This sermon was preached in Isaacson Chapel at North Park Theological Seminary community worship, January 15, 2026.
It is wonderful to be with you all this evening, but I have no problem admitting that I am agitated. I am having a hard time reconciling what I have come to believe about God, the Scriptures, the gospel, and the Church with what I see and hear from so many Christians in our time. It doesn’t make sense to me. But I’m not going to use my time now to recount depressing and exasperating stories of North American Christianity. Instead, I want to lean into my “elder statesman” status to offer words of caution and encouragement.
I could never have planned for my spiritual journey to take me from a little Apostolic, holiness storefront church in Queens, NY to the Evangelical Covenant Church by way of Baptists, Pentecostals, Evangelical Free, and Mennonites. And I will include the Roman Catholic Church because of where I did my doctoral work in Biblical Studies. I have gleaned a lot from many streams. I won’t reflect on all those streams right now, but I will say that they have made me wiser. And when I consider wisdom, I run to Proverbs.
As we start a new semester, I want to spend a little time in Proverbs 4.
At different times in my life, I would read five psalms per day to get through the entire Psalter in a month and at other times I would read a chapter of Proverbs each day to get through all thirty-one in a month. I don’t know what your relationship with the book of Proverbs is like but let me encourage you to spend some time in this book and consider how these ancient words of wisdom might resonate today in a world where artificial intelligence outshines emotional intelligence and algorithms overshadow critical thinking. A world where political antics trump faith, hope, and love. A world that rewards the snarky instead of the saintly, that denigrates humility while celebrating hubris, and recasts Jesus as a bully instead of the Son of God. Consider the wisdom of the Proverbs.
There are three times that the Hebrew verb נָצַר shows up in Proverbs 4. I say this so Drs. Sophia and Nathan can have a reason to pull out their Hebrew Bibles! That root, nun, tsadi, resh means to guard, to watch, or to keep. The first time it shows up in Proverbs 4 is at verse 6:
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The “she” refers to wisdom. Remember when the dairy council had the slogan, “Got milk?” In some ways the slogan for Proverbs could be, “Got wisdom?” Here at the Seminary, we are in the business of encouraging you in the way of wisdom. Yes, we want you to gain knowledge, but we want you to put that knowledge to use in ways that honor God and builds up others. Oftentimes our alumni don’t only recall the information that they got here at North Park Seminary. They also often recall the encounters they had with professors and fellow students, who don’t only teach or learn theology but try to live it. Last month we bid farewell to the late Dr. John Weborg for whom our Center for Spiritual Direction is named. At the funeral and in other forums, I heard story after story about Dr. Weborg’s wisdom and sense of humor.
Wisdom comes from a variety of sources: what we read, what we see, and from the people we grant access to our lives. If you don’t have mentors, get them. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Find those people who will help you grow in wisdom, and that wisdom will guard you, as verse 6 says. Wisdom guards us by helping us to avoid foolish, hurtful, and evil behaviors.
Foolishness, pain, and evil are perpetual foes. I have a long commute to campus, and I pass many billboards on the highways.I typically don’t notice them, but a few days ago, an ad caught my attention. It was for United Airlines, and I often fly that airline. The slogan on the billboard read: “Good leads the way.” I laughed. Right away I said to myself: “That’s definitely not true.” I am like the prophet Habakkuk, who lamented how evil flourishes and what is good can scarcely be found. I would like to think that good leads the way, but it doesn’t in a crooked, perverse world. Yet I want to encourage us to keep on pursuing what is good. Even when it seems like a fruitless task, pursuing what is good is absolutely the right task!
You heard in this proverb how relentless evil is. Evildoers “eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence” (4:17). We don’t defeat such evil by becoming evil. Hate doesn’t drive out hate. We must commit to guarding what we have been taught. The second occurrence of נָצַר is in 4:13. It says, “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” In verse 6 we were told to pursue wisdom because it would guard us, and now we’re encouraged to grab hold and guard instruction. That word, מוּסָר means instruction, but also discipline, or even “correction.” The point is that in our pursuit of wisdom, we will surely make mistakes, and we will need proper instruction. We will need discipline. We will need correction. Don’t reject that. Take it and hold onto it. I often cringe at what I used to believe, tolerate, or even defend. But as I grew in both faith and wisdom, I learned to yield to what was better. I received instruction and sometimes correction. And I am better for it. Please hold onto what the Holy Spirit teaches you in class, out of class, at church, at home—wherever! That instruction can mean life—for you and for those whom you serve!
Finally, don’t let yourself become bitter, hateful, or resentful even though evil seems to be winning. The third occurrence of נָצַר is in 4:23:
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
The NIV translates that first line as “guard your heart.” The point is clear, I think. The heart is of course not the blood pump, per se, but the seat of our emotions. The verses around this one speak of our feet, ears, and eyes, so that we walk in the right direction and pay attention to the healthiest things. It is easy to be cynical. I fight against it. I told you at the start that I am agitated. But I refuse to let evil win.
I refuse to give in to the prince of darkness.
I refuse to let the Jesus bullies and profiteers poison my disposition.
I refuse to let the guardians of the diabolical galaxy pull me into their orbit.
I refuse to let the “hate thy neighbor” crowd keep me from caring for the least, lost, lonely, and left out.
I refuse to let vitriol and violence sully the name of Christ.
I want to guard my heart! Sisters and brothers, I plead for the solidarity of the peacemakers who will try to overcome evil with good. I want to be part of the resistance that doesn’t give in to fear. Let us be in it together and let wisdom guard us. Let us cling to good, godly instruction. And let us guard our hearts!
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