Battle Drill #7: Guard Your Heart!

Proverbs 4:1-27 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the seventh battle drill – Guard Your Heart!

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Today, I am prescribing for you a battle drill that requires a lifestyle change, “Watch over your heart with all diligence!” Sorry, there are no pills to take that allow you to simply carry on with life as you want to live it and have a healthy heart anyways. So that you don’t think you are at your annual cardiologist appointment, being told yet again that you need to lose some weight, exercise, and watch what you eat (oh by the way, do those things!), I want to explain the Bible’s use of the word, “heart.” While it can mean the physical organ in your body, in the Bible, “heart” [leb in Hebrew and kardia in Greek] often speaks to the “seat of physical, spiritual and mental life… As [the] center and source of the whole inner life, w. its thinking, feeling, and volition… of [your] disposition.”[1] The Bible’s usage of the word “heart” has a range of meanings, but for our passage it is the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind, intellect), volition (will), emotions (the affections), and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience). It is the control center of your life.

Today’s battle drill flows logically from last week’s teaching by Pastor Ken from Proverbs 3, “choose to do good.” Ken taught us that we need to train “good sense and sound judgement in practical matters.” Building upon last week’s teaching, today, we are going to learn the importance of protecting the core center of our ability to choose God’s will and do good! Let’s listen to this battle drill from the Field Manual in its entirety, Proverbs 4:1-27:

Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding, for I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live; acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; and with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; she will present you with a crown of beauty.” Hear, my son, and accept my sayings and the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths. When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; and if you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.

There is so much to learn from the Field Manual, let us now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as a good soldier of Jesus in God’s army.

As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, approach the application of this teaching from a military perspective. When I was in the infantry, during foot movements toward an objective we would establish patrol bases to plan, prepare, and rest. There were priorities of work that had to be done in a patrol base, but one thing that always happened was security – there was a watch! We would set up a perimeter and then the squad leaders would put the soldiers in pairs, or battle buddies, so that, when one was planning, preparing, or resting, the other was watching outwards in their sector of fire. The sectors of fire of each position were interlocking, they intersected with the position to their left and right, all the way around the perimeter, so that together the unit covered every potential enemy angle of attack. There was never a time that the unit was not being watched over, or guarded, or kept safe, or preserved for the mission. Most of the time we would do 50% security meaning one out of two soldiers was planning, preparing, and resting while the others were watching, but there were times, especially in what is called “stand-to,” at dawn and dusk, where every soldier was on the line, watching, because these were the times when there is most likely going to be an enemy attack.  For most of us, the “stand-to” equivalent is H.A.L.T. – when we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. That’s when we need to guard our hearts and have interlocking arms as one unit. The church needs to be on alert against the schemes of the devil.

I teach you this because this is the imagery behind Paul’s promise of peace, found in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul is using military language based upon Jesus’ promise in John 14:27, when Jesus teaches us that the source of protection is found in the promise of the Holy Spirit being sent to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Don’t let the central control room of your life be overrun by the enemy! This protection is from the indwelling presence of God in you and in us! We need to have intersecting lives because there should never be a time that the unit is not being watched over, or guarded, or kept safe, or preserved for the mission. This is a work of God in us and through us – both-and!

God is the one watching the perimeter of your life, and that must begin at the central control room – your heart. God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the way to peace and His peace guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Jesus desires to superintend our attitudes and actions, to transform our entire personhood through the Holy Spirit’s work.

This is what Paul teaches us in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Simply stated, invite Jesus onto the throne of your heart and He will guard you heart and mind, causing you to become like Him, an image bearer of God where the Spirit is at work in and through you for the glory of God! That brings us to action step #3.

You are invited to live your life for the approval of the One who enlisted you and called you to Himself. This happens in the custom-made yoke of Jesus where we learn to become like God, as Jesus described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:28-30). The righteousness of Christ (godliness, holiness) must flow from the source of the One who is righteous, not from our efforts because the only thing we can produce of our flesh is filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We are to apply diligence to the battle drill of guarding our hearts, for from it come our ability to choose to do good and walk in the way and cry out to God for discernment.

My heart is Christ’s home![2] It’s exclusively God’s and does not belong to any other, including me! I have given Him the right of ownership; the deed belongs to Him alone.

A common biblical image of this concept is an agricultural one, from a fruit-bearing tree. God’s eternal fruit (John 15:1-8) and predestined good works you were meant to walk in (Ephesians 2:10) only happen in your life as a disciple of Jesus when it flows through the root system of a tree planted by streams of living water. Psalm 1:1-3 poetically states of this truth,

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers” (cf. Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13; Zechariah 14:8; John 4:10-14; 7:37-38; Revelation 7:17).

The nature of the fruit is determined by the nature of the root. A person can only produce fruit in like-kind to what is in his or her heart. Listen to Jesus teach this in Matthew 7:15-23:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

How then shall we live on mission? That takes us to our final action step in training to live on mission as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

We are invited to live by faith, which is a life of daily surrendering to Jesus to be at the center of all that we think, say, and do. With that said, there is a common image the Bible uses for a preservative, and that is salt. When you combine these concepts, maybe Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13-16 will make more sense and be more applicable as an action item of your life:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

You are a preservative of God’s will in the world that He so loved that He sent His one and only Son to save the world and to show them His great love and the way they are to live. As your heart is preserved with the living presence of God, then you become, more and more, the preservative of the way, the truth, and the life of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to close with an everyday image from your home. Your heart is like the water softener of your house. It ensures the water is fit for consumption and won’t do damage to the household. The water softener requires routine maintenance, as well as diligent effort to put 40-pound bags of salt into the tank. In the same way, your heart, the control center of your life, requires the routine maintenance of prayer and confession, community and worship, as well as the diligent effort of Bible study, service, and outreach. We must apply all diligence to the preserving of our hearts because it is out of our hearts that our words and actions flow, and unless we want to do damage to the household of God, we must ensure that what flows out of heart is pure. Jesus taught about the urgency of this in Matthew 15:13-20, and I close with Jesus’ words as a call to apply all diligence to this battle drill in your life:

“Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man…”

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 508-509. This work is commonly referred to as BDAG.

[2] I encourage you to read Robert Boyd Hunger’s 1951 classic, “My Heart Christ’s Home” at https://www.usna.edu/Navigators/_files/documents/MHCH.pdf.

Battle Drill #6: Choose to Do Good

Proverbs 3:21-35

My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them, for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace. They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear; you will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.” Don’t plot harm against your neighbor, for those who live nearby trust you. Don’t pick a fight without reason, when no one has done you harm. Don’t envy violent people or copy their ways. Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord, but he offers his friendship to the godly.

The Lord curses the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the upright. The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble. The wise inherit honor, but fools are put to shame!

Last week, we were reminded by Pastor Jerry that according to Proverbs 3:5-6. We are told to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Since trust is to fully and truly rely on God, you would think it would only be common sense for us to do that which He tells us to do, and not take matters into our own hands and do what we want to do instead. To take that course of action just does not seem like common sense. But we have found that in many areas of our lives. That which we thought was common sense has not been taught. A couple of examples that come immediately to mind are: Covering a cough or a sneeze (tissue or sleeve); or who has the right of way when two or more cars approach a four way stop sign (the name should give it away).

Common sense for Christians has to be taught as well, especially since man is by nature a sinner. Common sense is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “Good sense and sound judgment in practical manners.” So, for us to understand this portion of the scriptures today, Solomon is reminding us not lose sight of those things that we were taught, which is why we need to first and foremost…

I. Know the field manual by keeping focused on the Word.

Proverbs 3:21-23

Refreshes your soul

Visibly evident like shiny jewelry

Provide protection in your daily walk.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” (emphasis added by me!)

Matthew 7:12

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” (Golden Rule)

What about the ‘Golden Results? It is a direct corollary to the Golden Rule: “Other people will usually treat you the way you treat them.”

“Blame others and they blame you; admit you were wrong, and often they will do the same; listen patiently and openly to others and hold off making premature judgments, and others will be inclined to do the same for you, which will open the way for understanding and increase the likelihood of agreement.” (article: NCBaptist.org, Jan.7, ’21 See reference at end.)

II. Importance of Training Together Brings Familiarity.

Romans 12:8-10

“ If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.”

We all have different gifts and abilities, but that is what makes it so that not just one person is carrying out the tasks given to us by Command Central!

We cannot expect one person to have ALL of these abilities/gifts

Romans 12:12-13

“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”

The Blood of Jesus paid the same price for each and every one of us so that we become joint heirs with Jesus…Children of God!

III. Seek the Commander’s Approval in all things!

Ephesians 6:7-8

“Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.”

It’s all in the attitude! Who are you doing it for…You or Jesus?

Illustration: Paul Hollywood handshake “Great British Bake Off”

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

“See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

Always doing good (each other and all people)

Always joyful

Always praying

Always thankful in all circumstances

IV. How do we Live on Mission?

A. Never grow tired of doing good

Galatians 6:9-10

“So, let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

This does not mean that we are to be doormat Christians and allow people to abuse our love and service.

1 Timothy 6:11-12

“But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.”

We live on mission when we…

Pursue righteousness

Pursue a godly life

Pursue faith

Pursue love

Pursue perseverance

Pursue gentleness

As we stay in God’s Word every day, and come together for discipleship times of training, and strive to please God in all that we do while we share the message of Hope to a world in need, we discover that we have to make the right decisions and choices. These are the choices that we make every day: We choose to be Bitter or be Better; to be Hopeless or be Hopeful; to Love less or Love More. So I need to ask you…Do you believe that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength? You have heard His commands, straight from the Bible. Now you are responsible for what you are going to do with this information. I pray that you choose to truly trust God and do good!

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

Reference: