Weeding our Hearts

Well, blessings to all of you, and we greet you in the name of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Thank you, thanks, thank the Lord for this opportunity once again to fellowship together.

It's just a real blessing to me, I not because I'm up here, but because it's where God's people are, and I just more and more appreciate that God has given us this privilege. I really do.

How many of you like to weed your gardens? Got some people that like to do that? Okay.

It wasn't too many hands went up.

I realize that if you're a farmer and you have the big fields, that's kind of hard to do, to go out there and pull the weeds. But I'll be honest with you, I don't like to. I don't like to.

Why don't we?

Why don't we like to pull weeds?

Because they're tough, aren't they?

They won't go away.

They just won't go away. And I know with your larger farmers why they have seed now that already has something in there that will keep the weeds away. I think they do anyhow. Or you spray something on there that'll possibly take care of it for a while.

But they have a tendency to come right back. Even if you pull them weeds just so cleanly, you go down that row and just clean them out, it isn't very long until they're back. Until they're back.

Do you know where else weeds grow other than in a garden?

Right in here.

Weeds grow right in here.

What else do they do? They crowd out those plants that we put in the ground to hopefully give us something, to give us something worthwhile, something to eat or whatever. But those weeds have a tendency to take away some of that amount of food that you get off of a plant.

So I'd like to the title of the message is Weeding Our Hearts. The springboard for this was a number of years ago, and I don't know if it was in this area or not. I don't know why. I can't remember. It was a field. And as I passed this field, and it was a real nice level field, it was a beautiful field, but it was full of weeds. That's all that was in it. I don't know what happened there. If the farmer just didn't get around to working it up or taking out the weeds or whatever, but I couldn't believe it.

A field, beautiful field, full of weeds.

I doubt very much whether the farmer planted those weeds, but there they were. There they were.

We need to remember that creation experienced the fall just as humans did. And those weed seeds were there to take over when good seed was not sown. And I think we are going to have to really get a hold of that truth when it comes to our hearts.

If you do not keep your heart cleaned up, all those weeds pulled out, you are going to experience some things that you wish you wouldn't. Because of the fall and sin, our hearts are full of weed seed. And sure enough, when we become lax in our walk with Christ, those weeds begin to germinate, and out they come, up they come, to begin to take root in our heart.

Some weed seeds stay alive a long time, decades, and perhaps a century or more. In an experiment begun in 1879 in Michigan, bottles of buried seeds are dug up every 10 years and tested.

80 years later, curly dock, evening primrose, and others were still able to germinate after 80 years, buried in a jar or a container.

Seeds of red root pigweed, that's a very familiar one to all of us, that red root. Boy, they are prolific. Anyway, remained alive 40 years. Single plants of ragweed produce over 3,000 seeds each. And pigweed is worse, producing 120,000 seeds per plant.

I almost couldn't believe that.

As any gardener knows, and some of you have said you like this, but weeding is a lot of hard work. And as any Christian knows, weeding our hearts is a lot of hard work. But praise God, it has its wonderful rewards, a beautiful garden and a beautiful heart.

I love to go and see past gardens that are well taken care of, well weeded. It's really nice to go past those gardens and see the beauty that can come out of that if we keep the weeds out.

That takes time, takes effort, takes work to do it.

Weeds are actually just simply plain robbers. They are robbers. They rob the nutrients and water that good plants need. Just as a real robber destroys, many times, weeds do that to good plants, and they begin to destroy our hearts.

Those weeds that those weed seeds that are in our hearts begin, if they are not worked on, if they are not taken out, if they are not pulled, let me tell you, you will become a destroyed person eventually.

Weeds are aggressive. They are really aggressive and have no pity on other plants. They have no pity whatsoever. I don't care if you are a bean plant, I'm going to come right up here beside you. Just going to come right up here beside you.

And these weeds in our hearts have no pity either on our hearts as well. So we, in turn, have to be just as aggressive in our weeding so that as the plant as the weed is aggressive in growing there, no pity, no remorse for pulling out that weed in our hearts.

Yank them out and destroy them in the fire of repentance. And I'll get to that a little bit later. Is it enough just to pull the weeds?

If you pull a weed in your garden and you just lay it there beside the plant or right in the middle of the row, maybe, what happens?

That thing will often take root again.

So it has to be destroyed in some way or another. And let them dry somewhere and then toss them into the fire or put them in a recycling pile or something like that. Actually, I've been throwing some into my chickens, and they seem to like those weed seeds just as good as other things. But anyway, yeah, destroy them in the fire of repentance. You see, that is one way we weed our hearts.

And we need to know these weeds by name.

And I didn't know there were so many.

I'll just name a few.

The most familiar one of us is dandelion. That's a weed. People eat them, though, but anyhow. Dandelion, barnyard grass, excuse me, bull thistle, burdock, carpet weed, chickweed, chickery, cockleburr, red root pigweed, sow thistle, stinging nettle, poison ivy, wild garlic, and on and on the list goes.

A good gardener knows the enemies of his garden.

And we also know that there are some other enemies of our gardens, and they're known as critters that are enemies of our gardens as well. We have to deal with them as well, but weeds are so persistent, and we need to continually and consistently deal with them.

Weeds. Even the word doesn't sound real nice, does it? Weeds. Doesn't have a real nice tenor to it.

Well, we also, just as we as a gardener knows the names of the weeds that want to mess up his garden, we need to know the weeds that want to grow in our hearts. Ephesians 4:31.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. If you go to Mark 7, the Gospel of Mark,

20 to 23. And this is Jesus speaking, and he said, "What comes out of a man that defiles a man? For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

Weeds. Weeds, and their only purposes, especially these, are to destroy your heart because the devil is the one that is behind them all. And he just is constantly trying to find a place in your heart to plant one of these seeds or many, whatever.

Evil speaking. And the Bible doesn't I don't know if it uses the word gossip or not. But when I think of evil speaking, I often think of the word gossip. Gossip is a very prolific weed.

It grows fast, and it spreads fast. And I was just thinking, oh, the damage it can do to people's hearts.

Gossip. It's a terrible weed. It's an awful weed. And we need to be careful. And I need to tell myself this.

Am I just ready to tell a juicy bit of information to someone? Am I going to allow that weed to begin to grow? Proverbs 16:27 and 28. An ungodly man excuse me, an ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire. A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.

You see what gossip will do? A whisperer. Yeah, you know what happened here?

Gossip. Be very careful with that weed. Another one is bitterness. Bitterness. And I always see this one as a vine-like weed. What's a vine usually do?

It wraps around something.

I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen a huge tree. I mean, I've seen these huge trees with vines that are almost out on every branch and up around the trunk. But they say that it will kill it. It will kill that big tree because of that vine going up and around all the branches and different things like that.

Bitterness does that thing does that with your heart. It wraps around your heart and begins to strangle it slowly. Obviously, it begins very slowly, but surely. And I would suppose that this is probably the deadliest weed of all as far as your heart is concerned. Hebrews 12:17.

Therefore, strengthen Hebrews 12:12. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down in the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, take notice. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one more so of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully or diligently with tears.

What an awful end.

What an awful end. But I'm telling you, if you do not pull that root of bitterness out from the very beginning, you probably are going to face the same kind of end as Esau did.

And I was thinking about those roots. You know, a weed has to have roots to grow as any plant. You have to have those roots. And that's why I was saying here, lest any root of bitterness springing up. And that word bitterness actually means to squeeze or to seize or to pack or press down.

I just put a pole in at our place for the clothesline to make one of those. And I had to, of course, I bored my hole and put it down in there. And then I used the digging iron to just really pack that thing down tight. But believe it or not, when I used it, that thing moved. I thought, sure, I packed that in there tight enough to so I had to put a little support on it. But anyway, that's what bitterness will do to your heart. It'll just pack it down, and it won't let it go.

It just simply will not let go.

The New King James does not use the word Gaul, but the Old King James does, talking about who.

You can go to Acts 8.

Simon.

Acts 8, verse 20. Well, let me say what Simon was verse 18. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right within the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity."

The Old King James says, "You are in the Gaul of bitterness."

What's Gaul?

Well, if you don't want something really ugly and distasteful and whatever, do not become bitter. Gaul is a it's actually a sore with a greenish hue.

And it talks about bile also. You have your gallbladder. You all have a gallbladder. Some of you might not have it anymore. But it has to do with your bile. But it's an ugly, greenish hue stuff. Do you ever have a sore that sort of maybe got infected or something?

It's almost what it looks like. That old greenish hue that comes out of there. And that's what Peter told Simon. He said, "You are in the Gaul of bitterness." That's what it looks like. That's how awful it is.

Folks, keep it pulled out. Keep it pulled out. Well, another weed is the weed of envy, ill will, jealousy. And of course, the most well-known example of envy was Joseph and his brothers.

They sold him because of envy. I'm not going to read that article.

You know, bitterness and envy are the hardest to pull because they are so deep-rooted. They are so deep-rooted. It's like that red root in your garden, especially if they're any size.

A lot of times, the plant just breaks off because you can't and the roots won't come out with it.

Thought I would as far as envy Acts while we're in Acts 7, verse 9.

Well, it's talking about the patriarchs becoming yeah. And the patriarchs becoming envious sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. That's part of Stephen's address there in Acts because of envy. Acts 13:44 and 45. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul.

In Matthew 27, verse 18.

This is Jesus on trial.

And this is Pilate. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, this is verse 17, "Whom do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ?" For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.

It's an awful weed. It really is.

The next weed I thought about is one that I think all of us have to deal with on a regular basis. And that is anger. It's a very common weed, a very common weed that grows in our hearts.

You know, this weed can get out of control very fast. Very fast, it can get out of control. Oh, how quickly we rise up in anger.

And I don't know if this is one of the definitions I saw, but it's a violent passion.

Anger is, as we know, usually ends in violence a lot of times. Ends in violence. So get rid of that one because it's so fast-growing, so fast-growing. And then pride, the weed of pride, another weed common to all people. This weed is poisonous.

It's very poisonous.

Proverbs 13 has some things to say about pride.

Proverbs 13:10.

By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the will advised is wisdom. Proverbs 16:18 and 19. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.

And then back to Proverbs 11,

verse 2.

When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom.

I'd like to go to First John yet on that. Chapter 2,

verse 15 to 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

One more in Proverbs, Proverbs 8.

This verse actually gives another name to pride.

Proverbs 8:13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance, and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Arrogance just seems to be another level of pride. A person that is really lifted up in pride, they become arrogant almost always.

Look who I am. Look what I can do. Arrogant has no time for anybody else but himself.

Well, weeding is an ongoing work. And we all know, as I said before, how quickly weeds can take over a garden. And it's no less true with our hearts. It takes time and patience to just stay with the job. A gardener has an arsenal of tools and sprays with which to deal with his weeds, hoes, and shovels, and herbicides, rototillers, size, but probably the best is his hands.

Now, it takes a little longer, maybe. You can get a rototiller in there and dig them up pretty quickly. But what happens with a rototiller? What are you doing with the weeds?

You're starting to bite back into the ground.

And they have seeds on them. So they're going to come back up. Virginia reminds me that she would rather I wouldn't get in there with a rototiller.

Your hand, you get a hold of that thing, and you get it out by its roots, it's out. You're not going to have any trouble with that particular weed anymore anyway. But yeah, probably your best thing is tool that you have is your hands.

Yeah. And then you can toss it or put it in the fire or whatever.

With our hearts, we need to deal personally and forthrightly with the weeds. You know, if we want a successful weeding in our hearts, we must acknowledge the weed as bitterness or envy and so on. You will never get the roots pulled if you place the blame on something else, such as your upbringing, your environment, some other person. I understand that's what psychiatrists and some counselors do so often, is blame somebody else.

That's why you have these weeds in your heart, in your life. That's why you can't get anywhere. Someone else's problem. They caused it.

No.

I think we need to once and for all take the responsibility upon ourselves for the weeds that are there and pull and yank until it is pulled out by its roots and tossed completely away.

But praise God, we do have we do not have to do it alone. We do have help with this weeding of our hearts.

Probably one of the hardest things, those of you who have children, and even when my children were younger, probably one of the hardest things to get your children to do was to go out in the garden and pull weeds.

Now, Catherine said she likes to pull weeds. So anyway, do I have to go out and pull weeds? It's hot. You know, dirty, all that kind of stuff.

Well, I want to say that this morning, Jesus is ready and waiting to help us weed our hearts.

I'd like to read First John again, back to First John.

I'll read First John 1 to chapter 2, verse 2. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

The key verse is verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What more could you ask for? If you have the sin of pride or the sin of bitterness, the sin of envy, there's no other help other than Christ being willing to forgive you of that sin whenever you repent and ask for it.

Repentance is the answer to our weed problem. Acknowledging our problem comes first, and then we must deal with it by repenting.

How do we keep the weeds from taking over? Matthew 12:43 to 45 gives us a good example.

And take careful or a close look at these verses or pay attention to them, especially the last verse. Verse 43 of Matthew 12. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when he comes, he finds it empty and swept and put in order.

Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.

You're going to have to keep it cleaned up. There can be no pause in between your weeding. It's a continual, constant thing because of what I just read.

All Satan will say, "Yeah, he looks pretty good. He got himself cleaned up a little bit or a good bit." Oh, that's a beautiful place for me to plant some seeds. And if we don't plant good seeds in it, he will. He'll plant bad seed in it.

And you're going to be worse off than before. It's going to be so much harder to then again find repentance for that.

So when we pull a weed, we need to plant good seed in that place so weeds have no chance to begin to grow. But always remember those weed seeds are there. They are there. But by planting good seeds, we keep them from germinating, taking root.

Any gardener knows this to be true as well because plants plant lots of vegetables and flowers and shrubs, which in turn keeps the weeds from taking over, especially if they're underneath a shrub. You don't find a whole lot of weeds underneath the shrub because there's not too much light can get in there. And these weeds cannot get themselves going.

So keep that in mind. I am sure that if after summer here and we have all of our stuff out of the garden, if we don't plant anything next year, you know what's going to be there, don't you?

Weeds, they're going to come right back up. So yeah, keep your heart filled with good seeds, with good seeds. Do you have trouble with thoughts? Repent and then begin reading what God's thoughts are and fill your mind with them. Spend time with godly people whose thoughts and words are on God.

Stay away from places and people and books that would give you trouble with your thoughts.

Stop planting bad seed.

You have trouble with envy? Repent and then go to that person and tell them how much you appreciate their lives. And you will be surprised at how quickly envy is pulled out by going to that person that you envy and asking their forgiveness for being envious toward them.

Do you have trouble with bitterness? Repent and go to the person who you think wronged you and tell them you forgive them and ask their forgiveness for you becoming bitter over it all.

Then in practical ways, show your love for them, for that person that you are bitter at.

You know, it takes diligence to keep these weeds out of our lives. It takes lots of diligence.

Proverbs 4:23, someone quote it.

That's right. Keep thy heart with all diligence. That word diligence means a guard, being on guard. Keep thy heart with all diligence.

Don't go to sleep while you're on guard duty.

Second Peter 1:5 to 11 shows us clearly how it works.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Did you know there were so many good seeds that you can plant?

There they are.

There they are. You can have just a beautiful heart, a garden of a heart this morning. Plant these things, put them in there, and there's not going to be very hardly—it's going to be very few weeds that are going to be able to come up and cause you an issue, cause you a problem.

And probably the best deterrent to weeds in our heart is knowing Christ in an intimate way.

First John again,

chapter two, now verses three to six.

Now by this, we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says, "I know him," does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him also ought himself also to walk just as he walked, just as he walked.

How much time do I spend trying to understand the life of Christ?

Do I love to be with other Christians where the life and commandments of Christ are revealed? You know, you know about something best when you spend time with it.

Just a sort of a silly example from my work. How many of you know how a refrigerator works?

How does it work? John?

Why is the heater evaporation?

Don't ask me the details. No, and this is not going to be real detailed. What do most people think is happening whenever you're with a refrigerator?

Making things cold. Oh, really?

How does that happen?

Heater. Okay.

Yeah. Most people say it puts cold in. It does not.

It does not put cold in a refrigerator.

You have the refrigerant in there that absorbs the heat that's in that refrigerator. And cold is simply the absence of what? Heat.

Very simple. That's how a refrigerator works.

You have to have all those other things to help circulate things and all that kind of stuff. But the basic principle is the fact that you remove the heat out of that box, and it just automatically is cold because there's no heat there.

And that's what I'm saying about knowing Christ. If you really want to have a heart that is weed-free, you're going to have to become intimate with him and be willing to obey him, be willing to follow his commandments, and do what he says you need to do.

And I can assure you, I can promise you that you will have a beautiful heart. You really will. Weeds cannot germinate where there is good seed of where there is the good seed of Christ. So I'm begging you this morning to fill your heart with him. And the weeds will be very limited in their growth, if at all. And they may, like they said, they may not grow at all.

So that's my challenge to you this morning. Any thoughts or?