18 August 2013
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Proverbs 4:20-27
Proverbs 4:20-27
(NIV)
20 My son, pay
attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
-- one of
the surprise hit TV shows over the past couple of years is the ABC show
"Once Upon a Time" -- it is a clever retelling of the fairy tales we
all grew up with...with a twist -- in this retelling, all of the fairy tale
characters are transported to our world as a result of a curse and live in a
town in Maine without knowing who they really are -- the show bounces back and
forth between their past lives in Fairy Tale Land and their current life in
Storybrooke, Maine, to show how the two are intertwined as the characters seek
to break the curse and return to their homes and former lives
-- the main
story revolves around the relationship between Snow White and Prince Charming
and Snow's stepmother Regina, the evil queen who used her magical powers to
enact the curse on Fairy Tale Land in the first place -- as the show started,
the main question was why would Regina curse this land? -- what happened to
make her such a spiteful person that she would enact her evil on an entire
kingdom? -- well, as the tale has evolved over the past couple of years, we learned
that -- it all begins with Regina's mother -- you see, Regina's mother was the daughter of a miller -- a poor girl who was tired of being hurt by the rich and powerful because she was poor and not up to their standards -- so she made an alliance with evil to gain power and prestige and eventually ended up becoming queen of the land where she lived -- but this was not without a cost
-- in order to become queen -- in order to reach the point where she could never be hurt again by anyone -- Regina's mother took a drastic step -- she used evil magic to actually remove her heart from her chest -- locking it up and storing it in a safe place where no one could ever find it -- her thought was that by locking up and guarding her heart, she could never be hurt again -- and it worked, but it changed her -- she lost the capacity to love and became the source of hurt and pain in the lives of many others -- eventually infecting her daughter Regina with her hatred and leading to the curse on the entire kingdom -- all because she wanted to guard her heart from hurt
-- the
concept of guarding your heart is a biblical concept -- we see it right here in
this proverb from Solomon -- but what does that look like in the life of a
Christian? -- are we to lock up our hearts and guard them like Regina
II. Scripture Lesson (Proverbs 4:20-27)
-- verse 20-22
20 My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my
words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your
heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.
-- as we
look at the opening verses in this passage, we are really given a glimpse into
the mind and purposes of Solomon as he penned the words, not only of these
verses, but of the Book of Proverbs as a whole -- this book was written for
instruction -- as a means of sharing words of wisdom with another generation
-- Solomon
wanted to pass on a legacy of the insights he had learned through experience to
his children, so they might walk in the path of God and not make the same
mistakes he had made in his own life -- in fact, that's exactly what the Hebrew view of a father's role was in the Old Testament -- In those days, the father was the head of the house -- he was the dominant family member -- and he and his wife were to be honored and respected by all in their household -- their children -- their servants -- their guests
-- the
father was responsible for the well-being of the family unit and for its
discipline -- he provided for them -- he kept them safe -- he protected them
-- but the
primary goal of a father in the Old Testament days was to pass on a legacy --
to bring up children who would choose to follow the holy life that the
Israelites were called to by God -- in other words, the father was to be the
family priest and the teacher of the faith -- he was to pass on his way of life
to the next generation through intentionally sharing his wisdom, his faith, and
his understanding of life with his children-- as Christians our role has been expanded -- not only are we to pass on our spiritual heritage and legacy to our children, but we are called to pass on our legacy of faith to those around us -- to those we disciple -- we are to train others in the way of life -- to teach them -- to pass on all we have learned about walking with Christ so they may follow our example and grow in grace as they walk with Him, too
-- verse 23
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the
wellspring of life.
-- they are the source of our emotions and our actions -- it is the vision of our hearts that directs our path -- it is the state of our heart that determines our eternal destination
-- Jesus said it is from the heart that either evil or good comes -- it is from the heart that we believe and love and live
-- as the heart goes, so goes our lives -- so goes our eternity -- and so Solomon cautions us here to guard our hearts above all else -- it is our most valuable possession
-- Solomon
tells his son that the heart is the wellspring of life -- that's a curious
phrase, isn't it? -- the wellspring of life -- the KJV sheds a little more
light on Solomon's meaning when it translates this passage to read that the
"issues of life" come out of the heart
--
when I read these words and consider what Solomon means about our hearts being
a wellspring, I can't help but think about the first backpacking trip I ever took
-- we had gone to DeSota Falls in north Georgia -- and it was the first time I
had ever seen a clear river -- I grew up down here with our black water rivers
and creeks -- but up there, the river flowed clear and you just had a feeling
it was pure and clean and good-- I remember walking along that river and just gazing into it -- seeing how all the life in that valley was centered around that little stream -- we followed the river up past a large waterfall, and it grew narrower and narrower until it finally stopped at a spring probably no bigger around than a five-gallon bucket -- pure, clear water bubbling up and flowing from a crack in the rocks of that mountain
-- when you think about it, that mountain's very life -- the trout and birds and insects and everything else in that area that depended on that river were only there because of that spring -- that spring brought life to that mountain because it was pure and clean
-- but if that spring had been polluted -- if it had been poisoned and contaminated by the world, nothing would have been able to live -- that mountain valley would have been desolate
--
that's the picture Solomon's bringing to mind here when he talks about our
hearts -- our hearts are the source of our lives -- they are our wellsprings
because they define who and what we are -- our character -- our being -- our
life -- all we are is born from the state of our heart -- for whatever is in
our hearts is what our lives consist of
--
if your heart is good -- if your heart is filled with the life that flows from
the spring of God's love -- then your life and your character and your being
are good-- but if your heart becomes polluted by the things of this world, then our lives and our characters and our being will be polluted as well
-- that is why Solomon cautions us here to guard our hearts above all else -- to keep our springs of life flowing clear and pure as God intended
-- but how do we do that?
-- verse
24-27
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk
far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly
before you. 26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
-- when I
read these verses, I couldn't help but think of the statue of the three wise
monkeys with their hands covering their eyes, their ears, and their mouths --
"see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" -- that's the same thing
Solomon's telling us here
-- to guard
our hearts means we stay away from evil -- we shield ourselves from the
presence of evil and darkness so our thoughts and our actions and our speech
might not be corrupted by evil -- we don't allow sin to creep into our vision,
our hearing, or our hearts
--
in Mt 26:41, Jesus told His disciples to "watch and pray" so that
they would not fall into temptation -- note that Jesus didn't say to watch and
pray so that they would not fall into sin, but temptation -- He said the same
thing in the Lord's prayer -- Jesus taught us to pray, "lead us not into
temptation"
--
as Christians -- especially as Christians -- we need to keep our eyes open for
temptations that might come our way and pray that we might not be led into
temptation
--
sometimes we get tempted to think that we are above temptation -- sometimes we
think that because we're Christians, we don't have to worry about temptation --
we let our guard down and we don't protect our hearts and our lives from
temptations that might lead to sin-- 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" -- we should never consider ourselves above temptation -- but we should protect and guard our hearts by watching and praying that we don't fall into temptation as Jesus commanded
-- this may mean making some changes in your life and in the places you go -- there are some places that I just don't go, because I know that temptations lurk there in the shadows -- there are certain movies that I just don't watch -- and there's some music that I just won't listen to -- because I know that there are temptations there
--
one good way to avoid temptation and sin is to remind yourself daily of the
damaging consequences of moral failure -- all you have to do is pick up your
morning paper or watch the news to see examples of homes ripped apart -- of
families broken and destroyed -- of lives being shattered -- all because
someone didn't guard their heart and opened the door for temptation and sin
--
your heart and your life and your family are too valuable to not watch for and
avoid temptation every single day -- remember what Paul told Timothy,
"Flee the evil desires of youth -- flee the temptations of life"-- but it's not enough to just flee temptation -- we have to know where we're going -- Solomon counsels us to look straight ahead -- to gaze at the path before us -- to walk the path we are on without veering to either side -- in other words, Solomon is telling us to fix our eyes of Jesus -- to walk the straight and narrow and to not be diverted by anything else
-- to guard our hearts we must not only flee the temptations and pollutions of this world, but we must fill our hearts with good -- we must immerse ourselves in the presence of Jesus through His word and His ways -- we have to spend time with Him -- getting to know Him -- so our lives and our hearts reflect His character and not our own
-- so the key to guarding our heart is two-fold: avoid evil and darkness and embrace the light of Christ
-- now more than likely, you have heard this command to guard your hearts given in the context of relationships -- we like to use this verse when we counsel our children about romantic relationships -- "Guard your heart," we say. "Don't just give it away to the first person that comes along -- if you do so, you might get hurt."
-- have you ever heard that teaching? -- sure you have -- but as you can see from the context, that is not what Solomon is saying here -- that is not the intent of this passage
-- the command to guard your heart refers to guarding yourself from the presence of evil and darkness -- it is given to protect us from temptation and sin -- these words were not given to keep us from getting hurt when we love
-- think about the overall message of the Bible -- we tell people it is a love letter from God -- that the story of the Bible is the story of a God who loves us so much He never gives up on us, even to the point of dying on a cross to pay for our sins and transgressions against Him
-- if anything, the message of the Bible is to love extravagantly -- to love with our whole hearts -- regardless of the cost
-- the one
real victim of the Fall in the Garden of Eden was love -- for when Adam and Eve
gave into temptation and disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, they corrupted love and responded to God's perfect
love with betrayal and hurt
-- we see
that pattern played out throughout Scripture, as God's chosen people -- beloved
by the Father -- time and time again rejected His love and hurt His heart as
they turned away from Him and chased after their own paths and after idols of
their own making-- we see the heartache of Eden following relationships from the Old Testament to the New, as we see Jesus betrayed by one of His chosen disciples -- as we see Paul hurt by a trusted follower who turned against him and slandered him before Rome
-- because of Eden, the risk of hurt and heartache follows the capacity to love -- and we know this -- there's no one in this room who hasn't experienced the ache of a broken heart
-- and our tendency is to apply Solomon's command to "guard our hearts" in these situations in order to protect ourselves from being hurt again -- that's exactly what Regina's mother tried in my opening illustration from the TV show, "Once Upon a Time" -- and by locking up and guarding her heart from others, she ended up filling that void with hatred and distrust and evil
-- C.S.
Lewis recognized the danger of guarding one's heart in this way -- in his book,
"The Four Loves," Lewis wrote:
"To love at all is to be
vulnerable -- Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken --
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not
even an animal.
"Wrap it carefully round with
hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. -- Lock it up safe in the
casket or coffin of your selfishness -- But in that casket -- safe -- dark --
motionless -- airless -- it will change.
-- I know
exactly what C.S. Lewis is talking about -- I know what a heart guarded like
this looks like -- I live with it daily -- this is not what Solomon was
counseling us to do in this passage -- this is not who we are to be as
Christians
-- as Alex
Harmening writes, "Being afraid of wounds from other people might cause us
to forfeit the capacity to love -- The enemy would like nothing better than to
carry Christians to the extreme of isolating ourselves from the world and
chaining us with the fears of pain and exposure -- Too often, we cling to the
“Guard your heart” message because it becomes a means of defending ourselves
from the possibility of hurt or mistakes -- [but] this behavior may make us
stingy with our empathy and love. [Alex Harmening, "What Guard Your Heart
Really Means", Relevant Magazine, http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/what-guarding-your-heart-actually-means]-- to guard our heart does not mean to not love -- to guard our heart means to protect ourselves from evil and sin while still loving extravagantly and allowing God's peace and love and presence to guard us and heal us when our hearts are broken
III. Closing
-- In 1848
London was stricken with a devastating cholera epidemic -- people were
literally dying in the streets, and no one knew why -- doctors in that time
could not determine the cause of the disease and panic was widespread-- people would try to lock themselves away in their homes and avoid others, but still they would get sick -- still they would die
-- Dr. John Snow studied the deaths of 89 people in one week in a certain district of the city in an attempt to figure out the cause of the disease -- he realized that all but two of these people drank from a well on Broad Street -- during an emergency meeting of concerned leaders in London, Dr. Snow was asked what might be done to stop the epidemic -- he told them, "Take the handle off the Broad Street pump." -- it was done and the epidemic in that quarter of the city ceased.
-- But removing the pump handle didn't solve the fundamental problem -- sewage was seeping into the well, poisoning it -- although removing the pump handle removed the immediate danger, it didn't correct the problem -- the only solution to the problem was to stop the sewage from getting into the well so it might run clean and pure once again
-- and once it is clean, Solomon tells us to guard it and protect it -- to keep ourselves holy by avoiding evil and sin and fixing our gaze on the light of Christ -- and as we follow His path and His example -- as we listen to Him and let Him guide our paths -- our wellspring of life flows pure and clean
-- let us
pray
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