Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
8 sermons cite this verse
… of us at one point or another have. And that's why the Bible tells us that we have to guard our what? Oh, this is getting good. Look at Proverbs 4.23. Because some of you don't understand that this is one of the strongest scriptures in the bible because out of this place everything else in your life is affected it says guard your heart above all else pastor above everything above everything because why for it determines the course of your life y'all this is why we have To evict every idol because if we don't whatever we allow to sit on the throne of our heart It will begin to direct our lives and that's why I tell people all the time A lot of people have faith Everybody has faith, but they have faith in the wrong things And see the bible tells us how we get the right type of faith It says faith comes by hearing and hearing what? Not hearing the new meat meals album I mean your business Because what ends up happening is you're feeding yourself something that is now giving language to your And now you're wondering why you've listened to that new album and now you don't feel the same way about your wife But you start looking at your co-workers Oh, I counsel a lot of people All i'm telling you is that when you start watching those people who will do anything for money And you're just getting good leadership practices and i'm just trying to get the business savvy …
… but it got to go. You hear what I'm saying? So the only scripture I'm going to leave you with today, I need you to see this, is Proverbs 4.23. Because this is why it's so important, and this is why our worship is hindered, and this is why so many things are happening. Look at this scripture, because you've heard it before, but you've never thought about it like this. Guard your heart. Like so many of your hearts are just open. Anybody can get in. Anything can get in. Anyone can get in. You just waiting for somebody to DM you. You're so thirsty that you would just take anything and God says would you guard your heart every deal is not a good deal you didn't hear me everything that looks good is not good and we are so frivolous with the thing that changes everything that we let people who are not do you know why these people are sitting here is because they're qualified and we're letting people who are unqualified to speak into our heart. …
… chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 tells us this. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 to 27. Keep your heart. So you bind these things around your neck. You write them on the tablet of your heart. How do you do this? You do that to do this. Keep your heart. Guard it. Watch over it. Listen, young people. Guard your heart with all diligence. For out of it spring 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. What a statement. By the way, these are the words of a father to a son. How much more should all of us in this day and age, we are 3,000 years removed from Solomon's day, this wisdom today, if it could be wiser, which it can't be, it's eternal, but if it's more needed today than ever before, I would say yes to that. …
… correction, for instruction in righteousness. And in Proverbs chapter 4, we know this, we saw this in the introduction of this book. The Bible says, Proverbs 4 verse 23, keep your heart, guard it, watch over it. Listen, for all of us it's true, but young people today, most importantly, young people, keep or guard, set a watch over your hearts with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Wow. Your life is going to be lived out by the value that you have stored within your heart. If you value the things of God, you are going to live a life that honors God. If you don't, you're going to live a life that honors self. By the way, that word issue in the Hebrew language, a very powerful word, it means from the center to the vanishing point. I like that. And beyond. To the escapes. That's an interesting statement, the way it puts it. To the escapes. I had to look that up. I didn't know what it meant. To the escapes in old English means when you've gone as far as you can go, you've just begun to go as far as you can go. It never stops. …
… vulnerable people, hungry for a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on. Solomon understood that. He knew how easy it was for friends to turn into lovers. And that's why he said in Proverbs 4, verse 23, watch over your heart with all diligence for from it, your heart flow the springs of life. You see, the fact is, ladies and gentlemen, most affairs don't begin in the bedroom. They begin in the heart. Usually somebody or both parties are looking for fulfillment outside of the relationship that they're engaged in. And what happens is they find a sympathetic and empathetic ear. And very quickly it degenerates into sexual expression. In fact, it's interesting to me how many times in Proverbs, Solomon connects sexual immorality with the spoken word. Jot these verses down. Proverbs 2 verse 16. To deliver you from the strange woman. That's the adulteress. From the adulteress who flatters with her words. Or Proverbs 5 verse 3. For the what? The lips of an adulteress drip honey. …
… Look at it that way. Also this, in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, this is that other verse, Proverbs 1, 7, and Proverbs 4, 23, those two verses are the summation of the entire book. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. guard, garrison your heart, guard your heart, guard it. Our culture today, our young people today, listen, grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, listen, to our children and to our children's children, we must communicate to them, figure out how it works in your family. Get your kids, if they're gone, call them up. Send them a video. Do FaceTime. Tell them. this is grandpa calling and just got out of church today. And I want to encourage you kids about something. The Bible says in Proverbs 4, 23, to guard, to keep your heart with all diligence because out of it springs forth the issues of life. Kids, the way that your heart and what your heart gravitates toward and what you want, match it up against the word of God. …
… Understand it's the central accent. The Bible said, guard thy heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life. Come on, somebody. If I learn to fix my heart, come on, my heart will help me fix other things. Understand a fixed heart is a heart that has settled its loyalties to God. Understand a fixed heart. Can I give it to you like this? Watch this. It's a thermostat, not a thermometer. You see, a thermometer reacts to the temperature, but a thermostat sets the temperature. When my heart is fixed, come on, I don't care what's going on around me. Come on, I've set my heart. Oh, come on, and I'm going to keep a hot temperature toward God. I'm not going to let things conform me. I'm not going to let things mold me. I don't care if everybody on the job is negative. I don't care if everybody at school is acting a fool. Come on. My heart is going to be fixed like a thermostat everywhere I go. …
… to the passage again and again and again and again at your leisure. So what is the passage? Well, the passage is Proverbs 4, verses 20 to 27. Let me just walk you through it. Begins with the words, my son, right? The early chapters of Proverbs, my son. Remember how Hebrews 12 transposes that into the mouth of God. Have you forgotten the exhortation from Proverbs in which he, God, addresses you as his sons. So, this is the Father, as it were, speaking the Word of God to the Son. So, let us transpose that into the Lord speaking the Word of God to pastors. What does he say to us? Well, he says seven things, I think, seven things. Or if there are more, it's kind of nice to think that there are seven basic principles. Verses 20 to 21, you will be safeguarded so long as you keep giving your attention to the Father's voice in his word. That's a guarantee. His word will keep you and give you integrity. …