GUARDING YOUR HEART

Proverbs 4:23 – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Jesus said about offense in Matthew 18:7 – Woe to the world because of ! For offenses must come but woe to the man by whom the offense comes!

Luke 17:1 records that statement in these words, it is impossible that no offenses should come

• Both passages end with woe to him through whom they do come!

1. Offense is something we all experience frequently.

• Offense comes by something someone or ourself has said or done intentionally or not.

• We also experieince being the offender whether it was unintentional or intentional.

o Woe simply means ‘grief.’

2. The word ‘offense’ literally means ‘trap stick.’ (Gk: scandalizo – to entrap or trip up)

• It is the trigger that causes a reaction of emotion, action, or motion.

• Jesus teaches us to guard our hearts by responsibly preventing it entrance into our hearts.

• Offense causes a person to begin to distrust and desert another person whom they ought to trust and obey and walk in fellowship with.

THE PROCESS OF OFFENSE: (decent into negatives; hell’s fire; alienation from others/God)

3. An offended heart stumbles in attitude, thought, and emotion by becoming annoyed or is wounded. emotionally. It’s descending order:

o Annoyance, Anger, or Wounding

Judgment of another made unfairly or unjustly

Disapproval of the other person

Hinderance preventing acknowledgment of another’s friendship or authority.

JESUS TEACHES HOW TO DEAL WITH OFFENSES - Matthew 18:6-9 (READ)

Matthew 5:29-30 – If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

4. ‘Pluck’ in Greek (exaireo) - actively tear out; to select and release;

• In other words, to get the root out in order to rescue and deliver.

• This Greek word is made from ek, which means to go to the origin of where the action or motion proceeded from.

• And haireomai meaning to exacind/remove (kernel of corn), frustrate, or cut off or down.

5. ‘Cut off’ (Greek word kopto) to chop, or specifically to ‘beat the chest in grief.’

• To ‘cast away’ (ballo) is to throw with violent or intense force; to let go of a thing without caring where it falls.

• A closer look at these words, however, give us instruction on handling that offense, or trap stick that entices us to sin.

EXAMINE YOURSELF TO IDENTIFY why THE OFFENSE has troubled you.

6. Jesus asked probing questions – (disciples) Who do men/you say that I am? (blindman) What do you want me to do for you? (Pharisees) What do you think of the Christ? (Paul) Why are you persecuting me?

• ASK youself: what do I disapprove of? (deals with your values or needs)

Why am I annoyed? (deals with your emotions)

How am I judging unfairly or unjustly? (deals with your thoughts)

How would Jesus handle this? (deals with your belief in Him & His Word)

7. TAKE INTENTIONAL ACTION to remove yourself from entrapment.

• `CAST it away by acknowledging it’s origin

• Jesus demonstrates this in Matthew 16:21-23 (READ)– ‘get behind me, Satan…’

• REBUKE with Truth (epitimao), i.e. speak value into and show honor to the person through whom the offense came by opening up an honest conversation.

o Again Jesus demonstrates this principle in Matthew 16:24-28 (READ)

• REPENT – if you are the offender; and if you have begun that descending slope towards sin, i.e. missing the mark by grabbing hold of the offense.

o Acts 24:16 – Paul: I myself always strive (train) to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

o Ps. 119:165 – Great peace have they which love Your law and nothing shall offend them.

8. FORGIVE HIM/HER - start with forgiving yourself if needed before you can forgive another.

• Prov. 18:19 – A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.

• Matt. 18:21 – Jesus: Forgive and keep on forgiving (not seven times, but 70x7 times.)

• Ps. 39:1 – I will watch what I say and make sure I do not sin (offend by leading stray, blaming, or condemning) with my tongue

• Ro. 14:13(tPt) – So stop being critical and condemning of other believers, but instead determine to never deliberately cause a brother or sister to stumble and fall becaue of your actions.

• Phil. 3:13 -14 - …forgetting (putting out of the mind) those things which are behind (things we’ve cast away from us); reach forward to things…ahead; I press toward the goal (stewarding it well) for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

IF in Guarding Your Heart THERE IS AN something HINDERING YOU,

1. Take some time to sit before the Lord quietly in your prayer closet to

• Ask the Lord to reveal the root cause of the offense – how and why it affected you.

o Pro. 17:9-10 - He who covers a transgression/an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends. Rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool.

2. Acknowledge your attitude before the Lord and ask Him to cleanse you of any wrong attitude.

• Ps. 51:10– Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. V. 7 – Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

3. Through repentance, you pluck out wrong viewpoints and cut off harmful effects of the offense so they do not continue to hinder the flow of God’s love to and through you.

4. CAST it away – and Ask the Lord if you need to open up communication with the person who offended you or whom you offended.

5. BLESS the offender by speaking well of them, seeing them through Jesus’ eyes, who loves the world and WALK in HIS LOVE.