Introduction:
A. How many of you would consider yourselves to be a good gardener? Do you have a green thumb?
B. Here’s a little piece I found called “Top 8 Things I Have Learned About Gardening.”
#8. Nothing ever looks like it does on the seed packet.
#7. Whichever garden tool you want is always at the back of the shed.
#6. The only way to ensure rain, is to give the garden a good soaking.
#5. Weeds grow at precisely the rate you pull them out.
#4. Autumn follows summer, winter follows autumn, drought follows planting.
#3. The only way to guarantee some color in the garden all year round is to buy a garden gnome.
#2. Grass won’t grow in the yard, but you can’t keep it from growing in the cracks between the patio stones.
#1. When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is not a weed.
C. I don’t consider myself much of a gardener, but I want to use gardening as a backdrop and metaphor for our lesson today.
1. Suppose you came over to visit me one day at my house and you found me working in my greenhouse (Of course, I don’t have a greenhouse, but let’s pretend).
2. I show you around my greenhouse which you notice is very nice, state of the art, perfectly suited for growing things.
3. You ask me what I’m growing and I tell you that I’m growing some of the finest flowers and fruits you can imagine.
4. Then you ask me where I got the seeds, and I tell you that I just went out into a field nearby and stripped the seeds off of all the weeds that were growing there – crab grass, dandelions and thistles.
5. You look surprised and ask, “If you want to grow the finest flowers and fruits, don’t you think you should be planting flower seeds and fruit seeds?”
6. Then you are dumbfounded by my answer, I say, “Do you have any idea how much those seeds cost? And besides, I would have to drive to a store to get them. No I decided to take the cheap and easy route.”
7. You walk away mumbling something about me not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.
D. Everybody knows that you reap what you sow, right.
1. We know that if you plant pumpkin seeds, you don’t get peppers.
2. If you plant dandelion seeds, you don’t get daffodils.
3. Yet strangely, what we know when tilling the soil, we forget when cultivating the heart.
E. I want to suggest that our hearts are like greenhouses.
1. Like greenhouses, our hearts are perfectly suited for growing.
2. Just like in a greenhouse, the soil of our hearts must be carefully cultivated and the seeds must be carefully chosen.
3. Let’s imagine that our thoughts are like seeds.
4. Just like seeds, some thoughts become flowers and others become weeds.
F. So if the heart is a greenhouse and our thoughts are seeds, shouldn’t we be careful about what we sow?
1. Shouldn’t we be selective about the seeds we allow to come into the greenhouse of our hearts?
2. Shouldn’t there be a sentry at the door?
3. Shouldn’t guarding the heart be a high priority and shouldn’t it be a strategic task?
G. That’s how the Bible encourages us to think about it.
1. Look again at our Scripture reading: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Pr. 4:23).
2. Notice the priority – “above all else” – it is a very important thing; most important, in fact.
3. Notice the reason – “for it is the wellspring of life” – it is a key to life itself.
4. Another translation of Proverbs 4:23 reads, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” (Good News Bible)
H. Let’s illustrate how that principle works in everyday life.
1. Consider two drivers who are stuck in the same traffic jam.
a. One person stews in anger, thinking, “My day is ruined.”
b. The other person sighs in relief, “This is a good chance to slow down for a minute.”
2. Consider two mothers who face the same tragedy.
a. One is destroyed, saying, “I’ll never get over this.”
b. The other is despondent but determined, saying, “God will get me through this.”
3. Consider two executives who face the same success.
a. One pats himself on the back and grows cocky.
b. The other gives the credit to God and grows grateful.
4. What is the difference in each case? The difference is what they are thinking.
5. Their heart is what makes the difference in how they respond to the very same circumstances.
I. Let’s consider it from a different angle.
1. Suppose you agree to house sit for us while we are out of town.
2. You pledge to keep everything in great shape.
3. But when we return, we find the place a mess and your explanation is not impressive.
4. You say some bikers knocked on the door and needed a place to stay.
5. Then a fraternity needed a place to hold their initiation ceremony.
6. Then there was the youth soccer team that needed a place for a party.
7. But as the owner of the house, I have a couple of questions for you:
a. #1. Don’t you know how to say no?
b. #2. Don’t you know how to be more careful about who you welcome into my house?
J. Maybe God wants to ask us the same questions.
1. Don’t we know how to say no to the seeds that want to be planted in our greenhouse?
2. Don’t we know how to be more careful about who we welcome into our greenhouse?
3. Unfortunately, some of us have allowed our hearts to become full of trash and weeds.
a. Let any riffraff knock at the door, and we throw it open.
b. If anger wants to take root, we show it to the perfect spot.
c. When revenge needs a place to stay, we let him pull up a chair.
d. When pity wants to have a party, we show him to the patio.
e. When lust rings the bell, we change the sheets on the bed.
4. Don’t we know how to say no?
5. Don’t we know how to be more careful about who we welcome into the house?
K. For most of us, thought management is not something we think about.
1. Most of us give attention to time management, weight management, and investment management, but what about thought management.
2. Jesus wasn’t that way – He was an expert on thought management.
I. Jesus Had A Pure Heart
A. Jesus kept a perfect greenhouse.
1. Like a trained soldier at the gate of a city, he stood watch over his mind.
2. Jesus carefully guarded the gateway of His heart.
3. Many thoughts were denied entrance into His mind.
B. Let’s consider a few examples from Jesus’ life.
1. Arrogant thoughts were denied entrance into Jesus’ heart.
2. Do you remember the time when the crowd came to Jesus to make him their king?
3. Most of us would be thrilled with the prospect of royalty.
4. Even if, in the end, we declined the offer, we would savor the invitation.
5. Not Jesus. How did He respond?
6. The Bible says: Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (Jn. 6:15)
C. Another dramatic example occurred while Peter conversed with Jesus.
1. Upon hearing Jesus announce his impending death on the cross, the impetuous apostle declared: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” (Mt. 16:22)
2. Peter tried to plant the seed of doubt and rebellion, but Jesus blocked the doorway.
3. Jesus boldly declared: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mt. 16:23)
D. And what did Jesus do on one occasion when he was being mocked?
1. Jesus had been asked to heal a sick girl, but when He arrived, He was told that she was dead.
2. Jesus suggested, “The child is not dead but is sleeping.” (Mk. 5:39)
3. How did the people in the house respond? “They laughed at him.” (Mk. 5:40a)
4. Note Jesus’ decisive response: “He put them all outside.” (Mk. 5:40b)
5. Their mockery was not allowed in the house of the little girl, nor in the mind of Christ.
E. So we see: Jesus guarded His heart.
1. If Jesus guarded His heart, shouldn’t we do the same with ours?
2. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Pr. 4:23).
3. Jesus wants our hearts to be fertile and fruitful, He doesn’t want them to be full of weeds.
3. He wants us to have a heart like His.
II. How to Have a Pure Heart
A. So how do we do it? How can we cultivate a pure heart?
B. First, Cultivating a pure heart starts with praying for one.
1. I love the prayer of King David in Psalm 51.
2. In verse 10, David prayed: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
3. Near the top of our prayer list needs to be “having a pure heart” and it is a request that should not expire and it should never be scratched off the list.
4. We can’t and won’t have a pure heart without God’s help.
5. And our request for a pure heart is one that God will certainly want to answer.
6. God will do His part to help us have a pure heart. Will we do our part?
C. Second, Cultivating a pure heart requires both weeding and seeding.
1. Some thoughts need to be uprooted and other thoughts need to be implanted.
a. Doing one without the other is insufficient.
b. Jesus touched on this concept when He said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (Mt. 12:43-45)
1. If we just remove from our hearts that which is evil, impure, and untrue and don’t replace those things with that which is good, pure and true, then we leave a void that can quickly be over-run with weeds.
2. If we don’t remove that which doesn’t belong and simply allow the two to grow together, then the weeds will crowd out and choke out the plants (Like Jesus taught in the parable of the sower).
c. On another occasion, Jesus taught that radical surgery is sometimes required: If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Mt. 5:29-30)
1. Some things simply have to go because they implant the wrong kinds of thoughts.
2. Certain conversation, music, movies, television, books, games and websites just have to be put aside, because they cause us to think certain thoughts and focus on wrong things.
d. Paul listed the right kinds of things that need to be implanted: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Phil. 4:8)
e. Bruce Campbell, a man who climbs the world’s highest mountains shared a travel safety technique that applies to spiritual safety.
1. During a 21 day climb in the mountain range that includes Mt. Everest, Bruce explained that there was no place to bathe and no water to bathe in.
2. Sponging off in sub-zero cold was the best they could do.
3. By the end of the climb, you could smell them coming!
4. Bruce says that he took three showers that first day off the mountain.
5. Nevertheless, showering in Nepal’s water was a danger for a westerner.
6. To keep even a drop of the polluted water from getting into his mouth, Bruce explained that he showered with his mouth full of purified water.
7. Don’t you think that is a great strategy for keeping our hearts pure in today’s smut-laced, dirty-minded world?
8. We just need to keep our hearts full of clean stuff so the filth can’t get in!
2. This process of weeding and seeding needs to be guided by the authority of Scripture.
a. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul wrote: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
1. Our goal should be to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.
b. When Paul was talking about the spiritual battle and our weapon for offense and defense, he wrote: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:17)
1. The Word of God is our tool for battle, our weapon for cultivating and maintaining a pure heart.
c. When Jesus was engaged in spiritual battle with Satan, He answered every one of Satan’s attacks with: “It is written…it is written…it is also written…” (Mt. 4)
1. The Word of God needs to be that available to us so that we can engage it when necessary to overcome the evil, impure thoughts that Satan sends our way.
d. What we need to do is to submit all of our thoughts to the authority of God and His Word.
1. God is the authority in all things. He has the ultimate say on everything, especially our thoughts.
e. Let’s work with a few examples. What do we do when certain thoughts come our way?
1. Do we just throw open the door and let the thoughts in?
2. Like a seed from a weed, it wants to find the fertile soil of our heart and take root.
3. What if the thought comes saying “You are no good! Or you are worthless!”
a. Do we just accept it and welcome it in, saying, “You are right, I’m a loser, or I’m a bum.”
b. No, we should go to God and ask Him, “What do you think? Am I worthless?”
c. God’s Word tells us that He loves us and gave His Son for us. (Jn. 3:16).
d. God’s Word tells us that we are His masterpieces and He’s got special assignments for us. (Eph. 2:10)
e. So any thought that says we are inferior or insignificant should not be allowed entrance because it doesn’t pass the test of God’s Word.
4. What if an opposite thought comes with exaggerated ideas of our importance?
a. Again, we should run that thought by the authority of God’s Word.
b. We should ask, “Should I be thinking that I’m the best, or the most important, or that I’m better than you?
c. Romans 12:3 says: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…”
d. Phillips Translation puts it this way: “Don’t cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance.”
e. So any thought of arrogance or elitism should not be let in the greenhouse.
5. What if the thought comes saying, “You are too bad to be forgiven?”
a. Again, we should run that thought by the authority of God’s Word.
b. The Bible says that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us. (1 Jn. 1:9)
c. The apostle Paul held himself up as an example of the worst of sinners in order to prove that if God would forgive him, then God would forgive anyone. (1 Tim. 1:16)
d. So any thought about the unforgiveable nature of our past sins should not be allowed entrance because it doesn’t pass the test of God’s Word.
6. Do you see how this works? It’s really not that complicated. It’s really quite simple.
Conclusion:
A. So what have we learned today?
1. Our hearts are like a greenhouse and our thoughts are like seed.
2. We must guard the doorway of our heart – certain seeds must not be allowed entrance.
3. The more selective we are about the seed, the more delighted we will be with the crop.
4. It all starts with a simple prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God. Then it continues with weeding and seeding.
5. Jesus has a pure heart, and with God’s help we can be just like Him and have a heart like His.
Resources:
“Just Like Jesus: Learning to Have a Heart Like His,” by Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2008
