Watchfulness: The Forgotten Discipline
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro: Describe finding out about borrowing a quarter from the Aldi cashier. Prior to last Tuesday I had never known that. It was available to me, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know!
Similarly, it wasn’t until 2018 that I learned about the spiritual discipline of watchfulness. It’s not that I never read about it in the Bible. It’s not that I had never considered being watchful over my soul. Rather, I just hadn’t been taught of the necessity, importance, and practice of watchfulness.
We’ve reached the final discipline in of our habits of a disciple series. Together we’ve discussed: The importance of discipline, Bible reading and study, meditation and memorization, prayer, fasting, worship, fellowship and community, evangelism and discipleship, and thanksgiving.
This week we look at watchfulness.
FCF: We live in a distracting age, and we are more spiritually distracted than ever. With so many things clamoring for our attention and affections, we desperately need to practice watchfulness. The worst habit we can build is negligence of our souls. The greatest habit we can build—because of how it benefits all of the other habits we’ve looked at—is watchfulness.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Main Point: To keep our hearts set on Christ, we must build the habit of watchfulness and keep practicing it.
Main Point: To keep our hearts set on Christ, we must build the habit of watchfulness and keep practicing it.
1. Our hearts are the most vital part of who we are.
1. Our hearts are the most vital part of who we are.
We need to understand what the Bible teaches about the heart.
Our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9)
Our words and actions flow from the heart (Mt. 15:18-19)
Our hearts reflect who we truly are. Godless words and actions from godless hearts. Godly words and actions come from godly hearts. (Prov. 27:19)
Prov. 4:23 says that from our hearts everything in our lives flow. Just like spring water flows out from the middle of the spring, so the issues and actions of our lives flow from our hearts.
Our hearts represent the whole soul or inner person—where we will, think, and feel.
The biblical phrase heart encompasses our minds, our wills and desires, our conscience, our affections and emotions, and even the whole soul.
When the Scriptures speak of salvation, we don’t just get a renewed will. The Bible speaks of giving us a new heart (Ez. 36:26).
When we feel something and act on something, we do it from the heart. This doesn’t mean we do everything from true and pure motivations, but it means that our hearts govern our actions.
As Christians, then, our hearts are vital in every way.
Through the work of regeneration, we receive new hearts—new eyes to see and ears to hear the gospel and the Word of God. Only new hearts respond to the gospel!
With new hearts, the north on our compass is Christ. He is where we should always be looking. His glory is where should always be aiming. In all things our goal should be Christ-focused hearts.
Sanctification and discipleship can be summed up as increasing our focus on and devotion to Christ. The chief aim of discipleship is keep our hearts set on Christ in all that we do.
Application: Our greatest and most difficult task as Christians is to have the eyes of our hearts set on Christ.
Illustration: If someone brought you a briefcase full of gold bricks, you wouldn’t just leave it setting on the front porch or in your living room. You’d either take it somewhere safe or buy a vault to lock it up in. Our hearts are worth more than a million dollars worth of gold. We need to remember this every day.
Trust in Christ today.
If you haven’t already put your faith in Christ, your heart is in the most dangerous place it could be. The Bible describes your heart as a heart of stone. It needs to be replaced with a beating, living heart. This comes through trusting in Christ. The greatest thing you can do right now is trust in Christ right now.
Take notice of your heart. Reflect on where you are.
If you’re a new Christian or still feel immature in your faith, now is the time to start paying attention to your heart. Notice your thoughts. Pay attention to your actions. Make a note of Who you are and how you live. You’re still fighting off the world, and sometimes the world is going to win battles. But Christ in you will win the war.
Don’t lose sight of your heart’s importance.
If you’re a mature Christian, you still need to be reminded about the importance of your heart. Who you are at the heart level matters immensely in the Christian life. Don’t lose sight of who you. Satan is crafting, and He’s still warring against us!
2. We have build the habit of watchfulness.
2. We have build the habit of watchfulness.
Illustration: As winter approaches, we have to be on guard for ice storms. Ice storms are tricky because if you don’t see them coming, you will be left unprepared. They can knock the power out for days. The roads get treacherous and you can’t hardly travel to get food or supplies when you need them. However, if you know an ice storm is coming, you can get ready.
Spiritually, watchfulness is like preparing for an ice storm. Watchfulness doesn’t wait for the temptation to come. It’s prepared well in advance for the Enemy’s attack. Watchfulness picks up on the shifting and cold winds, noticing that the cold air is moving in quick and the raindrops might freeze on impact. Watchfulness sees the forecast and says, “I better get some nonperishable food, some blankets, and my kerosene ready. I better bring in a load of wood for the fireplace.”
Watchfulness is continually keeping our souls awake and carefully guarding our hearts and ways so that we stay close to God and far from sin and Satan.
This definition contains three parts for us to tease out:
First, watchfulness is continually keeping our souls awake.
We see several commands throughout the Bible calling us to “stay awake”. When we are spiritually sleepy, we are in a danger zone. God sent us several reminders not to let the world lull us to sleep. For example:
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Next, watchfulness is carefully guarding our hearts and ways.
In our passage this morning, we see this called to “keep our hearts with all vigilance”. The Hebrew for “keep” is to guard or protect. We’ve already seen the value of the heart. It is something to be protected, watched over, and kept! It’s too valuable to just lend it out to the world to do whatever it wants with it. Guarding is not a passive activity. It’s active and fierce.
Proverbs 4:23 could literally be translated as “guard your heart with guarding”. The CSB says “Guard your heart above all else” and the ESV says, “Keep the heart with all vigilance”. The point is clear: Guarding our hearts requires diligent, militant effort. We are in a war for our hearts, and we can’t passively or lazily let the enemy do His work!
Illustration: If you saw a security guard asleep on the job or lazily walking around looking at his phone, you could easily break in and steal whatever you wanted. But if you looked up on the roof and saw snipers. And you looked at the door and saw two armed guards. And in every window you saw another guard, you’d know not to mess with that place. So it is with our souls. We need to guard every part of our hearts!
Vigilance means having your head on a swivel. You’re always ready for a test of your faith. You’re prepared for Satans fiery darts and your armor is already on. Your hand is on your sword and ready to strike.
“If your heart is not watched, you will be a mess” - Brian Hedges
Finally, watchfulness has two aims: to stay near to God and away from sin and Satan.
The first and positive aim of watchfulness is to stay near to God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit want to walk with us. Christ died so we can have a relationship with the Father through Him. He gave us His Spirit to be in and with us. Sin separates us from God, so we want to guard ourselves from walking in sin. Watching and praying helps us to do just that.
The second and negative aim is to stay away from sin and satan. This world is like a minefield. If you knew every step could be your last, you’d walk much more carefully. The world, flesh, and the devil are constantly looking to deceive and destroy us. Watchfulness keeps us from negligently drifting toward Satan and his kingdom. If we aren’t watchful, though, we will end up embracing satan’s kingdom unknowingly.
Application: How do we practice watchfulness?
Stay Awake.
Keep a close eye on the things that steal your attention from God. These things are what put us to sleep. Don’t let hobbies, agendas, conspiracy theories, movies, sports, or anything steal your attention and affection from God. When you feel God get “boring” and other things more “interesting”, you’re falling asleep. Wake yourself up! Put those things aside and get your focus and attention back on Christ.
Carefully guard your heart.
Today, watchfulness will get called legalism or introspection. We can definitely fall into legalism or look too much at ourselves. But remember the Words of Paul to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (1 Cor. 13:5). Pray Psalm 139:23–24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”. Don’t be a stranger to your own heart. But also take everything you see in your heart to Christ!.
If you see sin, take it to the cross. If you see fear, take it to Jesus. If you see laziness, take it Him. If you see apathy, give it to Jesus. If you’re spiritually sleepy, pray for the Lord to wake you up!
If you see godliness, give Him the glory. If you see peace and patience, thank the Lord. If you see growth and joy, praise His name. Watchfulness isn’t just about seeing our wrongs. It’s about seeing God at work.
Stay near to God.
As we wrap up our series on spiritual habits that can help us follow the Lord, it’s good to remember that spiritual disciplines can help us stay near to God. The habits and disciplines we’ve learned all help us to stay near to God.
Watchfulness in the spiritual disciplines will keep us close to God.
3. We must persevere in watchfulness for all of our days.
3. We must persevere in watchfulness for all of our days.
Illustration: A couple of years ago, I became a health coach. Prior to being a health coach, I didn’t really read self-help books. I’d occasionally read a diet book to drop a few pounds, but I was skeptical of the world’s advice when it came to my life. The Scriptures and godly saints have written books and articles to help me navigate life, so I usually stayed in that arena. In God’s common grace, non-believers can say right things about life and give advice on some matters. But we have to be wise and discerning. Watchfulness matters in all seasons of your walk with Christ. We may be more mature in our faith later in life, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t less watchful.
No matter how long you’ve been saved or how old you are, you can’t give up watching.
When we get lazy in watchfulness, we are in great spiritual danger.
Jesus said this to the church in Sardis:
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
No matter how confident you feel in your walk with God, don’t give up watching.
Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church in the midst of their mess:
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
If you’re near the end of your life or think to yourself, “Jesus is coming back soon”, keep watching.
Peter wrote this in his second letter:
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Application: We must persevere in watchfulness.
We must not give up watching.
We have to be watchful until Christ returns or we meet Him at the end of this life. The end is near, and there’s no time to relax!
Take no spiritual days off.
While we should always strive to have assurance and confidence in the Lord, we must always remember that we wage war with the flesh. We are sojourners and this world is not our home!
The world takes no days off. The flesh takes no breaks. The devil is always lurking. We must remain vigilant until the end!
When you’re tired, call on the Lord.
I know you get tired sometimes. Christ knows that too. In those moments, confess your weakness and find your strength in His strength. No matter what you do, don’t keep watching so you can stay close to Christ.
Conclusion: Watchfulness keeps our eyes on Christ through every season of our spiritual journey.
Conclusion: Watchfulness keeps our eyes on Christ through every season of our spiritual journey.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Watchfulness is like the glue for all the other spiritual disciplines. It helps us do the others rightly and it keeps us focused on the right things.
Call to action: Spend some time today reflecting on your soul. Don’t just take a glance. Sit down and think about where your heart is. How are you living right now? How’s your faith? Have you been negligent of your soul? If so, now’s the time to wake up and watch!
