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Because of this broken world we will be wrestling against the forces of evil and against the retained depravity of our flesh. This resistance takes work. It takes effort. The enemy to our discipleship is the permission to be lazy – a spiritual sluggard. 

Introduction to Proverbs: 

1. Wisdom describes God’s design for His creation
2. The key to accessing God’s design is the “fear of the Lord”
3. Proverbs are not promises, they reveal how the creation is designed to normally work
4. This series will attempt to reveal the unseen areas we’ve avoided in obeying God’s design for our lives, and label them as having missed the mark and having fallen short of God’s glory

Observation:

• Your actions are the overflow of your heart 

Conclusions: 

1. Your heart is your responsibility
2. Your heart is susceptible to sloth
3. The sin of the neglect of your heart will lead to spiritual poverty 

Application: 

1. Take responsibility of your heart
   #1 – Confess where you have failed
   #2 – Find a trusted friend to become accountable to for your unique neglect of your heart
   #3 – Give evaluation to your growth and progress
2. Get busy guarding your heart
   #1 – Fill your time with communion with God
   #2 – Strengthen and deepen your relationship with the Spirit
   #3 – Identify and uproot worldly influences
3. Make sure your words and actions are in harmony with a godly & disciplined heart

Matthew 15:10-20

“Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

2 Thessalonians 3:8-12

“We worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.”

Matthew 13:1-9

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Proverbs 4:23

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17

“Pray continually.”