Proverbs 4:23-27 “Keep
your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues
of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips
far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right
before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be
established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from
evil.”
This last Sunday, Pastor
Kyle continued in our 2020 Vision sermon series, pointing out that we naturally
protect what we love. There is much higher a love then a parent’s love for
their child. Moms and dads gladly accept the fact that they never get a day off
from being an active parent in a state of high alert for the health and well-being of their offspring. We naturally protect that which we naturally
love, so we guard our little ones because they have your heart.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 “I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put
My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will
keep My judgments and do them.”
Our hearts represent the
very core of who we really are. All hearts were corrupted by original sin. Mark
7:20-22 says, “What
comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart
of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. But, God provided a way for restoration and a new heart. John
3:16-17, 36 says, “For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did
not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life;
and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abides on him.”
People may say that it is barbaric
for God to send people to Hell for their sins, but do these people realize that
our sins are barbaric to our just and holy sovereign God. Justice is getting
what we deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. God the Father loved
us enough to send His only begotten Son to die in our place. God the Son loved
us enough to take the excruciating pain of the Cross to willful make that
atoning sacrifice for us while we were yet sinners. Excruciating contain the
root word “crucifixion” with it. We take the “Fall of Man” for granted. Do we
do the same for our Savior and blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ? It truly is
amazing grace of God.
Ephesians 2:1-6 “And you He
made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we
were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you
have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on "Guarding our Hearts" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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