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As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermanites from the hill Mazar. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. You know, are you noticing about these Psalms that this isn't just some intellectual book that's being read here? This is someone crying out to God, saying that their their soul is thirsting for him, their tears, describing their tears, you know, being their meat day and night, and this person just seems to be in despair, right? But usually at the end of these Psalms they're reminded the fact that we need to trust in the Lord, that God's gonna deliver us, that God is there for us, God cares about us, God loves us. Go to Psalm 58. There's even some emotional Psalms in the Bible that are negative emotions, too. And let's be honest, Christianity is not just this rainbow butterfly Joel Osteen creepy Joker smile on our face at all times. There's a lot of negative in this life, too. And I like the fact that the Bible actually has some pretty gnarly Psalms because, you know, I've lived this life when there's times where I feel the exact same way as the psalmist does. Look at Psalm 58. It says, Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O you sons of men? Yea, in heart you work wickedness. You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. Let them melt away as waters which run continually when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows. Let them be as cut in pieces as a snail which melteth. Let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth of a woman that they may not see the sun. That's pretty intense right there. That's an emotional Psalm that we're reading. But, you know, at times don't we feel like we just want God to break the teeth of the wicked? You know, I felt this way yesterday when I saw some clip of Kamala Harris at one of her rallies and someone stood up during a rally and started shouting that Jesus is Lord. And what did Kamala Harris respond? You know, she's so wicked she can't even play lip service to pretending like she loves Jesus like the Republicans do, which the Republicans don't love Jesus, but at least they pay lip service to it, right? Well, someone shouts out, you know, Jesus is Lord and what does Kamala Harris say? Oh, you're in the wrong rally. You're at the wrong rally. What is she saying? She says, I hate Jesus Christ. And by the way, Democrats hate Jesus. Democrats are of the devil. They are demonic. You cannot be a Christian and be a Democrat. No, you cannot. These people are wicked. Why? Because Kamala Harris wants to butcher and murder children. Oh, pro-choice. You're not pro-choice. You're pro-death, you sick freak. You disgusting communist whore is what you are. To stand up and say, oh, you're in the, you're at the wrong rally because you said Jesus is Lord. You know what? I hope that Kamala Harris just melts like a snail. I hope that Kamala Harris, just her heart hardens like a stone and she keels over and dies before millions of people on live television. Why? Because look at verse number, number 10. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. You know, if I saw that stupid, God-hating whore die, you know what I would do? I would rejoice. I would be happy. I would be shouting for joy if I saw Kamara Kamala Harris die. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say, barely there is a reward for the righteous. Barely he is a God that judges in the earth. And you know what? Our God is not a God that just sends people to hell when they die. He's also a God that judges people in the earth. And when you're gonna get up and you're trying to be the leader of our nation and you want to mock the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling you, God is gonna come after you and I'm gonna pray that God comes after you. You know what? And honestly, I wouldn't even be surprised if Kamala Harris won the presidential election just because of how wicked our nation is and how much we deserve to have a stupid woman whore communist president. It's what we deserve. And maybe God needs Kamala to be our president just so he has one more reason to judge our nation. One more reason to pour out his wrath on this nation. Because you know what? Donald Trump is a complete fake. Donald Trump wants to stand up and act like he's godly. He wants to act like he believes in Christianity. Well, you know what? Kamala Harris, at least she's just the true reflection of America. Because America is not full of godly people right now. You know what America is full of? America is full of people that just openly despise God. And so maybe we deserve a whore like her to be our president because it's a reflection of who we are. And maybe we'll get to see God's judgment on our nation and we could rejoice over him destroying the wicked. You know, Psalms is pretty emotional, isn't it? I get a little emotional thinking about that Psalm right there. But hey, at least I don't have a hard heart like that female dog. Go to Matthew chapter 19, Matthew 19. You know, a hard heart comes from not getting the right nutrition. Number two, a hard heart comes from hanging on to grudges. Matthew 19 verse 3, the Bible says, the Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So Jesus is answering this question here. The Pharisees ask him, hey is it lawful to put away your wife for every cause? And here's the short answer, no it is not. It absolutely is not. Look at verse 7, they say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? Verse 8 is the key verse here. Look, he sayeth unto them, Moses, notice, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so. So what is it that caused these people to seek a bill of divorcement under Moses? The hardness of their hearts. Look at verse number 9, and I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another commiteth adultery. Whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. So you know in this passage we learn what is the root cause of why people seek divorce. The root cause is people hardening their hearts. Hardening their hearts. And what does that come through? Well, it comes through bitterness. It comes through holding on to grudges. Because why is it that people get divorced? It's because they perceive that their spouse did something wrong to them or their spouse actually did do something wrong to them and instead of forgiving them, realizing that we're all sinners, trying to reconcile the relationship, they harden their heart against that person and bitterness grows and so what do they seek divorce? And Jesus is teaching that you can't get divorced. That if you put away your wife and marry another, you're committing adultery. And here's the thing, he says that there's one exception to this which is fornication. And notice the King James Bible, it does not say sexual immorality like the new versions do or does not say adultery. It says that except for the cause of fornication. Now what is fornication? It's when people go to bed together before marriage. So according to the Bible, you know, if you got married and you go to the wedding bed on the wedding night and you find out that she's not a virgin, that there's some uncleanness in her, that she's lied to you, that she's been a whore, well before that marriage is consummated, you can annul that marriage and it would not be adultery according to the Word of God. But even so, you know, why would someone want to do that? Well, it'd be because of the hardness of their hearts, right? Because, you know, you had Joseph who he thought that his wife Mary had been through this exact scenario, but yet the Bible says that Joseph being a just man did not want to put her away publicly, right? So what is the reason why people get divorced? Well, it's because of a hardness of heart. Look at verse number 10, it says, his disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is good not it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save today to whom it is given. So, you know, when they hear this truth from the Word of God, what do they do? They harden their hearts even further and saying, well then maybe we should just shouldn't get married. And, you know, this is very applicable in our day and age that we're living in, because there's a lot of young men that have this exact same attitude, where they're just saying like, well, you know what, it's probably best just not to get married because, you know, she could divorce you, she could take your money, she could do all these things, she could cheat on you, right? And men today are just hardening their hearts away from what God has taught that we should get married, that we should stay married, and they're just deciding not to get married at all. But here's the thing, people in marriage, you are going to have issues in your marriage. Why? Because it is one sinner being married to another sinner. So, if you think you're gonna get married and not have problems, not have fights, not have that person sin against you, you know, you're living in a fairy tale, you're living in La La Land, that's not reality. The truth is, you, husband, are a sinner, and you're gonna do things against your wife that are wrong. And you know what, it's up to the wife to say, you know what, I do things that are wrong too, I need to forgive my spouse and still love and respect him. And vice versa, you know, ladies, you are gonna do things wrong to your husband. You are going to transgress against him, you are gonna have bad days, and it's up to the husband to realize, hey, just like I'm a sinner, my wife is also a sinner, and you need to just let go. You need to forgive. Why? Because if you just build up bitterness, if you decide to just hang on to grudges, you know what it's gonna happen? It's gonna harden your heart. And you want to know why people get divorced? Through a hardening of their heart. And just like we talked about, this does not happen overnight. You don't drink one Coke and you die of a heart attack. Well, your marriage does not die in one night. Oftentimes, it's day by day, hanging on to grudges, hanging on to bitterness, hardening your heart a little bit here, a little bit there, till all of a sudden your marriage is destroyed. Till all of a sudden someone's filing a divorce. It comes from hardening your heart. Go to Colossians chapter number three, Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Now, here in Colossians, the Bible gives a very quick statement, instructions to the wife and to the man. And God gives the instructions that it seems that each party struggles with the most. And in verse number 18 of Colossians 3, the Bible says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. And, you know, when it comes to ladies in a marriage, probably the thing that they struggle with the most because of their sin nature is submission unto their husband. And especially in this day and age where everything is promoting feminism, everything is promoting for wives to rebel, for wives not to listen to their husband. You know, women are called a doormat if they obey their husband. They're looked at as a poor little house slave, right? It could be easy for a woman to harden her heart against what the Bible teaches and think, I don't need to submit to him, right? But what does that come from? Hardening your heart. And men, look at verse 19, husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. What do men have a tendency to do when their wife does something wrong or their wife is doing something that's not pleasing to them? What do they often do? They often hold bitterness. Instead of correcting the issue, talking about it, men are the ones that usually don't like to talk, right? Men are the ones that just keep everything bottled in. And so God is telling us to not be bitter against our wives. Why? Because if you decide to be bitter against your wife, you're gonna start hardening your heart. And it makes no sense whatsoever to do this because you're literally shooting yourself in the foot. Because you're the one that has to live with her. You're the one that has to be married to her. You can't divorce her. The Bible's against divorce. It's till death do us part. So it makes no sense whatsoever to sit here and just harden your heart against your wife who you have to see tomorrow and the next day and the next day until you die. It makes a lot more sense to actually be humble, to actually be spiritual, and to soften your heart to your wife, to forgive her, to not hold bitterness against her because you're only hurting yourself. You're only hurting your children when your marriage is hurting. You know, men today are very selfish and they want to just hang on to bitterness against their wives. But you know what? You're hurting your children by them seeing a bad marriage and you're hurting yourself by having a bad marriage because you're with her till death do us part. Now let's go to Ephesians chapter number four, Ephesians chapter number four. You know, not only should we just make sure that we're not being bitter to our spouse, which this is usually the person that people are the most bitter with unfortunately, but we should apply this to every human relationship that we have. Look at Ephesians 4 31. It says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another. Notice, tender-hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So notice, what is the opposite of bitterness? Being tender-hearted. What are we talking about this morning? Not hardening our hearts. How is it that we can keep our hearts soft? It's by being forgiving of one another. It's by not holding on to bitterness of one another. And yes, this applies to our marriage. But you know, this also should apply to our friends too. Because let me just tell you something. Not only is your wife a sinner, not only is your husband a sinner, but your friend is a sinner too. Your fellow church member is a sinner. Your pastor is a sinner. Your boss is a sinner. Every single human being on this earth is a sinner. And if you just have this unrealistic expectation that people could just never cross you, people can never say something wrong, people can never do something dumb in your presence, or you're just ready to cut them off and ruin a relationship, you know, you're gonna be a very lonely person. And our church is gonna be a very cold place where there's not a lot of love if we're not forgiving and tender-hearted towards each other. You know, you don't have to call out every single dumb thing someone says. You don't have to nitpick every single thing that your friend does. You don't have to, you know, unfriend someone for every single stupid thing that they post, though it's tempting sometimes, I know, right? But here's the thing, we should be tender-hearted towards each other, forgiving each other. Notice, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. You know, God is looking down from heaven and seeing us do so many stupid things every day, and saying stupid things, and thinking stupid things, and doing stupid things, and you know what, God never takes His love away from us. God never forsakes us. God never takes away His mercy from us. God continues to love us no matter what we do. And you know what, the Bible says, a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. And that is how we should be as a church, where, you know what, we just love each other at all times, on our good days and on our bad days as well. Continue to love each other. Go to Mark 11, and I'll read for you Hebrews 12 14. The Bible says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. You know, when you allow bitterness to enter your heart, you're allowing it to trouble you. You're not hurting anyone else necessarily by being bitterness, at least not at first. Who you're hurting at first is yourself. Plus, what you're doing is you're allowing someone else to control you, which is really weird. You know, your friend does something mean to you, and you just think about it all day and all night and the next day. And what you're doing is you're allowing someone's transgression to run your life. They're living rent-free in your head. You know what you should do? You should rather just forgive them. Let all bitterness be put away from among you. You know what will help with that? Just read the Bible. You know, whenever you feel like that mentally, you know what you need to do? You need to turn off the phone. You need to get away. You need to just read the Bible by yourself, and it'll help renew your mind. Mark 11 25, and when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any, that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. So notice, again, it hurts yourself by being bitter, by being unforgiving, by holding on to grudges. What are you doing? You're hardening your heart. You're ruining relationships that you have in your life. You're allowing other people to control your emotions, control your mind, and on top of that, now God is against you. Now God is not going to be as forgiving to you of your sins, of your issues, when you are not forgiving to others. So you say, I want God to be very merciful with me. I want God to have a very long leash with me before he comes down hard on me. Well, guess what? You have to be that way with others. But if you treat other people like you're just gonna hold their feet to the fire for every little thing, you better believe that that's how your life is gonna be with God. And so, you know what? We need to err on the side of grace, err on the side of being too forgiving than just holding everyone's feet to the fire because that's going to be unprofitable for your own life. Go to Deuteronomy 15, Deuteronomy 15. So, you know, we've talked about how a hard heart, what causes it? Bad nutrition, bad spiritual nutrition. What happens when you have a hard heart? Well, it comes from being bitter, comes from being unforgiving towards people. Number three, a hard heart comes from being selfish, being selfish. When we live lives that are focused too much on ourselves, we're the only person we're thinking about, it's gonna cause our hearts to be hardened. Let me show you that in Deuteronomy 15. Verse number six, the Bible says, For the Lord thy God blesseth thee as he promised thee, and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow, and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, notice, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor neighbor, and thou giveth him not, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou giveth unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. So if you notice in this situation, in verse six, God is describing how this nation is gonna be extremely blessed. I mean, they're gonna be in charge, they're gonna be ruling, they're gonna be blessed by God, but yet sometimes when we're blessed, when we're in a good position, you know, it could be tempting to only think about ourselves, right? People have a good career, people start making good money, and what are they obsessed with? They're obsessed with themselves, and they're obsessed with buying the next car, buying the next biggest house, you know, as getting as much goods as they possibly can, but we have to remember sometimes there's a brother that needs help. Sometimes there's other people out there that need help, and the Bible says thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. So notice, when someone needs help, especially your brethren, and you can help them, but you refuse to do so, you're hardening your heart. Now the Bible doesn't say, hey, you don't have money, you know, you're barely making ends meet, well just give all your money to someone else. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible doesn't say like, hey, you know, you have no time, you don't have any time you could give to someone else, you know, just forget your family, don't give your family, just help other people at the expense of your own family. That's not what the Bible's teaching, but the Bible's teaching, when you can help, when you do have extra to help someone, when you do have some extra time, when you do, you know, have nothing going on, and you could give more time to your brothers or to someone that has need, you should do that. And when you don't, when you refuse to do that, you're hardening your heart. And the Bible says that it's a thought in your wicked heart, right? Saying, oh, the seventh year, the year of release is at hand. You know, this person's thinking like, hey, this person's gonna be fine financially in a few months anyways, you know, why should I, why should I help him, why should I give him help? Well it's like, if he needs help right now, he needs help right now, and you shouldn't have this wicked thought in your heart. Go to Galatians chapter number six, Galatians chapter number six, you know, we live in generation selfie, generation me, right? This is a generation that loves themselves, that only thinks about themselves, you know, and that is, that is anti-Christian, you know, the Bible is constantly telling us to love others, to esteem others better than ourselves, to put other people's needs first, to serve other people, you know, whoever's greatest among you is the person that serves, right? Look at this verse in Galatians 6-7, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Notice, and let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So notice, the Bible doesn't say do good to everyone, no matter what, at the expense of yourself, at the expense of your family's finances, at the expense of your family's time, no, the Bible says, as we have therefore opportunity, meaning you are able to help someone else, you do have extra, you can assist someone, it says, let us do good unto who? All men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So you know, as we have opportunity, if God has given you financial means, if God has given you time or some other way to help another individual, to bless another individual, you should be willing to do that to anyone, saved or unsaved, but especially to someone that's saved. Meaning, you know, if two people are asking you for help, one's saved, one's unsaved, I'm going with a saved person every single time. But that doesn't mean that we can't even help unsaved people. You know, and us in our lives, we need to make sure that we're not hardening our hearts by being selfish, because there's some things that all of us can do for other people, regardless of our situation. How about praying for other people? You know, this is a good way that you could do good unto other people, to all men, but especially to those that believe, is by praying for other people. And you know, in our bulletin, we have the prayer list. It's not just some decoration to fill space in our bulletin. It's so that we could actually love each other, so that we could actually think about other people, not just hardening our hearts, thinking about ourselves. And I have a feeling that a lot of people, when they pray, it's me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And look, there's nothing wrong asking God for things for you, but you know what? It says something about your heart when you only pray for yourself. You know, men, you better be praying for your wife. You better be praying for your children. You know, we should be praying for each other. We should be praying for Pastor Shelley. We should be praying for other churches that are going through issues. We should be praying for our evangelist, Brother Urbanik, in the Philippines. You know, we should be praying for other people. How about, you know, when a visitor comes to church, you know, let us, when we have opportunity, do good unto all men. You know, be a friend to that person, you know? And let me just help you with something. Ladies, when a lady visitor comes, please you be the friend to them, all right? Unless you're single guys and she's single, then you be a friend, okay? But you know, some lady comes, maybe she's married, her husband doesn't come. You know, ladies, that's on you, okay? Don't just sit around waiting for all the men because we're not going to go do it. If a lady comes, go be your friend. And men, if a man comes, go be his friend. Go be kind to him. Go be nice to him. You know, that's how we should be as a church, that we're doing good unto all men. When someone's sick in our church, pray for them, ask them if they need something, you know, bring a meal to them, whatever you can do. You know, when I think about as we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, I often think about the story of the Good Samaritan, how someone's on the side of the road and they're in bad shape. I often think about just emergencies in day-to-day life, where, you know, you're going to drive past someone, you know, perhaps in your life that just had a car accident and no one's there to help them. You know, police isn't on scene yet, EMS isn't on scene yet, or there's an accident at work, someone's hurt. You know, us as Christians, we should be the first people willing to help. When someone needs help, we should be the first people that, yes, it's inconvenient. Yes, you know, it's going to bother our day. Yeah, we might be late to an appointment or something like that. But you know what, when someone needs help, we should be the example to this world. That, yeah, we're, as Christians, we actually love people, we actually want to help individuals. And, you know, if you're ever late to work because you're helping someone that's got in a car accident, I'm never going to be upset, or late to church for that, I'm never going to be upset about that. And hopefully, you know, if your boss, if you're late to work because you just helped someone that got in a car accident, I doubt your boss is really going to be upset at you. You know, he's probably going to say, hey, good job, thanks for doing that. You know, if he has any character whatsoever. That's how we should be as Christians. How about doing good unto all men? How about preaching them the gospel? Look, if you want to have a soft heart, if you want to keep your heart from hardening, soul winning is the way to do that. Because, you know, we live our lives, and us as Christians in America, we're very blessed the way we live. But you know what, what softens your heart is when you go to some ghetto apartment complex, and there's all these kids running around, their parents don't care about them. They're just running around the street. Where's mom and dad? Who knows? You know, mom's on drugs inside, or mom's a whore inside, dad's not in the picture. And you see these little kids that have no one. No one loves them. No one takes care of them. You know, when you preach that person the gospel, that'll soften your heart right there. Or when you go to the nursing home, and these people are old, and they their kids don't care about them, or they didn't have any kids, or their family is forsaken them. And you know what, no one talks to them. No one spends time with them, and you can go there, and you can preach them the word of God. That will soften your heart. And I just, I know this about someone, if they have a hard heart, here's what I know about them. They're thinking too much about themselves. They're not thinking about the word of God. They're not getting the nutrition they need, right? They're not forgiving other people. They're saying, well, I'm right. I have a right to be mad. I have a right to be bitter. They're being selfish. They're not serving other people. They're not helping other men, especially their brothers in Christ. And you know what, that is a recipe for hardening your heart. And your spiritual life will slowly decay and die, just like a man that eats McDonald's every day of his life. His heart will, you know, slowly harden until he has a heart attack and dies. That's what your Christian life will be like. And I just know that if a Christian is at a point in their life where their heart is hardened, I know that they're being selfish. Go to Mark chapter six. While you turn there, second Timothy three, two says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. And that is the day that we are living in today, where men just love themselves. They wake up every day. Their thought is not what would God have me to do? How could I be a better husband? How could I be a better father? It's just me, myself, and I. And the way that they spend their money is just on themselves. The way they spend their time is just on themselves. And it's the same thing a lot of times for ladies, for kids, for everyone. This generation loves themselves way too much. We have to remind ourselves to love others. Now we're wrapping up here soon, but I do want to read a large portion of scripture here in Mark chapter six, because I think this story illustrates how even good Christians, even disciples can harden their hearts. Mark six, verse 31. And he said unto them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going when they had no leisure so much as to eat. So understand the context of what we're about to read here. Jesus and the disciples are working so hard. They don't even have leisure to eat. I mean, they're, they're so busy serving others, preaching gospel. They don't even remember if they had a lunch break or not. They don't have the luxury of having a meal. That's working really hard, right? And Jesus is saying, Hey, I want you to come apart to a desert place and rest for awhile. So Jesus is saying like, Hey, you guys are about to have a much needed vacation. And if you've ever, you know, been working super, super hard and you get this opportunity, you're really looking forward to it, right? You're looking forward to just having some rest, having some leisure. Keep that in mind as we read verse 32, and they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing and many knew him and ran a foot thither out of all cities and out went them and came together unto him. So when they're going on this vacation, they depart, they go away by themselves, but all the people see Jesus that he's departing and they go out in front of him and meet him to where he's going. Verse number 34. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and notice his reaction and was moved with compassion toward them. So notice Jesus, when he's about to take a break and he realizes that's about not to happen, you know, the vacation's canceled, your time off is canceled. He sees all these people that need him to do some more work. They need him to minister unto them. What was his response? He was moved with compassion. Why? Because Jesus was not selfish. He's the most selfless person that's ever lived because they were a sheep, not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and they, and said, this is a desert place. And now the time is far past. So I kind of sense some sarcasm here from the disciples. He's like, yeah, yeah, this has been a great camping trip. We are in a desert place. Yeah, we're really alone here. And now it's over, right? They're kind of disappointed. And you can't really judge them too harshly here because I'm sure many of us would have the same attitude, you know, where you're looking forward to vacation and it's canceled. It's frustrating. Right. But look at verse number 36, send them away. They said that they may go into the country roundabout and into the villages and buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, give ye them to eat. And they said unto him, shall we go and buy 200 penny worth of bread and give them to eat? So the disciples are saying, Hey, Jesus, send these people away. They need to go buy some food for themselves. They need to go take care of themselves. And Jesus is saying, well, why don't you just take care of them? And they're not really in the frame of mind, ready to hear that at this time, right? They want to eat. They want to have vacation. Verse 38. He saith unto them, how many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they say five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat and were filled. So notice Jesus says, Hey, I want you guys to take care of them. But the disciples, they didn't feel like they could. They felt like they were too weary. They were at the end of their rope. They wanted a vacation. But Jesus said, Hey, how many loaves do you have? And you know, one of the lessons I think we can learn from that is that God will always equip us with what we need to continue serving others. It's not like we are going to just, you know, burn out and not be able to serve him anymore. If we're doing things under the power of God, if we're trusting in God, if we're trusting in the Holy Spirit, if we have the right nutrition coming in, you know what we will always have enough to give other people we're not going to run out. We have we have the fishes, we have the loaves, we can give it out to people. But it's just our own hardening of our heart that wants us to stop serving others. This is why the Bible says be not weary and well doing. Because it's natural for us to get tired of doing what's right, to get tired of serving others. And that's what is happening to them. Look at verse number 43. And they took up 12 baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about 5000 men. And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. When he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and cried out. For they all saw him and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. So when they see Jesus walking on the sea, they're kind of missing out on the epic sight that they're seeing. And wouldn't all of us love to have seen this sight of Jesus walking on the water? But instead of the disciples taking it in, and soaking it in that, wow, we're seeing the Lord Jesus Christ walking on the water, they're screaming, they're losing their mind, they think that they're seeing a spirit. And the reason why is because where their heart is, and I'll show you that, notice verse number 50. For they all saw him and were troubled, and immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered. Notice verse 52, this is very important. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves. Why? For their heart was hardened. What was the problem with the disciples here? You know, their heart was hardened. Why? Because they were being selfish. And look, we may even look at their situation and sympathize with them. And from a carnal humanistic perspective, be like, I kind of understand why your heart was hardened, right? I mean, you're not even, you're working so hard that you can't even get a lunch break. And Jesus says, hey, we're going to go take a vacation. We're going to go apart in the desert. And it's just immediately ruined like that. And you're now looking at other people. And instead of being moved with compassion like Jesus is, you're saying, send them away. I don't want to deal with them anymore. And you know what? People can get like this today. You can get like this today, where, you know, you maybe feel like you're weary, like you're working a lot. You know, it's like, oh man, I work a job. And on top of that, I'm going soul winning. I'm going to church three times a week. And it's just like, man, do I really have to go soul winning? Do I really have to preach this person the gospel? And you could just be like, man, I just want to send this person away. That is a thought that probably all of us will have at some point in our life. But remember and notice, if you feel that way, you're feeling that way because your heart is being hardened, because you're being selfish. Because at the end of the day, you know, this life is not about us. This life is not about can I have leisure? Can I have comfort? Can I have vacations? This life is about serving other people. And that's the model. That's the example that the Lord Jesus Christ showed us that he's working harder than anyone. And even when he gets to take a break, he's willing to scrap all of it to serve someone else. He's willing to get rid of his time off to preach someone the gospel. And the apostles, they're living through this amazing time, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in action, seeing his earthly ministry, seeing him perform miracles, seeing him walk on the water, but they're missing out on it because their heart was hardened. And, you know, this is what I want us to close on this thought is that I truly believe that God wants to do a great work with you as a person and with your family as individuals. And I just worry for people that they're missing out on what God is doing for them in their life and what God has planned for them because they're allowing their heart to be hardened. You know, especially like when you have young kids, it's very overwhelming. It's crazy. It's very hard. Okay. It's not an easy thing when you have lots of little kids, man, you could just feel burnt out and you can just feel like, man, I can't do this anymore. But what be careful though, because if you're, if you have that selfish attitude, that selfish thought you could be missing seeing what God is doing in your children's lives. I'll give you an example. You know, I got saved at about 15 or 16 years old. I don't remember exactly how old I was. I think 16 years old, but you know, I read the Bible for the first time when I was 16. And so like the first time I ever read the days of creation or the plagues of Egypt or any of that stuff, I was 16 years old. Okay. Then my daughter, Bethany and Leah are five and four years old. And they're telling me all the days of creation. And I just, I think that's amazing. I think that is so cool that our children are growing up and having this benefit that at a very young age, they're learning things about the Bible and they're learning how to love God. I was outside in the backyard with my kids the other day. We're looking at the moon, looking at the stars and my kids just out of their own hearts, they just said, dad, I love God because he created everything. And I'm just like, that is amazing. Right. But you know, we can just focus on, it's so hard to raise kids and there's all these problems. There's all these diapers. It's so expensive. You could get so hardened in yourself, thinking about yourself, that you're missing what God is doing in your family. And you know what? We could do that as a church too. I believe that God has a great future for this church. I believe that God wants to do great things through this group of believers right here. But you know what? You're going to miss it. If you harden your heart, you're going to miss it. If you start ingesting a bunch of junk and not the word of God, if you start caring more about politics and podcasts and TV shows and movies and music, if that's all you care about in your life, you're going to harden your heart. You need to make sure you have the right nutrition. Okay. You need to make sure also that you're loving other people, that you're not just focused on yourself, that you're not just thinking, what can I do with my life this week? But you're thinking about how can I serve other people? You need to make sure that you're not holding bitterness in your heart towards your wife, towards your husband, towards the preacher, towards your brothers or sisters in this church. Because if you do that, you know what? You might be a great person. You might be saved. Guess what? So were the disciples. And yet they missed out on some awesome things in the Lord's ministry because they hardened their heart. And you know what? I want to make sure that us as a church, we're not missing out on the great things that God has for us by hardening our hearts. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the word of God. I just pray that you'd help these truths to sink into our hearts, that we would never harden our hearts against you or against the word of God or against our brethren. Help us to read the Bible every day, to let it sink in. Help us to not hold on to bitterness, but to be forgiving and loving towards each other. And help us to dedicate our lives, not to pleasing ourselves, but to serving other people. We love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Hymn number 97. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can please afford. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now my Savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power when thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now my Savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, for life is vain. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now my Savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour, most holy wine. Oh, make me thy deed. Thou blessed sign. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now my Savior. I come to thee.