- Well, good morning. Good to see you. This summer's kind of winding down. We're getting excited. The fall is on its way, and we've had a great summer. And we have been working through this Book called Proverbs, which is wisdom for life. We only really have one life to live. You've probably heard that phrase before, and you can choose to go down the path where you experienced the kind of life that God has in store for you with meaning and purpose, or you can choose another path whereby life passes you by into a collection of missed opportunities. Our family loves to hike, and whenever you're hiking out in the Rockies or on the West Coast or East Coast, wherever you might be, boundary waters, oftentimes you'll find various trailheads and you've got a choice to make. If you've hiked before, you can either go one way or another. If you've done your research, you know which one you wanna take, and which one will be right for you physically as to how you wanna do that and what the scenery is that you're going to see. Now, if you make the right choice and you choose the right trailhead when you're out hiking, here's one of the scenes that we saw out on the West Coast of California, absolutely gorgeous cove that we ended up with. And just to show that I'm not lying, this is lovely Lynette, and my beautiful daughter, Karis, is looking in the opposite direction, but it was absolutely spectacular. And the scenery is wonderful. You know, in life we have learned, especially over the past summer that you really have two choices in life. You can choose that wrong path, which oftentimes leads to some consequences that are negative, a life whereby it's a collection of missed opportunities or that other path which guides you down skillful, godly living to experience the kind of life that the Lord Jesus wants you to live. And today we're gonna look at two illustrations from the Book of Proverbs, which really serve as metaphors for life. We're gonna be winding down this series next week. And so today and next week, I kind of wanted to begin to pull together all of the things that we've talked about, Proverbs is loaded with topics on skillful, godly living. But I wanted to end with some illustrations and metaphors of what this looks like as we pulled together, what it means to have skillful, godly living. So please take your Bibles out, and I want you to go first to Proverbs 24 and locate verse 30. Grab a Bible, the one in front of you, pull out your electronic version, go to Proverbs 24 and locate verse 30. That's the first illustration/metaphor. The other one is found in Proverbs 6. So both locations. Go to Proverbs 24:30, and then go to Proverbs 6:6. We'll get there in just a few moments. But we're gonna start with Proverbs 24. And today we're gonna take a look at this subject, and its lessons from the sluggard. That is a term that is used oftentimes in this Book. So we're gonna unpack what that means. Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for the power of your word. Thank you for the truth that changes our lives. I pray that today you would give us eyes to see your truth, and hearts that are willing to obey that truth, as we live the kind of life that you've called us to live skillful, godly living. Guide us as we seek to walk down this path. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. You look at verse 30, provers 24, that's where we're gonna start. The author gives us this illustration from life. He says, "I pass by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense. And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. The ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. And then I saw and considered it. I looked and received instruction, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man." If you'll go back up to verse 30, there's that word sluggard that's used. And if you've read through the Book of Proverbs, it's there periodically. I mean, you can really summarize all 31 chapters down to the paths that we're gonna talk about today, the right path or the wrong path. And the wrong path is characterized by one term. It's the sluggard path. So I kind of wanna look at some character qualities that emerge from this metaphor, but we have to first define who a sluggard is. What does that look like? She or he or whatever? What is a sluggard? Well, let me tell you first what it's not. A sluggard is not a person who needs rest and a little RNR. That's not what he's talking about. Some of you work 24/7, you're tired. And I know it and you know it, and you're making sacrifices with some valuable things in your life. You know what you need to do this afternoon? You need to go home, and you need to watch the little league world series. And you need to put your feet up. Nothing political going on there, just a good baseball game with little kids. It's one of my favorite times of year. And put your feet up, and if you start snoozing, that's okay. Just go ahead and take a nap. That's not the point here. A sluggard is someone who does too much of a good thing. That's the point? It's too much. And all of a sudden, before you know it, they are choosing to ignore reality, and they're sluggish, and they're passive, life is passing them by into a collection of missed opportunities. Now in my family, we like real maple syrup. I don't like the fake stuff. You can buy it if you like it, that's fine. But when you give me pancakes and waffles, we're always asking at a restaurant, "Do you have real maple syrup?" Well, we're not gonna go there, or we're not gonna order that, we'll go eggs. No waffles or pancakes, gotta have the real maple syrup. Now what happens when maple syrup is cold? You can't. I mean, it's just sluggish. It barely moves. So what do you do? You put it in a container. You put it in the microwave. You press the button. What happens when the cells start getting active? It becomes like water, and you can pour it anywhere you go. The sluggard is cold maple syrup. Sluggish, passive. They lack decisiveness. They see the truth, and you know what their motto is? Don't rush me. I'll get to it. Manyana, they put it off. So Proverbs 26:14 says this, "As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed." Just taking your time. It's lazy. One missed opportunity after another, because they didn't act. This past summer, we were out in California. My son was married and he loves to surf with his friends. So they get up early in the morning. It's like, many of you, you get up early to run or workout or whatever your routine is. Well, they get up early and they get to the beach, and they go surfing. It's quite a workout, and then they go to work. And during the summer he was out there surfing. And while we were out there, he took my youngest daughter Karis out. And so they're surfing, and two things about waves and tides that are important. When you're surfing, you wanna catch the wave to move you towards the shore. So you're active, you're engaged, you're watching what's going on. Sometimes it pushes you down, but you're down the shoreline, but you're eventually coming in. But the problem with tides is it acts very differently. If you're not careful and your floating on your surf board or you're out there just having a good time and sunning, what can happen is a tide can begin to pull you farther out into the ocean, especially if it's a rip tide, then you got a real problem because it's gonna suck you out. You could possibly drown. You're getting farther and farther out. That's what happens to a sluggard. They're sitting on their surfboard. They're just kind of relaxing and sunning, taking it easy, but they don't realize the undercurrents that are taking place in their life. And it's pulling them farther and farther and farther out. And eventually it could actually destroy their life. It could cost you your life if you get caught up in a rip tide. Now I want all of us just take a breath and admit, there is a little bit of a sluggard in every single one of us, and you know it, and I know it. It's there. And if we're not careful to manage this, it shows up in every single area of our life. It shows up in our spiritual life, our physical life, our emotional life, whatever that might be as well. I love the Book of Proverbs because it gives us so much stuff that we've covered over the summer. And that's why I love this metaphor. And the other one we're gonna look at because it kind of pulls together everything we've seen. As you look down at this metaphor of this sluggard, with a broken wall and weeds growing up, what do we first begin to look at? Well, they don't face reality. The person walking by the broken down wall sees something that needs to be done, and there's a lesson to be learned. The sluggard's just sitting there and watching the weeds grow, and not doing anything. Reality is there, but they're not acting. They're making excuses. It's like this proverb, Proverbs 22:13 says this, "The sluggard says there's a lion outside. I shall be killed in the street." Well, notice it's a sluggard. So you know something's wrong here? What are they doing? They're making excuses. There's no lion out there. Have you ever met someone, "Well, I'll get to it," but never happens? And then you talk to him again, it just never happens. They never get it done. You're working in a professional environment. You remind them over and over and over again, and they never get it. There's always excuses. And you know something's not right there. That's what we're talking about here. Now we all have to face reality in our lives. We are all a work in progress. There's a little bit of a sluggard in every single one of us. We're not perfect. We don't get perfect until we go to heaven. And the reality is this, for those of you that have put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, you've been changed and transformed, but you are still a work in progress. You're not there yet. This world is filled, it's soaked with sin and damaged, and it's damaged people living in it. We're all born with a broken wall. We're all born with what the Bible calls a depraved nature. We have sin that runs our life. We're transformed by the power of Jesus the moment we put our trust and faith in him. So we have the ability now to walk a new road, to walk this new path that Proverbs is inviting us into. That's why I love the beginning of Proverbs, says "My son, listen to my instruction." How do you get to be a son? Put your trust and faith in Jesus as savior and Lord, you become a child of God, a son or a daughter who's following Jesus. And in that moment now, you can start walking the right path, but it still takes effort. You still have to make some choices along the way to take the truth that's found in Proverbs, to take the truth that's found in God's word, and begin to develop it. When we said wisdom is skillful, godly living, skill doesn't happen automatically. Skill is developed over time in community with one another. Let me give you a couple examples. Over the summer, we've talked about good words. We've talked about bad words. You have a choice. You can work on the good words that need to come out of your mouth. Not the bad words. You have choices to walk down the road of pride in your life or humility. You have the choice to walk down the road of integrity and purity or the road that's gonna end up in some devastating consequences. You need work. I need work. And that's the value of this book. It's why I really believe that marriage and parenting. If you're single living life in community is the crucible by which Proverbs comes to life. Proverbs is an invitation to live the kind of life that Jesus wants us to live. That happens in community. That's why I love what we talked about today with pastor Kevin. When you enter into this zone, where you realize, wait a minute, I can get an honest dose of who I am by reading this book, I can get an honest dose of reality in somebody else's life. And they're getting an honest dose of my life so that together in community, we can pursue this new life. So I wanna flip this. It's getting a reality of who I am and the work that needs to be done, but don't forget the most important reality. And that is this the moment you've put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ, you have a choice now. You never had apart from Christ. You can walk a new road. You can live this kind of life that can transform you, and change you. But as we look back at this metaphor, yeah, they don't face reality, but they also put personal feelings above personal growth. Now, if you're waiting for your feelings to motivate you, you won't do anything in life. There is a basic, basic life skills are oftentimes taught by parents. Why is that the case? So that they can learn this principle. You make short-term sacrifices for long-term gains. It's just part of life. You do that with music. You do that with athletics. You do that with academics, perfectly illustrated. Little Johnny comes home and says, I wanna play the clarinet, or Julie comes home, says, I wanna play the drums. Or maybe it's the trumpet. You know as a parent, the moment your kid announces that to you, you are in for a couple of months with some sorry hearing stuff, okay? And they go in a room, and you've got stuff coming out of that room you've never heard before. But what happens over time? They make short-term sacrifices, and they begin to practice, and they practice and they practice. And before long, they have this reward of a life skill. It's true of music. It's true of athletics. It is true of academics, and it is true in your spiritual life. And the reason that the sluggard is the sluggard is because they just give into the pleasure of short term kinds of things, instead of looking for the reward of a disciplined life so that you can make that progress. So life doesn't pass you by into a collection of missed opportunities. And quite frankly, one of the reasons that this is taking place, is because of this. They refuse to consider the consequences of inaction and follow through. They're paying attention to their feelings. They're not thinking longterm about the consequences of the actions that are going down. And what is true physically and mentally, and emotionally is also true spiritually. Because if you're not considering the longterm consequences of an action, you end up down the wrong road. If you'll look at verse 33, there's one word, it's a little word. And it's the word, little, a little. A little what? Sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and then all of a sudden you have the disaster that's described in verse 34. It's interesting, a sluggard doesn't wake up and say, "Today I'm gonna go ruin my life." People that are caught up in some devastating sin, they don't wake up, and they just "Oh, yeah, today I'm just gonna go mess my life up forever." They don't do that. It's been one little step at a time. Cause the step from here to here is nothing. I mean that's oh yeah, that's okay, I'm okay. It's okay to be sarcastic. It's okay to say this. It's okay to say, you know what? They really hurt me. So I'm gonna be vindictive just for a week, and then I'll forgive them. But then what happens? Then the next step is not so big anymore. One week becomes two weeks and then a month. And then it goes beyond that. And before you know it, you can't control your tongue anymore. You can't control the thoughts that are in. I can just linger on this picture, just a little bit, but you know what? Then it gets longer and longer. And before you know it, you've ruined your life, and you've ruined your marriage. Why? Because a little sleep and a little slumber, and a little folding of the hands to rest, and all of a sudden there's a poverty physically, a poverty spiritually. And before you know it, one weed becomes two weeds. And all of a sudden what ends up happening is the result of inaction is far worse than the momentary pleasure that you were seeking upfront. See all you need to do to destroy your life is nothing. 100% guaranteed. Money back 100% of the time. I'll tell you what, if you wanna get up and ruin your life, don't do anything. Just be passive. That's why Proverbs 26:15 says, "The sluggard buries his hand." Picture this, buries his hand in the dish, and it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. He's just inactive. And it really is summarizes this. They just lack initiative. They've gone right down the road, and before you know it, they lack initiative and all of a sudden you're in verse 34, and poverty comes upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. And you know what that want is? That want is the new life in Christ. Because if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, and you've done one little step, and all of a sudden the little step and the little step, and it's not moving from here to here anymore, it's from here to here. And all of a sudden you're taking the big one, and you've crossed a line. And then you get to this point where you wake up and realize how in the world did I get here? And there's this want inside of me like an armed man. That's the want of the new life that you were invited into it at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs, but you chose the wrong path. And it happened one little step at a time. Well, I wanna contrast that because now I wanna turn to a positive understanding of what this looks like, because he says here, how long will you lie there, o, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? When is it time to wake up? Well, let's wake up. So let's look at the positive illustration that becomes a metaphor. And now what I want you to do is I want you to go to Proverbs 6 because it contrasts and actually repeats a couple of verses that are found over in Proverbs 24. It's one of those, I think it's three different times where there's some Proverbs that repeat throughout the book. And this is one of those. And I wanna talk about what does it mean to maximize the yield of my life? What does it mean to walk down that path whereby I experienced the kind of life that God is calling me to live. Now many of you know, what the scene is. This is harvest on a farm. Lovely Lynette grew up on a farm, and this is what she experienced. It is one of the most exciting times of year for a farmer. But there's a lot of work that goes into this. The right seed was planted. There's nurturing. There's all kinds of things that have to happen in order to maximize the yield that needs to come from this. And so look down at Proverbs 6:6 'cause it's the opposite of what we have just seen. It says, "Go to the ant, o, sluggard." So you want some good advice. You wanna walk down the right path? Well, let's look at the ant. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food and harvest. How long will you lie there, o, sluggard. When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. If you're a sluggard, you lack initiative. Go look at one of the lowliest creatures, an ant, because it's a perfect example of how we need to be living our lives because sluggard is passive, but the ant is not. Let ask you a question. Have you ever seen a passive ant? I mean, have you ever seen an ant sitting by a pool, asking the mosquito to bring them another pina colada, just kind of tannin, gotta swim trunks on having a great time in life. Man, I've never seen that. Have you ever seen another ant with a fog horn telling the other ants what to do? Get busy, start moving. Don't sit there. No more drinks for you or soup or whatever the deal is. No, you've never seen that. You have a picture of an ant who knows exactly what to do at the right moment. And there are some really important lessons here. If you'll notice in verse seven, an ant doesn't need a chief officer telling her what to do. She knows that it's time to prepare bread in the summer. That's when that season needs to be done. And then they're ready for harvest. In other words, you wanna maximize the yield of your life. Don't wait to plant or harvest, get busy. The major point of this illustration and metaphor is don't wait. Farmers itch to get the seed in the soil. They itch to cultivate it. They itch to water it and nurture it and do whatever they need to do in order to bring forth the harvest. They get going. They plan ahead. They know what's coming down the road. So I look at this book and I say, what are the things I need to develop in my life? While you are relaxing at a picnic, eating outside, what is the ant doing? One crumb at a time he's taking your food away. And if you walk away, it's gone. Why? Because they're never gonna give up. I mean, I tell you what, I don't wanna ever come against somebody who cannot work me because they will not work me every time I turn around, and that's the ant, they just don't give up. And this is a point where there's inner motivation, where we take life seriously. And we say, wait a minute, I've got one life to live. Part of the problem with the sluggard is they don't realize they've got one life to live. They don't realize what is happening. And they need to prepare for eternity. Let me ask you this question. If Jesus were to come today, would you have a sense of confidence? Are you ready to say, "I'm ready to meet Jesus"? And if he were to look at you, would you be able to say, you know what, I did everything I simply could to lay up treasures in heaven and not here on earth. I was living for something else. Are you ready? Is there a sense of confidence? Are you able to say I made the most of my days here, I lived for another kingdom. Every life just like every garden, every farm field needs maintenance. It needs to be addressed. And every spring farmers are itching to get that seed in the ground. And every father itching, they're watching those weather reports so they get in the field and harvest the crop over and over again. Now most of the corn and soybeans that were grown on Lynette's family's farm, the soybeans obviously were consumed by humans and others as well. But the corn was oftentimes used for tortilla chips or perhaps grain feed. You gotta have a sweet corn processing center in order to do sweet corn. So the only sweet corn they did was for their family use, but I'm telling you it was hundreds of years. So they would plant the seed corn, and it was this massive production. When the seed corn was in, there was an assembly line. You're responsible for this. You're responsible for this. You're responsible for this. And we ran them down the line so that we could have sweet corn throughout the year. And I'll tell you what, there was one group though, that seemed to have an uncanny ability to figure out when it was time to harvest that sweet corn. And if you were not watching it as a human being, as the farmer, you would lose it every time. You know you wanna know what that entity was, is raccoons. I don't know what they did. I don't know how they did it. I don't know if they just showed up, and tasted a little bit here. "Now, it's not sweet yet." "Oh no, it's not sweet yet." And then when it was sweet enough, I'm not kidding you, it happened. They sent out emails. They sent out snail mail. They called ants and uncles from Alabama and Florida. And they just showed up and I'm telling you, they will wipe you out. They just devastate the whole crop. They're just never sitting down by the poolside. I'll tell you what, you wanna walk down this path, you can't wait. And then you have to nurture the soil that has been given to you. As we combine everything that we have talked about here. If you know Christ as savior and Lord, here's the good news. You have good soil because Jesus has changed your life. Now you gotta maintain it. You have to take the seeds of God's word, and plant that and then nurture it, and water it in community so that you can grow. But dirt is everything. Every farmer knows, dirt is everything. If you don't have good soil, you're not gonna get a good crop. Whether that's in the Midwest or somewhere else. And obviously Lynette came from a family farm. We had friends that were farmers out in the Santa Maria Valley. And we were in Costco here this summer. And we came back with some of their strawberries. So I texted him. I said, "Hey, I got some of your strawberries." They were the best dried berries in Costco that we've ever had. They were incredible. So soil is everything. And what ends up happening spiritually, you've been given a change of heart. You've been transformed. You now have ready-made soil so that the power of these principles that are found in Proverbs and throughout God's word can be taken, planted in the soil of your life. And then if it's nurtured, if it's guided whereby you're prayerfully trusting and letting the Lord Jesus Christ to change you, if you're watering it within the community of other believers, as you're looking at reality and encouraging others to walk down this path together, it begins to bear fruit. It comes out, there's change. If your heart is ready and willing to apply what you're reading, all of a sudden you begin to see transformation take place. That's why I love the three environments that Kevin was explaining to you up here. Both classes, life groups, and one-on-one discipleship, because you're gonna learn some of these basic skills to plant God's word in your heart so that you can begin to nurture it. And all of a sudden you're bearing transformation in the context of community with one another. Same thing's true with students. If you are not plugged into what I would call world-class student ministry, and kids' ministry, your kids are missing out. So get them plugged in so they understand what it means to walk down this path. I can't emphasize that enough in the midst of our culture today. They've got to have that framework, and that biblical worldview. Same thing, true with your marriage. Apply this principle to your marriage. You've got to nurture that. You have to spend time together. You've gotta nurture the right words. You have to eliminate sarcasm in the midst of your marriage. What about parenting? Go to our family resource center so you can understand what it means to raise kids in a grace-based environment. And it helps them begin to grow, and make some godly choices in their life. This happens with skillful training, godly living. Let's go back to one of the key verses in the Book, Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll make your path straight. What's he talking about there? This principle. Plant the word of God in your heart and life, you now are changed and transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. And then as you take that word and nurture it, let it grow. In all your ways, acknowledge him so that when you're at the dinner table, you're using words with redemptive value so you're building your kids up. You're focusing them on truth. When your spouse is struggling, you're coming alongside and you're encouraging them. When you're a single mom, and you're struggling with how to live your life, you're in community with other single moms so that you're growing together, practicing some godly characteristics so you can live your life in the professional world together. See that's what this means. Living life with redemptive value as you grow. Now, it's important because once God's word begins to do its work in your heart and in your life, if you're gonna maximize the yield, it's cultivating and pulling the weeds that show up, that's the dynamic. You have the word of God that shows up in your life. And all of a sudden you start seeing things that don't look like Jesus. There are weeds in a garden, good soil, bad soil. They're just there. And it's God's word that allows us to see what needs to be cultivated out. Yes, the character qualities we need to follow, but also the things that aren't going so well in all of our lives because remember we all need work. We are all a work in progress. The interesting thing about our garden, we moved it. We've had bunch of great tomatoes. I love tomatoes, it's kind of my favorite thing. So we moved them, got them into the sun, and we've had a great crop this year, and we've really enjoyed it. And when I look at our garden from my house, it looks great. Then I walk through the fence, and I'm seeing weeds I didn't see back up at the house. That's what God's word does. You get into this truth, and all of a sudden, you get a little bit more focus on what's happening in your life. And you begin to see things, and here's what's interesting. The Holy Spirit takes God's word in the life of a follower of Jesus and all of a sudden character qualities that, or character flaws I should say that need to change, He starts surfacing them. Have you ever been reading your Bible in a quiet time, or you've been here on Sunday and it's like, "God, you've been reading my mail. That is not fair." Because all of a sudden, and that's really evidence that you've given your life to Jesus because the Holy Spirit is beginning to move. I don't know how many of you walked out of here last week and you felt convicted about sarcasm. Anybody? You're not being honest. That's what God's word does. It's amazing. And I have to tell you, this is why allowing your thoughts and your mind to be transformed by the power of God's word, to examine our lives, to search us, to see if there's any wicked way that is found in us. Now the key to pulling weeds is what? Get after them. Don't let them grow. That's why the metaphor of the ant is so important. You wanna walk down the right path. And then when you look at the walls of your life, you look at the weeds that are there, keep your in good repair, start looking. You see some pebbles dropping off, get after it. 'Cause one pebble will lead to another pebble, and before you know it, there's gonna be a break in the wall. The animals are gonna get in. One weed will lead to another weed. It's a little here and a little there. And before you know it. So as you evaluate God's word, as you evaluate your life, as you look at all of the wonderful principles that we've looked at here, take action. You don't have to do it all at once, but you can do one thing. And you can begin to apply it and walk down that road. But you've got to keep those walls in good repair. We saw this tragically illustrated with the fall of that condo down in Florida. We've had the same experience with the bridge on 35 here several years ago. Now I wanna tell you, we do this in our own life. Lynette and I were just in Colorado. And we spent a couple of days doing some soul care in our life personally, but in our marriage. And so we went to a conference that was designed for pastors. Believe it or not, they do those things. And then we were asked to evaluate our lives. Now the fun thing about this one was they told us, go take some hikes. Take a hike, get out of here. So, they would give us some homework. So we actually had to spend one day, actually. It was an entire day with each other, actually going through some questions about our life and soul care and where we are. Do you know how important that is for you? You have to do that. That's why books like this are fabulous. That's why people go through them and start evaluating their life against this grid. When you look at your spiritual life, when you look at your emotional life, when you look at your physical life, your mental life, how are you gonna be different three months from now? How are you gonna be different six months from now? How are you gonna be different 12 months from now? If last week was convicting for you regarding sarcasm, how you're gonna change it? Who are you gonna talk to? Get in community, set up some just basic steps along the way. I mean, it could be as easy as have a phone number written on your hand so the next time that sarcastic word comes out, you make a phone call to your friend and say, "I was just sarcastic with my wife." I'm gonna tell you what, if you do that one or two times, you'll begin not to do that again. "I spent too much time looking at that picture on that screen." You tell somebody that, which is really what accountability is, and I'll tell you what, at some point, the Spirit's gonna begin to move in you as you surrender your life to him, and you're gonna begin to start turning in another direction. If you need help there, please let us know. 'Cause we can move you in that right direction. How are you evaluating your character flaws, your pride, your anger, your thought life? What about your marriage? What are you doing so that your marriage is different in three months, six months, 12 months? What about your life as a parent? What are you gonna be doing differently so that you can walk down this right path with activity in the context of community, and you can begin to experience the kind of change that can transform you? These are the little steps. I love this. Because this is from a positive direction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, just reverse it. A little step in the right direction, controlling these little steps along the way, just reverse it, just flip it. I begin to move in the right direction empowered by God's grace, his strength to change me and transform me. You know, you really have a choice. It's really everything that Proverbs has been telling you. You can choose the path that God has for you, or you can choose the wrong path where life passively passes you by into a collection of missed opportunities. But the choice is yours. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the power of your word, and how it brings about change inside of all of us. And so Lord now, as we reflect upon what you have communicated to us by way of your Holy Spirit, I pray that your word planted in our hearts if we know you as savior and Lord would reap a harvest. It would change us, transform us to be the kind of people you want us to be in our culture today. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.