Date:   11/02/08

Text:   Proverbs 25:27-28

Title:   A Guarded Heart

Theme: God seeks a strong and healthy heart from His children.

Introduction:

  After a hurricane has swept through a city, when the earth stopped shaking, when there was a power failure, frequently looting will occur. During those moments, a city is most vulnerable to the looters for it has lost its defenses. Anyone can come in and take whatever they want from the stores and homes that are left unprotected.

  Likewise, Proverbs tell us that when an individual has no self control, it's like a city with broken walls. In many earlier translations, the word heart or spirit is included. More recent translations simply used self-control. The heart, besides being the vital physical organ, is also understood as the center and core of our being. We sometimes make the statement: He acts well, but his heart is bad. Here, God's word tells us that without self control, or without control or restraint over ones' heart or spirit, it is like a city with broken walls. The words “broken city without walls” are the same words found in Nehemiah 1:3, “ “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” When a person has no self-control, like a city without walls, a nyone can come in to take advantage of him/her. Events, situations and people can come in to manipulate and control him/her. The person can be in great trouble and bring shame to God's name.

  This morning I want to briefly explore with you what needs guarding and how can we build and repair the broken walls in our lives.

I.   A heart that Grieves God.

  Again we go back to the creation. When God first created Adam and Eve, everything was good. Their hearts were good, they were in harmony with God, with each other, with themselves, and the world around them.

  However, after Adam and Eve's deliberate disobedience to God, things began to change. Their hearts went bad and began a downward spiral. There was the killing of Abel by his brother, Cain. Starting with jealousy, an unhealthy aspect of the heart. By the time we come to Genesis 6, “ 5 The Lord 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. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Men's heart is now full of evil, a good heart gone bad, and this grieved God's heart.

  The OT books continued to show us the expression of man's evil heart. There was the continuous rebellion against God and his laws. Men moved farther away from God by not loving him and their neighbors. The wisdom books, especially the Proverbs and Psalms, provide us with some specific aspects of a bad heart, a heart that grieves God's heart. They mention gossip, dishonesty, adultery, gluttony (i.e. uncontrolled appetite), personal selfish ambitions, expressions of anger, depression, vengeance, hatred, resentment and self-reliance. This certainly is not a very pretty picture of man's heart.

  In the NT, with the coming of Jesus, he confirmed what was revealed in the OT. Matthew 15:19, “ 19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." This was later elaborated and explained in the apostles' writings. These are the moral aspects of our heart condition. They could hurt others deeply. We remember, at the Fall, man's relationship with himself was also broken. We are confused with our identity. Instead of living like the crown of creation, we may feel like a worm. We cave into the ‘worm theology'; I am good for nothing. My value and worth depends on my performance or how others see me. I am easily influenced and affected by those important persons in my life. Instead of knowing and living with the truth that God has loved and accepted me completely, we live and work in order to gain God's love and the love from people around us.

  Morally and personally, our heart is not in a good condition. Jeremiah summarized it with these words; Jeremiah 17:9, “ 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

  What will happen when we don't control a heart like this? Certainly we understand that not all of our hearts are corrupted to the same extent. We all carry the marks of sin in our lives. But to different people, the marks or its extent may be different. I may be more prone to dishonesty than you. You can be more prone to resentment and hatred than he. You may have a stronger desire to be loved and accepted by others, therefore easily influenced by those whom you consider as your significant others. I may be more prone to anger when I feel I am misunderstood or wronged.

  You see, if we fail to control the corrupted aspects of our heart, we'll let others and external situations bring the worst out of us. When there is no control over the self-image issue, I can easily develop the feeling of false guilt, leading me into questionable and unhealthy behavior patterns. When I have no control over my anger, I can easily react to people and situation with verbal or physical violence. If you pass me rudely on 59, it can throw me into a rage and do something real foolish. When I do nothing about my strong need to be loved, I can easily attach myself to you and give you anything you want, in order to gain your love. Do you see what is happening here? When there is this lack of self control, we are like cities with broken walls. We are controlled by many different strings, each pulling us in a different direction, and we respond accordingly. Its like the Chinese saying: ???? .

II.   A Heart that Delights God.

  We have seen how a good heart that's gone bad and its consequences. How about a heart that delights God? Again, we go back to the OT. After men's fall, God was constantly looking for someone with a good heart. He found Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Joshua. In 1Sam.16:7, we are told that God looks at our hearts. In other passages, we learn that God looks for a perfect heart, pure heart, tender and humble heart, contrite heart, heart of integrity and a heart that is single-minded towards God.

God knows that by our own effort and merit, we can never gain or create a heart like this. So through the prophet Ezekiel, He said 11:19, “ I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,…”

  In the NT, we learned that a heart that pleases God is a heart that is like Jesus' heart. Jesus tells us that he is humble and gentle in heart. Paul and other apostles wrote about a heart that manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Furthermore, he wants us to have a heart that knows we are the crown of creation. We are his image bearer, therefore, we are of extreme worth. He wants us to know deep down that we have been unconditionally loved and accepted by Him. No amount of work or effort can gain His love for us. It is all by grace.

   I like very much this prayer of John Bailey, “… give me to-day a heart like His-a brave heart, a true heart, a tender heart, a heart with great room in it, a heart fixed on Thyself;…”

III. A Heart that pleases God.

  We have seen a good heart gone bad. We also briefly explored what happens when the heart is not under control. Like a city with broken walls, anyone can sneak in to take advantage of us and leading us astray. We also see the heart that delights God. So how do we exercise control, and rebuild the broken walls in our lives? Nehemiah heard and saw the condition of the broken walls and burned gates, and he was very sad. He felt distressed because he knew that Jerusalem was God's city, God's dwelling place. And now it lay in desolation and God's people were being harassed by their enemies. Nehemiah was motivated by his love for God. He wanted God to be the center in His children's lives. He wanted God's people to be directed and controlled by him and not by His enemies. This condition motivated him to start and complete the rebuilding project. This should also be our starting point.

The scripture tells us that when we come to know Christ, our body is now God's temple, His dwelling place. He lives within us. We sing the song: Since Jesus came into my heart. Why should we rebuild the broken walls in our lives? Not only for our good, but it is also to honor and glorify God. We too want God to be the center of our lives. Instead of being easily led and influenced by others, resulting in behaviors and attitudes displeasing to God, we want him to control and direct our lives. This is where we want to apply what we learn from Nehemiah to apply to the building of the broken walls in our lives. Many truths and principles can be applied from our study of Nehemiah. I just want to point to 4 of them.

  First, we need to recognize where we are broken. We all carry the marks of sins in our lives. It affects every aspect of our being, but its intensity and extent varies from individual to individual. Some are more prone to anger, dishonesty or hatred. Others are more prone to trying to please others at all cost, feeling they are worthless and unable to do anything right; have a strong need for others, especially those important persons in life to affirm and praise them. I need to know where the broken wall is. Knowledge is insufficient, I also need to know that it is not right to continue to live like that. It is displeasing to God, and unhealthy to live like that. Do I want to change? Do I want to get well? Recently I heard about a local businessman with a very high annual turnover rate in his office. Why? It was his temper. I heard about this 12 years ago when an individual quit working for him after 2 weeks. Apparently he didn't think he needed to change. Do you want to change the area of your life that is making you vulnerable, and giving the devil a foothold in your life? Do you want to get well?

  Secondly, we need to be dependent upon God. Nehemiah knew well that he could not rebuild this wall by himself, but was totally dependent upon God. The same with building our broken walls. We need to pray constantly for God's grace and power. We are to hold onto the truth that with God all things are possible. Our dependence upon God is to be evident in our daily prayers and asking others to pray for us.

  Thirdly, we don't do this alone. Nehemiah was good at organizing and motivating a discouraged community to rise up and complete the rebuilding in a record time. We need others to help us. We need to have others to hold us accountable. I think of an individual who was struggling with sexual temptations. I asked her to call me or Cynthia when she felt the temptation or knowing that she may enter into a situation where she may be vulnerable to such temptations. We don't do this alone. There are many resources nowadays to help us heal our poor self image, anger, resentment and other issues. There are books, seminars and mature believers in the body of Christ to help us grow mature and strong.

  Fourthly, persistence. We need to remember there are setbacks on the way to a healthy heart. Throughout the rebuilding process, Nehemiah faced numerous oppositions, from both internal and external sources. We'll be hearing voices such as: this is me, I can't change; there is no way I can have that kind of patience and peaceful heart; being humble and gentle is just not my cup of tea. Its such a pain to change, my old way is so much more comfortable. I think of individuals struggling with their poor self image and its consequences. I asked them to use this prayer, adapted from 1Corinthians 13:4-8, tape it on their bathroom mirror and read it every morning: I'll just read the first few lines and the rest you can find it on the back of outline:

   Because God loves me He is slow to lose patience with me. Because God loves me He takes the circumstances of my life and uses them in a constructive way for my growth. Because God loves me He keeps on trusting me when at times I don't even trust myself. Because God loves me He never says there is no hope for you, rather, He patiently works with me, loves me and disciplines me in such a way that it is hard for me to understand the depth of His concern for me.

Conclusion:

  I like Proverbs 25:28 for some obvious personal reasons. I know that in my heart, among others things are ‘worry' and the ‘need to please others' that grieves God. I have shared with you my ‘worry' in the past, so this morning it will be about the ‘need to please others'. For a long time, I recognized a desire to please others, to make sure everyone was happy. Because of this, I disliked confrontation of any kind. I have said in the past and for many years: this is me. You are kind enough to say that I am a nice person or pastor. Deep inside, I know that I am considered nice because I don't want to offend anyone. I want to make sure you are happy. But as I grow older, I also see how this can be that broken wall in my life. My emotions can be controlled by what I see and hear. I could be upset because I sense there is disharmony or conflict. In recent years, with God's help, I am making an effort not to focus on pleasing others, but rather to make pleasing God a top priority in my life.

  I also thank God that during the past years in my ministry, God has brought different people with broken walls to us so we can minister to them. We saw how their broken walls made them so vulnerable to Satan's attack. They fell into behaviors that tore them into pieces thus dishonoring God. Some said they wanted to change, but ended up not changing. All they did was talk, wasting everyone's time. Some started the process but gave up mid way. Others consistently and persistently, worked hard while we did our best, and with God's help, their broken hearts were restored, walls rebuilt and became strong again.

  How about you? Is there some part of your wall that is broken, making you vulnerable to the looters? At times the looters can be very ferocious, attacking and making us miserable. They hurt us, often bringing shame to God's name. Do you want to continue to live like this? Or today is the time that you need to make a decision to build up your walls so that your heart will be protected. Above all, a healthy heart is one that pleases and honors God.