Proverbs 4:23 NLT [23] Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

The heart is the place in which the process of self-consciousness is carried out, in which the soul is at home with itself, and is conscious of all its doing and suffering as its own”

As the engine in a motor vehicle determines its function, so the heart also determines our function and also our destinies. All we ought to be; is determined by what we are inside. It is our inner being that's demonstrated on the outside.

"For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD."But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.(Isaiah 66:2,NASB)

‌ God finds His home in a humble heart, He finds his home in a trembling heart. A heart humble before Him, a heart broken over sin before Him and a heart that trembles at His word. A humble heart, a trembling heart and a broken heart is what defines a true believer, it's what defines true Christians. God is looking for those who are in awe of his word, those who know his word, those who believe it and love it, those who obey; proclaim and defend it. One with a humble heart; a heart that trembles at his word is where God dwells, it is here where God lives.

‌ God comes to churches built with human hands because those with humble hearts come,When they come God also comes.

What price did Christ pay?

He bore our griefs.

He carried our sorrows.

He was pierced, chastened and scourged for us.

Verse 4 is our wrong attitude and Christ died in order that we have the right attitudes.

Verse 5 is our behavior, but Christ paid the price with His life that we have the right behaviors.

Verse 6 is our nature; Christ died that we have the right nature.

Many times as believers when we are saved and have spent weeks, months; years and decades in salvation we tend to shift the focus from the true message of the gospel which is the reason why Christ died, we tend to shift our focus from the price that Christ paid and put all our focus on what is meaningless. We focus on what God can give us and forget the precious gift He gave us.

Christ took the punishment of our sin.

We should have suffered for our sin but Christ took it away. He takes our sin and removes having paid for all.

The price that Christ paid is something every believer must ponder about and make it his foundation of salvation because it's indeed the foundation for salvation.

Christ was reviled and never reviled back. He bore our sins in His body on the cross.

The price Christ paid no many can pay.

He had no stately form or majesty that could attract anybody. Remember I told you that he grew up in a family of a humble background. His peasant upbringing, His poverty, as well as his lack of association with the aristocracy that's the all religious, political, and economic power in Jerusalem.

What price did Christ pay?

He left all glory, all honor in heaven to die

for us. He chose to be called a son of a

carpenter; He was born in a manger.

He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.(lsaiah 53:3, NASB)

And because he was from a family of a humble background with no social status; he was despised. He was rejected and still today many reject him. And why did they reject Christ, because he was pure holiness and they pure corruption.

Today people reject Christ not because

they are forced, but because they are pure

corruption and he is pure holiness. Today

people reject and despise Christ because they are too selfish; deeply rooted in their own unholy practices and actions and immorality to believe the message of life.

People are too evil to turn away from their

sinful lives and lusts. Believers are too eager to adapt the standards of the world deviating from the word of God and thus rejecting Christ.

When God looks at any sinner, he doesn't see his/her sins but sees the fully paid price which is his beloved S

on Jesus Christ.

Today we have so many possessions that they possess us.

We have stocked piles of possessions.

There have been a development of storages today

Everything that’s material that we have came from God and it comes out the creation of God.

The issue is not possession but attitude towards God.

The sin is not in the wealth but in the attitude a person gets after having much wealth. The sin is not having more but being discontent.

When you have abundance doesn’t mean that you real life which is the eternal life. Greed is idolatry; it’s worshipping the creature and not the creator

When God gives someone His word, people will hate it because it’s the truth and they can’t receive it since they are preprogrammed to believe lies.

Whoever is not of God has no capacity to believe and understand the truth that the Bible reveals.

People will call anyone speaking boldly against their sin a demon. If you told them the truth, they will say that you’re from hell.

Today the church is trying to preach the gospel not revealing and confronting the sinners what their sin is. It doesn’t have the courage to tell the person they preaching the gospel to, the true nature of their sin.

In Roman 3:10-18; it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS; THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

There are two kinds of disciples in John 15:1-8 and are all attached to Christ who is the vine. Many people think and say quoting this passage in John that one can lose his salvation, the bible doesn't say that.

All branches are attached to the vine. There are those that bear fruit and remain attached to the vine and those that don't bear fruit which are cut off and are burned. The more we read the word is the more we know it, the more we know it is the more we love it and it is the more we will allow it to prune us.

As believers we can only bear much fruit when we allow the word of God to do its work in our lives.

In the Jewish culture it was believed that after four days the spirit of any person had left his body and that person is totally dead. This belief was rooted in various Rabbinic texts such as the Midrash Tanchuma and Leviticus Rabbah which suggested that; for the first three days, the soul lingers, hoping it might return to the body. And on the fourth day, the bodies facial features begin to change significantly due to decay and once the face is lost, the soul accepted that it could no longer inhabit the frame. This timeframe was so significant that traditionally a person could only be legally declared dead after three days had passed as it was thought however rarely that they might just be in deep coma.

John 11:44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them,"Unbind him, and let him go."

Lazarus offers an example to us the church today as we have been reborn into salvation. For our old self is gone and our new man lives. We are held prisoners by remanence of our former life, our very fallnness clings to us and though we live, we stink. It's as if we are bound in our grace clothes and this is the reality of our spiritual life. As soon as Lazarus's death rags were removed, the stench was gone and the corruption of death no longer clang unto him.

Killing sin is a lifetime effort. There are no short cuts. For it's a daily routine to always hewn sin to pieces using all means of grace by reading and studying the word of God, listening to sermons, worshipping, meditating upon the law and commandment of GOD, pray, pursuing things that only bring us to holiness and righteousness.