Clean Transcript

Heart Inclinations

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• Alright, let's open our Bibles today to the book of Joshua chapter 24. Joshua 24, and we're going to begin reading there with verse 22. Joshua 24 and verse 22. The title of the message is Heart Inclinations. Heart Inclinations. Look in the book of Joshua, chapter 24, verse 22, and Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you the Lord, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses."

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• "Now therefore put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel." And the people said unto Joshua, "The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey."

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• Now I want to call your attention to verse 23, where Joshua said, "Now therefore put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel." Each of us have used an expression in our lives by saying, "My heart belongs to..." and then we would usually put our wife or our children or grandchildren or just simply our family.

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• There's a conference that I preached in years ago. The theme of the conference was, "My heart belongs to Dixie." In other words, we understand that we are Southerners and we are for the South and we certainly love the South. Most of us have never really thought about heart inclinations. But let me give you a good illustration of heart inclinations and I want you to turn forward to the book of Judges chapter 9, and I want you to look, if you would please, with me at the first three verses. The book of Judges chapter 9, beginning there with verse 1. Look, if you would please, as we talk about heart inclinations.

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• "And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem and to his mother's brethren, and communed with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, 'Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether it is better for you, either that all of the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons reign over you, or that one reign over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.' And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, 'He is our brother.'" So here's what Abimelech does. Of course, Gideon had 70 sons. And after he was dead, Abimelech comes along, who happened to be the son of Gideon by a concubine, who said, "Is it better that 70 people reign over you or one?" And he was speaking mainly to his brethren. And the Bible says very clearly, "And their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, 'He is our brother.'"

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• Now, the people should not have inclined their hearts to follow Abimelech because he was a murderer. He murdered 70 of his brothers and eventually a host of others. But notice, if you would, their hearts were inclined. Do you realize that everyone has an inclined heart? We have inclinations in our hearts. The question is, where is our heart inclined and what it is inclined towards? We often speak of heart inclinations, or we could say it like this: "I'm inclined to go hunting." Have you ever noticed no one has to pressure us to do what we're already inclined to do? We like to shoot. We're inclined to go shooting. We like to fish. We're inclined to go fishing. We like to play. We're inclined to go out and play. It's amazing you've never ever had to pressure your children to play. You always have to pressure them to work but never to play. The truth of the matter is our hearts are inclined. We're either inclined to holiness or we're inclined to sin.

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• In fact, we use the word inclined in many different ways, but oftentimes we use it to refer to and to reveal our own attitude and our own disposition. For instance, you could ask me a question. And I could answer like this: "At this point, I am inclined to say no." Or, "At this point, I'm inclined not to give you an answer to that particular question." There is another synonym that we could really use for being inclined, and that is the word leaning. Or we could even use the word bent. We could say, "I'm leaning in this direction," or "My bent at the moment is in this direction." And so when we use the word leaning or the word bent, we understand we're speaking about inclinations.

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• Now, I'm going to be showing you a lot of verses in the Bible today. And here's what I want you to understand, that every verse that I show you, every verse that has the word inclined or incline in it is from the same Hebrew word, natah, which literally means to stretch out, to expand, to bend, to extend, or to turn, or to incline. So the question you have to ask is this: Is your heart really inclined toward the Lord? Do you want your heart inclined toward the Lord? You could also ask, do you have an inclination to be obedient, godly, and holy? Do you have an inclination toward biblical truth or do you have an inclination toward worldly and fleshly activities? If you want to be inclined toward the Lord, I want you to look back in the book of Joshua chapter 24 and verse 23 and look at what he says.

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• "Now therefore put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you. And incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel."

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• Now, I hope you understand that in this passage there are literally two parts. There is a negative and there is a positive. He said in verse 23, "Now therefore put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you." That's the negative. And here's the positive: "and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel." There are always two parts of inclining. There is a positive and a negative sometimes. It's a negative and a positive. They may be reversed, but it's exactly the same truth. For instance, you remember that passage in the book of Amos chapter 5 and verse 15 where God said, "Hate the evil and love the good." He put the negative first and then he put the positive second. But when you get to Psalm 97 and verse 10, He says it like this, "Ye that love the Lord hate evil." In that instance, the positive is first, loving the Lord, and the negative is second, that is, hating evil. Well, when you look at Joshua 24 and verse 23, he gives us the negative first.

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• He says, "Now therefore," said he, "put away the strange gods which are among you," and the positive is second, "and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel." I want you to understand that we cannot incline our hearts toward the Lord as long as we are embracing and holding idols in our lives. You object and you say, "But I don't have an idol in my life." Oh yes, you do.

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• You see, the Bible teaches us in the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5, "and covetousness which is idolatry." Do you realize a covetous individual is an idolater? And covetousness is exceedingly broad. Our thoughts, our lusts, our desires, even our actions, can be idolatrous when we think in an unbiblical manner and when we act in an unholy and ungodly manner. Because what we're doing is basically setting ourselves up above God.

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• If we desire that our hearts are to be inclined toward the Lord, then we have to put away any and everything that is contrary to the Lord. You remember the passage that David spoke of in Psalm 66 and verse 18, where he said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If the mere regarding of iniquity is sufficient that the Lord will not incline his ear toward us, how much worse is it when you and I regard other things equal to him or above him?

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• In either case, we would still be guilty of gross idolatry. Now, let me show you. I want you to hold Joshua 24, but turn back in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapter 35, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Genesis 35 and verse 1. I want you to see how easy it is to be captured by an idol. In Genesis chapter 35, beginning there, verse 1, God is speaking to Jacob and He's calling him back to Bethel. And look what He says, "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother."

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• "Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you." Isn't that amazing? How could Jacob have allowed anyone to have strange gods? But let's go on. He says, "Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an offering to God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hands," watch, "and all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shechem."

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• Now, anything that is against the Lord, anything that we treasure above the Lord is idolatry. Now, isn't it strange that they gave their earrings to Jacob? Of course, these were women. These were ladies. It's not just the strange gods, but they gave their earrings. The reason they gave their earrings is this: Usually jewelry in those days was either dedicated to some strange god or had the image or the form of that god in that jewelry.

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• So what they were doing was this: They were giving up any and everything that was even questionable. In other words, their attitude at this particular point was, "I do not want anything between Jacob and his family, and the Lord." So they put it away. So any token or reminder of a false and idolatrous god, act, state, or fashion should immediately be put away. I remember years ago when I was in college, my aunt and uncle went to Hawaii.

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• And of course they tried to bring everyone back a few little presents. And I remember they brought us back a salt and pepper shaker set. And we had it on our table in the kitchen. But the salt and pepper shaker was in the form of these little tiki gods. And every time I'd go in that kitchen, I'd see those things. And I finally told Alice, I said, "I don't want those things in the house. I said, I know it's nothing but a salt and pepper shaker. I understand that. I understand it's a piece of wood, but it's in the form of false gods. I don't want it."

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• She said, "Throw it away." And that's exactly what I did. Well, this is exactly what is happening here. Anything and everything that would even reflect another god they were getting rid of. So we must first put away the strange gods in our lives. We must put away our covetousness. We must put away every form of idolatry. And secondly, he said, we must incline our hearts toward him.

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• Now, it's imperative, as you look back at the book of Joshua, chapter 24 and verse 23, that you understand this simple statement. He said in verse 23, "Now therefore put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you."

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• Now, look, "and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel." It is our responsibility to incline our hearts to the Lord God of Israel. We must learn to pray that we would be inclined towards Him and that He would be the desire of our hearts. We must pray that He would be our delight and that we would delight ourselves in Him.

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• Now, let me ask you a question. I already know the answer, but I'm going to ask the question anyhow. Do you want God to be inclined to help you? I don't know about you, but I've been crying every day, "Lord, restore this hand, Lord, heal me, Lord, help me." I would imagine Henry's been crying, "Lord, help my back," you know. If you're sick, you want healing. If you're in financial distress, you want help. If you are having marital problems, you want help. You want the Lord to be inclined to hear you. I want you to hold the book of Joshua, but turn if you would please to Psalms, the book of Psalms, and let's begin with Psalm 17. I want to just show you several verses throughout the book of Psalms, and I will quote one from Daniel. But let's look in Psalm 17 and look at verse 6, if you would. We want the Lord to be inclined to hear us. So here we go. Look in Psalm 17 in verse 6.

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• David said, "I have called upon thee for thou wilt hear me, O God, incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech." Incline thine ear. God, I want you to hear me. Turn right over to Psalm 40 and look at verse 1, if you would please. Psalm 40, verse 1. David said, "I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry." He inclined unto me. He had an inclination to hear David. Look at Psalm 71 and verse 2. Psalm 71 and verse 2. Again, David is praying. In fact, we can read verse 1 there. He said, "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion."

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• "Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and save me." I don't know about you. And I know that God is not hard of hearing. I understand that. But when I pray, I sure would like to know that God is bending over, inclining Himself toward me so that He can hear every request that I make. And that's exactly what David is saying. "Incline your ear."

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• Look in Psalm 88 and verse 2. Psalm 88, verse 2. It's amazing how many times we run across this word in the prayers of David. Psalm 88, notice verse 2. He says, "Let my prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry." Well, go back to verse 1. "O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee." Now look what he says. "Let my prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry." And then if you will turn to Psalm 102 and look at verse 2. Psalm 102 and verse 2.

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• I could multiply these, but this is sufficient. Look at Psalm 102 and verse 2. In fact, we'll read verse 1. David said, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble. Incline thine ear unto me in the day when I call upon and call. Answer me speedily." Boy. He wants God to hear, and he wants God to hear him now. In Psalm 116 and verse 2, David said this, "Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live." So David said, "God did hear me. God inclined to me, and therefore I'm going to call upon Him as long as I live." In the book of Daniel, you don't have to turn there, but in the book of Daniel, chapter 9 and verse 18, here is Daniel's prayer. "Oh my God, incline thine ear and hear. Open thine eyes and behold our desolations in the city which is called by thy name."

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• "For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies." But notice what he says, "incline thine ear unto us and hear." Now, listen carefully. If we want the Lord to be inclined toward us, if we want Him inclined to hear us and to help us, do you not think that the Lord would also want us to be inclined to Him? To hear Him and to obey Him? That is why Joshua said, "incline your hearts to the Lord God of Israel."

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• So the question has to be asked then, where do we begin? And how do we continue with heart inclinations?

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• Now, before I try to answer those questions, I want to point out the natural tendency of fallen man. I know that you understand that man's tendency is not to incline his heart toward that which is right and holy. Man's natural tendency is not to hear and to heed God. I know that some people will respond, and I've heard people say this. In fact, they've said it to me point blank. "Well, if God said something and I knew that God told me this, I would obey Him." Well, let me tell you something, folks. If you understand the biblical doctrine of inspiration, God has spoken, God has told you, He said it in His Word. Here's a definition of inspiration.

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• Inspiration is the strong, conscious in-breathing of God into men qualifying them to give utterance to the truth so that the words that they wrote and spoke were and are indeed the very words of God Himself. When you look at the Bible, when you read the Bible, when you hear the Bible expounded, that is God speaking. God has inspired, God has breathed out these words, and the individual who will not hear the Word of God will not hear God. The individual who will not obey the word of God will not obey God. This is God's word, God has spoken, and he still continues to speak through this word.

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• Now, I will tell you, one of the greatest problems that we have today in Christianity is one of the same problems that Jeremiah had in his day. The professing people of God, the people of the covenant would not hear God. They would not heed God's word. It's amazing when you stop and think about this, you look at the Christians, professing Christians that are so disobedient, whose lives are so messed up, they will not hear the word of God. How in the world do we expect the unsaved and the pagan to listen when God's own professing people will not listen? Now, I want you to stop and think of the average church member, OK, the average professing Christian. When you look at the average church member, his life is in turmoil. His family is divided.

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• He's in debt up to his eyeballs. He knows nothing of biblical principles. He's merely existing month in and month out and hoping somehow, some way, that something will happen and change the misery of his life. He knows nothing concerning the blessings and the curses of God from the Bible. He does not understand, nor does he really want to understand. What the average church member wants is this: The average church member wants to live as he pleases and to do as he pleases while at the same time expecting the blessings of God upon himself while he's in complete disobedience to God.

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• Which will not ever be. It is impossible to live in ignorance of God and his word and have the blessings of God in one's life. I know you're going to say, "But Brother Weaver, don't you know that the Bible does say that God blesses the just and the unjust alike." That is true. He does in general blessings. He does send his rain upon the just and the unjust. He does give us life. He does give us nourishment. But I'll tell you this, the special blessings of God that are related in the Word of God are given to those who obey Him. The secret of the Lord is with those that obey Him, the Scripture says. There are things that God's obedient people know.

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• and experience that the average individual never knows or never experiences. And if you don't believe that, just read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 where you have the blessings and the curses and you will find out for yourself.

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• Now, fallen man's tendency is to not hear God. Fallen man's tendency is to ignore God, to live his life the way he wants to live it. Not the way God demands. Not the way God commands. Let me just show you. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 7. I'm just going to take the people during the time of Jeremiah. Let me show you a number of verses in the book of Jeremiah that will demonstrate the attitude of these people. Watch, if you would, Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 24. Let's begin there. Look what God says. Jeremiah 7 verse 24.

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• "But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward." But notice, they would not listen, nor were they inclined to listen. They would not even turn their ear toward God. Look in verse 26, same chapter. "Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers." Wow. Look in chapter 11 and verse 8. Chapter 11 and verse 8. Look what God says. Jeremiah 11 verse 8. Again, he said that "they obeyed not, nor incline their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart."

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• "Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not." That is, he's going to bring the curses upon them. But notice they did not obey, nor did they incline their ear. Look in Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 23. Over and over, God is saying the same exact thing. Jeremiah 17 verse 23. "But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction." Look in Jeremiah 25 and verse 4. Jeremiah 25 verse 4. Again, he said, "And the Lord has sent unto you all his servants, the prophets rising early and sending them, but you have not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear." Turn right over to Jeremiah chapter 34 and look at verse 14. Jeremiah 34 and verse 14. Here it is, Jeremiah 34 verse 14.

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• "At the end of seven years let you go every man his brother an Hebrew, which have been sold unto thee. And when you serve these six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee. But your fathers hearkened not to me, neither inclined their ear." Again, they would not listen. Look in chapter 35 and verse 15. Jeremiah 35, verse 15. He said, "I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them. And you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and your fathers.' But you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me." One more. Look in Jeremiah 44 and verse 5. Jeremiah 44 and verse 5. Again, God says this. "But they hearkened not nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness to burn no incense unto other gods." Over and over, God says, "Listen, they not only will not listen, they will not even lend or bend or incline their ear to hear."

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• They're inclined to hear their own heart and their own imagination and their own thoughts, but they're not inclined to hear me. As Christians, it is our duty, it is our responsibility, it is our obligation, it is our privilege to overcome by the grace of God the natural bent of our hearts and incline our hearts unto the one true and the living God. That's our responsibility. That's why Joshua said, "incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel."

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• Do you remember what he said in Proverbs 3, verses 5-8? Let me just quote it. He said, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." What is he saying?

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• If you want to prosper, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, maritally, nationally, any way that you want to, you incline your heart unto me, you hear me, you heed me. We should want to do exactly that which Solomon has given us direction and wisdom to do in Proverbs 3. So the question is this: We know that we have a responsibility to incline our hearts to the Lord. How do we do that? How do we begin? First of all.

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• There must be prayer for divine help. Do you remember what our Lord said in John 15 in verse five, I quote this verse often. Our Lord said, "without me you can do" how much? "Nothing." If inclining our hearts to the Lord is something, and it is, we need divine help. Listen carefully to this statement. If our hearts are ever inclined toward God, toward His truth, toward righteousness and obedience, we must have divine help. It is not something that we can do on our own.

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• If you'll go back in your Bibles to first Kings chapter eight. In this passage, Solomon is dedicating the temple to the Lord. But I want you to notice what he says in verse 58. First Kings eight and verse 58. In fact, let's read verse 57.

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• 1 Kings 8 verse 57. "The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us nor forsake us that he may incline our hearts unto him to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments which he commanded our fathers."

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• Now, what did Solomon just get out of his mouth? "Let the Lord be with us. Let the Lord not forsake us." Why? "That he may incline our hearts to walk in His ways and to keep His laws and His statutes and His judgments." In other words, it may be our responsibility to incline our hearts, but it is God's ability and grace and mercy that enables us to incline our hearts. If you'll go back in your Bibles to Psalm 80, I want to show you how David relies upon the Lord for this over and over and over. Look at Psalm 80, if you would please, beginning there with verse 3. Psalm 80, verse 3. Here's what he says.

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• "Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." What did he just say? "Turn us again, O Lord." God, you've got to turn me. You've got to incline me. Look in verse 7. "Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." Wow. Look in verse 18. "So will not we go back from thee, quicken us, and we will call upon thy name." Verse 19. "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved."

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• He has said that over and over in Psalm 80. "Turn us, quicken us, enable us." Look in Psalm 85 and verse 4. Psalm 85 in verse four. Again, David says this, "Turn us, O God, of our salvation and cause thine anger toward us to cease." Do you realize that God must turn us? God must turn us from the things of the world. He must turn us from the things of the flesh. He must turn us from our idolatry. He must turn us from our covetousness. He must turn us from secret sins. He must turn us from anything that's contrary to Him. In Lamentations 5, verse 21, Jeremiah is watching the destruction of Jerusalem, and he says this, "Turn thou unto us, O Lord, and we shall be turned."

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• "Renew our days as of old. Turn thou unto us, and we shall be turned." In other words, I want you to see, first and foremost, the absolute necessity of divine help. You know, the Bible says, in Isaiah 12, that God has wrought all of our righteousness in us. We have no righteousness of our own. Isaiah 64 tells us all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're worthless. They're nothing. They're useless. If we have any righteousness in us, it's because God has put it there in His grace and mercy. He's turned us. He's quickened us. He's enabled us. And do you realize God is the only one who can do this? One of my favorite illustrations is found in 2 Kings 6 and verse 27. You don't have to turn there.

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• I'll quote it for you. But the Syrians had besieged Samaria. Samaria had besieged Israel and the people there were starving to death. The Syrians had besieged—it was Jerusalem, not Samaria, but they had besieged them there. And the people were starving to death. Women were killing, cooking, and eating their own children. Moreover, the Bible tells us they were selling dove's dung for about five shekels. People were eating dung.

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• And finally, here comes a woman to the king. And she looks to the king and says, "Help, Lord, help, O king." And she said, "This woman said to me, 'Give me that child that we may eat him today and we'll eat my child tomorrow.' So she said, 'I gave my child and we ate him and now she's taken her child and hid him.' Help, O King." And the king rent his clothes and he said this: "If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee out of the barn floor or out of the wine press?" He said, "All I've got to give you is dung and dried grape hulls. If God doesn't help you, how can I help you?"

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• Do you realize the absolute necessity of the grace and mercy of God in our lives? God must incline our hearts. And how often have we cried unto God and made it a prayer, "Lord, incline my heart unto thee, incline my heart unto thy word, incline my heart unto thy people, incline my heart unto thy truth." Most people never ask God to incline their heart. They just want to go on their merry way. So first of all, if we are going to have inclined hearts toward the Lord God of Israel, we must have divine help. Secondly, there must be careful attention to hear and to heed the word of God.

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• Boy, when Jacob got ready to go back to Bethel, he said, "Put away those strange gods and any and everything that reeks of idolatry. Put it all away." We have to learn to hear and to heed. Do you realize most of the time we are so unaccustomed to listening to the word of God? And we're so easily distracted. That even when we have an opportunity to hear the Word of God, we don't really listen.

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• It's amazing, I've been in churches where there's been three and four hundred people, five hundred people there, and I've been preaching and right in the middle of the sermon, one little kid will get up and go to the bathroom. It's interesting how everybody has to turn and watch the kid walk out, just like they've never seen a child go to the bathroom before. When is the last time you have been so grasped by the Word of God and you are giving such rapt attention to the Word of God that nothing fazes you and everything that's going on around you, you totally ignore? That's what I'm talking about.

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• You see, the problem is this: Many times when we have the opportunity to hear, we will not listen. And it's going to have to be God's grace that gives us not only the ability, but gives us the motivation to hear and to heed God's Word. In Proverbs 5 in verse 13, without turning there, here is the lament of one who refused to listen, he said, "and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,

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• nor incline mine ear to them that instructed me." I didn't listen. Young people, let me tell you something. A lot of times the mother and dad and grandma and grandpa give you counsel and advice. It's to keep you from falling into the same sins that they fell into. And many times you say, "Well, I know what's best for me. I want to do this. I want to do my own thing." And you do.

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• And you always end up in trouble. You always end up in trouble. And one of these days you're going to be saying this, "I have not listened to the voice of my teachers and I have not inclined my ear to those who instructed me." It'll be wise to listen to those who have lived much longer than you have and have had far more experience than you have had, and it would be wise to hear the Word of God over and over and over. You stop and think of all the times in the Bible where we are admonished to hear. Over and over, the Lord said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." In Luke 8 and verse 18, He said, "Take heed therefore how you hear." In Mark 4 and verse 23 and 24, He said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." And He said, "Take heed what you hear."

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• I want you to turn back very quickly to Psalm 78. Psalm 78. I want you to look at verse one at what God says, Psalm 78, verse one. Watch carefully, we're talking about if you want an inclined heart, you must not only have divine help. You must have a responsible hearing and heeding of the Word of God. For in Psalm 78, verse 1, he said, "Give ear, O my people, to my law, and incline your ears to the words of my mouth." Listen to me, said God. Listen to me. Give ear to me. By the way, I want you to turn to Psalm 119. Look at verse 36. You remember how David had been praying over and over to the Lord for him to incline his ear

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• unto him and hear his prayers. Well, look what he says in Psalm 119 in verse 36. David now prays, "Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness." Incline mine heart to thy testimonies. Let me love your word. Let me love your truth. Let me love your judgments. Let me love your law. If you will turn to Proverbs chapter 2 very quickly. I love this passage. Look in Proverbs chapter 2. Let's begin there with verse 1. Proverbs chapter 2 verse 1. He says, "My son, if thou will receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee." Now watch verse 2, "so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart unto understanding.

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• Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hidden treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of thy God." Now let me ask you, if you knew that somewhere on your property was a chest filled with gold and silver and precious jewels. You knew it for sure. You didn't know where, but you knew it was there.

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• It was yours if you found it. Would you take a shovel and go out and dig a couple holes and say, "Well, I'm tired. I'll come back next week and dig a few more holes." Would you do that? No, I tell you what you would do if you knew a treasure chest was buried on your property. You would dig until you could not dig anymore, and then you'd go rent a backhoe and come out and dig the thing up.

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• You're going to find it. You're going to give attention. Did you hear what God said? God said, "If you want wisdom, if you want my truth, then you need to search for that truth as for silver and for gold hidden." Then he said, "Then you're going to understand wisdom." There has to be a determination to hear. In Proverbs 4, if you look at verse 20, listen to what he said there. Proverbs 4 and verse 20, "My son, attend unto my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings." Listen to me. Listen to me. You remember what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55 and verse three, he said, "Incline your ear and come unto me: hear,

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• and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." But notice, he said, "Incline your ear, come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live." We have to learn to hear and to heed the word of God. We have to make sure that we pay attention, that we listen and we learn. I've often said I would love to live my life over again only if I could know as a child what I know now. Really? You stop and think of the difference it would make in your life. We need to learn to listen. Thirdly, if we're going to incline our heart, there must not only be divine help. We must not only learn to listen, but thirdly, there must always be obedience or practical application of that which is heard.

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• It's absolutely necessary to understand this one simple concept. If you do not use the truth, if you do not use the truth, you lose the truth. You can take your arm, tie it to your body for four or five months. Guess what? When you take it untied, you'll have to learn to use that arm all over again. The muscles will have atrophied and you'll have no control over it. You'll just have to learn to use it all over again. If you don't use the truth, you lose the truth.

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• Now, I want you to turn to Mark chapter four. Mark chapter 4. I have a message on this. I haven't preached it in years and years, but it has always stuck with me. I want you to look at Mark 4 beginning there in verse 24. Here's a principle. Mark 4 verse 24. "And He said unto them, Take heed what you hear. Now look. With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you. And to you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath to him shall be given, and he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath." Wow. Now look what God says. In verse 24, He says, "Take heed what you hear. With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you."

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• Now the word mete literally is another word for measurement. Meteyard, you remember that's in the Bible. So here's what He's saying. Whatever measure that you measure in learning and hearing the word of God, that that same degree truth is going to be measured back to you. So you cannot study the scripture 15 minutes and get two hours worth of truth. You get 15 minutes worth of truth. You can't study the scripture for an hour and get a month's worth of truth. No, you get an hour's worth of truth. With what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you.

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• Now, look, "and he said unto you that hear shall more be given." So if you want to learn more truth, you have to obey the truth that God has already given you. Why would God give you any more truth if you're not going to obey what he's already given you? Now, look what he says. "For he that hath to him shall be given." He just said that. But here's the opposite. "And he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath," or even that which he seemeth to have.

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• You might think you have something, but if you never use it, you never apply it, it'll be gone. Do you realize when I was a boy, I could tell you when to plant corn, cotton, peanuts. How deep? I could tell you everything about it because I did it so often. I haven't done it in years and years and years. Guess what? I've forgotten. Well, I can get by generally speaking, but I could not go out tomorrow and start farming because I'd have to learn all that stuff all over.

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• I used to know it. But I haven't used it in 50 years, so I've lost it. Some of you used to take martial arts. You say, "Man, I was good 30 years ago." You can't do it now. I tell you what, I might could kick you in the knees really well. I might could even get your groin. I might could even get your stomach. There's no way in the world I'm going to try to kick you in the head right now.

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• Because I'd end up on the floor with my back out and probably a broken leg. I've had people tell me, "Well, I was an expert shooting in the army." Yeah, you were 40 years ago and you hadn't shot since. You can't do it now. If you don't use it, you lose it. That's exactly what our Lord is saying. Now, I want you to turn to Psalm 141.

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• And I'm going to tie this together for you. Psalm 141, I want you to look at verse 4. You remember I told you there were negatives and positives. A lot of times these negatives and positives can be worked together. When he said, "put away the strange gods," that's the negative. Here's the positive: "incline your heart." "Ye that love the Lord hate evil." There's the positive, loving the Lord. The negative is hating evil. "Hate the evil, love the good." That's the negative. There's the positive. Now look what David prayed in Psalm 141 in verse 4. He prayed, "Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties." Now, I have already told you that you must pray that the Lord would incline our hearts. Ours is the responsibility. His is the ability. But I want you to notice Psalm 141 verse 4. "Incline not mine heart to any evil thing. To practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, let me not eat of their dainties."

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• First, he asked the Lord that his heart not be inclined to any evil thing. Secondly, he does not wish to practice any evil thing with wicked men. Thirdly, he does not wish to delight in anything wicked. So here is the negative. You could pray negatively, "Lord, do not incline my heart to any evil thing. Do not incline my heart to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity. And Lord, do not even let me delight in their wickedness, but Lord, incline my heart to you." That's the positive. Or you could ask the positive first and the negative second.

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• David puts them both together. You remember the prayer that Jabez prayed in 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 10. He said this, "And Jabez called upon the Lord God of Israel, saying, 'Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast and that thy hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it might not grieve me.'" And the rest of the verse says, "And the Lord God granted him all his requests." When is the last time you prayed that God would keep you from evil? It seems to me our Lord taught us to pray, "deliver us from evil."

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• Positively, I want you to look at one more verse, look in Psalm 119 again and verse 112. After David prays there, "incline not my heart to any evil thing, or to practice it with any wicked man, or to delight in it." In Psalm 119 and verse 112, David said this, "I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end." He said, "Lord, I don't want any wicked inclinations. I want a godly, holy inclination. And I have, by your grace and mercy, inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even to the end."

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• And that's where we need to be. We need to incline our hearts, by God's grace, to always be faithful and true to the Word of God. Here's just a couple of applications. First of all, we must understand that it is our responsibility to incline our hearts. But secondly, we must understand it is God's ability that enables us to do so. Without him, you are nothing. Without him, you can do nothing. And if you think that you are something without God and that you can do something without God, all I ask is that you ask God to withhold your breath for about five minutes and see how much you can do. God has ordained the means, are you listening? But he must make those means effectual.

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• The Bible says, "beat thy child with a rod. If thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die, thou shalt deliver his soul from hell."

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• Now, does that mean just because a child is whipped that he's going to heaven? Well, of course not. If it did mean that, then the best thing, one of the best means of evangelism is we could get us some rods and go start beating everybody we could find. And some might straighten up a little better, but no, you understand what that means: with God's blessings upon the discipline. God must make that discipline effectual. If he does it, you could beat a child all day long until he died and he would still go to hell. Beating a child with a rod doesn't save him. God's blessing upon the means is what saves him. We must seek God's blessings upon our prayer, upon our study, upon the preaching and teaching of the word. We must seek his blessing upon inclining us to his word and his truth.

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• The second application is this. Do you realize it is easy to be inclined toward things that we love to do? Stop and think about that. I never have to pressure you to enjoy recreation. Or to shoot or to vote or to fish. We do them because we like to do them. Don't have to pressure you to eat steak and ice cream. You don't have to pressure any kid to eat candy, they do it because they like it. We try to get them to eat broccoli and asparagus and cabbage and have to pressure them there.

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• The point I'm trying to make is this. If we love the Lord, if we love his word, you should never have to be pressured to be faithful to the preaching and teaching of the word of God. You should never have to be pressured to read your Bible and study your Bible. You should never have to be pressured to pray. You should never have to be pressured to worship the Lord. If you love Him, if you enjoy Him and His presence, you will delight yourself in Him. And there is something terribly wrong with Christians who hate to attend the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Something wrong with somebody who hates to be around God's people, who hates to be around spiritual things. Something desperately wrong. If we love the Lord, no one will have to push us or make us incline our hearts.

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• We must always, at all times, seek Him and His grace and His mercy and His power to enable us and turn us and incline us to Himself. Put away your strange gods and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your love and for Your mercy and for Your grace. Lord, we do pray today that You would incline our hearts. Lord, incline us negatively towards sin and evil and wickedness. Lord, may we have an aversion to those things. But Lord, incline our hearts positively to Thee and Thy law and Thy Word and the things of God, and help us to delight ourselves in Thee and rejoice in Thee. We give ourselves unto Thee and ask for Your mercy and Your grace. In Christ's name, Amen.

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• This program was produced by Dominion Ministry. For more information about Pastor Weaver's sermons, you may contact Dominion Ministry by mail at 7400 Abercorn, that's A-B-E-R-C-O-R-N Street, Suite 705, PMB 175, Savannah, Georgia, 31406. Or give us a call at 912-925-0995.

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• You can also visit our website at www.dominionministry.com

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:13:10Z