Sermon: PULLING GUARD DUTY
First preached: February 10, 1991
Before going on I need to print a retraction. According to our son, he never had a pet snake while living at home. I, apparently, listened to the wrong information and for that I am deeply sorry. 🥹 But, the worm story is still true.
This is my last sermon based on the Old Testament book of Proverbs. This was originally preached the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Next week I will look elsewhere for one of my old sermons. As you read this you will see I refer to Saddam Hussein. Remember, not only was this sermon preached just before Lent, but it was preached during Operation Desert Storm.
If there ever was a time we need to guard our heart (and mind) it is now. With all the stuff on social media, true and untrue, from every direction imaginable … with our various news outlets that twist towards entertainment and number of views instead of accuracy … we need to be aware. It is so easy to allow our hearts to be filled with fear, frustration, confusion, and hate. I struggle with this daily. Join me in opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit so our hearts (and minds) will be guarded and we will be experience the peace that passes all understanding, keeping us, no matter what surrounds us. And, let us continually pray for God’s wisdom. James says in his letter: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:5-6 NRSVue)
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 4:20-27 (NRSVue)
My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Today is our last day with the book of Proverbs. We have looked at Proverb's thoughts on wisdom and foolishness, the proper use of our mouth, and the diligence of ants. Today we end with its thoughts on guard duty.
My military experience has been very brief but impressive. At a young age I was a five star general in command of a local neighborhood armed force named the Junior Marines. We had our own song sung to the tune of the Marine Hymn and a well developed chain of command.
On one particular evening we all pulled guard duty. The word got around on the same day that a neighbor lady across the alley had seen a prowler around her house the night before. The Junior Marines went into action. We looked for clues all day long. We also planned and prepared ourselves for the prowlers return in the evening. One of the fellow Junior Marines had a loud, battery powered machine gun. We set it up along with an arsenal of flashlights and binoculars in the middle of a bunch of lilac bushes in the back of the the neighbor woman's house. As the sky began to darken we moved into position, full of excitement and fear -- wanting to be heroes and yet wondering what we were really going to do if the prowler came back.
It was dark. It was quiet. Our nerves were on edge. Then it happened. Piercing the tension-filled quietness, our mothers called us in for bed.
So much for my guard duty experience.
Guard duty is a critical operation. Carried out properly it assures the safety of personnel and necessary equipment. When guards fall asleep or get sloppy and are overcome, the results can be devastating.
What does the book of Proverbs tell us about guard duty? More importantly, what does it tell us we are to guard? Proverbs lists three —
Our tongue
Our ways
Our heart. This is most important and what we will focus on today. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (4:23).”
The philosophy behind guard duty, is to guard first and best what is most important. Saddam Hussein in trying his best to guard what is most crucial to him -- his tanks, his air force, his missile launchers, his Republican Guard -- and we are trying our best to destroy those very same things.
Above all else we want to guard the lifeline. Proverbs calls that lifeline our heart, we might call it our mind. But whatever we call it, it is the very center of our being -- that which determines who we are and what we do. Jesus tells us that what lies in our hearts determines what kind of person we will be and that our attention must be on the condition of our heart not on the outward symtoms. What happens to the heart will affect everything else. A healthy heart will produce a healthy life.
The first step in guarding our heart is cleaning it up. We need to get rid of all the hiding places in which the enemy can hide. We need to get rid of all the stuff that spoils, ferments and decays -- that stuff that when left in there unchecked will poison our attitudes and mess up our lives -- Stuff like bitterness. Stuff like dissatisfaction, unresolved anger, and false pride. Stuff like despair, hate, and lust.
Second, we need to set up internal fortification. We must guard against that sinful stuff getting back in. To empty the heart and then leave it empty and unguarded is dangerous business.
One of the major dimensions of Jesus' ministry was that of casting out demons. The Jewish leaders of Jesus' day were very uncomfortable with it. They eventually attacked Jesus by accusing him of driving out the demons through the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebub. The charge was a ridiculous. Jesus answered, "Why would I use the power of the prince of demons to cast out other demons? Don't you know that a house divided against itself cannot stand?" Then he told this strange, almost eerie little story starting in Luke 11:24-26: "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."
Whether we understand demons or not we can make sense of the story. It is a story about an unguarded heart -- a heart that has been cleaned up but has been left empty, open and unguarded. It is a story about making resolutions to get rid of some certain sin only to find ourselves falling back into the same thing worse than ever.
We need to replace the bad within our hearts with what is good. It is a critical step. In fact, this one step can both clean out and guard our hearts at the same time.
Think of our heart as a vessel that can only hold so much. It is full of the thick sludge of oily, sinful stuff. We want to clean it out and keep it out.
What happens when we pour water and oil together? The oil floats to the top, right? When we allow our heart to be filled with the spirit of Jesus Christ, the living water of God, the oil is displaced -- it is forced out. If we allow that living water to continue to flow there is no way that sinful sludge can get back in.
We have a clean heart. We have the internal fortification -- the living water of Christ. Now we need to protect that flow of living water with some kind of external fortification. Satan, or the devil, or whatever we want to call the active presence of evil in our world, wants us to fail. He wants to somehow divert or slow up or stop the flow of living water and regain a foothold. Peter writes in his first letter (5:8,9), "Be . . . alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . .”
We need armor for external fortification. Paul describes it as the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18 -- "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests . . .”
As Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was to die, he took with him his friends. He asked them to come and keep watch with him. However, after an agonizing time of prayer, as he turned to them for support he found they had fallen asleep. They had not idea how critical it was to be alert and on guard. Jesus said to them, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
In this world of terror, temptation and godlessness an unguarded heart can be quickly overcome by destruction and despair. Let us live by the wise words of Proverbs, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."