Title: The Abundance of the Heart
Scripture Reading; Proverbs 2:1-12
‘My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things.’
Billy spoke out of the abundance of his heart.
Matthew 12:34 says, ‘out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks’
Luke 6:45 says, ‘A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of his evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaketh.
Matthew 15:11 Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, Listen and understand. A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.’
Genesis 6:5 ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’
This scripture emphasizes the development of evil in the heart of mankind as a result of the thought life. I call this evil thought life, evil intent. And sin became widespread in the human population as a result of their thought life.
- Store up God’s word in your heart.
Proverbs 2:1-2 says, ‘My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding.’
God’s promise to Abraham comes with a condition, ‘walk with me and be blameless. To be blameless is to stop sinning. To be blameless is also not to have an evil thought life. How? Store up God’s word in your heart.
Firstly, verse 1 says you need to store up God’s words within you. Verse 2 says you need to listen and apply. Verse 3 says you need to call out and verse 4 says you need to search
The Book of proverbs is not a haphazard book. It tells a story, a connected story. It is the challenge given to a young man that he be a wise young man.
Proverb 2:2, ‘Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.’
You cannot learn the Word of God by getting in a pious frame of mind and then reading a few verses of Scripture. The way to get it is to lay it up, to incline your ear, to apply your heart, to cry after it, to lift up your voice, to seek it as silver, to search for it as if it were a hidden treasure. When you go at it like that, you will learn something. You will understand what is the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.’
Secondly what does God promise you if you do this? You will find the knowledge of God. This knowledge is actually wisdom.
He promises that God will keep his eye on you and protect you and guard you. God not only gives wisdom in His word; He actively works to defend, guard and preserve those who walk in His ways.
Adam Clarke says, ‘He who is taught of God understands the whole law of justice, mercy, righteousness, and truth. God has written this on his heart. On the other hand He who understands these things by books only is never likely to practice or profit by them.’
- Go on being filled with the Holy Spirit
Matthew 12:18-21 says, ‘Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.’
I know that this verse has reference to Jesus but It is also meant for you. Jesus has said that greater things shall we do if you have faith.
You cannot change your thought patterns on your own. You need the help of the Holy Spirit – filling your heart with His love and good fruit. You have to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.
John 7:37-38 ‘In the last day (a reference to our day), that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’
- Wrestle with God in prayer
If you tell me that you are experiencing suffering right now, meekly I will reply, ‘Welcome to the Real World.’Jesus said in this world you shall have tribulation.
He was a man subject to like passion as we are. Elijah was also a person that had depression. The story of Charles Spurgeon just told me that I am not alone in this suffering.
My bible tells me that Elijah prayed earnestly. Charles Spurgeon prayed earnestly in those long walks. I love the word ‘earnestly’. It means that they wrestled in prayer.
Paul also prayed earnestly the God will remove the thorn in his flesh. God did not.
Jackie Pullinger says she never trust anyone who doesn’t walk with a limp.
It is often through the difficulties, disappointments and struggles that our hearts are changed. We will only see a transformation in our lives after we wrestled with God in prayer. Your attitude will totally change. It is only after the victory that is achieved in prayer that everything will fall into place.
- Know that God loves you
Proverbs 2:1 ‘My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding.’
Implied in this verse is the love of God. He treated you as his son. There is a pleading and a care and concern all wrapped up in this one verse. You have to know that God loves you
Perhaps seated among us this morning, are many who struggle to fill your heart with the word of God. You are struggling to do your devo, much less pray in the Spirit and engage in spiritual warfare. As such, you feel your failure to all these things means that God does not love you. Yes, you may quip in cliché “God loves me” but deep down, you doubt that God really really loves you. And so you subtract the intensity and Genuity of God’s love for you. By doing so, your heart is left with a vacuum. A vacuumed heart is not a heart of abundance but a heart of emptiness. How do we fill our heart with abundance again? Our human effort to fill it with spiritual resources like my points above, have failed. If this is you today, then let me direct your gaze away from your failed effort to what Christ has done on the cross. He came to this world with an abundant heart of love and wisdom for mankind. His heart was so full of love for his disciples and the hurting world. He poured his heart out for all. He spoke out of the abundance of his heart with wisdom and compassion. But instead of receiving him and appreciating him, evil men became incensed by his wise words; agitated by his miracles; discredited all his divine power of deliverance and healing as coming from Baalzebub. So they crucified him on the cross. All his disciples abandoned him. One even denied him three times. Jesus’s heart was so broken. He bled his whole heart out for us, with no reservation so that He can fill us up fully. But you have to see how empty and bankrupt we are inside so that we can be driven to the full love of God, achieved for us by the broken and emptying heart of Christ. Christ emptied his heart for us at the cross so that today our heart can abundantly be filled with His love. So much of Christ’s riches like wisdom, insight, justice, equity and protection of God are waiting to be poured into your heart. To the degree you hunger for God’s abundance, to that degree will you be filled. To the degree you see how Christ has emptied all his heart for you through the pouring of his only life for you, to that degree will you banish all other love except the love of God in your heart.
