Hey, if I've never met you before. My name is Eli Laughlin. Like Seth said, I used to be the high school pastor here. I pretty much grew up here. Uh, born and raised. Uh, my mom was in the 930 service. I got saved here, baptized here, discipled here. I was the reverend's intern for six years, but we don't talk about that. That's a whole nother story. I was on staff here for 12 whole years. I'm excited to be back. I'm excited to be home. If you have a Bible this morning, why don't you go ahead and open that up to Psalms 119. Psalms 119. If you don't know where that's at, it's actually right in the middle of your Bible. Right smack in the middle of it. Longest chapter, uh, in the whole Bible. Um, while you're turning there, I've titled today's message House Rules for a Heart of Purity.
If you're taking notes, write that down. House rules for a heart of purity. Anybody by show of hands in here have house rules? Anybody? All of you people that are not raising your hands, I'm coming to your house today and I'm walking in with my shoes on and I'm gonna watch your house rules come out. All right? Everybody knows that. What do you do when you walk in? You take your shoes off, right? In our house, we have a little five-year-old girl. Her name is Palmer Blake. I have a little three-year-old boy. His name is Judah. And so together we call him PB&J. So Palmer, Blake and Judah. And boy, let me tell you what. They make a mess. Uh, man, uh, my little girl is an angel. I can't say so much about my little man. It's, it's hellion. We're praying for his salvation.
It's a daily, daily battle to keep our house clean. Parents in the room, you know that. Oftentimes, we try to make our house rules all about keeping it clean. What do you do when you come in? You take your shoes off, you put your backpack down. You know, it's hot in Arkansas. We live in Fayetteville, Arkansas right now. And so anytime, yeah, okay, some Fayetteville, Arkansas for you. And Georgia of all places. That's crazy. Uh, but we go outside and we play in the sprinkler and when we come in, we have a rule in our house. All the wet clothes immediately go off out- outside, right? We don't bring them in. When we have breakfast in the morning, okay? My son has to have his yogurt in the morning. Don't forget the chocolate chips, all right? And what do we do when it's all over our hands?
We don't wipe it on our clothes. We use a napkin, right? Most of the time, house rules are kept to keep your house clean. What about the house rules of your heart? What are the rules that you have made in your life that you live by to keep your heart holy, pure, set apart only unto the Lord? I would like to think if you're in here in the room this morning that you've come because you have a real desire to live for Jesus. You have a real desire to keep a holy, pure heart like Romans chapter 12 says that it's our spiritual act of worship.
But it's a struggle. Is it not? That we have a real desire to walk through this life to live for King Jesus, but we're in a battle. Like every day when you wake up, you realize you still have flesh. While you might be saved and you've been washed by the blood of Jesus, you still have to die to yourself daily. You have to still get up and go, Lord, your will and not mine. And it's hard. Like nobody ever tells you that about Christianity. Like you come to know Jesus, Lord and Savior, you have the joy of the Lord. And it's like the enemy is right there because he hates it. Like we walk throughout our Christian life in this battle. Matter of fact, look, this is nothing new. I wanna give you, um, a verse today. It's actually, you know, due to this series.
It's more than one verse. I'm sorry I cheated. I couldn't just pick a verse. I had to give multiple verses. How do you just pick one verse of the Bible that changed your life? I got a whole passage. It's Romans chapter seven. Paul gives some of the most encouraging words to the Romans. Romans 7:15, Paul writes and says, "For I don't even understand my ways. For what I wanna do, I don't actually do. For what I do, I actually hate." Now I know there's a lot of do-dos in there, okay? So let me, let me just break it down for you a little bit. Okay? Let me just break it down. Paul's talking about this battle between flesh and spirit. Paul's saying, "Man, my desire is to follow Jesus. My desire is to live an upright, righteous life to the Lord. But if I'm just being honest, more oftentimes than not, I find myself slipping into the sin that so easily entangles us." And I realize, like, most of us in here have that same desire.
You would not be here this morning if you didn't have that desire to some level. But can I tell you, my biggest fear, especially in the Western church, hear me, is that we have perfected what it looks like to have a holy aesthetic without actually having a holy heart.
I think for a lot of us in this room this morning, we have bought into the lie of the enemy. Hear me, that it's easier just to clean up the outside without having to actually peel back the layers and allow the Lord to do the real heart work. Like, we have perfected looking good for everybody. And if people's perception of us are great and people can see our words and our family and our thing, and we're here Sunday morning, we're smiling, and we pretend like not everything is okay and fine, people will see us that way. But in all reality, you peel back and you're so far away from the savior. Desperately sick. Matter of fact, Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter 24. He literally looks at the Pharisees and he says, "You're like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but are full of dead people's bones and uncleanliness.
So you outwardly appear righteous to others, but within are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." You know, the context of that verse is oftentimes they would have tombs on the side of the road, burial sites, and with all the dust and all the debris, and it would muddy everything up. So people would come along to respect those people and whitewash the tombs. From the outside, they would clean them up. They'd make them look shiny, almost brand new. But in all reality, what's inside of that tomb? Dead. Broken.
Can I ask you this morning, does that describe your life? Are you really good at trying to make everything on the outside look clean? But if you're just honest with yourself in here this morning, you're desperately far away from the Lord. I think that is the absolute travesty of the Western church. That the reality is that every single one of us in this room here this morning is in desperate need of a savior, not just for salvation, but every single day of our life. Romans chapter seven on the back half, it's not on the screens, but if you look in verse 20, Paul comes to the conclusion, "What a wretched sinner I am." He said, "Who could save this man?" And he says, "Praise be to God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." If you're taking notes today, I wanna give you three things from Psalms chapter 119 that are house rules to keep your heart solely one to the Lord.
I came across these verses as a young boy, and you'll see why it stood out to me if you're reading with me. I'm gonna pick up in verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? Young man, you've ever asked that question to yourself? How can I live this life as a pure life?
Now, there's many of you in this room here this morning that automatically have written off this passage because if I look out, you're probably not that young. You know what I'm saying? There's many of you, the youth is gone. Okay? Can I just implore you this morning though? Just because you might be older in age doesn't mean you're mature spiritually in your faith. That while we, a lot of us, including myself, give off the appearance of wisdom when it comes to our spiritual walk, we're still infants because we fall into the sin over and over and over again that so easily entangles our life. How can a young man keep his way pure? Scripture says, "By guarding it according to your word." That simple. How do you keep your way pure? Point number one, you guard your heart with God's word. That simple. Now, I know we live in the South, and I know all of you in this room know how to guard your homes really, really well.
Why do I know that? I know some people, okay? Let's call them my in-laws. Love them to death. Love you big guy.
I pulled in the other day, we're, we're here on vacation and pulled into my in-laws' house and they got a brand new gate. It looks good. You gotta type in a code and they press pound or star. I can't remember. And the gate swings open. I was like, oh wow, this is swanky. You know, like this is really nice. Pull into the driveway, park my car only to notice that on every outside door, there's a Ring doorbell. There's a Ring camera. So if, if the gate wasn't enough, the Ring doorbells are enough. And I know my father well too much to know he's probably got about 15 shotguns laying around somewhere that if you finally got past the gate, you got past all the cameras, he's gonna finish business. And if that's not enough, there's five dogs. And as soon as that squirrel in the yard runs by, they all bark.
You can't get by, that thing's like Fort Knox. Like every one of us in here knows what it's like to protect your home. Why? Because what is inside is of immense value. Like every one of you in here would do anything and everything to protect the very thing that you love the most. Your home, your people, your family, your possessions. But what about your heart this morning? What do you do to guard your heart? Many of us will protect all the physical of our home, but will neglect the protection of your heart.
You realize the word of God guards you. The very words of God help protect your life to put safeguards up, to give you commands, God's way. Why is that so important? Proverbs chapter four verse 23 says, above all else, above everything, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. You know what the litmus test of whether or not your heart's good or not? Your actions. Now, you may come into a room like this and you can make it look good. But can I tell you, the people that are closest to you in here the morning, they truly know your heart condition. It's easy to walk into public and walk into places and spaces and put on a really good thing, but it's the people at home. Cracks start to slip. Can I tell you the most exhausting thing you can do?
The most exhausting thing you can do is try to keep a face that everything is good when the people that you love around you the most know it's not. Too many of us do this. You gotta protect your heart. You gotta allow the word of God to sit in you. You realize Jesus displayed this? Go all the way back in the New Testament. When Jesus was drug out into the wilderness 40 days, 40 nights, physically depleted, the enemy comes to tempt him. In every single one of those instances, what does Jesus run back to? The very word of God. Sharper than any double-edged sword. It's not just to pierce your soul. It's for protection. It's to keep your heart one to his.
So many of us in here this morning continue to fall back over and over and over again because we've neglected the word of God in our life. We don't know his commands. We don't know his precepts. We don't even know the very character of God. And yet we wonder why we keep falling back into the same things. Regard your heart, if anything at all. Keep reading with me. Psalms 1:19: 10, the Psalmist says, "With my whole heart, I seek you. With everything. With all of it. All of my being. There's the Psalmist desire. With everything I have, God, I seek you." Highlight and underline this. "Let me not wander from your commandments. Church, can I ask you a question here this morning? Anybody in here wondering?
You know how easy it is to wander off? The way to do that, you seek the Lord with everything you have so you do not wander off from him. Point number two, you guide your heart with God's word. Guide your heart with God's word. I grew up here. I love this place. I knew Matt Petty before he was a senior pastor. I did. He didn't always have that great smile. There's a Matt Petty thing, and it's called a Matt Petty mission trip. If you've ever been on a Matt Petty mission trip, you know what I'm about to say. Most of the time it's not bougie. You're not in a hotel. You probably don't even know where your next meal's coming from if you're just being real. You just get shoved onto a bus and you might be 12 hours, you might be 24. You never actually really know.
I went with Matt and a couple of guys on a mission trip when I was in college and in Guatemala. Very similar. We get off a plane. We get on a bus and we're just bouncing up and down. I didn't take any jam. I mean, I'm sick. I got no water. I'm hungry. You know, all the things. And I said, "Matt, you know where we're going?" He goes, "Not a clue." It's like, "Cool. That, that, that oozes confidence right now, bud, you know? We're in the, I mean, we're eight hours into a jungle. Haven't seen a village in forever. Don't know what's around us." And I said, "So what are we doing?" He goes, "Following that guy." We look over and there's this little Guatemalan man, and he's just waving at us, you know? He goes, "That's our guide." And I was like, "Okay, great." And for the next seven days, if this guide said, "Go left, go right, go over there.
Don't touch that tree because it's got spikes and it's got poison on it and you'll die." We did whatever. Like literally whatever he said. The point of the matter, whatever guides your life is what you actually trust.
Something's guiding your life. Whatever is guiding your life is the very thing that you are actually putting your trust in. I said it like this. Where you look for guidance is where you place your reliance. Where you look for guidance is the very thing you're placing your reliance in. What is the guiding for- force of your life? For many people in here, it's literally worldly ambition. I'm not against ambition. I think there's a beautiful thing about it, but there's a razor sharp edge between godly ambition and worldly ambition. And there's a fine line between it's for God or it's for me. For many of us in this room, you have a, for too long, looked at your own ambition and your job and your family and your finances. For many of you, that's the very guiding force of your life. For others in here, it's your feelings.
There are too many of us in here that have put way too much weight in your fleeting feelings. What do I mean? You ever been really mad at somebody? Wanna take revenge? And all you can think about is, that's what I gotta do. My whole life is driven towards that. I've just gotta get him back. I'm so angry at them. I just want that to happen. I've been there. On the other coin of that, my opposite. Something in your life has gone wrong. Somebody has wronged you and you throw yourself a pity party. You hide behind those feelings. It's not fair. I didn't deserve this. Instead of doing something about it in your life, you just sulk in your feelings. Can I tell you, church, for the longest time, that was me.
Where I was tossed back and forth because of my feelings. My faith and everything hinged upon how I was feeling, what was going on in my life, what circumstances were happening, rather than trusting the Lord to guide me. Do you realize that the Bible is the very guiding force of your life? The very thing that helps you in your desperate time of need. It's the thing that you should look through for wisdom, for peace. All those things come from the very finished work of God. I'm a college pastor now. We see about 130, 1400 college kids weekly come to worship. And I get this question so often. What's God's will for my life? Anybody ever asked that question before? What is God's will for my life? Well, it's kinda a little bit more complicated than that because God has two wills. God has got his secretive will and his de - his decretive will.
He declared it. His secret of will is this. How in the world did God make all of this? And despite our sin and our brokenness, what the enemy meant for good, God in his sovereignty can take it and use it for his good.
How can God do all of that? We might not know on this side of heaven, but then in his grace and his mercy, he has given us his decretive will through his finished work scripture. I get too many people all the time that get so anxious and caught up of what is God's will for my life? Here's a beautiful thing. God is good enough and faithful enough, even in his sovereignty, to redirect you if you're not in his will. You wanna know his will? Romans chapter 12: one. To live a life wholly set apart, pleasing to the Father. That is your spiritual act of worship in your waiting, in your suffering, in your hurt, in your joy. Your will is to honor and glorify God with your life. Too many of us get caught up. What is God's secretive will for my life? Can I just, let me just go there.
We got time? We got time. Okay, cool. I'm passionate about this. Too many of us wanna come to the Lord and get angry when he doesn't give three, four, five, six steps down the road. God, what is your will? Just give me your plan. Here's what I really think we're saying. Okay, Lord, give me the playbook. Okay. I'm read - I got this. Take the backseat.
I really think if the Lord was gracious enough to come to us and go, "Here it is." First and foremost, you would open the book, you'd go through the pages, and you go, "No, there's no way. I could never do that." On the other hand, you would go, "Okay, good. I don't need you anymore. Thanks. Bye." This is the guiding force of our life. Go later on. Psalms 119: five, or 105, famous verse, "For you're a lamp into my feet, a light into my path. The word of God is a lamp into my feet, a light into my path." Context. Back then, they didn't have mag lights, okay? Half of you jokers got lights that can go two miles down the street. A lamp into my feet would have displayed just enough to where somebody could see where they would put their very next step.
And that was it. Too many of us get mad and angry and frustrated at God when he doesn't give us the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the rest of the steps of our life. Rather than trusting him, depending upon him and go, "Okay, Lord, I will wait till you give me the next step." One of the best advice I've ever been given, uh, like ever that I've received. I had a pastor friend of mine look at me and go, "Hey, what was the last thing God told you to do?" I said this. He goes, "Then keep doing it.
Too many of us in here are like, what's next? What's next? What's next?" Maybe you're in a season right here because this is exactly where the Lord wants you. And he's trying to bring you to a place of utter dependence and reliance upon him. And maybe he's trying to redirect you and go, "Maybe you have been guided by the wrong things and you need to put yourself back under the banner of God." Gotta keep going. Okay. Verse 11, the Psalmist writes, "I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I have stored up your word in my heart." You know that phrase stored up in a lot of other contexts means treasured. Uh, God, I have treasured your word so much that I have hidden it deep within my soul so that I might not even sin against you.
That I see so much value in the very word of God that I wanna keep it in me at all times and I wanna hide it and I wanna gather it up. Point number three, you have to gather up God's word in your heart. You wanna keep a holy pure life? Gather it up. Store it up. Treasure it in your life. Treasure it.
For a lot of you that don't know me, my favorite book of the Bible is Job. I know, crazy, right? God that suffered for 30 some chapters. It's awesome. Yeah. If you don't know the book of Job, Job was immense in suffering from like chapter one and a half on. Okay? Lost everything. Wife, kids, house, job, finances, all of it gone. Matter of fact, I think it's in chapter three. He sat around in a circle in an exposed manner with open wounds on him, crying and weeping because his suffering was so great. In the smack middle of Job, in chapter 23, he says some of the most profound words. Job 12:23, he says, "I have not departed from the commandments of his lips talking about God. Even in my suffering. In my pain. I have not departed from the words of God. I have treasured the words of his mouth.
Listen to me, more than the portions of my food." A man of immense suffering and turmoil in life writes, "I value the word, the living word of God, more than the very physical portions of food that is in front of me that could give me physical life." Do you treasure the word of God like that? Do you see the Bible as the primary way that God speaks in and through you?
I think too many of us have grown up in church. And honestly, if we're just being real, we look at the Bible and we think it's gotten boring. I've heard it. The Bible's just so boring. No, you just don't understand it. Like, if we're just being real, like, this is good for your soul. People are like, "Man, you're so passionate up there." I'm like, "No. Because this, like, if you, if you understand the words of God, the grace that he has for you, the life that he has for you, how can you not get behind that?" And even in immense suffering, Job looks at it and goes, "I treasure the Lord's words more than food itself.
Do you know the word of God? Have you hid it in your heart? Do you treasure it above all things?" How do we do that? Let me give you three things. How do we store up God's word this morning? Number one, we study it. We do study it. I think for a lot of us, when we hear the word study, we just mean more knowledge. Man, I just. Give me the Greek. Give me the Hebrew. Yeah, that's good. Yes. Please. Study God's word. Know God's word. Know all of those things. Hear me though. Has it actually transformed your life? You realize that's the reason and the revelation for the Bible. God's finished work. Like, yes, study it. Yes, know it. Yes, put it in context. When you read it, go, who wrote it? Who'd they write it to? And for what purpose? That way you can extract the meaning towards the people and go, God, how is it that you want me to live for my life?
Too many of us, when we come to the word of God, we look at it and we study it like it. And again, there's a place for that. But I think we've neglected the transformation power of the word of God.
Gain more knowledge. And then look at the Lord and go, God, would you search my soul? And would you extract anything in my life that doesn't honor and glorify you? You gotta study it. Number two, you gotta meditate on it. Psalms 119: 15 says, I will meditate on your precepts. Now, meditation is not like we think with kumbaya and we sit around and do yoga. Okay? The word literally means to repeat re- repetition over and over and over. To think on it. To see it. Be so for real this morning, including myself. How many times have you sat down in the morning? You're tired. You got up early. It's before the kids. And like a good Christian boy or girl, you sit down for your quiet time, you read your Bible. And about noon, you're like, uh, what did I actually read this morning? I don't know.
You know?
When the Lord speaks to you through his word, write it down. Can I give you something so practical? You know how you meditate on it? Put it on a sticky note. Put it in your car. You know, the average person is in her car four times a day. On average, you're in your car four ti - you're, you're in your car more than anything else. Put it in a place to where you can see it and where you can think on it and go, God, I know that you spoke to me through this. So Lord, how is it that I'm supposed to live my life with this? God, would you give me an opportunity to live out what you already spoke to me? God, do into me. Change me. Mold me. Number three, we memorize it. Psalms 119, verse 16, I will not forget your words.
How do you not forget the word of God? You memorize it. Be so for real, okay? We're being honest. How many of you can name off three or four scriptures other than John 3:16 and Jesus Wept?
You laugh because you know it's true. I wonder how many of us in here have hidden the word of God so much that, like, you look at it like physical food to where it's good for your soul. So much to the place to where you have to memorize it and live it. You wanna know how it actually protects you and guides you? You've gotta know it. That's, that's the whole point. When temptation comes, what's the first though? Ooh, I should give into this or the word of God. Too many of us have neglected actually knowing the very nature of God. You've heard sermons like this. You know I'm gonna tell you to read your Bible, then not just to read it, but that God will transform your life through it.
Man, Christians, Burnt Hickory, if we got that, I think we'd look different. I think we would look different. Famous pastor named Warren Weirsby, he says it like this. The word of God is not intended to just merely provide you with more knowledge, but rather transform. Your life. As we close today, I could sit up here, I could tell you to read your Bible, maybe you're convicted, you go home, you read your Bible a little bit more, really have been praying all week on the beach with my wife on vacation that God wants to do a lot more in this room today.
I'm just being honest, I have such a burden, a burden for people that think they're f - just fooling everybody to give off a really good holy aesthetic. But if you're just being honest in here this morning, you're far, far away from God. And please hear me. For some of you, that's real convicting. For some of you, you feel shame, you feel embarrassed. That's not our God. It's not who the Father is. Do you realize that even in our sin, the Father sent the son for you and I. The same Father that looks at his children and says, "Come on home." I got time, so I'm gonna go there. Everybody in the church world talks about revival, revival, revival. Everybody looks out there. Look at our world. Look at all that. Look, look at how much hurt and pain and suffering and sin. Hear me. Revival is here in this room, in your heart.
You realize we don't just meet on Sunday mornings to hear a message and go home like we're meeting with a holy God. How many of us this morning just need to come to this altar and repent? You realize repentance is not just for salvation, but it should be a daily practice of, God, I'm sorry and I need you to forgive me. I, I yearn. Hear me. I yearn for the day that we could care less about what the person next to us thinks. Dad's in the room. I feel it. I feel it. I'm there. I've been there. Right now you're thinking, if I actually respond to God, what would my family think about me? What would my wife think about me? I've been trying to keep it up. I've been trying to look real good all this time.
This is God matter here. Who cares about what everybody else thinks? Don't quiet the Holy Spirit of God in your life. Don't harden your heart towards the things of God. Respond to them. He's the gracious, steadfast God that we see in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that his grace abounds. For some of you in here this morning, you're like, uh, you just don't understand. I keep falling back into the same sin over and over and over again. I'm just abusing God's grace. His grace never runs out. You don't just go to a well, take the water, and it doesn't. He keeps fulfilling it.
That's the God way we have. Here's this reality. God already knows. He knows your heart. He's the supreme power to see everything over and over again. Maybe for someone in here, just like at 9:30, all of your life you've grown up in church. You've been around the things of God, but you've never actually encountered God for salvation. There's a difference between being around the things of God and actually truly experiencing salvation. All in, not one toe in, one foot out. I'm gonna just try this God thing out. You are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loved you so much that he sent his son. Hear me? To die a death that every single one of us put him on that cross.
That he literally became your sin. Past, current sin. Hear me, future sin. It's taken care of on the cross. Maybe you're in here and you're tired of being around the things of God without actually knowing a holy God. Let today be the day of your salvation. For a lot of other people in the room, can I just beg you? No more games. No more playing. It's okay. Like if you're in that boat, please hear me. Every single person is in here and we're in the same boat. We're all in it. What would it look like if we got rid of all of that? No preconceived notion. What are people gonna think about me? What if I just get up and walk down here and kneel at y'all? Who cares? Do business with the Lord. What would it look like, church? I think it would be revival.
I think we'd have a lot of people that would walk out of here in victory and freedom today to live for Christ. We all have a response.