Guarding Your Heart as a Christian: Biblical Guidance

The importance of guarding your heart as a Christian is discussed in the Bible.

Jesus warns his disciples to keep awake and watch and pray constantly to avoid temptation.

The Bible commands believers to hold fast to the truth and promises they have learned.

The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and peace.

Music When our precious Lord Jesus Christ was with his disciples in the garden praying before his betrayer, Judas Iscariot came with a crowd of men who were sent by the chief priests and scribes and elders who were all carrying swords and clubs to take him away to the high priest to be judged. Now when Jesus came back after the second time from the garden, his disciples were sleeping again. And he said to them, and especially Peter, in Mark chapter 14, verse 37. And he came back and found them asleep. And he said to Peter, Simon, Are you asleep? Have you not the strength to keep away and watch with me for one hour? Verse 38. Keep awake and watch and pray constantly that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Jesus gave a firm warning and especially called out most specifically Peter in verse 37 because Peter had bragged emphatically and forcefully about how he would never deny his Lord Jesus used the name Simon Peter's original name because of his natural weakness Peter was not living up to the meaning of his new name. He was not behaving like a rock yet. In verse 38, Jesus addressed all three disciples. He didn't suggest they be watchful, but he commanded them to be continually watchful and to pray. And in the Gospels, it is written three times that Peter denied the Lord three times. In all reality, the disciples should have been praying for themselves, as well as for Jesus, in light of what Jesus had told them was coming. We can see that because of their lack of understanding and inability to understand, inadequately lacked the true perspective and seriousness of what was taking place. thinking themselves to have insight, discernment, courage, and loyalty. They were in reality without perception. They were cowardly and faithless. No doubt they were embarrassed and ashamed when Jesus said, Are you asleep? Have you not the strength to keep awake and watch for me one hour? Verse 38. Keep awake and watch and pray constantly that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now, the disciples didn't have anything to answer to say to Jesus. They did not know what to answer. They were a little affected with his sorrows, his complaints, and his prayer. But the emphasis I wish to make with our message today is found in verse 38 when Jesus warns us all, keep awake and watch and pray constantly that you may not enter into temptation. Our message today is called, The Importance for Christians to Guard Their Hearts. Our precious Lord gives us no other burden than to hold fast until he comes. In fact, in Revelation chapter 2, verse 24 through 26, when he was speaking to the church of Thyatira, he declared, But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not explored and known the depths of Satan, as they say, I tell you that I do not lay upon you any other fresh burden. Verse 25. Obey. Hold fast to what you have until I come. And he who overcomes is victorious. and he who obeys my commands to the very end, doing the works that please me, I will give him the authority and power over nations. And in Revelation chapter 3 verse 11, he again warns, I am coming quickly, hold fast to what you have, so that no one may rob you and deprive you of your crown. he who overcomes is victorious and i will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of my god and he will never be put out of it or or go out of it and i will write on him the name of my god and the name of the city of my god the new jerusalem which descends from my god out of heaven and my own new name verse 13 he who can hear let him listen to and heed what the spirit says to the assembly the churches. We see in these last two verses that Jesus Christ calls the church to responsibility and obligation, which he had before promised he would empower them to do, and that is to preserve and to hold fast to that which she has. Now regarding the responsibility itself, which declares, hold fast to that which you have that is the truth that you've learned your faith in the truth and promises and the strength of grace which has been so graciously poured out to you now moreover and above all in addition to these believers are to maintain the zeal and love for their Lord Jesus Christ and for the brethren the church has been given possession of these excellent treasures, dear listener. And the command is to hold fast to them, all of them. Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 6 tells us, Now the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason, without the Holy Spirit, is death. Death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and soul, peace, both now and forever. You see, to be carnally or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. To live under the influence of the carnal or fleshly mind is to live in the state of condemnation, and consequently these remain bound to eternal death. whereas on the contrary the scripture tells us that the one who is spiritually minded has the life and peace of God in his or her soul and is in full expectation of eternal life dear listener we need to understand that God has definitely given all people the ability to think. Man differs from animals in that he can think and observe and arrive at logical conclusions. I don't know if you are aware of the emphasis being given to the animal kingdom, especially dogs, to where people are lavishing undue attention and get this, they are even kissing dogs on their mouth and calling themselves the dog's mommy or daddy and attributing children as the dog's sisters and brothers. It has been amazing to watch the sickening grooming by the minds of flesh to sway the real attention which should be due to babies and children who have been given God's spirit to potentially be his chosen children who have eternal life. It is actually an insult to creator God to put people on the plane of animals. We see the battle of abortion and the crime of murder of millions and millions of precious little ones. You see, dogs and the animal kingdom have been given a soul, but not the mind of reason. They can be trained to do wonderful things that they do, but they cannot reason. Man is gifted by God, who is his creator, with understanding. In the New Testament Greek. This is called nous, which is the mind, the intellect, the principle, or the conscious or moral standard in man. The nous is implanted in us at the moment of conception and bears the image of God within us. It is having a conscious awareness of God and a spiritual realm. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 11 declares, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds, a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working throughout the ages, which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy, yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Dear listener, God's plan is incomprehensible and immeasurable, and nevertheless, God has an appropriate time for every activity. He has placed within the heart of every person at the time of their conception a sense of something eternal and a desire to know the eternal significance of their existence. This quest is a deep-seated yearning and hunger, a compulsive drive, because man is made in the image of God to appreciate his beauty, the beauty of his creation, which is on an aesthetic level, and to know the character and the makeup and the meaning of the world on an academic and philosophical level and to discern its purpose and destiny on a theological level, which tells us that man has an inborn inquisitiveness and capacity to learn how everything in his experience can be combined to make a fullness in understanding. Our almighty creator God, in his gracious power and kindness, at some time or another, in each individual's life, arouses and kindles the person's heart and mind as to their awareness that God exists. God has deeply rooted the idea of eternity in every human heart and every attentive man and woman and child sees that all the operations of God refer to his endless duration of time it is only in eternity that we will be able to discover what God has designed by the various works and awesome miracles that he has formed created for the benefit of his human masterpiece and for his own glory. Oh yes, of course, every individual has the choice to accept or reject the promises, the precious opportunities that the good Lord provides for their eternal salvation. On the other side of the spectrum, the understanding of unbelievers is corrupt. However, it is not what God meant it to be. In Romans chapter 1, verse 28, Apostle Paul says, And so they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve Him or consider Him worth the knowing. God gave them over to abase and condemn mine to do things not proper or decent but loathsome. Verse 29, until they were filled, permeated and saturated with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed and malice. They were full of envy and jealousy, murder, strife, deceit and treachery, ill will and cruel ways. They were secret backbiters and gossipers. Verse 30, slanderers, hateful and too and hating God, full of insolence, arrogance, and boasting, inventors of new forms of evil, disobedient and undutiful to parents. Verse 31, they were without understanding, consciousnessness, and faithless, heartless, and loveless, and merciless, though they were fully aware of God's righteous decree. Hear that? They were fully aware of God's righteous decree. And yet, they do such things to deserve to die. they not only do them to themselves, but approve and applaud others who practice them. We see clearly in the scripture that the unbeliever has a mindset that is evil. His or her thought processes are concentrated on the flesh and the gratification of their animalistic instincts. A synonym of the mindset is called nous in Greek, as had said before. You see, the mindset of man is the result of the thought process. It is the growth and information of that on which man concentrates his mind. It is exclusively mentioned in Romans chapter 8 verses 6 and 7. which declares, now the mind of flesh, which is a sense of reason without the Holy Spirit, is death that compromises all miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life soul and peace both now and forevermore That is because the mind of the flesh with its carnal thoughts and purposes is hostile to God for it does not submit itself to God laws Indeed it cannot So we see by these two scriptures that there are two mindsets that are possible. One is the mindset of the unbeliever. And we read that unbelievers are people of corrupt minds. They're people who are corrupted or depraved in their minds and who resist the truth and are unapproved in the faith. We read this in 2 Timothy 3, verse 8, as Paul tells us, Now just as Janus and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men are hostile to and oppose the truth. They have depraved and distorted minds. They are reprobate and counterfeit and are to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned. And also, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17, Paul's exhortation teaches the importance of walking in holiness. Let's begin in verse 15. Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth in all things, speaking truly, dealing and living truly, enfolded in love. Let us grow up in every way and in all things into him who is the head, even Christ the Messiah, the anointed one. Verse 16. For because of him, the whole body, the church, in all of its various parts, joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part has power adapted to its need, is working properly, and in all of its functions grows to full maturity, building itself up in love. Verse 17. So this I say and solemnly testify in the name of the Lord as in his presence that you must no longer live as the heathen, the Gentiles, do in their perverseness, in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and futility of their minds. Verse 18. Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning be clouded. They are alienated, estranged, self-banished from the life of God with no share in it because of the ignorance, the want, the knowledge and perception, the willful blindness that is deep-seated in them due to their hardness of heart, to the insensitivities of their moral nature. Verse 19. In their spiritual apathy, they have become more callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves a prey to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity that their depraved desires may suggest and demand. Wow. So, here again, in reiterating, we have the instruction which concerns walking worthily in our calling as true believers in Jesus Christ. We see Paul's exhortation that follows, repeats Jesus' teaching on the importance of holiness and living in righteousness. Paul was addressing the church for those amongst the congregation who were acting as unbelievers or heathens would conduct themselves. True Christians should not conduct themselves or walk as Gentiles who do not know the Lord. Those unbelievers do not typically have a worthy aim or a goal in life, and the idea behind the futility of their mind, their thinking, is a moral decline from the truth found only in God's Word. And what is very significant in verse 17 is Paul's emphasis on the intellectual factor in the unbeliever's way of life, which is because their mindset, they live in the emptiness of their perverted minds, yet they think of themselves as very intelligent. In Romans chapter 12 verse 2, we see where the scripture gives a solid testimony in contrast to the power of ignorance and error, which corrupts one's mind and soul, versus the power of truth, which liberates one and sets them free from sinful, perverted pleasures and habitual sinful conduct, and refines and clothes the child of God with new garments because of their new attitudes, which is the transformation of their new mindsets. Let's read, starting in verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world, this age, fashioned after it, adapted to its external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and new attitudes, so that you may prove for yourselves what is good and acceptable in the perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. Verse 3. For by the grace, unmerited favor of God given to me, I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought, not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance, but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him. We have a message entitled, Evil People Cannot Reason Because They Are Demented. And you can find this message by going to our website called ShiningLight7Ministries.com. This message speaks about the sick mindset of the world and the unbelievable chaos which is happening all around the world. Demented, according to Webster's Dictionary, means deranged or having a very abnormal or sick state of mind. now the second mindset apostle paul speaks about is those who are called believers he speaks about the mind of the believer as needing constant renewal in ephesians chapter 4 and let's begin in verse 23 and constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude. Put on the new nature, the regenerate self, created in God's image, God-like, in true righteousness and holiness. Verse 25. Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we're all parts of one body, members of one another. Verse 26. When angry, do not sin. Do not ever let your wrath your exasperation your fury or indignation last until the sun goes down Verse 27 Leave no such room or foothold for the devil Give no opportunity to him Verse 28. Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word, nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth. But only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is befitting to the need and the occasion. It may be a blessing and give grace, God's favor to those who hear it. Verse 30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Do not offend or vex or sadden him. By whom you were sealed, mark Brandon as God's own, secured for the day of redemption, a final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin. Verse 31. Let all bitterness, indignation and wrath, passion, rage, bad temper, resentment, anger, animosity, and quarreling, brawling, clamor, contention and slander, evil speaking, abusive or blasphemous language be banished from you with all malice, spite, ill will or baseness of any kind and become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tender hearted, compassionate, understanding, loving hearted, forgiving one another readily and freely as God in Christ forgave you. Mind you, dear listener, these various scriptures are descriptions of what has already happened in the life of every true believer in Jesus Christ. This is not saying that any of us has arrived to a place where we let down our guard and grow cold and calloused to God's commands. Paul said, be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, and put on the new nature, the regenerate self, created in God's image, God-like, in true righteousness and holiness. Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, rather futile and ignorant. The true and genuine Christian believer has taken on the new attitude renewed in the spirit of their mind. This change emphasizes that God is constantly let me repeat that God is constantly at work in us to bring about the needful and required new life in his son, Jesus Christ. This change began with true repentance, which literally means a change of mind. You see, dear listener, without this miraculous change of mind from past sinful ways that we all once lived, we would never be able to do what this teaching is all about today. and that command is to guard your heart. To guard your heart. Someone may ask, What does it mean? What am I guarding? In Proverbs chapter 4, beginning in verse 23, wisdom warns us, Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flows the springs of life. Here are the ways in which these next verses that we see, that we can see what it is that we must guard. In verse 24, we're still in Proverbs chapter 4, but in verse 24, the word tells us, Put away from you all faults and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk put far away from you. Let your eyes look right on with fixed purpose, and your gaze be straight before you. Verse 26. Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered right. Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. And also, in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 15 and 16, Paul tells us, exercise foresight and be on the watch to look after one another, to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace, his unmerited favor and spiritual blessing, in order that no root of resentment, rancor, bitterness, or hatred shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and many become contaminated and defiled by it. Verse 16, that no one may become guilty of sexual vice or become profane, godless, and sacrilegious person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Apostle Paul gives us much to consider in our lives, dear ones. To say that you must guard your heart is actually saying that you must guard your life. This warning actually involves our eternal life and salvation. You see, to allow sin into the heart is to pollute one's entire life. We are warned to guard our lips because they can cause us to sin. And the heart controls the tongue. So a guarded heart should result in guarded lips. A contrary mouth is a proud mouth, and it is a mouth that speaks scornfully and arrogantly and carelessly. A Christian's words must always be spoken in love and seasoned with salt, the scripture tells us. We must guard our eyes to be sure that we are keeping them on Jesus Christ and our eternal goal that he has set for each one of us. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. Remember, the author and finisher of our faith warned us to keep awake and watch and pray constantly that you may not enter into temptation. the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak dear listener I encourage you as well as myself when I say live in God's word believe his word practice his word obey his word and he will protect your path and he will direct your path and perfect your path for the glory of his son Jesus Christ Thank you.

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