This sermon delves into the importance of surrendering our hearts to God, emphasizing the need for a perfect heart devoted to Him, exploring the concept of holiness and the obligation of man to seek God's face, repent, and live a life dedicated to God's kingdom work.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? God is coming face to face Set our hearts on fire Glory, glory, glory God of nations Raise your hands and be glad For the world's glorious day is nigh Jesus came in the night So our faces may be light Let us raise you from glory to glory Here with Him in our lives to enjoy Shine on me, shine on me Oh, shine in this world Here with Him in our lives to enjoy God is coming face to face Set our hearts on fire Glory, glory, glory God of nations Raise your hands and be glad For the world's glorious day is nigh God is coming face to face Here with Him in our lives to enjoy God is coming face to face Set our hearts on fire Glory, glory, glory God of nations Raise your hands and be glad For the world's glorious day is nigh Matthew 13, that's where I want to look today. We have talked in our study this week on the contributions of the Reformers and I want to now give you a little of the contributions of the First and Second Awakenings. We wanted to place this somewhere in history. So this is a little awkward. It's hard to keep all these notes on this thing and not have it hang on to my mic and do all this all at one time. But First Awakening, we could say roughly took place in the 1700s to the 1800s and that was the first massive revival. It had been called that and it involved the following characters. John and Charles Wesley. Charles was his brother. As a matter of fact, John Wesley had quite a few brothers and sisters. John Wesley lived from 1703 to 1791. Now the date of that ending is very significant I think because the year after he died another revivalist was born who carried America into the Second Great Awakening. Also George Whitefield. George Whitefield, remember, was the man who grew up in the bars and stuff. Whitefield, quite unlike John. John was a little short guy, scholar. Sort of his hair parted in the middle. He'd get up and sort of go like this with his hair so he could see when he spoke. Very calm, very quiet. Stood up a lot of opposition. As a matter of fact, people actually smashed down doors where he was having meetings. Burst into the thing. Whole mobs, to stone him to death. And he would just walk out in the middle like Moses through the Red Sea and say, which one of you has a quarrel with me? You, you, you and that old guy. Look around. George Whitefield, on the other hand, was all fire and light. Whitefield was so powerful a speaker that it was rumored on a clear day you could hear George Whitefield for five miles. And he wasn't only loud, he was good. Celebrated Shakespearean actor Robert Garrick, who was the top actor of his day, said he would give a thousand gold guineas to be able to say the word, oh, like George Whitefield. And Whitefield's dramatic gift was so powerful that all of the top, not only did people turn out at five or four or five in the morning to hear him preach on the way to work, coal miners who would be weeping and you'd see those ones coming back from their night shifts. There'd be these white streams down their black faces where their tears had washed the coal dust away. But he was so powerful in his dramatic gifts that famous figures like Benjamin Franklin and some of the top literary critics of their day came out to hear him preach, sat there in horses and listened with the other 20 or 30,000 that turned out to hear this young 23-year-old preach with power. Matter of fact, in one particular illustration he was talking about the sinner like a blind man who has lost his stick and he had the guy walk out to the edge of a cliff and he talked about the great danger of being blind in your sins and how the whole chasm of eternity is right in front of you and he brought this guy right out to the edge of the cliff and then he took one step forward and one of these famous literary critics who was watching was so into the message, he forgot it was a message and he went, my God, he's gone! You know, he just forgot. Whitfield, the exact opposite of John and Charles remember they were friends in the early days then Phil broke away from the Holy Club became a Christian, John became a real Christian later the two remained friends till the day of their death but two totally different theological backgrounds John and Charles started off as good Anglicans died good Anglicans the thing they left behind was the Methodist Church who were good Anglicans but George Whitfield was quite heavily influenced by men like Jonathan Edwards in the US and John and Charles Wesley became much more Arminian in their theology and George Whitfield much more Calvinist as a matter of fact they have copies of their letters and they are models of disagreement and love my dearest brother George I rejoice in what God is doing wonderfully through your ministry however I utterly disagree with what you're saying you know, that kind of thing really nice also adding to this collection would be Jonathan Edwards and he's the man that we've already mentioned over there in the US one of the greatest native intellects of all time that the man who saw the Jesus movement of his day in America Jonathan Edwards lived from 1703 I've got to put Whitfield's date down so you'll know that he was alive 1764 Whitfield lived from 1714 just a, quite a short life George Whitfield he burned out 1770 these guys were tough, these old reformers these preachers John Wesley circled on horseback I told you he traveled 225,000 miles on horseback to give you an idea of that in 52 years he went preaching over 40,000 messages his travels took him an equivalent 10 circuits of the globe on horseback I'll give you an idea he carried on correspondence all the time I've seen his letters just sometimes writing up to 200 letters a week these guys, with pen no word processors and mailing lists with a quill pen and wrote 233 books on all kinds of subjects including home health remedies primitive medicine which was in use for almost 200 years and one of the earliest textbooks on electricity and in fact I visited Wesley's the place where he lived in England and saw a machine there that he'd been working on they actually used it on the Methodists to help speed the process of healing by using electricity bone healing which we know a bit about today but these guys were not just religious people they were people who Wesley did more perhaps to teach people to read and write in England than any other person of the century so we talk about these people's influence it wasn't just a religious thing they influenced the entire nation this was John Wesley's he said leisure and I have taken leave of one another I propose to be busy as long as I live if my health has so long indulged me and then his rule for Christian living was this do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all places you can at all times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can and he did it matter of fact the complete works of John Wesley have not been published up until our time and they're in the process of being published now but nobody will be able to afford them he did over 5000 tracts and pamphlets as well as those 233 books he wrote he preaches as if he had nothing to do but preach he administers as if he had nothing to do but administer and at death he left behind nothing much except a few silver spoons and 79,000 English Methodists and 40,000 in America and by 1957 it had grown to 40 million worldwide that's all he left he preached for 65 years dying finally at 88 his last words were the best of all God is still with us and he tried to sing this hymn I'll praise my maker while I breath and when my voice is lost in death praise shall employ my noblest powers and he just about got it out and then he died he said about 10 in the morning he said farewell and without a groan he fell asleep in Christ so his brother Charles left some 9,000 hymns and poems so eat your heart out Amy including things like and can it be that I should gain oh for a thousand tongues to sing and those guys needed a thousand tongues they were putting out so much that was John a matter of fact when they first started their ministry John, both Wesley's were attacked both physically and in print George Whitfield, a guy came up to him and said I came with a rock to break your skull but your sermon got the better of me and broke my heart I dropped this rock and got saved William Law defended the Wesleys in a way that turned out to be prophetic because the Forbes Weekly Journal in 1732 put these two men down said they're a bunch of idiots and William Law said this it looks as if the strict rule of primitive Christianity has removed a great way out of sight that we are not able to behold the attempt to revise it without wonder and offense if it shall please God to give these gentlemen the grace to persevere and the blessing of so long a life they may be the means of reforming a vicious world and may rejoice at the good they have done perhaps half a century after most of their social opponents the gay scoffers of the present generation are laid low and forgotten as if they had never been and that was prophetic because that's precisely what they did now these men Jonathan Edwards now remember Jonathan Edwards' son-in-law was David Brainerd the young man that prayed his life out on the snow for the Indians coughing blood had TB and died eventually but saw tremendous revivals among the North American Indians these people belonged to what they call the First Awakening and I'll take you now briefly to the Second Awakening I'll just give you these all together to give you an idea of the power of what happened during this time the Second Awakening took place around the beginning of the 1800s now the 1800s and what's significant there were a number of men in this some of them were the Methodists that Wesley had sent over to America but whereas this first one really started in England the second one kicked off in America and key figure here would be Charles G. Finney some of you may have seen pictures of Finney usually they don't do him justice they usually take him when he's about 90 years old and he looks like he's got burnt cork screwed into his eyes you know he's sort of standing there like this and actually Charles Finney was like Davy Crockett he was tall sort of blue-eyed very impressive athlete he was one of the best marksmen and he had a tremendous sense of humor he was 6'2 you get an idea of Davy Crockett you know that was what Charles Finney was like he was a lawyer an athlete his new wife didn't mind waiting for months when revivals repeatedly broke out on his way to take her home after the wedding and he must have been really a neat guy he said when he was 20 he excelled every man and boy he met in every species of toil or sport no man could throw him no man could knock his hat off no man could run faster jump further leap higher or throw a ball with greater force and precision he went to this church George Gale was the preacher there the reason why he went is he helped direct the choir he played cello he wasn't a Christian and he was in love with Lydia Root Andrews one of the pretty young Christian girls who visited there and later became his first deeply loved wife actually Charles Finney wore out three wives the final one outlasted him but you know it was real tough keeping up with Charlie Charles Finney's conversion reads like something out of the book of Acts if you have one biography on your shelf you ought to read it is the autobiography of Charles Finney it is one of the most powerful shocking challenging biographies that I think I ever read in my early Christian life and I mentioned to you how I had a vision of Jesus he talked about having a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit without ever knowing anything like this was ever possible he said the breath of God seemed to fan me like immense wings and then he said I wept aloud with joy and love I do not know but I should say I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart these waves came over me and over me and over me one after the other till I recollect I cried out I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me I said Lord I cannot bear anymore yet I had no fear of death and that shortly after that is when the guy knocked on his door and said Brother Finney where have you been I have a case for you to try and he said I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his case and I cannot plead yours and the guy went away in deep conviction got saved and about everybody talked over the next three days went and headed for the woods and became Christians there are three things that stand out in Finney's life I'll give you his dates here to show you the significance of this thing Charles Finney was born in 1792 which is the exact year after John Wesley died it's like God one torch dropped and then God started another one and he lived also a long long life he lived till 1875 as a matter of fact secular historians say Charles Finney brought America into the 19th century he was the one of the most effective and powerful figures there are a couple of others names that turn up a little bit later in the second awakening because these two awakenings span that period from 1700 to 1800 the second awakening there's another guy whose name is Jeremiah Lamphere and I'll just briefly mention him Jeremiah Lamphere was one of Finney's converts he got saved in Broadway Tabernacle the church Finney started later in his ministry and America had a terrible collapse an economic collapse and businesses were just collapsing all over the place there were thousands and thousands of people out of work and with nothing to do people were just roaming the streets they had all this greed and gain and speculation and everything fell apart and this young man Jeremiah Lamphere who had lost his business he decided we really need some prayer and so he went downtown out of Fulton Street and he passed out these little pamphlets if you want to pray we're going to be meeting in this church from 12 to 1 o'clock every day and people didn't have any house to do so he went there and he waited all on his own half an hour went past three quarters of an hour went past nobody and then a couple of steps a few people came in and then a few people came in the following day more people came in and by the end of three months there were 10,000 people praying and another mighty sweep took place within that Lamphere and they call that the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting or the Prayer Meeting Revival Phinney quickly three great contributions Charles Phinney made to ministering first of all his willingness to change it was Phinney broke all the rules told you he didn't look like a preacher he didn't sound like a preacher he didn't pray like a preacher preachers are supposed to pray hello and he didn't he had an intense and loving devotional life and prayer he loved Christ his favorite song book of scripture was the Song of Solomon he said this book has whitted my soul to Jesus and then his radical message of practical and immediate holiness now you've got to understand the impact that the preaching of a holy life when you tell people God calls us to be holy you're going to get into trouble just tell you that right off the start Charles Phinney was so attacked by preachers of his time not only did unsafe people attack him preachers attacked him one preacher Lyman Beecher threatened to oppose Phinney, this is what he said if Charles Phinney comes to our city I'll meet him at the gate of the city with cannon that's a preacher what they did you imagine this here are two figures they're like guys they are effigies and they're hung from a tree and set on fire okay dancing around them is people screaming and yelling as they burn these figures and effigies dancing around these two burning effigies are preachers the two figures represent Charles Phinney and Brother Nash his prayer companion this is a religious gathering in one of Phinney's biographies it said preachers and pew warmers alike joined forces against the two men who did more to spare the revival than any other pair in American history Phinney became so incredibly alive that everywhere he went life leaped from him to others like flames in a firestorm it is impossible to read about this man without being shaken Charles Phinney among the 23 million Americans and 40,000 ministers at his time was unquestionably the most impressive religious revolutionary that America ever produced when he first gave a public account of his own conversion the tumult began a fellow lawyer left the meeting with a comment he is in earnest but he is deranged when he stood up to preach his first revival messages in the backwoods region of New York startling chaos ensued one man came to the meeting with a pistol intent on killing the speaker of the evening instead he fell to the floor and was soundly saved everywhere for the next 40 years that fire broke out it would be true to say that his life and writings influenced more people towards revival and social reform than any other preacher of the last century he was a lawyer who became a Christian and so he had all that lawyers logic he would face audiences like a lawyer would face a jury and he said his old boss the judge that he worked for told him how to preach he said say it as many times as there are people in the jury and he'd look at them and matter of fact he took a meeting with 300 top New York state bar lawyers and he presented the case for Christ and at the end half of those characters and you know how sneaky lawyers are at getting out of things a half of them got saved including a major circuit judge so Finney's stuff is well worth reading if you don't have any of Finney's material B. Raymond Edmond past president of Wheaton said in all my reading on revival I've found nothing to be equal to Finney's lectures on revival no other book on the subject has been so mightily used of God Catherine Booth read it and helped her start the Salvation Army with her husband a young man called George Williams read it and launched a thing called the YMCA which is today we know is just you know sort of a building down there where you can stay if you've got no place else those days it was a team challenge of its generation many missionaries read it went out and saw tremendously powerful results I want to now summarize for you the teachings of both these block of men and give you them now because we'll call this contributions of the first and second awakening and I want to focus in on some of these because when we see God do something in a nation we will see these elements come in you remember the three from the Reformation you remember the three what were the three contributions we had from the Reformation you remember those justification by faith one lordship of Jesus Christ sovereignty of God alright now I want to give you three more and these ones came from the the first and second awakening first one is the obligation of man now the Reformation is very very strong on upholding the glory of God and his rulership over the world very strong emphasis remember on the sovereignty of God somewhere along the way people forgot that that man too has a responsibility for instance there was a young man his name was William Carey he was a shoemaker and he prayed often for the world and he stood up one day before his church and he said I believe God is calling me to go to another to other lands and to preach the gospel and to carry the mission of Jesus and the people at his church were so steeped in the sovereignty of God they said sit down young man when God wants to convert the heathen he'll do it without your help well William Carey didn't sit down he went out and stared and he became the father of modern missions I want to give you some scriptures here and you just write these down I'll read them out to you and you just write the references down Psalm 24 6 this is the generation of them that seek him that seek your face oh Jacob see the initiation of God in revival there is that sovereign side when the day of Pentecost has fully come but there is also a strong responsibility of us to to to take care of our side we'll call this responsibility Psalm 71 18 David prayed this now also when I am old and grey headed oh God forsake me not till I have showed your strength to this generation and your power to everyone that is to come Psalm 71 18 you all know 2 Chronicles 7 14 you should have memorized that and that says what if my people to call by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land I want to ask you this question where does the healing of the land begin with the people see if my people who are called by my name that's the calling of God on your life shall humble themselves that's first and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways that's all obligation of man now I'm going to give you another one here Psalm 24 verses 3 through to 5 who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place this is Psalm 24 verses 3 through to 5 he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul to vanity Psalm 24 verses 3 to 5 nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation one of the small awakenings that took place in history happened when people had been praying a long long time for God to do something wonderful and they just prayed on week after week month after month with absolutely nothing happening it seemed at all till one day a man stood up and he read the scripture and he said brethren we have prayed a long time for God to do something and he said and now we must answer this question do I have clean hands is my heart pure and God came see it was a visitation of the Lord here is a scary verse 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 this is a verse given by a man called the man after God's heart 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 to a man who was called the wisest man who ever lived man with a perfect heart heart after God his advice as a dad to the boy who was called the wisest man who ever lived and you Solomon my son know thou the God of your father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind that's 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 if you are having trouble writing these down by the way that saves you a bit of time you don't have to put those little dots in and drive people crazy for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will cast you off forever there's very strong responsibility in all these verses and I'll give you let me give you two more 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9 A first part of the verse for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him and with that I want to focus for a little while on this word I have here a Bible that as I told you is pre-marked and you're all you've still got your Bible somewhere this Bible is a pre-marked thing it's been broken down taking all the thousands of verses in the Bible and then coding them in color according to what topic they are dealing with so you can see all these red verses are all verses pertaining to the work of salvation now one of the interesting things about this Bible is that it this particular early version of it gives you all of the verses in a block like that for instance this block has to do with Jesus died to save sinners so they've done it as a red D how many of you have ever heard a sermon on faith put your hands up have you ever heard a sermon on faith a few of you have probably one or two see this little block here F you see that block there those are all the verses in the Bible on faith it's quite a lot and the just to live by faith is an Old Testament verse now have you ever heard a sermon on repentance on confession restitution okay here are all the verses in the Bible on repentance on confession restitution roughly three times the number on faith so I'm going to ask you a question if you were preaching the Gospel in a long term thing what would you emphasize first okay now what is this one that starts here at the bottom goes a full page on the other side and actually goes over the page that's why any other guesses love we have one one vote for love anything else more love sovereignty of God a lot on that what was that the rock of God yeah that's well that's actually over here you know what this one is holy living should follow conversion holy living should follow conversion as a matter of fact it is a major theme of the Bible without holiness no man shall see the Lord those of you interested in the rock of God there is a lot on that too punishment page full I want to talk to you briefly now about this word perfect whose heart is perfect the second major contribution that the first and second awakening explored that the reformers had not really spent a lot of time on was this phrase holiness to the Lord and I want to talk about the word perfect now Christians even have bumper stickers today that say Christians aren't perfect just forgiven remember that it's going to be interesting standing before God one day wrapped in nothing but your bumper sticker giving an account of this verse be ye therefore perfect well unfortunately that verse is in the Bible perfecting holiness and the fear of the Lord many many times in scripture the simple fact is in revival people come into a conscious sense of the holiness of God and they realize just how much compromise has been allowed in their own lives how much darkness has been let in that it totally dilutes the power of what God is trying to do and he is of pure eyes and to look on evil the same God who is utterly devoted to loving you is utterly devoted to your purity and your holiness he will not he loves you too much to let you get away with nonsense now I want to talk briefly about what this word perfect is perfect does not mean infinitely perfect it is not infinite perfection when God says be perfect he doesn't mean be infinitely perfect if that is so nobody is perfect can ever be perfect no angel no angel that's ever sinned that's never sinned no human certainly because there is nobody infinite except him secondly it cannot be a perfection of conduct nor even a perfection of reputation in other words it is quite possible for somebody who has a holy life to be slandered and misrepresented they said of Jesus check this out he has a demon think how scary that is to say of God who became man and dwelt among us he has a demon the reason why he is able to do those things is because he hangs around with the prince of darkness that was what the religious leaders said of Jesus so though Christ's life was utterly perfect his reputation was not when they first the pharisees met with Jesus and you won't catch this sometimes but when Jesus was talking about where he was from one of the one of the people attacking him said this we have one father even Abraham we be not born of fornication and the implication in that is like some people we know and you got to understand this Jesus was virgin born and you can imagine if you were a young teenager called Mary sixteen or seventeen years old and you get pregnant and everybody goes was that Joseph and she goes no it wasn't well who was it well it's hard to explain this angel visited me would you believe that if you went to Nazareth high school and around Jesus life hung the shadow people said well it wasn't Joseph because we asked it wasn't Joseph she says it was his angel and the Holy Spirit and that this being this boy she's got is actually God and it's a miracle but you know what the reputation went around Jesus he matter of fact it was still circulated among the Jews for the first century Jesus was the bastard son of some traveling camel driver and when they used that phrase they said we'd be not born of fornication implied like some people we know right so even having a perfect heart perfect life does not necessarily mean to say people will think so nor will they ever be able to say so he's perfect matter of fact in the Bible perfection is not related to the conduct only indirectly it is related to the heart it is a perfect heart that God requires of us I want to talk briefly about the heart for a little while what is the heart in the scriptures when God says I'll give you a new heart does he rip out this cardiac muscle and replace it with something a little better when we use the phrase heart we use it today even today as an analogy exactly the way they use it in the Bible the heart represents the ultimate choice or intention if you like of our beings now if a guy says to a girl I love you with all my heart what does he mean hopefully he means this he doesn't mean I'll rip this out and give it to you what he means is that I prefer you above everything and everybody else so we could say supreme preference what is the supreme preference of our lives because whatever that is that is what our heart has been given to the choice then of our lives the supreme choice of our lives is the motivation or the intention out of which everything flows now here is a man and he's going to church it's Sunday morning he's smiling he's got a big Bible he's in a suit and he's whistling a hymn okay we look at this man and we think he must be a Christian actually he isn't he's an insurance salesman he figures there's a lot of people in church that are going to need insurance he stole the Bible out of a hotel that he's staying in his suit is on lease and the hymn he's singing is one that he heard it's an update from an old spiritual that he heard in the past it's the only thing he knows it's religious now this man's outward conduct is so far so good but God doesn't look at the outside conduct he looks at the heart and the real question is why are you doing what you're doing I believe when you stand before God you will only be asked two questions the first question it won't be what are you doing and we'll do it like this say I took your heart this is the heart the supreme choice of our life belongs ultimately to either God our rightful ruler or to ourselves in one way or another underneath that we'll call that supreme preference or the supreme choice underneath that we have major choices these might be things like what am I going to do for a job or let's get really classy a career here's another major choice will I marry if so whom will I marry you shouldn't have to make that decision every week like some movie stars do getting wash and wear wedding dresses though this used to be a big thing where will I live what nation what needs to be a big thing cause now you can live in ten nations if you want to I don't want to but I do these are major decisions and then underneath these are what we could call more routine decisions for instance brushing your teeth you had to learn that remember when your mother first taught you how to put toothpaste on your thing now look at you you're just so awesome you're just what about writing ever thought of that remember when you first learned to write I B P E now look at you you don't even think about that now it's all habitual it's a series of choices that you've automated now and you just go hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm you're just awesome how did you get those routine choices we could call those habits well they come from a series of immediate choices but the only ones you think of are the immediate choices that's right now shall I write this down or let me wait for just a second I'm gonna write yes no I'm not gonna write I'm gonna wait yes I'm gonna write no see that those are all immediate choices now you notice these choices aren't as significant as these ones and these ones aren't as significant as these ones but these build this which in turn build this so here's a guy and he's learned to do his hair right the immediate choice he's doing is running a comb through his hair next question is why is he doing that well that's part of the reason he's learned how to do that to make his hair look good and the next question is why does he want his hair to look good because his particular job requires that he have good looking hair but you keep on asking the questions these things might be like what we call what what choices these might be like how choices but the really significant choices come all the way up and then they turn into these why are you doing this and then finally who for and on the last one the whole world divides when with a religious background for a short time my parents took me to Sunday school I went to some church before I got saved I had a bit of exposure to Christian things and as far as I was concerned I was probably as Christian as the next guy whoever that next guy was if I ever met him and one day when we were having a band practice I had a band for three and a half years and we were having a band practice and a friend of mine pulled up on a motorbike to give me a ride on his new motorbike he'd been saving three or four years this new motorbike he wanted to give me a ride out he was just going to go out and visit his grandmother in the also reluctant to ride on the back of a motorbike and I'd only been on one twice before and both times I lost it going around the corner once on water and the other one on slippery gravel and the second time I was out running beside the side of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the other one on the side of the and the one on the side of the and the other one on the side of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the on the side of the river and the one on the side of the river and other on the side of the the other on the side of the the other on the side river and the other on the side of the river and the one on the side of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the other one on the of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the on the of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the other one on the side of the river and other one on the of the river and the other one on the of the river and the other one on the side of the river and the one on the and the other one on the of the river and other one on the side of the river and the other one on the of the river and the other of the side the side of the river the other one on the the other of the river and the other one on the side of the the one on the of the river on the side of the river and other on the on the when by in the heating the skin help See that? You go crazy like that. God wants the whole pizza. He doesn't want anything left back. You can't give bits of your ultimate intention to God. It is the number one choice. It is the thing for which you live. And here's the way you can find out. Your God is the person or thing you think most of. Your God is the person or thing your thoughts turn back to when you've got nothing better to do. Your God is the person or thing you most get excited about. Your God is the person or the thing your whole life revolves around. The one thing or person you'd sooner die than lose. That's your God. That's where your heart belongs. That's your real God. And I believe churches are filled with religious kids who are simply trying to make this more religious. And that's a horrible way to live. I'd rather be a street sinner than a church sinner. At least you'd have more fun when you went to hell. But to be a church sinner and try and be nice without giving your ultimate intention to God, to try and serve God by giving him more and more slices that belong to you, is awful. My son, my daughter, give me your heart. And those early preachers of righteousness, they discovered this in the first and second awakening, went out and said this. You must give your whole heart to God. He wants a holy life. Holy! Just think of it. What does it mean? To be whole. Not bits of. The whole thing holy. And to give your heart away to God is a choice. It is something that you do in response to God's calling and dealing with you. He says, my son, give me your heart. Remember this? The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him. You ask God for the power of a surrendered life, you use all kinds of phrases and people have. The simple fact is, there are only two ultimate choices. The love for God, where you've given your heart away to him, where he means more to you than anything else in the world, or the love for something else, where you still really belong to yourself. Give me the last one and then we've got to quit, because our time has really flown. And I'll just give you this as a single phrase. The third great contribution that the Reformers made was for the work of the kingdom. I've already mentioned this many ways, and I'll give you a couple of quick verses. Matthew 24, 14. This gospel of, what does it say? This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come. Here's Jesus opening text for his first message. Luke 4, 18. Luke 4, 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. That's also Isaiah 61, 1. Luke 4, 18. Isaiah 61, 1.