Wisdom For Guarding Your Heart
Sermon Notes
Intro
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Proverbs, which is about gaining practical wisdom for everyday life, and today we’re talking about gaining practical wisdom for guarding our hearts. Last week I briefly mentioned that in Matthew 15 Jesus says what comes out of a person’s mouth proceeds from their heart, it flows from their heart. In other words what you believe and feel on the inside, influences what you say and do on the outside. That’s true for both skeptics and believers. It’s true especially for our American culture, which is full of people making decisions that aren’t based on what makes intellectual sense. They’re making decisions based on how it makes them feel. A lot of people are like, “Well if it makes me feel good, if it makes me happy, then it must be a good decision for my life.” There’s even some Christians with their own spiritualized version of this saying, “Well God wants me to be happy right?...He wants me to be happy, and since I’m not happy, I guess that means I should leave my spouse. I guess that means I should leave my job. I guess that means I should just do whatever makes me feel good, since God wants me to be happy.”
Now it’s true God wants you to be happy, He wants you to have joy, but it’s according to His view of joy not yours. It has to be according to His view of joy, because sometimes your view of joy is distorted. Sometimes what you think will bring you joy, will actually bring you misery. For example sometimes when I travel I think eating Taco Bell will bring me joy, but it always brings me misery...Heroin’s known for giving people some of the most pleasurable feelings the human body can experience, but that doesn’t mean its good. It’ll bring you misery, addiction, even death. So just because something feels good, doesn’t mean it is good. In our feelings driven culture it’s important to know, your heart can lie to you...Your heart can lie, it can deceive you into thinking something will bring you joy, but in the end it brings you misery. You need to guard your heart...You need to guard your heart, which is exactly what we’re talking about today. So let’s turn to Proverbs 4 and get into it. You’ll find Proverbs in the middle of the bible, and we’ll be in Proverbs 4:23-27. Title of today’s message is Wisdom For Guarding Your Heart and here’s the big idea. The desires in your heart will influence the decisions in your life, so guard your heart...The desires in your heart will influence the decisions in your life, so guard your heart.
Context:
Here’s your context. Proverbs was written by King Solomon who’s considered one of the most famous, wealthiest, wisest kings in history. Historically people traveled all over the world to gain from his wisdom, and today we’ll gain from his wisdom when it comes to guarding our hearts. He’ll teach 3 principles when it comes to guarding our hearts, and so let’s check it out.
The Word:
Proverbs 4:23-27 states, “Guard your heart above all else...” There it is, there’s where we get our big idea from. Solomon says to “guard your heart,” and the word heart is being used here metaphorically to refer to more than just our emotions, more than just our feelings. It’s referring to both our thinking and our feelings. This is important to know otherwise you’ll read vs 23 thinking it’s saying to guard your emotions, to guard your feelings. But it’s actually saying to guard both your thinking and your feelings, and to do it above all else. When Solomon says to guard our hearts above all else, he’s saying make it a priority. Why? Why is guarding our hearts such a priority, why is it so important for our lives? He tells us why as the text continues.
Again vs. 23 states, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” The Hebrew can also translate as it’s the ‘wellspring of life.’ Notice it doesn’t say it’s the wellspring of ‘emotions,’ it says it’s the wellspring of life. What Solomon’s saying is the heart is the source of your feelings and thinking, which drives the decisions you’re making. It’s why he’s saying guarding your heart is such a priority! It’s because your heart is the source of your feelings and thinking which drives your decisions. Think about the illustration of a spring. The way a spring works is it keeps flowing water out, which is why Jesus said what comes out of a person’s mouth flows from their heart. It’s because the heart is like a spring that keeps flowing things out. Your heart’s the source that drives the things you say, think, and do in life. It all starts with the heart.
Vs. 24, “Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously. 25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.” Notice he says your heart will affect ‘your mouth,’ the things you say. It’ll affect ‘your eyes,’ meaning the way you view life and think about life. In vs 11-19 and 26-27 he says your heart will affect your path in life, it’ll affect your decisions and things you do in life. It all flows from the heart, and so our 1st principle is...
Principle #1 = Recognize the influence of your heart: You need to recognize the powerful influence your heart can have on your everyday life. It’s the wellspring of life, the source of life, the control center of your feelings, thinking, and decisions in life. In Luke 12 Jesus said it’s the place where you hold your deepest loves. He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Your heart is the place where you hold your deepest treasures, loves,convictions, beliefs, especially your beliefs about what’ll bring you the most joy in life. I mean everybody believes there’s certain things that’ll bring them joy in life. We’re like, “If I can just get married, have kids, have a better job, make more money, win the Powerball...then I’ll finally be happy, I’ll finally have joy.” Whatever your heart believes can bring you that joy, will affect everything else you do in life. Tim Keller states, “Whatever the heart believes, the mind will perceive and find reasonable, the emotions will desire and find beautiful, the will does and finds practical.” So whatever your heart loves the most, whatever your heart believes will bring you the most joy in life, is causing you to spin out a cyclone of decisions in hopes of achieving it.
For example, what if in your heart you believe having money isn’t just a good thing, it’s an ultimate thing. You believe you need money to feel secure, to have fun, to enjoy life. If you believe in your heart that money will bring you joy, then you’ll make decisions trying to obtain more money. You may choose a profession you don’t like just to make more money. You may burnout or feel empty faster than others because now you’re doing a job you hate. You may even overwork to gain more money, or be greedy towards your family, friends, and church because you feel you don’t have enough money. It’s the belief in your heart that money will bring you joy, that’s driving all those decisions, and it’ll affect your health, your relationships, your life... The same is true if in your heart you believe having success in your career is what’ll bring you joy. It’ll cause you to overwork and choose work over your emotional and physical health. It’ll even cause you to choose work over spending time with your family and friends. It’s the belief in your heart that success will bring you joy, that’s driving those decisions...I can give you all kinds of examples of how the beliefs in our heart, are driving the decisions in our life. What Solomon’s teaching at this point is the principle to recognize the influence our hearts can have on our lives, and to prioritize guarding our hearts. If we don’t guard our hearts, we’ll end up believing wrong things, which leads to doing wrong things, that’ll only bring us misery instead of joy.
Vs. 26, “Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established.” Notice the focus is on your ‘feet.’ Solomon says carefully ‘consider,’ the path of your ‘feet.’ Why your feet? It’s because everybody’s taking steps that lead to somewhere...Everybody’s taking steps that lead to somewhere. It’s either leading you down an evil path or a good path, so you need to consider your steps and which path you’re on. This is about making a daily decision, sometimes in the moment decisions to follow God’s ways instead of your own ways, because you trust God knows what’s best for your life. Remember your heart can lie to you, but God won’t ever lie to you. He’ll always lead you down paths that are for your good and His glory.
ï Psalm 16:11, “You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures!”
ï Psalm 23:3, “He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake!”
The Lord will never steer us in a direction that isn’t for our good and His glory. But what Solomon’s saying is part of guarding your heart entails paying attention to your daily steps, your daily choices, because every step is leading you somewhere...Years ago there was an interview done on a guy who went to jail for most his life. He told the person interviewing him that he remembered growing up intrigued by a gold watch his father had. So one day he snuck the watch off his father’s dresser and started playing with it, but he dropped it and cracked it. In fear he put it back on the dresser, ran, and said nothing. When his father asked the family who did it, he never confessed...Well years later he grew up, was driving his car down a dark road, and he ran over a little kid. Instead of checking on the kid he fled the scene, and never admitted it. But they eventually found him, convicted him, and put him in jail for years. Here’s what he said to the person interviewing him. He said, “What put me in jail wasn’t the decision I made that night on the road. It was all the little decisions I was making many years before...” Consider your path... Solomon says consider your path, consider your steps and daily choices you’re making, because it’s all leading somewhere. We’re learning a 2nd principle here about guarding our hearts, and it’s...
Principle #2 = Step away from the trash: If you want to guard your heart, you need to step away from the trash. You need to step away from the things in your life that are filling your heart with garbage. Maybe you’ve been feeling the Lord leading you to step away from watching certain movies or tv shows full of explicit language, sexual imagery, or graphic violence like the Purge. It’s all pointless content that adds zero value to your heart, and slowly desensitizes your heart...Maybe you’ve been feeling the Lord leading you to step away from the type of music or music artists you’ve been listening to. I remember feeling this when I became a Christian in my early 20’s. My wife Andrea was listening to Spice Girls and NSYNC, while I was listening to Cypress Hill and WuTang...But I stepped away from all the trash music causing me to mean mug it all the time. My point is the stuff you listen to, the music, podcasts, talk shows...the stuff you read, books, and articles...the stuff you search on your phone, search on Instagram or TikTok... Even the friends you hang with, it’s all affecting your heart, it’s all steps leading you somewhere. You may think it isn’t a big deal now, but neither did the hit and run guy in jail. Trash no matter how big or small is still trash, and it’s affecting your heart. Like Alistair Begg says its “Garbage in, garbage out!” If you have garbage coming into your heart, you’ll have garbage flowing out of your heart. So what garbage do you need to get rid of in your life?...What garbage do you need to get rid of, so it doesn’t keep affecting your heart?...Maybe it’s time to take out the trash... Maybe it’s time to take out the trash in your life, so it doesn’t keep driving your heart. Solomon’s saying to guard your heart you need to consider your path, and step away from the trash.
Again vs. 26 states, “Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. 27 Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.” Once again Solomon mentions our steps saying don’t turn, don’t step “to the right or the left,” which implies staying on the straight path, on the good path. So part of guarding your heart entails stepping and continually stepping towards the good. You can’t just follow principle 2, you can’t just step away from the trash. You also have to step towards the good or else you’ll find yourself once again stepping towards paths that aren’t good. So guarding your heart entails more than just avoiding bad things, it also entails pursuing good things, which is our 3rd and last principle.
Principle #3 = Step towards the good: If you want to guard your heart you need to step away from the trash, but also step towards the good. It’s about pursing good things like the fruit of the Spirit Paul talks about in Galatians 5. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.” It’s good things worth memorizing and pursuing as you take your daily steps. You can also purse good things like coming to church consistently, joining a small group, listening to worship music, and reading your bible. In fact all throughout Proverbs Solomon says one of the main things to help guard your heart is the wisdom and truth of God’s word. Matthew Henry states, “Attentively hearing the word of God, is a good sign that the work of grace has begun in the heart, and a good means of carrying it on. There is in the word of God a proper remedy, for all diseases of the soul.” The reason the word of God is the remedy for all diseases of the soul, is because its truth fights against the distorted lies in our hearts. Its truth fights against the things our hearts are believing will bring us greater joy than Jesus.
St. Augustine once said the key to changing our hearts isn’t by acts of the will, it’s by changing the loves in the heart. He said the main problem with all our lives is that our hearts are filled with disordered loves. The issue isn’t that we can’t love other things, it’s that the things we love are out of order. For example you can love your career, but if you love it more than your family and health it’s a disordered love. Augustine’s saying if we love something more than Jesus, we’ll suffer from disordered love that leads to a path of sin, misery, and joyless discontentment. Augustine states, “You’ve made us for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless, until they rest in you.” Both Augustine and Solomon are saying if Jesus isn’t the ‘wellspring’ of your life... If Jesus isn’t the central pursuit of your life, then something else will take his place. Whatever that something else is, whatever that disordered love is, will drive your decisions in life and leave you feeling discontent with life. The only way to turn your heart away from those things, is to turn your heart to Jesus. It’s to take a step away from the trash, and take a step towards pursuing a greater relationship with Jesus. In the words of Tim Keller, “The only way to pull your heart off one beauty, is to find a better beauty.” It’s only when you see Jesus as the greatest beauty in your life, that your heart will change, your decisions will change, your life will change.
The Big Idea:
So here’s the big idea. It’s that the desires in your heart, will influence the decisions in your life, so guard your heart. You and I both need to guard our hearts, because what fills your heart really can affect your life...Have you considered your steps?...Have you considered your steps and where your life is headed?...Is there trash in your life you need to step away from? Is there disordered loves in your life, that have caused you to replace Jesus in your heart?...Have you considered if your steps are taking you closer to Jesus, or further away from Jesus?...Have you considered if your steps are taking you closer to eternal heaven, or closer to eternal hell?...
The good news of the gospel is it’s never too late to turn your life around. It’s never too late to turn your life around by repenting for your sins and disordered loves, and turning to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins. It takes 1 step to lead you down a path of sin, misery, and joyless discontentment. But it also takes 1 step towards Jesus to lead you down a path of forgiveness, restoration, and joyful contentment. So consider your steps, and then surrender your heart. Let’s pray.