August 10th, 2018

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Heart

Friday, August 10th, 2018

Someone has said, “A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.”

The two characters in the movie Chariots of Fire were Eric Liddell and Harold Abram. Both were passionate about running, but in different ways. Abram runs in order to prove something; he is a man whose life is motivated by ought, by duty, by law. Liddell runs because as he says, “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.” There was a young lady here who was feeling a lot of pressure when she was running. It was taking the fun out of it for her. I saddled up to her before a race and told her the story of Liddell. Then I looked at her and said, “Run well and feel God’s pleasure.”

You see…it is true what Liddell says. When asked where his power comes from to see the race to the end, he simply said, “It comes from within.”

One of the most familiar verses in Proverbs is 4:23: “Keep your heart will all vigilance (diligence), for from it flow the springs of life.” My purpose this Sunday is to probe what that verse means, but in particular the whole idea of what is the heart? In this sermon Proverbs will go from theorizing to probing. Very pointed. Very convicting. Perhaps C.S.Lewis says it best: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slime because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Your prayers would be much appreciated.