保守你心 Guard your heart

Title: Guard your heart 保守你心
Date: 22nd May 2022
Preacher: Rev. Wong Siow Hwee

In ancient Jewish tradition, the father is responsible for giving this message of Proverbs 1-9 to his son. If you have been paying attention to the first 3 sermons of Proverbs, you would notice that Proverbs 1-4 especially speak from the heart and they aim to persuade. The father is fully aware of the dangers of Folly, and he makes a sincere appeal to the son to stay on the path of Wisdom. I’m not sure how many fathers out there feel inspired to do the same after this sermon series. If you are like me, we know how important moral education is, as well as the value of a fulfilling life. But it often gets neglected in the hustle and bustle of life, such as schoolwork or the next appointment to rush to. If ever the moment arises to talk about such matters, it is usually in a crisis which is the least ideal situation to start this conversation. Unfortunately, some of us with teenage or adult children might even be thinking, maybe it is already too late for my son. Now he just finds all my words are like nagging. And to be honest, I’m also not exactly a paragon of wisdom. How am I to give him this message to ask him to live a life I have not lived myself? I think such concerns are fair, whether you don’t know when and how to start or you think you might have missed the boat, and so my sermon today seeks to address them.

I will first talk about the ideal state of ancient Jewish parenting based on Proverbs. Hopefully, this can be an inspirational model for the newly-weds and young parents; and I think it would be meaningful for young grandparents too. In fact, grandparents may be the best people for the role because they can appreciate the wisdom of Proverbs better, with greater maturity coupled with examples of real life personal experiences. Jewish wisdom teaching starts after weaning, which in the ancient days would mean starting when the child was about 3-4 years old. Why so early? The Jews believe that it is the heart that controls all speech and action. (See Mark 7:18-23.) So what matters is what you put into the heart. Good things in your heart will lead you towards good decisions and a good life, while evil thoughts will lead you towards death. As parents, the Jews would put in all the wisdom of Proverbs into the hearts of their children. Before the Proverbs were collected and compiled by Solomon, such wisdom would presumably be conveyed verbally by memory, from one generation to the next. I like to think of these proverbs as the first love of the child because they are placed lovingly into the child’s heart by the parents. As the child grows up and encounters more people, influenced by events and foreign literature, other words will attempt to infiltrate the heart. But at the very least, these proverbs were preset as the first love, which means that as long as the child is able to put up a good defense, the wisdom is there to stay.

Our passage today in Proverbs 4 is about this defense. The father told his son of the tradition of passing on the proverbs that came from the grandfather and presumably from the generations before him. Then he urged his son to actively defend it. Quoting directly his own father, the father used the word “get” four times: Get wisdom, get understanding (v. 5, 7). This Hebrew word for “get” is usually used in the context of a purchase. But weren’t the proverbs already given to the son? Why the need to still “get” it? Repeating the first love analogy, or a relationship that began from childhood 青梅竹马, just because she grew up with you doesn’t mean you know her well. You should not assume familiarity with true understanding. You need to cherish her and do what is necessary to marry her. In fact, the father said that his father said that you must give it your all, so that she really belongs to you. You will know that the wisdom of the Proverbs is staying with you for good, when she reciprocates by honoring you and protecting you. In short, after the father put the proverbs into the heart of the son, the father’s message in Proverbs 4 was for the son to treasure them, until they truly became wisdom in his own life.

As I was preparing my sermons from Proverbs 2 to Proverbs 4, I tried to reconstruct my own journey of wisdom. The most distinct proverbs I remember from my father were the Chinese proverbs 先苦后甜 (bitter first, sweet later) and 吃得苦中苦, 方为人上人 (The one who can take the most bitter will be the one who can rise above men). Though they are not from Proverbs, but fortunately they do share many of the common values with Proverbs on hard work and diligence. I guess my father wanted to put the wisdom of grit 刻苦耐劳 in my heart. Since I remember them till this day, I guess you can call these two Chinese proverbs the first love of my heart. If I had guarded my heart well, I would have been studious in my studies and serious in all my endeavors. I would be someone who was not afraid of tough challenges and powering through the difficulties of life.

I examined myself, did I guard my heart well? In Proverbs 4, the father used words like “do not turn away” (v. 5), go on “the straight path (v.11) and “avoid.. turn from” the other paths (v. 15), 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you, and 27 Do not turn to the right or the left, as the process of guarding one’s heart. It means that guarding your heart is a process of staying focused and avoiding the temptations of deviation. In retrospect, I don’t think I have guarded my heart well. In primary school, I was fighting with other boys. In secondary school I was copying homework. In JC, I was computer gaming all the time. Basically, I was constantly distracted, and I was scraping through with just enough to move on. If I were to measure myself against the wisdom of the Chinese proverbs, I might not be always picking the sweet, but I’m definitely not enduring anything bitter. The proverbs were still in my heart, but they were crowded out by all the distractions of youthful life.

But I am who I am today by the grace of God. It was God who called me into ministry and for the first time, I understood the wisdom of the Chinese proverbs, the first love of my heart from my fellow pastors. Starting from Pastor Daniel and then the rest of the pastoral team, I slowly appreciated the sweetness that comes from the “bitterness”, which is putting in the hard work in studying the scriptures, the hard work put into ministry, and the hard work in managing human relationships. I now look back at my days of youth and wish I had done the same. And now I continue to guard my heart, making sure that I don’t take the easy way out in my work, or to be easily distracted by trivialities. And when I had children, I made sure I put this wisdom first in their hearts too. I didn’t use the Chinese proverbs because I started really young with them, and so I made up one that they could understand. My “proverb” for them was: do what you need to do before you do what you want to do. For example, they should finish their homework before they play with their toys. It is my simplified version of 先苦后甜. Maybe one day this personalized proverb from me to them might become a wisdom of their own which they will pass on to future generations.

Brothers and sisters, what is in your heart right now? Before we can talk about how to put wisdom into the hearts of your children or grandchildren or the next generation, you first need to examine your own heart. Is it full of wisdom just like the Proverbs, or is it just loads of the ways of the world? You can only give what is in your heart. The church will help you in your self-reflection. In the next few months, the church will share about the Proverbs from the different aspects of life, and the cell groups will discuss the Proverbs from the perspective of virtues and vices. Use a journal to note down the good ones. I jotted down a couple that I really liked from Deacon Wan Leng’s sermon. So I hope you can use this golden opportunity to put some good things in your heart after you clear out some of the trash. If your heart needs a lot of renovation, don’t be disheartened, transformation is surely possible because of the Holy Spirit.

Just as how it is never too late to renovate your heart, it is also never too late to reach out to the younger generation. It is even more important if you regret that all you have put into their hearts so far are bitterness, resentment, materialism, and other ways of the world. It is the first step of wisdom to fear the Lord and then we submit to God’s will to repair what is broken. That is the work of creation. It is ok to admit it if you have no biblical wisdom to share right now, as long as you vow to do something about it today. Because like it or not, if you are not doing anything for the younger generation, the world naturally becomes their influencer through social media and unfiltered life experiences. What is going to end up in their hearts? Here’s an idea of a family project you can also consider that I witnessed in the Elder Yeo Chee Lip’s house 杨家宝训. You can pick your favorite Proverbs and do a craft for your home. I think it can become a collection of family biblical wisdom to pass down the generations.

Lastly, please pray for the children ministry. Our work is not just to teach content, but most of all, it is to teach understanding. It is not just details of Jesus’ life and words, but the impartation of how they can become the children’s own wisdom of life. If you are moved by God to get involved in this ministry, we welcome you. May God give them wisdom to be a blessing to the Jubilee community and beyond.

华语崇拜视频链接：https://youtu.be/jfIFi2Q9Gv0
Bilingual Service Video Link: https://youtu.be/7DKJeofI-fw