From His Heart

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God's way is perfect. Your way stinks. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

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God wants us to understand him. He is a good God. He is a God who can be trusted. He is a God who never tells a lie and always tells us the truth. To understand and know him, to have a personal knowledge and relationship with him, is to recognize that I am the Lord.

Now, what we see here is a broken heart from God. A broken heart. God says, "Do you not understand when I warn you? And you do the opposite. It breaks my heart." See, his heart breaks when you and I sin and rebel against him. When we keep pulling against the leash and we're saying, "Your way stinks. Lord, we want to go our own way."

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There is tremendous truth. There is blessing. There is hope that you always dream. Love. He can heal every scar.

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Warning signs are something that we're all familiar with. When we're driving a car or even walking into a building, we'll often see warning signs there to help protect us from potential danger or harm.

Well, did you know that God gives warnings in his word that say, "I love you and I don't want you to hurt yourself"? That's true. Today we'll learn about that on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, with a message entitled "Consider Yourself Warned." This message is one of nine in the series "Life is Hard, But God is Good." We've been airing it all this month and will continue to do so.

The series and a companion booklet, "Strong Faith for Tough Times," are our thank you gifts for your support this month of any amount. You can get yours when you go to fromhishheart.org, and I'll tell you more later, but don't go there now.

First, open your Bible to the 81st Psalm as Pastor Jeff Shreve offers a sobering warning for us all.

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Now remember this about God. God has great patience, but his patience is not limitless. We sing that song: His love has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto man. But that's not true with his patience. God has great patience. And if God didn't have great patience, none of us would be here because God would have already incinerated all of us.

One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament is Jonah 3:1. You know Jonah, the guy that went the wrong way. Jonah, who was called to preach in Nineveh, said, "I'm not preaching in Nineveh. I hate those people. I'm going the other way." He boarded a ship going to Tarshish, which is 2500 miles in the opposite direction. He's going as far away from Nineveh as he can possibly get. And you know the story: a great storm arises. Jonah says, "Hey, throw me overboard." They throw Jonah overboard, and he gets swallowed by a great fish. In Jonah chapter two, he gets right with God in the fish, and the fish vomits him up on dry land. Jonah 3:1 says, "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time." The second time! God is a God of second chances. He's a God who's patient with us, but his patience is not limitless.

In Proverbs 29:1, it says, "A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken, and that without remedy." Let me give you a great example: Daniel, chapter five. Belshazzar is king. He's the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is in his bullpen; he's one of the wise men of Babylon. Daniel had a big position with Nebuchadnezzar, and I think God used Daniel to help Nebuchadnezzar come to a saving knowledge of the Lord, as you read in Daniel chapter four. It sounds like Nebuchadnezzar got saved. But here is Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, who didn't follow in the ways of his grandfather, who found faith in the Lord toward the end of his life. He is an arrogant guy. He's not calling on Daniel to do anything, and he's throwing a big party.

The enemies, the Medo-Persian army, are besieging the city, but this guy thought, "Hey, they can't get in here. We have the wall of Babylon." So he throws a big party, and the party goes on day after day after day. It's this big drunken orgy. They decide, "Hey, this would be fun. Let's get the utensils that we took from Jerusalem when we sacked the city in 586 B.C. and destroyed their temple. We took all the gold and vessels and goblets and things like that to drink out of. Let's get those and fill them up with wine and toast our gods who defeated Yahweh." They were sticking it in God's face.

As they're toasting the false gods, all of a sudden, a hand appears out of nowhere—a hand, no arm, just a hand with fingers writing on the wall. We have that expression, "You see the handwriting on the wall?" It comes from Daniel. The wall writes these words: "mini mene tekel upharson." Belshazzar saw that, and the Bible says his knees started knocking together, and he turned pale like a ghost. He was so scared. They wanted to know what it meant. So they finally called Daniel in and said, "Daniel, can you interpret dreams? We'll pay you handsomely if you can do that."

Daniel replied, "Keep your gifts. I don't want your gifts, King. Here's what it means: Meni meni tekel upharsin." This is a Jeff Shreve commentary interpretation. It means, "You're done, pal." That's what it means. It means, "Hasta la vista, baby." What does that mean? It means you don't pass go; you don't collect $200; you're dead. The Lord has weighed you in the balance, and you have been found deficient. God is pulling his loan on life from you. It's as if the Lord began to sing that old Don Meredith song: "Turn out the lights, the party's over." That's what "meeny meeny tekel upharsin" means. It means, "You're done, pal." I've been patient with you, but my patience has run out.

God is marvelously patient, but his patience is not without limit. The Lord says, "My people didn't listen to me. I sent word over and over and over. I warned them over and over and over again, but they didn't listen to me. They did not obey me." So what did I do? Verse 12: "I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart." Stubbornness is the act of being obstinate; it's to have a hard heart. It also carries the idea of having a twisted heart. You're perverted; your heart is twisted and perverted and hardened. The Bible says, "Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." The more you participate in sin, the harder your heart gets.

Well, these people got hardened, and God says in verse 12, "So I gave them over to the stubbornness, the hardness of their heart to walk in their own devices, in their own plans, in their own purposes, in their own will, in their own ways." God will give you over to your sin and stubbornness if you continue to push against him. Think about it this way: all of us have probably had the experience of taking a dog for a walk. Taking your dog for a walk, he's on a leash, and maybe he's not trained very well. You go out, and your dog sees a cat, and he wants to go after the cat, so he starts to pull on that leash. Depending on how big your dog is—my dog is eight pounds, so it's not a big challenge there—but if your dog is 100 pounds, then that's a big challenge because they're strong.

You have this leash, and all of a sudden he wants to go here, and you're like, "No, we're not going there. We're going over here." "No, I want to chase after that cat." Well, that cat's running out into the street. If you chase after that cat, you're liable to get hit by a car and end up dead. "Go this way." We're a lot like that dog, where we say, "Well, Lord, I want to go my way. I want to do what I want to do." And God says, "No, go this way. Go this way." "No, I don't want to go that way. I want to go my own way."

Well, God will fight you for a while because he loves you, and he's gracious, and he's jealous—not of you, but for you. He wants what's best for you. But if you continue on and continue on and continue on, a man who hardens his heart, who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy. The Lord says, "Hey, don't go that way. Don't go that way. Don't go that way." And finally, he says, "Have at it. I'm done fighting you. You go in the direction you want to go, and you run after the cat and get hit by a car and die." There's a reason why God says, "Don't do that." He'll give you over to your sin and stubbornness.

Now, in the book of Romans, we read about what happens to a society that says no to God. Romans 1: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his divine power, and his eternal nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. God says, "I've given you two voices to know that I'm real, two voices to know that I exist: the inner voice, conscience; the outer voice, creation."

I mean, anybody with a modicum of sense knows if there is a creation, there has to be a creator. Things just don't happen and come into being out of thin air. There has to be someone who creates it. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 1 that even though they knew about God, they did not honor him as God or give him thanks, and their foolish heart was darkened. They said, "We are going to worship the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." They said, "We don't want you, God. We don't care about your word, your will, your ways."

They professed themselves to be wise, and they became fools. The word for fools is "moros," from which we get our English word "moron." We have a bunch of morons in charge today who say they're so wise. Many of them have PhDs and are teaching in universities. "Oh, we're the elite, and we're so smart, and we're so wise." Yeah, you're so smart and so wise, you can't tell the difference between a boy and a girl. That's how ridiculous you are. But they professed themselves to be wise and became fools.

Now, Romans 1 goes on to say three times that God gave them over. Hey, they're on the leash. They don't want to go God's direction. "We don't want to acknowledge you anymore, God." And so God says, "All right, I'm gonna unhook the leash. You can go in the direction you want to go." It says in Romans 1, "Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them."

What have we seen in America? We've seen sexual immorality explode. It exploded in the 60s and into the 70s with all sorts of free love and all sorts of people having sex before marriage and not even thinking twice about it—living together, not thinking twice about it. The sexual revolution. God gave them over to that. But then it goes further. It says in Romans 1:25, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions.

For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way, also, the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another—men with men, committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. God gives you over as a nation to sexual immorality. Then he gives you over to homosexual immorality. We have that. But then there's a third category: God gives you over to a depraved mind, to a reprobate mind. That's a mind that doesn't work anymore. That's a mind that can't tell the difference between boys and girls.

That's a mind that tries to say with a straight face, "It's not just women who have periods." Oh, good night! What kind of a bozo are you that would try and say, "It's not just women that have periods"? Obviously, it's just women. They put maxi pads in the men's restroom.

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Why?

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To get them for your wife. I mean, what's the point? Doesn't make any sense to me. And we're acting like this is normal. This is not normal. What does that show you? That God has given us over to a depraved mind? That we enter into this lunacy?

Hey, think about this. If you had somebody that came to you that was grossly skinny and this person was obviously suffering from anorexia, and this person said to you, every time I look in the mirror, all I see is this fat person looking back at me. What do you do? What does love do? Does love say, you know, you're right, you could lose a few pounds. That would probably be a good thing. Stay on your diet. Or does love say, you're not seeing this situation correctly, you are in terrible condition, and if you keep on this path, you're going to starve yourself to death? That's what love says. Love tells people the truth. It doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness. It rejoices with the truth.

But God gives a nation over when that nation says, no, God, I don't want your will, I don't want your word, I don't want your ways. We're going to go our own way. And to quote Dr. Phil, how's that working for you? How's that working for you?

Hey, you might be here today, and you know what you've said with the prodigal son? I don't want to follow the Lord. I don't want to listen to my father. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to go my own way. I'm going to live it up. I'm going to get what I can get out of him. My inheritance. And I'm gonna do what I wanna do. Okay, you can do that if you want. Just like the prodigal did. And let me tell you, you do that, you go on that path. That path, every single time leads to the same place. It leads to the pigsty. You're gonna be hating your life when you do that. Cause you reap what you sow.

And what did I say? God is not jealous of you. He's jealous for you. He doesn't want to see you go there and wreck and ruin your life. And so he warns you, don't do this. Hey. The Lord is to be the one you fear and revere. And when you fear God and revere God, you're wise and you listen to him.

And then thirdly, and finally, the Lord is to be the one you understand and know. God wants you to understand him. He wants you to know him. He says in Jeremiah, chapter 9, Thus says the Lord, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. And let not the mighty man boast of his might. And let not a rich man boast of his riches. But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord Yahweh, who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord.

God wants us to understand him. He is a good God. He is a God who can be trusted. He is a God who never tells a lie, always tells us the truth. To understand and know him, to have a personal knowledge and relationship with him. That I am the Lord.

Now, what we see here is a broken heart from God. A broken heart. God says, do you not understand when I warn you? And you do the opposite. It breaks my heart. See, his heart breaks when you and I sin and rebel against him. When we keep pulling against the leash and we're saying, your way stinks. Lord, we want to go our own way.

Verse 13 is a verse that all of us need to memorize. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. God is brokenhearted. Why? Because he had to undo the leash. Because they said, no, God. They didn't want to honor him as God or give him thanks. No, we want to go our own way. So it's like, okay, go your own way. You're going to end up at the pigsty. You're going to be hating your life. It's going to be disaster for you. And it breaks God's heart.

Oh, that my people would listen to me. That Israel would walk in my ways. His heart breaks when you and I sin and rebel and his heart breaks over what might have been. What might have been.

Hey, verse 13. Oh, that my people would listen to me. That word oh can also be translated, if only, if only my people would listen to me. Oh, what if we had listened to God? What does he say? I would quickly subdue their enemies. Verse 14. And turn my hand against their adversaries.

Hey, their adversaries, those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to him. I mean, they'd fall in line even though they weren't worshiping the Lord, they'd pretend to obey the Lord and their time of punishment would be forever. But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. God says, I would bless your socks off if you just go in my way. I'll bless your socks off the finest of the wheat. Honey from the rock.

Meribah was where they got honey from. They got water from the rock. But now he's talking about honey from the rock. God is going to give you the best of the best of the best. I'm not talking about physical things. I'm talking about spiritual things. The fruit of the spirit is love. It's joy, it's peace, it's patience, it's kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. Against such things there is no law, and God will give that to you.

I still remember hearing the testimony of a man who was walking just so closely with God and he talked about this bad thing happened to him and his car broke down and you know how we can get so frustrated. Things happen like that. He just began to put it in the joy column, as it says in James, and he just began to praise the Lord. He said God was so filling his heart, he had to pray this prayer. God, would you stop blessing me because I feel like my heart is going to burst. That's the God. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. That's the God that we walk away from. It breaks his heart.

And he says, oh, look at what might have been for your life. Some of us have children that have taken a bad turn in life. They chose it. Bad turn in life. And you see how their life is so hard and you see how they've wrecked and ruined what could have been. And you look at their lives and you think, ah, if you had just gone in this direction, like I had prayed for you, like I had encouraged you. But you didn't. You went your own selfish sinful way. And now look what you have. There are consequences to sin. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows this, he will also reap.

Hey. As we close out today, this has been a pointed message. This is a warning to God's people. I don't know how much time you have left to get right with God. You don't know how much time you have left to get right with God. You don't know when God is going to say, that's it mini mene tekel you Farsan. That's it.

Isaiah, the prophet. He spoke to a disobedient people in chapter one from the Lord. And I think it's a word today that we need to hear. And you may be here today. And you know you're not walking with God. You are sinning against the Lord. You have said, I don't want your will, your ways, your word. I'm going to go my own way.

The Lord says this. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. It's reasonable to get right with God. Come now, don't wait. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. Come now, come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the finest of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword. Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Hey. God is giving you an opportunity today to get right with him to experience complete forgiveness. Though your sins are as scarlet, they should be white as snow. He'll wash you white as snow. God will do that for you if you'll come to him. If you consent and obey, you'll eat the finest of the land. If you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

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If you know that you're not a child of God, you have never surrendered your life to him. You can do that right now where you are by sincerely calling out to him in repentance and faith and saying, "Lord, please forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he lived a sinless life. He died on the cross for me and he rose again to let me know that I too can be with him in eternity." The Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

You can find out more about what this means when you go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. There is a lot of material there from Pastor Jeff that'll help you understand, surrender, and begin your new life in Christ and your daily walk with him. Again, go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" tab right there on the homepage.

Today's message was part two of the lesson "Consider Yourself Warned," and you can listen again to this message online when you click the "Listen" tab. It is also one of nine from Pastor Jeff's series "Life is Hard But God is Good." The series is available on USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download.

When you make a gift of any amount to From His Heart this month, we will also send you the timely booklet "Strong Faith for Tough Times" as a thank you for your gift. From His Heart exists to share real truth, love, and hope to a dark and darkening world. It is through the faithful and consistent support of our listeners that we can accomplish that.

So thank you for what you can do to join with us to help grow this radio, TV, and online presence to reach more people for Christ this next year. Call 866-40-BIBLE to make your gift (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromisheart.org. God bless you for standing with us.

Well, I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart, and we pray that you'll return next time when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

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There is truth There is hope that you always dream of he can heal every scars Real truth, Real love, Real world From His Heart.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more. Go to promisheart.org.