Above All Else
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
ME: Intro - Mom’s Transplant?
ME: Intro - Mom’s Transplant?
I almost always wear this green band.
It says donate life on it.
I got it when my mom was in the hospital in Philly.
She was in the hospital because after dealing with lung issues most of her life,
Her heart had failed.
While in the hospital,
She was on life support because she needed a heart transplant.
As a result of her heart failure,
She was putting on fluid,
Could not breath,
Unable to oxygenate her blood,
And malnourished,
Just to name a few things.
So, the doctors addressed these things.
They drained fluids,
They gave her a feeding tube,
They put in a trachea so she could breath,
And hooked her up to a machine that would oxygenate the blood.
But none of these things ultimately addressed the source of her problem.
She needed a new heart.
And after a week and a half,
She received a double lung and heart transplant.
After she recovered,
She no longer needed all these other things because the doctors addressed the source of the problem,
They were able to give her a new heart.
My mom needed a new heart in a physical sense.
We all need a new heart in a spiritual sense.
Sadly, we often do not address the source of the problem,
Because we think putting ourselves on spiritual life support is the solution.
In other words, we treat Christianity as if we just stop doing bad things,
Then God will be happy and let us come to heaven.
There are so many problems with this way of thinking.
First and foremost, it is not true.
This is not what the Bible teaches.
Second, we cannot stop doing bad things.
We cannot modify our behavior enough to save ourselves.
We cannot stop doing what the Bible calls sin.
This really should be clear to us.
Think about things you still do even though you don’t want to do it?
You know it is wrong, you know it is destructive,
But you can’t stop yourself from doing it.
You continue to struggle.
You want to break the habit but you can’t.
You try to modify your behavior,
You tell yourself, “This is bad, I shouldn’t be doing it, stop!”
You may even try to make changes, or put up barriers, to stop yourself,
But eventually, you find your way around those changes,
Back to doing the bad things.
Why?
Why does your behavior modification not work?
Well, as another pastor once said,
Behavior modification is like mowing dandelions.
The day you mow over the dandelions,
The lawn looks great, right?
But after just a couple days,
The dandelions are back and they’ve multiplied!
Why?
Because you did not address the root of the dandelions.
Such is the case with behavior modification.
Our behavior is the surface of the problem.
So, changing behavior does not address the source of the problem.
The source is the heart.
We need to address the source, not the surface.
If we do not deal with our sin at the heart level,
No amount of behavioral changes will stop bad things from rising to the surface.
All of us have a heart level problem.
All of us, the Bible says, are sinners by nature.
We are all broken and have a natural bent toward evil.
We naturally love the things God hates.
We naturally hate the things God loves.
As long as we try to just modify our surface level behavior,
We will never experience lasing change.
We need to change the source, not the surface.
Our attempts at behavior modification either leads to hopelessness,
As you are overwhelmed at your inability to fix your problems.
Or it produces pride because you are fooled into thinking you are able to fix your problems.
Both just deepen the problem,
Neither address the source of the problem.
Our passage this morning,
Proverbs 4:20-27, shows us that we must guard our heart above all else.
This is the answer to our heart problem.
The heart is the source of every behavior in your life.
In order to see lasting change in the surface behavior,
We must have a change at the source.
Want to obey God?
Want to walk in wisdom?
You need a spiritual heart transplant.
That is the source is changed.
Going through our passage this morning,
We will see that there are:
External Influences (vs. 20-22)
Internal Source (vs. 23)
External Indicators (vs. 24-27)
Change the source, not the surface.
Our text this morning continues the train of thought from vs. 10-19.
Although it does not use the words wisdom and foolishness,
It continues to contrast these two paths.
But now, the emphasis of this contrast reaches a deeper level.
It is getting at the heart level.
It is concerned about our heart and our mind.
It is concerned about what we love and desire,
Concerned about what we concentrate on and give attention to.
Because whatever captures our hearts,
Captures our minds,
And directs where we go.
Whether we travel the wise path of life?
Or the foolish path of death?
The constant repetition to concentrate in these verses is clearly deliberate.
A major part of heart change lies in our attentiveness to truth.
But our passage this morning shows that truth is not the only external influence on our heart.
WE: External Influences (vs. 20-22)
WE: External Influences (vs. 20-22)
Vs. 20-22 remind us of these external influences.
My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.
Last week, we talked about how Wisdom is a person to love,
But also a path to walk.
Unfortunately, we humans have incredibly short attention spans.
So, we see throughout Proverbs that our heavenly Father repeatedly commands us to pay attention and listen up.
This is more than merely hearing wise words being spoken.
It is a command to consent to wisdom,
To submit to wisdom.
It is essentially an encouragement to stay on the wise path.
Live each day by walking in righteousness.
Vs. 21 prohibits us from neglecting wisdom.
And it says, to do this we must have wisdom written on our heart.
But notice how the commands in these two verses emphasize multiple body parts.
Incline your ear, don’t let them escape your eyes, keep them in your heart.
Wise words are received externally.
But when they come to the heart,
There is a level of belief,
Or trust in what is being received externally.
So, we do not just hear wise words with our ears,
Or see wisdom with our eyes,
We must keep it in our heart.
Slide
Think for a moment, how many external influences come into our ears or eyes?
There are so many message competing for our heart!
Messages from God,
From our parents, from counselors, from friends, from tempters,
From culture, from leaders and authorities, and the list could go on and on.
All of these messages are competing for our attention.
They all want our heart.
Think about the music you listen to, the movies and shows you watch,
The books you read, the posts on your feed, the podcasts you devour.
So many messages trying to tell us what to do, how to think, and how to live.
These messages range from the simple, like telling you how to design a space in your home,
To the complex, like how to self-diagnose a mental disorder.
So, with all of these messages coming at us,
The vitally important question to ask is,
What messages are you listening to?
This is vitally important because these messages can go in your ears and eyes,
Soak in your mind for a time,
And eventually they begin to influence your heart.
Because your eyes and ears are the gates to your heart.
So, yeah, the things you listen to and look at matter.
They become the external influences on your heart.
Songs, sermons, shows, and social media shape you.
Are you aware of how powerful these external influences are?
They have the ability to captivate us and influence the way we think,
And influence who we become.
Slide
So, Proverbs is telling us, Listen to God!
Let His Word be the greatest influence on your heart.
Otherwise, you will find yourself listening to foolishness,
Listening to Satan.
Something that will lead you away from life.
When talking about listening,
This is not just listening with you ears,
It is also “listening” with your eyes.
What you hear and what you see will work its way into your heart.
So, commit to listening and reading wisdom.
This will allow wisdom to form your heart.
When wisdom works its way into your heart,
That is what will bring about lasting change.
This requires you to know wisdom, to commit wisdom to memory, to meditate on wisdom.
Slide
At the same time, you must be able to identify the idols or values that are currently occupying space in your heart that should be reserved for wisdom.
God changes your heart.
But there is work for you to do as well.
Vs. 20-21 say the words must go in your ears and eyes and down to your heart.
Concluding that wisdom must be written on your heart.
This is a repetitive theme throughout Proverbs.
Wisdom must be in your heart to keep you from evil.
Back in Proverbs 2:2,
We are told to incline our heart to understanding.
Here in ch. 4, it says, after inclining our heart to understanding,
We are to keep this understanding in our hearts.
The heart is the primary focus in the work of biblical counseling.
We talk about the heart early and often.
Because the heart is used to refer to the seat of reason or human will.
It is the center of our thoughts, emotions, and conscience.
It is our innermost being.
It is the operation center of human life.
The mind, in Scripture, is often closely related,
But not necessarily the same.
The mind is generally more concerned with head knowledge,
While heart knowledge generally speaks of this relational knowing.
Both are influenced by and influence the other.
The mind influences the heart and is influenced by the heart.
The heart influences the mind and is influenced by the mind.
The key difference is knowing something in your mind to be true may result in obligatory compliance.
Verses knowing something in your heart produces willing, whole-hearted compliance.
Slide
For example, and speaking from experience here,
You may know in your mind that eating Taco Bell is not good for you.
But until you know it in your heart,
When you get done shopping at Wal Mart in Vestal,
You find yourself driving home snacking on a 5-layer burrito and a crunchwrap supreme.
This may not be as much of a concern when it comes to Taco Bell,
But what about when it comes to how you treat those closest to you?
For example, you know in your mind you should not yell, “I hate you!” at your parents, your children, or your spouse.
But if you do not know it in your heart,
When you are angry and emotions bubble up to the surface,
What comes out?
Then after the fact,
You want to do damage control,
So, you apologize and say, “I don’t know where that came from.”
I believe you are genuine when you say that.
If you don’t know where that came from,
Our passage this morning is showing you that it came from your heart.
Other times, if we are honest with ourselves,
We realize that we know where that came from.
We know it came from the heart.
But we don’t want to confront where that came from.
Because that is hard work,
And I would rather just show remorse in the moment immediately following the evil outflow of my heart,
Then do the hard work of having to influence our heart with wisdom,
So, that God does the spiritual heart surgery our text teaches.
Slide
To do this,
It helps to have a better understanding of our heart.
So, I have this lovely x-ray image of the human heart.
Now, I realize it may not be what you were expecting it to look like.
But this is what the Bible teaches that our heart looks like.
It demonstrates four essential characteristics of the heart.
First, the heart has legs because the heart is active.
It is always going somewhere,
It is always after something.
Which leads to the second characteristic,
The heart is liturgical,
Meaning the heart worships.
Whatever the heart is going after,
That is what the heart worships.
So, the Bible tells us to put the cross in the center of the heart.
Because the cross represents our Lord, Christ,
Whom we are to worship.
But whatever is at the center of the heart,
Whatever is important to a person is what will have control over them.
Third, notice the crack down the middle.
The heart is broken.
It is sick from sin.
So, the heart chases after everything and anything but God.
The problem with people is the human heart.
It is wildly depraved.
But, notice the band-aid in the top right corner.
The heart is curable!
The heart can be changed!
God does spiritual heart surgery.
Throughout our lives on this earth,
All who have a new heart are progressively made more and more like Christ.
And there is a future where the heart will be fully restored.
There will be no sin in this world and no sin in the human heart.
As one of my biblical counseling professors would say,
The heart of our problem is the problem of our heart.
And this heart change is hard work.
So, why bother doing this hard work?
Slide
Vs. 22 gives the answer.
When we incline our heart to understanding,
And keep wisdom in our heart,
It heals our whole body.
It is what reverses the brokenness of our heart.
It is the cure for our sinful heart.
And as the heart is healed the body is healed.
This is the idea that Proverbs 3:8 gets at as well;
For this healing to happen,
Wisdom must be written on our heart.
Because the heart is the source of who we are.
Slide
GOD: Internal Source (vs. 23)
GOD: Internal Source (vs. 23)
Vs. 23 is clear that the heart is The Internal Source.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
This is key to understanding Proverbs,
And all of life, really.
The CSB says it this way, “Guard your heart above all else.”
Think about that for a moment, what are things that you guard?
I remember one of my favorite games in gym class was capture the flag.
There was always that one person who stayed right by the flag, right.
I was the reckless kid who ran over and over and kept getting tagged by that person.
So, I would always accuse them of puppy guarding!
They are protecting the flag because it is under attack,
I was trying to take the flag from them.
Likewise, if you are guarding your heart,
You are protecting it, you are keeping it from being taken.
Proverbs says to guard your heart with all vigilance,
Or above all else,
Literally, guard your heart more than all guarding.
We must defend our heart with a greater defense then we defend anything else.
We must watch over it diligently.
As we talked about earlier, out of the heart comes our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Your heart is the true you.
It directs you.
It is the command center of you.
It is the key,
The source of everything in your life.
If you picture your life as a river,
Like the second part of this verse does.
Your heart is the spring, the source from where the water flows.
Everything you do and everything you are flows out of your heart.
It is the governing agent of everything regarding you.
But there is a problem.
As we talked about in the first couple verses,
A number of external forces can influence your heart.
Your physical body can influence your heart,
Your family or social relationships,
Culture is a powerfully yet subtle influence on your heart,
And spiritual forces influence your heart.
This becomes potentially problematic because of how your heart directs your thoughts, emotions, and actions.
This is what Jesus teaches in the Gospels.
Slide
In Matthew 12:35, Jesus said;
The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
Slide
Mark 7:20-23;
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
The same thing is recorded in Luke 6:45.
Slide
So, the heart is the source of who we are and what we do,
And the picture that Jesus paints about the heart is not a pleasant one.
Yet, our text this morning says that from the heart flow springs of life,
So, how can both Jesus and Proverbs be true?
Well, the Bible teaches that the source is polluted.
As we saw from our diagram, our hearts are broken and sinful,
So, they are leading us astray.
They are a polluted source corrupting the streams that flow out of it.
So, this idea in our culture to follow your heart, listen to your heart, or trust your feelings,
Is really terrible advice.
The Bible says the reason we think bad things and do bad things is because we have a polluted source.
Do not follow that.
And it is not as if this became a problem after Proverbs was written.
God said all the way back in Gen. 8:21, that the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
So, the Bible is clear that sin starts in the heart before it manifests itself into thought or action.
Lust, perversion, deceit, anxiety, pride, jealousy, a sharp tongue.
All of it reside in the heart first before any come to the surface.
Gossip can be traced back to jealousy or bitterness.
Watching pornography can be traced back to lust.
Lies, deceit, and dishonesty can be traced back to insecurity.
Whatever the thought or action, it can be traced back to the heart as the source.
Slide
So, this idea that changing our behavior will fix our problem is outrageously wrong.
Yet, this is what we saw from the Pharisees during Jesus’ life.
And sadly, so many Christians today operate as if this is true.
Jesus calls behavior modification evil.
Because He is concerned with the source.
He is concerned about our motives, our attitudes, our heart.
He is not solely concerned with our outward actions.
This is made abundantly clear in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Sin does not start with the outward action,
It starts with the heart.
And we will be judged on the condition of our heart.
So, Jesus addresses the heart.
If all we do is change the surface behavior,
But leave the heart source unchanged,
Sin will rise out somewhere, somehow, at some point.
Because whatever is in the heart will eventually come out either in words, actions, or emotions.
It is inevitable,
You cannot control it,
Scripture is abundantly clear about this.
Your surface behavior reveals the state of your heart source.
It cannot fix it.
And friends, believe it or not,
This is good news for us.
Because God can change the heart.
Real and lasting change only happens when the source is addressed.
Here is the reality,
We all have heart issues.
We all have a polluted source.
This wicked and corrupt nature of the heart means you need a heart change.
Your heart needs to be regenerated in order to willingly obey God.
Deuteronomy repeatedly says that we fail to obey the law because we lack the heart needed to obey.
Slide
The good news is that God promises to perform a spiritual heart transplant in His people in Ezek. 36:26;
He says,
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
One example comes from a man named David.
David is described as a man after God’s own heart,
After committing an outward sin of adultery,
Then tried to fix it with outward actions,
That led him to sending the woman’s husband to the frontlines of battle,
All but guaranteeing his death.
He eventually was made aware of his sin,
And in response to this conviction,
Slide
He prayed in Psalm 51:10;
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Slide
You, like David, need a clean heart.
You need to be saved from the pollution in your source that poisons the streams that flow out.
This means you must know, not only with your mind,
But with your heart that the testimony of Jesus Christ is true.
When you trust in Jesus for salvation,
Jesus says you are born again.
And when this happens,
He creates in you a clean heart.
He changes your heart into something that yearns for God, His Word, and His Church.
No, this does not make you perfect inside and out,
But it does change you.
So, what are you to do?
Guard your heart, above all else.
Guard what you hear,
Guard what you see,
Guard what you allow into your heart.
Because whatever you allow in will influence what comes out.
You guard this above all else after all,
Because the heart is the source of who you are.
This is not to say your thoughts and actions are unimportant.
Slide
YOU: External Indicators (vs. 24-27)
YOU: External Indicators (vs. 24-27)
Vs. 24-27 teach that these things are external indicators of what is in your heart.
Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Vs. 24 starts with addressing the words that flow from your heart.
The command is that you put away crooked speech.
What exactly is crooked speech?
Other translations are helpful here,
Referring to it as corrupt, contrary, deceitful, or perverse talk,
Or as King James says it, a froward mouth, now there is an underused word.
It means do not be dishonest.
Since the heart is the source,
The only way to obey this command is goes back to vs. 23,
Where you are told to guard your heart.
False speech can become like a poison in the heart,
That will in turn reproduce toxic speech.
So, Proverbs says,
Do not lie or trick others into believing something that is not true.
Tell the truth.
Let your speech be genuine.
This tendency to say something mean or false but then saying “just kidding!”
Or “I was just being sarcastic.”
Is not funny, it is foolish.
Don’t let your mouth do it,
Put it away from you, Proverbs says.
Other examples of crooked speech include cynicism, grumbling, flippancy, or half-truths.
This type of speech forms mental trenches,
Making crooked speech formative in your thinking.
Another warning against this deceptive talk implies a warning against deceiving yourself.
In other words,
Do not allow yourself to be convinced by the foolishness of your own words.
Slide
Later, Proverbs 14:25 teaches;
A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.
Proverbs 18:21 also adds;
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Slide
Romans 3:13 says;
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
Slide
Friends, these are just a few examples,
But Scripture has much to say about our speech as God’s people,
Proverbs contributes much to this.
Lord willing, later in our Proverbs study we will be able to look at this topic in greater detail.
For now, the overarching point remains,
Guard your heart to keep your tongue in check.
If you use corrupt speech,
It indicates a corrupt heart.
If your words hurt people, deceive people, or gossip about others,
Then your words are the outflow of a sinful heart.
Your speech is an external indicator of your internal source.
It reveals whether or not you have a changed heart.
But this is also true of your actions.
Slide
Verses 25-27 bring the path imagery from earlier in ch. 4 full circle.
Wisdom enables you to keep on the path of life,
It keeps you from diverting off into the muck and mire of foolishness, wickedness, and evil.
This means that a right heart keeps you on the right path.
Slide
In vs. 25, you are exhorted to keep your eyes directly forward.
Try and do that right now.
Notice this sense of locking your eyes onto what you are looking at,
This feeling of concentration on the target of your gaze.
So, the advice here is that you focus on the wise path of life.
That is, undivided attention on the right path,
Producing a sense of determination against evil.
This means that the steady aim of your eyes makes wisdom the authority when making decisions.
If you get distracted, you will swerve off the path of life and find destruction.
Slide
So, do not get distracted.
Ponder the path of life, vs. 26 says.
Give careful thought and attention to this path.
So, that all your ways will be correctly ordered.
The idea is that of a scale,
And you are weighing up the course of action on the path before you.
Proverbs says to take the ways that are certain,
Avoid the ways that are evil,
And your ways will be established.
God is the One who makes your ways sure.
Meaning your eternal life is fixed and firm,
It is secure, not subject to destruction.
Slide
So, this section of instruction concludes with a command to stay straight.
It says, do not turn to the right or the left.
There are countless alternatives to the path of life.
Satan does not care which you choose,
So long as you choose any way except the One way!
What is this One way?
Jesus Christ,
Proverbs says, do not turn from Him.
But it is almost as if the end of this chapter knows you will not heed the warning against swerving from this path.
So, when you inevitably turn to the right of the left.
When you slip,
When you get distracted,
When you take a step toward evil.
Our chapter ends by saying,
You can still turn your foot away from evil,
And back toward God.
You can repent.
Slide
Friends, the idea is not to be perfect in this life,
You won’t be,
And anyone who pretends to be is likely trying to cover a corrupt source by changing their surface behavior.
But when your heart is changed by Jesus,
The external indicators will affirm this.
Meaning your life, your thoughts, your actions will gradually change,
Showing you to be more and more like Christ.
If this is not happening,
Then the external indicators are warning that your internal source is polluted.
If that is the case,
You can still turn away from evil and toward Jesus.
You can trust Jesus,
Pray to Him to create in you a clean heart.
And He will give you a new heart.
WE: Conc. -
WE: Conc. -
In closing,
We need to understand the importance of this passage.
We cannot walk in the wisdom if we do not have a new heart.
If you find yourself walking off the path of life,
It is because your source is polluted.
The Easton Bible Dictionary gives an example of what this looks like:
“Hardness of heart evidences itself by light views of sin; partial acknowledgment and confession of it; pride and conceit; ingratitude; unconcern about the Word and ordinance [baptism and communion] of God; inattention to divine providences; stifling convictions of conscience; shunning reproof; presumption, and general ignorance of divine things.”
Friends, when we hold up the x-ray to our heart,
And find these things,
The diagnosis is deadly.
But God has given us the cure.
Slide
Romans 10:10 says;
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The Holy Spirit softens, informs, and transforms your heart.
That is where belief comes from,
Then the confession with our mouth follows.
Slide
The Bible gives examples of this happening,
Look at the description of Lydia’s salvation in Acts 16:14;
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
This is the fulfillment of God’s promise to remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh in Ezekiel.
Slide
Perhaps, like Lydia,
The Lord is opening your heart to pay attention to what is being said to you this morning.
God wants to clean your heart source,
So, that from it can flow springs of life.
This is an invitation into eternal life.
And an invitation into a full life here on this earth.
It starts at the source level,
Whether you have never confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior,
Or you have time and time again for most of your life.
Like David, you can ask God to create in you a clean heart,
And He will.
That is how you guard your heart above all else.
That is the truth of the Gospel.
We are given a new heart by Jesus Christ.
Our hearts are not pure.
That is why Jesus lived the perfect life we never could,
Died the death we deserve for our corruption,
And rose from the dead to give victory over death.
Slide
If we trust this,
He will grant us a new heart,
A new source.
He taps our corrupt source into His righteous source.
And while we are connected to Him,
He does the work of progressively growing us in righteousness,
By the power of His Spirit through the Word.
Slide
So, it is okay that you are not perfect.
It is better than pretending to be perfect by trying to change the surface.
Acknowledging there is a problem with the source is where change starts.
Because it is not okay to stay corrupt when a clean heart is available.
So, ask yourself,
What external influences are forming my heart?
What do external indicators reveal about my heart?
Whatever corruption you find,
Bring to Jesus.
Do not try to change your surface behavior.
Ask Him to change the internal source.
That is how you guard your heart above all else.
Because Jesus wants us to change the source,
Not the surface.
Pray.