Okay, Tom, turn to Psalm 25. Let's take a look at 25 today. Today is going to be a little bit less teaching for me, at least that's my plan, and a little bit more listening to you. What I have on the overhead there is a Bible software program I've told you about in the past. We'll mainly be looking at Psalm 25, though. I've just gone through and made my own observations of the passage, and I want to listen to yours as well. Same rule will apply. If you want to speak, you get two times. Otherwise, we'll let one person dominate. It's that same annoying hand in the back every time, right? So if you've got lots of comments, if you have lots of comments, save them for the really important one. Hold on, let me try to make font bigger. Hang in there. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm almost there. Font, bigger. Place sound, citation style, copy footnotes. Fonts. Let's make it 200. Better? Okay. Psalm 25, let's read it together. Well, I'll read it and you listen. I'm reading from New American Standard Bible, so if it differs a little bit from yours, Don't let that throw you off. Psalm 25. The Psalm of David. We know who David is, right? To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed. Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed. Make me know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, your compassion. and your lovingkindness, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your lovingkindness, remember me. For your goodness sake, O Lord." Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. My soul will abide in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant. My eyes are continually toward the Lord. He will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Bring me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Look upon my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with a violent hatred. guard my soul, and deliver me. Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You. Redeem, O Israel, O God, out of His troubles." Now fresh off of the reading, what do you think? What are you thinking about? It's depressing. It's in trouble. Good. Excellent. What else? We're in the observing stage. You can observe whatever you want. There's no right and wrong answer. Is that a common feeling for you? Us? Good. Can you relate to it right off the bat? Interesting, because it's 3,000 years old. Not much has changed, right? What else? Yes? Okay, good. His sin, his enemies. And there are those two parts. There's a third part. Praise. Praise for? God. God. It's a great theology. They're right there in the middle of it. And when I say a theology, the word theology means the study of God. It tells us something about God. We'll look at that a little bit more in depth. What else did you see in this? Hope. Hope? Explain. He believes, he trusts that God's going to deliver him. For what reason? Okay, his own or God's It's important isn't it over and over it's like he's trying to remind God of that and he does say that Lord remember my Or don't remember my sins, but do remember my enemies or do remember your love and kindness Anything else stands out to you Cindy, yeah, Charlotte. That's going to be a big one, because shame, what's his biggest problem with the shame? What's where's that going? You've been shamed. What is it? What does it do for us personally to us personally when we feel shame? We're humbled. We're embarrassed. No one wants to be ashamed. It could be anything from standing up in front of people and bumbling your words, to having a hair out of place, to your children acting foolish and reflecting upon you, right? And anything in between. So it makes you feel ridiculous. And if you had any position of authority and you're shamed, now what? You want to fix it, but you feel even worse. So you got to fix it. So that's where he's going. Do you identify with shame? How many of you put on a real, don't even, it's a rhetorical one, I'm not looking for any insight into you, but how many of you are so ashamed of something you've done in the past that you would never bring it up, and you try to put on a persona when you come to church or when you're around people that makes you look like you just have it all together, and you would never ever want anyone to know what you did, what you said, Some, it could be as simple as I'm trying to hide a habit I have, I smoke. They don't want anyone to think that. They don't know that we can smell them, right? Eventually. Or they don't want anyone to know that I had a divorce in my past. They don't even want to know that I was previously arrested or that I failed out of school or something. We don't want to talk about that. We'll put on a good show because it makes us feel stupid. And no one wants to feel like that. So that's where David is. Don't let me be put to shame, but what's his shame going to be associated with? I'm sorry? His youth. There you go. He brings up the sense of his youth, doesn't he? What will his shame mean for him and his nation? Did that last verse stand out to you? Where did that last verse come from? Redeem Israel, O God? Where did that come from? Is Israel a him or a her? Yeah, it's interesting. Sometimes it's called one, sometimes it's called another. It's a, as a pronoun, actually in Greek it can go either way, but this is Hebrew and it's very specific, is and her. Sometimes my gun is my, is Betsy, right? Sometimes my gun is Nick. Arnold. I don't know. It's a good question, but it's a great observation. But why Israel? It's about him and all of a sudden Israel's thrown in. Who's David, first of all? King of? Israel. Let's put it in common day terms here. I'm the pastor of Harvest Bible Church. Front page article, which would never make front page because I'm a nobody, but if it did that Lance had an affair, local preacher kills a man, what does that do to Harvest Bible Church and all of you who attend here? So I might say, Lord, and I do, just so you'll know, or don't let me be put to shame. Don't let me do anything that not only puts my own name and my own family in an embarrassing, shameful situation, but in my church in regard. I mean, you wouldn't want to tell anybody how I went to that church. Yeah. Yeah, that guy that we called our pastor for 12 years was another person that we didn't know about. He was, he had girlfriends on the side and he was, he had a nightlife that no one knew about or something. That would be shameful and embarrassing. And I think David's saying the same thing. Don't let it happen to me, Lord, because it's a reflection upon Israel. Moses did this, by the way. When Moses is up on the mountain, God tells Moses, step aside, Moses. He looks down the mountain, and what are the people of Israel doing? Idolizing. And how did they worship the idols at the base of the mountain? In a sexual orgy. As difficult as that is to imagine, that's how they worshiped the gods back then. Well, I'm not going to go into the details of that because it's quite explicit. But Moses is up on the mountain and God tells Moses, step aside so that I can destroy these people right now. And what does Moses say? For your name's sake. And he says, what will the surrounding nations say about you? You brought them out but you couldn't preserve them? You're going to look like a fool. And then he tells him, remember your covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God, it would have been impossible for God to start over with Moses. Why would it be impossible for God to start over with Moses? He started a nation with Abraham, so we know he can do it with one man. Why would it be impossible for him to start over with Moses? He made a promise. Made a promise to who? Abraham. Abraham, but he could have fulfilled that promise by saying, well, Moses is a descendant of Abraham, because he was. He would have killed all the Israelites. would have killed all the Israelites, but it could have started again with Moses, and Moses still had the connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The reason being is because Moses is from the tribe of Levi. And God had a covenant not only with Abraham, but at the end of Genesis in chapter 49, He gives a promise to the tribe of Judah, a very significant promise, that out of you will come Shiloh, the one who will wield the rod, the sword, the scepter, and it shall not depart from you until the Messiah comes. Judah has to be preserved, so it'd be difficult to fulfill that promise when you have to start over with the gap from Levi. God's promise must be settled, and Moses knew that, right? Well, I was just remembering, too, that Abraham, God considered his friend, and he made a promise to his friend. He did. And he's going to preserve them because of his promise that he made them. But even though he did make that promise he could still be fulfilling that promise just by working with Moses and starting over with that one remnant. He could still be exonerated of that. Don't you think? He's still a descendant of Abraham. How did God ultimately fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant anyway? Say again? Melchizedek actually predates the Abrahamic Covenant. Okay, good. It's not a wrong answer. You're thinking too broad here. How did God ultimately fulfill the Abrahamic covenant? Come on, thank you. Remember, folks, when the question goes out, if you say God or Jesus, you're probably going to be right. Jesus. I hate asking questions where the answer is Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate seed fulfillment of Abraham. completely fulfilled? I do not believe it has. But it is being fulfilled that the New Covenant which fulfills the covenant to Abraham, which fulfills the covenant to David has been inaugurated to be completely fulfilled with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. So, that's the ultimate fulfillment of it. Now, we've just gotten off on some things here that this brings up. We could go on for hours, couldn't we? Amazing what it begats, just some words and some phrases. Cindy? So the question is, what is David doing? What's the context? Let's ask this, Sherry gave the example of 2 Peter 3, 9, where context matters ultimately. Because as you've heard me say before, if you're in 2 Peter 3, 9, just the very proof text itself begs for a context. 2 Peter implies there's a 1 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3 implies there's two chapters prior to it, and verse 9 implies there's eight verses before that. You can't get a letter in the mail, scroll down to the very bottom, read one passage and think you know the letter, right? People misquote that passage all the time. So there's a context that must be had in 2 Peter 3, 9. Let me ask you this. Does the context matter in Psalm 25? First of all, let's do this. Is there a context given? No. So that right there tells us maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe God didn't want us to know. How many of you know who wrote the epistle of Hebrews? We don't. We can surmise that it was Paul, sounds like Paul sometimes, and yet the writer uses words that Paul never, ever used, and writes in such a way that Paul never does. Sounds like a very academic, classically trained Greek author. That would fit other people we know from the Bible, but we can't prove that. So, ultimately we don't know. So, to answer your question Cindy, we don't know the context. And it doesn't change a single thing in this particular passage. David could be young, he could be old. He could be running from Saul, he could be running from some... We don't even know about his childhood sins, which he talks about. What are they? What did he do? Wouldn't we love to know that? We have to go back in time and find a People magazine in the first millennium BC, right? What did this young king do? Well, we don't know. And ultimately, it won't matter. That's not always the case. And you'll have to determine that as you get through it. All right, would it help me in the context if I knew a context versus not knowing it on what this psalm is saying. Sure? What matters is the context of the entire Bible. Absolutely. In the context of this, the entire Bible, or even the psalms that surround it, is going to be our first clue. Well, the psalms are written just like a song, because that's what it means, a song. Let me ask you this. A particular song, you could write, oh gosh, there's so many songs out there, and I'm not going to date myself, nor am I going to show you what kind of music I like and don't like, but sometimes a song can mean more to you when you know what the writer went through in writing it, right? Well, this person, his daughter, Stephen Curtis Chapman, that one just came to me, lost a daughter a few years ago, right? And if you know anything about Christian music, Mr. Chapman's a very good man, nice, gentle man, and they lost a child, and their other child happened to accidentally kill that child, rolled over the baby in the driveway. Well, he wrote this song, I don't remember the name of the song, do you? But you can't listen to that song, whether you like the tune or not, without crying. Because anyone could put yourself in the position and think, oh, how horrible it must have been, not only to lose a child, but to see your son go through the pain for the rest of his life of having killed an innocent child. Well, context helps us, but even without the context, that's a very powerful song. Same would be true in all of the Psalms, because they are songs. David, though king, though full of blood all over his hands, was a gentle musician. That's a great thing about this guy. It makes him a very intriguing guy. So he starts off and he says, and I've just highlighted some things for you to see, are the verbs. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Well, can you lift up your soul? Is David have a rope? Is he pulling himself up on a tree? Lord look I've lifted myself up. Well right there I mean anyone with common sense knows what he's talking about. Soul here is indicative of his life. Lord my whole life is before you. Some people like to display their life before God with hands wide open. You see them in church, hands in the air. Most people this is just learned behavior. Other people just have this compulsion to throw their bodies to God like this. You don't have to do that. But maybe David is doing that. I'm all yours, Lord. Buck naked, everything I have is what you gave me. All my sins are before you, and in you I trust. How many people on this planet can you do that for? I mean, think about it in literal terms. Because when you get married and you become one, remember what Adam and Eve were before sin? They were both naked and not ashamed. There was no one, and you know sin, no one was going to exploit the other. In many marriages, They're not naked in front of each other. Why? Shamed. Shamed of their body. Ashamed of being made fun of. Being seen in the light. Same way with us when we go into counseling or we want to talk to a friend. How many people from your mama, from your daddy, to your spouse can you actually lift up your entire soul to and not be worried about being exploited? Well, I think at the very least, I mean, I think it's unhealthy to not have at least one person. That's the way a marriage should be. But even if it's not, you have God. And David certainly sees this, this warrior with blood all over him. That's what God says, you can't build my house because you're a man of blood. Here's this guy, a big tough guy, musician, giving his life to God. Oh my, oh my God, in you I trust. I'm going to give you my, just some observations I make over here. Mine are over on this side. What do I do? I lift up my life and trust in God, knowing that I'm helpless. Well, that's not easy for a man. If you put it in a man's standpoint, you know, we always like to solve all our problems. In you I trust. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let my enemies exult over me. Think about that for a minute. Do you ever pray to God and tell Him what to do? Throughout this prayer, He is making commands of God. Lord, do this. Do that. Sounds like a nagging wife. I mean a husband. Remember, I'm talking to ladies. I want you to turn over to Matthew chapter 6, which we typically call the Lord's Prayer. It's more of a model prayer. I want to show you the same tactic. Matthew chapter 6. By the way, I'm not going through every verse today. I'm just going to go through a few. don't have time for it, and I want to listen to what you have. But Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9 the disciples come to Jesus and they say, teach us how to pray. Show us how to pray. Would you do that if you were walking with Jesus? Wouldn't we all like to know that? Well here's His answer for you. Pray then this way, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Do you know that in the Greek text Although that sounds like English, in English, Lord, we just worship you. In the Greek text, it is a command. It is a command, Lord, let your name be held in holiness. It's a command, an imperative. And every one after is the same way. So here's your list, here's how you pray. First of all, you might even pray the opposite. Lord, stop letting your name be blasphemed. Lord, let your name be held high. Lord, send your kingdom. Lord, let your will be done. just as it is on earth. Give us what we need for the day, in regard to food. Forgive us of our sins, we've also forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Everyone is a command, that's how you pray. And you think, well can I command God? Yeah, that's how He told us to pray. These are His will, there's nothing better than for His people to pray His will right back to Him. Lord here's what You said, Here's what you're going to do. And are we not in doing that, claiming His promises? Isn't that what David does in this psalm? He talks about God's promises. Do what you said you're going to do. We believe your promises. That's what the model prayer is. Lord, do it. Let your name be held high. Give us what we need for today. It doesn't say give us a new house because the one we have in is smaller. Just give us what we need. Lord, forgive us of our debts. We count on that because we've forgiven our debtors and Jesus died on the cross. And you, I trust, do not let me be put to shame. Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed." Right there, he just answered it. He's schmoozing God. I hope you see that. He's a schmoozer. Lord, don't do this. I know you, God. You would never let that happen, right? It's like you go on to your husband. I know you're going to take me out for my birthday. I know you're going to get me what I told you I want for Christmas. I know you're going to take us to this vacation spot because I told you that. Your husband's going, I guess I got to do that. I told you I would. This is a schmoozer. But you can only schmooze when you're schmoozing according to God's will. Lord, you said this, I'm holding you to it. Don't let me be put to shame. My shame is Israel's shame, and it's not to your glory, so don't let it happen. Sherry? When you're having a conversation and you're praying I love that. That's beautiful. There's no formalities here. I Love it that's beautiful because a lot of people they'll think through a prayer and Then have to go be respectful with their prayer write it out and all its formality. Just think through it God knows what you're thinking. You don't have to prepare something and go give it to him. Spit it out. He knows what you're thinking. Don't lie to him and try to hide it. Even if it's a bad thought, Lord, you know what I'm thinking right now. You feel the anger. You know how sinful I am in this moment. And yet you love me. Thank you. Now will you fix this? Think. Be absolutely honest. You might not be able to be honest with anyone. Matter of fact, you can't be honest with everyone. Not even your spouse. Because you're telling your spouse you think he's a great man when in reality sometimes you've got some misgivings about him. About his attitude, about the way he looks. Maybe he's not as good looking as you want him to be. Or maybe he's got bad habits when he eats and yet he disgusts you or something like that. But you wouldn't want to tell him that. I love you all. Tell me, what do you love about me? Everything, dear. But not with God. You can absolutely be 100% honest. Cindy? about which word? It just seems like when he's praying, he's praying to God, and then he's saying, you know, not necessarily so much for his sake, but he says, for your good sake, O Lord. And then he goes into a praise, and then it's almost like he can talk to God again. He's kind of taught himself, you know, and he relies on God's attributes and everything, and then he goes back into his prayer for forgiveness. You know, it's like... I do, but... But humble. Yeah, humble, but telling God what God knows. If you don't like the word schmoozing, that's fine, but you've got to lighten up a little bit. We are observing. Don't be stiff in the observation. You're looking at a real man with a real problem talking to a real and holy God. His honesty and how he repeats back what God has, great. It doesn't teach well to say, you need to go schmooze God. Yes, I understand that. But we're talking about in an observational standpoint, we're just looking at a real guy. Sometimes you look at the scripture and it's so stiff. But these are real people. They're just like you and me. David thought the same things we think. And we get to think his thoughts after him and relate to him, as we do with any writer. Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed. How many times does your Bible say, wait, wait? Any other word used? Does any of your translations say hope? It's the same thing. What does it mean to wait? How many people love to wait? When somebody asks you about yourself, you say, I love to wait. I'm one of those people that really loves to wait long periods of time for everything. You've never met anyone like that, because no one is. It's not natural to us to be patient, right? As a child, as a newborn baby, what does the baby do when he or she is hungry? They scream. And they're immediately pacified when the bottle goes into their mouth, right? We got what we wanted. We understand that if we just scream, we'll get it. Some adults never grow out of that, right? They're never trained to do it. But to wait, it's not natural to an infant. We're born without patience. But David says over and over, here's what I have for you. He's quoting back God's scripture. But yet he's saying, I recognize that you may not act right now. It might not be a part of your will to act right now. Isn't that painful? But my resolute nature is I will wait for you. I will wait. How many of you are waiting for your children to be mature one day? You're waiting for your dog to be potty trained so he doesn't wet in the house or something like that. You're willing to do it because you know it'll eventually happen, but you're waiting. Tony Evans says that God has three answers for our prayers. Yes, no, and slow. How many of your prayer requests fall in the third category? The more mature you grow in your faith, the slower God gets. Over and over, years and years and years and years. How much do you trust me, Lance? How much do you trust me? You got to keep saying what David said. I will wait. Not something you can teach yourself. Only something you can pray through. Betty and then Charlotte. The no is absolutely essential. God must say no. to go down to the operating room for emergency heart surgery. I asked God and reminded him that he said he had not because we asked him. And I asked him to please allow me to see Cindy graduate. I was having her on her 50th birthday. And he had done all that for me. And yet in a situation like that, even though if you were to pass away before her graduation in such a situation, you wouldn't be here to care, A. B, maybe it was a no to that request because Cindy would have needed for you to not be there. Even though in her mind it would be, well, why wouldn't you want my mom here? She did grant that, but in some situations he has not. And in each situation, there's a blessing and the perfect will of God comes to pass. So it's an excellent. You got to let God do what God does, and you did. I like that. The no is always good. Just like your mom and dad said no to you, you look back, you say no to the same things to your kids because you're wiser now. Charlotte? I never pray for patience. Dangerous prayer. I pray for understanding. I like that. Don't pray for patience. Pray for understanding. But you see, here's the thing. That's one of those games you play with God, isn't it? For me, it's Lord, humble me. And it's not because I think I'm arrogant. It's because I think I've got what I need to do what I need to do a lot of times. And I'm literally fearful that humbling me means a sudden loss of my wife or the death of a child. or loss of reputation here at the church or something, through no fault of my own. And I pray that with fear. And every time I hesitate to pray it, I remember, God, you know what I'm thinking. What am I doing hiding this from you? Just spit it out. At the end of that prayer, you've got a relationship that is absolutely, I'm holding myself out before God, buck naked spiritually, and God will do what God will do. He'll love me anyway. Diane? And sometimes when I am praying, I can't even think of the word I'm saying. Have you ever tried to make nothing in your head? Like they say when you meditate, try to make nothing in your head. And there's nothing there, and I just say, well, you know what's there. There's something there, and I just, I get it. What passage did you just think about when Diane said that? Jesus crying for us, interceding for us, the Spirit interceding for us, Romans 8.26. Romans 8.26 says, the Spirit intercedes with us with groans too deep for words, and we don't know how to pray. I love that. That's a great place to be. Lord, I don't even know what to pray for. You'll pray for me. The Holy Spirit interceding, the Son of God interceding, God on His throne in the center, and the Trinity, knowing our name and knowing our request. It's a good place to be, Diane. Don't think otherwise. Verse four, make me know your ways, O Lord. Make me, teach me, lead me. Now, I would say make me, here's what I think of that. I think God's first answer is read the Word. But really the next question, I think where He's going, where we could go with this applicationally is, Lord, I don't want to read the Word. I'm too involved in the reality shows on TV. I don't want to put in three or four hours a week in precept. The prayer is this. make me hunger and thirst for your righteousness." My personal testimony is this, the greatest prayer I ever prayed other than receiving Christ was when I was a junior in college and I decided to memorize the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. And Matthew 5 verse 6 says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. And I realized in memorizing this, Lord, I don't have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. Make me want to want righteousness. You might pray that for your husband, ladies. Lord, I don't love this man anymore. Make me love him. I don't feel this from my 16-year-old rebellious kid. Make me love this kid. I think that's what David's saying. Make me know your ways. It reminded me of Psalm 23. I mean, I think I have that there in my observation. Note the imperatival nature. Yeah, right there in that bullet point too, right here. As the shepherd makes his sheep lie down to calm them or discipline them, our great shepherd called upon to force his truths upon our undisciplined minds. Lord, make me want this. Clearly, it's good for me. Teach me. Lead me. One of the things I cross-referenced here in my study of this was Psalm 1. Psalm 1 makes it look like, blessed are those who do not stand on the path of sinners, sit in the seat of the mocker, or walk, stand, sit, right? It makes it look like blessed are those who don't do that. And if you've just decided to follow the law of the Lord, your life is good. But that's not altogether true. Matter of fact, it's never true. You decide to make that stand, Psalm 25 has got to be your next Psalm to pray. Because standing with God like a tree planted by streams of water means that the enemies will line all around you. So let me ask you this. As a Christian, who are your enemies? He wants relief from them. He's going to wait all day for God. Verse 6 is, Remember your compassion, loving kindness. Do not remember the sins of my youth. But later on, he talks about his enemies. Who are they? In context, who are they? In the context of Psalm 25. It's not hard, ladies. I'm sorry? Himself. Himself could be one, no doubt. I like that. I hadn't thought about that. But literally, who are his enemies? Probably another nation that wants to kill him, maybe. Maybe, as Cindy suggested, maybe it's Saul running after him. But it looks like his literal life is in danger, because he doesn't want his enemies tramping over his dead body. Well, let's move it to us. Who are our enemies? No one's out to kill us that we know of. Who are our enemies? False teachers. False teachers definitely are enemies. And they look like they're pretty nice people. They look like they love us. Non-believers, and yet we call them enemies. What does Paul say the Jews are in Romans chapter 11? With regard to Christianity, what are they? They are our enemies. The Jewish people, because they have rejected Jesus the Messiah, are our enemies, but they are our brothers with reference to election. Have you not read Romans 11? You all look like you're hearing this for the first time in your lives. So how do you treat enemies according to Jesus? Love them. What happens when, I was telling Daniel the other day, my son, he read a ridiculous quote and it actually affected him and it said, real men never apologize. And I said, Daniel, that's straight from the pit of hell. I said, when you apologize, you destroy your enemy. What made you enemies? destroys the enemy. I told him a story that has always impressed me, not because it's something I did, but it made an impression upon me, is I was working out in the gym one time at the Conroe YMCA. I worked the front desk, and the executive manager's name was Pat. I don't remember Pat's last name. A man, difficult man, and I was working out by myself, and these two people working out next to me, and they were trashing Pat, using foul language and and really on him. I wasn't a big fan of Pat, but he was my boss, and I felt compelled to say, you guys don't even know him. Who are you to sit here and trash this man? He's put this YMCA together, this nice weightlifting equipment is because of him. Who are you to say that? Well, the response I got was a man and a woman is, you know, they began to curse at me and talk about how I'm butting into their conversation and ought not do it. I'm telling Daniel this, my son. And, you know, they shamed me. I didn't. I shouldn't have butt into their conversation. Well, the next day, they come in to work out, and I'm working the front desk, and I told this woman I was working with what I had done, and I said, I really feel like I need to apologize. She said, don't you dare. Don't you dare apologize to those people. Anyway, it was just the woman that walked in, and she came in with a chip on her shoulder the size of Texas. Here I am. I'm supposed to get her card and put a smile. Good. Thanks to have you today. Anyway, I met her, and I said, look, I'm sorry. What I said yesterday was out of... I shouldn't have said it. It was not my conversation. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Will you forgive me? She couldn't even talk. She didn't know what to say. It was the last thing she expected. And she and I every day, because I had to watch her come in every day, became friends. I ran into the man later on at a place where I didn't expect to run into him. His name was Rodney. I remember him and I said, Rodney, I want you to know that I butted into a conversation that I shouldn't have been into. I hope you'll forgive me. He didn't know what to say. He became my friend. And so these people that hated me and knew they had to come to the YMCA every day and greet me, because I apologized, I destroyed the enemy. The enemy was destroyed just by someone reaching out and saying, look, I'm sorry. Even if you're not sorry, and I was sorry, it was the wrong thing to do. But sometimes you just need to make that move and the enemy is destroyed. So in context to the Jews who are enemies with regard to Christ, but our brothers with regard to election, we don't treat our enemies with a red-faced hatred, a baseball bat to their heads. We love them. When you think of love, you think of that warm, touchy feeling that you have, that you have for a little puppy or for your babies. You think, oh, I love them so much. That's not the love that Jesus is talking about. That's easy. Pagans have that love. A gentleman came up to me the other day and was asking, he said, how can I love these people? I can't stand them. I said, well, love's a verb. And no one's telling you you have to feel anything. You just have to do it. Have you ever been like that with your husband lately? You just had to love the guy. Nothing lovable about him. You just had to do it. Never, right? That's what it is. So who are your enemies? Let's identify them again. False teachers? The world? Hollywood producers that make movies we want to see? That get in the way? Who else? Cindy? beyond what just the physical, like Satan and demonic forces do. I mean, there are better ways to go to destroy Messiah and destroy David. That's who Jesus saw as his enemy whenever he'd say things around the cross too. That's not a wrong answer at all. It's true. That's behind the scenes. Let's stay in our world. We know the devil, the demons, but how do they manifest themselves as our enemies all around us? Family. Family is a big one. How many of you by way of raising your hand are really looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner in a month? Some are. And thankfully, most of you are. But not all are. Why? Because Uncle Bob's gonna be there. Or my sister, fill in the blank, who's not a believer. If they're not believers, now what has your conversation been reduced to? Politics. That's a fun one. If you can get off of that, now you go into the family room where there's a football game on. Now you gotta talk football. That's boring. It is no doubt different for different people. So there could be an enemy there. Absolutely. Kids remember that. It's an enemy. Yeah. I don't think they get it. Well, I mean, go back. Cheryl and I were talking about this the other day. She said, you're too harsh on the kids when you're preaching. She's probably right, because I call them all stupid, right? But remember, what were you like at 16? What did you know when you were 16? You knew nothing. What, Minda? Everything. Because that's what you thought you knew, right? And the disease that your mom had, you now have. You know nothing. So there you go. They don't get it, but they think they do. That's the way we were. They don't get it. And all you can do is say this, that, and the other. You know the enemy are the good songs they like with the beat feeding that trash into their heads. Well, no doubt David in verse 7 don't remember the sins of youth transgression because he's saying, Lord, I was an idiot back then. I didn't know and I thought I knew everything. Don't let your kids be baptized and actually hail them as Christians. Even if you homeschool them. Yeah, they're more rounded at this point as far as knowledge and they're less tainted. That doesn't necessarily mean you've made a Christian. It's still the sovereignty of God, right? Or in a Christian school, which can be more dangerous than any of them. I mean, you may have heard me say, I would rather my kid be taught by an atheist than a Christian. Let me do the quote unquote Christian. Because all the Christians I talk to don't seem to know a whole lot about Christ. And yet they're going to teach my kid, and my kid might admire them for the character they have. I'd rather an atheist be taught. They could figure that out in a heartbeat. Of course, the ideal is that you teach them, right? Whether it be in a homeschool environment or you're teaching them in addition to them going out somewhere else where they can discern it. Well, even so, you're still dealing with teenagers. And David is even looking back to his own. I'm sorry? Ignorant. Ignorant means to not know, yes. By the way, when was David crowned king? When was he anointed as king? That's a better word. He was crowned at 30. He was anointed around 15 years of age. But he didn't become king. Shepherd boy. Samuel anoints his 15-year-old. Other kings, King Josiah was king when he was eight. So was Joash. Eight. I think they're smarter at eight than 16, frankly. They are. What else do you see? I'm going to stop talking. Tell me what you see here. We'll just scroll through here. Verse 7. He wants God not to remember the youth Don't remember that, but remember your love and kindness. What are we talking about God remembering? Does God really forget our sins? I mean, are they out of His mind to be forgotten? I know what it means to forget something. So far your sins away, yes. But does He really forget them? When you get there, does He go, Little old, been around for eternity. I don't remember those in the literal sense in which we do. I personally don't think so. I think he has put them away and he's never gonna recall them again. They're still there, right? You can't say they weren't there. The washing of Jesus has covered them. You take the blood off, they're still there, right? So it's according to your love and kindness. Don't remember one thing and God might be saying, okay, gone. But remember this. Okay, plan B, got it. I love that. I love the request. It's so real. It's so non-religious. I mean, what would you think if you didn't know this psalm and I stood up one day and led us in prayer and said, Lord, please forget all the sins that we've done in the past, but do remember all the good things that you do. You might say, well, that was real, a little bit odd. But that's the way to pray. Lord, stop remembering the things I did in the past. What else do you take from this? Looking for your observation. If you don't want to, I'll keep scrolling. No. I think he's rambling. Rambling. I like that. I think he's rambling because I ramble with God all the time. We drive, we talk. I ramble. I know things and I say things to Him that I know that He knows. But I ramble. Excellent. And I think that's what David's doing. As opposed to schmoozing, I caught more of a ramble. Good. I love it. So your prayer life, you're telling me, Minda, is not confined to a dark closet on your knees. Your prayer life is a constant conversation with God. Love it. Love it. It frees you from, oh, I need to pray more. Or my prayer life, I need to go say my prayers. Love it. Excellent. More of a rambling session. Ruth, what were you going to say? Well, in Exodus 34, and then, but God was showing, you know, we were talking about Moses, his loving kindness, and I think that was verse 6, and then, but in Exodus 33, it says, you were pleased to teach me your way so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Moses knew God, but wanted to know him better. Love it. Moses knew him and wasn't satisfied with what he knew. I would say that, do you say that has application in other relationships in our lives? When you met your husband, you married him. You loved him before you married, that's why you married. You got married, first year. Do you know him better now than you knew him then? Should it be better now than it was then? Thank God it's no longer puppy love, right? Thank God we've moved beyond that. And yet, here's the weird thing about all the different marriages that people have. They long for those young love days. That warm, touchy feeling where we think each other are good looking, and we're always on our best behavior on a date, and we smell nice. And that's why men have affairs, ladies. Because someone gives them a look that they remember that you used to give them. Someone makes them feel alive again like you used to, or vice versa. Unless you're very, very old. And you realize, you're mature enough to realize that the more you know this man, the more you love him. Absolutely. The more you know about Jesus, the more you love him. You dig in. And then it goes to the servant part. The more you love him, the more you're willing to serve him. There's nothing you wouldn't do for him. Excellent. Well stated. So you have to love him to serve him. So what's true in your marriage is true with Christ. We're never going to get enough of Him. That's why we do in-depth Bible study, to dig, to know. You know, there's two kinds of churches. There's the ones that want to know and grow, and there's the ones that want to share and care. You can have both, but the know and grow begets the sharing and caring, because I want to share what I know and how I've grown, because I care about people that don't have that. Share and care never bleeds over into the other. God is good and upright. And I like the conclusion. Because he is good and upright, therefore he instructs sinners in the way. Isn't that what he did with you? Notice in verse 9, who does he lead? The humble. Because what is a humble person? But one who is in the beginning says, my soul is yours, Lord. I'm not hiding anything. I'm completely open. Completely open to my shame. Absolutely 100% realize I don't know. Not easy for a man. Not easy for some women. All yours. I know nothing. That's the one that God speaks to. One of my favorite passages. I'm not going to tell you because I don't want you to flip through yet. It's Isaiah 66, 1 and 2. It says this, 6-6-2. God says, For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. Amen. One who is humble and... 66-2. God looks at those who are humble in spirit, A, and B, who tremble at His Word. That's all you need. That's the only time you are. There was a gentleman who had been coming, visiting, and he's not the only one who's come in the past. I've always told people that the worst people to visit this church are former Bible Church people, the worst ones. They're the ones that come in with the chip on their shoulder. They're the ones that look down their nose at me and our younger elders than they are. Tell me something I haven't already been told. I dare you. It's the Catholics that we love to have here. They know something about the Bible but really nothing. And now you pour this what God, who God is and they love it. It's the Bible churches that think they know everything. And they come in with the absolutely least amount of teachable spirit. I watch them. They cross their legs. They roll their eyes. One gentleman gave me a whole list of questions recently about things that had nothing to do with the worship of Christ. He never once complimented our people. He never once complimented the teaching in any of the classes. It was just all these things you need to fix. And Nick and I went and talked about it afterwards. And I said, you know, if we do see him back, we're going to politely say, thank you for visiting. There are other churches you can visit. Those people are absolutely the worst people to have in your church. They're cancers and they spread. It's the humility. And it's hard for a person who has lots of degrees and who thinks himself or herself great to be humble. But I'll tell you what, there's no greater, mightier man in the Bible other than Jesus than David. And David was the most humble we see, a warrior and yet humble. Look at his words, you see so much about him through his words. Any comments on those? Any observations you want to make? Don't pass 11. I like that. Say again, Charlotte? You can't. You can't. Think about it again in accordance with your marriage. If you think you're the perfect wife, well, you're never going to listen to Ed tell you where you're not. But if you do, you're not going to like it. Don't tell me I'm that way. I know better. Sherry wanted me to highlight 11. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity. Answers the question, why is he supposed to do this? It's not for me. And when we get that, we get it. Lord, I realize that you saying yes, no, and slow to my prayers has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you. For you. I mean, you've prayed for things. Some of you have prayed for things. Over and over Sherry has prayed, no doubt, right off the top of my head, for her husband's back to be healed. Not only does she see the man she loves in terrible pain, almost every day of his life, having gone through two surgeries in a year, she has to deal with that. And he's already a difficult man per his own admission. He's a former judge. He's a knowledgeable, good, godly man. And she's got to live with him. How do you live with a good, godly man who's a judge? Well, ask Sherry, she knows how. But she's prayed for this for years. Did she get it? Alicia, do you pray every day for Elle? And the problems that Elle has faced since she was born? Day after day, your family lives at Texas Children. Those people know you by name and always will. Why? She's pregnant again. Are you praying for the health of this baby? And yet God doesn't owe you a healthy baby. He didn't owe you the first time, He doesn't owe you the second time. And what He will do, He will do for His name's sake. One of the neatest things I ever read there is an old Christian group they are called the Archers. I think it was two brothers and a sister. The Archers sang a couple of good songs I really liked. But anyway the girl, the woman I don't remember her name she had twins. And when she had the twins in the hospital they were premature as many twins are and they were on the verge of dying. And she said, I found myself with my head buried in my pillow praying, Lord if you will. And she said before my prayer, before I could finish that line The answer I literally heard back, she said, was, and what if I don't? She said, I couldn't even finish the prayer. Lord, if you will, she said, I was gonna say, if you will heal my babies, I will whatever, but God intervened and said, and what if I don't? And she said, at that point, my life changed. My life changed, I realized these are not my babies. I didn't make them. My husband didn't help me make them. They're God's, he'll do with them as he pleases. If they die, they die. If they live, they live. And this is where her testimony came in. And I read that, it was in Guidepost Magazine, way back in the mid-80s, some more time. That impressed me. I thought about that. Every piece of the puzzle along the way, things like that, impressed me about people whom God was answering. For your namesake. Please, Lee. Is it okay to pray, like demanding, you know, say so-and-so or feel so-and-so? Absolutely. Absolutely, both answers is a yes. I think you can tell and ask God anything you want for Him to do. Salvation of your husband. Salvation of your children. But at the end of your, either in your mind or in a caveat like let your will be done, let your will be done, not mine. Whatever it is, it's whatever you do will be for your glory. If these people I love with my life burn in hell for an eternity, Because you have not chosen them. To God be the glory. Is that not the most difficult thing you ever heard of? With your children, people you love. But God will be glorified by the punishment and by the grace he gives. Will he not? No one is slipping through his fingers. No one. Everything comes to pass just as he has ordained. Heike? Yes. Good point. And what did he do when the baby died? Took a shower, let's eat, what's done is done. I'll go to him, he won't come to me. Excellent point. Another good example from David. This man is a wealth. I mean, it's great to study Jesus. Jesus is God. This guy makes us feel good because he sins so much. Repented. Now in verse 12, you've got this, he kind of pauses and he starts thinking, this is where his theology comes in. He's gonna tell us about what he thinks God, who is the man who fears the Lord? Fears means to reverence Him, respect. But I also think that there is an element of the literalness of fear in there. Actually afraid of God. I am afraid to step outside of what God has said. So don't ever let anybody say, well, it doesn't mean absolute really terror. It should, it does encompass that as well. Who is that person who fears Yahweh? That person will be instructed in the way that he should choose. His soul will abide. It means to dwell in prosperity. Now, that's in the American Standard Bible. I'm just going to go to this little one here. The word itself just means good. See, the prosperity theologians will tell you, if you abide in God, He'll prosper you in every way. You'll be rich. You can get that house you want. Nowhere else in the Bible we taught that. His soul will abide in good. I'm thinking right now of Psalm 91. where the psalmist says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. King James Version. He's thinking of God as an eagle. whose wings are wrapped around His children. He abides in the shadow. And when you abide, it means to live there. Not coming and going, but to live there. That's the one who remains under God's protection. John MacArthur gives an example. He said, just picture a big O on the ground with a spotlight of light there. And that illustrates all of God's goodness and all of His blessings. And if you're in it, you experience it. You step outside of it, you're no less loved, but you're not in the love and all the blessings of God. He uses this example with regard to Daniel. Daniel is called by God a most esteemed one, by the angel Gabriel. Would we be classified as such? And so far as we remain in the circle of obedience, that's where all of God's blessings are. Why do we think we can be blessed outside of that? Ladies if you're not submitting to your husbands what makes you think God is going to give you a good marriage? You've already disobeyed Him. You're outside of it. It's not going to happen for you. You say, well He's not a very good man. It doesn't matter. There's no caveat in the Bible. You weren't supposed to be unequally yoked to begin with. But if you can remain in a circle of obedience that's where God will bless you, your marriage, your children. You say, well, maybe I should divorce this guy. Not according to 1 Corinthians 7. Remain married to him so that your children aren't unclean. So that your husband who's unsaved lives with the presence of the Holy Spirit that abides in you. We do what we do to abide in God's love. And he says, as so will abide prosperity, his descendants will inherit the land. Well, if you don't know the Old Testament, this is actually a huge word. The land. Land of where? What? Eternal land in heaven? Goes back to Abraham as everything does. What did God promise Abraham? Land, seed, blessing. I'll give you this land. Is it a specific land in the Bible? Well, by the time Abraham moves in Genesis 12 to Genesis 13, he's standing in modern-day Israel. Back then it was called Canaan. God said, lift up your eyes, look north, east, south, west, everything you see yours and your descendants for a few years. it's forever. The parameters of that land go from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea down to the Berk in Egypt, possibly the Nile River itself. All Israels forever. Do they have it now? Have they ever? They had it about this long. Solomon, but really weren't even possessing it, they were just collecting tribute from this. That is still there, the land is where God's promises are. In Deuteronomy God is telling the Israelites, go over into this land, land flowing with milk and honey, all of My blessings are there. I'll give them all to you just obey Me in that land. If you don't I'll take you out. And He did. He brought them in, He eventually took them out, and He brought them back in. And in the New Covenant according to Jeremiah and Ezekiel He says, I'm going to have to bring you into that land. I'm going to have to take your hardened hearts and make them what they need to be in order for you to dwell there. Because I have to be true to my covenant. And you can't do it. I've got to make you do this. What a God we serve. That's grace. So the land literally is speaking of that land of Israel. He's speaking of this land where God's promises are. And where the world will look at and say their God is Yahweh. And they're better than us. That promise is yet to be fulfilled. But it has been inaugurated in our Lord Jesus Christ. I like verse 14, the secret. Does God have secrets? Does He? Yeah. Mysteries? Yes. I'm thinking of Ephesians chapter 3. If you know Ephesians, what does Paul say in Ephesians 3? He tells us what the mystery hidden for ages past is. What is the mystery of God? It's Christ. revealed in the Church, uniting two peoples, Jews and Gentiles. A mystery where He will make the people of Israel, Israelites, by DNA from the lineage of Abraham, will make them one with Gentiles. Because their one common denominator is the seed, Jesus Christ. We are one in Christ. The walls are broken down. This is the mystery of God, at least one of them. Secrets of God. Who is He going to give that to? Those who fear Him. Love Him. Obey Him. And He will make them know His covenant. He doesn't allow them to know one day when they get smart enough. He makes them know. He's the active agent. We do nothing. This psalm is so humbling. It's humiliating. God does everything. My eyes are continually toward the Lord. Can you say that? That second phrase in verse 15, I'll pluck my feet out of the net. What's the image? It's a figure of speech. Yes, saving you from peril, like an animal caught in a net. Think about being stuck. You're completely helpless. Maybe you're handcuffed. Completely helpless. You're looking for somebody to help you. You have no way of getting out of this unless someone helps you. It's not on anymore that I know of, but the Animal Planet used to put on a show called I Shouldn't Be Alive. I Shouldn't Be Alive's great stories of people that were near death, and some of them are just, just bring a tear to your eye. At the end, you know, they're just, there's nothing. They're ready to lay down and die, and all of a sudden, boom. I would love to be that rescuer, you know, who comes in out of nowhere, and this person looks up in complete despair, ready to die, and there's their savior, as it were, and takes them to the hospital, and they live to tell about it. or that ship that just comes in out of nowhere, these people lost in a boat in the middle of the ocean, and there's a fisherman, sees them and tows them in. Turn to me, be gracious to me. Another command, 17, bring me. Verse 18, look upon, forgive, look upon. Who does he want them to look upon? First of all, my affliction. Notice how bad off I am. I'll never forget, ladies, I used to be a When I graduated college, I got a master's degree in psychology and I couldn't get a job anywhere because I didn't want to be a psychologist or counselor. So I got a job in Dallas as a shipping supervisor at a place called Point of View Radio Talk Show. I used to work for Marlon Maddox. I became a bit of a ghostwriter for him. It was pretty neat for me, but I still made $10 an hour. And my main job was in the warehouse as the shipping supervisor. $10 an hour. And I remember my boss and I were pretty good friends. He was a neat guy. Warren Kelly was his name. And anyway, one day I was outside his window. It was raining. It was cold. And the boxes on the dolly I had were falling off. And I remember thinking, here I am, I have slaved for six years through college and graduate school. I'm somebody, doggone it. And I was right outside his window and all these boxes falling, I'm wet, it's cold. And I'm thinking, I deserve better. And I'm hoping that he's looking at me out his window. And it was a covered window, or a darkened window, so they could see out, I couldn't see in, and I'm thinking, Warren, will you just notice me, please? Notice that I have potential outside of moving this dolly around and driving a truck, please? I always remember that image. He didn't, he wasn't even in his office that day, but... Because I went in later and, you know, all wet and said, I got this out, and he said, thanks. Look upon, when you're in a situation, do you ever call upon God, Lord, can you see how messed up everything is? Will you please have sympathy on my situation? There it is, look upon my affliction and my trouble. And Lord, it's almost as if He realizes I'm in this situation because of my sins. Will you forget those? Can we just start over? Forgive me? And here's where it's almost funny to me. All right, now that we fixed that, will you look upon my enemies and get them? You ever prayed like that? Let me tell you this ladies, you're thinking it. You want justice. You want Osama Bin Laden to die a painful death before he died. You want terrorists who hurt children to suffer before they die. You may not admit it, and you may not pray it, but you want it. We're humans. We want that revenge. Sometimes you might just say it out loud. David is just being honest once again. Rambling, schmoozing, thinking of other ways behind the scenes. Cindy, whatever it is you think in your mind, he's just being honest. Lord, look upon my enemies. There are other Psalms and even in some of the prophets where they say things like this. Let their little ones be dashed to pieces against the rocks. Let their children die or let them die motherless. You ever prayed like that? Have you wanted to? Don't answer that question. Of course you have. Guard and deliver, guard my soul, deliver me over and over these imperatives. Do not let me be ashamed for lead integrity. For I take refuge in you, let my integrity and uprightness preserve me. Or let integrity and uprightness preserve me. Does he say my integrity? We're in trouble if we have that, right? Just the traits themselves. Let those things, the implication is in you, God. Let these things in you preserve me. Why? Because I will wait for you. I will wait, I will stand and hope for you. And at the end of it, he just sums it up with, redeem Israel, God, out of all his troubles. Because if you do, you're redeeming me. And the whole world looks upon it and sees glory in you. Sherry? I think one of the reasons it may say all of his troubles there is because King David represents Israel. Yes. So when he redeems David, it's a picture of redeeming Israel. Absolutely. This means a lot to me because I don't want to stand up here and act like I'm patting myself on the back. One of the things that people notice about me is that Lance, he's a very confident, possibly very arrogant man. And I did not want those men to come up Sunday and give more kudos to Lance in front of everybody. He's got his doctorate now. He's this. Look at him. Let's all clap for him. It's his birthday. La, da, da, da, da. We always give Lance accolades. It's very embarrassing to me. I don't necessarily want it. I can't say that I hate it, but I don't want it. I don't need it. But I will say this. From the perspective of a, I was talked into by Phil Sinater and Carol Phillips to getting the doctorate. Phil said, you know, what you do reflects on this church, who you are academically, who you are spiritually, and that's a given, but the church wants to know that their pastor is a doctor or at least studies and knows something. And so as I was telling you earlier, the same thing is that how, is what Sherry said, is what I do and who I am is a reflection upon you and our church. So it's important that my life be absolutely straight down the middle. You know, this is like the universal sign of rock and roll. Did you know that? You know, people do that. And the funny thing, the one who invented it, his name is Ronnie James Dio, used to sing with Black Sabbath. Dio was raised, Ronnie was raised in a home where his mom did that to him. Young Ronnie, you keep it down the middle. You keep your life down the middle. And so that's why we always do that. Well, people come up, well, that looks like a demon if you look at it, you know. But he was just going right down the middle. My life is right down the middle. Right down the middle. And his big thing was heaven and hell. They wrote a song with Black Sabbath called Heaven and Hell. He named his new group Heaven and Hell. He said, here's heaven, here's hell. I'm right down the middle. He was not a Christian, but it was a right down the middle sort of a thing. And that's really where we have to stay. So this could be our new sign. The new sign of Harvest Bible Church. Keep it right down the middle because the way you are, the way I am, reflects not only on our church and our people of this church, but on our Lord. will be peacemakers. But what I do is that way. And to a lesser extent you, you're not as well known as I might be just as the pastor, but you're no less important. You go out on the golf course, the tennis courts, and you miss a putt or miss a shot, and that racket goes hurling, and a bad word comes out of your mouth. Ladies, there are people, we have had them attend this church, and they have noticed certain people in the church. I've had this happen on a handful, four or five occasions. where they have come up and said something like, gosh, I didn't know that person came to church. Because they hear them making a fool of themselves during sporting events in Fairfield. Or they know them from some other event. You know, maybe you work with someone at a former Christian school or something, and this person made a behind of himself in a meeting of sorts. Wow, I didn't know they were going to church. And they reflect upon us because they're with us. Don't let that be you. Who has a hand over here? I thought it was neat that David approached God first with the things that were wrong in his heart to make him right before he made requests for anything else. He ended the song after saying, I've done all of this wrong. Remember who you are. Please forgive me. He made his peace with God first with where he was before he reached out. Boy, if that's not a topic for discussion and application right away, I don't know what is. Because you always look around the room and see the people that need to repent of certain things you think they need to repent of. If you get it right with you first, you know, the speck out of your eyes, you can get the log out of theirs, or the log out of yours, you can get speck out of theirs, one way or the other. All right, I've gone over, as I always do. That leaves less time for your discussion groups. But try to keep your discussion groups in on these and the applications based upon interpretations and observations and something to pray about of substance. We'll close this in this session. Father God, thank you for these ladies. Thank you that they would come out and listen to a man speak in a women's Bible study, but that your word directs us no matter if it's a female voice or a male voice. Lord, it's still your word. Thank you Lord that it is powerful 3,000 years after it was written. Thank you, Lord, that there's so much to it, we could never exhaust it. So I pray that we would get what you would have us get out of it during the time we've allotted. And I pray that, as Minda brought up, that our prayer lives would be even babbling sessions with just talking to you. Everywhere we go, nothing is off the radar. That we can say and do anything in your presence that would bring glory to you. May that be our goal, to bring glory to you, to please you. As we wake up each morning, Lord, let us look for things that would please you. And Father, maybe above all, the most difficult prayer to pray is, make us as we grow, day by day, the kind of people that learn to wait upon you. No doubt, Lord, you'll give us things to wait upon, so in the midst of it, give us the strength, or remind us of the strength that we already have to do just that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.