Sermon Central
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Guard Your Heart Series
Contributed by Arnold Anoya on Sep 21, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: There are many conditions of the heart, some are positive, some are negative. The heart attitude is the major issue of every believer. It is not the lack of ability or potential that prevents most people from making progress and enjoying fulfillmen
Introduction:
There is a physical heart and a spiritual heart, and the two are parallel. Physically speaking, the heart is the most important bodily organ. Spiritually speaking the heart is the most important aspect of the spiritual body.
In Proverbs 4:23, we are told to "Keep our heart with all diligence..." This means that we should guard our hearts like a soldier guards a city to keep out invaders. That is important because there are a lot of things in our hearts that should not be there.
There are many conditions of the heart, some are positive, some are negative.
The heart attitude is the major issue of every believer. It is not the lack of ability or potential that prevents most people from making progress and enjoying fulfillment in life; it is the wrong condition of the heart; it is the wrong heart
attitudes.
I. AN EVIL HEART
In this passage, we see three things about people that displeased God: wickedness, evil imaginations, and evil heart.
Because those things described the condition of man’s heart on the earth at that time, God decided to destroy all mankind.
Noah must have been a man with a right heart, otherwise, he would have been destroyed along with the others.
Many people today are being destroyed for the simple reason that their hearts are wrong.
Most of the time, we don’t keep a close guard on our heart. We let into it too much junk and nonsense. We need to realize that we are not going to take in garbage and produce honor and glory.
We have got to be careful not only about our actions but also about our imaginations, our intent, our motivation, our attitude. If we are not careful to keep these things in check, we may end up with an evil heart.
II. A HARD HEART
As we see in this passage referring to the Israelites in the wilderness, a hard heart causes rebellion.
A person with a hard heart cannot believe God easily.
That can cause them to fall into the next heart condition.
III. A WICKED, UNBELIEVING HEART
In chapter 12 of Hebrews, verse 7-8 and 12, we see two wrong conditions of the heart - a hard heart, and a wicked, unbelieving heart.
This second condition is a major problem because everything we receive from God comes through believing. To receive from Him, we must come to Him in simple, child-like faith, and just believe.
People who were abused usually develop a hardness about on purpose as a defense mechanism. They have been hurt so much that they develop the attitude that no matter what anybody does to them, it does not bother them.
We need to come to the place in our faith where we believe and we believe easily; that we’re not slow to believe, but we’re quick to believe.
Moses reached to the place where he was not quick to believe. He was a marvelous leader, but he got to the place where he was slow of heart to believe. He was tired and worn out. And when we get tired, it is harder to believe God.
That’s why we have to stay sharp spiritually, if we are going to be quick to believe and to walk in faith day by day.
Hebrews 11:6 - " And without faith it is impossible to please God..."
Conclusion:
The heart attitude is the major issue of every believer. It is not the lack of ability or potential that prevents most people from making progress and enjoying fulfillment in life; it is the wrong condition of the heart; it is the wrong heart attitudes.
So, keep your heart with all diligence.
