Messages
The Inner Life, Guarding the Heart - Pastor Stuart Price.
The Inner Life, Guarding the Heart
Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Matt 15:17-20
For some weeks now I have been looking at the heart. How Jesus saw the condition of the multitudes, and He was moved with compassion. Matthew 9:36
So on Sunday I was looking at the inner life, and guarding the heart. The real you on the inside, the Born Again, Spirit Filled Person.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.
NLT Translation puts it this way for it determines the course of your life!
Notice It doesn’t say somebody else will guard it for you. It is something we need to do ourselves. Our heart is under constant attack, we are in a war. The devil uses circumstances, that lead to disappointment. To discouragement, even disillusionment. If our heart is unhealthy,, it threatens everything else - family, friends, career. Everything.
In the natural, If your heart is unhealthy, your life is on the line, In the Spiritual it is the same.
All this started in the garden, when the devil said you will not surely die! Genesis 3:4
Die, we did! All mankind born from then on is dead to God.
What a job the devil did, the fall has affected us at the deepest level: Our mind, emotions and desires have been tainted by sin, and we are blind to just how pervasive the problem is. The human heart, in its natural condition is evil, treacherous and deceitful.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What can know it?
Sometimes we use a saying ‘The heart of the matter’ meaning the central issue of the matter. Another old term is the Crux of the matter. Crux means cross and the cross is the answer.
It’s about time that we got to the heart of the matter, or the problem!
Great News
Recorded in Ezekiel 36:26 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.
New heart, New spirit, New creation in Christ Jesus washed in the Blood and our names recorded in the Lambs Book of Life. Jesus died on the Cross, and destroyed the works of the devil. He made a way back for all mankind.
God by His spirit works from the inside out.
Reading the story of Joseph Genesis 37-50 A great story on how to keep your heart soft, as it can become hard again.
Joseph’s wounded heart was healed again. He was hated, rejected by his jealous brothers. Sold into slavery, falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned for years, but he kept his heart soft. From the pit, to the prison, to the palace. What a story of overcoming. A soft heart, means sympathetic or responsive, generous etc.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Our heart is like a garden, and we watch over it and keep all the weeds out.
Have a wonderful week. Enjoy God’s love and kindness.
Pastor Stuart & Colleen