Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the transformative power of drawing near to God to hear His heart, urging believers to overcome fears and failures that hinder their relationship with Him. He illustrates that true nearness to God enhances our ability to hear Him clearly, just as understanding one another's hearts improves communication in relationships. The sermon challenges listeners to prioritize listening over speaking, recognizing that our words carry significant weight and consequences. Beach encourages repentance and a commitment to draw closer to God, assuring that this nearness will lead to clarity and healing in our lives and relationships. Ultimately, he calls for a heartfelt response to God's love, inviting everyone to embrace the challenge of drawing near to Him.

Thank you, Lord, for your incredible, unspeakable love. A love, Lord, that we cannot comprehend, nor can we deny its power. How it draws us and attracts us and conquers our fears. Lord, we pray that today you would take the word and by your love make it real. Lord, help us to understand your heart today. Help us to know, Lord, you're a passionate, loving God, who wants to inflame in us passion for you. Oh, God, please help us to hear your heart. Help us to hear your word today, Lord. And give us the grace to accept the challenge today, in spite of our fears, in spite of our failures, in spite of our weaknesses. Lord, help us to know that you're greater than these things. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen. Many are held today, many are held paralyzed by fear, paralyzed by failure, paralyzed by the unknown. And we feel that because of these things in our life, we can't go on. But God has a word today that will empower us and give us faith and hope in light of our struggles, in light of our fears, in light of our failures. Whatever it is in your life today that you feel is instrumental in just holding you back from being in a relationship with the Lord that you long to be in, but you just can't seem to get there. Today, today, God's word will address that. I want to show you two words, because these two words make up the spiritual womb out from which the whole heart of God is being revealed today, the spiritual womb out from which all that God wants to speak to us today. So the key to grasp and to lay hold of and to partake of this heart of the Lord is found in these two words, near, hear. The nearer we are to Him, the clearer we hear Him. Nearness corresponds to heart. If you don't know someone's heart, you can misunderstand them so easily, can't you? One of the beautiful things about being married decade after decade after decade is through trial and error and through more than you'd like to admit, from misjudging each other, you begin to learn each other's heart. To draw near to one another in a husband and wife relationship is to draw near to the heart, and to draw near to the Lord is to draw near to His heart. Now, with drawing near to the Lord's heart, we hear clearly. You see, when we're not close to one another in heart, we hear, but we don't hear. Is that right? And we misunderstand and we misjudge so often. And so here's the challenge today. Please listen carefully, all right? Here's the challenge today. If you want to hear more clearly, the way to hear more clearly is discovered through drawing nearer to His heart. Now, just a few moments. We just want to follow the Lord. He alone knows the way. How many are learning that? He knows the way. We're going to apply this just for a few moments. As I sensed this morning, the Lord keeps everything practical. He keeps everything practical. Do you want to get nearer to your husband, your wife, your children, your brothers and sisters in Christ? Stop focusing on words alone. Because, see, listen, it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh, right? It's out of the heart that words come, all right? And so if we just listen to this and don't ask Jesus to help us understand what the reality is in the heart, then when we hear this, we're not going to touch base with one another. We're going to misjudge. We're going to misunderstand. We're going to be easily offended. And so, now, it's not an easy thing to say, Lord, I want to know the heart. Because if you are desiring to know the heart of someone, it's going to cost you something. It costs you something to learn about someone's heart. It costs you something. It's not an easy way. It's a difficult way. Because it requires that we take time to listen. It requires that we keep our mouth shut and listen. Keep your mouth shut and listen. Listen with an open heart. Listen with an honest heart. Listen with a non-critical heart. Most of the time, when we sit and listen to someone, we're not listening to what they're saying. We're thinking about our response to what they're saying. We've already judged their heart. We've already made our conclusion about what they're trying to say. And we've already got our answer on the tip of our tongue, just waiting for them to take a breath so we can insert it. Now, you're not wanting to learn anyone's heart by doing that. Do you know what you're doing when you do that? You're wanting to exert your own self. That's what you want to do. You want to exert yourself. You don't want to take the time to listen. You don't want to draw near to the heart. You just want to talk. You think you already know. And the fact is we don't know. We don't even know our own hearts so often. And the Lord has to help us. So let's not take lightly this call. Now, this is on a natural plane, but doesn't Jesus teach us natural things in order to teach us heavenly and spiritual things? What do you think it will mean if we begin to draw near to the Lord? It's the same principle. It's the same principle. You draw near to His heart, you're going to have to listen. You're going to have to listen. You're going to have to become a pupil, a learner, a student. It takes time to listen. Oh, no. I know we're too busy to listen, aren't we? Husbands, when was the last time you sat down and listened to what your wife had to say? Now, don't be quick to answer and make yourself a liar. I didn't say how many of you have sat down and just given them a minute to talk while you're somewhere else. When was the last time you sat and listened and really tried to listen and understand what the heart's saying? How many feel that they do that real well? Okay. It's good to see honesty. Now, look, listen. If we're barely, barely understanding how to do that with people we see, what's going on with our relationship with the one we don't see? The same thing or worse. Same thing. How many here say, oh, I really love God? Okay. Can you love God any more than you love your brothers and sisters and wife and family? No, we can't. See? We can't love the one we see any more than the God that we don't love. In other words, we can't love the God that we don't see any more than how it's demonstrated in our loved one toward another. Okay, so let me ask a question, all right? How many here want to draw near to God's heart? How many here know that that's the call of God this morning? Huh? Let's see if this works. I haven't used it in months. All right. Our toys, what can you do? We all have toys. All right, there you go. Now, listen carefully. This is not a light thing here. This is not a light thing. Nearness to God brings clarity to hearing God. Nearness to one another brings clarity in hearing each other. Parents, it's very easy to listen to your children but not listen to them. Very easy. Very easy. You who have younger children, write this down. Write this down somewhere where you'll be able to recall it in the future. It is a great battle to keep listening to your children and to keep wanting to understand what their words are actually trying to communicate from their heart. You see, God doesn't have that problem because did you know that God doesn't hear a word you say? Did you know that? He doesn't hear a word you say? Because the word that you say is only your human way of communicating the language of your heart. God reads the language of the heart. So God doesn't hear a word you say. Now, you understand He does. That's just a way to emphasize. Before that word comes to your tongue, God already sees it in your heart. He already sees it in your heart. But you know what? As mortal men and women, we don't see what's in each other's heart, do we? No, we don't. And so when the word comes out, if we don't study and stay fixed on asking God to help us to understand each other's heart, then we're going to hear the word and we're going to misconstrue it to mean something it doesn't mean. We're not going to hear the language of the heart. So we're going to have to take time to listen. Now, what should be happening right now is gentle conviction of the Holy Spirit should be flooding all of us right now. And the conviction of the Holy Spirit is showing us how we don't take time to know each other's heart. And therefore, not only do we not take time to know each other's heart, but we're not taking time to know our Lord's heart. And it makes him sorry. OK, so what's what's the way? Always we've learned this over and over again. What is the way to lay hold of what God is saying? The first thing is to acknowledge what? Our guilt. That's it, Norman. It's OK to acknowledge your guilt. It's OK. It's OK to say, oh, Lord. This is really beyond me. Matter of fact, Lord, I see in my life the tendency to not want to give any time to hear hearts. I just want to hear words and then be quick to give my response. Really, Lord, the biggest interest I have in life without you helping me is my agenda. It's my agenda. Lord, I don't want this to be like this because you you're with me and you've shown me the right way, Lord, and you've given me that desire. But Lord, golly gee, it's certainly not what I am, Lord, in myself. I need your help. Now, is everybody OK with repentance? We need to go back to repentance. We hit on repentance for a while, didn't we? Week after week, month after month. We're OK with repentance? Are we OK with seeing our lack? Do we feel the need to justify ourselves before God and say, well, that's true about my brother, but I certainly don't think it's true about me. Is that where we're at? Or are we to the place where we say, oh, no, Lord, I know that this shoe fits me very nicely. You know the old saying, if the shoe fits, wear it. Yeah. OK, so I don't want to go quickly. We can just go through this. The Lord has opened up so much here, but I don't want it to be a scholastic education. I want it to be something that touches our hearts. OK. Let's let's just look at this now. Now, recently I was in touch with someone who indicated. That they are reluctant to draw near. To God, because they're afraid of what they might hear. Interesting, huh? They're afraid of what they might hear if they get very near. There's a lot of truth to that, isn't it? You know, if you get near to the heart of your husband or wife, you might hear something that requires you to die a little more to yourself. If you listen to what your children are saying, parents, you might hear something that you realize is partly your fault. You've neglected them. You've not clearly explained something to them. So there's a risk in drawing near for fear of what you might hear. But the other side of the coin is just as real. There's a risk, Norman, in following afar off for fear of what you won't hear. And so there's that tension in our hearts, that conflict. If I draw near to his heart, I might hear what I don't want to hear. But if I follow him from a distance, I fear that I won't hear what I need to hear. And if I don't hear what I need to hear, then who am I following? My own counsel, or maybe the counsel of the serpent, whose agenda for your life is to destroy you and kill you. And to ruin all that God wants to do. And so, out from the womb of nearness to God's heart, comes a greater capacity to hear. And out from the womb of growing close to each other's heart, grows the capacity to hear what people are really saying. Turn your Bibles to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, verse number 23. Now listen closely. I am hoping that this will entice us this morning in a manner unlike before. John chapter 13, verse 23. John 13, verse 23. Listen carefully. There was at the table, reclining in Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Now what is this scripture telling us? There was one at the table who was reclining. Now, who has another translation, reclining? What's it say? Leaning. All right, so we have reclining, leaning. Anyone else? Resting. What was this disciple wanting to do? Right here. Right here. This disciple was reclining, resting, leaning on the bosom of Jesus. And what he was doing, he was saying, Lord, I want to lay my head on that holy heart of yours and hear what it has to say. Now, where are you reclining your head today? Every husband here should long, by the grace of God, to lay his head on his wife's heart. And listen. Listen. Anything less than that is following from a distance. From a distance. Following from a distance. Now turn your Bibles, if you would, please, to Genesis 13. Genesis 13. Now here is an Old Testament illustration of this wonderful truth that the Holy Spirit is challenging us with at this moment. Genesis 13. This is the story of Abraham and Lot. And Abraham and Lot had great herds. And they had the field before them. But there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot. Because their cattle were so large in number, and there was strife over whether or not Abraham's cattle would be able to graze, or whether Lot's cattle would be able to graze. And there was a little strife and tension. I could imagine the herdsmen of Abraham saying, Hey, hey, you stay over there from that line over. This is for my master's herd. And Lot's herdsmen would say, Oh, no, it's for my master's. And there was strife and jealousy and contention. And who knows? They might have even gotten into a fist fight. That doesn't say that. But isn't that human nature? Let's be real. People are the same. They might have cursed at each other. And Abraham saw this. And here's what Abraham did in response to that. What was it? Verse 9. Let's go to verse 9. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. Listen now. If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot, oh God, help us to hear this now. Listen carefully. And Lot lifted up his eyes. Now be very careful when you lift up your eyes. Because when you lift up your eyes, your eyes are revealing what's in your heart. Okay? Now let's see what Lot saw when he lifted up his eyes. He lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. So Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves one from the other. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against Jehovah exceedingly. Now, the Bible says that Abraham went and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre. But Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now you know what we're dealing with now? We're dealing with heart issues now. We're dealing with heart issues. This coincides now with John wanting to put his head on the master's bosom and hear his heart. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, but Abraham dwelt by the oaks of Mamre. Now the oaks of Mamre. Mamre means roots, deep roots. The oaks of Mamre. Abraham had his heart set on a deep knowing and relationship with the Almighty God, but Lot had his heart set on moving toward Sodom. Where did Lot end up? In Sodom. So what does it say? He pitched his tent toward Sodom initially, but then he ended up where? In it. Okay? But Abraham pitched his tent at the place where the oaks of Mamre were. And the oaks of Mamre in the Scripture represent God in His strength, in His stability. Roots deep in God. Wanting to know the heart of God. Wanting to be near so He could hear. Now, if you're near Sodom and Gomorrah in heart now, this is not saying that you can't move to New York City and we'll call New York City a modern Sodom and Gomorrah or any of the other large cities in the nation. This isn't talking about physical now. You can move to New York City. It's fine. But where's your heart? Where are you resting your heart? What's your heart after? That's it. Now listen, whatever you're near, you're going to hear. If you're getting near the heart of God, you're going to hear the Word of God. But if you're pitching your tent towards Sodom, what are you going to hear? You're going to hear what the world is saying. Draw near to God. Listen. And you will hear God. Draw near to Sodom. You will hear Sodom. And if you hear Sodom, you will end up where? In Sodom. And if you hear God, you will end up pursuing God. Okay. Father, we're going to stop here just for a moment and we're going to pray. Okay. Lord, we all stand as weak, needy brothers and sisters. There is only one in our midst, our lovely Lord Jesus, whose heart is fixed on You entirely, perfectly, flawlessly. And it's because of that that He is the Exalted One. He is the Holy One. And He is the one that all heaven worships and all earth will one day bow down to. And Father, we thank You for Your Word so far, but we feel the need to pray and ask for help. We can't run through these fields, Lord. We have to crawl. Now, Lord, help us by the power of the Holy Spirit of God to desire to draw near Your heart. Lord, help us to be like the disciple that You loved, who was reclining on the bosom of Jesus, listening to His every heartbeat, listening to His Word, finding safety in close proximity to His Savior, safety in close proximity to His Savior, and danger when there's distance. Lord, forgive us, we pray, because we so often don't take time to recline at Your heart, nor do we listen to the hearts of our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives and children, and it brings heartache and trouble into our lives. Help us at this crossroad that we're at right now, we pray. As we just quietly listen to the Lord, I'm wondering now, everyone in your own heart, if you're hearing the Lord challenge you to make it your priority to draw nigh and near to His heart, that you want Him to help you. Just make, by faith now, in your own heart, a transaction with Him and say, yes, Lord, I want to draw near to Your heart, and I also want to learn how to listen to the heart of my family and my brothers and sisters. Forgive me for not hearing their heart and misjudging them and hurting them and saying things that I shouldn't have said. Forgive me, Lord. Lord, draw me by Your love into close proximity to Your heart, I pray, Lord. Okay. If the Lord has shown you that there's certain areas in your heart where you've set your tent towards Sodom, right now, uproot it. Uproot it and say, Lord, show me the oaks of Mamre. Show me, Lord, where I can place my heart next to Your heart. Lord, help me to set my heart on You. Nothing else. Okay. Now listen. Please. When we begin to draw near to God, and remember, nearness of proximity awakens our capacity to hear. When we draw near to God, and when we draw near to our brothers and sisters and husbands and wives, it is going to result in hearing. Now listen. It's going to result in hearing what we might not want to hear. And if we're not prepared to humble ourselves in the hand of God and not let that resistance that's going to come by nature control us, but pray, God, You overrule this resistance, this knee-jerk reaction that I have, and Lord, You give me the grace to conquer this resistance so that when I hear, because I am near, I will not fear and draw back, but hold steady. Is this making sense? Good. I hope so. Now, here is something that we're going to hear when we draw near. All right? Here's something we're going to hear if we draw near. This is one of the biggest fears that we have in drawing near because of what we're going to hear. Now here's what we're going to hear. Before we go into the Scripture and show you, I want to give you an illustration. There's a story of a preacher who became the object of a person's hostility. And for many months, this person said with their words many things that soiled, defiled, and misrepresented the preacher. Many months. But one Sunday morning, the Holy Spirit descended and that lady began to draw near to the heart of God. And as she drew near to the heart of God, she heard the voice of God. And here's what God said to her. You have sinned with your mouth and your words, and you need to go and ask that preacher for forgiveness. And so after the service, she went to the preacher's study, knocked on the door. Come in. She walked in. And immediately, because she was in different proximity to the heart of God than she was before that morning. And so as a result of being in different proximity to the heart of God, she was near the heart of God, she was suddenly hearing very clearly the heart of God. And as she walked in, she immediately began to weep because she saw the horror of what she had done with her words. And she fell down on her knees and she basically said, please forgive me. And the pastor, willing to forgive as freely and as quickly as he himself had been forgiven by his Lord, but also being near to the heart of God as he was, and hearing God, he knew that the Lord wanted to teach this dear saint a very important lesson. And so he said, I want you to do something and then come back and then we'll pray together. She said, anything. I'm sorry, what? He said, I want you to take a pillowcase and I want you to fill the pillowcase with feathers. Fill them to the very top. And in that small little town there was a big mountain. He said, I want you to go to the top of that mountain on the windiest day within the next seven days. The windiest day. Listen to the forecast. Find out when it's going to be the windiest. Go up to the top of the mountain and in the wind, take the bag and empty the feathers and let the feathers be blown in the wind. And when you do that, you come back to me and we'll pray. She said, OK. And so she listened. She found out that in a few days there was going to be gale winds of up to 50 miles an hour. That's got to be the day. She went up there, emptied the sack in the wind and lo and behold, the feathers went everywhere in that little town. Everywhere. Every street. Almost every house. The feathers, they were carried by the wind. So she said, alright. She went back, knocked on the pastor's study. He said, come on in. He said, have you done what I asked? She said, yes, I have. He said, OK, now I have one more request and then we'll pray. I want you to go and I want you to get all those feathers and put them back in the sack. She was perplexed and confused. She said, but pastor, that's impossible. It's impossible. There were hundreds and hundreds and they were blown all over the place. God only knows where they're all at. I probably can't even find one, let alone all of them. And he looked at her and he said, Sister, I forgive you for what you have done. I forgive you for what you have done. I forgive you. You can undo what your words have done. And just like you can't go back and take those feathers, you can't go back and undo the damage that your words have done. And don't ever forget this, dear sister. Forgiveness is never an issue. But there's consequences. Listen, listen. There's consequences when you don't live near to the heart of God. And every one of those consequences will ultimately be seen in what was said that shouldn't have been said. And when we come back to our Father's heart and we start hearing clearly, the first thing that we will hear are the words that we have said like the feathers. James 3. As you're turning there, James 3. I want to read Proverbs 18.21. Listen closely. Proverbs 18.21. Listen carefully. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Do you know one of the greatest benefits we experience when we draw near to the heart of God and begin to hear His word? The greatest benefit? We're slow to speak and swift to hear. And when we're about to speak, if we're near enough to the heart of God, we feel that gentle but firm check. Keep your mouth shut. Don't say that. And God preserves us from sowing death by our words. Destruction. Hurt. Which, after we draw back closer to God and we know we're forgiven and the person is forgiven us, undo the damage. How many here have ever called someone you love a horrible name? But you've been reconciled and you know that you've been forgiven and they have forgiven you. But you see the lurking damage of it in their emotions, in their mind, in their memories, and it breaks your heart. You can't get it. You can't pull that feather out, can you? It's there. The power of life and death are in the tongue. You say, well, how can I be rescued from this? Near the heart of God will enable me to hear the heart of God. The only way that we can be rescued from this horrible, horrible snare of the devil is to beg God to help us stay near to the heart of God. What will you hear when you're near God's heart? The Bible says in the book of Matthew that every idle word that is spoken men shall have to give an account for. Every idle word. The word idle there means every word that is not true, that does not have value. Every word that tears down, that defames, that mocks, that misrepresents the truth. Every word that shows death. Every word that has the scent of hell on it and the fuel of hell's fire under it. Every word we will have to give an account for on the day of judgment. Brothers and sisters, I can't emphasize this enough in our closing moments. I cannot emphasize this enough. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Nearness to God will not result in greatness. Nearness to God's heart will not result necessarily in success by the world's standards. Nearness to God will not result in a happy life. Nearness to God will not result in you always having what you want. Nearness to God will not necessarily give you the American dream. But nearness to God will convict you of your words and will bring you to the place where you cannot and will not speak unless you know it's what's profitable for the moment. Now, is that your opinion, brother Phil? No. No, it's not. It's God's Word. James chapter 3. Listen closely to the first few verses of James chapter 3. How many here are experiencing the incredible draw of the Holy Spirit? Enticing you and alluring you by His love to draw closer to His heart? I am. James chapter 3. Listen closely. Now, I'm going to read it from this version and then I'm going to give you another translation, not a better translation, another possible one. Very, very telling. This is the American Standard Version. It says, Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. Now, another translation which was brought out to me when I was in another country a few years ago was this. Be not much teaching among you. I like that because what it does is it helps us to understand that we might not be, quote-unquote, a teacher, but when we open our mouth and start talking, we're teaching. It's easy to say with the former translation, be not many teachers, to say, oh well, praise God, I'm not a teacher. Thank God. Boy, God help brother Phil. God help brother Phil. 25 years now, God help you. I'm not going to be a teacher. You escape somehow, don't you? But that's not at all what the heart of God is after here. You know what God is saying? God is saying this, be careful because every time you open your mouth, you're teaching. And so don't let there be much teaching in your midst because much teaching will result in greater judgment to those who are engaging in it. Every time you open your mouth up and start talking to someone about something, you're teaching something. You're teaching. You might not claim to be a teacher. You might not be an official teacher in any official capacity, but you're teaching your wife. You're teaching your husband. You're teaching your children. You're teaching your neighbors every time you open your mouth and start talking. And let me just say this real quick, beloved. It's very dangerous to be teaching when you are not near the heart of God. Very dangerous. Is this intended to bring us into bondage, brother Phil? No liberty. All right, listen. Verse 2, For in many things we all stumble. Now watch. If any man stumbles not in word, or if any man does not offend in word, the same is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body also. Now you know what that means? In many things, we who teach cause many people to be offended. Not because of the truth. He's not talking about teaching the truth and thereby many are being offended. But he's talking about being a teacher and saying things you ought not to say and causing untold damage to occur in the lives of those listening to your teaching. What teaching are you teaching your children, your mother, your father, your wife, your husband? What are you teaching them? What are you teaching them? If any man does not stumble in his teaching, that man is perfect, or that man is mature, or that man is ripened, and he's able also to bridle his whole body. Now you know what this tells me? It tells me that the man who draws near to the heart of God and stays leaning, reclining, like John, on the breast of Jesus will teach the right thing and will keep his body from acting wrong. His whole body will be bridled. See, everything that we say ultimately results in some kind of action. And action results in sin. And so therefore, God is showing us in James 3 the way to keep ourselves from sinning against God, ourselves, and others is to focus on the heart. The heart of Jesus, and to draw near to it. And to beg Him to help us recline inwardly where we're wanting to hear His heart every day. And then that will result in God chastening us over the things we're saying, the things we're saying, the comments we're making to people that are not coming from His heart and that are causing damage and hurt. Okay, where are we at today? How close? How near? Near here. The nearer we are, the more we hear Him. Now let me tell you something about your tongue. And this is right from the Bible. Just read verses 3, 4, and 5. The tongue cannot be tamed. You can control a horse by a bridle. You can control a huge ship by a helm, right? But the tongue, no man can tame, James says. It is an unruly member. It is, listen, it is a world of iniquity. And when it is unbridled, it is being set on fire by the very fires of hell itself. The tongue, the words that we speak. What are you saying on the phone? What are you saying to your friends? What are you saying to one another? What are you saying, brothers and sisters? Are you near enough to the heart of God where you can see the difference between the words that come from His heart and the words that come out of the world of iniquity within that is set on fire by hell fire and sets on course the very nature of sin? Who can tame the tongue? No man but God. The heart, listen, we're closing. The heart that leans heavily, heavily reclines, rests close to the heart of Jesus will be subdued by the power of His nearness. Not by the power of your theology. You can have theology and be far in your heart from God. And do you know what your theology will do for you? Make you a bona fide Pharisee. And if you stay in that condition very long, Jesus will point you out and say, Now, you can do what brother so and so says, but don't do what he does. Because he's a hypocrite. He's got all the right theology, but his heart is far from me. And so, in closing, the hope in this whole message and the call from God today is that the heart, the mouth, the tongue can only be conquered and tamed and subdued as it finds a daily, moment by moment, day by day, resting place immersed against the heart of Jesus and His Word. Are you tired of the old patterns in your life? Are you tired of saying the same thing over and over again that's hurting your brother, your sister, your husband, wife? Are you tired of being a cynical, critical person? Are you tired? Does that skeleton haunt you in the closet? Are you tired of that? Are you so tired you're discouraged? You want to sometimes give up on the whole thing? Don't give up. Draw near. Draw near. And hear. And don't fear. I spell our hearts right now. And in the power and presence of Jesus Christ, we shall together draw near to God's heart. But I just feel to say this, if you draw near to God's heart, do not fear what He will speak to you and show you. Don't fear it. But take care of it. If He requires you to repent, repent. If He requires you to acknowledge something, acknowledge it. Just get close to Him. And He will show you the power of His presence will subdue that evil that lurks within. And your tongue will not be an instrument through which the devil will sow his fire in your family, but it will be an instrument through which the Holy Spirit will sow truth and love and mercy and grace into your family. And that will bring forth eternal results. And as far as the damage that's already been done, that you've sown with your tongue, that I've sown with my tongue, here's what you do with it. Commit it to God. And let it be a reminder to walk softly before God. Real soft. Even with a limp like Jacob. Walk softly. God is able. God knew. And God is able to heal. But that's not your business. That's God's. Bow our hearts before the Lord. Father, we're just going to sit in Your presence now for a few moments. We ask that You would take Your Word and through the Holy Spirit, let us draw near to You. Speak to everyone here the Word that they need to hear in Jesus' name. Do it, Lord. Just for a few moments, let's let Him speak. If you want to pray with someone, go ahead. If you want to embrace someone, go ahead. Draw near. Hear. And don't fear.