GUARD YOUR HEART

PROVERBS 4:20-27
I used to watch Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter on TV whenever I got a chance. So many
times I thought for sure he would be fatally bitten by a snake, crushed and killed by a
crocodile, or mauled to death by some wild beast. It was a shock and surprise to learn how
he died. Steve Irwin though facing dangers daily made it a point to be extremely alert and
guard his body from any surprise attacks by the animals and things he encountered. The
one area that he thought would not be vulnerable turned out to be the most vulnerable. It
was not his limbs or head but his heart that was unprotected. The 44-year-old Irwins heart
was pierced by the serrated, poisonous spine of a stingray. The Word of God instructs us to
Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it spring the issues of life. In other words,
guard your heart above all else for it impacts everything you do. It is not talking about the
physical organ of the heart but is referring to the core of an individual his intellect, emotions,
and will.
I. The Significance of the Heart
A. Guarding your heart is more important than anything else you do.
B. Your physical heart determines how and what your body can or cannot do. Likewise your
spiritual heart will determine what you will or can do spiritually and eternally.
C. Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is
the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as the
place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity, the comprehensive term for a person as a
whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will, and the center of a
person. The place to which God turns. - Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 13
D. You are what your heart is.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs 27:19 As in water face reflects face, so a mans heart reveals the man.

E. That is why God says he looks at the heart not the external appearance.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his
physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for
man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
F. It is out of our hearts that sin emanates.
Matthew 15:17 19 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into
the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from
the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can
know it?
G. It is by believing with the heart that one receives Gods gracious salvation.
Romans 10:9 - 10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart (believing with the very core of your being)