Today Pastor Choi continues his sermon series on ‘heart’—part 2 of 3: how to take care of your heart. After a brief recap of the last Sunday’s message, he points out three excellent ways to watch over the heart: 1. Screen out all negative and destructive thoughts. 2. Store up good and godly thoughts beginning with God’s Word—the Word of Life. 3. Stay on whatever is noble and honorable. By doing so, we will have the life God intends us to have.
How to Take Care of Your Heart
Following is a summary of the sermon:
Watch Over Your Heart
Proverbs 4:23 New American Standard Bible
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
Introduction
This morning I will continue my sermon series on heart- part 2 of 3: how to take care of our heart.
Recap of the Last Week’s Sermon
- Remember that the heart is the innermost seat of emotion, will, thoughts, and appetites. It is an open bowl where all the thoughts freely come and go. Three parties have access to your heart: you, God, and the devil. It is also a battleground where God and the devil vie for your worship, affection, and devotion.
- Remember that you’re the sole caretaker of your heart. You are the guardian appointed by God and your heart is a ward under your protection. Your job is simple yet very important: to keep your heart safe and secure.
- I am sure every one of us wants to take good care of our hearts. A healthy and strong heart begins with our desire to provide excellent care to the heart. Unless we want to take care of our hearts, no one will. Even God cannot help us on that. Why? Because God never overrides our free will. Without our desire or invitation, God won’t be able to help us much. The neglected heart becomes confused, unruly, and eventually we suffer the consequences thereof, that is, evil things march out and defile us (Mark 7:21-23).
Contents
Today’s verse expounded:
The first half of today’s verse reads: “Watch over your heart with all diligence.” The literal translation of the original Hebrew is: Above all guarding, guard your heart.
Definition of “to guard”: “to protect property, places, or people from attack or danger” (Oxford Dictionary). We all protect something or some people from attack or danger. A question: what do you guard? Life, health, wealth, house, bank accounts, investment portfolios, family, jobs, image, identity, and so forth. One thing is for sure: none of us guard anything worthless. We only guard something precious, valuable, and essential. So, out of all things worthy of our guarding, which one does God command us to guard most? The heart. Our heart is the number one priority to protect. Guard it fiercely.
Why the heart?
The second sentence of today’s text reveals the reason why we must guard our heart above all things. Once again the English translation reads: For from it (heart) flow the springs of life. The literal translation of the same sentence is this: For from it come out the sources of life. All things of life stem from your heart.
Let me elaborate a little more on ‘life’ here. The life here means more than just daily survival. It is the life meaningful. It is the life fulfilling. It’s the life of contentment. It’s the life God intends us to enjoy. In fact, Jesus wants us to have that life—and have it abundantly (John 10:10). It’s the life that consists of “earthly felicity combined with spiritual blessedness” (The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Cesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 313). To ‘life’ here, the Septuagint (LXX) Bible renders a unique Greek word ‘zoe’ instead of ‘bios.’ In other words, things that matter most in life originate from our heart. The essential elements of the blessed life come out of our heart. And, whatever comes out of our heart even determines our final destination. That’s how crucial our heart is in life. So, if you want to live a life satisfactory and meaningful, and if you want to live a life with purpose and destination, and if you want to secure your life eternal, then learn to take good care of your heart.
Once again, understand your identity: You are the watchman. You are the guardian of your heart. Your job is to keep your heart pure, innocent, and blameless in the sight of God until Christ comes (Philippians 1:10). So, based on these understandings, I am going to introduce three ways to take a good care of your heart. Let’s not forget. The entire well-being of your heart and the quality of your life are determined by your desire, discipline, and diligence.
Three things we can do for our hearts: Screen out, Store up, and Stay on.
Screen out. You are on guard duty for life on behalf of your heart: to prevent the enemy infiltration. E.g. The army uses the daily password. Whoever says the correct password may pass, whoever doesn’t, the guard can shoot. Same goes with our guard duty for the heart. For any thought trying to enter the heart, ask the password which is always the same: are you in line with God’s will? If so, enter. If not, stop. Never allow anything bad to enter your heart: only good things.
God commands us to take captive every thought and bring it to Christ. Listen: “… we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NASB). We must learn to screen out thoughts and feelings especially those that are negative and destructive. Some of us are in the habit of following whatever our heart says. Follow your heart, they say. However, beware: the same heart can deceive us. In Jeremiah 17:9, God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things…” I would rather let God’s Word guide me not my own feelings. E.g. 1. “I cannot forgive my brother.”— Remember the Lord’s Prayer. E.g. 2. A young couple wants a divorce due to no more feelings of love to each other.—Marriage is a commitment. Let no one separate what God has joined (Matthew 19:6). E.g. 3. Depressive / Suicidal thoughts. Check out the source of every destructive thought. Satan can prompt such a thought in your heart (John 13:2). Give no opportunity to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). Bring every thought and feeling under the control of Christ. Filter it. Test it against God’s Word. E.g. Practice the screening on TV and movies you watch. Pray before you watch. Place guards on your eye-gate and ear-gate. Stay disciplined on it. Payoff will be huge.
Store up. There are many good things we can store up in our hearts; good memories, good music, good stories, good images, good thoughts, and so forth. But, first and foremost, begin with God’s Word the Good Book. Why? Because it is the Word of life (1 John 1:1). It gives you peace. It restores your health (Proverbs 4:22). It is essential for your eternal life, too. Do you love God? Then, you will love and cherish His Word. It would be an oxymoron if you say, “I love God, yet I never open the Bible.” It would be equally contradictory if you say, “I care for my soul, yet I never read the Bible.” Why? Because God’s Word is the food for your soul, and if you don’t feed your soul with God’s Word, your soul will starve to death. Never believe in the devil’s lie that the Bible is too difficult to understand. He does everything to keep you from getting into God’s Word for your salvation. You need God’s Word for your eternal life. You need God’s Word to protect your heart (Matthew 15:19). Listen to the Psalmist: 9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. 11 Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You (Psalm 119:9, 11, NASB).
Stay on good and godly thoughts: 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things (Philippians 4:8, NASB). Whatever comes into our hearts, it stays in our hearts and it is extremely hard to remove it. That’s why we need to make every effort to put godly things in our hearts in the first place as a daily positive reinforcement. Then, we keep on dwelling on such things all the time. Chew on them, sit on them, and meditate on them daily. You will have a blessed life.
Conclusion
Above all guarding, guard your heart: screen out all bad thoughts. Next, store up God’s word diligently; fill up your heart with whatever is honorable and noble. Finally, stay on them daily. Then, you will enjoy the life abundantly in Christ. Amen.