WEBVTT 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:22.640 Today's reading is from Proverbs chapter four, starting at verse twenty. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:37.200 It says, My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings, let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:41.920 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.560 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:51.280 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:55.039 Ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.920 Do not swerve to the right or to the left. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:00:59.840 Turn your foot away from evil. 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:01.280 And so reads God's word. 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:03.200 Good morning, City Church. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.400 So glad to be with you. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.239 What a gift and a joy it is. 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:10.879 Um I I love it here with you any chance I get to be out here. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:11.519 All right. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.040 Well, we're in Proverbs. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:24.319 Um, you know, I know that um I know that the American accent is like an audio ballet, so you're gonna have to uh really focus, you know, and not on how beautiful this voice is. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:30.560 So uh when you if you were to come to my church, uh everybody'd be very excited and they'd hang on every word. 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:34.959 So, but I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will empower you to listen to this, okay? 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:38.640 I know it it might be grating, but we'll get through it. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:43.680 Um I don't know if you've ever read a book called Into Thin Air or ever heard of it. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.920 It's about the 1996 Everest expedition disaster. 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:52.640 And uh and it covers uh a very tragic moment on the mountain. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:57.439 One one um uh one guy, his name is Rob Hall. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.879 Rob Hall was uh a professional climber. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:03.120 He climbed Everest multiple times. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.120 He led groups over and over, even somebody without oxygen. 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:10.479 And Rob was uh Rob was known, like I know him, you know. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:18.000 Rob was uh known for being very strict about the danger zone and very strict about turning around. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.759 And uh he was he was known for his standards and for his safety. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:28.639 And he uh he ended up uh leading a group of eight people uh on May 10th, 1996. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:34.319 Eight people that were very, very wealthy, very, very committed to getting to the summit. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.680 So as they navigated, they got bottlenecked along the way. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:49.199 There were some issues, uh, they had some equipment failure, all of that to say that by the time they began to see the summit, um, they were way past their turnaround time. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:58.879 Rob Rob Hall um contemplated turning around, but there was a couple clients, very wealthy clients, who began to pressure him. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:00.000 We're right here. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:03.599 We can see, we can see the summit. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.439 And so against his better judgment, Rob Hall continued to the summit. 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:15.840 They did summit some uh significant amount of time past the turnaround time. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:18.159 And then uh they began to come down. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:27.360 As they came down, knife came, a blizzard came, and four of those eight people are still on that mountain, and including Rob. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:31.759 And then you you compare that uh with another climber. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:38.719 I don't know, she's an American climber, names Christy Ellis and um um not Ellis, Ennis. 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:41.039 Christy Ennis, she's a U.S. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:51.120 Marine, was in a helicopter crash in combat in Afghanistan, lost her leg, uh, and it was uh above-the-knee amputation. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:56.960 Well, she was committed to still kind of pushing herself into adrenaline. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:03.759 So she decided that as an amputee, she was going to climb the seven highest peaks, one in every continent. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:07.199 She got through six and then began to look at Everest. 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:15.680 And so, and she was, if she would summit, she would be the first above-knee amputee to have summited Everest. 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:18.959 And she began to climb, very, very difficult climb. 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:25.600 There are all kinds of equipment problems and bottlenecks and some of the similar things that Hall and his team faced. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:31.600 And uh Chrissy Innis uh made it all the way to 200 meters. 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.480 Now I translated that for you. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:42.079 Um I don't know how many kilos are in a meter, but um 200 meters from the summit. 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:45.680 Her oxygen was low. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:50.079 They can see it, they're right there, and she makes the decision to turn around. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:53.839 She climbs back down. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.680 A year later, she tries again. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.040 She gets just as near only to turn around again. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:13.519 If I were to ask a question of Rob Hall and his team, or of Christianis, which one was successful? 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:20.000 Is summiting success or is living? 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:27.600 There's a difference between summiting and being successful. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.839 And just think about what success might look like. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.240 We have these peak experiences. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:47.199 I I want to I want some form of degree or education, I want some form of status, I I want uh uh uh a job, a career that can sustain me. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:53.839 I want to get married, I want to have children, I want to be able to buy a house, I want to be able to live wherever I want to live. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.720 I'd love to live in the city and in the whole thing. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.399 And so we think about these dreams, these summits, and we could almost see them. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:08.079 We go, man, if I could just hit those, then I would be successful. 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.600 You would sum it, but would it be success? 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.879 It was Jesus himself who said, What if you gain the whole world, but you lose your soul? 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.839 What what what if you summit but you die? 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.519 Who is more successful? 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:30.000 Proverbs is all about answering this question. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:31.839 And Proverbs chapter 24. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.279 Mark went through it last week. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.920 I would encourage you to go back and and listen to that. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.399 But we're in this, we're in this little section. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:46.720 Proverbs is written, and it it's like a father having breakfast with his son and writing letters back and forth. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:49.040 I want you to flourish, son. 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:50.639 I want you to live. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.279 I want you to really live. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:55.759 I don't want you just to sum it. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:57.680 I want you to be successful. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:06:59.439 I want you to flourish. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.720 I want you to be alive, truly. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:05.519 And chapter four starts. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.120 He's talking about this pathway of wisdom. 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:15.680 So just to kind of get us in, I'm gonna read the first couple verses here, and then we're gonna jump to our main text in 20. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:21.839 But here you have Samuel, hero son, a father's instruction. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:27.839 And be attentive that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.199 Do not forsake my teaching. 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:49.040 When I was a son, my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast to my words, keep my commandments and live. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:54.800 Get wisdom and insight. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:59.199 And do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.480 You hear you just you just hear this father's heart. 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:07.600 Sometimes it's easy, you know, like from Solomon's perspective. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.319 Solomon was the smartest in the world. 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:22.480 People came just to hear him, philosophize and and to provide wisdom and these little fortune cookie sayings, you know, like people came from all over to hear him. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:31.600 He had more money than anybody, maybe the wealthiest person of all time ever, even if you convert it for inflation. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:37.759 He had he had more women than any other man, a thousand of them. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:47.200 He he in Ecclesiastes, we find out that that uh that he pursued every avenue only to reach vanity. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:49.759 And so it might be easy. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:53.200 Maybe the son would say, Yeah, well, dad, you you got to experience everything. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:56.240 Now you're telling me to do something different. 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:03.279 And here's a father who's not speaking as somebody who's successful, but somebody who summited. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:09.679 Somebody who stood on the mountaintops and goes, the view's not better. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:17.759 And you can have the money, you can have the status, you can have the wisdom, you can have the knowledge, you can have everything that you want. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:20.639 And at the end, it's vanity, it's nothing. 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.559 This is a father talking to a son, just so tender. 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.480 I'm telling you, I've been there, I did that, I climbed that mountain. 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:30.960 I'm I'm asking you, I'm begging you. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:34.720 Don't go there. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:39.279 And that's this whole letter. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:45.679 And he says this most amazing thing, and I and I know Mark covered it last week, but it's part of the whole context, so we gotta stick with it. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:47.840 But it it says, get wisdom. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:49.679 You hear that? 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:52.879 That's different than get whatever you can. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.320 That's different than just get to the top. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:58.720 Get wisdom. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:00.320 Get wisdom. 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:01.600 I mean, think of it. 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:04.720 It's an it's an amazing command. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.440 It's not a it's not a an opinion. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:13.360 He's not going, well, if you can, if it works out, if if your life kind of allows you to. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:14.720 No, he goes, get wisdom. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:18.559 Out of everything that you can pursue, get wisdom. 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:21.200 It would be like, get a gold medal. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:22.320 You're like, what? 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:23.759 You know? 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.399 Um, get in shape. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:27.279 What? 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:29.360 You know, I am a shape. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:42.799 Um this command, get wisdom is is an amazingly powerful command. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:46.000 As we'll see, it's an impossible command. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:52.639 Out of everything you can do, get wisdom. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:56.559 Or maybe you would hear something like get rich. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:57.919 Well, that that doesn't just happen. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.799 Get married, that doesn't just happen. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:03.919 Easy words. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:17.279 But the but the idea that of get wisdom is this iceberg of all kinds of life choices, decisions, steps, sacrifices, hardships. 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:22.159 It represents, you don't just go get a gold medal, it represents an incredible amount of training. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.799 You don't just climb Everest, it represents years of preparation. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:32.320 You don't just become wealthy, you it represents years of working and saving. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:41.440 You don't just get married, it represents years of making sure that you're a marriable person, and the person you're marrying is a marriageable person. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:49.360 You don't you don't just arrive at these things, and this idea of get wisdom is you don't just arrive to it. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:53.759 And here's my working definition of wisdom. 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:13.120 My definition of wisdom is this is that wisdom is living in between the ideal of God's revelation and the reality of a broken world. 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:19.600 To be a wise person is to pursue the ideal of scripture. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:27.679 Everything in this Bible, everything God has commanded us, even this idea of get wisdom, it's an idea, an ideal. 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:33.200 It's a there there it's it's a perfected thing, but we could never get there. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:33.840 Why? 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.639 Because we live in the brokenness of a real world. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:48.960 And wisdom that Solomon is calling to his son is navigating everything Scripture is calling to, and at the same time, all the brokenness that I live in. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:57.600 And wisdom is this pursuit of this pathway in the middle of the ideal and reality. 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:06.480 And the Bible knows that you're imperfect, and the Bible knows of the brokenness of your life and the sins you've committed and the sins that have been committed against you. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:08.720 The Bible accounts for all of that. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:15.279 And he's like, get wisdom, the ideal of God's revelation and the reality of our broken world. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:19.919 And then verses six through 19 is everything that Mark talked about on getting wisdom. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.559 I want to move forward to verse 20. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.480 20 says, My son, here he is again. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.080 Be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my saying. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:31.279 Some of the very same things. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:33.039 So you know we're in a transition. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.480 We're in a he's coming back to kind of summarize and re-establish. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.879 Let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:48.799 And then he's going to show three ways. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:14:00.879 Three ways, three dangers that may get in the way to turn you away from true flourishing. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:10.960 Flourishing in the reality of who God is and what he has told us and revealed to us and the brokenness of our world. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:19.200 And so it starts like this: He says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:20.320 He begins in the heart. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.799 He's actually going to begin with, he's just going to use the body as a metaphor. 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.519 But he begins with the heart. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:35.200 Guard the heart, keep the heart, protect the heart, for from it is the spring of life. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:37.360 Life. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:40.720 And then it goes on, says that healing to all flesh. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:45.360 You're this flourishing language, health language. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:52.720 You're alive, you're healed, you're flourishing, you're healthy, but it's not talking about physical health. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:55.200 It's talking about spiritual health. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:00.639 It's talking about the wisdom of living in the reality of the ideal. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:05.600 And so you have this, you see this flourishing life idea. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:08.639 This success is different than summiting idea. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.799 And then he's going to go, yeah, but here's the problem is that you got to guard the heart. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:13.200 Why? 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.480 Because there's a danger in a distracted heart. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:25.120 The distractions of your heart is a particular danger to getting the wisdom. 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:26.399 It's in the way. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:29.919 It puts you in a different focus. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:36.240 So now, and if you're coming from a secular worldview, you might recognize some of this language, but I want you to see it. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:37.759 The Bible's speaking of it differently. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:39.679 Solomon is speaking of it differently. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:47.039 As secular people, we might say, like, follow your heart, listen to your heart, obey your heart. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:48.559 What does your heart want? 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:51.600 Just believe in yourself. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:57.919 These are these are the slogans, these are the doctrines, these are the creeds of the secular world. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:06.559 And so when it says, guard your heart, for from it is the springs of life, you might, you might hear what anybody hears. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.159 What's it mean when the pastor is leaving during the sermon? 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.120 He's like, good luck, everybody. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:20.080 Yeah. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:22.720 I know which one. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:28.240 So you might hear the very same thing that we hear in the Second World. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:29.279 Follow your heart. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.039 Wherever it leads. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:32.399 Believe in yourself. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:34.080 The power is in you. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.840 If you believe it, you can accomplish it. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:47.360 If you if you go for it, if you if you um if you want it, you can manifest it, right? 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:51.120 Well, Solomon isn't talking like that. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.519 He's not talking about believing here. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.919 He's talking about something different. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:06.160 What does he tell us about wisdom and knowledge and in chapter 1, verse 7, that the beginning of all wisdom, all knowledge is fearing the Lord. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:14.559 So he's saying it's not a it's not a matter of the heart you have, it's the matter of the heart being transformed into something different. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:22.240 So it's not just manifesting your own desires, but it's your heart actually having new desires. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:28.319 And the Bible and the ancient cultures speak of the heart as the seed of the will. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.359 See, we we think of the heart as the seat of emotions. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:34.240 How I feel, I love you, you know, all of that. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:40.000 But in the ancient world, the heart was the seed of the will. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:45.119 We think the will is the mind and my my thoughts. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:48.400 But in in the ancient time, it was the heart. 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.400 The heart is the place of the will. 00:17:50.559 --> 00:18:00.240 And and where and what is and Jesus brings Proverbs chapter 4 back in, Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, your heart will be also. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:01.920 Guard your heart. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:02.319 Why? 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:05.920 Because it will be what you treasure. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:07.759 Then he goes further still. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:13.839 Jesus continues in this idea of Proverbs, building upon and fulfilling what Solomon has written. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:20.319 Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.559 Do you see the direct relationship between Jesus and Proverbs? 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.799 Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:32.319 What does this mean? 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:33.920 It simply means this. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:41.039 When Solomon is saying, get wisdom and then guard the heart, he's literally commanding an impossibility. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:46.559 And that impossibility is to get wisdom is to get a new heart. 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:51.359 And how can you make your heart new? 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:53.359 You can't. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:01.119 Guard this heart of yours, for out of it is the rivers of living water. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:11.279 Well, Jesus is coming back and he's filling in the gaps, and he's saying the flourishing life, the wise life is a heart that believes in Jesus. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:13.839 It's not a heart that just has desires. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:15.440 It's not a moral heart. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:19.039 It's a heart that is filled with something brand new. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:23.680 It is filled with a new will and a new desire. 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:27.200 That of it's filled with Christ's heart. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.839 So guard the heart of Christ in you. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:35.440 For from it flows the springs of life. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:39.440 Keep it safe. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:45.519 You know, I was just in Oxford, so I have a lot of token, Tolkien on my mind and C.S. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:46.000 Lewis. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:50.160 So I just think of that scene where Gandalf is like, is it safe? 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:51.279 Is it secret? 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:55.759 Is your heart safe this morning? 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:01.119 Is it secret to the things of the enemy, to the distractions? 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:03.920 Is it protected? 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:10.319 Now we think, here's what we think, because we we love like just trying to manage our way through behavior. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:14.480 So we're gonna say something like, well, okay, I'll just stop doing the things. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:24.160 I'll guard my heart by putting up big walls against things that I know that God has said are not good or they're not spiritually healthy or they're not sound. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:29.920 So I'll just put up walls and I'll alter my behavior and I'll just stop doing certain things. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.519 But that's not how he's talking about guarding the heart here. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.400 From it flows the springs of life. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:56.079 It means that it's not just a mere matter of putting up walls as behaviors in our life, but it's actually our heart being filled with something so full that the distractions can't penetrate the heart. 00:20:57.039 --> 00:20:58.559 It's like a sponge. 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:04.240 To keep a sponge from absorbing liquid when a sponge is dry is impossible. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:05.920 It's just gonna absorb it. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:15.440 But if it's already, if it's already full, then it can't bring in anymore. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:27.039 When it says guard your heart, the guarding is not just building behavioral walls and going, okay, well, I won't sleep around, or I won't do this, or I won't watch this, or I won't click on this. 00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:31.759 Okay, that that those might be good, but those are just behaviors. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:41.039 What we're being called to is you get a new heart, let that heart be such a sponge that it absorbs all of the heart of Christ. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:42.799 So it's so full. 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:53.440 It's so full that there's nothing, it can't absorb anything that is going to distract the heart from flourishing in Christ. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:58.640 Guarding our heart is to fill it. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:06.880 Not protect it with walls or behaviors. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:15.200 Behaviors are like the walls of great cathedrals, but they're dead inside. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:20.079 The next danger comes in verse 24. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:26.400 Put away your crooked speech, your devious talk far from you. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:28.240 So now we're kind of moving. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:31.039 This next metaphor of the body is the mouth. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:38.480 So one is the danger of a distracted heart, and and this one becomes the danger, and I'll show you. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:41.039 I think it's the danger of self-talk. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:44.000 We're all talking to ourselves, right? 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:51.039 And I had a professor uh one time where we were talking about, hey, it's okay that you talk to yourself, just don't answer yourself. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.519 You know, that's when you need help. 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.480 Put away crooked speech, crooked. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:12.559 Meaning it refers to speech that twists truth, maybe lying, but also misrepresentation of facts, manipulation, speech that bends reality. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:14.319 Think about that. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:18.880 Speech that bends reality for selfish intent. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:20.960 Devious talk. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:36.799 It's to devious, it's to turn aside, it's to be led away, it's to deviate within it with this kind of dark intention. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:48.960 It leads yourself or it leads others off a path of flourishing and true success to the many summits of our world to manipulate, to mislead. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:55.759 Jesus preached about this also. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:57.119 Luke chapter 6. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:06.880 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart, there's the count, there's the connection, produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure does evil. 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:11.279 For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:20.000 And now we begin to see this beautiful logic of Solomon, starting with the heart, and now he's going to the mouth. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:24.240 But I want to begin with just the mouth of our soul. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:28.000 What are we saying to ourselves? 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:29.680 Have you ever heard this phrase? 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.119 It's an American thing, but um, have you ever heard this phrase? 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.039 Uh, loose lips sink ships? 00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:36.400 Does that sound familiar? 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:46.240 World War II, when uh when the when the U-boats were out sinking ships, American soldiers would take merchant ships and all of these things. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:25:00.240 And it became a slogan for soldiers in World War II that if you talked about what ship you were on, when it's leaving, where it's going, and uh, and any of the ports in between, then you're setting the whole ship up to be sunk. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:06.240 And so they came out with this, you know, this whole propaganda phrase: loose lips sink ships. 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:08.160 True enough. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:15.599 And the Bible tells us that loose lips of the soul sink Christian ships. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:30.960 And here we actually we have we actually have the word lips, oddly enough, although it doesn't come out in the English, that the devious talk, it's actually devious lips. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:34.559 It's translated by the translators as talk, but the word is lip. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:39.519 So put your devious lips far from you. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:40.559 Think about that. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:44.079 Take them off, leave them at home, you know? 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:46.480 That's the that's the imagery. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:49.440 Loose lips stink Christian ships. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:51.200 Think about James chapter three. 00:25:51.359 --> 00:26:04.880 The tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body, it corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:09.440 You know what's fascinating is we often think about the words we say and their impact on others. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:12.960 I want us to think about the words we say and the impact on our own soul. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:19.279 And look at in James 3, it doesn't say that the tongue is a fire that sets your friends' lives on fire. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:21.920 It says it sets you on fire. 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:24.400 Have you ever noticed that before? 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:26.880 It sets you on fire. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:32.880 Your lips can sink the ship of your faith. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:37.680 So what are you saying to yourself? 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:47.599 Have you ever said something like, I know God loves people, but I I don't think he loves me. 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:52.079 I'm not actually sure he's for me. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:55.359 I don't actually think he wants me. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.079 I think he's cursing me. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:08.079 I don't know if I've done enough that he would give me his favor. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:11.839 He isn't with me. 00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:16.559 I don't know the last time that God has helped me. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.599 I don't think he's near to me. 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.680 I don't feel him. 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:26.480 I don't see him working in my life. 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:28.079 I see him working in other people's lives. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:29.759 I don't see him in my life. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:31.119 He's distant. 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:36.720 He's a he's abandoned me just just like others in my life have abandoned me. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:44.559 This God that leaps from this page, I I don't experience this God, I don't know this God, I don't feel this God, I don't see this God. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:45.839 That's talk. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:49.759 That's crooked and devious talk. 00:27:50.319 --> 00:28:02.880 Because it's deviating from truth, for selfish intention, to make sense of our own lives, to put ourselves front and center instead of God and his goodness front and center for me. 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:10.799 And if God is doing something good and glorifying, then it's the best thing for me, whether I feel it or not. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.880 Crooked and devious talk. 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:21.920 Too much of a sinner to have the grace of God. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:30.640 God is unjust, God is unfair, God is out of touch, God is non-existent. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:36.400 What are the things that you tell yourselves when the lights are off and nobody else is with you? 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:40.720 What do you believe as you look in the world around you? 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:47.039 What do you think as God is working or healing somebody around you in a radical way? 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:50.480 Like we just had a woman who got healed from cancer. 00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:54.319 She was on hospice and she just got fired from hospice two days ago. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:58.000 We've been praying over her and she was healed. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:00.319 What was she thinking? 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:12.559 She was so full of faith, but there's people who are in those times they they've given up and they account God through the lens of their own experiences. 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:14.400 Self-talk. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:20.960 If I were to ask, for those of you who know Jesus here, do you talk like a Christian? 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:25.039 You know how a Christian talks? 00:29:25.119 --> 00:29:25.839 And here's what I mean. 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:29.039 I don't mean, you know, no cussing, no R-rated movies. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:31.119 I got I'm not talking about that. 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:32.960 Not talking about behavior. 00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:42.720 Do you speak the truth about who God is to yourself and to others? 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:47.039 Do you speak highly of the love of God? 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:48.400 That is so clear in scripture. 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:51.920 Do you speak highly of the sovereignty of God over your life? 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.480 Do you do you speak highly of the goodness of God in your life? 00:29:57.440 --> 00:30:04.240 Psalms or as as Psalms, as you might say it, 42, 5. 00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:06.799 King David talked to himself. 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.119 This is where Solomon picked it up from David. 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:11.759 Remember, Solomon says, My father, who's his father? 00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:12.640 King David. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:19.119 In Psalm chapter 42, he says, Why, my soul, are you downcast? 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:21.599 Why so disturbed within me? 00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:25.599 Put your hope in God and I will praise him, my Savior and my God. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:27.359 Do you hear that self-talk? 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:30.480 Soul, why are you giving up on God? 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:31.759 Where will you go? 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:34.319 Like the disciples when Jesus is like, well, then go then. 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:37.039 And they're like, Lord, where would we go? 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:43.759 We've already walked with you, we've seen your ministry, we've heard your teaching, everything that we've seen and experienced. 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:45.599 Where else could that happen? 00:30:45.759 --> 00:30:46.720 It won't happen anyway. 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:47.759 Where else would I go? 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:50.480 And David's like, Soul, why are you disturbed? 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:52.079 Obviously, he is disturbed. 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:57.680 He's angry, he's downcast, he's melancholy, he's sad, he's broken, he's angry, he's grieving. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:02.000 And then he goes, Soul, soul. 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:04.480 Don't go there, soul. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.759 Don't define God by your experience, soul. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:10.000 Why are you disturbed? 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:17.599 Why does this so bother you when you know that God is orchestrating every little thing and his glory is your good soul? 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:19.680 Don't give up in faith, soul. 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:21.920 Don't don't walk away, soul. 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:25.200 What's our self-talk? 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:30.000 The soul of a Christian speaks highly of the love of God. 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:41.200 Highly of God when we doubt, highly of God when we wrestle, highly with God, highly about God when we're lonely, highly about God in fear and anxiety. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:57.200 And lastly, 26 and 27, he says, Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:02.880 Ponder the path of your feet, and then your ways will be sure. 00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:08.160 Don't turn to the left or to the right or turn your foot away from evil. 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:12.000 So we're just going down, you know, we're going down, it's the heart. 00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:16.240 And then to the mouth, and then to the eyes. 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:26.880 And then he's gonna make a connection to the feet, but I think the eyes and the feet are actually more connected than we think, although the eyes and the feet are the kind of the farthest away on the body, but they're actually the most connected. 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:35.039 You know, I don't I don't know how uh how many of you are um you know snowboarding in Ireland. 00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:41.839 Um I don't I don't know if the you know the pails uh have a lot of snow on them. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:49.839 Uh I grew up in Southern California, surf and most board sports and uh snowboarding and the whole thing. 00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:54.480