. You're a dependent being. You are a reliant being. And you need to Shabbat. You need to stop. It's a verb. Stop. Slow down. It's something that you do. It's a skill. You need to grow in this. So some applications, some simple application. Take your vacation days." [00:24:24] (52 seconds)


"There's very little, in contrast, in our culture that helps us develop endurance and perseverance. We all live with desires that are instantly fulfilled. Amazon, Wi -Fi on the plane, credit, and friendships and relationships and community help you live connected to your heart and practice and live out pursuing Jesus in your life as relational, emotional, and spiritual. Rational, social beings, we need each other. I mean, look around. Palmyra, Memphis, Salem, look around. We need each other. This is not just you show up on Sunday morning and then you bounce. We need each other. There's community and friends. You are not going to be the man, woman, boy, or girl that God designed you to be, that God wants you to be, apart from relationships." [00:28:16] (50 seconds)