These are notes from my youth group, Source, about having a wise heart that I wanted to share with people.
Wis Dumb: A Wise Heart
Main Verse: Proverbs 4:23- Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.
Main Point: Guarding your heart.
1st Question: Why should you guard your heart?
Answers to question 1:
1. Our hearts are sinful and selfish.
2. Our hearts wander off the path of righteousness naturally.
Notes:
Jeremiah 17:9- "The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is."
3. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked.
2nd Question: Am I really guarding my heart?
Answers to question 2:
The heart is the core of who you are; your thoughts, words, and actions come from it. Look at these, do they show that you have successfully guarded your heart? If they don't, don't follow your heart, it will get you to hell.
How to Guard Your Heart:
1. Get clean!
Notes:
Psalm 119:9- How can a young person keep his life pure? [He can do it] by holding on to your word.
Psalm 119:9 says it all, to be clean/pure you have to hold on to the Word of God, the Bible. Go to God and He will help you.
1 John 1:9- God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we've done wrong.
You need to remember two things:
1) Jesus loves you, why else would He have gone to the cross?
2) Jesus forgives you, that is why He did.
2. Be determined to stay clean.
Psalm 119:10- I wholeheartedly searched for you. Do not let me wander away from your commandments.
One step to being like the person who wrote the Hebrew poem, Psalm 119, is by wholeheartedly searching for God. Part of that is by hating sin. Sin is what separates us from God in the first place! The best way to try to rid yourself of it is first by confessing and then hating it, wanting to be with God always. We make these decisions, but these decisions also make us: by hating sin you are showing it that you despise it and it isn't tolerated by you.
Jeremiah 29:13- "When you look for me, you will find me. When you wholeheartedly seek me,"
Seek God with all your heart, and you will find Him as long as you are passionate and never give up.
3. Memorize God's Word
Psalm 119:11- I have treasured your promise in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
By memorizing God's Word and asking God to show you His heart, you are making your heart wise and ridding it of the decision to sin. Think about a problem you may have, and then find Scripture that relates to it. Scripture can contain things about sex, eating disorders, cutting, depression, etc.
Now what I'm about to say isn't a popular way of thinking, but you are satanic when you lie. Why? Because Satan is the Father of lies. Lying is a Satanic thing, but luckily there's a way to rid yourself of it.
4. Ask God to teach you
Psalm 119:12- Thanks be to you, O LORD. Teach me your laws.
One of the last steps to having a wise heart is to be open to God's teaching. You can do this by reading Scripture and letting it transform you into who God wants you to be. Especially the book of Proverbs, which is all about wisdom which is equal to understanding. That understanding will help you to understand God.
But you should be prepared, some things that Scripture says can be harsh; but remember you don't have to be perfect, you don't have to do everything because we are only human, but that is no reason not to try.
Remember that you can always ask questions.
5. Verbalize what the Bible says
Psalm 119:13-14- With my lips I have repeated ever regulation that [comes] from your mouth. I find joy in the way [shown by] your written instructions more than I find joy in all kinds of riches.
Don't be negative but rather remember what good things God has said about you in his Word. A good way to remember this is to verbalize what you are reading, or even begin preaching to yourself. Sure, people may think you are crazy or you just may find one of them asking about what you keep on repeating and saying.
6. Depend upon God
Psalm 119:15-16- I want to reflect on your guiding principles and study your ways. Your laws make me happy. I never forget your word.
Imagine a person with cancer, they go to the doctor, and the doctor cuts out the cancer and fills in the gap (if it is a big cut). Now imagine your heart is that person, the cancer is sin, and the doctor is God. What would God (the doctor) cut out of your heart? What would He put in its place? Give your heart to God and find out.