Above
Pt. 1 – Heart Attacks
I. Introduction
Above. When I say that word there are certain meanings that come to mind instantly. Above . . . perspective, looking down on, higher than. Above . . . position, prominence, higher in order. Above . . . distance. Above speaks to perspective and position!
Over the course of the next few weeks I want to us to examine Scripture and see what it tells us about “Above”!
Today I want to examine a passage of Scripture that deals with order or importance.
Text: Proverbs 4:23
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
The wisest man on the planet is about to offer us wisdom for the ages. He could have said a lot of wise things. He could have followed suit of some kids who gave advice. He could have said, “Above all else . . .
• “When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?" don’t answer him.” – Michael (14)
• “Never tell your mom her diet’s not working.” – Michael (14)
• “Stay away from prunes.” - Randy (9)
• “Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time.” – Kyoyo (9)
• “If you want a kitten, start out by asking for a horse.” – Naomi (15)
• “Don’t pick on your sister when she’s holding a baseball bat.” – Joel (10)
But, the wisest man on the planet goes for the most important above statement he could make and he says, “Above everything else guard your heart”. Think about the implications of that statement. Above a good education. More important than using your gift. More crucial than driving the right car. Of greater importance than training your body until you become a fine tuned athlete. Above all else . . . this above should grab our attention and cause us to take serious notice and pay special attention to the next statement. Above all else guard your heart. One version says; “with all diligence” guard your heart. In other words, the heart should receive the greatest effort.
We protect our homes with security alarms, and dead bolts locks. We have security lights. Some of us arm ourselves so that we feel protected. Yet for all of our diligence to secure our homes, our valuables, and our goods we often ignore our heart. Too many Christians have switched on cruise control and believe that once they meet Jesus they can coast through life. We try to live our Christian life with no effort. The instructions “with all diligence” tell us it is a constant warfare and will require much spiritual energy. Too often we think, “I’m saved. My heart has been cleansed. My job is finished. My heart will never need any more attention.”
One man said, “Heart worship, heart love and heart obedience are far more difficult to recognize than the outward forms and duties of religion, because they are unseen, unrecognized and unrewarded of men. Not only is heart work difficult, it is constant.”
We need to go back and listen to the wise man and get back to work. Guard our hearts!
Everyone is talking about heart health today. You can’t go to a restaurant without seeing the little heart emblems by food items to help you protect your heart. You even determine what kind of butter and cereal you eat determined by how it affects your heart! You can go and get scans of your heart just to make sure how healthy it is. Maybe we need to do a heart scan today in light of what the writer of Proverbs teaches us.
Why is it so essential to “above all else guard our heart?” Why is heart health important? Why would the wise man say ABOVE all else? Could it be because he knew what Jeremiah knew?
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Maybe he knew that if we aren’t careful to guard our heart that a sick heart is almost incurable. Could it be that he knew that if we don’t manage our heart that left to our devices we will crash, burn and take others with us? Could it be because he had the same revelation Jesus gave us? Listen to Jesus’ take on our heart.
Matthew 15:19
19For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
If Jeremiah was right and if Jesus was right then the writer of Proverbs was on point when he said that it is essential to guard our heart! Because if we don’t the end result is less than desirable! The result of an unguarded heart is destruction! Is it possible that the root of all murder, divorce, affairs, immorality, stealing, lying, gossip, grudges, and crime isn’t our eyes, but our heart? We try to ascribe our problems to other things like . . . He had wandering eyes so our marriage fell apart. No, it wasn’t his eyes it was the fact that he had a wandering heart! She is just has this problem with lying. No, what she has is a heart condition! He has a work ethic issue. No what he has is a heart problem. She has a pride problem so she is rebellious. No what her problem is her heart!
II. Heart Conditions
I sincerely believe that most of us are living life with a heart condition. We have one of three heart conditions.
Too many of us are living with a dented heart. Our heart is damaged and hurt. We have one significant heart hit and our life, faith, hope, dreams come to an end and we surrender our heart to whomever and whatever! In order for you to be able to guard your heart you need to get your heart healed today! We are told in the Word that specializes in dent removal. Isaiah says it like this, “He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt!” or in another version, “A bruised reed he will not break!”
Some of us are living with a distracted heart. A divided heart is a distracted heart. A torn heart is a troubled heart. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. This generation may be the most distracted, unstable generation ever to walk the planet. We have ADD, ADHD, and so much confusion, chaos, and activity that we end up with APATHY. What happened to singular focus of the heart? What happen to the Psalm 24:7 folks who sincerely said, “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”? Now we don’t know how to live a 1 thing life and our heart is distracted!
Some of us have the most serious heart condition which is a deceived heart. We won’t take real stock of where we stand spiritually or relationally. The worst kind of deception is self deception. Some of you are telling the worst lie possible. You are lying to you about you! You need to have an honesty moment today. No one else’s honesty will do you one bit of good until you have the moment when you look at yourself in the mirror and see your own heart condition and say “I am the man!” I am the one who has sinned. I am the one who has been deceived. I am the one who has been playing games!
The heart condition that God wants us to live is with a devoted heart. Who or what owns your heart?
Above all else guard your heart! Maybe David captures it best when he says we should have a “fixed heart”. (Psa 112:7) "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD." We must get our heart fixed!
How do we guard our heart? How do we fix our heart? After telling us that guarding our heart should be our number 1 priority the wise man also tells us how to fulfill his command.
Proverbs 4:23-27
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
III. Heart Health
For some reason when we begin to talk about guarding our heart and having a healthy heart we want some complicated, sophisticated, impossible prescription and the wise man messes us up because he declares heart health comes how we handle our mouth, eyes, and feet!
a. Mouth – vs. 24
I want to remind you that out of abundance of heart mouth speaks. To check your heart health listen to what is coming out of your mouth! Our topics, tenor, and target of conversations can damage our heart! Corrupt talk leads to corrupt living! Why are we so liberal with our mouth? God, time and time again informs us from His Word that our mouth and what we talk about is extremely important! We are too flippant about our mouth. There are some things that we just shouldn’t talk about! Far from our lips so that things stay far from our heart!
b. Eyes – vs. 25
Have you ever felt like your eyes were under attack? The eyes are the windows to the soul. What your eyes focus on enters your heart. Single focused! Fixing our gaze on the prize. We have heart attacks when our eyes (which have been giving us problems from day one in the garden) begin to look to the side. What we fix our gaze on determines where we go and where our attention resides. If our gaze is fixed on work our spiritual life gets the shaft. If our gaze is fixed on someone else’s wife our wife gets the shaft. If our gaze is fixed on material things our spiritual man is ignored. What are you fixated on?
c. Feet – vs. 26-27
Where your feet trod your heart will follow.
“Ponder” means to “weigh mentally”; “Choose well”. Don’t make rash decisions. Use wisdom in choosing your path of life.
Don’t play the fool! You can be lead astray! This is a high wire act. Too far off the trail you will find yourself free falling. The slide doesn’t start with giant steps. You start the slide with the small steps!
He then makes a statement that if foreign to most 21st Century Christians. Be steadfast in all your ways. Steady. Consistent. Disciplined. Faithful. Those are traits that Christians used to have. They were steadfast to attend, to tithe, and to work. They were faithful in marriage. Faithful in service. Faithful in friendship. Now we have allowed our feet to take us into wishy washy, half way in, half way out, slack living and our heart suffers!
It is crazy if you think about it, but the enemy apparently knows the truth, our heart attacks come from our mouth, our eyes, and our feet!
Are you being diligent with your heart? Are you guarding heart above everything else? Above! Above everything else you are working on?
