Soldiering Your Influences

The heart is the source of human desires

Proverbs 4:23 NASB95

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

Heart = inner man…the inclinations…the desires are all formed here...

Ps 10:3 “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.”

Mt 12:34–35 ““You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.”

What does this text say about those careless words we use and then say “I really didn’t mean that”?

God knows the human heart

1 Ki 8:39; 1 Ch 28:9

See also 1 Sa 16:7 God’s choice of David; Ps 7:9; Ps 19:14; Ps 26:2; Ps 38:9; Ps 44:21; Ps 139:2; Ps 139:23; Pr 15:26; Pr 21:2; Je 11:20 The plot of Jeremiah’s enemies is revealed to him by the Lord; Je 20:12; Eze 11:5; Re 2:23; Mt 9:4 Jesus Christ knows the thoughts of others.

The corruption of the heart

Its inclination towards evil

Genesis 6:5 NASB95

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

See also Ge 8:21; Ps 14:1–3; Ps 94:11; Ec 9:3; Je 17:9–10; Mt 15:18–19

It leads to disregard for God

Isaiah 65:2 NASB95

“I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,

It produces false confidence

Deuteronomy 29:18–19 NASB95

so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. “It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’

See also Je 23:17

It leads to idolatry

Jeremiah 9:14 NASB95

but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

See also Je 13:10 “‘This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.”

It leads to disobedience

Jeremiah 7:24 NASB95

“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

See also Je 16:12

It brings God’s judgment

Jeremiah 11:8 NASB95

‘Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’ ”

See also Pr 28:14; Pr 29:1; Je 18:12–13; Ro 2:5; Heb 3:7–11; Ps 95:7–11

God’s renewal of the heart

It results in purified desires

Je 24:7; Eze 36:26

See also Dt 6:6; Eze 11:19; Ro 12:2; 2 Co 4:6; Eph 4:23; Php 4:8–9; Heb 8:10; Je 31:33

Examples of renewed hearts

2 Ch 11:16; Ne 9:8; Ps 51:10; Ps 57:7; Ps 86:11; Je 3:17

God delights in a pure heart

Psalm 24:3–5 NASB95

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

See also Dt 5:29; Ps 73:1; Ps 125:4; Mt 5:8

God fulfils the desires of hearts devoted to him

Psalm 37:4 NASB95

Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

See also Ps 21:2; Ps 145:19; Mt 6:21; Mt 6:33

God gives the desire to follow him

1 Chronicles 29:18 NASB95

“O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart of Your people, and direct their heart to You;