And then we'll get out of your way. There we go. Chuck is going to team preach this with me. His job is just to say amen. Hallelujah. There we go. Glory. Glory, that's right. Now let's go ahead, let's pray. Father, we thank you so very much for today. We thank you for your love, your mercy, and your grace. And man, where would we be without that? Where would we be without your help? And where would we be without your help when we struggle with those things that so easily entangle us, those things that get us so easily distracted? So Father, help us. Help us see the sufficiency of your word. Help us rely upon you. Help us trust you and your word and yield to the power of the spirit. We are just so very thankful for everything you've given us in your son's name. Amen. So in December of 2018, in North Carolina, there was a young woman who was cleaning out a cage in an enclosure in a zoo, and a lion escaped and hunted her, and she ended up perishing. and they had to call in the sheriffs and the sheriffs had to come in and they had to shoot the lion because you can't have a dangerous man-eating lion loose in a zoo. It was a huge zoo, by the way. I mean, it had over 100 animals and they were scared that this lion would get out and eat all the other animals and possibly hurt someone else. Lions are dangerous, right? You don't wanna goof with a lion. My dad is an avid reader of hunting journals of men that go into Africa and they hunt these wild animals. And the most exciting ones are the ones where they go in after lions. And the most dangerous type of lion is a wounded lion or a hungry lion. You just don't want to goof with it. There's just something about them that are terrifying. They're scary, they're dangerous. It is interesting how lions are depicted in the scriptures. So on the one hand, you have this dangerous, scary predator type, which is Satan is described as a lion. He's a bad lion. But you also have Jesus and the righteous described as lions. And it is true, Jesus isn't safe. He is dangerous. Right? I mean, you don't want to get on the wrong side of God. His wrath will come. But he's good, right? And he's righteous, and he's holy, and he's forgiving. And so you have these interesting descriptions of lions. And in Proverbs chapter 28, this is the chapter of lions, right? So remember, in the first 14 verses, kind of was, under the heading of, the wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. So we talked about lions, the good kind of lions. We looked at Christ as the example of a bold, righteous lion. This second half, starting from verse 15, even going into some of chapter 29, deals with the other kind of lion, the bad lions, right? So we're gonna talk about the bad lions. Now, I guess it would be natural to like have a sermon where you would have Satan then as the depiction of a bad lion, but as I was thinking about it, I was thinking, you know, there's, There's enough of that bad line that's in me, right? The flesh. There's things that I desire to do that are not godly. That's called the flesh. That's like a bad line. That's about as dangerous as a dangerous lion or a bear. And so this morning, We are the example of the bad lions and our nature. And this passage, I hope to encourage us to, one, see how dangerous the flesh is, right? It's dangerous. You don't want to goof with it. It's dangerous. I also want to show you that not only is it dangerous, but it's just doomed to fail. It will lead to divine discipline, right? God as our father will discipline us for this. I also hope to demonstrate that you by yourself cannot tame this lion. This lion will not be tamed by your strength or your ability or anything that you do. This lion can only be tamed by death. And it's only because of what God has done that this lion can be done away with. You can't goof with this lion. This lion's a man-eater. You can't turn your back to it. You can't try to tame it. You can't try to domesticate it. Nope, you gotta let the Lord deal with it. And Paul says, mortify the flesh, kill the flesh. Don't feed it, don't let it, don't turn your back on it, don't trust it. It's dangerous stuff. So let's look at this dangerous lion. Notice in verse 15 through 16, we're gonna see the danger of this lion and how dangerous it is. Notice in verse 15 it says, like a roaring lion and like a charging bear. The depiction here of a roaring lion and a charging bear demonstrate a couple things. One, a roaring lion normally roars after it has killed something or it's super hungry or it's angry. Here's the point, if you hear a lion start roaring, it's bad. It's never a good thing. He's never gonna come to your door and give you cookies, right? This isn't a good thing. This is always a bad thing. Whenever you hear a lion, bad. So this depicts a predator. This depicts something that's dangerous, something that should send chills down your back, right? Or a charging bear. I know that there's a couple people that are outdoorsmen, and I'm sure that you've seen a bear in the wild. I don't know how many of you have ever been charged by a bear. That's a whole kind of different kind of scary, isn't it? There's just something that you just go, this is it. This is the end. There's nothing I could do to stop this guy, right? It's dangerous. It feels threatened. It's wanting to attack, right? So you get the idea. It's a predator. It wants to attack. It's dangerous. And just the image itself strikes fear. And then notice what he says. Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people. Now, let's be honest, a wicked leader over any type of people is a bad, dangerous thing, okay? So let's not just think that if you're rich, you're okay here, but the point is this. When you get a wicked ruler over people, Man, it is bad, right? We discussed this last week. Remember, we discussed this issue of, remember when wicked, when the wicked rise, people flee. Why? Because it's dangerous. These people don't care about God's word. They don't care about the truth of God's word. When a believer is given to the flesh, watch out. That is dangerous stuff. The flesh is dangerous and it hurts, and it hurts people, it exploits people, it doesn't seek to bring people together, and any attempt that it does is only for itself, it's all self-centered. I'm sure that many of you are sitting in your pew right now, or sitting in the chair going, I can think of a couple wicked rulers that I see on TV, right? I can think of a couple wicked rulers that I've seen, But think of this, friends. Even inside of the church, there can be wicked rulers, right? And notice that character matters more. Walking by the power of spirit matters more than somebody's ability to rule. We've been talking on Saturday morning about Jesus as being the good shepherd, and one of the things that I thought was really interesting that, as Jesus talks about his qualifications as a leader, doesn't talk about his ability to lead. He talks about his love for the sheep, and his willing to serve the sheep. And so with inside of the church, you can have a great leader who makes a terrible pastor. And you can have a great pastor who's a terrible leader by Earth's standards, right? You don't want a general. You don't want somebody that's gonna drive you. You don't want a CEO. You want a shepherd. It seems like in our own thinking, we often think, well, the powerful guy, the rich guy's gotta be wise. No, a wicked ruler is always bad. And when wickedness rules us, that's bad too, right? Now, when you think about a wicked ruler who has no scruples, who has no discernment, doesn't care about God's word, Of course it is terrible for those who have nothing to fight against it, right? Poor people. These people have no means to fight against it. You almost kind of walk away going, there's really, it's kind of hopeless, right, for them, because they have no recourse. And so you would say, well, why would Solomon add this? In a book talking about the fear of the Lord, why would he just make this observation? I think it's important to remember the passages before this So remember before when Solomon says, it is better to be righteous, to walk in wisdom, and be poor, than it is to be crooked and rich. And so we must carry that in with this verse. So the idea is, yeah, you might have a wicked ruler. That doesn't matter how you respond. We must respond with Christ-like wisdom. regardless of the leadership, right? That's the implication. But just notice how dangerous it is. And then notice the next verse, right? Notice the next verse. Verse 16, a ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor. Oh man. Yeah, this word for lacks understanding is not that they lack an understanding of the government or they lack of understanding of economics or lack of understanding of any of these other things. Here, a lack of understanding deals with a lack of discernment, ability to take God's word and appropriately apply God's word to each situation. So when a ruler doesn't do that, guess what happens? There's exploitation. It makes sense, doesn't it? It makes sense that when somebody doesn't care about God's word and following God's word, that there is no guardrails for their response, right? When you disregard that, what's to stop them from exploiting people, right? If they're already lack discernment, they don't care, they're already wicked, they're already foolish, Do you think the people are going to change their mind? Do you think they're going to look at a poor person and go, that poor person's in a really bad spot. I probably shouldn't exploit them. No, in fact, a person who lacks discernment, a person who doesn't care about God's word, sees that person as a means to the end. Doesn't see that person for who they really are. There's no reason to stop them. You can't pull on their heartstrings to say, oh, please, sir, I have nothing, don't come after me. They'll go, who cares? You are here for me. You are here to bring me pleasure. And we, Once again, our mind is probably filled with a whole bunch of people we see on TV going, well, that's that ruler. That's that ruler. But let us remember, friends, that any one of us can have leadership, any one of us can have influence, and any one of us can walk by the flesh. Right? Let's go to the book of Galatians. Book of Galatians, we'll go to Galatians chapter five. We'll go to verse, oh, there's so much here. Let's go to verse 13. As Paul's upholding the gospel to those who are opposing it. He's talking about the true spiritual life of a believer, and notice what he says. He says, for you were called to freedom. We're not called to be under the bondage of the Old Testament. We're not called to be under bondage of any law, right? The idea is that we were called to live in this freedom of Christ, this grace that's been lavished upon us. We have this incredible freedom in Jesus. It's all about Jesus. We now have freedom to worship and to love, and we now have this freedom to choose to do what's right. Before, man, I was a slave to sin and even walking under the law, right? Those Old Testament rules. That's not freedom. Freedom is found in Christ. And then notice what he says. He says, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. but through love serve one another. So you understand that it's possible for me to take this grace that's been given to me, that's been given to you, that's been lavished upon us in Jesus Christ, this incredible freedom, and we can do what? We can turn it into an opportunity for the flesh. We can let the flesh have a beachhead. We can let the flesh get the, it's toe in the door. We can turn our back to the lion, right? And then notice what he says, he says, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. See, before, if you're trying to keep the law to earn your salvation, you're not really worshiping and you can't really love another person because the entirety of all of your efforts are to, commend yourself to God, right? So it's not out of love, it's out of, I better do this or things are going to go bad. When I place my faith in Jesus and I'm given the righteousness of Christ, then when I obey, it's not to commend me to God, it's off the basis of the fact that I'm already accepted by God. Well, that changes the whole game, doesn't it? Now I worship out of this freedom. Before, man, I have to work to just get God to notice me, to go, he's a good guy. God's already given me the righteousness of Christ. So now my actions of obedience can truly be out of love and out of worship from a pure heart, because it's for him. And when I do something for you, I'm doing it out of pure love. I'm not expecting that if I do something for you, God sees and goes, gold star, good job, kid. No, I'm doing it because look at what God's given me and I wanna help you and I wanna love you. I wanna be like Christ. But notice what he says, he says, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one another. Well, there you go. It's possible for us to turn into bad lions and start eating each other, start fighting each other, start roaring. So what's the solution? Notice what Paul says, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So the moment that I place my faith in Christ, right? Realize I'm a sinner, Jesus came and died on the cross for my sins, I place my faith solely on the person and work of Jesus Christ for my eternal salvation, abandoning all other methods of salvation, right? Solely on the person and work of Jesus. The Bible teaches, what? That we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and this Holy Spirit that indwells us, empowers us. And we are to yield to that empowerment. We're supposed to submit to that empowerment. We're supposed to say your will, not my will. And as we step out in obedience, trusting the power of the spirit, guess what happens? We don't act like bad lions, right? We're not bad lions. And then notice what he says in verse 17. He says, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are in opposition to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So it's impossible for me to be walking in the flesh and doing the things of the Spirit. And vice versa, it's impossible for me to be yielding the power of the Spirit and acting fleshly. I'm either one or the other. Now, remember what he then says next. He says, if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, meaning you can see them. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, just in case that list doesn't cover your sin, there's a whole bunch of other things like it that your flesh might exhibit. That's all bad lion stuff, right? And Paul says, I've warned you beforehand that those who do such things do not inherit the kingdom of God. This doesn't mean that a person becomes sinless when they place their faith in Christ. It does mean, however, that there might be some who make a public profession, but that's about as far as it gets. And their entire life is identified by and in association with sin. They're no longer associated with Christ, they're not in Christ, they're in these other things. Then Paul, then he talks about the yielding to the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And he says these things belong to Christ Jesus. And those who belong to Christ Jesus, excuse me, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So you understand that the moment I placed my faith in Christ, it was as if that flesh was already nailed to the cross, right? It's already dying. It's already on the cross. It has no power. But what I do, and what you do sometimes, is we grab a ladder, put the ladder up on the cross, we walk up and go, how you doing? How's it hanging? Is there anything I can get you? It's hot out today. You want some water? How about a fan? I can get you a fan. Next thing you know, we're running power lines up the cross, and we're fanning off the flesh. And the flesh is like, well, I could use a sandwich. OK, I'll go down and get you a sandwich. And that's what we do. We go up and we try to feed it, to let it live longer. Let it die. It doesn't care about you. Trust me, if you give it the opportunity to kill you, it will kill you in a moment. The flesh doesn't care. That's the part of you that's evil and twisted and lying. Yeah, so when we go back to Proverbs, and we go, yeah, I know that ruler who lacks understanding, let us be quick to remember, yeah, I easily could be that person that lacks understanding. Yeah, I could easily be the person that exploits another person. Of course it's bad when somebody else does it, but it's bad when I do it. Sin is sin. But notice what he then says. He says, but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days. Probably borrowing from the first part of the parallelism here in Proverbs 28 verse 16, might be speaking of a ruler who does have discernment, that does want to do things with good character and integrity, wanting to honor the Lord, He's not really concerned about his own, he's not greedy. And because he's not greedy, the idea is that people will see that and they won't overthrow the king. But it's also true too that things go really well when you're not greedy, right? If you're content, guess what you need? Nothing. Because you're content, right? Contentment, man, there is great gain in contentment. I'm content with what the Lord's given me. I don't need anything more. I don't need anything less. Amen. He's provided for me. I'm not greedy. Man, imagine how much stress we would lose if we just stopped being greedy. Right? Think about how much, the quality of life, how great that would be. Yeah, I got what I got, amen, praise the Lord. And the things I'm getting are from the Lord. I don't need anything more, I don't need anything less. But you see how dangerous it is? You see how dangerous it is, the exploitation of people, the greediness, that self-centeredness? That's dangerous, it's dangerous. And once you get a taste of greediness, Now, that's really hard to shake. It's really hard to shake. And it's really hard to learn contentment. It really is. The Apostle Paul had to learn it. And it comes from lots of prayer, yielding to the power of the Spirit, understanding who we are in Christ, understanding what we got in the gospel. Now, there's more things. Oh, it's bad. It's bad. Not only is it dangerous, but there's some pretty bad consequences to being a bad lion. Notice this first one, it says, if anyone is burdened with blood of another, he will be a fugitive until death. Let no one help him. Now, this is a pretty interesting proverb. There's two main views here. I don't wanna get bogged down with all the different types of interpretation. What I think is happening here is, you have a person who's committed murder. and that murder has pricked their conscience. I don't think that this is referring to what's refer to in the book of Leviticus as avenging blood, right? So in the Old Testament, it would be possible that if somebody murdered a family member, you could go and avenge the blood. I don't think that's what this is talking about. The reason I don't think that's what it's talking about is because it mentions the idea of one fleeing, right? One fleeing until death, and then the idea of let no one help him speaks of an action that they probably did. And I like the phrase, how the ESV puts it here when it says that he's a fugitive. That's probably the right idea, that this guy's fleeing for his life because he's murdered somebody. But think of this. If one is burdened, I think this is the conscience. The conscience is burdened. Why? Because it's covered with the blood of another. They murdered somebody, right? That's bad, right? I think all of us go, murder's bad, right? And what does that do to a conscience? Oh, you talk about burden, murdering someone, taking someone's life out of anger. That's a heavy, heavy burden. That's a heavy burden, and it makes sense that it's such a heavy burden that they're constantly trying to escape. They're constantly on the run. They're constantly fleeing, and they're fleeing until, the ESV says, until death. The original says they flee into a pit, most likely referring to the grave. So it's the idea that they're, from the moment that that act is committed until the moment that they die, their conscience will be burdened. Serious stuff. We live in a culture of death. Humans have always been killing humans. Right? I mean, this is bad stuff. Murder is bad. We should never be for murder. There's never an instance where murder is okay or can be justified. Man, it's a burden. It's a burden on the soul. And the idea is, as this one is running, Let no one help him. Don't offer aid. The question is why? Why wouldn't you offer aid to a murderer who's fleeing from the law? It's clear. If you help him escape justice, you agree with it. You agree with him. You help him. I agree. I condone, right? So it's condoning something that God has condemned. Ooh, that is far more dangerous than a murderer. When people start applauding and celebrating things God condemns, ooh, let us not be of that group that celebrates the things that God condemns. There's a lot to be said here, and I don't wanna belabor the point, But just think of the danger. Think of how we're thinking of it, of the flesh. Sin always is a burden on the conscience of the person who does it. Always is. And as believers, we should not celebrate unrepentant lifestyles. As believers, we should celebrate repentance and encourage people to live for Jesus. Do not think that if you have sinned and you have not repented of that sin that you could just walk through life skipping as if nothing can go wrong, that everything's okay. It burdens the soul. Oh, what a burden. And the only relief you can find is in Jesus. This is one of the dangers of living by the flesh, is that incredible burden that comes on the conscience. Now, I know some of you are thinking through this and you go, well, doesn't Jesus say that if I have hateful thoughts towards my brother, that's like murder? Yeah, no, that truly is like murder. Though I think we would agree that wanting to kill somebody and actually killing somebody, there's a little bit of a difference, right? But the feeling is the same, friends. It's dangerous, right? It's dangerous. And we as believers, we as believers should not encourage that. But the first danger of being a bad lion is this burden on the conscience. Now notice the next thing. Verse 18, it says, whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall. There's kind of an interesting parallelism here. I find this one far more interesting than the one above it, even though the one above it's kind of fun because it's a little strange. But it's interesting that you have this one who walks in integrity, singular, walks in a particular way. There's one way, there's one way of integrity. And notice, that's the one who walks like this will be delivered. Delivered from what? Well, delivered from what is said in the next part of the parallelism. But just notice, whoever walks in the singular way, one way, that's it, one way. And then notice, it says, but he who is crooked in his ways, you see? So there's one way of integrity, but the crooked guy, he's God. Lots of crooked little plans, right? Twisted plans. It's interesting that on the one hand you have the one who walks and integrity walks a straight road. A straight road that doesn't have tripping hazards, that doesn't have potholes, that doesn't have steep sides that if you fall off you die, right? It's a clear highway. The other one is like a switchback in the mountains of Idaho, right? There's tripping hazards. There's rocks all over it. Trees have fallen down. There's snowpack. There's like a washout. Half the time, you don't even know if you're driving on a road. I don't know where we're going. Then you walk on it. You're like, this was the worst idea. I can't breathe. There's no oxygen up here. That's what this is like, right? And it's all these crooked little ways. He's got these crooked little alleys and angles that he's working, right? It's twisted. You can't see. He's not being straightforward about the path. There's things around the corner you don't know. He's hiding things around the corner. And notice it says, and the one who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall. Of course, when we talk about God's discipline of a believer. Can that be a sudden discipline? Of course that can be. When we think about the fall of the wicked, can that be a sudden, complete thing? Of course it can. But I don't think that's necessarily what Solomon's saying. I think what Solomon is saying is because it's so crooked and he's so busy trying to devise all these ways, he doesn't really see where he's going and he can't see the tripping hazards. So we might watch a person like this gradually walk towards these places going, man, you need to stop. It's getting dangerous. They go, no, it's not dangerous. And then all of a sudden, something bad happens. They fall, they get disciplined, they get in trouble with the law. There's a strange man in the family. They go, what happened? I thought everything was great. It wasn't. Those who had discernment could see it from a mile away. They couldn't. So I think this is more of their surprise. Well, it all just seemed to fall apart. Seemed like everything was working great. You see the danger? feeding the bad lion, you get all these little different angles, you'll suffer the consequence of your sin. Now, God is gracious, and there are times that he will allow you not to suffer the consequence of your sin, and sometimes that feels even worse than taking the punishment, right? I remember several times in my life where I know I didn't deserve a thing, I was a bad lion that day, and the Lord blessed me. I remember one time, I wasn't the best employee, and I knew I wasn't the best employee. I go in front of my boss, and my boss gives me a raise. I go out to my car and start weeping, going, I don't deserve that. Nothing in my job performance required a raise, and God gave that to me. You need to shape up, kid. God disciplines and deals with the believer in myriads of ways. Don't always think that the way that God disciplines is always bad. Even reading through this text, this is the voice of God saying things to you of, don't do this, don't do this, right? It's like a parent telling you and warning you. The conviction of sin is the idea of God's warning you, hey, something's bad, you gotta deal with something. He disciplines us in numerous ways. But it is also possible for us to be so ingrained in our flesh and not walking by the spirit that bad things happen and we go, what happened? I thought everything was great. I thought everything was going good. Now notice the next thing. Notice how else this is dangerous. Notice it says in 19, whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, yeah. If you have a field and you work the field and you plant crops at the right time, you do the right things, the principle is you'll have food to eat later. If you do the work and you do what you're supposed to, you're responsible, and you don't squander it, but you're a responsible steward of what God gives you, guess what? You can provide for yourself, amen. But that bad lion, notice what the bad lion does. But he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. Here, in my opinion, is the essence of laziness. We often think of lazy people as those who don't work. That's not true. Lazy people don't work responsibly. They don't do the thing that they're supposed to do. Right? I know plenty of people that are so called lazy and they do a lot of work, right? They do a lot of stuff. It's just not the right stuff, right? They're not showing up to work on time. They're not doing the things that they need to do. So here's like the essence of laziness and notice it's the idea of a wise person goes, no, I need to show up. I need to do my job. I need to do this because this is how God uses this to provide for me. The other guy goes, well, I'm going to do something else. And he calls it worthless pursuits. In the following weeks, we're going to study some of those worthless pursuits. There are plenty of worthless pursuits. And by the way, this worthless pursuit isn't just a, like, hey, don't get lost in YouTube for an hour. though that has its own worthless pursuit. That's not necessarily what Solomon's talking about, right? This is not just a time management thing. This is like leaving the field to go try to rob somebody or try to swindle someone or try to extort someone, right? This is talking about sinful ways of getting money. What does that lead you to? That leads you to poverty, right? It's kind of a funny way that it's put, and you'll have plenty of poverty, Well, that's ironic. You can't have plenty of nothing. But that's what he says. You'll have a lot of nothing. The other guy will have a lot of bread. This other guy will have a lot of nothing. We understand that, right? And if you don't, spend a week in Wyoming and you'll get all these types of cool sayings that you can just say in public and impress your friends at parties. Have a whole lot of nothing. What does that mean? Folksy wisdom. No, it means that the poverty will be great, right? It's a great amount of poverty. It means that it's so overwhelming. You'll be so impoverished that you can't pull yourself out of it. What does the flesh do? The flesh, man, the flesh causes you to not be a good steward. You start going after these weird things, and guess what ends up happening? You'll lose a lot of stuff. You become poor, you can't provide, you'll squander opportunities, you'll squander blessings that the Lord had for you, and disobedience can cause a loss of blessing, right? Huh. So much better to walk by the Spirit, right? Beforehand, just walk by the Spirit. Now notice the next one and the last one. It says a faithful man will abound with blessings. Amen. A faithful person will abound with blessings. Those who are faithful to the Lord will abound in blessings. Amen. Those who have placed their faith in Jesus, you'll abound with blessings. Friends, you realize the types of blessings you have in Christ right now that you didn't even work and they're yours? Now you might not see them. That's okay. They're yours. No one can take them from you. They're yours. There's nothing you could do to lose them. They're yours. They're secured for you by the power of a sovereign God. They're yours for eternity. Right? They're yours. You're redeemed. You're forgiven. You're a child of God's. elect before the foundation of the world, co-heirs with Christ. That's yours. That's who you are. That's who we are as believers. All of those spiritual blessings. What does Paul say in Ephesians? That God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In this room, there's no one that gets more and some people get less. There's no tiered system, right? There's no, you could become a platinum member or a gold member. We have the basic gold member, or the silver member. You don't wanna be that, right? No, as a believer, the moment you're put into Christ, you get all of this. It's yours forever. Those who place their faith in Christ, amen. There is blessings abound, and when you follow God's word, there are numerous blessings that are really hard to put a monetary price on, really difficult to write down on a list, but they're yours. You get all these blessings. These all come from God. Every good gift comes from God, amen, right? This is what happens. This is what we want, right? This is the type of stuff. Oh, but notice what happens when the bad lion gets out. It says, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. So here you have this faithful man who's relying on the Lord, trusting on the Lord, trusting on the providence of God, accepting the blessings that come from God, and then there's this other guy who's greedy, self-centered, he's let the lion out, right, the bad lion, he's hungry, And he just eats, and eats, and eats, and eats, and eats, and eats. He wants it all, and guess what'll happen? That stuff cannot, it will be punished. that there's some bad stuff that comes with that. So on the one hand, there's faithfulness that leads to blessing. Oh, that's what I want for all of us, right? I want all of us to have this blessed life, to realize who we are in Christ and understand the wisdom of God's plan revealed to us in scripture and to live a life that's free of sin and the consequence of sin. Not the other. Right? The other's bad. The other does not have blessing. It's greediness. It's amazing, because the Apostle Paul in Colossians calls greediness idolatry. In a sense, this is the idol of oneself. Yup. And as a believer, God will deal with me as a father. So I gotta be careful, right? You gotta be careful. We can't let the bad lion out. There once was a famous lion tamer. in the 1800s, who was known for his fighting the lions, right? He's the famous guy with the chair and the whip, and the lions would get on their hind legs and everybody would clap and, you know, real, real cool things. And he had a bad habit of turning his back to the lions after he hit them with a whip and scared them with a chair. I know, I know, we can see where this story's heading but he did have that bad habit and everybody thought it was cool that he could do these terrible things to these lions and then turn his back and the lions wouldn't attack. Well, the problem was that he was attacked several times and he made it a rule that I'm not going to turn my back but the The showman came out, right? And so one time he did that. He really went to town on a lion and fought with a lion and got the lion all riled up and then turned around to the crowd and the crowd started applauding. So you have this huge light on this guy. You have a guy hitting a lion with a whip, scaring him with a chair, forcing the lion to do something he doesn't want to do. And then all of a sudden, loud noises from the crowd and cheering, right? With the guy who just turned his back and now he's making these weird movements. Yeah, the lion ate him. Friends, be careful, there's a bad line in you. There's a bad line in you. You turn your back on this line, this stuff is easy. This stuff will consume you, it's easy. This is easy to fall into. What's the solution? Well, the solution is to walk by the power of the Spirit, right? That's the solution. The solution is to trust in what's given to us by Christ. But it is also important to remember every moment, man, there's a bad lion. There's a bad lion and he's hungry. Don't turn your back, don't turn your back. May the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we heard today. Let's go ahead and let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for everything you've given us. the truth in your word, and the things that are found in your word, and we just pray, Father, that as we think about these things, that you'll bring back remembrance of the scriptures, that you'll help us walk by the power of the Spirit, that you'll help us yield to your Spirit. Father, we just are so very thankful for all the promises that we have in Christ and that those are ours. Father, we pray for so many families that are grieving because of the loss of loved ones. We are so very thankful that many of them did know you and that this promise is true even for them and that we can have some solace and comfort in that. We pray for Randy's family, and later on this afternoon, as we have the memorial service for Randy, and we just pray, Father, that this would be a time of comfort, this would be a time of remembering Randy, and that this would be a time of looking to you for the source of comfort, and as a source of true fulfillment. We thank you, in your son's name, amen. As the musicians come up,