Proverbs 4:20-23 • Everybody's trying to fix the wrong thing. Better environment. Better therapy. Better behavior. But Solomon said the problem — and the solution — is the heart.

⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • April 5, 2026.

Psychologists educate the mind and call it progress. Sociologists fix the environment and call it reform. Self-help culture modifies behavior and calls it growth. But Proverbs 4:23 says every single one of them is working on the wrong end of the problem. Everything flows from the heart — your marriage, your parenting, your walk with God, your appetites, your ambitions. Fix the source and everything changes. Ignore it and nothing does.

This sermon works through Proverbs 4:20-23, connecting Romans 1, Romans 6, John 6, Hebrews 4, 2 Corinthians 3, 1 Peter 1, Colossians 3, and Proverbs 14 to show why the heart is the source of everything — why no man can fix it himself, what God does to it at salvation, and why keeping it is the highest priority a Christian has.

The backsliding section alone is worth the listen. Nobody falls into sin. They slide. And the slide starts in the heart long before the behavior shows up.

This message walks through Proverbs 4:20-23, explaining:

• Three ways wisdom is kept: hearing it, reading it, hiding it in your heart

• Why the word of God is medicine, not a vitamin — and the difference matters

• Why psychology, environment, and behavior modification all fail at the same point

• Romans 1:21 — every man apart from God has a completely darkened heart, not slightly off

• Why behavior modification produces better-behaved men, not new-hearted men

• The circumcision of the heart at salvation — what actually changes and what doesn't

• Why you cannot fall into sin — you slide, and the slide starts in the heart

• Proverbs 14:14 — the backslider in heart backslides in heart first, behavior follows

• What a man loves is what a man becomes — the heart works by love, not logic

• Why your marriage, parenting, and relationships all flow from the same source

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