We'll spend some time in the book of Proverbs this morning, so let's pray. Father, we just thank you so very much for your son, Jesus, who's come and died on the cross for our sins, who was buried and rose again on the third day. We just ask that as we dive deep into ourselves and look at our hearts and our intentions and what drives those things. Father, that we would see ourselves honestly, we would see ourselves truly, but that we would also then see the incredible unmatchless power and grace that you've demonstrated to us in your son Jesus. that though we are incapable of changing ourselves, you are more than capable and do change the human heart. And so, Father, we just ask that we would see Christ and that we would see you and we would walk away honoring and glorifying you. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen. So, I often chuckle That's it. There's no reason. I just laugh. I walk around laughing, and people look at me, and I look at them, and I laugh. I often chuckle when people talk to me after sermons. My favorite is when somebody will say, hey, I heard a good sermon recently, and then they quote me to myself, saying I should have said what I just said. That's my favorite. That happens quite a bit, actually, and you just nod and go, well, I'm glad you got that. I don't need the credit, and I'm happy that you understood that truth. One of the other things that always makes me chuckle is there have been people that sometimes, very rarely, accuse me of using big words and sounding too smart, That's not true, but that's what they accused me of. And they say you use these big theological words and they're really difficult to understand. And then they'd start to tell me about all of their health problems and they start speaking in tongues and Latin and Greek and they're able to game off these really long medicines as if I know what that is because I didn't go to medical school. I get it, we talk about things that are really important to us and we dive in deep and sometimes I nerd out on huge theological terms, right? I'm willing to admit that. And it's true, people, when we talk about our own ailments, we learn about our ailments, right? We learn about the anatomy and we don't call it our stomach, we call it something else, right? We don't call it our bone that's in our arm, we have a technical term for that, right? It's from anatomy. And it's okay to learn those things, and it's okay to have those things. But as you start to look inside the human body, you begin to realize how complicated the human body is, right? It's incredibly complex. Because we're engineered by a great designer and creator, so it should be complex, right? That's a good thing that it's complex. And I often marvel at God's creation and even the creation of the human body. But one thing that is even more complex than human anatomy is our personalities, right? That immaterial part of us. So this morning, we're gonna look at anatomy. We're gonna do some anatomy, but not the human anatomy of our flesh. We're gonna look at the immaterial anatomy, right? The anatomy of a, the spiritual anatomy of mankind, as it were. And Solomon is going to use some images that point to human anatomy to help us understand who we are. So go with me to Proverbs 27. We're gonna be in verses 19 through 22. And we're gonna see four parts of the spiritual anatomy of a human, right? In verse 19, we're gonna see the heart, right? The heart, we're gonna look at the heart. Verse 20, we're gonna look at the eyes, right? We're gonna look at the eyes, what do our eyes do? We're gonna look at, verse 21, we're gonna look at the ears, right, with the ears here. And then verse 22, we're gonna look at the hand that crushes. Now, as we look at this section, we have to remember that the, overarching theme of the book is to learn the fear of the Lord, to have this incredible, awesome respect for God, this correct view of ourselves, this view of God, and this incredible reverence and worshipful attitude that says, I want to be pleasing to him, and I don't want to do anything that displeases him. It's an attitude that takes God serious, and so in every single proverb, I believe that the undertow of every single proverb is that idea of the fear of the Lord, right? So we might think of these things as being hyper practical, but The fear of the Lord is the underpin. These aren't just good sayings, right? This isn't just a sayings book. This is a book to teach us what does it look like when a human being takes God serious. Last week we kind of looked at this idea of practical worship and we looked at verse 11 to verse 18. But if we go back up to verse 11, notice what Solomon says here in verse 11. He says, be wise, my son, and make my heart glad. So really, verse 11, all the way down to verse 22, is actually one section, one subset in the Hebrew. And so here's this paragraph. So in a sense, we're still kind of talking about the same type of theme as last week, of this idea of pleasing God and being wise and acting in wisdom. And so these verses here in 19, 20, 21, and 22 are us being wise and how we act with wisdom. And remember then in verse 12, notice what he says. He says, and the prudent see danger and hides himself. And so these verses really are talking about looking for that danger, seeing danger. So it kind of speaks of, as you're being wise and living a life of prudence, living a life of discernment, as you're navigating through life and all the people and all the relationships, here are four things that are indispensable that you need to see, you need to realize as being true, because you're dealing with people, and these things will be seen. You need to know these things because they help you navigate. They help you see danger from afar. Not only do they just teach us generally the nature of man's makeup, but they also kind of inform about us. Who are we? And a lot of this doesn't look good. This is like looking back at your old high school yearbook, right? You look at that and you shudder going, I can't believe my mother, for all that she said, let me walk out of the house with that haircut and that outfit. where was my mother to protect me at that moment, at that picture, right? And we look at it in horror. We go, oh, not that picture. And every time you see a yearbook on the shelf, right, you look and you look for the person you know, you look at them and go, oh man, your parents did not love you. There's like that cringiness of looking at that old, this passage will kind of be like a spiritual yearbook. We're gonna look at ourselves and we're gonna see ourselves without Christ, right? We're gonna see the flesh. We're gonna see what we used to be before Christ and those things that motivate us fleshly. And so the idea is as we look at these things, we go, oh man, I need to be very careful, right? I need to be very careful about these things. I need to walk by the power of the spirit. So, notice verse 19 as we look at the heart. And this, as we try to determine man and look at the anatomy of a man, notice the phrase here. It says, as in water, face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man. Now, this is one of those weird times in the Hebrew where there's no verbs. It's just a series of nouns. And so it's really kind of a difficult verse to translate because there's no verbs. So what is the water doing to the face and what is one face doing to another face? So you kind of have to imply, right? There's an implication here. And I think the ESV kind of has this implication correct. It's the idea of When you look into a puddle or a water, you can see your reflection. So as the water reflects your likeness, your heart reflects who you are, okay? In the ancient world, they had mirrors. but those mirrors were terrible. And so often, probably a pool of water would have given you a better idea of what your face looked like than those mirrors. But that's the idea, right? So it's the reflection. One thing reflects another. So the idea is, so the heart of a man reflects who the man really is, meaning you are who you are deep down. That's the real you, right? The outside is you, but the real you is the you on the inside, right? And your heart exposes the real you. This has then led to a huge debate amongst scholars of what is Solomon getting at? Is he saying that as I'm around other people, I see things in their life and then I see my own heart? Like as I look at another person and I look at their heart, it reflects my own heart? Or is Solomon saying that we need to look at our heart and we see who we are? As I was thinking through this, it is true that your character flows from your heart. Jesus has said this much, right? All types of sins and bad things come from your heart. And regardless of how you dress it up, you are who you are on the inside. It is also true that if I spend time looking at you, I might learn something about myself but that doesn't necessarily mean that I see myself, right? I mean, I could, but that's not. Nor is it necessarily true that I need to spend time looking inside my heart and that I am honest enough with myself and I don't have sin, right? And my mind isn't skewed to like myself above all other people, that when I look at my own heart, I then justify my actions, right? That's also true as well. So then it leads me to, okay, I get the sense that people act according to their heart, and when you see their heart, that's really who they are. But I couldn't help but think, the only one who really knows the human heart is who? The triune God. Only God knows the heart. Right? I mean, there's several passages that we could go to. Quickly turn with me to, I don't know, let's do Psalms, Psalm 44, verse 21. Notice it says, would not God discover this? But notice the next part of this. For he knows the secrets of the heart. Or what about this one, 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter eight. 1 Kings chapter eight. Notice verse 39. So this is Solomon in his prayer, it says, then here in heaven, and stretch out your hands, no, I'm sorry, here in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive the acts and render to each one who's the heart of all children of, for you, I'm sorry, these glasses are weird, according to all of his ways, and then notice, for you, you only know the heart the hearts of all the children of mankind. So the idea is that only God knows the heart. And how do we know the condition of our heart? Well, God tells us the condition of our heart. And that isn't a very pretty picture, right? When we look at the condition of the human heart, it is desperately wicked. Who can understand it, right? We look at a heart that's darkened, it's understanding is darkened, right? The book of Ephesians goes in the great lengths to talk about the depravity of man and the depravity of the heart. It is true, you know somebody's heart by the things that they do and all sorts of evil comes out. And that's really the real person. By the way, that's a really interesting, this is a really interesting verse. It's also the really scary verse, right? When we say things and we do things that are sinful and they just come out and you go, oh, that was just a slip. Yeah, you slipped by exposing who you really are. Oh, that's scary. It causes a whole bunch of conviction. There's one other truth in the New Testament There's this truth that God intervenes and changes the hearts of mankind, right? God and His great love intervenes. God and His great love sent Jesus Christ to come and die on the cross for our sins, to be buried and rose again. And the Bible teaches that if we place our faith solely in the person and work of Jesus Christ, what happens? A result of God's work, and that faith causes what? A new heart. We have a new heart, and we're being made into the image of Christ. Only God can do this. You and I might be able to get a good picture of our hearts, but only God can change it. So it's true, you are who you are on the inside. And that can be exposed, and only God knows it, but God can also change it, amen, right? And he changes that through the power of his work and through the cross and through the power of the spirit. And one of those things that he does when he changes our hearts is we now have these new attitudes, these new desires, right? We have these new desires. We're new, what does Paul say? We're new creatures. So then as new creatures, we can then look at the same verse before we would see a whole bunch of bad. Now when we do this and we look at our hearts, we can say, okay, there's that struggle of the flesh, but each day I should begin to look more and more like Jesus, right? My reflection should be more and more Christ-like as I walk by the power of the Spirit. Notice the next one, verse 20, right? So that's the heart. Now he's going to another thing. Now we're gonna go to the eyes. It says Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied. Now these words are interesting words because sometimes it means hell, sometimes it means the afterlife general, or sometimes it just means the grave or death. I think here these two words used together refer to death, refer to the grave. Because the image of what's being compared and contrasted here in this parallelism is the satisfaction, right? So just think of death like a hungry monster, right? Death is never satisfied. Death happens all the time, right? The past month. with several people I know that have passed, and it seems like death, it never stops. Talk to the Lameys. They always have something going on at their door. at their land, why? Well, because that's where the dead go, right? And there's just this constant flow of death and it never seems to be satisfied, right? It will swallow up everybody and everything and everyone is going to die, right? And so that's the sense, right? It's never satisfied, it keeps on eating and keeps on eating and keeps on eating. It'll never be content. So then notice, I like how the ESV puts it here, it says, So those things are never satisfied and never satisfied are the eyes of men. So just like death and the grave is never satisfied and it will eat and eat and eat, our eyes are never satisfied. That's true, right? That's true. Somebody asked me last week how many guitars I had. I was a little afraid to say how many I had, but then they shared how many fishing poles they had, and I was like, oh, yeah, we're never satisfied, right? You collect this. I collect that. I want more. I want bigger. I want better. I want the new car. Neighbor got a new car. Neighbor got new lights. Neighbor got a dog. Look at the goat the neighbor has. He's got a better goat than I have. I don't even have a goat. Why don't I have a goat? I need a goat. I need at least three goats, right, because the neighbor has one. I need to at least have three. I don't know how to raise a goat, but that's okay. I need three better goats. Right? I mean, that's how we think, right? Our minds, our hearts are never satisfied. And that, by the way, that's the default position. The default position is I want more, I want more, I want more. Lust, lust, I want that, I want that. That which is not mine, which I do not have, I want it. And I want to have it, and I want to keep it, and I want it for me. How many do you need? It doesn't matter how many I need. I just need one more. One of the rabbis in commenting on this passage says that when people die, they never have half the stuff that they wanted. I thought that's a really good way of putting that, right? Never satisfied, never satisfied, never content. Man is never content. In our flesh, this is totally it, right? First John, he talks about worldliness. What is worldliness? What does he talk about? The lust of the eyes. This desire to have something that's not mine, and to get it outside of God's will and outside of God's timing, right? That's really what it is. The desire to have something isn't necessarily sinful, but to want it so bad that I'm willing to break God's law and to not get it in its proper time is terrible. Last week, we were in the book of Philippians on Sunday evening, and Paul says something really interesting. So go with me to Philippians chapter four, speaking of this issue of contentment. Book's an interesting book. Yesterday at Carl Salo's memorial service, one of the gentlemen talked about the Book of Philippians as being that go-to book for him, right? He and Carl had gone through the Book of Philippians. Great book. Great book, deals with a lot of stuff, right? Paul deals with a lot of stuff. Paul's in prison, he says rejoice, and as he's rejoicing in prison, he's rejoicing, why? Because the gospel is expanding in ways that he could never even imagine. Paul reports that there are people who are part of the guard and even in Caesar's house that have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul is thankful. There are people preaching the gospel to try to hurt Paul while he's in prison. He goes, I don't care. Jesus is glorified. For me to live is Christ and to die is game, right? In the book then he also deals with some bad things. Theology, he deals with a lot of bad theology, and what does he do? He points us to Christ, and that our righteousness comes on the basis of Christ, and to have the attitude which is in Christ, that although he is God, fully God, he added on full humanity, and as full God and fully human, came down and died on the cross for our sins, and that's the attitude we need to have. Chapter four, he deals with these two ladies, we don't know what the fight is, doesn't matter, but the point is, There should be forgiveness and unity because we're all focused in honoring and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, right? That's the unifying thing, and so I'm willing to put up with some stuff, and you should be willing to put up with some stuff, as long as Christ is being exalted and glorified. That's what we want, right? And so, okay, yeah, we have little personal fights. Let's get over it, right? It's all about Jesus, not about us, and it's not about my own personal gain, right? And then Paul then tells the church in chapter four, notice in verse eight, he tells them to think about those things which are true and honorable, and to think about those things which are good and excellent. Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about thinking about Christ. That's what he's talking about, right? He's talking about thinking about Christ, all these things. And then he gets into this personal note where he thanks the Church of Philippi for supplying his needs. And the way it sounds is that the Church of Philippi was always eager to give Paul resources. And the Apostle Paul has to walk this really tight line. And I know we've all had to walk this line before where we're very thankful that somebody has given us a gift. And we wanna be very thankful. But at the same time, we don't wanna give the impression that I need you to fund me, right? I constantly am needing your gift. Thank you for your gift, but I need another one, and I need another one, and I need another one. And so the Apostle Paul is saying to this church who's helping his ministry, thank you for the gift. But I just want you to know I'm content. It's incredible that you gave the gift. I'm so very happy that you worshiped and you gave a gift like this. Please, please know I've learned contentment. And notice what he says. It's incredible in verse 11. He says, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. So notice that Paul learns this, and he learns this, this thing, and it's universal, right? So it's every situation. So this isn't something that comes natural to us, right? We have to learn it. Paul had to learn it. But notice that once you learn it, it kind of is, it's kind of applicable in every situation, right? It's a universal thing. So once you learn this, then you can apply it again and again and again to every situation. And notice, he says, I've learned how to be content. And that sense of content is I don't need anything more, I don't need anything less. I have everything I have. And I am happy. I'm peachy keen. And there's no doubt that in Paul's mind this contentment comes from knowing Christ. This contentment comes from what he has in Christ. This contentment comes from his theological understanding of God's power, sovereign power. So I'm content because I know Christ. I'm content because God is big enough to keep me content. That's the problem with everything else. Everything else will eventually run out. Everything else will eventually let me down and leave me for more. There's only one thing I know that can truly, honestly give me joy and contentment, and that is God himself, because he's the only thing that's big enough, right? He's immense, and he's, He's big enough, I don't know, that's the biggest word I can think of right now. He's big enough to handle all of that. He's sufficient enough to handle all of that. He's powerful enough to handle that. He's eternal enough to handle that, right? He's all-knowing enough to handle that. No other person or no other thing can keep me content. It's only Him. So Paul knows what he says in 12, he says, I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. So I understand how to be content when I have nothing, because I have nothing. How am I going to get nothing? I don't know, but I have it, so. Great, I'm content. I think it's harder to be content when you have a lot. I think that's the harder part, at least for me. I don't know about you. Not saying that you can't, not saying that I don't have anything and I'm not content, but I think if, which one is easier to handle? I think the having nothing, but having a lot and being content, well, that's some serious, that's some serious power. What are the thing on earth can you say, I have all that I need, I have more than what I need, and I'm content? Only the Lord Jesus Christ can offer that. So he says, I've learned this, and I've learned in every situation to abound in every circumstance. I have learned the secret. So by saying that it's a secret means that it's not necessarily the most obvious thing, right? It's not necessarily the thing that everybody kind of fully understands. Paul had to learn it. So it's something that's learned. It's something that can apply in every situation. So it's incredibly relevant. It's something that's secretive. So I have to spend time thinking about it, right? And so notice what he says, he says, the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And then it's kind of interesting that our English says, I can do all things. It's literally, I'm able in Christ, or in him. That's really what it is, I'm able. I'm able to go through these. I think that's probably a better idea here is, I'm able to go through these circumstances, why? because he's the one that strengthened me to do this. He's the one that keeps me content. So you see, you see how the gospel teaches us to be content, because we learn from Christ. Christ was content. We learn from Christ to view others as more important than ourselves. We view Christ, who although he was God, came down and died on the cross as a man to save us He shouldn't have done that, but he did, right? Who are we that God would add on flesh to die for us? Nope, that's amazing grace. That's the attitude, right? And so that attitude of, of selflessness comes from God. That's something that only God can give. That's something only God can supply. And once I get, once I understand that, and once I walk by the power of the Spirit, this becomes easier. It doesn't mean that we have it perfect. Why? Because the flesh still wants more. I want one more. I want one more thing. I want one more of that. I want one more of this. I want one more of that. The thing I have isn't as shiny as it used to be. I need something new and shiny. That's our heart. The gospel counteracts that. God counteracts that. And it's very easy, friends. It's very easy for us to get our eyes off of Jesus and want all of those things that we should not want. God is enough. I don't have to make him enough. He is enough. I lie to myself and say he's not enough, I need something else. That's our problem. Now, let's go back to Proverbs 27. It's kind of an interesting image in this next verse, in verse 21. It says, The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold. So both of these are means of purifying metal, right? So one, both of them purify one silver, one gold, right? As you heat it, the impurities come, right? And then the guy would come and then he would take off the impurities, right? So that you would have a pure gold and a pure silver. So like these things purify, notice what he says. He says, and a man is tested So that same thing, by his praise. Once again, kind of a difficult thing to think through. What do you mean? Because we don't normally think of somebody praising us as a test, right? That's not the first thing that comes to mind. Normally we think about something bad's happening in our life, and that's a test, right? My car broke down, I got a flat tire, it threw a rod, and I got no cell phone service. This is a test. Here, Solomon says, somebody singing your praises is a test. So the question is, what would the test be? I think the test would be something like, only the wise can handle praise. One, because it doesn't go to their head. because they're wise and they know, yeah, every good thing in me comes from the Lord. So every time you praise a good thing, I know ultimately it's because of Him. So the wise are able to deflect that back to the Lord. The wise are able to go, yeah, no, it's not me. The test would then be to hear someone say something good about you and then you start going, yep, You got that right, buddy. You understand me perfectly. By the way, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't encourage one another. If somebody does something for the Lord, we should rejoice. And we should go to that person and say, you really encouraged me by doing something that honored the Lord Jesus Christ. We should do that. Look, it's not like there's a shortage of that stuff going around, right? It's not like if we only get 20 for our life, so we better use them wise. No, as a church, we should be encouraging each other. But we also need to remember that too much praise, that could go to somebody's head, right? I mean, that really could go to somebody's head. I've seen this numerous times. I've seen this in my own life. I've struggled with this in my own life. I've seen other guys struggle. Being a young pastor, see this with a lot of young pastors, right? You come into a church, you're the new thing, everybody comes up, oh, that was great, that was wonderful, that was great, that was wonderful, that was great, that was wonderful, wow, thank you, that was great, you really ministered to me, you really did this, really do this. And so, after a while, after a while, you just hear that so many times, it's really hard not to just believe that you're awesome. This is a real test, right? This really can expose a person. This is why I think the Apostle Paul lays down a good example. I think this is why Jesus lays down a good example for us of humility. What does Paul say? I want to know nothing among you but Christ and him crucified, right? What does Paul say? Let us boast in our weaknesses so that Christ is exalted when something good happens, right? Let us boast in the Lord. A wise person is able to hear, is able to be encouraged by a praise, to then deflect that praise then to the Lord, and be encouraged to continue to do the good things. A fool will hear this, will fail that test, and because he's already narcissistic, he will believe it, and he will become even more entrenched in his foolishness. That's why it's a test. So be careful when somebody starts singing your praises. That's a test, that's a test. Boast in the Lord. Be encouraged, be encouraged, but boast in the Lord. Now, this next one is weird. I get the image, but Solomon says something very strange. He says, crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle, right? So the sense is you got that grinding bowl and you got that thing that grinds up grain, right? The, I get that image. But he says, do that to the fool. And you go, what? Does that mean I'm supposed to make like a giant thing here and throw them in there and then start crushing them? Right, like starting to grind them? But notice what else he says. Along with the crushed grain. And you go, well that's, what do you mean, Solomon? I think the idea is, I think the idea is, is that Solomon is saying, look, if you, If you really take a fool to task, and you really grind on him to try to get all of that bad stuff out of him, right? Because that's what you're doing when you're doing this. You're trying to separate all the impurities from the, and so you're doing a lot. You're crushing, and you're working hard, and you're really trying to get all that bad stuff out. I think that's the image here, right? To try to get the best out of that fool, and you're really working really hard. And then notice what it says. So crush a fool along with the grain, Yet his folly will not depart from him. This is incredibly encouraging for me. You want to know why it's encouraging? Because it tells me that I'm not the one that changes human hearts. Amen. Could you imagine if you thought it was dependent upon you and your ability to crush a fool and all the foolishness out of a fool, and their life depended on your ability to do that? You would go crazy. You would go insane. Some do and some have. This verse says, you could do it, be it the folly still with him. You might change their behavior, okay. but there's still that deep-seated folly. So just know that. Know that. Know that sometimes you gotta deal with people in a harsh way. You have to do that. But know that your reactions are not changing that person. So then what changes the fool? Is there any hope for the fool? Of course there is. We all were foolish, right? We all were before Jesus. We all lived in the folly and foolishness. What happened? The Lord saw fit to change our hearts and the Lord removes that foolishness, right? That's what he does, that's what the Spirit does, that's what the Word does. Amen. This is good to remember, right? When we're dealing with people and just going, I can't believe I have to deal with this again, that person again. I'm gonna teach them a lesson. Be careful. You can't change the human heart. The Lord does that. Now this doesn't mean that you don't have a responsibility. It doesn't mean that you don't have a responsibility to share the gospel. This doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to say things that are truthful and speak from God's word. We saw earlier in the book that faithful are the wounds of a friend, right? So it's not saying shirk that responsibility. It's just saying realize your own limitations as you're living and doing what the Lord asks you to do. You're limited to a point. But the Lord, He can do incredible things. He's the one that changes hearts. He's the one that removes folly from people. So notice the hand that crushes. Notice the ear that hears the praises. Right? Notice the eyes that see and lust. Notice the heart that reflects who we really are. It's kind of amazing when you look at this. It's incredibly helpful, incredibly scary, and incredibly encouraging all at the same time. It's helpful because I know it tells us who we are. This exposes who we are. That's helpful. It's scary because I see myself in every single one of these words, right? Yep, that's me. It's also really encouraging to remember the Lord's the one that changes hearts. I can't stop my own lust. How can I then begin to even try to stop yours? I can't stop my own arrogance. How am I gonna stop yours? I can't stop my own sin, how am I gonna stop yours? The Lord does that, amen. That's really encouraging, to know we're all kind of in the same boat, and know that it's the same Savior and God that changes our hearts. And so therefore, when we come together, it's not a let's look down at our glasses at each other of how bad you've been this past week, though there might come a time where we might need to address it. It's more of a, man, we're all messed up. But God is good. And God changes us, and he is changing us. And he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. And so what this should cause us to do is to flee to Jesus. What this should cause us to do is it should cause us to worship. What this causes us to do is to get a good dose of humility. What this should cause us to do is it should cause us to fall to our knees, spend time in God's word, and honor and glorify Jesus Christ with everything we say, think, and do. And when we fail, because you're going to, I guarantee you, you're gonna fail. You probably have already failed in the midst of this sermon. God is forgiving. He will forgive you of your sins. And then you move on to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, forgetting what has happened in the past, pushing forward to the ultimate goal. That's what a passage like this should do. Should be encouraging, should be enlightening, should be scary, should drive us to the cross. So may the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we heard today. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you so very much for your love, for your mercy, and your grace that's lavished upon us in your son. And may we never forget that you are the one that changes hearts. Let us never forget that you work on us, and you work in such an incredible way, and that you're the one that's making us more like Christ. May we encourage one another, and Father, may you use our encouragements to help one another, to stimulate one another, but help us always remember our limitations, that it is really your work that does all of the work, and it's your power that does all the power. I'm so very thankful for my brothers and sisters who are here. So very thankful for each one of them. Father, there's a lot going on in each of our lives. Lots of stuff. Father, I pray that this text would be encouraging to them. Those who need to be encouraged, I pray that they would be encouraged. I pray, Father, also for all of us who are struggling with sin, that this passage would expose that and that we would be encouraged to repent of our sin and to walk by the power of the spirit. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen.