Guarding the Heart: A Call to Divine Love

"Solomon says to his son let not your heart envy sinners oh it would seem then that Rehoboam was looking at people who lived without God and he wanted to be like them his heart was going wrong in terms of who he admired then secondly the heart goes wrong in regards to how you decide verse 18 Solomon says to his son surely there is a future son please don't make your decisions on the basis of short-term comfort there's a future and you need to make wise decisions in the light of the long-term in the light of the outcomes your life on earth is very very short and your life and eternity is very very long surely that is a future so please son don't make your decisions on what will make you feel good now make your decisions on the basis of what will make you feel good then because your life in this world is very very short and your life in eternity is very very long indeed so who you admire and how you decide and then thirdly we saw that the heart easily goes wrong over where you invest verse 23 Solomon says to his son by truth and do not sell it in other words son understand this that the truth and there is such a thing as the truth jesus said I am the truth the truth is worth whatever it costs you to get it and to keep it by truth at any price Solomon says to his son it is worth more than anything you could ever gain by giving it up now that's where we were last week we looked at how the heart goes wrong and so today is we come to the second part of this message from Proverbs in chapter 23 I want us to focus on the heart set right and so we're going to begin taking up exactly where we left off last time with the prayer of Solomon's father David you remember that he prayed like this create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me now the word create is very significant there create of course means bring into existence something that was not there before so when David asks of God please create in me a clean heart bring into being something that was not there before he prays to God he's asking for more than forgiveness if you know some 51 or if you want to check it out and read it you will see very clearly that already in that sum he has asked God for forgiveness he asks for forgiveness when he says purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean washed me and I shall be whiter than snow that some 51 and verse 7 David had already asked for forgiveness and he had received it but his prayer doesn't end there his prayer goes on it's like this Lord thank you for forgiveness thank you for cleansing but now I need to ask you for something else as well see I did what I did because my sinful heart was inclined towards it and if you simply forgive me and leave my heart in the same condition as it was in before it will not be long before I go and do exactly the same thing all over again and then I'll need to be back and asking forgiveness and on and on and on in a same cycle that never never changes so Lord I need more than forgiveness I thank you for that gift but now I'm asking you for another create in me a clean heart Oh God give me in other words what I have not had bring something new into being in my inmost being give me a heart that loves you more than the sin that you have just forgiven now that's where we ended last week we saw that that's how David prayed and it said the trajectory of his life we saw at the end very sadly that Rehoboam did not pray like that he did not set his heart to seek the Lord and his life went in an entirely different direction now we ended there last week and so here's where I want to take it up where do you go from here so here you are a forgiving sinner and here you are a true Christian you have been given by God the wonderful gift of a new heart you love the Lord you really do now what does the path of wisdom look like going forward for you from here the message last week was primarily addressed towards those among us who may be tempted to give up the faith once professed and that of course is what we're born did but today I want to speak to all of us who would truly say you know I love Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the Lord and he's the savior of my life I love him I trust him I my hope is in him where do I go from here and I want simply to draw to your attention the six words at the beginning of verse 26 my son give me your heart or as we could equally well say it my daughter give me your heart and last week you remember we heard these words primarily as the words of Solomon to Rehoboam or the words of a wise and loving father to his son today I want us to hear these words my son give me your heart as the very words of God Himself speaking to every one of us his children redeemed in Jesus Christ what did he say to you and to me he says my son my daughter give me your heart I want simply to make four observations reflecting on these six words the first is please notice an established relationship my son give me your heart now in other words the one who gives his or her heart to the Lord is not a stranger not an enemy and not a slave the one who gives his or her heart to the Lord is described here as a son in other words and this goes to the very heart of the dynamics of a true Christian life that the giving of the heart comes out of the knowledge of an established relationship my son give me your heart and notice the way around that it is the point here is not that if you give God your heart you will become his child the point is the other way around the point is if you are his child you will then give him your heart my son give me your heart now remember that our Lord Jesus told a story so well known about a prodigal son who wasted his life in wild and reckless living but then he came to his senses and then he returned to his father before he got home he had already decided what he would say when he arrived I'm going to say this father I am no longer worthy to be called your son so treat me as one of your hired servants now as our Lord told the story when the son gets back he actually only gets halfway through what he intended to say the father comes running out to meet him you remember and then the son says father I am no longer worthy to be called your son but the father breaks in before he can get to the rest about please regard me as a hired servant the father breaks into what the son is saying and he says to the servants now bring out the fatted calf calf let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is alive he was lost and is found it says this the father's saying what do you mean not worthy to be my son you are my son that's the beauty of it you are my son you were lost now you're found but then you remember that there was another son and he was the very opposite of reckless in fact the other son the older one was as hard-working as dutiful and as reliable as they come every day he went out into the field into his father's field and he worked for his father and you know the story when his no-good brother returns home and all of this lavish welcome is laid on for him the older brother is not happy it seems unfair to him and so he says to his father now all these many years I have served you I never disobeyed your command and very significantly the father says to him son you are always with me and everything that I have is yours now you see the point here is a son who thinks of himself only as a servant only as someone who does work and you know what if you think of yourself only as God's servant if you think of yourself only as someone who works for God you will feel like the older brother did that somehow God owns you and you will not give him your heart it's not what servants do the giving of the heart giving of the work yes but not the giving of the heart if you think of yourself only as a servant you will find yourself often caught up with the question am I getting what I deserve is God giving me what I think end you for everything that I have done and all that I am doing for him that's the mentality of a servant and there's no heart in it at all it's all of our payment for wordham but listen if you are in Jesus Christ you are not a slave but a son a son or a daughter of God and the New Testament emphasizes that so very clearly doesn't it you did not receive the spirit of slavery but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which you cry out Abba Father you are no longer a slave but a son and if you are a son then indeed you are also a me and you see it is the knowledge of the relationship that leads to the giving of the heart my son give me your heart father god I wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood and your loving care but now I am your child I am adopted in your family and I will never be alone for Father God you're there beside me and I will praise you it's the knowledge of the relationship that leads to the giving of the heart and when you know that you are a dearly loved child of God in Jesus Christ you know what here's what you'll do you will give your heart to the father who loves you my son give me your heart here's a second observation from these remarkable words what does it think here notice here not only an established relationship but also an essential priority my son give me your heart now we thought a little about the heart last time let's focus in on the heart of a Christian today I want to give you this picture that I've found very helpful your heart as a Christian is like a walled city with enemies on the outside and traitors on the inside that's what a Christians heart is like a walled city with enemies on the outside and traitors on the inside in other words outside of your heart there are all the assaults of the world and the flesh and the devil all the temptations that come to you from outside there are enemies outside the walled city you can't open the gates and let them in you need to be on your defence against anything or everything and everything that would lead you on a destructive path but the enemies outside are only half of the problem that a Christian contends with and probably even the smaller because alongside the enemies that are outside the walled city there is also the problem of traitors who are on the inside in other words there is still because you live in the flesh something within you that is drawn to sin and you need to get guard your own heart not only against the enemies outside but the traitors inside as well now how do you do that well I think that's what this verse is all about and if you look at the verses that are around them you'll see why I say that because these verses identify temptations that assault us I mean look at verse 27 for example you have very vivid description of the lure of sexual temptation or if you look back at verse 20 you have again a vivid description of drink and gluttony and of laziness and we might put the whole drug scene that so pervades our culture in so many ways in there as well now here's the quest how as a Christian believer are you to guard your heart against temptations like these well let me come at this from another story in the Bible that many of you will know well the Bible tells us the story of Joseph a young man who had been badly treated and then was living in another country far from his family far from anyone who knew him he was in a place where he was anonymous as far as his own family Network was concerned and he worked for a man by the name of Potiphar and Potiphar's wife tempted him now wonder if you remember what Joseph said and where his defense in temptation when it came actually lay Joseph said this how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God now I would suggest you friends that that is actually the ultimate defense against any form of temptation I couldn't do that to God that's what he's saying now friends none of Joseph's brothers would have said that of course they'd been brought up in the same home they'd been brought up with the same faith but their hearts were not given to the Lord Joseph's was Joseph in other words lived in what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord it's a flavor chilly that's very often repeated in proverbs you have it for example in verse 17 of this chapter 23 that we're looking at let not your heart envy sinners we looked at these words last week but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day I find it very helpful to define the fear of the Lord that very important phrase in the Old Testament and in the new this way that the fear God is so to love him that his frown would be your greatest dread and his smile would be your greatest delight that's what it is to live in the fear of the Lord so to love God that his frown would be your greatest dread and his smile well that would be your greatest delight and here's Joseph and he lives in the fear of the Lord he knows that God is great in his power and great in his love his heart has been given to the Lord and so he says when he's confronted with this particular temptation how could I do this great wickedness and sin against God now here's the thing giving your heart to the Lord which is what we're looking at today my son give me your heart giving your heart to the Lord is actually your best and your ultimate defense against every form of sin and of temptation let me try and pause for a moment and try and earth this so to the younger person today let me ask this question what do you think will be your most powerful defense against the temptations that may surround you say on a college campus two words drugs and drink and sexual indulgence when scores and hundreds of people all around you are all going down that path and the pool that comes to your heart it's very very strong indeed what do you think is your best defense against that power and that pool of peer pressure this is going to be all around you and I'm saying to you today that whatever other defenses you may have in place whatever other accountability you may have or whatever other those you may have made the best and ultimate defense that you have is simply this that you have given your heart to the Lord that was Joseph's defense he said how can I do this to God love this God I've given him my heart how could I do this to him Christian in business what is going to keep you faithful as you move from city to city from hotel to hotel anonymous and often lonely what what do you think is going to be the thing that will most contribute to keeping you faithful you think is common sense you think is willpower you think it's enlightened self-interest I'll tell you what it is it is your best defense against sin is that you give your heart to the Lord let me turn it again Christian sister brother who has been wounded what will it keep what will it be that will keep you from sliding into bitterness and into self-pity and ultimately into a kind of hardness and brittleness of heart what will keep you from that self-discipline a sense of duty your best defense against these horrible ugly sins are to give God your heart my daughter my son he says give me your heart and he's saying that to us here today out of the strip she's calling us to do something today that's going to make a difference to the trajectory of what actually happens in our lives this week giving your heart to the Lord is ultimately the only way to guard you from a reckless life that breaks the boundaries and leaves you with the miserable fruits of impurity and of indulgence the only way ultimately that will save you from that and giving your heart to the Lord is the only way that will guard you from a shriveled life that lives within the boundaries what leaves you miserable because you only ever get that out of fear and caution you realize that I've described these two things the first is the prodigal son and the second is the older brother and what they both need is to hear the father say give me your heart and what they both need is that the heart will be given to the Father who loves so an established relationship my son an essential priority your heart third an intentional response my son give me your heart a marvelous word gay now last time we saw that the heart is indeed the command in the control center of your life in other words the inclination of your heart always set the trajectory of your life which means that where your heart is today is where your life will be tomorrow that's what it means now Woody Allen famously summed up where our culture goes with this particular truth he said on one occasion the heart wants what it wants the heart wants what it wants in other words the heart controls your life and it wants what it wants and there really isn't anything you can do about it the heart wants what it wants but I want you to notice against that cultural background some things that are very different here God says to his children give me your heart and if you look back to verse 19 he says something that's similar direct your heart in the way in other words you have responsibility as a child of God in regards to your own heart direct your heart in the way give me your heart so please understand this difference the world says the heart controls the life and therefore there's absolutely nothing you can do about it you just got to go with the flow God says the heart controls the life so give it to me and if you are a child of God you have the ability to do this and if you are truly a child of God this is exactly what you will do that's what we're learning here and here's what will happen this is very wonderful as you give your heart to the Lord what's he going to do with it he will fill it he will fill it with the knowledge of his piece I think of Romans chapter 5 here since we have been justified by faith and the Lord Jesus Christ we have peace with God he'll fill your heart with peace when you give your heart to him he'll fill your heart with joy we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and he will fill your heart with love God has poured out his love into our hearts into our hearts his love poured out by the Holy Spirit but most of all as you give your heart to him he gives you himself and some of you will remember if he's in chapter 3 where Paul speaks and prays about God's strengthening you with power through his spirit in your in being in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and so that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God one of those staggering phases in all of the Bible but God would pour himself into you the Christ presence would be known in your experience and evident to other people in your very life and in your very spirit that he's rooted and grounded in you because you are rooted and grounded in him give your heart to God and He will fill it now at this point someone may well be saying well now here's this thing my heart's already given I gave my heart to my wife a long time ago my husband my children but I want you to think about this if you are going to love another person really well and do it over the long term your own heart needs to be filled and the very obvious question then is who's going to fill it and you may say well the person I love is going to fill it but here's where that leads you I will love you and I will be able to go on doing that as long as you are loving me but if you are no longer able to fill me I can no longer promise that I will be able to fill you well you can see that there's no stability and nothing that's going to last very long on that kind of a basis I want you to think about this the very best way that you can be positioned to love other people well is to give your heart to the Lord you want to love another person really well here's how you do it you give your heart to the Lord and he will fill it and what that will mean is that you have the ability to go on loving even in times where there may not be a great deal that is coming back you will still have something to give and maybe there are some among us who are actually wondering do I actually have the capacity to love another person well I don't know I I'm not sure how much I've actually got to give I want someone else to love me I'm not sure how much I've actually got to give back here's how you will be in a position of being able to live a life of love you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and you walk with him so that he fills your heart with the knowledge of his love and therefore puts you in a position where you are able to minister into the lives of others that's that's why the Bible says a cord of three strands is not easily broken friend the more you give your heart to Jesus Christ the better you will be able to love others an established relationship my son an essential priority the heart an intentional response give and then here's the last thing just very briefly glorious invitation my son give me your heart and when you look at that word me just think about who's saying this this is the King of Kings and it is your loving Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ give me your heart he says surely the very obvious thing here is that your heart will be given somewhere every human heart is getting somewhere if you do not give your heart to God it will be given somewhere or to something else the question for every one of us is who is going to receive the gift of your heart on whom are you going to lavish your affection you might give your heart to your work you might give your heart to your family you might give your heart to yourself you might give your heart to some cause but whatever wherever you give your heart you are going to find that that will be of growing growing importance in your life every heart is given to something or to someone and you know people who don't give their hearts some place often turn in on themselves and sometimes even and this is a remarkable phrase in the Bible sometimes even end up giving that hearts to despair that phrase by the way is in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and verse 20 I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my Labour's Under the Sun in other words here's a sad person a discouraged person and they're looking at their work and they're looking at their life and he or she says I don't like what I see I don't see any point anymore there's no place for me to give my heart so what happens well everyone gives their heart somewhere so here's what this person does they say well I'll give my heart to despair I wonder if there's someone who's there listening right now if that's where you are I want to say to you don't give your heart to despair you give your heart to Jesus you give your heart to Jesus and you do this today and so I want to ask this as we try and draw this to a close what is it then that would compel you to give your heart this discouraged heart this tired heart let's drain heart what would compel you to give this heart freely and fully to the Lord I've given you some practical reasons it's going to be your best defense against sin I mean where would your sinful heart lead you if you did not give it to Jesus Christ today wait what what does this week hold for you if Jesus Christ doesn't have your heart where where is that sinful heart going to take you it's your best offense against sin and it's the best way for you to be able to learn to love other people especially when love is not coming back in your direction how are you going to love when you are not feeling the only way is to give your heart these are profoundly practical things their biblical wisdom that comes right out of the scripture and out of the heart of a Christian relationship with God but they're not the supreme thing and I want to end with the supreme thing here just now give me your heart the father says to his son you see it is knowing the love of the one who calls you his glory and is loved but ultimately is the compelling winning some power that will draw a person and I trust it will draw you today to give your heart in a fresh way to Jesus Christ if you have the lurking suspicion Christian brother or sister but because you're not all that God's calling you to be that you have this lurking suspicion that somehow God's going to get you in the end you will always hold back from giving your heart to him completely because you're afraid of what he might do with it you think to yourself God is just that means God must punish sin and I know that even if my Christian best I'm still a sinner and I'm so far from everything that God calls me to be and if you think like that even for a little bit the logic of what's in your mind and in your heart will be that you therefore live at a distance from God with a certain caution and a certain coldness and he won't really have your heart but here's why brother-sister you can feel completely safe in giving your heart to the Lord to be God has already dealt with all of your sin at the cross justice has been satisfied in Jesus by the Father for you so that now God in Jesus Christ is free to pour out lavish the knowledge of his love in which you will rejoice forever and forever in all eternity and this is the God who in Jesus Christ says now my son my daughter here's what I want you to do today give me your heart prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the gods that I love take my heart O take and seal it seal it for your courts about let's pray together show me father please bring us to the place today where we feel that if we had a thousand hearts we could do nothing better than give every one of them to you so in loving you may we be filled with the fountain of your everlasting love that we true me too may truly learn to love others through Jesus Christ our Lord in his name we pray and everyone together said" [00:01:28]