Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
What does it mean to guard your heart? Have you ever thought about that? Let’s see what Jesus has to say.
Scripture
Luke 21:34-36
So be careful. Guard your hearts. They can be made heavy with moral laxity, with drunkenness, with the hassles of daily life. Then the day I’ve been telling you about might catch you unaware and trap you. Because it’s coming—nobody on earth will escape it. So you have to stay alert, praying that you’ll be able to escape the coming trials so you can stand tall in the presence of the Son of Man.
Devotional
Have you ever thought much about that command from Jesus? Guard your hearts.
We aren’t doing very well as a society.
Description of what He said makes it heavy
Moral laxity
Drunkenness
Hassles of life
Drag by day after day with heavy hearts, what does it mean?
Sounds a lot like depression – listless, purposeless, everything hard
Anxiety – worry about everything, anything that can go bad will go bad for you
Frustration – things never work out the way they should according to your plan
Despair – never get there, never succeed, never accomplish your goals
Direct result of some of those warnings.
Think tolerance of all things would improve society, it hasn’t and it won’t
Drunkenness loosens judgment, leads to moral laxity, creates the same problems
Nothing good happens after midnight
Never lose control of mental faculties unless under a doctors care
Rut of daily life underwhelm and make us trudge through life
Military know how to guard things.
Put barriers in place, physical and electronic, to keep the enemy out
Put warriors in place to keep watch on all those barriers to make sure no one and nothing slips through
Trains almost daily, even while in combat, to make sure they are ready to face the enemy and repel him
Do we know how to guard our hearts against the enemy?
Do we even try in these days? Sometimes I’m not sure we do as I look at the state of the world and our society.
Back to Jesus warning – Guard your hearts. They can be made heavy with moral laxity, with drunkenness, with the hassles of daily life.
Moral laxity – rampant
Drunkenness – 20% of all drivers on the road are intoxicated, that means over the legal limits, with drugs or alcohol, but over 65% of all drivers are on the road with a buzz or some sedation from drugs or alcohol. Drunkenness? Here!
Hassles of daily life – road rage, gun sales, violence, hatred spring up everywhere
criticisms instead of complements
petitions instead of praise
complaints instead of thanksgiving
we live in a pessimistic, hate filled time surrounded by evil
How do we guard our hearts?
Spend time with God
Listen to Him from His word, hymns, devotionals,
Pray – a lot
Study His word, don’t just read it
Keep garbage out
Put up barriers to the things Satan would use to fill your mind
Be aware of your weaknesses and watch carefully in those areas
Did I say pray – a lot
By the way – pray – a lot
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 7:18-23 Jesus: Do you mean you don’t understand this one either? Whatever goes into people from outside can’t defile them because it doesn’t go into their hearts. Outside things go through their guts and back out, thus making all foods pure. No, it’s what comes from within that corrupts. It’s what grows out of the hearts of people that leads to corruption: evil thoughts, immoral sex, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wicked acts, treachery, sensuality, jealousy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from within, and these are the sins that truly corrupt a person.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Did you notice the list of things Jesus points out that makes us corrupt? What a list! But not one of them has to do with the things we seem to point out most of the time when we want to point out the bad in society. Did you notice? That person doesn’t attend the right social events. This one doesn’t wear the right clothes. That one doesn’t belong to the right clubs. He doesn’t support right to choose. She doesn’t agree with the LGBT movement.
And then we really start getting picky in the church. He doesn’t sing the right kind of songs. She wears her skirts too short. He wears shorts to church. His sermons are too long. She spends too much time with that guy. He’s too friendly with gay people. She has friends that have had abortions. He’s divorced. She’s in her forties and not married. He doesn’t like the color of the carpet we picked. She picked the paint and I don’t like it. She wears too much makeup.
We think the stupidest things make us righteous or unrighteous. The Pharisees thought it was their rules and rituals that made them righteous. If they could just do all the right things, they would be all right with God. If they washed properly, ate the right food, prayed the right prayers, gave the right offerings, did the right things, everything would be alright.
But Jesus saw through their hypocracy. He saw their hearts. He saw their devotion was not to God but to themselves. They were more interested in obeying their rules than in obeying God. And He called them on it. So when His disciples asked about His comments, He explained Himself. It’s not the rules that make someone good or evil, it starts with a wicked thought.
If you’ll recall Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew, He talks about the fact that murder starts with the thought of hating your brother. Adultery starts with a lustful thought. Those evil thoughts are the spart of evil actions and those evil actions are sin. James tells us the same thing in his letter to the churches. Corruption starts from the seed of a thought that we hang on to and let germinate in our mind until we let it become not just a thought but an action with our body.
Jesus then talks about some things all of us agree with right away. Everyone would give a resounding amen to those evil things – murder, theft, wicked acts, treachery. But you know, our society starts chipping away at what’s right and what’s wrong with some of those others. Some have even become common place today. Find a television program that doesn’t promote sensuality today. Not too many are there? Pride? Is that a sin? We say it is, but we often hide it as ambition rather than pride, don’t we?
But Jesus didn’t mince words when He laid out His list of evils as He shared with His disciples – evil thoughts, immoral sex, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wicked acts, treachery, sensuality, jealousy, slander, pride, and foolishness. Did He really say foolishness? Yep. That’s evil? It can be. Proverbs warns against foolishness a lot. Foolishness wastes effort, resources, hurts people carelessly. It’s not the same as having fun and enjoying life. Foolishness is the opposite of wisdom and harms God’s creation. So, yes, foolishness is evil.
We like to skip over those things that society says is okay, but they’re not. Sex outside of marriage is not okay despite what the world may say. Adultery is not okay regardless of who else might engage in it. Greed is not healthy for society or for the individuals that engage in it. Jealousy hurts not only the one who is jealous but it taints every relationship that person has. Slander creates distrust across society and is worse that theft because things can be replaced, but reputations can be destroyed forever. Pride sets us up for a mighty fall because it always puff us up falsely. Foolishness causes us to do things that just lead us into trouble unnecessarily. Yet all these things the world often thinks are okay. None of these are condemned the way Jesus condemns them .
So who will we listen to, the world or Jesus? If we want to live eternally, the answer better be Jesus. After all, He’s the one who will stand as our judge at the end of time. It’s probably best to do what He says.
