Keep thy heart

Proverbs chapter 4, and while you're looking up this one verse, Proverbs chapter 4, I just want to say this has been a very helpful weekend to myself. I have benefited from the teaching and the ministry that I have been privileged to listen to. One of the things that I like about a conference like this is that I'm speaking purely from a selfish perspective, from a preacher's perspective.

I can sit and relax and just soak up the Word of God, not in a quandary, not dithering from the beginning session to the end as to when I am supposed to speak. I remember when I was first commended to the work of the Lord, it just seemed like every conference was wrecked. I could no longer sit there and get much-needed ministry for myself because I was in pins and needles the whole time wondering, is this the time to go? Is this the time to go? Is it now? And to come here and just listen to Mr. Goff and Mr. Gilliland and relax and say, I can relax and enjoy the ministry.

It has been really rich this weekend, so thank you very, very much for being invited and for the privilege of participating with men that we highly regard. That's been an honor as well and thank you for all your kindness. Proverbs chapter 4, you probably have this underlined.

Verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. We have listened to ministry today and not one of us wants to stray. And not one of us wants to let our families down.

We want to stay true to the truth. We want to honor our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be faithful right to the end.

That's the language of our hearts. There were times this weekend when I felt like standing up and saying, hallelujah, I'm so glad to be here. But things can come into our lives.

And this verse is so important. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Or above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

In other words, if the well becomes contaminated, it won't be long until it is oozing out dark and evil things. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Last night at the hymn sing, we tried to share a few little thoughts from Philippians.

That little epistle, that little letter that Paul wrote, perhaps more so than the other epistles, it reveals his heart. His heart. His mission.

His purpose. He exposes his heart. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain, that I may know Him.

I count everything but loss for the, just to know the surpassing worth of knowing Him, the excellencies of my Lord. And so we talked about that purposeful living requires mission. And intentional living involves sacrifice.

And joyful living requires focus. Focus. Purposeful living requires mission.

Paul knew what his life was about, why he was rescued on the Damascus Road. There was crystal clear mission in his life. And intentional living involves sacrifice.

It wasn't an easy path for Paul. How many lashes did he receive in his back? How many occasions? You would think someone in the path of service for the Lord and a path of devotion, a path of obedience, a path of surrender. And then to look at that one shipwreck wasn't all two shipwrecks, three shipwrecks.

I thought, if I was in one severe car accident heading towards a series of gospel meetings, I might languish in the hospital bed and say, Lord is this what I get for trying to do your will? Trying to be faithful? Paul was in three shipwrecks. Picture that amazing servant of the Lord bobbing up and down in the Mediterranean, a day and a night, all in the pathway of service and duty. Intentional living involves sacrifice and joyful living requires focus.

Have you lost the joy? I think maybe some of our hearts were stirred this weekend and there was some little spark rekindled because we can lose our joy and we need to refocus and that's a benefit of a conference like this. To come aside and just message after message and then this mingling with believers and fellowshipping together and that little spark is little air on it, little flame. I want you to look towards the end of your Bible now to the third epistle of John.

We're going to read about a man and I've spoken on him before because he's near and dear to my heart and I would like to be more like this man. 3rd John verse 1. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospers.

Or beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul is prospering. We'll talk about that. Verse 3. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, or literally your truth, even as thou walkest in the truth.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. Verse 6. Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom hath thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.

Or another rendering is, beloved, it is a faithful saying you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner, here it is, in a manner worthy of God. Verse 7. Because for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.

Just pause there for a second. Some say that this is the least theological letter in the entire New Testament. The name of Jesus, the name of Christ, isn't mentioned.

But what do we read? For his name's sake they went forth. So this little letter that John is writing to Gaius, it's so personal. I'm so glad it's in the canon of Scripture.

There was a stage in my life that this had a profound impact on me. Because I almost wouldn't be around if it hadn't have been for some of the things that I'm going to talk about just now. And maybe John writes off a quick letter to a dear child of God to encourage him while the assembly was suffering under the hand of a tyrant, a power-hungry elder.

So just we'll resume our reading. Verse 8. We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. Gaius was so committed to helping the spread of the gospel and teachers who came by, he showed them so much kindness.

Verse 9. I wrote unto the church but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. The thought about loving the preeminence is he was power-hungry. He liked to put himself first.

Verse 10. Wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words. Not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church, maybe excommunicating them.

Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself.

Yea, and we also bear record, ye know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write on to thee. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.

Peace be to thee, our friends salute thee, greet the friends by name. And so just to close the conference ministry sessions, we're leaving here, many of us will be leaving. We have heard ministry and teaching that has impacted our hearts this weekend.

But as we go away, here's what it comes down to. Peter Ramsey, what is the condition of your heart? How am I personally doing with my Lord? Gaius was prospering. This is the shortest book in the New Testament, I suppose if you study Greek you understand that it's maybe one line, 2nd John is one line shorter.

But in our English Bibles, it is the shortest book in the New Testament. And whether John was writing from Jerusalem at an earlier date, or from Ephesus later on in 85, 90 AD, doesn't matter a great deal. I think the latter is commonly believed that it was a later date.

But we read about three characters, Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius. But I want to speak mostly about Gaius. The importance of a prospering heart, the impediments to a prospering heart, the imperative for a prospering heart, the impulses of a prospering heart, and the impact of a prospering heart.

John writes to Gaius, the individual, the importance of a prospering heart. Heart prosperity is a very personal matter. Gaius, the word means Lord.

And as we read this little epistle, this little letter, his life is characterized by truth and his love and submission to the Lord. He was rightly named Gaius, Lord. He's a beloved believer.

You know, there are believers, and then there are beloved believers. You can probably look around this room this afternoon and say, I know we're all Christians, we're all saved, but that Christian there, they have weathered the storms, they have more trials than I could ever imagine heaven. And here they are, they have their little hymn book, and they're singing, they're remaining faithful to the Lord.

Christians, and I have flashbacks of Christians. I remember as a teenager staying in some of their homes, one man in particular, he was a godly elder, and I knew his family was in a state of disarray. His eldest daughter had just broken their hearts.

Broken their hearts. And this dear man of God, he was such a shepherd. He was a schoolteacher to the community.

He was a shepherd. If someone lost their job, they would wake up in the morning and they find a bag of groceries on their doorstep. And they'd say, I know where that came from.

Lewis McKenzie. He left bags of groceries on doorsteps of the community members in needs. And then he reached out to despondent believers.

But I stayed in their home when he was going through such a trial with his family. And I remember laying in bed at three o'clock in the morning, and I could hear footsteps back and forth in the hallway. Oh, God.

Oh, God. Then the next morning at breakfast, beautiful blue sky. How was your day? How was your night, Peter? That made an impact on my life.

I knew what their family was going through. And I thought, how does Lewis do it? How does he remain faithful? Thank God he's home in heaven now. Faithful to the very end.

Yes, there are Christians, but Gaius was a beloved brother, a beloved Christian. And John writes him so devoted totally to Christ and to his people. You know, dear child of God, the most important work a believer has is to make sure your own heart is prospering spiritually.

Heart maintenance plan. Keep your heart with all diligence. Being a missionary is not the most important thing in life.

Being a Bible teacher is not the most important thing in life. Being an elder is not the most important thing in life. The most important thing in life is your heart.

Because you could be a barren elder. You could be a dry, crusty, cranky, old missionary. You could be a bitter Sunday school teacher.

Though the most important thing in the child of God's life is our own heart. Is it right with God? Impediments to a prospering heart. Verse two, I know it could have just been a standard ancient greeting.

It may not be implying that Gaius had health problems. They had standard greetings back in the day. But on the other hand, would anyone think that Gaius was problem-free if it wasn't health issues? Do you know any Christians that are problem-free? I am quite certain if we can't read health issues into this.

What does what does John say? I wish that everything else in your life was prospering as well as your heart is, Gaius. And so if it wasn't a health issue, I'm sure he had other problems. Maybe life problems could have been physical health.

It could have been material health. It could have been family health. But would you like someone to write you this weekend and say, I wish the rest of your life was doing as well as you are doing spiritually? Boo.

Some are doing really well financially. Some are doing really well in multiple ways. But to pray that prayer, that I wish everything else in your life was doing just the same as your heart is doing spiritually, your business might take a nosedive.

So much emphasis placed on our physical health or our material wealth. Happy saints of God suffering in pain or weakness, and yet their soul is prospering. Prospering.

I remember as a child, Mr. Goff has been speaking about the impact of his father and his parents on his life and then how he wants to impact his children and his grandchildren. I remember accompanying my father up a hill, a dirt road, down a little lane, to a little shack. For him, it was a beloved saint of God lived there.

She lived in dire poverty, never had many of the opportunities and the privileges of other people. The chickens ran in around the kitchen and in and out. It was just old, an old, old floor.

And Mrs. McPhee, she loved to sing, but she couldn't hit any notes. We used to dread it as kids when she came to the meeting because we knew the singing would be terrible that Sunday. She was dirt poor.

But I remember going with my dad to visit Mrs. McPhee. One day, I had to go down to the brook and get the water in the bucket. That's their drinking water.

They just got it from the brook. Now, this is not in the 1800s. I've got white hair, but I'm not a fossil.

This is in my lifetime. And here's what I remember. Dear old Mrs. McPhee praising the Lord as he sat at her table, thanking God for his goodness.

And then as dad was about to leave, she would hobble over this way and she would reach away up to a little cup on a shelf and she put her hand in. I don't know what it was. Well, there was a $5 bill or a $10 bill.

And she said, I was hoping you'd come along. I set this aside for you. Made an impression on my life.

She could have been bitter about life's circumstances, but here she was in the hardships of life, glorifying the Lord, remaining faithful. And I remember my father was so pleased when, when she died, the funeral home that took her funeral had just bought a new Cadillac to haul her body. And my father made a big deal of that.

Yes, lived in dirt poverty. And she was the first one to be in that beautiful swanky Cadillac hearse. Oh, he says, this is the way God looks after his children.

Well, I don't know whether the funeral or what the funeral home thought about that, but we know children of God who have endured many hardships and yet they have remained faithful. Gaius is a huge contradiction to those faith healers who say sickness is a result of sin in life because he had his problems. Maybe he had rheumatoid arthritis.

I don't know. He may have had migraine headaches, may not have been health at all. It's just curious speculation.

But here's a piece of tragic trivia on the commencement of the health and wealth prosperity gospel movement. That verse that we just read about prospering, even as your soul prospers, Oral Roberts died in 2009. He was the father of the health and prosperity gospel.

He had a global following and it seems that verse two was a life-changing verse for him. He was too rushed to read one morning and running out to catch the bus, he grabbed his Bible and randomly came across verse two. And he called Evelyn, his wife.

He said, I just read about prosperity. God wants us to prosper in every way. He doesn't intend for us to struggle materially.

He doesn't intend for us to experience financial poverty. That's what he got out of it. And he built a whole empire, a movement on prosperity gospel and became filthy rich, bilking innocent people around the world who gave money to his cause.

He misinterpreted verse two. Impediments to a prospering heart. Is your hearts prospering this afternoon? What are my excuses for not doing better? Maybe not being happier? Just consider Gaius.

Lives with his problems all week. I don't know what they were. Disappointments in family.

And then he goes to the Lord's Supper on Sunday and he sits down there. I don't know what they had for a hymnal. I'm quite sure they didn't have the app.

And he gets out his hymn book and sitting right across from him, probably some wonder if they were in the same local assembly, but let's assume Diotrephes was in the same local assembly. And there's Gaius singing. It wasn't written then.

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. And then maybe a verse similar to this in his day. See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Can you see Gaius wiping a tear? But he's sitting right across from Diotrephes. Why do I even come here? I'm going to pack my bags and leave. Diotrephes.

Oh, he's got an iron fist. It's his way or the highway. Some of the Christians probably felt that way.

But Gaius is there wiping a tear away from his eye. Sweetly singing. Bible says his heart is prospering.

That's what John wrote. His soul was prospering. He wasn't there.

I'm here. Checked off. Attendance.

Perfect attendance. But I'm. I want everybody to know how I'm dealing with this, Diotrephes.

Maybe I could get everybody together and we could cut. No, he's just. He's just happy in the Lord, looking after what? His own heart.

I mean, it would be really rough. I don't know what the elders are like in Iowa, but I've been around a little bit in Iowa and across from Newfoundland to the West Coast. And I've met a lot of wonderful men and women of God.

I don't think I've yet ever encountered unless they were wearing masks and costumes, but I don't think I've encountered a diatrophies yet. I mean, this guy was he was really into his power. Some even think that he actually tore up one of John's letters, never saw the light of day.

And imagine just because some Bible teachers came along and the activities didn't like them and he didn't want their influence. He got rid of them. He cast them out of the church.

You imagine coffee break after the Lord's Supper there, everybody in a huddle. But there's chaos. His heart is prospering.

Anybody here with a chip on your shoulder? Anybody with a little grudge? Oh, you say, Mr. Goff and Mr. Gilliland really spoke to my heart, touched my heart. But you know, you won't be able to do anything with that lofty teaching and ministry if that grudge isn't dealt with in the presence of God. If that little root of bitterness isn't rooted out, you can't prosper.

I can't prosper. What is your impediment? Can you identify anything in your life that is an impediment to your spiritual well-being? Can you identify a little crack in the guarding wall of your heart? Keep your heart with all diligence. It may not be a huge thing.

It could just be you brought cookies last week. Do the Christians not understand how busy you are? And they should be just thankful that you made the cookies and you brought them to the coffee break. And I heard an older sister say, I think she could have brought more than that.

Oh, and that festers. Festers. No joke.

I know a young couple who left the assembly. And you know what it started with? They were dirt poor and they were bringing food. They've taken their turn, food for the coffee break on Lord's Day morning.

And they heard a couple of older sisters commenting on their food that they brought. And that wounded them. And then a wound turns into bitterness.

And it just multiplies. And every time you go back and you see those people, you see more things. And it escalates and it grows into a big mountain.

And they left the fellowship. Thank God they've returned. But I'm not exaggerating these things.

A little thing can eat away at your heart and wreck your life spiritually. You own the proprietary rights to your heart. You have the principal responsibility for your heart, not the overseers.

No one else. You are responsible for the condition of your heart. Above everything else, the proverb says, keep your heart, guard your heart.

Don't let anything eat away, deal with it. I've told this story a couple of conferences a few years ago when I first read this story. But it's about 30 years ago now.

Matthias Rust, he was a 19-year-old amateur pilot. And he flew his single engine Cessna nearly 550 miles from Helsinki. And it was the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and the whole world was against the Soviet Union.

And Matthias Rust got in his little Cessna. And he flew from Helsinki. And he landed his little plane, parked it right in the base of St. Basil's Cathedral, right in the heart of Moscow, just within spitting distance of Lenin's tomb.

And people wondered how could an unsophisticated little plane and a young 19-year-old inexperienced pilot penetrate the guarded airspace of the mighty Soviet Union, buzz the Kremlin, and then land right in Red Square. The Russian air defense, they were ready for the big hit. But they weren't ready for the little one.

We take necessary precautions to guard ourselves from the big hits. Tragically, so often, it's the little one that gets in, buzzes us, and lands right in Red Square within spitting distance of Lenin's tomb of our heart. Oh, right within where we want the Lord to reign.

It's in there. Start so small. Cain, he had ended in murder, but it started with jealousy.

Achen, it ended with national failure, but it started with covetousness. David, it ended with adultery and murder, but it started with lust. Isaiah ended in leprosy, but started with just pride.

Martha, a volcanic eruption in the kitchen, it started with bitterness in her heart over her sister. Peter denied the Lord. It started with self-confidence.

Demas left his evangelical team with Apostle Paul, but it started maybe with the world seeping into his heart. Jodeas and Syntyche, assembly division, but it started with a personal festering feud between those two sisters. What is your impediment today? Can you identify anything in your life that's gnawing away inside? And at the expense of boring some of you who've heard my story, when we were newly married, there were things happening in our home assembly, and they were really happening.

And I started writing down in my Bible every meeting I went to, all the things that I saw wrong. This brother, I know how that brother, he probably talked to him on the phone, wrote it all down. Oh, I still look good.

I mentioned it at a Sarnia conference in a different type of a message. I was at perfect attendance. That's why outward measures are so false and deceiving.

I was dressed in a suit coat, nice tie and shirt on, dressed to the nines, lived over an hour away from meeting with two small children at the time. We never missed a meeting. In fact, we showed up in Charlottetown and found out that the locals canceled the meeting because of a snowstorm.

When we were driving with our head out the window to see because the wipers had stopped. And all the time I was going through the motions, and my heart was being consumed with bitterness. And every meeting I went to, it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

There was an elder in our assembly, and I remember him so often saying, you have to deal with your bitterness. He said, it is a monster weed. I didn't know what he meant.

He said, you think you can hang on to just a little bit of it, you're justified. Gonna deal with a big part of my bitterness, but I'm gonna, I'm justified. He said, you can't keep, you can't keep bitterness as a little potted plant on the windowsill of your life.

He said, it's a monster weed. You have to deal with it, pull it up by the root. For over five years, I was going downhill, and attending the meetings, helping out with children's work.

But in my heart, I was ready to leave the assembly. We were going to call it quits. A knock on our window, and the same elder that used to talk to us when we're growing up about monster weed of bitterness.

He said, Peter, you leave these issues with the Lord. You look after your own heart. He said, you are self-destructing as a believer.

An hour home, I thought, that's exactly, Lord, what's happening. A little bit of bitterness has consumed me. I become more wrong with my own attitude and heart than all the wrongs that I perceived in the assembly.

Put the kids to bed, and I went into this study, and I got on my knees, and I confessed my own sin. I look back on that. I was just a tear's breadth from messing up in our little children.

What would have happened if dad had gotten off track severely? What legacy would that have been? Dear child of God, look after your own heart. You have great aspirations to please the Lord, and to march on for Him. No one wants to be a failure.

Look after your heart. If there's any little thing creeping into your heart, deal with it in the presence of God. I just remember so vividly, turning over that whole mess, and it was a mess, to the Lord.

I said, it's too big for me, Lord. You're a big God. Here it is.

Help me just to focus on my own heart, and to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. What I appreciate about John writing Gaius, he didn't say, Gaius, I am writing you. I'm aware of diatrophies.

I say, take it into your own hands, Gaius. You intervene in diatrophies. No, he didn't.

Nothing about that. This is prospering heart. The imperative for a prospering heart.

God was coming first in his life. He realized, I'm not here for a long time. I'm here for a purposeful time.

Adversity cannot deter. Sickness cannot derail. Negativity cannot distract for me to live as Christ.

I think that was the vibrations of Gaius's heart, too. How is your heart? Are you looking after your heart as you leave the Garneville Conference? He was busy for God. Something else you read about in this short little epistle.

God's Word, the truth. He holds it, but it holds him. He was anchored in the Word of God.

Five times in this short little letter, truth is mentioned. In the shortest of New Testament books and letters, in the middle of a storm. But we can't explain what will hold us.

The truth, the Word of God. It secures us. It assures us.

It reassures us. Walking in the truth. John said of Gaius, he was an integrated believer.

When there's congruency between our words and our walk, our lip and our life, our belief and our behavior, there's that beautiful congruency. How beautiful it is. God's Word, the truth held him and his hands were full for God.

He had no time to mull over and muse on the unprofitable things that caused discouragement. He was engaged in a far loftier enterprise. I mean, he saw himself as a participant in the spread of the gospel.

He opened his home. He said, you're dropping by? We'll drop in. We've got a bed for you.

Eggs and bacon tomorrow morning if we have them, but if not, it'll just be one piece of toast and peanut butter. But our door is open for you. Hospitality.

And just by the way, you're going up the road and I know there's a little canteen and some Pepsi up there. Look, I have something for you. And I don't know whether it was a cup he reached into, but he was helping them materially with the gospel.

He didn't have time to focus on these things, the distractions, the diatrophies of the world. The Lord is going to have to deal with that. But I have to deal with my heart.

And God's Word, the truth held him. He was busy for God and his hands were full, full. He had an agenda.

Keep him busy for God until God took him home to heaven. He wasn't a teacher, probably wasn't a preacher, but he opened his home, his heart, his wallet to support the work of God. The impulses of a prospering heart.

It's just like his heart. Spirituality. That's what they noted when they visited Gaius.

The impulses of his heart. They came back and told John, oh, what a what a winner, what a blessing Gaius has been to us. Spirituality, that was the impulse of a prospering heart.

Charity, verse six, more than a display of kindness. It was just charity. It was an impulse.

When your heart is overflowing with Christ, there are things that just come, they're impulsive things. I want to be a blessing. I want to give.

I want to show charity. I want to be hospitable. I want to be generous.

The impulses of a prospering heart. How is your heart doing? I was ten years on the Oversight in our home assembly. It was a privilege.

One of the richest privileges of my decade on the Oversight. When I was a little boy, a toddler, a couple in an assembly, we loved them, but they got bitter. Something going on between, in the assembly.

As a little boy, I remember, why don't they come anymore, mom? She, that lady, cut one of my big curls. I was a toddler and I had quite big, long curls. And she cut one of those big curls off.

I got it back. She gave it back to me later in life. But we loved that couple.

They were like grandparents to us. And, something happened. They got away from the Lord.

Bitterness. Then years marched on and they wanted to come back to the assembly. They tried to negotiate their way into different assemblies.

Wanting someone to say sorry and they wanted this one to, they would come back in these terms. But I will never forget the day when, with older brothers, I sat down in a little circle and we were waiting for this elderly couple to come in, sit down with us. And they walked in.

And I'll never forget the man, big, older man. He threw his arms and he just sobbed on each one of our shoulders. He said, it's too long.

We're not negotiating our way back. We just want to come back. We just want to die with being right with the Lord and with his people.

We would love the privilege and the honor of just being received back into the fellowship. And we were kissing and hugging and it was a sweet time. But you know, they left.

That all happened when their children were young. It's a tragedy. Thank God they're restored later in life.

Don't let any little thing come into your heart. It grows far faster than we ever want to think into something that can damage us and our children and our children's children. Be so careful about the condition of your heart.

Gaius's heart was prospering. The impact of a prospering heart. I'll finish with this, but just think.

Well, dear, look at Gaius is at the Lord's Supper this morning with all the things that are going on in his home under his roof. Look at his heart is overflowing with joy and appreciation for the Lord. If he can go on despite the circumstances, dear, I think we can chug along with the Lord.

Think of the impact on other believers when they saw faithful Gaius, his heart prospering. Think of the impact of faithful Gaius and his prospering heart when brothers came and visited the assembly and they saw it and tattered and torn. And then they had this sweet conversation with Gaius.

Gaius said, I want to get your ear. Let me tell you, you know that, you know the kind of assembly we're in. You know what they are doing.

They went down the road and they said, wasn't that a sweet time with brother Gaius? His heart is prospering. The impact on brothers and sisters, the impact of the spread of the gospel, the impact on old John. He said, I have no greater joy than to see my children are walking in the truth.

The impact on us in Garnevilla, 2018 years later, whatever. We're still talking about one man's prospering heart. You're not insignificant child of God.

Your heart means so much. The impact is so great. But the greatest impact of all, imagine the impact in heaven where the Lord knows all the circumstances that Gaius was in.

He saw all the shenanigans. He saw the behavior, the atrophies. Imagine when Gaius stands before the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord looks at him and says, Gaius, thank you so much.

Weathering that storm and remaining solidly focused on me. And now you're at home. Well done.

You're a good and you're a faithful servant. Wouldn't you like that to be said of you? I would certainly like it to be said of me. The impact of a prospering heart.

As we leave, just think of your own heart. The ministry that we've heard this weekend. No one wants to end in disaster.

And when we get up in heaven, we see his blessed face. We'll wish we had given him more, more, more. Look after your heart.

Keep thy heart with all diligence. Guard your heart at all cost. And the impact is one of eternal significance.