Heart engagement

Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse number 21, And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governors shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause them to draw nearer, and he shall approach unto me. Now, here's the question. 4. Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the LORD? Now, back to the book of Judges, please, in chapter 16, just for a final reading.

Judges chapter 16 and verse number 15. These are the words of this woman, Delilah. Maybe not the best of character at times, but perhaps the main choice of her.

And she will say in verse number 15, Judges chapter 16, verse number 15, And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? That's all I wish to read. I'm going to speak very briefly, concisely, on the truth of heart engagement. Heart engagement.

I'm sorry that I have to tell you that in North America there have been three conferences canceled this year. Now, I haven't always attended all those conferences, and maybe haven't made the effort to be at some of them that I could be, could have been, but there's only so many weekends in a year. What really has drawn my attention to this is a brother called me from one of the assemblies, and it's a conference going longer than I have been, okay? This is a conference going close to 100 years.

Not going to have one this year. He said, he said, Rudy, Maurice, I got an event. He says, you know, we've lost older people that worked in the kitchen.

And the assembly is not big, I realize that. But we're out of help. I didn't say it.

But you know what I want to say? You're not out of help, brother. You're out of heart. You're running out of heart.

I'm not into horse racing, but when I read something, I sometimes have a hard time forgetting it. But they tell me that these big racehorses that run the Brickness and, you know, the Downs and these Topocron winners, that the first half of that race, that horse runs on his strength. The last half runs on heart.

The only thing that will get them to the finish line is heart. When it comes to Christianity, I don't think this would be hard for young Christians to remember. Just two things remembered today is this.

Christianity is hard work. If it isn't, then something's wrong. It is not only hard work, but it's heart work.

Heart work. And that's just what... You could go through the Old Testament. We're going to touch on some of these and just show you that where the people of God failed was always in the heart.

You've heard it said from preacher after preacher, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. And so here's this woman, Delilah, and she's saying, How canst thou say that thou lovest me, and thine heart is not with me? Let me ask you today, where's your heart? Where is your heart? The Bible speaks of a divided heart. But could you honestly say that your heart is in... I don't mean that you have to be preaching all day long.

I don't say you have to be a full-time preacher or a full-time servant. But is your heart really in the assembly? You know, it matters not. Now I know we have to have numbers to... We have to have numbers to be able to function as an assembly.

But you know, at the end of the day, what will carry any testimony to the finish mark is not gift. Not ability. Not necessarily numbers.

Heart. Sure, who doesn't like numbers? If I had to remind a brother here a while ago, I'd say, listen, let's get it straight. I'm not interested in counting numbers.

I'm more interested in numbers that count. Now would that really define you this afternoon, and the assembly in which you form a part? That you're a part of the number that count. That's what we're talking about.

That was what was wrong back in Jeremiah's day. Who is this that engages his heart, he said the Lord, to approach unto me. In other words, the Lord didn't want him coming to him unless it was coming from the heart.

And you know, we had a lady, a dear sister in Newfoundland. It only happened in Newfoundland. And she used to... I was having gospel meetings there a number of years ago, and she'd come in on two canes.

Okay? Rode a bus. So she came in one day, and I was there a pretty good time, and she came in on her two canes, and she could hear her coming in the door. So just asking her, I said, what time do you start on Sunday morning? What time do you get up? She said, well, I have to get up at 6 o'clock to make it.

Meeting isn't until 9.30. I have to get up at 6 o'clock to make it. Could you argue with her? I said, you're doing pretty good. She says, I said, you're here 20 minutes early.

Oh, she said, Mr. McAnlis, my heart was here long before that. I said, there's the secret. Her beat followed her heart.

Nobody else would climb out on a Sunday morning, a woman that's with such limitations physically, go through the effort. Who would say, well, we don't expect her to be here? I mean, she's pretty almost inhibited, and there's this and there's that. There's those that would have picked her up and that.

You know the reason she didn't let people pick them up? They wouldn't pick her up early enough. How do you make out, brother? No, no, I see these boys come in. They look up at the clock.

It's just the clock's wrong. Clock's right. No excuse.

Well, I'm a man by the clock. Let's get this straight. I get accused of a lot of things.

I get accused that I'm a man by the clock, and I am. Come on, you wouldn't hire me for long if I was late all the time. I'm just kidding.

I didn't get any off track. I'm conscious of that. I was at a pretty large hall having meetings.

I can tell you where it was. They had a big carport drive-in underneath the carport. No, it wasn't Hampton.

Anyhow, some of them were coming in late, and I told them, I said, you know, some of you boys slept over here. You'd still be late for a meeting. You couldn't make it.

So the correspondent gave me the meeting times, and I was to read the meeting times. I remember, yeah, I looked at it. It said, breaking and bread, 10 o'clock.

And I said, breaking and bread, 9.45. And he's putting up his hand and telling me to correct me. His wife was smarter. She's pulling his arm down.

She got it. He didn't. Now listen, Frank, I'm not here to exhort you on that, but you know, heart, heart work.

You say, well, how can I tell if my heart is in it by how much I love it? Whatever I love, my heart will follow that, no matter what it is. Not only can it be things in life, work, our employment, our occupation, our family. There's a lot of things that draw our hearts.

There's a lot of things competing for the heart today. But for the child of God, remember, salvation started with the heart. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

In other words, it is people that have engaged hearts. You're surprised, not when you see them, but when you don't see them. I mean, sometimes people come into an assembly, and it's like they gave it out in our home assembly the other night.

I poked the fellow sitting beside me. I said, I was in assembly one time. I said, this brother gives it out quite often, which is where he comes.

And that's about three times a year. And his song is, I'm But a Stranger Here. That's about it, OK? So don't be that.

Like, there are people, and if they weren't there, you would say, hey, what has happened? And you would have no difficulty at all calling them and saying, we missed you, brother. We missed you, sister. I said, what happened? And there are others that you're afraid to call.

They're insulting. They feel that you're interfering in their private life. You know what's happened? Their heart's not there.

Listen, there would be no Congress in Ankeny if there wasn't some heart and legal leadership. Let's just face facts, OK? If there weren't numbers that count in Ankeny, I wouldn't be on this platform. And you wouldn't be here.

There wouldn't be us being looked after, as we have for the weekend. And I'm not here tossing bouquets. I'm here facing facts today.

You're going back to your assembly. We want you to go back, not because of what I am speaking here today. We want you to go back from the Ankeny conference with a different heart, a changed heart, that you're going to put into that assembly that you haven't been putting into it.

None of us put in what we could, speaker included. Any of us could go back. And so that's the big question today.

You could go through. I'm going to touch on a few of them just very, very quickly. But let me say this.

True revival, recovery, and restoration. OK? One more time. Recovery, revival, and restoration start with the heart.

I was just reading of Hezekiah lately. And it's interesting. It started with his heart.

But you know what had to be reached first? His conscience. That's why God will often speak to the conscience first. Because the conscience starts to awaken us to the fact, my heart's not ready.

I've got a very cold, distant heart. In other words, you could just as easily be somewhere else as you are being here today. Some of you have driven miles to be here.

There's got to be some kind of heart. There's got to be something that has brought you. There's got to be some kind of heart in the things of God.

Good for you. But couldn't you put a little more heart into it? You're going to tell me you're putting everything into it? Did you pray at the pyramid last week? No, I'm going to look at the guy behind you. I love brother.

Did you pray at the pyramid last week? No, I'm just kidding. I find that tough. Why don't you try somewhere? But you're there.

There's something to be said just for that. That you're there. And brethren can count on you.

They want something to do, they'll call on you. I'm not going to repeat what we were on yesterday. But that's the truth of the heart.

Come on, when it comes to other things, we pour our hearts into it. We do. You know, it's just like maybe our makeup.

But whatever I did in my life, I felt it was worth everything if it was worth anything. When I started out, I remember my high school. I don't think I pulled this off a conference platform in my life, but I'm going to say it this afternoon.

We had a rough time going through public school because we had a teacher. The one-room school, it wasn't all that excited about the gospel or what my parents believed. And she just did not have too much time for the Candles boys for some strange reason.

But anyhow, there came a little bit like Jacob's son one day, kind of a bit of a lineup. And she was deciding what everybody was going to do. She started with her favorite, that she was going to be a doctor.

She says, I think you'll go into science, Martha. And she went on down. I was last.

I was waiting for it. Finally, she looked at me and she said, well, Maria, I hope you can get some work with your dad. I want some facts.

And I really encouraged her. We're going on to high school. Listen, I might as well tell you what my grandson will tell you.

I know he got the authority to run around with Caleb and tell people I didn't finish high school. I didn't. Went in the aid business.

When I was 19 years old, I was employing 19 people. Where was the teacher that didn't think I was going to be able to work for my dad? Well, God, it's good. But listen, that didn't come without a lot of hard work.

And hard work, my heart was in it. I drove, I competed with big boys, guys that had been in the business for years. Marketing aides, doing this, doing that.

Put your heart into it. Come on, brother, you got one. You can do it.

You know as well as I do, brothers and sisters this afternoon, you can contribute a lot more than you are. What's going to make the difference? When you get back to this point, when you get back to the enjoyment of the Lord himself, you know, we talk about gospel preachers having a love for souls. That's true.

First of all, it's a love for God. Love for souls follows a love for God. A lover of good brethren follows a love for God.

So when it comes to the assembly, when it comes to testimony, your love for that place follows inseparably your love for God. And God has been kind to you. God's been good to us, brother.

Come on, I didn't go up to the children's ward of the hospital this morning and leave it over to my grandchildren, wondering if they're going to make it. I know others that are doing that. I'm not sitting in my vigil wondering if my wife is going to survive cancer.

Others are doing that. And I've done it. It's not been easy.

But when it comes to the spiritual, they haven't let up on it. It's a rebuke to us at times. Really, we become very lethargic and very lazy.

You know why? Because the heart is gone. You remember going back to, like I say, let's go back to Haggai's ministry, for example. What did he say? He said, consider your ways.

Consider your ways. That's why you have to have the ministry of a Zechariah to follow, because what's Zechariah do? He gets to their heart. Haggai got to their conscience.

Zechariah gets to their heart and he talks about the branch. Talks about the one that will come. Talks about the one that will reign.

Gets their sights lifted from this world, this planet, to a world that is to come. We look for one of two worlds. Either this world or the world to come.

So that was his ministry. But in David's day, remember in chapter 12 of 1 Chronicles, all these men of war that could keep rank, what's it say? They came to David with a perfect heart. Whatever you want, David.

Just breathe it. Did you just want a little water from the wells of Bethlehem when they're on their way? Why? Because they love David. Was there any definite call? Remember, you'll go through those passages.

I can go through them with you. But let me leave them with you. Read them in the Chronicle passage especially.

Constantly, repeatedly, it's their heart. And their heart being right with David. And their heart was with David.

And their heart being knit together with David. That's what we mean. Being knit together.

That's the language, of course, of the Colossian epistle. Well, mind you, she kind of got a bad rap in this country. Not by the people sitting here.

If I asked you who Betsy Ross was, you'd know who Betsy Ross was. I'm a Canadian. I know who Betsy Ross was.

She was a young girl that, as far as I know, sewed the first American flag. And that flag, of course, is the flag that you have today. Her mother's name was Sarah.

And she got big recognition for that. So much so that there's a huge bridge that bridges the Delaware River. And it connects.

It connects New Jersey with Pennsylvania. It's called the Betsy Ross Bridge. In the Philadelphia, one of those big papers, there was a picture, an old picture not that long ago, that showed Betsy working away, knitting, stitching, what's going to become this first flag.

You know what the caption said? Time to check the stitches. Because what's happening in this country, in our country, that fabric's being pulled apart. Pulled far enough, and there's no flag.

Pulled far enough, and there's no heart under the top. I see these men, watch the pictures of them. I've served, I've gone over and know what it is.

Just your recent, I read USA, it's on my web, the news, whether it's Fox News, USA Today, or whatever. Well, it's been made of the flag and people's endearment to it. It's their heart and that sort of thing.

And it's a big issue here. What is really the issue? The heart of the people. The heart of the people.

What is the biggest challenge to this country and any other country, and every assembly I know today, is the heart. So here's this woman, Delilah, and Samson with his conniving, cunning ways, and probably she just comes out and she has to tell what she's going to tell for a long time. How can you say you love me? How can you use words like, how canst thou say I love thee when thine heart is not with me? Well, you know as well as I do, that wasn't going to last long, and it didn't.

Listen, I could tell you, brother or sister, and I don't know a lot of this audience this afternoon, if your heart, such as the testing days of testimony today and in the other days, if your heart is not here, if your heart is not that something you won't be there to love, you won't. Because your feet will follow your heart. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if this covers the lasting impact and marks in your life for the glory of God, for the honor of the testimony which you form a part.

And those brethren could say, you know, well they came. They didn't come after the Antiquity Conference. They came back.

And this is a nice change. It happens. It happens.

There's a sister of ours, somebody confessed in gospel with his own hand, and I have to say to you, I'd be one of those that was very, very slow in believing that Dorothy was ever saved. She went to one of the conferences in the Maritimes 25 years ago. She came back a different girl.

No, it wasn't the Sussex Conference, another conference, came back a different girl. Five children, faithful to the assembly. Where did it start? I don't know.

Who was ministering? What was being taught? It started at the conference. You know something else people pick up at a conference even more than what goes from this platform? You think of it, brethren, the spirit of the conference. You've got something to be thankful for here.

There's a nice spirit that flows among the people that I've communicated with. I know that my fellow brethren, fellow visitors, all agree to that. A lovely flow of just kind of a warm spirit.

May God preserve that to you. The devil hates it. What will keep it? What will preserve it? Again, it is the engaged heart.

Now, that was God's challenge to his people that they would just keep that. So it says, the rest of Israel, it says, finally when David, we were hearing about that from Scott this morning, when David was finally crowned, what's it say? They all came together, all Israel came together with one heart to make David king. Remember in his rejection? In his rejection? Now he's going to the throne.

Why? Because those men of Judah, they're holding out on him. And to tell those, he says, you're a bone of my bone. What's wrong? He said, I am not going to that throne until I have you men with me.

Finally the day came, the moment came, when they were united together in that. So Paul writes about Peter. Remember Peter with that company that day? That had to be the heart of the apostle.

Peter says that he, or Paul writes, and he says this, in Galatians chapter 2, he says, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of a circumstance. What's the word for withdrew there? Disengaged. So a heart that was once engaged became disengaged.

Thank God that Peter has recovered from that. When a man like Peter, and his heart becomes disengaged, where's that leave me? Where's that leave you? Know what leaves us? With the challenge of a book that I've got that's the same as yours. And we've got the same challenges in the East.

I mean, I know I'm partial to the East, and I will stick up for it and that sort of thing. We've been accused of all kinds of things out there, but always do like these good brethren do. Come and visit us sometime.

See for yourself. God's been kind, but I'm saying this, don't you think for a minute that the devil doesn't have his eye on things in the East. This man here knows it as well as I do.

I did not say it's because of our home assembly. I've never known this before where brethren, overseers, maidens, and else, but brethren had to shorten their prayers because there wasn't enough time for regular worship on a Sunday morning. And usually there's 14 to 17 brethren that would worship on a Sunday morning.

May the Lord preserve that. Now last time, just where we are, we'll be behind. Pennsylvania, somebody's over there.

Same thing. Other places too. Other places too.

See, unless you're worshiping, what about your gospel work? That follows. That follows. Give me a place where there's strong worship.

Give me the place, first of all, where there is that royal priest, the holy priest going in to worship God. Then there's the royal priest going out with that gospel. How canst thou say thou lovest me and my heart is not with me? Leave this building today.

Leave this premises today with a changed heart. With a heart maybe that's become cold and distant and hard. With a heart, of course, that is softened.

Remember Demas, the same thing. You read about Demas three times each mention in the New Testament. Every time there's just a little bit of it going away.

Don't believe that he left the assembly. Think he went to a place where life was a little easier. That's all.

I don't have anything to suggest that he really turned his back on me. Paul says, Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world. And he says, this is departed unto Thessalonica.

It's relatively easier, Thessalonica, than where he came from. And he says, Greece is to Galatia. Padis in Galatia.

The word there is deserting. Deserting. Brethren in God's name, I've had some very close friends, very close friends, that deserted the place that I hope I'll always love.

A sister came to my wife not that long ago, not a few years ago now, and she says, listen, I want to tell you shortly because I can't tell Murray this, but Bill wants his relationship to still be the same with your husband, with Murray. Calling her by name, she said to her, Dorothy, it won't be. It won't be.

She says, I don't want to call you that way, she says, he's very passionate about where he goes. And when Bill turns his back on that, that relationship will not be the same. And it hasn't.

It hasn't. Love to see him back. Love to see him recovered.

Love to see that hurt. Nevertheless, that's the truth of it. Dear David Livingston, some of you have read his books.

I've read snippets of it, pieces of it. Dear David Livingston, labored those years in Africa where he died He died, of course, right in the area where he labored a lot in the Shetembo village. And Britain felt that because he was one of theirs, he should have a proper burial.

But they had big difficulty trying to get the body back to the UK to give David Livingston the burial he deserved. Anyhow, just to make the story short, they sent his body back up to the UK. But when it got there, there was something minus.

No heart, no body. They carved it out. Here's what they said in note.

They said, in case you're wondering, his heart belongs to Africa where Gerhard belonged to be. I could make no testimony that Gerhard belonged to another. Why not? Why couldn't it be? Why should it be? The rest of it, I'm just going to leave.

I just want to leave with you two words I'd like you to remember. Heart engagement. Go back and read those words of Delilah.

They're touching. How canst thou say thou lovest me? Thy heart is not with me. Listen, brothers and sisters.

I'm as guilty as anybody, but we sing a lot of bids in our songs. That's lies. Don't we stand up and sing, Lord Jesus, I love thee.

No thou art mine. All that we do, out of the next breath, we're making other plans. Thus manifest that love of him to one another and let our hearts be engaged for that which will count for eternity.