mm hmm. It's my honor and privilege to introduce to you our guest speaker this morning. And so our guest, I met him through really our tribe vision Arizona. And so he and his family moved down here and got connected with cornerstone Fellowship there in the southeast part of the valley. And so he currently leads the singles group for twenties and thirties as well as he's on the teaching team. They're at Cornerstone Fellowship. And so would you please join me and well giving a Mission Grove Welcome to our guest speaker today Brent hatchet. Yeah, thank you. Well, what's up Mission Grove? So good to see you. As john said, my name is Brent. I get the wonderful opportunity to serve as a singles twenties thirties Pastor at cornerstone and also on the teaching team. I've got this really crazy goal which is to grow that group as large as possible but shrink them as much as possible so they can get married and stay out of sin. Amen. Um, so it's been really awesome. See he caught it. Amen. It's been super awesome. I brought my family with me here today there at the first service. I have a newborn, she's six months old, so I'm pretty sure the reason why my wife is not in the room at the moment is because she's dealing with her. She is absolutely a gorgeous little girl. Her name is Missouri, the best part about her is she does sleep through the night. Uh So if you have, yep, if you've got young kids, you know what I'm talking about, my wife and I, we've been married for 9.5 years yesterday, she just turned 34. So super super excited about that. We've got a seven year old son, his name is Brent. We call him L. B. For little Brent. He's either going to be a preacher or an actor when he grows up because the boy is extra, Uh, he gets that 1,000% from his daddy. Uh, with that being said, Hey, can I take a moment and just give a crazy awesome mega shout out to your pastor? Pastor John, could you guys put your hands together for him? Let me tell you why man, I'm, I'm not a lead pastor. I don't envy the shoes that he's in for him to. Uh, we talked earlier, basically launch and relaunch and relaunch again all because of covid. Uh, and so many other things for him to be still growing strong. It's just a testament of the favor of God that's on his life and the things that God is doing in and through his life. And I'm super excited man to see where not only a pastor john and his family is going to go, but also what, How God's gonna use him in the kingdom to advance Mission Grove. So hey, with that being said, did anybody come excited about the word this morning? All right, well if you have your bibles turn with me to the book of proverbs, chapter four, The book of proverbs. Chapter four As you're turning there, I'm gonna just take a moment to pray. Hey, jesus, thank you so much for being awesome, for being mighty for being amazing and for being great God. I ask that you would increase as I decrease, give me a preaching power that only comes from you, from your holy spirit to say what it is you want me to say and nothing more than that. And I pray that when we leave this place, God we would leave here knowing that you love us and that you're drawing us closer to you. So I thank you God bless you and jesus name, We pray and give thanks and everybody said amen. So as you all can tell, I'm come from a black baptist background. So I love it. When you all talk back to me, you don't gotta be quiet in church, we are in a club so you can make as much noise as you want to make Amen. Hey, so real quick, we're going to continue one of the series that you guys are in in proverbs and y'all, I absolutely love, love, love the book of proverbs as a matter of fact, when this whole country got shut down and the pandemic started my wife and I intentionally uh took a month to just go through one proverb a day and it was amazing you all know that the book of proverbs just a book of wisdom, but more than it being a book of wisdom, it is also a book where Solomon, who is the author of this book, writes it to his son and he basically lays out for him that this is a book of choices, choices that will determine the path of your life. And and as you read proverbs was so amazing. You will notice that there are a lot of times when Solomon references the heart, the heart, and the reason why Solomon references the heart so much is because Solomon understands that it is the heart uh that will basically determine the trajectory of our lives for the rest of our lives. And here's the thing when the bible speaks of the heart and hebrew culture, it's often speaking of the mind the way that you think the decisions that you make are often going to be influenced by how you think. But it also when it speaks of the heart, it is talking about the emotions that you have the way that you feel. And in just a moment, Solomon is gonna drop some amazing wisdom on his son here in proverbs chapter four regarding how it is so critical that he guards his heart. Now, before we read this passage, here's what I want us to do. We're gonna look at proverbs for versus 20 to 27 as a whole. I'm not gonna read up to verse number 23 but here's what I want you to do today. I want you when you're reading versus 20 through 23. I want you to imagine just for a second, uh that this is God writing a letter to you and this is God giving you instructions personally as it relates to guarding your heart. So let's read it, proverbs. Chapter four, beginning at verse number 20. It says this, my child. Pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart. For they bring life to those who find them and healing to their whole body. Verse 23. Here it is. He says guard your heart above all else. Why? Because it determines the course of your life. When Solomon is writing this text, y'all he is telling you and I went to guard our heart. He's saying I need you to guard your mind and I need you to guard your emotions. Because those are the two biggest influences that will determine the choices that you make and the choices that you make will determine the trajectory of your life for the rest of your life. They will determine the pathway for your life. I love to always have a big idea whenever I have an opportunity to share God's word. So here's the big idea. This is the one thing that I want you to write down. This is the one thing that I want you to commit to memory and understand it all week long. And it is simply this heart for God leads to life in purpose. But a heart for self leads to death and destruction. I'll say it again, a heart for God. It leads to life and purpose, but a heart for self leads to death and destruction. God wants you and I to have an amazing pathway of life. And that's not to say that we won't have some challenges. That's not to say that we won't have some struggles, but here's what he wants us to have. He wants you and I to have a life that is filled with fulfilling the purpose that he has on our lives. But if we're not doing that, we find ourselves in a place where we have a heart where it's all about self, all about me, all about what I want, all about what I want to do. And when you end up with a heart like that, it ends up going down the road full of destruction and death. You all know that there's one person in the bible who God says, hey, this is a man that is after my own heart. Who's that guy? Somebody read their bible. Amen real quick. If you've got it, I want you to turn with me the first Samuel Chapter 13 I want to introduce to you how David gets this title as being a man after God's own heart. Here's the thing before David ever steps on the scene, there's this man by the name of Saul, you all know about him, saw unfortunately gets a bad rap in the bible as basically a bad guy. And there's this point in first Samuel chapter 13 where Saul had just become king. Uh, he had just got into this battle with the Philistines and as he's in this battle with the Philistines or Philistines are Philistines, tomato tomato, you decide how you want to pronounce it. But as he is in this battle, he finds himself in a really tight spot and then this really tight spots, He panics because God gives him this instruction through Samuel earlier that says, hey, in seven days I'll be here. I'll show up in this battle that you're in, wait till I come when I come, will make the sacrifice unto God the whole nine yards. Well, instead, he takes matters into his own hands. Does something that he has no authority to do, Disobeys guide and then sent this moment that Saul loses the kingdom. Samuel steps on the scene and says, what is this thing you have done? Saul gives all of these excuses for his disobedience. And I want you to see the conversation uh, that Samuel has with Saul and how it introduces David. Samuel says this to solve how foolish Samuel exclaimed. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end. For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. One of the questions that I have for you and I is, what kind of heart do you have? Do you have a heart that has a love for God that will render life and purpose? Or do you have a heart That's about self, that will lend itself towards death and destruction? One of the things that I love about David is when God says this is a man after my own heart, he's not saying that David is a man that has my heart. He's saying that David is a man that is pursuing my heart. He's chasing to have the same type of heart that I have. And here's the thing, If you and I are truly going to guard our hearts, that means that guarding your heart requires you to pursue God's heart. One of the things that I love about David is that David was a man who pursued God heart. What does it mean to pursue God's heart? It means to have a mind like God, But it also means to feel like God, when it comes to having a mind like God understanding why, how God would want you to make decisions. The only way you can understand the mind of God is if you take the time to read the word of God, sometimes last year when this whole pandemic thing first launched off and I was taking some time to be more intentional and scripture. There was one prayer that I prayed every single day. I still pray that same prayer today and I will pray that prayer until the day I die. And the prayer is simply this God let the words that are written in your word be written on my heart so that I may live them out. I'll say it again. God let the words that are written in your word be written on my heart so that I may live them out By the way. I absolutely love you. You gave me my first Amen today, Hallelujah. But here's the thing y'all. We cannot be a people that know scripture but doesn't live scripture. The only way that you and I will ever be able to live scripture if we understand that this is more than just black ink on white paper, but this is God's living breathing a holy word and we've got to allow it to penetrate our hearts, penetrate our mind, penetrate our emotions so that we can live it out. And the only way you do that is by meditating on it. As the salma says in psalms one, I will meditate on your word day and night when you do that. That's when you and I get to this place. Now we start understanding and having the mind of God thinking how God would think about life in perspective and issues and things that we have to deal with. But I wonder we have to think like God, when it says guard your hearts, we have to have the mind of God. But we also have to feel like God. And here's what I mean, like that. We've got to get to a place to where our heart breaks for the same things that God's heart breaks for God. God's heartbreaks over Sin. God's heartbreaks over unrighteous nous God's heartbreaks over injustice. God hearts breaks over widows and orphans and those in need. We've got to get to a place to where the things that break God's heart begins to break our heart. God's heart breaks for the loss. I hope that you realize that you being a member and being a part of Mission Grove is not so you can come here on Sundays and being a really cool vibe in a club and go to a splash pad. But it's because God has called this church to make a major impact in the valley. The valley that is only reaching 10% of people at this moment. Yet it's one of the fastest-growing cities in America. God has a heart that is breaking for the loss in this place. And I believe what God wants to do in here is so significant. And he's waiting on me and waiting on you. He's waiting on us collectively to get to this place that says, you know what God, I don't want to hurt. That's for self, because it leads for death and destruction. I want to heart for you because it leads to life and purpose. Here's the thing, David was this man who had a heart after God. There was a heart that was full of life and purpose. And I think one of the reasons why David's heart was so full of life and purpose, y'all, is because David was a faithful man. Uh, he was faithful when it came to serving his father and and serving those sheeps and being the least of his brothers. He was, he was faithful as it relates to even serving up under Saul, a man who tried to kill him on multiple occasions. But yet David never lifted a sword against him because he thought like God and and felt like God and he was guarding his heart. David was a faithful man until he wasn't. If we fast forward to Second Samuel, we're gonna look at Second Samuel Chapter 12 versus one through seven, you're gonna see something really interesting about David's life. David goes from this man of being a God after my own heart to having this conversation with this prophet named Nathan. And he goes from being a man after my own heart to that man. And the reason he became that man. And it makes sense to you in just a moment is because he all of a sudden stop guarding his heart. Which leads me to this point when you and I stopped pursuing God's heart, you start poisoning your heart. I'll say it again when you and I stopped pursuing God's heart. You start poisoning your heart. This is what happened to David. David. Y'all was the man. He had people singing songs about him. Saul has slain his thousands. But David, his tens of thousands, he was hot stuff. He he became the king. He was sitting in the big chair. Everybody knew him as this public success. And then one day he saw this woman sitting on a rooftop and she was bathing and David looked at that woman and said, who? That woman is fine, Right? He was he was in the he was in the cut like spice Adams like this on the commercial. Like, right, So David summons his guys to go and get that woman. David goes and gets this woman. And y'all, David goes from being this man after God's own heart. This man who was guarding his heart when Saul was trying to attack him to this man who was sleeping with somebody else's wife. And then, not only does he sleep with somebody else's wife, he sends her off, but then he gets this woman that she be pregnant. But then, to make matters worse, he tries to cover up all the stuff that he does. Your idea comes back in town, who's bat Sheba's husband and he tries everything he can to get your I. A. To sleep with bathsheba and it doesn't work. And as a last resort, David ends up having this man killed this guy, went from being a man after God's own heart, pursuing the heart of God to an adulterer, to a liar, to a manipulator, to a murderer. And now he finds himself with a poisoned heart. And then Nathan steps up to him and he begins to have this conversation with them. And here's how the conversation goes. In. Second Samuel chapter 12 versus one through seven. It says this. So the Lord sent Nathan the private to tell David this story. There were two men in a certain town, one was rich and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought, He raised that little lamb and it grew up with the Children at eight from the man's own plate and drank from his cup. He coupled in his arms like a baby daughter. And then one day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. Instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man's lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guests. David was furious as surely as the Lord lives. He vowed any man who would do such a thing deserves to die. He must repay four lamps of the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity that Nathan said to David, you are that man. David was that man To where everything in his life became about self. He wasn't thinking about that Sheba's emotions or about Sheba's live for. He wasn't thinking about your idea. He wasn't thinking about anything but him self because he thought about self it put him on a path of death and destruction. Can I encourage you to not think so much about self when it comes to the relationship with your spouse? Don't think so much about self, but could you think about us when it comes to the relationship with your friends? Could you not think so much about self? But could you think about others when it comes to your relationships at work? Could you not think so much about self? But think about others? Heart for God leads to life and purpose, but a heart for self leads to death and destruction. When you and I get caught up on self, it leads us down a path that is full of hurt and pain and agony. And the only question I have for you today is is what kind of heart do you have? Do you have the heart that says, Hey, I'm gonna have a heart for God. That's gonna leave towards life and purpose in my family, life and purpose, with my career, life and purpose with friends, life and purpose in my church. I'm gonna have a heart for God. Or do I have a heart that's about self, it's gonna lead to death and destruction, destruction of relationships, destructions and marriage to whatever it is. What kind of heart am I going to have? And here's the crazy thing about David. David did all of his stuff in private. And my prayer is is that none of us in this room would be a public success, but a private failure. David was this public success. I'm the king, I ruled the world. I'm on top of the mountain, public success, but a private failure. And if you go and you read the rest of the passage when Nathan addresses him, he talks about how number one David and the rest of his family from now on, they're going to live according to the sword. Not only that. All of your wives, I'm gonna have them have an adulterous relationship on the rooftop and it's actually gonna be with your own son. The childhood you got birth to with bathsheba, that child is going to die. And then God says this through Nathan. He says what you did was in private. But what I'm gonna do now is going to be in public. The truth of the matter is, is that all of us in this room struggled with just a little bit of self. But what really can harm us making bad decisions if we don't deal with a little bit of self that we struggle with in a private place? Uh huh. I understand that the obvious sends you and I we can point those out and we'll try to get help to deal with those. But what are the private things that you struggle with that nobody knows about About your greed or about your anger? Or again, about selfishness? What are those things? Deal with those things? But I got good news for you, even though if you stop pursuing God's heart, it starts supporting your heart. Here's my last and my final point. It says this uh is simply this An unguarded heart is still a redeemable heart. I'll say it again. An unguarded heart is still the redeemable heart. Here it is, David. I mean, I don't know how much worse you can get as it relates to sin, Like it doesn't really get much worse than all the stuff that David did. But I want you to know what's the difference between Saul and David? When Saul got caught, Saul made all kind of excuses. But watch here in verse number 13 what David says when Nathan approaches him, he doesn't make excuses for his actions. Here's what he says. It says. Then David investor Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. My hope and my prayer is this is that you and I would have a heart for God that would lead towards life and purpose and not a heart for self, that would lead towards death and destruction. And if you're here today and you're listening to this message and you're saying to yourself Internally, because you don't want anybody to know externally. And I understand that 1,000%, you know what, there's some areas in my life and in my heart where it is all about self. My prayer for you and for me is simply this. That we would turn that we would turn back to this place and say God, here's my heart redeem it. And the reason why even though his heart was poisoning was redeemable, because if we look back now, today, we still look at David as a biblical hero. And the truth of the matter is is because God has still redeemed David's story, Jesus comes through the lineage of David and I want you to know this. The reason why I believe the Holy Spirit gave me this message was not to beat you up over the head. It was not to make you feel bad about yourself. The reason why I believe the Holy Spirit gave me this message is because he wants you to know that God radically loves you and he doesn't want selfishness to get in the way of the relationship between the two of you. God's got a purpose for your life or playing for your life, a strategy for your life. And there are awesome things ahead of you. But he says, I want you to get the heart right. I want you to have a heart for me that will lead towards life and purpose, and not a heart about self that will lead towards death and destruction. And again, I ask you this question, What kind of heart do you have? All right, I'm gonna close this out really quick. I'm gonna go to back to proverbs. Chapter four, Usually when the black preacher says he's about to close, that means he's got 30 minutes left. I promise you, I'm done in five, You're ready proverbs. Chapter Four I'm gonna look at the last couple of verses here versus 24 25 26 27. But here are some simple steps that you and I can take as it relates to garden your heart. So take notes here it is. Step number one. Watch what you say. Watch what you say. Step number two, guard what you see, guard what you see. Step number three playing where you go playing where you go and then step number four follow where he leads proverbs four verse number 24. Watch what you say, it says this avoid all perverse talk. Stay away from corrupt speech. If you and I are gonna have a heart that thinks like God and a heart that feels like God. We've got to be careful with who we let speak into our lives. You've got to be careful who you allow to have some type of influence over what it is that they are trying to say to you. If someone is saying something to you that's going to cause you to step outside of the will of God, then that's perverse talk, that's the type of person that you want to stay away from. But furthermore, you've got to even watch what you say to yourself because sometimes we can talk ourselves into some mess because we haven't allowed the word of God to penetrate our hearts, meaning our minds and our feelings. Our number one, watch what you say. What number to guard what you see. Verse 25 looked straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. My encouragement for you and I. There are gonna be so many things that are going to try to catch your eye that are going to try to tempt you that are going to try to get you to start thinking about self. My encouragement to all of us here today is to attain the eye to stay focused on jesus. Stay focused on what it is that jesus wants us to do, stay focused on what it is that jesus wants us to stay, stay focused on what it is, where jesus wants us to go pay intention and guard what you see by staying focused on jesus number three plan where you go verse number 26 says this, mark out a straight path for your feet and stay on that safe path. My encouragement to all of us here, if we're going to stay on the straight path, is to simply just plan your life here. A couple plans that I have for my own life. The plan for my marriage is simply this, that my marriage does not end until death do us part. That is the plan for my marriage. The plan for my kids is that all of my kids will grow up knowing and loving jesus, and not just coming to church, but being the church and the way I'm going to execute that plan is not just simply to raise my kids, but to disciple my kids, to make sure that my kids come up, understanding that God loves them, understanding the word of God and when they get on my nerves, you're gonna get a little pat pat on your bum bum, Amen, bless their hearts. But that is my plan for my kids, right? And then lastly, I pray that I'll end up being a broke preacher. So as a result, I've got to be a good Stuart over my finances. My encouragement to you. If you're going to guard your heart, which will determine the decisions of your life, The trajectory of your life for the rest of your life plan where you go. But then lastly, follow where he leads verse number 27. Don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. My hope and my encouragement to you and I is that we would have a heart that says God wherever you tell me to go, I'm gonna go whatever you tell me to do, I'm gonna do whatever you tell me to say, I must say, and anything that is contrary to your will in my life. I'm gonna put that in the evil category and I'm not gonna follow that. But I'm going to follow you heart for God leads to life and purpose, heart for self needs to death and destruction. The question I want you to ask yourself and answer is what kind of heart do I have to give somebody piece in this room? Let me let you know right now, that all of us have a little heart for self. And that's why it's so critical to understand that even that little bit of self that you got God can still redeem that and he wants us to get to the place to where all of us have a heart for him. Father, I thank you so much for this opportunity to share your word. God, I pray, I said what it is that you have wanted me to say now, God, as I get ready to take my seat, my prayer is that you would do a heart transplant on us, that all of us, God would have a heart that is about serving you and living for you in pursuing and chasing righteousness. I know that all of us want to live a blessed life and I'm so thankful for psalms. One where it says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of centres nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on it. Does he meditate day and night? God? My prayer is that as a church, that we would take delight in your word and that your word will begin to transform us from the inside out. And that God, that the words that are written in your word would be written on our hearts so that we could live them out, live them out, so that we can be salt and light in our marriage, live them out so that we can be salt and light on our jobs, live them out, so that we can be salt and light in our community. God help us live out your word and give us heart that would chase after your heart. We thank you, we bless you, we praise you, it's in jesus name. We pray and give thanks and everybody said Amen. Mhm.