A Perfect Heart

I'm here this morning to share with you some thoughts, not about Lazarus and continuing on with Lazarus. We'll do that next time, but I did want to comment on what's going on in our world, in our country and around the world. There's some things happening that are unusual, causing a lot of people to be stirred up and upset.

I'd like to use this opportunity, because God uses opportunities like this. We know that all things work together for good, for them that love Him, for them that are called according to His purpose. Everything has a purpose, and I believe God has purpose in all of this.

I also do have respect for our authorities. I believe that the King's heart is in the Lord's hand. He turns it with us wherever He will.

And the fact that our president, and I don't get involved in a lot of these things, but our president did declare today to be a national day of prayer, and I thought it was a good thing. You know, in most of the difficulties we face, we turn to many different avenues, like Eli was saying. But, you know, it's good to turn to the Lord when you're having difficulty and trouble.

And so, whatever that meant in his heart, he has established today as a day of prayer. And I thought I would share some things with you from 1 Kings. If you'd like to turn to 1 Kings chapter 8, and then I'd like to share a little bit, read some scriptures, comment on them, and then maybe we could spend a little bit of time here at the end of the message to spend some time in prayer, to honor those who have given us this day of prayer.

I think in the Old Testament, when the kings, whether they're good or evil, you read the Old Testament, if they call for a fast or call for a day of prayer, that the people honored that. And so, how many of you agree our nation needs prayer? And so, I'm sure it's not out of place to be praying for the nation. And I'm sure many of you have heard about some of these viruses that are going around and people are getting panicky, and I think it's way overblown, but I do know that God sends things for purpose.

And he even mentions to us many places in the Old Testament specifically and in the New, some of the things and the purposes for that. But I'd like to jump in here in 1 Kings 8 and start reading in verse 22. I'm going to do some reading and then comment on these passages, but Solomon here is about ready to dedicate the house of God, the temple, and it's a big day in Israel's history.

The house of God is being dedicated. God is going to begin to dwell there in that house. And Solomon is standing before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the congregation.

I want to read starting in verse 22. And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hand toward heaven. And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee.

In heaven above or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all of their heart. Now we're going to talk some about the heart here. It's mentioned in a number of different places.

But those who walk before thee with all of their heart. Verse 24, who has kept with thy servant David, my father, that thou promised him, thou spakest also with thy mouth and has fulfilled it with thine hand as it is this day. Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David, my father, that thou promised him, saying, there shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel so that the children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.

And now, O Lord God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David, my father. Now, David here is mentioned a number of times. David was a man who had a heart that God commended.

He was called a man after God's own heart. He had what was called in the Bible a perfect heart. Now David was not a perfect man.

And if you read the story of David, if you read his life, he was not a perfect man, but he had a perfect heart. He had a heart that was sincere. He had a heart that was honest with God.

And God is talking about this here, even through David's son Solomon, as Solomon prays. Solomon is praying to God. He is asking God to keep the covenant that he made with his father David.

And that God had made a covenant with David that there would be no man that would fail to sit as king in Israel throughout generations. You know, it was God's purpose that Israel would remain a nation and that there would be a king on the throne up until the day that Jesus came and Jesus became the eternal king that we understand now and the kingdom of God was established. But as we read down through here, you're going to find that the people started to sin and violate God's will and not walk before God with a perfect heart.

And God then had to bring them obviously into captivity. They went into the Babylonian captivity. There were many years of darkness.

But David here is a man after God's own heart. And Solomon, as he prays, he mentions David, his father, much, and he talks about walking before God with a perfect heart. I'd like you to hold your finger here.

Oh, maybe I'll just read it to you. It's familiar for some of you. Psalm 51.

There's many psalms that David wrote. But David here is acknowledging his own need in Psalm 51, the psalm of David. I'm not going to read the whole psalm.

But this is coming out of David's heart. He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit." And so here's a man, his name is David King. He is a man who has a perfect heart before God.

And I said this before, it doesn't mean he's a perfect individual, but he came to God and he acknowledged his need, he acknowledged his failure, and he kept good records with the Lord. He kept good account, or he kept short account with the Lord. And that's where a sincere heart ought to be.

You know, a sincere heart ought to come to God and say, Lord, I want to obey you, I want to walk in your ways. And a sincere heart ought to walk in the Lord's ways, praise God for that. But a sincere heart, when a sincere heart fails, when a sincere heart falls, a sincere heart will immediately deal with that failure and come to the Lord and plead the blood of Jesus for that failure.

And that's a sincere heart. That's what the Bible calls a perfect heart. A heart that is right with God, a heart that is walking before Him.

Let's go back and keep reading here in 1 Kings chapter 8. This is the prayer that is made here, verse 26, And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant, my father David. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built it. Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today, that thine eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, even toward the place which thou hast said, My name shall be there, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.

And hearken now to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive. Now, the temple was a place where God's people were to come, and they were to pray, it was a special place, and they were to lift up their voice, and Solomon here is praying to God and said, Lord, now when your people come into this house, and when they pray, hear them, and when they pray to you, forgive them. And so it was the house of God, it was the place where men were to come to pray, and you'll see here in verse 29 and 30, it even mentions when people prayed there to pray toward this place.

And so you take a man like Daniel who's in captivity, and Daniel when he prays, he prays three times a day, it says he opens his window and he prays toward Jerusalem. Even though he's not able to come to that house, he recognizes here what Solomon's prayer is, that this house is a house of prayer, but if my people go into captivity, when they pray, they're to pray toward this house. And so Solomon is praying here.

Now, you and I, we don't have a temple to go to to pray, and you say we have a building here, that's right, but that Old Testament temple is a picture of the church, it's a picture of the house of God, and right here is the temple here today. This is the house of God, the people of God, and so this is the place of prayer. Jesus said my house should be called a house of prayer, and so we come together, and we come together oftentimes to pray to Him.

Now, he goes on here, and I like to look at verse number 33 as he continues. This is all prayer at the dedication here of the temple. Verse 33, when thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house, then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.

Verse 35, when heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them, then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. And so here is Solomon, he's praying, and he's recognizing that the people may stray, and when the people stray, he is exhorting them to come back to the Lord, and acknowledge their sin, and to cry out to God for mercy, and for pardon, and for restoration. And you're going to see, obviously, that throughout Israel's history, this is a pattern, that Israel would violate God's commandments, and they would walk in their own ways, and God would bring upon them judgments.

He would bring an army, and he would destroy many of them, or he would bring plagues. We're going to see one here in just a minute. He'd bring pestilences and plagues, and he would begin to destroy the people, and then they would lift up their voice.

Then they would go to the house of God if they could, and they would cry out to the Lord, and they would ask God for restoration and forgiveness. And this is throughout the entire Old Testament, God's dealings with man. I'd like you to look at a good example of this.

Turn with me to Psalm 107. I'm going to just do a lot of reading here this morning. Psalm 107, I don't know where your heart is this morning.

I'd like you to have a perfect heart as we get down to the end here. I'd like you to have a perfect heart that you could come before the Lord with confidence and cry out unto Him. But in Psalm 107, starting in verse number one, this is a long psalm.

There's many examples here. I don't know if I'll read the whole thing, but starting in verse number one, it says, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

They had a problem. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfies the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

You know, that's one of the ways that God receives glory. Last week we talked about the death of Lazarus. You know, Lazarus, he died.

Jesus could have healed him. He could have come, but he waited two days, and he allowed Lazarus to die. He allowed a lot of affliction to come to Mary and Martha and Lazarus to pass through the valley of the shadow of death.

Why? We learned last time, for the glory of God. For the glory of God. And you know, God receives glory.

Verse 8. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Has the Lord satisfied your soul with goodness? Has he filled your soul, that which was empty? Verse 10. Such as sit in darkness.

Are you in darkness today and in the shadow of death? You're on the verge of maybe losing life, being bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled against the words of God and contemned the counsel of the Most High. Maybe you've got off the track and you're sitting in bonds of iron and you're in a place of darkness and the shadow of death. I've got good news for you this morning.

Look what it says. Verse 12. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor.

They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break their bands and sunder.

We talked about here this morning the three Hebrew children. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he hath broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron and sunder.

Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of all their distresses.

You know this old psalm is about people in trouble. People in trouble. Their hearts are in trouble.

And sometimes that trouble is because of what they've done. They've made a mess of their life and they are in trouble. And yet it says over and over again, then they cry unto the Lord in their distresses.

They cry unto the Lord in their trouble. I love this verse. I've used it so many times in my life.

I shared it with you, I think, last week. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee. And what's the next word say? And thou shalt glorify me.

You know what? God is one in glory. And sometimes God brings us into difficult situations. Maybe He brings you into a time of great need.

Maybe He brings you into a time of great sorrow. Maybe He brings you into a time of great suffering. And it is all to bring you to the place where it is repeated, oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Verse 22, and let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. They that go down, many examples here. They that go down to the sea and ships that do business in great waters.

These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He commandeth and raises the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. By the way, who's the one that brings the storms? Remember when Jesus got into the boat and He took those disciples out into the storm? He's the one who brought the storm.

Maybe you've got a storm in your life. He's the one who oftentimes brings those storms. Verse 25, He commands and raises the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble.

Some people here today, maybe their soul is melting. Because of trouble. In your life.

They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wit's end. Who do they look to? Who do they look to then? They look to men, no. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble.

And He bringeth them out of their distresses. He makes the storm a calm so that the waves are ever still. Then are they glad because they be quiet.

So He bringeth them into their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works for the children of men. Do you see the pattern of what God is doing here? He picks out many, many different ways in which men get into troubles.

They're hungry. They don't have much to eat. They're in captivity because of their own sin.

They're out on the sea. And the waves and the storm are causing them to question whether they're going to live. And on and on and on.

And in each instance, their trouble ought to drive them to get on their knees, right? And cry out unto the Lord. And seek the face of God and cause or allow God to bring deliverance to them. That they might glorify Him.

And this is throughout the Bible. I just read one psalm here. But let's go back now to 1 Kings.

Again, I want to keep reading here because there's another situation that is coming up. 1 Kings chapter 8 in verse 37. You know, why does God bring troubles? You know, why does God bring troubles for the nation? Why does God bring troubles for us as people? Maybe some of you are troubled here today.

Why does God bring troubles? You know, if life was just full of ease and comfort, we'd be like Laodicea. Everything is so rich and increase of good have need of nothing. And those kind of people are in very dangerous waters.

Because they don't cry out unto God. And yet throughout the Scriptures, God causes things to come into life that causes us to have to cry out to Him. And there's a bunch of them mentioned here.

But I'd like to look here at verse 37 and keep reading. This is still a prayer of Solomon. He says in verse 37, If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence.

And with pestilence is what we're hearing about some today. This virus that's going through the land. It's going around the world.

Blasting or mildew or locust or if there be caterpillar. These are things that are coming to destroy. If their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be.

What prayer and supplication should ever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hand toward this house. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest. I love that.

Whose heart thou knowest. For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest them unto our fathers. Let me ask you a question this morning.

You know, one thing that these things that happen in the world and I think some of you younger ones too especially. You're going to face much greater things than what's causing people out of panic today. There's going to be a lot of other things that come upon you in life and in your world.

And it's unfortunate that many people today are responding in the wrong way. They're responding with difficulty by fear and panic and doing things that are not appropriate. But we as a church ought not to respond that way.

We as a church ought to be the ones who are crying out to the Lord and trusting in the Lord and looking to the Lord. But I'd like to ask this question to you. What kind of heart do you have? You know, it mentions here this morning, verse 38, what prayer and supplications to ever be made by any man or by all by people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart.

Some of you, we all know our own needs, don't we? We all know the things that we struggle with. And spread forth his hands toward this house. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest.

For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men. You know, one of the best ways to find out where your heart is is to go through great difficulty and trouble. You know, one of the great refining things for the human heart is to bring, to have your life come into a situation where you really, really need God, right? And that's something that God desires to do.

Whether you're approaching maybe the end of life, you're approaching death, or whether or not you've come across some serious accident, or whether you have some serious sickness, or whether there's war and trouble in the land and there's great difficulty on all sides, it causes the human heart to begin to examine, where is my heart? You know, you've experienced this perhaps. I shared some with you last week about this, but maybe your children get sick and you need that perfect heart to cry out to God for healing for my child. And so you get on your knees, you know, and you start praying and you start realizing, you know, my heart's not in the right place.

My heart is not perfect before God. There are things in my life that are not right, that are not good. And I'm not serious.

I'm not sincere with God. I'm not serious about my own heart. And so when you come to pray, it's like, oh, have you experienced that? It's like, oh, you know, here's a great need.

A great need. And I need to come to God and I need to have a sincere heart in my prayer, in my crying out to God. And maybe sometimes that sincere heart is not there.

Let me ask you a question. You know, this is just a small thing that our country is going through, but you know, a few years ago, they had this Ebola plague. I don't think it ever reached our shores here, but the Ebola plague was pretty devastating.

I mean, it was an awful plague. And when that plague got to you, I mean, you were done, you know, and it was an awful death. And Ebola is a nasty, a nasty pestilence that came upon many people.

In the African continent, what if Ebola would start spreading rapidly in our country? And people, like in Africa, began to drop dead, young and old. Boom. Boom.

I mean, you know, you hear, if you've been watching some of the stories this week, you hear, you know, 50 dead, 20 dead, 100 dead, so many dead, so many sick. And you think in your heart, what if this comes to me, right? What if this comes to me? And so in these times, it allows people to say, yes, what if it does come to me, right? And if it does come to me, am I ready for great difficulty, great suffering? Am I ready to face God? Am I ready to die? Am I ready to stand before Him in judgment? And a lot of things that the Lord brings to us are just an awakening to us. You know, are you ready? Is your heart perfect before me, right? And so today here, we have things going on in this world, and you're probably hearing of stories, and I don't think it's going to be as bad as people talk about it being, but I think we all ought to make sure that our hearts are perfect toward the Lord.

And that our hearts are like, we're reading about here, like David. Solomon kept saying about David, my father, and his heart, and how his heart was perfect before me. You say, well, David wasn't a perfect man.

That's right, but David had a perfect heart. David wanted to do the right thing from the depths of his heart. He wanted to follow and obey the Lord, but when he failed, he had a short account with the Lord, and he come with a brokenness before God.

And you can read in the Psalms many, many times that David came and broke his heart before God. Let me ask you a question just to check it out here. Do you sincerely, all of us sincerely, want to do the right thing before the Lord? Are we sincere in what we're doing? Or is there areas in your life where you know that you're doing wrong, and it's just kind of a compartment over there, and it's just kind of my thing, and I'm going to do it, and the Lord knows it's over there, but I'm not willing to be sincere and to say I'm going to touch every base of my life, and God, there's nothing off limits to you.

You know the old story of every area of the house you can have, Lord, except this one room. Well, what happens oftentimes, and you know this in human nature, that when trouble comes, it's that one room that causes you all the trouble. Would you agree? It's that one room.

And you know, we can get by in life fine when things are going well, but when things start to fall apart, and I don't know what's going to happen in the United States over the next two or three months, next year or two. You know, the stock market's gone all over the place. You know, you may go to Walmart in a month or two, and they say, listen, the doors are shut, and I'm not trying to incite panic here, but you have to be prepared for these things.

It's like the Lord just gives you a little glimpse of things that are coming. We're meeting every Saturday morning talking about the signs of the end and the great tribulation, the times that will precede the second coming of Christ, and this is just kindergarten compared to those things. You know, you read about them.

Pestilences and earthquakes and men's hearts failing them for fear of the things that are coming upon the earth. You know, people are fearful now, but wait until you have tsunamis every couple of days. You know, the sea and the waves are roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear.

Things are going really crazy all over the world, and then that little room that you kept secret over there, that little room is going to kind of open up and say, whoa, wait a minute. You want to cry out to God with a perfect heart. What about this little secret chamber you've been holding, right? And so when the Bible talks about having a perfect heart before God, it's not having any of those secret chambers in the heart.

It's being honest and open before the Lord. And so God sends these things. He sends these plagues and pestilences, and He does them to show us our hearts.

Verse 39, Then hear thou in heaven and thy dwelling place, and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest. For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto thy fathers. Here's a beautiful thing.

Moreover concerning a stranger, this is someone who is not a part of the people of God, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out from a far country for thy namesake. For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm, when he shall come and pray toward this house. Hear thou in heaven and thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for, that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as do thy people Israel, that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

So even a stranger who joins the Israelites was allowed then to call upon this God, and He would hear them. Verse 44, I'm going to keep reading down through. This is a prayer here.

If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward thy house that I have built for thy name, then hear thou in heaven their prayer, and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy far or near, and that happened with the Babylonian captivity, yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying we have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness, and so return unto thee with all their heart, again with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name, then hear thou their prayer, and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions were, and they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron, that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them, and all that they call for unto thee, for thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, by the way you're a separated people, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord our God. And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees, with his hands spread up to heaven.

And he stood, and he blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice saying, Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he hath promised. There hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers.

Let him not leave us nor forsake us, that he may incline our hearts unto him to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require, that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, that there is none else. Let your hearts therefore be perfect.

Here it is. Let your hearts therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments as at this day. And so perfect.

Let your hearts be perfect. And the word perfect there, if you look it up, it means sincere. Or to walk with integrity.

Integrity means to walk as best you can in holiness and righteousness, and if you do sin against someone, or if you do fail, that you have some integrity. I mean, if I would do something here against James and maybe hit his car or hit his truck, his new red truck out there, and if I had integrity, what would I do? I'd come and tell him. And I'd make it right, wouldn't I? If I had no integrity, I would violate him by hitting his truck and then going off and not telling him, and that would show that I had no integrity.

And so a perfect heart is one that has sincerity and has integrity. God, I'm sincere in my desire to obey you. You know that.

And God, if I do fail you, I make it right. I come to you and acknowledge it and confess it. I'm walking with a perfect heart.

I'm walking in sincerity. I'm walking in integrity. I have no room over here that I've kept hidden.

So a perfect heart is a heart that leans to do His will, loves to do His will, and desires repentance when there is sin. Now what happened, if you look at this story throughout history, what happened to the Israelites is instead of keeping a perfect heart and walking with God, when they failed coming to God and clearing their heart, having integrity, they began to sin and put everything in a closed room. And that one room became two rooms.

That two room became three rooms. Before you know it, it became the whole house. And pretty soon, God was tired of the lack of integrity and lack of sincerity, and God brought them into judgment, into Babylonian captivity.

And yet He even said there, when you're in a foreign land in captivity, cry unto me and I will deliver you. And so you have people like David living his whole life basically in captivity. But now turn over a couple of chapters here.

Look at 1 Kings chapter 11. Let me show you someone who doesn't have a perfect heart. And this is a sad story, but Solomon, the same man that prayed this prayer, actually lost his perfect heart.

And this is a sad story of Solomon, but God shows how a person can lose that perfect heart. In 1 Kings 11, starting in verse number one, but King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonites and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon, claim unto these in love.

I think someone read here this morning, don't set your affections on the things of this earth. And he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods.

And it's noted this, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. Solomon had a perfect heart. Solomon had a heart that though he was not a perfect man, Solomon had a heart that he wanted to do the right thing.

He had sincerity. He wanted to obey. And also when he failed, he immediately came and he acknowledged it and he made it right.

He was a man of integrity. He made it right with God. Lord, I've sinned.

Have mercy upon me. Forgive me. Lord, I've done evil to my brother.

I want to make it right. Lord, I want to be a man of integrity. Like the elder.

An elder is to be a man who is blameless. A blameless man is a man of integrity. A blameless man is a person who when he does wrong, he makes it right.

So that no one has ought against him. He's blameless. But Solomon lost his way.

He began to live in sin. He began to love other wives. He actually began to marry other wives and bring other wives.

And no longer was he sincerely seeking after the will of God. No longer was he acknowledging these things as even wrong. And he began to move away so much so that his heart is no longer perfect with the Lord his God.

Verse 5 says, For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as did his father, his father David. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. So here's a man who is walking with a perfect heart, just like David, his father.

And here's a man that sin drew him away. And just to illustrate it again, he closed off one room. Then he closed off a second room.

Then he closed off a third room. And by the time God judged the nation, the whole temple, the whole house of God was closed off. As a matter of fact, if you look at some of the prophets, Ezekiel and them, they're going down to the house of God.

They're seeing all manner of wickedness throughout the house of God. It's just an evil place. And God brought judgment upon the nation, scattered them over through the temple, and sent them into captivity.

Now I want to ask you a question this morning. Where is your heart? As God looks at it... By the way, we just read, God knows the heart of everyone here. In our hearts, do you in your heart sincerely desire to do the will of God? I mean, the will of God.

Lord, it is my sincere desire to do the will of God. Do you when you fail to get the will of God done and you sin, do you immediately in integrity, do you address it and deal with it and make it right with Him? Or are there areas in your life that are closed off? Like this is untouchable. This is a room here that you don't go into.

I like these kind of things over here and God, I've got all these other rooms for you. You know, you can get by that way. I don't recommend it, but I'll tell you this.

When the plague comes, when the war comes, when the famine comes, when the child is lying nearly dead on the table, and then you come with your heart that's got a room or two that's closed off to the Lord and you start crying out to God, all of a sudden that heart is going to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It ain't going to come here. Because you're not sincere.

You're not a man of integrity. You don't have a perfect heart towards me. And from experience and also looking at this story, one room closed off becomes two rooms closed off becomes three rooms closed off can become a whole house closed off.

Let's look at another example. 1 Kings 15. There's a couple other examples of this heart.

One of the things that these things that are going on in America and around the world are doing for people, and it's helping them see where their heart is. Right? Where is your heart? Helps us to see where our hearts are. 1 Kings 15.

I want to read a few verses here starting in verse number 1. Now in the 18th year of the king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah. Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Mekah, the daughter of Abishalam.

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father. Again, pointing back to David.

David is an example. Solomon said, I want to be like my father. Here again, pointing back to David.

Now, David, was he a perfect man? No! You read the life of David, he's not a perfect man. But if you read the Psalms, you'll find out that David was a man of integrity. That when he sinned or when he failed with his relationship with God or with men, he made it right.

Jump down to verse number 9. And in the 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah. And 41 years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Mekah, the daughter of Abishalam.

And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord as did David his father. Now, here's someone who's doing the right thing as David did. And he took away the Sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

And also Mekah, his mother, even her, he removed her from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa destroyed her idol and burned it by the brook of Kidron. But the high places were not removed.

Nevertheless, Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. Asa's heart. Asa's sincerity.

Asa's integrity. It says he removed the Sodomites out of the land. He removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

And something else. He even dealt with his mother. He removed her from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove.

Asa took care of all the idols in his heart and drove out the wickedness. He took care of it in Israel, but you know, that's a picture for us. A perfect heart is one that dries out wickedness.

Amen? Dries it out. Doesn't want it in here. God in all the sincerity of my heart, I want to live holy.

I want to live righteously. I don't want any wickedness in my heart. Is that where your heart is today? Or are you open to, hey, I can have these things.

I can embrace these things and still be a Christian. I can do these things and my heart is not perfect before the Lord. But one of the reasons why God brings troubles, one of the reasons why God brings war and famine and pestilence and some of these things throughout the Bible, troubles into our life is to test the heart.

Is to try the heart. The trying of your faith. What kind of a heart do you have? You know, I think it's a good thing for us to have a good heart and a strong heart because there is coming days when people are going to just panic.

They're going to be all over the place. Somebody needs to be solid. Amen? And give direction and teach and say, hey, listen, if I die, I die.

But I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. My heart is perfect with the Lord. You want to have a perfect heart this morning? Come to God and open everything up.

Amen? Just open it all up. There's no room that's hidden. God, I want cleanliness in every area of my life.

I want to be clean all the way through. Lord, I want the blood of Jesus not just to flow to the living room and the upstairs bedrooms, but I want the blood to flow all the way through every room. Even go down to the basin, every corner.

I want to be cleansed fully so that when I come into my time of difficulty and struggle and maybe times of great anxiety and fear, I can come to You with a perfect heart. A perfect heart. Well, this morning, I would like to, if we could, just pray a little bit for our nation on the day of prayer, national prayer.

As we go to prayer, I'd like to just ask, do you have a perfect heart? You know, when things get really bad, I want someone with a perfect heart to pray. I don't want someone to pray for me who's got a few bedrooms that are closed off to the Lord. I want people to pray whose hearts are perfect.

There's nothing hidden. No closed rooms. The blood of Jesus has washed it all clean.

And you can pray from the sincerity of your heart. You're not a perfect person, but you're a man of integrity, a woman of integrity. Lord, I did wrong.

I acknowledge it and I'm making it right. And so, is anyone here this morning without a perfect heart? I'd like to just spend a little time praying for our nation as a congregation. I know many congregations aren't even meeting today.

I guess there's rules about so many people gathering in one place and a lot of people are concerned about this virus, but let's pray for the nation. Pray for God to use this thing to open up people's hearts. It's amazing that what a great time to go into rest homes right now.

Some of you go to rest homes. Are you being closed off? I'm thinking most of you are being closed off now. And what a great time to be there.

Probably many people there are opening up more to I have need, my heart is not right. And what a great time. Now these doors are being closed.

Campuses are being closed, but let's pray for the nation. Let's pray for us as a congregation that we can be a good testimony to a world. I don't know what's going to happen in the next couple of months.

Other things are going to close down. What's going to happen? But I do know this, and what I want to encourage us all in is that when we come into difficulty and it may never even happen, this may just be an overblown thing, but when we do come into difficulty, let's come into it with perfect hearts. Let's come into it with no closed rooms so that we can cry out to God like they did and pray in this place and God here and heal and help us.

Let's do that. We don't know the future, but we can deal with our perfect hearts or try to have a perfect heart in the midst. Can I have maybe three or four volunteers? I just want to pray for our nation.

And that God would...