Living out Proverbs

Title: Living out Proverbs
Date:23 October 2022
Preacher: Elder Jonathan Lee

Blessed Sunday. Welcome to church.
Pastor Wei Kang shared about “Living out our faith” two months ago, and last week, he gave some definitions on what it means to live a flourishing life. Today, I will be sharing with you on “Living out the teachings of Proverbs”. Let’s do a recap, to live a flourishing life is to, “Live Right”, “Live Well” and “Live Happily”
Ps Zhang Li shared in her 1st May sermon that she did a survey with 40 over Jubilee church’s members on their knowledge of Proverbs. Some members shared that they don’t quite agree with some teachings in Proverbs and some felt that certain teachings don’t seem applicable in this era. Ps Zhang Li’s daughter also shared her challenges in applying the teachings.
To truly embrace the teachings in Proverbs, we need to know that every word in the Bible is God’s breathed (2 Timothy 16), inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that we can be equipped for every good work, we are to receive them with an open mind and an open heart. By renewing our mind will then lead to the changes of our heart. Do not let the relativism of the world pollute our understanding and application of the bible.
In Romans 12:2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”.
Those of you who grew up with aunty Sabrina leading worship at Sunday School would remember this song. The song goes like this, “Little by little one step at a time, mending our hearts and renewing our mind, teaching us how to be patient and kind, little by little one step at a time”. She was already teaching us on the need to renew our mind.
In my counselling work, I had people who came for counselling telling me, “Jonathan, I don’t believe in counselling, but I am here because my family asked me to”, or they may doubt the effectiveness of suggested treatment modality. When our mind is fixated, any positive shift will be difficult, it will also be challenging to see changes to our hearts.

Flourishing Life (Jubilee theme)
Let us read Proverbs 27 with an open mind and an open heart, and explore how Proverbs 27 teachings can help us live right, live well and live happily.
Live Right!
Proverbs 27: v10 & v14 (NIV)
10 Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbour nearby than a relative far away.
14 If anyone loudly blesses their neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.
In v10, a family friend is also regarded as a close, next-door neighbour, and the relative is viewed as distant as they may not live nearby. Distance between towns may take hours, or one to two days walk. There was no MRT or buses, the wealthy family may be able to afford a donkey, camel or horse.
I remembered that when I was on a mission trip to Zambia some years back, there was no public transport. Most people walked hours just to attend church. I believe those of you who had gone to 大谷地for mission had similar experience. Thus, when in emergency or urgent needs, it is better to seek immediate help from a neighbour, rather than depend on a relative who lives far away. There is a saying in Chinese, 远亲不如近邻。
In v14, if anyone loudly blesses their neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse. In the bible, after the priest completed his prayers, he would turn to the congregation and bless them in a loud voice. However, blessing a neighbour very loudly and too early in the morning, although with good intention, would be deemed as insincere. The loud and untimely blessing, would wake your neighbours from their sleep, instead of appreciating your blessing, they will see it as a curse.
This reminds me of the Catholic Church next to my block. On the eve of Chinese New Year, my family would usually stay up late to do last minute cleaning, prepare food for Chinese New Year，包红包. We tend to wake up a little later the next morning. But BOY, at 8.30am, you will hear “tong qiang tong qiang” the drum and cymbal of lion dance coming from the Catholic Church. The first thing that came to my mind, the priest must be a Chinese, and he wants to bless us with the lion dance. But I am very sure that the whole block was cursing as they were woken up from their sleep. Am glad that in the last two years, due to Covid-19, there was no more lion dance on the first day of Chinese New Year.
So, who is your neighbour? As a member of this big Jubilee family, who are our neighbours?
In Luke 10, we were told to ‘Love our neighbor as ourselves.’ In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus pointed out that the Samaritan who showed mercy to the injured man and took care of him is the good neighbour. Jesus said, “go and do likewise”.
During Jesus’ ministry on earth, he demonstrated how to be a good neighbour, by serving the last, the lost and the least.
In Matthew 25:40, we were taught that whatever we do for one of the least, we do it for Jesus.
Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
Rather than spend his time with the wealthy and noble, Jesus spent his time with the last, the lost and the least, people like the tax collectors, prostitutes, and the poor. In fact, Matthew was a tax collector before he became Jesus’ disciple. If Jesus lives in our era, I believe he would be walking the community and doing the same thing.
In the early period of Covid-19, anyone who came into close contact with a person down with Covid-19 would receive a Stay Home Notice (SHN) and is not allowed to leave the house. Many families received Stay Home Notice, and no one was able to go out to buy grocery or food. In the North, few churches got together and became the good Samaritan, overcame the fear of getting Covid-19 themselves, bought grocery and medicine for the families and delivered them personally. There was no need to preach the gospel, through their actions of love, I last heard that one family started to attend church regularly.
Jubilee Church has been at Tanjong Pagar and Tiong Bahru for many years. We were closely connected to Tiong Bahru community in the late 40s and 50s. Can anyone tell me where is this place? Yes, this is TBCC. I was there a few months ago and saw this piece of history at the CC wall. Singapore FIRST Community centre. What struck me was that the community held a meeting at the Outram Road Church hall to discuss and decide on the setting up of TBCC more than 70 years ago. The Outram Road Church mentioned here is Jubilee Church. Our church started the FIRST Kindergarten in Singapore 100 years ago, The Chinese Kindergarten, and also played an important part in setting up the FIRST community centre in Singapore. See how God used Jubilee Church in the early years. This is a recent picture whereby our Senior Pastor, Rev 伟康 and Elder 万丰 attended the TBCC 70th anniversary dinner.
Our late Elder 姚志方, brother Chern Lian’s father, sister Sabrina’s father-in-law, was a patron of Tiong Bahru CC. He conducted at the choir, served as the treasurer and was involved in community work. I didn’t know that he was so involved serving the community until I went to one of TBCC events. Many of the veterans in the community have fond memory of him.
As Jubilee Church members, how do we want to function as a good neighbour? How do you want to bless your neighbours? Go up to the roof top of Jubilee Church and shout blessings early in the morning? Or do we want to live out our faith by getting into action? Jubilee Church will be celebrating our 140th year anniversary next year, do you want to do something to bless your neighbour?
Our neighbour, TBCC is organising a Christmas celebration in December and has invited Jubilee Church to be part of the celebration. One of the events will be at this place, anyone knows where is this place? This is Kim Pong Park. We can finally sing Christian Christmas carol, or play Christian Christmas music in the community space openly. A few other churches have agreed to be part of this celebration. One church has volunteered to be the main sponsor of this event. If you are committed to live out today’s teachings of being a good neighbour, volunteer yourself and approach our choir director sister Cathy, she will be gathering people to prepare for the Christmas carol.
Live Well & Happily
Let’s move on and see what Proverbs is telling us about living well and happily. (PPT) For these verses, I will be reading from both NIV and The Passion Translation, as The Passion Translation incorporated different ancient scripts and translated these verses to our current context.
V23-24 (I will be reading from Passion Translation)
TPT (The Passion Translation)
23 A shepherd should pay close attention to the faces of his flock and hold close to his heart the condition of those he cares for.
24 A man’s strength, power, and riches will one day fade away; not even nations endure forever.
In v23, a person is to know the condition of his flocks and set his heart on the herds, just as the wise study and gain wisdom through Proverbs. The flocks provide food and wealth to the owners, and the teachings of Proverbs will point a person to the right path.
v24 tells us, “A man’s strength, power, and riches will one day fade away; not even nations endure forever”, highlighting that power and wealth do not last forever, just as how we saw the wealth and kingdom of king Solomon taken away. If you want to live well and happily, do not hoard your blessings and wealth like the dead sea.
We all know that dead sea has inlet but no outlet. Water flows into the Dead Sea from River Jordan. It has no way to get out of the lake and thus forced to evaporate. As such, the concentration of the salt is about 35%, and you can float in it without much effort. However, you cannot find any fish or sotong in it, basically no life except bacteria, so you cannot have your favourite sea food dinner by the beach.
For v25-27, NIV stayed with the original text of goats and lambs while TPT translated the verses to our current context.
TPT (The Passion Translation)
25-27 Take care of your responsibilities and be diligent in your business and you will have more than enough— an abundance of food, clothing, and plenty for your household.
V25-27 focused on the theme of diligence and hard work as per other verses in Proverbs 12, 13, 14 and 21. But let me take you one step further, in relation to what we learned on living right with our neighbours, the need to be generous towards the poor and needy were taught in Proverbs 11, 14, 19 and 22. The “plenty” in v27, is telling us that besides having enough for ourselves and our family, it is also about “plenty” to share and bless others.
Paul reminded the Christians at Philippi in Philippians 2:4, “not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others”.
Thus, use your excess to bless “the last the lost and the least” rather than store up our wealth which will not last. Let me stress again, having “enough” or excess is to bless others, not gorging them.
Matthew 6
19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
We need to know that every moment we live and the blessings we received are gifts from God. A grateful heart will make us happy. Grateful for the sheep that provides milk, wool, meat and wealth. Grateful for the servants who helped to care for the flock and the home. Grateful for the blessings that God has given us. Let’s learn to count our blessings and show our gratitude.
I know of a very wealthy lady. Her family was blessed with great wealth, possessing many properties, drive good cars, fat bank account, but she was very unhappy and lamented that God did not bless her and she stopped going to church for a while. There are two things that went missing in her life that made her very unhappy; she failed to count her blessings and be grateful for what God had given her, and she was like the “dead sea” storing up all her wealth but there was no outlet.
Going back to this slide which I shared earlier about being a good neighbour, believe some of you would have caught the numbers that 1,000 families were blessed. Who would foot the bill of 1,000 families as those churches are not the mega church with strong financial abilities. I must clarify that the following sharing is not to blow the trumpet for any organization or person, but as a witness of seeing a good neighbour blessing the community. The CEO of Far East Organisation has been a great steward in running his businesses, as well as being a good neighbour in blessing the community. No KPI was set to measure how many people came to know Christ through all these good works. He was just being the good Samaritan as taught by Jesus.
If God bless you with more than enough, instead of looking at buying the next property or a better car, do you want to live out your faith by being a good neighbour? You may say, “Jonathan, I only have a little more than enough, nothing like the CEO of Far East Organisation, how can I bless?”. Well, you can start small by sponsoring a few children from the low-income families to join our JCCM Children’s camp in December, or you can buy a table at Jubilee Church Christmas lunch (爱宴) and invite the low-income families to join you.
Living Happily (Live Happily)
Another way to live happily is hidden in the following verses.
V15 – v16 (NIV)
15 A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;
16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.
King Solomon described the leaking roof as a person suffering from the angry words of his wife, feeling miserable due to his quarrelsome spouse. Anyone buys a house hopes to find shelter from it and enjoy some peace and safety. If the roof starts to leak on rainy day, it will be frustrating as it no longer provides the shelter and peace that he hoped for.
Although king Solomon used “quarrelsome wife”, but in my counselling work, it can also be “quarrelsome husband”. Thus, when I use the word “he or she” later on, just knows that it applies to both husband and wife.
When doing couple counselling, I would ask couple why do they marry. The common reply is for happiness and support. But if a person goes home every day and face a quarrelsome spouse, he would find his home intolerable and toxic. He would probably stay out as late as possible to avoid conflicts. This happened to some of my clients who approached me for counselling. Few actually left home or 回娘家, just like a bird that flees its nest as mentioned in v8 (“Like a bird that flees its nest is anyone who flees from home”).
While king Solomon highlighted the challenges of a quarrelsome or nagging spouse, he did not elaborate further what could have possibly cause the spouse to be quarrelsome. Let me share with you the Ice Berg model that I frequently use in counselling.
Some of you have watched the movie “Titanic”. Believe you remember how the ship sunk. What the captain saw was just the tip of the iceberg and did not realise that below the tip was a gigantic ice. Thus, the quarrelsome and nagging behaviour are just tip of the ice berg. There are lots of underlying unmet needs and emotions; spouse feeling not important, unloved, not respected, not attended to, not appreciated, abandoned. All these coupled with different expectations and perceptions would result in volcano eruption, not just the leaking roof. There is a need to work on communication with the grace of Jesus, and understand the emotions beneath the tip of the ice-berg. Due to time, I won’t be able to elaborate further.
Let me give you a bonus tip (in digital gaming, it’s called Easter Egg), you can apply the same Ice-berg model when you experience a nagging parent, quarrelsome friend, or a child’s negative behaviour. They would probably have some unmet needs that require your attention.
On a lighter note, king Solomon had many wives and concubines. Can anyone tell me how many wives and concubines he had?
In 1 Kings 11:3, it was recorded that he had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
Just imagine, with 1,000 wives and concubines with different unmet needs, no wonder king Solomon was greatly disturbed by quarrelsome spouse. Not forgetting 1,000 wives and concubines would also mean another 1,000 nagging mothers in law. To all the married men, be grateful that God gave you only one wife, this saves you from all the headaches.
Summary
In summary, to live out our faith through the teachings of Proverbs 27; let us LIVE RIGHT by being a good neighbour; LIVE WELL & HAPPILY with a grateful heart, bless our neighbour with our enough or plenty, and build relationship with the grace of Jesus. Amen.