6/30/13 DESIGN FOR LIFE
Guard Your Heart
Imagine you’re out for a hike on a beautiful day and you come to a stream. You realize there’s something wrong. You notice that someone has dumped trash into the stream. It is an ugly sight. The trash has been there for some time. There is an ugly film on top of the water. You can’t just leave it the way you found it, so you stoop down and begin gathering the trash.
It takes a long time before you begin to see a difference; it’s amazing how much junk is there. You sit back, rest for a moment, and realize you’ll have to keep returning until the site is truly clean. But when you come back the next day, it’s as if your work has been undone.
In fact there’s more trash than before. Somehow the garbage bred overnight. You think about the unlikelihood of someone coming to this spot to dump their garbage in the few hours while you were away, and you realize that something smells fishy—so to speak. So you begin to walk upstream.
Sure enough, you come to a garbage dump that has been there for years. It’s emptying into the passing creek. Your cleaning job only opened up a gap for more stuff to settle. You could go and clean every day …. But, if you want the stream to be clean, that means going directly to the source and dealing with what’s there.
Condensed from Kyle Idleman, Gods at War (Zondervan, 2013)
Clean the source of junk to prevent it from impacting the rest of the stream. Think about this picture and apply it to your life. The Bible says your heart is the source from which your life flows. Are your putting your efforts to clean up downstream? Are you working to deal with the source so life, downstream is clean and attractive? We are going to talk about the heart for a few weeks.
The heart represents the center of our being—the source of desire and decision.
It is a common saying, and it sounds so insightful and wise, “follow your heart”. When you are facing a challenging situation, when you are not exactly sure what to do, “follow your heart”. This can be very dangerous advice, for it doesn’t take into account what is in a person’s heart. If there is a pile of garbage built up downstream, following your heart could lead to disaster.
The Bible points to the heart as the center of our being:
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
NLT
23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
NKJV
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
New Testament teaching from Jesus.
Luke 6:43-45 NIV
43 No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Guard your heart! An important command. What is in our heart is what comes out as life goes on. Never allow anything to come into your heart that does not please God and is not helpful for our personal spiritual growth. Don’t let anything into your heart that you don’t want to come out when people can see.
How do we apply this principle? Guard what you take in so you won’t be embarrassed by what you put out. Guard what you watch, listen to, read, ponder or talk about. We constantly take in images and ideas that take root in our hearts and impact the person we become.
Christians must work to know and follow God’s purposes for our lives. Jesus taught us this:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 NIV
Making God and His ways our first priority puts the rest of life in proper order and perspective. Keeping our priorities straight will help keep our spiritual hunger and desire for more of God strong. This is one reason why Proverbs tells us to guard our hearts. When junk begins to fill our hearts we open the potential to spiritual devastation. Carefully guarding what you see, hear, say and do will increase strength and stability to our lives.
Let’s take a moment and honestly think about how easy it is these days to take in information. If you have the internet, you have immediate access to millions of ideas and images from all around the world. If you have the internet on your phone, it is always with you. In a time of discouragement it is simple to “check out” something that you know you shouldn’t, but are curious about. The deception of sin is that it always starts out small, then grows and implants itself in your heart. Then it gets very difficult to remove.
This makes me think of the idea of clutter and filth. I think of a home I was sent to many years ago that was filled with flies in the winter. Dirt was everywhere. The longer filth is somewhere, the harder it is to get rid of. The longer we allow sin the reside, the harder it is to eradicate the impact.
Failure to guard our hearts can result in losing God’s guidance and blessing. We risk being trapped in sin and even being destroyed by it.
Look at the verses that follow v. 23 where we are told to “guard your heart”.
Proverbs 4:24-27 NIV
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. 27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
This is awesome advice to guard your heart.
In a chapter warning a son about the snare of the adulteress - it starts out Proverbs 7:1-2 NIV
1 My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
It ends: Proverbs 7:24-27 NIV
24 Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say.
25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. 26 Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. 27 Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
Review verses.
Keep your heart on track and don’t let the sin resident in the hearts of others cause you to stray.
Who we are on the inside determines our outward behavior. Our “inside” must change from what we were in order to comply with God’s standards and intention. With no inward change, we won’t live God’s will or fulfill his plan for our lives.
Many people believe that people are basically good at heart. The Bible is clear about a heart that is separated from God. It is wicked and deceitful.
Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Human nature is not foundationally good. A heart that is not in communion with God is dangerous. By itself, the heart is desperately evil and corrupt and leads to devastation and death.
People are basically selfish and follow paths contrary to the ways of God. Because the heart is corrupt human heart, we can’t make the necessary changes by ourselves. Salvation purchased by Jesus on the cross, His grace is the only solution. Transformation comes from the heart change Jesus makes.
What is in the heart comes out. Let me share a story. Jesus used parables to get a point across. This is a modern parable, a story written by a man named Russell Kelfer.
Edith Burns was a wonderful Christian who lived in San Antonio, Texas. She was the patient of Doctor Will Phillips. Dr. Phillips was a gentle doctor who saw patients as people. His favorite patient was Edith Burns.
One morning he went to his office with a heavy heart and it was because of Edith Burns. When he walked into that waiting room, there sat Edith with her Bible in her lap earnestly talking to a young mother sitting beside her.
Edith Burns had a habit of introducing herself in this way: “Hello, my name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?” Then she would explain the meaning of Easter, and many times people would be saved.
Dr. Phillips walked into that office and there he saw the head nurse, Beverly. Beverly had first met Edith when she was taking her blood pressure. Edith began by saying, “My name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?”
Beverly said, “Why, yes, I do.”
Edith said, “Well, what do you believe about Easter?”
Beverly said, “Well, it’s all about egg hunts, going to church, and dressing up.”
Edith kept pressing her about the real meaning of Easter, and finally led her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Phillips said, “Beverly, don’t call Edith into the office quite yet. I believe there is another delivery taking place in the waiting room.”
After being called back in the doctor’s office, Edith sat down, and when she took a look at the doctor she said, “Dr. Will, why are you so sad? Are you reading your Bible? Are you praying?”
Dr. Phillips said gently, “Edith, I’m the doctor and you’re the patient.” With a heavy heart he said, “Your lab report came back and it says you have cancer, and Edith, you’re not going to live very long.”
Edith said, “Why Will Phillips, shame on you. Why are you so sad? Do you think God makes mistakes? You have just told me I’m going to see my precious Lord Jesus, my husband, and my friends. You have just told me that I am going to celebrate Easter forever, and here you are having difficulty giving me my ticket!”
Dr. Phillips thought to himself, “What a magnificent woman this Edith Burns is!”
Edith continued coming to Dr. Phillips. Christmas came and the office was closed through January 3rd. On the day the office opened, Edith did not show up.
Later that afternoon, Edith called Dr. Phillips and said she would have to be moving her story to the hospital and said, “Will, I’m very near home, so would you make sure that they put women in here next to me in my room who need to know about Easter.”
Well, they did just that, and women began to come in and share that room with Edith. Many women were saved. Everybody on that floor from staff to patients were so excited about Edith that they started calling her Edith Easter; that is, everyone except Phyllis Cross, the head nurse.
Phyllis made it plain that she wanted nothing to do with Edith because she was a “religious nut”. She had been a nurse in an army hospital. She had seen it all and heard it all. She was the original G.I. Jane. She was hard, cold, and did everything by the book.
One morning the two nurses who were to attend to Edith were sick. Edith had the flu and Phyllis Cross had to go in and give her a shot.
When she walked in, Edith had a big smile on her face and said, “Phyllis, God loves you and I love you, and I have been praying for you.”
Phyllis Cross said, “Well, you can quit praying for me. It won’t work and I’m not interested.”
Edith said, “Well, I will pray and I have asked God not to let me go home until you come into the family.”
Phyllis Cross said, “Then you will never die because that will never happen,” and briskly walked out of the room.
Every day Phyllis Cross would walk into the room and Edith would say, “God loves you, Phyllis, and I love you, and I’m praying for you.”
One day Phyllis Cross said she was literally drawn to Edith’s room like a magnet. Edith said, “I’m so glad you have come, because God told me that today is your special day.”
Phyllis Cross said, “Edith, you have asked everybody here the question, ‘Do you believe in Easter?’, but you have never asked me.”
Edith said, “Phyllis, I wanted to many times, but God told me to wait until you asked, and now that you have asked .”
Edith Burns took her Bible and shared with Phyllis Cross the Easter Story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Edith said, “Phyllis, do you believe in Easter? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is alive and that He wants to live in your heart?”
Phyllis Cross said, “Oh, I want to believe that with all of my heart, and I do want Jesus in my life.” Right there, Phyllis Cross prayed and invited Jesus Christ into her heart. For the first time Phyllis Cross did not walk out of a hospital room, she was carried out on the wings of angels.
Two days later, Phyllis Cross came in and Edith said, “Do you know what day it is?”
Phyllis Cross said, “Why Edith, it’s Good Friday.”
Edith said, “Oh, no, for you every day is Easter. Happy Easter, Phyllis!”
Two days later, on Easter Sunday, Phyllis Cross came into work, did some of her duties, and then went down to the flower shop and got some Easter lilies, because she wanted to go up to see Edith, give her some Easter lilies, and wish her a Happy Easter.
When she walked into Edith’s room, Edith was in bed. The Bible was on her lap. Her hands were in that Bible. There was a sweet smile on her face. When Phyllis Cross went to pick up Edith’s hand, she realized Edith was dead. Her left hand was on John 14:2
“In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
Her right hand was on Revelation 21:4:
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Phyllis Cross took one look at Edith, and then lifted her face toward heaven, and with tears streaming down her cheeks said, “Happy Easter, Edith --- Happy Easter!”
Phyllis Cross left Edith, walked out of the room and over to a table where two student nurses were sitting.
She said, “My name is Phyllis Cross. Do you believe in Easter?”
Russell Kelfer
LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
DESIGN FOR LIFE
What are the key points of this message?
How can we apply this message?
Discussion Questions
What should we learn from the parable about Edith Burns?
What do you think the general public doesn’t understand about Bible teaching about the heart?
What questions do you have about the heart? (Some questions we might need to write down and research.)
