Guard Your Heart (the Responsibility Of Consencration) by Apostle Joshua selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Way of the Altar

Koinonia trains believers along three paths: the way of the altar, which is intimacy with God, the way of victory and dominion, and the way of purpose and kingdom relevance. This teaching sits within the way of the altar.

The Heart: Control Room of Destiny

Psalm 24:3-4, Psalm 51:17, Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Your walk with God is only as authentic as the condition of your heart. Spiritually, heart is interchanged with spirit Mark 2:8. The heart is the innermost part of your being where motives, intentions and motivations are conceived. It is the womb of the spirit and the spiritual engine room where the force behind every action, good or bad, is generated. The heart is the motive generation center of a man's life.

Nine States the Heart Can Assume

1. Desperately wickedJeremiah 17:9
2. Deceitful above all thingsJeremiah 17:9
3. An arrogant, hotty spiritProverbs 16:5, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 21:4 A hotty spirit, high-minded and high-headed, goes before a fall.
4. A heart that devises evilProverbs 6:18 A heart that fabricates wicked or vain imaginations, perpetually.
5. A heart of stoneEzekiel 36:26 A figurative statement to show the hardness of a man's heart.
6. A broken and contrite heartPsalm 51:17

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7. A new, renewed heart of fleshEzekiel 36:26 Shows the malleability, the sincerity, the innocence of that heart.
8. A clean heartPsalm 51:10
9. A pure heartMatthew 5:8

Purity of Heart Is the Highest Level of Consecration

No matter how blameless a life or its actions look, if the heart is corrupt, scripture's verdict is that the life is corrupt. Chastity, modesty, discipline, humility and self-respect are noble, but they do not have power in themselves to reveal the true state of a man's heart before God Matthew 15:8.

What Defines a Corrupt or a Pure Heart

Two indices measure it: your reverence for God, and your motive for doing anything in the kingdom.

Genesis 6:5, Genesis 6:11-12. God saw that every imagination of man's heart was corrupt.

The greatest way a heart becomes corrupt is by losing the fear of God and fabricating wrong motives.

God does not rate a work by its size or spectacle. A widow who dropped her last coin into the temple offering was said by Jesus to have given more than the wealthy who danced in with their harvest, because her gift carried reverence theirs did not. An hour of preaching can weigh less before God than two minutes of offering, if the shorter act carries more reverence and a purer motive.

Preaching that leans only on God's goodness while ignoring his justice usually comes from a heart already given to a loose lifestyle. Preaching that leans only on judgment while denying his mercy usually comes from self-righteousness. Fear alone, like the fright a horror film induces, can produce tears without producing true repentance.

The heart can deceive its own owner. A man can be so deceived by his own heart that he cannot see how corrupt it is Jeremiah 17:9-10.

I the Lord search the heart and try the mind, to give every man according to his ways and the fruit of his doings Jeremiah 17:10.

A corrupt heart, one void of the fear of God with a wrong motivation, can render great activities of little or no value before God. A corrupt heart left unchecked will eventually destroy its owner by exposing him to demonic attacks, and will diminish glory, honor and grace from a man's life. Picture a flight cleared for many hours in the air that suddenly has to make an emergency landing, sometimes crashing before it reaches the ground. Many destinies end the same way, not because a season ended, but because a corrupt heart was never dealt with. Better a delayed or cancelled flight than a crash.

Three Indices That Reveal the State of a Man's Heart

1. Your reaction in the presence of honor or disappointment

   When things go your way and when they don't, your response reveals whether your heart is pure or corrupt.

2. Your response to the progress and achievements of others

   Pain you cannot explain at another's progress is a call to retreat.

3. Your words

   Words that joyfully downplay the achievements of others usually reveal envy, insecurity and competitive jealousy. Lines like "that whole organization is beneath ours" or "her voice was cracking through that song" expose envy more than they offer honest assessment.

Guarding Your Heart Is Spiritual Warfare

It is warfare where you take advantage of the word as a weapon, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and the virtue of discipline and restraint, to keep far from you all that can corrupt your heart.

Guard Your Heart Against

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1. The lust of the eyes and of the flesh

   Train your eyes to see without letting it take root in your heart. A phone that once thrilled you can look like a poor man's phone the moment a newer model appears. Fasting is not only about food; fasting from screens and things you constantly look at trains your body to see and still restrain itself.

2. Pride, in all its forms

   Whether the pride of life, empty boasting, or vain glory.

3. Offense and uncontrolled anger

   Matthew 11:6

4. Unhealthy comparison and competitive jealousy

   When the crowd sang that David had killed ten thousand to Saul's thousand, Saul turned on David instead of celebrating him. Whoever is higher should reach down first; it costs the one on top nothing, and it is an investment in your own future, since those you honor on the way up remember it when they rise.

5. Self-centeredness and the overestimation of self

   There is a fine line between confidence and self-flattery that crosses into overconfidence and self-deception. A text that says "you're the only preacher who makes sense to me" can flatter a heart into believing it alone is worth hearing.

6. Unhealthy forms of entitlement

   Much of what we criticize in another person's wealth or lifestyle is envy wearing the costume of principle, whether it is a prophecy of curses upon wealthy men or a complaint over someone else's private jet.

7. Insecurity and low self-esteem

8. Wickedness and the spirit of revenge

   Vengeance belongs to God; leave the people who wrong you to reap what they have sown. People will privately question whether you deserve your position; leave that judgment, and any revenge, to him.

9. Hate and unforgiveness

How to Protect Your Heart

1. Always remember you are a child of God

2. Guard your eye and ear gates

   These are the principal gates that usher ideas and information into your heart.

3. Watch your association

   Love everyone, but proximity creates influence; some relationships are best loved from afar.

4. Feed on the word of God and word-compliant resources

   Philippians 4:8

5. Invest in prayer, particularly praying in the spirit

   Intercession builds the love of God in your heart for people; it is hard to stay bitter toward those you carry in prayer. Stephen prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," while being stoned, the mark of a true intercessor. When people doubt or blackmail you, the answer is not to defend yourself but to run to his presence: leave me at the altar with my father.

6. Practice word-based confessions and declarations

   Declarations like "I may not see the rain, I may not see the wind, yet my valley shall be filled with water" speak faith over doubt in the midst of pain.

7. Practice periodic retreats

   A timeout where you shut away from normal activities to stay with God for renewal.

8. Be a person of vision and diligence

   Idleness enhances the corruption of the heart.

9. Be a peacemaker

   Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18, Acts 24:16. Keep a conscience void of offense toward God and men. Test every motive by consistently asking yourself why.

What It Means to Be Pure in Heart

1. A heart that loves the Lord above all else and shows deep reverence for him
2. A heart that truly means well and desires the best for people, without guile
3. A heart that is ever open to divine scrutiny and vetting
4. A heart that is unashamedly repentant and willing to change

• Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.
• Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
• Restore unto me the joy of your salvation.
• Preserve my honor and glory, not for self-advancement, but for your name's sake.
• Lord, grant us mercy over every vulnerability and every weight that easily besets us.