Maybe you’re wondering today if you actually have the capacity to love another person well. Let this be a wonderful encouragement to you. The more you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, the more your capacity to love another person well will increase. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin, it sounds as if you’re saying we can actually increase the capacity of our hearts. Oh, yeah, that is wonderfully true. And you know, how many times I’ve had a conversation with someone who is really saying, I’m wanting to be loved. I want someone to really love me. And one response to that is, you know, focus your energy and your attention on growing in your own ability to love other people, because you can grow in that. And today we’re going to look at how you can grow in expanding your own capacity to love. That can happen. And the better you are able to love, the more you’re going to experience of being loved. And that’s one of the wonderful gifts of God in life. And today, there’s something very practical and something very hopeful about growing in the capacity to love. Well, let’s get straight on with the message, which is from Proverbs chapter 23. As we continue our message, the heart set right. Here’s Colin. Let me give you the simple definition of the fear of the Lord that we’ve used before. I find it very helpful. The fear of the Lord is so to love God that his frown would be your greatest dread and his smile would be your greatest delight. That’s what it’s like when you have given your heart to the Lord. You live in the fear of the Lord, his frown your greatest dread and his smile your greatest delight, and you do it all the day, Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 17. In other words, what I’m saying to you is this, very simply, that giving your heart to the Lord, what we’re being asked to do and called to do today, is your very best defense against sin. It’s your best defense. Now let me try and bring this down and earth it a little bit. Christian young person, seriously, what do you think will keep you from sliding into the drugs culture, the drink culture, the experimentation in all kinds of ways with sex that may be all around you amongst hundreds of people on a college campus? What is your best defense against being sucked into that? What do you think your best defense is? And I’m telling you, your best defense against sin is to give your heart to the Lord. Or let me put it another way, Christian in business, what is going to keep you faithful as you move from city to city and hotel to hotel, like Joseph, anonymous and often lonely? What will keep you faithful? Do you think it’s going to be common sense? Do you think it’s going to be willpower? Do you think it’s enlightened self-interest that’s going to keep you from the power of temptation? I’m telling you today, here’s your best defense as you move from city to city and hotel to hotel against all the temptations that beset you, your best defense is to give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. My son, give me your heart. Let me turn it again and put it this way, another example. Let me speak to the Christian who has been wounded. A great injustice has been done to you, you’ve been terribly disappointed, you’ve been let down. Now I’m asking you today, what is going to keep you from descending into bitterness and into self-pity and ultimately into hardness of heart? What will keep you from these temptations that assail you in the particular circumstances in which you find yourself today? What’s going to keep you? Do you think it’s going to be self-discipline that will keep you from sliding into self-pity? Do you think it’s going to be a sense of duty? Do you think it’s going to be working harder? I’ll tell you what your best defense against the sins of self-pity and hardness of heart and bitterness encroaching into you, I tell you what your best defense is against these, you give your heart to the Lord. My daughter, my son, give me your heart. Giving your heart to the Lord is ultimately the only way to guard against the reckless life that breaks all the boundaries and then leaves you with the miserable fruit of impurity and indulgence. And equally, giving your heart to the Lord is ultimately the only way that will guard you from a shriveled life that lives within the boundaries and leaves you miserable because you stayed there only out of fear and out of caution. The first, of course, is the prodigal son and the second is the elder brother. And what both need is to hear the father say, son, give me your heart. Where will your sinful heart lead you this week if you do not give it to Jesus Christ today? The only safe place for your heart, for your affections, is in the hand of the Savior who loves you and gave himself for you. My son, my daughter, give me your heart. Here’s the third thing. The first, an established relationship, my son. The second, an essential priority, your heart. And third, I want you to notice that there’s an action that’s called for in this verse. It’s an intentional response. My son, give me your heart, give. Now we saw last time that the heart is the command and control center of the life. In other words, the inclination of any heart will set the trajectory of that life. So where your heart is today is an indicator of where your life will be tomorrow. Now Woody Allen summed up where the culture today goes with this when he said famously on one occasion as a justification for an extraordinary unfaithfulness. He said, the heart wants what it wants. The heart wants what it wants. In other words, the heart controls the life and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now that’s where the world goes with this truth about the heart being the controlling center of the life. But what I want you to see in the Bible today is something very different. God says to his children, give me your heart. If you look back at verse 19, you will see that God says there, direct your heart in the way. Both of these phrases indicate some responsibility that is given in regards to your own heart. Direct your heart in the way. Here’s what you are to do with regards to your heart and here’s what you’re to do. Not only direct it in the way, but give it to me. Now please notice this very important difference. It is key to understanding at this point the big difference, the vast difference between what our culture is saying and what God is saying to us in Jesus Christ. The world says the heart controls the life and there is nothing you can do about it. The heart wants what it wants. The heart goes where it goes and you have to go with the flow of whatever you find in your own heart. That’s what the world says. But God says the heart controls the life, so give it to me. So there’s nothing you can do about it, but the heart controls the life, so give it to me. And you know if you’re a child of God, you have the ability to do this and this is exactly what you will do. My son, give me your heart. Now what will God do with your heart when you give it to him? The answer of course in the Bible is very wonderfully, he will fill it. He will fill it with peace. He will fill it with love and he will fill it with joy. Romans chapter 5, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. He fills with peace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to Jesus Christ in faith and he will go on giving you peace. Not only that, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. You’re in Christ, he will go on renewing your joy, especially as you look at all that he is and all that he has in store for you. And he will fill your heart with love. God’s love is poured out into our hearts, the apostle says, by his Holy Spirit who he has given to us. But most of all, God will fill us with himself. You give your heart to the Lord, what does he do with it? He fills it with himself. And this is the most wonderful thing that Paul prays for in Ephesians in chapter 3. You remember that you may be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts and that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. So here is something very, very wonderful. God says, now give me your heart and here’s what I’ll do, I’ll fill it. I will come and make myself present in your heart. I’ll fill you with my very self. In as much as the heart is given over to me, it will be filled and the more it is given over to me, the more it will be filled. As it is freshly given over today, it will be freshly filled. I will come and I will bring with me these wonderful gifts of peace and of love and of joy. Now friends, here we come to something very important and very practical indeed. Someone may be saying, as you’re hearing these words, now here’s the Lord and he says, give me your heart and you may say, well, wait a minute, my heart’s already been given. I’ve given my heart to my wife, my husband, my children. Well, think about this. If you are going to love another person really well, over the long term, your heart itself is going to need to be filled. So who’s going to fill it? Well you may say, well, the person I love is going to fill it. But here’s where that leaves you. It leaves you in a place of saying, well now, I will love you and I’ll be able to do that as long as you go on loving me. But if you’re no longer able to fill me up, then I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to go on filling you up and friends, that of course is the fastest route to marital and relational disaster, isn’t it? There ain’t any stability in that. So I’m saying to you today, the best way for you to be in the position where you can really love another person is to give your heart to the Lord. So that the Lord will fill your heart with his love and his peace and his joy so that you will then have something to give to someone else and be able to give it even when you’re not getting very much back in return. And maybe you’re wondering today if you actually have the capacity to love another person well. You look at your own life and you say, well, I’m wanting to be loved, but at the back of my mind I do have this question, do I actually have a deep well that’s able to love another person deeply? What actually is the capacity of what I have to give and what I have to offer? Well, I’m saying to you this, and let this be a wonderful encouragement to you, the more you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, the more your capacity to love another person well will increase. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message, The Heart Set Right, part of our series, The Father’s Wisdom. And if you ever miss one of our messages or if you want to go back and listen again, you can always do that by going online. Go to openthebible.org.uk. You can also find the messages as podcasts. Go to your favourite podcast site and search for Open the Bible UK. If you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll receive regular reminders and updates. You can also find Open the Bible on social media, on Facebook, Twitter or X, YouTube and Instagram. Just search for Open the Bible UK. When you see one of our postings, please like it, or better still, retweet or repost to all your followers. That gives them a chance to see Open the Bible and to subscribe for themselves if they want to. Back to the message now, we’re in Proverbs 23, here’s Colin. Then here’s the last thing, and I simply called it a glorious invitation because I want just to draw your attention to who it is that’s making this invitation. My son, give me your heart. This loving father, this glorious king, this sovereign Lord wants your heart and lays claim to it. Now every heart is given somewhere. If you don’t give your heart to God, you will give your heart to something or to someone else. And so the question that’s posed for us today is, who will receive the gift of your heart? On whom will you lavish your affection? You may give your heart to your work, you may give your heart to your family, you may give your heart to some cause, you may give your heart to yourself. But every heart is given somewhere and wherever you give your heart, that will have growing importance in all of your life. You know, people who don’t give their heart actually turn in on themselves, so that’s actually where the heart is given, and sometimes end up giving their hearts to despair. That’s a Bible phrase, by the way, and it’s an extraordinary phrase. It comes in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and verse 20. I turned about and gave my heart up to despair. Every heart is given somewhere, and if it’s not given somewhere else, it probably will be given here. It’s given up to despair. And the person who says this says it because, over all the toils of my labors under the sun. In other words, he’s a person who’s miserable. They look at their life, they’re not happy. They look at their work, and it’s not fulfilling. I look at my toil, I look at my life, I say, what’s the point? And I give my heart up to despair. Every heart is given somewhere. Every heart. And if you’re in a place where you could easily give your heart up to despair, I want to say to you today, don’t give your heart to despair. Give your heart to Jesus Christ. That’s where you’re going to find hope. That’s where you’re going to find peace and love and joy. And the Lord says to you, in your discouragement and in your gloom, give me your heart. Give it to me. I can do something with it. What would compel you then in these last moments to give your heart fully, freely, joyfully to Jesus Christ today? Now, I’ve given you some practical reasons. It’s your best defense against sin. Giving your heart to the Lord is going to be the way that increases your capacity to love other people well. These are wonderfully practical reasons, but they’re not, of course, the supreme reason. I want to end with this. He says, give me your heart. The supreme reason for giving your heart to the Lord is the Lord himself. We love him because he first loved us. And this is the loving Father who is calling out, my son, give me your heart. It’s knowing the love of the Lord, who he is and how much he loves you, that will lead you to place your heart, freely and fully and freshly, into the hands of Jesus Christ today. Now, I’m telling you, if you carry within you, and I think this is true of a lot of Christians actually, if you carry within you this lurking suspicion that God has it in for you in the end, you will hold back from really giving your heart to him because you’ll be afraid of what he might do with it. And here’s your thinking. You’re saying, God’s just. I know that God is just, and that means he’s got to punish sin. And I know that even at my Christian best, I am still a sinner. And if that’s the way that you’re reasoning, the conclusion has to be, best stay safe at a certain distance from him. Loyal, yes, but you never get to, my son, give me your heart from there. But here is why you can feel completely safe in giving your heart into the hands of this Father God who loves you. He has already dealt with all of your sin at the cross. Justice has been satisfied, done, as far as you are concerned in Jesus Christ, so that now the Father is free to lavish his love over you. And today he says to you, my son, my daughter, give me your heart. Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. So take this heart, God, take and seal it. Seal it for your courts above. A powerful reminder today that God says to his sons, to his daughters, give me your heart. If you know Christ as your Saviour, I’m sure you’ve been challenged and encouraged by today’s broadcast and if you haven’t had that experience when you come to Jesus and invite him to become your Master and Lord, you can do that today in a simple prayer. Admit your failings before God, and all of us have failed in that way, ask him to forgive you through Jesus’ sacrifice for you. Understand then that God has promised to forgive you and make you a member of his family. Go and tell someone what’s happened to you, maybe a trusted Christian friend or family member, that will make your actions more real to you. Search out a local church or maybe if you already go to church, talk to the pastor or ask the prayer ministry team to pray with you. And we’d also love it if you tell us about it. You can email us at hello at openthebible.org.uk or find us on social media and send us a post. Don’t forget that if you ever miss any of our broadcasts or if you want to go back and listen again, you can always do that by going online. Go to openthebible.org.uk. You can also find our messages as podcasts on your favourite podcast site. Just search for Open the Bible UK, subscribe to the podcast and you’ll receive regular reminders. Open the Bible relies on its listeners to keep this programme on the radio and on the internet. People like you. This month, if you’re able to commit to a new regular monthly donation of £5 or more, we would like to thank you by sending a copy of John White’s book, The Fight. Colin, who is this book written for? Well, it’s for every Christian who wants to grow, and that has to be every Christian. I mean, it’s every one of us. This is just a practical handbook on how to grow in the Christian life. It has been helpful to me over many years. I first read it as a young Christian when I was a student in college. It’s still valuable for me today. John White just goes through some of the basics of the Christian life, how to pray, how to grow in holiness, how to seek the guidance and the will of God. Very practical, laid out very clearly and drawn wonderfully from his deep understanding of Scripture. It’s written in a compelling manner. And so if you’re looking for something that will help you grow in the Christian life or something that you could give to someone who needs to grow in the Christian life, this is a really helpful, practical, accessible and biblical handbook. And The Fight has stood the years of time, and I’m just delighted that there is a new edition available now that we’re able to make available to all of our listeners. So this book, The Fight, is our gift to you this month if you’re able to start a new monthly donation to Open the Bible of £5 per month or more. You can find details on our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick. Thanks for listening, and I hope you’ll join us again soon. The Bible says in Psalm 23 that the Lord leads us. Have you ever wondered what that means or where he’s leading us? Find out next time on Open the Bible.