The recent off-year elections were a discouragement to me. Not merely because conservatives had such a poor showing, but because of a voter apathy about what seemed to me to be a clear moral choice: disgust with corruption and immorality in the highest office of the land needed to be communicated to the Congress. Yet, the election proved that our nation is on a downward spiral morally.

Of course, this election wasn't the first indicator of this. Why did our Senate fail -- a second time -- to override President Clinton's veto to ban the Partial Birth Abortion bill? Why, after all that's come out about the president's sexual practices in the Oval Office, does his approval rating continue to remain good? Why? Because our nation's collective "heart" is not seeking God..that's why!!!

I suppose this is to be expected: Psalm 14:1 says "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." I expect the world to abandon and rebel against God. I expect the world to be apathetic to spiritual things. I expect the world to act dead...because it is dead!!!! But the frightening thing is the parallel between the secular world and Christianity!

Perception of the Church

Why is Christ's church mocked--- or derided--- or ignored today? Why is there seemingly no salt left in the body of Christ? Why are prominent Christian leaders allowing themselves to be used but a wicked president to help damage control in his administration? It's because Christianity has failed in it's charge to be salt and light in a dark world. Instead of rebuking the world and it's sin, Christians have joined with it and excused it. We are not a lot unlike the Jews of Malachi's day, when he said: Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; (Malachi 2:17).

Spiritual Drifting

Why do some believers condone or least ignore the wickedness around us? It is because Christ's church today has collective heart failure. Our hearts are not right with God our Savior, and this is to our shame. I believe something is happening in the church that is not good: an increasingly strong desire for the things of the world...and a drifting away from the things of the Kingdom. I say a strong desire because what is happening is an emotional thing and so is centered in our heart. I say we're drifting away because the trouble isn't obviously clear if you're not watching carefully. This wrong desire for evil and drifting away from good is the result of a heart that is far away from God.

I see this trouble many Sundays when I preach: a definite lack of interest in the preaching. I see faces--faces that are blank, disinterested, frankly--bored---most noticeably among the young people but not foreign from the older people as well. In our church and in other good works, I see men of God stand up and faithfully preach the Word of God and I see faces that clearly show people whose minds are a thousand miles away. It is the signs of impending spiritual heart failure.

I see it in our devotion to missions. Missionaries have to spend increasingly longer times raising support...why? because God's church is losing a burden for reaching those in other lands. I see it in a waning desire among those to go themselves to field. Where are the Adoniram Judsons, the William Careys, the Hudson Taylors of the 20th century? Oh, there are good men and women on the field today; I've met many of them. But it seems harder and harder to find missionaries who are willing to go to the field. Why is it that many Christian young people have a greater burden for video games or computers or cars or a job or making big bucks, than they are serving mankind or seeking the lost? Where's the "fire"...where's the "zeal" for the things of God? Where's the burden for the souls of men?

I see it in a lack of zeal for souls of men. Not everyone is a super-soulwinner. But everyone can hand out a gospel tract. Everyone can share the good news of what has happened in our own hearts. The very tragic truth is many Christians never go soulwinning. They never hand out a gospel tract. they never witness on the job or at the store. Others go, but only out of routine or obligation.

If we have really been rescued from a life of sin and the threat of an eternal hell...where's our joy and enthusiasm about it? Why can't we get excited and tell others? Why is it we don't want to share the good news? What's wrong with us? I'd call it "spiritual heart failure": Our hearts are so bogged down with the attractions of the world that we have no energy or interest in spiritual matters.

Evidences of Malaise

The factor here is not our schedules...nor our time....nor our resources. The factor here is---our hearts. We have clear signs of spiritual heart failure! Therefore it is critical that we guard your heart from this world, because

1) What is in our heart is going to govern us and motivate us. Proverbs 4:23 says: Keep (guard) thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the ISSUES OF LIFE(the boundaries or the goings forth of life). It means your heart is what is going to be the "setter of your affection". As you think in your heart...so you will be.

The English word "heart" appears 81 times in 78 Verses in Proverbs and more than 800 times in the entire Bible. It nearly always is a Hebrew word(or equivalent Greek word) that signifies "feelings, The "will"...even the intellect. It is the center of our emotions. The heart Is what often prompts us to do what we do. I believe that much if not all of what we do for God...or against God...finds its beginning in our heart.

When one backslides, one backslides first in his heart. Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. When we say the wrong words or think the wrong thoughts, we do so first in our heart. Speaking of the harlot...Solomon warned in Proverbs 7:25: Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. Nearly all the evil we commit starts in our heart.

Conversely, when we are excited about God and enthusiastically want to serve Him....it all begins in the heart. If we are excited about God today or couldn't care less, it is because our heart is set on Him..or not set on Him!!!. As the Lord said in Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The heart treasures what is valuable. What is valuable to us will be the primary focus of our heart and our thought life and, eventually, will find its way out in our speech and actions. God made it plain in Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." When God takes 80 verses in one book and devotes them to this matter of our heart condition, it means it is important to Him!

When Jesus told the parable of the sower, He said the seed was sown first along the wayside, where it was taken away, then on stony ground where it could get no root. Then, there was the third area that which was covered with thorns. There, the plant rooted, but never produced anything. Why? Look at Mark 4:19: And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Entering into what? Our hearts!

We become lax and unfruitful when these three things enter into our hearts:

1) The "cares " of this world---meaning the "distractions" of this world. The world doesn't stand on its own merits and strength. It has none! The world can only distract from the true merit and strength, which is God. So, when a person gets so caught up with material desires, he actually grows spiritually weaker because he is distracted from the true strength in life.

2) The deceitfulness of riches---the delusion that wealth and material goods brings happiness. Christ couldn't be clearer: riches have only limited valuable regardless of how much there is. They never have and never will make for happiness and a strong heart.

3) Lusts of "other things"---literally means the "longing for the residue". There are lots of things we desire that are the "residue" of this world: things that look good and true: prestige, power, celebrity status, whatever. But they always let us down. In fact, all these things weaken our hearts and make us susceptible to Satanic attacks.