Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon

3 Wise Monkeys

Good Morning, Welcome to Harvest!

My Name is Junior and I’m the Asst.

Pastor of Discipleship here at harvest.

*Bibles & bulletins available

*Harvest Kids Available.

We are back into our series in the book of Proverbs called “get smart”; we hope that you’ve been getting smarter and wiser through those last four topics that we covered.

Because Pastor Al mentioned in the opening message that

Knowledge – Is the accumulation of information.

Understanding – Is the interpretation of information.

Wisdom – Is the application of information.

In the last few weeks the speakers before addressed the themes: Wisdom, Living sexually pure, the righteous vs. the wicked, and last week we covered relationships.

The theme I’m covering today is “vices”.

And as you can see the topic given to my message today is “the 3 wise monkeys”.

Now you’re asking, what’s the correlation here junior?

I thought we were coming to church to hear from God! What’s all this monkey business?

A closer look at the word vice helps us to understand that it is the same word in the OT and NT translated Evil or wicked.

The word is found in NKJV of the bible in “ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

If you look in your bibles the ESV translation, the same passage reads:

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

So it’s the same word used there for evil.

The 3 wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim/saying (a general truth) showing the principle “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

The three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil.

It is believed that the intent of the saying was to convey 3 general principles: "Look not at what is inappropriate; listen not to what is inappropriate; speak not what is inappropriate; make no movement which is inappropriate".

In other words stay away from what is evil!

Interesting enough, most of us use one or more of these monkey characters on our phones everyday for one reason or another!

3 Monkeys emoji

Recognize these?

This Japanese maxim is where the concept came from for your emojies

However I don’t think we usually use them for their original intent.

But the idea, at least at the outset, were to communicate that we should maintain an upright moral standard.

Stay away from evil!

The Holy Spirit through the book of proverbs communicates this same principle over and over again:

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.

Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Proverbs has much to say about shunning evil, and we would do well to take heed.

So here’s the main idea; Let’s say it in a sentence:

As a Christian the general pattern of my life should be a constant turning away from evil acts, to righteous living.

Let’s us pray...

Today I’m just gonna zero in on a specific passage

The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life.

Here are 3 principles we derive from this verse:

Point number 1 on your outline

1. Purify my heart, because evil conduct comes from evil hearts vs. 17a

One of the most common characteristics in the book of proverbs is its use of parallelisms; biblical Parallelism is placing truths side-by-side so that the second statement expands, completes, defines, and emphasizes the first statement.

So here we see these two phrases saying the same thing, but the nuance in the second phrase expands the idea of the first.

But both lines are calling for us to avoid evil and by extension its consequence.

Look at our verse; it says “the highway of the upright turns aside from evil”.

That word highway means “a course of conduct, our lifestyle”, how you generally behave, it’s not a rare, far and in between type of action, it’s an every year, every other month, weekly, a daily course of conduct.

Now we tend to think of this backwards, we tend to think that having right behavior makes us upright, makes us Christian, we think “I go to church so therefore I’m a Christian”, I got baptized so therefore I’m a Christian”, but that’s not what this passage nor the rest of scripture teaches.

Anyone who is a Christian knows that he is not a Christian because of his own work!

What makes a person a Christian is not church attendance!

It’s not serving in a ministry!

It is not small group participation!

It’s not because I give 10% or more of my money to the church!

These things are indeed good don’t get me wrong.

But if these are your thoughts, you’ve gotten it all wrong!

Because the bible says in

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

So what makes a person a Christian?

The moment you genuinely repent of your sins and place all your trust, all your faith in the finished work of Christ you become a Christian.

The upright in this passage is the Christian, and out of that saving relationship with Jesus Christ he turns aside from evil, out of this relationship with Jesus comes the fruit of good behavior.

So it’s not I’m a Christian because I behave well, it’s the other way around; I behave well because I’m a Christian.

The genuine desire of a Christian is; Lord purify my heart!

Make me clean!

Turn me away from evil.

So here is the question;

If the fruit of my Christianity is good works, good behavior, am I still a Christian when I don’t behave well?

Pastor James Mac Donald has a book called “I want to change” in his preface he says, “let me save you some time yow”,

“This is a book to help people actually change.

This is not for people who want to debate different strategies for change.

It is not a book to argue about how to do it best and why the “other guys” are doing it wrong.”

“This is a book about you changing, not others.

It’s about personal transformation.

It’s not intended to give you ammunition against the character flaws of those around you.”

“This book is about change according to God’s Word, the Bible, not about personal reformation.”

I like that!

Because at the end of the day, Christians live with this daily desire “ I want to change” I want to change” I want to change”.

I don’t just want to go to church and check the attendance sheet!

I don’t want a pat on the back because I jumped through some religious hoop!

I want to be different!

I want to change.

I’ve been hooked on porn for so long!

I’ve been sleeping with my girlfriend, I’ve not been generous with what God has blessed me with, I’ve been gossiping about others.

I want to change.

My heart cry is the same as David’s Lord purify my heart!

Write these down...

Three genuine desires of a Christian:

1.

I want to change

- This was the heart of David in psalm 51:10 when he said, “Create in me a clean heart”

2. I want to change God’s way -

“Have mercy on me O God, according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions”; he asked that the mercy and blotting out of sins be done in God’s way.

3. I want to change urgently

- Repentance is of such a nature that when a Christian sees his evil actions, he immediately confesses it, and forsakes it.