In his sermon 'Keeping the Heart: The Fall of Solomon,' Paul Carrington emphasizes the importance of guarding one's heart as instructed in Proverbs 4:23, 'Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.' Carrington examines the life of Solomon, the wisest king, who despite his divine wisdom and accomplishments, failed to keep his heart, leading to disastrous consequences. Solomon's marriage to foreign women, particularly Pharaoh's daughter, is highlighted as a key factor in his spiritual decline. The sermon underscores that Solomon's downfall was gradual, a result of living a compartmentalized life where he operated on two planes, allowing sin to infiltrate slowly. Carrington discusses the concept of 'heart religion,' a theme consistent throughout the Bible, from the patriarchs to the prophets, and into the New Testament. He warns against the dangers of having a divided heart and stresses that the heart is the command center of the soul, susceptible to deception and attack by the adversary. The sermon concludes by urging Christians to rely on God's help to guard their hearts, drawing a contrast between Solomon and Jesus, who is the ultimate example of a heart entirely devoted to God.

Well, if you would please take out your copies of the Word of God and open with me to the fourth chapter of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 4, and if you can find verse 23. We're going to be reading that single verse. It's a joy to be able to stand before you here this afternoon and we'll pray in a second, but grateful for the hand of God in our lives as active working. I'm also grateful, I think the young people are going through this book together with Scott Brown and Deborah. And so we're going to be talking about this verse keeping the heart.

So if you have it, read it with me. It says in verse 23, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. Let's pray. Oh Father, we come before you here this afternoon and we thank you so much for your mercy, your kindness, your love toward us. Lord, we are so glad we're recipients of this grace that you've given and Lord, we just pray now that you would profit us by your word.

Lord, we pray that you would change us by it and help us to live for you, Lord, to love you more and to walk in your ways to cherish just what's been accomplished for us in Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to keep our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, amen, amen. Keep your heart with all diligence it says here for out of its spring the issues of life and and really what that what that means another way to say that is that above all things that you are to guard, you are to guard your heart. That's really what what that means.

And way back in the day, probably about 15, 16 years ago, there was a preacher that I would listen to very regularly and every so often he would mention a Puritan and I think it might have been the very first book, the Puritan book that I ever read. It was written by a man named John Flavel and the title of that book was On Keeping the Heart. And I recall reading it and being amazed that a man was writing this 300 plus years ago. It was almost as though he was writing for us today so many of the same challenges that we face and that men and women experience on a daily basis were lodged in the pages of that book. And you know, coming back from the mission field, I found the dominant theme of my life here to be right in this verse.

You know, We've lived in places all over the world where there's lions, there's malaria, there's dangerous men, there's demonic religions. And in some of these places the lines are much more clearly drawn. You know where you stand. You're on this side or you're on that side. And oftentimes what happens when you're living in some of these places is that you live with a heightened sense of, I would call it situational awareness.

You know when you walk into a place you know who's around, who's behind you as you're driving on the road. You have this level of just being situationally aware because things could go wrong in a moment. But coming back here and talking to different people, a brother might ask me, you know, how are you doing settling back into the US? And you know, I'd say, you know, I'm getting used to civilian life. And I found myself saying that is totally wrong thinking to say that somehow to come back and live.

In fact I would say that there's perhaps a thousand more snares here than there might be in some of these other places where the lines are so clearly drawn. And I want to ask you if you can relate to the words of this hymn writer, we all know him by John Newton who wrote amazing grace. Imagine he's written amazing grace because he can't get over the grace of God, but at the same time as he aged in his years and decades of walking with the Lord, look what he says about himself as he got older. He says, my heart is like a country but half subdued, where all things are in an unsettled state and mutinies and insurrections are daily happening. I hope I hate the rebels that disturb the king's peace.

I'm glad when I can point them out, lay hold of them and bring them to him for justice. But they have many lurking holes, and sometimes they come disguised like friends, so that I do not know them till their works discover them to me. And so my prayer as I've tried to settle back here is, Oh Lord, keep my heart, keep my heart, and then help me to keep my heart with greater diligence. So all I'm doing today is really just inviting you to come along with me. I'm not speaking as someone who's conquered and has kept his heart, but someone who desires to keep his heart with a greater diligence.

And what I want to do today is really just invite you to consider anew the idea of heart religion. Really think about that with me because here what we have in this little parable, if you will, put forward is this picture of a fountain from which everything else in our life flows out of that. And so to help us over the next little while, so every time I have an opportunity to preach, I'm gonna be staying inside the bubble of this one verse. Keep the heart with all diligence. But what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at different people in the Bible.

Today we're gonna start with a bad or a negative example and we'll see where we go from here. We want to look at these portraits, these different portraits of men and women who have been laid out for us in Scripture. The Bible says that whatever was written beforehand was written for our learning And so what can we learn from these different ones to illustrate this verse that we have before us? This verse that talks about a life of godliness. How can we be profited?

How can we be warned? How can we be encouraged to maintain our love for our God. And so before we get into our first portrait, what I thought might be helpful for us to do is really take a look at what the entire scope and span of scripture has to say about this. And not only look at what scripture has to say, but I want you to consider something. What was it that persuaded a man like John Flavel 300 plus years ago to write on keeping the heart?

You know, there's one of his chapters in that book and it is titled Why Christians Should Make This The Great Business of Their Lives. This is the title of his chapter. And so, as we look at the different scriptures, what I want you to really think about is this, our religion, if nothing else, is a heart religion, isn't it? It's not a series of just transactions. It's not even a series of do's and don'ts.

It's the true and living God, he's after something much much more than that. He's after something much deeper. And that one word that we find in Scripture is he's after worship. And that's why you remember the Lord Jesus when when he was meeting with that woman at the well, he uncovers the Father's mission in sending his son. He says, the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

And it says this, for the Father is seeking such to worship him." So what is worship? Well, worship is this attitude of the heart and that is what God is primarily aiming at and seeking after. And as we go right from Genesis to Revelation, we find this concept of keeping the heart right there. When we go back all the way to Genesis and we look at the patriarchs, one of the most beautiful descriptions is actually described in Hebrews chapter 11. But it says about Jacob, by faith Jacob, when he was dying, he blessed each of his, each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

You see this, this picture, hardly anything else in this man's body was functioning. He was crippled, he was aged, he was even blind, he was hunched over, leaning on this staff. But it says that he worshipped. See, this heart premise is right there all the way through. And then you go to another old or ancient book.

In the Bible you have the book of Job. And what is Job other than it's an entire book premised on the idea of keeping the heart? Do you remember what the devil's wager was to God? To put it in my own words, he only serves you. Why?

Because of what you gave him, not because he loves you. It was premised on the heart and after untold loss, stuff that we can't even begin to comprehend, 42 chapters of difficulty. It was heart religion that was finally revealed. We know that Job loved God even as he was there clinging to the wreckage of his life, as his head would bob below the surface, he would come up and one of the most beautiful scriptures, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. He loved his God and by grace he was able to keep his heart.

And you go down the line, It's the plea of the psalmist, isn't it? You can read how he says, my heart and my flesh cry out to the living God. And what was Ezra's great aim in leading the children of Israel, those pilgrims, back to the promised land? He wrote in one of the chapters that God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. You go to Nehemiah's ambition and his one great aim when he finished the very last words of Nehemiah, oh God, remember me for good.

His heart, he wanted to please and to serve his God. And if you read the prophets, you can start in Isaiah and go all the way down to Malachi. And you can't really escape the summary lamentation that every single one of these prophets speaks about. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for a reason, but Isaiah says it like this, these people, they draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from me." But not before the end of the prophets we have that beautiful promise laid out in Jeremiah in the 31st chapter where he talks about the new covenant and again we see the matter of the heart laid out it says behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah where where is this covenant written it says on their hearts And so hopefully you begin to see everywhere you look in the Old Testament, it's really about heart religion. And then you have a new day finally dawning with the New Testament, And who else spoke of the heart more than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

When he comes onto the scene and he begins with the most powerful, most beautiful sermon ever to be preached in history, the Sermon on the Mount, he opens it up with matters of the heart, blessed are the poor in spirit. It's so wonderful. And then when he was asked about the law, what is the greatest commandment, he summarizes the whole law with matters of love, with matters of the heart. Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, and the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so over and over you see this, But not only do you see this on the positive side, what was the thing that the Lord most greatly attacked in the Pharisees?

It was their heartlessness, wasn't it? They were able to go around and go about their religious duties, but heartless towards God and heartless towards their fellow men. If you go forward into the epistles you could stop and ask and you'll see so much I don't have time to get into everything but the idea the application of keeping the heart is really in all of the epistles as well you know you could see with first John do not love the world on the one side. Or Paul in Romans 12, I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God. And he talks about matters of the heart.

He tells Timothy to take heed to yourself until the doctrine. And of course, James, he speaks of that pure and undefiled religion before God. It's keeping the heart is absolutely everywhere. And this morning we were in Revelation and those seven churches, You could summarize each of those seven little excerpts for each of those churches from the church at Ephesus to the church in Laodicea. You could put over the banner of each of them, keep the heart.

What's really interesting is that keeping the heart doesn't just result in a greater strictness necessarily because the church in Ephesus, it was told that they had left their first love. They had done a lot of stuff right, they were by the book, but they had left their first love somehow. And when you look at the church in Laodicea, where worldliness had taken over, what was the Lord referring to when he rebuked them for their lukewarmness, but for the fact that their heart had become lukewarm? And so hopefully you're seeing all the way from Genesis to Revelation, there's this theme that's there, keep the heart with all diligence. Above all things that you guard, guard the heart, because from it flow the issues of life.

And so what happens is you see this little verse in Proverbs and suddenly it becomes an ocean. It takes all of Scripture all right across the board and you can see why Flavell said this, why Christians should make this, keeping the heart the great business of their lives. And so just for a moment if we even leave the the pages of scripture and then you come into into more recent times And you look at true saints those that we we look to and we admire You look at the heart and the core of the religion and there was this desire to be pleasing unto God. We read a quote from John Bunyan, but I think the thing that they all had in common, the thing that they knew was that the heart is the command center of the soul. If that is right, everything else will be right.

But if that goes astray or is wrong, everything else is wrong. And so they were very careful about the condition of the heart. They also knew something else, that the heart is the chief target of our adversary. If he can get us to a point where we're going just through the motions and doing things heartlessly, then there's great victory. You know, John Flavel, he opens up his book on keeping the heart with these words.

He says, the greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of our religion. Here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate to heaven a straight gate. And so I just want to ask you, do you see the centrality of this verse here that we have before us? Well, I want to be very clear at the outset.

If you're not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, no amount of keeping the heart is going to help you. The worst thing you can do as an unbeliever after hearing this sermon is to plan to go and renovate your heart and to shift the furniture around as you would put it in the house, in the life that you're currently living, in your soul. You know, when you look at Pilgrim's Progress and Christian was taken into the interpreter's house, one of the scenes that he shares is this. He said, then he took him by the hand and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust because it was never swept, the witch, after he had reviewed it a little while, the interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about that Christian had almost therewith been choked.

And that's really the best you can do as an unbeliever. You can sweep, but it's not going to change. What you need most of all is a new heart. You need to be born again. And Christ alone can give you this.

This is the most beautiful thing about our religion, isn't it? Other religions, you can just change things around a little bit, but ours is entirely dependent on the mercy of God. And so I say to you, repent and believe the gospel. It's the most beautiful thing that can happen. But to the Christian, the very fact that there's a command here in Proverbs chapter 4, keep the heart.

Above all things that you keep, keep the heart. The very fact that there is a command, it shows you the instability of our souls, doesn't it? The fact that we're told to do something tells you something about our hearts and what they're prone to do as we sing, prone to wander, oh Lord, I feel it. And all of us who are naming the name of Christ, We've been called to a life of discipleship. And what is at the heart of discipleship?

It's this idea of keeping your heart. Because out of that will flow absolutely everything else. And of course We know this, we must be kept by God if we're going to keep our hearts. Jesus said that without me you can do nothing, but the two don't have to come into conflict at all. And so the first portrait here that we're going to take a look at is in 1 Kings.

We're going to look at the life of the man who penned these words. If you open up to 1 Kings chapter 1, Solomon, we're going to be examining his life. And as I said earlier, what I hope to do is not really leave the bubble of this one verse that's before us. Keep that in your mind as we're looking at Solomon's life. It's all within the realm of Proverbs 4 verse 23.

And consider yourself as we're going through this. There's something here that I think is so important for every one of us here. And so chapter 1, we don't have time to go through all of the verses, but in chapter one, after an attempted coup by one of Solomon's brothers, a deathly sick David appoints Solomon as king. You can read it in verse 38. It says, and took him to Gihon.

Then Zadok the priest took a horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn and all the people said, long live King Solomon. And all the people went up after him. And the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy so that the earth seemed to split with their sound. You could imagine that.

And then if you just look over a few verses to chapter 2 verse 1, from this public scene we're taken into this private scene. And these are really the last words of the great King David and look what he says in verse 1 it says now the days of David drew near that he should die and he charged Solomon his son saying I go the way of all the earth Be strong therefore and prove yourself a man and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies. As it is written in the law of Moses that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn that the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke concerning me saying if your sons take heed to their way to walk before me in truth "'with all their heart and with all their soul, ' he said. "'You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'" And so here we are, what a beginning. He has the sanction of the king.

He has the support of the high priest. He has the support of the prophet, Nathan. He has the support of Baniah, who is the captain of the guard. But we find a fatal error. If you flip over to chapter 3 verse 1.

And this is at the very beginning of a 40-year reign. Think about that for a second. And it seems so subtle, like most things are at first. It doesn't seem very harmful. You know, you could justify the activity for political causes and so on, but it says right there in verse 1, now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter.

Now think about this for a second. We never learn her name. In fact, she's only mentioned twice more, and it's only in passing, before we finally get to Chapter 11. But her ministry in the life of her husband will produce more fruit than everything else that he accomplishes, which we're going to look at in a moment. Think about that.

The ministry of an unnamed, relatively unknown, almost unmentioned woman with perhaps the greatest king after King David, maybe even some would say greater, we'll see what she does and what she is able to accomplish in his life. And so there's a warning for us all. But life continues as it often does, doesn't it? Life continues and not only does Solomon have the sanction of David and Zadok, of Nathan and Baniah, but We all know the story later on in the same chapter, in fact. We remember that story of Solomon where he has the vision of the Lord and, you know, the Lord asks him, ask of me whatever you will, and Solomon asks for wisdom.

And God is, it says, it says in verse 10 of chapter 3, the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing and God of course we know what happened he gave him wisdom but he said I'll also give you riches and honor and so on but he's just warming up you have the sanction of God of your father the king of these different men the priest of the prophet and of the captain of the guard. The people are so happy. They split the earth with the sound of praise. And then of course we get to the point in chapter three where he startles the court. Do you remember the story of the two harlots that brought the baby to him?

And he exercises the great wisdom that he was given by God and everyone is left covering their mouths with wonder at the wisdom of Solomon. And word begins to spread not only in Israel, but word gets out and it goes to all of the nations round about him. It goes on to say in that same in chapter 4 how he spoke 3, 000 Proverbs and his songs were 1, 005. And he spoke of trees from the cedar tree of Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish.

We know him as the author of Proverbs, we know him as the author of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. It goes on to also talk about his economic prosperity. He put in such a system, it says that in the days of Solomon, silver was like stones. You know, kids, you'd see a lump of silver on the street and you might just kick it. Today you can buy an ounce of silver for $20, but let alone a rock of silver.

But there was such economic prosperity in his time. It says, each man sat under his vine and his fig tree all the days of Solomon. It's amazing to think this was unlike any other time. Even David's time, he was fighting wars, he was on the run, but this is unbelievable. And that's not all.

Now he embarks on his greatest project. The greatest project, probably one of the most memorable. He builds the temple and all of its furnishings. In chapter 8, What heart was displayed at the time of the dedication of the temple? Do you remember that?

It says here, I don't have time to get into all the verses and so on, but it says this, but will God indeed dwell on earth? This is Solomon asking Humbly, I built this temple, but will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple which I have built. And so God is honored.

It's one of the finest prayers that you can ever read on the pages of Scripture. And you see the amazing offering, maybe the greatest offering of rams and goats and sheep and bulls and everything else that's ever been done in history. In chapter 9, we remember he appeared to Solomon in the earlier part of the book, but he appears to Solomon again, the Lord does, the second time. How many times does that happen throughout Scripture? And then finally, chapter 10, Who could forget the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who the Lord Jesus said he came, she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

It's just astounding. And so we've covered in five or six minutes a 40-year life, one of the greatest lives ever lived, one of the most greatest accomplishments, you can hardly find another man that parallels King Solomon, but something happens. It's almost as though you're reading another man when you come to chapter 11. And I'm going to read this to you, and you can follow along. In chapter 11 of the same book, First Kings, it says this, But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh.

Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after other gods.' Solomon clung to these in love and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods. And his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord as he did as his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chimosh, the abomination of Moab on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Malik, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods." And you're left with this chapter after everything we've just gone through. How can we account for this total implosion? It's astounding.

Was there ever a better beginning? A more qualified resume? He was a man that was approved by all of the authorities of Israel. He was given a blank check by God. You remember the first dream?

Ask of me whatever you will. He was full of wisdom. We heard about the golden age of Israel economically, geopolitically. It was prospering in his hand. He's the author of three books of Scripture.

Probably one of the most in the Old Testament, authored more books than most anyone else. He's a scientist, a psalmist. He's a builder of God's house. In fact, it took seven years to build the house and because of his focus on holiness, there wasn't even a sound of a tool at the building site. So careful was he.

History's most generous offering to God was offered at the dedication. Not one, but two visions from God. He's the host of dignitaries and emissaries the world over, and yet we read chapter 11. We were, A couple of us the other day were driving and we were debating, was this man saved? But I think one of the brothers brought up a good point.

Would God have an unredeemed, unsaved man author three books of the Bible? Perhaps Ecclesiastes was written in those waning days where he came to the conclusion, let us hear the whole conclusion of the matter. What is man's all but to serve God and to keep his commandments. So I believe he was a saved man, but what an implosion. And our verse, our single little verse, remember I said we're not leaving the bubble of our verse.

Keep the heart. What was Solomon's reason for implosion? He failed to do the thing that he told his son to do in chapter four. He didn't keep his heart with all diligence. It's written for us right here and the consequences were absolutely catastrophic.

He was somehow, and this is what I wanted to get to, he was somehow able to compartmentalize his life and live on two planes. And this is the danger that all of us can fall into. We see not only in Solomon's life, but you can look any direction, five years ago, 10 years ago, 50, you can find examples of men and women who were somehow able to live lives on two planes. And you could imagine that after a day in court or maybe after a day of composing a psalm or looking at the blueprints of the temple, he made his way home, and he laid his head on his Egyptian wife's lap. And slowly but surely, she poisoned the fountain.

There was never a day, you can never look at Solomon's life and say on October 25th or June 2nd that he fell. That's not how it happens. It was this steady dripping, wasn't it? And in the Middle East where we were, there's an actual idiom where they say drop by drop, a lake is formed. And it applies, I think, to Solomon.

See, men fall, when I say men, men and women, fall by degrees. See a lot of times we try to envision, I don't know what I would do if they put a gun to my head and asked me to deny the Lord, but that's not how men fall. Men fall and women fall by degrees. It's the little things we heard this morning. What church was it?

Tyatira. It's the little allowances and the tolerances. He had one wife, but how did one become a thousand? It's amazing. When did it happen?

Little by little by little. And so Pharaoh's daughter had a 40-year ministry of destruction in this man's life. And So I just want to ask you, do you see the leavening, the multiplying effect of sin happening almost as it were below the surface while he was operating up here in chapters one to 10, she was operating down here, unknown, unseen, unmentioned in chapters one to 10. Keep the heart with all diligence. This is the great plea of John Flavel.

This is the great plea of men like Spurgeon, of men like Newton, all the way down through the ages. You can pick men even up to Martin Lloyd Jones, Al Martin, and their plea is keep the heart with all diligence. You see, this is the problem, is that Solomon had a divided heart. It says that he clung to these in love. Do you see that?

That means he was clinging to them, maybe looking to the Lord, but clinging to them in love. He made provision for them. Some of the most abominable gods of the Middle East, Ashtoreth, to go into what that involved. It would defile us to even talk about what went on. But basically Astoroth was the goddess, the Canaanite goddess of sensuality and war.

Milcom and Chimosh and of course Malek, who is still alive and well today as it were, when it comes to child sacrifice, Solomon, King Solomon, setting up in the temple precincts a place where Malek would be worshipped. You're left on, you can't even compute, but all of them were worshiped either inside the temple or within view of the temple. And of course the consequences were disastrous. And you have consequences that were personal. It says, so the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice.

His family was utterly ruined. His son was a fool, the next man to take the throne, Rehoboam. And then of course, perhaps the greatest consequences were national consequences. Do you see how sin just works its way out? And here was supposed to be the inauguration, the beginning of Israel's entrance, as it were, stable, a light to the world, the Lord's vineyard, the one place the Lord was focusing all of his energies, and all of it crumples and goes into ruin and you've got this great division of ten tribes and two tribes never again to come together and be repaired.

Disastrous consequences all because a man failed to keep the heart. And so what's the lesson? Well, I think that is the lesson. You could write again in capital letters above the life of Solomon, above all things that you guard, guard your heart. A compartmentalized life will lead us to disaster, any one of us.

And even the regenerate, I'm talking about regenerate, I'm talking about a man who is regenerated. It says in chapter 3, it says Solomon loved the Lord, you can find that there. But even a regenerate heart is easily swayed and deceived. We have to, there's an activity, that's why we have this verse here for us. And a city whose gates are left open and unguarded, your life, if it's left unguarded, if the city is left open, It's easily conquered or captured by the enemy.

So learn the lesson from Solomon to keep the heart. And ask yourself those questions, do I, do I somewhere in my life have a daughter, a Pharaoh, as it were, there in a compartment, maybe seemingly harmless. That's how sin often makes its entrance. You can look all the way through the Old Testament. Are there Canaanites?

What was the whole responsibility of Joshua and those after him but to rid the land of Canaanites. And so the question is, are you leaving and am I leaving Canaanites to happily just coexist in the land, to live undisturbed in the land of your life and in my life? It's worth asking these things because you know each of us have different vulnerabilities. My vulnerabilities are different than yours, aren't they? But the same thing is there.

Beware of living a life on those two planes. You see, this whole warning for keeping the heart, It goes for the homeschool mom as well as the high-positioned businessman. It goes for the best preacher and the most industrious deacon. The young father and mother who have just started out in their early years that are making decisions for the direction of their family. It goes for the single person who's thinking about the future.

Young people, you young people, beware of filling your heart with foolishness and coolness. And of course, you older people, there's a great lesson here to take from Solomon and well, don't let up. The adversary is not letting up. And so I just want to leave us with that. John Flavel said this, the most important business in the Christian's life is the keeping of the heart.

And one thing I think is worth mentioning, when Jesus spoke, he spoke of Solomon twice. And you know how he spoke of Solomon? He gave him the commendation about his glory, but he says, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. And I would just say, look to Jesus, all of us, because by ourself, in our own strength, what am I gonna do to keep my heart in a world against my own flesh, against the devil. Oh Lord, keep my heart and help me above all things to keep my heart with all diligence.

So let's pray together. Father, we come to you here, we acknowledge Lord our great dependence on you, we have no strength in ourselves, we ask you please to help us to learn the lessons of scripture, both of those that you've stored up for us, the good, as well as the bad, Lord, that we might Be diligent. Help us to live, to take up the armor that you've provided, and to love you with all of our hearts, O Lord. Give us great strength and help from heaven, we pray. In Jesus' mighty name, Amen.