Can You Control Your Heart? (Proverbs 4:21-27)

Can you control your heart?  If you think you cannot control your own heart, then what do you have to do?  You have to give your heart to someone else.  Some people try to have their hearts controlled by books, in other words, they read books written by really good people and they want those words to control their heart.  Even though those words may be good, they still can’t control their hearts. 

God made humans to be controlled by God.   Animals were given a natural sense to do things based on their nature,  but God made it so that humans could be controlled by God or by themselves. If God controls our hearts, we have the blessing of ruling and subduing over everything else.  But if I try to control my own heart, instead of ruling and conquering over other things, I become a slave. 

So, you study and work and do your ministry; you have to know who you are.  If you don’t know who you are, you’ll try to do something by yourself.  If you cannot receive the answer when you come to church, you have to go somewhere to control your mind. Where would you go to have your mind controlled? You go there to hold your heart, because you can’t control it, so you get into transcendental meditation, some place to control your heart, why?  Because, the more you try to control your heart, the more you’re diseased. 

If you cannot find the answer when you come to church, there is no answer. Shall I tell you your future?  You’ll walk the same path as your parents when they didn’t have the gospel.  When I talk about this path where your parents didn’t have the gospel, it means God did not control their hearts and they try to live by themselves, then you walk on the same path. 

“Pastor, why do you keep talking about my parents?”  Then whom should I talk about? Who else would I use to compare your life? You will walk the same path as your parents.  If you’re not able to learn from your parents how to give your mind to be controlled to God, you will walk the same path as your parents as they didn’t have this.

“I went to church a long time,” but that’s completely irrelevant. Who cares if you went a long time?  Let’s say you were Catholic or went to a temple or were Muslim for a long time; none of that matters. As long as you’re still trying to hold onto your own mind, none of that matters because in reality, I’m not in control of my own mind, but Satan is controlling it.

How does Satan control it? There’s always something that my heart leans towards.  For some kids, their heart leans towards lust.  God gave us sexuality but that’s the only thing your heart goes for, and you can’t control it, so later on, it will be seized by Satan.  There are some kids who just want to steal from others, and they can’t control it. If you just see something, your eyes change, and later on, you’ll be seized by Satan. 

You guys all play games, right?  There are some people sitting here right now but they’re thinking of games, so it’s evidence you’re seized. Your heart goes there without you even realizing it. Some people sit here and think about Korean dramas. I don’t know why you watch them, why do you look down on your parents and watch dramas? You look down on your parents because they’re not Americanized, they don’t know American culture and can’t speak English, then why do you keep looking at Korean dramas and culture? You’d have to kick that away, too.

“But the people in the dramas aren’t like my parents, they’re very cool.” Koreans are great at faking it, you didn’t know it, did you?  First of all, they have the most advanced makeup and plastic surgery industries in the world.  Makeup and plastic surgery all come from America, and they do it very well, so you’re deceived by these dramas.  Many people go to Korea because they see the dramas, but then the reality is broken.

When you can’t control something, you’re sucked into it because you like it.  Can you control your depression?  Why do you think you have depression? Because you’ve done whatever you’ve wanted your entire life. If you keep living your life however you want, one day you’ll face a reality where you can’t control anything.

If you’re sleepy, do deep breathing.  You’re sleepy even if you didn’t do anything, maybe you had a big lunch, but listen carefully.  If you do whatever you want, later on, you’ll face an answer where you cannot control.  If I talk about the word of God, you keep trying to reject it, do you know why?  “I want to do what I want; why are you blocking me with the Word of God?” Later on, you’ll realize, you’ll be seized unbeknownst to you and if you try to turn around, you’ll suffer.

So, the most important thing is allowing God to control your heart while you’re a remnant.  What’s the problem in America today? Is the country powerless? What’s the problem? You must know the problem.  As you’re living in America, you must know the problem of America.  Is it freedom? Is it that homeless people don’t have human rights?  Or is it a problem of inequality?  That’s an incorrect thought. But even now, many remnants think this is the problem, so they’re lost in that.

I used to think these things too as a nonbeliever, but you don’t want to hear these things, so you’re foolish.  A time will come from God, but it’s foolish.  If someone experienced it and said it wasn’t right, you don’t want to listen. Maybe you think your life is special, so that’s the biggest misunderstanding of all.  But if the Word of God has truly come into you, that’s the blessing of all blessings.

Among the remnants, you may think, “I have the Word of God and what I want,” and maybe 50% of you think this way, I’m warning you that this isn’t holding onto God at all.  You’re holding onto something else, pretending you’re holding onto God as well, then what will happen later on? You’ll have the result of not holding onto God but something else, so stop pretending like you’re doing something with your actions.

You cannot deceive the devil. You know yourself, but nobody is telling you otherwise, so you’re just burying it behind you. Even your parents don’t know you and can’t discover you because you’re so similar, but if you don’t discover this as you go to church, you won’t have the answer. If the pastor is also similar, then nobody has the answer, so I’m giving a definite prophecy: works will arise later on depending on what you hold onto.  If you hold onto something else, you’ll have something else appear before you.

I’m a witness of this; I’m not saying this from out of nowhere. I’ve experienced a believer’s life and a nonbeliever’s life.  You have to give your worship sincerely before God. You can’t deceive God; just give your exact state to God.  You don’t go to worship so you can exert your own stubbornness, plans, and ambition. What will happen later on?  You’re going to face a reality where you have no choice but to let go of the things you’re holding onto.

“Pastor, I haven’t reached that point yet.” God is giving you some time because otherwise you wouldn’t survive if He hit you right now.  But later on, in your 30s or 40s, you’ll feel the effects.  Worship is definitely a time where you give your heart, exactly as it is, to God, and you ask God to fill you.  Why do people live their walk of faith for a long time and say, “I tried so diligently in the past, but not anymore,” because they were working diligently with their heart somewhere else, so they face that result and they’ll be under this misconception.

“I worked so diligently and it didn’t work. I worked hard, why didn’t it work out?” You must give the answer, that their heart wasn’t seized by God. You believed in God but were seized by something else and worked so diligently. “I received so much grace back then,” yes that’s correct, you did receive a lot of grace, but the state of your heart was always somewhere else, and as a result of going somewhere else, the walk of faith went somewhere else, and that’s an undeniable fact. You must know this.

If at this time, you give your heart and worship with the filling of the Holy Spirit, you will get this result. Earlier, I spoke about the Daniel training and it was popular in Korea, because Daniel was very wise, so they asked, “How can we raise Christian kids to have Daniel’s intellect?” So they had this education method, so parents would flock there, but nonbelievers didn’t have that, so it’s something to laugh at. There was also a Daniel Prayer Meeting, possibly because Daniel was a young adult while he prayed, and I understand because he was a young adult who was governor and would pray in that position.

God created the universe, quickly find the answer, are America’s advancements done by humans or God? If anyone thinks humans cause advancement, grab your nose.  God is doing the advancement through people, but people are under a misconception, “We’re great,” that’s a nonbeliever because they don’t believe in God, so they are under this misconception. They don’t believe in God; they believe in themselves, and then they have these incredible advancements, and that’s the tower of Babel.

They don’t believe in God but make achievements because God allows it.  Do you understand that God gave this to the nonbelievers?  That’s why when these kids look at nonbelievers succeeding, they don’t understand. “I’m dying, worshiping and receiving training, but nonbelievers are doing better than me,” can you understand that?  The kids don’t understand so they’re getting so confused.  

God even creates the superpower nations through nonbelievers.  You know the Egyptian pyramids, right? It’s impossible to understand now, but God allowed and did that through the nonbelievers. Is it in the Bible?  Yes it is, where?  It doesn’t say this about Egypt but about Babylon, that age by age, there is a superpower nation, and age by age, there is a certain nation that is the hegemon.  Why does God do this through nonbelievers? It’s not for nonbelievers, but God creates hegemons for the believers.

Why would God make nonbelievers powerful instead of believers?  I’m sure kids are asking this question.  That’s because your interest is in the powerful nations, but that’s not where God’s interest is, because God is interested in people who wonder, “How can I be obedient to God’s Word, and how can God’s Word come into me?” We’re explaining why God made Babylon powerful.  God created the superpower nations for the benefit of believers, but the believers are under a misconception.

“How can we become powerful like that?” That’s wrong because from the beginning, God is powerful and said He would be with us, and that’s power.  But you let go of that and chase after the power God has given to the nonbelievers, so everything is taken away. That’s why God uses superpower nations as a paddle to discipline His people, and the Israelites completely failed in war, because if you want to succeed in war, you have to defeat the superpower nations, but this is how God used the superpower nations, then they fell.  Babylon, Egypt, and Rome were all the same because God’s interest is upon His people.

That’s why God places His weak people within the superpower nations, and that’s God’s plan.  If you’re not able to organize this, then even if you believe for decades, you cannot have the answer in your heart.  “I’ve had this answer from a long time ago, why are nonbelievers so strong? If God is so powerful, why are nonbelievers always the powerful ones?”

A remnant asked me earlier, “Why is it that I try so hard and can’t succeed, but nonbelievers are number one? Why doesn’t God bless me?” A high schooler asked this honest question, because they came to church and it seemed that believers of God should be able to do everything, but once they go into their field and school, the unbelievers do everything, then am I being brainwashed when I come to church?  Am I just being indoctrinated by the church by the same things so that I’m completely seized by the church?  If you don’t find the answer to this before you go to college, you’ll end up leaving the church while in college.

But there are also some people who come to church without the answer because some people are forcing them, and ultimately if you don’t have the answer, you’ll be dragged away, and that’s the world stealing away our remnants, meaning they’re stolen by the devil because they don’t have the answer. Even if they have the answer, they can’t hear it. “I came to church and there’s no model here,” don’t look for a model, but be a model.

Elites don’t say that, they do it themselves.  The Bible is the model; why look for people?  There was actually a minister I saw a long time ago and said, “Why are there no models?” it confused the kids.  I’m a model of a failed nonbeliever.  I was raised as a model, everything I talk about is from the Word of God, but it also contains my life. Do not walk the same path I did.

Many believers walk the same path I did, and in my heart, I think, “They will suffer so much,” but even if I tell them, they’re seized by something else.  Later on, they’ll get married and start a family and their lives will come to a screeching heart.  Your life isn’t in your control; God must come into your heart through the Word and the Holy Spirit.

How?  Through this personality. God comes in as a personal relationship; only when you open the doors of your heart will God be with you, otherwise God just stays.  The Word of God goes into you when you say you want to receive God’s Word, and at that point, you can listen to the Word of God but your ears are open but your heart is closed as it’s connected to something else. You keep planning your own life, calculating this and manipulating that, looking for a method, so you don’t give your heart to God.  Because of that, this state keeps repeating.

In Proverbs 4:20, it says, “My son, pay attention to what I say, heed my words,” and Proverbs 4:21, “Do not let them out of your sight; keep them in your heart.” This was from the Old Testament, but it was concluded that it won’t cut it, so Jesus Christ must come into our heart through the Holy Spirit, then what must we do? The only thing left for us to do is to give our lives completely to Him so He can do whatever He wants.

Today, during this worship, give your heart completely to God so He can do whatever He wants.  Later on, you’ll date your boyfriend or girlfriend, and it’s only if your heart is opened to them; if it’s closed, you can’t date. But that’s why you become friends and get married; if your heart is closed, you can’t do any of that.

God is the Husband and we are the wife.  I felt bad when He called me the wife; I’m a groom, why is He calling me a wife? It made me feel weak and vulnerable, but Jesus Christ is my husband and I am His wife. You must open your heart to him and have a relationship of love with Him. If you close your heart to Him, God is a personal being, so He will just stay there, and later on, when you really don’t do anything, He will force your heart to open. What will happen then? Your heart will hurt so much, and that’s depression and panic attacks, why? Because your heart was always closed and God wants to open it through depression and panic attacks.  God wants to open your heart, and this reality will come.

God may have no choice but to open your heart through some big problem or circumstance, because your life can only work out if God opens your heart.  The remnants under the biggest misconception are, “Even if I don’t worship, things work out how I want,” or the most dangerous remnants, “I worship without giving my heart, but I still get good grades and do what I want.”  That’s your life, but you have to see long-term.  If you see that, you’ll be lost in something.

I was like that, I’m not some fortune-teller, but this is my confession. Even if I didn’t worship, things worked out, so I became arrogant, but later on, God puts on the brakes.  If God didn’t put on the brakes for me, God can’t be upon me, working in me.  I held onto God’s Word and prayed but it was a misunderstanding. My heart was still somewhere else, but you hold onto the Word and pray. You try to figure everything out through the Word of God.

“This is the Word God gave me this week,” but if it doesn’t align with what you want, you look down on God’s word, so then it depends on what you want.  People may be like this, but I’m just speaking in general. If you do what you want, you’ll get caught up by that feeling and you’ll do it again. So even though you come to worship, you have the exterior form but your heart is closed so God will slam on the brakes so your heart can change.

That’s when my heart changed, and it’s my testimony.  Remnants, God will slam on the brakes, and you can quickly come back, but the longer you keep going, the more harshly God will slam on the brakes, so it’s better to realize it at your age. But I realize God won’t do that because God won’t slam the brakes on a kid because they won’t mature.  College kids are in college, and that’s not even much of a brake, so you just go. At your age, there’s not a big break that can happen. 

Maybe it comes after graduation when you start working or get married, and at that time, your entire life will break, and you’ll feel that your life is falling apart, but in middle school or high school, you’ll be broken.  More severely, there’s depression or mental problems, but you shouldn’t misunderstand.  While in middle school, high school, or college, put God’s Word in your heart.

“I don’t know how to put God’s Word in my heart,” but it’s not difficult. “God, give me Your Word.” Don’t calculate, let go of your stubbornness, but you can’t hear the Word because you hold onto your own stubbornness.  That’s not worship; worship is giving yourself completely to God, and that’s how God works according to the Word, and that’s worship.

Why did the Jewish people fail? Because they only listened to what they wanted to hear.  “Jesus is the Christ? I don’t want that,” but you must listen to the Word that God desires.  Some adults get offended when they hear the Word of God that doesn’t align even a little bit. Why should the Word of God align to you? You should align to God, and if God gives me this kind of word, I must align myself to Him, but people are offended.

Sometimes God rebukes you, sometimes teachers get mad in class, why? Because they get mad if you’re not behaving well. “They don’t get mad in America,” but they get mad through your grades, the teachers grade you based on your attitude.  I had that when I went to grad school, they graded me based on my attitude.  Korean teachers don’t do that; they just say something immediately, but people are the same, and either way, they will target you.

America controls you with grades and attitude, they pay the same amount and harass the employees.  Teachers give fair grades while abusing their kids in Korea, but the reality is the same.  What is the Word I want to share with you today? I hope you will have this kind of worship during this time of worship. Worship is the greatest blessing of your life where you give yourself entirely to God, opening your heart to God. “God, it doesn’t matter what you want to tell me; give me Your Word,” and God gives His Word to such people, “Give me any Word You want,” so He gives as He wants.

If you say, “God, I don’t want to hear this kind of word,” then He won’t give it to you because even if you received it, you wouldn’t listen. That’s how scary incorrect motives are, because you’ll use God’s Word for your motives, to see what fits with your motives, and then you’ll throw away those that don’t fit. That’s you using God, you’re your own God packaged in religion, thinking you are your own God, and that’s Satan’s prey.

Therefore, worship is so important, and in the New Testament, God promised to pour out His Holy Spirit upon you. When you pray, should you pray like this?  There are different types of prayer.  There are different levels of prayer, “Pastor, I don’t know what it means to open your mind, but I just pray for the things I see.” You can start with that, but if anything, just pray to God because only God has the answer, and you have to go to Him. You pray because you believe that.

Some people ask, “How can I pray holding onto God’s Word?” What does it mean to pray holding onto God’s Word?  Let’s say on your birthday, your parents promised to give you some kind of present? Then what do you think will happen to your thoughts?  Your birthday isn’t even here yet, but you’re happy because your Dad promised you something, so you hold onto that promise and enjoy it. You don’t have it yet but you hold onto the promise and enjoy it, so that’s what it means to hold onto the Word of God and pray.  You believe God will fulfill the Word He has given you, so you enjoy it and pray.

Do you understand? You can only enjoy what Word has been given, so worship is so important. I can see what happens to a person’s life depending on how they receive God’s Word, but there’s a prayer that’s even more important than this.  Because God is just living inside of me, I give my life up to Him.  Your heart must always be concentrated on Him, and Daniel was like that. That’s why God’s Word has to be given so God’s power is revealed through you.

Then, if you try to not succeed, you’ll be successful; there’s no reason for you to not succeed, but if you don’t have this, then even after success, you’ll collapse. The reason why successful people get addicted to drugs and collapse is because they were successful.  Why do presidents commit suicide?  Think about it, we think, “It’s great if I can be president, where 99.9% of people cannot,” but why do people become president and commit suicide? Is there nothing to feel when you look at that?  We can succeed, but even beyond success, I cannot control myself, so if you look t the news, as you study history, you should gain knowledge about the superpower nations and people.

All the superpower nations have collapsed, you must become wise. Success isn’t the answer, and even if I succeed, that won’t raise me up. Quickly come to this answer. Looking at this without fighting the answer, you have no answer; you study but you don’t have this answer. You need to have the answer as you watch the news.  That’s why, as I read different books and watch different things, I conclude that only Jesus Christ has to work.

But if you don’t watch the news and read worldly books, you’ll think about different paths and go.  Why do you not study?  You need to reach this answer with the answer of what’s hidden with reality right now. You must come to the answer that nothing will work unless God protects my heart, and that’s the studies where knowledge turns into wisdom.  If knowledge is just knowledge,  it’s an instrument to get you into college, but it can also be an instrument for you to see how Christ is the only answer.

Getting to this point, you’ll realize the Word isn’t just words, but if you don’t know the world, you say, “I don’t know this,” but as you study, you have to have the studies that reaches the answers of God. In other  words, through your studies, look up who made those studies.  If you’re studying science, study the scientists responsible for the science. “What happened to the person who created this piece of music?” Study what happened to the world renowned people.  Study this for those studies to turn into wisdom. 

For example, if you learn about the Pythagorean theorem, study Pythagoras.  Don’t just study the formula and theorem, if you are studying music, for example, there are famous composers, so study what happened to their lives. Do you know what I’m saying? All the famous people are revealed, then you’ll find the answer.  This knowledge is very important but it is not the answer to life. You’ll come to this conclusion as you look at the person who made this information public.  It is the answer you get when you come to the answer of God’s Word.

So, if possible, through the materials and knowledge of the world, study the people of God from the Bible.  That’s why we talk about Joseph, research Daniel and David, because within that, all the answers are contained.  Then when you go out into the world, you’ll recognize that even if you do something, that’s not the answer. If you can’t choose between something, it means you want to be like them.

Every day, God is moving your life.  Every day, you must have the prayer that gives your life entirely to him, and it will be a comfortable time.  If you don’t give yourself entirely to God but you use prayer to pull something you want towards you, it’s so difficult. Or if you pray for this, just because you’re worried, prayer should be a happy time because it’s a time given to the One controlling your life and filling you with the Holy Spirit.

You’re filled with the gospel where Jesus Christ finished all problems on the cross and you give your life to Him. That’s the prayer I’m praying. If you say, “I want to pray as well but it’s difficult, then I have something for you.  You’re going back and forth, but once prayer turns into a joyous time, no one can stop what you love. Daniel prayed 3 times a day because he loved it so much. Joseph loved his heart of slavery.  That is how Pharaoh confessed.

If you get into a relationship based on the wrong emotions, you’ll suffer for the rest of your life.  “I’m short but I like this tall guy; he has what I don’t have.  I have such an ugly face but I met a very pretty girl so my face is brighter, too, but after a month, it will be obvious.  It doesn’t matter how much you liked the person while you’re dating, but when you’re married, it’s all the same; there’s nothing on this earth that is new.

The greatest thing in the world is having friends, a spouse, and parents and kids who are filled with the Spirit of God because God moves that forward, and because God is perfect and complete, moving that way, that is the greatest education. The school became a tool to save the world. These are what you study in the world, so try having this time alone throughout the week, just five minutes a day. Days slip by, so listen to a message or read it, and at first, nothing may seem to be happening, but keep going because when you see the time schedule come, it will be different.

Prayer

Father God, thank You. Bless the remnants so they may be the ones to save the 237 nations of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen.