A student complained to his teacher about his sorrows. His teacher told him to have some tea with him. The teacher prepared the tea, poured him a cup and handed it to the student. He immediately said, “The tea isn’t nice!” The teacher prepared again and poured another cup. The student said, “This tea smells nice and tastes nice!”

“The first cup of tea was brewed with warm water. This was why the flavour wasn’t brought out. The second cup of tea was brewed with boiling water. This was why the flavour was able to be brought out.”

The student came to a realisation. Life is like brewing tea. You need to go through the moulding of the environment for you to grow and develop. At the same time, he understood life is also akin to drinking tea. You need to pick up and lay aside. You need to pick up the cup of tea and drink it before you’re able to ascertain if it’s good or not. You also need to lay it aside to be able to pick up a new cup. Therefore in life we need to learn to pick things up and lay it aside.

Are there things in our lives that we need to retain in our hearts? Why do some people live life in a carefree manner and some with a heavy heart? Because some people are able to pick up and able to lay aside. If you lay aside, you can be carefree. If you can’t, you’d be troubled.

Some people cause their lives to be dragged down because there’re unable to lay things aside, to the point they lose their precious lives. There’re some things we shouldn’t lay aside and that’s beautiful. But there’re some things we should lay aside and that’s beautiful.

What should we lay aside? The previous sermon discussed 3 points. The fourth point will now be discussed.

1. Lay aside our face Luke 15:15-18 The prodigal son asked his father for his portion of inheritance because he didn’t want to be restrained by the faith of his family; he wanted to freely live the life he chose for himself outside. His way of thinking sounded ideal but in reality, it was difficult. Later on, he spent all his wealth and faced with famine. It was difficulty upon difficulty for him. He approached friends for help. It’s not that they didn’t help him, they sent him to tend to the swine. To Jews, tending swine is not only a lowly job but also an unclean job. He then understood that when he had meat and wine, he had friends. When he didn’t have meat and wine, he had no friends.

He thought he would be freer outside than home. He thought it’ll be easier to communicate with friends than family. But he was wrong. He paid a very heavy price for his mistake. We look at how pathetic his life was; not even comparable to the pigs. The pigs at least had food.

Why didn’t he go back? Probably he wanted to but couldn’t lay aside his face. He didn’t know if his father would accept him. He didn’t know how his brother would treat him, and how the household servants would mock him. In consideration of these things he was unable to go home. Because he was unable to lay aside his face, he had to face these difficulties.

v17 When faced choosing between death and his face, he realised life was more important than his face. If you die, what face is there to consider? Therefore, he came to himself, got up and decided to go home. When he was willing to put aside his face, not only did he manage to keep his life, life also became more comfortable.

Who is this prodigal son Jesus speaks of? We’re not prodigal sons, but often in our faith we’re like prodigal sons. Due to certain matters we don’t want to return to the house of God. Even though the Holy Spirit moves us to return, when we consider our face and self-respect, we decide not to come home. We must understand faith doesn’t concern face but concerns matters of life. At what point do we have such a realisation like the prodigal son: life is more important than face. Put aside our face to have life.

Trees need bark; humans need face (this sounds nicer in chinese HAHA). Humans liking to maintain face is good. It’s because we wish to maintain face that we avoid doing things that are shameful in nature. There’re some people who do shameful things such that they, their parents and friends lose face. If you like to maintain face you won’t do disgraceful things. We don’t just have our parents to consider, also our Heavenly Father. Let’s not do things to disgrace Him. So it’s good to maintain face. But if we’re extreme in wanting to maintain face, it’ll add on to our troubles and pains. There’re some things that are actually not so bad and complicated. However, because both parties aren’t able to lay aside face, they get stuck and no progress is made. Some relations can actually be mended. But because both parties are unwilling to lay aside face, a cold war ensues. Some sin, but because of face, they’re unwilling to return home. If Man esteems face too much, life is difficult to lead.

打肿脸充胖子 literally means to slap one’s face until it’s swollen in order to look fat. Metaphorically, it means to do something beyond one’s means in order to be impressive.

If Man is unwilling to lay aside face, life will be difficult. If we can learn to lay aside face, life will be more relaxed, enjoyable and happy.

1. Lay aside worldly lusts Titus 2:11-12 The salvation grace of God has been made manifest. But we don’t just believe in God to receive this grace, we still need to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, living godly and soberly in the present age. We often emphasise the need to believe in Jesus and pursue eternal life. However, to maintain our faith we need to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts which obstruct our faith. So we need to lay aside these worldly lusts.

Worldly lusts, according to Elder John, are the lusts of the flesh and eyes, and pride of life. They won’t last forever. We shouldn’t let them obstruct us from progressing in our faith.

A company advertisement says, “As it turns out, life can be more beautiful”. People like this slogan because isn’t everybody pursuing a more beautiful life? The company claims its appliances, food, holiday packages can make your life more beautiful. All these things that supposedly make your life more beautiful require money. Does that mean money makes your life more beautiful? Some people really think that and so work really hard for money. Money hence becomes their god and people are willing to give their life for it.

Beside a skeleton was a big rock that looked like gold. But it wasn’t even though it looked like it. It was called fool’s gold. But this person thought it was real gold. He tried to bring it home. Even though he was near death, he still couldn’t let it go. So he died like that. Some people really are willing to die for wealth.

What each person values is different. Do you pursue such enjoyment, or do you pursue contentment in your heart?

Isa 55:2-3 Why do you spend on physical enjoyments? They don’t satisfy your soul. They can’t bring true happiness and satisfaction. You eat and drink and you still want more. You will never be satisfied. But Jesus says the water He gives us will satisfy you. Do we pursue the physical water or water of eternal life?

Don’t only concentrate on satisfying our physical needs. This world is short, and our lives are also short. We need to have this kind of wisdom and realisation. We need to pursue eternal peace and happiness; to draw close to God and purchase this water of eternal life so we can enter eternal life.

A saying: A rich man went to a resort to relax and sunbathe. He saw a fisherman had kept his nets and was also sunbathing at an early part of the day. “It’s still so early in the day. Why don’t you go catch more fish and earn more money?” “Earn more money for what?” “To relax more! Like me! To go on a holiday and sunbathe!” “Am I not like you also relaxing and sunbathing?”

Truly if Man is willing to lay side worldly pursuits, his life will be happy. More importantly, to lay it aside so we can pursue eternal life. We’ll have more time to contemplate issues concerning eternal life. Not like people who lust after the world and lose themselves in the world.

Why is the word of God not able to take root and grow in their hearts? Because there’re many thorns that choke the seed. The thorns refer to the cares and enjoyments of this world. We need to lay aside these worldly pursuits and lusts. Only then can we concentrate on our faith and eternal life.

1. Lay aside the past Phil 3:13 Forget the things behind and reach forward to things ahead. In reality we can’t forget things that have passed, because it’s been imprinted on our hearts. We think we’ve forgotten but in a certain environment under certain circumstances, we realise that indeed we have not forgotten. We have not forgotten the past. Actually, forgetting the past is laying aside your past. When the past resurfaces in your head, catch hold of it and consider/思想 it. You’ll be brought up and down by these old memories in your head. You realise you’re unable to get past what has past. Like the songs played on an old record player (the one you put the needle on the big black disk). Sometimes it doesn’t work right and it can’t spin properly; it gets stuck at the same point. This vexes us. We need to help it move on and get past it. If we don’t help it, it’ll keep ‘buffering’ and vex us. When the past resurfaces in our heads, we need to lay it aside and move past the past. Don’t allow yourself to be caught by the ups and downs of the past. Because we should be living in the present and not the past. More importantly, God doesn’t want us to live in the past.

1 Sam 15:35 Prophet Samuel lived in the past. He continuously mourned for Saul because God had rejected Saul. This was something that was history. Why did Samuel mourn for the past? Since this was such a tragedy, why didn’t Samuel go and see Saul? Even though Samuel was so sad over Saul, he did not go and see him. Why? Because he had to stand in the position of the truth of God. He had to sever all ties with Saul who had violated God’s command. More importantly, he had to prevent Saul from using this matter to say, “Look the prophet of God still comes to see me!”; he didn’t want the believers to have this misunderstanding. Because Samuel was so fond of Saul and had a deep relationship with him, Samuel continued to live in the past.

We see God didn’t rebuke Samuel. Because God is love and best understands feelings. God understood the pain Samuel felt in his heart. Samuel required time to allow the past to become the past. Which was why God didn’t rebuke Samuel. But Samuel was unable to get past the past, this displeased God because God didn’t want him to live in the past but the present. There’s still much work to be done and paths to travel. How can you let your life and actions be controlled by the past? Hence God appeared to Samuel to tell him.

1 Sam 16:1 God asked Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul?” From here we can see God doesn’t want His people to live in the past and wants us to progress. In our lives there’re many things in the past that we find hard to move on from. But when we think about the past, it causes us to be very down in spirit. There’re many things we’re supposed to do at present, but we don’t because of the past. If you live in the past, you won’t only hurt yourself but also those who love you. Let bygones be bygones. Of course there’re good things of the past which we retain as precious memories. Not so good things of the past we take as warnings not to make the same mistake. If we have offended God in the past, come before God and repent and confess our sins. God doesn’t want us to live in the past, but the present, because the path before us is still long. There’re many things we still must do. Let us not let our past stop us from moving on. Let us not be stagnant in the past but push forward and progress.

Hymn 182: Onward Go 往前走