Guard Your Heart

Review

Turn to Proverbs 4:23.

So far, we have learned that we have a created mind, therefore, we are accountable to God for how we think.

We have learned that God wants us to have a changed mind. He wants us to continually change our mind about our sin. If we practice a changed mind, it will lead to a contentious mind. Our conscience will be sensitive to sin.

Finally, we have learned that God wants us to have a captured mind. In other words, we must submit our thinking to God’s truth.

For example, when something in life goes wrong, rather than doing the natural thing and worrying, we do the spiritual thing, and meditate on Scripture that reminds us that God is good and in control.

When something happens in life, rather than choosing the natural response of our flesh, we must choose the Christ-like response and think on Scripture. That is a mind captured by God’s truth.

Message

Today we’re going to shift gears a little bit in our study. I’ll begin by reading Proverbs 4:23.

Read Proverbs 4:23.

Here, in this familiar verse, we are told to keep our hearts with all diligence. The word “heart” in the Old Testament is very broad.

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Heart: includes the mind, the will, the soul - literally, the entire inner man.

It refers to the unseen part of us. That is what we are told to keep.

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Keep: watch over, guard, protect

Depending on the context it can also mean to preserve or blockade.

This verse provokes two questions in my mind:

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Two questions:

How do we guard something that is abstract/unseen?

What happens when we don’t guard our hearts?

I could restate that second question like this: God tells us to open our minds to the truth of His Word, but what happens when instead, we open our minds to the world? What does it look like when we open the gate of our minds to the world’s way of thinking? That process has several stages:

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It begins with a complacent mind

“Both the body and the brain have a tendency to be lazy!” - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 49

Have you ever considered that about your mind? You see, we know that it’s kind of easy to be lazy and not push ourselves physically. We know how easy it is to be lazy in body.

Generally speaking, we don’t get excited about going to the gym. We don’t get excited about jobs around the house that require a lot of physical labor.

Why? Because our bodies have a tendency to be lazy! The same thing is true about our minds - fundamentally, thinking is work.

Henry Ford said, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few people engage in it." - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, pages 57-58.

When we lived in Kinston, NC, during the long summer days, I loved to come home from the church office, change into work clothes, and go work on projects. Whether I was inside or outside, I was happy to let my brain rest and do something that required some hard work of my body instead.

Application: Many people know how to work hard with their bodies, but fewer still are willing to work hard with their mind. Thinking biblically takes work.

We are told to guard our hearts. That requires some intentionality on our part. That requires some determination on our part. That requires we actively choose what we allow our minds to dwell on. In other words, that kind of thinking takes work. I’m afraid that our tendency is to be hardworking in body but to be lazy in mind. Christian, don’t allow yourself to have a complacent, lazy mind. Don’t allow yourself to have a mind that is full of the world but empty of the Biblical understanding.

Guarding your heart takes work. Guarding your heart means questioning what the world tells you and running it through a biblical filter. Guarding your heart means being the active gatekeeper of your thoughts. Guarding your heart sometimes means rejecting thoughts and replacing them with something else.

Surrender to the world’s way of thinking begins with a complacent mind. Secondly…

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It proceeds with a careless mind

One day a duck was flying with his mates in the springtime northward across Europe. During the flight he came down in a Danish barnyard where there were tame ducks. He enjoyed some of their corn. He stayed for an hour, then for a day, then for a week, then for a month, and finally, because he relished the good fare and the safety of the barnyard, he stayed all summer.

But one autumn day when the flock of wild ducks were winging their way southward again, they passed over the barnyard, and their mate heard their cries. He was stirred with a strange thrill of joy and delight, and with a great flapping of wings he rose in the air to join his old comrades in their flight.

But he found that his good fare had made him so soft and heavy that he could rise no higher than the eaves of the barn. So he dropped back again to the barnyard, and said to himself, 'Oh well, my life is safe here and the food is good.’ Every spring and autumn when he heard the wild ducks honking, his eyes would gleam for a moment, and he would begin to flap his wings. But finally the day came when the wild ducks flew over him and uttered their cry, but he paid not the slightest attention to them" (Clarence Macartney, Preaching without Notes, Abingdon Press, 1937).

Because our minds are capable of receiving and processing and then storing tons of information daily, a careless attitude toward our thoughts is devastating. - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, pages 57-58.

You can’t afford to be careless with your thoughts. A careless mind could very well lead to a careless life.

Psalm 119:59 (KJV 1900)

I thought on my ways, And turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

Paul told Timothy:

1 Timothy 4:15–16 KJV 1900

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

“Meditation is a lost art. We have too much to do to think.” - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 60.

Application: Christian, what do you meditate on?

There are many things in life that, when we think about them, bring distress, discouragement, and disaster. A meditation on God's Word will do just the opposite. - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 61

Psalm 1:1–2 (KJV 1900)

Blessed is the man

That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor standeth in the way of sinners,

Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord;

And in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Christian, guard your heart. If you don’t, you’ll become a Christian with a secular worldview. You’ll become a Christian that thinks like the world. It begins with a complacent mind, it proceeds with a careless mind, and thirdly…

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It worsens with a contaminated mind

Read Proverbs 4:23.

Your mind is a channel. Let enough of the same influences into it, and eventually, those influences are going to show in how you live. Proverbs 4:23 indicates this in the second half of the verse. “Out of it [the heart] are the issues of life.” Literally, your heart, your inner man, is the source of your life. Whatever you allow in to influence your heart, you allow in to influence the source of your life.

You can have a crystal clear glass of the purest water, but put a few drops of red food coloring in it and the whole glass will be contaminated real quick.

Application: That’s how your mind is. If you allow yourself to be lazy with your mind, or even worse, get to a point of being careless with your mind, give it enough time, and you will have a contaminated mind that will change how you live.

That’s what may happen if you don’t guard your heart.

This brings us to the first question that I raised:

How do we guard something that is abstract/unseen? How do we guard our hearts?

Solomon indicates the solution in verses 20-22.

Read Proverbs 4:20-22.

The solution? The Word of God. You guard your heart with understanding and applying the Word. This is a theme repeated all throughout Proverbs.

Proverbs 1:1 indicates that these were the proverbs - the sayings, the words - of Solomon to his son.

Proverbs 2:1 “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee;”

Proverbs 3:1 “My son, forget not my law; But let thine heart keep my commandments:”

Proverbs 4:1 “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding.”

Conclusion

Church family, guard your heart from becoming complacent, careless, and contaminated. Guard your heart by saturating it with the Word of God.