And let's pray before we go into more tomfoolery. And let's spend some time in God's Word. Father, we just thank you for today. We thank you for everything you blessed us with. We thank you for your son, Jesus. We thank you for sending him to come and die on the cross for our sins. And we just ask that as we spend time in the book of Proverbs, your spirit would be leading us, guiding us. Guide my mouth and guide my thoughts that I may say the things that are true and accurate that honor and glorify you and exalt your son Jesus Christ. We thank you for everything you've given us. In your son's name, amen. It is never wrong to follow the Lord. That is always the best policy. That's not necessarily the easiest thing, nor the most convenient thing, but it is the right thing. And I've talked to many people who have said, well, I think God wants me to be happy. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with the fact that God wants us to be happy, but what I normally disagree with is that person's definition of what does it mean to be happy. God's definition of happiness is very different from our own. And there have been plenty of people that have tried to justify their behavior, justify the things that they do, because essentially they're saying, God wants me to enjoy pleasure. God wants me to do this. God wants me to do that. And God has never said those things. But it is true that God wants us happy. Go with me quickly to Psalm chapter one, very first Psalm. Notice the first word, right? Psalm 1-1. Blessed is the man. Some translations put it, happy is the man. That's how it starts off. Happy is the man. And notice, happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of God. Now, I imagine some people would listen to the counsel of the wicked, and the wicked says, well, if you want to be happy, follow my advice. And what does David immediately say? That is not the means for happiness. That might be the means for immediate gratification, but that is false. far from true happiness. And then notice the next part, it says, nor stands in the way of sinners. So if you wanna be happy, you're not gonna stand in the way of sinners. And notice, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. So if you wanna be happy, you watch who you walk with, you watch where you stand, you watch where you sit, right? But notice what he says, verse two, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. and on his law he meditates day and night. So notice that happiness, according to God, comes from delighting in the word of God. Happiness comes from this constant thinking of the word of God. And this word meditate, don't be deceived, this word meditate does not mean to empty one's mind and to do all of those processes where you don't think or you try to look inside of yourself. This idea of meditation is filling one's mind. Has the idea of constantly mulling something over. The content that's being meditated upon is his law, and on his law, he meditates day and night. Also, do not be deceived. This does not mean that you just take one phrase and you just constantly say that phrase over and over inside of your mind until you go crazy. That's not what he means here. What he means is that you think about this in its context, you think about its meaning, you think about its implication, you think about how it fits in all of scripture. It's this mindful thinking and deliberating and this mindful consideration. So meditation automatically implies a correct reading of the text. But notice that happiness comes from following God's word. And today, that's what we're gonna talk about, following God's word. It's never wrong to follow God's word. It's never wrong to follow God's wisdom. It's always right. It's always the right thing. So, let's go to the book of Proverbs. We're in chapter 29. Friends, the end is in sight. That light at the end of the tunnel is not the train coming, but that's the end of the tunnel, right? We're in the final words, the final parting words of Solomon in chapter 29. And the final parting words of chapter 29 of the book of Proverbs is centered around following God's word, following his wisdom and the consequences of following his word. There's also going to be this idea and this warning of be careful if you don't. There are some things that may happen that cannot be reversed. You can find incredible happiness and fulfillment by doing one and you can do something so bad on the other that you can never take it back. So there's this incredible encouragement to do the one and this incredible warning to not do the other. But we're going to see three things here in Proverbs 29. We're only going to go through the first six verses. First thing we're going to see in verse one is that following God's word leads to healing. And what I mean is the healing of the soul, the healing of one's relationship with the Lord. We'll talk about that. Verses two through three, we're going to see that following God's word leads to joy. this incredible joy. And then lastly, in verses four through six, we're gonna see how following God's word leads to edification, the building up of others, the encouragement of others to live for the Lord. So, let's notice verse one. It says, he who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. Now, that's a very interesting way to start off this chapter. Yeah, right? But it is interesting how he starts off. He who is often reproved. Do not think that the issue of this verse is how often you need to be reproved. The issue is not the consistency of reproof. We know through scripture that as humans, as people, as sinners, we need to constantly be reproved. We need to be constantly corrected. We need to be constantly told where we fall short of God's glory. Now, we as believers who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, who solely trust on the person and work of Christ alone and placed our salvation on him alone, We have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and so we have this ability to say yes to what is right and no to what is wrong because of the Holy Spirit, right, and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. We also, as believers, because we have this new nature in Christ, we now have this ability to listen, and we have this ability to confess our sins, right? And then there's this forgiveness of sins, and just the implication of that, the implication of that is, We're going to constantly be convicted of our sin. So the issue of this verse is not how often someone needs to be reproved. We all often need to be reproved. The issue is what's said next. Notice, he who is often reproved yet stiffens his neck. That's the issue. It's this hardness. It's this, I'm not moving. It speaks of an animal that somebody's trying to steer and the animal just stiffens its neck and says, no. I'm going my own way. There's nothing you can do. And no matter how you pull on the reins, no matter what you try to do to get that animal to turn, to go to a different direction, the animal says, I'm going this way, that this is where I'm going. It speaks of a rebellious nature, of one that says, I don't care. It's my way. I'm unwilling to yield. I'm unwilling to move. I wish I could say, that as believers, we never have to deal with this. We never have to deal with a rebellious spirit inside of us, we never have to deal with that flash that says, no, I'm not going to move, and that we're always perfectly compliant, and when we do mess up and somebody says, hey, I think you messed up, our initial response is, yes, you're right, I sinned, I'm sorry, Lord, confess your sins. Unfortunately, this is not how we operate, right? So the advice I would give based off of this, just immediately, just thinking of this, before we even get into the danger of this, is the moment that you have sinned and the moment that you feel the conviction of sin, that's the moment to repent and confess of that sin. Just quickly go with me, I know we know this passage, but it's important. 1 John, let's go to 1 John. Let's start in verse 5 of chapter 1, 1 John, chapter 1, verse 5. It says, If we say we have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Notice this in verse eight. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourself, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Unfortunately, many times when I sin, I try to justify why I did what I did really wasn't a sin. Uh-oh, that's a violation of this verse, right? If I say I have no sin, that's a bad move, right? What should be the response? Well, the response should be, to confess our sins, and the word here, to confess our sins, means to say the same thing. So it means that I look at my sin the same way that God looks at my sin. And I say the same thing about my sin that God says about it. And I say the same thing that God wants me to say about that sin, right? So it's this understanding of that sin, it's an agreement with God on that sin, the nature of the sin, And then it's saying, you're right, I'm wrong. Right? I think that when we confess our sin, it requires this admission of guilt. I sinned. I did this wrong. I think it must express sorrow. I am sorry that I did something wrong. I did something wrong, I feel remorse over that sin, and then there is that then the asking of, will you forgive me? I think it's important that as believers, that becomes the process when we sin, when we talk to God. I'm wrong, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? By the way, that's also how I think we should ask for forgiveness from each other, right? The admission of a wrong done, the real sorrow that comes from that, I'm sorry that I did this to you, and then that asking for forgiveness. But notice what he says. He says, he is faithful. So this is God. God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. So he's the one who's faithful, I'm not. He's the one who's faithful to his promise in Christ. He's the one who's faithful to his own character. He's the one that's faithful to his people. He is faithful and he is just, right? So he's fair. And notice what happens. To forgive us of our sins. He forgives us. This idea of forgiving is a legal term, has the idea of pardoning where he says, I forgive you. It's not a forgetting of the offense, but it is saying, I'm no longer going to hold this against you as if you have done this wrong thing. It's like a debt. Once you pay off that debt, that person can't come back to you and say, well, you owe me more money. No, it's done. It's completed. It's buried. That's the idea, right? It's forgotten, in the sense that it's not going to be prosecuted anymore. That's what he does. And then it says he goes even further than that, and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And the idea is, is that he forgives us, and he brings us back to himself. He says, I forgive you, and then he restores that relationship. And he cleanses us of that, and he helps us fight against that sin in the future. Now, I know that many of us, we look at this verse and we go, this is very simple, very simple thing, but I find a lot of believers struggle in this verse, not in the confession of sin, not in the wrongness of sin, but believing the verse that when I do confess my sin, that God then forgives me. And I know many of believers who feel like they have to self-punish themselves. I have to self-hurt myself. I have to do something more. I have to do something more. There has to be something more. I have to give blood. I have to walk around the church 20 times, right? I have to do this. I have to do that. What does the passage say? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins. We have to believe that He is faithful to Himself and faithful to us. If we don't believe that He forgives us, then that's a lack of faith on our part, which causes a whole new problem. Believe what He says. If He says, if you confess your sins, I forgive you, guess what that means? If you confess your sins, He forgives you. That's it. Now what if you do the sin again? Confess the sin again. He will forgive it again. The implication is you're gonna keep on doing these things. Hopefully, by his grace, you will do that thing less and less, and by his grace, you will not enjoy it as much as you did in the beginning, and by his grace, you will see it become more and more repulsive to you. That should be the response. But there's this other response that we see in Proverbs 29 verse 1. After reproved, what do they do? They stiffen their neck and they say, I'm not moving. I'm not moving. And notice what happens. We'll suddenly be broken beyond healing. The neck will be broken beyond healing. The person will be broken beyond healing. The idea is that if you remain unrepentant, if you remain in this thing of, I'm not changing, I don't care, I'm not changing, it is heading for disaster. It's like going to one of those cliffs, and they have that caution about brakes. And you go, I don't need to be concerned about the brakes. You start to smell your brakes as you're going down the hill. You go, ah, I'll still keep the pedal to the metal, right? And then at the bottom, you go, I'm now going at breakneck speed, and there's no stopping this. What's done is done. What's about ready to happen is inevitable. That's the picture you get. The idea is someone so obstinate that they're not changing, there'll be this brokenness. And once again, you see that word suddenly. It's not as if this person does this one time and God goes, you stiffened your neck one time. How dare you break your neck, right? We know that that's not the character of God. We know that this is something that is habitual, habitual, habitual. And so what is this? This is sudden to who? To the person who is doing this, right? It might be sudden to us. This isn't sudden to God. This isn't sudden to this person. This is that constant refusal to believe. And notice that they'll be broken beyond healing. They will do something, they will say something, they will burn bridges, they will hurt their relationship with God. The inevitable will happen that they will cross the line. And once they've crossed that line, it doesn't matter what they say, it doesn't matter how they say it, it doesn't matter how many tears they have, how much grief they have, it doesn't matter. Once that's crossed, it can never be healed. Let that be a warning to us to keep short account of our sin. Short account and to confess it and to confess regularly. Let this also be a thing for us who know other people and deal with other people. Be short on the accounts and make sure that you're asking for forgiveness a lot because you're probably sinning a lot. And realize this, that if you don't, and you think, I'm right, the other person's obviously always wrong, and you stiffen your neck and say, never, guess what'll happen? You could possibly break a relationship that can never be repaired, and it could have easily been solved by saying, I'm wrong, I'm sorry, will you forgive me, right? But just notice the joy, the happiness, the fullness of life that one experiences, the healing that comes when we follow God's word. When we sin, we ask for forgiveness, we repent, and what do we get? We get this incredible promise that he's forgiven us, and cleansed, and now we're walking with the Lord, and the joy of that, the joy of being with the Lord in that close relationship. That's the way it should be. The warning, you don't do that. You walk off the path. Uh-oh. That's a theological word, by the way. It's an uh-oh. It's an uh-oh moment. Now, there's something else that happens when we follow the Lord. Notice in the next verses, it leads to joy, right? So notice what he says in verse two. It says, when the righteous increase, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people groan. So here, just thinking of this parallelism, when it talks about when the righteous increase, I think this is talking about the righteous ruler. That's what I think he's talking about here. I know we've seen this phrase a couple weeks ago, and I said that that phrase spoke of righteousness as people acting. Here, I think the parallelism describes the people in charge. And so the idea here is that when you have Righteous ruler. The increase of righteous people. What ends up happening? There's great joy. Why? Why? Is it some sort of magic formula? Fairy dust? Right? Is it like Tinkerbell? just wave Tinkerbell over somebody and all of a sudden now they can start flying? Is it some sort of magic that happens? No. It's obvious what happens. You have people who are following God's law, which is to love God and to love others. You have people who are honest. You have people who want You have people who are seeking to do what is right. You have people that are looking out for others and wanting to help others. You have this love and this joy. And guess what happens when you're around people who are loving and joyous? Other people become loving and joyous, right? It's what happens. So walking righteously causes this rejoicing. People go, I'm glad this person's my neighbor. I'm glad this person is doing this. I'm glad this person is doing that. People rejoice, there's a party, everybody's excited. Notice the other. But when the wicked rule, people groan, they sigh, they suffer, why? The wicked don't care. They're out for themselves. They're willing to do the complete opposite. They love them. And you just happen to be in the way of them getting what they want, right? I mean, that's the sense that we get through the book of Proverbs. And so what happens to people who are under that type of rule? Suffering and pain. Not rejoicing, but pain. Notice the next verse, it says, he who loves wisdom makes his father glad. I had to chuckle this morning as Greg was talking in the book of Colossians, and it says, let no one take you captive by philosophy. Well, that word for philosophy means the love of wisdom. Right, so I chuckled here and says, oh, well, here's a philosopher, right? Here's the philosopher. Now, this type of philosopher is far different from the philosopher that Paul talks about in Colossians chapter two, right? Because in Colossians chapter two, that philosopher is basing his wisdom based off of what? Man's thoughts, man's traditions, man's culture, man's stuff, right? So he's wise in the wisdom of man's stuff, of fleshly stuff, of earthly stuff. Here, Solomon isn't just saying, yeah, just the smart guy in the room who happens to know what the word epistemology means is going to make his dad super happy. Now, maybe if your dad is a philosophy professor and you know the meaning of epistemology, he might be happy. That is not what Solomon's talking about. What he's talking about is someone who loves God's wisdom. This is talking about who follows the wisdom that's laid out in this book, that takes God serious, that fears God, that's obedient to God. One that looks to Christ and says, I want to be like Christ. I'm in love with Christ. I want to know everything about him. I want to submit to him. I want to obey him. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's this type of person. This is a person who's discerning. This is a person who's making the right kind of decisions. This is a person who's spending time in the word, right? So he who loves this, this type of philosopher, a biblical philosopher, right? We could call this the Bible philosopher. We'll just do that for shorthand. So the Bible philosopher does what? makes his dad happy. You see it? You see it in verse two? Righteousness increases, what happens? People are happy. Notice in verse three, when there's one who loves wisdom, what happens? His father is happy. There's joy. There's joy. When we follow the Lord, there's joy. Not only do I get joy because I'm yielding to the Spirit, and that's part of the fruit of the Spirit is joy, this sense of contentment, this sense of thankfulness, this willing to express all that I have in Christ and say, thank you for what you've given me. But then other people. like your parents, like your neighbors. You know what they'll do? They'll be thankful for you. They'll be thankful, they'll be joyous. Now, obviously, this isn't always the point. I wanna make a disclaimer here. This is not a promise. The book of Proverbs is not a whole bunch of promises. This is the principle, because some of you are probably thinking, well, what do you do with that passage that says all those who desire to live godly will suffer persecution? It doesn't seem like that's a product of joy, right? Wanting to persecute someone else. This is the principle, right? All things being equal, the principle is you do what's right, and people are going to be joyful that you're in their life, right? This doesn't always happen. The Lord, Jesus Christ, was the most perfect, righteous person, and they killed him and constantly wanted to kill him. But I guarantee you this, those who followed the Lord and came in contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, I guarantee you they were incredibly joyful for the experience of meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. I guarantee you this, his parents were incredibly joyful that Jesus was their son. Not only that, but think of this, friends. Won't our heavenly Father be happy? Like, I mean, won't he be happy with obedience? Now, once again, I want to clarify this because it's so confusing for some. I'm not saying that if we obey, then that... That's how we get right with God, right? So salvation is always by faith and faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ. The moment that I place my faith, I'm imputed with Christ's righteousness, declared righteous, right? All of these things are then given to me in Christ, amen. Don't have to work for it, they're mine. Now as a child, I have to be obedient. And as a child is obedient to its father, brings joy to the Father, saying, wow, look at this one who's mine, who's doing what's right. And I think that's the idea here. When we, as the children of God, walk by the power of the Spirit and follow his word, he's happy. He is so happy with us. There's no greater joy for him than when we walk by the power of the Lord. and do what he says. One other thing that I wanna say, and I'm probably saying this more for myself than anyone else, so you gotta listen to my inner talking to myself, so don't interrupt me. So many times, I think of how we talk to children, and just think of this verse, that a father is glad when when someone loves wisdom, shouldn't that be the thing that we want for our kids and our grandkids? I don't care. I don't care what kind of job they have. I don't care what kind of house they live in. I don't care what kind of car they drive. They have two dogs, three dogs, no dogs, I don't care. I don't really care. But I do care that they live for the Lord Jesus. And if they have a minimum wage job, doing some menial task that they're overqualified for, but they love the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. They live in a cardboard box, but they love the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. That's what I want for my kids. And that's what we should encourage. We should encourage that, right? Not saying that the other's bad, not saying that. I'm saying if I had my druthers, I would want them to love the Lord. That's what we should want for ourselves, to love the Lord. But notice the opposite of this, right? So there's this love of wisdom, and that's kind of an interesting parallelism, because he says, but a companion of prostitutes. And you go, now, wait a minute. Where did that come from, and how is that a contrast? It's an obvious contrast. One loves wisdom and has discernment to avoid such company that easily tempts the son. The other one is so foolish and has such a disregard for the commands of the book that we've seen already that he makes his friends, these people who are known by their temptation, right? Their whole livelihood is caught up in temptation of drawing people away, right? So the one is really happy because the father's happy because he's following. The other one, This one just doesn't get it. He's foolish. He puts himself in this situation and we all would go, you're gonna fall. You're gonna fall hard. This is a serious thing. And then notice what happens. It says he squanders his wealth. Well, yeah. I mean, we've already seen through the book of Proverbs that prostitutes are willing to sell themselves for bread. Do you think they care about the person? They want the guy's money. They're willing to take all of his money. So you see the idea, right? Wisdom has discernment that makes people happy. Wisdom and following the Lord makes people rejoice. Wickedness does the opposite, causes people to groan, destroys. Think of the prodigal son, right? That parable of the son that went away. It's exactly what he did. He spent time in company with prostitutes. His dad wasn't even dead and he was already asking for it in his inheritance. Could you imagine that? Your kid's coming up to you, hey, I know you're not dead. I wish you were, could I have all your stuff? How offensive that would be? How hurtful that would be? And then the father gives it to him, which is interesting. He goes out, squanders it. And then he says, well, I think I'm gonna go back to dad. At least dad might give me a job. foolish thinking, why would dad give this guy a job? He literally just squandered his inheritance and said, I wish you were dead. So why he would think that his dad would give him a job, he goes back and what does his dad do? His dad opens him with open arms. So here you have that squandering, but friends, I don't want us to forget about the grace of our Lord and Savior, who, let's say you do squander, and let's say you do and you have acted foolishly. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to get your money back. That's not the promise. One more, notice. Verse four. Notice how following the Lord builds people up. It says, by justice, this is biblical justice, right? What's right, what's viewing people as being made in the image of God and treating them with respect and dignity and following God's word, right? That's the idea here of justice. By justice, a king builds up the land. It's better off. Everybody grows from this because there's a sense of honesty, there's a sense of fairness. There's a sense of right is right and wrong is wrong. There's a sense of looking out for others, right? That's the idea of justice here, right? So by this it grows. But notice this, but he who exacts gifts tears it down. Now we've seen this phrase numerous times already in the book of Proverbs. And remember that this idea of exacting gifts is kind of like those wink, wink, behind the door kind of things where it's like, give me this gift. And someday down the road, you may need a gift. I got you. But they don't have to say it, right? It's kind of like implied in giving the gift that someday I'm going to come call for a favor. No one has to say it. No one dares says it. But it's that type of gift, right? So it's somebody who goes around looking for that type of gift. What do they do? They bring the whole land down, right? So one follows God's word, builds people up. The other one doesn't follow God's word and tears the whole thing down, right? And you go, well, how is that? Well, notice the next verse, verse five. A man who flatters his neighbor, so the word here for flatter, is this idea of kind of being deceptive, of talking them up, of saying things that aren't true, to stoke the ego of the other. So he who flatters his neighbor does what? Spreads a net for his, I think, neighbor, right? So his neighbor's feet. So be careful. Just because somebody says a lot of nice stuff to you doesn't mean that they like you. Right? People can say a lot of nice stuff. Be careful. That might mean it's a trap. They're throwing nets at your feet. The whole point of a net is to catch something, right? They don't care. So it's all to trap you. Be careful. Be careful. We heard today in Colossians, do not be deceived by persuasive arguments. There are a whole bunch of false teachers out there that will say a lot of nice things to you, say a lot of nice things about you, say a lot of things that you go, well, that sounds great. They don't want you. They just want your money. They just want their stuff. They're trying to stoke themselves. Jesus isn't this way, right? Jesus is not this way. And then notice the next verse. It says, Verse six, an evil man is ensnared in his own transgression. So you have this idea of, on the one hand, here's this evil man who's trying to trap his neighbor, but then you then have this idea of, he's even held captive by himself. So this person is willing to tear down the whole community, willing to tear down his neighbor, and you get the sense of, because he's stuck in it too. He's stuck in this trap. Now, he wanted to be in this trap. He likes it in this trap, but he's still in the trap, right? He's addicted to it, right? He's ensnared, he's caught by it, right? He swallowed the hook, he took the bait, right? Whatever image you wanna use here for ensnared and captured, that's what happened, right? So you get the sense here that there are some people who are just so captivated by their sin. Paul talks about this, that you're either in Christ and you now can serve your new master or you're not in Christ and you are a slave to sin, right? But notice the next part. But a righteous man sings and rejoices. So in the parallelism, the idea is that the evil man is trapped in his own transgression. So he tries to flatter his neighbor, he tries to take the gift from someone else, and that very thing that he's trying to set for someone else, he gets caught in, right? He gets caught in his own trap. And that causes what? Everything to fall apart, right? His neighbors don't like him, his country doesn't like him. Here himself, he's caught in a trap and he's stuck, he can't get out of it. But the righteous man, the man who has wisdom, the man who's following God's word, thinking of New Testament, the one that's walking by the power of the Spirit, right, who's seeking to honor and glorify Christ. We sidestep those, not because of us, but because of God's wisdom, and just following God's wisdom, avoid some of these snares. Then what happens? He sings, and he rejoices, not in his own ability to be wise, right? This can't be that he says, look how smart I am. Let's all sing my praises of my wisdom. This has to be, wow, look at the wisdom and the grace of God that has allowed me to sidestep these problems, sidestep these consequences, right? So it all goes back to him and honors and glorifies him. So friends, I think it's always so very good to follow the Lord. And you might say, but doesn't God want me to be happy? And my response will be, as I said, yeah, he does, but I don't think your happiness is the same as his happiness. And my advice would be delight in the law of the Lord, delight in his word, delight in the things that are found in his word. And you say, well, how do I do that? Well, I think Psalm 1 helps us. So let's go back to Psalm 1. I think Psalm 1 offers up some powerful insights on how we might be able to do this. So just back to verse 1, notice what he says. How happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. There you go. First way to delight in God's word is be careful who you associate with and don't listen to the advice of those who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. in matters that deal with your relationship with the Lord, right? Now, you might have a really good mechanic who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ and tells you you need to change something in your car. That's a whole different type of counsel than what's being talked about here. This is about how we live and how we should act, morality, ethics, living for the Lord, worship. They have nothing to say to us. God's word is where we go. This book is sufficient. Jesus is sufficient. They offer nothing. Muhammad offers nothing to me as a follower of Jesus. He might have a great quote here or there. I don't care. Everything that I need for godliness and Christ-likeness is found in this book and is found in Christ. Why would I go anywhere else? So be careful. Let's be careful. There's a lot of people out there who can talk real good. We go, well, that's good counsel. It might not be. Then notice the next thing. Nor stand in the way of sinners. Notice that the first one's walking, right, very transient. This next one's standing, speaks of the idea of conviction. But notice what it is, it's standing in the way of sinners. It's like you're on the road. It's on their road, on their path, on the way that they live, and you go, this is how I'm gonna live, boom. You wanna delight in God's word? Don't do this. Or sit in the seat of scoffers, adopt the judgment of scoffers, of those who hate God. So notice what he says here, he says, but delights in the law of the Lord. So what does he do? Notice, in his law, he meditates day and night. That is the solution. I know it sounds simple. How do I love the word, spend time in the word? Spend time in the word. I mean, it sounds really simple. But to me, that's it. When I spend less time in the book, I don't really wanna go to the book. The more time I spend in the book, the more I wanna stay there, right? I mean, that's how it is, right? And then when I know what happens, because notice the next verse in verse three. He is like a tree planted by streams of water who yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And whatever he does, he prospers. So I look at the consequence of following God's word and there's this stability, there's this fruitfulness, there's this longevity. When I know what the book offers, I'm more willing to stay in it. But I will say this. I also cannot appreciate this book apart from Jesus Christ, right? Apart from what he's done in my life and placing my faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ. That has to be the foundation, right? That's where we start. So this afternoon, we have this incredible opportunity to think about this, Jesus Christ, and what he's done for us on the cross, that because of our sinfulness and our inability to be right with God, God, in his love and in his good pleasure, sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us, right? Rose again on the third day, and that promise that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Apart from that, friends, we are incapable of even delighting in the word, and it's because of that. So we have that opportunity. I also believe that while we're gonna be handing out the elements, the choir.