Following God
Jonah Series • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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As a genuine Christian, verbally we would always say we want to follow God. I don’t think that anyone here who truly believes in God would give any disagreement to that statement. In fact, I don’t believe anyone here that truly loves God would give any protest to saying that we are created to follow God and love Him. These are obvious statements to us. Yet, even though we verbally make statements like these and mean them sincerely, why then don't we do good at following after God and all that He says for us to do.
To give example, each of us every week hear from God’s Word in how we are to follow God and yet, not a single action will be taken that week to more accurately follow the Lord, nothing was applied. Still further yet, we as long time “professing” believers may know truth and yet still regularly ignore the common things that we know to do to follow Christ. I’m speaking about the obvious commands to study scripture, to pray, to praise, and live our lives in service to him and to others. We say we love Him but our desires don’t match our words. We give little time to the obvious stuff. We might pass it off as just forgetting, or being too busy, or getting distracted or whatever, but what we don’t call it and what it really is, is disobedience and open rebellion against our Lord. Choosing to follow something or someone else than following God.
That’s a contradiction. We say we love God but walk in darkness. John tells us that it is not possible. Yet, even the it shouldn’t be that way and cannot be that way permanently, genuine believers are warned strongly to walk worthy of our calling.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
If though it shouldn’t happen, at times it does. But as new creations, we must put off that old life and chose to follow Christ. So the question becomes why? Why do we continue to do the things we say we don’t wanna do but do and why we dont do the things we say we wanna do, but do anyways. Thankfully scripture is again the rich well of truth on this subject and gives clarity and example of this subject for our benefit. From this thinking, we are gonna look at someone who fits this bill entirely, says he wants to worship God but doesn’t follow Him. What drove his actions, what motivated his heart, and what did God do with this man? That man’s name was Jonah.
Now many of you know the story of Jonah well, but as I had opportunity to read this book in my devotional time some several months ago, I was struck with many things that I hadn’t seen or thought of before. I felt so very convicted and challenged as I read this book. So as I look to change gears after finishing up 1 Corinthians, I wasn’t certain where to go next, wanting to maybe explore some Old Testament books, and now here we are as I believe the Lord has led to the book of Jonah and here we will be Lord willing for the next 4 weeks as we address the topic of Following God… Exposing the Heart of our Decisions from the Life of Jonah.
I. Background to Jonah
I. Background to Jonah
Before we take a deep dive into the book of Jonah, we first need to set the stage and understand more about the important historical setting and spiritual climate of that day. Most importantly before we can look at what Jonah did in this book, we need to first identify who he is. So who is Jonah? What do we know about him?
Well Jonah was a prophet who lived in Gath-hepher of Israel. Not much is known about Jonah because he is really only talked about in 2 other places other than in his book of Jonah. (Which we believe he wrote because only he would have the details of these solitary events.) 2 Kings 14:25-27 tells us alittle about him. It tells us that Jonah predicted the restoration of the boundaries of the kingdom of Israel. This was during the reign of King Jeroboam II of the northern tribes of Israel. The northern kings of Israel were all wicked and King Jeroboam II was certainly no exception. Outside of the wickedness of the kings, Israel itself was at a time of relative peace and prosperity. The neighboring nations, as we will talk about them in a bit, were a bit weaker and not pressing in on the Israelities. But during this time of relative peace, rather using this time to celebrate God and praising Him for His goodness, They neglected Him and turned to rely more heavily on themselves. Religious activity still took place in the temple but it was simple ritualistic tradition and nothing meaningful at all. Besides that, Israel’s kings along with the people were heavily involved in idolatry. That is why God sent prophets to them. Jonah was among several others that preached in that day. Jonah would have been on the scene around the same time as prophets like Amos & Hosea, but most believe Jonah preceded these others by a small margin making him possibly the oldest of all the prophets whose writing we possess.
So Jonah was a prophet. But what does that mean? Is it that big of a deal? And the is, of course, It was! A prophet was someone who was used by God to literally communicate God’s message to the world. You find this phrase.... “the word of the Lord came to”.... in many of the books of the prophets as is the case hear in Jonah 1:1. These words were to be delivered exactly as given them by God. 1 Kings 22:14
But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”
And if the prophet didn’t deliver it exactly as God asked… death.
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
Which did indeed happen.
Not only though did prophets speak on behalf of God but they were also given special insight so much so that people often referred to them as seers for spiritual discernment.
(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come, let us go to the seer,” for today’s “prophet” was formerly called a seer.)
But not just anyone could do this. Becoming a prophet wasn’t just a task anyone could sign up for. First, God picked His prophets. Look at how Jeremiah described his calling.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Becoming a prophet was by divine appointment only and even before birth. Second, becoming a prophet wasn’t a task you may even want to sign up for even if you could. Think of what the prophets had to do. “Speak against”, “Rebuke”, deliver a powerful warning, go tell the most powerful men of nations how messed up they are. Hard life. Often their message was in direct opposition to the common lifestyle in their times. Prophets probably weren’t that popular. But yet, Jonah was one of these people. A God fearing man chosen by God to carry out His task and deliver His message to a rebellious and hard hearted people. That was Jonah’s calling as well- deliver God’s message though as we will find out, it wasn’t the message he thought he’d be delivering.
Already we can relate with Jonah insomuch that Jonah loved God and wanted to do the Lord’s will. He was a prophet by calling as we having a calling as well to follow the Lord. He would say he wanted to please God but yet he struggled just as we do. So what happened to him and what does his life reveal about the human heart that causes us to contradict our own words.
So let’s now look at our first verses and find out as we get to our first point.
II. God’s Command
II. God’s Command
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
God’s command for Jonah was a shocking one. More on why it was so shocking in a little bit. Jonah was charged with going to the city of Nineveh and call out against it. In other words, Jonah was tasked with the assignment to go and preach repentance. For them to change their ways. God is long-suffering but also we see that God’s patience does not neglect His need to be just. As in the days of Noah or Babel or Sodom and Gamorrah, etc. these people had reached a high in rampant wickedness and something needed done.
But what exactly do we know of Nineveh. Well to start, the Bible refers to it as a great city. This was the capital of Assyria, (who as we know from Israel’s history was a major enemy of Israel and would eventually invade and capture the northern tribes.) The city was also perhaps the largest city in the ancient world. Population was around 600,000 people. By comparison, in 2020, the city of Detroit had a population of around 639,000 people. Within the walls of the city was a surface area of about 1800 sq miles or 60 miles in circumference which can be verified by recent discoveries of the city today. Later in the book of Jonah, he retells of it’s vastness by saying that to journey through the city alone is about a 3 day trip.
Though it’s size is great, it’s sins were greater yet. Many years after Jonah’s time in Nineveh, the city would again be under the warning of a prophet and the just judgement of God. Nahum, in his book, prophecies against them. Through his prophecies, we get a glimpse of the wickedness that occured there. Nahum 3:1
Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
A bloody and violent city, which is exactly what Jonah will preach when he is there.
Full of lies and plunder… greedy and selfish. Dog eat dog world kind of world.
There is no remedy for your injury;
your wound is severe.
All who hear the news about you
will clap their hands because of you,
for who has not experienced
your constant cruelty?
Constant Cruelty
Finally...
And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
And it is through this that we get a glimpse of why Jonah had a hard time with this command that God gave.
Speaking of that, let’s get a look God’s Command from Jonah’s point of view.
A. Jonah’s Point of View
A. Jonah’s Point of View
This command didn’t make sense. First of all, God doesn’t deal with other nations this way. Usually if a prophet prophesied about another nation, it was always connected in some way to the nation of Israel, well because of course, they were His chosen people, the ones He made covenants with and the prophets themselves were of Israel. If God had dealings with another nations, it was many times to seemingly wipe them out or to remove them from Israel’s side. At least that’s what Jonah thought and we might think if we are not careful with Scripture. So this was a weird command in that it did not on the surface have anything to do with Israel. In fact, not only did it not have anything directly to do with Israel or a was it a prophecy that would remove them from Israel’s side, but the command was to go preach repentance to a wicked nation, in other words, God was giving them another chance, he was showing mercy, He was as we will see rescuing this nation. This is completely unbelievable for Jonah. God doesn’t rescue other nations. He rescues Israel. Also what about the Jewish people. Doesn’t God know that their is a heaping mess back in Israel. Why focus on another people.
Side note... this is interesting, as we study scripture, we find that Jonah is the only recorded prophet to go to a foreign gentile country and preach forgiveness of sins.
So we can definitely understand and relate with in some ways why Jonah felt the way he did about God’s command. When Jonah became a prophet, he thought his work was directed towards God’s chosen people Israel. But God sent him to a completely different nation. And not just any nation, the cruelest most violent, evil, anti-God and anti-Israel nation there was in that day. Why didn’t God pick Amos or Hosea for this. This isn’t fair. This is not what a prophet is supposed to do (or so he may have thought). They didn’t deserve this kind of mercy as Jonah will reveal to us in chapter 4.
God clearly is getting it wrong. He doesn’t understand. His commands make no sense. We have a better idea. We know God better than He does. Sounds ridiculous out loud doesn’t it, but this is often what we feel like and our human brains do when we try to “set God straight.” When His commands seem frustrating, confusing, not working, and sometimes just plain dumb, we are tempted to lose trust in God, we are tempted to rely on something else and this is where some of the problems lie. We must remember we are limited and He is perfect. And we must trust that perfection. Jonah didn’t know the whole story and it brought him to trust Himself.
Even though he was appointed by God, given a special ability to discern spiritual truth, and was a man who obviously said he feared and loved God thus living the difficult lifestyle that he did, clearly did not know God and see the command from God’s eternal and perfect point of View.
B. God’s Point of View
B. God’s Point of View
Couple of weeks ago, Pastor Josh talked about God’s will. How it can be seen in 2 ways. His general will which describes His desires that apply to everyone equally as fully revealed to all of us through His Word. But we also have His specific will or guidance given to each of us individually as God leads. In order to follow God, we need to know His perfect will both generally through the Word which opens open ours ears to God’s specific will. Don’t expect God to guide you specifically if you don’t follow him generally or putting your time and devotion into His Word. Many of our specific issues can be resolved by knowing God’s general or by knowing His Word. The principles found within the Bible are told to us to be God breathes and profitable for every aspect of our life so that we may be complete in Him. Another way of saying it, God’s word is sufficient and effective. We don’t need anything else. When we are saying I don’t know what God wants me to do in this situation. 8 or 9 times out of ten, that person that asks about God’s specific will for their life in a particular situation, spend little to no time in God’s Word searching for the principles and truth found within. In other words, when we ask God for guidance without consulting His Word, it’s like we are saying I want your help but what you offered earlier wasn’t good enough. That’s a pretty audicious thing to say to the most High God. But we say, we don’t have time to do all the searching. We just want the answers now. You think God rewards those kinds of people.
Scripture tells us in the book of Hebrews that...
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So seek God’s will first diligently from His Word then find that God will lead you in those specific things as you become filled with His Spirit.
Also one other important note. You must know that God’s specific can never disagree or contend against his general will because God cannot disagree with Himself. He is perfect, remains the same, only gives truth, and is perfect in unity, peace, and order not confusion. So if you feel God is leading you to do something that scripture says otherwise, you are not following God. You are following something else entirely. Always check what you feel God is wanting you to do with what the Word of God has to say.
How does this have to do with Jonah.
Well, Jonah had forgotten or he had chosen not to remember something really important about God’s will. All the way back to the days of Moses, he would have known from earlier scriptures what God had said to Moses.
And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Later in Romans 9, the retelling of God’s will over Moses life in a particular instance with Pharaoh, the phrase is repeated. Romans 9:15
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
In the context of Romans 9, it talks about the fact of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. In verse 17, it speaks of Pharoah whom God raised up for one specific purpose, that through Pharoah, God might show his power. It’s interesting, when comparing the 2 men, Moses and Pharoah, both were sinful, both did terrible things. Remember, Moses killed a man. And yet, Moses was given mercy and Pharoah he hardened. Jonah was ok with that story because it lined up with his own narrative. God’s gonna side with Israel and He’s gonna destroy the other nations. Yet, when God doesn’t do this, he freaks out because he fails to understand who God is. God will do as He pleases. He will show mercy on whom He will show mercy and compassion on whom He will have compassion.
Why did Jonah struggle with God’s will, why do any of us struggle with God’s will. Jonah thought he was following God’s will in the beginning, He believed himself to be a follower of God but that soon changed when God’s specific will as well as God’s general will for Jonah, violated (as he believed) his own will, that’s where the story unravels and the problems begin.
Second thing that Jonah never grasped but was possibly a reason that God called Nineveh to repentance was the fact that He could have been using this to shame Israel by the fact that a pagan city was to repent at the preaching of a stranger, whereas Israel would not repent though preached to by many God-fearing prophets. God would definitely use this not just for Israel past but also for Israel during the life of Jesus.
If we go to Matthew 12 or Luke 11, we will see that Jesus himself tells about the revival at Nineveh as a rebuke to the Pharisees. That wicked city would repent, but their hard hearts, though they remain as Israelities, would remain unwilling to repent.
God’s sovereignty is written all throughout this story. Even when their seems to be opposition, God’s will always get accomplished.
Third, Jonah never grasped that God though Israel was a covenant people, God still had workings with those outside of it. Even in Israel’s early history, did not God save Gentiles? Did God not have a heart for people outside of the Jewish nation? Did Jonah perhaps forget about the covenant that God gave Abraham a covenant to which which reach beyond the Jews to people of all nations.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
We saw pieces of that as God rescued Rahab from the destruction of Jericho or salvation given Ruth who was also not an Israelite. Why wouldn’t God spare Nineveh if they turned to Him.
No, again, Jonah did not see this command from God’s point of view. He did not want to see it from God’s point of view, all he could do was see it from His own.
And so Jonah was left with a choice. And though not explicitly stated in the text, you can see the progression. He heard God’s command, He didn’t understand God’s command, He despised God’s command (He himself may not have actually said that cause that sounds awful for a man that supposedly loves God) but he did, and finally he takes action.
There are many times that we may not understand God’s command, it doesn’t make sense to us. We might even dislike what he wants us to do, but we still need to do it. I’m I really a follower of God if I only do then I must do far more than only the things I feel are good and right.
Practical example from my own life.... God says to love your neighbor, do good to others, etc. So part of me doing that is through blowing the snow off the neighbors driveways. It’s an all day event for me. Last week, I spent about 5 hours doing close to 12-14 driveways. It was a great opportunity to serve my neighbors and community and to show them Christ-like love and get to know them and show them I care. But to be honest, it wasn’t a hard command to follow cause I couldn’t wait to get out there. I love doing it. I’m cold, I’m covered in snow, but I love it. I love driving my little tractor tearing through big snowdrifts. But when God calls me to rebuke another Christian, or to walk alongside and love someone who is really hard to love because their life is full complaints and negativity, or to spend late hours working on study or to be diligent to minister to unthankful people, or to show up and teach a small group of people and there enthusiasm to be there doesn’t seem evident, that’s where I really struggle with God’s commands. I try to excuse my way out of it. I start to question if God’s command is right or right for me. I start to look to others to accomplish it. I doubt God’s power to do a great thing when I obey. But why do I or any of us do this? Because God’s commands don’t line up with my own will. And my will is not in line with God’s will. Which is thee big problem because my will is broken yet His will is always perfect. So when we struggle with God’s will, before any decision is made, we need to pray, not my will be done but yours be done. There are several great examples of men who like Jonah who didn’t understand God’s will perfectly but followed it regardless and theirs is an example of not only faithfulness and true devotion to God but also of great peace, fulfillment, contentment, and joy. Abraham certainly comes to mind.
Before our actions ever turn to do what is wrong, the wickedness starts in our hearts from a competition between doing what I want, my will, and doing what God wants and God’s will.
We do what we do because we want what we want.
III. Jonah’s Response
III. Jonah’s Response
So how does Jonah officially respond?
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah as we discussed had the opportunity to make the right choice. But because his heart was set on doing his own will, he chose a very different path than what God had for him.
It says that Jonah made up his mind to instead of going to Ninevah, he was going to Tarshish. First of all, why Tarshish.
Tarshish is mentioned in the Bible a few times. It’s often talked about in relation to its great wealth. More importantly than that was it’s distance. We can’t be absolute certain of its exact location, several possibilities arise. But most believe it to be in the southern most part of Spain. Possibly even an island off of Spain. It was appromixately 2,500 miles away from Jonah’s hometown in the complete opposite direction to where he was supposed to go. But again, why there? Why not go south? Well think back to the modes of transportation they had then. What was the quickest way of travel. It was by sea of course on the ships. Nothing else could match the speeds by sea on land. So Tarshish was where he chose because it was the fastest way of getting away by sea and the farthest known location in the opposite direction of where he was supposed to go.
And isn’t that just like our human hearts to do. When we make up our mind on something, especially sinful, we don’t stop at halfway, we go all the way. Jonah had his plan and his planned seemed to him to be brilliant. A quick getaway and I’m off the hook for sure. I’ve found my way out. Scheming to find a way out of doing what God wants rather than actual obedience. It’s a sad moment when we think we can find more joy in avoiding God in what we think to be a more logical decision than actually taking God at His word and obeying His commands even though they don’t make sense to us. Does Jonah actually believe this to be best? I think he really did. It’s what all we as believers do when we sin. We doubt God. It’s what happened in the garden. “It is written”… becomes… “Is it written...”
It’s crazy how naive we really can be when we chose personal preference, selfish desires, and human logic over the perfection of God.
Speaking of logical, though Jonah’s decision seemed thought out, his decision was farthest from logical. Read again why Jonah ran.
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
It says it twice in the same verse. That’s not a slip of the pen or an accidental copy error. It’s as if Jonah, as he is latter capturing the thoughts of this episode of his life said, wow. I can’t believe I did that. How stupid was I really. To think that I could flee from the presence of the Lord. Now some commentators have wrote about what they believe Jonah may have done with this. Jonah was possibly intent on fleeing the manifest presence of God in the temple of Jerusalem hence his logic of removing himself so far from his birth land, rather than just stay there. However, he knew better than this. He knew God and He knows God’s omnipresence. Similiar the author of this Psalm recognized the same thing.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
But here’s what we take away from Jonah’s actions. Sin makes us do illogical things. Sure some of these made somewhat sense in our human minds. But most of it was absolute foolishness. How can a man who literally hears the Words from God Himself think he can run from God’s presence. How can a man of God who lives the life of a prophet and experience turmoil in his regular practice think that this time around he’s better off doing it his way than God’s especially when this man speaks to idolatrous selfish kings and we the way the end up and what God brings about to them. Doesn’t matter, because in the moment of sin, when we chose self and value our desires more than God, sin cause us to think illogical and to think with distorted doctrine.
When we walk in the flesh we are literally chosing to walk in the former way of life that we once lived before Christ. God through His Word define’s mans ability to think and to see as blind before we know Christ.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Walking in the flesh means to walk blind and not see or think clearly. Man’s wisdom though it seems wise is always considered by God to be foolish.
What are illogical things we often do.
Spend money on things we don’t need. Why is this illogical? We buy in part because we think it will please us rather than being satisfied in the Lord.
Skip church here and there. Why do we skip church at times or not gather at every opportunity we can. Why? Just don’t feel like it. Have more important things to do? Is there really more important things than obeying God’s command to meet together as often as possible especially as the Day of the Lord soon approaches. Not to mention that as a result of not meeting, our hearts become hardened as the passage says. That’s illogical thinking, in our belief that missing services doesn’t hurt us and we can still please God.
What about what we watch and look at?
What about the way we talk?
What about the activities we do? Not realizing that pain it will bring and the people it will hurt. Sin makes us do things illogical.
But the problem starts in the heart.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
And this is exactly what Galatians 5 tells us.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
When we get mad at our spouse, it’s not really because they deserve our swift judgment, but more because they have done something that offended me and my will. When we get frustrated at our kids, it’s because they messed up our plans. When we get agitated by our fellow coworker or church member, it’s because they’ve made my life difficult, been road blocks in my life being exactly the way I want. Any kind of improper action on our part starts with what was our inward most desire and what is ruling my heart. That’s what the Bible teaches. All of our actions speak to what we worship and cling to. When you worship your flesh and let it govern your life, the fruit of it will be immorality, impurity, divisions, idolatry, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, envy, and all sorts of other things. Do any of these describe your life, your relationships your, tendencies.
What do you treasure, what do you desire most. If that which you desire, doesn’t line up perfectly with what God wants, guess what your actions will be. Strangely enough too, but pay close attention to this as well, what you may want may actually be a good thing, but it can still be wrong if how you go about it is wrong. You may want a good thing, but if you sin to get it, then it’s wrong. Or if you complain, gripe, and mope when you don’t get it, than it’s also wrong. That seems to be such an obvious thing but yet it’s what we as humans so often do.
Jonah’s heart, though he “followed God” as a prophet desired in this moment something that was not of God. The onset of Jonah’s horrific sin was Jonah’s heart was bent to accomplishing only his own will. Had He fully trusted God, had He fully desired God above all else, He would have obeyed and followed through. So before the cataphrophy of Jonah’s sad story, was a decision of the heart. And the same is true of us. You may look and act spiritual on the outside, even that cannot save you from making a wreck of your life. So guard your hearts, love God fully. Be pleased in Him alone and the fruit of your life who always be one who truly loves and follows God.