Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] It's good to see you on this Labor Day weekend. Happy Labor Day.
[00:00:04] Yeah.
[00:00:07] Hope you got some good plans. Cooking out some good food.
[00:00:10] If you're making something really good, feel free to invite your pastor.
[00:00:15] I'll take it.
[00:00:18] Yeah. All right. We'll talk after service.
[00:00:22] But it is so good to be with you today, and my name's Chet. If you are a guest with us today and we haven't had the chance to be meet, I'd love to meet you and shake your hand.
[00:00:32] But today we're going to continue talking about Proverbs, chapter three, and what it means to pursue a life of wisdom and how actually important that really is. So we're going to talk about that. But before we do, let's ask God's help in all of this.
[00:00:49] Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this time to be together.
[00:00:55] And we know that all wisdom comes from you.
[00:00:59] And so, Lord, our lives, many of us were faced with challenges.
[00:01:04] Maybe today we're walking into this room and life is hard and life is heavy and life is confusing.
[00:01:12] And, Lord, we feel ill equipped, ill prepared, and not sure where to go. Lord, we pray you'd give us the wisdom that we need.
[00:01:22] We pray, Father, we would seek you in all things.
[00:01:26] We would trust you day by day, moment by moment.
[00:01:30] And, Lord, in the difficult, we would allow you to shape us to be the people you want us to be.
[00:01:39] Help us in all this.
[00:01:41] In Jesus name, amen.
[00:01:46] Well, church, I had a bad head cold this week, so I'm going to try not to hack through this sermon, but be patient with me if so, because it's not starting out well.
[00:01:59] But as I said, we're talking about wisdom. And when I was in elementary school, I had to give a speech before the whole school, and the speech was, what do you want to do when you grow up?
[00:02:14] And so, you know, I knew what I wanted to be or what do you want to be when you grow up? And we went before the whole school, Moraski Elementary.
[00:02:27] Thanks, brother.
[00:02:29] No other matadors here. That's okay.
[00:02:33] But I stood up and I actually. What? I said I wanted to be an FBI agent when I grew up.
[00:02:40] Nekul. Yeah. Didn't work out.
[00:02:44] And so when that doesn't work out, you go to the next obvious thing, which is to be a pastor. Right there.
[00:02:50] Lot of.
[00:02:53] I like the energy today. Thank you.
[00:02:56] You know, it just kind of makes sense.
[00:03:00] But when I was young, I didn't really know what all that entailed or what that meant, but that's What I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. And today, when we look at the book of Proverbs, you can envision what we're reading. As a father telling a son, he said, look, there's probably a lot of things you want to be as you grow up, but the most important thing to be is to be wise.
[00:03:24] And I want to show you how to do that. And probably a lot of us, we didn't grow up thinking, like, you know what? What I want to be when I grow up is wise. That probably wasn't at the very forefront of our list, and it might not be there today.
[00:03:39] But what Proverbs is trying to teach us and trying to show us is that whether being wise is really important to us or not, it should be.
[00:03:51] And also, here's what it means, and here's how to do it. So last week we began talking about that, and today we're gonna continue it. And I'm gonna pick up right where we left off we started, Proverbs chapter three. And we're gonna pick up at verse 11.
[00:04:08] Now, just to remind you, what wisdom means is not that you have all the answers.
[00:04:15] It's not that means that you have everything figured out, but what it means is that you are learning ways to be competent in how God has designed life.
[00:04:30] When we try to go against the way that God intends for us to live and the way that God has created life to be lived, it ends up being problematic and destructive and hurtful sometimes to ourselves and others. And what wisdom is, is wisdom is understanding how God has created it, and understand even more who God wants you to be, and beginning to bring your life in alignment with that. You with me on this. And so that's what we've been looking at. And let's pick up at verse 11, Proverbs 3. It says this, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, and as a father, the son in whom he delights.
[00:05:25] Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. For the gain from her is better than gain from Bitcoin.
[00:05:38] But Pastor, Bitcoin's up right now. It's still better than that.
[00:05:43] Her profit better than gold.
[00:05:46] She's more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
[00:05:53] Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
[00:06:03] She is a tree of life to those who lay a hold of her, those who hold her fast are called blast. And notice just that the author here, Solomon, is personifying wisdom. In other words, he's talking about wisdom as this person that is more valuable, more important than all these other things and brings all these wonderful gifts into our life.
[00:06:25] Verse 19. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.
[00:06:39] Now I think these, aren't these verses beautiful?
[00:06:43] Now the author is writing these in an artistic sense. So not only is he teaching this incredible wisdom, but also doing it in a very stylized and interesting and captivating way.
[00:06:58] And in these verses there's so much for us to think about. But I just want to point out a couple things that are hiding in plain sight and then we'll get to the very meat of these verses. But the book of Proverbs, the things that are hiding in plain sight, is this number one, that wisdom. When you think about this wisdom and when you think about becoming wise and you think about what this means in your life, Proverbs chapter three likens it to walking down a path.
[00:07:29] This image of a path is used again and again.
[00:07:35] And here's what that means for us. And I think this is important to think that wisdom is about just the small day to day steps.
[00:07:46] It's about the ordinary reality of life and the direction that it's going.
[00:07:54] In other words, we often want God to transform us in one glorious moment.
[00:08:03] Lord, just hit me on the forehead and make me a new man.
[00:08:08] And certainly God could do that. And sometimes God does that. But the expectation I would say, that the Bible gives us is that God is gonna change you in a slow and steady journey that goes into eternity.
[00:08:25] And many of us are like, nah, I don't want that.
[00:08:31] I want it now. I want to be different. But part of the power of Proverbs is to recognize that every day matters and that the micro decisions, the attitude that I cultivate during the day, what's going on in my heart, Is my heart moving towards a deeper trust in God or a deeper skepticism?
[00:08:58] The way that I interact and just the everyday interactions with the people that I live with, the people that live by me, the places that I work, What Proverbs ultimately is saying to us is that if you really focus on the micro, the things that seem small and inconsequential in your life, if you focus on those and you invite God's wisdom in it, then the macro, the big things in your life will Take care of themselves. You with me on this?
[00:09:32] And so Proverbs isn't a life hack, but it's a path.
[00:09:37] It's a journey.
[00:09:39] It's a willingness to walk down this place because you say, look, this path right now, it doesn't seem super transforming, but as I make my way down, will make me in who God wants me to be. You with me. And so some of us today, I just want to encourage you that you may be on a good path, but you might not feel like anything's happening.
[00:10:04] Like, Chad, I've prayed three times so far.
[00:10:08] My life has not totally changed. You're on the path. Keep praying. Chad, I've read the Bible six times.
[00:10:17] Yeah.
[00:10:18] Not all the way through. I've just opened it at one point and read it.
[00:10:22] And I don't know everything about God yet.
[00:10:25] You're on the path, brother. You're on the path. Right? You just keep walking. Don't worry about how transformed you are right now, today.
[00:10:36] But if you stay on the path, you'll get to where God wants you to go. You with me on this?
[00:10:40] And here's why I'm saying this. Because in our culture, we hate that way of thinking.
[00:10:46] We want it and we want it now.
[00:10:49] And if we can't get it now, something is wrong.
[00:10:53] Well, wisdom cannot be microwaved.
[00:10:58] You like that, just made that up, right?
[00:11:06] It takes time. It's got to marinate. It's got to slow cook.
[00:11:12] You always get me talking about food in this place. Church.
[00:11:17] It's a path. It's a journey. It's one step at a time. It's drops in a bucket. That's the first thing, hiding in plain sight. Here's the second thing. Hiding in plain sight about Proverbs is that the journey of wisdom is not meant to be something you go on alone.
[00:11:35] Here's what's easy to miss. But it's hiding in plain sight in Proverbs. And that essentially what we have here in this book is we're like looking in on a small group conversation.
[00:11:48] Almost everyone who studies Proverbs thinks that this is Solomon talking to his son and probably a bunch of other teenage boys with him.
[00:11:58] And so it's like a dad at the campfire saying, all right, guys. And all the boys roll their eyes. They're like, here goes the old man.
[00:12:05] Anybody? I so look forward to torturing my kids with lectures like, okay.
[00:12:11] Cause I'm a preacher man. I can talk.
[00:12:14] I can go on. It doesn't even have to make sense. I'll keep going I don't get discouraged. Easy. I can't wait for that. But anyway. But I imagine this scene. You're like, we know.
[00:12:26] I imagine the scene where they are. They're around, you know, and he's taking. But here's what I don't want you to miss. This is. This is all relational in our world today. Here's the thing, we think we can figure out life by sitting on YouTube and having YouTube answer all our questions alone with our laptop or our phone. And you can't get wisdom that way. You with me? It needs community.
[00:12:56] It needs relationship. That's part of how God has designed it. And Look, I love YouTube as much as any person, but it can give us information.
[00:13:07] We think wisdom can come through ChatGPT.
[00:13:10] Look, it can do some cool stuff, man.
[00:13:12] It's helped me out.
[00:13:14] But wisdom does not come from being alone, trying to figure it out, but it comes from being around God's people and learning together.
[00:13:27] And here's what's difficult about that.
[00:13:31] Relationships are messy.
[00:13:35] See, it's much cleaner to try and do life alone. You're like, I don't gotta deal with people.
[00:13:41] But here's the reality.
[00:13:43] People are messy.
[00:13:45] But through the process of relationships is how God wants to mature your soul.
[00:13:54] And if we shortcut that process, we're shortcutting the maturity that God wants to bring into our life. You with me? Like, yeah, but people annoy me. Well, yeah, we all annoy each other.
[00:14:08] That's part of it, right? But that's how we learn how to forgive.
[00:14:12] That's how God grows our patience.
[00:14:15] That's how we realize, oh, we might not be Prince Charming or as great as we think, and maybe there's some humility. You with me on this? You're like, no, you're not.
[00:14:27] You're a lot more engaged when I was talking about food.
[00:14:31] But this is key to becoming who God wants us to be. Church. You hear me on this? And this is why, as a church, we talk about that all the time. We're gonna. In a couple weeks, we're gonna talk about groups and classes.
[00:14:47] And part of that is just to help make those relationships easier. We can't force them or create them, but if we can help create environments where they might happen more naturally, then that's what I wanna do. Because wisdom comes through community. That's how God designed it. It's hiding in plain sight. Now, let's get to the meat of these verses. Now, verse 11 begins with this, my son. Now, if you were to just look at Proverbs 3. Structurally, you'll see that there are three verses that begin that way, my son, and then it goes on. And that's sort of a good way to just divide up this chapter, because these seem to be sort of important points in the lecture where Solomon is saying, all right, son, you hear me? You listening?
[00:15:36] Because what I'm about to say, I want you to key in on. And here's what he says, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline.
[00:15:48] Now, I know you're excited about this or be weary of his reproof.
[00:15:54] For the Lord reproves him, whom he loves as a father, the Son in whom he delights. Now, this is such an important idea that Solomon is teaching us. And I don't want you to say, he says, part of wisdom is understanding the Lord's discipline and looking at it in a favorable way. Now, let's unpack this. What is the Lord's discipline? What is he talking about? How do we understand this? Here, now, here's first. What the Lord's discipline is is not. You hear that? This is what it is not.
[00:16:36] The Lord's discipline that Solomon is talking about is not punishment for sin.
[00:16:43] It's not.
[00:16:44] You little scoundrel.
[00:16:47] Here's a lightning bolt. You drive me crazy.
[00:16:51] It's not punishment for sin. That's not the Lord's discipline. Cause get this. If you are a follower of Jesus today, then the full wrath of God, all the punishment for your sin was taken out on Jesus Christ on your behalf 2000 years ago on a hill called Calvary.
[00:17:15] And that should have been you. But Christ stood in your place, and he stood in my place so that I can never have to experience the punishment for my sin, but I can live in the freedom of God's love.
[00:17:30] And that's why for 2,000 years, Christians say, jesus, what a beautiful name, that he is the name above every name. Because he has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has taken what he didn't deserve, so we didn't get what we do deserve, and instead we can live and God's freedom and grace.
[00:17:53] This is. That's not the discipline of the Lord.
[00:17:58] Christ has taken that. Now, if you have not given your life to Christ, then you absolutely need to. Because the other option is that you take the punishment. You say, I don't need Jesus. I'll stand on my own two feet. Friends, you do not want to do that.
[00:18:15] You cannot bear that.
[00:18:17] That is not the path, because that is separation from God. That's punishment. That is hell. That is all those things. And Christ offers us something better. So the discipline of the Lord is not that. Here's what it also is not. It is not times in our life where we experience tragic suffering.
[00:18:37] We're just, you know, just some tragedy befalls our life and we're like, oh God, this is the discipline. No, no, that's tragedy.
[00:18:48] That is a different category. And in fact, the Bible has a whole book that speaks to that category of tragic suffering. It's called the Book of Job.
[00:19:00] I'm actually reading through it now.
[00:19:02] Don't read it if you're looking for encouragement.
[00:19:05] It's got a lot of wisdom in it, but you gotta work through it.
[00:19:10] And that whole book is about that.
[00:19:13] Because the Bible doesn't see all pain in the same way in life because pain is nuanced. It can come from a lot of different places, have a lot of different reasons. So what is the Lord's discipline?
[00:19:26] Well, most simply the Lord's discipline is the pain and pressures and difficulty and struggles that are inherent to life.
[00:19:44] But God uses to further develop our soul.
[00:19:50] God allows certain short term pains for long term health. You with me?
[00:19:58] In other words, discipline.
[00:20:00] You could translate this word as training, as, you know, reprove, which the second one gets translated. But it's all those things built in it that in other words, God looks at your life and my life and he says, I want to make you into a certain type of person.
[00:20:23] And some of that can come through easy days, but some of that will come through difficulty.
[00:20:32] Some of who I'm forming you is gonna come from the challenges and the pain and the exhaustion that life can bring us. You with me on this.
[00:20:45] Now here's what Solomon says. He says, don't despise it.
[00:20:52] Think about how profound this is.
[00:20:57] Don't despise it. In other words, see the value in what God might be doing in your life.
[00:21:06] See, here's why this is so important.
[00:21:09] Cause so many times when life gets hard, we're like, God, you don't love me anymore.
[00:21:14] You with me.
[00:21:16] It's easy for our hearts and minds to go there. Lord, this isn't all working out the way that, that I want it to. What's going on? But notice what Solomon says. He says, no, no, no, no, it's not that simple. And it doesn't work like that.
[00:21:31] He says, sometimes there will be challenges in your life because God loves you.
[00:21:41] Like God. No, thank you.
[00:21:43] He's like, no, but this is because I love you. Here's just one simple way to Think about it.
[00:21:51] I went to a PT this year, and he's like this young kid and very.
[00:21:58] I think he must work with a lot of athletes or something and think like, everybody he works with is an athlete. Because when I would do these PT sessions, I would just be like, drenched in sweat.
[00:22:09] And I'm like, I don't think this is normal.
[00:22:12] And, you know, he'd have me do like all these, like, you know, squats, lunges, all this. But I knew. I was like, no, I know this is good because you're trying to strengthen all these weak muscles and imbalanced muscles and stuff. But every time I had an appointment with them a couple hours before, I'd be like, oh, man, he's gonna whoop me, you know, And I'd go. And I'd be sweating and trying to have conversation. And you ever try to have conversation, you act like you're not out of breath, but you're totally out of breath.
[00:22:44] And you're like, yeah, yeah.
[00:22:47] And I was like, we have this.
[00:22:49] It's just embarrassing.
[00:22:51] And that's how it went. But I was like, but I know this will be good for me, right?
[00:23:00] This temporary pain will hopefully bring some long term relief. You with me? And this is what Solomon is saying, saying God works in our life that way, and we have to have a lens for that.
[00:23:19] Maybe this season of life is tough.
[00:23:22] And there's something in us that's like, lord, it's all off the rails. And the Lord's like, no, this is training.
[00:23:30] You got me.
[00:23:31] And if I can see it that way, it gives me a different spirit to go through it. He says, don't despise it.
[00:23:40] See what it is.
[00:23:44] Value it for that. And he says, and don't grow weary in it.
[00:23:50] Cause that's what happens.
[00:23:52] There's that old saying, fatigue makes cowards of us all.
[00:23:58] And we get tired and we get worn down.
[00:24:02] And Solomon says, look, sometimes you're in a training season, says, don't give up.
[00:24:10] God's growing something in you. I was thinking about these verses, and I feel like we're in a training season. As a church, I sweat a lot on Sundays. I used to not sweat as much.
[00:24:27] We're moving, we're making things work. We're doing hard things.
[00:24:31] But church, here's what I absolutely believe about this season.
[00:24:36] It is awesome to see God build a literal church building, but he's also building us.
[00:24:45] Cause you are the church. You with me.
[00:24:49] And sometimes in these seasons, you're like, I'm a little uncomfortable. And God's like, good.
[00:24:57] You're like, I'm a little fatigued. The Lord's like, good, because that's how I grow your capacity. That's how I stretch you. Not because I don't love you, but because I do love you.
[00:25:14] And recognizing those seasons in our life and ultimately, what I think Solomon is saying, he's saying, son, when you're in that place, don't fight it, but lean into it.
[00:25:28] And church, I want to invite you two to lean into this season of our church, man.
[00:25:33] Be praying every day for our church in every way. In this season, if you're not serving and getting in the game, I want to encourage you to do that.
[00:25:44] You're like, well, there's no value I can add. Can you move stuff?
[00:25:51] You can add some value.
[00:25:52] Hey, there is so much, and it's a season. Church. I believe God is preparing us.
[00:26:01] I want to encourage you, church, if it's been on your heart and mind, man, give to this project.
[00:26:07] This is expensive, but it's worth it.
[00:26:11] And I believe that as we see Christ glorified, you'll be like, man, that is worthwhile. Lean in to this season, Solomon says, lean in to the seasons of training. Don't be discouraged, he says, because every father that loves their kid brings discipline, right?
[00:26:37] If we don't, we're not doing our kids a favor. Amen.
[00:26:43] My kids, I have a lot of pet peeves, you know, this talk about them most Sundays.
[00:26:50] But my kids will come up to me and they'll be like.
[00:26:53] They'll just demand something. And I'll be like, are you asking me or are you telling me?
[00:27:00] Cause if you're asking me, you can insert the word please and start over.
[00:27:05] Cause that just drives me crazy.
[00:27:08] I just feel like I am their servant. Which is true, but I don't like to acknowledge it.
[00:27:18] But every parent is looking for ways. And what you're saying is you're correcting, you're challenging, you're making some present discomfort because you're like, I know in the long run, this will be better for you. Amen.
[00:27:33] On Friday, my daughter Emory, she was just not listening to me at all. So I put her in timeout.
[00:27:41] And then I said, okay, you gotta, you know, tell me why did you go in timeout? And then, you know, she gave me some answer. I was like, why don't you go think and give me a better answer?
[00:27:51] She's seven. She was rolling her eyes. I was like, aren't you. Isn't that like another seven years, you start doing that this is coming early. Like, she was uncomfortable. She was annoying. Annoyed. She was frustrated. But. And I was too. But I also was like, I want you to learn.
[00:28:10] I want you to grow.
[00:28:12] God's given me a responsibility to help you become a certain type of person.
[00:28:17] And this is part of the journey. Amen. We all know this.
[00:28:21] And this is exactly what Solomon is saying. He's saying, God loves you too much to leave you as you are.
[00:28:34] He loves you too much to not challenge and help grow the immaturity that's within all of our souls.
[00:28:44] And what Solomon is saying to his son, he's saying, look, when God's got you in a season of discipline, don't be stomping your foot and tearing up your room.
[00:28:58] You with me.
[00:28:59] See that he actually loves you.
[00:29:04] And that if you try to wiggle out of that season, you're actually moving away from his love, not towards it.
[00:29:14] You're actually asking for less of his love, not more of it.
[00:29:20] And I think that's profound, Church.
[00:29:23] I think there is something deep to this. And then Solomon says. He says, all right.
[00:29:29] He says, and know this.
[00:29:31] Wisdom is filled with all kinds of blessings.
[00:29:38] He said, blessed is the one who finds wisdom, who gets understanding. So he says, look, there's discipline, there's correction. There's those things. But, son, if you don't despise it, if you don't turn away from leads to these great places of blessing, wisdom, understanding, its gain is better than the gain from silver profit, better than gold. It says, in other words, you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have wisdom, you don't have much.
[00:30:11] Wisdom is better than that. It's more precious than jewels.
[00:30:15] Nothing you desire can compare with it. There's no earthly treasure that's better than that.
[00:30:24] Longevity is in her right hand. Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honors. I love this. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are paths of peace.
[00:30:39] Do you want more pleasantness and peace in your life?
[00:30:44] Sounds good to me, right?
[00:30:47] We know what unpleasantness and chaos feels like.
[00:30:51] We know what unpleasantness and conflict feels like. We know what unpleasantness and despair feels like. But he says, but wisdom, if you stay on this path, here's where it goes.
[00:31:06] Peace and pleasantness, you may have to pay up front a little bit, and there is a cost to it, but what it gives is so much more. And what I love about this is, you know, I just love imagining the scene. Solomon talking to maybe these Teenage boys. And he's like thinking, you know, I know what you're thinking about all the time. Girls, maybe, video games, sports, this and that. Has. But he's trying to give these young men a new appetite.
[00:31:44] Say, but when you think about your life, I want you to desire this because it will give you so much more.
[00:31:54] And I think we all need reminded of that and encouraged by that. And lastly, Solomon says that the Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth, that he established it through wisdom. And what's really cool about this is that through the New Testament, this idea gets picked up.
[00:32:18] And in the Gospel of John, for example, the author, John, he writes that God created the world through the Word.
[00:32:29] And the other Paul, New Testament writer, he writes that everything that has been created has been created through Jesus Christ. At another point, Paul says, jesus Christ is the wisdom of God.
[00:32:46] And what I think that all means is that ultimately, as we read through the story of scripture, it says, if you want to know the real wisdom of God, you will experience it in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:33:05] That wisdom is not just an abstract concept, but it is a person that we can experience and have relationship, which means this for us.
[00:33:19] If I want wisdom, if I see the value of it, then the place to get it is to go before Christ and to let him speak into my life.
[00:33:32] The great CS Lewis, he has this amazing quote. He says that God whispers to us in our pleasures.
[00:33:42] He speaks our conscience.
[00:33:47] And he shouts in our pain.
[00:33:51] He shouts to us.
[00:33:54] He really wants us to have an open heart and an open mind, to listen and to hear and to obey and to respond.
[00:34:08] And as we close today, maybe some of us, maybe we're in a training season.
[00:34:15] Maybe we're in the Lord's discipline, not because he doesn't love us, but because he does.
[00:34:23] And maybe we're in a season where, like, all the corners of life feel like they're pressing in a little bit.
[00:34:29] And we're weary and we're tired and we're discouraged and we're broken down.
[00:34:37] And you might think, like, wow, this is a moment where I feel far from God. I feel lost, I feel confused. But I just wanna encourage you. Maybe this is a moment God is shouting to you.
[00:34:52] And instead, I wanna encourage you. Maybe this is the moment to say, all right, Lord, I have some pain and pressure, exhaustion in my life.
[00:35:06] What are you shouting to me that I need to hear? What do I need to hear? And you just go to Jesus Christ, you say, you are the wisdom of God.
[00:35:18] Speak to me that I might hear and learn and grow. And here's my promise to you.
[00:35:25] I'll try to open my ears and open my heart and try to listen and act on what you have to say.
[00:35:34] Maybe the Lord is shouting to us today and the best thing to do is to just stop, slow down, to listen and to act. Let's pray.
[00:35:47] Lord, we thank you that you are the God of all wisdom, that it all comes from you.
[00:35:56] But it is for our good and Lord, where maybe some of us come in today and just with heavy, heavy hearts, exhausted spirits, overwhelming challenges. Lord, I pray that if you have a word to us, we would seek it and we would listen.
[00:36:22] We'd hear from you what only you can give us.
[00:36:28] And I pray, Father, that you would strengthen us.
[00:36:32] I pray we could have that new perspective that we need to have that new thought that we need, could have that new shift in our heart that we need.
[00:36:43] And Lord, we just pray you would be honored and pleased and glorified in all of this. Thank you for this time, Lord. Lead us into your presence now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
