Please turn your Bibles this morning to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon. It says chapter 6. We will end up in chapter 6. I want to start in chapter 2 this morning, if that's alright. A new series to go along with the new year. A series entitled Little Foxes. I'm excited about this series. I've been looking forward to this series. Little Foxes. It's a series about relationships. From the most intimate of relationships to the casual. It's a five-week series we'll be going through. It's meant to be super practical for us. I wanted to start the year off with a super practical series more than even a theological series in nature. And so that's this one. Like I said, we'll be in the Song of Solomon. Now, if you know your Bible at all, you know that the Song of Solomon is a book about what? Love. Okay, so you guys are better than first service. Just know that because they didn't really know that, but they do now. And so well done for knowing that. It's written in poetry form. It's a book about love, specifically romantic love. It's a playful dance, if you will, between a man and a woman who have the hots for one another. Right? I mean, that's what it is. There's this lover's desire for one another. It's also a book about the proper expression of love that God intends, that God created through an exclusive, lifelong marriage relationship. So if you're here this morning, raise your hand. and you're married. No, no, if you're here and married. Yeah, if you're here this morning, I can see you, right? I can see you, all right? If you're married this morning, raise your hand, okay? This series is for you. But the principles that we'll be talking about extend well beyond the marriage relationship. And if you're here this morning and you're not married, or if you live less than 100 miles from the nearest person, or if you've ever had to deal with anybody ever in some sort of relationship in your life, business, friendship, family, or otherwise, this series is for you too. Because this series is about relationships, specifically what it takes to have strong and healthy relationships. Not only in identifying the little foxes, but then in dealing with the little foxes that too often bring devastation to or even destroy the relationship. So here's the question that we have to begin with. Why is this important? Why is this important? And the answer is because having healthy relationships is important to God. See, God created us to be in relationship, relationship with him and in relationship with one another. Relationships are a huge part of our life. The health of people, the health of marriages, the health of the church are all significantly dependent on relationship because that's how we've been created. And so what better way to start the year than going after healthy relationships? Listen, God wants his people strong. God wants his people whole and healthy, not only in our identity, but in how we deal with one another. And God wants our marriages to be strong and full of hot, happening, sweaty palms, lump in the throat, pounding heart, can't wait to get with you love. It's true. And more than that, we also believe that discipleship starts in the home. And if we can't get this relationship, this marriage relationship right, what do we expect we are passing on to our kids? And finally, God wants His church to be strong. God wants his church to be united, without division, for one another. Jesus praised for his people in John 17, 21, that we may all be one as the Father and Son and Spirit are one. Paul exhorts us in 1 Corinthians to have no divisions among us, but instead to be united in the same mind. And so how do we get there? Well first, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This relationship is where it begins. We need to be attached to the Lord because all things that we are talking about are impossible for us to do well in our flesh. this relationship needs to be strong. We need to know the Lord. And so this morning, I want to welcome you to Pittsburgh Community Church because here we believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. And if you would put your faith in Him, then God will forgive your sins and He will bring you into a relationship with Himself, a relationship where He fills you with His Spirit, where He secures you in His family, and where He gives you the power of His Spirit to live how He wants you to live your best possible life here on this earth. But it starts with this relationship. We need to be attached to the Holy Spirit. So would you choose to follow Him this morning? If you've never done that, would you make that choice as even a New Year resolution? To go, no, I'm putting my spiritual life first. I'm putting Jesus at the center because we all need to be renewed. And the only way that we are renewed is through an encounter with Christ and the power of the gospel. That's the first thing that we need to be successful in relationships. What's the second? Catch the foxes. Catch the foxes. See, my experience tells me that very few people do what is necessary to live in health in their relationships, marriage or otherwise. Instead, what I see is that many of us are content to live in dysfunction, either because it's easier to do so or because we actually don't even see or understand the dysfunction. But listen, God has a better way. And he's given us his word here as a roadmap for our health and good. Do we know that? Alright, this is for our health and good. And that's why we need to know what it says. And that's why we need to be living according to its truth, lest we settle for something less than God's best. All right, so now I know that was a long intro to our passage this morning, and eventually, like I said, we will be turning over to chapter six, but let's look for a moment in Song of Solomon, chapter two, because that's where we find our theme verse for this series. Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse 15, where Solomon writes, catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. Now let's stop there for a moment, because to fully understand this, we need to understand something about the book itself. The Song of Solomon is a book of poetry. And if we are to understand it, then we need to understand its use of allegory and metaphor. And as poetry, there's a lot of imagery that is used that is not meant to be taken literally, but as a representation of something. Otherwise, you would get a woman that looks like this. or this, right? And you'd think to yourself, I don't know what this guy's looking at, right? I don't know what this guy's seeing, right? Is that fair, okay? And so in the context of this poetic relational dance, God says, catch the foxes. What foxes? The little foxes that spoil the vineyard. So before we wade out into the depth of that truth this morning, Church, will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the truth of your word, and I pray, God, right now, that as we sit here listening to your word, God, that you might impress on us through the power of your spirit where the little foxes roam. God, that we might have discernment and understanding, that we might take action and respond. Speak to us this morning, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so you don't need to know much about foxes or vineyards in order to understand this verse. There's a lot of grape vineyards in the land of Israel. And in early spring, the foxes will come, they'll show up and they'll bite off the new shoots that start growing from these vines, right? Much like deer and rabbits. do here in Rochester, okay? We get this concept. The foxes, further, when they come, they would dig, because they love to gnaw on and eat the roots of the vines, the grape vines. And so, oftentimes, they would end up just outright killing the vine. And if they didn't end up killing the vine, and it did start to bear fruit, they'd come back, and then they'd steal the fruit right off of the vine. All right, so as a vineyard owner, you'd look at the fox as a threat, as trouble, as a major nuisance in your life. I was talking to a buddy of mine this week, and he was sharing a story of how he's got chipmunks. Any of us have chipmunks? All right, we got chipmunks. You know, you walk out, and you see these holes in your yard, and you're like, ah! Right, because they kill all of the grass around it. Right, they're a nuisance. Cute nuisance. I'll grant you that. Right? In fact, that's all they got going for them. And they use it well. But a nuisance nonetheless. All right? And so my friend, well, he being the kind-hearted man that he is, he decided to be humane and not to kill the little buggers. But instead, when he caught them, he took them out to the forest behind his house and he let them go. Anybody want to guess what happened? Yeah, right? According to wildlifeanimalcontrol.com, which, by the way, is where I get all of my animal control information from, okay? According to wildlifeanimalcontrol.com, they say that chipmunks will find their way home as much as from five miles away. Five miles! Here's the point. And so I believe it's the point this passage is trying to make. Foxes are not meant to be caught and released. They are meant to be caught and killed. Lest they come back and disrupt again. Listen, there was an unending warfare being carried out against vineyard owners and foxes in the Bible. These grape growers had to constantly catch them and kill them off. And when it comes to our relationships, question, church, do we know that there is an unending warfare going on over our relationships? If Satan is going to attack, it is most often going to be targeted at relationship. As a pastor, I see little foxes running rampant in our marriage relationships. As a counselor, I see how little foxes, over long periods of time, have led to big problems and massive, sometimes irreparable devastation. Listen, little foxes are small. They don't seem like a big deal. They don't seem dangerous. They're not strong like the wolf. They're not threatening like a bear. You can't compare a fox to a huge elephant in Africa that can trample down fields in a matter of hours. There are big things that ruin relationships. Things like adultery and abuse. And God's word has a lot to say about the horrific devastation that those things can bring. But listen, rarely does it start there. It starts with the little foxes. Which, if left unchecked, are capable of doing terrible damage. They burrow and chew and pick and dig until the vines become unproductive. And by the way, I would caution that the same is also true of God's church. You see, it's the little foxes that we allow to creep in and live among us. Little compromises we make. Lack of communication, unresolved personal offenses, gossip, talking behind people's backs, going to another, self-centered thoughts, motivations. These are examples of little things. Say it with me, church. Little things. Right? Little foxes that destroy community. That breakdown relationship that caused division. To use another metaphor, they bring about death by a thousand cuts. Little unresolved issues that if allowed to fester slowly, gradually pull our eyes off of the Lord and away from one another. But here's the truth, church. I'm excited. You want to know why I'm excited? I am excited because I truly believe that catching the foxes is a winnable battle. I believe that. Becky and I have been married for 17 years. We were talking about this last night, actually. I am unashamed to say that by God's grace, our marriage now is stronger than it has ever been, by far. And that's not because I'm a pastor. In fact, in many ways, it's in spite of my being a pastor. It's because we've put in the work. It's because we've gone after God's wisdom. It's because we've chosen to kill the little foxes as they appear instead of ignoring or even feeding them. And so that said, turn with me to Song of Solomon chapter 6. And let's talk about our first little fox. It's the little fox of discord. The little fox of discord. What is discord? Discord is friction in a relationship. It's conflict. It's strife. It's disagreement. It's a heart of hostility. Proverbs 6.16 says, there are seven things the Lord hates, and then it lists those seven things. The last one of them is one who sows discord among brothers. Song of Solomon, chapter six, verse one. Where has your beloved gone? Oh, most beautiful of women. All right, stop there. So this is, like I said, the two main characters are the man and the woman, right? But there are friends around the man and the woman in the book. And so here the friends of the woman are talking to the woman. And they say, where has your beloved gone, oh most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned that we may seek him with you? All right, so show of hands. Anyone here ever gotten into a tiff with someone? Right? Keep them up. Anyone here ever had an argument with someone? Anyone here ever been offended by someone? Okay, now, I'm looking, and only about half of you have your hands up. The other half of you are liars. But that's okay. God forgives even that. Here's the point. It happens. It happens. And God understands that it happens because it is a byproduct of living in relationship. And in that moment of conflict, what happens to the relationship? There's a separation. There's a turning from, there's a departure that happens in the moment of conflict. It might be a physical departure, it might be an emotional departure. It's the classic, I love you, but I really don't want to see your face right now. Right? We know what that is. That's what's alluded to here in this verse. They're asking, where is your beloved gone? Gone is the word halach. It means to depart, to move away from, either physically or emotionally or relationally. The others are asking the woman, like, he was here and now he's not here. What happened? Where has he gone? And then they ask her, where has your beloved turned? That word is the word pana. It means to turn from or to look away. Here there's been a separation of relationship. Why? I don't know. It doesn't say. But it's happened. And now the man and the woman are apart. Guys, listen, when conflict happens, when this relational separation happens, there is a turning away that happens from the other person, physically, or in mind, or even in spirit. And in that, we have to ask ourselves, what is the little fox? What is the danger? And the danger comes when in the turning away the relationship never fully comes back together. When there's no heart or intentionality to reconcile that relationship or to go after mending that relationship. The little fox of discord roams when there's no resolve for resolution and healing to the discord in the relationship. And when discord happens too often, the truth is we allow that fox to roam. Why do we do that? We do it because it's easier, right? I just don't really want to get into it right now. It's not really worth my trouble. We do it because we don't really want to make a big deal out of it, mountain out of a molehill. We do it because the mature of us can just get over it. We can absorb it. We stuff it down. Sometimes the little fox roams because pana. We turn to other things. A man and woman get into a tiff, the man turns to the computer. People get into a tiff, Someone turns to their mother. People turn to the pastor. We turn to our friends instead of resolving it with the other person. Beloved, catch that fox. Catch it. Communicate in a spirit of humility and love for one another. Seek understanding and true conflict resolution. And here's the truth, if you don't know how to do those two things well, a little bit of coaching, a little bit of counseling can go a long way to bringing health to that relationship. Hear me, there is no shame in that. God wants you to be healthy and strong. But in that, I want you to hear this also, beloved. Those two things cannot kill a fox. Don't miss that. And here's where God's word hits home. It is so deep and rich in its wisdom. Look with me at verses two and three. The woman responds to her friends. She says, my beloved has gone down to his garden, to the bed of spices, to graze in the gardens and gather the lilies. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. He grazes among the lilies. Listen, when there's relational separation, where we go, is of utmost importance. Where did the man go here? He went home. He went to his place of value. He turned to the place where his heart was. He went back to the deepest things that really mattered. I want you to look at who's speaking. It's not the dude. The dude's not like, here I am, I'm over here where I'm supposed to be. No, no, no. It's the woman who is saying this. She's saying, I know where he is. I don't need to seek him out. His heart is with me. His heart is for me. We are in this together. We are on the same team. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Even in the midst of conflict. That word graze in the Hebrew, that's an interesting word. You probably have a footnote that says to pasture. Translating concepts from one language to another is a difficult task, much less translating poetry from one language to another. But the word used here is the word ra'a. It's a word that means to tend, to shepherd, to pastor. This is the truth. Here's the important truth. When conflict happened, He went back to tend, to shepherd, to pastor that relationship. To tend the gardens of that relationship, to build intimacy again, that's where he went. Beloved, that's how you kill the fox. In the marriage relationship, Does your spouse know that your heart is for them, for the relationship, that you are fully in with the Lord at the center, fully committed to it, fully committed to them for their good, for their blessing. That is where home is. That is where your heart is. That is where your priority is. That is where your desire is. You want your marriage to be full of hot, happening, lump in the throat, sweaty palms, pounding heart, can't wait to get with you, love? Get on that program. Catch and kill the fox that would cause discord or division between you. And oh, by the way, commercial break. That's why God says don't be unequally yoked. Because it's hard to catch that fox if your hearts, your convictions, your passions, on a fundamental level, are divided. Can't do it. And in our relationships outside of marriage, specifically with those who are part of God's family, part of the body of Christ, are we for one another? Do we seek understanding with one another, forgiveness when we accidentally step on one another's toes, reconciliation when there are divisions, or do we hold grudges? Do we turn away and never come back? Do we view one another as being on the same team, part of the same family? Do we protect one another from harm? Do we seek unity as Jesus prayed? Now, we won't do that perfectly, but we should be vigilant. That when the fox enters the vineyard, we go after it. That we don't ignore it or pretend it isn't there. For heaven's sake, don't feed it. Right? Mend the fences. Be a peacemaker. Seek unity. Kill the fox. Let's ready our hearts for communion. Church, will you pray with me? Father, when it comes to our relationships, God, we acknowledge that relationships are such a huge part of life, and they're so difficult, God. God, it's hard to keep in balance all of the right things all the time. God, you know that. There's grace for that. But I just pray, God. I pray over our marriages. I pray over every person here, God, that as we examine our life, as we take a look at our relationships and maybe those where we recognize that there is discord. God, I pray that you would empower us to go after that. God, that your spirit would bring healing into those places. That you would make us and then keep us humble as we wade out into brokenness. that you would give us a supernatural ability to hear and to listen and to understand and resolve conflict. God, I truly believe that this only happens the way that you want it to happen if you are in the midst of it. And so lead us now in the power of your spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. When Jesus came and died for the sins of the world, the Bible tells us that one of the things that he accomplished was the act of tearing down the dividing wall of hostility, and so making peace. First and foremost, this can be understood in reference to our relationship with God. Because we who were far from him, far off, he brought near to him through his death and resurrection. By his shed blood, he opened up a path for us to obtain forgiveness. He brings us into his family, adopts us as sons when we run to him, when we follow him. He's made peace. And before taking communion, it's important for us to have that relationship in place. Because it isn't the act of taking communion that saves us, it's our relationship with Jesus that saves us. It's his blood that covers our sins. And so if you haven't given your life to him, if you haven't chosen to follow him, would you do that this morning? But that wasn't the only wall of hostility that was torn down. You see, Christ's act of love also tears down the wall between you and I, and you and your neighbor, and you and your spouse. Because as his own, Christ himself is our peace. He has filled us. with every spiritual blessing. He has given us total and complete forgiveness and freedom. He fully loves us in every circumstance, accepts us, values us. We have a new identity in him. We've been made whole, lacking nothing. And therefore, what does that do? But frees us to show the same love that he has shown us to one another, and the same grace that he has shown us to one another. The little fox of discord, church, grieves the heart of God. And as you come to the table this morning, as we share in the bread and in the cup, I want you to come with a prayer. The prayer that God would show you where that fox has been allowed to roam in your life. That we might honor him by catching it and by killing it. with his heart of reconciliation.