PREACHING COMPILATION

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BIBLE TEXT
"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways." - Proverbs 4:23–26

INTRODUCTION

Why is it Important to Guard our Hearts?
When Solomon refers to guarding the heart, he really means the inner core of a person, the thoughts, feelings, desires, will, and choices that make that person who he/she is.
1. The Bible tells us that our thoughts often dictate who we become (Proverbs 23:7; 27:19). The mind of a man reflects who he really is, not simply his actions or words.
2. That is why God examines the heart of a man, not simply his outward appearance and what he appears to be (1 Samuel 16:7).

MAIN POINTS

I. Ways to Guard our Heart (In Life)
1. Keep your mouth free of perversity.
2. Let your eyes look straight ahead.
3. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet.

II. Ways to Guard our Heart (In Love)
1. Dont Pray together.
Seeking the heart of God and pouring out your heart and soul to Him through prayer is one of the most emotionally vulnerable places you will ever be. It's essentially like being spiritually naked because before God—you hide nothing emotionally.

Seek to pursue God as an individual before allowing your relationship with Him to become a trio prematurely by including your significant other. There will be a day for that unity in marriage, but it's not during the early stages of dating.

Don't go too deep too fast, because the emotional intimacy that comes with deep shared moments like this can actually pull you in far deeper than you were ever meant to go, and in the end, leave you with a broken heart—and a broken spirit.

2. Know when to open up.
When you enter into relationship, you should be at a point in your life where you are ready to be open, ready to share and ready to communicate. But there should always be limits to this kind of openness. There are times to be open and share your heart, but there are also times to withhold.

Relationships should be seen as a journey of building trust. You build a little at a time. You give a little at a time. Lay the foundations first, then begin building the house. Be real, be genuine and be honest, but never without the anchor of boundaries and the weight of wisdom.

3. Avoid talking about future commitments.
t's a problem when people commit to things far beyond the place they are at relationally. It's a problem when you commit to the future before you've actually committed to the present.

III. How Can I Be the Right One?
1. Financially Secured
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? - Luke 14:28

2. Emotionally Stable
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. - Romans 8:6-8

3. Spiritually Matured
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. - 1 Cor. 13:11

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

CONCLUSION
Guarding our hearts is not just for romance only, but it is connect with our lives and the way live. And for us to really guard our heart we must guard it in life and in love because in our heart flows everything that we say, we do, we think and we show.