1031, we're instructed that whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God. Help me understand this, does he or does he not get glory from us? So Isaiah 53, am I on? Isaiah 53 verse 3, these are familiar words to us, but he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. We need to keep before us in answering this question the dual natures of Christ, that he is truly God and truly man at the same time. So to ask, I do this with my children. At times I ask theological questions and then I turn around and I ask them a catechism question to show them that they're being taught to answer their own questions. but wherein, I'm not asking you to sing it, but say it with me, wherein consists Christ's humiliation. Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time. So Jesus in His incarnation, in taking flesh upon Himself and living upon this earth, is not concerned with bringing glory to Himself. That's not His mission while He is here. He is during His humiliation. It consisted in His being born in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God and the curse of death of the cross. being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time, He's not concerned with bringing glory to Himself. It's not that He doesn't deserve glory, and it's not that as God, Jesus does not always receive glory as He always has. He does, and He will. But it was not His mission for that purpose. He was to be the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But wherein consisted Christ's exaltation? Christ's exaltation consisted in His rising again from the dead on the third day, ascending up into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day. So this is the glorious, exalted Christ in His exaltation and His being raised from the dead, His ascending up into heaven, His heavenly session for us on making intercession for the transgressors, and then finally coming to judge the world at the last day. This is the exalted Christ and the one who receives glory from men. bears mentioning too that the Lord in his essential glory receives nothing from us. God is not, when the scripture speaks of us doing all to the glory of God, it is not because God is somehow lacking or deficient or in need. In his essence, in his being, God needs nothing. And so what we have here, as Blake has pointed out, there's an element of this where our glorifying God is in our seeing him, our recognizing who he is in himself, our giving him praise for who he is, our response, we might say, to his glory, to his intrinsic worth. And that here now, in light of this last day, this great day of the Lord, where we see and Christ, as it were, reveals his glory, he makes it known. So let's see the wheels turn. An analogy that worked for my math science brain is God's glory is infinite. We agree with that. What do you get if you add to infinity? You still have infinity. He doesn't need it from us. We get to give it. It's all his anyway. When reading the question, I guess maybe I read it a different way or thought of it a different way. John chapter five, the section that it quoted there, is Jesus describing who he is. The first Corinthians is how we live in light of that. So God doesn't need our glory. He is God whether we recognize him as God It's just saying now that we recognize that, how do we live our life? We live giving glory to Him. There's an element to, Kara's been taking the ladies through Thomas Watson's little book, The Great Gain of Godliness. Was it chapter nine, maybe? That actually deals with this question. So The Great Gain of Godliness by Thomas Watson would be worth, I would encourage you to give some attention. Fellows, if your wife has been going to that and you wanna talk with her about that, it'd be a great way to encourage her. I'd recommend Thomas Watson, whatever he wrote. All right, second question. How should we think about Proverbs 13.22, which Proverbs 13.22 reads, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. What does it mean? Is it a sin to earn or pay a low salary? All right. So just starting us off here, the pattern of Proverbs is that we ought to earn our living. You think about this, kind of four movements in the book of Proverbs that feed into this text. The first is you ought to learn a skill. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's something whereby you can honor the Lord, something that doesn't violate his word, right? You ought to learn to do something with your life so that you're able to honor the Lord. Second, it is in order to earn a living. The scripture has much to say in the book of Proverbs about, it's not saying that Receiving an inheritance is bad, but it does tell you that often when we just have a windfall, as it were, that our hearts, we don't handle it well, okay? So it's not minimizing the inheritance, but it's recognizing you've got to train yourself for godliness. You've got to discipline yourself for godliness so that you handle that money wisely. So you learn a skill in order to earn a living. You do this because in light of what scripture says where you learn not only in that making a living, but you learn to spurn things that would compete with faithfulness in your finances. You learn to look at that and deal with self-discipline, deal with self-denial, I don't need this. My granddaddy had wisdom that is kind of rooted in Proverbs. He used to say, use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. There's something to that. But you're doing that not so that you just live terribly or whatever, we really don't need much. I mean, you think about how scripture speaks that if we have food and clothing, we'll be content, okay? But in light of that, You're doing all these things, and if God is pleased to bless it, then you are in turn able to leave an inheritance. This is, you've got to remember as you come to a text like this, that Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, okay? It is breathed out by the Spirit of God. I'm not taking anything away from that. We're not saying that it's less inspired or anything like that, not at all. But these are general maxims. These are general truisms. Train up a child in the way he should go. When he's old, he won't depart from it. That's not a promise. That's a pattern that generally how you're raised is how you turn out, okay? Well, by the same thing, if a man has given himself, if a woman has given herself to working faithfully, to operating with their life on God's terms, according to God's word, and ordering their home and their spending and their hearts according to what Scripture calls them to, then it's going to pay off well in the long run. That's the first part, okay? The righteous leave an inheritance to their children's children. God is often pleased to bless that, right? You look at verse 11 and it gives you, in Proverbs 13, it gives you a bit of a perspective. Their wealth gained hastily will dwindle. but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. In other words, there's the slow and steady, there's the continuing to work, continuing to be wise, continuing to honor the Lord with it, and God is often pleased to bless that. Now, this second half of the verse, though, when you look at it, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. Now, we look at that, and that's a little bit of an odd statement. We're not quite sure what to do with that. That's actually a biblical principle. It appears in several different places, but probably most clearly in Job 27. I'll just share this with you and I'll be quiet and let these other guys talk. Look in Job 27 for just a second and you'll see. Verse, here beginning in verse 13. "'This is the portion of a wicked man with God "'and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty. "'If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, "'and his descendants have not enough bread. "'Those who survive him, the pestilence buries, "'and his widows do not weep.'" This is where it begins to get even more pointed and kind of parallel with this text in Proverbs. "'Though he heap up silver like dust "'and pile up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. There's a pattern that often, much as what we've been seeing in James, often those things that are either ill-gotten gains, or that are ill-held gains. God is often pleased simply to strip away and to turn them into the hands of others who will deal with them faithfully and utilize them for his name's sake. So, just some thoughts on that. Brothers, you may have more to add there. Go for it. The question on the second part of that was, is it a sin to earn or pay a low salary? As Christians, we're called to live within our means. We're stewards of what God's giving us. And if you've watched Dave Ramsey at all, he's said it many times, he's seen people save money that make $30,000 a year. And people make $200,000 a year that lift paycheck to paycheck because they don't use it wisely, use it rightly. And so in the question of the low salary is, are you stewarding it well? If you have an employee, you should, scripture tells us, you should pay him a fair wage. But is is he a man going out wasting these things or is he a man that's responsible with these things? What responsibilities does he have and so we look at those things individually, but the stewardship of what we have is More I'd say more important than the amount. Yes given. Yes I Question number three, how should Christians consider IVF, in vitro fertilization? What is a biblical, faithful response to IVF? Stephen, would you give a brief summary of just 30,000 foot view of what IVF is? IVF, in vitro fertilization, is the making of an embryo outside of the womb and then implanting the embryo within the womb of a woman. one of the embryos, that is an important point. The way in which they make them is typically they'll make hundreds, which means they implant, they'll attempt to implant three or four, which is why with IVF you typically see twins, triplets, quadruplets, up to eight I think was the most, but then all of the rest are frozen. So hundreds of, each time that it's done, hundreds are frozen. So when does life begin? At conception. What does that mean that we are doing with all, what are these, therefore by definition, these embryos? These are human lives. There is no world in which it is remotely ethical or godly to take human lives, not potential human lives. If we affirm that life begins at conception, if they found that level of life on Mars, they'd be over the moon and investing billions, trillions into space travel for research and so forth. We found life, we found life. That doesn't change just because it's on another planet versus in a woman's womb or a test tube. To deal with less than dignity. is to deal unfaithfully in these things. There's a great deal that could be said on that, but what would you guys add on that, brother? Principally, this applies to IVF and every other reproductive technology that's out there or will come about. Children come about by the marital union. Anything, any other means by which there is supposed conception of a child outside of the marital union ought to be immediately suspect to you as a Christian. because there are so many different things that could be brought up here, but it does, certainly, the ethical question is the first question. A lot of the things that surround questions and the comments that Christians make concerning IVF, is not concerning the morality of it, or rather the immorality of it, but is more along the lines of, well, if we do this, then that means that gay and lesbian couples should adopt, and we don't think they should be able to adopt. And so therefore, we don't even get there. You do not pass go and you do not collect $200 because it is immoral. We don't even we don't even start on the board at all because it is not Something that is can be right in the sight of God the only way that I personally I'm not putting this on any of my brothers here or any of you, but the only way that I can personally reconcile the idea of IVF, the only way that it would be lawful at this point to seek to implant these children, is for us to have the practice outlawed. and all of the personhood of all of the ones that have been created, recognized, and then all of the ones that exist, adopted and implanted and brought to...being conceived and carried by the mother and having birth given, and then the practice never being done again. that's the only viable way that I can square that with Scripture. The short answer is, how should Christians consider IVF? You should not. This quickly gets emotionally charged because we have these conceptions Well, we believe that life is good and that children are a blessing, they're a gift from the Lord, amen. We love that, we absolutely believe that. But then we take it and we twist it and we add in our own perception, our own perspective and well, we can't conceive for whatever reason. We live in a sinful world and sometimes our bodies don't do what bodies typically do. Well, we can't conceive. Well, we would be great parents. We're Christians. We would raise them in a Christian home. So we deserve children. We would raise them uprightly. We would raise them in church, so on and so forth. But you go wrong immediately in assuming that you deserve anything and that you are entitled to any of these little ones. we're not entitled to anything. But very quickly, it becomes an emotional argument to justify these type things because, well, it's what my heart wants. I know. I understand. My heart wants all kinds of things again. Again, there's seldom a more righteous thing that you could want than wanting children. Be fruitful and multiply where the marching order is given and not revoked from the Lord. Absolutely, we love children. And those of us who the Lord has given children, we love them. They are dear, dear in our hearts. But nevertheless, we don't take and demand what we want if it goes against what God has declared. And so the emotions go out the window if we don't first address the morality of it. If I cannot square it with scripture, I should not be able to square it with my conscience. What else would you guys add? I think you summarized that well. I think it was summed up pretty well. Is there anything you would add, Steven? I know you've given a good deal of thought to these things. This is just one of the moral quandaries that's plaguing, or that many within the pro-life camp don't know what to do with, but it's because a lot of the people in the pro-life camp are pro-IVF. And so they're difficult to, or they don't know how to handle it. I think the way that Blake summed it up is very accurate. We don't bring in children in a means contrary to the way in which God intended it. One man, one woman. One at a time. I actually had a professor once say, and he was not a Christian, but he said, humans were not made to have litters. We're not made to have litters? We're not made to have litters. We weren't designed for that, and it's going contrary to design when that's done. Litters. No, we have litters. We were designed to have livers, just not to eat it. Here's the fourth question. The book of James has hit me hard as we've been preaching through it. This wasn't by me, but yes, that's accurate too. And I'm seeing things I never noticed before. I never knew Jesus was so present in this book. What has stood out to each of you most as we've been in James? Start us off, Chris. through that because I talked to this morning. Today, he nailed me. He's right found me right where I've been the last two weeks. In to define our eschatology better. I grew up dispensationalist, and this kind of gets into two or three of these other questions. They overlap for me here. I basically grew up dispensationalist and then found out that's only 200 years old. That can't be right. And that was the extent of it for me. I went, okay, then I'll be classic pre-mill. That's the closest thing to what I know, and as I learn, it's like, well, there's post-mill and all mill, and then You know, I've often joked, I'm pan-millennial, and I'll pan out in the end, God's sovereign. And I was okay with that. God's sovereign. He has this under control. We don't have to have all of the answers. But I've been getting questions lately, and we'll get into it on one of our questions coming up. Some of these will make more sense, where people are asking me questions that I didn't have because they're coming from a dispensational point of view. Well, what does this scripture mean? When I read that, I was like, man, you got there. I hadn't followed your string there. That scripture's not talking anything about that. One of the questions is, what are we reading right now? And I took a screenshot so I wouldn't forget. Revelation, a manual of spiritual warfare by Max Donner, the book you, yeah. And so just been started reading that to answer the questions from the all-millennial viewpoint, which is basically where I'm landing, and these guys are. It's kind of helped me land there, if that makes sense. But just having those answers in a more defined way, like he said this morning, caught me right where I was at. So, today's. For me, the... I love the book of James because it, and we know why, we know the author, but how it perfectly describes the human condition, the entire book of James. There's not a whole lot we deal with in counseling that we can't go to the book of James and find and show the root of what's going on there. And so that's kind of been my thing is just how well it lays out life in a sin-cursed world and the things that plague us all. It's been to see the Christ-centeredness of the book, number one. And then I think the thing that kind of has surprised me about the book of James, the thing that I've learned the most has been how deeply doctrinal it is. You may remember when we were just starting this study, I preached a sermon on the theology of the book of James, and we walked through the various headings of systematic, what does James teach about the doctrine of God, and about the doctrine of man, and about the doctrine of salvation, and doctrine of sin, and so forth. And we kind of sketched that. I don't think I'd ever done that kind of thing before with that book, and that has just That hit me between the eyes. I had always looked at James primarily as ethical, certainly informed by the scriptures, but ethical largely, practical, wisdom. It is deeply, deeply doctrinal. And so that has been extremely encouraging to me to see, not just doctrine for doctrine's sake, but it is the consequence of all these wonderful things that the scripture teaches. It's the outworking of them. It's the expression of them. And so that's been really sweet to me to see. Within the last few weeks, Reagan was talking about possessions and us, again, within the presumption of, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. There can be a very fine line between contentment and self-sufficiency. between thank you Lord for these blessings and soul, be at ease. You've amassed many things, many goods that will last you for many years. Rest and take your ease. And you can fancy yourself a very contented person, you can live a very austere life with less, with a great deal less. Because, as was said, we don't need much. Well, you can live with not much. You can live a very poor life. But having, of course, a roof over your head and transportation and dinner being available to you tonight, whether or not you eat it, makes you in the top 15% of the world's most wealthy. We're all rich. Every single one of us in this building is rich. And so fighting through the posture of heart toward riches, and it's not just having that posture of heart, but maintaining it. so that you're not overcome by the exceeding deceitfulness of riches. Riches pursue us in our culture, and so we have all the more reason to be on guard. That's where my thoughts have been regarding James most recently. Yeah, I think we're coming to time here. I know as a congregation we're in the middle of a time of fasting. My past churches sometimes mentioned it, but I've never seen a church do it, much less together. I know it's in the Bible. What exactly is fasting, and what does it do? short version, fasting is abstaining from food, ultimately for the purpose of prayer. It is part of the normal Christian life. You think about Jesus in Matthew six, right? The Lord's Prayer starts after this manner, therefore pray. When you pray, pray like this. When you give alms, he says just elsewhere in that chapter, let his acts of mercy do it this way. And when you fast, do it in such a way. So it is part of the normal Christian life just as naturally and regularly, I would say, as acts of mercy and at some level as prayer. Now that's not to say you have to fast every day or whatever, but it's expected when you fast is the way Jesus does this. But it's abstaining from food, if we offer a definition and a purpose, okay? It's abstaining from food for the purpose of prayer, for the purpose of attending to God. That is, whether it be in repentance or in communion with him. a refocusing of my soul and my life upon him, a spiritual reinvigorating so that when I have been struggling with sin, that fasting might be a means of weakening sin's grip upon me. A means of, as it were, kind of prying sin's fingers off of my heart to a point. Let's be clear, that is not penance. Okay? That is not in any way earning yourself, you know, I'm going to afflict myself and so the Lord will be happier with me. No. Don't, in the name of knowing Christ better, don't substitute your works for His. Okay? but it's a means of helping strengthen self-denial, helping to grow in self-discipline, and growing, I would say probably one of the chief benefits is that it helps you grow more spiritually minded. because it is absolutely contrary to nature. Our default setting is to eat, is to feed ourselves, right? And to go against that is to make a conscious, willful decision that I'm going to obey the Lord, and as my hunger begins to churn in my stomach, and it begins to growl, and discomfort comes, and the headache, and the tired, and the foggy, and all the things that sometimes accompany that, As my body longs for food, so I am trying to teach myself and discipline myself to long after God, that he be glorified. So that would be my quick summary. I'm sure there's things we could, we might add. There are health benefits as well. But from a spiritual standpoint first, these are means, ultimately it's a means of God's grace in that way. And it's also not what the Baal worshipers did in cutting themselves to try to garner Baal's attention. Yes. There was actually an article I read a little while back where they were trying to argue, they used the Puritans' term of self-affliction, which is, the Puritans would speak of fasting as afflicting yourself, meaning humbling yourself. And this was just utterly revisionist, but they tried to argue that self-affliction, because fasting as self-affliction was godly, therefore cutting as self-affliction was a means of self-denial. Like, you know how these, there's folks today that are taking a razor blade when they're emotionally distraught or they're stressed out about something and they'll cut themselves so that they feel some sort of relief. You know, the endorphins and so forth, all the body's response to people who are feeling numb will do this sort of thing so they feel something. That's an ungodly coping mechanism, and this was trying to equate self-affliction in that sense with self-affliction in a physical harm sense, and that's just perverse. Sorry, you said that, and I was like, oh, I remember that. It's funny what floats to the surface. Correct. It doesn't have to be abstaining from food necessarily. Properly speaking, in its first sense, it isn't abstaining from food, but recognizing that ultimately there are ways within medically limited cases or cases where if you've got someone who is working an extremely physical job, Um, there are cases where you may need to adapt that. And so some of that's going to be a point of wisdom in the proper, uh, the strictest sense of it would be in abstention from food. But you can abstain from other things as well. Yeah, absolutely. Fast from social media or TV or, you know, whatever. There are ways that you can deny yourself is the point in order to attend to the war. So good, good, good question on that. Question seven, is daily family worship legalism? It's quite possible. I mean, what's legalism? Checking boxes, doing work, trying to earn favor with God or man. So you could be doing your family worship thinking somehow you're earning favor, that he's gonna love you more, that you're gonna become his favorite child, that you can come to church and talk about y'all's family worship so you're admired by men. Yeah, it could quite possibly, and if that's you, repent. Stop doing it that way for that reason. But if you're doing it because you love God and love your neighbor, your closest neighbors as yourself, you wanna walk out Deuteronomy 6, and you wanna raise your children in fear and admonition of the Lord, That's what family worship's for. So yeah, quite possibly it could be legalism. Depends on your approach, where your heart's at. But on the other hand, if you're not doing it and you're saying, I'm not doing it because isn't it legalism to say that we have to do this? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your hearts." Deuteronomy 6. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. That's every part of life, just so you know. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Is it legalism to pray, to lead your family in prayer? Is it legalism to teach your family the Bible? Is it? Because that's all family worship is. That's all that we're talking about whenever we talk about family worship. I would say shame on any man who would call himself a Christian and would say, no, I don't have to do that. I don't have to do that as a regular rhythm of life in my home. I tried taking a nap this afternoon. Didn't really work out for me because this question was on my mind. And so I just got up and started writing. You might say, well, I work a lot. I work a lot. I'm away from home, and so I barely even see my family. If you see your family for 10 minutes a day, then that 10 minutes ought to be spent leading them to the throne of God. Amen. Just because you worked yourself to your dead tired does not mean that in other ways as a father, you cannot still be lazy. As the head of your home, you absolutely can still be lazy. You might say, well, I put a roof over their head and put food on the table. That is not the fullness of the provision that God commands you to provide for your family. And if that is all that you are doing, you are unfaithful. I'm not saying this to direct at anyone necessarily in the room, but in case anybody watching online now or years from now needs to hear this. It's unfaithful. It's unfaithful. Again, you may answer, let's just put it this way, you may answer all of their theological questions. Every single time, you may plenty answer all of their theological questions that they come to you. but your children are not going to mimic piety, a piety that alone tells them all the kind of things about God, but never shows them what walking with Jesus is like. Who teaches your child to pray? Yes, absolutely. Children aren't impressed with the piety of one that just simply answers the questions but doesn't show them how to walk the walk. There are men whose fathers taught them theology but did not demonstrate for them a faithful walk with Christ. And today, Those boys have become men who have a theological knowledge and love to use it to employ their theological knowledge to deliver a beatdown on any Arminian that dares step foot in their circle. but their lives are as godless, as lascivious, as lawless as anybody else in the world. It benefited them nothing to know about God, but not actually having been led to seek God. So how desperately we want our children to know the Lord, we talk about that. We pray for it regularly. Lord, take our children as your own. Take them, save them. How desperately you want your children to know the Lord will be commensurate with how often you put them in front of Him. How often you lead them to His throne in prayer and in devotion. If you do not do this, you hate your child. If you do not bring your child to the throne of grace, you hate him or her. Those are hard words, but they are true. You think of where Proverbs speaks that the one who hates his son withholds correction, okay? So just as it is hatred to their soul to refuse to discipline them, so too it is hatred to their soul to refuse to teach them, to train them in the things of God. You think of Genesis 18, where Abraham, the Lord appears to him at the Oaks of Mamre, and Part of the, this is where Sarah overhears the promise, you know, about this time next year your wife's going to have a son. And Sarah laughs that bitter laugh. Yeah, right. And the Lord says this. I have chosen him. God is saying, I'm going to keep these things. I'm going to keep these promises. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he's promised him. A huge percentage of the reason that God entrusts families with children is so that they will be instructed in the things of God. Shannon said, well, that they might be brought up in the discipline and the admonition, the instruction, the correction, but the training and righteousness of the things of Christ. As to the question of legalism, I agree with you, and I agree with you. We're speaking on two different aspects of it. I would submit that most Christians are in far more danger of legalism over praying to bless a meal than they are over conducting family worship. I submit for your consideration. That's all I have to say. It would be legalistic if we said, this is how you do it. Right. Each of our families, our children, are different. Some of us may have a child that you can read to for three hours, and they sit there and absorb it. And you have another child that you only get five minutes. And so just do this wisely. Yes. God deserves to be worshipped in our homes. God deserves our worship. I want my kids, if they were to go to bed without having been led to the throne of God, I would want them to be so used to it that they go to bed feeling that something is very wrong because they're so used to being led there. We got about 10 minutes left. Okay. Uh, what are you reading right now in scripture or in books? Uh, what's something that God is teaching you? Uh, can you describe your personal daily Bible reading and supporting, uh, devotional studies? And, uh, could you recommend any, uh, devotional plans, reading plans to the congregation? I know that's multifaceted question. Chris, I know you started already. So why don't you touch on that? My eyes don't do great with books. I can't spend hours in books. I've never been that guy. I listen more. My old job, I did great. I had a whole lot more individual, by myself time. But I'll listen to the Bible in the car. I obviously could always do better. I was reading through sermon manuscripts from R.C. Sproul, 1 John 4. I went down a rabbit hole when we were there for public reading of scripture. That happens, you know that. And so, but I don't think. Rabbit holes are fun. Yeah. And so I know one of the questions we got asked about our schooling, we're currently on pause from our seminary studies, and that gave me more books to read, if that makes sense. That was a provision of a lot of books, so there was that. So as far as the devotion, Nancy and I are both walking through day by day with John Calvin, which is fantastic. We're also walking through one wayward children, finding peace and keeping hope. So those are the two devotions we're working through together daily. Ironically, Nancy and I are also doing the free class through Reformed Theological Seminary on hermeneutics. So we've got, we're currently walking through reading right now, Protestant Biblical Interpretation by Bernard Graham, Let the Reader Understand by John McCartney and Charles Clayton, and Exegetical Fallacies by D.A. Carson. So that's what we're daily walking through reading, so. Those are good books. They're very good books. In family worship right now, we're reading, we're doing a chronological read-through of the scriptures, and so that's got us in presently 2 Samuel, in the Old Testament, and we've just gotten where Absalom was just killed, okay, so 1819, in that range there. this particular reading plan has the historical, it privileges the historical narrative, and then it will pull in the Psalms that attend that moment. And so one night, I think there were like eight Psalms, that came along with it. And some nights there are two or three, you know, it's just depending what David has written at that point. And then it's walking through the gospel. Was it Mark? last night? I'm forgetting Acts. Yeah, we finished the Gospels. That's right. Hello. It's been a long day. So that's where we are in family worship. In my own private devotions, I am rereading the pastoral epistles. So 1st, 2nd Timothy and Titus. I've just been spending some time trying to read through those and think through those. I have no idea how long, I've been probably five or six months in reading those, just kind of reading and marinating on them, and I don't feel like I'm done with that yet, so I'm going to camp out there for a little while. I don't worry about camping out there for a long time if I need to. Kara and I have been, she's with the Ladies Bible Study. Whatever she's teaching the gals, I read with her. And so we've been reading through Watson's Great Gain of Godliness, which if you have not read that book, I just, I cannot commend it highly enough. That is a terrific volume. In my own reading with my research, right now, I'm reading William Ames, who's the father of Dutch Puritanism and highly influential for English Puritanism as well. But he, most of you, if you know that name, you know his Meroe of Theology, which is a seminal, doctrinal book. It's his Summary of Systematic Theology. Little known is his cases of conscience, which is like how he would care for people's souls when they came with various questions about the scriptures, about troubles in their lives. It was like a manual of counseling. think about it like that, spiritual counseling, when they come and they're not sure if they know the Lord, when they come and there's some besetting sin, when they come and there's some really life-dominating sin, that kind of thing like that. And so that's part of my research right now, but it's also been really fruitful for my own soul. And it's been fun. So, you know. I'm glad I'm not the only one who camps out in books until you're done. When I say stuck, I don't mean begrudgingly and I don't mean in any negative fashion, but I've been still stuck in the historical books, so Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. I want to grow in my handling of Old Testament historical survey, and so that's my intention. But I read things over and over and over and over and over again, and meditation is a very big discipline that I try and cultivate, and so I'm thinking on these things very regularly. So I'm glad I'm not the only one. In family worship, we are currently going through Genesis and looking at not just blazing through the days of creation, but looking specifically, what's the significance of God creating an expanse to separate the waters from the waters? Well, to create air, you know, so that we can breathe. What's the purpose of God creating Lent? Well, to give us a place where we can walk, to give their seed and the seed bearing fruit so we can eat, right? So the animals can eat and all the different things concerning that. And we're using a Reformation heritage call it manual, but a Reformation Heritage book that is on Genesis that is kind of accompanying our reading it. So we will read a portion of Genesis and then there are very helpful questions that are in this book that I use to ask each of the children and it's pretty good for being able to ask children who are on various levels of development and age. personally, as far as the books are concerned. Edward Reynolds, someone Reagan gave me more recently, but Edward Reynolds, Meditations on the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Last Supper. If you do not assume it, I am always reading a book on the Lord's Supper. Always. I'm looking at, and I also read several books at a time generally, but a new edition recently came out just last year, last fall of Ed Welch's Blame It on the Brain, which was a 90s book when the explosion of all of the different things came on the scene in the 90s concerning the brain and how we again try and blame different things for our sin. Well, it wasn't me, it's my condition. You just have to understand. If I didn't have this medical condition, then I wouldn't sin in this way, so it's really not my fault. and helps to clarify and helps think biblically about those type things. And then we recently, all of the office bearers just got David Edgington, he's a Christian counselor, but his book called The Abusive Wife. And before you have any preconceived notions about that, The short of that is, whenever it comes to counseling, it can become very easy. Men instinctively protect women, and it can become very easy to let that protecting women become an excusing of women and a subversion of confronting female sin. And of course, this is a type of book that no major book publisher, whether secular or religious, wants to pick up because the majority of people, there are good studies to prove this, majority of people who read books, women. Majority of people who buy books, women. So, that's not a good way to sell books. So, five men bought those books. So, you know, he's probably sold about 12 of them at this point. So, we get, you know, we did our part. And let's see. As far as, so, recommendations. Reading devotional plans that you would recommend. So, I would recommend, Bible through, your plans are good. Do not you can become legalistic in this way. Do not make it so that if you struggle to get through it in a year, use it as a guide. Ignore the dates. Ignore the dates on those lines. Just use it as a guide. There are a billion different plans out there, but I would encourage, consider using different types and alternating between different types. You might use, we have a chronological study plan that's on the, that Crossway puts out, that's on the front and back tables here. that is very good, will take you from beginning to end in a historical order of these books, their occurrence and their being written. Very helpful in that way to try and pull the tapestry of Scripture closer together. Most of those on that one are only like, what, two, three chapters a day? Yeah, you're talking two or three chapters a day, which is pretty minimal compared to a lot of them. But there are all types of different ones. So alternate on those. One thing that's been very invigorating to me most recently is whenever I started a most recent plan, I started using a different translation that I've never used. a different type of translation that I never would have used. Now, I don't mean the message and I don't mean the passion translation or anything like that. Don't use either of those, please. No, not so much. No, we're not using that either. Nor the Book of Mormon. No, I have 66 books in my Bible and that's it. No bonus books. But the differences in the translations, you have word for word and more thought for thought, more formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. If you have no idea what those mean, come and ask us. But there are different ones, and it's one that I literally have never read before. And it has been refreshing to just come and see it in a very conversational way, having already been well acquainted with the Scriptures enough that I can still pick out where, you know what, that's not how I would have rendered that. I get it. That has also been a helpful thing for me personally, so consider that, but don't force yourself to blaze through it. Just use it as a guide and consider alternating. I've been 534 days into my one-year plan before. I love it. Any potential plan, ultimately the goal of reading the scripture is to know God. Thomas Brooks was one of the early Puritans, and he said it really, really well. He said, remember that it is not much or hasty reading, but much meditation upon holy truths that will make a man the choicest, sweetest, and wisest Christian. The aim is that you are feeding your soul with the things, with the word of the living God. Scripture, you're coming to a living book. You're coming to a book that reads you. And so it is not to be slogged through. In his law, he meditates day and night. Far better that when you're reading, if there is, you know, suddenly a verse that just grips you, Stop reading. If it means you don't finish your portion for that day, that's fine. Think right there. It might be that that's precisely where the Lord would have you to be thinking. If there's something where it just suddenly you go, I've never seen that about God before. Stop and camp out. If there's something where it's convicting you, stop and turn that to prayer. You know, if it's something where there's counsel that God's word is giving you and you're not sure, especially if it's where there was some decision or something in front of you and you needed his help, give him thanks and think on that, okay? The aim, the aim is that we come before God and his word is living and active. So plans are just that, they are plans. Write them in pencil and trust the Lord to direct your steps. That's a whole other question, a whole other discussion. Steven, what's the next question? Well, folks, we're out of time. Yeah, well, I was gonna say, I think we're about out of time. Yeah, we reached 7.20, so we're at our cutoff time. Well, thank you for having us, brother, for helping us with moderating and leading. Folks, we love y'all. We're praying for you. Let's stand together. Let's sing, and Shannon, if you don't mind, to close us in a word of prayer after that. Let's sing to the Lord. Praise and glory to the Father. Praise and glory to the Son. Praise and glory to the Spirit. Ever three and ever one. Let's pray. Father, we love you, Lord. We thank you for another Lord's Day. We thank you for The blessing of being able to gather together as your people. Lord, we thank you for the privilege of being able to sit and discuss and wrestle with heavy issues. We thank you for just the joy of the lighthearted moments that you give us laughter, where we enjoy each other's company. Father, we ask as we get ready to depart and head home and start our work week, Lord, that you'll give us wisdom in walking out our faith in front of our co-workers, our family. Help us to be ready to give an answer for the joy that's in us. give us opportunities to speak of your goodness and your gospel to a lost and dying world. We'll give you all the honor and glory. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Love you guys.