When The Fight Calls – Sermon Two

Fight for Your Heart  – Proverbs 4:20-27

 Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” 

Definition: Guard
1. Watch over in order to protect or control
2. Protect against damage or harm

Philippians 4:7 (ESV) “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

Psalm 119:9-11 (ESV) “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” 

Matthew 12:35 “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” 

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

2 Key Reasons to Guard Your Heart:

1. Guarding your heart protects your character.

Luke 6:45 (NLT) “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” 

1 Corinthians 15:33 “Bad company corrupts good character.” 

2. Guarding your heart increases the effectiveness of your testimony.

John 15:5  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Dallas Willard “If you are not entertaining God’s Truth, you will be entertaining Satan’s lies.”

Dallas Willard “Again I remind you, human beings cannot be forced to do evil. They cannot be forced to do good either. They must choose to do evil or good. How do they choose? By being persuaded that one course of action is better than another. So Satan works upon the heart through the mind, as he did with Eve, and as he will with us today.”

Four things to do to guard your heart

1. Watch what you say. 

Proverbs 4:24 “Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.”

2 Examples of Words that Do not Benefit Anyone:

a. Gossip

b. Grumbling

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.”

Ephesians 4:15a (NLT) “Instead, we will speak the truth in love.”

2. Focus on God’s calling.

Proverbs 4:25 “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.”

3. Stay on the path.

Proverbs 4:26 “Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.”

4. Stay away from evil. (Proverbs 4:27)

Proverbs 4:27 “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

Isaiah 30:21 “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”