YouTube video sermon
Proverbs 4:20-27
Well, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Proverbs 4. We’re continuing our study in the Book of Proverbs. As you know, we’re living in a world filled with confusion, controversy, and chaos, and so in order to combat that, in order to go against the grain (as it were) we’re seeking wisdom, understanding, and discernment by turning to the eternal truths of the Bible.
I do hope that you’ll bring your Bibles each week. I know that we typically provide the main scripture passages on our visual displays each week, and for some of you that’s actually easier to read than your personal Bible (that’s why we do it). But let me encourage you, if you’re able, to always have a copy of God’s Word with you (even if it’s on your phone or iPad). I have found, in my own study and sitting under the teaching of others, that from time to time another passage is mentioned or referred to and it’s not published in the materials provided or posted on the displays, and yet I want to see what it says.
Also, for those of you that have undertaken the task or challenge to read through the Bible this year, making notes in the margin will be a pleasant reminder when you come across those pages in the days/months/years to come.
Now, it may seem odd that I would title today’s sermon Fatherly Advice, especially when one considers that Father’s Day is still five months away. You might also be tempted to think this is a sermon only for teenagers and young couples with children. Some of you might even find it a little difficult or uncomfortable to listen to a sermon titled Fatherly Advice when, in some cases, your pastor is young enough to be your son or perhaps even your grandson (and that’s not meant as a cheap shot, but simply stating the truth).
So, for those of you that might have been inclined to disengage because you’re no longer a child with a living parent, or perhaps because in reflecting upon your own parenting you know there were opportunities wasted and thus this message is a day late and a dollar short, might I remind you that you’re not giving ear to your pastor’s counsel but rather to that of your Heavenly Father. In that sense then, Fatherly Advice isn’t an odd sermon title at all. And that’s precisely the point.
Need I remind you that we have a choice – on a daily basis – to take our instruction, our direction, our marching orders (as it were) from the government, from the mainstream media and news analysts, from our family and friends, and even the collective wisdom of the internet, or we can be attentive to God’s words and incline our ears to what He says. While we can’t necessarily escape the former, I pray that we all begin with the latter. So, follow along with me in your Bibles or on the screens as I read Proverbs 4:20-27:
20 My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Interestingly, verses 20-22 read like a typical father-son conversation:
Father: Son…
Son: Yes, dad.
F: Pay attention to what I’m saying.
S: Yes, dad.
F: Listen closely to my words.
S: Yes, dad (slightly exasperated).
F: Don’t let them out of your sight.
S: Ok, dad.
F: Keep them within your heart.
S: I think I’m getting the point, dad. You have something you want me to pay attention to.
F: Exactly! Now are you listening?
S: Yes, I’m listening. You’ve asked me four times.
F: Yes, but I remember one time I asked you ten times and you still weren’t listening.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it.
Solomon is desperate to get his son to listen to reason. And maybe it’s because Solomon saw very little wisdom in his own family. You recall his family dynamics, right. His brother, Amnon raped his sister Tamar. Then his other brother, Absalom, killed Amnon for raping his sister. And lest you think Absalom a hero for fighting for justice, don’t forget that he tried to depose and kill his own father (King David).
Oh, Solomon knew the need for wisdom. His world was out of control just like ours. Do you feel the same sense of urgency in your own life to pay attention, to incline your ear to godly counsel? Maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “Well, you know, Solomon isn’t one to talk. He committed idolatry, married foreign women, and ultimately turned away from God. Give me a better teacher, give me a better leader, give me someone worth listening to and I’ll listen.”
Perhaps a gentle reminder that Jesus often concluded His teaching by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8; 14:35). You can’t get any better than the Son of God, more perfect than the Messiah, and yet He knew that although everyone had ears to hear, they didn’t always listen.
Proverbs 4:20-27 has four pretty simple and yet profound things to say to those of us that have ears to hear, to those of us that find ourselves swimming around in an ocean of Facebook posts and Twitter feeds, and the first is this…
Guard Your Heart
Look at verse 23, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The reality of who you are and what you are is your heart. In our normal, everyday conversation we speak of the heart in predominately two ways: as that physical organ that pumps blood through our bodies, or as that secret place where our emotions are kept. Those are the two ways that we most often refer to the heart, but not so for the Jews.
The heart covered a much larger range of meaning in the Hebrew context. Yes, it’s linked to emotions like grief, anger, fear, joy, and peace, but it’s also the source of the will and the seat of a person’s conscience. So, in that sense, the Hebrew concept of “the heart” actually referred to the whole person. The real you.
More important than your mind and certainly more significant than our physical bodies, the heart is where our genuine belief resides. Paul puts it this way, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10). The justification, the “being-made-right-in-God’s-eyes” part of our salvation takes place in the heart.
God, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel said this, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). God doesn’t say He’s going to remove our minds or our souls. It’s that old, stony, cold heart that has to be removed, and replaced with a new, soft, warm heart. A heart that desires the things of God.
What is it that David said in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” And why does he say that? Because, like Jeremiah, David knew that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” (Jeremiah 17:9). Christian author and pastor, Max Lucado, said this, “The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.”
Jesus highlighted the significance of guarding your heart when he said this, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-22).
Again, we cannot think that these verses are only meant for our children and grandchildren. As children of God, our Heavenly Father is pleading with us to guard our hearts. Think of your relationship with the Lord as you would your real, physical heart.
There are many diseases and disorders that doctors have identified over the years that affect our hearts. The same is true with our spiritual hearts. Atherosclerosis is a hardening of the arteries due to accumulated cholesterol plaques and scarring in the artery walls. Hardening of our spiritual hearts occurs when we’re presented with God’s truth, and we refuse to acknowledge or accept it. We have to be on the lookout for any rebellious attitude toward God and His Word, and pray for greater obedience.
Heart murmurs are those abnormal flow patterns due to faulty heart valves. The heart valves act as doors to prevent the backward flow of blood into the heart. Spiritual heart murmurs occur when our heart valves fail to prevent backflow and we engage in complaining, gossip, disputes, and contention. We have to guard against a complaining spirit and cultivate a spirit of gratitude and trust.
Then there’s the heart condition that most of us are familiar with and that’s congestive heart failure. My father-in-law died as a result of complications from this, and many of you have faced it as well. It’s, ultimately, an inability of the heart to successfully pump blood through the body. And there are all sorts of things that can contribute to this: high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, previous heart attacks, and so on. Spiritual equivalents are things like anger, giving in to temptation, and pride. Ephesians 4:31–32 says “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
So, let’s guard our hearts, because from them flow the springs of life.
Watch Your Mouth
Look at verse 24, “Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.” One of the pastors that I listen to from time to time is a Scottish fellow by the name of Alistair Begg. Some of you may be familiar with him. In addition to pastoring Parkside Church in Cleveland, OH, he also has a teaching ministry known as Truth for Life. Talk about having a ministry that’s perfectly named for the season we’re living in…
I was listening to one of his podcasts the other day and he was talking about coming to the U.S. and overhearing mothers getting onto their children in the grocery store by saying, “Watch your mouth.” He says, “I always thought that was a ridiculous thing to say. I mean, ‘hold your tongue’ – at least you have a chance to do that. Watch your mouth? How are you not going to get in more trouble when you can’t even accomplish the thing your mum is asking?”
I have to admit (for me) this was the most disappointing characteristic of our former President. He had very little control over his mouth. In fact, I believe his inflammatory rhetoric will ultimately be remembered by historians, and it will overshadow all of the accomplishments of his presidency. Now I know that some people applauded his direct approach to calling a spade a spade, and there’s certainly a time and place for doing so. But his persistent inability to hold his tongue or guard his mouth proved the truth of Proverbs 15:1, 4, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”
And just in case you’re sitting there feeling a little uncomfortable that your pastor is speaking about the former President from the pulpit and this bumps up against your sensibilities of church and state relations, let me offer this comment. The reason I’m offering my personal commentary on former President Donald Trump is to provide a living illustration that these verses aren’t meant solely for our children and grandchildren. Adults should heed Solomon’s instructions too.
The psalmist said, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3)! Proverbs 21:23 says, “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” Psalm 37:30-31 says, “The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.”
Now, to be fair, deceptive talk and crooked speech can sound good. That’s one of the reasons the biblical authors warned against false prophets, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13). Simply watching our mouths isn’t a foolproof way of knowing whether someone is walking in righteousness with the Lord, but it can be a good indicator of where their heart resides.
Jesus said this in Luke’s gospel, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Someone once said, “Being a ‘fruit inspector’ doesn’t mean we consider ourselves to be without sin; but it does mean that we’re realistic about whom we trust and whom we allow to exert influence over us.” So, whether you think of it as “watching your mouth” or “holding your tongue,” we need to be careful with our speech.
Fix Your Gaze
Verse 25 says, “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.” If the mouth can so easily become an outlet for sin, the eyes can become an inlet.
Our generation and society have become so saturated with visual stimuli that it’s almost impossible to fix your gaze. Television, movies, and the internet have removed that final layer of naiveté and innocence that former generations benefited from. The late Rev. Dr. Billy Graham said, “It’s not the first look, for a young man, at a girl’s legs that poses the problem. It’s the second look; that prolonged gaze.” This is a point of discussion in many a small group meeting. And folks, we’re not simply referring to sexually explicit things though that’s certainly in view here.
Many of you know that one of my weaknesses is automobiles – and they don’t even have to be new. I like fiddling with spanners (that’s a British term for wrenches) and getting my hands dirty. I cannot tell you how tempting it is for me not to spend hours on websites like CarGurus or Cars.com just perusing the market. One of my favorite television shows is called Wheeler Dealers.
Riding with me to Greenville is like riding with a squirrel. I could probably give you the complete inventory of Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet and George Coleman Ford in Travelers Rest, right now. I’ve confessed from this pulpit my penchant for driving too fast. If you want to see me drive slowly, then just put me on Laurens Road. There’s not enough distance between car lots for me to gain any speed.
Shoot, even riding around in the country doesn’t stop me from craning my neck to look into old sheds and barns in the hopes of spotting something rare. And I know I’m not the only one in here that has this problem (Larry Stokes, Jr.). Just the other night, at one of Parker’s and Garrett’s basketball games, I walked over to speak with the Stokes Family and Larry, Jr. was on his phone looking at cars.
Enough about that. If Eve had kept looking straight ahead, she would’ve looked at God’s commands and not at the forbidden tree. If Lot’s wife had kept looking straight ahead, she would’ve gone down in the Bible as a person of mercy instead of a pillar of salt. If David, as a young man up on top of his roof, had kept his eyes straight ahead rather than sustaining his gaze on Bathsheba, he wouldn’t have ended up in his bedroom with her in his arms.
So, says Solomon: Guard your heart… Watch your mouth… Fix your gaze… Where? Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” Never mind the person sitting next to you. Be thankful for them, but don’t get hung up on where they’re going or what they’re doing. The pleasures of this world and the seductions of temptation do not lie on the narrow road. So, if we keep our eyes straight we don’t meet them. It’s on the bypass to the left and the right that we encounter them and always on a backward track.
Keep Your Feet
Look at verses 26-27, “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.” We can tell a great deal about a person based on the way they walk, where they walk, and with whom they walk. And the Bible has so much to say about where we plant our feet.
As we face 2021 and the societal changes and cultural challenges, the temptations and opportunities that it brings, unless Christ comes to reign in our hearts and we’ve tried to watch our mouths in vain – unless Christ comes into the driver’s seat of our lives and takes over control helping us to fix our gaze – unless Christ comes to rule over our lives, then by the same token we’ll find it so difficult to keep our feet.
Remember Joseph, in contrast to David? David is up on his roof and he sees Bathsheba and falls into sin. Joseph is in the home of Potiphar, and Potiphar’s wife advances on him as a young man, handsome and good looking. A fine young guy, and what did he do? He kept his feet. Don’t misunderstand me. He didn’t stay put. That’s not the emphasis of verses 26-27. That’s not what verses 26-27 are saying. No, he ran out of the house. He fled sin and evil. He didn’t allow that experience to move him to the left or the right. He kept his feet.
Jesus said, “Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). And John, having heard that statement, clarified it in his first epistle to the Church when he wrote these words, “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7).
Dear friends, each of you wrote down the name of someone that you know (or are pretty sure) doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus. And just outside those doors is an experiment, an opportunity, a challenge, a dare (if you like) that you and I would you commit and pray and seek to share with our friends and family and the entire world that Jesus makes all the difference? When they listen to our words and look at our lives would it all ring true, because we guard our hearts, because we watch our mouths, because we fix our gaze, and because we keep our feet.