How to Guard Your Heart: Proverbs 4:1-27

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

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practical ways. Hello, everybody, I just want to pause and

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I don't know about Jeff, Wow, but I am.

I'm thinking about it. We'll see, we'll see how good

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What's going to change your mind? What do they have

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I don't Chris, if I tell them now, then how

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Yeah, that's interesting.

So we're just gonna let it play play out.

Well, hopefully we'll get on your good side. I think

for one. I'm thrilled.

We'll see.

So welcome to the Bible guys.

We are going to kick off this segment with a

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Okay, even though it's only four people, yeah or three?

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That one that has like two half loops is the three.

Okay, I got it all right? What you want to

read the first one?

The first one is from Ocean Golf. Two?

Oh, that's not what a person's what a cool name?

Hi, Ocean golf too? Hey ocean hey?

Oh it says so right on my birth certificate.

What kind of what is ocean golf?

Yeah?

Well, you know what, it's a person who probably travels.

I have a good friend who's an attorney who literally

travels all throughout the year to go to all the

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Okay, and and golfing on the ocean maybe ocean, but

not not only like golf's on the ocean. This is

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got back to it. Ocean golf too.

There's another golfer out there.

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Remember when we talked about spiritual gifts. Yeah, this is

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Thanks. Oh yeah, thank big O big big og O

G two O G.

Yeah the O G two there so fun.

Yeah, so, hey, appreciate you saying that the whole goal

for you know, unpacking God's word is to make it

understandable because it's supposed to be for application.

That's right.

And yeah, spiritual gifts is.

Something that we probably even need to talk about even more.

Yeah, I think so too.

Yeah, so okay, So this next one is from DARCYG.

DARCYG. Yes that like her rap name.

Well, she's married to Ocean G Ocean d Og.

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She says, thank you Bible guys exclamation mark. You're so

insightful to bring the Bible to life and application to

our lives, especially when it's a little deep or confusing

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Thank you, Darcy. That's a very big compliment.

Yeah. Well, and the good news is. It's only when

it's a little deep, because if it went any deeper

we wouldn't be able to handle. Yeah, it's just a

little deep, right, that's so good. And then Carrie d

says listening every morning and I love the games, and

that you don't take each other too seriously. Thank you

for this podcast.

Oh that's actually a great compliment. It makes me feel

better about the first six or seven minutes of the podcast.

It was only three, but it felt like seven.

Right, No, yeah, but sometimes right, we can get up

there to the seven race. I bet you there's people

who they're so either they're in a rush or they're

the anti.

Person, anti fun fun. I'm not in the person of lawn.

Yeah, they're listening to the podcast young and the kids

riding buying their bicyclist.

That's so funny. But he's gonna get you and your

little dog too.

I'll get you, my pretty But I bet you they

fast forward it that. There are some people probably you know.

Oh, I had a guy tell me that, Yeah, I

told him find a different podcast, right, But I did

have a guy tell me that he skips the fun stuff.

Yeah, well, I mean it's yeah, it is is sometimes

too silly for people.

Well, the Bible says that a merry heart does good

like medicine.

Oh, that is good.

That's what it says.

That is good.

I know, it's in the Bible.

And joy uh has a physical uh and mental and

emotional reaction to the body.

So lasts almost like what the Bible was saying.

I know, it's it's it's actually when people laugh, it

actually does the heart good, the emotional state.

So yeah, laughter and enjoying releases positive hormones on a

little bit.

Yeah, and interesting though, I mean, you could take something

as simple as that here we turned into, you know,

to turn this six minutes seven minute, a little you know,

segment of laughter into the fact that God created us

that way. Yeah right, So how about that.

Is, if you and I don't get to laugh while

we're working, then we don't get to laugh because we're

always what we always do. Yeah, yeah, so we have

a lot of fun, right, and then the two of

us together is it's not this way with everybody that

we know, but the two of us together, give us

a few minutes and we're going to start Yeah.

Yeah, I think so too.

But we take our faith very seriously. We take God's

word very seriously. We just don't take ourselves too seriously.

So the fact that people recognize that is kind of

a cool thing. Which, by the way, there's way less

stress in your life if you don't take yourself too seriously.

I agree, right, yes, I agree completely.

And you can still put forth a great effort, you know,

in life dedication. You can put forth everything and still

not take yourself too seriously.

Oh yeah, I think you can achieve a lot. I

think you can. We have not to brag, but I

mean we've We've done a lot of really amazing things

that God has let us be a part of. And

you know, so it's not that we don't take the

task Got's given us seriously, right, It's just we have

fun along the way. Yeah.

When I was working as a salesman, I sold a

lot of different things early on young, you know, in

my career, and when I was making a ton legitimate things,

I couldn't sell if it wasn't legitimate. But there was

one job where they asked me to do shady things

and I couldn't stand it.

I couldn't stand it.

But anyway, the bottom line is is when I was

making a ton of money, just an absolute gross amount

of money. I was so consumed with sales. It took

over my life. I was so stressed. And my wife

was like, who are you? And that's all I was doing,

was just thinking about, you know, the sale and the

money and the angle, and just that's all I did.

And she was like, she's like, yeah, the money's nice,

but holy cow.

Yeah that was early on. That was our first year

of marriage. It almost got me.

Yeah, speaking of almost getting you, go ahead, I don't know.

I have nothing. I have nothing here.

Yeah, well I don't. To be honest, I didn't read

ahead of What we're talking about.

Is Solomon talking to his son.

The father's wise advice. Yeah, okay, how about this.

You know, now that I'm older, I tell my son,

who's at work right now, not to pursue money as

the first priority. And speaking of that today, we're going

to read from Proverbs chapter four.

So I had to create.

Something and Solomon, yeah, I was given wives advice to

his children.

But to be honest with you, even though I just

created that cheesy transition, that that is the honest truth.

My son and I talked about this just last night.

Oh wow, it won't make money the number one thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was actually saying like he's like, I'm not going

to work sixty hours a week. And he was talking

about his job and he says, I'm not going to

work super super hard to hate my life.

He's like, to have no life. And I was like,

good for you. I was like, where'd you learn that from?

He's like you, yeah, yeah, okay, well well then mental life.

This is a wise father giving advice to his children. Yes,

just like just like Arbog giving wise either wisdom of

zar Bag giving his own wisdom to his son.

Yeah. Yeah, So here we go the Solomon of Alem.

Yeah, yep, right there, same, same, same, yep. I can't

which one am I looking at? Here? Am I looking

at im? Looking at Solomon? So Proverbs chapter four and

as I mentioned before, there's thirty one chapters in the

Book of Proverbs, and you could read one proverb every day.

And the proverbs are written like little slogans, maybe two

or three sentences that are a very memorable and practical

wisdom for daily living snippets.

Why is slogans?

Yes, why sayings? That's why I like, why I come

why sayings?

Yes, that's very wise.

Yes, my children, Listen to your father when he corrects you,

pay attention and learn and good judgment, for I'm giving

you good guidance. Don't turn away from my instructions. For

I too was once my father's son, tenderly loved as

my mother's only child. My father taught me. Take my

words to heart. Follow my commands, and you will live.

Get wisdom, develop good judgment. Don't forget my words or

turn away from them. Don't turn your back on wisdom,

for she will protect you. Love her and she will

guide you. Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do.

And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. If you

prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her and

she will honor you. She will place a lovely wreath

on your head. She will present you with a beautiful crown.

My child, listen to me and do as I say,

and you will have a long, good life. I'll teach

you wisdom's ways and lead you in straight paths. When

you walk, you won't be held back. When you run,

you won't stumble. Take hold of my instructions, don't let

them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

Don't do as the wicked. Do and don't follow the

path of evildoers. Don't even think about it. Don't go

that way, turn away and keep moving. For evil people

can't sleep until they've done their evil deed for the day.

They can't rest until they've caused someone to stumble. They

eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

The way of the righteous is like the first gleam

of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light

of day. But the way of the wicked is like

total darkness. They have no idea what they're stumbling over.

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully

to my words, don't lose sight of them. Let them

penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to

those who find them, and healing to their whole body.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the

course of your life. Avoid all perverse talk and stay

away from crop speech. Look straight ahead and fix your

eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight

path for your feet. Stay on the safe path. Don't

get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil twenty seven

Wyse saying yeah, and.

So the one that stands out to me is Solomon says,

guard your heart above all else, for it determines the

course of your life. You know, I know you've heard

this saying when people say listen to your heart or

follow your heart, what's wrong with that.

Saying it's wrong?

Why is it wrong?

Because your heart will always lie to you. It's a

seaful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Yeah, and now that's another proverb.

That's Jeremiah.

Oh, that's Jeremiah. Sounds like it's in a proverb because

because actually Solomon doesn't he say that? And proverbs? Really?

Yes?

You sure, I'm positive? Huh positive?

Huh positive?

All right, Well, I do know this. I do know

that all throughout the scripture sprinkled in when it talks

about the heart, it refers to it as the seat

of emotions, and it is the thing that people want

to follow. But what he's saying here is he's saying,

guard your heart above all else. And that's a statement

because if you're not supposed to necessarily listen to your heart,

but you're supposed to guard your heart. You know, it's

just it's a wise piece of advice where Solomon says

above all else, And you think to yourself, what really,

of all the pieces of advice that you have in

all thirty one chapters, above all else, the one thing

we're supposed to do is guard our heart. And I

think there's so many implications that you can unpack. I

heard a message one time that talked about you know,

how to.

Guard your heart?

And actually it was a devotional by a guy who

you may remember this. Do you remember when we did

that huge baptism at Jimmy Johnsfield.

Yes, we've done a few, the one that I was

with with you at, Yes, a couple of years ago.

Do you remember on the day of in the morning

of there was a guy that was dying member of cancer.

I remember we shot a video and we said in.

To him and his name was Jerry. It was him, Oh,

and he just he passed away. But this was his

favorite verse in all the Bible.

And so he did a devotional one time at a

men's Bible study I was at, and this was his

favorite verse and he got up there and talkedked about

how the heart is deceitful, but he also talked about

how God wants you to protect the emotions that He's

given to you. He wants you to be emotionally stable.

He wants you to be you know, your emotions are

a good thing towards God. Just don't let them deceive

your you know, lead you down the wrong path. It

was really good and I just remember him talking about that,

and I just remember, Wow, that's that's really wise.

So he says, guard your heart above all else. And

he says getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do.

In the same chapter, right though, those be the two things.

And so it's like he's contrasting the true, the truth

your heart. If you follow your heart, your heart will

lie to you over and over and over and over again.

How many times have you heard people who clearly make

a heart decision, They just choose a thing based on

what they want or what they see, or what their

desire is, you know, they're in love with being in

love or whatever. And then later on they say, what

was I thinking? Right? Right? That's usually that you weren't.

You weren't thinking you were feeling in that moment, right.

And so this is where so he says, get all

the wisdom you can get right right, that there's nothing

more important than getting all the wisdom you can get.

It's the wisest thing you can do. Whatever else you do,

develop good judgment. So wisdom and good judgment, those will

drive your life. And as you read through the Book

of Proverbs, he's telling his children over and over and

over again, a wise person is going to have success.

A wise person is going to have peace. A wise

person is going to have good relationships. A wise person

is going to have plenty of resources. A wise person

is going to have great leadership. And he just goes

on and on and on. It's literally the fountain of

your life. The other side, he warns over and over,

don't follow you your heart. Don't just, you know, indulge

your desires, those kinds of things, because they're going to

destroy your life. So he says, guard your heart blah blah.

El's because it determines the course of your life.

And he says, don't don't don't let the wicked, you know,

lead you down the path of evil doers. Right, don't

even think about it going their way, turn away and

keep on moving.

He's saying, avoid them at all costs.

In this same comparison, in the same way that our

hearken mislead us emotionally wicked people can also influence us.

Yeah, they usually grab a hold of our hearts. Right, Hey,

wouldn't this be fun? Wouldn't it be funny?

Yeah?

Oh, you know, just just do what you want to do.

Life short.

I get think when you said those two phrases, I

was reminded of my youth. Wouldn't this be fun? Wouldn't

this be funny? There were so many things that I've

done that were that were destruct destructive, And we used

to vandalize and and and do goofy things, harmful things, right,

you know, throw ice blocks at moving cars as they

drove by, denting.

In the side of their doors and then running in

the snow. It's terrible, like terrible, And we thought that

was funny.

Now now, granted, most of the cars in Youngstown, Ohio

were russ buckets anyway.

Right, Well, that makes it better. It makes it better.

At least you weren't a nice town, right Yeah.

But I mean, like, the mentality in my neighborhood was.

Just wouldn't it be fun? Wouldn't it be funny?

Yeah?

But no consideration of other people.

No, And I know that sounds terrible, but if my

mom's listening to this, She's probably like, Chrissy didn't have

that mentality.

It's like, well, no, we did.

You know why because it was with all the neighborhood kids, right,

and they all thought it right. It was that kind

of mentality. It was sort of sort of wild how

people can lead you down the path emotionally, right, this

would be fun, this would be funny.

Wow, that was well. He warns often about friends, and

you know, eventually he gets to like violence and all

these kinds of things. But it's interesting. They eat the

food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. And

sometimes if you take the strongest word he says, you go, oh,

that's not my friends, but you take all the words

before that, right, you say, he's building up to the

worst thing. And that's what sin does. Sin normally doesn't

start off at the worst place. It starts off at

a simpler, gentler place, more fun place, or whatever, and

builds up to the worst thing. And that's kind of

how he builds his argument. So he warns often that

friends can take in the wrong direction, or the other

one is surround yourself with wise people. So he constantly

throughout the Book of Proverbs just saying get wise counselors,

get wise people around you. He says the why. If

you walk with the wise, you'll be wise. If you

walk with the foolish, you'll be foolish. My dad used

to say all the time, you either are right now

or as soon shall be just like the crowd you

run with. And that is very consistent through if you

read all thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs,

it's very consistent with the wisest man in the world's

view of the importance of friendships. You're going to be

just like the people you hang out with. So if

you're looking right now and your marriage is important to you, you

look around and all your friends are getting divorced right now.

Just know that's going to become a temptation for you

at some point when you get ticked off and when

you're struggling, your friends, their advice is going to be,

just follow your heart, don't you want to do? Oh,

you don't have to put up that junk. Right, And

they didn't hang in, they didn't do the hard work

of getting past that bad day. They bailed, And it's

going to be a stronger temptation for you to bail

if your friends. If all of your friends are going

into debt and getting you know, buying a house that's

too much, buying a car that's too much, getting one

more toy, constantly going on another vacation, you're going to

start feeling like you're not really living unless you do

the same things your friends do. Right. So, But on

the other hand, if you have friends that are doing

the right thing, they're managing their finances right, they're working

on their marriage, what's going to happen is you're going

to wind up doing similar things. You become just like

the people you hang out with over time.

Yeah, and you know you mentioned that phrase that said

they drink the wine of violence. Think about the significance

of what it meant to eat and drink with someone

in the first century, and obviously this was well before

the first century, right, So to sit down in someone's

home was a great honor.

You were partaking.

Every time that you sat down in a circle around

a campfire, for instance, they would take a wine, they

would take the cup of wine, and they would pass

it around, which is why Jesus said, let this cup

pass from me. In other words, I don't want to partake, right.

That was his you know, he was talking about the

cup of bitterness and the cup of sorrow and death

and going to the cross, and he was using the

symbolism of that. I think it's the same symbolism that

Solomon's using. He's saying, Hey, you're sharing in their life.

You're you're you're accepting their their fellowship, You're you're joining

with them and friendship. And so you're drinking their wine.

But guess what, you're drinking the wine of violence because

their life is wrapped up in violence and it's and

so what you were saying is true. It starts off

subtle and then it gets extreme. Well think about how

subtle it is to just be merry and eat and

drink with somebody. It seems harmless, right, But what he's

saying is you're joining yourself with somebody.

You're you're aligning with them, right.

And you're gonna become like them?

Right.

I really like the UH Life Application Study Bible.

This little chart right here where it says UH a

strategy for effective living, and it lists four steps and

it says number one is get wisdom. Number two moral application,

number three, practical application number four Effective living.

Isn't that great?

Yeah? Sai. It begins with God's wisdom. It requires moral application,

which requires practical application, which results in effective living.

Isn't that great? That's a great formula.

So God's wisdom has a moral application, which is sort

of what we said at the very beginning during the

social media segment where she said, hey, thank you for

the practical application. Well, that's what God's word is supposed

to be. I remember Andy Stanley did a series called

There's an App for That. And you know, back when

iPhones were just coming on the scene, there was a

big commercial that said, hey, if you have any there's

an app for that. Need a taxi, there's an app

for that. Right, you know, want food delivered your house,

There's an app for that. And I remember he did

a series called There's an App for that. And what

he was meaning was, no matter what verse you read,

there's an app for that.

Yeah, there's an application.

Yeah, yep, which is really cool.

Yeah. So he says, where was this, I just saw it. Oh.

In verse thirteen, he says, take hold of my instructions,

don't let let them go guard them, for they are

the key to life. Earlier he had just said listen

to you know verse ten, He said, my child listened

to me and do as I say, and you'll have

a long, good life. I'll teach you wisdom's ways and

lead you in straight pass. When you walk, you won't

be held back. When you run, you won't stumble. Take

hold of my instructions and don't let them go. Guard

them for their the key to life. That is, I

think the desire of every good parent that has any

kind of wisdom is that you want to You look

at your kids and you say, man, if you would

just take my advice on the skip all the dumb

stuff I learned the hard way and just do this,

and you can give your kids an advance and an

opportunity to jump ahead of everybody else. But he literally says,

if you guard my instructions, they're the key to life,

which is different from guard your heart above all else

that determines the course of your life. Right. And so

I was just thinking the other day I've done this

a couple of times. But the other day we sat

down and I gave to you know, I've got a

few young adults, my three kids, and I gave them

a budget framework with percentages of these are the wise

percentages if you stay within these percentages on how on

you know your giving, and on your housing, and on

your autos and on all these things. You stay there.

It doesn't matter if you stay in those percentages, it

doesn't matter how much money you're making. You will always

have enough. And I told them, I said, I wish

somebody had given this to me when I was a kid,

right or when I was a young person. And I'm

telling you, you could avoid so many of the mistakes

that Bonnie and I made early on if you would

choose to stay inside of this framework. And there's a

lot of that as you see through the Book of Proverbs,

where he's like, hey, just take it from me. If

you just could understand, I've already done all the dumb stuff,

So just do the wise stuff I'm telling you. And

it's the key to life. And I think you know,

young people have that opportunity. There are every once in

a while, did you have any friends that seemed to

get out ahead of all the rest of you, And

it was just because they made better choices than the

rest of you. Guys. I had a couple of friends

that were that way. And I had one friend in particular,

his dad was very very disciplined and very kind of

character driven and made good choices, and it seemed like

right out of the gate, my friend was very much

adopted that I tended to learn things the hard way

a lot of times, but I had a friend that

seemed to get way out ahead, and it was because,

you know, he listened to his parents. So there's something

to that, the young people listening. They listen to your parents.

They're smarter than you are. Yeah, for sure, they've been

around longer than you.

Yeah, that's right. Well, hey, that's great. That's great.

There's a lot of sermons pulling from this chapter. So

that's our time for today, so hopefully we'll see you

next time on the Bible. Guys,