The Courageous Church: Heart Healthy
Proverbs 4:20-27
“For they (God’s words) are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.” vs. 22
Fort Knox
-My earliest memories of Fort Know come from Bugs Bunny cartoons. It was portrayed like this: (show picture). But what is it really liked?
-Fort Knox is located close to Louisville, Ky. (show other picture), built in 1936
-It is home to much of the nations gold reserve.
-It is a two story building constructed of granite, steel, and concrete.
-It is 105 ft by 121 ft, and is 42 ft above ground level. That only about ½ the size of a football field.
-The vault door weighs more than 20 tons.
-No one person is entrusted with the combination. Various members of the staff must dial separate combinations known only to them.
The vault casing is constructed of steel plates, steel I-beams and steel cylinders laced with hoop bands, and encased in concrete.
-The outer wall of the depository is constructed of granite lined with concrete. -Construction material:
16,500 cubic feet of granite, 1,650 ft x1,650 x 1,650
4,200 cubic yards of concrete 420 dt, by 420 ft. x 420 ft.
750 tons of reinforcing steel (1,500,000 lbs) (7500 200 lb. men)
670 tons of structural steel (1,340,000 lbs) (6,700 200 lb. men)(
– In the basement is a pistol range for use by the guards.
The building is equipped with the latest and most modern protective devices. The nearby Army Post provides additional protection. The Depository is equipped with its own emergency power plant, water system and other facilities.
There is a place for you and i that needs to be well guarded; something more important than gold. That place is our heart and today we are going to look at how to do that from Solomon’s words in Proverbs 4:20-27.
Read Passage – Proverbs 4:20-27
My son, pay attention to what I say turn your ear to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
Listen Carefully!
Solomon is considered the writer of this passage. You can tell he really wants our attention here by the way he starts this section in verse20:
“My son, pay attention to what I say turn your ear to my words.” vs. 20
Paraphrasing his words he is saying “Listen carefully!” Literally the words pay attention mean “turn your ear.”
Ex. It’s as if you are listening to a teacher in a school class and it is going in one ear and out the other. Kind of like Charlie Brown, remember his teacher “Waw, Waw, Waw, Waw.” But I have had a lot of teachers that want to stress one particular thing and in the middle of one of their lectures they say; “Now pay attention to this point.”
He really wants us to make sure we are getting this!
Search for Health
Solomon goes on to say that these words are not just a point of emphasis, they are words that help us with our health. He says in verse 22:
“For they (God’s words) are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.” vs. 22
People are always in the search for health. There are always new fad’s and new diets coming out and they are million dollar sellers. We want health.
Ex. The latest one I now of is the step counter. Have you seen that? It’s an app you can put on your phone and it counts the number of steps you take in a day. The idea is that you can be healthier and lose weight if you take 10,000 steps a day. I have one friend who is doing this and sometimes he gets to 9,500 or so steps near the end of the day and so he takes a walk around the block or walks circles in his living room to make it to 10K. Funny note: a friend of mine in Sacramento is doing this and he posts a picture of his steps. The other day he had a great day and was at 18,800 and wanted to know people’s opinion about if he should go for 20k. I wrote: Sure, you can do it, go for 30k!
Anyway, we all have some desire to be healthy. We feel better physically, we feel more stable emotionally, life seems more enjoyable, and our outlook seems brighter. Healthy is a good thing.
Guard Your Heart
To know who we are and to take care of ourselves we have to start at the core of who we are and that is our heart. Verse 23:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” vs. 23
In our world our society tends to define your heart by your emotions; how you feel and what you consider to be good. I challenge that. I think the heart goes much deeper. From a spiritual perspective it is the core of who we are. Yes, it is that place where you feel emotions, but it is also the place where you make decisions and where you consider God and his role in your life, it’s that place where you weigh what is good and evil and where you establish who you are and what you want to be. It is that place where everything flows from.
The interesting part of this is this is that guarding is more than just keeping the evil or bad things out. Yes, that is an important part but guarding also includes what you put into it. We must be careful not to let evil, negativity, and bad things in but the flip side of that is that we must put the good and proper things in so that what flows out is also good and proper.
Ex. Filling my coffee cup. If I want good coffee to flow from my coffee cup I have to put good coffee into it. I not only protect t from being filled with the wrong coffee but I am proactive in making sure I put good coffee into it
A Prescription for Heart Healthy
In our passage today Solomon uses the imagery of the body to challenge our thinking. He uses different parts of our physical being to get us to go deeper about what being heart healthy looks like in our lives.
- Eyes: Keep Your Focus
The first consideration has to do with our eyes. When it comes to our eyes we need to keep our focus. It says in verse 25:
“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” vs. 25
The challenge here is to keep looking ahead. He uses the term to “fix our gaze.” I love that. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. It is always amazing to watch how couples in love “gaze” into each other’s eyes. When you gaze like that, your total focus in on that person or object. You are mesmerized. We are encouraged here to be mesmerized by God’s Word and to keep focusing on them.
The reality is that there are distractions that want to take our focus.
Ex. Think about the times you walk through a mall. You may be going to buy something specific like say a pair of jeans. But…there are those darn window displays. You walk by and see something and like say the candy store and all the sudden you are strolling through the chocolate section. Now it gets even worse. You walk by the food court and there are those darn people handing out samplers.
- Mouth & Lips: Positive and Encouraging
The second imagery used is the mouth and lips. Verse 24 says:
“Keep your mouth free of perversity, keep corrupt talk far from your lips.” vs. 24
Remember that guarding is not just prevent what gets in but it is also putting the right things I so the right things come out. Our heart is exposed by what comes from our mouth and lips. Ever been around someone who has a really corrupt mouth? It really is not very comfortable. Our words and talk can be harmful. We are called not to be critical, biting, and difficult.
Everything in God’s Word is directed at us seeing things his way and that includes our words. We are called to be like Jesus. Jesus took the time to build up the down trodden, help those less fortunate, use words to heal, speak to women when that was frowned upon by society, etc. Of course the exception to that were the religious leaders who put on a facade and were misleading people. Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:11:
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up…” 1 Thess. 5:11
Our call is to use words that build up and encourage; positive.
Ex. Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
– William Arthur Ward (One of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims)
- Feet: Walk the Talk
The third imagery talks about our feet and the imagery of where we go. Verse 26:
“Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” vs. 26
The challenge here is to consider our paths and where those paths will take us. We may need to ask to ourselves where we are spending our time? Who are we spending our time with? Have we given careful thought to that and where do those paths take us? This imagery may remind us of the roads that Jesus talked about in Matthew 7. One path leads to destruction and the other to life. It is important for us to be on the path that leads to life, real life and one that brings stability. Notice the end of verse 26 where it talks about the steadfastness that comes through being on the right path. Part of protecting our heart comes in the form of walking the walk. We say we are God’s children. Is that evident by our actions and the paths we choose. Verse 27 gives us a warning and possible outcome if we don’t choose our paths wisely:
“Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” vs. 27
The result of bad paths can be evil. Satan would love nothing better than to deceive us into walking bad paths so that we are lead into evil.
Sometimes we can help ourselves by spending our time and walking paths that lead us to draw nearer to God. We choose to spend time with people of like-mindedness, with those with similar goals and aspirations.
Living the Good Life
Let’s go back to the premise of this passage. We pay close attention and turn our ear towards God’s words so that we gain life. It really was a purpose of Jesus life and why he came. Remember the words of John 10:10:
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10
We can live the good life when we live more like Jesus did.
Eyes – We see things like Jesus who had his eyes firmly fixed on his father.
Mouth – Used his words to build up and encourage. To bring healing and restoration .
Feet – walked with his disciples and those who followed his Father.
