Guarding Our Heart

The new movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is about a team of super heroes who are defending the earth from a highly advanced artificial intelligence named Ultron and his robot armies who are out to exterminate the human race.  In the final climactic scene of the movie, all 8 Avengers are in a united explosive effort to prevent Ultron from accessing a detonator that would release a meteor to earth and destroy humanity.  The Avengers use all their strength and abilities to valiantly defend the source of what would be the destruction of humanity.

We have an enemy who is making every effort to gain access to our heart and destroy us.  1 Peter 5:8 says, “be watchful.  (Our) adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him”.  Satan’s point of attack in our lives is our heart.  If Satan’s target is our heart then what are we supposed to do?

READ: Proverbs 4:23

Since we have an ENEMY who wants to DESTROY us, our heart must be valiantly DEFENDED!  Just like the Avengers put every effort into defending the detonator from their enemy, we must put every effort into defending our heart from our enemy.  The words “keep” and “vigilance” combine to communicate the idea of being a watchman on guard defending a fortress against an enemy.  This is no casual security guard or a mall cop, but a soldier at war. What are some ways Satan tries to access our heart that we must defend?

We must valiantly defend our heart with our EARS (Proverbs 17:4) – Do you remember hearing a cuss word for the first time?  It’s always a bit unnerving when your child comes home from school and tells you about what they “heard” at school whether a cuss word, a crude joke, or a lie.  It’s unnerving because any evil that we hear has the potential of taking root in our heart.  Why?  Because hearing about wickedness and mischief awakens our sin nature.  According to Proverbs 17:4, an evildoer “listens” to wickedness and a liar “gives ear” to a mischievous tongue.  Our sin nature’s ears are “tuned in” to evil.  Our choices of what we allow our ears to hear in music, conversation, and media is one way to defend our hearts from Satan’s attack. When we choose to hit the “mute” button on wickedness and evil the sin nature of our heart is deafened.

We must valiantly defend our heart with our EYES (Ps 101:3) – The word “worthless” means wicked or morally objectionable.  We are bombarded by “worthless” images in our world today.  Our culture gives us unlimited access to graphic violent, crude, sexual, and perverted visual content.  Psalm 101:3 says that we must choose to “blind” ourselves to anything “worthless” by not intentionally putting anything wicked or evil in front of our eyes.  Our choices of what we allow are eyes to look at in magazines, movies, and internet sites is another way to defend our hearts from Satan’s attack.

We must valiantly defend our heart with our MIND (Phil 4:8; 2 Cor. 10:5) – “Get your mind out of the gutter”.  That’s a phrase that we hear when our thinking is evil or wicked.  There are simply thoughts we must not allow to enter or stay in our minds.  Philippians 4:8 provides us with a standard for what we should allow to enter into and stay in our minds, “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, or worthy of praise.”  2 Cor. 10:5 tells us what to do with any other wandering thought that enters into our mind, we are to, “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”  Any and every thought that wanders through our mind must captured and brought (or dragged) into the presence of Christ.  It is Christ, then, who makes the decision as to whether the thought is allowed to stay or go.  If a thought is something that Jesus would want us to think about, keep it, if a thought is not something that Jesus would want us to think about, reject it . . . that way it never has a chance to impact our heart!

CONCLUSION
Are we on watch valiantly defending our heart against Satan?  If not, we are like superheroes who sit idly by and do nothing to defend ourselves against the enemy.  Our hearts need guarding.  If we are not watchful with our ears, our eyes, and our minds, Satan WILL enter unhindered and devour our heart and our entire life with it.  It’s time to be watchful, resist him, and guard the most important part of who we are . . . our heart!

God's Word in Our Heart

Rules are important.  There are rules in almost every aspect of life.  Without rules athletic competitions, classrooms, and entire societies would be in constant chaos and disorder.  Rules set the standard for actions and behaviors that are expected and acceptable in any given environment.  There are consequences for not playing by the rules or living according to the law.  God’s Word is the “rule book” for life.  In God’s Word we are given God’s standards of what is right and what is wrong.  Whenever we live according to God’s rules, life works, and whenever we don’t live according to God’s rules, life does not work.

The Old Testament law is made up of hundreds of relational, social, and civil “rules”.  The most well-known of these rules are the 10 commandments.  According to Jewish tradition there are 613 “rules” or commandments in the law including 248 “positive” commandments, things that we are to do, and 365 “negative” commandments, things that we are not to do.  God gave all of these rules that we might know how to live in right relationship with Him and each other.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 individual verses.  Psalm 119 refers to God’s Word 165 times with 8 different words including law (25), testimony (23), way (4), precept (21), statute (22), commandment (23), rule (17), and word (30).  It’s overwhelmingly obvious that Psalm 119 is a poetic prayer of heart desiring God and wanting to be saturated with God’s Word.  A PASSIONATE HEART for God’s Word creates a PASSIONATE HEART for God!  How does our passion for God’s Word inspire our passion for God?

Psalm 119:1-16

A passionate heart for God’s Word PRAISES God (Psalm 119:7) – Whether privately or corporately, praising God is an appropriate response to what we learn about who God is and what He has done through His Word.  The word “praise” means to express gratitude or thanksgiving.  Therefore, to praise God means expressing our gratefulness and thankfulness to God.  As God reveals more of Himself to us through His Word our desire to praise Him will grow.  As God reveals more of what He has done for us through His Word our desire to praise Him will increase.  As God reveals more of how we are to live to us through His Word our desire to praise Him will abound.  Spending time in God’s Word is marked by a life of praise for God!

A passionate heart for God’s Word SEEKS God (Psalm 119:10) – Life is a journey, and rules are like a highly visible, well-lit path that leads us in the right direction.  Going off the path makes the journey hard and dangerous.  Staying on the path makes the journey easy and safe.  A well-marked path is necessary in life in order to keep us from wandering off into the dark wilderness.  Where do we find such a path for the journey of life?   Psalm 119:105 says, “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”.  In the journey of life, God’s Word provides us with an illuminated next step.  When we seek God’s Word we are ultimately seeking God’s guidance, direction, and will for each and every step on the path of our life.

A passionate heart for God’s Word does not SIN against God (Psalm 119:11) – In Matthew 6:45 Jesus said “the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.”  How do we store an ever increasing amount of good treasure in our hearts?  By filling it up with God’s Word!  When we store God’s Word, His rules, His statutes, His precepts, His laws, His commandments, in our hearts we will produce the fruit of righteousness and eliminate the bad fruit of sin.  The best way to eliminate sin from our life is not to try harder to not sin, but rather to fill our hearts to the point of overflowing with God’s Word!

CONCLUSION
Psalm 119:111 says, “Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.”  Spending time with God by reading His Word should be one of the greatest joys of our heart.  It is not a joy because we learn new rules to obey or disobey, but because it brings us closer to the One who revealed Himself to us.  Where do we experience joy in life?  Is it in taking all the right turns on the path of life?  Or is it in relating with the One who is walking along the path of life with us?  May our passion for God’s Word ignite a passion for God Himself!