Well, this is the mix. This is something we do, once a month. It's where we have, adult teaching in sort of small chunks. I have to say, I I haven't preached here for about 6 weeks, so I feel really nervous. It's a strange thing, nerves, so you'll have to forgive me.
And, we've been looking at body parts. So, if you wanna, can I do this? Yes. Paul says in Romans, which we did a whole series in. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of god's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to god.
This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what god's will is. His good, pleasing perfect will.
So we've been doing, this mix that we do once a month on body parts presenting our body parts, to the lord. As an offering, a living sacrifice. And we're trying to show that the word of god is is not just some surface thing. It's deeply to affect our lives and to affect our actions. That's what the word of god is about.
So we've looked at the eyes. What are you looking at? The ears, what are you listening to, the tongue, what are you saying, and the hands, what are you doing? And today, we're looking at the heart. The human heart.
Now the human heart is a wonderful, wonderful organ, and, you can look up all kinds of details about it. It's about the size of a human fist. It weighs between, 280 to 340 grams in men, a little smaller. In in women, this amazing thing, the heart. It approximately beats 70 times a minute, So you can count if you want a little bit more than, you know, 1 a second.
Approximately a hundred thousand times every day. Hundred thousand 800, actually, if you're counting, 35000000 times a year. And in an average lifestyle, time 2500000000.0 times. It's going to it's going to beat. You've got 2500000000.0 beats.
So, you know, all you runners that think you're keeping fit, you're just speeding up the process. That's what I tell myself. But that's the sort of thing that goes on. Women women's hearts beat slightly faster. That's because they've gotta look at gorgeous hunks like me.
And by the way, I found out that the the the university of California, when people are in love, they find that their hearts beat together. A woman beats in the same heartbeat as a man. That's what happens. Interesting. Anyway, I don't think you can pull anything from that, but that's interesting.
But you can tell whether you're in love anyway, you can start counting. Each beat, it pumps through 60 to 90 milliliters of blood. That's 5 to 7 liters of blood in a minute. That's 7600 liters per day. All the blood vessels that the heart is pushing the blood around.
If you sort of stripped them out and laid them end to end, it's 60000 miles. Most heart attacks happen tomorrow. So you're alright today, but watch out for tomorrow. And, laughing is good good for your heart. So come and laugh.
It's a it's a good thing. That's the human heart. It's a miracle. Designed and made by god. It's an amazing thing.
An amazing muscle that can keep going 2500000000.0 times. But, of course, the heart is is more than that. And when we talk about the heart, we mean more than just a a blood pump. You know, when a young man says to a young woman or whichever way round it is, you know, I love you with all my heart. He is not saying I love you with my blood pump.
He's saying something a bit more than that. In other words, it's the center of of his being. That's what he's talking about. And this proverb here, picks that up, Proverbs 4 23. Above all else, says the word of god, guard your heart.
Now we'll look at that in a minute. But why guard it for everything you do flows from it So it's the center of you. Everything you do flows from your heart. If you're doing things, It's because of your heart. That that's what he's saying.
Now the Bible takes that up, and, for instance, in proverbs, the word heart is used 60 times, I think. And, it's used for all kinds of aspects. It's a bit like different parts of the heart. You have the mind the bible describes these 3 aspects that make up the heart, and it often talks about thinking in your heart, that sort of stuff. So the mind, the ability to think and to understand and to reason and to doubt and discern and remember So when we're talking about the heart, there's 1 chamber of the heart, the mind.
The affections the Bible talks when it talks about the heart often talks about our our longings, our desires, our feelings, our imaginations, our emotions. That's the big thing that people use for heart today. But the Bible adds the mind, affections, and then the will, the thing that, we determine when we, you know, we're gonna take actions. It determines our actions. So the heart is standing for your reasoning, your thinking, your decision making, the things you love, the things you hate.
And therefore, god says, keep your heart. Keep your heart healthy. Keep that center beating properly. Work on that. Don't disregard that.
Don't leave that, your mind, your affection, your will. Now just to sort of see this in action, There's an amazing little passage, in the book of Hebrews, which is in the New Testament part of the Bible that talks about Moses, and it's a great example of these 3 things, the mind, the affections, and the will. Even though actually, the word heart isn't used, I don't think in this it nevertheless shows the heart and these 3 aspects working in faith, in trusting god, in in, Moses. Now Moses was brought up in in Ferrow's household. He that was the great Pharaoh, the great king of the world, and he had the privilege of that upbringing, but he gives that up to follow the despised people of god.
And this is what this passage is describing. Let me read it to you. By faith, Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Ferrow's daughter. He chose to be ill treated. He chose to be ill treated along with the people of god rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt. But because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith, he left Egypt not fearing the king's anger, he persevered because he saw him, who was invisible. That's god. Now when you read that, and if you slow down and sort of think about that whole, the heart is made up of those different chambers, the mind, the affections, and the desires, the will, the will, you'll see them beating here I don't know whether you can see it.
I hope you can because it's an amazing little passage. It's almost like the chambers of those heart are be are beating right here. Have just think about it. His mind regarded disgrace as a place of greater happiness than the treasures of Egypt. The treasures of Egypt.
I mean, even now people travel miles to go and see the treasures of Egypt, it's extraordinary. But he said no. No. No. He he he was his mind, he was thinking.
Yeah. Then his affections They longed to to go where his mind was was showing him, to go away from the pleasures, quick sin. The things that say now, now, now this will this will this will help you out. This is what you wanna do. This is what life is about.
That his his affections were taken away from the pleasures of sin because his mind told him that these are only fleeting, but that is long lasting. And then his imagination, they he made him look ahead to a reward what's going to happen. So his mind informed his affections that the reward was greater there than the fleeting happinesses of the now sins. And so his will was changed, and he went from being Ferrow's daughter pharaoh's son, the, sorry, the son of pharaoh's daughter to go in with the despised people of god. Did you see how it works?
That's the heart beating. Thinking, the affections are moved, the desire is changed. And that's how the heart works. Now, often it works the opposite way around for us. We allow our affections to take over, the pleasure of sin.
This is what I need. I need it now. I want it now and our heart beats and we forget the thinking. We don't know the consequences. We don't work through what the consequences of our sin or is.
We don't think about god and destruction comes. But Moses did it the opposite way around. So No wonder Proverb says, above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. It's the wellspring. Of who you are.
We spend loads of money on the body, looking good, you know, clothes, face, makeup. We spend a lot of money trying to keep our heart, our physical heart good. But are we spending that energy in our inner being in our inner being? Healthy heart is a really important thing. How health is yours?
What's it beat to? And god is always more interested in the inner person than the outward We're we reverse that round. We we have things like love island that is all just prophetically about the outward, and not about the heart. Constantly teaching kids about the outward and not about the internal change. So The heart is more than a blood pump.
So the human heart and miracle of god but we mean much more than the blood pumping thing. We need the center of our being. That's made up of the mind and the affections and the desires. But we need to sort of step back a bit and see what the Bible actually says about our hearts and how how they are naturally. We have heart disease.
We all have heart disease, and it's a very major problem. If you go to the doctor and he says you have heart disease, then you will start to to do something about it and start to change your diet or whatever it is. But the Bible says this, and we don't seem to listen. This is almost as if we, we, we, we, we, we, we don't think we have. We're not gonna listen to the doctor.
We're not gonna listen to our creator, the 1 who put us together. We have major heart problem. The problem, is the heart or the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart as someone said. And that that is right. Jesus, in in, Mark chapter 7 in the Bible, is is having a confrontation with the religious religious leaders and, they don't like him for not washing And we find that religion and these religious leaders are all about outward washing the hands.
And so this confrontation happens. And this is how we pick up the story. So the pharisees and the teachers of the law, that's the religious leaders asked Jesus. Why don't your disciples, your followers live according to the traditions of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands and washed them? He replied, and listen to his reply.
Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you Hippocrits. As it is written, and listen to what he says, these people honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules.
You have let go the commands of god and are holding to human tradition. You see where the the the heart of the argument is about the heart? Whoops. Let's go back. These people honor me with their lips.
Their lips are all good. I follow god. I believe in god. They sing the songs that we've just sung. But actually their hearts are far away from me.
Their lips look like they love, but their hearts are far away from me. See, he's dealing with this this problem, I mean, of this outward and inner. Listen to how he goes on. He goes on and says these words. Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. Are you so dull? Now that's a very strong language Jesus is using there. See, if he was here speaking to us, he he doesn't hold back his very little gentle Jesus meek and mild here in this sense.
Is he? Are you so dull? I had a friend who wrote a Christian tract thinking that lots of people would use it in their evangelism, and it was called, are you so dull? No 1 bought it. Brilliant, I thought.
Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from outside can defile them? It's not the outside thing that defiles them. For it goes for, for it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach. And then out of the body, in saying this, Jesus declared all fruits clean. He went on What comes out of a person is what defiles them?
For it is from within, out of a person's heart, and now he names some things. Is out of a person's heart. If you're doing these things, it's because your heart is wrong. Evil thoughts come Sexual immoral morality theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, ludeness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly, stupidity, All these evils come from inside and defile a person. It's not what goes in It's what comes out that shows your heart and defiles you.
It's already there. Jesus is saying, because we've got heart disease. I am the way that I am not because of things from the outside have made me that way. Now they may have had some kind of effect on certain behaviors, but they they've not changed my heart. So what do people do today?
They blame family, they blame circumstances, They blame alcohol, they blame food, they blame you, they blame me, they blame everybody outside. I am the way I am because of what is already there. That's it's from within that makes a person dirty. It's from within. That's where it comes from.
And that's bad news. And the bad news gets worse when you read the Bible about the heart because we can't change ourselves. We can't change ourselves from the inside out. We we we can educate ourselves. We can have some influences that might change our outward behaviors to some degree.
That's what religion does. We force ourselves. We discipline ourselves. We make ourselves live outwardly but, your heart is still the same. I I I remember when I was immigrating to, Australia, And I thought, great.
I could become a new pete in Australia. I could be a completely different person. I can reinvent myself and I can, you know, be a different Pete. The problem is wherever you go, you take you with you. And you take your heart with you, and I ended up the same, Pete.
Yeah? And that's what happens because you can't educate yourself or outward religion, you can't change yourself. Outward religion says conform and you conform outwardly. And therefore, then you start thinking your heart is good, but it isn't. The same things go through the mind and the affections.
The trouble is my heart is so fooled by my heart. I think I'm okay. And if there are people that are worse than me, that is fantastic. I love it when there's a whole bunch of people that are doing things that I'm not doing. Because I can point at them and say outwardly, I don't do it.
So look at me. I'm a goody, goody. How dare you say that I'm wicked in my heart? Jesus is wrong. In his estimation of me.
The heart doesn't really wanna listen to god. Look what god says. In Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 9, book in the Bible, the heart Now if you're listening to your heart right now, stop it and listen to this. The heart is deceitful. Whatever it's telling you now, it's a deceitful thing above all things and beyond cure who can understand it.
Our heart is false. It's a liar. It deceives. It tricks us. It says that we're okay.
It says that we're all right in our own eyes. It says we're doing the right thing. I'm following my heart. And and I'm doing the right thing for me, and it doesn't see that it leads to death. Yeah.
Who who said that? Brilliant. Death. That was that Sean? No.
It's gonna say. That's extraordinary. It leads to death. Yes. Thank you for underlining that, so I can say it again.
It leads to death. I I was on Friday, I was at the, because he's now taken me off onto something. I was I was at the, flower show. That's right. And there was a girl singing, and she got a singing, American pie.
She was getting all of the crowd to sing it. And they got to the point where how's it go by, I can't remember. American pie drove my Chevy to the levee and the levee was dry, then good old boys are drinking whiskey and rye, and this will be the day that I die. And I don't think she realized that she was getting this crowd that would just be looking at flowers singing this will be the day that I die And so Anne and me were ripping this out, but everybody else stopped at that point. And I I was shouting out, yeah, because you know, they don't wanna sing that because they don't wanna realize that they just bought roses and they're gonna die.
Well, we will die. Thank you for that, whoever said that. My heart says, Pete, you're okay. God says, you're wicked. Now who's right?
God, the creator, or me, who's right in this assessment? Listen to this verse. You could not get more counter cultural than this verse. Proverbs 28 26. Those who trust in themselves are fools.
It's the exact opposite to what we're teaching our children. Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe. They need something outside of themselves that is a bigger wisdom Don't trust your heart. It's the opposite to the world. I don't know whether you saw this, but 1 of these Tory things, whichever, whatever they call and where they were discussing about leadership when there were all of these locked in.
They were asked a question by the interviewer. It was it it was just a fantastic question that just showed up all of them. And it said, what's your biggest fault? Yeah? And of course, they all had the opportunity to say things like, I mean, 1 I won't point out.
1, but he's right in the middle. He had to say my biggest fault is that I want to do things now and change the country now and give my life for the country now. My biggest fault is I'm impatient to do all the good things that I want to do. And and, you know, of course, it it was an opportunity for them to say how wonderful they are. None of them said, I don't trust myself.
None of them said, my biggest fault is my heart. None of them said, I'm it's deceitful above all things and beyond cure who can understand it. None of them said, that's why I need counsel. That's why I need people outside of me. So if I become prime minister, I need a group of people that will speaking to my life, sense, and truth.
And I need that because my heart is wicked. No. None of them said that. You fools to believe in yourself. Listen to proverbs before it comes up to our verse that we've been thinking about.
So proverbs 4, this is this is the writer. He's talking to his son. He says, my son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear to my words. There's an outward voice coming in now.
Do not let them, do not let them out of your sight keep them within your heart for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. I'm telling you, son, Here is how you change and it changes your heart. There is a word from the creator, a wise word, and that's the council you need. That's the information you need. That word from outside is the word that is designed to change your heart.
Let that speak. You see? That's what he's saying. There's a word designed to change your heart, and here's the good news we seen the bad news is that there is a heart transplant. There's this wonderful, sentence from ezekiel in the old testament.
I will give you a new heart and a pure and and a new spirit in you. I will remove from you, your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will do it. I will speak a heart of flesh into you. Listen to me.
Don't take your own advice. It's foolish. You know, so little. You know, you're you're you're on this planet for such a small amount of time and you think you're the wise 1, listen to the creator. He can speak a word that can change you inside out.
Jesus changed water into wine. Jesus changed a few fish sandwiches into a lunch for thousands upon thousands of people. Jesus changed a dead man into that, lazarus, the breathing, heart beating living 1. Jesus has the power to change your heart from inside out. That's what Christianity is about changing your heart.
It's not you trying to pull yourself together. It's saying humbly, god, speak, change my heart. I can't do it. Well, our last section on the heart is, is god guard your heart. If you've been given a new heart, and, you've been born again, as Jesus said you need to be, we need to guard the heart.
We need to you know, put energy into guarding it. This isn't just gonna happen. You have to guard. It's active. Guard the heart.
Paul writes in the book of colossians. Since then you have been raised with Christ, been raised again, you've been born again, set your hearts. Set your hearts. You have to do it. Something to do.
Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. And and then he goes on. In that chapter, he says, put to death. So it's something you have to do. Set your hearts on Christ.
Now you've got a new heart. You guard it by setting your heart. In this to this 1 that loves us. Look at him. But also you need to put to death.
Therefore, whatever belongs to the earthly nature, sexual immorality, put it to death. Put that to death. Don't feed it. Put it to death. This is 1 of the problems we we gotta be very careful.
And and, you know, we don't try to make, rules and We're not trying to be, you know, make everybody the same. But, you know, nevertheless, if you're watching sort of TV programs or box sets, that are going to stir that up if you're sort of mindlessly watching that. Be really careful. You know, set your heart put to death. If if you you and I have watched about 15 minutes of, of Love Island, it's it's a disaster.
You have to sit and you have to look at it and you have to say, this is wrong. Everything about it is wrong. It's wrong. If I'm gonna be taken up with that, where's it gonna am I putting to death stuff? You know, it it we've gotta we've gotta think about this, put to death.
Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed. Are you a greedy person? Is your heart going for, you know, more and more stuff? Put it to death, which is he says greed is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of god is coming.
You used to walk in these ways in, in the life you once lived. You used to do that. Don't do that anymore. He's saying. So we gotta guard our hearts.
So brothers and sisters guard your heart. And and this is a constant thing. The trouble is I think we think those of us that have been Christians at some time. We think, oh, we get into we're settled. We're we're you know, I'm a I'm a Christian.
I've got routines. God you're hot. You gotta be as passionate about guarding your heart now as you ever were. Watch it. Be careful.
Guard your heart. Here's some ways how to guard your heart. Speak to it. The Bible says you should speak to your heart. The first sign of madness is if you don't speak to yourself.
You are mad. Don't listen to yourself. Speak the word of god to your heart. You're mad if you don't do that. You will go mad.
You need to speak the word to yourself. Preach to yourself. Preach Jesus to yourself. Who loves me? Me or Jesus more.
Jesus loves me more than I love myself. Who's got the best plan for me? Jesus has not me? So even though I'm being drawn in my affections this way, he says, don't do it, so I won't do it, because he loves me more. You preach to yourself.
We have to do that. First sign of madness. And the the thing is we have all these ear things, and you see people walking along talking to themselves You can do this now without even looking like a loony. So you should be walking down saying, Hard of mine. Listen.
You malicious thing. Listen to the word of god, heart of mine. Listen. Listen. You can play with fire now, but you will get the bill.
Heart of mine. You listen. Don't be a fool. Don't be blind. Hard of mine.
Don't you do that? Think of the consequences. Hard of mine, will you listen? I have to do this all the time to myself. Listen heart of mine.
You've got no reason to wander. You've got no reason to roam. The lord is your home. The lord is your savior. Don't put yourself over the line heart of mine.
Don't do that. Don't step over Don't step away from Christ. Hard of mine. Hard of mine. You're so malicious, and you're so full of guile.
If I give you an inch, you'll take a mile. I know you. Stop it. Don't don't fall. Don't stumble.
Listen to god, hide a mine. Listen to who loves you. Listen to who's right. Listen to your creator. That's exactly what Moses was doing, isn't it?
Here he was surrounded by wealth and power and popularity But he spoke to his heart, the word of god, it is better for a season, not to have these fleeting pleasures, that will last just a moment, just a second. It is better to not go for them, but for go for gold Go for god. Go for living for him. I can be despised in this world. I can have not what I want in this world because because I'm going for something better.
Hard of mind, will you listen? Listen to the word of god. It's so important you preach This is why this is why we keep saying to people, if you're missing listening to sermons, you need a sermon. You need a preacher. You do.
And you don't want 1 who's just gonna be nice to you and say, oh, you're lovely. You don't wanna cancel or put this arm around and say, lovely. You're not lovely. Your heart is full of malicious guile. Yeah?
You're a rotter. You need to listen to the word of God. You need to listen to the the 1 who really loves you. Listen to Jesus. Listen, and that's what we do in a church.
That's what that's what we how we counsel each other and encourage each other. And this is why we preach. This is why I'm here to preach to you. I'm gonna just preach to you. I preach to my heart.
I hope. Heart of mine. Listen. Listen to this. You start moving away from the word of god, and you see exactly what happens.
I've seen so many that that's what happens. They go away. And they become harder than they were before, even when they were professing Christianity. They go into a life that they never thought they would go into. It's extraordinary how quickly that happens.
So speak the word of god to yourself. Allow someone to preach into your heart. Don't trust self. Guard your heart by killing idols in your heart. Calvin, who is a great theologian talked about the heart being an idol making factory.
It's constantly churning out another idol. And what is an idle? An idle is something where we say, I have to have that otherwise my life won't be happy. My life won't have any meaning. Or it isn't life at all.
That's an idol. I must have it. And god, you're the 1 who's the negotiable here. You can go out of my heart. And in fact, actually, If you don't give me what I want, I don't like you.
I don't want you. I don't think you're a very good god. You're the negotiable. I'm gonna turn from you because I wanna achieve this. I'm not gonna listen to you because I wanna do this.
Watch out for those idols. Things that claim to be god and claim to give meaning and claim to change your world. They lie when you get them. You bite into it, and you suddenly see disaster. God your heart from the idols, kill them.
Teach your heart to avoid sin. Don't feed it. Have Christians around you that are murderers. We need to be murderers. We need to kill, not settle down, we need to be hardworking with each other, and killing, murdering sin within us.
If we if we've lacked or if we just sort of settle down on that, let's encourage each other to get to get big on this. We need to not only put to death things. We need to do those things that pleases god. We bring to life things in our hearts. So, you know, Paul gives that example that if if you love money and if you're greedy and that's led you to stealing in some way, some form of stealing, because you're stealing because you love money.
He says that that don't only stop stealing. He says now, learn to be generous. Give money away. And that amazing. Change it right around so your heart is 1 of god and being generous.
God your heart by by watching out for idols and repenting, turning away coming to god and saying, I don't want to live for this. Help me by your spirit now. I'm sorry I've done this. Change me. This is 1 old theologian.
He's a pretty hefty, 1 to read. His name's John Owen. And, he he's he he says this. It's quite long, but listen. It's powerful, I think.
Look to him whom we have pierced and be in bitterness Say to your soul, what have I done? What love? What blood? What grace have I spised and trampled on. Is this the return I make to the father for his love, to the son for his shed blood to the Holy Spirit for his grace.
Is this how I requite the lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash that the blessed spirit has chosen to dwell in? What then can I say to my dear lord Jesus? Do I account communion with him of so little value? I have despised love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation.
I have despised them all as a thing of naught. That I may persist in sin. Come to that point. Think of a savior on the cross. Are you gonna turn from that love?
Hard of mine. Look, And so you need to pray. Lord, creating me a pure heart if you're gonna guide your heart. Guard your heart. Creating me a pure heart, you need to develop a servant heart.
1, it's lovely to have the Zambia team. Sorry. I should welcomed you back. It's really lovely to have you. And we will hear from you probably next week, but, we've been praying for you.
And I bet your hearts for Jesus are a bit more excited. Because even an old thing like, Paul Whitfield's heart, you know, that's he's he's he's probably done 2000000000 at least. So, you know, because when you start to serve, you start to look out of yourself and your own selfishness and you start to see god's word. So develop a servant heart. That's what church is about, an opportunity to serve.
It's it's it's good for your heart. So develop these things and count your blessings I'm gonna end with this. Put your hands up. Put your fake hands. I'm gonna get you to do fingers.
I think I've got the wrong hand. Am I? Is that the right hand? I don't know. I don't know.
Anyway, first finger. Put 1 finger up. Yeah. Look up. Where where's it pointing?
Where'd you look? Look up. And remember, count your blessings, and remember how much God has done for you. Look up. Everybody.
What you 2 remember? Thank you. What are you to remember? Yeah. You were glad I've been away for 6 weeks, don't you?
Number 2, look back. Yep. Figures up. Come on. Peace, man.
Yeah. And remember that Christ's death on the cross has freed you from the penalty of sin, enabling you to count yourself dead to sin. That's a big 1, but you look back and remember what Christ did on the cross. What'd you do? I'm glad I'm back.
3. Look outward. Remember, that Jesus Christ denied himself to save you so that you could have sacrificial love for others. Remember that, 3, 4, I can see you're not really enjoying this. Look forward.
Remember Christ's death has secured a certain hope for you. And 5, look at others. Who live in the light of Christ, follow them. There's your hand. There's your hand.
Do that. Are you are you counting your blessings? It's extraordinary how we become grumpy and look at our curses. Instead of counting our blessings, they're all to do with what Christ has done for us. And when we start seeing that, our affections are moved.
I love him. I love him. And when my affections is moved, like Moses, I can say goodbye to these sins that have a little bit of pleasure for the now because I I wanna do it for him. My affection is moved and then my desire, and then my, will, I will walk towards him.