A Penny For Your Thoughts
Principles of the Christian Life • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
I watched an episode of “The Twilight Zone” the other day - I absolutely love that show by the way...
The name of the episode was “A Penny For Your Thoughts” - I promise, It’s relevant to the message - What happened in the episode was this guy had the ability to hear what people were thinking...
This guy, he goes to work, he works at a bank, and as he is finalizing a loan to this businessman, he hears the guy thinking about how he is going to gamble with the money to win back money he has embezzled from his company.
After that, the guy hears an old, trusted employee thinking about how he will steal cash from the bank and escape to Bermuda.
After that, he learns that his boss is having an affair...
On the outside, all these people seem to be doing ok, they seem to be good, kind, innocent, people, but once their thoughts can be heard, we learn something totally different about them.
Proverbs 23:7 (KJV 1900)
7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...
I’d like to preach for a little while on the thought of “A Penny For Your Thoughts” as we look into one very important verse...
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
The heart is the key and source to everything in your life.
The heart is the source of the river of your life; it’s the command center.
Everything you do flows from your heart. The way you think, talk, and act flows from your heart.
The heart is the agent governing all your body’s actions.
And we have a big problem. We have broken and sinful hearts that lead us astray. We inherited this heart from Adam.
What you think, is the real you, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…This is why the Bible gives us the command here in Proverbs 4:23 - There are three very important things this verse tells us, so let’s take a look at it...
I. What It Is That We Are to Do:
I. What It Is That We Are to Do:
“Keep thy heart …”
Since wisdom belongs in the midst of the heart...
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; Keep them in the midst of thine heart.
it also is necessary to keep the heart in the sense of guarding it. In the sense Solomon meant here, the heart should be kept for wisdom, guarding it against the way of the wicked...
19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: They know not at what they stumble.
A. Any meaningful consideration of the heart must pass through the thoughts
1. There is more to man than brain, but brains (thoughts) are what make the inner man meaningful
2. Your thinking is what you really are
B. Keeping the heart involves two things:
1. What you allow to enter it
2. What you allow to go on in it
The heart must be right if the life is to be right. The heart can be right only if it is cleansed by the precious blood of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Even then the heart must be kept with all diligence. It needs to be protected with the breastplate of righteousness...
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
II. How We Are to Do It:
II. How We Are to Do It:
“with all diligence”
A. With extreme care
1. Not only diligence, but all diligence
2. “Exercising the utmost care over …”
B. “Above all other things you keep, …”
1. If you kept your body like you keep your mind …
2. If you kept your house like you keep your mind …
3. If you kept your person like you keep your mind …
4. If you kept your investments like you keep your mind …
III. Why We Are to Do It:
III. Why We Are to Do It:
“for out of it are the issues of life …”
A. Because the mind does not naturally turn toward God
1. It is deceitful...
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
2. Its desires are determined by pride...
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
B. Because the mind determines what we are, we already mentioned this verse...
7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.
1. The real nature of a person is in his or her thoughts
2. This is why a brain transplant is impossible
One Neuroscientist said this, “You receiving a brain transplant would be better described as the brain’s owner receiving a body transplant. Consciousness, memories, and personality are primarily determined by the brain, so wherever the brain goes, the person goes. Their brain gets a new body, and your brain goes into the medical wastebin.”
C. Because the mind determines what we do
1. Christ is very explicit on this
33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Proverbs and Jesus tell us that sin starts in the heart before it manifests itself in our behavior. All throughout Proverbs Scripture tells us that lust, perversion, deceit, anxiety, backsliding, pride, jealousy, and wrong speech reside first in the heart.
D. Because we can sin with our thoughts
1. Christ taught this
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
2. There is infinitely more mental sin than physical
E. Because the mind corresponds with temptation
1. This is clearly taught in
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
2. This is the reason for Christ suggesting prayer
38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
F. Because uncontrolled thoughts lead to problems
1. A controlled thought life is necessary to positive Christian living (2 Cor. 10:5)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2. Uncontrolled thoughts can impact others (Heb. 12:15)
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
One of the way we can become bitter is by dwelling on someone or some situation that’s caused us trouble…Sometimes, you’ve just got to put those thoughts out of your head or else that root of bitterness will spring up.
G. Because our desires arise out of our thoughts
19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
1. Very few sins are genuinely unpremeditated; they begin with a thought…They begin in the heart...
This verse in Jeremiah shows us that evil begins in the thought life…The evil thinking of the people of Judah come back to haunt them in the form of judgment
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
What you think about is incredibly important: revenge, bitterness, lust, hatred, discontent, pride, unreality untruth, etc.
The ways in which you think are also incredibly important: negativity, worry, fantasies, brooding, self-pity, distrust, unhappiness, etc.
In Psalm 24:3–4 clean hands and a pure heart are linked together because we do what we do because we are what we are. The heart determines what we are and therefore what we do.
Jesus said, “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man” (Matthew 15:18–20).
No wonder we need a new heart!
The natural human heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
David asked the Lord to create a clean heart within him (Psalm 51:10).
The new covenant involves having God’s law written in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
Never take “a penny for your thoughts” as they are worth infinitely more than that because they can make you or break you spiritually.