Guarding Your Heart -- Prayer

Well, I invite you to take out your your Bibles and turn to our scripture reading for this morning, which is found in the Old Testament book of Psalms, Psalm 139.

And if you're using a Pew Bible in front of you, that's page 521.

And as always, if you don't have a Bible here, you're welcome to take that pew Bible home with you if you don't own one.

So page 521.

I'm actually going to read prior to our verses from that psalm, I'm going to read Proverbs 423, and then I'm going to read Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, the last two verses of that psalm.

Psalms 139:23

So Proverbs 4.23 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.

In Psalm 139, beginning in verse 23, search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is God's word.

Well, today we're going to pick up in our uh our series on guarding your heart.

And I'd like to begin with a uh just reading some dialogue from a um a comic strip that was uh my favorite um years ago from Calvin and Hobbes.

And if you're familiar with that strip, hopefully you are, you'll know it's about uh Calvin, who's a young boy, maybe five or six, something like that, going on 30.

And he has a uh stuffed animal tiger named Hobbes, um, who in his imagination is real, and uh they enter big dialogues with each other about life.

But this particular strip uh begins this way.

Uh Hobbes, the uh the tiger, is pushing Calvin on a wagon, uh, and he's getting ready to go down a hill at breakneck speed in this wagon.

And um Calvin says, it's true, Hobbes, ignorance is bliss.

You know, once you know things, you start seeing problems everywhere.

And once you see problems, you feel like you ought to try to fix them.

And fixing problems always seems to require personal change.

And change means doing things that aren't fun.

I'd say foo we do all that.

But if you're willfully stupid, then you don't know any better.

So you can just keep doing whatever you like.

Yes, Hobbes, the secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interests, to which Hobbes replies, oh no, we're heading for that cliff.

Calvin says, I don't want to know about it.

The two of them sail over the cliff, and um the final scene is from the bottom amid a pile of wreckage.

Hobbs says, I'm not sure I can stand so much bliss.

Calvin says, careful, we don't want to learn anything from this.

Well, uh, a part of what makes this comic strip so funny is that there really is a kernel of truth in the absurdity of it, right?

Um, we might not want to admit it, but um, in some aspects of our lives we really do find ourselves practicing an ignorance is bliss philosophy.

And even when it comes to our Christian faith, there is one particular area in which ignorance is bliss tends to have an especially strong appeal.

And that is in our discerning the real state of our human heart, the real state of our inner man, our inner person.

You know, there's just something unsettling and scary, if we're honest, about facing the real us.

But scripture everywhere uh is coaching us in a different direction, right?

The human heart is no place for willful ignorance, but for vigilant guarding.

And our passage this morning is out to show us that prayer is a vital activity in guarding our heart.

Prayer is a very vital activity in guarding our heart.

Now, I'd like to just say that uh this is a two-part series.

We began it last week, and we have a theme.

The theme actually concerns uh our heart, our real self.

And uh our theme is that the heart lies at the core of the deepest level of human wellness.

We're all interested in health, spiritual health and physical health and other kinds of health and wellness, and the heart lies at the core of that.

And so, therefore, it's not surprising that in Scripture we're called and encouraged to guard our hearts with the greatest of care and vigilance.

I wanted to just, for I know some of you may not have been here last week, and since we're building on that, I want to just summarize quickly five points of review from last week, five high points that uh encapsule uh our theme of this series.

Number one, when we talk about the heart, we're talking about uh the core of ourselves, the real us.

Proverbs 27, 19 puts it this way: as in water, face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.

So when we think about the heart, we're thinking about uh what we really do think, what we really want, what we really feel, what we really value deep underneath the masks uh of our exterior.

Secondly, we saw that the heart is hidden from sight and it easily deceives us.

Peter talks about let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart.

And uh who could forget Jeremiah 17, 9?

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it?

Uh thirdly, we saw that all true worship of God fundamentally is about the heart.

And even though we deal with um the externals way more than we do the internals, we're our focus and our gaze is so often on the outside of what we're doing.

And um, but scripture is again and again pulling us back to the core in all kinds of ways.

If I give all that I have to give, if I have the faith to move mountains, right?

Um I offer my body to be burned on the altar, but I don't have love, that's that's a value of the heart.

That I have nothing, I'm just a clanging gong gong or symbol.

Fourthly, the state of our heart affects both the vitality and peace that we ourselves experience, as well as that which we offer to people around us.

Uh, in our first text we read this morning, the heart is likened to a spring in a desert.

And the question is what kind of water are you drinking?

Clear, pure, healthy water or brackish, uh toxic water?

And this is um water that brings life to us and to those around us.

And so therefore, the stakes are high when it comes to uh what we do with our hearts.

Finally, the last point is um that God's word and prayer both have a central place in guarding our heart.

Last week we looked at the place of the word in Proverbs 4.

This week we're gonna move on and look at the place of prayer.

And these two working together are the two core ingredients that um we're called to when we're thinking about guarding the heart.

Now, as I want to focus our attention now as we shift uh to Psalm 139, we are gonna focus on these last two verses.

And one of the things I want to say just about this psalm is many of you know this psalm.

It's a well-loved psalm, isn't it?

And this psalm is full, is full of statements about the heart.

There's a lot to teach us about the heart.

In fact, this prayer, this psalm is in fact a prayer.

And it's a prayer that not only enters into issues of the heart, but it actually is a prayer that models for us the kind of honest prayer we need to guard the heart.

So it both highlights the heart and it models the heart in a special kind of way among the Psalms.

And so I'd like us to look this morning as we uh move through these last two verses of Psalm 139.

We're gonna look first at the invitation that's there, and then the expectation.

So, first we'll start with the with the invitation of these two verses.

This time of year, I think, like me, you probably get a lot of uh invitations, right, from graduating seniors and engaged couples who would like to invite us to come to a very important event in their life where they will be rightly honored, right?

Well, the psalmist is also making an invitation here.

Except in his case, he's inviting the God of the universe to something where he will be rightly humbled.

He's inviting the God of the universe to come into his own heart and to come into his inner beliefs and his his intentions, his motives, his attitudes, his desires, and to see if there's any well-worn path in his heart that grieves the Lord.

That's what his invitation is in these first verses.

I'd like to just look, if you would, at the at the verbal phrases here.

Uh the psalmist says, search me, O God, and know my heart.

And the idea of knowing is an intimate knowing.

It's not just knowing about, it's really connecting with and knowing what's behind it.

And he's asking that God would come and search him.

That God would then try him, that he would put him to the test.

And that God would know his very thoughts or even his cares, it could be translated.

And to see if there be any grievous path or way that's in me.

Now I think there's two things about this invitation that um that really stand out and that call for our attention.

Number one, this his invitation is real and it's honest.

I think sometimes our invitations can be more obligatory than real, right?

Whether we're sending out graduation invitations or whether we're inviting God to something in our own prayer life, very often our invitations can be just perfunctory or obligatory.

But I don't think this is the case here.

When you look at this particular psalm, and in fact, all of the psalms, the psalms are such a rich place to teach us how to pray and teach us how to come before God from the heart.

David, here who wrote this psalm, is incredibly honest in this psalm.

More so than I think many of us would feel comfortable doing or being.

I'd like you just to look at one place in this psalm.

If you would back up to verse 19.

In this prayer, David has been saying things like, Lord, how precious are your thoughts to me, and I am amazingly made in how you've put me together, and um you know me and you've searched me.

And then he comes to verse 19 and he says, Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God.

O men of blood, depart from me.

They speak against you with malicious intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

Do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with complete hatred.

I count them my enemies.

Now, I understand these are troubling verses, and uh, this isn't the place today that we're gonna enter into like, wow, what's the theology behind these verses?

All I want to say today is what's the honesty level behind these verses?

When was the last time you and I spoke to God at that level?

And it's not like we've never had this kind of thoughts in our heart, right?

The psalmist here is very free with how he speaks to God.

He's really laying out his heart before him in this prayer.

Not only that, but this real and this honest invitation is based on the knowledge and his deep belief that God really does know him.

You know, it's one thing to ask your parents to come and take a look into something, right?

You know, you may ask your kids, how's your grades in your in your in your in your class doing?

Fine, fine, dad.

Check it out.

Go check it out and see.

Well, it's a little bit hard for us sometimes to check those things out, but the psalmist here, if you'll turn back to the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist says, beginning in verse 1, Oh Lord, you had you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts.

And just know them, you discern them from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways, even before a word is on my tongue.

Behold, O Lord, you know it all together.

You know what motivates it, you know what it's really signifying, you know why I'm about to say what I'm about to say.

The Lord knows all of those things.

He has an amazing, wonderful knowledge of us.

The psalmist David went on and even talked about uh later in the psalm about how God is is has fearfully and wonderfully made him and created him and wove together uh the his inside uh in his personhood.

So this this invitation is an honest, real invitation.

And I think this is a good word for us.

Because any prayer ought to be honest prayer.

And prayer that's going to guard our heart is going to be prayer that's going to be honest first and foremost.

It's going to be real, it's going to be authentic, it's going to be a prayer that seeks to lay before the Lord the way we really are, because God already knows how we are, anyhow.

But there's a second thing about this invitation in that it's self-exposing.

Uh, there's this an amazing opening up of the heart that this psalmist does here.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and see if there's any grievous ways in me.

I don't think this kind of prayer is an easy prayer to offer.

I find it very hard to say this kind of honest prayer and mean it.

And why is that?

Maybe there's something in us that actually thinks God will God will actually do that if we ask Him.

You know this, you know how this works.

A lot of times we'll say things like, be careful what you pray for, right?

Or do you have a kind of fear of asking God to teach you to be really patient?

Or how about, Lord, teach me to suffer well?

Or Lord, wean me from the things of this earth.

Lord, teach me to be a generous person.

I could just think of those kinds of prayers, and how frightening those prayers can be to offer those prayers, because we know the Lord of the universe, who knows us, is a God who, in fact, answers prayer and uh is eager to move into our uh into our lives and do those very kinds of things.

But I find it interesting to think about why is it that we're nervous about this kind of prayer?

Why are we slow to pray this kind of prayer?

I think it goes way beyond the idea that we're we're afraid that God might just do it.

It really is a layer deeper than that.

Isn't it really that we don't trust how God will manage it in his doing, right?

We don't really trust that if we just ask God to come and move into our life, that he's gonna do this in a way that's gonna be okay for us.

We're nervous about how he's gonna lay that out.

And even if our theology is right and we say, I absolutely trust that God is good, deep down we're nervous about what that's gonna look like when it actually plays out today and tomorrow in our life.

You know, I think there's even one more reason why we are hesitant to have these kinds of self-exposing, honest prayer with God.

And this has to do with something about how we're wired.

We're born into this world with fallen human hearts, and we are wired for self-protection.

This overlaps with the last category that I just mentioned, but we're wired for selfish protection.

Um, we have an instinct to deflect and to shut down and to not face truths about us that if we were open to them would really be helpful to us.

There's something in us that is wants to hide and wants to cocoon in and wants to run for the bomb shelter.

And though we feel like oftentimes when we're doing that, that we're actually guarding something important in us, right?

Maybe we think we're guarding our dignity or we're guarding something deep within us, but the actual case is that we're putting our core at risk.

And we're not guarding our hearts.

This self protection is the exact opposite of guarding our hearts.

We experience this.

Kind of thing all the time.

I think of how many times in an argument uh with my spouse where the thing started moving in not a good direction, and I started feeling the weight of what she was saying, and I just shut down.

That's it, we're done.

We're done this argument right now.

And um, yeah, maybe there is a time when someone is being uh cruel toward you, and there is a time to close down an argument, if you will, in that way, to protect your heart from another kind of from false accusations and harm.

But uh, this kind of guarding is really self-protection.

And it's what you see in the Garden of Eden with uh with Adam and with Eve in the very start when they're hiding from God and deflecting when God finally uh encounters them, they're deflecting and squirming and um and they're being very self-protective there.

But all of that is detrimental to guarding our hearts.

When do you think it would be a good idea to give God this kind of honest, real, self-exposing invitation?

I want us to just think about our prayer lives for a moment here.

When would be the times that we would offer this kind of prayer to God?

A few times come to mind right away.

Those times when God gives us a window into our heart, when someone says something or when something happens in our life that triggers a response from us.

And I last week talked about how we leak what's really in our heart, the sinful patterns, and when we leak out some traits and some of our character of who we really are, that is a great time to pull away and to have this kind of prayer with the Lord.

Lord, what was that?

What was that?

Lord, search my heart and know me and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me.

I would say anytime we feel a conviction of sin, one of the things we naturally want to do is to try harder.

We feel a conviction of sin and we want to go away and try harder.

I do all the time.

But this is a great time when you feel that conviction, when you feel yourself undone, to move toward God and to invite him for some honest talk and some honest searching about what's really going on in the deepest recesses of your heart.

The truth is that we need this kind of honest invitation of God in all of our lives.

Or with our whole walk with God.

There's just no guarding of our heart without it.

We just don't see clearly enough on our own unless we invite the Lord, who sees us and who alone knows us, into our lives to begin to do a great work in us.

But then this raises the question, I think, is you know, is God really safe?

And um if we invite him into our lives in that kind of way, um, what will he do?

I want to move on now to the uh to the last uh phrase in this in this um these two verses, the expectation.

And I'd like to ask you that if you were to pray as David did here, and you were to ask God right now to search you and to try you and to know you, and if God were to have a fresh look at your your top five grievous ways, what do you think his posture would be to you right now?

I'd like you just to maybe close your eyes a moment and just ponder that question.

What do you think if God knew right now your top five evil ways in past, what would his posture be towards you right now?

I wanted to ask for you to throw some words out.

I was afraid you wouldn't do it.

So I'll throw some out for us.

Ashamed, wearied, tired of, disgusted, angered.

I wonder how many of those kinds of words are deeply ingrained in our hearts, in our picture of the living God.

And I wonder how much of that really impacts us so that we believe that lie and we don't push into God with honest invitation to search us and to and to unearth and to begin to transform us from the inside out.

Now, of course, I'm talking here to us as professing Christians, for those of us who are in Christ, in whom there's no condemnation if we're in Christ.

You see, our author has a lot to teach us in this passage.

You find this in the very last phrase.

He tells the Lord, he asked the Lord to, after he searched him, to lead me, to lead me in the way everlasting.

And in fact, if you were to look through this psalm, you would find that there is a great expectation of goodness that the psalmist has.

All through this psalm, the psalmist is saying things like, Lord, you have put your hand, you've cupped your hand over me, you've hemmed me in from before and behind, and you protect me.

It would be the equivalent of the New Testament uh no one can snatch me out of my father's hand.

And he goes on to say things like, You uphold me with your hand, your right hand.

And all through this psalm, David uses shepherd kind of language in his confidence that the good shepherd leads his straying sheep and is interested in moving his straying sheep onto good paths, and is not out to condemn and is not out to push their noses in their evil paths.

The Lord is not like that.

But we have these kinds of things in our minds, and this is one of the great barriers to guarding our hearts, isn't it?

Because it keeps us from going before the Lord.

I think back when I was a boy, I was a very young boy, and my parents had left for the evening, and I was hungry for a pickle, and I snuck to the refrigerator, and I pulled out this quart jar.

It seemed like a gallon jar at the time, of pickles, and I tried to get one out of there, and I dropped the jar, and we had a concrete floor in the kitchen, and it just shattered.

And uh, of course, I panicked immediately.

My parents were soon to be home.

Um, I grabbed the quickest thing I could, which was a dust mop, and uh tried to get up the juice with that.

I picked the big shards of glass up and pushed the rest under the fridge, and I headed back into bed.

And I was amazed that my parents knew what happened a few hours later.

They woke me up.

They wanted to know what happened in the kitchen.

I had no clue how they knew.

And yet, when I think back on this, I think of, you know, what was really, what were the lies in my mind that perpetuated that kind of hiding from my parents?

You know, the lies were that I couldn't tell them what I really was doing, that I couldn't tell them what I had done, that they would be overly angry with me, that they would condemn me, that, you know, all of those kinds of things.

I made this image of what they were.

And so I tried hard to clean up my mess.

And that's exactly the kinds of things that you and I do with our sins when we have this kind of image with God.

And we're not guarding our hearts, we're managing our mess.

We're trying to mop up the sticky juice, we're trying to hide the shards of glass.

And God knows that they're there.

He's walking all over the sticky floor.

But if we're his children in Christ, he loves us.

And he's inviting us to come with honest invitation and invite him to move into our lives.

Not with just a quick fix.

Not with just the Lord, Lord, take that away from me.

You notice he says, lead me on a path.

We have journeys to take.

We have journeys of transformation.

In fact, any real transformation will be a journey.

It's like God's building a wall, a good wall.

He's building a building and he's laying stones.

And in this journey of life, we don't get to pick the stones that he sends to us.

Our job is to put them in the wall.

And he keeps bringing the wheelbarrow down the line.

And he keeps bringing us stones.

And our psalmist is encouraging us to come with an honest expectancy that the Lord will wisely bring the stones we need.

He'll take us on a journey that will expose what needs to be exposed in order to really, truly guard the core of who we are, so that at the end of the day we will be people who are life-refreshed people who are who have a vitality and a spiritual maturity about us.

Because the water that flows from our heart is satisfying and pure, and we'll be life-giving people to those around us.

I want to be that kind of person.

Guard me, O heart.

I mean, search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Will you close with me in prayer?

Our Father, we have so much to learn in our walk with you.

Father, please.

In this time of spring when our hearts are thinking of fresh initiatives in our homes and yards and activities.

Father, we ask for fresh initiatives in our heart.

This summer, Lord, would you take them?

Would you bring stones on the wheelbarrow that would be just the right kind of stones that would lead us in better directions in our life?

Lord, we ask that you would do that for your name's sake.

Amen.