Free Soil

Man, if you have your Bibles, invite you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs chapter four. We are in a series. This is week two of a series that I have entitled Forever Free. We started it last week, which was Easter. And if you weren’t here, man, you missed the party. It was wild up in here. We just figure that if you can’t be excited about the resurrection, I don’t know what you’re doing.

And the goal of this series is to explore what it means to live in freedom. You know, Jesus says in John chapter 8, if the sun sets you free, then you’re free indeed. And so if you have put your faith in Jesus, you are forever free. However, a lot of Christians don’t live in freedom, not because their freedom hadn’t been paid for, but because they don’t know how to live as free people.

I don’t know how many of you have maybe you’ve read the book or maybe you watched the movie. It was a novella by Stephen King. It’s called Shaw Shank Redemption. Raise hands if you’ve ever seen or read Sha Okay, a lot of you. Well, there’s a few good characters in Shaw Shank Redemption. One of the characters is an old man named Brooks. And if you remember Brooks, he has spent his entire life behind bars and he’s finally released. And what’s interesting though is he’s free on the outside, but because he’s lived his whole life in prison, he doesn’t know how to be free on the inside. And so he tries, he tries bagging groceries, he tries feeding birds, he tries like staring out the window as opposed to looking through the prison bars. But the thing is is you can take the man out of jail, but you can’t take the jail out of the man. And freedom is too much for Mr. Brooks, and he ends up taking his own life, and it’s a tragic story because the prison doors were wide open, but Brooks never was able to walk out in his own heart.

And honestly, I think that’s how a lot of different Christians live. That Christ paid the price for their freedom, but they don’t know how to live it. So they’re free, but you’d never know it because they don’t know how to do it. And so they spend their entire life, listen to me, beneath their privilege. They spend their entire life beneath their identity. Living like prisoners, even though the door is unlocked.

And my goal last week, if you remember, was to help you understand how Jesus’ story changes your story. And the fact that Jesus got up is good news for him. But it only becomes good news for you. Gospel just means good news. It only becomes good news for you when you understand what it means for you. And we gave three affirmations by way of review last week that are true for you as a believer because of the cross. The three affirmations were these. I’ve got them on the screen. My worst chapter isn’t my last chapter. Because he is, so am I, and three, because he got up, I can get up.

And so then this week, and so this week and next week, we’re gonna talk about how to live as free people. How, okay, so we’ve got freedom through Christ. How is it exactly that we live it? Proverbs chapter 4, beginning in verse 23, says this.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity, keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet, and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your foot far from evil.

Someone say Amen. So if you’re taking notes this morning, what I’d like you to write down the talk title is this free soil. Free soil.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful to be with you. We’re grateful for what you’ve already done in this service. We’re grateful for your church. We’re grateful for your word. We ask that you would help us receive your word to hear your word and to apply your word to not just be hearers, but to be doers of the word. And we can only do that because of your grace. And so we say thank you and we love you. And it’s your son, in your son’s name we pray. Everybody said. Amen.

The problem is with the soil

Okay, well, Proverbs chapter 4, Solomon, he talks about the importance of guarding your own heart. And then in Mark chapter 3, Jesus tells us why. If you are familiar with Mark chapter 4, I’m no many of you are. It’s where there’s this famous parable about the farmer who goes out and he sows seed. It’s called broadcast sowing. If you don’t know what it is, it’s this it’s basically where they throw the seed and they just hope something good happens. So they don’t put they don’t they don’t make a tiny little hole and put a tiny little seed in there and cover it up and water. They just throw seed. And so some of the seed is gonna grow and some of the seed is gonna die.

And Jesus tells the parable that the seed falls on four different types of soil rocky ground, the path, thorns, and then finally good soil. And only when it’s put in good soil does it produce a harvest. And after I the parable, the disciples come up to Jesus and say, Hey, Jesus, great story. Like, really. One of your best. I mean, we were captivated to the very end. It was great. What in the world are you talking about? Like, they have no idea what any of it means. And so Jesus then, after the parable, he says this in Mark chapter 4, verse 13.

Then Jesus said to them, Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?

In other words, Jesus says this if you miss this parable, you’re going to miss the whole kingdom. If you don’t understand how this works, you’re not going to understand how anything works. And he goes on to explain, he doesn’t always explain his parables, but in this one he does. He goes on to say that the seed that’s being sown is God’s word. And the different soils that the seed lands on are different heart conditions. And only the seed that falls on the good soil, the good heart, can the seed grow and produce a harvest.

Notice in the parable, though, that the sower doesn’t change. The seed doesn’t change. In every situation, the sower is good and the seed is good. The problem is not with the sower. The problem is not with the seed. The problem is with the soil. And in the parable, you’re not the sower. In this parable, you’re not the seed. In this soil, in this parable, you are the soil. And the quality of the soil is the condition of your heart. And it determines, it’s interesting. It determines what the word of God can do in you.

Right? So I gotta tell you, like the condition of your heart, it doesn’t just affect your receptivity to the gospel. It affects everything in your life. Right? The quality of your heart affects your ability to hear from God, to receive from God, to receive from church, to benefit from Christian community, to thrive as a spouse, to thrive as a parent, thrive as a single person. It all comes down to this. What quality, what condition of soil is your heart. That’s why the title is free soil, because what if you want to experience the freedom that Jesus offers, you have to understand that the work of God begins in the soil of your heart.

And we’re talking about heart, like we’re not talking about the this literal, you know, muscle that’s pumping blood to your organs and your limbs. In scripture, heart means your inner life. So it’s it’s just the real you, it’s the center of who you are. It’s the what it literally means, it means the seat of your emotions. And when people think heart, they think just emotions like, oh, I love that dog with my whole heart. What are they talking about? They’re talking about like something that they feel. But that’s not the whole picture of what the heart is biblically. In fact, the book of Proverbs is a book about wisdom. And in the book of Proverbs, the author mentions the heart 91 times. Right? And so the heart’s not just about emotions and feelings and passion. The heart is your inner self. And it includes your worldview, your disposition, your trauma, your prejudices, your strengths, your shortcomings. Literally, your heart is the center of who you are. And though I can fake it for a moment, eventually my life will go in the direction of my heart.

Everything you do flows from your heart

Right? My life reflects what’s in my heart. Look again at Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Everything. Everything you do flows from your heart. That means I don’t see things as they are. I see things as I am. You don’t see people as they are, you see people as you are. And it might be, it might seem kind of weird right now, but right now you’re hearing me through your heart. Like some of you might be new in here and you’re trying to figure me out and you’re trying to figure this place out. Well, you’re doing that through your heart. Some of you have been coming here for a couple years and you’re thinking, man, maybe it’s time for me to get involved. Maybe it’s time for me to start giving. Like you’re doing that through your heart. And you don’t see things as they are. You see things as you are.

That’s why you got to protect your heart. That’s why you got to guard your heart. You got to steward your heart. You have to tune your heart. Is it okay if I do like a tiny little rant here? Listen to me. You have got to take personal responsibility for the condition of your own heart and the health of your own faith. That’s your business. It doesn’t matter how much you want it. You can’t make your spouse want God. You can’t make your kids want God. You can’t, you can’t make your siblings want God. Oh, Pastor, they don’t believe in God. What did I do wrong? Nothing. You can’t make people want God. You don’t bear that responsibility. Oh, it’s it’s my fault they don’t believe. Like, no, it’s not. It’s not your fault. Like you might have been a horrible witness and made it made it harder for them. Like, but if you’re honestly trying and they have no interest in the Christian faith, it’s not your fault. If someone has no interest in God, it’s not your fault. Are you ready? Are you with me? Okay. Now here’s where I turn it. And if you have no interest in God, it’s not your church’s fault. Whatever church that might be, right? And like, of course, this church and every church, of course, we can be better and we can do better. We can serve each other better. We can love our city better. We can have better worship services. Like, we can do all that. But still, you can’t make people want God. Because it’s the gospel that does the changing.

I remember a few years ago I was at a church conference, and I was doing something that I oftentimes do when I’m in someone else’s church service, which is being judgy. It’s easy to judge people who are more successful than you. It’s just it feels great. Right? But I was doing what I’m sure none of y’all ever do, which is sit there thinking, like, oh, I don’t care for that. Oh, I don’t like that they did. And for me, it’s like always theology, right? Oh, that’s a sloppy little point. Oh, he didn’t even. You know what I mean? Like. And so I’m I’m and my friend is at the conference too, and I can’t wait for the conference to be over so that we can talk about just how bad it was. How horrible these people are. Anyways, the conference ends, and my friend comes up to me and he’s like, Oh, Pastor, was that so incredible? That was like the most amazing conference, like God is just so good. I feel so refreshed right now. And in that moment, I thought, oh crap. That wasn’t a them thing, that was a me thing. Come on. Right? I was bad soil.

Your ability to hear the word and receive the word is not only about the quality of the sermon, it’s also about the condition of your heart. In every in every church service, every church service we have, we hear both someone that has something negative to say about what we did. That happens every service, and someone says that was the best church service they’ve ever been to, and their life has changed forever. Same service. That always happens. It’s not about the quality of the sermon, it’s not about the quality of the worship, it’s about the condition of the person’s heart. Does that mean you let anyone speak into your life? Dear God, no. But but it’s not just about keeping the wrong messages out, it’s also about having a heart that lets the right messages in. Right? And so that’s something that you have to be responsible for.

Did you know in Isaiah chapter 16? I won’t flip there, but Isaiah, he compares the heart to a stringed instrument. So think of guitar. Right? Your heart is like a stringed instrument. And and if you want your heart to be healthy, well, then you have to care for it. You know, if you think about some of like these guitars and stuff, where these guitars live, they don’t live on stage, they live in a room called the fine arts room, which is a terrible name for a room. We should just call it, you know, the green room for the worship team. They just go and they hang out back there, they practice, they go over their parts, that’s where they are before they come out. And that’s where they keep like all of their fancy, expensive guitars and stuff. But when you go into the fine arts, I’m not telling you that so you can rob us. Just trying to tell you. You’re like, where is that room? But man, you go in, you go in there and it is so humid. Like I go in there, I can’t believe how humid it is in that room. It’s just like it’s like it’s like the Amazon forest in this fine arts room. It’s just like a cloud. I walk in, I’m like, man, someone vaping in here. Like, what’s up with this room? The reason is they’ve got all of these humidifiers, these fancy humidifiers in there, because they have to keep the room at a certain humidity because in this desert New Mexican air, that the air will dry out the guitar and it’ll ruin the guitar. And so they have to take care of it. They have to guard it.

And in the same way, did you know that you don’t have to just tune a guitar one time? Did you know that? But you have to you have to tune a guitar continually. In fact, I mean if you’ve seen these guys, they’re tuning between songs, right? They like have a 30-second pause. What are they doing? They’re tuning their guitar. Guitar does not stay in tune long. And Isaiah chapter 16, Isaiah is saying your heart’s the same way. But it’s got to be cared for. And so, like, if you if you want to have a healthy heart, you can’t just throw it all over the place and expect the right response. That’s good. If you want to respond appropriately to your children, you have to care for your heart. You can’t just do what comes naturally. If you want to care, if you want to respond appropriately to your spouse, you have to care for your heart. If you want to respond appropriately to the news, then you have to care for your heart. Everything you do flows out of your heart.

In Jeremiah chapter 31, he compares our hearts to gardens. And if you’ve ever seen a beautiful garden, you know that like that doesn’t happen accidentally. Right? Someone is caring for that, someone’s working. My dad, he’s got his grass is so gorgeous and thick, it’s weird. Like, I don’t, we don’t know how he does it. It’s the thickest grass you’ve ever seen. I can’t even keep a potted plant alive for like a day. If you’re gonna give me a gift, don’t make don’t make it anything alive. That’s plant abuse to give it to me. I’ll just kill it. But but his grass is like so thick and beautiful. But if you see someone with a beautiful garden, you know someone’s working on that thing. They’re pulling the weeds, they’re watering, they’re fertilizing. And the same way is when you see someone, right? And and they’ve been through, they’ve been through plenty of hardship. Life has happened to this person just like everybody else, but they have a beautiful heart. Like they’re kind and they’re open and they’re warm and they’re not bitter and they’re generous. And when you see that, you see that life, it’s like, man, that life is like a beautiful garden. That’s right. And you can tell that they’re taking care of their heart. You can tell.

So how do we do that? Well, here you can say this. Well, how do we become the soil, good soil, where God’s word can grow in us? I’ve got three steps for you this morning that are three steps to a free and healthy heart. Can I get a water from somebody? Do you mind?

Prepare the soil

Number one, if you’re taking notes, is this prepare the soil. Write that down. Prepare the soil. Jesus talks about four types of soil rocky soil, hard soil, thorny soil, and then finally good soil. So the question for you this morning is this what kind of soil are you right now? Right? Proverbs says, above all else, guard your heart. Why? Because your heart is under attack. Like, like, what if you just settled that? What if you just accepted that like as long as I’m on this earth, I’m in a fight. Right? And instead of being discouraged by that, instead of being angry by that, instead of being exhausted by that, what if you just said, like, okay, that’s how the world works, that’s how it works around here. So as long as I’m here, my heart is gonna be under attack. So I gotta guard it and I gotta protect it. And you don’t have to be discouraged by that because we protect and guard what’s valuable to us.

Right? I don’t know if you think about it like this, but me and my wife, what we do right before we go to bed, right before we flip the light off every night, is we go through a verbal checklist to make through all make sure all of our stuff is good and we’re good to go to bed. So we say, okay, the house is secure, everything’s locked, the alarm is on, the guinea pigs are good, they have water, the dogs are good, they have water. My our seven-year-old is good, she has water. We’re just making sure all the things are good. Why? Because we guard and protect what’s valuable to us. So we lock up our house. We lock up our car. Even when when you came in here, when you left your car to walk in here this morning, I bet you went beep beep on your car. Right? And maybe one more beep beep just for good measure. Some of y’all like me, you lock your car three times just for like extra lucky goodness. It’s locked, but is it extra locked? I don’t think so. Why? Why do you do that? Because you because you guard what you love and you guard what’s valuable.

I have a friend, I’m not gonna say who it is for obvious reasons, but I’ve got a friend, she doesn’t lock her car, never locks her car. And between you and me, it’s like the reason I think she doesn’t do it is because it’s an old car and she’s secretly open someone’s gonna steal it so she could get a new car. But if she, you know, but if she wanted, if she got, let’s say she got a really nice car, what do you think she’d do? She’d lock it. I bet she’d lock like here, but you know, it’s Albuquerque. If you want to recycle a car, just don’t lock it. Incredible. Right.

And Proverbs says this you’ve got to you’ve got to guard your heart because it’s the most valuable thing that you have. So how do you guard something? Well, you become intentional about what you let in, and you become intentional about what you keep out. That’s what it means to guard something. My amazing daughter, she goes to elementary school at Sandia Base Elementary. It’s on base. And so every day, twice, me and my wife, we’ve got to go through the the base gate. You know, and so we gotta go in there and we pull out our little passes, and the military guy looks at our passes, does a little beep and lets us in. I don’t know what would happen if you didn’t have a pass and you didn’t stop, you just kept driving right through the. I don’t know what would happen exactly, but I would love to see it. They would stop you. What so what are they doing? They’re guarding the base. So they’re guarding what they let in and they’re guarding what they let out. Your heart is the same way. When you guard your heart, you have to keep the right things in and you keep the wrong things out. Preparing the soil of your heart. Number one, prepare the soil.

Plant good seed

Number two is this plant good seed. Plant good seed. So first we prepare the soil, and then we plant good seed. What’s the seed in the parable? Does anybody remember? The word. The word, the word of God. So the question for you is this: what seed are you planting in your heart? Come on. Look at what Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, verse 45.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up.

Say that, say stored up with me. Stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up. Say stored up. Stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Notice that phrase, stored up. Think about that. Stored up. Did you know that you store things up in your heart? So it’s not just about exposing your heart to certain things. You’re actually storing things up in your heart. I’m sure no one in here has ever stored up anger in their heart. To where there’s like, no, I’m sure no one has ever exploded on someone because of some tiny little thing. Right? Not because the tiny little thing mattered, but because you had stored up anger. You store it up. It’s just like a bank account. Whatever you’re making regular deposits of will store up. Right? And so you’re just like, well, what do what’s stored up in my well, Jesus gives you the key. The mouth speaks what the heart, not just what the heart has a little bit of, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And so you’re always, you’re all the scary thing is this, your heart is always storing something up. The question is what?

And so that’s why you gotta be consistent. That’s why the secret to Christian faith is not some magical the secret to faith is consistency. You know, I I’ve been at this faith journey for like 42 years. You know, I’ve been following God my entire life. I’ve been following God seriously for probably 25 of it. Right? And so I’ve seen a lot of people, look, I love you, I’ve seen a lot of people get baptized and last two months. Right? Why? Why? What’s the difference? Consistency. Right? So that’s why that’s why you need to be in God’s word continually. Not just one time, you know what I mean? That’s why you’ve got to pray every day. That’s why you gotta come to church. Listen to me, y’all, every week. Consistency. That’s why you gotta be in community with other believers. Because nothing in your spiritual life happens as fast as you think. Nothing. You don’t just hear one Bible verse and then suddenly everything like falls into place. It takes time for things to be stored up in your heart. You you build your house on the rock, and when the storm comes, it stands firm. But it takes time. The foundation isn’t built in a day. You gotta consistently work at it. Consistently work at it.

A good person is good because of the good things they’ve stored up. A bad person is a bad person because of the bad things they’ve stored up. And so that’s why you gotta focus more on what you’re taking in than what you’re producing. Because everything you produce comes from your heart. Like, oh Pastor I just gotta make more money. I wanna be, I gotta be a nice person. I gotta be a better husband. I gotta be a better dad. The reality is this is like most New Year’s resolutions are gone by mid February. Some of y’all were like, I’m gonna lose 30 pounds this year. Just 35 to go. Why? Because you’re trying to produce something that your heart isn’t healthy enough to produce. Come on. Everything flows out of your heart. And so we’re trying to produce healthy life, a healthy life with weak and unhealthy hearts. It’s not going to happen.

So you’ve got to plant good seed. You just have to do it. This is what you have to do. It stores up over time. When I read, I read my Bible and I pray, I’m not thinking, okay, what did that fix? What it’s not like it’s not like this one instantaneous thing. It’s over time. It’s over time. Like if you go find someone amazing in the foyer after service, let’s say they’re in like killer shape, super buff. And you walk up to them and you’re like, wow, how did you get that body? That’s so crazy. You know what they’re probably not gonna say? They’re probably not gonna say, like, oh, well, you know, last night I ate a salad. Boom. You know. Two days ago I was 400 pounds, and then I ate a salad. Six pack. Because it takes time. Everything that’s worth doing takes time. I pet I pr I prayed in church and I thought my marriage was gonna get better. It’s gonna take time. That’s right. Right? Like I prayed for my kids and I went home and they still need an exorcism. It’s like, yeah, well, it’s gonna take time. I I thought I was gonna get a breakthrough by Wednesday. It’s gonna take time. Stored up. Stored up, stored up. It’s about planting good seed. Not one time. Not I went to church that one time and now I’m set. Continually storing up day after day after day. You don’t plant seeds one time and then expect a lifetime of harvest. That’s right. If you want a life of goodness, you have to keep sowing good seeds. Number one, prepare the soil. Number two, plant good seed.

Pull the weeds

Number three is this, and I’m done. Pull the weeds. Come on, pull the weeds. So in Jesus’ parable, there’s one type of soil that was the soil with thorns and weeds. So it says that the the seed starts to grow, but the thorns grow up with it, and it says this that it choked it. It choked the word. And then Jesus goes and he explains what he means by thorns. He says three things: the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things. Those are the thorns.

Number one, the worries of this life: anxiety, stress, what if Jesus says, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to their life? And worry can become a weed that chokes the word of God. That the word of God starts to grow in you, but then worry comes and he chokes it. Two, deceitfulness of wealth. It notice it doesn’t say wealth is bad, the deceitfulness of wealth. The deceitfulness of wealth. Money promises things it can never deliver. Come on. Money comes and says, like, I can make you happy. I can make you fulfilled, I can make you secure. And it’s a lie that will choke the word of God. Number three, desires for other things. It’s anything that competes with God for the first place in your heart. That can be anything. Career, status, approval, comfort. Like none of it’s inherently bad, but if it becomes first in your heart, it chokes the word of God. Where God’s word starts to do something, but then you’re like, I don’t know why. It seems it seemed like I was on a right track, but then it just died. Well, maybe the reason is because the word of God keeps getting choked out. Right.

And I think that there’s another weed that scripture talks about a lot that I think is particularly destructive when it comes to trying to live in freedom, and that and the weed is this unforgiveness. Come on. Look at what the writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15.

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Notice that he calls bitterness a root. Think about that. A root. What do roots do? Well, they grow underground, right? Where nobody sees. They extend their reach silently. But the roots determine the health of the plant. And notice the phrase, notice the phrase, right? Defile many. Defile many. It’s the deception of anger that you can be mad at just one person. It’s the deception of bitterness that you can hate just one person. It’s the deception of offense that you can be offended at just one person. Right? It doesn’t defile one. It defiles many. Like you let unforgiveness in your heart. You think you can just hate that one person? You can’t. That affects every relationship you have. Why? Because it’s a root system. It becomes my roots. Bitterness is a root, and it will spring up at the worst times. Right? Forgiveness doesn’t just hurt the person that you’re angry with. Unforgiveness defiles many. Like it says, defiles many. And it contaminates everything. It contaminates every relationship you have. I’ve seen people that hate their boss and ruin their marriage because of it. I’ve seen people that hate, I that get mad at their pastor and their relationship with God is destroyed. It just doesn’t just destroy that one relationship, it destroys all of them. Contaminates every relationship, every perspective. It destroys all your joy, all your peace.

And so, how do you pull that weed? You forgive. Right? Look at pr we forgive, I’ll say it like this: we forgive for the sake of our own future. Look at what Proverbs chapter 4, verse 25 says this.

Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

You cannot look ahead and hold on to the past at the same time. Right? God wants you to be looking ahead. Not just replaying the buttons, David, if I forgive, I’m gonna let them off the hook. Like, no, you’re not. You’re not letting him off the hook, but you are letting him go. And you know what? Justice belongs to the Lord anyway. Judgment belongs to the Lord anyway. You’re not letting them off the hook, but you are letting them go for the sake of your future. Right? Like I’m guarding my heart because my future, my family, my legacy is way more important than what they did to me. And remember, like we talked about a few weeks ago, forgiveness is not about their worthiness, it’s about your freedom. And so you forgive, not because they deserve it, but because you deserve to be free. And so, man, I’m letting go. I’m moving on because forgiveness doesn’t change my fat my past, but forgiveness can change your future.

Right? And so I hope you can see what I’m trying to present to you is a process. A process of how is it that we live as free people? I’m so grateful for all the people that we got to baptize. And now it’s our job to celebrate with you and then to try to equip you with tools on how to make this something that didn’t last like one year or one month, but last a lifetime. And one of the ways that that happens is this: by you protecting the soil of your heart. Day in and day out, little decisions you make, you hop in the car, what are you turning on? Come on. That’s right. Right. Like you listen to the news 18 hours a day. I I know the condition of your heart. I can tell you. Man, you you you hop in your car, you’re listening to some worship, you’re listening to a cert, like you’re you’re reading scripture, you’re praying, you’re fellowshipping with people around. Like I can tell the condition of your heart by what you put in it. Right? And so we have to prepare the ground of our hearts, and then we have to plant good seed in the soil, and then we have to pull the weeds, especially of unforgiveness.

Here’s my closing statement. Freedom isn’t just about what Christ did for you, but how you steward the soil of your heart. Number one, prepare the soil. Guard your heart by being intentional about what you let in and keep out. Two, plant good seed, consistently deposit God’s word into your heart, knowing that what you store up determines what you produce. Three, pull the weeds, address destructive elements like worry, wealth’s deception, competing desires, and especially unforgiveness that can choke out God’s word. The condition of your heart determines whether you merely exist as free or truly live free.