March 30, 2025 | Life’s Fountain | Proverbs Part 7

Life’s Fountain: What You Store in the Heart Shapes All | Proverbs Part 7

Proverbs 4:20–27

My son, be attentive to my words;
    incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
    keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
    and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
    for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
    and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
    then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
    turn your foot away from evil. (ESV)

Isaias Viñales unpacks Proverbs 4:20–27, urging listeners to guard their hearts with vigilance because everything in life flows from the heart—thoughts, desires, words, decisions. The heart is pictured as both a reservoir and a control room—what fills it determines what flows from it. If filled with God’s wisdom, the heart becomes a spring of life. If polluted by folly, it poisons every part of life.

The call to “incline your ear” and “keep wisdom within your heart” is not merely behavioral but deeply personal. God desires not superficial change but a surrender of the true self—mind, will, and affections. Wisdom is not just a principle; it’s embodied in Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Him gives life. Isaias challenges teens and adults alike to turn from the false promises of the world and cling to Christ, the only fountain of living water.

Speech, vision, and steps are all downstream indicators of what’s stored in the heart. The passage ends with a strong exhortation: stay on the path of life by weighing every step against God’s Word. While we strive to guard our hearts, we rest in the greater truth—Christ, perfectly obedient, now keeps us by grace through faith, promising not only daily direction but eternal joy.

Transcript of Life’s Fountain: What You Store in the Heart Shapes All | Proverbs Part 7

A Word of Thanks

Wow. My heart is so full. My heart is so full. A word of thanksgiving is an order.

My wife and I moved from Jupiter, Florida, just down the road on February 26th of this year. Since then, we received nothing but love in the form of food, physical labor, money, words of life that has have built us up, prayer, hugs, laughs, and so, so, so much more. You've welcomed us not only into this church, but also into your lives and into your homes. I praise our father that I've had the privilege to see and enter into relationships with you, dear brothers and sisters. It is good to be a part of a family who loves God and has a zeal for doing good all in the name of Jesus Christ.

God has been faithful to my family and I and showing us this tender care through you Berean. So thank you. Hebrews 6:10 reads "for God is not unjust, so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do."

Opening Prayer

Allow me to pray a word of blessing over you in our time this morning.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts and continue to establish them and every good work and word. Father, I thank you so much for this morning. I thank you for the life and breath in our lungs. The fact that in your kindness, you have drawn us here this morning, Lord, to lift our gaze up and to behold your beauty in the sanctuary, to behold your marvelous glory, as we have been singing songs about Christ and Him crucified and buried and raised from the, the, the grave and exalted to your right hand and coming again.

Oh God, help us. To be filled with joy and hope and peace, this morning. I pray for your grace, Lord, for me to speak what is good and true and beautiful. And God, I pray for every heart here this morning, and I thank you for the teens that are with us here in larger numbers. God, open our hearts. Be with us that we may behold marvelous things from your word.

And I ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Introduction - Walking on the Path of Wisdom

Well, if you have your Bible with you, please turn to Proverbs chapter four, Proverbs chapter four. I thought that it would be totally fitting that I continue to preach from Proverbs since it was written to those in a similar stage of life. Uh, and we have, uh, teen Sunday here today. So I thought that it would be to totally appropriate, appropriate.

Teens hear me. If you were Solomon's sons and daughters, he would give you the same advice and instruction as you'll receive today. And for a more seasoned, experienced, uh, humans and wisdom keepers who have perhaps a little bit more gray hairs on your head, or not, remember Pastor Jed's example of wisdom being more than just a door you walk through, but a path to pursue?

That picture of our lives as a journey along the path of wisdom continues here in our passage today. To use the words of a certain author, he said this to keep this, this, the end of chapter four is to help us to keep making progress toward the high noon. So whether we're at the beginning, the middle, or end of our course, I trust that we desire to finish the Christian race well. To finish our journey well. And one of the beauties of this passage here, verses 20 through 27, is that it shows us how to do that. It helps us to finish well, and it centers on the source, the fountain or wellsprings of, of our lives, and that is the heart.

Reading Proverbs 4:20-27

Let us now read the word of the Lord together, beginning in verse 20.

My son, be attentive to my words incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart for they are life to those who find them in healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance for, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you.

Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you ponder the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil.

Illustration 1: Your Heart is a Resevoir of Purity or Pollution

Allow me to give you two illustrations, okay? That catch, the pulse of the message and show us where we're going this morning.

I want you to imagine with me a great lake. On a position high on a mountain, a great lake position, high on a mountain. Now this is a reservoir that collects fresh rainwater from above filter, filtering it and storing it. The purity or pollution of this reservoir determines the quality of every stream that flows from it, either nourishing the valley below or poisoning it.

The heart is this reservoir. It first receives gathering wisdom through the ears and the eyes. That's verse 20 through 21, allowing certain things to enter into it, but it doesn't merely store. Okay? It distributes. It gives, sending life giving or deadly streams through the mouth. Verse 24, the eyes, verse 25. The feet verses 26 through 27.

If the reservoir is filled with the wisdom of God, the streams flowing out our words, our vision, our steps will be pure. They will be pure and life giving. But if the reservoir is polluted, beloved by folly, the entire course of life downstream will suffer. Okay.

Illustration 2: Your Heart is a Control Room

Illustration number two, if that picture didn't help you. I want you to picture a control room on a massive ship. So I know we were just up in the mountains, uh, picturing this great lake, but imagine a great ship out in the middle of the ocean, okay? And it has this, uh, this, this incredible control room. The room is filled with advanced screens and radar systems gathering data from outside. Wind speed, ocean depth obstacles ahead and around the ship. The ship's crew relies on these inputs to steer safely.

But the control room, it's not just a place to gather information. Okay? It also issues commands churning the rudder, adjusting speed, setting the course. The heart functions just like this control room.

It receives wisdom through the ear and the eye again, verses 20 through 21. But it also determines the direction of our entire lives. The speaking with our mouths, 24, the fixing of our gaze in 20, uh, 25, and guiding the feet in verses 26 through 27. So a faulty control room, one filled with wrong data or desires and intentions, it's gonna send the ship into ruin, okay? But a well guarded heart. Filled with a love of Christ and his truth will steer life straight.

Give Ear to the Voice of Wisdom

Let us turn now to the words of instruction. My son, be, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart.

The saying echoes what's in most translations, the very first commandment in all the book of Proverbs. Okay? And it comes from Proverbs chapter one, verse five. Let the wise hear and increase in learning. And over and over and over again in the book of Proverbs, we are being pleaded with to pay attention, to give ear to the voice of wisdom. And if we are paying attention, the voice of wisdom, we learn to hear as the voice of love, as the voice of truth, as the voice of righteousness, as the voice that is offering us life, and therefore, as the very voice of God. As the very voice of God himself.

Now, interesting. Interestingly, the word translated in ESV that I'm, uh, reading from here, um, "incline" is the same word or term that we find in the phrase all the way in verse 27, "turn your foot away from evil."

Okay, so teens, I, I want you to hear me well. We're living in a very, very, very loud world. It is hollering, it is shouting. It is doing everything in its power to get your attention. But it is a world that speaks nothing but lies, ruin, death, and destruction.

But amid a world of death, we have another voice of wisdom that speaks. We have the very words of God and you. And you know, we have actually the very Word with a capital W, namely Jesus. And so we are to turn away from the competing voices in this world, because if there's only one who is worthy of our eyes and our ears as the ultimate focus, as the ultimate goal and prize of our lives, and it's Jesus.

And that's what the ears and the eyes represent. They represent our focus. They represent our gaze. And so continuing this picture that Jed started last week of this journey, really the book of Proverbs began last week. Of this journey. If life's a journey, then Christ himself is the destination. Okay?

Seek Wisdom, No Matter the Cost

Now, this call to lean in to incline ourselves is very good news. As we heard last week, wisdom is like a precious bride beloved, who lifts you up, who honors you as you honor, uh, as you honor her, and crowns you with grace and beauty. But wisdom doesn't come cheaply. In ancient times, as we know, a, a bride price or dowry was expected. Yet Proverbs urges us to pursue wisdom no matter the price. We are to treasure her, hold fast to her, and never, ever let her go. The NIV boldly declares in verse seven, though it costs you all you have! Though it costs you all you have.

Here's the thing. If we are Christians, we have him who is wisdom. Now that we have her, this lady wisdom, the last thing we want is for her to slip through our hands. Amen?

Why? Well, verse 22 tells us. These words are life to those who find them and healing, so all their flesh. That's why all of this demands that we wrestle with a very crucial question. Okay? It's one that cuts to the soul of our walk with God, and will shape the entire course of our lives. How do we keep lady wisdom? Or to echo the language of verse 18 from last week, how do we remain on the path that shines brighter and brighter until full day?

What Does God Want in Exchange for Wisdom?

Verse seven tells us that wisdom will cost us everything, in a sense. But what is it that we possess that the Father is putting his finger on in verses 20 through 26 and saying, give me that. I want that. And if you do, you will keep wisdom.

The answer in verse 21 and 23 is very simple and yet very profound. Yourself. Your heart. The real you, beloved. Your mind, will, and affections. God is telling us that if we care about wisdom in life, we must humbly bring ourselves to him. Without this, we cannot acquire wisdom, we cannot keep it, and we certainly cannot grow it.

After all, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that fear is not simply something external. It's something that gets down, uh, to the very core of who we really are. So what's under the spotlight here is that wisdom. It doesn't only start with this inward reality, okay, before it shapes the outward. But it must also continue to be an inward reality, since the heart is the wellspring of life.

Wisdom in life will not be guarded without a fool and honest surrender of ourselves. One commentator, put it this way, the Father? He's not interested in a superficial response from his Son, some kind of behavior modification. His desire is that his child be wise at his very core. That is what we hear in the command. Keep them within your heart.

And I love the the picture of God. When God wrote the 10 Commandments on the mountain, he wrote it with his own finger on tablets of stone, right? Wisdom must be written on our hearts. Wisdom must be written on our hearts. So what's the price? The price is this. We must get the gospel and God's wisdom down deep into our hearts.

How Are We Doing on the Path of Wisdom?

So let's have a moment of honesty, okay? And ask, how are we doing with this church? Are we making every effort. Spending ti the time necessary to write God's steadfast love and faithfulness on the tablets of our hearts, as we heard several weeks ago?

Because those are the kinds of sayings in verse 21 that he has in mind when he says, keep them within your heart. It's everything that he's been going through in Proverbs. Do we really believe God when he says they are life to those who find them? It's important to ask this question because faith comes by hearing, and hearing of the word of Christ. Romans 10:17. Okay? Therefore, we should be giving ourselves to the reading of God's word, to to, to try to memorize God's word and meditate upon it.

And that can be a difficult thing. And I'm so glad that Jed brought this out last week. Sometimes it begins with just the smallest of steps. That may sound like a daunting task for some of you. Read your Bible, make more time, carve out another a place in your life, another area in your life where, where you're gonna give yourself to seeking God essentially in His word.

That can be hard to do, and I understand that. But here's the thing, there's a promise of life. It's not without its reward and blessing. Okay? And as we do that, we don't want to just be checking off a box. As we give ourselves, especially those who are, are maybe have a regular habit of scripture reading, of meditation or even memorization. Some of you I heard can almost, uh, uh, recount whole books of the Bible. That is something glorious to aspire to. As we do that though, we have to let it soak deep, deep, deep down within. Okay? Because if not, we may find ourselves beginning to see wisdom slip, slip away as it did with Solomon. Remember that we heard that wisdom is not just a door, but a path, and we have to keep on the journey.

So my prayer has been for you guys that that Christ's love will compel you and compel us to treasure his word down in the deepest steps of our souls.

Fill Your Heart with God's Wisdom, So It Can Be a Spring of Life

Now. This brings us to verse 23, right? The, the primary verse, the, the pillar on which everything's supported here, and it reads, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life.

I want you to think back to the first illustration of, of the great lake on top of the mountain. All right? The heart is meant to be full with fresh water, not empty or poison. Your mind is to be filled with the word of God so that it's water to your soul, not dry or polluted. God wants us to have life. That's good news.

We are not meant to live lifeless, passionless. Our desires and imaginations are meant to be strengthened by God's life-giving water so that we can desire and imagine for the glory of God in Christ. As one man put it, we're meant to be alive, going for it with our hearts full of Christ and we can have that.

Jesus said in John chapter 10:10, which I love that it was read earlier, Jed and I did not plan this. "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

How about this one? "If anyone thirsts, let 'em come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said out of his hearts, will flow rivers of living water," John 7:37 through 38.

Are you thirsty this morning? Are you thirsty? Bear our rivers of living water that Jesus Christ is offering you right here and right now. And listen. Dear Christians, continue to bring your heart to Christ. Continue to confess to him that without him you're dry. And even worse, you're polluted. Continue to resist the entries of lies and death into your heart. Continue to deal honestly with what is going on on the inside. For how can you keep your heart if you lack self-awareness and honesty with God and others? Want you to think about that. In order to keep your heart, you have to know it and you have to be honest with God about it.

One man said, we will not lose our way on the journey of life, if we will keep coming to Jesus and drinking in his acceptance, his forgiveness, his promises, his love. Everything will flow out from deep in there.

Don't Replace Christ the Fountain with Broken Wells

Yeah, it's Teen Sunday, so I hope you're okay with me continuing to address the teens. Teens, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Discord, Snapchat. I even had to Google some of these, all the other media platforms are lying to you every day. They tell you that in order to be happy, you need to build your designer life. They make many feel worse, worthless if they lack popularity on these platforms. Sadly, is contributed to loneliness and social anxiety, isolation, depression, body image concerns, addictions, cyber bullying, decreased sleep quality, reduced productivity, and a sickening amount of exposure to negative content.

Don't ever, I want you to, can I have your eyes? Teens, don't ever trade Jesus, the fountain of living water, for broken wells that can never satisfy you. Your soul cannot be satisfied with that for which it was never made. I want you to know that. Your soul can never be satisfied for that it was never made.

Come to Christ, receive his life, and if you have, tell him. You can, you can pray to him this way: nothing can satisfy me like you can. No one can give me life like you can. Ask him, Lord, keep my heart full of your living water that all my springs would be pure.

Because we can't do this in our own strength. I know, you know that. We can't do this in our own strength. As, as we just saying earlier. Lord, I depend on you. Lord, I depend on you. You are the well that never runs dry.

You Send Out What Is in Your Heart

Okay? I want you to look, uh, with me at the latter half of the verse.

So the reason we keep our heart here is, is because it sends, remember life, either life giving or deadly streams through the mouth, eyes, and the feet and so on. So from the heart flow, the springs of life, other versions, okay? Denote this as a, as the source of life. The CSV puts it teaching us the lesson. The NIV put, uh, the NIV puts it, that everything we do flows from it.

So think of my second illustration, the one of the ship, the control room. It's what turns the rudder. It's what adjusts the speed. It's what sets the course. This verse and what follows in the remainder of these verses, it anticipates what Christ would come and teach us many, many years later in the gospels.

Listen to these words from Matthew 12:33 through 34. "Either make the tree good, and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit will be bad. For a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil, for the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart." Or how about Matthew 15:18 through 19, "but what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. This defiles a person, for from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimony, slander." There's also Luke 6:45. Jesus had a lot to say about this. "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good. And the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil for his mouth, uh, for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." What a verse.

So that's why in Proverbs chapter four here, right after he just got about, uh, the need for us to keep our hearts, he, uh, mentions, uh, the mouth and the way that we use our speech to put away from you crooked speech there in verse 24. So how we use our mouth reveals our hearts.

And through the book of Proverbs, the kind of speech he's talking about, slander, gossip, lies the kind of speech that tears down rather than builds up, the kind of speech that may entice someone off the path of wisdom, and of life, and of righteousness. And, and he could be saying when he says, you know, put these things away that he's concerned about the son himself being the one who's involved in that kind of speak and talking. Or he could be saying, as he sells el elsewhere, stay away from people who, who, who are like that. Okay?

Purposely Distance Yourself from Evil

Now, one, one of the things that I thought was quite striking, the ESV catches it, the Hebrew emphasizes it, is the distance we're to, to maintain from perverted speech.

Okay. Back when I was in high school. This, this is what made me think of, it was thought to be cool to ride the fence. I don't know if you guys know what I'm talking about. The best way I can explain it is by another, another illustration. We would try to get as close as we could to sin right up to the edge of sin without falling headlong to our destruction. I mean, that that's, it was just cool. As close as you can get. Okay? We, we, we try to straddle the fence as close as you can get without falling.

But here's what I never understood then, and by God's grace, I, and really only by God's grace, I understand now. While I may not have fallen off the cliff, there were a whole bunch of pits, snares, and holes on the way there.

Okay? And so what Satan constantly tries to, uh, uh, deceive us about is, "well, hey, at least you're not like that guy. At least your marriage is not like that marriage. At at least your children are li like the, this other couple's children." And so on and so forth.

You see, he tries to say, "Hey, look, you didn't fall off the cliff." but all the while you're already ensnared. You may have not fallen off the cliff, but you're in a pit that was very close to the edge.

And so he's saying, put that away. And you know what? That principle, it really applies to more than just speech, doesn't it? It really applies to more than just speech. And if you're 40, 50, or 60, we all know that we can use our mouths in ways that we did, that, that are similar to, to how teens use their mouths.

We can gossip. We can talk bad about people behind their back. We can spread lies even if it's just little white lies, maybe to impress others. That's just that, that's not something simply that teens struggle with. In fact, I've heard of many a 40, 50 and 60-year-old use their mouth like they were teenagers in the world. And so he's saying, put it away.

Look Forward to Jesus

Now, the flow between verses 24 and 25 is similar to Hebrews chapter 12, something else that we did not plan, Jed. He says there, lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

See, right after the father tells us to put away crooked speech, he says, let your eyes look directly forward. And here the New Testament comes along, and it teaches us, uh, that and not that we are not to simply eye helpful, practical tidbits of advice and principles. That has its place and it's important. But really as Christians, our eyes should be steadfastly fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And that's important. Remember, he's not just concerned for behavior modification. He wants his son to possess wisdom deep down at his core.

And you know what? You. People have done this. People in other religions have done this. They have sensed that their life was chaotic, that it was a mess, that it was out of order. And so they began to try to heed the voice of wisdom. Practical tidbits, you know, here and there, these principles that if they began to apply to their lives, would bring about some kind of change and renovation.

And you know what? Some of them are actually successful. I know alcoholics who got free of their alcoholism and they're atheist. I know, I know people who have been able to successfully, at least exteriorly out here on the outside, renovate their lives because, well, they began to look to practical, practical advice. And, but here's the thing, they don't have life because they're not looking to Jesus. Okay?

And so I would not want you to read this passage in Proverbs chapter four In a vacuum. The New Testament comes along and it says, fix your eyes upon Christ. Fix your eyes upon the cross. Amen.

Weigh Your Path Against God's Word

In verses 25 through 27. The analogy of that, of the path it reemerges. Okay. And, and it does so I think in vivid color. Verse 25, it informs us that we cannot afford to entertain distractions as we hike the path before us.

It's another way of saying stay focused. Verse 26 is noteworthy because ponder means to weigh, okay. That's, that's where it gets, that's where we get that term from. It means to weigh, and it evokes the image of a scale. It evokes the image of a scale. A dead minister once wrote, commenting on his passage, weigh the word of God. I want you to picture this in your mind. Weigh the word of God on one side, and your actions past, present, or planned on the other. See how they align. Be honest and careful in examining whether you, your path is right before the Lord, and whether it will lead to a good end.

I love that image. So I'm gonna take what I have been taught, what I have received from, from God in his word. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna ponder, I'm gonna think this through. I'm gonna weigh out my paths, my decisions, my actions. And, and what I want is for them to align.

Now, what's really, really cool, and I love that this is here in the passage, is that as we do that, as you do that, beloved, you will see God at work in your life. You'll see him at work in every area that you willfully and carefully attempt to order according to his truth.

Do you need help in your marriage? Begin to pray and make efforts for your marriage, to measure up to the standard of God's word, what he calls our marriages to be. Do you want confidence as a parent? Perhaps as someone who's single, as a student, as a friend, someone struggling with relationships, so that you may be sure that your ways are blessed. You have, you're walking with God's protection, you're walking with a clear conscience and con with a clear conscience and with confidence in life.

So wherever the steps you take are weighed and thought through in proportion to wisdom, wherever you're doing that, listen, you may rest at ease knowing that God is already at work. The New Testament in Philippians chapter two tells us that it is God at work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

If you have a desire in aspiration to see God show up in your life where you've been weak, where you've struggled, where you've fall in time and time again. Listen, God's already at work because that does not come from a dead heart. That desire doesn't come from yourself. It comes from the Holy Spirit whose placed that desire in you.

And as you begin to wrestle with God's word and with wisdom, and as you begin to make even the slightest small steps and effort. To align your life to that, we are told here that all our ways will be sure. You can take that to the bank. You can rest at ease that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. You don't have to doubt. This is not something you need to worry about.

Simply to say, Lord, what, what have you said? Help me to receive it, to believe it and walk in it.

The Blessings of Those Who Do Not Swerve to the Right or Left

Verse 27, it closes, uh, this section here, his father speaking to his son with words, you may not know this, but it, they're taken almost directly from a passage in the Old Testament from Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 28, where God is speaking blessings to his people. Okay? And I, I, I'm not gonna read the whole passage because it's lengthy. I just want you to hear some of the blessings that that is in store to, to an Israelite who, who did not swerve to the right or to the left.

He says things like :the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. He, he says things like your field will be blessed, the wombs, that he will multiply the cattle that, that the barns would increase. The land would be prosperous. There's just so many blessings.

And that entire, so there's 14 verses by the way. And guess how the, the, the, that passage closes. It reads this way. And if you do not turn aside from any of the words-- by the way, the word turn is the same word that we have in our passage-- that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them, you will be blessed.

So hear me. Although we are not perfect in our obedience, and God knows we're not, I don't want you to fear. Do not be discouraged. Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whom we trust was perfect in his obedience. And because he was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, and he did that for us, by the way, we have such extraordinary blessings to look forward to throughout all the eternity.

Our Eternal Blessings in Christ

Now, I say this, what I'm about to say I say it with reverence. There's a sense in which the blessings promised to the obedient there in Deuteronomy 28, that do not turn to the right or to the left, they pale in comparison, okay, to the glory that we shall enjoy throughout all eternity. They just pale.

It gets better than that. What was offered to them was offered by way of perfect obedience to the law. What's offered to us, we receive by grace through faith. So let us keep our hearts beloved as the wellspring of life. Not to earn life, but because we have already received life from Jesus.

And how do we do that? By keeping our hearts full of Christ and his Spirit. He is the true fountain as we've been singing. And as we do so, we will find him blessing all of our ways, and we'll also find that our keeping, we've been, we've been commanded to keep our hearts, but we'll also find that it's really not us keeping ourselves, but God keeping us.

There's a verse from John chapter four. I have not yet shared. Verse 14. "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up to eternal life."

Closing Prayer

Pray with me. Oh God, help us to keep our hearts full of Christ and the wonder of your grace, that we may spend today, Father, and the remainder of our days here, however, however long you have us here on earth, enjoying your richest blessings, and finally to appear before you one day in glory, having all the ways established in glory, having come to the end of life's journey safely.

God, you make known to us the path of life, and in your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's where we're going Father. That's where we're heading. We have only to keep our hearts and our way. Please help us. I ask this Father in Jesus' name, amen.