Reverb six, beginning in verse one, this is the word of God. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the aunt, oh sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in 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. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Let's pray now for God's help as we hear his word. Our God, as we have read just now of the sluggard and the diligence required of work, we come now to hear your word and you tell us to take care and heed as to how we listen to your word that we are not to be lazy in the way that we listen. And so we pray that you would help us. We know that our minds can be distracted. Our focus can be lost. We pray that your spirit would help us to give attention and to consider and to understand these things because we want to understand your word and we want to know you. We want to glorify you with our lives and we ask for your spirit's help to use your word to transform us to be more like Christ and use this word. We pray in his name, amen. Maybe you have heard of the marshmallow test. A psychologist from Stanford did a study in the 60s where he brought four-year-olds in and he brought them into a room with a table and put a marshmallow in front of the four-year-old. And then he says to them, you can have one marshmallow now or when I leave the room, if you can wait a few minutes and not eat that marshmallow on the table, then I'll come back in and I'll give you two marshmallows. And so that's what happened. The people doing the study, they walk out and they have a camera going and they observe these different preschoolers, these four-year-olds, and they observe which children decide to take the one marshmallow now or wait for the future reward of two marshmallows. And so they documented what these kids did and they began to study these children over the next 50 so years. And what they found was that in general, the children who delayed and did not take the one marshmallow on the table and later got two marshmallows, those children would grow up and in worldly terms, they became what psychologists would call more successful. They would make a higher income. They would get more education and more degrees. And the children who would get the one marshmallow right away, they tended to grow up and make less and have less worldly success. And the point of this study was not to doom four-year-olds, that if you're the type of child who immediately grabs a marshmallow, you are now doomed to be a failure in life. That wasn't the point. The point was to show children that they needed to learn self-control and that there would be benefits and rewards that would come from learning this kind of self-control, delayed gratification. If you can restrain your impulse to grab that one marshmallow, a benefit will come. And many years later, Sesame Street wanted to get the advice from this psychologist because they wanted to teach children how they could learn self-control. And they had this whole episode about the cookie monster who is known for always just grabbing cookies and scarfing them down and crumbs go flying everywhere. And they wanted to teach children something different. So this psychologist helped them come up with a story. Now the cookie monster would want to join a gourmet cookie club, but to join the club, he would have to wait and not eat all the cookies that he saw right away. And so the cookie monster then began to teach himself techniques to avoid eating those cookies in front of him. He would imagine that the cookie smelled like dead fish, and so he wouldn't eat it. or he would put a frame around the cookie so that he could convince himself that it wasn't a real cookie. It was just a picture of a cookie and nobody wants to eat a picture of a cookie. And so through this Sesame Street episodes, the psychologist was trying to teach children ways that they could learn self-control because this would bring them benefits in their life. The study did find that although in general there's a relationship from when you're four to when you're 50, there were children who ate the marshmallow off the table and didn't show self-control, but they did become successful in life because they were able as they grew up to learn this discipline of self-control. And so in the same way, this father in Proverbs is trying to teach his son an important lesson in life, that his son needs to learn self-control. And to learn self-control, one of the techniques or one of the things that you have to think about is you have to think about the future. What's gonna happen as a future consequence for what I am doing right now? And so we have one part related to a man's words and how a man's words can get him into a bind or a commitment that he's then going to have to fulfill in the future. We have in the second part, the man's needs and, and how, if you can't control your body and get out of bed in the morning to do work, then it's going to affect a future where you will not have income. Then he goes to part three about man's character, and if you can't have self-control over your behavior and your character, you're gonna end up a worthless man, a wicked man, and calamity is gonna come upon you. And then in part four, once again, if you can't control your body, your eyes, and your words, and your tongue, and your feet, and your hands, you're gonna be a man that the Lord hates. a man who receives the judgment of God. You have to think about all these things when you're young and the actions that you take and the decisions that you make. Think about the kind of future that you want to have so that will help you have self control now in this part of your life. And so we see in this problem, these Proverbs that The father isn't just trying to train his son how to be successful in a worldly sense. Like the psychologist, his metric was how much money you make and how many degrees you'll get. The father does talk about things like poverty, but that's not his only concern. His concern is how the Lord will treat you. That you might not be a person who is under the judgment of God. Jesus said in John 8, 34, whoever sins is a slave to sin. That's what the father doesn't want his son to be. And that's what we, as we teach this passage, we don't want you to become. We want you to learn self-control in all these areas of your life, but the reason we want that for you is because we don't want you to be a slave to your sin. and that will bring upon you the judgment of God. So let's learn these lessons from Proverbs. First, to have self-control, you need to think about your word. Verses one to five. Chapter five, we saw last week that the young man could get himself in a trap, trapped by a forbidden woman, a woman whose lips appear to be as sweet as honey, but whose lips are deadly. And now in chapter six, he talks about another trap that you can get in with lips, except it's not the lady's lips, it's your own. It's the words that you speak. These can put you in a bind that will cause you problems. So verse one, my son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, we'll see what he tells him to do. But notice how he calls it a snare. He says, it's like being caught. This is a trap that you get into. The trap here is putting up security for your neighbor, or some people use the word shorty, becoming a shorty or a pledge. Basically a shorty is someone who becomes financially responsible for a person who is taking out a loan. So let's say I, uh, I go to Landon and I say, Landon, uh, I go to Landon and I say, Landon, I have really bad credit. I've made some bad decisions in life, but I'm going to be homeless if I can't buy a house. So I need to buy a house. Landon, here's an idea. You get a mortgage. You get the mortgage for that house. We'll put the mortgage in your name, but I promise you that I'll pay you the money every month. Okay, so the mortgage is in your name and I'm just giving you my word that I'm gonna pay you the money. So in that sense, Landon becomes the security. He becomes the shorty. Legally, he is the one obligated to keep the loan, but he's doing it, getting the loan on behalf of the neighbor, on behalf of someone else. Now, when you put it in the modern terms, I think you're all thinking, that's the worst idea ever. Who would ever agree to do such a thing? Why would you just depend on a man's word to pay off an entire mortgage that you're going to take out in your name? But why would people back then make themselves a shorty? Maybe it's because they're just really nice people. Exodus 22, 25 is a law about how you should not exact interest from your neighbor who is a fellow Israelite. And you don't take interest from him because he's poor. And this is the problem that would happen in those days. The reason that people would need a loan is because they didn't have the money. They were poor. It's much different from our economy today where You know, it's pretty much everybody's expecting that they're at least going to have a mortgage loan. But back then you only take out a loan because you don't have money and you don't have money because you're poor. And so the law says you cannot take interest from a fellow Israelite because that's cruel. It's basically taxing him for the fact that he's poor. And so you might give out a loan as a shorty. You might become the shorty for a poor man who has no money and he desperately needs a loan. And you say, okay, well, I'm just a really nice guy. So put the loan in my name. Or it could be that this is a business opportunity for people in that day. They know that someone is desperate and they can't get a loan out in their name. And so, Some agent comes along, some guy comes along and says, hey, check out that shiny new car. You could get that shiny new car if you get a loan in my name. And if you just get the loan in my name, since I'm the one getting you that loan, just give me 15%. And so this would be a way for people to make money. There are some writings in these times around the Old Testament times. They're not in the Bible, but they explain what life was like. And one saying was this, the sinner who has fallen into shortyship and pursues gain will fall into lawsuits. And so that saying tells us that there were people who would go into shortyship to pursue gain. to make money off of the poor who needed the loan. So it sounds like a terrible idea to us, but this is how people lived back then. They would become a shorty. But this father warns his son not to do such a foolish thing because he's committing himself to something that he's not in control of. So here's what he tells him to do. Verse three, do this my son and save yourself. You have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. We have here seven commands. Go, hasten, plead, give your eyes no sleep, save yourself. Over and over again, he is rousing his son, getting his son to wake up the way that he might next go to his lazy son and say, wake up and get out of bed. He says, go and plead urgently. You need to do this right away. You need to make this effort because you're like a gazelle in a trap. You're there pacing around and you need to pace around and think, how do I get out of this trap? You're like a bird caught in a net fluttering around and squawking. You need to squawk and make all kinds of noise and just beg the man to get you out of this commitment. This is serious. The bird and the gazelle, they know that they're about to die and that's the kind of urgency that you need to have to get out of this commitment. So there's bad news and there's good news. The bad news is that you don't have to be let out of the trap. You're in this trap. You've made a commitment with your words and the person who made that agreement with you doesn't have to let you out of it. And so you could get stuck in this trap and you're owing a whole bunch of money. The good news is, He can open the trap. The hunter can let the gazelle out, or the fowler can open the net and let the bird fly away. There is a way for you to get out of your commitments that you make with your words. You go and you beg, and you break them down, so to speak. You break down their wills, and if you beg long enough and they let you out of your commitment, there is a way to get out of your commitments. So these five verses remind us about the importance of our words and the self-control that we need to have over our words, how our words can affect us for the future. You can make commitments that you're then required to keep unless you beg to get out of that commitment. And so we need to think about our words before they come out of our mouths. Think before you speak. In the case of a commitment, think about whether you will actually want to do this and fulfill this before it comes out of your mouth. There are vows that we might make to God. Chapter 23 of our confession talks about all about vows to God. And we cannot get out of vows that we make to God. If you have questions about that, you should read the chapter and all the verses. It cites so many verses about this issue. We can't get out of the vows that we make to God, so be very careful about vows that you might make to God. But also with people. When we make commitments towards people, we should be very careful with the promises and commitments we make, because we should expect to be held to those commitments. You should be held to your words. Yes, there is a way to get out of it. Someone can let you out of that commitment, but expect that when those words come out of your mouth, you're going to be held to that. So be careful about what you say. Notice in this passage that words are enough to make a commitment. Yes, in verse one, it talks about giving a pledge, literally striking the hand. It's a handshake agreement. But verse two emphasizes the words of your mouth. It says it twice. You're in this bind, you're in this commitment because of the words that you spoke. And so you, especially as a Christian, but really anybody, if someone speaks words, we should hold them to their words. If you say you're going to do something, just you saying it should be enough to have people expect that you're actually going to do it. If you say you're gonna make a financial commitment, if you're gonna pay something, then you need to follow through and actually make that payment. If you say you're gonna be somewhere, then you need to follow through and actually keep that commitment to be there. You should be expected to be held to your commitments, just that are made with words. Matthew 12, 36, Jesus says that God will judge us for every idle or careless word that we speak. By your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned. God keeps track of all of our words. God knows the promises and commitments that we make. And God will hold us to account if we speak those words in a careless way and don't follow through. Jesus isn't teaching us salvation by words here. By your words, you will be justified. Doesn't mean that literally if you always just keep your commitments, you're gonna be saved, that that's what saves you. But Jesus is saying that the words that we speak reveal a heart. Children of God will be honest with their words. And deceit, lying, dishonesty reveals a heart that is not changed. If it's perpetual and if it's unrepentant and there's no growth in this area, it shows that we don't have these hearts that have been saved. And so in this sense, God will condemn us merely by our words. Your words can show an unsaved heart. So think about your words before you speak them. Next he goes on and he says in verse six to 11, think about your needs. Think about your future needs. You're going to have needs, physical needs in the future, and so you need to work ahead. And so we see now in verse six, that's as if the father now takes his son along for a walk and they walk by an ant hill. And he says, look at those ants. Verse six, go to the ants. Oh, sluggard, consider her ways and be wise without having any chief officer or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. So we see two aspects that the father is recommending to follow the aunt. One is that the aunt has self-discipline. The aunt is not waiting to be bossed around by the queen. The aunts just go and they know what they need to do. They need to go and store up the food for the future. So they have self-discipline. They have initiative. They are self-starters. And this is what you young people do you need to work on is having this type of initiative with doing your work. You're not always going to have your teacher telling you every single day, it's Wednesday, it's Thursday, you need to do lesson three, yada, yada, yada. You're not gonna have your mom every two minutes always standing over your shoulder telling you that you left the toothbrush on the counter, go pick up your toothbrush, go pick up your socks, you need to put your dishes away, all these things. No, your mom's not gonna be hovering over you the rest of your life. So you have to learn how to think about these things yourself. What do I need to do on my own initiative to look towards the future? As you grow up and as you're doing school, you think about how, oh, I have a project in May, and maybe officially tomorrow is a holiday, but I have a project to do in May, and so I might have to do some work tomorrow on a holiday. You think ahead and you have to work ahead, and this is part of the discipline of growing up, the kind of discipline that you have to learn. Now, this doesn't just apply to young people, but for all of us. Think about even in serving the church. Serving other people in the church, you don't need a chief officer or ruler to point out to you that something needs to be done. But you as a Christian can take initiative to serve others in the church. And I wanna be very clear here that I'm not saying that you appoint yourself to certain roles in the church. Uh, we have decency and order and we have overseers. And so people who have roles in the church need to be appointed to those positions. So you're not saying, all right, move out of the way, Chris, the church needs a tuba player. And I'm, I designate myself the church tuba player. Okay. So that's not what I mean. But serving the church really is about serving the people and you don't need to wait for someone to tell you to serve other people. Look out for people and their needs. Look for ways that you can help and serve. Take initiative without an overseer telling you to go and do it. First Timothy 5.10 talks about the widows who are enrolled. They seem to be financially supported by the church, and it describes a godly widow. It says, she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. Picture you get there of that widow is that she is busy and active and she's going around looking for needs and how she can help people with their needs and devoting herself to good works. And Paul there, he contrasts with young women who are busybodies. and they're not doing work, they're just busy talking and gossiping around town. And so you can take that image of a busy body and say, well, be busy instead in caring for the afflicted, in washing the feet of the saints and showing hospitality. Take initiative and be busy at loving and serving the people who are in need. So we can have initiative and self-discipline. The other aspect of the ant is that he looks ahead to the future and he stores up for the future his food. And so this is a contrast to the sluggard in verse nine. How long will you lie there, oh 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. We see in this chapter how the son needs to have self-control over his body. In the next parts, he'll point out all the parts of the body that he needs to have control over. But here it's his whole body. His whole body is there lying in bed and he needs to have control over his body in the sense that he needs to force his body to get out of bed and go do work. He goes and he does work because he needs to look ahead to what will happen in the future if he doesn't. The sluggard says a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So, you know, the repetition three times when you do something a little bit three times, it's not a little bit anymore, but because he just has a little more and a little more and a little more sleep, he gets caught like the man caught by his words, like a gazelle caught in the trap. The lazy man gets caught by a robber, like an armed man coming upon him, this robbery of poverty. And you see the picture of a man with his hands folded up there laying in the bed. Oh, I just need a little more sleep. And what does he look like? He looks like a man tied up by a robber. This is how you tie someone's hands up and then you can take all their money out of them. And so the lazy man is being robbed by his own laziness. If he continues to sleep and not think about the income that he's gonna need in the future, then poverty is gonna come upon him. And in those days, in Old Testament times, poverty means likely death. Because you're homeless, You're out in the streets at the mercy of the weather. You're going to get sick. You're going to have diseases. You're going to starve. So you're not going to have food. So it's not like what we think of here as poverty and poverty likely means death. And someone chooses death because they can't bother to just get out of bed. They just don't have the self-control to make themselves do that. So we are to work hard. Work hard for the future, the future income, the future savings that you might need when difficult things happen. Work hard now. Don't say, I'll just rest a little more and a little more. Make hay while the sun shines, the saying goes. My dad would say, don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. If it's a work day, get your work done. Don't put it off. The sluggard would say, don't put off tomorrow what I can put off today. Today's a perfect day to just put things off. That's what the sluggard says. So we should be hard workers. And we can apply this not just in employment, The spiritual life too. Spiritual disciplines are hard. They take effort. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 27, I discipline my body so that I myself might not be disqualified. Paul was a disciplined man. not just to go and make the tents that he needed to pay for his expenses, but he disciplined himself to not give in to the temptations of sin and to be godly. He wrote to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4, 7, discipline yourself, train yourself for godliness. And that's what the Christian wants to do because we love Christ, we want to please Christ. But we know that pleasing Christ is not going to come just by a little sleep and a little slumber. It's not just by sitting around and hoping that we'll get zapped by the spirit to do some good works. No, because we want to please Christ, we then decide that we're going to discipline ourselves to seek Christ and to obey him. Maybe you are disciplined to get up and go to work every day, but are you disciplined in the spiritual life? Do you discipline yourself to do these things of obedience and not because the overseers are coming for a visit? The pastors are coming for a visit or the pastor is going to ask me if I read my Bible, I better make sure I read my Bible this week. I better have family worship for at least two weeks because the pastor says he's going to come visit me in two weeks. So I can say, yes, we're doing family worship. But no, of your own initiative, out of your own discipline, because you know it's what you want to do and it's the right thing to do, are you disciplining yourself with the word of God and with prayer and with the participation in the church and with family worship? And you do all these things because you think about the future. Right now, on that day, on that night when the kids are all yapping at each other, you say, oh, I don't want to do family worship tonight. But you think about the future. What do I want my kids to remember when they leave my home? What is my responsibility to teach them when I have them here sitting at the dinner table? I wanna think about the future man or woman that I want to be. And so because I want to be that godly man or woman, I gotta discipline myself today to do the work that's required. What kind of man do I wanna be? What kind of family do I want to have? What kind of church do I want to be a part of? We're the church, we're part of the church. We're building the church for the future by our own discipline and model and example to others. And so we think about the future church that we want, and that's what helps us decide what to do today. So think about your future needs. Third, think about your character, verses 12 to 15. The father now takes his son and talks to him about what he calls a worthless person or a wicked man. Um, probably not warning his son about those other people, but warning his son to not be this man. You need to have self control over yourself, your body so that you don't become this worthless man. So notice again, the theme of the body, He talks about crooked speech, he winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he points with his fingers, he devises evil with his heart, and he's continually sowing discord. So what is this worthless person? Well, we start at the end, verse 14. The result of everything he does is he sows discord, or he stirs up conflict. He's a conflict generator. conflict machine. He's a grenade. He just likes to come home and sit at the dinner table and say, what can I blow up over dinner today? He sits in the room and he just wants to blow up the situation in the home or the person starts coming to the church and says, Oh, I need to get myself in the church and I need to have some sort of influence because I just want to blow up a church for fun. And then he blows up one church, and he goes to the next town, and he does the same thing. They're these types of people. They are just conflict generators. They know how to irk people. They know how to stir up strife. So this is the kind of man who is a worthless man. His fruit, his actions, generate discord and conflict. So how does he do this? with deceit, so crooked speech. So we can imagine this as this worthless guy, he comes up to you while you're in the parking lot of the grocery store. He comes up to you and he says, hey man, I need some help, my car's broken down. And that's a lie, so he's got crooked speech. And then he winks with his eyes as you are fumbling through your pockets trying to get your keys or your wallet or something, trying to figure out a way to help him get your phone. He, he winks with his eyes and he's winking at another person behind you. So you don't see him winking, but he's being devious and he's winking. And then he signals with his feet. So winking, he's like, okay, I got him, he bought my lie, so now we're ready to pounce. And he signals with his feet, and what that probably means, like he's digging in his foot like an animal that's about to pounce. We're gonna jump him, we're gonna steal his wallet. So he signals with his feet, then he points with his finger. All right, now's the time, come on, get him, get him, get him, right? So he points, and then your friend, the friend jumps on him, and he's devised evil with his heart. and he's sowing discord. This is the worthless man, he's devious and deceitful. And so verse 15 says calamity comes upon him suddenly. In a moment he's broken without healing. Poverty comes on the lazy man like a robber. And here we have a picture of a man who's probably like a robber himself. And he gets jumped on. Suddenly, the robber is the one stricken with calamity, bound up and tied up with suffering and pain and disaster that's come upon his life. He's broken and there is no healing. and the suddenness in verse 15 is to remind the son here, the young man, that you might think you're getting away with your evil. You might think your lies are working. You might think you're so deceptive and you seem to be benefiting from it. Maybe you are able to trick people and you're able to steal their wallet at the parking lot of the grocery store. But don't think that you're really going to get away with it. Suddenly, at any moment, calamity will come upon you and you will be broken and there will be no healing. So think about your character. Think about your whole body from head to toe and what kind of man, woman you want to be. to avoid calamity. Finally, think about the judgment, verses 16 to 19. Calamity comes upon the man, but we find out in verse 16 that it's not just the forces of nature or it's not destiny or fate or karma, what goes around comes around. No, this is the Lord. Because the Lord hates this kind of life. And I'm not gonna spend too much time on these verses, but just notice that he's describing the man again from head to toe, a wicked man who is an abomination to God. He is sinning in his eyes, his mouth, his hands, his heart, and his feet. And the same result, it ends with the same result as verse 14, discord, conflict. creating problems, walking around like a hurricane causing destruction. That's the result of this wicked man. And so the reminder again is to have self-control over all of your body. But the reason the father brings this last few verses in is to bring in the Lord. Notice he hasn't mentioned the Lord at all until verse 16. He says, son, I don't want you to just be a guy who cannot eat the marshmallow so that one day you can get a good degree and get a good job. I don't want you to just avoid trapping yourself with your commitments and to avoid being lazy so that you won't be poor. I don't just want you to avoid calamities like not being able to pay your bills or getting in some medical emergency. Son, I care about all those things and I want you to have self-control to avoid those things. But my son, what I really want from you is that you understand that the Lord hates this life. The Lord hates haughty eyes and a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood and a heart that devises evil and feet that make haste to do evil. He hates it. It's an abomination to him. He's gonna judge you for your wickedness unless you repent. I'm not just trying to give you good advice for life, some nice rules to live by. My son, I want you to please the Lord and avoid his judgment. So God, the Father, has given us his word here, because he tells us here what he hates. He tells us what he hates so that we can avoid doing what he hates, and we don't have to come under the hatred of God. He's given us his word to tell us how to avoid his judgment, to not do the things that he hates, and he's given us his word to tell us how we can be saved from the judgment that we're under. Because every person in this room will read this list and we can point out several, if not all of these things and say, yes, that's a good description of a lot of the things that I've done in my life. And I know that I've lived as a wicked man or woman, and I know that I've brought on myself the judgment of God, and I was an abomination to God with how I was living. But I can tell you, we can say, I can tell you how God sent a Savior. Now, God saved me from this wicked life and God saved me of my sins. He gave me a savior, Jesus Christ, who died in my place. He became a substitute for me on the cross. He took the hatred of God on himself that I deserved. So that I could be forgiven of my sins. Many here can say how God saved them and then how God gave them a new heart. gave us new life. And he calls us now to walk in newness of life. And by his spirit, he has helped us to put away all that pride, that lying, that hatred of others, the stirring up of strife, the love of evil. God has changed us and saved us. And so this is what we want for you, especially for those of you who are young. We say, as this father says to his son, think about your future. Think about how your decisions now will affect you in the future. But don't just think about the future of when you're 50. Think longer. Think about your eternal future. Think about how you might be under the eternal judgment of God. Make decisions now. that are wise decisions that will give you a good future, not just for the material prosperity, but for your spiritual good. Come to Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Today, you can call upon God to save you and forgive you and change you. Make a wise decision. that you might have a good eternal future in the presence of God. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you how you have revealed your wisdom and your kindness. You have given us your word. Thank you for telling us the truth about ourselves. And we pray that you would help us to live in obedience to you. And not only that we would be righteous and moral and good people, but Lord, we pray that we would be people who please you, who know that we are righteous in Christ and not because of our own goodness, who know we are forgiven of our sins only because of Christ, and people who seek to walk in newness of life by your spirit. Give us your help to do this, we pray through Jesus Christ, amen.