God’s Word Guards Our Hearts // Proverbs 4:20-27 // Sunday Service

[Music] i think so proverbs chapter 4 we made our way down through verse 19 the last time we were together um and um i almost was not here today um and then schedules got mixed up and so i had to switch gears in the middle of yesterday and um so um my i prep i'm just being honest with you i feel like this is a little academic um the way it comes across and i'm trying to get out of the way because i'm most comfortable once i um when in prepping those of you who teach the bible i'm i'm most comfortable when i can hear the lord's the lord's voice in my prep time and know that i'm just kind of following what he he gives and it's the holy spirit that's doing doing the work because that's the way it it should be and when i have a lot of notes and stuff i feel like i'm shackled you know through the years i've learned um to kind of like you know what it's good to get the notes and have the stuff you need but don't be shackled to it you know let the lord have his way and so i feel a little shackled this morning just being honest but we're going to dive in and see what the lord is going to say nevertheless verse 20 we're going to read down to verse 27 and then we're going to get in there and see what the lord will give us today so if you're there with me proverbs 4 20 say amen my son give attention to my words incline your ear to my sayings do not let them depart from your eyes keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established do not turn to the right or to the left remove your foot from evil so father we thank you this morning lord for the word that you've given us lord you are so faithful to teach us we ask that you would do it once again and that you would take from our hearts and minds the cares of this life and that you would remove from the room any distractions lord that you would grab our attention highlight your scripture to us lord god wash us change us prepare us for the week that is ahead lord we love you we thank you in jesus name amen amen and so as we dive into this um we get to several things that he's going to get into in the first three verses 20-22 he's going to touch on several things as kind of a preview to the section but his main point is going to be that we need to guard our ears and we're going to see that in those verses but then down in verse 23 he's going to tell us that we need to guard our hearts a beautiful verse memory verse many of you know it and then in verse 24 he challenges us to guard our lips verse 25 to guard our eyes and then in verse 20 6 through 27 of course we saw it to guard our paths and it's very interesting it kind of feels a little bit more practical but if you remember solomon the writer told us early in chapter 4 verse three and four of chapter four that when he was young his father david his mother besheba i mean they taught him they poured the word into him and now solomon's pointed into his children because he wants to give them wisdom and understanding for the times that they live in that they can navigate this life which as parents is really what we want for our children amen i mean that's as christian parents that's what all the work is about hey once my children once our children get saved and are walking with the lord we're good and then we just want to see the fruit from that you know but if we go home to see the lord we can leave in peace amen because that's all we care about and so and as a pastor for a congregation same thing and so solomon's doing that we get to benefit from it because we know the holy spirit's the author of this and so now we have to turn our hearts and minds to this and we need to we need to grab a hold of it and let it do something in us and so notice in verse 20 as we begin to look at the guard your ears part of this he says my son give attention to my words and climb your ear to my sayings and that's a beautiful aspect of this as he mentions this give attention to my words incline your ear now when he says incline your ear i like it because it means pay close attention this is important there are some verses in the bible where it says that god inclined his ear to us anybody ever remember reading some of those it implies that god kind of bent down to hear what we have to say the picture is when like maybe you have a little toddler and they want to tell you something and they pull your finger and you know come down you know you imagine that grandparents parents and isn't it so cute and you bend down because you love them and you want to hear what they have to say it's amazing when that happens well um and likewise here it's almost as if there's someone close to you who's trying to speak to you and he's saying hey you need to lean in and you need to hear this and pay attention to what i'm saying okay and that's kind of the impression that we we get from this as we think about our ears because we actually need to guard what goes into our ears no he says do not let them depart from your eyes verse 21 keep them in the midst of your heart i'll pick up on those two things in a moment because he's going to say in verse 22 that they are life to those who find him and so we need to be careful to give attention to the word that's coming forth as solomon was saying to his children likewise as we receive the word of god we need to be careful to receive it and we need to guard the things that go into our ears that do not produce life and for for many of us there's so many things that have gone into our ears that just do not produce life and for instance i was telling the first service and i told you a few weeks ago if if kayla gets over here on the drums and he does an old school beat the lyrics from all those old songs just come flooding back into my mind you know you can be places and that stuff happens to many of you all you know i imagine pops over here here's something from the 60s actually your generation goes before that okay i pick oh here we go jay jay and belinda y'all hear some 60s tombs and y'all it all comes back in there right you know all that junk that went in the other day i was in the barber shop and they were playing a tune and i was like oh yeah but then when i listened to the lyrics i was like whoa i can't believe that i used to allow all of that in because it goes in there and we can't you know the crazy thing we're going to see today is why we can't get rid of that stuff why does it stay in there for 30 and 40 years the fact that it stays in there for 30 and 40 and 50 years means that we need to be mindful of what goes in because it kind of hangs out and it can have influence and so he's warning here to some degree about that you know in ephesians chapter 5 verse 4 is where i want to go but i'll put three and four on the screens where it says but fornication and all uncleanness and cov or covetousness let it not even be named among you in other words that shouldn't even be something that's ever even mentioned amongst the church as it's fitting for saints then he says neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor course gesturing which are not fitting but rather giving of things and so he warns that even little things that are going around and filthy and foolish talking we should remove ourselves from it because it can have a negative effect on us and so therefore we have to be careful with it and we have to be careful even with what we uh feast upon in in the environment we live in with so much media you know psalm 1 says blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly now you know what goes on from there but not under the council the influence the advice of the ungodly we are not to if you will to consult the ungodly for what we should be doing i'm blessed to be amongst the people meaning this congregation who especially in this time we live in are seeking wisdom from the lord they're coming for prayer coming for questions seeking seeking out counsel about the decisions that you all are making and it blesses me that you are doing that i love the fact that you're doing that i've been getting a lot of questions about vaccines and people like pastor kevin what do i do i'm not comfortable here or maybe somebody got a first shot and they're wondering if they should get a second and people bring these questions to me and my answer is always the same it's you must do what the conviction of the lord is for your life you must seek him and you must seek his peace that your final decision be led to the lord because ultimately he's the only one who's going to take care of you and protect you and so i'm careful to always say if you're walking by faith and you're following the lord then you're doing the right thing and so this is what we need to understand because we're hearing so many things in the world that we live in how do you weed through it all pastor kevin what do you do well one of the things as we look at these verses he says give attention to my words incline your ear to my sand and and don't let them depart from your eyes he's implying that it's the word that solomon is bringing forth to his children of course we know it's the word of god that we need to focus in on we need to be able to hear clearly what god is saying in every situation jesus tells a story in john chapter 10 verses three through five jesus says uh to him the door keeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out i love that part i highlighted that here in my notes and it says and when he brings out notice his own sheep he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice yet they will not by no means follow a stranger but will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers now it's interesting when jesus is teaching jesus is the master teacher if jesus is standing somewhere doing the teaching he can give he can bring a parable out of anything he sees anything he can just make a parable out of it i love that and they understood shepherds in the field and in that time first century shepherds would have sheepfolds and at night they would take their sheep in the sheepfolds to protect the sheep from the uh wolves and stuff that would come after them and a sheepful would be a little stoned often circled type of structure that would be high enough to where the sheep could come in the sheep couldn't get out and the shepherds could protect them using their staff from things that would try to get at them okay and often you might have three or four or more shepherds bringing all their sheep into the same foal so they could be protected over the night but see in the morning when it was time to leave the foal and go back out the graves the shepherd would go out the door and stand and call his sheep and only his sheep would come out of the foal and follow him the other sheep would not and you might say that's strange but i've seen it with my own eyes see i'm from eastern north carolina okay so we in a certain time of the year when the hunting season is going on and all the hunters would have their hunting dogs okay or they were maybe their rabbit season they got all those crazy little beagles and um what would happen is you could have one hunter down here a hundred yards that way another hunter 100 yards that way and in these country boys they got these sounds they make and i was going to do it but i didn't practice it and they could they could make this crazy sound and their dogs would run after them the other hunter's dogs would not that's a strange sound i don't know you and so they wouldn't go and so jesus he says look the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out but the wonderful thing is he brings his sheep out and then it says he actually goes before them and they follow him now paul tells us when we look at the old testament that this is jesus jesus was the rock that followed them jesus was the one out front leading them you know jesus is the creator you know we know all of those things we understand that jesus is our good shepherd and he's seeking to lead us but you have to listen you have to become trained to hear the voice of jesus and so the writer here i believe is saying give attention to my words incline your ear to my sayings in other words you need to be attentive to the word of god because it's when you spend time in the word of god that you get accustomed to being able to hear the voice of the holy spirit as he's speaking to you and he's telling you of the things of god and he's he's leading you in your life and if you don't spend time with him you won't be sensitive to that voice because she only know the voice of the shepherd because the shepherd is always with them they're always spending time with the shepherd the shepherd's always around them you know he's taking care of them you know one of the things about calvary chapel that's a little different and i want to i want to share this with you because maybe if you're new and we got a lot of new people over the last year maybe have you picked up on this you notice how when you used to go to your old church um me too included your old church you could go empty-handed you could show up with nothing in your hands because you know well they're going to have a bible in the back of the pew well i'll need a bible i'll get one i want to get there okay and you come to calvary chapel and most people are walking in with their bible in hand you notice that that's very important um because look even military guys tell you especially from the old school military that you have to have your your your firearm with you at all times you go to the bathroom you might be on the toilet but that that firearm had to be leaning on the wall right there because if you got caught without it you'd be in trouble you know and so there's something about having your own sword i don't want to borrow no pew sword and y'all who leave it here all week i look at it to see whose name's in it i run into you at walmart and i'll be like hey where's your bible you don't know where your bible's at because you left it at church there's something about having your own bible that is um you know you know what it feels like in your hand i can turn it and flip a page without even using another hand sometimes you know and because you spent time in it it's like anything you do is that way if you're a craftsman you know you're how you handle your tool you get used to your tool and it wears to your hand and stuff like that ladies you can't even bake a cake you don't want to use nobody else's stuff in your kitchen because your stuff is the way you want it and all these things we do was the same thing with the word of god you need to be handling his word regularly so that it's in you and you get accustomed to his voice because imagine this imagine this imagine a time in the future when we can't legally meet anymore okay and but you know we're meeting because you know pastor kevin's crazy enough that we're going to meet somewhere and you want to you want to come where we're meeting but you know you don't really know where it is because you haven't been in fellowship so you don't know where we're actually meeting you know you're trying to find out and and nobody is putting it on the media because there are people checking for that and then you're going through these checkpoints to try to get and find the church and you know and then they see your bible at the checkpoint and now you're in trouble because that's hate language and it's illegal to actually have one of those now you might say see pastor kevin lost his mind i told you we needed to switch churches but there are people in the room who in this room right now whose family members escape communism in other countries who will tell you that what i just described is exactly what their family went through okay and so what if that happens again so here's the thing if if you i told you this last year while we were on lockdown and when we came back you need to prepare yourself to be a disciple of the lord jesus not a christian everybody in america is a christian and they all go to church on sunday mornings most of them but disciples disciples are day in and day out and day in and day out walking with the lord seeking his face they want to know what this says before they know what anything else says in the media because this is what they're feasting upon and you know i remember giving an example when i was at um when i was at the old church my wife and i went to we went to second service because we were going to be working in the children's ministry at the third service and i remember i was in the overflow room because the place was packed out at the time and i was in the overflow room looking through the glass doing worship and during worship the holy spirit spoke to me very clearly and said you need to take advantage of this time because it won't always be like that like this all right what is the lord saying what's going to happen you know it's something about the change little did i know that was in 2007 that in 2008 i was over here planting the church so i only had once from the time he told me that there was only a year left and he's saying this this is this look you don't know what's coming you need to be in the word you need to be in it like i mean you just need to be soaking it up and spending time in it and let me do this work because once your feet hit the ground as a missionary in a new town you running you know and you need to build up so you got enough to run on you know what i'm saying and so look it you need to have it here you need to have it written so you can recall what the word says over in uh first peter chapter two in the first few verses where it says as as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby and you need to be recalling scripture from memory because it's written in here so that when those difficult times come you still got the word of god because it is alive this ain't no uh novel this ain't no textbook this ain't some dead writing of man this thing is live that's what he's gonna get at in a few verses down too so as we keep going so notice he says in verse 21 and 22 he says and do not let them depart from your eyes he mentions eyes but we're getting the guard in your eyes a little later but don't let them depart from your eyes he said your face should be in the book that's what solomon just said don't let it depart from out your face should be in it a pony not in not an electronic device either somebody was telling me um because they can check for that kind of stuff in other countries they're rewriting the bible it's in china you can't have bible apps and stuff i mean there's time script no no get the book open look at the pages this stained with highlighting stuff in here and creases and where you folded it and see this thing here i love it because i can fold it up like this sometimes and stick it in my back pocket while i'm doing something and then go right back and reach for it you know it's just you wear it out you know you can get another one right now still um so wear them out so he says let them do not let them depart from your eyes keep them in the midst of your heart and we're going to get into this heart thing in just a moment but keep it in the midst of your heart now the word he uses for heart here in the hebrew 38 24 if you look it up in the strongs lava that's how it's kind of pronounced it's not spelled that way but it literally means in the inner man or woman the the place which is the seat of your appetites your emotions and your passions even your courage the place within you from where everything flows within your life we're going to see in verse 23 he's saying that you need to keep it there the word of god is supposed to be written upon the tables of your heart that's what scripture says david says i've hidden in my heart that i may not sin against you the the word of god is not something that we uh we only handle on sunday mornings and by the way you can't live off of regurgitated teachings that are on the internet that you listen to there's some good stuff out there from from some great bible teachers it's really good stuff i don't want to jump too far ahead but well verse verse 22 will allow me notice it says for they are life to those who find them the very words of god are life to those who find them and help to all their flesh and we've been talking about this a lot you know there's this uh there's this physical physical even benefit from the word of god being in you and you applying it to your life remember i rehearsed it for you last week chapter 3 verse 2 where he says for length of days and long life and peace it will add to you in chapter 3 verse 8 where it says it will be held to your flesh and strength to your bones in chapter 3 verse 16 let the days is in her right hand in chapter 4 verse 10 where it says in the years of your life will be many um chapter 4 verse 13 at the end it says for she is your life so then we get down to verse 22 he's saying it again for they these words are life to those who find them and help to all their flesh now wisdom was personified previously but he's being very direct very direct he's saying literally the word of god itself is life to those who find it health to all your flesh how can that be see there's a picture that god gave us in the old testament in the old testament he gave israel the manna y'all remember the manna y'all remember the manna yes okay and he said hey every day there's going to be a manner for you that you need your source your sustenance you know i told them and as we go through the book of numbers that um the manna what content because it came from god it's actually called angels food later on but the manna literally think about it that manna that god created that sustained them in the wilderness had everything in it that the body needed to be sustained okay you imagine that you know we try to have a lot of different colors on the plate not no he put because god created it in the body he put every nutrient necessary for life in the manner so all you had to do was every morning eat manna and you were good he said don't pick too much because it's going to go bad i'll make sure tomorrow there's more matter just feast on what i give you for today and every time they would try to pick too much it would turn into worms remember reading through the scriptures the only day they could pick extra was the day before the sabbath because he didn't want him to pick it on the sabbath so he supernaturally allowed it to be to be carried over does it make sense it was a picture in that section of scripture is a verse that jesus quotes when satan is tempting him in the garden satan says hey you the son of god make the turn the stones the bread because you know you hungry you've been out here for over 40 days jesus body was at that point dying if there was ever a point that jesus was hungry it was then and jesus said get thee behind me satan for it is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god jesus says the source of my real life is the very word of god then when his disciples tried to feed him in samaria jesus says i have food that you know not of and they're like who gave them food and the scripture says my food is to do the will of my father jesus was blowing our minds because he's literally helping us understand the picture from the old testament which he quotes in the new testament is the fact that the very word of god that we feast upon according to verse 22 it is it's it's life to those who find them and help to all their flesh and i i'm every week i'm honest with you when we cross these verses i don't know how the word of god has an impact on my physical life other than to tell you from my research what happens is as the word of god goes in you and not everything else it brings about a state of peace it brings up because of chapter three verse two it says limp the days and long life and peace it will add to you so it brings about this peace it brings about this joy it brings about this sense of um completeness paul says that all scriptures god breathe and it's profitable for us that the man of god will be fully furnished lacking nothing basically is what i'm what i'm paraphrasing is what it says that it sustains us we're complete um from the word of god and so um what we have found is that stress is is harsh on your body your body can't heal when you're stressed out y'all a lot of you know that right yeah you lose sleep you lose hair you lose weight and you just your vitality is fading away because you're worrying you're doubting and you're stressed but the word of god has a healing effect on us it seems according to the scriptures and proverbs and so the word of god is powerful in our lives now as we go on in this he says uh in verse 23 here's where we need to guard our hearts is the topic there notice he says keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life this brings us to this place where as we go through all of these things we find that this place of the heart remember i told you that the hebrew word it means the inner man or woman this the the soul the mind the seat of all appetites emotions and passions and all of those things are here in the heart the heart the soul is this place where everybody looking around like it ain't them somebody's got a device going off okay okay it's distracting all right all right i'll move on so um they're gonna get it um there we go i'm not looking i'm not looking i'm gonna have a bucket of acid one of these days let's drop it in there drop it in there and so uh and so this place from where all of these things flow because of it we have to guard it because there's danger lurking whether it's what you're hearing or other things which are seeing these other influences one commentator said the heart is the reservoir and change must begin there if the reservoir is polluted it does no good to fix to fix the pipes or the valves in other words you're you're working on on the extremities but the pollution is already in the reservoir so you know none of that's going to actually work you have to you have to get the reservoir cleaned up and we'll talk about how that happens in a moment um jesus talks about this in the gospels as he goes through the sermon on the mount you have heard it said that you know you you shouldn't commit adultery but i say if you look and you know if you it starts in here right you know if you hate if all these things jesus blew the he blew it out of the water when he broke the god the the law down in such a way that it's not all this outer stuff that you can clean up that's why we're here at calvary because a lot of us in in mainstream denomination church we got so wrapped up in religion that didn't work that what we found is that everybody just looked good but you know you know what i'm saying this the stuff in here was that's not always right now we're in a place where we know we jacked up unless we you know getting right before jesus we can admit it now okay because that's the truth jesus said it to the pharisees he said you're whitewashed tombs white wash suppliers you know you've got a nice box there in any number dead man bones on the inside of it decay jesus says you look good but you're dead you know to the pharisees the religious leaders so this heart needs to be protected so we're we're given some proactive things to do here in other words we need to guard what goes in you know one of the things in whether it applies or not i don't know song of solomon that's a book i'm still struggling with i haven't taught it yet for that reason me and the lord have a conversation about it every year in that book solomon writes three times and i'm just going to give you one of them chapter two verse seven he says and this is the shulam out one woman right i charge you o daughters of jerusalem by the gazelles or by the does in the of the field do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases and i was like man what is it what is going on what is going on what is going on here in other words there's some things that you can stir up on the inner person and if you do that too early it's not good young adult people young people you know wait until the lord does his work and brings you to a place where you're ready for it because you don't want to get something stirred up it's like letting letting the line out of the cage too soon because once it's awakened it's hard to get that thing back right because that's the seat of passions and so there are things going on in our hearts and we need to we need to guard it because see what the enemy likes to do is he likes to fire darts at us right into the right into our minds our eyes our hearts you know you can be in church sometimes church is a safe place and thoughts will come in your mind and you're saying to yourself where on earth did that come from i call them um sometimes thoughts enter our minds uninvited you ever had that experience like where did that wickedness come from oh my lord are you repentant people think you're getting pentecostal in worship and you're just like lord where did that come from get that out of me you know well paul says their fiery darts ephesians 6 6 says above all things taking the shield of faith which which you'll be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one because they come at you and so therefore peter says he says first peter 1 13 he says therefore gird up the loins of your mind to gird up remember you've seen pictures of first century people and how they dress the men would wear these garments that almost look like to us dresses today right so when a man wanted to run like the um in the prodigal son story when the father ran to the sun when he was coming back y'all remember that so what he had to do was gird up his loins he had to take all that stuff and hold it up tight so he could get his run on otherwise he would have tripped and fallen so peter uses that image to gird up the loins of your mind tighten it up so you can run and and and and be effective be sober he says and rest your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ as obedient children not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written be holy because i am holy so peter says hey tighten it up y'all we need to prepare ourselves our minds our hearts it's all tied together we need to be very careful with it because when it gets polluted when it gets tainted then it's time for a complete transformation and there are many different conditions of the heart which the bible speaks of let me give you a few of them y'all doing okay okay there's the double double-heartedness it's interesting uh psalm 12 2 says they speak idly everything with his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak interesting flattering lips they're smiling in your face flattering you even but the heart is divided it's not there there's there's a there's an issue going on you know you want to love your neighbor but you have issues you're covered in your neighbor's stuff where you you don't like something about them you can smile on their face but you really got issues in your heart you're double-hearted it's what it's saying um you come to church and you you want to fellowship but you have something in your heart and it causes you to be fake or disingenuous a double-hearted person the lord convicts you of that this morning and not something to pay attention to we'll talk about what to do with it in a moment then you have the hard-heartedness proverbs 28 14 says happy is the man who is always reverent being reverent towards the lord and in in conduct but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity to harden your heart means that you shut your heart off to the things of the lord and that's why the bible says today if you hear the voice of the lord do not harden your heart but surrender to him if you hear in your heart the voice of the lord today it is your opportunity to receive his love his mercy his grace to change your heart if you sense it don't shut yourself off one of the mistakes we often make when the holy spirit begins to speak to us in the midst of a service like this is that it's very easy for us to find someone else that applies to and say man they really need to be here today to hear this message and when i get out i'm going to send it to them i'm going to go on there and share the thing you know and the fact that somebody said a long time ago to me that the message is always for the messenger first so before you share it meditate on it say lord what is this what's here for me because we don't always have a good perspective of where we are when we're off base our reality is messed up so the lord wants to get us right there's an unbelieving heart very dangerous hebrews 3 12 says beware brethren lest there be in any of you a evil heart of unbelief departing from the living god and so if you're struggling with doubt you're struggling with belief you're you're being given over to the things of the world be careful one of the things that's happening scripture tells us what happened in the last days and is already upon us and has begun paul says that in the last days some will depart from the faith giving he to seduce and spirits and doctrines of demons and paul paul also says that the following that the um the day of the lord can't begin until the man of sin is revealed and the fallen away happens first both words are apostasy in the greek it means to depart from that which you once claimed allegiance to it means that a person says they are christian and then later departs from the faith as if they never believed so the bible says examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith the apostasy is upon us there are many many people who people looked up to as worship leaders looked up to who were pastors who we've seen over the last few years have literally denounced the the reality of scripture and the and the lord of god his death burial and resurrection it's happening all around us we're in those times when people are beginning to depart from the faith so we have to be careful there a proud heart proverbs 21 4 says a hearty look a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked our sin a proud look god doesn't like meaning that a person that in their own pride would look and compare themselves to someone else and actually think you're doing better and look down the nose you have to be careful about there's the cold heart jesus said in matthew 24 12 and because lawlessness will abound in the last times the love of many would grow cold and this is the times we live in where this can happen so quickly you see so many things happening in the world and it can begin to bother you and you can allow it to bother you to the point where your own heart begins to grow cold we got to guard against all of that stuff y'all and so what do we do well first we need to understand that no matter what you think sitting here this morning you cannot hide the condition of your heart from the lord and that's a good thing because the lord is here to restore genesis 6 5 says that the lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually the lord our god father looked from heaven to earth genesis chapter 6 and he could look right into the heart of man and take inventory and say it's wicked so much to the point that he only saw one family that was if you will perfect in their generation and there's a lot of other implications of that which we don't have time to go into now and he prepared to judge the world and to save the righteous as he knows how to do you see god looks at uh the world and he can look at the condition of it and determine where it is on his grand scale of things and i believe that as he looks down today he sees wickedness like he's never seen it before all right and we see that first samuel when samuel was getting ready to anoint david y'all remember this right god said to samuel don't look at the outward appearance that's how man views things but god views the heart right y'all remember that so that's what we need to understand this morning that god knows the condition of our heart which is why he has ordained this setting because it's in a setting like this where he takes his word and his spirit and begins to do a work in man's heart and that's why he says i know i'm throwing a lot of verses i'm so sorry but we'll be almost done in a minute about 10. it says in hebrews 4 12 it says for the word of god is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even the division of soul and spirit y'all know these verses and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the what y'all so this morning as the word goes forth it's discerning where you are it's exposing your condition of your heart at least to you that's the beauty like you got to just chill out for a moment nobody knows you you think the holy spirit is showing you stuff and everybody sees it no no no just relax nobody in here knows what you're hiding and even though the holy spirit is showing it to you we don't know so relax and just let him do it okay he's actually exposing you the condition of your own heart he's discerning the thoughts of your heart the intents the motives even so it's not even just your thoughts it's your intent it's your motives it's everything that comes from the seat of your being he's identifying it to you right now and he says and you know one of the things i want to remind you of excuse me is that that's why when we come to church god is faithful to use the word and the conviction of the spirit to do surgery on the inside of you and you have to allow it you have to yield to it this morning and not fight it now the solution and i'll move on the solution is very simple david in psalm 51 after he had sinned with bathsheba chapter 51 verse 10 david said create in me a clean heart o god and renew a steadfast spirit within me because god promises that and even in ezekiel 36 26 it says i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you i will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh so this morning if your the condition of your heart is is messed up and god has identified it he can actually literally change it he can do surgery and make it new you got to believe in your heart and your spirit that the living god wants to change you right where you are and he wants to restore you and he can do it and that's what god wants to do in you and that's why he's pointing us to these things and so if you've heard his voice this morning then let's surrender to him and let him have it really quick as we finish the chapter we're already out of time where it says um in verse 24 guarding your lips i'll go through this pretty fast no it says put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you in other words let your your words be words that are carefully um thought forth you know jesus says in matthew 12 that every idol word men speak will he will give an account for on the day of judgment so even when we stand before the lord jesus we got to give an account for everything that comes out of our mouth i've come to realize that man it's sometimes it's better to be quiet and pray you know well let me let me let me pray a little while before i even respond because i don't i don't want to i don't want to say something that has no meaning the bible says colossians 4 6 it says let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer one another in other words when we come together as a body of believers and our words have meaning have power and we should use them to bless one another and to to encourage one another that's what we should do and never the other way the bible says that in proverbs 18 it says that not on the screen it says life and death is in the power of the time and those who love it will eat his fruit now now when you go to tbn word faith people all that they take that to the extreme and they create a doctrine called positive confession you're going to create your own reality and stuff okay and um that's way out of sort however even though they're on the way extreme there's a bit of truth that you can't throw away and that is listen that there is life and death in the power of the tongue and then those who eat it will love who love it will eat its fruit in other words you have the power in christian fellowship and even within your marriage parents with your children and whoever you're in fellowship with you have the power with your words to let it be seasoned with the salt of the lord to build up encourage and strengthen those around you or to tear them down and bring destruction and so you can choose how you use your words and so it says those who love it will eat its fruit so wait a minute that means that if you if you want a wonderful spouse you might need to plant good seeds with your words in their heart so that you you eat the fruit of that that's what the scripture is saying you know i mean if you verbally abuse your spouse then you're going to have a angry bitter spouse that's what you're going to have and you created it or you can have a wonderful loving flourishing spouse or children or whatever the case may be so the challenge is here to put away deceitful put away a deceitful mouth lying and stuff like that and put preserve perverse lips far from you guard the words that come out of your mouth pray through it you know be careful to use them the right way i'm almost done y'all guard your eyes verse 25 this is a biggie let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you in other words you know look within the domain which has been given to you by god to operate and don't be you know lingering the eyes over in in someone else's camp mind your business you know in fact we're told to do that i really am out of time but it's important you know jesus tells a story i won't go into it about the eyes being the lamp or the light of the body and so we need to be careful to guard what comes into them because that effects that has a impact on the pollution of the heart job even said that i've made a covenant with my eyes why then should i look upon a young woman because jesus says that if you look upon someone to lust then you've already committed the adultery so jesus is saying the heart is tainted you can taint the heart when you use your eyes even the wrong way and so the bible is saying hey be careful where you're looking you know because you know nowadays it's dangerous media is coming at us like crazy right but the world is changing it ain't going to be on the internet for long it's going to be in our face in the in everywhere we go and so you need to protect your heart now and now we close out with verse 26 and verse 27 where he says ponder the path of your feet watch where you're going and what you're doing and let all your ways be established you know in other words don't don't go don't be anywhere you ain't got no business being you know well i wasn't i wasn't doing nothing over there then don't even be there if it can if it looks like evil don't let your feet be there that's all it's saying you know man i ain't going over there i don't want nobody to see me over there i won't go near the place kind of thing you know um i love the fact my wife knows i'm either at church or i'm at home [Laughter] you know and that's the way it should be you know or she with me that's the third option you know um which we're going to talk about that tonight so y'all come out to marriage ministry verse 27 as we close out it says and do not turn to the right or to the left remove your feet far from evil in other words the lord has placed you on a path don't get off the path on the right side or on the left side you don't need to take no uh you know no pull over to get gas sometime out spiritually okay maybe your car but no spiritually you don't need to get off on the exit to get gas no the holy spirit restores as you go you just keep on going and keep on talking to him he's going to restore he's going to give you as i begin to close that worship team can come on up these are practical reminders that solomon now has given his children which apply to all of our lives in here and you got to find out you know what has the lord said to you today everybody pay attention don't now this ain't the time to get distracted they just doing what they always do you got to determine where has the lord spoken to you today from this because there was something here for every one of us where did he speak to you i just noticed some folks in here recovered from chronovirus it's good to see y'all man awesome yes um that's amazing god is good where has he spoken to you and now you got to be honest with yourself to take those things that he's given you today and let him have his full perfect work in your life okay and so bow your heads let's pray as we get out of here lord we do thank you today because you're so faithful to speak lord i pray uh that you would be with us as we prepare to go out of this place lord god but lord you know that you've spoken some specific things to us today and with every head bowel every eye closed if you've heard the voice of the lord i don't want to know where how and by faith you're saying lord i'm surrendering to you i don't quite know how you're going to do it i trust that you will and if that's you just simply raise your hand let me just see who the lord spoken to what's so wonderful so father you see those hands they raise them in faith you know what you're doing in their lives i pray lord god that you would have your full perfect work in them that the enemy would not be able to hinder anything this week lord god that they would just lord constantly be reminded by your spirit of these things that you've dealt with today that you would grow them strengthen them and transform their lives that you would create a brand new heart within them lord god that they would be filled with your joy and your presence and their lives lord we love you we thank you today in jesus name amen amen and we're over time so please pick up your children after worship let's stand and sing [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Clayton

Views: 85

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Clayton, Proverbs, Bible Study, Sunday Service, God's Word

Id: WjeH9Kx7SMM

Length: 48min 31sec (2911 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021