Peace to Guard your Heart and Mind

Introduction –

• These are some things I've been learning especially lately, but they are really principles God has continued to hit on as I've been maturing as a Christian (7 years on the 29 ^th of this month!).
• Introduce the Main Text: Philippians 4:2-9 and Colossians 3:15
• Ref. John 14:27, where Jesus says, "peace I give you," talking about the inner peace His salvation brings—peace with God because your sins are no longer counted against you.
• His peace—connecting with your salvation—guards your heart and your mind!
• Three parts to this:
• Importance of guarding our hearts
• God's will or plan for everyone to have a pure heart
• Our faith is taking up the responsibility to trust in God

 

1. Why is it so important to guard our mind and heart?
1. Matthew 5:8  "they will see God"

                                                              i.       Psalms 24:3-6 impurity of heart is far more than just sexual impurity.

                                                            ii.       Illustration: comedian making the point of someone procrastinating getting their eyes checked and corrected.

2. James 4:8 double-minded

                                                              i.       James 1:5-8 it means to be "unstable in all he does."

                                                            ii.       This evening, do you feel like the wave being tossed around by the wind?

                                                          iii.       Do you feel powerless, where there is a wave of popularity, or the desires of your flesh, and you have the hardest time fighting against it?

                                                          iv.       The pressures of the world can feel like the tide, but Jesus gives us the power to go against the flow.

3. John 14:1, 27 Troubled hearts – what does it look like to have a troubled heart?   I believe people can see when my heart is troubled – "brother, how are you really doing?"
4. Romans 1:21 darkened hearts
5. Ref. Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6 "Hearts are far from me"
6. <Transition Statement> Truth is that I've never met a person who is always pure in their heart—we need to be purified!

 

2. How does God purify our hearts?
1. Salvation process—Ephesians 1:13-14; 2Corinthians 1:22; Acts 2:38-39
2. Romans 5:1-5 Christian life is a process of refining our character (emphasize verse 5 because God poured out His love into our hearts so that we would persevere to be made into the likeness of Christ).
3. Romans 8:26-39 He searches us and guides us! 

                                                              i.       He intercedes to help us in our prayer life.  Interceding—for example, we intercede when we prayed for Candy's health.   Verse 34 – Jesus interceded for us now.  Hebrews 7:25 describes Jesus as our High Priest.  For those who have received the HS, He intercedes for you in those times that are hard to pray.

                                                            ii.       Ref. 1John 3:20 – The Holy Spirit is in us – and it is a powerful thought to know that God is greater than our hearts!

                                                          iii.       Since He is greater, He is always worthy of our complete trust.

 

3. God continually cleanses our hearts through our childlike trust
1. There is one passage that outright says "God tests our hearts" (1Thess. 2:4), but there are numerous examples (Job; Jesus).

                                                              i.       It is apparent that He sends us challenges.

                                                            ii.       It has been a challenging concept that I've had to surrender to – that God deliberately sends us suffering.

                                                          iii.       Why?  Not as a lab-experiment!  Not a test like, "lets see if they make it."   But because God believes in us and wants us to be tried and true, refined, and glorify Him ultimately with our life of serving Him.

2. John 12:24-25 incredibly challenging on us emotionally, especially the process of refinement and shedding the world He is describing.

                                                              i.       We can understand this passage better if we know that surrender is simply another word for Biblical faith (ref. Victory of Surrender).

                                                            ii.       Read paragraph toward bottom on p.21

                                                          iii.       Surrender is not a once and for all thing but a process

3. Surrender happens when we trust

                                                              i.       Matthew 18:1-5 Jesus uses children as an illustration to make His point about the heart we need to have in order to enter the kingdom of God.

1.     What is significant about a child?

2.     The passage says "humbling ourselves like a child"—how do they humble themselves?

3.     Teachable, need lots of training, vulnerable, innocent – they are dependent on their parent…so much more we're dependent on God.

                                                            ii.       As He is searching your mind and heart, ask yourself, does my life reflect one of dependence on God? 

1.     How am I not being childlike in reliance on Him?

2.     A lot of time we act grown up when God wants us to be in need of Him.

3.     Sometimes surrender is just being open about a spiritual need…from there we discover surrender and God works powerfully to reveal more ways we can trust in Him.

 

Conclusion –

• God wants for us to have healthy hearts because He wants for us to see Him.
• It is important that we have a conviction to guard our hearts, which is actively trusting in God.
• Think for yourself: Does your life reflect a trust in God?  How is your level of surrender to Him?   Are you surrendered in your school, your future, your relationships…?  Do you let the peace that you are saved in Jesus guard your hearts or are you letting your heart get polluted by the world?
• So, what can we do?  The answer is to develop a more childlike trust in God.
• There are lots of verses in the Bible, as well spiritual books, which will help us get there, but we need to know that Christianity is a process of constantly surrendering, submitting, and trusting in God.