The illuminating light of scripture must constantly be shining into our minds, dispelling the darkness of worldly, fleshly, sinful thinking. Biblical meditation enables us to think rightly.

Keywords: Meditation, thinking, thoughts, light, darkness

The more we grow in our understanding of who God is as the sovereign ruler controlling all things, the more we will trust him and obey Him. The more we obey Him as our sovereign King of kings, the more we will dismantle and uproot the idols in our hearts.

Keywords: Sovereign, sovereignty, good, surrender, idols, Idolatry

Often when you are walking in graceless perfectionism and a morbid introspection, you are ignoring the grace freely given at the cross and are relying more on your own understanding of your situation and heart then trusting God to search and know your heart.

Keywords: Grace, Morbid Introspection, the blessed hope

We live in a culture where feelings and emotions determine reality. As Christians we must be different. Our thoughts, governed by scripture, must guide us and determined our reality. Though emotions are god-given, we cannot allow them to dictate our lives. Instead, our minds must guide our emotions through the truth of Scripture.

Keywords: Emotions, feelings, thinking, emotionalism, church

During a time in Israel's history when idolatry was rampant, Hannah was different. We will discover that she did not turn to idolatry when she was under pressure. Instead she turned to God. When the pressures of life are bearing down on us, we cannot listen to the culture or follow our hearts or allow our sinful flesh to dictate our attitude and responses. We must follow Hannah's example and turn to God.

Keywords: Idolatry, Hannah, grace, suffering, pressure, trials, Rachel, prayer

Instead of relying on our own hearts, let’s go to the One who created our hearts to understand a little more about what lies within us. This morning, we are going to see the Lord make three declarations that will help us know who we should trust – 1 God declares a curse 2 God declares a blessing and 3 God declares truths about the heart.

Keywords: Trust; Heart; Deceitful

One of the most effective ways for Satan to influence Christians is through false teaching that subtly infiltrates the church -- that flies under the radar when our guard is down, deceptively and destructively influencing how we think. False teaching is poison dipped in chocolate and wrapped in gold foil. It looks lovely. It seems like truth, but it is intended to kill.

Keywords: False teachers, deceit, deceptive, greed, immoral

Lament is the practice of bearing our hearts in prayer to the Lord when we are under the heavy weight of trials with the intent of trusting God. It is the means by which we are able to reconcile adversity and God's character when they seem to contradict each other. The goal of lament is to trust God.

Keywords: Lament, grief, trust, trusting, pain, suffering, hope, prayer

Self-Pity can be so deceitful in two ways – 1. We think we are just doing an honest assessment of life around us and we find that life’s not fair, 2. It doesn’t feel like pride because we think pride is just those people who are puffed up and we are “beating ourselves up” and dismal and in despair, but it’s the underbelly of pride because instead of being puffed up we feel low, but it’s still all about and wrapped around who? self. An “it’s not fair” attitude usually will be found somewhere! We are going to see the progression of I. The Lord’s People Pity Themselves, II. The Lord’s Servant pities himself, III. the Lord’s gracious provision IV. The Lords gracious lessons to us.

Keywords: Self-Pity, Pride, God's Provisions

The degree to which people will go to achieve their dreams can be astonishing. Ananias and Sapphira are willing to tell outright lies to get what they wanted. They were willing to exchange the truth for a lie for the sake of acquiring their idols.

Keywords: Idols, idolatry, deceit, lying, lies, hypocrisy