Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Our sermon text is verses six through 11 of Proverbs 6. Let us hear the holy and inspired word of God. Go to the aunt, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having a chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? "'A little sleep, a little slumber, "'a little folding of the hands to rest, "'and poverty will come upon you like a robber, "'and want like an armed man.'" This concludes the reading of God's word, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are so kind and compassionate to speak boldly to us and to speak with authority and to speak truthfully. And so Father, as we have a challenging admonition placed before us in the book of Proverbs, we pray that We would be people who are humble enough to receive your correction where necessary. Father, that we are people who will not be prideful if these words do not speak to us specifically. And yet, Father, that we would be people who are willing to change our ways and to be molded and reformed by your word, which would mean the Holy Spirit is working within us. And so Father, we pray for your spirit that you would pour him out upon us even today, right now. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we were reminded last week, the book of Proverbs is about practical wisdom and the practical wisdom that Solomon is promoting here in our sermon text this morning can be summarized in one word, productivity. Productivity. To say it a different way, Solomon is teaching us that laziness is a terrible sin. What God requires of his people is that they be productive, that they be industrious, that they be engaged in useful and fruitful labor. And this morning, we're gonna dive deeper into the biblical doctrine of productivity. And we're gonna learn or be reminded of that our personal productivity is very important to God. Our purpose here on this earth is to glorify God. And the primary way in which we do this is through proper stewardship of the spiritual gifts and other resources that God has blessed each one of us with. God expects us to live our lives for him. pursuing and fulfilling the calling that he has placed upon each and every person here. So productivity, therefore, is not necessarily about being busy all the time. Productivity is not necessarily about having a lot of activity going on in your life. Instead, productivity is about doing God's work. It's about engaging in kingdom activity. There are different ways that we can fail in our Christian duty to be productive. As I've already suggested, working hard, but working hard at the wrong things is certainly one of the ways in which we fall short of God's definition of productivity. But our sermon text this morning has a different focus. It's calling attention to a different way in which many people fail to be productive. What Solomon is writing about here in Proverbs 6 is laziness. Solomon doesn't pull any punches in his treatment of this issue. He immediately gets down to business by calling the person he's addressing a sluggard. Go to the aunt, oh sluggard, Solomon writes in verse six. How long will you lie there, oh sluggard, Solomon repeats in verse nine. And the word sluggard is used by Solomon as an adjective to describe the person who is habitually lazy. By addressing this person as a sluggard, he's charging this person with the sin of repeated failure and being productive in the manner that God says the person ought to be productive. If the frequency in which Solomon writes about being sluggish has anything to do with the importance of the matter, then we should definitely, definitely sit up and take notice of what Solomon says about sluggers. Because the topic of the sluggard, the topic of laziness infiltrates the book of Proverbs. It's everywhere, you can't avoid it. Here are just a few samplings of what Solomon has to say about the sluggard. In verses 10 through 11 of our sermon text, Solomon shows how the sluggard is a lazy person at pursuing and maintaining gainful employment. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands of the rest, and guess what happens? Poverty will come upon you like a robber. Want like an armed man. But don't think that the work in which a person earns a living is the only way in which a person can be a sluggard. The Bible identifies sluggards as those who are lazy in other areas of life as well. For example, sluggards are lazy about maintaining their homes. Ecclesiastes 10, 18. Through sloth, the roof sinks in, and through indolence, the house leaks. Sluggards are lazy at virtually all forms of maintenance and upkeep. Proverbs 24, 30 and 31. I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns, the ground was covered with nettles, and the stone wall was broken down. You can expect. that the sluggard will be a person who is lazy about keeping his or her environment properly maintained and cared for. That's what Solomon's communicating here. The sluggard's house will be messy and disorganized. The sluggard's car will be messy and disorganized. The sluggards workspace, whether that be a desk or a kitchen, or the manner in which files are stored and organized on a computer. You can expect that these things are going to be messy and disorganized. As we look at verse nine of our sermon texts, we see another common characteristic of sluggards. They are frequently people who are lazy about getting out of bed. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? Proverbs 26, 14 says, as a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard in his bed. And this is not to say that anybody who sleeps is a sluggard, obviously. We've been created to be people who need sleep. What Solomon is describing as a characteristic of the sluggard is the laziness of disciplining oneself in order to go to sleep on time early enough the previous evening so that you get adequate sleep to wake up early enough the following day to accomplish the chores and duties and responsibilities that God has placed in your life. Sluggards are a pain to other people. Because they're so unreliable, you cannot trust that they'll properly accomplish the tasks you assign to them. Proverbs 10, 26 speaks of this. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. Okay, what would that be like? Vinegar to your teeth, smoke to the eyes. An unpleasant experience, right? Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him, to those who you give a task to. Consider that in light of Proverbs 18, nine. Whoever is slack to his work is a brother to him who destroys. And by calling the sluggard a brother to him who destroys, Solomon is identifying the destructive consequences of the sluggard's laziness. For example, Going back to the passage we read in Proverbs 24, 30 and 31, the stone wall around the sluggard's vineyard was broken down. Now, he didn't intend for that wall to be broken down. Yet the result of a broken down wall is really no different than the destroyer who takes a sledgehammer to the wall with the full intention of breaking the wall down. And so the end result is the same, whether it's the sluggard or the destroyer, there's destruction that ensues. And so the sluggard is a brother to the destroyer because everything he neglects through his irresponsibility, through his laziness ends up being destroyed. Because he's too lazy to maintain his house, the value of his house is destroyed. Because he's too lazy to check the engine oil, the motor is destroyed. Because he's too lazy to regulate his own sleep patterns, his employment is destroyed. When we consider everything that Solomon says about sluggards, we get a much bigger picture of the vices which war against productivity. But realize, not every sluggard is going to possess every vice that Solomon has identified. For example, I can perceive of a sluggard who is an insomniac, right? Therefore, he doesn't sleep like the other sluggards do. He doesn't oversleep, I should say, like the other sluggards do. And the temptation for this particular sluggard, the insomniac, would be to take refuge in his insomnia. Saying to himself, well, sluggards are people who oversleep. I don't oversleep, therefore I am not a sluggard. Yet for 20 hours every day, this man fails to be productive in his God-given responsibilities. For 20 hours every day, the insomniac displays all the other vices of a sluggard. Think of it this way. Being a sluggard, It's like being surrounded by a herd of cattle. The herd is comprised of individual cows. Each cow has a name. Neglect. Destruction. Sloth. Apathy. Oversleeper. Idleness. Lethargy. Unemployment. Disorganization, you get the idea? These are the cows that are surrounding you. Put all these individual cows together in a herd, and you have a pretty ugly herd of cows that goes by the name of sluggard. It would be a mistake to assume that every sluggard's herd is going to have the exact same composition of cows. Some herds are gonna be missing this cow or that cow, but all the other cows that are still in that herd warrant the name sluggard. And therefore the man who points to his herd of 30 ugly cows, calling attention to the one or two cows that are absent from that herd, still has a herd which is named sluggard. Because so many sluggards refuse to acknowledge that they are sluggards. I'm gonna ask each of you to take a slightly unconventional approach to assessing whether or not you are a sluggard. Suppose you lived in a country where it was a crime to be a sluggard. And suppose one of your neighbors reported you to the authorities as a sluggard. If you were placed on trial, charged with the crime of being a sluggard, Would there be enough evidence of biblical productivity in your life to exonerate you? If you were placed on trial, charged with being a sluggard, would there be enough evidence of biblical productivity in your life to exonerate you from that charge? Verses seven and eight of our sermon text point to two such evidences of biblical productivity that could be used to exonerate you should they be evident in your life. Both of these Solomon illustrates by appealing to the behavior of an ant. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in the summer and gathers her food in harvest. And the two productive behaviors that Solomon is illustrating here is our self-motivation and planning for the future. Self-motivation, planning for the future. Let's consider these one at a time. Self-motivation is illustrated by the aunt's ability to get her work done even though she has no chief, officer, or ruler telling her when and where and how to do the work. Sluggers don't possess self-motivation. Sluggers need somebody else to manage them because they will not manage themselves. They need somebody else to stay on top of them, to keep track of them, to make sure that they're doing the things that need to be done. What verse seven of our sermon text is telling us, therefore, is that the biblical definition of a sluggard is broad enough to include the person who actually will engage in productive work, but only will engage in productive work when somebody else motivates them to do so. If you tell such a sluggard that he needs to go and do X, Y, Z, he'll do it. But leave him to himself and he'll be idle. Leave him to himself and you'll find him sitting on a couch. He'll be watching TV. He'll be playing games on a computer. He'll be watching funny YouTube videos of cats doing unusual things. To frame this in biblical language, The productive behavior of self-motivation being promoted by Solomon is really just the same thing as righteous stewardship. It's stewarding your gifts, talents, time, and energy for the glory of God. And when you fail to be productive, your behavior then becomes that of a sluggard. Even if somebody else comes along and compels you to be productive, you have still failed in the stewardship of your gifts, talents, time, and energy. Why? Because God gave you those gifts, talents, time, and energy. He gave them to you so that you can righteously steward those for his glory. Remember the parable that Jesus told about the three servants whose master gave them each a certain amount of money in order to steward? Two of the servants put the money to good work, investing it and using it in a manner which the master had intended for it to be used. But the third servant was a sluggard. He hid the money that he was given. And when the master came back, the third servant ran over, dug up the money, unused, in the exact same condition as the master had given it to him, and he returned it to the master and said, here, here's what you've entrusted to me. I haven't used a penny of it. And what did the master say? Did he say, well done, good and faithful servant? No, not at all. He said, you wicked and slothful servant. He called him a sloth, which is just another word for sluggard. You ought to have invested my money, the master scolded. And by telling the slothful servant that he should have invested the money, Jesus is telling his listeners of this parable that they have a personal responsibility to righteously steward the gifts and talents and time and energy that God has given to them by investing those gifts, talents, time and energy into kingdom activity, kingdom building activity, and that includes other people. Investing those things into other people. This is where we learn the biblical principle that those who are faithful with little will be given much. And those who are not faithful and little will not be given much. In fact, it's even worse than that for the sluggard. Jesus said that those who are not faithful with stewarding the gifts, talents, time, and energy that they have been given for the glory of God, even what they have will be taken away, God says, and that the person will be cast into utter darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Evidently, the issue of stewarding the resources God gives to us is pretty important to God. This explains why Solomon presents so many warnings, so many distinct individual warnings to the sluggard throughout his writing, throughout the Book of Proverbs, even the Book of Ecclesiastes. And this is why Solomon is so direct and so frank with the sluggard. Now the second productive behavior which the ant illustrates is that of preparing for the future. The sluggard puts forth no real effort to prepare for the future. Rather, the sluggard is only concerned about the present. And for this reason, Solomon tells the sluggard to learn a lesson about preparing for the future from the ant. It's amazing that such a small creature of the insect kingdom has the diligence and prudence to work hard during times in which food and other provisions are plentiful so that that same creature can have a surplus from which to draw upon during times in which those things are not so plentiful, during times of scarcity. The ant stores up her food in the summer so that there will be ample supplies through the winter. And preparing for the future is an activity that Solomon is encouraging his readers to embrace as a virtue. But Christians are often confused about what the Bible has to say about making preparations for the future. There are some Christians who believe the Bible actually forbids Christians from preparing for the future, or for storing up wealth for the future. But here in verse eight of our sermon text, Solomon is encouraging it. And the confusion comes from passages such as Matthew 6, 19 through 21. Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break into steel. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break into steel. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That last sentence. which tells us that our heart will be where our treasures are. That's really the key to understanding what Jesus means by telling us not to lay up treasures on earth. He's not forbidding the acquisition of wealth and putting aside earthly provisions for the future. What he's warning against is loving the things that we acquire and put up for provisions in the future. He's talking about loving the things of the earth more than God. He's warning against making money and earthly treasures an idol, which replaces God. This is confirmed just three verses later when Jesus adds, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon. So that doesn't teach that we cannot provide in the future. It's just telling us not to love the things that are provision for the future. Another passage that confuses some Christians into thinking that preparing for the future is wrong is Matthew 6, 25 through 26. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on it. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? It's assumed by some that since Jesus says the birds don't sow or reap or gather into barns, it just means that Christians should not sow or reap or gather into barns. But is that really what Jesus is telling us? Is Jesus telling us we shouldn't sow? We can't sow seeds in our field? Is Jesus telling us that we can't reap the harvest of our field? Is Jesus really telling us that if we do reap the harvest of our field, we can't put it in a barn? Of course not. Jesus is affirming that we do do these things. We do plant seeds, we do harvest the seeds that grow into a crop, and we do take that crop and put it into the barn for future preparations so that we can feed it throughout the year. Jesus says the birds, the point is Jesus says the birds have no such storehouse of food and yet God still takes care of their needs. Then he asked rhetorically, are you the image bearers of God, not much more valuable than the birds? And so the point Jesus here is making is that yes, God provides for us. Yes, we have the ability to store up in barns and prepare for the future, but don't be anxious about it. being anxious about what the future holds is a sin. And that's what Jesus is addressing here. Jesus is telling us to put our faith and trust in God's provision. And there is nothing here that would discourage the Christian from trusting that God is making those righteous provisions when he gives to us the harvest of the field and a barn in which to store it. One last passage that sometimes confuses people is Luke 12, 16 through 21. This is the parable that Jesus told about the man who built bigger barns in order to store the abundance of his grain. And then that incited God to bring judgment upon the man taking his life that very night. This passage needs to be read and interpreted carefully because it really can be made to sound like a prohibition against storing up wealth for the future. It can, it can sound that way. But the careful reader will see that the sin God is condemning here is the man, in the man, is his, not his acquisition of wealth, of grains, of goods, but instead the sin was that he rested, he put his security and comfort in his wealth and provisions instead of God. That's the real point. The parable actually, when properly understood, fits very nicely with the point that Solomon is making in our sermon text. Solomon is criticizing the sluggard for his complacency in being productive. And in a minute, I'm gonna read this parable from Luke 12, and what you'll hear is that the rich man in this parable actually adopted the attitude of the sluggard. That's the point. Whereas the slugger never attained wealth, but was content to be idle from the very beginning, the rich man did attain wealth. And he was then, after having obtained the wealth, he was then content to become idle. In both cases, the sin is the person's contentment to be idle. Let me read the parable from Luke 12, 16 and 21. The land of a rich man produced plentiful. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grains and my goods. And I will say to myself, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God. When I read this parable, I don't come away with any inhibitions against storing up wealth and provisions for the future. Instead, I come away with a fear for millions and millions of Americans who have entered into this stage of life that we call retirement. The rich man in this parable had the same mindset that millions and millions of retired Americans have. They say to themselves, soul, you have worked until you are 65 years old. You did well during your career. You have ample goods laid up for many years. Now relax, eat, drink, be merry. This is the attitude which provoked God's anger upon the man in the parable that Jesus told. We're in a Bible. Do we get the idea that a man needs to work until he's 65, whatever number you wanna choose, and then he then has the privilege of becoming idle? Where in the Bible do we find that? Or where in the Bible do we find the concept or the principle that a man can work a certain number of years and then spend the remainder of his days on a golf course, or spending the remainder of his time doing whatever he feels like each day, waking up, figuring it out then, whether he's gonna even do anything, much less maybe just sit around. Where do we get that? Where do we find the biblical precedent for this? We don't. There's nothing in the Bible that would allow a man to assume the role of a sluggard after a certain age. Or having, assuming the role of a sluggard after having acquired a certain level of wealth. This doesn't mean that the working man must remain working in his nine to five job all the days of his life till he's 86 years old. If the Lord has blessed him in such a way that he's no longer needing to actively earn an income, there's nothing wrong or sinful with the man retiring from his career. The part that's wrong and sinful is the popular notion that the retired man no longer has a responsibility to be biblically productive, which is just another way of saying the retired man no longer has a responsibility to righteously steward his gifts and talents and time and energy for the glory of God. Which is just another way of saying that the retired man can now become a sluggard for the rest of his life. Whatever a person's age or employment status, the Bible teaches we are all under the commission of God to serve him and him only. Consider Colossians 3, 23 and 24. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance of your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So if Christians really understand the claim that God places upon our lives, And if we really understand that our purpose here on earth is to be productive and glorifying God through the righteous stewardship of our gifts, of our talents, of our time, of our energy, then we have to acknowledge that every waking moment of our lives must be dedicated to serving the triune God. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not men. You are serving the Lord Christ. Being idle at any stage of life is a sin. God doesn't call us to be sluggards. Instead, God places a calling upon each and every person to serve him, to glorify him, to proclaim the gospel of grace, to advance the kingdom of Christ by taking dominion over the earth. That's what we're here for. That's what our lives are to be dedicated to. And this calling requires you to be productive in your affairs. It requires you to righteously steward your gifts, talents, time, and energy, which God has placed within your control. And this calling requires you to work hard at making preparations for the future, not being anxious about the future. not presuming upon the future, not allowing your heart to fall in love with the wealth that you've stored up, or not allowing your heart to find security in the wealth that you've stored up, but instead to productively pursue resources for your present needs as well as your future needs, so that all of this can work together to bring glory to God. That's the lesson from the ant. And that's Solomon's admonition to the sluggard. Now earlier I used the herd of cows as an illustration of all the various vices that are common to sluggers. There was the cow which was named Sloth, the cow which was named Neglect, the cow which was named Apathy. But let me tell you about one cow that's the most dangerous cow. It's a milk cow. Her name is Dole of Hearing. She's the cow that represents the spiritual sluggard, the person who's too lazy to study his Bible. As a writer of Hebrews was trying to explain the spiritual benefits of having Jesus as our high priest, He arrived at a point where he had to pause through this description of the benefits of Christ as our high priest. He had to pause in order to express his frustration with his audience. His frustration was that he really couldn't communicate to them the fullness of the benefits of Jesus Christ, at least in a way that they should have been able to understand because the Hebrews were so sluggardly about studying their Bible. They couldn't understand the spiritual concepts and principles that the writer of Hebrews was trying to communicate to them. And so he became frustrated, and he expressed that. Listen to what he says, Hebrews 5, verses 11 through 14. About this, the benefits of Christ as our high priest, we have much to say, and it's hard to explain, since you have become so dull of hearing. Hear that phrase, dull of hearing? That's the name of the milk cow. Right? About this we have much to say, but it's hard to explain it to you because you are so dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. And so this passage is telling us that a major component to being productive in our lives is studying God's word. And that pertains to spiritual productivity as well as to physical productivity. This passage from Hebrews also tells us that a major component to making preparations for the future is studying God's word. It pertains to making preparations not only for our earthly future, but how much more does that pertain to making preparations for our eternal, heavenly future? The contrast between spiritually productive people and the spiritual sluggard is framed by the author of Hebrews in terms of their diet, what they're capable of eating, surviving upon. And the spiritual slugger lives on milk. Whereas the spiritually productive person lives on solid food. And this means that the spiritual sluggard is unskilled in the word of righteousness. Whereas a spiritually productive person has their powers of discernment trained by the constant practice of distinguishing good from evil. And the author of Hebrews is telling us that the unskilled milk drinking spiritual sluggards that by this time ought to have been teachers, but instead, They need somebody else to come back and teach them the basic principles of the oracles of God. Remedial training, go back to the basics. They don't even know the foundational principles of Christianity, is what the writer of Hebrews is saying. Spiritual sluggards are a very real problem. Even Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, begins a chapter with a similar statement of frustration. He expresses that he could not address the Corinthians as spiritually mature people because they were sluggish in progressing to spiritual maturity. Paul wrote in verse two, I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Not ready for the solid food. And even now, you are still not ready, Paul says, chastising them, rebuking them. And then Paul goes on to list all the spiritually immature arguments and strife and jealousies that were present in Corinth. Why? Why was all this chaos in Corinth? Because of the presence of that one dangerous milk cow named Dole of Hearing. She lived in Corinth as well. Brothers and sisters, Are you productive in studying your Bible? Are you like the ant in your spiritual life? Do you take the initiative to study your Bible without any chief, without any officer, without any ruler compelling you to do it? Do you work hard to hide the Word of God within your heart so that That word which dwells within you is able to make provision in your present life as well as your future life. Have your powers of discernment been trained by persistent exposure to God's word so that you are able to distinguish good from evil? Or have you become a spiritual sluggard? Have you been satisfied to live on the milk from the cow named Dole of Hearing? If you were put on trial, charged with being a spiritual slugger who seldom studies the Bible, would there be enough evidence to exonerate you from that charge? If you took the witness stand and were examined according to your biblical knowledge, what verdict would the jury render? 1 Corinthians 6.20 reads, for you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, which are God's. Your body and your spirit are God's. This verse is telling you that if you are a Christian, then that is because you have been bought with a price. Jesus paid the price when he took the penalty of your sin upon his body when he was nailed to the cross. And so you have been purchased. You belong to God. He owns both your body and your spirit, Paul says. Therefore, You have an obligation to God to glorify him with your body and your spirit. You glorify God with your body when you righteously steward the gifts and talents and time and energy that he has given to you. And you glorify God in your spirit when your heart receives his word and you meditate upon it day and night. After hearing the word of God exposited this morning, if you have come to the conclusion that you are guilty of being a sluggard, then there are two things you need to do. The first thing is to repent to God, confessing of the sin of being lazy, of being a sluggard. The second thing you need to do is to begin to slaughter all those ugly cows that have been surrounding you. The first cow you need to slaughter is the milk cow, bowl of hearing. Cut her into steak and hamburger so that you can begin feeding on the solid food of God's word. And once you've begun to train your powers of discernment to distinguish between good and evil, then you will be able to see all the more clearly all the other cows in your life that need to be slaughtered. It's the Holy Spirit that will enable you and strengthen you for this transformation from laziness to productivity. And so let us join our hearts together at this time to call upon the name of our triune God who equips each and every one of us with everything good so that we can do His will. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We are born into a world that suffers under the curse of sin. We come into this world with a propensity to sin. In fact, we come into the world as sinners. And as such, we struggle in so many different ways. And laziness, sluggishness, is just one of those ways. Father, some of us are very diligent and productive in one area of life, but very sluggish in another area of life. Some of us are sluggish. in multiple areas of life, some of us are entirely sluggish. Father, we pray that you would reveal to us our sin, that you'd give to us the grace of your Holy Spirit to empower us to overcome those sins. Father, that we would be equipped with the knowledge of your word so that we can discern good from evil, and we can see the evil, therefore, of sluggishness, and that we can put to death those cows that surround us. Father, we pray that this would not be done in our own efforts, but this would be done through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, that this would bring glory to you, that this would bring us into conformity with all that you have called us to. And Father, we pray that we can become productive Christians, people who use the gifts and talents and time and energy that you've given to us to build your kingdom. to exercise dominion, to subdue the world to the glory and righteousness of Jesus Christ so that hearts can be changed, people can be saved, and Father, that your kingdom may be established and built here upon this earth. We thank you so much for your grace. We thank you that you are a compassionate God, a God who gives grace, gives good gifts where we don't deserve it. Father, none of us deserve the good gifts you've given to us. for this reason that we're able to magnify your name and glorify you with our lives as we respond to you in gratitude for all that you've done. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted, copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.