Solomon has completed his prayer at the completion of the temple, and he has these things to say. So we continue on with the narrative here, 1 Kings 8, beginning in verse 54. This is God's Word, eternally true. When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out towards heaven. He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel and allowed boys, saying, Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he let never leave us, or nor forsake us? May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, to crease and regulations that he gave our fathers. May these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night that he may uphold the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel according to each day's need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is no other. But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands as at this time. Herein's our reading with a response of thankfulness that's printed for us in our bulletins, the word of the Lord. In various things that we have in our lives, there may be one thing that's really essential. One thing you really have to concentrate on. Some of you who are baseball fans know that you don't tell a picture. We're not to pitch the ball because your mind goes to the words you've heard, or maybe it worked. You're just told there's one thing that's essential if I just need you to be here, but I need you to be here at 6.30 a.m. every morning. That's the one thing. If you're not, I can't use you. And you won't last here. One thing that's essential. And as we get to this ending of this prayer, Solomon looks forward to the future well-being, or whatever you call it, poor being. Not well-being of God's people is real and we know they wind up not having well-being. They're oppressed by others after this for hundreds of years, and eventually wind up in exile. And if you've been here, this book was written to the people who were in exile, and they were looking back on this time that was ideal in the lives of God's people when they were under the king of peace Solomon. Solomon's name means peace like Shalom, and all that always been done well. You saw this last verse here. Look at that in your Bibles, verse 61. To live by his decrees and obeys commands as at this time. God's people were walking in God's ways during this time of Solomon, and the kingdom had reached the height of its glory. But there's one thing that Solomon indicates was essential, was centrally important. One thing that would guide everything else, and that was the people's hearts. We all know people who know a lot who are nasty. That's the Pharisees. It wasn't that they didn't know stuff, but their hearts were off. And because their hearts were off, they didn't understand. And they didn't recognize Jesus because their hearts were off. They didn't want to recognize Jesus because what it would mean for them. And so as we look at this passage this morning, we see these two instances amidst this, where Solomon points this out, what really matters for us is our hearts. Where our hearts are, and it's not that other stuff doesn't matter. We don't want to have good hearts and not know what to do. We want to have good hearts that walk in what's good to do. So we remind ourselves if you like to fill out blanks and an outline, you're welcome to do that. You can just listen if you want to, if that's a better way, if that helps you learn better. But the focus of the Kingdom of God, we all know, is Jesus. So we say this first, the focus of the Kingdom of God is Jesus. We see that here with Solomon. He's the focus here. He's the son of David. He's the one in the center of things. He's the one who's before the altar spreading out his hands, which is what Jesus does on the cross as son of David and King first people. He's before this altar of the cross, sacrificed, spreading out his hands, blessing the people as Solomon does. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, or to the criminal who repents next to him. Jesus, remember me when you enter your Kingdom. And Jesus blesses him and says, surely today you will be with me in paradise. And so we know in the Kingdom of God that is the church full of the citizens of Jesus' kingship, that Jesus is the center of things. And so that being the case, our eyes primarily is we're looking in the Kingdom and in all our lives, our eyes are to be focused. That's your blank there. You ought to have your eyes and life focused or centered upon Jesus. This is Hebrews 12, too. The writer of Hebrews says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. He's talking to people who were in terrible circumstances who were being persecuted for their faith. And he says, here's the key, fix your eyes on Jesus. Jesus is the center of things. So in the Kingdom of God in the church, Jesus is the center. But as a citizen of Jesus' Kingdom, going on in your outline, there as a citizen of Jesus' Kingdom, in order to have Jesus remain central in the church and in your life, your heart, your heart and this. What you have to do in order for Jesus to remain central in your life, the center focus of your life, is you have to have your heart, your concern be upon your own heart. Not how much you know, we're good in this church on knowing stuff and that's good. It's good to know stuff, but it's really bad to know stuff with a bad heart. That's how you kill people. That's how the Pharisees killed people. We want to know stuff with a good heart. We don't want to have a good heart and be fools. We're going to have good hearts with good knowledge. And that's what God directs us to. So our role in order to keep Jesus central is we need to pay attention to our hearts. Let me make sure I'm filling out your blanks there for you who are like me, a little bit OCD. As citizens of Jesus' Kingdom in order to have Jesus remain central, your heart is the central concern. Your heart is the central concern you are to have about yourself. So all these things about God, God does these things for us and we respond to them. And Jesus is central and to keep Jesus central in the church and in our lives we need to pay attention to where is my heart right now. But hearts not in the right place, Jesus will become uncentral really fast. If Jesus becomes not the focus of a church, not the focus of denomination, then things will go bad fast. If we start looking at other things, if we start taking in information from outside, then Jesus gets uncentral very fast. We've seen that the last two years in society and in churches, right. Other things have become central and intake has come from other places. But we look at our own hearts and say, where is my heart with Jesus? Because Christianity is about looking at Jesus, living for Him, having our gaze fixed upon Him and to do that. We have a central concern about ourselves in order to do this and that's this. How's my heart? How's my heart? Am I willing to learn? Am I willing to be told things from Scripture that I don't want to do or to give up things that I don't want to give up? So we look at our hearts for that. That number one, number one. God tells you through Solomon here that your heart should be toward the Lord. Your heart should be toward the Lord. Look at verse 58. Where is 58 there? Verse 58 says, May He turn our hearts to Him. It's a not just, oh, my heart's soft. It's a, my heart is directed toward Him. It's a directional thing. And so our heart should be toward the Lord. Look at verse 61. Solomon says, but your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord. It's a directional kind of thing that we have. It's fully committed to the Lord. Now, or as Moses put it in Deuteronomy 429, look for the Lord, look to the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. With all our heart, we look to the Lord, with all our heart. Deuteronomy 6.5, likewise, Moses says, love the Lord your God with what? All your hearts. Number one, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Now, why is your heart so central? Why is your heart so important? It's this number two, number two. In scripture, the heart speaks about all our attitudes, affections. That is what we love, our affections. It speaks about our attitudes, our affections, our affections are what we're interested in, what grabs our attention, what causes us to drop everything else and to say, oh, what's this? So our attitudes, our affections, our internal honesty, our hearts in scripture, when the scriptures talk about our hearts, it talks about our internal honesty. And all these things, our attitudes, our affections, our internal honesty, God cares about. God cares about all these things. Psalm 516, we read this morning, surely, this is what David says. He says this to the Lord, surely you desire truth in our inner parts, not just saying stuff externally, not just saying, oh, I believe that, yeah, but not thinking about it. But truth in our inner parts, you teach me, David says to the Lord, you teach me wisdom in the inmost place, in my heart. So the question is, why should God and you be concerned and watchful about your heart, about your attitudes, your affections, and internal honesty, because number three, number three. Your heart is important because it controls all your person. It's the seat of everything you do, everything I do. Our hearts are important because it controls all our persons. It sets the course of our lives. There are 541 mentions of heart in scripture. 541 times, God inscrituates the word, heart, Old Testament, and New Testament, 541 times. That means it's important. There are other big words we talked about, talk about a lot that aren't near this. And justification, that's a very, very important word. No, we're near 541 times. I doubt it's even 100. It's a very important in scripture. Here's a sampling. God speaking of the heart, Genesis 6.5, the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only on evil all the time. So God communicates just because one's heart is on evil, because man's heart is on evil, earth had become terribly infected with wickedness. But why had the earth become terribly infected with wickedness? Genesis 6 is the days of Noah. Why have the earth become infected with wickedness? It was because of man's heart. So the heart can do great harm, can bring great wickedness. Matthew 15, 18, Jesus says similarly, but the things that come out of the mouth, the things you say, come from the heart. And these things make a man unclean. The Pharisees were all involved in what was on the outside, and Jesus says what the problem is, is what's on the inside. And his woes to them, his seven woes to the Pharisees, he says they are painted with white, grazed painted with white paint. Outside they look clean and pure, but inside in that grave it's full of rotted dead men's bones, all in cleanness. So where do bad things come from? Jesus says they come from our hearts. Like my page is upside down. Okay, I got changed my page here. I don't know how that happened. There we go. Our hearts also affect our moods. Again our hearts are central for all that's going on in us. Our hearts affect our moods. Proverbs 15, 13, Solomon writes this, a happy heart makes the face cheerful. We've learned in COVID to read eyebrows. Some of us did that already. Some of us learned to do that, right? In eyes, you know, I can be bright or sad. But a happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. So our mood, our emotions come from the heart. A heartache crushes the spirit. A happy heart lists the face, causes the face to be cheerful. Exodus 8, 15 talks about our hearts, causes to resist God and not to listen to him in the case of Pharaoh. Listen to what it says about Pharaoh. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron. Why did Pharaoh not listen to the words of God through Moses and Aaron because he had hardened his heart? So, A, in your outline, if your heart is toward the Lord, OBEY into him will flow from that. Big point to see here. This is why our hearts are so important. It's not have a wicked heart and then do all the Nino Bay God. It's have a good heart and know what God's will is, but have a good heart, and then your, as Jesus said, a tree will be known by its fruit. And obedience will flow from that good heart. Look at verse 58. Again, may he turn our hearts to him. Now, look at the next phrase. What happens when our hearts are turned to him to walk in all his ways, and to keep the command, to crease in regulations he gave our fathers. If our hearts are to him, then we keep his commands and regulations and to crease and all those things. This is what flows from a heart that is toward the Lord. Or look at verse 61. Look down there in your Bibles. Verse 61. But your hearts, see that there were 61 but your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God to again result of our hearts being committed to the Lord our God to live by his decrees and obey his commands as at this time. Likewise, Exodus 35, 21 says, and everyone was willing, everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work of the sense of meeting for all its service and for all the sacred garments. God's people when they were building the tabernacle in the wilderness, what gave them the resources, the material to be used for building the tabernacle and all the furniture and all that kind of thing, it was hearts that were moved, turned toward the Lord and moved that the proper worship of him could be done. This is why God says, from our actions, he can know what's in our hearts, our actions flow from what's in our hearts. Moses states in Deuteronomy 8 to this, remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you'd keep his commands. All it comes, we're talking about this in James 1 in Sunday School, all it comes before us is a test, a test of what's in our hearts. When we're backed up against the red sea, do we really believe from God's promises to our father Abraham that he will deliver us, he said it in Genesis 15, he would deliver us generations after Abraham from Egypt where we would be enslaved and he would give us the whole land that Abraham was in. Then do we believe that or do we start complaining at Moses and as you're like time after time Moses says 10 times now, the people have rebelled against you over and rebelled against me and all I'm doing is saying here's what you should do. As a test and God's people fail to test the 40 years in the wilderness, here's the good news, Jesus 40 days in the wilderness passes all the tests. He has tests in the wilderness too, temptations that come to him and he succeeds in those things. God tested him and Jesus tested true but God's people in the wilderness their hearts were tested and they went the wrong way. We could go on this idea that where our hearts are, that obedience flows from this but we get the idea. They're literally, I mean, they're 50 verses. I could have given this word but we'll stop it three or four or whatever that was. Now B, just a side note here, parents, this is for you, parents who have kids and this can be parents who have even older kids who come to you and talk to you about something but certainly you parents who have kids in the home now go for the hearts of your kids. You know the expression biggest mistake parents make is they go for the externals with their kids. You're going to do this until you're 16 years old blah blah blah. That's not going for the heart. That's going for external obedience and there will be rebellion. Mark, not my words, but you know what I'm saying. I deal with this as a pastor. I dealt with this in campus ministry, both as a student and as a professional staff campus, campus minister. The kids who grew up in the church who hated God and hated the church grew up with parents who were focused on externals. We always want to go for our kids hearts and we want to say like sometimes my dad would say to me like I would say to my kids sometimes you don't want to be that person. That's going for the heart. There's no, we don't think that way. That's not who we want to be. I know everyone else is doing that, but not us. We want to go from this motivation. We know God is good. God's word for us is good if we do these things. This is good for us and it's good consequences and eyes your father eyes your mother. I want good consequences for you. You want to go this way. It's not about you have to do this, but we're going because I love you because I care for you. Because we're Ephesians 6-3, we're fathers who are not exasperating our children. You know how you exasperate your children? You don't train their hearts. You don't instruct them and how to think about things. I know everyone's doing that. How's that, Dr. Phil? How's that working out for them? You helped them to see it from their heart, from their mind. You helped them to understand. When I was in college taking organic chemistry, there were two professors who taught organic chemistry. One's hot, just how to memorize equations. What you do in this certain situation in organic chemistry and so what equation you plug in here and that kind of thing. And the other professor is chairman of the department taught you how to understand the chemistry, not how to memorize the equations, but how to understand what was going on and what needed to fit in these chemical molecules that had all these things like that. And that's the way we want to go. We want to help our kids understand. We want to go for the heart in this and not just what you have to do. As long as you're in my household, never. Now, there are kids and they obey. That's right. But it's not because we don't want them to embarrass us or not because we want to force their behavior in some certain way. We want them to have this behavior because their kids, your kids, you sit down. But here's why you do this because fools don't. Because you know so and so he does this doesn't he? Yeah, he does. How is teachers think of him? Does that pay off for him on the court to get playing time because he's treating his coach like this? Yeah, so we go for the hearts with our kids and not these external kind of rules. We have those in our own minds as parents, but what we train our kids to see the sense of it. So they understand yes, it makes sense for me to walk in this way. Okay, that's all free for you. So parents go for the hearts of your kids that they be faithful in their hearts. Don't shoot for mere external obedience. Okay, so that's Ephesians 6.4. I said 3. I meant 4. Father is not an exasperate children instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. We're training our kids not just giving them commandments with no explanation. Okay, number 4. Your and all Christians hearts are prone to wander. All our hearts are prone to wander as the history of Israel. Old Testament Israel displays well. We know these words from come now found which we sang this morning prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love and the history Old Testament shows this. God's people reach these high points and they have a king or Moses or somebody who's leading them and then there's a prongness in our hearts to wander. The Westminster larger Catechism this morning we read about this by nature we and all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and to do the will of God unwilling and unable. But prone to rebelling against his word to be discontent and murmur against his providence and wholly inclined to do the will of the flesh and of the devil. This is who we are apart from the Spirit of God working in us. So, A, they're in their outline so you must look to God to keep your heart turned toward Him. Notice, verse 58. It's not all up to us. It's all in praise. This may he turn our hearts to Him. May he, may God turn our hearts to Him and then be. And we, on our end, are to watch our hearts. We're to monitor them. We're to check in on them to see if our hearts have wandered. If they're squarely onto the unto the Lord, walking in integrity, happy for his gaze upon us. Proverbs 423 says this above all else is the command above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. From our hearts come everything. It's the wellspring. Everything springs from our hearts. And so, Solomon says guard your heart for everything comes from. So, see in your heart you're to be honest with yourself. Honest with yourself. Honest about the condition of your heart. Not self-disceptive knowing that God sees and knows what's going on there. God sees and knows what's going on in our hearts. And where to be like? We're to agree with God. Where to see with like eyes. View our hearts with like eyes and to see what's going on in our hearts. James 1, we'll talk about it later in Sunday school. It reviews how our hearts are deceptive. We set where self deceivers. That's what the sin nature does in us. And so, we kind of, we kind of hedge and fudge on God's will for us and get a little off center and we justify it. Right? We're smiling at this because we know that's our condition. You know, sign fell deals with this a lot. They know they're kind of fudge. You know what that's right. And they're justifying. Of course, I'm not saying that. And then they declare that they're okay after they fudge on something. But you can see this in these passages I've listed for you here. But you're to see that your heart, what your heart is to evaluate it as God does for what it really is. No deception, nor self deception. Proverbs 21 to all a man's ways seem right to him. All our ways seem right to us. But the Lord weighs the heart. There's no fooling God. All our ways, we always justify what we do. We do. All this we do. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. But we all a man's ways seem right to him. But the Lord weighs the heart. And we're to weigh our heart. And we're to know that, you know, my ways aren't always right. Sometimes I've got motivations that are causing me to fudge. I know God wants me to do. We're to be aimed at to see our heart as God sees it. That is accurately. So God sees and knows your heart. Look at verse 39. It's not part of what we read. It's just a few verses before we read it before in the past week. Look at verse 39. Salman talks about in the middle of that verse there. He says, deal with each man. You see that there in 39, middle of verse. Deal with each man according to all he does. Since you know his heart for you alone, know the hearts of all men. He's got his pen. He knows us. And this is for our good. David likewise said in Psalm 4420. If we had forgotten the name of our God and spread out our hands to a foreign God, would not God have discovered it since he knows the secrets of the heart. God knows the secrets of our heart. So if you're thinking your heart, boy, my wife looks kind of ugly right now. Or you think, boy, my husband's a fool. You're thinking this. That's going on in your heart. That's heart stuff that's happening. And we need to change our heart. That's spouse that God gave you. He gave that spouse to you. And so you're not to view your husband as a fool. You're a supporter. You're not to view your wife as ugly and to look to others beauty. And not the wife, not the beauty of the wife of your youth as Solomon puts it in Proverbs as well. And we're that's a heart thing that's going on. We're being, as we read in the Lardic Vatican, discontent with God's providence in our lives. And we're to see this is a heart problem that I have. You know, what determines whether a woman has a nice nose or a bad nose? People always thought, you know, when I was growing up, people thought Barbara Strison, oh, look at that big nose. I thought she was beautiful. Barbara Strison did. It's a little kid. I thought her nose was the positive thing. But it's just all cultural stuff too. And even within a culture, one person will look nicer than another. And that kind of thing, the issue really is the heart and how we view that. And we all know that there are some people. Julia Roberts is not very attractive, but she has a very attractive personality to a lot of people. And the roles she's put in are very attractive. You can disagree with that. That's okay. There, but there are a lot of people in film, that kind of thing, that really if you just look at their physical characteristics, not that pretty. But they've got so there's an it factor to it. And that's a heart, just a heart thing going on. Maybe something that connects with us. But there are heart things going on in us all the time that we need to be aware of and change and change our attitude, our affection so that we're walking in his ways always and desire to do his ways above all else. Some mornings when I'm reading scripture, I say, oh man, how much more do I have to go? How much more do I have to go? And I realize usually immediately, I say, that's a heart thing. And usually God gives me by the spirit the ability to repent and say, how dare I? And I say, God, this is your word. This is the best thing I can do all day. This is the sweet time of my day. And you're communicating to him, you've given this to me. You're supposed to bless my life. And I get reoriented in my heart as to what I'm doing there, as I'm sitting there in that chair reading the scriptures. That's a heart thing that's going on. It's not about how much time I have or how much time this is taking. It's about where my heart is. So they're heart things in our lives all the time. You know, I know Randy and I have talked about, you know, as you grow as a parent that you, if your heart is right, you mourn when your kids leave the house. And people come up to you and say, hey, glad to be an empty master. So you said, no, it's awful. I loved it when my kids were here. You know, the best time for us is, you know, now it's not Thanksgiving because we have kids different places, but it's Christmas time. And we're all there. And we're sitting around the table. You know, Malachi says, you know, we'll know when full restoration has happened. When fathers hearts are toward their children, dots and uses that, right? But that's what said about John the Baptist. The God returned the hearts of his people toward their children. That's a heart thing going on. We love our kids. We want their best. We don't say tough to our kids. And we ache when they're aching. But we want these kind of infections in us. And we want our hearts to be the way God wants, you know, once and to be directed, directed in those ways. So God hears and knows our thoughts and attitudes. And we want to be just very sensitive, very sensitive toward that. What our hearts are. God knows our hearts. You know, last week we talked about how we get confused with Santa and Jesus. And it's another point of confusion. You know, Santa know all my thoughts or it is Jesus. Jesus knows all our thoughts. And just like, you know, or the parallel to this, Linus and the great pumpkin. Right. He's sitting out in the pumpkin patch. And he says, you know, if the great pumpkin comes, he says, oh no, I said it. I mean, when the great pumpkin comes, I said, oh no, I'm doomed. Just the great pumpkin could hear his thoughts and hear his words and, you know, from wherever it came. But the Lord's like this. But this is good for us because it's good for us to have good hearts turned toward him. That's where blessing comes. Where hearts are toward him. And we're like, God, teach me more. Like David, teach me your ways. Let me know your ways that I might walk in your paths. That's where things are good for us. So number five, number five. Recognize this too. And why is this so important? Why is Solomon saying this before the people to set the course for the nation's life? Now that the temple's there, recognize that heart driven obedience. Heart driven obedience to the Lord is key to fruitfulness and peace. It's key to fruitfulness and peace. And so we see in verse 59, that if our heart is toward him, we'll walk in his ways. And he will be upholding and maintaining our cause. We saw that earlier, earlier in Solomon's prayer, that the Lord would uphold our cause. And you see Solomon bring it up here. And what's our cause? Where are our cause is what they had seen in Deuteronomy 28. That passage of Jim read for us this morning. Deuteronomy 28, that's a key passage in scripture. And the rest of the Old Testament depends on that passage. God lays out, if you walk in my ways, if I'm your God. And by the way, when you see the Lord, that the word would know that the Lord is God, and you see Lord in all caps, that Lord in all caps, L-O-R-D in all caps is Yahweh and Hebrew. And that's God's name. And it meant Yahweh is God, not Molec is God, not Bale is God. It loses it. I wish we would translate Lord in all caps as Yahweh. Because it was identifying Israel's God as being God. The Lord Yahweh is God, and there is no other. Molec is not a God. Ashrah is not a God. Jamash is not a God. Bale is not God. The gods of the region, they were not gods. They were made up. They were figments of man's imagination. And so the Lord, the Lord is God. And so we recognize that as we walk in God's ways and acknowledge that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who inspired the scriptures, Lord in all caps, Yahweh, Father's Son and Holy Spirit. When we recognize Him as God and walk in His ways, God says, here's what I'm going to do for you in the promised land. I'm going to send rain in its season, and you're going to have abundant crops. And when a foreign army comes upon you in one direction, they're going to flee in seven. I'm going to create fear of you in people's hearts like Ray have accounts to the spies. We've heard of what God has done for you, and everybody's shaking here in Jericho. All three to the room, three to the field, three to the relationships, well-being, peace from the land instead of war. And this was all based on our hearts being right toward Him. So the God as we talked about last week, we weren't putting God in a position of having to discipline us to get us back on track. But because our hearts were upon Him and toward Him, He could simply just bless us, simply just grow us and mature us. And our face and our hearts are toward Him, and He's toward us, and we experience that the blessing of the Levitical priests may the face of the Lord shine upon. Not turn away from me, but shine upon you because you're looking, you're looking toward Him and your heart is upon Him. And so that's due to around me, 28 God's blessings upon us, fruitfulness blessings, peace, blessings of peace, and back then it meant for them literally not physical war. They weren't in battle. But for us, Jesus said in John 15-5, in other places there in John 15, I came that you might have peace and that you might bear much fruit. That's his desire for you, that you bear much, much fruit. And so we can think of things like the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are fruit that Jesus wants us to have. For hearts are upon Him. These things will grow. You want more self-control? You want more peace? You want more faithfulness? It's all springs from our faces being turned toward Him, our hearts being turned toward Him. You want more peace in your life, whether you're in great prosperity or great hardship. You want more peace in your life. Well, the key thing is that your heart is centered upon the Lord. Did you see it there? Why did we read about Paul and Philippians 1 and Philippians 4? Because Paul reveals in Philippians 1, I'm in prison and I'm rejoicing. And people are preaching Jesus to get me in trouble. And I'm rejoicing because at least Jesus' name is out there and people are talking about Him. And God can even use preaching of Jesus from bad motivation to get me in more trouble for people to become saved and to believe in Jesus. And so I'm rejoicing. I don't care that I'm here in prison. I'm rejoicing. I may even die. That may be my sentence at the end of my imprisonment. And then I get to go see Jesus. It doesn't matter what's happening to me. I have peace about it. I have joy about it because his heart was focused on the Lord. He was about what Jesus was doing in the world, what Jesus was doing with his life. And he knew Jesus was in control of it all. So he could rejoice. Again, he said, rejoice, he says to the Philippians. And then at the end, he recounts in Philippians 4. He says, you know, you guys gave to me when no one else could. They sent him money. So he could go on and preach and didn't have to work. He could just preach. And he said, but, you know, I've learned from the Lord to be content in all my circumstances, whether in plenty or in want or in lack of things. And this is what the Lord gives to us as our hearts are focused upon him. We're okay. We have fruitfulness in life regardless of our circumstances. We have peace in our life regardless of our circumstances. We can lose it all from the world's perspective and have it all because we still have Jesus. So conclusion, conclusion. It's simply stating Proverbs 4.23. Proverbs 4.23 says, this year's our application knowing how important the heart is, knowing that everything flows from our hearts, our obedience, our moods, everything that's going on comes from our hearts. Guard your heart. That's your conclusion. Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Guard your heart for it's the wellspring of life. Let's pray.