Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter three. And we'll read together verses one to 12. Proverbs chapter three beginning in verse one. This is God's word. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. So ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray to our father now. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that we can come before you now, having been called by you, just as the Son has been called by the Father in Proverbs. So you have called us and you have told us, listen, and we have sang already that we desire to be taught your word. In the opening hymn, we sang that we would listen to your word. So help us to do those things. Help us to be like that good son who would incline his ear and desire understanding that you might fill us with all good things that you have for those privileged and blessed to be called your sons, your daughters. I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, growing up in Ireland meant that I never ran around barefoot as a child. It was always far too cold. If you didn't have shoes and socks on your feet at all times, they would probably turn blue and they'd fall off from being frostbitten or something like that. Well, since it is so warm here most of the year, my children do tend to run around barefoot a lot of the time, even outdoors. But what that also means is that now and again, one of them will get a splinter in their foot or in one of their toes. And in our house, when someone gets a splinter, it's dad who gets it out. So usually they find if a splinter, their foot hurts, they run to mom first, and then mom directs them to dad. But even though they have a pain in their foot because of a splinter, they're not always so eager for me to take it out. Usually the process of removing the splinter causes a spike in pain as I have to maybe touch the area where the splinter is, or perhaps I need to remove a little bit of skin in order to better see the splinter, or perhaps take it out. And sometimes, Their fear of the pain or whatever they think the splinter will mean for them outweighs their trust of me as their father. According to the child's understanding, it doesn't make sense that they're being hurt in the process of removing a splinter that's supposed to help. It doesn't make sense. So usually I need to hold them in my arms and remind them that I'm their dad and they can trust in me. And although it might hurt a little bit, I might hurt them when I'm taking it out, I'm not harming them. And actually what I'm doing is for their good. And if they continue to struggle and wrestle, well, it makes it impossible to remove the splinter. But it's when they calm down and they rest in my arms and they let go of their fears, And they set aside their own understanding, and they lean on my arms, and they look up to me with eyes of trust, knowing that they're in the arms of a caring, tender father. Well, it's then that I can remove the splinter, and then they can run off playing and enjoying the rest of their day. And isn't it so wise of our God that he would choose this choice picture of a child's trust in their father and of a father's tender care of their child to illustrate our relationship with him? That's what we see in our passage. In Proverbs chapter three, we once again hear the voice of the father calling his son to listen to his voice. He says, my son, do not forget my teaching. And now more than ever, it becomes clear that we are the child and that God is the father in this passage. As he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Well, we've seen at times, haven't we, the father address the son in different kinds of ways. At times, warning the son of the dire consequences of folly. But here, he teaches the son, and God teaches us, with the carrot rather than with the stick. You'll notice that there's a pattern throughout these 12 verses. The father first calls us to trust him and to obey him and to submit to him. And then he follows that up with a blessing. promise. So there's a command and there's a blessing for those who do the command and we see that pattern throughout. I think we so need to be reminded of this because it's so easy for us to think that the Christian life is void of any blessing or maybe if there are blessings therefore when we're in heaven with the Lord. Maybe we even think at times that the Lord is arbitrary. Perhaps we know what it means to have a cruel father who gave commands that had no purposes, that were simply devised almost to insult us. But here, God assures us that he is our loving father, and that as we trust in him, he will lead us into a blessed life. now, but also and especially in the life to come. So let's consider then the fatherly blessings that God has for us, how he gives us blessings as we remember him, how he blesses us as we trust him, and how he blesses us as we submit to him. Let us approach the Lord now with childlike faith, trusting in the Lord, and not leaning on our own understanding, but leaning on his everlasting word. Well, first, there's the blessing of remembering the Lord. We see this in verses one to four. You'll recall from the father's first speech how he called the son to hear his instruction. In the second speech, he called the son to receive his words. And now he opens this speech in verse one, calling his son to not forget his teaching. The call to not forget, put positively, is the call to remember. And so he's calling the son to remember his teaching. And in the Bible, the call to remember is always more than just simply replaying a thought file in your brain, like what happens when you're trying to go to sleep at night and all the thoughts and memories of the day or when you were five years old come back and they play before your eyes. No, the call to remember is more than regurgitating facts that maybe you remembered as a child. To remember means to act. Isn't that what we so often see with the Lord? How often are we told that he remembers something, and what's the next thing that happens? Oh, that's a nice thought. No, the Lord remembers, and then he acts. The Lord remembered, and he heard the cries of his people suffering in Egypt, and what did he do? He acted, and he saved them from bondage. And so the call to remember is a call to act. And how is it that we are to remember the Lord? How is it that we can remember him? Well, again, it's more than simply having a superficial knowledge of the Lord or simply knowing Bible content. Oh, that's a good thing. We ought to have that in our minds. We must also have his word stored in our hearts. That's what the Father says next. He says, but let your heart keep my commandments. So the Father says to keep, to guard, to store the word in your heart. The heart, of course, isn't just the organ that pumps blood around your body. It's not just the kind of modern notion of your emotions. No, your heart is really standing for your entire being, your very core, it's who you are. Well, then we have the first promise in verse two. The Father says, for lengths of days and years of life and peace they will add to you So the promise of peace and the length of days is made to those who store the word in their hearts. And this of course is an echo of the fifth commandment where the same thing is promised to children who obey their parents. And so here the relationship between God and his people is once again being compared to the relationship between a child and their parent. And what that means is not only do we have an obligation as the child in the relationship to obey the father, but just like any good parent would, as Jesus taught us, God promises to bless us and he promises to reward our obedience. And here we see that blessing for our obedience is peace. I'll say more about that blessing in a moment. Well, the Father continues to build upon this theme of remembrance. Verse three, let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. It's interesting, isn't it? These two phrases, steadfast love and faithfulness. Who are these qualities most often attributed to? It's the Lord, isn't it? It's so often in the context of his covenant relationship with his people that he says of himself or his people praise him with these attributes. Lord, you are steadfast and faithful. These are the words that God used to reveal himself to Moses at Mount Sinai. They're words that are repeated throughout the Psalms. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. So these are words or phrases that really describe who God is to us. And here, God is saying to us now, I'm calling you to steadfast love. I'm calling you to faithfulness. Just as I am faithful to you, so you are to be faithful to others. And he does that by saying, let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. In other words, take these, more than phrases, but this whole way of life, take this, and don't just treat it like a baseball cap that you can put it on and off. You know, you meet someone that you don't really like, well, I'm not gonna be very steadfast or faithful to them. No, he says, inscribe it on your heart. Make it permanent. Don't let it be this marker that you can wash away. I want it inscribed in your heart. It's like the mother who maybe knows her child is prone to, in the wintertime, losing their mittens or their gloves. And so she takes those mittens and she sews them on to the child's jacket. Little Johnny, I don't want you to come home without these. I don't want you to forget them. And now you won't because they'll be sewn to your jacket. That's what the Lord says to us. I don't want you to forget this. So I'm gonna bind it around your neck so you'll never forget it. Again, the point of not forgetting love and faithfulness and having them written on our soul isn't to keep them there like a work of art or just a book in our libraries that we never read. No, the point is that if this is inscribed in your heart, it's what's going to come out of your heart. You're gonna live it out before others. You're going to want to live it out because it's gonna be who you are, it'll shape you. So the call is to be filled with God's love and faithfulness so that we might live this out before others. That's the command that really is summed up in that command, to remember the Lord. And we see the reward then in verse two, as we saw, is peace in the land. The reward in verse four is good favor with others. He says, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. This promise then to those who live faithfully as God's covenant people, this promise is that you will have peace and that you'll find favor before others. This call reminds me of what Paul says in Ephesians chapter four, verse one, where he calls us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So Paul is saying, since you have been called to peace, be peaceful, people. Live this out before others. Or it says Paul writes in Romans 12, 16 and 17, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own eyes. Doesn't that remind you of something? Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. And if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Now sometimes, for reasons that are beyond our control, we're not able to live peaceably with all people or with certain people. But Paul says, so far as it depends upon you, you are to pursue peace. And God teaches us here that peace and favor before others is something that we're both called to do, but it's also a blessing that comes as we remember the Lord and as we image his loving faithfulness in our lives. I think this is something that should hit close to home to many of us. Most of us know what it's like to not have peace with others, don't we? Perhaps even in the most intimate of relationships. What relationships are you in that God is calling you to pursue peace and to wear steadfast love and faithfulness around your neck? Some of us are in the covenant of marriage. And we've made vows to love and to be faithful to one another. But beloved, be encouraged to fulfill your vows, to love as Christ loves, and then you'll have peace in your marriage, with wives, respecting husbands, husbands, loving wives. Pursue peace with your children and with your parents. Parents are called to love their children, to train them, but also not to exasperate them. They're supposed to have peace with children. Children are to obey their parents and the Lord, that it might go well with them. And as you remember the Lord in your home, whether you're a parent or a child, the Lord promises the blessing of peace. We're, of course, to pursue peace in the church. Are you at odds with someone in the church? Maybe this local church, maybe another church, maybe another Christian, somebody you even work with. Are you someone who enjoys to stir up strife and drama where there is none or where there need not be any? Are you someone who loves to fault find and nitpick? Well, this is not the way of peace. And so you need to repent and you need to put that to death. And instead of wearing that heavy yoke of sin where you're comparing yourself to others and you're tearing other people down, take that yoke off, put on the yoke of Christ, one that is easy and mild. Put on the mind of Christ that he has earned for you and that he freely gives you. A mind that puts others before self. A mind that pursues peace. Wear his love and his faithfulness around your neck. And then God promises to bless you with peace. So there's the blessing of remembering the Lord, the blessings that come through remembering the Lord. Secondly, there's the blessings that come through trusting the Lord. We see that in verses five to 10. Verse five, we're called to trust in the Lord with all your heart. Now in order to trust someone, you need to know something about them, don't you? You can't really say you trust someone if you don't even know them. When I'm trying to calm my child, as I mentioned earlier, when they have a splinter in their foot, one of the things I have to do and I try to do is remind them who I am. I'm your father. You can trust me. You're my child. It's my job to care for you. Don't worry. You can trust me. And so also, even as we're being called to trust, we must also remember who it is we are called to trust in. We're not called to trust in some higher power. We're not called to trust in some kind of cosmic force in the universe or fate or karma. We're not even called to trust in some kind of generic deity who may or may not be there. No, we're called to trust in Yahweh. You see that in verse five and you see the name Yahweh four more times throughout the rest of our passage. Lord there, as I like to emphasize, is in all caps. In other words, it isn't the Lord, it isn't Adonai, which means master, it's Yahweh. It's the covenant name of God. In other words, this text couldn't be picked up by some other religion or some other philosopher of the day and used and applied in that kind of way. Oh, you just need to trust. No, that's not what we're being told. We're being called to trust in Yahweh, our covenant God. It's that special, intimate name revealed to Moses and to God's people. And so this text is not calling you to trust someone you don't know. Wisdom says you shouldn't trust someone you don't know. But you know the Lord, and he knows you if you are his. You have been called to trust someone who has revealed themselves to you through 66 books we call the Bible. Yahweh is the God who communicates, who listens, who creates, who redeems, who restores. He is the creator of all people, and he is the father of all his elect in Christ Jesus. We're called to trust Yahweh in two different ways. The first way we are called to trust him is internally. He says in verse five and following, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Again, that language of heart, it speaks of the whole of a person, the core of your being. Trust the Lord with all that you are. And again, as the father makes clear, to trust the Lord means to trust him completely. It means not to trust in other things. What kinds of things compete for our trust in the Lord? Well, we're prone to trust our own understanding, aren't we? We hear what the Bible says, Doesn't always suit us, does it? And so we'd rather trust our own ways. We're tempted to be wise in our own eyes. Isn't that how Satan tempted Eve in the garden? He said, if you eat of the forbidden fruits, you'll become as wise as God. In other words, you won't need him anymore. Proverbs 1 will say that you're the beginning and end of all wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And the sad thing is that that's what Eve desired. She desired, the text tells us, to be wise. And ever since the fall, man in his folly has worshipped his own intellect, has worshipped his own way of understanding, and has devised every kind of false religion and philosophy in order to allow for one's own lifestyle and way that one wants to live. But God says this is folly. He says don't lean on your own understanding because if you lean on it, it can't support you. It's like a rickety old fence that has rotting wood, and it's got nails and barbed wire sticking on it, sticking out from it, and you're trying to lean on it, you're trying to sit on it. You think it can hold your weight? It won't. It can't. It's going to collapse. It's the way of folly, it's the way of death. Well, even as Christians, what are ways that we Try to be wise in our own eyes. What are ways that we try to lean on our own understanding? Of course, I could give many examples. I'll just give one. One that I've sadly seen too many times in the church as a pastor, even as just a member of the church before being a pastor in many different churches. But it happens anytime that we come into conflict with God's word. And we know what we want for our lives, we've planned it out, we desire something. Just so happens that God's word says that that is not right, it's sinful, it's illicit, it's inappropriate, it's forbidden. But we still desire that thing and so we lean on our own understanding. You see at any time a young couple begins dating, two young Christian couple, they start dating, and then they start staying over in each other's apartments or houses, and one thing leads to another, and they're confronted, and they say, no, no, no, no, you don't understand, Pastor, it's different this time, it's different, or it doesn't apply to us, I know that it's God's will. No, it's not, it's not God's will, that is never His will, and you're leaning on your own understanding, and what you're doing is you're walking in a way of death. You're not obeying the Lord. You're not trusting him. You're trusting in yourself. To trust the Lord means to trust him completely in all of your ways, acknowledging that he is the Lord, he is the sovereign, he is the master. And at times that can be hard for us because we have some desire that we feel we have to fulfill, whether it's loneliness, or it's a feeling of security, or whatever the case may be, and we're so tempted to look to illicit things, like an inappropriate relationship. in order to fill that void that we feel we have in our life. But any time our own internal voice and desire tells us to do something that God says is wrong, Well, that's when we're trusting and we're leaning in our own understanding. To trust the Lord means to trust in all his ways. And it means to trust in his timing. Maybe he hasn't given you something you desire. Maybe you have a good desire, like a relationship even now, but he hasn't given you that thing yet. Don't force it in ways that are inappropriate. That is the way of death. But, The way of blessing is to trust in the Lord, even when it's hard, even when you think God's way doesn't make sense right now. What makes sense is my way. That's when trust is seen and it's demonstrated. And when we trust His ways, then we also have His blessings. The blessing for trusting in the Lord and leaning on His ways is that He will direct your path. Verse six, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Acknowledging the Lord here is the sense of recognizing the authority and the right that is his as our Lord and sovereign to erect our lives. And since he holds this position, he must be trusted with, not simply with some of our ways, but with all of our ways. It's so sad that our world is so filled with uncertainty and with confusion. But here we're assured that when we place our trust in the Lord and when we follow his ways, he'll guide us and he'll make clear what is unclear. And where we feel purposeless, he will give us purpose. It's incredibly sad that many people live without purpose in the world, without guidance. That's because, as Chesterton said, to put a spin on what he said one time, it isn't that, you know, when people don't follow God, it's not that they follow nothing. No, it's that they'll follow anything. And they do, they do. Isn't that what we see around us, a world so confused, confused about the most obvious and basic facts of reality, like gender and sex? And yet people are so confused and directionless and purposeless. Many people turn to false religions. For many people in our nation, the greatest false religion is the government, a trust in the government as if it were a god. People are directionless. They're waiting to be told the next thing to be upset about, the next way to earn our righteousness before the face of others. And if you follow that god, you will be purposeless and directionless. What a comfort that that isn't the case for the Christian. No, God gives us purpose and reason for life and direction. We don't have to spend our lives chasing meaning in life. No, we already have it. It's to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And that is its own blessing. And we are to trust in Him that we might be blessed in this way. So we trust in the Lord internally with all of our heart. and with our understanding and he will direct our paths. But the father also calls us to an external display of trust. Look at verse nine. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. The language of honor is the same word, Hebrew word for heavy or weighty. And so to honor someone is to esteem someone as weighty, as important, as prestigious, Well, how are we to show that we esteem God as great? How are we to externally demonstrate our trust in him? Well, the Father says you are to honor him with your first fruits. Now, in the ancient world, most people were farmers, and so, you know, the first fruits were the first and best parts of your harvest. And in the Old Testament, Israel especially was called to worship God with sacrifices, and especially sacrificing the first part of one's crops and the best of their animals. And doesn't that evidence God, evidence our trust in God when we are willing to give him our best? whether it's our resources or our time. Most of us aren't farmers. We don't have produce, many of us, in the kind of way that the Israelites did. And of course, we don't sacrifice animals anymore because we don't have a temple, we don't have an altar in the New Covenant. So how do we evidence our trust in God? One of the primary ways we do this is by giving God the first and best day of our weeks for worship. The first day of the week is not Monday, but Sunday, and we give him that day in worship as Christians. And when we do that, we're saying, Lord, I give you my first, I give you my best, and I trust that as I give you this, you will take care of me the rest of the week. As I choose to worship you and not work, I'm trusting that you'll care for me, for my resources. Now according to man's understanding, Sunday is the day you sleep in, you catch some extra Zs. Sunday's the day you catch up on all your Netflix series. Sunday's the day you get together with the fellows and watch the big game. But the Christian says, I trust Jesus when he calls me to worship him on the Lord's day. I trust that this isn't just some arbitrary rule that he's making because he can. I'm trusting that this is what is best for my soul. I trust Jesus when he says the Sabbath was made for man. And I trust that God will be glorified as I make this sacrifice of praise for him. And as with all of God's commandments, there is blessing, whether we are trusting him internally or whether we're demonstrating that externally. Look at the blessing that God promises in verse 10. He says, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. wine, and the joy that a glass of wine gives you is a very common biblical picture of God's blessing. Some of us may appreciate that imagery to varying degrees. Some might appreciate it a little bit more than others. But the main point that the author of Proverbs is making is that in whatever way you sacrifice for God, He's never going to shortchange you. It's never going to be the case that you make a sacrifice for God, whether it's financially or it's with your time, and now you'll put God in debt to you. No, that will never be the case. You will always receive more than what you give to Him. Now the wrong way to look at this and to think of this is as if it's a slot machine where you put in your dollar and then your item comes out. Well, if I'm gonna sacrifice my Sunday to the Lord, I'm expecting a pretty good Monday. No, Christians don't think that way. This passage doesn't think that way and it doesn't teach what's known as the prosperity gospel. When Proverbs speaks of giving health and refreshment in verse eight and here of financial prosperity in verse 10, it's describing poetically and generally the ways in which God blesses us when we follow him. For example, it is not an absolute promise that if you were wise with your money that you will be wealthy. However, it is generally true that if you're wise with your money, you will be financially better off than if you were unwise with your money. So the blessings promised here are generally true now and will always prove true later. So he's not saying that if you follow my rules, you'll never have a bad day. Rather, he's saying that if you follow my teaching, you'll generally have long days. You can expect peace generally. And even as you're struggling through trials and difficulties, you will have peace with God and the promise of peace in the new heavens and earth. That's what all of these blessings ultimately are pointing towards. Whatever blessings God gives us in this life, however much they make us smile or jump up and down, they're so minute compared to the greatness that awaits us in heaven. And so, beloved, trust in the Lord that he might direct your paths and cause you to prosper in this life. But always remember that the true blessing of God awaits the believer in the life to come. Anything that this life can offer us, any material thing, is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us through our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well third, and this is the briefest point, we'll consider the blessing of submitting to the Lord in verses 11 and 12. The third blessing is the blessing that comes through submitting to the Lord, which is the blessing of God's discipline. Now I imagine if this were a Sunday school class and we were to survey the room and I was to ask you to write down maybe the top three blessings that the Lord gives to his people, it might take quite a while or maybe several passes before we came to the blessing of discipline. But, The discipline of the Lord is a blessing. And so the father says, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof. At times, the father disciplines us. But why might we despise that discipline or why might we grow weary of the Lord's discipline? Well, I think that can happen through misunderstanding what discipline is. We don't always know why a certain trial comes into our life, the exact purposes of God in a very specific sense. But at times, the purpose of a trial is to discipline us for sin. Certainly, at all times, we can say that a trial is designed to discipline us in the general sense of conforming us, as the father would conform a son through careful instruction. But as we go through a particular trial, might struggle to understand its purpose. Perhaps we might be tempted to think that it's the cruel intention of an uncaring God. Or we might grow weary of it because we don't understand its purpose. That's why the father here takes care to explain the purpose behind discipline. He says in verse 12, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights. So when the father disciplines us, he doesn't do it to judge us. He doesn't do it to harm us. Rather, it's correction, like that of a loving, caring father. And far from being a sign that he dislikes you, no, Solomon tells us that it is the very sign that he loves you and he will not let you go. Your father loves you. That's why he disciplines you. So that when you're wandering off the path and you're wandering into that path of death, he grabs you. Maybe he grabs you by the collar and it yanks you a little bit and it's not comfortable and it's not pleasant. And yet it is him saving you from ruin and from the death that you're walking headlong into. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't discipline you. Sometimes I remind my own children when I'm disciplining them, I say, I love you too much not to discipline you. I love you too much to let you talk to your mother like that and think that it's okay, or whatever the case may be. And discipline is not, and it should not be, the wrathful or vengeful or angry form of judgment. No, it's a manifestation of a father's love. Of course, both parents and mothers love. So if love is the motivation for our discipline, what's the purpose of our discipline? Well, as our brother read earlier from Hebrews 12 verses five to 11, there we have a very long, well, not very long, but a long discourse that picks up on this same theme. It has a lot to say about discipline, but it concludes with a very helpful statement about the good purpose of discipline. Hebrews 12, 10, and 11 says this. He disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Discipline, it's not fun in the moment, is it? might actually be painful, but here we see it's good purpose. God's purpose and discipline. I couldn't think of a higher good. It is that we might be made more like God, that we might share in his holiness, that we might yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Your heavenly Father's goal in sending you some of the trials that you go through, well, really all of the trials you go through, but certainly those in which they are disciplined, is to conform you to himself, to his own image. Well, isn't that a good purpose? And knowing God's motivation, which is love, and knowing his purpose, which is our holiness, well, then we can submit to his correction. Whether that's a correction that comes through trials, whether it's the correction of a loving brother or sister who comes alongside us, or it's the more formal and serious correction and discipline of the church. We remember that it's in love that the Father does this, and so we can receive this blessing of discipline which comes from his hand. And as Proverbs says, and as the author of Hebrews, brings out in even more a more vivid way. We are blessed because we are sons. We are sons because of Jesus Christ. And so even as you're disciplined, you can remember that it's because you are a son and your sonship has been secured by Jesus Christ. He was not disciplined. He was punished, not because he was a disobedient son, but because you were. You were a rebel and a sinner. But God, in his love and in his mercy, spared you from that. And he poured it out upon Christ, who served as a willing sacrifice to bear the wrath that you deserve. And therefore, you are counted righteous as one of God's sons, whom he loves, and therefore, whom he disciplines. And so, beloved, remember who you are. You are a child of the Father. Remember who God is. He is the Father. And then follow the voice of your father as he calls you to remember him, to trust in him, and to submit to him. And as we do that, we remember that he promises us good things. Let us trust in him that we all may receive the wonderful blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the blessings that are ours through Jesus Christ. We thank you for the blessings that come through trusting you, submitting to you, remembering to you. Bless us even now as we express our submission to you, our trust in you, and our remembrance even of the Lord Jesus Christ in this supper in just a moment. And cause our hearts to be filled with joy that we have the privilege of being called your sons. We thank you for this, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.