A Grateful Heart - Proverbs 4:20-23 and Colossians 2:6-7

Introduction

<<PRAY>> <<READ 20-23>>

Review

Prov 3-4 - helped us understand the nature of wisdom & the nature of the heart

Heart often refers to the whole of our inner life - the core of who you are. We’ve been using the metaphor of a treasure chest, where you keep your plans, hopes, thoughts, dreams, love.

Most important things to store in that treasure chest - God’s teachings & His steadfast love - because God Himself is the treasure

Wisdom - seeing God’s truth in God’s world - seeing God’s world the way He does - makes wisdom a treasury of God’s grace and guidance.

A Sermon in Two Vignettes - Prov 4:20-23, which will guide the rest of our series, and then Col 2:6-7

Illustration of the heart as treasure, guarding it

Illustration of gratitude

CPS: Grace goes in, gratitude comes out

Prelude: Guard Your Heart (Prov 4:20-23)

I’m going to read verses 20 through 27. <<READ 20-27>>

Notice how Solomon begins on the outside and moves in to the heart, and then verse 23 changes direction, and everything after verse 23 is the outflow from the heart. What comes out has a lot to do with what goes in.

In vv20-22, the focus is on keeping the words of life in your heart.

He says to bend your ear. Cup your hand over your ear and strain to hear.

He says not to let his words escape your sight. Like a hunter tracking his game, or a parent at the pool with her kids.

ILLUST:

Some Boy Scouts went out to get their Orienteering Merit Badge during Summer Camp, and to do so, they had to learn how to use a compass and a paper topographical map. No phones, no GPS.

The boys divided into two groups sort of naturally, each group following a kid with leadership potential. The leader of group one was careful and paid attention while the Senior Patrol Leader was showing them how to twist the face of the compass to keep track of your heading, and how to use landmarks like trees and bends in a trail to set set a course and keep track of where you’re going.

The leader of group two was charismatic and funny, but he didn’t pay much attention. Yeah, yeah, got it. Red means north. “I use Google Maps all the time, and it’s way more complicated and high tech than a paper map. This will be a breeze.”

The Senior Patrol Leader took group 1 to a hill and told them to use the skills they’d learned to figure out where they were, and to make it to a location on the map, where they’d find their next instruction. They’d make their way to 10 different locations, the tenth of which was their destination.

He took group 2 to another hill and gave the same instructions.

Group 1 struggled to find their way at first, but little by little, the instructions sank in. They kept their eyes peeled and experimented with the map and compass until they had it figured out. When they laid the map on the ground, they remembered that the SPL told them to use stones to hold down the corners to keep it from blowing away.

Group 2 wandered around and joked for a while, figuring they’d pull out the map if they needed it. the leader’s smirk vanished as he realized that they didn’t even know where they were. They didn’t really remember how to figure it out, either. He pulled out the map and tried to hold it in his hands, and then somehow hold the compass at the same time. He noticed that the red arrow pointed left. “So north is left,” he said, but he didn’t know how to use that information. “What good does it do us if we don’t know where we are?”

Group 1 got to the final stop at sundown, and found that the Scout Master had made a campfire and had everything ready for Hobo Dinners. They wrapped potatoes, onions, corn cobs, and chicken breasts in foil and laid them on the coals while they regaled the Scout Master with the story of finding their way.

An hour later, the SPL and JPL trekked into camp with Group 2 by flashlight. The fire wasn’t hot enough to cook anymore, so Group 1 ate Vienna sausages and trail mix.

The wisdom of Scripture is so much more important and wonderful than Orienteering lessons. The wise son or daughter - the one who has come to treasure and trust the LORD, will see the truth of verse 22 - this is where we find life. This is why the apostles hung on Christ’s words, even when so many turned away. As Peter said, “Where else can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life?”

The ears and the eyes are the inroads for the heart, so be attentive - listen and read.

If verses 20-22 tell us that the Words of Life go INTO the heart by our ears and our eyes, verses 23-27 show us that whatever’s in your heart will also come OUT - by our lips or our gaze or our feet. And whatever comes out of the heart demonstrates what’s in it.

At the heart is verse 23 <<READ>>

Guard, keep, protect your heart like the treasure chest it is.

In ancient Israel and the surrounding nations, a natural spring was a perfect place to build a town. If you walled in the city, then even if an enemy besieged you, you had fresh, flowing water to drink.

In a section in Isaiah where he is prophesying about the coming of the Messiah, he says that in that day

Isaiah 12:3–4 ESV

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

And Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well,

John 4:13–14 ESV

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

And in John 7

John 7:38 ESV

38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

The rest of our Matters of the Heart series will deal with how to keep your heart with all vigilance. This is, first and foremost, an invitation to greater trust in Christ’s finished work. The contrite heart, the surrendered, wise, joyful, resilient heart, and today - the grateful heart - each of these is a spring that flows by grace from the redeemed heart as the Gospel of Jesus Christ takes root and bears fruit in us.

We’re going to see this in amazing ways as we look, first of all, at Colossians 2:6-7 and the grateful heart, answering the question:

Q. How does God-centered gratitude guard our hearts?

<<READ 2:6-7>>

I. The Grateful Heart Remembers God’s Grace (…as you received Christ …as you were taught)

Verse 6 begins with “Therefore,” and some of you have probably heard that when you come across a “therefore,” you should always ask what it’s there for.

Paul began the letter to the Colossians by giving thanks to God for the faith of the Colossians // he says in verses 3-14 that the Gospel is going forth throughout the world, bearing fruit & growing. He tells them how he prays for them to grow in all spiritual wisdom so that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, built up and strengthened by Him, full of joy, and in verse 12, “giving thanks to the Father” for the Gospel. He summarizes the Gospel in vv13-14 -

Colossians 1:13–14 ESV

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And then, in verses 15-20, the words practically sing right off the page - <<READ 15-20>>

And Paul says, “and that’s your story. Alienated and hostile to God, but Jesus reconciled you to God by his death.” In verse 23, he reminds them not to shift from the hope of the Gospel, to keep their eyes fixed on this. Paul’s entire ministry, according to 2:3, is about proclaiming this one truth - Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Therefore, he says in verse 6, walk in Christ the same way you received Him.

Do you see how verses 6-7 are sort of sandwiched between “as you received Christ” and “just as you were taught”? Not shifting from the Gospel, but with your gaze straight ahead and fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith.

And how did you receive Christ? Paul’s summary is this: you received him “abounding in thanksgiving.” And this brings us to the biblical idea of thanksgiving.

For Paul, “thanksgiving” is a worship word. It’s directed to God every time. If you sent Paul a nice gift, he would thank God for you and then ask Him to bless you.

2 Corinthians 9:15 ESV

15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

We see Biblical idea of thanksgiving in

Psalm 100:4 ESV

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Gratefulness - thankfulness - is closely connected to praise and blessing.

Look at the grateful heart in

Psalm 136:1 ESV

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

And the rest of the Psalm is a call and response, coming back to “His steadfast love endures forever” again and again as the people remember God’s goodness in Creation, delivering Israel from Egypt and through the Red Sea, bringing them to the Promised Land, and being kind to them even in their lowest moments.

ILLUST: We think of thanksgiving as a sort of polite thing, a matter of etiquette. For us, “appreciation” is a synonym for thanks. But in Scripture, the closest things to thanksgiving are praise, bless, worship.

Biblical thanksgiving is radically God-centered.

The Grateful Heart remembers God’s grace - His undeserved, steadfast love. His un-merited favor in salvation. It doesn’t let grace out of its sight.

ILLUST: When you read the letters of Paul, or John, or Peter, are you ever amazed that they are so fixated on thanksgiving for God’s grace in them and in others? These are Spirit-filled men, instruments of God’s revelation, and they’re still in awe that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, even the chief of sinners. Years later, these Spirit-filled men are still saying things like,

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Some of you remember when you first came to know the LORD, and you were overwhelmed with thanksgiving - Grace went in and gratitude poured out.

Thanksgiving fixes our eyes on the wonder that God rescued us. Remembering God’s grace keeps our hearts amazed at His grace. You received Christ as a sinner saved by grace. Now walk in Christ as a sinner saved by grace.

The second way that gratitude guards our hearts is closely related:

II. The Grateful Heart Rehearses God’s Gospel (…in him …in the faith)

In Colossians 1-2, Paul has already expounded on the nature of the Gospel, and in verses 9-15, he’s going to do it again. But here in verses 6-7, he points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ three times when he says:

Walk in him - rooted and built up in him - established in the faith.

Gratitude guards our hearts by rehearsing the Gospel. Just as Israel rehearsed the great saving acts of God in Psalm 136, our thanksgivings remind us of what God has done in Christ.

So Paul says things like, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.”

A Grateful Heart never tires of hearing that when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ Jesus. And remembering God’s grace and rehearsing God’s Gospel guards our hearts by keeping the words of life in our hearts. That’s why we sing God-centered, Gospel-drenched songs of thanksgiving that echo what Christ has done.

And when we’re rooted and built up in the grace of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we begin to discover something else:

III. The Grateful Heart Reveals God’s Goodness in Everything (…abounding in thanksgiving)

Verse 7 ends with the phrase, “abounding in thanksgiving.” This is thanksgiving like a cup running over, or like the feeding of the 5000, when everyone ate their fill and still there were baskets and baskets left over, thanksgiving that reflects the overflowing nature of God’s goodness.

In Colossians 1:9-11, Paul prays for the readers to be

filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

This is a prayer for Christ to be at work in every single area of every believer’s life. So that everywhere you go, everywhere you look, you would see the LORD’s hand.

Grace goes in, and gratitude overflows.

This is the kind of thanksgiving that we see in Jesus Himself. Like in

Luke 10:21–22 ESV

21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

And in John 11, at the tomb of Lazarus. When news comes to the disciples that Lazarus is sick, Jesus waits two days, and then says that they’re going to see him.

John 11:15 ESV

15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

And when they arrive at the tomb, Jesus weeps, and then

John 11:41–42 ESV

41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

And he says, “Lazarus, come out,” and the man who had died came out.

Jesus gave thanks to the Father at the Feeding of the 5000, at the Feeding of the 4000, at the Last Supper, after His resurrection at dinner with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

How does a grateful heart reveal God’s goodness in everything? By giving thanks in all circumstances:

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

How can we give thanks in all circumstances?

If the gift of salvation is eternal, when should I stop thanking Him? Never!

Every good thing is a gift from the Father. And like Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, the grateful heart can weep, too. In our sorrows, we can thank Him for always hearing us, because we are in Christ.

A heart that remembers and rehearses God’s grace in the Gospel may be afflicted by present sorrow, even immense sorrow, but the words of life will still be there, fresh and clear and ready to flow. Remember: He has promised that He will wipe those tears from your eyes with His own nail-scarred hand.

Conclusion: Learning to Give Thanks

And this brings us to the end: Learning to give thanks.

ILLUST: REGAN - Christ at the center of all things

Thanksgiving is fuel for praise. And it’s a weapon that cuts pride’s feet out from under it. The opposite of the grateful heart is the selfish, ungrateful one. And we don’t start life with the grateful heart.

We learn the word “MINE” long before we learn the word “Thanks.” And if you watch little children play together, even after you teach them “thanks,” they’ll say “mine” a lot more. We’re born ingrates.

But the spring of gratefulness wells up when we remember and rehearse

GOD so loved YOU that He gave His only Son.

GOD gives EVERYONE who believes eternal life in Christ Jesus.

HE CHOSE US in Him before the foundation of the world; IN LOVE HE PREDESTINED US for adoption through Jesus Christ to the praise of His glorious grace

JESUS is holding us fast, building us up, establishing us in Him

Then we can learn a grateful heart even in sorrow. Gratitude for all that Jesus Christ is for us is a bulwark against pride, selfishness, despair.

But maybe you’re struggling with this today.

“What do I have to be thankful for?”

We start by remembering grace, rehearsing the Gospel,

Look at the songs of thanksgiving and praise in Scripture as a model, like Moses after God parted the Red Sea:

Exodus 15:2 ESV

2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Like Hannah when the LORD gave her a son after years of sorrow, or Mary’s song when God chose her to bear the Savior:

Luke 1:46–49 ESV

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Listening and looking to the Words of Life, we will begin to see the spring of gratefulness well up and overflow everywhere we look.

So that, with the Psalmist, even in our sorrows, we can say:

Psalm 30:11–12 ESV

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Or as Ps 136 concludes:

Psalm 136:23–26 ESV

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever; 24 and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever; 25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever. 26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.