Guard Your Heart Proverbs 4:23

Guard Your HeartProverbs 4:23


“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life”



What, how, and why



What: Guard your heartKeep your heart (ESV/NKJV), watch over your heart (NAS), guard your heart (HCSB/NET/NIV)




How: Above All ElseWith all vigilance (ESV/NET), above all else (HCSB/NIV), with all diligence (NAS/NKJV)




How: Above All ElseWith all vigilance (ESV/NET), above all else (HCSB/NIV), with all diligence (NAS/NKJV)

Why: It Is the Source of LiveFrom it flow the springs of life (ESV/NAS), It is the source of life (HCSB), It is the

wellspring of life (NIV)



• There is no part of the way that you live that doesn’t flow from your heart.

• There is no part of your life that your heart does not affect.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who

can understand it?

Genesis 6:5

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of

the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.





Gen 6:5





Gen 6:5 + Prov 4:23





Gen 6:5 + Prov 4:23 Rom 3:10-12

Romans 3:10-12

None is righteous, no, not one; no one

understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together

they have become worthless; no one does

good, not even one.

Ezekiel 36:26And I will give you a new

heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will

remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a

heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my

statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Romans 6:17-18

Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been

set free from sin, have become slaves to

righteousness.

John Flavel

The heart of man is his worst part before

salvation, and it is his best part after it.

Richard Baxter

Till the Spirit has regenerated the soul, all outward religion will be but a dead and pitiful thing...to make up a religion of doing or saying something

that is good, while the heart is void of the Spirit of Christ, and

sanctifying grace, is the hypocrites religion.

Romans 6:17a

Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves to sin have

become obedient from the heart

Charles SpurgeonThe poison of the soul is only sin, and this is

like to poison in many respects. Poison, wherever it enters, stays not there, but

diffuseth itself all over the body, and never ceaseth till it has infected all. Such is the nature of sin; enter where it will it creeps from one member of the body to another, and from the body to the soul, till it has

infected the whole man; and then from man to man, till the whole family; and stays not

there, but runs like a wildfire, from family to family, till it has poisoned a whole town, and so a whole country, and a whole kingdom.

Woeful experience proves this true.





Psalm 119:9

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.

Seek God with all your heart!

“With my whole heart I seek you”Psalm 119:9











1 Kings 11:1-4Now King Solomon loved many foreign

women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the

nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they

associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon

held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three

hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

1 Kings 11:1-4

For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other

gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to

the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father

had been.

Diligently Guard

Depend on Grace

CJ Mahaney

We study our hearts in the shadow of the cross as a means of protecting our hearts from the daily presence and opposition of sin. If you don't watch, you'll inevitably weaken.

Do you sense a presence or an absence of affections for

God in your heart?

Are you content to ignore “just a little bit of sin” in

your life?

How do your prayers reflect the vigilance with which you

guard your heart?

What lures your heart away from God? How vigilantly do

you flee from this?

Consider what you did in your free time last week?

What was the effect of this on your heart?

Do your entertainment choices and use of free time

reflect that you are guarding your heart above

all else?

Does your daily routine—particularly your pursuit of God in His Word—reflect

that you are guarding your heart above all else?

No Leapfrog!

Don’t clean the pipes;Guard the wellspring

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Guard Your Heart Proverbs 4:23